April 2013 Part 7: As our miracle Alex continues to grow & the one that sees us reach TERM

[toobreathless]

Over here Ladies!

As the title suggests our fore runners will almost certainly hit 37 weeks this thread.

And the wonderful little Alex will hopefully continue to go from strength to strength and edge closer to the door home with Mama

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1658011-April-2013-part-six-what-does-the-third-trimester-have-in-store

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1560543-April-2013-stats-thread

I too am having lots of stabby cervix pain and really bad lower back ache. I need to lounge in the bath just to be able to move. Walking for more than 5-10 minutes hurts too as I have awful sciatica pains right down my right leg.

I don't know if I am having BH - I am not sure what they feel like so maybe I am having them as everything does seem to tense up a lot but often things are quite painful on the right side of the bump?

JH congratulations on being more pregnant than ever before. I am about 10 days from that milestone, I think. I am not counting it (as is another tempting fate feeling). Not sure what I would do in your position regarding the decision about the hospital but I can see why you are so anxious about it. The active labour stage with my DD2 was 25 minutes so I would be worried in your position too - and would be asking a lot of questions of the MW on Monday. Not sure I would want to be induced, ideally, but then...

Pics of babies on fb are so gorgeous. Makes it all seem a bit real!

I'm not having stabby cervix pain but my bump seems to be permanently rock hard. Any one else have this?!

Hello all - have been struggling to keep up with the thread whilst at work! Hope those of you not feeling good get some relief. I am in hospital (as those of you on Facebook may have seen). My waters broke last night so I am in for monitoring and antibiotics. No signs of labour yet just some occasional pains v low down. They will let me out after 48 hours if no sign of infection but will need to be induced at 37 weeks if not gone naturally. They did say that most people will go into labour within 48 hours though so I am still hopeful!

Bit disappointing as water birth now not an option and will need continuous monitoring but hey ho such is life! Baby Harry is still wiggling away in there and all his vitals are good so that is the main thing : )

Hats off to mama for surviving months in hospital without going bonkers as I am already wishing I could escape!!

It was officially my last day at work on Friday although I did still have some bits and Bob's to sort out which I was going to do next week. So much for first babies coming late!!

36 plus 3 today.

Hello all - have been struggling to keep up with the thread whilst at work! Hope those of you not feeling good get some relief. I am in hospital (as those of you on Facebook may have seen). My waters broke last night so I am in for monitoring and antibiotics. No signs of labour yet just some occasional pains v low down. They will let me out after 48 hours if no sign of infection but will need to be induced at 37 weeks if not gone naturally. They did say that most people will go into labour within 48 hours though so I am still hopeful!

Bit disappointing as water birth now not an option and will need continuous monitoring but hey ho such is life! Baby Harry is still wiggling away in there and all his vitals are good so that is the main thing : )

Hats off to mama for surviving months in hospital without going bonkers as I am already wishing I could escape!!

It was officially my last day at work on Friday although I did still have some bits and Bob's to sort out which I was going to do next week. So much for first babies coming late!!

36 plus 3 today.

ruddy just wanted to add my good wishes on here as well as fb (funny how much busier fb is tonight than MN). It will be a strange wait but wee Harry will get here when he's ready-fx that's before you've gone bonkers waiting. It will all be worth it for those baby cuddles

Oh how exciting ruddy! It's rubbish that you won't get a water birth but I'm sure Harry will make up for that :).

jh the hospital situation sounds awful. I have no advice just wanted to wish you luck in getting the outcome you want.

Silly question probably but what maternity pads are we all going to use? Tesco sell thin and maxi ones and I'd prefer the thin ones (life time of tampon use so a maxi pad scares the life out of me) but the general opinion seems to be the maxi pads? I won't need the extra padding from a comfort point of view and won't mind changing more regularly if that's the only difference?

Has anyone got like a crunching pain on their pelvis when walking? It doesn't start immedietley, but after about 5 mins of constant walking and my pelvis feels like its being crushed. Sitting down I can't feel it at all, only when I walk.

Another silly question where or how are you storing baby clothes and nappies etc? I'm not sure whether it makes more sense to get a big chest of drawers or a wardrobe with drawers on the side/bottom? Right now the spare room has bags and piles of baby things everywhere! It's like am extension of mothercare l

Flying visit - just wanted to say happy Mother's Day to all new mummies and mummies to be! Exciting year ahead! Big love xxx

ruddy hope everything goes smoothly for you and Harry.
kelle* hope you can come agreement with your dh when baby arrives
jh hope your mw can answer a few questions for you.

it was my birthday yesterday so quite a busy day feeling really tired today.
is anyone else doing a group b strep test I need to get mine in the post asap having a elcs but still my waters could go
hope everyone else is well x

Happy Mothers Day everyone!

Fluffed - the thinner pads can have more chemicals that can cause infections, even after CS. I have bought a few maxi, but also night time ones, as wider and longer and with wings that stop the shifting about.

For clothes storage I have one of those plastic drawer cabinets on wheels from Argos, handy to keep vests/sleep suits/Muslins at hand, I have a small one down stairs (well 5 drawer tower) and a double width one upstairs for everything else. A normal wardrobe is fine, but we modified it to add two extra rails, making 3 instead of 1 to make the most of hanging space as it's all quite short in length. Poles were £2 inc fixings from ikea.

Happy mothers day!
When it come to towels after birth I had always used a winged long nighttime sanitary towel with a mat towel stuck on top. The mat towels move sometimes and this way I feel doubly protected. Normal sanitary towels are not advised at first as previous posters have said they can be linked to infection and are also not as kind on your lady bits!
Storage furniture is on my list this week, I'm quite fancomg kitting all bedrooms out in the ikea design you own wardrobes but they can get expensive! We shall see!
Started off my mothers day having a nosebleed while throwing up phlem and then discovering a hell of a lot of (Tmi) stringy discharge on wiping.
Lovely!
36+2

Happy Mothers' Day to all - whether mummies yet or not.

I started the day unwrapping three tins of Spanish Chocolate I love it and did basically instruct DP to order me some! I cannot have it at the moment due to GD but only a few more weeks and I will be indulging - can't wait!

DDs and I are just waiting for a cappuccino cake to come out of the oven so we can take it over to my DMum later this afternoon. Again, not something I can eat right now but we do love to bake - and DD1 especially loves to lick out the bowl!

Re pads after the birth - yes, another vote for the fat, cheap ones as they are more likely to be made without chemicals. You will still be changing them a lot! (As my MW said at our ante natal class last week, you are not going to be feeling sexy or wanting to wear a thong!)

And as for storage, I too would love to change all the fitted wardrobes for the IKEA ones but they have never reached the top of our priority list (yet!) so we have the MALM chests for clothes and then the baby has got DD1's old chest of drawers for the time being. Will depend on the colour (of baby) as to where it ends up sleeping so will buy proper furniture sometime in the future... We also have the IKEA storage units with plastic boxes (IYKWIM) which I find really useful for storing blankets, muslins, bibs and nappies in. All the boxes are labelled (from DD1) and this makes it much easier when I ask DP to get anything!!

num3 hope the nose bleed was not too major and yes, I too had a lot of stringy discharge this morning....

33+4

Dysgu - how do you find the malm draws? Iveconsidered these too how sturdy are they?

Think the nosebleed was triggered by the throwing up of the phlem. Dunno about the discharge but it was a truly lovely experience loosing goo from three areas at once!

36+2

I've never bought a muslin, or used one. Am I the only one? X

Happy Mothers Day ladies!
For those of you who are FTMTB, is your DP doing anything special for you, or are you concentrating on your own Mothers?

(and are we placing money on wether we get an early Mother's Day arrival?!)

num3 everything baby related that I've read suggests to buy 1000s of muslins - so I've bought 7, to see of they are as useful as people seem to think. (plus 4 lovely large Aden&Anais muslin swaddle blankets that I bought mostly because they look gorgeous!)

I need to get some nighties for in hospital when on labour. I am a bottle feeder so don't need nursing ones. Was just gonnna get a 2 pack from asda. There sizes are 12-14 or 16-18. I'm 5 foot tall, prepregnancy size 6. I have a couple of size 14 jumpers from asda that are now snug fitting, which size would people go for?

As far as I can tell people just use muslins for sick wiping? Am I right? I've ways just used the bib baby was wearing and then thrown it in the wash?

Happy Mother's Day! I've been very lucky and had breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and pastries, followed by a gorgeous coffee from the espresso machine (which has been used about twice since I got pregnant)!

DD was very funny bringing gifts in and announcing each one before I saw it "Mummy, I have flowers/chocolates/a card for you!"

It's her third birthday party today and she's very excited. It's a pirate party so I've made a treasure hunt with rhyming clues and a pirate cake.

Fluffeh I'd recommend the thickest pads possible. I was horrified by how much lochia there was and ended up wearing two/three pads at once!

num3 we all love the MALM drawers. DP and I have had one in our room for several years now and we especially like the deep drawers as you can et so much stuff in. We use one drawer for duvet covers etc. I also like the drawer dividers and we all have those in the top drawers for underwear etc.

We all have the 4 drawer unit which is quite tall - DD2 can only just reach into the top drawer without a step but I figure the 4 drawers are a better use than the 3. And they have fixings to attach them to the wall so that they cannot be toppled.

Thankyou dysgu! Will be having a look online later!

Happy mothers' day everyone!

and sympathy to all those with sharp stabby pains, lower back ache or going through stressful situations. I truly hope things ease up soon.

We went to a baby sale yesterday and got some great bargains, a perfect mamas and papas pram suite for £1.50 and baby grows for 30p each in perfect condition. We have some cheap Ikea chest of drawers in the nursery which we've painted.

Had my mum and dad round today for a lovely mother's day breakfast am absolutely stuffed after eating too many of the banana muffins I liked so think I'm going to retreat to the sofa and catch up on Eastenders.

Can't believe I only have 8 more days left at work before me maternity leave, well AL at first, kicks in!

Thanks for the advice on pads. I'll cupboard the thin ones and get some maxi pads with wings. If I'm in the hospital for 4 nights how many packs would you suggest? I was going to just take 2 and send DP out for more if needed does that sound ok?

We aren't near any ikeas so would need to order online and then unless they fit in DP's car they'd be no good as we live in an impossible area to deliver to. It might have to be flat packed :(.

Hello all and congratulations to Jessie and good luck ruddy absolutely loads to catch up on.

I have bought lots of fat maternity pads from Wilkinsons, they are astonishingly cheap there. Actually all their maternity / baby stuff is excellent, I have bought everything from pregnancy tests to nappies and wipes. Their wipes are amazing, the only ones that DS never ends up getting sore with.

DH has gone off with DS to BILs to have a Mother's Day lunch with MIL and FIL. I didn't want to go and have put my foot down and stayed at home on the sofa with MN. BILs dining table is tiny, I am huge, the ILs are overbearing at the best of times and I would end up feeling really stabby. And we saw them on Friday. DH made me a sandwich before he went and I've had a card and flowers from DS so I am quite content.

I now have swollen ankles and hands, not severely, but enough to make my rings tight and my shoes a bit uncomfortable. I think this is normal and only of concern if there are any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia. My aunt suggested putting my legs up against a wall but I'm not sure I'd be able to get up again!

Contractions continue overnight mainly but aren't going anywhere so I am now convinced I will have to be induced at 42 weeks.

Just been on a tour of the labour ward and birthing centre at my hospital, it's really feeling very real! Wasn't so impressed though...the staff care there is really good but the rooms themselves aren't that amazing they have one pool which looks quite decent but apart from that room the rest seem a bit small and claustrophobic to me, maybe that's just because I don't like hospitals, and the postnatal ward is definitely not very spacious it's 4 beds to a room (obviously split by curtains) it just seems to me like they are trying to fit in more then they actually have room for. They have just got a big grant to do up maternity services so maybe by next time I have a child it'll be better. I'm just glad I went as at least now I have time to think about it so I know what it looks like when I go....
36+0 one week till I'm term!!!!!!!!