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

Sorry that should say Fluffeh, not Fluffed! Hate predictive spelling sometimes.

well just finished catching up...
Welcome to whoever is new and I'm sending lots of sympathy to those who are having a rough time.

We went out this afternoon to friends who were having a party. My DH very very rarely gets drunk, his idea of a night out in the pub is half a pint of beer (!) but every now and again he has a bit to much, so when he does I always find it a bit of a shock, I just feel embarrassed that he acts like such a kid, even though everyone else is the same, anyway tonight I ended up crying at him to please stop and could we go home...he claims to have had a good time anyway just hope he doesn't remember the tears when he wakes up tomorrow! stupid pregnancy hormones!!!!!!!!!!!

We have antenatal classes this week. We're going to the free nhs ones at the hospital so it's just two sessions this mon and tues evening. Can't believe it!!! I remember booking in for them after 20 week scan and telling DH they're very close to my due date wish there was earlier ones just incase and now they're this week!!!!!!Two people at work had babies in the last couple of weeks, one was 6 weeks early and the other had a 10 and a half pound baby!aaaaahh!!!!!no wonder I'm feeling a little bit nervous now

well I think this is a long enough post for now, but I always find once I start I have loads to write but I'll write it another time

here's to a great week!!!!

Aw Bext keep being excited - I can't wait for my new bubs to come and I have two lovely boys already. Yes my births were horrendous - never ending and back to back babies but it doesn't stop the lovely outcome and cried when both boys were born. It's such an emotional time and everything only really becomes real when you see the tiny little person you have created. Being a parent is not always fun but the good bits defo outweigh the bad. I couldn't love my two boys more if I tried - they are fab and life is nothing without them!! And yes I do work, have a social life and a newer relationship (divorced from boys's dad) but nothing measures up to being a mum for me. I can't wait to have a tiny newborn again!!! Don't let her take the shine off it for you.

On a completely different note we have a first name for our little bubs but can't come up with a middle one - we are calling her Ruby but can't think of anything that will go with it??! Argh!!

16 days left at work now over the next 4 weeks - phew. Can't wait to be done now!!

32 + 3

Rivergirly

Ruby is lovely :) some middle name suggestions.

Ruby Elizabeth
Ruby Louise/Elouise
Ruby Anabelle
Ruby Faith
Ruby Amelia
Ruby Susannah
Ruby Isobelle

Bext I refuse to let anyone tarnish my first time mum excitement, yes it is total naivety but my birth will be easy, my baby a dream and everything will just fall into place, positive mental attitude

Fluffeh hope you feel better soon, dreading getting ill in these last few weeks!

Birdbrain-enjoy your classes, I have loved mine, we did NCT and actually sad only 2 to go!

Rivergirly-how about Ruby Mae. How many syllables is your surname (unless you are happy to share) can turn consider initials and the match. Also do you like colours like Iris, Violet to go with Ruby or traditional middle names, May, Ann... Having a boy so girls names are so much more exciting!!

Oh and 34+1 and 5 days til Mat leave-woo hoo!

last week at work this week... cant wait for Friday then am just going to relax until dday.

had my baby shower today and got so many fantastic things and feel really spoilt and loved (and sick from the amount of cake i ate!) i will put a pic on fb soon of my amazing haul.

and finished great day with first episode of new series of dexter... wowee

32+5 xxx

Ooh a new thread. Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do! Have very quickly skim read as cant keep my eyes open a minute longer. Hope you're all well and yay for those of you on maternity leave countdown

Love the name Ruby! How about Ruby Grace? Some lovely suggestions already mentioned.

I will try to have a proper catch up tomorrow but Monday is my most hectic day of the week!

Ruby is lovely. We can't have it as a close family member named her cat the same but if she hadn't we would have used it for a middle name.

We still need a middle name but can't find anything that sounds nice with Aurelia except names already used by family :(.

I'm feeling a bit better this morning so I'm going to avoid the gp trip. I'd rather not spread the germs in the waiting room if possible and think I should be ok in a few days.

We also only have 2 nct classes left which is sad. We haven't arranged anything definite yet but hopefully we are going to meet up before any babies pop out, for a coffee and cake. Because everyone is from different towns though and most ladies haven't started ml yet it would need to be a weekend.

I'm not letting anyone ruin the excitement of my brand new baby. I know it's going to be hard but she'll be more than worth it. I can't wait to see who she's going to look like and who's hair or eye colour she'll have. And I keep getting excited thinking of her wearing the cute little outfits :).

I just wanted to pop in and say good luck, I see your threads appear on Active most days.

I've got an April 2012er and it seems unbelievable to think that less than a year ago I was in your shoes; now I have a crawling, nearly walking, noisy and trying to talk, sleeping-pretty-well, weaned, plays-with-toys little boy who has 10 teeth and is nearly 1.

Enjoy these last weeks of pregnancy, I hope you all have the births you hope for, make the most of those newborns...before you know it they'll be wiping snot and breakfast all over your house and escaping whenever you try to change a nappy

Oh, and Ruby is a great name - it's what my DD is called (Elizabeth sounds particularly nice with it )

Ooh name talk. river, Ruby is a gorgeous name. I love toobreathless' suggestions for middle names.

We've decided on middle names and have two options for a first name:
Finnoula Isobel Rose or
Safia Isobel Rose

PS I do mean Safia, it's not a typo for Sofia. I think we'll probably decide when LO arrives.

teapig how do you pronounce Finnoula? Both are lovely.

Fluffeh what about:
Aurelia Faith
Aurelia Rose
Aurelia Jane
Aurelia May
Aurelia Pearl
Aurelia Mary/Marie
Aurelia Juliet

Ruby Mae has been a family members suggestion that I actually quite like but oh vetoed it! I like Ruby Niamh and Ruby Grace - several people suggested Ruby Louise but several close family members have Louise as a middle name. Babies last name is double barrelled - sounds like bewilderwood-fodds so trying to keep to little names as she is lumbered with enough already!!!

Love Safia, Finnoula and Aurelia too - such nice individual names. I like Tarny as well (just happen to know a lovely little girl with that name!). Need to avoid names ending in y though as it wouldn't go with Ruby. My oh is quite traditional though so I am not going to get away with anything too unusual - amazed he liked Ruby!!

I am today enjoying my first Monday no at work - due to a mega workload and a member of staff on long term sick I have been working 5 day weeks since last May despite a 23 hours per week working contract - so nice to have some time at home minus children to chill and relax a little before lo comes along! Mind you I will probably be bored by lunchtime!!

Now off to tackle housing benefit office again - due to working overtime I have not been entitled to any hb but now I am back to my part time hours I should be but they want so many documents etc it has taken me weeks to organise and pennies are really tight - still living alone at mo and oh lives in his own house - which unfortunately would not accommodate my lot!!! Plus his awful mother lives there!!

Have a lovely Monday everyone! Xx

Hi everyone, FlamingNora here in disguise again. I'm currently trying to get everything together for the baby and get ahead with my studies so I don't have to write assignments between contractions, so am finding it very hard to keep up with everyone's news.

Yesterday was thoroughly depressing. We've turned our dining room into a bedroom for us and moved all our furniture in, so our old room (which is off the dining room) will be Baby's. Then yesterday we started stripping the 60 year old wallpaper off the walls in the other room. We didn't really want to do this, just paint it instead, but it was already coming away. Unfortunately the plaster underneath is a complete mess and is all coming away too, so it's going to be a far bigger job than we thought. Neither of us are particularly skilled at DIY and it's fast turning into something beyond our capabilities. I could cry, I just wanted it to look nice for when Baby arrives :(.

Thanks for setting up the new thread, I haven't been on here a while - last week was half term and London was heaving. It made my commute to work 2 hours each way instead of an hour and a half - i was cream crackered!

34 weeks today and my first day of maternity leave (well I'm actually on annual leave first). After last week I'm very glad I used my annual leave this end of the pregnancy as I'm not sure I could do another week of it.

DP bought a BT monitor with a light show last week and has been playing with it ever since. btw - John lewis have a few monitors on offer at the moment if anyone is looking for one. We got £30 off ours and I think they have the anglecare with £30 off too.

How is everyone finding their NCT classes? We have our last one on Wednesday. They are a really fun bunch of people.

Had my 34 week appointment today. Fundal height has only progressed by 1cm which is a tad worrying BUT mw says baby's head has started to engage. I didn't realise it could happen this early! It's exciting though. Means the baby is doing what he should and getting ready

Just got back from my 32 week check up at MW. Have been feeling like baby is low down and feeling a lot of cervical pressure for about a week. Mentioned it and they brushed it off saying it's normal to feel uncomfortable. The Student MW checked bump position and asked for the MW to check something, a bit of muttering and I was feeling nervous. Turns out I'm 4/5 engaged gulp, only got to 3/5 engaged with DD at 40+6, so it's no wonder I feel uncomfortable!

Advised to pack my bag (still not done it yet) and an appointment in 2 weeks, if baby is still engaged at 4/5 they might check my cervix just in case it's dilating and they will go over birth plan/options.

I am on my iPhone and using my local name, can't work out how to change it back to kellestar.

32+3

toobreathless It's pronounced Fin-oo-la. I like the nn Lula which is a bit made up but cute I think.

Fionnuala is Irish, DH and I both have Irish ancestory whereas Safia is Arabic. We don't have an Arabic connection but I don't think that matters, we just like the name. Whichever we choose she is destined to forever spell out her name, she'll probably grow up to hate us for it

fluffeh, Aurelia is a lovely name. I like Aurelia Rose but I'm biased as Rose is one of our middle name choices.

FlamingNora, I really feel for you on the DIY-front. DH and I have done a lot of wallpaper stripping and re-patching old plastering in our time. I know how messy and depressing it can be but it's always worth it in the end. I'm sure baby's room will fantastic when you've got through the really tiresome bit.

kellestar, wow glad they properly checked you out. I hope baby stays put a while longer and you're not too uncomfortable. In the mean time it sounds like time to get that hospital bag ready.

Hi everyone :)
Teapig: I love safia I had a friend called that when I lived in Israel mean pure I think, very pretty.
Kellestar: wow glad they checked you thoroughly and are keeping a eye on things. Fingers crossed babe stays put a little while yet. I hope you feel more comfortable soon if that's possible
I have read everyone's updates but I can't scroll back on here so forget the names sorry!
I got to leave the hospital building yesterday- I had to come back in but they let me go for a few hours. I got to see the sky! and wear actual clothes in a fit of stubbornness I insisted on wearing my jeans (usually I always wear jeans) and they were agony against my scars so make sure you pack soft trousers everyone! I was only in the wheelchair but it felt so good. I'm going out to lunch tomorrow as well with my mum, and ds1 when alex is breast feeding properly ill have to stay with him so they said make the most of a little fresh air now I'm well enough.
Alex had a go at the breast as well, I have really fast let down apparently so he struggled a bit but they drew back on his ng tube and he had managed to swallow some which is amazing. He has found his voice as well, if food doesn't appear instantly he has a proper little yell. Much family all got a cuddle this weekend, Alex likes to be held, ds1 sat down and cuddled him and then refused to let go he was amazed. My brother took him to his best friends birthday party on Saturday afterwards And said ds just kept telling everyone all about his brother and how he was going make him grow strong so he can play rugby?!

Hiya - anyone else thinking of using aromatherapy oils during labour? Just posted a thread on the pregnancy board about it as I could do with some advice/experience?! :)

Thanks for the welcome!
Back from appointment with obstetrician, booked in for c-section on 22nd April.
Even though I knew it was going to be the section, I've got really mixed feelings about it. It was recommended by the Drs after I had a 3rd degree tear and pph when I had DD and I've spent the last few weeks getting used to the idea, but now its booked its abit scary! Is anyone else having an ELCS?
Sorry for me me me post!

mama what a lovely post to read. Things sound like they are ticking along really well for you. It really does cheer me up to hear your updates

Novia I have no idea about aromatherapy oils but I'm sure someone on here will have loads of info for you.

I had an appointment with the aneathiatist today and got told that due to my high BMI they would strongly advise me to have an epidural put in place as soon as I go into hospital as the risk of intervention is so much higher for me.

I really, really do not want an epidural as I would like to have a water/active labour this time round instead of the 18 hours on my back that I had last time.

I spent over an hour being lectured about the risks of labour at my size and feel thoroughly fed up. As it stands I will be sticking to my guns and doing what I want but 7 weeks is a long time and anything can happen so we shall see.

More alarmingly since leaving the hospital I have been feeling huge amounts of pressure down below, almost like my vagina is turning inside out sorry if TMI. I also felt like I was weeing myself for a while - I wasn't , not even damp knickers, but now I have got hideous back ache and period type pains all over.

I'm hoping the baby has just dropped right down and it's nothing else starting up

Jacqueline I would try to not let them worry you too much. The NHS in the UK seems to be unhealthily obsessed with weight and scaremongering about it. From what you've said previously I think we're around the same size. Here in Sweden they brush it aside as neither here nor there. My midwife says putting on lots of weight during pregnancy is a worry, but so long as there's no drastic weight increase, it's not a big concern at all. Especially if it's not a first.

Hello all. Lovely news mama.

novia I didn't use oils during labour, but did use clary sage and lavender in baths just before I was due. I think that you can take them with you and inhale them from a hankie/the bottle. Electric burners weren't allowed at my hospital.

I'm feeling a bit anxious today. Have another growth scan tomorrow as baby was measuring very big at the last one. I don't know what's best really - that he's still growing at the same rate or he's slowed down (would that be a worry?)! I'm not scared of the pain of delivering a big baby, really, as I coped well in my last labour (although DD wasn't massive) it's more the risk of forceps/emcs that concerns me.