October 2013- Constantly hungry and counting down to maternity leave.

[GTbaby]

Right off to finish the last thread

not that i can complain....... it's nearly 17 years old, and done 5 dc of mine, and my sil used it with my nephew too!

Ah bugger! Carpal Tunnel has just reared its painful head :(
I hope this isn't the slide into numerous pregnancy related conditions that I had last time...

I'll be 37 in a few short days when this baby is born but haven't had a GTT mentioned. I was weighed and bloods taken at booking in and will have blood taken again at next midwife appointment at 28 weeks. They have measured the bump at each appointment.

A friend has passed on her breast pump. It's a dual electric Ameda or something? It looked frankly terrifying so went straight back in the box for now!

I have finally bought something baby related! Ok, so it's only a pack of nappies, but it's a start. I hope to use cloth nappies, but not for the first few weeks, so need to get some disposables in.

For fellow heartburn sufferers, I was googling natural remedies (the thought of gaviscon makes me nauseous) and apparently coconut water is good - got to be worth a try!

Cuille, I'll be 39 when baby is born too. Are we the oldest on the thread?

I had the GTT last time and am having it again this time. Think it is standard at my hospital. I like drinking lucozade so not a problem!

Re maternity wear, I have only really bought maternity trousers, otherwise I buy normal tops in a 'floaty' style, e.g. Fitted round boobs then flare out. Fat face and white stuff both have tops like that.

Just won a John Lewis white swinging crib on eBay £43 quite pleased with that!

Had a massage claphammama at about 13 weeks, DP and I are going on a spa break this weekend I intend to have a massage courtesy of him....oh and a pedicure, facial and anything else that takes my fancy :-)

I'm think

peusdo sympathy for the carpal tunnel, I had it really bad with Ds, but have got away with it so far. Was recommended wrist splints, which didn't really help me but might be worth a go.

I'm thinking of expressing & didn't know where to start. Brilliant to read other people's advice / comments on here.

I've finally started to organise my mat leave today. I was sticking my head in the sand a bit but have given my boss a date - 12th Sept. EDD is either 29th Sept or 7th Oct depending which consultant I talk to so I figured that gave me plenty of time to sort some stuff out as I don't think I'll have much time before.

Soup I'll be 37 by the time the baby's here. Well, possibly. My birthday is 6th Oct - maybe it will come when I'm still 36

Oh dear pseudo sorry to hear that :(

The head teacher covered my class herself for a few lessons today now I have a list of things they did wrong to deal with! Why did I take the day off?!

Thanks Bowl, I have splints but can only find my right hand one and of course it's kicked off on the left....

Thanks Orange, it's my day for a bit of a moan I think as I have bad round ligament pain and I can feel my PGP starting off too grrrrr!
Sorry about your head teacher :(

In terms of pumping. I used a TT manual and medela electric. Both good.
However pumping is hard work. My pumping 3 times I would just about get enough for 1 feed.
Def advise to BF mainly and offer expressed milk maybe once a day. Only because its such hard work.

When lo refused to latch on I thought I'd be able to express enough for most his feed but it doesn't quite work like that

If you can get a manual pump on offer during a baby event I'd say buy it and give it a go before investing in an electric one?

sorry to hear this pseudo... moan as much as you need! what can you do to make it better?

orange your work environment sounds really toxic. Get out of there as soon as you can.

flyer your weekend sounds amazing! Have everything you can think of! Are you going anywhere nice? I had a massage at work today but the therapist wasn't very good... the one I really like is not pregnancy certified so refuses to touch me. You just reminded me - also meant to book a facial and hair for next weekend to treat myself when DP abandons me for a stag do. First jobs for tomorrow!

Saying this - I have a two days offsite at work tomorrow and Wednesday... really dreading it. I'm sure there will be some dreadful team building exercise or skill building workshop included. Or, knowing my team and management, probably both. Adding some boring evening entertainment on top of it. Alcohol usually gets me through this type of events...

Ah clapham well if someone else could walk my dogs for me that would be fab! DP is in a competitive patheticness stage right now so he's no good :o

GTbaby I never had much trouble expressing - could get a 9oz bottle in 5 mins so it must vary person to person. It's much easier if you can do it off one side while the baby is on the other (though of course both boobs need to be full!) as I think that helps with the let down.

maybe best to do it first thing in the morning (so keep pump ready!)

Freezes well - I used bags (and ended up with a whole shelf full in my freezer! )

You can also sometimes donate to your local SCBU if you have too much. I did this with ds2, but they wouldn't take it frozen, so couldn't run up there very often.

thanks gt, yeah I was thinking of seeing how I got on with a manual and then seeing what happens!!
one of my very best friends is getting married next year and her sister has just sent me a message about her hen do. its the beginning of march next year, lo will be approx 5 months old. I don't think I'm going to be able to go, I'm hoping to exclusively bf for first 6 months so feeding wouldn't work if I'm away for a weekend. I also don't know for sure that I'll be wanting to leave the baby that early for a whole weekend. am I being unreasonable? I'm worried she and the other girls will think I'm being a precious first time mum. id normally do anything for this friend and feel awful not to be going

don't think YABU at all roofio - if she is that good a friend surely she would understand?!

could you go just for the evening or will it be a long way away?

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick here, but can you breast feed and formula feed? I kind of want DH to be able to feed the baby too.

You can but your milk supply may suffer. Many people express for that reason.

i tied it with ds1 when I had to go back to school and he started needing 2 bottles while i was gone

but it upset his tummy - badly, so we ended up FF when he was about 13 weeks.

However, this is 16 years ago, and I think formula now is probably more palatable!

tried it

That's good to know Caz, about trying it first thing. What pump did you use? My husband wants to do some feeds so I think expressing will let him have more opportunities.

Don't think YBU at all Roofio. 5 months is still very tiny baby territory, if you don't think you'll enjoy it then don't go.

roofio yanbu, everyone is different. Dd was ff and I had a night out when she was 12 weeks. I too have a Jen weekend coming up in march and as of now I'm going... But in driving so if I want to come back I can.

We also have a wedding between Xmas and new year. (Another reason i want to express) Though the children are invited I wanted a child free day but unsure how ill feel about leaving baby... Might just take him and leave dd

I wouldn't have left dd for a wknd at that age, and I didn't until she was 2yo.

Claphammama I'm off to a place called ribby hall spa hotel in the north west...They do elemis and dermalogica facials, I love dermalogica as I use their skin care but elemis always smells lush....go and pamper yourself this weekend whilst your oh is away.

Sorry to hear of those unwell folks on here too. I hope you feel better soon.