September 2013 - Definitely in the third trimester now!

[badguider]

New thread... will try to find the stats thread and link...

geese we only get a virtual tour(on website) of our hosp but it's not too big thank goodness (and I've visited many many times in the past!)

rake and twin- Also with you on the house thing. Kitchen was finished on tues but we've only unpacked about 1/3 of the boxes. Trying to throw old stuff away, clean greasy kitcheny things and put things in new and sensible places whilst trying to keep our lvoely clean new shiny kitchen lovely and clean. Oh and leaving enough space to be able to put another coat of paint on at the weekend!

Off to another hen do this weekend..... 5 hours on the train to Leeds! Yikes !Luckily lovely hen has booked us into a spa for the afternoon tomorrow so hopefully I will recover.

SPD pain been getting worse which is annoying. I'm ok once I get going but getting up or rolling in bed is currently agony.

RunningBear I just love colourful... have fallen madly for some lady in Brighton who is selling loads of stuff ending this weekend. I just hope she combines postage and then she'll be my bff whether she's aware or not...!!!

on reflection I can't say our house is in anything like the chaos of some of yours... We aren't replacing any major rooms for a start. I massively respect those of you moving or doing kitchens and bathrooms... keep a bit of budget aside to bug out to a hotel with newborn, won't you!! We tried to buy a house just before DS was due four years ago and it fell through. My annual/mat leave from 36 weeks when I should have been packing and unpacking turned into packing for storage and living out of two suitcases in a friend's spare room up to 42 weeks, then living with my parents for five weeks , then moving into then-DP's half-finished flat... then organising a wedding and successfully buying a house both of which took place within a month of me going back to work. Oh and DP/H got made redundant.

So, having the sofa shoved across the room so DH can put up shelves, having cardboard and polystyrene packaging from the new dishwasher scattered on the floor, other sofa cover not put back on since being washed after DB and puppy visited at the weekend... are small things really!!!

Argh to house chaos. We are just coming to the end of a major 6 year renovation project on ours thank goodness. I mused about extending the kitchen the other day to fit 3 hungry boys in and my DH was like we are SO done with DIY (but then that's also what we said about baby-making...ha!)

ION I started on raspberry leaf tea this am and warned my DH that we need to start perineal massage tonight he said he'd managed to block that particular memory out from the previous 2 pgs! Oh the romance of it all

fl0b0t I think you should get referred to a physio as soon as possible. SPD has me housebound/in a wheelchair now and I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I went from occasional twinges to almost complete immobility in the space of a month so the sooner you get treatment the better. I was a really active person before and it's really grim not being able to walk the length of a room now.

I'm hobbling around today. I wouldn't say it's super painful but I'm struggling to get about as hips are stiff / achy.

Some days I'm fine others I feel 100 (or 42 weeks pregnant!) How do I know if its SPD or just normal pregnancy stuff?

Joksar- I have same questions as jennimoo- did you know it was "worse than just a bit of pain in the groin"? I do need to see my GP about hayfever, so I'll bring up the SPD pain too. I'm assuming it IS SPD- basically I feel like someone kicked me in the pubic bone and I also managed to strain groin muscles on either side of the pubic bone. No other pain (hips or lower back).??

I have only a bit of lower back pain so I know it's not SPD, though I'm clearly giving birth to an ape-child as I've got awful heartburn. Just picked up my Emma's Diary packs and now have more Palmers tummy cream than I ever thought I'd need!
Kips - you are a brave lady doing perineal massage! I'm just going for the tea; much nicer!

Initially, I had difficulty turning over in bed, getting up out of bed or the sofa and going up stairs without pain. This spread to whenever I was walking any kind of distance or standing for any length of time. Eventually I was unable to sit down on most chairs (particularly the sofa) and I was unable to bend down. Now I can't walk very far at all without a stick and I struggle to put on my socks or get dressed. I can't lie flat and I can't push anything (hoover, shopping trolley etc). I stopped being able to drive safely because I can't press down without shooting pain in my groin and I can't sit for longer than a couple of minutes in one position.

The pain was like a dull ache the whole way around my pelvis with referred stabbing pain down into my groin and up my back. At first it was the odd couple of times a day. Then gradually it got more and more frequent then it got to the point where I couldn't do anything without the stabbing pain. Sitting here just now is painful and I'm dreading standing up. Most of the time it feels like I'm very stiff. Sort of how you feel after hill walking or similar exertion. If I stay in the same position (lying, sitting or standing) for too long that stiffness becomes an ache and then shooting pain. Sometimes I can't stand at all. I have better days when I can almost walk normally for part of the day but those have become less and less frequent.

I don't know if you recognise what I describe but from what you've said it does sound like SPD. It is possible to get treatment for it and it will probably get worse if you don't. My own situation is a bit extreme because I have hyper-mobility and flat feet so the physio has been hampered in what they can do to fix it. The best website to look at is:
www.pelvicpartnership.org.uk/

I'm sorry this is such an essay and I know I've written lots about this already. Anyway, hope it's helpful to the SPD sufferers.

Thought I'd give you an update on my physio appt today for PGP.

Firstly MW who referred me is a dimwit - she referred me for recti diastasis which is more of a postnatal condition to do with your stomach muscles. Which is rather odd seen as we discussed it being PGP/SPD at the appt...

Confused hell out of physio (should have seen a diff physio apparently) but she was very helpful. Appears the pubic bone pain is PGP but lower back pain is different condition called coccydinia and to do with my coccyx. Lots of good advice - pelvic floor exercises, cat posture, continue with yoga class, frequent movement no more than 30 mins in one position, use a gym ball if poss, good positions to lie in, etc. My work have ordered me a wedge cushion for my office chair to relieve pressure on my back/pelvic area too.

Don't have to go back as it is the pain is fairly sporadic. really hope I don't get that MW again, crossing fingers get a decent MW next week...

joksar- really helpful thank you. Sounds awful for you, this pregnancy malarky can be no fun at all at times eh?
I also have flat feet and some hypermobility (though not in my hips) which worries me a bit! Definitely going to book GP appt! x
LCR77 thanks also for your update, I will get ym gym ball pumped up and ready to try.

Thanks too to joksar without your advice I probably would have persevered with the discomfort on my own and not asked for a referral. Today was really useful and also confirmed some of things I've been doing to relieve the pain are the right ones.

SPD sounds awful...hope it doesn't last and you all get some respite (although that's probably daft as imagine it will be another joy that will carry on till birth..)

Not heard of Perineal massage-but (stupidly) googled it - lovely images came up...! Does it work?

Nhs antenatal starts next week then hypnobirth the week after. A lot of baby stuff coming up which is making it a lot more real now

Back to hospitals, I thought you were near me Kim, I'm at Tameside but I really want wyntheshaw now. Reckon it's too late???

Well it turns out I might get my tour of the labour ward after all...my normally extremely active baby has gone all quiet on me :-( I'm pretty sure I'm still getting occasional stirrings, but nothing like his normal movements. Have managed to time my hospital visit with shift change so could be in for a long wait!

Just trying to pluck up the courage to tell DH where I am, but think he might panic...which will get me upset...must be strong!

I hope all's fine, ready but best to check. One of mine had gone quiet over the last day or two but it turned out he had just flipped over so the kicks I was used to had gone away. Let us know how you get on.

I agree, best to check Ready

Thanks for the info Joskar the pain in my groin doesn't sound like that, but then you don't know how it'll develop do you? I also wondered if it was 'just normal pregnancy aches' so I think I'll go to the doctor when I'm off next week, just to check it out.

Oh, and no need to get my head around childcare vouchers, turns out our work doesn't offer them! Which I'm amazed at for a fairly large local government office. My sister who works in HR benefits (somewhere else) says that everyone has to offer them in 2015, bit late but at least it's coming.

My friend brought her 6 week old baby into work today, I felt quite emotional holding her, just cannot believe I'll have one of these in a matter of months!!!

You've done the right thing ready. I went in a couple of weeks ago for the same reason. It was a huge relief to hear HB and not sit at home worrying. The midwives were very understanding and reassuring. All the best!

Hope all is ok Ready, and you can sleep easy tonight.
P.S - I am going to order a truck load of this cheese and I suggest you all do too - nicest cheese I've ever eaten!
Lancashire Bomb

Ready - mine goes quieter every couple of days then comes back with a vengeance, but you've done the right thing-hope everything's okay

fozzie it is truly hideous, you can't really do it yourself so need to enlist another pair of hands and if done properly it does actually sting/ burn BUT I swear by it - 2 quick labours with no tearing so in my book it is definitely worth it. But I hope you didn't google from work! And that there weren't any pictures....

Hope all is alright Ready

Fozzie me and OH have just come back from hypno birthing and I am really impressed - it's a 4 week course in total and I really didn't think OH would buy into it but I think he will. I imagine those of you who do yoga will doa lot of the same techniques as we went through a fair bit of breathing and getting yourself in a relaxed state.

Baby is fine. Was quiet for the first 20mins of monitoring, then suddenly realised there were 2 fairly tight bands invading his space and started kicking like crazy!

He's missed his morning & evening 'kickabouts' (as I like to call them) for the last couple of days so I felt the responsible thing to do was get him checked out...it's funny really, if it was all about me I'd never have bothered ringing the hospital, but I feel such a responsibility to do the right thing by the LO.

I'd tried all the usual tricks and nothing was making him stir...next time I'm going to tie a pilates band around my tummy & see if I can get the same result without a 2.5hr hospital visit! Oh yeah, and I now know to avoid shift change....as that added an extra hour to my wait...

Kimjayne I'm Wythenshawe too! I've yet to book the tour...must get onto that soon!
I'm also a bra whipper-offer.
Less than 10 weeks to go and we've just started a small extension on our house! Emotionally up and down at the moment and just had (what should have been a nice) conversation with a neighbour about it and he stressed me out as was complaining about our work. Made me quite upset even though it shouldn't have. Stressful!

Kip-I'd stumbled across a you tube clip of a woman showing the technique by massive a large blow up model... V v odd, but least I know how to do it.

Glad hypnobirthing sounds good! Mine is a weekend course - over 2 days with a couple of weeks break in between so you can practice. Starting in a couple of weeks. Someone at work asked me about antenatal classes the other day and I mentioned hypnobirth-sure they thought hypnobirth meant giving birth in the middle of Stonehenge with a wicker skirt and people dancing around chanting... Their face said it all...think ill keep it to myself in future.