Due in August - part 6

[sarahlou1uk]

thought I'd start one off girls (and Salamander!)

wow - there are hundreds of us welcome bumble and bean andboo

eeny, i am going to be tested for strep b at 34 weeks - I'm a real anxiety girl so will be one less thing to worry about. loved your birth plan too - it seemed very down to earth, undemanding and clear - I aspire to something similar but need a kick in the pants to get going! think i will do it when i finish work, just too tired for anything at the moment! dh is still off work after his operation, the house is a tip and its too darned hot!! 17 more working days to go.....

Hello everyone, and welcome newbies beanandboo and bumble.

I'm also suffering in the hot weather, like many of you - it's my feet that really swell up - have to wear a EEEE width, and there's not much choice out there, unless you really favour the granny look! Managed to get a pair of reasonable mules, but my ds still calles them 'old lady shoes'. Nothing like a bit of moral support from your nearest and dearest, is there?!

Anyone else got chloasma (pregnancy mask)? I've been using factor 40 and wearing a wide-brimmed hat and it's still getting darker, which is ironic, as I like to stay pale and never sit out in the sun! Only just getting a faint linea nigra, at 32wks+ - appeared way earlier last time.

Been hanging around on the childbirth thread lately to get to grips with choosing between an elective C-section and a VBAC. Have almost convinced myself abour VBAC being the best option for me! May still change my mind though.

eeny - your birthplan looks excellent - some good ideas there. And certainly try and have your own music - the music on the radio going on during my em CS first time round made all the difference to what, up to that point, was quite a scary experience. Fortunately, ds was born, completely coincidentally, to something rather appropriate - 'Children' by Robert Miles. We think of it as his tune now

I've been playing my playlist of tunes I plan to have at the birth over and over recently, as I think it might help with my state of mind, whatever birth I have.

Olivo & Hoppybird - I'm so glad you like my BP! I was freaking out last night about the list of things I have to do in the next few weeks and I thought 'You know what I am just going to get this done so it's one less thing on the list'.

Olivo - 17 more days left - does that feel great or still like too too many?

Hoppy - I havent had chloasma, sorry you have as you like to stay pale! Did you have it in your last pregnancy? I need to complie a CD to listen to in labour... more things to do!

eeny - 17 days feels like way too much! i'm knackered!have to get up at 6.50 but often am awake for 3 or 4 hours during the night so its quite hard going - if one more person tells me 'its preparing you for later....' grrrrrr

I've been thinking about music too - quite bizarrely, twice on the way to the hospital, SImply Red's 'for your babies' has come on, will have to have that I think. dh wants 'the final countdown'

Hoppy - lol at your old lady shoes - i have some too!!

Whereas music would pass me by completely!

Sarahlou, a friend of mine was told at 34 weeks baby was breech, and went for a scan at 36 (I think) to check, at which point they would have attempted to turn before booking a CS. Fortunately, baby turned before that scan, so all is well, and we're just waiting to meet him/her now. (Due next Weds). I know it's stressful, but do try to relax, cos there is still time.

We have finally started the great sort out and there is now room to put a cot in the little bedroom. Haven't actually got a cot, but there's space.

Eeny - didn't have chloasma last time at all. It's not as bad as it could be though, due to staying out of the sun. It shows up as large joined-up freckles - looks like a 'sunglasses' mark around my eyes (like when people tan their faces wearing large sunglasses - pale panda eyes, with tan around them)! Also a large darker patch my forehead, and some patches on my nose. Apparently, it fades about the same rate as a linea nigra (I hope).

My music of choice is mostly Peter Gabriel and REM, and a few others. Still refining the list. Obviously, bump is hearing this all the time (maybe remembering?) so I'm hoping it will have a positive effect on both of us, in the remainder of my pregnancy and during the birth.

My music will pretty much be all Tori Amos! Which he hears all the time anyway... in fact he dances around when I put certain songs on! Unless it is my hopeful imagination. I actually have a Tori poster up in his nursery although it is behind the door so you can't see it when the door is open which it always is. I just like knowing it's there.

Olivo you are a real trooper working as you do! I couldnt do it. It will be so great when you are finished and you can chill out. I am too when people say crap about it being preparation for the baby. IT ISN'T!

Purple glad your friends baby is not breech anymore!

Hoppy - Poor pregnant ladies. We have to deal with a lot dont we. I'm glad it isnt too bad for you but it is a pain isnt it, having one more thing to deal with. I think as most of you know I have had hyperemesis and when I throw up it's awful and I always burst loads of blood vessels in my face so I have these little red dots on me... I am only sick about once a week or so now and they fade after a few days and are pretty easy to cover up but still. I could do without it!

I forgot to post after the list lol

hoppy do you mean the dark patches? I had it on my neck with ds, it looked really really dirty. The terrifying thing was after he was born, it actually scraped off and looked like a dirty sunburn where your skin just comes off. I had the line early too, don't have even the start of one.. yet

I'm not having a birth cd, when I'm in pain I get really crabby and things start irritating me. CDs, clothes, tens... threw them all around in a strop last time!

Do any second time mums feel they aren't doing as much as with their first? With ds, we had all his stuff bought months early, were really enthusiastic about it all, a list of names to take to hospital, suitcase packed by like 30 weeks....
This time, the baby is still missing tons of vital stuff (for example, it's having ds's crib, still haven't got round to buying any bedding for it - even a sheet - and as we sold ds's bedding it literally has nothing lol!) and also we used to talk heaps about what he was like - he used to kick constantly, so we'd say he'd grow up and be a footballer... he loved sex pistols so we'd play him sid vicious this one doesn't kick, doesn't respond to music... it's so strange we're struggling for motivation when this baby was very much planned and ds wasn't!

lunavix I know what you mean about not doing as much with your unborn this time around. I think its partly just having less time to focus on it though last time I could coast at work and spend my time mooning over the possibilities! I think I've also found it a bit harder to bond this time round because I just so preoccupied with the effect a sibling might have on my DD. Do you have this concern?

I wasn't but his behaviour has actually nosedived recently, he's gone from being an angel to a little devil (which I thought was meant to happen after the birth!) So I'm a little worried (as in how much worse it can get!) which is stressful as dh has a rather short fuse so everyone gets tense...

Sorry to hear about your dh's short fuse that must make things harder. A friend of mine's child got a bit 'off' with her prior to birth of number 2 then became an adoring older brother so there is hope! How old is your ds?

Just doing my birth plan now... do you think it's reasonable to put 'I would like to be helped to deliver slowly as the baby crowns so as to minimise tearing. I do not want an episiotomy.' Or is that telling the midwives how to do their job too much?

2labs - I think it is reasonable to put that! I think the midwives would probably do it anyway but it never hurts to point it out in case you get one on the day who doesnt have that as her priority.

I asked my m/w about the birthplan but she is putting it off until I've had my one and only 'active birth' classes, I got forgotten by the NCT and so just having whats on offer from NHS - underwhelming or what. I get the impression that I will not have much say at the end of the day what with my various problems ie Age, being old and being pregnant but old enough to know better......you chicks will want to kill me as well when i have to admit that we're hoping to move house sometime twixt now and due date - 6 weeks...do you think I'm biting off more than i can chew or do you admire my balls???

lunavix - wait till you're on your third! We got rid of everything last summer when we moved, so there's still stuff we need to recover/borrow/maybe even buy . I have no Moses basket bedding and minimal cot bedding, and I just can't quite get bothered enough about that to sort it out. I'm sure I can use pillow cases for sheets in the Moses basket, so I think that'll have to do.

Lunavix - yes, it's dark skin patches. Interesting that yours scraped off afterwards - my skin is certainly different in texture where they appear. LOL @ sex pistols btw - not the usual sort of lullaby. ;)

Oh, we're complete slackers re: preparation - but just as much for my ds as for this one, but it's more to do with being extremely busy and juggling time around more than anything. Have only just sorted out some my ds's old baby clothes - they actually look brand new, which is nice, and I've already got advice from the nappy lady, so I'll shortly be getting a sample order pack to decide which nappies I'll be going with. I'm finding, though, that concentrating on this baby with regards to the way ds will respond to him/her, getting ds involved with feeling bump etc, has really helped in being excited about the birth. Maybe that's a perspective you could try, lunavix?

We're having tremendous problems with finding a boy's name though - have a good list of girl's names.

eeny - glad your hyperemisis is subsiding, but still being sick, even once a week, at this stage is And yes, the little unexpected changes just add to it all. But I think my pregnancy this time round is easier than last time as I don't have to go out to work full time, as I did before. I really feel for all you ladies who still have to go out to work when pregnant, especially in hot weather. (I work from home, and it is a big difference).

bumble - you may well be insane. Welcome aboard! You'll fit right in!

Hi bumble, I went to an 'active birth' day workshop (had to pay not nhs) and it was really good! I guess maybe the 'active birth' term might get bandied about a bit and your one could be very different. But the one I went to went through the whole process with an emphasis on you remaining in control of your birth choices and choosing positions/techniques that felt right. Also had a chance to practise techniques and so on. Hope your class is as good!

ps what lovely enormous balls you have!

You're all a set of superstars - that is coming over loud and clear....and so making me laugh

LOL at the large balls!

speak for yourself Purple

LOL

Purple can speak for me just fine - I am CERTAINLY going insane!!!!

eeny - dont' think I'm being virtuous by still being at work, i'm totally not!! - its just that if I stop before the end of term, i miss out on 7 weeks of normal pay which as you can probably appreciate, we'll need all the more once I'm off and not earning!!

bumble10, now look here! I'm older than you and age has nothing to do with anything, so don't let anybody tell you otherwise. If you've got a medical issue that might be relevant to how and when you give birth that's differentmine's got to be a C/s, for example, because I had problems pushing DS out 5 years ago. But otherwise, how and where you have your baby and the pain relief choices you make, are really an individual thing: everyone's labour feels different. It's a shame you got forgotten by the NCT but there might be other birth classes near you depending where you liveit might be worth starting a thread to see if anyone in your area knows any teachers. Going to have a look round the hospital is helpful, it takes some of the mystique out of things.
BTW I chose a Madonna CD to take to hospital last time but the only noise in our delivery room was me yelling 'Get me an epidural now and make it a double!'
I think we're taking Miles Davis this time around, as he's one of the few musicians both DH and I like.