Martians 2014, thread 13. Who will win, team pink or team blue?

[LyraSilvertongue]

New thread, hoes!

Mint aero ..... Yummmm

I made DH go out for a gingerbread man at ten to 9 last night! Opps!

It's his birthday today and we are both feeling like poop, so have had Icecream for breakfast to ease our sore throats :(

Pregancy exercise - I haven't been in the gym as much as I was pre-preg as I used to do spinning and lift heavy weights 4 times a week and I don't think that is recommended now.

I do live in a very hilly city and stride up and down hills on a daily basis, always take the stairs over the lift and try to swim (realistically) a couple of times a week to get my heart rate up.

But I'm still unloading shopping bags and doing housework - I've not completely gone idle yet. Definitely an advocate of active births and I agree with cookie that you need to be aerobically fit to keep up the pace.

Interesting exercise comments.

I guess, to me, it's about doing as much as you can (safely obv) to give yourself the best odds- fitness, breathing exercises, knowing about various pain relief choices, psychological preparation (by that i mean trying to go in relaxed, calm, feeling as prepared as possible even if that is just having packed a hospital bag!).

Then be ready for 'what will be will be'. I was fit, not overweight, reasonably young (30) and did loads of antenatal and preg yoga before DS. Did all the active stuff, different positions, birthing ball, walking about, pool etc. but it ended in EMCS.

Same tactics this time I think. Just with an extra scan at 35 weeks to check baby's size, a bit more monitoring and the likelihood of a CS sooner. But hopefully VBAC.

What will be will be, but I think you can tip the odds in your favour with (as you say) both mental and physical preparation.

I other news - DH is taking me out for pub roast in a bit. He really is being the perfect husband, I'm feeling really soppy and in love at the moment.

How are everybody's bellybuttons looking?

Mine isn't showing any signs of becoming an outie any time soon, tis a wee bit shallower than before I got pregnant though.

Mine popped out weeks ago. I'm tempted to use duct tape to stick it down flat. I hate it and it shows through my clothes. DS2 keeps pressing it like a doorbell and DP finds it amusing

MrsKay, you sound fabulously fit and healthy. I'm not sure about this 'psychological preparation' for birth; I think that may be where some women come unstuck when they end up a shrieking, writhing mess despite having done yoga and read a hypnobirthing book. I'm not sure labour is supposed to be anything other than excruciating and laborious, to be honest, but I am prepared to admit I am anti-serenity, anti-planning and anti-anything remotely hippified

Hottie, my belly button is till in and showing no signs of outing itself, thank goodness; I find outies grotesque and bordering on obscene.

Doorbell

Mine is still an 'innie' but only just.

Foxtrot, was it you, yonks ago, who was trying to think of names containing 'ph'? Any more ideas there?

Cookie I think you think about the actual birth more than anyone judging by some of your posts! 'Psychological preparation' will clearly be different for everyone - what I meant was getting your head together for it, which to you appears to mean expecting excruciating pain and refusal to consider a birth plan because you think they're nonsense. But for other people it might mean trying to remember breathing exercises, talking it through with their birth partner etc. And for other people it will be trying not to think about it at all - because that might be what works for them!

My belly button never popped out last time, but it was a very deep "innie" to start with. Did end up flat by the end, and was weird to see it bulge when DS kicked near it

Still an innie here too

DH freaked out the other day because he thought I was getting "the line" when in actual fact it was the seam from my leggings!

Ice, yes, mum.

...actually, I rarely think about the birth itself and all its machinations and minute details. It's true I simply expect it to be the most painful and difficult experience of my life with a hint of terror, mild panic and then, hopefully, a minute or two of bliss before severe postnatal depression sets in and I end up rocking and dribbling in a corner in the psychiatric wing. I then expect to fall apart entirely, my relationship to be rocked to its very foundations, to occasionally detest my wailing brat and to regret ever having gone through IVF

Blardy hell Cookie, I think you need some meditation and lentil weaving!

I can't, Ice, I'm too busy massaging my perineum with Asda's own lard.

Lentil weaving - is that like plaiting piss?

I think it is making a basket out of handily available wholefoods, perhaps to carry your placenta around in following the lotus birth.

Ah. You are very wise, O Icey One

baking eating ...love your work! inspired! I MUSt get to hobby craft. ..conveniently located beside carpet land

cookie honey such a catastrophic picture u paint of the future.. seriously whether u believe in hippy or not preg yoga might just help with th anxiety. I'm a clinical psychologist so not necessarily a hippy and am a cynic . Before started yoga didn't realise how stressed I was last time round. And its great for baby bonding. Put the ina may gaskin book away pls!

Belly button still in here. Lolling at lentil woven basket for lotus birth!! Dare someone to put that on their birth plan!!

I keep meaning to start pg yoga, need to email the lady this week.

After 6 hours shopping in brum on Sat and a bit on line this am, have nearly finished the Xmas shopping!! 4 gifts left!! Mr and DH feeling v smug!

I'm not anxious or stressed in the slightest; just realistic. I don't see the point in denying the existence of pain or suffering. It's a part of life and I refuse to get sucked in by a whole industry determined to make pregnancy 'magical', pain-free or somehow 'positive'

My belly button is obscene?!

No Lyra it's lovely. Does it make a ding dong noise when DS2 presses the 'doorbell'?

Owl 6 hours shopping in Brum - are you MAD woman?! The bullring? On a Saturday? Full of teenagers, jostling, argh! My idea of hell. But well done on breaking the back of the shopping. I need to start mine...

It does when DS does sound effects I can't wait for it to go back in. It's always been in between and innie and an outie