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

[LyraSilvertongue]

New thread, hoes!

Deffo MLU/birth centre all the way (unless there are complications of course). Trouble is they won't take you if you go into labour before 37wks or after 42 weeks.

Heard the babies heartbeat today, tried to distinguish it between a galloping horse or a choo choo train yes I actually jut wrote choo choo but it sounded more like a nee-naw siren.....

Welcome mrsksays, and welcome back april13!

I'm also in Team Yellow, although I know the temptation to find out will be very strong at the 20 week scan...we shall resist...!

I'm almost the exact opposite to you, mrs; dh and I started TTC on holiday at the end of June, expecting it to take a few months. I took a pregnancy test the day after we got back from holiday two weeks later, which was positive! It feels like I've been preggers for ever now, even though I'm only 18 weeks.

Trying not to stress over my near-nonexistent bump and lack of all flutters or movement, but I really need Peanut to kick a bit harder to remind me (s)he's fine.

Welcome back MTB. For tonight: there is naff all on the box unless you didn't see GBBO last night and watch it on iplayer. I am about to take my new book and a cup of decaf tea to bed as no doubt DS will be up a couple if times as he is do congested, poor wee thing.

Cool - exactly the same here re MLU not being an option due to VBAC. But I am feeling way more confident second time round, so I WILL have a good experience despite it not being in the dimmed lighting, cushioned MLU. I'm hoping there is still a pool.

Hi Ice, think its going to have to be a book and bed, already showered and in my PJs :-)

I would love a MLU, but I've got to go see a consultant in 2 weeks to discuss my options, due to heart issues and a very difficult birth with DD it looks like it'll have to be a CS, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll at least let me go full term.

I really do feel for those of you who have been so sick. Nausea is one of the worst feelings in the world and to have it continuously for months must be utterly miserable. I've been sick this pregnancy but only on and off and it tended to sneak up very quickly and then be over so I feel I've got off lightly.

Head is slightly better but only if I try not to move

I'm excited about there being a team yellow!!!

Go team yellow!!

Mammychoo, I figured you might be Pram but wasn't sure if I was supposed to comment on it or not.

Block, I wouldn't worry too much about making sure you have a full bladder. I never have as I have had scans where I was so dehydrated that I didn't wee until hours later even though I was on a drip plus I am usually drinking as much as I can anyway. I've probably had a dozen scans over the course of a few pregnancies and the only time it caused any difficulty was last pregnancy when I had a low lying placenta and they couldn't see for sure whether it was clear of the os but they would have given me another scan later in pregnancy to check it anyway so it wasn't an issue. I don't think my letter for this scan said anything but the last one it said to drink a pint half an hour before the scan which made me laugh because at the time it was taking me from when I got up until lunch time to drink that amount.

Welcome Mrsksays, I am so jealous of you not knowing until 14 weeks - I knew about this one at just over three weeks because of my symptoms even though it was unexpected. (My excuse is that I hadn't had a period since DD2 and charting somehow failed - not sure how but according to my temperatures I never ovulated but clearly I did.)

Wrt how much nausea you have had, from what I have read it is only if you have no nausea and/or vomiting that there is supposed to be an increased risk of miscarriage rather than that the risk is in proportion to how much nausea and/or vomiting you have. I think the myth that the more sickness you have, the "safer" you are is very unhelpful as it causes a lot of needless worry to people like you with lower levels and it means that for those of us with hyperemesis gravidarum it is much more of a shock when it does go wrong because we are told that we are lower risk when we are not.

Pain, I can't remember if it was you who mentioned those kind of symptoms before or someone else but it is worth getting your haemoglobin levels checked as whilst pregnancy can cause those symptoms to some extent, anaemia can too so can make it much worse. I ended up with an amblance trip and a hospital admission due to mine in my last pregnancy.

stayed on Bourneville when down with work. Until then didn't realise was anything other than a gold and red dark chocolate!Pretty place and was able to appropriate a few bags of mis shapes at Cadbury world. Fond memories of pretty designer bags n shoes at the bullring (u can tell this was pre children).

Mrs k congratulations! I had no symptoms other than excessive greed when pregnant with ds. This time round dd has made me v nauseous and moody ....

I'm currently waiting on my best ffriend to poas bc I'm convinced she's prego. She's 80 miles away and as her phones broke we are msging on face book. Suspense killing me. Watching ambassadors on BBC 2 is other entertainment though not sure what to make of it esp as can't get peep show characters out of my head!

Pram please come back or reveal yourself!

eeek BWP - in what trimester did you end up in hospital with anemia? Last pregnancy my low iron was detected at the 25wk blood test (after a good month of feeling crappy) so I'm not taking any chances this time. Certainly don't want to be hospitalised! What did they do to treat you?

Pain if it helps, I had low iron just after having DS and they gave me iron tablets - problem solved. No hospital. I was bf and I am sure they would be prescribed during pg too so I'm sure this would be the first thing they'd do. I think BWP suffered pretty badly with HG etc so perhaps the anaemia was pretty severe in her case.

Well, no problems with iron tablets except black poo. Which is quite disturbing. But not painful or owt.

My birthday today!!

Have to go to work tho boo.

Just opened a card from the baby!

Happy birthday owl how sweet.

I've got a pain in stomach area. It started yesterday afternoon and made it difficult to get to sleep. This morning was fine while lying down bug got up and it's come back anyone had anything similar?

Waiting for mw office to open at9. :(

Happy birthday Owl!!

Lib what sort of pain - sharp/dull etc? Where abouts is it?

Happy Birthday Owl!! Hope you have a great day

Pain I was 27 weeks when I ended up in hospital and it was a couple of weeks earlier that I had an ambulance trip. I just meant make sure you get it diagnosed and treated if you do have anaemia as that symptoms can end up severe if it's left rather than that anaemia will always lead to hospitalisation. I'm sorry if I sounded a bit scaremongery.

I had already been diagnosed (I went to my GP after needing four rests on the way from car park for my scan at 18 weeks and a couple of weeks later having my ATOS interview to check I was genuinely ill enough for ESA curtailed because I was barely able to answer the questions) but two different types of iron tablets made me so sick that if I'd kept taking them I would have ended up in hospital due to the vomiting. I'd had both those types of iron tablets before including in pregnancy so don't know why I suddenly had a problem and my GP said that there was nothing else they would do because on paper I wasn't that anaemic even though my symptoms were pretty bad (speed of onset can be a factor in severity of symptoms).

When I was admitted to hospital they ran various tests to rule out pulmonary embolism because I had chest pain due to difficulties with breathing and then once they'd ruled that out I was discharged. They did mention that the blood tests they did showed I was anaemic and I told them that the iron tablets had made me so sick that I would have ended up in hospital due to the vomiting. Their answer was "Try eating spinch" which is pretty stupid as spinach is a poor source of iron due to being high in calcium and oxalates both of which inhibit iron absorption.

In the end what I did was to read through a nutritional database to find the highest iron content foods I could feasibly eat enough of and ate as strategically for iron as I was able to. I replaced hens eggs with duck eggs because duck eggs are higher in iron and I had orange juice with each meal. Also, because I knew that the gastrointestinal effects of iron supplements are dose dependent and that if you keep taking them the effects eventually subside, I got some very low dose supplements (equivalent to 1/3 of a sachet of spatone) and some spatone and very gradually increased my dose. I managed to get up to 2 x 1/4 tablet per day after two months by which time blood tests showed my iron levels had improved significantly and my symptoms were much improved so I stopped the supplements because of how ill they made me feel and just continued with the strategic diet.

Happy Birthday Owl Hope they're nice to you at work.

Lib Is it a dull ache/stretchy feeling? It could be round ligament pain. I'm getting so much of it this time it's horrible but I'm on baby#3 so my midwife said I'll be much more aware this time. Lucky me.

It's a pain in the arse to scroll back in here but who is having a homebirth? I'm having one. Had DD at home and whoever I told (aside from my mother and bestie) was horrified but I'd ha a quick, straightforward labour with DS so had no fear of any issues. I'm holding in to that same hope this time, although hearing a lot of "third baby is often difficult" so I asked a MW at work the other day and she said often the latent phase is a bit longer but once established third labours are speedy. I didn't have much of a latent phase with my other two so I'm wondering how Ill cope if I end up with hours of contractions.
I'm reading Childbirth Without Fear still and there's a pretty good explanation of why negativity/expecting pain actually causes/increases pain so I'm hoping to go into this labour with a positive "I can do it" attitude.

Andie, I'm planning on a homebirth again this time. Last time we very selective about telling people beforehand that we were planning one just to avoid having any negativity about it.

There seems to be a very au naturale leaning around here . Is anyone thinking 'just give me all the drugs?'. I swing wildly between the 2 extremes. It's quite typical of me. I can't make a decision about anything.

There was ice on the car this morning! Here comes winter! Beautiful day though. I wish I was out there not stuck in the bloody office again. I feel like a right zombie. An eat-sleep-work zombie. I think my brain has been replaced with a cloud. We did the online shop last night. God only knows what we ordered, we were both so knackered as to be practically comatose. Probably nothing healthy, which will just perpetuate the cycle of being continually knackered. I need some time off work to get myself together.

Happy Birthday to Owl!! Are you doing anything to celebrate? Here, I will sing for you: Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to youuu, happy birthday dear Owlie, Happy birthday to youu

Happy birthday owl!!

I'm planning on a homebirth too Andie.

Interestingly, I've had more negative comments about the fact that I want to breastfeed than my decision to have a HB for my first.

People are weird

I'm hoping for a home birth too Andie

Fox I think that's completely normal - I wanted a natural hippie birth last time but only after I read up on the drug options and side effects. I then met someone who has suffered debilitating headaches since the birth of her 3 year old apparently caused by her epidural (rare side effect) so that cemented to me that I was making the right choice for me. As it was, I was fine drug free but know others who would have been happily doped up on everything the hospital could find in the drug cupboard and that's what worked for them :)

Negative comments about breast feeding? People are crackers.

Yay for the home birth club!