June 2014: Thread 6! The 2nd trimester and Christmas shenanigans!

[GillyBillyWilly]

Boom!

Bee - sorry about your friend - is there some reason he might not be happy for you? Problems of his own? Something going on in his own life?

Ladyg - I'm really sorry about your results. Such a shit thing to hear before Christmas (well any time tbh). 1/95 is still odds heavily stacked in your favour even though it's terrifying. What happens now? I don't really know what the harmony is will you get a definitive answer? Sorry you're going through this

oh lady I'm so sorry to hear that. But if the nuchal seemed fine you have the odds in your favour. I know a couple of people whose biomarkers gave strange results and at the end everything turned out okay. I hope all goes well on Monday and please come here whenever you want. We are here to support you. Thinking of you.

Bumble Not really, he's twice my age and thinking about retirement, currently taking a break from work because he can't stand the politics anymore, either. Last I heard him and his wife were on a cruise. He's lovely but a grumpy old codger...

sorry for your worries lady
went for my 16wk mw apt today she found the heartbeat quickly and said 'a happy baby' and that's there's the placenta or the cord across the baby....is that bad? x

Good luck with the harmony tests lady. What a horrible worry at this time of year. As the others said the odds are still in your favour, but that won't make it less worrying.

Cjbk I know the placenta can be in all sorts of funny positions - no idea what that comment might mean maybe someone else will but I'm sure the mw would have said if concerned

Cjbk Probably just meant she could hear blood whooshing through the placenta or cord when she was listening into the baby. Nothing to worry about.

Congratulations Disney that's great news, what a lovely Christmas present!

So pleased scans went well today. Lovely to hear of active baby biffle. misshooha I was told to empty my bladder half way through my nuchal scan too glad it's not just me

Welcome hedgehog :)

lady sorry you're having a tough time with results. Glad you've got an appointment quickly at FMC and have everything crossed that harmony will give you good result. 94 out of 95 chance everything will be fine, but I understand it must be worrying, sorry you're having to go through this at this time of year.

Hello hedgehog and welcome - I am also no spring chicken and had a couple of MCs before this pregnancy so totally get where you are coming from.

Lady that is rotten timing - really hoping all is well.

Bee perhaps your colleague just isn't interested in children or babies?

Emma is was AMAZED you cycled to hospital to give birth!
I'm a sloth.

Welcome to the new joiners and congrats to those with good scans.

mylittel 'what to expect - the first year is good '.

Generally, I read tons of books on babies, but it wasn't until I read a Gina Ford book that I learned babies have a sleep cycle of 45 mins and that ideally you feed and change them BEFORE you put them down for a sleep. I was that clueless.

Gina Ford is a VERY controversial writer (especially here on MN), and I didn't follow her recommended routines as I found them too strict, but I have to say I found some of her guidance v useful.

gets ready to get flamed ;)

thank you all for books suggestions)

Lady, best of luck with harmony! Fingers crossed little one is fine!

I'm home with migraine today... pretty much drifting in and out of consciousness all day.. not literally but it sort of feeld this way as pain is immense and I couldn't even get up to geg a snack all day..

I was waking up with a headache everyday for two weeks and so was talking 2 paracetamols daily.. But it worries me - googled and discovered prolonged use might result in problems with baby boy's testies - so decided to take a break and came to regret it. Feel rather trapped with this.. Really wish I could just have a normal healthy pregnancy but no!!

Sorry about the moan

Hackney - that's interesting.

I see most people seem to have a strong opinion (for Gina/against Gina amongst others). But I want to know what the options a re so then I can pick whether I'm for or against!

My plan was to buy a Gina, a polar opposite and someone in the middle ground. I want to read the options, and then decide which make sense to me. I know some things will depend on the baby - but I've no idea whether I'm a fan of baby-led or not, or 'attachment parenting' or not as I am completely clueless! Ive no idea if Gina is into attachment or baby-led or another camp entirely!

Disney!!!! Don't know if you will read this but I've sent you a DM!!!!

jay your approach is really sensible - read up on varying parenting styles and see how you feel. And see what sort of baby you end up with!

I'd never have considered GF until a friend of mine (who is a real hippy chick) said she found her book useful and lent me her copy. I found it useful too, but didn't follow GF routines as they did feel very restrictive. But as a framework it helped me.

Lady, so sorry you're going through this and hope you get better results from the harmony. i have everything crossed for you.

Sleepy, i have been waking up every morning with awful headaches. I've took o
paracetomol a couple of times but most of the time i mainline water and bananas and it eventually goes. Got my 16 week mw appt tomorrow but now Im going to sleep as i can barely keep my eyes open x x

I think if you can read and understand the theories but ignore all of the GF feeding advice and ridiculous routines about sleeping at home for two hours in the middle of the day etc the book is great. The danger is you become like a friend of mine who never left the house for fear of threatening the routine. Even when we went away on holiday we couldn't leave until after morning nap and had to be back for afternoon nap time. A window of an hour with lunch taken into account. My DD was similar age and was in a buggy and slept when exhausted and we enjoyed our week.

Polar opposites I remember from my past are "no cry sleep solution" Elizabeth pantley and the Baby whisperer is probably somewhere in between. I read all of the books I could. GF made me cry (thinking of regimented feeds etc), I loved the baby whisperer theories (eat, play, sleep or something like that) and length of play time for each age baby. Elizabeth pantley made me think a lot too.

I have a few 'My baby's first year' books and things like that but I hadn't planned on reading any behaviour training books, I don't know what my baby will be like and what will suit us best - I'll just have to wait and see and then read up when I need advise for specific things.

All was perfect on the scan! Very wriggly baby and the sonographer struggled to measure the length because of the acrobatics going on.
I'd forgotten how amazing that first glimpse of your baby is.
I am on my mobile so can't update the list but if someone could add me on the 4th of July, I'd be grateful. I still think my 29th of June is correct but she just couldn't get the baby to stay still to measure!
Anyone thinking of following Gina Ford, I read up wanting to be really prepared before dd arrived. And then she just hadnt read the book and wouldn't follow the schedule. It took me weeks to realise I wasn't a failure and that babies have their own agendas and ways they want to do it.
Please, please, please don't tie yourself in knots trying to follow something if it isn't working for you. You will get into your own routine and those early days are too precious too worry about it. I now think the book is borderline evil as with my messed up hormones and sleep deprivation, I really doubted myself as I couldn't get dd to follow the book.

I'll be honest. I was a totally clueless first time mum and I went by instinct. I listened to advice from friends and family but mainly just did what worked for me. My son had to fit in with my life and my life had to fit around his. We didn't get everything right but got out and about and I enjoyed my maternity leave. I'll never forget a friend not coming to a fab weekly baby group because the timing didn't fit in with the Gina Ford plan she was following. Too much routine can be as bad as too little. First timers, I guess I'm saying don't worry too much because you learn on the job and every child is so different.

A book I found useful was the fussy baby book which was about a child centred approach for needy babies (my son cried a lot) and I felt like some one finally got me and I stopped worrying so much. Some of the views were a bit extreme but the writer had 9 kids so had a fair bit of experience which I liked.

Sleepy - please bear with my bias I'm a daughter of a doc & can't help it but paracetamol is 1 of the safest drugs in the world when taken within the correct dose limits which is why v young babies can even take it. 2 weeks of 2 paracetamol is not 'prolonged use' - 6 a day for 6 months might be & even then it is almost perfectly safe. But do whatever makes you comfortable

I've been awake since 4am dying for orange juice - has anyone else had cravings? Never had them before but I've been dreaming about orange juice & want it so badly!!

I'm not managing to keep up with these threads!

Can someone please link me to the June fb account? Thank you.

Gender scan last night revealed girl!! Super pleased