With disbelief and minimal drama, the PESH are ambling into springtime diffedness!

[SinkyMalinks]

Antenatal fred fun for BESH graduates

CRESH

Faith - pinky faithlet arrived 14th April 2013
Pinkr - suitably pinky one arrived 25th August 2013
Jethro - blue one arrived 23rd September 2013
Noks - a surprisingly breechy pink one arrived 12th January 2014

PESH

Frankel - EDD 4th March
Sinky - EDD 18th March
Merks - EDD 21st March
Driz - EDD 7th June
Draf - EDD 19th June
Kat - EDD 20th June
Winks - EDD 26th June
Dor - EDD 18th August
Ginger - 20th August
Euro - 28th August

Pleasantly busy here, isn't it?

Yup Faith! Alongside "Oh my god we're going to be responsible for a whole person!" type thoughts

Sinks give in to it! I'm planning on tackling a room/area per day. Today's project will be our bedroom, but first I'm off to get my haircut this morning

Ooh. Hair cut. I need to do that. Have made good progress with thesis type thing (I think- progress meeting Friday- eek!) - how's your stuff going btw? - and while a
I'm still at work, I don't have much to do, and even the sessions I am doing seem to be well supported... To the extent I'm not doing anything! Can't complain, but I'd rather be busy if I'm here tbh.

I'm currently in one of those sessions, and have done nothing!

Err, my point being, that despite still being at work, might try and get a hair cut fitted in sometime soon! (Hate weekends at hairdressers- too busy)

Everyone has been saying to me "make sure you get your hair cut before the baby arrives!" do I dutifully booked this appointment in the New Year.

College work is progressing, slowly. I'm working on a portfolio that is due in early March, I've got an assignment due in end of March, another portfolio in April, an exam in June and my research project in August. If I can get the 2 portfolios and the assignment done before Turnip arrives I'll be happy. 1 portfolio is half done and the other 3/4 done so I might be able to do it!

I can imagine it must be a real relief after such a long wait dor. The poor poorly Little Mister. I saw the photos of him on t'other place. He looked so sad. :(

frank ooo - definitely nesting! And sinks too!

AFM, I have my booking in NHS appointment tomorrow (thoughts: "booking in, what? me? that's something pregnant people do") and have made an appointment to talk to an independent midwife on Friday. I think having a friendly face who I know there at delivery would be enormously helpful to me, given my medical anxiety. A roomful of stangers prodding and poking me while I feel out of control is my worst nightmare. If I were to home birth, she would be the midwife, and if I use the hospital, she would act as a doula. Every time I make an appointment it doesn't feel right - it's forcing me to do "pregnant things" and I feel like I will jinx everything.

My womble has a dull ache today, so I think it is doing a lot of stretching.

Euro that sounds like a really good idea. I toyed with the idea of a doula for a while just in case HWHNN found himself being sent out of the country around my due date.

If you want to see cute things, , though you may have already seen it on Facebook

So much for getting work done today - got home from my haircut, had some lunch and promptly fell asleep for 2 hours on the sofa

Hmm, I killed the fred

Heading into work this morning for a meeting My maternity cover is on holiday until next week so I have to deal with it. Not feeling great to be honest, slept really badly (combination of a developing cold and getting really hot at night) and also think I might have eaten something funny last night as my stomach isn't happy.

My paranoid "am I about to go into labour?" thoughts are getting more frequent too. Totally unreasonable as I've not had a single indicator, bar my bump possibly dropping a bit, so I really hope I'm not going to spend the next few weeks getting myself in a state.

Aw@the bambi legs

I'm sorry you are not feeling great. The wait for labour must be hard. Particularly first time round when you are not sure what the first twinges will feel like.

I'm just pottering at home, waiting for my midwife appt. Feeling particularly fat today. I'm out for a business dinner tonight, and struggled to find something nice to fit into. And I'm hoping I can get through the evening - that is when the nausea is at its worst and I mostly just want to be horizontal, being waited on.

How did the appointment go Euro?

It was fine, frank. I had a midwife and a student and they were both luffly (to my surprise). The only hiccup was when they said they wanted to refer me to a consultant because of the IVF and previous colposcopy (even though they didn't do anything apart from take a tiny biopsy). So I've said I really, really don't want to be consultant led. I don't like doctors and hospitals. I don't want any more appointments than I absolutely have to have. She said with the reasons for referring I would most likely be referred straight back, but her guidelines said she had to refer, but that she would have a chat with the consultant and see what she said. So we will see.

How are you doing?

I am consultant led because I am fat. It doesn't make much difference over here, not sure how many additional appointments it means in the UK though.

I think it's quite common for IVFers to be referred as consultant-led. I'm not really sure why as surely if the pregnancy is fine why should the manner of conception matter?

I'm ok, still at work . Waiting for a colleague to get back from her lunchbreak so I can give her instructions on something that needs doing and then I'm pushing off!

Looking forward to my midwife appt and your of the MLU tomorrow. I want her to confirm Turnip is still head down (I think she is) as I've come across a few women on the March thread and in my antenatal class whose babies have turned breech in the last week or two.

Frank mine was head down (confirmed by 2 midwives and a scan) for 4 weeks. She's not now though chiropractor reckons my pelvic muscles are too tight for her to engage
Euro the bright side of consultant led is the potential for lots more scans

Exactly frank. Why because the embie arrived in the womb via the cervix rather the fallopian tube should that make a difference to anything? Grrr.

merk I actually don't want more scans though. I just want to be left alone. If I could be a cat and give birth in a dark corner under the stairs on my own I would be so much happier.

I guess you know about the spinning babies website?

yep i've read spinning babies. Have got myself an amazing antenatal chiropractor who specialises in helping baby get in the right place and lining up the pelvis so am hopeful he can do some magic.

Am sure they will probably let you see the consultant once and then transfer to midwife led, the 'higher risks' for ivf are so grey/vague/debatable anyway as far as i understand it. And if your consultant is anything like the cock one i've got, he won't be that interested anyway

I've seen the spinning babies website, I'm intrigued by the belly mapping!

Finally back home now, I just getting emails that needed dealing with Oh well, that's me done anyway!

How annoying euro! I did not know it was bloody annoying policy. Draf is not consultant-led, is she? Neither am I... Great they were both lovely, tho! I actually found the four weeks between appointments really long, would not have minded a few more.

I am cross on your behalf about the amount of work you're doing, frank! You should be chilling at home! Sorry about the labour, when is it starting jitters. Maybe one of the experienced PESH can help.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 cos Lembie had wedged itself in the left half of my womble, it turned out to be a tight fit and I felt more bodyparts moving than I had imagined possible at this stage. I thought it was cute but have been suffering from lack of sleep ever since...

I had a call back from the midwife and the consultant has agreed that she doesn't need to see me for now. She's just asked for my colposcopy and IVF notes. Hurrah.

Ouch drizz. That sounds both uncomfortable and a bit odd!

frank you don't seem to be doing very well at the maternity part of maternity leave!

merk I hope the chiropractor works his magic.

Hurrah for midwife led care, euro! And well done for standing up for yourself!

It was def odd, not uncomfortable yet! But the reassurance is amazing. Small doses of instant happiness, throughout the day :) fair compensation for no sleep...

Euro really pleased to hear you've been signed off for midwife led care. Well done for sticking to your guns.

Drizz they do get themselves into some odd positions don't they!

Merks when do you see the chiropractor again? Hope he/she can help.

Had my 36 week appointment this morning. All well and Turnip is definitely head down and started to engage This sh*t just got real!
We had a tour of the MLU too and it really is lovely, fingers crossed that Turnip hangs on past next Tuesday so I can use it!

Midwife was also great and talked me through early labour and when I should call them, though she did say I should call at any time if I was worried or not sure about things. She said it can actually be useful to them to talk to you on the phone while having a few contractions as they can usually gauge if it's time for you to come in or not. Definitely feeling a bit better about it all now.

Aw, drizz that sounds really luffly.

frank you are about to foal!

Thanks ladies. I'm happy to have whatever care I NEED to have. But if I don't feel there is a need, I'm always going to dig my heels in.

Scan on Wednesday. This has DRAGGED!

frank I can't believe it's getting so close now.

Early good luck, ginge! I suppose it's good you didn't have a reason to be scanned sooner!