Babies due in May 2014 - is this the Definitelies final countdown?

[ClearlyMoo]

WELCOME! This thread is for all Mums-to-be expecting Maybies babies in (and around) May 2014! Please come and join the fun.

Put your feet up, get yourself a (decaf?) cuppa and settle in to hear the aches and pains, trials and tribulations, shopping excitement and hospital bag woes of those in their third trimester.

Hopefully you'll find a listening ear and a wealth of knowledge. Everyone welcome, especially if you're new to MN and are just peeking in as you start your maternity leave.

Our group Stats Page

If you'd like to know how big your baby is this week the check out The Bump

If you'd like to mark your place perhaps you could tell us who you are and how long you've got to go!

Happy chatting Maybies!

::appears to say hello and read thread::

::realises all I'm going to post about is whingey::

::leaves you all in peace::

What's wrong moo?

Yike at a nearly 12lb baby! Hopefully it was all in length or density, rather than a huge head or massive girth. DD1 was 8lbs 3oz, but arrived nearly three weeks early. I hate to think what size she'd have been if she'd been overdue!

Not too much to report here. Saw the GP earlier and got a prescription for some Co-Codamol to use after the birth, if I need it for stitches or after pains. Hopefully I won't need it, but I'd rather have it in and ready than trying to get hold of a prescription out of hours!

Asked about a physio referral as there is no way I can attend the group session due to the location and timing. But got told that there's nothing else available. :( So looks like I'm just going to be hobbling for the remaining 10 weeks or so!

Only 4 more weeks at work, at least. The end is looking tantalisingly close now!

Clearly vent/rant/whinge away!!!

MW this morning, she completely agrees with being induced on due date but reminded me to go back to the hospital if the pains worsen before then. Had bloods taken, let's hope for miracle iron increase

In uni now for a little bit, everyone keeps asking me how I'm feeling about the birth and how long to go and eeeek!

Do vent, ClearlyMoo! Sometimes it helps just to clear your chest. :)

Speaking of which, I was a bit annoyed yesterday. So far I've avoided receiving any unwanted comments and my friends/co-workers have been lovely - telling me that I'm looking well (when I'm a hobbling, exhausted, snotty mess) and my bump is very neat.

Went into a shop yesterday and the lady on the checkout grilled me for all the usual details then reacted in shock and told me I was enormous. Thanks for that.

On the plus side, a lovely man later let me have his seat at the bus stop so I could be inside the shelter and didn't need to stand in the rain for 10 minutes. :)

Someone tell me off for being stupid. Tried to keep up with some proper swimmers this morning and did 50 lengths in 37 minutes.

I think I have broken my abductor muscles.

I'm still at a December thread!!! They can't be anymore than 4 weeks

Hey everyone. Feeling really fucking miserable.
Appointment was fine yesterday, I think I posted afterwards but to be honest I was a bit amped-up and I don't really remember. DH got home just after I arrived home, I said I needed my afternoon snack and had it then had a complete breakdown when it came to doing my first home finger-prick. I think everything became suddenly very real and I just don't know if I can cope. My sugar at the appt (they made us do a practice finger prick) was 6.something, that was about 3hrs after eating breakfast with no mid-morning snack. When I got home and finally did it after my breakdown, it was 9.8 then after dinner 9.6 and my fasting this morning was 8.3
I'm basically resigning myself to the fact that because my levels are so much higher than the general levels to aim for (the nurse/midwife didn't give me any personalised targets) that they'll put me on metformin next Wednesday when I go back for a scan and my next clinic appt, and probably in a few more weeks they'll end up putting me on insulin. I could really do with NOT HAVING TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT.
I have no control over what food gets bought as a) I mostly can't leave the house, b) I have no money at all with which to even do a small online shop, and c) we basically can't afford any of the groceries that will help me manage this. We have sugar free squash, and sweeteners for my coffee, but our store cupboards need a radical overhaul to make them low-GI and diabetes friendly. We need pulses and lots of lean protein to freeze ready to have on demand for my lunches, as I doubt we could afford enough of the things to have for everyone's food. My dad only has to test his sugars twice a day and is pretty blasé about his diet because his sugars are fine with his metformin and insulin control, so he's no bloody help. Tins of sodding rice pudding for lunch FFS.
Cried again today. Can't really see myself managing this, emotionally or physically. I can't go out today even though the garden is GLORIOUSLY SUNNY because my stupid hips are agony, so no exercise except the stairs to go for a wee every now and then.

Sorry to moan. Just really fucking sick of all of this today.

Morning all! Can I start by thanking whoever suggested slowly leaning forward as you pee? Tried it a couple of times and actually had proper wees, hooray!

mcbaby hope you feel better soon, sounds awful.

rosie I'm surrey born, no longer there though unfortunately. Where abouts are you?

nanny that's so cute what your dd said and I love the name Poppy!

vicks I've always wanted to go to the Lake District, enjoy it! We're going away for the weekend too.

Little update from me. Have decided on an OB I've found through a pro-natural birth clinic, and I may even have a shot at a water birth, which I never thought possible. So I'm feeling much calmer now. Obviously a million & one things could change that outcome but I'm being positive. New OB has however changed my due date to 11th May and measured my tummy 27cm at 32wks, when former OB measured 29 at 31. I can't have shrunk!!?

Mrs FC, start off reducing portions and cutting back on carbs! Eat seeded bread low fat/low sugar!!

Start small diabetes as a whole doesn't need a radical cupboard overhaul it's basically cutting out the shit and eating smaller portions!

Cross posts mrsfoo - I'm really sorry you're feeling so down. Have you spoken to your DH about it? I can't offer any helpful advice wrt GD but I've seen several threads about it where they might have some good tips about food and coping with all the tests/injections. Hugs!

samba I think the bump measurements are pretty inaccurate to be honest - one of my midwives had to ask me if she was on my pubic bone or not when she did it, which didn't inspire confidence! Glad you have managed to find a birth clinic that fits more with your preferences, that must be a great relief.

mrsfoo worry you're having such a rubbish time, can't offer any practical advice I'm afraid but I am sure some of the ladies with experience will be able to.

Thats Brilliant news samba! well done on finding a good OB and even if it doesn't work out for a water birth in the end at least you'll have a Dr you're confident will let you have the most appropriate birth for your circumstances rather than having a c-section forced upon you for convenience!

Kally I'll tell you off (slapped wrist) but I'm afriad I'm no better - I still swim with my Tri group and when our trainer tells everyone 'max' and me 'confortable pace' I'm not very good at not having a sneaky race with the swimmer in the next lane!! That having been said - I really do hope you haven't pulled anything... and if it's just a twinge then a good reminder to SLOW DOWN!

Clearly come back and moan - thats what we're here for!

MrsFoo no advice I'm afraid, but I hope you can find some info on diet which will help you feel better about it - I'm sure as people have said that small changes will help and remember the best type of food is just 'plain' (eg non-processed) food! You shouldn't feel the need to buy loads of fancy 'diabetic' products which aren't very good for you anyway. Big hugs and hope you're feeling better soon

oh dear, I'm procrastinating again... better get back to some work!

mrsfoo so sorry you have to go through this! I have no advice either only that you can only try your best! Try to not beat yourself up if you don't manage to get the perfect plan in place straight away. And good luck!

JodeyP, hope you are not feeling to stressed about making your mind up about ELCS/VBAC. I am hoping to go for a VBAC. Plan is to let me go 10 days overdue and then it would be planned section as they won't induce me. MW said they'll offer me a membrane sweep at 40 weeks and possibly one more at 41 weeks. I very much hope to go into spontaneous labour but then again, I didn't have a traumatic experience last time since I barely had time to go into labour before I had EMCS due to fetal distress.
I've got a hypnotherapy CD for VBAC that is quite good.
But absolutely choose ELCS if that is your preferred choice, only you know what's right!

DECEMBER thread?! Wow, we are really really preggers.

mrsfoo sorry you're feeling so down. Hugs. I'm with BornIn - reducing portion sizes especially of carby stuff will really help. Also, combining any carbs you do eat with fats or protein will help slow down absorption of the sugars and your sugars levels won't spike so highly. So eg, peanut butter or eggs with toast (not white, try and get seeded, or the heavier brown stuff) would be better than butter or marmite for example. I appreciate it must be really hard if you're not doing the shopping yourself. Who is in charge of shopping at home?

Can you do something nice this afternoon to make yourself feel a bit better? A nice relaxing bath or watching a film or reading a book or something?

samba great news that you've made some positive plans about you birth and are feeling happier!

Oh foo how utterly miserable for you! I know it in no way makes it easier but insulin REALLY doesn't hurt/affect you and I swear you don't feel it half as much as the fingerprick tests. If you can manage to exercise (sitting on sofa and boxing arms maybe if hips are sore) then try this before you measure your sugar! It brings it down a lot.

I have cheap food so a loaf of whole grain bread does me for 5 lunches with either cheese, ham, peanut butter, eggs, salad - whatever's in really. Mincemeat doesn't affect t my levels so I just have what dh does and then half the carb portion I normally would iykwim?

Thank you guys. Those of you with experience have offered good advice - I've already got seeded bread, some Ryvita cracker things, light mayo, and a tin of cannellini beans that I'm buggered if I know what to do with
I've got some lentils and sweet potatoes coming tonight I think, planning to make some soup tonight and keep the leftovers for lunches over the next few days, maybe bake the sweet potatoes and freeze them to defrost to have with tuna/salmon for lunches too? Bran flakes w/skimmed milk is my plan for brekkie, might have a chat with the dietician about adding flavoured sugar-free whey protein powder to porridge and or milk for a late night thing to keep my fasting level down? I know the addition of protein to carb-y meals can assist in keeping absorption of carbs slow and steady rather than WHOOSH ALL OF THE CARBS ALL AT ONCE with a lovely spike in sugar afterwards speshly as I seem to be giving morning urine samples at my appts with ketones in, maybe I'm not eating enough carbs at dinner time? I dunno. It's such early days that I guess anything could happen from here on out...

Thank you again. I'm feeling a bit more confident about my ability to control the levels - the nurse recommended that I do a two-day pattern, one day measure fasting 1hr after brekkie 1hr after lunch and 1hr after dinner, then next day measuring fasting, just before lunch, just before dinner and bedtime - today was the second day pattern and I got a reading of 7.7 before lunch, feeling positive about that and I think with more considered choices for dinners and breakfasts I can probably get the levels down to around 7.
My range to aim for was written in my notes but nobody actually said it to me...it's between 5-7.5 for fasting, and after meals apparently not above 7.5 how can I only go up 0.5 after a meal EH???? Strange ladies they were so maybe they wrote it down wrong.

Sounds like you've got a good plan there mrsfoo sweet potatos are super yummy! Canellini beans - add to the soup or mix with tuna for a tuna salad at lunchtime??

good luck keeping everything under control - you can do it!

mrsfoo I can't really add to the advice, as I have no experience, but the stuff on cutting down on carbs and changing what carbs you do have to "good" carbs (wholegrain etc) ties in with all the research my OH has done on healthy eating.

The only other thing I would suggest is maybe trying to make your own bread? I compared how much sugar stuff like Hovis wholemeal had in it compared to a loaf of homemade, and it was staggering. I put 4 gms of sugar into a 600g loaf, whereas a 800g loaf of Hovis has almost 38gms of sugar.

bush wrist duly slapped . A couple of hours sat upright on the coach to work and thankfully it all seems to have calmed down. Lazy day before the nightshift tomorrow though!

mrsfoo - try this, as cannellini beans should work in it: www.queenieandthedew.com/2013/01/leons-hippy-farm-beans-and-recipe-book.html

I'm coming in for some sympathy! I had to go to hospital the other night due to agonising pains around bunk, back and pelvis. Have blood in urine which is being caused by a kidney infection. I'm struggling with cocodemal, it's making me super sick and dizzy. DP was fab yesterday but now he's 'ill' so couldn't take dd to nursery so I'm back doing everything and not being able to switch off.
Work being awful and less than understanding which is making me super stressed out and makes me feel worse. I feel bad about not being there but what can I do? I refuse to start my maternity leave like they are suggesting, I'm 30 weeks. Going to see gp Monday to see if he will sign me off as I literally cannot even stand up when on these drugs. They made me throw up everywhere last night. Going back to hospital tomorrow to be checked. Sorry for moan.

mrsfoo so glad to hear you are feeling better!

Mmmm I love baked sweet potatoes. Really nice with tuna, or smoked mackerel isn't too expensive as a change and is good for your omega 3s! Sweet pots are really nice as a topping for shepherds pie etc too.

Cannellini beans are really nice crushed up instead of mashed potato - you could add a bit of olive oil and garlic or cumin if you wanted to flavour it up a bit. Really lovely in stews and stuff too and the tinned ones cook really quickly but the dried ones are cheaper in bulk but you have to remember to soak them! Great idea to add whey protein powder to porridge etc too.

Good idea about making your own bread kally.

Mmmm all this talk of food is making me hungry. What's for dinner?!?!?

Rigby that sounds awful. My work are less than understanding too - so I know what it's like. They can't force you to take mat leave early (unless you're 34 weeks or something like that) so a week off sick might be just what you need.

mrsfoo Your plan sounds good! It sounds like you're really going through a lot but the other girls sound like they're giving you good advice. Sweet potatoes are lovely too - I have some in the cupboard. If you keep the skins on and toss them in olive oil and then roast them, they're amazing!

I'm waiting for dh to pick me up from work. Today has been mental busy which is good, because I haven't had a chance to cry about how exhausted I am! Ha! This morning I cried before I even got out of bed because the thought of getting dressed seemed like it was too hard to accomplish, never mind the thought of 10 hours at work! Pathetic, I know.

11 days left before maternity leave!!! (I'm sorry I might count down at the end of every day!)