Easter is approaching, and the PESH are laying all over the place!

[maamalady]

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 - pink one arrived 12th January 2014

PESH

Frankel - EDD 4th March ANY TIME NOW
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

PESH-in-hiding
Bugs - EDD approx 21st October

Glad it's not just me, Euro! Whenever I've strayed on to the bra intervention threads I've felt like a deviant

I'm definitely going to get a couple of bravado bras, Frank - the hook-on cups make so much sense. I've had to rescue wayward straps disappearing over shoulders for friends before, so avoiding that seems like a good plan! Good to hear E is piling on the ounces too :)

I've looked at a few "hospital bag essentials" lists, Kat, and they're all (a) long, and (b) different from each other. I think we're going to try to cherry-pick the most sensible-sounding things, but even then it seems like an awful lot of stuff. I keep meaning to go to primark and see if they have any thin cotton dressing gowns - I'd like an extra layer for privacy when going to the loo etc, but hospitals are always crazy hot...

Things in my hospital bag I actually used:

Cotton nightdress to labour in, plus a spare to wear afterwards
Cheap cotton knickers, one size too big
Lots of maternity pads
Dressing gown
Towel for post-birth shower
Tens machine (though I wore it in the car on the way to the hospital rather than in my bag!)
Lots of snacks
Isotonic drinks (not fizzy ones!)
iPod with birthing music
Change of clothes
3 lots of baby grows, vests & cardigan and a few hats
Nappies & cotton wool

Obviously as we ended up staying for 48 hours I had to send HWHNN home for more supplies, but the above covers the basics. One tip I read, which we sort of followed, was to have 2 bags - one for things you need during labour that you can take straight in to the hospital and one for things you'll need after the birth (baby clothes, your change of clothes, etc) that can stay in the car until needed.

Flip flops! Better than slippers on hot wards

M&s do a value waffle dressing gown in dark purple for a tenner - but that has been more use since coming home.

Big pants - I treated myself to m&s - 4x the price of tescos, but 10x as comfortable.

I had poweraid, but more useful was a tiny bottle of supa doopa concentrated robinsons juice - added to my water jug

Take more bottoms than you think. I bled on 2 pj bottoms on the first night and had to wear till ghj could bring replacement.

Remember spray deodorant. You might not be able to shower for a while. The midwives will bed bath you. I had to borrow a spray off a hca!

2 gags definitely. I took both in from the off, but it was useful to be able to say to ghj/anyone else where to look for things.

As an aside, I'm living night and day in the bravado bra. The medium can just about contain my current (estimated) 34g so should suit most! Ditto bra intervention chat. By that reckoning, I should be a 30-something ridiculous-i? But 34 is much comfier.

Oh dear, of frank's supplies I only own the towel and the cotton wool... And there are three baby grows and vests in the house, I guess. Time to start thinking about getting ready... I guess a baby bed is a more urgent essential than a hospital bag. It's time to face the denial. This weekend is DIY, then photo-taking for house selling purposes, a weekend away and then from 34 weeks I really need to face the shops, buy stuff and get it in... I might have to pray Lembie's late!

Amazon says our crib has been dispatched! Can't wait to see it! Went for the chicco next 2 me but so hard to find it in stock anywhere. Probably as its a new product and not properly launched in UK or something. Anyway it looks nice and was cheaper than a babybay. So then I will have bed, pram, car seat,clothes all sorted. unfortunately that means no excuse for notgetting the bedrooms sorted.

I love Bravado bras too.

HOTB and I assembled my family crib yesterday - my parents are going to get us a new mattress, sheets etc, but it feels like baybee arrival is imminent now! Weird to think I once slept in it myself, too :) I think we've got pretty much everything essentials-wise now, really, almost all is second-hand from friends.

We have some cotton wool, I'm quite looking forward to finishing the bag I used for IVF stabbing - it feels like closing a circle, or something.

Spray deodorant is a genius idea! Is it worth taking shampoo/shower gel at all, do you think?

Nice work frank!

draf we can start a bra intervention refusers club.

Draf I took a small wash bag with sample size bottles of shampoo, shower gel, etc - it lasted me for the 3 showers I took whilst in hospital. I also had face wipes, moisturiser and lip balm. Those wards are pretty hot so your skin will feel dried out.

Definitely you will want shower gel añd shampoo. Even if you are lucky and go home Same day you will probably want to wash first. Travel size bottles are a great idea, will do that myself this time. Just need a weekend break in a hotel so I can loot some...

I bought a couple of packs of disposable maternity pants from amazon and wore them under giant black sainsbury pants. They were great as it meant I could just throw away the disposable pants with pads. Even the midwife said they were great

What did you use cotton wool for during stabbing, draf? I am getting ready to drop the used and unused needles off at the pharmacy. I really do not need to hang onto it but have been too slack before. I still have some gonal-f in the fridge too. What did you lot do with any leftover drucks? It's an unopened pen of 300 units gonal-f (ie two days of stabbing for my IVF round) and that keeps for a while. But I doubt I'll be stabbing again before it goes out of date...

All my leftover drugs and sharps bin went back to the clinic when I was about ten weeks diffed. I used cotton wool in the same way that nurses do when stabbing you - on top of the needle when you remove it to keep the needle still and stop the skin dragging up with the needle. It was also nice to have something to press on the stab site other than just my fingers - made it much more comfortable. I also used it to soak up the excess drug liquid that squirted out when I was using syringes rather than pens - there wasn't much, but I liked to make sure everything was dry rather than the syringe getting slippery.

Okay, I'll keep washbag items on my list, then. Maybe you only get a bed bath if you've had a c section?

Yes when I had a normal exit birth I was expected to shower myself, they only do bed baths if you can't get up yet.

That's what I thought, Kat. Excellent :)

I had a bed bath immediately after the c section (9am), but I was sweaty and stinky after the past 72 hours. I got to shower myself that night (but not allowed to wash my hair for fear of fainting!) and each day following so definately take nice toiletries.

Yep. You'll get that for quite a while still :) Your uterus has to grow! I was probably about 18 weeks when that stopped, and now I'm just getting the odd stitch-like pain.

I miss pate too! I was happy with buttered toast right after laying, but the day after coming home we did have a platter of pregnancy unfriendly food, including brie, Camembert, pate and wine. I have been drinking wine in very strict moderation up till now but the last few times it has given me awful heartburn so that's another indulgence crossed off the list. Can't wait to enjoy some bubbly!

Hags, minisinks is a week old today and I'm really struggling. He's feeding constantly and is inconsolable if i try and put him down/get ghj to hold/remove nipple from mouth. I think I slept from 8pm to 11 ish last night, but was up the rest of the time and haven't managed to sleep at all today because minime hasn't. I'm in tears most of the time. What can I do? I'm not sure I can keep this up. I'm wondering if formula would be better?

Oh sinks :( The ESH who've already laid will have advice I'm sure, but from me in the meantime. I assume he's suckling to get your milk supply nice and high, so the constant won't last forever, but I'm no expert.

I'm not really missing any foods, to be honest. I like pate and soft cheese and rare steak, but none of them are regular parts of my diet so it's no big deal, really. I will probably have a nice glass of gin after laying, though!

I was in Boots doing holiday shopping day (yay!) and they had a big selection of mini products in ready for the holiday season, so those might be handy for those preparing hospital bags.

sinks that sounds tough. Can you manage to feed laying down so you can doze a bit?

I'm missing soft goats cheese. I'm lactose intolerant and goaty stuff has a lot less the the cow kind. However, almost all of it is unpasturised and I really miss it. We're planning on a trip to France next month and it is going to be temptation central! I'm having the very occasional glass of wine now, but I'm missing guilt-free drinking to that lovely point of relaxation.

Sinks I've had a few days like that and it does feel like the end of the world. Yes to lying down feeding, yes to mr sinks taking mini sinks out of earshot even for 15 mins (he won't starve) so you can nap. Ensure you eat and drink and know it won't carry on forever, I promise. MiniMerk did this and then the day after was in a more normal feeding pattern

The other thing I did was prop me in bed upright with arms and mini Merk fully supported on pillows (though my arms were still holding her) then she could feed and I could doze. VVTM laid next to us watching films on the iPad with the job of making sure we were both ok.