October 2014 - thread 5. Bigger bumps!

[Kirstipops]

Kirstipops dc1 Edd 27th Sept
sazzlehopes dc2 27th sept
MundayCakes85 EDD 28th Sept
MrsBadCrumble74 DC2 EDD 28th September
Mrsb87 Dc1 Edd 29th Sept
hefner DC2 EDD 29th Sept
Gunwalloe DC5 Edd 30th Sept
CaptainMcgraw DC2 EDD 30th September
Bumpbangbump DC2 EDD 2nd Oct
Porcito DC1 EDD 3rd October
TroubleAndFyfe DC2 EDD 4th Oct
Georgebythesea DC1 EDD 4th Oct
CellyD DC2 EDD 6 Oct
FlipFantasia DC3 Edd 7 Oct
Cabster DC2 EDD 8 Oct
Binkybunny Dc1 Edd 10th Oct
Claptomania DC1 EDD 10th Oct
Fedupofrainydays, DC2, EDD 10th Oct
Me23 Dc3 Edd 11th Oct
MrsDinoRawr DC1 Edd 11th October
Bumpforme2014 DC1 EDD 11th Oct
PunkyBubba DC2 EDD 12th Oct
Kittylou1 Dc1 Edd 12th Oct
Binglesplodge DC1 EDD 14th Oct
Happytimes31 Dc1 Edd 15th Oct
Pebble82 DC1 EDD 14th Oct
Mrsthedog DC1 EDD 16th Oct (puppythedog also lurking about the thread)
Grannyapple DC3 EDD 16th Oct
ExcitedCJ DC2 EDD 18th Oct
Loulou888 DC3 Edd 20th Oct
FrauEnglischLehrerin DC2 edd 22nd Oct
Stigz DC2 EDD 23rd Oct
NotInyourNature DC2 EDD 24th Oct
Robindeer, DC1 EDD 26th Oct
Matildasmam22 DC3 EDD 27th Oct

Thanks ladies :) I already have two of each so wasn't to bothered either way but now I know for sure im really pleased.

I asked her if the placenta was clear of my scar and she said it was nice and high so I cant see it being a problem with my cs

I hope I still get to feel the baby moving its one of the things I love about being pregnant, funny thing is im sure ive felt her kick already.

Whooop gunwalloe congrats on your little girl and accurate prediction! I have an anterior placenta too, wondering how much that will delay feeling any movements?

You will gun just a bit more cushioning there that's all until baby grows bigger

I think I feel it now, is it like muscle spasm just above public bone?

Also gun you already know what movements feel like so you may well have :) with dd I suppose when it's your first it takes a little longer to realise if it is baby or wind lol. It doesn't delay much kirstipops just may make it a little harder to start with to recognise movement

Could well be bump I remember lying in bed feeling a flutter in that area

bump that's it! I started off with those...almost like a little tap dance right above the pubic bone. I still get those most days and now in addition I get more pronounced but very light pokes higer up around the belky button level

Belly not belky!

Thanks Loulou! Very reassuring that your asthma gives you no trouble.

Awww Gun congrats on team pink! How exciting.

Sounds good Magic, apart from the moron on reception.

Wow, movement! I'm not getting anything like that yet (first baby) but it is very exciting to hear about it.

We've had lovely response from friends we've told this eve and then dp showed me a teddy bear he wants to buy the baby. I melted! Am a big ball of mush now and feeling very happy.

Yay.. Just had a baby bond scan this evening & my wee bundle is doing well. Crazy that I had to pay for a scan to give me info that I should have seen at 12 week scan.
Placenta posterior & healthy, nice straight spine & all limbs visible, kicking away like a good one! :) They also sneakily had a wee look to confirm what I knew about the sex. Fantastic.
I still feel nauseous at 14+4 & as a consequence I've only gained 1lb, with DD I think I had gained at least 7 or 8 lbs by now.

Loving hearing about the scans! Great to hear people finding out the gender - still looking forward to our surprise though!

I've put on about 6 pounds. But my bump has really popped out in the last week. I'm 16 weeks today and have finally given in to some maternity clothes. In fact am doing a gap shop as I type since there's a sale and I liked gap stuff with my last two (I gave away most of my maternity stuff when we moved to the US). Though I won't be in an office this time and will have a super hot summer to get through so some different choices to make!

Had my 16 week check today and had my 2 & 4 year olds with me. They were great, and delighted to hear the heartbeat and see the midwife dip my urine (my 4 year old: mummy why are you weeing in a cup? That's so silly, we don't drink wee wee!). Only 4 weeks until my 20 week scan. Can't wait!

I like Gap stuff as well, although their "skinny" jeans are most definitely not skinny! I'm just hanging out for a 30% off week to stock up for the rest of my pregnancy now and hoping that all the decent summer stuff doesn't sell out!

Good news about your scan Excited.

Just did yoga this morning and it was lovely! I didn't realise how much I was slouching and stiff.
My core strength is also shot to pieces but it was very very gentle exercise and I think did me some good.
Will try and do it at least once a week from now...

Glad to see everyone's bump growing :) I still am squeezing into my normal clothes but I think this will be my last week and will have to give in.
As for work, before you make your decision about leaving your job, stay at home for awhile. Some people love it and some people find they need more stimulation.
The other problem is that I think is really unfair is if you do take a few years out it can sometimes be tricky to get back into your chosen role as you have "taken a break" from your career.
I personally stayed at home for 12 months and loved every bit of it but honestly I was really happy to go back to work. I also didn't really have the option of working part-time but I do work 8:30-4 so I drop DD off at nursery first thing but I pick her up shortly after 5.
Also DD LOVES nursery. They do waterplay, painting, cornflower play, go to the park, have a new outdoor space to play in and tonnes more. She also eats a better lunch then I do!! We pay a small fortune for it but she really enjoys the time she is there.
I know some people may not agree and I completely understand as some of my friends ended up staying at home full time for their own reasons but its just another way to look at things and everyone has to make the choice for themselves.

Cherie I agree with you there. I think it is such a personal decision and one you really don't know how you will feel about until you try it out. I found that my mental health started to suffer being a SAHM - I really wasn't stimulated enough and lost a sense of identity. I ideally wanted to go back to work 3-4 days but I now have a 5 day a week job and I am so much happier working than not. Yes I spend less time with DD but the time I do spend with her is so much more quality and nursery provide her with so many activities and social skills that I can't. I agree though that if you do want to be a SAHM for a long time it absolutely sucks that it impacts on your career so much.

Here's my 18+5 bump :)
Have today off work as my kitten is being spayed so I'm sitting watching the clock til I can go pick her up, feeling slightly guilty leaving her with strangers, I hope I'm not as silly a mother! Reading yesterday about the prospect of having to either pay back occupational maternity leave or return to work for 13 weeks notice was a bit of a shock, I still haven't decided what I'm doing yet and was going to wait til I've been on maternity leave a good while, eep. I work in the public sector so I imagine they'll try to recoup any time or money they can back from me!
All but one of my friends who are mums would have preferred to be SAHMs, will be interesting to see which side of the fence I'll be.

Love seeing all your bumps! I need to do a pic - my bump is way huge at almost 18 weeks! And congrats to those having scans to find out the sex!

Kirstipops we are due date buddies yes? 27th sept...but I am only 17 + 5 today, how does that work??!! I've never been great at working out all this stuff!
Also I haven't felt baby move yet - although last time i didn't feel anything until 22 weeks! So those first time pregnant peeps don't worry too much yet!

So I don't know whether to find out the sex or not at my scan. My ds is 3 and a half and a really sweet boy and I think I'd like to take him to the scan so he can ask... We didn't find out with him what we were having, and I was adamant that i wasn't going to find out this time either, but i'm getting more and more tempted by the day! What shall I do?!!!

You're quite right Sazzle, was getting ahead of myself!

Sazzle - dd (age 4) was present when dh scanned me at 8 weeks and was totally freaked out. It was in a darkened hotel conference room and after her bedtime and a completely spontaneous decision, so she might have been better if we'd prepared her for it, but I could barely look at the screen because I was busy reassuring dd. So I would recommend maybe role-playing the ultrasound with him beforehand and/or taking some 100% guaranteed distraction with you.

The other thing you might want to bear in mind is that you might get freaked out at a 20 week scan if something measures slightly wrong or the sonographer suggests there's something that needs monitoring, say. At my 12 week scan the dr said that some blood vessels supplying my uterus hadn't fully widened and that although that was fine at 12 weeks, it would be important to check again at 20 weeks as the same measurement at 20 weeks would be worrying. If I'd only been half listening because I was occupied by dd chatting away, then I might have gone home and worked myself up into a proper google panic.

Well, I had a whole morning at the hospital today. Slightly odd that they book you 8.40am appointments, when the admin staff don't even start until 8.45am, and all clinical staff were in a meeting until 9.15am!

Anyway, it was a sort of combined 16 week midwife appointment and first consultant appointment. Everything is fine, heard the heartbeat for about 5 seconds, after which it kept moving away from the Doppler thing. Apparently it was also kicking, but I can't feel anything yet.

Due to being 40 and my DVT history, I have ended up with loads of appointments for other testing. For a start today they took what felt like a few litres of blood for various things. Got the 20 week normal scan, then a 23 week Doppler scan for blood flow, then a 24 week (annoying) diabetes test thing, then another 28 week scan thing too. These are all consultant related, so I have no idea when I'm next going to see a midwife. I still don't have the Bounty pack thing, which I sort of want now. Sitting in a waiting room with loads of pregnant women actually made me realise I'm pregnant - had a minor panic that I don't know anything about babies.

Also left with a cocktail of drugs - need the heparin, and a baby aspirin and a folic acid, and a calcium with vitamin D apparently.

Feel a bit like a medical experiment. Am already thinking that I can't wait for all this medical crap to be over so we can just get on with having a baby.

sazzle i took my dd age 4 to my 12 week scan, she was great up until a certain point then said she was bored!

There was a student with sonogropher so the scan took about 25 minutes which is a long time to sit and be quiet for a 4 year old

The sonogropher at the the end said " your 20 week will be more detailed and much longer so maybe leave dd at home next time" !! ... Dont know wether that was quite cheeky of her as she wasnt badly behaved at all ?? Or it was general advice that dd would be better at home for her own good

Maybe take a friend with you that can take ds outside when he gets fed up!!

The going back to work vs staying at home is definitely one to think about, keep an open mind about.

I took the full year with DS and then went back to a condensed week of 4 longer days, working 8-5 with a 45 min lunch break. I loved that balance and, while dreading the actual return, really enjoyed being at work.

I moved to the US while on maternity leave with DD and subsequently left my job. I have found the shift to SAHM much harder than I expected and I love being with my kids. But the relentless nature of it makes it harder than working IMO. Eg by being home all day it generates more work of cooking/cleaning. So the house is always a bit of a tip! And time alone/adult conversation or, god forbid, going to the toilet with the door closed have had an impact on my mental health at times (though we also moved 3 times, including a transatlantic one, so left all my close friends, plus doing a tonne of DIY on the we bought - these things also impacted on me!). Plus I hadn't realised quite how much of my identity I had tied to working (I always worked at cool media companies and missed feeling a part of news/industry things).

But over here I'd be looking at 7am-7pm days (once the commute to NYC is factored in) and getting 10 days of holiday a year plus returning to work when the baby was 6 weeks old (I know people who went back to work at 4 weeks and 'lucky' ones who went back at 10-12 weeks ). This just isn't an option when DH already works 60-70 hour weeks. The kids would never see their parents. So I'm happy to take the career hit and figure something out once the kids are older.

But if we had stayed in the UK I would have stayed working and been happy with my flexible arrangement.

Personally after having a "scare" at 20 week scan with dd followed by further scans, tests and finally a cvs and again by being there hours with ds as he was not playing ball and I had to keep going off for a walk I wouldn't take a little one it can be a long time did them and if something further is needed can be quite upsetting. Fingers crossed I get a straightforward 20 week scan this time around.

Another option, which I will be looking at in a few years, would be a career change. I have worked in sales and marketing for the last 10 years which I love, but have always wanted to go in teaching (didn't get the A-level grades to get on the degree course I wanted!)

I'm going to use the next 5-6 years to study for a relevant degree and postgrad to (hopefully) qualify as a teacher then once LO is settled at school I'll look at making the career change.

In a year or so I am hoping to get some voluntary work a few mornings a weeks as a classroom assistant to let LO go into nursery and me to get work experience and some adult conversation! I have done a term as a voluntary classroom assistant at the local private school and loved it but have been advised to get experience at a state school too.

I don't know about anyone else but my boobs seem to be expanding at a disproportinate & alarming rate! I have gone from 32 DD to 32F to now 34G, what is happening? I could give Jordan a good run for her money today!