The 'Umm newbie'/ 'Thread maxed out' lovely ladies!

[mrshjb]

Hey everyone, as discussed here is our brand spanking new antenatal club thread! I thought I'd start with the stat's....

Kiki- due 23rd September
Weebairn- due 30th September
Binky- due 10th October
Misskgb- due 8th November
Ladymillion- due 11th November
Lolly- due 28th November
Chillychicken- due 10th December
mrshjb- due 28th January (awaiting confirmation of date from first scan)

Awaiting update:
mrsb87
Gennz

Hello!

Heeeeeey!! Thanks for sorting h!

So need your opinions ladies, your own or stories you've heard. Last couple of evenings around 8pm my tummy has gone really hard n feels like well, there just isn't enough room inside!

In the night I'm waking up in discomfort with all sorts of pains in my tummy. I can only describe it as my bump feels very heavy n is crushing other things inside. I do keep waking up on my back :-s (shouldn't do now I'm 16 weeks)

So-is this normal? How do I stop myself turning onto my back? I presume the pains are just a growth spurt n my skin stretching but need to try to manage it!!

Sorry to butt in but missk- could be braxton hicks? Makes your tummy feel really hard and 'odd'. Don't worry about rolling into your back. You'll move again before you do anything and I think it's later on it's problematic when the baby weighs more.

Hello, everyone!

misskgb - my tummy does this quite often, and as GingerRodgers has said to you, a few people have suggested Braxton hicks to me too. The general discomfort feeling has definitely changed as things have moved around - discomfort now is more when baby wriggles into a weird position, but I had a few weeks of being very uncomfortable at night. My pregnancy pillow has helped me enormously - I know a lot of people just use various stacked up pillows around them to ensure side-sleeping, but I swear by my BumpNest. It means that DH doesn't end up a million miles away, and most importantly it very quickly stopped from lying on my front (a habit that's pretty hard to get out of when you've been doing it for most of your 28 years...) and by having another part of the pillow behind me it stops me from ever fully rolling onto my back.

My tummy is starting to look like a scene from aliens with all the movement going on in there. It's fun, but it's genuinely still freaking me out when I get a big kick/roll over.

That sounds a little bit unpleasant misskgb, suppose it's just one of those things about growing a person in a reeeeeeaally small space! My sister told me yesterday that at one point she thought she had a water infection because she kept feeling like she needed a wee badly but couldn't go, but it turned out it was the baby sat on her bladder. Sounds like I have great times ahead!!

My question for the day is how do you stop yourself from worrying?! I was so excited at the start and so positive about it all, but now I'm finding myself worrying that the baby won't develop properly. I've looked at early scans but I don't think I'd have one until about 9-10 weeks if I did in case it's too soon to find a heartbeat and it makes me worry even more. Distraction is always best for me but it's hard with this because it's always on my mind!!

Mrs- it's totally normal to worry but can become a bit consuming. I've tried really hard this time to think, as long as I'm looking after myself there's not much else I can do. A bit 'whatever will be will be' type thing. There's literally nothing I can do to stop things happening as long as I'm not actually putting myself in harms way. Agree that distraction is the way forward! Write lots of lists and get started on some new projects!

misskgb definitely sounds like braxton hicks, I get a lot too, especially after sex (sorry if TMI!) I don't remember them this early last time round. I also have a pregnancy pillow which I snuggle into and find really comfy. They're good for breastfeeding in the early days too, if you're planning to!

Och helen the early days are HARD. Most likely soon you will get lots of symptoms and you can focus on whinging about them rather than worrying! But it is really hard not to analyse every hour and every day for the first few weeks. What will be will be - there's so little you could do to influence it for all our worrying - I guess distraction is best, but it's hard.
I find it hard because I didn't tell many people so I kind of avoided lots of my friends initially. I did talk to my mum a lot though, and my brothers once I'd told them, and DP. Have you told anyone or are you planning to?

I am 22 weeks now and finally beginning to look like I have a bump rather than just a bit bigger, I think. Have dug out my maternity gear and wearing it without shame now, anyway! I am telling people (including work) quite openly now. I have managed to get signed off night shifts so that's a HUGE relief, was really struggling with them. I am still doing the 13 hour on call shifts, but only daytime ones.

I have a repeat scan on Wednesday 8.00 just to look at the heart because baby wouldn't get in the right position last time. I think it's the first scan I've not been nervous about! Lots and lots of kicks - DP can feel them too now :)

Toddler is being a complete monkey and really testing my patience. Hope she is out of this phase soon! So many tantrums!

Possibly something no one here will really understand (and don't want to put anyone off - I never ever thought I would feed for that long, it just sort of happened!!) but toddler stopped breastfeeding a couple of weeks ago (your milk dries up during pregnancy often) and I've been really sad about it. It was only once a day or every other day but it was a real connection between us. What with that and tiredness and pregnancy hormones I've been crying a lot - my work can be a bit intense and I have a big exam coming up too - too much to juggle recently. Anyway, hopefully I will feel a bit better soon. Is it wrong to dream of mat leave already ????

Ah weebairn, I know exactly how you feel wrt bf. dd(2) just finished about a month ago (I'm 25 weeks) and it really upset me. She's been really positive about it saying the milk is getting ready for the baby now so she doesn't need it
It was getting so painful and my supply must have really dropped but she's taken it all in her stride and made me so proud. I keep trying to think about how much good I've done her and the amazing bond it's given us- stopping now won't change that! Try and see the positives, you've done amazingly to get this far and it'll give you a little break before the next one comes.

Thanks gingerrodgers, that's a lovely thing to say. DP is being really sweet too, saying how well I've done. I was very lucky and didn't find breastfeeding that hard initially, but it was quite challenging going back to work with night shifts etc.

That's lovely what your daughter said. How old is she? Mine is 20 months so I don't think she really understands, she asks sometimes but if I let her she just cries, presumably because the milk is gone. So I've stopped letting her because it was too upsetting! But maybe she will forget soon enough.

She just turned two last week. She's been saying for a while "no milk mummy? All gone?" Then I explained it was getting ready for the baby coming and she sort of just accepted it? We had one lot of tears which didn't last long and she asks to 'try' every now and then but we talk about the baby having milk and how she's a big girl. She studies my boob intensely and declares "all gone now!" So I hope she understands. Just don't want her to feel jealous when the new baby feeds.

Hi all, thanks H for the lovely thread :)

Misskgb it could just be stretching pains. I find that every few nights I feel like my tummy is going to explode it feels so tight and is rock hard. The next day or so it goes a bit wobbly but has grown a little bit more (I'm now up to 43cm round the biggest bit )

I've just bought a V-pillow from Ikea and have one bit along my back and the other pointy bit between my knees which seems to be helping my lower back and hip pain. It's also stopped me rolling onto my back. I didn't use it last night as I passed out before my head hit the pillow, then woke up nearly every hour on my back!

H I would love to find a cure for worrying! I've been really quite laid back mostly, but every now again I have a complete freak out/ melt down about everything from thinking things aren't ok in there, to not being able to cope with labour to worrying about getting our huge pram up the stairs in our new flat! It always seems to come into my mind just as I'm going to sleep too so end up laid in bed while DH snores away.

I was hoping to start pre-natal yoga classes this week, but it's a 50 mile round trip, they don;t start until 7pm and are 90 minutes long so I'm going to book in for the NHS hypnobirthing classes at my local Midwife unit instead.

Hey everyone!

Hope you are all ok!!

H the worrying thing was and kinda is still driving me round the bend. The thing that helped me through the time before scan was, if I'm not bleeding or cramping bad there can't be much wrong. I know there is MMCs and thought if that happens you can't help it no matter if you have an early scan or not. I think having a scan at 12 weeks is best time as it is when you are out of high risk. I have read people have early scans and then come to 12 scans and not good. It's defo your choice sorry if this sounds a bit too straight to the point.

Great to have a new thread xxx

H I had an early scan at 6 weeks as I had bleeding and cramping so I was rushed in as an emergency. There was just a little flickering dot and not much else... it was kind of reassuring that we saw a heartbeat but I'm not sure I would have paid to go and have an early scan. Not sure if that helps or not!

BTW- having tons of flutters today. I think little Tafpole (our nickname that stuck due to a typo in at text message to my mum!) like Coke and Magnums- such a healthy diet :)

Hey everyone. Thanks for the advice. I've been thinking about it today and doing a bit of research into local scan places and I think I've concluded it's not really worth it and if I was going to pay for a scan, I would much rather have the 4d gender scan later down the line. It's 100 quid for an early scan and like you've all said it's not guaranteed that you will see anything. I also spoke to my Mum and she thinks having an early scan is a complete waste of money (she's rather blunt!). She said I've got positive pregnancy tests so that means I'm pregnant until further notice! I think that's the beauty of being from the pre google generations!

I'm worse for worrying first thing in a morning when I'm just laid there. Plus I've had a long weekend off work so I think it's been easier to obsess. Hopefully I'll feel better when I go back to work and have some distractions.

I didn't realise you had an early scare binky. Did they find out what had caused it? The same thing happened to my sister at 7 weeks but everything was fine with the baby. Tafpole made me laugh!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday weekend :)

I like Tafpole. Mine is called wolfie / the wolf cub :)

I didn't have a scan till gone 12 weeks. It felt like a long time, but I'm not sure early scans stop you worrying very much. On mumsnet it can seem like things like missed miscarriages are very common, but in reality, if you get to 12 weeks without bleeding or severe pain, the chances are overwhelmingly in your favour that everything is ok. It is a long wait though! Would love to be one of those women who accidentally find out when they're 20 weeks or something! (how???)

H they didn't find anything, they thought there might have been a little cyst on my ovary but it didn't show up at the 12 week scan so the general thought it was just a bit of blood left over from implantation and the cramps were just general growing pains. I've had more bits of bleeding until about week 12 and lots of cramps/ pains etc.

weebairn how did you get to the nickname wolfie? That's so cute!

I too would like to have found out a bit later in a way. 9 months is an awful long time and it would be great to miss the first 12 weeks of worry, sickness and all I had!

A girl where I work gave birth without knowing she was pregnant. She's a swim teacher and her belly is so flat it's actually concave. I honestly do not know how she managed to grow a healthy sized baby without developing a bump or having any symptoms. She literally went to the loo in the night and she was in labour!

I forgot it was bank holiday, we don't really have them where I work so it's just another normal day for us :(

weebairn yeah life would be so much easier if you didn't know for longer! I had a friend who that happened to but retrospectively all the signs were there. She was ridiculously tired and constipated etc. She was 19 weeks when she found out! Haha wolfie/ the wolf cub is funny!

binky that's what they said to my sister as well. Did you have implantation bleeding when AF was due? It's mental for people to give birth without knowing that they are pregnant, where does the baby lie?! That happened to someone my sister knows, she kept taking tests and they came up negative, then she finally got a positive and went in to labour that night with a full term baby, how mad is that! Imagine phoning work and saying you can't come in for the next year or so because you've had a baby! Bet they wouldn't believe you at first!

Rubbish about not getting bank holidays off. Feels like we've had loads recently! I'm quite glad to be back in work today and have a distraction though!

hi all. Thanks for the advice. Typically since writing about my hard bump, it's gone away and I now too have a flabby belly!! haha! I do feel bigger since it and DH has noticed the growth too so it must have just been stretching.

My sister has given me her V pillow which I've put under bump and between my legs. It keeps me in that position for most of the night and I've had two fantastic nights sleep for it!! I do wake up around 6-7am wanting to flip onto my tummy flat tho, or on my right or even my back. I allow myself a bit of room to flip for that last hour!! It's great!!

Went shopping at the weekend and have now bought the cot. DH won't let us pick it up until late June though, and even then he's saying we won't be able to build it straight away. I have time to change his mind! I think he wants to stop me from doing everything too early which I can understand. He's trying to help pick baby names, ready lists out of the baby name book each night. I love that he's so keen about that!!

H- the worry doesn't stop even after a scan/several scans. Now that the hardness has gone from my bump, apart from the size of my tummy, I've had not other pg symptoms for the last two days. I'm dying for rice krispie to kick me (and felt something yesterday but am not sure!) so that I know everything is OK in there!!!

V pillow sounds very practical! Hopefully it should be too long now until you start feeling some definite kicks misskgb! Nice that DH is getting excited about names :)

All seems to be well here. Boobs are getting a bit more sensitive and I'm thirsty all the time. Did anyone else notice that?!

Left a message with the midwives on Friday but they've still not got back to me yet. Apparently they are in the office between 8.30 and 9.30 every morning, but no one answered when I rung at that time. Hoping they get back to me soon so I'll have something to count down too!!

22 weeks, looks like baby is smoking a spliff, haha.
All well.
Gender still a surprise.

Ha ha weebairn brilliant photo and definitely looks like a stoner

Ha! That's brilliant, weebairn!

Typical DH is away this week and I felt kicks on the outside for the first time! Feels slightly strange and very real I'm growing a tiny human being in there!!!

Haha great photo weebairn, it's so exciting seeing a scan photo :)

Aww shame for DH to miss it binky but very exciting nonetheless!!

How is everyone else?