It's all balls, bicycles, and babies for the PESH!

[maamalady]

Antenatal fred 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
Frankel - large pink one arrived 10th March 2014
Merks - pink one landed safe and sound 21st March 2014
Sinky - Stubborn blue one arrived 26th March 2014
Driz - blue one arrived 12th June 2014
Kat - pink one arrived 21st June 2014

PESH

Draf - Expecting a late pink one EDD 19th June
Winks - EDD 26th June
Ginger - Miniginger due 13th August
Dor - A very special pink one expected 18th August
Euro - eager Centime expected to arrive a lot sooner than 28th August
Buggerlugs - Buglet due 20th October
Fankle - ESHlet expected 4th January
Cunty - Minichops expected 7th February

So the June cluster is halfway through laying, and then we're on to the July/August batch! Are we even going to have time for Wimbledon and Le Tour and the World Cup in all this excitement?!

Sleep is definitely amazing! E is going through the 4 month sleep regression and I was starting to feel like a zombie, but last night she "only" woke up 3 times (I think!) and slept till 7.45, so I got a good few hours under my belt. I feel like a new woman

Sleep is awesome. Little kitty had an expressed bottle last night so i slept from 10 to 4 and feel amazing now :) mr k knows i am shit without sleep and he is really being brilliant

Also a stalker but Evil's friend with the 26 weeker :) There is a Ronald McDonald house at the hospital which loads of nicu parents use. There are a few hospitals right over the road (my ILs lived there for a couple of weeks, perfectly fine they said). And there is a psych/counsellor attached to the Unit who is available to speak to parents, she helped us a lot. Plus, since we praying to anything and anyone at the time we also found the chaplains and priest who come round a lot more helpful than we expected.
Crappy time for you both but you'll come through it and it'll be barely a blip in the rearview mirror before you know it. Trite but true.

I am struggling today. All the gifts and cards are wonderful but mean I am being buried in an avalanche of Stuff. The baby is dirty - left her nappy off for a bit and she peed on herself twice, pood herself once, sicked on herself once. I dropped toast crumbs on her head trying to eat something as I fed her. She badly needs a bath. I wanted to try her in the sling today but even that seems overly ambitious!

Winks I found it tough initially. Why don't you and baby have a bath together? Get Mr Winks (sorry forgot the TLA) to pile all the stuff out of the way for now. You can deal with it later.

Well done on the shopping bugs. What did you get?

I'm not allowed baths at the moment, infection risk. HWCA is being fab, he's been to tesco, fed me, washed up, done laundry and watched baby while I had a very quick shower.

Winks the first few weeks are tough, I know I seemed to cry several times a day to start with! It's a matter of finding a little routine of your own and, in my case, coming to the realisation that the baby won't come to any harm if you pop her in the bouncy chair for ten minutes while you have a shower, and if she cries, she'll live!

Go easy on yourself and let other people take up the slack for now. Just remember, a bit of dust/dirty dishes never killed anyone

Winks, it took me 2 weeks to pluck up the courage to bath R, my house is horrible (I'm shedding hair and never seem to get a chance to hoover, so my carpet is minging), and I haven't blow dried my hair/worn a scrap of make up/coloured my roots yet. Yet I'm ok with all of it (R now gets bathed though!). You need do nothing but feed yourself and baby and heal. Anything else is unnecessary or someone else's job.

Oh, and I cried a lot. Because it was evening/nighttime, because my boobs hurt, but mainly a "what the fuck have I done" cry. Think week 2-3 was the worst for that. But it lifts and you forget what the problem was. Honest.

winks that sounds like a tough day. Is mr winks around?

AFM, we had another scan today. The blood flow isn't improving, so the plan is to get the baby out as soon as there's a NICU cot available. In one way I want the limbo to be over, but I really wish I could have gone on a bit longer (am 33+2 today). sinks I sympathise with the "what have I done" notion. If I could turn the clock back and get a puppy instead, I would. I just don't want any of this.

Oh euro I'm sorry you've not been able to get further along. Did they say how quickly a cot is likely to become available? I'm here to clutch your hand and offer hair strokes.

euro

The calf has not been bathed yet - we're leaving it until the cord drops off and just sponge bathing her in the meantime. She seems clean enough My crying has mostly been linked to breastfeeding - either because my nipples still hurt or because the calf is screaming due to hunger or because the calf is screaming due to frustration as my enormo-boobs drown her in milk. Glad that HWCA is looking after you both, winks - I'd have been in pieces a long time ago if it wasn't for HOTB providing food, drink, clean laundry, and an endless supply of hugs and encouragement :)

Oh euro, I'll cling to an ankle. 33+2 is brilliant compared to how it all looked at 28 weeks and perhaps being able to deal with the situation instead of just waiting and waiting will be less awful for you. Massive hugs.

Things settled down here btw, baby even got bathed (then peed on the towel when I lifted her out). Thanks all.

Winks have some hugs, the early weeks are really hard
Euro I will be gripping a toe. It will be fine

Winks, I read a daily motto here on MN and I think it perfectly sums up how things should be in the first few weeks months:

"Everybody fed. Nobody dead."

That's a motto to live by frank - you're full of advice today!

Euro - I'll hold on to your earlobe whilst flashing my near invisible section scar in a show of TMI support.

Winks glad all is a bit better. It's all peaks and troughs in the first few, er, weeks (and by weeks I mean still is at almost 4 months), but the peaks get higher and the lows shorter and less upsetting.

Winks I hated the first few months weeks. But it really does get easier. I cried every day too. It's just so bloody overwhelming isn't it.

Oh Euro. Thinking about you lots.

Thanks all. It's just a bit overwhelming. I've spent most of the day crying, again. I've put off calling my parents all week as talking about it sets me off, but they called me a couple of hours ago. i told them what was going on. I cried. They said goodbye. I don't think they knew what to do. We're generally quite a private unemotive lot, so as a teenager if I cried I would do it in private. So on that basis, they probably haven't heard me sob since I was about 12 and have no idea how to handle it now I am 38. I get the feeling they might not be a lot of help on the emotional side... Luckily KFZK is quite good on that front.

That's a good motto frank.

We're here too euro, maybe not physically but we're here to try and offer words of comfort/wisdom, or if you just need a place to sound off.

Oh I am sorry about all the tough days. Ankle hold for euro, it's so difficult. I just hope centime will thrive once s/he is here. And I saw great advice about practicalities.

The what have I done and emotional turmoil I recognise. I found ands find things much tougher than expected. Partly related to bv issues. But also the rest. Some days I just wept in pjs. But the highs are increasing (and we managed an emergency bath after a poonami yesterday).

Support is hugely important, my mum has done loads and looked after lembie for an hour or so twice: leaving the flat sans baby. Also good for sanity.

Loving the motto, will live by it!

Gripping a toe euro

I just got really upset. Spent ages lying in the bath crying.

All because The Little Mister has been trying to Grandma today to my MIL. I am so resentful at times that he won't be bale to call my Mum that. It even pisses me off that they both wanted to be called Grandma and she won't be Granny or Nana or something.

I am sure I will be ok but I am hormonal and feeling fucking enormous. I saw a photo of myself today where I just looked huge and it really upset me.

Oh Dor I'm sorry, of course things like that are going to remind you of your mum. Have you spoken to the Mister about how you are feeling?
As for feeling huge, I've seen photos of you and you are by no means huge. It can be hard watching our bodies expand when we are constantly bombarded with the "perfect ideal" of being skinny. The way I looked at it was my body was doing something amazing, growing a new life, and tried not to focus on the expanding thighs/bum etc!

euro how are you doing today?