January 2015 #7: Glowing & growing? Rock on 2nd trimester!

[rumisyum]

Onwards into the 2nd trimester, where hopefully the bumps will overtake the poo factories!

Stats here.

That is v annoying Dec!! They'll soon regret messing with you

My back is killing. And my old lady cat has been out all night and not comet back this morning

16+6

Morning all!

Ugh, how incredibly frustrating for you Decmummy. Unleash the beast that is preggo rage on the buggers. I hope you get it all sorted asap.

I'm sorry to hear about your mum Pru. Hope the GP can offer useful advice.

I'm slightly embarrassed to talk about my preggo library as I've gone a bit nuts, but another vote from me for Expecting Better aka the sensible pregnancy bible, and The Good Birth Companion looks wonderful on an initial glance through. Other ones I really like are First Time Parent by Lucy Atkins, Birth and Beyond by Yehudi Gordon, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and Blooming Birth by Lucy Atkins and Julia Guderian. And there lots of recommendations for The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding earlier on, so I got that too, but haven't read it yet. That's all for now.

Restful day for me today (probably reading, ha!). I woke up this morning feeling absolutely knackered after a busy week. Time to recoup. And I weighed myself this morning and I've put on 3 lbs in a week! I'm almost sure very little of that has gone to my arse, so it must be mostly bump?! I guess that's in keeping with my feeling that it sort of "popped" this week - guess the little one had a bit of a growth spurt!

Ooh books. Cams - I probably do have the American version... d'oh! Oh well. Will persevere.

I had a look at a sample of Womanly Art of Breastfeeding Rum. Loved the idea of it in principle but it seemed terribly preachy... does it get better??

Rpopz I read the intro bit and was also a bit taken aback at it's rather bossy tone! But the meat of the book looks really useful. I plan to save it for a bit later when I might stand a chance of actually remembering some of the info by the time baby arrives.

I'm not a fan of What to Expect, but I guess that's why there are so many of these books, because we're all different! I have a bit of a love for the hippy-ish, which I know others really don't get on with.

Oh, that's good to hear that it was useful Mad!

I can also vouch for The Womanly Art of BF. In parts I found it a bit annoying, for example topping up with formula has saved many a friends bacon when getting bf established and in the book it is frowned on. I do understand the logic about the dangers of topping up in some women leading to less bf, but sometimes it is done to help lead to more breastfeeding. And the bit about any amount of formula stripping the baby's gut of good bacteria made me feel sick. Talk about guilt trip. If I was reading that as a first time mum I'd resolve to never let a drop past their lips which then leads to huge guilt if they recommend your baby has some in hospital or in subsequent days. But as with any advice you should take on board the bits that sit right with you and ignore the rest. It won't stop me topping up or even having a couple of formula days whilst we sort out the latch this time. Its not black and white, as it seems in bf books/ nhs advice, there are many shades of grey, so my only tip is dont beat yourself up like I did, and soldier on like I couldn't.

I also really liked gina ford contented baby with ds1. She is criticised for being bossy but I actually found her advice reassuring and helpful. She always says feed on demand until baby has regained birth weight, she gives tips to troubleshoot sleep and behaviour issues inc growth spurts and how to increase milk supply, and she still says feed if the baby is hungry, regardless of the routine she recommends, which we did sometimes. It helped us have a routine from a couple of weeks old, although we had to adapt it from bf to ff which took a while for us to work out as it is bf focused.

It stopped us wasting formula and helped ds1 sleep through when he was a few weeks old and gain weight beautifully tracking his centile. If you like to be in control in normal life, I would recommend giving it a read. Interestingly, mums I know who did baby led, end up in the same routine eventually, which shows how natural the routine times are. Its just if you do a routine, you get that much much sooner which can help some parents keep their sanity and have some predicitability (never complete!) from day to day.

We will give it a try with bf on Gina Ford and see how we get on. I'm not militant about it but it helped us a lot in the early months with ds1 so there is definitely some truth in it.

Morning all. Again didn't wake up until 9am! Oh the joys of having a DS who is a tween on summer holidays. I'm feeling painfully board and fed up with this whole taking it easy / lots and lots and lots of rest thing. I work for myself and from home for the most part so would love to use this as an opportunity to do paper work or work on my website for example. But I'm just so uncomfortable all the time I can't sit still for longer than about 5mins without having to spend another 5mins rearranging 10 pillows and cushions to get even vaguely comfortable again. DS has had a good weeks worth or more of 'technology time' (3DS, Laptop etc...) just over the last couple of days as I can't take him anywhere and I'm not up to friends coming over etc... I can see that being a bit of a steady patten for the next week or so. :( Of course I'm stupidly grateful and happy that I came home from the hospital with baby still inside me and with everything having gone as well as possible but I can't help feeling really cranky and down right now. Really need to snap out of this.

Re books - I also loved about 99% ofThe Womanly Art of BF when I had DS but have the same issue with it as Mini. Almost every bf book or course I have been on have been the same... I would love it if all of these sort of things would start by saying something like. Hey all BF is wonderful and amazing and great for you and baby But some women just can't do it or need a little help from formula for what ever reason and thats just life you'll be fine and baby will be fine and you'll still bond and love each other and baby isn't going to spend the rest of his/her life sick or underachieving etc... and most of all using formula doesn't make you a bad mother. When I had DS he was an emergency c-section and then got quite bad jaundice and for lots of reasons I got no sleep. On day 3 in the end I gave in and agreed to nap the whole time a when I my aunt was visiting us at the hospital. She thought it was a good idea not to wake me when she left as did the MW who also thought it would be a great idea to take DS off and give him a bottle. When I woke up to find 1 he wasn't there and then 2mins later he was with the MW being given a bottle I cried for about 3 hours. It totally broke my heart as had had it drummed into me from books and BF courses and groups that formula was evil. After that no matter what I did DS wouldn't settle in the morning without a bottle of formula. It took me a long time not to feel really guilty about that.

Any how, a dear friend has just sent me a copy of Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik who use to be Blossom and is on The Big Bang Theory. It's an Attachment Parenting book. With DS if I was to say I followed any particular way of parenting it was Attachment Parenting and I really loved it. Quite looking forward to reading this if I can stay comfortable enough to get past the first two pages.

loving the book chat ladies! That breastfeeding one and the ina may gaskin one is on my amazon wishlist, its payday today so I may just treat myself :)

I'm not a massive fan of what to expect either, I just read the weekly bit out to DH so he knows whats going on in there!

18 weeks today! Which according to what to expect is the start of the fifth month where has the time gone ?!!

Thanks everyone... perhaps will preservere with WAOBF then! The initial tone is very much "breastfeeding is best, why wouldn't you do it, if you can't do it you're just not trying hard enough!" Kind of irritatated me.

I'm veering towards attachment parenting K8. My parents (especially my mother) were quite cold and unaffectionate... so I guess its a knee jerk reaction.

Hello January antenatalers,

Hope you don't mind us barging in like this, but in case you hadn't seen, we wanted to flag up Mumsnet's inaugural Bumpfest on September 27.

It's our one-day event all about birth and your baby's first 6 months. It's going to be packed with talks, workshops and activities to prepare you for becoming a parent - and, we like to think, also useful for those who've done it before but fancy a refresher. 'No fluff, no guff - just the facts you need from those in the know', as our tagline has it .

(Plus we've got speakers on attachment parenting, routines, breast and formula feeding...)

We'd love to get some of you along (it is in London so apologies to those for whom that's too much of a trek) and can offer a group discount of one-third off the ticket price for bookings of three or more tickets (chance for a meet-up? ).

If you take advantage of Early Bird offer too and book before August 2, that means tickets for £43.55 per person - a price that includes lunch, drinks and snacks (all guaranteed pregnancy-appropriate) PLUS a goody bag filled with swag worth more than the reduced ticket price.

If you fancy it, one person needs to book the tickets (in groups of three or more: you'll need the names & email addresses of those in your group) and enter the discount code BumpGroup in the promo code link.

The BumpGroup promo will continue to apply (one-third off!) but remember that the Early Bird offer runs out on August 2.

Here endeth the promotional message. Thanks for listening and hope you see you there - and very best of luck to everyone.

Thanks
MNHQ

Thanks all :) oooohhhh Cheshire, I may be needing some advice!! Did you manage to get a good deal (I arrives/money off/ price for yours) to be honest I'm pretty impressed with what we ace managed to negotiate but am just infuriated they have dropped the other one. Poor lady in sales didn't even know they had been dropped!! I had words... Waiting to hear back now!
Sorry to hear you are still so uncomfortable mummy. This heat doesn't help I'm sure. Sending your way :)

Dear 115ers, I've added a new sheet to our stats spreadsheet where we can all add the books, DVDs and websites we recommend. Its on the 'sheet 2' tab at the bottom of the page.

I've started with a couple of entries, it would be fab it you could all contribute when you get chance. Please feel free to amend it/add columns if you think it can be improved!

Hope you all get some use out of it... Find it here.

I just nearly died of laughter reading this birth story so thought I'd share it with you ladies.

And thanks for the offer, MumsnetHQ! I'm keener at that reduced early bird group fee - anyone else up for it?

OMG Rum I'm only halfway through and I'm HOWLING...

Hello, well I joined you briefly, then migrated to the Feb thread, but I've decided to come back here as my EDD has now been confirmed as 29 Jan! This is my first baby.

We had our scan last week and were so excited to see little Frazzles jumping around and dancing. He/she had such long legs, definitely not from me!

I've stopped feeling sick now but still so tired, especially in this heat! I made use of my Baby on Board badge for the first time today on the tube.

How do I join the FB group?

13/1

Hi frazzles just send a fb message to Jan Babies and whoever is logged in as her will add you :)

Rum that is excellent! Thank you for sharing

rum that had me crying with laughter in my office!! brilliant. I'll add to the book spreadsheet later on thanks for adding it vivi

No Worries Sara - Looking forward to following up your workout DVD recommendatiosn!

Hi MsFrazzles, welcome! I was struck at the scan by how long the Prulet's legs were too, although DH discovered at product design school that his femur length is in the 98th percentile, so not a huge shock for us! (He has an enormous head too - not quite so jovial at the thought of that particular trait being inherited )

Hi frazzles :) welcome back.

Rum- that was hilarious. The wash cloth for the 'anus' had me guffawing !

Dec we got a reasonable deal on the new place (got the value reduced to the lowest on the street!) but our old place needed a lot of work so not the best deal on that side of things.
Things to look out for are extras you can get... we got them to essentially convert the garage for us by putting in extra electricals and the like. We also got upgrades on all the internal flooring and kitchen.
Our neighbours were cheeky and also got a new TV and XBox!
We also got 2 days grace between leaving the old house and moving to the new one so it's worth asking about that as well.
Good luck!

Afternoon ladies. I called in sick to work today as I haven't been feeling well since yesterday afternoon. I've had a headache that won't go away and last night I was convinced I was boiling hot but was shivering and DH said I was cold to touch. Also been properly throwing up this morning which I haven't done for a while! Thankfully I feel bit better after a nap and some chocolate ice cream.

I really can't be trusted to watch daytime TV! Nearly sobbing at the bloody donkey sanctuary ad and don't get me started on extreme makeover home edition. Bloody hell, I'm not usually one to cry.

mummyk8 I've also been reading Beyong the Sling and I find it really good so far. Vivi I can't wait to read everyones recommendations on the spreadsheet! I'm reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding at the moment too, but I've only just started.

Off to read to birth story now!