Summer holidays are over, the PESH are bringing their bumps and baybees back to school

[TheOriginalWinkly]

Pack your giant pants in your satchel and maternity pads in your pencil case, it's the antenatal thread 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
draf - pink calf on 1st July 2014
winks - a pink one dragged out kicking and screaming on 4th July 2014
euro - a pink one in a hurry to see the world, born on 17th July 2014
dor - a pink one born at speed on 28th July 2014
ginge - completing the ESH Summer of Pink on 23rd August 2014

PESH
Buggerlugs - Buglet due 20th October
Fankle - ESHlet expected 4th January
Cunty - Minichops expected 7th February

Good for you Bugs! Like you say pick your battles! I really hope she'll pick up and you can all get some rest!

I'm just lurking ladies! In limbo, 15 weeks, nothing much happening, mood swings, rage, really really really dry, itchy skin and now an itchy, sore, flaky scalp (lovely when your uniform is ALL black! ), plus headaches and constant toilet trips! I'm defiantly not someone who enjoys pregnancy! And I know I've got it easy! meh, 25 weeks to go!

I hope everyone's doing ok!

Bugs, hope the change of milk is improving things. It is more expensive but now you can buy it in litre bottles it isn't as bad as only using 200ml bottles. Once things have settled you can always try half and half with powder.
when i get screaming, which is often, my go to solution is tiredness. It us usually the right answer.

Also you are at the peak of the newborn colic weeks. This is the hardest hard bit. Its downhill from here!

If it had worked you would have thought he was a genius though!

Ha ha if all we had to do was turn off the light and put them to bed we would be laughing. Have you heard of Harvey karp 5s system? Its worth looking up, it works for Emily anyway
it roughly goes Swaddle, Side lying on your arm, Shake (not real shake, just the jiggling swaying motion), Shhh (or other loud white noise), Suck (on a dummy). He also advocates liberal use of the baby swing.

We have used to 5 system a bit but without the dummy.

The Little Miss is very unsettled tonight too and is screaming and has been for the last two hours. It's tough and doesn't always get better at times!

You've just got to do whatever works, bugs. Shame this time it is the more expensive option!

Good to see you here, missh. I found the limbo time between scans quite tough. It was much easier once I could feel her move.

We've just found out the meaning of the word poonami. She has always pooed very regularly but just went about 3 days with nothing and then drowned us in shit tonight. Im very glad it didn't happen when I was out with her on my own. Clean up was definitely a two person job! Oh how my Saturday nights have changed!

Poosplosion here too. Soaked through the entire outfit she got put in an hour previously, when she peed over everything during a nappy change. Good job she's cute! :)

Morning hags. Sounds like a poo and tear filled weekend for some of you...sorry to hear that.

We were away for a few days at my mums and then at a friend's wedding. There were at least 6 other 30+ week bumps there and one brave 40 weeker (who incidentally left early on as she wasn't feeling right. Nutter)! Baby boom for December/January or what??

I am soo bloody tired! And the kicks are sharp and constant now. I feel like a beached and bruised whale and would ideally just like to stop working now (33+1) but I've got 3 more weeks left and a busy handover week planned for next week.

Did I mention I am v tired? I know that I can't even begin to imagine what the true exhaustion of having a newborn feels like, but I have officially hit the proverbial wall.

MG built the snuzpod crib last night (with very shoddy instructions I might add). He was so excited and like 'bring this on' and I was slightly freaking out that I have to give birth first for our relentlessly kicky baby to lie in it. Oh and exhausted with no real energy to be excited. I'm not long up and need to start work (joys of working from home) but I could so go back to sleep.

Please assure me this is quite normal. please!!

Sympathies fank, I found from about 32 weeks really difficult, knackering and painful. The countdown to mat leave was depressing because it just went so slooooowly. In general I found having a newborn easier than the last few weeks of pregnancy. A 4.5 month old though... I am shattered today. Utterly shattered. I am slurring the words in my thoughts. I've not so much hit a wall as ran full pelt into it. Differs heed my words, get your babies taking a bottle as early as possible so you can send them out with their dads for a few hours!

Plus the oven fitters who were meant to come between 12.30 & 2.30 haven't come yet, they are 'delayed'. How am I meant to make dinner if I don't have an oven or access to the stove??

bugs you'll manage. Shower tonight so you just have to throw some clothes on in the morning, keep P in her baby gro, have the change bag ready to grab, it'll be fine.

9am is ok as long as you get organised tonight.

I found the last 6 weeks of pregnancy really hard. I slept after birth much better even with a newborn!!

bugs it's easy to lose your rag when you're ill, knackered and stressed. Glad you've made up with GP, but I know how it feels on your own when they're on long long shifts. It's bloody hard.

dor agreed, and at least when you have a newborn you sleep straight away rather than the hours of tossing and turning when you're heavily pregnant and just can't get comfortable.

No sign of a break for me any time soon. Despite my best efforts with every type of bottle out there, MiniWink is strictly and exclusively a boob girl. She'll be weaned around Christmas, then in the new year I can send HWCA out with the baby, a yoghurt and a bag of rice cakes or something and get some sleeeeeep....

fankle I was just starting to get pretty uncomfortable when C was born at 34 weeks. I had timed it really badly (like a BESH can time it...) as it was a bloody hot July.

winks how annoying about the oven. I hope you get some rest. You really did look shattered before that caffeine boost! I find I get tired so much more easily now. I blame the sleep deprivation plus the lack of fitness from having done very little exercise for the past year. Any kind of outing tires me now.

bugs these weeks are really hard. You just both have to drag yourself through them somehow.

Thanks Dor for the hope of a decent sleep after birth (at least in terms of getting comfy if nothing else).

Feeling a bit better having done Pilates tonight. Got a bit more energy about me. However, I'm lamenting my bargain £4 maternity leggings from primark- the elastic has totally gone after less than 6 washes. Oh well, you get what you pay for. I'm getting fed up of wearing the same clothes ALL the bloody time! I guess I should buy a couple more things...and some appropriate feeding attire. I def need to get some feeding bras.

Oh July was fucking horrific this year. The Little Miss was born on 28 July and through the month i hoarded fluid like a camel. Grim.