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

We didn't switch only because it made Faithlet projectile vomit!! yes it is just to get people familiar with formula brands but if it saves money! I wouldn't bother with toddler milk though!

Ginge we had major Aldi nappy leakages. Put me right off!

Must be a shape of baby thing!

Don't worry bugs soon it will all be a distant memory and you will then be complaining about cracked nips, tiredness and pissing yourself.

I've had a message from Sinks and she's asked me to update you all. Firstly she apologises to everyone that has sent her messages that she has not replied to.

Basically GHJ is still in hospital but out of itu. He's still in pain and struggling to eat. The plan now is that he will go on Friday if possible with CT scans next week then await results and make a plan.

They are still waiting for the test results on the tumour. It has been sent on for further tests and second opinions, but they're pretty sure it's an unusual cancer, though nothing is official yet.

Sorry, that should read "go home on Friday".

frank I agree that we are always going to worry more. I was just surprised by how nervous many of the instadiffers were. I'd kind of assumed they would serenely sail through pregnancy but many of them were twitchier than I was about movements and so on.

I can't believe that E is 6 months old already!

bugs wot dor said. For me, the end of the second tri was the last time I felt in any way decent. The third tri was fairly shit and the new baby weeks are utterly, utterly exhausting. Plus I am recovering from major surgery.

I got through LOADS of loo roll and mat pads in the first 6 weeks after birth. And we are still using more of everything now as I am around the house all the time. However, we are saving on my work lunches. I am eating a lot of crap treat food. Partly because the neonatal consultant told me to eat a lot of fat to make sure my milk would be nice and fatty to build up C and partly because I tend to reach for sugary things when knackered, and I am properly knackered! I'm not spending loads though. A cake spread over a few days doesn't work out that much.

We use Pampers simply because we needed micro nappies to begin with and they make a micro size. When C graduated to normal size 1 a couple of weeks ago, we just stuck with Pampers without giving it any thought. They've been pretty good though. We've had a few leaks but really not very many. I've done some bulk buying from Amazon but usually end up grabbing them in the supermarket. We're still using cotton wool and water instead of wipes as this is what was recommended when she was in NICU. We're getting through loads of cotton wool. We ended up getting 10 packs in our last online shop! I have some Water Wipes for using when we are out, but we have hardly touched those so far.

You will need lots of washing powder... It's not just the baby stuff itself, it's that the vomit gets on you, the projectile poo hits something else in the room, she throws up on your bedsheets while you are having a cuddle, etc. The washing machine never seems to stop these days.

Sinks if you are reading I hope GHJ's results come soon and give cause for optimism. This must be so tough for you all. x

What a night. I had an allergic reaction to goodness knows what, anaphylactic shock, 999, scary stuff! Had to leave HWCA at home with MiniWink and he went out to get emergency bottles. Apparently she screamed for 2 hours before she took one :( and vomited everywhere after.

My boobs were about to explode by the time I was discharged. She drained both boobs in about 5 seconds flat. We're all bloody shattered now.

Oh god Winks how scary for you all. Glad you've been discharged, will there be a follow up to find out what the cause was? Try not to worry about MiniWink, she won't remember it and one night won't have done any harm.

So hags, I've made an appointment with my GP for a few weeks time. I still haven't had a droid despite stopping BF 4 months ago, so it's looking like pregnancy hasn't reset my hormones, which can sometimes happen for PCOS sufferers. I'm also going to chat to her about our options for future fertility treatment, I've no idea if the treatment I had is available on the NHS for subsequent children. If not we're looking at having to pay about £1,000 per cycle. HWHNN and I had a chat about what we wanted to do about more children, and we agreed we'd like more than one if at all possible. He thinks we should start trying again ourselves in January and then if nothing's happening after 6 months look into treatment again as we don't know how long it will take to get through the system, if the NHS route is open to us.

Of course it'll be Sod's Law I "drop the butter dish" and end up with 2 under 2

Hope you guys are holding up, sinks. Hugs (gentle ones) to you all, it's a truly shit situation. Everything crossed for histology results that give you a clear plan of action.

Fucking hell, winks. Anaphylaxis is terrifying, isn't it? I had the same a couple of years ago which was written off as just one of those things as no cause could be identified. Hope you're all feeling better now. You have spurred me on to order replacement parts for the electric pump my friend gave me so I can have expressed milk in for such emergencies.

Is it only me who loved being pregnant? Since giving birth I've had heartburn for the first time in my life, as well as a creaky stiff back and the unpredictable bowels of the last few years. While I was pregnant I felt so healthy all the time, just cumbersome towards the end.

Exciting thoughts, Frank! We are thinking we will go and see the consultant in the new year too - there's no way I'm getting diffed naturally, especially with just one fallopian tube, so we are going straight to IVF (no NHS funding any more though). We want to talk to someone so we get an idea of if I'll need another investigative laparoscopy, or if the drugs will mean I'll have to stop breastfeeding, so we can make a timing plan. And get an idea of costs - I think it's about £5k a cycle, so confirming that would be good. Saving up starts here...

Are you planning on using Cambridge IVF draf? They've got a good pricing structure on their website so that you can get an idea of costs. IVF costs seem to be dependent on maternal age and the strength of drugs needed. Even if you are not using them, it might give you a rough idea.

Link her

Yes will do, Frank - they did a good job at growing my eggs so we got a good haul for producing the calf after all :) Their prices is where my estimated costs comes from, though I should probably check again and see if I'm still about right. It will be nice to do the whole process there rather than schlepping to Oxford for the complicated bit too.

Nobody said anything about a follow up appointment frank, but my DSis is allergic to everything so if nothing comes through automatically I might push for a referral via the GP.

Ironically I was at the hospital yesterday morning for my appointment with the Birth Reflections lady, and afterwards I said to MiniWink "Well hopefully that's the last trip to this place for a good long while." Dammit!

draf I loathed being pregnant. I tried so hard to like it because I had wanted it for so long, but almost three months of exhaustion and nausea, then weight gain, then SPD, swelling, exhaustion, feeling so hot I thought I would keel over, being massive, heartburn, etc etc etc - damn I'm glad that's over.

draf and frank, I'm impressed that you both plan to get back on the merry-go-round. I'm not sure how I feel about TTCing, pregnancy & birth again. They all sucked! But then, MiniWink is sooo lovely...

Getting back on the merrygoround is only appealing because I had the easiest pregnancy ever, and a very civilised birth! I doubt I'd want to TTC naturally again (just seems so pointless), but I reacted quite well to the IVF drugs so it's not too daunting a prospect to do again. We'd probably leave it longer if we weren't barren, but would rather ask the consultant for the best plan of action sooner rather than later before my age becomes a big problem for IVF.

Definitely worth going for an allergy follow up, if only to get the official "one of those things". It scared the life out of me, so was a big relief when doctors were not too worried. Did they give you an epipen in case it happens again?

Agree with Draf if I hadn't had such an easy pregnancy (bar the early scare) and birth I wouldn't be looking to TTC quite so soon. We've always said we want more than 1 if we possibly can and time isn't really on our side as I'm 34 next year and if it's going to take time to work our way through the system again then we need to start thinking about it now. Also if it means we have to go private we need time to save up enough money to cover a few cycles as it took 3 goes to conceive E.

Fucking hellfire, not feeding for 12 hours has broken my boob. Waaah it hurts!

I was kind of a Butterdish second time around. Nearly 2 years to conceive The Little Mister and had Clomid and an HSG before doing so, and 4 months for The Little Miss with no intervention.

Part of me would love another one although I did not enjoy the last couple of months of my last pregnancy. I was huge and retained water like a fucking camel.

There are loads of reasons we have decided not to have another one though..

1. I am going to be 40 next year. The risks of having a child with a disability increase substantially and that would change all of our lives, including our two current children.

2. We can't afford childcare for two, let alone three kids.

3. I have to work to pay the bloody enormous mortgage.

4. I am not sure my pelvis could manage another pregnancy.

5. One child to two was fine, enjoyable in fact but I think having three makes man-marking an impossibility!

Winks how scary, glad you're home. Try massaging boobs in a warm bath, maybe some hand expressing?

We are still in debate about DC2....I'd like another, MSB isn't so keen for various reasons. He's not keen on TTC again (although with reversible fertility ishoos in theory it should be straightforward next time) and Faithlet wasn't an easy newborn. I think it would be different second time around. Faithlet is a live wire though so I've agreed to wait a while and then discuss it. I'm 33 so we've got a bit of time.

Chances of a butterdish here are next to zero - even if pregnancy has improved my endometriosis, I've still only got one tube. I'd love three kids, but unless we get twins I doubt it'll be financially doable to try. £5k a cycle makes me wince, but you never know, we got lucky first cycle with the calf, it could happen again...?!

Hi all.

GHJ is home. No answers yet, and so lump is proving difficult to classify. Trust him to have the difficult tumour.

Winks - ffs. The ESH don't get many breaks do we?

As for butterdish dropping etc, I'm meant to be on the pill, but am massively reluctant to add hormones to my shitty pcos system. No periods yet here, but am still bf. GHJ had tried to get condoms but our local supermarket only sells packs of 24. He said he'd rather save the cash and get a pack of 3 from the pub toilet. Rather rude I thought, but given sex will now be off the menu for a bit, successful money saving . We'd like another, and thought a 3 yr ish gap would be ideal (as if you can plan these things). Practically, any sooner would be a nightmare for my career. Recent event however have made me think that life's for living etc... We'll see.

Glad to hear that GHJ is home, even if you still need to wait to get answers.

We'd always said we wanted 2 children. At the moment I don't want any more! There's definitely not going to be any TTCing for a while in our house!

The GP was hard to persuade that I didn't want hormonal contraception at my 6 week check. FFS I'm 33, married and employed, if I did have sex ever again a condom fail and dropped the butterdish it wouldn't exactly be a catastrophe.

sinky glad you have him home. Nightmare about the weird tumour. It's never good to be medically interesting. How's his mental state? Will you be able to get some help looking after him and R?