December 2014 thread 8: turn up the heat - the Christmas turkeys are cooking!

[Peaceloveandbiscuits]

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That's rubbish Cat.

I saw this fleece wrap around thing for car seats last week. Basically the car seat straps go through a hole in the wrap, so you can fix baby in, then the wrap fastens around baby so she's all snug like in a blanket. Does anyone know what they are called and where I can get one?

Espa try googling "car seat fleece liner".
I heard somewhere you're not supposed to use the thick sheepskin pram liners in car seats, but a fleece blankety thing sounds much thinner? Hope you find it, anyway! I keep wanting to stop parents in the street and ask where they got xyz!

aha found the exact one - though it's out of stock. It's on Pramworld, mamas and papas car seat foot muff. Now to find an equivalent!

Oh I can get a maxi cosi pebble one to match the car seat but I liked the fleecey one!

Just bought a Morrck hoodie. Looks lovely and toasty for baby and much nicer than the maxi cosi footmuff.

That was a quick and happy resolution, Espa

Can you tell I should be doing something else?!

monkey - ikwym - I too felt horrendously guilty because I desperately wanted to do it & had had all this stuff shoved down my throat at antenatal classes about how revolting formula is, what it contains & why it is no good for your baby blah blah blah.

We were told nothing about ff whatsoever, in fact they said they weren't allowed to tell you about it (in order to solely promote bf). Ok it is best, but what about those mums who can't bf? Where was the help & support for them? I have voiced this repeatedly to health professionals this time around & have been told that they are now giving advice on both, that remains to be seen! At least I know what I am doing this time anyway.

Catface - sorry, I didn't know that either. Try & keep positive - can you get out & about with friends/family while dh is at work? Do you like doing anything crafty eg knitting/sewing/card making etc? Perhaps would be nice to fix up a little activity each day so if you do feel a bit stuck at least you have something nice to do? I'm going to do some myself next week.

Peace - good news they have signed you off. Scans at your stage can be way way off so try not to worry. Anyway on a positive note, they say bigger babies often deliver more easily than the smaller ones - effects of gravity!

Well ladies I'm almost 36 weeks now eek! Baby feels so low down, my hips are seizing up & I'm constantly getting shooting pains every time I stand up now - ouch! Sleeping on the sofa at mo as waiting plastering being done on baby's room on fri & building work starts next week - I can't believe we are actually doing this right before baby arrives - we must be crazy!

catface that sounds tough. We are in count down now. Have your hips struggled with the baby weight? :(

I agree re FF. it's treated with such disdain and I have seen friends of mine pushed into near depression due to the refusal to accept breastfeeding just doesn't work sometimes. I was lucky - it worked really well for me (and after my crappy first delivery something had to go right). But there seems little rhyme nor reason to it. My feeling is also that many women are absolutely exhausted after giving birth, you are on a busy ward and then sent home too soon and given conflicting advice by lots of different people as to latch etc. sometimes babies have a tongue the and the NHS is shit at picking up on it and dealing promptly. I swear I have a million recommendations about how they could make it better....

Anyway, what they also don't say is how amazing formula is now. Yes, it's not breast milk, but the FF kids I know are as healthy and robust as the breast fed ones with no more allergies. In most cases it was my friends' GPs that said to try formula (after countless midwives still pushed it even though the babies and mums were struggling)

Oh dear - am I ranting again? I'm exhausted. DC 1 up every night right now!!

I think being sent home so early isn't always a help with breastfeeding...from DM's description of having my brother in the late 70's, they were kept in for 10 days post partum and their only responsibility was to look after themselves and their baby, short and strict visiting times so they had the time and space to learn to be a mum.

I stayed in overnight with DS, but as soon as I got home I felt a bit inundated with visitors and felt like I needed to "get back to normal" as soon as possible and be washing up and washing clothes etc. just so I felt in control.

I've told DH not to commit to any visitors until after I've had the baby so we can see how the birth goes and how I'm feeling. I don't mind having his family visit a day or two after we get home because I think it would be a bit rude not to, but I will ask DH to ask them to keep the visit short eg 1-1.5 hours ish!

I also said to DH I would like to lie in bed this time instead of lying on the settee and suggested that DS could come in and snuggle up to me and we can read books together.

I don't think I had pnd last time but I think I could quite easily have gone that way. I found the birth amazing and then felt like I'd been hit by a car by the time I was back home! At least this time I'm prepared and I know how to "air" my stitches and I have a cot top changer this time to help with my back

Now I'm on maternity leave thank goodness as I'm so tired! At some point I need DH to pile the birthday and Christmas presents on top of our wardrobe and also to put the pram back together. I just need to have a big spring clean. Everything is as tidy as it's going to be now!

I had a talk with DH last night after NCT about how I think there's a very high chance I'll have PND and how I want to enforce positive messages about "what if things don't go how I want them to" now so that he can support me immediately. For example, yeah, I'm going to give BF a bloody good go, but if it doesn't work for whatever reason, it's not the end of the world, and we will FF. If that's our mantra now, it won't take any effort for him to repeat it to me when I'm an emotional wreck and not thinking straight!

My work computer has packed up, so I've had to do actual work this morning think I will bugger off to a coffee shop this afternoon to rest my ribs as they're getting sore again.

Lol I just booked a 13 hour journey (each way) to visit my mum at 35 weeks pregnant. Do I need my head examined y/y?

peace you aren't at risk of early labour are you?! Might want to keep those notes with you. Not sure I would be venturing so far at 36 weeks tbh!

No one's mentioned a risk of early labour to me. Now that it's booked and paid for I'm getting nervous ha! Never mind. They have hospitals there. It's only an hour on a plane for DH if things went tits up.

So I managed to just miss the bus into town to meet OH - was going to meet him to see Interstellar and don't want to drive in as both of us having to drive home in separate cars feels ridiculous to me. Now I'm throwing a pregnancy strop on the sofa binging on fruit and watching ssssh! Glee.

Aw stationary poor you :(

Just had BH and DH did the funny fingernail back massage he learned at NCT. May have pretended I was still sore after it had eased so that he carried on its so nice!

I'm gonna be singing "it's the final Saturday!" to the tune of Europe's The Final Countdown all day ??

Ooo enjoy your last saturday peace!
Im enjoying this saturday lazing in bed all morning then going to an xmas stocking filler party this afternoon but ill probably only stay a couple of hours then back home to bed
Whats everyone else upto?

Enjoy peace !

Have been food shopping, car washing/hoovering and doing household chores so far today lucy. Now relaxing on sofa while DS watches Toy Story. DH is allegedly doing DIY. Tomorrow we're switching and I'll be childfree to work on marking and he can deal with the toddler all day.

have just given in to my exhaustion and booked DS in for nursery for 2 extra days over the next 2 weeks so I get a proper chance to mark, finish my planning for maternity cover and get my reports done. Otherwise I am going to be mighty unpleasant to live with for the next 3 weeks (until ML starts).

Stocking filler party sounds fun - I just want to be finished with work so I can refocus on Christmas (most shopping is done but need lots of bits and pieces, likewise for baby!).

Enjoy your last saturday!

I'm having a lazy day today for the first time in ages. Have done virtually nothing & feel loads better for it although feet are still swelling up like balloons! Taking ds to cinema & firework display tomorrow, then huge clean up operation starts monday as our/baby's bedroom is now plastered (yay!). So looks like my week will be spent mostly painting, choosing carpets & serving tea/coffee to the builders!

Never heard of a stocking filler party before but sounds quite fun. I am almost done now, need to check my list & have a look at ds' pile & see if we need to add anything else & then start wrapping!

Occurred to me that this will be the only Christmas where we won't have to worry about buying anyone anything. We normally only buy for our parents and each other anyway, but there'll be a tiny person to buy for next year!

I'll confess I've bought for our tiny person this year peace

I know she doesn't really need anything but its more for ds' benefit so he doesn't think FC has forgotten her! Am just wrapping up stuff she's going to need over the next few months eg bibs, clothes, weaning spoons, teethers etc. Its so exciting when you can start buying actual proper presents for them that they are delighted to receive .

Been having sharp twinges/cramps today, all very low down on my right side & coming every few minutes but only lasting a few seconds at a time. Uncomfortable but not long or strong enough to be labour pains (least I don't think so?!) Do u think this is my body just gearing up ready for labour? I never had anything like this last time so its like being a first timer - am clueless!!!

Ah I'm one of the latest due dates on the thread so I'm hoping not yet to have a baby on Christmas Day (unless midwife agrees to inducing me early... Need to have that conversation first!)

Although weirdly I'm the earliest due date at our antenatal class, so I get the best of both worlds!

I'm due 28th November, not sure if the baby is a boy or girl so we're going to buy the baby some Christmas presents after it's born. I'd definitely like to get a nice shape sorter and I will most likely get some clothes for the baby too. We have plenty of unisex clothes from DS, but I think it would be nice to have some new bits too.

We're going to go to Ikea next weekend and get some plastic storage boxes as we will need a bit more toy storage space with the new baby and DS's birthday and Christmas presents.

Apart from that we're all organised now, just trying to keep on top of cleaning and keeping the place tidy! It's a bit of a struggle tbh as I'm getting very tired very easily and can't reach anything on the floor! DS has been so good and has been picking things up for me and has been climbing into the kitchen chair so that I can help him put his shoes on etc.!

I have my 38 week appointment with my midwife next week...fingers crossed that'll be my last one! I'm going to take DS with me this time as I'm on maternity leave as she remembers DS from when he was a baby and always asks how he's doing

Hope everyone else has had a good weekend!