April 2015 #4 - time to start glowing and growing

[BrixtonBunny]

I thought I'd start a new thread as the old one was almost full up xxx

Blasted clocks changing!! DD up at 5am (which was to be expected) but it's so difficult to change her body clock so it's going to be early starts for at least the next week or so

Joined the headache brigade too, woken up with a right head splitter. Sore throat too. Once DH is out of bathroom need to see if strepsils are ok during pregnancy

Fizzy have you tried a gro clock? It changes from blue night time stars to yellow sunshine when it's morning. You can set the time and it'll change so you can just add an extra 15 mins to it each day.

Our DD was up early too but that was because we forgot to put the clock on for her. but it wasn't too bad as it was DHs turn for wake up. Didn't stop him bringing her back up at 7 and leaving her with me though. Left her with the tv on and the ipad while I was still asleep, annoying having conflicting noises going on.

Morning ladies, just catching up but I got my bloods through for downs. I knew my NF measurement was low risk by googling it. But bloods confirm low risk so that's good news.

My bump is well on its way, my parents are staying with us this weekend and my mum commented how much I've already grown.

I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow, ekk! I seem to feel better in the week then nausea hits on the weekends at the moment. Hoping I'll be able to do a whole week without being sick soon.

Hi Folks - just been catching up with the week's developments. Congrats, Lauren and Banana, with the scans.
Lovely bump, Lady - looks a lot neater than mine!
Bonjour and Squatting - hope there are no further worries for you. And I really hope your uti clears up Squatting - they can be sooo bloody painful. I say that as a cystitis veteran since the age of, oh, I don't know - about 8, and a committed water-drinker! :0) Luckily haven't had a full-blown attack for over 6 years now (interestingly that coincides with phasing out my heaviest 'partying' weekends!), but I can't say pregnancy has helped with the cystitis-y 'twinges' I sometimes still get, even tho I keep testing clear for utis. I am starting to wonder if I might have a very mild I.C. actually..

Brixton - I do like Zoe Whatsisname, been meaning to pick that book up too.

Re sleeping disruptions, a couple thoughts re Hubbies/Partners on the iPad. Could you ask them to turn the brightness right down, this sometimes helps? Also, DP has a black mask thingy he wears to bed (heheh, like a sort of half-arsed Zorro) as, out of the two of us, he is the one who is kept awake quite easily. It actually looks quite comfy and soft, so could be worthwhile investment for light sleepers? Think it came from Amazon or eBay as a previous one he had from boots was a bit too firm.

Had 16 week appointment on Wednesday and was delighted to hear Peanut's hb loud and clear on the Doppler. (Midwife immediately knew where to look from the firmness on one side of my stomach - how she could tell the difference was behind me!). Can finally put my lingering worries re the 12 week cramps to one side, and start worrying about the 20 week scan instead ....which we only seemed able to book for the morning of the day we go To Japan for two weeks - I really hope that isn't asking for trouble! Could be quite an expensive cancellation if something is wrong at the scan :0/ But it seemed the only viable option given the timing.

Midwife also advised looking into courses run by the hospital, and other (National Child Wotsit..?) courses. Have to confess everything has been so mental up to the this point (plus I hadn't really wanted to 'commit' to the idea of a baby in case some thing went wrong) that I'd given it next to bugger-all thought.
Has anyone else?

Nunkie, we've booked onto the National Childcare Trust course nearest to us - everyone I know who's been on one speaks of it very highly, apart from the breastfeeding evening which can apparently be a bit of an ideological battlefield. It costs, of course, but they've got some comparatively sensible payment plans to spread the expense. Obviously can't say anything else about it yet, as it all happens much closer to the birth, but so far I've had a positive experience dealing with them.

No we don't have a gro clock Lauren, DD is only 17 months so not sure if she'd understand the concept of it yet?

We did both the hospital antenatal class and the NCT one, and although the content is pretty much the same we found the NCT course less rushed and a lot more personalised to what the group wanted to know. Made a couple of really good friends too which is a bonus. Obviously there's a cost involved but as well as payment plans they do reduced tariffs depending on income. Or you could skip any sort of antenatal course and get the same info from books and online!

Hi ladies! I had a brilliant long sleep today (made me feel very lucky that we don't have DC yet so was able to make full use of the clock change) so feeling quite relaxed, though my hips are still feeling quite sore - hope this isn't going to be a symptom throughout my entire pregnancy...

Siarie good news on your results!

Went to a brilliant feminist conference yesterday and they had a session on mental health and motherhood, where there was an academic from Kings Collegehospital and a consultant obstetrician from St Thomas's who both talked about the impact of maternal stress on the baby during pregnancy, especially in the last trimester. They said that in Germany it's compulsory to take a month and a half of maternity leave BEFORE your due date for mum and baby's health, and that although in the UK it's common to work right up to due date but actually it's better for baby to take some time off before baby is born and then go back to work a bit sooner, as they are then much better at coping with stress themselves if mum more relaxed. Until yesterday was thinking I'd work right up to my EDD but now I'm thinking I'll use some of my holiday and start maternity leave a bit early, ideally 4 weeks before due date. Just worried I'll be so bored! What is everyone else planning? Has anyone who already has DC done the same?

I'll read back now.

16 + 4

Ps OMG - have just seen there is a July thread already!

Mine was much worse when I got up later and lazed around more Sairie!

We were lucky with our boys not up until 7.30 new time :) I went for a run and still back by 9, lovely!

We did the nhs ones with ds1 Nunkie and they were useful. Couldn't afford nct and all far away anyway.

I stopped 2 weeks before BrixtonBunny and ds1 was 2 weeks late, I was soooooo bored so if you stop 4 weeks before and baby's late it'll be worse I imagine. I don't know that I was less stressed but ds2 was a much more chilled baby, I worked I til the Friday and had him on the Monday.

Brixton because I work term time only and DD was born in May I finished work at the Easter break. That way I got an extra 2 weeks to myself. I'm doing the same again this time so will finish end of march but my maternity leave won't kick in till the end of the first week of April. You just never know if your going to get complications or going to go in to labour early and it gives you the last few weeks to chill out and get the house in order. Which is a must as you will not be doing anything but sleeping and feeding the baby for weeks after the birth.
You can splurge on last minute baby things and treat yourself to all sorts of nice things before your life changes forever. Well worth the time I think and if it's only a week or 2 before you do actually give birth your not exactly missing much when it's time to go back to work. Chances are your craving your old routine and adult company by that point I know I was!

16 weeks today and the nausea came back about two days ago..ughh every time I say I'm okay now it resurfaces.

I have disagree about a couple of weeks not making any difference, I would have loved a few more weeks with ds1. I weaned him earlier than I wanted as I wanted to do it and know there were several things he would eat before I sent him to the cm with it. The trouble is you won't know how you'll feel until you get there. I was so worried about being home alone with a baby and it turned out I loved it!!

Brixton sounds like a good conf. Very interesting, I've always thought same re working as long as possible but quite nice to have some time to pamper and nest I guess!

Is anyone having an early gender scan? Where abouts are you finding and how much? Can't seem to find anything in my area! X

I'm lucky too to get the easter holidays off so hoping to last till then. I've decided if we save like mad now I'll be able to stay off till christmas which makes me feel my much happier. Don't think the boss will be overly chuffed though.

A job for this week is to book nct classes. I've heard they're good and a good way of meeting new people.

Just wondering if anyone knows a good time to buy new bras. When do your boobs settle down? Don't know whether to buy some know as mine are getting a bit tight or wait a while in case they get even bigger. I expect they will. Don't want to fork out the money only to grow out of them in a few weeks.

cries in a corner with icecream this weekend has been awful, my everything hurts, and I feel terribly sick despite the cyclowhatsit non-vomit tablets and sickness bands, thank god I am off again next week (but then I have something like 13 straight weekends of superstore christmas hell O.o) Also, I hate that people can't have a conversation and come away from it with the same conclusion of what happened, and I hate finding myself in the middle of that a month after it happened whilst it's been festering away and I've been blissfully unaware / ignorant of the confusion...

mamabear I will join you in nauseaville, and stubbornly eat ice cream passes round the now somewhat depleted supply of icecream

brixton I'm taking my holiday from mid february with a plan to start my maternity leave the weekend of March 21st because they might induce me then and my work suck and I don't want to lose my holiday by booking it to start mid march and then being switched to maternity leave half way through my holiday and then given some bull story about how I cant take my remaining holiday at the end of my mat leave because it's 'red weeks'

Sazzle mine never stopped last time I went from a B to a G they shrank back down to a B/C when I stopped breast feeding but so far I'm still managing to squeeze myself into my bigger C bras but I think they are having another growth spurt as they are incredibly sore and sensitive at the moment. It is difficult to tell when to buy bras. I still have some smaller nursing bras in a DD and I'm not quite filling them snugly so I know I'm not that big yet but I'm not far off.

DH caught me getting in the shower the other day and he was mesmerised by them. Mumbled something about motor boating and I told him look don't touch. His little pouting face was very cute. I have to say big boobs look a bit odd on me when I'm only a tiny size 8 and they aren't as perky as they once were either. So it's nice he still likes the look of them even if I'm not so impressed with the droopage. At least with all this gale force winds we've been having I won't blow away like I usually do if they keep growing at the rate they are.

As the baby moves up your chest measurement usually increases too Sazzle82G. I had much bigger boobs with my others and didn't notice a change until after they were born. This time I'm spilling out of mine but trying to hold on a bit longer!!

Here's to a better week Misty414!

Mine is the same Lauren82000, he makes a comment every night when I take my bra off. Mine are pretty saggy from my weight loss but are much fuller at the moment. They are still really sore which they weren't before :(

Had a huge row about dss tonight, I told him off and as usual Dh didnt back me up. We always agreed it would be us against the kids, United in front of them and if we were unhappy discuss it later but it's not that way with dss. He keeps saying he doesn't know what I want him to say, I don't want to feed him lines I just want him to agree with me so that dss doesn't go to bed thinking he's done nothing wrong and I'm a crazy woman who's just having a go at him for the sake of it which is what he thinks right now. Dad's not annoyed at him so it must be me being unreasonable! He doesn't hold off telling me if he feels I've been to soft on our two, esp ds1 but he NEVER backs me up with dss. Very tough situation that makes me feel the bad guy and like I dont have any rights in my own home :(

Cinnamon that sounds really stressful, sending huge hugs xxx

I've got a gender scan booked for the 10th of November

TMI alert- Oh and I might have a UTI but I can't tell as I do get the same type of sensation when I eat spicy food.

Weirdly it's only happened when I've had to go pee in the evenings before bed. So I'm wondering if maybe my wee is actually really acidic and that's causing the same sensation as spicy food. As the rest of the time it's fine and it goes away after a while. Very weird, I might see my GP just in case.

sazzle it totally varies I'm afraid. last time I went up a bra size each month, terminating at a whopping 32j when breastfeeding. This time I've only gone up one size in 16 weeks.

I found Debenhams good at fitting and not crazy expensive (though I still spent over 300 quid on bras during the pregnancy as they kept bloody growing).

I don't think mine have grown that much and I've got away lightly with pains so far just noticing my bras are getting tighter along with everything else. Did get a shock at the size if my nipples the other day. They were huge!

cinnamon that sound incredibly stressful. I have not experience of it to offer any advice but you have my sympathy.