April 2015 Thread 10: full of chatterboxes, only 2 months to go...

[Hidingthefear]

the other thread was almost full already! Any newbies welcome to join : )

Copied this from Boo from the last fred, sorry if it's changed since then, wasnt sure where to find it.

Unknown/Surprise
Misty414, 30, #1 edd 25th March
Fingerscrossed, 33, #2 EDD 1st April
ChickenMe, 38, EDD 4th April
LadyStinky, 35, #1 EDD 5th April
Rustyzilla, 34, #1, EDD 7th April
Floppypotato, #1, EDD 7th April
BrixtonBunny, 26, #1 edd 8th April - Surprise (but more likely to be girl according to sonographer)
Nerdsgirl, EDD 9th April
Chiliplant, ?, #1, EDD 11th April -
Wineandchoccy, 33, #1, EDD 14th April
AnniaFausta, 32, #1, EDD 15th April
AbiBanbury, 38, #1 EDD 18th April (but ovulate early so likely to be more like 14th) -
BitchPeas #2 EDD 19th April
Kismac, 29 #1, EDD 19th April
NinnynoodleNoo, 37, #6, EDD 19th April
SquattingNeville, 24, #2, EDD 20th April
CherryLips1980, 34, #2, EDD 21st April
Chococroc, 31, #1, EDD 22nd April, (but will likely be a couple of weeks earlier due to health condition) -
Lauren82000, 30 #2 EDD 22nd April
Ivegotacavetroll, 30 #1 EDD 23rd April
Mswibble - 29, #1, EDD 24th April
HippoPottyMouth, 38, #3, EDD 25th April
OneDay, 27, no DC, MMC June 2014, EDD 26th April
Squidge14,#1, EDD 27th April
JaneyTea, 34, #1. EDD 29th April
catsofa 35, #1, EDD 30th April

Boy
RiverRocks, 30, #1, EDD 26th March
houghtonk76, 38, #1, EDD 1st April
Lindalove, 38, EDD 2nd April
Lila35, 35, #1, EDD 3rd April
Cinnamongreyhound, 33, #3 edd 6th April
berberana, 34 #2 edd 11th April
Hidingthefear, 25, #1 EDD 13Th April
daholster, 32, #2, EDD 14th April
BonjourMinou, 32, #2, EDD 19th April
BananaToast, 26, #1, EDD 20th April
smogsville, 33, #2, EDD 22nd April, csection booked for 16th April
LadyNovember, 24, #1, EDD 23rd April
StuntNun, 38, #4, EDD 27th April
Mel0drama 36, dc #2, edd 29th April

Girl
Roastpots 35, #2 EDD 1st April
Babiecakes11, 23, 4th pregnancy, 2nd baby EDD April 1st
minipie, 34, #2, EDD 4th April
Skyra13, 26, #1 EDD 6th April
londonlivvy, 39, DC#2, EDD 8 April
upduffedsecret, EDD 8th April - Girl?
TinyTear, 41, DD2 EDD 11th April
TheBooMonster, 25, DD2, EDD 11th April
Mamabear0315, 24, #2, EDD 12th April
MustBeDueSomeBetterFeet, 36, #2 EDD 23rd April
FreedomHuntress, 40, #2, EDD 27th April
Siarie, 26, #1, EDD 27th April

Random phone decided to post o.O

Delayed cord clamping gives baby more antibodies and iron I think, but there's a potential connection between jaundice and delayed cord clamping from what I read.

Not sure about retained placenta products as mine was all in one piece, body just didn't contract properly and I had a slow PPH as a result (room looked all a bit Carrie at the prom by the time they wheeled me out of there ) until they finally put me on a drip and stabbed me with needles.

I have to have that drip prepared Boo as I have increased risk of PPH; were you quite weak after the haemorrhage? Did it affect breast feeding (if relevant)?

Wow I'm away for an evening and we have our first baby born! Dances massive congratulations on your beautiful daughter, so glad you are both doing well, fingers crossed you get your cuddles today!

I'm now panicking slightly at my complete naivety around birth plan choices etc! Will have to do some a lot of research so I have half a clue!

I had a weird moment this morning when I bought my monthly train ticket realising I will only need to buy 1 more of these until next year can't believe how fast it's all going!

chicken I know I'm a few pages late () but we have told our family our name choices, we have one name for each so it's pretty much decided now I was hoping this would stop the awful interesting name choices being suggested to us, the most interesting so far have come from the MIL (whom I love dearly and get on really well with, I just don't agree with her name choices!) of Hercules, Thor, Zeus or Red

More reading needed - how on earth did we cope before?? I think i'm going to actually have to buy a book!

Squidge Red! Out of Fraggle Rock! Mine has suggested equally outlandish ones-I think they are exercising a fantasy; in their day people were probably more conservative. Have they stopped suggesting? Mine wouldn't so I'm keeping silent. She also worries and would find s/t to worry about with our name. She works herself into a frenzy about everything. Current issue is snow. It's not snowing here. Lol

Squidge your MIL is on fire! Zeus! I quite like that she's coming up with the outlandish ones.

DD suggested Jesus... the dangers of taking them to church when they're young!

wow squidge they're unusual. DH's Auntie said she delivered a baby before Christmas called Thor and I thought it was unusual then.
My Dad (who doesn't know our baby name) gave me a "lecture" about how choosing "stupid" names affects the child and people should pick "normal" names instead of trying to be outlandish. And how we should chose a middle class manly name like "Pete" "steve" or "ian" Not quite sure how he categorises names lol, I wonder what he'll think of the name Max haha, doesn't seem outlandish to me.
thanks for that link squatting Had a look into the managed third stage as it wasn't something i'd heard of. I think I probably will go for a managed third stage, mainly due to it being suggested for people with anaemia. interesting reading though.

I'm a bit unsure about the delayed cord cutting. I thought jaundice was caused by your baby having your OH's blood type and it's your blood that causes the problem. Well that's what they said to me in the hospital when DD had jaundice. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? (Totally blaming the fact the fire alarm went off in the main building and the fire brigade came I was a bit distracted by all the noise.)

chicken I was incredibly weak after the PPH, they're not sure how much I lost, but estimated at least a litre. I didn't get out of the bed until they took us to the ward in the afternoon, and even then I had to be taken in a wheelchair, and DH had to pretty much carry me to and from the bathroom to go for a wee because I didn't want a catheter. They supposedly ran my bloods and they were supposedly fine, but my iron was very low when I pushed someone to get it checked about a week later and it was suggested that given how low my iron was my blood couldn't possibly have actually been checked before they discharged us the next night...

We had real troubles with breastfeeding but I think that was more because DD was almost 4 weeks early, and tiny, so she was too weak and sleepy to do the work herself, and I didn't have a bloody clue what I was doing, she lost 12% of her body weight by the day three weighing and we ended up back at the hospital were an unsympathetic transitional care nurse convinced us I had to feed her from a bottle to get her back home, and we ended up losing any latch or willingness she'd previously had to breastfeed so I expressed until I dried up :/ I don't think any of the breastfeeding issues we had were caused by the drip or the pph.

squidge treat your birthplace as an opportunity to do research, not a rigid plan or decission. At the end of the day it helps to know what you'd prefer, and to have some idea of what you're being offered, but no birth plan no matter how well it's researched and planed, can change the circumstances that arise during labour. Some midwives don't even look at your birth plan.

totally meant birth plan not birthplace there. I need to turn off autocorrect on this bloody thing!

Too true Boo I was induced so my birth plan wasn't even looked at. I was lucky I got a say in anything that happened from that point on.

Squatting - Thomasina then?

Chicken - I like boo also had a PPH. I lost 1 litre and when they checked my bloods, my haemoglobin count was 6 when it should have been 100 was I was severely anaemic. Wierdly at the time I felt not too bad but on reflection I wasn't well. Didn't affect me BF at all though. I just needs to have iron tablets and drink lots of fluid.
Because of that I'm at increased risk of it happening again so have to have the drip too ( but I suspect it only happened with DD as my labour was v v long and I was 15 days overdue- my uterus was just knackered!)

My lowest haemoglobin level I've had which was actually only a few months before I got pregnant, 2! I remember googling to find out what happens if I hit 0! I was still walking around, granted feeling funny but definitely not too bad.

Hence why I've been so careful with my iron levels, I'm to take one pill a day now .

Think I need to do some reading to decide on birth plan things. Does anyone know if you can donate cord blood if you have delayed cord clamping? Or does delaying the clamping effectively use up the blood you would be donating?

I'm having a bit of an overwhelmed moment - it just hit me that this little person I haven't even met yet is going to change the rest of my life. A decision DH and I made last summer has changed everything. Eeek! It's not that I don't want things to change, I couldn't be looking forward to anything more, I think it's just all hit me and become quite real for some reason. It's hard to picture life when he arrives because I've no idea what he will look like, he's just this abstract wiggly thing at the moment. He doesn't have a name yet either (although we are down to two).

chicken I'm no expert, but it does seem from my friends, sisters and preg yoga ladies that PPH can affect breastfeeding success and most have ended up doing mixed feeding. it IS possible (theoretically) to go back to full bf after mixed feed but requires a lot of expressing, a lot of energy and a lot of rest.

my theory is that if your body is v run down (which it can be pph, depending too whether you have a transfusion) then it struggles to make all the milk. I think in times gone by you'd have continued to feed and probably got a wet nurse whilst your supply built up. But of course there aren't many of those about these days.

my birth plan last time simply said "please deliver her safely with as little damage to her or me as possible".

This time I will be asking for

• no pethidine. didn't work, affected DD for days and also meant at birth she had to be whisked off to paediatric folks so no delayed clamping, no time for dh to cut the cord, etc etc.

I want to start in the MLU but am fully prepared to go to the delivery suite for an epidural if the pain is v bad again.

BTW, I think vit k is not just for random health, it's to boost their blood clotting ability, especially important if a traumatic birth. I chose it for DD, anyway. managed third stage is fine by me.

since I know I'm having a caesarian, my birth plan is "do what the doctors tell me unless it sounds stupid, in which case question it!"

anything beyond that is out of my control anyway

Thanks for the info about managed third stage everyone - it does seem to be swings and roundabouts in terms of safety. I think I'd probably go for managed simply because it gets it all over quicker and without the need for more pushing (I was so exhausted last time). As long as I can combine it with delayed cord clamping.

Boo I struggled a lot with BFing DD too, sleepy issues like you, at the time I put it all down to prematurity but (much) later discovered she was tongue tied which was making it much harder work for her. So worth getting that checked out this time, esp as it runs in families.

(I may have mentioned tongue tie before on this thread once or twice probably more it's something I have a real bee in my bonnet about since it's so often not looked for or wrongly ruled out).

Banana I know what you mean - even though this is my second I am finding it a bit hard to connect the wriggles with an Actual Baby. I look at baby clothes and end up buying for DD1 because at least I know what she looks like!

Lauren jaundice is excess bilirubin in the blood but I think there can be lots of causes for that. Low blood sugar and dehydration definitely make it more likely. Not sure about the OH blood thing - if you are -ve blood and OH is +ve and baby is +ve then that can cause rhesus disorder unless you get the anti D jabs, but I didn't know that was linked to jaundice.

Some midwives don't even look at your birth plan. Yes I've heard this Boo. I've heard advice to keep the birth plan really short - as in, 5-10 points max - if you want any chance of them reading it or remembering it at the relevant time!

Thank you for the advice re birthplan, I'm fairly laid back anyway and would mostly do what the MWs tell me to, I would just like to know the risks etc. for example I'd never heard of pethidine before and wouldn't have known how poorly received it is by almost everyone I've since encountered that had it!

A lady at work wrote on her birth plan 'I really don't know how I will feel in labour or what I will want, so please ask me'

Just for the record all of MILs names have been vetoed! Jett was another one she decided we should have...we bought her a kitten for her 50th last month and called him Hercules Thor, to use up some of the awful names if she carried on we'll have to get her a rabbit called Zeus Red haha

chicken now we have decided and both agree the suggestions seem to have waned, although she still calls bump our little Hercules

hiding I love the name Max! It was on our shortlist, but OH didn't like it as much as me we have decided on Oscar for a boy instead, which I LOVE

mini I'll definitely get that looked into this time round, I'm going to be making full use of the breastfeeding ladies that work with the sure start centres near me, so I can get them to check over and over again if we encounter issues. I'm not expecting pain relief to be an issue as all they'd give me last time was gas and air because I was contracting without actually dilating (1-10 in the time it took to run a bath!) so If I come across the same dilation fun again this time they'll refuse all of the cool stuff until it's too late again anyway.

Last time round I'd filled in the birth plan section that's at the back of my hand held notes, and I went on and on at the midwife about how she should read it because my community midwife hadn't had a chance to see it, and she didn't even open the page. The midwife coming on shift just before I had DD did look at it, she told me it was a lovely birth plan, but I wasn't exactly going to get a birthing pool now... This time my list of general bullet points will be printed and laminated, and I'm going to ensure DH has a copy and that there's a copy with my handheld notes, my hope is that they'll find it fairly useful as it has all the key points... Might take out the part about allowing student medical folk just to cut this one down as my new community midwife didn't even give me the option to refuse the student she had with her not that I would have so I'm expecting a similar situation if there's a student on the labour ward.

banana You'll need to check if there's somewhere near you that takes the cord blood, as there was nowhere near me when I looked into it.

www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/cordblood/howtodonate/wherecanidonate/ you also need to give consent in advance.

Lol Squidge so glad Mil got a pet. A snake or a rat might put a stop to it hoho. Was about to say, mine needs a pet or a doll upon which to bestow some of these names.