July 2015 - into the final trimester we go!

[broodylicious]

Hope this works....

Just catching up ladies - we are away for a few days in Chester.

loopy, how are you feeling now? Hope you managed to get a good sleep and feel refreshed. It's easy for people to say relax and take it steady but it's not always easy to comply, is it

Gorgeous names going on. Emmeline is beautiful. I also knew how to pronounce it so you shouldn't have too much concern.

Our girls name is Xanthe. We don't have any connection to Greece, dh and I haven't even been there together, but we just love the name. Middle name possibly Lauren or Coral. Boys names on the list are Harrison, Max and Samuel, with middle names of Thomas or Felix. Eeek. So they're out there now!

Feeling better and not in as much pain today, dh has two days off so I don't have to do much at all today and tomorrow which should help me be more up and about for Thursday onwards, mil dil and sil are all going to help out with school runs from now on. Dil dropped me in it with the midwife by telling her exactly how much I'm doing. Some absolutely beautiful names on this thread :) not long left now x

Hi ladies

Sorry I've been inactive on here. I've been very sick for the past week. Lo is so big now, when she squirms it makes me wretch !
Also been having some teen troubles here so hands, head and heart been full !

Hope you lovely lot are all well and good.

I will read back now and catch up.

33 weeks today - eeek :)

Glad you're feeling a bit better Loopy. Hope that your teen troubles resolve themselves Arete.

I'm feeling dreadful after my whooping cough vaccination. Awful night's sleep, temperature, nausea and aching muscles. It will teach me right for being smug last night about having no problems with it.

I have a breastfeeding information thingy to go to tonight. I'm taking my mum with me, as my DH cannot make it. I'm just curious if there is anything new they can tell me, as I'm pretty knowledgeable about breastfeeding as it is.

broody you might be surprised how many names are of Greek origin that we think of as English so I don't think having been to Greece is necessary to enjoy a Greek name at all. I love a Greek name, especially if it has a nice classical story behind it. Xanthe is lovely. The question is, will your LO definitely be blonde?

We are still having trouble with the name. There's one we both like but I'm not totally sure I'm completely happy with it. I've been trying to leave it mentally and see what LO is like when she pops out, but can't help having a renewed stress about it periodically!

Been a bit worried about LO today as not been as active as I've got used to recently. Only a few small kicks and twists and one mild hiccups session. If she doesn't have her evening kicking session tonight I shall have to worry more officially!

Glad your feeling better loopy and hope you feel better soon arete and Zampa

Our lo will prob not be blonde small, no. But our dd isn't a flower either

The breastfeeding information offered no new information to me at all!

So many lovely names! Hope LO has stopped worrying you banana and hope you feel better arete.
Has anyone been reading any parenting books they can recommend? Am planning to do a lot of relaxing and reading on holiday next week and would like something useful - but nothing too hardcore or prescriptive if you know what I mean... Also in the market for novel suggestions if anyone has any

We've been reading this:
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fourth-Trimester-Understanding-Protecting/dp/0520267125

A really nice book about the early days and baby's development - nicely based in research but on the soft and gentle end of everything, really!

I have had a rough night and am terribly tired today. Not good when you have a shitload of things to do!

That's a great book badidea - I found it useful with dd because I do not agree with the likes of gina ford or these experts who tell you to get "training" babies as soon as they're born. This book gives a good insight into what babies actually need those first essential three months (clue - it's not endless clothes, expensive changing bags or top of the range monitors....)

I'm qualified to care for mine! I've never used a book. I was very lucky in that I'm 10 years older than my youngest brother, so I saw what my mum did with him and had him cling off me from the age of 18 months! (still spends once a week here, more during holidays)

baby had a lazy day yesterday. just a few little wriggles so will be keeping an extra close eye on movement today.

LO still moving but still a bit lazy in comparison to recently. I think she's moved a bit over to my left so I'm wondering if her kicks are being cushioned by my anterior placenta over there (never get kicks top left but do top right so I'm guessing that's where it is). I'll see how LO goes today and talk to the midwife tomorrow as I'm seeing her anyway, unless I'm given more cause for concern today and have to move more quickly. You spend the whole first trimester worrying about mc, and now about kicks in third trimester! Eek.

banana, mine has been relatively quiet for some days now. But I can feel the back of my baby pushing against my front, the bum in right there at the top. Most kicks are going against my back in this position and I can't really feel those. But I do get the occasional punch or kick, so I'm not worried.

Thanks fatty I think LO is less snooze today so feeling better. I will still mention it to midwife anyway tomorrow.

DH and I looked at some car seats and prams/buggies today. Some of them seem to need a degree in bending just to close them Tricky choices!

Why are husbands so bloody infuriating? Can't wait for dh to go back to work tomorrow. He ordered a headset for our ps4 without checking compatibility, payed through the nose for guaranteed next day delivery and now it's here it's not compatible, but he's dicking on trying to make it fucking work anyway despite me starting the returns process off all because he hates going into our local game shop rather than ordering random shite online. I know I'm being a little unreasonable but my hormones are just all over the bloody place.

Banana I know that feeling! Some are just so complicated, hope you find one you like soon :)

Thank you ladies x

Still being sick and feeling bloated every night :( any tips for relieving the bloat greatly appreciated.

Teen dramas still ongoing. DD and I have different ideas as to how her life should progress, apparently I have to allow her to make some mistakes

The names mentioned above are all lovely. I keep going back to Thea.... Really quite like it.

Ah loopy hormones are all over the place here too - breathe :)

Clstow I read attachment parenting on hols (Dr William Sears) and found it really interesting and v easy to read. Probably on a v similar vein to the 4th tri book. Defo no baby training in there either!

Broody love the name Xanthe (was actually on my list if having a girl!!!).

Fatty (and any other breastfeeding experts there) got a Q for you:

I'm going antenatal bf support session next Tues so will ask there too but really keen to know what your thoughts are on allowing MrF to do a bottle feed?

I want to exclusively bf but also really want to help MrF to bond / attach to baby. So I'm thinking expressing for a bottle feed from daddy for in evening time.

But...Worries include

1. when.to start this (think definitely not for 2-3 weeks, maybe month)?

2. would literally just one bottle a day make baby confused / go off boob? We have already got some tommee tippee closer to nature bottles as did read they were good to swap between boob n bottle.

I read (poss in that book or elsewhere) that if daddy "bf" should get skin to skin and hold bottle as if it was his boob, so helps mimic mummy bf. So he was gonna do that. But again does that lead to no2 worry = baby confused more!

any comments welcome and seriously am I overthinking all this??!!

Yay mrsf! We are big advocates of AP here and will be following the principles again with this bubba. What I love about it is that you can take or leave as much as you want to.

Re breastfeeding and expressing... The advice is to not try to express until your supply is settled and steady. I'd say from my experience that'd be about six weeks. In the mean time, skin to skin contact with daddy is super. My dh did that a lot in the first few weeks and I truly believe - along with our AP style - that it has helped their bonding and relationships. Oh and one bottle of expressed wouldn't confuse baby, I don't think.

MrsF we left it for about 5 weeks before giving dd one expressed bottle at bedtime and that seemed to work fine. I bf until 11 months, increasing the bottles very slowly over that time. We will probably do something similar this time as I know a few people whose babies refused the bottle later on and they felt very tied down for a while.

mrsf there is so much more to bonding than feeding a baby, so it isn't necessarily the only answer. As Broody says above skin to skin is very effective, and interacting/talking/singing to your baby when they have their little awake periods is far more important. I think people associate bonding and feeding because of the breastfeeding facillitating bonding thing, but part of that is the baby smelling you, hearing you, touching you, feeling your heartbeat. It's the other stuff that goes on during a feed. I am not saying don't do the bottle feed thing, just that if it is the only reason you are giving one and you really want to exclusively breastfeed then maybe look at other ways dads can bond. I will be adding in a bottle after the first month but this is because I plan to bottlefeed from 6/7 months as I am going to be 40 and I want to get my period going asap so we can try for a second child with the best chance of success. I am putting the bottles in to try to make sure the baby doesn't out right reject the bottle when it comes time to change. For bonding my DH wants to do nappies etc and bath/bed time amongst other things. Totally up to you guys of course, just with you saying you want to exclusively bf, and there are so many other more important ways to bond. I guess it comes down to how strongly you feel about it!!

Agree with what the others have said re bf and bonding. I exclusively bf for the first 6 months then continued alongside food till 1 year. But Dh bonded with DD by spending time with her, doing skin to skin etc and they are so close (in fact DD is super clingy to him at the moment!). I never bothered with a bottle, put DD straight onto cups at 6 months in preparation for me going back to work at 7.5 months. Took her a few weeks to get the hang of it and she didn't fully take to it until I wasn't there during the day but she was fine. They usually are so not something to stress over too much in the early days if you don't want to introduce a bottle early on.