November 2015 Thread - Teams Yellow, Pink and Blue selection has started!

[tootsroots]

For all those lovely bumps incubating until last few days of Oct and all November, spilling possibly over to December for the super comfortable babies- come and chat, rant, vent, chant, glow, sweat, watch nails grow whilst doing antenatal pilates/yoga/sleeping/eating/navel gazing and over analyse to your hormones content!

Optional - FB group is up and bumping, PM me with email to be added.

Mmmmmmmm quichhhhhhhe.

Pinka I hope all is well when you get to the hospital.

What's a good breast feeding book? Someone mentioned one, might have been on FB but I can't remember what it was!

Thanks all. Tried to post in a and e but it wouldn't let me. After a very thorough check, bloods, pulse, cervix and heartbeat they couldn't see anything wrong. Was really freaking out in triage. Pulse went through the roof. A worried Dh then decided to come and a very kind colleague drove him there. Phew! They were talking about doing a scan which would have been nice but also nice that they saw no need to do so. Drinking tea in the garden now. Dh is being sweet and fussy too which is nice.

Baby was in a much better position today so anomaly scan take two was a success. Sonographer was excellent and I could actually make out all the different bits, so interesting.

She also managed to catch a photo of baby 'waving'. Or giving us the finger!

Very pleased to hear all is well Pinka and tea in the garden sounds lovely.

Lady great news on the scan and how funny on the finger! Ha!

Pinka glad all is ok!

Bowiesjumper look on youtube much easier when you can see what is done. I had a proper binge.
Pinacolada what a relief rest up now.
LadyStark are you in the yellow camp?
Has anybody calculated the current ratio of pink,blue,yellow?

Great news Pinka and Lady

Found out today a lady from baby group is pregnant too. We rather awkwardly saw each other in the hospital when I had my 20 week scan. Her DD is the same age as my DS, so it'll be nice to have another small age gap loon in the area

Phew pinka.
My post natal experience was the opposite. No room on the ward so stayed in the delivery room for 8 hours after birth and then was sent home. DD hadn't latched but they just said that she probably would later and discharged us. I asked at what point I would need to give formula if she didn't latch, they didn't respond and just said to see how it goes. She didn't latch for another 8 weeks so I exclusively pumped. Fucking abysmal treatment.

We found out a coupe of weeks ago and we are team pink!

I'd like to breastfeed this time around but my experience with dd means that I'll not beat myself up too much if it doesn't work out. We bf for 3 months, and had problems right from the start and contradictory advice from various midwives. I'd also recommend bf peer support groups, the volunteers are so lovely and patient and most have gone through the common problems (thrush, reflux, tongue tie, mastitis etc) first hand so are usually more understanding than a professional whose never experienced bf. I was told by one health visitor that she couldn't see a problem at all and dd was feeding fine, despite losing weight at 3 months and screaming when I put her near my breast.

Bowies the book that's most often recommended for breastfeeding is the horribly titled Womanly art of breastfeeding. I may have a very old addition but it does clearly declare that women should stay at home for a substantial period of time, which I personally find enormously difficult to handle but that's just me. The rest of the info is very good.

La Leche league also has a listing of books. It does lots of helpful leaflets on everything from basic latch issues, common challenges, mastitis, milk supply etc - 10-12 of which I've bought and will scan and make available up here when they arrive.

I'm planning to bf but will try and be relaxed if any issues. At our scan today, we didn't find out so we are in the yellow camp. Also, i have to go back as they didn't have a good view of some parts. What they could see was fine though so a relief. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunny evening. A relief that all ok pinka as well.

I'm keen on giving breastfeeding a good go this time. DS and I found it tricky because he was in an incubator for a few days at hospital (for jaundice) so they would only let me take him out for short periods to feed him. We had a quick 5 minutes on the boob then top up with expressed milk or formula. It was exhausting pumping as my milk took ages to come in and my supply was always low as a result. Also tmi I have small nipples but I'm going to give the Lansinoh latch assist a go this time.

There's so many things you cant account for until the time comes, I had never even heard of tongue tie before dd was born, because of that I didn't get to experience breastfeeding at all. With ds he was a pro and latched straight away, it took me a few weeks to get used to it, and for my nipples! But I ended up loving breastfeeding him, unfortunately he has allergies, and we realised he was reacting to my milk when I ate certain things, I couldn't bare seeing him in pain because of something I ate, and was too overwhelmed to attempt an elimination diet, so our breastfeeding journey was cut very short and he was prescribed special allergy friendy formula at around 8 weeks. This time I am determined!! If baby is tongue tied I will fight to get it sorted straight away and if baby has allergies I'm alot more prepared now to take on a strict elimination diet

All I'd say is it's really really good to be determined and its pure determination that kept me bf for a year despite all our problems.
But also keep an open mind. If it doesn't work, you haven't failed. Most important thing is healthy happy mummy and that's something I forgot.

Totally agree Guy. Plus if it doesn't work out formula is really good for babies and they will thrive whichever route you end up taking.

gr33 I felt a bit sore after the scan too- the sonographer was pushing down really hard and it was a bit uncomfortable.

Interesting to hear about the breastfeeding experiences. Off to watch some YouTube clips now!

Oh also, someone recommended 'The food of love' by Kate Evans on breastfeeding. Sorry I can't remember who it was!

Very interesting reading about everyone's experience with BF - I'm going to try and keep an open mind. Ideally I want to do it and will do all I can to make it work, however having seen friends beat themselves up over not being able to, I hope that if we do struggle I'll be able to accept when it's time to stop trying without killing myself over it.

We had our 20 week scan today as well - looks like there were a few of us! We are staying team yellow scan went well… eventually. Baby was asleep and no matter how much they jiggled and poked it just wouldn't move from it's awkward position of bum in the air and arms over face. At one point in the middle they made me get up and do star jumps! In the end after an hour of scanning they made us go off and have a walk and come back an hour later. Thankfully it had moved by then, but then wouldn't stop moving which added it's own problems for the scanner

Only thing is, I've had a bit of a sore right hip all day - and about 40 minutes into scan number 1 I was in absolute agony, all down my right flank into my hip. I had to stop them to try and shift positions, but then by the time we'd gone off for a walk and were back in the waiting room I literally didn't know what to do with myself, was in so much agony. It's feeling a bit better now, but I'm still 'aware' of it if that makes sense. It sort of radiates out from my hip joint down my leg and out into my groin, up into my side etc. Is this just normal pregnancy? Was so painful earlier I was beside myself

Just found this thread and marking. Due Nov 2.

I haven't read the womanly art book but I liked 'the food of love' for breastfeeding advice.

Glad all is OK pinka.

I'm afraid I also had a bad experience on the postnatal ward - sorry to hear this is so common. Avoiding the postnatal ward is a big factor in my hope to have a homebirth this time. It wasn't that anyone was actively unpleasant, just really really busy and unable to provide a basic level of care.

What Guybrush said about being a happy healthy mummy is so important. Its so easy to get so wrapped up with looking after the newborn that you forget to eat and drink. Taking a bit of time each day to have a shower or enjoy a hot cup of tea with both hands was what kept me sane in those early days. Nowadays I make sure at least once a week I give dd to dh and have a nice long soak.

Had scan yesterday, our DS will have a little brother he is so, so excited.

I BF'd DS then mix fed him. Continued to BF til he was 12 months. In hospital after Id had him I was moved to a private room as I was struggling to BF and all the other mums were FF, which helped a lot. It did feel isolating though. Will try to BF and hopefully move on to mixed feeding, but not assuming anything's set in stone really.

Also because I was 17 last time I think everything was a lot easier than it will be this time - certainly pregnancy so far has been trickier, I've felt far more ill. DS was a great baby (and is a great boy), he fed really well, expressing was easy etc - can't see myself being that lucky again!

Loving all the scan news. I have my much respect from you ladies getting the train/tube into London while pregnant. I commute into a city everyday on a rickety old train and nearly always get a seat, on Monday though it was rammed and I almost fainted. Had to ask a kind lady if I could sit her seat. I feel that this might only get worse over the summer!