March 2016 Babies!! Our Grape-sized babies are getting Bigger!

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Thought I'd start our new thread as the old one is full up!

Congrats lara and rosie on your scans, must be lovely to see your little beans wiggling round inside!

With regard to exercise pretty much the only thing I ever do is my weekly belly dance class, mynameis I also belly danced right up to the day before labour with my first at 40+5! I'm hoping to just continue with that (managing fine at the mo due to pretty much no symptoms, although did attempt two classes one after the other this week, 2.5 hours of solid dancing which bloody killed me!). I will try and add a bit of swimming in once I start getting bigger, I'm sure staying at least partially active last time helped to
minimise the aches n pains once you start getting massive! I was paranoid at my class the other night tho that people may have started guessing as seeing my belly in the studio mirrors in all it's massive glory it definitely is looking considerably bigger than a couple of weeks ago. Tried to put a pair of jeans on for work this morning which when standing looked ok, then I sat down and saw the size of my muffin top, I'm guessing they will be going into the cupboard now, almost time to break out the maternity jeans, really trying to hold off tho! How exciting that everyone is getting their scan dates through, my booking in is Monday so really hoping that I get a date shortly after.

Thank you for the 4head recommendation, I'm yet to see if my head still hurts today as I'm currently still in bed!! DH took DD to nursery so I could have a lie in, mind you he moaned about it which turned into me ranting at him! Men don't seem to understand how hard being pregnant is and so I had to remind him exactly what my body is and will be going through!

I'm feeling a bit down this morning and had a cry, I'm just exhausted and even though the nausea now seems to come on later in the day I'm struggling to do day to day things! I'm worried my DD is missing out as we arn't doing as much as we usually do and mummy is just a mopey waste of space at the moment! DH is not helping me by saying 'you've not got cancer, you're pregnant!!'

All this talk of exercise! I'm feeling v guilty...never a big fan of structured exercise and absolutely loathe the very idea of the gym. But since my bfp even my regular power walking when out and about with DD in the buggy and my (very) occasional swim have gone by the wayside. Still feeling just grim and constantly exhausted. Bring on 12 weeks! Saying that though with DD I was sick until 22 weeks . But sickness started much early this time so hopefully won't go on as long as 22 weeks!

Good luck to those having appts and scans. I have my booking in tomorrow and obstetrician on Saturday. Scan on August 25th...less than two weeks now huzzah!

Welcome to any new people...sorry not quite on top of latest comings and goings as we've just got back from holiday

I've had the intention of going swimming every morning for the last three weeks and haven't been once :S Just been too knackered.

Need to do something though as I've put on 4lbs already and my BMI at my booking appt was 26. I'm only 5ft 2 so you can see every single pound I put on! Midwife didn't comment on it but I was .

There is no hiding my bump now. Whether it's actual bump or just baby bloat I don't know, but I can't suck it in!

Same here with the bump maybe. Two people who know I'm pg have independently said 'Ooo you're showing already'. Cheers. My tummy is far from flat at the best of times but it's definitely looking pg now. Weird when you think the baby is still only the size of a grape allegedly. I guess the uterus itself is much bigger

I don't exercise either but for anyone choosing to breastfeed - I genuinely believe that was my ticket to getting back in shape after giving birth the first 3 times. Shitting myself that it won't work this time, especially as I'm older (well, 26 feels old compared to 19, 21 and 23 ).

Re "bumps"... yesterday I woke up with a full bladder and could plainly see/feel my uterus popping up It was ace. I was going to post a pic but it's from a bit of a dodgy angle

Exercising in the first three months is supposed to help your bean as it increases the blood flow. Just in case you need motivation :-) I'd only just started running again after ds1 and was wondering why I wasn't getting any better lol. Breastfeeding and weight loss didn't work for me but I did inhale flapjacks and lactation cookies so it is my own fault! Great news on the scans so far

beautiful yes that's what my mum said re: breastfeeding. I'll definitely BF if I'm able to.

I will try to go swimming tomorrow! In my defence I do do a lot of walking (a good 30 minutes a day on average, but not very fast).

MyName I've added you on the spreadsheet hun, check and let me know if the info is correct :)

Beautiful I watched it last night and I was in tears, DP thinks I'm going to be a nightmare in the delivery room haha C-section bit made me cringe and scared

Regarding exercise, I haven't done any yet! My BMI was 19.5 a few months before I got pregnant so was worried two weeks ago at my booking app that the midwife will say I'm underweight, I'm 5'2 but she checked me and I am now 21.5 so happy hopefully i can control it tho haha

I suppose if the babies are grape size, they're in about a lemon's worth of fluid, and then the uterus lining is thicker too. So we've got more-than-normal pre-menstrual bloat (which is always noticeable for me, has always given me the fear if AF is a day or two late), and a lemon (with a grape inside) in there too.

All that down in your pelvis, on top of your bladder shoving your (swollen, gas-filled) intestines up and over the top of your (ok, well my) pubic bone. Which is why my belly is so wobbly. and my 8 meals a day

Rosie my BMI is normally 18.5-19.5 and I've never been told I'm underweight (it's normal for me, and there's not a lot I could do to change it).

With DS they didn't really monitor my weight, I guess because I looked 'acceptable'. The NHS is so focussed on weight rather than health sometimes. I was worried about GD or pre-eclampsia sometimes but constantly got responses about being too slim for it to be likely. A bit like the opposite of how heavier people have everything blamed on their weight without proper consideration or investigation. There has to be a better way.

Now that I think about it, calculating the BMI of a pregnant person had to be completely invalid. It's such a flawed system. A better system is the hip to waist ratio, but again, useless in someone with a swollen uterus!

Aargh, weight! I hate the preoccupation with it!

BMI is really a load of crap anyway IMO...my boobs alone weigh a stone!

I think as long as you're happy and healthy....that's fine :)

Rosie I always get emotional at OBEM but I've never once cried after delivery apart from the pain of it

I'm going to weigh myself today after all this talk! Probably won't be impressed with the scales!

Indomitable I completely agree, when you weigh yourself at the gp they say under 20 is underweight, it's a joke I hate it because I used to eat everything and anything but still can't put weight on. So I'm glad that I've put on a bit of weight but I'm happy because I know I was never agree looked underweight and always looked healthy so Fuck you BMI!! hahaha

maybe that's it that's how I see it.

Weird question, I keep looking at my scan picture and it looks like baby is sucking it's thumb is that possible? is it too early at 10 weeks to be seeing that?

I'm not going anywhere near the scales! too depressing haha. I read somewhere that by 9/10 weeks your uterus has grown from size of a plum to a grapefruit so maybe that can contribute to the bump?

I don't have any excuse for not exercising as I have a exercise bike in my front room! so I don't have to do anything except put exercise clothes on and get on it haha but still struggling.

I also lost my baby weight quite easily with DD through BF and walking lots in the first 6 months, then cycling once 6 months had passed. In fact once I stopped BF (at 15 months pp), I put on 3 pounds within a month! hadn't even really thought I was feeding enough at the time to make a difference to my weigh but apparently I was wrong . planning to BF this time, hopefully for longer as I really wanted to make it to 18 months, but knew I was going to want to TTC soon and wanted a few months of my body to myself!

Beautiful I'm so scared of labor, OBEM just shows you different scenarios and some are nice and easy and some are so scary like yesterday's one when the anesthetic eased off while she was having a c-section I nearly died watching that

I am 5ft 4 and apparently today weigh 150kg (god knows what that is in stone)
Had literally just started the c25k app 2 weeks before getting bfp so wasn't far enough into that to continue, fully intend to start it up again after baba is here though - I really enjoyed getting out for 30 mins on my own.

Just working 8-4 5 days a week is killing me off at the minute, can't imagine exercising too.

Was grannys funeral yesterday, thanks for all your thoughts and messages last week. It was a lovely day and very fitting for her, definitely needed that to help my head get around the fact I can't see her 3 times a week anymore.

I'm scared too Rosie. But I think that's why gestation period is a loooong 9 months. Cos honestly, by March you will be just dying to get pregnancy over with and meet your baby! So that kind of drives the fears away. I do think I've been quite lucky with birth though - the labours weren't very long and all were out within 2-5 minutes of pushing.

Hugs for Q

Regarding birth/labour: by the time it came around with DS I was so pleased to be not pregnant anymore (I did not enjoy it!) that it was fine. I had a couple of hours of pushing, which was fine, it was something I could get involved in. I don't think it hurt as much as the early contractions did. And then I had a 3rd degree tear that stung a bit. I had to have surgery to fix it afterwards, which I could've done without, but it was fine (spinal block). Oh, I was transferred by ambulance from MLU to Big Hosp (30 mins) due to meconium in waters. That was the worst bit, having to lie down. And was the only time I used G&A.

I loved labour. Yeah it hurt and I whinged all the way through! But it was so much better than being pregnant!

I recommend Ina May Gaskin's books and a birth hypnosis CD. I was worried I'd panic, but in the event I was fine.

Beautiful you're so lucky I hope that's the case for me, I don't mind pain but because I don't know how painful it is I'm just nervous, hopefully I don't end up in a 70 hour labour haha

I had a nasty experience on tuesday at the EPU, when I had my scan I though it was going to be transvaginal but they said i'm far enough to do an abdominal one which I was quiet happy about, then a trainee nurse who just started said that she need to do some internal swabs, she tried twice to do swabs and it was so uncomfortable and then she was like I can't see your cervix I was actually in tears of how uncomfortable it was, looked like she didn't know what she was doing then a senior doctor came in and done it in two seconds and I was in no pain, dp went mad at them, on the way out it just made me realised how scared I am if anything goes wrong, I dont really trust anyone :(

I don't often weigh myself. At booking in I was half a stone heavier than I was last time I checked! My BMI is at the top end of "normal" usually, about 23.5, but the midwife said it was 25.

However she did weigh me with my shoes on ... I weighed myself last night before I got in the shower and was 4lb lighter than what she said. So I don't think I've put on any weight in the last 4 weeks!

I seriously think most of my additional weight has gone on my boobs. They are enormous and feel like rocks!

rosie that sounds really unpleasant. I hate to say it but I would recommend not allowing trainees to do anything to you when in labour. I had it on my birth plan that I was happy for trainees to be involved in my care, but the trainee midwife measured my dilation completely wrong! after that nobody seemed to check, and I ended up being told to push when I was only 6 and a half cm. Was a bit of a nightmare. I also ended up with a trainee anesthetist who couldn't really deal with giving me the epidural as I was struggling to keep still with frequent contractions. not their fault but really made me think twice about allowing it in the future. I think this time round (if I'm in hospital to give birth) I'll say I'm happy for them to observe but not be involved!

for those scared of labour - for what it's worth, my labour was awful (48+ hours), with 13 hours in the hospital and all kinds of interventions I hadn't wanted (monitoring, epidural, syntocin drip, episiotomy), I was tired, no sleep for two days and it was very painful (back to back). but I had a natural unassisted birth after all that, and once it's over I forgot it all very quickly. I guess what I'm trying to say is it might be awful but you will get through it somehow. I think for me it was less the pain than the feeling that I wasn't physically going to be able to actually get DD out. You can watch OBEM and see all these awful births, that might happen to you but if it does it'll be forgotten in no time! and you might always be one of the lucky ones who have an easy going birth . I'm definitely doing some breathing classes this time round, with DD I went to NCT but we spent bugger all time on breathing and when in labour I literally had no clue what to do

For those worrying about birth, just to say my mum has had four kids and had straightforward labours with each one more or less - I was the longest at 6 hours, my sister was 4 hours, my other sister was 1.5 hours and my brother was 6 hours again (and the hardest one, she says, as he came out face first rather than head first IYSWIM so she had to stretch an extra few inches).

She no intervention or pain relief with any of us (not even gas and air as she hated it).

So there are positive stories out there as well as negative. I don't deny I am shitting myself though. Terrified of having a C section - was so cringing at OBEM last night!!