March 2016 Babies!! Thread #7 The one where we all say.... "Stay put Flump!!"

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Stay where you are Flump!!!

My baby doesn't react at all when I poke him - should I sorry?

He's generally pretty quiet in the morning and then goes nuts in the evening.

Gem, glad all is well

maybe - "should" is probably a strong word! I gave mine a gentle shove to try to move him out from under my ribs, he just happened to wake up and have a proper wriggle. A lot of the time he wouldn't though. I wouldn't worry.

Suz that's a really good point. Generally DH was pretty good last time (though kept putting cups of tea just out of my reach - he's already been primed to use the thermal mug and put it within arms reach!). Though when the wrap arrives I plan on teaching him how to use it for eventualities just like that which you describe.

Maybe don't panic... He may just be in a position where he can't feel your pokes fully. Try laying in different positions and a sugary drink.

Last night I had gone through the whole day not feeling her much- but I was at work so kinda just thought she would just get going when I got chilled out at home, which sometimes happens. I had a bath, a can of coke, laid in all different positions and still only felt one or two faint movements so decided to ring them and go in. It had been a number of hours really. Yes I do feel reassured although I'm meant to be getting a phone call early this morning about going in for a scan, she did say around 9am, I'm going to give it until 10am and then ring them. She's wiggling around this morning

I'm glad I went in. I didn't feel silly at all, the midwife was so reassuring and interested in making sure baby was ok and I was ok and I didn't feel at all like I had wasted their time. So if anyone is worried about reduced movements try the usual tricks, give it an hour then ring them. Don't mess.

With regard to BF, we bought one of the Avent starter kits, it was £60 (half price) so we thought it was a bargain. Nits got a hand express and steriliser as well as a load of bottles. I really want to breast feed, it's a real 'dream' of mine to be able to do it. Sounds strange even though I feel this way, if I can't manage it I will happily switch to bottle. It's not the be all and end all. I know there will be plenty of perseverance required and me and baby will have to work together and if we do it brilliant. If we don't, baby being fed is more important. Hubby wanted to buy a tommee tippee perfect prep 'just in case' but I drew the line. I know we will use bottles at SOME POINT so the kit will get used.

mynameissuz you will have to get a nice new lock on your bathroom door

Have a good day everyone x

He's been moving around after I had breakfast, so not worried, just wondering as everyone else seems to be able to poke their babies to get then to move

I do have anxiety though so the keeping an eye on movement thing does my head in a bit, I have to say.

maybe I know the feeling.

I learnt to palpate babies/feel for the head and check if it's free or engaged at uni, so I always do it to my own babies. It's crazy feeling the head wiggle from side to side, but I'm glad she's head down. DH thinks I'm mean!

Suz your last experience with breastfeeding and your DH brings back memories. I'd go for a shower and even though it was my only break for the whole day I'd come downstairs and he'd practically throw the baby at me, then get back to his game or whatever. I will definitely talk to him like you have with yours. And keep giving him "the look" when he makes noises about buying a ps4. No fucking way! Also, hope you feel better soon :)

Me, I did actually find breastfeeding quite easy panicking at the thought of having a prem baby that can't feed as I cba to make bottles so you never know! I also got addicted and fed past 6 months. The reasons for this were because they were too young for cow's milk and I don't get formula etc, and I get skinny when I breastfeed so was loathe to stop!

Most people I know have breastfed past 6 months - is the norm to stop at 6 months? 'D' sis (we don't get on) still breastfeeds my DN who is 3.5 (think that's a bit much but each to their own). Think my mum breastfed us all til 1.5 and my brother 2.5

God knows what I'll do, just interested in what others do?

DS - fed until 9 months. One day it just felt horrible and I wanted him off me. I felt really guilty but if you watch animals they're all the same. Will feed their young happily but after they get more independent the children still keep trying to get milk and the mums run off geek

DD1 - fed until 10 months. Felt a little bit guilty about stopping but wanted to conceive. Got pregnant the week I stopped feeding.

DD2 - fed until 12 months. She just stopped herself. Went from not leaving me alone to not being remotely interested overnight. Couldn't believe it!

They all had cow's milk after they stopped (health visitor said it was fine). And they never ever tried to feed again. I did not miss nursing bras!

Of my group of antenatal friends, one bottle fed from three weeks as she really struggled, one moved to bottles when her boy had an operation at around six weeks, two others mix fed and eventually moved to bottles only. Four of us carried on for at least a year. I cut down a lot on feeds from around nine months and stopped altogether by 15 months.

As others have said, after the first few weeks it gets easier and there's no reason really to move to bottles - I had a really hard time at first as he struggled to latch which was really painful, fell asleep a lot, fed all the time and had reflux, and I think he was about ten weeks before we really got into the swing of it. By that point, I couldn't imagine getting my head around another thing, couldn't see when I'd tidy my tiny kitchen enough to make space for bottles, and after so much hard work I was more determined to carry on, my 'see how it goes' attitude just disappeared!

I also had the Avent starter kit Gem, definitely worth it. I used the bottles for expressing and for gaviscon, which he had to have six times a day.

I think your dh is just like mine Beautiful, he's talking about replacing the Xbox! To be fair though, it's on its last legs and we do use it for all media, Netflix etc, and don't have sky or anything or a separate DVD player. So I think he might be in luck!

I carried on till DS was 2 for a range of reasons - mainly because it was an easy way to get a bit longer in bed in the morning!

When I went back to work he wasn't yet weaned. I expressed for him for about 6 weeks (took him to 6 months) then introduced formula for the time I was at work, and BF'd evenings all night and weekends. It eventually went down to just morning & evening (naturally, no effort) and when he finally stopped waking in the night it kind of petered out naturally.

I did feed to sleep. And eventually made the conscious decision to continue doing so because it got us all back to sleep waaay quicker than any alternative, and at that point, sleep was the priority. If I'd had a year off and could spare the time between 9-12 months, maybe some effort & sleep training would have got him sleeping through earlier, but I couldn't spend half the night up and then drive to work & teach a full day. It was a lesser of two evils type situation (and an extra cuddle in the night I wouldn't otherwise get!).

He naturally stopped feeding to sleep, and went down awake and chatted to himself before he fell asleep, and not long after that he started sleeping through.

I found having a small baby really hard. But breastfeeding was the one thing I could do (well, after the reflux was sorted!).

Suz I'm actually so glad we're in a similar boat! We do have an Xbox, which I don't despise as much as I used to because I can use it for Love film and my Bad Girls box set. But then his friend gave him a ps3. And he's "skint". So no DH, you do not need a bloody ps4!!

Although he did win £100 in a scratchcard the other day, and spent it on ingredients to make us a meal from scratch, and new kitchen stuff we needed, so I thought that was quite cute.

Right, I need to get up!

No you don't, Beaut, make the most of resting!

I've got as far as a shower and trackies, DH is playing GameCube (retro) with DS.

I was going to put a white wash on and figured I may as well top it up with baby bits. So now I'm sitting on my bed (reading MN) sorting all the baby clothes I've dug out into age piles. I loved some of these outfits! Some of them have done 3 babies already! This one will be #4 in the circuit! (They've aged quite well, actually!)

Your dh might surprise you me - I thought mine wouldn't be very supportive because pre-baby he always seemed a bit weirded out by bf and his parents are very anti bf, but he was really amazing in the end. I think I would have switched to formula by day 4 if he hadn't been there steralising nipple shields (still shuddering at the memory of those!), bringing me cups of tea, and helping to get the baby in the right position to feed, etc.

I found prep before the baby was born really helpful with getting bfing started too - so watching videos/looking at step-by-step photos of how to get the latch right and having numbers of bfing helplines to hand. And yes it hurts to start with but paracetamol helps, and its so worth it imo.

Stupid question here but how would I know if I'm rhesus negative or not? I'd assumed I wasn't as no one had mentioned it to me after my initial blood tests, but I just found my blood test report from my booking in appointment and I can't see anything mentioning any kind of rhesus. Says my blood type is O positive if that means anything.

It just suddenly struck me that at my 28 week appt the midwife said 'you're not rhesus negative, are you?' and I said no, not to my knowledge, but shouldn't she have known that?!

I think they test for it in the first set of bloods, and you'd only know if you were. The midwife should have known though!

There are blood groups A, B, AB and O, and then there is whether you are rhesus positive or negative.

So if your blood group is O+, you are rhesus positive.

Thank you :) I am clueless!

(I'm supposed to know how blood group is inherited, for A level bio, but I don't/haven't taught that module, so I still don't know!)

Righto you chatty bunch!!

Here's thread 8:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/2539440-March-2016-Babies-New-Year-New-Thread-8

Ok, I will rest! Just watching DIY SOS that I had on series record and found DD2 asleep in DS' bed, DS laid across his bed playing on his Leap Pad, and I can't find DD1, oops! I think she must be in her bed but couldn't see, will check again

I really don't know what size clothes to pack in the hospital bag for the baby. I think she'll be out by 37 weeks, but I don't know for sure (going to pester the consultant on Wednesday!). My biggest baby at 40 weeks was 6lb. I don't have anything in Tiny/Early baby!

Could you pack some smaller newborn bits Beautiful, and a pack of unwashed tiny baby bits? That way you can return them if you don't need them.

Thanks Suz, I don't wash new baby clothes anyway so that should be fine. I keep putting off buying them until I get a clearer picture from the doctors!!