March 2016 Babies!! New Year, New Thread - #8

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Thread 8!!! Eight!! Blimey we don't half prattle on

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Wow we are a bunch of crazy cat ladies in the making!.. Mine have taken to staring in a sinister way at DH when hes watching TV like daring him to do anything else to the house.. we have moved a lot of furniture and rooms round.. They are going to be horrified at the arrival of a baby in the house.

Mine's worse vroc, she's been weeing in the hallway we have still matting at the very end by the door and that's where it is, it's impossible to get out and we can't get any fresh air down there as the front door opens into a hallway and there are no windows. Bloody animal!

MyNameIsSuz Mine are worse, last weekend I caught both of them weeing under the cot and I actually started crying :( don't know what to do, I scrubbed the carpet and used my vax steamer on it but I can still smell wee a little. Any advice?

I don't think my two have ever weed in the house - I bet that changes when baby gets here as I'm sure they will be very freaked out! They can open the cupboards and empty cereal all over the floor though...

rosie not sure what you can do other can making sure area is very clean, the problem is if they can still smell wee on there they may do it again. Think you can get special cat odour remover sprays on amazon that work quite well with my mum's cat, might be worth a try?

I am definitely a crazy cat lady (well crazy animal lady actually) - woe betide anyone who asks me what I'm going 'to do' with my cats when the baby arrives. I usually choose between the answer of (a) nothing, given that they're cats and not rabid lions and (b) oh, if they don't get on with the baby, the baby will be the first to go

My SIL won't let any animal within a 20 metre radius of my DN, which I think is really sad as poor DN is growing up with an irrational fear of anything furry :(

maybe they never ever done a wee in the house it's only as soon as the nursery was finished :( you're right I'm either going to get new carpet as the room isn't that big so won't cost much or get cat odour remover just having a look on amazon now.
I absolutely hate it when people ask me what I'm going to do with my cats, seriously? Such an irritating, stupid question!!!! like you said they're cats not lions haha

just catching up after a few busy days not being able to post - wow lots to read! welcome to all the newbies

beaut sorry to hear about your car and your DH being a twat. Hope he learns his lesson - was lucky not to be caught. My dad has lost his licence twice for drink driving - once for 6 months when he got pulled over then again for 2 years after he crashed it when drunk. He hasn't got his licence back yet and says he's learned but I very much doubt it anyway hopefully this gives your DH a bit of a kick up the arse to sort his act out. glad you've managed to make the best of a bad situation and get a nice car that suits your family better though!

had my 34 week MW appt today. went much better than the last one, was with the same MW and she was less distracted/rushed/rude this time. I told her I wanted a home birth and she said that was what they would recommend for me as low risk second time mum, but that I might not be able to have one due to staff shortages :( apparently (and I heard this from my home birth support group as well) there was recently a serious incident meeting for someone who had a home birth last Sept where mistakes were made due to understaffing (the baby and mum were fine in the end, but there were issues and they were dealt with very badly), so she said that they are now being more strict if they don't have staff and will tell me it's 'unsafe' if there aren't enough midwives to cover home birth. Which is a good thing, obviously, but still a big shame that I may not end up birthing at home or even at the hospital 5 minutes down the road! apparently RBH which is my local hospital is often on divert, so think I may have to get myself mentally prepared for not necessarily having the birth I want. but that's fine, so long as I'm ready mentally for it. and then hopefully I can have a home birth anyway.

all else fine other than the fact I've got low iron count so had to be given iron pills gutted about that as they really screw up my (already poor) digestive system and I'm sure going to give me terrible constipation, which I'm already struggling with.

baby is head down at last, yay! but I think pretty much certainly back to back as MW said all she could feel were 'lumps and bumps'. She's moving lots so sometimes I think I can feel her back at the front. A little bit stressed as DD was back to back and it contributed to my crappy long labour last time but at least I know in advance and can prepare myself.

really don't feel I'm prepared at all - suddenly realising it's 6 weeks till due date and me and DP still need to get replacement mattress for the bednest, we need to sort out reusable nappies, a birthing pool for labour (as I will use it even before I go in, if I have to go in), we need to pack the hospital bag (started to collect things for it though).. the list goes on and on. basically all we have are baby clothes and car sear and pram, but everything else needs sorting!

loving everyone's baby names - paper I think it was you a few pages back who said they had decided on Martha for a girl? I absolutely love love love that name, my favourite girls name after DD's name, but DP vetoed it earlier on. We are definitely set on Eleanor Maria now for DD2. Although my yoga teacher's name is actually Eleanor, I'm a little worried it looks weird now? but we chose the name ages ago!

phew, sorry for the essay, been saving a lot up to say!

On cat confessionals one of mine poops on the laminate when shes not digging up my pansies shes the reason we have laminate in the hall, the vet also said she'd be dead by now or she wouldn't have got away with it for so long... Rosie have you tried bicarb of soda? Make a wet paste and really get it into the depths of the carpet (or get DP on the case) then leave it to dry and crust up before hoovering it?

If anyone asks me what I am doing with cats/horses I also tell them the baby goes if they don't like the animals... for parents with 2 children I ask them why they didn't sell the first one before having a second...

Marmite Asda, Boots, Sainsburys and Tescos all have baby events on at the minute and I think Aldi starts this week so if there is much you need you have probably left it to the right time! Shame about your home birth if it doesn't come off, but at least they are going for what is safest!

Can't join in the cat chat - I'm not a massive fan of them tbh - but I think its great for kids to grow up around pets.

haley I can't remember if I posted about it here at the time, but about 2-3 months ago I had some pains in my lower abdomen so I tested my wee just in case (I work in a hospital so very easy to do) and panicked a bit when it showed up as having a small amount of blood in it. I spoke to the on call obs/gynae doc who wasn't concerned and said it was most likely just a random bit of blood, but to check again in a week and to see my doctor if the pain continued or if I actually saw any blood. So it seems its nothing to worry about. If you're concerned you could always ask them to check your urine again in a weeks time?

vroc I'm going to try that, anything is worth trying now! honestly so upset :(

I think we should start posting our finished nurseries! I'd love to see what everyone's done with theirs!

for those of you with kitties who have taken to weeing on the floor, this is never good!
Our 2 used to sleep under the spare bed which was in what will be the baby's room, now if they're let in there they jump into the cot or moses basket and promptly go straight to sleep - we have bought some blankets to put over the items so as not to get fur covered but want them to get used to the room and smells and how it is laid out. The cats sleep in the kitchen/diner on a night so there will be no worries about them jumping on the baby or anything like that, and if we are home during the day they're usually outside most of the day so hoping it won't be too much of a change for them.

We did get brought 2 dead mice yesterday which was a lovely gift for DP to clean up

scared My midwife told me the main reason you're advised not to lift and strain is to not cause yourself any damage rather than baby, the hormones in your system have softened your muscles or something and you're more likely to hurt yourself than baby by doing anything strenuous.

I don't have a nursery as we're living in rented....we'll be moving into our own place hopefully mid-April but I can't get excited about decorating the nursery to be honest....I think I must be missing some kind of essential maternal thing .

Would love to see everyone else's though

No nursery for us either maybe - baby will be in with me for the foreseeable future, we're renting a two bedroom apartment but DH has a sleep disorder so he really needs a room to himself. Next2Me until he outgrows it then I'll look at buying a cot-bed.

I was never a fan of cats (more a dog person myself) till me and DP got a cat 6 years ago and am now converted to a cat lady! I can never understand the whole suggestion that you might want to get rid of your cat(s) when a baby enters the house - err what?! we have a relatively well behaved cat urine wise(!) with no weeing inside but he is a stressy anxious cat who claws the carpet quite a bit. he doesn't like DD at all and was very frightened by her when she was a baby, but he generally just steers clear of her. I remember the first week she was home, me and DP trying to do a middle of the night meconium nappy poo (oh the joy that we have that to look forward to again) and he came to have a look what was happening and she screamed her head off.. he ran away and tbh has kept running from her since! she absolutely loves him and tries to cuddle him whenever she seems him, but the feeling is not mutual generally I think most cats are fine with babies, you just need to be careful with toddlers as they have a tendency to pull cats tails or be a little over enthusiastic with them...

We never really bothered having a 'nursery' set up with DD- perhaps like you maybe I am missing some maternal thing as I could never really be arsed to make a proper 'nursery' though I know some people who have lovely decorated rooms for their children. Me and DP are just too lazy! I also have no idea what we are going to do with DD2 when she is 6 months + and we move her into her own room... DD1 is a poor sleeper so either she will wake up DD2, or DD2 will wake up DD1 so not sure I want them sharing a room. We do have a spare room but it's an attic room and quite cold so it won't be suitable for DD2 and DD1 has quite strong feelings about her room being her room, so not sure we could move her up. will cross that bridge when we come to it!

We don't have a nursery either, we're in a two bed so the baby will be in with us for as long as we can manage, then will fit in with ds. We never did one for him either as we didn't have anywhere for half the stuff in our spare room, we put up the cot and drawers over one side and kept the desk and shelving on the other, stuck up some dinosaur curtains. Now we still have the shelving unit, with a mix of our stuff and his, and some of our stuff in the cupboard, but otherwise it's his room.

I don't think it's a lack of mothering instinct so much as modern life and how we're all made to live. When the cheapest two bed flat with no storage costs a minimum of £200k and anywhere bigger is completely out of reach, you just can't do stuff like that, as much as I would love to.

We're still working on a solution to our cat wee problem. We tried bicarb but it didn't work on the matting, we've now bought some cat wee cleaner from the pet shop and some cat calming spray, feliway-type stuff, and are soaking up the moisture with baby powder which is working really well. Finally don't get hit with an overpowering wee smell when you walk in. Just an overpowering baby powder smell!

No nursery here either! Baby will be with us until we move hopefully this summer depending on when we get our deposit together.

Definitely just lost a chunk of mucus plug. VOM!!

Don't get me wrong baby will with us for the first 6 months but nursery is got her wardrobe and stuff!

I'm getting really strong pain down there, is that normal? I obviously don't know as I'm a ftm but seriously it's like random painful stabs down there! She's moving like mad too

Blimey that's early Hayley. I think it can regenerate though can't it? Any bloody show?

I had a few painful stabs low down driving home this evening rosie. All fine now I'm home and relaxed so probably just baby having a wiggle but if they get stronger and carry on maybe call in.

No finished nursery for us yet. We've painted but it's still got all the study stuff in it. As baby will be in with us for a few months we'll wait to put the furniture up until baby moves in.

Rhubarb it is early! No bloody show so I think I'm OK :) Yes it can regenerate and apparently some people "lose" it regularly over the 9 months. As long as there's no bloody show it's usually fine. I'm not worried until I start feeling contractions

Rhubarb sorry tmi but is it in your vagina? I feel like I can't even walk

Yes I think so Rosie. Definitely under the bump/pubic area. Cried out 'Ow' at one point and almost pulled over but decided to keep going. It was fine when I got out of the car though so have no problem walking around. Wondered if I was just squishing him in that position.

Hayley I didn't realise you could lose it that early but now I'm read up and more informed!

rosie that's how my spd started, could tell the pain wasn't muscular and much more in the bone if that makes sense? Is in constant or staby when you move? (Not that I know why that would make much difference) hope you're ok!

34 week bump weighs an absolute ton now - walking in a straight line is a struggle haha

Rhubarb yeah every few minutes I'm thinking ow this really hurts, yeah I'll try and rest tonight and see how the pain goes tomorrow! Fx.

Q cute bump it's basically a random staving pain wether I'm sitting or walking so weird, got my 34 week check up on Thursday will have to speak to the mw about it then I guess.

I'm getting stabbing pains too Rosie, but I think it's in my cervix and I think it must be the baby jabbing it. It's horrible!

Thanks for the reminders about sheep. Will make sure dh, dm or dsis are around to take her out to see the lamb when they come out.

Although bump will eventually have his own room we're not doing anything about getting his ready to move into it. We did sort of do a nursery for dd, cleared out the room I'd been using as a study, but it was a pointless as she stayed in with us until almost 2. She still slips in with us in the early hours most nights! It was just a place to dump out grown stuff and would have been much more useful if it had been kept as a study! We're lucky to have a big bedroom so accomidated a cot bed and all the things a baby needs with no problem. I hate trecking down the hall way in the middle of the night, so think it will be the same again. Dh currently uses what will be bump's room as a music room, all his things from their will eventually need to relocate to our room.

Sorry to hear about everyone in pain tonight. Hope it eases up soon and the CSC is empty tonight!

Someone upthread mentioned Feliway - we have a very nervous cat and I swear by that stuff. Not the spray, the diffuser plug in thing. It's expensive but totally worth it. I've already got 3 months worth stocked up for when the new baby arrives.

Will try to get a photo of the nursery tomorrow if my preggo-brain can hold that thought for more than a few hours. It really isn't much to speak of, just the furniture, as the main decoration will be a hanging quilt that my mum is making. She did a gorgeous crazy bright wall one and a play mat for DS. The photo in this post is the jungle theme she's doing for baby, trying out some different border colours.