July 2016 (7) We're halfway to meeting our little bubs

[allthegoodnamesalreadytaken]

Hi all started a new thread as the old one was getting almost to 1000. We're a very chatty bunch! Happy Friday

So it sounds as if Sophia and Lulabells need to do a husband-swap and then everyone's happy DH and I have pretty much decided on our boy's name but we're not telling people until after the birth because no doubt parents and others will feel the need to offer their opinions and we'd rather not give them the opportunity until the decision's already been made!

I confess that I accosted a couple of men in the street on Saturday and asked them about the pros and cons of their buggy. It was a city jogger mini gt. They gave it rave reviews and even pretended there was nothing weird about a strange lady accosting them randomly in the street to talk about buggies. Luckily DH wasn't there as he'd have been mortified at my very unBritish behaviour.

I typed a whole big message replying to everyone and now it's disappeared! Hate this phone

Will try again in the morning but main thing was I was woken up but an intense tightening over my stomach last night and only just remembered. Was this braxton hicks? Didn't hurt but uncomfortable enough to wake me up.

Congratulations indians amazing news, we had so much fun planning our wedding

lula we are really struggling with boys names, had so many girls names but nothing is sticking for boys just yet..

eliz happy birthday to Ted, hope he and you have had a lovely day

cookies I have had similar pains, baby always seems quite low though so wondering if he is pushing down. If mine carry on I may give he midwife a call as not seeing her for another 4.5 weeks do maybe worth a call to check as its really quite painful.

All this pram talk is super exciting. We have acquired a pram which I think our car seat will hopefully connect onto then going to treat myself to a pretty more lightweight buggy, I think baby will spend most of his time in a sling to begin with so while we were going around and around with which travel system we were gifted our answer! Very lucky.

Hope everyone feeling poorly is feeling better so many bugs around at the moment!

Some great names. Bowie is very cool beautician!

I have mentioned name to daughter who is 3 and she keeps calling him baby leo. Her suggestion was unicorn!

Becky Evelyn is a lovely name! It's nice when you have decided. We picked our daughters name (Lola) before any talk of having a family.

Thanks Anna, hope to be in before baby is here (due 26/07/16) but I think I might be being optimistic. Last house moved took 10 months from start to finish!!!

Cookies I sympathise with unhelpful name suggestions! I like Theo too but friend has stolen it.

I hope the name grows on you Sophia (and my DP!). I keep trying to call baby something different but it feels odd!

I was hoping to feel energised during this second trimester but that is yet to kick in. Fell asleep on the sofa at 7.30pm last night and I need to go sleep now! Happy chatting ladies. Night x

Thank you everyone, feeling a lot better today, just been extremely tired and SPD been playing up badly (if thats what it is!!) have midwife tomorrow lunch time so will talk to her about it.

Hope everyone else who has been feeling rough is getting better and I hope those who are having work issues is having everything sorted and it gets better for you. From what Im experiencing companies definitely need a lesson in how to treat pregnant employees better but there we go.

You all seem to be going for big branded prams!! I got mine months ago and just chose one I really liked the look of from ebay.. I do love it and feels nice to move (although doesnt have swivel wheels)!! Bonus it came with a small change bag, car seat, change mat, rain cover and mozzy net haha :)

Just a quick question for those of you who have pumped.. Whats the best pump to get electric or manual and what brand? Also I feel bad if I am to BF Ill be the only one allowed to feed him, so if I pump and let OH feed him with a bottle, will that be okay on the occasional feed or will be get confused and stop latching on to me? It was an original plan to get OH to do night feeds seeing as hes at work all day and Ill have the baby throughout the day, so if itd be okay for him to bottle feed at night that'd be great

Forgot to add that when he is going to be bottle fed, it will be expressed milk so I dont dry up

The usual advice is not to express (unless you need to) for the first 6 weeks to let your supply establish. Also, night feeds are when the hormone to do with milk production are the strongest so again the usual advice would be to do night feeds, or if giving a bottle feed, to express at that time instead.

But lots of people manage to express from early on, especially if you have a good supply. You can get bottles/teats that mimic the breastfeeding action and so reduce the risk of nipple confusion. I used a Medela Swing pump which was fine, although it was not cheap. Some people get on well with manual pumps, which are much cheaper, depending on how much you want to express. You can hire pumps from organisations like NCT, so maybe you could try one out before buying for yourself?

I expressed from two weeks with an ameda lacteline duel pump althoug only used one pump at a time. It didn't seem to affect me establishing and ds got used to transfering between bottle and boob from that early. We didn't have any fancy bottles at the time but saw the benefits when we upgraded. I have friends who didn't get on woth electric pumps and prefered manual pumps or hand expressing. Some who just couldn't get the hang of it. It is individual.

I will say my choice of pump was guided by being able to properly clean all the part the milk travelled and this model doesn't use tubes or pipes to get the milk into bottles/bags. Which meant I could be confident they were 100%sterile. I also could be confident buying second hand. As it turned out it was second hand but never used. Everything was still in sealed pladtic packaging and I paid have the retail price.

Congratulations Indians. Lovely news from your corner.

Julfin - the best reviews are from those who are using it. I asked a couple about the 2015 uppababy vista last summer and they said they had upgraded from the 2012 anc it was worth it. And at the weekend I asked a lady with a new squidge and a toddler how her little boy was coping with his new sister and did she have any top tips. I of course checked she didn't mind talking to me first. She was lovely and suggested a couple of things which were helpful. Albeit obvious when someone says but not necessarily something you would think of!

So keep asking real people their opinions. We should all do it a bit more.

Sorry guys, been radio silence for a few days - crazy busy!

Thom - absolutely delighted that your scan went so well. Really relieved for you.

Scase I seriously hope you do not get a warning - you cannot help being sick, and you rang before your shift. Utterly ridiculous.

Cookies no idea what that could be - hope it doesn't happen to you again; sounds horrid.

Beautician, Zachary and Rufus are names we are considering, too! At the moment I feel very strongly about the name Ruben. I can really imagine him being called Ruben; it just feels right to me. DH likes Joshua, but having taught a class of 30 which had four Joshuas most of whom were little sods, I'm a bit wary!

Lula, I reckon you should go with Unicorn. Very rock 'n' roll.

26 + 0

Cookies, I had that pain and I think it was a mixture of baby being really low and wind!

Scase - dh used to give dd expressed milk in the evening when I'd go hide in the bath then fed her myself to sleep after. you'll work it out once he's here. I always find plans tend to go out the window. Dh had plenty of time with DD during the night walking/driving around trying to get her to sleep! Saying that he had to get up early for a commute so after a few weeks I was on night duty so he got the lovely playtime at weekends.

Leo is on our list and is our compromise name! Looks like its going to be popular. A friend told me it would cos of Leonardo winning an Oscar lol.

Morning all.

We looked at the city jogger and really liked it. The only thing that put us off was when you fold it the seat ends up on the outside which if you're then putting into a car boot which maybe has a muddy floor then your seat is going to get muddy. Also means you can't stack dirty things on the top. Probably not a big deal for most but we stay on a farm and do a lot of muddy walks with a dog so keeping the seat clean was a priority. The massive hood was great though. In the end we went with a mountain buggy. They're heavier, bigger and more expensive but it ticked every box we had.

Name wise I think we have decided to go with Murdo. It ticks all our boxes - Scottish but easy to spell and pronounce, unusual enough that there won't be 5 others in his class but known enough that people won't tease him. And it sounds good and solid with our Mc surname. Not telling parents or anyone until he is here though. Interested to hear all your views on it though.

Thank you all for the advice I really appreciate it!!

Feeling a lot happier today as I reach Viability Day I feel like I can breathe now and calm down haha!!

24 weeks today

sunny I went to school with a Murdo :)
I think we're going for James (Jamie) - I don't really like very many boys names :(

Happy viability day scase I thought the Atlantic puffin we got today was really cute!

Yes they are adorable!! Happy Viability day to you too by the sounds of it (we are due date buddies right? Haha)

Yep we are! roll on 12th July

Yes!! I cant wait now, getting fed up already and not even third trimester yet!!

Katie are you Scottish too? That's the name and nickname top of our list too :)

Is anyone any good at working out tax & ni etc?

Morning All

Tonsillitis STILL raging here, trying to book another emergency appointment but the GP's computer says no apparently. I am thoroughly pissed off.

Have you seen this scase and Kaytee?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/22/fifth-of-women-harassed-at-work-over-pregnancy-or-flexible-hours-report-finds

Elliz have you got a bad temperature? If so then it would probably warrant a trip to hospital.
Talking of hospital I need to go in the next couple of hours, someone swung open the office door without looking and the handle whacked me right in the stomach. Hurt enough for me to phone the midwife and they want to see me for a check over and anti-d

No fever kaytee just still very swollen glands and sore throat. don't know if they gave me gentle antibiotics because i'm preg? they're certainly having zero effect. i'm going to call them first thing tomorrow for emrgency appt because we're supposed to be going down to cornwall at lunchtime ...good luck with yours.

Hi all, just waiting for my midwife appointment so catching up on the thread. There's another lady here with her notes so hoping I'm ahead of her in the queue!

Lula - I had considered Leonardo (Leo) as I want an Italian name but thought it might be a bit extravagant in the UK (hadn't really thought about the DiCaprio effect!). I have chosen Luca