July 2016 Babies (8) - 3rd trimester here we come

[Ellizardo]

Hoping this works as total techno-luddite! Happy Saturdays all.

Hello

Just came back from a preg yoga class. Have been crap at attending for weeks now and so pleased I went today (though the difference between going at 14 weeks and now is HUGE in terms of flexibility and what I feel capable of doing, which is now very little). Had a new instructor who really put us through our paces, and she has a 7mo old so it all felt well researched etc.

Speak and Youandme - how did your appointments go? Hope the diabetes one was reassuring. No call from the midwives yet regarding my GTT last week so am crossing all fingers for us both (and anyone else who faces the dreaded lucozade test!).

Just got a 'fit to fly' letter from my GP to enable me to fly to Mallorca next week, has anyone else had one yet? Cost £15!

Photographerlady - what is bare bum? Am intrigued! I don't even know when the best age is to potty train. 2 yo? Argh. The thought of polite society being exposed to Ted's bare bum after 8oz of formula and some banana pancakes doesn't bear thinking about!

All this chat of nurseries is so exciting! As we haven't moved house yet, Ted is still sleeping in a box room with zero decoration so we'll have to create two new spaces for him and DD. I was looking at some fabric for blinds this morning and got totally carried away wondering whether X print really represented the personality of Ted and Y print the future personality of number 2. (I can tell you ladies this but OH would think I was bananas).

Appointment was OK. Basically I've been given a monitor and told to test before breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then 2 hours after dinner.

The nurse will phone on Friday to see how the readings are looking, and if not happy it's clear they would be going to straight for metformin - there were 3 of us at the session and we were all sent away with a pack! So I don't feel very encouraged about the likelihood of a very individualised approach. No idea as yet what this might mean re: birth choices. I guess I'll find out more next week at the diabetic antenatal clinic.

eliz having potty trained 5 toddlers in my career as a nanny (and fighting lazy parents who demanded i persevered but stuck the kids back in nappies whenever they had care ) i can say that they will get it when they are ready and forcing them too soon just leads to a prolonged periid of 'accidents'. Id say most kids are ready about 2.5-3 years old, some before some after but your dc will let you know when its time!

And if your child IS ready, potty training can be as short as a week before they are securely trained! (Much better than weeks or months of accidents and tantrums!)

Thanks primary! How do you define 'ready'?! Happy to sit on a potty?

youandme - straight to metformin? wow. that seems very medicalized. did they take you through diet stuff too? avoiding fruit juice, upping your fibre etc?

Ellizardo Bare bum is a potty training method where you camp inside the house for a few days with a little pott downstairs and upstairs. They go trouser and nappy-less. All kids are different. My DD started potty training at 22 months, she was wearing loose jeans with no pants by 6 days in and thanks to her little mytravelpotty she has been fine since. She just got the hang of peeing in the potty was much more enjoyable that weeing down her leg and we just pretty much hung around the house for a good 10 days (with little trips to the playpark). Only downside is that she (now 2 years and 8 months) still prefers the little potty to any adult pottys so I still take her travel potty on the go. Some of her nct friends waited and are starting training now around her age and some are more 3 years old (ones with younger sibling now). Its swings and roundabouts. I mean I am happy that she was eager earlier as I think now she be too pre occupied with other things and some of my friends are really struggling.

I was a bit spoiled and so happy to be rid of changing mats, bags and the smell of post breasted nappies... oh here we go again in July

Biggest ready 'indicators' for me have tended to be that they arent phased by the potty so if you sit them on it they will wee and not hold it in/even be excited about it. Also them telling you that they have done a wee/poo (if still in nappies) or need one (especially if theyre still in nappies).

E.g. i potty trained twins and the girl was ready - i took her out of nappies and by day 3 she was toilet trained and never had an accident. However the boy was much less 'mature' (and a lazy monkey!) and would scream if he was taken to the potty unless it didnt intefere with whatever he was playing with/would desperately try to hold it in (or happily sit in a wet nappy for hours). I just put him back in nappies and 5 months later he decided he wanted to use the toilet like his sister and never had an accident again. I dont see the point in pushing them too soon because a) its a battle that will upset you and them and b) i dont know any adults in nappies (so at some point disabilities accounted for they will get it with minimal disputes!)

Thanks primary and photographer ! So useful x

Yes Ellizardo straight to metformin! I don't think 2.5 days is very long to get a grip on it to be honest. Luckily I'd done a lot of reading and have already modified my diet. There was a bit of advice about avoiding sugary foods and too much fruit and juice, but not much. It was a group session with 2 other women, and they actually sent us all home with a packet of metformin, so they obviously don't think it's very likely any of us will stay diet controlled! I'm prepared to push back a bit on it depending on what my readings are by Friday: my fasting reading was the problem at the GTT and it doesn't seem that unlikely that even if I can control the others by diet I might not be able to do anything about that one!

I know quite a bit about toddlers. I have dealt with all kinds of toddler issues. I have done all kinds of toddler behaviour management... ill be ok once i have a toddler...

But i have no effing clue how to look after a baby! Roll on the antenatal classes in may!!!

Hehe, primary, if you can cope with toddlers you'll find a baby a chuffing BREEZE

LOVING the potty training info. DD showing zero interest but v occasional accurate poo-in-nappy-reporting, so I'm keeping a close eye on that but resigned to have dual nappies on the go for a while, post July!

Fifi just going to have dinner but will report back on scintillating subject of Isofix bars!!!

dats my godson is now 5 months old and bawls whenever i pick him up! (trying to pretend its cause hes teething....)

Hope everyone's appointments etc went well today!

Cookies - thanks for your concern 😊 it isn't too bad as I stay in London for 2 nights to cover 3 days in office but the going back and forth is tiring. I'll be doing it until end of May then working local for the final month before mat leave.

Dats - thank you, looking forward to hearing about your experience!

Beloftheball - I know exactly what you mean about losing the career driven focus. It's so hard to stay motivated when you feel like crap / know that you're going. I'm hoping my mojo will come back but everyone keeps saying it will be different as a mum! I just can't imagine right now putting my career on the back foot.

So ladies I need some advice. I discovered today that I have teeny tiny little yellow stains on my bra, right by the nipples (both breasts). My nipples have been quite sore the last few days, which has made me freak out about milk coming before baby (I'm planning to breastfeed but the concept of having milk freaks me out a bit!) has anyone else noticed any staining?!? Is it a leak...?

24 + 5

I think it could be colostrum Fifi? Not everyone leaks in pregnancy but some people do, and I think it can start quite early on.

Yeah it does sound like colostrum. Get some pads, I don't think there's anything you can do really

Fifi, pull up a chair we both have elderly Focuses (Foci?! 2004/2006) and they were 'Isofix ready' so although they didn't have the fixing bars bolted to the chassis of the car, you could get them as a spare part. So we bought them off eBay for £10-15 I think. However, things you need to know:

• retrofit Isofix bars are make/model specific

older the car, the less likely it is to be Isofix ready

• if they are an option, they're a piece of cake to fit, you just screw them to the chassis under the back seat.
• you (prob know this already) don't need to have an Isofix base to have a safe car seat - mostly the degree of difference in 'how safe is my child' is to do with user-error in fitting the car seat with seat belts. Obviously it's easier to click-in/out with a base, plus less margin for error, but you won't really be compromising baby's safety by belting the seat in directly to the car
• you can get non-Isofix bases that attach via a seatbelt so you CAN still have a click-in car seat, it's just the base will be a little less high-rated safety-wise but it's likely a negligible amount - depends on your attitude to risk, etc

And then once you resolve that issue, choosing a seat etc is still a massive ball-ache

So I guess start by Googling your car and seeing if you find out?

Im falling right off this thread again!! You ladies are a chatty bunch!

Fifi- I started leaking very early on (FTM so was very surprised!) but my sister reassured me that I should have no problems trying to BF as it shows the overwhelming urge to want to nurse ( she couldnt bf when my nephew was a baby because of medication she was on for pain relief as she tore quite badly, she was still leaking at 6months old because she badly wanted to try her body wouldnt dry up) also not saying thats the case for everyone as some people dont leak at all during preg. But successfully bf but I have been leaking soooo much!! Ive been worried about coming into preterm labour with the amount I leak as I know that can bring it on or the stimulation, but I dont stimulate it to come it literally pours out...

DSWas 2 in December and was showing an interest in the potty before that but not more than a game to play occasionally. I then found out O was pg and know friends whose LO potty training regressed when the new baby arrived. So I figured I won't push my boy and when we get nearer his 3rd birthday after his sister is here we will go for the three days at home approach and hope he takes to it. He is still not ready and would prefer to wear a nappy than have air time and use the potty. Lazy little tike. But I am dreading it all. I always thought teething would be awful but he didn't do so badly with that (although not sure how this one will be) but potty training is a pita.

Missing peice and Fifi- I'm having the same issue after the bath for shower boobs hurt and leak on occasion , I had a wee squeeze the other day and it actually squirted !
I won't b doing it again if stimulation can bring on preterm labour X
I took it as a good sign aswell that body knew was more willing to BF than with DD ( was very hard work first time round ) will also need to invest in breast pads ! X

I was very scared to start DD in the potty as i get nervous with every mile stone but she seems so do well and surprise me , the shift from cot to bed only took a week and she doesn't come back out her room again all night ! She switched to cups and beakers with no fuss and is now doing very well with the potty ( very rarely an accident ) and we only started on Friday X
I didn't think she was ready but OH was keen to try X
I do believe each child is different and it's important not to force it upon them , but I'm really glad OH gave me the nudge or i would have waited X

Cheery good luck with making space. I have found that shedding Mum's stuff has been a long process - it has been going on for more than a decade now - and I'm glad I've done it bit by bit, as I feel that I've let go of things naturally. Don't get rid of anything you're unsure about - wait until you are sure. No regrets that way!

Sunny what are you using for your hypnobirthing? I’ve been thinking about getting a DVD… I like your nursery furniture!

Jem HOW AMAZING is that 3D pic?! I wasn’t at all interested in a 3D scan until I saw your lovely little baby, and now I am quite keen!

As far as stretch marks go, I’m just using coconut oil and I haven’t got any marks yet. My nan used olive oil for every one of her five pregnancies and got no stretch marks, but I have a feeling that that’s just genes.

Cookies I am impressed with your gymming – I gave up on the gym about three weeks ago. Swimming once a week – can’t seem to manage more at the moment as I’m so tired after work, but once I drop my hours down at the end of April I will hopefully swim every other day!

Ellizardo I think I am going to have a bash at pregnancy yoga next week… The instructor says on the website that she does a lot of work on strengthening the body in birthing positions, so that sounds quite good to me?

YouandMe fingers crossed everything will be fine with your readings, as you were so borderline.

I had the NCT breastfeeding class this week - it was really helpful and I feel much more confident now. Also, my NCT ladies seem really quite friendly - I have hopes of a social life post-baby!

I have my 28 week midwife appointment today, although I'm 29+1. I got a week out of whack somewhere along the line because there was a date I couldn't make and I had to reschedule - I'm going to ask today if they can please put me back on track! Looking at the antenatal appointments list on the NHS website has really brought it home to me that things are ramping up now... They are SO frequent from this point onwards! Exciting!

Oh, oh, and I have to share this with you ladies... I got stuck in the loo at work with pregnancy constipation yesterday. Couldn't go forwards, couldn't go backwards, if you get my drift. People kept coming in and out of the toilets too, which didn't really help matters. I was really panicking but couldn't do anything about it!

Anyway, finally managed it (big sigh of relief) - thought I'd been in there for maybe six or seven minutes. Went back to my desk and checked the clock... Twenty minutes. Twenty bloody minutes stuck in the loo!

Jeez.

Oh Bluebell** what a nightmare! Not what you want to happen in the office loo! Something similar happened to me a couple of weeks ago, but luckily I was at home.

bluebell that made me that's definitely happened to me before! one of the joys of pregnancy eh! My body doesn't seem to know if it's coming or going at the moment I vary from constipation to uncontrollable diarrhoea at various points during the week. Very difficult to plan when leaving the house. Pleased to hear NCT is going well for you. I start my first class on Monday so hoping my group will be a nice bunch.
Hope everyone else is ok. Nothing exciting to report here everything is very dull at the moment - just watching one born every minute and scaring myself silly about the birth.

Only 8 weeks left at work before maternity leave so I'm starting to count down now and willing the time to go faster - I've mentally checked out already to be honest.

Just ordered the Chicco lullago crib to use instead of Moses basket for by our bed. Initially was going to have the next to you one but didn't fancy attaching it to our bed and the hassle. Plus it's a lovely green colour!! Anyway folks if anyone wants to order things from boots online the code VB75 gets you 10%off and free delivery if spend over £75. The cot was on offer already so got a really good deal and 10 points per pound if change boots card to a baby one!!! First big baby purchase done. More to come aaarrrggghhhh. Xx