Due in March 07 - Gettin' ready to Pop.

[Booboobedoo]

This must be our 100th thread.

Possibly.

Foxy, dd3 had it in November and the fucidin didn't help, she had to have ABs. Now I am trying tea tree oil, aloe gel straight from the plant and kal sulph tablets. I'm also going to start giving her some echinacia junior to boots her immune system.
We all had it alot when I was preg with dd2, it just kept going round the family. In the end we got nose stuff from the docs and that stopped it. I think it lives in noses.
I'm going to see the doc on weds so that she can measure my tum so if dd hasn't improved then I'll get a presciption for some ABs.

the swelling has gone down now and my head feels better after taking paracetamol so it cant be bp.lunar-i might get one of those monitors actually.it would probably work out less than all the bus fares to the hospital in the long run!

fox-i was terrible in my last preg for watching/looking at porn

is impetigo when they get rad sore areas around the nose/mouth?(usually when theyve been snotty).ive been putting fucidin around ds2's nose for 2 weeks now cos it was all red and nasty.

kiity - nose stuff? I didn't know about it living in noses! Think I will have to make an appointment with our GP too this week and will ask about the nose stuf..was it a spray or something?

Last time DS had it the school got a bit arsey and tried to make me keep him at home. They only knew because I sent the ABs in. Did your kids school insist you keep them off too?

TBh I think most porn is probably superior in its story line to some of the crap which is on TV most of the time.

When I'm bored I sometimes fancy it but the problem is I'm too mean to pay for it we've got the basic digi box, so tellytubbies is about as naughty as it gets! And evn that is not on late at night LOL!

Impetigo is welts (sp?) which appear on the mouth and bleed - the lips skin kind of cracks. Plus lots of little spots on the face around the mouth and sometimes eyes, well that's what DS gets.

oops, that was meant for Diva

ooh am going out with my local thread girls tonight - cheap Indian in Twickenham

Must go and get glittered up...[trots off excitedly]...

Fox the bug is a strep or a straph infection. It often lives in noses so you can carry the bug and pass it on to others without having it yourself. I suspect I have it as I tested positive for it afew years back and because dd3 has eczema I give it to her through the broken skin. None of the others have had it for years. So back to the drs for us. I swear to God I live in that place.
Have a good night

sounds fun fox- glad u ok diva.popped inor a sec to see whats happening health visitor wrote and announced she was coming to my house over a month before the baby is due. I rang her up and said that its not convinient and anyway had had a hours lecture from one of them at ante-natal-so no need. she said they always "offered" a visit and when could she come. I expalined I was working up til birth-she said all ladies stop at least 3 weeks before well, so???? are they always this interfering? why does she want to come and nose at my house over a month before due date? already have interfering mil, a government one will be really crap...

Hi all
Have only skimmed the thread but won't be trying any nipple stim!

Spongecake - your HV clearly doesn't have enough work to do. You don't have to have any contact with them if you don't want to

Spongecake????? I never had that ever Where I am they've cut back on the HV services that i think it's almost impossible to find one now. If you have a good HV they are a really usuful thing to have.

thx the blonde- i sound so paranoid re these people - not helped by mw didn't cover herself with glory a while ago- told me to find my notes and call the emergency number as she couldn't work the phone. its on my birth plan she is NOT welcome. what a horror i sound

perhaps cos can't sleep and have gone off eating -have to make myself. v strange as usually eat my dinner then watch people eat theirs in manner of hungry laborador

hi kitty- at the ante natal they said they just come after the birth, so was amazed to be get the letter. its a new directive apparently, also told bf for 6 months now, not 3, and been advised to hold one arm above your head during contractions.. all us pregnant ladies being forced to practice at class! Its a new thing- last year ladies in labour were advised to pinch themselves

sponge-with all my children the hv first came whn the baby was 10 -12 days old,when you'd been officially discharged by the mw,then they would come once a week till 6 week check and you would be invited to attend the clinic after that(unless they felt you needed extra support and would continue visiting).good hv's are wonderful as kitty says,but to find one who is supportive and understanding(rather than interfering and patronising)is not easy.

i've know n loads of women who've worked up to birth.whats the problem if you're having a problem-free pregnancy and feel fit and well??

as for the arm above the head-they are obviously going towards introducing that african tribal thing i mentioned a while back(where the father of baby lays on the roof with a pull-string tied round his knackers).thats the only reason i can think why they would suggest such a strange move...

fox-well done for still managing to have a social life.have a good night

Foxy hope you have a good night out!!

Spongecake when would you normally get an hv? I thought they came round after the birth?

Booboo Ziggy's fine now, I was just being paranoid as usual, dh - hate to admit it though I do - was right, he probably just ate a mouse that disagreed with his stomach a bit. Anyway unlike our dogs he's a tough cockney street cat!!

What on earth am I going to do when I have a real human baby who gets ill!? I'll have to set up a spare room at the Doctor's!

Hope you manage to get a bit of shut eye, it's horrible not sleeping.

Well, I went to get my hair cut and it's gone up to £9.50!!! Still it's cheaper than most places round here.

Diva xposts so you would normally only get an hv after the birth. Must be odd to have someone coming round to your house, I plan to live in a sty for the first few weeks after the birth at least, hope the hv won't expect me to tidy!!!

Arm above your head? WTF? Hey you should start a thread on that. It'll get a few laughs

Hello my lovelies

First of all, sorry to all those who are badly slept . It is so rough when you know you have to get up in 2 hours and you are still wide awake. I have only just started not being able to go back to sleep post my 4am wee, so have taken to watching old episodes of Sex and the City on DVD. Perhaps the porn would be a good idea - I seem to have had my libido removed ATM so it won't work for me, but a good orgasm may help sleep along.

Mossy, thank you for the vimto. Feel much better with it. Booboo, I would love some soup. Are you around thurs morning for coffee? We can plot nourishing soups for health whilst stuffing cake. I'll have DD in tow of course but she is very jolly at the moment. Would lovet o see the chair as well. I sat on a few in John Lewis last time and they are BLISS!

Mossy, I am a law lecturer, but only work Mon and WEd (plus the odd weekend). I am shafted as a colleague was supposed to be chairing a telephone conference and sorting out what needs to be done afterwards, but the email just said "Dolly is now in charge so direct all queries to her blah blah". As the call is on a Wed pm, I am going to have no time to sort things out after the call. I have to leave at 4.30 to get to nursery before it shuts, so will get the part time mummy accusations thrown at me. Oh well, only 18 more working days for me to go. SO much for flexible working. My official hours are 8.30 til 2.30 so I am being jolly nice staying as late as I do....

Diva - many chemists will check your BP for free as part of their pharmacy services. I think a BP monitor is a good idea though if you can get one for £9.99. Don't want to take any chances now.

Sponge - HVs can be wonderful, but can also spout lots of rubbish. Legally, the last day you can start ML is your due date, so you don't have to have 3 weeks off beforehand. Up to you if you want to invite them into your home at any point - they seem to have an official "status" but legally they don't (unless they suspect your child is at risk, which is impossible before birth!!) They are also sometimes woefully misinformed about things like BF - my first HV for DD told me to top up with formula as she wasn't gaining enough weight (only 5oz a week instead of the recommended 6-8oz), but this of course scuppers BF as you produce less milk. A quick trawl on MN revealed that that was bollocks. Current WHO guidelines recommmend 6 months of exclusive BF, but your circs may not mean that is possible. See how it goes when the time comes. I BF and loved it but I know it is not for everyone.

Foxy - thanks for the tip on the cranberry. I'll give anything a try .

We have had a lovely day. Went fireplace shopping and bought 2, but I think one of them might be a bit small so may have to change it. plus have walked about 6 miles so feel as though I have earned my big lardy supper of sausage and mash. Looking forward to more chat tomorrow.XXX

Diva, "where the father of baby lays on the roof with a pull-string tied round his knackers" wtf, I must have missed that, it sounds very interesting!!!

Dolly at your colleague trying to pass the buck, it's bad enough people shafting you when you're not pg so now... oh it really gets my goat. May they be cursed with sextuplets and an Ebeneezer Scrooge of a boss.

i am starting to feel glad i dont work now!in fact,i think i'll put off training for a career altogether untill the baby is at secondary school as it still seems mothers are discriminated against in the world of work

moss-i think i posted that before you joined,what i was told when expecting ds1 about a tribe in africa where the husband of the labouring woman lays on top of the hut with string tied around his bits,and every time the woman has a contraction she pulls on the string.

hi girls

It's like a moment of normality even skim reading this thread, and a welcome release from the treadmill i'm on! Well, my wee boy is going great guns. Can't remember what I told you last, think that he's in high dependency unit now rather than intensive treatment, and off oxygen. well, when \i walked into HDU today, had a heart-stopping moment when I couldn't see his incubator, only to be told the little fella in the cot in its place was mine - he's out of the incubator!!!!! Can't believe it! He's wrapped up in millions of layers while he gets the hang of regulating his temperature, but he seems happy enought there. It's SOOO nice having better access to him, although I can't pick him up at will by any means. Me and DP had a joint effort cleaning and changing and dressing him today, which is gthe firsgt time DP\s done it, and it was great. Afterwards, I tried him at the breast again, but I think i got very lucky the first time as he didn't latch on properly today, so chewed my nipples instead - OOWWWWW! Still it's very early days for it, and he does at least have the right idea. Also, he had a tube in his mouth today which he didn't last time, so i'm hoping they'll move it back to his nose and make it easier for us both to try tomorrow or next time.

I am slowly getting used to this strnge little world, and am also realising how lucky we have been (so far - long may it continue). Some people's kids have life-long problems, one mum I met's daughter has spina bifida. The most heart-wrenching thing I've come across yet is a little girl who was opposite Jordi in his last room. She was full-term, ikn fact about 11 days ovweerdue, but was floppy and not moving at birth. She came in about a day after J so I hhad about a week with her parents. I saw them yesterday and asked how she was, and her mum said they'd had really bad news. She has an extremely rare genetic condition which the doctors haven't seen in 20 years of working on the unit, it's incurable and the prospects for her are very bad (I found out that last bit from a nurse later). I just thought - how do you live with that? It really put my situation into perspective. So far, Jordi just seems to have been premature, obviously I don't want to tempt fate because we could find things out down the line, but everyone says he's doing so well atm.

I'm coping much better now, although I feel I don't see him enough. I don't always make it back into the hosp in the evening because I need to rest too, but it's really hard to be away from him - getting harder the more alert he becomes, although he is still asleep most of the time, as you'd expect at 33 wks gestation - my god. I know what some of your babies look like roughly, you know! Isn't that weird?? Anyway I'm in bed typingthis and I really must sleep while I have the chance. Alarm's set for one to express so better go. At least now I have no problem falling asleep , just not the time to sleep in... You wait!

Love to all, oh Moss have remembered your question, no idea when he'll be home, they just say tgake the due date as a guide but keep fingers crossed - although I'll be a nervous wreck probably when he does!!!

Callie - that is great news that Jordi is out of the incubator and you can get your hands on him more. I know I would find it heart wrenching to have a baby closed up in an incubator, when all your instincts are to hold him close to you. But what a little trooper he is! And its great to hear how you are getting on.

Well after a cup of tea and a calm down I managed to assemble the cot and I am so pleased and I love looking at it and imagining a baby sleeping in it! Dh was around this morning but he is totally useless at diy. When we were first getting to know each other he came round to my house and I was up a ladder putting up shelves and he said I was embarrassing him!

Diva great that your bp seems ok.

Moss glad Ziggy's ok!

Spongecake your mw sounds bonkers.

Booboo am jealous of your rocking chair!

Dolly my libido has disappeared too, last attempt at a fumble with dh was so ludicrous! between having a humungous bump with spd hips and unable to stop laughing as not feeling remotely sexy, we were like the opposite of a porn film!

great news CALLIE. I know what you mean about the strange little world SCBU can be. We had our dd1 - heart defect - in heart failure at times as well as the down syndrome etc and then others who had been born very premie and then another who was just in for a couple of days to monitor blood sugar.

Out of the incubator - that is fab news.... great to be able to touch them a little more freely when you are not having to use portholes!!

All is well here very very hot today - muggy more than anything. 32 degrees. Had a b'day party for dd1 to attend at a local park - took dh along so he could run after her. THe two girls just ran themselves ragged.

Popped out this afternoon and bought a hammock - fabulous swinging in the hammock on the back deck with a lovely afternoon breeze... think I will start taking my afternoon rests out there. ALthough comic viewing trying to get in and out of it - can't imagine what it will be like closer to due date.

Good news Callie - every little step is one bit closer to you being able to bring him home. And you know it might not be another 7 weeks. Plenty who are born only a couple of weeks early will be able to go straight home, so there's a chance that it could be sooner. Have a look at those growth charts in your notes if you've still got them, and look at how the weight changes from 33 weeks to 38 - even if he just follows that curve he'll be half as big again by then.

I'm looking forwards to having dh back tonight. I've decided that I'm definately not cut out to be a lone parent - what with working and looking after ds absolutely nothing else has got done this week. Only another 2 weeks until dh and ds go off without me for a week though - so I expect that will feel even stranger. First task when he gets back (well maybe not tonight, but soon) will be to get the cot, etc down from the attic and assemble it, as I'll hopefully use that week they're away to get everything sorted, and the extra things which still need buying organised.

Callie that's such good news that he's out of his incubator, and you can give him some cuddles and start to put him to your breast. And I hadn't thought of that, you know what our babies look like; insider knowledge as it were! It is lovely to hear about how you're getting on.

Diva glad your bp's back to normal.

Rosy sometimes a nice brew and a sit down makes everything better, glad you got your cot sorted!

Eids, I'm very sorry but I visualised you getting in and out of your hammock with a big bump and I pmsl sorry!!!

Lunar glad your dh is coming back so you won't be on your tod so much!

A few questions for you all.

1. We have a cot (we got it second hand, off freecycle so we don't know the people who had it before, so are gonna buy a new mattress) already. But as babies are supposed to sleep in your room for the first six months or so, would you just sleep baby in the cot, or would you buy / acquire something a bit smaller like a moses basket as well?

2. Also re: cot mattresses, is there a really a big difference between types? Some of the ones in John Lewis are dead expensive they're like sprung mattresses that you'd get on an adult bed and the like; is this essential or would you just use a normal foam mattress?

3. Those baby sleeping bags / grobags, are they basically in place of cot blankets and sheets (apart from the sheet that goes over the mattress I mean)? If you were to get sleeping bags how many would you need, one for each night or would baby be fine to wear one for a few night's running?

Thanks !!!

Moss

• if you have space keep baby in a cot in your room. Baskets don't always last very long, I found DS was out of the basket by 6 weeks (and also in his own room)
• I think I went mid range for the mattress but can't remember
• yep grobag replaces sheets/blankets. They can go a week in the same one but you need at least one spare for split milk/leaky nappy etc