Due in February 2017 - thread #9

[twocatsandatoddler]

New thread - hope everyone finds this! I'll try and post the link in the old thread if it will let us go over 1,000 posts.

Wow Ready that's pretty terrible behaviour from your boss. I'd say that's definitely discrimination, you'd be well within your rights to complain. Is there anyone at work you can talk to about it? Welfare or HR?

Wow! Thanks Friendly. Still plodding my way through the minefield of information for being pregnant!

It is dormouse, I've raised my concerns 'off the record* with the HR director as she approached me directly to see if I wanted to raise a formal complaint about the way my manager spoke to me in a meeting (he was joking, but I'm getting pretty sick of hearing the same joke now). I know she spoke to him herself about it as she felt he was offensive. The reality is there is just nothing to be gained by raising a discrimination claim/formal complaint. It's not going to boost my career & it'd just be demoralising. All I can do is flag the behaviours and threaten to leave. I don't really want them to be benefitting from my skills & hard work if they're going to treat me like this, but at the same time I did really enjoy my job before I got pg.

That's a rotten situation Ready , glad you're taking time for yourself today. Are you thinking it may be best to hunt for a new job whilst on leave & take your expertise elsewhere? I had that fighting a losing battle feeling in a previous role so I completely sympathise.
I have a few days on my own in the house this week and have ended up 30 mins late for work due to cats refusing to eat & vacate rooms & PGP slowing me down on stairs!
DP is going away to Aus with work for 16 days in Nov so I hope I can cope!

Oh ready that's awful. I don't know about the rest of you, but I definitely have more emotional days and less emotional days, and adding that kind of work stress to the (already unpredictable) emotional rollercoaster can make for a disproportionately bad day or night.

Has anyone had the GTT test yet? I had a MW check yesterday and they think that blood sugars and very low blood pressure might be combining to make me still (at 24+4) feel nauseous throughout the day.

I'm dreading 12+ hours without food (I get nauseous!!) and dreading taking in a big sugary drink (I get nauseous after sweet stuff!).

I'm hoping one of you might tell me it is not so bad...?

Also feeling the need to get the sewing machine out this weekend - everyone's knitting and sewing and purchasing has made me feel creative.

Just catching up! I had pregsomnia last night after walking around London all day I was so sore I couldn't sleep! Had to take paracetamol!
Ready I also had the crying this past weekend where I sobbed for mine and dh's lovely hotel weekend getaway! It was hormones,!tiredness and worrying but after meeting up with family members this past week I feel better!
Hats off to you London ladies! I don't know how you keep up the pace! Only been on the tube once and just got uber taxis everywhere! Went to a lovely maternity shop called Seraphine (they do the clothes featured in the new Bridget Jones film as well as lots of celebs who go there). Dresses aren't too expensive - about 40/50 quid. I got two nice ones but I'm now looking so big I look like a sack of potatoes in them! Hand!

Haha not hand!

Morning all just catching up.

Ready I completely agree with everyone, your boss sounds awful and very much like a guy I used to work for, who had a chip on his shoulder in a huge way about having a mostly female team and having a team where some of us had uni-education backgrounds. He would go on and on about how nothing beat life experience, as if we were somehow belittling him despite just wanting to get on with our days. He just seemed really bitter, and your boss sounds similar in a way. I don't blame you for taking some time today to rest - look after yourself first!

Ordinary I do have the up and down days. The down doesn't really equate to much, it's just a general feeling of meh, or emotionalness, so I get what you mean. Thankfully so far the good have been way way more than the bad, but I do internally police my own feelings just to make sure that if I feel bad, I try to remember that the feelings are down to huge hormonal boosts and dumps, and that they will pass (just yesterday I felt like life was completely miserable because my journey in was really grey and misty, so everything felt completely depressing!).

How are you ladies doing in general with movements? I'm now 25 weeks and I still don't have a pattern. I must admit being in work does make him harder to notice, but this morning particularly I haven't felt him as much.... I always worry that I don't know what I should do - keep observing or get it checked out! Being in work makes it much more stressful in a way, and then I have to remind myself that some of you have also said your bubs still have quiet days, and he still has a lot of space in there.

Basically - I'm pathetically seeking reassurance or someone to tell me to shut up!

Hi Kiki don't worry I sometimes have quieter days too. Do you have the app on your phone to count the kicks? I think it's 7 kicks in 2 hours so if you are worried just lie on your side and count. I also find really relaxing and 'letting go' of my tummy muscles often incurs more movement.
Quick q: does anyone else get a really tight hard stretching feeling in the skin on your tummy? Almost like the baby is bursting out!? It goes the next day though x

kikis I'm still not feeling much tbh but gradually getting more.. have u done the cold fizzy drink and chocolate?

I'm just waiting in the docs for my 24 week midwife app! So nervous for some reason!!

kiki do you have an anterior placenta? It acts like an internal "cushion" between your baby and the nerves inside your tummy wall and that could be the reason you have very quiet days, when you might expect to be feeling little one more often. While we are all still quite compact, you'll tend to feel the kicks and jabs at the sides a bit more (no placenta cushioning), but as we grow we'll feel more of the movement, because they are more pronounced and because the cushioning isn't quite so comprehensively covering your tummy.

Just a thought.

Sparkles and Shell thanks! Since posting he's woken up or shifted position so is busily flipping round in there while I listen to a presentation at work (and update you all! ). I need to stop being so paranoid - but I didn't realise apps existed, what's a good one to download (I'm on apple)? It's my 25 week appt early next week - I'll speak to the midwife about movements and so on, so I don't get myself flustered every 5 minutes .

Sparkles I get that weird stretchy/tight feeling sometimes. I googled, and the most hits which came up reckoned it was Braxton Hicks! I don't know one way or another, having no experience in this area!! But they do fade away when I get them - it's not constant tightness or anything.

ordinary I'm lucky in that my placenta is in the "normal" back position, not anterior. But at my 20 week scan a while back, the sonographer noticed he likes to be in a position with his back to my front, so I think he obviously jabs and prods me from the inside a lot!

Kiki I have pregnancy + and I check it almost every day. I look forward to Sat when my week turns over so I can read all about the latest developments. I also have Ovia so I can look at the cute handprint thing (it shows the size of baby's hand right now and compares it to how big it will be when born) but out of the two I'd say Pregnancy +

oh and sbs - how my tummy feels, and how the skin feels, seems hugely dependent upon her positioning in there.

Sometimes, when looking from above, it looks and feels like a very hard round cannonball or watermelon and it's rather tight and uncomfortable. Other times I guess she stretches out and the skin feels fine and there's no discomfort.

Ohhh Sparkles you've just given me a revelation! I have Pregnancy+ too and only just noticed it has a kick counter, duuuhhh! That's great, thanks! I also love the change over of weeks so I can find out what's going on in there!

Ready you 100 percent have my sympathies. A week and a half ago I had about 36 hours of uncontrollable hysterical crying. It was also triggered by work stress but exacerbated by hormones!

None of the senior men in our company have wives that work so saying they don't get working mothers is an understatement. Hang in there- I promise that some rest and time with supportive friends and family make it feel better over time.

I really like the Ovia app - it also has a kick counter.

I think it's easy to panic about things like movement and it's important to remember that they don't expect you to feel a pattern before 28 weeks, and also that if that baby shifts position that will also affect how you feel things from one day to another.

MiniMaxwell was lying face down when I first started feeling him kicking and then shifted to kicking straight into The top of my bladder, which was AWFUL, but appears to have settled in a more comfy way now so the kicking is much less aggressive. It worried me at first but it's settled into a normal pattern now - lots of kicks when I first wake, nothing all morning, then a kick-fest mid-pm and one right before bed. But this isn't the same pattern he was doing a few weeks ago, and probably won't be the same in a few weeks time and it's all still normal so don't worry!

If you really can't feel movement and it's worrying you, call your midwife and I'm sure they will check.

It feels like my stomach changes shape daily! I'm feeling wiggles a lot but not all of the time. There's still lots of room in there for another few weeks.

Sparkles I get that tight feeling too, usually towards the end of the day. I got it all the time last pregnancy too. I wondered if it was Braxton Hicks, but it's more constant than that, when I had real Braxton Hicks contractions they felt very similar but came and went. I think it might be due to mild water retention making everything feel tighter sometimes. I'm pretty sure it's totally normal though, as long as you're not feeling pain. For me it's not painful, just uncomfortable.

Ordinary yes that's what I get. I kinda feels like the baby is stretching the skin more than its ready to be. Guess this is an important time to be moisturising!!

Two cats it woke me up in the night! I felt like a hot air balloon!

Kiki glad your baby has started moving again! I had a paranoid morning as well recently where I was scared the baby hadn't moved for a long time. I had some oatmeal which work her up. She went nuts for 30 min and then promptly back to sleep!

It's so hard not to worry!

I also get the tight feeling, feels like I'm going to burst sometimes. It's normally towards the end of the day and it usually gets worse if I've eaten a lot. I don't think mine are Braxton Hicks because it always seems to last a long time. I'm now trying to eat more smaller meals and it seems to be helping.

Amazed that Pregnancy + has a kick counter, never noticed that! I'd also second that this is a great app, although not sure about some of the daily blogs! I've not noticed a pattern to her movement yet apart from lots when I lie down to sleep at night. She's pretty active most of the day though, last night it felt like a bunch of squirrels were running around in there!

26+1 today still feeling pretty good bar the heartburn! tired after being on my feet all day but bump is coming on very nicely!