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.

I'm 26 weeks and some days I barely feel the baby. She has a habit of being very active late evening, early morning and during the night. I didn't feel her at all yesterday until about 9pm but I was really busy and running around all day. I had lots of strong kicks this morning too when I was lying in bed. I read somewhere that at this stage you can sometimes even see the kicks. I definitely didn't until a lot later with dd so I'm trying not to worry. It is hard though!

I've been back at school this week after two weeks off, and been running around like a lunatic. Hadn't felt much all week, but kept trying to tell myself it was just because I was busy. Felt it a bit more this morning though whilst I was lying in bed also (with the encouragement of something sweet, a hot drink and a few prods!).
Might get a doppler to stop me panicking.
Wish it was at a stage of seeing the kicks, and more frequent ones, as everytime I call my partner over it seems to stop kicking!

Scottish, I'm with you about blood tests! Hate needles, but for some reason feel slightly more comfortable with injections than blood being drawn out. Having to travel to the hospital to have it done sounds like it must make it much more stressful though :-/

It's more annoying than anything having to travel Wonder, at least at the Dr's you have an appointment time, but at hospital it's just take a number and wait

Wonder be really careful about using a Doppler - they are not generally viewed as a good idea if you aren't medically trained to use one. I know it's tempting, but if you don't hear anything you could panic for nothing and would be wasting the midwife's time just because you've used it incorrectly, and conversely if you aren't feeling movement you could hear something on the Doppler that is actually either your own heartbeat or the placenta rather than the baby and think things are fine when they are not, when actually you should be listening to your body and seeking medical advice. There's a few threads going about them on here at the mo, if you want more info. Sorry if that sounds negative!

Ah Fenella thanks for the info on kicking.
Scottish yes I log in to see the offers but nothing great in my area
Shell twinnies
Ah London glad to hear about your scan going well! Oh dear 14 more weeks of worry

Hi Ever, if you get a chance PM me your email addy and I'll see if I can add you to the group

Hi there! Do you think I could jump on board? I'm now 6 months pg with dc #2, due Feb 21st. Had 3 miscarriages in the last few years, so was very tentative at first, but since 20 week scan I've kind of given myself permission to be pregnant and start enjoying it, because at 42 it's deffinitely my last time! Anyway, my heads in a good place after everything and I'm just really ready to start getting excited now! After forcing myself to be restrained I'm actually longing to start discussing prams/slings/gender - all things baby!

Welcome rose it's really nice to have someone the same age as me I'm also 42 have a 10 year old sone and had 6 nmc in the past I'm now beginning to get excited that's it's it's going to happen

Welcome aboard rose xx

Thanks fir the lovely welcome guys - this is really exciting! I do have the most gorgeous group of ladies who have also had rmc, but I'm now at the stage where I'm ready to start getting baby ready, and I don't want to be insensitive there, so I need a place where it's ok to be discussing all the eventualities ahead!

Hi Rose! So sorry to hear you went through all of that. And congratulations!

Your due date is two days after mine

I can't remember who it was up thread who mentioned hypo birthing can you recommend the best book/ cd for me to use

I hadn't thought about that, Fenella. Could end up freaking myself out even more!

Teabags It wasn't me, so others might have different suggestions but I'm reading Mindful Hypnobirthing by Sophie Fletcher and using the accompanying tracks. I will probably download some of the extra tracks too. I really like it so far; not overly 'woo' and seems to be helping me feel more relaxed.

Wonderlust - we actually had one at first and it went in the bin after reading a post on here from someone who used it because they weren't sure about movement instead of going to the midwife, & thought everything was fine. In actual fact it wasn't - it was their own heartbeat they'd picked up, the baby was in distress and sadly didn't survive as they didn't seek help quickly enough.

Also when your MW listens for the heartbeat they aren't just doing so to tell you it's there - they are listening for the speed, variation, positioning etc - you will not know how to do any of that so best leave it to the experts.

Yes, midwives don't recommend home dopplers because people are using them to get false reassurance that the heartbeat is there, when actually it's a difference in movement that's a much better early indicator of whether the baby is in distress. So if you do have one at home, I don't think there's any harm in listening to the baby occasionally to get enjoyment from it, but if you're at all concerned about movement it's important to call the hospital straight away even if you can find the heartbeat with the Doppler. There's a midwife in our local mums facebook group and she's quite outspoken about home dopplers.

I think this baby is nocturnal - DH woke me up a few times in the night as he's ill and sleeping badly, and every time I woke Barry was wriggling away!

I have a doppler and found it very reassuring in the first trimester. I would never use it in place of medical advice though, just as a check when there has been a wait to see someone or after a particularly anxious day. I haven't touched mine in months and the only reason I would now is for reassurance if I was told to wait before going in to be seen (standard advice for reduced movements here seems to be to have a cold drink and lie on your side for an hour first).

Yes, after having gone in to hospital I would definitely say don't use a home doppler for reassurance. Also, even if the baby moves after cold drinks and what have you, if the movement is much less than you are used to though still present (as was my case) I was still urged to go in. Now that we are far all entering the 3rd trimester, a baby in distress can be delivered early with a decent survival rate. If there had been any problem, my consultant would have, depending on what it was, left the baby in for as long as possible to given them extra time inside but with extra monitoring in case things deteriorated to the point delivery was the best option.

In the end all was fine though and usually is!

teabags I used the natal hypnotherapy CDs and book, can ighysit recommend them! I got the set of CDs from Amazon.

Welcome Rose

Thanks for the suggestions away to look on Amazon. When I had my son I got all panicked and forgot my breathing techniques, do was think hypo birthing would keep me more focused

I definitely felt calm during my labour and am sure the CDs had something to do with that although I didn't really think about it at the time if that makes sense. I think it helped me to prepare and not be scared.
Just looked it up and it's the Maggie Howell cds I used.

Oh dear after reading about it and from posts I am definitely thinking I will be too worried about this whole movement thing until delivery.
Bubba has been moving fine but I just think that it is hard for you to know what is normal or a pattern...
Particularly if you are an anxious person like me, I dont think I could tell if the baby is in distress.
When I am walking which is most of the day, I dont feel him until I sit down or lie down.
How are you all going to manage monitoring without being too worried about it?
I though that the first trimester worry was the worst but now I am changing my mind...

Evergreen I am completely with you on that point. I'm driving DH insane I'm sure, with my texts of 'not felt baby much this morning' etc...
After worrying all day today baby is moving around again so I'm reassuring myself that at 24 weeks there's still quite a lot of room in there (yes?) and it will get more obvious after 28 weeks... I hope.
I'm afraid that I don't have any advice but I feel exactly the same!