Thread 13. TTC #1 Grads. Some of us still remember that thing called "a full nights sleep" for most, it's a mere memory.

[AudreyBradshaw]

Behold, the wonder of birth! Members from 6 weeks bfp to post-partum wonder Mamas! No question to grotty or minging.

We've come full circle from obsessing about cervical mucus to now obsessing if it's our vagina baby plug going! What larks!

Lots of talk about poo, ours and now babies too! Baby brain is REAL! From morning sickness in the first trimester to the third trimester struggle of getting out of bed ( "walrus-ing"in our house), to actual real babies who are growing so fast! Discussion on the merits of sleepyhead and Ewan the dream sheep.

Sooo many gorgeous babies now! And equally lovely Mummy's! We are amazing! What a year! Can you believe it's been a year since our first tentative TTC thread!? Look how far we've come!

Roll up, literally, in my case, cause I'm practically rotund! for TTC #1 Grads!

That comment makes me feel a lot better lisa that's how I feel, scared of the night feeds

Night time even.

Looking good may! Hope baby makes an appearance on time for you!

feefs, I used to dread night times too. I was so tired from the day and night before, I was never sure how I was going to function feeding and taking care of E the next night. It does get better though, just hang in there I'd say 6-8 weeks was the turning point for us.

bunch, I hope your dad's operation goes well and wish him a speedy recovery.

miley, hope you are feeling better

indi, I feel your OH pain. On the whole mine is good, but I do find he huffs and puffs a fair amount when I ask him to do stuff. How is your return to the gym going?

potato, I signed up for slimming world and so far so good. My first weigh in is on Saturday. The aim is to lose between a stone and a stone and a half before the wedding. That's baby weight and a little bit extra that had snuck on before that

How many people's OH's have looked after baby alone yet? Mine is great with entertaining etc but not sure he'd cope well if E had a crying session. He's fine for short periods but I always feel like I'm rushing to do everything (shower etc) even when he's home as he struggles with longer periods which irritates me. I'm pretty sure bubble bath is going to form part of my Christmas present which makes me laugh. I've not had time for a bath since I was pregnant.

Fab bump may! Cant believe youre 37 weeks now. Definitely get the haakaa, it takes a bit of practice to get going but it's fab.

Good luck with slimming world pink! My dh has looked after Rowan for an hour or so whilst I have a bath and a bit of me time. He's really good with him but was since day 1, which I know makes me lucky. I think the hardest thing is relinquishing control and accepting he does certain things differently to me!

Question- has breastfeeding had much impact on anyone's weight? My HV seems to think I need to eat more as R is gaining so much, in that she thinks it will make me lose more weight. The internet suggests this might be bullshit and I think my weight has stabilised anyway but thought I'd ask for your experiences!

Currently expressing in my kitchen while A and DH are still fast asleep because my boobs leaked all over me, they're that full
That's the only downside to your baby sleeping through the night!

Canters I would definitely say BF helps weight loss. I lost my 30lb gain by 6/7weeks. As long as you're eating 3 good meals a day and R is eating well then I don't see a problem, just don't go hungry and you'll be fine.

Good luck on slimming world pink! I've been to the gym 3 times this week, I won't be able to go over the weekend as no one can look after A for me. It's going well, I'd like to be going 4/5 times a week but it's a lot harder now to find time inbetween feeding and trying to have her nap while I'm there. Have you been back to the gym yet?

Miley there shit, I hope you start feeling better soon!

May lovely bump! I hope you're not waiting long for LO's arrival.

Sorry to the girls whose period has arrived already! I felt like I was due on last week but I got the mirena coil back in on Wednesday so no more horrible condoms! DH is over the moon

Went for a lovely meal last night for my mum's bday, DH looked after A all alone but was absolutely fine.
We had a talk and he's been a lot more helpful with things round the house, he now realised I've got a lot on my mind and shouldn't have to be delegating jobs to him aswell as doing everything else. I also think I was having a particularly crappy/grumpy day when I had a go at him. He's so great with A I shouldn't complain really.

Hope everyone else is well and getting excited for Christmas!

indi, I'm sat here doing exactly the same! My boobs have always leaked by the morning.

I've cancelled my gym membership. It doesn't work logistically for me to take E to my mum and dads do I could go during the week as I'd have to double back on myself to get to the gym and would spend more time in the car than the gym! I'm back into running though, just trying to build my miles back up!

Re the Hakka pump, does it suction onto the boob and you don't have to hold it there while it collects the milk? Sorry if I'm being dense! Sometimes I feel like I need to feed E off one boob and pump from the other at the same time, but it is difficult, so the Hakka sounds great. I'm off to google it!

Re breastfeeding and weight, I'm currently 13lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight I found the weight fell off to begin with but then I started going out more and eating lots of cake, so the weight loss stopped. Hopefully slimming world will kick start it again. The only eating advice my HV has given is to have lots of fibre to help with babies poos!!

I don't feel that Christmassy yet, not sure why as our tree is up and everything. Has anyone taken babies to see Santa?!

Oh pink I was sat there at 6.45 thinking 'why am I sitting alone in my cold kitchen while everyone else sleeps?!'..this is real mum life!

We're taking Autumn to see Santa on Sunday. I'm so excited, she'll probably sleep through most of it but it's nice to have the photos and memories

This haaka pump sounds great! I find expressing SO boring and I hate having to hold the pump in place and just sit still for that long waiting for the bottle to fill. Would be great if I could feed and pump at the same time!

Hi all, sorry for the lack of input on here. Not sure where the time goes!
All well here with my little one. Gaining weight well on 50th centile (was just above 10th at birth!). Now 5 weeks, alert and smiling lots.
Generally sleeping ok at night - feeding about 10.30, 1.30 and 4ish... but then after that he fusses, grunts and makes all sorts of strange sounds, whilst not really waking up or crying. It's hard to sleep through it and he doesn't want a feed if I offer it. From reading online this seems to be a common thing to happen - familiar to anyone here?

Yup haakaa is totally hands free! I find the more I use it the more I get, even off my crappy boob. Have had a terrible night with R but still already have a 5oz bottle ready to chuck at daddy along with R when he comes through the door! Mwahahahahahahaha.

First yes the weird grunting sounds very familiar, R does this odd growl which is quite disconcerting! Jealous of how well your little one is sleeping!

I've just had delivery of the haaka! Thanks canters! Got to love Amazon prime! Looking forward to trying it out, it's so hard finding time to express during the day.

Re weight and bf - a lot came off in the first couple of weeks but at 3 months I'm still a good 8lbs more than I was pre pregnancy and probably a stone more than I want to be!

Looking great may! You pregnancy seems to have flown by - maybe not for you as much though!

Pink DH has looked after A for 1 afternoon. I'm looking forward to him doing it more over the Xmas period! He's really great with her but he's been working such long hours the last few weeks he hasn't even seen her during the week. I'm exhausted at doing everything myself. He finishes work tonight for 2 weeks and I can't wait - so looking forward to having an extra pair of hands!

Wow great looking bump May! How are you feeling now? I'm definitely going to have to figure out a better way of sitting at my desk soon!

Been struggling with hip pain at night all this week, it keeps waking me up and no matter what side I try to lie on i'm in pain it's strange as it seems to have come out of nowhere just in the last few days but it's horrible... can feel the pain going down my right thigh too when I get up in the night for the loo so really hope it's not the start of some sort of sciatic type thing. It seems fine in the day so hopefully not!

Oh no hope it's not mastitis or flu Miley? Hope you're feeling better too Nev

Hope you've had a better night Feefs

Liking the sounds of this haakaa pump, need to add it to my notebook of things you guys have talked about and said are good to have - such useful insights!!

Canters I've had a haakaa ages and it's amazing.
I haven't lost any more weight since the initial 2 weeks pp and then a by more when I had norovirus. I've still got 4kg to lose.

Also If Atticus has ever got so upset he won't feed a dummy is the calmer for me.

Dads op went well, he's coming home today yay .

What an amazing bump shot maya.

Feefs you're doing amazing. It al does get easier. Glad the jaundice is clearing.

Atticus is mega teething and boy is it affecting his nappies. Very loose, lots of them and miscast. They're hideous.

Hope you feel better soon Miley.

Popping in to say helloooooo! Hoping everyone is lovely and well, mama's and pregos alike!

Dh been back at work since L was 5 days so I've not had a spare minute to post! All going ok, he's 3 weeks on Monday! Where has the time gone?! He's wonderful! Been a tad fussy during the night but once he's asleep he'll snooze for 4-6 hours at a time. Definetly looking at this haakaa! It sounds ace! I want to pump while I've got the supply so I can freeze it. L strong as an ox and gaining weight like a champ so far. He lost 7oz in the first week but had put it all back on plus 3 oz by 2 weeks. So he was weighing in at 9 lb 3 oz at 2 weeks.

Need to catch up properly, I'm rubbish at doing individual posts to people at the minute

Really rough night day. Midwife came round to do heel prick and weight and was concerned that no weight gain. Weight stable at a 10.2% loss since birth. Advised formula top ups and I got sent to the hospital to get a double pump and I have to express 8-10 times over the next 24hours and feed Anna very 3 hours (won't be hard!) offer formula top ups if I don't pump enough to give overnight. Oh and try to sleep. It's the stress and lack of sleep causing my milk not to come in she says. They'll weigh baby again tomorrow. Unsurprisingly my blood pressure was sky high following this so I had to get checked at the hospital myself! Came back down as per usual.

Just pumped now and got 15ml feeling very proud. Sorry for all the me me me. I really am finding all th support here and stories amazing

Marmite I was getting bad hip pain but I've started pregnancy yoga, it's helped loads.

Feefs sorry to hear it was a bad day, hopefully progress is now being made and you'll be able to relax a bit more.

Audrey glad you're doing well, good to hear from you again!

Mayago awesome photo and love the dress!

Sorry for anyone I missed, hope you're all having Christmasy fun!

Thanks Fishy I've been doing pregnancy yoga for a month or two now, but this just seems to have come out of nowhere! Was thinking of trying a mattress topper as our mattress is quite firm, see if that helps. Glad to hear the yoga has worked well for you though!

Great to hear from you Audrey sounds like you and L are doing fab!

Sorry to hear it was another difficult night Feefs but good news on the pumping!

Glad your dads op went well Bunch hope As nappies get less hideous again soon!

Have you bought everything you want ahead of baby's arrival now May? I need to start thinking about buying stuff after Christmas, eek!

Just been having a mammoth Christmas pressie wrapping session...not quite the same without Baileys though I must say! DH is out on Christmas do....they left the office at 11.30am this morning and as far as I know haven't eaten since lunch...dread to think the state he'll be in when he gets home

pink OH is loads better with H now he's hit that magical 3 month mark and the night time hysterical hour has stopped. They've bonded a lot more and he's now helping with feeds during the day when I've expressed and he's off. I've fallen completely for him again. I think they all get there in the end you just have to let them find their own way which is piss annoying when you have a new baby and really need them to man up and cope.

Thanks everyone - goodness knows what was wrong as I felt fine yesterday! We left H for the first time and went out for a lovely meal. I enjoyed it and wasn't as anxious as I thought we were out for 3 hours and H had 8oz of expressed milk in that time! Which just goes to show the 24oz in 24 hours guideline is a load of tosh or my boy is greedy

Anyway, I hope everyone is well! If I get a day behind I really struggle to catch up is everyone ready for Christmas? I'm really looking forward to it as we're off out with the families for Christmas dinner (my mum, her partner and my grandparents as well as OHs mum and dad unfortunately) so nice and stress free. I'm also all wrapped and ready and have plenty frozen milk for a couple of nights away from H if we want.

Miley glad you had a nice evening out.

We've finally finished all the christmas shopping and are winding down for Christmas.
We've got mum for Christmas Eve, the DSC for Christmas Day and we're going to BIL for Boxing Day. It should be a busy one.

I wonder if I'll remember to take the turkeys out of the freezer on time this year

Marmite how is OH feeling today?

Feef sorry you're having a rough time. I'm sure it will be fine though. Hopefully Anna will have put on a little today. Well done on the 15ml express.

Audrey glad all is well. Don't worry about not keeping up, I think most of us with babas struggle now.

Bunch poor old Atticus. Teething is not fun.

first glad all is well. Yes, sleep noises are common and they only get worse

Pink I'm 28lb over my pre-pregnancy weight fingers crossed you have a loss this week. Im not going to join until after Christmas as I don't have that kind of willpower

Indi glad OH has been better.

May fantastic bump photo!!!

Sorry to anyone I've missed. I'm struggling to keep up.

Arya is now 17 weeks. She's showing signs of trying to roll over at lads and she now wakes me up by babbling at full volume.
She had her last set of injections on Thursday and was an absolute star! She cried for less than a minute, then was all smiles again. She spent the rest of the day looking high as a kite on calpol.

I had the strangest experience last night. Someone I've known for about 30 years had a massive FB rant at me and unfriended me. The reason being that she doesn't like my blog I know I've asked you guys to look at it a few times but I don't bug my FB friends about it. I just share my blog to my timeline, if they want to read it, great, if they don't, that's ok too.
Apparently I'm a sad moany old cow who slags off any business who doesn't meet my silver service expectations I'm sorry I expect waiters to get orders right in a £££ restaurant, baby changing rooms to be at least clean and service providers not to miss-sell products. I can see how that's unreasonable.

Well the taxi driver had to open the front door for him and then he was an absolutely horrible belligerent drunk. He's usually the nicest kindest of guys but on odd occasion when he's had an absolute shed-load to drink he's a total arsehole. He didn't want to eat the toast I made for him I he threw the plate across the room he didn't want the pint of water either and generally thinks I was 'having a go at him' for being so drunk although I didn't actually say a word as there's no point when they're that drunk. He obviously was feeling guilty for getting so ridiculously hammered, I've never seen him so drunk. There's currently a smashed pint glass and plate still on the dining room floor and a bit of toast down there somewhere too and I'm fucked if I'm going to be the one to go and clean it up. I then ended up sitting up with him in the spare room til 1.30am as I was convinced he was going to choke on vomit in his sleep or something. He's showing no signs of life despite the fact I've taken him a coffee and paracetamol in. Not exactly the Friday night/Saturday morning I had planned

That's horrible about your FB friend potato was she a close friend still or just an old friend? Clearly it's their loss but still hurts. You're not being unreasonable at all!

Glad you had a good time out Miley and feeling fine now!

I'm contemplating going out somewhere I'm so pissed off

There was sleep last night!!!

Marmite defiantly no clearing up for you, I think it's the least he can do when he wakes up! Have yourself a nice day out if it'll make you and the little one feel good.

Miley glad you were able to have a nice evening out.

Potato if they're the kind of friend who'd do that sort of thing over FB then maybe you're better off without them. I don't think expecting changing tables to be clean is asking too much!

Feef glad you got some sleep!

So I've had to order a maternity coat. Hadn't realised it but my regular jackets are all fitted and while I don't have a huge bump my waist has disappeared. Yay for H&M sales!

Thanks Fishy he woke up and had absolutely no recollection of the night before. I made him go downstairs to see the mess and stuff he'd thrown he was mortified. He's very apologetic but I'm still pissed off. I've also woken up with a massive sore throat which hasn't helped my mood gargling with disposable aspirin was usually my go to pre-pregnancy sore throat solution but guessing that's another pregnancy no no!

Yay for sleep Feefs!

I tried sleeping on top of a duvet last night, still woke up with hip pain every hour or two but not as bad. So will maybe try and pick up a mattress topper this weekend.

I caved and bought a cheap maternity coat from New Look about a month ago Fishy and now its got much milder again and I never do it up anyway as I'm too hot so could probably just have kept wearing my normal one open! Oh well, we'll probably have another cold snap soon!

Hope everyone else is having a good Saturday morning

Woo hoo for sleep feefs!! Hope you are doing ok and A's weigh in today goes ok.

marmite - leave your OH to tidy his own mess up.

potato, sorry to hear about your friend, but as others have said, it sounds like you are best off without her.

miley, so glad you managed a night out! And so pleased Harrison took the bottle!

soda, how are you finding the haaka so far? It has brilliant reviews but i'd be worried it would fall off!

Glad your dad's operation went well bunch.

I've just done my first slimming world weigh in and have lost 3.5lbs this week, so I'm pleased with that!

Marmite that's not on! If I were you I'd take myself out for a nice lunch without him

She was a childhood friend so I wouldn't have even noticed she'd unfriended me if she hadn't had a go at me first

Feef woohoo!

Marmite have you got a pregnancy pillow? Sorry if you've already said you have.

Pink woohoo on the weight loss!!

marmite sorry about your OH! What an arse!

pink brilliant weight loss. I have 2 stone to lose but that can wait til after Christmas!

So Harrison is holding his head completely on his own already and when I sit him up on his mat he grabs his feet! He's trying to get up on his knees when on his tummy as he brings them right in underneath him and pushes. It reminds me of a slug they really don't stay little for long at all do they?! He's such a bloody chatterbox

potato your 'friend' sounds toxic - you sound well rid.