#TTC1 - Second Wave grads thread!

[Mooseville]

Hello!!

This is a new wave of grads for those from #TTC1 - Those on the first grade thread are dealing with poonamis and crying babies, while we are still waving our FRER's and wondering if that line is really a figment of our imagination!

Feel free to join in, if you too are embarking on this crazy journey to parenthood!!

Hi everyone! Hope you're all well? Just checking in really to say I have my 12 week scan on 5th April - can't wait! Feeling a bit nervous too but looking forward to seeing him/her for the first time.

My letter says I have to drink 1.5 pints of "non fizzy liquid" an hour before...let's hope they're not running late as I don't think I'll be able to last that long without going for a wee 😳

marmite we have a safari theme too! Not that I've done any decorating!

Just saw my sister and her new baby - can't believe I'll be responsible for one soon! My other sister is also pregnant - due in October so it's going to be a busy year!

Also you can get 20% off asos maternity with the code LITTLEONE got myself a "coatigan" as I was boiling in my coat today!

Good luck with the scan Poppet - that moment when you get to see your little one for the first time is completely magical. I've never experienced anything quite like it ... both DH and I burst into tears and laughter at the same time. I do remember the technician doing the scan being pleased we were first timers as well - it must be nice for them to see the emotional response too.

I'll also say good luck on holding in the 1.5 pints of liquid! I had to have a scan about 3 weeks after I got my positive to check if I had a cyst and they asked me to do the same thing, so I drank a lot of water beforehand and rocked up at the scanning area only to find that they were running at least 20 mins behind schedule (and 2 patients were due in before me). I've never needed to pee so badly in my life!! Eventually I had to give in and run to the loo to let some out - by which time when I tried to go my bladder wasn't playing ball and it was actually difficult to go as I'd been holding it for so long. Trying to stop myself halfway through was NOT easy.

I'd suggest drinking a little less than they mention before you arrive and then bringing a bottle along that you can chug in the waiting room, so if they're running late you're not committing yourself to a painful wait! I did that for my 12 week scan and was a LOT more comfortable.

Thanks for the discount code Seahawk, I might treat myself

No news on DH's job yet marmite sadly. He hasn't been contacted about the job 5 mins from where I work, but he has 2 interviews today and another followup one on Tuesday, which are all looking hopeful. If he doesn't have a job by this time next week I'd be surprised as these are 2nd interviews he's going to and there seems to be a lot more interest in him during this hiatus than there was in the last. Gosh though - 36 weeks?? It could be any day for you now then couldn't it! Looking forward to being the first 2nd wave grad to post new baby tips for us all? So exciting.

Hi ladies, just had our 20 week scan this morning. Everything is looking perfect and she is definitely a girl

Btw I do have something to bounce off you lovely ladies ... are any of you still having to get up multiple times in the night to pee, even in the 2nd trimester? I swear every night this week I've woken up at 2am and then 5am with my bladder complaining at me. I'm bloody knackered all the time and ultra grumpy because of it - though the sun today and the fact that I'm now off work for a week (HOORAY!) mean that I'm in a better mood now even if I am tired.

I just thought that this was supposed to stop at the end of the 2nd trimester. I miss having a full night's sleep.

Lovely picture MrsG! That must be a relief for you.

Hi lovelies, just checking in... MrsG, what a great scan pic - glad your teeny poppet is doing well. Thanks you so much to all of you for your supporting comments re. my first trimester nausea/exhaustion moan. I'm 10 weeks tomorrow and (touch wood!) seem to be a little better or, at least, I'm getting used to dealing with the nausea. Poppet, hope you're doing OK? I'm counting down the day 'til my first scan which is on the 3rd April when I'll be 12+2, so we're quite close! xx

Lovely scan pic MrsG!

FX for your DH Kav sounds like there quite a few irons in the fire and sure something must be on the horizon by the sounds of it!
Ha, not sure about baby tips besides, Fishy is only a few weeks behind me, you never know with these things, she could be first!!

Had my 36 weeks midwife appointment this morning, bump has dropped down (which I had already thought myself...not least for the extra pressure in my pelvis and on my bladder!) and baby's head is right down and fully engaged in pelvis apparently !! Eek. Although with a first baby that doesn't necessarily mean anything as they can be in that position for weeks. Good to know they are in the right place though!

Starting to panic about names... we're sorted for a girl but if baby is a boy we are really struggling to come up with any names that we love

Gorgeous baby scan mrsG 🌹👍😊

Another one here who would definitely recommend doing some hypnobirthing. Even if you just listen via YouTube and do some breathing exercises. . It is amazing and lovely. Visualisation is awesome and calming, but please please don't get stuck on an idea of giving birth in a particular way. I went in with my oils and hypnobirthing on ipod, got in the birthing pool after 14 hours and 30 hours later was having an EMCS because the little bugger was at a funny angle and never dropped. It was still amazing and the hypnobirthing really really helped with staying calm etc. (Transferred to St Marys marmite and the facilities are lovely. Not sure which hospital you decided on in the end)

kav I never got a full nights sleep from about 5 weeks pregnant and the peeing only increased. (It's good practice though!)

Yes Kav I am up usually at least once in the night for a pee but more often than not its twice or three times! I seem to be fine during the day but it must just be something about being horizontal!

seahawk we are finding out the sex so that is exciting and you're right - it must be uncommon for the 20 weeks scan to show up a major problem. Hopefully our holiday next week will help keep my mind off it!

kav it is amazing to feel baby move and it is reassuring when it happens. It's very subtle though so I only feel it when I'm sat quietly, normally after a meal. Then in between those times I worry that I won't be able to feel it again! I guess it will get stronger and more frequent as the weeks pass. I am sure it won't be long for you now. I think I was very lucky to feel it this early. Your 20 week scan is 2 days before mine so we can look forward to it together are you finding out the sex? No night time loo visits for me yet but I think I have quite a strong bladder.

Thanks for the hypnobirthing info marmite! I didn't realise you could just get a book and a cd. That makes it something that I could see myself doing. I think I would have to convince my DH that it wasn't some mumbo jumbo and he wouldn't be keen on me spending too much going to classes! The reviews on Amazon for the book you use are very good. Also, you do so much exercise! I hope I can be like that when I'm 36 weeks pregnant. I can understand the name issue. I think we will struggle to find a name that we both love regardless of the sex! DH and I have quite different tastes.

On a random note, it occurred to me the other day that if you have a name in mind and are the last in your NCT group to pop then there is a risk that someone might use your name! Would that stop any of you guys using your chosen name do you think? I don't think it would stop me as NCT people would be people I had only met a couple of months before but it did make me wonder!

mrs - what a beautiful scan pic. So glad to hear it's all going well and that baby is still a girl! Is that your last scan done now??

audrey thanks for sharing your experience! I have heard a lot about how few people actually end up having a 'normal' birth. I think it's definitely something to go into with your eyes open. To be honest I would always just take the advice of my midwife/doctor (perhaps too blindly!)

starfish congrats on reaching double figures (tomorrow)! Great that you're on your scan count down now too.

poppet holding the wee for the scan is in a interesting challenge! What time of day is your scan? If it's early then there shouldn't be too much of a delay by then.

Music yep that was the last one, I'm not that bothered about going for a 3D one towards the end but we might consider it later on.

I'm starting to feel tiny little movements, they feel like muscle twitches so its hard to distinguish! She was moving about so much during the scan but I could barley feel any of it, so it must just be the really strong movements I can feel.

So exciting that some of us are already close to the end! I feel like it will fly past now that a lot of us are almost half way.

Thanks for the advice Kav! I'll drink a bit less and take a bottle of water with me.

Music my scan is at 9.20am so I'm hoping that means they'll be on time. Although saying that, my booking in appointment took 2 hours as I had to wait ages to have blood taken! I'm going to work from home afterwards though so it doesn't matter too much.

Starfish I'm feeling ok thanks, the nausea has pretty much gone but I'm absolutely starving all the time! It doesn't matter how much I eat, I'm just not full up! Baby is clearly hungry haha. I'm also still really tired but I'm kind of used to that now to be honest. How about you? I bet you're looking forward to your scan too, yours is 2 days before mine so we can be scan buddies 😊

Lovely pic MrsG!

Hope everyone else is doing well too - not too long to wait now Marmite! So exciting!

kav I always used to get up in the night to pee anyway so no change here! I did go through a phase of needing to go twice tho which was annoying!

marmite we're the opposite - sorted for a boy but girls names are wide open! I thought we were sorted but I wanted to use a nick name all the time and just have the long version of the name on the birth cert and turned out DH wasn't that keen on the nickname but liked the long version. I don't think we can call the baby different names so back to the drawing board. Hopefully we have a boy as we've been set on one name from early on! music I would totally still use the name I wanted to even if someone in my nct used it too, as long as it's not immediate family I think it's ok. Might make me panic that it's really popular though.

Funny story about names. There was a boys name that DH loved and I hated with a passion. Luckily when we moved into our flat the child upstairs who had awful screaming tantrums and is generally a bit weird had the same name! Needless to say it's totally off the table now and thank goodness he seems to have grown out of the tantrums! We nicknamed him Damian!!

Ps where are you off to music

Good luck to everyone with scans coming up!

Hi all just wanted to say hello. And hope everyone is ok and that all babies are baking well.

Lovely scan Mrsg ... just thought I would mention that your name is ont the scan.

X

Hey all hope everyone had a good weekend. We painted the 'spare room' which is now almost 'baby's room' aahh! Also assembled and sorted most of the furniture so I could start putting things away in drawers which was super exciting! Finally starting to feel less overwhelmed by everything and as though we are finally getting there with it all! We also have a safari animal wall decal to put up but found out have to wait at least 2 weeks for the paint to dry before we can apply it, boo! Still a few things to buy and sort but not far off now, makes it all seem more real!

Also ended up with an impromptu visit to triage on Saturday morning after baby decided to have a very uncharacteristic lie-in and not wake up or make any movement for several hours. None of the usual things worked and started to really think something was wrong. Midwife was lovely though and of course within 5 mins of being hooked up on the monitor they started wriggling around, little scamp!

Very good advice stardrey think I need to keep that in mind more myself, not to get too hung up on the set plan, as I've only really imagined myself giving birth in the pool. Need to be open to the many different eventualities. Glad that St Mary's was good for you, we went with Wythenshawe in the end as they have more birthing pools. Did you get anything at the baby show this year? I got the Hakkaa breast pump after remembering some of the other grads talking about it, and also did some research into slings/soft carriers!

music I don't think nct people using the same name would stop me, if it was the name you really loved. I would just explain that we'd already had it picked out. All the girls from my NCT are so lovely. 3 babies now of the 8 of us (my due date is the last one) no name clashes for us yet!

MrsG that's exactly how I remember early movement feeling. It's funny how quickly it seems to progress from little flutters and twitches to full blown kicks that can take your breath away

Lovely to hear from you miw hope you and all on the ttc group are doing well, looking forward to you joining the grads thread soon xx

Sorry to break it to you guya but I'm now up around 4 times a night to pee plus another couple of times to rearrange pillows in a vague attempt to get comfortable again

This is my last week of work eeeek! (Although I've a day off today so having a nice lazy day!)

That must have been scary marmite glad all was ok. I'm sure I'll be there at some point, im such a worrier.

I need to get organised. 25 weeks now, am visiting 2 nurseries on Wednesday, feels ridiculously early but apparently I need to sign up now! Have loads of boring diy jobs to do too. Buying things and choosing names is so much more exciting!

Hi ladies, sorry I've been so quiet. Got the outcomes yesterday, I've got a promotion so that's great but one of our team didn't make it & will be made redundant if she can't find something else internal. Very sad as we're such a close team still can't believe it's happening.

Marmite that must have been really worrying, glad everything is ok. Wow your last week at work, can't believe it eek!

Music NCT people giving their babies the same name definitely wouldn't stop me. People at work on the other hand... now knowing what their kids are called puts me off those names, but I'm not sure that should stop us if it's a name we really like...

Seahawk ooh I must put booking nursery on my growing list of things to do!

I'm 17 weeks now & tummy feels huge. I can still fit in a lot of my tops but I'm in a bigger size of work trousers & I've started buying some maternity clothes. All this comfort eating over the past few weeks with work stuff won't have helped, need to be healthier! I love being pregnant & knowing there's a little baby in there but I do feel like I'm struggling getting used to my changing body, it's just so strange.

Hi ladies,

Just checking in as I fell off this thread.

Lovely scan mrs we had our 20 week one yesterday. All fine with baby girl I'm getting up at least once usually twice in the night to pee and finding I'm exhausted but then can't drift back to sleep. V annoying!

Well done on the promotion star! Great news.

seahawk wow nurseries! I hadn't even thought that far ahead. Maybe I should. Hoping to take a year off with baby so hopefully I've got a little time, but I've no idea what the waiting lists are like.

Yay for the last week at work marmite! I cannot wait to leave!

Congrats Star although it must be hard at work with your team member, I hope they find something.

30 weeks on Saturday - eeek! The nursery is pretty much painted, furniture comes on Saturday - can't wait for it to be up and in so I can put clothes away and put nick naks out etc!!

I would be happy using the same name as NCT but not close friends and family! My DP has a huge family and between them they've used all my favourite names - it's very annoying!

Blimey, I'd not even considered childcare yet and I really don't think I can bring myself to until after the babies here! We're outside of London now so hopefully won't be the same pressure on spaces!

Cannot wait to get my maternity leave started, got so much going on with work and house renovations that I'm not even reading up on the birth and breastfeeding - feeling very unprepared. That's definitely my first job as soon as I finish - fingers crossed they don't come early!!!

Someone in my yoga class and my sister both told me that I need to get started on nurseries asap. They both live in blackheath and I think it's really hard to get a place there. Sadly I'll have to go back to work after a year so I thought that I should get it sorted to make sure I get the place that we want. It might be worth ringing round a few local places to see when they recommend registering to avoid a nasty surprise. I was thinking about looking at some when the baby was a few months old - didn't realise it could be so crazy!

Hi all!

We're still away - in Copenhagen for a short break, back tomorrow. Having a lovely time although it is colder than the UK which means lots and lots of layers so I look like the michelin man!

Glad to hear about all the lovely 20 week scans. Ours is still a little over a week away and I am anxious but also excited. Feels like it will take an age to tick round.

Love hearing all your thoughts about if your favourite name got used. I don't think it would stop me either although, like you said seahawk, I wonder if it would make me go off the name a bit of it was more popular than I had realised. And I agree, starmist, that people at work might be a different matter. Think I'd be pretty gutted though.

Moose, that sucks that your favourite names have already been used! Have you and DH been able to agree on other ideas?

Congrats on the promotion, Starmist, although I can imagine it feels bittersweet at the moment.

At how many weeks are you guys planning to start your maternity leave? I'd rather not start it too early but can't imagine tolerating the trains and tubes in London in July/August very well...

Marmite, sorry to hear about your scare but glad baby is okay and yay to finishing work!

Miw, lovely to hear from you. You have been in my thoughts. Hope you and your OH are doing okay. I'm so sorry you had to go through that but I'm hopeful that you'll be back here in no time.

Starmist I'm also struggling to get to grips with what my body is doing. I am 19 weeks and, although I do have a tummy, it doesn't look much like a bump - more just that I'm fat and bloated! People at work still don't know that I'm pregnant as my normal work dresses all hide it pretty well.

Hi everyone,

Sorry for not posting in weeks.

Marmite I can't believe you're 36 weeks now, that has flown by, and is so exciting! Sorry to hear about the trip to triage but glad all is well. Well done on sounding like you're pretty together, too.

Starmist well done on the job, though I'm sorry to hear about your team mate. I'm only 15 weeks and my tummy also already seems quite big despite not really putting on much weight... I'm putting it down to eating well and having a short torso... definitely in the maternity trousers, skirts and dresses, and mostly still getting away with tops at the mo. DH loves my belly, it's really sweet.

Kav I was really sorry to hear about your DH's job, and am thinking of you and him over the next week or so with that.

Mrs that's a wonderful scan picture, congrats!

Starfish and Poppet a belated welcome if it's been so long since I last posted that I've not said that yet! Pleased you both seem to be through the worst of the sickness. Hoping it eases further for you soon Starfish.

Since feeling better from about 10ish weeks life seems to have got ever busier. All seems well with baby, and 12 week scan was wonderful - so good to see baby bigger, in more detail, and moving: can't wait for 20 week one now!

Tempted to get a scan earlier to find out sex, but need to resist on cost basis, as we've pushed out the boat and are hiring a doula. Reason for this is my anxiety around giving birth in a huge hospital where I won't be known by staff as a wheelchair user: worried that they won't want to stick to our 'as natural as possible' plan when they see me, so want someone to advocate for and support me. We're doing a private hypnobirthing course with doula too, so we build up a good relationship and she can help with techniques in practice. Also, DH experiences anxiety and I think it'll help him to have someone else he knows there to support him too, and to take off the pressure. So fingers crossed it'll be money well spent.

My intolerances have all disappeared again now I'm through first trimester, which in itself is making a big difference to my mental wellbeing I think, interestingly. Really enjoying pregnancy now, and the fact that I am mostly feeling human and am back at work. Now I just have tons to do before I stop around mid-July. In other exciting news, DH and I got pretty good tickets for Wimbledon, so we're really looking forward to that and hoping I manage alright with going at 7 months pregnant. And we're going on a mini-break for DH's birthday next week, yey!

Best wishes to all, sorry I've not had time to catch up with everyone.