May 2017 #10 - To be prepared or not prepared

[RasperryInAMelon]

Here's a link to the last thread and photo updates just incase anyone's looking for anything!

Thread 9

Photo Page - Bump Update

I don't have access to a desktop right now though so can't post the link to the GoogleDrive spreadsheet, but it's a few posts down in the previous thread!

Happy chatting!

I'm guessing not all of them do Sanity, though I was chuckling about them specifying it being an empty tub 😂. Mind you, there was someone there who asked if a baby was allowed to be in a car seat straight away, and seem genuinely shocked when the lady running the course said that they have to be in a car seat from hospital if your going home by car!

MissMoo my DH is the same! He fainted when he was told about the risks of DVT after breaking his foot. Also he said he felt woozy when we had to go to maternity triage due to LO not moving as much and I had the joyful speculum (sp?) experience. I'm going to have to include 'high backed chair with arms' in my birth plan for him to sit in if he feels faint...

Sanity I'd have thought you could just use one of the hospital vomit bowls for water for washing baby's bum - they're small enough and they'll have tons!

Sanity the last scan we had was 26 weeks as the baby had an irregular heartbeat which has since (touch wood) resolved itself. I've got another one at 32 weeks next Monday as I've got a low lying placenta. I'm almost certain he's still in the same position as I'm still feeling all the kicks quite high up.

That's a really good list bright. I'd like to start packing my hospital bag soon just to have it all ready.

Hope everyone's having a nice weekend. Today has been fairly productive. Went to yoga in the morning, then in the afternoon dh and I built a chest of drawers with changing table top for the baby's room. We got a John Lewis delivery of some stuff we'd ordered, Moses basket, bouncy chair, baby bath, towels and blankets but annoyingly they've not included the bouncy chair but have sent 2 Moses baskets so had to ring them to sort it out!

bright that's really helpful thanks.
I went hospital bag shopping today... think we now have most things. We also bought more clothes for baby in m and s as we had vouchers... was much more impressed with their selection than either mothercare or babies r us as they were less gender targeted. Hopefully we have enough of a range to get through the first few weeks.

How long can a newborn be in a car seat for? My grandad lives with my parents and is not doing too well... I would like to take baby to meet him within the first couple of weeks while DH is on paternity leave but they live an hour away... am I being unrealistic?

Evening ladies

Am in bed resting, as bump and sides are feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Bump feels rock solid, which is a little strange, so am hoping the resting will ease things off.

Left dh & dd downstairs with one of our friends and his ds, watching the lego batman movie so hopefully I won't hear a peep from them for a while.

www.nhs.uk/news/2016/10October/Pages/Warning-over-babies-sleeping-in-car-seats.aspx

Ignore the headline. This is a sensible article that goes over some recent research.

@Brightsmoke thank you for the list, that is helpful. @jennymac31 hope you will feel better soon!

Sanity - am 32 + 1.

I think if the hard bit doesn't move away from pressure/makes the rest of your bump move then it's the bum. It it's the head it would move away from pressure and wouldn't move the rest of bump.
Might be wrong though. I have been reading up on it this eve. It's reassuring as will explain why the movements I feel are very slight/muted as have high anterior placenta.

@brightsmoke - thank you for the list. That's really helpful! I can roughly figure out what I might need but baby?!? No clue! Ha! Poor thing would end up with one babygrow and a few nappies if it were left up to me!

Thanks tea that's a good article

Brightsmoke - Yeah, the ‘empty’ tub thing was an interesting comment indeed!

Barnes79 - That’s what I was thinking too!

ClaireSunflower - Aww, glad to hear your baby is all fine and well. Mustve been quite the worry. So have they said the baby should be head down by this stage?

teainbed - Interesting article. You know what that put in my head immediately though? ‘Oh crikey, does that mean we’ll have to have the IL’s coming to us all the time?!’ (Yes, I am an antisocial mare!)

mrscrocopop - That’s interesting. Mine is moving in big swooshing rolls, but boy.. I don’t know what is hitting the lower regions, but when the baby moves into that position, it is crippling. I almost have to heave the belly up a bit as I feel the baby is going to fall out. I don’t know whether this is SPD related?
We’re also very close in date. I’m 32+5. Exciting!

I wonder if my MW will have anything useful to add next week.. She hasn’t so far…

Btw, I for all of you who've had children already; what's the deal with Health Visitors? I received a letter that stated 'they had been told I was expecting and they wanted to come round and discuss the options and services available to me'. I see this as wanting to have a good bloody nosey. Maybe I'm being unfair, but not one of my friends has ever had a good word to say about Health Visitors. In fact, the feedback has been horrendous. Can you say no? Is it worth letting them come round? If you don't let them round will they call social services? Can you eject them from your house if you think they're overstepping the mark? Any advice and opinions gratefully received x

I've got a health visitor appointment too sanity next week, although mine is at a local clinic. Don't think I'd be keen to have them round. I'm sure it's not but I'd feel like it was a bit of an inspection. I think you're perfectly entitled to say no but I'm going to go for the appointment anyway just to see if it's anything useful.

So much for meeting friend for coffee, was so tired I had to go for nap instead! Bloody knackered today. DH out raving with friends tonight and I'm happily curled up watching cheesy chic flick called "What to Expect when Expecting".

sanity I'm sure my rolls around and that's when I feel like I'm gonna hurl!

ClaireSunflower - Well indeed. Inviting me to meet them, that’s one thing. Coming round my house - quite another. It does feel intrusive and like it’s to ‘assess’ our living status. If she’d heard I was pregnant through the MW, then why not meet me at the health centre?

Badgerbird - The rolling around is something else, isn’t it? I know I shouldn’t whinge, but sometimes I just want it to calm down a bit!

I really wish the little one would get away from my cervix though. It is really painful and I can't get at all comfy when it does this!

Sanitys once you are discharged from midwives the health visitors 'take over' to ensure your child is healthy. I think they stay involved for at least 5 years, not sure what happens when they start school. I see that I'm 'due' a visit pre-natally (between 34 and 38 w) according to my notes, but haven't heard from them. I can't recall having a visit last time, but may have forgotten.

I think they can be good, but often seem to offer outdated advice or cause undue concern. Personally I attended all the sessions they 'invited' me for, and let them into the house for the two they invited themselves over for, and smiled/nodded through it and ignored most of what they said. Here they are really really busy though and I was clearly managing fine with a healthy child so they left me to it, luckily. I had a 28day visit (latest they should leave it!), a 8-month-ish check, a 2-year check, then an extra check as the 2-year check flagged up he was potentially obese (which was downright ridiculous, anyone could see he was normal sized, but it was done off a BMI calculation which he was fully dressed including nappy for, and his head was still relatively large, so he wasn't 'fat' he just had a big head. Even the HV who came to do the check sort of realised the mistake as soon as she walked in the door...).

"If you don't let them round will they call social services?" - probably not, SS has also got better things to do, but it's easier to agree and smile/nod and then ignore IMO.

sanity this pre-baby HV check is a new initiative introduced last year. Personally, the HVs around my way are stretched enough as it is so I don't think these early visits are the most effective use of their time - I'd rather they kept the fortnightly baby clinic around here (every other friday 9-11am) running so that you could drop in for baby weighings as you wanted and had a chance to run any concerns past them on an informal basis. I know I asked some questions in those clinics that I would not have called them up specifically to ask. I'm waiting for my letter but tbh I'm going to just tell them I'm fine and I'll see them after the birth. They aren't inspecting your house - this isn't like the Cat's Protection League checking out wannabe cat adopters - so I assume they want to just introduce themselves and be available for questions. But not massively useful if you are still working and I wouldn't want to take any time off work for this.

By the way, if you find that you are clashing with your HV and find their presence destructive instead of constructive, you are well within your rights to tell them to get stuffed. SS won't be involved and, so long as you have the information in your red book (which you get on the first visit post-birth or at the hospital) regarding when various vaccinations are due for your child, you don't need them. Most people amble along fine, either listening or ignoring their advice (which can vary wildly from HV to HV), but I know two ladies who have called their GP and officially banned the HVs from their houses. I never mentioned my using nipple shields to mine last time as her only advice re breast-feeding was to refer me to local groups, and I couldn't be bothered with the lecture as I know technically HVs don't approve of their use. Speaking to mum friends it's quite common not to disclose something to the HV if you think it could be contentious

I could quite happily have gone for a nap mid-afternoon today so why am I wide awake now?!

sanity, moomoo since the last few weeks mine definitely feels like a little person inside now, rather than like, I dunno, an alien or a fish or a case of food poisoning

The downside is that now it feels like a person, it feels like a constant bloody hug and I'm starting to feel touched out before it's even been born!

I had a pre birth visit from a HV with my first, it didn't feel like an inspection at all, she came to introduce herself and local services that were available. I've never found them particularly useful but not intrusive either. You can take it or leave it. The baby clinics with the weigh-ins are good, and they coordinate the health checks and first immunisations. TBH I think they've got some really needy families on their books and if you're doing ok you're unlikely to be troubled by them. They've not got the resources to do otherwise.

The upside is that when baby wriggles into an uncomfortable position, I stroke it and ask it to move, and I swear baby responds!

Well my evening of rest appears to have been short lived. Bump still feeling uncomfortable and am taking paracetamol to get rid of the pain but have just been sick so am gonna see how the rest of the night goes. If I still feel like this in the morning then might go see the midwife/hospital.

Why am I awake?!? Bored of this insomnia thing now!!

On the upside, I've managed to catch up...

Sanity - "greased Comedy bowling ball"?!? PMSL!

The sleep has gone - I'm another one lying awake.

Is anyone feeling more emotional nowadays? Small little things can make me feel tearful (older couple in the shop holding hands, people arguing on the street, toddler having a tantrum etc) which is unusual for me. Pregnancy hormones in full swing

The sleep has gone - I'm another one lying awake.

Is anyone feeling more emotional nowadays? Small little things can make me feel tearful (older couple in the shop holding hands, people arguing on the street, toddler having a tantrum etc) which is unusual for me. Pregnancy hormones in full swing

This night time awake thing is rubbish. Stupid SPD, stupid hormones, stupid wind

Morning blueberry teaspoon and newbie!!

Yes def back on the tired and hormonal bus!! Nice things, sad things, any things set me off this week. Cried twice today mainly due to frustration about being tired and learning my f*#%ing limitations. Again. Oh and coz I'm tired, hormonal and up the duff of course!

jenny* really hope you feel better tomorrow.