#TTC1 - Second Wave grads thread the Second!

[kavanaughkj]

Hello all! Welcome to the second thread for the 'new wave' of grads from #TTC1 - the first wave ladies seem to have decamped en masse to Facebook now (I heard weaning mentioned last time I ventured onto it) so this is now officially the place to be!

We're pretty spread out over the pregnancy journey so far with some newbies and some about to pop I'll try to maintain a list so if anybody wants to leave details of due dates and whether you're Team Blue, Pink or Vanilla (I think we're pretty heavily skewed towards Pink at the moment) then leave your details and I'll amalgamate them!

As Moose mentioned in our last thread, please do feel free to join in if this is your first time walking this weird and wonderful path - there is no such thing as TMI and we're all learning off each other!

I'm so so sorry eva. This must have been hell waiting to find out and have your worst fears confirmed. You know, I'm sure, all the stats about how often it happens and how it's not your fault. It doesn't make it easier, I know. Just do what you need to do to get through the next few weeks/months and trust that no matter what you will get through it.

:( like all the others here, I'm so sorry Eva for your news. I know we'd all hoped for the best for you - just hope now that this experience is something you can get through with the minimum of trauma and that you'll be back with us soon. Gentle hugs.

So sorry Eva it's such an awful thing, hope you have all the support you need xx

Ah so sorry Eva hope you have support around you x

So sorry eva that's so unfair. I hope that you have lots of support. Will be thinking of you x

Eva I'm so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you xxx

So sorry to hear your news eva. I saw on the other thread that you are considering your options now. I hope you don't have to wait long whichever you choose. We'll be thinking of you

Eva so sorry to hear about your news, hope you've got lots of IRL support.

Moose congratulations!! And I love the name! Hope you're settling at home ok and surviving this heat!

Thank you all so much - you're such a lovely group!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm meant to be finishing the nursery today but the weather is still so nice! Think it's starting to cloud over so I'll run around and do some work this afternoon.

music glad you found the course useful. I've downloaded the app which I find really good to have everything on hand all the time. It is because of the low Papp a levels that I'm being induced. Have been booked in for at least 2 sweeps next week! Eek!

Hope you all have a good weekend. Can't believe we only have 2 weekends left without baby now. (I know induction can be a long road but as I'm being induced on a Monday I really hope the baby arrives before the weekend!)

Eeek scary stuff seahawk!! You're having a baby, very soon!!!

Seahawk when's your first sweep? How exciting! Is your hospital bag all packed? That's for the tip re the app - I've downloaded that now. Do you mind me asking about your birth plan? Just starting to give mine a bit of thought now.

Today has been more stressful than I would've liked. Our cat brought us a lovely gift of a huge, live pigeon this morning so we then had to spend the morning disinfecting our dining room and kitchen. We thought it might be okay to recover so we got it outside and kept the cat in but when she went out later in the afternoon it didn't take her long to haul it back. Unfortunately I reacted badly both times (think hysterical crying and screaming) and in the end DH had to put it out of its misery which I could tell made him feel REALLY awful. He has now had to go into London to see a gig with friends when he's really exhausted and we have a very busy week ahead. It also meant we got none of the decorating/sorting/baby stuff done that we had planned and he has an interview in a week that he doesn't have time to prep for! I really underestimated the amount of stress we'd be under even before baby arrived. Will really be trying to look after him this week but I find it so hard as I feel like I can no longer help in ways I used to be able to as I'm more tired and can't do heavy lifting/moving of furniture. I don't like feeling useless! Don't know if anyone else has been feeling anything similar?

Anyway, sorry for the long moan - sometimes it just helps to get it out! Weather looking much cooler this week - thank goodness! I might even manage 4 full days in the office (still wfh 1 day a week atm).

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend!

Nothing to apologise for Mouse, while we're all so grateful to be pregnant here there are parts of the experience that are definitely less fun and the tiredness is definitely one of those! All I want to do at the moment is snooze - 2nd trimester energy has deserted me, my ankles and calves swell up to elephantine proportions if I dare sit for too long without keeping my feet up, and I'm so much slower getting anywhere now than I used to be. I have a bunch of things I still want to get done - washing all the baby clothes/muslins I've bought, cooking a bunch of freezer meals, packing hospital bag - but can't muster up the energy to do it. It was all I could do to pick up the baby blanket I've been knitting and carry on a few rows of that yesterday. Still 3 weeks before I go on mat leave too and baby is so squirmy now! My tummy's become a regular floorshow. :)

Yeesh. I'm in the office today and it sounds like a doctor's waiting room with people coughing all over the place, including one gent sat opposite me who has hay fever and rather than properly blow his nose just sniffs all day. He's already sneezed 5 times in the last 10 mins easily and I just want to throw a packet of tissues and some Piriton at him! Normally a little more tolerant but the constant sniffing is driving me a tad bonkers ... at least it's not infectious I guess.

Hope the sweeps go well Seahawk!

music I can sympathise with you on the cat bringing in birds, ours has brought in around 8 in the last week! Although luckily nothing as big as a pigeon and most of the time they are dead, this morning though we had a house Martin flying round our lounge!!
I hope this week turns to be less full on than you think and I'm sure your DH understands you're not able to do as much as you would like

Hope everyone else is doing ok, I'm counting down the days to the 20 week scan now. Can't believe we're nearly half way through already!!

I'm so sorry Eva, I realise nothing anyone can say will make the pain any less. I hope you have lots of support. Thinking of you.

In happier news, congratulations Moose, wonderful news for you :)

Not long for you now Seahawk, exciting times!

6 weeks to go here, and I'm wishing them away, which I'm sure I'll regret when baby arrives and I have no time to myself! I keep reminding myself how nice it is to bath/shower/eat/pee/read a book whenever I want to! But I'm so desperate for little girl to arrive now. I've washed and ironed everything, packed two hospital bags (one for me, one for her and DH), decided on where I'll give birth...just got to wait a few more weeks now.

Kav I totally understand about the desertion of the energy levels! The heat is exhausting too. I'm sure DH thinks I'm being lazy when I lie in at weekends and have naps but honestly I just feel being up for more than 12 hours a day is too much at the moment!

Sounds like you've an adventurous cat Music! Ours has recently started going outside more but prefers to lie in the shade and do nothing. A bird fell down the chimney once and she didn't even manage to get that, despite it being contained in our living room. She's not the brightest kitty lol

Oh I forgot to ask - what does everyone think about ways to get birth kick started? I've heard the usual - pineapple (need to eat truckloads for it to have any effect), hot curry (will succeed in inflaming your bowels but little else), sex (good for softening the cervix) - but what about raspberry leaf tea? I've heard some suggest start drinking it from 32 weeks as it has some effect on reducing labour times? And others say steer clear until 38 as it could induce labour? Any thoughts welcome. I'm going to ask my midwife this week what she thinks.

wanting NHS says 36, but also that it doesn't do any harm. This is another example of something with not enough evidence either way. You just have to do what your guy says. I believe the sex thing, semen contains prostaglandin which prompts the cervix to dilate. Ultimately it's just going to happen when it happens, relaxing and feeling safe is your best course of action.
On the cat front I can't add anything helpful. Sometimes mine manages to catch flies that have exhausted themselves at the window, I can't tell if I pity the cat or the flies more.

music that sounds horrible. Hope your week isn't too busy and don't worry about not being able to do as much. I raced around
Until about 30 weeks and then I remember having a really busy day getting stuff done around the house with DH and ending up in tears. I now make myself sit down for at least 20 mins after 45mins - 1hr of DIY etc. I had all the skirting and door frames to paint in the baby's room last week but I just broke it down and did 30 - 40 mins each morning before it got too hot. I hate not being able to do as much but you have to slow down and plan what you'll do! Yesterday I had my first truly relaxed day of mat leave with no diy! I had a massage and then went to see my friend who has a lovely heated outdoor pool!

I've been having a bit of a rubbish time as DH is really hating his newish job. It's so hard as I feel bad not going to work when he's having such a bad time. I think he's just got himself really stressed and I'm hoping that subconsciously some of it is worry about the baby and becoming a father. He struggles a bit with confidence and I think going from a job that he did for 9 years to something quite different in a huge office is hard. It's a shame as he is obviously doing really well, in fact I think that's part of
The problem, he gets used to one account and they move him to another more
Important one.

I don't really have much of a birth plan tbh as I'm very chilled and don't know how induction will go. I've written down the things like skin to skin / delayed cord clamping / DH to tell me the sex and that I'm
happy with vitamin k injection for baby and placenta injection for me. I've also written that I'd like to use the birth pool if possible
and that I don't want pethedin as I know I don't like it. One thing that is worth thinking about if you are likely to be induced is whether you want to have an epidural if you have to have the drip. I decided I probably will as you can't use the pool then anyway and it's basically making your body go from 0-100 in terms of contractions. I've talked to a lot of friends and read birth stories to help me decide as at my hospital they offer you an epidural before starting the drip as standard.

Hospital bag all done. One big one for me and baby and then I've done another smaller
one with extra clothes etc in case we need to stay in longer so that DH can just go home and grab it.

Feels so weird that this time next week I might have a baby and if not will def be in hospital hopefully well on the way!

kav sorry you've been feeling so tired, it must be hard. Hopefully once you finish work it will be better plus nesting might kick in, I def have more energy now than 4/5 weeks ago.

Forgot to say wanting I think the sex thing is the only one with any real proof -
I'll be seducing DH at the weekend!

Sounds like a good plan to me Seahawk. Good luck for next week, I'll be thinking of you. Hope things get easier for your DH too soon.

Can I ask what everyone has done or is planning to do about how early to finish work to go on mat leave? I'm trying to work out what to do. My mat pay is just statutory so I don't want to start too soon as would rather enjoy the time with the baby the other end of the leave without too much of a financial strain, but equally I know I'll need to finish a good few weeks before I'm due. My job involves a fair amount of travelling in the uk so I'm planning to save some leave to use before my mat leave starts too. Just trying to work it all out.

Thanks Bluebell I've officially just started mat leave today at 39 weeks but I finished at 37 weeks as I had 2 weeks leave to use up. I get 30 days a year and had one of the weeks booked already so it was an easy decision. I felt like I could easily have done another week in the end. It depends on lots of things e.g. How much leave do you have? How is your commute? So you have any flexibility to do shorter days / work fro home (I don't hence finishing at 37 weeks)? Most people seem to finish about 37/38 weeks. Also what time of year will it be? If it had been winter I'd prob have done another week as I feel like there is more to do in summer. I've enjoyed some time chilling in the garden. Hope that helps!

I have lots to reply to on here but the mat leave thing is on my mind at the moment so I waned to do a quick post.

I'm currently changing my planned start date from 38 weeks to 37. I thought I would be fine up to 38 weeks but work is ramping up as opposed to easing off (and I think it will do until I finish), we have a very busy July coming up with weddings etc. and finishing bits of work on the house and I am really struggling with the commute. Like seahawk I have a week of annual leave to use so my actual maternity leave won't start until 38 weeks but I won't be in from 37 weeks. Now that I have made that decision I feel an enormous sense of relief to have that extra week!

Good plan music it's only this week that I've really had time to do nothing - well I say nothing, I'm trying to do some photobooks from 2012 to now as if I don't do them now I never will!!

Thanks Seahawk and music for the info re mat leave. My job requires me to drive and travel a lot so if I can work from home for the last couple of weeks then that will affect my decision but I'm not sure yet how it'll work. It'll be November as I'm due in December. I'm trying to save two weeks leave up to take then too.

Wide awake with terrible bloat after eating a really rich dinner out last night. I feel really sick

How is everyone else doing?

Sympathise with the cat issues - ours has been a little scrapper lately and has been coming home with multiple injuries from fighting. About a fortnight ago we had to keep him inside for just over a week whilst one bite on his head healed up (after taking him to the vets for an antibiotic jab) then yesterday morning he came home with yet another bite in the same place and a swollen eyelid from being swiped at. I had hoped he has learned his lesson the first time but clearly not, he's now grounded again for another week at least!!

34+3 today and had my 34w midwife apt this morning. All going nice and smoothly, baby girl is still head down and will hopefully stay that way now. I'm hoping that I don't quite make it to 40 weeks, I finish work at 37+5 and don't really have much left to do so after a week or so of pottering around she is more than welcome to come.

I've started taking raspberry leaf tea tablets from Amazon, two a day between now and 40 weeks. It's not meant to start labour but to help tone the uterus ready for the pushing stage and to make contractions more effective. Who knows if it actually works but I thought it was worth a go for £5 a pack anyway.