May 2017 #14 'A baby each day in the month of May?...'

[RasperryInAMelon]

Thread 14... I'll post the other page links below too!

Placemarking, thank you for the new thread!

Thanks @dreamofhungarianlanterns. I shouldn't have been thinking of that after my last day at work!
Re the wedding invite, that's always tricky, right? I'd say have a word with her so you can figure what her sentiment behind the invite us, and explain that it's near impossible to attend a wedding on your own with a 4 month old as you need the support from your DH and your baby needs you so it's not exactly a possibility to have your DH working hard to have DS/DD with him on his own.

@mrspage1985 I knew there was someone else breaking up for maternity leave! Please enjoy it, as I'm gonna!

I'm in the blocked/ stuffy nose department and my sinus rinse (Neti Lota can) makes me sick at the moment so I just need to get some saline to spray in the nose at regular times.

Can't believe all the beautiful babies coming out already! It's still a bit eerie getting my head round the fact there's one of those in my far overstretched belly! 3 weeks until induction unless baby comes sooner!

Another thread... wow. Looking forward to all the babies!
For those just starting maternity leave enjoy the first day.
We had two wins yesterday... minor one was taking DS out in the pram for the first time... only round our local area and without a muslin which we needed when he was sick but still out
Major win... He is sleeping in his moses basket!!! Thanks for all the advice... heating it before putting him in and using a muslin after putting it inside my bra really worked as did making sure he is asleep properly first but we are very proud of him. The two hourly feeds are slightly more challenging.

Just wanted to remind everyone to do their pelvic floor exercises... wish I had been better at doing them and now having a few problems with my bladder... I full on wet myself yesterday

Thanks for the reminder yellow. I'm so crap at making myself do pelvic floors.

Well done @yellowismyfavourite for both your wins!!

Hmmm pelvic floor.... that's the thing I keep ignoring when my phone moans at me - must try harder!!

Great news @yellowismyfavourite !

Mini win here too overnight, BabyTea slept one stretch of 2 hours and 2 of 2.5 hours. I feel like a new woman! I'm waiting on the midwife for hopefully the final jaundice check.

That's a very tricky invite to negotiate @dreamofhungarianlanterns as you've no idea what life will look like in 4 months. Is the baby not invited then? If it were me and I liked the bride I'd try my best to attend the ceremony but everything else would be a challenge.

Good reminder @yellowismyfavourite - I'm rubbish at remembering. Although sneezing a lot in the last couple of days has reminded me

I have a practical giving birth question for you more experienced ladies. I know that an active birth makes more sense and that squatting or being on all fours is a better position for your pelvis to be in etc. And I can see how all that works when you're wandering around at home or in the hospital waiting for your cervix to do it's thing. But given that my only experience is the movie type, woman lying on her back screaming I don't really understand how it will work when you push....

If you're squatting or on all fours are you on the bed? Does the midwife just "catch" the baby from whatever position you end up in? How do you get from squatting at the side of the bed to be in a lying down position for skin to skin?

Place marking. Also another one here who was awake at silly o clock for a few hours. Planning on a lazy day with a nap. Also baba was crazy last night. We were convinced we were almost holding baby's foot

@1004Rise I had one of my DD's standing up. They just got loads of towels out for the floor and yes they caught her. They still try to control the descent a bit and put some pressure on your perineum to prevent tears. You can be on all fours in bed or on a birthing ball on the floor, whatever works.

Sorry and then they helped me back into bed for skin to skin etc. But I was standing and clutching onto her still attached if that makes sense!

You can catch the baby yourself too, and bring them up to your chest. Midwives will work with whatever angle you give them :)

Great news on the Moses basket yellow. And don't worry too much about the pelvic floor. I could hardly feel mine at all after giving birth, was almost back to normal after about 7 weeks.

Haven't had a chance to catch up for a few days, finally done so but have forgotten who I was going to say what to now !

Thanks for asking that Rise, I was wondering the same with a water birth - do we do skin-to-skin/delayed clamping in the water? Do you pass the placenta in the water too? Or is it all a bit too cold for a newborn?

Also, if you need sutures, when are they done and who does them of you're on an MLU (mine is within a Hospital)?

@Autumnsweater I'm a FTM so haven't done this before but I think water births vary. Some people get out for actual birth. I think people often get out before delivering the placenta.

We put the snuzpod up today so we are pretty much ready now. DH has gone for a run, I'm exhausted from all these uncomfortable nights so I'm lying on the sofa trying to find baskets to go in my changing table.

Water birth-usually skin to skin in water (remember water same temp as body) but they like you out for the placenta. They might wet a towel to cover baby with.

OK so basically get in whatever position works and the midwives work around it, I can cope with that as a plan

I'm quite pleased with myself today, we've done a lot of sorting and packing ready to take stuff to my DPs and I actually feel like I've been useful, just made sure I didn't work for too long and had actual sit down breaks. Never thought I'd see the day where I was celebrating being able to be on my feet for most of the day. Little victories! Definitely think I'll sleep tonight though!!

Sounds good @MrsJW15 all you need is a baby now!

Well BabyTea has failed his prolonged jaundice check. He's not regained his birthweight but is only 75g short and so we're going to the hospital tomorrow morning for blood tests. I'm really not concerned about him because he's feeding well and weeing and pooing but he's ticked the red flag boxes on a protocol and needs reviewed. It's a pain as he's clearly so well. I'm panicking a bit about them wanting him to have top ups which I'd really like to avoid.

I received my maternity payment plan from work the other day, might as well be written in another language for all the sense it makes. It's done as if you will be taking the full year, which I am not - and doesnt show breakdowns just gross amounts per month. I also didn't realise it's done by how many particular days there are in a month, so my first day of maternity is a Monday for my 18 weeks is based on 18 Mondays....

So for some months I am getting paid more than my salary, other months less and then once my company stop paying maternity and I am down to just SMP the amounts are terrifying..... they don't include the payments I will get for KIT days though but still. It's not nice reading and it wasn't how I worked it out but there we go...

Thanks savage, MrsJW, rustler and tea for input on the wedding invite. It just generically says that children of close family are welcome but that they want people to let their hair down. Fat chance!! Having discussed your responses and how we feel a bit more DP and I have come to the conclusion that the key element in this for us is how to handle whether we accept or decline with my step mum who has pretty serious and ongoing mental health problems. She has a bit of a cycle of having a massive go at me every couple of years and this time last year emailed me to say that the reason she has a difficult relationship with stepsister (bride) now is because stepmum made me a wedding dress when stepsister was 13 and stepsister felt left out. Stepmum totally backed down after I was able to take a breath and type a logical response on that occasion so we've decided to go round tomorrow and talk to stepmum about the different options that we'd have re the baby with DP and I being separated for the day, that we haven't decided what to do, that the invitation is very kind but we'll let stepsister know in next few days what we're going to do. I can add that 9 months ago I would not have had a clue what it would be like to handle 4 month old at wedding dynamics and that maybe if we don't go at all another couple can both attend all day instead .

Yay Yellow for double win Friday, well done! I think your description of the moses basket victory will stick in my mind and be helpful for what is about to happen in the next couple of weeks . I'm on the pelvic floor as I type!

That all makes sense thanks everyone.

What a pain teainbed, hope it all goes smoothly for you both. Where do they take blood from in a newborn?

My maternity pay is very easy to work out as it's SMP only, I do wish I had a more complicated package . Been thinking about career change over the last few months not sure what benefits I get from my job as it certainly won't be flexible/child-friendly on my return either.

Baby bump dropped down and I can see my ribs again and feel less heartburn. It is getting real although I really hope the baby will stay inside for two more weeks.

@teainbed hope the jaundice check will go smoothly, there is a chance as he is growing nicely - fingers crossed x

@MrsJW15 as it was said before all you need now is a baby 

@RedBlu SMP payments are shocking and I understand your pain

@1004Rise Sounds like you've got productive day!

@Autumnsweater I was told that you can get sutures in MLU

@RedBlu sounds a bit like mine... I have a decent amount of time on the equivalent of full pay but because I got a pay rise in January they calculate the average weekly earnings over the 8 weeks pay I was receiving before 15 weeks before my due date (work that one out ) half of the 8 weeks were on my old salary and half on my new... so I can't even tell what a normal month should be. Add this to the fact that they calculate it weekly and it seems to be funded from 3 different places depending on the week of maternity leave I'm on I have no clue what my gross monthly pay is, never mind after tax.  I'm sure it makes sense to someone somewhere but definitely not to me!!

@teainbed 75g is nothing but I guess like you say they have to have a cut off somewhere Would that mean they would want you to top him up with formula?

@teainbed that sounds frustrating, hope it all goes well.

@dreamofhungarianlanterns that sounds complicated. Your plan makes sense, hope you manage to get a sensible answer.

Yay for bump dropping @newbieho. I keep trying to work out if mine has! And yes, just need this baby - lots of time on the ball etc!

DH's cousin had his baby yesterday and luckily chose a name that's not on our list. We have the same surname so we were a bit worried!

tea 75g must be a tiny percentage of his birth weight? I can't believe they would recommend topping up for that? If all his other indicators are fine then there can't be much to worry about.