May Mummies, w/c 23th April 07 1 week till May- Woohayy!

[Mrsjaffabiffa]

Morning............

Abby - I agree that you should go and see mw - just in case otherwise you will worry anyway.

Discussion re nighttime bras has reminded me...I remember soggy bed from leaky boobs when feeding DS (as Mrs J so well described it!). This time I have bought a single undersheet that is meant to be for bed wetters and I have put it on the bed (thought it wasn't worth getting a double since DH is unlikely to have leaky boobs...). I had been using it for DS overnight so it will come in useful again. It also means that if waters break in bed it might be a little easier to clean up (mind you - by that stage I guess I would be in hosp so it would not be my prob!). Anyway I got mine from hippychick (other companies do sell them) and although £21 might seem a lot you will almost certainly want one for LO when s/he starts sleeping without nappies.

Abbylou, have you rung the mw yet? No harm in calling at all...

Happy birthday Pebble

SOH as usual I have no idea what you are on about but I am very interested in the fact that AM's brother had a gf called Krystal, could they be the one and the same?

Personally I love a bit of rap, especially when the bass is booming from the car making everyone's windows shake and the dc scared..

LW second the mothercare nursing bras, sporty ones at night and 'pretty ones' (yeah right), during the day, I usually need 4.

You're all making me so jealous with your stories of babies that are head down. My LO is still poking her head out of my right hand side like a little meercat. All her kicks are still in my nether regions.

I'm still on the breastfeeding fence. I know, I know, I should really want to do it, but the thing is, I don't. The midwife has suggested that I decide once she is born, and she assures me it'll either feel like something I want to do, or not. Dh is going on and on about it. But at least it stops him going on about how much money I spend.

Happy Birthday Pebble!!!

Well I'm back. I spoke to the mw after much trouble tracking her down. She says that it is very common to get migraines late on in pregnancy, especially when you are susceptible anyway. She has told me to watch out for swelling in my hands and face and if I have any more disturbed vision I have to ring her back and she will come and check my bp. She said she was satisfied to leave it until Wed but I have to call her back if I am at all concerned.
Pinkjenny I am in exactly the same camp as you re breastfeeding. I tried last time and failed miserbaly and was left feeling like the worst mum in the world. I fely bullied, pressured and realy, really unhappy. This time I was determined I was going to make my own decision and have no-one pressuring me. However, I already feel as though I am doing something wrong in making the choice not to breastfeed.

Still lurking, AbbyLou, I'm glad you got to speak to your midwife and put your mind at rest.

Thanks Abby - I was starting to feel like a leper.

Glad all can wait til Wed - your mw sounds fab.

Hey Abbylou - if it's easier most pharmacists will take your BP for you as well. I got mine done the other day as I was freaking myself out about something. Nice to put your mind to rest.

Happy birthday Pebble!

LW - not long before you leave chick. Will be so good for you to get out of there.

AM - can't wait to meet Ella. You still coming down on the 30th?

Abby, sounds very reassuring from your mw.

Pink, I absolutely love breastfeeding, but have found it very easy from the beginning and have plentiful, plentiful milk supplies so I have been very lucky. For some, like me, it works, for others, not, some mamas I know have tried because they felt they ought to, hated it and the baby has not thrived until they switched to formula when both mama and baby have been much happier! Don't feel pressurised, you could try for a week or two and if it still doesn't seem right then switch then you keep everyone happy by saying you tried, but what is most important is that you do what you feel is best

Re: the breastfeeding thing. It's your choice at the end of the day, and I am a firm believer that mums shouldn't have to justify thier decisions to anyone else. It's a blimming hard job at the end of the day, and whatever you choose to do about anything, someone will have a vehement opposite opinion. Make your choice and stick to it - just don't read any threads on here on breastfeeding versus formula, or try to change anybody else's mind about it. It's tempting to want to defend yourself, but all that happens then is that you upset yourself. So in RL, anybody else's opinion should be greeted with a "Oh really, how lovely", and on-line by simply by-passing the thread. No one has the right to judge anyone else until they have walked in their shoes. Whatever your choices, you love your baby and do the right thing for you and your family.

here here InTS. Well said,

Abbylou, I have to add that I had a bad experience with ds and breastfeeding, it just didn't really work! I felt like you before dd was born but decided I'd give it ago as soon as she was born and see how I felt. Well, it was a breeze second time round, I think AM will agree you sort of feel easier about it even if you don't before they arrive. All that is important is a happy Mum and babe. You do what is right for you BUT, I wanted to add that as just because it didn't work first time it might surprise you this time.

I can't comment on bf/ff as I am a first timer but I think a happy Mummy is the most important thing for any child.

I am having a sit down and recovering. As of half an hour ago my other cat hadn't come home for 4 hours (the other one went missing in Jan if you remember that far back!). She never goes out for more than 20 minutes at a time. I was wandering up and down the river barefoot calling her name and sobbing in a hormonal mess. I gave up, came home to call DH and cry and she pitched up bedraggled and mewling incessantly. She hasn't left my knee since. She's physically okay but I wonder if she was trapped or lost.

I'm sooo hormonal.

Bloody hell it's taken me ages to catch up today!

I made it to town and round about 4 shops before flaking. It just takes so long to haul myself around.

My pram came today too, i love it. I have been playing with it alot, and the cute little car seat. Have finished packing my hospital bag too as i am sure now the baby see's he has a car seat to come home he may escape tonight.....

dh has also had some interesting articles arrive in the post....a cinematic floodlight and VERY bright lightbulbs for his tripod.......how scary is that? SOH any idea what he may want them for?

Lovely to have you with us April ladies, hope you dont have to wait much longer

SOH i hope your friend is ok, im sure a few days with you to talk to will cheer her up. You do sound like a lovely friend, glad i have you as mine too.

Cam it would be very cool if we could coordinate our birth time's, think the surgeon weilding the knife will oblige with teleconference in theatre????!!!!

Women in the lift in the shopping center eyed me suspiciously and said "should you be out on your own?" I said "dont think so, am on my way back to the car now...." Am massive, nothing else to say on the subject

May venture out to the Barbican tomorrow for AM's fudge, i may eat some too.....

hi to everyone - it's reassuring to see that that some of you are fed up as well - even though I now have an end date of this Sat/Sun (induction) it's just so painful and uncomfortable I keep feeling "this could be it". My other two were both late and induced so have never gone into labour "properly". Finally gave up on walking to school this morning and asked another Mum to pick up DD1 on her way through as the pelvic pain was awful. Have also had diarrhoea (sorry if this is TMI) on and off since Saturday afternoon - with really bad tummy pains. Is anyone else suffering with this? Plus am annoyed at the hospital as they want me to go in for the induction the day before in the afternoon to use pessaries rather than having your waters broken in the morning on the actual day which is what happened with my DS - different hospital as we have moved since then. Midwife reminded me that the others were late and induced whereas this time I'll be 39 weeks +2 so I should expect a longer delivery. Great.
Still this time next week I should have happy news.

On the breastfeeding front, I was lucky to be able to feed both the other two - although had a nightmare for the first week with my first when she couldn't latch on and we ended up expressing everything for a week until she got the hang of it. Midwife was a star, getting hold of an electric pump at 6pm on a Frday evening. Have had two RL friends who gave up early on with their first and were much more laid back about it second time around and were able to feed longer. NCT breastfeeding counsellors are trained not to be judgemental and there is a helpline you can ring and they can put you in touch with someone locally as well.

Anyway, wishing everyone a comfortable night's sleep.

Hey April ladies

When were you due? How you feeling?

breastfeeding easy peasy....course it hurts like buggery for the 1st week or so and feels like cracked glass being rubbed over your nipples, but apart from that fine

Truth is im too damn lazy to bottle feed, all the hassle of up in the night to re-heat miniscule amounts of milk that the baby inevitably wont take anyway. I am a boob advocate dontcha know, highly reccommend it. Some babies will feed better than others, mine have all been different.

The twins were teeny tiny and i held one under each arm rugby ball style, they each had their own boob DD fed like a monster (vice) but cut teeth at 4 months so was only fed at night after that as she loved to bite me.... DS#3 was an angel to feed, but would not take a bottle at all. He was 16 months before he was forcibly removed from my boob, it was very hard giving up. DS#4 was a little monster too, he put a lb on in his first week and was a big baby born. (Bigger babies tend to lose quite a bit of weight in the first week or so)but he suddenly for no reason i can think of refused to feed at 8 weeks. It was heartbreaking for me, i had never experienced anything like it!

So go for it and just see, the baby will dictate what it wants anyway. Bossy little things that they are

Happy birthday Pebble. Enjoy eating all the birthday cake.

Quick question before bedtime, can anybody recommend a websites for buying pushchairs (P&T) online. Just read the negative reviews on kiddicare on the other link and now we're not sure which to use. Or recommend a shop in London

Evening all,
DH has just got home with the laptop and its taken me ages to catch up-this wont do-might go to PC world and bash my credit card a bit more tomorrow and get one-feel a bit bereft with no acess in the daytime..

Hi to all anyway...

Im not BF ing either-I was useless last time and in agony and it took me about an hour and half to feed DD each time-I dont see dd1 standing for it if the same were true for Mae-so bottles it is..I feel a bit gulity about it, but think it more important that im not miserably trying to feed one baby whilst not being able to meet the needs of DD properly..Plus it never did any good for DD's immunity as it supposed to-childs always ill-and never lost any weight till I stopped it at 2 months actually as you are meant to, so for me the benefits didnt outweigh the negatives .I wish I could do it really-but I cant so am not putting self through it..plus dh likes to be able to help-specially the 3am feeds

DD has been a little angel today-she had a sleep this morning after DH left, waking her as he went at half six, then was very good all morning and played nicely at bumps and babes group (which still meets up from when I had her) this afternoon..so we have had a very good day and I even managed to do a bit of NVQ before watching the final of Americas next top model!
Must say I feel ok today-probably just the relief of not having to go to work..feel much more relaxed...
However tomorrow have to clean the house, go to a toddlers group, do some NVQ etc..Wednesday we have the survey being done on our house, am going to Drs, then have the B and B group May 07 inaugural meeting at my house, and somehow I need to pack to go home to parents as dd and I going to drive up Wednesday night, so I expect my stress levels to go up a little...

Had a horrid and very realistic dream that DH's office got blown up by terrorists last night, (they are often getting threatened as they are such a capitalist company).In pg and emotional state I begged him not to go to work this morn and actually cried when he left..I am never like that and think I am going mad!Anyway spent the whole day feeling uneasy..nothing happened of course...Im hoping for a dreamless sleep cest soir!

Speak to you all tomorrow-how exciting to think that people could go into labour at any time now!

lots o love to all...

Happy Birthday Pebble by the way..hope you enjoyed your day..

Hey,

As far as the bfing goes could really care less which one I do. I am going to try the breast, but honestly I hated doing it last time. I'm going to try this time just to make dh happy, he's more into it than me, and because I've had colostrum leaking since 19 weeks. To each their own, but there are 100 other more important things in motherhood than breastfeeding.

Oh am sorry Pebble haven't had time to say Happy Birthday to you on your actual Birthday Sorry, hope you had a lovely day my sweet. Sending you a (late) Birthday (((HUG))).

Have had a nice night. Some of my flatmates had their lovely friends round tonight so was in the kitchen having dinner with them all. Then we all went down to the student bar for a drink. Sat outside as it was nice and mild and treated myself to a glass of wine. Lovely stuff

With regards to breastfeeding. I'm going to give it a try and hope for the best. However if I find that it hurts too much or babies having problems latching on, getting milk etc then I will try expressing. If I find even that is giving me bother then I will stop and switch to formula bottle feeding. I have felt a bit pressurised to breastfeed, it's the way the midwifes look at you with their eyes boring into you and say 'And will you be breastfeeding?' You kind of feel like you have to say yes. Especially when they're big, burley Scottish midwifes lol - scary!
I'll definatley give it a shot, but I won't be made to feel like a bad person if I can't do it. I'm sure I'll have other things to worry about that are much more important than breastfeeding. And I don't think anyone has the right to pass judgement on any woman who decides against doing it. Every mother should do what she feels is right and what she is comfortable with.

Do you know though, my size is actually scary! It's a funny thing but cause I'm always around me I'm not really aware that I'm bigger if that makes sense cause I see me everyday - so I almost don't notice my size. But being out tonight and stood next to all the other girls - my lord! I sure did notice it lol. And I was actually really proud, for the first time I think. I spent a long part of my pregnancy trying to find slimming clothes and cover my bump up to feel 'normal' on my campus. But tonight I just felt almost elated looking at my bump thinking, I've done it and I'm proud. Instead of trying to hide my bump I was trying to stick it out even further tonight in the bar! And I'm sat here now thinking - you've done good LW! I can't wait to meet this little person that I've made, suddenly feeling like a mummy, and I quite like it!

Right it's a bit late now so might jump on into bed and stroke my little lady bump and have her wiggle about in response.
Sweet dreams all.

reveal yourselves ladies!

Morning all

Yes i am still up, so much for feeling knackered all day now im not tired at all, isnt that typical

Thanks for all the birthday wishes Its been a very strange one, didnt really feel like my birthday at all but that could be due to the fact i was feeling so tired for most of it. Dh is taking me out for a belated Birthday meal on Thursday after we've seen the consultant so i guess I have that to look forward to. Ive got quite a busy week this week so im sure it will be Thursday before i know it (fingers Xed bubs decides to turn before then)

On the great breastfeeding debate Im still not sure what im going to do. I tried to bf both ds's but found it quite hard, with ds1 i didnt seem to produce enough and with ds2 although i found it a bit easier it was very painful. I did try to carry on for 3months with both though but by the end i was topping them up with formula, it never did them any harm and they both seem to be quite healthy in general. This time i will give it a go again i think but my nipples have been so sore throughout this pg that im not holding out much hope in being successful. Ive got the bottles, sterliser etc all ready just in case, just need to buy the formula. I would rather have it all sitting in a cupboard for months unused than find i cant bf and have to rush out and buy it all at the last minute.

I think its wrong that some midwives/Hv's etc try to put pressure on women to BF, becoming a mum is hard enough in those first few weeks without being made to feel guilty if you formula feed. When i was a 1st time mum and having problems I was made to feel as though i didnt care for ds1 because i wanted to use formula luckily my mum made me see I was doing the right thing for both myself and ds, we were both happier as soon as i started using it to top him up. Now im on my 3rd im a bit sronger and as long as my baby is happy and healthy then i will do what i feel is best and anyone who doesnt like it can lump it

Thanks for all the words re: breastfeeding. Will definitely see how I feel once she's born and am not ruling anything out at this stage in the proceedings. I haven't had any sign of fluid at all from my norks so far.

Off to GP at 10am for my blood test appointment, the one that I had to make, despite there being 'no cause for alarm'. Can't wait to find out why he wants to see me.

Then am off to buy a curtain track for the baby's room, and then prep for my 1/2 year review tomorrow. What an exciting day.

Hope you are all well and managed a decent sleep (!). Will catch up later.

Hi all sorry i havent been about much as at the hospital loads or tryig to keep dd in a routine - not easy, little guy might be home on friday woohoo really hope so doesnt feel like ive had a baby, he is nearly 4lb, have been frantically trying to work out where to put him, and will be glad when i dont have a breast pump permantly attached to my front

pebble happy birthday hope u had a good day

Must say pressure to bf was amazing on labour ward - but i seem to be only mum doing it in scbu, have been very tempted to give up but will keep tryimg for a bit, dd used to hurt latching on - not nice

Have got my micralite out and found they have still got it wrong, the bag the seat unit folds into is missing grrrrr stupid john lewis,

Anyone got one of those bean chairs for baby instead on rocker?? I bought a lovely rocker chair from friend, but am concerned it is too upright considering how diddy A rlen is

Right off to start another crazy day, missing you all and hopefully life will resemble some sort of normality soon and I will have time to drink tea and chat on mn!!!

Just thought I would add my bit to the bf debate. I am planning to bf - did so with DS and really loved it (after the 1st week which was hard). For me it was definitely the easier option (I had no probs with the amount of milk etc) - the thought of trying to organise myself with bottles etc was too much - and when he did have some bottles at about 7 months I was constantly finding I had no clean ones etc - and it is cheaper! For me it was a case of have boob will travel.
Having said that, if it is impossible then I won't beat myself up about it (well I probably will but shouldn't)

Best bit of advice from my HV last time - "you will find, as a mother, that you will keep feeling guilty about things. Don't"