June 2019 babies - part 5!!!!

[socktastic]

2nd trimester for all the lovely June mummies out there! Yippee!!!

I did an antenatal class when pregnant with DS, but actually made lots of friends at baby groups at the local children's centre. Its a shame cutbacks have reduced a lot of the sessions. But there tends to be a lot of baby classes, coffee mornings, music classes, soft play etc and not all are paid for, so its worth going along to one or two as most new mums are pretty lonely and exhausted and happy for a chat! Also you don't have to be a member of my local NCT to attend their groups so if you can't afford the antenatal with them its worth seeing if they do a baby play session or something you can go to. I also attended a few coffee mornings run by church volunteers - not religious groups at all, just there to support the community.

@MadeInCornwallx3 they said they’d only call if I had gestational diabetes. But I’m honestly surprised because I was sure I’d have it. Multiple risk factors plus baby measuring large.

I’m guessing I’m okay for now but there’s still a chance of developing it so I am going to try to continue to eat (mostly) sensibly.

I am using a Theraline pillow, it's actually meant to be a breastfeeding one but it's great to sleep on right now!
We've also signed up for a NCT class that finishes early June (I'm due on the 10th) and a hypnobirthing class. Really hoping to meet some people there and make new friends. I moved here 2.5 years ago from Germany where all my friends and family still live, we're in a very small community and DH's friends are his mates from high school with their wives/ partners. But since they're all from here and I'm the only foreigner I don't feel quite part of the group and am quite lonely at times, even though I'm actually quite a sociable person. They're all nice but I guess we're just very different people and I haven't found any close friends or anyone I 'clicked' with yet so I'm also one to hope for those antenatal classes to change that :)

Is anyone else suffering with their hips/pelvis/back? I think I had SPD in my last pregnancy but I managed it by myself. I’m thinking of ringing the midwife for a physio referral this time though, lugging about a not far from 2 year old all the time means my circumstances are a bit different...

@hexagon - yep, have been for some walks now nausea is gone and have ended up in a lot of pain by the end. sometimes at the front pubic area, sometimes the two SI joints at the back or just my whole pelvis hurts.. its on/off at the mo. Ive looked up exercises and have referred to physio.

It’s my sacrum; it’s fslling apart and I’m hobbling like an old woman. I have to do more stretching and yoga but I’m exhausted with this never ending cold

Last time I felt well for any fixed period was the end of Nov. I take my supplements, iron, folic acid, Vits C&D. Usually I get about 7hr a night, DD and DS on the whole good sleepers.

Why am I so exhausted? I feel dead all the time at the mo and am getting cold after cold after cold and crying every day at anything and nothing.

This is not me at all.

Well I've been shopping again...our Lidl is close to town and free parking so I often cheekily use their car park then feel guilty so go in and buy something, usually fruit & veg or bakery as they are both really good!

Anyway on mooching I noticed they had a baby event on too, not much baby stuff as such but lots of maternity clothes and I thought sod it, I don't want to spend a lot on it but starting to think about it. HOW COMFY are maternity jeans?!? I don't think I really need to wear them at 18 weeks but my word they are SO nice.

Lidl review:
Jeans nice, don't look like £10 jeans 😂 seem to come up small though so if in doubt go one bigger
Maternity jumpers nice also, better fabric and cut than expected.
Maternity dress fine, very lycra-y and the ties on the sleeves are annoying but at least I've got something I can chuck on with boots if I need to look smartish.
Avoided the leggings and tops as they looked like they're thin fabric but may not be. There is a long sleeved nightie as well.
The bras look irritatingly lacy and I expect something worth spending good money on for comfort.

Worth a look if you want some cheap solutions to the "what shall I wear?" problem!

@paulhollywoodssexgut have you tried some zinc? It is meant to help shorten colds and I have noticed mine have been shorter when I take it may be worth a try?

Yep, taking zinc too @Blondcat

Might not be taking enough as I’m taking a non pregnant person’s dose.

I’m just fucked.

@paulhollywoodssexgut no advice for you but I completely understand how you're feeling. It's majorly off pissing when people are so blase about it and just fob off the usual "well it's all just part of pregnancy..." I've been feeling wiped since December. Actually went to the docs before school startrd up again and told them that feeling the way im feeling, there's no way I could stand in front of a class. I've had 2 weeks signed off and actually feel better now. Back to the chalk face on Monday. Maybe you just need more time to yourself?

@Heyha Lidl sounds great - I’ve been looking for a maternity jumper for ages - they never really seem to come up on eBay, so I’m at a bit of a loss! Must try to make it to my most local store soon (or send Mother on a mission - she lives practically next door to one!).

We went shopping today only to discover that our local Mothercare is closing down. It’s a bit disappointing, but it’s not a very big one, so at least we won’t be missing out on too much. (The more local, big one closed a couple of years ago, and the most local one, which was apparently not small, closed many years ago). It had everything in it reduced by at least 30%.

So, I did buy four new bras half-price (was expecting to be 36B; turned out to be 38C!?), two dummies (if we’re going to fail at parenting, we may as well start strong!) and a load of 1-3 month vests. Then we went wild in Boots (sleepsuits, muslins and bibs) and TKMAXX (vests, a blanket, and toddler trousers - just too adorable not to buy at clearance price!).

Mothercare had some pretty good offers on larger baby items, but we found the best-looking car seat for about £80 less than their reduced price on Amazon, and we’ll need to get the car adapted before we use that, so our sense of urgency vanished pretty quickly. What did we do before the Internet! (Answer: not lose all of our high street shops!)

Now I have to work out what’s for dinner. I am not having a good eating day, so nothing appeals. It is going be so late when it’s decided on and cooked 😢

@spargle sounds a good day shopping then! I think I've missed the boat on our local Mothercare closing as their sale started mid-December, I didn't think to check when it was going.
The jumpers in Lidl aren't thick but they do look just like the pics on the website IYSWIM so could be a job for your mother!

I've had a migraine today which was infuriating as I haven't had one for ages and thought pregnancy might give me a break from them 😂

@Heyha Thanks for tip about Lidl - might have to pop in to ours tomorrow and have a look.

@Curlywurly3 how did your pushchair shopping go today? We spent almost 2 hours (!) in Mothercare and have narrowed it down to three we like the look and feel of.

We ordered our pram today. It was a toss-up between the Icandy orange and mamas and papas flip xt2. Both on really good offers. Ultimately couldn't justify the extra money for the icandy and the mamas and papas one looked fab. Got it with a cybex car seat. The car seat is the most important bit for me because last time I ended up with one that was too upright and my little guy wasn't comfy. Not getting anything else until I've had my 20 week scan, but this offer wasn't going to last.

Still really struggling with tiredness here too. The midwife wasn't concerned as my iron levels are ok. Said I'll probably feel ok between 20 and 24 weeks and then feel crap again! Helpful.

Flipping eck! I'm 20 weeks tomorrow and I've got a seriously wriggler in my tum! This is not what I expected at 20w I have to say, I'm surprised as anything but this wee thing is doing somersaults galore in my tum and shaking it all over the shop - what's it going to be like when it runs out of room??

@spargle please do not think you're failing at parenting by using a dummy - they help infants to feel calm and don't let anyone make you feel you are doing the wrong thing by using one. As long as you remove it when the child is starting to learn to talk it's fine (the number of children I see with language delay because they had a dummy in their mouth when they were trying to talk is not worth thinking about). Otherwise perfectly fine.

www.essentialbaby.com.au/baby/baby-care/the-pros-and-cons-of-dummies-20111109-1n6mh

There is also evidence that dummies help to protect against SIDS. We had never considered using one, but my little boy just wanted to suck for comfort but was giving himself tummy ache by feeding too much, so we tried a dummy and it was amazing. He made it easy for us by naturally giving it up himself at about 18 months.

@LauralovesLuke I don’t know whether using dummies is a good idea or not, actually. But I expect that my baby is likely to love them (I did when I was small, as did my sister), and feel that it would be nice to offer my baby this little pleasure. Also, they are supposed to reduce the risk of SIDS, which is a bonus.

Alas, baby won’t necessarily have the dummy confiscated at talking time, so fingers crossed it takes after its mum and aunt with language development! But thank you for the warning - I’ll be on the lookout for problems, and will try to react accordingly.

And who knows - it might not like dummies after all. That might be best!

@fabuluce I can't believe how busy mine has got the last few days too, had a bit in the evenings for a week or so but some serious daytime dancing going on lately too! Distracting when teaching 😂

We had always said we'd never ever use dummies. When my wee boy was a week old or so he would just not calm down or sleep. He was angry all the time. Mum suggested a dummy. First time in his mouth he fell asleep almost instantly!
Getting them off him is proving a bit trickier though...

I was full of ‘my child will never have a dummy’ before I had dd but she had one very early on as it was such a useful settling tool. She gave it up on her own at 6 months. I was also full of ‘my child will not be allowed to watch tv’ and the like . You soon just do what you need to to make things eas

I didn't have a problem with dummies at all and totally would have used in with my son but alas no. Boob or nowt for him. He was such a comfort boober too.

I went to a talk by a renowned speech and language therapist (Emily Rubin if anyone's interested) and she was encouraging dummies - she said that or teach your kids to suck their thumb! She talked about how important it is to teach kids to self-soothe and this was part of it (she then went on to talk about how we teach kids to self-soothe through language strategies - this was how it all links together - hence removing dummies when they're learning to talk)

I was very anti dummy too but I had a very unsettled baby that just would not sleep! Bizarrely he never tried to talk with it in but it did delay his speech as he just didn’t talk with it in. But then he is a quiet, content soul who never really wanted to talk (unlike his mum). We had a tough time taking it away and for quite a while he just had in bed which improved his sleep no end 😂
Basically don’t discount anything and don’t feel guilty for any parenting choices you make. We are all just trying to figure this parenting thing out as we go along.
I struggled to breast feed and beat myself up about for a long time. The guilt was terrible and contributed to PND. In hindsight I should have moved to formula earlier. My son is now 3 and literally never ill so it can’t have harmed him too much!

Everyone's starting to sound like they're getting very organised!

I finally wrote a list today of what the baby will need. She currently has precisely 1 sleepsuit and a Moses basket.

Maybe because it's my third I'm being a bit slack about buying, I don't know. I swear I was buying things so much earlier with the other two.

As long as it's all ready by 37 weeks I'll be happy!