June 2019 - Part 7!

[Kescilly]

Hi ladies! Picking names, packing hospital bags - third trimester here we come!

I thought I'd start out with the stats this time and I'll post the updated name list in a bit. I've just included the data that I have, since a lot of people are missing bits (or quite possibly I've missed their posts). We come from all over, so I'll put that bit in another post later as well.

Our average age at estimated due date is 33! That should help some of us who are feeling older.

And that's not just because we're all second-timers! In fact, most of us are having our first baby this year.

Baby #1 - 31
Baby #2 - 26
Baby #3 - 9
Baby #4 - 1
Babies 1&2 together! - 1

Fifteen of us are expecting lovely little boys, nineteen of us are expecting darling little girls, and at least sixteen of us are waiting to be surprised!

The average due date is June 13th, and the most popular due date is June 24th. We don't have anyone expecting on the 15th, 23rd, 27th, or 30th as far as I can tell.

And if you happen to have a baby on my birthday (June 16th), your baby will be born on Father's Day this year!

@stellarfox I think NCT is in fact known for being an expensive way of making friends . The instructors are all just NVQ trained and not real midwives, so I'd take their teachings with a pinch of salt...

Sorry to hear some are struggling with pregnancy symptoms! I'm just painfully tired, but trying to put that to one side as we are currently on the Eurostar on our way to a pre-baby break in Amsterdam. Looking forward to a few relaxing days!

@stellarfox that’s how I feel about our classes! As someone comfortable with medicalized birth, it seems quite biased as well, but there’s still useful information to be found.

@rollerskaterdata I’m so sorry, I hope they give you some relief. Hopefully not much longer to go now.

Sorry to hear that roller sounds painful. Not tooooo much longer to go now. Hope you're managing ok.

@swiftfox have a great time, I'm jealous! Been to Amsterdam about 6 times, it will be lovely at this time of year.

@swiftfox have a great time! What do you have planned?
@rollerskaterdata you poor thing. How much longer and do you have some pain relief?

Is anyone else taking a trip before baby? We wanted to go somewhere for the Easter weekend but can't find anywhere that's not £1k which is ridiculous for 4 days!

I'm struggling so much with breathlessness and rhinitis. Barely getting any sleep..how can I do this for 11 more weeks!

Thank you for the support ladies! It's difficult as I already have a 4 year old to run around after (who is fascinated by my 'sticks'!) but thankfully DH doesn't let me lift a finger so whenever he's home I just need to navigate my stairs to get to the loo 😂 (although I managed to fall down them yesterday and landed halfway down on my arse much to my horror and embarrassment, got checked over straight away though and me and baby are fine!) so I'm pretty tired of this pregnancy malarkey now! I'm 32 weeks now though so only 8 more to go (or 5 if you count down to full term at 37 weeks rather than due date at 40 for my sanity!). GP has said I can use cocodamol occasionally if I need to but I'm so paranoid about medicines the strongest I'll take is plain old paracetamol when it's unbearable

That sound tough rollerskaterdata but you seem to have a good attitude though. Definitely think of it as up to term. I'll be induced early due to gd, I'm not looking forward to it but being able to knock 2 weeks off makes the rest of pregnancy a bit easier to mentally deal with.

I’m sure it doesn’t sound like a terrible problem but I’m not gaining enough weight. I’m 30 weeks and put on12lbs.i know it’s stress but everything that I read says stress can cause preterm labour and small baby, that poor weight gain can cause small baby and preterm labour and I feel like my poor baby has no chance of being carried to term. I’m exhausted and my body hurts, getting lots of pains down below, fanny daggers - joys. After everything that’s happened I need this baby to be ok :(

How frequently are you seeing midwife/doctor/medical people @napssavelives

And have you been assigned any kind of social worker?

I have a couple of folk I know who had severe HG in pregnancy and gained fuck all. Their babies were fine, one rocking in at 9lb. Post baby one chum in particular looked extremely thin very quick.

Babies are designed to - effectively - parasite the mother. So absolutely any vitamin, mineral, fat etc will be plundered by baby before it “sticks” to you.

Yes there is a link between lack of weight gain, preterm labour etc but on balanace of probability it’s
a) unlikely you will deliver preterm (>37w) if your previous went to 40+
b) stress that will possibly flick the switch on any “early” Labour (37, 38, 39w) which is why I hope against hope you are being VERY closely monitored both physically and mentally.

How are you doing day to day and have you heard much from your husband?

I’m seeing the midwife as I would If it was my first baby. Doing lots of yoga, acupuncture, massage and reflexology to help with sleep. Day to day I’m up and down, I think I cry most days but it’s not as intense as before, no full blown sobbing! No social worker, they offered to refer to mental health midwife and I said I would think about it. Me and ex can’t reallt talk to each other, I’m too hurt and can’t be civil. Too angry.

Hi, I'm due 23rd June - hi everyone!! :)

@Napssavelives don't get yourself worked up about not enough weight gain. I have had lots of stress and having a hard time due to some family issues and have only gained 10lbs so far. However my midwife said there's no reason at all to worry as baby seems fine and big enough (even though slightly below average size so far). She said they take what they need so it's all ok and every woman is different

Welcome @michellejrs!

@Napssavelives I know it must be a worry but stress won’t necessarily bring on preterm labor! It sounds like you’ve found some ways to take care of yourself and I hope that you continue to do so.

I’m awake and stressing because my feet have started itching this week and I’m worried it’s cholestasis. I am planning on calling the antenatal assessment unit in the morning to see if they will run tests.

I really hope it’s just general itchiness and nothing more. The risk of stillbirth is scary, plus I’d really like baby to stay in longer and not be induced early. We aren’t ready! We have workers coming on Monday to rip out the bathroom and replace which is going to take two weeks.

Has anyone found anything effective for leg cramps in the night. I do 20 minutes on an exercise bike every evening and drink loads due to gd, I'm going to start doing extra stretches tonight but is there anything else that works and is safe while pregnant?

@changingagain I have added a small amount of salt to my evening meal drinking plenty of water and a few calf stretches before bed and touch wood not had any cramps in my legs for a couple of weeks. I have to be careful with salt as have history of high bp so really not added a lot. Not sure if you can with gd diet etc?
Some things I read said warm bath /hot water bottle on them for a bit before bed can also help?
Really horrible so hope you find something which helps.

I’ve been told that magnesium (oil?) spray on the legs before bed works well. When I get the chance, I’ll see about trying it out for myself!

@Napssavelives I’m so sorry that things are so difficult, but you sounds like you are doing an amazing job of holding it all together, and rest assured the baby is going to be just fine. Judgements about the ideal amount of weight gain are so varied and subjective. In my mum’s day apparently the nhs advice was to only put on 10lbs for the whole pregnancy!!! (Madness).

@kescilly I’ve been getting terribly itchy skin throughout the preg. I think it’s highly unlikely to be cholestatis so don’t stress! Good to get checked though.

I’ve been having lots of anxieties about baby movements: 32 weeks now and they do seem lighter. How many people are getting third tri scans? It’s not routine on the nhs but I’m wondering if I should pay and get one done privately? Do you think it’s risky that they just leave it at 2?

Doing a baby clothes wash today. We've been gifted so many hand me downs I'm not sure we need to buy anything for the first 3 months! It's amazing, people are so kind.

We've also been given a whole set of cloth nappies. Is anyone else doing/has anyone else done the cloth thing?

@Changingagain I feel like my legs are even slightly crappy during the day so I always stretch them and stand on them if they start to feel like that. I’ve found at night, if it starts getting painful, the best thing to do is to stand on that leg ASAP. It seems impossible at the time but provides the quickest relief for me.

@Bizawit thanks! We went into the assessment centre today and they took some blood. I’ve had itchy skin too, and I’m really good about moisturizing. But this seems different somehow. I wake up at night and struggle to go back to sleep sometimes because it itches so much. Hopefully I just need a different moisturizer!

Re: scans and movement, I have had one growth scan in the third trimester and I’ll be getting another one because baby is big. I think there are plenty of people who don’t, even in the US I’ve seen people just have the 12 and 20 week ones. I think you should definitely call the hospital if you’re specifically worried about movement. If you’re just generally anxious and want a peek to see that baby still seems happy, you could do a private scan.

I think third trimester scans can be useful for specific concerns like baby’s position and such, but it’s also just a snapshot of things at the time.

Thanks for the advice on the leg cramps.

We've just had a friend drop off some baby clothes from his daughter. His granddaughter is about 8 months so I'm assuming they're upto 6 month size. I was expecting about a carrier bag, it's 3 full bin bags! I'm very grateful but jeez, I reckon we could do a new outfit every day and not have to wash anything.

I’m getting a growth scan this time at about 34 weeks due to previous big baby and measuring big this time. I did have a third tri private scan last time as I was told baby was breech and I wanted to know. I was told he wasn’t breech but was massive and the NHS weren’t interested in the private scan info in the slightest!

I think most people have just the 12 and 20 week scans. Although I do know quite a few (me included) who have had the private 4D ones later on.

@2countries1bump we did cloth nappies first baby and got on really well with them. I would take disposables for the hospital though. You don’t need to worry about having extra washing to sort at that stage.

@2countries1bump we're cloth nappying once baby hits 10lbs. Didn't with DS so very excited to be using them this time! I've bought, washed and prepped them all (have about 20) so just waiting to use them now!

@DinoMamasaurus I'm having a growth scan in 2 days (nearly 33 weeks) for what I presume would be the opposite problem. Bit nervous but have no reason to believe anything is wrong, I have anaemia so they just want to double check all is well

@rollerskaterdata @DinoMamasaurus Thanks for the replies - DH is very ecologically minded so keen to give it a try - I just wanted to know it had worked for others! The set we got given has some little ones which we might try when back from the hospital so I've washed those. The bigger set looks like it got some good usage so we might need to top for the ones where the elastic or Velcro looks like it's going or where the waterproofing might not be so great.

@DinoMamasaurus - did you wait for dc to fit a one size? How quickly did you get going post hospital? Trying to decide how ambitious to be during our return to the UK or just wait until we are fully back home (probably when baby is about 8 weeks).

Other than that gearing up for some serious travel- 10 flights in the next 6 weeks, fortunately non over 4 hours. When is everyone planning on starting Mat Leave? Anyone planning on working up to due date?