35+ TTC #1 Graduates!

[Kescilly]

This thread is for those of us over 35 who are pregnant with our first! It’s a continuation of a great group of people from the TTC thread. Doesn’t matter how far along you are, come on in!

@birdbybird thank you! Sorry been a bit preoccupied! Waiting for discharge now... Will update later! Baby Alastair was 8lb8 and very much a frank breech, so all worked out for the best with the ELCS!

Congratulations @weathergirl1 nice weight hope he is letting you get some sleep x

@Weathergirl1 congratulations!!! Glad to hear!!

Hello! We're so relieved to be out of hospital - Day 6 and no sign of the baby blues, DH thinks it's been combated by the sheer elation of escaping home and getting into my own bed. We're still settling in - and quite broken sleep but at least when i do sleep i'm out for the count and it was lovely to have a cuddle with DH last night without a bump or pregnancy pillow in the way.

Had a few issues latching but going to get tongue tie assessed tomorrow morning so hopefully we'll get going after that. In the meantime i'm pumping and feeling very weirded out by it all.

Generally everything went well, though we were held in recovery a long time - combination of my blood pressure taking a dive and no beds on the postnatal ward. Then my pain medication was delayed the following morning which led to a bit of a cascade of issues (do not know what i would have done without DH being assertive for me), really bad referred gas pains in my right shoulder and ribs (I was in agony for nearly an hour before they finally gave me oramorph.), delay in getting the catheter removed and remobilising and eating properly, which then led to me being unable to hold anything down, including water and it took ages before they acknowledged I was dehydrating and needed an anti-emetic - so my plan of getting out of there ASAP were completely scuppered . There weren't any amenity rooms but the bay I was in only had 3 beds and we were allowed to keep the curtains closed all the time. I will say that I was very glad we had doula and breastfeeding support as it made a massive difference - some of the advice from midwives was contradictory depending who you got (some totally fantastic, others really not) and I firmly believe it got us out sooner.

@Weathergirl1 good to hear from you! The first few days following the op are probably the roughest. Nice to hear you and baby are doing well.
Is it someone from the NHS that's doing the tongue tie assessment or did you get someone privately?
Also, what are you using for pumping? I was planning on getting either the haaka or naturebond bottle pump, so would be good to hear what you have and what you think of it.

@birdbybird we saw a lactation consultant privately, but I did get a call from the hospital midwife in charge of feeding this afternoon who confirmed that there is an approx 3 week wait for an assessment via the NHS... So we're 1 week old today and we're sorted with having it snipped (turns out he had a nearly 100% tongue tie!!) so hopefully we can get on with it now, I do feel rather frustrated that the general attitude seems to be that if you're having difficulties, just try harder, rather than there being someone who can actually assess and therefore start to rule out issues that it might be. There were mothers stuck on the postnatal ward effectively bed blocking because they wouldn't let them be discharged because of feeding issues - absolutely crazy.

I've got an Ardo Calypso pump which is closed system (means that the milk doesn't get into the pump area so they're usable by different people - will sell on when I've finished with it!) and was £120 on Amazon. I could have hired a hospital grade pump for about £60 for a month, but they're bulky and I don't know how long I might want to use one for. Both of those options were the ones recommended by our Doula but she did say that the hand pumps or cheaper ones work for women not intending/needing to pump as much - I've obviously needed to pump regularly since the weekend while he couldn't latch. When I spoke to her about pumps antenatally she advised to hold off until I knew what I needed one for, which actually I think is pretty good advice.

I seem to have no supply issues (at the moment!) so the Ardo pump to me is as effective as the hospital grade one. Be warned that if you need bottle teats for newborns that fit the pump bottles, you can't buy them in the shops (crazy) but they are available on Amazon. Also Breast Shells - I've been finding that I leak on the other side when pumping and these collect the excess (breast pads weren't cutting it).

How are you getting on??

@Weathergirl1 has little bub had it snipped already? They said at the ante-natal classes its no worse than a heel prick.

I'm 36w4d today so counting down. Feeling ok mostly, unless I give in to temptation and eat junk food, which makes the bloating worse.
Antenatal classes are finished, and I have the second appointment with the doula on Tuesday.

Embarked on a decluttering exercise last weekend. But also bought some stuff (a buggy plus baby carrier being the more expensive items). Feel like not enough hours in the day as just want to lie down and put my feet up.

@birdbybird yep - DH held his head still while the nice lady did it - have since discovered that she has a chat bubble in the Positive Breastfeeding Book (I don't know if you've read that?). He cried slightly but was probably ore the shock of tasting blood/his tongue suddenly being freed! He forgot quickly when I gave him the bottle!

Definitely get as much as possible done now - I still don't feel like there are enough hours in the day, but I now have the added complication of small human to deal with!!

@birdbybird how are you doing? Must be getting close now to EDD?

@Weathergirl1 I'm doing ok. Yeah less than a week to EDD and still pregnant. BTW I haven't read the positive breastfeeding book.
How are you doing? And how is your little bub?

We're ok. I've managed a few more feeds in the past 48hours, so next step will be to try without nipple shields again... He's having a few gas issues still though (both ends) partly because he's so gulpy. Poops seem to cause him a bit of distress too, but DH read that it's common at a few weeks old as they are pooping more but their muscles aren't properly co-ordinated yet.

I got back on the turbo trainer last night for 10' at a low wattage. I really enjoyed it - was really good for my mental health. HR is still a bit high but I guess it's to be expected as my haemoglobin dropped to 103 after the CS. And I managed to get my normal jeans done up yesterday too, though I'm continuing to wear the over bump ones while I'm using belly and hip wraps.

I went bra shopping in M&S today. My ribs have gone back to normal but I had to get a DD 😲 which feels ridiculous given I'm normally an A cup 🤪

Best of luck for B-day 🤞👍 hope all goes well!

Merry Christmas everyone, how are all the babies and bumps doing?

We're doing well now after a really rough start, DS had a severe tongue tie (it actually went all the way onto the top of his tongue), then oral thrush after having it snipped which transferred to my nipples. By the time we got rid of that my milk had dried up, despite expressing as much as I could, which I was pretty devastated by at the time. He was also diagnosed with reflux which explained the screaming and lack of sleep.

However at 7 weeks he started sleeping 3-4 hours at a time (before was a maximum of 2!), the reflux improved, and it all got a bit easier. He's now 9 weeks and giving massive smiles, only waking to feed once between 12-8, and rolling from his front to back!

Good to hear from you @pinkywoo glad you are getting on much better now sounds like a rough start.

We are doing well dd is almost 7 months so we are now having some solid foods which she loves. We finally have two front bottom teeth after months of miserable teething. Sleep is a tricky subject as we were almost sleeping through at 4 months but then the teething and numerous colds hit and we were back to walking every two hours finally seem to be turning a corner and back to twice a night wake ups.

Anyway hope everyone's ok bumps and babies and mummies and those to be. Merry Christmas everyone x

@Pinkywoo ah lovely to see your LO and good to hear you're doing well now. We're getting there I think - was still mostly pumping until the week before Christmas but it was getting me seriously down that I felt so tied down by the complete faff & DH starts back at work next week so I decided that I needed to get feeding sorted before then if I was going to carry on BFing. We had another visit from our BFi g supporter and she managed to tweak a few things and get him latching better. I've just spent the last week at my parents mostly BF (and used it as practice being discreet infront of my DF and DGF). I now have a week to get confident at feeding out and about while DH is still off so we shall see.

Still waiting on a smile, although we think there's a chance it might be soon!

@Blondcat really dreading teething happening... Glad to hear your LO is getting back to her routine now though 👍

@birdbybird hope all went well and your LO arrived safely 🤞

Hi @Weathergirl1 @Pinkywoo @Blondcat - its been a few weeks I've been off the forum. My little guy arrived second week of December. My waters started leaking on the due date and that meant we had 24 hours (or was it 48 hours? can't remember!) to get him out. Tried naturally but had only dilated to 5cm after 12 hours and they were going to try induce, so I asked for epidural. Anyway... had got to about 8cm before the epidural was actually administered. But then he got stuck anyway! So ended up having an emergency c-section. I now have an appointment in a few weeks to discuss how it went with the obgyn.
I always used to wonder if the 20 weeks of nausea/vomiting would be worse than the birth... and despite the ordeal during the birth... still think the nausea was worse!
The doula experience was ok... not fantastic but not terrible.
Breastfeeding is surprisingly going ok. Am hand expressing (plus the haaka) to create one bottle to give myself a break. My mum being around has been a massive help, but she leaves at the end of January so a bit anxious about that.
We are into our 6th week now. Night times are hard work... he is sometimes up for 4 or 5 hours at night... but then sleeps for up to 3+ hours during the day. Looking forward to the 7th week (based on what you said Pinkywoo) to see if it improves.

@birdbybird congratulations on your ds. Glad you are both ok after your 'exciting' birth experience. Similar thing happened to my friend in July.

@birdbybird congratulations! I didn't get a notification from MN and have been off here a bit as it's a bit hectic here. Sounds like you had a bit of a rough time, but glad to hear feeding is going well!

Going it alone is scary but you will be fine. DH was here with me until two weeks ago when he started his new job. I had planned to go to the sling library to return one we'd hired on that Monday and very nearly went back to bed after he left for work but I had an email from a friend who was also going to be there so knew I'd have to admit I'd chickened out if I didn't go... So I kicked myself up the bum and went. Had to manage feeding in public on my own (had only just got round to not using nipple shields) so was all a bit scary. But I survived... A bit of a sweaty heap, mind but I felt like I could conquer the world when I got home!

Hi, how is everyone doing? It's all getting a bit scary now, especially when you have a baby to worry about. DS and I have been self isolating for two weeks now as I'm classed as vulnerable, but DH is still having to work as he's self employed so is terrified of bringing it home to me (he's sleeping in the spare room which is weird, but at least I don't have to listen to his snoring!). We had a head start on worrying as all his family are in Italy, but touch wood, they're ok. Hope you're all well

Hello! I've not been on here for a while as life is so hectic. We're good, other than being at home. Not isolating fully thankfully but my parents and grandpa are - we managed to get them to bring the cot down that they were storing just before everyone was told to stay at home. I had a real worry we'd be stuck without it and an baby too big for the bedside crib...

So very glad this didn't happen 6 months ago - I would have been in a complete state if it had.

Hope everyone stays safe - especially you @Pinkywoo 👍

Thankyou, I've just looked at the asthma UK guidelines and I am "highly vulnerable" and have to shield