Due Sept '07 - Loving this weather - yes WE WILL make it through the summer thanks!!!

[PurpleLostPrincess]

I did it (slightly adjusted the wording - is it OK?)!!! Now all we've got to do is a link from the old one to the new one - I'll leave that to somebody a bit more competent!

By the way, I just go laalalaalalaaa when you guys talk about epidurals/pain relief etc. I really didn't enjoy having one when I had DS but I had to as they had put me on a drip and all sorts and I had lots of complications. Ended up with even more severe migraines for years afterwards too. Didn't have one with DD1 and much preferred the whole experience. If I can get away with it this time, I'm going to try and avoid having one (obviously can't predict how things will go!). Gas & Air me up all the way!!!

PLP xxx

Nice to see so many of us as reaching the nesting stage! Kyala, keep those curtains closed! Sorry not to respond to so many posts, but I do read them...
I have no stretchmarks yet either, and last time round only got one massive one at the top of my butt . Which is weird because as I growing teenager I got stackloads on my knees and thighs, so at my present hoary age, it all looks like I had a pregnancy in my bottom! I won't comment on the bump, as lying around for 5 weeks has made it go pretty flat, but it ain't anything to feel good about, as it's spilling out at the dies instead - goodbye waistline, for ever!
DH is in Bad Mood as I told him yesterday that now I'm 36 weeks he needs to lug the bin bags of newborn stuff out of the loft and help me wash and dry them. Also we still have no monitor, Moses basket, cot, etc., but I reckon if baby comes early one trip to mothercare should deal with all that... Pointless optimism...

...spilling out at the SIDES... can't flipping spell any more!

Same here every time I stir into wakefulness, I need to go to the loo, I am averaging about 4 times a night too. Oh to be able to sleep for more than 2 hours without waking up.

I couldn't agree more. I have only six weeks left but the waking up every couple of hours is really making it feel like the time is going to drag.
Plus I've just been told that my maternity grant will be appearing in the bank in the next couple of days but I get so breathless when I try to go shopping I'm not sure I'll be able to buy anything anyway!

re the BT digital monitor, they also make a slightly 'lesser' version for £50 - the only difference with this is that I think the £70 one plays lullabies and displays the temperature, nothing vital. Anyway, amazon are selling the lower model for about £35 (or maybe £39). I bought one the other day from them... the talkback function is invaluable. Now we don't have to stand at the bottom of the stairs yelling "no we're not coming up anymore!!" to DD1

i also agree with the sleeplessness. LO never seems to be happy no matter how i lie plus frequent, disappointing trips to the loo make sleeping a thing of the past

thanks for baby monitor recommendations tinkjon and Loopy.. I was thinking about the angel pad one, with the motion sensitive pad that goes under the mattress, but that could just be first time mother paranoia! I have no reason to suspect this one is any more at risk of sids than any other child, neither of us smoke, don't have any serious allergies or breathing problems, and LO is totally healthy as far as we can tell. My sister had one for her dd but that's because she catagorically refused to sleep on her back. My friend who used to work in Mothercare did say the ones with the pad don't often work with certain types of mattress and as we've opted for a cot bed, the mattress is sprung, so I'm not even sure the angel pad will work. I'll have a look at the BT monitor, I have heard good things about it.

I haven't been sleeping brilliantly either, my hips hurt after I've been sleeping on them for about 20 mins, so every 20 mins I have to flip over, which usually takes me a few mins. All the grace and elegance of a baby elephant!!

I think I had a bit of a growth spurt this morning, quite strong period pains low down in my bump. At first I thought BH, then contraction, but actually the pain lasted about half an hour so either it was the mother of all contractions or it was a bit of growth spurt. My mw did say that it's the bottom of the uterus that grows towards the end of pregnancy, so it would make sense that the pain was low down. I've had them all the way through this pregnancy, but it makes me even more worried about labour as I'm so pathetic with pain!! I had to sit down and take two paracetomol just for some stretching pains... I've got no hope!!!!

Mrsfish, how sweet is your ds? I hope it wasn't expensive bronzer I'd be torn between being really annoyed and really laughing!

Kyala - I hope the mw visit goes ok, keep us posted!

re: monitors, bil works for bt and bought it for me through his staff account as with his discount they worked out on a couple of pounds different (think he gets a higher % off if item is over £50) so didn't really compare features!

mrsfish, i think i jinxed myself reading your post just before i walked to local shops earlier. I have been getting a stitch low on my right side if i walk any faster than snail's pace so i took my time and for the first time i got a really intense stitch-like pain all down left side of bump. suppose it doesn't help having to walk up a hill pushing a 2st toddler plus heavy buggy.

not sleeping well either. it's so muggy and heartburn and a morning sickness/mildish nausea type feeling seems to have hit me. havent had any heartburn since a few days worth at end of june and it's really taking it out of me. i too am sore at the top of bump and got the same explanation from mw about a limb sticking out. (lo is engaged and it still hasn't shifted either). i think we're all getting a bit fed up now and wanting pg to end. anyone else had a recent increase in appetite? or am i just being a pig?! so hungry all the time, off to munch some more....xx

Mrs M, we've got an angel pad monitor. Dh bought it off ebay when I was expecting ds2 (didn't use anything for ds1). Tbh I thought he was going a bit overboard, as like you, we had no reason to suspect there would be any problem. Anyway it was bought, so we planned to use it. When I was in hospital just after having him he had an episode where he went very blue. It was very scary, but thankfully a mw was with us and kept us calm. He eventually took a breath and was fine. (It never occurred again, though he is a bit of a breath holder when he cries). After this I was glad dh had bought it afterall. The monitor worked well and he had a sprung mattress too. The only problem was when he was a bit older, he would sometimes crawl to the edge of the cot to sleep and the mattress wouldn't pick up his movements so the alarm would go off. Other than that, it was a good buy, and we'll be using it again with this lo.

are sprung matresses the best type to have? we got one with the cot but not sure how good a quality it is

Blimey kinki - that must have freaked you out! I must admit, I'm so tempted to get an angel pad. Call me paranoid, I don't care !!

Kelmcd - I'm not sure what's the best... we bought a cot bed from John Lewis (actually my mum did ) and she said we should go for the sprung one as it will last longer when ds is a toddler and using the cot as a bed iyswim. It was the most expensive type so, I may be naive, but I assumed it was the best. I was a bit concerned the wire coils might interfere with the angel pad sensors, but Kinki has put my mind at rest with regards that.

Just put my first load of washed baby stuff on the line it all looks so cute up there. I even washed the little teddy we bought at JJMMBB (it did smell a bit chemical) I had a bit of a hormonal moment looking at the teeeny socks and sleep suits up there

hello all. hope everyone is well and 'enjoying' last few weeks. I am now 38+1 and feel v flat and lethargic. feel bad cos mil is here today and playing with dd and i'm not being very chatty or nice to her and, of course, she's irritating dh. sobering to think my lo's will roll their eyes when i visit their grown up selves. something slightly gloomy about that thought...i need to snap out of this mood!

kyala - hope hammer hands didn't live up to her name. though ime when they feel around the baby they get pretty firm. ouch!
i am impressed that the thought of leaving the house and feeding ducks cheers you up. i am sick of being in the flat but too idle to relish the prospect of moving. what's wrong with me? grrr. i need to give myself a good talking to!

moniters. we have both the angel care and the bt digital. angel care is fine, but you need to put the movement mat on a solid base so if you have a slatted base on cot you need to get a bit of mdf or something to put under it. we never actually got round to doing this for dd so just used it as a normal moniter. i would say it picks up quite a lot of interference, esp in london (and esp in mult occupancy house) so can be noisy. the bt moniter is almost silent in comparison so much better from that point of view.
tbh with dd i just checked her a lot and liked to see for myself that she was breathing. i prob won't use the movement sensor for this lo either as i think the false alarms (and i've read they're hard to avoid) would be heartstopping. i'll stick to old fashioned paranoid checking and keep the baby in our room until six months old....or maybe a year depending on just how anxious i'm feeling!

as for sleeping. i have a love hate relationship with my bed these days. i am tired but often can't sleep and it's so frustrating. yesterday on way to bed i went to loo, brushed teeth and then had to go to loo again! i didn't even brush them for the regulation three minutes! not much chance of a good nights sleep with a bladder like that!

MrsMar, I've just done the baby washing too - so cute!!

I've got the BT digital monitor as well, and it's really good. I've tried it out on my niece, and the lullabies (sent by remote) did a really good job of stopping her crying. And dh and I have had a bit of a laugh walking round the house and paging each other . Juvenile, me? Anyway, we got ours on Ebay; can't remember how much it was, but it was definitely a good discount.

As for sleeping troubles, I'm lucky to be only waking up once a night for the loo at the moment. That could be because LO hasn't engaged at all yet, though - I might get a bit of a shock to the system when the bladder starts to get really squashed! No stretchmarks as yet, either, but I read someone on MN who said she didn't have any at all until she went into labour, and afterwards she had tons . So not counting any chickens yet.

Dal, like EMJ I never did the email thing either. So if it's not too late I'd like to do it too.

Right, I'm off to pack my hospital bag RIGHT NOW, because I've just remembered that I'm 37 weeks today, and that's officially full term, so I really think I ought to get on with it! I've done my tax return this morning as well, so I'm feeling extra virtuous. Luckily my mum's given me some lovely home-made scones which I will scoff for tea as a reward .

Hope everyone's having a nice afternoon. Weather here is completely foul.

i have just had the same kind of moment mrsmar. Just sorting thru all the things i've bought, been given etc. Still need to wash it but is starting to make it all seem a bit more real. Tho i am still having trouble actually believing that in a couple of weeks i will actually be holding the little blob that has been kicking me for so long mind you i cant wait to lie on my stomach again!

ECATLM - thanks for your experience with angel care monitor. I just went on the kiddieworld website and they have a video demo on there, I must admit I got a little tearful when they showed the picture of the sleeping baby and when the baby was picked up the alarm went off. Sent quite a chill through my blood!!! Oh it's so hard to know what to do! I'd rather a few false alarms than anything worse, but then those false alarms are going to age me about a hundred years I'm sure! Oh well, got a couple of weeks to make up my mind, plus I guess I won't need anything while he's in the moses basket by my bed (don't have room in our bedroom for the cot otherwise like you I would do that if I could)

MrsB, I'm sure dh and I would be the same!! Big kids at heart!

Kelmcd - it is strange isn't it, looking at those little sleepsuits on the line, thinking there'll be a little boy in those in a few weeks (four for me, maybe less if I have to have cs!!) oh the excitement!!!

Hello everyone,

I'm busy 'resting' at the mo. Have been told my baby is likely to be early - due 18th Sept, but fluid low. So making the most of the time! House is a mess, but want to keep bambino in for as long as possible.
This may seem totally irrational to some people, but I'm terrified of having an August baby. Purely for school reasons. I think it was CC who mentioned it earlier. DP keeps telling me not be silly and as long as baby is healthy I shouldn't be worrying. He also says I'm being disrespectful towards August mums and babies.
But I am worried. I teach 8 year olds and without a doubt I can spot the ones born in August. I feel guilty for feeling this way, but I just can't wait til September. I would be so upset if it was August. I know I'm being irrational.

Hello everyone. Just quick post to say hi as have just spent most of my lunch hour catching up on the thread!

Sounds like everyone is having similar experiences re sleep and heartburn, etc. I too don't have any stretchmarks yet but I have heard that some people get them after the baby is born - kind of like a deflation reaction? ?? I'm sure that'll be me.

I got the cheaper BT monitor from amazon too, it seemed to get good reviews though haven't actually tried it yet (one for the mat leave me thinks) - like the idea of doing talkback Tinkjon - LOL. I had NCT classes all weekend which were really good and nice crowd of people. One interesting thing they said was about having the baby in your bedroom - aparantly studies have shown that it's good for the baby to hear your breathing, helps it get into a rhythm or something. Just thinking about the sids thing?

Also MrsMar I was interested to read your comment about low down bump pain - I had exactly the same this morning and over the weekend. Well actually it was in the middle of the night and woke me up. I wondered if I was more sensitive to it because I was still - thought perhaps if I was moving around as during the day I wouldn't notice so much. It did really rather ache though?. I then had a dream that I had gone into labour so woke up feeling rather disorientated. Anyway, I am glad to hear it sounds normal - I'm due similar time to you I think (2 days later?).

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Until it was discussed on here, I didn't even think about the school issues with September babies. I'm feeling a bit odd now about wishing this LO would arrive a little bit earlier than her due date in case it has a negative effect. If anything though, mine is more likely to be an October baby than an August one. I keep wondering if maybe I should have joined the 'Due in October' thread since mine's due on the 30th.

I hope you're okay, emalushka, and that your baby's arrival isn't much earlier than due date Being happy and healthy really is the most important thing though.

Hi everyone, glad to hear everyone doing well, I havent posted on here for Months due to working ful time and collapsing as soon as got home! but have had one week maternity already and have completed all chores/preparations so can relax and wait til LO decides to make apearance! so, have lots of time for chats on MN. Will try and read back through all posts i've missed so can catch up with everyone's news properly.... Am officially 38 weeks today, although my dates (rather than scan dates) say i am 40 weeks . baby is fully engaged but is in OP position so having to do painful exercises to try and move him/her.... just wishing baby would come now - think I'm ready....although typing that made me panic!!

ecatlm, interesting what you say about slatted cot bases and the angel monitor. Our cot has the slatted base and it worked fine for us. Incidentally, I needed a monitor recently (spent a week gardening while ds2 was having his naps), and the angel one was buried in the loft. I knew dh wouldn't go find it, so I bought one from Lloyds pharmacy - it was only £10 reduced from £40. It's nothing flash, but does have a night light on it. Could be useful as a backup. I justified the additional expense by saying it'll be useful when we're camping, you know, al fresco drinks while kiddies snuggle up in the tent.

Its funny, I spent half this pregnancy hoping lo would be early as I wanted an August baby. This is so there'd only be 2 school years between my youngest 2, I could go back to more 'fuller' time work (plan to do this when they're all at school), and also I'll be a year younger in the playground. (Feeling my age at the moment). But now I feel happy to wait til September. Guess there's nothing we can do about it anyway, they all come when they are good and ready.

Hi everyone

Just popping in to give you an update on AmyClaraMum.

She's still in hospital - going insane with boredom but is rearranging her magazines and water jug regularly to make it feel like home! She'll be going round plumping up pillows soon!

Anyway...baby has not turned...no intention of doing so it seems so AmyClaraMum will have a c-section on either Thursday or Friday this week.

She can read emails and access the internet to read mumsnet (of course) but can't get the thing to work to send any messages. Patientline is a complete nightmare...

She just wanted me to let you all know she's thinking of you and there will be a birth announcement soon!

Thanks for the update, motherhysteria, and I hope you're feeling okay amyclaramum if you're still reading this! Best of luck to you for your CS and looking forward to seeing your birth announcement

my edd is sept 2nd and dh's step mother - who is primary school teacher - was v quick to tell me to make sure the baby is born in Sept and not August. Er...how do i do that exactly?! (she is miserable old trout)

If i could control it, i would. but i can't so i'm not going to fret about it. i am sure it makes a big difference but so do a lot of other things - home environment, parental attitude etc. Also, i have a friend who is a July baby and never tires of telling us how much cleverer than us he is on account of how he was youngest in class. he's a barrister so not exactly a slouch. he'll be thrilled to hear i'm holding him up as inspiration for anxious mums to be of summer babies maybe i won't tell him!

ooh, big 'hello' to amyclaramum. glad to hear you're ok - if bored. am v excited to see your birth announcement soon!

kinki - so we could have used the moniter all along . sigh.