Still Blooming waiting for November babies

[Pixiefish]

Here we are ladies- I'll dash off and link to the new thread from the old one

Sending you positive vibes SGK

P.S. gorgeous bump and baby pics everyone!

Legs crossed for you, SGK! I hope he hangs in there a few more weeks!

Iris -- I think that actually would be an interesting poll. Will think about how to best phrase it.

Mind you, I don't really want to have a 2-month job, would be just as happy to sit on the sofa eating ice cream and reading magazines, but have no money, and while DP will be along to help out, I really need to be bringing something in, money-wise. Bleh. I will start looking in earnest tomorrow. Maybe.

Good luck SGK, hope all is well and the LO is staying put for now!

Hi All

Aikigypsy, I'd like to sit on the sofa eating icecream too!! I think pregnancy does that to you. But work makes the time pass q fast - except that on days like today when I got no sleep, almost, it feels like a hurdle too high. I'm going to work, anyway, with black-circled eyes and a slightly zombified expression.

Sparkly, good about the insulin anyway!

Kayla, did you get a good night's sleep? and LittleOldMe, how are you with the suspected virus?

Iris, you seem to be doing a pretty good job of keeping on board!

Sarah, I have reached the stage where I like idle pregnancy chat (33 weeks) because my head is just full of it anyway; find it hard to focus on work stuff to be honest. But I know what you mean: everyone and his wife has an opinion on pregnancy/babies...

Hope you all slept better than me!

Morning.
Just went upstairs and was going to wash the blankets and stuff I have plus all the baby clothes I have bought. Sat on the bed and thought sod it- I can't be bothered.

Off o see the consultant tis afternoon- shall talk to him about the induction/cs and see what he says then it'll be the case conference at the end of the month

I haven't posted for a while but something happened yesterday that made me think of you guys.

I have been having antenatal classes with the NCT for a couple of weeks now. Last night was the breastfeeding session and me and my husband went along open eared and open minded. We plan to breast feed our little one so far as is possible.

I was slightly concerned with the approach of the group leader. She seemed to adopt the view that if a baby is breast fed, it should be fed exclusively from the breast - i.e. without expressing milk and allowing others to feed it to the child in bottles occasionally. This upset my husband because he feels very strongly that he wants to be involved in the feeding but does not want his involvement to harm the baby. The breast feeding councillors view was that a different action is required for a baby to bottle feed, than to breast feed and baby who relies on breast milk, but has the occasional expressed bottle feed will go off the breast because it's easier to get milk from the bottle. I thought this might be a little extreme, because all we were planning is to give me one night off a week.

The other point that came up worried me rather than my husband. One of my class mates asked how long you should continue trying to breast feed for if you're struggling, before calling it quits and moving over to the bottle. My view on this was that breastfeeding is good so far as you can manage it but if the baby isn't getting any food because one or both of you can't master the technique you should just move over to the bottle and put it down to experience. The counsellor could not see circumstances in which it would be preferable to move over to bottle milk, and recomended perseverence, and when pushed she said 'if you ever want to move over to formula that is a personal choice'.

I was wondering what you all think of these issues. Thanks for listening to my rant. N

Babies do get confused with breast and bottle- nipple confusion it's called- but then again a lot of people do express. Probably best not to do it too early as you need to establish breast feeding frst.

As for how long to perservere then that is up o you. I had a hell of a time with dd, 3 lots of mastitis and cracked nipples and lumps and other hassles. I just gritted me teeth literally and fought my way through it becasue I was so determined to breast feed. I would say that by 12 weeks we were settled and happy and I carried on feeding her till she was 2yo 10m. But that does depend on you and what isimportant to you. I may be different with this baby because I have my dd to think about

Nicola, my antenatal group last night was on breastfeeding too. Our teacher was a bit more positive about expressing - she encouraged it as a great way to give the mum a break and get the dad involved in feeding (she has 2 v yhoung children so mayhbe the memory of the sleep deprivation is stronger for her!).

She did talk about nipple/teat confusion, shew said if you introduce a bottle too soon the baby may not want the breast anymore - but if you introduce it too late the baby may be so used to the breast s/he won't take the expressed milk from the bottle. She said in her experience it's best to introduce the bottle at about two months, but it's different for each baby - so you may need to play it by ear.

I think discouraging expressign is not really helping - may put women off bf if they're really exhausted/in pain etc. This is all theoretical for me at mo as this is my first - so we'll see how it goes.

Morning everyone,

Nicola - that sounds like my idea of a nightmare session! My NCT classes start in about a week and I do hope they don't take the whole 'bottle feeding is tantemount to child neglect' angle.

My DS was in special care for 4 weeks after birth so during that time he was fed through the nose to start with until his suckling reflex was developed. After that he was mainly fed by bottle (using my expressed milk) and we tried him with breastfeeding intermittently. Once he came home at 4 weeks, he would want to feed constantly - i.e with only 20 min breaks inbetween. I stuck this out for a further 8 weeks before giving up and reverting to formula. I felt absolutely dreadful about it but the breastfeeding was so stressful that I was a miserable mother. I just reached a point where I thought I had to go for the lesser of 2 evils. Either continue the misery or go for formula and concentrate on being a happy mum and baby.

I don't regret my decision - obviously I feel that DS missed out - but looking back I just didn't see that I had to continue with breastfeeding 'at all costs'.

Your teacher was right - it is a personal choice and I would never judge anyone for it. I intend to BF this LO for at least 6 months if I can (depending on how it fits it with DS) but if I can't, I won't beat myself up about it.

My DH was very involved with feeding DS as a baby and I would like to continue that. Will probably BF exclusively for the first 4 weeks or so (assuming LO is full term) and then establish a routine of expressing and getting DH to bottlefeed.

It is true that babies can suffer from nipple confusion but then again, if you leave it too long to introduce a bottle, they can be stubborn about drinking from anything but the breast. Another thing for us to worry about!

Hi everyone

Nicola - I find it so annoying when people try and make you feel bad. I am also going to try and breast feed for as long as possible, and i will certainly give it my best shot, but it if comes to me having sore and bleeding nipples etc then i will not hesitate to do what's right for baby and for me and move over to the bottle. I always believe that if you're not stressed, then the baby will not be stressed etc. I also plan to express a bit so that DP can give baby a feed too, maybe on a Saturday night so that i can stay in bed and hopefully get a bit more sleep.

There's nothing wrong with what you're suggesting and there are some very good teats around at the moment and make baby use the same sucking action that baby has to do on the breast. All is not lost!!

A friend at work leant me one of those heartbeat monitors listening devices today. I've had a quick go at it and heard a couple of kicks but i didn't find the heartbeat. I think i'm going to have a go at it tonight when i'm in bed and then me and DP can have a listen as it comes with two sets of headphones and a lead so that you can plug it into your pc and record it too! I'm not hopeful of finding anything as coherent as the MWs find with their doppler but it's a nice little novelty thing i spose!

I've got the MW tomorrow and then the dentist (i broke my tooth on Sunday night) and then we're going to go to Cambridge for a nice little weekend break. I still haven't told DS that we're off because i didn't want to forewarn him and arm him with plenty of time to arrange a party or something! I think the plan is that i will tell him tonight that we're off for one night and then will phone him on Saturday early evening to say "actually we've decided to stay another night too". I think that way he deffo wont have time to arrange for people to come round the house. Do you think i'm a paranoid??!! I think it's because of all our music equipment in the house and computers etc that makes me that way!! Some of it is absolutely irreplaceable so i tend to err on the side of extreme caution.

I worked until 10.45pm last night and got home at midnight absolutely shattered and feeling a bit sick from tiredness. I am feeling surprisingly full of hte joys of spring today tho and quite wide awake too.

Have a nice day everyone!

Anna - your teacher sounds a little less militant than nicola's!

Might leave it for 6 weeks then before bottlefeeding...

Oh yeah, meant to say that you should wait for a couple of months first before attempting the bottle for a feed.

Hello Anna and Choudru!

Oh and hello to Pixie too!

Hello back RG

Hi Anna, yeah i know what you mean. I've been Zzzzz-ing on the sofa from about 10pm these days but i think that the late night last night has woken me up. Very strange!!

Actually was quite energetic today - went swimming and did 15 laps! Varies a lot from day to day how tired I am. Love the whole weightless thing while in pool though. Slightly enbarassing moment when I tried to pull myself up out of pool and realised I couldnt' because, oh yeah, I have this huge bump stopping me. Cue embarrassed swim to steps and climb out of pool

lol!! I am quite looking forward to going swimming when i got on mat leave. I daren't go before because i dont think i'll have the energy tbh. I think i will go in search of a suitable swimming costume.

Good morning!

I think I am going to take a walk and try to find a job today. My childbirth prep class was supposed to start last night, but I got a call saying that they're delaying it until next Wednesday, which I suppose is fine. I certainly plan to breastfeed for the whole first year, but I'm aware that not all plans work out. Still, I won't be buying bottles etc unless there's some indication of a problem.

My cousin was told that she needed to start her baby on a bottle before 6 weeks so that she could express milk for bottle feeding when she goes back to work. I thought it was a bit odd -- surely they can learn to bottle feed later, too, if necessary.

Easywriter and Iris66, thanks very much for the nappy advice. I can?t believe there is so much choice, I think I will be settling for a two part nappy system like Sandys and/or bamboo nappies (I like cute, tiny nappies) with a Motherease wrap.
Nicolatabb, I breastfed my first baby for 10 weeks only. By then, I was so sleep deprived and so miserable that my HV suggested medication for PND. I felt very guilty but very relieved at the same time when I took the decision to switch to the bottle. There is no doubt that breast is best for the baby and I admire those mums that can do it. With hindsight I think I could have continued for longer doing mixed feeding (breast, expressed, formula). I come from a country (Spain) where breastfeeding is pretty much the norm and even my mother, who successfully breastfed two babies for over a year, recommended me to give him the occasional bottle so I could have a break!
I think your counsellor?s attitude is not helping and may put people off. Every baby and every mum are different. At the end of the day is for your baby?s benefit to have a happy relaxed mother.

Hiya RG! wave back manically

All this talk of swimming and other energetic exploits - what is going on!

I am utterly exhausted today as I was yesterday. I have been trying to fit naps in but they leave me feeling even more tired and it's doing my head in. I have been buzzing with energy for about 3 weeks now and all of a sudden I've come to a complete halt.

I can barely persuade myself to pick myself off the sofa to feed DS.

I hope it's just a phase - might have got a little cold. Can all you subsequent mothers let me know - is this what the last 7 weeks of pregnancy is like?

Now I am going to put my feet up with Marie Claire and some mint chocolate fingers.

Little - hope your virus isn't too bad

P.S. I bought myself 'Confessions of a failed grownup' to read in hospital. Have to try resisting temptation to raid hossie bag and sneak a peek before I go in he he.

went to see the consultat today and he's happy to induce me from 39 weeks- that will be more controlled than just waiting to go in. See what the Haem says next week now

Just checking in, so you all don't think I am in hospital or something.. lol!! 32 weeks today wooohoooo!!!!

Hi All, thank you for all your kind words about the back and good advice. I went to see my consultant today and he has told me that due to the right kidney not functioning and draining fluid and the back pain from the Anklynosing Spondulitus which showed on the scan today concerns of nerve damage when in labour. He has recommended that I have an elective C- Section by GA and will book it for my 38th week. I know that the most important thing is the baby and my health but after delivering two vaginal births I feel really tearful today that I have to have a c-section and to top it all under GA not Epidural. I feel I wont see my little one until I come round and my DH wont be there for the birth. I have read a few threads on c-sections under GA and there were some really worrying situations and the recovery will be worse than with Epitdural. Does anyone have any positive advice. Feeling rock bottom and DH working away on ship until next Tuesday. Im not sure what to do, consultant said he would see me again in two weeks to discuss if further.

Yay Sparkly,
I'm glad you're not in hospital and that the LO is tucked safely inside.

I had a strange day running around town catching up with random acquaintances and talking to a couple of people about possible work. Tired now.