Due in Dec 2007. Enough already, bring on the babies!

[suey2]

hellloooooo?

Hi all

I'm just lurking around at the mo. I've been off work since Tues, it's lovely! Am still exhausted though so now i know i really am feeling weak. After eating a meal it feels like i've climbed up a big hill. Weird.

Am off to midwife again in a min to see if there's anyway she can sign me off work for health reasons so i can start my maternity leave asap. I just thought sodi it. I am trying to sell my flat, got viewings coming up, a messy flatmate to keep track off, anemia! etc etc and no man/boyfriend to share the load. I saw a friend yesterday and she said she thought i'd done so well to get to 7 months and still walking/cycling everywhere, working 40 hours, selling my home etc all on my own. SO the (pregnant) worm has turned! I want to stop work now, concentrate on selling my flat and go swimming every day and have time to go to baby yogo. Am almost 31 weeks so hardly leaving work that early.

Wish me luck that she signs me off! I've made an appointment at the docs tomorrow am in case the midwife doesn't have full authority to do the signing off.

X

Hi all

I'm just lurking around at the mo. I've been off work since Tues, it's lovely! Am still exhausted though so now i know i really am feeling weak. After eating a meal it feels like i've climbed up a big hill. Weird.

Am off to midwife again in a min to see if there's anyway she can sign me off work for health reasons so i can start my maternity leave asap. I just thought sodi it. I am trying to sell my flat, got viewings coming up, a messy flatmate to keep track off, anemia! etc etc and no man/boyfriend to share the load. I saw a friend yesterday and she said she thought i'd done so well to get to 7 months and still walking/cycling everywhere, working 40 hours, selling my home etc all on my own. SO the (pregnant) worm has turned! I want to stop work now, concentrate on selling my flat and go swimming every day and have time to go to baby yogo. Am almost 31 weeks so hardly leaving work that early.

Wish me luck that she signs me off! I've made an appointment at the docs tomorrow am in case the midwife doesn't have full authority to do the signing off.

X

really are they actually having their babies?? that makes it so real doesnt it.

Neuro - I think that is a very sensible decision. Good luck at the MW appointment.

ooops sorry!

Mixed Mama, I cannot believe they wrote 2Breastfeeding discussed" in your notes on that basis....thats horrendous! I often can't read what they've written and I can sometimes see they've written something illegible and discussed at the end of it, so probably of a similar nature. I suppose they're just ticking boxes.

The care this time around has been horrendous really... compeltely not bothered. I lived in a different area before and I had the MW mobile number and that was standard practice and it was much much busier and over subscirbed that where i am now.

I actually have very little idea and evn less chance of actually contacting my MW, who routinely completely ignores DH and DS.

Neuro - fingers crossed for you hun. Am in awe that you are coping with all those things.

neuro - hope it goes well and you feel like you have more energy soon x

No sign of skid today or beckle?

I haven't had my urine tested the last 3 times i went to the MW. When I saw the gp, she said it should be done each time. (particularly as i have had a kidney infection in the past)
I looked at my notes when i came back from my last appointment and it said urine NAD. Bollocks! (for those non medical peeps NAD means no abnormality detected).
Will definitely be bringing it up when i go again next week. Am a little pissed off that i have seen a different one each time, too.

You lot know how to talk dont you, i can hardly keep up and it was only yesterday that i posted
Ive started packing my hospital bag, i just need to buy more maternity pads for me and some cheap nighties or pj's and im all done.
Ive got my second iron infusion tomorrow, i hope it starts to have some effect im shattered atm.
Neuro - I hope it goes well at m/w appointment today

Good luck tomorrow fif.

Suey - they truly are crap. It is really annoying me that they keep writing rubbish down that clearly hasnt been said/tested/isnt true etc.

I saw mine when i was off the other week (actually she was someone covering for my MW) and she was useless as well. That was at 28 weeks, and my next appointment is not until 34 weeks - 6 whole weeks... surely that is too long.

Hi all,

hope transfusion goes well tomorrow fifi and you start to feel a bit better

good luck at the mw/docs neuro

Totally agree about nonchalant midwives and at the 'breastfeeding discussed' MM - that is appalling - they go on so much about how more women should bf and that is the support we get

I was also wondering about a birth plan - think it should be discussed by 36 weeks at the absolute latest. Sympathies poppy and claraq - sounds like both your mws are crap, especially given neither of you has had a VB before. Mine is crap but at least I sort of know what to expect this time.

My mw was so fantastic last time it makes this one seem even worse. I think a lot of it is down to the individual as I am under the same health authority etc but my last mw used to do home visits of her own accord last time, gave me her mobile - told me my blood results when I bumped into her in the supermarket.. she was amazing

oh yes meant to say - I've just come from one of those sling meets where people bring lots of different slings so you can try them all.

The consensus seemed to be that if you plan to have a newborn in a sling quite a lot and want to have the option of breastfeeding in it, the best ones to go for are the ones that are just a big piece of material (6mx1m) that you tie round yourself. There is also a website www.thebabywearer.com/ where you can see videos and pics of how to tie them in different positions and how to bf in them

If you're thinking about a sling I think it's worth going to one of these meetings (there are loads of them all round the country see here - it made me completely reject the slings I had been thinking of and also the mums were all really lovely and there were chocolate biscuits!!

neuro - hope you get signed off? xx

Hi all! I second (or is that third or fourth) the perfunctory MW service we seem to get these days. We don't even get heartbeat listening unless we ask for it and then it is reluctantly! I am planning on making sure I have DS2 with me at every appointment and training him to ask to hear it!
Hi Skidaddle, glad the sling meet was good! Was going to say to Amani that I was sure you had said you were busy today and lo and behold - you posted!
Those of you who are going to have 2 small DCs at home try not to worry, you will be fine. When I had DS2, DS1 was 2.7 and TBH the baby just fitted into our lives like he had always been there. There are times (particularly feeding times) when DS2 would be particularly demanding but it is amazing how much you can learn to do while feeding one-handed. Things I found most useful were simple things like using baby's feed time as Mum and DS1 snuggle-and-watch-episode-of-fave-show-time. Also, my Mum got a tub and filled it with all sorts of stickers and a little book to stick them in - DS1 called it his 'treasure box' and loved to sit and stick the stickers in the book. It can be hard going if you are spending a lot of time alone (my DH has always worked long hours and often weekends) but I made the effort to attend toddler groups and the weekly weigh in at the local clinic and just getting out and seeing other adults was great. Its a very special time and for what its worth, I never found myself loving DS1 any less once his brother arrived. Its difficult to explain it but it is almost like your heart grows so that each child can have the same amount of love without it being less than it was before - does that make any sense?
Good luck with MW today Neuro, hope you get signed off. I am more than ready for mat leave now too but only got 5 more weeks to go after tomorrow! Also got next week, one day the week after and the last week in November off of my evening job so only actually got another 5 shifts of that before I leave! Wish I could say the same for my day job though . Had asked my boss for a couple of days off this week to spend with the DSs during half term, he was away for the first half of the week so said I could have today and tomorrow off and he would take the phones. Unfortunately his kids are not well and so are not allowed to fly home until the weekend . Took the kids out to a soft play place today anyway and just took the phone with me so that was not too bad but won't be able to take them to the cinema tomorrow - sigh.
Anyway - I've waffled enough!

Hey you ladies with bad MW services - reallly sorry to hear that. I was wondering if it was London based preggy ladies that were suffering the most?

I feel a bit guilty saying that my midwife is so nice, and was very understanding today. She said getting signed off sounds like a great idea, but doc has to do that. Lucky i anticipated her saying that and booked doc's appointment for tomorrow at 10am.

I almost can't wait to see my boss's face when i tell him. I can't see doc not signing me off, is a woman and always been v nice.

Suey - isn't your midwife malpracticing if she wrote Nothing Detected if she didn't actually do any detecting?!!!

BAD MIDWIFE

Hi beckle - what a lovely post - that's so good to hear that having your ds2 didn't change your feelings for your ds1 and that it was such a special time. Makes me feel all excited about no.2 - thank you!

What a shame you can't take your ds's to the cinema tomorrow - is there somewhere else you could go with the phones?

great news neuro and great you have such a lovely mw too

I am up north and my mw is crap so don't think it's down to geography..

Loucee I will have dd at home with me full time when lo arrives (as i do now). She will be 18.5 months when lo arrive-quite a scary prospect! Am determined to still get to her toddler groups etc and hopefully the local latchers bf group will let her tag along with me-I think it makes such a difference to succesful bf if you know other people who are bf too.

Skid-sounds like i have the right type of sling-hooray! (was holding my breath as i read just in case you were going to say it was the worst type!)

Am shattered atm, dd sleeping really badly so am up and down all night. Completely flipped at dh this morning when i'd been up several times in the night to her and he got up but just ignored her calling out and she ended up crying-he could have at least got her her milk and changed her nappy to give me an extra 15 mins or so to collect myself! I don't think he appreciates how knackering pregnancy can be!

ooh claireybee - that would make me mad - you are nearly 8 months pg - he should be getting up ALL the times your dd wakes up. Give him a good wallop from me

glad you have the right sling!

a friend of mine had her no.2 when her no.1 was 18 months and she said it was really hard for three months and then OK but the great thing was that her no.1 was too young to be jealous of no.2 so at least you should avoid that problem

mmmm, am looking forward to my 34 week appt tomorrow now I agree though, I've seen 4 midwives they've been 50/50 on caring terms - although have not been measured once, maybe I have a small bump to them.

I am quite mad about it tbh, had a cry this morning cos am sooo tired and he just doesnt seem to get it. I don't expect him to do the nights cos he does have to get up for work the next day BUT it does annoy me that in actual fact I get up before him most days to deal with dd, AS WELL as doing the night wakings. Even if he could just get her up and sit her in front of cbeebies for half an hour it would help! All i get when i try to explain this to him is "So you're saying I'm a bad father?!" or "I do a lot more than most men from my culture do" Well if he wanted the traditional African male role then why did he marry an Englishwoman???
Anyway, rant over, think the tiredness is just getting on top of me right now