Due April 2005, part deux

[DelGirl]

Xoz and I thought it was time to start a new thread so here it is. Will copy the list over from the old one:

Mose Girl - 27 March
Mother Peculiar - 1 April
Seabird - 8 April
bronniemuldoon - 10ish April
MunchK2n - 11 April
NellyK - 11 April
Strawberry - 11 April
006 - 15 April
tallbird - 25 april
Xoz - 16 April
Rydercup - 16 April
Mitzi - 18 April
jumpin - 20 april
DelGirl - 22 April
Azure - 23 April
fisil - end April-ish
miranda2 - 28 April

apologies fora any mistakes

Hi all

just back from the scan - all fine. Got some beautiful images. The technology seems to have moved on so much in the three years since DD was scanned, never saw such good detail then. They also surprised me with a request to measure the length of my cervix with an internal scan (someone else, sorry can't remember who, had this too I think) so that was fun . However, they did offer me the option to have a 3-d scan, seemingly they are carrying out some big research project into lung size at kings and if you have the scan they give you some 3-d piccies as a thank you. Can't wait. Has anyone else had one?

Gemma, sorry to hear about your ex-P's lack of interest. Maybe he'll come round when babe arrives, although that's not much help to you now. Glad to hear you have family and friends around to help though. Good luck with it all.

Hi motherpeculier, glad your scan went well, i wish we had the 3d scans down here, but glad to say wasn't given an internal :o
do you know the sex of your baby or is it suprise?

had my scan yesterday. all is fine although the baby's tummy measurement came up about 1.5 weeks smaller than expected. so, i will have to go for a growth scan in a month's time to check that all is well. not terribly worried at the moment although it would have been nice to have had the all clear.

on a brighter note, booked our trip to paris over the weekend and the tickets arrived this morning. yippee! can't wait till feb now. something to look forward to :)

Hi all, lovely to hear about lots more nice scan results.
Welcome Gemma, as everyone else has said don't worry too much at this stage of the game about not being too organised. If you're worried about things though, most people say to do as much as you can during the 2nd trimester because that's when you feel most energetic for doing the shopping etc. Have you signed up for Antenatal classes? That would be a place for you to meet up with other due around the same time and get some advice on what you ned to do, especially if you're feeling a bit alone in the whole thing. There are a couple of others on this thread on their own. I'm sure they'll offer you lots of moral support, as we all will!
Orangina - I don't have any clue really. We would like it to be a boy as we have 2 dd's already, but dh is convincing himself it's another girl (I think so he's not too disappointed if it is!)
We've just had a lovely weekend in Germany doing the Christmas markets and tourist things around Nuremberg! Our girls loved it and we're so excited by all the lights and Santa Clauses, but it was SO cold. It was really good fun. I highly recommend it if anyone is thinking of going!

Hello Gem1355, I haven't bought anything either and haven't got much idea about what is needed - vests and a pram or something?

Motherpeculiar that is great about the 3d scan, when do you have it? My 20 week scan is on Friday.

Hi glad to hear everyone's scan went well, csa i'm sure everything will be fine.

i'm going to sign up for antenatal classes when i see the midwife on the 22nd dec, and does anyone think aqua natal would help for a bad back?
i've been signed off by the DR, and i have to go to physiotherapy but should i try aqua natal as well? or has anyone else got any suggestions?

welcome Gemma . Poor you re your back. I did aquanatal last time and really enjoyed it, and I think it is meant to be recommended for backache, as I seem to remember hearing you can get time off work for classes (like antenatal classes). I'm trying to work out how I can fit in some sort of antenatal exercise this time. Ideally I'd like to fit something in during the day but not sure what to do with dd... Meantime I've got a pedometer to at least motivate me to walk!

Anyone else had any experience with hynobirthing? My midwife persuaded me to book a course which we're doing in Jan. DH is rather alarmed at the prospect but I reckon it's worth a go!

hello all and welcome gemma.... Glad to hear that all scans so far seem to be fine. I went in again yesterday to have a follow up on the 20 week to see the bits the baby wouldn't let us have a glimpse of before, and it all seems to be ok. Great to see the little creature again, could see lots of detail on his/her face this time! Gemma, I'm sure aquanatal would be good for your back (I have no experience of it myself), but also perhaps pregnancy yoga (concentrates a lot on keeping your posture good, and all that core stability stuff) and reflexology if the pain gets quite bad. Don't know how much of that is accessible, but may be worth a think. Meanwhile, I haven't bought a THING yet, have asked all family members NOT to buy me/us baby gear for Christmas, and am doing my best to borrow a lot of stuff before I finally hit the sales in the New Year for some of those basics that I can't not buy (like a cot?!).... Good luck to all of those still awaiting their scans, and speak to you later.... (good to hear the paris trip is booked csa!)

also gemma, in terms of core stability, you could invest in one of those gym balls (could also become birthing ball?!), and use that to sit around on, watch telly etc. Suppoised to be v good for you, and you can get them in Argos for about £3.99. Good for abdominal muscles (can't seem to see any on me these days....)

Osteopathy is another thing to think about for your back Gemma. I've had bad problems since birth of DD and found osteopathy the only thing to help. Unfortunately I don't think it is available on the NHS. However, if you are in London you can get sessions cheap at the British School of Osteopathy in Borough where they run a special clinic for pregnant women.

The Aquanatal should be ok but be sure you warn the teacher you have a bad back, and remind her at the start of each session. I'm hoping to start this soon, as well as antenatal yoga which should be good for core muscles as Orangina said. Another thing which is great for core stability (which REALLY helps sort out back problems) is Pilates, but it can be expensive (which is why I haven't done it yet, although everyone I discuss my back problems with recommends it so I should!)

Seabird, I did a hypnobirth session last time around. It was really nice if you are into that sort of thing (I can be) - lots of visualising flowers opening up and positive thoughts/outcomes etc - the idea being that you practise before the birth so that they become second nature and then call these images to mind during labour. Can't say it helped much during labour but then nothing else did either, maybe I hadn't practised enough...

Fishie, they were ready to do the 3D scan yesterday, but I had to get to a meeting at work so didn't have time. I'm going to call today and see when they can do it, anytime now I think. Should be very exciting.

HAven't bought anything for babe yet either. Fishie you did make me laugh with your vests and a pram comment. You're not too far wrong actually (although the magazines would have you believe very differently, and I did for DD1). HAve a lot of stuff from last time and will borrow the rest. Only thing I know we need to decide about is the buggy, our current one is falling apart so we need to replace that anyway. I've seen some very cunning looking double buggies where the baby goes in a sling type seat behind the front seat - I always do a double take as they are so discreet you'd barely know there was a second child in there. ANyone got any experience of these? I had been planning to do the single buggy and sling/then buggy board combo but 006 has made me think again with the warning about the strain on back, which makes absolute sense of course Hmmm, back to the drawing board I think...

P.S. Gemma, we are not finding out the sex, after all that effort I fancy a surprise! Are you?

Welcome Gemma. Had my scan on Monday and all is well It is a boy as I suspected. I don't know anything about little boys but I guess I am going to find out.

Lady who did scan was a bit of an old bag, told me off a couple of times and gave me two rubbish pictures after saying to the trainee under her breath 'I get a bit stingy at the end of the day'. I think they sometimes forget how exciting and amazing it is for people especially us first timers, when they look at scans all day every day.
Nice to hear everyones news - the vest and pram comment made me laugh too. I have just been given an enormous amount of baby clothes and equipment from a kind friend which is great, but it feels strange to have baby stuff in the house this early. I am trying not too look at it.
When can we be excited for real girls, without holding back? At 7 months when baby is truely viable? Or not until the birth?

Hello, well i've booked into aquanatal, and i'm going to find out about pregnancy yoga,
i'm not going to find out the sex but ithink it's a girl, so does my new DP! so picked out the name Darcie, But got Charlie for a boy just incase!!!

Just looking forward to xmas and the new year now!

Hello everyone
I've been a bit worried recently about a ridge that has appeared when I use my abdominal muscles, and I've found out that I've probably got a separation of the muscle - 'diastasis recti'. It appears above my navel in a line down my front - not very pleasant and rather uncomfortable. I'm going to see my midwife on tuesday about it. I think it is relatively common - anyone else had anything like this? I posted on a different thread, and someone said it is also called divarification. Boo. Everything else has been great so far! Still, I guess it is yet another excuse not to lift anythignor do the hoovering!

Hi raindog, can't say i've had that problem but see what your midwife says, my advice is to take it easy for while, sorry i'm not much help!

Hi Raindog, the ridge you mentioned is the reason why we are all advised not to hit the gym for 500 crunches daily (as if I needed an excuse not to...!). As you said, you will have to take it easy and not do any heavy lifting, but it is quite common and I don't think you need to worry about it. Unless of course you are a gym bunny and can't bear not to be flexing those abs! Will let you know if I find out anything more about it...

Thanks Orangina - don't think I've done 500 crunches in my whole life (and have never even been to a gym ) but maybe that's why! I didn't think my muscles were particularly weak or anything - I've always had a fortunately flat stomach, even if it isn't the most toned in the world.

Raindog - that doesn't sound nice at all. I would certainly be resting a lot if I were you and not lifting anything at all. It does sound like something I've read about that's related to excercising in the wrong way when pg (although I'm not sure if there is other ways to get it too, that's the only context I've heard of it in). Hope you're okay.
And TBH I'd be wanting to see someone about it sooner than Tuesday!

ooer raindog, I've heard about the tummy muscle thing - I'm sure you'll be able to fix it (a good excuse to lie around and do NO exercise ). Hope it goes OK at the doctors...

Just re-thinking my buggy/sling idea now as I've got a bad back too. Don't want to end up crippled (it's already starting to hurt!). Oh well, it will give me an excuse to peruse e-bay once more .

Good news about everybody's scans and welcome Gem1355.

Hiya all, just had my scan! Everything seems Ok, and it seems to be another boy. Dh and I spent half an hour in the hospital cafe afterwards trying to name him, but gave up in the end and he REALLY had to go to work by that point! Ds wants to call it Luke if its a boy as one of his nursery nurses has just had a baby called that...or Thomas, or Percy, or Gordon...!!!

Fantastic about all the good scan results . Good luck everyone with them coming up.

Motherpeculiar that's kind of what I expected with the hypnobirthing. It'll be worth doing to see DH pretending to visualise flowers! That buggy you mention sounds like the E3 aka Phil&Teds aka Kiwi Explorer - there are loads of threads on here about them, people who have them seem to love them and I think they're reasonably priced too. If I had a bigger age gap I might go for one as they can easily be used as singles, but with 17mo between mine I think I'll go for a side-by-side and just not be able to get into any shops.

Hello all and welcome to gemma!
Really nice to read about everybodies scans - what a relief that we all seem to be feeling less sick and awful! Had our scan last week and it is a girl! We are delighted as it's what we were both secretly hoping for. Keep finding myself drawn into mothercare on the way to the tube in the morning to look at all the pink things! Decided not to buy anthing until the sales but am finding it hard to surpress my compulsive need to spend!!

Got roped into doing a pregnancy diary type thing for a friend who works on a baby mag last week and had to go and have my picture taken - really stange seeing the polaroids of a pregnant me - i look huge! First time i had seen a preggie pic of myself and it was a big shock. In my head i still look normal and have a waistline and non-puffy face! Only bad news to report is that i have to go to South Africa in January on a 2 week work trip. Really worried about it TBH - just don't like the idea of a 12 hour flight in economy then 2 weeks of hard work without a day off! Havn't really got any choice in the matter though so will just have to keep fingers crossed that it all goes ok and invest in a pair of anti-dvt flight socks! Might try crying at check in and see if they upgrade me. Worth a go! xx

Hi Lucy & congratulations on your little girl! I can't remember, is this your first? I was desperate for a girl first time too, and was thrilled after our scan when it was. It meant it was nice this time too because I felt really relaxed about the sex. That's a bit daunting about your S Africa trip (nice weather though). I've heard about people contacting the airline in advance about being heavily pregnant and being offered an upgrade - worth a go? (Assume there's no chance of work upgrading you in the circs?) Oh and you'll have to tell us when you're in the pregnancy mag!

Hi Lucy 99. You SO deserve an upgrade on your flight to S.A. Work won't pay for one? I would DEFINITELY phone the airline in advance and try for one, maybe you can try and work the fact that you are STARRING in a magazine series (and will definitely mention the fab flight on their airline) to help that along?!?! Could your magazine pal put in a phone call too? Apart from that (and the solid 2 weeks work), it will be just lovely to see some sunshine... so good for the soul! Are you flying to Cape Town or Johannesburg? Rather jealous about your little girl (as that is what I would really like if I had the choice...). Am not going to find out though until he or she puts in an appearance, and will obviously be delighted with whatever appears...!