Due March 2008 - for our early arrivals and the loooooong 3rd trimesters

[merryberry]

Hello all.

DUFUS: preg brain agogo this am.

and i think fleeces are temp regulating and allow good aeration. and that olive oil is non-allergenic (or inert).

i had such a miserable morning with buses and taxis etc while going down to islington to buy rest of our parking permit allowance for the expected influx of visitors. the rain, the wet, I was soaked through my coat! ds1 was a trooper though. Wish to gawd they'd get these parking accounts properly online.

gack! forgot baby sponge. must buy one soon. that there meconium poo is like some sort of NASA high tech invention for glueiness. i had to soak ds1's arse in olive oil, scrape off the worst and then wash with water and sponge to lift it.

merry - does it need to be extra virgin cold-pressed organic given usage on precious bundle of joy, or does bog standard work too? Seriously, sounds like fab stuff - why has nobody told me this before? Yet another thing they don't put in the bloody books...

Baby Sponge forgot mine too lol.

I think i have most things organised for my labour bag, just need to get them in the bag.

Preggers your twins are lovely !!!!

I am feeling very tired now, emotional and stressed, trying to move house and the date keeps moving the twins will be here before we move i think that will not help with the stress etc.

Still not sleeping, have tried everything GP prescribed support stockings but they did not work, tried milk, hot baths etc but nothing works really. Indegestion seems to be settling down now can not eat or drink anything but milk or water after 7pm or up all night with it.

I only have one more week at work although GP did not want me to come back to work at all after our appointment, told her it is like a break sometimes coming to work so unless things got any worse i would stay.

Glad most are feeling well.

I think you only need extra-virgin cold-pressed organic if it's a pfb, otherwise you can use the bog-standard stuff

wow, thanks for the lists tori and merryberry, very useful, I'm going to copy and paste them and keep them somewhere safe for when I get to planning the hospital bag.

e14 and anyone else who might know - why do we wash the clothes/bedding before putting them on the babies? DH was asking me this at the weekend and I didn't have an answer except "that's what my Mum would do". As my Mum has, let us say, certain ISSUES around clothes washing (basically she washes ALL clothes as though they were cloth nappies and has done since I was a baby) he didn't think much of this as an answer.

Also, e14 I bought a pack of muslins at the weekend because everyone was talking about them but I didn't even know what they were for until someone on here actually spelled it out, HolidaysQueen I think.

HQ, surprisedandexcited - I found GF a really quick and easy read. Admittedly I basically just skimmed it, but it was the first book I read about after the baby comes and I found it quite useful as it demystified a bunch of things for me. I've also been reading a book by NCT that I'm enjoying. It's much longer and more involved, so it's definitely giving me extra info and ideas, but partly because of its length I haven't got past the first week whereas I read the whole of GF in a day.

DH also read GF with no prompting from me. I'm wondering if it was such a great idea now as he was already very much against co-sleeping but now he thinks he has "proof" that it's not a good idea. No matter how much I tell him that GF is just one perspective and we'll have to wait until we meet our baby and actually become parents he's pretty adamant that he doesn't want the baby in bed with us. For a while he wanted the baby in a separate room from the start, but that's not happening now, TG. I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night if the baby wasn't nearby in the first few months.

Wow that makes him sound like a bit of an asshole, but he's not really, I swear.

Basically I'm trying to find out as much as I can but not get too rigidly attached to a particular method. I'm also hoping to steer clear of the judgemental thing regarding how other people choose to do things. It's quite scary at times outside this lovely thread on matters of breastfeeding, sleep etc.

Well, I wash it all just to make sure nothing would irritate LO's skin. I have pretty sensitive skin myself, so I just use the same washing powder that I know I'm ok with. (non-bio sensitive and Surcare)
I also had to wash it all because a lot came from my SIL who uses very very scented fabric conditioner! I was sneezing as soon as I opened the bags so it had to be done.

LOL @ buying muslins without knowing what they're for! Must get a pack soon.

My main issue with muslins is that everyone says you need a lot, but I don't know what a lot actually is. I've bought 12 - is that enough, too many or too few?

Sigh. It's no wonder I can't concentrate at work given all this far more important stuff to get my head round

mods - good to hear from you. So sorry you aren't sleeping. Hopefully when you finish work you'll be able to nap a bit more during the day, and just rest with your feet up. I find that even just sitting quietly and resting makes me feel much better.

I have bought so many muslins! I think I kept forgettign I'd ordered them. But I don't have a sponge - yet!!

Skidoodle - I agree whole heartedly that there is no need to stick to one persons ideas; I have picked bits from each of the books I've read and I guess I will make my own special way, for my own special baby! As I'm sure we all will!

On the subject of washing (a task I'm leaving until I'm on mat leave - got to have these fun things to fill the day and keep me away from trashy daytime tv as much as poss!), I have quite a specific question on washing real nappies actually - derah you might be able to help (can't remember who else has been a real nappy user in the past, sorry!). I've heard you need to wash them several times beforehand to increase absorbency. Can I just stick them in the washing machine and do 6 cycles in a day, or do I need to dry them between each wash cycle?

holidaysquuen - laugh, who knows? agree re: PFB post below! i always use what i have in the house, i decant a couple of days worth into a squeegee bottle and take where needed. thinking about it i'd recommend a virgin oil, as will make baby smell a little less like pizza...? mind you, i olive my hands if they are dry after house work and am too lazy to go upstairs to reach my hand cream!

skidoodle, ah now washing things which are mass produced/non-organic is actually quite sensible i think, i do it for ds1 and myself still, when we have to use clothes of unknown/mass produced origin..

this article gives a taster of the scope of processes fibres can be subject to before they are even spun/woven. and this is often before the dyes get put in. with the shiny white newborn clothes i remember seeing a study way before interested in pg on the levels of bleaches in baby clothes and implications for absorption and skin disorders. well all this is just science i've selected to reinforce my gut reaction to opening packets of cotton things and finding they have some weird tangy chemical miasma arising from them!

{toddles off to weave lentils into breast pads}

In my recollection of reading her, GF on bed sharing is not based on research evidence, bless her. This UNICEF policy for hospitals is Sorry I couldn't find the 'at home' equivalent in a rush, but this is pretty good. Mind you I don't co-sleep on the 'I'm knackered, fat and slelep like a log grounds', we've got a bedside crib this time!

{picks up lentil weaving and carries on}

HQ I used a muslin for most feeds but had a very puky dd! This meant I went through about 6-10 per day!! So I have about 50.

merryberry I too am on the 'i'm knackered and sleep like the proverbial log' reason for not co-sleeping. Its dangerous enough for dh let alone a baby!! I used to pass operating instruments in my sleep when last pg and hit him in the grinner several times!

I found GF book helpful because it listed the reasons baby cries and reminded me that I didn't have to feed her every time she cried! It was good for getting a good sleep pattern and helpful for weaning ideas.
The only thing I would do differently is not put dc to sleep in a cot for every sleep as dd now never falls asleep in a pushchair until she is completely exhausted. I would also not be as strict on the timings.

@merryberry & e14

Thanks for giving me the reasons for the washing I'm going to do My mother said something similar but way more vague, but as I said, she can't really be trusted on issues of washing since she lives in a house full of basins of steeping clothes and nothing goes into her washing machine without being pre-handwashed.

merryberry I'm thinking of not co-sleeping due to being a very heavy sleeper (although my mother tells me this will change after the baby is born) and also from what I've seen of my aunties who co-slept, it can make for quite clingy babies. Lovely, sweet babies with great mothers, but I just don't think that way of doing things would suit me. There again, all current plans are provisional because I just can't really imagine how things will be when I'm a parent.

we're all so full of practical plans these days. Remember more innocent times when we would blather about all sorts of random things?

BTW I only recently learnt about pfb and as a pfb myself I think it's only right that first babies get special treatment. I wonder how my classic "overlooked middle child" sister is going to do on that front?

hq- no need to dry nappies in between washes! just add detergent to the first wash- no need after that!

skidoodle the professional term is 'neglected subsequent children'

i think there should be a further one for brats like me who graduate from pfb status to 'godlike only offspring'

Getting nervous about the NHS again in the midst of all this lovely exciting getting ready: after a week of trying finally got hold of my named midwife's secretary to make appt w/c 4/2/8 as instructed I find the MW is onleave for 3 weeks starting the 4th! Fair do's, fo course.
Asked who would cover, secretary didn?t know and couldn?t advise. So asked if the more junior midwife I saw at last appt, who came to house after ds1 left NICU could. Secretary has left msg with this lovely lass in some diary aimed at her asking her to call me.

Don?t think I should have to arrange my midwife cover, do you??? Grr. Message leaving feels all a bit shaky...will have to chase at end of week

merryberry..i'm still boggled at the concept of a named midwife!! I get one of six with no guarantees!

Wow, loads of useful tips! Everyone is getting organised - it's making feel decidedly unprepared. (and quite scared actually). Time for some serious internet shopping! I've looked at so many websites trying to choose things - but can't decide on anything.
Really useful suggestions on BF, thank you ladies!
Is anyone else totally shattered? Knackered all day and then can't sleep because my back is soo uncomfortable. I'm thinking of starting mat leave a week earlier than i had planned - I'll be 35+5. When is everyone else finishing?

turtle, yes that's standard at my place too. but i have been so much arsed around in this and the last pregnancy that i was taken onto caseload care by this HoM instead. i am totally p'd off with it now. i can just see me ending up with another unwarranted induction and another baby with jaundice courtesy of fragmented care, tbh.

oh, i am p'd off with the nhs. i was never, ever this crap to people I was responsible for when i worked in it.

i swear i am going to hide under the kicteh table, hold my breath and pop this one on my own. frankly, probably safest plan

erm, kitchen

I share your pain piggyp

I was so tired, stressed and p*ed of at work last night that I was in tears in the loo before i went home. I can't wait to start maternity leave. I hope the baby doesn't come too early so that I can regain some of my energy before s/he is born.

Sleeping on my back and being able to turn over unaided in bed is a distant memory.

Aargh! I can't believe how organised you all are! All the stuff you've got already and hospital bags being packed! I know I'll be given loads of hand-me-downs like vests and sleepsuits, so am not going to worry about them. But as for the rest!! We also haven't decorated nursery yet so all the bits I have are piled/strewn around our room, and I don't want to get more until the nursery is done and I've got places to put things. I feel knackered just thinking about all the things I still have to do/get!

hello, am new to mumsnet and loving reading all of this! am 33+3 with first baby, due 2nd march. very lucky, feeling very well although am ready for bed at 8pm every night so relationship barely existing at the moment. am like feedmenow in an undecorated house, plus haven't bought anything yet so lots and lots still to do. will get sorted once maternity leave starts which is on monday, and i absolutely can't wait. used to care so much about work now I really really don't.

hello, I'm new here too. I'm due mid March with my fourth baby. I haven't got anything organised yet and I've got no energy at all so I'm not sure when I'm going to get myself organised. I'm hoping that reading what everyone else is up to on this thread will spur me into action!

One more question about fleeces - sorry!

Where do I get one from?

Apparently it's a good idea to sleep with the fleece so that when the baby sleeps on it, its comforted by your smell.