Due November 2008 - some know the flavour by now but rest of us relying on the folklore...

[sparkletoes]

Ok I am guessing this thread will last about 2 weeks!!

Morning all,
Congrats to everyone who has had scans and found out the flavour - I've forgotten exact details over the last 4 pages - 4 pages we are a chatty bunch lol!!
Welcome back Merry glad you enjoyed your hol.
I tried the prediction test yest even though I had forgotten to ask for th heartrate it said 75% chance of a girl! I still think its a boy though (despite my prediction).
Re red heads my DH has a gingery beard too and DS is a red head, DH said when he was born ohh its a boy and ooh hes ginger!!! He has beautiful dark red hair which curls if it gets long which it doesn't because it is wild. DH is dark and i'm blonde so it will be interesting to see what we get this time!!
Hope everyone is well this morning x

lackaDAISYcal - thanks for your advice. Thanks for the offer of the steriliser but just going to see what I decide nearer time if ok.

lackaDAISYcal & PInkyminkyohnooo - I think if I do decide to try BF or even just express for a while if baby doesn't take I will go the tommee tippee way as you recommend.

Your help really is appreciated. I'm so confused at whether to BF or not but all the other stuff is alien to me and I feel very panicky. A big part of me thinks just go onto the bottle straight away as it is familar and a lot less stressful to me and i don't need to buy any new extra bits like pumps and sterilisers. DS seems a good strong boy (apart from norm to bad eczema) and he was BF bits for a day or so then bottle. -ve of bottle is the making of them and £ of formula but done it before could do it again. Might end up having to do it anyway if BF didn't work out.

But then the mothering part of me thinks I am bad for not contemplating it!

Very confused and angry at myself for not being able to decide.

vbab, it's great you're thinking about it at all. I found bf really hard, but for some reason I had always wanted to do it (not too sure why - I was brought up in Africa and everyone breastfed?). So I did stick with it for 11 months, and felt very proud of myself afterwards! It really is satisfying from that point of view, it feels like an achievement, or it did for me. It's not difficult for everyone, many friends had a great time, and it's so easy to whip a boob out wherever you are! In terms of eczema, it's probably better to bf, although my ds had eczema too despite the bf but at least I knew for sure it wasn't the formula causing it. You can always mix feed too eg. a night bottle of formula for dh to give...and not bother with expressing.

by the way, i spent half my holiday wondering what 'vbab' stands for!! (well, maybe not half, but I did wonder!)

merrymarigold - thanks . VB is visual basic the programming language I program in at work. AB is my maiden name initials. 78 is my birth year.

morning

vbab, you still have lots of time to think about it and decide what you want to do ....and fwiw exlc BFing doesn't necessarily mean no problems. DD has the most horrendous eczema that flares up every two or three weeks and she was exclusively BF for 4 months and then BF with the occasional bottle of formula (maybe one or two a week).

MM, I was very proud of my bump when I had DS, but I was a skinny 9 stone back then. I think this time because I'm three stone heavier I'm already conscious of being big, let alone adding in the size of my bump! (which seems quite sprawly and wide whereas with DS and DD I was all out front). My SIL had twins last year and she found getting things that fitted well a nightmare towards the end. I think she lived in oversized maternity jogging bottoms for the last month. Her boys were 6lbs 3 and 6lbs 1 though, so big boys for twins.

Hello MerryMarigold, nice to see you.
Vbab, I did a post for you on the old thread re BF, with a link to steriliising bags. I hope to Bf this ds longer than I did ds. I found Bf easy and had no problems, no soreness, lots of milk. Saying that, it was not altogether easy. I had no help at the hospital after my cs. When I came home i went to the local hospital to a BF clinic that helped me with me latch and I was away.
They said "ladies with larger breasts need a sling or a cushion" - DH ALWAYS remebers that with glee.
But I only Bf for a few weeks. Becasue my stupid MW told me that ds was not gaining enough weight. Turned out later that her scales were inaccurate. But it frightened me so much, that my milk supply disappeared overnight.
I was not a MN'er then. Now, I know that I could have worked to get my supply back. But then I was gutted and switched straight to bottles.
I used to use the medela to pump, because I had so much milk.
I loved Bf and hope that I and ds get pleasure from it this time. But if not, I will not shoot myself.

Congratulations to Barbareeba and Thomasina

There is so much more help around these days for BFing as well. Find out as much as possible about the support organisations locally. There will ususally be a Baby Cafe and there are lots of peer support groups springing up due to new government funding initiatives. The one I'm with is exclusive to the Leeds area. Some hospitals, if they are part of the Unicef baby friendly initiative, will have an in-house breast feeding counselling service and some HVs and MWs are well trained (but sadly not all).

and don't forget the national helplines from NCT, ABM, BfN and LLL. I never even knew such things existed when I had DS, but thanks mostly to MN I was so much more clued up when pregnant with DD.

oblomov, that's a real shame about your last experience and I hope you get off to a flyer this time around.

lindam steriliser bags

Morning all! Vbab I think you are thinking too much about the whole BF thing, IMHO I think you should just try it when baby comes and not stress about it. I set myself little targets (like someone else on this thread) to try it for 6 days, 6 weeks then 6 months. As it turned out it all worked out fine & even when I did stop I really missed it! I completely understand that knowing what can go wrong helps if it does but would urge you not to dwell on it. As for expressing I don't think I bought mine straight away so don't worry too much about that either, they are not that difficult to get hold of anyway.

The fact you are willing to consider it is good enough for now! As for the eczema link, my mum BF both me and my sis for 11 months exclusively and my sis has terrible eczema. My mum blames the immunisations sis got (which I apparently didn't) for her eczema. However I feel that (understandably) people try to look for something to blame in these cases. I am not sure about the jags link as sensitive skin & psoriasis run in my family. DS also had the jags and altho he did have a bit of dry skin at one stage I changed the washing powder for his clothes and it seemed to make a big difference. It also cleared up even more when he stopped dribbling so much! So all in all I think more likely to get eczema from nature not nurture and would doubt formula played a part. Obv I am not a skin specialist but just taking an objective viewpoint on situ.

I hope you do try BF and find it rewarding experience (as I think it is a lot less hassle!) but please don't stress about it. Certainly not at this stage!

What a great post Sparkle.
Please don't stress about it Vbab - you will be taking over Pinkali's title in a minute
It is only one of many things to consider. There are lot of other things for us all to stress about.
I TOTALLY LOVED IT, but please, please don't worry.

Aww thanks Obs!

I hope I don't sound too full of it when I post (nothing worse than people offering advice all the time) BUT I do realise that people on threads do need a bit of TLC now and again and if I have experience that I think may help I will be delighted to share...

not sounding too full of it all sprakletoes. You put that much more eloquently than I could ever hope to . that's precisely what I did with DD; decided to give it my best shot and just took it one day at a time.

Hi vbab, when is your birthday? I'm a 78 baby too!
DS was exclusively BF for 6months and still got eczema across his shoulders which really annoyed him, but we took him to a homeopath and it has completely cleared up, even sceptical DH is impressed.
Twinkle and Dozy - DH sys would you like the CDs emailing to you as mp3 files, he is far more technical than me! There is an insert in with them which I will either scan or photocopy about when and how often to listen, and yes the recovery one is for afterwards!
DS has a snotty cold and I'm being unsure about leaving him

Seven pages ALREADY!!!!

Its only been 12 hours since i've been here and I am lost on the new chat already!!

Yorky if you are still offering I would love a copy of the Hypnobirthing CD's you have - you should have my address from the book club list (although my chat name has changed so let me know if you can't remember who I am!) THANK YOU THANK YOU [GRIN]

Also, just in case you didn't know Mamas and Papas has a sale on at the moment - here's the link

www.mamasandpapas.co.uk/cat/sale/

Merry welcome back - I was asking about you yesterday and whether you knew the sex/es of your 2/3 babies?!?

Thomasina glad to hear your scan went well. I know what you mean about the sex thing, I really don't think I mind as its our first but I keep having cravings (for want of a better word!) either way. Some days I see pretty girls things and would love to buy them but then other times I think that ideally I would like a boy first and then a girl. So don't worry, you're not the only confused one!!

Just realised how superficial I sound wanting a girl for the pretty girl things I could buy for it. Thats not the only reason of course but its a factor.

I cannot keep up with you all - so much chatting since last night
Excellent news on the scan Thomasina Was there somebody else too? Pg brain can't remember Anybody today?
Just felt (and saw!) baby kick from the outside for the first time It was really strange, but lovely. Can't wait for DH to see and feel it too!

Oh Yorky, I wouldn't have the first clue what to do with an mp3 file!
Can I have hard copies if that would be alright, sorry.

You and me both twinkling, glad I'm not the only dinosaur!

HI all

vbab don't stress! NIce people said to me after my emcs-'there's lots more to being a mum than giving birth' and the same goes for breastfeeding! I would recommend you try, for two reasons:
I'm always one for confrionting demonns- if you feel disappointed at last time, give yourself another chance

and two, if it does work out it's a lot easier than messing with bottles- you won't even need to bother expresssing if it goes well.

But do not judge yourself too harshly if yuo choose not to, or it doesn't work out.

cricri I saw my baby kick the other day. I just love it. I remember my niece getting a bit freaked out by the sight of my DS's hand pushing against my skin at 40 weeks- no she didn't want to touch it! lol.

HOpe everyone is having a good day.x

no word from Autumnlady yet- is she having her scan today?

Yorky I'm interested in the hypnobirthing MP3 file too You're not on the Facebook group are you? I'm not on the bookclub list... How can I contact you?
Pinkyminky Thanks for reminding me it was Autumnlady having a scan today - hope she gets on OK

twinkling and york - I am archaic as well - can i hae a hard copy to please YOrky - i emalied you my address....

Yes Autumnlady was today,t hink about 1ish???? Am very excited as i know she was finding out!!!!

Just eaten the other 2 M+S yum yums...didn't learn my lesson yesterday and guess waht, I feel sick!!

Glutton that I am, serves me right!