Due Fab Feb 2009: crossed fingers (and legs) we'll get through another thread without welcoming any early arrivals!

[MarkStretch]

Welcome.

Please feel free to add yourself to the list.

TinkerBellesMum - DC3 (girl), due: 01.02.09 (not expected to get far into December) (age 27, Birmingham)
Laidbackinengland - DC4, due: 23.01.09 (age 34, North Devon)
Nkweto - DC2, due: 30.01.09 (age 35, West London)
Mamagoose - DC3, due: 31.01.09 (age 32, Spain)
Questionkid - DC1, due: 03.02.09 (age 33, Wallington, Surrey)
PinkTulips - DC3, due; 04.02.09 (age 24, Roscommon, Ireland)
MsLucy - DC2 (a boy), due: 4/2/09 (CS a few days early)(age 38, North London)
Swampster - DC3, (a boy), due: 06.02.09 (age 40 , London)
Rosieposey - DC4, (a boy) due: 06.02.09 (age 36,Swindon,Wiltshire)
MarkStretch - DC2, (a boy) due: 07.02.09 (age 29, Norwich)
onwardandoutward - DC2, due: 07.02.09 (age 35 South West)
LittleMissNorty - DC2, due: 08.02.09 (age 40 in a couple of weeks, Kent).
KT1983 - DC1, due: 09.02.09 (age 25, London)
KazzaL - DC2 (suprise flavour), due 10.02.09 (age 35, Cirencester, Gloucs)
herbgarden - DC2, due: 11.02.09 (CS 02.02.09) (age 38, Berkshire)
TheHouseofMirth - DC2, (a boy) due: 12.02.09 (age 38, Wimbledon)
Littlesez ? DC1 (a girl) due: 15.02.09 (age 28, Manchester)
America - DC2, (a boy) due: 16.02.09 (age 32, London)
Rachrox - DC4, (a boy) due: 18.02.09 (age 28, Cheltenham)
Catstar - DC2, (a boy) due: 18.02.09 (age 36, Chessington)
Dinkystinky - DC2, (a boy) due: 19.02.09 (age 32, London)
Pluto DC2 (gender unknown), due 19.02.09 (Age 38, Kent)
DizzyBrummie - DC2, due: 20.02.09 (age 36, Berkshire)
Calico1 - DC2 due: 21.02.09 (age 40, West Herts)
mrsy - DC1, (a girl) due: 22.02.09 (age 24, Maidstone, Kent
Scubagroover - DC1 (a boy), due: 22.02.09 (age 31, London/ Kent)
Winemakesmummyclever - DC2 (a boy), due: 23.02.09. (age 35, Manchester) expecting cs @ 39 weeks.
Spottyshoes - DC2, due: 24.02.09 (age 28)
Lardybump - DC2, due: 24.02.09 (age 34)
Chilledmama - DC2 (a girl), due: 25.02.09 (age 32, Southsea)
Cocodrillo - DC3, due 26.02.09 (age 34 at the mo, London) expecting a CS at 38-39 weeks.
mumoverseas - DC4 (a boy), due: 28.02.09 (CS 2 to 3 weeks early) (age almost 41 Arabia/Crawley West Sussex)

EEjaykay - its a hidden group. You need to get MrsY or one of the other officers to invite you. Are you on Facebook already? Can you give MrsY or the other officers a clue to help them find you on Facebook and they'll send you an invite to the group.

Dinky, I could have nothing but water from 10pm last night to after 2nd lot of bloods were taken. Most hospitals do GTTs early because of this....11.30am is a bit cruel.....may be worth trying to change it?

Need to have baseline blood sugar (which is why you can't eat/drink), then disgusting measured dose of glucose, then 2 hours later more bloods, by which time your body should have metabolised the glucose. So if your first bloods are at 11.30am, you won't get to eat until about 1.45pm .....I wouldn't be happy about that.....28 weeks pg and you could easily flake out.

DS is fine now thanks (and the cake calmed my nerves).....felt a bit silly after all the drama when it became apparent how tiny the cut was - but then the paramedics said that head injuries should always be checked out. I live in a tiny village so everyone noticed the ambulance arrive, so have had plenty of curious villagers popping in to see if all is ok - I think they thought the baby was arriving!

It hasn't stopped DS from jumping of the sofa though.....and anyone know how to get blood off a cream rug? It looks like there's been a massacre in here!

LittleMissNorty - I thought 11.30 was abit late too but it was the earliest they could give me (they originally suggested 3pm in the afternoon!). Maybe they do things differently at St Marys. Will give the antenatal clinic a call tomorrow to query...

Calico - glad your DS is ok. No idea how to get rid of blood stains - perhaps the domestic goddess that is Markstretch may have some ideas??

Oooh, OK - birthday is listed as June 21, I'm married and living in London, my name is Jean, and my profile photo is of me up a mountain...will that do it?

Sorry, my post refers to facebook, in case it looks a bit insane... Just realised I told a client I am going on 'matnertny' leave, perhaps I'm trying to make them get rid of me earlier... I'm here full time til 9th Feb, pah.

Hi All

I have got my GTT test tomorrow morning too. First bloodtest is at 9am and then got a scan and consultant appointment.

We have to take our own lucozade and a packed lunch for afterwards. Might convince DH to take me out for lunch.

More indigestion here, and that full feeling where I am unable to get comfortable. Baby must be up in my ribs.

Rats! I was really hoping you'd all tell me that MW appts are fortnightly from 28 weeks. I think I'll have to invent have some very important ante-natal swimming etc to do if MW doesn't want to see me again until Xmas.

I'm going to see war Horse at the National Theatre on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to it but also feeling a bit sad as I know this is likely to be my last theatre trip for a long time. Odeon newbies may work for babes in arms but I don't think theatres are so welcoming of very tiny people.

Blood out of a cream carpet....

Erm....maybe lots of scrubbing with 1001 stain remover and water and fairy liquid?

That's how I got the rust out in the end.

Believe it or not I am just back from the hospital about an hour and a half after getting there at 8:30! Went for a scan, then parent education, then back antenatal: MW, doctor blood tests (fortunately antenatal don?t do appointments, just ?come here after your scan? so I could still get to parent education in between). Got out and called my parents because they?re taking Tink to the paediatrician about her asthma but they couldn?t pick me up so I went back in for a late lunch and waited about an hour for them.

FiFi is still on the small side, she?s still not on the chart so I?m having weekly scans to track her progress and this notch in my Doppler.

Tink has been diagnosed ?chronic asthmatic? today, she is taking the highest dose or near enough of all the medications she?s on and we?ve been told if she?s ill that we?re not to take her to the GP but to go straight to A&E as she?s not the sort of child you can mess about with. She?s changed her Ventolin but said she can?t have her dose decreased; they?re going to see how she is in two months. The paediatrician is concerned about her history. She asked about constipation, which she thinks is linked, she asked about her meconium (which we don?t know because she was premature and they did all that for the first few days, some advantages of a premature baby!) as she thinks her problems may go back to then, it?s on my list to ask about next week! She also thinks she?s an allergicky child, even if we?ve not discovered any allergies yet (we know a couple of things do set off her eczema and that was apparent from the beginning in the hospital). Apparently Mum told her to talk to the doctor and she said ?no? ?Go on, she?s a nice doctor? ?[gobble-de-gook]? ?Isobel, you can talk better than that!? ?I just did a wee-wee?. I asked her what she?d said to the doctor and she pulled her top up ?Yes, you showed her your belly didn?t you?? (Normally she has her top up as she crosses the threshold to the doctors room and it doesn?t come down till they?ve listened to her) I asked again ?he-he I said a wee-wee!?

Rather stressful day as I?m sure you can imagine! I hated not being able to go to hospital with Tink, being there for one baby stopped me being there for another. The one I was there for doesn?t know but I can?t not be there because she?s inside me!

LBB, they track the weight on a growth chart and babies will pretty much follow one line so they can predict the weight from how they grow early on, but they need several measurements to do it well. It?s like they say in maths, two points make a straight line.

Dinky, I guess it?s the same superstition that most cultures have, pregnancy is seen as fragile until the third trimester. There are probably also some ideas about building the baby up and curry being good for the end of pregnancy. But why when you can?t eat it all, it?s so unfair! It?s more unfair that no one will feed me up on curry!

KT, it?s no problem transferring. Speak to your GP or MW and they will be able to help you to do all that is necessary.

I feel slightly smug reading about those having GTT?s! It?s the only thing they?ve never done to me (I think!) and I?m quite pleased that there is something they?ve not thought of!

Aww Calico, hope he?s OK now and you feel better soon! It?s so scary when our kids hurt themselves. Heads do bleed a lot, it?s because there?s not much more than blood vessels under the skin on the head. I?ve had some lovely head injuries (usually kids) to treat! He may end up with a scar he?ll be proud of when he?s older!

Littlesez, see if you can eat 6 small meals a day spread out and eat slowly, you may find that helps a lot. I ate out yesterday and had two starters rather than a main as my heartburn was so bad. I find caffeine is bad for heartburn, I can?t have it at all when I?m not pregnant (can when I am and suffer worse, oddly).

I wish I could join you all for the meal out, but my family won?t let me go to London, they?re worried about me giving birth in a London hospital!

EJK, if you search for the group the group I made (we made two at the same time and mine was dropped) will come up. Request to join and then I?ll get you added onto the real group.

Can't catch up with today's post but Tink sorry you've had such a crappy day. Calico, hope you're calmer now, you poor thing. For your carpet try Carpet Power spray. It has never failed me yet. Even the time DS chucked a bowl of tomato soup over the carpet!

Hi TBM,

That's interesting about the meconium...DS had a life threatening asthma attack out of the blue when he was 3 and spent 5 days in hospital. I think it was probably the most traumatic experience I've been through; DS's birth aside At the time the doc said it was a virus that probably triggered the asthma rather than an allergy, which was a big relief as I really didn't want to spend the rest of his childhood hoovering the house :O DS was born by emergency CS because he swallowed meconium and become distressed. he then had antibiotics for the first few days after he was born. I wonder if this increased his chance of asthma as he got older. He also had terrible excema as a baby. Mind you DH has a bit of asthma and I have hayfever so these may have compounded the odds for him. DS was frequently constipated when he was younger - but that's another story about toilet training that I won't go into now.

Luckily for DS he's really starting to outgrow asthma, he only really experiences it in the autumn and winter- and then it's not significant as long as he's using his brown inhaler.Poor Tink - if it's any consolation I know of many mums who have said that their children's asthma does disipate slightly as they get older.

Hi. Went to see the consultant re: baby size and I was quite suprised, it went really well. I expected to be spoken to like I was a bit stupid and over-reacting, but they were quite seriuos. They had notes from ds's delivery and although dr said that now everything has been stretched, it will be easier this time, he wants to scan me in Jan and may induce early delivery. He said if baby gonna be same size as ds, they won't let me go full term, so feeling a bit more relaxed.

TBM - sorry you have had such a stressful day. Am glad Fifi is still growing though sorry that she's not bulked up as much as one would hope. Sorry to hear about Tink's asthma consultation too - its just one thing after another for you at the moment Am keeping my fingers crossed that Fifi keeps developing well till she comes out.

LBB - glad your consultant appointment went well and you feel positive about things.

thanks for the heartburn advise! dont have pork (veggie) or caffiene, but maybe the little and often might help, thanks guys.

Very jealous of the london meet i want to come but manchester is a bit far away! going on a curry night with some mums in december though.

Ok another question what is GTT?

Gtt - Glucose Tlerence Test

I had loads of pork last night & no heartburn. I think at this stage of pregnancy it's just that everything's squashed and the acid gets forced back up. With me it is made worse if I don't eat little & often as I think that gives the acid something to work on rather than it eating away at me! Bread, potatoes, tomatoes, caffeine, carbonated drinks, fatty foods are some foods that can set it off in "normal" people but I think in pregnancy, anything goes. Mine has just been set off by a glass of Ribena...still at least it goe away the second the baby's out!

pluto, it would be interesting to see what the link is between meconium and asthma or constipation. It seems odd, but the doctor asked without being prompted so there has to be something in it. We have the problem that every attack or infection is scarring her lungs making it harder for her to grow out of, each one makes her worse (Lungs, unlike other parts of the body grow new rather than stretching, which is why they can - literally - grow out of asthma as the damage gets relatively smaller)

I feel so guilty for her because I just wish I had gone into hospital sooner so she could have had a better chance at steroids and they could have slowed things down. If I had gone in sooner with Lily-Hope they might have kept me going a bit longer and I wouldn't have trained my body into thinking that pregnancy only has to go 30ish weeks, so again I wouldn't have this with Tink. I know it's not realistic, but I need to put some sort of logic to it and the logic sort of works!

LBB, glad to hear it's gone well for you today.

Dinky, it feels that way I sat in the reception area of the hospital and just cried. A lady from the information desk brought me some tissues over then when I'd finished on the phone asked if I was OK, she'd heard me talking about the baby being early and gave me a leaflet. I think if you wrote my life into EastEnders POV would have complaints about it not being realistic! I think that sometimes when I post, I don't think I could believe so much could happen to one person.

I dunno THOM, I'd never really had it till my last pregnancy then I had to give up caffeine afterwards because I'd get heartburn! I can happily have coke and chocolate when I'm pregnant (not so much tea apart from decaff and I'm only happy if Mum or I make it) maybe because it's so bad in pregnancy it's not so noticeable!

BTW, I'm just having a feel sorry for myself day, don't take too much notice of me, I'm not losing it thinking I'm all to blame, I just need to think it when things are getting to me then it goes again later.

Tink, sorry you were feeling so down last night. Hope you're feeling a bit better today.

TBM - hope you're feeling better today. There is no point in making yourself feel guilty (though I know we all do it - seems when we have a baby we also give birth to a lifetime of mother's guilt) with "what ifs" re Tink's asthma - she's done amazingly well with developing into such a happy well rounded little toddler and you are doing the best you can for her, by continuing to BF where and when you can. She's a little fighter - as has been proven again and again - and she can, and will, get through this. And it seems like little Fifi, hanging on inside you for so long, is a little fighter too - you must be very proud of all your girls.

Chin up Tink - hope you're feeling a bit brighter today.

oh yes....and dropped ds off at nursery this am and one of the part time girls was chatting to me asking when baby is due - she then said "mine's due on 9 Feb" - - I said "sorry are you having a baby" - she had her nursery sweatshirt on and was sitting down but honestly she looked like I did when I was 4 months. Made me feel like a right LUMP....still I made myself feel better by the fact that (a) she must be at least 15 years younger than me and (b) it's her first......

Herbgarden - I had the opposite experience this morning! Was chatting to one of the mums who's pregnant at nursery this morning and asked when she's due (thinking she was going to say around Xmas) and she said "18th Feb" - that's my exact due date too!!! Queue lots of remarks about my tiny bump! Still, I was like this first time around and to begin with was envious of everyone with a huge bump, but I soon came to appreciate a little one!

Would love to join the London Mums on a curry night and have made a note of the restaurant etc. I work in the City and can finish from 5pm onwards. Still trying to locate the group on Facebook. What's it called?

TBM - sorry you are having a hard time of it. I can only imagine all the worry you have been/are going through. It's interesting what you and Pluto have said about meconium as Little O swallowed a load during her "distressed" birth, was on antibiotics from the start and has had bad eczema from 3 months old. I will be keeping an eye on the asthma (and constipation) side of things too.

Calico - hope DS on the mend and you are successful with your stain removal.

Miserable weather today which spoiled new haircut but good news as it's a colleague's birthday today and she's brought in Krispy Kremes and also raided M&S for their Rocky Road tubs. I will be pending plenty of time hovering around her desk today .

Have a great day all.

Catstar, Eejaykay - TBM started another one "search for Mumsnet Feb" group - if you send a link to that she can send you an invite to the real secret hidden group (is like a secret society!)

Otherwise - Swampster, Pluto (or was it Nkweto? Sorry pregnancy brain striking again), MsLucy, Catstar, Me, Eejaykay - appear to be up for London curry meeting up. Is that right? Anyone else? Nadsss? What time suits - restaurant open from 6pm so could always aim for a 6.30 kickoff if suits everyone?

Thanks Dinkystinky! Will look on Facebook tonight. A 6.30pm kick-off next Thurs would work for me. .