March 2009: Pelvic pain, sciatica, and getting kicked in the ribs: Are we prize fighters or just entering the third trimester?

[MKG]

Here's our new thread ladies.

Great to hear all your news - am posting less and less these days due to work building up (not down!) as I approach ML, but only 3 weeks to go.

Welcome Bettie, and well done Flannel! You were due 2 days before me, and to think you're already holding your LO? I am no where near prepared yet (mentally, more than anything else) so I'm amazed you're taking it all so in your stride.

DH and I are pretty much at the once a week stage (Sat or Sun) with a bit of "making out without the sex" midweek. I have bad back ache by the time we go to bed and I don't feel that sexy any more, so he's pretty understanding that I am only up for it once a week, but it is a release when I put the effort in, and it does make me feel closer to him. We were a 4 or 5 x a week couple before we got pregnant, so this a big change for both of us, but DH is handling it pretty well I think

Now I know I am nesting - I bought a hanging radiator bed for the cat which was delivered today - she looks so cute and warm! The mothering urge is definitely building...

On a completely random, separate note... MKG -- I have always wondered, how come you found this message board given it's an English one and full of English ladies? Do they not have a Mumsnet or something similar in the States? Your wit, humour and advice has been invaluable, but I wondered if I would ever do the same thing... join an American board full of American girls... Just wondering is all...

xx

Sorry to hear about work Ellie.

DD is off sick today so I am going to use today to start getting organised. I have just washed the smallest whites we had for dd - she was 4 lbs 9 oz and I suddenly realised this baby would fit them now probably.

Am also going to write lists of things I need to get. I know a couple of people posted their lists a while back so I am going to try and find them but if anyone else has written a lsit I'd love to see it as I cna't remember what I need.

lol at the hanging radiator bed for the cat Boobz. maybe we should try one of those. before the baby arrives i've got to train her not to sleep on our bedroom floor on my extension cord. somehow... (we think it's the warmth)

right, must limp off to set up a marbling tray and find some gel icing pens. not, clearly, for the same activity...

Actually Boobz that's a funny story. It was during my tww with ds2 and I was googling pregnancy and found MN so I joined. It doesn't have .uk at the end, it's just .com, and I totally though I joined a US based site (not that it matters). At first I wondered why no one knew how to spell everone used (labour, colour, pushchair, nappy, dummy etc) It wasn't until a few days into posting that I realized it was UK based.

Am popping off to the hospital to make sure that I'm not in labour! Am 90% sure I'm not, and that I've just picked up an infection, but I'm glad they're checking me out just in case.

ELLIE I would definatly get signed off. I work as a receptionist, sat down for a 5 hour shift which finishes at 10pm. I struggle with this now and am finishing at the end of the week. You have to put your health and sanity before work, especially if they are not treating you well.

Another one hear who hasn't had sex since conception. Well we did once but it was a bit awkward so we didn't bother again!

Glad you've managed to speak to soemone Law - hope everything ok.

Just started looking at the list from MKG - may I say, I am very impressed by the item 'LARGE bag to bring home gifts'. .

ooo good luck law let us know how it goes....

I hope everything is OK Law.

I must say that "gifts" include items I intend to steal from the hospital. Like diapers, lidocaine to put on stitches, giant maternity pads. Actually the nurses tell you to take anything that isn't bolted down.

Doesn't sound so exciting when put like that MKG - We don't get given such glamorous items from the NHS to nick (alhtough pillow stealing all the rage...)

Oh the pillows here are crap. Now the chocolate mouse cake they wheel around in the afternoon, that is worth stealing.

The pillows here are crap too - I think its about the only thing though that's not nailed down . Chocolate mousse ????? My biggest fear of a c-sec is having to stay in hospital again and having to eat what they expect us to believe is food... DH will be bringing in meals from home. When he was in, in September I was taking in food in a hot camping flask type thing..and that was in the private wing of the same hospital.

No in my hospital the menu is very different to a regular hospital menu as they know we don't go there because we're ill. After ds2 was born I had a Turkey club sanwhich with french fries. Oh sooo good.

MKG

LOL out taking things home from the hospital.

here we have to everything in with us.

I have only had either cheese and tom pizza or jacket pot and cheese when been forced to stay overnight when had dd's.

I think people think like me and when you have to choose what you are going to eat for lunch and dinner the next day (when most people only stay in 1 night). So in effect your choosing someone elses meal i tend to choose something plain.

I'm hoping as both dd's birth were ok that i can come straight home and not go onto a ward.

Someone was after a fluffy pramsuit wiht ears weren't they - sorry can't remember who but just come across this one

www.mamasandpapas.co.uk/product-fur-pramsuit/s0004448/type-s/

Wheely - lovely snowsuit, but am a little at the price. I'm hoping for a warm March...

Ellie get yourself signed off work immediately! You shouldn't be working such long hours in your condition. It doesn't sound like your efforts are being appreciated anyway. I'm speaking as someone who used to regularly work 10-12 hour days. Never again!

Am getting a little apprehensive about the birth - had an emergency section last time and am hoping for a vbac this time but worried that history will repeat itself...

Ah I see MKG. Is it so different in the States - the chat and stories? Or all much of a muchness? My friend lives in Houston and ended up having a c-section - induced early and told to have a c-section after only a couple hours of labouring... was wondering whether that's what's expected over there so it just happens that way? She misses her English group, I think. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found Mumsnet!

xxx

OMG... the first baby! Makes me realise even more how totally unprepared I am - but congrats, flannelcat! Bettie is my aunt's name and Violet is my gram's name, so lots of good associations there.

Millie and ellie, I've told DP he'd better have a cheese plate and a kilo of parma ham/saucisson waiting for me post-delivery.

We did the deed this weekend for the first time in AGES. Poor DP...he's so good about not complaining and taking care of himself, as it were. Wasn't uncomfortable down below, but decidedly odd to feel bellies slapping where no bellies have slapped before.

And Millie, DP has generously offered to do bikini line duty, but I've not taken him up on that yet -- it's just me in front of the mirror!

Re: nicking things from hospital - in the UK, do you have to bring your own nappies, wipes, washcloths, towels, etc? We do in Belgium (and if we don't, the hospital will generously sell us what we need at approximately 5x market price) which has made me REALLY cross recently. With all we pay in taxes, I can't believe they're still looking to squeeze more out of us!

Boobz--this is the only group I post on, as it is I have keeping up with this. There is a brutal honoestly on MN that I appreciate, and when it comes to topics like birth I tend to be more on the perspective that you have over there. as for your friend, it all depends on the practitioner. I had a midwife do my induction with ds1, and there was no rush, she said I could have been there for days as long as both of us were doing well. Mine was 12 hours with a drip another 12 with prostaglandins before that, but only 3 hours of that was considered labor. But here a midwife almost guarantees 1-1 care because so few work in hospitals, and not very many women choose midwife care. Probably would have been very different if I had an OB/GYN.

Ellie - get thee off work. They are taking the pee and you do not even remotely deserve it.

I return from hospital, totally fine and not in labour, just a mild infection. (huzzah!! I confess to not wanting to be the second baby on this thread)

However, I'm beginning to think I just cannot cope with working for the next three weeks, I was off sick friday and today with anaemia and after four days on the tablets I'm not having any ill effects (if you discount the lovely black poo!) but it's not doing anything either. I can't stand up for more than about ten minutes without getting seriously dizzy and faint, the rest of the time I'm exhausted and it's a real struggle to concentrate especially to read something.

Do you think if I go to the doctor's tomorrow he'll sign me off until my ML starts?

I got a couple of those fluffy body suits in Gap when they went doing the 30% discounts.

So cute!

My little one does not stop moving. I am so cherising this last few weeks feeling the little monster in my belly!

I am so going to miss those kicks! Arhghg,feeling so emotional! My hormones have kicked off big time in the last couple of weeks! Hubby says that he has noticed that I am a bit more irrascible, grumpy and at times emotional. I agree with him!
Although he mentions that in my first pregancy I was very hormonal pretty much all the way through.

Hope you are all having a good start of the week! X

I'm previously Tapster due 20th March and last week I think my waters leaked a bit. Been in hospital overnight so waiting for labour/more waters or hopefully nothing. I'm only 32 weeks so quite worried. DD my waters went in the same way a trickle now and then at 40+ weeks so a very different scenario. Very much hoping I won't be having the next baby on the thread. Crossing my legs! A week ago I didn't even have a nappy, spent the weekend washing baby clothes and making lists and getting the baby's room ready.

Law - glad all is ok !

Iwantitnow - Hope everything is ok and you hold on a bit longer (perhaps you should change your name back ).

Missmodular - I too am hoping March may be warm. I have some jackets from dd but are pink. I too am hoping for a VBAC and really hope it doesn't end in emergency c-sec. I don't mind so much if I end up having to have an elective. Although given that DH still can't drive since his illness I really am hoping to avoid a c-sec !

Right, have had a relatively productive day writing my hospital bag list and doing on line research - just need to buy it all now. Trying to decide on a bouncy chair type thing - I want one with multiposition back bit but don't want to pay the earth. I gave my last one away because dd didn't like it very much so if anyone has any recommendations....

Hey Wheely - I am bidding on this one on Ebay -- it's recommended in the Mumsnet review and it was a little less garish than all the other ones I've seen online (I'm trying my hardest not to be a plastic tat snob, and I know I will obviously end up with a house full of plastic tat toys eventually, but this appealed more than the fisherprice plinky plonky plastic ones).

www.nurseryessentials.co.uk/cosatto-rabbaroo-rock-a-bye-cradle-192-p.asp

Has anyone had a wave of nostalgia and gone looking for the 1st Due March thread? I didn't even join it until pg 16 or something out of 41, way back on Sun 20th July. It's funny to go back and read the very first few posts I made - so wide eyed and excited (which I still am, obviously, but just feel a little more clued up to the whole pregnancy thing and more like I want the big day to be here now, rather than being all scared about it).