Fab Feb 2009: the bumps are a-jumping, the mums are a-grumping - roll on the new year

[dinkystinkyclaus]

A sparkling new thread in time for christmas

Oh good news abut Mrs!

Great news about Mrsy - hopefully they'll let her go home soon.

McDreamy - sorry to hear about your DH's car, what a bummer. I hate driving in snow and ice so v impressed you ventured out. One of my colleagues was telling me that their road in Buckinghamshire is an icerink - they had cars pirouetting past their lounge window this morning.

LBB - am impressed you're still mates with your friend given the "overlap" with your ex - hope you manage to get the flat spic and span in time for her visit. V envious of your 3 hour nap though does sound like you definitely needed it.

Rosie - sounds like taking a year off uni was a good plan. Its not like you havent been busy over the past few months!

America - one of my DH's best friends was like that with his second child too (know it really upset his girlfriend but he sort of felt like they'd been through all the scans etc with the first before) before the baby arrived - but once the baby arrived, he was 100% committed, interested and wonderful with him, so try not to let it get you down too much. Where are you booked in at? If at St Marys, labour ward tours are Mondays at 6 and Thursdays at 11 (in a fit of anti-denial I called up this morning to find out, just in case I dont make it into the lovely birth centre again.due to uber-tardiness of baby).

My nesting by proxy continues - after DH tidied up our living room, our lovely nanny spent DS's nap yesterday tidying up our kitchen cupboards. At this rate, wont have any nesting left to do when I finally get to mat leave

Good news about MrsY

Blimey, I wish I had someone doing nesting by proxy

Fab new Mrsy - hope you're home again soon.

Oh dear McD! Glad you avoided the bump though. I HATE driving in snow or ice and now refuse to leave the house if there's any. We dont get sun on our garage/driveway so it doesn't melt so I even get DH to move the car into the sun for me

Ditto by proxy I lost most of my fingernails cleaning today. Am now stumpy and puffy fingered.

who's stupid idea was it to cook a roast chicken for Women's Christmas anyway?

fed up of cooking, or moving off my arse at all for that matter now.... and all i really want is a banoffi pie..... i'm obsessing about freaking banoffi pie and we can't afford the petrol for dp to drive all the way to tescoes to get me one

rosie, didn't spot your post earlier.... how terrifying for you glad all is well but please do keep your feet up and relax, if baby is planning on coming early you need to be well rested.

glad mrsy hasn't got PE at least... hopefully the protein is just a mild UTI or something and she'll be home soon.... she's really having a rough ride of it poor thing.

Kazza.... both dp and the kids have eczema of various severities so i use reuseable wipes and water at home all the time (well, less recently as i've not been keeping up on the washing but usually!)

Rosie, I meant to say, thank goodness it wasn't the real thing. Hope everything stays calm for you now until you're good and ready.

neerly thanx for tip, will put that on shopping list for tomorrow. Funny how we can manage to buy all this stuff when pregnant but after ds was born, I was really embarrased buying condoms! Or is that just me?

fgpl I hate needles and think I might have punched her! Not really but I would have wanted to. Why are all the stand-ins miserable old cows?

MS Fantastic news about MrsY glad it's not PE. Hopefully she'll be back home soon all being well.

dinky she's not really my 'friend', she worked for me and was fully aware that I was seeing this bloke. After they got together and fell pregnant at 4months in, I just started to feel a bit sorry for her, Imean her boyf is clearly a bit of a guttless tosser and she was only 18 (20 now), facing becoming a mum and having to move in with his family etc, so I just told her she could come to me if she ever needed anything. I was 22 wks preg with ds (me and dp fell preg quick too) she found out she was expecting, so I decided to be all grown up about it and offer help and advice. I'm a nice person really!
The whole thing wasn't really her fault, I put it down to her youth and inexperience, where I've seen and done a bit more and am not quite so niave.

Nothing happening here, dp is asleep on sofa, ds is watching ITNG, why have they changed time it's on? Pain in arse! And baby is doing something to my hip. Apart from that, all good.

glad for mrsy hope the tests are over soon and nothing too serious.

BOOBS! 2 things, firstly does anyone know what i should do, i am uncomfy in my 36 bras and could do with 38's because of rib cage expansion but when the baby drops down into pelvis do you tend to have more room up there? or shall i go and buy some. Will be getting nursing bras anyway in a few weeks but was thinking of getting something for now what do people think

AND boobie veins, i can understand why my tummy is veiny (oh please tell me other people have this! im thinking something to do with blood flow to babs) but why are my boobs sooooo veiny and does anyone know are they going to stay like that! i feel so very ugly is it permanant now or just breast feeding associated? better still just pregnancy boob related?

very trivial i know but just wanted advice thanks xxx

Hi everyone....it's taken me aaaages to catch up on all your posts. Glad MrsY is ok though and hopefully she'll soon have a better idea of what it all was about.

I've spent the day putting together flat packed ikea furniture with my mum. My Dad said he "doesn't have the patience for it" and I couldn't wait til the weekend for DH to get off his arse to do it. Took a few hours (2 chest of drawers and 5 kids storage units later complete with electric screwdriver and 20 pages of ikea instructions ) but tis done !! I've now got somewhere for babies bits and bobs and have organised all my knickers, socks etc (we moved in in September and since then I have a hunt every morning for even a pair of socks - never mind matching- and my BIG pants which drives me insane !). Think I might have overdone it a bit as I then had to have a wee lie down on the sofa. I ache all over.

Envious of the 3 hour nap you had lbb - ds was at nursery today but he's past the napping stage now so don't get to have a snooze in the day anymore. Hope no 2 decides it's a good idea.

Only 3 and a half weeks to go for me. Have been getting quite a bit of lower period pain type cramping which is mildly uncomfortable.Hope this isn't a sign. I need a few weeks still !

Will catch up better tomorrow - ds needs a bath.....

littlesez If they are uncomfortable, I'd go and get measured and buy a new one tbh. Go to mothercare, they have a fitting service and can advise you in exactly what you'll need. Think it's quite important to make sure everything isn't too restricted to avoid the whole blocked milk ducts thing.
I didn't get/haven't got veiny tummy but last time did get veiny boobs. I am very pale so it's easy to spot (pale like Nicola Girls Aloud), the veins went once milk dried up I think but I didn't bf so that was a matter of weeks.
I haven't put any make-up on for months now and do feel very unattractive, very fat and flumpy and doesn't help that dp keeps telling me to stop rolling over in bed as am making him seasick. Cheeky sod.

Oh, and LS not trivial at all. Your boobies are going to be the most important thing to your dc so important you look after them

ps littlesez - my boobs are very veiny - my bump isn't at all but I have very prominent blue veins on each one. Attractive ! They do go away though so don't worry.

Am also a bit puffy fingered and ankled come evening time. Not half as bad as the summer of 2006 but it's definitely happened in the last couple of weeks.

well i've been preg or bfing constantly since getting preg with dd so don't know yet what happens to boobs when all that ends but the veininess does die down a little over time.... i'm quite veiny anyway though, can see the veins in the back of my hand and all that so presumably if you have normal circulation it dies down quicker.

as for bra sizes... even a 38 is too tight on me when preg and i'm normally 32/34... i refuse to go higher than 38 so no idea what would be comfy... tbh i find even a top that's skin tight seems to compress my ribs when preg so i just go without support, it's the only way i can approach confort.... ribs still hurt but are bearable if nothing is touching them.

i go back to normal right away after the birth though usually

HTH

Littlesez I think that the rib cage stays expanded for a while but rather than buy new bras you could get a bra strap extender. They do them in mothercare for a couple of quid or for about 99p usually on ebay.

I have veiny boobs too, they disappeared last time after I had been feeding for about 3 mths. I am terrible at getting fitted for bras, have nursing bras from last time 34e,f, 36dd,e,f so I think I have most bases covered.

Am a bit redundant tonight as it is the 1st night in 21 mths that I'm not feeding DS at bedtime. Still am in the morning and nap time but am taking the steps to cut down and eventually stop before baby arrives. May have to go and have a bath to stop myself popping in and out of the bedroom to 'supervise' bedtime. Ohhhhhhh this is going to be so hard

expanded when baby drops down I mean - not after the birth

My boobs are veiny now but I remember them starting to look quite 'normal' again (but slightly voluptuous) after a few months even though I breastfed for 10mths. So don't let the appearance thing put you off breastfeeding - it all calms down anyway.

LittleSez - the veins you can see are because you have so much extra blood produced during pregnancy; they will die down and fade in time as your body gets back to normal, so dont worry about it. And having heating on/lots of layers to stay warm in the cold makes it more likely that your veins will show too (vasodilation I think from my GCSE days)......

Herbgarden - most impressed at your IKEA DIY efficiency.

Hello everyone am I still aloud in???? It feels like ages since I have been on....

DD is now in a proper bed and so we have had a few nights broken sleep.

I am huge now and my tummy is bright red. I dont think it can expand any more..... I am going to talk to MW on Thursday about getting induced on my due date because I am in pain all day long and really am struggling..... If my first pg had been this bad I would not be having a second.....

DP went into the loft and got all baby clothes and mosses basket out yesterday so apart from all the washing and ironing we are ready for d day......

While we look forward to seeing pics of our lovely babies over the next month or so, I have just posted up some photos of my brother's newly acquired puppy on my facebook profile if any of you are interested. The aaaahhhh factor is richter scale and DS is now much more interested in acquiring a puppy rather than a sibling.

Hi Lardy - welcome back! Congratulations on getting your DD into a big girls bed - it will get easier.

Pluto - the puppy is very cute indeed. Though newborn babies have (at least initially) less destructive force than a puppy, so will stick with Squiglet for the time being...

Ooh, after Laidback talked about the pedi-egg I went out and got one today and spent a good 20 minutes grating my feet - can NOT believe how much dead skin I got off and there is still more to come off (that'll be several years of bare foot kickboxing doing that to my feet - sadly feel will have to accept that my kickboxing days are now over)

Thanks all, I'm getting used to DH prioritizing a bit differently than I do... Nevermind. I'm going to St. Thomas this time, the hospital is massive so it might be a good idea to find our way to the labour ward before the d-day. How horrible would it be to get lost in labour...?

I've had more chocolates and sweets over xmas than ever before I think. Can I justify it with growing baby LOL to your DH nesting Dinky.

I have it all, varicose veins, piles, veins on my tummy, ligament pains, shooting pains and generally feeling very uncomfortable. And being normally 36A it's weird that my bras are too tight too. Weird but kind of cool Not that I feel particularly sexy or attractive at the moment and hence bedroom side of things has been very quiet for the past few months. Poor DH...

And the more I think about it, the more terrified I get about the whole labour thing. Maybe I should really consider elective rather than VBAC?

PLUTO, you can take my cute dog any day, I just cannot walk her as much as I should but she's adorable and very good with DS

oooh what's the pedi - egg? My feet are horrible - dry cracked heels....tried everything and used to go to the chiropodist (like an old lady - apparently I was his youngest client) - but haven't been for ages.

Buckinghamshire is def an ice rink tonight! I am seriously considering not taking DD to school tomorrow as we have more snow forecast! DH came home and said after his wheel bash he nearly glided in a parked car in a car park when his car just lost it's grip. Luckily he managed to avoid another prang! (So glad it was him though and not me )

Oooh I'd love a pedicure, how lovely, my heels are sooooo dry! I'm not sure I can talk about my veiny boobs

America - do you know what the chances are of you going through the same experience as last time again? Sorry, I can't remember the reason for your c-section last time. The only reason I ask is that I've elected for a c-section as I was told that there is a high chance that the same thing will happen again (waters broke/induced/nothing happened/ds stuck in pelvis) so I decided to just bite the bullet and elect. I really don't want to try labour only to find I have to have a c-section again anyway but under an emergency/crash scenario.

It's hard to know what to do isn't it but only you know what the right thing is to do for you and it's hard as you don't know what will happen with the VBAC - as long as you are prepared for the fact that you could end up with a c-section then you might be less anxious about it? Have you had a chance to chat through with consultant?

Sorry if you've recounted all this before and I've not picked up........

Herbgarden - its basically a very stylish cheese grater for your feet as far as I can tell, but really effective! Miles better than a pumice stone. Am a convert

America - have you done any reading this time round about childbirth? I didnt do as much the first time round as I probably should have in hindsight, but this time round read the Marie Mongan Hypnobirthing book and Dick Grantly Read's Childbirth without Fear books and understanding the physiological process your body goes through in birth has really helped me. I know others on the thread have recommended the Water Birth book, Ina May Gaskin and Janet Balaskas for inspiring those aiming for vaginal birth. But, if having done the reading you're still scared, maybe it is something you should discuss with your DH and your midwife to see if there is some way to remove the fear or if an elective c-sec is the way forward for you this time; at the end of the day, your little one is going to come out some way and you need to feel happy and right about that. Happy mum, happy baby...