Due May 2009 - There's a bun in my oven and it's making me HOT! HOT! HOT!

[FiKelly]

Shiny new thread already!

sorry... that was link for general search.... here they are

Breast shells are useful too for those amongst us that will leak a lot! I had a friend who collected 1-2 ounces from the unused breast during each feed. She collected it all for when she went out and her dh was going to feed her ds and she didn't even have to pump!

I found breast shells uncomfortable. And then forgot they were there and lay down & got milk spılled all over me. Not the most practical baby paraphernalia, imho.

hi all. am not looking forward to BF but really want to do it for baby3 at least six months like i did for DDs. For me though, I expected the worst and it wasn't as bad in the end. For dd1, though, she had tongue-tie so very difficult to get her to latch on/feed effectively till we got it fixed.

hope everyone is well today. MIL is here and I'm doing a bit of work () and getting some stuff ready to sell at the Nearly New Sale being held tomorrow. Not being productive at either of those tasks though. If someone sees me on here again if I've not finished, could you gently remind me to stop procrastinating and get the jobs done? Many thanks.

Hey Dandy forgot to say happy birthday to your dd yesterday, happy birthday. It sounds like her morning was gorgeous and when you all talk about cowsuits and birthday cakes I remember why I'm doing this. As for MIL - wow. She really is something. Well done your DH for standing up to her. It begs the question whether you really need that sort of crap in your lives, although it is extremely saddening.

Fi - thanks for the link - again - I'm adding all your links into my favourites. I'm dreading the bit where I actually start spending the money.

I need a little rant, I hope you'll all excuse me. Went to yoga this morning and came home feeling blue after feeling sidelined by the instructor, again. Some things I physically cannot do with my legs because of disability but often I will find a substitute that still gives the range of movement needed for an exercise. Excercise is the only form of therapy I have to keep myself as strong as possible, there is no medicine I take, no treatment, just the right type and amount of training and a healthy lifestyle (oh and a bit of acupuncture never goes astray). Anyway, there are only a few postures we do in that class that are about active birth positioning and they're the ones I really need help with, to either try them or find an appropriate substitute (and there are almost always substitutes which is why I bother with this stuff in the first place). The instrucor just says to me, "you just do what you like" (what the f#$k does that mean anyway, have a banana daquiri on the beach in malaysia?) or she puts me on the ball when they're all doing squats in pairs (I can do a sqat with assistance, just not from standing the way the others do) which feels utterly pointless, I use the ball outside of yoga anyway and sitting on the damn thing is not the same as a squat...I just felt totally sidelined and am sulking because I'm doing all this work to have even a remote chance of coping with pg, labour, looking after a baby, and I feel like yelling at that instructor, don't you know how important this is to me?? Which is a total over reaction. I don't need much help but I guess I expected to find what little help I do need somewhere like yoga - there is no what-to-expect for the mobility impaired woman who means to give birth and even the Ina May Gaskin kind of stuff can get me down a little because its full of women squatting and walking in the forest etc and its taking all my focus to look for what I CAN do and not at what I can't. Not that there is much by way of definitive guidance ultimately for anyone else either. Anyway. I thought a little rant here might stem the chance of me spending the next few days feeling sorry for myself for no particular reason. So thanks, or sorry.

Oh. That really is a bit self indulgent. I see that now. In reality I'm coping with pg really very well, have no complaints there and have every reason to think I can cope with the rest. Its easy for me when I get scared or grumpy to shift the emphasis to the disablility, but I suspect in reality I'm just hormonal like we all are and now I feel much better, thankyou for bearing with me.

belgian one of my friends had breast shells for the same reason..

cote if i do use them I'll have to try and remember it's on before i lie down.. can see me forgetting quite easily

Don't worry Polony You have a good rant, sometimes it's necessary I understand where you're coming from though. It'd be nice to get suggestions from the instructor, rather than her letting you work it all out by yourself. That's all part of being an instruction IMO. I suppose she thinks you're doing well, because you've been doing yoga for quite a while and she doesn't feel you need help.

polony hadn't hit refresh before I posted.. your yoga instructor prob doesn't fully understand the importance of why you're doing what you are.. have you tried asking her if she can spare 5 or 10 mins before or after your class to help you figure out alternative solutions for what you're not able to do.. and explain why this is so important..

you're not being self indulgent at all.. just trying to do the v best you can. having a rant is just what's needed sometimes!

polony I don't think you are being self-indulgent at all! Good idea I think to ask her for alternatives before or after the session. She really ought to be more proactive thought.

Breast shells I've just found the ones I bought before DS was born. I forgot all about them and they are still in their box. I was lucky though, apart from a bit of soreness I didn't really suffer much.

Thanks for the support and advice. I was wondering if perhaps I hadn't been communicating very well with this instructor. I did talk to her about the basics but probably I should see if she would have time for a more thorough chat. Sometimes people are really open and ask questions if they're not sure but other times they are hesitant so perhaps she just has no idea what is going on and isn't sure how involved she should be...to me a lot of that seems obvious but sometimes I forget that what seems obvious to me in that situation is quite out of the ordinary for others. I'll try speaking to her next week before class and then see how it goes. The relaxation stuff is all very nice though.

Remedial work is such a funny area - its so hard to find people who are really good at it for the times when you can't do it on your own. It does take a lot of creative thinking. You want people to whom you can say, I'm missing this bit and that bit /can't think of a way around this or that, and they'll offer a solution or an alternative. Yoga and pilates instructors are usually pretty good at all that, pilates was originally designed as remedial work and took a lot from yoga and the martial arts, which is why I think I waltz in there and expect to have things to work on without too much drama.

I'm cleaning the flat this afternoon. Not doing any ironing though. And I might knit another bootie.

hi all. finished with my work. now just have to get things prepared for the nearly new sale. so iron, pin labels, etc. iron - do one of you iron mongers want to come help? I hate ironing!

Polony, i echo the others for support and rant away, that's what we're here for. in any case, I do think it's a good idea to have a chat with the instructor or she'll probably drive you mad up until you finish the class before birth. you don't need any more hassle/stress.

wish i'd get off my lazy bum to do yoga. exercise? hmmm. MIL is here so maybe i'll go out with the dog - so much easier without the toddlers.

momino - you're not in London, are you? Because I think theres an NCT nearly new sale on here tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm game to put DP or myself through it! And thanks for letting me have a rant. I really do feel better for it, not feeling so sorry for myself now. This antenatal club thing is brilliant.

Speaking of exercise - does/did anyone go to the pool with their baby? How was the chlorine? It sounds like a great idea, but then I think why am I looking at all this organic cotton and reading about not putting anything in your babies bathwater if I intend to plop baby into a pool full of chlorine? That stuff makes my own skin red and blotchy let alone a baby's skin. Do you slather them with barrier cream (oh god that just sounds disastrous...)?

No,really, I'm cleaning...

well i'm cream crackered as another estate agent was bringing a couple round to view the flat at 2.30pm today.. so of course i wore myself out making the place immaculate and restraining ds from turning it into toys r us.. keep your fingers crossed the hard work was worth it and they fell in love with our place. the other couple that viewed before are coming back for another look wed next week. i'd bought a 3pk of kinder eggs so i could occupy ds with one when they were here.. unfortunately i left the box within reach and when i was out of the room answering queries he ate the other 2! arrrgh i'm a nervous wreck so desperate to move and the waiting game is driving me to distraction! i need a large bar of chocolate and i've none at all in the flat i'll have to wait till later.. dh is buying me some on way home.

at your ds fi sounds like he had a brilliant idea.

Polony I used to take ds and dd swimming from v. early on. The chlorine didn't really bother my dcs when they were babies. Except that my son suffers with eczema and that tends to agravate it, though dd was never affected. If you have a shower after and if baby hhas sensitive skin smother with moisturiser after it should be OK.

Actually talking about sensitive skin, as our babies will be spring/summer babies we'll have to use sunscreen from early on and that can be far worse than chlorine. My ds has always really suffered in summer, but it's such a difficult choice: sun damage or eczema? I've resorted to keeping his skin as covered as possible and so he's one of those geeky children that wears a T-shirt in the swimming pool on holiday!

I've done some toy clearing today to make space for future baby stuff. The charity shop was very happy I wonder if the dcs will notice some of their toys have dissapeared. Also tidied up our office area in the living room as the shelves were one pile of wires, CD's, pens,... It looks so much better. I think I'll be able to actually find some tape next time I need some! Now my back and pelvis are telling me it's time to take it easy again. Don't like this PGP business, it keeps me from doing what I want

Finally I went to the shop to get ds his reward for getting all his spellings right this week. I thought I'd get myself a treat too, a bottle of Magners for over the weekend and a bar of chocolate, but I ended up having to put it all back, because their machines were broken and they could only take cash. I gave my last bit of cash to the decorator, so I only had enough for my ds' Kinder egg. Very dissapointing, I was looking forward for a drink today, because my dh is coming back tonight

polony i took ds to water babies classes.. trying to remember how old he was. i was well over the cs so it must have been when he was about 3 or 4 months or so. he didn't like the echo sound of the swimming pool we sussed in the end as he cried every time we went.. and because of this we stopped going. we didn't use any barrier creams.. would have made him too slippery to hold. just washed him off asap after leaving the pool. he loves going now.. and i have his name down for swimming classes for when he's old enough to do them here.

Whoops, I've just seen my dcs running out of the room to get the 'big spiderman car with things sticking out on the side' that I've kindly donated to the charity shop. (They're saying it's not downstairs, it must be upstairs!!) Shall I confess?? They hadn't played with the thing for months and it took up so much space, sigh...

isn't that just typical that they want to play with that one toy.. if need be fess up saying it went to a child that really needed it as they didn't have v much?!

I've had a day at home and you wouldn't see a thing I've done - been trying to tidy and get the home office sorted out - I am meant to be doing the business ofice work as of next week from there! At hte moment I cannot find a thing...

Woke up this morning and promptly had a nose bleed.... weird!

Ds is meant to be going to the cinema tonight with Beavers but he's been complaining of tummy ache and says he can't do a poo. He sat for ages on the loo last night and I think hes constipated with overflow of diarrhoea. Don't know whether to send him or not. I've given him 2 warm drinks of strong juice and 10mls of lactulose - he could end up exploding!!! He was at school today and coped ok... While he was watching his film I was going to have a wander around the local shopping centre and see what there is to see... Wot would you do???? I'd be about 10 mins away in the car...

Belgian - same here with donated toys. I gave my mum some of ds toys including an Action man & his car which hadn't been played with in over a year. Of course ds saw it and it came back home again... to be totaly ignored again after a few days!! Cant win can you???

Fi I thought as much re barrier cream! I do love the idea of playing in the water with baby.

Dive sorry I'm no good for advice re your ds as I'm a complete novice, but hope all goes well and you both get to go out.

Oo er Belgian. I'm interested to know how that turns out - do you think if you stay quiet they'll just forget about it or will the mystery of where the big spiderman car with the bits sticking out went to consume them? Would you go and ask for it back?

When I was little I went on a camping trip with some family friends and when I cam home Mum had cleaned my room. I remember walking in and feeling delighted one moment and then horrified as I worked out that I could see the floor because all my "treasures" (read: crap) had been thrown away. There was only one object I really cared about, this old biscuit tin with Tom kitten on it, and sure enough it was gone. I wasn't happy. I cried for two days. My parents weren't really bothered, strangely enough (except perhaps by the irritation of me whining for a couple of days).I've never really forgiven them. But I also gave up hoarding after that because I discovered it was much nicer not having lots of clutter.

Its taken me about 3 days to catch up and everytime I catch up I get behind again. DD has been so full on today. Its easier being at work sometimes. She has so much energy and is on the go from 6am this week. She spent this morning yelling at the top of her voice about everything which was wearing. How do you stop a 15 month old yelling, is is just a phase? When we are out she is generally quiet but I'm too knackered to go out all day!!

RE Breastfeeding I was lucky to have my mum (midwife by trade)arrive from NZ on the day that DD was born so she was on hand to help with latching and supporting our BFing. The midwives at the hospital didn't help at all so I was glad to have my mum. I didn't have any major problems except a pain in the left nipple but it settled down pretty quick and I used lanisoh and used breastmilk on my nipples and allowed them to dry in the air. This meant alot of nork exposure but it did help. I had a fairly big supply so used breastshells to collect the leaks. I had to change my sheets and wrap a towel around myself to sleep as I leaked through bra, breast pads and pjs every night. I bought boots bottles for the odd time that I expressed and ended up with 4 bottles by the time I went back to work which was plenty. I also got an advent manual pump and boots microwave steriliser. I never bought anything until I needed it though as I was determined to BF so didn't get bottles until DD was 2 months or so.

I meant to also say that I did lots of nipple stimulation leading up to the birth as I was a week over due and I felt like I had some supply fairly quickly enough to satisfy DD. I also didn't have too much bother when my milk came in properly at 3 days. I didn't become engorged and it wasn't too painful or anything so I would recommend nipple stimulation leading up to your due date. Its a bit freaky as milk does come out but it apparently can start contracting the uterus which can kick start the labour. Worth a try.