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

[FiKelly]

Shiny new thread already!

when i phoned up the docs again for my iron results the snippy receptionist just said abruptly they're satisfactory. I asked if for the number level... as my mw had said they needed to be above 10 (i think) to which she said... well i don't have a figure/number you'll have to wait until your next mw app if you need to know it! sheesh... i was only asking and nicely at that...

evening all. the programme on Radio 4 about PND was interesting so if you're interested I think you can listen on bbc's iplayer. worth a listen.

belgian, good luck on the job.
Fi, good luck on the selling/viewing.

Polony, where are you from originally?

on the mother side, I really miss my mother but sometimes think that maybe we wouldn't be as 'close' if I lived nearer to her (does that make sense?). can't wait till she visits after baby's born.

about exercise - DVD is a good idea. maybe when i'm on ML i'll get the davina one to work on. I do walk the dog but it's such a slow walk, I can hardly call it exercise .

Evening all. LO has been doing gymnastics all day and using my bladder as the trampoline. I am feeling good and have energy again and thank goodness I'm sleeping well. Not much time to catch up on everyones news but I have been keeping up and hi to you all.

momino that about your mother makes perfect sense to me. If my mum lived just around the corner we'd just get in eachother's way. Having a Channel between us made us a lot closer.

My lo is v active too, but in a way that it's sort of hurting nowadays. (S)he is prodding my sides quite sharply!

fi the number for your iron level depends a bit on the trust. But generally I think you get started on iron if it drops below 11. That would actually be low for a non-pregnant person, but you're 'allowed' to have a slightly lower iron level in pregnancy.

Right, bedtime for me now. The ap is waiting to go back on the computer. The last few days I seem to have to prise her off to do my own stuff Only 1 more week and she'll be gone, so we're not really complaining much about it.

ds is unfortunately getting me used to sleep deprivation already.. he was up 3 times last night then awake before 6am. took him back to bed repeatedly with limited success. not good start to the day.. and no chance of daytime nap for us today as out this morning and taking my mum to do her weekly food shop this afternooon. feeling very rough now & off to eat again and get some caffeine..

fikelly I've had a couple of days like that lately.

What I do with DS is "play tents." We go up to my bed, he gets under the bed clothes and I close my eyes. It takes him a good 5/10 minutes to get bored of tents and by then my brief snooze has recharged my batteries. Try it, it works, honestly!

Morning all,

I was wondering if anyone else was thinking of having a 4D scan? I keep thinking about it, as this LO seems to move and wiggle a lot (in bursts) and i'm really curious to know what he's up to and what he looks like! However, as he does it in bursts, i'm worried he will just be asleep during the scan (although usually a jiggle or a belly wobble will rouse him). Might phone the clinic and see if they have any availability...

llareggub ds loves playing tents.. tried it with our bed.. it sometimes works but as you say.. not for v long. it's the 5.30am starts i'm finding hard esp when he won't sleep in day. at this rate i'll be in bed same time as ds just before 7pm. def a vivid reminder of what's to come!

pulapulai'm sure the 4D scan will be amazing even if lo is asleep.. not doing one ourselves but we didn't with ds either..

Good morning ladies!

I'm starting to hate my midwife nurse at my GP's? She's the only nurse there though so I'm stuck with her. Ah well, only a few more months left. She does seem pretty mad though.

When I was there last week (I was 29 weeks) I asked whether she was ever going to measure the fundal height, and she said "I don't do that here as it's not accurate and not worth it" then went on to say "I've been a midwife a lot longer than you've been alive and know a lot more about it than you do". Charming!

Other pieces of 'advice' she's given me:

1. No sex for 1st three months. Despite the fact that I've had no previous MC's, or ANY blood spotting at all.

2. The fact I wasn't having much morning sickness or nausea in my early pg was because the pregnancy was planned!!!

3. Having checked my freshly done urine, that I need to keep my fluids up more. It was 9.30am and I'd have a cup of tea, glass of orange juice AND glass of water already at the point.

4. The fact that last time I was wearing a shorter sleeved top and she said it would "bring on a cold" and "make you go into early labour".

5. The Health in Pregnancy Grant is actually the Sure Start grant, and she cannot provide me with the claim form. Maybe I was getting it wrong and "thinking of the MATB1 form?" (now got one from my hospital as my GP surgery seem to refuse to get the forms in).

She never checks the heart beat for longer than about 10 seconds either. I would quite like to know what the hear rate is over a minute... I'm gonna tackle that one next week. I'm sure she'll have some reason as to refuse doing it though

Sorry - rant over!!!! it's a bit early for a rant actually. I hope everyone has a good day - the weekend is getting closer

lazzer

Your MW sounds awful and what's all the crap about going into early labour because you're wearing a short-sleeved top - that's the sort of think my 87 year old granddad would say!!

belgian why can't all MW's be like you?

I know I've struck gold with my MW, totally supportive of my HomeBirth and in fact extolled the virtues of it.

I went to a Liturgy at DD2's school yesterday (she goes to a Catholic school, a Liturgy is something religious but being an atheist, I have no idea what it's about ). There was me and another pregnant woman stood at the back of the hall - not one person gave up their seat for us, even though plenty of people turned round and clocked our stomachs. It really pissed me off because I was brought up to give up seats to pregnant/elderly/disabled and presume that everyone else has been brought up that way! A couple actually ran ahead of me as we were going in to nab the last 2 seats!!!!

oh Lazzer, she sounds incredibly old fashioned and not keeping up with the changes. About the Grant, I'm not sure she's right: my MW had mine already filled out by my wk 29 visit. Maybe she was just proactive? All the other things you've mentioned makes her sound like she's not really into her job. no chance of changing? anyway, think you should force her to do the heart beat for a minute and see where you get... good luck.

all ok here today. dropped two cute little fairies off at nursery and need to get some work done.

oh, also found out about my mat pay. It's not as bad as I thought and they'll pay me nearly the standard SMP, I'm so relieved as I though, with my recent salary reductions due to low sales/bookings it would affect my pay. Luckily, other factors were involved and I (and DH) can breathe.

speaking of work, must get something done. see you all soon.

i had a 4D scan recently. unfortunately DS has his hands over his face so we couldnt get a good look. also, he was too close to the placenta which makes it harder to get a clear scan of his face. he wouldnt budge no matter how the sonographer prodded and poked at my stomach. so i had to return a week later to try again (free the second time) but he was in similar position and this time with his legs up as well! we got slightly clearer scans but his one hand is still blocking his face. oh well! it's still good to have seen him.

lazzer sorry to hear about your mw experience. she sounds awful!

dandy thanks for leaving your email address. i've sent you a short mail. yes i would prefer to meet during the day. weekends are really not good for me as dh and i usually make lots of plans. evenings are slightly better but i understand that they are don't work for you.
polony, do you now prefer to meet in evenings or weekends?
sausage you are still working so can only do evenings and weekends.

how can we get around this? there are several options:

1. dandy and i (and polony?) meet during the day
2. dandy, polony and sausage meet at a weekend
3. polony, sausage and i meet in the evening

perhaps we can discuss this over email than on this forum? i don't wish to bother everyone else with our arrangements. my email address is [email protected]

Grumpy, very annoying about the seats. Shame on them. YOu should have faked fainting and see if anyone would move to help you then .

momino

I would have faked fainting, but being a sturdy type, I would probably have broken the floor.

I'm just watching a programme about Homebirths and the couple on it are having their 7th child. They live in a 3 bedroom house - 4 kids on 2 sets of bunk beds in one room, the mother and little one and baby will be in another and the dad and one of the other kids are in another room

I reckon the woman on it will be a MNer, she's a breastfeeding counsellor for La Leche as well have having millions of kids!

Lazzer I'm a bit about your mw. I might not have been a mw for as long as your mw, but if she doesn't measure your fundal height, then how will she know your baby is growing well? The perinatal institute advises the first measurement to be done about 28 weeks, so it would have been time. My cmw mentor is now retired and so she must have been a mw even longer and was measuring women! Next time you see her give her the leaflet about the health in pregnancy grant, so she knows what you're talking about! And I'm also about that "advise" she gave about being cold and you not getting morning sickness because your pregnancy was planned! Maybe it might be worth getting in touch with the head of midwifery to inform them of your doubts about her practice, she's clearly not keeping up to date.

grumpy mine go to a catholic school too. They do come home talking about Jesus and stuff, while I was not brought up religiously at all. It does get to me a bit sometimes, but I keep reminding myself that we did choose that school for lots of other reasons and they are happy there. I do try to give my dcs my own point of view too and tell them that when they're older they'll have to make up their own mind about what's true and what's not.

Right, off to Ikea now to get the insides for our new wardrobe. We had some sliding doors fitted, wall to wall and now I need hangers and shelves and the like.

I find my MW quite amusing as she is just SO old fashioned and odd. She is irritating though. I'm getting darker and darker thoughts about her as time goes on. I'd have to change my GP to get a different MW, and it's on the same road as my flat and on the way to my nearest train station, so it's just too convenient to changet really.

It's okay for me though, as I'm (fairly!) educated and have done enough reading/research/support from mumsnet to know to take the stuff she's telling me with a pinch of salt. Can't imagine what she's like with some poor underage teen or someone from a less priviledged background etc though. They must dread going in to see her!

Grumpy I just don't understand how people can be so selfish. But then, I'm still getting up for pg women on the tubes (I wait a minute to see if anyone else will do it first) as inevitably no'one else does. It makes me really angry that nobody gets up when it's so obvious. I look quite small for 30 weeks (well - just fat, really) and with my big coat the bump's only just noticable, so understand it a bit more with myself.

Lazzer Your MW sounds similiar to mine, maybe weve got the same one lol

Belgian My growth chart thing isn't being filled in at all. I know they're supposed to plot it, as they did with my DD, but my MW is addament she can't plot mine cuz baby isn't lying right. I've gave up by now. I'm just going to wait until 4th April for consultant appointment, and hopefully they'll be able to be abit more helpful.

I'm 31+1 today, and I still haven't had my pregnancy grant form either. I've mentioned it a couple of times, and apparently they haven't heard of it at my doctors surgery and neither has the midwives, so I'll prob end up missing out on that. Sucks cuz you cant download the form itself from the net, otherwise I'd bring it in myself for them to fill in!

Jael X

Thanks Belgian thankfully the midwife at my hospital checked my fundal height yesterday and said I was measuring exactly right, which was reassuring. But I won't be back there for another 6 weeks sadly. I like the MWs at my hospital. It's so much nicer going there than to my GP's.

I might well do something about it though. Clearly she's got away with not keeping up to date.

Good luck with Ikea!

Jael I put in a formal complaint through the Health in Pregnancy Grant helpline. The person took my details, the GP's details, and assured me I would NOT miss out on the grant. She said they would try and sort it out from their end.

That was only about 10 days ago, but someone from the helpline rang me up yesterday to say they'd contacted my surgery. I was on the tube literally having just left from my hosp appointment, and got one from there - so explained to her it'd been sorted.

It's worth doing this though if you think the GP surgery won't budge (mine wouldn't even accept the literature I'd printed off from website about it).

Their number is 0845 366 7885.

Hello everyone, I haven't posted in ages and it has taken me a couple of days to catch up! You are all so good at posting. I hope everyone is well. I have had problems getting hold of the Health in Preg Grant form too, my GP now say they have ordered the forms so should have them soon.

I went for a scan the other day to check growth etc. and seem to be having quite a big boy! His abdominal and head measurements were right at the top end of the scale, but his femur measurement bang in the middle - do you think he is going to be a bit out of proportion?!! Hope things even out a bit. The calculated his weight at 3 and half pounds, for 29/30 weeks I hope that is around normal. It was so nice to see him again I would really recommend anyone considering going for an extra scan. However, he also had legs and arms in front of his face so 3d imaging wasn't great.

I had a quick couple of questions for all you experienced mums out there. Anyone know about the Britax Vigour 4 pram? We are thinking of getting this instead of the icandy apple as it seems easier to operate and is lighter and cheaper. It does everything the Icandy does, but just don't know what kind of reputation it has.

Secondly, when it comes to mattresses for new borns, are the mattresses that come with moses baskets perfectly adequate? And should we pay extra for a sprung mattress in the cot or is foam fine? I am totally clueless and having not bought anything for the baby yet suddenly realised there are only 10 weeks to go! Quite exciting though!!

Sorry I have done such a long post and haven't responded to all the others on this thread, will try and keep more up to date and become a better mumsnetter!

Lazzer, I'd definitely report your midwife because as you say, it's worrying to think she's probably telling young, clueless women all this nonsense and they believe it - and some people might be missing out on the grant too because of her. She sounds AWFUL!

HtheH, sounds like your scan was good! Sorry I can't help with your questions, being a first-timer too!

xx

Lazzer at your mw... she sounds horrendous... i would be tempted not only to change gp's but also to speak to her superior.

grumpy I think it's awful that no one gave up their seats... i was brought up like you and have since realised how many selfish people there are out there.

momino great news about your mat pay... what a relief

belgian good luck at ikea... lets hope it's not too busy and that they have everything in stock... so you can whizz round and out without too much hassle.

jael my gp's didn't have/know about the form either and confused it with the surestart as well... i too phoned the helpline, they took my details and the gp's and said they'd make sure the gp's would be contacted and it would all be ready for my next app. Which i'm glad to say it was and i've been able to send my completed form off

HtheH sprung mattresses versus non sprung... for the moses basket or crib you'll find it hard to get a sprung mattress for these as they are not very thick for newborns. The one that comes with your moses basket should be fine but you may want to purchase a 2nd mattress anyway as when our lo's vomit it can leak through to the mattress making it wet (and smelling of milk)
If they have a lot of reflux (ds went through an odd day/night now and again) you can only turn the mattress around so many time before they have to sleep on a wet/cleaned bit. I very often ended up adding an folded cotton sheet across the top area of the mattress to act as a vomit guard... which i then could whip off and wash before having to strip the whole lot of sheets etc off. We did get a spare mattress just so i could better clean/wash/dry the original/2nd one in rotation.

As far as mattresses for the big cots or cotbeds go... i think it will depend on whether you plan to be using a cotbed or a cot. If going for the cotbed i would pay the extra for the fully sprung mattress as it will be used a substantial amount longer (think till they're 4/5?) for a cot a normal mattress would do i think. We have a crib and a cotbed. 2 mattresses for crib and one superduper pocket spring mattress for the cotbed... it has a zip off top cover in case of voms so you don't have major probs cleaning it if need be.

I'm trying to snap myself out of a despondent mood today... it started with lack of sleep due ds night shenanigans and 5.30am start this morning. we went out to play group this morning which i thought would help lift my mood... but came home to a message on the answer machine from the estate agents and our viewers from yesterday that came for a 2nd look are "still thinking" [sigh] so now feeling like we'll never get out of this flat and will be stuck here DS & I have to take my mum to do her weekly food shop in an hour... trying to gee myself up with thoughts of possible foody treats I could get... if only i could think of some!

momino meant to say great news about the MP

fikelly that's such a shame - we had awful problems selling our last house (it was a tiny shoebox), so I know what you're going through.

I've made banana bread today because a) I had some bananas hanging around and outstaying their welcome, b) the girls have been nagging and c) s'good for me, innit? Well, bananas are.......

DD1 is in a swimming gala this afternoon in the middle of nowhere, my navigational skills are appalling so I have instructed DH to send out a search party if we're not back by 18.00.

Oh and on top of the standing yesterday, I got a few 'God you're huge are there 2 in there' comments, the other pregnant lady is only 2 weeks behind me and she got 'ooooh aren't you neat, I see you've kept in trim'

I am obviously just a big fat heifer

the feedback we get on our apartment is good... the estate agents all say they can't think of anything we need to do to improve our place as it is really well maintained, tidy and always a pleasure to show people around The viewings we had last year complained about it only having single glazed windows... but what do people expect coming to see an old (1890's) converted victorian rectory with original sash and shutter windows! The other comment was that they wanted direct access to a garden from the flat... so why they came to see a 1st floor flat is a mystery to me...