Due May 2009 Hairy Mary!... We're on the final stretch!

[Belgianchocolates]

Thought I'd better start the new thread before it was too late. Here we go!

momino llarehave you got to express colostrum before you go into labour for your LO?

Jael Sorry to hear you weren't treated nicely in Burton. I had heard lots of good about them, but of course experiences differ. I don't understand it when people look down on people because they are young. I've seen some brilliant, confident first time teenage mums. On the other hand I've met plenty of 40+ mums who are having their 1st baby who are scared of holding their baby.

chocbunnies I always find that a lot of people already have their circle of friends. It's difficult to break into it. In summer we will move from the Midlands to Kent, so I'll have to go through the getting to know people thing all over again too. Hopefully I'll meet someone a bit like me and find a friend, because at the moment I seem to only have lots of acquaintances. (doesn't that sound sad )

looby, i'm not going to express yet... main reason is that I've loaned my 'expresso' machine to my friend who said she'd be finished with BF by the time our babe arrives. I'd better remind her! what are you going to do?

Belgian, i'm the same with acquaintances. a nice group of them but no good friends. all of my close mates are back in the US. that's why it's nice to come on here to chat. I hope you do find good friends when you move.

looby, good luck 'normalising' .

Looby I've started expressing and have a little stock in the freezer. DS is breastfed so some of it is for him although he probably won't mind if he misses a few days. Don't worry about the insulin jabs, the needles aren't particularly thick and actually I find it hurts far less than the blood sugar testing. You can eat more too!

chocolatebunnies sorry to hear that you are feeling down and lonely. At the start of the week most of my friends are in work so I try and plan jobs or activities so that the day passes quicker!

I echo dandy there really are some lovely people here.

choc sorry to hear you are down. I feel lonely sometimes too as most friends live away and only seemtobe in contact when I make contact with them. Am hoping I meet some new fpeople once baby is here and I join some classes altho I always get nervous going to new things. Am sending hugs and bravery vibes your way x x

Hope those with spd/pgd are coping today and the gd is ok over the weekend looby sausage sorry to hear about yr course. Def would appeal. Good luck x

jael hope you are ok after your hospital visit

dive wow about yr piercing I'm not that brave. I just took my belly ring out as it was getting itchy def want to put it back afterwards tho

Hope everyone is ok and I haven't missed anyone out have been so tired this week after moving and my mum has just had a flare up of her depression and is quite unwell which is worrying because she's on the other side of the country and I can't get to her. She has lots of family and friends around but still can't help worrying you know

Anyway sorry to bring the mood down am ok really. Hope all have a lovely weekend xx

back from taking ds to soft play.. Phew don't know who's more tired me or him! of course he wanted to climb up the section that he's not quite tall enough to get up on his own.. so he could get to the curly slide. thankfully i was meeting 2 friends i made at the post natal classes from having ds. the one who had baby #2 2wks ago and another who's just broody.. so i got a little rest when ds dragged broody friend off to help him when i got puffed.

chocolatebunnies i had to check back over my email to remind me exactly where you were.. so not stalking you honest i would go out somewhere new with the expectation of just having fun with dd.. but if you're there on a regular basis who knows.. there'll prob be people in same boat as you. go on give it a go the first time is always the worst and far easier in reality than the thought of it. we've all gone through it at some stage.. view it as a job/task that you have to get done & book into your diary if that gives you the push to go.. i'd offer to come down and chum you but think drive to NA and back might be too long for ds.

Hi everyone. Sorry, not had chance to totally catch up but hope you are all well. chocolatebunnies, sorry you are feeling low. I've been crying on and off all day today, for no real reason. I was on antidepressants on and off for several years (have had CBT too) and it's nearly a year since I last had any, which is good in a way but I just have those days/weeks where I know if I took something, I'd be feeling a lot better. Hey ho.

Belgian, I'm glad you're feeling better - the osteo sounds really good.

I've got swollen feet today so might get pins and needles later...tends to happen quite a bit. Also got lower back ache. Nice. Sorry, just feeling sorry for myself today - argh. Pathetic.

fikelly we were at soft play yesterday and I ended up going on the big, wavy slide several times before my friend (the voice of reason) suggested that it possibly wasn't the best thing to do at 33 weeks. And I think she might be right!

We met friends at the park today and fed the ducks. I feel a bit miserable sometimes but getting out in the fresh air really helps. I get a bit down if I stay in all day, and DS does too.

Good afternoon all, and a happy Friday to you!

chocbunnies sorry to hear how you're feeling. Have you had a look at your local children's centre? Have a look here www.surestart.gov.uk/surestartservices/settings/surestartchildrenscentres/ for your local one. Every children's centre should have Family Outreach Workers (may be called something different in your area) whose job it is to work with families to help them to engage with Children's Centres activities, especially when parents are feeling isolated. In my pre-maternity leave role I had family outreach workers working with me, and they would go out and visit families and help them to identify groups and activities they could attend and also where appropriate would go along with mum and children to groups to help them settle in. It may be worth a look and a phonecall to your local centre. (Sorry if I'm teaching grannie to suck eggs and you've already tried this route).

I love the biting the dentist story. Must remember that for my next visit...

I think it's time for my nap now, been up since 5am - couldn't sleep due to being too excited about meeting LO!!

Nighty night!

Day was as horrific as expected, DS1's bio Dad has just picked him up for his access weekend which should have been last week but he considerately booked a holiday with his girlfriend last week instead. Ended up having a screaming argument with him which upset my DS2 before he stomped off like the self-righteous prick that he is. I'm absolutely fuming. I'm so tired and my pelvis is so effing sore, I just didn't need that today at all.

In other news, my referral to the women's physiotherapisthas just been received so they called me today and told me to go to a group class on dealing with SPD/PGP which I have to attend before they'll give me an individual appointment with a physio. This is the fourth pregnancy for me, I know what I should and should not be doing I just want some exercises to do and ARGH I AM SO BLOODY ANGRY AT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD TODAY.

Ugh.

Evening all.

Just back from Thomasland. DS is shattered bless him. Barely enough energy to stay awake for tea! No, thats me!

chocbunnies sorry to see you are feeling so down. You whinge away, love. Thats what we are here for! You've had some really good suggestions so far. Does Madi go to nursery or anything? A couple of the mums I am now friendly with I have met through DS's nursery. They were the parents of some of the LO's he is friendly with and we just happen to have clicked with them. Just met at pick up time and so on, and now we get together regularly on Fridays with the LO's and sometimes without the kids too.

DH is out after work tonight and has been gone since 6.30am this morning so am hoping that DS will be in bed a bit early so I can put my feet up.Am exhausted!! Think I may even have a glass of wine tonight!

chocbunnies Gert2a does make a good suggestion with the children's centre. They generally have very good facilities and have help at hand for isolated parents. My strategy for coping with the dcs at home is also to just leave the house just for the sake of it. Even just popping down the local shop or park is enough. It lets them stretch their legs and get rid of some energy so they can be calm and settled indoors.

blotted I wonder what use a group session on spd/pgp could be. Sufferers need individual assessment. What to do and not can just be put in a leaflet! TBH all the advise my physio gave to me I already knew from previous pregnancies and back then I just got the info from the Babycentre!

momino have you tried hand expressing to get your milk supply started. This tends to be more successful when there's only colostrum.

About soft play areas. When ds was about 18 months my dh accompanied ds up the climbing structure and when he was at the top about to go down the tall helter skelter type slide one of the attendants called out over the speaker systems that adults weren't allowed on the climbing frame and could he please come off. Oh that made him , but also v. , because it was nearly empty and at 18m our ds was too small to climb without help.

ladyhelen sounds like you had fun in Thomasland. How suitable is if for a 7yo you think? Would it be a bit too babyish? I was thinking about taking the dcs there this easter break.

blotted your day turned out so pants & very frustrating that you have to attend a group session before you get an individual app.. at least it's a start though. i'm still waiting on my referral to our local physio (coming up to 2wks now) for my bump strain problems. at this rate lo will have been born when the app comes through! our physio works part time..

Blotted - sorry you've had such a bad day... I had to attend a physio group. It wasn't too bad, there were only 4 of us. They went through individually where and what the problems were and although most of the exercises etc were general they did try and tailor it to everyones problems. I did notice at the end they seemed to be doing a 1:1 with one of the ladies. So hopefully you'll get something out of it...

Just had a nightmare takeaway - the nightmare being me! We order it online and they deliver - only I hit the wrong button and said I was picking it up, then the printer wouldn't work so I couldn't print off order. DH was narked that I was in bad mood when he got in. Anyhow off we trot in rush hour to pick up said takeaway only to find they'd delivered it by mistake - it didn't taste that great either!

Just been reading the info the breastfeeding nazi counsellor gave me. It says I should start trying to express at 36 weeks as alot of gd mums are induced at 38 weeks

Obviously as this is my first baby I have never tried to express before so this should be interesting

If I have to be induced at 38 weeks that's only a week after I finish work

looby- this is my third baby and i've never tried to express before delivery. Is it really necessary? My milk did take a while to come in with DD but my midwife said it was due to the traumatic birth so not sure whether expressing before would have made things any better. With my DS my milk came in on the Fri after the cs on the Tues which i thought was pretty good really. I just got a bit with the photographer woman in hospital who was telling me DS was hungry and i should give him some formula as i wasn't satisfying him - firstly, what did she know; secondly, was it any of her business and thirdly, i am sure he was crying more because he was fed up of her trying to take his photo and was tired!

pula apparently because my baby will be used to high sugar in placenta due to my gd when he/she is born she will have a sugar low - the expressed colostrum will help regulate this. This is why the bf counsellor gave me sterile pots/syringes.

does anyone know if the quinny buzz needs a special tyre pump? we bought ours second hand with no pump and were wondering if a normal bike pump would fit

looby I've only just discovered that they advise that, when at my leaving party our infant co-ordinator (who is brilliant btw and she even has a fan page on FB!), asked me if I'm expressing yet. I've never done it with the other 2 and managed to bf successfully. Personally I can't really see the point, but I suppose it might increase your milk supply before baby is born, so it's worth having a go. TBH I have tried to hand express already, but only just to see if there's anything in there at the moment (there is and quite a bit of it too), but it's not a regular thing. Just a curiosity thing.
Learing how to hand express is a useful skill though. It's just a bit tricky to learn sometimes. I used it myself when I went back to work and got too uncomfortable but was unable to get my pump out, I just quickly went to the loo and squeezed enough out to get some relief!

daizy sounds like a nightmare takeaway. Shame it didn't taste nice after all of the hassle too.

blotted Hope your evening is going to be better than your day.

fi I hope your physio comes through soon. Otherwise chase it up with them, they can't leave you wait too long at this stage.

I feel like I'm coming on with a cold or something. I hope not, coughing with a bum stuck under my ribs is not going to be nice. Maybe an early night tonight is going to help.

Night everyone.