Due in June 15 - The competition for first baby is on!!

[katzguk]

Crisp and clean new thread....can't you just smell that new baby aroma!!

Sorry, cross-posted Welshie. So glad the experience was so calm, despite the potential worries. Do you have a name for him? Hope the recovery is quick and that your DD is pleased with her new brother.

Hurrah for the Lummoxes! Have done the obligatory update to ... our constantly-changing baby stats Welshie, should I update Welshbaby's colour to blue at least given you have confirmed he isn't green?!

Bero, great news that Samuel is home.

Charley, I read that article about water birth, it sounds like bollocks to me quite frankly. The implication was clearly that women were putting their own comfort over the safety of their baby just because he could cite one example of a water birth that had gone less than smoothly. Sorry, but there is no 100%-guaranteed way to give birth that carries no risk to either mother or child. It will take a lot more than one grumpy old codger to get me out of the pool if that's what I decide to go for. (I'm not ruling out an epidural so not certain how I'll deliver).

Actually, here's a hidden risk of childbirth the midwife mentioned at our first parentcraft class tonight - make sure your dh/dp is safe to drive home afterwards. If he's been up for hours and hours and hours it could be dangerous for him to drive home. Apparently two dads have been killed driving home from our hospital in the last 15 years. Scary stuff

Anyway, I shall finish on that cheery note and catch up with you all tomorrow.

Congratulations to the Lummoxes - great names (am already v biased about the middle one though )

Congratulations to you Lummox. Hope it all went smoothly in the end and look forward to hearing from you when you are up to it.
Pink - Take care, and blooming well stay in bed if you want to! Try not to worry about things. You are very well prepared even if you don't feel it. Mental preparation is very hard I think and I don't think I really believed about dd until she was with us.
Welshie - Glad that things worked out so well for your birth. Your consultant seems like a star just the perfect person you needed with you. It is great to hear how gorgeous your little boy is. I can really imagine him now, so sweet. What about a name though?
Trib - That is a v good point about the DH's. My DH was shattered having been up for well over 24 hrs before driving home. We didn't think about it at the time...
Lua - Hope you had some good news yesterday and all is OK.
Red - Hooray for proper maternity leave. Hope you can rest and enjoy it.
We had a gorgeous meal out last night for DH's old Sgt who is leaving next week. We went to a place called Little Plates where they serve just that, lots of little plates of exciting food like deep fried celery leaves, paprika chicken, olives in sweet and sour, octopus, prawns, lamb wrapped in vine leaves etc. It was lovely and included three courses for £13.50. Can't knock that can you. I ate slowly and was able to enjoy it all as well mmmmmm.
The midwife shortage (GRRRR) is def a problem that I don't think will be solved soon as they are now advertising for people on the radio etc. What a shambles. Well the sun is shining and my hairdresser is coming round at 10.30 which will be a nice treat so I am off to have my shower and start my day. I have very little planned actually and am determined to have a nap as we have our Spring Ball tonight and I want to be refreshed for that. Have nice days all.

Cooperoo- enjoy your ball tonight, we have ours on the 17th June, we are having a beach party night!! Should be interesting

DRAMA drama drama

CONGTRATS To LUMMOX and WELSHIE

I nearly joined you both as we had a false alarm on wed/thursday as I thought I had ruptured my membranes, but had no contractions- had to go back and forth for monitoring over 48 hours, Then my blood pressure went way high and I then had to have ECG and Blood taken, Urine, etc, etc there was then slight conversations of induction /cesarean stuff until I did finally see a doctor and she concluded i hadn't ruptured membranes BUT spent 6 hours in hospital till blood pressure went down so o.kay now, but now have to be montiored for that. I am booked in Monday for all day tests. Arrgh

What a drama.

So i am trying to take it easy now, but it's no fun having your feet up all day. My husband had taken the day off work coz we thought contractions would start, so he was a bit upset last night that there's no baby yet. He went back to work today

Guess what!!!! i just had a knock at the door and a big bunch of flowers came from his work. OOOPS Lucky their beautiful Australain natives that last, so baby may get to see them before they die.

love patiently waiting

Mrs W - I have come back on line especially as I remembered about your potty training comments while I was in the shower. Isn't that typical. I thought dd was going to do the same to me but as I am certainly not ready at the moment we are waiting a few more months. I had visions of new baby and trip to UK just ruining any hard work we might do now.....
Uki - Sorry to hear of your drama too. It is all go. Was it a show instead of your waters? When I had my show they thought it was my waters but when they checked they were still intact. Sorry to hear of your blood pressure problems too. You must take it easy though for the sake of you and the baby so FEET UP!!!! Flowers sound beautiful. You have reminded me about all the lovely flowers cards and gifts we got last time. We ran out of vases several times over! Take care.
I have had an ache at the top left of my bump and in my back for over a day now. I think it is where the bump keeps kicking me combined with my BH but it is really beginning to annoy me now. Oh the joys of pregnancy! Has anyone else noticed a slowing in their bowel movements since the babies have moved down? I seem to be a bit windier too double . Please don't say it is only me. My name looks a long way down on Tribs list of stats though so I had better get used to it for a little while more.
Karen - Enjoy your beach party!! Sounds great fun. It is a Hollywood themed ball tonight, although I won't be making it to breakfast this year I don't expect. I am aiming for 2 am and think that is optimistic!

Uki, sorry to hear about the drama. How long have you got until your due date? Sounds like a long rest, some good books/DVDs and lots of chocolate are in order. Good luck for the tests on Monday.

Cooperoo, this potty training lark isn't fun! Lots more washing to start with, not to mention the constant 'do you need a wee-wee?' questions! I blame the spiderman underpants - DS is so proud of them he keeps wanting to show them off to people

Have a lovely time at your ball tonight. What are you going to wear?

No news from Lua after her sweep?

Had a great night's sleep last night, only two loo visits and no night-time wakings for DS so I feel like a new person.

Morning everyone

Have been offline, literally and mentally [cross eyed emoticon]. Have been at MIL's while we had the floors sanded which was a saga and a half I wont even go into. SO, what's new...

Congratulations Welshie and family on the arrival of your little boy

Congratulations Lummox on the arrival of your little boy

I have only skimmed the rest of the chat...

Berolina, you are all together at home now? Lovely!

I am not going to be having this baby in May, definitely not! Although yesterday at my 36 week check, the midwife looked very alarmed when she palpated me, feeling for the head. Guess what?? Only 2/5's palpable So, 3/5's engaged. Baby's heartbeat was too fast so she sent me off to hospital to be put on a CTG for a while and all was fine. But when the mw there palpated me she also seemed alarmed at how 'engaged' the head was "you're only 36 weeks aren't you?" !!

Ah well, it doesn't mean baby will come early though, that's what both of them reassured me anyway!!

Charley, glad you're feeling better. I too have had a sore throat the last couple of mornings. So far it hasn't turned into anything awful, thank god. I hate not being drugged up to the eyeballs when I'm ill, it's not right!!

How great that all these little cutie pie babies are coming along, slowly but surely!

Today is going to be a scorcher! We had brekkie outside at 7am!! For goodness' sake, no-one moan, this will only be about the 6th nice day we've had so far this year!!! Unlike you lucky ones in Oz and Cyprus!!

Morning all,
Congratulations to the Lummoxes, very exciting! And what a great name.
Bero, so pleased to hear that you are all home and it's going well.
Lipstick, my friend had her babies head engaged from about 30 weeks and she still had to be induced! It's a funny old thing, I'm 37 weeks on Sunday and the heads not engaged yet, but apparently that's not unusal for 2nd babies.
Uki, sorry to hear about your drama.

Went to the midwife yesterday and it wasn't my usual one, which puts you out of sinc abit, if you know what I mean. She was nice enough, but not the same. Anyway, she's going to organise for me to see a consultant at some point to talk about an elective episiotomy, as I had a 3degree tear last time, and am now starting to worry about it the closer things get.

Weather gorgeous down here in Canterbury, have to make sure the ds is well covered in sun cream today. Am wondering what to do, think we'll go to the park. Oh and must get car taxed as well, can't beleive how much it costs, as was used to having co car before.

Must get on, will check in later.

Morning all

Haven't got time to do a proper catch up, but just had to say congratulations Lummox on your arrival!

Glad you're home safely with Samuel, Bero.

And lovely to hear all well with you Welshie, congratulations again.

Hope everyone else is well - sorry to hear about your drama Uki, take it easy.

Lovely day here, will get some work done this morning while ds is at nursery then probably let him 'help' to wash the cars this pm - his very favourite activity but it has to be warm and sunny or we freeze due to excessive water 'spillage'.

Morning all! It is a beautiful day even in Manchester! Yey!

First things first.... CONGRATULATION to the Lummoxes!! Glad it all went well, and that you were back from France in time!

Welshie good to hear from you! Enjoy you gorgeous looking boy! So glad it all end up well given all the possible serious complications!

Uki, take it easy and enjoy your flowers. That ought to lower your blood pressure!

Pink, congrats on finishing the exams!

Mrs.W congrats on DS graduating to underpants! I know it isn't the best timing, but it is still so exciting for him! He is a big boy now! Just in time to take care of {whispers - little sis?!?!}. Yeah, I am outting my money down you are having a girl this time....

So, yesterday was a worrying visit.... Consultant couldn't do a sweep because uterous still all the way up! CTG seemed fine, but MW keep worrying me asking all kind of bizarre questions and loosing his heartbeat... Than they did a growth scan and he is down to 50% percentile, which might indicate his growth is slowing .... So it looks like wed. is officially my deadline! I am trying the clary sage and the castor oil for tuesday, in a last desperate attempt to bring labour on... I decide to officially wrap up work and house cleaning/ painting today. On the off chance I need to tell my brain he can shut down and let the labour hormones take over.... Hopefully the good weather will continue and I'll spend the weekend with my feet up in the garden!

Hope everyone else have a nice one too!

Morning all!
Charley - my MW said not to pant due to risk of hyperventilation. Instead the suggested 'blowing out candles' (I think someone else on here suggested that?) or making a short 'uh' sound. Also holding breath during the actual push and putting head on chest. Between contractions I had an oxygen mask just to make sure Samuel was getting the oxygen he needed.
Did I alreadycongratulate Lummox? If not - congratulations!!! Wonder how many more May babies we'll have?
Had quite a difficult night with Samuel. He was quite upset and crying/screaming a lot. Needless to say he wouldn't go on the breast... We gave him little feeds every hour for the first couple of hours because he seemed hungry, but my MW, who came today, reckoned it was prob wind and in future to massage his tummy first, then give him a whole feed if he doesn't calm down. In the end all my EBM was gone and I just didn't have the strength to start expressing at 4am, so the next couple of feeds were formula - I fell into a bit of a black hole, thinking 'I'll never be able to bf but I WANT to WANT to WANT to' ... Anyway, this morning we had a long cuddle in bed - he didn't take the breast, but it really does seem like he wants to - he 'looks' for it and is very happy to lie on my chest with nipple in mouth - there's just something which hasn't fallen into place yet. Then I expressed 90ml, then my MW came and was very reassuring - reckons he will start feeding when things have settled down/he's a bit heavier (3kg or so). Reckoned the most important thing is for me to keep my cool. She had a look at Samuel too and said he seems fine - and he's gained weight again .

Afternoon all

So no babies today yet??

Mrs W -sympathies on the potty training - it is literally a pile of pants!!
We're still in the throws of potty training too although ds is mostly on the loo now unless there's something amazing on cbeebies in which case I have to waddle to find the potty and sit it in front of the TV - anything for a quiet life atm! The worst thing is that after 8 weeks of pants - ds stil refuses point blank to tell me if he needs to go and just does a fidgety wiggle and shouts "MY PANTS ARE STILL NICE AND DRY MUMMY!!" with a desperate look on his face - grrrr.

What happens when he does this while I'm feeding this baby??? Is he just lazy? ARgh.

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all feeling okay.

Trib, thanks for the DH driving advice ? sounds v. sensible. I?ll make sure my DH takes extra special care.

Coop, enjoy your spring ball. Sounds v. energetic!! I?d be so proud of myself if I stayed up till 2am. I feel slightly proud every time I make it out in the evenings

Uki, sounds like you?ve been having a stressful time of it all. Does that mean you?ll get another set of flowers from DH?s work for the actual arrival . Best of luck for Monday.

MrsWed, lol at your DS showing the world his Spidey underpants. Being a little boy, I suspect that dropping his trousers at every opportunity is a habit he won?t ever grow out of .

Lua, does that mean that they are definitely going to induce you on Wed? Make sure you take it easy until then. Hope you?re outside enjoying the lovely weather?..

I've spent a lovely day outside gardening today. DH and I are off this evening to try and buy him a new car (well, new to him anyway). I would MUCH prefer not to have to go, but he wants me there, so there goes 2 hours of my evening . If he likes it, we'll have to go back again with a mechanic mate of ours to check it out Still, needs must.

TMI ALERT TMI ALERT I've finally persuaded DH to try the apparently only successful method of inducing contractions (..whispers.. if you know what I mean...). And NOTHING!!!Not even that seems to make any difference. GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Afternoon girls

Thought I'd try a better catch up today!

Welshie - great to hear from you - wow at the sudden seriousness of the situ - so glad you had your lovely consultant there and that everythings all fine now

Uki - how awful about your recent drama's - fingers crossed all goes ok for the testing on monday.

Bero - I'm sure it won't take long and everything boobie wise will just click for Samuel.

Lua - yup agree you should just put your feet up and enjoy the weekend...think of it as the lull before the storm! I'm sure you're right and if you stop and take it easy things may happen of their own accord.

Jonah - LOL - I had to persuade dh to do that too!!! hasn't worked here either - and mw also said it's the only definite surefire way she knows too, so poor dh - if dd-to-be doesn't come over the weekend, he's in for a rough two weeks he he he!

Mrs W - bless re the spidey pants...my ds has some Mr Men ones and that's what finally encouraged him to try the potty training. GOOD LUCK with it - once it clicks for him you'll be so glad it's out of the way, and when they're ready it really does click very fast

Lippy - great to hear from you again - your breakfast sounds wonderful.

Pink - don't worry about the staying in bed thing - enjoy it, and sleep sleep sleep whilst you can

Charley - he he he did you get your takeaway in the end? We ended up with fish & chips - saving the curry for next week if things don't happen . Don't worry about the weight thing. Weighed myself today and I've put on exactly 3 stones (4lb's in the last 3 weeks!) - but I put on similar with ds, and within about 3-4 months I only had 7lbs to go without really trying. It's a state of mind thing and you've done it before so you know you can do it!

Mrs F - LOL re the car washing too! My ds is exactly the same - wears more of the water than manages to get over the cars

Lynny - as my nanna says 'you soppy old date you' do you know I spent the afternoon of your post trying to find a joke to cheer you up! so I guess I'm just as soppy!

Coop - have a lovely time tonight, am very sounds like it will be a great do.

Right had better go now, ds wants play time and I'm starting to feel abit bad about how little time I'll be able to give him over the next few weeks so have been rather indulgent this last week or so...even gave in and had just ice cream for lunch ...well it is a nice day and I am still pg (just - fingers crossed)...nope I'm not convincing myself, hey ho . Hope you all enjoy the weekend and I'll try to log in and catch up providing dd-to-be doesn't arrive tomorrow as due x

hello everyone!

thought i'd better post. nothing happening here!

Hi girls waves

So sorry that I haven't got time to scour the posts but thanks to Tribpot I have been able to catch up on who's had what - wow us early birds are popping them out LOL

Congratulations to all of us with our new babies and lots of love and luck for those of you waiting.

Little Brandon is doing so well and is a dream baby.

I have now gone over to the Health Visitor care and felt so sad to say goodbye to the midwives that I have become close to. Its hard as well as I know that Brandon is my last and I wanted to savour every moment. It goes so fast ladies, so enjoy.

Well just making the most of some quiet time.

Again good luck to you all and speak soon.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee xxx

Hello All!

Will try to read all the posts in the morning. I have just had a look at Trib's update page and I see we have had yet more arrivals!!

Congratulations Welshmum!

And more congratulations to Lummox!

You lucky, lucky ladies!! It's like you have passed over to..... the other side.... of childbirth!

* Moan alert *
Today was supposed to be my last day at work, however, as I may have said before, I am sure my boss is in complete denial, and he managed to load me up with a whole pile of stuff to do this morning, which still isn't complete. As I feel a certain amount of loyalty towards my clients and co-workers I feel compelled to do a few hours work next week to tidy up all the loose ends. Completely buggers up my leave though. Do I start leave anyway and claim the hours? Get paid on top of leave? Get paid instead of leave? Grrrrr... should not be in this position . Thought DP was going to hit the roof, but he was very calm and accepting...

Good news is that I now have a jacuzzi in my living room!! It is absolutely HUGE!!! Haven't filled it yet, but am planing on doing so tomorrow and inviting the neighbours round for a pool party!

Well, take care all. How many more babies will we have by the end of May?? xx

Evening ladies, hope we are all well even if it seems as if none of us are in labour just now. (A record?)

Lua - sorry to hear you couldn't have your sweep (although those things are meant to be bloody painful aren't they?) - hope the castor oil does the trick.

Uki - nightmare dramas for you, I hope you have your feet up and are being chilled out.

Talking of chilling, it has been SOOOO hot today that I wanted to die. With apols to Coop and indeed Uki who have to endure the heat all the time (although I guess it's mid-winter in Oz?). I bought some of these little fellas from Mothercare and I must say, I dunno whether they will be good for sore boobs but they are excellent for swollen feet

Back agony again today, ironically it's the chairs in the parentcraft room at the hospital which are the cause. Fortunately next week we get our hospital visit so we won't be sitting down for 2 hours.

Well, hope we all have nice weekends, I shall be endeavouring not to go into labour whilst dh is over in Holland. Fortunately I think the weather is turning cooler tomorrow - THANK GOD for that.

PS My midwife said the baby is partly engaged, I couldn't make her say 3/5 but I bet she was thinking it

Scraggy - I have the opposite situation, I'm just about to finish a document and the two people who I need to review it are both on leave next week (my last week). I offered to do a few days of the following week just to tidy up and my boss refused. Perhaps if my boss could talk to your boss ...

Not sure what to do about starting your leave, I'd talk to HR directly if I were you, esp as this might earn your boss a telling-off (which he clearly deserves).

Sadly Trib, I'm all the HR we have had until recently.... my colleague in London is now taking that over and I don't think she's really got the standing that she needs to give my boss the telling off he deserves!! Am goig to work out what's best financially and then claim it. Grrr....

Oh well, at least you won't have to worry too much, you'll hopefully have forgotten your doc by the time they review it, as you'll be wallowing in the delicious smell of new baby! x

Oh, I've been surfing a lot the last week and have two recommended sites for everyone...

Super cheap BF tops - Works out at about £40 for 3 tops including postage, AND you can pay by PayPal.
bf tops

Super cheap baby stuff
Baby stuff

Ok no babies arriving today - I'm off to bed again
take care

Good Morning Everyone

One day soon I will log on a little later than usual and have a live chat to you all. I just get really bored about 2pm time here and need a fix.

Thanks for all your good wishes, Blood pressure was normal today, but still have to do all day tests monday- over cautious doctors!!!

I think my suspected waters breaking was just watery mucus, which apparently does increase before labour. I am 38 weeks today, so baby could still be potentially early. I have everything fully ready now. car seat fitted, basinette made up with a wrapped up cookie monster keeping the bed warm till baby arrives, dh thought about taking that to work on friday, as he had nothing else to show them.

keep cool everyone. I think summer is nice for babies, but not so nice for pregnant ladies and the opposite for winter.

Although i am still getting like really hot sometimes and then sometimes i have freeezing cold feet.