Due Jan 2010 - watching our beans grow into bumps :-)

[sazlocks]

As we all talk so fast the last thread is nearly full so thought I would start us off on a new one

I hadn't even thought about cots, co-sleeping or anything else really. Sil's have loads of stuff they want to dump on us...so I figured I'd look what was there when the time came and pick up what was lacking. It's great to hear all the differing techniques, pro's and cons of co-sleeping.

I'm afraid I'm a play it by ear kind of person, lists are made to be ignored and what you don't have you adapt something to fit the bill should the need arise.

somewhathorrified I think play it by ear is best as then you won't get stressed if your baby doesn't do what you expect. As my DM said, your DD hasn't read the books. I definitely took everything that people offered and then weeded out anything that I didn't like/use.

amyboo we have a mothercare cotbed that dd is currently in as a bed. Planning to put her in proper toddler bed and use as cot. I am wondering if it will work as a side-car cot or not. I will have to look at the height adjustments and compare to bed.

Ooh, my smileys and bold have come back, they weren't working on the "4wks..." thread - how bizarre.

ooh, I've had the 'the baby hasn't read the baby books' advice too!

I fully intend to just muddle through and try to get to baby's first birthday - can't see me being smug perfect mummy type...

Hmm, I haven't read the the medical books, but that doesn't mean if the doctor gets the diagnosis and treatment right my body doesn't respond....

Sorry, i'm not a great baby book lover as I've said before, but ....

I guess you can only do what suits you and your family at the end of the day. What is your right is someone elses wrong and vice versa.
FWIW I didn't bother with any how to do it books and just played it by ear. That's partly because I don't do being told what to do very well . The only certainty I had before giving birth was that I wanted to breastfeed. I didn't really give much else a thought and just trusted that it would all fall into place at some point. Which it did, eventually.

i always wanted both my babies to go straight into a moses basket from birth but sadly both ended up co sleeping which was good for bf but at 9 months my ds would not sleep wothout latching on and i could no longer get comfy so he went in his own cot. even at hospital they would not sleep in that plastic cot thing and i tend to have to stay for two nights at least in hopital due to gd and GBS. dd stayed in my bed til about 6 months since finding out i was pregnant i did not want to have one in then as soon as she was out another was in as needed time jsut for me and dp iykwim. i also think a woman is aware of baby lying there so does not roll on top though would not say the same for man and if a woman has been drinking/medication.
i found that if baby fell asleep before my prefered bedtime i would put them in my bed as at newborn stage they cant roll so guarnateed they are still in same position when return to bed.

Yay sazlocks another rebel!

Finally managing not to have to pee all night, although now one of the cats has decided that he's gonna keep me up anyway. I am wondering if baby learns sleep patterns in the womb...if so I'm screwed.

I think babies are most active when we are least active; my midwife told me last time that when we're resting they get extra oxygen which makes them active, and they're rocked to sleep inside there when we're busy rushing about. Hmm, so they learn to sleep when we're awake and bounce about when we're trying to rest... never mind, we're diurnal animals, they get it eventually!

Talking of rebels, is anyone (else) planning a home birth?

i would like a home birth but tooo afraid incase something went wrong and be too paraniod about the midwife thinking my home is a mess though i am currently nesting very early at my dps house which i am sweeping twice a day as my puppy is shedding continuously thick black hair!

Hi all, I know I last posted about 6 weeks ago but have been trying to keep tabs on this thread!

Just wanted to say I have booked for a home birth this time, dp is not totally happy about it but its not him doing it is it! all my labours have been very quick, I would have had ds3 at home but complications meant I had to deliver in hospital.

Also, ds2 would never sleep in his moses basket and ended up co-sleeping with me which resulted in a bit of a sleep prob. I got the Amby's nature nest for ds3 (who was the devil baby incarnate) and he actually slept well in it - but was still bit of a nighttime waker - however i do believe that had I not had it he would have been 10x worse.

Thanks verycherry, glad to hear I am not alone. I booked for a home birth last time, but at 37 weeks dd's heart rate dropped below 110 for a short while. We were monitored for hours the same day and her heart rate was fine, and a scan showed nothing, but in the end I swapped to the birthing suite just in case, and had a fantastic experience.

So, I've booked for home again this time, on the basis that, like last time, I won't be stubborn about it should there be any doubt about it being safe for me.

Am hoping to get a pool.... feel really excited when I talk about this.

It is exciting isn't it? I am starting to get quite excited, I had a fairly medicalised pregnancy and delivery last time which was fine as was obviously needed (bled from 8-30 wks).

This time I am having as little intervention as poss as it all seems to be going ok. Not sure where I'll have this baby though, am thinking living room but dp says it makes him feel funny!! last labour was 45 mins so not sure I'll get much choice where I have it though!

Our two downstairs rooms are knocked through, and I'm hoping to put a pool in the dining room end (which will soon lose its use as a dining room as we are extending our kitchen at the moment). We should have a lovely new french window in that room by then, and I'm imagining dp stoking the open fire in the other room... I'm being hopelessly romantic about this aren't I?

The other good thing about the living room idea IMO is that once baby is born you can retreat to the calm clean sanctuary of your bedroom while other people sort out the muddle you've left in your wake downstairs....

(Knowing me I'll decide to change the sheets on my bed just before I go into labour and I'll end up giving birth in a chinese laundry and then realise there are no sheets on my 'retreat'. Ha ha.

Hi All

My DD slept in her own room at night from a few weeks old in a moses basket until 6 mths (she's quite little like me so lots of room),we put the moses basket into her cot -on top of the mattress, cot sides up, so she was used to the 'view' at night. The door was open and we had an angelcare alarm to monitor sounds/breathing. We hadn't intended to use a moses basket, but she looked so little and lost in her cot that we thought she'd feel more secure in a smaller bed, and she seemed to. We could carry her around the house in it to keep an eye on her for day naps too. We have a spare bed in her room so it was easy for me to stay on 'busier' nights, but also lovely to have our room too, or so we thought. She can't get out of her room now as instead of having gates on the stairs we have one on her room (for safety!). If she needs us she just calls out and we pop into her. When she was ill recently my DH went to the spare room so she could sleep with me, but she wouldn't have it, she wanted her own space and her own bed! She's slept through most nights from 5-6 mths to now (3 yrs). So I'm going to try the same with DC2, but depends what s/hes like I guess

13 days until I find out out whether DD/DS, anyone else already know? I'm pretty sure it's a DS, but then I thought that with DD too

Hello all.

Just got back from being bannished to my parents. DH came down with the dreaded swine flu on sunday, so had to pack up me and the boys and escape the germs.
I'm glad to be back home. I had to share a double bed with the boys, and DS2 takes up and awful lot of room for a three year old. I ended up laying across the bottom of the bed with an office chair on the end so I had somewhere to put my feet. I'm hoping I'll be able to catch up on some sleep, but had really restless legs last night so couldn't settle. Grr.

On the plus side the boys behaved really well, so my parents have booked a caravan for us all to stay in at the end of august. We haven't been able to afford a holiday for the last few years so I'm properly excited.

Hello everyone, is it OK if I join? My first baby is due on 28th January. I am starting to develop a bump, which I am finding a little bit strange! Things are now starting to become real.

hi all and welcome.
got my triple test results and saddened that not as good as before, risk has changed by over 2000 in the space of a year! and yet again they have not tested me for neural tube defects! this happened with the first pregnancy when i said yes to screenign and turns out they did not! will be moaning at my mw. jsut hope that the scan is ok. my ratio is low risk but not as low as my previous one which has freaked me out. i guess i took it for granted that i would have another ratio of 1:3000+
i have also exploded in size too, i have a huge bump now! apparatnly dp said i am gong to be massive! cheers babe!

Welcome brasso4. And Bethoo, what was your triple test result? And what it is against your background risk?

Hello all.
I had a homebirth booked last time with a pool set up and everything. Unfortunately I went very overdue after 12 days of stop start labour (cos DS back to back) so ended up being induced at 42+1. My 'birthing haven(!)' however was well used during the many nights of stop start labour! I took DS for a splash in the pool the night we got home, DS enjoyed the swim while DH and I both had a good cry after what by then had been 2 very tough weeks

Not sure what will do this time, thought would probably go for hospital birth, but at booking my midwife encouraged going for a home birth again, saying they'd send out 'their best' seeing as I'd ended up with a c-sec last time. Seeing her next week for 16 week check so will discuss further. I think she meant if I'm going to labour slowly again, I'd have little chance of vbac in hospital.

Hi maygirl, good luck with your decision... nice to hear that the pool was very useful eventhough you didn't end up with the home birth you had planned.

Biccy it was 1:924 which is low risk but such a drastic drop from before. i had no other tests liek a nuchal fold as they do not do it here. it is low risk so should not worry but it makes me think what has changed so much wiht me? i only had my dd last year! it makes me wonder what the results will be if i get pregnant again. i tried to decipher my results on the net but does not give the range in which i was in at all so will ask my mw what each result is, is it normal or slightly higher etc. i am getitng in a tiz over nothing as i know some women here did have high risk (though all ok) so i should not be moaning really.

Bethoo its probably alot to do with age, if you're 1-2 years older than when tested with DD. I haven't had the tests but my risk just going by my age has statistically almost doubled in the 3 years since I had DS.

Thanks Biccy

Can't believe how quick time seems to be going.

I'm having a few problems with dd she seems so angry all the time this morning she even told me she doesn't want me to have a baby and she's going to get rid of it when it comes
She has been finding the injections hard and dh had to hold her down
She just seems to have so much hatred at the mo I really don't know how to deal with her

Oh, alibobins poor you and your dd (and your dh too)

Sending you lots of {{{{{hugs}}}}}.

Is there anyone at the hospital who could help her and you deal with it? I think sometimes children are angry but they can't really project it onto the right place IYSWIM. Not in anyway the same scope or seriousness but dd is completely resistant to taking any oral medicine after being in hospital and having to be held down a few times.

bethoo my triple test for dd was in the 1000s (can't remember exactly) and the bloods (didn't have nuchal for her) 4 yrs later was 1:500. Yes, it is scary how much it changes! Still you have a low risk, though. I have mw appointment on Fri so will see if she has written record and if tested for spina bifida too as I wasn't given those results - you have just reminded me, thanks!