Feb 2010 part III,

[mamaloco]

Sorry I couldn't wait anymore half of us is in the 3rd trimester and half will followed soon
Welcome sharon I have added you to the list

27th Jan Devotion DD1 6yrs & DD2 3yrs
1st Feb Moth2, 1st but also stepdaughter 3 yrs
2nd Feb Raindroprhyme DS1 8y, DS2 4y
2nd Feb Ktpie DS 13m
3rd Feb sunangel88 1st
4th Feb mothrof2boys
5th Feb chinook Dd 3.6yo
7th Feb grin DS 1 yr 6 m
7th Feb mamaloco DD will be 5y near due date
8th Feb fiziwizzle, 1st
8th Feb gingerkirsty, 1st
8th Feb PinguCarrier, 1st
10th Feb Lovelymonster, 1st
10th Feb T4tastic 1st
11th Feb Woowa 1st
12th Feb Fluffycoo 1st
12th Feb Yummylilmummy 1st
13th Feb mignightsun DS 3y
14th Feb tryingtobemarypoppins DS 21months currently!
14th Feb Clappedout DD 21m
14th Feb Pops78, 1st
14th Feb Glynnispig 1st
14th Feb Threeplusone- DD 12.11yrs DS1 5.2yrs DS2 2.1yrs
14th Feb Stoofadoof, DD 2.11
15 Feb AngelaCarleen 1st
15 Feb flyingcloud 1st
16th Feb GuernseyFrench 1st
16 Feb Watercress DD1 2y 10m
16 Feb esselle - DD 5.1y, DS 20m
16 Feb hannahsaunt - ds1 (8.11), ds2 (6.5), ds3 (23mo)
17 Feb Bethylou - DS currently 16 months
17 Feb Becks130 - DS 3.5 yrs
18 Feb Sunnybump - First
19 Feb Sharon137-
20 Feb Gert ds 22m
20 Feb Cluny 1st
21 Feb Pyjamababe - First
22 Feb Skibelle
22 Feb Scoobydoo
23 Feb 2Happy ds1 4y ds2 2y
23 Feb (twins!!) Insanitybecomesme DS1 9yrs, DS2 7yrs. DD3y 3m, DS3 21m
23 Feb TheOldestCat DD 2.9y
23 Feb Phee96 DD 9m
24 Feb Elebereth
24 Feb TotallyAndUtterlyPaninied DS 15m
24 Feb MidgetGems
27 Feb Westlondongirl
28 Feb Mawbroon Due DS 3.10yo

Pyjamabe - I've gone for the icandy apple. Got it off ebay with all attachments (carrycot, puschair, raincovers, jogger wheel, pump, cosy toes) for £200. Have also bought a quinny zapp (£45) off e-bay to use with the car seat, as the icandy apple is big and bulky and not good for quickly nipping to the shops. I couldn't find a pushchair that would be good for offroad dogwalking and for whizzing round the shops so went for both second hand instead. Both are in good condition so I think I've done quite well for £250.

Ooh, sympathies to the thrush victims - misery!!

Weird that I was saying yesterday that I hadn't had any BH - got some today!! Then realised that i HAD had some before... after... erm... sex! Just thought it was down to the - ahem - activity at the time! no hiccups though...

Enoko, I'm not a million miles away from you - I'm in Milton Keynes.

In the industry I work in, the perception is that everyone must have very green ways (dress in unbleached organic hemp and sandals woven from lentil fibre etc!) so I would get roasted if I didn't at least try re-usables... On the plus side my day job should offset any short term disposable use - as well as Nikki and Shiregirls too come to that!! .

Early night for me - had swineflu jab today and now starting to feel a little bit rubbish (bit headachy and hot). Glad it's done though!

I'm glad it's not just me with the Braxton Hicks. I remember them from last time, but don't remember them being painful! I thought I was going into labour on Sunday!

Glad someone else has confessed to using disposable nappies. I thought it was just me on this thread for a while there...

Anyone done their hospital bag yet? I've sorted out all the baby clothes (the boxes came back from a friend and I couldn't be bothered to put them in the loft only to get them down again in a few weeks) and it appears that all the people who have had them since me have been adding things - just the 60 babygrows, all NB or 0-3 months.

Someone mentioned having a big Tubigrip for SPD. Are you finding it helpful? I've got one and really can't decide whether it helps, or whether it just stops me moving as much. And now my bump is so big, it's a bit uncomfortable to wear.

Hope everyone is doing OK!

Completely exhausted from Aquanatal this morning. It is starting to get much harder to swim up and down! Am also planning to clean my squalid house today and put up christmas decorations, so that should just about finish me off. Feet up with chocolate this evening I think.

Can we still stuff ourselves with chocolate when we're breastfeeding? Or will that make us/babies huge? Of course I wil be eating fruit too...

People using disposable nappies: You shouldn't feel bad, i hope the discussion hasn't made you feel persecuted . I've no idea why i've bough reusables really, just seems like a nice idea. You can all have a good laugh at us in march when it's pouring with rain and we're trying to dry nappies in it. And then we give up and go to 24 hour tescos...

woowa - of course you can stuff yourself with chocolate when breastfeeding. But, the usual rules still apply - if there are more calories in than out, then you will gain weight. I do sometimes get a bit at the number of breastfeeders on here who talk about cake and stuff as if it were the law to eat it when breastfeeding - and then they wonder why they are not losing baby weight.

Your diet will have no impact on the quality/quantity of your breastmilk, but if you don't eat properly, then you will probably feel shite. A good idea is to stock up your freezer with batch cooked meals beforehand, and make sure it's stuff you can shovel with one hand, because sure as fate, when you sit down to eat, the baby will waken and you will have to have a one-handed dinner.

Chocolate makes the baby happy so we need to eat loads of it, plus you need extra energy when breastfeeding so we'll need it then too.

Saw the MW yesterday and she thinks the baby has turned round and it is now measuring the right amount for the dates, rather than massive like it was before! She wants to see me again in 2 weeks so after all my complaining at the beginning of this pregnancy that they had cut down on number of appointments they seem to have increased them near the end, which is a good thing.

I asked her about the hiccups too and she says it varies between babies, some don't hiccup at all so not to worry.

Baby gave me an allmighty kick at about 5am which felt like it went right into my liver and hurt for ages afterwards, going to end up with internal bruising at this rate!

I'm afraid I will probably end up using disposables. We don't have a drier and it takes forever to dry things in our flat. Do feel guilty about it though.

Need to rant: We have had damp in our kitchen due to a botched gutter job for a month now. The landlord finally came & looked at it last week and got a surveyor out. Turns out it will have to be dried for 3 weeks and replastered and painted. He said it would be very tight to get it done before February. I am so p**sed off about this. If it had been dealt with when I first raised it then I wouldn't have to spend the last weeks of my pregnancy with builders, dust and paint fumes. Not to mention the mould on the wall has really affected my asthma. Plus the kitchen and living room are open plan so there's no escaping the mess.

Went for 28 week check up and my pulse was 120 so have to go back friday to have it checked again. I wouldn't mind but I felt quite relaxed t the time as I had just been sat in the waiting room reading magazines for 40 minutes. Anyone else had a high pulse?

Have been convinced that this baby is breech but when I saw my consultant on Monday she couldn't find the head! She did a sneaky scan and found he is head down but has put his feet over his head hence all the low kicks.

ktpie I blame you for the 3 mince pies I have eaten since yesterday....oh god I think I want another one!

Cross posted Mawbroon! You're right about the not losing weight thing, I found after a month or so of breastfeeding my appetite dropped to a more normal level anyway.

I LOVE that link ktpie! My baby is going to be the happiest ever...

Nightmare Westlondongirl - feeling your pain, I have no living room ceiling at the moment, it is hideous! Although at least it is DH's project, so I can nag him relentlessly to get the work done... Hope your landlord gets his butt in gear and sorts it for you asap!

Been to MW this afternoon, he reckons baby is head down, which is good - at least the little nutter has got the right idea! So love listening to the heartbeat, I could just do that all day!

Ktpie that is an amazing bit of science - I love it! Now, where did DH hide the Quality Street? Baby seems a bit sad today...

fluffycoo - it still makes me sit up and "ooh" when you refer to MW and then put "he". lol. I met one once when I had an interview to do a midwifery degree (i changed my mind due to fainting on work experience at sight of blood...). This MW had loads of piercings and big black boots. Very cool! And unusual for a MW!!!

Washed all the floors downstairs this afternoon. Cat prints now gone. Until tomorrow... Baby was complaining like mad and uterus was contracting like crazy. That's possibly the last housework I do before it's born then.

Thanks for the chocolate info. All things in moderation then? Was wondering if happy mums have happy babies, and the mums who eat chocolate are those who are of a generally happy disposition? Interesting. DH was going to cook dinner buut seems to have got lost in the computer so i'm going to feast on green and blacks, and we'll all be happy.

Right, off up a ladder to the loft to find christmas decorations...

good to hear everyone getting sorted for christmas - been 30 degrees here this week and not in the slightest bit christmassy! (bah humbumg!) have made some salt-dough decs with DD tho - just need some glitter on them now!

westlondongirl my bp with DD was 110/70 then my Dad died and it shot up to 120+/85 and didn't go back down until she arrived.... this time it's been steady at 100/60 apart from last week when i went to see the BitchdogDragonFromHell consultant and it was 120+/85 ... maybe you have white coat syndrome?!?!

mawbroon interesting you say that your diet doesn't affect milk, cos last time the hosp b-feeding counsellor told me to eat more carbs to make milk more satisfying... i didn't notice it make the slightest bit of difference, except i stopped steadily losing weight!! i'll not be following that advice this time!!

Hello Girls,

Just hauled myself out of the bath (tidal wave over the back and onto the floor) and taken my fat self off to bed.

Can't find anything to wear and baby is wriggling around like mad.

Other half has gone out and I am left at home with the baby and it hasn't even got here yet!

Other half is at least pretending to still find me attractive but suspect that the only critter that actually hasn't noticed huge bum, spotty cleavage (I mean I ask you - a spotty cleavage?!) and swollen feet is my dog.

Even my stepdaughter asked me this evening if the baby had moved into my bottom!

Anyone else getting fed up?

Moth2

moth.... i think fed up is the understatement of the centry, i've just got a spot break out, can't do the stairs without getting knackered, my hips keep popping, my back is killing, i know the feeling, lol!
just think, it'll all be worth it [insert sarcastic grimice] lol!

stoofadoof at the breastfeeding counsellor saying that about the carbs. Are you sure she was really a qualified counseller?

It is a pretty basic breastfeeding fact that (unless you are on the verge of starvation or malnourished in some way) diet has no impact on the quality/quantity of breastmilk. And neither do tiredness, stress (although stress can impact on the let down reflex) or various other things that people seem to think will affect the milk.

It's hard enough in the early days without so called professionals pedalling myths and untruths

Anyone planning to breastfeed these babes should get themselves on to kellymom, or look through the archives, especially for tiktok's posts to help sort the fact from the fiction before they come across all the old wives tales advice from well meaning folk in RL.

Good morning to all fellow sufferers! Moth yep I've been fed up for a couple of days now. Do you know what? At almost 34 weeks morning sickness has returned. Imagine my delight. It is bad enough wading your way through the final countdown but NAUSEA?! I had rather conveniently forgotten that I'd had the same thing with my son 6 years ago (very practical 'cos I got married at 8 months pregnant).

I am finding the stairs such an effort now. My dentist gloomily told me that I needed to brush my teeth after every meal as my gums were in a bad state (yippee!) but after eating the LAST thing I feel like doing is sauntering up those stairs. Maybe I should just bring the toothbrush downstairs.

I had a meltdown yesterday. After a bad night of feeling really nauseous and a busy morning of chauffering children, etc, etc I received letters from various admin bodies which were giving out the same message - you won't be getting any money from us deary. It's a long, long story which I won't bore you with. Suffice to say here in France the whole admin scene is conducive to hair tearing. There have been a few cock-ups since I moved regions and of course the one left out of pocket is POOR LITTLE ME!

I was so tearful and hormonal yesterday. As soon as my DH got back from work at 9pm I just jumped into bed. Sleep really is the best remedy.

I feel lucky compared to you guys who are suffering. I am still feeling ok and am not really struggling too much with day to day stuff. I am only 28 wks though, it will maybe catch up on me soon.

I have the midwife this morning, but I imagine it won't be anything more exciting than checking my urine, blood pressure, and maybe getting some blood taken.

DS had diarrhoea last night and after the 8 week run of illness in our house, I just can't believe that he's ill AGAIN. I was swithering about sending him to nursery, but he had a diarrhoea accident in his pants last night and I would hate for it to happen to him there, he would be quite distressed by it I think. And anyway, I should be observing the 48hr absence rule and not sending him.....

This constipation is getting beyond a joke. I am on lactulose 3 times a day, have been eating loads of fruit - fresh and dried - and still I am only able to go every 2 or 3 days and all that comes out is rabbit droppings . But I guess constipation is a minor niggle on things pregnancy related....

Hi,

Wheels coming off a bit here, bp officially high again, last reading was 148/96 so i am now on medication to get it down. Good news is I don't have protein in my wee so no pre-eclampsia fears just yet. I had to do a 24 hr urine sample which involved taking two large containers away with me at the weekend and asking my DP to return them to the hospital the next day, so he travelled back on the train with 3 litres of my wee...beyond the call of duty!

Here's hoping the tablets work. Exactly the same happened last time and I was induced as they found protein right at the end. If this happens again I am determined to question the levesl of protein and resist induction at all costs, too horrible. I'm convinced my DD just wasn't quite ready, she was very cross for weeks!

mawbroon have you tried prune juice? It works a treat.

Baby's got hiccups again..kicking the bladder at the same time, thanks bubba!

Take care all.

Commiserations on your red tape nightmare jardins. Will you be able to get it sorted (after a good night's sleep)?

Moth your stepdaughter's comment made me laugh! Oh dear, very funny.

We're all on the home stretch but February still feels a way off, doesn't it? I'm sure it will be here in a WHOOSH, once Christmas is out of the way. Quite a scary thought...

We went to our first (NHS) antenatal class this week, and I have to say I don't think I got that much out of it. I've been reading voraciously and so nothing the MW said was new, and there wasn't that much of an opportunity to chat to the other couples, or maybe I'm just not very good at striking up converstaions. Also they all seemed very young!!

I can't believe that I only have 8 days left to work. It's just starting to hit me how much my life is going to change

Hi everyone,

Just marking my place again as I am trying to catch up - been away for my work. I think/hope my last trip away.

Sounds like we're all starting to get a little fed up!

Hey all!

Ktpie Thanks for the nappy website link. I've bookmarked that and will see if I can't pick up a bargain or two. And yes, there is a canal through Banbury. Were you on a narrowboat when you were passing through?

Fluffycoo Milton Keynes isn't too far, but I have to confess I've not been as it's not very easy to get to from here by public transport. People say it's good for shopping, so I'm sure I'll get there one day. I've tended to head to Birmingham for proper shopping sprees - or that new Westfield Centre in London!

Westlondongirl A pulse of 120! That's on the high side, but perhaps not too unexpected with all the extra blood pumping around and the extra weigh you're hauling. If you're like me, you're probably not doing any exercise really either, which won't help. Hope it's come down a bit again for your check tomorrow.

As for me, I'm still only at 29 weeks and, like Mawbroon, not suffering too much at all. My last check with the midwife, last week, had my blood pressure and pulse at the best they've been - not sure what that's all about! - and I honestly still wouldn't know I were pregnant were it not for the obvious bump. I'm sure that'll all change as I edge towards that due date though.

I treated myself to a new dress from New Look maternity at the weekend, a gorgeous blue wook mohair mix. Very practical - not! I shall do my best to wear it as much as possible before I fully embrace the world of baby puke, leaking nipples, and easycare fabrics.

Hope everyone's got nice plans for the weekend!

Oh, forgot to mention/ask about antenatal classes. Has anyone else had theirs yet?

Ours aren't until the beginning of next year. A lot of people at work seem to do the NCT classes, but I was shocked at the cost of them - more than the health in pregnancy grant!! We opted to do them at the local hospital - two evenings, two hours each time, free, and actually much more convenient for us.

I haven't done much (ie, any) reading, so I'm hoping they'll be helpful. It's odd, as usually I'm the kind of person that needs to know everything, but with this whole pregancy/labour/baby lark I'm in more of an ignorance is bliss kind of place.

I'm not bothering with antenatal classes. I did them with ds, and wasn't that fussed about them back then either, but it meant I got the afternoon off work

You will probably learn more off MN than at the classes tbh....

Mawbroon as already recommended prune juice is great. One step up IMO is linseed or flaxseed. If you get a packet from your local health food shop it will last you through until the end of the pregnancy. You only need to take one spoonful with water or yoghurt (or whatever tickles your fancy) first thing in the morning ..... and Bob's your uncle.

I have just had a little trip to hospital as I had a little bleeding this morning. Luckily my DH doesn't work Thursdays. All is well. The midwife was very sweet as was the student mw although her rummage around with a speculum was not very pleasant. I really wasn't sure about going but my blood group is AB- so it's best to be careful. It also gave us a chance to check out the maternity unit as we are new here in Tours so it will be a little less alien when we go for the real thing in 6 weeks time (Oh. My. God! Is that all?). My DH seemed as interested in finding out about emergency parking spaces than all the rest, bless him .

Going away for a couple of days to have "christmas" with DH's uni friends, an annual party. No port and cigar for me this year, though perhaps we'll avoid the tipsy row about sex this year since a)i won't be drinking and b)we're not planning on sex... That's all I really remember of last year's party! So, there are benefits of being pregnant at christmas.

Glad you're all more or less well (apart from the ACHES and KICKING and PAINS and BLADDERS).

Enjoy your weekends! x