Due Jan 2010...the month our bumps become babes!!!

[mistletoekisses]

Getting us started with our new thread!

Will cut and paste the most up to date list so we know where we are.

Sorry misschatterbox, cross posted. So glad dd1 loved school, and very glad they both love their baby brother. It gives me hope that dd will be ok if this one turns out to be a boy (she is desperate for it to be a girl).

No bother Biccy! To be honest, I couldn't stand doggy when I had a belly - I've never been fat so it felt really horrible. On the question of labour and semen, I think the midwives will have seen it loads of times! We made love once before an appointment and I was so paranoid she would detect it in my sample!! Oh, my lunch out was 4/5 days after birth btw. I have made sure I get out every day with her, so have done 3 lunches and a dinner so far!

WOO hold on a minute as i was getting updated im seeing sexual talk! ermmmm wow the only thing thats happening is me turning over and sleepin! DH refusing to attempt to help me out and get things started! and i guess it dont work if its only me!!!!

MissCB - CONGRATS to you i see you was earlier then your due date, that gives me hope!
Pepa - congrats also, 6 days late, but good outcome!
Fraochmum - Thanks wonderful birth story!
Crumpette - Ermmm can i please come and kick his butt into 2011 pls, pls,pls pls its the least i can do and may bring on my labour!
if DH was acting like an ARSE! he would be out!
but well done for not stabbing him!!!!!!
let post our votes- Slap,kick or punch! just focus on "Jude" loving the name!
yangymac - pain comes one day then fine the next getting annoying now! have tried ignoring it for if i moan or whimper DH is like a rocket asking me if its a contraction!
Devo- yes im woth you now would be good shall we agree to go in labour on the same day hows the 15th- still got some bits to sort out!
Flyima - yeh i gave up on the courier and headed to greenich to collect buggy all 3 boxes of it! carseat came about 9am - so great service form JL although they had wrong email address!
MTK- 3, yes, 3, boxes containing my Stokke had to collect!

just got in from hospital i visited my cuz and ermmm well i will share her story once we have all had our babies!

Good Morning!
Hope everyone is doing ok today.
Sexual talk... hahahahahahahahaha.... afraid I can't join in on that one. Don't want DH anywhere near me with his germs, plus he gets out of breath just talking at the moment. I have put up the inflatable bed in the boys room so I can attempt to sleep without being coughed on. Only problem is both boys tend to get in with me. DS1 sleeps like a starfish and DS2 likes to wrap himself round my head.

Getting very painful to walk now. Not sure if I should wish this baby out or in.

Saw MW yesterday and all is well, baby still at 4/5 engaged. There are a worrying amount of MWs off sick by the sounds of it, and my regular MW has gone on holiday for 2 weeks.

Sex talk! I've forgotten what it was! From week 20 when SPD kicked in, DH was out of luck and has contined to be ... now we have caesarean to recover from. Also, have to confess to being v concerned over fertility even though was sterilised during c/s. Basically a sterilisation during c/s has a 1:100 failure rate and if you do fall pg, there is a high chance of ectopic pg. DH is stupidly petrified of vasectomy, which is the reason I chose to be sterilised... but at this point, if all was well and ready down there, I don't think I'd allow him near me without using alternative contraception - or him having the snip, which kind of defeats the object of the sterilisation! Ho hum....

Feeling a bit grumpy and sleep deprived this morning. My darling daughter, who I cannot stop cuddling and kissing, has rather got used to my smell, touch, cuddles etc and has spent most of the night crying unless I cuddle her off to sleep. Nobody else will do. Then I put her down, she wakes and screams again. I ended up taking her into bed with me at around 6am and managing to doze for an hour or so until DH realised she was in bed with us and told me off big time in case I rolled onto her and how dangerous it was etc!

Rod for own back springs to mind! Oh dear. I wasn't like this with my others. I think age and the fact that I'm not returning to work has had a huge effect on my psyche.

Have given her a dummy which whilst in some respects is a godsend, has its own drawbacks in that baby wants dummy to soothe and go to sleep, then dummy falls out, then baby gets distressed until said dummy replaced into mouth, and saga starts again. Wish there was a desperately tired emoticon to use...

Just re-reading - ooh, thats a bit of a self pitying post when there are others with real problems.

cant'think, taking your baby to bed is not necessarily dangerous - in fact possibly quite the opposite. William Sears has done a lot of research into co-sleeping and he reckons that babies have fewer instances of apnia when they sleep with their mothers, as they sleep face to face and baby's breathing falls in line with mother's and is less likely to stop. As long as you are not drinking or taking drugs, and baby is on your side not in between you, and your duvet cannot go over the baby then I think it is a great option, and often the only one if you want any sleep. Look here for more.

< sockmonkey wonders if she can tell her 4 & 6 year olds it's dangerous to co-sleep >

Morning all!!

Well we have lots of unforecasted snow falling right now so am housebound once again - and yesterday it all looked as though it was starting to thaw! Have kept DS home from nursery as didnt want my mum to risk trying to get him there/ home in her little car, even though it is round the corner. So have a toddler (who used to play happily by himself for 40 mins at a time) running around my bedroom for a second day trying to monopolise everyones time. Trying to be patient but am on a shorter fuse today. Bloody anooying snow!

CTFN - you are not alone on the sex thing. In the first trimester I feel utterly wretched and exhausted, DH would get clobbered if he came near me! By the second trimester, I am showing and DH gets really weirded out by doing it while I am pregnant. Fortunately in both pregnancies I have had zero libido - it is honestly as though someone has turned a tap off so I have not been frustrated so to speak. Will defo make an effort after my 6 week check up - although I remember from last time, I wasnt back to my normal self until a month after I finished breastfeeding. Then my mojo came flooding back. Very odd I can tell you.

Re. your bub getting used to being put down a left without cuddles, you could try and start using the pick up/ put down method from the baby whisperer. You basically never leave the bub to cry, pick them up when they start crying and when they have calmed down, put them back down. Leave a hand on them and make shushing sounds. Repeat as needed. Your LO may be a little too young for it to work yet, but I remember having to use it when DS1 was little as he was far more clingy as a baby than this one is. HTH.

Am busy reading up about the contraceptive coil - seeing lots of mixed reviews. May just stick with condoms...does anyone have any first hand experience of the coil?? I dont want any form of hormonal contraception and want something that is easily reversible....

Hope everyone doing ok.

Am I the only one who doesnt do co-sleeping?? . I love love love my bed and being able to snuggle into my lovely thick duvet without worrying about where the baby is etc. I tried co-sleeping about twice with DS1 and found that I just didnt sleep as well because I would wake constantly to check on him (and because I would get cold).

This baby also seems perfectly content in his little hammock - so plan to try and keep it that way!

Thanks MK - will try that. And no, you are not the only one who doesn't co-sleep. I've always been quite set against it actually! Like you for reasons of I love my bed and snuggling into the duvet and I also have (previously) been quite into the whole routine thing. Also when DH and I do get jiggy with it, I don't want to have to worry about baby!

It's just going a bit wrong at the moment !

yangy - that does sound lovely tbh! And I can totally see the benefits of being able to do that. Unless DS is in his cot or in the car, he wont sleep. If we are in the fresh air and he has been running about and is totally shattered, then he will flake out in the pushchair. But otherwise he will not sleep. And has actually never been able to sleep if he is in our bed.

I would love to cuddle DS2 all day and am using self control as I know there will come a point where my need for a good sleep overrides my need for cuddles and at that point I cannot expect DS2 to understand that he needs to sleep on his own without mummy next to him. I guess I just know my limitations. And I am much more likely to do exclusive bfeeding for 6 months if I am getting a good nights sleep.

But all night cuddles do sound lovely.

I agree that co-sleeping doesn't have to be dangerous... but it is now part and parcel of the midwives lecture you get at home and despite DH being father to 6, he listened to every word she said! I guess he's being a bit protective of this one too as we know for sure it's our last!

I'm typically in the MK camp though of I need my sleep and usually exercise self control over the cuddles. Just not quite working this time around !

As I type, little madam is sleeping in her "daytime chair" - my little idea of when its night time she has a specific bed to go to (moses basket) and its dark and therefore she needs to associate night time with sleep time , without dummy, without having had cuddles from mummy, having settled herself off at about 9am! Alas, I have not been able to nap myself and she is showing signs of stirring which means it is next feed time.

Aaahhh - I still think she's lovely though!

Bethoo - where are you? You are overdue - we need to hear from you !

Oooh had 'show' this morning...talk about gross. Guess things are starting to move along.

flyingma nice idea about the flat pumps for walking, however did this already, my feet out grew them about 2 months ago . My feet are naturally really wide and normally I would get mens trainers (for the width), they now have big swollen bumps on the top, making them about 1/3rd wider than they were prepreggy. Luckily I don't mind being completely housebound. If I have to go to hospital I'll have to take some old slippers or plastic bags.

I doubt I'll have the co-sleeping dilemma, I have 3 cats that fight over who climbs in bed with us everynight. 3cats, 2 adults and a baby will be pushing it especially as DH is a bed hogger.

Anyone heard from Bethoo? Hope she's OK.

hi all,
so much happens so quickly these days! took me ages to catch up since was last on.

good to read talk about life after pregnancy... everyone seems to be doing ok... ali how is Jacob now?

this being no.3 I'm torn between really NOT looking forward to all the hard work of getting a newborn settled, and actually quite looking forward to baby being around. DH and I are so used to having quiet settled evenings, all to ourselves because dd1&2 usually asleep from 7:30pm.

saw MW now - she agrees with my conclusion that baby is now almost totally back to back ; but head down maybe 2-3/5. can i still do much to shift her (39+3)? maybe must have another look at spinning babies site...can't do all fours with carpal tunnel syndrome; any other suggestions? don't have a birth ball. also had show this last weekend and on sunday evening thought things were getting going when had contractions for a while during the night.

again sympathy vibes to those overdue- esp with first babe! I went (only?) 5 days over with dd1 and found it really tough. Esp with MIL (who lives an hour's drive away) virtual-lurking around in form of emails/ phone calls every other day. grrr. she's doing the same now, so yesterday had to be very restrained in replying to latest 'any news yet' email

my mother is here behaving like live-in housekeeper /cook/ nanny such a treat!! trying not to get too used to it!!

sorry for long post - such a luxury to have the time to type one though!

Never made the hospital appointment today the roads are just pure ice been watching cars spin round the corner
Jacob is doing okay he was awake for an hour this morning which was really nice he's still fussy with his bottles and only taking 60 mil every few hours. His chest is still full of mucas so hopefully when its all cleared he will be a guzzle monster

somewhay hopefully things will kick off soon x

somewhat

come on big thaw!! altho not too fast - don't want flooding as the next thing to worry about...