PESH Deli - Taking the B out of BESH

[skihorse]

A new thread for the gabbers.

Hopefully we will find out during the course of this thread whether dear cheggers has laid a baybee or two yet!

Curly I had the same thing as you - entered the system all arse about face. Had an early scan at 8 weeks because of bleeding, turned out I was 12 weeks. So then got booked in with MW and everyone assumed I'd already been sent loads of stuff and had notes etc which I didnt have!

Honeymoo I was also a convent girl!

BESHies I am going to Australia tomorrow for 2 weeks so wont be around for a bit. Incredibly generous parents upgraded our flights when they found out I am upduffed "You're not flying 25 hours in econommy while 4 months pregnant with our 1st grandchild etc" so for the first time ever Im looking forward to a long flight.

Am so knackered & been so busy lately that the thought of sitting down for a day with books and films while someone brings me drinks & snacks is bliss!

Preggo clothes - finally out at work and can wear mat jeans - unbridled joy!

Back for more when Ive read donttry's birth story!

We can't move for giant teddies round here

Skater I hope you have a lovely time!

cunty Oh wonderful, baybees love a 10' bright blue elephant don't they!

donttry I am very happy to learn of your calm and controlled experience, it sounds scary but you seem to have handled it brilliantly!

Need opinions from horsey girls. I've seen a horse I really like the look of advertised in H&H - a big grey gelding. Only thing is, when I look closely at the photo it looks like there's something wrong with his willy! Ss, should I buy him sight unseen, or assume the seller is a well dodgy crook and run a mile?

pony Get him on trial for a few weeks, hunt him & take him x-country to see how it pan's out. If the owner doesn't bother providing you with boots then don't bother putting them on. Which page of H&H features a swollen willy btw?

Pony don't bother ringing about that old crock, I'll let you borrow mine for a few weeks - hell, I'll even drive him to the other end of the country for you! Just hunt him and gad about on him for a bit, I won't mind. And don't worry if he sticks his foot down a rabbit hole or something, I'm sure it'll fix up just fine!

Gah! Just sitting here waiting for someone else to turn up at 9.30am. I think I might put him out in the field now - he should be out grazing or riding by now.

Skater enjoy Australia! I'd like a holiday, but I'm only going as far as the Isle of White and Badminton this year. Not because I'm preggo, but because we're saving for an extension.

pandy When are you taking to the skies again? I'm going to Calgary in Jan and I want you to drive.

Thanks ski and pandora. Better not get used to near the front of a plane, SkaterBoy and I are both on lowly third sector pay and will be back in cattle car before we know it!

Donttrythis your birth story is incredible, I am impressed how you took so many changes in your stride! Congratulations again, I am really happy for you. Good luck with the breastfeeding, like any new skill I'm sure it wont be instantaneous but will come eventually (note the only thing in my experience to compare to is eating with chopsticks).

Speaking of changes to the original plan, my mums gynae-guru actually advised me not to do a birth plan. He said in his experience length of the birth plan is inversely proportionate to the number of complications! He was joking but said there is a nugget of truth, namely that the mums he sees arriving with a set of expectations get stressed when things don't go according to schedule, which impacts on labour. He advised me to go in with an open mind, see how I am feeling, listen to the advice given to me and take each moment as it comes.

Disclaimer: No offence to anyone who is doing a birth plan, its just another perspective to consider! Personally I am an utter control freak (think Monica from Friends on a bad day) so this is good advice for me. If I made a plan, I would start panicking the minute anything deviated from it.

Oooh, Ski! Are you going skiing? (Of course you are going skiing - even if you aren't going there to ski you can fit a little bit in!) I DO fly to Calgary, and I could even try and be your pilot. But for the small fact that my baby will be only 4 and a half months old. So I'm hoping not to be back at work then. Drop me a line with your flight details closer the time and I'll see if the captain can send you a couple of glasses of champagne or something. (Daren't ask for upgrades atm in case scary cabin crew threaten to report me .)

I'm most likely to be back working in July, and in the cockpit in about August next year. I will have forgotten how to fly the damn thing and will need a month or so's practice and then I get an exam to check I am safe to be unleashed on the public again, then I have to fly full time for 3 months before I can have my part time back.

Skater I think the people who write birth plans who get most disappointed are those who specify what tune they want their baby to be born to and all that crap. It is worth writing a bit of a birth plan, with just the practical items in it such as vit K for baby, whether you want syntocin for third stage, and that kind of thing. Noone read my birth plan last time anyway, until the ward sister in the SCBU looked at it and saw I wanted to breast feed. This was somewhat tricky as DD was in SCBU and I was in high dependency but somehow she managed to get us bf-ing, and the birth plan was worth it for that alone.

Whether you write anything at all the main idea to get in your head now is that anything can and does happen, and sometimes you have absolutely no control over it. Go with the flow, and you'll be OK!

It is worth bearing in mind that it is not only the mother who can have a birth plan - many hospitals also have a plan of how long things should be taking, and that can stress the mother out too, eg when they tell you you should dilate 1cm an hour and push for a max of 2hrs. It's not a flippin' target! It's just a guideline, but some hospitals don't see it like that.

lol @ birthplan skater - I can actually see it as quite a negative thing. I have seen evidence of those who decide (well in advance) that it must be route-a. When something doesn't quite go as planned it seems to cause a disproportionate amount of stress. My plan is i) try not to die (anyone).

haha pandora, can you make it three glasses? Got to get the baybee off to sleep somehow. That would be extraordinarily lovely of you though. x Yes, I'm going to ski (of course) - only other thing to do in/around Calgary is the stampede and that's June I believe. Actually a sensible question, what's your experience of flying with baybees?

Flying with baybees is fine! No trouble at all. You can book a bassinet position which is at the front of the cabin for extra legroom, and you get a little carrycot that sits on a fold-down flap. I have also seen people bring a car seat on board and put the baby on the floor or on a spare seat on that, but you can't do that if there is turbulence. The loos are a bit small for changing nappies in, but I've only found that to be a problem once they get a bit bigger - your's should be OK though, he'll still be diddy. The cabin crew are usually very good with babies (although I must stress usually here - occasionally you get one who is useless and uninterested.) They are usually happy to take them for a cuddle for a few minutes if the cabin is quiet so you can eat your meal or go to the loo.

Babies seem to like the gentle rocking of the aeroplane and the humming it makes, so they often sleep a lot on them. They normally only cry for take off and landing, but that's because their ears go pop. Give them something to suck on though and the are OK - a spare boob usually does the trick and just glare at anyone who stares at you. The cabin crew are aware you are allowed to bf and if you ask them will provide pillows to prop your arm up with and a blanket if you are shy (I don't think that's you though!) Ask for the pillows early on so they don't get taken by other passengers.

If you are on bottles by then the cabin crew can warm them up, but you won't be able to take the liquid through security. I just took Milton tablets, used bottled water and formula powder if that's the case. They can warm up baby food too if you are weaning by then.

They'll possibly be able to accommodate a tiny umbrella buggy on board, but we often get people trying to get us to store a giant 4wd pram somewhere other than the hold. You are better with a backpack like a Little Life one - you can pack all sorts into it as well as the baby!

My birth plan is going to say things like:

*My ideal situation is a water birth with G&A. However, if necessary I will consider other pain relief, and as a result a non-water birth.

*I'm not keen to have pethidine/diamorphine unless this is fully justified. I have previously had a bad reaction to morphine and don't want anything to hinder immediate skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding.

*I want to avoid labouring on my back at all costs.

*I have SPD, so please be careful with my hips!

...and so on. I'm not ruling anything out, just stating my preferences. I think that is healthy. SFF is going to have a copy/get to know it all so he can fight my corner.

New bras! 36D and growing - I love it.

Gosh - that's brilliant info pandora, I had heard before that babies cope very well with flying and in my experience I've seen grizzly toddlers but not babies! Yep, no intention of taking a buggy - I'll have him in a sling whilst dad is carrying my skis! Btw, where on earth does this "skihorse'll whip her tits out" thing come from?

Congratulations on your tits curly! Are you currently showing them to all and sundry?

"Try not to die" is a succinct and worthy birth plan.

caspy The SPD aspect of the birth plan is one area where it is worth being quite specific and basically spelling it out. You would be amazed how many staff do not even know what it is. IME it is worth being very prescriptive about what positions you can / cannot be in, what movement you need help with and how, etc. Also specify your maximum knee separation width if needed. I found all the staff really good in reading that stuff (which was basically what I had in place of a plan), asked lots of questions and looked after me like I was speshul!

Horse - The seller says she isn't willing to put the horse out on trial, but she's just being silly - what can possibly go wrong? She wants to sell it doesn't she? So I have generously decided that I'm willing to take the horse on trial until the end of the season, as long as she delivers it to North Yorkshire at her own expense. Then when it wrecks a tendon galloping across a boggy, rocky grouse moor and is put out of action for 6 mths, I'll tell the owner to take it back and demand she compensate me for trying to sell a dangerous horse with obviously weak legs. Good plan?

ponymum Don't just tell the bitch, sue her for damages!

Btw - speaking of ridiculous lawsuits - the latest twist in mine is that the daft cunt now claims she's left the heating on all winter to prevent frozen pipes and she wants me to pay the leccy bills. Get on yer bike chuffer.

panda I'm going to copy your post and file it for when we take Rastus boarding in Jan next year. Alas it will only be to the Alps < @ ski>

Latest chap came down and said he would like big horse to have had a bit more Shire in him. Erm, he's Irish draught, and the advert says so!

haha pandora "Yes, I was expecting a chestnut mare".

Thanks pony will take your advice on that one!

OMG the flying with babies thing. I have found it to be relatively plain sailing (get it??) however I was quite mortified getting stopped at security last month. Mini Cokie has numerous food intolerances and some full on food allerigies so I had taken about 2kg worth of mini pots of frozen homemade meals in my carry on as I was so worried my hold bag would not arrive. I know I could have cooked once there but we were arriving on sat night and I was worried supermarkets would not be open til Monday and in any case I didn't want to spend the first few days frantically cooking. The security man thought I was mad. I even had a tin of baked beans in my bag thinking he could eat them cold for his tea on the plane but they were confiscated as well as liquid piriton which I never go anyway without.

It was all a bit stessful but my homemade food was aloud to fly and I bought more piriton in boots air side.

I have also taken bootles with measured out water for formuala and they just make you sip it to taste. I had to stop breastfeeding when mini C was 6 months as he has so many food ishoos that he was getting ill from traces of stuff coming through in my breast milk.

okie that's very poor of security - we had liquid piriton with us when we flew with my nephew in December and they just made mum taste a bit of it to show it wasn't bomb fuel or ought.

Wish I had somewhere to fly to...

Happy hols skates

casp No you don't wish you had somewhere to fly to. If you want, you can take over my life and see how the stress of planning a big trip suits you - apparently the Pony family is flying to New Zealand in September for 3 months, with a 2 yr old and a 3 mth old.

My head is spinning with lists of not only how to survive the 30 hour flights, but how to carry / source two car seats, all the bulky but essential baby gear we are accumulating, the double buggy(?!), etc etc while I'm likely to still be in SPD recovery mode. Oh, and also just the little matter of finding a fully furnished, child safe house and car for 3 months for no money...

But I suppose my stress over this is helping divert worry from the, er, Having A Baby thing.

pony I hope you don't mind me saying, that sounds like a load of old pony for you

Whose bright idea was that?

Cokie you think that's heavy handed of security - I've seen a captain frogmarched off because he first of all tried to smuggle half a bottle of 'dangerous water' through security, then he drank it, meaning that as the dangerous substance was now inside the person security would not be able to test it for explosives! Mental. Remind me one day to tell you the story of how I nearly grounded the whole UK aviation industry over a sewing needle.