Due SEPTEMBER thread 11 - nearly there!

[pooka]

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Milward - really hope the bf - couldn't with my son - I was so tired after the cs - he went into the nursery overnight - I clearly told them several times not to bottle feed him - but found out later from my notes that they had - he took breast milk I expressed happily but only from a bottle - it took so long to express I dryed up after 2-3 weeks - very disappointing - but I'll be better prepared this time!

diane77 - like you finding sleep difficult - I can sleep 9/10 hours a day but still exhusted! Imaginge it's because I wake up so often. My friend is due today - I'm really envious - I have 5 weeks today to go!!!!!!!

Hi all, I'm back from hols.

Can't believe how much chat has been going on - tried to catch up, but gave up!! Can't believe we've also had our first baby!!! congratulations to Moschops and family!

Had a brilliant holiday in Cornwall despite weather. Hotel the first week was great for kids - hardly saw them between dh taking them bodyboarding and them off playing pool, table tennis etc on their own. Typical me felt a bit left out, but once I adjusted, just ate lots of yummy (healthy!!) food and read books.
Second week in cottage so had to do more, but felt revitalised and managed cliff paths and all sorts.

Today back to reality!! At home with 2 boys and dog for next 4 weeks!! AAAARGHHH! Have taken to being awake for a couple of hours in the night and end up reading with a cup of tea - must be preparation! So permanently knackered!! Totally fed up with being pregnant and feeling really unprepared - health centre has messed up refresher antenatal classes, so will probably have to do without and haven't read any books yet to remind me. Also need to remember what to put in hospital bag - must be a list on here somewhere.

Feeling huge . Still unsure what to wear to wedding on Friday! Prospect of shopping with the boys not good, so will have to make do! Felt like a whale on beach on holiday, then put on black and white stripey bikini and became killer whale (with mood to match ).

Glad to hear wedding and trip to US went well Franch. Doubt if I'll make meet up as kids around and don't think I'll have the energy to get to N London.

Heartburn is dreadful now - after everything I eat or drink.

On the subject of names - we had really decided on a girl's name, dh won't discuss boys names at all! Only problem is that dog stayed with friends while we were away and kept trying to hump their neighbours' dog whose name is the one we had chosen....it's lost its appeal a bit now...!!

Glad you had a nice holiday andif. I am having the same problem with my ante-natal classes, so I know how you feel!

Just trying to write birth plan here, as seeing obstetrician tomorrow. Some things I am finding it really hard to decide on!

CONGRATULATIONS MR & MRS MOSCHOPS!
A beautiful baby boy! Hope all went ok. Dying to hear all about it.
Hi to everyone else. Feel like I've been out of circulation forever - you've been so busy while I've been in Ireland. Will do proper post in a bit - am at work and have just spent a naughty hour catching up. Have been making notes as I went so get ready for a long post!!!
Hope all ok.
JM xx

wowweeee - congratulations to mr and mrs moshchops!!!!
And - ohmygod - how scarey!!!!!!!!!!!
Just realised that I may have been fooling myself with the head engaged thing - the dr had written 4/5 which i took to mean 1/5 engaged. Next mw appt in 2 weeks so will ask then but someone did tell me today that they thought my bump had dropped so i guess maybe it really is burrowing deep down there!!!!
feeling very uncomfortable and very sad to have fallen out of love with my bed - i usually love being in bed/having a big lie in etc but now that it takes lots of manoevuring and various piles of pillows to get semi-comfortable it has definitely lost its appeal

Oh my god!! A September baby already!! Congratulations, Moschops, I'm really glad everything went well for you.

and I guess that answers the debate I've been having with dh about whether to take the hospital bag and car seat when we go to my parents the week after next when I will be 36 weeks.

Okay - here we go - catch up post!
Still can't believe that we've had our first baby!! WOW and ARGHHH at the same time!! Can't wait to hear the name. We've finally got some names that DH & I agree on - one of each flavour
After a not-so-relaxing few days in Ireland at my cousin's wedding I have realised a few things...Heels are fine as long as you don't have to chase around toddler DD on a grassy slope in them but was glad I swapped to more comfy shoes for the dancing! Yes, I managed to last until 2.30am and squeezed in a couple of glasses of bubbly to boot [naughty emoticon].
...Like so many of you, I'm suffering from the hormones. My aunt's husband managed to reduce me to a jibbering wreck when he said that I looked miserable - nothing to do with the fact that it was past midnight, I'd had 5 hours sleep the previous night and I was the only sober person in the room! I've just got one of those faces, anyway - dark hair and eyes but pale skin so as a consequence everyone thinks I'm miserable!! I also wept buckets when we left half of my living relatives to enjoy themselves for another week while we travelled home on Sunday.
...My brain has officially died - we played Trivial Pursuits and I had real difficulty finding the words for the answers, "I know it begins with...". Useless!
Bubbles - I'm in Whiston (Liverpool side of St Helens) but grew up in Formby. Your sister sounds like mine. She is sooo lazy. Spent most of our time in Ireland (we shared a cottage with her DH, 2DS and my parents) cleaning up after her while she was having a lie down. She's not pg or ill or anything just selfish and says that she just has to get xhrs of sleep a day. Then when she finally gets up everyone is expected to do whatever "fun" thing she wants! DH is forever telling me off cos I'm always volunteering to do things for her - like you, although I don't think she'd expect me to do her shopping for her.
...All of my relatives sailed through pregnancy and can't understand how I managed to end up so sick and in hospital! I am a freak!
LadyL - My sickness has returned too so I have a rough idea of how you felt when you made all that effort to go to parentcraft classes and no one showed up. It's such a big effort to do anything most days. I would have been in tears again! Regarding your birth plan, if you can't decide on something...don't. Leave your options open and decide if/when the issue arises. Unless it's something you feel particularly strongly about.
Sarahhal - glad mw went ok but confused over the boys heart rate thing! Do they really differ from a girl's? Hard to believe!
KF - boooh to visa people, after costing so much too. I personally believe that all shops, cafes, public transport, etc should have a fastlane for pregnant women. After all we are keeping the population going and supplying more customers for them!!
Ych - hope all has settled down with you now. Sounds like you had your fair share of the sight of blood on Thurs night/Fri morning. quite frightening, though at least baby should have been ok if had decided to put in an early appearance - like Moschops little bean...still can't believe it!!
Mummyhill & PC - re birthday sharing, I don't think it's selfish at all to want a day to yourself. My brother (love him to bits) was born on my 2nd birthday. For 30 years I have felt that I cannot do anything nice like go away or have a special party because I have always had to consider what my brother wants to do! My wedding anniversary is also on my mums birthday so ditto for that! Makes me sound like a bit of a wimp, really!
Milward - BF worked for me too for losing wait last time though I know I've put on a bit more weight this time round so I am dreading not being able to, cos I know that all sorts of circumstances contribute to not being able to bf.
TENS machines - Diane, youve reminded me that I need to order mine. RZ - I'm pretty sure that you cannot use an ordinary TENS machine (the kind used to relieve back pain, etc) when in labour. Not entirely sure why but you'll need a different model.
I've got a MW appt on Fri, my first for 6 weeks! Can't wait to hear little (big) bean's heartbeat again. Will also find out how far engaged the head is though I've got a feeling that it isn't heading down in that direction at all yet...we'll see. KF - MWs usually visit you at home for the first fortnight/month and then a HV takes over until they get to school. It used to be that the HV had to have been a MW before so were very knowledgable regarding birth issues. Not so now. Hope you get a good one.
Finally (thank goodness, I hear you shout!). PILs - will someone please take mine away? to all of you who sound like you have really great PILs. Mine are horrendous and wouldn't know what to do with their grand daughter if left alone with her. TBH, I'm quite glad as from the way I hear that they treated DH when he was small I wouldn't leave DD with them unless I was in the same building. Thing is, DH is assuming that they want to come and visit again when DD2/DS1 arrives. Fair enough, but when DD was born they stayed over at our house (they live about 2.5 hours away) until we brought her home from hospital. DH had already told me that they had arrived ready to be waited on hand and foot and when I got home the first thing I saw was FIL prancing out of the front door. It was supposed to be a very special time for us and finally after having to pose for photos for about an hour (all i wanted to do was put my feet up and relax with my new little family) they finally left but they really did ruin what should have been a happy event. DH says that we have set a precedent now but I will be extremely unhappy if we have a repeat performance, especially as it will be a difficult time trying to get DD used to her new brother/sister. Any ideas on how I can subtly put them off staying? I know that they are just excited but they really are more of a nuisance than a help and I wouldn't want my own mother there (who is very good with DD, very knowledgable - she was MW and HV and helpful) never mind my MIL.
Ok done, sorry to hog the thread, thanks for your patience!!

Finally (after leaving 3 messages!) got a call back from the midwife... my antenatal classes are on at a different time to what I was told! So I have 3 left (after missing the first one). Let's hope they're worth it!

jessysmummy - your PIL sound like a bit of a nightmare. Perhaps instead of leaving it to chance, your DH should have a 'quiet word' with them, about when might be a suitable time for a first visit? That way at least you'll know when they are coming, and can enjoy your first few days by yourselves.

jessysmummy, you haven't hogged the thread, at least it was interesting to read. i read one in the pregnancy thread last week and i swear to god i woke myself up snoring. LOL
i can't believe you live in whiston, i live in warrington so not far away at all. glad you had a nice time in ireland too.
well, it's dps birthday on friday and i too don't want the baby to come on that day as i don't want to feel guilty every year for wanting to make his day special. i wouldn't want to go out with him as i would want to stay with our child. we're going to a big monster truck rally at the manchester arena on saturday hhhhhhmmmmmm can't wait!!!!!

LadyL - Couldn't they have told you that when you went to ask at reception instead of sending you back where you'd come from? At least you've got three more sessions. If I remember rightly, the first session that I went to last time round was mostly introducing people and due dates and going through what we were going to hear about in the next few sessions...oh and meeting the horrible doll and knitted uterus that they use to demonstrate the labour stages!!! The fact that you had to leave 3 messages for the MW doesn't bode well. Perhaps her respose would be a bit quicker if there was an emergency.
Well done you for getting to the bottom of my last post! I know that my PIL will sulk if DH suggests a suitable visiting time. They don't like to be told what to do but, yes, I agree the sooner we lay down the law, the better...However, I'll leave that little chore to DH! Bump will probably be 6yrs old before he gets around to it!

Warrington - just round the corner, Bubbles. Will have to sort out some kind of meet up some time..if you'd like. There don't seem to be too many MNers in this neck of the woods.
Mmmmmmm...Monster trucks....what fun!!! DH would love that too. Gets upset with me any time I suggest that playing with remote contol cars, etc is childish! Have fun!

JM - PIL are definitely a job for your DH. Tell him to be firm! Sounds like you had a good time in Ireland, and well done for lasting so long at the wedding!

Have got really tired legs today - calves cramped up when I was walking to the tube this morning, then when I got off at the other end my legs were so tired I could barely drag myself to the office!!

Jessysmummy - I used to live in Formby! From the age of 1-8, then we moved back to Scotland when my Mum & Dad split up. I used to live in Ennerdale Road. Small world, eh. Glad you had a good holiday.
Went for 34 week check up today at doctors and found out that 5/5 means the head isnt engaged. The doctor confirmed he could feel 5/5th's of the head, meaning it hadnt dropped yet. The head is definately down though so thats a good thing. Feels very low though, so god knows how un-comfy I'll feel when it really is engaged.

Why do they write up your notes differently to the way mine have been writen? Our baba is 3/5 still and my midwife explained when asked that it meant that three fiths of the head was in the pelvis.

I have told dh to tell everyone that we do not want any visitors durring the first two days at home as i ended up waiting on my inlaws within 5 mins of walking through the front door last time round as well.

RZ - Just read your post on contented little babies, follow it through and you will do fine, i found it much easier to adapt my routine to dd than to try and adapt her to mine. However with no two on the way we may have to try adapting bean to DD's routine because of the nursery run each afternoon.

redhelen - hope bf works out for you this time.
jessysmummy - hope bf goes ok for you as well. I hope to be able to bf as well to shift the flab! Your pil do sound difficult. Mine are fine it's my mother who is the problem. She wont be visiting and if she actually asked to visit I would say no as I value my own sanity & that of my kids more than her being at my house. My pil will be visiting - hopefully my mil will be able to come before the birth to look after dd1,2 &3 when I'm in labour. I've had fast labours and as we have no family nearby it is worrying. I've made two arrangements just in case but these could fall through & for dd3 I don't know any parents in her class. I'm going to ask the teacher if she can tell me who best to ask - just in case dd3 needs to be brought home from school. Does anyone else have organizational problems in sorting out suitable care for other kids whilst you're in labour?

milward - I havn't tried to organize cover for ds whilst I'm in labour! I hope mil will be a call away (she lives 20 minutes for us and is fantastic) My parents talk the talk about how delighted they are - and then fill September with holidays and other days out! If it happens after ds goes back to school - we have a couple of freinds with kids at his school - so may call on them. My biggest worry is a cs - have a scan next Tuesday to discuss it (had ds by cs / small pelvis and back to back) if this is the case its 3/4 days in hospital and no driving for 6 weeks -that will be a school run nightmare! Still hoping for a fast labour (fingers crossed!!)

LL - glad you will get some anti-natal classes - after the struggle!

Ice cream calls - night night!

I've had 3 ice lollys after dinner!!! (so far!!) Enjoy yours as well. I'm also hoping to avoid a cs. I just don't know how I'd manage with the not being able to drive as I'd never get kids to school & back.

Congratulations Moschops .

Have just bought a Phil and Teds pushchair. Am looking forward to it arriving .

Have been being busy today while DS was at nursery. Will catch up properly tomorrow hopefully.

Jessysmummy - thanks for the interesting post. Glad you enjoyed the wedding.

Your PILS sound like mine! I also did not want to leave DS alone with them. However, a friend of mine who is a grandmother had suggested that I do this. So since he was about 6 months old he has spent an afternoon a week with them (it totally freaked me out at first). They are now so besotted with him, and although they don't do things the way I'd like, I am glad he has a great relationship with them. I know you can't do this with yours as they stay further away - but it might be worth considering letting them have some alone time with your DD at some stage. Interestingly, as soon as I started trusting them with DS, they became so much less of a pain.

Actually, I remember now how it all came about. DH was working full time, and PILS kept popping in unannounced and staying for HOURS and expected to be waited on. Eventually DH told them that they needed to stop acting like guests and start acting like family! (There was nothing subtle about THAT conversation), but they did stop expecting to be waited on after that.

As for coming home from the hospital - your DH MUST MAKE IT CLEAR to them IN ADVANCE what he expects of them. My DH told his folks NOT to visit until summonsed. And when they did visit, he asked them to bring food with them, so we did not have to worry about cooking. You need to tell DH that this is really important to you (Does he want an unhappy wife or unhappy parents?). Tell him what it is you want, and together you might be able to work out a suitable alternative to the stress of the previous time.

Hello hello. Good point, Franch and Jessysmummys, regarding the tens machine. I had just blithely assumed that they all worked on the same general principle, but now I investigate I see that there are different ones for different conditions. The main distinguishing feature of labour ones seems to be that they have a 'boost' function for the contractions. I hadn't given it much thought yet (it's further down the list than I can see at the moment...) but I thought my MIL had mumbled something about it being suitable. Maybe she's utterly bewildered. Or it could be that it has some kind of boost function - as it was bought when his cancer had spread to the bone (when you've got to wonder if a tens machine is really going to touch the pain...). Will check.

Can't understand all these families thinking they can just descend. I'm thinking of telling my MIL and parents that it would be good if they could give us a couple of days alone, but I don't feel that I can hold them off longer than that. They won't be staying though. I don't expect anyone else to just 'drop by'. They'll get very short shrift if they do.

Piccadilly Circus: we bought a Phil and Ted's, something to do with planning in advance. I'm dead pleased with it (although it hasn't had much more than a test drive yet).

Mummyhill: it will all go round when I find the peanut sleeping in the dog's bed and burying bones in garden... and don't get me started on the pigeon murder...

I may have meant pear-shaped, rather than round. I shall go to bed.

I found the tens machine to be quite irritating durring labour although I do have one to use for my back pain which works really well.

RZ I doubt you will find peanut burying bones although we often find dd curled up in the cats bed.

I am going to send an email round to all the family etc today asking them to give us three-four days on our own after we come out of hospital to give dd a chance to get to know her brother/sister. Any suggestions on diplomatic wording would be appreciated though.

Morning, morning - 2 weeks today until I finish work - yay!

My doula came around last night for our first meeting before the birth. She's so lovely. We went over my birth plan (at least what I am going to put in the birth plan - haven't actually written anything down yet), and have now ticked off 3 things from my 'to do' list, as she provides them - homeopathic remedies for labour, TENS machine, and a hypnobirthing CD (which I'm going to start on this weekend). Now feeling slightly more organised...

Piccadilly Circus and Red Zuleika - good to hear you're pleased with your E3s - am planning on buying one when I get back to NZ. Currently trying to decide whether to buy the Phil and Ted's infant car seat - can't find anywhere in London where I can actually go and see it in the flesh, so am a bit hesitant about buying it. Figure that as it's made in NZ, it's more likely to fit in NZ cars... Tossing up between that and the Maxi Cosi Cabrio. Decisions, decisions...

OMG ych! Small world indeed! I lived (and parents still do) in Rydal Avenue just off Ennerdale road. Can't afford to live there now with the house prices being so ridiculous with all those footballers moving in, hence the move to Whiston!!!
Thanks to everyone for advice about PILs. Had another chat with DH last night about it. Think the problem arose last time when PIL had no intention of coming to see their new granddaughter at all and DH was a bit upset. They said that it was too far for them to travel for a day visit (though they have managed plenty of day visits since) so DH invited them to stay over 1 night while DD & I were still in hospital, assuming they would be gone when we got home. As usual, they overstayed their welcome! So we've made a rod for our own backs, really. We're going to visit them in a couple of weeks so will have to get DH well briefed by then.
The job of cover for DD is hopefully going to mum, though she goes away a week after EDD at which point the job will pass to my useless sister and an old friend who both work part time(depending on who's not working). Knowing my luck, baby will be more than a week overdue and both sister and friend will be unavailable. Have visions of DD merrily playing with gym/birthing ball in the delivery suite while I'm puffing away!!