July 2010: We’re ready to drop; Not long to go until we pop!

[DesperateHousewife21]

Possibly our last ante-natal thread ladies!

chulita yeah that's right def the same person. I would love to contribute in any way I can its a lovely idea to get her something to remember little Belle. Let me know the plan and I will do my best to help.

Forgot to mention nappies! Obviously if DS was dirty we changed him, but DH was very adept at doing a careful nappy change without waking DS too. I believe the trick is warm water and/or baby wipes kept on the radiator. Although this one will be a summer baby, so I suppose it will all be different!

I feel like a first timer again. No idea what LO should wear/how often to feed etc as DS was born mid winter!

gracie I totally feel like a first timer since ds is 11 lol

I think instead of being bogged by the info then you have to remember your instincts too. The dream feeding seems a good idea and I suppose with weaning I'l cross that bridge when i come to it. Friend had to start baby cereal at 8wks but didnt tell hv/mw , so it just depends x

HV told me to start adding rice to DS milk at 17 weeks, but not tell anyone!! She said Nhs want you to wait until 6 months (fine in most cases) but DS was huge and snatching at people food! Fortunately his hand eye co-ordination left something to be desired.

I think one of the reasons they want you to wean late is that the bowel and gut are not very well developed yet (they need to build up different bacterias and enzymes etc to break down different types of food). It can damage the digestive system if certain foods are introduced too early.

It also has a lot to do with making sure they are getting enough milk (nutritionally much better for them than food) but as DS was guzzling nearly three times the amount required for a baby his weight she said there would be no harm in introducing solids, as long as he drank enough milk first. (eg not filling up on food then refusing a milk feed).

I suspect it will all have changed by the time I get to weaning this one though!

dh we have a Paypal account set up if you want to add to to it, we're going to get a pink rose from a place that one of the ladies knows about. The paypal account is [email protected]

We started DD on food at about 22 weeks, she didn't eat much tbh but she seemed to want it. We did BLW anyway so she would just slobber on her broccoli and that was pretty much it!

mlic I know what you mean about 8wks but the baby wasn't satisfied with just milk and it wasnt a vast amount of food just a teaspoon or so.

My ds was on 9 oz bottles from 2 weeks old, I changed the brand from sma gold cap to white cap and still wasnt satisfied in fact his little tum was taking in far too much fluid and making him projectile vomit. I asked about changing him onto a milk for hungry babies and was told it wasnt advisable but as I had said to hv at the time neither was being sick all the time and trying to take in too much for him. I know the guidelines are there all I am saying is it can be hard to stick to the rigidly. Also I bet none of our mums waited until 26 weeks to give us solids (think I was eating mince and potatoes by then) and it hasnt harmed us. But its each person to thier own opinion

chulita thank you for letting me know, I will contribute to that.

stac interesting ive just come on here and seen you say about our mums, i was just asking her about weaning 'back in the day' and she said with my sister they cut a cross in the top of her bottle to let lumps through and added a rusk into bottle at....2 WEEKS as she was so hungry, my nan had my aunty the same year and did the same, even propping her in buggy with bottle, social services would be called if we did that now!!!

It just amazes me memphis how they change all these things, things we wouldnt dream of doing our mums thought was fine lol. I know my mum smoked and drank in pregnancy which I havent with either pregnancies, my son has asthma but my sis and I dont. Not that I advocate either of those things lol. But your right, if hv came to your house and saw lo propped up with a bottle with rusks in it they would go mad haha

So went to town after seeing mw to get hospital bag sorted - Primark have loads of button front nighties, including some cotton ones that look cool, labour ward was unbearably hot when I had dd in Nov, goodness knows what it is like atm.

Also got a breast pump, wasn't planning to, but Boots have Tommy Tippee ones on half price atm, £80 down to £40 for the electric one, is a new model, so no idea if it is good, but blurb on packaging looked good and it actually looks v. similar to the meleda swing one which is £80.

Also one of the pregnancy and baby mags has a free travel wipe case, which I was going to fork out £6 on from Jojo Maman, but mag was only £2.80, so worth it for the gift - magazine was fairly rubbish.

MLIC on notes it says presenting head down and relation to brim is 'eng'? Does that mean fully engaged? Bit scary, not ready for baby yet, have nowhere for it to sleep and no car seat.

wonder when i was at hospital yesterday i asked the doctor there if lo had dropped further as i was 3/5ths last week, she said a lot of mw trusts dont bother measuring how many 5th they just see it as engaged or on brim as good enough info as you can go totally engaged from on brim with waters breaking, so maybe your mw thinks in same way that engaged is good enough info?

Thanks for bringing up all this engaged business. Got me thinking 'I wonder what;s on my notes?' then realised I don't know where they are!!

I have an appointment with the consultant tomorrow, so better spend the evening looking for them. Still better than finding out 10 minutes before we leave tomorrow...

Thanks for bringing up all this engaged business. Got me thinking 'I wonder what;s on my notes?' then realised I don't know where they are!!

I have an appointment with the consultant tomorrow, so better spend the evening looking for them. Still better than finding out 10 minutes before we leave tomorrow...

Sounds reasonable - second babies can engage and then move anyway can't they?

I just wish we knew, you know 9am on the 18th July you will definitly go into labour, not before, not after, your baby will arrive at 9pm, he will be healthy and will need feeding every 3 hours, also he will be sleeping 7 to 7 by 6 weeks. Then everyone would know where they stood! None of this could be next week, could be 6 weeks, you may get a decent nights sleep really soon or you may have to wait 2 years..

Talking of which dd has been quiet for the last 20 minutes, think I might go to bed

wonder Primark didnt have any nighties whatsoever when I went which was really annoying as I was counting on them for their cheapness!

My mw writes how engaged LO is out of 5, last Wed he was 3/5ths and have a feeling he may be working his way down. I dont see mw til next Wed so wont know until then.

Hello - just wondering - is anyone else experiencing discharge that's more watery than usual? I am - not an excessive amount or anything, but there's definitely new stuff every time i go to the loo. Concerned because I need to watch out for any leakages at the moment!

DH21 I got a couple of pairs of black PJ bottoms from Primark - £4 I think. They're really soft and comfortable. Would totally recommend. The label on the inside is "Secret Possessions" Also, I got a couple of cheap nighties from Tesco and one from Matalan. The one from Tesco is front opening & should come in handy for breastfeeding .

gracie you could even get 12oz!! I'm well impressed! A 4oz bottle would take me several 10 minute sessions over the course of a day. I was thinking this time to maybe feed one side and express the other at the same time...a balancing act Thanks for all the tips, it's been such a long time since I bf I'm getting a bit nervous.

mlic oh I was hoping for a nice little hamper full of presents! Why would I need mad coloured mascara?!

wonder I'm getting a bit worried about dealing with a baby again! DD is 4 so it's been a while!

orange the heat at night is really horrible. I have to go for a little walk around the house to cool off once a night at the mo.

norky sounds good! I'm not getting anything at all now so baby is obviously not ready argh.

memphis my mum used to put a shot of brandy in my bottle to make me sleep! She was also told to drink half a pint of guinness every day for a few weeks after birth to build her iron back up.

violet I'm getting a lot of discharge again, this afternoon I worried coz quite alot seemed to come out in one go. I wouldn't say it was watery though. Keep an eye on it and wear a pantyliner, then if you're worried speak to the mw. They can tell from the smell (sorry tmi) if it's amniotic fluid or not. Re the pj's from primark, I've got some of the grey ones. Actually wore them out a couple of times too once to a committee meeting which I knew would go on for hours so wanted to be really comfy!

Thanks so much everyone for the pump advice, I'm going to be much more with it this time and persevere. Right, off to bed, night ladies

Violet - I would recommend wearing a pantyliner and taking it to mw/hospital if you are unsure. They have a test stick they can use to tell.

Sometimes a 'hindwater' break can lead to a bit of leaking and then seal up again and not be a problem, but it is worth checking. If the do think it's amniotic they will probably scan to check how much you have left etc....

Morning all!

We're off to Monkey World in a bit and the sun isn't out for once Might manage to wander around without sweating myself into a prune. Going with a friend who's 10 days ahead of me so we're both going to be waddling around chasing our toddlers

violet I've been getting more discharge too, but then I have done for months. At the mo I go through 2 pantyliners a day I was the same with DD though, just the way my body works I suppose...

I wish I'd bought some PJ trousers now, I've just got 2 nighties but I can't get to town now so won't be doing anymore shopping!