Still brooking no argument whatsoever that these babies are happy, healthy and awesome for 2013 too.

[jaggythistle]

eh. attempt at new thread. yo.

And Scarlet how is DD? Hope she's back to her good sleeping and you're feeling better now.

Happy Mothers Day ladies! Hope you are all being thoroughly spoiled!!

Im having a lie in and newborn snuggles with DS2 whilst DS1 and DH are downstairs playing. They have bought me a bacon & egg sarnie and a cup of tea too! DS made me a beautiful card at school and for the first time its all his own handwriting too - im very proud! Today I really am basking in the glow of new motherhood and it feels great. There were so many times on our long ttc journey that I felt our dream of a second child would never be realised and I feel so so lucky for my lovely family now

T is doing great, we were signed off by midwife yesterday. He had lost 6% of his birth weight at 5 days but by yest he'd regained 4oz which she was happy with. He seems to cluster feed for 2 hours or so then have a decent sleep and at night he's brilliant, cluster feeds in the evening then has a good 4-5 hour sleep before feeding again. In fact last night he fed all evening until 10 then didn't wake until 3.15 had another mammoth feed until 4.15 and slept until 7.15!! Not sure he even would have woken then if it wasn't for DS1 holding his hand and kissing him!!

Right just going to read back then post again in a mo!

pet Just teaching Macbeth sounds hard enough to be never mind having to deal with special needs on top! I never really "got" Shakespeare at school although I somehow still managed to get an A in English Lit GCSE! fluke

musical DS1 was in a sleeping bag until about 2.5 when he outgrew the largest size! He learnt how to get out of them whilst he was still really young by standing up and stretching so the shoulder poppers opened so we just sewed up one shoulder and that put an end to it!

bartlet Hope you're fully recovered from the vomiting - you had enough of that in pregnancy! I really hope cartoon gets the same fab level of care that you experienced with DD1.

cartoon If you're reading then I hope you and DH had a good date night and managed to relax a bit. Im brooking really hard for Monday lovely

stacks Echoing what others have said about weight gain. If T is content and happy then he (and you) are doing just fine. I need to listen to my own advice too as already I am worrying about my T not having regained his birth weight and the poor boy is only 12 days old!! And its only because DS1 was heavier than his birth weight by day 13! I do have a feeling that T may end up being smaller than his brother though despite starting off 1lb heavier, I think he's shorter (although they don't measure length now) and im fairly sure his hands and feet are smaller. His head was also 1.5cm smaller at birth (thankfully!)

Can't remember anything else so apologies to anyone I've missed!

Happy Mothers Day everyone!

I cannot believe it is snowing here again! .
I've had a lovely playgroup made card from DS. DH had DD's underwater photo put onto canvas and gave me some gorgeous flowers. DH took DS swimming this morning but instead of making the most of it and having a lie in I got up and sorted loads of laundry and did some tidying up. After DS being dry at night for the last 4 months he's wet the bed for the last 2 nights . The annoying thing is he admits to being awake when he does it. No idea what that's all about

We've had a few more rough nights with DD Pet, I'm putting it down to teething, plus we've all got colds. I'm brooking no argument that normality will be resumed ASAP!

I hope you're feeling better now Bartlet?

Olives everything sounds wonderful. I still have to pinch myself too sometimes! I don't know your full story but I completely get what you mean. We had fertility worries plus miscarriages and at times I thought DS would always be an only child.

Happy first birthday to our baby brooker M for yesterday. Did you do anything nice to celebrate Too?

Cartoon I've been thinking of you lots. The wait must feel very stressful. I hope you get some answers during your appointment tomorrow and that there is good news .

Great that DS is settling in well with his childminder Pet and that work's not too bad.

Good luck catching that mouse Ninja. I actually typed rat then, reminiscent of old times

If you're lurking Scream I hope you and little A are both ok.

scarlet Your pressie sounds lovely and you really can't beat a homemade card DS2 took 3 years to conceive, we had 4 miscarriages and an ectopic where I lost a tube then I had some private testing after NHS tests found nothing and was diagnosed with high natural killer cells so took steroids for that in my pregnancy with T.

The only thing that's not good at the mo is my ongoing spd - I have excruciating groin/buttock pain and a terrible "heaviness" down below. Its worse after being upright for any length of time or after sitting on a hard chair. Ibuprofen and paracetamol take the edge off.but its still bloody painful! I can't even use the sling for T as the extra weight makes it worse Any other post natal brookers suffering with similar or have any advice?

Was there no sign of natural killer cells prior to DS1 Olives? It took us 18 months to conceive DS and then I had 2 MCs before DD. I asked my GP about killer cells after my MCs but he said if I had them I'd have not had DS. Obviously he's no expert but it's worrying he could be saying that to people if it's not always the case. Did you see the famous killer cell doctor? I can't remember his name but I've read about him.

My SPD stopped pretty much straight after DDs birth. Do you think your GP would arrange for you to see a physio if you asked?

TMI alert. I have been diagnosed with a prolapse. Some of you may remember months ago when my first AF returned I said that something didn't feel right, like I was having to push something out of the way to get the tampon in. It's taken me all these months to pluck up the courage to get checked out but at least I know I was right now. I'm being referred for a surgical repair . I also suspect I have a rectocele but I didn't mention that to GP, too scary to think about but I will mention it when I get my hospital appointment through Note to all: do your pelvic floor exercises!

Meant to say no wonder you're feeling so elated, you've been through so much! I can't imagine how awful having an ectopic pregnancy and losing a tube must've felt. To go through that and then find out you have killer cells must've been devastating. I'm right in thinking the 2 things aren't related aren't I?

Green I have pain in bum area, just like you describe and finally saw a physio about it last month as they couldn't do anything whilst pregnant then massive waiting lists post birth. In first appointment she told me that I am hyper mobile which explains why my body falls apart when pregnant and also that I have a problem with my sacroiliac joints on right side of my bum. It's having a knock on effect into left side of bum slightly and into my lower back quite a bit. She is confident that she can get it sorted over a number of sessions. The appointment was via physio direct number which links to our hospital, assume other areas of the country do a similar thing?

scarlet I did see the famous Dr Shehata (didn't like him at all, very smarmy and all about the money!) His theory is that sometimes a first pregnancy can trigger the killer cells. DS1 only took 6 months to conceive and I had no miscarriages prior to him so I guess there was no issue back then. I am still fairly sceptical about the whole thing as there is little evidence to back it up and I will never know whether its the treatment that sustained my pregnancy or whether he was just "meant to be" iyswim? At the end of the day I feel it was £650 worth spending (fortunately only had to pay for 2 appts and the test as my lovely Nhs consultant was happy to support the treatment plan/extra scans etc ) Sorry to hear about your miscarriages too - its devastating to lose a much wanted baby whatever stage you're at

With regard to your prolapse although surgery seems a bit scary I reckon its best to get it sorted now. My mum left hers and now she has terrible stress incontinence and because her BPs not great she's worried about having surgery now and wishes she'd had it done years ago. Did they tell you how long you might have to wait? Im wondering whether I may have a similar problem which is exacerbating the "heavy" sensation down below?! I feel a bit like something is going to fall out - tmi, you know the feeling when you have a full tampon which is sliding down?
Have decided to try hard with my pelvic floor exercises until my 6 week check and ask the Gp then if it still doesn't feel right.

Thanks for the advice little I think I probably will need physio, im hypermobile too (have dislocated my patella twice!) Again though I think I'll wait until my 6 week check as some of it may well be residual pain from pushing out my baby elephant! And my wound is still swollen and has partly opened so that's probably adding to it as well! The things we put ourselves through to have these babies!! Good job they're all adorable!

Sorry meant loopy not little!

Happy Mother's Day everyone

Green, I've still got lingering spd, which is annoying as it went straight away with dd. my physio said she wouldn't discharge me until the end of march, so I have til then to decide if I need another appointment.

I'm feeling very jealous of T's sleep habits at night. J is much easier to settle at night than day, but he still is up every 2 hours, sometimes less. He is also still really struggling with his tummy/bottom. He is straining and pushing for hours sometimes, and it constantly disturbs his sleep. I'm still pretty sure it's just him getting used to his little body and as his digestive system matures it will improve. It's tiring though!

He's stirring now, so had better go. Sorry to miss people out x

Little Poor little J and you being up in the night so much - that's tough going! I'm not counting my chickens yet, T is only 12 days old - there's plenty of time for him decide that sleep is for wimps! We have found Ewan the Dream Sheep to be a great settler - it's a strange looking sheep cuddly toy which plays a selection of white/pink noise and then switches off after 20 mins. It helps him get off to sleep and stops him from screaming during night time nappy changes!! (he was waking DS1 up before Ewan arrived!) Sorry to hear your spd is still troublesome too.

Happy birthday m!!

I've posted this on the antenatal thread but I'll post it here as well just in case.

Cartoon, so sorry to hear your news. I'm sorry I haven't seen your posts before today. Brooking really hard for today's appt to be good news, although they may not be able to tell just yet. If it helps, my story is that DD2's nuchal score was actually done at 13+5, so the very last day it is possible to do. They thought I was only 12 weeks but put my dates forward at the scan. I don't remember the actual number, but I think it was above 3. 3.2, maybe? It was the combined result with the blood test that gave me the high-risk score - my PAPP-A score was bad. I was only 28 and still came out with a score of 1:10 overall. The hospital handled the notification really badly, which didn't help - left a voicemail asking me to call them (no other info), but by the time I picked it up it was after 4pm and they were shut, so I called Triage in a panic and eventually someone called me back who said 'I can see from your notes that you have a score of 1:10, is that what you want to talk about?' Anyway, to cut a long story short, we opted for an amnio at 16 weeks. The waiting was horrendous. The procedure itself was not so bad - I could see DD on the screen and you could see the needle approaching her amniotic sac, but she was quite happy even when the needle went in. I felt much calmer after seeing her, weirdly. The hospital told us it would take 3-5 days to get the results, but they actually called me the very next afternoon to say that DD was okay - she didn't have DS or Edward's or Patau's. I got the more detailed results by phone a couple of weeks later, including the sex. I didn't have any symptoms at all after the amnio - no cramping/bleeding or anything. Fast forward 18 months and DD is a year old, bright and beautiful! I really hope it's the same for you. I'll be watching for your updates and if there's anything else I can do just ask.

Hey ladies, so sorry to do this, Cartoon has told us that her little one didn't make it. That is all we know :(

oh gosh, I'm so sorry the hear that. Poor cartoon and family. My thoughts are with you

Have posted on the antenatal thread too, but cartoon, I am so sorry for your loss. Thinking of you.

Posted on antenatal too, but thinking of you cartoon. The first time in a while I've cried for a fellow brooker :(

Glad you've been diagnosed scarlet, though that must be a bit scary. How long will you have to wait? I think something's not quite right with me, too (TMI here too - SFF still uncomfortable!), but I suspect it may not be worth having anything done just yet. I suspect if I do, it'll just be undone by another potential pregnancy, and as we want to TTC next year I think I'll just keep an eye on it for now.

Having more back problems at the moment, which I haven't had for a couple of years... worrying, as the last time they diagnosed surgery (fusing bits of my spine). I wonder if carrying Iz isn't helping, so trying to get her to crawl to me more - with varying levels of success!

Welcome Olives, lovely to see you over here :)

Cuddling Iz harder today after cartoon's sad sad news :(

sorry if i repeat my self or anything in this post. im starting from the begining as i plan to post this on all 3 brooking threads. so as most of you know we had 2 early missed miscarriages last year. we saw mr shehata privately for tests and was told i had very high natural killer cells. i was on his treatment plan for this pregnancy. it got us further than ever before. we had several early scans and things seemed to be going well. i was just starting to relax and have faith that our baby was finally coming. at our nhs dating scan on wed we were told pebble had a raised nuchal measurement and there was other excess fluid. our nt results came back very quickly with a 1:40 risk. we had an appointment today with a fetal medicine consultant to find our more info and have a more detailed scan to start looking into what problems pebble may have. but sometime over those last few days pebbles heart stopped beating. they found that there was no nasal bone and there was also a lump like a hernia in the stomach.
they have took bloods from us both for testing and will do testing on pebble. we have requested (hoping) that they will be able to tell us the sex.
i am booked in for an erpc first thing tommorrow. part of me is grateful i am still at a stage where they can do this. i am also grateful for the fact that nature decided this and it wasnt a decision we had to make, if you see what i mean.

Oh sweetheart I am so sorry this happened to you at all. Sending all my thoughts to you and DH. We are always here for a chat if you need us. Xx

(((Hugs)))) Cartoon I'm so sorry it's turned out this way for you. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow and I hope that the testing is able to answer some of the questions you no doubt have.

cartoon I am so, so sorry for your loss Sending lots of love and hugs your way Xx

cartoon, that's terrible news, I'm so sorry for your loss. A really awful thing to happen :( . Nothing I can say will make it better but I'm thinking of you and counting my blessings. xxx

In tmi news, I had the feeling of real heaviness/ tampon sliding out after DD, and was bricking it it was a prolapse, but it was a cystocele or rectocele, not sure which, diagnosed 4 months after the birth by my consultant (who I was seeing post-third degree tear). Sorted with pelvic floor exercises. It came back after the dts birth as I recovered so well after my cs I did way too much too soon, so the stretching/strain/weight of a twin pregnancy combined with the cs meant it recurred. Boo! My friend had a big prolapse after her first dc. She was told she'd do best to do the exercises and put off the surgery for at least 15 years if possible, as the surgery may need redoing anyway if you have it too early, and have the surgery in her mid to late fourties ish. She had a pretty big prolapse but is managing it well with pelvic floor exercises and has a second dc, vb, too. Don't know if that's any use scarlet, but tis nothing to be ashamed of anyway .

Hi again, posting here cos it's where you all live at the moment and just need a quick bit of advice. I just fell in the ice, I managed to twist so I went on my side and booby has been having a lovely wriggle. I have managed to hurt my arm and made my hips much much worse, but I am also having some very mild period pain type cramps. Is there a point at which I should worry or just assume for now that it is because I have stretched myself and it will be ok??