Anyone started major building work whilst pregnant?

[expectingno3]

Due to horrendous set backs regarding a neighbour and a party wall act, we are finally due to start work on a major extension in the next two weeks. Thing is I'm now 27 weeks pregnant. With the build due to last 20 weeks, the birth will come slap bang in the middle! We're not going to delay the work by waiting till after the baby is born, but I wondered if anyone had experienced similar, how they coped etc. I am fully expecting it to be an absolute nightmare...

I haven't experienced this myself but my DP works in trade and he's done several projects in which heavily pg clients have been near popping/on maternity leave and have been living out of one room while the house is in bits around them.

He's a gent so makes sure his boys do any heavy lifting they need doing while they're there and even ended up making endless cups of tea for one lady who was overdue and miserable.

Make sure you have at least one room sealed off so it's dust free and clean. Make sure any workman know that it's off limits so that if baby comes unexpectedly you have a nice clean fresh room to retreat to.

IME, most of the tradesmen I know are big softies when it comes to babies.

Hi there (I'm also expecting no. 3!) and have given birth to both my other two children amidst building work (and they were both home births!!). We are property developers and have been doing this sort of thing for 15 years. It looks like I will be in the same boat as you as we have recently purchased a house that needs everything doing to it!!

Don't worry too much but you must try and keep a dust free area for the baby and get the builders to minimise the disruption as much as they can. As it is an extension there is every chance that you can "localise" the mess. We were doing up every room in the house including plumbing and wiring so much worse.

When mine were a bit more mobile I used a portable travel cot as a play pen to keep them out of the mess and twice had to resort to taking them to visit family overseas when the disruption was too much (knocking down internal walls etc.)

You will be fine. Good Luck!

We started a huge kitchen and bathroom extension 12 weeks before dc4 was due. It was hard at times but do you know the best bit? Not worrying after the bath about doing any housework because it was a building site anyway!! Seriously tho,don't stress your self out trying to keep on top of keeping everthing perfect -if possible shut whatever doors are between old house/extension,if you don't need to have access through existing house.Do you have a project manager?

Yes, we had major work done, it started a few weeks before DD3 was born and finished when she was about 6 weeks old. Absolute madness. Of course the plan was that it would all be finished before she was born, but things never quite work like that.

My mother was absolutely horrified and although I was hoping she would stay around and help, she couldn't cope with staying in our house and went home. But tbh, actually it was fine. The most difficult thing was feeding my older DC without a kitchen, but for the baby it was no big deal, as they don't need a kitchen, just some boobs. Our work was quite noisy, but the baby slept quite happily through the noise. It was also a bit dusty in the house, but the baby didn't really notice that either. We put dust sheets everywhere, over all the doors and on the stairs, which helped a little bit.

Good luck with everything. It will all be fine, I'm sure.

Thanks for all your replies! Much appreciated. It sounds like it is do-able, well its got to be hasn't it?

girlfromdownsouth - Its knocking through the entire back of the house, and re-wiring too. I was also hoping for a homebirth but have put that to the back of my mind now.

numptysmummy - We have put the architect in charge so all queries from builders will go via him, but he will only be on site once a week. The contractor will be on site as much as pos, having put his foreman in charge, but essentially it has been me that has sourced, priced, and will order everything in when needed. And DH thinks now we (almost) have the party wall award, it'll get much LESS stressfull!!

Thanks everyone x

Have to say that getting stuff ordered,picking colours etc really satisfied my nesting instincts Will also say that i had a couple of down days when i was very tearful but i suspect that with 3dc's under 8, one with SN and summer holidays, it had very little to do with the building works!!

Thats what I'm worried about - having one or two many teary days with builders asking me stuff I don't know the answer to! I'm an organised person, but think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one. I get stressed very easily. The fact you don't have to keep tidying is a bonus however.

Be gentle on yourself - you shouldn't have to answer too many questions if you have a project manager. Don't be embarrased about telling the builders you're feeling hormonal,stressed etc. Have you got a friend nearby that you can escape to if you are feeling teary? I used to just get out of the house for the day and leave them to it. Thats what they are paid for.

Kind of similar - we're in the middle of rebuilding our house after a fire destroyed it completely last year. It's going to be pretty tight as to the overlap between finishing the works and my giving birth (it's our first). I'm dying to 'nest' and buy things for the nursery, but we don't even have a roof yet! I too wanted a homebirth, but can't run the risk of there, er, not being a home to give birth in. And I'm not having the baby in our temporary place.

You sound similar to me - organised, like to know how things are going but that, coupled with preghormones, fat feet, aching back and people asking me to take decisions or 'just look something up' can just make me sob and feel completely put-upon!

You WILL get through it, and it will all be fantastic in the end, but maybe you will need others to demonstrate (by backing off and leaving you alone now) that YOU are the priority for the next however many months, and that you need pressure taking off you completely. If you get stressed, then deal with the most important stresses, like the pregnancy, and sod the rest of it. Other people are trained to build a house - only YOU can grow and give birth to that lovely baby!

OMG this is me. Yes, it is a complete nightmare and we aren't even living in the house. We are having another bedroom put in and a new bathroom which is why we had to move out. They were supposed to be finished by mid December, and every single person involved in the project has let us down. The project manager has been paid over a grand for doing absolutely nothing. Am due to give birth in three weeks or so, and the house still looks like a war zone, we are in temporary accommodation with mould up the walls of the bathroom and cardboard boxes everywhere. Baby turning cartwheels every night, I have absolutely no headspace left to think about the birth. Never. Ever. Again.

Best of luck!! Tell yourself It Will Be Worth It In The End.

Yes, finished two weeks before DS arrived.

My top tip: DO NOT GET TOO TIRED TOWARDS THE END. After an easy pregnancy in which I felt better than I've ever felt in my life I had a slightly rocky last couple of weeks, including a UTI, antibiotics, a night in hospital on a drip and induction after DS stopped moving. Those things could all have happened anyway, but it is a fact that final days of building works and the move back home left me exhausted and ill. If I were doing it again, I would have opted out of a lot more after 36 weeks or so. You will need all your strength, physical and mental, for labour. A relative who also moved 2 weeks before giving birth says the same. So, best tell your DH now he is going to have to carry the load after a certain date!