Due January 2019 (2nd thread)

[InDreamland]

Hello
Last thread was closed............?

@GinGeum hey sorry I am just catching up! Is this your first baby? I enquires about a Home birth at my 12 week appointment when the q of 'where' came up and got a less than lukewarm response!

Yes first baby Wow! I think that’s why I expected reluctance, but she brought it up and half heartedly said ‘so you’re planning to give birth in the MLU?’ and I said ‘umm well actually I quite like the idea of a Home birth..?!’ and she got very excited and started scribbling it down, saying they loved Home births. I asked if it was okay being first baby and she was very adamant it was a great choice!

@purplestrawberry2 that’s a horrible experience to have had today! I would have been very tempted to say back to her “the feeling is mutual & I hope I don’t get you”. It’s a special time in your life & if they can’t get over themselves to just be in the moment with you then I’m sorry but I will have someone else next time! Hope bruises heal quickly xx

I’m definitely having a hospital birth, I had a horrendous time with my first and would be too scared to be at home. I shall be attempting to hypnobirth though. We’ll see how that goes!

Hi all,

I'll join if that's ok! I'm 16+2 wks pregnant with my second child. I already have a 3.5 year old daughter.

I'm feeling ok generally (apart from being shattered!) and I told everyone at work today as I just can't hide the bump any longer.

Hope everyone is doing ok

Merrz Car seats without handles? I didn't even consider that was something else to think about!

My general impression is that if driving a car with Isofix, there is absolutely no reason not to use it with the car seat as it is far safer than not.
However, it's the need (or not) for the base I can't really get my head around - but I probably need to go have a proper look in a few stores to understand exactly how it all works.

I told my mum about the midwife appointment yesterday, and I could tell she got really emotional when talking about how the Doppler picked up kicking. She mentioned the first time she felt me kicking - which is 35 years ago. I'm amazed that she remembers!
I'm feeling like my mum and I are bonding a bit over all of this, and I really like it.

Risk did you see my post about car seats?

GinGeum I did, thank you very much.
I've been looking online and it seems there are newborn car seats that are Isofix but are sold without and bundled with the base. I guess that's to give people who do not need the Isofix the option to not purchase something they won't be using, and not that the base is optional for when using Isofix?

I find it all very confusing.

I will need a car seat that will work with an Emmaljunga pram (I'll get adaptors for it), and I need to figure out if there is a safe car seat that allows for the lie-flat option in the car as it would make life easier for us as family lives far away - my impression is that most are either not very safe when used in that position or only allow for the lie-flat option to be used when not in the car.

Yes that’s right, and also some people might want to buy two bases for two cars but just the one seat, so wouldn’t need to buy a whole bundle for each car. I haven’t decided yet if I will get isofix, I don’t think my current car has it, but we are hoping to change that before January. DH’s truck most definitely doesn’t have isofix, but I very much doubt the baby will ever enter that car! Our driveway is a long old walk to the house as well, so I’m not sure id manage carrying the whole car seat plus baby up the path regularly... maybe I’ll just get a seat belt one and leave it in the car permanently, and use sling to get baby up to House. It’s hard to know what to get isn’t it?

It really is hard!

I've seen that some people use the car seats on pram/pushchair frames, so if you have quite a walk from your car to your house, it may be handy for you? It may also be helpful if you're going to the doctor's or doing a quick shop, so you don't have to get the baby out of the car seat and into a pram, but can just move baby and seat onto a pram frame?

I think most cars from after 2014 will have Isofix (at least in the EU), except for 2-seater cars.

I am probably not going to get a pram either until they are older (our house is really awkward!) we have gravel driveway, then steep steps, then a long windy path, and then more steps into the house. There is also nowhere easy to store the pram without folding it once in the house so I think any pram we do get will have to be kept in the car anyway. And we are rural so by the time we’ve driven anywhere, I don’t think I’ll want baby sat in the seat any longer after that. It’s going to be a faff moving baby from seat to sling every time I think, but hopefully the less faffy option of them all I hope!

My current car is a 2006 really must look into getting a newer one.

I’ve not gone for isofix as my car is 2009.

morning everyone! Wow this thread has moved quick - I've been working full on and then shattered by the time I'm home so haven't checked in in a while. Hi to all the new people!
Bump is starting to pop out now, I look huge after a day of eating! Anyone else's skin been playing up? My eczema has flared up badly on my hips and I have inflamed red bumps all on my thighs! Just to add to me already feeling rubbish about not getting to the gym and starting to look squishy!

@Jigglyjugs my skin is so itchy and I have dry skin everywhere. The heat makes it worse too.

Been feeling sicky and then some rude person decided to blow cigarette smoke in my face.

I’m back to feeling quite nauseous which I thought I was over as soon as I get hungry I feel really sick.

Ugh how horrible @purplesmiler, I'm finding it smells stronger than usual to me and it's just gross! Yeah can't believe it's getting so hot again, really doesn't help.

@sexnotgender, that's rubbish! My tiredness eased for a week then came back with vengeance, along with a constant stuffy nose and sore boobs again, I can't cope if they get any bigger!! Still, hopefully it means babies are all growing and doing as they should :)

RiskIt4Biscuit and GinGeum the more i think about it the more confused i am with it all
I'm not too fussed about a travel system, i think if baby was going to be in the pram for any length of time i'd prefer it to be lying flat anyway. But with the car seat i like the Joie spin 360 isofix, mainly because it spins so easy to put baby in and does from birth to about 4 years and gets very good safety ratings. But it's quite chunky and has no carry handle so would just be left in the car so then what do i do with baby if i nip into the shop, take the whole pram? Or go into someones house, do i just carry baby? Or is it easier to get a newborn car seat so you can carry it around easily then get another seat once baby is a bit bigger?

Regarding car seats, we found that the ones which you can remove from the car and carry around are by far the best. Mainly because of the number of times the baby falls asleep in the car and then you don't need to wake them when you get out.

We also bought the adapters which meant the car seat locked on to our silver cross pram base which also made for easy manoeuvring between car and being on foot.

Also, we found it really handy to go into a store (we went to John Lewis) and chat to the staff in the baby/pram etc department as they were great at giving advice on which bits are needed at which stage etc and what is universal and fits with all/other models. You can also try prams/pushchairs out to see how easy they are to open one handed for example.

On another note, I thought all of my nausea was long gone but ended up throwing up whilst brushing my teeth this morning. Bleurgh.

Merrz I'm getting a classic pram - one that the child can sleep in (for nap times - we like letting babies/toddlers have nap time outside if the weather allows it) until the child reaches around 3 years.
This is what people in Denmark do, and as I'm Danish, I quite like doing the same - even though I'm in the UK. My impression is that this isn't really done outside Denmark, so I am ordering a pram from Denmark.
I'm a first time mum, so I'm relying on recommendations from friends and family, and I don't have a lot of British-based friends with kids to get advice from.
The travel systems with the frame, pram (to use until 6-9 months), buggy seat and car seat don't really appeal to me as I (wrongly?) feel that I wouldn't get as much out of it as I would prefer.

When we need it, we'll get a buggy.

The plan is to get a car seat that I can use on the frame for the pram (with adaptors) - for those quick drives to the supermarket and similar, where I don't want to move a (sleeping) baby from car seat to pram and then back again when ready to drive off. It will probably make it easier (and safer) to move around if the seat has a handle).

For longer trips out, dog walks and so on, we'll use the pram.

I haven't yet decided which car seat to get as I need to make sure that it will fit the pram, so I'll be contacting the store I'm buying the pram from to get recommendations.
I was there last week, and the lady suggested getting a car seat that will allow for the lie flat position when used on the frame as that means the baby can be in the seat for a long time, whereas the sitting position used in the car is only recommended for a short while (I think it's 90 minutes, but I could be wrong).
I think she recommended the Cybex Cloud Q, but looking at it again, it doesn't seem to have the i-Size certification, so I will have to consider what it actually means, if that's really important and if it is worth reconsidering this one.

I’ve been looking again at car seats, and I think I’m going to get the Joie Every Stage car seat. It’s not isofix, and although our main family car might end up having isofix, DH’s truck doesn’t, and neither do any of the other Farm cars which I use a lot, so I’ll just stick with a non-isofix one I think.

I can definitely see the appeal of buying a handled newborn seat that will attach to pram (and when I lived in London as a nanny, this set up was a god send) but I don’t think it’s beneficial enough for our current lifestyle to warrant the extra expense. With the whole sleeping baby argument, I don’t like leaving babies sleeping in those seats so I’d be lifting them out at destination anyway, and I find the seats so clunky to carry.

GinGeum Can I ask why you don't like leaving babies sleeping in those car seats?

They just seem so scrunched up in a position you would never normally put them in for sleep. I think there have been studies about their positioning affecting their oxygen levels as well, but don’t quote me on that, just seem to remember reading something about it a few years ago. I just think, if you’re absolutely knackered, and you get to a friend’s house/supermarket/whatever and baby is sleeping, it would be so tempting to just leave them in that seat snoozing until they wake naturally so you just get a break, and you’d get more and more lax with how long you’d let them stay in there for. I’m not criticising anyone who does let their babies sleep in them, I suppose we all just have that one thing that makes us more nervous than other things! I’m sure my dogs and all the farm machinery is a lot more dangerous than a snooze in a car seat, but there you have it

I think 45 minutes to an hour is the recommendation for being in the car seat. As they can’t support their own head it can compromise their breathing as far as I understand.

Ah yes, for the ones that don't offer the lie-flat position, it is absolutely not recommended to leave them in the seats for longer than the maximum time. That was not my plan at all - I am considering one that has a lie-flat position when on a pram frame/out of the car.

In those seats with lie-flat position, surely it will be okay to leave them for longer?
My impression is that there aren't many (if any) that offer the lie flat position in the car - and if they do, they aren't as safe as the traditional sitting position.

If the ones with lie-flat position really should be avoided too (maybe they are too snug), then that changes things for me.