2021 Babies

[AnxiousAnnie86]

Hey ladies

Just tagging all as threads running out! Hopefully I didn't miss anyone!

@SS123456 @Blossom428 @TheOrangeMonster @Klprr93 @mabelelsie @Mctm123

@TheOrangeMonster was just thinking about you, how are movements now? X

@AnxiousAnnie86 @SS123456 yes they did thanks, suddenly and pretty aggressively. Must've been having a long sleep all morning. In fact over the last few days and particularly last night baby was really hurting me!
Agh I'm so fed up with being pregnant. And I'm so fed up with seeing scary articles on the news about Covid and pregnant women. I have 2nd jab next week and it can't come soon enough!

Yes we came home after 2 nights in hospital- he was born at like 10.30pm so wasn't too long in there, and glad just to be home in own comfort.
We've ended up expressing and formula feeding as he won't latch at all and didn't want to put any more pressure on me and him. Like you say @SS123456 So he's happy with it.
Just trying to get into the swing of things with lack of sleep and just feeds- midwife was worried I wasn't sleeping so my partner sends me off in the middle of the day to have a nap.
Harley is doing amazing though, I just can't stop staring at him!!! He does 2-3 hours between each feed. Sleeps more in the day than night though. @AnxiousAnnie86

@TheOrangeMonster glad movements picked up, it is so worrying thinking about it all the time and when they last kicked. I miss the feeling of him kicking in my belly so much!!

@Blossom428 and you're absolutely right not to put any pressure on yourself re breastfeeding - like they say "fed is best". 👍 I'm nervous about it too, but I keep telling myself people have been having babies for millennia and feeding them one way or the other so it must be doable!
I've heated it takes them a while to get into the swing of understanding day vs night, one of my friends said her newborn changed on a daily basis at the beginning - keeps you on your toes though I bet!

Yes all back to normal now. I won't miss worrying about the movements. Actually I'd quite like to have my body back, this baby is really quite vigorous and can land some seriously painful kicks now and then! 🤣

@Blossom428 I said I wouldn't put any pressure on myself at all when it came to breast feeding, I said if I didn't like it or it was too stressful I wouldn't do it! Thankfully G took to it for the most part. For the first ten days she used to totally refuse the left side and it nearly made me give in I was getting so so stressed! So I can see why if it was like that on both sides it would drive a person mad!!

Baby doesn't sleep much at any point anymore which is so so tiring. We hit the 6 week mark now so I'm really really hoping for longer stretches.

@TheOrangeMonster @SS123456 it's the home stretch now!! I'm so looking forward to seeing your little babies have arrived!!!!! X

@AnxiousAnnie86 I'm getting pretty scared now! 😱. I had a horrible forceps birth with my son (with no pain relief!) so I'm dreading having something like that happen again

@SS123456 awww I know, have you got a birth plan in place? I had a terrifying blood clot with my first so I was so scared this time round.

Can uou speak to your midwife about what you want? How long is it to go! X

@SS123456 that sounds horrifying but try to remember that they're not necessarily going to be the same (easier said than done, I know). I was talking to a colleague whose first birth was completely traumatic and they both nearly died, and whose second was, as she described it "an absolute breeze". Crossing my fingers for "an absolute breeze" for you!

Does anyone know anything about cluster feeding? I am freaking out about breastfeeding - I have to go back to work (teaching face to face in the evenings) 6 weeks after the birth and I'm terrified baby is going to want to cluster feed exactly at that time and DH is not going to be able to manage a screaming baby - who he will have to take out of the house so that I can teach without disruption - for four hours who wants to feed every ten minutes.... 😩

@TheOrangeMonster we haven't really had cluster feeding as such. Sometimes she messes around a lot so don't get a proper feed so is on abs off a lot. Will you express to a bottle for husband? I'm leaving G for first time for an hour on sat and praying she will take a bottle of expressed if needed.

You could try combi feeding from six weeks? And your husband just giving them a bottle of formula. They say it's more filling so should settle them for a while? X

@AnxiousAnnie86 @TheOrangeMonster I know someone else whose second birth was completely different to their first so I'm clinging onto that hope. I have done a hypnobirthing course this time around so I am hoping that will help keep me calmer and more informed on my choices. The midwife has recommended a water birth due to the prolapse I was left with from the previous forceps use so hopefully the pool will be available 🤞🏻. I'm not sure on the cluster feeding as I bottle fed last time but I would maybe try and express and do some bottle feeds early on if you can just for some peace of mind. You don't want to be anxious and worrying as you get nearer to the 6 week mark so if you can get in the swing of that early on it should hopefully help. I will need to do something similar as I'll be back to work after 2-3 weeks

@SS123456 it's so hard to stay calm isn't it, but hopefully the pool will be available for you and it will all go to plan 😊
There are lots of perks to being self-employed but the whole non existent maternity leave thing is definitely not one of them 🤦‍♀️ I will be in solidarity with you!

@AnxiousAnnie86 will that be the first time you've tried a bottle with her?
I've been wondering about this, and thinking maybe I should buy a box of those Aptamil tablets just in case, for peace of mind. I'll definitely express to store as well, and I think my husband wants to feed baby too anyway from early on as he's the one who is taking the longest time off work (12 weeks). Bless him, he's trying so hard to be helpful, I found him reading the breastfeeding magazine the midwife gave me the other day cover to cover! 🤣

How's it going @SS123456 @mabelelsie ?

@TheOrangeMonster how are you?? How many weeks now??

I've still no luck with a bottle with G, she will take a bottle of expressed milk using the NUK bottles, which is a little progress!! But she won't take formula at all xx

@TheOrangeMonster I'm good thank you. 38+1 now so getting there 😊. How is everything with you?

@SS123456 I'm 36 + 1 - we're exactly two weeks apart. Doing ok, getting super uncomfortable though! Baby has dropped already so I'm getting a lot of pressure in my tailbone. I'm sort of hoping that it means I'll get early release (but not too early obvs!)

@AnxiousAnnie86 sorry to hear you're having trouble getting G to take formula - but if she's taking expressed milk that means at least you've got a way to feed when you're not there! So progress!

I'm not having a planned C unless something weird turns up on my next scan at 38 weeks, but I do have to have IV hydrocortisone in labour apparently (preventing adrenal crisis because my body doesn't produce enough stress hormone so could get overloaded by labour).

Can't wait to get to the end of this, I feel like a whale!

@TheOrangeMonster fingers crossed not too much longer to go 😊🤞🏻. Do you have addisons?

@SS123456 thankfully not, no - I have quite a rare genetic disorder called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (apparently only about 3025 women in the U.K. have it at any one time, lucky me) though in my case it hasn't caused virilisation so they didn't discover it until I was TTC. The pill was creating false hormones for years which was masking the effects, so the symptoms only showed up when I came off or originally back when we started TTC.

@TheOrangeMonster oh wow what was the chances! My step son has Addisons so the symptoms sounded similar

@SS123456 yes, I think they are but for slightly different reasons. Both endocrine disorders though.

@TheOrangeMonster do they think it will settle back down again once you have the baby and go back on the pill? 🤞🏻

@SS123456 unfortunately I can't go back on the pill because I get migraines, so that's a big no-no. They can give me low dose steroids though if necessary. To be honest I've been lucky, the only times it's affected me has been TTC, which took a long long long bloody time, and when I had a very stressful job for a brief period where I started randomly getting panic attacks (not something I'd ever had before in my whole life). It's pretty mild, it's just that labour is obviously a huge deal and a big trauma for the body so it's really just about being cautious and preventative rather than there being a huge risk involved (or they'd have offered me a C).

Hi @TheOrangeMonster sorry just seen your message!
All okay here, 31 weeks now and still feeling good. Have a scan this week to check my placenta has moved (which it has) and they also checked growth. I’m following 10 percentile so as a precaution they want me to come back at 36 weeks for another scan which is kind of freaking me out, I am small so wasn’t expecting a huge baby!

How’s everyone else?

Hi @mabelelsie glad to hear things are ok.
10th percentile is lower end, so you're probably not going to have a huge baby, don't worry!
They've even changed their minds about mine - I'm tracking above 97th percentile but they've decided they're not worried about it. 😅

I want this baby out now though....@SS123456 any signs yet at 39?
I had a bad bathroom trip this morning and super crampy all evening yesterday. Mini "show" on Monday (can't have been all of it) but I still have a feeling I'm going to go overdue! 🤣

@TheOrangeMonster ooo sounds promising, keep us posted! 🤞🏻😁

No sign of anything happening on my side just yet unfortunately. I'm feeling comfortable so not desperate for baby to arrive but I was hoping she would be here by Friday ideally. My son has been away with his dad and coming back Friday eve so logistically and childcare wise it would have been far easier to have her before he comes back but it looks like baby has other ideas 🙈😂

@mabelelsie that's great that your placenta has moved and that there are no concerns over baby 😁. I'm hoping for a smaller baby this time around too 🤞🏻. My son had a massive head that needed forceps and I definitely want to avoid going through that again!