Minsters Sidecar Bumping Along - ttc graduates thread 5

[larrythelizard]

As I'm avoiding doing any of the useful stuff I should be doing I thought I'd just pop another sidecar up x

@Haiyaa nope no steroids I think they only give if in the 37 week range. As they do routine c sections at 39 weeks so mines just 2 days earlier.
Brilliant unbiased advice re vaccine by the way. Like you my risk was higher being a nurse but I had my 2 pre pregnancy and then my booster during and it was absolutely the right decision for me xx

@Juno231 fab pictures !!!! 🥰 so pleased for you x

Well knobhead DH finally stopped sulking around 6pm, which to be fair was a long stretch for him he usually caves way before then. We did however have great make up sex so all is good with the world in the end 😂

@kaylsd a scary but good day canceling the IVF. How frustrating on the GP front, but doesn't surprise me how unorganised they are 🤦‍♀️

@Crazydoglady123 you're so close to the finish line! You too @blackcurrantqueen! Im excited to see all the new babies due 😁

@paintfairy another one for 2nd hand pram here (just be sure to buy a new mattress for the carrycot part). The good thing about getting one 2nd hand is not only do you save yourself an eye watering amount of money but its also easier then to buy 2 to suit your different needs. We had a lighter, smaller easy fold one for getting in and out of the car for shopping trips etc and a heavier more robust one for out walking. It is rubbish the lack of places you can try prams out these days but Google pram centres near you try out a few, note the makes and models that suit you best and have a search for them on marketplace. Car seat wise I can't recommend enough a spin car seat (there are different makes, we have a joie 360) for ease of getting your child in and out of the car without breaking your back particularly once they get older and start to protest the carseat! They do cost a lot more money than normal car seats but worth every penny!

@Minster2012 hooray to feeling pregnant 🥳 not so good on the shit sleep but some sacrifices have to be made to feel it. And great news all going well with your appointment and extra scans 😊

@bez91 ouch on the 3 car sears. We only mainly use my car for DS so have the expensive car seat in that, have a cheaper (but still one of the safer brands that have been tested to a higher standard) for DHs as hes not in there as often and luckily the grandparents bought their own car seat for their car. Could you maybe ask if a car seat or at least part payment towards one could be the gift for new baby from the grandparents to at least save you on one? Glad to hear you're starting to feel better now.

@juno231 great scan pic, so happy to hear all is well 🥳

@SWAttempting not long now till your 12 week one, it's amazing how quickly they change from the 8week blobs to 12 week proper baby with limbs pics 😁

Back to work, I would say tomorrow but as its nearly 4am it's today 😫 Can see it far enough, covid is so rife around here at the moment it now feels less like an 'if' you catch it and now more of a 'when' you catch it. I 100% don't want to go back to online learning as that was just a nightmare but the thought of going to work freezing with all the windows open and knowing within the first week we'll be short staffed again due to covid and having to try to merge classes, run with staff down it's going to be an almighty shit storm again it just feels never ending like all we've done is firefight rather than teach for the past 2 years 😣 I know loads of other workplaces will be feeling the same too, just needed an 'I'm so over all the chaos covid has caused' moan!

Morning ladies

@Haiyaa that's really interesting thanks for that, essentially as tested as it can be

Delivery already booked in @SWAttempting wowsers! Where are you?

@DKDK123 errrr you posted at 4am! He stopped sulking at 6pm wow that was a long one but pleased you made up, we do the same as you with the swivel seat in my car as that's the main car for him then a cheaper one in DHs & grandparents bought one themselves (they did for a bigger seat, not a baby one)

I also agree it feels like covid is a "when" not if, and we aren't enjoying having staff off & DH been getting up at 5.30 to go in early at which point DS woke up too this morning. Amazing 😔

@paintfairy I'm still testing negative so I'm hoping I have avoided it. Dh can test on a lft on Friday to see if he can break his isolation. Oh ok re the embryo stuff, I see why you want it done now.
@Vil10 yep sounds like you and your mum are the same then! My mum puked loads with all 3 of us. I only puked a handful of times luckily! I'm ok at mo, off to office today as my cover starts today so got to do some training! Theatre later to see Hamilton, gonna be a long day, hope I make it through 😂 how are you? Oh and no, I didn't get nipt, didn't know about it until after my 12 week scan lol!
@Minster2012 a thousand yays to the successful scan 👏🏾
Ah cute with your side by side working! That was like me and Dh when we were in the flat. Our tree is still up 🙈 Dh was meant to do it before going bk to work but with him suffering with covid he hasn't and I just don't have the energy!
I love pickled onions 🤤 how many you get through then?
@DKDK123 I'll try and find you on insta. My pic is of an animated couple.
@bez91 eek just seen about your positive pcr and also saw your insta post. You poor thing, hope it passes soon! 💐
@feliznavidad2 do it, join insta! 😁
@Kate105 hehe loving that crying pic! What does TSD stand for? 🤔
@Lexber so sorry to hear about how bad covid is affecting your household! Is all ok now?
@kaylsd yay to cancelling ivf now, what a great feeling! Wishing you all the best lovely ☺️ hope you got your booking appointment in?!
@Crazydoglady123 oh hun, what a predicament...have you had any covid Jabs yet?
@blackcurrantqueen wow how exciting to have a c-section date booked in, hope it goes ahead as planned! X
@Juno231 so glad you had a successful scan, that pic is just so adorable 🥰
@SWAttempting ahh another successful scan, congratulations 🥳
@DKDK123 I'm glad the sulking stopped, these men 🙄 and whoop to the great make up sex! I've not even gone near Dh in days cos of covid, I might kiss him once it's gone and that might be it 😂
I hope works goes ok. I really do feel for teachers! Defo ok to have a moan about it.

@Minster2012 South West, Dorset!

But there's lots of reasons why! I have heart failure so my body can only cope with a certain volume of blood before my heart fails.

My LO was born at 33 weeks due to an FMH.

So it's all coordinated between obstetrics and cardiology!

@Crazydoglady123 imagine if it was normal practise to ring someone to collect them when your DH is doing your head in 😆 come on baby girl!

@Minster2012 no birthday plans, DH usually sorts something even if it's just a meal out but as well likely have to cancel he hasn't. As long as I can leave the house and go for a walk alone I think I'll be happy with that as a birthday present! We should be ok initially as my dad won't have the baby whilst I'm on maternity leave. I looked on Smyths last night and they seem to do their own 360 seat for about £120 with good reviews from birth-4 which is much better than we paid (about £300) for DDs seat!

@Juno231 wow what a great photo for 8 weeks! Lovely! Bet you're so pleased!

@DKDK123 glad DH came round 😆 still struggling with insomnia? I tend to get up for a wee in the night then can't drop back off. The problem we had with DD is that she was so small so couldn't move up a car seat size at a normal time hence why we probably ended up spending more. Good idea on asking grandparents, will see how that goes.

I have to say ladies, I’m loving this idea of a DH babysitting service 😂

@blackcurrantqueen that’s interesting r.e pred injections. I was 38+4 with DD and will be again for this one but they insist on my having the injections when it’s only one day difference to you 😢 maybe I’ll chat to the consultant at my next scan and see what they say.

That sounds rubbish @DKDK123, hope you’re not too cold today and manage to avoid covid although honestly I don’t know how they do it in schools as we all know kids are massive super spreaders! Hopefully some of the older ones are vaccinated at least.

@Haiyaa

www.rcog.org.uk/globalassets/documents/patients/patient-information-leaflets/pregnancy/pi-corticosteroids-in-pregnancy.pdf

It sounds like your consultant is probably right to be honest! But for the sake of a day like you say! Who knows !!

@bez91 @Crazydoglady123 I think you might be on to a business idea there, getting rid of ill or grumpy husbands for a temporary period. I'd pay for it for sure!

@DKDK123 that is an impressive sulk...! Im in awe of all the teachers out there, it's a hard job without Covid. Hope your first day back is OK.

Exciting cancelling the IVF @kaylsd and will also be exciting for you @Juno231!

Hope you're alright @Lexber

@SWAttempting oof so what will the delivery date be now? I'm glad they seem to be taking good care of you medically though!

Thanks ladies 🥰. I was pleasant surprised by how clear the scan was, they were showing it to us on a huge TV screen as well which I didn't expect as that's not what you see in films 😅. Made it very easy to follow and OH loved it.

I self referred to the midwife last night - although it says that they'll get back to me in 7-10 working days lol. Then I ordered more proceive as my pills run out today but I'd refused to order more just in case the scan didn't go well. And this morning I gave the IVF clinic a ring to cancel it! It feels a lot more real now ♥️

Catching up...

Sorry you're feeling so rough @bez91 and I hear you about car seats!

@larrythelizard @Vil10 agree with what @paintfairy says, eat what you have to to get by. I survived on processed carbs for weeks. My nausea has really started to ease up now and all I went is meat?! I mean, I'm an omnivore usually but literally craving proper meat.

Eee! Look @Juno231 what a lovely scan photo. ❤️

Good luck for your scan on Friday @SWAttempting and fab news on a date of delivery already - albeit I get that it's not for the sake of it, what a time it sounds as if you went through before.

Got my NIPT this pm, I will let you know how it goes. We get a peek at baby too so that's a bonus. 14+1 and feeling like a heffer today. Also starting pregnancy yoga this eve - not sure if I'm pregnant enough but the lady running it said it's fine. 🤔 🤷‍♀️

@Juno231 Aiming for the week of the 16th May when I'll be 30 weeks.

All depends on cardiology scan at 22 weeks though! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Another preemie!

@paintfairy @feliznavidad2 definitely loving all the beige foods at the minute, I am loving salad and fresh fruit too!! Just really off eggs and a bit off meat as well

@paintfairy that's lovely of your mum!!

@bez91 I usually love fish too! Not off tuna but I am off salmon and we usually have it every week!!mmm prawn and chorizo paella sounds lovely!! Sorry yesterday wa so shit for feeling ill but glad you're starting to come out of it!!

@larrythelizard exactly!! Me too, it's actually the Aldi's version of crunchy nut and found thst it's packed of vitamin B and folic acid too!

@Juno231 amazing scan pic!! It's so big and clear too!! So happy everything is going well🥰 yesss to cancelling ivf, how exciting!!! I also didn't know they showed you on a big tv screen, I was worrying so much because I thought if it's bad news I don't want it to be right there huge in front of me, but baby came up straight away and it was the best sight ever!!

@larrythelizard I haven't tried it dry but I've been fine with milk so far!!

@DKDK123 good luck with your first day bsck today❤️ definitely agree about it's just when we catch covid, with a scan for me on Friday, then my booking in app Monday and then my 12 week scan less than 2 weeks after that I'm praying I don't catch it this month because I really don't want to have to reschedule my appointments!!

@becarefuloutthere we seem to have got off lightly compared to some!! Exciting thst your cover starts today though!! Hope it goes quickly so you can get to the theatre!!

@feliznavidad2 good luck for your appointment tonight!! I thought about pregnancy yoga when I'm further along, let me know how it goes!! I'm really not flexible, like can't even touch my toes, so OH suggested yoga might make labour a bit better😂

So i have my early scan again on Friday, I'll be 9+6 so hoping I'll see more of a potato looking baby and not a mouse, still anxious and scared but also excited that both my OH and mum will be there, then I have my booking in appointment on Monday, I feel like it's more real now but think after the scan and booking in appointment it really will feel real!!

Heavy work day here so will check in on dog walk later but someone asked how many pickled I onions are left

None left 😂more on the list

@Minster2012 your pickles craving is making me crave them, having a salad for dinner thst my sister is bringing over from an amazing salad shop and I already can't wait to put more pickles in!!!

@larrythelizard I looked and there's a baby show at the NEC (no way would i go to London) but its not until mid May which is perhaps too late (baby due July). But I want to try to work out what I want so that I can then look on fb/ebay for one to come up. In all honestly I went to one wedding fayre and it was the worst experience of my life, so I don't think I'd like a baby show much more. 🤣
@bez91 when I went for my transfer they complained it wasn't full enough! 🙄 I think my issue is, my bladder doesn't always fully empty. So sometimes it seems full faster. I need to not overfill for my nhs scan though, because if they are late it'll be a disaster and I certainly have no ability to stop weeing once I start. 🤣 Car seats are my next issue.
@Minster2012 I had no idea but one looked and yes the out and about has a fixed wheel. Which would be good for bad terrain but yeah, you are right, maybe not good for shops. Problem is, often its impossible to have one that really works for everything and you just end up with one that isn't great for anything. Which is why I wondered if two 2nd hand ones might be better. But then 2 is a bit ridiculous in the sense it's taking up space in your house.
@Juno231 my friend had an icandy (assume she's got rid by now) but I've no idea how it compares to anything else. And the private one i had there was a big screen on the wall (she had her own), but I'm not sure you'll be getting that at the nhs. 🤣
@SWAttempting good luck for Friday!
@Haiyaa yes this is the thing. If anything goes wrong you'll always be worrying if it was x,y,z if you did things you weren't sure about. Its difficult.
@Crazydoglady123 I think this late in the day I'd wait it out now and just hope you are OK for the next few weeks.
@DKDK123 knob had DH. 🤣 Can you buy mattresses and other bits easily enough then? We do have a pram shop that looks to be near and it says they have 70 on display? Probably worth a look. I've seen some people say John Lewis but I'm not sure how many they have out. The swivel chairs do look easier! I don't envy you with the school thing. The whole thing is a mess and I'm not sure how long we can keep throwing things up in the air for?
@feliznavidad2 enjoy your scan! The place i had my last one does the nipt and gives you a free scan with it. Bonus!
@clolo 🤮 pickles! Yak. How are you all craving that?!

Following on from the pram thing, I realise the car seats that come with the travel system maybe don't last as long. But actually I also have another question having read what other people were saying. I really know nothing. 🤣 So- if you have more than 1 car, how does this work? Will the car seat easily go in either car with no fuss? Or do they have special bits that stay in the car that the seat attaches to? 🤔 If I go anywhere alone then I'd use my truck but if we went out as a family we'd use the proper car and so the swapping about would happen a lot. I know isofix is a thing and my truck has the metal things, so that's fine.

Which leads me onto an argument I had with DH last night unintentionally. 🙄 So I was trying to explain the car seat issue (not that I understand) and I said if it'll go in any car easily, then that'll be fine to begin with. However the issue would be if I dropped the baby off at mums for the day and went to work, and you were collecting them, then the seat would still be in my car (bad example as there's no reason I couldn't leave the seat with mum, but you see the point i was making) then you wouldn't have it. So actually do you need 2 seats? And he started ranting why would it be going to mums for the day? I said well a childminder then, whatever, but when we are at work. And his ridiculous response was why can the child not just stay at home, because I'm working from home? He is too atm but he hits the roof if you disturb him when he's busy, so clearly this multitasking is all coming from me. So I was like- how on earth can you do a full time job whilst looking after a child? He claims the people at his work all do. I was like- well no, you can hear them in the background (he works with men mostly) but I very much think they aren't looking after them? Their wife will be? Idiot. Then he started saying we haven't thought it through and have bitten off more than we can chew. 🧐 When I've literally mentioned childcare costs to him a billion times before. 🤷‍♀️ Which is probably why I then went on to dream that I having a baby and when I announced it, everyone (including my mum) was telling me to get an abortion. 😭
So my DH is also in the knob house! 🤬

@clolo he was not joking. 🙄 yeah only been ttc for 2 years like. But then he only went through with ivf because he thought it wouldn't work. 🤣 I ignore him. Idiot.

@paintfairy the knob house 😂 it depends a lot if every car you'll use will have isofix (if it's an isofix car seat you buy) we have it on both cars, we have a larger car for when we all go out and a smaller run around that I use for work visits as do a lot of miles but also does nursery pick ups too. The problem with that car is that in theory it would struggle to fit a rear facing car seat in without the driver or passenger seat being really far forward. Not so much of an issue with one child so I think you'll be fine to just swap them over, some are bloody heavy though!

Also working from home with a child is hell. I suppose it depends on your job but I'm on the phone a lot so it's like Chinese water torture, I have to occasionally like for an hour which is fine. Lockdown was hell and we're on day two both WFH with covid with her, it's horrific- never do it 🤦🏼‍♀️

Ooof @paintfairy of course you can’t look after a child whilst simultaneously trying to work and keep the same level of productivity. Of course men never think about it because everything childcare seems to fall to the mum. We had a little car seat for the first few months that went easily between cars with isofix base (or can strap in with seatbelt) when DD went up to the bigger seat (we got the Joie every stage FX or something) we ended up with two because it is too much faff to transfer between cars and we share things like nursery pick up/drop off.

As to the “what if” r.e. Covid vaccines, in pregnancy you are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because you could easily say the same if you didn’t have the vaccines and then became seriously unwell and baby came to harm. There is risk either way it’s just deciding what you are most comfortable with. I was happy that the data showed overwhelmingly that the vaccine is safe especially compared to the risk in Covid but my own personal compromise was to wait until the major development had already taken place especially as the majority of the covid risk comes in the third trimester. I think I was also quite scared of potentially leaving two children without their mum if I get covid and the worst did happen - but again I’m neurotic. DD has been asking about my c section and is obsessed with cuts and bleeding, worried about me and now I am terrified in case something happens during the op whereas I hadn’t really thought about it before! So that shows you a little about how my brain is working at the moment 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes @blackcurrantqueen I knew my pred injections were in line with guidance but had been hoping I might dodge them only because they are so painful and I’m a baby 😂

Oooh @Minster2012 I love a pickled onion, my faves at the mo are the Garners sweet baby onions but they give me terrible heartburn since being pregnant (but realistically what doesn’t these days!)

Another thing on my mind as D Day approaches is that my local hospital has declared a critical incident along with a (not local) newspaper quote from a couple of days ago:

• Maternity wards are also affected with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) warning that staff shortages over Christmas and New Year meant “women are not receiving a high standard of maternity care that they need and deserve”.

“Too often we are receiving reports of maternity services having to close temporarily, suspend services or divert women to other maternity units because there simply aren’t enough midwives,” said Abbie Aplin, regional head for the south at the RCM’s Services for Members.

“This can’t continue because we know it compromises safety and means women don’t always get the safe positive pregnancy and birth experience that they should.”*

So now I’m worried I’ll have “whoever is available” to get baby out or I will just bleed out on the ward or something because partners aren’t allowed to stay and there won’t be enough staff to care for all the patients (if they are even open at all!).

I honestly thought it would be much better this year for having a baby!