Due June 24 💚 - Part 2

[oop]

Thought I'd make a new thread before the old one filled up completely.

Into the second trimester and beyond 😊

@NorthernDaisy I was anaemic at my 28 bloods (and borderline at the 10 week ones) although not really symptomatic. I've been taking iron tablets but no idea if they're helping. I struggled a lot yesterday with breathlessness when getting up and palpitations which can be a symptom of anaemia so maybe they're not helping after all. Hope you manage to get some tablets from the GP!

@MizzMarple the big boss (not my line manager or even my line managers line manager) at my work came up to me yesterday and just cupped my bump and was like “aww there’s a baby in there!” He’s a lovely man so I didn’t take offence to it but it was very, very awkward! I didn’t know what to do with myself!

Iron tablets take ages to kick in… I would ask for an infusion or injections if possible. Congratulations @Couggstar123 ! I was born at 32 weeks myself… no issues after maybe the first month.
my PGP seems to be completely gone after I started following advice from the Spinning Babies website. Would recommend.

I was borderline anaemic at my 28 week bloods. Cut off in pregnancy is 105 and I was 109 down from 133 at booking in, so wasn't allowed prescribed iron tablets but bought some on the midwife's advice. I'm taking them every other day and just eating iron rich foods. Too soon to tell if it's working or not but I should think it should raise my iron levels a bit at least.

She told me to buy 200mg ferrous sulphate over the counter, not the low dose ones btw

Thanks all, I told the GP that I'd done a home iron test after having symptoms for a few weeks and it indicated I was anaemic. She said she'd prescribe iron tablets but she was a little dismissive and said it was normal for pregnant women to be anaemic... I have a blood test with the midwife in two weeks so will see how that goes and if the iron is still low will push politely for an infusion. @oop maybe you should request that too? It's quite debilitating to feel so exhausted and useless especially when trying to finish up at work and get ready for the baby at home! I've had a pretty easy pregnancy up to now though so can't complain.

@glasshalffull0 wow that is so awkward (if a bit comical)!! Well done for being gracious about it!

@NorthernDaisy yeah I find medical practitioners a bit dismissive too… “It’s normal in pregnancy”. And so what? Doesn’t mean we don’t need help with something if it’s common or not dangerous. Comfort matters too 😄

Has anyone used or is planning to use reusable nappies ? I am all for making life as easy as possible, but the price of disposables has gone up so much its crazy. Are reusables a real faff ? Will the washing machine be on all the time, so not really environmental/ cost efficient anyway ? Any opinions welcome !

We used them for our first, though not for the first few weeks as the ones we had didn't fit well until he'd chunked up a bit. We plan to use them again this time and we're currently exploring options for doing so from earlier on - either hiring a newborn kit or using muslins and wraps, depending on what's available. So you can tell it went well for us 😁

We got into a good laundry routine and the thing that made the real difference for us was having a heated airer. Once we had our routine down we didn't find it a faff at all. We found reusables great for containment - DS was a prolific pooper but we rarely had a poonami. He also potty trained early and easily, and I wonder if it had at least something to do with being more familiar with the sensation of wetness.

@Goldie1234 yes we used reusables with our first from day 3 (once home from hospital) and really rate them. Very few leaks and we've only ever used disposables on two foreign holidays. They're all waiting to be used for baby 2 and I'm excited that we're really going to see the cost saving this time round as we don't need to buy any nappies at all!

Happy to answer any questions you have but I haven't found them difficult of faffy to use at all. We washed them every other day, and did our washing and baby clothes on the in-between days. I think the environmental savings of not sending nappies to landfill far outweigh the water and heat costs, especially when they go through 10+ nappies a day!

We have always used a two parter system which is very bombproof. Not very slimline but I loved the big nappy bottom, so cute. And muslins and wraps as a newborn.

Thank you guys for your replies. I'm on my way to being convinced 😅
Can I ask some silly questions please ?

• do you wash the nappies separately ? Is it gross that there is poo in the washing machine !?! Especially when it's liquidy and can't be flushed?
• any recommendations for easy to use brands ?
• how many would you recommend?
• are they easy to use at night ?

Thank you guys! And hopefully others find this helpful too ! It's reusable nappy week on Babipur so I'm hoping to get some good deals if I decide to go for it ! X

If I remember rightly, we'd do a rinse cycle with just the nappies, then if we didn't have a big enough nappy load we'd make up the remainder with towels for the main wash, to make sure the machine was about 3/4 full. Pre-weaning poo is pretty inoffensive, you just need to make sure you don't use a 'reduced water' cycle. After weaning when things get more solid you tip the bulk of the poo into the toilet when the nappy comes off. We used fleece liners and the poo kind of peeled off.

Brands is really personal I think. We used a combo of close pop-ins, grovias, little lambs and good old fashioned terries+wraps in the day. My favourites overall were the little lambs bamboo, but they do take the longest to dry. Terries were the most faff but quickest to dry, and the close and grovia sometimes were a bit less good for containment but brilliant for convenience and good drying time.

At night we swore by bamboozles - sadly the company went out of business recently so I'm not sure how available they are now.

I honestly don't remember how many we had, it's amazing what you forget 😅 I'll be digging ours out to get ready in the next couple of weeks so can let you know if someone else hasn't already provided a more useful answer!

I don't remember any issues with using them at night. One thing to mention though as I alluded to above is that a lot of brands won't fit a newborn unless you buy the newborn specific size, and that does get expensive. If you want to cloth from the start it is definitely worth seeing if anywhere can hire you a newborn nappy kit.

@Wheeeeee thank you so much for taking the time and going into so much detail, that's all incredibly helpful !! X

Thanks for the great advice @Wheeeeee. @Goldie1234 I have been looking into this too and there is some useful info about reusable nappies on our local council website and details of reusable nappy banks/lending libraries...There might be something similar in your area.

Also a friend recommended this website https://www.thenappylady.co.uk/ My friend did say that we might want to use disposables in the first few weeks if the baby is small and also while we get used to being parents. My only reservation about that is I suspect I will be more exhausted a few weeks in and maybe less up for taking on more washing!

Anyway apparently it's national resuable nappy week so there are some deals on!

@Goldie1234
Of course!
As @Wheeeeee says you do a rinse cycle on your machine first which washes away the wee and poo (pre weaning the poo is water soluble and pretty inoffensive) and then you do a longer cottons wash type cycle at 60 or 40 degrees with lots of water. I've always washed at 60 and never had any issues with smells or stains really. Once baby starts weaning and eating real food you need to remove the majority of the poo before you put it in the machine. We had a poo spatula (I know it sounds gross but you don't mind your own kids poo 😂💩) to scrape it into the loo before we chucked the nappy in the nappy bucket. Very easy, and I've not had any issues with the washing machine not being sparkling after every wash - it's what it's designed to do after all! Early on I had plenty of nappies and muslins to fill the machine adequately every other day. Later on if I felt I needed to bulk it out a bit I'd chuck a towel or something in for the main part of the wash.

Brands wise it really depends what sort of nappy you want, there's a few types e.g. two parters (a folded Terry cloth/muslin or fitted nappy with a waterproof wrap on top), pocket nappies (a wrap that has a slot in it to add boosters that make it absorbent), all in ones (waterproof and absorbent bit all attached so most like a disposable). They all have advantages and disadvantages. I really recommend doing the questionnaire on the nappy lady website - it's brilliant and they also have a sale on this week.

For what it's worth I use bumbles (maybe 15 or so) with motherease airflow wraps. The bumbles fit from about 4 months to now at 2.5 years but the wraps are sized. So I had about 5 in each size as you can reuse them across multiple nappies in the day if they don't get soiled. And I used folded muslins as a newborn under the wraps.

Easy peasy at night. You tend to need a different type of nappy at night - two parters are the best option as they're absorbent and bombproof. As I used two parters all the time I never needed a different type overnight, just added an extra booster to account for the longer stretch without changing.

Amazing, thank you @oop ! All this research is making my head spin 😅

Hi all. 33 +5 toady. Had my 3rd growth scan. Look like baby is around 5lb 3 which they where happy enough with. The doctor did say that the baby is back to back. Anyone else been told this or had this in the past. Is it bad? I've read some stuff that says the labour can be more painful?

I also used cloth nappies with my little boy 5 years ago from about 4 weeks. Sold all my stash as 2nd wasn't on the cards but have managed to buy lots second hand! Well worth looking out for good quality second hand ones.

Personally I really liked the little lamb two part bamboo nappies. They really are bomb proof and had very few issues with leaks. My first was a super heavy wetter so we used bamboo boosters at night and sometimes during the day to go a little longer.

Washing was easy to be honest - having June babies is really going to help as we can get them on the line to dry!
We sometimes did dedicated washes but other times chucked a few other bits in. Once you start you get into your own little rhythm.

I have brought about 20 two part little lambs and a handful of newborn ones. I don't think we will be using the newborn ones for very long at all so planning on 'making do'. The two parters do go quite small too.

If you have a local nappy library and support group then I would def touch base with them. You may be able hire a kit so you can work out what is for you!

Good luck and hope you end up going for them. They really are easy and great for the environment. Plus you can sell them on after!

Good luck with you all and your reusable nappies.
I just haven't got the time to do it.
My washer goes on enough with a 3.5 year old who is just coming out of nappies and only wearing at night.
We also have a big fluffy dog.. I just wouldn't imagine anything worse.
Is it bad that we get knickers with poo and I generally freak out and want to bin them 🥹😳😳
Any advice on how to deal with these would be greatly received as I hate wasting stuff.
I have gotten loads for this baby second hand xx

Thanks for all the posts on reusables Ladies, really interesting.

We've bought a few from Bambino Mio to try out, on the thinking that even if we do 50/50 and just use reusables overnight / at home then we've saved 50% of the landfill.

We did the same with DC1, found the Bambino Mio ones fit really well, were SO convenient to add an extra booster to and the disposable liners were really soft. If we were in the house all day we'd tend to stick to reusables. It's always handy to have a nappy too, in case you run out of disposables!

We have just bought some of the Bambino Mio pull ups for naps now that we're potty training too!

@CBM40 it might mean a longer/more painful labour and it might be just fine. Check out the Spinning Babies website for Posterior Position page, they do have some easy exercises to try and help turn the baby. Not backed up by science though. Also the LO still has a lot of time to get into a better position!

I had my second growth scan today at 32+2 followed by consultant. On the previous scan baby was tracking 93 percentile but today has come down to 69. Sonographer wasn’t concerned but said maybe the GD diet was making an impact, also baby was moving lots so she was struggling a bit. I then had the consultant straight after and he said the drop is too large but he’s not concerned because he’s convinced it’s a measuring mistake. In any case I’m booked for an extra scan and appointment in 2 weeks. The good news was that baby has finally flipped, he’s been breech all along including less than a week ago on my regular midwife appointment but is now heads down. I hadn’t noticed it! The consultant said he’d likely recommend induction at 38 or 39 weeks but said we will see over the next two growth scans, at the moment there’s no concern that placenta is failing but it’s looking at my age (39), GD diagnosis, slightly raised blood pressure and large baby in combination. Hope everyone is having a good week!

@May5th
You sound like me! But bab is other way.
I'm having 2 weekly growth scans now, then on the alternate week and Doppler scan to monitor baby.
She's dropped from 10th to 3rd.
I have been prescribed metformin so need to start taking from this eve.
I've been so ill with a migraine the last 12 hours.
We've discussed 38, 39 weeks delivery. But could be 37 like my last but depends on baby growth xxx

@Elmlee I’m also on metformin, started about 2 weeks ago 500 mg at evening meal to bring down fasting readings which are just over the limit but meal readings have all been fine, there’s been no impact to fasting readings from it. Now consultant increased the dose to 1000mg twice a day but I’m only gradually adjusting over the next days. I was induced for my first and he was born at 42 weeks so I’m not convinced the induction would work at 38 weeks but at the same time would like to avoid c section so happy to try what they suggest. I think if there’s a concern with growth, like you said they would bring it even earlier. Did you have induction or c section with your previous baby at 37 weeks?