September 2024 - Thread 7! 🐣🧡💛❤️

[BeautyAndTheBump1]

As requested a new thread for us all! 🥰 can't believe its thread 7 already!

Then hopefully by thread 14 we'll all have our babies in our arms talking all things post partum!

I'm 26 weeks today also! And yes 14 weeks feels like it's approaching so quickly now .... I need to get the nursery ready!! Get a pram/car seat!! Bouncer chair, breast pump, bottles, hospital stuff! It's literally June July and August we have to do everything and you never know they could come early so I feel like it all needs to be done before the end of August!!!!

@TripleESept24 don’t worry all of that is my list too, and the nursery is currently my office and I’ve chosen to work up until due date so… not sure when that’s going to get done 😂 I’m going on holiday first two weeks of July and I’m hoping I’ll be more motivated to sort things at home when I’m back!

Wonderful news @californiacooper and so good to hear from you. I am keeping absolutely everything crossed for you.

Congratulations on your wedding @Xur! Lovely news.

I was 25 weeks yesterday and maybe it’s just me but I still feel the due date is so far away! I’ve looked back on what I was doing 15 weeks ago and those things feel as though they were a very long time ago.

Re birth plans, is there much to plan as such for a CS? I can’t imagine what decisions I’ll have to make?

Thankfully I think I've got everything ready for baby months and months ago - At least I hope I'm not forgetting anything, my mum went a bit overboard with snapping up FB Marketplace deals, (We have two changing tables, I don't really think we need two, but hey ho!!)

Only thing we haven't done is paint, but we're waiting on a trip to B&Q with my Step-Dad-To-Be as I have absolutely no idea about painting and decorating and don't want to pick a paint that's not going to cut it!!

@Decaffe there’s definitely still preferences you can request. Things like having music on, having the drapes dropped or the baby lifted instead, cutting the cord, use of aromatherapy. C Section UK have a great course which includes what you might like to request.

I’m also including things like my preference for a place on the part of the ward that allows partners to stay (it also has a single sex area where partners can only visit in visiting hours), skin to skin, and that I would like anti-emetics in advance as I’m scared of being sick in the surgery.

I am also going to include preferences for what happens if I go into labour before the planned section. Basically, still do it if possible! But if that really isn’t possible, I want to think about what would make a vaginal birth more manageable for me - given it’s not the best option.

@TripleESept24 and @mrsbgb
I'm as organised as you guys! I have no pram, cot, car seat, bath....or really anything apart from a few clothes and some nappies 😂 I'm starting to panic that 15 weeks is not long away!! Eekkk. I need my maternity leave to start so I get organised. The list is endless

I’m 27+4 and still not in a rush to get anything. I had a brief moment of panic the other day which has since passed. I keep saying after a certain milestone I’ll buy more bits. I’m now waiting until after the 28 week growth scan. However I barely had anything ready when our daughter arrived 6 weeks early and we sorted it all out before she came home. Maybe that’s why I’m so laid back this time

I was talking to a girl in work yesterday and she said isn’t it crazy to think there’s a baby in here with us now. And it hit me a bit then omg I’m having a baby 😂

Talk of birth plans

has anybody had or friends had VBAC after two sections?
I spoke to the consultant at the first appt around 18 weeks but just wondered if there are any personal experience stories?

I think I am going for ELCS but VBAC still playing on my mind x x

I see it as 3 paydays left before she comes each pay day I'll make sure I'm buying some of those bits 🤣

Anyone else starting to get a bit of fluid retention? My hands don't look visibly swollen but my knuckles have been quite achey for the past few days. Some socks are starting to leave marks on my legs too.

It's so low level at the moment that I don't think it's (yet) anything to worry about medically but I imagine it'll only get worse over the summer so wondering what I can do to minimise that beyond the usual 'keep hydrated'?

@PoppingUp I’ve definitely got socks that leave marks now. I was reading something about this earlier and it said that we should try to make sure we stop to do things like hand and foot stretches - eg if you’re working at a keyboard, take regular hand stretching breaks. It also said to elevate hands and feet on pillows at night to help stop fluid settling. My thoughts on that were I already have my pregnancy pillow wrapped round my front for hip and knee support, I have another pillow wedged under my back for back and rib support, and obviously my head is on a pillow - if I have any more pillows I’ll basically be just floating up on another layer entirely 😂😂

@PoppingUp deffo do here!
By the time I'm off to bed I've got full blown pig's trotters from the calf down and have to use lounge cushions to prop my lower legs up !

Just been watching a video about a woman who's swearing by belly wrapping post-partum to help give you extra support whilst recovering and supposedly help move everything internally back to where it's supposed to be;

Does anyone have any experience with that? Is it worth investing in or is it bull?

I started following an American post natal doula that recommends this but I haven’t looked into it properly. I think she called it belly binding? I can’t help but feel like I’d feel so short of breath being all wrapped up 😂 but like I said.. I haven’t looked into it more than a quick video.

Intrigued though!

Just watch out for stiff hands, this was one of the first signs of pre-eclampsia for me. Usually not a problem as we have so much blood pumping around us now so not surprising we get a bit puffy, but if you start getting stiff hands/fairly swollen legs make sure you mention to a midwife.

I started experiencing it about Christmas time with my first, and all seemed well. Then by mid-January I’d developed PE 😒

Just gotten back from triage 🫠 I had a headache and decided to take a BP reading from the BP machine that I’m borrowing from my mum. Well, the reading was basically giving “cardiac arrest imminent” suuuper high results. I Told triage who said they want to see me because of my pre-eclampsia history. Me = getting dressed sobbing, thinking fuck, this is it. Not even 28 weeks pregnant and I’ve got miss eclampsia ffs. Catastrophizing the whole way, thinking my heart is probably going to explode and I’m about to have to give birth to a 27 week old baby.

…Tell me why when I get there, my obs are absolutely fine. No sign of raised BP whatsoever. What kind of dodgy backstreet fecking machine has my mum given me 😮‍💨 that thing alone will give me heart problems. It’s gotta go in the bin 😂

@Honeyandsunshine1 oh bless your soul
mine is consistently shit on first reading at the hospital and appointments and they want to keep and “eye on me” great 🫣😂
that was outcome of 25 week appointment yesterday but I got a new midwife she seems soooo good I’m so happy. And she was a so so helpful - really a weight off.
she told me to get a machine for at home but I said maybe toward the end I don’t want to become obsessed.

i have only a compact stroller, base, car seat adapters and Tripp trapp to order (want to find on FB though second hand)
OH and the whole furniture set for the bedroom 😂

but technically if she came end of July (please don’t baby!) I will be ready once car seat gets here ! The rest is fluff and what I want to have before the dreaded maternity pay 😂🫣

@Honeyandsunshine1 hope you're ok, that must have been such a scare! Hope you manage to chill for the rest of the day.

@longingtobe23 I had the same yesterday at my appt. BP was bordering on high. Midwife wasn't happy. Well turns out they'd used the wrong size cuff on my arm which is notorious for giving high readings. She re-did it with the larger cuff at end of my appt and it was perfectly normal 🤷‍♀️

@Honeyandsunshine1 hope you’re okay! I’d have shat myself also lol.

We’ve started painting the nursery this morning and now it’s getting me excited to start buying more thing, organise what we have and wash the little clothes etc 🥹

@Honeyandsunshine1 that sounds scary.

I'm in urgent care at the hospital with a suspected blood clot at the minute. Got about a 6 hour wait till I see the consultant though and my partner is away for the weekend 😫 just want to go home!

@Honeyandsunshine1 so glad everything is ok. The same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, stupidly I took my bp at work and it was raised (due to running around im guessing) it was about 140/90 more than it has been the past few times. And it sent me into such a spin, I had a full blown meltdown at work. Absolutely hysterical. Due to having pre eclampsia before I’m kinda reserved in my head that I’ll get it again. But I was panicking how can I get it at 24 weeks, then imagining having a baby so small.

Thankfully everything was fine, when I got tested my bp was actually lower than a few other times and I’d worked myself up for nothing. I swore then that I wouldn’t do my bp at work anymore. Partner did buy a bp machine from argos which has calmed me a lot in recent weeks and bp has been totally fine so far.

Can anyone help recommend a breast pump???

They have massively changed since 20 years ago when I last used one!! They were hand held manual ones, I have no idea what I'm looking for?

These have good reviews.....?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPBRKZFL/ref=br_mw_yr_itemdt_dp?colid=DJMR19ORTY7S&coliid=I3RF22KRWR4P2M&psc=1

@TripleESept24 I used the Elvie single breast pump with my daughter and it was great. No wires or anything and it’s very quiet. I remember walking the dog whilst pumping lol.

I know Medela is really rated but I don’t have any experience with them. Whatever we use this time I just know I want/will need to be hands free and not chained to the sofa pumping

I've just had a realisation today that 15 weeks max... 3 months 2 weeks... baby will be here 😮where has the time gone?!

Time is absolutely flying. I’ll be 28 weeks on Monday, the third and final trimester! Absolutely crazy. 12 weeks until little girl is here all being well.