Due February 2025 - Thread 4

[UrbanSquirrel]

Just creating this so that we have somewhere to continue when Thread 3 fills up. If you're due to have a baby in February 2025 (or late January or early March, as we have a wide spread!), come join us for support, advice and (at present) some really useful Black Friday recommendations! Big welcoming hugs to all the usual suspects coming over from Thread 3 🤗

Also massive TMI but has anyone found their sex drive has completely vanished?
Last time I was pregnant I wasn’t really bothered either way and so if my husband was giving me the eyes, I’d be up for it, but this time I can think of nothing worse!

My DD is 31 months and I've got her a set of stacking garages/cars that match (Melissa and Doug, second hand). Hoping for some independent play out of it! We're not going to do it "from the baby" but will give it when we bring baby home. Also got her a sensory jar with some glo pals to hopefully help with emotional regulation...

Yep not interested in the slightest!

Omg yes! I cannot be bothered at all and feel so unsexy as well. I don't really want to look at my body undressed, it's harder to move around, body hair removal is a huge chore now as well 😂 plus we're both so busy trying to finish house decorating (we moved in in spring) and with work. And with the random bad pains I've had it makes me nervous to try anything like that anyway

Also - baby moves SO much now and I don't think I could get past that

Just having a moan - nocturnal hip pain has crept up on me over the past week. After non stop tossing and turning tonight, I've given up. Hopefully it's just a bit of spreading and I'll get used to it after a little while. 😬😁

@retrievermum oh yes not interested at all, I was the same in last pregnancy. At first the nausea was too bad and once that stopped I just felt big and uncomfortable. Partner just seems to know not to bother, I think maybe it feels weird for him too? Knowing there's a baby in there 😂 everyone is different, I know one of my friends still had a very active sex life right through her pregnancy. For me if I don't feel sexy then I don't want to bother.

This has started for me the past few days. Still using the pillow between my legs but the pain in my hips when I wake up is so bad. eye roll

Agree with everyone else about the libido side of things. Even turning over in bed requires a considerable amount of puffing and flailing, so the mind boggles at the prospect of anything more energetic. DH says he would find it weird with the baby as well. I don't think this is an unusual feeling to have: at NCT the other day, our group leader said that sex was one of the more successful 'self help induction' methods, and the expressions of all the women in the room were pretty much identical ('Yep, that won't be happening') 😉

In fact, here is actual footage of the way I move around at the moment:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=97vijG6W1iE

I will say RE sex, last time I tried the “what got them in gets them out” and I don’t think it worked but there were definitely still some…fluids…present when I had a cervical check! Mortifying!

Haha 😂 they probably thought good on you!

Off topic but I've just discovered a hack for leg cramps if it's useful - pushing heels down to either stretch or get rid of cramped legs at night has been gamechanging! Hopefully I'm not the last to find out!

How is everyone getting on monitoring their baby's movements? I'm finding it really difficult to get to know my baby's pattern. He will have the same pattern for about 3 days, then it will change. Some times he moves loads a certain time in the day, then the next day he doesn't at that time of day. I've been in to triage for reduced movements MANY times already (at least twice a week). I know I'm a mad woman.

@Hhdxx at 30 weeks I just don’t have a pattern, could maybe say it’s more in the evening but that’s about it.

Speaking to friends none of them had a specific routine/exact pattern and all just said they expected a movement every so often and that was there cue for checking movement etc

@UncharteredWaters I'm glad I'm not the only person who doesn't have a pattern! I feel the odd bit of movement every now and again! I nearly went into triage this morning as I hadn't felt him for a couple of hours, then he didn't stop moving for over an hour and I'd say I've felt him every hour ever since!

@Hhdxx another one with no pattern here! Like yours, mine tends to vaguely follow a pattern for a couple of days and then decides they’re not going to bother, so I’m a regular face at triage too.

Id been getting into the swing of enjoying a morning baby wriggle whilst I feed DD but baby decided yesterday and today that they didn’t really feel like it, and left me wondering if they were okay until lunchtime (when I drank a bottle of freezing cold full fat coke to try and wake them up!)

I didn’t have a pattern with DD either, and I’m 33 weeks now so not holding out much hope for them developing one for the last month or two!

Yes same! Also 30 weeks and I know there's times I expect baby to be moving but he also is so active it's hard to pick out anything more specific. If I think he hasn't moved in a while, I check the time and wait to get to 10 movements (I've heard it shouldn't take more than an hour usually?) though we know someone whose baby would move a little over 2 days then nothing at all the third day and that was just her pattern. And now she's a great sleeper!

@Hhdxx I don't have a pattern but he's pretty active generally. If I'm busy at work I can go for a while without feeling anything but if I stop and relax he'll be kicking away. Generally he's probably a little more active in the morning and evening but maybe that's just because that's when I'm relaxed. A bit of prodding and some cold water can usually get him wriggling. I can also see him moving pretty clearly which is weird 😅! But I wouldn't say there's a pattern as such. I'm 32 weeks tomorrow.

I’ve heard people talk about the 10 movements etc but honestly I could go a day without that and then have 10 in an hour 🤷🏼‍♀️

Still no pattern here, and limited movements due to the anterior placenta, but it's been like that from the start, so I guess I've just acclimatised to what seems to be 'our normal'. She does however tend to be more noticeable when I'm curled up in a chair or in bed; I wonder if she might be feeling a bit squashed at these times!

I have been really envying those of you whose partners have been able to feel or see the movements - we'd had no luck at all - but I'm excited to say that tonight my husband finally managed to feel her kick, and it was a lovely moment, as I was starting to think he wouldn't ever have the chance 😍

I found this out relatively recently too! It gets rid of leg cramps SO quickly before they really set in!

Is anyone else feeling terrible ?

it’s a new symptom every day, yesterday painful palpitations, the day before nausea and I am so tired all the time! I’ve had two cold/flu viruses in the past 3 weeks and generally feel like I have been hit by a bus or have a permanent viral infection !

So happy that MrSquirrel got the chance to feel! Great news 🥰

Yes horrendous! And incredibly emotional all the time!
Not felt awful nor emotional in this pregnancy until now!

@Hhdxx another with a not permanent pattern of moves. Usually sdhe moves in the morning, before lunch (she normally reminds me about her hunger XD) after dinner, when I lye down to go to sleep (super kicking there) and after I went for a wee in the middle of the night. However, there are days she doesn't do any of these and moves at random times, sometimes she barely moves in hours and suddenly she's super kicker and as some here and anterior placenta doesn't help. I try not freak out but.... Knowing there are more like this in the group makes me feel a little better, tbh.

@UrbanSquirrel yes!! Good food there. Actually, my partner is from Barcelona and I from a town "near" it but lived around 10 years there. Missing the city vibes. About the whale, hahaha luckily I'm not fan of high heels (prefer wedges, more comfy) but I love my high boots (I'm a bit gothic styled... Not as much as in my 20s but still something there, but with pregnancy I barely have "nice clothes" that fit me, so I feel I'm dressing up as a normal person. But still, the feeling of a disabled whale in high heels is how I feel with flat boots. XD imagine me with high heels, hahahaha. Btw, your video bouncing up and down made me laugh a lot. Hahahaha I can picture myself as so trying to move in bed. Before I forget, I'm super glad to read about MrSquirrel being able to feel your baby girl. 😍 It's so cool wheb thery can feel it.

Re sex, ídem as everyone else. Livido quite low. If there are some "petting" here and there OK-ish but not fan of. More than that it's a no, no. I have the feeling that something would happen to the baby and feel very terrified of the idea. Plus, not feeling attractive in my whale body atm, so.... Nah! Sex has been quite out of the picture in general.

Movements. The other day I had the odd feeling, I was in bed and the baby started to move with a certain rhythm, and I though maybe was having hiccups but it was a little bit quicker than I would expect for hiccups, but still too rhythmic for anything else. It happened two days in a row. Anyone who has experienced this?

@Piluka I quite often have had the rhythmic movements i assumed hiccups too but thought same it was a bit quick but still think it probably was hiccups!

@Piluka baby boy quite often has what I assume are hiccups. Much "quieter" movement and rhythmical. Very sweet!