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 🤗

I can well imagine they didn't have anything to teach you, @OrangeSlices998! Dangerous to admit you're a midwife, though, because you'll now become our first port of call for any worries! 😜

Friends spoke highly of their own NCT groups so that's why we gave it a go - and in the hope of making more contacts in the local area. So far it seems good. Very balanced, thank god, and we've been promised full coverage of all kinds of births. But it really, really does seem to depend on the person leading the class.

Will report back at the end of our sessions, as to whether we're likely to hang out socially in the future 😜

On another note, has anyone made contact with their health visitor yet? I've read lots of threads on MN which... how shall I put this?... don't seem to particularly rate health visitors, so I am interested to see how we get on with ours. She sounds lovely on the phone and she's coming round for our antenatal visit next Wednesday. Fingers crossed!

Hi all, don't know if anyone can help or reassure me..!
I'm due 3rd Feb, so 30.5wks currently.
Last week I had a bout of losing 'snotty jelly chunks' for 5 days straight :( Can only imagine that it's my mucus plug.

It seems to have slowed down thankfully but can this sort of thing happen or should I really get checked out?
I have a cervical ectropion, not sure if this is anything to do with it?

Look forward to hearing from someone...

Absolutely not medically trained, @OnePinkSloth, but I would call triage and ask to go in and be checked over. We were told the other night at NCT that this can happen well in advance of labour or anything like that, but I think it's worth letting your midwife team know and seeing what they suggest.

Good luck and don't worry 🤗 I'm sure they'll be able to advise what's best to do x

@OnePinkSloth I would give your maternity triage line a call (if you have one). I had a scare a couple of weeks ago where I had huge increase in discharge - I called my midwife because something felt "off" and she asked me to phone triage who had me in.

Luckily it wasn't my waters (just an infection) but they gave me a thorough checking over, including a consultant checking if my cervix was closed (it was). I saw my midwife again today and she said it was absolutely the right thing to go and get checked, and if anything similar happened again to call up again.

@OnePinkSloth snotty jelly chunks sounds like mucus plug, so definitely give triage a ring but the fact it’s coming in smaller chunks rather than one big one is promising as it can grow back!

(Also not medically trained but this happened to a friend of mine).

It might just be a watch and wait situation but try not to panic too much, get yourself in and I hope everything is okay!

Thanks @UrbanSquirrel @retrievermum @jaybeez
I forgot to mention that I did ring triage lat Thursday night and they said as long as I don't have any major pain, bleeding or fluid loss then I should be okay.

I just hadn't had it for 5 days straight at this point.

Just wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience at this gestation?

I just keep worrying that I'm suddenly going to get pain and that's me going into labour, far too early! :/

@OnePinkSloth I would definitely call them again, given that it's been going on consistently since you last called. Surely they can't refuse to check you over? I would have thought that anything out of the ordinary, at this stage, would be worth a check. If you don't want to call tonight, can you check in with your midwife tomorrow and get her advice on what to do?

Sending you lots of good vibes and support. Fingers crossed all will be OK x

PS @OnePinkSloth Just as an alternative kind of comfort... even in the very worst case scenario - if you did go into labour in the next few days - all would be well. As I've said before, I was born at 32 weeks in 1985 (near-on forty years ago!) and have no health issues at all (except for the bloody GD at present). And medical support has come on in absolute leaps and bounds since then, so a baby born at 31 weeks nowadays would be very well looked after.

Of course we all want them to 'bake' for as long as possible (I have exactly the same due date as you), but if our bodies have other ideas, we're now at a stage where the babies have an excellent chance of doing absolutely fine in the long run. So please don't let that side of things add to your anxiety 🤗 x

Thanks @UrbanSquirrel, really appreciate just reaching out to someone else.

Thanks for the supportive message UrbanSquirrel I had the booking link come through by text this morning and miraculously got an appointment for tomorrow so at least there isn’t much time to fret before getting an answer.

Thanks also UncharteredWaters for the message about the strep. It was found in my urine samples which seems to be the more unusual type according to the consultants, annoyingly.

How are you this morning? At this gestation any pain would be enough to go in and get checked, is baby moving? Any bleeding? If I were in your situation I’d be going in to get checked over and ensure all was well. If it’s not labour I’d want them to check for a urine infection (this can often irritate the uterus and set off tightenings). Big hugs to you xxxx

I was a midwife at the time, I let my registration lapse and don’t currently work as one. Happy to answer questions/steer in the right direction!

Helloooo - I’m new here 👋 hope it is okay for me to be joining relatively late on! I am 27+1 so due right at the end of Feb, with our first baby who is a little girl 🥰

Welcome to the gang @TwinklyLurker! Good to have you on board, and congratulations on your little girl! Feel free to ask anything and everything here - it's a lovely group of people, with experienced mums alongside us first-timers, and there's almost always someone who can offer helpful experience and advice ☺️

@TwinklyLurker You may be the person who has just asked to join the Facebook group (are your initials BRD?), but if not, here is a link to it. Some people tend to hang out over there; some here; some float between them; but, whichever you prefer, there'll be lots of support:

www.facebook.com/share/g/15Q9dsY6s3/?mibextid=K35XfP

There's a WhatsApp group too, I think, but I never got round to signing up for that (I already have several different pregnancy-related ones going and fear being swamped 😂). Perhaps someone else might be kind enough to give @TwinklyLurker details of that, in case she's like to join?

Welcome! I’m due right at the start of Feb, but it’s our first baby so we still have no clue what we’re doing 😅 @TulipWood is the person to contact for the WhatsApp group

Haha you got me @UrbanSquirrel - thank
you for the welcome! I am a bit of a floater, just looking to fill my social media feeds with positive stuff as some of the FB groups are WILD 🤪

A few things I picked up from messages/threads on here and wanted to say!

Antenatal classes - we did a local independent one and have to say it was brilliant, really informative, didn’t push any type of birth/feeding on us and we were a varied group in terms of what we wanted on both those fronts. So would recommend finding something along those lines if you can - I found ours from Instagram (following local baby class accounts put them into my algorithm)

Discounts! Have seen a few people talk about the Amazon wish list but John Lewis also offer nursery advice appointments where you can get a discount and the advice we found really impartial and helpful (eg, we knew the brand of car seat we wanted which JL don’t stock, but they were still really helpful in terms of deciding what we wanted infant carrier vs fix, isofix vs belted etc). We also got a mega saving on on our pram combining Black Friday with the advice discount too so well worth a look!

And lastly a Q - We have decided that we would like to have a home birth - just wondering if there are any other home birth planners here?

🙋🏻‍♀️ me! Had a homebirth with my 2nd and will be planning another with my 3rd! Best thing I did.

Thanks @OrangeSlices998 I'm fine as can be at this point.

Unfortunately, I don't have a personal midwife I can contact (I've not seen the same midwife twice!) and when I ring the community office I'm told I have to ring triage or wait until my next midwife appointment. Bit of a rubbish experience I must say, not personal at all.

But since I've not lost anything since Saturday night and I've not had any pain or bleeding with it, I'll just monitor it, if it starts up again I'll be sure to contact triage.

Hi everyone,
I’ve just caught up with all the posts and some of you were asking for online alternatives to antenatal classes. I follow the baby academy on Instagram and I watched 2 of their free online webinars which were brilliant! One was about baby care and the other about breastfeeding. I’m also doing another one this Saturday. They are interactive and you can ask the midwife related questions. They also run paid courses but the free ones are definitely worth checking out. They have lots and lots of good info and videos on their Instagram as well so if you’re looking for free information have a look.
My partner and I have also just started the NCT course. So far we’ve been once and we found it helpful to be fair. I feel like we’re prepared in terms of stuff we bought but we still have a lot of questions! I’m really glad that my other half is so involved because sometimes he asks questions I haven’t even thought of!

Thank you 🫂 I spoke to the last midwife I saw who said they'd admitted people for similar pain that was just ligament pain. But tbh I think you're right! I've been lucky it's not happened since the early hours of Sunday but I think I will just go in next time regardless. It was far more than just 'uncomfortable'!

For anyone who wants a laugh - my midwife appointment yesterday was with a locum (she was lovely and I really felt sorry for her!). It was:

• delayed as she didn't know she had more appointments that day
• she couldn't give me the MatB1 form my work has been chasing me for as they had run out (weird they can't print another one but at least they're posting it)
• she couldn't take my bloods as they'd run out of vials for the blood (!)
• I was told apparently I should have been offered the whooping cough jab at my 20 week scan and this is the first I've heard of it. She said probably they didn't have the staff to deliver it that day and they won't chase me for it but I thought bizarre just not to mention it at all!

So anyway I have more time off work next week for my bloods and vaccine! You have to laugh...

We’ve just signed up to NCT but ours is not to Jan - baby due end Feb.
Maybe everyone at ours will be having May babies as it’s so late! 🤣

Welcome @TwinklyLurker! Could I also join the WhatsApp group, @TulipWood?

Welcome and me please ☺️