November/December babies

[monkey]

Hell, I've just found out I'm expecting No. 3 mid November, and am very excited. A bit scared too - I can't remember a thing! How can I possibly have done this twice already??? Hope more of you can join me soon!

Ooh .. where in NZ are you ... we live in Auckland!

I'm north of you in the sunny(not so at the moment) Bay of Islands. Stunning part of the world, was in Auckland thursday, friday for work but back home now, lazy day for me still in bed!. Going to the warehouse soon...as you know "where everyone gets a bargain"! Need to buy some 'big' clothes as have popped all the buttons off my trousers on thursday...was in denial as to my weight gain, now will have to admit to it, so to the warehouse for me.

rhubarb - totally agree with your point about internal and external scans. I had an external scan because my dates suggested I was 9 weeks - I knew that my long cycle meant that this was out by about 10 days but kept quiet as I didn?t want an internal scan and hospital "rules" are internals before 9 weeks!! They saw my baby straight away and picked up a heart beat in seconds. It was just perfect - dated it at 7 +4 days. When I asked her why they have internals at this time when we could see everything so clearly she openly admitted that it is normally easy to see everything you need to sfsee from 6 wks but that as the baby is so small it is easier and more accurate to use an internal...hmmm. maybe so, but couldn?t they try an external first and then resort to an internal if necessary?
For all those women out there who are told they need an internal - it is worth pressing for an external try first.

Saying that for anyone out there who has never had a scan and is nervous about it- I have had both types of scans over the years and though an external is preferable every time out of dignity and comfort (other than needing a full bladder...), an internal is not that bad. After all if it can tell you what you are desperate to know then it is worth it. It is not dangerous to the baby in anyway (as far as I know/have been told) and it doesn?t hurt - just a bit uncomfortable. The main problem with it is that it is often an ordeal going for a scan anyway - worrying about what they will find and often feeling sick etc. so the idea of a someone you have never met before popping one of those inside you and poking around is less than appealing. I have never met an insensitive radiographer, though - all I have dealt with have been very calm and kind.

well, perhaps I am very strange, but personally I can't see what the big deal about transvaginal scans is - I actually find them less uncomfortable than abdominal as you don't have the agony of someone pressing down on a full-to-bursting bladder (which I generally find rather distracting!) And I'd certainly rather they had the best view possible. But I guess since my whole conception process has not been exactly private or dignified I maybe rather less bothered by such things...

Good to hear everyone is doing so well. I am definitely developing a bulge - I've been away from work this week and sure people will start to guess when I go back. Not due to tell the boss for another week though...will be 12 weeks on Tuesday.

For about the last week or so I've been increasingly convinced that I can feel the baby moving occasionally - just small sensations of pressure which I'm sure I wasn't feeling before. Is this unfeasably early??

Elliot, sorry I don't know whether it is possible to feel movements that early, the books don't mention it until 16 - 18 weeks, but I guess it could be possible.

I'm with you on the internal scan though, in my short experience I have had 3 scans, and one was an internal scan, the joy of knowing that all is well definately over rides any discomfort (as you said stripymouse).Two scans were to see whether baby was ectopic (an internal conducted at 4.5 weeks) and the last scan at 13 weeks was due to the fact I was involved in a serious car accident, which miraculously myself and bump walked away with bruises and some cracked ribs, I had to wait an agonising 24 hrs for a scan to confirm bump was still with me (thats the joy of living out in the sticks in NZ).Unfortunately the lady who lost control of her car died instantly, very sad. Sorry needed to share that, am feeling worried baby has suffered from the stress/trauma and something has been missed I guess.

So for me I guess the case is slightly stronger, I would love to be able to have a scan weekly to check that little one is ok after all that trauma and if it had to be internal well so be it, as it doesn't harm baby at all just adds a little discomfort to me.

Elliott - I am in my 15th week and when my midwife listened in with a doppler last week she was picking up the sounds of the baby kicking the doppler away - with the aid of the sound I could definitely isolate the feeling of being kicked enough to know that I was definitely able to feel the baby move early on. Felt like tiny little bubbles bursting on the inside of my skin IYKWIM. I dont think I could have isolated them without her pointing it out to me though. Maybe you are just more aware than most or the location of the baby is such that you can feel him/her more easily. Equally it could just be your digestion system! Nicer to think that it is the baby though!

1stimer - just read your post - what an awful experience for you - terrible at any time let alone when pregnant. Hope you are feeling better really soon. Glad to hear that the bump is still with you. Am not surprised you are still concerned that there could be complications. i guess you just need to take it easy and look after both of you for a while and trust in your medical care team to know what they are looking out for. Those scans are amazing things and they seem able to pin point the tiniest of problem really quickly. If you are still worried in a week, I would go see your doctor.

Stripymouse - Thanks for the kind words, I have actually got an appointment with my midwife this week so I am sure she will provide me more reassurance, also a friend of mine has lent me a contraption called a Baby Beat and you can monitor the babies heartbeat a very comforting feeling for me at the moment. So all in all I am surprisingly calm about the whole thing, just on that odd occasion in a quiet moment do I feel a little anxiety as to whether there could be problems arise due to the accident.
But all in all I know that we are both lucky to be alive.

1stimer - so pleased that you are feeling calm. I was interested to read that you have borrowed a baby beat and found it reassuring. I was in two minds about getting hold of something like that as I would find it reassuring as well. I was unsure how good they were and whether or not it was worth spending the extra money for a proper doppler that could get better results. When I asked mumsnetters for advice and searched the boards for similar postings I only found negative responses suggesting that a heart beat monitor is difficult to use and could stress me out more if I failed to locate one. This really worried me but I decided to go ahead anyway (after lengthy discussion with dh) and bought one from ebay. It should be delivered tomorrow and your comments have encouraged me that we have done the right thing. We aren?t the sort of people to panic if we can?t find a beat immediately - we would just try again later on.
Hope it goes well at your midwifes appointment - I am sure it will be fine. If your baby was going to show any adverse affects from the accident I am sure that you would have known about it by now.

I just thought I'd let you know I'm starting to feel a bit better on the nausea front, and have actually kept some food down over the last 3 days!
Have realised that the nausea is worse when my kidneys are playing up - when I posted last week I had an infection brewing (blood in urine next day etc ...) so if I can avoid that hopefully the worst is over. Thanks for all your support.

elliot, i've been feeling baby-like movements for the last week, always at the same time (early morning / late night) and am sure it feels exactly like ds felt before he was big enough to be felt by a hand on the stomach, if you know what I mean. But I was sure I was imagining it as it must be far too early to actually feel the baby move at 13 wks, but maybe not?

eefs and elliot, the last couple of days I've been sure that when I go to bed I can feel the baby moving. I'm 16 weeks now, and with ds I first felt him move at 20 weeks, so I was sure that I was imagining it. As you too are feeling something similar maybe I'm not going mad...!

Susanmt - good to hear you are feeling better. I am sick sick sick - still vomitting. Plus I have flu-like symptoms - body aches, chills, fever. I think I will need to see the doctor, but I think it was like this with DD too, so maybe I just have horrible first trimesters.

Tinyfeet- not to worry, I have those too. I get cold shivers, horrible headaches, stomach feeling grumpy and achy and you really do believe that there is something wrong with you! I'm also getting out of breath very easily. But I just assume it's all 1st trimester pregnancy stuff coupled with the hayfever season starting up again. Hope you feel better soon!

Had my nuchal fold scan yesterday - returned a risk of 1 in 1500!! (Superb compared to my age risk of 1 in 330 and the risk with dd1 of 1 in 254) Dh and I can now look forward to telling everyone our good news. What a relief!

Allatsea - congratulations on the nuchal fold scan great news.
stripymouse - I haven't been on the net for a while sorry for late response, you probably have the baby beat by now, I found it really easy to use just need to be patient and try not to laugh!..you'll hear the whooshing sound of the placenta and a slow steady beat which is your own heart and then if you work the monitor around you can hear a fast beat (kind of like horses galloping) and thats baby...its a lovely sound and so reassuring, seems to be that you can locate it in different places on different days, but I found it most affective in the morning when still in bed. Definately gives me a nice calming feeling, another friend has borrowed it so I would be interested to find whether she had problems locating baby.

Midwife meeting tommorrow, and unfortunately I am to meet the husband of the lady that died on friday, will be very emotional but he wants closure and find out what were the last moments, will try to stay calm for baby, I am taking a councillor with me so that she can direct the conversation, not pleasant but the husband needs this so I will do this and hopefully move on.

Again thanks for listening, hopefully I will have more positive things to write next week sorry to put a downer on the thread but I feel this shows me and hopefully others the miracle of life with little one still with me!?

Thanks, Rhubarb. It is very reassuring to hear that others are going thru what I am going thru. None of my friends have had this type of sickness (chills, fever, body aches, etc to top off the vomitting), and when I tell them about it, they scare me by saying that something must be terribly wrong with the pregnancy - this even though I'm pretty sure I went thru this same exact thing with DD. Some of us really just unlucky with this. I keep trying to remind myself that it ended at week 12 with DD, so at least I only have a few more weeks to go. . .

tinyfeet, I'm lucky in that I don't suffer sickness, but I certainly know what you mean about feeling ill. It comes and goes but some evenings I just ache to the bones...I remember last time it got particularly bad at 12 weeks and then a few days later suddenly lifted, so hopefully I'll feel better by the weekend! Rest seems to help for me (well sometimes its all I'm fit for - I lie down and am instantly asleep...!)
susanmt - glad the nausea is easing now.
allatsea - great nuchal result, you must be relieved to have that out of the way.

I'm pretty convinced that I've been feeling occasional movements - pretty faint and infrequent, but rather distinctive. I don't set much store by what I read in books about such things- most of it is received wisdom from men who've never experienced it themselves.

I've now reached that awful stage where I have absolutely nothing to wear, especially for work! But at the rate I'm going it won't be long before I'll be digging out the maternity clothes...lovely!!

Elliott - let us know if the nausea has subsided now - are you at 12 weeks or more? I'm counting the days til this sickness is over!

I think the nausea has been better for a few weeks now, but wasn't ever too bad....I do feel for those of you who are throwing up on a regular basis....
I'm now just over 12 weeks, will be starting to tell the wider world next week. I'm definitely starting to feel more human

Hi everyone - Just a little message to let you know that I had my early scan at hospital on Tuesday & everything seems ok - am only 7 weeks according to scan so less than I thought but I saw the 'flutter' of a heartbeat & baby is in the right place so much relief. I suppose I should move on to January babies as my date is 7th Jan 2004 but as I will be having a CS it will be a couple of weeks before that (should be just after christmas) so hope I can stay - even if I don't post too often!! Oh, I drank loads of water to have a nice full bladder & had a 'tummy' scan no problems - nice clear image - so for the moment all I have to worry about is going on holiday in two weeks to Majorca! Really would prefer two weeks in Tenby - am sure it will be lovely but travelling & hot climate whilst feeling sick - aagh! Sorry this was meant to be a short message.

Just had my nuchal scan - all seems OK - just have to wait for blood test results tomorrow night. The woman doing the scan thought it was a girl and the consultant thought a boy - so i suppose it will be a girl or a boy
Zippyb - good news - nice to see that heartbeat!!!

havin a bit of a crisis this week
i dont feel pregnant anymore does that mean something is wrong before i knew i was because of sickness an nausea
but now i have no symptoms
i feel really bad about it incase the baby senses wat i feel an thinks its bein unloved
im jus lucky my b/f is there my family are being completely unsupportive an want me to move out
anybody else havin problems with family

Rachel17 - Haven't heard from you for a while. Have you had your scan yet? Morning Sickenss doesn't necessarily last for the full 1st trimester. Are you having any pains or bleeding?? If not I would say you should thank your lucky stars that you're over the worst of the Nausea and just enjoy your pregnancy. I'm sure it'll all be much more 'real' when you start to feel movements. How far on are you now?

Don'r worry about how you feel at the moment towards the baby. You can;t be expected to bond with something that you really don't feel is real. Nice to hear from you again. Keep posting.

Rahcel17 - Forgot to say, families can be very cruel just when you need them most! Why would they want you to move out? Do you have somewhere else to go or are they chucking you out on the street? Can you get council accomodation?