12 to 24 week pregnancy thread

ColourMePurple

Welcome, Hello and Congratulationssssssss and celebrationsssssss to all new and re-active users.

I should really go to bed now, nite nite incubators x

Big_Alf

Student_Mrs wrote: »

BigAlf, I'm intrigued to hear more about you and your fam. My dad's just moved to China and hopefully I'll be flying out there in April at 5 months pregnant. He told me it was year of the dragon as my husband is very patriotically Welsh he was pleased we'd have our own welsh dragon :T
Enforced surprise, you're not allowed to know gender? Would you have asked anyway?

Thats why I joined the thread really, I've been really lazy about chronicling my life so far (I’m just not a picture taker or a blogger/diarist/whatever) so thought here might be the best place to track what I'm predicting will be a very strange but exciting adventure for me!

Where has your dad moved to? It's a fascinating country but very culturally fragmented. Beijing and Shanghai are just like any other major city in the world, but the countryside is still stuck somewhere in the 1950’s.

Yes this is the year of the Dragon and it is a major thing for the Chinese to have a dragon baby so as I mentioned a few posts ago there is a huge baby boom, which is leading to major problems such as getting prenatal appointments and actually getting a bed for delivery. The hospital we are registered with (you cannot change once you create your ‘profile’) is fully booked up until the end of September with people qeueing overnight in order to apply for one.





Because of the one child policy hospitals do not tell parents the gender because it creates the issue of selective abortions. Culture dictates that children look after their parents in old age so having a son is preferred as they will earn more and be able to take better care of them.

Attitudes are slowly changing however as China develops, and these attitudes are now pretty much obsolete outside of the big cities as equality and wages in the workplace for women are improving massively.

Being a foreigner I am not subjected to the one child policy, but we are only able to register one as a Chinese citizen. We will be moving to a private hospital when OH reaches six months and I believe they do tell you gender if you want to know. Now I think about it however I'm not sure if I do want to know!

OH is desperate for a boy, and I want a girl so that's a recurring argument

If you have any questions, or just want hints on visiting China don't hesiatte to ask!

Triangle

Student_Mrs wrote: »

:hello: hello back! im glad I'm on your friendly thread now!

Parentcraft classes are our area's NHS antenatal classes. MW insisted I book onto it and as the first one is about bumps and meeting new mums 2 be was distraught there wasn't one in March and I had to wait til April. It's only April 2nd and I'll be 19/20 wks then I think then she said there are 3 or 4 more. Asked about NCT and was told that NHS will do everything they do and that they are a bit hippy-like! All of this after I told her my own mum was a hippy when I was younger as I had herbal mmr alternatives!

Feeling so much better this week (apart from just missing a uni deadline - oops!) It's amazing what a scan can do, isn't it?

And 3 baby to do lists?! What was wrong with one?!

Wow, I really like the sound of those parentcraft classes - sounds like you will have lots of opportunities to meet other new mums, which is something I would like but there doesn't seem to be anything like that round here. Nearest NCT classes are 50 miles away so have decided not to go to those,.


And the three lists....one is 'baby to buy', one is 'monthly planner to do' and the other is 'general baby preparation' Lists make me very very happy!

T
xx

MrsManda

Colourmepurple, I've not had the fortune teller issue but I didn't find the service in Mothercare Peterborough, Northampton or Corby particularly good.

The one in Peterborough really wound my friend up because they kept pushing their baby plan despite the fact she told them she wasn't interested and if she was going to buy something she'd want it delivered ASAP not have it delivered the day before the EDD - apparently Mothercare staff don't understand that babies don't turn up according to a strict schedule.

Perhaps we just caught them on a bad day.

We're off to Kiddicare at the weekend to hopefully decide on a pram - had planned to go with my mum and sister during the week but got a text this morning to say my mum had D&V all night so she can't come down today. As D&V is infectious upto 48 hours after the last symptom disappears I'm not sure I'm going to get to see them this week

Hope everyone slept well and is feeling good *hugs*

MrsManda

Can anyone recommend a book of nursery rhymes and short stories?

As a child I had a book of 366 nursery rhymes and one with 365 short stories. They were much loved but unfortunately haven't survived the passage of time. I've tried finding something similar but so far have failed.

My OH thinks it'd help me bond with the bump if I talked to it, as well as getting him used to my voice but I generally find it difficult. I thought reading nursery rhymes/short stories outloud would be a good way of doing it. Plus my memory of nursery rhymes is sadly lacking so could do with a reminder before baby arrives.

Triangle, have you spoken to your local Children's Centre/Sure Start Centre about classes?
Mine has a bump to 12 month group and runs different classes such as breastfeeding, antenatal, baby sing and sign, and baby first aid. I haven't started attending yet but hoping to start going to the bump-to-12mth group from next week.

Your lists sound impressive. I just have a spreadsheet with a list of baby essentials broken down into what we need/want to get pre-birth, what needs to be bought asap after birth once we know the size of the baby and what we want to get within 3 months of birth, along with estimated prices.

Pre-birth also includes a list of stuff for me such as stuff to go into the hospital bag, breast pads etc...

Going to ask the midwife about formal antenatal classes at my next appointment. I'd like to be able to build some relationships with other mums to be so that after the baby is born I'll have people close by to talk to/spend time with rather than being stuck on my own with just baby for company 12 hours a day.

Having difficulty getting my head around Friday being V day - not sure I'm going to be able to tear myself way from this thread

rjh090384

Mrs manda. I may be wrong but tk maxx had tons of books like that. Nursery and other stories. My daughter got a few for christmas

Fishcake_Random

Hello,
Can I join in? I'm due with baby number 2 in August and I'm already having a mini freak out about birth plans. Not sure if there is any hope for me lol
I'm hailing from the 12weeks and under thread.
x x x

rjh090384

why u freaking fishcake?

Fishcake_Random

My first birth wasn't even a birth really, my water broke and I had a failed induction ending in a c-section. I never had a single contraction and I felt such a failure, I ended up with a horrible case of PND mixed with post traumatic stress.
I also have a huge fear of anything medical and no trust in medicine really so it was pretty much my worst case senario going through it all.
I'm already marked down as a "flight" risk because I admitted that I probably wouldn't tell anyone I was in labour this time round and stay home. I think they call it "free birthing"

I don't want to scare anyone with my story, so I really apologise if I upset anyone.

dizziblonde

MrsManda - try a decent-size Asda (our nearest is pants, slightly futher away is much better) - I know I saw some compendiums of bedtime stories and things in there when I was buying books the other day (they have 2 for £7 on things like Julia Donaldson whom I love so I stocked up on about 5 years of bedtime stories to add to the picture books I already have from infant teaching).

Surprisingly sometimes Matalan can be good for kids books as well - I used to buy a lot of big books for school in there when I taught full-time too... and Primark when they have them, have things like lower-case magnetic letters which are normally hideously expensive to buy - but we lost most of the vowels making rude words in messages to each other on the fridge yonks ago (so mature we are).

As for birthplans - mine currently is "I hate hospitals - a relative died of a hospital infection last year so I'm scared of you lot - get me and the baby out and out of here in one piece ASAP please."