MSE Pregnancy Club 25

MummyOfTwo

happy due date Twinklie!

sexymouse - i hope they dont make too much mess, i HATE having workpeople in the house, makes me all edgy.

i feel redundant today - my son started reception class last week and hes on morning this week so he went in with his sister. i was home by 8.55, twiddling my thumbs

LittleMoog

Morning ladies
Hope you all had nice Sunday's, big hugs to those with naughty babies for giving you a scare, glad all checked out ok

We went car shopping yesterday and sorted out our new car. Got a very nice Zafira, 3 years old, low mileage and in great condition, should be picking it up on Thursday. We could have had it sooner but we're having a scotchguard-type protection put on the upholstry to try and keep it in good condition, possibly a vain hope with a small person on the way So excited to pick it up :j We just traded in our other car in the end, as I really didn't want the stress of trying to sell it privately, and they gave us a reasonable price for it.

Other than that didn't really do anything all day, was totally knackered after our trip to the zoo on Saturday with my nieces. Had lots of nice quiet time with DH though, and Beanie was super active all afternoon, so nice for him to see that as it's normally in the middle of the night :rotfl:

Back to work, last 5 day week and only 6 weeks to go. Can't come soon enough, I'm really struggling with tiredness and lack of motivation now, although I'm sure I'll be bored waiting for baby once I start maternity leave!

norabatty_2

Hi ladies,

I used to frequent this board until early June when my baby decided to arrive and I've been a bit busy since then but I thought I'd come back and give you my words of wisdom three months into motherhood....

　

Labour – I remember being told that contractions would start 15-30 minutes apart and then increase in intensity and duration. I started getting period pains 2 days before my due date – they would last up to 12 hours at a go and then disappear for a few hours before returning again. On my due date, I was still getting them so me and DH had sex at 9pm as we heard it can induce labour. It worked. I went to sleep at 1am and woke up at 3am to go to the toilet. I got back into bed and felt a sharp pain somewhere between my ovaries and my lower back/bum. I noted the time – 3.08am. I went to sleep but felt another sharp pain – I noted the time – 3.14am. After that, they came every 3 minutes. I still wasn’t sure if they were contractions or indigestion cramps as I also started running to the toilet. By 5am, I had had 8 separate bowel movements – the last two were diarrhoea and I knew after the last one that there was definitely nothing left in my system. When the pains were still going 20 minutes later, I came to the conclusion that I must be in labour. I woke up DH at 5.30am, he thought we should go to hospital as they say to go when contractions are less than 5 minutes apart. I rang the hospital, she said to stay put because I sounded too calm and not in enough pain! Contractions suddenly stopped at 11.30am after 8.5 hours. I was so p*ssed off! Got lunch and went back to sleep. Woke up at 2pm, went to toilet, lost my plug. Contractions started up again every 3 minutes. Waters broke at 4.30pm. Got to hospital for 5pm. Contractions were now every 2 minutes. Told me I was 2cm dilated and maybe I should go home??? I told them there was no hope so they sent me to the coffee shop to get something to eat and come back in half an hour. By the time we got to the entrance hall with the coffee shop, I’d had another 5 contractions and had countless people asking me did I need a trolley/wheelchair to get me back to the maternity department. I never got to the coffee shop. We went back to Maternity Admissions, I was told I was 4-5cm dilated and sent upstairs at 8pm. My baby was born by forceps delivery 12 hours later! So just because your contractions are coming thick and fast doesn’t mean the baby is going to turn up anytime soon!

Lochia, aka your 6 week period - When I heard about this when pregnant, I assumed I would have heavy bleeding for about 2 days, medium bleeding for another 1-2 weeks and then just dirty brown blood for another week or two. I was wrong. You need to change your heavy duty maternity pads every 2 hours when you are in the hospital - I had more than one leaking accident on the labour ward so tell your partner/DH to police/restrict visitors until he/she is sure you and your bed are clean and presentable!!! That said, if you have a ceasarean/forceps delivery, they will fit you with a catheter and there's nothing quite like your father-in-law sitting beside you and your bag full of pee/blood!! Anyway, what surprised me was how long the bleeding was heavy for - about three weeks. I had medium bleeding for another week and I stopped bleeding at 5 weeks. I bought Mothercare and Asda ones before the birth, but the Mothercare ones were so big that they aggravated my stitches. The Asda ones were much better (smaller and softer) once the 10 day mark had passed. When you are in the hospital, ask every midwife you see for maternity pads - they will usually bring you 5 or 6 but you can get through them in no time. The hospital ones are big but soft - try to stock up on them as much as you can as they really are the best in the early days.

Losing the bump/weight – I was pleasantly surprised with how quick and easy this was - after the birth and the following day, I think I looked about 6 months pregnant. Two days after birth, I looked five months pregnant. Four days after birth, I looked four months pregnant. One week after birth, I looked 3 months pregnant. Two weeks after birth, I didn't look pregnant at all. By this stage, I only weighed three pounds more than I did when I found out I was pregnant. I reached pre-pregnancy weight fours weeks after birth. I achieved this by doing no exercise whatsoever, eating whatever I wanted and breastfeeding. That said, my body looks different. Stretch marks appeared overnight when I was 35 weeks pregnant and they are all over my lower abdomen. It also looks like I have a little pouch between my bikini line and belly button. Because I've been quite ill post-birth with breastfeeding problems, I am only returning to exercise this week so hopefully the pouch will disappear in the next few months.

　

Breastfeeding - it's hard work and it hurts. It will probably hurt for about 2 weeks before you get used to it. If you are keen to breastfeed, a word of warning about antibiotics - if you have a tear, episiotomy, forceps delivery, ceasarean, etc, you will almost always be offered antibiotics afterwards. Please bear in mind that taking antibiotics increases your risk of developing breast thrush/bacterial infections/mastitis 3-4 weeks into breastfeeding. I have had breast thrush twice, a bacterial infection which left me with a two day stint in hospital, and then mastitis which lasted 3 weeks and resulted in a breast abcess. I've been going to the hospital once a week for the last 3 weeks to get it drained over and over again. Considering I had a tear and an episiotomy for my forceps delivery, they offered me antibiotics even though I had no infections. They give it just incase you might develop one. The community midwife questioned why I was taking them at all when she visited on Day 5. Had I known then that getting into a salty bath twice a day for the first few weeks minimalises any risk of infection and is actually very soothing, I would have saved myself the weeks of agony awaiting me with breast thrush and mastitis and not taken the antibiotics in the first place. Obviously each case is individual but it might be worth your while asking the midwife/doctor who gives them to you whether they are actually required or just a precautionary measure.

Visitors - do NOT allow anybody to visit you in your home in the first week. DH decided to invite his mother to stay the night the first weekend - as opposed to her helping out, DH ended up spending a few hours cooking lovely meal for the 3 of us and consequently providing no support to me for those few hours. When other relatives heard she was there, they all turned up one by one. As a result, we had a constant string of visitors from 6pm on Friday evening until 9pm on Sunday night. As I wasn't comfortable breastfeeding in front of others (still didn't really even know what I was doing at that stage), I ended up spending the vast majority of that weekend in my bedroom while DH entertained downstairs. It was a disaster. And they wouldn't leave either. At 11pm on Saturday night, I came downstairs, told them all that it was time for my baby to go to sleep, said goodnight and went back upstairs. They got the message and left 10 minutes later. Allow people to visit in the hospital if at all possible as they can only stay for a maximum of two hours. Otherwise, they can visit when it suits YOU, not THEM!

Presents - everybody will get you cute outfits in 0-3 months and 3-6 months. Nobody buys you sleepsuits and vests - the things you actually need!! So go ahead and purchase them now. I recommend 10 of each for each age group. If somebody is considerate enough to ask you what you want, suggest clothing from 6 months upwards. Or sleepbags - you'll need 2 in each age category if you're using them. If your baby is a wriggler and hates being swaddled (like my baby), these sleepbags are a godsend. The first night we used one she slept for two extra hours than normal! Other useful (but more expensive) presents would be a travel cot, feeding chair, play gym. The best present we got was a massive box of nappies and wipes with 3 sleepsuits (the only sleepsuits we got as a present!).

Bottles - if you plan on combining breastfeeding and bottle feeding or expressing your breastmilk and then feeding it to the baby in a bottle, try the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature range. I expressed once a day from 4 weeks onwards and she has never had any problems switching between breast and bottle. Also, the milk comes out of those bottles so slowly that it avoids the classic problem of a baby getting frustrated at the breast after bottle feeding. Usually milk comes out of a bottle much easier for a baby than from a breast but with this range, they make sure it's more hard work for the baby to bottlefeed than breastfeed.

Bibs - You will get plenty of bibs as presents too - really cute ones that look great if you're going out for the day but when you're at home, save your child from irritated skin on their chin/neck and get the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature ones. They won't win any style awards - they are pale yellow but they are super absorbant, have extra padding around the neck and the velcro patch allows you to get a proper fit around a newborn's tiny neck whereas most normal bibs are too big around the neck, especially with a newborn.

Nappy rash - if your baby gets nappy rash, don't use Sudocrem, it makes it worse. Use Bepanthen. You can use Sudocrem to prevent nappy rash, I also use Johnson's nappy cream to prevent nappy rash, but if it turns up, Bepanthen is the only one that seems to actually relieve it. Babies poo a ridiculous amount in the first six weeks. I think my baby pooed every 1-2 hours, it was just ridiculous. In these cases, the baby will almost inevitably get nappy rash as they are nearly always lying in their own poo, no matter how often you change them. If the creams aren't working within 2 days, get to the doctor.

Something's not quite right? - My baby was a bit trying for the first 6 weeks of her life. She refused to sleep at all for her first two nights at home and would regularly cry for 2-4 hours per day. That said, she was usually crying because she had wind or reflux. Once she was finished spitting up (which could take up to an hour or even two hours), she would invariably go to sleep. When she was nearly seven weeks old, she went to sleep one night, woke up at 1am and would not go back to sleep for the rest of the night, which was very unusual. She would scream any time we put her down. This continued all day. At 2pm, I rang the Out of Hours Doctor as it was a saturday. He said it sounded like colic. She continued like this all day and all evening until midnight, when she started choking on her own saliva. It had gone all stringy. She recovered from that choking/gagging incident herself but we decided to bring her to A&E, where they discovered a rash all over her body and a high temperature. We checked her at home 30 minutes previously and she didn't have a rash. She was immediately treated for meningitis and went all pale around 3am when the blood stopped circulating around her body. They injected her with something to wake her up and the antibiotics started working shortly afterwards. We found out a few days later that she didn't have meningitis at all - they still don't know. But the moral of the story is - if something isn't normal, do something about it. Because she had recuperated from the choking incident herself, we were questioning whether it was worth our while going in there, I thought they'd give her some paracetemol and send us on our way, but I'm so glad we did because otherwise who knows what would have happened. By the time your baby is two weeks old, you will know what's normal and what is not. Don't ignore your intuition if you feel something's not right.

Routine - I know loads of people who had babies around the time I had mine. All the babies that are now sleeping through the night are on a routine. Those that aren't on a routine are still waking up every 4-5 hours. One baby who isn't on a routine sleeps from 12pm to 6am - that's the best I've heard. I started using the EASY routine (from the Baby Whisperer) once my baby came home from hospital. In the early days, this just consisted on making sure I woke her up and fed her every 3 hours between 7am and 7pm and then letting her sleep as long as she wanted at night. I introduced the dream feed at 4 weeks (where you feed your baby in their sleep at around 10 or 10.30pm) once I started expressing as I could give this feed in a bottle. She first slept through the night (from 7.30pm to 7am) at 10 weeks and has been regularly sleeping through the night since 11 weeks old.

Give yourself a break - you need to schedule time out. If your mother or mother-in-law are nearby, they will be delighted to babysit. My MIL lives an hour and a half away and I have invited her up several times so I can get myself a facial and then treat myself to a cup of tea and chocolate cake in a nearby coffee shop. She's delighted and so am I! Just make sure you write down your routine if you have one and tell them to stick to it. If you wait for somebody to offer babysitting, you’ll be left waiting so speak up and ask for help.

That was quite long-winded, but hopefully it might help some of you out! Best of luck and enjoy - my life is so much better with my adorable bundle of giggles in it!

snowbean

KatyLiz wrote: »

snowbean it makes me jealous that you can be so active! There's no way I could mow a lawn. At least there are a few of us that are disorganised then, nice to know I'm not the only one

Believe me, I do not feel active! I really think I shouldn't have done that gardening, my bum and hip muscles are still suffering - I could hardly walk yesterday. Stupid me Feels nice to have finally done a job that I've been meaning to do for ages though.

Glad to see that everything turned out ok after your scare from bubs. Definitely better to be checked than to be panicking more than necessary.

Twinklie, congrats on being a boldie!! Hope you don't have too much longer to wait and that you manage to get a bit more sleep soon.

AFM, have another driving lesson this morning. Really cba with it today. Had thought my cold was on it's way out, and have woken up this morning all sneezy and snuffly again. No fair. Need to try and get some more sorting out done too, feeling more and more like I need to get everything straight and increasingly stressing that I don't have enough time to do everything

Happy Monday everyone

sexymouse

Thanks so much for taking the time to post those useful tips norabatty - it's much appreciated. Hope you're enjoying motherhood. xx

CL

Hello everyone. I read every post on this thread and post very little, so feel like I need to properly join the community!

27 weeks now and would love to be 37 weeks! My 2 BFs from school are both overdue their first babies and I can't wait to meet them and find out if they are pink or blue!

My bambino is a busy little thing! It's kicking like mad and DH felt the kicks at the weekend.

Labour vides for all that want/need them! I'm happy moving up the list!

sexymouse

Plasterers just finished and left - now the big clean-up begins! They had covered everything in dust sheets, but sometimes those dust sheets seem to add more dirt than they protect! lol (Will take my iron tablet and then get going with it all, as need to take it an hour before eating anyway.)

MIL is out stalking again (for those of you not aware of my rant the other day on facebook, she lives next door and seems to be using any excuse possible to spy on me as I'm the carrier of her first grandchild)! She's just mowed her front lawn for the second time this week! I swear the grass must have only grown about 1cm since last time. I'd told the builders all about her stalking and they were having a good laugh with me as she turned up right on cue to find out what was going on!

Ceiling looks really good now it's all nice and flat, and I've picked the colour for the paint that is the closest to what we've already got. Also, good news is that we should be able to sleep in our own bed tonight :j as long as we leave the window open all day, as he said that there would be a bit of damp in the air still until it's completely dry. He said that there shouldn't be any harm in sleeping in it and he's done it before. Fingers crossed it all dries quickly. Looking forward to the paint being done, but it's someone else doing it, so not sure when that'll happen as the guy's wife has just had a major operation, so he's looking after her.

Need to go over the doors etc with the antibac wipes, as one of the guys didn't seem very well house-trained (left the toilet seat up and didn't wash his hands either :eek: - I'd even made sure there was a hand towel next to the sink so they didn't dry their hands on our towels).

Well hugs to all who need or want them, and labour vibes where appropriate.

sexymouse xx

toni_

thanks very much for your very useful post norabatty glad you and your little one are ok now

Rups32

hello all. was cathing up on posts.

Twinklie happy due date !!! so exciting.

Also thanks so much for your advise norabatty. hope you are enjoying motherhood.

happy labour vibes to all the ones needing them. hope it alls goes smoothly. :0)

I think my babu changing bag has been delivered today. The box is huge. I dont want to unpack it here at work as the people are so nosey. lol. had a go at the guy who brought the box back with me in the lift. he keeps asking me whether i am sure i havent got 2 in my belly. so i told him off and said dont you know how women would take that comment? oops...

anyway had a bad nights sleep. was too hot and umcomfy. i also disturbed dh. poor thing. :-( thanks moneypenny (or was it LMM?) i am sorry if i have got that mixed up! i am trying not to get stressed with DH. He is wonderful actually and does tell me to take it easy but he forgets at times, that when he is on his missions, he expects me to do stuff as well. And all i say now is no i am tired so if he gets mad, he does and i dont feel guilty about it anymore. he gets mad for a few minutes and then he is ok. lol. i find me trying to explain stuff more and more to him gets him agitated and we both go mad. lol. i will take each day as it comes. when he annoys me, i tell him. lol. been asking him to help me to shave me down there for a while now so i better nag him. lol

had a horrid dream when i managed to get some sleep..:( i dreamt, i went to the loo and when i wiped myself many times, i was bleeding and i panicked. also then when i was walking aorund, i kept asking people to check if my belly has gone soft as it had.:( stupid dream.

got a headache now and was at the dentists. yuck. i need a new amalgam filling the week after and also when bubba is born i need that wisdom tooth out (as need xrays etc) AND a new crown. my teeth are so so bad.:( hope bubba gets daddys teeth as he has nice ones. time for lunch soon yay!! xxx

LittleMoog

wow Nora, that's a loooong post! Really useful though Thanks for all the advice, it's so nice to hear back from ladies after their little ones have arrived.

I am absolutely starving today, was in a meeting all morning so didn't get my normal 10.30 snack, thought I was going to pass out by 12 when it finished. Have eaten all my food, including morning and afternoon snacks, and I'm still a bit hungry, may have to go for a walk to the upstairs office and raid their biscuit tin :rotfl: