12-24 weeks pregnant (part2)

sophiasmum

Mrs T_M is totally in my thoughts... Hope she is getting all of the support she requires.

Glad you are all feeling movements

BumblebeeUK

Hi Ladies,

I'm shocked and saddened for MrsTM - what awful news. I hope, if MrsTM is still reading, that you're getting the support you need and are looking after you and yours. We're all thinking of you.

I'm a lurker on here, but perhaps the time has come to join.

Some of you may remember me from the <12 weeks thread, but for those who don't, Hello - I'm bumblebee. I had my 16 week appointment today (at 16+3). I'm really pleased to have got this far along - I have a chronic medical condition in my urinary tract which means I am "extremely likely" to suffer a m/c, premature, or pre-term birth. I'm being well looked after by my bladder consultant so even though it's very high risk, it's reassuring that they're monitoring me closely! I don't tend to be the most prolific of posters on these threads (because I'm VERY worried that something will go wrong) but I read every day and find the support and advice to be invaluable.

My antenatal care has starting feeling a bit chaotic and unclear - I started out with a booking appt at the specialist maternity hospital and had an early consultant review, but as of today have been passed to the community midwives for some things but not others. This is in a completely different location, miles from the specialist hospital. Today the community midwife said to only call them if I needed to change an appointment (and gave me the "appointments" phone number), and to otherwise call the hospital with any concerns. But the hospital said different - to call the community midwife, and I don't have a number for the hospital apart from the EPU. I don't really understand what's going on, or who to call if I have a question or problem. Hmmmm... Can you tell that I don't really know what I'm doing, and am rather anxious?

Also, I don't know where I'm giving birth. They asked me today, but no one's discussed it with me (or even mentioned it!) and I'm not sure what to do about it. Today's midwife said that I'm giving birth at the specialist maternity hospital in town because this was where my booking appointment was (I don't know why my booking appointment was there - the midwife today said that was odd and asked me why and I didn't know). Is this how birthing decisions are made? Does everyone else know, or at least discussed birth options somewhere along the line?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Bumblebee x

fireyfirenze

thinking of mrs t_m also.

slightly jealous of the ones feeling movement as iv not felt a bean! Lara you're my nearly date twin too and I haven't felt anything iv tried not to be worried, the midwife said at my last appointment that I'll probably feel them after my 20 week scan. and my bump is definitely getting bigger so surely that's a good thing hehe

nearly 19 weeks now! it's going a bit faster...x

Lara44

Hey Bumblebee, glad your pregnancy is going well . I have also had the same sort of confusion amongst midwives and admin staff and everyone seems to disagree about the protocols. It's not ideal, but I wanted to reassure you that I'm in the same boat too.

At ours, you are automatically assigned a hospital according to your catchment area, although you can choose to be referred elsewhere. I got some leaflets in a big 'pregnancy pack' thing that outlined birth options - in our area its: hospital, home birth, midwife centre. Nobody has yet discussed it with me, but I asked at the last midwife appointment to be referred to the midwife centre. Afaik home births and the midwife unit are for low risk pregnancies and otherwise the default is hospital. In our area there is a sort of risk assessment at 34 weeks (at the least for the midwife unit) as you can start off low risk and go to high (or vice versa). I reckon you should ask at your next appointment and see if they can give you some more info. To be honest apart from asking for the referral I am in deep denial about labour and happy to stay that way!

Fiery, I've not been feeling too much movement, just some very subtle ones like the baby turning over and the little kicks three times but only in the last week or so. Yesterday I think I brought it on with a giant chocolate brownie Don't worry about not feeling anything yet. I'm getting a bit bigger too, its exciting. At least we haven't got too long to wait for our scans, now. Time is still going soooo slowly for me, I think it's because I'm not working atm. (My internship cancelled the week before Christmas, bah humbug).

PommeVerte

Mrs T M - i'm so so sorry. I really hope that seeing a consellor helps you and your partner to grieve, and i'm so glad that you have been well looked after by all the hospital staff. Thinking of you.

RobotsinDisguse

Hi bumblebee, welcome to the thread. I'm glad to see you here. I was asked at my Booking where I wanted to give birth, it was about question 4! I said Midwife centre, but that I'd doubt I'd be allowed! She asked why and I said 'due to the answers to your next questions!' And as I've already been in hospital for high blood pressure I doubt I'd be allowed somewhere nice!

It's my 16 week appointment tomorrow, at 18 weeks. I'm not looking forward to explaining why I want to change consultant.

This last week I'm now starting to show. And am wondering if I've felt bean or not yet.

marywooyeah

Robots dont be worried to say why you want to change, its better than keeping schtum and being unhappy the whole way through.

Sunshine congrats on the kicks!

Hi bumblebee and welcome

mysecretalias

Sunshine81, well done for geeing us all up to get the thread back on track. Mrstm is very much in my thoughts but I know she would not want us all to sit around depressed because of her unbelievably sad news

My OH hasn't felt baby move yet either, and I feel her all the time now so he's a bit jealous but hopefully she will start to kick more powerfully soon!

Lara44 and sunshine81 please try not to worry about your scans, I've got my fingers crossed for you both that your babies will be doing great xxx

Robots good luck for your appointment tomorrow I'm sure they will be understanding about your needs and feelings on the consultant.

I'm going through a bit of an insomnia period I think, have spent a few nights up awake on the ipad until gone midnight, whereas up until a couple of weeks ago I was asleep by 8pm most nights because I was so tired! Maybe I'm starting to get that burst of energy I've been waiting for, it would just be nice if it happened during the day and not at midnight lol!

Welcome bumblebeeuk you've come to the right place for reassurance and advice, everyone on here is fab I'm a bit clueless as it's my first baby, but it was always my impression that you could choose where you give birth. Maybe your doctor or midwife just wrote it down without giving you a choice? Nevertheless, you should definitely be able to change to a different hospital or location of birth if you want to.

Hope everyone else is ok and not feeling too sad after the last couple of days.

Mrstm if you're reading this we all send you our thoughts and best wishes and do, once you're feeling strong enough, let us know how you are doing xxx

moonbabe58

Hope MrsTM is doing ok, I'm sure she realises she is in all of our thoughts.

We have our 20 week scan on Friday, I am a mixture of very nervous and very excited!

Have been feeling little one moving around for the past week or so, movements are definitely getting bigger/stronger!

sunshine81

2 days and three hours to go to scan... but nervousness is definitely taking over excitement... sure we'll all be fine, PMA and all that!

PS I think my pram search may be thrown a curveball...it seems they are releasing new prams over the next few weeks, Silver Cross has just put something on facebook about a new one. May bring prices of existing ones down too!