Less than 12 weeks pregnant club! Part 4!!

SplanK

A baby does not have to be expensive. You will find that friends and family *LOVE* to help out with a new born, especially clothes. Tip, if people want to buy you clothes, don't ask for new born stuff from everybody, your baby will be out of it very quickly, but try to "manage" it in a tactful way, IE ask for 1-3, 6-9 months clothes so you have a wide selection.


Plenty of good quality second hand things available that will really help keep costs low. The biggest costs we found was the car seat. This should be bought new (car seats which are 4 years old or more should be binned, buying second hand you don't know if the seat has been involved in a bump, or even dropped at any stage).


You can buy second hand cot/cotbeds for next to nothing but it is strongly advised you get new mattresses and bedding. I just picked up a 2nd Mama's and Papa's Murano cot bed for £30 (couple of missing bolts but nothing that cant be replaced form a hardware store, but as its our 2nd one, I knew what I was looking for!), and a new M&P mattress is around £20-30 depending upon the one you go for. Either that or Ikea is a REALLY good source of cheap nursery furniture (just need to be selective as some of it can be a bit pants)


Then when they are growing up, bundles of second hand clothes go for peanuts on ebay which are generally hardly worn. Shoes, don't go for a shop that sells shoes (such as Clarks) just go straight to mother care. In Clarks and other places they want £30 upwards.... mother care... £7!


We picked up a load of things from bring and buy sales organised by the NCT, maybe you have a group local to you can join in? My wife has found the group in our area invaluable, from 'real life' advice (rather than some pen pusher telling you what to do...), to making some really good and close friends who will bend over backwards.


Just concentrate on looking after yourself and don't worry about it to much. A baby does not need designer clothes of £500 cots or fancy lighting in his/hers room, as long as he/she is loved and is safe then that's all that matters

cmcavon

Thank you, we've already said its budget all the way for baby and second-hand where possible. It's more the debt-busting and continuing with kids activities that worries me. My mum has already offered to pay for dancing etc if necessary.

I'm looking at only taking a short time off to help finances, I'm a childminder. I'm considering just the minimum two weeks but this worries me too!

Part_Mouse

Ok ladies just had another scan, saw hearbeat but baby is measuring a week or so behind no confusion over dates as i had iui.back for another scan next week really worried now. Just called dh to let him know.

freshstart11

oh honey I was lurking for some really amazing news. However you are now seeing HB and didn't before so that IS good, what difference in measurement is there?

If it helps at all I had no idea but though I was 5.5 weeks when I had my scan. Saw HB and said MAX was 5w

Then 10 days later I jumped to to just a little ahead and now last two scans been consistant.

Is there any chance your treatment didn't work but fell naturally a few days later? x

Part_Mouse

No chance the dates are out, I had to inject for over 5 weeks for each cycle I had the releasing injection on the Thursday night and iui sat lunch time.the hosp didn't tell me but last week I was measuring a week behind to I've got no idea of the measurements. I'm so worried I'm going to lose the baby its taken 7 years to get here and 8 stupidly long treatment cycles to get pg dh said its all the depression/ stress that's caused this to happen

freshstart11

no it isn't!! on my FB group, someone had treatment like yours and then had her scan and was showing two weeks behind. Have they checked your hcg levels recently? did they tell you how many mm on the paperwork? x

I know the feeling I had 12 failed rounds of clomid and then the mmc in Jan this year.

What have they told you so far regarding anything? x I have everything crossed for you xx

freshstart11

on the letters you were given after each scan does it show the same dates, even though behind? x so say one was done at 5w does it now show 6w? x x

Part_Mouse

No they told me next to nothing my fertility clinic have never checked my hcg that's where i had my scan today and last week.allthey said was try to keep positive and come back next week

Part_Mouse

Ive never had any letters

SplanK

The measurements they take require to be "bang on", a fraction out which is so easily done as the scans are not perfect and it could effect the date quite drastically. Font forget that although growth is rapid early on, is still quite small in terms of scale so if the measurement is out by a few millimetres it could put you 'back a week'


I remember our first was out by a week, then he pulled back, then 1w forward before returning back to the "normal" growth. The line was all over the place. (Wife had more scans than normal due to pre-eclampsia). Now, we have a perfectly healthy and energetic 14 month old


The good news is there is a heart beat which is quite a mile stone to reach early on, just keep positive (difficult I know...) and wait for the next scan.