MSE Pregnancy Club 28

Kanichen

Thought I would officially join in - I'm due May 8th with my second baby, I have a 3.5 year old girl already and this little bundle is a boy which is rather exciting! 32 weeks now, bump is enormous - very bored of all the comments it brings when out and about and not sure how much bigger it can get! I'm definitely bigger than I was with my first but as she was 8lb 12oz and second babies are often bigger and boys bigger still I can't say I am surprised.

Anyone else planning a home birth? I had an unplanned one last time and the midwives advised then as seconds often come even faster that I should plan a HB if I had another. Still got to pack a hospital bag though just incase I need to be transferred in. Also need to pack an overnight bag for my little girl incase she needs to go have a sleepover with one of the grandparents. The only things I used in the hospital bag last time were my nightie and straws. Mainly because it was in the boot of the car and they were the 2 things I absolutely needed and sent hubby to fetch. Make sure your hubbys know what clothes are what and where they are kept, I had tried to show mine and he dismissed it 'you'll be here I won't need to know that'. Cue a rabbit in the headlights when he got handed a newborn and told to go get her dressed while the midwives stitched me up! LOL. In the end a midwife rescued him and found the clothes herself! One other thing for hospital bag lists is a camera with spare batteries.

Finishing work very early this time as I need to use up my annual leave so i'll be off from the end of March. Very much looking forward to it as obviously with a preschooler already I don't get much time to myself.

To those trying to serve their babies with eviction notices - try not to walk too much. I mean its great and helps etc, but you do also need some energy to give birth A 5 mile walk triggering labour is great until you are in labour for 12 hours and too exhausted too push.....just something to bear in mind. Plus if we are anything like our animal friends then baby will come while we are nice and relaxed.

Hope everyone is well - my back is killing me and baby has decided after giving me a few days respite, that actually no he is quite comfy with his bottom tucked right under my ribs! Seeing my chiropractor this afternoon - hes rapidly becoming one of my favourite people!!

april87

Glad to hear things are going a bit better penguin.

Question, for those who have started/looked at it, when did you start pulling together a birth plan? It wasn't mentioned yesterday at my appt. I have a feeling it'll be mentioned at my next appt, but I just want to get organised.

Kanichen, welcome. Not planning a HB so can't be of any help there. My sister like yourself had a very unexpected HB with her little one a few years back, so I'd like to hope I'm not as quick as hers. She didn't have time for anything, lucky she was at my mum's so had plenty of help from her.

cats2012

Welcome Kanichen! Totally understand about saving energy, thankfully I've been very fit throughout pregnancy so the walking feels absolutely fine. Still no sign though!

April we did my birth plan about 37/38 weeks, but in all honesty it's just a few key bullet points about the stuff we feel strongly about. Midwife had asked some key questions from 34 weeks I thinkI figured if I make it too detailed I'll get hung up on it when in reality there is so much we can't control.

arbrighton

Eek, I am 24weeks today so I'm moving over here. Bit scary as it still doesn't seem real

Lots of kicks and a bump that managed to knock some eggs off the worktop at a friend's house over the weekend. Lots of things still to buy but we have car seat and pram. Not sleeping particularly well, it was easier last night when i migrated to the spare room

snowscreamer

Hi everyone,

Been busy the last few weeks but went to post on the other thread and figured at 25+6 I should be on this one now. Eek! Bump is getting ridiculous now (for me - used to being slim) especially as I had to admit it was time to give up with my usual leggings and sports bra after a very uncomfortable Pilates class 3 weeks ago. Luckily found amazing reasonably priced maternity sports leggings at Gap and had to buy a new sports bra that is literally twice the material (up from 30E to 34FF).
It was worth it though as so much more comfortable!

My new job is great but the time is flying fast now I'm commuting into London every day.

Finally bought the pushchair at the weekend - DH and I had a discussion and decided that it just isn't important enough to us to justify even a mid-priced new one (can afford fine but we are hardcore budgeters - this is MSE after all :money:) so I went on eBay, bid on and won a used Britax B-Motion 4 which is compatible with our car seat. We live on a fast rural road without pavements so 100% of trips out will start in the car. We'll also be using a front pack / sling for our country walks so I just don't think we'll be using the pushchair much: probably only for shopping in town (a rarity) and letting the baby sleep at meals out. It claims to be suitable from birth but I'll have a play with it when it arrives and if it looks uncomfy or I dislike the forward-facing too much then we can buy the compatible carrycot separately.

How's everyone else doing on the pushchair (and other essentials) front? I think (unless I've forgotten something!) that it is our last big purchase. Only nappies and other smaller more disposable items to go. Oh and a Moses basket for the first few weeks I guess. What are everyone's plans for baby sleeping?

Hope the big day arrives soon cats!

arbrighton

We've bought Mothercare Journey- about the cheapest travel system we could find, new. And includes car seat, but like you snowscreamer, it's not going to be used that much in reality- I need to get a sling for taking bean when I walk the soon to be TWO (eek) dogs, as it's all off road/ path and can be pretty sludgy for much of the year.

Hiring bednest for our room for first six months and SIL is going to hand on Moses basket when new nephew gets a bit bigger (he's 5 weeks just now) which I'm hoping will be useful for naps downstairs unless i have velcro baby. Bean will be 8th baby to use the basket- obviously new mattress to sort there. Have changing table that BIL and SIL wanted rid of as now they have two who'll be in the same room, they don't have the space for it

Haven't bought anything else bar clothes in various sizes, particularly vests. OH isn't convinced we need that much stuff but really doesn't get the amount of clothing we might get through and how much of it makes up an actual wash.

I think we need to get:

Monitor
sling
Changing mat
Cot for baby's room after 6 months (MIL wants to buy I think)
nappies, wipes etcetc
Breastpads/ maternity pads etc for me

Decide if I am going to try expressing so OH can feed sometimes too.

And a whole heap of other things

penguingirl

Welcome Kanichen, arbrighton and snowscreamer.

Arbrighton- we've also gone for the journey, tbh I couldn't work out that many differences with lots of more expensive ones.

Baby is going to be in moses basket in our room. A colleague has said she will give me hers, but if that doesn't materialise we'll just pick up one from John Lewis.

Today another colleague gave me a big bag full of new born and 0-3 months clothes from her sister- it's all so small! And really good quality, I suspect some wasn't even worn.

I also want a sling but am going to wait until after baby is born and then go to the local sling library (they hold one at our children's centre) where you can get advice, try them out and hire them. I figured it would help me get one that suits us. Apparently some breastfeeding clinics also do breast pump hire for similar reasons.

snowscreamer

penguingirl my plan is the same for the sling. My cousin's wife advised me that they went through 3 before finding one that suited their baby so I'm going to try before I buy... and also good idea to do the same re breast pumps. I'm not planning to buy upfront either - want to see how breastfeeding pans out and if it works at all first before forking out. If I am able to breastfeed than I'm sure I'll want to express so I'm able to have the occasional night out / let OH do night feeds! One piece of advice I had last week from a family friend is if you do breastfeed, try to start expressing and introducing a bottle by 6-8 weeks. Otherwise apparently baby may refuse a bottle and then you are stuck with breast only for the next 4 months without bottle as an option... this is what happened to her daughter who tried to introduce a bottle of expressed milk at 3 months!

So much to learn but starting to really feel that I'm getting there. Hopefully this parenting lark won't be too difficult!

penguingirl

That's useful to think about snowscreamer. I'm like you in that I'm not buying any feeding stuff, and will just see what happens.

April- forgot to add about birth plan, we've got nct classes next week so plan to do it after those. But like cats I can't imagine I'm going to be hugely prescriptive- I want the calmest, least intrusive, least pain birth I can get away with, but obviously I have no idea what that will look like in reality. If it needs lots of drugs and procedures etc than so be it! For me it's probably more about stuff like having things explained to me and giving me choice wherever possible. Also everything I've heard about bounty reps makes me feel uncomfortable/annoyed so I may put in my plan that I don't want them to approach me! Also going to put in there the names that I and OH prefer to be called so it's easy to see.

sweetbabu

Cats, I've not been posting on this thread long, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that little one comes soon!

As far as birth plans, mine is literally going to say as little medical intervention as possible - no epidural or anything like that. I am petrified of needles and the thought of a section fills me with terror

I had my daughter with gas and air (albeit asking for an epidural after my legs gave way while climbing onto the table in the labour room! ) and plan on a birth along the same lines, if it's possible.

We haven't bought a moses basket so are just going to use the carrycot that came with the pram, on a moses basket stand. At night, he'll go into his cot at the end of our bed - we don't have room for anything else