2015 MARCH-MALLOWS... Due in March 2015!! Come join us!

[missfrick]

Saw this on another board and it cracked me up... this is me! Glad I didn't spend a lot of money on maternity jeans, because I only wear them a couple times a month...

 

[mommasquirrel]

Hope everyone's day is going well. I had fun last night tearing down the bushes in front of the house. DH even took out some of his anger on the branches. It's almost cathartic to just clear up the ugliness around me. Wish I had enough motivation to clean the house from top to bottom. We found ants last night but have no idea where they are coming from. I figure I'll just use lemon pledge on the floors and windows at some point but right now I am seriously just unmotivated.
Has everyone sent out their gifts for the exchange? I'm so excited to hear everyone's reactions to what they get. I need to catch this little one moving around but it feels like every time I reach for the camera the movements stop. Oh yea, has anyone else experienced the exhaustion? I feel like I can't sleep enough now. It's like first trimester all over again minus the puking.

 

[missfrick]

I haven't sent my gift yet... just need to get to the post office. I'll have it out by Friday.

 

[frenchie35]

I sent my gift out last week. Between the trans-atlantic trek and DrMum being in the sticks, I hope it arrives before the snow melts!

I had my 2-hour GTT today and passed! I felt a bit queasy in the first hour, but it was alright overall.

I have had a couple follow-up scans to my original 2nd trimester scan. There's something they measure in the brain (in English, I think it's called the ventricular junction) that's slightly large on one side. The last specialist tech that I saw said it could be because he has a big head (97 percentile!) just like his big sister and both DH and me. He had me do some extra bloodwork to rule out some stuff, but I think I'll have a MRI around 32 weeks. That's only in a month!

 

[MrsKChicago]

Glad you passed the GTT, Frenchie. If everyone else has big heads, I bet that's what's going on with the baby.

I'm having a harder time sleeping, but the first tri level exhaustion hasn't hit again. Yet. I hope it holds off a few weeks if it's gonna come.

My present went out about a week ago, I think. I don't know if it arrived yet, but I think it probably should have.

I have the midwife in about an hour. Don't think there's anything special this time. Since DH has today off and works tomorrow, we're moving my birthday to today. We're going to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio (as a Chicagoan married to an architecture buff, it's almost criminal that I've never been), then going for dinner somewhere, but I don't know where. I think we're going to take a few nice maternity photos before dinner since we'll be wearing nice clothes and I need one for Christmas emails.

 

[MrsKChicago]

Oy...

So, after our placenta followup ultrasound, the midwife left me a message to say the placenta had moved, and also she just wanted to let me know that the baby's femurs were a little short, which could be a soft marker for Down Syndrome but since I had all the testing and my results were negative, is probably just an inaccurate measurement or a short legged baby. I wasn't too stressed about it because I figured if it was that big a deal they'd be doing follow ups and so on. So we found out today that we are doing a follow up ultrasound in about a month, and of course now I'm worrying about it. She said everything else was in proportion, and they'd have been more worried about a disproportionate belly, and she didn't seem concerned at all, but of course anything that takes extra ultrasounds is going to leave me worried. DH and I are both short, and he has a short inseam for his height, so if it isn't a bad measurement, it's most likely just a matter of us making a similarly short baby. I hope. This kid won't give me a break...

In happier news, I got the go ahead to take melatonin when I can't sleep! And instructions on when it's a good time to start on daily raspberry leaf tea. She and DH had a good long talk about alternative therapies and what she recommends and what to avoid and so on - he's really into that stuff, and I'd rather go with something more natural before trying pharmaceuticals for minor pregnancy gripes, too, so I think we'll be doing some shopping soon. She gave me a sample of her favorite probiotic and suggested taking it daily to keep things moving as the baby gets bigger and blocks everything up.

 

[LilFooshFoosh]

MrsK try not to worry too much! I spent a week almost in tears because of a measurement they took at the anatomy scan which was just a bad measurement. Plus DH and I are both tall and baby measured with abnormally long legs, so chances are, if you both have short legs, it is nothing. The negative results NT results from earlier are more reliable! Happy birthday (celebration)!

I hope your pics turn out nicely.

Mummy, I hope everything is going well and baby stays in there for at least another few weeks. I'd go by the earlier date too, I'd kick myself if the hospital refused to do something because I was off by a day or two. Do you know what your EDD is based off LMP? Here as long as the US measurements are within a week of the LMP EDD they won't change it. Everything is fine with us thanks

You girls made me go look at the registry that we created several weeks ago (as a shopping list for us and to get the freebies at sign up)... there are 2 things left for us to buy and one is a want not a "need"! Pretty happy with that.

A girlfriend of mine gave us what she said was "not as much as she hoped" in the way of girly clothes (her daughter is turning 1 in a few weeks), which ended up being 3 bags! So our baby closet has a bunch of pink, purple and frilly clothes in it now
My fav is the whale one below. The pink knit set was made by my awesome grandma (my mum brought it to me on Sunday)! she's so sweet. And bump pic is this morning (the shirt was on clearance at BRU in the Thyme section, it was $7)!

 

[MrsKChicago]

Thanks, Foosh. I'm trying not to stress about it too much. The nice dinner distracted me. I'm so full of tortellini, there's no room for anxiety

The pictures were taking longer than we expected, and he couldn't find his tripod, so we're going to try again tomorrow. I'll just have to get re-dressed up, oh well! I'll post one when I get them in my custody.

Your bump is looking great! I love both little outfits. The knit set is beautiful, I bet so much work went into it! It would take me forever to knit something like that.

 

[MrsKChicago]

I'm doing some research tonight, and it's easing my mind. Apparently the short femur doubles the odds of Down Syndrome, and according to our earlier testing, our risks were crazy low. So I guess we're at 2 in a million gabillion thousand instead of 1 in a million gabillion thousand. I can live with that! And 7% of all pregnancies show at least one random soft marker, and obviously 7% of babies don't have Down Syndrome. She specifically said that everything else was as it should be, so I'm definitely leaning towards the "Short papa, short baby" theory for now.

I got my first birthday present from DH, and I laughed out loud. He used to make me mix tapes all the time (yes, we're definitely children of the 90s!), and it's been so long since he made me one. He even gave it a fancy cover. Once we get this femur thing sorted out, I'm going to have to ask the midwife about the goldfish in my amniotic fluid...

 

[Loozle]

Hi everyone, I haven't been around much as we have been busy with school nativity's, christmas parties etc and we've all been unwell too with bad colds and coughs.
Today was my last morning at work, I now have 3 weeks off which is nice! When I go back I will only have 5 weeks until I go on maternity leave, it's creeping up fast! I'm not sure when I last updated but I had a growth scan last week which showed little miss on the 65th percentile and was weighing around 2lb 12oz. I will of course take the weight with a pinch of salt as growth scans aren't exactly accurate.

MrsK, I hope you're not too worried, sounds like your little man probably just has short legs bless him. We had such high results in our NT test with ds2 that the sonographer was convinced he had Down's syndrome! We had a cvs test done which showed that he had no chromosome abnormalities at all. He's a perfectly healthy boy but is definitely smaller than average, he was 3 years old in September and still wears 12-18 month clothes!

Is everybody ready for Christmas? I'm still waiting on some parcels being delivered and I haven't wrapped a thing yet. I'm severely lacking motivation! It doesn't help that I can't wrap until the boys go to bed and although they are in bed by 7.30 every evening, by that time I really want to go to bed myself!

 

[bucherwurm]

We're pretty much ready for Christmas here. I have some more wrapping to do, but I'm on the way. It's one of my favourite things, so it's fun.
I have a midwife appointment tomorrow that my husband is going to. He's excited because he's never been to a "normal" appointment before. Also gets to meet the midwife for the first time.

 

[MrsKChicago]

Thanks, Loozle. I did a lot of research last night, looked at some statistics and so on, and I'm feeling much better. It sounds like there's a good chance we're looking at a small baby, but I'm ok with small as long as he's healthy and happy. Both our families have some very tall genes and some very short genes, with not much in between, so we've been wondering which way the baby would go - I'm gonna guess short! It'll be fun to watch him with his giant cousin.

I'm not even close to ready for Christmas, and we're hosting! Aaaaaah! Thankfully everyone will have low standards this year We don't even have a tree yet... I'm exited too, though. I do love Christmas. And at least most of my shopping is done.

I hope your DH enjoys meeting your midwife. I rotate between four and there's still one my DH hasn't met because she's not in on Tuesdays, which is his day off. I'm hoping he can swap Tuesday for Monday for an appointment in January.

 

[mommasquirrel]

Frenchie: I'm so glad you passed the GTT. Are you expecting to have a large baby again? Also, how was delivery of your daughter? I recall you mentioned she was a big baby. Was it a natural delivery? I'm trying to prepare myself since I now know that this little one is not so little.

MrsK: Sounds like the baby inherited short legs. A lot of people in my family have extremely short legs and long torso's. I'm the exact opposite. Makes it impossible to do a cartwheel. My husband is well proportioned and well this little one inside me has super long legs. The last US tech said she wouldn't be surprised if little one staged a walk out at birth. Also, so glad you did some research. It's always good to know the statistics.

I am loving all the baby clothing. I wish more of my friends knitted and crocheted. I'd request booties, sweaters and hats galore. Also, everyone is guessing it's a boy because of being bigger and how i am carrying. I'm looking forward to the surprise.

Other than getting hit with exhaustion I'm doing well. yesterday DH and I took out form aggression in the form of gardening. He had to remove some plant roots and battled with one for about 40 minutes but he got it. I trimmed up the plants a bit. Looking forward to doing some more yard work today. Hopefully he is can get the last set of roots.

Hope everyone is well. =)

 

[missfrick]

I would love to hear some labor stories from those of you who have done it before. I'm not looking for "hero" stories, but I want to know what contractions/labor are like. I want to try to have an unmedicated birth (and am also realistic about possibly needing medication) but I want to hear how bad it gets/how tolerable it is.
Finally decided against a doula for this one, going to try it on my own and will consider a doula for the next one.

 

[NellyLou]

Oooh birth stories are so much fun lol. I probably have already written some or all of this, so feel free to skip over

I had my 40 week doc appointment and ultrasound, and that morning my husband insisted on bringing my hospital bag. I didn't feel like anything was happening so didn't think I would need it, but brought it anyway. Went to the doc office, had my ultrasound and sat in the waiting room to wait for the doc..... then they called my name, and when I stood up my water broke! I told the woman who called my name and she asked if I was sure I didn't pee... seriously!? There is a pretty different sensation when you need to pee. So the doc just told me to go straight to the hospital which we did (MissFrick, my husband suggested I go say hi to my coworkers on our way down the elevator! FYI, in my case and I think in most cases when the water breaks naturally, it doesn't all come out at once... it continues to break and is quite gross. We did NOT stop in to say hi to my coworkers!)

So at the hospital, they swabbed me to see if it was amniotic fluid, which it was - and had meconium in it. Then they checked to see if I was dilated. Honestly, that was so painful, I cried! I will not opt for that again if I don't have to!!!! I was barely dilated and contractions weren't even noticeable to me, so they started me on a pitossin drip right away because of the meconium in the fluid. When I stood up in the exam room, my water broke some more! All was good for a while, hubby got me some lunch, we talked to the nurses. The room was big and comfy. THen the contractions started lol. When you are induced, there is no gradual increase in pain. I went from nothing to max pain contractions every 2 minutes right away. Wonderful. I didn't try to stick it out too long before I asked for an epidural. Definitely recommend you use the bathroom before you get the epidural- I made my husband come in with me, which I am sure he loved, but I was really worried about having a contraction while I was on the toilet hahaha.

So then the anesthesiologist came and gave me the epidural. Refused to wait until I wasn't having a contraction because that would be dumb considering I only had about a minute break between them haha. The epidural didn't hurt at all, maybe because the contractions were so incredibly painful! The epidural worked quickly and I felt great!

A few hours later, I was dilated to 10cm, and then they discovered that dd was back to back. So I had to get on all fours and hang out there for what seemed like forever. Not easy when you can't feel your legs. She didn't turn, so they made me push anyway. At that point it was around 1am and I was exhausted and nauseous which is common when you are giving birth. So between every push, I threw up. After an hour or two of pushing, she wasn't coming out, so they said they could try using the vacuum but i'd probably need a C-section. Fortunately, they got her out on the second push with the vacuum - which resulted in a 3rd degree tear and an hour of stitches, but she was healthy and cried right away. Because there was meconium in the fluid, there was a team of nurses and doctors to check her over right away. All was good.

Overall, my experience was good. I loved the nurses (all 3 were named Susan!?). I am hoping that this time my contractions start naturally and I don't have to be induced. It would also be nice if this guy isn't back to back. Otherwise, no complaints

So that was super long... sorry!

 

[MrsKChicago]

Thanks for sharing, Nelly! I hope it's a little smoother this time around. I'm looking forward to more stories, most of the women I'm close to in real life have birth stories that I don't necessarily want to focus on

 

[mummy_smurf2b]

I would love to hear some labor stories from those of you who have done it before. I'm not looking for "hero" stories, but I want to know what contractions/labor are like. I want to try to have an unmedicated birth (and am also realistic about possibly needing medication) but I want to hear how bad it gets/how tolerable it is.
Finally decided against a doula for this one, going to try it on my own and will consider a doula for the next one.

I cnt comment on contractions as didn't feel em I had back Labour which was an intense constant pain in my back.however from start of pains to end was only an hr for me so hoping second is as quick

 

[frenchie35]

Mommasquirrel: Yes, this is one is predicted to be as big as his sister (10 lbs or 4.5 kg). I was able to deliver "voie basse" which means vaginal birth and translates roughly to "the low way/path" At my last appointment, the midwife felt the baby and my hips and said she wasn't concerned that there would necessarily be any problems delivering.

Like Nelly said, I'm sure I've told most of this story in pieces already: on a lazy Saturday I felt my belly tightening more than usual, so DH and I started timing between tightenings: about 4 minutes apart all day. I was only two days past my due date and I wasn't feeling any pain, so we decided to see how the day went. Around 5pm we both showered and had something to eat and then headed to the clinic where I was registered. Since they said things were slow they took me directly to a birthing room and hooked me up to monitors to track the contractions and the baby heart rate.

I was dilated 3-4 cm (each time they checked for dilation, it wasn't necessarily painful, just awkward like any exam) so the midwife asked me how I envisaged the birth progressing. I said I wouldn't mind if she came out soon, so she hooked me up to a picotin (I'm not sure what it is in English) IV to intensify the contractions and get me dilated further. At about 9 pm she broke my water (with what looks like a little, plastic crochet hook!) It took about two seconds, and since I was lying down I felt a woosh of warm stuff which continued to leak during the entire delivery. I think they checked visually with each exam to see if there was blood or meconium in the fluid, but everything stayed clear.

Within minutes I started having rather strong contractions that were only a few minutes apart. I did not wait long to call for the anesthesiologist and get the epidural. He waited for me to finish a contraction, then hooked me up - no pain, but a little awkward to imagine what he was doing. It work right away, and I was able to continue dilating until around 6 am when they said I was ready to push. I could still feel the contractions, so I could use them to push - I think I pushed maybe 10-12 times, and it only took about 20-30 mins to pop her out.

The midwife did an episiotomy on the right and I tore on the left. The midwife started stitching me up, but called for the OB on duty to finish. I breastfed and held DD almost the entire time, and I still had some epidural numbness, so I didn't mind. It was a great experience, and I think the stitches were rather well done, since I had very little discomfort down there. I only had to be careful when I changed positions while sitting, but again, holding your little one and trying to master everything that goes along with infant care distracts you so much from any small discomfort you may have.

The birth was great - the most painful and difficult part was breastfeeding. No matter what I read beforehand and no matter how many nurses watched me nurse, no one could tell me why I was having so much pain and how DD was breaking the skin so much. I eventually had to exclusively pump for a couple weeks to let myself heal and then pop her back on the breast. Obviously all's well that ends well, but you first-timers should know that sometimes things don't go according to plan and no one can tell you why.

My parents are flying in from the US today! I'm happy to welcome two super enthusiastic babysitters into my home!

 

[DentDoc16]

Hello! Hope that everyone is doing well!
I usually don't have time to read through everything, but being on break now I can do a little catching up.
Nelly and Frenchie, thanks for adding your stories! It's so interesting to read about other people's experiences. It's so crazy to think that in a few months I'll have a story of my own, a little scary!

 

[mommasquirrel]

I hope everyone's day went well. Had my 28 wk check up and all is well. measured exactly at 28 cm which is so weird because almost a month ago I was at 29 cm. Doctor thinks little one may have been doing yoga moves in there. Also found out baby is measuring in the 67 percentile so not as huge as I thought during the ultrasound.Oh good news, I only gained a pound since my last visit which is fantastic for me... I know I shouldn't be worried about weight gain but it's a relief when I get on the scale and see it only change a pound or two and not ten like last time.
Also, I am really enjoying the stories about the births. It helps to know how others experienced their first time. I am looking forward to being able to share a story to once my little one arrives.