"Does anyone else not test early" Refugee Club

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It's been quiet here.. How's everyone doing?

 

[Toms Mummy]

Yeah I noticed that too!.... I'm well, not much going on. My OH is away for 2 weeks with work which is pretty normal but this time I have no car so staying at my mum's this week!.... Have a midwife app tomorrow so looking forward to that

How's everyone else?.... How's baby and breastfeeding going More Babies x

 

[Noo]

Not great The fainting has got beyond ridiculous now. Sometimes 2-3 times a day. So debilitating Seeing the MW on Thursday so hoping she has some suggestions other than increasing my sodium intake. Only thing that makes me feel slightly normal is orange lucozade.... I'm thinking of requesting a GTT too!

 

[Toms Mummy]

Oh dear noo, that must be horrible! I'm a frequent fainter which is triggered due to low blood pressure and an over active imagination when it comes to gory stuff ... I hope your mw can figure something out for you x

 

[Noo]

Yup, my booking BP was 85/50... It was 70/40 the other day but that was immediately following a faint. Its hideous though. I get all hot/cold sweats, get glittery flashing lights and start to feel slightly deaf then have some panicky claustrophobic urge to get out and sit down. I can't stay in an non-air conditioned shop for more than 4-5 minutes without needing to sit down and of course none of them have chairs!

 

[annio84]

Noo, sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. Hope you can figure something out.

More, I really hope the BF gets better soon and baby settles into a routine. I'm BF Grace and it can be really stressful with the lack of routine and constant night feeding. I felt much better when the MW weighed her and she'd gained some. The health visitor is coming tomorrow so hoping for a good gain so I know I'm definitely feeding her enough.

I'm feeling a lot better now in myself. The antibiotics are finished, bleeding has settled down and I think the iron tablets are tarting to have some effect because I can do stuff without feeling breathless. It all seems so starnge now that she's nearly three weeks old though, I'm actually missing being pregnant.

Hope all is well with everyone else. Who's due next? Is it MrsEddie?

 

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No the fainting sounds terrible to have to deal with. I fainted once while pregnant with DD2 but was fine after I started taking an iron supplement. I couldn't imagine having to worry about it all the time.

Toms glad to hear all is well with you. I hope your appointment goes well!

Annie happy to hear your feeling better and that you're done with the meds. I find myself missing being pregnant just to have some time back, otherwise this pregnancy had been so hard and painful at the end that there isn't much to miss about it.

Mrs. Eddie I hope everything is going good with you!! Not too much longer before little Isla will be here!!

Breastfeeding is going. I have to use nipple shields or else he won't latch so that's annoying but it works for us right now. I have my down days but I'm thinking its more to do with sleep then anything else because I find I've been getting depressed easily but now noticing its on the days when we've had a rough night. Landon has also been gassy lately. But he's having more and more periods of time when he's awake so that's been nice as I really look forward to the point when you can interact with them a bit more. I'm still dreading the start of school and sports for the girls though. It's definitely going to be hard in the beginning having to get right up and go and do so much in and out and driving around with a newborn.

 

[Noo]

I'm dreading the start of school being heavily pregnant - I've NO idea how I'll cope with a newborn. He starts school at 9am and we normally get up at 8-8.15. I've a feeling with a baby I'll have to get up at 7 to get the baby fed, bathed and dressed and THEN do the normal school stuff?! Ack! Though that'll be from day one of having baby as he's not due till they're already back

 

[Toms Mummy]

I was thinking of the school run today too!.... We have to drive Tom to school, he's only in for 2hrs each morning so can see me spending most of my time outside the school in the car feeding baby

Midwife app went well today, there has been 2 different trainee midwives there the last 2 times I've been. The 1st one a couple of weeks ago took some blood and I thought she was fantastic! (I usually go really dizzy or faint!) Until an hr later when I looked at the area and it was sooo bruised with blood under the skin, it was like that for a week..... This week a different trainee palpatated my bump and said she reckoned baby was bottom down as she couldn't feel head but I know she is head down She also measured me and I'm measuring 28weeks instead of 30weeks, again I think she was wrong as I was sitting up a bit as my midwife didn't want me to lay down due to heartbeat dipping last time..... My midwife didn't double check the trainee today but that doesn't bother me as it's still early and they're got to have a go otherwise they'd never learn anything!

I went to yoga class this evening too which was lovely Baby is kicking about all over the place now!

 

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Luckily DD1 wakes up to her alarm then showers and gets herself ready for school with no issues so I usually just bring her to the bus stop at 7:30 but if needed she can go herself which I have a feeling she will be doing a lot in the beginning. DD2 on the other hand is not a morning person and needs a lot of coaxing to get up and get ready on time to leave shortly after 8:00. Then I'll be home alone till 3 when I pick DD2 up from school. DD1 takes the bus and walks home so I don't need to worry about her. It's after school that's the real nightmare. They both do dance on two different days and also sports practices and games during the week and weekends. So it should be interesting and this is where I don't know if breastfeeding will be doable given how time consuming it is. I spend hours driving around from 3:00 on and then also have to make dinner and all that.

 

[Noo]

You have all day to make dinner and then you can reheat it when its time to eat

 

[baby1wanted]

Hi ladies

Not much happening this end... 16 week check with midwife next week and we're just on countdown to our anomaly scan.
Feel better than I did in first tri but not exactly glowing! Still nauseous on and off, can only eat small meals or I get bad indigestion and dizzy a lot of the time... bump is growing nicely now and I'm noticeably pregnant which I love Listen to the heartbeat on my doppler every few days and so far so good!

Noo - that doesn't sound great at all, hope it settles soon!

Morebabies - really great that you're persisting with BF even it it does mean nipple shields. I think BF is my biggest fear at the moment - I want to do it SO much I'm petrified in case I'm not able to.... I think I could cope with everything going wrong at the birth and ending up with a section or something (although I really want a natural birth) but if I couldn't BF I think I'd struggle with that. Need to give myself a bit of a talking to on that one I think. Hope it keeps going ok for you and your little man.

Toms - time is ticking away for you now now, you're getting there!! Am I right in thinking you used cloth nappies with Tom? If so I think I'll need to pick your brains at some point... keep looking into the details and it's a minefield!! Really really could like to try it though.

Hope Mrs Eddie is ok.... have it in the back of my head that she was going to be offline for a few days

And Annio - glad you're feeling a bit better!

 

[baby1wanted]

Oh and you're all making my laugh with your talk of the school run etc with a newborn. I'm having genuine freak outs at ever making it out of the house again with just me and the baby!!

 

[Toms Mummy]

I think the thought of breastfeeding puts a lot of pressure on mothers, which in turn can make it worse if it's not going as smoothly as you'd hope!..... I have heard that the 1st 6 weeks is the hardest and getting past then is a massive milestone

Yeah baby1, I used cloth with tom, also using cloth again this time. The natural parenting section is brilliant for advice but if you want to as me anything I'll try to answer

 

[Buttercup2]

baby1, I'm also interested in cloth diapering! I'm a ftm, but I've done a ton of research and purchased a bunch of diapers. I sure hope cloth diapers work out for us! I also found the amount of info out there to be overwhelming, but I went to a store that had several different types for sale and fiddled around with them. That helped me get an idea of what type of cloth diaper might work best for us.

morebabies, good for you for sticking to your commitment to BF! It sounds like you are very busy with your two other LOs. Good luck, we're all rooting for you and we support you, however you end up feeding your sweet boy.

Tom's, that's funny about the trainee midwife. It's always a bit fun to be "in the know". I like to tell people we don't know what we're having (even thought we know it's a girl), just so I can hear all the different opinions about what the baby might be. I had two people get into a fairly heated discussion about whether I was carrying high or low, and whether that meant it was a boy or girl. It was pretty funny

I had a 3d scan last week--it's so cool! My little girl already looks like her daddy. I can't believe I'm less than 10 weeks away! I've been a little concerned because she recently flipped over and is now head-up, after being head-down for practically the entire pregnancy up until this point. Any suggestions on how to get her to flip back over? I checked out the "spinning babies" website, but i found it very clunky and hard to use. I have a very active job and am on my feet all day long every day--would more sitting help? stretches? cartwheels?

 

[more babies]

Noo that's very true. It's something I would have to work on because I'm one of those people who just loves to eat the food right when it's done while its nice and hot and also hate reheated food.

Baby1 happy to hear things are going well for you aside from not feeling so great. I remember being so excited once I was noticeably pregnant. Im obviously so happy LO is here now but I miss just laying in bed at night rubbing my pregnant belly.

Buttercup your scan picture came out great!! i don't remember at what point but my LO had also been head down the entire time then for a day or two went heads up (I could tell from the kicks to the cervix ) but then flipped himself back down. Hopefully this is will be the case for you too!

Toms there much more pressure to breatfeed now then there was when I had my girls 11 and almost 8 years ago. I don't even remember it being talked about. But this time everyone everywhere was very pro breastfeeding and there were posters and information at every corner.

 

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So I'm running into some BF problems. For the past two days LO has seemed extra hungry and has been cranky and crying a lot. From the start I've had one breast that produces more and comes out faster then the other but I'm pretty sure the slow one isn't producing much at all anymore. I've been pumping once a day and DH has been giving him one bottle a day after he gets home from work so that he can have his time with him and share a little in the feedings. I've noticed I've been getting slightly less out of that side but today it dropped down to only being able to get 1 oz out of that side. Which probably explains why LO has been feeding extra long on that side and been really unhappy these past two days. The other side produces a lot of milk but I don't think it's enough to make up for what the other isn't producing. So I don't know what I'm suppose to do now.. I went into the whole breastfeeding thing with a laid back attitude that if it worked it worked and if it didn't that was ok too. But now that it worked the thought of it not working really gets me down. I've also unfortunately been breaking out in eczema rashes. I think it's more stress related but still it makes me unable to have skin to skin contact with LO for more then just a couple minutes.

 

[Toms Mummy]

Lovely scan pic Buttercup! I laughed about you not telling someone the gender! .... I am going to try that!

More babies, I know what you mean about everyone talking about breastfeeding now!.... It's very common to breastfeed near me, to the point where my friend used to feel ashamed to get a bottle out for her LO! It's such a shame .... Did you breastfeed you other 2 children?

I've heard that it's all about supply and demand, maybe try putting Landon on to the boob that's not supplying much 1st? Or maybe try expressing from that one whilse he is feeding on the other as him feeding will produce more of a let down?..... These are just personal suggestions so may not be the perfect solution x

 

[more babies]

No I formula fed my girls. With DD1 I was very young and uncomfortable doing it and with DD2 I was having a massive severe eczema problem over my entire body that it was impossible to even try.

 

[Noo]

Stop pumping from that breast. It doesn't provide as much stimulation as the baby. Try and time your pumping so you use the other breast and offer the slower breast to the baby as often as you can and then offer the other one after it. You can feed from both breasts for a feed though you need to alternate which breast you offer first as they tend to empty that one.

AFM: I had an emergency growth and doppler scan today as I'm measuring 40cm at 34 weeks. Baby is 6lb 6oz and on the 97th centile for all of his measurements (head and tummy is actually off the scale). Got a GTT booked for Tue, Consultant review Fri and then will need to consider mode of delivery. Looking very much like I'll be having a planned section considering if he continues to follow that growth line he'll be heading to 10lb 8oz at 40 weeks which isn't really unrealistic given the weight of my first baby. Problem is that his shoulders got stuck and I'm only 5ft 2 so it would probably be really irresponsible to decline a section when I had a 4th degree tear and 3L haemorrhage following the last shoulder dystocia