Early 30's TTC #1

[Soleil Breeze]

Never mind, I see in your ticker how long you've been trying for...

Your time is coming...Patience, one of those virtues that is SO HARD to acquire/maintain.

 

[rosababy]

Rosa - yep she knows that we TTC for 2 years and went through IVF - she didnt even apologise, just laughed and said she had obviously touched a nerve! Sigh. I got my own back in a way as for some reason every time she tried to cuddle Eva, Eva cried!!!!

I think it would be nice to have co-ed baby showers - they are strictly women only I think in the UK but seems sad the men miss out!

haha!! Good job, Eva!! Did I type that wrong? I thought you named her Ava. I'm so confused now. If your dh is anything like mine, he is HAPPY to be left out of shower. He is like um...no thanks! I did hear of a "diapers and beer" party for the dads-to-be and thought that would be cool but we do cloth.

Which brings me to SB. Yes, we do cloth. LOVE them. We have exclusively bum genius 4.0, and we have 20 diapers. I do laundry every 3-4 days, and I wash/dry them in the machines. It's super easy. I can't remember how much weight I gained each tri, but overall, I think it was about 30-35 pounds total. It's hard to know because I gained some throughout the ttc and ivf process and so I don't know where I technically started. I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as you're eating and your doc is fine with it, then just enjoy.

 

[Soleil Breeze]

So Rosa, I just bought this laundry ball (Green Klean? Something like that...), which requires no detergent. The balls in the contraption supposedly wash your clothes for you. So better for the environment, great for sensitive skin, etc. We tried it out on the weekend. It seems to work...

Downside is, no nice scent. The clothes kind of smell like they've been placed next to an air purifier (best way to describe it). Thing is, I'm still really skeptical of the dang thing. I mean, cold water only?! How do you wash crappy diapers in those? So I'm still feeling this thing out. I'll keep you gals posted.

Now, Rosa, when you're out and about town with Jack, do you use non-cloth diapers? Curious. Thanks for the brands on the cloth diapers. I will check them out.

 

[rosababy]

So Rosa, I just bought this laundry ball (Green Klean? Something like that...), which requires no detergent. The balls in the contraption supposedly wash your clothes for you. So better for the environment, great for sensitive skin, etc. We tried it out on the weekend. It seems to work...

Downside is, no nice scent. The clothes kind of smell like they've been placed next to an air purifier (best way to describe it). Thing is, I'm still really skeptical of the dang thing. I mean, cold water only?! How do you wash crappy diapers in those? So I'm still feeling this thing out. I'll keep you gals posted.

Now, Rosa, when you're out and about town with Jack, do you use non-cloth diapers? Curious. Thanks for the brands on the cloth diapers. I will check them out.

That's the problem with "baby detergent" is that it has no scent. We miss the fresh scent! Can't use them with the diapers though, and sometimes they still smell a little bad. I put a little bleach in there every other wash and it takes care of the smell. (Bum genius said it's okay.) You don't wash the dipes in cold water only...you do a cold rinse, then hot/cold cycle with an extra cold rinse. So, not sure the balls would work. (That's what she said...)

When we're traveling overnight, we use disposables, but if we're out all day, we still do cloth. We have a cute little wet bag that holds one or two diapers and fits into our diaper bag, so I bring a few (I always have extra disposables just in case) and we're all good. I've found that even if you have a massively poopy diaper, it's okay if you wait a few hours to wash it off, even at the end of the day. It's cool. You can always lay it in the sun to bleach the stains away. I've never had stains, and there have been a few times when I haven't been able to wash the poop off immediately.

Speaking of washing the poop off..get one of the toilet sprayers. It hooks up to your toilet water and you power wash the poop off into the toilet. After that, you put the diaper into the pail or wet bag. I just have a wet bag and it keeps the smells out incredibly well. Once you open the bag...now that's a different story. Wow.

My other suggestion is to buy one or two of several different kinds and styles. You don't know what you'll like and/or what baby will like. My sil, good friend, and I all have different kinds. Personally, I did not like the prefolds with covers. They didn't wick the moisture away so he just sat in his pee. It was gross. The all-in-ones were the same way, and they flaps (in the bum genius free times) didn't stay put. Pocket diapers (the 4.0) worked best for us, because the pee goes through the layer that touches his butt and is held in the inner layer, so he doesn't feel wet at all. BUT I wouldn't have guessed that unless I tried lots of kinds. Luckily, I was able to sell back the kinds I did not use for a few bucks here and there. It afforded me to buy one or two new pocket diapers.

 

[sarah10380]

Rosa - I'm so impressed that you use cloth diapers. You make it sound a lot easier than I thought it would be. You must save a ton of money....I'm ALWAYS buying diapers (and formula), it's so freaking expensive. I'm pretty sure everyone at Target knows me by now. I'm the tall lady (i'm 6'3) with the twins that is there every other day....since I have to push a double stroller, I can't push a shopping cart at the same time so it limits the amount of stuff I can buy at one time. grrrrrrr

I agree with the baby detergent smell..or "no smell". It does make the clothes smell like they have been sitting next to a humidifier. I ran out of my baby detergent a few weeks ago and decided to try our regular Tide and so far so good...the babies don't seem to have any issues with it.

mrsmax - I can't believe your MIL said that, how RUDE!!!

SB - I wouldn't worry abour your weight gain. If your doctor doesn't have an issue then you should be fine. Everyone gains differently anyways. Ii don't remember how much I gained each trimester, but I know I really put it on at the end. I ended up gaining 46 pounds, but I had 13 lbs of babies in me

As for baby showers, I had 2 showers that were both all female...my friends here in NC had a shower for me and then my moms friends back home in Minnesota had one too. I was very greatful for my shower in MN, but I ended up spending a couple of hundred bucks to ship all my gifts back to NC My husband and I have thrown 2 co-ed showers for some friends and they were ok...it was pretty segregated, the guys pretty much stuck to their beer and the TV and the girls drank their mimosas and watched the opening of the gifts.

 

[MsJMouse]

SB we use cloth too and I love it. We pretty much use Itti Bitti nappies (Aussie brand). They are 2 in ones so they have inserts that clip in. I bought a couple to starter packs which had a few different nappies in them so we could see what worked for us. I personally didn't like the pocket nappies as I found them a pain to get the insert flat inside the nappies. As Rosa said easy to wash - cold rinse cycle then a wash cycle of 30-60 deg then hang in the sun and the sun gets rid of any poo stains. I also have a wet bag for dirty nappies when out. We are going to have to use disposables when we go away too hard to try to wash nappies when we are driving for three days to get to our destination.

 

[MsJMouse]

With regards to weight gain I didn't gain much in the first trimester - maybe a kilo. It wasn't till later on that I gained any weight.

Also I think my mum uses those ball things for washing her clothes. She loves it.

 

[readyORnot]

readyor not, did you stick to the EIC method? How is that going? I'm still in awe of that strategy!

pleased to say we're still doing this! And it took some time but my husband is finally on board and caught his first ever potty poo a few days ago while i was cooking in the kitchen.
Angelo does pretty much all his poos in the potty or toilet and about half his daytime wees in the potty or toilet. We do have a few weewee misses but on the whole it's going really well, and whenever we're at home we have him completely nappy free. Sometimes his signals are very clear (like banging on the bathroom door when he needs a wee) and other times virtually nonexistent (when he's playing with a toy or doing something he doesn't want to stop doing and decides he'd rather carry on with that).

Cloth diaper question - any of you gals doing that or plan to do that?

When we're wearing nappies, we do cloth! I love them and cleaning is a breeze. Because we don't really get any poo nappies, I can't comment much on that except to say that on the few occasions we have had a nappy poo, I thanked my lucky stars I was using washable fleece liners. The nappy was spared any of the mess, and the fleece liners don't seem to stain. They wash off beautifully. They also keep baby nice and dry.

All right, weight question. I know every body/pregnancy is different and that you don't necessarily put on weight in the first tri., but would you say that you were happy with your weight gain? Unhappy? I am a little worried that I am not putting on enough weight. Sixteen weeks plus at this point and I've only put on 5 pounds.

Everybody's different and I think the most important thing is that you remain healthy, and baby is healthy and growing well. In my opinion, as long as those two things are in place your actual weight doesn't matter too much.
But if it helps, I gained nothing in my first trimester but by the time Angelo was born I had gained 40lb!

 

[MrsPTTC]

Hi ladies...

Mrsmax your MIL really is awful, the way she's been with you I'm amazed you've not fallen out!

Soleil I put on most of my weight in 1st & 2nd tri. 2 stone 2lbs in total. I've lost 1 stone 4lbs so far.

Eventually my birth story!!

So on my due date 13/03/13 DH and I went out for a meal with his family to celebrate his brother and girlfriend’s unexpected pregnancy, and also the imminent arrival of Baby P. DH had a drink that night and I drove us, getting into the car I had a couple of twinges but nothing to think labour was starting. I woke up during the night with AF type dull cramps and at 4.30am on 14/03/13 went to the loo and as I wiped some “stuff” fell out of me! It was just a trickle and was more watery than CM or what I expected a show to be, but not quite water IYKWIM, and it had a pinky tinge to it. I rang the hospital and she told me to put on a pad which I’d already done and call back after an hour with an update of what was on the pad. I had nothing more after that, rang the hospital back who said it sounded like a show rather than my water. They told me what my contractions needed to be in order to call them again, but if I bled or my waters went to call them back. So I got on with my day as best as I could, I sent DH off to work as he had to sort out his workload so he could start paternity as soon as, and my mam came round about 10:30am. I wasn’t sure what contractions really felt like and was getting twinges all morning, then just before my mam came I decided I was getting them, they weren’t just cramps - yikes things were happening! My mam did some ironing for me whilst I closed up my hospital bag, packed DH’s bag and sorted the car seat and nursery, no rest for the wicked! I downloaded an app on the ipad to time my contractions, they were all over the place, sometimes 3 minutes apart, sometimes 15 and they subsided and were less painful (thought TBH they were hardly that painful compared to the “real” contractions hours later!) when I bounced on my gym ball . I remember sitting down with my mam at lunchtime eating and the contractions were getting stronger, she said I’d better warn DH he’ll need to come home very soon! He came home about 3pm-ish and DH’s parents popped over to see how I was doing, it was funny being in labour and having a house full They also took the dog away with them to look after. So I rang the hospital to see where I stood and they said the contractions weren’t enough to go in yet, to take paracetamol and if the pain went away then it wasn’t proper labour they really need to take my breath away. The pain didn’t go with the paracetamol so I just kept on monitoring the contractions. My mam left at 6:50pm whilst I was in the middle of my tea (McDonalds!) as the hospital said I had to eat so DH got a drive through, then at 7pm I was eating my mcflurry (funny the things you remember) when I felt a gush and ran to the loo. There was liquid everywhere and a few bits of brown – uh oh!! I rang the hospital who said I had to go in though they might send me away again depending on how dilated I was. DH was great, was on autopilot and got everything together, rushed me into the car and off we went. My waters went again with each contraction in the car and boy were they bloody painful!! Water everywhere though luckily I had a pad on, a maternity mat on the seat and also a bath towel – my jogging bottoms were soaked through though I looked a right mess . I was assessed at 8pm at the hospital and was 4cm dilated – no going home for me, this was it! It was very likely the way I was going I would give birth in the early hours…I went into the birthing centre, a pink room (omen?!) with a birthing pool, flat screen TV and en suite shower room, great! The midwife looked very young, probably about 25 if that, but was so nice! She said I could use the pool straight away but would advise against it until I was further gone, so I lay down on the couch thing – no beds in there as is supposed to be home from home – expecting to get changed into my tankini later on. The rest of the night was a blur, the pain was pretty bad but I was sleeping and watching tv inbetween contractions, the same for DH who was on the sofa. The mw keep on disappearing for an hour at a time when she was coming back in to monitor me and the baby, but no internal as it has to be every 4 hours DH kept giving me water and helping me to the toilet. She asked if I wanted to go in the pool later on, but I was so exhausted I just wanted to lie there, and as the pain was pretty bad I opted for diamorphine which meant no water birth, but could still stay in the nice room. The diamorphine was a dream! I only had a half a dose with the option of having the other half later on, but wow I would recommend it! However it started to wear off after a few hours and the pain was getting pretty bad. I decided against having the other half dose as the first lot had already slowed my contractions down and I was worried about it affecting the baby. I eventually got the pushing stage at about 6:30am (what a long night!) but needed a pee and I couldn’t go! I had to have a catheter and boy I filled the pot! 25 minutes roughly (so DH recalls) of pushing and she was here, our baby girl! At 7:10am. It bloody hurt I’ll not lie, but I honestly think my birth was pretty good – perhaps its how fit I kept myself during pregnancy, all the walking the dog, and basically just carrying on with life, housework etc.. I didn’t put my feet up. Or maybe it was the raspberry leaf capsules or gym ball action…Or maybe I was just lucky! Baby P was TINY! So much smaller than expected as the growth scan showed she was 5lb 9 at 35 weeks. We knew before she was weighed she was just a little un She was 6lb 5 and was perfect. DH despite saying no throughout pregnancy cut the cord. He was shocked she was a girl, all our friends had girls so he was sure a boy had to come sooner or later! I had to have some stitches though no idea how many, oh how dignified I felt with my legs up in stirrups! We did skin to skin though the bf didn’t happen straight away. After a few hours I showered then we moved rooms so someone could have the birthing pool and both dh and I napped in the sofa bed they’d made up for us. Penny who was un-named for 3 days was in the plastic cot thing next to us. I tried feeding again and after some help from the midwife she latched on which went we could go home that night! Our parents and my brother in law and his girlfriend came to visit around 6pm with balloons and presents for little miss. Luckily my mam had bought some tiny baby clothes as only one of the newborn outfits I took to the hospital fit her! We all left together at 8pm when I was discharged. When we got home MIL had decorated the house with banners and balloons and she’d bought a beautiful flower arrangement . And so our life as a family begins……….

Pics to follow!

x

 

[hakunamatata]

Thanks for sharing!! Looking forward to pics!!

Ariana was 6 lbs 5 oz too.

 

[mrsmax]

MrsP - i love your story. I love hearing birth stories. Your room sounded amazing - a flat screen TV!!!! It also sounds like yo uhad a short pushing experience too - it is in your notes somewhere excatly how long if you ever want to know for sure.

You did great too - it was about 4cm when I started feeling the pain and begging for gas and air. I didnt get offered diamorphine but wil remember that if we are ever lucky enough to have a number two.

Re weight gain p- ionly gained about 16 punds and lost it within 5 days of birth however, I paid for it with that terrible morning sickness and I am now eating so much chocolate and cake I am actually putting on weight not losing it :dhoh:

 

[MrsPTTC]

Ooh Hakuna thats a coincidence!

Thanks Mrsmax, my notes have disappeared back to the midwives now but I do recall the times and it was less than half an hour... Yeah the room was fab!

I hope it doesnt take too long to lose the rest, though at the rate I'm snacking on chocolate I'm not so sure lol!

Some pics for those of you not on facebook...

x

 

[hakunamatata]

Ohhhhhh beautiful!!

 

[rosababy]

MrsP, lovely birth story! Your room sounds really nice! And she's just gorgeous. So happy for you.

 

[finallyready]

Not sure if you remember me or not, but I was in this thread a couple years ago and loved the support. I haven't signed on to B&B in a long time. Thought I would pop around this thread to see if it was still going and all I have to say is WOW! Mostly everyone either has their status as "Expecting" or "Mummy" Soooooo happy for everyone. Positive thinking and a good support system pay off! For those that are still TTC...your time will come!!! Stay strong!!!! Xxxxoooooo

 

[finallyready]

hahaha and my Girlie is 17 months old! Not 1yr old...I guess I should get rid of that ticker!!!

 

[sarah10380]

What a wonderful story and I love the pictures....she is precious!

 

[MrsPTTC]

Thanks ladies, & thanks for coming back to check on everyone finallyready! x

 

[MsJMouse]

Cool birth story MrsPTTC. Interesting that you would recommend the morphine as I wouldn't. I found the morphine didn't touch the pain and it only made me more sleepy which was horrible as the contractions were two minutes apart and all I wanted to was lie down between them but by the time I lay down another contraction would hit and I would have to stand up as they hurt worse if I wasn't standing up and leaning on something.

 

[hakunamatata]

I know this is the ttc#1 group but I wanted to let you know I'm expecting #2 now!

and to all of you