February Valentines 2012 - We have our first Valentines!

[dizzyangel]

How are you guys coming along with names?? I asked on our FB page and then realized there are only 6 of us in the group, LOL!!!

Before we knew what we were having we had a girls name. Our PERFECT name and it was so easy to decide on. We could NOT think of a boys name. Well, now we have to, Lol, since he's a boy!! I don't want a name that is "plain" and I don't want a name that is "popular" but I also don't want something Totally out there (like I saw on a baby name site the name..."Baby"....??). We both LOVE Jacob but it's been #1 for about 5 years (thank you Twilight) so that's out. We love Noah but it's quite popular too, so that's a no. Sebastian is our #1 name right now, but since we haven't had that YES to it that we had for the girls name, we just aren't sure! LOL If we use Sebastian, I like Charles as a middle name (it's my Grandfather's name) but John doesn't think it goes?? We were thinking of using Jacob as a middle but I really want to save it in the hopes that the name craze dies down in a couple years!

Me and OH have a definate boys name but only have a middle name for a girl......so Im kinda hoping for a boy just for ease of actually naming them, otherwise I have a feeling shes going to be called 'baby' for short while

OH was wanting to call them Jean if they were a girl, as its his mum's name who passed away 2 years ago (pretty handy as its my grandma's name who isnt with us any more either) BUT I think its an old womans name so Ive asked OH to compromise and its a definate middle name now!!

Have to say I love love LOVE Jacob but OH didnt like it so thats had to be taken off my name list! Which isnt so bad now we have the perfect boys name for LO

 

[lilrojo]

20+1 week bump

 

[RedheadBabies]

Hi Ladies!:wave:

I miss an entire weekend on here from attending a wedding and have 12 pages to catch up on...yikes!

Geo, congrats on team !!

I got to cuddle my niece all day Friday, she was a month old on Sunday. She is sooo sweet. Her name is Hayden, and it makes me SO excited for Mallory to get here. I can't wait to cuddle my own baby girl.


I thought I would put up the first bump pics I have taken since 5 weeks! I have been awful about taking them. I have nothing on some of you ladies with your perfect little bumps! Most people who don't know me, are shocked when they find out I'm pregnant, and even more shocked when they find out I'm 24 weeks!

I guess it's expected though, I'm 5'10, normally between 145-150lbs. She has quite a bit of room to grow before she needs to pop out.

I'm not getting my bedding for a couple more weeks, but my MIL and SIL have already purchased it for my shower, I just have to wait.

As you ladies put your nurseries together I would LOVE to see pictures!

 

[mumanddad]

We have our boys name picked he will be Corban-Matthew

im going to pick the pram up on saturday i cant wait

 

[RedheadBabies]

We have our boys name picked he will be Corban-Matthew

im going to pick the pram up on saturday i cant wait

Very nice! I only know of one other Corban, and his name is spelled Corbin. I think he's about 18 now. Wondeful choice for your little man!

 

[Jokerette]

mumanddad- LOVE your name choice!!!

All you ladies look great! Here is my before picture and my 22+1 bump!

 

[Junebugs]

Here's my 22+4 and 23+4 week bump pic......

 

[sparklez]

yay in the facebook group now.

Got a decision to make... at the booking appointment was asked about homebirth and said nope hospital please without really considering it to much but now the hypnobirth lady has suggested it twice and I'm really unsure. Thought I wouldn't mind the hospital at all but just looked through all the pictures on their website and it looks very clinical. Visiting hours are quite limited so as soon as you're transfered to postnatal ward OH probably has to go home, other visitors only allowed fo 2 hours a day. Didn't consider home birth as I didn't think we could do it and would be happier at the hospital but now think I'm changing my mind... the relxation part of hypnobirthing would probably be much easier at home, I know someone down the road training to be a doula so she'd probably come and help out which is reassuring...ahhh so much to think about, can't decide!!! Any advice welcome, especially from those of you who've been there done that, thanks lovely ladies

 

[AmaryllisRed]

Look at all the lovely bumpies!
I think we all look fabulous!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

yay in the facebook group now.

Got a decision to make... at the booking appointment was asked about homebirth and said nope hospital please without really considering it to much but now the hypnobirth lady has suggested it twice and I'm really unsure. Thought I wouldn't mind the hospital at all but just looked through all the pictures on their website and it looks very clinical. Visiting hours are quite limited so as soon as you're transfered to postnatal ward OH probably has to go home, other visitors only allowed fo 2 hours a day. Didn't consider home birth as I didn't think we could do it and would be happier at the hospital but now think I'm changing my mind... the relxation part of hypnobirthing would probably be much easier at home, I know someone down the road training to be a doula so she'd probably come and help out which is reassuring...ahhh so much to think about, can't decide!!! Any advice welcome, especially from those of you who've been there done that, thanks lovely ladies

I think you should research it! Home birth is, I don't think, for me. I'm terrified of hospitals but I think I'm MORE terrified of giving birth without everything right there, lol. I know that many, many women have home births though, and love the experience!

 

[TeQuiero]

yay in the facebook group now.

Got a decision to make... at the booking appointment was asked about homebirth and said nope hospital please without really considering it to much but now the hypnobirth lady has suggested it twice and I'm really unsure. Thought I wouldn't mind the hospital at all but just looked through all the pictures on their website and it looks very clinical. Visiting hours are quite limited so as soon as you're transfered to postnatal ward OH probably has to go home, other visitors only allowed fo 2 hours a day. Didn't consider home birth as I didn't think we could do it and would be happier at the hospital but now think I'm changing my mind... the relxation part of hypnobirthing would probably be much easier at home, I know someone down the road training to be a doula so she'd probably come and help out which is reassuring...ahhh so much to think about, can't decide!!! Any advice welcome, especially from those of you who've been there done that, thanks lovely ladies

I am not sure on the home birth part, but I do have to say that the visitation times are strange!! At the hospital I have had my babies at, there is no limit to the visitation hours, they just have to use a different entrance after 9 pm. DH was allowed to stay with me if he pleased, which he will probably not do this time since DS1 has school! I think that you and your hubby should talk about the options and think about what is best for your situation! If you decide on a homebirth then that is great for you, and you will have support either way!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

Lets see if this works...Not exactly a belly picture, but you can certainly see the belly! This was about a week ago so...22/23 weeks or so??

Had an appt today! Baby is doing great. His heart beat was 152 so still just about the same. I've gained 11 lbs so far and my doctor was really pleased with that. He said I'm doing a good job and it's what he likes to see, so, yey!! I go back in 3 weeks for blood work and the glucose test...yuck!

 

[TeQuiero]

So this is my bump today, at 23+3!! She has been sitting low the last week or so, today is the first day that she has sat higher than my bladder! But she certainly takes up all of her space!!

 

[nightkd]

I am SO not caught up I haven't been on for a couple of days and I'm desperate for some food, so I'll have to catch up later

yay in the facebook group now.

Got a decision to make... at the booking appointment was asked about homebirth and said nope hospital please without really considering it to much but now the hypnobirth lady has suggested it twice and I'm really unsure. Thought I wouldn't mind the hospital at all but just looked through all the pictures on their website and it looks very clinical. Visiting hours are quite limited so as soon as you're transfered to postnatal ward OH probably has to go home, other visitors only allowed fo 2 hours a day. Didn't consider home birth as I didn't think we could do it and would be happier at the hospital but now think I'm changing my mind... the relxation part of hypnobirthing would probably be much easier at home, I know someone down the road training to be a doula so she'd probably come and help out which is reassuring...ahhh so much to think about, can't decide!!! Any advice welcome, especially from those of you who've been there done that, thanks lovely ladies

I planned to be at home and ended up in hospital due to a long labour.

Now to start with, I will say that the hospital experience would have been a LOT different if I'd been in a different hospital... The one I went to is a teaching hospital, low rates of c-section for the area and they were a lot more supportive of me making most of the decisions, because they knew I had transferred from a homebirth. I also had my MW with me... Hospitals in the US also generally seem to allow partners to stay, private rooms etc... Though I would have demanded DH be allowed to stay even if it was against their policies and if they said no I would have been going home....

Anyway, I preferred the homebirthing part of it for the ability to be able to get on with my labour and do things how I wanted... As soon as I was in the hospital, they stopped me eating/drinking and I went in specifically to get some rest (I'd been in labour for well over 24 hours at this point) and after a couple of hours of sleeping a nurse came in and woke DH and I up!!! I was in labour for several more hours after that, with 3 hours of pushing... They just seemed to think they knew how I SHOULD be progressing, so didn't let me rest enough like I needed to in order to progress properly...

The hospital beds felt really narrow to me, to the point where I would be trying to get into positions to manage contractions and feel like I was going to fall off....

I also planned a water birth and I LOVED being in my birth pool at home. The hospital I transferred to didn't allow birth pools...

We are doing a home birth again, possibly without a MW this time.

I felt like I was more supported in hospital (also consider I don't have any family nearby (or in this country!!!) and I didn't really want DH's family around much...) in terms of after the birth, I liked the reassurance of having someone on call at all times and how thoroughly they checked me and baby (though at the same time, that sucked ass because they woke us both up in the middle of the night....frequently....)... It just gave me this peace of mind... BUT that was it. And it's really just because I'm so paranoid that I liked it so much The labour part itself was so much better at home! This time around I'm thinking, I will plan for a homebirth, but I always have the option to transfer to hospital during or after, if I feel like I NEED that over-the-top reassurance.

I am doing Hypnobabies (started last time, didn't stick with it ) and I really feel like I will be a lot more comfortable, being allowed to get on with it at home I could use my own bathroom (I shared the bathroom in the hospital with another room and had to lock the bathroom door to THAT room before using the toilet and unlock it before I left......) wander around my own house, eat my own food, drink whatever I wanted and watch TV/play games... The atmosphere, because I was in my own home, was just so much more relaxed and easier to chill out and deal with the contractions in....

Hospitals are for sick people!! IMO once you're in hospital, you can't easily go home, but if you start out at home, you have the option to go into hospital if you feel like that is the best thing for you at the time.

 

[nightkd]

Sorry, that was all over the place... Hopefully it makes sense

 

[EngineerGirl]

Oh names....I love all the ones on this group so far! Very awesome choices. DH and I will probably end up being like his brother and SIL and not naming our child until the deadline for turning in the birth certificate! Yesterday DH was calling our little girl all of our possibilities to test them out. It was pretty fun. I'd really be OK with several of our name options, so he's the one who is going to figure out what's "perfect."

I'm currently totally stuck on strollers and car seats. We went and pushed around several strollers this weekend and I totally fell in love with the Quinny Buzz, but we don't want to spend that much and really are looking for a lighter stroller because I'm small and not that strong. I have one friend who suggests getting some sort of newborn to toddler stroller so you don't have to buy anything more. I called my mom for advice and she said she wore us all the time, next to never used our regular stroller, and pretty much only used a small, cheap umbrella after that. I have a friend who did the snap 'n' go and then a cheap umbrella stroller and is a big fan. I have no idea what to do, and therefore am having trouble narrowing down the options! DH's only input is that he doesn't want to kick the back bar of the stroller when walking, which seems to rule out a lot of strollers, like the Chicco Liteway and many others. I just don't know what to do!

 

[mumanddad]

Thank you ladies as soon as i seen the name i knew it was right x

 

[AmaryllisRed]

In my experience, you shouldn't base your stroller choice on dh's comfort or preference. My dh like NEVER pushed the stroller. He never took ds out in it by himself, and if we were all out as a family, most times, he would carry ds and I would push the stroller with all our stuff in it.
I've thought about skipping the stroller and just babywearing... but if you wear the baby, you still have to carry all your STUFF, so... I'm thinking I'll need both.

I think the visiting hours thing is at least partly a us/uk thing. I've heard lots of uk ladies say the father has to leave after the birth. At our hospital, the dads can pretty much come and go... but like someone else said, there is a separate entrance for the maternity ward. And we have private rooms that you are supposed to stay in for the whole time you're there.
I wish they were a little more strict with visiting hours for the rest of the family and other guests, but...

 

[AmaryllisRed]

Oh, and about the waking up thing... they totally come in at all hours of the morning, evening, and night, bugging you and waking you up for whatever they want.
NOT cool when maybe you've been trying to sleep for six hours and just finally dozed off ten minutes ago!
It's totally a 24-hour culture.
Aiming for a home birth with the option of going to the hospital sounds like a good plan.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

Oh FFS!!!! I'm really not even sure who to vent to right now, so you ladies get what may be a long vent!!

So, My dh has a very large, very drama-filled family. For Many years I have been very close with one of his aunts and her two "children" who are 22 and 20. We've gone on vacations with them, we stay with them when we go up to visit his whole family, etc etc. They've always been very good to us and we hopefully have reciprocated, we love them dearly.

The 22 year old is a girl and is (was????) one of my best friends, though I'm 10 years older. The 20 year old is a boy and an awesome person. We asked them when I first got pregnant if they would be the babies godparents and they happily and excitedly said yes, we're that close.

This summer though, things between she and I have become...different. They have their own "band" and this summer went to California to record a CD. They asked me to come with them before I became pregnant, to video tape the whole process. I happily agreed. They'd pay for my plane ticket, I'd stay in the hotel with them, and during the recording process, they'd pay for my food. We would have 1 disney day in the middle with a friend of theirs who was there (guitar) for only the first couple weeks and then after it was all done, the 4 of us would go back for about a week. I was to pay for my own Disney ticket and my food during that time.

No problem. Well during the process they kept getting screwed by people so I said that they should really get a contract for those big things, which they started to do. Then I got pregnant and we talked about it again. I said that I still wanted to go, but that I hoped they understood that I would not be able to go 11-12 hours during the day without eating and I would not be able to stand up that whole time, either. This was in the height of my MS so these were really non-negotiable if they wanted me to be a human, lol. They said that they'd "try". That most days we'd have fast food type stuff (can't do it) and that there was only 1 chair that their mom would be using. I figured I could ask for another so whatever.

They came down over the summer to visit us and brought with them...a contract. Yep. I can't find it now, which I'd like to...but it basically said that they stuff I video'd, etc was their property. Honestly...I thought they meant with THEIR CAMERA, so I signed it.

Cut to the trip. It sucked. From the start. As soon as we got the airport they basically treated me like I was working for them. I get it, they were paying for most of the trip and I had a job to do, but...really?? I couldn't (and can't) walk as fast as I used to, and I had (and have) to take breaks and sit down. My sciatic nerve has acted up the whole pregnancy and so I'll bend over to stretch it out and such. They made fun of me for this stuff just about the whole time. I chalked it up to them being "young" and just really not getting it.

They did pay for MOST of my food, but I paid for a lot of it, too, because they LITERALLY ate at In-N-Out Burger at Least once a day. I ate their the first day and was sick for DAYS the burgers were so greasy. After that, when they ate there, I had to walk somewhere else and get myself something.

The first disney day we did, WHICH I PAID FOR, they told me to stop taking pictures with my camera and to take them with theirs because "that's what I was there for". Okay...

So the trip blew. It sucked. I wish I hadn't gone.

This weekend I added pictures to Facebook of the past few months. I had taken a few pictures with my camera of some things and put a couple of them up. She emailed me and said that I "signed a contract that I would not use any of the pictures and that I needed to take them down". I took down the one in the studio because I thought that's what she meant. Today I get "not to be obnoxious, but the one on the bus is still from the trip". Really? The bus from the airport to the rental car place, taken on my camera. Okay, fine. Took it down too. Sarcastically I asked, "Do I need to take down the Disney pictures, too?" And she said, "Yes any from the day we were there with ****". I wrote her back and basically said that I paid to go there, and that I didn't have any of him on there.

Still reading? That's only part 1.

Months ago she/they offered to hold our baby shower up there because that's where all Dh's family is. Wonderful! How sweet!!! Very excited. I sent her my list over the weekend and she wrote back that first of all, they only meant the family that THEY were part of (Dh's dad's side), NOT the other side. That they think inviting them would be "weird", and that if I want them there, maybe we could meet up with them another time. Here's my issues with that: 1- It was THREE extra people. 2- I honestly don't think any of the three of them will come, but 3- I do think they'd feel bad not to be invited, and 4- they're part of the baby's family and isn't this about him??

The next paragraph said that she didn't know how to tell me this but that inviting "some" males and not others is not proper. *ahem* I'd hazard to guess that telling someone you'll throw them a shower and then ripping apart their guest list is also not proper, but whatever. *I* invited 2 males. Dh's father (baby's grandfather) who I did not think would come anyways as he doesn't do any of that type of stuff. And one of Dh's and my BEST FRIENDS. We are Both friends with this guy AND his wife. And in our circle, we all do all this stuff together because we are ALL friends. Tradition or not, he's one of my best friends and I don't care if he's a boy. That was it. I did tell her, in my reply, that we were also planning on bringing my stepson (17 yrs old) because it's his baby brother, he's super excited, and he really wants to be there and be involved. *I* think that's wonderful. But it gets better, THEY were going to invite 2 males to my shower. So they're allowed but I'm not? Okay.

So I wrote back and said that honestly, it was only 3 extra people, and I didn't think they'd come, and that we didn't have time to have something with just them. We are ONLY going to be there the DAY of the party. BUT if it was too weird for them, to remove them from the list.

Then I said that, as for the guys, I didn't see the issue. But again, if they were really against it, they could take my guys off AND THEIR GUYS, but that we'd still be bringing my stepson. He was SO upset when I lost the first baby - I'm not telling him he can't do ANYTHING with this one.

So...anyways...she wrote back and said that they'd keep the Other family on and that they were just worried about more family drama if they invited some guys and not others but that if anyone said anything, they'd tell them to talk to me, as it was my list. I'm fine with that.

But..UGH!!! I mean...I love these people. We have always gotten along really really well until lately. I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant or it just IS but it's really bothering me. I don't see it as much in Dh's aunt or the boy cousin, but in the girl one, I see stuff more and more that really bothers me and just gets to me. *sigh* I don't even know what I'm trying to say...I'm just annoyed.