From Spotters TTC thread to BFP! Success at last!

[CaT1285]

daydream - thanks for the advice! I will definitely sign up for all the classes. Better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. Glad everything is going well for you and Harrison. Good luck with being on your own!

Katie - hmmm... you will definitely see something, it's just that it might just be me getting fat and not necessarily a baby bump. Maybe I'll take a picture in the morning, when it's more likely to be actual baby than bloating and food baby. I hope your girlie gets in position for a natural birth very soon!

Chloe - obviously I haven't a clue about bottles, but I noticed that your maternity leave seemed to be about the usual in the US - about 12 weeks - is that right? How did you find that amount of time to be? I'm planning on taking off 12 weeks, then my OH will be able to take off 12 weeks as well, but I'm wondering if I should try to do more. It would have to be leave without pay, though.

I got the official results of the NT scan. Everything's normal!

 

[Chloe597]

Cat - I think 12 weeks is pretty good. I am going a bit stir crazy staying home all day. I think it would be a bit nicer if maternity leave were in the summer and I could go for walks with gabby, but the weather is cold and snowy so I don't tend to venture out much, plus I'm afraid if I go out she will start screaming and I won't be able to control her (even tho tha is not in her personality),l. Sleep is gettings better so that was one of my concerns with going back to work - would I be so sleep deprived that I couldn't focus on work. So far gabby is a good sleeper and if I have to wake up once a night to feed her while I am working, I can handle that. I'm a nervous first time mom and I don't really.hang out with other new moms so I think that makes life.more.boring too. If you have your baby in the summer and have a network of new moms to hang with, 12 weeks will fly by and you may wish for more. If baby is colicy, you will be ready to go back to work after 6 weeks . So that is my long winded answer.

Sorry for the typos, I'm on my phone and it is misbehaving.

Trying to put gabby to bed half awake and I keep hearing her make noises. Makes it impossible for me to sleep! Just waiting for her to start crying.

 

[daydream]

GL tonight Chloe, I know exactly what you mean. I hate to crawl into bed and have those noises turn into crying.

Today went great! A little lonely but Harrison was very nice to his momma. Tomorrow DH is back home and I have my six week OB visit. DH is very ready for the all clear to DTD. I can't believe how fast time is going by.

 

[_Nell]

Katie - i did those exercises as baby started to turn back to back almost, you get used to hanging off the couch! Hope it works.

Chloe - yes layla was emcs at 38+2 so a little early, she's 11lb today. I use dr browns now we're on formula and find them good.

Daydream hope you're home alone day goes well

Mrspttc - i like all those names, scarlett is a beautiful name for a little girl

Afm, today is a good day layla is doing so much better on the meds now after almost 2 weeks of them.....2 weeks ago i held her all day, either sleeping, feeding or wailing, she virtually had no awake time without tears and would scrunch up in pain. I fed myself, brushed my teeth and even went to the loo one handed while holding her! Now i can sit here and type on the ipad relaxed with a drink and having had lunch at a normal time!

 

[MrsPTTC]

Thanks Nell! Not sure of the correct spelling though, Scarlett or Scarlet? Both spellings are in the baby names lists but would prefer the traditional spelling, whichever it is lol. I guess you had the same decision to make with Layla/Leila So pleased she's being good for you now

My I don't know how you US ladies cope with only 12 weeks off! I'm having 10 months Nell how long are you off for? I don't think I'll get too bored, I have lots of friends with kids so I'm sure we'll have lots of play dates & dog walking dates (my dogs dog walker is preggo.)

Daydream, glad yesterday went well! Can't believe time for you to again lol!

x

 

[Chloe597]

Wow, mrsP, 10 months?? I can't imagine what I would do with that time. Although I would take it if it were offered to me, that's for sure! The weather was nice today so i took gabby on a little walk around the block (heat wave! 12C/54F) It was nice to get out of the house.

I still haven't mastered the art of putting gabby in her crib for a nap and having it result in a nap longer than 1 hour. If i let her sleep on me, she will sleep for 2-3 hours. So she is in her Moby wrap now, going on 2.5 hours fast asleep. At least this means i can have both hands free, even if i am still somewhat limited in my range of motion.

I've got the bottles sterilized already so DH can feed gabby while I take my first bath in our brand new jacuzzi tub with my pumpkin ale that i have been saving since October Excited for my birthday tomorrow!

 

[CaT1285]

MrsPTTC - Do they pay you when you're away for 10 months on maternity leave??

Chloe - we had a heat wave in Baltimore yesterday too! It was in the 50s. It's nice today also - maybe getting up to 70!! Then it's rain and back to winter. A bath and a pumpkin ale sounds AMAZING, btw. Happy birthday!

I finally took a picture of my bump that I wasn't too embarrassed to put on the internet. You guys are going to think I'm crazy because there's barely anything there, but I'll try to attach.

 

[Chloe597]

Cat, there is definitely a baby bump! I looked similar around 12 weeks. Thats right around when i still had my bump in the morning (ie, it wasn't bloat baby anymore!)

Love bump pics! MrsP, Katie, and Jelly, waiting on you guys now!

Gabby gave me an awesome birthday present...she slept from 11:30-6:30!

 

[KatieTTC]

Happy Birthday, Chloe! Lovely gift from your daughter Will post the bump pic too, just need to take one.

Cat, I def see a bump, very cute! I've been taking a picture of the bump every week, want to put them in sequence later and make a little animation of the progress. Mine has gotten so big, I look at it in desbelief. Picking stuff up, getting out of bed or tying my shoes has become an unbearable task and a comic act. It will be strange not to have that beach ball once the baby is born.

Daydream, looks like you're handling the days on your own quite well. Enjoy your dh being back!

Nell, so glad the baby is feeling better. You said you did the excercises, did they help? I'm sorry, there were so many girls on the spotters thread I lost track of your birth story.

My girl is still sideways. I keep telling her it's time to move, but to no avail. She is on her own schedule I try to do the excercises to help her turn when she is active and engaged, but her favorite time to jump around is when I'm in bed falling asleep or right after I eat and standing on my head with a full stomach and strong heartburn seems a bit too risky I've also been walking, we had a heat wave here too, there was snow and ice everywhere just 5 days ago and yesterday the temps were around 70F/21C. 4 more weeks to go, or even less if I decide to go for a C-section.

PS. Have been wondering how expat is doing, anyone heard from her?

 

[_Nell]

katie - i'm not sure if they helped tbh. Leila wasn't badly positioned she had been OA but then turned slightly to LOA and because I had an anterior placenta i was worried she'd go back to back for labour (spinning babies shows a pic of all the positions). I got eclampsia though so ended up with an EMCS. I think the exercises are about giving them a little more room to enable them to move into a good position.

chloe - very envious of the present Gabby gave you!!!

cat - cute bump, much more obviously a baby bump than mine was at that stage. I was bloated from the ivf meds so just looked all over podgy.

mrspttc- Indefinitely, i'm now a SAHM re the spelling, it's a tough one, i prefer Scarlett but most would naturally spell it scarlet i think . I instinctively felt my LO should be Leila, to me that's the general UK traditional way of spelling the name. But a bit of research told us that americans commonly pronounce that Leela or Lila. Layla is phonetically spelt, as we have a surname that is commonly mispronounced we didn't want her to have a double whammy really so went against my preference. As it is we've had people mis-spell it as Laila already, which we hadn't considered.

AFM: I have my 'birth recollection' meeting tomorrow at the hospital. Not sure what to expect tbh but as i'm the only case of eclampsia they've had as far as anyone on the midwife team can remember i was repeatedly encouraged to have one. It's for traumatic births and they go through your file and explain why decisions were made. I don't remember all of it so it will be interesting to get the detail but I can't say i'm traumatised by the actual birth, I had plenty of medical people taking care of me......the days that followed, my 'care' afterwards was pretty trauumatic and has played on my mind plenty but not the actual birth!

 

[CaT1285]

Interesting that you heard that Americans would mispronounce Leila as Leela or Lila. I would consider it to be a pretty common name, and much more often spelled Leila than any other way. I've never heard of anyone pronouncing it as anything but Layla. Of course, I also have a relatively common name that you wouldn't think people would mispronounce (Chelsea), but you'd be surprised.... And it was even our president's daughter's name at one time!

 

[Chloe597]

I can see the confusion in pronunciation of Leila. I had been thinking her name was layla this whole time, like the Eric Clapton song . But veil is pronounced the same way so it's not unreasonable to think Americans would pronounce it correctly.

Time for baby to nap so mommy can eat lunch. Sleep, baby, sleep! (as she stares back at me, enjoying her lunch)

 

[CaT1285]

Wait, it is Layla like the Eric Clapton song, right?

I guess I'm in the minority of Americans in saying that Layla isn't the way I would expect the name to be spelled if I just heard it (I would automatically think Leila), but I think it's a beautiful spelling of the name because it is a little unusual.

 

[Chloe597]

Ha, i think i was being confusing. I wrote Layla like the Clapton song meaning pronunciation, not spelling. I had thought it was spelled L-a-y-l-a up until just now, but always knew it was pronounced that way. In any case, Leila is a beautiful spelling I have people ask me how to spell Gabriella all the time. I really thought there was only one way of spelling that, but i suppose you could do some non traditional spellings, adding a Y, removing an L, adding a B perhaps? Poor girl is going to have to spell her last name to everyone since no one EVER gets it right (thanks, DH!) so i thought I was doing her a favor by giving her a first name that is easy to spell. Nope!

 

[KatieTTC]

Now I have Clapton's song stuck in my head

We also had a spelling discussion with DH. Ann is more common than Anne, but that's the way his aunt's name is spelled, so I think we'll stick to Anne. We also considered Anna, but I think I like the way Anne sounds a bit more, seems softer and more gentle, but that's just me.

The girl started moving all of a sudden, of course just as started eating. I think its time for a Turn, baby, turn!

 

[daydream]

Happy birthday Chloe! Good job Gabby on the perfect present!

Cat your bump is perfect!

I have been having phantom baby kicks since last night, SO weird and kind of annoying bc it's more often than when I actually had a baby in there! I can't tell if its my uterus twitching or something with my intestines? Either way it is WEIRD! I also had my 6 week check and one of my tears is slow to heal bc breastfeeding apparently. Another week or so and should be all clear. DH was a bit disappointed, as am I to be honest. Ready to be back to normal.

 

[_Nell]

wow daydream, I had no idea phantom kicks was a thing, hope they have passed. Really sorry to hear that you're not quite healed, hope it's not too much longer for you.

katie - I love the spelling Anne, I agree it has a nice soft sound to the name

chloe - yep we have a difficult to spell or pronounce correctly surname (and i think it's straightforward again!) so thought we were doing baby a favour too.

cat - i have to ask how else did people pronounce Chelsea?! I can't think of any other way to pronounce it.

AFM: well I think we might be changing Leila to Layla . Discussed it with DH last night after it coming up on here as it got me thinking. 10 weeks on it seems Layla isn't so straightforward, people pronounce it correctly but regardless commonly people spell it wrong and I keep writing 'Leila' as instinctively that's how i would spell it.
It seems it's pretty straightforward to change babies name in the first year and as it's not an actual name change it won't really be odd for friends and family.....going to mull it over this weekend but really wish i'd just gone with Leila in the first place as I wanted!

 

[CaT1285]

daydream - sorry your appointment didn't go as well as you hoped I hope it's not much longer.

katie - I've always like the name Anne or Ann, and the spelling Anne looks more complete to me, but they are both nice.

nell - Amazingly, some people will pronounce Chelsea as "Chelsea-ah". I have no idea why. I'm sure they've heard the name Chelsea before, but maybe they are not familiar with seeing it spelled? Despite Chelsea Clinton being the president's daughter for 8 years? It's mystifying. It's definitely not the majority of people, but every once in awhile I'll get this. I probably wouldn't have this problem if I lived in the UK. It just goes to show you that some people will find a way to butcher most names, so just go with what you like. I wouldn't even be that surprised if some people thought Anne was pronounced like Annie haha.

Thanks for the nice bump comments, ladies I still think it might not be a baby bump, because I have gained about 4 pounds already, which is a lot of weight for me. Plus, I can suck in that little bump if I want to. You shouldn't be able to suck in a baby bump, right?

 

[MrsPTTC]

Hi ladies,

Chloe ooh a jacuzzi bath, very nice! Can't believe people can't spell/pronounce Gabriella!

Cat you're very slim, I'd say that's a cute lil bump You can suck it in at first, I did. Re the maternity leave, it's law for you to be able to take a year off, 6 weeks at 90% of your pay then 33 weeks at statutory pay (smp) which is £135 a week then 13 weeks unpaid. I work for the government and am lucky to get 26 weeks full pay, 13 weeks smp then no pay if I want it. I have plenty holidays to use so won't need to go onto no pay. We're very lucky over here.

Eee Nell sorry for starting the Layla/Leila debate! I take it you haven't registered her yet if you're talking about changing the spelling?

Katie, turn baby turn!

AFM I have swollen ankles and mild shin splints hope it's not here to stay, especially the swelling!

x

 

[CaT1285]

mrsP - ah, I see. Usually here, people will get 6-8 weeks with full pay, then they have to take their accumulated leave or unpaid. I work for the federal government, and here in the US, that means I get nothing at all paid, I have to use my own leave for 6 weeks, then unpaid. Luckily, I have been able to save enough money over the past several years that I could actually take the year off and pay my full salary to myself from my savings haha. But I'll save my money for future education expenses.... OH has 8 weeks paternity, then he'll take 4 weeks sick leave, giving us 6 months between the two us. So back to work after 12 weeks for me!

The only thing I think is pretty crappy here is that I think the law only protects your job for 12 weeks of maternity leave. So depending on where you work, you have to go back after 12 weeks if you want to keep your job. It doesn't apply to me - I can take up to a year before I would lose my health insurance coverage (I think I would still have the job). But I wish the law would protect everyone for up to a year.