Pregnancy #65

[amarantine]

You will 100% still worry no matter what anyone tells you. However do remember that those ultra sound measurements are estimates and depends on a lot of different factors. You could get two different people measuring and two different results. The main thing is that you are getting the extra scans and monitoring. Worse case scenario they'll get their eviction notice at around 37 weeks if you are otherwise ok and they are worried about baby size

Early eviction notice wouldn’t be unwelcome considering we’re due so close to Christmas and our birthdays I do already have an extra scan at 32 weeks to see if the placenta is still low but I’ve sort of made peace with that because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it and I know if it is still too low it just means I will likely need a C-section but I am worried about growth as baby is already quite little - mind you neither myself nor mr amarantine are particularly tall people, he’s probably about average and I’m a bit shorter so we were always unlikely to have a massive baby I think…we shall see what the midwife says at my 24 week appt in a few weeks! My sister in law was told both her boys were measuring small and they were both around average when born, the younger one is in the 95th percentile now though, at 9 months he’s in 12-18 month clothes and a right chunk so I guess you can never quite tell!

 

[fishsticks]

Ohhh, it is the absolute worst isn’t it! I had it much more in the first trimester and it was grim, now I’m mostly just bloated as hell and so constipated, until it goes the other way for about two days then back to constipation again. I also know this is TMI but good god there is nothing dignified about being pregnant is there

Also I’ve found something new to worry about, yay! Baby is quite active now at 22 weeks but even at the 20 week scan baby was fine and they didn’t have any concerns but I’ve been really digging into the measurements we have and they’re all (except the abdominal circumference!) a bit smaller than average. I’m sure at our next midwife appointment in a few weeks I’m going to be told baby is small and to go for a growth scan (no reason to think this aside from our 20 week scan and my own gut instinct which is usually spot on) - and I know this happens to so many people but doesn’t stop me worrying about it! Just needed a little rant

We were told our little boy was small from 20 weeks, he eventually made an appearance at 42 weeks weighing 7lbs14oz. Not huge, not small!

 

[opintionatedperson]

Sickness is kicking my ass today , didn't have this before so I'm now convincing myself I'm having a girl.

 

[lilykestrel]

Having one of those days where it feels like I'm being stretched from the inside. I am simultaneously hungry and full, tired and antsy and bump has me looking like Tweedle Dum and/or Dee.

 

[Vmanxx]

Am I crazy for considering trying for final no5 around Christmas time? baby will be 8/9 months by then. Anyone had an 18 month gap or similar?

 

[ThisIsMyDragName]

Did not enjoy today. Sciatica in my a cheek is killing me and I can’t find my exercises from the physio. I have an open appt but I don’t really want to call and be like ‘hi I lost my piece of paper and now my a hurts’. The JuniorDragStar feels like an actual bowling ball, the braxton hicks have really been going for it. I am struggling to walk because a)I feel like there’s a bowling ball on my front and b)I am not enjoying the pain of moving my leg because of the sciatica and c)it ends up setting off my braxton hicks a bit more when I waddle about. Pah.

I’m having a tit time at work having to relive something really horrible that happened so I’m kind of in the headspace of ‘yeah maybe I won’t bother coming back after mat leave’ like it’s that’s simple when I can neither easily find another job nor afford to give up work. I’ve been arguing with an external support provider at work for 2 months but today they outdid themselves with their incompetence and I actually wanted to cry, I was so angry and hormonal about it and I hate being ‘the emotional woman’ but they have been pushing my buttons for WEEKS being a bunch of hole men. I’m supposed to have the day off tomorrow because I’m supposed to have reduced my hours but no, now I have to work and be wound up by a bunch of totally incompetent people because they cut off my access to something for no reason and prevented me from getting my work done today, which will make me look really incompetent at work because ‘the nasty men cut me off from my files’ is basically the adult equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’ isn’t it?

Whilst wallowing in the bath feeling sorry for myself I got the impression The Boy is leaning somewhere between breech and transverse, like a drunk man sitting leaning against the wall next to him I just have to hope he ‘falls over’ and ends up in the right position!

We went to our final antenatal class which was about labour and birth and I’m now thoroughly put off all induction processes and pain relief but still hoping to avoid a c-section whilst being unsure about how well I’ll deal with pain. The midwife leading the class was awesome though, she did make me feel at ease when this was the one session I was basically dreading.

But aside from that, everything is peachy.

 

[FeelingPrawny]

At what point do you say that you need something for pregnancy sickness? I'm exhausted, fed up of throwing up constantly and seem to constantly be in bed. I feel like I'm not coping . 9weeks today. Nothing really seems to stay down, I'm miserable about it and feel guilty asi so want this baby.

 

[fishsticks]

At what point do you say that you need something for pregnancy sickness? I'm exhausted, fed up of throwing up constantly and seem to constantly be in bed. I feel like I'm not coping . 9weeks today. Nothing really seems to stay down, I'm miserable about it and feel guilty asi so want this baby.

I got given anti-sickness tablets at 8 weeks and although I wasn't throwing up every single day, the nausea meant I wasn't eating or drinking nearly enough. Definitely go to your GP!!!!

I was on metaclopramide (sp?) and they worked for a couple of days and then didn't so possibly placebo. Got put on Xonvea and it was amazing. No nausea, no sickness. I'm now 12+4 and I stopped taking them this week and so far so good.

 

[ThisIsMyDragName]

At what point do you say that you need something for pregnancy sickness? I'm exhausted, fed up of throwing up constantly and seem to constantly be in bed. I feel like I'm not coping . 9weeks today. Nothing really seems to stay down, I'm miserable about it and feel guilty asi so want this baby.

Sounds like you are definitely over the ‘threshold’ to talk to your doctor about this my love. Sounds really bad.

 

[LittleMissMuffet]

Did not enjoy today. Sciatica in my a cheek is killing me and I can’t find my exercises from the physio. I have an open appt but I don’t really want to call and be like ‘hi I lost my piece of paper and now my a hurts’. The JuniorDragStar feels like an actual bowling ball, the braxton hicks have really been going for it. I am struggling to walk because a)I feel like there’s a bowling ball on my front and b)I am not enjoying the pain of moving my leg because of the sciatica and c)it ends up setting off my braxton hicks a bit more when I waddle about. Pah.

I’m having a tit time at work having to relive something really horrible that happened so I’m kind of in the headspace of ‘yeah maybe I won’t bother coming back after mat leave’ like it’s that’s simple when I can neither easily find another job nor afford to give up work. I’ve been arguing with an external support provider at work for 2 months but today they outdid themselves with their incompetence and I actually wanted to cry, I was so angry and hormonal about it and I hate being ‘the emotional woman’ but they have been pushing my buttons for WEEKS being a bunch of hole men. I’m supposed to have the day off tomorrow because I’m supposed to have reduced my hours but no, now I have to work and be wound up by a bunch of totally incompetent people because they cut off my access to something for no reason and prevented me from getting my work done today, which will make me look really incompetent at work because ‘the nasty men cut me off from my files’ is basically the adult equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’ isn’t it?

Whilst wallowing in the bath feeling sorry for myself I got the impression The Boy is leaning somewhere between breech and transverse, like a drunk man sitting leaning against the wall next to him I just have to hope he ‘falls over’ and ends up in the right position!

We went to our final antenatal class which was about labour and birth and I’m now thoroughly put off all induction processes and pain relief but still hoping to avoid a c-section whilst being unsure about how well I’ll deal with pain. The midwife leading the class was awesome though, she did make me feel at ease when this was the one session I was basically dreading.

But aside from that, everything is peachy.

Unfortunately there’s not too much you can do with pregnancy sciatica. However, you can get a tiny bit of relief where possible. I’ve had mine in my right bum cheek. I get my husband to press his elbow into my glute while I lay on my side and basically sports massage it. It’s painful but also good. Other stretches you can do are: getting on all fours and doing the cow pose and cat pose, clam shells, all fours again and sway your hips, hip flexor stretch. There are others like pigeon pose or sitting on a chair and popping your leg up on the other leg to make a figure 4 and stretch but the relaxin has made this do absolutely nothing for me. I have to over stretch to feel anything in my glute and I don’t want to do that.

 

[amarantine]

At what point do you say that you need something for pregnancy sickness? I'm exhausted, fed up of throwing up constantly and seem to constantly be in bed. I feel like I'm not coping . 9weeks today. Nothing really seems to stay down, I'm miserable about it and feel guilty asi so want this baby.

I was prescribed cyclizine at 7 weeks, I wasn’t throwing up but felt nauseous all the time and have emetophobia, my doctor was really good about prescribing me cyclizine even without throwing up on ground of mental wellness. I didn’t have to “prove” I was a certain level of sick but then again I had the letter from Talkworks showing I’d had CBT for emetophobia so maybe that made it easier. I was surprised it was so easy, actually. Definitely worth a call to your doctor/GP!

 

[ThisIsMyDragName]

Unfortunately there’s not too much you can do with pregnancy sciatica. However, you can get a tiny bit of relief where possible. I’ve had mine in my right bum cheek. I get my husband to press his elbow into my glute while I lay on my side and basically sports massage it. It’s painful but also good. Other stretches you can do are: getting on all fours and doing the cow pose and cat pose, clam shells, all fours again and sway your hips, hip flexor stretch. There are others like pigeon pose or sitting on a chair and popping your leg up on the other leg to make a figure 4 and stretch but the relaxin has made this do absolutely nothing for me. I have to over stretch to feel anything in my glute and I don’t want to do that.

I did get sciatica in my previous non-pregnant life but at least I could throw down some co-codamol or lie on my stomach for a proper massage . I definitely got given helpful stuff from the physio because I discussed this with her as a possibility but of course I can’t find the info. Pah.

Also hello insomnia. Keep thinking about just getting up to make some toast and watch some crap on the telly but then I remember I have to do work in the morning on my day off because our support providers have ruined my life

 

[fishsticks]

We never found out the gender with my first and I was sooooo anti-finding out until the twins... (I totally get why people want to know now) We've got 4 weeks to wait until we find out what are little fishsticks are and it's eating me alive I've never googled nub theory so much in my lifeeeeeee and even worse at like 3am!! I'm going crazy. 🫠

 

[LittleMissMuffet]

I did get sciatica in my previous non-pregnant life but at least I could throw down some co-codamol or lie on my stomach for a proper massage . I definitely got given helpful stuff from the physio because I discussed this with her as a possibility but of course I can’t find the info. Pah.

Also hello insomnia. Keep thinking about just getting up to make some toast and watch some crap on the telly but then I remember I have to do work in the morning on my day off because our support providers have ruined my life

I never had back aches or anything pre pregnancy. Then got all these wonderful experiences. This pregnancy I’ve had calf cramp 3 times - I’ve never had it before. Luckily post partum it goes away - although for the first year my body changed every three months so I had back pain but after that nothing. Which makes me even more mad at the midwife yesterday who kept mentioning that because of my age (41) and that I’m in the higher BMI range (I’m a size 16 on my bottom half and a 12-14 top) that I might need continuous monitoring when in labour (some electrode thing that goes on baby’s head) because it’s harder to monitor baby on bigger women. They want to book me an induction around 39/40 weeks again because of age and weight. They’ll also want to give me an injection to speed up me expelling my placenta. I just sat there and was like Jesus Christ. Apparently your placenta starts to work less effectively late in pregnancy when over 40 and she then gave me stats about babies passing away which was like 1 in 500 I get that these things need to be talked about and I should be informed but duck me.

 

[amarantine]

We never found out the gender with my first and I was sooooo anti-finding out until the twins... (I totally get why people want to know now) We've got 4 weeks to wait until we find out what are little fishsticks are and it's eating me alive I've never googled nub theory so much in my lifeeeeeee and even worse at like 3am!! I'm going crazy. 🫠

We were really anti-finding-out too and didn’t at the 20 week scan, literally every single person including us has the same hunch it’s a girl (including my little two year old nephew ) and now we wish we’d found out if just to see if everyone’s hunch is correct! We’ve got at least one extra scan at 32 weeks due to low lying placenta and really tempted to say that we know it’s not the done thing but could they tell us

Also Wednesday night baby was super active and now I’ve not felt a thing since yesterday morning - maybe the odd little kick. Is this still normal at 23 weeks? I’ve already been in to triage and been checked up once for this a couple of weeks ago, am I being paranoid?! I knew I’d worry in pregnancy but this is next level 🫠

 

[amarantine]

Am I crazy for considering trying for final no5 around Christmas time? baby will be 8/9 months by then. Anyone had an 18 month gap or similar?

My brother and his partner have an 18 month gap between their two boys, I think they’ve quite liked having them so close in age but they’ve had a really rough time managing their younger one’s sleep because it was always a struggle to get the older one off to sleep. It meant that rather than having a “proper” sleep routine for the little one they just found a way for it to work which I think was usually just feeding to sleep and feeding whenever he woke in the night. Think this is fine when they’re tiny but gets them into not so good sleep habits when they’re a bit older. They were also renovating at the time and baby’s room wasn’t quite done for them to move him out at 6 months, now they’re having a tough time because he’s developed object permanence and knows when he’s not with mum, sowon’t go down on his own or self soothe very well. But saying that we’re only pregnant with baby 1 at the moment and you’ve had 4 already so much better qualified to understand sleep than me - I’m just relaying what my sister in law told me! I do think for the most part though that they love the boys being close in age and they think it’s helped the older one learn to be kind and gentle and patient which is sweet!

 

[ThisIsMyDragName]

I never had back aches or anything pre pregnancy. Then got all these wonderful experiences. This pregnancy I’ve had calf cramp 3 times - I’ve never had it before. Luckily post partum it goes away - although for the first year my body changed every three months so I had back pain but after that nothing. Which makes me even more mad at the midwife yesterday who kept mentioning that because of my age (41) and that I’m in the higher BMI range (I’m a size 16 on my bottom half and a 12-14 top) that I might need continuous monitoring when in labour (some electrode thing that goes on baby’s head) because it’s harder to monitor baby on bigger women. They want to book me an induction around 39/40 weeks again because of age and weight. They’ll also want to give me an injection to speed up me expelling my placenta. I just sat there and was like Jesus Christ. Apparently your placenta starts to work less effectively late in pregnancy when over 40 and she then gave me stats about babies passing away which was like 1 in 500 I get that these things need to be talked about and I should be informed but duck me.

Absolutely shocking! I’ve been told none of this stuff. They don’t mention my age or my size (I am larger than you for sure). In fact, I have only gained basically the textbook amount of weight that a pregnant woman would gain due to all the extra stuff. I had an early report from the obstetrician that said I should have delivered by 40+6 with sweeps from 39 weeks but I’ve had zero reason to see him and Ive had perfect checks every time they’ve check urine and bp and the Boy, so I am pretty sure if I was adamant I wanted to wait that there would be very little pushback. The only time I’ll be seeing a Dr is if the boy is still breech next week because we’ll have to talk CSV v c-section and etc. I would like to deliver naturally and I’d like to not be induced if I can help it, or at least not have to make an early decision on this, but I won’t attempt to deliver a breech baby naturally because that feels a bit risky. They talked about the injection thing at my antenatal class yesterday but it seemed like it’s recommended only for quite specific things, though you can ask for it. They seem very ‘everything is your choice’ in my trust. Almost too much maybe, haha, but you have the right to push back against everything and ask for all the information to make an informed decision.Was this your birth plan appt? Mine happens after my final growth scan so maybe I’ll get hit with all this stuff then, I really hope not though!

 

[LittleMissMuffet]

Absolutely shocking! I’ve been told none of this stuff. They don’t mention my age or my size (I am larger than you for sure). In fact, I have only gained basically the textbook amount of weight that a pregnant woman would gain due to all the extra stuff. I had an early report from the obstetrician that said I should have delivered by 40+6 with sweeps from 39 weeks but I’ve had zero reason to see him and Ive had perfect checks every time they’ve check urine and bp and the Boy, so I am pretty sure if I was adamant I wanted to wait that there would be very little pushback. The only time I’ll be seeing a Dr is if the boy is still breech next week because we’ll have to talk CSV v c-section and etc. I would like to deliver naturally and I’d like to not be induced if I can help it, or at least not have to make an early decision on this, but I won’t attempt to deliver a breech baby naturally because that feels a bit risky. They talked about the injection thing at my antenatal class yesterday but it seemed like it’s recommended only for quite specific things, though you can ask for it. They seem very ‘everything is your choice’ in my trust. Almost too much maybe, haha, but you have the right to push back against everything and ask for all the information to make an informed decision.Was this your birth plan appt? Mine happens after my final growth scan so maybe I’ll get hit with all this stuff then, I really hope not though!

I’ve just seen so many different people. So a lot of different personalities. This app was with obstretics (whatever that means) it just really bothered me because I was like this isn’t my first birth which I understand no two pregnancies and births are the same but I had no complications last time but it feels like because I’m 4 years older it’s like this massive deal. I’ve had protein and white blood cells in my urine tests regularly but they’ve all been sent off and no one seems so worried as I’ve not heard anything from them. I just felt a bit blind sided - especially given I had a growth scan last week and all was well (the fibroid I have hasn’t grown but it is on the large side but the sonographer said it’s out of the way and it hasn’t increased in size since my first scan so she’s not concerned) part of me feels like they tell you one thing in person and maybe write other things in notes just so they cover their bums. I dunno. Just feeling a bit deflated - we had some really stressful news a couple of months ago and I’ve been dealing with that on top of pregnancy which has meant I haven’t really been able to think too far in advance because the rug has been pulled from under us and all the plans we did have are all on pause for an indefinite amount of time. And my own self consciousness just feels like because I’m over a size 12 I need to be excellent at pregnancy because you’re just judged if your bmi is high. Blah.

 

[fishsticks]

A knickers plea!!! Does anywhere know where they do maternity knickers that go up to the underneath of the our knockers?! I'm struggling to find any!! M&S had zero maternity knickers in today which I was shocked at!! Thanks

 

[mushroomprincess22]

A knickers plea!!! Does anywhere know where they do maternity knickers that go up to the underneath of the our knockers?! I'm struggling to find any!! M&S had zero maternity knickers in today which I was shocked at!! Thanks

Not maternity but I got some full briefs from Tesco, they came in a pack of 5 I think. They’re what I wore pre pregnancy (so attractive ). I’m 37 weeks now and bought 2 sizes up from my normal size and they’re so comfortable and fit great, doesn’t feel like I’m wearing knickers at all. Cover my whole bump basically and almost up to my bra! Ha ha. I had them for my first pregnancy too but binned them all as I’d gained about 3 sizes since then and never lost the weight!!!! X