Joining the club. Annoyed I picked up on symptoms so drat early, I was hoping to be cheerfully oblivious for a while yet. According to the doc I'm likely to be "5-weeks-4-days" along, but I wasn't 100% certain on the exact date of my last period and am getting an ultrasound in a fortnight to confirm that's the right ballpark. I suspect it is, but hey, who knows. As for symptoms... This all kicked off coz I thought I had covid a fortnight ago. I had the flu-like symptoms and also like I wanted to throw up and some weird cramping pains, most of which is relatively common for the strain going round from what I gather, but the PCR was negative for COVID and a raft of other nasties. Then... I got slightly better, had the sketchiest positive on a pregnancy test two days after, tested solidly positive the following day, and have largely been feeling "mildly run down" since. I went in to the GP about this + UTI symptoms that cropped up today only to find out UTI symptoms can also be a symptom of pregnancy.
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# ¿ Sep 2, 2022 18:34 |
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# ¿ May 5, 2024 09:56 |
JaneError posted:Had my 8+4 ultrasound today with a heartbeat of 175. Also graduated from my fertility doc, so I'll be doing a viability scan with my regular OBGYN two weeks from tomorrow. That sounds really difficult, and I hope things get easier soon. I have not slept all night, so I went to the gym at 5am, then went on a bike ride to see a friend for breakfast. I've largely been keeping to my usual routine - I figure I may as well since I'm apparently not having the As Seen On TV experience (yet). Not gonna be thrilled when that other shoe finally drops, so better enjoy this while it lasts.
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# ¿ Sep 7, 2022 03:27 |
Mandalay posted:Congrats! We found it a bit jarring to go from our fertility doc to a general OB/GYN, but here we are with a 2 month old now. We also had some scary times with the high-risk OB (i.e. MFM) and intensive monitoring but overall we now have a healthy baby! Wish you the best. Haha, good luck, but sounds like you've got a handle on things. drat, the little bean didn't want to stick around. Oh well, maybe I'll see some of you around if there's a next time, goons!
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# ¿ Sep 9, 2022 12:39 |
Thanks for the kind thoughts, folks. ... Aaaaand... I'm back. According to the calendar, this little bean is "7-weeks-3-days", and I got to see its heartbeat today. Keeping my expectations super low, just wait and see, wait and see...
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# ¿ Nov 28, 2022 14:47 |
I knew I was approaching the point where things would likely start to feel worse, and... Oof. Sadly, knowing something has not prepared me despite experiencing similar after the miscarriage (which for me was actually the most cruel/distressing bit about the experience). No throwing up or anything, just waves of nausea/general queasyness. While I know it's not that bad and, all things considered, a good sign... Oof. Making myself some lemon ginger tea now.
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# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 09:35 |
Tests for genetic nasties came back - all clear. Also... It's a boy (for now, at least!). 12 week scan next week, fingers crossed it goes well.
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# ¿ Dec 22, 2022 15:13 |
Had the 12 week scan. It went well, though the little bean was uncooperative and they made me go on multiple walks to get him to move, heh. I blame poor parenting I've now told my siblings, it's nice not having to keep quiet about this from them anymore.
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# ¿ Dec 30, 2022 22:52 |
Mr. Wiggles posted:Baby Penelope was born at 8 this morning. 1 pound 1 ounce, 11.5 inches long. She's in the NICU now and will be there for several months, since she was born at 25 weeks. Mom is doing well - all preeclampsia symptoms cease upon delivery thank goodness. Congrats and good luck! take me to the beaver posted:I'm nearing the end of my first trimester with my second kid and really appreciating how different each pregnancy is. Instead of having a gag reflex so bad I have trouble flossing, I have gnarly motion sickness instead (which is wild because I've never had motion sickness in my entire life). Bodies are super weird! Tell me about it, first time around I mainly wanted to eat fresh fruit and veggies, almost to the exclusion of all else, this time around I've gone off broccoli and hummus. I still eat both to spite the little bean. Or at least, I ate hummus until someone told me it's on the listeria-risk foods because of the tahini in it. We told a bunch of our social circle after getting the 12 week scan recently. Most of our friends have no interest in children, so I was fine with a basic "oh, congrats" and the conversation moving on, but I was not prepared for so many to immediately ask if it was planned. While I get that it's coz people are surprised... Yikes. froglet fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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# ¿ Jan 2, 2023 16:38 |
Sigh. So I've had some ongoing anxiety I've been working on in therapy, and it seems like all the hormones have dialled that up to 11. It's not that there was anything particularly new in the melting pot of angst, it's that it drowned out everything else to the point I nearly avoided Christmas with my family. I feel mostly okay now, but the worry is that it may happen again. So my GP's referred me to a maternity mental health unit and I've started some medication. I know it's going to be okay, and the medication is safe for the little bean, aaand yet it still sucks (having such a setback after making so much progress over the past couple of years seems totally unfair, dammit ). However, it stung a bit less when the GP asked me if there had been any stressors in the past year and I was suddenly reminded that yes, I have, I just hadn't written them down in a list like she was writing, so I suppose all this isn't too surprising.
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# ¿ Jan 4, 2023 17:58 |
Koivunen posted:Yes get a booster! Pregnancy makes you more susceptible to bad complications from COVID, and respiratory illnesses in general. Also, getting the vaccine while pregnant can pass antibodies to the fetus, which can help protect them from the moment they are born. The one thing I'm still confused about is how efficacy of the vaccine goes down over time, yet in my country I'm not eligible for extra boosters while pregnant - even if you last received a booster over a year before your due date. El Mero Mero posted:Yeah, the biggest benefit is getting it in the third trimester but if you have to decide between waiting and the booster I think it’s generally better to just get it. Also, if you do happen to get COVID paxalovid is safe and recommended during pregnancy. Meanwhile, this is comforting! Anyway. I recently found out the hard way that my prenatal vitamins make me violently throw up if I take them without food. I'm on holiday in New Zealand, and I'm really glad we're doing this trip now. Second trimester means I feel way better, if still super bloated. Also, hard to feel anxious when you're off doing tourist-y things. Hoping this break is a circuit breaker for all the stuff that hormones exacerbated!
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# ¿ Jan 24, 2023 06:44 |
I knew on an objective level I'd get hungrier, but good grief, the h u n g e r I really need to work out some healthier snacks, coz currently I'm gravitating to junk food and feeling gross after.
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# ¿ Feb 11, 2023 08:40 |
froglet posted:Sigh. So I've had some ongoing anxiety I've been working on in therapy, and it seems like all the hormones have dialled that up to 11. It's not that there was anything particularly new in the melting pot of angst, it's that it drowned out everything else to the point I nearly avoided Christmas with my family. So an update on this - things got better. They truly did. I'm glad I reached out when I did, even though I had started feeling a lot better by the time I finally saw my GP because some of the main stressors (particularly Christmas) had passed. I was referred to a maternity psych, I've met with her twice and it's going well. I don't really notice anything the meds have done, but I think I'm more positive and upbeat in general. Meanwhile, I've started feeling the little bean move, which is weird. And people have been asking me if we've organised a crib and all that for the bub, and hopefully I'm not the only one who is 19 weeks in and has done very little! Oh well, onward and upward.
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2023 09:56 |
Necronomicon posted:Not to get too E/N in here (and I can post this somewhere else), but I'm wondering if anybody else who had experiences of childhood trauma found it a little overwhelming to suddenly be in charge of a new outer child when your own inner child is still in pretty rough shape? I'm obviously still in survival mode at the moment since the little guy is only like six days old so far, but he looks *just like me* when I was an infant and it's really throwing me for a loop. FWIW I'm in therapy for the childhood trauma stuff and have been for a while and I'm not like, freaking out or desperate or anything. Just curious if anybody else has had a similar experience. Not quite the same, but if you check my post history here you can see me talking about how during my first trimester, a whole bunch of personal/trauma issues I had thought I had largely overcome or processed resurfaced and dialed itself up to the point it was crowding out literally anything else and I was an anxious mess. It might be worthwhile talking to your doc/midwife about this - some of it could level out in time, but it's good to touch base with them. In my case, I thought I could tough it out on my own + with the therapist I had already been seeing, but I ended up feeling so miserable and unlike myself I decided to try medication (antidepressants). I can't pinpoint where things started to turn around for me exactly, but these days I definitely don't ruminate or catastrophise as much as I did, even before I became pregnant. The little bean won't be arriving until July, so I have no idea how things will go after that point, but right now I feel more content/happy/at peace than I have in a long time. In other news, hormones don't gently caress around, and I'm nesting hardcore. I've finally decluttered the baby's room enough to have my friend over to help us put in gap filler in places and also set up the baby's cot. froglet fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Apr 10, 2023 |
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# ¿ Apr 10, 2023 04:06 |
It's winter here in the southern hemisphere, I'm at 35 weeks now, and my feet swole up overnight so much none of my shoes will fit me anymore. FML (my feet are cold ).
froglet fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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# ¿ Jun 13, 2023 02:55 |
I went in for a routine checkup on Tuesday, got sent to fetal monitoring for a bit, then was told to forget about going back to work in the afternoon, coz I'd be sleeping at the hospital that night. Turns out the "feet swelling up overnight" thing isn't just a normal pregnancy thing, it's an indication of pre-eclampsia. Anyway, tomorrow I hit 37 weeks, and they'll start the eviction process for the little bludger on Thursday. This... Is really not how I hoped things would go, but it sure beats dying! That and these past few weeks I've felt quite rubbish, and I've been reassured all of that will go away once the wee lad has been turfed out of me. ... I feel woefully unprepared
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2023 12:52 |
Super Librarian posted:This is almost exactly what happened to me (admitted to the hospital a day before 37 weeks with preeclampsia, started induction); don't let yourself worry too much, you're gonna do great!! Thanks! It's not til Thursday next week, but I'm at an appointment now to check my blood pressure and I've been told they're hanging onto me til the next set of test results come back. I want to go home. A friend has warned me I could be spending another night here depending on what the test results say, but fingers crossed they're just being cautious.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 07:46 |
Update: Spending another night in hospital and Operation: Baby Yeet starts tomorrow, instead of Thursday. I am not in the least bit ready, yet I'm sure we'll manage.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2023 11:44 |
Our little munchkin made his entrance into the world on Monday, at 37+3 weeks. I developed pre-eclampsia, and the final weeks of the pregnancy were utterly miserable - I had felt mostly okay for the majority of the pregnancy, then all of a sudden I felt rotten and not-right. Now the wee lad is out, I feel so much better. Trip report for the curious: I was told my blood pressure was too high about two weeks ago at a checkup, and they'd be hanging onto me overnight to ensure I was responding to medication and/or wasn't going to stroke out. I wasn't thrilled by this (it was during a work day and I had to break the news to my work I was going on mat leave early), didn't sleep much at all, and was begging to be sent home by about 4am. They tried to manage it with medication (labetalol) and booked an induction for when I hit 38 weeks, then when I went in for a checkup this past Saturday, I was told it was still too high and wanted to begin the induction the following day. Oh, and they'd feel more comfortable holding me overnight Induction began at 12pm Sunday, waters were broken around midnight, pain went from very manageable to extremely unmanageable at about 2-3am, got the epidural so I could have a sleep, bub was born at 11:15am. The epidural was so effective I felt no urge to push and had to be told when by the midwives, and I had to have an episiotomy coz his head wasn't coming out. After the birth they did some tests on me and bub to find that while bub seemed fine, I had too much potassium and it could potentially mess with the electrics of my heart. There seemed to be a bit of a fuss about it - while I felt as fine as you could feel after this sort of thing, and my tests were fine before having him, after the birth they went all haywire and it was apparently quite interesting to them. We were shipped off to the adult special care unit to pump me full of sugar and insulin to level out the potassium, then some antibiotics for reasons I don't remember, and at one point I recall waking up to find my baby gone and being so out of it I thought 'oh, I'm sure he'll show up eventually'. Turns out they thought he had a heart murmur and heard him making weird noises and had been sent off to the nursery, and was wheeled back to me at 4am. It's pretty strange feeling completely fine (besides the obvious) and being in the medically fragile people ward - the doctors and nurses kept remarking how I looked way too well to be in there yet their tests told a different story. Either way, we were only there overnight, were sent to a ward the next day and were discharged the following. Anyway. He's pretty neat. And has his dad's nose.
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# ¿ Jul 1, 2023 19:17 |
So my little tadpole is onto night 3 of a stay at the children's hospital. Little munchkin hasn't been feeding well despite plenty of supply, and also had a high respiratory rate. I'm reasonably convinced he's got a dreadful case of "Brand New Baby" (TM) and this is all precautionary, but obviously we're sticking around to make sure he's okay. I swapped out with my husband tonight so I can actually get some sleep. Still had to wake at 4am to pump, but oh well. Despite being an anxious wreck most of the time, I'm a lot more relaxed about this than I thought I'd be. Going to hospital emergency, being ushered through immediately to a resuscitation bay was a bit scary, but even that wasn't too bad (especially because he perked up as soon as he was under a heat lamp - it's winter here and I think he got a bit cold while transferring him from the car to inside the hospital). Fingers crossed we all get to go home tomorrow!
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# ¿ Jul 6, 2023 21:49 |
I had a fantastic night's sleep, and our little guy was allowed home, hurray! I'm now playing Zelda and waiting for him to wake up so I can feed him. Tom Smykowski posted:The one exact night where we don't have anyone available to take the toddler is the night #2 decides to start the whole birthing process. Oof, hope it all goes (or went?) well!
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# ¿ Jul 7, 2023 13:04 |
Tom Smykowski posted:Everything went smoothly minus the lil meconium dance where they needed to clear the kids airways out a bit. But everyone is healthy and happy and very tired Good to hear it (mostly) went well! Meanwhile, I'm two weeks in with our little tadpole. Sometimes I feel like I've bathed in milk, and not in the cool "medieval witch queen" kind of way. Things I've learnt thus far: pumping = aggravating, pumping bras = rad, newborn photography = surprisingly time consuming.
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# ¿ Jul 11, 2023 17:08 |
Hadlock posted:This just popped into my head, but after birth, and before you leave the hospital, make sure you get a piece of paper with these two numbers on it: Great advice! I've been feeling unusually exhausted today despite Mr Froglet taking on our little tadpole overnight then running point with him for a lot of today and... I am pretty sure I am coming down with a cold. This is going to suuuuck! Gosh I hope Tadpole hasn't caught it
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# ¿ Jul 15, 2023 16:33 |
Geez, what is up with this kid... I knew he'd eat more as time went on, but we've very suddenly gone from me being able to produce enough for him with a bit extra to freeze to me not being able to keep up with demand. D: Guess I'll need to prepare some bottles of formula tonight...
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 14:15 |
zebra_shades posted:From everything I’ve read, if you push through the fussy/hungry/growth spurt days your supply will catch up, and adding in formula removes that hunger signal which can make it take longer for your supply to normalize. There have been many days where I don’t feel like I have enough but within 2 days it always gets better and she’s gained appropriately, so I’m sure it will for you too! Those days can be really rough though. Oh yeah, the thing that's added difficulty is that I'm primarily pumping, coz kiddo sucks at breastfeeding (and sadly he does not suck in a way that means he gets a good feed). So I'm driving myself mad having to pump, store the milk, wash the equipment, pour out bottles, etc, etc, and this is on top of sometimes offering him the boob to try and get him to breastfeed more so I don't have to pump as much. Looking at the supply in the fridge, it's not as bad as I thought, but oof, I am making up some formula as a backup for tonight. Meanwhile, kiddo has taken to sleeping with his eyes alarmingly open, and has also started wailing in his sleep, only to be "dead to the world" asleep by the time we've stopped what we were doing and checked on him. Good grief
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 16:37 |
Koivunen posted:I was able to exclusively breast feed with a bit of an over supply problem with my first, but I couldn’t make enough, even with pumping in between breast feeding sessions with my second, and formula saved my sanity and kept him from dropping off his single digit percentile growth curve. Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only one who finds it a bit much at times. Fortunately for us, I made up a bottle of formula and we didn't need it - either his hunger has slowed, or my supply has caught up. I gave it to him anyway coz it was ready to go and the fresh stuff keeps longer. Today, I cut the little guys nails... And accidentally his finger. It bled a lot, then he flailed his little hand and it went everywhere. I had to make him a tiny bandaid out of some surgical tape and a tiny bit of cotton bud so he wouldn't keep agitating it.
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# ¿ Jul 25, 2023 05:20 |
froglet posted:Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only one who finds it a bit much at times. Fortunately for us, I made up a bottle of formula and we didn't need it - either his hunger has slowed, or my supply has caught up. I gave it to him anyway coz it was ready to go and the fresh stuff keeps longer. An update to this - I have such an oversupply I am now donating to the local milk bank for premature babies. It's kinda funny given that I thought I wouldn't have enough, but I'm happy I'm able to donate
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# ¿ Sep 24, 2023 16:29 |
Edgar Allen Ho posted:Having had premature babies- hey, thanks <3 Aww, hope they're doing well. <3 Kiddo is gassy, can't move it, and has screamed almost non-stop since about 1pm. I took him to my parents house, he slept a bit in the car, and we all took turns trying to console him to no avail. My dad even went out and bought degassing drops, but no idea if that's helped yet. We've finally come home, I've passed the little nugget onto his dad, and am currently blasting music through noise-cancelling headphones to drown out his screams. The poor little guy is struggling, and I'm not sure how we can help him beyond what we're doing already. Also, he's not really slept properly since lunchtime, idk how we can soothe him when he won't sleep coz he's in so much discomfort.
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# ¿ Sep 27, 2023 16:02 |
Hadlock posted:Mylicon degassing drops are awesome. They basically eliminate surface tension of bubbles and the gas turns into tiny foam bubbles and everything just kind of flows. It's inert, and not processed by the body so, while you shouldn't give them more than the recommended dose, don't worry about giving them a half dose just give them the full dose, as often as recommended on the bottle Yeah we did bicycle leggies and massages and it helped a bit (I got the most beatific of smiles when a small fart came out, haha). He would doze long enough to charge his screaming batteries, screamed some more, and eventually ran out of puff around 11pm. He then slept 8 or 9 hours, had a feed and a nappy change, then went back to sleep. Which meant everyone was recharged and ready for his next round of unsettled screaming! While he's still got a bee in his bonnet about something, he's a lot better today. cailleask posted:Are you going to use a lot of bottles? If you’re planning to breastfeed vs pump vs formula feed will greatly change the urgency of this purchase for you. And also - you may plan on one of these things and end up doing another. My advice is to wait and see until after baby is here unless you’re 100% sure from the get-go you’re doing formula. You can always order one with 2-day if you need it, but otherwise you run a serious risk of having bought stuff you don’t use. Yeah, this. My other suggestion is if you're planning to primarily breastfeed or pump but want to keep formula on hand while supply is being established, get a small tin of formula or the sachets of it. I did need to top my little guy up with formula at the start, but I only did it a handful of times and then had to throw away a huge container of formula coz it had expired (I forgot to give it away on my local Buy Nothing group). Re: pumps - I have a Spectra S1, and I think the only reason I've been able to exclusively keep feeding my boy breast milk is that I can pump directly into milk storage cups. The spectra breast shields are compatible with the Philips Avent bottles and milk storage cups, which means I don't have to worry about running out of bottles to express into.
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# ¿ Sep 28, 2023 18:02 |
boquiabierta posted:I’ve only ever cleaned my bottles and pump equipment with soap and water 😳 The midwives told me that's fine if all bub is eating is breast milk, so that's what I'm doing! (Except when I express for the hospital - then I do sterilise the pumping equipment) Super Librarian posted:Man, I just wanna say that I've been keeping Mylicon stocked in our medicine cabinet since the kid was born over a year ago, and it's still such a lifesaver omg. Lately he's been gassy at night, we're trying to narrow down the cause but in the meantime it's cool as hell to have what feels like magical drops to get him from wailing to calmed down to asleep within 10-15 minutes Yeah the drops helped heaps, though I wish they worked on him as quickly as they do on your bub! In the past week I've discovered parenting with a cold is truly cursed. Nothing quite like loudly sneezing just when you've gotten the little guy all drowsy!
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# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 16:53 |
Koivunen posted:Yep daycare is expensive AF, my two kids go part time and it’s $350/week. The ratio thing is concerning though, daycare should be super strict about this. Absolutely about the ratios, here in Australia there's news articles about parents being asked to keep their kids home so the centre doesn't go over ratio. We've started our 4 month old at daycare one day a week, mainly to ensure there's availability for us when we both go back to work. Ainsley McTree posted:Any rock solid tips for waking up a newborn for breastfeeding? Ours is 3 days old and today the little bastard just wants to scream his lungs off instead of actually eat. With my little guy I'd hand-express some directly into his mouth/onto the nipple while he was screaming into it to tell him that food was right there. As soon as he tasted the milk, he'd go "oh poo poo, FOOD!!!!" then latch on like a gummy piranha. Alternatively, the hospital should have a breast pump available for her to use so you can bottle-feed him. It might make sense to give him the bottle to take the edge off his hunger, then offer him the boob? I had difficulties breastfeeding despite having a massive oversupply, and had to mainly bottle-feed him for the first couple months coz he was born a little bit early and couldn't latch well (that and sometimes he wanted a dribble of milk but I was giving him a high-pressure firehose of the stuff instead). However, if he's losing his mind coz he's hungry, there's nothing wrong with giving him a bit of formula, especially while supply is being established. Good luck, I hope it goes well!
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# ¿ Nov 18, 2023 14:27 |
My little guy has a cold. He then gave it to me. It's also an 'unprecedented' heatwave here, so even though I'm mostly recovered, it's not like I can really take him out in the pram anywhere unless it's really early in the morning or late at night (and I don't think taking him to the shops is such a good idea when he's still poorly). Poor thing coughs so much he wakes himself up, then cries at me coz he's tired.
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# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 00:59 |
Fruits of the sea posted:I hope this question fits in the thread: Pregnancy pillow, if she doesn't have one already? There's noodle-shaped ones and cheese-wedge shaped ones. Eye mask and earplugs for the hospital, especially if they're a light sleeper. Long shoe horn to help them put shoes on - only if you think they'd find it useful and they'll have a sense of humour about it (not everyone will take it well). IKEA does a very affordable one.
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# ¿ Dec 18, 2023 17:44 |
Super Librarian posted:My husband got me a nice, comfy bathrobe with good-sized pockets while I was pregnant, and it's easily one of the best pregnancy/parenthood gifts I received. A goon friend gifted me a maternity Oodie. While I'm not sure if it's something available outside of Australia, I imagine you can get similar - it's amazing. During (southern hemisphere) winter even Mr Froglet wore it a few times.
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# ¿ Dec 21, 2023 10:59 |
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# ¿ May 5, 2024 09:56 |
Owlkill posted:Nine days in with our whopper newborn and while a combo of nipple shields, pumping and formula are helping with the feeding our large infant son keeps getting trapped wind. Our not-particularly large boy was a gassy one. Apologies if this has already been mentioned to you, but have you tried degassing drops? Infacol/simethicone. It won't necessarily help with immediate gassiness, but it can help going forward - it turns the gas into smaller, more manageable bubbles. Try giving it before milk feeds. In time you'll be able to get a good idea what they need purely based upon the sound of their cry, but it's still early days for you folks, yet - just spin through the main options of hungry, tired, dirty, gassy and you'll be alright. Oh, and if you're giving him bottles, check the teats to ensure they're the correct size. We had some that it turned out were entirely the wrong size, which made the first few weeks ridiculously stressful, and we only found out later. My tip for non-birthing partners is to prioritise baby and sleep - anything else you fit in is merely a nice bonus. I'm 7 months in and even now, my ability to be an adequate parent and sane human is largely a product of how much sleep I'm getting. Oh, and don't be afraid to call in help if it's available to you - when he was all fresh and new I loved people who'd offer to hold my little bean while I got some sleep, coz kiddo went through a "human spirit level" phase where he wouldn't sleep unless he was being held. Without those folks, I would have lost my mind.
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# ¿ Jan 27, 2024 15:52 |