Pregnancy 2011- June

Hi! I too started this MFP to lose weight pre-pregnancy! I have a 13 year old daughter and am ready to have another child. I am currently at the weight I was when I was 9 months pregnant with my daughter, so I am trying to at least lose 30 lbs. before I get pregnant. I really can't stand the thought of getting another 30 lbs heavier than I am.
I plan on trying to get pregnant in October so I have some months before then to begin eating healthy and drop some pounds! I am extremely motivated!

Welcome to all the newbies!! :flowerforyou:

Good morning ladies!! So, went to my appt and baby is head down now so i'm relieved hopefully baby stays that way. Also, i had a new u/s tech who really tried to find the sex for me and she was pretty certain baby is a girl but she again said it's not 100% accurate so......yeah, i'll be happy with either as long as baby is healthy i'm getting so excited to meet my LO 5 weeks feels like an eternity. I also told my doc about my thumb hurting and she put me in a splint that is quite annoying but she said it probably has to do w my joints softening. :noway: i guess it really does affect every joint haha

I have three baby showers that diff ppl are throwing for us...... two of which i'm trying to avoid inviting the same ppl. I wanted to have just the one after baby comes as a sort of welcoming celebration but my SIL insisted on throwing a diaper shower before for which i'm grateful but i really hate to invite the same ppl to both, my aunt is throwing the welcoming celebration. The other shower is being thrown in a diff state where i have family and friends who really want to see baby and since we were planning on spending a week there they decided they wanted to throw one for us there of course this is after baby comes. Ron: i think our families are similar in that most of my family doesn't believe in having showers before baby comes which i really don't believe myself but i like the fact that friends and family have the opportunity to meet baby at the shower when thrown after.

I still feel exhausted i may have to take some time off to rest. i was really trying to avoid using any extra time off. I also found out that i gain exactly a lb in 2 weeks which i'm glad about since DH and i have been eating out a lot lately. I hope to keep that going til the end of the pregnancy.

Julie: I must have accidentally put he when referring to baby but the u/s tech yesterday thinks its a girl I also agree w you on the registry stuff i really don't think our family and friends will use them but we have three nonetheless.

Meokk: Those are really cute names! My faves are also hazel and emma We're now talking names too we're thinking:

For Girl:
Alyssa Jaye
Lainey Marie
Marisa Elena

For Boy
Ethan Joe
Jacob Joe
Mateo Joe

Those are our top three for each gender if we do have a boy we wanted to use DH's gpa's name as the middle name.

o and danielle- I meant to say about swim suits. I bought one quite a while ago, before I was pregnant. Only a couple months though. It is a 1 piece, and so far it is still fitting ok (just a little tight now). I would buy one that feels ok now but that is just a little bit bigger/stretchy, and you should be ok. Just my 2 cents!

Rachel -- I'm sure they ARE Braxton Hicks! That's why I'm not worried about it at all. They happen regardless of what I'm doing. Lounging around, sleeping (they've been waking me up sometimes), walking, whatever. I thought caffeine could be the trigger for them earlier this week but I've hardly had any caffeine at all the last 2 days and they're still going just as strong. I've also been drinking plenty of water (over 2 liters so far today). Apparently my uterus just likes to practice. If I thought I was starting any kind of labor other than "false," trust me, you guys would be getting an earful (eyeful?) about it! I'm kind of jealous of your pooping ability! :laugh:

Maria -- Yay for baby being head down!! And YAY for a girl!! It's never "100% accurate," so sounds like you've very likely got yourself a little Alyssa/Lainey/Marissa. I love Lainey Marie, btw! I've only ever met one person named Lainey and that was like 20 years ago!

So I decided to keep track of my Braxton Hicks uterine fun for the rest of the day to see if they're really as often as I think they are in my head. 2 in the last 58 minutes. I was thinking I've had about 2 almost every hour for the last 24 hours or so. It's only been an hour since I decided to keep track but so far it's looking like maybe I'm not crazy. :laugh:

Brittony -- The sausage sounds pretty yummy to me. But, then again anything with the words "asiago cheese," "spinach," and "sausage" would sound divine to me right now (I don't know what it is with pregnant me and sausage. I used to think any kind of sausage was the nastiest stuff ever).

I've only noticed 4 contractions since 12:54pm so maybe the 2 per hour really is just in my head. :embarassed: 12:54pm, 1:33pm, 3:16pm, 4:15pm. I'm glad I started keeping track, thanks for making that suggestion Rachael!

Victoria – they’re all cute names, I think Emma and Violet are my favorite.

Julie – wow that’s a lot of contractions! I know BH and just regular contractions are normal the closer you get the end, but that’s a lot.

Adoss12 – welcome!

Maria – yea for baby being head down!!!!!!!! And another girl!! :bigsmile: My family doesn’t have any issue having a shower before the baby born but Arabs are apparently very superstitious about doing anything before I hit the 6 month mark. :laugh: It’s a little annoying, but that’s life I guess.

Brittony – oh my gosh crazy weather!!! Thankfully no one was hurt.

Does everyone know about the showers they’re having? I know my mom is going to throw me one with both mine and hubbys family and my friends (she did the same thing for my bridal shower), and I’m pretty sure work is going to have one for me too. But they’re both trying to keep it a surprise. With my bridal shower I found out beforehand about the one my mom had, but I pretended not to know so I wouldn’t hurt her feelings but the one at work was a complete surprise to me. I figured they would throw me one, my office LOVES parties, but I was convinced it was a week later.

Brittony - scary tree falling but so lucky it didn't damage the house in a worse way. Good luck with the clean up, I bet the tree guys will only do the bare minimum.....

Julie - that still sounds like a lot of contractions to me....how does it feel? do you have to stop what you are doing until it passes?

Ron - so different in every culture. Since I live in NY I know a lot of Jewish women and they can't bring anything into their homes until after the baby is born. It makes for a lot of crazy last minute rushing around and storing random items with others until labor starts....
My sister is organizing a shower for me but she is the only family on my side who lives in the US. My SIl & MIL might come too - not actually sure who should be invited. Me and my husband have absolutely NOTHING in common with his brother/SIL or his parents.
I'm interested to know if you are all having separate friends vs family showers??? I don't really want to invite hubby's family but don't know if they will be offended...... I was not invited to SILs shower but that's because it was thrown by their crazy cult church.
Showers are not part of my culture at all, growing up in England we just didn't have them.

Hey ladies!

Maria- So happy for you that the baby decided to flip (and jealous of course ). I thought I was taking the situation rather well, but then last night I started thinking about getting a scheduled c-section and being robbed of the opportunity to start labor naturally and push and all of that. It made me upset and my husband was on "calm the wife" duty for the rest of the night. I think I was just being hormonal because I feel much better today and know that we still have time for her to flip on her own and still have the whole version procedure to attempt. We're not at the scheduled c-section phase yet! I have been trying to do the pelvic tilt, but my main pain from this pregnancy is in my lower back. Even when I have pillows underneathe for support, it's really really painful. Is there something I can do stretch wise that doesn't involve being on my back? What is this cat stretch?

Hi Brittony Just to reassure you that my son was breach/transverse pretty much all though my pregnancy until my waters broke at 36+2 and I was scanned and there he was head down and ready to go. There is hope for you to have a natural birth. There are some positions you can try on spinningbabies.com to help encourage emma to cooperate, good luck.

I have read all your comments and my brain has overloaded! Thanks for the congratulations again! Hi to all the newcomers!

Julie - I got quite regular braxton hicks towards the end but until they are regularly 10 minutes apart or really start to hurt you should be fine, its part of the normal labour process, think of it as a good preparation. Have you heard of Raspberry Leaf Tea, its good to take in the last 6 weeks to tone the uterus ready for labour and I think its made my labours definitely quicker and easier.

Ronya - Glad everything is sorted out for your daycare, I can't believe how organised you are!

Victoria - Congratulations on your little princess, love the names

Lynn - He is absolutely gorgeous well done and congratulations!

AFM had a doctors appointment today and everything is A-OK and have made my first appointment with the midwife to book a scan hopefully at around 8 weeks on thursday 16th. Been feeling very tired night and day different from my last pregnancy so taking that as a good sign!

Julie: Good to keep track. I think at how many you are having now, you are just fine. I am pretty sure in my birthing booklet I have, 4 or more in an hour could be a sign of preterm labor, so I would just watch. But any less I am sure your body is just gearing up for the big day.

Maria: Yay for a head down baby girl!!

Britt: Sorry about your house and yard! That sucks! I am glad no one was hurt though.

Danielle: Glad your apt. went well, and you like the doctor. I've never been to a male for anything ob related. I just think I would way too uncomfortable.

Steph: My mw actually recommended I go to the health food store to get raspberry leaf tea once I hit 36 weeks. Glad your apt. went well. I'm so happy for you.

AFM: So my work threw a shower for me today. We had a potluck lunch and opened presents durning our lunch break. I felt weird being the center of attention, but it was fun. I got some really cute outfits. I am also having one on my side this Saturday and my MIL is throwing one for my husband's side next weekend. I feel a bit spoiled.

So I think I am starting to lose bits of my mucous plug. I know that it doesn't mean labor is coming right away, but it is pretty gross. Anyone else notice this?

Rachael -- No bits of mucus plug for me yet. From what I understand quite a bit of junk ends up coming out. I hope I lose it gradually instead of all at once because man, mucus is not my friend. :sick: I'm kind of surprised mine has held up so well because baby has given my cervix quite a beating this week. :laugh: Yay for showers! :happy:

Victoria -- Most of my BH contractions feel like a super tight balling up of my uterus. I feel it most around 3 inches above my belly button but my whole uterus gets hard. A few weeks ago I had some menstrual crampy pain with them, too, but I haven't noticed that very often. Right now my uterus just feels really tired and kind of aches from having them so often. :ohwell: I don't have to stop what I'm doing during them but it definitely makes me more comfortable to take a few seconds to kind of lean back and relax during them. Most of them last a minute or two.

Steph -- I keep telling myself my uterus is just getting nice and strong so that my labor will be super easy and fast. A girl can dream, right? :laugh: I've heard of raspberry leaf tea, but I haven't looked into it at all. For some reason I was thinking that was something ladies drank because they thought it would induce labor. ? I'm so glad everything looks good for you right now!

Yeah, so um... the contractions really picked up this evening. Here's my list so far today:
(all PM)
12:54, 1:33, 3:16, 4:15, 4:24 (!), 4:45, 5:45, 6:15, 6:19 (!!), 6:33, 7:03, 7:17
Very frequent but never more than 4 in an hour. Here's another one now - 7:33.
Absolutely no pattern or consistency and they're not very painful so I'm still not worried but man, that's a lot. I'll just keep on trying to keep track and then discuss it at my appointment 6/21 (or call sooner if they become much more frequent).

Sorry I havent been on much, its been a super stressful week at work (so I will catch up this weekend). I am training someone to actually do his job (I have been doing his job for the past 2 years). But he could care less about the work. UGH (Its the first time I have been wishing I would go into labor right now and not have to go to work for 12 weeks).

Rachael - when I lost my mucous plug before its looked like orangey jello mucous I started getting pieces for a while and then a whole big blob at once. Its a good sign that your cervix is starting to thin out and stretch to get ready for labour but its not a reliable sign that labour is going to be any time soon so don't panic!

Victoria - I love Lainey Marie

Julie - thats what the BH contractions are all about they help to tone up the uterus ready and I also think it helps the baby to experience a few before actual labour starts so they don't get too stressed by the contractions. Raspberry leaf tea when taken once or twice a day will not start labour. I've heard that some people have used it to induce when they are already full term by taking more than this but if the body is not ready at the end of the day the labour will not start!

BH should make your belly feel hard and may be uncomfortable but not painful and is pretty much what you will feel in labour although they do get stronger obviously and more painful as the cervix opens.

Rachael: no mucus plug loss for me yet.

I honestly had no idea that existed until you ladies on the board awhile back. Thank goodness for you all. You have all made me feel very prepared.

On showers: I had one really early in Michigan(we live in tn) because that's the only time I was going home and I have lots of aunts, cousins, and friends in that area. I got soooo much ofmy big stuff. My work threw me a shower that we got mostly gift cards. Then my sister s throwing one where I live next sat. For my good friends here. I think you really can do them however you want.

Maureen: sorry you are having a stressful week!

Julie: I am sure you are fine but keeping track to show or call dr. About sounds like a great approach.

Briit: I do the same thing with the yard and dishes

Ahmommy: I am a first time mom.

Steph: glad your first dr. Went good and you are getting an early scan.

So I think I am starting to lose bits of my mucous plug. I know that it doesn't mean labor is coming right away, but it is pretty gross. Anyone else notice this?

My close friend lost her mucous plug all at once and after that it was about two weeks before she delivered.