Queer and Pregnant Dec., Jan., Feb. - Page 21

[heart-n-bones]

Welcome Deny!!

[serenekitten]

Originally Posted by deny_zoo29

Hi All
We got a positive hpt this morning, so we are officially in the queer & pregnant group! Yeah! My due date is November 5th, 2009! This will be our first pregnancy and was our first attempt at TTC so we were very excited that our first IUI worked!

Welcome to the group! Congrats! :

[JennM1021]

Congrats Deny!!!!!! ::::

[Raene]

Originally Posted by AngelaM

Raene, any news?

Yes, sorry I've been on bedrest and away from the old desktop

The midwife said that it's a medium-sized pool of blood. It is across from, luckily not under, the placenta. She said it will not affect the birth at all and we can keep our plans for a homebirth. It's healing up as I type and should disappear

I was resting in bed for 4 days and I got the go-ahead to go back to work (a desk job) but if the bleeding starts again I'm supposed to leave and rest for another week in bed.

Things are definitely looking up. What an awful week though! Glad it's over.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Happy Monday.

[Raene]

Yay, Congrats Deny!!!!!

[AngelaM]

Congrats, Deny!

And, congrats to Raene too! I'm so glad that everything is okay!

[pranava]

Congratulations Deny!! I will add you to the list.

Raene, I'm so happy to hear that everything is OK with you and the baby.

March Threadkeeper? -My time as threadkeeper is almost up. 3 weeks till D-day, so I'm going to have to pass this privilege on. Anyone want to volunteer to start up the March thread?

[smartycat]

Congrats Deny and Welcome!!! ::

Raene, glad to hear you are feeling better.

JennM, I think I missed your news that you are having a boy. Congrats!! Any names picked out yet?

Pranava, wow... so close! And we are right behind. Seems like just yesterday we were hiding thermometers and obsessing over CM. Time flies!

[JennM1021]

Wow Pranava!!!! 3 weeks???!!! How exciting!!!! :

Smarty...yep...we found out at our "big" ultrasound...it's a boy!!!! We are both so incredibly excited! I mean...to be able to talk to him using his name...to be able to visualize him...we're just so in love with him already. And yes! We do have a name...well first name at least...Alexander! We can't seem to decide on a middle name yet...at first we thought Jacob or James...but then we thought everyone would call him AJ and we'd prefer he went by Alex. Anyway, it'll come to us I suppose.

[pranava]

Jenn M - I love the name alexander! That's the middle name I've chosen. I don't think people would call him AJ unless you did. I have a nephew - Preston John, that I really wanted to call PJ, but my sister calls him Preston and I respected that. You might have to be forceful about it sometimes, but I think most people would respect your wishes.

[AngelaM]

Pranava,

You are getting so close!

In anticipation of the big day, I just wanted to share a couple of suggestions from the trenches of early parenting. I think that these are probably helpful for everyone, but maybe of particular use to people who don't have another full-time set of hands around. The first month or so can be really hard and overwhelming. Anything you can do to make it easier on yourself will really help.

1. Meals. Freeze stuff now that can be easily defrosted or popped in the microwave or toaster oven- soups, stews, casseroles, pizza. If you don't cook, go to Trader Joe's and stock up. Ask friends to volunteer to bring meals for the first few weeks. If they're planning on coming in or staying, ask them to do the dishes. (I felt SO OVERWHELMED by dishes for the first couple months.) If you don't have anyone to wash the dishes and don't have a dishwasher, consider giving yourself permission to eat of off recycled paper plates for the first couple weeks.

2. Line up friends or family to come over when possible to hold the baby so you can take a shower. I also found that a simple bouncy seat was an indispensable tool in getting anything (showers, laundry, meal prep) done- it was the only place, aside from my lap, that the baby would nap for awhile. A good sling or baby carrier can also help with this.

3. Sleep. If you have friends or family who offer to come sleep on your couch and help out at night, take them up on it. If the baby wakes up in the night screaming and wants some comfort other than nursing, let them take a turn walking him around, bouncing him on the yoga ball, whatever. If you can't get help at night, try to find some during the day so that you can take a nap. Get someone to come over, and the minute he's done nursing, pass off the baby and go to sleep for an hour or so.

4. Nursing. Line up a good lactation consultant NOW. Have her name programmed into your phone, along with the number of a contact person from your local La Leche League. Hopefully you will be one of those people with a brilliantly easy, immediately successful, and pain-free breastfeeding relationship. However, if you're like the rest of us, you may need some help and support. Ask for it sooner rather than later. Believe me when I say that there is no pain like nipple pain, and nothing worse than a screaming, hungry baby who can't figure out how to get what he needs from your breast.

5. If you're feeling overwhelmed, ask for help. We are all here for virtual support, and early parenthood is exactly the right time to start calling in favors from everyone in real life too. I was amazed at how people I barely knew offered to bake lasagnas, hold the baby, and walk the dog for me. Sometimes it can be hard for me to ask for help, but if there's ever a time to get okay with it, this is it.

Perhaps most importantly, remember that it all gets a lot less overwhelming really quickly. For me, the first two weeks were shear hell. By six weeks, things seemed somewhat more manageable. By three months, it began to seem like a lot of fun. And now, at six months, it's just life, and, I really love it!

(I don't mean to sound negative with any of this. There are so many amazing parts to early parenthood too. I guess I just wasn't really prepared for how HARD parts of it would be, and had no idea if what I was feeling was normal. So, hopefully, things will go really smoothly and you'll be happy as a clam. But just in case you feel a bit overwhelmed, just remember that it is normal, and that it will get better.)

Eek! I can't believe your little guy is almost here! Seems like just yesterday we were all hanging out on the TTC board together...

[giggleblue]

thank you for that overview angela! i really need to do #1 and #4. i've actually lined up cleaning out our fridge and freezer this weekend in preparation for #1. we clearly have too many things marrinating in the freezer that we are never going to eat, so we need to part ways with it and make room for food stuffs we actually like.

and #4 is something i need to get in order also - i can understand how frustrating that can be especially with a hungry and screaming littel one!

i've moved blogs, btw, in case anyone here was a reader/lurker. the new link is in my signature.

i too am in the home stretch and working on getting babe turned around to the right position for birthing. i'm having contractions on and off, but nothing regular. now, now i wait.

[JenInMpls]

JennM, I think that if you like Alexander and want him to go by Alex, you should go for it. Our first's name starts with a T and his middle name is J, so we were afraid that everyone would call him TJ. Only one person does, and not very often. My mom tried very hard to shorten his name and make it a nickname and he's come to correct her now, because he likes his whole name.

As for baby E... no one is going to call him EW, but my mom is insisting on calling him "Mun". IT MAKES ME CRAZY. Not only is his name perfectly lovely but calling him Mun sounds totally obnoxious to me. No matter how many times I ask her to please call him by his name, she just will not respect my wishes.

You know, though, that he'll end up calling himself AJ when he's older, and there's nothing you can do about it

[pranava]

Thanks for the advice Angela! I'm trying to get as much help lined up as possible. In a way, it's great to have a bunch of baby crazy friends that aren't yet ready to have kids themselves. Most of my friends have no baby experience at all, but want to practice with my kid OK by me - they will all need some instructing, but will be just great!

[Raene]

How's everyone doing?? Just wanted to check in.

The weather is 17 degrees here, disgustingly windy, and boy am I envious of those of you in warmer climates!

As for me, the cramping/bleeding started again yesterday but now that I know what's going on, it's not scary, it's just a nuisance. I have to go to work b/c I'm out of sick/vacation hours, so here I am, luckily blessed with a desk job.

How's everyone else?

[heart-n-bones]

Sorry you have to be back at work Raene, but hoping your are able to relax and be still as much as possible.

Pranava - Just thinking about you in this final stretch. Hope you are feeling good and confident and ready!!

My pelvic pain just keeps getting worse. I cry most nights when I have to roll over in bed. And getting up to go to the bathroom is plain ridiculous. It's so hard to strike a balance. I know that if I sit or lie still for too long that I will hardly be able to move when I get up. Walking seems to help, to a point, but then being on my feet too long just aggravates the problem. DP is being supportive, but she can't do everything for me. I'm getting a massage this week, hopefully that will help, and then back to the chiropractor next week.

Otherwise, I really am trying to enjoy these last few weeks of being pregnant. I love feeling baby move. Baby has hiccups probably 2-3 times a day, which I think are a lot of fun and so cute!

[pranava]

Having LOTS of contractions the past two days. Like 15 over 5 hours and a few more that woke me up at night. Seems to have fizzled out this morning. The midwife says this can happen for weeks and it really doesn't mean anything. It's semi-annoying not knowing if it's going to turn into real labor or not.

Anybody want to set up a March thread? My time as thread keeper is up.

[AngelaM]

funny story

We all have the flu. (That's not the funny part.)

But this morning, lying in bed in a semi-conscious state, I felt my stomach churning, and my first thought (before realizing, of course, that it's my intestines going on strike), was, "Oh, the baby's moving!"

Apparently, I actually miss pregnancy!

(Then, our dear darling Tiger Cub started shrieking bloody murder from the other side of the bed, and I felt some relief that we only have one to deal with right now. There should be a law against getting sick when you have a small baby to care for...)

[DM630]

I started a new thread for March April and May. I have never been a thread keeper before so bear with me.