Welcome

Well it's official.  I now have more children than I have hands!

Welcome to the world Baby D3, it's good to have you here.

Baby D3 arrived one week ago yesterday on 16th jan 2012 at 01:18. He made quite a dramatic entrance, but that is a separate post I feel.

Even though I  am seriously sleep deprived, battling with severe breast engorgement through over supply and fighting off mastitis, I can honestly say I absolutely love the newborn stage.  I really really love it.  I love it even when I still haven't got him settled at 1am and am up again for another hour and a half less than 2 hours later.  I had remembered those first few sleepless nights after my other two, but I had definitely forgotten how bad they were. Indescribable.

Anyway, whine over.  The nameless child is here and he only remained nameless for 24 hours.  We had a short list of 5 names and although none of them jumped out at us as being "the one" before he was born, we were hoping once we met him one would just suit him better than the others.  Of course none of the names fit.  After a day of calling him "The Baby" we were beginning to get desperate - Calling him "The Baby" just felt so wrong.  Desperation led us to explore family initials and special place names but these didn't work either.  In the end he ended up with a name that basically, and rather loosely, translates to "Baby D3" and it suits him perfectly.  The thing I love best about it is that it isn't a made up name but a really old fashioned English name and although it is somewhat unusual it has a real story behind it.

We've Got Monsters...

About 2 years ago we had "Monkeys".  D1 was about 2.5 years old at the time and it was a total nightmare.  She was terrified and would leap into my arms trembling at the slightest noise.  They stayed for about 2 months and were finally banished following trips to various zoos and lots of nice monkey stories.

 D1 is now 4 and a half and this time we have monsters.  I have a permanent shadow. The fear doesn't always seem quite as genuine as it was with the monkeys and I feel some of it is for attention as she only has to mention "monsters" and Mummy jumps into reassurance mode.  I am not saying by any means that it is a total fabrication, just that she is a smart cookie and with me being pregnant (I was pregnant last time too) it is an effective way of getting some one on one attention.

 I do have to stifle a little giggle when she will not go downstairs by herself if the rest of the family are upstairs without taking D2 with her.  D2 is 20 months.  Does she really think that if there was a monster, a 20 month old would protect her?

At the moment it isn't too much of a problem as it is not affecting bed times.  We do have the odd wakening throughout the night but she is usually very calm when telling us she can hear monsters, possibly just looking for the green light to climb into bed with us for the night.  I am, for the time being, fairly hopeful the monsters will vanish before they become too much of a problem.

My Wishes For The Perfect Homebirth

We have the midwife coming to see us tomorrow to discus our planned homebirth, this has had me thinking and we have spent the last few nights discussing the "ideal" and thought I'd put it down in words now.  It will be interesting to see how it all compares to the actual event!

I will have my first twinges late afternoon with the BigD around.  This will give us time to put my Mum on standby at a reasonable hour - We plan to have my Mum there to be with D1 &D2 so The BigD can give me his undivided attention.  Things will progress fairly slowly giving us chance to put the little ones to bed with their usual routine.

When we reach the point we feel we need to call the midwife we will call my Mum first.  Based on my last homebith I went from 3cm to feeling the urge to push in 45 minutes so I would like to think that things will happen fairly quickly at this point.

When the midwife feels that things are starting to happen (AND providing they are happening smoothly AND I am showing very little outward signs of discomfort) we will wake D1 who is 4 so she can watch and welcome her little brother enter the world. People have very mixed opinions on children being present at the birth of siblings but she is very mature for her age and we have prepared her well with discussions, story books and home birth videos.

D1 welcoming D2 into the world.  She didn't witness the birth but was woken within the hour.

When the time comes to push I want to try and take it as slow as possible, to almost breath the baby out if you like. I have had two tears previously and the last time I wasn't stitched so I don't have much left to tear if you get my drift....

I would love to own the bragging rights to having birthed a child on 2 paracetamol BUT that isn't going to happen. I will be using gas & air. Based on previous experience biting down on that mouthpiece really does help and it can provide great focus.

I will have a natural 3rd stage - hopefully with more success than previously, when my body just didn't want to deliver the placenta. Providing the birth is smooth and trouble free then we will be declining the vitamin K injection but that is a decision we will make at the time and with the guidance of the midwife.

And finally.... The midwife and my Mum will have packed up and left before 2am and we will all climb into bed together!

Now lets see how it really happens...

Something I am Proud Of

This week over at The Gallery the theme is "Something I am Proud of". Now this got me thinking... The first thought that came to my mind are my children. Absolutely nothing in the world could make me prouder. I would have struggled to decide between the hundreds of pictures I have of them.  I am also very proud of the unborn child I have in my tummy right now - How could I capture all 3 babies in one picture??? Time for a re-think.

What else am I proud of? In the early part of the year I was on a major fitness binge, pregnancy has slowed this down somewhat, and I decided I was going to run 5k. Me run 5k? Ha bloody ha, I was always the one that forgot their PE kit, or it was "that" time of the month or failing that I'd have an asthma attack!!

Anyway below is a picture of me just before I ran my first 5k. I went from couch to 5k in 7 weeks - I could literally only manage the distance between 2 lamp posts when I started. I am so proud of this and I aim to take part in a 10k run this year once Baby D3 had made his appearance.

P.S. Baby D3 was in that tummy too but we hadn't told anyone at that point...

Is It Acceptable to Order in a Take Away on Christmas Day?

This morning I posted the above as a bit of a throw away status, thinking out loud if you like, on Facebook and I was totally surprised at the response it received - I have just put the phone down from my Mum who is absolutely horrified at the thought that I might deprive my children of the traditional roast.

I think the majority of people assumed that I don't want to be cooking Christmas dinner in an extremely fat, pregnant state! Actually the truth is I HATE Christmas dinner. Can't stand it in fact. I even hate roast dinners. I hate any dinner with sliced meat, three veg and gravy. There I said it.

Confession time:
Mum I used to tell you I wasn't hungry and that I'd nuke my dinner later.  I would wait for you to go upstairs, turn the microwave on so that you'd hear it ping then I'd scrape my plate down the back of that climbing plant you had against the fence!  It was a really pretty plant to - what happened to it I wonder?

Now the BigD usually gets given a turkey from work and if that was the case then I would have made the effort. This year (I blame the credit crunch again) he will not be receiving one so that is decision made. I will not be serving up the traditional roast.

I would like to start a Christmas tradition that my children remember, whether that be a take away or another kind of festive meal I am yet undecided.

Do you tuck into an alternative Christmas dinner on the big day?

Bye Bye Booby - Is this the end?

I 100% breastfed my 2 girls. I fed D1 until she was about 18months and I must say it was me that forced the weaning process - I regretted this almost as soon as she stopped asking and tried to reinstate it.  She was having none of it and totally appeared to have lost the ability to nurse.  That was the end of that.

With D2 I was determined to undo my wrongs and do things differently.  As some of you may know by now, I am 31 weeks Pregnant with Number 3.  Around 24 weeks into the pregnancy D2 was barely nursing at all and when she did show an interest is was for, literally, seconds at a time.  At this point she would have only been 15 months - A little young for self weaning.  One day she just looked at me and said "Gone".

I tried hand expressing.  Nothing!  Out came the breastpump.   Nothing!  I had dried up - I have since read that this is quite normal for that stage of pregnancy.  I felt terrible.  I cried.  I felt that I had failed.  I felt guilty for being pregnant again and that I was depriving her of her needs.  She continued to ask for "booby" on the odd occasion and I would always oblige but it was only ever for a few seconds.

I was 29 weeks and my breasts almost changed overnight.  Woohoo.  My milk had returned, only it was more colostrum than milk.  D2 was still asking on the odd occasion and this time would suckle for, perhaps, about a minute.  After a minute she was pulling off, screwing her face up and declaring it "YUK".

Two nights ago I realised she hadn't asked for 24hours so I asked if she wanted some booby.  The answer was the most definite "NO" I have ever heard.  I must say I feel a little better about this, I feel that I am producing something beautiful and nutritious and if she doesn't want it then it's not my fault.  Don't get me wrong I am still gutted as I was determined to reach at LEAST the 2 year mark, as recommended by the world health organization, and I would have like to experience tandem feeding.

Does anyone else have experience of breastfeeding whilst pregnant?

The Nameless Child

I am 31 weeks pregnant with Baby D3, a boy this time! I have 2 little girls aged 1 and 4 so my world is very much Pink. I am very excited to be having a boy and he will be a very loved addition to the family.

We have known he was a boy since our 20 week scan and our picture leaves this in no doubt whatsoever. This leaves the BIG question what do we call him? We have gone through, what feels like, every name under the sun and, still, we don't have a name we absolutely love. I fear the child may be nameless for quite sometime.

A friend of the family recently had the first baby girl after a long line of boys and there was much excitement about this. They, like us, found out the gender of the baby at the 20 week scan. 20 weeks later and the announcement of her arrival filters through but she is nameless. 3 weeks later and still no name. The bigD and I just cannot quite get our heads round this and say things like "It's not like they didn't know they were having a girl!" I now think there is a very strong possibility we will be in exactly the same situation in 9 weeks, or so, time.

It's not like we can't agree, it's just that there is nothing out there we love. We have a (long-ish) short list and we will more than likely just have to wait until we get to know him and see what fits best.

Naked Sleeping

I am currently 30 weeks pregnant with what can only be described as my very own built in central heating system.

We are almost in November, the nights are drawing in and the mornings dark and miserable.  We are waking up in the mornings to the starts of a frost on the ground yet there I am sleeping in my birthday suit with the window wide open and no duvet!  AND still I find myself uncomfortably warm...  What's going on?