Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I used to sleep with a mattress pad thing on the bed in case he peed, so much easier than changing the sheets every morning.

No doubt I'll get used to pee everywhere. Outside. The idea of someone peeing inside me though... My goodness.

I've got about 7 more weeks to go and I could swear that something is goin on! Yesterday for several minutes it seriously felt like baby was trying to jam her foot OUT through my bellybutton. And just now after a pretty strenuous uphill walk then big flights of stairs then subway ride, I was walking a few more blocks to work and felt the most insane pressure in my pelvis. It took my breath away. But then I got up here to the office and I'm fine.

I don't recall either of these sensations with my last pregnancy. Things are pretty different in general though - I've gained a max of 15lbs (though I sure started out heavier this time!) and feel pretty energized most of the time. And oddly I don't have the linea negra this time at all or more stretch marks (yet), but I do have the darkened areolas. I find this whole situation fascinating right now.

7 more weeks! Not long!

Not only did I not get new stretch marks with the Magician, but my old ones also didn't darken to their former glory. It was a pleasant surprise!

Well I had my follow up ultrasound yesterday and everything looks really good. The twins are growing just fine and are super active. The very edge of the boy's placenta is just over the edge of the cervix. So it does appear to be slowly creeping away from my cervix. So that's great. But my doc is making me stay on bed rest for the rest of the week. It is making me crazy! I can only hope that I don't end up on bed rest for any extended period of time.

What a relief, ShannonLea! I'm so glad everything looks good, and I hope you're able to be off bed rest soon.

oh wow ShannonLea, I hope everything continues along smoothly and that you get off bed rest soon! it SOUNDS like it'd be nice and relaxing but I can only imagine going stir-crazy too.

I'm glad everything's okay, ShannonLea!

I'm at 36 weeks now (37 on Friday!) and I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy has flown by. Baby has been super active today and my hips have been aching like crazy lately, so it's been hard getting a good night's rest. I have a midwife's appointment tomorrow, and then four days off work! Woo!

Those who use(d) stretch mark cream/oil: when do you start using it? I just made some out of mango butter, kokum butter, avocado oil, tamanu oil, and sea buckthorn oil- I just looked at some commercial creams and then bought what looked like the most efficacious ingredients and mixed them together. I'm 18 weeks now and actually look pregnant in my yoga clothes, but my daily clothes still hide it pretty well. I'm vain enough that if I can reduce the appearance of the stretch marks I'm going to try even though some things I read said they are hormonal and not caused by skin stretching, so cream should not do anything... Anyway, those who used cream or oil, when did you start? The cream I made is REALLY bright dark yellow because of the sea buckthorn oil (the commercial products must have very, very little of that in them if people aren't complaining left and right about that feature!) and because I have very fair white skin, it's rather like a fake tan on me. So I would prefer to only use it when necessary, if this is still to early to need it :). I *think* I can feel the fetus moving now, I'm pretty sure it's the fetus because it's feelings I've never felt before and it really doesn't feel anything like gas, but I'm not confident enough to know for sure if it's the fetus. But I can feel it on the inside and when I put my hand right over it I can feel it on the outside too.

I had stretch marks before I started showing! I am positive that any stretch mark treatment will not reduce your chance of getting stretch marks, nor let you have smaller stretch marks instead. That didn't stop me from using it like crazy, just hoping. I think it is pretty much just good for the dryness and itchiness, so really you could use it if the marks were bothering you.

ShannonLea, glad everything is okay! Hopefully after this you have no more bed rest!

I started using "stretch oil" (the Earth Mama Angel Baby brand) on my belly, breasts, and hips at probably 20 weeks? I was way paranoid, though. And I really liked it because my skin started to feel super itchy as I grew and it helped me stay moisturized. I never got stretch marks, but I have no idea if oiling myself up helped with that (but I definitely got a few on my breasts when my milk came in after giving birth!).

I probably started around the same time and it was the only time I saved time to lotion my whole body twice daily. My back and shoulders always felt especially dry and itchy, with chest a close second. I ended up with no stretch marks, but I think that was just good luck! I also continued the lotion routine for 4-5 weeks post-baby.

Also, I bet you are feeling baby! Yay!! I had the same "don't want to say it's baby before I'm certain" feeling, but after my 20-week ultrasound I was much more confident about what I felt.

I started the belly oil routine around 11 weeks. I already have TONS of stretch marks from puberty, and I got one (just one!) new one with Westley. My belly will never be attractive, but the oil makes my skin feel nice—and rubbing something nice-smelling into my skin makes me feel less bad about the inevitable hugeness.

In other news, I'm starting to feel huge.

Also, mapmapmap, I'll bet you're feeling baby too! I thought it was just gas until I looked at an image of where your organs go as your uterus expands...I was shocked to discover that my intestines were totally not where I thought they were, and it was definitely baby movement!

I have been feeling Baby Lou Who jumping around a LOT lately. Every time my husband puts his hand on my stomach to try to feel the movement baby quits kicking. Nice, baby.

I'm just astounded at how low down this one is. My daughter was definitely higher up in the uterus - fascinating how each pregnancy is different!

haha this is our 2nd kid and I don't think my partner has ever gotten to feel the movement! he sure has seen it from across the room in the later stages, all Alien-style.
like I posted the other day, there's been some kinda serious movement that is possibly the baby having dropped, resulting in crazy pelvic pressure when I walk around sometimes lately. I told my mom and she basically laughed at me and said "oh sure, maybe she's dropped and she'll probably go back up! a few of you kids did that to me." Um NO don't tell me that.

My baby is also super low and putting a lot of pressure on my bladder, and I've had a lot of contractions every day for the past, oh, 10 weeks! My cervix is closed, I'm not in labor, everything's just fine and normal according to my midwives. I'm hoping it won't get too much worse over the next 10 weeks...

I am absolutely exhausted! I'm on holiday this week and last, but I go back to work on Thursday. I am so nervous that I will have to go home sick, because I'm so tired and I start to get light-headed if I stand too long (I work at a cafe, and I stand all day long). In other news, chopping veggies on a stool while seated on the floor works to get dinner on the table. Yeeesh.

- Also! Teddy Bear (my almost 4 year old son's name for the baby while in utero) has been squirming and kicking up a storm. And it's soooo low. I feel almost like I did when LittleBodhi dropped during my first pregnancy. I guess I have a saggy uterus now. But seriously, it feels like TeddyBear has been trying to kick open my cervix for a sneak preview of the world. I'm only six months along, so I'm totally okay with this one coming a few weeks early. Even if it means less time to nest and cook. Bahhhh.

ETA: Thanks for letting me vent! Somehow I really don't know any other people IRL who have been pregnant or parents/etc, at least any that I'm close to. So I mostly talk to my partner about it, and sometimes he just needs a break or doesn't quite understand. PPKparents are the best.

I was really happy when Beetroot peed all over my MIL's ugly duvet. I didn't tell her, either. (And then laughed when she told us, months later, that "you don't wash duvets!")

As for stretch marks, I have them all over my hips and thighs from puberty (my mom was not very nice to me about them at the time) and was using a 100% cocoa butter stick on my stomach 2x a day during almost my entire pregnancy with Beetroot and didn't get any stretch marks. I read something somewhere back then that said cocoa butter was the most effective at stretch mark prevention.

Can some of you describe how for you the feeling of the fetus moving is different from the feeling of BH contractions? I just have no idea what I am feeling- the thing it feels most like is a muscle spasm, Real quick then over, sometimes quickly followed by another of the same feeling in a nearby place.

It took me a while to figure out that I was having BH and it wasn't the baby. I guess I would describe it as my whole stomach or somrtimes the upper half balled up tightly (kind of like after an intense ab work out) for 30-45 seconds.. it would be hard to the touch. Then, just like that it would be soft again and I never felt baby move. When it was baby shifting, I could always feel it pushing or moving to make hard and soft spots.

I started feeling little kicks and punches at 17 weeks that felt unmistakably like the movements of a little creature that was not part of my own body. That's the best way I can describe it, it just felt totally involuntary, but not like any other involuntary bodily function. I never felt the "flutters" that some people describe. Around 20 weeks I started feeling Braxton Hicks, and I can tell just by using my hands to feel that my whole uterus is rock hard, and like kdub, for me it lasts about 30-45 seconds. Around 25 weeks I started feeling fewer sudden kicks and more "pushing" or "stretching" movement. Now at 30 weeks it's gotten pretty intense, like the fetus is trying to push its way out of my belly! I like to sit back and watch the big lump of its butt moving around. It's been really fun for me to be a midwifery student and be learning how to identify body parts and feel the baby's position. I can't help palpating myself all the time.

So, I'm 22 weeks and just threw up for the first time. I was halfway through my potato breakfast and puked it all back up. :-( Now I'm afraid to even drink anything. Sigh.

Oh, no! I'm sorry you threw up. I had that a lot with my second pregnancy (only once with my first). Oddly, my first instinct is usually to eat or drink something.