Ruth_Baldock

My son likes to try to latch onto the hoover. YEUCH.

tomorrow from 10-12 there is a good BF drop in at peckham library, on the 5th floor :)

Totally agree with you, Clare. I know people who have had homebirth's but have had a 'bad' experience. I suppose it's a case of the grass being greener, or something. I think with an elective, if you're in good health and haven't had a huge amount of blood loss, and the baby is all fine, you can be out that evening or the next day! I have been researching this, and someone on a yahoo group was operated on at 6am and left at 7pm. I think she's in the minority and most women are in for at least one night. I was in on Friday night, the whole of Saturday, Saturday night and then I made SUCH a fuss on Sunday early hours ("I. AM. GOING. HOME. TODAY! TODAY! TAKE THIS LINE OUT!!!) that I was discharged at 10am that Sunday! Ha!

I don't think breastfeeding is creepy, but I do think calling breasts 'fun bags' is creepy...

Some people do have empowering and positive c-section experiences, but then equally there are people like me who went through hell with theirs (labour wasn't such a laugh either, not because of the pain but all the tomfoolery that went with it- failure to progress etc etc) To be very, very honest one of the reasons I don't want to go back to hospital was the awful, AWFUL experience I had on the post-natal ward. I know the staff are all rushed off their feet, but loads of stuff happened that made me never want to set foot there ever again (My pain meds and DVT jabs being forgotten about for one...never did get them in the end!!!). If someone could say 'You can have a repeat section and go home the same day' (impossible) I'd go for the elective section most likely...

Dunno what Mr and Mrs Keef's take on it, but Mat. Allowance is paltry (I get around ?200 a month) which is nowhere near what I was earning in my temporary contract. It also only lasts for 9 months. I would rather have had a guaranteed job to go back to and paid tax on my Mat. Pay... I AM going back to work, but out of sheer luck- my previous boss seemed to love me and gave me first refusal when my replacement left, otherwise I'd be up a certain creek without the proverbial paddle.

...Or Mat. Allowance can be if you've not earnt enough/been in your job long enough to qualify for SMP, or are a temp (which is how I qualified).

You're right Molly, and I do take your advice on board. Although we're TTC I doubt I'll get pregnant anytime soon as I had PCOS before getting up t'duff the first time. I'm also just trying to get all the information I can. I fear I will probably get scared and go for a repeat section with the next one to be honest. I'm all talk no trousers really... :(

That is utterly ridicolous, but not unsurprising, unfortunately. If I had to go for constant monitoring, I'd rather have a repeat c-section tbh. It's all or nothing for me, but the monitoring and being unable to move/use birthing pool was a dealbreaker last time round and probably why things went awfully pear-shaped.

Continuous monitering through labour? Oh nononononon. No. Never again. No.

Gosh, not supportive of a home birth in ED??? Bloody hell. I remember shortly after Baby Baldock was born, the midwife from my practice (Peckham Way MW) came to do a home visit and to take our, unused, homebirth kit with her and she told me the the Midwives were very supportive of HBACs so not to think my chances of having one were now gone. The midwifery team has stayed the same, and probably will be the same when my booking is taken (anytime from now, am not pregnant but am TTC as I am insane- Baby is only 6 months old!!!!) (Sorry, this is a bit unclear...Baby was a planned homebirth but ended up being a c-section after I was induced so haven't even got experience with labouring at home or anything...let alone having the bubs in the living room like planned)

Fab, thanks Molly.

Has anyone here had an HBAC? Or do you know anyone that has? Would you/they be willing to talk me through their experiences at all? Thanks in advance!

:( Poor you, Duchessofdulwich. I hate it when you get 'looks' for nursing in public.

Candj and Pebbles, have also breastfed in a church during someone's wedding. Someone on the bride's side commented loudly on 'that screeching baby' so I did what I thought would quieten him down. It worked!

Gina, no-one offered you a seat??? The gits! Thankfully I was sitting down with the buggy next to me, but I've never felt so nervous in my LIFE. When DS had finished, I straightened myself up, looked around and everyone was either: 1) avoiding eye contact or 2) beaming encouragingly at me. phew.

My Mum used to wander round Tescos doing our weekly shop breastfeeding my little sister, and then when he came along, my little brother (not at the same time...). I couldn't do it, I'd probably drop my shopping list/clubcard/etc

wow, standing? Prizes for you- I can't nurse standing because of the aforementioned wriggling.

My ever-helpful and adaptable (not) son just had a massive meltdown on the 12. I looked at my watch- 3 hours since his last breastfeed. Oh god. In short, I just had to breastfeed Baby Baldock on a boiling hot and packed 12 from Oxford Circus. What could top this lovely scenario? Baby is a wriggler and everyone on the bus got a free peepshow, courtesy of my 6 month old. Where's the strangest place you Mum's have all nursed? Before this incident the other strangest place I nursed him was the top of Calton Hill in Edinburgh.

God, I feel like we're under-dressing our son! We're still half co-sleeping (if he wakes up at 4/5am instead of going through, I just take him into our bed) and he's just been in a nappy! Yesterday in his cot he was in a nappy with a cotton muslin type thing over him as a blanket, but our room heats up in the day and was 28 degrees last night! (Same story with our living room, yesterday I put down his 'splash mat' for his high chair and let him crawl around without anything on. No accidents thankfully, save a bit of wee but oh well) (he's 6 months old btw)

The novelty of being (setting myself up for a stalking here, ho hum) Mrs Nicholas Baldock hasn't worn thin yet, but I do agree with you, LittleEd, it's an old fashioned tradition. My Mum has never taken any of her husband's last names (I'm making her sound like Elizabeth Taylor- she's only been married twice). She took on her Mother's maiden name when she was 18 and has stuck to it. Good for her, I say. Now the big question is whether to bother re-registering Baldock Jr now that I'm married. The registrar seemed to think it was a must...dunno though. HUGE tangent, sorry.

What a bore that bloke sounds like, Saila. When my Mum got up the duff with my little sister, she hadn't married my Stepfather yet. She'd been with him for 8 years, loving together for 5 though. Anyway, her brother found out she was pregnant and suggested she had a termination because the baby would be bullied for having unwed parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooh, it makes my blood boil! A lot of DH's Portuguese family said 'oooh noooooo' when we announced the pregnancy. Then promptly asked when we were getting married. I had a colleague that used to make a lot of 'unwed, teenage mother' jokes at me. I like to think he was bitter because he was 46 and his most meaningful relationship was with his copy of The Daily Star...

Plimsoul, I'll see your 'When are the kids coming along, then???' and raise you a 'Oh, you're pregnant! And unmarried! Who's the father?'. Yes, someone at work actually said this to me. 'Errrr, my fiancee who I live with perhaps??' was my clever retort. Her response? 'Well you just don't know nowadays, do you?' SOD OFF, HAG-FEATURES!!!. Anyway, am married now (to my 'baby daddy') so...er...up hers???

Whats your job, out of interest? Pre-baby, I worked as a learning and behavior mentor at a secondary school and the SENs Team Leader (my dept) was AWFUL with things like this. The straw that broke the camel's back was an incident where she left a list of things to bring up at my next appraisal which was basically a bulletpointed list of my faults. We had a shared office and everyone saw it. Nice. I went to HER manager, the deputy head, who dealt with it, as I said I didn't feel I could bring it up with Team Leader (very volatile lady, she was). Are you part of a union at all? If not, and if in doubt, refer upwards to manager's manager. Good luck!