littleEDfamily

I liked the second midwife with her "C'mon girl, give it some welly!" Childbirth is meant to hurt. My heart goes out to anyone who has a complicated labour - that must be incredibly terrifying - but normal physiological childbirth is eye poppingly painful, and have to say, I view anything that interferes with that with some caution. I am for choice, to a point. I think it is important that the professionals do what they can to minimise intervention so that more resources are there for the genuinely difficult cases. That's not meant to be a personal attack on anyone, so I hope it's not taken as such. Just airing my opinion in the interests of healthy ED forum debate! Purely speculating here, but I wonder if the blonde lady would have managed to get that back to back baby out naturally had she had an epidural... Keef - I don't personally believe there is such a thing as an objective pain threshold, in the sense that pain is fundamentally more acute for some people than others. I don't dispute that some births, especially back to back ones, are much more painful, but this is more due to variables such as the baby's position than the mum's pain threshold.

I'm all for birth choice, but if you're having a baby on the NHS, there is a substantial cost associated with epidural, so I think it's only right that the health professionals exercise their judgement on when an epidural isn't appropriate. At the risk of offending, I was pretty blown away by how monged out the lady on pethedine was. She probably needed the relief given the position of the baby, but a bit of a shock for me, nonetheless. PS congrats Sally81

That show never fails to deliver. The blonde lady's facial expressions had both of us literally crying with laughter, complete with thigh slapping. She did do well with that face up bubba. And the forceps couple were hilarious; like something out of 'Creature comforts'.

Did she just say "I have a pain in my backside and my minge"...?

Just in case anyone else always forgets to watch...looks like some classic people are on...

Thanks all - v helpful. I can't believe I actually need help nowadays deciding what crackers to buy my kids. That's exhaustion for you....

Our 7 month old baby likes feeding herself, especially crackers and biscuits. Buying the Organix stuff is getting expensive, and I suspect the ingredients aren't that much healthier than other brands. Can anyone recommend a good generic brand of crackers with low sodium and healthiesh ingredients, or does anyone have a good recipe for crackers or biscuits suitable for babies?

Gosh, ae, thanks for that link. I had never heard of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. It does sound like there is a big spectrum of symptoms associated with the disorder. Freaked me out a bit! For me as a kid, in hindsight, the indicators were obv the hip dysplasia, but also it seems scoliosis, and that fact that I could bend my thumbs back to touch my wrist, and make a clapping noise with only one hand :-). Never put them all together as a disorder, and on the plus side, it meant I had a naturally good golf swing!!! It honestly never really bothered me until I ended up with a few problems post-partum and in my second pregnancy suffered pretty badly from pelvic instability. ae- have I understood correctly that, unlike the other types, they are yet to identify the actual defective gene related to hypermobility type?

A friend gave lent us her one for our baby and she wears it all the time. I have no idea if it works really works, but she now has 2 little teeth and there were no episodes of hysteria I could link to teething (lots of dribbling though!). Definitely worth a go. My gut says there's something in it. People do give us odd look though. I want to scream 'It's NOT for decoration!!'

Yep, I supposedly have this too. And it's led to more problems than I would have imagined (but I have none of the problems Fuschia or Pickle mention). Was born with hip dysplasia, which seems to be associated with we 'hypermobile' types. As far as I can gather the 'disorder' and its quite broad effects are not exactly well understood. I could rabbit on for hours, but I would probably bore myself and others.

Well done GinaG3. Good for you doing it on your terms and all the best for a new phase in you and your daughter's lives.

ooooh, yes, cheese and chutney is my personal fave.

Speaking of teeth - I am so knackered I have started grinding mine and my front teeth are wearing away! I have to wear a mouthguard at night. More evidence of kids ruining me! Apparently you should eat fruit before meals as it digests much quicker than other foods and if you eat it after, it just sits on top of all the other food creating bad stomach gas. Heinous. Re: the fruit and teeth, surely you can just rinse your mouth with water after eating fruit or other acidic things?

Agree with sw's dentist. But we all still have juice once a day - small quanity and neat. I think better to just gulp a small amount down that suck on a whole big cup (esp sippy cup). And yep, the brushing of teeth straight after eating or drinking anything sweet or acidic will do further damage to the enamel. I make my daughter rinse her mouth out with water after treats.

Yep, I think you're between a rock and hard place when it comes to mattresses. Old ones: bacteria, new ones: chemicals. I think I am going to get new bubba this one - bit cheaper than natural mat and appeases my neuroses.

All the mattresses we've ever bought have stunk when taken out of packaging. Some even tell you to allow to ventilate before use....there's some freaky stuff in there, I know it!

Loving the lemonade tip. Made me think, perhaps an effervescent vitamin C tablet will also work.... Don't fear the better homemaking crusade. Ain't no shame in a bit of pride in house. And my stress levels have gone right down lately - in fact, we have a party tomorrow and feel strangely prepared. Very bizarre sensation....

Sparkle - I'm glad you're on here to bring a different perspective. I tend to be a bit dramatic about the whole birth and kids thing, despite having really quite easy babies and pretty easy births. I do think that feeling exhausted is fairly universal, though, through the sheer relentlessness of it all (unless you are lucky enough to have lots of help). And I do think that some sort of fundamental change in your identity is also inevitable, perhaps only temporarily. Much as I have enjoyed reading the thread, in some ways, it is pointless trying to give anyone a sense of what life may be like after their first baby comes along due to the objective and subjective factors already discussed. I know my experience with my first vs my second are totally different (except for the tiredness, of course).

Yes, there's something slightly wrong about even owning baby oil - I couldn't quite look the delivery driver in the eye as I unpacked it from the grocery crate! So, here she is, the FlyLady in le flesh.....

I never needed to shush/ pat my first as she took a dummy and was out like a light the minute it touched her lips. Shush/ pat has been great for number 2 who rejects a dummy. Not sure it worked as early as 12 weeks, but it definitely has worked from around 6 months. I've noticed I have to really mean the shushing and patting, as in I have to be relaxed and soothing not thinking 'how long do I have to do this for' (for this reason it does not work for my hubby). I (apparently a bad habit) feed her for a little in a darkened room to relax her, and the shush pat thing combined with pick up/ put down happens if she doesn't settle straight away. I don't try it when she is 'unprepared'. I tend to leave her to it if I shush/ pat a few times and she seems to get angrier - then I just lay her down and run away!!

Nice! Can we get a large American-style FlyLady 'woop!' for we ladies of high domestic prowess. Yeeeee haaaaah PS my FlyLady groupie status has gone up a notch. I actually watched her video (FlyLady TV). She was just as I imagined she would be in the flesh.

You ladies still keeping the shiny sink dream alive? I did mine for the first time with baby oil today. Maximum satisfaction ;-)

A little bit more from me on the physical aspects. During pregnancy you tend to take things a bit easy (as well you should) so I think it's common to find your stamina has slipped a bit (or a lot). I found I was such a weakling for ages after both (if b/f you still have 'stretchy' hormones floating around which doesn't help). I tried to do far too much too soon with my first. Be mindful of the massive changes that your body has gone through and will continue to go through post-partum. The reproduction process doesn't finish when the baby comes out!! Don't feel bad about about getting other people to do your dirty (physical) work. We moved 4 weeks after my second and my sister flew out from Australia to help - there is no way I could have done without her. It took all my energy just to tell her where to put the stuff in the boxes (and sometimes, I didn't even have the energy for that). 6 months on a feel like Wonder-woman compared to those early weeks.

Haven't heard anything but good things about Brierley, and I can personally vouch for the Lanes based on my experience of them.

Gosh what a nightmare. My advice is a little out of left field, but can you pay them to go? My gut is that it could get very ugly if you use the 'stick' approach and perhaps it is easier to cut your losses and just offer them an incentive to leave, particularly if they are in financial difficulty they may just take it. May only cost you as much as a solicitor would. What contractual arrangement did they have with each other when they moved in? Ideally they would have something in writing, but even a verbal arrangement is a contract (albeit much more difficult to enforce if the terms are disputed, obviously). If you did want to go a more formal route of serving notice and evicting, such a contract would effectively set the 'rules'. In the meantime, I would ensure the police are made aware if not already of your daughter's concerns for her safety.