I'm going to an info session tomorrow and they'll be giving me a pricker thing (don't know what they're called) and then I have to keep a diary each day. Thursday I have to go to the specialist at the hospital for a check up, then up to the ante natal clinic just to make sure I've been told everything and know what I'm doing.

Personally, aside from the monitoring, I think I know most of the stuff I need to know now about diet and moderate exercise and when to eat what sorts of foods, but I'll go along anyway. It never hurts to make sure.

Better late than never, so....CONGRATULATIONS! I mean on the news of the gender of the baby. :)

When we were on the ward today a presumably deaf Grandma-type was talking loudly about my great-nephews.

That one is so tiny! Oh look! What a tiny baby!
and then after a while:
There's another one! OMG there's another on in the same cot! Look, two tiny ones!

By this time I was holding Liam and turned and smiled at her. She then told me everything she had been saying previously (hence my assumption that she was hard of hearing). I explained that as they were twins they were premature, but they were both healthy. At which point she told me proudly that her first grandchild was carried to term and weighed in at 8lbs. Fair enough, love - you weren't carrying her. But she did win me round by exclaiming that this was her first grandchild [again] and it was a girl. She'd had boys. I thought anyone that pleased with a grand-daughter might be tactless but can't be all bad.

How does your Dad feel Ali?
Pleased to have a Princess in the family, or weighing up how much use she'd be farming? ;)

Oh he's pretty excited. He loves his grandkids much more than the ones that were the direct fruit of his loins (or so it seems to me and my brother at times lol)! Like a lot of grandparents, he seems to have had a bit of a rethink about where he might have gone wrong as a parent and does things a little differently with the grandies (as he calls them). Of course, not having to deal with them day to day makes a big difference too. ;)

My Mum has a magnet on the fridge that says, "If I knew how much fun grandchildren were, I'd have had them first" :)

that is pure gold!

Lately I've been having these flashes of feelings that are really bothering me. Sometimes I feel like this baby inside me is some kind of alien and it's killing me. I know in my logical mind it's just a baby growing, but these feelings are really intense. It's really weird. I feel so invaded or something. I know other women feel like their body is not their own anymore when they're pregnant, and I have felt that way with the other three too, but this is a bit different. It's like I feel really distressed and on the verge of a panic attack now and then. Not too often, but often enough to make me wonder if my mind is going soft on me again...and this time, before I even give birth. I know they were worried that I might have ante natal depression earlier on, but mostly I've been ok, so haven't worried about counselling or medication, but I'm wondering if maybe I should have taken up the hospital's offer.

Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Please?

Having never been pregnant myself, feel free to completely disregard my opinions, BUT -

Post pardum runs pretty heavily in my family (although I don't think anyone was officially diagnosed because they had their babies so long ago) ... what you're describing sounds a lot like the story my grandmother tells about my mom as a baby.

My mom was baby #3 in 3 years for my grandmother so I'm guessing by this point she was probably pretty overwhelmed being that she got married and then pregnant at 18, 19, and 20. She claims that when she was pregnant with my mom, she felt that god didn't want her to have the baby and that she needed to get rid of it...she even tried to toss herself down the stairs at one point. I would say if the feelings are intense like a panic attack and you're worried enough to ask us about it, you should probably speak to your doctor. When my mom was born she was awful to everyone except my grandmother...they bonded instantly and they're still the closest of all the kids...hormones do weird stuff.

PS my grandmother is not, and has never been, a particularly religious person...so this was unusual in all regards for her to be thinking

Today marks the 36th week for this baby. Last week I had a scan and she's pretty large. She's a reasonable birth weight already, and likely to put on another 2 lbs before she's born if she's allowed to stay in the full term. I have an appointment on wednesday with the clinic, so I suspect they might pick a date for her to be born. Hopefully soon. Any time after next week will be just fine by me. I'm so over this.

It just keeps getting more and more exciting. By "they might pick a date", do you mean the doctors might choose when the baby will be born, and not the baby? I find that kind of backwards. Or upside downunder or something. But seriously, not joking about your pregnancy. You're the boss, not me. I'm just very curious.

If they decide to induce (or section) then they choose the date.

No point in keeping the baby in if she is fully developed and increased weight will cause more birth trauma for mother and daughter.

And you do have the two week window as discussed in the other thread.

really? in all cases? Glad my docs disagreed.

I can't say about all cases because I only heard from new Mums who were going to be induced - making us aware they would need to pick up carseats and other items early. In many cases it was because the baby would be large enough to cause a difficult birth if left.

Women who carried past their official due date didn't need to contact us in the shop.
So I admit my experience is biased.

My brother was nearly two weeks overdue and over 10lbs. Oof! Then again, he was her third. He was close to crowning by the time she arrived at the hospital, they skipped the maternity ward and took her straight to the birthing room.