u/OverlyVerboseMythic

I’m planning a home birth for my first baby in December. We have 2 kitties who will be just over a year old at the time and I want to think about how we can prepare things for them both for the birth and for the transition to having a baby in the house. We live in an apartment, so there aren’t many places they can go to avoid any noise I might make. They also like to sleep in the bed with us so I’m not sure I trust them not to jump into the co-sleeper bassinet with the baby.

I would love to hear thoughts from people who have done this before. All the advice I can find online is geared to preparing to bring a baby home from hospital.

I’m interested to hear people’s perspectives on how they personally decided when to start their maternity leave. I understand that a decision like this can only be determined right or wrong in retrospect, particularly as you don’t know when your baby is going to be born, but knowing what criteria others used would be insightful.

Currently I am thinking of working quite late because my mum went to 42-weeks with her first baby and with my personality, I feel like twiddling my thumbs for too long would be worse for me than getting caught out if baby came earlier than expected. I’m also due quite close to Christmas and both of my work places have the potential to wind down slowly towards that time of year. That being said, given the aghast responses I am met with when I share my plans I am open to reconsidering.

I wanted to share a recent win that I’ve had with people who will hopefully get how significant this feels to me.

I’ve been a consistent, albeit inefficient and slow runner for several years now. I’ve always been held back by a high heart rate that I just have to push through with sheer force of will. I ended up starting a low-heart rate training approach the month I found out I was pregnant. At the time I was hoping to improve my aerobic base and give myself a non-conception project to work on. I switched up 2/3 of my weekly runs to intervals so I can keep my heart rate below 150, and then I let myself just go for it at Park Run on Saturdays. Once I found out I was pregnant, I figured this approach would help to keep me moving and maybe slow down my loss of fitness.

I’ve been really lucky to have a very easy pregnancy so far and haven’t had to miss any workouts for illness or fatigue. I’m now almost 18 weeks pregnant and over the past month I’ve noticed that even though I’m running (more like plodding) my Park Runs at the same time I was pre-pregnancy, my average heart rate has decreased by over 10 bpm and my runs objectively feel easier.

I feel really chuffed with myself and can’t believe that not only am I aerobically fitter at 18 weeks pregnant than I was pre-pregnancy, I’ve also done it by working less hard.

For people who have done hypnobirthing, I’d love to hear how you actually used it at various stages during your labour. Did you combine it with other techniques as well?

My husband and I are keeping the sex of our baby a surprise. We agreed on a girl name very easily but have really struggled with a boy name.

I’ve noticed that we both seem to like boy names that could be surnames e.g. Sawyer, Ellis, Landon. The trouble is, the child will already have two surnames, so we don’t want to give him three. Does anyone have any ideas of names that have a similar vibe to a surname but are distinctly a first name?

I’m a FTM, planning a homebirth with private midwives. Part of my reasoning for this choice is that my mum’s first labour was very long and ended up with the classic cascade of intervention — augmentation, episiotomy, vacuum, forceps, severe tear. I know that in my country’s hospital system, a long labour like that will probably go down a similar path / it will take a lot of fighting to avoid.

So how do you prepare for a prolonged labour at home? I’m talking over 24 hours, probably more like 36-48.

Where are we getting our work-appropriate pants with soft waist bands? I don’t need maternity pants yet, but as I wear high waisted pants, the afternoon bloat is causing some of my pants to get a bit squeezy, which is exacerbating my reflux. If you have any specific recommendations, that would be super appreciated. I hate clothes shopping at the best of times.

Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with that awful, bitter taste I’m constantly getting in my mouth? No amount of water, teeth brushing, mouth wash, or mints seems to help. In fact, anything mint tastes terrible right now.

I just want to constantly eat sweet things as thats the only thing that masks the taste.