Weekly questions 2/18

iceicebaby921

Is anyone else scared when they do not have any pregnancy symptoms? If so how do you cope? 
Somedays I feel well rested, not nauseated, no "stretching" in abdomen, or dizzy. 

On a side note: I hope I am posting this correctly I know some people get a little frustrated if a post is not in a certain section and/Or if this is a valid question for the forums.
Thanks 

nlc8424

If you want to edit the title of this post to reflect today's date then we can use it for the next week. It's normal to have days with less symptoms. There's not a whole lot you can do in the mean time, stay busy to keep your mind off of it, use a doppler if you have one to listen for the heart beat. It  gets easier once you feel movement!

smsaulino

@iceicebaby921 for the future, since you are asking about pregnancy symptoms, it might be best to post the question there. 

stothi

Are we going to use this as our questions thread this week? I've got a random question, not baby related. Talk to me about probiotics. Anyone use them regularly? Since I'm taking uber antibiotics it's been suggested I take a probiotic. Cool. But if a normal dose is one a day, do you need more if you are actively going up against antibiotics? And does it matter if you take the probiotic pill at the same time as the antibiotics or should you stagger them or what?

Eta: yes, looks like you should indeed take the probiotic at a different time than the antibiotics. Preferably at least 2 hours away from the antibiotics and 30 minutes before a meal or during a meal. Still can't find anything about if you stick to the one a day or take an extra. 

nlc8424

@stothi if you weren't used to taking a probiotic previously I'd recommend starting with the standard dose and see how that helps. Did you already buy one? A lot of the ones available in a drug store aren't super effective, and I try to get the refrigerated ones if possible since the cultures seem to be more active. If you want any recommendations LMK.

jumpy57

@stothi I second getting the refrigerated ones. Last time I was on antibiotics I asked the pharmacist for a recommendation and she had them behind the counter

stothi

@nlc8424 we had some in the house already, but I wasn't taking them. They are just something that my husband ordered online. Since they were already here that's what I've been using cause I haven't been able to go shopping. I can go to the store on Tuesday when little buddy is back in school and feel like I should pick up something fresher/better. What do you recommend?

Redpuma119

@stothi   what about a good, natural Greek yogurt for probiotics? 

stothi

Redpuma119 said:

@stothi   what about a good, natural Greek yogurt for probiotics? 

Ooo, no, I can't. Can't handle the smell. My toddler will totally eat it, but the smell makes me gag even when I'm not pregnant. In my (admittedly limited) research, I saw that when up against antibiotics that probiotic supplements were recommended over trying to use foods as your probiotic source. They did say to do that too, to eat yogurt, kim chi, all that fermented jazz, but to definitely take a zillion bacteria per pill supplement during your antibiotic treatment and for at least 2 weeks after. 

nlc8424

@stothi what stores do you have access to? I tend to find the best selection at health food stores, and I like Klaire labs and garden of life brands. If you go to a pharmacy I'd ask if they have any behind the counter that they recommend. General recommendations- at least 4-5 strains and 5 billion CFU.

stothi

@nlc8424 I live in a major metropolitan area so we've got just about everything. There's a natural farmer's market type store pretty close to my kid's preschool and I know they have a huge supplements, vitamins, natural remedies section and I've seen that they have a refrigerator section in that area. I'll go check there after I take buddy to school on Tuesday. Garden of Life sounds familiar, I'm wondering if I've seen it in passing while I was shopping before.

ashh2018

Not everyone does, but I LOVE sauerkraut! Fermented foods are full of probiotics. Our farmers market has a vendor that sells great sauerkraut, and also lots of probiotic drinks and “shots”, but those seems gross to me. His stuff is also in the local Whole Foods. I actually haven’t tried it since becoming pregnant bc I’m not sure about the safety level of eating something out of a barrel at a farmers market.. 

stothi

@ashh2018 sauerkraut is not for me! I do like the Good Belly probiotic drinks/shots. I think they are quite tasty, but I don't know if that's like what your guy is selling.

ashh2018

@stothi probably similar! I’ve never tried kombucha or any of the drinks but who knows, i might like it!

treeofcheem

Totally normal to not feel symptoms sometimes, even if you’ve been having them. Early second trimester can be a tough time because of this - you might feel good but it’s hard to enjoy it if it makes you worry. The next “big” thing is feeling movement and that can take a while.

I took the Good Belly shots last time I was on antibiotics. I wouldn’t double up, I think the super dose that you get just from the regular amount is probably fine, but idk. I’d also double check that they’re fine while pregnant. I would think so, but I check everything to be sure because I don’t always have great instincts lol.

stothi

@treeofcheem I told by the doc to take the probiotics and she knew I was pregnant. She didn't care what kind, just so long as I took them. I did ask her a million can I take this or this and what about this questions while I was there, lol. 
I take my antibiotics at 8am and 8pm, so I've been doing a single dose of probiotics around 1pm. So far everything seems to be doing its job.

yogapants247

Curious about others' thoughts on boutique ultrasound places. I thought going to one was super unnecessary and ridiculous when I was pregnant with my first, but now I'm reconsidering my stance! When we found out DS was a boy, it was basically as un-special as possible. I was on my side, facing away from DH, when I said to the doctor "Will we be able to find out the sex today?". Without taking a breath, he said "lookslikeaboy". DUDE. What if I was going to ask him to write it down for us or something? I didn't get to see DH's reaction, and kind of just gave him a thumbs up behind my back. At the end of our appt, when the doctor asked if we had any questions, I said "So, it's a boy?" because he had said it SO quickly the first time I wanted to be sure I heard him right, he kind of sarcastically replied "yessssss, and it's HEALTHY which is what matters." (He had already told us that everything looked good. Of course health was my first concern.)

I would love for the next time we find out the sex of our child to be just a little more special and fun, and I keep hearing that these boutique places do a great job at that. My husband is not on board at all yet, he likes to do everything by the book. Does anyone have experience with these places? Anyone vehemently against them?

stothi

@yogapants247 I'm pretty strongly against them. I don't mind when doctor's offices offer elective ultrasounds (my previous practice you could pay xyz and get an ultrasound whenever) but I do not trust pop up stand alone places. I don't know how trained they are, I don't know how safe their equipment is, blah blah blah. I'm against it.
That being said, I haven't seen any hard proof that anyone's child was damaged by going to a boutique place, so maybe it's ok?
If it were me, I would stay with the doc's ultrasound but before you let that wand anywhere near your belly tell them "don't you dare ruin it for me like they did last time. We want to find out and we want you to write it on a paper/whisper in hubby's ear/ whatever." That way you'll hopefully get a safe AND satisfying experience.

Jyoung327

sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere- where do those working in like a professional setting find nice maternity clothes- specifically pants? i need some work pants. the maternity pants i keep finding are like legit legging material. i work with sexually delinquent people, i dont want skin tight clothes. i am looking for like, black crop/ankle work pants, just with a stretchy waist, kwim?  i dont want all of it to be stretchy. such a struggle.  

ashh2018

@Jyoung327 there’s a thread going on where I got a lot of good work-clothes info, I’ll tag you in it! It’s a “product spotlight” thread about maternity clothes. 

nackie

@yogapants247 we did a boutique place last time.  At first I thought they were stupid and a waste of money, but DH convinced me. We did it at 16 weeks when my mom was out for a visit. It ended up being really nice and super special for her.  She still talks about it.  I liked how it felt a lot more intimate and less clinical than the 20 week anatomy scan.  Plus we needed those extra 4 weeks to work on a name

yogapants247

@nackie - Ha, I totally feel you on the name thing. We decided on DS's name with only a few weeks to go - I was SO stressed about it.

yogapants247

@stothi - That's just it, they didn't ruin any sort of surprise for me, we weren't planning on doing anything special to find it out, it was just told to use in a very brusque and weird way. The doctor definitely made me feel stupid for even caring what the sex was. I think it was just his personality though, and hopefully it won't be like that next time!

kayokosaeki

Has anyone gone to a concert in your third trimester? On Friday tickets go on sale for a coheed and cambria / taking back Sunday concert, and I really really wanna go, but it's in the end of July. So that's, what, 8 months pregnant? I'll def opt for good seats and preferred parking, but I'm worried about a) looking out of place,  like a pregnant lady in a nightclub and b) people around me possibly sneaking pot. Any experiences?

DanyTargaryen

@kayokosaeki - I went to an pro-baseball game around that time and it was fine. I would not do general admission for a concert, but if you can buy actual seats I would do it and just keep in mind you may need to sell them if something comes up. I've never been to one of their shows so I can't comment on worry B, but for worry A I just try not to worry what people think. I literally was the pregnant lady at a nightclub for my friend's bachelorette party when I was pregnant with DS and it was fine. Actually it worked out great because the club charges for water but I could get it free so anytime someone in our group wanted a water they just said it was for the pregnant girl.

SkilledSailor

@kayokosaeki I have no tips on going to a concert while pregnant. But if you haven't seen Coheed before, I highly recommend going if you can. Seriously one of the best bands to see live. 

ashh2018

@kayokosaeki I second what @SkilledSailor said, and TBS is amazing live. I think as long as you’re in a seat and not in general admission where you can be bumped and jostled around, you should be fine! Also as long as you can get up and get to the bathroom! I don’t have experience with any of this yet, but I know I have to pee all the time haha. 

treeofcheem

@yogapants247 It kind of sounds like you might appreciate it done in more of special or surprise way. With our daughter, it was kind of just like, scanning stuff, scanning stuff, yep, it's a girl, moving on to everything else... It didn't bother me at all and that's totally just because of my personality. Your doctor sounds like he needed some lessons in bedside manner, though.

Have you considered asking them to just write it down for you if you don't go to a boutique place? It might be more fun that way! It doesn't have to be some elaborate thing, but maybe you and DH just grab a treat after the appointment and open the envelope together or something.

I'm kind of with @stothi, I don't really trust the standalone places. I don't necessarily think they're harmful, I just think they're unnecessary and possibly not up to the same standards as a doctor's office. There's always the slim chance that they see or think they see an issue and then it could cause all sorts of worry and anxiety. I'd rather just get all of the info from someone I know is highly trained to look at fetal ultrasounds.

fwtx5815

We had no intention of doing a boutique/elective ultrasound with my first pregnancy but did end up doing it when my AS had to be unexpectedly pushed back. We were SO excited for the AS appointment to find out what we were having. Then when we checked in that morning at the doctor, the woman at the front desk let us know that the US tech had gone home sick literally less than an hour before we arrived. They’d tried to call me as I was making the 50 minute drive to the office, but MH and I took separate cars since we both planned on heading straight to work after so I didn’t even see the missed call/voice mail. It was so disappointing because they couldn’t get us in for another AS appt until the end of the week, since that’s a rather long appointment, they were having to reschedule everyone, and they only had 1 tech in the office. FWP, I know!

So we said screw it and found a place that had good reviews and they were able to get us in within an hour (late morning on a Monday so not a busy time). It was a company that had several locations across the city so I felt okay about that. And I imagine that their business insurance is probably pretty pricey given what they do, so I’d like to think that they maintain their machines, take licensing seriously, etc. 

Unless for some reason the NIPT can’t determine the sex of this baby, I don’t think we’d do another elective ultrasound at a place like that, but mostly because I can think of other things I’d rather spend $80 on. 

ETA detail bc we were dying to the know the sex. The tech didn’t attempt to do any diagnostic/health stuff and we definitely wouldn’t have asked them to

lablover78

Pregnancy safe acne products anyone? My skin is a disaster.

[Deleted User]

<blockquote class="Quote">
<div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/lablover78">lablover78</a> said:</div>
<div class="QuoteText">Pregnancy safe acne products anyone? My skin is a disaster.</div>
</blockquote>
OMG IT'S A GIRL!!!! :love: :love: :love:

J/k Sorry about the acne, I have no idea... (((hugs)))

stothi

@nlc8424 I went to the natural foods store today and holy moly, their refrigerated probiotics (and other supplements I'm sure) display was huge!!! Like 4 feet tall, 5 feet wide of probiotics. The first Garden of Life one that caught my eye had like 40+ stains of bacteria and an insane number of billions of bacteria per serving. I think they had like 20+(?) different Garden of Life probiotics. And sticker shock for realz that first bottle I saw was $46 for 30 pills! Ouch. I was quite overwhelmed, but I just kept reading and I was so happy because they had a prenatal one! Yay! 16 different strains and 20 billion cfu for about $20, so I went ahead and picked that one up

nlc8424

@stothi ah I should have warned you about the cost, I know I had sticker shock too! Glad you found one though and I sincerely hope it helps. Is your sinus infection improving at all with the antibiotics?

nlc8424

@BusinessWife I know you were joking about the acne and baby being a girl, but I'm over here with 10x more nausea and acne compared to my first (boy) pregnancy all convinced I'm having a girl lol. Time will tell! Literally every time I envision this future baby I refer to it as a girl in my mind, but honestly I'll be happy either way.

stothi

nlc8424 said:

@stothi ah I should have warned you about the cost, I know I had sticker shock too! Glad you found one though and I sincerely hope it helps. Is your sinus infection improving at all with the antibiotics?

Yes, finally! I'm not 100% but I'm so much better, thanks for asking  

Wishilivedinflorida

nlc8424 said:

@BusinessWife I know you were joking about the acne and baby being a girl, but I'm over here with 10x more nausea and acne compared to my first (boy) pregnancy all convinced I'm having a girl lol. Time will tell! Literally every time I envision this future baby I refer to it as a girl in my mind, but honestly I'll be happy either way.

Same! Also my hair is awful. With DS, I had gorgeous hair that I only had to wash once every three days, perfect skin for the first time in my life. Now I’m all pimply with oily hair and just look awful! I’m Team green so I have a while to go before finding out if my hunch is correct!

Patience7150

I had every boy-related old wives tale symptom out there (beautiful skin, beautiful hair, no nausea, salty cravings, linea negra that went all the way up, carried high, yada yada) and she was a girl. This time I have all girl symptoms, so I'm pretty certain it's a boy. :P 

yosemite2018

My skin is pretty craptastic lately so I’m fine if that means we’re having another girl... but really I think it’s because I am so exhausted that I haven’t been taking care of my skin the way I should.

MandyMost

I wasn't at all nauseous last time, and I don't remember breakouts, and I had a girl. This time I've been terribly nauseous and my skin is insane, so I was just assuming it was opposite so it's a boy. I'm dying to find out. 

Patience7150

@MandyMost We can break old wives tales stereotypes together. Are you finding out? We're team green. 

jumpy57

I think in the future we should make an "old wives tale" thread right around when people start having anatomy scans

I'm other news, I forgot how close dairy Queen is to my office... I'm going to eat all the blizzards