@madamerwin My MW practice does self administered GBS swabs, too. To be honest, I think I woulda preferred someone else doing it, as I tried to get around my massive belly and my massive hemorrhoids... a line of sight would have made the procedure much more straightforward...
I had to do my own and they gave me the impression you didn't have to actually stick it all the way inside, just around the opening. Maybe I did it wrong, but it did still come back positive so oh well. Overall, +1 to it not being a big deal.
I was freaking out about the Strep B and now that it's done I have no idea why I was. I don't know exactly what I thought would go on, but it wasn't the quick swipe! I think I heard butthole and assumed it would be more invasive?! Who knows!!
To be honest, I barely even remember doing the GBS swab. Since my water broke at 34 weeks, I remember the midwife at the hospital said she was going to check for GBS since I hadn't had it done yet. She was also checking other things down there like my fluid and and cervix and all that. It was also like 3AM. So I guess in the confusion of my water randomly breaking in the middle of the night and being poked and prodded in general it wasn't a big deal to me.
Honestly I didn't even feel the rectal swab at all. But I've been battling constipation for months now, resorting to suppositories for relief. My rectum laughed at that Q-tip swab.
My UO is that I think eating your placenta is super gross. I side eye encapsulation a bit but I can see why people want to do it. Especially if you think there are PP benefits. But people who cook it or eat it raw?? *gag*
@Gretchypoo I hadn't even heard of doing such a thing until my first prenatal class last night, but I'm with you, I don't think I could do it. Interestingly though one of the pregnant ladies behind me said she had a friend that had hers encapsulated, so like turned into a pill she could take. I MIGHT be able to go that route, but I would really want to read up on what the pros actually are for ingesting your placenta before I got drastic and all O_O
I'm not looking forward to hosting my kids birthday parties. I hate that stuff and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna suck at it.
All of DDs parties have been in parks somewhere. So more of a picnic with friends type setup. Scared of when they actually want games and scheduled stuff. Until now spreading a picnic blanket close to a playground and serving cake at some point in time was more than enough.
I was looking forward to hosting kid birthdays until I learned it was a winter baby. Now the options are trash my house or pay a gazillion dollars for a birthday "place." Bah.
I was looking forward to hosting kid birthdays until I learned it was a winter baby. Now the options are trash my house or pay a gazillion dollars for a birthday "place." Bah.
I'm with you. I wanted a summer baby so we could just throw water balloons at each other or something.
I was looking forward to hosting kid birthdays until I learned it was a winter baby. Now the options are trash my house or pay a gazillion dollars for a birthday "place." Bah.
This! Ugh I'm so jealous of people with kids that have summer b'days and can just keep all the kids outside playing.
I wouldn't say I was dreading the GBS swab but I wasn't looking forward to it. I full on realized though that this test would be nothing compared to what I'm going to go through in a few weeks for the birth. I also thought the swab had to go in your butt but my OB just rubbed around the outside so it wasn't really bad at all.
I bet people who were dreading it were more just dreading the not knowing what to expect. Any time I have a new medical test I need I get a little nervous just with anxiety of not knowing how it's going to go or what the results will be. Similarly I get anxious any time I'm driving on a street I've never driven on before.
Me: 33 | DH: 34 Married: October, 19, 2015 EDD 2/22/17 DS1 born on 3/2/17 EDD 3/8/20 DS2 born on 3/10/20 EDD 11/24/23 (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)
As a summer baby who never got to celebrate her birthday with her friends because everyone goes on vacation in August, I'm pretty excited to have a winter baby.
I ended up having two winter babies with birthdays three weeks apart... for now we can do joint inside parties, which is great! This one will be a couple of months later and I won't be able to get away with it. Oh well! Winter parties it is.
I have a late spring, summer, early winter and now winter baby. My early winter kid's last birthday party was at a roller skating rink. You can find indoor fun stuff to do that isn't too expensive!
I am glad I wasn't the only one side-eyeing the GBS swab drama. In terms of being medically invasive it is so minor, but I have a very different perspective then most.
I have two October babies and I love it. They are close enough I can do joint parties and normally we can do indoor or outdoor. The only reason I'm a little eh about feb is because I love combining their parties! Makes it so much easier.
My sons birthday is in the middle of May. I do agree that it the "perfect" timing. We get one of those big inflatable water slides and the kids just go to town. Im in South MS so a February birthday is going to be so unpredictable. Some years it is frigid and some it is comfortable. Or it's comfortable one week and then the next it is frigid. I'll never be able to properly plan for this child. Poor thing.
My mid-May baby is such a toss up. We've had beautiful weather with a bounce house outside. And we've had freezing weather where getting a pony was a waste because everyone wanted to be inside. At least with a winter baby you can just plan for indoors!
I'm a February baby and it almost always snows on my birthday. On H's 30th we had a huge party and everyone ended up sleeping over because we had a huge blizzard! But we always have fun! When I was a kid we did sleep overs a lot but mostly had family parties. +1 to movies, malls and skating rinks! I always feel sorry for Nov/Dec babies because their birthdays get swallowed by the holidays.
My birthday is actually in February and for my 14th birthday my parents had planned a surprise party for me. We ended up having a massive snow storm that day so the only people that showed were my BFF's that my dad picked up in his 4 wheel drive truck and the nearby neighbor kids haha. Also, for my 21st birthday we also had a huge snow storm. It was so bad that my university cancelled class for a week, which is super rare. Let's just say we had a great week haha.
I thought I would be having a mid-winter baby, but DD decided to come right before Christmas. My sister was also born right before Christmas and my parents always made sure she had separate birthday and Christmas which was nice. I plan on doing the same for DD.
My mid-May baby is such a toss up. We've had beautiful weather with a bounce house outside. And we've had freezing weather where getting a pony was a waste because everyone wanted to be inside. At least with a winter baby you can just plan for indoors!
End of May here. Its usually warm, but you never know.
December truly isn't that bad as long as your parents make sure not to combine events. I love my December birthday. It's a big month o'fun. H hates it, but he gets me back by having a Mother's Day weekend birthday (which will definitely continue to be about our moms, not me, for the foreseeable future).
+1 to the december birthday & always having an indoor party of some description & always loving my bday. My sister had a july birthday & i dont ever remember thinking hers was any better.
side note, cora now shares a birthday with my cousin who im really close to. She'll turn 50 the day that cora turns 18 & has already declared that we'll all go to ibiza to celebrate which is probably the european version of goin to vegas to celebrate something!
My birthday is July and my parents have a pool, so you can guess what EVERY birthday was for me growing up. And, when you grow up with a pool, swimming isn't all that much fun. So, I would probably have preferred a colder weather birthday to mix things up!
I'm so glad to hear so many of these great Dec birthday stories! My experience is from my best friend-- she was born Dec 23. Her family tries to make it special but it always turns into a Christmas thing. Like, they decorate freaking Christmas cookies every year on her birthday and that is her family birthday party. And she struggled a lot with it in college because she just wanted a party but her friends were all out of town with family and so few people were out at bars. So for her 21st we went to a casino-- and basically every year since then. 13 years of friendship, 13 years of cookies with her family and 9 years of casinos.
@Gretchypoo My birthday is also December 23rd! When I was younger I would have separate kids parties in early December, but family birthday celebrations were always lumped in with Christmas. In college we would just throw parties sometime in January. Ironically, H's birthday is December 21st. With so much always going on we pretty much just go out to a nice dinner and call it a day. I guess it helps we both have Christmas birthdays so we don't really care too much about having big birthday celebrations?
My December birthday has actually been a bigger problem as an adult than it was as a kid. It falls the weekend most people like to have Christmas parties, and sometimes "I just want a birthday dinner with my H" isn't taken as a good enough excuse to get out of them, particularly if work is involved.
DD's birthday is January 2 so we always make sure that all Christmas decorations are put away so that it feels like a birthday party not a continuation of Christmas. We have had home parties for DD, a bounce gym party, an ice skating party, and a movie theater party. DD has always had fun at her parties but we don't invite school friends because of the timing. DS was born on the 29th we will have to take care of undecorating sooner and really make an effort not to combine parties for at least the first few years.
We're in Central TX so I mean.. my Feb. baby may be able to have an outdoor party with water balloons, or we may have to change it to an indoors party within the week. This week it went from 40-85 within the day, so I'm just like whatever, shorts or sweaters today?
I have 2 nephews and a niece with birthdays a few days after Christmas. The while family makes sure to keep everything separate, from Christmas and each other. It is a busy time but worth it.
I had a February baby, a late fall baby and a May baby. I have always loved kids' parties. With my sons I have done home parties with a magician/illisionist, tried companies who bring a variety of animals to your home, some of them can be touched by the kids and they all treated well, party place rentals, bringing his class to a movie and dinner with time in the arcade, etc. I loved going all out on decorating and I was a bit sad when my sons decided they were too old to have parties, until I had my daughter and got to start over. It was always so much fun but I made sure to have additional adults to help with all the kids.
I guess with b'days it's a grass is always greener situation unless you just make the best with what you have. I was always jealous of my brother's pool parties and water balloon fights but that is what he got every year so I could see how that could get old. My b'day is end of January (24th) so it usually didn't get lumped into Christmas though when I got older I kind of liked it being close b/c I found I could get a bigger present b/c my parents were willing to combine the Christmas & B'day budget. We didn't do that every year but if there was something in particular I wanted it was nice to have that option!
Me: 33 | DH: 34 Married: October, 19, 2015 EDD 2/22/17 DS1 born on 3/2/17 EDD 3/8/20 DS2 born on 3/10/20 EDD 11/24/23 (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)
Re: UO, 1/26
@NiceyMeany I'm dying laughing over here at your comments in regards to the GBS test
I wouldn't say I was dreading the GBS swab but I wasn't looking forward to it. I full on realized though that this test would be nothing compared to what I'm going to go through in a few weeks for the birth. I also thought the swab had to go in your butt but my OB just rubbed around the outside so it wasn't really bad at all.
I bet people who were dreading it were more just dreading the not knowing what to expect. Any time I have a new medical test I need I get a little nervous just with anxiety of not knowing how it's going to go or what the results will be. Similarly I get anxious any time I'm driving on a street I've never driven on before.
Married: October, 19, 2015
EDD 2/22/17 DS1 born on 3/2/17
EDD 3/8/20 DS2 born on 3/10/20
EDD 11/24/23
(Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)
I am glad I wasn't the only one side-eyeing the GBS swab drama. In terms of being medically invasive it is so minor, but I have a very different perspective then most.
I thought I would be having a mid-winter baby, but DD decided to come right before Christmas. My sister was also born right before Christmas and my parents always made sure she had separate birthday and Christmas which was nice. I plan on doing the same for DD.
Its usually warm, but you never know.
side note, cora now shares a birthday with my cousin who im really close to. She'll turn 50 the day that cora turns 18 & has already declared that we'll all go to ibiza to celebrate which is probably the european version of goin to vegas to celebrate something!
I had a February baby, a late fall baby and a May baby. I have always loved kids' parties. With my sons I have done home parties with a magician/illisionist, tried companies who bring a variety of animals to your home, some of them can be touched by the kids and they all treated well, party place rentals, bringing his class to a movie and dinner with time in the arcade, etc. I loved going all out on decorating and I was a bit sad when my sons decided they were too old to have parties, until I had my daughter and got to start over. It was always so much fun but I made sure to have additional adults to help with all the kids.
Married: October, 19, 2015
EDD 2/22/17 DS1 born on 3/2/17
EDD 3/8/20 DS2 born on 3/10/20
EDD 11/24/23
(Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)