Hi Ladies,
It's hard to keep up in here at the moment! great to see some new ladies in here, welcome and hoping you have a h and h pregnancy

Paula – hoping you get some updates soon, but babies seem to arrive when they want to rather than when WE want them to.

Renee – great news you can feel the baby kicking – it’s such an amazing experience.

Dusty – congratulations on the birth of Freya!

Sweetie – If it helps at all, I have discovered that extremely high HCG levels DON'T necessarily mean you are having twins – although I know Brunette would love a twin buddy in here! My HCG levels were WAY above anything I could find on any website telling me anything other than I was having at least twins and easily triplets. I spent two weeks stressing about it (having a child already and then having twins was not the ideal) - but I only have one healthy little bubba in there. I only had one embryo replaced and with both pregnancies my HCG levels were way above any ‘normal’ levels and my due date hasn’t changed so they numbers just were ridiculously high all on their own! Make sure you are comparing the same dpo as people quote HCG levels without making any reference to their dpo which means you really can’t compare them.

Hi to everyone I have missed!

Drugs for headaches - Both Paracetamol and Codeine are class A, but like Juniper said, use codeine only when you need it and not long-term. I cannot stress enough that a GP is not the best person to ask about whether a drug is safe in pregnancy. In the past three months I have been prescribed three drugs from two different GP’s (one was a locum) and all are harmful during pregnancy, even though I told both I was pregnant. Doctors don’t generally know without looking up their ‘book’ which as I have discovered means they know not more than us. A specialist GP who deals with pregnancy, a midwife or OB is going to be much better than a GP but your pharmacist is the best person to give advice as it’s their job to know about the impacts of the pharmacy items they are dispensing. If it wasn’t for me asking the pharmacists to double check they are safe in pregnancy, all three drugs could have caused serious problems for me and the baby. I was talking about this on Saturday to one of my mother’s groups friends who is a lecturer in pharmacy and was horrified after talking to her that it is all too common for doctors to recommend in particular over the counter drugs that aren’t safe for pregnancy.

Soft cheeses –As Juniper says you CAN eat pasteurised soft cheeses including Brie and Camembert which we are all 'told' not to eat. The warning for soft cheeses is aimed at countries where cheeses aren’t pasteurised. You can read if a cheese is pasteurised on the ingredients as they clearly say pasteurised milk on them if they are made from it - which obviously you check if you are out at a party. I had a big discussion with my OB about this as I had food poisoning at 29 weeks from eating cooked fish with my DD which is the reason I know this. I still won’t eat cold meats, cold cooked or uncooked seafood or food at parties etc where I don’t know where they have been though, going back to using good old common sense

AFM – Had my scan last week and have one healthy bubba measuring the right size. I think it’s a boy but of course have absolutely no idea if it is! Still pretty sick but are starting to feel better which is VERY exciting.