Babies April 2015

Sorry Faffymom@ forgot you had a wedding to prepare and missed some comments. I applaud you for doing all the prep with a pregnancy. Happy it all went well.

On friday I went to Gems offices to find out about the benefits and other options as we are considering changing options, the lady explained to us that medical aids change benefits and decrease amounts each year which becomes a challenge for alot of families. It seems fraud is the biggest factor and it seems thats increased even more since hospital plans came into play.
She advised us to come in january early before we even use our medical aid to study the benefits thoroughly and understand each benefit.
Also what came into account was that everytime you see a gynea he wants to do a scan for like 2 sec only to find that if you pay cash he charges R500 for eg but R1000+ if they claim from medical aid. This has caused me headaches , I wanted to find out if they pay for a homebirth and doula etc only to be told they cant confirm it till Dec or January :/ as codes change each year so we might not be able to go the midwife route after all. We will only know in January. Which by then will be too late to change options also so it seems the scheme are throwing their members in the deep on purpose to make money. Its hard because then for us who want vbacs it means your chances of getting one is getting less.

I did a lot of thinking over the weekend...and I think I am just going to go for it..hypnobirthing classes here I come I think it will be a good benefit to a newbie mom and dad.

Ja I am also getting super stressed about medical aid and their non-sense. I think everyone needs a course on their own medical aid so you can actually understand how to use them. It seems to me they come up with new rules every time you talk to them. Good luck!

Shame Nelsn, sounds horrible Hope it gets better soon. I am suffering with sleeping. Trying to sleep on the left side all night is so difficult. I think I need one of those maternity pillow things. My right hip gets so sore at night.

Have a lovely week ladies

Hi Ladies,

Faffymum - so glad to hear your wedding and honeymoon was great!

The hypnobirthing classes were R1600 for me here in Gauteng including the book with CD. It seems as if the prices vary from instructors.
Medical aid doesn't cover mine because the instructor is not registered with the medical board.

What is getting to me is that how expensive it is to have a birth with a midwife. Although I am on a very good plan with Discovery health, they only pay R90 of a R300 visit for a midwife - and we all know how many times we have to have checkups...Then with the delivery they will only pay 50 - 70% which seems as if we might be paying in R3000 - R5000 out of our own pocket. If I have a normal hospital birth with a doctor they will pay EVERYTHING. Crazy!!!

Nelsn, I am so sorry to hear about your reflux. I really feel your pain and discomfort. It is a bit of a trick to figure out what foods makes it worse. Certain fruits can certainly make it A LOT worse. Because I was chronically on Nexiam before pregnancy for reflux my Dr. said I can take it a couple of times a week if really needed. So far I have only taken it 3 times in the past 2 weeks, but am concerned that I am only 20 weeks now and I know it is going to get a lot worse still. The best thing I find is smaller meals frequent meals and avoid taking liquids directly after or before eating (which makes it difficult to consume more than 1 liter of water per day).

My LG is battling a fever again, so it has been a rough couple of nights. Waiting to confirm if it is bladder infection again.

For those interested: I found a christian meditation relaxation MP3. It was a bit of a mission to buy, but eventually created an Itunes account and managed to buy it there; Here is the website, you can listen to the samples of the tracks before buying:

www.beinginhim.net/products.html

I was thinking last night how much I enjoy this pregnancy compared to my first. With my first I didn't really know that a life is already part of the family until my LG was born. Now I feel as if this baby is already part of the family since everyone is talking to her and my LG even tickles her through my tummy LOL. Such a wonderful gift and experience!

Wishing you all a good week and good luck with the difficult moments! xx

Morning ladies

how are you doing? How was your weekend.
Hypnobirthing classes are not cheap indeed, I understand the reason for wanting to make sure its a need.
Have any of you ladies been able to carry on with your exercises? My reflux is causing havoc for me , if i exercise i just bring everything up. Peaches give me cramps and nausea too all of a sudden so that is out for the constipation reliever, but having a small bowl of All Bran and yoghart seems to help a bit. Also I seem to have stopped gaining weight, I dont eat much but im not gaining and im starting to wonder if that is good or bad.
This baby kicks so much at night I really hope that wont be his sleeping patern when he is out :o

No worries Gloeiwurmpie. Everyone has their own opinions
Its good to have a few different views. I am just not sure I can spend R1800 on classes if I could rather buy something for the baby with that money. Might just get the book for now. Difficult decision. I liked the look of the gentle beginnings classes, but they are a bit far from where i live and I would rather attend one that was recommended by someone, than just go to any classes.

My wedding and honeymoon was wonderful thanks!

Hi Faffymom and Mommyme!

I think that Mommyme mentions something that I forgot to add. This is my second child and therefore my needs might be a bit different from a first time mom. I think I have read perhaps a bit too much already and a lot of what I have come across in the Hypnobirthing I already knew. But I can only imagine myself as a first time mom and would have loved the Hypnobirthing without a doubt!

So please, I don't want to bash the hypnobirthing at all, it is just that I personally felt uncomfortable with the rainbow relaxation cd and the fact that it seemed as if the instructor basically covered what was written in the book, which I could read on my own. But I have only been to 2 classes - like I said before to soon to give a detailed opinion. I was slightly bummed that on international forums/blogs people clearly preferred the Hypnobabies above the Hypnobirthing, but that doesn't say that the Hypnobirthing isn't good or helpful I think.

ps: Hope you had a wonderful honeymoon and wedding day! Congratulations! May the rest of your pregnancy be healthy and blessed. xx

Thanks mommyMe.

Will have a think and see what to do. I would like to go to classes of some sort but I guess choosing the right one is tough. It's nice to have some references of what is good and what isn't.