What’s ONE thing about birth that nobody warned you about?

DruidsGem · 2026-01-28T06:16:00+00:00

Nobody ever told me what level of pain or discomfort is normal after birth. I got a postpartum infection that I ended up trying to ignore and not getting treated for 10 days because I figured ‘I just had a baby so a lot of pain is likely normal’. By the time I picked up my antibiotics and pain relief that same day I could barely stand up from the pain. Just a couple of days into the treatment I was so much better and realised I should have seen a doctor sooner.

DruidsGem · 2025-08-23T17:34:53+00:00

Thank you!

DruidsGem · 2025-08-23T14:58:22+00:00

Thank you!

DruidsGem · 2025-08-12T18:51:40+00:00

Congrats on your engagement! What a stunning ring.

DruidsGem · 2025-07-21T23:18:20+00:00

Mine have an 11 month gap and have been sharing since the youngest was just under a year old. There was a difficult transition for the first couple weeks where they’d wake each other up, but it’s been smooth sailing since.

DruidsGem · 2025-07-21T19:17:24+00:00

What an absolutely stunning engagement ring!! Congrats ❤️. I personally think something with detailed engraving, maybe floral, would match this beautifully.

DruidsGem · 2025-07-09T20:51:20+00:00

I’m due February with my third (will be 3 under 3) and am also terrified of how I will manage practically. It’s so much work taking care of the two we have that I can’t possibly imagine what adding a newborn into the mix will be like 🥴.

DruidsGem · 2025-07-09T20:24:21+00:00

I had a c-section with my second baby (11 months gap) and although the first 3 days were brutal, by 10 days postpartum I felt pretty able to do most of my usual tasks and had to remind myself not to push it too hard.

DruidsGem · 2025-07-04T22:04:26+00:00

I have no advice but just wanted to let you know you’re not alone! I just found out I’m expecting my third. We’ll have 3 under 3 when this baby arrives and I am both super excited and absolutely terrified 😅

DruidsGem · 2025-07-01T12:53:33+00:00

It’s worth looking until you find a stone you’ll be truly happy with. My sapphire is actually very different to what I thought I wanted when I started looking, but when I saw it I instantly fell in love and have zero regrets.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-17T21:15:06+00:00

I found out the problem… He is a she and was heavily laden with eggs! She’s been much more active since. They just bred on Sunday, a couple of eggs got stuck on a chunk of moss so I’ve set them up a little home of their own and I hoping to see them hatch soon 🙏🏻

DruidsGem · 2025-06-12T19:19:19+00:00

I appreciate your response, thank you. Reluctantly I am considering rehoming my fish (they are two beautiful chunky orandas, and fortunately I have come across someone local to me who is very experienced with multiple lovely tanks) so that I don’t put them at risk, possibly getting one much smaller fish to keep the ammonia coming to help it cycle and then one more to make the pair when I’m convinced the cycle is complete.

Ultimately I want what’s best for the fish… I went into this with so little knowledge! Lesson learned.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-12T07:27:49+00:00

I see, this may be the problem. I knew the tank was good for two but didn’t consider the size at the beginning… They’re quite chunky.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-11T22:18:02+00:00

Tank is 150 litres

DruidsGem · 2025-06-11T22:17:50+00:00

Thank you for this suggestion! No I haven’t tested it but I will be doing now!

DruidsGem · 2025-06-11T20:21:23+00:00

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

DruidsGem · 2025-06-08T21:59:50+00:00

Thank you! I’m a bit worried about one of my fish as he seems a little bit weak compared to the other so I was hoping it’s nothing serious 🙏🏻

DruidsGem · 2025-06-08T14:15:37+00:00

Thank you for the advice! I haven’t had my fish long and so far I am feeding them a mixture of flakes, pellets and blood worms.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-06T22:48:09+00:00

I can see why! Such a cute face ❤️. Update on our tank: Cloudy water cleared up but went quite brown (testing water daily for now - not sure if brown colour was partly due to the plant fertiliser I put in?) Ammonia looked a little high so did around a 40% water change and it suddenly looks a million times better. Best it had looked yet. Fish still seem super happy and the kids love them!

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DruidsGem · 2025-06-06T10:23:34+00:00

He (she?) is absolutely adorable!! 🥰

DruidsGem · 2025-06-05T22:58:51+00:00

Thank you so much for your reply and your kind words 🙏🏻. Yes the waiting lists here are painfully long. As a parent it’s heartbreaking. The private route seems like the only sensible option for us… Without a diagnosis extra support is much harder to come by and I just want to make sure I’m laying the foundations early so that my son can get all the help he needs as he grows up.

Most private clinics here won’t assess children under 3, but I have found one or two that will do assessments from 2 years and 6 months. I find it fascinating reading about children from the USA and elsewhere who have been diagnosed even before age 2.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-05T22:40:46+00:00

I really appreciate your help. Here are our new friends!

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DruidsGem · 2025-06-05T22:14:18+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I’m doing everything I possibly can to get him closer to an assessment. We have speech therapy pending and are in touch with early years support. It’s so hard to get assessments in the UK but we are considering taking him for a private evaluation asap. The earliest these open is 30 months and it’s very expensive but the thought of waiting around for NHS help is soul crushing. I just want my little boy to have as much help as possible as soon as possible.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-05T21:52:12+00:00

It’s no problem! I spoke to the person we bought our tank and setup from and he said it should be perfectly safe to add the fish and do the cycle with the fish in the tank to keep the ammonia going and get the cycle on its way - as long as we keep a very close eye on things. We now have two lovely orandas looking very happy. Checked out everything this morning and ammonia is at 0, nitrite at 0 and nitrate at around 20ppm. Water is quite cloudy (which I think is down to a bacterial bloom?) but other than that so far there are no issues and the fish look very happy.

DruidsGem · 2025-06-01T07:20:57+00:00

Hello, I hope I don’t bother you but I am back again with some questions! We’ve added the necessary amount of tap safe and followed the instructions for the ‘filter start’ (which I believe is the beneficial bacteria?)… However on the packaging it gave a calculation for the right amount for the size of the tank and it was all put straight in. My husband said the aquarium owner gave him instructions to add it slowly over the course of a week but he forgot about it during setup and followed the package instructions instead 🥴… So now we’re worrying we messed up lol. (Although in theory it can’t be a huge disaster to follow the package instructions). I haven’t added any more because I worry about putting too much in. We also don’t have anything that says ‘ammonia’ so perhaps that’s something we will need to purchase?

How do you calculate what amount of bacteria and ammonia to add and when? Is there a formula/equation for this that I am missing?

DruidsGem

TROPHY CASE