Getting Ready For Baby Challenge Thread 5

I don't know what I would be if I could be anything I wanted to be... never really thought about it.

jupiter I think OV day must have been yesterday aswell as negative OPK. I use CB OPK aswell as IC but even that gave me a negative followed by a peak on day 10. Very bizarre. Just when I thought I understood my cycle!!

Hey all!
Grumpy and Parsnips I think we may be holding off until July/August too. Realistically we can't do it all and after speaking to my mum about her horrific morning sickness, I think it's best to wait until just before or just after our wedding. I'm having visions of me running to the toilet in front of all our guests and letting the cat out of the bag! 🙈 Then again...we are incredibly impatient to so who knows what will happen!

Loving the new AB! We can add that and "get humping" to our thread phrase book.

Buzz I really want to be a speech and language therapist or perhaps an educational psychologist! With my teaching background I could do it fairly easily but it still involves so much further education and I just don't have the time. It would mean putting off ttc for at least 5 years and I'm already hating that I have to wait 5 months!! It's a later life goal though.

Happy hump day everyone!

It's so nice hearing about what everyone would be if they could =)... i would be a midwife or a paeds nurse either would suffice but i cannot afford to retrain... i've never been able to but i hope maybe in years to come i'll be able to go to uni to do it

Totally agree with buzz on this one. I think the only thing I'll ever be good at is being a mum. I'm totally different from other 21 year olds there all still going out getting drunk and playing hide the sausage with as many randomers as possible which is probably what being young is all about but I've got morals and respect myself more to not do that (sound like a complete bore but I am fun..honest haha!) I'm not really career minded and never have been really. I always wanted to be lawyer and academically I'm able to (studies business and economics, law, psychology, maths and photography at A-Level) but it just wasn't for me. Now I work as a P.A in a nationally known company but all I ever think about is being a mum every day. I wish I was career minded like some of you lovel ladies.

Pony no I know I'm a little distraught because vanish and Ace didn't get that bastard blood out and they were new ones for xmas. Couldn't of happened to my old scabby ones that have seen better days but I'm too attached to chuck away haha! I've done 6 paracetamol so far today and one have touched the sides for these cramps!

Now gonna have a nice hot shower, get a hot water bottle and get in bed. More decorating for me on the weekend. New carpet arriving tomorrow ready to be fitted on Tuesday. Also got some new bedding which is lovely for my spare bedroom. I will share pics once it's all completed.

Hb how is the fertile week going?? So exciting!

MrsC - cross post.. just saw your update. Sorry that no-one apologised. That's tough. But am really glad you confronted it. Hope you're feeling a bit better tonight xx

buzz oooo I would be a neuroscientist if I could!

mummy I would count from the 13th? As OPK wasn’t picking up any LH on that day (or would you expect the line to get lighter and lighter before disappearing? I’m a digital CB user so don’t know about all the technicalities!)

laura silly AF (AB!) hope you’re looking after yourself today (and the pyjamas are okay!)

Really enjoying all this talk about SAHDs - isn’t it great! Won’t be like that in our house (despite the fact I earn much more than DH) as wouldn’t be for us. I’ll go part time and try and get as much maternity leave as I can afford (around 10 months probably)

parsnips Sorry about AB, hope you’re okay and not too disappointed. Lots of things to look forward to though. Enjoy the pub quiz.

orange ditto on the pelvic twinges! I think mine are all wind though ha. 6DPO and feeling very un-pregnant (although unlikely to have even implanted yet.) Mr Orange and Mr Jupiter would get on - both Kate Bush in the shower type of chaps :)

grumpy it’s so rubbish that any of the work stuff has to be a concern but I totally empathise. I’ve put off and put off TTC for work reasons (around 2 years in fact) but have got to a point where we seriously need to just go for it before I get too old.

MrsC I’m so sorry to hear about your work issue! That’s disgraceful, no wonder you’re so upset. When is the meeting? Good on you for organising one

If money wasn’t an object I would quit nursing and re-train to be a vet :D

buzz wanting to be a mum is a fantastic ambition! It will happen, Im so glad your ambition is attainable.

lady all of those worries are so valid - sounds like its been a tough few weeks. Maybe give yourself some time to recover from all that stress and then re-evaluate. It’s hard to make big decisions when you’re exhausted and drained and sounds like your previous rationale was very sensible.

Happy International Women’s day your glorious bunch (trying not to be cynical, but totally get why people are feeling that on the board..)

ladyglittersparkle I'm in in a similar position to you (well except I'm already pregnant!) :) DD is 18 months, had terrible morning sickness for months with her, but wanted to have a close age gap. I don't have to worry too much about my career though, I'm at the bottom of the ladder really so can pick up when my DC are at school! It's a tough decision to make for sure, we originally wanted a larger age gap for various "logical" reasons but then decided the age gap would mean it's not the family dynamic we wanted (I want 2 toddlers running around at Xmas, shared days out etc.) Plus I'm much better at supervising play between 2 children than being the sole playmate of one, even though DD loves it! Good luck in what you decide :)

Girls thanks for all the support, I had a meeting and said what I felt were failures which left me in a difficult position and nobody apologised or said anything but hopefully now it won't happen again. I can do no more i guess, doesn't help that it was my boss at fault mainly but I stood up for myself at least. Thanks for the kindness big love xx
ladyglitter there really is no right answer, it's a case of weighing up pro's and cons and there will always be both, sorry I know that's very unhelpful! Pregnancy and baby is stressful no matter when I guess, but it's just a case of knowing that u feel ready for it, and there as nothing wrong with not feeling ready for it right now either!
hb hope plan make a baby is going well!
orange sorry for your sad news re your friend xx also I wish my hubby even knew who Kate Bush was!!
parsnips sorry about AB (love that term buzz) hope u are feeling OK xx
penguin I'm itching to tell mum but want to hold off until it feels a little more real to me!
grumpy I'm outraged that u were asked that and that it's made you worry about work, international women's day and it really does feel like equality is a long way off! Good advice by red to maybe take things to chance and see how it goes!
glitters thanks lovely, glad I'm not alone with that .... I swear I've never checked my knicks more in my life!
Trying to zen out now and reduce the blood pressure back to normal!

BUZZ at 15 my teacher asked us all what we wanted to be when we were older and I replied "be a Mum" he said you can't just be a mum and I said "why not?" He rang my Mum to say I was trying to cause a scene in class to which my Mum replied that I wasn't, from a young age I had always wanted to be a mum and what was wrong with that? She said he went silent and didn't know what to say lol

So sorry I've just realised how long and boring that probably is lol

Hi everyone, so I think I just need to get this out there and DH is no use as he just says he's happy with whatever I decide lol. Anyway I seem to be really struggling to decide when to have another baby. At the beginning of the year I was all for having one as soon as possible. My youngest is 17 months so thought it would be nice for them to be close in age, you know similar age for days out and activities, someone to play with etc (although I know it won't be that harmonious and plain sailing lol) Plus my manager has said she will be leaving in the next 4/5 years and ideally I would take over. By which time both the youngest would be at school. I thought I had it all decided but then me and youngest DD have been ill for the last 2 weeks so I've been off work and it has been so hard looking after her when I've felt so ill and tired all the time. it's made me think how will I manage when pregnant (I had a really bad time during last pregnancy and terrible morning sickness) I know it all probably seems really silly but I now just can't decide whether to carry on trying or wait. How do you ever know what's best? It's so difficult plus the fact that I could decide to wait a year to start trying but it most likely won't happen straight away so then it could be a year of trying etc arggh I'm driving myself crackers. There's a 16year age gap with my DD's so it was an easy decision last time, get married and then start trying (I was pregnant 1 month after the wedding lol)

Is it bad that I've only ever wanted to be a mum? 🤔

Author - I'd love to give it all up and write stories!

Red that's good advice, I can't stress like that every month! However might try to avoid FW until at least May.

Mummy you are lucky in that way. I just want to be excited and happy to be pregnant not paranoid about work! I actually thought about changing career but they have me in the golden handcuffs (worlds smallest violin etc etc). I'd love to be an interior designer actually.

What's everyone's dream career if money no object?

OH wouldn't take time off as his work would suffer and he would hate it

Sorry for all the work stresses grumpy and mrsC I'm lucky in that sense that I don't have to worry about discrimination at work regarding pregnancy and mat leave since I work in a female dominated profession. I know it's hard for our doctors as their career really suffers when they have children.

I finished work at 36+5 with DS, 1week annual leave and started mat leave at 37+5.. delivered at 41+3 and went back to work when he was 13months after a months annual leave stuck on the end (end of May until end of July off). I would probably do something similar this time, it's just the 3months unpaid after 9months which would be hard

Wow you girls are so much more prepared than I was with my first! Although I am going to take less time off with this one, and hopefully work right up until my due date this time, as last time I started 6 weeks early. Went back just after my little one's first birthday, but this time I will only take the paid 9 months leave (only 6 months at full pay though) and along with the accrued holiday you get to take, I think that will mean I go back when baby is 10 months? And daddy will be a SAHP :)

Sorry about AF Parsnips

Laura sorry about your PJ's but atleast you haven't had to wait long post-pill!! CD1 for you then, you can start learning about your personal cycle

Grumpy perhaps instead of doing the stressing like you were about TTC, you could just chill out and just have relaxed unprotected sex from now until summer. If you get upduffed then so be it, if not, start tracking your cycle from summer onwards & make more effort then? I could see how stressed you were last cycle and your manic symptom spotting, that's not good for your mental health, especially worrying about work too
Easy for me to sat maybe, i am pretty good about not stressing about things lol

I am considering only taking 5 months mat leave when the time comes, leaving 4months for DP.

Wow that would be so cool!!! I've had mad life admin this month (but quite like it because my job contains very little paperwork) Amazing what you can pay for these days if you need to!

Sorry for your stress MrsC Hopefully the worst is over and the actual causes will come out & you & poppyseed can chill :)

I've just looked into getting a personal PA for the domestic admin so I can focus more on work, DH is useless in that regard (errands, organising) so not sure how him being at home will help.

Sorry about the BFNs girls

Sounds like rubbish work situations all round!! MrsC definitely stick up for yourself and then try to switch off and forget about it... try and find something nice to do for yourself that will help you to relax.

Happy international women's day... definitely a cynic here too! All these extra "rights" we have, just result in more pressure on us to do everything and be everything to everyone! Not possible.

Oh and so sorry about the BFN's girls, sorry I missed them I'm so tired in the evenings I was asleep by half 8 last night! So harder to keep up on the thread (unless I secretly MN at work like I am right now )