Calling The Viroids - Just Shagging Graduates!

[gormers]

Just thought I'd start a thread for all those JS graduates, whether a newbie graduate or even if you left us a while ago and are well on your way. Would be good for us to keep in touch, see if we're all staying 'sane'.

Don't know about you ladies, but I am still filled with the overwhelming urge to PIAR (that's POAS for all you older graduates - after you left us we went a little mad and started harnessing the power of the ramekin!) I think once you start the habit it doesn't leave you!

Well, it's good to know that the Just Shagging method works. Even if we did once in a while just cheat a teeny tiny little bit!

Hello. I'm back. Bit of a relief if I'm honest. It was our first ever UK holiday and I'm not convinced But then it is February. My advice would be go somewhere hot while you still can!! lol @ dyna's rememberences of camping

I've come back and my on-line maternity wear order has arrived. I ordered some stuff from Mamas & Papas and Seraphine. The M&P stuff is meh, ok. Some ok staples, but nothing special. The jeans are large and give me a saggy bum! I can't work out if I need my bump to grow before they fit or whether to send them back because they are just too big. The Seraphine stuff is lovely though. I'm especially loving this cardi at the moment. It looks good even though I've not got much of a bump to speak of.

Having a at memories of drunken takethat falling into the fireplace!

Vallinna that 11 weeks seems to have gone quick. I'm 18 weeks and I've been feeling a lump for only a few weeks, but then I think you are more of a gym bunny than I've ever been

Dyna: I am going to a wedding in Penzance (I live in Wales) 3 weeks before I am due.

I am wearing this dress Its not a maternity one but with all the pleats in the front I have got loads of room in it so worth looking at 'normal' shops to!!

I know what you mean about not 'feeling it' so close to the due date! And the photo evidence

I'm not going to my cousin's wedding 3 weeks before my EDD. It's a 4 hour drive away and tbh apart from my parents and uncle we wouldn't know anyone (well, cousin, obv, but my DH has never met her - she stormed out of our wedding before that point as she thought it was all too boring! Fortunately I didn't notice until later in the evening, but did glare at a table for a while wondering why there was a gap!!)

Tried to get a few maternity basics today. I had a voucher for next as a leaving present from some of my kids at christmas. So few Next stores have maternity range in, so drove quite a way to one that did. It was 2 rails with a choice of about 5 different things. Size 8 trousers OKish, size 10 enormous. Bought the 8's as I need something to wear for work and it seems that real maternity clothes are too big.

Howdy all,

Stressful few days in the Pod house. Had more bleeding. Had tried to hold out until my scan on Weds but didn't sleep a wink last night, bar the one dream I had where I was miscarrying and the other where my best friend was getting an abortion So went for a scan this morning. Fitting fit. A real wriggler. 56.3mm long, saw it's spine and everything! Cried for the first time I was so relieved.

Oz is not a spur of the moment thing. We went on holiday last year and I was DESPERATE to go and live out there for a few years. We have several Aussie friend's from the UK who have moved home and I love the beach/city lifestyle of Sydney. DH was very against the move - to the point we had a couple of make or break arguments over it as I was so keen and he wasn't. So fast forward a year and he has a great job opportunity there and by chance I could too (although I would not want to be transferring a PG employee/mat leaver if I were my firm, no matter what discrimination laws are..!) I think we just wait and see. If DH is successful we'll have to make some decision. Very exciting to have all these options though.

Camping?! With babies?! Are you ladies insane (I have camped at festivals, other than that I am a bit precious )

Sorry you didn't get the weather BB. We are off to Cornwall for the long weekend in a fortnight and I am fully prepared for lots of books by a fire! Have you checked out ASOS for maternity clothes? My fave for browsing so far!

Dyna no weddings planned close to DD but we have planned to go to a wedding type party 3 weeks before and the T20 cricket finals a fortnight before! Both are over an hour from home and we are staying over night but I reckon take my antenatal notes! Also being very flexible. If I feel like a beached whale I am just not going to go. I am trying to get 'lots' of stuff in the diary for round then as I can imagine the baby countdown is going to be a loooooooooong process!

Sorry you've had such a stressful time Vallinna but v glad all is OK.

Whilst I'm not planning on doing it, my parents did take me camping at about 4 months old - on a scout camp of all places! (Dad was a scout leader) and we've seen (and heard plenty of tiny babies around campsites we've been to.

I'm going up to my mum and dad's for a few days tomorrow so will be quiet for a while. Hope everyone is well and has a good week

All you campers are brave!

I am so with all of you, bb, esk, etc, on maternity clothes. Meh is barely even the word. vallinna you're right - ASOS is the only shop I've found with more than three grey granny frocks on it. Also bb my maternity jeans do the same. Starting to think the elasticated-under-bump thing is never going to work precisely because it goes under the bump, ie. underneath the bit that is actually growing. They're safety-pinned and they still fall down. But my own jeans hurt like buggery when I try to do them up ...

Having a stressy day today. No kicks from the baby all day and only a few yesterday, whereas the day before she was doing some sort of boxing training. And very at the stupid sodding bank, who now say 'yes, yes, the product exists, we are definitely going to be doing it, but we're finalising all the details and all the criteria. Ring every couple of months and eventually we'll be able to look into it for you'. Every couple of months! Don't they realise that pregnancy is on a deadline?! Wankers.

Right, off to drink a cold drink and poke my belly until it leaps ...

Aaargh me me me me me ... sorry

vallinna sorry you've had bleeding again. It's so stressful, isn't it? I've had pink spotting for the last couple of days, combined with less kicking than usual, but I'm just ignoring it. Less kicking is still kicking ... so so glad you got a lovely scan though and got to see more of the baby :) I think for some women bleeding is just normal in pregnancy. Bloody frightening though!

Australia sounds amazing and exciting! Fingers crossed for your DH, if it's what you still want too. Had you reconciled yourself to not moving or were you still hankering after sun, sea, city and sand? Also, if your work will transfer you, take take take I say! I'm sure you're a brilliant employee and they'd rather transfer you than lose you ...

vallinna: I am glad you could get the scan and everything was ok. I hope everything works out well in Aus, my aunt moved with her 2 month old and loved it.

I think we must just be 'campers' and I think I like the excuse just to chill out and be out of contact for a while. We had a great time last summer in our little 'love tent' in the JS days!

takethat: Sometimes I can see the bump moving on the outside and shes going crazy in there with nudges coming from everywhere then nothing which makes me worry but Mum said the other day maybe she just tired herself out which I wish I thought of rather than stressing!

Day off work today as got up and my head was spinning much it felt like I was pissed! Still flaking out and tired most of the time so MW said she is going to check my iron count on Thursday and I have got my GTT on Friday.

I am so glad DH has been home these last few days and not back in til Thursday as hes been so good! Caught me just before I hit the ground a few times, put up with my emotional ranting and learned to cook a few meals and make coffee!

I'm in shock this morning. Christchurch, where my parents live, had another earthquake. They are thankfully fine as is my best friend who still lives there. Pregnancy hormones do not prepare a girl for such horrible news!

TTL - how far along are you? And have you had any Braxton Hicks? I had a bit of crazy kicking and then it all went quiet, coincided with the a few contracting/stretching feelings and my MW said it's perfectly normal for your uterus to have a growth spurt when it feels like the baby's getting cramped, which then gives baby more room to move BUT you feel the kicks less. You don't notice it outwards because it's about when your uterus shifts up above your belly button. Mine appaerntly grew about 2 inches upwards in the space of a week!

VP - sorry to hear about the bleeding but glad everything's okay. Wow you're brave contemplating a move to Oz but you should totally go for it! Would your company give you a short-term leave of absence given that you'd want to follow your DH and let you come back after?

BB - I've found that if you have saggy-bottomed maternity trews they won't get better. I actually had to go down a size to get some which fitted bum and underbump. You shouldn't grow that much where the fabric goes - my mothercare ones are still well under the bump.

NMCB - glad your parents and best friend are fine. It must be horribly stressfu being away when stuff like that happens.

I can't understand you crazy camping people. There's no way you'd get me in a tent. Ever.

Thanks Snap. I made the mistake of look at the news websites this morning and it hit me pretty hard. Then had to get myself composed to get DS out the door to playgroup. I should have read the email from my sister that said only look if you're feeling strong, first!

Vannilla good to hear the scan put your mind at rest, though boo you have to go through the stress in the first place. Have you been watching Relocation Down Under? He was in Sydney last week. even if you went in the next couple of months to winter, it'd still be so much warmer than the UK.

Coyboy also sorry to hear you've been unwell. Good work on getting the DH trained though

TTL hope little Isobel is back to lots of movement today. Though it's interesting what Snaple said about stretching.

I'm having a very tired phase at the minute. I'm always ready to get back into bed about 5 minutes after getting out, but the last few days have been really hard. Also had the weirdest dream about the baby sticking it's face out of my stomach last night. I could see it blinking through the skin! Creepy.

NMCB glad your family are safe. Horrible news to wake up to. until the first quake I would have had no idea there was a fault line in the area. fingers crossed 'that's it' (not wishing to trivilise the situation) now.

12 week scan tomorrow. Strange feeling for me - excitement! All my previous scans have been preceded by anxiety and fear! There is a teeny bit of anxiety there around chromosomal abnormalities, wouldn't be me if I were completely chilled!

Frak That sounds like a crazy growth spurt! I am all inbetweeny. I look fat and nothing fits. Normal clothes too tight, the only pair of maternity trousers I own (eBay bargain, no shopping allowed until after tomorrow!) are too big!

My mango craving continues! Just munched through £5 worth from M&S That would have got me 20 packets of Transformer Snacks...

12 week scan! God, so exciting! Baby is such a wiggler!! All super, really low (high?!) chromosomal ratios so no need for anything more invasive. So amazing to see it's walnut brain and blood flowing in and out of it's heart!

They have dated me as 12+4 (am actually 11+6) based on the CRL - I don't understand as it is a physical and biological impossibility for it to be anything other than 11+6!!! Still, they're the doctors. Gives me an EDD of 4 Sept (previously 9th).

So exciting!!

Awww glad you have a wriggler! Mine sleeps all the way through scans - it's boring... But maybe it'll be a nice tranquil baby.

NMCB How upsetting for you - really glad to know your family is ok.

TTL hope you have had some more kicks, even though it makes sense what frakkle said about not having a lot of room.

Vallina glad you've had reassuring scans and have a wriggler! I think they base the dating on the size of the baby at the 12 wk scan and it gets used from that point on. It's just medical stuff, innit?
Your potential move to oz sounds very exciting too - the lifestyle out there really appeals.

I've been lurking mostly because haven't got much excitement at the moment!
x

Thanks frak and milano, and double thanks to nmcb for calling her Isobel too :) Made me smile :) DH and I still finding it difficult to actually use her name, though I do it when I'm on my own and wittering on to her!

She's kicking again today and I had lots of big kicks last night, so am feeling very relieved!

nmcb are you okay? The news from NZ is so terrible. So glad your loved ones are okay.

Congrats on the scan vallinna! It's amazing isn't it? Ha ha about the dating. Doctors don't seem to care what the actual dates are. I got told off at my scan for going when I was 9+4 even though I told the doctor I was 9+4 and he refused to take my long cycles into account ... first day of last period or nothing, so early scan. Silly! Glad your LO is all fine and dandy :)

I am recovering today after I had to go fossil-hunting yesterday for work. Yes, fossil-hunting. I have got myself involved in a silly bloody outreach project, and ended up on West Runton beach for five hours with no toilets lugging a load of fossils about and clambering up cliff faces and into rock pools. The man I was with was very nice and made sure I didn't fall over but I guess he didn't have much experience with pregnant women! 5 hours in the freezing cold with a baby on my bladder was not much fun! Then when I got back the achy feelings in my god damn fanjo were crazy and I had to drive home knackered in my wellies with sore ladybits. Soooo glad I was working from home today, and DH was around to be bossed around look after me :)

I'm back! Had a lovely time with parents and visited a good friend too.

Sorry you've had a worrying time with kicks TTL but glad she seems to be moving again. I haven't felt any kicks or anything yet, but haven't felt sick for a couple of weeks either. The gap between the 12 week and 20 week scans seems enormous! I need to try to get a mw appointment in next week for the 16 week check, but they only do silly appointment times (ie when I'm at work) and although I know I'm entitled to it, I don't really want to keep on taking time off.

Yay for the scan vallinna but can't agree with you on the mango - at least not the fresh stuff. However I do have a small addiction to forest fruits "coco mango balls"! which are supposed to be nice healthy dried fruit, until you read the nutritional info and find they're nearly 12% fat Must be all the coconut!

Oh, and has anyone else heard of the "tradition" that the grandparents on the mum-to-be's side buy the pram for the first grandchild? Mum mentioned it today, and, whilst I'm not complaining at their very generous offer, I'm slightly baffled at this as a tradition. But it's more than just in my immediate family - my cousin is pg and there's been a falling out between her and her mum because her MIL is buying them a pram. Apparently the same thing happened to my gran (my aunt's mum) when my aunt's MIL bought the pram for her first!
Mentioned this to DH and he looked completely blank at me. Perhaps it's a generational thing? Or even a northern thing? Or is my family just a bit weird about some things?

Hey esk, glad you had a lovely time!

Never heard of that tradition! My mum and step-dad are all but buying us our nursery furniture which is just soooo generous of them but we would never have expected it. Not going to ask them for the pram too ha ha. My lovely-but-crazy SIL keeps telling me there is a tradition for the father to buy the mother of the baby a ring after the birth, too. Bit about that one - feels really weird and patronising to me. Like 'There there little lady, I know you've just passed a human being through your bits but here's something sparkly to take your mind off it.' Also, DH is going to be there to be sworn at/have his hand squeezed off, etc, so I'm hoping he'll be more part of it than buying me some jewellery! (Not to mention if he bought me a ring that would mean the baby would have to not have a pram/nappies/food for a year).

Not heard of any more 'traditions' like this ...

We have both the pram and jewellery tradition! I like it

frak, you're right. What am I thinking?! Give me the goodies!

TTL I've heard of the ring tradition too - think it's quite common (as in well known !) Sadly DH hasn't and however many people inform him of it he thinks I've made it up! Apparently his mother didn't need an eternity ring and that's good enough for him. sigh.

Oh is that what eternity rings are for ? I wonder what other gifts I've been missing out on over the years ... !!!

Argh! iPhone ate my morning post to you all!

My in-laws got DH's brother and his wife their pram. I am sort of hoping they don't offer to do that for us as my tastes are not exactly in the cheapest bracket!!

I have a friend who keeps harping on about the 'baby ring'! I think it has become a tradition as previously an enternity ring has symbolised 10 years (?) of marriage and these days people aren't so optimistic I am happy with the love and support of my DH (and nearly £8000 worth of IVF/acupuncture ) I agree that it is a little patronising or contrived but at the same time, let's face it, a Tiffany sparkler would go down a treat