The PESH deli - Happy New Year! The one where Polly finally lays and we get lots more BESHy wins.

[PollyPoo]

BESH BAYBEES

dontrythisathome, girl born March 25.
Cheggers, twinz girlz, born April.
FannyPriceless, boy, born June 8.
CurlyCasper, girl, born June 24.
CUNextTuesday, boy, born June 29.
AlpinePony, boy, born 1 July.
Carrots, boy, born July.
IggyPiggy, girl, born July.
Cosmosis, boy, born Sept 5.
Backinthebox, boy, born Sept 7.
Skatergrrrl, girl, born Sept 10.
VAG, boy, born Oct 2.
Silversky, boy, born Nov 1
SomethingSuitablyWitty, girl born Nov 2
okiecokie, girl, born Nov 12
Honeymoo, boy, born Nov 11
ReginaMonologue, boy, born Nov 13
Maswera, boy, born Dec 24

UPDIFFED

PollyPoo, wondering if this baybee is every going to come out, due 23 Dec or 28 Dec, depending on who you trust
MrsFC, joining whether she wants to or not, due 22 Jan
ChoChoSan, "and Lo! The lord did resurrect her petrified womb", due 31 Jan
CluckyKate, hatching an egg, due February 2
Perfect Dromedary, defied medical science, due February 24
Muser, blooming at last, due February 27
Ginhag, reckless cake-carrier, due 28th Feb
Medee, has a deceptive bump, due March 12
Casserole, completely out of witty things to add, due April 8
Scorpette, now carrying a RL baby in addition to Clothilda and the squid, due 18th May.
Laurielou, the unmarried hussy with the "surprise" diff, due 31 May (ish)
Rocketleaf, no longer jealous of morning sickness, due 1 June.
TwinkleToes, supergluing her fanjo shut, due 20 June.
Orchid, hoping for a zen like child, due 1st July
Ginfox, loving the new mega-boobs, due 12th July.
Ivegotmrbitey, Marmite is a lovely name for a baybee, due 27th July.
LadyGoneGaga, Compulsive Stick pisser, due 28 July

Sorry for the not terribly inventive opening, but I need to moan update you all...

Come in, grab a chair, a wheel of brie and a glass of champagne to welcome in the new year.

Ah drom i know what you mean that stuff is gorgeous! But lucky for me I am not really into matching stuff, hotch potch is more my thing :o

Cheapest drop side cot I have seen so far is this is basic and a wee bit orphanage looking but i don't need anything fancy really. If i get that and the ikea dresser the I will have spent less that £350 on furniture including the shelves which is about the price of a posh cot!

btw if you fancy some nursery porn (sorry that sounds wrong but you know what i mean) have a gander at v creative friend of friends nursery, i love the cot she has with the round ends but wouldn't have the room.

gawd bless g'parents pram buying insistence! thats really lovely.

sorry link fail nursery

I think it used to be the tradition that the mother's parents bought the pram, Drom. That's what my folks say (although they are totally un-trad usually). Mind you, they were lucky because my Granddad ran a swanky children's department and I was lucky enough to be pushed round in the same style Silver Cross behemoth that the royal family used, thanks to his mega-discount and contacts*

I have visions of Drom shouting instructions at TNB between contractions at what to order off various websites whilst in labour

Poor old TYF is home and tucked up in bed. I feel practically in tears at the thought of him feeling unwell - how the hell will I cope with The Lad getting a cold or colic?! Hormonal old fool.

*I also had a Strawberry Shortcake 6 months before they went on general sale. You KNOW you're all jealous!

Just a quickie re drop side cots do get one if you can. Yes they have 3 diff heights for mattress on most cots, so all is fine and dandy when sprog is small, matttress is nice and high up.

All is prob still fine forever and ever if you get a good sleeper but if your baybee is still not sleeping well as they get older and you have to put mattress down low THEN YOU FUCK YOUR BACK by spending hours leaning over the arsing thing, trying to soothe the grumpy creature. If the side drops down you can cuddle/stroke/sob into them easily whilst sitting in a chair next to them. Mooch went thru a really rough stage where I ended up fully bent over stupid non-drop - side cot sort of cuddling him...and it really hurt.

This may have something to do with my decision to bung him in a bed at 15 months (which worked brilliantly for us... But then we didn't have much to lose :))

Also you can't move mattress up b down with baybee on (not sure if this was confusing people or if I have wrong end of stick) is just to lower as baybee gets bigger,starts pulling up,may escape.

Ok, the logic of not necessarily having drop-sides makes sense if you have the variable positions. We?ve seen one nice one in M+P, which the PiLs have offered to buy us, but we?ve said not yet until we actually need it, by which time we should have a better idea of what we want. My Ps offered to buy the pram (was about the second thing my mum said after launching herself at me when made our announcement) but we had to politely decline, as we felt it was just too much money, when we earn good salaries and they are now retired. Mum was a bit disappointed and kept saying she would spend whatever we wanted (which I am sure she would have) but it just didn?t feel right. So, they?ve got us the Moses Basket, and a pile of other stuff which matches.

BTW, good tip for shopping around ? Mothercare price match to online shops, and you get 10% off if you set up a Baby Plan. We did one for the travel system (only thing we plan to buy from them) and got 10% off on the day. Then, after finding it cheaper on Amazon, they matched that and then took off the original 10% as well (ie £400, which had become £360, became £315 less £40 again, so £275) so got it way cheaper ? I would have just expected them to match their already discounted price to the Amazon one. That all assumes they deliver when they say they will.

LadyGG - Lots of homebaking freezes well, but loaf-type things like gingercake are especially good. Handy to have for guests too, if I don?t eat it all first. I feel the need to make a batch soon, as we?ve not had it for a while and all the Christmas stuff has just about gone.

"Nursery porn"

Seriously, that is EXACTLY how I want my nursery to look; it is totally my style. I want to copy every single detail! I've been sketching out my dream ideas and they are spookily similar already. Sadly, The Lad will be sleeping in our bedroom for at least a year, unless we can miraculously find a 3-bed house at a rental price we can afford (35p a year). Between us, we have so many/much farkin' books, crafting stuff, puter crap and instruments that we really need a room just for all that lot (my accordion case alone is the size of a Smart car) and we have already decluttered as much as is humanly possible. I hate not being able to do much decorating due to renting but we really can't buy at the moment (or, well, ever). When my book gets published, etc., etc. ...

gin You are both wise and a woman. I find it tough to imagine acksherly having a baybee. Let alone one that will be older than a newborn at some point.

Back to the drawing board with cots then...

PS We aren't really quite as poor as I make out. But I am currently Dole Scum with old debts to pay off (thanks to evil, swindling cunt Ex) and TYF is v cautious about money (not stingy, just... more likely than me to go for the budget option every time, IYKWIM). This is a man whose parents made him and his elder brother sleep in bunk beds until they had both finished Uni, in an otherwise undecorated room (4 bed house, FFS), so the thought of specially decorating a nursery seems odd to him (nice odd; he's not adverse, it's just a novel concept for someone with such emotionally utilitarian parents).

Drom, I think you ought to give Gin that purse of monies for her troubles

Top advice, Ginster's. Confirms what I've been wondering about drop-siders :)

Bitter experience drom! organised folk that we are, we noticed that mooch didn't really fit in moses basket thing anymore and went 'oh shit we need a cot...now!' Bought the only one in mamas n papas we could take away same day (ex-display one) and fuck me did I end up regretting it!

Having said that, we are going to use it again, but only because I am very lazy and it is still sitting there in our spare room. I know it will be a while before it causes me pain. But I wish to spare other peshes if at all possible :)

Ok, nursery porn has made me feel a bit guilty that Bob will be sharing space with a vast collection of books and a computer.

Must remind myself that Bob will be sharing with us for the first 6 months and cannot voice opinions on beautiful decor, or the lack of it.

Thermometers - I don't feel the need to spend £20 on a fancy GroEgg one, or whatever it is called. Any cheap recommendations?

Mooch was 9 months old before we got round to sorting his room. You lot is well good innit.

By the way, nesting SUCKS. I had some weird mental frenzy this morning and have now broken myself even more. Twat. I knew I needed to stop, but I couldn't. It was all So Important.

Fuck off weird hormones n twatty instinct, I like being a slattern thank you very much.

Is that room thermometers or people ones? I wasn't going to bother with a room one, they seem designed to make you paranoid. Unless someone can tell me why they're actually a good idea.

We had some thermometers that came with the sleeping bags we used to use it was a piece of cardboard with a thermometer on (I think). We did get the sleeping bags from TK Maxx's as they are bargainous there.

cheers gin you have confirmed my thoughts, the lady in JL said 'do you specifically want a drop side because you have a bad back?" I said yes and also added that I am old, decrepit and likely to have a fairly major op shortly after. :o

score me too with the nursery, its very weird as before I saw it, i had picked a very similar decal to the tree thing she made herself (which i might now try to do myself) and yeah mine is going to be tiny compared to that room but stylistically very much what i am after. ohh there's the door, that must be social services :o

As for my M&P cot it looks lovely but it is not the most strongly constructed piece of furniture. Though we are going to keep it. It has a drop down side and goes down really low - so low that the boy who is 3 in March still sleeps in his. We got the junior bed seperately from freecycle. Also I have heard bad things about their Pilko Pramette's and the breaks on them if anyone is thinking of getting one of those.

Hahaha it's only at this point that it has dawned on me that we haven't actually done anything for thing2 either.

Not sure I should really be allowed to have children :)

I'm confused at Moses baskets 'n cribs. Am I supposed to get both? Does baybee sleep in the basket whilst he's still very wee and then graduate into the cot? Is the basket for napping or night-time sleeping too? Do I stick the basket on its stand next to the bed at bedtime? Or on top of the cot mattress? What if I knock the stand over when getting up for a wee/feed whilst still drowsy? HALP!

TNB boughtthis. As far as I know, he only bought it to check how hot his glass box of an office is/was.

No idea if I actually need one or not, has just reassured me that our flat sits at a constant ok temperature.

Berwhale will also be sharing his space with us, then with a vast collection of books and a computer. I think it will make him or her very cultured at an early stage . But as we intend to sell the flat at some stage, I can't really justify going full-on nursery - tis probably a bit off-putting to the young professional types who would want to buy it. We might buy some nice curtains.

I think we had a free cardboard thermometer too. Didn't really use it though. golden rule is baby should normally be comfortable in one more layer than you would be. Also feel their tummy - if feels hot/cool or not. Don't go on hands/feet as their circulation isn't brilliant so you'll think they are too cold when not really.

On another note definitey get a digital ear thermometer. Mine was brilliant. And actually reads out the temp to you so you don't have to put the light on. Was actually a Nurofen braded one I think - also plays a little tune so they are distracted when it goes in their ear and stop thrashing about.

spudulika I is going for a Moses basket in the bedroom for the first six months, which is why the cot isn't a super-urgent purchase. You could buy a cot from the word go and just move it from your room to the nursery when you feel the baby's ready. I just got sold on the idea that the Moses basket is tres portable and Berwhale will obviously nap angelically in it while I watch all the box sets that are coming from LoveFilm.

I don't think I should really be allowed to have children, either.

thats my plan too drom but i thought at least if i had the cot as well then it would keep my options open if the sleeping in with us didnt work out and we wouldnt have to buy something last minute (as with what happened to gin)

But do I NEED a Moses basket? Or is a better idea to get one first and then purchase a cot? WAAAH! I need someone to decide for me, I feel about 3 years old myself today! Does anyone else sometimes get that feeling?