Jue in June 2011 - not even our growing bumps can stop us from wittering on

[neenewps]

Onwards we go with the 2nd trimester...

Just marking my place everyone, scan tomorrow, very excited!

My ankles have started swelling up, bit bloody early in the day for all that if you ask me .

TTL I share your pain about being uncertain of the future, things will work out I'm sure, everything will pale into insignificance once your bean arrives!

Jasmine I also had similar problems with my placenta in my last pregnancy, I bled loads for a few days, and it was really worrying. I was due to fly back from NZ the day after I started bleeding really heavily, and I was not allowed to fly home until I stopped, so was waiting around in Auckland on my own for 5 days panicking.

Hope everyone else is well

Heres a question for you......has anyone taken a 3 month old abroad on holiday. My parents have asked if we would like to join them in September ( a villa in Majorca).....whats everyones thoughts

moomin Go! You'll have a blast!

Moomin I think it is actually much easier to travel when they are that little. I am planning to come back to the UK when this one is about that age. DH will come with me on the way out and MIL will travel back with me as I'll have DS (who'll be 3 by then) with me too. Just remember to feed (bottle or breast) on way up and way down so the pressure doesn't hurt their ears - sorry that's probably much too far away to think about.

TTL we use an agent as obviously we're too far away to check on the house and it's honestly been fine. This will be our 5th year of renting and we've had relatively few problems and are just starting to bring in more than the mortgage.

Swanny congrats on the boy - they're fab!

A nice short week for me at work this week as it's Chinese New Year on Thursday so half day tomorrow for New Year's Eve followed by 2 bank holidays - an extra long weekend.

Hi everyone.

Congrats Swanny! How exciting.. I am wishing I found out the sex now as it is lovely to be able to call baby by a name alreday :)

Moomin - I took 3 month old DD to France on holiday and it was fine. Although I do remember getting lots of comments and glares when breastfeeding in cafes etc when we were in certain small villages - they seemed to disapprove of it - very odd.

I love the name Isobel as that is my DD's name :)

Thanks for your encouragement to go, i do feel anxious about it though. Can you take your own carseat etc or is that extra baggage. Is using a holiday 'cot' safe?
I know the villa will be lovely and have all the necessary equipment as we have used the company before. Its funny we were looking at going away in the UK for a week in september and i was happy with that, i think its just the going 'abroad' thing

Hi moomin travelling with a small baby, as merlion said, is pretty easy, definitely easier than with a toddler! Not sure about whether you would have to pay extra baggage charges for the carseat; I imagine on any of the budget airlines you would have to. We didn't take a carseat with us when we went to Croatia when ds was little, as we used buses and boats to get everywhere. If you leave it until the year after, thinking that'd be easier, you'll still have to take all the same stuff, plus extras, such as bottles / sterilising equipment if your baby's weaned, food / formula he/she likes, stacks of toys and books....

Sat in work counting down the hours until scan now... 3 hours to go!!!

Morning all
I got a good kicking last night! DH also felt it although he is convinced little one is so tough it was actually a head butt.
Enjoyed aquanatal last night...who knew you could do country dancing in a swimming pool.

The MW who takes aquanatal said something interesting - she was talking about the coccyx softening and opening out to let baby pass during labour. That made me think - I broke my coccyx years ago, I wonder if thats going to make a difference - have visions of it all going wrong and it snapping so I end up with a tail sticking out. Thats just my random thought for the day.

On another matter, a friend has given me a double breast pump...how scary are those!

moomin jealous of your hol, sounds fab. Has anyone got any views on the max flight length to attempt with a 3/4 mth old? Cos of tax DH prob wont be able to come back to the UK for his leave around then and has asked me to choose somewhere nice to meet up. The world is our oyster...but should I be thinking more of Europe than dreaming about exotic sandy beaches far away?

Jasmine I reckon so much will depend on the baby - how well they sleep / feed etc., but at that age I'd be tempted to say you could probably get away with going long haul, although the longest flight I've done with ds was only 4 hours. He was a bit wriggly by the time we did that (9mo), so that was long enough! You may be able to go for an exotic sandy beach after all!!!!

Aw thanks swannny - Alexander Michael is lovely too :) And [cute emoticon] for your stepson. It's lovely you have such a good relationship with him. I'm a stepchild and my stepdad is brilliant but my mum (lovely in other ways) has been pretty awful toward my stepsister, massively exacerbated by her real mum's crazy behaviour, so I know how tricky these things can be...

Oh moomin good tip about the 3D handles - I'll pay attention to them when we go back to the shop. Going to compare it to the Oyster again.

Thanks for the agent tips kara, merlion and moomin - we'll definitely be going for a full management service because we will be living over an hour away and don't want to be called up in the middle of the night to fix leaky taps (plus we have no practical skills whatsoever). Nice to hear other people who have done similar things, just for reassurance. The bank sent the application form today so fingers crossed they'll approve it.

8rd good luck for your scan today! Can't wait for the news!

Jealous of all jasmine and moomin with your holidays! My mum wanted us to drive down to Devon in the October half term but as we'll be living in Norwich by then (I hope!) I thought a 10-hour drive with a 4 month old would be more stress than it was worth. I did say I'd rather go somewhere where we could fly, but she looked at me like this: , and cancelled the whole thing. We're going to South Ireland with her at Easter 2012 instead now, and no matter how many times I tell her we'll fly, she's still trying to get me to drive and get the ferry. Not on your life!

Good luck with your scan today 8rubberduckies

Also very jealous of the holiday talk. TTL I think you're doing completely the right thing. I personally wouldn't go on holiday somewhere which involved a long drive since I have a history of having babies who scream their heads off in the car. I think it's something to do with not being held and being strapped in or something, but I wouldn't risk it - it's way too stressful. A plane would be fine though as you can hold them and feed them etc

hello everyone, hope were all okay. Well had my 20 week scan and all is looking good, and baby developing well. Although we are a little disappointed that when it came to checking the gender he/she become very shy, lol, and was too much of a wriggler. It took the sonographer almost an hour to check everything as baby just wouldn't let her see the left side of his/her heart, lol. We thought that maybe it was a boy as it appears to have something between it's legs (as apposed to nothing), but that could be the cord / hands, etc.

I was a bit sad that I hadn't yet felt baby kicking as I was sooooo looking forward to it (strange I know, lol ), but sonographer said it's because placenta is at the front.

Does this mean I won't feel baby at all until birth or can the placenta move or will I feel baby once he / she gets bigger.

As we soooo want to know the gender of our baby that my mum has offered to pay for a gender scan at a 4D clinic. But the one in Leeds (Meet My Baby) has a special offer of £100 to do the whole 4D Bonding Experience with gender scan and a photo session once baby is here. so we may add to the money mum is going to pay to have this as a special momento.

Thank you for the welcome.

Nicki - my placenta was at the front with DD. I did seem to feel kicks a bit later than others but once she got going and was bigger she more than made up for it!

I felt really strong and regular kicks from about 25 weeks up to the end.

nicki1978 I have a friend who is 35 weeks at the moment who has her placenta at the front and it just means that she doesn't feel the kicks at the front but definitely feels them at the sides!

Jasmine51 another friend took her 7 week old DD on a flight from the UK to Australia to be able to attend her sister's wedding a few years ago. She found the baby much easier to deal with on the long flight than her 9 year old. The baby just slept in the bassinette most of the time and she fed her while they were taking off and landing so that her ears didn't hurt. The problem she had with flying with such a young child was that the airline wouldn't allow her to book a ticket for the baby until she was born and so she ended up having to buy the ticket at the airport on the day of the flight which was a bit stressful (and more expensive than it would have been if she had been allowed to buy it at the same time as the rest of the family's tickets). I don't know if this is just one airline's policy or if it is a general thing across the industry.

My current annoying pregnancy symptom is excessive burping in the afternoons and evenings which DH finds hilarious! It doesn't seem to have any link to what or how much I eat. It doesn't hurt but is really annoying! I mentioned it to my MW today and she said that she had never encountered this as a pregnancy symptom before and that I would just have to live with it and hope that it stops when I have the baby!

hi just marking my spot really, have been offline for so long and impressed by how much everyone is talking! Have only just moved into new apartment in Sydney, boys have started school and I hope to be meeting up with independent midwife in the next few days. Plus I'll have to go to a GP at some point to arrange for a scan, although I'm not looking forward to that (the GP, I mean, not the scan which should be good).

Moomin think it probably depends on the airline but you can usually take a buggy pretty much up to the door of the aircraft. So if you have car seat that fits on the buggy base I would take that as only for a week and not bother with the seat/carry cot part. I know some friends who've had those pop-up type travel cots and really liked them so you could try that but generally have found 'holiday' cots fine and that is from traveling here in South East Asia which isn't necessarily known for its health and safety!

oops sorry I posted on the wrong thread I thought I didn't recognise any of your names! Off to the July thread...

Jasmine/Monica you can book tickets before they are born so shouldn't be a problem. I am planning on coming back in September so a 13 hour flight with a 3/4 month old. A good friend moved here when her DS was 6 weeks old and it was fine.

79monica I'm another burp-er. and It's not something I've had before, but apparently it is quite common.
I've had a jacket spud for lunch today, and not been to bad, but yesterdays steak slice and tomato soup...eeek!

moomin go for it. I went to the Canaries with my twins when they were 6 months old and it was a doddle in comparison to travelling with them now. You won't have to worry about solids, you will have help there with your parents and at that age, babies still sleep a lot during the day meaning you will have lots of time to lie by the pool and read a book . Trust me, once they start moving, that kind of luxury is a distant memory

Car seats are not included as part of your baggage allowance and nor are pushchairs. Never had any problems with travel cots. My one tip if you end up bottle feeding is to make sure you take more than enough formula. We ran out on two different holidays and found it quite difficult to find formula and impossible to find the same brand. Mine decided to go on a growth spurt so we thought we had bought enough but they drank the lot. We flew to Florida with them when they were 1 (8hr flight) and that was getting trickier so haven't done a very long haul flight since. 4 hours is about my maximum at the moment, although at nearly 4 we can now bribe them with DVD players .

jasmine 8-9 hours is probably about your limit especially if you are on your own. I'm not sure where your DH is but what about Dubai? Its about 6hrs and v kid friendly (not that I've been yet but lots of friends have told me so). Otherwise, I would look at the weather forecasts for the time you want to go and pick a location based on that. (I'm a shameless sun seeker ). And yes breast pumps are scary and they do make you feel like a milking machine but strangely there are so many odd things you do post-baby that it all blends into one.

swanny congrats on your girl and love the name you've chosen.

nikki I think it won't be long before you feel some real kicks. I had anterior placentas first time round and it was around 20 weeks that I really felt the babies. Once they started kicking it was fairly unmistakeable. Sorry you couldn't find out the sex, but what a lovely mum you've got to offter to pay for a 4d scan.

8rubberduckies hope the scan goes well

Sorry so many of you are having housing troubles. Its a nightmare at hte moment, my sister has been trying to sell her flat (perfect for first time buyers) for 9 months and still no takers. Its immaculate too - just no buyers around.

I keep buying maternity clothes . Last time I somehow managed to restrain myself. This time, I think there is more choice online and I'm indulging. Another parcel turned up today at work . I have bought a fair bit in H&M and from jojomamanbebe. I am using the excuse (when DH complains) that with two messy boys in the house now, everything gets covered in goo by the end of the day. Someone was asking about car seats - I also wouldn't buy a second hand car seat unless it was from a family member who I trusted. You do spend a fortune on car seats though. We're about to change them again (3rd time).

kara I'm thinking about going to the babyshow but not sure I will get my money's worth. I need to check what discounts some of the retailers are doing on the day as I would like to get a bugaboo cameleon and it would be worth paying the entrance fee if I could get a good discount off it. I know if I go I will be tempted to buy lots of stuff I don't need

We don't need loads of stuff but we do need a new buggy and a cot. I thought I had found my ideal cotbed in John Lewis and phoned up to see which stores had it on display only to find that none of them did . I'm not sure I want to order it without seeing what colour it comes out - you can't get a refund as its made to order. I am looking for a pale wood coloured cotbed with a drawer underneath (or which you can add a drawer to). If anyone spots one on their shopping trips, can you let me know?

Otherwise, I still have 2 weeks to wait for my scan (boo). At least this one is now kicking reasonably often so I am not quite as worried about it as I was.

Hi all, just popping my head in to let you know the scan went well - baby is perfectly healthy and we are having a little girl! I cried when they told me! . We had settled on Ruby for a girl before, but now I know that that is what we are having, I have obviously changed my mind and now want to call her Leila!

just a quick one will catch up better later

8rd congrats on your little girl leila is a beautiful name it was on my list when we had DD :)

im still dying from stomach bug and now horrible cold :( thats y i havnt been responding have been reading wot everyone has been saying tho

waves to all

8rubberduckies Leila's a great name :)

Leila xx

8rubberduckies And a huge congrats xxx