April 2011 - we'll shop til we pop!

[GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh]

Continuation from our old thread here

So maybe this thread we'll see some babies?! And definitely lots more shopping

Notanother how are you feeling? Hope everything is ok?

stuffedmk I am on the waiting list for an allotment too and was thinking about it this morning what would happen if a plot comea up as I go off on maternity! Can you phone and explain the situation and see if turning it down definitely means going to the bottom of the list? Getting the bus might not be practical if you have lots of tools to take etc?

My friend had her last day at work today before her maternity leave and was a bit emotional to see her go even though I am off myself in 5 weeks. Had a lovely afternoon down the pub to see her off (though obviously everyone else got the benefit of the pub bit more than we did!) very strange seeing her off on her journey and knowing that it'll be me soon. Because we both work in London she's in Kent while I'm in Essex but am hoping to catch up with her and our babies while we're off.

Also had very sad news yesterday that my other friend who has been trying to conceive for about 18months has an ectopic pregnancy. She was taken ill at work on wednesday and into hospital wednesday afternoon. So been feeling very grateful for my lot at the moment.

Also skidded on the marble floor in the foyer at work this morning.. fortunately landed on my bum but set me off feeling a bit teary which seems to have hung around all day! However, DP has moved all the furniture round at home so we now have a lovely nursery that just needs to be decorated etc but it all looks great :) We've made his boys bedroom look awesome now too so hopefully everyone will be happy. AND I have a 3 day weekend coming up!

Hope you're all having good Friday's and have relaxing weekends ahead :)

Notanother that sounds scary! Glad all is ok x

With regard to hospital bags I got told to pack mine at 32 week check on Monday. I was off work today so we did a Mothercare run. Crib mattress is ordered, we now have sheets for the carry cot and crib and I bought maternity pads, a pack of newborn nappies and a big pack of muslin squares.

Then we went to Primark and bought me a holdall for it all.

My cousin is giving me loads of stuff and I washed all the breastfeeding friendly nightwear she gave me so it can go in the bag. A few muslin squares and the washable breast pads are in the machine right now too.

I also had a weird urge to sort out all my books. Nesting maybe?

I've not had any students in any of my antenatal appointments so far but from past experience have found that when I've said enough they have happily backed off. I used to get students on their orthopedic or rheumatology (sp) rotations regularly in on my appointments as I can dislocate my hips and shoulders, have 'wonky' knees and 'oddly' arched feet...basically the consultants wanted to freak out the students I'll admit I was happy to conspire

They appointed my maternity cover today. Part of me is as it's someone I know as he worked in another department so really does know the job but I'm still that I have to hand over projects that I've poured so much effort into over the last year.

Notanother I hope things are starting to calm down and get a bit more comfortable for you.

Cycle I love sorting through my books and CDs, and that's when I'm not pregnant! Can't usually bring myself to get rid of any though!

Salted I'm a Jimmy's baby too! My poor DM had a bit of a task explaining to my DGran that my Little Insect won't be born at St James'. She just didn't get that travelling to Leeds from Oxford while in labour wasn't feasible!

Hey All!

OMG - I thought friday evening would never come around! These weeks are getting longer & longer!

All the stuff I washed yesterday is dry - I'm going to pack my hospital bag this weekend!!
I think I'm going to discover that I still need to buy lots too.

I'm 34 weeks today, and read (on one of the iPhone apps) that women often feel like the baby's about to drop out - Yep! He's been really low again at times today, and have been waddling round school holding my bump up, and apparently looking like I'm about to drop! The kids are starting to discuss what they'll do if I go into labour at school! (mostly just freak out & run away, from what I've heard so far!).

My sis is coming down in half term with her 11 week old DS. She's threatening to bring NOTHING to see if we've got everything ready! Sounds like a great idea to me! (It's her who'll have to deal with a grumpy baby!)

It's taken me a week to recover from last weekend's excitments and I'm looking forward to this weekend. Happy weekend all :D
I'm putting off getting the baby clothes down from the loft..no idea why.

Although I am watching with admiration at all those getting organised.

I just don't think it's hit me yet.

Although on the shopping front I found something that might be of interest. I am really missing being able to lie on my front and I'm thinking about buying of of these:

www.birthease.co.uk/birthease_shop/Holo-Pregnancy-Lilo.shtml

I just need to try to get my DH to magic up a holiday somewhere quiet exotic and easy to get to so I could get full use of it you understand ;) Although his first reaction was "there's no way that's going to fit in the birthpool".

lucieloo where in Essex are you? Sorry if I've asked before... Sorry to hear about your friend:-( and hope ur ok after your fall.

Alibaba Notanother LisaMcA thanks for bag packing timeframes. Looks as if it wouldn't be too uber-keen on my part to pull my finger out. I think it's all part of my 'la-la-la-I'm-not-having-another-baby-potentially-out-of-my-vagina' state of mind. I'm obviously in massive denial and merely stockpiling giant sanitary towels for the hell of it.

First step will be washing the babygros this weekend.

On a complete tangent about denial, a friend's friend bought absoulutely nothing for her first baby before it was born. She literally went to hospital with not even a sanitary towel or babygro. When friends gently enquirer she and the husband would be all vague and dismiss it. After the baby was born family members organised some stuff and all is now normal and fine but it's obvious they were having some panicked reaction to it all and were in total denial. Puts my hospital bag dithering into perspective anyway.

Not sure why I'm awake. Husband watching some crappy Kurt Russell film but I wasn't in the mood for such cinematic thrills.

Okay no bag packing or washing but we have a carseat! Went for tye pebble in a lovely teal colour!

That was the last big buy we have to have before baby comes so I'm pretty relieved :)

hi ladies havent posted in a while, hope evryone is ok.

well my MW never contacted me regarding my 28wk bloods, but on wednesday i lituraly cudnt get off the floor my heart was racing, so mum come up to look after ds and take me to docs, who then had heart traces on me agreeing that my heart was going unusualy fast, they then got my last blood results up on computer which showed i was aneamic and a few other thigs was also low including blood sugar. im fuming with the midwife now

Hello girls! I am blissed out as have just come home with the pram system I have coveted for months and months - it's an iCandy Peach and I am madly in love. It was hideously expensive but just brilliantly designed and beautiful and after all, what are savings for?!?!

@cyclebump - have only done G&S once so not sure we know each other - however, have asked Lovely Lady to identify you for me, so will then FB you so we can say hello!

beckie90 hope you feeling better now, how scary....

kittycatcat I'm in Chelmsford

I'm sure the nesting thing must be kicking in because spent the whole afternoon having a major sort out including my first ever clear out of my underwear drawers (am a massive hoarder). Bye bye 15 year old pants and odd socks! Even got DP rearranging the plug sockets so all the wires look neater He's a good egg :)

Sorry to hear you're feeling so bad beckie. Hopefully they can sort you out now it's been spotted but I'm amazed no-one contacted you with the results??

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend :)

So, I've done the antenatal.

Went alone as planned and it was fine. Another woman was also alone so it wasn't as awkward as I'd feared. Plus there weren't any interactive couply things that made me feel left out.

Midwife trainer was super nice and really informative. She took the time to address any specialist concerns too. I told her early that I might have to have an elective cs and why so she made sure she covered the procedure and time lines for electives and explained what might be different for me if I had to go into stirrups.

She passed round 'goodies', the forceps were actually not as scary looking as I'd feared.

We watched some graphic but positive birth videos and an interesting one about breastfeeding. She also gave a lot of detail about what you need if you choose to formula feed as apparently a lot of women where I live want to.

All in all I feel better informed.

We also had a tour of the labour ward and she called me forward specially so I could look at the theatre.

Hi Everyone, good to hear how your preparations are going.

I'm 30 weeks now so think I'm going to start putting stuff in a suitcase, don't have very much to put in it yet so will take a while to get it done but at least it'll go some way to making me think I have a bit of a handle on things.

Feeling a bit panicky about work at the moment it's now 4 weeks until I have to face the research panel that decide whether or not I can continue with my PhD and I don't feel anywhere near ready, I couldn't even work out what time my dinner would be ready after I put it in the oven earlier so I don't know how I'm going to convince people I'm clever enough to carry on with this.

Also have loads of house stuff and baby prep to get through, though finally started pram shopping today so am making some progress in that respect. Think we've managed to get it down to a choice of two.

Regarding students I'm normally quite willing to give them a chance but got a little bit freaked out at my 10 week scan when the student couldn't find anything other than my bladder for what seemed like ages. Haven't come across any others so far but not sure I'll be quite as willing next time.

Glad the antenatal class went well cyclebump we've got ours on 1st March have no idea what to expect. Also have an active birth workshop at the end of March which I'm really looking forward to.

Hope you're having a good weekend ladies
I went to a baby nearly new sale today and picked up a swinging mama and papas crib for £10 . I also got several pink/neutral vests and babygros which the crib lady was selling at 5 for £1. I got DH to get the newborn/0-3 clothes out of the loft yesterday but as we knew DS was going to be a boy it was pretty blue themed with hardly anything neutral. I thought I had better get a couple of pinker outfits to go in the hospital bag just in case it's a girl this time.

I havn't actually started packing the hospital bag yet, maybe we should start a separate hospital bag thread so that when I eventually do I can find everyone's suggestions in one go. I keep reading posts and thinking "that's a good idea" and then totally forgetting what it was or who said it and having to trawl through the past posts trying to find it again

DS also had a successful afternoon as we found a Wiggles (his current favourites) toy car at the sale for £1 then went round to friends we havn't seen for ages for dinner and a catch-up. DS met their 2 year old for the first time and did me proud. They played together well and DS sat and ate his dinner nicely at the table . There were no tears or tantrums for the 3 hours we were there from either of them. We didn't get home until gone 9 tonight and DS didn't sleep in the car so hopefully I'll get a nice long lie-in tomorrow morning too.

Beckie that's terrible. Hope ur ok.

lucieloo I'm billericay so not too far up the road.

Beckie I hope you're feeling better soon.

On the students front I've only had one, who the MW positively evilly told I didn't speak much French (I do but there're lots of people who really don't so she was keen to have them try out their communication skills on me where it doesn't matter so much) and the poor thing was terrified. I had the whole consult done twice so the MW could demonstrate 'communication with furrin people'! Then student was sent away so we could actually talk.

Now. Question. I have to write a draft birth plan for Tuesday and I have no idea where to start. I know what I do/don't want on the big things but I don't know how specific to be - will she laugh/ignore it if I'm too idealistic?!

Also help on the plan for a possible ELCS would be appreciated.

God Beckie I just saw your post. No wonder you're fuming!

Hope you're feeling better x

thankyou for your posts feeling much better now i know whats wrong with me lol, and im on tablets now, so hopefully that will sort it out, gonna ask the midwife when i see her why i wasnt informed, if id not gone to docs i probably would just have been left.

got my antenatal class on 7th march, really dont know what to expect, didnt go to any with DS
cant believe how fast things seem to be going, its scary :)

Hello folks

On the birth plan front for number one child the only 2 things I put down that were important to me were that I wanted a go in the birthing pool, and that I didn't want anyone other than DP to tell me the sex of the baby. (It took him quite a long time to pass on this info as he didn't want to get it wrong).

Everything else was a wait and see. I've known too many women who have set themselves up with the no intervention or pain relief birth plan and then feel like a failure because circumstances went a different way.

Can I ask if anyone knows of a physical, not on-line shop that stocks birthing pools? I know there are plenty of places I can order then on the web but I'd rather not commit to buying one until I know for sure the baby isn't going to suddenly decide to go breech or arrive so early that I can't have the home birth. If I was doing an on-line order then I would need to order it at least 7 working days in advance to be sure it actually arrived. The nearest city to me is Edinburgh if that's any help.

The crib is up! And small baby things are washed for the hospital bag. Me, feeling nesty? Nah.

Jaylar I'm due 22nd April so I know I am literally just possibly in with a chance but as you say, I'm not going to lie I just want to try!!! And thanks for your support re students, that is the last time I have one prodding my baby around.

Salted THANK YOU for that email info - I will try her one more time & see what happens.

LisMcA thank you as well - yes, definitely worth a try. (and I'm SO with you on Bradley Coooper).

beckie 90 hope you're ok - it scares me that they didn't get back to you about results but at least they'll keep a good eye on you now.

And I haven't started hospital bag yet - but have bought & washed a new nightie for myself...I do however have a spreadsheet (yes...I'm a spreadsheet geek) compiled from everyone's tips so all I need is to actually tick my way through it!

Hi everyone,
Hope you're all ok. Sorry to hear about issues you've been having Not another and Becki.

Had my 32 week scan this week and baby growing normally - est weight at this time 4lbs 6oz and told should expect another 2lbs-ish to go on before due date so looking at around 6 lbs 6 to 7lbs maybe!

Started buying things for the hospital bag finally - not packing it yet but will at least have some things ready. For any of you who've done this before is a small overnight/weekend suitcase too big to take with me as a hospital bag as will get everything in easily and has wheels so can be dragged along?!

Anyone else suffering from bad back ache - struggling to get comfortable anywhere now - any tips for dealing with it would be great?
Is it worth getting one of those support belts at this stage?

Last week at work this week - finish for ML on Friday lunchtime and can't come soon enough. Looking forward to just relaxing and taking it easy for the next few weeks - although we are buying a house (hopefully) and the completion date the sellers have asked for is 4th April and my due date is 6th April!!!

I had to buy a largish holdall With wheels to hold my hospital stuff. The list they gave me was massive so I reckon they'll just have to deal with it.

waves at kittycatcat, not far at all over there in Billericay!

I'm very jealous of you finishing work in one week Sassy! I've got another 5 to go so will finish 3 weeks before I'm due and it's getting to be hard work already, I seem to have suddenly got huge. DP and I went out for a lovely dinner last night and I got dolled up in a nice frock and high heels and it just made me feel enormous! I absolutely cannot walk in heels now and just waddle about like Tina Turner instead.. very sexy! Enjoy your last week at work Sassy, have you got anything planned for your ML?