April 2011 - towards motherhood boucing on yoda balls, eating coc pops and riding frozen surfboards we are

[SnapFrakkleAndPop]

Raspberry leaf and all round.

Continuation from here. No Mofo C bombs yet been dropped in the delivery room although our first 2 babies have arrived. Congrats to gormers and Jo, we hope your little ones are still doing great.

Ah Beetle, just stalking and wondering if we were in the same mum's group but didn't know!! Let me know if you fancy meeting up in reality in Oxford though, although given how I feel at the mo that might have to wait until Insect and Bean are out in the open air..... still very odd tummy and (TMI WARNING!) sulphurous burps.....ewewEW.....

Chilli - raw cake mixure is the one dire dietary nono in my pregnancy too!! Made DP a big chocolate cake for his birthday in Jan and I was nearly weeping as I rinsed the bowl and spoon into the sink....

Am closing ears to any talk of Hungry Caterpillar - if I ever start buying things I won't stop so have forced myself to wait for people to buy me them as presents instead! I am enough of an obsessive about the book that my family is bound to at least suggest it!

Haha i don't even get a look-in to the bowl with DS1 around

Frak - there is a theory that if you are not mentally ready labour won't start, so if you keep concentrating on his return date and not finishing getting something ready (bag, baby clothes, etc) then you might hold off. What will you be when he gets home?

Had my scan earlier, all well, baby is head down & he said the head is very low (yey) so unlikely to turn now.
Also checked placenta, well up and out of the way.
And then tried to guesstimate size, said somewhere between 7lbs & 8-ish lbs.
Which is roughly what i'm expecting after 6,12 & 8,6. Hoping not to go over 9lbs!

Thanks for all the EDD wishes!

After a lazy morning we've been to the forest where I had the best chicken sandwich ever, and DH bombed round a mountain bike trail on a posh test bike (this one if anyone's interested!).

Aussie tee hee about taking the toaster (there's a kitchen sink joke somewhere there) - if all goes to plan (and I don't end up being induced) we'll be at the local MLU which has a proper little kitchen, complete with toaster!

NANN glad to hear your appointment went well! Hope you can relax and enjoy the end bit now ( might be an oxymoron somewhere there!). I agree with the jeans front - my lovely next jeans have seen me through since about 10 weeks, but I just can't stand anything restrictive under my bump now (anyone else found that this is basically the 'area' region now?!) so I'm wearing trackies at every opportunity. I'm too self conscious/not fashionable enough to wear leggings, and still wear my jeans out of the house (because I associate trackies without sport as being a bit chavvy!).

My mum bought our LUO (new term coined - Little Unborn One!) a Hungry Caterpillar sleepsuit and bib - it's beautiful! We love it!

JKS great news with your scan!

And as for delaying labour - I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but despite being (as far as I know) ready for weeks and having the BHs step up to being painful for weeks, I'm still bloomin' pregnant!

I've decided that tonight, instead of going to bed and assuming that if the BH's go anywhere I'll wake up, I'm going to stay up and stay bouncing on the Yoda and try to encourage them along!

It could be a loooong night!

Snapp - my husband works away a lot and I mean alot and my EDD is 10 Apr but I was two weeks early with last so was worried when he went to work this week but came back yesterday (airline pilot). Also we have a funeral on Monday and MW said last time ( Daughter now 2) that my body wont make it happen until I know he is home safe and ready and last time round that worked....he worked and got home 5pm, waters broke 10 pm and baby born 11.20pm! Clearly hanging on. Any way, tonight I am home alone again and then have to take back seat until tuesday (post funeral) and I keep moving markers for readiness such as online shop delivery, waxing, wood delivery so that I have things that I think matter before new one comes......surprisingly I now feel i am ready regardless...maybe all the stress of trying to not be stressed about maybe being stressed about whether I am stressed etc etc etc etc

That was supposed to be a joke, but basically I feel now I could do this alone anyway, and if the baby comes it comes...

PS Snapp I am planning this one at home which would be sad if he was not here but hey ho....at least I will be!

Wow! One day off and I miss all the gossip!

The only Hungry Caterpillar things I have are a pair of booties that were a gift, they're lovely though!

Petal that bike is rather sexy frankly. I'm a roadie and even I fancy it

Congrats to your DP Lucie.

Aussie I too am determined to prove the reusable sceptics wrong! We will succeed!!!

Had an exhausting day going round Brent Cross with my mum for last bits (bath support, bed mats to protect our mattress in case waters break, more snackies etc) then visited the grandparents.

Got home to more progress in kitchen, freezer out of front room, TV tucked away on purpose built shelves made by DP and stuff put away in the loft. I stuffed and stored my washed reusables then had a bath, which confirmed my thoughts that moving around in water is SO much easier!

Yawn! TV time methinks...

Cycle - DH is very pleased with your approval! It's just an unnecessarily expensive pair of wheels to me. It's a good job he can use the test bike, as it means he's less likely to spend money he hasn't got on bits for his (much less impressive) own bike.

Sounds like your kitchen's coming along really well now too!

I meant to say earlier, with regard to bed mats - I got some ages ago, because ridiculously I was convinced this one was going to arrive early. I put one under the sheet, but it just ends up crumpled up at the foot of the bed, and makes me sweat even more than normal.

So instead, I've put an old towel under the sheet and on top of the folded old duvet I've got under my side (to be a bit more cushiony under my old-lady hips & whopping belly).

I presume they'll be good for sitting on post birth, or putting in the car after waters go. Who knows, I've not done it before!

Disappointingly, the BH's are less intense/frequent than last night. So it's overdue I go!

Glad your DH approves Petal. I really miss my bike, DP just doesn't understand. I know some women sneak new clothes and handbags into the wardrobe, I sneak Lycra and bike bits

You and my DH sound like a match made in heaven!

Hi ladies, just a quick update.....baby Thomas born weds 23rd 4.43am, 6lb 7oz.
will get back and give details in next few days sometime.

Oh wow stuffed - Congratulations!! Welcome to baby Thomas - love the name, it is our No.1 choice for if we have a boy!

Hope you are well - look forward to hearing all about it in a few days :)

Congratulations stuffed
I'll raise a virtual to welcome baby Thomas

Congrats Stuffed! Can't wait to hear more details! x

Ali happy due-date-eve!

Well done Stuffed, that's wonderful news. Hope everything is going as smoothly as it can do for you and little Thomas

Cycle I really miss my bike too. We had a bobike mini seat for DD1 and spent all last summer enjoying lovely long family bike rides I am already eyeing up trailers and thinking about possible cycling holiday destinations for next year.

Whoop. Huge congrats stuffed Brilliant news. Lovely name.

Congratulations stuffed! Do come back and give us all the gory details at done point but for now just enjoy cuddling your lovely little DS.

Congratulations Stuffed how exciting!

Ooh! Babies are arriving!

Don't worry Petal, I won't be stealing your DH, I couldn't share my bike stuff with anyone

Suffed congratulations, clever lady. Love the name Thomas (all the Toms/Thomas's I've known have been handsome and fun so GOOD CHOICE!). Anyway, can't wait to hear all the details.

Cycle you would be a perfect match with my husband who is a keen cyclist (does ironmen and other hideous feats). Our house is vibrantly draped with drying lycra and there are five bikes in our garden shed, none of which belong to me! I do own up to my own version of Lycra love though as I'm partial to a good piece of running gear. It's actually been quite torturous not being able to buy/fit into new kit. I'm also dreading those first fee runs post birth as I remember how hard they were last time.

Thought something might be happening last night as woke up with grinding period pain. Was terrified excited that this might be it but tried to get myself back to sleep, which eventually happened. There were no contraction 'surges' though, just constant pain, which I guess isn't the real deal.

Had a real moment of panic yesterday evening - was I doing the right thing having another baby (a bit late for this, I'll grant you...), how was I going to love this baby as much as the girls, how would I cope going back to square one now that the girls were four and things were finally easy?? Felt a bit disappointed in myself and tearfully sorry for the baby with it's underwhelmed, panicking mother. Any other second-timers feeling this way or is it just me? Maybe it's normal but it feels pretty terrible.

Hehe, secret Lycra fans are never far away!

I too keep panicking Kits, it's always a 'what have we done?!' feeling followed by 'how will we cope?' and 'we can't afford this!'. Maybe it's just because it's imminent.

The money thing is not helped by the fact that I checked my account this morning and I'm short by quite a lot. I'm meant to get 12 weeks full pay as part of my package and I've not been paid anything for this week (my first week of official ML) Am not looking forward to Monday morning's phone call...

Congratulations stuffed. Love the name Thomas, it's on my very short shortlist. Hope all is going well.

kits I could have written your post about the panic etc. I said almost exactly the same to DH as couple of days ago. How will we love this baby as much? What are we doing to DS, who is about to have his lovely 'I am the centre of Mummy's universe' existence turned on it's head? Can we afford it? (we can, I am being daft on that score) Will the baby be ok even though we won't be able to give it as much attention as DS got?
And so on.

I gave myself a stern talking to, and came up with the following.
I was about the same age as DS when my first DB was born and it hasn't done me any harm.
Having siblings is (largely) lovely.
Yes the baby will get somewhat less attention, but it won't know any different and second, third and subsequent children in other families don't show signs of neglect!!

As a spewed all this out though, DH looked at me with horror 'darling it's a bit late to be re-considering!'. Yes thanks for that, I hadn't noticed..

Frak - I think I have made this baby stay put through force of will. I've known in the back of my mind that I didn't really want it to turn up early and that what I want is to go into hospital on Monday and have it in a calm and organised way

Huge congratulations Stuffed Thomas is also on our in case of a boy list, lovely, also can't wait for details (and don't want to know all at the same time!)

Morning Kit I don't have any babies (yet!) but if it's any consolation I've had similar moments of how will I cope, what will it be like, what if I can't do it, what about my career (knobhead!) etc and thats after four years of trying.....and I still can't, even at 36 weeks, get my head around the fact that not only am I growing a baby, it's coming to live at my house forever....!

I'm off on a Hen do today, life drawing....spa....restuarant...then... nightclub - although clearly I will be in bed by the time for clubbing, thank the lord!

Have fab, sunny weekends April ladies

x

Cycle - gah what a nightmare with your mat. pay! My work messed mine up , paid me ok the first month and then 2 days before I was due to go in to be induced with DS they sent me a letter saying 'we've lost your MATB1 so you aren't entitled to any pay, so we will be clawing back last month's pay in 2 weeks time'. I phoned them and went ballistic, because they were admitting they had had the form but lost it, and didn't seem to give a monkey's. I threatened them with legal action if they didn't confirm in writing within 24 hours that I would be paid and we would sort the mess out afterwards and they agreed.
Then when I decided not to go back after mat. leave, they messed up again - and paid me 7 weeks holiday pay when I was only owed 2! Hurrah!

Really hope you can get it sorted quickly - it is the last stress you need.

Cycle SarahJ Alibaba thank you for sharing the panic - I feel a lot better for knowing I'm not the only one having a wobble about what I've done. I just look at how easy it all is now and how I've got my life back and I'm about to go back to the beginning/utter drudgery. I have to keep telling myself that this will be a different experience though.

Cycle annoying about the pay - you'd think they'd manage to sort this wouldn't you?!

Boat Race today so we can't really do much (roads will be gridlocked where we are). I was toying with the idea of going to watch but I think at nearly 39 weeks it might be a tad ambitious. I constantly need the loo and the thought of battling through crowds isn't pleasant. On the plus side, the jostling and excitement might just kick things off. I think we're going to head in the other direction and go to Peter Jones. Have got some mundane tasks to organise, including presents for the girls from the baby. Anything to kill the morning...