August 2011 - yellow, pink or blue, which one are you?

[KTisPG]

I'm yellow

Morning everyone!

glad to see your lil one is still hanging on in there wishwales

my lil one hasn't been that active this weekend as I've been VERY active-incuding swimming which I haven't been able to for years-matalan's maternity swimsuit was perfect!

Came home from our weekend via Ikea. We now own a green cot and a mattress with some material for curtains. Now just need to make final decision on downstairs sleeping place for lil one (hammock: good for dyslexia (DH is badly) and portability but low down so if I have problems bending over.... or pram: so much pricier and we plan on baby wearing for out and about, but would mean ILs could take lil one for a wander)

love the pic of your nappies drying KLou I need to order mine too...

oops excuse bad formatting, the in and wishwales were meant to be bold.

Hi all :)

Hope everything is still ok Wishwales and she is still inside and getting stronger :)

Lots of movements here, I think less than DS although I could just be remembering the last stages! Also, something strange, I have suddenly stopped growing hair I am normally fairly blessed in the hairiness department, but have noticed my legs and armpits have gone wispy and patchy so not much to shave! Anyone else? DH is convinced this means we have a girl on the way, something to do with testosterone production, but not sure what he's basing his science on!
Still having terrible trouble with names, especially as DH has now changed his mind and said no to my favourite girls name :( We have seperately compiled lists but absolutely nothing matches The only vague possibility is that I put Ivy down on my list which he has decided he quite liked, but I only put it down there as I know he likes flower/plant names, I'm not completely in love with it. I feel a bit sad about it as I want to be in love with the name we choose like I was with DS :(

Ivy is nice Kate a friend of mine has just named little girl Ivy. I must admit, I was quite shocked when she announced the name as I thought it was quite 'old' at first, but it really suits her, and it is becoming very popular too.
I used to know someone who named all her DD's after flowers, she had a Daisy, Lily and Rose!

We were talking about names over the weekend, and although we both have our hearts set on Ava for a girl, we both really like Holly!! Oh it such a game isn't it lol!!

Just been into town and bought a few bits for my hospital bag. I know am a bit premature, but I like to be organised, and you never know when you could pop!!
Got some maternity pads, breast pads (£1.50 for 40 in Wilko!!) and disposable knickers to go with some old knickers too. Only a few little things, but all helpful.

Growing quite a bump this end now, how are we all doing in that department? x

Haha KLou I'm glad it's not just me! I didn't want to admit I've already been and got most of the things for my hospital bag, even though I'm not planning on going to hospital! I've decided to buy cheap Matalan knickers rather than disposable ones this time as I found the disposable ones really uncomfortable last time. I've also gone for washable breastpads and I've put aside the baby clothes I'll take if I do have to go in. The only things still missing are deciding what I'm going to wear - I thought it was a bit too soon to put my socks, slippers, nighty, dressing gown etc in a bag . Although thinking about it now, maybe I have missed a shopping opportunity... [wanders off to cost up new of all of the above]

LifeofKate what were your favourite girls' names? Some more botanical names, how about:

Saffron
Willow
Rosemary
Sorrel
Marguerite
Iris
Amaranth
Briony
Dahlia (love this! very Hollywood glam)

If it's any consolation, our name list hasn't grown much beyond the original hard-won few. And I thought a girl would be easier.

Forgot to say, I really like Ivy :) Although that's not much consolation if you don't.

Just wondering what cot mattress thoughts are: foam or spring??

They are so lovely star. briony is very cute

Ours haven't grown past the original names. We're set on Thomas for a boy and Rose or Emily for a girl. DH informed me that he only planned on us having 2 children whereas i've now convinced myself that I want a Emily, Rose AND a Thomas!! And Rose is my absolute favourite name but I think we'll go for Emily if it's a girl (I just don't think we'd have the guts to go for Rose for DD1) but then if I don't have another DD then it will be relegated to a pets name!! Though i'm still not prepared to use Rose for a MN as I would be bound to have another girl if I did that - plus don't you think Emily Rose sounds like the name of a ship??! Phew that was a big ramble but I feel better for it!!

I'd use Rose if it's your fave annie? It's beautiful :)

Oh...sorry to be such a hogger of the board today (last post I promise!) I just found this and thought it was HILAROUS! and a little bit scary . [steps back into shadows and becomes a lurker for a while]

FOLLOW THESE 14 SIMPLE TESTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO HAVE CHILDREN

Test 1 - Preparation
Women: To prepare for pregnancy:-

1. Put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front.
2. Leave it there.
3. After 9 months remove 5% of the beans.

Men: To prepare for children:-

1. Go to a local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet onto the counter and tell the pharmacist to help himself
2. Go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home. Pick up the newspaper and read it for the last time.

Test 2 - Knowledge
Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels and how they have allowed their children to run wild. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behaviour.

Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers..

Test 3 - Nights
To discover how the nights will feel:

1. Walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 4 - 6kg, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
2. At 10pm, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 11pm and walk the bag around the living room until 1am.
4. Set the alarm for 3am.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a cup of tea.
6. Go to bed at 2.45am.
7. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs in the dark until 4am.
9. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up when it goes off.

10. Make breakfast.

Keep this up for 5 years. LOOK CHEERFUL.

Test 4 - Dressing Small Children

1. Buy a live octopus and a string bag.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that no arms hang out.

Time Allowed: 5 minutes.

Test 5 - Cars

1. Forget the BMW. Buy a practical 5-door wagon.
2. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
3. Get a coin. Insert it into the CD player.
4. Take a box of chocolate biscuits; mash them into the back seat.
5. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Test 6 - Going For a Walk
Wait.
Go out the front door.
Come back in again.
Go out.
Come back in again.
Go out again.
Walk down the front path.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely and ask at least 6 questions about every piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbours come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.

You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Test 7 - Communication
Repeat everything you say at least 5 times.

Test 8 - Grocery Shopping

1. Go to the local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
2. Buy your weekly groceries without letting the goat(s) out of your sight.
3. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.

Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Test 9 - Feeding a 1 year-old

1. Hollow out a melon
2. Make a small hole in the side
3. Suspend the melon from the ceiling and swing it side to side
4. Now get a bowl of soggy cornflakes and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon while pretending to be an aeroplane.
5. Continue until half the cornflakes are gone.
6. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor.

Test 10 - TV

1. Learn the names of every character from Peppa Pig, Thomas the Tank Engine,Dora the Explorer and Disney.
2. Watch nothing else on television for at least 5 years.

Test 11 - Mess
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out:

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains
2. Hide a fish behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds and then rub them on clean walls. Cover the stains with crayon. How does that look?
4. Empty every drawer/cupboard/storage box in your house onto the floor & leave it there.

Test 12 - Long Trips with Toddlers

1. Make a recording of someone shouting 'Mummy' repeatedly. Important

Notes: No more than a 4 second delay between each Mummy. Include occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet.

1. Play this tape in your car, everywhere you go for the next 4 years.

You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Test 13 - Conversations

1. Start talking to an adult of your choice.

2.. Have someone else continually tug on your shirt hem or shirt sleeve while playing the Mummy tape listed above.

You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Test 14 - Getting ready for work

1. Pick a day on which you have an important meeting.
2. Put on your finest work attire.
3. Take a cup of cream and put 1 cup of lemon juice in it

4.. Stir

1. Dump half of it on your nice silk shirt
2. Saturate a towel with the other half of the mixture
3. Attempt to clean your shirt with the same saturated towel
4. Do not change (you have no time).
5. Go directly to work

You are now ready to have children. ENJOY!!

wow you lot are organised with the hospital bags!! makes me feel so unorganised, i have bought one baby outfit and that's it, not really sorted through old baby clothes either or thought of rearranging kids rooms yet. we still havent moved and im wondering whether to just keep moses basket in our room and not bother putting the other 2 boys in together, but then i feel like this one may be big (as ds2 was and big bump?) so prob will not fit in moses basket that long, i just cant b bothered to do all the rearranging tho!

i agree annie if you love rose more you should use it, it is a lovely name. ivy is nice too, i like flower names

i think i am getting more attached to the name ayyash for ours so we will probably end up going for that, dh quite likes it too so seems the most likely one. the other one i was thinking is rafiq, which i do like but probably will go with ayyash. i never finalise til last minute though but both ds1 and 2 did end up with the names we were mainly thinking of from about this stage in pregnancy

Rose is a fabulous name, too often relegated to middle name status IMO.

Just read this amazingly informative thread, for anyone else who wants a riveting read - very sad and shocking in parts, but fascinating.

Annie I agree, if you love Rose then use it, it's less popular than Emily (of which I know plenty and funnily enough two of them are Emily Rose!) and it's such a beautiful name.

KLou we bought a spring mattress 4 years ago and it will be onto it's third baby (we wash the cover between babies). My dad bought the cot for us and only wanted to buy the best which was sweet.

Also struggling a bit with names, particularly if it's a boy seeing as we have two already. Didn't decide with the other two until a few hours after they were born anyway but we did have at least 5 names of each shortlisted. I'm finding it hard to even get that from the ones DH and I agree on!

As for the hospital bag, I think I've got most things from before anyway, not much to stock up on except maternity pads and breast pads. I always leak a lot once my milk comes in and at every feed for a few months, tried washables but leaked straight through in seconds!! Some people don't leak at all though, lucky things.

Glad to hear things are going well again for you MrsStevo, hope they continue to do so.

I've heard that sprung are better, ours is about be used for the third time and is still in perfect nick, whereas foam ones can sag aren't quite as supportive.

Someone gave me a bag of breast pads today, so that's the start of my hospital bag then...!

Regarding the hospital bag I advise you to splash out on nice toiletries and body cream, not your usual fragrance, then every now and again post baby pamper yourself with these. I still get all nostalgic when I do this 22 months down the line remembering when dd was born etc!

hello, can I join? due 16th august and I am yellow too (despite OH wanting to find out, baby stayed curled up :))

Hello I'm a new august yellow, pleased to be here

Hospital bags.....gulp....I am far far away from being that organised. I'm impressed ladies.
Littlemisslozza have you tried breast shells....I only ask because I got free ones when I bought my breast pump at the baby show the other day. Apparently they catch the leaks so you can save it for a future feed.
I BF my DD1 who is now 11 and there was none going spare for leaking!!! She got enough but I never quite got the hang of expressing with a manual (hence investing in a electric this time). My mum kept telling how she would catch in a bowl from the other breast while feeding us but that never happened to me maybe this time...

I found some newbies, everyone :)
Welcome Evie and HB!
Hospital bags??! Omg
thanks for the spd advice, carrie, really appreciate it. Saw my new mw today (who is way nicer than the one I had in Leeds who, I have to say, was a flake) and she confirmed it. It's getting worse every day, not helped by the amount of sitting at my desk planning my mat leave for my deputy. Oh well :(
Annie- yep, liked that :)

oh mrs vidic thats a nice idea i think i will do that, i have some fragrance that reminds me of some different holidays but would be nice to have one to remind you of babies. for me just fairy non bio smell reminds me of their newborn days

littlemisslozza oh yeah i think i have some stuff left over too like packs of breast pads etc, so that makes me feel bit more organised

welcome to onlyhb2 and eviepoo

welcome and congrats evie and hb

evie and hb congratulations!

evie I leaked copiously with DS1 and used to put a breast shell in the opposite side to the one I was feeding from, but that would overflow within a few minutes too! I ended up sitting there with a sterilised cup collecting it then freezing it for if I (rarely) went out. Got quite a stash! I did look in to donating it to a milk bank but unfortunately that wasn't an option as no one collected it round here . Made feeding out and about quite tricky for the first few months and I used to have to sleep on a couple of towels with no top on! Pleased to say that it didn't happen anywhere near as badly with DS2 and I was breast pad free after a couple of months .

JenniL I wouldn't worry too much just yet, I happen to already have most of what I need from previously but don't think I packed my bag first time until about 35 weeks. Ended up going over by 12 days too so was more than prepared.

I'm loving all this talk of hospital bags!! I haven't actually started packing mine yet but have made the mother of all comprehensive lists (I love a good list!!).

Went to our first NCT class this evening (where, funnily enough, we covered the topic of what-to-put-in-your-hospital-bag). Really enjoyed it! Think everyone was equally nervous and unsure of what on earth they are doing which was quite a re-assurance! We're the only ones having twins though so the class is mainly geared to singletons. Lots of people in roughly our age group who seem to be similar to us in many ways so hopefully we'll make some good friends.

Thank you so much for answering the mattress question!! When we were in John Lewis yesterday there were 4 different types (and prices!!) of mattress for each cot-bed and I just didn't know which we wanted. We were going to go with the wine list theory of getting the one that is the second cheapest!

Annie - love that post!!! Made me laugh out loud in many places which made DH bellow from the bottom of the stairs wanting to know what was so funny!

Scan tomorrow at 10am with our consultant. FX for babies being the right size, with the appropriate amount of fluid around them and no silly business like at 20 weeks!

Night Night all!

We got our mattresses from baby mattresses on line and were really impressed with the quality. Might find they're cheaper than the shops, certainly cheaper than Mothercare!

A friend had a baby today, I'll wait a couple of weeks and ask for any left over maternity pads then I'll have two things in my maternity pile on the floor bag :)

Thinking of you tomorrow MrsS and looking forward to another really positive update :)