Charters Anonymous Graduates Volume 2! – No more temping!

[Iwish]

A nice cosy place to accommodate our growing bumps and little wrigglers.

Hello lovely ladies
nix that is a dramatic birth story, terrifying at points, and well done you managing to drink 5L of water, I bet you were on the loo all afternoon! Worse than a scan! It sounds like the medics did a great job making sure your little chap got out safe and well. Everyone dreads forceps but thank God for them too.

terrys congrats on finishing work! Is that you on ML now or are you taking AL for a bit first? Hope you have a lovely summer with DS before the real whaledom sets in soon...

Yes the thought that it is my turn next has occurred to me Over 38 weeks, when did that happen?!

I got very jittery and thought stuff was happening last night but it appears not. Just loads of BH about every 5-10 mins for a while and I felt quite odd. I think she may have dropped a bit which would explain the strange heaviness.

So today I am going to properly pack my bag I think. It just is a collection of random stuff (esp choccy bars and jelly babies ) thrown chaotically in the corner so I shall go through it and make sure I actually have what I need. Like pants for example. Choc and jelly babies will only get me so far...!

Is it normal to be totally pissed off by this stage of pregnancy? I am really snappy and bad tempered, which I suspect is largely due to the utterly shit sleep I am having and how much my back hurts. Also stroppy and antisocial and bored to tears by the pregnancy small talk that everyone seems to want to make to me "ooh, when are you due? Not long then? So, do you know what it is? Have you picked names? Is the nursery done?" Due any day, yes of course I have a big bump/mmm well the bump might be little but the baby is measuring just fine thanks, sod off nosing about names we aren't telling, no we don't have a fecking nursery, no actual room to put one in. Now bugger off!

Phew thought I had killed the thread!!
Spilt totally normal hon x

How's everyone doing? Lady and nix hope all is well with you and your newborns.

Had a checkup today and all looking good still, nice strong hb, still head down but not much engagement going on. No sign of any action for now. Boo! DH is sooo looking forward to his paternity leave and I have to apologise each night for not having the baby yet

I have a recipe for what looks like a fab postnatal cake - wholemeal flour, dried apricots, figs and prunes in it. It looks all sticky and juicy and delicious. Got to help with not getting constipated too. Off to bake and put one in the freezer alongside my chocolate brownies and banana bread

Hello, a certain degree of stroppiness is practically obligatory at this stage of pregnancy, Spilt. You are so uncomfortable. At least is a little cooler now.

We are fine. DP now back at work which is frankly terrifying. Baby on her own would be a piece of piss. She is an easy baby so far but is tricky with the three year old whose behaviour is fairly challenging right now. Just got back in house from hanging out washing to find her in her basket on her front . He'd tried to get her out for a cuddle. Thank goodness she is a big, robust baby. She needs to be!

Hello, a certain degree of stroppiness is practically obligatory at this stage of pregnancy, Spilt. You are so uncomfortable. At least is a little cooler now.

We are fine. DP now back at work which is frankly terrifying. Baby on her own would be a piece of piss. She is an easy baby so far but is tricky with the three year old whose behaviour is fairly challenging right now. Just got back in house from hanging out washing to find her in her basket on her front . He'd tried to get her out for a cuddle. Thank goodness she is a big, robust baby. She needs to be!

Aw Lady, at least it was for a cuddle not anything horrid! Am fairly sure I once dropped my brother just to see if he'd bounce (disclaimer-I was a horrible child-am sure your ds would never do anything like that!)

spilt your cake and brownies sound good...(do you have a brownie recipe that freezes well? I am just learning how to freeze stuff-I know that sounds ridiculous but we've only just got a freezer so we're learning how long things will last, what stage to freeze them etc! Am experimenting with lasagne at the mo.)

Nix thank you for posting your birth story-it sounds like it must have been pretty scary but thank goodness for the happy ending. How are you feeling now?

I have been going swimming a couple of times a week (well, only for a fortnight so far!) and my whole groin area really hurts. I can't tell whether it's normal post-exercise aches (can you tell I haven't done much exercise for years? ) or something more sinister like SPD. It really hurts-like I've been kicked hard down there and all around my hips. Has anyone else had this? Am really hoping it's just a sign of my lack of fitness and will go away if I carry on swimming!

Hope everyone's well?

pippa just a quick post, will post brownie recipe later, but what kind of swimming are you doing? If you might have SPD then you should avoid breaststroke legs I believe as that can aggravate it. Have you got a MW appointment soon? If not, depending on how much pain you're in, maybe book one to ask about SPD (I think they call it PGP now - Pelvic Girdle Pain). If it is that you want a physio referral asap.

Hi all

I think being stroppy at this stage is perfectly acceptable spilt. I sometimes feel like that too and I'm only 29 weeks!

Bless your DS Lady, that's sweet that he wanted a cuddle. But agreed, also .

Hope all is going well with you nix. Sounds like you had quite a time of it during birth but everybody came out of it well which I guess is the main thing.

pippa, what stroke are you swimming? I have recently been having swimming lessons and learnt that you shouldn't launch straight into doing breaststroke without warming up first as this could pull your groin muscles quite badly. So if you can do a couple of lengths of front crawl/back stroke first that might help.

I had MW appointment yesterday and everything seems to be perfect with baby. I have various minor ailments to deal with but I think most pregnant ladies do!

Hope everyone else is well.

pippa Chocolate brownies:

250g butter cut into cubes (I prefer salted)
250g dark chocolate (about 70%) broken into pieces
3 medium eggs
275g caster sugar
125g self raising flour (wholemeal or white is fine)
1tsp vanilla extract/essence

Put butter and choc in a bowl over a pan of boiling water and melt.
Whisk eggs, sugar and vanillay stuff in a bowl until well combined.
Beat in the melted butter/choc mix until smooth.
Sift in flour and fold it into the mixture.
Pour into a lined baking tin (it says 20 x 25cm but I think mine is a big bigger so my brownies must come out thinner).
Bake for 20-25 mins in preheated oven at Gas 4/180 degrees.
When ready a knife stuck into the centre should come out with a few moist crumbs on it, don't keep going until the knife is clean or they will be overcooked.
When cooled cut into squares.

I test-froze 1 piece overnight the other day and couldn't tell the difference between that and the ones I hadn't frozen, so have now frozen a whole batch. Fingers crossed that they come out ok too!

Lady that sounds pretty scary! Thank goodness it can't have been long and she was fine. 3 years old is the supervised cuddle stage propped up with huge numbers of cushions isn't it?! (judging by pics of me holding my baby sister at that sort of age)

Glad everything's going well MrsP. Everyone's getting so far along now!

What's happened to GetDown recently? Hope you're ok.

My NCT group have all suddenly started to pop. Out of the 6 of us, there's been 1 section and 2 inductions now, and none of us were even due until this weekend. I'm a bit hopeful that that must mean the odds are in favour of most of the rest of us just going into labour, I don't want to still be here being induced at 42 weeks! (Totally appalling misuse of statistics there!)

Hiya I'm still lurking, just too boring to think of anything interesting to contribute

Great to hear nix's birth story, so glad you all came through safe and well.

Loving the idea of freezer brownies - emergency brownies on hand when you have a newborn sounds like a very very good plan.

Had my 34 wk appointment yesterday and baby is head down so very pleased about that. Did not fancy spending £300 on flippin hypnobirthing only to end up with a breech baby and a c-section at the end of the day

Impressed at you ladies that are doing exercise. Me on the other hand, am struggling to even walk the dog. But mainly due to bladder issues than anything else

In good news, if slightly gross news, I am now fully au-fait with perineal massage.

Love to all

Getdown your famous. Just lurked on a thread in most active about ppls fav mumsnet nicknames and you feature!

Do love it !

A lack of interesting conversation has never stopped me Nice to see you again. Excellent news baby is head down and congrats on the massage mastering. It gets less ick as you get more used to it.

Oooo raven I didn't see that! I used to be on chat a lot, but don't really go on there any more so am surprised anyone mentioned me.

Thanks spilt. Hope you are feeling ok????? You are up next! SOOOOOO excited, I can't wait to hear your news.

Yeah GetDown you got two mentions - did you see the one who said she imagines from your name you must be a very capable and beautiful woman? I felt proud reading that and thought "yep and I know her!"

Feeling a bit peculiar just now. Baby has been having a right old squirm and it's really uncomfortable. I'm sure there's been both bladder and cervix headbutting and I can't work out whether I need to dash to the loo or hobble and yelp!

Unreasonably hungry today and damnit I froze all my baking

Hoping I can give news before too long. Come on baby girl!

"capable and beautiful woman" HA HA HA - just nearly fell off my chair!!!!!

Ah, I know what you mean re. the bladder-bashing. Went to the park today to have a picnic with a friend, and sitting on the ground was excruciating! When I get up in the night now to go to the loo, it's more of a badly controlled stagger.... just sooo painful and stiff all the time!!

Are you 40 weeks now?

Heehehe

Very much agree on the staggering - I seize up if I sit or lie in one position for long and it takes a while to regain control of my legs

I'll be 39 weeks at the weekend. Saw my MW on Tues who said baby is only about 1/5 engaged and she doesn't think I'm likely to do anything soon. Apparently she's expecting me to be about a 41 weeker. Boo!!
Number 4 out of 6 at NCT has now had her waters go and will be induced tomorrow if no baby by then. Starting to feel a bit left out!

It's lovely and cool today. Whoever thought I'd be so pleased about it peeing it down through August?

Spilt

Maybe she's getting ready to come out!

Waves to everyone else!
LAdy hope you two are behaving well!!

Am getting there thanks. Had a lot of pain post birth with the forceps slicing I ended up with (Docs test as it's all v inflamed) so I gave abs to take. Due to that I had gotten a fever and felt generally shite but much better today!

Little man is fab. A real sleeper, v relaxed! Feeding like a demon - loves the boob does this one!! Waking matbe once or sometimes twice in the night but that's all.. Hrs a real gem! Also has dimples!!
Terrys his names on my bookface page ;)

Other than recovering from the birth and being a milk machine ds1 is also smitten with ds2 and is a very loving big brother... Even if his behaviour towards me has changed somewhat!

Still lurking for exciting news..,,, we will need a charters post grads soon xxxxxx best of luck spilt- hope she comes soon xxx

Spilt, my DH has decided he is in love with you for posting that recipe. (And I am too.) Nuff said!!

Getdown I am still too chicken to try perineal massage. I have tried sitting on the bed with a mirror but I just can't seem to get past the bump! Need to find the right position and then will take a deep breath and get on with it. Maybe.

Charters Post Grads is a lovely idea Nix! Will I be the last to join it? I've got 6.5 weeks to go till EDD - and it feels like f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

I feel for everyone who is dealing with babies jumping on their bladders - last night I went to the loo every 10 minutes for an hour. It got to the stage where I stopped flushing because I figured the waste of water involved would be astronomical .

pippa no you won't be last to join! My edd is 20 nov and terrys is only a wk or so earlier.

spilt any signs yet??

Getting mightily kicked tonight. Not complaining though!

I take it you had baking success then pippa? Glad to be of service

Sorry to disappoint but no news for now. Humph.

nix ouch sounds like you've had a nasty first few days, glad you are feeling better now, hope the abs do the trick.

Hello all!

Keeping my eye out for spilts news. Fingers crossed it happens soon or we will get bored waiting

Came on to check on spilt but now off to facebook stalk her.

Check out my pics, we had a very exciting day!

Gosh calm down everyone, I am only 39 weeks this weekend, you'll exhaust yourselves getting so excited and stalky if I go to 42!

And GetDown if you have your baby first I shall consider that cheating...

We keep having friends over for dinner etc, doing my best to tempt her to arrive by giving her arrangements to screw up. I am a great believer in the law of sod, but it is not working so far.

terrys I'm sure I am being very dense but I can't figure out what you've been up to today, all the pics on your FB are older aren't they?

Not facebook - check out my MN profile pics spilt!