Shagged out Viroid Grads 3...

[ConfessionsOfAnAchingFanjo]

Ha! I made it to the next thread.

That was meant to read 'DC hash 2' but the iPhone app clearly doesn't like a hash!

I did think 232 children was a bit excessive

Been naughty and unpacked my jojo mama pjs from my labour bag. They are so comfy though, it is like wearing a hug

Completely understand the visitor worries. Been getting lots of 'as long as I see the baby first' and people saying they will visit asap. Tried to tell sil that hospital is only 2 visitors at a time and no kids allowed (unless they were mine). She replied, my two aren't going to wait, we can tell the staff they are yours. Forced laugh from me and I don't think that will work . To be honest don't want a 3 and 7 year old running about. Plus they always have a cold ( suspect caught this one from them). Yes, I know I am being precious . Let me know what kind of response you get to the email and good luck.

Made myself some lentil soup and feel much better already. Homemade soup cures all. Even put some in the freezer for when the baby comes. Very organised!

Has anyone else stock piled their fridge and freezer?

Well, my Mum is away at the moment - got a response from her that I could 'feel' the tension through just saying 'love you hun' - and then an email about something else a bit later referring back to my 'rules' from earlier (I had given them rules, just said how I felt) TBH I purposefully told her while she was away so she had the rest of the week to get over it - that sounds a lot harsher than it is meant to but I hope YKWIM! My Dad was fab about it and haven't heard from my brothers...although it was one of them saying they would be able to 'pop round whenever' that sort of started this (and the fact my Mum needed to know how I felt!)

Lentil soup sounds lovely. I've not done any stock piling. We have a co-op and a Tesco just round the corner that DH can go to if required. TBH if I froze stuff I would then have to remember to defrost it before you can eat it. Quicker to get DH to make a sarnie or salad or omelette. Dominos Pizza is just a call away

Pretty much of the same line of thought food wise. I have put a spag Bol and some soup in the freezer. Plus some bread. Then I was at a loss as we never normally even use the freezer (apart from for ice-cream ) Just keeping the fridge nice and stocked.

I think the thing with visitors is a lack of control of the situation. You don't know how you might feel, but need to manage their expectations. Luckily dh read about visitors in my baby book and it said he was in charge of making sure we weren't overwhelmed. He is very logical, so seems happier about this now that he has read it is a problem rather than thinking it is me being irrational. That makes him sound terrible, it was more just that he kept saying it will be fine.

P.s. Does it count as the nesting stage if you want your house to be super tidy, but persuade dh to clean it!

Sorry you're both having family stresses. It's strangely comforting to know that others are going through similar though. Although I do have to say that my parents arrived yesterday to a local campsite and came for lunch (at my invitation) today and were remarkably well behaved. It seems they intend to let me call the shots, at least whilst I'm still waiting for baby to arrive. What they'll be like when it does is another matter.
Well done on spelling things out to your family Val. It must be especially awkward whilst living with your mum but its so important that you retain some sense of control over the whole thing. I wish I'd done similar as even though it seems to be working out so far, I've had months of stress about what everyone would be like and I could have saved myself that by being clearer much earlier.

My from today is same as last sunday. I don't exist as a person anymore as far as lots of people from church are concerned. I am a convenient pair of legs for transporting a bump around. Many of these people haven't spoken to me before. One lady started telling me about how her daughter is training to be a midwife, then proceded to give me a long lecture about how important it is to eat right, and that whilst it looked like I'd been doing well so far I can't just take it for granted that I can eat what I like now. .
Due on Tuesday. I think if baby hasn't arrived by next sunday I shall be thinking of excuses to avoid church! On the other hand I could have kissed the chap who on finding out I'm due imminently said he couldn't believe it his wife is due in Dec and is already bigger than me . I like him. Everyone else can go away.

Esk, I keep forgetting you literally have your folks camped out. I hope they continue to behave.

Sorry to hear people at church aren't being great. I think it's a little like teaching, everyone has a strong opinion and feels the need to share it. However, with pregnancy it always gets personal. I know it is silly but my main grievance is friends and family telling me I have done well not to put on too much weight and it should just fall off afterwards. Would like to answer that puking for four months does make weight gain difficult and as I have no photo shoots/ red carpet events planned I will focus on weight loss/toning when I am ready. Love the husband telling you that you look neat. All positive comments welcome!

Parents are being good so far. They're staying at a campsite on the other side of our (very small) town. They do seem to have plans for most days this week where I could join them if I wanted or they said to give them a ring and they'd drop in for tea/whatever. But as I was fearing that they'd be round here all day everyday just waiting for me to go into labour it's all looking good.

I hope your family manage to be similarly considerate.

B2B - i was thinking that myself this morning!
I want a lovely clean and tidy house for the birth (mainly because I don't want the midwife to consider our house unsuitable for the birth!) but I don't want to have to clean it. It's mostly cat hairs - and they just refuse to clear it up.

Esk - i know what you mean about church people but and at that woman!!
I had the same thign when I first started going out with DH - people who had only ever said "hello" or :) at me before suddenly started treating me as the oracle regarding DH, his mum and his family!
Glad you found a nice man amongst them all.

Posted this morning, but it appears to not have worked .

Basically laughing at the cats not cleaning up after themselves .

Only accomplishment today, other than feeling sorry for myself, is ordering black out blinds for the bedroom. They will still let a little light in, but shouldn't encourage little one to be too awake at unreasonable hours

Btw, is there only four of us left to pop on this thread?

we bought some curtains for our toom - they're argso oens, but they are no more than black net curtains - how hard is it to sell curtains that are made from material?
seriously, they are the thinnest fabric (with the loosest weave) i've ever seen!

but we did also buy a blind for thebaby's room. haven't put that up yet, because we can't decide whether to put it inside or outside the window.

How annoying about church Esk - I am completely over being a pregnant person. Not pregnancy but the whole people only talking to you about Pg/babies etc, the unwanted advice etc. Glad your parents are behaving. DH told me he was CC'd in an email my mum sent to my brothers saying 'come round whenever you like....if Vallinnapod is not receiving visitors you can have a cup of tea with your old Mum' I have alternating between utter rage and completely seeing that she is just trying to make them feel welcome in what is their home too....rage keeps winning....

Nickel completely over cat hair here...we were going to get our own once we were settled in our new place but have now decided not to as I am fed up with it getting EVERYWHERE! I can just about tolerate it with the cuties at my Mum's as we have at 8-15 years of love together but I am not so sure I want my own!

I am in two minds about black out blinds...I don't want the baby to only sleep in total darkness as that will make him less portable. However, if it guarantees sleep...!

B2B - I think there are 5 of us. You and Esk in the next week, me, Katee and Nickel

Ah, wasn't counting myself

Feeling the rage for you at your mums email. I can understand she wants the family to feel welcome, but it sounds like she is implying you are being unreasonable. Wanting to limit the flow of visitors makes sense. I think you and your mum need a good heart to heart. Can you tell her you are worried about being overwhelmed and ask her to be in charge of making sure that doesn't happen?

The black out blinds I have chosen are
Vertical so will create good level of darkness, but not put the baby in pitch black. Still debating on buying travel black out blind just in case though.

About to test my tens machine. Big test of trust with dh

Ohhh - let me know how the TENS test goes. I keep thinking I should do the same but am worried about de-sticky-fying the electrodes

As for the mother situation. DH will be gatekeeper and if it takes me to have a massive blow-up then so be it! Can't say I didn't warn people...! It was the fact she didn't include me in her email, as if my request was unreasonable. Gotta stop thinking about it as it keeps getting me cross!! What she doesn't realise is it just makes me want to move out sooner. In fact DH and I have already decided not to wait until all the building work is done now.

Argh! Have bee awake for 2 hours now lying next to a snoring DH!! Why must my body do this to me?! Does it not realise that in a few days/weeks it will never get the chance to sleep again?!

Sorry you had another bad night Val. Me too. In fact I think I just missed you. I should have posted then we could have kept each other company. I've had on-off periods of sleep right through pg but am now consistently awake for an hour or two every night. At least I'm quite good at napping in the day.
I'm sure all the stress with your mum isn't helping the sleep either. So sorry she's being difficult about it all.

I've had a couple of goes with my TENS machine and managed OK. First time I think I only got 3 of the 4 pads in the right place and one sort of stung a bit but was better when I repositioned it. Hope your trials went OK Baby. Val, don't worry about the stickyness on electrodes - mine say to give them a little wipe with water if they start to lose stickyness.

I'm 40 weeks today, seeing mw this morning. I want a sweep! I want this baby out!

Good luck this morning Esk! Hope you get your sweep and that it gets things moving!

Let us know how your appointment goes esk. Just stamp your feet until the midwife lets you have one

Testing of tens machine went fine. Dh managed to put pads in the right place and only tested the first setting. Actually felt quite good. The pads were freezing when they first went on though. They stuck back down easily and there is a spare set of pads anyway. Dh admitted afterwards that his inner childishness was desperate to turn the power up

Val and esk really feel for your lack of sleep. Despite being choked with the cold I slept reasonably well last night. However, I was supposedly really warm, rumbling about and snoring. Dh slept on the couch from 5am!

you can get new pads for the TENS anyway, so don't worry about that.

I had my midwife appointment this morning. She asked how I was, I said I wasn't sleeping well. then she told me off .
not a proper telling-off, but I said I kept waking up, and she asked when I was finishing work. I had to say as late as possible - she knows I'm here in the shop, and I can't have any cover, but she says that I'll need more rest as i get further on, and I need to take it when I can.
well, I'll just have to open later and shut earlier.
(on top of all the bloody evenings that are taken up with one thing and another!!)
Never mind....

I did ask if I could be weighed - she said it was fine, but they don't care about weight. (ie they don't need to know)
cos we don't have scales at home, you see, and I'm fascintaed!
Anyway, I now weigh 68 ½ Kg (ish)
My notes say I started off at 65, but I really started off at 64Kg, cos I was already 8 weeks when I was weighed the first time.
and she measured my tummy (we get given our own personal paper tape measure for being measured ), and it was 25cm.

oh, and she listened to the heart beat, which was lovely, cos I could hear it too.
and my blood pressure is 110/60.

Glad all seems to be well with baby Nickel. I know you're in a predicament with work but the midwife is right about rest - I'm knackered all the time at the moment, and it's nearly 4 weeks since I finished.

I've just got back from midwife. Baby is persistently lying on my right despite all my efforts on the ball and on hands & knees. Despite that all is well. I can have sweeps on Friday, Monday and Wednesday if I like. She also suggested looking into complementary therapy - accupuncture and reflexology as a way of both turning baby and inducing labour. I dropped in to the place she suggested (part of a local health food shop) and came out with some Clary Sage oil but baulked at paying £65 for accupuncture (which I'm not keen on anyway). If sweep doesn't work on Friday I might consider it again.

I also have the option of DH taking over the shop when he finishes work
(not that that's very practical at that time of year - he does on average 1½ hours overtime from mid-november until christmas, which means he's unlikely to get here until 4o'clock. :( )

sorry it sounds like your baby wants to stay inside for even longer.