We're now halfway and it's PMA all the way - Nov 2011

[cep]

Halfway there now ladies. on the countdown.

Congratulations sunshine lovely news :)

Hiya, I'm glad I'm not the only one suffering from insomnia, though mine's only partially baby related. Have had stinky chest infection for last week and I can't seem to shake it off, so am keeping myself and the DH up half the night hooching and coughing. Managed to get some herbal elixir for kids which I can take safely, but it's truly minging, smells and tastes like HP sauce gone wrong (I normally like HP)

I tend to swap sides alot, mainly cos if I stay on my left my hip gets really sore (SPD) and that's where the baby hangs out, so she gets a bit wriggly and starts kicking if she gets squashed too much.

Re the swollen feet/ankles/hands, I have had a slightly swollen left foot the last couples of days. I assumed that it's been down to a combination of pregnancy and warm muggy weather. I've kept it elevated when I can, and went swimming yesterday, which has really really helped :)

Yeah, I have to admit, I'm starting to get a wee bit fed up of being pregnant

Re swelling...

www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/pregnancyswelling.html

The link above mentions low potassium, which makes sense. The more water you excrete flushes out yor electrolytes. We have no problem replacing salt in the west but potassium is often forgotten. Sodium and potassium work in partnership in our nervous system. So maybe an extra banana a day may be worth a try?

Oh gosh stripey I feel a bit that way too. I had such an easy time with no morning sickness but now my back hurts all day and all night, I can't get a good nights sleep and I feel so big and hot! It feels like there is still a long way to go. I don't think the osteopath I have been seeing has done any good so I have booked to see a chiropractor on Friday altho I have no idea what the difference between them is!

Bad start to my day as the person I had lined up to work my maternity cover was supposed to be coming in to meet me today but she called this morning to say that she had accepted another job and couldn't take my job after all. Now feel very stressed as it's not much time for me to find someone else. Aaarrgghhh.

I have lots of revision to do today for my driving theory test tomorrow morning so wish me luck. If I pass I can book my practical test and hopefully get my license before little one comes - why didn't I do this sooner?!!

Have a good day everyone, I hope you're all coping better in the heat than me!

folic don't worry I am pretty sure the ideal is the left hand side thats what the books say anyhows.

Staceroo I keen so will pm you :)

I first met my OH when we were 13 at secondary school but he was far to geeky for me to even hold a conversation with, flash forward 14 years or so and several good but more bad relationships and we bump into each other at a train station on route to Birmingham. Chatted all the way, then about a year later I treated him for an injury and we started dating, few months later had a nasty break up and I move 80 miles away. 6 months down the road he realised he was wrong and worked his backside off to get me back I gave him another chance after deciding to move back to Swindon and I fell in love with him at the Glastonbury festival after my mate went out with some of her friends and he slept on the floor of my tent in the freezing cold with no bedding so I didn't have to sleep on my own :). A year after we decided to give it a go and after having a month off work with labrynthitis I POS and we had a blue line :-0

Good luck mashpot!

Was hoping for an up date on the eBay story!

My dh and I first met briefly at a friend's wedding but he arrived just as I was leaving so we were aware of each other but nothing more than that. We next met at another friend's birthday. He missed last train and got stuck in London so ended up in my spare room. At our wedding best man let it slip that there is an all night bus service!!!

Have mw appointment today so drinking lots as forgot to take sample this morning. Had bad night with the heat then cramp in my leg. Planning a massive baking session later with cheese, onion and rosemary muffins and chocolate banana bread.

cookie yum cookie that chocolate banana bread sounds to die for!!! Please please please can you send me the recipe?

Choc banana bread may count towards potassium levels eh? I drink about minimum of 2 litres of water during day and then more fluids in evening when home including big glass of milk. Not sure I can fit much more in?

Maternity tankini arrived today from figleaves. Tried it on in toilets at work. Awful. Awful. Awful. Awful. Boobs are just awful in it. Have had to order a proper underwired affair from bravissimo but not maternity. AND only bikini in stock. Really not sure if I can get away with a bikini but I need to try and get some kind of swimwear before my time off work next week as we planned a nice hotel and swimming pool etc. Feel like having a big greet.

AND lost a lot of work on a project- not sure how, why, when but back to drawing board and deadline screaming at me. Worried I'm fucking it all up.

Ok here goes... abridged version of the ebay story!

I used to drive a 1983 Ford Capri, whihc I decided to sell on ebay! A nice young man from South Wales offered to buy it from me for the (bargain) sum of £900.

On the morning of the deal it had snowed and after being out and jump starting the car before his arrival I was not looking my best! And then this handsom young man knocked on my door and I was quite blown away!

DH and his Dad had driven 280 miles to come and pick this car up, so I offered them a cup of tea, but they were keen to head straight off. I casually suggested that he text me to let me know they'd got back safely. (Old rear wheel drive car in the snow... I was obviously worried!)

A month or so later, I found the haynes manual and contacted him to let him know I'd send it in the post, which I did.

Any way not much came of that afterwards, except I saw his name pop up on my msn messenger (from exchanging emails re haynes manual!) everynow and then. Then one day he suddenly commented on the music I was listening to and we got talking about the car etc.

Next thing you knew we were talking every day, then texting, then on the phone until all hours of the morning!

Then one day he said he was coming back to see me... he did, I made him a bacon sandwhich he met my family, mum made him lasagne! And we've been together since!

The final twist was that he had to sell the car as it wasn't economical for the long distance relationship! But the week we got engaged some 3 years later, our very same car happened to be on ebay for sale again! So we drove to Somerset to pick her up!

2 years on, we're married (the car was the star of the show) with a dog, we've moved back to Wales and have a baby girl on the way!

(Sorry that was actually quite a long version!)

x

Folic What about underwired bikini underneath tankini...or is it all tainted with memeories of loo horror? Have a chocolate banana slice and it will defintiely look better I'm sure :) At the risk of sounding like a character from the big lebowski...nothing is fucked...

Merry up I had a wonderful time...really wished I hadn't ordered my carriage for so early! Shall we meet up again 1st Sunday of September? It was just soo lovely to put faces to names and speak with people who know exactly what is going on!

Am feeling alright today, back to work so could be better. Finishing up last day of September by combining holidays and then mat leave, think I'll be 35 weeks. Literally cannot wait.

PMA: 3 sleeps until the weekend. :o

Stace I love love love your wee story!

Has anyone else got a lovely getting together story?

I met DP about 3 years ago in a muddy field in Leicestershire... Dressed in a kilt and tartan bandana, telling people about his haggis-fishing business (he even had some tame haggises in a jar...) Sounds crazy but we do Live Action Roleplay (LRP), and he was playing a big celtic warrior who just happened to farm haggis, too ;)

I thought he was not at all my type, 6'6", 27 stone - but there was something really sweet about him. Anyway, we were both in relationships, he was married (unhappily, I found out later), so we struck up a really good friendship when ever we met in the field.

Ok, there may have been the occasional flirt and wink here and there, to be honest. And we started talking a lot, even if it was just as friends, still. So last May, after months of emailing and Facebook commenting back and forth, I was driving from Guildford to Chester, and mentioned on Facebook that I was driving on the M4 - he thought I was in Wales and invited me over to a mutual friends place for coffee. I took a 200 mile detour and we spent the evening talking and laughing until 2 am. I stayed over at the friend's house, and 5 minutes after he'd left, he texted me and said he'd had one of the best evenings ever, I replied that I didn't want to make things complicated for him... His reply was that the only thing he was regretting was not kissing me goodnight, and I then replied that he should have. So he got back in his car, drove back over to his friends house and kissed me goodnight. We spent 4 hours (people were walking to work when he left) talking on the front steps of his friends house, and were completely honest about our lives, finances, expectations...

He left his wife (they'd been living as a separated couple in their house for financial reasons), and we spent 3 months in a long distance relationship between London and Swansea. I encouraged him to lose 7 stone over the first 6 months, and in March this year we were celebrating him being under 20 stone for the first time since his teenage years - and I got to tell him he was going to be a dad, too!

Oh, I love all the stories, especially the eBay one Stace! I wish my own story was a bit more glamorous...

We were both in the sailing team at university, he was in 3rd year when I started uni, so when I went along to team trials, he was in charge of meeting all the newbies and taking us down to see the boats, and see what we could do. There was a big group of us, and I was a bit nervous, so didn't think I'd made much of an impression on him, and didn't particularly care, he wasn't really my type, and I wasn't looking for a relationship in my first week living away from home! Anyway, it turned out that I wasn't picked for the team that year, it was all people in 2nd, 3rd or 4th year, no freshers at all. I was told that I was welcome at training, and as a sailing instructor, they would appreciate me training up the team! I was pissed off because I hadn't been picked, even though they could obviously see I knew what I was doing better than some of the people that were. I didn't bother turning up to any training, and thought that would be the end of it.

However, a year later, I got a lovely email from the commodore of the sailing club, saying that he hadn't forgotten me, and he thought I would make a great addition to the team, and instead of asking me to try out again, he asked if I would help him pick the team, and could I be the team captain... a bit odd since I hadn't turned up for a year! I agreed to go on a little yachting trip to get to know the rest of the team a bit better. I spent several hours sitting out in the scottish sunshine chatting to the charming commodore, and started to make friends, deciding that I had been a bit harsh to judge them for choosing people who had been racing together for a while, so I agreed to be the team captain.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to the first event of the year, breaking the ice and wading through snow (in November) at the side of Bardowie Loch, where the racing had been cancelled because of the weather, and we were all ready in wetsuits, feeling pretty miserable about the whole thing. Decision was made to go to the pub instead, where we all got shamelessly drunk. The commodore and the team captain had a drunken one night stand in a scandal which rippled throughout the club, embarassing us both totally, making it just about impossible for us to talk to each other without someone pointing or giggling... very childish! When we got home (in separate cars) he came straight round to my place and apologised, and asked if I would go out with him some time without the rest of the clowns. I accepted, and now, 6 years later, we're married and very very happy to be having a baby! He's basically the one night stand that never went home!

Sorry for the long story, but I love it! I want to hear more of your stories, its lovely to hear how we've all got to the same situation! (We are going to need a new thread soon, what shall we call it?)

Hello Everyone H007 - I'm so glad you love your new house. First home is so exciting.

Getting together story. I first met DH when he was a student on a course I was lecturing on in Brussels(in the October. I had just started a new job. The next April I ran into him at a massive industry meeting in Paris and had a lovely chat and catch up. The following October we met again in Amsteram at another industry meeting and clearly we were attracted although nothing happened. In the June of the same year I moved back to the NW after 10 years in the SE. DH came to visit me on the way to visit some friends and the rest is history. Except he lived 10 miles from where I had moved from so I moved back the following March to live with him back where I came from. Married him within 18 months, pregnant a month later - still sick makingly happy.

Oh and congratulation to sunshine!!

Lizzy how about "It's too hot, swollen ankles be damned! Nov 2011 babies kicking their way to been born"

OK, attempted to post catch-up after weeks , but somehow I'd logged out and lost it .
Yay for all the good news, Folic, have you tried Jojo for Mat tankinis - I am a 32GG-H and really quite like my JMB tankini, although it is not wired, just a halter top.
I am dealing OK with my SPD, swimming, cycling are better than walking, sitting worst of all, have installed this to try & keep me getting up from my desk every 20mins to stretch/dance about a bit. Seeing physio Friday , stupidly followed by weekend theoretically spent camping
Meeting stories: ours is super-dull, DH and I met as students, had long-distance thing for 3yrs, moved in together 5yrs, married, a year later bought house and pg after another year.
Finally - I have a qn for all the 2+ timers: I am struggling to deal with the news that no, I will not be offered an enema during early labour, and yes, there is a good chance of 'things' um 'happening' whilst pushing, assuming that all goes well. Does anyone rationalise this? I know there will be a lot going on, but am failing to deal with this idea at all!

Love all the stories. We met on the Isle of Wight in 2001 when my company hired his company. I presumed he had an other half as he kept talking on his mobile. I took a shine to him and kept makig him drinks. At the wrap party (we both work in TV) I kept trying to talk to him but we couldn't get to each other due to others chatting to us. Eventually, at the end of the night we managed it and were both, ever so slightly, the worse for wear. He was very shy and I was getting impatient so I utter the imortal words "do you want to see my pants or not?" He swallowed hard and managed to say yes. We didn't sleep together that night but did snog quite a bit.

We had a long distance relationship (Cardiff - Surrey) for 5 years then moved in together in 2005. Married in 2009 and first baby on the way in 2011.

Stace love the ebay story. Mine DH is a fluent Welsh speaker hence the Welsh language baby stuff. The plan is to move to Wales eventually but as our work is in London it makes it hard. I do LOVE Cardiff though.

Well I bagsy the dullest get together story of them all.

I paid £22 and met 2 blokes on match.com OH was the 2nd one.

At first I was really reluctant to use online dating but I was working 14 hour days and doing professional exams so no way I could have a life at the same time.

Ok it may look like I bagged the first one that didn't turn up covered in food (the 1st one did). To flatter myself, OH had met dozens and dozens of ladies (70 odd I think he has admitted to) but I think I was the only one to get drunk with him.

I met DH when my friend's younger sister really wanted to see U2 but her mum said she was too young to go on her own, and could only go if I would go with her (the older sister was away for the summer so I had to take over the big sister duties!). Anyway, on the bus from Belfast to Dublin, he was with a big group of friends, and she knew one of them. I really hit it off with his group of friends, and they started inviting me out at the weekends (just as one of the group, not as a 'girl') and then he started to engineer opportunities to be alone with me, but his best friend didn't realise, and kept inviting himself along, so we were chaperoned for weeks! Anyway, we got together a few months after meeting for the first time and have been together for 17 years, although we are only 35 (me) and 34 (him). Stuck together through university (different universities, although not that far apart) and got married whilst he was still a student, which loads of people advised against, but we just wanted to get on with it, and didn't see the point in waiting.

Also, a few weeks after we got together, I introduced his best friend to one of my friends, and they also went on to marry and have two children too.

hi ladies, glad to see you're all ok, firstly let me say congrats sunshine i'm really happy for you. and h007 glad the move went well.

jamama unfortunately yes you are most likely to, because the baby coming down will push anything out of the canal next door. You will not notice, the mw is very good as swishing it away beore you even see. I told dh i didn't want to know if i'd done one or not, but then asked a year or so later because i just hadn't known.

Missy Haha! Love the "Do you want to see my pants or not" line!

Loving the getting together stories, especially Missy's and Stace's!
Folic, my ankles are swollen too, more so than with my other pregnancies but I have a feeling I'm not eating as well as I should and it doesn't help that I have an aversion to bananas!

stace,Cali love the stories....feeling like poo, full of cold and you've made me smile Missy...great line!
Adding mine....met DH 4 years ago in a penthouse whilst filming a very glamorous sofa tv ad! I was new to production, he was mr creative...we were both with other people and friends for a year before we got together. I moved in to a tiny flat after splitting with ex, he was back at his mum and dads whilst doing up house he'd just bought so pretty much moved in straight away, we got engaged after 8 months, did house up together, moved in, got married last august and blue line after about a week of trying!!!
Anyone know what's good and ok to take for horrid cold?

hmmm....how did I meet DP??
It's one of those "love at 1st sight" stories.....
After having been a single mum for nearly 4 years I confided in my best friend that I was lonely and felt ready to be with someone - well that was like a red rag to a bull!! She was determined to scout high and low for a man for me, though I was sceptical as our taste in men is so very different!! Being busy with university, on a largely female campus due to it being health & social care, and looking after DS I had very little social time with which to look for a bloke.

After a while my friend had started to eye up DP for me; she felt he was my perfect man...with one little flaw - he was in a relationship :( The relationship was rocky and she had moved to litterally the other side of the world she was a demanding & selfish person who used DP constantly. My friend kindly waited until he came to his senses and ended the relationship & then invited us both out (with others) for a night out; neither of us knowing her plans to set us up. He drove the hour up to come out with us - by the end of the evening we were doing nothing but chatting to each other. We ended up spending the rest of the weekend together (with the rest of the group that went out) and even DS came out for a picnic with us all.

The following weekend I ended up meeting at another mutual friend's house with others also being present. Nightly chats, turned into weekends spent together and a long distance relationship. A year later I moved round the corner from him and he moved in a couple of months later. Having lived together for the 2nd year of our relationship we decided that we no longer wanted DS to be an only child and as soon as the decision was made to try, I fell pregnant!!