Rats Successfully Smacked, the 'No Brookers' uneventful pregnancy and pain free birth thread :)

[MeconiumHappens]

Hello :)

Thanks - will try to post an update when I can. I seem to recall though from last time that I had terrible phone reception anywhere near the hospital. And afterwards I'll have to rush Mr Biscuits back to work before he turns into a pumpkin, but will post as soon as I can.

Hope your rehearsal goes quickly Musical and you can get home soon xx

biscuits, have a lovely scan tomorrow. Going to try and photo my bump or persuade DH to!

jazzy, don't worry, 4 days will pass soon enough. I have a very good feeling your bean is in the right place.

I'm tired, sorry for a rubbish post.

Still super tired over here, so just a quick post to wish Biscuits lots of luck for tom! Also, I hope the weekend whizzes past for Jazzy so your good news scan arrives in the blink of an eye!

I'm so zonked I haven't really thought about my scan on sat for ages. Just got to drag myself through one more day of work and then I can focus on it. Sooooo jealous of all the nap talk from the SAHMs! I WISH I could afford to stay home?!?! Why didn't I marry someone who earned more than me?!?! (Only teasing of course, my DH is lovely and I wouldn't swap him for all the tea in China!)

Thank you for the good luck wishes ladies!

Scream no daytime napping here I'm afraid. DS has decided naps are for whimps . Instead of napping, I find myself dealing with a toddler who would be a lot more manageable had he in fact had a nap! Actually, not sure if he is really a toddler any more?

Good luck for your scan on Saturday though. Are you finding out the sex?

D'oh! I've been lurking so much I thought I'd already mentioned Purple and Musical but apparently not!

I'm sure Purple's bp will come down on it's own and will turn out to be nothing serious, and I'll be doing lots of No Brooking about that! Also best of luck to Musical for tom, I hope your arm feels better in the morning!

Yup Biscuits it's a gender scan technically, altho really I just booked it because I didn't want to go 9 whole weeks without a scan! Mostly I'm worried that my fibroids will have grown, or they'll spot a problem like talipes (DH has a family history) so a bit nervous when I think about it!

Ooh, what's talipes? Sorry if that's a daft question? Saturday isn't long to wait and it will be so nice to have your mind put at rest about those things. We're all brooking for you - it will be a great scan!

Purple sorry to hear about your blood pressure going up. When mine started to rise with DD I was advised to rest if possible, so it is good that they have signed you off work. Now you just have to be able to relax! I was eventually given medication which worked well for me. This time round the consultant has put me on a low dose of aspirin which can apparently work well.

Just make sure they keep an eye on you and your bump growth. Of course, everything will be fine as you are a member of the no brooking club!

I am totally exhausted today. Luckily DD was asleep by 8.15 with minimum fuss. Still later than normal but much better than the monkey business of earlier in the week. Also, I have ridiculously sore boobs!

Yes, purple, it could be a fluke. My bp was 100/50 at my first appointment (notes lost though) and was way, way higher last time- 128/70. High for me, I normally read low-ish. Don't worry yet.

musical hope arm better tomorrow

No daytime napping for me scream on my not-working days. DD only naps an hour, I can't get to sleep that fast- takes me a good hour or so, and it's actually more tiring looking after her than being at work, even in a physical-ish job!!!! DH reckons I need to quit work to be a SAHM after the DT's are born... I'm as if I stay at home for years with them all, I'll obviously lose my registration as not up to date to practice, and then will I ever re-train? If I do, will I get a department agree to let me shadow to get recent experience? If I get that, in interview against someone currently working, why would you take someone really rusty? Not many jobs come up locally... I feel if I quit that's the end of my career... And I do love seeing the kids- saw 2 lovely CP kids today and 2 less lovely, it's just the stress of managing a caseload on 15 hours a week that DH thinks isn't worth it with 3 LO's when I can't just stay late (as I've done both days by an hour yesterday and 2 today, and I'm not even up to date, and only been back at work 3 or 4 weeks...) Dilemma....

How did you decide to quit work scarlet and biscuits? Any regrets?

fischcake, I had a mere 70 min of fuss tonight.... I'm dreading bedtime nowadays!!!

Ooh, good luck tomorrow Biscuits! Are you going to find out the sex? And will you share it with us? (Sorry if you've already answered these questions- I always seem to be pages behind!)

Sorry, the more familiar name is club foot. Luckily in most cases it's quite treatable with no longterm effects, but it's still surgery and months of plaster casts for a teeny tiny newborn! It's more common in boys apparently, and I'm still convinced my little bean is a boy.

Any and all No Brooking gratefully received! I'll be keeping up my No Brooking for everyone here who needs it! Can't wait to hear your good news from your scan tom Biscuits!. Not gender of course, but a healthy bouncing bean!

No napping here, either. DD has also decided that naps are for wimps. Unless she is in the buggy or the car when, of course, I am totally unable to take advantage of the peace and quiet. DH, on the other hand, has been known to pull in McDonalds and have a burger and a sleep!

Dream how can these children not be exhausted?!

Dream for giving up work we had a combination of factors. The main one was DH works long hours (and earns a decent salary). So we could afford for me to give up (just!) and it means that we are able to do more nice family things at the weekends rather than having to do all the crud jobs around his working. On that front it has made a huge difference to dh's balance of life/work, in that he rarely has 'jobs' to do when he's not at work.

But alongside that was the fact that I worked 50 miles away so left home about 6:30 for my work days and got home between 7:00 and 7:30 most days. Where we were living, my in-laws used to collect DS from nursery and DH used to drop him off. But dropping him off meant DH was later to the office which often (always?) meant he had to work at the weekends to catch up. Now, we also wanted to move to a better school area which ruled out the in-law nursery-collection scheme, so we'd have had to do something different child-care wise to cover the hours I was out of the house.

So lots of competing factors and we decided that at this time it was the best thing for us. I would have preferred to have gone on maternity leave and then not gone back after no 2 was born, but, as you know, it took longer to get pg than we thought and it was one of those situations where we just decided to bite the bullet rather than always be waiting to get pg.

Overall, no regrets yet. I think I'd like to go back to work at some point but would like something with less 'pressure' than would be normal with my qualifications so just really want a 'nice little stress free job' but much closer to home and not for a few years yet.

Fishcake - not planning to find out the sex. But if they accidentally tell us I would of course share

And anyway, finding out the sex is so last year darlings , the question on everyone's lips is 'where, oh where, is Biscuit's placenta?'

biscuits, I'd love a nice little no-real-responsibility job. I do fancy being a Teaching Assistant and hopefully supporting a disabled child.... Following other people's advice and doing as I was told with no responisbilty to make my mind up what to do but to benefit someone, plus school hours and term time only! . DH says with 3 under 18/19 months it won't be worth it as I won't make enough to cover childcare- neither of my parents could cope with 3, they both find it tiring with 2 plus live too far away to do it long term. The agreement is standing because and only because it's temporary as I'm pregnant! If I took a year's mat leave I'd still have 3 under 2 1/2 so no free childcare,and to go to work to make a loss seems a bit mad...

scream, we don't do orthopaedics, the talipes kids go to paeds ortho at the hospital not to us in neuro-developmental community paeds but I thought I was fairly sure that talipes is very rarely treated surgically (now I wonder, but I always do!), they're literally just serial plaster casts nowadays. No scars/surgery complications, but yes, lots of plasters. But still, at least it's not a life threatening condition, and hopefully not something that will ever happen to you (DH history or not!) We are Brooking No Argument!!

fischcake, that's the annoying thing, DD is exhausted, sits for her story rubbing her eyes and yawning, then monkeys about/cries and whinges for up to 2 hours..... oh the frustration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lets hope maybe we can Brook No Argument it improves ASAP and it works for the DC already here as well as those we're cooking.

Don't forget my tenner biscuits!!!!

and I don't think I'd miss it or regret it for years biscuits, I'm trying to second guess what I'll think in 10 years if I don't make it back into physio, and that's pretty much impossible...

Will be lurking tomorrow Biscuits for your scan update.

dream I think I pretty much always knew that I wanted to be a sahm if possible. DH and I had been together a long time before babies were on our agenda. We both always had good jobs and earned a fair wage so focused on our savings and paying off as much as we could towards the mortgage. TTC DS took a while and by the time I became pregnant I just knew I wouldn't be able to face going back to work. I'd worked for the company I was employed by for almost 10 years, my maternity package was very generous and no clauses for paying it back if I decided not to return.

That all sounds very well. But on the other hand, we've lost a huge percentage of our income and we've had to make a lot of changes. There's lots of things we make do without that we wouldn't have thought twice about buying before and while DS and any future DC will have everthing they need, they may not have everything they want. But, that's the way we've chosen to prioritise (for now anyway). When school years start I will definitely go back to work, but it will be work that fits in with our life rather than a career again. I don't have any strong opinions on SAHMs versus working mums, we just made a decision based on what felt right for us.

I do miss the laughs, the gossip and feeling on the ball with regards to problem solving and using my brain. But the actual job, the pressure and the politics involved in working for a corporate company I don't miss one bit. I hated getting up for work in the mornings the last couple of years. Getting up for DS, although I'm more exhausted, I enjoy and find so much more fulfilling. No regrets here.

Dream it must be really hard to make a decision like that. And the point about no free childcare is a bugger too! Is your dd September born? If so like my ds you won't get any funding until the jan after she's three so the twins would be nearly 2 by then!! And it must be so annoying if you couldn't quite get back to what you enjoy doing.

However, my mum is a TA looking after disabled kids and I think she quite enjoys it. They have physios etc as well I think at her school?

I can't go back to what my job was either . I'm an accountant /tax advisor by training (yawn). But I hated doing client work. I was always scared they'd ask me a question, which annoyingly was apparently what they were supposed to do, and I hated relying on myself for the answer. Sounds daft but as I was getting promoted the idea of something going out to a client without being reviewed by someone else literally terrified me.

I had a great job doing training courses for my firm which I loved, but had to travel 50 miles to do it. That simply isn't an option once we get to school days etc, unless we get wrap around care, but I don't want to miss out on so much. So I can't go back to the job I loved and I'd rather poke myself in the eyes than go back to what I'm trained for , so I think I want something nice and easy, but still finance related. With dh's job being quite pressured and unpredictable I need something with reliable hours etc.

Scarlet - that all sounds very familiar! Like you, we can't afford everything we want now, whereas we could before (we're not the Beckhams or owt, we had pretty simple wants!). But at the moment it's the right thing for us.

I also miss the chat and gossip etc (although I think my department is pretty miserable now - I like to think this is the effect of my leaving rather than the economic climate )

And yes, I like your wording Scarlet, if I may steal it. When we're sorting our school days etc I'll want a job rather than a career.

And also, I hope I haven't said anything inflammatory or controversial. I also have no particular view on working mums vs SAHMs. It's just what worked for us.

Apologies for literally filling up the thread tonight, with a load of old twaddle, but I've just had one of these 'your pregnancy' emails from pampers telling me I must feel pregnant now because I can feel the baby moving.

NO. I. CAN'T!

Stop freaking me out Pampers!

Morning all! Biscuits I love a bit of twaddle!

Randomly for the half an hour or so of sleep I got last night I was dreaming about one of my pg school friends having her baby, and woke up this morning to a FB announcement that she did in fact have the baby last night! Weird! (Even weirder that she posted on FB within an hour of the birth, so depressing!)

Still, it's always encouraging to hear of a successful healthy happy outcome! I've decided to mentally move my due date to 31 Mar (36 weeks) in an attempt to convince my body to follow my Mum's example in this respect! Positive mental attitude! I now have 5 months left rather than 6!