We will brook no argument for a boring, uneventful, blooming pregnancy; followed by a perfectly-timed pain-free sneeze birth; vol 5

[ScreamIfYouWantToMeetSanta]

Hi No Brookers! I do hope this has worked and is in the right place...

I've added a few extra sofas so we have plenty of space for all the Rat Smackers who will be joining us soon. There's also a nice long table filled with mince pies, yule logs, gingerbread snowmen and xmas puds! Plus some non-alcoholic mulled wine. I've strategically positioned a few clean glittery vom buckets under the table, just in case it's still a bit too early for xmas munchies for some people!

As you were...

Oh Scream - you poor thing - I wish we could all come round and cheer you up.

But bless your DH for moving the whole bed - that is a good one you've got there!!!

And what an excellent point about the medical insurance! I'm covered on DH's, as is DS. Now I think it doesn't cover anything maternity ish but the baby should be covered for anything. I'm going to make DH get all the info he needs and just find out what me / the baby might be covered for in the way of any follow up implications.

Hawthers how cute?! Your boys are so gorgeous, I feel all broody looking at little Farley.

Will post properly later (I have read all through, but no time to acknowledge everything/everyone at the mo).

Just wanted to let Biscuits know that you can book yourself on a tour of the labour and maternity wards at the hospital if you wanted to visit in person. I think they're usually in the evening. I can't remember if you need to do it through your midwife or by phoning the hospital directly, but it may help you feel calmer about it all if you could perhaps have a good look round. The pool room there is very nice if you fancied it.

Scarlet, I asked my mw and she said they don't do tours any more

I do fancy the pool room though if I get to term

Oh that's a shame Biscuits. It must be a recent thing, I know someone who went on it only last year.

Got a bit more time to post now.

Love the outfit Purple, will you be purchasing?

Scream so sorry to hear you're in more pain. I've nothing to suggest I'm afraid, it just sounds awful. What a lovely DH you have.

Biscuits great idea re the hospital list. A couple of things I would recommend.
*A clean top for DH/DP's - you don't know how long he'll be there before he gets to go home.

• a toothbrush for DH/DP's - same reason.
• Headache tablets for DH/DP's - as previously mentioned, my DH had to leave me to find a 24 hour shop in the middle of the night as the midwife couldn't give him anything for his terrible headache.

dream hopefully your DD is feeling better now? No idea how to get Calpol out of the carpet unfortunately. If you find something that works, could you let us know please?

Oooh good points on the stuff for DH.

I might call the maternity unit anyway to ask about a tour. Nothing to lose....

Scream sorry to hear your are in so much pain. Does rest help at all or is it just that it doesn't hurt as much if you don't do anything?
I get what you mean about feeling fed up not getting out of the house. are there any tv series or box sets you could download to watch? or books that you have been meaning to read for ages? Anything to make staying in feel more pleasureable and less like punishment!

Dream we had some success getting tomato sauce from alphabetti spagetti out of the carpet with Vanish carpet mousse left overnight earlier in the week. Fingers crossed something works!

I love everyone's bump pictures! I might do one myself...

Will come back with some hospital bag thoughts. I didn't do one- I was kept in after monitoring- although I had had the foresight to put my pjs and a skeleton wash bag in the boot as I knew this was a possibility. Then I just wrote lists for DH! I had NOTHING for the baby- in fact I had planned on buying stuff that week, so DH was taken round Mothercare by a kindly shop assistant who showed him Moses baskets etc, and then sent to Tesco for packs of vests and babygros! Not ideal...

Apologies for being so self-centred earlier, I'm trying to be more positive now. I spoke to my indep mw and she was lovely and calming as always. She's also coming to my next consultant appt so that she fully understands the situation and can give me more context to the advice afterwards :)

Biscuits I forgot to say congratulations to your DS for his nappy-free night! Sounds like a really important step in the right direction!

Hawthers I hope you manage to get some sleep soon. Obviously that's difficult with a newborn and another LO, but we'll all be Brooking No Argument for you to get some rest anyway.

Fishcake I can just imagine your poor sleep deprived DH being led around Mothercare by an assistant My DH would be quite overwhelmed in that situation! As for entertainment whilst trapped indoors, I've just finished my second '24' box set of the week! I'm starting to dream about threats to national security...

Dream I'm not very good at coming up with remedies for stains I'm afraid, but I hope vanish carpet mousse or something similar does the trick for you. Alternatively you could try adding a few more strategic splotches to the carpet to make it look like a pattern?

Biscuits, thanks for such a wonderfully comprehensive list - and scarlet, thanks for the DH additions. I've actually copied them into Word (truncated into a list, mind!) and made some notes on them.. despite the fact I have ages before I have to worry about this kind of stuff...

I have got one question though: What would you recommend taking in terms of sizes of vests/bodysuits/sleep suits? I read somewhere about people taking a range of sizes - some 0-3 months and some newborn. Is newborn normally sufficient? I suppose you have some warning before the day, so I guess you can make a size decision nearer the time, and buy whatever seems suitable?

Scream, that's wonderful that your independent MW can come to your consultant appointment. I'm sure that'll be incredibly helpful on all accounts :) I'm so sorry you're feeling so awful - but what a lovely DH you have. Would definitely second the box set idea - something I'm looking forward to doing when I'm finally on maternity leave.

Dream, don't suppose you have any banana spray? It's the most amazing cleaning solution I've ever used! My mother swears by it, and I realise why - she gave us a bottle of concentrate, which you dilute down, and it cleans absolutely anything. It uses banana oils or something, and smells of bananas. Naturally it has a name that's nothing to do with bananas, so I can't remember what it's called... so I suppose I'm next to useless. Sorry!

Picked up the buggy this evening, and was mightily impressed by the small box it came in! Also got the car seat earlier this week, as the one DH was after was on special offer. Hurrah! Got none of the little bits yet, but it's nice to have some of the larger items done and dusted.

Thank crunchie it's the weekend. Nothing much planned other than planning, housework and sleeping...! Oh, and potentially discussing housing with the parents - apparently they want to talk to us before we seriously start considering buying somewhere. Not sure what that means .

Musical - I'm going to truncate it all into a list too.

Size wise for clothes I think I took newborn and maybe one 0-3. DS was 8lb 3 oz and still in newborn so I think you'd only need 0-3 if you pop out a whopper. I figured if it came out tiny it would be fine in newborn even if they were a bit big, until someone could get some early baby stuff.

They're pretty crumpled up for the first few days before they sort of straighten out so don't really need the leg space of a 0-3, or at least DS was.

Musical re size of baby clothing my advice would be go by the weight guide rather than age as it can be different from each shop. Most of them have a weight guide on them.

The new baby ones are usually up to 7lb something ish. I might just get 3 or so of those as they shrink after they've been washed and dried a couple of times, but the baby's legs will probably be curled for for a bit so won't need the extra length in the first place. It's a good idea to get a number of the ones that go up to 10lb something ish as they will also shrink, but will probably fit for a longer time and fit better when the baby stretches it's legs.

Beware that different shops also vary on size despite the weight guide. For example I've always found baby clothes from Debenhams and Mamas and Papas to be on the small side whereas M&S, Next and Mothercare to be more realistic. George at Asda I think tend to be pretty spot on with sizes too if you don't want to spend much and are as good as the others quality wise.

It all depends really on the size of the baby I guess. I'm expecting a long legged skinny one like last time so there was always masses of room in the sleepsuits but his toes were almost pointing through the feet part.

Very important to take 0-3 clothes as well as newborn. My nephew was born in July and was a big'un. SIL gave away all the newborn clothes to other mums on the ward as he was too big for them right from the start.

Evening everyone

gorgeous boys hawthers, congratulations again.

biscuits that's a good list, I can't think of anything to add. I will recommend not bringing your favourite slippers from home though. I'm so glad I got a cheapo pair from primark, then I just binned them. I didn't like the thought of walking round a ward in them , then taking them home. I might use flip flops this time though, as it'll be August.

scream in case your interested, I found on my knees hanging over the top of the bed was the best birthing position with my spd!

Sounds like you had a rough night dream if you were calpoling at 2am. Hope she's been ok today.

Well I've had my booking in appointment, woohoo! They apparently sent a scan request to the hospital this week, so should get a letter direct from them this week with an appointment. The mw was a bit concerned about my blood pressure (150/80), so I've got to go back in two weeks to have it checked. I'm not overly concerned though.

Indian takeaway has just arrived - i'll be back later

Oooh yes, Scarlet, excellent point about going by the weight guides rather than the ages. I seem to recall Next did slightly different age categories so you just need to check the weights. And Jen yes I reckon if you had a 10lber you might find yourself in 0-3 straight away? How big was your sister's baby? For the hopefully short time they'll be in hospital it doesn't really matter if their clothes are a bit big, better than too small?

And I also found similar to Scarlet as to how different shops came up smaller or bigger for the same size. The other one I remember is Junior J (Jasper Conran) from Debenhans - I never had any baby stuff from there so I'm probably thinking of at least 6-12 mths but DS was always at least 1 size bigger than I thought from there. Similar to what I found from Mamas and Papas I think.

And I meant to say Little yay for your booking in - look forward to you getting your scan letter through. Keep ticking those says off

Urgh. After a bad night last night, with indeed a miserable baby, up loads til 4am ish, tonight the Bedtime Battle is in full swing. She had been progressing to being quieter but not sleeping, now we're back to standing up, sobbing and screaming. Just urgh!!! trying to inch out onto the landing. Not sure if I've made much impact on the calpol. Couldn't find a syringe at 2am and my pouring skills then are poor... If not and vanish doesn't work, and i can't discover what banana spray is I'll go for screams option of add some more!!! Dd is mildly hot tonight, very cranky and very determined not to be in her cot. I had to do the Walk Of Sleep today as it was the same at naptime which means I'm even more tired with a sore back! Flipping immunizations...

As another who had a long skinny baby, I found her hand me down Next stuff was fine length-wise for babygrows, but the new ones people bought her had shorter legs so she grew out of them much faster. Wonder if they changed the pattern they make them to? Marks and Spencer give most leg room, and John Lewis I found. She was fine in vests etc from anywhere, just her long legs meant I only bought those brand sleepsuit/babygros.

I saw a CS list which had things like shower gel with a hook so you don't have to try and bend down if you drop it in shower,just keep it hooked on (people said they couldn't pick theirs up from the floor and it was so frustrating!!), roll top yoga pants to pull up over the wound, huge knickers, slip on shoes and slippers (for the bending again), the tena lady pants so no maternity pad to rub on your wound in knickers, sports cap drink as sitting up hard etc. I only took newborn and one set of 0-3 just in case. I took size 2 nappies to wait and see what size the baby was, and dd was 7lb 5oz and size 2 were fine- looked a bit big but never leaked, and when we then bought some size one the leg elastic seemed to dig in so I stuck with 2 after that. Will get size one thus time as expecting smaller babies a bit earlier.

Can't do any more, too distracted by dd, and the uncomfortableness on the landing now

Oh dream! I'm sure at some point the thing disturbing her will come to an end, peace will be restored and she will NOT get ill/have a jab etc. Brooking for some sleep for you tonight!

I only took 0-3 to the hospital and at albs 7 dd1 would have been better in newborn so this time I'll take newborn and one 0-3 just in case!

Put a photo of the bump from 2 weeks ago up on my profile. There is a lot of toddler toy mess in the background!

7lbs 7 oz not albs

pomme your profile is not public.

dream I hope your night improves lovey.

Thanks Ninja! Think I've sorted it now - was more complicated than I expected!

I like the angle it was taken from, nice bump, very neat

That is a gorgeous bump pomme!

Before I dashed off for dinner earlier, I just wanted to ask if anyone else had high blood pressure in early pregnancy? I know it's the bottom figure they worry more about, and mine isn't high, but the top figure is. Apparently that's the one that can be affected by the worry of the test etc. Just wondering what might happen if it doesn't change. Surely if the bottom figure is ok they won't be too concerned?

I don't know but I think bp varies depending on what time of day it is taken also. I think it is supposed to be lower in the morning if thats any help?

Gawjuss bump pomme

Thanks all :)

Oh pomme, what a lovely bump!! You're definitely an 'all bump' kind of person from the looks of it! And not a stretch mark in sight

I haven't had high bp little, purple has had some problems with bp this pregnancy, she may be able to help in which figure they were worried about for her? I have a feeling they wouldn't be happy with anything high!!! mw's have a low tolerance for anything not following the guidelines by the book in my experience. However, as the 'perfect' bp is

And how rubbbish ninja that she didn't listen for the heartbeat, that's always the nicest part of a mw visit. When I went at 16 weeks to a drop-in appointment with strong braxton-hicks and some spotting a student mw was almost ready to haver a go for twins!! To be fair, the 'real' mw stopped her and sent me to the hospital for a scan, but if it had been a singleton they'd have checked hb I think. Policies are so different everywhere! Still, she obviously thought all was well, and thats the main thing. 4 weeks til your next scan?!

DD asleep. Phew. I best head to bed as not sure whether to expect her to sleep all night, or for a bit...