June 2013 Thread 3 - the one where we stop throwing up!

[DontmindifIdo]

new June thread - we've been chatting too much!

Interesting to hear all your points on pink & blue clothes. Personally I didn't find out what gender I was having because I wanted to know whether to buy pink or blue. People keep saying to me 'oh it's great how much you can buy now you know'. I really only wanted to know because I wanted to bond with my baby. I felt that knowing the gender would make it more enjoyable which it has for me...I'm sure for others it doesn't make a blind difference regarding bonding. Anyway, I love blue and I love pink and I don't get why it bothers some of you so much. There will be a point when your child decides what colour they want and it won't make a blind difference what you've chosen for them before. I've already brought lots of blue, cream and yellow things for my boy. There is lots out there. However, I agree with those who don't like football, dinosaurs and bright characters for newborns. And don't get me started how I feel about football shirts on any age

You lot are making me feel inadequate, we aren't going to end up with a 'nursery' as such- more of a spare room (with our wardrobes in it) with a cot and a small chest of drawers for baby things. Our house is lovely, but the bedrooms are a little pokey - barely have enough space for all our shit! And we are renting, so are hesitant to decorate etc.

On the other hand, I can knit, crochet AND I have a sewing machine. Although pretty rubbish at all of them (learn the basics, get excited and buy loads of shit, never get past the basics...). Can make some bloody good scratch mitts though, my mate swore by them as they were the only ones that didn't fall off, so at least there is one thing I can make that is of use!

I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with the nhs scan, as the radiologist was lovely and did show us everything (including telling us that the baby's bladder was full and she needed a wee!), but she was working from a checklist, and at the private scan we were in control (one of the things we were interested in was her feet, so the sonographer spent time showing us them, and we got a good photo of them from underneath; I don't think the NHS would - or should - prioritise things like this).

Peardrop, I really bonded with my baby after finding out the gender. That wasn't the reason I found out, as I hadn't even considered that it would help with bonding (as this was a much planned for and wanted baby anyway), but I felt a massive bond when I found out.

Sunny there's a fab book full of boys clothes patterns, here, I've made a few things from it for DS. I can't knit or crochet for anything, but can sew (I run a kids-based sewing business :o).

I don't think we'll do much about decorating the nursery before this one arrives, we have to move DS out of it though so will decorate a room for him to move into at some point - he can have some input, since he's nearly 3, but I have some ideas that he can pick from! He got a Thomas quilt that I made him for Christmas, he'd probably like that to feature in there somewhere.

Mawgatron DD & DS both wore extra large scratch mitts as mittens when they were small - in fact DS is still wearing them, they're brilliant. MIL knitted them for DD's first winter, they came up to her elbows :o but are toasty warm and I dread losing them!

Hello all! We very nearly didn't have our scan today! Arrived at the hospital to be told that our appointment was yesterday! At a totally different time! So either they booked it in wrong or I am totally loosing my marbles! (Most likely the latter!)
I turned on the tears, and they managed to squeeze us in! Few! Although when we came back an hour later, the lady before us hadn't turned up- so ended up having an extra long scan! We also had a student scan person (not sure on official title?!) in with us, so everything was talked through in great detail! We didn't find out so we are also TEAM YELLOW! I think I've updated the stats thread correctly!
As for decorating a nursery - think I'm just going to leave it as a blank canvas, then use pictures, paintings etc to decorate, so that it can be easily changed as baby grows up!
Friday tmr - so nearly the weekend- I seriously can not wait to hopefully have those couple of weeks maternity before baby arrives! (Although I'm sure there will be sooo much to do!) I wasn't designed to work full time!

Love the idea of handmade scratch mitts mawgatron - would they be tricky for s beginner??

Ella your right it made him feel more real knowing it was a he or a she. For DH as he's not got the bump, but for me too as I've had such horrendous sickness I feel like we have bonded more than we would have not knowing.

maw homemade stuff is awesome, I've got a small army of people waiting to make our baby stuff, I'm personally more of a crochet kinda girl, reckon my baby will have more blankets than any baby could possibly need!!!! Will branch out in to other stuff once I know what we're having (sorry but I like the whole girls in little cute outfits and boys in awesome jumpers and what not) if you have any decent patterns pm me, or join me on Ravelry!

Pinkapples i think the jungle scene sounds mega. As a zoology graduate i'd secretly like that for my own bedroom its just my boring DH wouldnt let me. My nephew has an underwater coral reef mural in his bedroom that we spend hours naming the fish etc.

I'd have loved a jungle scene too, pinkapples :-) You can have hours of fun with that.

I'd also love an underwater mural!

We are having jungle / circus animals in ours, but as it is rented we will do it with soft furnishings and the cross stitch.

It's so exciting doing the planning. :-)

More congrats on all the scans so far, aces...!

I'd agree with conversations around pink/blue. In fact I never ever buy pink or blue stuff for friends' babies as a matter of course. A bit of secret pre-buying I did back in Australia (where there is a brand called Bonds which is just the absolute best for singlets and suits) I got lots of grey and red stuff before knowing what we were having.

On the nursery thing we are not doing any decorating as the whole house was painted (light grey) when we bought it two years ago and I just cannot bear rooms of different colours! But we'll have a cot and I've an art deco cupboard/sideboard thing that's just the right height for a changing table so we'll use that. We are sourcing vintage armchairs on eBay for the room, got a few sheepskins in and voila, done. We are having to sort out the spare room though, which to date has been a handy dumping ground. The loft is filling up fast.

Baby moves a lot one day, then not much the next, and haven't been able to get a heartbeat on the iPhone app since the first night when I must've just been lucky and jagged it!

Have finally started to pork out after no weight gain till now (nearly 22weeks) so am away to the gym this morning for a (very) mild workout. Reckon means I can have a massive lunch, yes!?

Morning ladies, lots of interesting pink/blue conversations going on. In my limited exprience (my dd and her school year) I don't think it matters what you dress your child in early on. I dressed my daughter almost entirely in pink outfits then at the age of 4 she announced she was a tomboy (actually she announced she was a boy but that's another story) and has subsequently worn a dress only once on pain of death to a wedding and will not tolerate pink in any way. Three out of her class of 10 other girls are exactly the same.

Some girls are girly, some girls are not, they'll grow up in the same way we did to make our own decisions and develop our own preferences, so I'm indulging my pink fantasies again with abandon!

On the nursery front pinkapples could you wait and see till the baby's born? Little apples will be in with you for at least 6 months I presume giving you plenty of time for decorating.

Happy Friday xx

Suzyrut - agree in some ways they'll have their own choices, but it's really annoying that you are so limited unless you've got a lot of money to spend at toddler years. most of the expensive clothes I've bought for DS over the last 3 years have been just because I've fancied something non-blue or camo, and I've had to pay silly prices for the priviledge. It's possibly one of those signs of money, certainly little Harper Beckham hasn't been seen in pink - it's bloody expensive dressing them once you step away from supermarkets and their strict gender colour themes. Plus it's soooo boring to always dress them the same!

I could wait I guess but like someone has said it's fab planning it and I'd like it done really plan on baby being in with me till I go back to work in sept so she will be about 12 weeks when we start weaning her into her own room (hopefully but I may live the sleepless nights so much I keep her with me) so terrified of cot death so I'm sure that will play a roll once little apples appears as hubby lost a sister to cot death at 10 weeks

It seems the worrying never ends

Learner, they are ridiculously easy, one of the first thing I learnt to knit. You can knock a pair out in a day! The pattern is from a book I have, will type it up for you when I get a sec.

It great having an army of crafters helping out, I know I have a sleep sack in the making and already have a lovely crochet blanket made by a friend.

I am also on ravelry, although haven't been on for ages. Name is exactly the same as on here! Are you withalittlesparkle on there too?

Ditto on the gender neutral clothes (not that I have bought any yet!). Scan is next week but even if we do find out, I think I will still stick to either or colours. Oh, tell a lie. Friend bought us a tiny run DMC t shirt at Christmas, so mini me had better like old school hip hop... Going to hold off on buying too many clothes - two friend have babies that are a year old (one boy, one girl) so I think I am covered for hand me downs.

Eeeepppp! Getting very excite thinking about it all!!

God, sorry about all the spelling/grammatical errors in that last post, damn iPhone! And from an English teacher as well!

Hi dontmind. Sorry my point related mainly to girls clothes and whether dressing them in pink in the early days will impact their ultimate conforminty to gender stereotypes. All I was saying was in my experience it didn't have an impact.

I do agree that it should not be beyond supermarkets to go beyond the lazy "I'm a princess" or cars/camo design. Show my daughter a bit of camo and she's in heaven though!

pinkapples I agree it's nice to be excited and plan things, have already bought bassinet and buggy and quite a few clothes so am defo not suggesting that you shouldn't be doing anything now if that's what you want.

Anyway feel like I've offended everyone this morning now, which was absolutely not my intention so sorry everyone please ignore my previous post xx

Suzy it's fine don't worry not offended jungle it is woohoo!

Can't stop thinking about it only 19 weeks to go

Is anyone else having weird dreams? I have been wide awake since 4 so now I'm ready for a nap!!

RuedeWakening thank you for the pattern book recommendation. I have to admit I rarely pay for patterns. I've recently discovered Pinterest which seems to have lots of patterns for free. Have stuck the book on my Amazon wishlist in the hope that someone might buy it for me sometime though!

I found a lovely pattern for a babygro from an old t-shirt. The thinking was your scent would be in the t-shirt so it might make for a quieter baby. DH has about 1000 t-shirts so will be raiding his wardrobe!

oh suzy, I didn't mean you were wrong it is down to the child, just from a practical point it's annoying you have to spend good money to get other colours!

Mind you, if this is a girl, she's wearing a lot of blue and camo hand-me-downs anyway, I'll pretend it's for feminist reasons, not for sheer "I'm tight" reasons!

Last summer dd had an amazing pair of long camouflage shorts, they were the only ones which had an adjustable waist and the 'girls' ones were like hotpants. Dd goes to an outdoor nursery so needed something with a smidge more protection frim outdoor scrapes and the sun. Combined with a pretty stripy tshirt she looked fab.

Re the pink debate me issue is tge way everything from toys to clothes to bowls to bibs is in pink or blue. I want dd to enjoy all colours and not be pushed into conforming to a ppink princess type image.

The reason we found out was so that we had a chance to bond, I have PTSD from my last labour and was really struggling to find anything good to keep hold of. DH told work today and everyone was utterly delighted and he is so so happy with is having a that he even started to talk to bump last night

Started looking at maternity clothes last night, mainly for trousers as this bump is lower than dd was and I also worked from home last time so could slob around in yoga pants. Didnt really find anytjibg I likrd at all and in our main city there is a shite selection of maternity ranges.

Hi all. Not been on for AGES, been stuck in the pregnancy section instead and forgot about this thread! Just getting ready for my 20 week scan and getting so many messages from people saying they're sure I'm having a girl this time, I'm pretty sure it's another boy and reckon they just think I should be having a girl as got 2 boys - dosn't work like that though does it! Anyone else had this? To be honest, after a PITA pregnancy so far (13 little bleeds, lots of trips to hospital to have jabs due being rhesus negative), I just want a HEALTHY baby.

Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest! (bad nights sleep, got a cold, terrible heartburn and lots of vivid dreams last night!).

Hope you're all well. When I get sometime, I'll TRY and catch up with everyone's news on here as I'm so behind!!

x

Agree with the pink/blue debate: was SO frustrated with buying clothes for DD who is rather tom boyish, that it is all pink and butterflies. We have quite often bought her trousers and a t-shirts from the boys section at the supermarket because thats what she prefers, and she's happy like that! It drives my mother and m-i-l insane, and they're both always buying her dresses/pink/etc, but times have changed I keep trying to tell them.

Love the sewing/knitting/cross stitching chatter! I sewed a lot for DD and now that I'm expecting DS I think I'll get that book you recommended Ruede. I am also knitting a pram blanket for DS, which I started the day I got my + hpt. Don't think I'll knit a blanket again though as its taking AGES - will try crochet next time!

Good luck everyone with upcoming scans!