The 3rd Gemini Luxury Bus

[Librarina]

I thought I'd get our shiny new thread started, welcome.
Previos Thread

I also thought I'd include our little round up of who is having what, when...feel free to update, there's only a few of us so we shouldn't end up drowning in Stats!

kittykats : girl
JoJo: boy
Bringon: girl
Frust: boy
Blending: one of each
Lib: surprise - 1st baby - EDD June 7th
Lor: surprise (for now!)
Ohtheplaces: girl - 1st baby - EDD June 5th
Peardrop: boy

Oh! I thought of some more:
The bibs that have arms attached, so much easier to clean up after feeding. Get a lot of them!
A soft, cotton, shorter dressing gown (like thigh/knee length) so you can still be covered up while feeding, but not get tangled in it while in bed or have to lift your whole shirt.
Lots of meals in the freezer, or have a system so friends and family can bring you food for the first 2 weeks.
A GIANT water bottle with a top and a straw to keep next to your bed or couch to keep hydrated during the day/night.
The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD or book-tips that will save your sanity in the first few weeks.
A reusable ice pack or at least frozen veg in the freezer for a healing perineum.

I'm sure more will come to me...

Lib - Yes, still sore if I do anything! I walked a mile to meet some friends today. DS walked the first 1/3 of the way before my arm got tired from him pulling on my finger. It's the furthest he's walked. I was v impressed! I'm hoping to get him to the point where he can walk there & back before DS2 arrives. The walk there was fine, if a bit tiring, but on the way back I had to lean heavily on the buggy & walk at half speed because of the pain! I nearly had to ask a passing stranger to help me get the buggy over the 2" step into the house! I think it's just too much for my poor muscles! DS & I had a lovely nap together in my bed all afternoon - the first time since he was tiny that he's let me cuddle him while he slept! My stomach has been fine since we woke up & I have felt DS2 move, although maybe not as much as usual. He's usually most active in the late evening so if I don't get lots of kicks later I might call the midwife tomorrow & see if I can get someone to check the heartbeat. To be fair, I was active all morning & slept all afternoon so it's not surprising that I haven't felt him as much!

Re: MATB1 forms, I'm self-employed so can apply for the maternity allowance whenever I want! No nasty HR depts for me to deal with thankfully!

We have 2 baby baths that we were given. We tried him in one once & he screamed the entire time! He loved coming in my baths with me though! We're keeping them for sand/water play when he gets a bit bigger!

The weirdest thing happened today. I was eating pie that DH made & froze the other day. We had it for dinner a few days ago & I really enjoyed it but I was nearly sick while eating the last mouthful today! I was absolutely fine before that but I suddenly felt like I couldn't swallow it & then thought I was going to vomit when I did! I initially put it down to my gag reflex being bizarrely over-active but I went into the kitchen just now & saw the plate I'd used waiting to be washed up & was nearly sick at the sight of it! I'm supposed to be cooking dinner tonight but can't face the thought of being in the kitchen - just thinking about it makes me feel a bit dodgy! Such a shame - there's several more pieces of the tasty pie in the freezer & I'm not going to be able to eat any of it!

Oh you poor thing jojo still being sick isn't nice.

Hi everyone, glad to hear we're all plodding on, I hope those with niggles and poorly DCs all feel better soon.

I'm starting to accumulate an awful lot of 'stuff' now. My Dad brought down a buggy and moses basket the other weekend. Great to have a free buggy, but it is about 13 years old, so not the most trendy. I don't care too much and its great to be saving all that money.

I bought some fabric and have started lining the moses basket with it. Except the cat has decided it makes a perfect cat-bed. And the other cat keeps trying to curl up in the buggy. I really hope once LO is here, they will realise who this stuff actually belongs to!

Not sure if I told you all what we're having. But after getting the sonographer to write down the sex, we only lasted 2 days without having a peek. So, its a BOY!! After initially feeling ever so slightly sad for the girl we won't be having, I am now totally embracing the boy-ness of him. Bring it on!

Your MatB1 forms can only be given out after you're 20 weeks. NICE recommends that first-time mums are seen at 25 weeks (after the 20 week scan) and so that is when I give the form out. If HR depts are nagging before then, then I get women to come into the unit and pick one up. Worth noting that we can only issue ONE per woman, so if you are asked for the original, it is worth taking a copy incase you need it for any other application such as benefits/sure start grant etc.

I bought my first baby clothes the other day, 1/2 price in Sainsbos. I nearly went crazy and got loads, but managed to restrain myself. It does seem that babes are in newborn stuff for a really short time so I'm trying to get a range of sizes.

Choosing a name is beginning to be the hardest part of the pregnancy so far! OH is very good at saying 'no, don't like that' but not so good at suggesting something he does like. Anyone else struggling?

Thanks to the mums on here for the useful/useless tips. There's some good threads knocking about elsewhere about the things you really need: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/1670445-What-do-newborns-sleep-in-and-other-silly-questions-from-me

Yes, DH is useless when it comes to names! I have to present him with a shortlist which he looks through & discounts all of them & then expects me to come up with another list! It's really annoying me! I can't find any names that I really love, just some that don't instantly conjure up negative connotations for either of us. I realised the other day that our current favourite name is also the name of the man who murdered a girl DH was at school with. I can't decide whether or not to mention it to him. It's not something he's ever really talked about but I don't know if it's because he finds it a bit traumatic or because it didn't affect him that much or if he finds it awkward to talk about her because he had a crush on one of her friends! I'd hate to end up calling our child by the same name & for him to realise to connection later & be bothered by it!

Yay! Congrats Merry!! Boys really are so sweet to their mamas and so much fun! I love being the mum to 2 boys, I wouldn't have it any other way.

We have finally decided on a name, now it's just the middle name that we can't decide on.

Any other 2nd-3rd time mums feeling just ridiculously huge for this stage? I'm going through a "I can not believe I'm going to keep getting bigger than this" stage. Feeling like my bump is going to fall off of my body due to the complete lack of abdominal muscle tone definitely is not helping. I've already had to taken to wearing a maternity belt just to take some of the weight off. Eek!

Know how you feel there bring, not helped by people asking how much longer I have left and frowning as of I'm lying when I say 4 months.

I'm only first time mum and I'm huge. My own mum keeps looking at my bump and grimacing saying "That's not staying til June", thanks Mum!

We can only agree on one boys name, which is fine, you only need one.
We have lots of girls names, but most of them sound like cats.

LOL at your name choices sounding like cats, Lib!

Ok. I just need to RANT about this. Currently dealing with "Man Flu" at my house with DH. Whining, complaining, feeling the need to share every single symptom and problem, sharing everything that's gone on in the toilet and then getting huffy and pissed off at me for not acting "sympathetic" enough (his words, not mine). He also claims that I see it as a sign of weakness. No, I just see it as a very annoying thing to have to deal with! My goodness, it's more fun being around a sick 4 year old and almost 3 year old than a sick 37 year old! URGH! I'm his wife, not his mother, what does he expect me to do!?

bring I tell DH that all the time. "I'm not your mum" and "feel sorry for yourself all you want, I'm not joining your pity party" [harsh bitch emoticon] I don't do sympathy

Totally agree, when dh is ill it's like the world has ended, when I had the same thing but worse I was still expected to look after dd and do everything else!! Grrr
Congrats on the boy merry!! What fab news! 2 days was longer then I'd manage!
On the bump front mines only just poped out, I have bump envy of bigger ones as feel like I'm an imposter, still wearing alot of ordinary clothes with just abit more length or stretch in < awaits negative bitch vibes >
Dd finally stoped spotting, were on the scab stage so hopefully back to full health soon although she's managed to get conjunctivitis too at the min

Lib I love cats names but as we have three and dd is nn one don't think we can do it to a second without being the crazy cat people!!
Was tabitha one? Love that

Cats in our family have always had human names. So most girls names could quite easily be cat names.
I'm not jealous of your minimalist-bump look kitty my bump is very up-front, which makes a huge change from my previous "fat" pregnancies.

Maybe yours is one I've coverted then frus as I wander around staring at other women's tummy a lol

Latest accusation: I'm mean to sick people.

Yeah, this bump is just different from my other two pregnancies. I feel like I'm getting so wide whereas the boys just made me look like a basketball was under my shirt. What they say about carrying girls and boys differently must ring true.

I want a basketball bump! I have a theory that my bump is actually the same volume as my friend's but hers looks like a boiled egg, mine's more fried! It's pretty flat across the front & sticks out nearly as much at the sides as it does in the middle! I look more fat than pregnant!

I'm mean to sick people
DH & I are the complete opposite to most couples. I regularly seem to get any virus that's going around & it always wipes me out so all I can do is spend several days in bed! DH insists on bringing me food & drinks constantly even when I'm being sick & clearly not up to eating proper meals! On the very rare occasion that he gets ill I mostly leave him to it, provided that he has fluids & will ask for food if he needs it. My philosophy is that the best thing I can do is rest & let my body recover, DH seems to think the best thing to do is to carry on & pretend not to be ill! On more than one occasion I've had to insist he stays home from work when he has a fever & once or twice when he's had d&v! His response was, "It's ok, I'll look after myself. I'll even take the bus instead of cycling so I can rest!" ... because clearly everyone wants to be trapped in a warm, moist environment with someone coughing & shivering while trying not to vomit... Good plan! Thankfully he only gets ill once a year, if that. I'm more like an average of once a month! I'd give anything to have his immune system!

I definitely have the whole basketball under shirt thing going on; looking absolutely huge now, but so far (hurrah) don't seem to have gained much weight anywhere else. Let's hope it stays like that.

My bump is like a low-slung boiled egg. But it has shrunk over the weekend I'm sure of it. I think it's spread to my arse I the only thing I did for two days was lie on the sofa reading and eating those red lindor chocolate balls.

KittyKats Tabitha is indeed one of our girl names.

All of our pets are named after other animals which they resemble in some way (so a Black & White cat who's a bit of a loner is called Panda, an overweight goldfish is called Moby)

DH is suffering with a cold too. He couldn't come to bed until I'd made him a lemon & honey drink with a little whisky in it... poor lamb! I think it is very cruel to make me open the whisky when I can't have any. He's also of the 'Carry on' school of illness, until it gets to a certain point then he just collapses in a snotty puddle. I take myself straight to bed and am certain that I get better more quickly because of it.

Lol at libs tummy sinking to ass
I do love those lindor chocolates and have to say abit partial to galaxy at the min.....

Wow do I feel like a grouchy and moody pregnant woman today.

Lib I think Lindor chocolate is worth having belly spread to backside. :D

Anybody else regret signing up to this website? Have to write a major assignment and keep getting sidetracked by reading all kinds of rubbish on here instead of getting on with my work.

kitty I feel sick & it's entirely my own your fault. You mentioned galaxy right before DH went shopping & I started craving it so I asked him to get me a little bar. He got me a bigger one because he hates me & wants me to get fat loves me. I've eaten too much because he just put it next to me while I was busy MNing doing important things & now I feel sick & fidgety from all the sugar. I hold you personally responsible!

Places I think I probably spent more time on MN than interacting with DS today! He has slept more than usual though & some of the time I was MNing he was just happily pottering around the living room by himself, it's not like I was willfully ignoring him all day!
I did have to excuse myself from the room at dinnertime though to look at MN just to calm myself down. Sometimes DS makes this awful grizzly mono-toned hum while eating. I think it's an expression of enjoyment but today it was just so loud & constant & made me so irrationally angry that I had to leave the room or I'd have shouted at him!
Bring you're definitely not the only grouchy/moody pregnant lady! Has anything in particular got you upset or is it just hormones? Hope you're ok!

Did it taste good though Jojo?
Definatly bit the only irrational angry prego women, me and dh had an arguement yesterday about a piece of chicken?!?
Feel free for any ranting
Had a very strange dream last night that we went for a 4d scan and the sonographer told us that the baby had a soft tissue marker that it was black!!! I'm not against this per say except that me and dh arnt lol

I had a weird dream last night too Kitty. My friend had a wedding and invited everyone we know, except me because I had a baby.
So I went (on my motorbike, with the baby) and spent the whole wedding hiding from the bride & groom and talking to my other friends. When I came out to go home, my motorbike had been torched and I couldn't get home and the groom came out and shouted at me.

So I woke up DH and demanded that he cuddle me until I felt better. I fell asleep in about 30 seconds and apparently he was lying there for the next half an hour worrying.

BTW, I don't have a motorbike and would never take a baby on one