Graduated Elderberries (thread 2)

[Cavort]

Oops, seems we ran out of room without noticing!

But it's not a lovely little bump - I would be quite happy with that. It's the fact that it just looks like a fat belly rather than an obvious baby bump. [never satisfied emoticon]

In fact maybe it is just a fat belly because I've put on 12 bloody pounds! The skinny maternity jeans from New Look which I was complaining were baggy are now rather tight and I can't see them fitting much longer.

I would be gutted not to have a bath. It's been bad enough having to have cooler baths while pregnant, I can't wait to have a boiling hot soak!

Cavort, I'm quite glad I'm on my phone and can't look at your photo as I think I'd be sick with envy. I am huge, and only 22+5. Or at least Ali feel it - lots of people at work keep saying I'm tiny for my weeks, but I think it's just because I'm wearing big tops and they can't see the monstrous belly beneath

Decorated the nursery this weekend. Now we just need to start buying stuff to fill it!!

I'm seeing MW tomorrow and hopefully she'll measure me to check I'm not measuring small (my own DIY fundal height measuring suggest it's ok), but I just don't understand why it doesn't stick out more? Everyone keeps saying I should enjoy the special treatment you get when you've got a bump but I am yet to experience any! The only upside is quite a lot of my clothes still fit.

Getting the nursery decorated was like opening the floodgates for me. I hadn't bought anything beforehand but I'm certainly making up for it now - my credit card is on fire

Nice to see an old favourite on another thread

Oooh I am full of envy today, I'm envious of Cavort's slim body, people with baths and people with nurseries they can decorate and buy stuff to fill their nurseries with I have none of theses things and it's not fair!

Agreed cavort, nice indeed.

Don't be jealous purple - I now have a spare double mattress standing upright in my bath, as a result of decorating the nursery, and it will remain like that until either the lodger moves out, or the loft extension is finished. So no baths for me until late may really!

How's the loft conversion going Janey?

Not started yet purple. They promise it will be done by the end of May which will leave us with a lot of decorating, carpeting and tiling in the five weeks before my due date. Cutting it fine! Still, at least I'll be so big I will only be capable of issuing instructions from the sofa, rather than actually helping with it all!

Morning all!

By the way, the glow I mentioned - that's just sweat, I think. Even sitting and eating breakfast makes me sweat now. I'll be one of those stereotypical pregnant women, sweating, leaking and panting while slowly waddling around like a big Heffalump. Lovely.

Cavort report back after your MW appointment!

Oh cavort I couldn't help myself: had a look and you're so slim I'm totally green with envy. Am sure everything is fine btw (my DSIL was the same and was barely showing at six months - she's just really skinny) and they always thought she was measuring everso slightly on the small side... Then my nephew was 9lb. Somehow she just hid it well! But good luck today.

Cavort you look fab! And don't take the joy of still fitting normal tops lightly - I'm totally stuck now as only have a handful of loose tops as bump just looks like a podge under most clothes.

Out of interest, is your placenta round the back? Apparently this can affect bump size and shape... mine is now a bit more rounded, but still teardrop shape. Am putting this down to placenta positioning... (as if I know!)

Plus, your abs look totally intact still, which is amazing. I keep pulling ab muscles at the moment , and even get the odd bout of cramp in my abs which is weird I can tell you.

After reading back, am very relieved at having no dogs. And this could be the only time I'm not annoyed by my lack of ring on finger lol

In other news, anyone get any nearly-mother's day cards? My DSS signed his 'mum to be on mother's day' card from him 'and baby' which made me blub, and then got a Moonpig card through the post from 'Baby Bear'... one of my family members used the 20-week scan picture and made a card from it. Was really touching

Well you lot are no help with your compliments! I think my side profile looks better than it looks from other angles. I think in order to get sympathy I need to post a pic of me sitting down on the sofa looking like a pie eating champion.

Yes Brave, the placenta is posterior according to scan notes, and baby is extended breech, which I think can both make the bump appear smaller.

I was looking at my Sister's maternity notes yesterday and her fundal height at 25 weeks was the same as mine in now, and yet looking at photos of her from Christmas her bump was so much bigger than mine is now. It's hurting my brain trying to figure out how that works!

No, I didn't get a Mothers Day card from DSD. I didn't want/expect one though so it's fine. Although I obviously do have to take some some degree of a parental role with her, I try not to too much as she's already got a Mum and doesn't need another one. I have a Step-Mum myself so I think it makes it easier for me to empathise with how she views me in her life, which is never going to be the same as how she views her bio parents and nor should it be. I suppose DH could have got a Mum-to-be card from the bump but he spent all weekend fitting new balustrading on our stairs so i'll let him off! That's really lovely of your family to do you a Moonpig card Brave.

Hazle can your doctor offer any advice on the heat/sweating? You might get away with it at home but it's not exactly practical to sit in your office naked trying to keep cool.

It was really sweet of my mum to do that Cavort if I hadn't already blubbed at DSS's offering I would have gone over the edge at that point!

Both were unexpected, but DSS's mum is very good at Christmas and mother's day, especially as DSS loves the women in his life - he arrived loaded with cards and small gifts for his nan (OH's stepmum, incidentally) and great nana. But was especially touched by the mum-to-be card as his mum must have bought that. It's nice to have that mum-to-mum encouragement given how much OH can't stand her!

We had a very amusing drive home in which DSS got very embarrassed by whatever he'd written in his mum's card (which he'd made). He's very sweet and considerate and was asking who'd be looking after baby when it's born (he knows we both work), and then said he'd help us look after it when he comes and stays.

Lol at naked office-sitting - I'm sat here with nigh-on hypothermia thanks to the weather and snow and no heating to speak of bar an electric fan.

Think baby is definitely doing its bit to keep you looking so tidy - mine seems to have started lying transverse (kicks on both sides simultaneously!) then diagonal, and an anterior placenta to boot hence why the sudden need to find more tops!

I didn't get any cards (not that I expected any) but my Mum surprised me with a beautiful purple orchid 'from the baby' which was lovely but made me feel a bit bad as I'd turned up with a rather pitiful looking bunch of carnations for her and she's the one who is actually a Mum!

Now I just have to stop the cats from eating the orchid or 'playing' with the flowers, they've systematically destroyed pretty much any other plant I've tried to bring into the house.

The only plant that might survive cats is a cactus.

Our relationship with DH's ex is amicable but it doesn't stretch to her sharing her Mum title so it's impressive and that your OH's ex has acknowledged you in that way. I don't suppose it helped my particular cause when we got engaged we left it to DSD to tel her Mum and she decided to announce it to her with the phrase, "Guess what, I'm getting a new Mum!"..... which I imagine went down like a fart in a lift. Kids, eh?

Oh cavort that hilarious awful, poor her! And was it you that said once you'd decorated the nursery you went shopping mad? Well, if so, me too - have spent £1000 so far today - and I'm in the office! Argh.

I'm quite glad we have decided not to decorate a nursery just yet. I'm doing enough shopping as it is. Currently have a car seat, Babybjörn bouncer, the co-sleeper bed and some other bits and pieces in my basket. Then trying to remind myself that I'm not due for months and have plenty of time to shop, it's March and I could easily do it in June!

But need new trousers for work I think, I have this black Gap pair I've been living in, but it's the demi-panel style, as they call it, and keeps folding itself down when I sit. Not comfy, not to mention that it looks funny. So anybody bought any decent looking over-bump work trousers recently?

Hazle I wish I needed over bump trousers!

Yes Janey, I went shopping bonkers before the nursery paint had even dried

Just seen my MW (or rather her morbidly obese stand-in as mine was selfishly on holiday - how very dare she!) Everything (BP, urine and baby's heartbeat) is apparently fine and they're not going to properly measure fundal height until 28 weeks as their chart in my notes is not accurate until then. She had a quick measure today on the back of my neuroses and I am 23cm at 24+5, which she said is within the expected range at this stage (although it is at the lower end of the expected range). So I need to get my head from up my arse and stop fretting about my small normal-sized bump!

Yay to anti-neuroses Cavort

Don't forget it's only a guide anyway, and if they get really worried, they'll send you for a scan to double check everything. For now, as long as bub is wiggling around and seems happy, enjoy your slender shape!

I've started noticing people - strangers, no less - looking at my tummy. This is disconcerting.

Yes C, rub it in that I'm a Heffalump and you're not

while looking for overbump trousers, I came upon those t-shirts:
www.newlook.com/shop/maternity/shop-department/maternity-2-pack-navy-elephant-print-t-shirts_273932699
Nice, but do I really want to wear elephants and help people to draw certain comparisons? What's next, a walrus?

Brave just wait, they'll go from looking to touching in no time, when you least expect it..

Noooo! No touchy! No! Non! Nyet!

Cavort - I'm impressed you've seen the same midwife previously, I've never seen the same one twice! Glad your measurements seem ok though, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, we're just all different!

I don't know about overbump work trousers Hazle but I'm definitely going to need some more overbump jeans - the underbump ones I've got become so tight I felt like I had a bladder infection every time I wore them to the point that I attacked them with a pair of scissors and cut a big V shape in the sides and split all the elastic so I could breathe but they're definitely not going to last much longer

And Bear? THEY WILL, I am famed for my frosty 'fuck off vibes' which make even the most persistent of charity collectors give me a wide berth in the street but even I have been subjected to random bump molestation.

Oo-er, DH has suggested we talk about names tonight. I am strangely nervous