February 2014. The cake mix is in the mug, the microwave is on, it's slowly rising and we'll be pinging in three more months!

[Shropshiremummy2B]

Sadly my cake mix is rising too much and resulting in a serious muffin top.

Gnitting sorry to hear about your GD. Please don't blame yourself.

I am booked in for a leg and bikini line wax this afternoon (not the full shebang just a neaten-up round the edges) - they had an offer on at my local salon - £35 for 2 hours of treatments, so the waxing will apparently take an hour, and then I will have an express facial and back massage. That should de-stress me a bit. Just got to find a pair of non-granny pants! (suffice it to say I've been going for comfort over style the last 6 months!!!)

I finally finished sorting through all the baby clothes in my loft - I had no idea I had that much stuff - it's been two weeks of constant washing, drying and sorting, probably about 25 machine loads of stuff! Anyway, I've given all the 3months-2 years boys stuff to a friend with a baby boy, so I really hope the gender scan was correct, otherwise I've made a massive mistake! Actually, I kept back a few little outfits for each age range which have special meaning/ memories for me but have given away most of the boys stuff. Even the neutral and girls clothes take up a frightening amount of space!

I really want to do something useful today (and I'm sure there are plenty of jobs in my house to do!) but have no motivation at all I feel I ought to do something to earn my 2 hours of relaxation later though! Any suggestions welcome!

Julietee it's just a three month course, but it's got deadlines every sunday night, so it's pretty stressful actually! I think it runs both autumn and spring, so you do have to follow the schedule, although work when you want to. Wish I had done it another time, as I don't have time to focus on it now :P But hopefully I'll pass :)

Random thing, haha, sooo I think I have thrush (never had it before, but it sure doesn't feel right down there) - and bought this set of creams and a pill to put up there. Put it in the bathroom so I didn't forget, and other half thought it was hilarious, as it was shaped like a rocket... "omg, you have a space muffin now!" (yes, I do call it my muffin) We are such children :o

I got urine sample pots at my pharmacy :) no weeing anywhere other than in them, as they are quite wide!

Hope everyone will have a better day, with no work stresses, bleeding or braxton hicks! (How do they feel anyway? I just get a really hard uterus after uhm climaxing, which seem to happen most nights in my sleep currently, hurt a lot in first trimester, but not anymore)

litleen at "space muffin"! BH feel just the same as that (without the pleasurable bit before hand). I get them all the time. My uterus must have it's own 6 pack by now.

Littleen Ooh, that sounds so cool. I need to find something like that to keep me more occupied.
I get thrush on and off (or at least it feels that way - I haven't actually looked to check for a while!). I don't know if this is right, but if it just hurts for a little while I let it go and hope all is well. Hope I'm not starting the mother of all yeast infections down there! And I still eat bread and marmite, which is possibly stupid.

Catching up again - echoing everyone's messages to Cubano, Gnitting and Eeyore (and whoever I've missed!). It must be awful having a non understanding unreasonable boss. I'm lucky that my boss is very flexible and more of a friend than a boss as we've worked together for about 6 years, so I kind of tell him what goes rather than the other way round. I also work for a large national company with a proper HR department so everything is done by the book. I've also had confirmed that my childcare vouchers will be paid for me while I'm on leave. I know some of you have said that I was entitled to them but I never really believed it and thought it would come off SMP, but it doesn't! So although I don't really need the vouchers for next year as I'll be on leave and DD will be entitled to 15 hrs a week from the government anyway, I'll need them the following year so can store them up.

I found out this morning that my cousin gave birth to her first baby girl, named Mila :) I think she was due next week but she was convinced she'd come early so was getting impatient! They live the other side of the country from me so I never really see my cousin much so won't get to meet the baby for the foreseeable future but she'd been trying for a baby for quite a while so I'm pleased she finally has her girl safe and sound :)

I'm taking my DD to a joint 3rd birthday party this afternoon with my other NCT friends, all 8 of us are still in touch although to varying degrees. Luckily 3 others are also pregnant, one due at the end of this month, one next month, and another a few weeks after me, so I get to share my mat leave again. Can't wait!

26+1

(I just tried to look down there for evidence of thrush and found I couldn't see over the bump)

To those getting anti d injection, went and had it, hurt less than having blood taken... Obviously arm may start hurting later on but will keep you updated.

Hospital are checking bloods and if anything is brought up, they will ring on Monday and would need another scan (but mw didn't think that would happen).

Feeling more relieved, although will need to be careful over weekend - let's see if I can now talk hubby into doing absolutely everything for me!

Every cloud cubano Hope everything comes back clear on Monday and you can just keep looking forward to d day.

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!

champagne thanks for the info - I stand corrected! Not sure where I got the 11wks from then.... I'm sure I read it somewhere.

cubano do take it easy, lots of sofa time!

champs you're a star. I've told HR they're wrong, pointed them to BIS's statutory rights document, and told them I'll give them 28 days notice of my new maternity leave start date. I've also written a very clear email to my boss saying either we stick with me starting ML at 38 weeks and he authorises annual leave from 34 weeks, or I will start ML at 34 weeks and the leave can be carried over with the excess days paid to me. It's his choice that way, but I'll have the certainty of knowing I'll finish at 34 weeks. I'll tackle the overtime with him in due course, one battle at a time.

At least it's almost the weekend

I think the 11 weeks is the earliest you can go on ml before your due date.

Hope all is well Cubano and you spend weekend with your feet up!

Whoever asked about newborn nappies. With DS we had two packs initially, one pampers and one tesco, so that we could try out different brands as they all fit slightly differently. We then tried Asda, Sainsburys and Huggies, before settling on Pampers. I dont recall him staying in newborn for very long though, but mainly because he was a big baby.

Hope you're doing ok cubano and well done eeyorish!!

With nappies I really want to try real nappies...any experienced mummies out there used them before?

Nearly the weekend woop! Seriously struggling with the dark evenings make me want to leave work at 16h

Great news eeyore - well done!
Cubano - hope you manage to take it easy this weekend.

Just looked at all the baby, toddler and beyond pictures on fb. Shed a small tear!
Then got a 'baby news' email from a colleague and shed another tear!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Hope you're okay cubano, take it very easy!

Well done champs and eeyoreish for sorting the nasty boss!

I'm planning to use cloth nappies but will probably use disposable for first month or so while we get our heads round the whole thing! Think I'll buy a week's worth made up of a few different brands as cam suggests.

For cloth I have been recommended bum genius and g nappies. But am planning to use one of the try out and return services as they are all so different apparently and some better suited to some babies than others! Look up the nappy lady on Google - lots of good info!

For newborn nappies, we've been recommended to use muslins, as they are less bulky, and baby won't be heavily soiling them. Have a look at www.thenappylady.co.uk/

We got talking to her at the Baby Show and she was a fountain of information! Plus lots of resources on the site.

I know not everyone wants to go for cloth but I'm hoping we're able to - we've also had some very kind offers of second-hand cloth nappies from a couple of friends, so that will help! I think we may also use newborn disposables whilst we get to grips with the baby, and possibly disposables when we're out and about / whilst people are babysitting, if that turns out to be most practical.

my plan is to start with disposable nappies, and after six weeks look to move to reusable. Thanks for the link, as I haven't done any research yet.

Nappy lady is fantastic!

I spent a fortune on nappies before DS was born. It just didn't work out for us, DS's skin got terribly irritated in reusable nappies unfortunately :( I tried everything but he needed the wee to be totally absorbed because if any of it stayed in contact with his skin he got a rash. So I was changing him every hour and it just wasn't working.

Gutted, still got the nappies so may try them again with dd.

We have serious laundry issues so sadly won't be on cloth bums but a friend recommended Naty by Nature. They are disposables that biodegrade in 5 years rather than the standard 500. I have some to try. They are on 3 for 2 in boots quite often.

Thanks for the link gnitting - it seems like there's so much choice, and it's a big upfront investment so will be digesting all the information available before purcasing. Eeyore I think we're also going to start off with disposables for a few weeks then (hopefully) move on to reusables when the initial shock/panic has worn off.

Thanks for the nappy links! Hadn't thought of starting with disposables but it mmakes so much sense :)

lastnight, did you try fleece liners inbetween cloth and baby's skin? Just an idea if you were thinking of trying again. The fleece acts as a barrier and keeps the skin dry.
We will be using cloth again but I'm slightly more cautious this time due to washing issues. I will have to wash- clothes, towels and bedding for 13 yo ds1, 10 yo ds2, baby, DP and myself. That adds up to a serious amount of washing and drying so I'm dreading adding more to the pile especially with fuel costs being so high. Hopefully it should still be cheaper than disposables and of course much cuter which is important.
We have a mixture of different wraps, prefolds, muslins, pocket nappies, shaped nappies and birth to potty all-in-ones because I have no idea what will suit this baby better. I mainly used motherease wraps with tots bots for ds2 once he got to 6 months but I've never cloth nappied a newborn before. I'll definitely use disposables for the first couple of days though.