With disbelief and minimal drama, the PESH are ambling into springtime diffedness!

[SinkyMalinks]

Antenatal fred fun for BESH graduates

CRESH

Faith - pinky faithlet arrived 14th April 2013
Pinkr - suitably pinky one arrived 25th August 2013
Jethro - blue one arrived 23rd September 2013
Noks - a surprisingly breechy pink one arrived 12th January 2014

PESH

Frankel - EDD 4th March
Sinky - EDD 18th March
Merks - EDD 21st March
Driz - EDD 7th June
Draf - EDD 19th June
Kat - EDD 20th June
Winks - EDD 26th June
Dor - EDD 18th August
Ginger - 20th August
Euro - 28th August

Pleasantly busy here, isn't it?

Yep, my 22 week diffed friend got a load of stuff from New Look. She bought online and said it all fit really nicely.

Moving on from clothes, to baby poo.... frank (or anyone else!), are ou getting a nappy bin?

If it'd save me going to our outside wheelie bin with smelly nappies, I'll get one. But equally, if I just end up with a plastic bucket stinking out the house, I could just use a normal bin/trek outside...

I reckon any bin with a decent snug lid would do, surely? You won't want to trek outside in the middle of the night so I reckon it's a good idea to have something at any rate.

There are some crackers things available, though - we saw a "tummy tub" yesterday, which is apparently a sit-up baby bath. HOTB and I couldn't figure out why on earth you wouldn't just use any old bucket to achieve the same effect...

Some people claim the nappy bins stink, but friends with twins, and my neighbour opposite, have nappy bins and I've never noticed stinky poo smells. I think I'll have to get one, our bins are out the flat, down the hall, out the building and round the back to the garages. Bit of a PITA late at night, or 10 times a day with a baby in tow.

We have a cheap nappy bin from Asda, was about 2 quid. It does pong with pooey nappies but we empty it each evening so it doesn't linger. Important so you know if you walk in the room and it smells of poo it's the baby not the bin! I didn't bother with a sangenic one because I hoped to use washables but if you're planning on disposables it's worth checking them out. Often on price drop on Amazon.

Are you using the washables faif? Its something I've been looking at.

Thanks Winks and Draf, a friend put loads of pictures of her pfb on fb in a tummy tub. I could only think how uncomfy it looked and wondered how the hell you got a slippy baby out after?

Ooh. Tight fitting bin would do. In fact, a kitchen compost bin might do the trick. The main problem is I'm balking at spending so much on an all singing, all dancing bin contraption that wraps nappies etc. unless you lovely hags are going to tell me they're an essential!

As ever, anything I say should be taken with a pinch of salt as I'm going on fairly limited experience...

However I think those nappy wrapping bins are awful, they're overpriced, harder to empty than any other lidded bin, and much more awkward than whipping off a shitty nappy, wrapping it up and quickly flinging it into a waiting nappy sack.

I'm hoping to use washables as well. It's even more of a minefield than disposables, by the looks. So many choices!

The problem with all the choices with reusables is that the inital outlay is so much. If a packet of disposables is a leaky nightmare, no big deal, its only about 6 or 7 quid. A starter pack of Bumgenius ones is £76.95 on the mothercare website

I've been told the nappy wrapping bin things are a bit of a waste of money. Nappy sacks are very cheap and excellent at trapping in smells, etc. we plan on having a "nappy bin" in the nursery and just emptying it into the outside bin once/twice a day as needed.

And the endless washing, winks. I think we're going to go with disposables because we can't face so much additional laundry (plus running the washing machine on hot is probably not any better for the environment). The cost wouldn't be so bad if we were going to use them for several children, but being barren I can't bank on that happening.

My ILs had a hideously awkward cat litter wrapping bin. They used it for about two months before the faff made them want to scream, never mind the frightening amounts of plastic wrap involved.

It's curious that there doesn't seem to be an eco-friendly disposable nappy. I'd happily use them if they existed. The big brand R&D departments are probably working on it, though.

Ginge, I'm keen on reusables, and my nct teacher also does nappy (and wrap!) sessions, so have got to look at a few types.

But.... Most people have told me to not try them for the first time with a newborn - 10+ nappies a day when you don't know what you're doing is a guarantee to give them up. I'm still planning on giving them a try (and lots of places have schemes to let you try a few types before buying apparently) a bit later though.

Ok. Consensus. No fancy wrapping shite. Just a bin. Funny that I've only been able to see the fancy (expensive) ones on the online sites so far, eh?

Washables....when Faithlet was about 4 months I bought some secondhand - two types. Some were great (Kushies), some I didn't get on with (tots bots). She has outgrown them so I am selling them on my local FB group and will buy more Kushies in the larger size. My sister has the bum genius. They are good because they expand with the baby. Honestly it doesn't seem like that much extra washing and the balance for the environment is in favour of the washables. We do use disposables when out and about and overnight though. Unless heavily soiled we wash at 40 degrees for an hour and they tumblr dry if necessary. One huge advantage is cost and the fact you're not always out buying nappies (which seems to happen with disposables).

I did read somewhere that if you use (biodegradable) liners with reusable nappies, you can generally wash them at lower temperatures (unless you have a poo explosion.) Don't know how true that is.

That's the sort of thing my nct lady was showing us Winks - the nappy, plus absorbent pad, plus a flush able sheet thing to catch solids that you flush. But given faif has used them she'll know much more than me!

Faife, would you have tried reusable earlier? I was thinking 12 weeks or so might be a good time to try them out? And is nursery ok with them? (Actually, is faifelet in nursery? I know you have cut hours/have lots of family support)

Sadly the only two people I know in real life who used washables are my SIL, and a (former) uni friend. Both of them are smug know-alls and I would rather catch the poo in my hands than ask either of them for advice.

Yes... There is that. There seems to be a disproportionate amount of smug types that use reusables... I like to think its only a perception resulting from the Eco friendly, earth mother, all-capable bragging to be had from them, which suits those types well. After asking around, more friends than I'd thought had used or at least tried reusables.

Yes I imagine I know other people who used them, but as they weren't in training for the Winter Smuglympics they didn't feel the need to advertise it. SIL once changed a nappy and proclaimed she didn't know why anyone would ever use disposables

Because, really, disposables are sooooo different?

We have one of those nappy wrapping bins but only because it cost me £2 from an NCT sale. I quite like it. Seems to stop everywhere smelling of shit quite so much.

Still up. Waiting for baby sinky to stop with the hiccups. He seems to like spending the evening alternating between hiccups and pushing his back into my belly so it feels tiiiiiiiiggghhhttt.

So. I'm knackered, but sitting up because of reflux (and mainlining rennies). Baby movements hurt less when I'm lying down, but the reflux is too bad at the moment. So I'm sat on the sofa with the cat.

Woe is me.

And don't you bloody say its all to prepare me for baby's arrival...

At least Bourne is on to keep you company? :)

Was watching game of throne reruns. But cat was upset by the wowling of the tv castle cats. Bless. Bourne is a good call.

I've got the reflux too Sinks and I've run out of Gaviscon . I could have sworn there was another bottle in the cupboard

Turnip is having a fidgety evening so I'm hoping she'll calm down soon and let me sleep. On the upside though, only 5 days left at work