The Brookers are ready for a 2014 sneeze-birth fest. Come and join us if you think you're hard enough...

[SantaMaybe]

Here we go brookers. At least three of us will be sneezing on this one

Anyone got experience of the Ergo newborn insert? Amazon reviews are very mixed with lots of negatives - and should I go for the original shape of insert or the Heart 2 Heart one? Maybe I should stick with the Baby Bjorn until new baby is 4 months old.

I had a bigger gap last time and used a double regularly for about a year, so I have ordered another.

For me I do like to be able to put the baby down, I am not sure if I will be able to carry baby for very long in the sling depending on diastasis etc
so as much as I cba with spending the money I can't see getting around it. ESP with Ds naps, walking everywhere as I do, also I will have two children walking loose when DS is pretty reckless and DD is a bit if a dreamer + walking a 70 odd lb dog with at least two little ones daily :/ also I found buggy board a complete pita, ok for short trips when DD was older, 3+! It is a two mile walk to the drs surgery or one mile each way to town for me, so quite distances for small ones.

I didn't use the ERgo might be worth asking on a sling group on FB?

pomme congrats! What is your EDD? I ordered peach blossom 3 with John Lewis, I can cancel if I change my mind and I know icandy can be rubbish with stock, so ordered ASAP! DH was not impressed with any of the ones we looked at yesterday apart from the icandy! He is very opinionated and fussier than I am, which is fine as he will be bankrolling it lol

Hi munx!

Yes, I can see that would be tricky. My dog is smaller and much older - in fact, I'm taking him to the vet on Fri to see if they can do anything for his arthritis, poor muttley, so he probably won't mind shorter walks. I have to drive to shops/doc/park etc so I mainly use the buggy only if we go out for the day somewhere.

My friend coped without a double with a very small gap, but she drives everywhere so was more manageable :) I don't think I would need it if I drove. I would definitely try the buggy board first and see if it is something your happy with :)

Congratulations Pomme! How exciting that everyone at work now knows - does it feel real now?

I'm ignoring all this talk of double buggies . I'll be slinging to begin with, and DD can always walk or buggy. She can reliably walk a couple of miles now, so I'm hoping that will increase before the next one arrives. We regularly take her into town now without a buggy. Then again, depends where we're living I guess.

Booking in appointment tomorrow - hurrah! I'll finally be a MWEPP :)

House valuation went well - one valued it at what we wanted, and the other at more, so all good! Sadly the houses we were after have been priced at too much, so they're out.. the hunt continues! The prices are mad though - the two and three bed are reasonable, with £50k between them, and after some research thought the four bed (not massively bigger space wise) would be £50-60k more - no, they've put it at £105k more! Will be watching with interest to see if they actually manage to sell them..!

Have just sent DH out for creme eggs/ some form of chocolate. Can't stop eating...

Oh, and Maybe, you have a fantastic bump :) Pack that bag..!!

Hey all, just tried to catch up but was so far behind I have forgotten most of it. Life has gone a bit mad this week, I finally accepted an offer on my house this week!!!!! Needs to be a quick completion so manically trying to sort everything out. Need to offer on a new house so looking next week.

Have an early scan this Friday, as medical profession won't listen that I reckon I ovulated on cd40. By my reckoning I should be 8 weeks on Friday. Just hoping all is ok in there as aside from insomnia I just don't feel at all pregnant. With my boys from about 4 weeks I didn't have proper morning sickness but I would wake up feeling queasy but as long as I drank a glass of milk before sitting up, I was ok. I haven't had any nausea at all, and keep worrying its going to be bad news.

My tuppence on the sling/buggy debate (I have 20 months between DC)

I used a Mama and Papas comfort sling until DS was 4 months then an ergo. The ergo changed my life.

I have a nipper 360 double which I use almost every day, DD is 3 and DS is 18 months tomorrow (sob). And I love it.

Since DS was born we have used a variety of things. DS in pram and DD walking for short journeys. Sling, fold up buggy, double buggy, front carries, back carries. Whatever worked on the day. Also had a baba sling in the changing bag for as and when.

Not using any sling now, just the nipper. We walk everywhere and it's a wee bit far for DD. However, the nipper is dead easy to steer one handed if she does walk.

Morning. Sorry I've been AWOL again, DS takes up so much time these days, and if I so much as look at my phone when he's looking he wants it - now! He's sleeping in now, after waking us all up at 5:30. Only took me till 6 to get him back down, but DH has to get up at 6:45 for work, so we didn't reall get any more sleep. Oh well.

Things are going well here with bump, I shall put up a pic on Facebook for you all. I've not actually taken any pics of the bump at all yet! Poor wee girl is already a bit ignored compared to DS. :(

For the double buggy talk, I recently bought a Baby Jogger Citi Select, I'm using it in single mode with DS now, and will use it as a double when baby comes till DS starts walking routinely, then will use it as a single again for DD. That's the plan anyway. It's a really nice single buggy to push around and use, wider than my old umbrella fold, and takes up much more room in the boot, but much easier to push too. It's a pain being a 2 part system, as I have to build it every time, but DS enjoys his play in the garden while I get it all out the house, and when baby comes the pram bit is like a standard carry cot, so I'll be able to carry her in seperate no problem.
I've also got a moby, a Beco butterfly (sort of structured carrier suitable from birth), a woven wrap, and a ring sling for use as and when. DS hated slings though, so I didn't want to count on DD being in one full time.

Chuffed to hear of good scan news, and good luck to those with scans approaching. I can hear DS, hopefully catch you all soon!

Oh I do love all the sling talk! I definitely hope to wear baby, but I couldn't wear Ds for any length of time for about 6 months, just hour here and there and that was mostly due to diastasis which I didn't know I had whilst pregnant, so it might be worth baring in mind if any if you are in the fence about a double that a sling might not be as feasible as hoped. I did have rotten luck, with diastasis, SPD, SIJD and core instability though!

I am still really zingy and happy about bei pregnant, I has been so worried that I almost feel like I have just found out!

music hope booking in goes well and great news on your house , although less so on the expensive ones! Would it be am option to look at houses with a view to extend? Just 100k more is a lot and you could do a cracking extension for less than that.

stacks a double would be vital with your gap IMO, glad you like yours :) don't feel. As about bump pics, etc just isn't time for half the things you do in your first pregnancy. Doesn't mean baby is any less loved or cared for x

loopy this has been by far my easiest pregnancy, so I was very nervous. I think a lot of it was knowing how to manage it better, so eating carbs every couple of hours would stop me feeling sick. My boobs have actually shrunk! This is due to reducing bf, but also the more pregnancies and menstrual cycles the more wel developed the breast tissue is so it wouldn't need to grow so much and so tenderness etc was less of an issue. So try not to worry.

munx I did briefly consider something like the nipper actually as it is walking the dog everyday that wa the real clincher in getting a double! but decided it would be too wide for going to town etc

Too is your dog actually called Muttley? Brilliant! Hope the vets go ok. My dog is so strong now, and although he is generally good, he is still very young in fact he is one tomorrow! He gets distracted and does yank suddenly quite often. The buggar. I think DH will definitely have to walk him early in the morning and then I can just do one afternoon walk.

Excuse all the typos, I try and fix them as I see but my tablet is half dead!

Just to say I live city centre and the nipper goes into every single shop no bother! I routinely go around the shops at least once a week.

Small town with narrow doors here! Bigger stores that have double doors are fine, but most shops I frequent a tiny independants lol I had a side by side last time and it was too large

EDD is now 16.09 purple so will probably be 8.9 I reckon unless they insist on the 1.09 for induction start date!

Neither of mine will go anywhere near a pushchair (unless its the double the nannies childminder mum has and A's in there with her little mate) hence the sling thing. Never been a baby wearer before but its the only solution i can see. We had a Baby Bjorn which really hurt my shoulders so I will need some help choosing one nearer the time sling expert brokers!

loopy - I have had no nausea this pg which is very different for me.

musical - Definitely real now! Went for a meeting with our big local client and they'd all seen on Facebook so lots of jokes about more kids than parents etc!

Barrage of girl vs boy comments already starting.They make me a little to be honest but will work hard on thick skin!

Good luck tomorrow too and loopy!

Pomme baby Bjorn are notorious for being uncomfy, so I am sure you can lmprove on it!

I have started having 'oh it doesn't matter what you have, as you already have a boy and a girl' it never mattered what the gender was! And I have only told a hand full of people. I am very annoyed by that.

Great scan news! And good luck with yours tomorrow Too!

Sorry I've not been posting much. I think baby has been having a growth spurt this week, as I seem to have a definite bump within the last few days rather than just looking podgy and I have needed lots of sleep!

Pushchair talk is scary! I really don't know where to start! I REALLY like the look/sound of the cosatto giggle treet, but it doesn't seem to get mentioned much when there's pushchair talk going on anywhere. Plus it did have a manufacturing fault where it would collapse randomly!! although this all seems sorted now

Good luck for your scans today Too and Loopy!

Now officially a MWEPP, and she was very positive about me having a home birth. Scan in three weeks, so just hoping there's a baby in there now..

Had scan, measured at 6 weeks from conception, so 8 weeks pregnant using the system the rest of the world uses for dating purposes. Got to go back for another scan next week to make sure it has grown/got a heartbeat but it matches exactly when I thought I had ovulated, rather than when you would have expected me to conceive based on lmp.

Waiting for scan...really need to pee!

It's a boy! And everything is fine and measuring normally - kidneys checked and double-checked and everything looks good. Phew, so relieved!

First thing the sonographer said was 'gosh, that bladder's really full! Are you sure you're comfortable or do you want to go for a pee?' I said I was fine, and she did approx 2 mins of checking baby and then said my bladder was getting in the way and would I mind going for a pee. I didn't know there was such a thing as too full when it came to scans!

Brilliant news Too and Loopy!

I did laugh at the thought of them seeing a huge balloon of a bladder on your scan Too!

Yay for everyone!

Great news on the kidney too, a boy as well - very exciting :)

Great news, loopy and too!!!

musical, let me know if you've got any HB related questions. I'm provisionally booked for one again this time but it will depend on how this baby does.

Great news Too and Loopy! Too, are you happy with a boy?

Dino, thanks! I'm putting all thoughts aside until after the scan..

Went to see our mortgage advisor today, who basically said it'll be a thousand times easier if we move before October (in terms of finances). So, stress stress stress. We were kind of bumbling around, looking at new developments when they came up.. but now we know we have to move quickly it's much more stressful. Argh! Just want to crawl under a rock for the next seven months...

Musical, if you want to feel better, at least you aren't me! We have half of Monday to view houses in the area we want to move to then drive back home as my dh has only got one day off work, and then must have an offer accepted by 2pm Thursday ready for mortgage application appointment. Had to book that a week and a half in advance so can't not be ready for it else we won't get another appointment in time for still completing as needed. And hardly anything on the market so really struggling to create a decent short list of viewings

Great scan news loopy and too!!