Tiptoeing into the Second Trimester... Due April 2015

[HippoPottyMouth]

Ooh just seen there is a June 2015 thread now. Makes us seem like old hands

Nunkie I just properly laughed at the wizards sleeve ref! I'm sure post birth the speculum will have little impact!! Has anyone actually been doing pelvic floor exercises as recommended by my baby centre app? Mind u they also said I'd be glowing by now which is a hilarious joke...

Bonjour chat to husband when he gets home, it's calming sometimes to get it all written down so u can work out next steps, and with 6months (ish) to go there is still time to get work and stat mat pay. I say this, I'm already in a bad way as I'm considering asking for a demotion - I can't handle the hours my current role demands of me (I was promoted a month before conceiving - school aren't majorly impressed with me...) and then again I'm thinking just get through this so u can take home more mat pay... The trials of being a woman!

But youve managed on those 8hrs havent you BonjourMinou? I know they are better than nothing but it's not like going from 40hrs to nothing. Hope you Dh puts your mind at rest.

I do mine and have done with other pregnancies too MissV84. I know some women have problems and need extra help but my mum has stress incontinence and won't do anything about it, it's not inevitable! I went on a trampoline with dss when ds1 was 4 months and I nearly wet myself, that made me much stricter with my pelvic floor exercises!! I spend quite a lot of my day lifting children and pushing pushchairs which helps you have a strong core but they are well worth doing imo.

Thanks so much for the lovely comments everyone! :)
2 more weeks until my 16 week appointment (which will actually be 16+4)..then i can FINALLY book my next scan! ahh im so impatient lol.
i just wanna find out the sex so i can start shopping :P! With DS I moved 3 times while pregnant so i got lucky and got a bunch of extra scans every time i switched dr. to figure out exactly where i was at! This time i just gotta wait for the regular ones. feels like torture lol.
Bonjour try not to stress ( i know its hard:P)we were very very financially strapped when we were expecting DS..but once he was born..i quickly realized how much people exaggerate the costs of a baby! (for example i went from being a bit of a party girl before i got pregnant..and that lifestyle cost me WAY more to go out drinking and smoking often than having a baby! lol ) This time I tried so hard in the beginning to get a job as well as I did get maternity pay last time (which in canada i believe is like 60% of your earnings)..but was so sick this time up until last week i havent felt like i could commit to anything! So we are going to be tight on money again this time...but at least now we know what the baby NEEDS and what we can go without ;) Congrats Hippo ! Now im getting scared with all these girls im bound to have another boy! lol...

Hi all

Well DH came home and calmed me down, he's not at all worried (but then, he never is!) We're going to renegotiate gas, leccy and cut virgin back to basic basic and he will do a little bit of overtime, problem solved. Yes, I would prefer to have been working many more than those 8 hours but there haven't been any p/t jobs available and I didn't want to work f/t and miss out on the first couple of years of raising DD. So we will muddle through with this one and hopefully I will be able to get a p/t job after the baby is born. Sigh. Sorry for the crisis, I just freaked out, pregnancy hormones made me mental!

bonjour make sure you get your free prescriptions & nhs dental care?
Also I think you can save a lot by getting things off eBay & local nearly new sales.

Babies don't have to be expensive I don't think, a lot of magazines try & sell you loads of crap but seems to me there's a limited amount of stuff you really must have.

Childcare etc is another thing, it's a min of £1000 a month where I am, but I'll have to shell out when the time comes. Really think employers ought to be doing more on this, not offering 'solutions' like having your eggs frozen like Apple & Facebook. Surely a decent crèche would be cheaper ...

Thanks Linda, I'm waiting on my new card.

We don't need too much stuff this time anyway because we have most of it saved from DD, who is 1 next week! I just had a bit of a freak out.

Those going back to work don't forget childcare vouchers, saved us £80 a month with ds1.

We got almost everything second hand LindaLove. My pushchair was £16, car seat was new but a cheap one and one that could be rear and forward facing so lasted until 3years and cost £35 with a discount voucher, cot £40 (my mum bought mattress but still only £80), bouncy chair £10, gym £5, pine changing table £20, with good cupboards underneath and most clothes were gifts or from supermarkets so a few pounds on each weeks shop. I bf so no cost there (apart from my chocolate habit!) and when weaning I made all my own food so not a lot more expensive. Once they start school they're more expensive and school always want your money and they want to keep up with their mates but there's always grandparents

And car boots are the cheapest places, much cheaper than ebay!

Speaking of cots, I was just gonna get mine from ikea..think it's like £60 before mattress..is there any reason to shell out for a hugely expensive cot?

Was also going to get plain white wardrobe from them (£100) and plain white drawers (£45) as they are full size so will last a lot longer? Thought I could stick an extra rail in the wardrobe since the clothes will be tiny.

I don't get the point in shelling out like £200+ for a miniature wardrobe that's going to last max 2 years..??

I think I'm also going to go for an Ikea cot, not bothering with a wardrobe as I don't see myself hanging any baby clothes - just going to get a big chest of drawers for all clothes and stick a changing mat on top.

Yeah I was gonna do that with the changing mat..or those cot top changers are only like £20..how much will I realistically use it though?!

I'll probably hang clothes just because I like to ha. Also can stack storage tubs in the bottom with clothes that don't fit yet etc.

ladynovember that's exactly what I'm planning on, IKEA cot, wardrobe and drawers, the whole room should cost less than £250. Not sold on the idea of a changing table, I'll see how I get on without I suppose.

I haven't even looked at the ikea stuff, I was planning to get mamas and papas ocean range or something from John Lewis. We've got some ikea furniture, I've never looked at the kids stuff though. Is it reasonable?

I tend to only buy ikea for things I don't expect to last a house move.

I've only recently purchased furniture from ikea for the first time and I'm actually really impressed with the quality! It's not like argos furniture, it's really sturdy. Hoping the nursery stuff is of similar build quality.

My SIL gave me a tip re mat allowance, if you have a break in employment, if you register as self employed and continue to pay your minimum ni contributions, about £2 a week I think,you will still be eligible for mat allowance! She was recommended to do this by someone at the tax office and it worked!x

Chicken, you can use paper liners but I've always used washable - at first if your breastfeeding it just goes in the machine, it's all water soluble and you always cold rinse nappies in the machine before washing - it isn't disgusting in the machine I promise! When they wean it literally just rolls off into the loo and then you wash the nappy as normal!
Wee soaks into the bamboo/fleece/terry and a fleece liner stops the moisture going back onto their skin - if they're washed correctly they don't smell at all - too much soap powder makes them smell of ammonia.
The nappy lady is awesome, she does a questionnaire that she uses to recommend the right nappies for you and she does little videos showing the nappies in use... Sorry, I'm a massive real nappy fan and happy to answer any q's
Lauren - Hope you're ok? I had a sub chorionic haematoma with my DS and bled constantly through pregnancy, I had to stand in the shower when it poured down my legs... it was horrific - but he was perfect... Sending lots of hugs your way x

Urghh horrendous night here, DD has caught DH's cold and she was crying out every 20-30mins. Turned the monitor down low so it didn't wake DH but by 2am I still hadn't fallen asleep so went in to find DD wide awake and unable to sleep as she was so stuffed up. Ended up dragging duvet from spare room onto her floor and sleeping there. Not good for the hips! Feeling even more shattered than usual today but as DH got a good night he can do most of the parenting today. Expect it's only a matter of time before I catch their cold too....

Mum had a cot top changer, I mostly found it to be a faff, I got used to changing DD in the cot or on the floor tbh. I'd have loved to get one of those proper wood changing units though, I'm watching gumtree as I can't justify spending out on one to only use for one baby "and if DD didn't need it clearly you don't actually need one and there are much more important things to be spending money on,

I must have no real friends on Facebook at all, not a single person wished me happy birthday on there yesterday. It's quite funny really considering it bloody tells you whose birthday it is! Even my best friend forgot but at least I still got lots of cards and presents in the real world.

Bleeding update: it's now dark brown sludgy stuff but not a lot so I guess the red stuff is over if I'm getting that.

Had a headache for 2 days though can't wait till this cold disappears fed up of sneezing and coughing it's muscle pulling.

Re cots: we got a mamas and papas cot bed I really like it even if it is pretty chunky. It came with an cot top changer which was pretty handy as you can approach from the side and the business end if you need too. I found changing tables annoying as you have to change a bum side on and it's not very easy at the best of times. Always invest in a change mat for downstairs too it can hurt your back to be down on the floor changing a bum but it's great if you can't be bothered to go up the stairs every time baby needs a new nappy.

For DD I bought a set (well ok, MIL bought...) from Mothercare, it was on offer at half price and worked out quite cheap to buy changing table, cot and wardrobe together in one set. The wardrobe is the same size as an adult one, it just has 2 rails in, so you can take the lower one out and lower the shelves as necessary when they get older. The cot is a cot bed so can last until they are approx 7, apparently. And the changing table is basically a chest of drawers with a rim around the top that can hold the changing mat, so it all lasts. For this new one I'm lucky enough to be given another cot bed second hand from my SIL. I'm going to keep all the stuff in DD room for the new baby and just get her a new wardrobe. You never know, I might finally win one of those £200 John Lewis vouchers I keep filling questionnaires out on Mumsnet for! Or I might just get one from Ikea...

Am ebaying loads of stuff in the spare room to make space and help pay for it all!

Oh yes, second getting a changing mat for downstairs. We just used the one that came with the changing bag and changed DD on the floor a lot of the time. (Well in the early weeks, DH did pretty much all the changing because it hurt me too much to get on the floor post section). But it does make things easier to have changing supplies both upstairs and downstairs.

I can't wait to start getting furniture. I doubt I'll dare for ages though. Funny we'll all be off to ikea. I was thinking the same thing though have still got some wedding gift vouchers for John lewis that I was saving in the secret hope of getting pregnant soon. John lewis is so expensive though I find it hard to justify even spending free vouchers there.

Dh has been away for 3 weeks. Back today! Hooray! Though I've been sleeping so well I'm almost dreading him being back in bed with me. Haha! I've bought him the expectant dad's survival guide hoping it will explain that the over emotional, sometimes angry women he's come home to is still normal and if he ever gets sex again in the next 2 years he should consider himself very very lucky!