Due March 2007 - Heading for the third trimester

[Booboobedoo]

Thought I'd start a new thread as the other one's about to run out.

[Rosybumpily]

Welcome Yankeefish! You have alot of change to contemplate! There are a few other newmums to be among us, not me though, I'm on number 4.

Noodle you and your husband must be an impressive sight together!

Fox that sounds very energetic, you are making me tired just thinking about all your clearing out!

[onilly]

Hi all

Piffle - you poor old creature, I really feel for you, sleep and more sleep I think is the way to go.

Foxy - there's a slight relief hey? We will have to put off our plans to fire bomb the IRS! ONLY joking...... Glad you are feeling better about it all, and had no idea you were feeling down - you are such a cheery soul and always give me a much needed boost I personally think its the custard pies doing their job... forget the chocs

Rosy - I made the most enormous carrot cake ever on Sunday, its a very old Delia recipe and has a million ingredients, its easy and has never flopped....
I truly was drooling at the prospect of eating and delighted that this would be all MINE, MINE, MINE when it was baked... only to have very dear friends (actually not so dear now..) pop over and DEVOUR the whole bloody thing !!! - I had one slice! No leftovers. Miserable, but probably good for hips... the craving continues however...

Boo - we had one of those weekends, Lovely are'nt they?

Hi Calieco, Rainbow and Etena, Yankee Welcome !- thanks to one of you for raising the sore belly, and thanks wise MNers for answering, mine has been very sore and tight lately, enough to be worried - I have put it down to a very sudden growth - pot belly would be a far too nice description... I am well wearing my maternity gear now.

We also had a "nesting, clear out" type weekend and have started to think of the nursery. DH is VERY excited, and I do believe we will have a nursery finished by December (bit early is'nt it?)What are you guys all doing... this is our first so we are just not sure of timings? Still, seems like alot of stuff to buy and get sorted....

[onilly]

oops sorry for long post... chatty today huh?

Has anyone read the Steve Biddulph - "Rasing Babies - should under 3's go to Nursery" ?

If so, your views please ! It's kind of blown me away.

Kitty - your doula sounds wonderful, definately a good idea.

[LunarSea]

onilly - no way will we have things ready by December. We might actually have all the junk moved out of the room which will be the nursery by then, but only because we'll need it as a guest bedroom over Christmas. The junk will be temporarily relocated to loft/garage, and will no doubt migrate back soon after. With ds we had him in with us to start with anyway, so no great hurry to have a room ready as far as I'm concerned.

As to nurseries - ds went to one, and IMHO whenever he was with a group of children of the same age, some of whom were at nursery and others not, you could easily tell the difference between those who did and didn't in how socially confident they were, let alone how physically advanced they were (presumably as a result of always having children at the next stage on to try to emulate).

I think it's actually good, particularly for an only/oldest child who doesn't have experience of other children at home, to mix and get used to not being the sole focus of attention. Having said that some nurseries are quite strict about age segregation, I rather liked the big family effect of ours where the children of all ages did get to mix for meals etc.

At the end of the day it comes down to finding the right nursery for you, not avoiding nurseries full stop. For us the small size, low staff turnover, having some more mature staff as well as young ones, being owner run rather than part of a chain, a big focus on spending lots of time outside and the chance to mix across age groups were big plus factors. But the lack of teaching French to two year olds (which one other nursery we looked at was very proud of, although having visited them we never seriously considered using, as they had NO provision for outdoor play/activities) wasn't in any way a negative. Other people might have seen it exactly the opposite way - French good and mud bad - and tbh you tend to find that parents with similar views seem to gravitate towards the same nurseries. We certainly found that most of the parents where ds went were of the opinion that if they came home too clean they probably hadn't been having much fun, but I know of at least one mum who made a formal complaint to her nursery because her child came home on one day with his clothes dirty.

I would (and will) have no hesitation in sending the next one there as well. Try not to get too sucked into the "make mums feel guilty thing" - you can find evidence to support either point of view if you look for it.

[AmieR]

That's really helpful Lunar, we've been thinking what to do... don't know if you got my mail but it was concerning Local antenatal classes... hope you didn't mind me asking.. oh and which nursery did you use? If it was local to us! Saying that.. DH works not to far from MK!

Onilly - we had to decorate the back room, well, we're half way through doing it at the moment, mainly as we hadn't touched it since moving in, and the people who lived here before, must have had some interesting firms to do their decorating, or did it themselves as the carpet doesn't fit and everything was painted in the same paint.. woodwork and ceiling.. a lovely yellow matt emulsion.. I kid you not the whole house was this colour! not thought about furniture or anything yet, just getting the room ready fro the carpet fitters!

I'm thinking of getting a cotbed with a side that goes up and down.. anyone have one and think this is a good idea?

[shanks313]

Hi everyone

I have been away for the weekend with my mum at a Stargate convention,meeting some of the actors and it was lots of fun I got special treatment all weekend,friends rubbing my belly and getting special priority in the queues.
Left husband at home and while I was gone,he cleared out the nursery room and painted 2 of the walls.We are going with yellow as its nice and bright.
Still havent had definite kicks from baby but I do feel it very faintly sometimes.Been suffering a lot of leg cramp the last few days too.

23+6 (girl)

[AmieR]

agh.. DH just called to let me know he's had his joint account card cloned and the a$$ hats have had a bit of a shopping spree on us! Hopefully the bak will may be helpful for once and we can sort something out.

[Noodlekitty]

Nightmare Amie, this happened to me last year too, was a pain to sort out. Although bank were good about it. Hope its all sorted quickly for you, these gits always pick this time of year!

Rosy...we blot out the sun! :0)

[Noodlekitty]

Nightmare Amie, this happened to me last year too, was a pain to sort out. Although bank were good about it. Hope its all sorted quickly for you, these gits always pick this time of year!

Rosy...we blot out the sun! :0)

[Noodlekitty]

Nightmare Amie, this happened to me last year too, was a pain to sort out. Although bank were good about it. Hope its all sorted quickly for you, these gits always pick this time of year!

Rosy...we blot out the sun! :0)

[LunarSea]

Amie - I've emailed you re classes and nurseries.

Card cloning seems to be getting quite common - there have been aseveral threads about it on here lately. Fortunately the banks generally seem to be quite good at dealing with it and reimbursing the money.

[harktheheraldfoxessing]

Aime - we have one of those alongside bed cot things, where the side can be removed. Its fantastic - like an extension of the bed. You can line the cot mattress up to the same height as yours and shove the baby over to the extension, but it still thinks its in your bed. Great for BFing. Though, actually, mine tended to wriggle right back to mummy during the night

Cost £150 in JoJoMamanBebe and worth every penny. Will last until about age two methinks.

Onilly - Both mine went to childminders as babies (121 care, family environment etc), but went to nurseries when older. DD has really come on since she joined nursery - her speach has got so much better. DS loved nursery too. Agree you can immediately tell the difference between children whove been to nursery and those aho haven't.

Nursery children have all the fabulous social skills and confidence and slide into school seamlessly. No crying at the school gates for them !!

[morocco]

hi everyone
glad you're back home piffle! poor you and I'm so sorry about the lack of decent pain meds as well. ouch!
I've just had a horrible stomach bug and took to my bed as it's the only way of getting any rest round here. dh was at home at weekend but still had the cheek to complain at 3pm when I ventured downstairs that he'd had to do everything all by himself poor lamb. not that I do that every day or anything
what did you think of the Biddolph book onilly? I tend to agree with him based on what I've read of the reviews - I think he was most against the 'slammer' nurseries where the kids are in all day every day from morn til night kind of thing? is that right? a lot must come down to the kind of nursery they go to. some sound pretty impersonal with lots of changes of staff and stuff. ds2 has just started at playgroup and he's 2.5 and pestered and pestered to go. I thought he was too young but he loves it cos his big brother goes there . So I'm going to 'let' him go more after Xmas - can't wait for more of a break!
this little one might go into a part time nursery if I go back to work - I can't face another 3 years at home. I thought I'd done my stint. Other 2 we had a nanny at home (cos lived abroad where it was cheap) and I think that is just the ideal but almost impossible to afford in the Uk solution. They both loved her and it was like having an extra auntie come to visit. I wish we could still do that again.

[harktheheraldfoxessing]

Hi Morocco You poor thing having the bug - there seems to be loads of tummy/vomiting/flu type nasties in circulation at the moment.

Kitty - R U OK? Haven't seen you for a day or so...

Eva - have you recovered?

[kittywits]

Hi, Foxy, thanks for asking, it's very sweet of you. I'm not really ok, no, stuff at home's not good and i don't want to bring you all down. So I'm keeping my eye on you all but haven't really got much to say

[eidsvold]

we had our back bedroom sorted for when dd2 was born - had neutral decor and yellow walls - once she was born and a little older - got some fab fabric to make it more girly.

Am going to go and get some more neutral fabric to do some curtains, cot quilt, nappy stacker, etc and sew them up ready for this one. If this babe too turns out to be a girl well I can just whip out the girly stuff when they actually go into their room.

We started with a moses basket with our other two - dd1 lasted ages in hers as she was sooo ditty. Dd2 probably about 4 - 6 months and had them in our room. THen onto the cot. THankfully a friend gave us all this baby stuff as we gave all of dd1's stuff away when we moved to Australia and so that saved us a stack of money.

That book by Steve Biddulph caused all sorts of controversy. The biggest one being the sizeo f his sample. Apparently in terms of statistics it was not 'significant' to add a lot of weight to his findings.

Fwiw - dd1 went to a nursery from ages 1 - 2. Prior to that and after that she stayed at home with me until she was 3 and went off to kindy. Now she attends a sn kindy and mainstream kindy and loves it. She loved going to nursery and we loved the workers there - the nursery in England was so fab I think they spoilt it for all the rest. The ones I had looked at here in Aus just did not come up to them. She was always pleased to go to nursery and always pleased to see us at the end of the day.

First consultants appt today. Managed to get the same consultant as I had with dd2 - he was fab so very pleased with this.

[divastrop]

hello!

the nets been down all day and dp's been climbing the walls...i was just about to phone round about rehab clinics when it came back on
lots of packing got done though
we got the keys today and are moving in on friday,although carpets cant be fitted till tuesday next week.bum.

kitty-sorry to hear things arent too good for you at the mo.you know we are here if you need to offload.

amie-i got cotbeds for my first three but i found they seemed 'lost' in them and wouldnt settle till about 6 months.dd2 is in a normal cot but she now looks to big to be in there.
i put her in with dd1 when she was 3 weeks old...i am a cow when it comes to bedtime routines and like to instill the'nighttime is for sleeping'rule from birth.

i have never found a pair of maternity trousers/jeans that stay up.i got some last time but they didnt even fit when i was 8 months gone.well,the waist was still too loose and they were too tight around the bum
am sticking with large stretchy jeans under bump this time.

22+5(girl)

[AmieR]

we're planning on using a moses basket in the beginning, but worried about forking out the moeny for something that's only gonna get used for 6 months or so... is it ok to get a second hand one if we invest on new mattress and bedding?

we've gone for cream, and a light tan colour as it will go with pink and also blue, the yellow it was, was almost mustard and not very fresh.. otherwise I think we'd have kept it!

Kitty, hope things sort themselves out.

getting breathless really easy at the moment, a trip to tesco earlier had me cream crackered, things are only going to get more difficult I guess.

[AmieR]

tan sounds horrid doesn't it? its not a tan so much.. I just can't think of how to describe it and make it sound nice! LOL

diva - there's so much to think about... and we have brains of sand!

[Booboobedoo]

Hi girls.

Interesting nursery discussion. I'm not planning to send mine to nursery, but definitely to playgroups and things. (Might change my mind - depends how sociable/good at sharing my LO turns out to be).

Piffle: I'm soooo sorry you're having such an awful time. You're having such rotten luck. Does anything relieve your SPD at all? Is it stopping you sleeping?

Kitty: that you're miserable. Come on and have a moan. You know it'll make you feel better...

Noodle: I'd be your worst nightmare to meet in a bar. I'm 5'3" - we wouldn't be able to hear each other.

On a frivolous note, I just bought some lovely stuff in Jojomamanbeb for me and LO. Has anyone seen these ? They look great cause their water-resistant, which is perfect for my daily dog-walking with baby in sling plans.

EDD 3/3
24+1
boy

[Booboobedoo]

They're, not their.

[divastrop]

2nd hand stuff is fine as long as you get new matress and it fits properly.
dd1 was in a cotbed(with sides removed)till she was 3.5,whereas normal cots only last till about 18 months-2years.

i havent read this book about nursery stuff but if i hadnt put ds2 in playgroup/nursery when he was 2 i would have ended up in the nut house which im sur wouldnt be very good for my childrens development
i think children need to learn to socialise etc before the age of 3.
we mohters cant win-i am looked down upon cos i dont work,and my children probably watch way more telly than is healthy,yet those who do work and put their children in nursery are also wrong
are we all meant to be sahms who float around in an apron baking and painting with our children(whilst cleaning the house with dusters on our feet and a broom up our a*e)?we could all be perfect but then there'd be no need for psychologists/shrinks/magistrates/police in 20 years' time.

[eidsvold]

Amie - as I said - all of our stuff was second hand - just new linen and new mattress - know for moses baskets - very cheap - think our cot mattress was very reasonable too although we are recycling that for this babe. Have to get a new moses basket mattress as I gave it away after dd2.

[callieco]

Evening people

Thanks for the helpful trouser expander replies. I've found maternity trousers are definitely a problem because they just seem to be too big for me, even after adjusting the bands if you can - unfortunately i've already bought two pairs! Maybe for later on they'll be ok. Normally I wear trousers/jeans a lot so I'm looking for some normal v low-cut jeans now.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of births are people planning(or should I say hoping for ). Is anyone thinking of home birth at all? sorry if you've already had this discussion previously.

[TheBlonde]

Hi all

Nursery bedroom wise we need to shift & downsize our study so it can become DS's new room
Then his old room becomes free for no2

Our moses basket only got used for 5 weeks the first time round then DS went into a normal size cot

Callie - I'm going for a hypno birth (!) but at hospital. Just don't fancy labouring at home myself but understand why others opt for it