We're handholding for the newly graduated viroids and handing out hooyahs to badly behaved miroids. Between womble pains and boobs with veins, some of us are still managing to shag! It's JS Grads 47!

[fruitlovingmonkey]

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the 47th grads thread... celebrating the success of Just Shagging in getting us viroids upduffed!

For those that don't know, a 'viroid' is from the original JSing thread 1, where someone was trying to type ladies (in reference to all the JSing ladies), but their phone decided to call us all viroids instead!

The name stuck and we've been the JSing viroids ever since.

The 46th grads thread is here

The thread we have graduated from is here in its 60th outing. WARNING: they're all a bit kerazy not to mention randy!

There is also a Just Mumming thread here for once your babies come along, or to keep up with the graduated graduates!

There is also a private facebook group (so it doesn't give the game away in your news feed!)... if you want to join to see photos of new babies etc, just ask in-thread!

Here is the stats list, please update your own spot with any updates.

Hurray for MicroChat! Keeping all gx for you both. I'm enjoying not being at work, but have been rather hampered by the hot weather making me feel too sluggish to do anything but also too hot to sleep properly, so I feel like I've not done as much stuff as I ought to have. Getting Braxton Hicks now but nothing that feels like serious business. I saw the midwife today, and now I'm not seeing her again until 40+6 (I'm seeing the consultant at 39+6 so she said there's no point them both seeing me at the same time) - it's quite scary that I might not actually get to that appointment because I might have a baby! I've booked a pregnancy massage for next Wednesday, with a gift voucher my parents bought me, so I hope Socklet will stay put to allow me to take advantage of that!

Good news on the ELCS, Fuzzy - hope you can relax a bit now.

Anyone got nice plans for the BH weekend?

Good news chat gx it continues to be.

My maternity cover job is going to get advertised next week - scary stuff, makes it v v real - not that the football sized bump I have doesn't I've got a fairly quiet bh weekend lined up - parkrun tomorrow which is part of the #iamteamgb campaign so I'm going to run waddle as a team gb gold medalist the village I live in has a big summer fete type thing on bh Monday so I'm helping out with that, other than that I will be putting my feet up as have a busy week at work next week

I'm keeping fingers crossed for you chat

That's great fuzzy. On what grounds were you able to convince them?

Thanks Sock and London. I wrote in about all of my concerns and received a call saying an ELCS would be booked.

Hope the run went well MyBlack and you got to relax a bit.

I feel like I have reached the third trimester Wall and just don't have the energy for anything at the moment. Even if I did, a huge bump and PGP doesn't help things. Hope everyone else is enjoying their bank holiday weekend.

So glad all was ok with the scan chat!

Sock I feel too fat and sluggish to do anything and I'm only 28 weeks...you're definitely allowed to put your feet up! Enjoy the massage!

Exciting news over here, dh has been offered a job in Singapore and I think we're about 90% decided to go for it. Not looking forward to telling my mum though...

Have been on call all weekend but thankfully wasn't bad at all. Glad to have today off though!

The first of our NCT babies has been born! She was due a couple of days before me but I think they induced her early. No action here, which I'm kind of ok with, but getting increasingly uncomfortable trying to sleep at night, while at the same time frantically thinking "I need to sleep as much as possible now because I'm never going to sleep normally EVER AGAIN." Parents came to visit today, bringing up the crib with them, so we have all the major bits we need for Socklet now. Might sneak in a trip to Ikea this week for storage etc though.

How exciting about Singapore, Canters! Would you be able to work out there too or would it be the expat wife life for you?

Eeeeek sock! It will be you before long!

The plan is to expat-wife it on maternity and then look to do something slightly more meaningful after. We only want to stay for 2 years so I am intending to see if I can do OOP after mat leave and keep my training number here, for now anyway. Clinical work is possible there but I'm feeling a bit disillusioned and quite fancy trying a few new things...

How is everyone?

Today is technically my first day of maternity leave. I know it is quite early but I am now on countdown.

The Living Overseas forum on here was really helpful, Canters - I met some lovely people. OOPC shouldn't be too difficult to come by. I had to do some supranumery shifts when I returned but the application was pretty straightforward.

I have 11 weeks left of work starting to feel uncomfortable now - my back is killing me, I'm ok up and about but sitting is very difficult, got the next two hours on a train can only get comfy lying flat on my back but I'm not supposed to do that!

Thanks chat, how long were you away for out of interest?

Sorry about your back, black. 5 more weeks at work for me, can't wait to get out of there!

I'm such a hypocrite, but am feeling a bit worried about the strikes. The November dates are the week before I am due ie when I was supposed to be having my c section. I'm so worried about being pushed into the next week when I could feasibly have gone into labour...

Ditto Canters - this first set in September is going to be from 40+3-41/40 for me, with weekends either side, so I'm a little concerned! I know that the consultants will do everything they can to keep things safe, but not sure how they'll manage now that it's a full 5 days rather than just 24-48 hours. Most places will try to keep at least some ELCS lists going though, after emergencies and cancer ops they're the ones which are most time-sensitive so they won't want to have a backlog and/or be doing more low-grade emergency CS because women are going into labour while waiting.

Birthing ball has arrived, spent about an hour sitting on it but while it's great for posture I found it made my abdominal muscles quite tired after a while - I'm guessing I need to work on my core more!

I was granted two years, Canters, bur we came back after 18m as DH got promoted early. They were quite excited to have me back sooner - 'Where do you want? We've got gaps everywhere'! I had to ramp under my reasons to get more than a year, so it's worth planning ahead.

I'm surprised the strikes are astill soon and as brutal. Our unit has a good contingency plan and I think the obstetric teams are planning to have a section list running moat days.

Sorry you're struggling, Black. Count those days down.

Thanks everyone - I've already clawed back a week as I can't count! 10 weeks to go got to work tomorrow which is a bit of a pisser but it's the last weekend day I have to work in next 10 weeks Still managing my parkrun just very very slowly now!

Hi, how is everyone doing?
Sock how are you feeling with your due date approaching fast?!
Canters Exciting news about your overseas move! Your mind must be racing with that plus a baby on the way.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant now, time seems to be dragging but on the other hand there is a lot we want to do around the house and garden before the baby arrives, so I shouldn't really be wishing the time away!

This is probably a silly worry (and I am more susceptible today, because I stupidly stayed up late on MN and I'm knackered!) but I'm stressing about finding like-minded mums... For example if I join an NCT group will I feel that we only have pregnancy/babies in common... I'm very lucky to have some wonderful like-minded friends, some of whom have children, but they won't be on maternity leave at the same time as me. I think I'm probably worrying about nothing (and being over sensitive about other threads) but I did wonder if anyone else has ever felt the same?

I guess if I make just one or two good friends through pregnancy yoga or NCT or another antenatal class, that will be fine, right?!

Hmm-- I'm hoping to making mum friends but I doubt any of them will be close friends, just really social friends with baby in common. One of my closest friends already has a baby though and is trying for a second while one of my other closest friends has just started trying this month for her first so I don't feel entirely alone.

I've stared NCT classes purely to try to make some local friends and several others in the group said it was also the reason they are doing the course, so at least it feels like we are all making an effort to bond. However, I guess you can never tell whether you will be in a group of people that you end up close friends with or you just drift apart from.

Not doing too badly, thanks for asking Name. Due date is Friday, getting more uncomfortable by the day and having Braxton Hicks but no serious signs of action. Seeing the consultant on Thursday so hopefully we can at least come up with a plan!

I'm worried about the mum friends thing too - because of my job and having moved around a fair bit, I don't have many close friends, and none nearby. Plus I'm just not very good at socialising, all my closest friends are from uni but live all over the shop these days. I'm hoping that my NCT group will stay in touch, and that I'll find enough people to chat to in baby groups etc. The thought of the school gate politics that I see described on here is terrifying though! Hopefully I can avoid that by not being there for a lot of drop-off/pick-ups and not giving a shit who's wearing last season's Boden.

School gate politics? Do tell! I must be very naive.

Good to know that 2 years is possible, chat. Going to try and speak to my TPD tomorrow though suspect I won't be met with a positive reaction! Oh well. My mind is definitely all over the place name!

I've wondered about the mum friends thing too. I think as long as I find a couple of people to go for coffee with I'll be ok. Funnily enough I feel more comfortable with the idea of moving overseas and making friends in the expat community then I do with the idea of mum friends in the town I currently live in, probably because I'm the sort of person who only makes the effort if I really have to!

Sock bet you're relieved the strikes next week are cancelled! Come on sock let!

Thanks for your replies, good to know some of you are thinking along similar lines! I suppose it's like any new experience, starting a new job or joining a new club or whatever - you get on with most people on a surface level and hopefully also find 1/2/3 people you really click with.

Sock I hope you don't have to wait too much longer to meet Socklet! And your Boden comment made me LOL

All the stuff like this London - it amazes me how many grown adults still act like little brats in that particular social setting. Don't even get me started on the Style and Beauty angst about school run outfits and whether it's acceptable to take the kids to school in running gear (unlikely to be an issue for me!)

Besides, obviously my child will be the most brilliant at everything, so there's no point in competing with other parents, it will only make them feel bad

Oh my! I haven't read the entire thread but got the gist.

I am a weird mixture of confrontational and non-confrontational. In the moment is rude in general or to me, I always confront them (not stooping to their level but not intimidated either). Its in my DNA, I can't help it!

However, after the experience is over, only then do I start to feel really upset. I therefore try to avoid people I think are crazy / rude / arseholes as much as possible once I have that impression of them. Which probably means I come across as a bit crazy myself!

Ah, I hope the school gates are not so political here. I have not the time or energy to get involved.

I found expats easier to make friends with as well, Canters. I think because there's very much an 'all in this together' mentality, everyone is that much more tolerant of differing views. The pot is smaller but the food tastes sweeter. Maybe sell it as a year of mat leave and a year OOPC if your TPD isn't keen? I really had to ramp up the pity factors to get granted 2y, they are trying to cut down on it locally, as people keep quitting rather than returning.

Scan today was good, measuring right and still alive! Baby steps. May book in with a MW soon...

I really hope the school gates here are friendly. None of my NCT or baby group friends will be going to the local school, so I won't know anyone in advance unless I can bring myself to be a bit more sociable in the meantime.

Great news about the scan Chat and hope you get to see a midwife soon.

How are you today Sock?

Usually I love the summer, warmth and sunshine but the nights are just too hot and uncomfortable at the moment.