Due in February 2017 - thread #9

[twocatsandatoddler]

New thread - hope everyone finds this! I'll try and post the link in the old thread if it will let us go over 1,000 posts.

Why the actual FUCKING FUCK OF FUCK?!!?!!!

Ladies do not order ANYTHING from Precious Little One or OBaby!!!!!

We spent £400 on the OBaby Lily nursery furniture on Precious Little One. Contacted them today to ask about arranging the delivery and were told it was coming direct from OBaby, and they would be in touch with the courier information so we could arrange delivery....

Got home to find that they had turned up today without contacting us AT ALL, and dumped it all outside our house, ON THE STREET!!!!!!!

Who DOES that?! Why the FUCK would they leave £400-worth of furniture outside a terraced house on the pavement, and not even contact us?!!?!!! SO ANGRY!!!

fenella that's absolutely disgraceful!! I hope you have a strongly worded complaint email/letter organised!! I would have went off on one!! Is the furniture ok??

Well 24 week scan went well!! Heard the heartbeat... 150bpm! Not felt much movement since then though haha! To go for my glucose test in 3 weeks 🙈

Fenella absolutely blast them both across all their social media accounts, that's bloody disgusting.

I ordered something from PLO once and the delivery was problematic, I wouldn't use them again.

Wow Fenella that is shocking! we have had massive problems with furniture being delayed or damaged but that is astonishing.

So tonight i feel as though I'm getting punched or kicked in the foof!! Anyone else getting this? Lol

Shell Barry has been punching me down there and kicking me in the ribs all day!

Shell me, yesterday! I actually worried for a moment baby was trying to get out! Then I promptly told myself to get a grip.
I lay down with my feet in the air for a bit and that seemed to shift him/her. It's really quite an uncomfortable feeling!

Fenella a good way to get out of dealing with these awful companies is to find what you want then order it from John Lewis and ask them to match other suppliers' prices if you have seen a cheaper deal. Can save some grief, at least they usually have pretty decent customer service and will take furniture to the room it is going in and set it up for you.

Hope you get it sorted out. I would send the lot back on principle if it was me! I still can't believe they did that to you

Shell lots of movement here too now. Been able to feel it since about week 16 but now it's so much stronger and very busy at some times of day!

Fenella OMG that's unbelievable!! Was the stuff ok? I assume you've made a complaint and whoever did it will be sacked!!! Shocking how stupid some people are!!! I won't be ordering off them!!

I have sent the angriest email known to mankind - am still absolutist seething!

DH pointed out that as if that wasn't bad enough, they dumped it all right across our front door, which I wouldn't have been able to move, so if he hadn't got home first I would have been trapped outside!

Unsurprisingly, the courier was yodel.....

oneroi I did NOT know John Lewis did that!! Great tip - thank you!

That really is appalling Fenella! For all they knew you could have been living alone and not able to move it into the house at all

Hope you have better luck with the rest of your stuff and hope the JL tip helps. They reduced the nursery furniture I bought by £150 to match another deal I found.

So tired today, the temptation to stay in bed was huge. So glad it is almost the weekend! I am getting worried how I am going to manage the 5:15 alarms and commutes into London right up to my due date though

Fenella our Yodel guy is awful. The other day he dumped a package for our neighbours on our doorstep. It's one thing leaving it with us if it needs a signature and they're not in, but if he's just going to leave it on the doorstep while we're at work he could at least get the right house! He's also tried to give me our other neighbours' packages before because he 'can't be bothered to walk up their drive'. And I presume he thinks it's ok for me to have to drop it round?? They're paid (not very much) per delivery and lose money if you're not in so they get very lazy and just dump stuff.

I hope you get an adequate apology from them and some sort of discount / free stuff as that's really appalling.

One 5:15! Ouch! My alarm goes off at six for me to trek into London and I thought that was bad enough! It's my day off today though and I'm still in bed, DS is singing away in his cot next door so I'm in no rush to go to him! So far we've had a few rounds of Happy Birthday to everything in his cot, and Doe, a Deer from the Sound of Music which DH has been teaching him!

I'm stopping commuting about 3 weeks before due date and working from home after that, I had images of me getting on the Stansted Express in labour among a lot of holiday makers with their suitcases and figured it's probably best to stay close to home! My labour with DS didn't start until I was 7 days over last time though so that's probably an unnecessary level of caution.

Awwww twocats that is so cute!

That's a good thought to work from home for the last part. I am also terrified of going into labour miles from home or on a train full of strangers! I worked from home for three weeks in the early stages when the nausea and motion sickness made the journey really rotten, and I only come into the City three days a week anyway (hopefully two after baby arrives!) so I think I'll have a chat to the boss and see if I can set up something similar to you.

I have ME as well so the exhaustion is off the charts now that the exercise I can do is limited, but I want to work as close up to my due date as possible as I've got a lot of projects to finish and will only be able to afford to take six months off, so want as much of it as possible to be after baby arrives. Also read that first babies are usually late so don't want to spend weeks at home just waiting for something to happen, although right now a few weeks of hibernation sounds extremely appealing!

I've been up for over 24 hours now I work 12.5 hour night shifts as a nurse. Can't wait till ds goes to school but will need to be up for 11.30 as I need to pick him up at school at lunch and get him ready for Halloween party.
I feel like a zombie

One I stopped at just after 36 weeks last time and ended up with 5 weeks off before DS was born, I was really bored because I didn't really know anyone in my town yet as we'd recently moved. This time I'm working up until almost 38 weeks but will mostly be at home after Christmas and entirely at home from 37 weeks. I'm not starting mat leave until the day before I'm due, but taking holiday before that, so if I decide closer to the time to work a few days longer I can just un-book that annual leave and carry it over instead. I'd like a few weeks off before the baby ideally, but 5 weeks was too much for me, I was climbing the walls, and just wanted the baby to come out as I was so uncomfortable!

Twocats that's nice not to have to go back in after Christmas. My due date isn't until 19 Feb so will need to wait a bit longer, but we are away for a week just after NY so should at least be a nice long Christmas break. Good point about annual leave too, for the flexibility. I want to use a chunk of mine for a staged return to work in the Autumn too, so that I'm only commuting one day a week at first! It's really helpful to hear how you found it because I have little idea what to expect not having been through it before. We're also in a similar situation in that we moved areas last year so don't know many people locally** yet.

Teabag that is insane! How you are still standing is a medical miracle! Hope you get some decent rest this afternoon.

One my due date is 2nd Feb, so I think it will work out as only about 4 days in the office after Christmas and new year. I haven't asked for permission though, just told them that's what I'm planning to do! We're a consultancy so have all the technology set up to work from home easily and they're usually really flexible about that kind of thing. It's a busy time of year for my role (I'm in finance and in charge of the budget process which is mainly Jan-Feb) so I think they'd rather have me working at home than not working at all, especially if my replacement will be in the office so it's not like they'll have no one physically in the office.

It makes such a difference doesn't it to work in a company with flexibility and a supportive attitude? I'm very lucky in that respect too. I condense my hours to 4 days already and do a day from home. Cannot imagine what would have happened with having a baby in my previous job with our misogynistic, intern-impregnating boss and the obligatory 80 hours weeks! Senior women there were a rarity, everyone bailed out.

Good that they have cover for you set up already. Taking responsibility for the annual budgeting process while 9 months pregnant doesn't sound like it would be a fun prospect! They are still trying to find someone to cover my role here, it's quite specialist so they will probably need a secondee from one of the professional services firms.

Yes they've already filled my role internally, and also already back-filled his current role with someone internally so it's quite handy. We'll start handover within the next few weeks I think. I'm actually not returning to this role so my maternity cover has got motivation to do a good job as it's potentially his role to keep if he wants it. I've not ruled out doing a different 3 day role with my current employers if something decent comes up in the next 12 months but I'm probably going to be taking a few years out of work because nursery for two plus commuting costs to London would take the vast majority of my salary and I don't think the take-home pay I'd be left with is worth the stress!

That makes a lot of sense. It is crazy how many people end up in that position with childcare being such a rip off. And transport. Lovely to have the opportunity to just be at home for a few years though, I would absolutely love that! Are you looking forward to it? It must be hard to imagine after having juggled work and your DS, but an exciting new chapter?

Our only possibility of me being able to stay at home is to move to my husband's country, which we hope to do before baby reaches school age. In the meantime the mortgage calls the shots unfortunately, so off to work I go!

Morning all! I'm another one up by 6 for the commute to London. Cannot WAIT for mat leave!! I'm going back after this one but if we have a second, it won't make sense financially for me to go back - nursery for 2, dog walker and the commute would be more than I earn, and I earn quite a good salary!

My goodness, all you early birds! Mind, I'd have to likely be up at the same sort of time if I commuted to London from Cambridge too. Thankfully I held out a few years ago and found a role in Cambridge so for me, it's a 25 min bike ride (all cyclepath too, so reasonably safe but pitch black in winter!). I am such a slacker - I get up as late as possible to be in work for 8.30... this morning I got up at 7.35 .

I am trying to now be more zen about movements. I have my 25 week appt on Tuesday so will speak properly to the midwife then; I really don't want to become obsessive about it to the point of it being stressful constantly. This came about because last night I hadn't felt him again for a while (admittedly it wasn't hours, it was probably about an hour max) and I got myself into a right snotty, sobbing flap. I lay down and felt 10 movements within around 50 minutes - he's just in a very strange position right now I think, or a very different position to the one I've been used to these past couple of weeks.

Anyway! One thing I did notice is that if I lie on my right rather than my left, it makes him go nuts! I must be squashing him or something, poor baby! At least I know a position that works for me in order to wake him up though !

Nursery tidying and starting decoration this weekend! I got woodland wall stickers from John Lewis and am very excited to put them up!