Due April 2007 - buddies galore

[EllieKwithaHUGEbump]

x

Very envious Hellcat! I´ve still got 4 more weeks or 13 more days to go. Mind you, as you can tell I do get away with doing very little for a lot of the time.
Never replied to your post about your time in Almeria, I meant to but the madness took on a life of its own. How brave you guys were! Was it a real No Going Back kind of thing? Do you speak spanish? I can imagine it was hard work. I´ve been here for 4 years and am fluent in spanish but reckon setting up a b&b would be pretty hard work still! Not to mention the spanish legal system and all the red tape in getting ANYTHING done. Being relatively a short time as a democracy so many people still seem to work on the ´you scratch my back, I´ll scratch yours´ way of doing things. Probably less so in the cities but out here things can tend to work like that.
It´s quite bad really, I´ve taken advantage myself of this system..being married to dh (mallorquin) means there´s always someone who knows someone who´ll help you get the paperwork done. And I know I shouldn´t because it encourages an essentially corrupt system blah blah blah but when you know doing it the proper way is going to be so much harder. Well. We can´t all be perfect

Happy Birthday AngeG!!! Hope you have a lovely one!!!

Its my last day today, already been in floods of tears twice, first time was the carry on of a row that dp and I had last night, got it sorthed anyways, came to work and fell up the bloody stairs!! Think its definately time for me and the bump to be installed on the sofa wrapped in a duvet where we cant come to any harm!!! On the plus side - I have a lovely egg shapped lump on my shin... its a good job I wont be wearing any short skirts for the imediate future!!

STOP WORKING MAVETA!!I am in work today but will nobly sneak on here whenever possible to keep you company !

SOSPL - that cramp is total agony! I had it once a few weeks ago and am terrified of getting it again - have just stopped it quite a few times by frantically flexing my feet. Helps now that I never seem to be actually asleep anymore so I am not caught by surprise IYSWIM.

to say our dry night run is over, but then DS2 did have a little upset last night. We also couldn't get him out of bed this morning so a little tlc is called for methinks.

Puffysex!! Sounds like some awful sti!
Dh didn't bat an eyelid when I was hopping round like a lune in the middle of the night!

Maveta, thanks for the tip re the hot water bottle. I am willing to try anything. It seems worse in the evening as I think one's body is just knackered by then anyway.

Hope everyone is ok. x

Hellcat

Try drinking tonic water at night for the cramp, it really works. It is the quinine which works. I did this in my last pregnancy too, and the baby was fine.

Also, DH says at the onset of cramp, push your heel away from you, or get someone to push your feet and toes towards your chin, that works a treat too, for when you forget your tonic water.

Birdie, sorry to hear about the wet night - just a blip tho I am sure. I have to say we had another dry night and am delighted. Sure there will be a blip here soon.

what a rough day for you Geordiemacminx. I hope you are feeling better.

Wish it was my last day, but that wil be next Friday. I don't know if I can keep this up much longer!

DH is not allowed to be one second late for work, so we have to drop off DS, then me, then DH has to go to work. I hate the rushing around, even though we do almost everything the night before.

However, the nicest thing of all is that after spending all our time, energy and money on IVF for 12 years, we can finally now have a rest. I love being free of it all.

I feel for you Birdie.

Ever now and then, when I shake a log out of the bottom of DS trousers, I think ' we will all get there in the end'!

birdiebump - LOL.. will have to actually START before I can stop working.. I AM I AM going to do something, just after I´ve....

GMM - HURRAY last day! Another one bites the dust. You know we´re all getting close now...

Morning everyone

DS1 off sick from school so he is banished to the sofa while I have some quiet time.

When I get cramps I find just stretching my toes up/back releases it quickly. It just catches you so unawares!

My new coat came from Boden this morning - have worn it already to playgroup Its great because you can wear any old crap but just look fab because of coat!

Am a bit tired this morning - so not going to do anything except have nice bubble bath and figure out what an earth can do with the boys this afternoon when one of them is poorly! aaarrgghhh! Really hoping I don't catch it!

cheers for the quinine tip mmk - perhaps I should have a G&T before bed?

I am quite good at calf stretching from when I used to scuba dive - but it was a lot easier when you grabbed the end of your 'flipper' and pulled it forwards!!

Yipee last day at work today

Have tried to keep up with the posts but can't remember anything as usual

Birdiebump glad to be your buddy

GMM, enjoy your last day; sorry to hear it has been a bit tear-filled this a.m.

mmk, pmsl at the "log" falling out of ds's trousers!

Tonic water is great for lots of things isn't it. It is good to settle a poorly tummy I heard.

Hearing you Maveta about the whole corruption thing - it is now laughable but at the time was incredibly frustrating.

My friend from LA said look, hispanic culture, you need to be tucking in 100 euro notes with your documents, but it didn't quite sink in.

It was a lot like 'no going back' according to our visitors - we never saw the tv program cos we were in Spain, but all the guests said 'oooh, its just like no going back' except that we did go back in the end!

I speak the most dreadful Spanish imaginable, did my degree in linguistics so understood enough about communication to make myself understood without actually learning Spanish very well - I would just try stuff until people's eyes lit up, they will say it back to you when you've got it right. I found the most important thing was to repeat what you think you have understood, and get it repeated back to you, cos there's nothing worse than thinking you have understood when you haven't - and got very pissed off with getting ripped off by people who would pretend that you hadn't understood what they had promised or not!

Unfortunately all the practical what will happen when, how much will it cost etc stuff didn't work so well with the neighbours - and we really missed out not knowing enough 'social' Spanish. Most of our neighbours hadn't left the village for about 30 years and talked w/o moving their mouths, so it was a bit tricky! It was amazing though to wake up in the morning and find that someone had left a sack of tomatos and courgettes on the terrace. It was super rural - we had to do our annual turn at keeping the village water tank full for a month!

It must be a totally different experience for you though with a proper command of the language and a Spanish husband - how did your move to Spain happen?

Snap on last day mmk - can't wait! You've probably said already but how old are your other child(ren)? I am another oldie mum with DS1 of 14 and DS2 of 3. Is this your second successful IVF attempt?

Octopussy of new coat! My bump is so huge only one coat closes over it - boss said this morning "are you sure you've got your dates right??!!" but I can't justify buying another that fits over all this - also thinking Spring is going to come any minute!

Congrats Eddas - I am out of work at 1.20 pm aya!

and congrats to you too GMM!

can we a see a picture of this coat octopussy?

Haven't had a new coat for about 6 years - I want a waterproof down filled parka from Northface with fur trimmed hood but they are £225 new and £90 odd quid second hand on ebay....waiting for Santa 07

Birdie - it is a spring mac - the blue spotty one from boden - and it does up! None of my normal ones were doing up and was getting fed up being either cold or wet and wasn't going to buy a winter coat! Also needed one with a hood for when baby arrives - no way could do 2 free range boys and a pushchair and an umbrella!

Happy Birthday angeG xoxo

Good morning ladies

Happy birthday Ange hope you get spoilt rotten.

Congrats to those of you starting maternity leave.Enjoy your last day.
As a SAHM can I get maternity leave for housework ? worth a try I suppose I shall run the idea past DH

Bramshott I have recieved your email and have put your number straight onto my phone so im all prepared

Anyway better get a move on

bye xx

Hellcat, have you read ´driving over oranges´? your experience makes me think of that! I was just speaking to an english guy yesterday who was 50 something and had been here for 20 odd years. Well, on and off at least, he seems to have a few businesses and a fair bit of money so not sure how much time he spent mixing with the ´natives´ and doubt he speaks much spanish. Well he was just ranting and raving about how they are all vultures and will take what they can from you blah blah. By the time he´d really said too much I was too embarrassed (for him) to say, well actually I´m married to one of them! Did sound like he´d had terrible experiences and been ripped off royally. But of course that just says a lot about the people he´d met, not the population in general. I had to stifle a laugh when he said they´d sold the tyres off his digger. I mean it´s just the kind of thing I can imagine happening to someone unsuspecting.

Aaaaaanyway. I´m glad you saw the nice social side to living out here though, most people understand that you don´t understand 100% but really any attempt at all to communicate is so appreciated. I moved out here more or less on a whim after some friends who lived here came over one xmas and convinced me that my life in the UK was actually shit enough to mean I wouldn´t be losing much in giving it a shot. That was december and in March I was here! Just kind of jumped right in. I met dh about 4 months later, we moved in together a few months after that and hey presto. Would you ever try it again?

Seems like lots of you have your last days at work today, can't imagine how much more chat there will be on here when it's not interupted by work

angeG - HAPPY BIRTHDAY hope you have a lovely day

DH treated me to a wireless modem, so hooray I don't have to sit in a cupboard in the loft any more, I've got a comfy chair, and heat bliss

I'd like to thank the person (i can't remember who) that mentioned freecycling I joined and have got some really nice furniture to put all my baby stuff in, I just have to wait for the builders to build a room to put the furniture in now.

Morning all.

Saw my consultant yesterday and everything is fine - don't have to see him again. and the baby has turned and is head down.

I did put myself on the buddy list but have not ended up with a buddy (sniff sniff)- just call me smole no mates!

Happy birthday Ange.

Happy birthday Ange!!

Can i just ask hellcat - who are you?!

Weather here is very strange today, 5 mins ago wind was howling round the house and rain was chucking it down, now its bright blue sky and looks like summer! Wish it was summer!! And very of all people with coats that do up!! Couple months ago i stopped being able to get middle button done up but could still do top and bottom buttons till i sat down bit quick in dps car and bottom button pinged off!!! And now top button has fallen off somewhere so coat doesnt do up at all. Will sow top button on again when i remember but cant see point in buying coat now that does up as it will have to be so huge to cover bump it will never fir after baby born and only 7 weeks left!

Have also been getting really bad cramp at night. The other night had it badly in right calf and had to get dp to pull my foot up then had it in left leg only in the muscle that runs down the shin so pulling foot up made it ten times worse, had to bend foot inwards which then made ankle agony!! Will definitely be trying tonic before bed now as its getting silly and am left with pain in calf all the next day from it so thanks for that tip er...sorry forgotten who it was!!

Im sure this has been done already while i was away but has anyone found somewhere or posted a really good list of what to pack in hospital bags. i know ive done it twice before and really shouild know by now but i cant remember!! I think ive thought of everything but would be nice to finda really good list to check.

Am on dps laptop at mo as bloody LG failed for the 3rd time yesterday to show up with our new monitor Anyway have laptop on a cushion on my lap and it keeps jumping up as baby is kicking it! He's a strong little thing, he puts a hand on my hip and a foot on my ribs and pushes, think he's trying to make more room for himself!! Bloody hurts though

OMG, eddas where do you live, sorry to sound like a stalker but i did a search on maidstone and your name popped up. I live in maidstone, we might be neighbours