May 2017 #10 - To be prepared or not prepared

[RasperryInAMelon]

Here's a link to the last thread and photo updates just incase anyone's looking for anything!

Thread 9

Photo Page - Bump Update

I don't have access to a desktop right now though so can't post the link to the GoogleDrive spreadsheet, but it's a few posts down in the previous thread!

Happy chatting!

I think Teddy is a gorgeous name!
We're thinking Freddie, with Joseph as a middle name. Other halfs great grandad was a Fred, so it will be Frederick on the birth certificate, but Freddie generally. Just banking on us not changing our mind now!

@Tickyboovicki love Freddie! I'm a sucker for old fashioned names on little people. We had so many names for girls; Dorothy, Mable, Pearl... while boys it was Teddy and Dexter. I ended up despising Dexter with a passion for some reason, I think I just had my heart set on Teddy.

@1004Rise I've been getting a severe internal kicking this evening too. Actually made me feel a tad nauseous 🤢

Oopsy... I've still been having my steak medium rare 🙄🤔

@WishIWasSleeping I don't think I could afford to bail £200 a month out of my Mat pay sadly... plus I can start getting vouchers until baby is born on our scheme.

@coxsorangepippin we pool all of our money so that £700 is £350 each basically.

@nursebickypegs how can you return next week? I thought they'd signed you off? If you can't take AL due to sickness then you have to be allowed to carry it over CARRYING OVER LEAVE

I did used to pick her up! She's so bloody diddy!

@peasandquiet I do indeed do HR and I'm sure there would be a more local opportunity but I love where I am which has been a tough find since relocating to a London. I only get SMP as my package there anyway so that makes no odds to me and I don't think we'll be trying for DC2 until this one is 2 or 3 anyway

@nursebickypegs we haven't picked a name yet, decided we'd like to see what she looks like when she arrives first. But, the night we found out it was a girl, DH had a dream and bub was called Molly so that's what we've been calling her, kinda liking it now though...

Molly Cossyra (MILs middle name it's Italian) seems to have a little ring to it...

@RasperryInAMelon I actually wrote "hahahahahaha nope!" on the email the PA wrote to me about to returning! F**k knows what they are playing at. Unison are now taking over, and when I've handed in my notice I'm sending an email to the big big boss as it's frankly disgusting how I've been treated.

My mum can wear cropped jeans and they are normal!! I joke she can wear the baby's jeans when he grows out of them!!!

Love that name, and I love Molly. It's a proper girly name! :)

Glad I've got everyone thinking about steak

Teddy and Freddie are cute!

We are thinking of Elliot.

@Autumnsweater love Elliott! It's perfect for a girl or a boy.

Nurse - love Teddy, and the nickname thing. V v cute ;)

Ticky- what's yours?

Placenta smoothie? Bleurgh!!

Really feel for everyone suffering with SPD and other ailments. Feeling so knackered and nauseous (still) I'm kind of done. 6 weeks more until I finish work and 7 until I'm due to be induced. Given up waiting for the glow. And sick of needing to wee all the time!!!

@nursebickypegs thanks! This one's a boy.

rasperry I do like Molly, what a great story too you have to go for it with that!

We can't afford to start childcare vouchers either, am only getting SMP, actually lying awake thinking about money now . We can afford for one of us to be off for the time but won't be able to have any extras at all.

Such lovely names! Love Freddie and Molly ;)

We'd decided on a name (Marina) only for MIL to ruin it - so... maybe Ruby, maybe Cassiopeia (Cassie), and maybe Briolette. Middle name of Lynne for dead mum.

@Autumnsweater love it! Little Elliott. It's such a distinguished name for boy :)

@Teaspoon74 ugh I know, I make myself sick sometimes

Yes!!! I've just won a nursing chair on eBay! Hallelujah!

Thanks badger & wish feeling fine now other than slightly sore ankle!

Sorry to all suffering badly from SPD, I'm just glad I can still waddle walk to the shops although wouldn't be surprised if it gets worse. I really rate acupuncture (or dry needling my physio called it) for back pain, it sorted me out in 2 or 3 sessions when I had problems post delivery last time and could barely walk.

I had vitamin k injection on birth plan as quite happy for it to be given but they did it while I was still in recovery and according to DH baby screamed his head off DS also had BCG at one day old (in his bum!) savage I'm interested in what you said about distance from the equator is it more or less effective? We live just north of the equator is that good or bad?

yellow glad all ok, and thanks for the placenta smoothie image! I can almost understand encapsulation but blitzing in a blender...

jenny hope you can take it easy this week.

I am already worrying thinking about logistics of childcare etc as want to return to work next year some time once we're back in the uk. It would be long days at nursery or childminder here too as would need to be on a 7.20 train and not back until 6.30 at the earliest. Nurseries round our town don't even open before 8 from what I can see. Going back to work was not an option here as only 16 weeks maternity leave and no flexible working opportunities. Couldn't imagine leaving 4 month EBF baby all day. I can't imagine how people do it in the US after what 6 weeks leave?

I like Elliot it was on my list for DS. I only told my best friend his name pre-birth and this time haven't told anyone our planned name. I think it's because I still can't quite believe we're having a daughter!

Another lover of old fashioned names! We're going for Rupert with Harvey as a middle name if a boy, and Rosie with Mae as a middle name if a girl. I wasn't keen on Rosie initially as it's not unusual enough for my liking, but it's grown on me, and one of the only ones me and DH agreed on. I wanted River or Rayne, but he wasn't impressed with either 😂

We are really struggling names wise this time round. We want something uncommon but not unheard of and easy to spell. I thought we'd agreed on Estelle but DH has.gone off it. We both adore dd's name and are struggling to find another we like as much.

I love Rupert Bright and Briolette Teaspoon. Nice to have a name that stands out from the crowd I think.

Lullaby me and DH stagger pick ups and drops offs, so one of us going in early and then leaves early, and then vice versa. It's the only way we can both do full days at work and DD doesn't have to spend too long at nursery.

esme that's a good solution, along with maybe working from home 1 or 2 days a week if feasible. I have ages to work it all out but it seems like a minefield!

bright Rupert is a cute name & quite unusual. For some reason I like popular names for boys, DS is top 5 I think whereas DD's is probably top 300.

Anyone need some inspiration I was reading this list of top Elizabethan names www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2013/10/most-popular-elizabethan-names.html I think Dorcas is due a comeback? Also this is an interesting searchable database showing trends over time names.darkgreener.com/# (England and Wales only by the looks of it)

I so envy those with names picked. We are really struggling and a girl will be baby pea's for days/weeks as we can't agree on a thing! We have a boy so have already used our fav name, I do have another name I love but husband isn't set on it!
Slept a bit better last night thankfully, not sure I would have been able to function if I'd had another awful night.
Nurse if your not going back to your current job when will you hand your notice in? They should just pay you your accrued AL on resingnation? or is there enhanced Mat Pay that your hanging on for?

To reply to last night'a messages:
I've not got bcg either as they didn't do it when I was younger

We need to sit down and count how much difference it would make financially to have 2 or 3 days of childcare per week. Depending on that, my OH will take a day off in the week and work Saturday instead. I'll go back no matter what but not full time. Just like nurse I need to stay in the job in order to keep my hand in the NHS, and if I were to be a SAHM, I'd not manage financially either. Being a physio is part of who I am, so I need it to stay sane. Well we shall see how I feel about taking our baby to a childminder, but frankly I don't think I have much choice anyway.

We have agreed on names from our family for a long time now and they will be quite old fashioned, but can be abbreviated to suit our child. I really hope we don't have a moment when baby comes out that we think the names might not suit him/ her!

Esme we do the staggered thing too, but with an au Pair, so she does 9.30-4.30. changed a bit now as ds going to nursery mornings in prep for school (starting sept)

Regards childcare vouchers, as esme said, have a look now if you need to sign up soon. There's a new scheme coming in and if you don't sign up to vouchers before that one comes in you can't. Some people will be better off under new scheme and some under the old one. Have a look on money saving expert where there are worked examples.

We haven't got onto names. We have girls from last time but we hadn't agreed (he had one, i had one, there was one we both didn't mind for a middle name) but we narrowed boys down to one name which we used!

Bcg: more effective further from equator www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7795103

Doesn't help if you're considering moving, not sure if it's location administered or location when tb caught, imagine only looks at people who haven't moved.

I don't think you always have to take the maximum voucher value whilst you're on leave.. I'm not totally sure. Also I found out last week that some employers pay for the vouchers once you're down to SMP, some arrange for you to pay it back in smaller increments when you return, and some gift it. My employer also only just found this out too so there is a number of meetings being set up to discuss it before they tell me what they are offering!
I'll be continuing with the childcare vouchers whilst I'm on leave this time as I'm keeping DD in nursery, and we're actually changing nursery to a closer (and way more expensive) one, so it wouldn't benefit me to give them up just yet.

We haven't chosen a name. We used our favourite names on DD, and our favourite boys name seems to have become really popular which puts me off a little. I like a well known 'old fashioned' name that you can shorten, but I don't want three other people in their classes to have the same name! I keep telling DH we need to discuss it seriously, he says 'I know' and then we usually get distracted or fall asleep! ha!

@nursebickypegs my mum still gets away with wearing kids clothes and has size 1 kids feet! 🙈

@Teaspoon74 I literally said to DH this morning how I'm fed up with feeling like I'm going to wet myself every time I bend over 😂

@nursebickypegs good work on the nursing chair! I love sitting in mine when I can't sleep!

@lullaby23 the MW told us that all babies cry with jabs, it's no more comfortable as a baby than as an adult, but possibly less traumatising as they won't remember it. I remember years of working myself up with worry about the BCG.

Some lovely name choices floating around!

@WishIWasSleeping you never have to take the max, it's entirely upto the employee how much to take, but on SMP only anything is a lot to loose when you go from earning £2k a month to £500 😕

Re jabs if they're a bit older (not just born!) You can bf through the jab, or immediately after, which helps a lot. Esp if only one needle (if it's 2 or 3 they normally realise by the second/third!)

Yes, I used to pop DS on the boob as soon as he had this jabs when he was a baby, I was just a bit sad about vit K as I wasn't in the room to comfort him! Now that he's over 11kg they do them in his arm muscle and he doesn't cry any more and they give him a biscuit

Thanks savage I will give it a read. I don't think TB is a high risk in Singapore but we do travel in the region so thought it would be wise to get the bcg rather than decline. I have declined other jabs that the dr has suggested and we're just following the UK schedule as much as is practical.

I don't mind injections, I just don't like blood being taken, nearly fainted the first couple of times I gave blood.

I'm surprised at how many people haven't had bcg was such a big thing in school for us I just assumed everyone got it!

There are some lovely names, I'm impressed some of you are so organised. We are totally useless, we have a "shortlist" of about 20 for a girl and 15 for a boy  We're have a really short surname (4 letters, 1 syllable) so need to have a reasonable length first name. We'd like something that can be shortened because longer names sound too grown up for a baby. There are some really nice Scottish names we like but FIL would either be really confused or would murder them trying to say it. In 15 years we still haven't managed to get him to say loch properly so something like Ruraidh is definitely out!  Baby gets my maiden name as a middle name so that is at least one less decision to make!

@lullaby23 I'm amused at the progression from boob to biscuit for jabs 

@Teaspoon74 glow?!? I think I may have glowed for all of about 15 minutes in January when I stopped being sick but before constant heartburn started. Surprisingly not yet needing a constant wee....

Been googling split rectus abdominus (silly girl) so now worried I'll have an odd shaped tummy afterwards

Great name ideas on here! Wish I could share mine but I promised myself I'd keep it a secret until the birth. I knew long before I got pregnant that it would be my daughter's name - it has meaning for both sides of the family and just works. I hope no one gets put off their choice by family opinions etc, it's a decision that should be made by the parents.