Due in Sept '07 - new thread (ish) until we can think of a good thread name, because we didn't notice the message counter and oops we've run out of room for messages!!! Am lost, here alone, come and find me.. HELLLLOOOOO

[Hopeitwontbebig]

Oooh this bad Boxer has just farted and it STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone hope you are having a good day ?

PLP - sorry you are feeling low - its horrible when you're feeling so tired and can't sleep anyway. Hope you get a chance to put your feet up in the rest of the week. Love the name Amethyst - is that carrying on the purple theme ?

Kinki - do not try and do the garden !! Just say it is an environmental experiment for the local College - encouraging wildlife and wildflowers etc etc. You might start a trend with the neighbours !

We have got all our old baby stuff out of the loft now and just have to wash it all. The pram looks a bit dated but never mind it still works ! I'll get a new buggy when the time comes. I am finding I have to pace myself as get so tired just going up and down stairs or round supermarket. Still getting horrendous heartburn - yuk !

love to all xx

Oh yeah plp, Amethyst carries on your purple theme doesn't it? Should have spotted that. Well that's decided then, Amethyst it will have to be (with nn Misty - that is so cool). In my old house my bedroom was purple with accents of burgendy (yes, I'm from the Lawrence Llwellen (sp) Bowen) school of decorating) and it was the BEST ever room EVER. Didn't get away with it in this house though, got bright sunshine yellow instead.

Well ladies, would you all like to come round and see my fabulous front garden? Yes, I know I shoudn't have, but I've been out there this morning working hard. Dh did the back last week, now we have both looking fab. Still lots of weeding to do on the gravel drive (well cultivation/excavation is more appropriate than weeding) but the rest of it is gorgeous. Fancy a garden party anyone? The neighbour came out to speak to me. She said sorry if she spoke out of turn and she didn't mean for me to start doing it 'in my condition'. I'm not big on confrontation so I just said it needed doing blah blah blah and laughed the whole thing off so to keep the peace. Haven't heard from the diabetic nurse yet, maybe this afternoon.

Toadstool, I like Florence. I met someone once called Flowie short for Florence, and I thought that sounded just lovely. If I was to have a girl I would have gone for Floella as in Play School (showing my age), with nn Flowie. Dh wasn't as keen though.

Chatty, beware with Ryan on your list! I was warned when pregnant with ds2 that all Ryans are cheeky and mischievous. I went ahead with it and they were right! But that's ok, because I like cheeky and mischievous! But you have been warned! I love that name.

laksa - do we all have to go to hospital and get blood taken?! Has anyone else been told this?! seeing mw this afternoon so I guess I can ask!

Laska and ccp, I didn't know about bloods at 28 weeks either, but when I went to my gtt the first thing they asked was 'how many weeks are you?' My answer was 28wk the next day, so the mw said to save me going back to the surgery, she'll take my bloods while I was there. There were 2 lots taken, one for iron levels to check for anaemia and the other one to check for antibodies (don't know if everyone would get that or just if you're negative blood grp). She said bloods at 28 wks were routine and everyone has them. hth. But like you I wouldn't have seen a mw or known about it until 31wks, had I not seen one at the gtt.

I was told by my midwife at the last appointment that the next time I went in (28weeks) she would take more blood, to check iron levels etc. My appointment is next thursday

Kinki i can't believe you did the garden - i still think you should have got the old bag to do it! But a good job done as for the info on ryan i've already got a cheeky mischievious one called Cameron so maybe we should rethink that one any ideas?

i had 28 wk bloods taken but i'm rhesus negative so saw them for anti-d as well. They're also checking iron levels but i told them i'm not anaemic just doing too much!

I had blood tests at my 28 week check with m/w which is when they found I was anaemic and gave me iron tablets. My next appt is tomorrow so wonder whether they will check iron again or if I have to keep taking these tablets as they are causing havoc with constipation etc!

Chatty - love the name Ryan and it goes with Cameron too.

Kinki - v impressed with your "pregnant ground force" well done ! Please sit down now - you are making me feel lazy!

Chatty, my front garden is now so fab, that if the sun comes out, I want to go out and sunbathe in it! Cameron and Ryan sound great together. If you've got one cheeky little fella already, you'll end up with two, so you might as well pick a name to suit him! Seriously though the two names do sound good together. I wondered about Cameron for this one, or maybe Ciaran. What holds me back with these two though is that our sn starts with K, and I'm thinking its a bit too much with the two K K sounds in his name. Maybe we have similar name tastes, here are some other names we have considered: Aidan, Dillon/Dylan, Logan, Max, Leon, Joseph, Jude. Ds1 wants to call him Homer and ds2 choice is Fireman Sam. Anything take your fancy? What else have you come up with?

acmum, I'm sat down now. For a mad, mad moment I did wonder about doing the ironing, but nah, I'm sat down and going to rest until school pick up time! Don't envy constipation. That can make you feel really sluggish can't it? I hope your iron levels are better tomorrow.

I am having a very lazy day today. Just put ds down for a nap, hoping he will have one, and I have just put Supernatural on that I taped at the weekend, have my fix of the gorgeous Jensen Ackles

Kinki - sounds like we do have simular tastes - ds middle name is Joseph and Max and Dylan are on our list! Also Alexander (i quite like Cameron and Alex)and Tyler.

Great minds think alike. I like Cameron and Ryan best, followed by Cameron and Dylan.

Hello all. New to MN (how did I live without it?!) and new to this thread. Just had blood test at 28 wks (now 30 wks) - they tested for antibodies (even though I'm not Rh neg), iron levels and glucose. Wish I'd known about test in advance - I'd just wolfed down a Snickers 5 mins before and now MW says she wants to 'discuss my glucose level when we next meet' .

Cameron and Dylan both on my list - great names! Also pondering Atticus (maybe memories of To Kill A Mockingbird at school?). Nice or just too weird/old-fashioned??

Hello everyone...

Loving the names everyone, Amythyst is cool PLP, and like you said, she could always be Amy if she wants. I do love Irish boys names like Cameron, Ryan Kieran and so on. They always make me thing of little freckle faced cheeky monkeys! Toooo cute!

Not having any children yet, and not knowing anyone with very young children, I don't really know the current trends in childrens names. Tinkjon... Freya is really pretty, but I do understand you don't want your daughter to be one of tens of Freyas in her class.

Flora is really pretty and girlie too, I used to have an American friend when I was little called Flora, she was so exotic, they had stuff like Kool Aid and peanut butter in their house (virtually unheard of in 1970's suburbia surely??) and they talked about things like vacations and trash cans. To me, they were like something out of the movies, so I always think the name Flora is really exotic! I guess I was just starved of stimulation when I was 7 :

Laksa - Genevieve is lovely, really pretty. Slightly French too, but I'm biased because my grandmother's French and I have a French name

Sorry to hear about your GTT Kinki - there is a silver lining though... you've only got less than three months to go now. I hope you can bear missing the chocolate. I must say I'm bloomin lucky, I've been eating so much chocolate, I'm surprised I haven't made myself diabetic! Great job with the front garden though! Do you fancy coming and doing my garden? heheheh!

Good luck with the move Filbrit, see you when you next log on. You can make us all green with envy telling us about the gorgeous weather there. We had the most massive hail storm yesterday, it looked like it had snowed in my road! In July!

RE:28 week bloods.... I had some done the other day, not done by the midwife, but done at the hospital. I think that's because I'm taking part in a pre-eclampsia study and they're doing all my testing (bloods, urine etc) and I think the midwife would have done them if I wasn't in the study. Not sure what they're testing, I think it's quite a lot but that's because of this study, they look at kidney and liver function, iron levels full blood count etc..

PLP - I hope you manage to get some sleep, you poor thing, you sounded so down. I'm down to sleeping about 4-5 hours a night now and I totally know where you're coming from.

One thing that has reeeeeally cheered me up today is I've had my leave confirmed so I can go to France next Friday!! YAY!!! We're only doing Friday to the following Sunday, but it'll be so nice to have a few days to lie in the sun and do nothing, not to mention not being woken up by the sound of pneumatic drills outside my bedroom window every morning!!! That means I only have 15 days left at work (over the next 6 weeks)!!!! I'm sooo happy!

Have a lovely day everyone, take care xx

Kinki respect for doing the garden - you must be nesting in earnest! Also respect for being nice to your neighbour - must have been tempting to put the boot in but you rose above it so well done! I envy your restraint.

MrsMar - great news about your leave!

Am reading the name discussion with interest. I really like Dylan and Alexander. I rather liked Freddie too because it sounded a bit cheeky and full of mischief which, if I have a boy, is kind of how I'd like him to be. Mind you I still really like William as well as he can be Billy when he's little which also sounds suitably naughty. I liked Bruno too but DH vetoed it (I was thinking that if I have 2 boys Billy and Bruno sound cool but I had to abandon that notion).

If I have a girl - still stuck on Emmeline I'm afraid. I think it can be a grown up name but can also be Ems or Emmy when she is a child.

Hi all- all went well at the mw. She did my bloods there - to check iron. Said I didn't need the other as I'm not rhesus something?! Baby has turned and put head down for the first time and bump measured 29 which she said was fine even though I'm just 28 weeks. Will I be a week early if that stays the same?!
She's put mer down for parentcraft classes, though said I can't bring partner as too many of us! Not really sure what difference is between parentcraft and antenatal? One of you will know I'm sure.
Respect on the garden front - my grass is manic but too wet to do! Is that a good enough excuse

kinki- so sorry to hear about your GTT, not again, not fair for you . Well done on the gardening, I'm impressed!

PLP - sorry you're feeling down (((((hugs)))))

I had my GTT test today, they'll phone me tomorrow if there are any problems. I also had my anti-D. So I have lots of marks from needles!

The midwife felt my tummy (she didn't know about my history of big babies) and said 'ooh, big baby!!!!!!!' Here we go again!!! I've got my growth scan in 4 weeks, so we'll see what this 'little' one is doing.

DH and I went to the hospital yesterday for a follow up after his op. His consultant looked at my bump and asked when I was due, bless him, he's brought DH's next op forward. So the date is 18th July. 2 weeks today.

Feeling a bit flat today.. so won't post too much. I think I'm a bit tired, like some of you, I'm not sleeping v well. Was awake at 3:30 this morning, urgh!

CC, Parentcraft and Antenatal are the same thing in my area. Although the name makes parentcraft sound more like how to look after a baby (which I'd have found far more use!) it was purely focussed on labour/birth, with a little bit of breastfeeding info. Utterly useless at doing anything except terrifying you, in my experience

Kinki, I don't think two Cs sound odd together - I actually think it would sound really cool! Re. Ciaran - would it bother you that everyone will spell/mispronounce it? DS1's name (Maia) is like that and whilst it can get annoying, constantly having to correct people, it doesn't bother me enough that I regret choosing it. But it mihgt be something to bear in mind in case it would bother you.

Pennypops, I like William too but as it's a very popular name we are having Will as our choice for boy's name (not that there's anything wrong with popular names of course, just that I grew up with the most common name around at the time and I hated it!) Midn you, all the Williams probably get called Will anyway

Blimey, last time I looked at this there were about 150 messages. I'll never catch up. About the 28 weeks bloods, are you allowed to say no to having them taken? I have veins that are incredibly hard to find as they are almost invisible and it always takes the nurse about five attempts to get any blood out and by the end I'm a shaking sweating wreck. My levels were fine last time I had any taken. I was just wondering and hoping that it might be optional... Wishful thinking?

Hi Rhubarb... I don't know if the bloods are essential, it's your right to refuse any thing I think. You do have my sympathies, I have terrible veins too, having my bloods done last week a student started it off and managed to collapse every vein in my arm, the doc ended up taking it from the side of my wrist, where it's much bonier. V painful and I ended up with a lovely bruise which is still there nearly a week later.

Will is another lovely name Tink...

Gosh you're all being so good with names, so organised. I've only come up with one, Luca, and I'm not sure about how it sounds with our sn. Dh still coming up with comedy names like Thor or Magic (apologies to anyone with a ds called Thor) it's just not my taste, and I told him Magic was a nickname (Magic Johnson) so not allowed. So far all he's come up with (apart from Thor) are the names of sportsmen, including... get this... Baggio, Ayrton, Pele (another nickname) Valentino (Rossi, superbikes champ - apparentlt!) Oh the list is endless. Poor little love is going to end up with a really rubbish name as we're going to be arguing over it until we reach the register office six weeks to the day after his birthday. Hmmm!

Rhubarb, where do you go for your bloods? Is it at your GP's surgery? If so, go to your local hospital's blood-taking department. This made the world of difference for me and now I never go anywhere else. The first time I ever had blood drawn was at GP's - the nurse couldn't take my blood and I ended up bruised from wrist to elbow (no exaggeration) and she said I had really difficult veins and she sent me to the hospital's blood dept. instead. I said to the phlebotomist there "apparently I have really difficult veins" and she replied "nonsense, we don't have time to mess around like that here" and she did it within seconds with no fuss whatsoever and it's been the same ever since. Because it's all they do, day in day out, they are experts at it and don't mess you around like some nurses or mw's (though no offence to those of course!)

Hi MrsMar and Tinkjon, thanks for replying. My antenatal appointments are at my GPs so that's where my blood is taken too. When I was expecting DS I had one lot taken at the hospital and as far as I remember it was a lot easier and quicker, very odd but I had forgotten about it until you suggested it. I think I will ask if it's possible to have it done there instead. Thanks again.

Hi all - just a quickie for Rhubarb. I completely agree with Tinks comments on this - twice now my community midwife has left me with whacking great bruises on both arms where she tried and failed to take blood. And she blamed my veins too. It hurt - quite a lot actually when she was digging the needle around. On both occasions I then went the phlebotomist who took the required blood so quickly and painlessly I didn't realise the needle had come out again.

Really put me off my midwife actually.

Another vote for the phlebotomy department of your hospital from me!!! When I was ttc I was sent there by the assisted conception unit for all my hormone bloods and they're brilliant, real experts at getting blood painlessly!