Due Jan 2008 - watch those pumpkin bumps grow!

[Amani]

hello!!!

MrsMc here it is just for you....

I estimate it will work for all of ermmm 10 mins before I collapse under the pressure.

I am sooooo anal sometimes.

GOALS
· To keep on top of the housework
· To cook fresh meals at least 4 times per week
· To keep on top of bills
· To start to lose weight
· To start to be more healthy to keep up with the demands of two young children
· To make an effort with my appearance
· To take up a hobby
· To do different things with the kids/family

HOW ? to keep on top of the housework
· Wash up as things are used, or definitely before going to bed
· Designate 3 days out of the week for clothes washing
· Hoover 3 times per week
· Bathroom cleaned every other day to include: toilet, sink and floor
· Polishing once a week
· Curtains washed every 8 weeks
· Bed covers washed and changed every 2 weeks

HOW ? to cook 4 fresh meals a week
· Get baba to show me some of the meals that Shaz likes
· Take a cookery class as part of new hobby
· Get Shaz to open his mind to new things

HOW ? to keep on top of bills
· Invest in laptop and internet
· Daily monitoring of accounts
· Create schedule of payments
· Make all relevant payments each Friday
· File immediately
· Keep spreadsheet of all payments made and when

HOW ? to lose weight and improve energy levels
Exercise
· 30 minutes two days a week in the gym (Bike/Treadmill)
· Walk as much as possible, try to achieve 1 mile per day (Walthamstow market)
· Bellydance dvd one day per week
· Lilia dvd 3 times per week (just one workout)
· Use Semiha?s bike on the days I do Lilia DVD to one half hour programme.
Diet/Eating
· Healthy snacks, fruit, carrot sticks etc
· Small portions
· Substitutes e.g. lasagne/chips = lasagne/salad
· 2 treats per week: small treat, chocolate bar: medium treat, cake/real coffee
· 1 large treat per fortnight: Take Away / Eat Out
· Keep diet diary with pictures again ? worked well last time
· Drink more water

HOW ? to make an effort with my appearance
· Brush hair/blow dry hair etc
· Wear make up
· Lose the weight / wear nice things
· Get eyebrows done regularly
· Shave / wax regularly
· Haircut every 8 weeks

HOW ? to take up a hobby
· Cheap / free evening class
· Cookery
· Join a book club

HOW ? to do things with the kids or as a family
· Try to go swimming once a week
· Baby / toddler group once or twice a week
· Try to go to the park / have outdoor time (actually playing not just walking) 3 times per week
· Try to set aside special time with just Sami (messy play, reading a book)
· Once a month go to play centre at the weekend as a family
· Once a month special lunch / dinner out as a family
· Once every 8 weeks night / day without kids for me and Shaz

TARGETS
· Breastfeed for one month at a time
· Get Sami into a good bedtime routine with story
· Feel in control by Sami?s birthday
· Be a size 12 by August (1 / 2 dress sizes)
· Be a size 10 by Christmas 2008

LONG TERM GOALS
· Back to work plan
· Learn to drive
· Own our own home by the time Sami is 5

BACK TO WORK PLAN
· Look for jobs locally
· Ideally within school, hospital or doctors
· Aim to start with part time hours unless 100% happy with all aspects of childcare
· Look for something with some progress as will go full time eventually
· Start looking from September 2008
· Try to secure at least £750 per month
· Begin to draft CV from now before leaving DTZ

Mixed mama - My mum is Turkish origin too.. I have a son who is now 3 years old.. I am married to an English man for 5,5 years and live in Surrey. Where abouts do you live?

Neuro ? yours sounds like my kind of plan

MM I am seriously impressed by your list/life plan ? and feel like a total slob by the way I was nodding my head to your goals (missing out the one about 2 kids) until I got to take up a hobby ? wow, you are an ambitious lady! As to the ?how? hoover 3 times a week? Bathroom cleaned every other day? Curtains washed every 6 weeks? Oh my goodness ? I am a slob I hoover twice a week (I have 3 cats) and do the bathroom twice a week but I don?t think I?ve even considered our curtains in the last 3 years I do like a clean bed and towels every week though! For a minute I thought Baba was the baby ? seriously impressed by acquired culinary skills in the womb I am pretty anal about paperwork and have two plastic folders one for filing (which I do every 4 weeks) and one for pending. Works for me very impressed by all the intended exercise too!

Currently my aims are to do:

5 x pelvic tilts x 3/day
5 x stabilising exercises for lower abs x 3/day
5 x pelvic floor contractions x after going to the loo
Squats for 5-10 mins x 2/day
Leg care ? pulling feet up & down at ankles, circles, alternate knees up and down.

But I often don?t

Not doing very well on the keeping up front. Am having a bit of an ebay week this week trying to get things for baby.

I have to say wow mm what an impressive list though, go girl !

Have seen midwife too and all well. Can't believe she saying she is making an appointment now for someone to come and do risk assessment ans then they will discuss bringing their things to our house at next visit.

Hope everyone plodding along, am with you all on lack of sleep! Would give anything for a full night!

Evening all, sorry mrsmc - reomve photo viewing when not logged in (am precious over ds). Will put them back up when on tomorrow. GLad MW went well.

Hope all is well with everyone. xx

Morning all!

Mrsmcjnr - Your rings sound fab, must be lovely to have your grandmothers diamonds. Glad MW appt went well...do you have th ebackache all the time? x

Naetha - yum to your roast dinner!! I should check out the dec thread too...see whats to come!

Neuro - thats my kind of plan!

Sabinar - Enjoy Barcelona, when do you fly? x

Mixedmamma - seriously impressed with your list...think mine will be slightly less ambitious i think lucky enough to have a cleaner though, so thats takes care of the "big" clean each week..so just general tidying up after me and babybel. MIght be with you on the hobby though, but that might depend on how good the "mum" network is around my way?...Was reading in the paper this mng that the first year of first time mums life is the lonelyist (Sp?)..makes sense, but will try to bucky the trend!

Hope everyone is well....thinking of you fruitful! Where is barristermum? Is she away? Memory is pants at the moment.....
xxx

Morning all,

Lilyloo - what have you bought from ebay (just seeing if I have missed something out!). Actually went on yesterday to look for any breast pumps and got side tracked with ghd hair straighners (want the new MK4 - but £100!)

How is everyone else?

Didn't barristermum have her big trail on around now...?

Good morning everyone

well, I had another pretty good sleep last night so v happy with that. Weird dreams tho'. DH & I drinking tequila and carrying guns in a bar in NY. We were hanging out with Patrick Swayze. What the ?!

I have a mountain of work to get through today, but also have to head out to get a flight to Barcelona this evening (yay!) so that should focus the mind. My lovely midwife dropped around with a letter saying that I'm allowed to get on the flight, which hopefully I won't need, but is good to have (and required now apparently). She also dropped off a few DVDs that look a little scary (as in, about the whole birth thing scary). Not sure if we'll take them with us for holiday viewing or save them for our return.

MM's post-baby list is absolutely inspiring. I am beyond impressed and also know that it is completely beyond me. I'm not even going to tell you how often I hoover.... it's not good. Gets a bit embarrassing sometimes when I'm doing pilates here and doing some floor work and I can see the dust bunnies everywhere! blush

I guess I should probably get my act together when LO arrives though (either that or take Beller's approach and hire a cleaner, which I'm certainly not adverse to! I'm so not one of those people who thinks that no one else can clean as well as them - quite the opposite in my case!)

I have just agreed to speak at a conference at the end of March next year, so a lot of my efforts will be just at hopefully making sure that I'm back together again by then! (And somehow have a plan for getting us all to the US and back on flights). LO will be getting his passport much earlier than I ever did, that's for sure.

Anyways,.. enough from me. I have to go get this work done so I can go on holiday! Hooray!

lol at Sabinar's dream .

Have a lovely time in Barcelona!

Had a good nights sleep last night too, so bouncing off the walls today!

Enjoy Barcelona Sabinar.

My plan is complete and utter theory... if you actullay saw my house you would understand why I actually need a plan, altho i am forever doing these and rarely sticking to them. But hopefully my good intentions will mean that I actually achieve a few..... for the record, my curtains have never seen a washing maching to date.

Pingu - I am in East london.

Beller... are you coming for curry next week?

Sabinar - Safe flight!! Very of your trip!...enjoy, and I would definately save the dvd's til you get back

Mixedmamma - Its next friday isnt it? Yes im there!! Luuuurve curry! xx

My cleaner is my mates mum! It started when my mate was living with me..then when she bought her own house..her mum asked if i wanted her to stay on! She does the cleaning and her dad does the garden! Plus she cleans waaaaaaaaaay better than me..she is a complete monica (if a bit older! hahah),and actually likes it! Did think whether I should cut back while im off work, but the more I think about it..id rather cut back on other areas

Yep next friday...

I wish I had a cleaner... altho my flat is so teeny DH would just laugh at me. My mum does come round sometimes and clean for me tho, she is such a gem.

with anyone with a cleaner....

I usuaully spend 2 hours Sat morning doing the whole house, but trying not too stress about mess too much now (although it's a little hard as I'm sure I've been influenced by my mum's OCD habit).

Yeah i always tend to do it all on a satu morning... want to try doing a bit each night tho so sat can just go out.

So whos coming next week mixedmamma?

Wish I was.....

List is:

Beller
Nicky6 - alltho dont think she has been on for a bit so got to get that confirmed.
Mixedmama
Battymama
Cressida - not sure if she was on this thread or dec, need to track her down.

Unfort Gingeme and Barristermum cant makeit this time.

Morning all
Just a few questions for you ladies....

1. When are you planning on leaving work for maternity leave? I'm hoping to get to December 17th when I'll be 36wks - but starting to feel knackered already

2. Also how much weight have you all gained? I jumped on the scales and was shocked to find a sudden weight gain of 1 and 1/2stones!!! Am 28wks today and starving

Morning ladies FILTHY dreams last night including one about Nathan Petrelli from Heroes. I didn?t even realise that I thought he was attractive but I clearly did in my dream DH was not impressed when I told him, got jealous that I was dreaming about other men

Hey Lilyloo ? must have been so exciting to start talking about the home birth

FrankAwen ? totally understand about the pics

Beller ? thanks hon, re the backache, most of the time it is just a discomfort that I am aware of but at night time it can be agony. I have a cleaner too. She does a few hours on a Tuesday and then all I have to do is the loos and a quick hoover later on in the week, it?s a godsend. I totally agree, when your baby is born is not the time to cut back on the cleaner. I was on an economy drive last year and was going to axe the cleaner but my Mum went mad and said I needed to keep my spare time my own and not spend it all cleaning like I used to so the cleaner stayed. I am really lucky; she only charges me £12/hour. She also cleans all our neighbours? houses and her brother cleans our windows once a month village living hey! Most of my friends with kids have fabulous social lives, they are always at something, baby massage, baby music etc etc they are all so disappointed when they have to go back to work and miss out good point, where is Barristermum.

Amani ? LOL at you on eBay. Glad you slept well.

Hey Sabinar ? love the dream I?m trying to get out of speaking at a conference in March and mine is local we need to get Beanie a passport for the family hols to BVI in April I really hope I look half decent in a bikini again by then! Have a wonderful time and leave those DVDs at home!

MM ? I don?t feel so bad now

of those going to Barcelona!

I used to live there for a couple of years in my youth. Most of what I used to get up to is not very pregnancy friendly though !!!

ooo shall i post the pics again mrsmc as you are on. I am going to read up on thread now as well and I have just started one in pregnancy as had a bit of a silly panic last night.

pics posted now.

Mrs McSpooky - Excuse my ignorance but where is BVI? I took my pictures off as I had logged out of MN. Are you on-line for a while? If so, I'll change my public setting.

PinkElephant - leaving work on 7th Dec (just over 7 weeks away and counting) - due date 30th Dec, but aiming to have LO on 22nd Dec!

I've put on 2 stones

What's the matter Awen?