Due April 2008 - new thread for November

[EllieG]

Hello all - new thread here!

blimey soph, that's pretty amazing!!! there really must have been something in the water where you are!

Must be something in the water arond your parts, Soph!

I've just started telling people in our office, and apparently there hasn't been a pregnancy here for nearly 6 years...... the joy of working in Engineering .

Loads of people round me are PG - one with twins in my team, and two other mates in other teams and we're all going to off at roughly the same time, which is nice.

my sil is preg too and is due a few days after me, which is lovely. Without sounding a little bit perverted it does make me feel weird that we were all 'at it' at the same time!

whenever we discuss how close they are due at family events i always feel like everyone is thinkingt the same thing!!!

I have a really nice mamas & papas swinging crib which my DH picked up at a carboot for £20 instead of £100 we have bought a new mattress for it and it looks brand new although I will most likely co sleep with the bub as I did with Max until he was 6 months it work really well for me with him but each child is different this m=one myay like his/her own space!

My SIL is pg as well but 14 weeks ahead of me. On the last round she was 18 weeks behind me!

I've seen different claims (on the Amby) -- my suspicion is "until they can sit up unaided" which is the way with a lot of equipment, but I have seen claims of 9 months which leave me , thinking of what DS was like at 9 months.

Yep, good year for water this year & the island needs to raise its population I´m like you though paranoidmummy I keep looking at my colleagues and thinking we were all "at it" at the same time

My word there has been some real D and M going on here today.

Someone mentioned they were going to use mainly a sling, have you any ideas which slings to use?? I had a baby bjon carrier with DS but he was a 10lber and it knackered my back lugging him around so wondering if the ring slings are any easier to use, does anyone have any experience of them? They used a sling on that programme few weeks back on the 3 theories in the continum group which looked really secure and held the baby in close to your chest does anyone know what make it is? (or even have a clue what Im talking about!!)

I used the hug-a-bub with DS (also a 10lber) which is much more friendly to your back. It was a bit of a faff taking it on and off, though, so after a while we combined it with the Kelty Kangaroo (a carrier a bit like a Bjorn but IMO better for the back) for times when we knew we would be having to put DS in and out of whatever he was in a lot. Then moved on to an Ergo and a Cwtchi when he got too big for the Kelty. Currently have a back carrier although only tend to use that on long walks.

I did very briefly try an over-one-shoulder ring sling but that knackered my back very quickly so abandoned it.

This time around I've already bought a Didymos (well, it was going cheap on MN so it would have been rude not to... ) which strikes me as similar to the hug-a-bub but possibly easier to take on and off.

I did bookmark the continuum concept sling (Close Baby Carrier), hang on a moment... Yup, here it is. I may get one of those as well...

Thats the one i saw thanks so much for the link

What an incredible amount of slings/carriers you have, is it just because they are uncomfortable and you move onto the nest or is it an obsession?

We have back carrier as well for off road walking, thats really comfy but Dh having to do all carrying now as cant wear it comfortably across bump (and DS is getting pretty heavy anyhow). Are any of the slings you have suitable for putting younger babies (obviously not newborns) on your back or are they all from 9 months plus?

denny185 - what´s D and M or am I being completely stupid? (no change there then!)

No its prob just me making my own language up - deep and meaningful

Oh that's OK then. I'm lucky these days if anything coherent comes out of my mouth Most of the students keep giving me funny looks & the 6th Form have learnt not to p*ss me off

I know what you mean, Im not sure I can just blame it on the hormones though, was a bit like it before, but at the moment seem to be thinking about so many things at once, half the time ill be mid sentence and completely forget what i was talking about and go off on another tangent. Poor clients just look at me as if Im mad, nod their heads and go along with it!

Hmm just looked at the hug a bub and that looks really comfy to wear as well - dilema

Just to confuse/enlighten us even more, have you seen this thread?

It's a bit of an obsession...

Also some of them you need to adjust for the size of the person wearing them, and as DH is 6'4" and I'm 5'6" it was always easier to have two on the go, adjusted to different sizes of person, than to be readjusting every time we switched DS from one to the other. Also DH had (gasp!) his own opinions and preferences, so sometimes he liked one sling/carrier and I liked another and it was easier to get both rather than fight about it .

The only one I ever actually abandoned was the over-one-shoulder one. Apart from that we used the hug-a-bub and Kelty interchangeably for the first 7 months or so (it was easier to breastfeed in the Kelty than the hug-a-bub, or at least I found it easier, so that was another reason for selecting one or the other on a particular day) and then the Ergo and Cwtchi after that (DH preferred the Ergo, I preferred the Cwtchi... partly, I'll be honest, because while I ordered the Ergo in navy but it turned up in terracotta and the people were so nice about it that I didn't want to make a fuss, but I don't look good in terracotta, while the Cwtchi was in lovely pretty stripes [irredeemably shallow emoticon]).

Now I've got sucked in to the Hunt For The Perfect Sling -- the Didymos and (potentially) Close Baby Carrier this time round fall into that category. Basically I really really like the hug-a-bub, and it's very comfortable, but it is a bit of a faff. So I am looking for something very similar in terms of feel and support and weight distribution but with a smaller faff factor.

Then there are all the puch-style slings that I haven't even tried but lots of people swear by, and a small part of me keeps whispering "you never know... those might be even better... why not try one, just to see..."

At least all my slings/carriers are in different colours, so I can always claim it's so that I can be a coordinated Yummy Mummy (might work better as an excuse if I looked anything like a Yummy Mummy, admittedly... or if I owned anything that coordinated with terracotta).

You can definitely do a back carry with the Ergo, and I think you can with the Cwtchi, although I don't remember from what age it's recommended (I never had the nerve to try with DS as he's such a wriggler I always thought I'd drop him while trying to get it on).

The Didymos you can definitely use in a back-carry from reasonably young (at least, have seen plenty of pictures of people carrying fairly young babies in it that way) which is one reason I've bought that in my quest for an improved hug-a-bub, as you can't do a back carry in a hug-a-bub. I don't think you can do a back carry in a Close Baby Carrier, either.

Didymos web page

The hug-a-bub and Close Baby Carrier are very similar, I think. The basic differences are (so far as I can see without actually getting my hands on a CBC) that the hug-a-bub is essentially one long piece of fabric and you tie it, whereas the CBC is one fairly long bit of fabric with a separate wrap and has rings at the sides to hold it rather than being tied. I suspect in terms of comfort they are pretty similar.

Lemnoid - LOL at your reasons for wearing some of the slings, teracotta dosent go with much though does it.

I cant believe how many slings there are on the market, just pondering the joys of E-bay, surely if I can get them cheaper I can justify buying more than one

Just realised time, will have to do some work and see next client will catch up on the sling debate later

Thanks smcg & redmonster for the advice on the jeans. It's funny because I just saw a friend today who also suggested citzens of humanity so I think I will try them out.
Paranoidmummy - it must have been so hard when your partner upped and left. I don't know how I'd cope! You should be really proud of yourself. Victoriansqualor, hats off to you too, sounds like you've been through some difficult stuff with exdp. I'm glad to hear you both have such a wonderful dh/dp's now. Smcg: I live in London (fairly central) and don't have a car and I plan to get the bus and when I really need to a taxi. It works out cheaper and I think a car will be more hassle than it's worth. The thing is to try to avoid using public transport at rush hours if you can. Also the tube could be a bit more difficult than buses and taxis as there is not always elevators which is v difficult with a buggy although I plan to bring the baby out in a sling when I don't have to walk too much. On the subject of slings I'm now going to have at all those slings you lot suggested. This might be even harder than the buggy/pram dilemma...

ooo, i'm loving thread baout maternity jeans. I don't like em! Its the only jeans that fit..so will live with em, but its like the 'soft band' at the top isn't quite strong enough to keep the heavy jeans fabric 'up', so am constantly pulling up my trousers.
I have come a bit of a fan of the soft maternity torusers as so comfy but I worry about winter... they might be a a bit cold then!
Any other trouser recommendations gals?

Thats what im like in my under bump jeans it drive me nuts but have some v big topped over the bump ones with an adjustable elastic top (not v flattering if you lift your top up) from moda which are sooo much better.
Other than that Im doing the same as yu and wearing stretchy trousers or tracksuit bottoms slung underneath