Due Jan 2008 - Jingle Belles and Boys are on their way

[susiemj]

Hello!

Hello hello one and all and merry christmas to everyone! Wow! Congrats to Amani and Louise FJ and thinking of you Awen... such exciting times! It's come around so fast for us all at least it feels that way to me. It doesn't seem 5 minutes ago we were all just starting off...

I haven't posted for well ages and ages but I've done my best to keep up. Although I'm not due for 2.5 weeks, I now feel ok about the arrival as we FINALLY (after nearly 12 weeks) have heating and hot water in our house. It's been a long long slog but worth it. It's a great christmas gift to not be wearing my feather puffa coat from when I get up to when I go to bed. That wasn't any fun at all.
Anyway... am off to wrap the few presents I've managed to buy and eat some chocolate but just wanted to send lots and lots of love and hugs to everyone xxxxxxx

Happy Christmas Eve to you all! And big congrats to LouiseSJ, welcome to the world little Ffion!
Amani congrats to you too!! welcome little Amani, delighted to hear such a fantastic birth story, and good going with the B/F....
Well i'm now sitting down at PC having done cleaning, cooking, washing etc and i'm knackered! (although feeling secretly a bit smug too!)
Ta for the info, madmouse, made dh read "the book" last night about ECV and stuff, he's like me, would rather we went for a section than a vaginal breech delivery but will see if baby has turned or can be turned first!
Anyway, got my mum in the morning tomorrow, in laws arriving at about 12 and dinner set for about 5ish, so i might not get a chance to pop on, but if not then big hugs to Awen, and the rest of your family!! Hope you get the Christmas you want, honey
Lots of love to everyone, and in the words of Mr Dave Allan, "may your God go with you" and if you have none, then enjoy the food and the telly! Peace and love to all... lolo xx

Evening all

Manage to feel a bit Christmassy even though Christmas cards are the only decorations in our house (our lovely six foot artificial tree does not fit in our lovely small house, well it doe but then we don't .

Dug out the bread maker and made some lovely proper stollen, with home made almond paste instead of marzipan that Brits think should go in there! All dusted with sugar it is now waiting to be tasted as soon as our dinner has sunk far enough!

My birth plan is now out of my head (and sleepless nights) and on the computer, done it together with DH who has a great feel for making it easily readable and understandable. I think it is a good one, focussing on the few things that we find really important rather than on how we expect the birth to go. DH said i did not say much about labour itself. No, because I have no clue what it is like, yet! .

Just opened a present from a friend, she has given me a midwifery kit for a midwife in Burkina Faso, ace, best Christmas present ever . She has also chrocheted a beautiful shawl for lo.

Enjoy your Christmas everyone, let others do the hard work. I will be on here probably tomorrow afternoon.

killing time until we wander down to Midnight Mass - am looking forward to belting out a carol or two. Contemplating whether or not I have time to make a v last minute Christmas cake, or whether I should just do some more organising/cleaning etc.

sabinar.. you sound like you are nesting how exciting!

Sabinar, how about sitting comfortably and eating a mince pie instead?
Would like midnight service, but our church is miles away and we need to get up on time to travel to our new parish for morning service. Can't do it!

Merry Xmas everyone. Enjoy your day. . Thanks once again for the well wishes.

Still no name decided and will put pictures up shortly.

Morning all and merry christmas. Bizarre night here. DH has some sort of allergy and we can't figure it out. Between him sneezing and sniffing and lo using me as a bouncy castle and having endless hiccups we were both awake from 2.30 til 7.30 this morning. Then had some breakfast in bed and promptly fell asleep. i woke up at 10.45 just in time to phone our new parish vicar that we would not make it . As we woke up too late for all the local services that means no church this Christmas . How unbefitting for a future minister and his wife . Have a headache now, not surprising.

Well, will be back on and off. Lets see if Awen has posted something elsewhere.

Morning ladies and a very merry christmas. Looks a bit like ToysRUs in our front room at the moment
Got lots of lovely things and the turkey is smelling yummy. Im hungry as per usual.
Think baby likes mince pies. He goes potty after Ive eaten one.
Well thats about it for now.
Have a good day all xxx

Happy Christmas everyone

Just had a gorgeous Christmas dinner, and naughty naughty - a glass of red wine! .

Hope everyone is having a lovely day!

happy christmas everyone!

we've had a lovely albeit quiet Christmas Day s far - made it out to midnight mass for a little carol singing last night which was lovely, then up fairly early this morning to make Christmas calls to family who live in other parts of the world, followed by an exceptionally leisurely present opening session - I think we managed to string it out to about 2 hours, between a few phone calls and generally mucking about - and that's just with two of us! (and not really that many presents). I got some great PJs, a lovely robe and some perfume from DH - bless. He seemed to like the pressies I got for him too! yay!

Since then - we've gone into a bit of a nesting frenzy and have started doing all the things we've been putting off the last couple of days - the birth pool is up and filled and just heating up now - might be able to test it out this evening! The house is starting to look somewhat less chaotic and my list of all the things that I really wanted to do (but suspected I may not get around to) is actually starting to be checked off... incredible.

Gosh - I hope this doesn't mean the LO is planning on making an appearance soon. I could so do with a couple of weeks of just enjoying this level of organisation and not having anything to do!

Hope you're also having a great day!

Managed to get through the night. Woke throughout night and ds came in with his santra pressies at 6am. Am getting strong pains every 4 minutes now. Managed to cook xmas dinner tho. They are really stopping me in my tracks now. Not sure am going to make it to tomorrow without going in. Glad made it till now tho.

wow Awen, you are such a trooper, I am well impressed. Looking forward to hearing good news from you v soon!

Awen, I thought you were in hospital - well, sounds like you will be soon!! . I hope that when you get there you are at least 8cm dilated, you deserve it .

Sabinar, I am steadily making my way through drawers and ward robes, to sort and tidy. Used to get this before AF, DH used to go into hiding when he saw all the cutlery lined up in the drawer all facing the same way up. Not much more to do for lo, except order a push chair soon. No birthpool here, if I would have one I would have no space to move around and I think I need that more, besides, I am not a water baby anyhow. Will try a bath in labour (normally shower - can you tell i am not British? .

Gonna put the duck in the oven soon. Yum.

naetha, I hate to disappoint you, but is one glass of wine really that naughty? .

Madmouse - one glass isn't, but the second glass I'm about to have is

oooh Naetha, me too !

Merry Christmas all !

had a good day here too, ds up at 6.30 so not too bad, managed a 45min nap without too much complaint, fire going all day, yummy dinner with ds at 5ish, and he went to bed without a murmur - knackered!
good pressies from dh too
just a shame about the rain all day, would have been nice to get out for a bit.
in-laws here tomorrow, then my parents for a couple of days, so last peace and quiet until they all leave.
36 wks today - 1 more week then baby can come, hooray!!!

awen - best of luck hun.....

pains now more like 6 minutes apart although did have a very stressy moment with ds1 (overtired boy up since 5am ) Not convinced this is really progressing yet.

eh, our birthpool appears to have sprung a leak so having just about gotten it up to temperature we're now emptying it and getting a new liner delivered tomorrow. Eh, most annoying. I did give it a couple of test drives today though and it was delicious. We're thinking of permanently installing one in the dining room

Have started washing all the clothes for the LO having finally constructed the cupboard we got from Ikea for his stuff... my laundry room looks like it's been over run by dolls - sooo tiny! Tomorrow - more nesting, I think - featuring the preparation of meals for the freezer!

Wow Sabinar, you are really at it . I managed a few drawers yesterday. Would like a wardrobe for lo but no space. At the moment all his clothes live in plastic boxes. They may have to stay there until we move in June. Still thinking of a creative solution.

How annoying about the pool, not what you want. Glad you like it though. having one permanently in the dining room? Does that say anything about the size of family you are planning?

Awen, how/where are you?

lol @ madmouse. I think we'll wait and see what this whole labour and birth thing is like before we start thinking more about the potential size of our family I do have to say though that I've enjoyed pregnancy much more than expected, so at the moment the thought of having a tribe does cross my mind... I'm sure reality will kick in when LO arrives tho! (if not shortly before!)

funnily enough, the wardrobe solution we've come up with for LO is actually an Ikea contraption that is essentially about five plastic boxes stacked on top of each other - so nothing too glamorous or 'nursery-ish' - I think it's going to be v practical though and it's given us a lot more space!

eh. Boxing Day. A very late start today and wondering what might be on the agenda... nice day out - might have to go for a bit of a walk I think!

Wow, this must be the record for quietness on here .

Am very of those with nurseries to decorate etc. Drawers full of car and insurance papers are not half as satisfying in terms of nesting .

yes, it is super quiet in here, isn't it! I wonder if anyone is off having their baby right now!

we've managed to install the new pool liner and refilled it today - now just waiting for the temperature to get above 30 degrees (which is the coolest that I can handle it) before getting in for a dip! Can't wait. I am going to get so much use out of this pool in the coming weeks - I can see that now.

Have a couple more loads of baby stuff to wash before that's all done and put away... although we don't really have a nursery as such, he now has his very own cupboard... it really feels like he's going to be coming to live with us soon!

Much less exciting has been a complete kitchen re-organisation... there were cupboards full of stuff I've forgotten all about that are now clean (and mostly empty!). That was not particularly fun nesting, but I feel v good for having done it.

How many of those drawers did you get through today MadMouse?

Hello lassies,
I'm just about here, but I'm super duper tired. Feel envious of you nesting! I think I might have some kind of virus now - I was conscious ofmaking some very strange noises while i was napping just now! The back of my throat / nose seems to have swelled up. Oh well!

Does anyone else's bump feel sore? Mine feels kind of bruised..

Sabinar - I am slacking. have only done one . Did smuggle some baby clothes in with the washing though, he won't be wearing it for a while, but i cannot resist .Have put his cute Miffy growbag ready in the moses basket (under a dust sheet) and keep on picking it up to look at it. It is getting more real. For thefirst time, the idea of labour is getting a bit daunting .

Susie, aw, that sounds horrible. i hope it goes away quickly. I hate waking myself up with strange noises. Lots of tea, lemon and honey.

My bump is not sore all the time, but when i get in and out of bed all my tummy muscles scream, and my B-H contractions are starting to hurt. And when babe is particularly bouncy (ie 22 hours a day on average) I hear some clicking sound (a bit like a cracking finger joint) coming from my ribs . Nearly there, hu.

Hello all - very quiet here today!

Having a lovely chilled out Boxing Day though . My bump definitely feels bruised quite a lot of the time, as does my back, and my ribs! Definitely won't be sorry not to be pregnant any more!

Should be going into the hospital tomorrow for another growth scan and assessment, where they'll work out how big he really is, how ready he is to make an entrance and anything else to do with that. I can't say I wouldn't look forwards to an induction, I am so uncomfortable at the moment.