First-timers this year . . .

[TJuice]

I was just wondering how many are there of us . . .

I am due end of June and love my antenatal thread as there is so much good advice there but thought it may be nice to share a little with others who are new to this whole thing too.

Anyone interested?

Ah, nice to see a few more first timers around. Although Kaz makes me Want my little bubba out now. That said, needs rather more cooking before my ickle ickle bean is ready!

Saurus, you do post the funniest messages. The teletubby window idea is very amusing. Although i guess seeing the baby daily would sort of take the suspense away. Plus, if it looks so happy in there, and people can Coo at it, it'd be tempting to leave it in there, haha, or at least pop it back in when i need a break & Be able to keep an eye on it!

Hello people - another first-timer here, 32 weeks now. Most of the time I'm feeling pretty well prepared as most of my friends have had babies in the last couple years and familybabies are popping out too - last December my MIL had no grandchildren despite muttering for 20 years on the subject - now #3 grandson is due any day and I'll be supplying #4 grandson around Sept! #1 is 7 months and #2 7 weeks.

saurus - I feel quite tellytubbyish too.

Actually, my body seems to be preparing me for the baby by turning into a giant baby - I need to eat every 2-3 hours, sleep 16 hours a day, cry for no reason quite a bit, my skin is really sensitive and only wants to wear very soft clothes, I need to sit with a straight back and wind myself regularly, and just for a bit of overkill, I have SPD and can't roll over in bed, just like a baby.
On the plus side, my complexion is as good as a baby's too!

Being a mammal is stupid. I think marsupials have it made - give birth when the baby is only 2 inches long, and then as it grows older you can at least take it out of the pouch when it gets too heavy. And kangaroos have a great big tail to help them get around. I could really do with a kangaroo tail to get me on and off the bus. No-one in south London would bat an eyelid...

What a great start to the morning - images of us with tellytubby windows and/or big kangeroo tails - I've got a big smile on my face today now!

Have a good day everyone

Z.x

Plus, you could smack queue jumpers with the tail... Could make getting a seat awkward, though. Don't you just LOVE it when people give you their seat? My mate Kate, who is 3 weeks more pregnant than me, has moved to New York and even hardened New Yorkers give up their subway seats for her now.

Woo - 24 weeks today! Go baby Saurus! As a treat, I bought her/him a babygro, a t-shirt and two pairs of socks yesterday while having a moment in H&M - pink socks with crocodiles and lions on: is there anything better? Dunno if it's a girl or a boy, but it's damn well going to wear these fine pink socks.

Baby Saurus has mostly celebrated by moving upwards and crushing my lungs and stomach. Good baby, be nice to mummy. Probably a good thing in that it's stopping me eating as much and forcing me to improve my posture, but it's not so good for playing the clarinet.

TMI question time:

Does anyone else have the leaky boob thing going on? I do! Is it supposed to be happening this early? Ewwwwww.

Also, I haven't put weight on (much) round my arms and waist, but I can't get my bum and thighs into any normal or maternity trousers and shorts. Does anyone know a good place to buy size 16-18 or maternity shorts? They used to be 14s but I don't care, I'm boiling to death here and need to get cooler, fast! Have tried Next, Topshop (hah!), New Look, H&M etc and nothing. Are pregnant and larger women not allowed shorts?

JoJoMamanBebe has black shorts in the sale for £9 (£8.10 with MN discount)! Will see if they fit my enormous botty. Will cry lots if not. Yeah, I know, black in this heat, but maybe I can wear them for work in the autumn with tights or leggings...

Also, Braxton Hicks - good name if it's a boy? Am out of ideas on baby names and everyone on this thread to have their babies so far has picked AMAZINGLY cool names.

God help me but this woman who bought practically nothing before Kez was born has gone mental in the sales and now has a room full of pink stuff she does look cute in it though even if I do say so myself :D

ruth and notcitrus - you cracked me up!

i so should be in bed right now - dh is doing first shift but its lovely getting a bit of time alone. make the most of it now, ladies!!

Elodie is generally pretty chilled but she had a strange ballistic episode earlier and i had to flip around in my pile of books (instruction manuals) to find a settling technique, which incidentally totally worked (on tummy, on pillow, with dummy, head to side, pat rhythmically on back, 1 pat per second).

still trying to get used to the idea that i am a mum. i still feel very un-mum like but elodie has really grown on me, to the point where even when i do get "time off" for good behaviour, i miss her and think about her.

i think i may keep her, after all!

ruth - i really liked Joel if i had had a boy. But Braxton is damn cool. also, i pretty much just wore yoga pants at the end of my pregnancy and am still wearing them. i got cut-off yoga pants with soft stretchy waists from Top Shop and Zara.

Tjuice! Great to hear from you! Glad things are going well and good to hear that she's a keeper . Liking the yoga pants - although is actually too warm for clothes today. I was doing okay in the heat and then had a cup of tea so am now big and sweaty again.

Joel is good and would work with the surname. Hmm. Mental note to put on names spreadsheet when I get home... *

Got to go - apparently work want to pay me for doing something other than Mumsnetting. Weird.

*I know, I know, but it's the only way I can remember anything these days. You should see the Xmas shopping spreadsheet - it's colour-coded and everything .

Saurus,

i bought some Thai style short things for £9 for Zara, Soooooo soft as cotton and Modal, and massively stretchy waist at top. not sure if from their pregnancy section or not, but VERY comfy!!

Zara has a pregnancy section? I'm there! Have resorted to wearing slightly too short t-shirt dress to work today as I cannot face wearing jeans in this heat.

Is being out of breath when you're sat at your desk doing nothing (or Mumsnetting, as it's also known) a bad sign? It's my last day at work for 4 weeks and I'd hate to spoil it for everyone by fainting or something rubbish like that.

Maybe i should rephrase that, Zara do a FEW pregnancy Garmets. Well at Least they do in the Brighton Store (and thats not even a particuarly big one!) there is no signs or anything, i just picked something up one day and it said something about pregnancy, then i realised the jeans next to it had stretchy pannels- Bingo- pregnancy section found.

One of my friends, much further along than me has had a few troubles breathing & Breathlessness, she has a small Torso, and there isn't much baby room.... perhaps its the same for you. her doctor isn't worried, just told her to take it easy.

Someone at work told me that if I was feeling breathless I should go for a bit of a walk (!) but it did seem to work. I had forgotten that exercise was supposed to be beneficial .

Anyway, I am now going home for 4 weeks so will pester y'all slightly less - have a lovely summer hols if you're going anywhere nice (or even if you're not) and remember to make them bring you drinks with LOTS of ice, and no way are you lifting those heavy bags in this heat, young ladies.

Anyone going to Summer Sundae in Leicester this year - see you there and let's hope there's not much of a queue for the loos, eh?

Right - I'm off to pack my desk up

Hope everyone still with a bump is not suffering too much from the heat.

I am over the moon cos I have been getting great big beaming smiles from Kezzy for the last couple of days (deffo not wind ). On the down side only way I can regain the use of both arms is to let her sleep for a short while on her tummy only doing it when I can be in the room but Suppose I survived it I was always a tummy sleeper but that was before all the back to sleep cot death prevention stuff and I don't smoke and am breastfeeding so the risks are probably low anyway. But still you worry don't you.

Hi Kaz, remember all that stuff that they tell you about food when you're pregnant? And the "no alcohol at all" warning that has no basis in research or fact but the GMC just thought sounded less confusing than the "1 unit a couple of times a week maximum"? Maybe the stomach-sleeping thing is more bet-hedging. As you say, you don't smoke, you're breast-feeding and you're doing all the other millions of things you're supposed to be doing so I bet that's just fine.

Names - anyone else think ?Tallulah? sucks as a name? My lovely MIL pulled a right face when she asked if we had any name ideas, but I don't want to give it a terribly polite name. This kid is very likely going to be short, crap at sports and needing glasses, unless it takes after the so-far long-lost supermodel side of the Saurus family, so it?ll need a name with a bit of pizzazz...

Some of the wonderful baby names from this thread:

Keziah
Elodie
Charlotte
Cecily
Angharad

Hey ? hang on a mo ? is there something going on? No-one?s had a baby boy for ages, unless I?m very much mistaken?

Who?s due next?

Is anyone due sooner than me? I'm 36 weeks this week and am ENORMOUS!! You can feel how much water I'm retaining in my bump, it feels like a beach ball!

My mum and dad are telling me off for going to a festival last week, but I refuse to be sorry! I'm not sure what danger they thought I was in. The hospital was about 20 miles from the site and I got loads of good food and fresh air and didn't have to cook or wash up for days! Plus baby excitable got to listen to lots of cool music.. not sorry, don't care, so NER!!

I'm having trouble with boys names too - so hard to strike that balance between unusual and sounds-like-a-right-tosser...

ruthosaurus the tummy lying is because they can over heat on their tummy which they believe is a factor in cot death not that worried really she is ok;y doing it to sleep during the day over night she is happy on her back as long as I am there

re Tallulah it's one of my friends daughters middle name means running water I think love it it's not common but not too unusual either reminds me of the Buggsy film "her name is Tallulah...."

Excitable if you had a good time at the festival then sure it did you good am sure. You are an adult you weighed up the risks don't worry about it. I did things in my pregnancy my Mum worried about too.

Had Kezzy weighed for the first time in 2 weeks and she has put on over 1lb she is now 7lb 15 1/2oz thought she was bigger she has certainly been feeding for England including 2 nights of up every 2 hours I hope that was just a growth spurt and will stop she was going 4+ over night

Tallulah was on my names list!

But I kept going on and off names - I liked it, then my brother said that it sounded "hooker-ish" . . .

How are you ladies? packed your hospitals bags yet? Got everything ready???

Been shopping with stepmum who got me some HUGE Cath Kidston-esque pyjamas from Per Una and a Black dressing gown from Debenhams for the hospital. I'm freaking out in a tiny way cos the house is not at all ready for a baby and I saw a news item about premature babies and thought - "Shit, I'd have to keep it in a drawer!" but then realised that if it was born this week it would be 26 weeks and therefore in the hospital for AGES before we brought it home, poor little mite.

I am going to put my foot down about Tallulah - it rocks! I know what you mean, TJuice, and I think that may have crossed my MIL's mind as well...

My bathroom is done, apart from the painting, and Mr Saurus is going to help with the high up and low down bits of that next week. I was going to do it this week but I've been visiting my poor grandma who came off her mobility scooter on a sharp bend (the nutter) and is in the hospital with a lot of bruises and a cracked pelvis, poor thing. Mind you, she's now well enough to be mean to the junior doctors, which is a good sign, if a bit embarassing.

While I was there, another old lady fell off her chair and I was going to help her up but she was really weird about it and wouldn't let me - she said "don't touch me in your condition!". I wasn't sure if it was because she was a bit dotty or if she had some superstition about pregnant women or something. Anyone else come across anything like that? It has crossed my mind that maybe I just smell .

I'm off to a festival this weekend. If you're going to Summer Sundae at De Montfort Hall in Leicester, say hi to the short fat ginger woman with the six-month bump - it might be me! On the other hand, it might not. Nice one for going to your festival, Excitable. I'm with you on the washing up. Have you tried getting out of it by claiming swollen ankles? It works quite well in Saurus land (suckers).

Hmm, looks like everyone's on their hols - I'll pop back later. Hope all is okay

Poor Kez had her first jabs today and is really out of sorts is asleep after having calpol and a feed but keeps crying in her sleep

new pics of Kezzy on profile

Hi everyone, how are you all? Not logged onto this thread in while, so glad to see all is well. Love the pics of Kezzy, she looks like a little cutie

Hi there, Oxfam and the White Ribbon Alliance urgently require 60 pregnant women to bare their bump in a fun 4-minute video to highlight the issue of healthcare for mothers!

60 women die every hour in pregnancy and childbirth in the developing world and we are making a video to highlight this important issue. The video will then be posted onto sites such as You Tube and My Space, to promote awareness before a crucial meeting at the United Nations in New York.

The video will be shot outside on the South Bank on Thursday 18th September at 1pm and will take no more than an hour of your time. We are looking for 60 pregnant women to accompany professional female dancers dressed as pregnant women, who will be dancing to a Fatboy Slim track. No experience is required, just the ability to dance in your own style, in your own clothes whilst baring your bump for no more than 4 minutes!

Travelling expenses to the location will be reimbursed and refreshments provided.

Please email Lisa Rutherford on [email protected] to register interest and more details if required.