Due in June and entering the home stretch - keep the creme eggs rolling!

[makecakesnotwar]

And the Revels, the Greek Yogurt and the curly fries....

Josey - she looks like your DD to me - and you too.
It's a lovely pic.

AH- glad your little one is settling into their big bed. My mission for this week is to get a bed ordered for my ds - I've bought the duvet covers but that doesn't really help. I was very impressed with my ds at the weekend as I had to adjust his radiator after I had put him into bed so he stood up and watched me whilst I was doing it. But as soon as I turned the light out he lay back down ready to go to sleep. Perhaps there is hope for him!!!!

Very interesting about the week 24 / 25 thing upsidedowncake. I had an extremely, extremely sleepy tired period around then too. I did think she'd had a growth spurt.

Josey I've never seen the point of paying for a 3D scan before but now I do, that pic is gorgeous!!! The video must be lovely to have!

I have been the opposite of active this weekend. Took ds to Sing and Sign and did very, very little apart from that. Have kept as still as poss and done as little lifting as poss and today - I am hardly in pain!! So, looks like a very quiet life for me for the next few months but if I'm very careful I feel like I will at least be able to carry on functioning. Compared to Thursday, when I could barely limp home from town, this is a vast improvement. So I will focus on keeping still with knees together and try not to compare myself to any active mountain-climbing-at-9-months pregnant ladies.

Spoke to my best friend yesterday who had placenta praevia Grade 4 and pre-eclampsia and spent several weeks in hospital before an emergency c-section to deliver her baby prematurely, and started to feel rather less sorry for myself than I have been, there are worse things to have in pregnancy than SPD. Of course, this is easy to say when it's not actively painful - can someone remind me of this next time it flares up please?

The one good side effect is that the house is much more organized than usual. I am having to do things like washing up and laundry 'little and often' to avoid extended standing / lifting and have discovered this is how organised people must do it to keep on top of things, what a revelation!

Good thing the eclairs are virtual...have my mw appt tomorrow and they will take my blood to check glucose levels, so have banned myself from all forms of sugar after last time....bloody miserable. I have to say that I can't make choc eclairs because I have no will power, and they'd all be feeding the baby in a heartbeat!!!!

Envious of all your knitting- I'm a won't knit rather than a can't knit. Hated it growing up and was given the choice of sewing or knitting. Went with sewing. And have all the fabric to make the baby quilt....just need to get round to it! Work is suddenly really busy though, so have had a mad day, and am now quite stressed. Fortunately getting my hair done tomorrow, and get to hear CJ's heartbeat. Hurrah!

SA - lol at your revelation for tidy organised people. Trouble is I need to spend about a month solid getting my house organised so that I can do stuff little and often. I live in hope of that day but fear it will never come.

Thanks for help with nappies ladies, i shall look into them and thanks sophiewd, might take you up on that if they dont deliver.

Littlemy Im in gran canaria 5 mins from airport, you were prob staying in south which is just 20 mins from me!!! Hope weather was nice down there as its been a bit crap lately,

Hi everyone! I'm a bit of a lurker, but I thought I'd better introduce myself properly before I ask a question. When are you going on maternity leave? I'm due 28 June, so was planning to go around the end of May, but DH thinks that I will get bored for a month by myself.

Welcome Mumofnone. I'm due 12 June and am off work from 19 May (2 week annual leave then start mat leave 1 June).

A few pages back I was saying how much I love living in London despite all my moaning - but have just had the tube journey from hell - so actually I want to start mat leave now!

Actually leaving on time is a rare thing for me, but realising that I need to do it because I'm getting so tired. But it misses the point of being good to leave at 5pm if I then have to stand up on a busy tube for the next hour....

Rant over.

hi mumofone - I'm having a month off too. I'm saving up dvd box sets, books and a big boxes of chocs and planning to put my feet up for the whole month. It will of course be a glorious June so will also be spending lots of time lying in the garden drinking my very weak iced shandies . 3 of those weeks off will be hols though so I wont officially be on mat leave till week before due date. That said, I'm thinking about starting my mat leave a week earlier and using the week's holiday I save to go four days per week from the end of March... (I'm already on 4 days per week in May). It will mean a week less with the baby before going back to work next year but extra long weekends are very tempting...

Dylansmum - thank you so much for the recipe. I'd got the ingredients for something else but next time they visit I will definitely try that broccoili recipe - it looks lovely

Welcome mumofnone. When I had DS1 I lived in London and I think I stopped work at about 34 weeks - I'd planned to work for longer but I kept fainting. It was the most wonderful, relaxing period of my entire life. Honestly, I look back on it with such nostalgia. I lived in central London so work friends would come over for lunch or after work. I went for lovely little walks along the river, went to loads of matinees (DS1 loved Aristophanes ).

Most afternoons I would have a little snack of ice cream then have a nap on the sofa. It was utter bliss. We were in a small flat so it was easy to do my nesting. I remember ironing all our bed linen with lavendar water and tying it up with purple ribbons . I was fixated with having pretty toes in labour and had lots of pedicures too!

So no, I bet you won't get bored. If you can take the time then do so. It's the only time in your life you will have a wage, justification for resting and no child to look after.

Re maternity leave will see what happens after easter hols when ill be 31 weeks. At mo finding some days really hard work already, Im a nursery teacher so quite full on job!!!

Have ordered trial packs of motherease one size and totsbots too. SO will see what we think!!

Hi all,
I've not been on since Thursday and so much to read! I wonder if we'll all be so chatty after the birth!
Aberdeenhiker - my ds was born at 38 weeks too, so I keep counting to 38 as well, I will be 28 weeks on thursday and 10 weeks sounds so soon! However I am only 27 weeks at the mo so actually 13 weeks to go ( probably 15, just to teach me a lesson!)

Josey - your little girl looks gorgeous, but then so do your other kids, so one more cutie to add to your brood!

I am off to see the mw tomorrow, can't wait its only a check up but I'm hoping to get some info about baby's position etc. My fingers are a bit swollen so I'm a bit worried as well, my BP's fine but my pulse seems really high usually about 75 and at the mo is 88/90 I guess its maybe all the extra blood but does seem a bit high.

xxx

Systems addict, I loved Sing and Sign. We stopped when I had to go back to work, but I was always think it really helped DS with his language. Do you have the DVD and everything? I think it must be miserable to have SPD, because you forget what it feels like to be normal (like having a cold and forgetting what a clear-breathing nose feels like)??

DS's American grandma sent him a dolly today. It's so fascinating watching how he (aged 2 1/4) interacts with it. He has put the dolly (Luke) to bed, made him a cup of tea and sung him a lullaby.

Then I got slightly broody and cuddled the dolly. And then joined in with DS's role play and sung 'Rockabye baby'. A step too far! DS crawled on to my lap and wanted to be rocked and sung to as well. Interesting how he reacted.

Re length of maternity leave, last time I did find that I got bored and rather anxious. It was November, and hopefully this summer it will be better.

Also, in an effort to pull my head out of the sand about the birth, I've been talking to a couple of doulas. I'll let you know how it goes.

Rolf - that sounds like the perfect way to spend the first few weeks of maternity leave. I'm starting to get excited now!

good morning everyone.hope you're all well. I am very interested in starting maternity leave.

This is my last week of dh in Milan, on Monday he officially moved to Munich. That's a step in the right direction.

I wouldn't mind knitting something for baby. Anyone know of a dead simple pattern for something useful?

Good morning, Ernest you beat me to it this morning, couldn't you sleep?

Rolf - sounds like a lovely start to maternity leave, I think I spent that time before ds1 making a mobile for his bedroom, the time before ds2 we were packing to move house - so no rest and relaxation then!!

Makecakes - hope the glucose levels are good today for you - I have the test tomorrow , so I'm banning the sugar today!!! Do you think it makes a difference?

Katyjo - how did your appointment go?

Paro - I was teaching Nursery when I was pregnant with both boys, full time with ds1 and part time with ds2 - I was always shattered by the afternoon. You have my sympathies!!

couldn't get back to sleep after 4 am wee (which I've not had for a while).

Had vivid dream that ds1 & 2 were in some scary middle eastern country and on death row (due to be beheaded) because they'd been mucking about and given each other love bites on their neck (??????? where do these dreams come from?) They've never given each other love bites on their necks in rl. Honest If they do it today I'll be a bit spooked, lol. For some reason they're 'there' alone (aged 7 & 8 ) so me and dh fly out to plead for clemency. They are thankfully allowed to fly out, but me & dh must take their place on the chopping block. Then they grant me clemency cos I'm pg, so I fly back, leaving dh about to have his head chopped off. Then I wake up for 4am wee, so I've no idea if he survived or not. He hasn't rung yet this morning........

Blimey Ernest, makes my dream about placentas look very tame

We've moved house during all my other pregnancies and obviously now I have children mat leave is a Big Joke (bitter laugh). Or according to DH, my whole life is maternity leave . One of my scary dreams about placenta previa became quite nice when, in the dream, I started picking out books to read during my 6 weeks hospital bed rest

DD has taken to waking us up by quacking at us. Quack quack.

I worked until 38 weeks last time (and gave birth two days later) and I'm planning to work up until then again. It was exhausting, but I wanted as much time off after the birth as possible. It was a bit disheartening to hear everyone else talking about going off at 34 weeks - but I'm glad I stayed working! It kept me busy and they all had overdue babies so were waiting at home for over two months. A woman I know who used to be a midwife is convinced that if you work longer, you'll pop earlier. It might make sense if once you were off work you spent a lot of time on the sofa napping...

However, this time around I'm planning to use up a week of holidays to go half time for the two weeks before (afternoons off!) which will give me time to relax a bit before picking DS up from nursery. I think I'll need that!

Morning all
God, am so tired. Have been getting my regulation eight hours a night and walking/ swimming regularly (was six or seven before I got pg, plus 60 - 100 miles cycling a week!)
Anyway, I think am going to have to start going to bed at 10, which is rather depressing, but I've woken up exhausted every morning for the last fortnight - .

Mumofnone - I'm going down to four days a week from easter and stopping at 36 weeks and I can't wait - work just wears me out!

Anyhooooo - paro - it occurred to me that you can buy new reusables from ebay - discounted compared to shop prices, with the advantage they'll deliver anywhere in the world...

Ernest - knitting - why not make a blanket? About the easiest thing ever. You can choose whatever wool you like (or use up oddments), keep it simple, or muck about with fancy stitches, without the worry of shaping sleeves/ necks as well - piece of cake. You don't even need a pattern!
If you fancy something cute you could try these baby slippers - which I'm going to make to use up loads of oddments lying around.

Morning all,
I'm off on mat leave at 38 weeks - unfortuantely we can't afford for me to go any earlier, so hopefully Bug doesn't decide to come any sooner.

I spent last night on the phone to NHS Direct after realising that I've been using a lacquer on my toenails for this horrible fungal thing I've got. After using it for over a year I read the instructions and it says don't use if planning on getting pregnant, pregnant or breastfeeding. Woops! But they assure me that it should be fine - basically, it is more expensive to do lab tests on pregnant women and then get registered for use during pregnancy, so the company just recommend not using it at all (just to be on the safe side). I'm fine with all of this, but will have horrible manky toenails by the time it is warm enough to wear open toe shoes.

Yay just got the Sunsail brochure through and Antigua here we come, the countdown to November has begun, always nice to have something to look forward to apart from the safe arrival of the bump that is.

I forgot to mention that FIL and SMIL have offered to take us skiing at the end of March - great! So considerate of them to offer to take us to do an activity that I love and won't be able to do! So it looks like DP will go and I'll stay at home. They said I could still go and have a little holiday, but I don't speak French, so would struggle going shopping/to the spa etc and I think I would probably end up being their taxi driver to and from the slopes. Also, the last thing I want to hear about is their fabulous day skiing while I've been stuck in the chalet.... Wow that all sounds hideously ungrateful! I am grateful, but a bit p*ssed off too.

I was tempted to ask them if I could have the money they would have spent on ski hire, so I can buy baby stuff...... decided against it in the end

Wow greenfairy, I'm in bed by 9.30 most nights already and it's only going to get earlier, getting to 10 would be a huge achievement for me

I dreamt last night it was 11 June and dd had arrived. Was rather disappointed to wake up still pregnant with 3 months to go!!

Upsidedowncake, we adore Sing and Sign. I highly recommend it to you all, by far the best activity we've done. Ds loves it, he has been communicating really well with us using his signs for months. He has about 60 or 70 signs now, and learns new ones watching the interpreters on CBeebies at weekends! Dp was very sceptical when we started, but is very happy now - in fact the other day he said out of the blue, 'Some babies don't sign, do they? It must be awful for them if they can't make themselves understood!' Ds was a v.late walker (just started now at 18 months) and I think he focused on communicating before moving, so it was the ideal thing for him. We have the Stage 1 DVD and I've just ordered Stage 2 for him.