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

[makecakesnotwar]

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

Dramaqueen - when we moved into our last house in the UK it was new and we needed curtains for every window, we went to Dunelms and got them all, and also some lovely material to make the boys curtains and bedcovers. It's a great shop.When we moved here I bought all the curtains and towels for this house too and the apartments - soooo much cheaper than Austria. The curtain fabric is lovely here, I like the typical Austrian stuff but I can't afford it

cheers deb - they're open late throughout the week so going to go down and have a look to see what they have. They have a store literally 5 mins in the car. We bought some co-ordinated accessories from mamas and papas at christmas; went a bit mad as it was still all a bit new then, although it was all in the sale but common sense prevailed and I completely balked at the price of the curtains! Full price they are £68!!!! The baby's room only has a single window - it's quite big height wise but relatively narrow so we only really need one curtain and one tie back for it.

debinaustria - thanks, it will be nice for him to get back into a routine too As for 8 week old baby (well, now 11 weeks), the parents run their own very successful business and she was working from home after the birth but needed to get more time in the office. I've only been having baby for 4.5 hours twice a week although that's due to increase shortly.

PregnantPenguin - I personally didn't find the TENS machine helped but then again, I started off with very eratic labour (my own fault, had castor oil and made me have a terrible labour ) so think I'll try again this time.

makecakes - mine occasionally talks to him and has a little feel but normally because I've put his hand there!

bitofadramaqueen - I prefer the other spellings too It's dh I need to convince though as those 2 names are more my preferences and he prefers the opposite spelling to me so I need to work on him a little more! How exciting about the painting, how did you get on? We're up to our eyes in decorating but it's our own room atm as it's a BIG job!

dylansmum - how annoying, I'd be furious too! How do you feel now?

whinegums - I've got another boy coming but can't think of other colours than what you've mentioned either

systemsaddict - hello Wow, sounds lovely to hear baby being born, bless!

G43 - oh, missed your birthday, sorry! Happy belated Birthday!

sophie & Rolf - hello

Right, best get off here as supposed to be watching Wild at Heart and dh getting annoyed with me typing I think Waiting for chinese to arrive as both shattered from doing loads today. My bump has been sore this evening, definitely overdid it but it's good to see what's been done today. Busy week with one mindee staying 2 nights plus a 7am start another day with her. Got Drs for 25 week check up midweek too and somehow need to carry a 10 month old and 12 month old into the surgery (12 month old walks very well but not when you really need her to iyswim! )

Oh.....chinese arrived, yum!!

Catch you all later

cheers looney - glad I didn't offend .

Painting went really well, v pleased with it. Ordering the cotbed tomorrow too so its all a bit exciting.

Enjoy your chinese!

Good morning everyone, hope you're all feeling bright and breezy today.

"Breezy" being the operative , it's like the high seas out here. Anyone else facing mass transport chaos and joy this morning?

Will catch up about the weekend over the day.

morning everyone.
went to get ds1 & 3 glasses on Saurday - we'll barely get change out of £1000.00!! so we're going to be eating dry bread for the next 6 months, and poor Tinkli will be getting nowt at this rate. I cannot believe - £500 per pair. Yikes. ds3 chose black ones, and tooks ome persuading to leave the shop without them - had to explain the lady still had to make them. He was disappointed bless, so hopefully won't have any difficulties getting him to wear them.

seen the weather is v. bad, esp in south - hard to believe - we've got a lovely sunny blue sky spring day. hopefully it won't head over our way.

Dh flew to Munich today for the start of our new chapter.

Can't believe Tinkli due 12 weeks on Friday!! JUst 12 weeks. OMG.

rolf you made me realise i should appreciate the one day i do get! dh stays up late playing his online video game on friday and i get up with ds on sat then sat night/sun morn he takes care of ds. it's a good arrangement and i have it to look forward to all week.

even though i was so tired (by 6pm i was seeing things in front of my eyes) i had a good day. i made that risotto torte and i'd forgotten how delicious it actually is! i ate the leftovers the second our guests left even though it's really filling. dh said i deserved to enjoy the fruits of my labour! then i had a bath and was falling asleep in it so was in bed by 8.30!!

systemsaddict i too have found if i keep my legs clamped (especially when getting up/down) it really helps. also have to be v careful lifting ds. i have midwife on thurs so will ask her about it. i've read pelvic floor exercises help so have been doing loads!

looney hope you enjoyed your chinese - the last time i had one here the next day my fingers were like little sausages!

ernest ouch about the glasses!! i can't help but think should have gone to specsavers LOL!

Its been quite quiet on here today, which makes a change as normally we all rabbit on like no ones business!

Its so windy, it keep me up last night and the kids were blown all over the place on the way to school. I finally bought something for my hospital bag on saturday, only some breast pads (tommee Tippee half price at Tescos) but hey, its a start right!

Ernest - that sounds like an outrageous price, especially for childrens glasses as presumably they are tax free.

We had a big day yesterday as we bought my ds his first big bed!!! It's lovely! We'd been looking on the web at beds but wanted to see them in the flesh as you can't tell what quality they are on the web. So we walked into a shop and decided on the first one that we saw! I did make my dh go to two other shops just to check but they didn't compare to the first one. I think my ds liked it too as he was crawling and bouncing all over it . I think the salesman took a shine to him as he didn't seem fazed by it at all - despite the fact that my ds had a sandwich in one hand! The great thing about it is that it has a second bed that stores away underneath, that you can take out and use in other rooms as a separate bed or use to make into a double as the frame pops up to full height so should be really useful. Best of all is that we can put my ds into the second bed to start off with as this is only a few inches off the floor - so not far to fall! It's arriving a week on Thursday which is exciting but also a little sad as my dh wants to move my ds straight into his new bed but a little part of me doesn't want to as this means he's growing up and not my little baby anymore I guess it's a healthy part of the process of getting ready for little beanie to arrive but it still makes me sad. Somebody give me a slap and tell me to wake up and get real please!

Josie - we have one of those beds too, they're very useful, and when you put him in the normal one, you can slide the other one out next to it, but on the floor iyswim and then if he falls he'll land on the mattress.

Ernest - at the price of the glasses. 12 weeks on Friday for me too - AARGH

Hope everyone's OK in the storms

I can't believe some people have only got 12 weeks to go - it's impossible we can't really be that pregnant can we? Josie scuttles away to add more things to the list that must be done before the new bub arrives.

bitofadramaqueen - no offence!

ernest - at the cost of those glasses!

dylansmum - my rings are now on a chain as got slightly swollen ankles and last time, my rings got stuck and it was scary!! Chinese was yum thanks although I keep getting indigestion in the evenings!

Morning to the rest of you, very ice cold wind here in Reading this morning, thank god no prams on school run as all dropping off later. Oh, one's just pulled up.......

.............both here now. 12 month old gone straight down for a nap as arrived tired, 11 week old on my lap

Have a good day

josie, that bed sounds ideal, I'd say, get ds in it asap. be brave. I'll bring a wet kipper if you want

dm, no such thing as specsavers here. and everything like this is always dead expensive. but great quality.

they are more expensive again, cos both ds have high & difficult prescriptions, and there's no getting around that

my poor purse! Glad dh was with me when we chose & ordered, rather than me just telling him & him having a fit.

Thanks ernest - that's just what I needed! I think he'll love it when he's using it as he seems to like getting in our bed and pulling the covers up!

Morning all.
Great weekend. Had a massive clearout and gave four giant bags to the charity shop [insert halo emoticon], binned a load of stuff and gave some bits and pieces to my pal who's a bit skint due to insane mortgage.
Picked up our freecycle cot and it's gorgeous! I'm so chuffed - MUCH better than I expected. Also got our birthing pool, so there is very little left to get now.
Am reading the Janet Balakas book on water birth and thinking I may labour in water and then birth 'on land' to take advantage of gravity, but I guess we'll see how it goes on the day! Very excited to finally have the pool though .

Wind a nightmare here. I have a 20-minute journey to nursery and at times this morning, rather than pushing the pram, all I was doing was stopping it from going backwards!

Anyway, everyone arrived safe and sound.

MOved my DS into one of those beds like yours, Josie, before Christmas and moved his cot out a few weeks later. He got very sad when I moved out his cot and still is rather traumatised ...

He asked for breastmilk twice this weekend, and also had me rocking him and singing 'Rockabye baby' at least 10 times. ALl the books say it's a very natural stage for some little ones, but if it's like this now, what will it be like when the baby comes? Anyone else have any experience?

Morning ladies,

I feel exhausted after a very busy few days but it was all worth it as everyone had a great time. DD2's party was so easy in the soft play centre and the children all enjoyed themselves so I'm very happy with that. Dp's parents bought this for DD2's birthday www.elc.co.uk/toy-43039?&parent_category_id=535 and I'm super unimpressed - what a thing to buy just before a baby is due! It going to be hidden away very soon! It's not her birthday until wednesday and I still haven't wrapped her presents though thankfully I have bought her some lovely noise free toys. I think I have everything ready for baby expect a bouncer which is out of stock in JL at the moment and I want to use my vouchers so don't want to buy it else where and also a carseat which is also out of stock in the fabric I like.

Ernest, I can't beleive the price of the glasses, can you insure them as you really don't want to replace them anytime soon!

luckily, we will get a bit of money back from health insurance (not sure how much). ds has had his last ones for well over 2 years. we did get (slightly more expensive) titanium flex frames as from experience, these are pretty unbreakable (ds current glasses) as opposed to standard ones ( previous pair ds had, only a bit cheaper. He had them 2 hours when he tripped over and they broke ]] so consider the more expensive frames a necessary extra expense. but still, gulp, £500. faint.

Upsidedown, how old is your ds? Mine is 18 months and I think he is blissfully unaware that a new sibling is on the way. I do introduce him to babies at playgroup and we look at them in books but I've got no real way of explaining to him what's happening. I fear it will just come as a shock when he comes to visit me in hospital. I'm hoping a new Iggle Piggle gift will take the sting out of it .

hi everyone ernest I nearly fell off my chair when I read the price of those glasses. Shame its not really practical to order glasses online and have them shipped. £500, jeez, I wouldn't even have paid that for my own glasses in my young, free and single days. Ooh, that's a point - is there any issue with wearing contact lenses during labour? I have ones that I can sleep in. I dont actually own a functioning pair of glasses with an up to date prescription any more (I'd be completely buggered if I got an eye infection).

G43 - That's so inconsiderate of them for both you and your DD. So jealous that you are all ready for the baby. I really need to get a move on. Ordered cotbed today though. It comes straight from manufacturers and they already have a delivery schedule for Scotland next week so they're hoping to deliver it then instead of the usual 4 week wait.

Weather ok in Edinburgh - haven't noticed much difference as its been pretty wet and wild here for weeks (I had to rescue my wheelie bin from the bottom of the street the other week, no idea where the rubbish disappeared to).

Wow, just caught up!
Nice to hear your news 'LOONEYTUNE' so glad your dh has got a new job, it must be such a relief for you.

I have been getting pains in my groin similar to your 'dylansmum' spoke to midwife and she said it was probably just my ligaments were still a bit weak since having ds (nearly 2) she recommended pelvic floor excercises and aquanatal. I have been using my big bouncy ball and pf ex and seems a lot better, hopefully won't become SPD.

I bought a wee outfit for tha baby yesterday, so exciting!! I never bought ds any clothes until he was about 10 weeks, I had him at 38 weeks and hadn't got round to buying him anything, thought I had ages, and you get so many presents you don't really need to buy anything at all!! So pleased to have got a wee something its just from tesco but pretty cute, in cream as I'm not sure what this one is going to be....?

XXX

You've all been busy chatting!

Congrats LooneyTune on your DH's job - I hope that will ease some of the worry, now that we are all getting so close. I can't beleive I will be 12 weeks away on Friday. I'm not ready yet . We will be ordering alot of things this weekend, so that we are sure to get them delivered and ready.

Hope all are Ok in the storms - mostly wind and rain in SW London, but some trees have lost branches, so I got DP up early this morning to give me a lift to work - I refuse to catch the bus in these gales - I'll probably get blown away!

Sooo tired today, just woke up from a snooze on the settee!!

I also have swollen fingers and have managed to get my rings off this morning and put them away until after the birth.

Ernest - 2 hours with the last glasses!!!!!

Upsidedown, we read lots of stories about babies coming, to ds1 when I was expecting ds2. We also got him a present from the baby when we came out of hospital.And I held as many babies(at toddler groups etc) as possible so that he got used to that.
Apart from that I didn't do anything else to prepare him and he was fine. He pretty much ignored ds2 when he was a baby and was only interested in him when he could start interacting with him. He just called him "baby" for months. They get on so well now with only 23 months between them. So, don't worry.

G43 - you big meany , considering hiding dd's present!!

Hello everyone, it takes me so long to read all of your posts these days I don't have time to write anything! Glad no one seems to have been blown away yet.

We had a fairly relaxing weekend, went to an NCT sale on saturday which was pretty good although it took us so long to find somewhere to park I think we had missed all the really good bargains, but still managed to get a few bits and bobs.
I feel like we aren't doing too bad in getting things ready for the baby. Still looking for a moses basket and reluctant to pay out for a new one but it occurred to me this weekend that if I got a second hand one I would probably still need a new mattress for it, so it would need to be pretty cheap to make it worthwhile. Think ebay will be my answer!