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

[makecakesnotwar]

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

Neenz - hope you do get things sorted. Whatever you suspected, it hardly fills you with hope to give that sort of treatment before you've even got there.

Bitofadrama -thanks for link. am amazed that you've got energy to read when you've got cake to eat

copying hypnobirth cd for a friend -if anyone else wants it just shout.

Hey all- I'm back! And I have three pages of chat to catch up on...I may be a while.Nice weekend though, the kitchen looks fab and I had a wonderfully relaxing bath in a room that has been without a radiator for a year...what bliss!

HAve tried to upload new photo of bump (and amusing t-shirt- but can't. Think it's too big. Have to work out how to small it....might take me until tomorrow.

Sending love and chocolate flavoured heartburn tablets (wouldn't that be great??)

Morning ... helloooooo ... anyone out there?

Am bored of work already and it's only 9.07.

[goes back to twiddling thumbs and popping the gaviscon]

Thanks for all the welcomes people! I'm due 26th June with my first so finding this all rather strange and exciting... although I'm a hospital doctor I'm NOT an obstetrician, so general hosptial stuff I know about, for actual baby stuff I'm relying on rather hazy medical school knowledge that I'm trying not to remember. I do know that I'm not letting any medical students into the birth though - this is the only bit of the birth plan thing that I've actually decided!

I'm currently trying to decide whether my daily requirement for a bar of galaxy counts as a craving or just greed...

Definitely craving I would say!

Definitely craving I would say!

Definitely craving I would say!

morning all! laura it def counts as a craving... first rule of pregnancy!!!

i posted a video of the 3D scan on facebook and have had several confirmations of my suspicions from some very experienced mums - a boy it is! i'm getting over the initial shock and thinking it might be quite lovely to have 2 boys... and think of the money we'll save!

greenfairy love the pushchair, very nice.

mellymel sorry you're bored at work. hope your day gets more interesting.

i'm off to osteopath in a bit, very hopeful that she'll ease my pain which over the past couple days has been intense (might have something to do with trip to ikea and putting furniture together). then if i'm up to it might head to ox/reg st and get a cute (?!) outfit to wear to see one of my favourite (local) musicians on friday. i'm so excited to have a night out!! plus he's a hottie and a bit of eye candy is nice.

Oh good, I shall eat it with impunity then!

I am also bored at work (don't worry I'm not neglecting patients, it's an admin morning)and totally overheating. Why can't they get the temperature right in damn hospitals??

hello all,

poppy - how could i get that hypnobirth CD, give anything a try!!

Question to everyone, any recommendation's on TENs machines? some of them seem soooo complicated

hello all,

poppy - how could i get that hypnobirth CD, give anything a try!!

Question to everyone, any recommendation's on TENs machines? some of them seem soooo complicated

aah good, everyone's turned up so I can carry on ignoring work and concentrate on important stuff written here instead.

Hiya Laura - welcome, and Galaxy bars are a definite essential food group in their own right - although if you went for dark chocolate, you could make the argument for the iron content too.

Wombat/Poppy - interested in the hynobirthing thing too, but have a very non-yoga-ish DH, so does it matter if it's just the woman thinking hypno stuff or does the partner have to be invovled?

Saying that, have just been told that becuase I had a difficult time with DS1, am unlikely to be allowed to do the whole natural birth this time.

yep, tried that. had a mini bar of green and blacks this morning but it's not nailed the galaxy cravings...

I always loved galaxy caramel - mmm, yum. Might have to get myself one at lunch time.

Interested to hear that you are not allowing medical students anywhere near you. Aren't you supposed to want to nurture their young minds? Personally, having had an audience of at least 14 of them at one point looking up the old fanjo last time, by that stage, I really didn't care.

Morning all,
Am also having a boring morning at work - yawn!

Greenfairy - i really like your pushchair - it is making me think twice about the Quinny Buzz, as it appears really similar, but £100 cheaper! I think my DP will need to take a look at it (although in truth, I will be making the final decision!) Let me know if you have any problems/issues with it.

Laura, I used to work for the NHS too, and know exactly what you mean about temperatures in hospitals - either sweltering or freezing!

mmmmm chocolate flavoured heartburn tablets....

Nettiehay - don't suppose you've found any heartburn tablets that taste that nice have you? All I can find are the Gaviscon peppermint ones which are vile.

Re Work - don't know if anyone has found this, but feel completely uninspired since I found out I was pregnant. Almost counting off the days, which is unusual for me, becuase usually I love what I do.

Just checking in to say hello, not caught up with everything yet!

Ernest, glad you've made your decision about the move, sounds like the best plan for you and the family.

Debs, MakeCakes, glad you had good weekends.

Laura, hello! Choccie cravings means you'll fit right in.

Neenz, sympathies re the inlaws, I'd feel exactly the same if I had to hide stuff in my own house, how annoying. Hope you get the consultant stuff sorted out too, to put your mind at rest.

Hope the fainting/light-headed folks are feeling a bit better today, and hope those with irritating partners have got them sorted out .

Agree with the folks keeping names secret, I'm sure it makes everything easier to announce it after the event. I'm glad we're having a boy as we managed to agree a couple of names no trouble. I think a girl would have seen us in the divorce courts though ...

Melly mell, I'm happy to nurture the young minds when at work and teaching on my subject, but am bound to come across them at a later date and frankly would you want future colleagues there at your least glamourous moments and taking notes!? Don't mind them at the AN appts and things, but do object to them at the birth!

Mellymel, I've been having chewable rennies (instead of the chalky type ones). They're not exactly tasty, but I find them more palatable than the peppermint chalk. They still taste like peppermint, but the fact that they are chewy like toffees makes them not so bad. Apart from that, I've been drinking lots of milk...

memmymel - try the sainsbury's heartburn tablets. I have the fruit flavoured ones and i think they're much nicer than the others.

wombat80 - I can't remember the kind of tens machine I had last time but it was pretty simple - just a dial and a boost button. I wish I could as I need to sort out renting one again!

As for students - I had a student midwife last time and will not be allowing one this time. It wasn't the student, she was fine, it was that she passed information on to the midwife who then made decisions about me even though she wasn't monitoring me herself and we ended up disagreeing with her (she wanted to send me home because she thought I wasn't progressing but then 30 minutes later I hit hard labour - it wouldn't have been a health risk as hard labour went on for ages but it would have been the wrong call for us since we didn't have a car at that point and would have probably panicked and called an ambulance).

point of the above post - which I forgot to get to - was that I'd be happy with a student observing but I don't want a student passing on information about me to someone else. There's too much room for miscommunication!

nettiehay - thanks for the tip on Rennie chewable - can't believe they recommend to chew gaviscon ones - quite disgusting when the gunk gets stuck in your teeth.

Unfortunatley I would rather dance the fandango naked in front of my work colleagues (Laura please note), then drink milk - gggaaaaahghghghghg.

Laura - see your point. Luckily I won't have that problem of potentially meeting up with the medical students again - and to them, I suppose that one fanjo looks very much like another. Although, obviously, mine is very pretty and smells of flowers!

laura - yeah i'm the same i come across so many midwifery \ medical and radiology students at nicu, then they appear at appointments. when i went for an early scan they asked if i would mind a student watching i said ok to ultrasound but not at the more intrusive stuff, and guess what the next day he turned up the next day on my ward!!!!!

Wombat - I bought Maries Mongan's hypnobirthing book from Amazon, it includes a CD. If you read that I don't think you'll need a TENS machine cos it is all about managing the pain in other ways - in fact, not even thinking of it as "pain". It has really given me confidence and dare I say it I am actually looking forward to labour! My sis said the TENS machine was rubbish anyway.

Rolf, I will ask to be transferred to LWH if my consultant can't give me guarantees about the breech birth. But I am not worried - I expected to get lots of different attitudes/opinions which is why I am talking to as many people as poss, so that when I go into labour there is a good chance there will be someone there who has heard my wishes! The consultant will sign off my birth plan anyway so I am not worried about asserting what I want in labour, and getting it. Who is your doula? I am thinking of hiring an independent midwife called Vicky - she can't deliver at Ormskirk but she can act as a doula there. I am undecided but tempted to hire her.

Also, re hypnobirthing, Marie Mongan says you can "will" you cervix to open through the power of positive thinking. Being well supported emotionally through labour is also important. She says being shouted at "Push! push!" is no good - she says can you imagine going for a "poop" (as she calls it!) and being able to do it with someone shouting Push! at you