Due June - 'I can't remember my own name, let alone where I put the creme eggs...'

[PregnantPenguin]

For those of us with 3 months to go or less....

On a completely different subject, does anyone have any recommendations re: baby monitors...? I really don't know where to start!

clapham - we bought the BT digital baby monitor, the basic one without the lullaby's as it was £20 cheaper. We've been really pleased with it. It's got a great range of sensitivity so when they are first born you can turn it up to hear them breathing but when they are older you can decrease so that you don't hear them everytime they turn over. It also has a really good range, we have a big garden so I wanted something I could take outside with me. I did all sorts in the garden when my ds was little like painting fences, planting hedges etc and I wouldn't have felt comfortable being outside for this long if we hadn't had the monitor.

I have had a few friends who have been disappointed with the Tomy monitors they have bought as the connector parts have worn very quickly making them a bit unreliable and difficult to use.

hello Clapham
agree with Josie, avoid Tomy, I have one which is over 3 years old now. It has never worked very well and is now failing completely, so i will have to replace it plus buy a new one for this baby.
in general, go for digital (also called DECT) models rather than analogue as they will give a clearer signal. BT and Philips are both good makes.

meanwhile
HELLO everyone, I'm not sure where I have been for the last few weeks, my brain and body seem somewhat disconnected
how is everyone feeling? I am moving slower and slower and could do with a wheelbarrow for carting my bump around. Only 8 more days at work...

so at jood! 8 days! lucky you.

Has anyone heard from Neen lately?

la la la la. I am not listening to anyone who says they are going on maternity leave as I don't finish until June 6th. Just think some people may have had their babies by then .

Weather is just gorgeous here. Must remember to put suntan lotion on my ds as people spent all of last year saying 'doesn't he look brown' to me. To be fair he's like my husband and tans really easily but even I was embarassed by the end of the summer at how brown he was.

josie
my due date is June 10 and my dd was 10 days early so i'm not taking any chances! I have also cheated by saving up regular leave so I have 3 weeks of that before my ML starts.
frankly my productivity levels are so low by now I don't think anyone will notice the difference when I go!

I bought a digital monitor this time round as my nanlouge one started to get really bad interference which is less likely to happen with the digital one. Mine is also a BT one.

Hi guys, sorry been off the board for a while, I have been frantically nesting at home, aided significantly by my purchase of a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner which is BRILLIANT - the house is now clean for the first time since I had my son!!

I am getting moronic bump comments too. Yesterday I had 'Gosh you're small for 32 weeks' followed IMMEDIATELY by the next person coming into the meeting commenting on how enormous I am and how she never got that big with either of hers. She meant well, but grr!!

I see the consultant tomorrow and am keen to find out position. She was breech at 28 weeks but that doesn't mean much. I think she's turning up and down a lot actually, I had days of kicks under the ribs then yesterday lots in my bladder, today it's under the ribs again. We shall see.

Ds is getting clingy now - insisting on being carried upstairs, and only by mummy - this is a novelty as he's never been like this before! I think it must be linked to the pregnancy. He does understand that there is a baby growing in my tummy. I don't know if he realises it's going to come out though!

Hope everyone else has done OK the past few weeks. Sorry to hear about your dh's gran Josey.

Wow Jood you should have a nice long time before your little one arrives. I hope we get some good weather as it will be lovely for you and your dd. I too will have loads of annual leave saved up prior to going on mat leave but I am being very mecenary and taking the money instead of taking the time off. I'm going to try and be good and save the extra money for when my company pay runs out and I go onto SMP. Mind you it's one thing being full of good intentions and another when you have actually got spare money sitting in your bank account

I used to pick up my neighbour on my monitor, one day mine was switched off upstairs but the receiver downstairs was on - my Stepdad wondered why I was shouting so loud at the boys when all along it was my neighour!! Luckily we were good friends or it could have been embarassing!!

I know this is a really lame remark, but reading all the posts about maternity leave, I just can't imagine being at work right now. I have become utterly unemployable - must keep having babies so I have a good excuse .

And a random question - my sense of smell has gone, completely. Anyone heard of this? My top Gross Pregnancy Symptom is phlegm [blusn] - sinusitis at Xmas, rivers of goop from throat and nose the past couple of months. I don't know if there's any connection there. I'm not parciularly congested although I do feel very mucousy and could probably do with giving up dairy for a while. It ranks up there with varicose veins, stress incontinence and piles .

I had my hair cut yesterday and was so appalled at how grey it looked that I asked the hairdresser to put a colour on it (I'd been waiting until after the baby's born). I feel sooo much better.

my baby's lying breech too, according to this morning's MW, so it's sitting on a stupid ball for me for a while! everything else seems to be tickety boo though, which is nice!

having read through all the posts I needed to catch up on, I am now panicked about all the stuff I hadn't even thought about that I need to get! SIL and BIL visiting this weekend though and promising another load of stuff to borrow so hopefully that will score some things off the lists

Rolf I wish my sense of smell had gone! I just collected the dd's from some neighbours and they stink of smoke, it's so gross so clothes went straight in the washing machine and girls went straight in the bath for a hairwash and good clean. The girl wants to come over to ours but the smell of smoke from her clothes will go all over my furniture so I think I 'll take them out to the playground.

Afternoon all.
Been on a training course all day - the trainer gave us HALF AN HOUR for lunch. Am going to say something to him tomorrow as was barely functioning by the end of the day.

It's my birthday and, while I had that lovely meal with DH on Saturday, today has been frankly rubbish - too much work and feeling sorry for myself!

Looney - experience at your hospital is what counts for breech, but read the optimum positioning pages on the HomebirthUK website - lots of helpful hints.

Nettiehay - it was me with the Britax Vigour! Hope you're pleased with it when it arrives - what colour did you get?

Debs - glad you're feeling cheerier today.

Right, off for a glass of fizz to try to force myself into a celebratory mood!

Goingfor3 - yeauch! How revolting. Smoking has become so anti-social that I was actually shocked to read in your post that a child's home could be so smoky.

I missed out on DD's very pooy nappy which I assume was smelly. Really don't know what's happnened. I can't taste much either.

Rolf the windows were open in her house too, I guess everything in the house stinks as they have been living there for years and the parents and teenagers are all smokers. I feel so sorry for the little girl as there are very few smokers around here and lots people are as intolerant as me about it so she doesn't have any friends to play with outside school.

I had a really heavy cold last year and lost all sense of smell and taste for weeks so the gp gave me a nasal spray which worked very well and smelt of flowers which was lovely. I can't remeber what it was called or whether it's safe in pregancy but it's certainly worth asking about.

Rolf - a very honest friend pointed out all my grey hairs yesterday too. Can't be bothered to do anything about it though!!

Greenfairy - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sorry you've been working though, half an hour for lunch is ridiculous, at this stage of pregnancy how can you eat enough in 30 minutes???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREENFAIRY!!! Sorry you were stuck training all day tho. Enjoy your fizz.

Jood - I'm due two days after you, and would love to go on leave in two weeks time, but in all honestly know I can cope ok and work are really letting me get away with doing as little as possible, whilst still paying me as much as normal. I know exactly what you mean about productivity! I think I'd go mad at home, especially as DH has man flu today. Luckily with all my antenatal appointments (and training courses) I've only got one more 5 day week left....

Rolf - I have been snotty for ages and it seems to be getting worse. But luckily I can still taste chocolate!

Thanks for all the baby monitor advice everyone - I was completely clueless and hadn't even thought about it yet. [PP waddles off to add to her ever growing list]

Hi all, Just had to go through TEN pages to catch up!

I have finished work now - it is bliss! Had scan last Thurs - both babies are now head down although another twin mum I know says hers were both head down at 32 weeks but both turned breech by delivery!

The babies are both around 4lbs each and there are two placentas of course so its no wonder I look 10 months pregnant.

Picket line was good - good support for the strike, you might have heard about it on the news (Express newspapers). Another day's strike on Friday cos management have not come back with an improved pay offer. Looks like we might be in it for the long haul... not easy to organise when i am not in the office and I have promised to donate a day's wages to the hardship fund for every day they are out on strike cos obviously I won't lose a day's pay on mat leave.

We are off to Blackpool next week on holiday (very Jack and Vera Duckworth), just a couple of night at a hotel there, we got two nights for £129 and they have a spa so I am looking forward to some lovely pampering and some quality time with DH who seems to have spent the last four weeks constantly working (even weekends - although he found time to go on a corporate jolly to Aintree last Friday, funny how he always has time for them!)

I am sleeping really badly but now I am not at work I can just keep dropping back off, But I wake up in agony about every two hours through the night. it is not pleasant but only about four weeks to go probably - eek!!!

Neenz - good to hear from you, both babies head down sounds great - hope they stay that way.They're a really good weight already aren't they.

Hope you have a great time in Blackpool - I'm a Blackpool lass, born and grew up there!!

We're hoping to get away to a spa hotel for a few days before June, I'll be 36 weeks then and I asked the Dr and he said he'd let me know at my next appointment if it would be OK, which will be a few days before we plan to go , so now do we book as it's a special deal and hope for the best or wait???

Why would it not be OK debs?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREENFAIRY Neenz great to hear from you, can't believe you've only got 4 weeks to go, the twins are a great weight aren't they - no wonder your uncomfortable!

Debs I'm sure a spa break would be fine, in fact I think it would be fab.

Morning all, I don't know why it wouldn't be OK really, maybe he's just being cautious, I think we'll book anyway.

How did everyone sleep with the indigestion, cramp, weird dreams?

Now it's been 6 years since I did all this, how many nappies a day do you reckon a newborn will need? I cannot remember and want to make sure that's one thing in the house ready!!

good morning everyone, haven't been around for a while - 'a bit' busy and 'a bit' stressed with the move. Absolutely no new on our house sale (more stres), and although we're moving in 2.5 weks, still no agreement from dhs work on which removal firm we can use, so we still have no definite moving date, or company. But as all the amenities have been contacted and we've de-registered, I am rather hoping it will all come out in the wash.

Anyway, this baby is unbelieveably wriggly, much more than the other 3 were, I think.

Debs, I'd reckon for about 7 or 8 nappies a day at first. One top tip I remember reading (but not in time for any of my 3) was to smear new born baby's bum in vaseline, so the meconium wipes off easily. I do remember having an awful lot of trouble with that, so will try to remember.

I obviously haven't yet bought anything at all for the baby, due to house move, so instead of collapsing in new house, I'll have to unpack as quick as possible then go on a mad shopping trip. And then collapse.

Happy birthday greenfairy

Debs spa break . Of course you should go. Dh forwarded me a place (in Bavaria) and they even do special pg packages. I mean, as long as you're not in the sauna or under a sun bed? Maybe he doesn't think you should be able to relax before the big event. What will you do with the boys? If you tell me some wonderful friend or relative is going to take them and you have a child-free break, I'll be so i'll tell you you can't go either.

Dh let slip at the weekend he's ordered me an iPhone, so am excited about that.

Morning all, Ernest good to hear from you fingers crossed that the move will go smoothly for you.

Well toiday we are of to the best local hotel for parents 40th wedding anniversary, my mother can't have been a bad stepmother as 4 of her 5 step children are also turning up so 6 out of 7 us siblings will be there. Looking forward to it as we have a busy few days coming up

Random thought/tip of the day - make a will, I know it sounds depressing but you have a say in who raises your child/ren if something happens to you.