Due Sept '08: We're halfway there part 2....

[LittleConnie]

Come on over!

Sorry x threads mama Congrats on your scan, its so special seeing your baby.

Hi All, just catching up with the threads again!

eandz - been reading your other thread and wow, some people can say horrible things! Maybe they thin they are being amusing. I would just ignore them as the majority of posts were sympathetic and gave good, helpful advice... Glad you have sorted the situation out, anyway.

DebitheScot you could try Vertbaudet/LaRedoute for shorts and vest PJs, they have these for £13:
www.laredoute.co.uk/style/COCOON-short-maternity-pyjamas-in-printed-cotton.aspx?ProductId=324130712& DocumentId=427208&CompanyId=R&Path=17512698/17513325&source=

Main site www.laredoute.co.uk

I just got a couple of t-shirts and a brown wrap dress from there and they are really lovely, soft fabric and comfy.

I have to stop just buying things off the internet and actually wear the damn stuff!

Only 2 1/2 hours til scan!!

Oooh I'm loving the buggy debate, even though we've already bought our Phil&Teds!
Isn't it funny how everyone's different? Someone was saying that their dh always insists on pushing the buggy, whereas my dh always puts dd on his shoulders and refuses to take the buggy out!
I wouldn't get too hung up on the one-handed fold thing unless you regularly use (and fold) the buggy on the bus. I only need to fold ours to put it in the car, so I leave dd in her carseat while I get the buggy ready, and put her in her carseat before putting the buggy back in the boot.
Amusingly I haven't quite figured out how to fold the phil&teds yet (we've only owned it a week!) so that's in the house for when we're doing trips directly from here, and our old ziko is folded in the boot of the car!
I would def get a buggy even if you're a sling fan. For example if you're meeting someone for lunch, the baby can fall asleep in the buggy and you're hands free and can kick back and relax while they snooze next to you. Slings make me feel permanently pregnant with the limited mobility that brings, but that's just me!

My big dilema now is a change bag. We have an over the shoulder one, but due to my bad back (and the sheer weight of drinks/snacks/clothes etc) in there, I can't carry it, and always have it over the handlebars of the buggy. But with the phil&teds, it hits the bottom child in the head as it hangs off the handle bars. I'm considering either a rucksack style one, or I've seen the skip-hop range. Does anyone have experience of these? Its a lot more money than I would like to spend, but if its a worthwhile long term investment then I'll do it (and I'm a leeeeetle bit of a bag addict, so any excuse!) All advice welcome...

Carrieon i find the P&T easy to fold. It's the buttons on each side at the front. My problem is I couldn't get the brake to work! Think it's stiff because it's new so might need to get the WD40 on it. Have you bought the pannier bags with yours?

hi ladies haven't posted for ages as having a hectic time at work, and it's taken me HOURS to catch up. got there in the end though.

mamamuffin big hugs, will be thinking of you for tomorrow.

dg my ankles have also turned into huge ugly alien things that don't seem to be part of me anymore. yuck. didn't think that was supposed to happen til a bit later...

Following on from all the shop talk I found myself very short on clothes with the mini-heatwave kicking in so treated myself to a few things in H&M and a GORGEOUS wrap top from Seraphine. A bit pricey but sooo worth it... I even got a wolf-whistle with my big fat belly - made my week!

eandz sounds like you're having a tough time with the family - well done for standing your ground though. As for the driving, dh is very keen to manage without a car, as he's a bit of a green warrior and it will save a lot of money too. Although I wasn't so sure I'm beginning to come round to the idea. We plan to use streetcar for visiting family on the outskirts of London, and hiring one for weekends away. Otherwise I'll get a nice lightweight buggy and do the bus/tube/walk thing, and get the groceries delivered. Can always get one later if it doesn't work out.

Talking of buggies/travel systems can anyone recommend a good one that ticks these boxes? Lightweight, folds down small, good for public transport, front/rear facing, option of carseat & carrycot, decent shopping basket. Really need to start trying some out but don't know where to start. I'm assuming I'll still need to get a carseat to get lo home from the hospital in a taxi?

dg I like the sound of the wilkinet... a friend of mine said she wished she hadn't bothered buying a carrycot attachment as when the baby was really small she couldn't bear to have him out of her sling anyway. hmmm am a bit confused...

Still waiting for the scan... not til Friday next week (same as pidge I think), and the same day we pick up the keys to the new house

Sorry for the long post...

littleconnie check out the streety you seem to looing for the same things as me here is a link www.bebeconfort.com/collection-2008/UKonly/prom_poussette_streety_caracteristiques.htm

it's only £215 !!

i need to be able to fold with one hand as neither dh or i drive and the taxis here aren;t the 5 seater ones where you can leave your buggy and the drivers have a tendancy to just dumop your stuff on the floor and drive off once when dd was still in her carseat one driver set off while she was still strapped in the back (luckily i wave him back in time )

good luck with your scan carrion are you fining out what you're having?

now i need to find a reasonably priced rocking chair, i hve one from dd still but the seat was really grubby (neither kids liked bouncers, but found the rocking helped with the colic)

littleconnie forgot to say that the streety comes with a carseat, raincover and changing bag all for th £215 and i believe you can buy the carrycot for £98 from kiddicare

sorry not a changing bag a footmuff

carrion forgot to day i had the skip hop pronto which was fantastic it's the one where it's a really small bag that includes a change mat and a wipes case, not so good when new born but great when they are about 6 months and you know you will be only a few hours, i think the skip hop duo bag looks good too and the pockets would be good for you drinks cups etc, so annoying when ds and dd both have a drink and there's no where to pop them

That's brilliant thanks mustsleep... I should have known to go straight to the pramaholic! Is it legal to leave a baby in a pushchair in a 5-seater black cab?

LittleConnie - well remembered - yes it's me who also has a scan a week on Friday.

On the carseat front - I think you're right, you should probably have one even if you don't own a car - as you say, you'll need it to get home from the hospital (unless you're really keen and hop on a bus, but frankly I could hardly walk at that point!!), also if ever you hire a car like streetcar, you will probably need it. Plus it's really useful if friends ever offer lifts etc.

On the pushchair front - here's my thoughts. We have one that is a nightmare to fold but I love it, and we NEVER, EVER fold it. Even on public transport. On the bus it just rolls on, and if it means waiting for the next bus, so be it, the though of folding, holding baby and bags etc etc is just too much even with the most foldable contraption.

Our pushchair is also relatively heavy - which again might seem a minus, but it has the huge bonus that we do nearly all our shopping on foot, and you can load it up with groceries for 4 underneath and on the back and it never tips over.

I should say we do also have a lightweight foldable maclaren that lives folded up in the car and comes out on holidays. But for everyday use, somewhat against what you might expect, I love my heavy, untippable, unfoldable contraption!!

Can someone please educate this northerner on what a streetcar is?! Several people have made reference to it.

littleconnie if I had my time again I would buy this buggy/travel system, coz its very smart, and folds really small so you're less likely to end up with your travel system gathering dust while you always take the child out in a cheap, umbrella fold maclaren!

No I'm not finding out sex at the scan, we didn't last time and it was so exciting finding out at the birth. I do keep changing my mind though on whether I hope its a boy or a girl. At the moment erring on the side of a girl since this baby is so close in age to my dd, and coz she's so brilliant I can't imagine having as fab a boy, which is ridiculous I know! But speculating as to what we're having will keep me occupied for the next 19 weeks

sunshine the break on mine is really stiff too, I can work it if I've got shoes on, but not flip-flops! I can't remember if this is your first or second child, but what are you doing about a change bag? We've opted against the panniers coz a)dh thinks they look poncy and b)I'll still need a change bag I can carry for times we go out without the buggy, and I don't want to be moving stuff from one to the other, or having two of everything iykwim.

Thanks for the skiphop recommendation mustsleep. Do you know anywhere that sells them so I can have a poke? Mothercare only do them on line, not in store.

Thanks pidge - v interesting to get a different perspective! The main reason we want it to fold small is that the new house is pretty tiny and we'd rather it didn't clutter up the living room more than necessary... but I could be swayed on the weight/shopping thing

sorry carrieon I think it may be just a London thing! Streetcar is a car-pooling company that have cars available to use in virtually every suburb of the city... you just register and get a card which you can top up with credit, reserve a car a couple of days in advance, insert the card and away you go. I think it's cheaper than a normal car hire if you only need it for half a day or so.

thanks for the buggy tip too

littleconnie i'm not sure actually if it is legal or not we very rarely get a 5 seater anyway, i know they are for wheel chairs and have the seat belt that oes aorund the wheel chairs. when th baby is too big fr he carseat trevl systemy thing though it must be safer than just having thm on the seat..... not sure

carrion not sure they don't have then in the toys r us near us and that's aboutthe only baby shop there is here really i got mine from funkymoose but that was online they have better pics on that website than most places though

and they must be good there are hardly any for sale on ebay that aren;t brand new

hello ladies,
This thread moves quickly !!
We had our scan today and our new little boy looks perfect. I knew he would be a boy as my husbands family always have boys. Our 8yo ds is very happy that he is getting a brother. They did let him in to see the scan. The scan lady was very nice to him and gave him his own 2 photos to take to school.
Baby was a good boy and let her take all the measurements very quickly.
It's sad to hear Eandz has had a bad experience on a different thread. I have read some threads and been surprised how nasty some people are and I was a bit shocked at some of the language. I am now settled on three threads which I read regularly and contribute to. They are all very civilised and friendly. The 3 are this one, the 40+ and pregnant thread and the bereaved mummies thread.

Carrieon I haven't got the panniers out of the box yet but they looked ok when we saw them at the Baby Show.

It's second child for me so I have an Oioi Messenger bag already but hadn't thought about it banging the bottom child on the head so haven't thought through whether I need a new one yet. I also have the Skiphop Dash, which hooks onto the side frame of the bag, but it's only small and I remember from DS that I had loads of kit to carry when he was little so not sure if it'll work.

It's funny because like you I can't imagine having a child as fantastic as DS but that's why I was hoping for a girl as I felt I'd compare a second boy to DS all the time whereas I'm expecting DD to be different IYSWIM. I'm most excited about pink, glitter and stripey tights though! I've already bought DD a gorgeous dress from Zara with little cherries all over it!

Streetcar is a service where you pay a regular fee and that gives you the right to use a pool car when you need one. We don't use it as have a company car through DP's work so I'm not an expert.

louiseAnn glad to hear your scan went well and another boy!! glad that the hosp were so child frienldy it mus just be leeds

Here we go, I had to look back 3 pages for this.

Crabby - boy?? - GIRL!!!!
Kiskidee - GIRL
WombFor1More- boy? BOY
Debithescot- boy ??
lollyheart- boy? BOY
Starlight- girl?
Barnpot- boy? confirmed BOY
jearund- boy? - BOY
Potxola- boy- GIRL
Sassafrass- girl- GIRL
biglips- girl?
becaroo- boy?? BOY
Talia1- boy - GIRL
izzybiz- Girl??- BOY!!
slinkiemalinki- boy? - BOY
Carrieon- girl?
MelT76- Girl?
LittleConnie- boy?
Micromum- Girl??
mustsleep- Girl?? - confirmed as a BOY!!!
Lollipopmother- Boy? - Confirmed as a girl
kel78- Boy??
expatmom2be- boy? - GIRL(?)
charitygirl- boy ?
ellideb- girl?- BOY
feelingpositive- girl? - Confirmed as GIRL!!
Gracie14 - boy? BOY
Bogie - girl? GIRL
eandz - boy - definitely a boy!
Worthog - boy?
Luboo - boy?
KashaSarrasin - boy??
LouiseAnn - boy? BOY
Inquisitive - BOY
Blimey - big boy
Sunshinemummy - girl

Not been here for a couple of weeks but just to update, scan showed I'm having a girl. We're going to call her Katherine

Still no idea when I'm due though. Somewhere between middle of August and middle of September

Hope all you ladies are doing well.

Ah glad someone explained Streetcar better than me!

Oh and the Dash hooks on the side of the pram - doh!

LouiseAnn we were v. surprised we were getting a girl as DP's family always have two boys then a girl. DP is totally over the moon!

if the dah isn;t big enough they do the skiphop duo too i think that that's the bigger version

we have the fisherprice freestyler bag i think it's called it is a rucksack type one and had two bottle holders on either side and opens in the middle with a changing ,at so you have stuff on either side iykwim, i think i'm going to ebay it though and go for a skip hop dash as we never needed that much stuff as it's rare we go somewhere for the full day (watch now i've said this we'll be out all the time)

Ooooh I'm just loving all the change bag tips, keep them coming!
Well now I have to wake dd so I can get her to the babysitter and get to the scan on time, woo hoo!
I've peed in a pot, so now need to drink loads again so i've got a fullish bladder for the scan. Good thing us women are capable of thinking of lots of things at once!

Oooh while I remember I have some Built Baby bottle holders that clip onto your pram that are great.

Good luck with scan Carrieon.