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

[LittleConnie]

Come on over!

Thanks for the support Potxola. I look forward to hearing how you get on with the fit flops - a couple of people have recommended them for post birth toning!

In other news, my work colleague had her baby last night, after a horrendously long labour, but they are both healthy, which is the main thing. Am so excited for her and want to buy her things! Am restraining, as we (in the office) are sending her a huge box of chocolates and a basket of nibbles to keep her going if she can't be bothered to cook.

ooh, and in even more news, DP's mum is ordering the bugaboo this weekend. i am so unreasonably excited. We eneded up going for the grey base/red upper combination, as i saw the navy blue in real life and it wasn't as dark as i'd hoped. Also I figured the grey can go with other colouors if I want to buy difference fabric (shopaholic alert).

colouors

mustsleep any idea where I might be able to go to try out the streety? It seems to be so new that not many people stock it...

digitalgirl, you get super sensitive to waking when your baby wakes. if you are roomsharing, it normally means that you will wake up before your baby is crying but when he is snuffling. if you are bedsharing, it is the wiggles and even the change in his breathing that would wake you. if you look at the youtube link below that is called 'benefits of bedsharing' you will spot the difference.

the thing with bedsharing is that you do not even have to become fully conscious say after the initial weeks of getting the hang of feeding in bed, in order to latch them on. with sleeping in a cot, you have to actually physically get up and pick up the baby. it means that your brain has to wake up even more so as to coordinate which are pretty sophisticated actions.

Have you considered getting a sidecar cot? the ones where one side drops down so you can in essence make the cot a part of the bed by bringing it right up to the bed? clever things.

Hello all - bloody hell this thread moves so fast! Loving all the bfeeding chat - I know quite a lot about it from a previous job, but I'm still prone to pessimism about whether I'll be able to do it - or rather whether I'll have an initial bad experience that'll put me off.

20 week scan today (a bit late) - everything fine and its a boy like I thought! Placenta is somewhat low hanging but I'm sure that'll sort itself out. So amazing to see the chambers of the heart.

Digitalgirl - if you've ever shared a room with a baby whose welfare you are responsible for, then you WILL wake up at the slightest bloody snuffling until you want to put in ear plugs. And babies are surprisingly noisy sleepers.

Starlight I knoow what you mean about conversing with women. I make inane, senseless comments to try to gain their freindship but neartly always make a faux pas and it ends in disaster! I would like to make friends but just don;t know what to say. men are much more straight forward! But just think, you can bring your DD up to be a strong, confident, independent young woman and who's to say a new DS wouldn't have been into ballet?

Hopefully, you have my sympathies. My boss' boss was a real old meanie when it came to mothers who worked (eg "no you can't have a long lunch hour to take your child to the doctors") but what goes around....at 43 she is now pregnant and due in June and has had really bad ms - apparently she has now 'seen the light' and realises that ms does actually exist (she never believed it did before!).
Keep strong and stand your ground.

I prefer men too starlight and imoscarsmum. They are much more straight forward. I've never been a girly girl and I'm into sport. And generally I prefer teaching boys to girls, esp when they get to year 11 when the girls start looking you up and down and pulling faces at what your wearing. And girls hold onto a grudge but most boys dont.

Saying that I have had the shittest lesson today with year 9 and it was 5 boys who were the biggest problem. I've spent the last 2 hours sorting out detentions and stuff as a result of their behaviour and rudeness and horribleness.

imsoscaredmom-- i'm the worlds worst conversationalist when it comes to talking to other women. i offered to trade babies with one woman because she wanted a boy and was having a girl.... and then when she said no, i dropped my price and was willing to trade my child for a taco...which no one in the room found funny.

hopefully-- the best part to attack is the upper part of the arm, closest to the armpit... dig your nails in deep. it's how i got revenge on a bully as a child.

Great pic, LeonieD! Blimey thats a big boob.

Eandz - I would have laughed!

I'll buck what's turning into a trend and say that I love talking to women, meeting women, have lots of great female friends. But I like boys too, and I'm looking forward to giving withering looks to anyone who tells me that boys are 'hard work', 'naughty', 'difficult' etc!

Startlight Imoscarmum I though I was having problems making friends because I a Spanish.....
I know more about some of you that some mums I have known and met for 3 yrs. All the conversations are so empty. They just don't relax and chat openly about things.

I always thought one day I would make some nice friends in the UK, but I am not quite sure now. I just don't know how to be fake and I don't know how some women can talk about nothing for 15 min, I don't know how to do it and I always feel I have told them too much about me and they look at me as if I was weird AND I AM NOT
Does it make sense?

Hi guys
Ive been catching up on all the posts in chunks this afternonn.
Back from a sad few days thanks for all your lovely messages.
Love the photo Leo I cant wait to have a baby in my arms now.
I am a really girly girl and love pink and all things that glitter. I am going to have 2 boys too! , its quirky how things turn out.
Oh and Hr were lovely to me the other day. We have figured out an action plan. Basically, I am in work now for 3 weeks then have 2 weeks annual leave then another 2 weeks at work before I finish for mat leave . I will be all done for the 4th of july whey hey. What I did not realise was that any annual leave not taken (4 weeks) can be carried over when I return after 1 year off. Amazing really.
Happy friday girlys xx

LeonieD - wow that boob is ENORMOUS!!!! Great photo .

sunshine thanks! perhaps I should start buying some of these magazines...I'm worried I'll get sucked into wanting to buy the latest must-have bibs and booties.

kiskeedee was thinking about a sidecot with dropdown bars, but does that mean it'll make it harder to move them out of the room come 6 months?

I used to be a man's girl, but I've since realised that most of my male friends are actually girly men. And I've got two circles of girlfriends that I love to bits and get on brilliantly with. Since I've stopped drinking, my male friends seem to have disappeared...

as far as having a boy...i'm stocking up on my knowledge of animal poo, sports bloopers and dinosaurs. hopefully if he's like other little boys it's what he'll be fascinated with till he's about 5ish.

i was sort of looking forward to having a little girl whose hair i could do and buy little dresses for, but i'm enjoying the fact that come Halloween this year i can dress my little boy up as a pumpkin for the day and next year he can be a pirate. little girls on Halloween are always fairys/princesses/mermaids until they're old enough to dress up as witches.

every year i throw kick butt Halloween parties (since I moved to London) but this year I guess it'll be a non alcoholic, daytime punch and candy serving affair. but i guess i'm still excited...maybe.

I can't write today, I am tired
Startlight Imoscarmum I thought I was having problems making friends because I am Spanish.....
I know more about some of you that some mums I have known and met for 3 yrs. All the conversations are so empty. They just don't relax and chat openly about things.

I always thought one day I would make some nice friends in the UK, but I am not quite sure now. I just don't know how to be fake and I don't know how some women can talk about nothing for 15 min, I don't know how to do it and I always feel I have told them too much about me and they look at me as if I was weird AND I AM NOT
Does it make sense?
I also wanted a boy and I am too scared about not knowing how to bring Lorea up.

I am just wondering here - is it only me that can't get their head around the idea of co-sleeping? I just can't imagine ever doing it, I am such a deep sleeper that I'd worry I'd roll onto the baby, and although people say 'ohh no mother would ever roll on their baby' I just think that is ridiculous. Plus there is the issue of suffocation etc. I am happy to have the baby in the same room as us (although my mother says this is absolutely the worst thing I could do ) but the idea of co-sleeping just really freaks me out, it's not essential is it?

actually, i used to freak out about rolling over on top of the baby while sleeping and no waking up till the morning. (big fear) ...but i found this thing that i hear works great (from relatives) :

it's called a sleeper here

For the first 6 months, my dh sleept in a single bedroom . I was in the main bedroom with my ds in a cot-bed. We decided this because it was clear to us that he had to be able to sleep to work and I was going to BF on demand. It worked for us. I did not have to worry about my ds making to much noise.
This time is going to be more difficult because my ds sleeps on the other bedroom!

i co-slept with ds as he cried all time and would just end up dropping off on the sofa with him lol

littleconnie not sure really mothercare have them on their website and so do toys r us but whether they actually will have them instore is another thing

if you are in or near leeds you are welcome to come and have go with mine

Hey potxola we're all women - sometimes this thread is 'small talk'-y and fluffy, and sometimes it's about the deep stuff. And you can do both. Although I love 'girls talk' I DON'T like meaningless chatter for longer than it takes to break this ice, and I do have fears about these frienships I'm supposed to make at NCT - why? just because they're mums and so am I?

Pah - I'm a bit more discriminating than that, thanks!

You will be a great mum to a girl - please don't doubt it. You just won't produce an uptight, empty 'small talker' like the women you don't get on with - which is a good thing!

Potxola, it took me a fair while to make friends here after moving from Sweden. I know have three really good friends who have children the same age as me. When I went to mums and tots groups I kinda sussed out who else seemed a bit lonely and went over and chatted to them. If they seemed nice I pretty much invited them to do stuff with me and dd1. Both of them have later said that they were so relieved that someone had the guts to ask them to do stuff =) I'm not a naturally very outgoing person but I think I was getting desperate.

I had a bit of a scare at work today. The kids were jostling about lining up for assembly. One of them pushed another and she bumped, elbow first, right into my stomach. It was a bit achy afterwards but the baby has been kicking as usual so I think it's ok. My headteacher came in later and had a chat with the children asking them to be careful and making sure I sat down lots and rested. She's really sweet and supportive. I don't have to do any break duty at all and she's offered to swap things around if I want so I don't need to do PE.

I don't fancy cosleeping either. Would be scared I'd squash it or dh would squash it. Or that I wouldn't sleep in case I squashed it. Also like being able to sprawl in my bed.

I do have some very good female friends, although they are mostly not very girly too.

I got even more annoyed when I got home from work today. I had bought some straightners online (after saying I'm not a girly girl that prob sounds daft!) and there was no indication at all that they would come from abroad on the website. Today I got a letter from TNT saying I have to send them £31 for import tax. I'm so angry at the website people but I don't think there's anything I'll be able to do to avoid paying it.