Due in June - Creme eggs are long gone and our own eggs have started to hatch. Who will be next?

[Upsidedowncake]

We are two down and have another 30-40 to go. Makecakes and Gemma have probably popped by now, then G43! It's all happening!!!!!

Morning all, my you lot were chatty yesterday!

Sophie re: your friend, I echo all the advice about letting your friend take the lead. I had two mc's last year but lots of people were getting pregnant and having babies. The anticipation of meeting said babies and pregnant people was actually much worse than the reality. One person was really insensitive when I was holding her rather cute newborn when she said 'ooh, doesn't it make you want one' (FFS what a stupid thing to say!) but apart from that it was largely ok.

RE: grandparents names - I'm not too keen on what my p's want to be called, but it does mean they'll have different gp names from DH's parents so I suppose that'll make things easier.

I'm also on the lookout for a good 'routine' building book to read during mat leave so would also appreciate suggestions. Thanks SA (?) for printing your routine.

Deb I'm glad you got some rest finally, I really dont know where you get your energy from. I dont know how I'll manage with labour when walking up the stairs is exhausting . Thanks also for the update on ernest. Neenz, G43 and makecakes - I hope you are all doing well.

DD has been fine this am and had all her breakfast so we can go to the pub after all

BDQ- for routines I read "Baby Whisperer"- which didn't have all the answers but basically advises to have some activity after a feed so as not to feed to sleep. As SA said.
E eat,
A activity,
S sleep,
Y you-time
There's not much more to it than that! I aimed to feed every 3 hours during the day once the first few weeks were through and feeding was established. I think it depends on your baby but it does help to have some basic ideas to follow. The LO's do have a habit of breaking all the rules written about them...

I have found that the "What to Expect" for toddlers is v good and there is one for the First Year. They do a series of books. I might even buy the first year book now in spite of having been through once.

hi all - really interested to hear the different sleep etc theories. I've been reading the rachel waddilove baby book about the first year - this seems to be a nice common sense approach on routines and emminently practical.

sophie would echo others advice about playing it by ear with your friend...had 2 m.c and lost a baby late on and actually found spending time with some of my friends with kids (one in particular who has a little boy) was helpful. You can't avoid the facts of life and actually being involved in some way in friends lives who did have babies (where they were sensitive) gave me some comfort as at that time thought it might be only way could have interaction with babies.

Morning,

Have improved on the weekday pj party by having a Sunday morning slobbing around in pjs with DH doing much the same. He is playing Fifa on playstation; I catch up on MN, and we are slowly copying our entire cd collection onto the ipod. In theory the ipod task is for the labour, but it will mean that he has access to all his dodgy music in the hospital. Not sure if this is such a great set up.

Deb - please pass on best wishes to Ernest and thanks for the update.

Morning all

Well had lazy day yesterday after going to feign surprise at DPs work. They gave us this playmat which was lovely of them.

Then watched eurovision, and yes i know Spains was bldy crp. Try listening to it all day and every day anywhere you go!!!!Its been on radios , ads etc for past month

Re routines i have just ordered baby whisperer and The baby book from Amazon. They both have good reviews.

Well making most of comp and tv cause DP will be up soon to watch the grand prix, that was our deal i watch eurovision he watches GP hehe

Morning all

Well had lazy day yesterday after going to feign surprise at DPs work. They gave us this playmat which was lovely of them.

Then watched eurovision, and yes i know Spains was bldy crp. Try listening to it all day and every day anywhere you go!!!!Its been on radios , ads etc for past month

Re routines i have just ordered baby whisperer and The baby book from Amazon. They both have good reviews.

Well making most of comp and tv cause DP will be up soon to watch the grand prix, that was our deal i watch eurovision he watches GP hehe

Morning all

Dont know what ive just done butive managed to post on page 1 of this thread right at the beginnig!!! Hope this works now!

Well had lazy day yesterday after going to feign surprise at DPs work. They gave us this playmat which was lovely of them.

Then watched eurovision, and yes i know Spains was bldy crp. Try listening to it all day and every day anywhere you go!!!!Its been on radios , ads etc for past month

Re routines i have just ordered baby whisperer and The baby book from Amazon. They both have good reviews.

Well making most of comp and tv cause DP will be up soon to watch the grand prix, that was our deal i watch eurovision he watches GP

WT* .... and now 3 posts sorry !

Paro, thanks for all your posts!! I also have the Baby Whisperer and started reading it on holiday. I personally found it a bit too anal on the routine, but then I don't know whether I'm going to be a routine kind of person or not. I'm not a GF fan and thought Baby Whisperer was a bit softer, but from first reading it doesn't seem so. Maybe I need to read it again!

Finding What to Expect very useful.

Btw, the playmat's very cute!

V interested to hear all the discussion on what to call grandparents (polite names of course! ). My mum doesn't want any of the traditional names but wants me to come up with something different ! I've no idea so reading your suggestions with interest.

Debs, please pass on all our best wishes to Ernest. Let us know when you hear from her as I'm sure we will all be anxious to know she is ok.

Its pouring with rain here (typical British bank holiday weekend weather). We're planning a quiet day at home letting the kids go mad with their toys and then will probably spend most of next week in spring cleaning/potential home birth cleaning mode. My house is so trashed at the moment I would be embarrassed to have the midwives come!

Debs, what has happened to Ernest? I have missed so much while I've been away. Hope she's ok.

Thanks for all the Grandparent name suggestions. Why didn't I think of Nana? I like that. Also Granma and Granpa are different enough from Granny for me. LO unlikely to get confused, probably won't see NZ Grandparents until June next year anyway...unless money situation drmatically improves and we spend a month in NZ and Oz for Xmas....PP stops dreaming and come back to earth with a bump.

Thanks for letting us know about Ernest Debs, please send her our love. Doesn't sound like she's having much fun.

Had a very bad night last night - just the one wee break, but felt so sick actually had a bucket by the bed. Much better today - phew.

Hope you all have a lazy Sunday! PJ's or yoga pants obligatory.

we had all our bad weather overnight and the sun has come out.

Thanks Para Poppy and Peartart for book suggestions. I have ordered the what to expect one already actually, as I had the pregnancy one of that series so I'll have a look at that and maybe consider one of the others if need be.

Am currently having a lazy sunday, editing and sorting photo's on the computer but heading out to catch up with friends later. Still in my pj's for now though .

Have a question on sleeping positions if anyone can help. I have SPD, quite mildly, but really kicks in when I'm trying to sleep. I can't sleep on my back cos the weight of the baby is too uncomfortable now, but can't sleep comfortably on my sides now either cos both my hips and knees are really painful.

I'm sure I read of someone on here (or it might have been another thread) sleeping in a sort of semi-reclining position but not sure how I wouldn't wake up with dreadful neck ache if I did that!

Any suggestions gratefully received as I could do with putting in a few good nights' sleep before due date and I'm starting to get a phobia about going to bed cos lying down hurts (turned in at 2am this morning which is really not good).

Thank you.

hi all, have only read the top few. waiting for dh to get my mum from the airport so very excited - can't even concentrate on knitting!

just wanted to say i love The Baby Whisperer book. i read about 6 books when i had ds and it was the one i referred to again and again. it's not too strict but it really for us and ds sort of made his own routine based on our guidance from the book. plus i love the bit about the baby personalities - it's so true!

spongebrain (great name btw) i have spd quite badly now (although have amazing osteopath who makes it bearable) and i find if i put a pillow under the right side of my back/bum and then one between my legs/under bump on left side and lay half on my back half on my side it works best iyswim. very little pressure on hips that way and the bump isn't to heavy all on the back. in fact it's the only way i can sleep now but it's a b*tch to get into that position in the first place!!

dylansmum, thanks for the tip - I will try that. Dh now gets me into bed anyway (my nest as we call it!), so I'm sure he can help me get into position. Anything for a good night's sleep!

Thanks also for the tips on Baby Whisperer - maybe I just wasn't in a very receptive mood to the book. Will try it again, plenty of time before LO turns up!

Have fun with your mum - is she staying with you for the foreseeable future?

And what are you knitting? I'm knitting a sheep tea cosy for my SIL at the mo, in return for her making me cushions for my rocking chair for the nursery!

Hi spongebrain, I sleep on my side at about a 3/4 angle with support under the bump and support between the knees and ankles. I use a long maternity beanbag pillow which is great, but ordinary pillows would do the job too, it's just more of a faff getting them arranged, and re-arranged if you want to turn over. I need to spend time getting hips, knees and ankles symmetrically lined up to be comfortable. Hope you find something that works for you!

Spongebrain - Ernest has had awful itching all over her bump , which then spread to her boobs, she eventually went into hospital on Fri, they have taken bloods and she'll get the results on Monday afternoon, then they will decide whether to bring her cs forward, she should have been another 2 weeks yet, but they might decide to operate within the next 3/4 days.

Hi everyone

Sorry all of you suffering with SPD.

Splodgebrain, welcome back!

Debs, thanks for keeping us in the loop about Ernest. Please send my best.

Peartart, thought of you this morning as DS is back to insisting on eating dry cereals. This morning he had muesli (which at least is less messy than Weetabix). After 10 minutes of very slow picking out of raisins one by one, I reminded him about his milk jug. He obligingly poured it onto his cereal - then burst into tears, 'Mummy. My muesli's all wet!!!

I loved the Baby whisperer too - and adapted the dreaded Gina Ford using Tracy Hogg's principles. I also loved the WHat to expect ... series. It's the only pregnancy book that my friend in South Africa has - so it's jolly good that it's so packed with stuff!

DH has just painted the baby's room. So exciting. I really will pack my hospital bag at some point this weekend. (Upside sticks head back in sand.)

Send my best to Ernest too Debs. Have they managed to sort out someone looking after the kids OK?

Thanks for the update on Ernest - is that the itching caused by obstetric coleatis (sp). I don't really know much about it but have seen it mentioned on other threads. V hard for her with the other children to worry about too. Poor thing .

Upside, I esp loved the bit in the What to Expect book on dads in the early days feeling resentful when they go back to work and their wives still expect them to pull their weight with night feeds, etc. I was expecting the book to say something along the lines of "tell your wife you need your sleep now you're back at work and you'll help out more at weekends, etc", but no, it bascially said "tought sh*t mate, your wife's job is a thousand times harder than yours so suck it up and stop moaning!" (I did paraphrase that btw!!)

I read it to my dh to raised eyebrows!

I meant obstetric cholestasis - still not sure what it is though.

interested in the what to expect book.. am slightly hesitant as found the pregnancy one v.irritating (and quite american) and quite preachy - I think I have only looked at it once. Sounds like the baby version is a bit more helpful - is this right?

have also got the dreaded gina ford (some bits useful, some bits bit too prescriptive) plus an australian book written by a midwife (will dig out title) that does seem very helpful adn practical - a bit like rachel waddilove which I've really enjoyed. Here is hoping advice is some good..

Hoping ernest gets some answers/relief from hospital visit

by American meant recipes and suggestions on what to do and when clearly written with american measures, antenatal system etc in mind not that being american is a bad thing -just didn't translate that readily sometimes to UK ...