Due Sept 08: The one where we pack our bags and write our birth plan.

[mamamufin]

I thought I would be brave

Congratulations Kasha I too have been wondering how u are. What a lovely boy surprise.

Look after yourself and enjoy your special time together.

Sending Big flowers, hugs, love and happiness xx

{grin] congratulations Kasha!!! Glad your little son is doing well!

Congrats kasha that's lovely news!

A guy offered me his seat yesterday on the tube (it was soooo hot!!) - when the woman sitting next to me got up to leave, she had a go at me saying did I think pregnancy was an illness?!! Err, no, but if someone kindly offers me their seat I'm not going to say no am I?! Silly woman, I just ignored her, but it did make me

i agree, mean woman!

ok, so i perked up a little today when our bugaboo cameleon came today (we bought it used from an ebay auction for £200!) but umm it smells of smoke. so if i change the fabric, will the smell go away?

Eandz lots of airing is usually the best way to get rid of smokey smels. you can wash any removeable fabrics, and sponge down the rest (sorry, don't know whether you can remove all the fabric). If you do it on a sunny day and put it in the garden to dry, it won't go rusty or anything. You might need to sponge it down a couple of times, but as long as it dries in a nice airy/windy garden, the smell should go pretty quickly.

Big congratulations to Kasha - glad to hear your lo is doing well - have you got a name yet? Hope you're OK too

eandz i agree with with starilght if you wash it and give the frame a wipe and air it out it won;t smell anymoremil keeps bringing baby clothes and i have to wash all the stuff she has bought cos it reeks of smoke - don;t think she can smell it though as she smokes herself mama2bee what a cow bag- this woman at work was a bit like that the last time i went in and someone offered to carry a bucket for she said "she's only pregnant not ill you know" cow

eandz i agree with with starilght if you wash it and give the frame a wipe and air it out it won;t smell anymoremil keeps bringing baby clothes and i have to wash all the stuff she has bought cos it reeks of smoke - don;t think she can smell it though as she smokes herself mama2bee what a cow bag- this woman at work was a bit like that the last time i went in and someone offered to carry a bucket for she said "she's only pregnant not ill you know" cow

Too true starlight! To be honest, I was so shocked she was such a cow bag (great word mustsleep!) I was stunned into silence for a minute or two! Hey ho, most people have been lovely though...

Well exactly...if I'd said something back, I'd have only got myself more hot and bothered - why rise to it, even if she was bloomin rude! 27 working days to go, bah!

22 (and a couple of hours) working days to go for me! I can't wait, although I have absolutely no idea how on earth I'm going to entertain myself at home for 5 weeks... Maybe I'll finally write my masterpiece.

Hey hey 17 days for me yippee!

Hopefully I intend to sleep and do lovely things for myself like get massages and go to aqua classes.

Ooh, I was thinking wouldn't be able to do nice things like massages due to our strict budgeting, but have just realised that I will be buying 2 one week train tickets rather than a 1 month one, so will have a bit of money spare!

Does anyone else think, well I might have x problems with my pregnancy, but at least I haven't got that? I find it's a bizarre way of counting my blessings.

Only problem is, one of my things was 'at least I haven't got swollen ankles' .. until this morning when I looked down and thought, my god! where did my lovely slim ankles go? Aaaaarrgh!!

mama2be how blardy rude of her! I always march up to people on the bus and tube and demand a seat (can never be bothered to wait for someone to notice my bump)...no one has ever said no. I don't know what I would say if they did! Would I have to list all the reasons why I feel I deserve a seat?? Puffy feet, SPD, knackered, back ache, sitting down stops me feeling like I need the toilet, I know I'm not 'ill' but neither are old people...

eandz if all else fails, lots of febreze!

Has anyone else started craving weird foods/smells? I'm totally addicted to my new car smell at the moment. I can't get enough of it. As soon as I sit down in it I want to breath the whole lot in and eat it.
I'm also loving fizzy water...can't get enough of that either, especially with lime!

Ponymum - yes, I have a long list of all the symptoms I don't have - am eating heaps of fruit and veg in a bid to stave off constipation and piles! My ankles seem OK still and I'm rather smug about my elegant bump - maybe it helps being tall, but it looks very streamlined rather than 'cushion under clothes'. Although when I catch myself from the side in the mirror I go "blimey that's huge!"

Had my first NCT class today - one woman lives in my street! All very nice and very down-to-earth tutor. As she put it, you're not 'ill' but you're not 'not-pregnant', either, and feel free to remind people about your lungs, guts, spine, bladder all being squashed by the increasing size and weight of baby!

My local medical shop (just up the road) say they can rent me a self-propel wheelchair, so I'll pick that up in the morning and have it for the weekend. They warned me it's a tad heavy, but I think it'll be easier than trying to get one from anywhere else before Saturday - the nearest Red Cross in Sutton is closed until Monday and the next one is Beckenham which is miles. In the meantime I ache no end from the whole 250 yards walk from NCT-teacher's house to nearest bus stop - took me 20 minutes

While I remember the NCT tutor advised that cramps can be avoided by upping calcium and potassium intake. I felt very smug as i've only had some mild cramps a couple of times and DP makes me a banana milkshake every morning.

does banana cake count towards potassium intake sunshine as i'll be baking that tonight with all the overripe bananas that I haven't eaten!

Anything with bananas I'm sure !

digitalgirl Yes with the smells! I have a strange addiction to my lavender wheat bag! Usually I think lavender is quite sickly, and I was really pissed off at the time that I bought the wheat bag and could only find this lavender scented one. Now I heat it up and hold it right next to my nose and inhale for all I'm worth... to the extent that I forget to put it on my sore back where it's needed!

notcitrus I am getting a wheelchair 'of my own' delivered tomorrow! I'm not sure what they mean by that but the OT who visited on Monday said I needed a permanent one rather than the usual temporary one, so I feel pretty lucky!

hopefully, I am writing my masterpiece! Wrote 10 chapters (very roughly!) in the space of one week when we were on holiday in April. Now I have actually finished the whole book first draft, and am busy tidying it up. I wonder if pregnancy makes you more creative? I have been trying to write a book for about 5 years and this just happened overnight.

Breast pump has arrived. Looks intriguing. Will I feel like a cow?

Congratulations Kasha, hope your little one comes out of the nicu soon and make sure to take good care of yourself.

eandz pretty much everything on the cameleon can be washed in the machine at 30C (I do mine on delicates or handwash to be safe). That's the seat back, pram underside and underseat basket as well as the obvious hoods etc.
I did it and mine came up lovely (though not a smoker I must confess)!

ponymum - I'm seeing the physio again on Friday but my priority is to get to this gig at Twickenham on Saturday, and I doubt any physio could magic up a wheelchair at 5pm on a Friday night! I will ask if I can get one from the NHS seeing as my hips are definitely worse. As long as I only walk 10-20 yards at a time, eg round the house, I'm OK. It's only when I do more it takes days to recover.

kasha - Congratulations!

digitalgirl - the only wierd craving I had was a weekend around 16 weeks when I really, really wanted a cigar! Haven't smoked at all for over 10 years, and obviously wasn't going to start! Apart from that it's just protein (SLABS of meat, fish, tofu) and fruit, which I've wanted all through. Until I got pregnant I had lots of stomach problems (I stopped throwing up when preg), so I'm really enjoying things I haven't been able to keep down for years, like pastry and cheese. For the joy of eating a pizza, pregnancy is almost worth it. Oh yes, and the baby...