Due Sept 08: Come on babies, 'cause we are running out of space.

[kiskidee]

New thread here.

Daft name cause we only have 4 more before we hit 1000.

Glad to hear so many of you have positive breastfeeding experiences!
I've got the in-laws, SIL2 and mum and baby all coming to stay for the weekend, so we've assembled the cotbed, moses basket, pile of nappies, etc.

It all feels very parental, being the owners of a nappy bucket and all!

morning all!.....ahhh my mum had got my DD for a whole day now....right what shall i do???

ive noticed for the past 2 days that the baby is not as active in the night time and even mum had said that i look like my tummy has dropped.

oh its ok as ive just had a drink of cold orange juice and baby gone AWOL again!!

morning...i wish someone would be so kind to offer to take ds out for the day, he's getting fed up of just boring mummy!

feel i've got lots to do but where to start!

biglips enjoy your day

I got a bloody awful pain in my lower right side of bump two nights ago, like the most God awful stitch, I couldn't even breathe let alone stand, it was horrible. It wore off over night though thank God, I think maybe the baby dropped and gave my muscles/ligaments a bit of a shock.

Did anyone read Ulrika's article in the Mail yesterday about her pregnancy? If not, take a squint, it's not bad!

bogie can't offer any words that would help as I can't even imagine what you and your family are going through. I am so sorry for you all. Look after yourself.
izzy your post had me in tears.

thank you for all your comments about bf in public. All commom sense stuff, glad to get similar messages and feeling more confident.

notcitrus I haven't got a nappy bucket. OMG!!!!I am defective.

Just read Ulrika's article and good for her! I was so disappointed when I saw Nicole Kidman just a couple of weeks after giving birth looking like she'd never been pregnant.
If I've had 2 heartbeats for 9 months, there's no way I want to rush things back to normal and our bodies need time to adjust to being just one again.

bogie so sorry to hear about your nephew it really puts things into perspective when you hear things like this

had got a letter from the midwife asking me to call her egarding home birth yesterday so gave her a ring this morning and she was astonded that noone had thought to arrange an appt with me and they had left it for her to do - plus the receptionist had told me that she wasn;t in till today but she has been in since friday so i could have had my home visit this week

anyway she is coming to see me on tuesday to go through my homebirth note which i should be getting through the post on monday - dh is a little put out as she can;t give a time and he can;t afford to leave work at 1.30 so he may miss the appt which is a bit of a pita for me as he isn;t fully up for the homebirth idea as mil has been in his ear

does anyone know where i can get any info on homebirth for him which sets out the procedures and what happens in a emergency etc?

imoscarsmum - given I've got a baby turning up for the weekend shortly, we've had quite the incentive to set things up! And SIL2 has been using 95% reusables which are being handed down to us, so a lidded bucket seems vital - I guess if you're just chucking nappies in the dustbin it's different? Besides, it was only £2.99 from somewhere!

Just went through the Bounty pregnancy pack which I tracked down a while back. Its useful contents boil down to 3 pads, tiny pot of Sudocrem, 1 nappy, small pack of wipes with scary smell, and a pack of Ovaltine. And £1 off any Pampers item in future. And a couple kilos of card and paper for recycling.

Anyone know if the Boots baby club (or any others) are worth joining or are they just 99% drowning you in advertising for crap? Like the Fisher-Price brochure full of £100+ baby 'entertainment systems' with flashing lights and noise...

notcitrus I'm a sucker for joining things but can honestly say Boots is worth it.
You get a free baby change bag, which is not a great one but a useful stand by in an emergebcy (or give to relatives who look after baby?).
The best things though are double-points vouchers for baby stuff and money off coupons. I generally have around £50 worth of points by Xmas every yr - handy for presents.
We've been sent just 2 info packs from them in the 5 months since we joined. One has a voucher for 500 points if we buy the BT baby monitor that we were going to buy anyway. result!

Tesco is OK too - you get a car sticker for parking in parent & baby spaces (my local tesco can get quite strict about parking there).

Can you tell I only have 2 more weeks in work and I am counting the seconds..... .
I'm not good value at the moment, especially working from home. Oh dear...

had anyone noticed that its "08/08/2008" today.. just info for yous lot!

Hi all,

Sorry for my long rambling whinging post the other day. sometimes i find this whole impending motherhood thing completely overwhelming.

bogie so sorry to hear about your nephew. my thoughts are with you and your family.

Still no news on what's wrong with FIL, he's being kept in hospital over the weekend for more tests so he will miss SIL's civil partnership ceremony tomorrow. We're going to try and visit him in the evening afterwards.

On a positive note, my dad rang this morning to say he's got a cot for us. It was my little brother's (who's now 4), and has since been lent out to another family...but hopefully with a bit of a clean up and perhaps a fresh lick of paint it should be perfectly usable. We just need to get a new mattress. That should save a few bob.

Now we just need some shelves and a moses basket stand and I think we've got everything for the nursery.

Thanks to all those who've reassured me about not needing much money the first few months. I can't believe I'm already worrying about how to afford Christmas presents! Having a baby is a big enough present

digitalgirl we are already discussing xmas in this house too - i hate bloody money

we will have (thanks to our excellent planning skills! )

september-

Mums bday (my mum)on the 6th
Dad's bdat (my dad) on the 18th
New baby due on 12th (apparently)
dd's 3rd bday on 27th

also need to buy ds a fullnew school uniform and dd's winter clothes as some time around all this

November

30th ds's 7 bday

December

23rd Sisters bday
then bloody xmas

good god we won;t have any cash until at least may and i have no idea if we will ever get to go on holiday again

but at the end of the day i'm sure that things will work out and if things are too tight this year we will have to make our xmas pressies next year i could learn to knit and do everyone stylish jumpers and dh could whittle some toys for the kids .......

mustsleep I'm thinking that cute photos of new baby in nice (but cheap) frame makes a wonderful xmas pressie for the whole family! Result!

digitalgirl sorry to hear about FIL.

If it helps, I veer (daily) from being so happy about this new life to being scared shitless about how my life is about to change and whether I'll cope without selfish lie-ins etc. You are not alone, I promise.

yes we have done this before lol

we had some of those mugs made froman online shop where they are black until they have hot drink in then and then the kids pics appear ... cheap but nice

tbh wearen;t going to go mad on the kids pressies this year as they get sooo much off grandparents and my sister anyway. We are just going to get them a big pressie each and some stocking fillers me thinks

and the new baby can have clothes

mustsleep haha! We don't seem to have as many birthdays due as you do, but we've got my dad's bday Sep 12, baby due on Sep 23, our wedding anniversary in October, FIL's bday (fingers crossed) in November.
Then bloody xmas, then DH's birthday on 5 Jan, then my two little brothers bday on 13 and 16 Jan.

Photo/mug of baby for everyone sounds like a good plan. And baby itself won't be pestering me for a playstation just yet...so I have that to be grateful for.

imo I'm working from home today, so I had a lie-in then a long bath. got to cram them in while we can! Am thinking of borrowing a stockpile of DVD series to watch for when I'm on ML...might not get a chance to watch anything all the way through for a while.

Bogie, I'm really sorry about your tragic circumstances. I hope your family come closer and things get easier day by day.

bogie sorry to hear about your nephew, hope things can be as peaceful and as ok (thats not the right word but can't think of a better one) as they can be for him and all the family.

Had a good few days with MIL, she did the ironing, bought lunch and coffee out, bought a few things for baby and ds and has entertained ds the whole time he's been awake.
Went swimming this morning and then going to an open day at a farm near here as soon as he wakes up from his nap.

Someone was asking about cramp and salt the other other day- yes eating salt is good for stopping cramp. The reason athletes/footballers etc get cramp lots is because when you sweat you obviously lose a lot of salt but they usually just drink water so only the fluid and not the salt is being replaced. Then a lack of slat gives them cramp.

bogie I'm so for you and your family.

No personal experience of Obstetric Cholestasis, but someone I know had it, she had regular medication which kept it all under control and was induced at 38 weeks when you're considered 'term'. She had no problems at all and it vanished the second she wasn't pregnant. Her only grumble was that they induced her on 30th August, so dd was in the wrong school year, but they've moved to Australia now so that doesn't matter!

I'm supposed to be packing for holiday now - we go away tomorrow for a week with my parents to a holiday cottage in Norfolk. But first I'm going to Boots this afternoon (love the club btw!) for disposable knickers, cotton wool balls, newborn nappies, sudacreme, and any other 'must have' bits that I see when I'm there. Not sure if they've still got their triple points deal on baby stuff or not.

LOVE the Ulrika article!

ps, top money saving tip - don't buy the baby a Christmas present! Dd was 8 months old at her first Christmas so I doubt she'll remember how mean mummy and daddy were

imoscar - thanks, will sign MrNC up for Boots then! He gets loads of points from them already - I lost my card a few years back and haven't used them since!

Luckily my family don't really do that much in the way of presents - we tend to circulate lists in November and then get some random stuff, unwrapped after dinner to ensure everyone's a bit too tipsy to remember what they wanted! And MIL always gives everyone something mad that was cheap in the market. I suppose with four babies some of us will have to stay sober-ish and just rely on tiredness for the required memory loss!

So should be OK as long as the builders are done by Christmas - this is the loft extension that was meant to be done by end June (their words) or end July (what we figured)...

digitalgirl I have about 10 films that i must watch when on ML! I do love my films (went to flicks last night to see Hancock) so am hoping that I can get babysitter for next Harry Potter film (how terrible to be thinking of baby sitter before flumpet's even here ). If not, I'll go on my own and DP can have 'bonding session' with baby !

mustsleep like the idea of mugs - just up MIL's street!

carrieon As bubs will be less than 4 months at Xmas - what a great idea not to buy pressie. He'll get tons from doting grandparents anyway..... And me & DP's time is present in itself.

Actually, DP & I have already agreed on one pressie to each other over Xmas break - one day I get a whole day to be self-indulgent, lie-in, bath etc etc (if I want) and another day he gets same. We both get 'me time' and it's free!

mustsleep - in our family (and dp family too) its all in May so i am mega skint that month and quite a bit in November...inc mine

my DD's bday is 1st Oct & dp's bday is 24th Sept.