Yes to vivid dreams, so horrible I someties wake and feel like I've not slept.
Beans I had pelvic pain a lot with ds, a sleep pillow def helped to stop everything "dragging down" when I was trying to sleep.
Tax credits are great and those studenty ones/self employed but not really making money ones among us should def get some as you don't have to be earning at all to get the child tax credits. Then if you are under 25 having a child means you can get the working tax credits if you or your dp work (and are under the limit which is much lower than the CTC). Even when dp and I were both students we got CTC. CTC for low earners/non earners is probably about £200 a month I think (mine having gone down a bit not due to ds being over 1 and us actually having an income) Another one to remember is the Surestart maternity grant. You have to be on some form of benefit to get it but you have 3 months after the birth to claim so if you don't get anything now, apply for your child benefit as soon as the baby is born, when you have those you can apply for your CTC. When you have that you can apply for the grant and get between £250 and £500! You then get a few more things off the back of that, because we had the grant we were then sent a letter to say that we could get Healthy Start vouchers (what used to be milk tokens) which was something like £5.60 a week to spend on fresh milk or formula milk, fresh fruit and veg. Ace. Also could have been eligable for Warm Start which was free insulation or double glazing but we rent so I didn't get the details for that.
Gosh that is a long bit of waffle on benefits. I'd like to point out that I don't believe in scrounging but it is good to know what is around and to apply. I should still be able to get the maternity grant this year, which makes me feel odd because we have a pretty good income now and if I needed a grant to be able to afford another child I wouldn't be having a child (ds was a slight surprise, having a baby when you ar both students is not a good way to find out about benefits) but I and everyone else who feels odd applying for stuff should remember that they don't look at a list and say "ah yes Indith has not claimed her money so let's give it to Mrs Bloggs who is really struggling" so you may as well take it.
Second/third 2nd hand stuff. Ds still gets clothed mainly from charity shops and I oftne have a look round a few if I'm in town to keep my eyes open for anything he needs, clothes, toys, books etc. The other day I got 2 great jumpers for him and all the clothes the new baby will need for the first 3-6 months for £8.