reban hope you're managing to take it easy.
Bisou blimey, that was a helluva post! Welcome back.
Verso that's outrageous! I suppose you have to expect the odd knobhead from time to time but as jumpjockey said, I'm amazed none of the other passengers offered their seats, even if just to show the old bag up.
jumpjockey I appreciate what a pain it is going to be arranging things with the in-laws but I'd say that this is one of those situations where you just have to put yourself, your baby and your sanity first even at the expense of inconvenience for them. When DS was born I spent far too much time and energy taking other people's feelings into consideration and tbh it made those first few weeks even more stressful than they already were. Believe me things are going to be different this time around!
Sympathies to all those having work hassles/new jobs etc. I am definitely in wind-down mode myself - my boss told me to slow down on the amount of new work I was taking on the other day & I almost laughed in her face, bless her. Does she not realise I've spent the last 6 weeks (okay, months) staring into space & surfing the internet? God, the thought of having to crank it up a notch, let alone start a new job at this stage - well, I would be in pieces.
Nappies - we used both types for a while but to my shame now only use disposables (due to DP's laziness more than anything - I don't do nappies). We live in a tiny flat but it really wasn't a problem to wash & dry them (we just bought the biggest clothes maiden we could find). The all-in-one nappies could sometimes take a couple of days to dry though so I wouldn't recommend them if you're short on space (they never seemed to work for DS anyway). For us I thought they were great at home during the day but less great for days out and overnight. Will be getting them back out for the new baby - that's when they come into their own cost-wise. Also although they're expensive to buy they have a surprisingly good resale value so if it doesn't work out you shouldn't lose out too much. I could bring a few along to the next meet-up if anyone's interested (if they're accessible - not sure where DP's hidden them). I would say though that if you are considering using them you might want to at least do a little bit of research before the baby comes along - the choice is overwhelming and speaking personally, if I'd left it all until after the birth I don't think I'd have ended up bothering at all.
Some of you might remember me whingeing on about the hospital not having my old notes to hand and being awkward about retrieving them and letting me access them. In the end I had to make an appointment to see the consultant to go through them with me. Anyway my appointment was yesterday - it was also my 30 week check and I must say it was about the most rubbish appointment I've had so far in either pregnancy. The doctor (don't think she was a consultant but could be wrong as she didn't introduce herself) took my blood pressure but not a word about whether it was high/low/normal. Listened to the heartbeat - fine. That was it. Had to ask what position the baby was in, had to ask whether my blood results were back (they were) and could she please check they were okay (they were), had to ask if my iron levels were low (they were). She volunteered no information whatsoever. She didn't measure the bump but wrote down 32cm anyway - I asked her how come and she said it was an estimate. Hmm.
I don't think it is too much to ask for midwives/doctors etc to talk you through what they are doing as they are doing it, as they generally do (IME anyway - maybe I've just been spoilt) - it doesn't take any more time after all and makes you feel more of a stakeholder in your own health rather than an object to be poked and prodded in silence. Well, as you can imagine the "going through my notes" bit consisted of her skimming through a couple of pages and saying yes, everything was fine last time and nothing for me to worry about. Tried to ask a couple of questions but difficult to know what to ask when they won't let you actually see what's written there.
Anyway, she sent me back to reception with both sets of notes to make my appointment in 4 weeks' time (but managed to write 2 weeks on my file - maybe she was hung over? - so my next midwife appt is in 2 weeks for no reason that I can see). I sneaked off to the waiting area to have a peek at my old notes then suddenly thought sod it, I'm just going to take them home, read them and photocopy them and bring them in next time and plead pregnancy brain - the alternative is filling in a form and waiting several weeks to have a copy made for the bargain sum of £50. I mean, it's hardly as if anyone at the hospital is going to miss them - I've had to practically beg them to retrieve them. So I am now an outlaw.
Sorry for going on - I know I'm very lucky to be having an uncomplicated pregnancy (so far) unlike some of us, and I'm fairly confident that if there were any real concerns they would be taken seriously. It does wind me up though - just consider it a hormonal outburst. Maybe I need to get down to antenatal yoga and throw a few ohmmms - or perhaps I should have taken a leaf out of Beans' book and flicked the v's behind the doctor's back.