Calling all pregnant ladies in Blackheath/Manor Park/Lew

[MrsEJO]

Hello! I'm new to mumsnet AND being a mum ? this is my first!! Am only 15+3 weeks. I live in Blackheath / Lew and was wondering if there are any pregnancy groups that I can join / attend other than the NCT classes (I might be too early for those classes?). Just a gossip coffee on a saturday morning with people in the same boat would be nice!

I often catch the train from Blackheath St and wonder if there are any other 15 weekers on the platfrom just getting over morning sickness!!

Im very accessible to Manor Park too.

Would love to hear from anyone

Em

Thanks for all your good wishes, everyone.

Tupperwife - lunch on 29 April is a lovely idea. Maya and I will be there with bells on if the date suits others.

elk - interesting question about cats. Ours is an occasionally irascible but affectionate old rescue cat, who doesn't like children and resists change . He has a basket under a worktop in the kitchen which he loved for about two weeks and then abandoned for five months until about 5 days before Maya was born. He re-adopted it as a safe place before she arrived, and now goes there when things get too much. I think he sees our newborn as another little pet that we've acquired. He stares at her a bit, has the odd sniff, but otherwise ignores her. His nose is a little out of joint when she is on the sofa with us, but we try to give him as much attention as possible and he is coping pretty well. Often when I am in bed in the morning feeding Maya, or on the sofa in the afternoon, he'll join us and lie next to me, so I think he's prepared to put up with things. Hopefully by the time she gets bigger and louder he'll have totally accepted her. How he'll feel when she becomes self-propelled is another matter, however...

Hope that helps.

Thanks, daisyj! That's quite encouraging, as I'm a bit worried about how our little 'queen of the house' will react to the 'alien invasion' . She hid under the bed the whole time our friends were visiting with a 16month old. Hopefully, she'll find a newborn less frightening.

I was at the Bar du Musee, but no one was there . There was a gathering of new parents (judging by all the very-very small babies in their laps), but no bumps... I was there around 12:35-12:40.

Maybe we should try to arrange these meetings a bit more in advance. How about next Thursday for a tea/coffee at either Bar du Musee or Biscuit (just across the road from Bar du Musee, they had some lovely looking brownies in the window)?

elk4baby - where were you?! I was there too - from 12:25-12:45! Yes, I noticed the 3.5 couples with babies at the table in the window - I thought they might be some of the new arrivals on here (since the only ones I've actually met who've now had babies are Clare7Rose and Rosa) and totally embarrassed myself by sort of hanging around to see if they looked like they were expecting some bumps to arrive .

I wandered through the rooms trying to bump-spot (very difficult to do surreptitiously when people are sitting down...) and eventually parked myself on one of the high stools by the counter, hoping my bump would be obvious to anyone who hadn't met me. I guess we must have missed each other whilst I was checking out the back room or something.

Anyway, I can say that BdM is also rubbish for food. Unless you like cheese baguettes and are willing to eat brie, goat's cheese with rind, or stilton whilst pregnant. Oh, and they had some forlorn-looking pies. It used to be good before Greenwich Inc took over... like so many Greenwich eateries!

I'm up for tea/coffee next Thurs. Am happy to make it slightly later - say 2pm - and I'll grab some food from Alacosta after yoga before coming to join you for coffee and a pudding. Teaching has finished for the academic year (just exam marking next term), so I can rearrange my work a bit now.

The brownies at Biscuit are excellent, the only issue will be whether we can get a table during the school holidays! It looked pretty crowded just before 1pm. Worth a try though. Another place we could try is Costa Coffee in Waterstone's - they're buggy-friendly in there (I know it's first floor but there's a lift).

I'm looking forward to the warm weather and picnics in the park...

Hello -
Elk and Bump - aargh - so sorry . meant to make it to lunch on thus, but my bizarre pregnancy restless leg thingy is kicking off in a big way and I got literally no sleep on Wed night.
Still up for coffee this Thus though!
I'm wondering if there's any news from toastnhoney as I know she's due around now...

Hello all - just to let you know I had an Easter delivery - Naima Joy was born at home on Friday morning and she is absolutely gorgeous.

We're having a brilliant time getting to know each other and catching up on sleep - but looking forward to getting out and about and introducing you all to her soon!

woohoo! Congratulations! How was the home birth [she asks with more than a hint of vested interest!]? Perfect timing for maximising paternity leave too - how considerate of her!

Good to see some of you at aquanatal/coffee today. We have a plan for Thursday, believe it or not...

Thursday, 1.30pm, Biscuit in Greenwich centre.

SE8mum, ellie732 and I are all intending to be there, and a couple of others have said they will come if they're still waiting for D-day. If it does turn out to be really busy, or they don't do food other than biscuits or cake, we'll move on and find somewhere else. To avoid a repetition of last week, if you're intending to come and you don't have the mobile number of one of us, feel free to message me and then we can let you know if there is a late change in plan. Hope to see some of you there, with or without buggies and babies

Hi guys,

As promised in Alacosta, I have now registered for Mumsnet. V exciting. Not feeling particularly creative, I went with the nickname you suggested...

I will see you on Thursday, unless the baby finally decides to put in an appearance.

Toast, congratulations! very exciting! and looking forward to seeing you and Naima...
I will be at Biscuit tomorrow and yoga if feeling energetic (doubt it)

Hi girls, Layla and I will come and meet you for lunch/coffee tomorrow in Greenwich. See you there at 1.30pm.. hopefully Layla won't be too grumpy (like she's been today!!). x

Hello ladies. Sorry long time no speak I am pushing time a bit trying to get my dissertation done before little un makes an appearence. Hopefully it wont be too long then I can meet you all for tea and cake!!

Congrats to all the lovely mummies on here xxxxxx

hi all,

finally found some time to get online! lovely to read all the messages from the past couple of weeks.

our beautiful Emma was born on sunday 29th march, she was 8 lbs 12 and we've been having a good time feeding and snoozing since. can't wait to meet up with you all. 29th sounds good.

congrats to daisyj and toastnhoney too - yayyyy!

xxx rosa

Woohoo, rosa - so good to hear all is well, and that you're enjoying your feeding and snoozing .

Big congrats to Toast, too - what a lovely name.

Can't wait to see all the new mummies and bubbas on the 29th.

xx

Hi girls!

Congratulations to both Rosa and Toast on the new arrivals, that's fantastic news!! Can't wait to meet all the new babies!

Hope you're all enjoying the lovely sunshine !

I was just wondering when the next meet up is and see that Tupperwife suggested next week in Blackheath for lunch on 29th. Is that still on? I went for lunch on Monday at the Princess of Wales and it's great if the weather's nice as you can sit in their beer garden, if the weather's not so good then The Railway is probably better. Who is planning on going? Last week I was late getting to Biscuit and missed you all , but I was with a couple of friends from NCT so it wasn't a problem .

Also, was in Cafe Rouge last week in Greenwich and there were loads of Mum's and babies in there so they are baby friendly too with changing facilities etc so could be another venue for future.

Good luck to Elk4baby, ellie732 and Se8mum who are all next on the list!!

Clare x

I'm embarrassingly excited about meeting for lunch next week and meeting all the new babes. I reckon about 1 in the Railway sounds like a good option; their toilets are clean for changing, they do ginger beer and there's bags of space for lots of chariots to be parked.

I might even bring my Dad (Tuppergrandpa?) with me since I'm taking him to the Big Scream that morning. Poor man, I don't think he realises what he's let himself in for . Sam's up for his 12 week jabs on Tuesday so it'll be good to get out of the house and share his grumpiness around a bit.

[returns to housework after 11 weeks of neglect] [dust bunny emoticon]

Hello all - looking forward to seeing you for lunch next Weds, assuming all is well this end! Naima now feeding really well and had put 11oz on top of her birthweight when the midwife weighed her at 11 days yesterday. (OK, so I've got a little porker for a daughter - but pudgy babies are cute aren't they!?)

Bump - the home birth was fantastic, definitely the right choice for us. So lovely being in my own environment and all being able to pile into bed together an hour after she was born. The pool was invaluable too. I will tell you all about it when I next see you out for coffee somewhere!

We had an independent midwife, who was brilliant and made all the difference both during and afterwards - it was quite a long labour (though baby and I were both fine throughout - though I was pretty knackered by the end!), and we definitely wouldn't have been able to stay at home with NHS midwives. I agonised over whether to go with an independent midwife but having had this experience I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is considering it.

Hi Everyone

Congratulations to all the new Mums. Im hoping for a homebirth so good to hear that they seem to be going well.
Ive finally added myself to the list.

Expected
Elk4baby/april 11/Portland
ellie732/april 22/ Home (or Lewisham)
Se8mum/april 23/Lewisham
Heverhoney1/May 2nd/ QEH
paulawilkie/May 15/Lewisham
Helpivegottogivebirth/june 6th/QEH
Rie1 / June 9th / Home (or QEH)
feb80/june 30/Lewisham
amytotty/july 8/QEH
BumpMakesTwoAndABit/July 13/home (or QEH)
jas28/july 17/Lewisham
cazinski/august 13/QEH
powpow/september 24/???

Have a good week and enjoy the sunshine!

Marie x

Hi all,

Apologies for the long pause...

I became a mum to a little boy, named Anton, on April 14th.

The short story: after 23 hours of completely intervention/drug free labour, it failed to progress. My little one was coming sideways and got stuck , plus after so many hours of intense contractions 2-3 minutes apart exhaustion kicked in to the point of my contractions coming to a halt, so I ended up having a ventouse delivery. All in all, I'm quite happy with how everything turned out and we're both doing well.
I found hypnobirthing extremely helpful and I don't think I would have been able to last that long without it. Also, having trained with Epi-No, my tears were extremely small for a ventouse. It was recommended to me by a friend of mine, who had a very good experience also. If you're interested: www.epi-no.co.uk

Elk - congratulations!!! That is fantastic news. V cool name. Looking forward to seeing you and Anton soon xxx

Hi everyone, it's been wonderful reading your lively thread. My name is Aminta and live in Blackheath and have baby daughter Neriah who is just 4 months old. I spent the first three months after baby's birth in the tropics so that we could escape the winter. Back home now and would love to meet other Mums in the area. Hope I would be able to join you all when you meet up next.

Congratulations Elk4baby! Sorry Anton decided to make an unconventional entrance, but glad everything worked out well in the end. Hope you're recovering well!

Powdoc's baby has arrived too, for the aquanatal ladies who were wondering! I'm sure she'll update in due course - but congratulations in the meantime!

Best wishes to ellie732 and SE8mum, and here's hoping that we WON'T be seeing you again on Tuesday! And good luck to HeverHoney too, for a week's time - oooooh, it's getting close

Hi to Aminta.

I'll be working next Wednesday so can't make the Blackheath lunch, but would still love to see anyone who happens to be available on Tuesday, from about 11.20ish in Alacosta (after the aquanatal class - I can't stay for long as I'm teaching in the afternoon, but def up for a coffee, there'll be a couple of aqua bumps but babies are welcome too); or Thursday for lunch if anyone's around? Yoga finishes at 1, so 1.30 onwards in Greenwich is good... We went to the Gipsy Moth last time, since Biscuit was so disappointing on the food front (one veggie option - Brie sandwich!!!). Other than funny looks from old blokes nursing pints as 5 very obviously pregnant women walked/waddled past, it was fine, lots of space and big tables. They do a £5 lunch special too.

Have a great marathon weekend everyone. Looks like the good weather should last till Sunday!

Hi to those who know me.

Baby Powdoc made her entrance at 4am on Tuesday after a long and difficult labour in which I picked up just about every intervention under the sun. I am still processing what happened, but to cut a long story short, the latent phase was not so latent (crushing back pain with standing the only position that brought relief, so I went into the whole thing with only 3 hours sleep over two nights and feeling like I had run a marathon) and I then failed to progress. It ended up being a forceps delivery - although I have to say that the lovely doctor made that the least hideous aspect of the whole performance!

Have been trying to go for little walks, so might try to swing past one of your meet ups in the week. Famous last words...

Needless to say, we are madly in love with our new daughter, and she was worth every minute.

Hello,

Baby Thomas came last Thursday and I must say staff at Lewisham hospital were great and made the whole long and daunting experience a bit more bearable. Midwives were very caring, as was the doctor and I felt well looked after, which surpised me!
Congratulations Elk and Powdoc and a speedy recovery.
I hope to see you all soon and meet the new and "old" babies and introduce Thomas to the group. Have fun at the Railway

Congratulations Powdoc, elk4baby and se8mum... and anyone I have missed out on congratulating before. The babies are coming thick and fast now!

se8mum, I was particularly pleased to read about your positive experience at Lewisham hospital, that's great to know.

Four and a half weeks left for me at work and then I will be able to join the daytime get togethers and meet the new additions, can't wait.

xx

Hi girls

Congratulations to elk4baby, se8mum and Powdoc, that's fantastic news! I bumped into Ellie732 at the weekend, she was waiting patiently for her little girl to enter the world.. not sure if she's made an appearence yet though!

Hopefully catch up with some of you at the Railway tomorrow. Tupperwife, are you still going? I know Ellora, Beano and Becko are so see you guys and hopefully some others with their new bubs there at 1pm

Cxx

Tupperbaby just had his jabs, is sleeping on my chest like a miniature drunk (snoring and talking to himself, no kebab yet) so assuming he doesn't wake every hour through the night like he did after the last set we'll be at the Railway tomorrow around 1pm.

Warning The old guy I arrive with is my Dad, not my husband , we're going to the Big Scream at Greenwich tomorrow morning.

Can't wait to see the lill newborns tomorrow!