Due Fab Feb 2009: the Curry and Cake Club

[onwardandupward]

Here is our new thread!

ps swampster I yelled at some bloke (like a fishwife) in Tesco car park the other day when him and his Dad parked in the family parking (it was really busy that Saturday too) - he yelled abuse back until a woman(considerably larger than him) v. lippy (well more lippy than me anyway) also noticed (I don't think she'd heard me) and really lay into him and he went back and moved his car !!!.....he probably wondered who else might yell at him before he managed to get into the shop which is why he hotfooted it back.

I really am not in a good mood today. Need sleep - have just had a horrible conversation with some patronising git on the phone (not a client thank god).....and I am still feeling a bit hot and bothered. Must go and get some fresh air methinks

With DS I booked ML to start 4 days before he was due - and he came early because of ELCS! Was knackered working FT up to the end. This time I'm lucky as M/L starts on 15th Feb with baby due on 24th but I have 6 weeks of AL to take

sorry you are having a bad day herbgarden, maybe start counting the days til maternity leave? I've noticed I've got a really short fuse at the moment and if there is one thing I can't stand, its patronising men and there are a lot of them in this country I can tell you!

So whats with other people joining the FB group? Didn't we all have to be accepted? Are they really randoms or at least people who are pg???

People have joined who haven't introduced themselves in the Introductions discussion topic and outed themselves and their MN ID... No way of knowing if they are regulars on this thread or just random trolls.

So if you aren't on the list of 'Officers' you need to stand up and be identified or risk deletion [goes into dalek mode - 'exterminate, exterminate' (or as my two-year-old says, 'exterminimate, exterminimate...')]

Any non-first timers - any advice on preparing the older DC(s) for the new arrival? Any recs for books I can read with him? DS is currently 18mths and will be 22mths when DC2 arrives and I keep getting lots of questions from other people about how I am preparing him for the new arrival. He doesn't seem to grasp the concept of the baby in my tummy - he points to all tummies and says "baby" now

any ideas?

I started mat leave with DS 2 weeks before he was due and then he was 5 days late, so after almost 3 weeks waiting for him to arrive, I was very bored despite it being lovely weather so I was able to sit on the sunlounger and read all day - I get bored at home very easily!!

KazzaL - I have a 2.6 year old (will be 2.10 when baby arrives). Bought the "house inside my mummy" book and "My new baby book" (all about a big brother and the things he and his family do in a day with a new baby) and periodically read them to him - he totally gets he is getting a baby brother (and if asked where the baby is, will say it is in my tummy). He also has a toy buggy (£6 from ELC) and a toy baby I got him ages ago which he plays with - all good in getting him used to the idea of having another person around to look after and love.

kazzal - I'm not sure if my ds would have got it at 18 months but now at 2.3 years he's so much more aware - I think quite a lot can happen in that space of time. He now pats my tummy when we're having a cuddle in bed in the morning and will give the baby a "kiss" good morning and will then try to hug the expanding belly saying "aaaah". If you ask him what's inside mummys tummy he says "baby" and he remembers telling someone the other day that it is a boy baby. The only worrying thing is that this morning I asked what we should call it and he said "helter skelter"

I second the buggy/baby - ds has a little blue buggy and a large jelly cat dog which he takes around in it and likes to have a nappy put on it/ feed it tea/ generally look after it. At a friends the other day when she was feeding her baby (with a bottle), he took her older girls dolly and bottle to the sofa next to her and promptly followed suit......

Kazzal - my DS3 is the same age as your DS1. I think at that age, you can do some practical things to get them prepared as suggested above, but it's more about making them feel secure and settled psychologically i.e. no major changes (childcare/rooms etc)close to the baby's birth, lots of reassurance, not 'sending' them away when the baby is born, making them feel involved and special IYKWIM.

Planning to go on maternity leave on my due date. I only get 16 weeks on full pay, and I'm the breadwinner, so really every day counts (although tbh, I'm planning to take the baby to work with me on a regular basis at least until they become mobile. I did that with no problems until about 7 or 8 months last time (last time, as the breadwinner, I only got SMP, so I took 8 weeks maternity leave and was straight back at work after that, though usually working from home). Ah the joys of being the working parent! I'm expecting to do a lot of child care relay races around when the baby needs a breastfeed, and am feeling really smug about living 5 minutes bike ride from my work place.

Seconding the house inside my mummy book. We also have the dora big sister book. I'm not sure how possible it would be to convince an 18 month old that one was growing a baby brother/sister in one's womb for them, tbh Well, I suppose it depends on the 18 month old. A friend with a small age gap does talk about how she wishes she'd not treated her oldest as quite so much the "big one" once her younger reached the age the older had been when the younger was born, and still seemed such a baby, yk? I've recently been recommended "Siblings without rivalry", but have not acquired it as yet.

Am feeling angry that some idiot administrators may have completely scuppered my chances of getting some government funding because they put a second class rather than the requested first class stamp on the application envelope. Completely pointless rage. Sigh. thinks zen thoughts fruitlessly

my DD has just turned 2 and we've told her there is a baby in mummy's tummy (mainly to stop her jumping on it!)and she seems to understand but I guess we will have to wait and see! A few friends out here have just had babies in the last few months and she is keen on looking at them (and touching if we are not careful!) so hope she is still keen in 4 months!
Finally got my son to sign me up on FB and am waiting to be 'invited'! Its like waiting for a man to call!!!

O and U..... repeat after me.... OMMMMMMMM

talking about toddlers with bags under their eyes.... ds has conjunctivitis and his eyes are so red and puffy he looks bizarre, it's a weird purple red colour under his eyes and the gunk is like glue to get of with salt water, takes half a pack of cotton wool and half and hour of hysterics to clean them and he would get it when i don't have breastmilk to squirt in them wouldn't he.... i tried colostrum but i can only get a drop at a time and smearing it on his eyes had no effect last night.

kazza, what i found worked really well with dd (who was 18 months) last time was simply talking to her incessantly about the baby, showing her lots of babies in rl and tv and constantly saying things like 'the baby will drink mama milk/wear nappies/cry a bit'... she was brilliant when ds was born so we're going for the same approach again... i told the kids before i told dp i was pregnant and have been talking to them about the baby constantly since, they seem really happy and excited and keep asking 'is the baby big enough to come out yet?' and hugging and kissing the bump.

ds decided this week he's not a baby anymore, he's a big boy and the only baby is in my tummy

like o&u said though, it is scary how 'big' we thought dd was when ds was born and how little she was in reality, ds is much older now and seems like far more of a baby than she did then..... definitely make a huge effort to remind yourselves that the older one is still a baby too as it makes me quite sad that dd missed out on a bit of babyhood as we thought she was so grown up.

Kazza I 2nd the "there's a house in mummy's tummy" book. I only got it to bump my amazon order up to the free delivery! My DS is the same age as yours and i've been reading it to him since I was about 2mths pg!! He is now starting to understand the concept but unfortunately pulls my top up to expose a bare belly every time we talk babies! It's his fave book atm but I think he loves it as it is really sing-songy rhyming.

evening ladies. I will be finishing work on the 15th November. Not my choice and am not looking forward to it as it will mean no money!!!!!!! I very much doubt that I will get another job either....

With dd I started my maternity on day she was due but took 2 weeks holiday before. Lucky I did because she was a week early and I did feel a bit unprepared at home.

Hope you are all well I am going to try and find you all on facebook later...

Hi Ladies - haven't been on for ages and haven't caught up with you, you chatty lot! I just saw the very recent posts about how to prepare a younger sibling. My DD will be 19 months when the LO arrives - can I do much to prepare her at this young age, she's only 15 months at the moment? I was going to buy a dolly so she can bath, feed, put to bed etc. Would she be too young for the books?

At the moment, when I show her my tummy she turns away in disgust . I think it's cos my belly button is sticking out!!!

Right, off to catch up with the rest of the thread now. Hope to get on a bit more often in future...

Hi Catstar - nice to see you on the thread. I think talking to her about the baby is a good idea. She might like the "My new baby book" as it is a board book with just pictures so you can spend time talking her through it or she can "read" it on her own. Though at 15 months, she may not be too bothered about books yet. Baby buggy and baby doll toy are great at that age too.

The other thing is probably making sure that she's ok around babies and preparing yourself for a little bit of a rocky ride (my friends have 18 months between their two and said the first month was tricky but after that got much easier).

From my experience at nursery and as an aunt, I would third house in mummy's tummy and also recommend this as an extra, it looks at how big your tummy gets, it's cute.

this

kaidback ... had such a crush on your godson at school. What a small world!

so flustered, I can't even get your name right...

Guess what? DH thinks I'm marking - he's doing dinner So, I'd better make this quick so I don't get caught out.

Still got loads of work (moan, moan, moan - is that all teachers ever do?). I was looking forward to coming home to seeing the newly planted out garden but they haven't done anything today apart from deliver them.

Preparing 8 - soon-to-be-9-year-old DS for new arrival? He is very excited now, as to begin with he was was not amused. I figure at his age there's not much I need to do - but it might initiate the facts of life talk which I'd quite like to do before he hits the real pre-teen age and when he's less embarrassable.

Hi all

I haven't put myself on facebook introductions. Thought my name was so obvious I didn't need to! How do I become an officer?

Any news on TBM??! What is she now 25+2?

x

Latest news:

Still hanging in there. If Birmingham are happy I could be going home (home or the hospital) tomorrow or Thursday. I'm desperate to get out of here now, even if I'm kept in at least it won't put everyone out and they have all my notes! I had a scan today and she's looking good, she's put quite a bit of weight on and is back on her line so one good thing came out of this!

MamaGoose - I'll add you to the officers...