Jingle Bells, Mysterious Smells, Fab Feb 2009 babies will soon be on their way - Oh what fun it is to waddle around like an overstuffed turkey all day.

[dinkystinky]

Hello lovely ladies, the new thread is open for business

Im hoping that our new house wil have broardband, so that I can keep myself amused when im on Maternity leave in Jan.

I keep thinking that il be a bit bored having a whole month off??
I know everyone will tell me to make the most of my spare time - which I fully intend to do...

Perhaps doing nothing will grow on me

any tips of how to use my month off wisely?
Im pretty sure my Mum & MIL will take it upon themselves to come and visit....EVERYDAY!!! God Help me!

Catstar - hope you get better soon. Great news re your kitchen - it will all be worth it when you get to enjoy it!

Before I forget - HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARDY . Am sending you a big bunch of virtual flowers, some virtual champagne and a big virtual cake of your favourite variety - hope you have a good day.

KT - enjoy lie ins as much as humanly possible in your month off. Swimming is nice for exercise when you get really big as it makes you feel quite weightless - antenatal yoga or pilates classes are also nice and sociable. And nest away - cook up a storm and freeze stuff (so you have nice healthy home made meals you can defrost and eat when baby arrives as you wont feel like cooking for a while, make your home feel all snuggly and enjoy the time off.

9 DAYS LEFT!!!!!!!! I cannot wait and pretty sure im not going back either, Hubby has been working his arse off bless him trying to make his new bar a success. He's worked so hard from being a glass collector at age 16 and now he is running a bar and restaurant with a really good wage and says he'll be hitting all bonuses so I can stay at home with babs, what a star!

Unfrotunatly i haven't seen him! so i am joining those of you who are in the deprived of sex club He leaves for work before i get up and im usually asleep when he gets in.

MY HEARTBURN HAS GONE! Been on the good mood food diet for a week now (substitute for anti depressants!) Think its helped to egt rid of heartburn as well as helping me depression wise too so well impressed.

Looking forward to spending the morning with my mum and getting my buggy tomorrow with dad in law (hes buying!) love to mums and bumps xx

morning all.
just got back from hospital and platelets are back up again - to 150, which is ok and higher than they were at the first blood count.

I ate the most enormous roast beef sandwich for lunch last Thurs - think that may have done the trick

Also have date for section - 2/2/09 - consultant very nice and doesn't want to rip him out too early.

So all good really.

Yay for your platelets being up again MsLucy - and glad you like your consultant too. Must be so exciting having a confirmed date for Stanley's arrival.

Anyone wanting a giggle, check out the Times online - apparently in Taiwan they have come up with a "hello Kitty" themed maternity unit - looks hilarious!

Morning all ... glad maternity leave is approaching fast for you all MS sorry to hear about your trip to hospital - glad all is well there though ... is giving me some second thoughts about any 'owsyerfather' though
Have packed babys stuff into suitcase (enough for 4 days) so just mine to do now and all of the aforementioned accoutrements that go with it - god those two black bath sheets are taking up alot of room though, my suitcase is huge and definately taking on two-weeks-in-Barbados-like proportions!
Mslucy congrats on your section date! you are 4 days before me ... hopefully you will just be getting out of hosptial as i am getting in - its very exciting though.

Hello everyone

After today, I have 4 working days left - finish next Friday

MSLucy....glad platelets are up and hope you feel a bit better about it now.

I'm hoping also to be given a section date of 2nd Feb...

Had enough of being pregnant now....

consultant is great - very old school, no nonsense type of person.
Very glad she doesn't want to take Stanley out too early - want him to have as much cooking time as possible.
Also the longer he stays in, the easier it will be to breastfeed him.

Have been eyeing up lovely Green Baby stuff for him - they always have brilliant sales so hopefully the things I like will be on special offer after Xmas.
Going to buy most stuff from Asda/ebay - just want a couple of nice things as well.

re: sex. DH is keen and I still enjoy it. I'd definitely given up by about 5/6 months with ds and I think it's only a matter of time before I throw in the towel with this one!

KT Time will fly by when you stop work. Do all the things you may not find time for for a while, read a book, have lots of nice long bubble baths, catch up with friends, go out in the evening, catch up on fav programs and watch some films, just generally take it easy. I would recommend that you start cooking up some meals to freeze so that you don't have to worry too much about preparing dinner when babe arrives. You'll need to eat properly to keep your energy up. Tell friends and family (those who haven't had babies) not to bring flowers but to bring food

mslucy Glad everything ok. x

I have 37 days left before mat leave , but I'm consoling myself with thoughts of lazy spring/summer/autumn days with madam...

Have not seen or spoken to anyone, and am still feeling funny-ish, but it takes so long to get through to anyone that I'd rather ignore the situation or I'll get all worked up about it - ostrich? me? no!

we have a carseat!

i feel prepared now the other things we need to pick up we can cope fine without but the carseat was the last essential thing we needed.... thank god mothercare website finally got them back in stock last week (and thank god i ordered it before realising how in the shits for money we were!)

feeling those nesting vibes again today... which is just as well as the playroom, dining room and kitchen badly need sorting... for some reason the kids feel the need to drage every single toy off it's shlef and distribute them around downstairs and then walk off and leave them there while they watch tv

mrsy... it really is the best time of year to have a baby.... if the weather is evwn halfway decent you've got a lovely protable little person to drag round here there and everywhere in the summer.... was bliss with dd

I?m feeling a bit weird about maternity leave too ? for some reason I feel guilty about not going to work! I can?t believe I won?t be sitting at my desk next month.

Anyone got good ideas for healthy(ish) meals to freeze? I?m thinking lasagne, fish pie, cottage/shep pie but I guess these are all quite heavy?

spag bol and chilli are our favoutites which can then be made into lasange if you feel like it, spag bol or pasta bol if you don't with salad / garlic bread depending of level of laziness and the latter can just be piled onto a pile of chips and cheese if you don't want to be healthy and can't be bothered to cook rice . I freeze sausage casserole as well. And masses of ratatouille.

Casseroles are great - also did fish pies last time round. Lasagnes are a good idea (as are far too time consuming to make from scratch when you have a little one clamouring for attention). Also did some veg bakes which we then split into portions (so could just defrost and heat however much we wanted to eat).

Soup is great for freezing too - very good for lunch - which is one meal that can go by the by in the business ! Particularly if you make something nice and rustic - I've just made some chorizo and bean/tomato soup. It's yum.

Dinky - I'm still ill. On day 6 of anti-biotics wich hasn't really made any difference. As DH said it is a virus and it will go when my immune system finally fights it off [stuffs face with fruit, spatone and gets more rest amidst chaos of 3 kids, work and christmas preparation !!]

Mousaka is also a good one for the freezer. They are all wintery meals but rather than doing loads of veg with them, you can do a fresh salad that way it feels a little lighter as well.
Buy in some quiches as well cause they freeze well and aren't expensive.

It all depends on how big your freezer is????
Mine is fairly dinky so tend to buy healthy(ish) ready meals if DH not about to cook for me.

My mum has offered to come and stay "For as long as you like" but to be honest...I'd rather eat my own foot!

Great idea about freezing meals - Think il have to test out some cooking skills in January then...

Although, made chocolate brownies on sunday and they are delish So I must be getting better.

so much for my nesting plan.... bump has gotton really hard and uncomfortable and baby isn't inproving matters by poking with knees and toes. feel quite quesy too

i've never frozen meals tbh.... just used a new baby as an excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of oven food for a few weeks til i was back on my feet

It is sssoooo hot in my office...its making me even more lethargic than I already am...blardy dismall. Want to thin out early but will struggle as only my 1st day in office this week after being off with laziness lurgy for last 2 days. Luckily I sound rubbish so noone will be surprised when I vanish!!

Afternoon. Me and ds have slept for mealy 3 hours!!! He is now having a little snack infront of teletubbies before we do story time and a bit of play.
All your meals sound lovely. And yes they are on the heavy side, but remember it'll be freezing cold winter (as is now) and you'll need lots of food with the increased work load . I didn't bother last time, I am the worlds worst eater and we lived off take away pizza, fish and chips, curry and anything else I could get over the phone! Can't afford to do that now so will have to prepare something I suppose but hate cooking, I only managed it properly when ds was weaning and I didn't want to use jars.
Think it'll be lots of pasta here.....

ImDreamingOfANortyXmas - I just got the 2nd February as a CS date!

KT - I was dreading going on mat leave with ds as I thought I'd be bored after being at work 5 days a week. I was actually really tired but rushed around like a mad woman and then my waters broke 3 weeks early - so prepare yourself - you never know what's gonna happen !.....Enjoy each day you have and just put your feet up and don't feel like you have to do anything - I plan on going to the cinema a few times on my days off when ds is at nursery as a complete indulgence - we never go anymore. I also have a room to paint (?!) and furniture to buy from ikea (planning on getting that delivered as I can't face a trip there at the mo)

ON the freezing food front I tend to freeze meat casseroles, mince (I slow cook it in a big casserole dish with carrots/celery and bacon thrown in to make it really tasty), chicken casserole (thighs tend to freeze better than breasts as they don't dry up so much when re-heated) and am quite keen on cooking with apple/cider/onion for a change from tomato and quite healthy - you could add a dollop of creme fraiche when you re-heat - not so healthy. I also freeze rice and mashed potato. With the rice - make sure it's chilled fairly quickly after cooking and frozen once chilled. Then you just need to make sure it's reheated right through and piping hot but it's so much easier. I find fish pie a bit fiddly but Jamie Oliver did one recently without a white sauce and just added grated veggies/cheese etc - it's really nice.....Then I also have things like pork fillet chop things (baked potato and salad with it), fishcakes (from M&S...can't be bothered to make them).....Also maybe buy bags of frozen veg so that if you haven't had time to go to the shops for fresh stuff at least you're getting something even if it's not your long term preference. I tend to have peas all the time/ frozen sweetcorn and little corn on the cobs and carrots. I'll shut up now I really do have work to do and am getting a bit carried away......

I have 5 more working days - 2 weeks left altho' hoping that xmas eve might be a bit of a half day job....hee hee.

Swampster that's my CS date too !!.....First thing in the morning I have to go and it'll be any time between 9 and 11.45....

oh and I realise Norty too - hadn't read that bit as I skimmed through. We'll all be spliced open at the same time probably - yuk what a thought.