Due April 2009 - Festive bumps explode into crimbo, April mums wait in limbo

[BabyCRIMBOlat]

New thread here (I hope!!)

ok think i have read everything now - knew that would be a challenge, but since i'm quiet at work anyway, think its probably justified to spend work time doing it

wont comment on everything cause way too much has happened, but i can assure you that i have been , , , and at the appropriate points.

only things that spring to mind are about career - i agree that when you have worked really hard to get somewhere, you dont necessarily want to give that up, but some people do find that their goals change - eg I am a solicitor, but have never really loved my job, and when I was off on mat leave with ds racked my brains for something I could do from home, and I am in the process of starting a wee business up - so didnt want to have no goals work wise - the goals i had just changed a bit.

mils - dont start me. my mil is getting increasingly into the thinking ds is hers rather than her grandson mode - dh noticed it too independently so I dont think I'm being paranoid. One small example - dh, mil and I came back from walk with ds - one of us had to go inside to look for fil so mil told dh to go cause 'somebody had to stay with ds as he was sleeping'. totally ignoring the fact that as his mother, I could probably cope if he woke up - mind you she'd passed the crisps round to dh and fil earlier and then put them back on the table despite the fact i was sitting there too . these probably sound like petty examples to you but when its constantly like that and i have to sit there pretending to like her, it gets rather annoying.

on the plus side, i have low blood pressure and am getting dizzy/breathless a bit so maybe time with mil will help my blood pressure rise a wee bit .

i'm getting the opposite of brettgirl and some others with the body inspectors - mil kindly informed me that i am 'much bigger' than i was with ds. i dont think so really, but who cares - i know i will take any extra off again afterwards so am not worried about it just now.

muslin squares - useful for catching puke/leaky boobs/poo etc etc etc - get some.

tumble dryer - we managed without but werent religious about using out reusable nappies so if they hadnt finished drying - just used disposables (eco ones that could go in our green cone though). i liked having an excuse to go out to the shops so didnt buy too much stuff beforehand.

boffinmum - very of your domestic handbook - when i start mat leave, i am going to at least come up with a timetable for ds and me as its the only way i can think of to get everything done, and stop me going a bit crazy.

ok posting now - no doubt i will have missed another 100 posts while i was reading all the rest, but never mind.

Conkertree- I am so impressed you managed to catch up - i struggle after missing a couple of days!!!

Completely agree about career, I am not sure if this will be my job for ever and have lovely illusions of a family business later on in life but assumptions that I should give up everything and be at home drive me insane!

Grrr at you MIL - firstly they are not petty - they are really irritating things that she shouldn't be doing!!! Lets hope she carries on tho so your BP goes up enough!! I would make a point of spending some lovely mummy time with DS in front of her will lots of references to you as his mother and her as grandma!

Nutty are you slaying Dragondraws???!!!

Argh, so much to catch up with! Right...

Figure inspectors - they keep telling me how large I am. I was looking at photos this morning & found this one of my pre-pregnancy figure back in May & nearly cried - I hadn't realised quite how much bigger I am. I'm seeing 3 people tomorrow who haven't seen me since I got pregnant (2 of whom don't even know that I am) & am a lot more self-conscious than I was having seen what I used to look like! It's also reminded me to take another photo of my bump because I haven't taken one in about 6 weeks & I'll regret not having any record of it later on.

(As a side point, how hilariously dingy does that club look?! It was a really fun gay bar, but it looks like some awful 70s Scout Hut in that photo! Madness )

I also keep forgetting how huge my bump is - in the last 3 days I've nearly suffocated myself multiple times whilst trying to pick something up off the floor & pushing everything up towards my lungs, closed a door on my bump &, most embarrassingly, got stuck between the car & a concrete pillar in a car park

Nutty, I want your cat! I keep moaning that I only wanted a kitten in the first place & have ended up with a never-ending pregnancy for a baby instead

Swaliswan, was DD perfectly fine 5 weeks early because she was big? Or did she still need a little extra care? I'm a bit worried that I'm going to have an early big baby, which is fine if he'll be okay, but I want to be able to take him straight home & cuddle him, etc...

I too am awful at asserting myself these days. I used to be able to happily chat away to complete strangers & get my point across. Now I have to ask DP to ask staff where things are in shops because I've developed crippling shyness. It's ridiculous & so unhelpful. Having said that, a group of young boys were messing about on the busy tram the other day & one of them half-fell into my bump. My confidence to speak definitely peaked then

I used to work in Mothercare about 4 years ago, but completely forgot that things like muslin squares even exist - again I'm very thankful for MN!

We just bought a tumble drier (it's getting delivered on Saturday but mostly because we live in a flat with no garden & not many radiators. Also I'm lazy

When I got pregnant & started thinking about how things would be, I was completely against the idea of cosleeping, etc. I knew that the baby would be in our room for the first couple of months in the crib, but that we'd ignore him unless he was hungry / needed changing. Now I'm beginning to get all over-emotional about it & want to sleep with him in bed, all cuddled up with me until he's about 15 I'm just going to try not to get too stressed out about plans & see how it goes.

I still don't feel the urge to shop for baby stuff yet. I'm really hoping that nesting will kick in, because it hasn't yet. So far we have (new): a pram & a cotbed (yet to be delivered) plus loads & loads of clothes from MIL. There's also the 'family crib' from my side which I'll get given to me when I feel more ready for it & that's about it. I've also only really bought maternity clothes & breast pads for me - not very helpful in terms of hospital bags! I just don't have the enthusiasm yet

I too have the tiny freezer problem. I'm planning to eat / chuck out everything that isn't absolutely useful to us after the baby's born & buy lots of stackable tupperware boxes to maximise the space. Then there'll be lots of finger-crossing & kicking DP in the shin every time he so much as looks at anything in there before the baby arrives

Boffin, I love your organisational skills! Very - although I'm going to take your German gene explanation & try not to feel too awful about it

BB, fingers crossed that it's only an infection & that it clears up soon. Do you have any antibiotics?

I have no idea about any paperwork. I still don't have my card thingy that says that I don't have to pay for prescriptions because I lost the form I'm lucky in that I don't work so don't have to arrange maternity leave. But I know that I should be applying for grants, etc. Must get more organised.

Nutty, I hope that it's all going well with your evil GP. What an old hag She'd better be redeeming herself right now!

Conker, I'm genuinely amazed that you managed to catch up! Thank goodness for work, eh? This time last year I was spending lots of my work time proof-reading various uni essays for friends during my gap year. I could never have been such a helpful friend in my own time

Is that it? Why does nobody else ever write as much as I do?

phew springy - your fingers must be sore after all that.

i skim read bits of posts i must admit, but got most of it - and as i say - work is very veyr quiet just now.

so far today, have arranged an energy report for my house, booked dentist and optician, finished thankyou letters for christmas presents and checked out holidays for march and the summer. and done a bit of work too . i dont feel too guilty though cause the last few years when we have been really busy, i've done loads of overtime without extra pay so it will all balance up.

havent really started thinking about hospital bags etc yet - i know things could happen early but i always reckon in an emergency, dh could buy some extra things and we'd cope. will look forward to the hopsital bag buying once mat leave starts cause will still only be about 32 weeks then.

finally came up with some names that we like, so am feeling happier about them now, but still to pick middle name for a boy. oh would be so much easier to know which it was.

wow indeed nuttytaff - she must have been so scared of you after last time that she just got on and did her job (and maybe a bit above and beyond as well). great news.

Rispeck to Nutty. I think they should get your to sort out Zimbabwe.

Springy I am so of you because I have not looked as good as that since about 1989. I just went into town to get some new trousers as I have become so fat I no longer fit my maternity clothes. This is a very bad situation indeed. Luckily Pumpkin Patch had som cheap nice ones.

I look in the mirror naked at the moment and I remind myself of a photo in an NCT childbirth book of a 'real' woman. I do not want to look like a 'real' woman. I want to look like an airbrushed babe with a little currant bun pregnancy discreetly grafted onto the front.

Conker, Mothercare had a lot of half price hospital bags going begging today.

Wow Nutty - that is amazing - I think it is because she is scared of you after so utterly failing to do her job before!!!

Yay for you - did she give you anything for the pain or tips as to how to calm then down?

Not yet springy, they need to make sure its def an infection and not anything more scary like pre-eclampsia (which am sure it's not) before they give me anything - should find out in the next couple of days. Dont worry about your figure, sure it will spring back in to shape post baby!

Do I need a card as well as a MAT1B certificate? I thought that the certificate was all I needed!! poop!

Conkertree - yay for names - (can you share?) and good organising skills!

Ooh Nutty, what got into her? How strange! Maybe she's a MN stalker & read your rant about her before you went? Unlikely, but not as unlikely as her being so nice as she was! All of that sounds really positive! But what are you meant to do about the rib pain then? Just put up with it?

& conker, I can type for hours & hours without my fingers getting tired. The amount of essays I have to write (& msn-ing I did as a teenager ) mean that I don't even notice how much I've typed until I've finished. I think that's the problem - I always feel really guilty posting huge epics like that, but then can't work out which bits to delete & which to leave...

BB, I don't know about the card / certificate thing. I only say 'card' because when I was collecting a prescription a couple of months ago I said that I was pregnant but didn't have any proof on me & they said 'oh, the card?' & eventually let me off. You probably have the right thing - I've never seen it

Boffin, I don't want to look like a 'real' woman either. I have wobbly legs now. As in if I painted them white & lay them flat on black paper, it would look like a picture of a zebra crossing because of the vast quantities of cellulite that have appeared from nowhere

hi all
i had another scan today as baby wouldnt move in last one for measurements

my dh asked the sex and she said she couldnt see yet 5 mins later i asked her she showed me everything on the baby could see bum hip joints everthing and she said she is guessing its a girl
but am sure if it was a boy i could have seen its little thingy thats how clear it was

now dh doesnt no what to think girl/boy

what do you think ?

thanks

happy new year everyone

Nutty, there is nothing sexy about me now, let me reassure you! Nothing at all.

How are your ribs feeling now?

& Laura, it's never 100%, but if it was a really clear view & you couldn't see any boy bits, she's probably right about it being a girl

Nutty, they are sending me to a special pain clinic down here, to get an anaesthetist's view of what needs doing, and to give me some general help superior to what the GP can do. Can they do that with you? Or have they done something similar already?

Sorry if I am just being dumb - but I have my MAT B1 form so do I need another form to fill out to send off for my card?

I just got changed in to DH's bed clothes (mine don't fit and caught sight of myself naked (well half of me) when bubs decided to do some sort of somersault and my tummy looked hideous!! was like some wave machine!!) Also might be normal but my bump is really quite low - is that ok?

Nutty at least the referral might help sort your back out a bit more which will then calm the rib pain down! I think the shock will help you sleep tonight tho!

Laura, I think they always have to cover themselves to say they can't be sure but from what my midwife said you can normally definitely tell if it's a boy, especially when they are clear (which is why she stopped the 20 week scan and turned the screen away from me when she was doing the bottom half checks just in case) so you are probably safe with a girl guess!

Low bump is better than high bump, BB. What probably happened is that your baby has just turned head down ready for the birth - he might revert though, and position is not important until about 36 weeks I think.

Haha, Nutty! You just made me laugh like a loon I'm really not attractive at the moment. I'm in dire need of a haircut, am covered in spots, have piled on weight, have the hairy tummy, stretchmarked fingers... Seriously, I'm not a pretty sight

I was going to pick on one of you lot, but none of you have photos of yourselves in your profile! Damn & blast!

Thanks Boffin!

Somehow I don't believe that you're 'ugly', Nutty