Fab Feb 2009: the bumps are a-jumping, the mums are a-grumping - roll on the new year

[dinkystinkyclaus]

A sparkling new thread in time for christmas

My hospital is a joke!! Also been calling mw clinic to make 36 wk appointment because when I went for my 34, there was nobody there, was told on the phone this morning to call back tomorrow as there is no one there again. Been calling since monday.
The mw I spoke to at DAU said the results are being posted to me and to wait for them before going to gp.
I really want to shout!!
I'm quite annoyed too as bp has been raised the past 2 checks and now they haven't got enough blood to test about the glucose they picked up in urine, I asked if I needed to go back for another test and she told me she didn't know and to wait for results to be posted. Is it me? They see me coming don't they?

LMN sure you'll be fine.

Hope everything is ok LMN - it's a right PITA when they make you sit around.

Sorry you're having a rough night/day PP, can you put your feet up today at all?

on your behalf LBB - bunch of tossers. Try not to stress too much though as it will send your BP even higher!

DS has just eaten and a mountain of food and asked for a nap. Not like him to be asleep by 11.30 anymore but I'm not complaining And breakfast, snack and lunch all by 11.15 - takes after his mummy

Useless twats LBB....treatment like that really pisses me off! Get yourself back to GP and get your ABs. You think they would have called you with results wouldn't you? Anyway, Spotty is right, don't send your BP even higher....go and see GP.

Right, off to the hospital to sit around doing feck all for the afternoon....

Good luck. Take a book x

Good luck LMN - just chill on a bed and hopefully it should come down nicely

LLB cant believe how much they mess you around your hospital sounds a bit rubbish at times no wonder your so frustrated!

I cant stop sleeping at the moment as yesterday morning and this morning as soon as DH and DC's leave for school i go back to sleep for about 2 to 3 hours. I am up about 4 times during the night but i dont know if its any excuse i just know that im in bed for half 10 and asleep for 11 usually so must be needing more than my usual 8 hours. Quite frankly im dreading the sleepless nights that are to come but seem to remember ( if im lucky ) that is not forever and the longest any of my DD's went before sleeping a decent chunk was about 4 months. I think im ok if im woken once during the night its those every two hour feeds that DD3 decided that she wanted for a month that i found tough.

Im thinking of making some casseroles and pie type things for when ive had lo just because bless him as much as he wants to help out cooking is not DH's forte. It takes him an hour and a half to open 4 tins of soup and bake some baguettes ( easy option meal ) so none of us will get to eat till about midnight when lo is here, hence me needing to do a bit of forward baking. Does anyone know of anywhere that i can get hold of some large (as there is 5 of us) disposable foil trays to put things like cottage pie or lasagne into and are they expensive? Just wondered as i dont usually make things in advance

Hi Rosie...on the mass catering front - I buy the large silver containers from Tesco's (or find one of those pound shop type places who always have things like that). If it's just casserole or mince I put it in a large plastic bag and portion it out (I usually put some in the bowl which we eat out of before freezing to see how much a "portion" is). It might be useful to cook up some rice (if that's your thing) as rice freezes really well (let it cool down and refrigerate as soon as cool if you aren't going to get it in the freezer immediately) - once frozen it'll defrost in 3-4 mins in the microwave so it's a quick supper if you're fed up of pasta and can't be bothered with potatoes. With the pies at least you can cook the filling and just lay the pastry over the top ready to chuck in the oven.

I'm also tempted to get some frozen veggies in too - they are not my preferred option but at least you have quick and relatively healthy meals available when none of you are in the mood !

Right....I'm off ! Sorry, I do go on and hope I'm not trying to tell you things you already know.....

Having a lazier day today - took ds to soft play to jump off a bit of energy and then we're off to a friends for tea this pm - it'll be nice to put my feet up whilst ds plays with her (same age) dd.....

I did that last time Rosie and was in hospital for 5 days, by the time I came out DH and stepson had eaten everything. It was suposed to make my life easier when I came out rather than DH's whilst I was away!! Having eaten all the healthy nutritious meals I'd prepared to sustain my recovery and breastfeeding, he then fed me takeaways )

Try the party section in Tesco/any supermarket. They are 97p and I have even washed and re-used them

WHO THE F* IS THAT PRESENTING CBEEBIES???!!!

Was hoping to let DS have 15mins whilst I hoover but that is NOT going to happen. Awful squeeky patronising bloody woman.

LBB - sorry your hospital are being as useless as ever. If it were me, I'd be putting a call into the consultant with a request that he/she call me back to confirm the course I should follow and why his/her recommendation re low dose antibiotics for rest of pregnancy is not on the system.

Catstar - DS seems to like saving his poos for the bath at the moment. Fortunately I now recognise the signs and immediately whip him out and onto the loo as soon as he starts asking for a "huggy mummy" in a distressed tone. DH (who likes to bath with DS when he can) is not so quick on the uptake - cue lots of DH trauma (including on christmas day) [evil ]

Spotty - suspect Onward or one of the tandem feeding mums or more extended feeders may be the better ones to answer your question re morning/nap time feeds. Am not an expert but I think its important that you break the boob/sleep associations if that is what you want to do - so maybe feeding him just before a nap may send a mixed message to him (again, dont know how nap feeds work in your house, so may be it wouldnt). However I dont think a morning nurse would send a mixed message though.

Rosie - my mum buys those tray things from Tesco (she still sends food parcels home with me and my sister whenever we visit her - bless. Am definitely not complaining!). Also, co-opt those teenage daughters of yours into helping DH get some food on the table before midnight - and look into good takeaways in the area too.

LMN - hope your BP comes down; I'd take an ipod and book with me if I were you....

P.s. Pink - sorry you're still feeling so rough hon. Not too long to go now.

I've been freezing leftovers in those plastic tubs you get takaways in, perfect one portion size, although starting to run out of space in the freezer now, but defrosting it might help

Saw mw yesterday everything ok - she said the head was on the way down 3/5ths she said, so I may not last another 5 weeks - I;m supposed to have another 19 days at work and although I've started buying some bits for my hosp bag, they're just in a pile on the spare room bed and we've only emptied the room that's going to be the nursery - my friend still has all the newborn stuff, so I think this weekend will need to be busy although we already need to go and buy new fitings for our bathroom which is being done before DC arrives. and forgot new car shopping too and DS has a play date on sunday.

Got very annoyed at DH last night as he was due to be home by 6.30 at the latest and so by 7 I was checking the travel news websites and phoning his mobile. Finally I got a call about 7.20 saying he was still at work so then had to put DS to bed on my own which I am struggling to do now as I can't lift him into the cot very easily - needless to say when he got in he got the cold shoulder treatment, but I was soo angry that I didn't sleep very well. Just had lunch with a couple of girlfriends though and had a really good rant and feel so much better now.

Got my first antenatal class tonight, but feeling really mardy as hubby can't make it and i dont want to go on my own

feeling really emotional at the mo all the time and very tired, i went to body balance this morning and i was so wiped i got back into bed, didnt get up til 12

going for a bath now x

PMPL @ spotty! Thats exactly what i was saying to DH on the phone this lunchtime! 'If you and the girls eat all of my hard work before i get out of hosptial ill kill you!' That is just the sort of thing that they would do as well

Dinky ill look at Tesco (and poundland) for some large trays - they need to be pretty big for decanting food into. I know that DD1 will do some of the cooking but her repotoire is limited iyswim and DH said that we can do takeaways but you know when you feel a bit rough you want nice 'homecooked' meals so i will make about 15 (if i can get them in the freezer) then that should last on and off for the three weeks that DH has taken off to 'look after' me. Bless him he is a truly wonderful hubby but has the home organisational skills of a gnat and i keep warning him just how time consuming babies can be!

Kazza sorry you were so stressed with your DH, its bloody inconsiderate when the weather is so bad and they dont let you know where they are and im the worlds worst worrier so i do sympathise! Went to bed on a sour note with DH myself last night as i had the arse with him for not being able to open and cook 4 tins of soup and 4 part cooked baguettes in under an hour and a quarter due to his new love affair with his iphone which he spends ALL his spare time on playing games, perusing the internet ect ect Sometimes i really feel like stamping on it ffs!

Herb i never cook anything in advance really so didnt know that you could freeze rice :-) will definately do that now - thanks for all of the advice girls I have so far thought that cheap nutritious meals i can make in advance will be along the lines of: lasagne, cottage pie, chicken pie (with mashed potato on top), chicken casserole, beef casserole, macaroni cheese (dunno if you can freeze that though) and chilli. If i make up two lots of the above and freeze it down over the next 4 weeks that should last us a good couple of weeks anyway and as i dont know what to expect in terms of how much ill be able to actually do after a c section hopefully thats covered all eventualities - thanks again!

rosie sometimes I seriously think I must imagine it all because surely one hospital/care trust can't be that bad. Maybe I do imagine it, maybe I'm going slowly insane and someone soon will finally lock me away. Would be heaven at the moment. ds has screamed high pitched all day, got the biggest headache.
Goodluck with the cooking, definately a good idea. Don't pound shoups or supersavers normally do foil tins and things? Not very expensive.

dinky good idea to get in touch with consultant I think, he doesn't seem to be hunting for his elbow up his arse. Will do it tomorrow me thinks

littlesez goodluck tonight. Have you got a friend that might go with you just for tonight? Although I highly doubt you'd be the only one there without dh tbh.

lidl have those tin foil tray things at the moment...

they also have excercise balls so i picked one up to use as a birthing ball seeing as the stopper for the one i have vanished into that abyss that seems to eat all my socks and pens too.

it'll either help my back or seperate my hips so much the baby practically falls out like his big sis did when i sat on one in labour it was actually really funny, it was the first time they'd let me off the bed since finding blood in my waters and the student mw got me a ball to sit on.... my bum had barely toughed it and i suddenly felt as if someone had crowbared my hips apart and let out a screech. the elderly mw in the room didn't even look around, just said 'that'll be yer hips seperating dear, back up on the bed' i had been 5cm 2 mins before that and when she checked me i was 8/9 a few mins later!!!

thanks for the kind words dinky and spotty, i do seem to do nothing but moan these days don't i? have been dashing around all morning but am planning on sitting on arse for the remainder of the day, 2/3 of the kittens are going to their new homes this weekend so am using that as an excuse not to bother doing any major cleaning til their gone as it's a waste of energy.

feeling very proud of the shopping i did, found a butcher doing a special offer and got; a free range chicken, 6 chicken legs, 4 huge pork chops, 4 huge lamb chops, 14 sausages, 12 rashers and a rather random piece of bacon for 30 euros! the fr chicken alone would have cost 13/14 euros in the supermarket that's enough meat to last us ages and dp is going to be over the moon as he's always complaining we don't eat enough meat as its so expensive. my freezer is stuffed

pmsl, a kitten just tried to jump on the birthing ball..... it rolled back, he fell on the floor and it rolled over him

LittleSez - I went to at least half of my antenatal classes on my own (or DH joined half way through the class due to work) - it happens alot and is fine. If anything, makes it more likely the other people there will talk to you and you'll make some nice new friends

If you're tired, its your body's way of telling you to slow down so do try and take it easy (know its hard to do for the active ones like you and KT but rest is just as important as exercising).

Kazza - my DH never tells me when he's going to be home either; have given up trying to get him to let me know...

dinky's right littlesez... i wished dp hadn't come to mine (after bullying him to get him there!) as the couples only tended to talk to their partners whereas i felt if i'd been on my own i might have chatted to and made friends with some of the moms on their own.

i dragged dp thinking it might make him more aware of what i was going through but it had the opposite affect, they made us hold ice cubes for 60secs to simulate the level of pain from a contraction so we could judge whether we thought it was bearable and afterwards all i heard for weeks was 'well the ice cube wasn't that bad, bet it's not hard at all'... he was joking but i still almost murdered him before the end!

Wow Pink - that butcher shop sounds like an absolute bargain! Definitely worth you braving the cold.

Am actually looking forward to maternity leave so can do more shops at butchers/fishmongers myself rather than relying on overpriced supermarket delivery services as we do at the moment. That's assuming they havent all gone out of business by then of course...

PinkT - give me an icecube in the hand over childbirth anyday !! Not hugely comparable. Surely they could have put his knackers in a vice for 15 minutes or something that would at least of given him some idea ....

lol.... i thought that before i did the ice cube thing too laidback..... it bloody hurts by the end of the minute though

tbh, i preferred contractions to ice! (DON'T EVER EVER EVER EVER TELL DP I SAID THAT OR I'LL NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT!!!!!)

dinky... i normally never go into butchers as i'm very much a bargain shopper and find it quite difficult to decide when standing there what i want when i don't even know how much it'll cost but i've got to say i think i may have to change my ways after today..... there's no way i could have gotton this much meat in the supermarket for anything near as cheap.

oddly enough i do go to fishmongors happily enough though.... i think it's because i find it easier to meal plan looking at a piece of fish than wondering what to do with certain cuts of meat while the butcher stands there waiting for you to decide ishoos with dealing with the public.... moi?

Blimey you're all having a eally bad time of it!!!

Hope everyone feels better soon/beats their DPs into submission!!

The chilled household is officially full of lurgy AGAIN and no bloomin' DH to help me. My Line Manager at work thinks I'm taking the mick cause I left work early today...Nursery phoned me and said...temp of 104, please come and get him. Can't really do much else can I!!!

DH has been offered a 2 year placement in Washington DC starting in Jul so we need to sit down and work out the cons of me taking a Career Break after my Mat Leave

For those who are breach...have you heard of Moxibustion? Meant to be very good and certainly more comfortable than dangling off sofa head first!

We did the ice thing on the hypnobirthing course - wasnt that bad but was amazed at the number of women and men on the course who were winceing and complaining about it, so maybe its just me that felt that way. I did tell DH that it was absolutely nothing like a contraction though....

Chilled - sorry your DS is ill again. That nursery sounds like lurgy central! Ooh, a 2 year career break - sounds exciting. Washington is a fab city (been over there a few times to visit SIL who lives near there - all the museums are amazing!) - v

chilled Is your ds ok now? I take it your line manager doesn't have young children then? What a f**k head.
Washington for 2 years. Wow, that's exciting. I'd love to be able to up and leave and start again sometimes.

dinky.... i was one of only 2 women in the whole group who managed the full minute and even a few of the men dropped their ice which astonished me frankly as uncomfortable as it was it was only a minute fgs!

i think part of the reason i don't find contractions as uncomfortable though is that the greater pain actually helps me zone out more and is therefore far more managable to me.... does that make any sense at all?! also, i find hot pain very copable with but cold pain i can't bear.

i think dp grasped from watching the dcs being born that an ice cube experiance might be a slightly irrelevant comparison though