Due April 2009: Episode 9 - April Mums with Guns: Rise of the Fanjo Warriors?

[BabyBolat]

Here we go again....

Am finding hard to keep uo with you lovely ladies. Can someone with the know-how change my name I was called Longlegted and am due on the 27th, my coputer crashed and have changed email address so have had to set up new name.

I was wondering when anyone is planning to stop work? I have planned to stop at nealry 37 weeks and am now thinking that might be a bit ambitious as i am also looking after ds4 and dd2. I want to work as long as poss but am sure that I stopped much earlier the last 2 times.

Hey ilovesummer - really don't worry about keeping up = i find it hard and I am on here everyday!!

I was planning to stop at 40 weeks but I now have 8 weeks to go and I am genuinely really struggling with it so I am either going to have to stop early or work from home a lot more as I am so very very very tired all the time at the moment!

They've been. They were really lovely, actually & asked if I was 'ready for dropping' & wished me luck before warning me not to even think about moving any of it myself - I quite like the part of pregnancy where people show interest & concern.

I am also back in my bra & towel with a reheated wheat bag, so I'm good to go. Turns out my little sister's off school today because she's ill, so we're having a nice text chat.

Good that the sciatica is at least under control, Bleu. Is it dying down at all? I still think you should be resting, but you're clearly not going to listen

conker, in a similar vein our pile of dirty laundry (small pile, but still!) has just been kicked into the nursery out of public view. Now I just have to remember it's in there & wash it at some point instead of forgetting all about it & wondering where certain items of clothing have gone.

BB, the pain is quite a lot less now - I'm not crying or doing funny breathing or anything Have managed to swing my legs onto the sofa, so am sprawled out with a box of Celebrations, a bottle of water & a carton of cranberry juice beside me. It's exciting stuff. I want DP to come home Although I'm not sure that I'm going to admit the piles thing to him. I know he'd be fine about it, but it rather kills any mystery left in the relationship

I feel the same about the babymoon / holiday things, though. I would fall over dead with shock if anything like that were to be suggested for me. I doubt I'll even get a present. Maybe a bunch of flowers or something. I thought that was really good until I heard about everything I'm missing out on

& really, conker? He'd love to be pregnant? Is he insane?

Springy, Celebrations are a well known cure for kidney problems!! That's a fact!!

I am so happy - DH has just picked up a posh nursing chair and footstool of the gliding kind for me. I have always wanted one, but never been able to justify it before. It's in the corner or my mission control bedroom in prime TV viewing position, and Iam rocking away very happily.

Conker tell your DH to come and live in the Bolat household for a few days and I am telling you he wont want to be pregnant after my complaining and nagging!

Boffin, I want to borrow your DH for a week, can't think of anything better than coming home to that much loveliness! (My DH is great but I have no holidays or magic chairs!!!)

Nutty, that is probably a good thing dragondraws will probably give you a great right up as she is so scared of you!!!

Yes they did write to my dr, but I had already gone to see him to prime him as to why I was applying and advising him what to write, more or less, according to DLA categories and what I had written on my form.

I did not get a care award, only mobility, but I think they made a mistake, because the reasons given contradicted information I gave quite clearly on the form, so I was invited to reapply, which takes ages but the money gets backdated in the end. For example they said I could sit down from time to time on a perching stool while cooking, so turned it down on that basis, but then I had to say I obviously couldn't carry a saucepan or hot dish while on my crutches (how Monty Python would that be???!), so couldn't cook myself a hot meal for one (which is the theoretical test they apply). Does that make sense?

I am glad I appealed because I have got a lot worse since the original application and we are spending a fortune on looking after me.

top marks again to boffindad - sliding chair is one of my dream purchases - keep hoping to see one in a sale for a ridiculously low price but so far no joy.

not letting dh near the bolat household having seen your glam pictures bb

lunchtime again. 14 1/2 days to go at work. hmm maybe should be getting things cleared up i think.

40 weeks is very ambitious i'd have thought bb - i went to 38 last time and although i was pleased not have finished too early and so be hanging round the house, I was getting pretty tired and fed up by then.

I know people say it, and you maybe wont feel entirely like it at the time, but if there is one thing I would do differently, it would be to make more use of my free time before having ds. not saying that everything has to change and you will never have free time again, but if you get a week or two where you can go for leisurly swims, cinema trips with big pick n mixes, seat in a park with a good book (or maybe a coffee shop at this time of year) I really would be making the most of it.

I think these people always do as they have to make it difficult otherwise people all over the shop would be claiming it!!

Just remember you have a genuine claim and you wouldn't be doing it unless you felt you needed to! It'll be fine - if not we'll get Boff on them (if we can ever get her out of that chair! )

Nutty, I should add that I know what you mean, it's a bit wierd applying for benefits if you are used to paying your own way in life, but I think you just have to put your qualms to one side and ignore any sniffiness on the part of DWP call centre people. You've paid your taxes, you are perfectly entitled to apply, and you are not being dishonest at all bearing in mind what you are going through physically. And as I keep saying, YOU ARE GROWING A BRITISH CITIZEN! This is the highest possible calling!!

BB if you think I am ever getting out of this great chair you are mistaken. If have my feet up on the glidey footstool and my TV remotes in the little pocket of the armrest and it is just FAB!

I am so much happier now DH is at home with me. Apparently his boss does not approve though.

I think there's a policy argument for giving pg women with complicated pg a special form of rapid process DLA anyway, sort of an extension of the Health in Pregnancy grant.

Hello to ilovesummer

I still feel at the idea of working until 40 weeks. I'm just going to keep going to uni for as long as possible (potentially until I'm actually in labour, I suppose) but that's so different to proper work. I really am humbled by your dedication.

Boffin, good to hear that Celebrations are specifically useful to my plight! I shan't even think to question the science behind this claim & shall just tuck in some more & your DH really is coming through for you! I'd really like a nursing chair, but have various reasons why I shouldn't invest. If one were to appear at DP's insistence though, I'd be very happy.

Haha, I just saw BB's feelings mirror mine - I too want holidays & a magic chair! The best I got is an offer to get me paracetamol 10 minutes ago (a bit late now) & now he's making me pasta, which is nice He's also complaining about dad jokes sneaking into his brain - isn't pregnancy just such a difficult time?

The Monty Pythonesque scene with crutches & saucepans is making me smirk a bit too, I have to admit. I love that you can keep your sense of humour even though things are so rubbish.

& conker, you've made me crave pick n mix now, but DP used to work in Woolies & is such a spoil sport about the hygiene that he wouldn't fetch me any. Maybe tomorrow.

I think it should be triggered by things like multiple births, pre-eclampsia, diabetes, epilepsy, pre-existing disability, and moderate to severe SPD/back pain type problems. I'm sure there must be other things as well. They could fast-track application to four weeks rather than 11, and have a special payment band.

& Nutty, don't feel bad about claiming benefits - we're going to have to be claiming general benefits for the next 3 or 4 years Neither of our sets of parents have ever claimed a penny & they all work, so we comr from a family of good tax payers, plus I had taxed earnings for over a year & he did for over 3 (& we will do after uni, obviously) but I still feel really awkward about it. It's much worse than a short term disability issue!

Springy, the reason the chair arrived was because he had seen me surreptitiously trying them out in shops and looking for a cheap one on Ebay, and finally there was a couple of them on the ward in the special bf room, so we both tried them out again there. He knew I had always wanted one and then decided to encourage me to put aside my normally thrifty nature! If I wasn't married to him already I would propose on that basis!