Due November 2009 - who is going to go 'pop' first?

[BeckyBendyLegs]

Here it is!

On awkward children: I had to laugh when in the middle of the night, DD made the effort to get out of bed, plod into our room and climb into bed with me, just so that she could say in a very firm voice,"Mummy, go away". Er, I am fast asleep in my own bed. You go away!

What does anyone do about the stair situation? It drives me insane! I have carried her a few times, but not sure that I should really (she is 15.5kg). I think it's just the timing really, when we get in the house from being out anywhere I am always shattered these days, I feel like I can't just stand around for ten minutes being patient (I probably could if I were more patient by nature...)

comma Now you are just teasing us with your stories of milkshakes and hospital pampering! (I did ask for it though). I am quite jealous. Here we get a slice of cold toast post-labour, and we are unbelievably grateful for it

We've got the same labour dilemma. I had been relying on a friend who is a SAHM to help out if need be, but they are moving soon and probably by the time I go into labour. All our other friends work full-time. My mum is going to come up to mind DD, but she lives 2 hours away and won't drive, so will have to get a train. I'm trying not to worry about it all too much... Maybe I could ask DD's nursery if she could go there in an emergency? Do you think they would agree to that?

Hobnob Glad you had a good send off from work.

Scarlotti Sorry you've been so ill. I've also been poorly and have a horrific cough. The GP gave me some antibiotics yesterday to try and help fight it off. It's a misery. Funny you should ask about childcare. I was out yesterday getting the door keys cut and making sure I have 2 full sets in the house. Luckily we have MIL about 15 min drive away, but she doesn't drive so will be catching a taxi, so my neighbour will take over and wait for MIL to arrive. I don't think I'll have long to get myself to the hospital because DS was born within 6hrs, and it's meant to be quicker the 2nd time around - well that's what I'm telling myself Would your DD be ok to take care of DS until an adult arrives and takes over?

I'm a bit of a control freak and have typed up DS's routine, meals etc so MIL knows exactly what she needs to do, also I've ensured she knows I've banned most sweets and chocs lately. My DS's mood is normally easy going, but when a sweet gets in his system he turns into a crazed child!

I think most of you who are having issues with their DC is down to a difficult age they are going through. I found the 2 to 3 year age really hard work with DS. He is now approaching 4 and and at pre-school, which has worked wonders on his understanding of rules etc. I see my own DS in most toddlers when they are playing up and think to myself - oh hell I've got to go through all that again with this baby!! It will all work out in the end

Anyone else getting up for the toilet 4 times a night?! I've tried to curb my fluid intake in the evening, but i seem to still be getting up every couple of hours - it's driving me mad!

I felt totally lost without chatting yesterday. We had a joiner round replacing the skirting boards in the living room all day and I'd said it wasn't a problem being in all day. Changed my mind pdq when I realised that DH had had to unplug the internet connection as it was all in the way - I hadn't realised how much I rely on the internet now, not just for chatting but for ordering baby bits, checking news etc... I'm back in my comfort zone now though

Beepbeep I hope you DD slept better last night. We've got a nursery nurse helping us with our DD's sleep and just when I think we've got it cracked (slept 8pm-5.30am with no interruptions on Thursday night), we seem to go back to square one again (last night we were woken up about 10 times ).

Kyte Good news about the sleep apnea (or should I say lack of). I don't know whether you drive but I dealt with a client earlier this year who was formally diagnosed with it and the consultant had a duty to notify the DVLA, who banned the patient from driving. I was worrying in case the same happened to you... Funny you should mention cleaning everything (which I was frantically doing yesterday to take my mind off lower back pain) - last night I started having really strong BH, that were starting to get painful and regular. I had another slight show too and eventually after pottering round the kitchen for a while, told DH that he might want to sort out a few snacks for himself. Took some paracetamol and lay down and the damn things stopped again! Feel like the baby can't drop any lower now, I'm so uncomfortable. Just wish I had a clear sign as to what's going on. The only contractions I had last time were drug-induced and were agony, so I'm honestly not sure what a natural contraction feels like. I hope I know when it really starts...

Fruitpastels and Pavlov I'm so glad your babies aren't breech any more - I've been keeping my swollen fingers crossed for you

Sleepless Hear hear! I think you're wasted in whatever job you do and that you should set up your own ante-natal classes just for men (with those mirrored windows that they have on TV crime dramas for people to watch while interviewing suspects so the wives and partners can watch and laugh evilly)!!

Lissy Glad it wasn't just me who cried at the "From Bump to Breastfeeding" DVD. I think it was for the same reason as you too (plus a few hormones thrown in for good measure!), as it made me realise things should have been when DD was born when in reality, I had none of the nice bonding, skin to skin etc. Fingers crossed for a better time this time for both of us, however the little ones appear.

Southernbelle and anyone else who's worried about birth this time round - I suffered from PND and PTSD after DD was born and after a long struggle with PND, I got back on my feet but I never really addressed the trauma side of things with DD's birth. After having counselling this year, I've been able to let go of all the hurt and anger about what happened and look at it as something to clock up to life experience. I'm also looking at this baby's birth as an individual coming into the world in it's own special way and am determined not to let my previous worries about what happened to DD put a dampener on that. I'd really really recommend speaking to someone professional about how you're feeling xx

Scarlotti Hell's bells, I hadn't even thought to arrange for someone to look after DD while I'm in labour - what a terrible mum!!! I'm making it top of my to do list today (after going to the hairdressers, that is!)

Laugs I nearly peed myself laughing at your DD's antics last night!

The baby is making me really uncomfortable now, I think if it presses itself any lower, it's going to explode out of my nether regions/lady garden (or with my stitched bits, lady ploughed-field) at force! Getting up now to face the day. Have a good one, everyone x

Place all bets here for the next one to pop

I say...

wizzywoo

You sound very ready!

fruitpastels did not realise baby had turned too, YEY, hope s/he stays that way! This little boy is still floating and apparantly he can still move back again, and he is moving lots so I am not getting excited!

wizzywoo It sounds like it might not be long now! When are you due? Was DD overdue though, if you had to be induced?

I found early contractions to feel quite different to BH. I didn't feel them around the bump at all (that might sound obvious, but that was where I was expecting to feel them), they were much deeper, low down and started in my back. A lot like period pains.

I'm pretty sure mine isn't engaged yet, but I'm getting a lot of discomfort/ pain in my pelvis and upper thighs, especially if I have been sitting too long and get up, or if I'm just standing too long in general.

southernbelle I noticed this organisation last night, the Birth Trauma Association. It might be of help?

I'm so jealous of these wonderful sounding hospitals and such short stays. Not only do I get a crummy state hospital (although this is France so at least the foods OK- fresh croissants for breakfast!!Yum) but I'll be lucky to get out in 4 days and even then if all gies smoothly. After my cs I had to sob before they letme out after a week as normally i had another 2 days to do. Its more prison term then relaxing luxury here!

In any case the main concern at the mo is how to I get to the hospital as dp has just sold our car!!! I now have a choice of motorbike or pushbike Why can't babies be born on their due dates it would make organising so much easier and while I'm at it contractions should only start after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast, with the birth after 4 or so hours around lunchtime I could go on but its starting to sound like a have a food obsession!

maman , so, you are pretty much forced to have an epidural and you have to stay in for 4 days like it or not? why is that? Although, from personal experience, I actually was relatively pleased to be in hospital for a few days with DD. It gave me some time for me and DD to get to know each other, just us 2, and then DH in the day, with midwife support whenever I needed it. I felt no pressure to tidy, or do anything (not that DH made me when I got home, but I think mentally you see things that need doing). But I 7 days was a little too long!

laugs what you said about the cold toast and us being grateful for it? Soooooooo true! I loved my cold soggy toast and cup of tea the morning after DD was born .

Im quite lucky, my mum only works three days a week and lives around the corner, and if she is working, MIL has permission for leave to have ds. hospital is 15 mins away but if dh is at work will take him 20/25 mins to get home, so hopefully things will work out fine. labour was 13 hours in total last time so hoping for another one about the same length. last time nobody told me about meals and where they served them so i didnt eat for two and a half days.

Pav I'm sure your baby will be in the right spot when the time is right. I felt the baby turning the night before my scan and it was very uncomfortable (36 wks), but then there really isn't any space left for this baby, so everything hurts now! It's already over 6lbs and I'm tiny in height and build, I reckon I won't go full term, or at least be on time. I really must stop eating big bars of Dairy Milk choc - it's my new food craze. I've been hoping that nothing happended this week as DH is away and 2 hrs drive from me. He is back this weekend. I can't wait as this week has been an endurance with feeling ill.

I can't believe another week has passed by and we'll be updating the list again on Monday!

fruit blimey that was close with baby moving just before the scan! This baby is a proper wriggler and I think there is more room in there than I realised! But it does hurt now. A lot! I measured 2cm too small on thursday but midwife was not concerned as I had scan 2 weeks before and all was ok and have another scan in 2 weeks. Baby was 4lb approx at 32 weeks so thinking he will be around 6lb at 36 week scan too. DD was only 5lb when she was born

Wizzy - thanks, but last night was a nightmare as well, decided she's probbaly started dreaming, so trying to comfort her rather than get cross, but last night it too 2 hours (3.30-5.30) to get her back to sleep, unbeknown to me she had a necklace on which she manged to snap which meant beads all over the bed, dropping on the floor each time she moved etc at about 4am, shewanted me to fix it and she was just wide awake, however shedidthen sleep in till nearly 8!

Spent yesterday painting lounge, have 2nd coat to put on one wall today and then the woodwork to do, D was off yesterda so he wa pushed into repainting our ensuite, luckily DD was at preschool (she didn't fake illness and stayed all day!!) and DS was a really good little chap.

The only thing i'm worried about re getting to birthing centre when in laour is fat that despite DH working in Oxford - 7 miles away it usually takes about an hour to get home, he's going to ask permissio to park his car at work, but there is very littleparking. The PIL live 3 miles away and will collect the children whenever, but my first labour was 4 hours, 2nd was 3 hours, hoping this one does follow the pattern and go to 2 hours cause it aso takes 30 mins to get to centre, so we may not make it!!

Our labour plan is that DD will go round the corner to FIL and MIL will drive us to the hospital (about 15 minutes away), so things should be pretty simple. DP is unemployed at the moment, and PIL are both retired, so basically everyone is say around waiting for me to go into labour!

DP did say he was giving up booze until the baby comes, but of course he was talking bollocks, so the main thing I am nervous about is him being in the pub and not hearing his mobile or being drunk during the birth. He has cut down to just the odd pint, but it is just my luck that he wins a quiz or something and has to spend the beer vouchers that night, and then I go into labour!

Either that or my waters will break everywhere during a lecture...what is the correct ettiquette in that situation? Do I inform the lecturer or just walk out, leaving the lecture theatre covered in amniotic fluid? My lectures have about 300 people in them, and it is theatre style seating, so I have been trying to always sit at the end of a row. I'm also not sure how I will get to hospital in Gateshead from uni in Newcastle. It seems a bit daft to get MIL to drive all the way in, given that she will have to drive through Gateshead to get there, then deal with the horrific one way system. But then the metro and a bus would probably be a stupid idea...I may start carrying taxi fare and my notes with me everywhere from now on...

What about if I am out somewhere with DD? Presumably the hospital wouldn't mind me bringing her with me until someone can get there to take her home? Well, they will just have to deal with it I think. They want me in the moment I have any idea I might be in labour, so I can't be sitting about!

Oh, and DD woke up at 5am this morning, shouting that her nappy was broken (one fastener had come undone, and she knows full well how to fasten them!) so I ended up spending a couple of hours sleeping in a cotbed with a toddler inexplicably wearing shoes kicking me in the back while the new baby kicked me at the front.

Weirdly, though, I actually feel halfway normal today. I've not even taken any painkillers yet!

Hmmm, I just nearly cried because one of our friends put an old photo on facebook of DP where you can see his old wedding ring. I don't know why, I am fully aware he used to be married, and I know for a fact that when the picture was taken, he and his ex weren't even speaking and had been in separate rooms for months, but it still caused me a pang of insecurity.

He looks like a knob on the picture anyway

Morning all! Feeling a bit blurry eyed after being up five times to DS2 - he seems fine today but just had a temperature last night. He gets like this sometimes. Does anyone else's children just get temperatures and no other symptoms and then just gets better?

DH is out today doing 'school governor' training. So I'm taking the DSs to my oldest friend's little boy's birthday party. We're off in a few mins.

I'm also up going to loo all the time. I think the baby has moved down. I've just done a wee and feel the need to go again already!

Ohh here comes DS1. Better get ready...byeee

I've got tha breast to bump DVD too. DS2 and I were watching it yesterday and DS2 was asking me all sorts of questions about breast feeding or 'best feeding' as he called it.

Today DS1 said to me 'I just need to brush my hair to make myself look pretty for the party'

BBL ds has had temperature and nothing else, after a sleep he's been fine again, but im constantly checking him just to make sure nothing else happens.

not happy, ds just whacked me in the head with the tv remote.

Will read through everything in a minute, just had to share this as am gobsmacked at how bloody rude it is!!!

The friend we've asked to be Godmother has been nagging me to have a baby shower; I finally got my own way and agreed to go out for a "Pre-Mummy Meal" but not a big faffy do like she had in mind. Text people and sent facebook invites yesterday.

Today I logged onto facebook and someone that I hadn't invited from the group of people that screwed up my birthday has commeneted, "Hey hun, 24th is X's birthday, so don't think any of us are going to be able to make it." YOU WEREN'T INVITED!!!

How rude and presumptuous is that?!?! Am so shocked at how damn rude it is!!!!

It is rude, why did they think they had been invited? Do they mean the people you have nvited aren't coming either tho?

No! None of them were invited at all... We've invited about 20 people all together, and that group are not included in the number. Ugh!!

weird, i only think im invited if the person asks me. maybe they were just saying that cos they were jealous thay you hadnt invited them.

laugs your story is hilarious! Still laughing very painfully...I can't really do anything without wincing, baby low and spd in full swing..and to think I have 29 days to go..

Comma that sounds amazing! but you do pay for private health insurance in the US.. I would expect that too and then some..champagne anyone??

I asked about a private room at St George's but there weren't any..Twins take priority and so do CS..Third degree tears are so low down the spectrum.

I can so imagine this thread being the second most active!..i can't keep up sometimes....

I have taken a day off today!! DH is in charge of the whole house and DD..not doing a thing..on strike! If he wants to go skiing he has to earn his days off! no more Mrs nice wife and i say no to martyrdom..always sacrificing and feeling guilty...time to be selfish.. (won't last )

As for labour...we have booked air tickets to get both sets of MILs here to cover from 22nd Oct...unf my mother has had a bunion op that isn't looking like its going to heal in time so we may have to wing it for a few days.. being abroad is a nightmare..funny am more worried about DD than labour..

Hi all,

Feeling a bit sorry for myself today, I seem to have a trapped nerve, think its the sciatic nerve and I can barely walk pain is in lower back, groin and all the way down left leg. Paracetamol is doing absolutely nothing but on the plus side dh is looking after ds and won't let me do any housework

I'm with you all struggling with toddler tantrums at the moment. Think he might be poorly/teething though as for the past two nights he has woken up screaming and won't go back to sleep in his own bed so has been in with us. Last night I was so uncomfortable with my back and could have cried when ds was trying to climb over me and wouldn't go to sleep. Am so hoping that this is just a phase that will pass before the baby arrives, how will I cope with 2 crying children in the night?

Erika can't believe the cheek of your friends! Do you think they thought they were invited or that they are miffed that they weren't so thought they would respond that way? Unbelievable!

Trikken and bbl hope your ds' feels better soon.

thanks helips, hope your pain eases up for you too.

Hmmm, DD seems to have suddenly come round to the idea of being a big sister. Today she has had knickers on all day and has actually asked to use the potty instead of being bribed like usual, and has insisted on drinking out of a proper glass instead of a sippy cup. She also asked out of the blue to watch the "booby milk video" ie the from bump to breast dvd, and watched fascinated and asked questions all the way through. She announced that she is going to teach the new baby how to play with toys and read books. So I think we may have a breakthrough! She is meant to be having a nap now, but I have a suspicion that she is getting too old for daytime naps, as it is taking her longer and longer to settle down. I just hope I can keep her napping at least for the first few weeks while I recover a bit.