Due March 2010 - just because I'm pregnant at Christmas doesn't mean I'm a taxi driver

[annamama]

... new thread for oldies and newbies due in March! ...

Oh, and WELCOME FAY!!

Evening, ladies,

and welcome, Fay, hope you won't find us too mad scary .

BPM, sympathies about the weeks of cough (and need for mat pads, been there, done that, bought the big knickers t-shirt ). Hopefully the anti-bs will do the trick.

Lots of good wishes sent to eveybody with lurgies - be that of the respiratory/oink variety or stomach upset: illness at this time of year should just not be allowed....

Also, I wish to join the annamama cow-glider chair fan club - it looks fab!

Sariska, glad to hear you scan was ok. So your baba may turn out to be long and lean, eh? Are you and your DH tall?

Snow still falling here, DS1, 2 and Daddy have just been outside sledging, building a rather dysmorphic, fat snowman and have come in cold and wet down to their pants !!
I took some photos from the safety and warmth of the living room . Today was last day of school at last, it was far too late, and it all starts again in 13 days time. I do not know whether they are going to get more time off later in the year somewhere? Any Scottish mums in the know?

I am sure, I have forgotten lots, sorry, preg brain + Christams stress = total cognitive collapse. Infected burn on my hand better since I started antibiotics, grrr! This is going to be the most pickled baby in the history of all my babies . Had my 3rd Vit B12 injection today - still hurts, gah! Hope it is worth it in the end. I am suffering acute mat leave envy of all of you finishing off soon. All of a sudden keeping going into week 39 seems like a stupid ill-conceived idea...

Keep warm. Don't slip. Take care.

Hi all, welcome fay. Good news sariska! Ive joined the club of the sick.got rotten cold n had 2 b off work. Made it to our 4d scan tonight. He decided to sleep through his first ever performance despite many prods-makes for a cute but dull dvd! No yawnin or pickin of the nose for our child! Scarily its reckoned hes already 3lb 8oz! Thats gona make appoy 8.5lb at birth i think? Ouch! Hope all well for everyone and ur starting to chill x

Aww scooby that must have been so lovely to see your little bubba on screen, 8.5lbs is a good healthy weight

Thanks for the welcome everyone . Hope those who aren't feeling well are managing OK in the runup to Christmas. I'm trying to summon up the will to do housework...as you can see, I'm doing rather well (not!). Perhaps just one more cup of tea first...

Hi all, thought I should de-lurk briefly to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Last day at work today (till the New Year; v. jealous of anyone going on maternity leave already ), and heading to Edinburgh (from London) for 4 days to see parents and in-laws. Pathetically looking forward to showing off my bump and being made a fuss of .
Has anyone else been feeling generally uncomfortable lately? I'm having to sleep on top of an extra duvet folded up to avoid horrible rib pain, and still wake up every hour or so. Not to mention finding it hard to breathe when I'm lying down.
Annamama, DH and I are almost 100% sure our DS is going to be Isobel. We're going for the Scottish spelling, but I think it's a lovely name, however it's spelled .

Oops, that should be DD, not DS, obviously; we're not that cruel!

That's a gorgeous name busy - also having trouble sleeping but mainly due to heartburn

BusyMissIzzy - what's your name then?? Since you're called Izzy I mean... (nosey) I'm swedish and over there only the Isabelle spelling is used so that's what we'll go for.

Manda - hope your DD will be ok! At least she dumped instead of getting dumped...

Pacific - cold and wet down to their pants? If you're going to stay inside, at least it's your job to dress your family properly!

We are all packed and ready to go to Sweden, leaving in a couple of hours, and no snow here so hopefully will catch flight ok! Don't think you'll be getting rid of me though, bringing mini-laptop...

Manda Sorry to hear about traumatic love life. That part of parenting scares the crap out of me!

Welcome to Fay BusyMissIzzy

to SnowballproofMum for all your ailments. I loathe the coughing until I wee part of childhaving!

Pixie Welcome to York for the day. You and a BILLION other people are gracing our snowclad streets today. Mum went in earlier to the city centre and nearly lost a limb in some retail related scrimmage.

Hi to everyone else.

News from our camp.... You remember the much maligned wedding in Cumbria which nearly saw us snowed in last weekend? Just received a tidy little letter from the Cumbrian Constabulary today informing us that DH was snapped doing 46 in a 40 zone. Would we like a fine? Some points? A day trip back to Cumbria for some road safety lesson? Blooming typical is that it's probably the only stretch of road that we made it above 35MPH!. Hey ho.... DH not remotely pleased that I phoned him at work to tell him. Ruined his day apparently. Oops.

Evening all!

Just a quick one as we've only just got back and DD1's got a party which I've got the ferry her to. . .

We had a lovely day in York, Arcadie, we did shopping and lunch at Betty's and general Christmassy things. It was really nice, although busy - I felt like shouting 'Pregnant lady, coming through'!

I'm going to start the baking tonight, I think - we're having friends and their children round for mulled wine and cakes tomorrow morning and so I've got to produce 75 assorted cakes by 11! I always wish I started it earlier!

Pacific, yes long and lean should be in this baby's genes. Dh is just over 6' and I am 5'10" - and my dad was just a shade off 6'7".

4d scan must have been fab, Scooby. Dh and I were contemplating getting one but will probably "make do" with the extra normal NHS scans we're now getting. As some of you said, it is nice to see baby again.

Went to ds' nursery nativity play today. Herding cats springs to mind.... But it was very sweet, I must admit.

Off up north, roads permitting, tomorrow. Should have spent today packing but instead did vast amounts of baking to ingratiate myself with relatives and help baby put weight on!

Hope everyone who is travelling anywhere has safe, easy trips - and a lovely Christmas to all.

hi
just a brief check in between nose blowing and baking (washing hands too of course)..
Arcadie/Annamama get ready to make the 'super list' we had our 4d scan this evening and baby is a GIRL! yey! So the fact we decided on a boys name was a definate sign that she is a girl .. anyone want my boys name.. Isaac going spare if so.. Back to deciding between Charlotte, Catherine and Lucy..

Baby girl Siamese has very chubby cheeks and should be a good birth weight of almost 9lbs. Which allays my fears of a 12lb baby (although given the amount of mince pies, choc roulade and other treats Dh and I just made, maybe baby will be more than 9lb!!) Ill try and add a pic to the Facebbok group when Ive got a mo.

Have fun in sweden annamama - I also tried to read your blog (I did GCSE swedish 5 years ago - long story - DH did Greek at the same time - his was much more useful as we never went back to Sweden..) anyway - much easier in Google Translate!!

Merry christmas to lurkers and oldies, looking forward to hearing about what lovely presents you all get - you deserve them!

Hello all

Just back from Tesco for pre-Christmas food shop; busy, slow, pushing heavy trolley with large bump

DH at home on sofa. With full-blown man-flu and very sorry-for-himself expression. Plus a really annoying (for me) cough which he only occasionally bothers to stifle with his hand.

Me - tired, up early this morning (to pee/comfort DD after bad dream). Also heartburn AND hunger...hmm how to deal with both...?

House extremely untidy and all I can think about is how I'm going to spend most of Christmas Eve either tidying it or getting annoyed cos DH isn't tidying it (or may tidy it, but with a 'I can't believe you're making me tidy when I'm clearly at death's door' face on.)

I feel like a walking cliche - I'm one of those women who's so fed up with all the pre-Christmas crap she can't enjoy the time of year, and I really WANT to be festive, dammit!!

Anyway, it's been AGES since I caught up here, never mind posted and I miss you guys. Will try to set aside some time tomorrow to read up on what's been happening and maybe even post something less rant-y.

Ok, maybe just one smiley face for this - DD v excited about Christmas, being v cute and had a lovely nativity at nursery So it's not all bad, I guess!

Off to get into jammies and try to watch some telly before I inevitably doze off on the sofa...

H x

Cannot stop, in full gift wrapping frenzy, running on adrenalin!!

Hi all,

And welcome Fayzal - you do know what you're getting yourself into here, don't you? This is a curiously addictive pastime...

Sariska - ggod news that baby is long and lean - thats gotta be the perfect combination, surely?! I speak as someone who, it appears, gives birth to babies who look, for several weeks,somewhat like a buddah... [fat emoticon required)

And rotten that som many of our number are suferring from stinking coughs and colds - I'm feeling very lucky indeed to have escaped anything really debilitating so far...

As for my breathlessness, I'm not concerned, I was like it last time - and I can already feel that baby is quite high up - I'm short waisted (well, short everythinged, truth be told ) and she already seems to be taking up lung-space. It's just uncomfortable and doesn't help when already feeling a bit faint-y much of the time (MW reckons stupidly low BP is to blame for that...)

So the lack of Christmas preparation at designerbabyvillas is well and truly biting me on the arse now - not that I hadn;t WANTED to do it before but what with working full time, overseeing a house build (sort of) DH working his bum off and searching for / applying for new job prospects, the in-laws arriving and all the rest of the stuff means that actually very little (read: nowt) had been done until today...

Can I recommend NOT heading to Oxford street on the day before Christmas eve, in the rain, at almost 7 months pregnant and with a 2 year old in a buggy? Not my most fun afternoon ever, I have to say...

Still, presents now bought (even though I can now barely move!)

DH got the job he was working so hard for yesterday... Had to do a massive prsentation to the board as part of the interview process, so has been burning the midnight oil preparing for that and coping with his ordinary workload in his already stressful job.

But he found out only a couple of hours after the final interview that the job is his, which is a very nice Christmas present indeed. It's a significant salary hike, so will ease our financial stress when I go on maternity leave no end, and DH says we might even be able to stretch to laying some carpet in our new house which would be... nice!? Wasn't relishing the idea of concrete and plaster spattered floorboards underfoot much...

So now I just have to wrap all the presents, write cards and make the Christmas cupcakes I promised to make for my SIL ? who is very kindly doing Christmas lunch for us, my mum and the in-laws... For which I shall be eternally grateful - even thugh I've done it the last 5 years in a row, so it should have been someone else's turn, really!

First Christmas lunch I cooked (apart from just for my Mum & Dad, that is) was just before DH and I got married ? his parents were over and he was living in a big vicarage/houseshare... he also ended up inviting various waifs and strays who had nowehere else to go and I ended up not just having to do Christmas dinner for my inlaws to be, but for a total of 25 people - which was a bit of a mission as you might imagine...

Goodness, I'm knackered though... Just finished writing this after finally completing all the wrapping. Must now sleep... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have my Christmas pressie scan tomorrow - let's see just how big this baby is... eeek!?

Scooby - 8.5lbs - pah, that's nuttin' [swagger emoticon] !!???? You'll be fine.

Nighty night,
db
xx

Speaking as the mum of a wonderful little Isabella (Issie!) I can only wholeheartedly support the choice of names (and various spellings...) It's a very versatile name, She's Issie or Is at home, Bella at nursery and ISABELLA GRACE when she's in trouble

x

Mornin- really pleased for your 4d girl news siamese. And also many congrats 2 your dh designer! My dh next chance of promotion has just been advertised for march-dont they know we are having a baby! 3 days of man flu v v tiring and v v sore on the nose and head. And now boiler gone off so no water or heat. Not a good week. Heres hoping british gas can fix it and i can crawl out from under this duvet. Hope ur all getting better and safe journey to all those mad enough to venture out to stay with relatives x

Ps 8.5lb baby seems huge compared to my 3 weedy nephews who were between 5.5lb and 6.13lb!

Morning and Happy Christmas Eve to y'all.

AIBU to be a little bit pleased that DS is slightly oh so Slighty under the weather today and just wants to watch DVDs? He went to bed with no tea at 6 last night and didn't surface til 9 today. He came downstairs and announced "I've got a bug. I think it crawled into my mouth last night". Epidemiology 101 from a 3 year old

Morning and Happy Christmas Eve to everyone,

We're on Christmas standby in this house until DH gets home from work today. He works in catering so only gets tomorrow and the weekend off - sigh. Mind you, he's got man flu a cough as well so would probably be lounging around feeling sorry for himself anyway.

Meanwhile I'm on guard around the Xmas presents - DD (2) had previously shown no interest in opening them, lulled me into a false sense of security then made a daring raid on them yesterday when I was cooking her lunch.

She managed to open two Charlie and Lola DVD's before i realised what was going on! There were tears when I took them off her - it's hard to explain exactly why she can't have them till tomorrow. Weather's better today so we're going out to keep her mind off what's under the tree!

Got a pregnancy symptom query as well for everyone: I've got some horrible cramps in my right arm at the moment. It's worse at night but there now during the day too - anyone else had this? Any ideas about what to do?

hope you all have a lovely and relaxing Christmas (if that's possible).

Just a flying visit to wish a very happy (and relaxing and fun and loving) Christmas to you all

We're off to Ireland this afternoon, so just packing/tidying (also have a driving lesson) but the morning is already flying past!

Arcadie at your son!

I'll catch up with everyone's news next week
xxx

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

DH's man-flu is still in full flow, with the most chronic symptoms being acute self-pity and general uselessness. Still, he's taken DD round to his parents' house cos his brother arrived last night for Christmas, so they'll all be catching up while I take the opportunity to finally get some tidying done without distracting children/coughing husbands getting under my feet! I think I'm in that kind of pre-Christmas, grit-your-teeth-and-get-on-with-it mode that I used to see in my mum when I was a kid! Not great, but I know I'll be happier and can relax when I get a few things done.

Also finally just had a quick catch up on the last few pages of posts - sorry to hear there's so much illness floating about so many of us - I hope all the bugs/colds/vomiting/snottering/coughing etc gives you all a rest for the Big Day tomorrow.

And how exciting for those getting scans at this stage - you must have got to see loads!

anna LOVE your Christmas present - that chair is coooooolll!!

Manda - no need to apologise for DP being dressed as a cowboy in your pic - no need to apologise AT ALL.

Am quite glad that, although we're preggers over Christmas that we're not actually due anytime around now! I have a friend who's expecting to give birth any day now (her due date is the 27th, which is also, coincidentally, my birthday!) and I'm quite glad I'm not in her shoes - there's enough to contend with at this time of year!

By the way, Ina May Gaskin fans, you've obviously influenced me, because I bought her childbirth book the other day - our local Borders store is closing so it was only about £2.50 - bargain! Am not sure her style will be entirely for me, but am willing to give it a bash - she must be a childbirth guru for a reason, right?!

Anyhoo, I've just realised I should really be wrapping DH's presents while he's out of the house - I'm off to wrestle with paper and sticky tape.

Festive good wishes to all!

Hi all - just popping by to wish everyone a merry christmas ? can;t believe it's tomorrow ? eeek!? Kinda snuck up on me this year?

DH is at work this afternoon - on Christmas eve. Pah.

But he cam ewiht me for our scan today and, she's still a girl, still looking good and still, well...

FAT.

That's the long and short of the expert opinion, in layman's terms. Slightly above average arms and legs, bang on average head circ. and WAY above average abdominal circumferance.

80th centile they reckon... Which isn't too bad, considering DD1 was on th 98th when born - but that was 2 weeks 'overdue' so we'll see, I guess...

At the 80th I'd make that only 8lbs 8oz or so... So, piece of cake... right?

They're scanning me again at 33 weeks, and then every 2 weeks until I give birth...

Right, gotta go do, ahhh... Christmassy stuff...

Have a great one tomorrow, everyone, hope Santa brings you lots fo lovely things...

db
xx

Hello everyone!!!
I haven't been on for ages, but I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I will catch up properly soon (she crosses her fingers). Hope everyone is doing great!

off to bake, cook and be merry...