The PESH Deli - The drinks might be virginal, but that's about all...

[CurlyCasper]

Come in, come in to the new haven for diffed BESHies. I think a group effort is needed here (and I'm being a lazy preggo), so please add to the deli whatever you crave/love/can stomach.

Nominations are also open for sexy fathers we can hijack to serve our mouldy cheese and cured ham

And the best mocktail recipe wins...well, bugger all to be honest

Cor, I don't know about you, pony, but I'm not sure I've been called sensible before

lyra good idea though. Nice to know who is around as it may take a while to find the right person.

Thanks for your support PESHlets, and particular thanks to pony who spotted the symptoms, and therefore pushed me into speaking to the midwife who referred me. It is defo best to know now - while things are not bad. The aim now is to be careful with posture etc at all times and basically not overdo it. So far so good with lots of assistance from SFF!

iggy hope you're having a lovely scan experience and come out feeling good and positive.

Dinner is being served, so I'll catch up properly later.

@ dinner being served

Thanks curls, but it doesn't exactly give me much pleasure to welcome a fellow sufferer. Don't worry too much as there's almost zero chance you'll get it as bad as I had it last time, and you're doing all the right things.

iggs what news?

scan was all fine - baby was asleep this time - but heard heartbeat and all the measurements were fine - muchly happy now.

Was a little stressed I fink cos when I came out I was suddenly exhausted

I went to John Lewis afterwards and looked at some prams - for research purposes - and think I picked the one I would like - so am now going to hunt for it cheaper..

pony I'm just sorry that you have such extreme SPD. I hope you are feeling better today and can get the rest you need.

And you are right - this belt doesn't half ride up when sitting at my desk - looks like I can't dress myself properly!

SFF has agreed to let me bring in a cleaner as often as money allows to take the strain off. He's already doing all the cooking, laundry, dog walking and a fair bit of tidying - bless! (If only he would learn how to separate clothes!)

iggy How did the scan go? Ok I hope. I popped on last night after an episode of Portland Babies cause it made me think of you. Staff there seem lovely - so friendly and reassuring.

X-post!

cas we have a cleaner and she is def worth the money. She rotates which rooms she gives proper cleans to and she hoovers up the dog hair and cleans the kitchen and bathroom every week - plus does all the ironing. So go for it!

I have never heard of portland babies?! Maybe I should watch!

Premier footballers are worth the money they earn.

curls LOL at separating washing! Yes, I have discovered that my control freakery and SPD don't go very well together. Having to sit by and watch MrP's brilliant efforts in the kitchen while keeping my mouth shut? Hmm.

I have spoken to the physio this morning and she said that I should get some gentle massage if it would help, and to up the painkillers.

iggs Glad the scan went well. Peaceful sleeping baby is good, as they say they carry on the same habits once out.

Can I come in for just a minute to see you all? I missed you lot, I did. I'm glad to read about iggy's scan and that all of you are well and suffering through the love your babes are dishing out.

Ok - departing for now...

X post - excellent news iggs! I'm really pleased

hawaii nice to see you! please pop by to anytime - Fish deliveries welcome!

pony massage sounds great! My at-home amateur has promised daily massage, on my choice of body area. The pregnancy massages on my yoga DVD are V good and he'd much better when he follows the man on the telly!

iggy there was an episode on Discovery Home and Health at 7.30 last night. They date back to about 2004. I have seen the odd one. (Disc H&H is all about babies from about 6am to 10am and around 7 in the evening. Some content is awful, some ok.)

on the footballers. No so much no comment, as I don't have an opinion.

iggs I bought a book last night whilst idly looking for Hom's valentine's present and I thought it may be of interest to you if you've been mithering about the unknowns of birthing:

Birth Skills

Was having a flick through it last night and it's very empowering, teaches you not to see the pain as 'sick' pain (i.e. the type of pain that indicates something is malfunctioning) but 'healthy' pain (i.e. a strong muscle in your abdomen doing exactly what it is designed to do, very strongly ). I think it's the same idea as 'spiritual midwifery' but more practical and less airy fairy. I also came across stuff about how to counteract pain naturally using your own endorphins instead of letting them be counteracted by adrenalin which is often the case when you are scared of the pain. In a nutshell it's loads of reptitive exercises and techniques you can use to reinforce the fact that it isn't scary pain you're experiencing it's necessary muscle movement towards an end goal and how to work with it rather than against it.

Sorry if I'm being evangelical about this - before I got preg I always said I've be straight in for a cs, but I was trying to rationalise why I've changed my mind and I think it's because, for me -and I totally understand everyone's circumstances are different - I want to know what it feels like to go through the whole process if I can, and thus I have to have an arsenal of management techniques under my belt to assist.

Recommended anyway. By me and Trisha Goddard, so there's a ringing endorsement for you

Wooooaaaaahh Mrs Shiny Lady.... Hello! Fantastic to see you! How are you?

rots football players are paid what the market will currently sustain. Eventually, and we're not far off that, the market will implode because you cannot raise ticket prices indefinitely for the fan in the street, you cannot sustain a situation like at Man Utd where the club was bought on the back of a huge debt and continues to make a loss whilst money is apparently magicked up out of thin air (can't, and never have been able to spell conjoured - or however it's spelt ) and not every club can be bought by a sheik.

The fees and wages paid will reach critical mass before too long, and as in the case at Portsmouth, your outgoings will be more than your incomings, especially if sponsors are falling by the wayside during financially lean times.

I reckon, anyway.

cunty fanks - that sounds v. interesting - might get it - although does make me wonder exactly what hom is getting for valentines day

HCS drop in anytime! Fanks for checking up on us. Hoep you be joining us soon.

pone fingers crossed re: the sleeping

cassie will look for it then!

iggy That's great news - you must be so thrilled!

curly You're right, it's great that pony pushed you in the right direction for an early diagnosis and hopefully this can be contained and managed.

I threw up again last night. Am soooo bored of this. I haz had shitzu too.

hawaiian woooohooo! Stay, drink elaborate cocktails in front of us - boast about beautiful beaches, lush tropical mountains, fishing, playing with doggy on the beach type stuff.

No worries - I know it makes me come across as all sanctimonious and 'oh I'm going to do it all naturally in a field of lavender', but honestly I'm not trying to be. I'm doing this once and once only and I want to be able to say I experienced it.

Course it may not turn out like that and I'll be politely requesting the strongest they've got - but what I want to try and avoid is going into it thinking 'I'm scared, I want drugs, I want to be numb, I just want it over with' without fully appreciating that although it can be frightful, it doesn't have to be frightening, I will get through it and come out the other side, and what goes on in the middle can be influenced by me and my attitude to a certain extent.

Oh ou know what I'm trying to say don't you. I'm not judgey, it's just how I feel about it.

ski Is that a breed of dog or a kind of massage?

It's a poo dog.

cunty there are lots of other reasons to avoid a section of possible. For instance, babies born by section can be more prone to bronchial problems as the passage through the birth canal (hating that term) yer fanny squashes their lungs to get rid of all the fluids etc. Obviously maternity recovery is USUALLY better with vaginal births too (although not always of course).

However, with elderly primigravidas (LOL) it can be less straightforward because the tendons and muscles which need to open and release are often less supple than with teenagers who do the pea popping thing. Therefore "they" are likely to need more assistance in labour to release everything - which should be fine for you with your doula - but needs to be taken into consideration by us oldies. I should be ok as my arse and pelvis is already stretched by LC.

Forget whether stuff is airy fairy. If you (and people) want to go for a vaginal birth do everything you can to work on optimal foetal positioning (google it for the exercises) as it's really, honestly essential. Going into a first labour in your 30s with a back to back baby is no fun. A baby in a good position should be fine.

re football - bizarre thing to say here I know, but I hate football and always thought they were overpaid idiots who don't deserve it. But for some reason this morning I thought, why don't they - just because they're often not bright people - I realised I'd been very snobby just thinking that educated, intelligent people should be earning the cash. I mean, I don't think I'd ever really rationalised THAT either (I'm not THAT snobby) but it was just going through my mind and I wanted to say it. Don't know why.

As you say, it's a market forces thing.

I think it's on my mind as LC keeps bringing home football cards which the kids at school are "into". I don't know how to handle it. I'm not buying them for him but don't want him to be left out... but won't be forced into spending on fashion... if it was Nike trainers I'd know what to do but this is a £1 pack of cards! Am I being unreasonable??!!

And I don't think it sounds sanctimonious. It sounds sensible. After all, it is a fact that "natural childbirth" statistically gives the best outcome for baby and mother where there are no contra-indications for it (for instance, it would obviously have caused pony an awful lot of harm). But approaching it with understanding, and learning as much as you can, has got to be the way to go. It's what I do so it must be right .