The PESH deli - where the goal is to get a nice holiday/back in the saddle

[skihorse]

I haz made new fred.

Thanks for the words of wisdom peshies. Someone slap me with a big rubber fish for gods sake.

Skater, so which consultant are you being marched in by your mum to see? I'm seeing Nick Wales on Monday but it was also suggested I see Keith Duncan as Nick is away for the last 2 weeks before my due date. So we can decide between them! So long as I get all the drugs I want, it could be Cliff Richard for all I will probably care. I rang the wing and they said I could come round for a nosy beforehand. Again, I don't think I will be worrying about Egyptian cotton sheets.... Obviously having an early scan tomorrow now to hopefully set my mind at rest about the bleeding... so we will see.

You, me, VAG and the mini bar - we can have a ante natal party.

skater i) I've just bought the spotty tankini from next for my hols. ii) I can't spell wanking either.

poniez hahaha yes, I'll be one of those who says "Yes, I'm 8 weeks overdue now" and cushions keep disappearing when I'm around... then I'll turn up with a tinytears in a cot but not let anyone hold it.

Morning,

Day off but can't sleep. Baby is awake and I'm a wee bit nervous about today's anomoly scan. Keep lying there trying to picture the kid. And when I do sleep I breastfeed the dog in my dreams

So, I'm drinking tea, on the laptop, and watching Baby Tales on Discovery.

Maternity thongs! Why, oh why? Those things look evil enough to me under usual circumstances, but the thought of having a lovely supportive panel at the front, with a string up my arsecrack (probably eventually rubbing the piles) makes me both recoil and shudder. My pants sit across my hips, under bump, and are perfectly comfortable. My tights on the other hand, are starting to hurt when I leave the waist at hip level. Might have to buy some maternity ones.

Off to Ikea to look at cots today (between my two hossie appointments). There's a nice big retail park Next near it, so maybe I'll get a nose at the baby/maternity gear there.

skater and ski I find your badly spelled, crude words repulsive. It's called self pleasuring, dontcha know

By the way, when we find out the sex, we will only be telling close F&F at first. Don't want it discussed publically on FB or ought like that. So if you are my FB friend, or if you are a lurker/stalker who has sussed out who I am, keep it MUM! All will ve revealed tomorrow...

talk about a July baby boom. Two RL friends I did not know were pregnant have had 20 week scans this week as well (the joys of FB!) Another is due two weeks before me - but not one of them is in the UK, so it's going to be an international baby week

honey/skater weirdly i also had some bleeding last night, pinky red on wiping then browny this morning (hope no-ones still eating their special k)

was fucking panicking til got on here. reassured that loads of you have also had. no pain and seems to have settled. keeping everything crossed. can't see gp cos apparently its not an emergency - ok, its probably not but is to me! - and meant to be going away for weekend arg arg arg

ok and breathe

gasp hope today goes ok hen.

cunty In defence of your own doula - I went to a good school (top brains etc. ). Of all the people that went in to medicine:

i) Queen bitch with absolutely no empathy is a psychiatrist.
ii) Cleverest girl in school went on to become an NHS manager in HR
iii) Nicest poof became an NHS manager.

So there you go, even the best schools are churning out 2 managers to every 1 NHS doctor.

Casper It will all be fine today. xxx Are you going to tell us which flavour you're getting? I totally agree, maternity thongs = wrong on so many levels - like you, I want to be covered/supported from approximately mid-thigh to baps. As for tights, I'm currently in the XXL from my local supermarket and they're doing the trick just fine.

Ikea cots - we like the white one which the shaped ends. It's got the drop down bottom and was 90 euros I think - they also have a plain pine one which was 35 euros (!!!) - wouldn't take much for dad to give it a lick of paint and stick some squirrels on it to make it nice. Plus mattress obv. We weren't overly impressed with their baby wardrobes - which seemed more expensive than the adult ones. We've found one in the grown-up section for 60 euros which will do the job just fine! We liked very much their play mats/sleep sacks/cutlery/crockery - obviously plates & spoons & shiz is a bit eager at this stage.

Curly You may self-pleasure, I masterbate furiously!

pony Your bump looks lovely! It's so nice to see everyone's bumps.

I need to start padding my bump out... a lovely colleague has just come up and asked if "the rumours are true".

ski I used to be an NHS manager before this job - what does that say tho?

Think I have said beofre that every member of my immediate family has or does work in the NHS, also my MIL does too... I am all NHS'd up - and I'm going private

iggy Well, in the voice of Roy from the IT Crowd, it mean's "You're a bastard, a reaaaal bastard!". Also, it shows that top consultants are breeding managers. haha yes, v funny - with all the depth of knowledge your family has of the NHS they've said "noooo, not for our iggy". I suppose there are degrees of care within the NHS, e.g., maternity ward somewhere north of Inverness = infinitely preferable to a labour ward at the Mayday (?).

I actually think the NHS is fab on the whole... and the staff are generally excellent - but they are understaffed, have too much paperwork and not enough time to spend with individuals... That is why my parents want me to go private - is not cos NHS care is bad - it is because it is patchy - depends on staffing on the day/ business of ward etc. They want some kind of guarantee that I'll have people on hand when I need them...

Did you know that the NHS is one of the worlds biggest emloyers? I think is only beaten by the Chinese Army and the Indian railways...

Oh I am such a lesbian. I haz just nominated myself to represent WIMMIN in this country.

iggy Yes, that's one of the things which really pisses me off. As it is such an enormous employer it should mean that you've got your own dedicated midwife/nurse/cleaner etc. for whatever is needed at ward level - unfortunately it doesn't seem to be that way.

pone your bump is also v. neat!

Good luck for later grumps

honey/ sal / skates - hope you both ok - bleeding is always scary, even if all turns out to fine, which am sure it will.

Skates my consultant is the person I see for all my appts - then I have booked into the hosp he is at, so i didn't exaclty pick the hosp - so am kind of doing it in the same way as you will be? Try searching on MN for your consultant - I found a few refs to mine on here, which was interesting.

Parents want me to go with this guy who seems to be a bit of a fertility / baby guru.

Bleeding in pregnancy is terrifying but seems to be quite common - adding it to my list of things about pregnancy which no one tells you! I thought it would be: get pregnant, be happy for 9 months, have baby. Instead it's been nothing but worry. Moaned to SkaterBoy last night who said "Dont worry darling, it will stop when they go to university".

Grumpy when I read about your breastfeeding-a-dog-dream, I laughed out loud (as they say in the classics) and then told my colleagues I juust remembered something funny I saw on tv last night.

skates. And TBH, if they told women all the pregnancy truths, the population would be much smaller. The bleeding, the pain...

pony your bump is very neat. I'm hoping the growth of mine plateaus for a bit. at the same time, it's nice to be heading to the AN Clinic looking pregnant as I have previously felt a complet fraud. Half an hour to go (just waiting for SFF to shower after he and dog had a long run together). Thanks for the good lucks.

ski I will tell you the flavour when I found out tomoz. Just don't want the wider world to know. Are you going to tell us about Julian?

I've just hung out washing for the first time in 2010. it's so sunny and that makes me feel happy.

Speaking of dogs - this is probably one for ponymum/carrots and possibly iggy/casper. Last night I was lying on my side on the couch and little dog was leaning against the bump - I mean she must know but I wondered if it was her way of cuddling up? Anyway I got to worrying thinking about germs. Our idea was that I'll probably give birth in the bedroom and the dogs will be in the living room. Once the midwife/helper have gone the idea was to let the dogs in to the bedroom so they could "check" for smells, then for me to go and sit on the couch with the baby. We want for the dogs to be able to see/sniff the baby and realise that it's only a baby and not something to be jealous of or threaten. What I'm worried about I think is that there we'll be sterilising dummies/bottles (if applicable) and it's going to get licked (pretty damned early on in life!) by a Jackapoo. Or will the baby be immune to my dogs by then?

Just a reminder to anyone freaked out by bleeding: Your risk of miscarriage drops dramatically in your 2nd trimester - I think my risk now at 14 weeks is 2%. With every week that passes your baby is more secure.

And breathe!

casper Oh god yes, you guys get to know which sex it is. :-) Tbh, I really don't mind the whole world knowing and I'll want to tell everyone - but the Dutch are very funny about revealing the sex before the birth. It's a bigger taboo than having animal sex (which has only just been made illegal).

we always had dogs and cats in my house growing up Ski. And it turned out mostlyfine.

Oooh I love hanging the washing in the garden, rather than on clothes horses/radiators... It smells better!

Tree-hugging SkaterBoy wont let us have a tumbledryer.

ski I'll need to come back to this later. No real ideas on hygiene side, but SFF has been reading up on the whole intro dog to baby thing. The consensus is not to bring mum and baby to the dog in one go. Obv. with your HB it will be different, but our plan is for SFF to take home something the baby has worn asap and leave it with the dog for a bit.

And when I go home, I will go in house first and speak to her - she's going to want to make a big fuss. Then, when she is calmer, we will bring the baby in and all sit together, let her have a sniff etc.

I can't imagine a stage between steriliser and baby's mouth when the dog would get to like the teat/inside of a bottle etc. so think all will be safe. My main fear is the dog hair. Ours casts so much they get in my throat, so I fear they might harm baby if we are not extra vigilant.

I think all of our dogs will adopt the little ones pretty quickly, be gentle and protect them, right I am offski!

Best of luck Cassie - can't wait for your update!

skater Yep, we had animals too and I suppose our parents had exactly the same worries... however here I am, allergy free and with the constitution of an ox.

A new pregnancy glamour low has just been reached. Whilst standing over the toilet heaving the back end went too - thought it was just farts, but no, have managed to do a small wee too. Also, I noticed in my photos that my pants come up way above my bellybutton and I'm not even ashamed...

ski Thanks for sharing. You're not alone. When I was in my very violent puking stage the massive vomit surge would often be accompanied by a little wee. I took to doing my vomitting sitting on the loo while heaving into a little bucket, which I would then tip in the loo and wash out ready for next time.

I'm so glad I have the opportunity to share these glamourous tips with someone. But why oh why are you still vomming, you poor petal?

And, yes, I am doing lots of pelvic floor exercises! 10 x 10 secs, 3 times a day. I have never leaked on any other occasion, only as vomit accompaniment, so I'm reasonably confident I won't end browsing the Lady Tena aisle.

No dishwasher sk8tr???? Best of luck with all those baby clothes when it rains...

dishwasher???? Dozy fuking bint

No idea about the dog / baby hygiene question. The general rule with babies is the younger they are, the more you need to worry about sterile stuff. Once they start crawling it becomes less of an issue.

If you are BF then there's much less worry as there's nothing to sterilse. But we had massive problems with the foal getting eye infections which is actually really distressing. e.g. if they rub their nose then their eyes. We had to wash her eyes with sterile saline drops all the time, and your hands have to be meticulously clean if you have probs like this. I imagine that's much harder with dogs around. Once they are over 6 mths they are a lot more robust.

Clothes horses and radiators... sigh....