Spring is sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where my toenails is - Due June 2010

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Ok, here it is ladies. Nice new thread for us all to enjoy

Well a big thanks to you csws you have officially changed my life . I have a post-it note against the syrup sponge to try soon, will give it a go. Can highly recommend the cherry and almond cake, it didn't last long in our house

I have the whole of my last post-natal thread hooked on the book too . The chocolate heartache cake is a good one to try - very rich so you only need a tiny slice, and best to cook the day before you want to eat imo (or earlier, but not as good on the actual day of cooking iyswim). What else have you tried so far? I've done the coconut cake several times, the almond and apricot one, the ginger sticky toffee pudding, and some diddy almondy ones whose name escapes me, and I've tried the lemon drops that someone else made.

I'm less bothered about the choc peanut butter cupcakes (the icing is divine, but I am almost always disappointed by choc cake - others who have made these love them), and would def not recommend the lavender lemon drizzle - waaaaay too lavendery! I actually threw most of that one away .

Yep, tried the choc heartache cake and agree on your point about it being better the next day. I find blasting it in the microwave for a few seconds makes it yum with a bit of ice cream.

I've also made the choc peanut butter cupcakes on DH's request which I did like, but not as much as the other things. I followed your advice and made the coconut cake which was divine as promised! Sounds like we must have similar cake taste as we've chosen a lot of the same ones.

I was looking at that lavender cake so I'm glad you've put me off it, don't know if I could manage to throw cake away

Hello all, can I join your thread? I'm due on June 17th (we're having a surprise) - and it's our first. Did I see some mention of a Manchester meetup? I think I missed it as I've only just found this thread. Are a lot of you in Manchester? I'd be happy to hear from anyone who's around here and due in May. Everyone I've met so far at classes like aquanatal is about to pop and there's been an absence of people due in May/June.

hello all - been lurking but not posting. Ooh Meggy and csws I must get that book. I am literally salivating here. It's weird, but since being PG the first time, my taste buds have changed for good. I used to eat loads of fish and now eat lots of red meat, and I have developed a sweet tooth also. Naughty naughty...

Glad your scan went well csws.
Welcome essieM We also share same due date!

Glad you had a happy holiday gibbering.

All ticking along OK here. Am incredibly tired, and am going to bed at 9:30pm then not sleeping well which is annoying. Weekends I take the opportunity for an hour's lunchtime nap when DD takes hers. This really helps.

Went out for dinner with DH saturday night as a kind of joint mothering sunday/my birthday celebration. Was lovely....we hardly ever go out as don't have any family nearby, but I swap babysitting nights with another mummy friend on our street about once a month.

DH managed to sort card and flowers for Mothering Sunday so full marks there.

dinosaur sympahties with the piles. I am not suffering myself, but have in the past and they are the worst. Are you able to use the normal treatments whilst PG?

Am in the office and would just love to have a nap under my desk. Sometimes I can't believe it's a whole 3 months to go yet. I am enormous.

filly glad your lunch for 12 was a success - in my mind you are a domestic goddess for even attempting such a feat.

Welcome LateForWork. I'm in the Manchester area (well Bury to be exact) and I think there's a couple of other northerners on here too. Where are you doing aquanatal?

Hi Meggymegmegs, I'm doing aquanatal in Chorlton because that's the only class that fitted in with my working hours but I actually live in Gorton. Have you found any good classes? I've been thinking of going to pregnancy yoga but it'll be easier to get to things once I'm on maternity leave - everything seems to be in the daytime!

Hello LateForWork. We share a due date, but I'm nowhere near Manchester.

at aquanatal classes- I have only managed to find ONE aquanatal class in Gloucestershire (or South Gloucestershire, or anywhere closer than Bristol), and that is 11am on a weekday- no use until I go on maternity leave! (Anyone wanting to correct me and tell me about the out-of-work-hours class that I just haven't found is welcome )

I decided to make the most of the nice weather when I got back from work today, and spent an hour gardening- but I'm feeling it now. I'm ready to go to bed!

Glad so many people had good mothers' days. My MIL gave me a bunch of flowers "for a mother to be" which I thought was lovely.

What a lovely MIL Barbeasty!

I'm now going to moan (so scroll down if not in the mood!)...About all the mess and dust (DP comes back from work in a cloud of it) i have to clean up around the house constantly. About the fact that DP has zero sense of smell and doesn't notice that he reeks... and then is all rude and defensive when i mention it. About the fact that he has a physical job and frequently doesn't wash or shower before going to bed. His pillow stinks... I don't want to go anywhere near it. About the fact that he thinks it's ok not to pay his road tax because when he tried to 4 months ago there was a bit of confusion and he had to do an extra bit of paperwork or something... so he never did and is still without it. About the fact that I feel (embarrassingly) that I'm better than him at everything. I wish this wasn't the case. I wish he was clean, professional (in his work), organised, more knowledgeable. I want to feel that I respect him, that perhaps occasionally I am truly impressed by him.

I feel edgy and wound up whenever he's around and often wish that he wasn't. But the other night I had a dream that we had the most terrible blazing argument and we really did split up and I woke up sobbing because it was all so horrible. What's going on?

madamefreckle - I can answer your last question. YOU ARE PREGNANT! Things don't have to make sense when you are. Stuff dh in the spare room so that you don't have to put up with his stinky body or pillow, and hopefully he'll soon get the message.

Welcome lateforwork .

I don't know how you all keep up with the posts. I'm struggling after only two days!
Welcome Lateforwork - hope you do better than me here.
Hi monkeymargot - have been awake most of the night with baby kicks. I congratulate you for managing with a little one already. I'm also getting tired - was planning to work until 37 weeks, but am a little anxious I've bitten off more than I can chew.
Madamefreckle - I'm with cantsleepwontsleep. I suspect we're all a little strung out at the moment and there's nothing wrong with an occasional row - it clears the air!

Hello, hope you are all well and had a lovely mothers day?

Had a bit of a boring one myself, kids were at their fathers for the weekend so only saw them when they came back in the evening but I did get a phonecall from them in the morning which is one up on last year as they weren't allowed

Madamefreckle can't really answer your questions but it I would be hacked off with DH if he went to bed a bit smelly. Think your hormones are all over the place too......your pregnant!!!!

Welcome newbies

AND........I wish you lot would stop talking about food. You know it's my favourite thing and I'm trying to cut back as my butt is starting to look strangely like my bump and almost the same size too. Gonna have to get DC's to make me some cakes now when they get home from school.

Not much news from me except that I have officially gone mad!! Have got Physio first thing tomorrow so that means I would possibly be a little late for my training course tomorrow, so I just phoned the office to let them know and they didn't know anything about a training course!! Turns out that it was on the 17th Feb not 17th March so I'm a whole month late

Other things have been happening too, I told DH to get the prawns out of the freezer, he searched and searched for them and we didn't have any. Turns out I'd dreamed that I'd bought some

Can we arrange a mini-meetup for next time I'm in Manchester please? It would have been fun to meet other bumps instead of having dinner on my own last night

Of course, I may not be up here again that soon...

London ladies - please please please can you confirm/sign up for the London meetup ASAP so that I can book a table for dinner on Thursday...its this Thursday and I have no idea who is actually coming...

Meggymeg (I think it was you asking about EASY) - if you want to go down the super flexible, toting baby around with you route then baby whisperer won't suit you...having said that, I see it as a fairly short term time investment (about 12-16 weeks) to get the baby into a really good feeding and sleeping routine after which you can start being a lot more flexible about going out to do stuff. And it isn't Gina Ford - she does say you should 'flex' the routine to suit you and your baby, so, for example, you might do 'eat, activity, sleep' whilst out shopping: feed baby wherever you are, activity (for a small baby) is nappy change and being wheeled around shops with pretty lights/noise for a bit, sleep then happens in buggy/car seat on the way home.

Sitting in the most pointless meeting in the world in Rochdale...am quite with the account team and customer for not rounding up the relevant people after I and my team have travelled up for the day....grrr...

Meant you're pregnant not your. Told you I was going mad!!

Must admit I wasn't a Baby Whisperer fan. My sister bought me the book just after DD1 was born as she had loved it and found it really helpful.
But it just stressed me out. I spent time worrying that instead of Eat Activity Sleep, DD1 would Eat and then sleep instantly. And since sleep was rare there was no way I was waking her up from it! The final straw came one night at about 2am when feeding her (feeds at night are boring) and I was reading baby whisperer I was getting myself all worked up about all the "accidental parenting" that I was doing and how leaving her to cry would "break the bond of trust" and I would have to work hard to restablish the trust. Completely freaked myself out, and ended up vowing never to open the book again
Am selling it if anyone wants it - after that glowing reccomendation!
To be fair it was probably the wrong time for me to be reading it (sleep deprived and anxious) and it certainly works for lots of people - my sister swears by it.

@ GibberingGinger's book report! I think there's a time and place for all these 'parenting' books and the trick is not to think of them as rigid manuals but more as useful troubleshooting guides or guidebooks...you know, you don't have to go and see all the places of interest that lonely planet Paris mentions but its pretty good for the ones you're interested in

What really worked for us was that DH opened the BW book when ds was 3 days old and, in true solicitor style, marked up all the useful pages with colour-coded post-its He was a lot happier once he had a 'practical' role to play ("master of the book") and it took pressure off me as I didn't have to be sole baby specialist in the house

I must say that "accidental parenting" is one of the phrases that dh and I chuck at each other in high humour whenever possible

In general, no book should ever reduce you to tears and any parenting support book should do just that: bolster and support your self confidence. If it isn't achieving that aim, chuck it in the bin and head to MN

'Accidental parenting' is a phrase that makes me see red but I did buy a copy of the one that deals with older children too.

It's nice to have it on the shelf, along with a couple of others, to look at when an issue arises but franky I find MN much more useful as you usually get the range of experience there, tempered by experience!

Filly - thought you might like to know, DD found a bit of carrot in her lunch today that she objected to, said she wasn't going to eat anymore, so I left her to it a moment. Then, when I said, 'There's nothing more until diner time,' she tucked in again and cleaned her plate. After last night's self-made disaster I did feel progress! Don't worry - I won;t constantly update you, but I know it can be nice to know how things qre going when you have offered advice!

Belated happy mothers day to all!

I have been really lucky up until now and not had too many ailments but had a really nasty flu type bug last week which I can't shift and stopped me from getting to my nans funeral I wanted to let you know in case it is doing the rounds. I was really cold and my skin felt bruised all over but no cold symptoms, the worst part was the shakes which were quite violent. As soon as paracetamol kicked in I felt fine but each time they wore off there was a half hour of me looking like I was on a funfair ride being jiggled about! Better now but not totally shifted so I keep taking paracetamol to cover up the symptoms.

I am also beginning to feel heavier and everything is taking longer. I know Rolfaroo has had a growth spurt but it feels like my body hasn't caught up with it so my pelvis and back is taking the toll, is this normal?

Managed to get a basic support band at the weekend which is helping a bit.

Crikey I sound like a right moany old thing! I think I am feeling a bit more apprehensive as it's my first...

Cough, cough cold here.

After all the hoops we have to jump through with names, DH and I seem to be settling on a shortlist. We like each of them, but I think feel a little disappointed as we LOVE DD's name and had a cracking list for girls this time too and don't feel quite the same about these. I think it is, however, going to be Daniel, Eduardo or Eder. Probably one of the first two. I'm quite liking the idea of a little Danny Boy, myself.

Oh. And Francisco, which can be shortened to Paco in Spain. Problem is, I like Paco and DH likes Francisco and in Spain you pick one or the other and stick to it.

oh i like Paco latrucha - that is very cool.

just briefly checking in to mark my place. Had a couple of tough weeks of non-sleeping ds & dh working long long hours so needing to take it easy at the weekend. It's a good time for it though as hopefully things will calm down so he can take a bit of time off with me on maternity leave & of course when the baby's born.

This baby is super lively! I sat next to a super high flying career lady in a meeting this morning & she saw it moving under my top which totally freaked her out - i catch her looking at me a fair bit actually, i think she finds me quite fascinating/appalling!!!

I've had a similar experience of my top 'moving around' during a business meeting recently minimoo and I think its hysterical...although like you, most of my audience have been quite disconcerted

LaT, I think you have to email or FB me about last nights dinner disaster...you didn't explain it on the January thread either....but glad to hear that the Filly-school-of-parenting (ie be mean!) might be helping

Uggh...tilting train, feeling sick. Could be time to shut the laptop....

Basically, I lost my temper. DD had things to eat that she liked and refused them all and I got cross. Then I realised she was feeling really ill and chesty and proceeded to cough on and off for an hour after which I gave her porridge.

Hi All,

Glad Im not the only one starting to feel more tired and uncomortable (not that Im wishing it on anyone ) Im starting to think that working until 38 weeks might be highly optimistic/naive! Im really uncomfortable in the car at the moment and Ive got a 45 minutes commute each way so Ive been experimenting with various cushions to little effect.

Has anyone else had night sweats? For the last few nights Ive woken up at aout 3am in a real sweat but then almost instantly Im cold and have to snuggle back under the duvet. Obviously I googled this and found it's similar to what happens when you are menopausal and is caused , yet again, by those lovely hormones. Bless 'em!

But anyway, enough of my moaning. It is still beautifully sunny which always puts a smile on my face.

I cant remember who asked but Im not from Worcestershire , that was just the easiest place for us all to meet up for the weekend (which was lovely by the way). Im from Merseyside originally but grew up in Leeds.

Have you tried one of these, Marmiteaddict? I use it under my tummy in bed and for my back on the sofa. I have tried a few things and I love this one.