**AUGUST 2010** happy days as 3rd trimester comes our way

[CherryPie3]

New thread

We really are getting through a thread a month lol!!

Oh mrsZaC it's so lovely having an allotment! We only have a half plot, thank goodness otherwise it would take us forever just to keep everything watered! We've only cultivated about 60% so far, but really pleased with what we've done considering we got it when I was 14 weeks pregnant! Eeek! Just been down there for the past hour doing a bit of weeding and admiring the poppies. So peaceful. I could get used to this lady of leisure lark!

Fantastic blueberries that's brilliant, can't beleive you've had it such a short time and getting so much out of it, super jealous. I LOVE poppies too, they are one of my top favourite flowers!

mrsZaC we're in the same position with our house. Been on the market since March, had 14 viewings (15th one is happening this morning while I'm at work) and not even a sniff of an offer. Its really frustrating, our house is really well presented and very keenly priced - in a great area. We have a 120 ft long garden. People are either saying the house is lovely but the garden is scaring them, or the garden is perfect but the house is too small. (its a relatively spacious 3 bedroom semi with 2 reception rooms and a kitchen extension). So we are stuck there now, and I so desperately wanted to be near family by the time the baby was born.

Now with planning a homebirth I am starting to resent the fact we are on the market because I just want to nest, but we must leave it on as the sooner we can move to a new house the better all round.

Talking of large gardens, we have a big kitchen garden that I spent some time in last night picking strawberries and snipping off some chives Haven't made much of an effort with it this year (because I didn't expect to still be using it!) but it is lovely to eat straight from the garden. I also love poppies and we have some that have self-seeded and planted themselves amongst the veg. Also have a bed full of self-seeded Foxgloves which are another favourite of mine.

I'm also finding hypnobirthing fantastic and really glad we paid for individual classes. £250 very well spent as it has totally given us both the confidence we needed. Agree with comments about the Ina May book too - the stories really bored me to be honest but the factual stuff is great and I am re-reading it all now.

A big box of goodies from the nappy lady arrived yesterday I can't believe how cute (and unbelievably easy to use) our Totsbots nappies are! Had a practice on one of my old toys tweetphoto.com/30026571 and then tried a Newborn Huggies I had as a free sample which was much more fiddly and felt so much less comfortable. I was also surprised at how the totsbots weren't that much bulkier than the disposable nappy. I have some vest extenders anyway just in case. We'll be using muslins for the first little while (if he is small) and then move onto the totsbots when he is bigger.

Star I'm so glad to read that it was a false alarm but sorry to hear that Emily is still breech, must be getting quite tight for them now space-wise!

Only 6+3 days to go now until due date and I keep flip-flopping between 'bloody hell that's ages' and 'aaargh we haven't got long enough!'. One thing I can say is that every weekend is 'booked' between now and then, and as I'm very busy at work I have no doubt that time is going to fly by. I still need to buy a few bits and bobs but mostly sorted now. Need to decide on a sling still, and planning on going to choose the moses basket and stand over the next couple of weeks.

Mammoth post sorry girls!! x

I'm so jealous of all the garden stories. Due to my job I move around every 2 years or so and so I have never bothered with cultivating a garden, but would love a veggie patch and herb garden. I'm due to move again next May and so I think I will make more of an effort at the next house, hoping that I get a decent garden.

Vix206 I have also done one of the hypnotherapy classes. Managed to squeeze one in last week when DH and I were back in the UK. Found it great and DH finally understood what I hope to achieve. He has since been reading the book I got with the class and now wants to listen to the CDs with me. I try to alternate each day, one day the relaxation CD, the next the Birth Prep CD. No idea it they are working, suppose I will find out in 6 + 3. But I feel much more relaxed when I think about the birth than I was before I started using these techniques.

I'll keep my fingers x for you vix and MrsZacC that you sell up soon and move to where you would both like to be. Good luck.

Ah Vix what a cute piccie - I hadn't considered disposables at all, looks like too much work (cos yeah, we all know that the rest of bringing up baby will be a walk in the park) but those are super cute and look very easy!

I've just been very selfish and ordered some shoes...for myself! So the next box won't contain anything for nursery or for LO but mine all mine

And I meant reuseaables not disposables of course doh! Brain is melting.....

dogwalker & vix glad your getting on well with the hypnobirthing too, totally with you dogwalker feel so relaxed about labour, think it's the affirmations that I listen to every morning!

vix sorry to hear your in a similar position, same as you, our both flats are really well presented and got really good feedback, think the market is just flooded just now. I think we'll leave it until I finish work and then we'll have to give in a settle for a bit, hopefully keep it up on the market though just incase. Still undecided about 2nd flat think I will just have to get tenants in.

Anyone needing an excuse to spend more money? greenbaby have 20% off till midnight tonight, www.greenbaby.com enter the code WOMBLES on checkout, I got some muslin cloths, hooded towel and a hairbrush last week when it was 25% off

What is the facebook page everyone keeps referring to? What should I be searching for, then I can join in too.

Cheers

LCR about the lambskin--I bought a small lambskin rug for DS1 and DD1 and DS2 have also loved it (I kept it in the nursery). In fact DS2 will prostrate himself upon it every time he crawls or toddles by, and give it a big cuddle. It's totally been worth the money.

I'm due 31st, just as DS1 will be starting Year 1, DD1 starting preschool (the first time she'll be formally separated from me) and DS2 will be 14 months. I keep trying to work out the logistics of how to arrange car seats and how to carry two babies out of the car simultaneously, nonetheless carry in groceries! Am moving DS2 into dining room for a year so LO can have his own space. Does anyone have experience with a small age gap? I would be so grateful for any practical tips.

On the other hand, I'm looking so forward to meeting my little William and the fact of having 4 doesn't daunt me--it's just the last age gap that does.

But one more whinge, if I may, please, ladies: the size of my bump. I've gained a bit too much weight all over, but I stopped weighing myself weeks ago and I just don't feel that bothered about it anymore. But my bump is absolutely massive. I feel embarrassed going out in public because people GAWK and stare and are always, always completely shocked to learn that I'm only 31 weeks (I've started simply saying I'm due in August, rather then telling them it's the 31st!) I get all sorts of comments: You're enormous! Your bump is massive! You MUST be due soon, surely! Your baby will be so big! How will you give birth? Is it measuring big? (btw, it's not.) What do I say? No, I'm just massively fat? How may I tell them to off? Whatever happened to the sisterhood? (these comments all come from women, of course)

When we were in Cyprus for holiday recently, every stranger I met had only sweet smiles and compliments (and there I bloated like a whale because of the heat). Is this attitude of horror and shock just endemic to our corner of the globe?

send a Fbook friend request to me z o e c a m p b e l l in my picture i have a white wrap around top on (& a big belly!) I'll have to invite you into the group

Thank you *mrsZaC, I will do that now.

owh poor vita if there is one thing I've learned during pregnancy it's that everyone is different, there doesn't seem to be a standard shape or size, so just ignore and be proud of your lovely bump

Vita i get looks now too. I am quite small framed and my bump is about average i think, but is so obvious in vests and t-shirts that are slightly fitted.

Vita everywhere I go people stare, it has been happening for weeks now. The other night in Asda some bloke (who I have to say was very overweight) thought it was amusing to say to me 'Cor that's a big one' as I walked past him. I have a good sense of humour but honestly I am getting a bit tired of people thinking they can stare and comment on me just because I am pregnant. How would he feel if I said the same about the size of his beer/burger belly??

I also hate the way people kind of judge what I am eating/drinking at the moment and constantly ask me if I am craving the particular thing I am eating. No, I am just human and need to eat like the rest of you, just because I happen to be eating a cheese sandwich when you see me doesn't mean I am munching my way through 10 a day!

My bump looks huge, I'm a size 10 everywhere else so it is really quite obvious!

I have to say, as much as I am enjoying being pregnant I am looking forward to not being a walking target for other people's comments - although I guess it will be a whole new set of opinions once the baby is here.

My friend has a gorgeous little 3 year old boy. The other day someone said 'what a lovely little girl' and she politely said that it was a boy (I have to say to me he's obviously a boy as he's a little tinker and wears very boy-style clothing). The lady replied "Oh well not to worry I am sure he will pick up and look more like a little boy when he goes to school!" Blimming cheek of it!!

I'm getting that too - LOTS of comments on what a big 'un I'm cooking which scares the life out of me as it's my first baby and I don't want to have nightmares about struggling to get out a monster!

The other day in our work canteen, the cashier very loudly and publicly asked if I was "sure I should be having that" ("that" being a seafood rice with salmon and cod, nothing dodgy from the banned list) and I was fuming.....

I've just ordered a lambskin, thanks for the recommendations ladies. And now I should probably stop spending money! Or be patient, there are no gifts left for friends and family to buy us now!

Oh dear! I seem to have avoided the huge comments this time round, but I'm quite tall, so maybe they've yet to come. I certainly don't feel as massive as I did with ds. However, don't count on the attention disappearing when the bump does. Once you have that precious little baby out you become a target for every old biddy for miles around. It's like they have baby radar or something - especially the slightly, shall we say "eccentric" ones (that don't believe in wasting water to wash, like to chain smoke and can chat for Britain). And they ALL want to physically touch your beautiful (practically sterile you use so much dettol round the house) baby. And god forbid if the baby is crying...then you're really in trouble

vita no practical words for you my love other than SLING! and WOW! and huge respect.

Just scoffed a huge plate of gnocchi for lunch and feel rather full now. Going to toddle off to B&Q to look at paint colours for the kitchen. Gave the hall a quick lick of white this morning and I'm all motivated. Might just have to pop into Mothercare at the same time...

Enjoy your afternoon girls.

Blueberries I have a sneaking feeling that you might not have that long to go - all that nesting you're doing . It's tiring me out just hearing about it.

Re the big bumps, I'm actually quite enjoying mine (looks-wise, not comfort-wise!). It's finally managed to dwarf my mahoosive chest and bum, so that now when I look in a mirror I look positively slim everywhere else by comparison. Although in some ways I'm desperate to get this baby out now, in other ways I'll miss my nice firm bump - that first few days/weeks of looking about 7 months pregnant but totally wobbly and jellified is horrid!

Eek - wobbly and jellified! Is that how it is? Cos that's something that's been worrying me!

Yes, and it feels oddly numb too

It's like rice pudding in a bag. Horrid.

lol at 'wobbly and jellified', I really hope I shrink back to size nice and quickly!

Has anyone got any book/author recommendations for some light reading while I'm too fat to do anything else? I haven't read much modern fiction so don't know what to look for. Anything that's not sad or scary please!

snort at rice pudding in a bag! Yeah - forgot that joyous phase!

elusive it's funny because up until this week I had felt like this baby could come any day and was oddly surprised each morning when I awoke to find myself still at home, pregnant and not in labour. But today, I just feel like little one is comfy as comfy can be and has no plans on making a move to the outside world.

However, I have just painted a third of the kitchen...oops, hope dh likes the colour!

Oh yes, I'm nesting

marzi have you ever read The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood? Can't remeber the author but it's fab. Or try any of the 44 Scotland Street novels - they're lovely.

I am reading serious trash at the moment. It is ideal, but cannot mention what it is as it is embarassing

Also reading trash, interspersed with the odd chapter from one of the baby/pregnancy books I bought or people lent me. Latest guilty pleasure is the new Lesley Lokko one

I'm in the same boating as the ladies trying to sell their houses, tho I think we've decided we might just stay put. Has been on the market for 2 months now and despite a little bit of interest, nobody serious and no offers. But we do love our neighbourhood and have great neighbours and a park, library, small supermarket, museum and local mums and babies group less than 10 mins walk from the house so despite the fact it's a terrace with on street parking and only a tiny, tiny garden think we're just counting our blessings!! Or trying to lol

More pressing problem is that we share a 3 door Fiesta! Not the most practical of cars! And it's going to be deadly trying to get LO in and out of the car seat which we just got installed in Halfords today to make sure it fits. And yes it does fit (just!) but it's def going to be a two person operation to get the little person in and out of the car until the car seat can go forward facing when he/she is a few months old. Not looking forward to that!!!

Thanks for the comfort, ladies. I've not yet had anyone comment on what I'm eating or shopping for, so I must still count myself lucky--that's ludicrous!

I just read In Defense of Food by M. Pollan (non-fiction) but found it easy to read and very interesting. Or anything by Irene Nemirovsky (does that count as modern?) John Updike is also superb.