The PESH deli for those who are realising there are real live baybees at the end of this.

[rots]

BESH BAYBEES
dontrythisathome, Bay Amaryllis born March 25.
Cheggers, twinz girlz, born April
FannyPriceless, boy, born June 8

UPDIFFED
CUNextTuesday, takes no shit from the Daily Mail, due June 28
IggyPiggy, The one who loves BUMSEX, due July 20
CurlyCasper, hospital botherer due July 21 (girl)
Skihorse, cradle snatching web geek, due July 22 (boy)
Carrots, organic hippy hunter, due July 25 (boy)
Cosmosis, the one that likes a good ride, due August 22
backinthebox, she bought a racehorse, due September 6
skatergrrrl, the one that overtook the rest, September ??
VAG, lives in De Nile, due 19 September
silversky, the biggest farter, due 21 October (first baybee)
Honeymoo, no it's not fucking indigestion, due November 2 (boy)
okiecokie, self-confessed control freak, due November 6
SomethingSuitablyWitty, benelux babe, due November 14
ReginaMonologue, big pants, 5* hotels, Bridget Jones due November 20
maswera, jungle hottie - due November (???)
PollyPoo, wants to name her baybee after the dog, The New Messiah is due December 25

Btw - who is going to win the first ginger baybee?

What do people think about raspberry leaf tea? I haz heard is controversial in its use.. Apparently can tone the uterus too much? Is true/ false?

have you been eating 20 pineapples a day though ski??

iggs I have been drinking it for a few days now and am willing to take the risk. Apparently it could make labour shorter, but more painful - that's the only risk I have heard of.

But lady at the hippy herb shop just said to be aware of drinking too much - she said I'd know because baby would suddenly have too much room to move in utero, and I would feel the difference*. She said it tones both ways - loosens you up for first baby, but tightens you if things are already too lose, to get all the muscles into the perfect shape.

I have no idea whether it works, but will try just about anything. It doesn't taste too bad either - I don't normally like any herbal teas. Although this one doesn't come with a promising fruity smell followed by a bitter taste! (doesn't smell much at all).

*not sure I would, TBH, because she seems to be poking/shuddering/stretching 24/7 at the mo. No tumbling though - thank goodness!

Raspberry leaf tea tastes like crap, and didn't seem to do anything for me. Maybe you have to drink bucketloads of it for it to do anything though, and I couldn't bear the taste of it enough to get enough down me.

Skates not stalking you - but it's just you are next to me on the list and I am just taking an interest in my 'due same week' buddies! If you had managed to timetravel into a week less of pregnancy I wanted to know! I have 11 weeks and 3 days left - not counting though .

I send OH to the bar - absolves me of all maths or breast-size issues. And means I don't have to pay.

We seem to have millions of ginger babies round here - at DD's toddler group this morning it would seem that half the village have ginger genes, including the little half ~Chinese, half Braziliian boy . There are also ginger twins. With a ginger mother. I don't know how they can say the ginger gene is dying out! If my next one is ginger, though, I am hoping for more of a Damian Lewis or Toby Stephens than a Mick Hucknall. Ginger is a more difficult look for boys to pull off, I think.

BTW all the gingers are going to have to pay Ski a visit in September - those mad Dutch think over everything! Redheadday!

Ah yes, a quick surf on the amazing powers of ginger (it is Friday afternoon and I am bored, OK?) reveals that gingers have a higher pain threshold but lower responses to anaesthetics and typically require 20% more anaesthetic than normal people to get the same response. I shal make a note of that for the next time I find myself on an operating table with feeling returning before the doctor had finished stitching me up!

boxer That is brilliant - and you're right... so ripe for a PESH offspring invasion!

iggy According to a lady on the Pregnancy boards, wimmins in Italy are not allowed to eat raspberries during pregnancy due to RISK of "soft fruits". I can't being to fathom what the risk from soft fruits are (I'd have thought for e.g., that rots was a huge fan of soft fruits/prunes ). I'm not buying in to all this stuff or buying spunk by the gallon a la boxer. I may well try a curry and a shag though - but I'd do that anyway.

ginhag won a baybee!

I do wonder if our baybee will be ginger - I am dark brunette (ok, with a few grays) and OH is a blonde. I have brown eyes, he has blue. My parents are brunettes (one with blue eyes, the other with one green eye and one brown eye) and OH's are I think one blonde and one brunette both blue eyes...

I've no idea what that'll little lot will cumulate in, even excluding recessive genes et al...

reggie For eye colour have a play with this: museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html - we're 50/50 blue/green. I wish they had a calculator for gingerness - anyone come across such a thing?

Have you been shopping today Ms. Reggie?

I think we should shout on the PESH thread if and when someone comes across a mega-sale. e.g., Mothercare's has started.

Also PESHes - do we need a fred somewhere on postnatal for post-PESHedness - if yes, what would our acronym be? SESH? (still), FESH (forever)?

Stalk away boxy, it's nice to compare notes with people round the same mark.

"Who is going to win the first ginger baybee?"

Blatantly me, my mum is a red head, all SkaterBoy's Scottish aunts & uncles & cousins are red haired - we are now looking for baby names that would work for a ginger.

Would it be wrong to have cake and cereal for dinner tonight?

skater I had rice pudding for dinner last night and frequently have Weetabix.

You will NOT be the first across the line for a ginger baybee I fear. curly's pretty much a shoe-in and I think cossie may have one too. I'm a possible and if boxer can squeeze hers out before you get yours done she'll pip you!

Btw, wtf is a suitable name for a ginger-baybee? I take it we're not going with Ebony?

Oh skates you?ve got no chance of being first ginger! I?m a possible, Curly?s a very probable, and ski?s a possible.

Reggie, you haz no chance of a ginger unless it?s fairly prevalent in both sides of the family. Someone worked out for me that my chance was only 25% or something and TGO is ginger, as is his sister and his dad was, and I and my dad were at birth, my gradmother and cousin both were/are.

I liked Amber, but that would be a silly move given our surname (not to be revealed here please!)

Also Rowan, as in the tree with red berries, but only if pronounced what I consider to be "properly". I nearly won this as a middle name if baby is ginger, but naming has moved beyond that now.

But you are right ski, as long as we don't call her Ebony or Raven we should be alright. I'm not so convinced I am getting a ginger, but there is no scientific possibility that she will have the right colouring for either of the above!

My money is still on a blue-eyed, freckly, white blonde baby, who might even inherit my frankly-a-bit-of-a-nightmare curls. But we'll see soon enough.

Oh look, the USA has nearly done "won" a draw again...

agree with cos, it doesn't look like you've got any ginger in there reggie.

The thing to look for in predicting ginger-ness, where few actual gingers exist on one or both sides, is pale skin, freckles etc. Each results from one of a series of recessive chromosonal faults which, when you get the full set, make a ginger. And the dodgy gene must be carried by both parents. That's why they say we are dying out - the presence of a "normal" set of chromosones in one parent will kill off the ginger presence in that family line.

Neither of my parents are ginger, but both have ginger/ish siblings. My brother was auburn-ish when younger but is now more dirty blond with a hint of strawberry. Other than him, I am the only redhead of our generation on mum's side. On my dad's side, however, there are a few of us. But I'm the only girl.

I have SFF's siblings on tenterhooks, waiting to see whether ginger is evident in their family, which it might well be given the Irish heritage and MIL's skin colouring.

God, I wish I had kept the article I wrote on all of this about 10 years ago. Twas very interesting to research

Gals I iz always shouting bout sales and shiz. Do you not hear me? Has being preggers screwed with your hearing as well as your minds?

skatrr I tell thee that your pregnancybis faster than frigging Hussein Bolt lassie.

I did nearly buy something for young Sid Vicious, so called cos s/he is having a hyper five mins and won't stop pushing my insides out. But I bottled it. Didn't know what size to get. So continued on my path of denial.

Well I haz been eating raspberriesand strawberries and meringue and clotted cream a fair bit. Typical I have not been warned of the dangers of soft fruits. But sod it I am willing to take the chance that sprogchops may have foliage for hair.

Was told again today that I don't look pregnant. Maybe not face on but from the side I do!! Apparently I will just pop out and be huge overnight. As you can imagine totally not looking forward to that, sounds like a freak show. Plus what would I wear!!!

I too have dreams about having a baby boy and it being permanently attached to my left nip. Go figure. Guess only saving grace is that it was a human baby unlike you strange lot!

ski no shopping today really too busy working - boo! We are on a bit of a mammoth one tomorrow though as were getting the bathroom suite and tiles and then also a new washer and dryer as ours are old with pretty naff energy ratings so it's time to upgrade before the government put the vat up again! Hopefully we will get a chance to nip to oxford too and I can drool over the cute boy outfits I have been spying online! I have also had a request for more boy patterns for knitting by my mum, but that may have to wait till next week as even I have a limit on the amount of cash I will spend in any one day! We might well make a start in the nursery on Sunday though so that's quite exciting

I've just called Rastus a twat. Shall I shop myself to social services now?

Nope. I call mine a little bitch all the time. she has a serious amount of making up to do when she gets into this world

Ok, TMI boob leakage question approacheth:
I was wandering around bra-less in a t-shirt earlier (at home, I might add). After a couple of hours I realised the two patches of dried up spots liquid on my T were far too finely spaced and specifically placed to be spilled food or drink.

Does this mean I'll have to wear a bra in bed to keep the drip trays in place or should I just stay loose and Deal With It?

Actually it was 'fat-arsed twat'

cas I find little cotton crop-tops in bed are a god send - not tight so they are uncomfortable, but snug enough to keep nipple pads in place. M&S do them.

curly This morning I lay in bed for an hour before getting up - this meant Julian wasn't fed exactly when he wanted to be. Which meant he made me puke breakfast. Sat on the toilet clutching a bowl, red-faced, pee, heave, fart, plop, cry, eyes streaming, nose bubbling, jailbait laughing and pointing. I lifted my t-shirt - my nips were the only thing not leaking - so I'm unable to help with any nipple problems at this stage.

Classy bitch.

Oh Ski - it's got to stop soon, hasn't it? Maybe around about the end of July .

Cas I didn't leak at all in the run up last time, but afterwards I had to wear a bra in bed for breast pads or else I ended up lying in a spreading damp patch of gargantuan size. I could find myself spraying in my sleep if I wasn't careful!

Today I have bought 4 - yes, 4! - pairs of rather lovely flip-flops. Last time they were the only footwear I could wear in the last few weeks, and I figured since work lost all of my flip flops on my last trip it was high time I treated myself. I have got some majorly blingy gold ones to go with my black maxi dress - a consolation for last weeks' discovery my cnakles are too fat for gladiator sandals.

I am with Box on the boob leakage. I wore one of those nursing vest things with support bit in bed and shoved pads down but night leakage still occured

Moo back from hols early July so lets meet up for pizza or summat, you can keep your pineapple ones though.

I am 20 weeks tomorrow! wayhey!

Took myself to westfeild for some retail therapy today and now have a hidoues bad back. I think all the bags hanging on the pram (!) plus medium sized bump meant I was not close enough to pram and was having to lean a bit to push it so walked for 2 hrs with a bad posture, so even shopping is a risky pastime!

On the work front, we have totally closed five out of 7 international offices this week, so only 2 remain and they are downsized - so I reckon I have been a bit lucky. I have come to the conclusion I am pleased to have a job and the minimal maternity benefits that go with it (inc my health cover of course) than a redundancy package which would undoubtedly by fairly naff.

Moo I have always been with Pampers, think I had a Huggies sample once but I have been pretty brand loyal to pampers really. 2 jumbo boxes last me about a month/6 weeks I think. However, you use a lot more in the early days (they seem to poo a lot in the beginning while now the wee man is down to one a day, usually at about 7.30am - very regular!)

On the genetics, I am blonde, Mr C is dark brown and the wee fella is blonde with my blue eyes. Blonde is clearly a strong gene.

Thanks for the tips - as a usually non small breasted woman, I have never really had to contemplate how I strap them up before. Will look into the crop top thing.

ski. Sorry you are still having such grief. PLease try to take some comfort in the millions of ways you can make him pay when he is a teenager.

at "fat-arsed twat" cunty

Right, I am off to scoff cake. Been keeping myself busy while he watches the match, you see.

at the boxy flip-flops. With toes like mine, most shoes are off limits, especially those with toe-posts/dividers or heels.

Back to my Rocket Dogs and crocs...

Dog has just run to her bed in fear after He started yelling at the telly. Probably best if I stay through here in the kitchen for now.