Expecting in Oxford 2012 (inc. late 2011 too)

[MakesCakesWhenStressed]

Hi... so just been confirmed I'm due 10th (ish) of January and would love to get chatting to some others in the same area who are also expecting... As I said In the title that includes those of you due late 2011, as well - it's a very inclusive thread - as long as you'd be able to make some meet ups in Oxfordshire and you're going through some stage of reproduction then you'd be welcome :-)

I know there's at least one more of you out there (ghost - you there?)

Stats time:

MakesCakesWhenStressed - expecting #1 EDD 10 Jan 2012

Oxford is lovely to wander around, but unfortunately not terribly helpful when it comes to actually finding something to wear. I am keen to have a good look around Reading though. My little sister is coming to stay in a couple of weeks and we may have to have a little excursion! :-) Is there a Primark there does anyone know?

I wore my favourite work trousers to work throughout my pregnancy, I bought an Isabella Oliver bump band in black and simply sewed it to the top of the trousers just below the fly, then was able to keep the flies undone and tucked the excess material to the sides. It just looked like i was wearing a long tshirt with the trousers. Now I am back wearing the trousers normally because I just cut the stitches and removed the band. I did have a blooming marvellous band as well but it wasn't such good quality.

Oh and yes there is a primark! I did go maternity shopping in Reading too but can't remember if I was particularly successful. I am a shopaholic! For me the best places were Birmingham and Kingston (was there anyway) and surprisingly discovered that the Trafford centre in Manchester is rubbish... Was there visiting DH's family.

heh - my mum and dad live near Kingston and I spent my teen years shopping there - it's still my preferred haunt now because I know it so well and it has (almost) everything. They could do with a Debenhams mind...

cunning plan with the bump band, but I don't think I have any trousers I can be bothered to customise. Right, off to a tums and tots NCT social now. TTFN!

Morning! Am in the waiting room for my scan at the moment - running late of course! Also my boss just sent a puzzled email asking if we were meeting this morning (we'd rearranged for Thursday) so I think he may be getting suspicious about my mystery appointment. Have already managed to rub the receptionist up the wrong way - why are they so rude?! She asked if I had blue notes with me, so I said yes, and then she went back to tapping her keyboard until she eventually looked up and I said 'oh, do you need them?'. She looked at me like I was a moron! I'm not bloody psychic!

Gosh, wish they'd hurry up, need the loo! Why don't they give an idea of how late they are running?

If you are still waiting, very good luck!

lol - they were quite speedy with us, but that was more likely luck than judgement! And I asked exactly the same question 'do you need them?' and got treated to a glare like I was retarded. Honestly - do they teach them that in receptionist school?

Just because they know they need the blue notes doesn;t mean I know they need them?

How did it go? Did you go all teary eyed or have a big silly grin on your face?

x
Cakes

thanks stephfa, I'm not good at waiting, doesn't bode well!

In the end I went in about 45 mins late, but all the waiting was forgotten as soon as I saw the ultrasound - the little bean was wiggling around, waving, crossing its legs, yawning and generally being active. All looks fine so far and I have a new estimated due date of Jan 12th. Also, I ran into a friends who is a consultant obstetrician so she now knows the news! Had to go out in the middle of the scan to use the loo as my bladder was so full that it didn't leave much room for the baby to turn around. I have the pictures now and keep staring at them, and have managed to take a photo on my phone to email to DH in the middle east. Yeys!

OK - those were supposed to be italics, not strikethroughs. Doh.

Wonderful news Ghost! Also - we are now due date buddies!
Congratulations - enjoy the wonderful feeling

cakes we must have cross posted there! Yes to the receptionist thing - I know it's routine for them, I get it. But I waitressed for 6 years around college and school and never rolled my eyes or was rude and impatient when a customer didn't know the system or had silly questions. In my view being a receptionist is a similar public-facing service role (though you wouldn't know it from the impatient keyboard tapping and the fact she ignored me - didn't even look up - for almost a minute). It's just good manners and for some reason receptionists at my GP and NHS just don't have them!

and yes - shall we race?! I wasn't teary (am not very sentimental - might have been more emotional if DH was there and I saw him react) but did have a big grin. I was totally amazed at the level of detail - I could see the two hemispheres of the baby's brain, heart, stomach, face (looked like Skeletor!), hands, feet - amazingness!

My nuchal fold measurement was 1.7mm I think - saw it on the screen but they didn't mention it. Am having the blood tests too but should have a formal letter with results within a week or so.

mine was 1.7mm too - apparently that's on the thinner side of normal, so fingers crossed. I got very cross at the phlebotomist too. I told her that i usually faint when i have needles stuck in me, so could i lie down. Anyway, she rolled her eyes, let me lie down, took the blood - all fine, then while she was turned away I went white as a sheet and my vision went all funny. Dh hoisted my legs in the air and all was fine, but she turned round and said "Oh, did you feel faint? You've got colour in your face so you don;t look like you'll faint"

Oh well, that's Ok then. If your professional opinion tells me I won;t faint then I'll jsut stand up and walk out shall I and be damned if I fall down in the hall?

I totally agree with you about customer facing positions, but somehow it's even worse when you get it from someone in a 'caring' profession.

Ps - as to the race, you're on!

oh cool! Looks like we have pod-babies then - identical dates and measurements.

It must suck to have trouble with needles - I've had five vials taken already and I'm only at week 12. I have a friend who is fine with needles in her head and isn't afraid, but has always fainted after every injection and every vial taken because she has really low blood pressure and it drops further if she is jabbed with a needle. Like you she needs to be jabbed lying down! I'm fine but the MW last time really struggled to find a vein and I think I've had that before with giving blood. The phlebotomist was much more efficient this time, thankfully.

It was so weird when my friend popped her head around the door and was like 'omg, ghost! WOW! congratulations!'. Haven't told any of my teammates yet and I'm sure she's very discreet but I'll probably make the announcement after my match tonight. And she's a big up consultant at work so it must have been funny for the ultrasound tech to see her giggling away with me.

Yup - it's low blood pressure for me. Not too bothered mentally by needles any more!

And you've had the scan now and must be nearly 13 weeks (like me) - so as good a time as any to spill the beans!

Do you have the date for your next scan? Perhaps we'll bump (pun intended) into each other there! :-)

They said they'd send me a letter with the next scan date so I'm expecting to hear within a week or so (at least, I hope so - we really need to try to make sure that DH is able to come along, for which we need as much time as possible).

I've gone from wanting no one to know to wishing everyone knew already so we could move on! Contrary person that I am...

I guess now I need to decide with DH's help whether to find out the sex at the 20 week scan - there's always something new to think about! On the one hand I really like the idea of finding out at the birth, while on the other I feel like I can't possibly wait that long and need to know immediately. I think DH would be ok with waiting, as he's a traditionalist at heart. I would love to have a boy first but my family has a long history of producing girls first. Mind, we have a history of twins, and I've escaped that little family tradition this time around. I think I have a friend who found out the sex at 20 weeks but refused to tell anyone except her partner - quite like that idea...

Yeah, I want to kno the sex, but not sure if we would tell anyone. Anyway - isn't the sex of the baby down to the daddy?

ah yes, you're right, but nonetheless there are a lot of girls first on both sides!

OK. So had a very nasty run-in with a neighbour this morning who saw fit to get confrontational about a request I made for them to be more quiet late at night. They got very nasty and very personal and I was shaking for about an hour afterwards. Anyone know a nice cheap house to rent, within commuting distance of Didcot and not in a vile area?

Oh that sounds awful cakes! Hope you feel a bit better now. People can be such gits!

The landlady came over and said she'd sort everything out - she was absolutely lovely. Gave me a hug and invited me over for a cup of tea. I'm OK today, but felt really crappy yesterday from the after-effects of all that adrenaline. Fun stuff. Anyway, my mum's popping up to see me today, so today will be a better day all round :-)

New treat I've discovered: wholemeal toast with nutella and crunchy peanut butter - totally yummy. Makes a change from all the fruit I've been craving. What have you been eating?

That's great! I have one new neighbour and am about to get another (I'm mid terrace). The latest one is a bit odd - seems nice enough but just a bit intense (he's an artiste!) We've been really lucky so far but am guessing they may be less impressed to learn that there's a screaming infant on the way. I live in the quietest street ever - full of retired people. If I'm ever coming home late, all the lights are off by about 10pm!

What have I been eating? Apart from everything in sight you mean? Anything that keeps my blood sugar on an even keel has been welcome. I've had quite a lot of jacket potatoes! Ice lollies have been helping a lot with nausea. Tonight I absolutely have to have pizza - we normally make it at home but the oven has been broken for almost two months, and we're having a new kitchen fitted in a few weeks, so there was no sense in fixing it again. So guess it's dominos for me as I can't even heat a shop bought pizza...

TBH even at 13 weeks I'm still feeling sick a lot. I seem to have developed an acid reflux thing after I eat which is really unpleasant; I've never had it before so don't really know what I can take. Things still smell quite strong (and a bit funny) so I'm not back to normal yet. Have been totally loving nutella though! Am not loving how much of a fatty fat fatty I've become - ten pounds so far! thankfully it has levelled off and I haven't put anything on in the last few weeks; I think it's a combination of having broken my ankle quite recently so not being able to exercise as normal, plus being tired, plus feeling sick so trying to keep on an even keel by eating.

Sorry to hear about the neighbours cakes, but glad the landlady seems to be on to it. i'm wondering about sending a note round our street about parking - I often can't park outside my house and being disabled AND pregnant that's getting to be a bit of an issue... Never know how they'll react though...

Rollersara - I assume you have a blue badge? Is it worth ringing the council to ask if they could paint a special parking space outside your house? Someone had this where we used to live and it would make your life an awful lot easier if it was possible. May I ask what your disability is?

I'm finding the nausea is receding a bit now - not really kicking in till 8/9pm which is far more copeable with (yes I made that word up!) but pizza is also one of the things I'm finding most enjoyable to eat! I'm managing to force myself to eat more vegetables now, which is good. It was starting to worry me that I was subsisting on sugar, carbs and whatever vitamins were in my supplement! No wonder I got a cold sore - ouch.

Right. Time to check facebook then actually get on with some work. I need to make us some money!
x
Cakes

The pizza was sooooo good... I actually ate a piece in the car before heading home and actually moaned with the pleasure of eating it good job DH wasn't home otherwise I'd never hear the end of it!

In other good news, DH should be home this weekend! We've only seen each other for five days in nine weeks which is basically the whole pg! We're expecting that he'll be home most of the time until Sept now, apart from a cycling trip he's doing. Yeys!