40+ Yummy (or not-so-yummy) Mummies, Come and Eat Cake

[ladymac]

Have taken the plunge, hope this is acceptable to everybody.

Oh Lord - you know it's bad when you ask someone to 'hold your coat'......I can feel you fuming from here Is your SIL someone who likes to interfere? Or does she just get up your nose? Both perhaps...

Am smiling at your DSS - bless him. He's just seen a missed opportunity for ducking out of school pass him by! Good luck with it tomorrow - I hope it all goes OK and he's not too traumatised by it all - or in pain.

mrsB don't forget Lara.....
So - Baby Darragh...(pronounced Darra?) and his sister Clara Tara Zara Lara. Yep ...that'd work

Have dry tickling cough. My skin has dried up like a prune and my lips are raw....I need some humidity...I'm falling to pieces. Righty Ho - bed

hello my fellow lush MrsB - wobbly wave- I have just been around to my neighbours and they kept filling up my glass hic hic.
They are such fabby cooks so I am very full too, I just want then to do meals on wheels to my house.

Hi mumoverseas lovely to meet you ((big waves)) are your older children OK with the idea of a new bundle of joy??

I hadn't realized quite how popular Oliver was as a name, I think I will have to rename the boy...any ideas or we could be going to DHs idea of Tarquin (I think he was joking).

JJ get yourself a humidifier. I got 2 for the bedrooms for the children - DSS has asthma and K has such little nostrils. Easy for them to get dried out with the cold weather outside and the heating on inside. They've been a brill buy so far

SiL interferes. She's made a career out of it. However since MiL died she's gone from strength to strength and never misses an opportunity. We've already had one major falling out that saw her crossed off my (short) guest list to our wedding Tbh most of the family have taken to not speaking to her at one time or another. And her husband's only sister and her family don't talk to her either. Getting the pic now?

I love the name Oliver and seriously wanted it on my list of boys names along with George, Henry and William. DH didn't like any of them of course and like tees DH couldn't come up with anything better. It's part and parcel of being pregnant it seems.

Aye DSS is a canny one no doubt about it.

morning all, many thanks for the warm welcome.
I sloped off to bed early last night as I was completely exhausted, our neigbhours had a NYE party that went on til 4am so was shattered yesterday.
I'm currently living in Riyadh, Saudi arabia (so sadly no where nice and exotic)as DH is working out here. Our UK base is in West Sussex and I'm home as much as possible, in fact just left the UK on 29th December after 6 weeks in the real world.
Eldest two DC's really quite excited about number 4. DD aged 12 is now back in the UK at a boarding school in Surrey as she hadn't settled at the school here too well and we wanted to get her back and settled so when we come home her schooling won't be disturbed. DS is midway through GCSE's so we are tied here til at least the summer now at which point he will return and if we can afford to we may too although judging by DS's choice of A level college that may not be possible!

Enough about me, it sounds like maybe a few of you may be expecting too which is a relief as I've felt SOOOOO old through this pregnancy and am still struggling with the fact that I'm old enough to be a grandmother.

Most of us on here are old enough to technically be grandmothers (my oldest DD is coming up to 23 very soon and I had 2 children by her age!) and I think we've had a couple of ladies who were indeed grannies Age is just a number though and you're as old as you feel. That makes me about 21

Nothing much happening here. Back to the grind today for me DH and DSS have taken themselves off to hospital with melodramatic scene in the hallway on the way out; 'this is possibly the worse day of my life'. If only having a tooth out had been mine! Still, he is only 8 so guess it's quite plausible. At least we had no tears this time although he was a bit shakey getting in the car.

I've told DH to ring me and I'll ring him back as today I'm not having a morning of SiL ringing each hour asking what's happening at the hospital. Gah!

I'm picking up DD#1's Wii tonight and thinking of buying the Wii Fit. Anyone else tried it and if you have, what did you think about it?

Morning all.

UG the backache is killing me. Also having almost period like cramps, but I think that is more the lack of, shall we say, elimination, around here than anything to actually worry about with the baby. I am trying my usual cure, which is a cup of half-caff coffee, which usually clears me right up!

JW I've heard really mixed things about the Wii Fit. Its seems to be the sort of thing that you either hate or love. Then there is the very funny story on a LiveJournal Board called Customers_Suck about the woman who wanted to return her Wii fit because it told her she was obese!!

haha tee. Lord only knows what it'd make of me then Have mental image of it saying 'get off me you fat b'stard' in a Stephen Hawking type voice. I would actually love a Power Plate but they're so very expensive I have no chance.

Your cramp like pain may be round ligament pain which would probably tie in with your gestation. Just gotta stick with it I'm afraid. For constipation I had half glass of prune juice. Careful of the sugars though.

Yeah, that's the problem JW. All those juices people recommend for this sort of thing are really high in sugar! My GP wanted me to also start drinking cranberry because I can be prone to UTIs, until I pointed out that it is probably the highest sugared juice out there! I'd be able to have maybe 1/4 of a glass, which she said wouldn't do much good!

Iris Loved her 'breaking in' stint at nursery She's been given a lovely lady who's actually older than me and she warmed to her immediately. So, we've got a few more practise sessions next week and then it's the real thing on 16th Jan!

jw I've also heard mixed thing about the Wii fit. I'd rather like a Wii - reckon it could liven up staying indoors all the time!

tee ugh - constipation, another lovely thing sent to you in pregnancy. Coffee always works for me. Also good for me are baked beans and porride...no idea why...but they both set me off in that department!

mumoverseas Ooooo, Saudi sounds more exotic that Buckinghamshire to me! My best mate is in Dubai and she loves it....*racks brains....that's sort of 'near' you I think!?! Gosh - it must be hard when you're sort of inbetween places. West Sussex is a nice part of the world though - I can see the pull to get back to the 'real' world Are you having the baby here or over there? What's the plan?

Righty ho - need to leave the house as DP is home and demolishing the bay window to raise the ceiling. We can then have extra spotlights and have blinds that don't block the window when they're raised! He's sooo clever. I do find him very attractive when he's doing what he does

tee I meant to ask.....what names does your hubby like???? Has he actually revealed any or are they too scary to mention?

Met a little boy today at the nursery and his name was Wilson....I quite liked that.

JW I don't know about Wii fit, but I am happy to throw the controller thought the b screen when we try to play Logo star wars on the Wii. My brother had instructions to get B star wars lego for Christmas and he bought this beep beep game instead . Ben is too little to understand it but loves it (IYSWIM) so we just all get fed up and ratty. I have just found a web site that gives us some hints of what we are doing so that should be a help, sorry rant over.

Has any one tried slimming world? my hairdresser thinks it is great and is really slim which must be a recommendation! I just can't see myself a t a slimming class, I have watched too much little Britain I think!

hedgepig not tried Slimming World (yet) but have done weight watchers a few years ago. I think the latter works on points where SW has red/blue/green days. Not sure how that one works but WW was very successful for me - at the time. Hopefully this time I can keep it off, although it did take me a considerable amount of years to pile it back on. (no excuse I know).

JJ glad Iris loved nursery. Another milestone huh? Next she'll be using your make up and asking her dad to pick her up from parties.

We have Lego Star Wars on the Xbox 360. DSS completed it a while back. Funny thing with Aspergers is that he finishes a lot of games...but has to spend hours on them diligently and obsessively wanting to get to the end. Or mebbe it's just because he's male as grown up men (yes, that is an oxymoron) seem to play on them a lot too.

DSS is back. Feeling sorry for himself but I just caught him humming a merry tune to himself in his bedroom as I walked past. I think it's called milking it!

that was quick, they must be extra speedy tooth extractors in your neck of the wood JW.
I'm not sure the computer game obsession is a male thing DH totally hates them, or maybe he is more in touch with his feminine side . He loves computers if it is mega geeky stuff like databases and programming but not games. So that leaves me as the expert, which is pretty scary.

JJ I'm very please Iris like the nursery I'm sure she will have a jolly time. Would your DP like to come an build my extension?? Its only a small commute!

hedgepig DP's brother's girlfriend is sooooooo glamorous...I mean....drop-dead stunner and she never misses weight watchers! She thinks it rocks. She's a size 12 but says if she doesn't go then she will balloon 2 sizes in a couple of months. She swears by it. I think she should be the poster girl for it! Sorry - no direct experience. I used to be a size 10 - for years - then met DP and had kids....pah, you know what I mean!

jw pleased DSS is ok - and milking it Awww, you know they're alright when they're whistling a merry tune!

I think of Aspergers as been very 'male'. Your DSS sounds quite similar to my DP...

jeanjeannie, trust me, there is absolutely nothing exotic about Saudi. Funnily enough, one of my best friends moved to Dubai around 3 years ago when I moved to Saudi. Dubai is just over an hours flight from here but is worlds apart. She loves it there but it is so very different as she has so much more independance than me. In Saudi it is against the law for women to drive and when I leave the compound I have to put on my nice little black number and headscarf. Also, its a dry country (although my son's chemistry teacher makes quite reasonable home brew) and no pork.
I've come back here to have baby here as more sensible than in UK. Because of various health problems I have we know it will be an early CS at around 36/37 weeks and as I have no family close to our UK house it makes more sense to be here where I have my DH and home help etc. I had my DD aged 2 here and that was ok (except she was born in ramadam which made things a bit daft)
I've got to say, Buckinghamshire sounds lovely. DH and I have decided to move when we return to the UK and are looking at lots of different counties, will have to look at Buckinghamshire now on rightmove as sounds nice.

Ooooh mumoverseas what makes it different in ramadam? I imagine the hospitals being very clean and modern over there.

good news that DSS has the extraction behind him jw poor lad - must have been a mare for him.

tee I'm sure you can get cranberry extract tabs now - for cystitis. Don't know how good they are (or what the sugar content is) as I didn't suffer too badly with it during pregnancy - although I am prone to it. Used that Cytalpram or whatever its called when I did get it. Also used those chocolatey laxatives as I got constipation quite a bit. They worked a treat. Nothing worse than pregnancy constipation - especially if it takes hold! I nearly fainted once as I think all the blood went to my intestinal muscles in some sort of spasm. fshock]

We have a wii and wii fit - I have tried it but not properly as it demands to weigh you before you begin so that it can chart your progress etc and I couldn't bear for OH to see what I weigh. It is good fun and is a good way of getting you active although I don't know how good it would be for serious working out as you keep stopping and starting. Its MILES better than sitting on the couch though.

Discovered last night that there is a Slimming World literally on my doorstep. Would prefer weight watchers but the nearest one is too far away and I know that would be my downfall. Think I will give it a go.

Thought I might as well get a little confession out of the way - me and OH are planning to watch the launch of CBB tonight. I know I know but I don't watch any of the others and this one is usually a good bet for some sort of celebrity meltdown. Evil? me? no

mrsboggie, normal life stops here in ramadam. All the muslims have to fast during the day until sunset so the professionals tend to change their workings hours so they sleep all day, eat at iftar (sundown) and then work crazy hours like 10pm to 5am. As a result, we were being offered hospital appointments at crazy times like 3am the week before DD born. After the birth (CS) I was in agony but the ward was mainly staffed by nurses during the day as the doctors were sleeping so I had to wait up to 6 hours at one point for pain relief which was not fun! Also, due to the no eating during the day rule I was starved a lot of the time in hospital (although I shouldn't have been as a nursing mother and westerner) so DH had to smuggle me in jam sandwiches. The other problem was getting all the paperwork sorted so I could leave hospital as during ramadam everything pretty much shuts down so it took a few days to sort out DD's birth notification which we then had to get translated from arabic to english and then get the birth certificate. I'm hoping it will be easier this time! The hospitals are very clean though and the staff lovely so hopefully everything will be great this time round

JJ he has just made one serious suggestion, today! We watched Wall-E last night and he decided this morning he likes the name Eve or Eva. I think he'll probably change his mind, as he liked the name Abigail with I first mentioned it and then decided he didn't.

Glad first day at nursery went well!

mrsb I have used the cranberry tabs before I was pregnant, but the package says to ask your doctor before you take them during, and I keep forgetting to ask! I see my OB 13th Jan, so I'll add that to my list of questions.

I used Weight Watchers online about 10 years ago to drop about 25 pounds. Never went to a meeting that time. I don't really like the meetings. Before I found out I was pregnant, I was using SparkPeople which was working fairly well for me. Now I'm just enjoying be allowed to gain weight!

blimey mumoverseas I knew about the not eating during daylight hours but not the rest. Yikes. Still, at least this time you won't have all that. Is a 40+ mum considered an oddity over there or is it considered perfectly normal the same as here?

I don't like the meetings either tee but I guess that's part of it - the humiliation of being publicly shown to have failed to lose weight being an extra imperative! I don't really lie being told what to eat and what not to eat as I know all this - its doing it that's the problem!

Funnily enough I didn't put on any weight during pregnancy - I was a bit heavier than normal by the end but went back to pre-pregnancy weight as soon as he came out. I did have polyhydramus (sp) though.

I hope I'm not considered an oddity mrsboogie. All the staff at the hospital are always so nice and friendly and although in general the saudis are very offish with us westerners (it is against the law for me to talk to a saudi man etc) you do occasionally see them smiling when I waddle past looking like shamu in my abaya (big black number) or when I'm with DD aged 2. They really are very family orientated.
I think I've found myself an oddity to be honest as it was such a huge shock finding out I was pregnant. I also felt very out of place last month when I took my DS for scholarship exams and interviews for his A levels next year and am sure I got a lot of funny looks at the schools being there with a HUGE belly, a 2 year old and a 15 year old. Pretty sure I embarrassed my son too!

mumoverseas isn't embarrassing your son a perk of being a mum? Its one of the things I am looking forward to!

mrsB I think you can still do WW completely online, like I did years ago. You learn about the point system, use a web based nutrition tracker, and never go to a meeting! I'm horribly shy in real life, so it was perfect for me!

Oops hope I didn't word that question oddly - didn't mean to suggest you are an oddity mumoverseas just wondered whether there was a difference culturally - in the Muslim world where perhaps women marry much younger and are indeed grannies by our age.

When I got pregnant (my other son is 21) I
expected a great big deal to be made of my age but there was hardley ever a word said - except when they asked the age of previous kids - I got quite irritated at having to answer that question by the end. "oooh that's a big age gap" "yes, it is isn't it" etc.

tee Eva is a lovely name - simple and beautiful. But perhaps your and your DP will be like me and my OH - unable to think of a name for the child until we met him! It makes sense in an odd way. We had half settled on Alexander but it didn't seem to suit him when we saw him somehow. Throughout the pregnancy I would suggest names and he would reject them, then once D was born it took about a ten second conversation to settle on the name (which was one that OH had actually rejected previously)

You see online WW would not work for me. Like mrsb I need the name and shame aspect (although they weight is confidential to other WW peeps) to get me motivated. Otherwise I'll just sit watching Jezza Kyle eating cornetto's all day. I lost 5.5 kilos after I had K (mainly due to the diabetes diet i.e. couldn't eat much variety) and now I think I've put it all back on Anyway, I'll give it a go.

Seems mixed reviews re the Wii Fit. It's not cheap either. My plan B was the Davina McCall workout dvd which has great reviews. However, this incurs DH sneaking in while I'm doing and laughing his bollocks off at me which isn't an incentive at all.

Yep, DSS seems to be back to normal apart from a slightly swollen face on one side. He's watching XMen and has managed 2 pots of Ambrosia rice pudding (his fav) and lots of fluids. Also administered Medised that the hospital sent home with him. I'm sure after a good sleep he'll be as right as rain

aye jw sounds like he's over the worst of it.

Yeah for me the whole point of WW/WS is the public weighing. Have also been perusing the dvds - might have a look at the Davina one but have the same problem jw the difficulty of doing it when no-one is around to gawp at me. It's not like I'm going to get up early when the wee man wakes twice a night and won't go down till gone midnight. Although I will have all day to heave and sweat and lollop about in front of a workout dvd for the next six weeks until I go back to work.