40 + yummy mummies with baby tummies and those who've 'popped' - come hither!

[jeanjeannie]

Come join our merry (talkative) band of ladies who lunch - feel sick - are getting fatter - sleep deprived or run off their feet with babies! Some of us suffer all of the above - while trying to retain an air of calm and mystery

All we ask is you play nicely, eat cake and indulge in the occasional gossip and moan about our ills....or anything else that we can think of.

We're like grumpy old women....only not so grumpy...

Ah lordy. What an evening. K got herself into a right old tizz. Barfed up lots of the cottage cheese type stuff combined with catarah. All over both of us. DH has gone out playing bridge again so it was all hands to the pumps.

Anyhoo, she's settled into bed now and zzzzzzing away. I'm really hoping it's nothing serious. She's had this cottage cheese thing before.

OOOh going commando How adventurous. But chilly around the trossocks methinks this time of the year.

Meant to say well done on the size 12 pants JJ. It's nigh on a dream away for me a size 12.

Duchesse another milestone. Well done dear. I bet a huge weight lifted

Apparently the hospital has sent my sister home No idea why but obviously they've managed to stop the contractions. She's due 19th March so I guess she'll be in the safety zone. Her last child was 5 weeks prem so maybe this is what she does.

Personally never got on with under bump trousers/knickers. Felt like I had to keep yanking them up...so I bought over the bump which was nice cos they almost kept your boobs/armpits warm as well

Oh jw that sounds nasty - hope K sleeps soundly through it all. Perhaps she's clearing out the old tubes! Bless her.

I think the school of thought is to get you home as infection can be a problem (if they think contractions have started/waters gone etc) Hospitals are the worst places to pick up an infection especially on a labour ward - with loads of kids visiting and air con - so they told me (eventually) that home was best.

Ah - you can't go wrong with under-the-arm waistbands! There you go tee from one knicker-less extreeme to the other. See which one your DH prefers

No idea what was going on JJ but I have a feeling that something is afoot with her teeth. Rosy cheeks, crying from nowhere, biting hard on anything and everything. Could be a red herring but you never know.....

I've been after some decent pillows for a while as my neck has had intermittant pain down one side since K was in hospital. I put it down to all the driving I was doing but I've still got it. Anyhoo saw some memory foam ones while I was out. Crikey they're dear at £25 a pop. I'm test driving one tonight although I don't expect it to clear up the pain overnight. If not, then it's GP time.

Of course. Hadn't made the connection between waters and infection. Duh @ me.

oh dear.....it's all change on here I see. Took me a couple of minutes to work out what was where - well it is still early. Liking the new cleaner look of it all

Holly Willoughby looks like she's training to be the back end of a pantomime horse in that trench coat she's wearing. I get the front bump, but what's going on at the back?

Apparently the 50p pregnancy tests from Poundland (?) (I think this is two for a pound) are under investigation for inaccuracy. OOh and at this time of the year when all those xmas party goers are scratching their heads and wondering 'why is my period late'?

Morning - woah....how confusing...it's all changed [not sure I like change emoticon]

It's all very pale on my screen - making me have to squint - BAH!

Yes, jw that trench coat does nowt for her bum! Hahahah at 50p preggie tests. I got mine from Superdrug at only a quid more...no expense spared...especially as I was in denial

Off to take a snotty Iris to nursery...

Gang, there is a customize button where you can go back to the original look, if you want to!! I happen to like this layout!

I personally bought the digital tests from the beginning. I hate those line things and I wanted to know for sure! I probably have already spent £1000, if not more, between OPKs and EPTs! Worth every penny!

My oh so helpful CEO decided to point out the other day that babies, by the time they go to university, cost between £250,000 and £500,000!! At that level, who can keep track any more?!?!

HOW MUCH tee ???? Blimey, I'd have thought that was if you were going down the Eton route....

Tee - My ma can't understand why anyone uses pg tests - in her day you just waited till you'd missed a period and then wait a bit more to see if you felt sick and then go to a GP who would give your BOOBIES an unnecessary feel-up and say - yes, you are pregnant! . I had to control myself with the test sticks before I became obsessive, and decided that I wouldn't use one unless I was a week late, otherwise I'd be testing at 26 days, 28 days, 30 days and getting more and more miserable. Sainsbury's cheapie ones with a line did it for me.

JW hope your sister is doing OK - I'd be lying down with my legs crossed but if she already has DC I suppose that's not an option. Also hope that there's a simple explanation for baby K's cottage cheese vomit - yum! More babies with teeth - yikes!

BTW, I shared JW's and JJ's reactions to the new look website but notice that nobody on the June thread has mentioned it. Do you think that's our age?

JJ its pretty close to that, between nappies and food and clothes and furniture and toys and school fees and uniforms and so on and so forth. Its just ridiculous!

erminitrude I think the June thread is too busy basking in the joy of their 20 week scans! 4 days to go!!

Well, I'd like a quick moan about the fact this new site doesn't remember me - so I have to log in all every time ...grrrrr...[ludite emoticon]

Ah tee I think if I went for one of those super-doopa playhouses, lashings of Mamas& Papas furniture and a wardrobe of Baby Dior then I reckon I could (if pushed) whipp through quarter of a million quid kitting out my precious bundles As it is - they've got some new stuff, some old, some NCT and some ebay - with a bit of IKEA thrown in for good measure! DP's playhouse ala Grand Designs will be the swankiest thing they own and I'm guessing that'll be from off-cuts from other jobs!!

ermintrude getting preggie was so off my radar (both times) that I tested two weeks after my period and looked stunned - both times Each time the line was screaming at me before I'd even stopped pee'ing!!

tee I'd say that was a very conservative estimate. I've just shelled out £50 on a pair of 'everyday' trainers for DS#1. But you can easily spend around £30 in clark's on a pair of kid's shoes anyway.

ermintrude pretty much how I found out I was pregnant with DD#1 and DS#2. Missed a period, was banging head on the porcelain before it even dawned on me I might be. Notice how DS#1 is not there? Well that one took me 18 months to get to stick. There wasn't ovulation tests 20 years ago that were easily affordable either. So you just took your chances and crossed your fingers (and legs). Didn't do any of the ovulation malarky with K either. Many moons ago my old GP showed me how to 'read' your mucous...and it's pretty straight forward. Go with the body I say. It usually knows what it's doing

Not heard from sis today so I guess no news is good news She's calling him 'Finlay' but has a penchant for weird and wonderful names with the other two.

K seems ok today but we had an evening of restlessness (both of us). I've put two encyclopaedias under each leg of the cot at the head end so that she's not swallowing whatever gunk is clogging her up and making her cough. I knew those old books would come in handy! Actually they're a set my dD#1 was given when she was very little. They date from the 50's and I love the chapter about space travel where it states very seriously 'one day, man may walk on the moon'. SERIOUSLY! Anyway, came in handy last night.

Blind man is coming soon. Come on ladies help me out. What's easier on the eye for a blackout blind; roller or roman?

No OK! mag here this week as not had time to either pick it up nor read it. Alas I'm feeling bereft of news from the planet celeb so think I'll have to go out and get one today

Ex husband is getting married today to ex best friend. So glad it's pouring down and only wish it was thundering and lightning too. Well......they both so deserve it. ermintrude in answer to your question you set me a couple of days ago about how I feel about today's impending nuptuals, I'm very much over him but still can't stand her. It's a long story but our children grew up together, we went on holiday, day trips, minded each others etc etc and in the end, she felt so part of the family she thought she might as well go the extra mile and have my husband as well.....ah well, what goes around, comes around.

hmmm I suppose we'll get used to it. I'd have been nice if they could have said something about the change.

Back to three feeds in the night last night-effects of the jabs must have worn off.. Ho Hum.

Is Miss K all better after last night's indisposition jw?

actually this new set up looks more mobile friendly - I wonder if that's it?

I heard a vg prog on Radio 4 where a fertility specialist was saying that some couples were presenting at her clinic after a year of trying for a baby using ovulation predictors and all that malarkey but they simply weren't having enough sex - they were just timing it for the 'right' time.... which depends on quite a few variables and which can lead to male performance anxiety, which can lead to the woman being angry with him, which doesn't help their sexual relationship so they end up missing their 'chance' for a month and getting disheartened. Once every other day, hup-two, that does the trick for most people unless there's a problem, so this woman would send people off for 3 months of constant, mindless shagging - which is the best kind - before treating them . There's so much clever technology nowadays which is great for them as need it but makes all the rest of us think we should be using it and we don't normally need to (I speak as someone who wouldn't have conceived if my endometriosis hadn't been cleared up by drug treatment, so I do appreciate that technology, I really do).

Mucous, Billings Method, ah yes. Every good Catholic girl knows about it

JW that book sounds fab. I have my mum's Good Housekeeping book circa 1950 which is aimed at passing on the basics to 'the young wife or daughter at home' and features lots of tinted colour pics of a delicate wedding-ringed hand passing a plate of food to a shirt-cuffed hairy male hand without wedding ring . It also contains recipe ideas for a children's party including how to make 'N***r Minstrel Cakes' so these days it's what my computer sits on.

Blinds - I'd go for roller if it's blackout you want.

I mean N**r Minstrel. I can spell, even bad words.

And JW I do see that the situation with ex and ex-friend is extraordinarily difficult. It's great that you're settled now, and with new babe, but it must still feel horrid to have been doubly betrayed.

mrsb sorry to hear the Sleep Fairy has left the building. I keep getting up to wee, which is giving me some practice but I'm not looking forward to interrupted sleep.

Oooh, it's ignored my asterisks. You know what bad word I mean anyway. Wouldn't like the DC to see it and clamour for me to make them for their parties....

Hello All!
It has taken me ages to catch up!
On the subject of blw/purees; I did a mixture of both...Alex started it by snaffling a chunk of my banana 10 days before the 6 mth watershed,he liked the lumps but I felt he got more calories in my purees and as he started pulling himself up and cruising round his travel cot just a couple of weeks later he needed the energy!
And as to nappies I use Totsbots Bamboozles but have 2 Modernbaby PopIns which I really love. And a recent discovery as an alternative to the trusty bog brush is a nappy spray ..a shower attatchment on the cold feed to your loo to rinse those nasty nappies with like this...wish I'd seen it sooner as Alex is almost potty trained now.
Welcome Tabitha...I had my first at 43 too, he is now 16mths and I'm currently working (without success) on talking Dh into tcc #2
Congratulations Duchesse on your lovely positive scan.

..was going to write more but Alex ate my brains and I cant remember

ermintrude as that great philosopher Socrates once said "shit happens". I think it was him anyway Really not that bothered and secretly glad that DD#1 is not going - she confided in me over lunch y'day that she's glad she's on a training day.

Think I catch your drift on the n**r (enough asterisks?) minstrel cakes (after note on preview, Mumsnet obviously censors this as it's taken some of the asterisks out). Shan't be making them though as can't imagine myself offering them around

Aye, good old Billings. Who was he anyway and how did he know so much about lady bits? Anyway, worked for me and also worked for me when I didn't want to get pregnant but wouldn't use this if I absolutely did NOT want to get pregnant for obvious reasons.

I've seen the Good Housekeeping book or similar somewhere. I think it was actually in last months Good Housekeeping (yes, I'm a subscriber which is very sad in itself but I love it). I'll flick back and have another look at it. You know although at lot of the ideas are preposterous and very out of date, I think our mothers/grand mothers ideas of marriage/family etc were pretty good ones on the whole and seemed to work.

Billings was an Australian doctor (Catholic) who must have been particularly observant about his wife's mucus . It all makes sense but yes, I'd use back up if I definitely DIDN'T want to get pregnant!

Re: GH and its family values - I'm not into the 'young wife or daughter at home' way of doing things, but the notions of passing down culinary skills, using up leftovers, eating meals together as a family, doing the odd bit of baking etc. are all great. It's just a shame that we haven't brought those good bits with us whilst rejecting the little woman at home ones. We aren't passing good eating and cookery skills down through our sons and daughters (well, we may be trying to do that personally but society certainly ain't). I have to say, I think it's partly because a lot of men aren't prepared to meet their women half way on good housekeeping so the women are giving birth, cooking, keeping house AND working. Makes me the way some of my friends' DHs come home and put their feet up while wifey rushes about. Still, maybe St Jamie will save us all.

JW We have blackout rollers. They are very nice because when they aren't in use they hide behind the curtain valance and you don't even know they are there. We bought ready made and they are less than attractive but they work well! Going to get some for the baby's room for sure!

mrsb you may be right about this being better for mobile use. I'll have to test that tonight. Oh and they did announce the change, mrsb. Twice! Once they did a beta run about 2 weeks ago and then it was in the announcement about the site being down last night.

Good Morning Ladies at last found the new thread. I did post on the old one Im due in june with my 8th baby and am 43 this year living near chester and a qualified teacher although sahm at the moment. I enjoy baking and making meals from scratch but then Im a Home economics teacher. Have to say though that raising a family keeping house and working is such hard work and Im glad I have taken a break. After two miscarriages I realised something had to give. We do struggle financially sometimes but I think thats because of the pressures society puts us under to have very expensive items in our homes 2 cars holidays abroad etc. I dont think it would do us all any harm to go back to some of the older values.

I like under the bump clothes as well. I've bought trackie trousers one or two sizes bigger than normal so I'll be able to keep wearing them next year pottering about with Little Tab in the garden. I hope he or she likes gardening.
Floria Excellent. Another first time mummy at 43. My midwife is looking after a first-timer who is 47.
If I followed the Billings method, I'd think I was still ovulating now . Most odd.

Ha, Tabitha, it doesn't work when you're pregnant . I'd forgotten about the cervical mucus - another gorgeous pregnancy symptom...

Dreamy Little Tab is due in June as well!

Ah I see, Ermintrude. I thought my ovaries were getting carried away or were just confused and hadn't caught up with the rest of me yet. I can never work out what's going on inside me.