Fab and Forty, Blooming, Popping, Popped or working on it .... join us

[BonzoDoodah]

Hi All
If you're over "that age" and want to chat to similar mums - join us here for gossip, slander, oggling, dieting, cake, chocolate and more ... get on here and join in hte gossip .. we don't hang round ...

Hi All

My last day of just DH, DD and I. It all feels a bit surreal. My mum is arriving from kent later, she is staying till wednesday to help out with DD. Just last minute bits of cleaning to do, but I am tempted to leave it for my mum . We are going to try and all go out for sunday lunch later, and I have asked DH to cook me a risotto for Dinner (carb loading before the nil by mouth tomorrow .

Apparently I could be discharged as early as Wednesday (so only 2 nights in hospital), which seems early to me, but I guess if everything is well it will be OK. I just know it will be hard to be at home and not do stuff.

I think I get internet access from the bedside, so I may be able to post a quick birth announcement from there.

JW at idiot in Ikea car park! DH got some interesting hand signals on Friday from someone in the maternity unit car park , who he pointed out was going the wrong way round a one way system - nice!

Congratulations Tabitha on the birth of Benjamin! Just going from advice I have read on other threads, keeping up your supply by very regular pumping, so that you can resume BF seems to be recommended, but I know that is easier said than done. Can the hospital loan/rent you an electric pump, as this might help. If you post or even search in the breastfeeding section with a shout for Tiktok, she would probably have some good advice. Also second trying to speak to a BF counsellor asap. - Good luck!

Tee - Good luck for Thursday and have a good few days with DH.

Iris - sorry to hear about the multiple injuries yesterday, sounds mental. I am with you on the low slung nethers - it is quite scary .

Well I am off to nag ask DH to finish all those little jobs .

Morning all!

Yup, planning on enjoying our last few days of freedom! We are heading out to dinner on Tuesday night. Today we are cleaning the flat (in my case, very slowly) in anticipation of grandparents arrivals!

JW enjoy all of your children today! And your half cow .

Interesting article. I actually found the childbirth parts of my antenatal classes useless. The breastfeeding bit was interesting and informative. And so was the after care part, at least for DH, as he's never been around a small baby.

I think the labour parts were useless to me because I knew I wasn't going to have a 'normal' delivery. Thanks to the diabetes, my delivery options have always been limited, even if I hadn't wound up with the scheduled CS. Also? Made not one friend. There was no time to chat with anyone and no encouragement to do so!!

mrsb Saw your FB pics. He's so cute!!!

iris can't wait to hear about last night. I think its on TV next week...when I'm in hospital. I'll have to watch it On Demand at 3am while feeding baby.

onehitwonder sorry dear. Hadn't realised that your LO's arrival is also imminent. Hope you have a fabulous day too and eat whatever you like and be spoilt rotten by your DH as much as possible I found it hard when I had K and arrived back from holiday the day after I had her. I immediately started washing and cleaning as I must have been running on adrenaline. I was as high as a kite and thought I could do anything! Two days later I was in a heap, sobbing. Overdone it and told off by my MW. You've gotta get the menfolk to do it really. Give yourself a break.

Glad you have something planned for Tuesday tee. It'll be a night you'll remember henceforth as your last 'special' night together as just the two of you

I enjoyed my AN classes. I only went on the first two pregnancies - thought it'd be daft going on the latter two as if I didn't know it by then, then time to give up! I did make friends, one of them being my ex best friend who went on to marry my ex DH. Probably not a good advert really. I did find the breathing tecniques really useful though and I'm sure it speeded up the second labour as I wasn't fighting the contractions. Of course a lot can hang on the teacher too. If she/he is pants then there's not really much hope is there?

morning all

D slept through again! and after he had his morning bottle he came into bed with us and went back to sleep til...wait for it...10AM!!!

Pizza express outing was lovely - a bit worried at the start as he was tired and crying and whingy as we went in but he was easily distracted and ate dough balls, pizza and ice cream! He didn't throw any food on the floor - just the menus and he kept trying to chew the table edge but all in all it was a success

iris how did it go???

onehitwonder good luck tomorrow! a bedside birth announcement would be fab. enjoy the risotto, yum.

Didn't I tell you the Brangelina is no more?? I reckon she's only hanging on to him at this point to avoid giving Jen the satisfaction of a split. I bet he wishes he'd stayed with Jen now, no one could stick crazy Ange for long.

jj you sound like you need a tonic!

tee enjoy your last non-parental Sunday I know everyone says it'll be your last lazy one but it doesn't HAVE to be - I got up at 10am, fed the little man out of a jar and he is now sat on the floor tearing up a glossy magazine while I am drinking coffee and mning! sounds lazy enough to me!

Oh and am I the only one who is dying to know who jj's glam friends are? how very discrete you all are

morning (the less said about the night the better [yawn]). O is full of cold, he has just had a long sleep and seems a bit more perky.

Tab congratulations and what a fab name choice (same as DS1 [GRIN]). Sorry to hear your feeding is not going well, are you trying mixed feeding or now just ff? I sounds similar to the problems I had with O, he would happily latch on and suck for hrs but was just fading away even when I was topping up. Can you hear B swallowing when he is feeding from you? I tried for about 4 weeks and then decided to just ff and it was the best choice for me and him. I think if you are mixed feeding trying to get you milk supply up by expressing as well as him feeding from can help.

JW your storage looks great, I have been looking at that system for toy storage, but haven't managed to get to Ikea yet as it is a bit of a drive for us, M.Keynes or N London. I'm assuming you need 1 rung for the smallest box, 2 rungs for the med and 3 for the large?

Raining here too, shall I clean the bath room? what a treat

Yes hedgepig you got it spot on with the storage drawer sizes. They really are super duper and are great for getting toys/nappies/baby stuff out of the way

mrsb great that D has a fab time. K's good when we go out too as like you say, there's so much going on they're heads are turning this way and that. I took all my others out to eat as well from an early age. It's good to get them acquainted with it and not restrict your going out as well.

I did wonder who JJ knew that was famous but I thought she was the one being discrete and not telling! I'm sure she'll give us a clue or two if we ask nicely

Hi all sorry I couldn't post sooner mum's just left after lunch and it's been a hectic morning. Especially as I didn't get much sleep when I tried to catchup after my 3am start yesterday and we didn't get in until after 1 this morning)

Last night was just awesome the food was utterly gorgeous and Ross Kemp was there too!! (much shorter and stockier than he appears on TV - clearly TV doen't add lbs, it makes you look taller and thinner!! )

The military chefs made the most exquisite canapes to go with the champagne/OJ reception (I was very good - just had water))I took a photo of each course (will put on later) the lamb hotpot was divine (and, given that my heart sank when they said that was what we were having as I've always detested it, that's saying something!)

We managed to get our invitation signed by all the chefs, judges and Ross Kemp and were able to chat to them after the meal when we went out onto the terrace for coffee and fireworks. It was just fab!!
The best TV dinner I've ever had

I'm still a little overexcited but soooooo bloody tired. DH has jus put DS2 to bed so I need to get my head down too for a while.

will get the photos on and pop back later.

onehitwonder just in case I miss you...... good luck for tomorrow!!!!

oooh bloody hell a new baby!!!- Tabitha! - CONGRATULATIONS!! YAY!! and a big "welcome to the world" to Benjamin (what a gorgeous name)

iris sounds like you had a bloody fantastic time last night and I'm really Can't wait to see the piccies

Try a bit of baby lotion on cotton wool for the mascara. Even waterproof should come off.

Not a fan of Ross Kemp at all. Not surprised he's short(er) and fat(ter) in RL.

Food sounds delish! Hope you got pics of that too so I can lick the screen

Hooray, BabyTab! Hope everything's going well, Tabitha.

Iris you must be exhausted! sounds lovely, when is it on TV? or was it last night and I missed it.

woppps I forgot to say OneHit best wishes for tomorrow and you get to meet your baby how exciting

Thanks JW for the draw size information, I have found I can order online but they don's say how many grooves a draw takes up.

Bathroom is still in a state! Finding the ciff seems like so much hard work.

O has been asleep for about 1 1/2 hrs he must be feeling grotty

Good luck for tomorrow, Onehit. We were only in hospital for two days. It was great to get home. They wouldn't have minded if we'd stayed an extra day, though. There was no pressure to leave.

I'll post a pic as soon as I've worked out how.

Thanks for all the feeding tips, ladies. I am managing to pump out a tiny amount, so am giving that to Benjamin together with a formula top-up. Also letting him attempt to breast feed himself and I think he is getting a little that way, as well. If only babies were see through.

Tee What date are you going in? I'm not keeping up too well. Three hourly feeds, plus expressing and trying to feed myself are keeping me occupied rather too much.

tab I go in Wednesday for a CS early Thursday morning. I imagine I'll be out on Sunday.

JW I think its on TV this coming weekend. Which means I'll probably miss it!

Ooops, it was hedgepig who asked when it was on. My bad.

onehit How exciting - HUGE hugs and have a FABULOUS time meeting your LO Check in ASAP - you know how we fret!!!

iris oh how wonderful I'm so God I LOVE lamb hotpot - I'd have been ridiculously exctited, I'd probably have spilled it all over me - missed my mouth or something equally as daft. I adore the fact you took pics of each course....atta girl

Hate disappoint everyone on the 'famous' front - they're more glamorous than well-known! DPs cousin is a real New Yorker and was a reality TV singing sensation! She's now dating a musicianwho is from Somerset via LA and Berlin! He's not exactly ugly and was until recently dating the daughter of an uber famous US designer - but now it's the turn of DPs lovely cousin to be his beau. She is gorgeous and very sweet (on my FB friends) and I think they're very smitten with each other. I was looking at the piccies of them last night and I had that ..."ahhhh moment." Plus, I virtually had to wrestly Verity out of her arms!!

Oh and I'm going to put up a pic of DP's brother just to show you all how much like Peter Barlow he really is!! Not an alkie though....not yet

Been to Costco - must run - got lemon drizzle cake to eat!

Afternoon all - nope, it's evening already. We went to Sheffield to see my parents and sis and familiy, which was very nice especially the perfect medium-rare sirloin my BIL cooked. I had brie last week too. So sue me.

Tab well done for sticking at the expressing, keep at it, even tho colostrum is in teeny amounts it will still give your body the message to produce more. The NCT sometimes recommend just hibernating in bed with baby, with meals being brought to you, keeping him at the breast basically all the time, to build up supply. Wonder if that would work for you?

Onehit all the very best for tomorrow, hope it goes smoothly and look forward to hearing about another new arrival

Tee, how I wish I knew I was having my LO this week. But it's bound to go at least to term, even though it feels like it's about to fall out at any moment . Tuesday night will be a lovely goodbye couple hello family moment.

Iris sounds like you had a brilliant time, am with JW on wanting to see pics of food (as well as you of course) to drool over. Not Ross Kemp though please. Any pics of that young man going out with your DP's cousin would be most welcome JJ. He's easy on the eye, innit?

I'm so full I'm skipping tea but might have a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes. I was trying to save them until the baby arrives (they are usually banned from the house for reasons of health and sanity) but foolishly bought them too early .

Blimey JJ he's a bit tasty isn't he? Obviously theoretically speaking due to my age and him being completely out of my league even if i was 20 years younger. Meh I take it he's not with tommy hilfiger's daughter anymore?

All children now gone apart from the little ones that live here that we can't get rid of A nice lunch had by all apart from K who refused her veggies and went straight for her pudding of ice cream. Very naughty girl but I'm under orders to feed her up by hospital so can't really do much about it.

Plan on a very early night tonight as I'm whacked....was up at 6am and no one else was so can't even blame baby.

mrsb meant to say that pleased to hear that D has finally got into the routine of sleeping. Might be cos he's at nursery all week so it's wearing him out

ermintrude will soon be your turn...then we'll hardly see you as you'll be up to your eyes in baby stuff

oh its fab jw two nights in a row he has slept through now

he seems in a hurry to grow up- has just drastically reduced the number of bottles - only one today and is eating all sorts of proper food.

K is only really having 1 full bottle in the morning but at the hospital they said we're to try and give her more through the day or at least, make up with yoghurts, cheese and any other dairy foods. She's supposed to be having 20 oz's at the very least for calcium per day. Bloody hard going when she's not keen on milk anymore but she does like her yoghurts.

Bit worried as she's not really into her jars of dinners anymore. She'll eat celery, carrots, bread sticks, her usual b/fast cereal and a bit of toast but she loves her sweet things; yoghurts, ice cream, bananas etc etc. I keep thinking I should push the savouries but she isn't keen.

She's banged her head tonight on the corner of the table. DH got a shouting at for that one as he was on the floor with her and too busy watching the cricket. He won't be doing that one again (does marge simpson noise)

K is def sitting up on her own now which is weird as at the start of the week she was showing no signs. I think sometimes these things just click into place.

I'm still waiting for a crumb of lemon drizzle cake JJ. OMG I so love Costco cake too

Hi all ]smile]

blimey I was more tired than I thought! (though I was slurring and mumbling like a drunk last night I was so tired) I slept for over 3 hours this afternoon! Unheard of for me I clearly needed it though and feel miles better now

jw - panda eyes all gone (thanks for the tip

Pictures are on FB but I'll try to get some n here too. The show's being aired next tues evening(16th) - just hope there's no footage f me grinning like an overexcited loon! (oh damn, just remembered, that's all there will be )

mrsb - great news about the sleeping! Amazing what a few days of proper sleep can do isn't it (for you and him!)

Tee - your nursery is beautiful. Have you any big treats booked for before the baby yet?(meal/pedicure )

iris you looked fantastic - the dress was perfect. it's great to see a glamorous pregnant woman -I didn't do glamour when I was pg - I did pyjamas. Am desperately of your night.

jw D was a bottle hound until this week and now its two or three at night and hardly anything in the day. We weighed him last night and he is 18 and a half pounds - no idea if that is good bad or indifferent according to the powers that be but he looks fine and that'll do me.

Oh I knew there was another thing - we had to get him a big boy's car seat as he was too big for the baby one.

Oh we do all know that the Apprentice finale is tonight?

Iris I'm just checking you did wear the purple deely boppers so we can spot ypu easily

Hi all
No posting this weekend as DP home from Germany.
Congratulations Tabitha lovely name and glad all went well. I had a bother breastfeeding to begin with DD1 but she was big so they weren't concerned with weight gain. I was so sore and cracked and bleeding I was dreading feeding at all- and at the time was almost flat chested but eventually it picked up and I got the supply up. Drink lots of liquid- I drank milk and fruit juice by the bucket and this helped a lot. Make sure you have nipple cream it is invaluable. Good luck.
Tee wow lovely nursery you are really organised and tidy. My cot has my un-ironed laundry in it!
Good luck onehitwonder for your birth- will be thinking of you tomorrow.
That meal sounded really Fab iris- a night to remember no less.
Still no news on burglary girl, and her parents sent £50 but don't have any more!!
It is definitely a perpetrator's world. sigh......

We changed her car seat a while back to one of the multi stage ones. Couldn't be fannied getting it in and out and it weighed a ton with her in it.

She weighed 16lb 9oz last Monday which they said was a bit under weight (but she looks fine to me so like you, I'm ok with it).

Just had a peek at your pics iris Beautiful! I looked like a wardrobe with legs when I was pregnant (and moved as gracefully as one) and nowhere near as elegant as you did last night.

Have just set the Virgin + box to tape it on Tuesday