Crepeys/Hagsnet - come to the candlelight!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

As the last thread is now full...

My friend had the gas fitter in to make her lounge fire legal when she was labour. She was having contractions about 1 min apart when she finally told him. He was outta the house so fast he left half his tools

I rang my best mate when I'd gone into labour with DD2, to talk me out of panicking (DD1's birth was rather horrid). She didn't mention it at the time but she was in Tesco's and the checkout lad (pimples, bumfluff, you know the type) was blenching as she said helpful things like, "Well, if your waters have broken are you having contractions yet?"

With DD1's long labour, actually, I remember someone rang my flat to speak to DP (who was then freelancing). I said quite politely that I wasn't sure, but I was about to have a baby. I realised afterwards he'd thought I meant "I'm a bit vague as I'm due in the next week or so" not "I AM IN LABOUR".

And in fact DD1 is very much the daughter of the man who, when suggesting where to position the birthing pool for DD2, said "let's put it here so you can watch the telly if you're bored"....

I went out to tea with friends while in labour. I thought "well, it'll be ages yet, I'm not missing out on a social". Afterwards, I got back in my car, put in reverse, had a contraction and drove straight into the garden wall.

Haha!
I was alone to give birth to my second (dh hurtling across Kurdistan in a bus-didn't make it in time. No matter.)
I read the travel section of the Telegraph in the birthing pool at the hospital (noone else with me) and responded with brisk 'Yes, fine thanks.' when bemused MWs put their heads around the door every now and again and asked if I was er...ok.

I didn't have time to read! They broke my waters and two and half hours later there ds was (draws veil over monitoring, horrendous contractions, offering to marry anethetist and have his babies, emergency dash to theatre, going into shock....).

I am that you were managing to tread / bake cakes / go out when in labour!

I was asleep when I went into labour with both, both were 0-60 in terms of contractions, etc. There was definitely no way I could have done anything but pant and swear when I started

I was on my own with DD2 as well, Moondog. DH was in Romania, having booked his flight for my due date. I rang him up, told him I was in labour and he said "I'm really busy at work, there's no way I'm going to be able to get back before the weekend" (this was Tuesday). His boss took the phone from his hand and said to me "He'll be on tomorrow morning's flight."

I would have loved to hear your reply.

It was along the lines of, get your fucking priorities right...

I was induced both times so didn't have the opportunity to bake or the inclination to read. With dd, then-husband was working away and turned up at the last minute steaming drunk. I tried really hard to be sick on him, but sadly only managed to get the bowl every time.
With ds, now-husband ambled off home for a kip whilst things were in the early stages and then when it all kicked off for real at about 5am, the midwife went to ring him. After an hour he still hadn't appeared and was in danger of missing the main event. We live 5 mins from the hospital. The midwife was wondering where he was, so I told her she would have to ring him again because he would undoubtedly have gone back to sleep. She didn't believe me, but went and phoned him again anyway. And then came back saying: "you know him very well..".

Thank god Ruby has arrived to drag us away from birth stories. We'll be onto buggy choices next.......

Mascara is so much more important.

What colour did you go for in the end? I've always been a black mascara girl, but am now wondering whether I should soften it up now I'm more mature. Perhaps brown-black (with grey flecks to match my hair)?

Sadly, although DD2's birth is now nearly eight years ago the horror of birth has been replaced by the horror of shopping in Sainsbury's (where else) for her birthday party.

That nice Mr Dante had nothing on our local Sainsbo's.

I've got to decide what food to do for DS's birthday party. It's just family and friends, and mid-afternoon, so no big meal required. But the thought of bowls of crisps and some nasty sausage rolls is a bit depressing. Is there a helpful website detailing delicious, cheap, easy yet impressive party food?

ALSO I'm going out on Saturday night! To a hen night! At a dinner cabaret supper club thingo, where you sit at a table, but watching a stage, and eat delicious food and drink delicious drinks. Should be brill, but natch raises a wardrobe crisis. The dress code is 'gorgeous and glamorous', so I'm considering a midnight blue slinky maxi dress (like this but dark blue). Is it too much?

Pizza. I tell you. I bought Cheap Pizza as it's for eight-year-olds who will not exactly tell the difference between Sainsbury's Basic and posh pizza but you could go posh...

Fab dress.

AIBU to eat one of the packets of crisps I bought for the party? there will still be 11 left...

Thanks MI! I already have the dress, so it would be a shame to waste it. It's only had one outing so far.

And yes - I thought pizza too. Could get a few decent ones from Waitrose, and embellish. Though that does raise the prospect of being stuck in the kitchen making pizza for hours during the party.

I made a delicious chocolate cake last year, involving six eggs and a pound of G&B dark chocolate. Plus icing. I'll be doing that again!

Mmmm, pizza...

I made chocolate brownies this morning and they have nearly all gone. (The cakey brownies, MI, with added cocoa powder.) I should be pleased really, but I am not.

Now I have to decide what to cook tonight. We have a lot of frozen fish, so I think that will have to do.

Should I use a different sunscreen on my face to my body, and what do you recommend, Crepeys? Off on holiday on saturday.

Herby, the dress is gorgeoous, and your night out sounds groovy

I'm off out for cocktails soon - celebrating a friend passing her exams, but as I have work tomorrow, I'll have to rein myself in massively

Just made red velvet cupcakes -and scoffed 3 . Oh well, hopefully will offset alcohol!

Mrs S - I tend to think all the various different sunscreens are a bit of a marketing gimmick. I just bung on DS's factor 30.

Those who shared a birth story will henceforward menstruate or hot flush as one woman, mark my words.

Food shop and cookathon tomorrow. Foodie, veggie friends coming for weekend. Wish pizza was an option. Don't want to Try Too Hard and come a cropper so think will make squash and sage soup and humous tomorrow for sat/sun lunch. Maybe a haloumi salad too on Sun. And if I do a bean or a lentil chili tomorrow I can make it into burritos with a salad on Saturday night when we get back from wherever. Does that sound alright? I foresee scenes of DD2 saying 'Eugh. I want sausages' but we will live with that.

Lads, (as Kerry would say) You definitely need to know about Levi Curve, specifically demi curve skinny. Lordy they are comfortable and lightweight and don't fall down and are very flattering. Also on my TK Maxx (rubbish) trip that BigTilly supported my choice to go on, I nearly did something silly and got all my hair chopped off because it was looking so very shite. Instead I let a woman in the shopping centre do that tong wanding thing and I was so grateful I was doing something temporary that I bought one for ninety quid a reasonable price. Walked up my road with my kagoule (excuse: crazy weather, brolly shopping unfriendly) hood up feeling like a muttony eejit but dh and dds pronounced it vg (dh really keen and he never likes anything, so he got a tumble with kate humble (alright, me, but with wavy hair) after dd's in bed.

I bought an Avene 50+ from boots for my mush as my skin can be spotty with cheap ones. It was good although didn't smell great. But nivea 30 seems to work as well.

Yes, meant to say Herby. Dress is excellent.

Will venture into Cheap Pharmacy (all things are relative, this is Paris) behind Gal Laf tomorrow for sunscreen, nurofen, paracetamol etc etc as I can guarantee someone will be ill on holiday.