# Donor BFP - Precious cargo part 7



## struthie

New home girls!

I'm going to start doing a list for this thread ... as we are from a mixture of boards (although mostly donor sperm but all are welcome) if you could let me know your EDD and I'll compile a list. 

Don't want to leave anyone out!

If you have a baby, if you could let me know babies birth date 

Marie xx

ps I have only added those that have posted, please feel free to IM/let me know here your details 

Bumps and Babies!​
Babies and Toddlers 

Jayne ~ DIUI ~ Jack ~ 26/10/00

Jayne ~ DIUI ~ Ben ~ 18/11/03

Viviennef ~ DIVF ~ Jamie ~ 10/04/04

Tracey72 ~ DIVF ~ Max ~ 16/11/04

SweetCaroline ~ DIUI ~ Sebastian ~ 02/02/06

Viviennef ~ DIUI ~ Daniel ~ 24/05/06

LiziB ~ DIVF ~ Rosa ~ 03/07/06 

Marie ~ DIVF ~ Ethan Jack ~ 8/10/06 

Wolla ~ DIUI ~ Thomas ~ 29/10/06 

Ginger ~ DEIVF ~ James ~ 2/11/06 

Sarah JJ ~ DIVF ~ Charlotte ~ 7/11/06 

Sam P (going it alone) ~ DIUI ~ Elspeth and Amelie ~ 23/11/06

Suziegirl64 ~ DEFET ~ Franklin ~ 01/12/06

Debs30 ~ Natural! ~ Hannah ~ 25/01/07

Moodycat ~ DEIVF ~ Daniel ~ 03/02/07

Bumps 

Kitty ~ DIUI ~ EDD 27/10/06 

3isacharm - DEFET - EDD ?  

Anne_D ~ DIUI ~ EDD 06/02/07 

Tamsin ~ DIVF ~ EDD 02/03/07  

Sarahx ~ DIVF -~EDD ?  

Sam mn ~ DIUI ~ EDD ~ 25/05/07  

CKBE ~ DIUI ~ EDD ~ ?  

Colly ~ DIVF ~ EDD ~ 14/08/07  

Tiffanyb ~ DIUI ~ EDD ~ 20/08/07  

RachJulie ~ DI ~ EDD ~ 05/10/07


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## viviennef

Sarah, congratulations on the birth of Charlotte. Wonderful news. Can't wait to see some pics!

Hippy, lovely to hear from you, hope you are doing well.

Hi to everyone else, Viv xxx


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## LiziBee

Struthie - you are Struthie, not Marie 


struthie said:


> If you have a baby, if you could let me know babies birth date
> 
> Marie xx


Wanted to 'christen' the thread but got beaten 

Sarah - HUGE congratulatons on the birth of Charlotte. Treasure every moment!
Lizi.x


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## Marielou

*[size=20pt]
    
Congratulations
on the safe 
arrival of
Charlotte Elizabeth!
    
Congratulations to the new Mummy and Daddy!
Marie, Mark and Ethan xxx*​​


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## sam mn

congratulations to sarah and dh on the safe arrival of charlotte.


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## sam mn

struthie could you pleased add me to the list. my edd is 25th may.

hippy great to hear from you hope you and your dh are keeping well.

thanks

sam mn
xxxxx


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## AnneD

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO SARAH AND DH

WELCOME TO THE WORLD CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH!


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## wolla

Sarah - huge congratulations to you & DH on the safe arrival of Charlotte.  Can't believe how similar our labours were - well done on avoiding a section though, wouldn't recommend it to anyone!!  Are you getting much sleep?  

Hippy - great to hear from you

Anne - don't be too hard on yourself if you can't manage to bfeed  - I was very hard on myself, and it did me and Thomas no good at all.  As long as you give it your best shot, that's all anyone can ask of you.

Hi to everyone else - and thanks for all your lovely comments about Thomas.  Sorry for lack of personals (guess it's gonna be a while before I get time for many of those)

Love
Wolla
x


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## LiziBee

Wolla - time to update the ticker!!
lizi.x


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## Colly

Congratulations to Sarah and dh on the birth of baby Charlotte. 

                              love Collyx


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## LiziBee

where'd everyone go? 
Lizi.x


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## wolla

LiziBee said:


> Wolla - time to update the ticker!!
> lizi.x


Done


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## sam mn

gosh quiet on here. thanks struthie for adding me to the list but its just one little bean.

wolla well done on finally updating that ticker 

debs hope being back at work has been ok.

any more news on sam?

hi to all

sam mn
xxxx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


wolla - love the new ticker, hope thomas isnt keeping you up too much.

sam mn - hope you are well.

tamsin - havent heard from you in a while, hope you are ok.

marie - bet ethan is getting bigger by the day.

vic - hope you are well.

anne - hope you are not too busy at work.


i started my antenatal classes yesterday and it was a bit scary but i loved it, started back work too and its going well, only in 2 days this week because of the times of my m/wife appt and antenatal classes (they are both on the same day) so there wouldnt be much point going into work, would only be there for an hour then would need to leave so am quite happy about that,


big   to everyone,


xdebsx


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## viviennef

Hi, it's very quiet on here.

Deb, glad you enjoyed your classes. Makes it all seem more real doesn't it.

Wolla, how is Thomas doing, are you getting any sleep?

Daniel has had sickness and diarrhoea this week and last night both Jamie and I were up most of the night being sick. Poor soul threw up about 5 times and I ended up taking him in bed with me as he had been sick over all his sheets. Jason is ok so far but is run ragged trying to look after us! Daniel is a lot better now so hopefully Jamie and I will feel better tomorrow after a good nights sleep.

Was due back at work this week but managed to get a line from the doctor for 4 weeks as I just can't face going back yet. Hopefully I'll get to stay off till after Christmas.

Hi to everyone else, better get back to the tv as X Factor results are on soon.

Viv xxx


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## sam mn

viv sorry to hear you have all had the sickness bug. it must be so hard feeling ill yourself and still looking after your littleones. glad to hear jason is running round after you all.

deb glad you got on ok with your classes, still cant imagine that far on.

hope your all having a good wked.

we have just been looking at booking a wk in cornwall next sept with friends, really weird to think there will be a littleone with us then.

sam
xxx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


viv - hope you both get better soon, hope you get to stay off till after xmas.

sam - when i was at your stage i couldnt imagine being here either but you will be in a few months, the scary and extremely exciting thing is knowing that in about 9-10 weeks at the most we will have a baby, it just seems so strange, think its because we dont have anything in the house yet except a steriliser and some bottles (baby clothes are already packed in my hosp bag) am gonna try and persuade d.h to go to the M&P store today to get our nursery decor.


i went into town on friday for some xmas shopping and to see if i could get something to wear to my xmas nite out and i couldnt beleive how tired i was afterwards and wasnt even gone 2 hrs, think everyone will be getting whatever sainsburys has to offer (their clothes are nice) and its only 5 minutes from my house.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


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## AnneD

Debs - totally know what you mean about shopping being exhausting.  I usually do my Christmas shopping at the Metro Centre an hours drive away but only managed a couple of hours last week and barely bought anything so I've been doing loads of internet shopping and managed to get some stuff more locally too.  Doing really well and at this rate my shopping will be done by December which is totally unheard of for me!

Viv - so sorry you've all had the sickness bug - how awful    Pleased Jason has been looking after you though.  Hope you do get to stay off work until after Christmas and manage to put your feet up at some point in between running after your lovely boys.

Sam mn - I keep thinking about holidays too and it seems very strange thinking there'll be three of us.  After Christmas we're usually packing to go off on our holidays but this year will be very different and I can't wait for our first family holiday in 2007 - gives me butterflies just thinking about it.

Deb - wow your work sound so fab, they've been great haven't they?  Glad you enjoyed your antenatal class.  We have our first parenting class on 6th December and DH is very nervous    Started aquanatal last week too and really enjoyed it so I'm going every Tuesday from now on.  Work's not as bad now thanks - well it's manageable anyway so that's the main thing - I just have less patience these days as more important things on my mind    

Wolla - hope you,  dh and gorgeous baby Thomas are doing well  

Marie - hope you, Mark and gorgeous baby Ethan are doing well too  

I pick up my new car on Wednesday, yipeee!  And it's just as well because I look ridiculous climbing (or waddling) in and out of Beauty.  Getting the grown up car feels like the first exciting step now and can't wait to see that baby seat in it!  If we ever get to master the damn thing that is    My mam is recovering really well from her operation now too and even managed a couple of hours out of the house yesterday when we went for a little shopping jaunt.

love and hugs to you all,

Anne x


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## sarahjj

Hi 

Sorry haven't been able to get on much since the arrival of little Charlotte - amazing how time flies by each day looking after her. She is a little sweetheart though   Thanks for all the lovely messages  

Good luck to all of you with the Christmas shopping. I haven't started yet. I think a lot will have to be done on the internet this year!

Anne - good luck with the parenting classes and the aquanatal   Have fun with the new car too!

Debs - hope your shopping trip for nursery decor went well  

Viv - hope you, Daniel & Jamie are feeling better soon  

Wolla - big hugs to Thomas   How is he sleeping? We have had a few difficult nights but Charlotte is getting much better now and we are managing to get at least a few hours kip! How is your recovery going? Hope you are doing OK.

Marie - hugs to Ethan  

Lizi - hugs to Rosa  

Sam mn - how lovely to be planning a holiday with the baby! Hope you are OK  

Sam - hope you are doing OK    

Vic - hope all is Ok with you  

love to everyone else

Sarah
xx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


sarah - glad charlotte is letting you both have some sleep, cant wait to see a pic of her.

anne - i only have a few more xmas things to get for my mum and dad, d.h has no idea of what he wants (its the same every year) he was talking about a karaoke machine but im not sure, glad you are getting your new car this week.

viv - hope you, jamie and daniel are on the mend and feeling better.


we didnt manage to go shopping yesterday, the weather was awful, we had really heavy rain all day so we'll need to get it this weekend, i suppose i could order online but i so love going to the M&P shop.


hope you all are well.


xdebsx


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## Ginger

Hi Girls

I know my precious cargo has already arrived but wanted to stay in touch with you girls, so I hope it's OK to pop in from time to time.

James, DH and I had our first day out today and I was so nervous about the car journey, being far from home in case a feed was needed, etc etc, but James behaved beautifully. First we stopped off to register his birth - another moving moment for DH and I, then we headed for Bluewater Shopping Centre - about 35 min drive from East London - and James slept the whole way there, snoozed for the whole trip round the shops, including a coffee stop, and the journey home!! DH and I were like 2 kids taking it in turns with the buggy and almost pinching each other to prove it was actually happening!!

To all new Mums I send my congratulations, my love and support and dreams of a good night's sleep. To the precious bumps I send love, congratulations and dreams of a happy healthy pregnancy and to live happily ever after - I can now begin to imagine that it might just be happening for me!!

Ginger xxx


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## sam mn

ginger your day out sounds wonderful with little james.

sarahjj glad young charlotte is letting you get a few hrs sleep.

deb what an amazing thought that your baby will be here in 9-10wks!

anne   at the thought of you getting out of beauty. glad your getting to pick up your grown up car soon, im sure you will find it easy to get in and out of.

wolla hope little thomas is behaving.

samp thinking of you. look forward to hearing your good news.

not much to report with me apart from finally feeling less tired. next appt with MW seems ages away, 3wks.

hi to all, viv (hope your feeling better), vic, marie and anyone ive missed.

sam mn
xxxxx


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## mandao

Hi Ladies,

I'm not carrying my precious cargo anymore - he is now nearly 7 months old but I wanted to touch base and add my good wishes to one and all. 

The last time I posted I was still pregnant and posted on the Precious Cargo 1st thread - now we are on 7 and I am really pleased at all the good news.

I can't believe how much time has passed and how quickly. It also feels like I have no "me" time - as evidenced by the 180 e-mails in my In Box awaiting reading! But I hasten to add I am NOT complaining, merely excusing my absence.

I haven't been able to read all the threads as I've been reading for nearly an hour already and nowhere near caught up - guess that because I am cramming so many months reading into one go! But I am so happy for everyone and their bundles of joy and fervently hope all goes well in the future.

Hugs and best wishes to all,
Amanda x


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## struthie

Congratulations Amanda I wondered what happened to you!
Lovely to hear from you xxx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


amanda - congratulations, thanks for the best wishes.

ginger - OMG your 1st day out as a family, i know d.h and i will be fighting over who gets to push the pram.

viv - hope you and the boys have recovered now.


i had my 2nd antenatal class today, im really enjoying them, only half of last weeks class turned up though but it was actually better cos there was over 20 last wk and was about 12 today, saw a video about pain relief and have pretty much decided on an epidural, also saw my midwife today and my baby is breech   so am hoping that it turns in the next couplw of weeks or its a c/section for me.


hope you all are well.


xdebsx


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## Ginger

Debs - you look GREAT in your photo!!

Yes - it was a little competitive over who got to push the buggh - but either way it was such a treat just to be there, and to see people look in the buggy and smile ........ oh we were so proud

Good Luck to you Debs and Sam for the next few weeks. Baby James was breech for a while and he turned in time for birth but we needed a C Section in the end anyway. I hope the next few weeks are comfortable and easy for you and that they go quickly!!

Wolla - how are you doing?

Amanda - congratulations on your precious arrival!

Thanks everyone else for your kind wishes. Time for FF is precious now, so sorry for no personals recently. James is a hungry boy and of course I LOVE feeding him but have no time for anything else.... not complaining though. 

Ginger xxxx


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## LiziBee

Sam P news!!!
http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=75889.0#new


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## AnneD

Fantastic news Lizi - thanks for keeping us up to date.


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


what fab news on sam.

i had a m/wife appt yesterday and it turns out that our baby is breech just now, so am gonna try all i can to help turn it cos if it doesnt i'll need a c/section, so gonna get by birthing ball blown up cos aparently bouncing on that can help and the physio has given me an excerscise to try, im not averse to having a c/section but its the recovery time im not happy about and if at all possible i'd rather have a natural labour (well as natural as you can with an epidural), have another appt in 2 weeks so hoping that something will have happened by then, 


big   to everyone,

xdebsx


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## sam mn

fab news on sam, thanks lizzi for keeping us updated.

deb happy bouncing, hope that little bean turns  .

sam mn
xxxx


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## LiziBee

It's gone a bit quiet, is everyone ok?  My excuse is that Rosa is teething (she has 2, on the bottom in the middle) so I'm a bit occupied elsewhere.
Debs - keep up with that optimal foetal positioning!
love and hugs
Lizi.x


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## Marielou

Hello,

Sorry for being a stranger, I've been away this week seeing family, so havent had much time.  Turns out dad is getting married!    So of course, I got all excited, thinking of the cute outift I can get Ethan!!    

Tracey ~ Ethan is wearing the small baby outfit that you bought for him from Next for the first time today ... it's still HUGE on him ... so huge, that when I picked him up when I went to a local mother and baby group today, his trousers fell off    and he showed all the girls his bottom and legs!!     It is SO cute ... but I think he needs to grow for another wek or two before attempting that again!! 
Oh yes ... I sent Max a present, but today, royal mail have delivered it back to me, saying there was no such address!    I'm gutted as I sent it special delivery so he'd have it for his birthday .. I hope you didnt think I'd forgotten him    I'll have to get your address off you again and resend it  

Debs ~ Hope baby turns round for you .. get bouncing on that ball!  A girl I was in hospital with had a c seciton and had a positive experiance like Tracey, and was up and about before I was!! (I had a 2nd degree tear) 

I can't believe Ethan is 7 weeks old ... had him weighed today, and he's 7lb 15oz!!    My little porker!!    I've added some photos to the gallery (I seem to take far too many photos   )

Marie xxx


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## viviennef

Hi,

Tracey, glad Max had a good birthday. Have you made any decisions about future treatment?

Marie, Ethan is just gorgeous! Loved your montage of him as well.

Lizi, Rosa has beaten Daniel with her teeth. He has been teething since 3 months but still no sign of any teeth actually coming through.

Daniel is doing really well. He's such a little character. Yesterday he was lying on his tummy and started pushing himself back along the floor, and this morning I left him lying on his baby gym to put some washing away and when I came back he had somehow got halfway across the floor! This is where the fun and games start!

Hi to everyone else, Viv xxx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie - ethans pics are gorgeous, he's so cute, does it feel real?  i know that in about 8-9 weeks we'll have our baby and i was just sating to ed how stange it will be, its been the 2 of us for so long and it still feels unreal.

tracey - OMG cant beleive max is 2, im not worried about a c-section any more, the only reason i was a bit apprehensive was because of the recovery time, but i was speaking to someone at antenatal the other day and she said the same as you that it was a really positive experience and she was up within 24 hrs and in the shower, i was just a bit worried, but as long as my baby is healthy because thats the most important thing.

viv - hope you and the boys have recovered now, are you off work till after xmas now?  hope you are.

anne - hope you are well, i feel like im gonna burst somedays and cant seem to eat enough so that im not hungry 5 minutes after eating but not long to go now.

vic - hope you are well

sam - hope you are well



has anyone heard from tamsin, havent seen her on here in ages, gonna try to get some more cmas shopping done tomorrow for ed, my dad and stepmum, have no idea what to buy them though, will make my decisions when im in the shops.

big   to everyone.

xdebsx


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## sarahjj

Sam - congratulations on the birth of your twins             
Hope all of you are doing well.

Hi to everyone else

Sarah
xx


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## wolla

Can't get into the thread with the news about Sam - but I gather from the messages that she's had twin girls?  Am I right?  Huge congratulations Sam - can't wait to see some piccies.

Sarah - how's Charlotte doing?  

Ginger - it's great when you have your first day out pushing the pram isn't it?  we haven't had many days out cos I'm still not driving after my section (and DH doesn't drive), but we walk round the village with the pram, feeling very proud.

Deb - hope baby starts heading in the right direction after all your bouncing.  Don't worry if you do need a section - I had mine at 12 noon and was up for a shower the next morning.  It is frustrating not being able to tend to your baby that first day/night, but the most important thing is that baby arrives in the safest way for you both.  

Marie - how much does Ethan weigh now?  He looks like a little angel - is he sleeping for long on a night?

Anne - have you bought your new grown up car yet?  

Viv - sounds like you're going to have your hands full.

Well, Thomas has slept for around 5 hours in a row the last couple of nights, which is definitely something of an achievement.  Am starting to feel slightly more human.  We seem to be muddling along ok - making it all up as we go along really.  He's starting to spend a lot more time awake during the day, and loves having a kick about on his play mat.

Sorry for not posting more regularly, the days just fly by and I don't seem to have much time for anything really.

Sending lots of love to everyone
Wolla & Thomas
xx


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## going it alone

Hi all
Just a quickie from me. Got home with the twins on Saturday. Feeling fine and they are just wonderful. Have to wake them up to feed them every three hours, due to them being small. They either sleep or lay in the Moses basket looking around.
Will catch up with everyone's news soon. ave internet probs so still have to come round to their very proud Grandparents' house to use the internet.
Huge thanks to Lizi for keeping everyone informed. You're a star.

Love to all Sam xx


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## nismat

*Sam*, huge congratulations on the birth of your twin daughters - I love their names. I'm sure that it must be rather overwhelming at first, being home with them, but utterly wonderful as well.

Hi to everyone else; I'm sorry that I have been MIA again recently - I have been reading & lurking occasionally, but for some reason just not posting on any of my usual sites for the last few weeks. Thanks for thinking of me Debs 
All is going really well with the pregnancy - I turn 27 weeks pg today, so it's into the third trimester! I'm absolutely loving my growing bump and spend a lot of time rubbing it and playing with Pip inside. The kicks and punches are getting ever more frequent and stronger, and I don't find them quite as disconcerting as I did at first - although some of them take me by surprise and make me jump! Karen loves to be able to feel and see Pip moving around too, and we are both getting more and more excited about our baby's arrival. We've got the dates through for our NCT classes, starting in January. They sound pretty intensive - 6 sessions over a space of 4 weeks! I'm looking forward to them but Karen's considerably less keen. She hates group stuff and has visions of us all sitting around in a circle chanting I think! We'll see how it goes; I've told her that she doesn't have to come if she doesn't want to, although obviously I would like her to so that she knows why I want to do certain things during the birth. But if she finds it really awkward, then I honestly don't mind if its all too much for her. She's already firmly stated that she's staying at my top end throughout the birth 

We are starting to clear out the study to turn it into a nursery, although I'm struggling to find many suitable fabrics from which to make curtains etc. There just doesn't seem to be a huge amount of choice generally, and a lot of what there is is either too gender specific, or too cartoonish/themed for our tastes. I've just found one possibility so far, a Cath Kidston fabric called Circus Elephants, so I'm waiting for a sample to come through.
We will be ordering our pushchair/baby carseat in the next few weeks - once we've checked that they definitely fit in both cars. We're going for the Skoot from Mamas & Papas http://www.mamasandpapas.co.uk/product_details.php?id=S0002683&type=S 
Other than that, the main things that we still need to get are a bouncy baby chair, some gro-bag sleeping bags, basic changing items - and to sort out the whole nappy situation! I'm going to a real nappy coffee morning tomorrow in the hope that I can get some guidance on the different types. There are so many!

It's so lovely to hear about all the recent arrivals and how quickly they are developing. I'm sure that it must be hard work, but it also sounds so wonderful.

I promise to post more frequently from now on!
Tamsin


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## Marielou

Wolla - I can't believe Thomas is a month old already   Ethan weighs 7lb 15oz now (little porker  ) and _was_ sleeping ok at night, but he's been hit with colic and a cold, so bless him, he's not going down now until 9pmish, but then he's sleeping until midnight, and then until 4/6am. Not bad for a BF baby!  How's Thomas doing?

Tamsin - Lovely to hear from you! Wow, 27 weeks, I remember it like yesterday.  I so miss feeling Ethan kick, but wouldnt be without him now for the world. 

Sam - So glad to hear you're all home .. I had to wake Ethan in the early days for feeds too, luckily, he's now on regular 2/3 hour feeds, and there's no way I'd wake him now  

Sarah - How is charlotte doing? How much does she weigh, and how are you coping?

Debs - I still can't believe that Ethan is ours. Its so bizarre, I've never known a love like it .. he's just so perfect and I can't believe he's all mine!! I can clearly remember when he was 2 days old, sitting on my bed in the ward, looking at him sleeping and sobbign my heart out. The nurse came in to give me some painkiller, and asked how I was, and I just sat there saying 'Its been nearly 7 years ...' and giving massive raking sobs. I think she thought I was  !!

I'm thinking of idea's of things to buy Mark for his first christmas as a daddy (from Ethan) - anyone?!

Marie xxx


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## Hippy

Marie - hiya hun   I was so moved by your post and the beautiful love you have your very cute little Ethan, as I so remember the horrific and painfully long journey you had to walk to get him, it really warms my heart to read how you and indeed all the other DI new mums are doing, and I wish you all  a very special first Christmas with your tiny ones.

I am doing ok, made some real progress emotionally in the last few months. Can you believe it is nearly eight months since my tx journey ended!! Despite some truly horrible dark moments, overall I have amazed myself and I think my friends too, at how strong the human spirit can be when faced with difficult conclusions in life, and through the love and incredible support on here (I now lurk regularly on the 'moving on' thread - I do wish they'd call that thread something happier   ) I have re found a bit of my old pre tx, Hippy spark for life   and although I know I will never get over what didn't happen, I do know I can and am, moving in a forward direction and at one point I really didn't think that was poss, so I am hugely encouraged  

Dh and I are still going to give the adoption route a very serious consideration, but we still need quite a bit longer before we are ready to embark down that invasive and stressful process. Hopefully though by the end of next year we will have made our decision and whatever the path we take I am certain it will bring new adventures, and who knows maybe a little one is out there for me and DH and may yet be in my arms in the next few years, and then I can come to you guys for some vetran parenting tips!!?  

I think of you all often and am sending the hugest of Hippy hugs to you all and your very cute little ones  

Loads of love
Hippy
xxxxxxx


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## sam mn

hippy so lovely to hear from you lady. so pleased you and your dh are doing ok. you truely are an inspiration for life. 

sam so pleased you are home with your girls.

marie ethan sounds a little pickle at the mo. hope the cold and colic clear up soon and you get more restful nights.

tamsin good to hear from you, cant believe you are 27wks already. where does time go to.

hi to all, anne, deb, wolla , ginger, viv and vic.

as for me im doing ok. had a little scare at the begging of the wk, but had another scan and little bertie is doing fine, i heard our little ones HB for the first time on monday. felt a little sad after watching a child against all odds on tues, all about male factor and ssr etc. i felt that maybe we should have tried harder to see if dh could have been gentic dad. but then i felt so guilty as i feel so lucky to be able to have our little bertie. its just sometimes it hits me that our little one wont look like hes daddy. my dh is great with everything and takes everyhting in his stride. he is gonna make a wonderful daddy. one of my friends said such a lovely thing to me the other day.'anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a daddy'. 

sam
xxxx


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## wolla

Sam - once Bertie arrives, you really, honestly won't care that he's not genetically your DH's.  You and DH will love him/her sooooo much, that it just won't be an issue.  I look at Thomas and think how glad I am that we used DS because if we hadn't, he wouldn't be Thomas (if that makes sense).  And everyone tells DH how much Thomas looks like him and he's so proud.

Wolla
x


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## Marielou

Hippy - its SO lovely to hear from you! Thank you for your comments, it honestly only seems like yesterday I was wondering if all this was worth it   
Things sound very positive on your front, please please keep us updated with your journey and let us know when you becomme a mummy    This place isnt the same without you  

Sam - I second what Wolla says 100%.  Genetics will mean nothing when you give birth and see your hubby holding your tiny newborn in his arms.  Ethan is so like DH its untrue.  

Marie xxx


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## wolla

Marie - fab photo. How cute does Ethan look dressed as Santa.  Hope his colic doesn't last too long and he starts sleeping well again (although it still doesn't sound like he's doing too bad!).  Thomas is really starting to settle into a routine now - he goes to bed at 8.30, sleeps til 2.30 then til 5.30am - and is normally then up for the day. Could do with getting him to sleep a bit later, but I'm not complaining when he's going 6 hours in a row.

Sam - Hope you're enjoying life with your 2 girls, and they're letting you get at least a little bit of sleep.

Hippy - great to hear from you.

Hi to Viv, Vic, Anne, Sam, Deb, Lizi, Tracey & everyone else

Wolla
x


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## nismat

*Marie*, your post about crying over Ethan on the ward made me cry  Happy kind of crying though - it's just so emotional! Love the pic of Baby Christmas Ethan 

*Wolla*, that's great that you are establishing a routine with Thomas - it must make life a lot easier. Hope it continues! The 5.30am starts to the day sound challenging though 

I went to a "nappuccino" morning today - it was really lucky actually as I just started searching on-line for info about cloth nappies yesterday, and discovered that the bi-monthly meeting was today! So I could easily have missed it, and the February one would have felt like I was leaving things too late. It was really helpful to go along and see several different types of nappy, and to chat with lots of mums about what has worked best for them. The key to it seems to be not to buy too much of any one kind/size in advance, as you can't tell which ones are going to work for you/your baby. I'd e-mailed The Nappy Lady site for tailored advice last night, and it turned out that the mum who was running the event is the Nappy Lady rep in my area, so she knew who I was straight away! The ones I liked the look of most were the Tots Bots (both regular & Bamboozles), and the Bumble with it's fleece inner. I'm going to go round to her house for a coffee some time for further advice though.

Are many of you using cloth nappies? I saw your recommendation for the Bamboozles on The Best.... re-usables thread, *Lizi*. Did you start using cloth nappies right from the start? And have you used various different types over time?

My other major dilemma is over slings/baby carriers. Again, so many different types, and so difficult to work out which one/onew will be best. My inclination is to go for something like a Wilkinet/Baby Bjorn, plus a more traditional style sling as well. I picked up a card at this morning's event for www.slingmeet.co.uk so I'm going to see what I can find out from them. Actually, I've just been on their site and discovered that they combined their meet with the nappuccino event. I did see a couple of women trying slings, but didn't realise quite what was going on. Drat!

Anyway, must get off to do my supermarket shop now - the cleaner is here and we've run out of Flash to wash the floors!

Tx


----------



## sam mn

marie and wolla your comments brought  . i cant wait till little bertie is here with us, but 25wks seems a lifetime away. dh is already talking to my tummy about total nonsense most of the time.

tamsin, gosh i never thought about all the different possibilities of nappies and slings, then theres the buggy to think of. it just seems so far away just cant get into the mode of thinking yet.

im back to work next wk, which im dreading, hoping i want find it to hard and stressful.

sam
xxx


----------



## LiziBee

Tamsin - I didn't start on the cloth nappies until Rosa was about 8wks old because she didn't fit them. I don't know how Marie is getting on but I'd be surprised if Ethan fit his yet either. I have tried quite a few, Motherease, Kisalove (what a name for a nappy  ) and snappies to name but a few. For me the Motherease are the next best but not as absorbing at the moment as Rosa is still too small for me to fit in the booster pad. A friend has Bumbles but says they are not as absorbant as the totsbots. I just got a littlelamb sample, the company seem very helpful, I'll let you know how I get on with that.
On slings - I love my ring sling! (google 'maya ring sling' )much easier and more versatile than the others (and I have quite a few as Sam will testify!)

And yes I still get blown away by how lucky we are to have Rosa!

love to all
Lizi.x


----------



## Marielou

Hello!

Wolla - I am SO jealous of your routine.  Ethan had settled into one, but that seems to have gone out of the window since the colic hit, and I've really been beating myself up about it.  Now, he's going down about 10pm, getting up around 4-6am then around 8/9am.  BUT again, thats all out of the window, because we've all got a cold, and he's up quite a bit in the night with his snuffly nose. Its also harder because Mark works evenings, so its all up to me. 
Can I ask a personnal question? Are you breast or bottle feeding? (I only ask, because I'm wondering if it akes a difference to routines)

Lizi - Ethan doesnt fit his cloth nappies either - we've got the tots bots bamboozles, which I am so looking forward to using! I've used muslims with the wraps, but they're not really working, as his legs are still very skinny, and they leak. When he was born, he was in Huggies Premature nappies, and at 4 weeks, he went into Huggies size 1 newborn. SO looking forward to making the move over to cloth!

Sam - Believe me, that 25 weeks will roll round so quickly  although I bet you can't believe that now!!

Tamsin - This is a good site for slings - http://www.brightsparkslings.co.uk/slings.htm#coorie and they also have a sale on at the moment.  I've got a baby bjorn and took Ethan out in it for the first time today (baby has to be 8lb - Ethan was 7lb 15oz on monday so I figured thats close enough!!) and it was very comfy, and he really enjoyed being snuggled up to me. I also enjoyed hearing all the 'Oooh look how tiny that baby is' comments!  (never get enough of them!!)

Thanks for all the comments about Ethan in his santa suit .. DH says I'm cruel, but its so cute how could I resist?!!

Marie xxx

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.UK or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


----------



## sam mn

oh marie just notice ethans santa suit. he looks so gorgeous.

sam
xxxx


----------



## sarahjj

Hi everyone

Sorry have not been posting much lately - amazing how time flies by now!
Charlotte is doing really well, though we are not yet getting much sleep at night - she does not usually settle until midnight, as she is very hungry all evening. She then usually gets us up for another feed about 3am and 6am. 
Marie - your routine seems good - hope you all get over your colds soon. Hope Ethan's colic gets better too  
Wolla - you seem to have Thomas doing really well now  

All your comments on the cloth nappies are interesting as we've been looking at changing over to them. 

Wolla - love your comments on Thomas. Everyone also says how much Charlotte takes after my DH too. 

Hipy - lovely to hear from you. All the very best for whatever you decide to do next  

Hi to Lizi, Viv, Vic, Tamsin, Sam, Anne, Debs & everyone else. Hope all your bumps and babies are doing well.

Sarah
xx


----------



## nismat

*Sam*, I hope that the return to work goes smoothly, and isn't too exhausting/stressful. Make sure that you try and take it easy at least some of the time if you can - do you think that your employers/colleagues will be understanding? 
Re: all the nappies/slings/general baby equipment choice, it is all rather overwhelming at first isn't it? We decided on our buggy fairly early on, although more by accident than intention, as we fell for the Skoot on a supposed "window-shopping" trip to Mamas & Papas. Beyond that key piece of equipment, we haven't really been focussing on things much (we are being passed on stuff like cribs etc), and it's only now that I've just entered the third trimester that I am really thinking more about it all, and wanting to get more organised. Earlier on, it felt a bit like tempting fate to do too much!

*Lizi*, interesting to hear your experience of different nappy brands: I had been thinking that maybe we should try and use them more or less straight from birth (or at least from coming home), so that it becomes part of the routine straightaway. Karen would rather use disposables, but I was concerned that we might then never make the move to cloth! There's a smaller version of the Bumble called the Bimble which was on display at the nappy event - it looked so tiny & cute! Almost like a doll's nappy. It's specifically intended for newborns and preemies, so if you buy them in advance and have a largish baby, it won't last long (I think only up to about 10lb). But most of the other nappies did look far too big for a newborn! The Nappy Lady did make a big point of the fact that it's far more important to try & get breastfeeding established, if that's the route you are planning on, than on trying to use cloth nappies in the earliest sleep-deprived weeks if it all seems too much. As she said, the cloth nappies are always there for you to switch to when you are ready! It's nice to be planning it all though.

*Marie *- thanks for the sling link - another one to add to the baby section of my Favourites! People have been really welcoming on the slingmeet forum and are more than prepared to let me try all their different ones out at the next meeting, which they are planning to hold before Christmas. Hopefully I'll get to borrow a baby too to try on with the sling! Like with nappies though, it seems like you shouldn't spend too much in advance as you don't know what's going to work best for your own baby - they have quite strong preferences!

*Sarah *- good to hear from you, although the broken sleep/regular feeding pattern sounds utterly exhausting. How many weeks old is Charlotte now?

Actually, that triggers a more general question - where did all the tickers go? I liked being able to keep track of where everyone was in their pregnancies/how old all the babies/children were via the signature tickers.

Right, I really ought to get some work done - then I can actually put in an invoice and get paid! I'm not particularly looking forward to being a "kept woman" in a few months time... it will be very strange not having an income of my own, at least for a while. Really haven't decided what I'm going to do about when/if to resurrect work after Pip's arrival. It's very much going to be a "see how we go" thing. I anticipate not working at all for the first 3-4 months, and hopefully more like 6 months, then after that I may take on the odd bit of work to do from home - if it turns out to be at all practical to combine it with baby-care!

Love to all,
Tx


----------



## AnneD

Hi Girls,

Tamsin - know totally what you mean about the work situation.  I'm finding the thought of being a kept woman strange too.  The plan is to work until Christmas and then after then it will be a total 'see how we go' situation.  I'm lucky in that a couple of the people I've done work for have said they should be able to push work my way as and when I want it but I definitely don't want to make any plans as yet.  I have had a letter through saying that I'll get 26 weeks maternity allowance though which makes a change - good to see my national insurance payments are finally paying off.  It's not a fortune but it's better than nothing.  

Marie - aww love the piccie of Ethan in his santa suit - he looks adorable!  Hope his colic gets better soon!

Sarah - lovely hearing how Charlotte is getting on - hope she settles in to a routine soon so you can get some much needed sleep.

Wolla - sounds like Thomas is thriving and great to hear you've got him into a good routine - I'm convinced this baby will never sleep because he/she is a constant wriggler  

Sorry I've not been posting much - trying to get as much work done as possible before Christmas as well as getting my Christmas shopping done (17 kids before I even start on adult presents   ) Annnd ripping the house to bits.  DH has plastered, lined and painted the nursery now - whoopee, and ripped our bedroom to bits too    We've now ordered a new kitchen which is being fitted at the beginning of January too - we must be gluttons for punishment!!!

Huge hugs to all you lovely girls, babies and bumps,

Anne x


----------



## viviennef

Hi everyone,

Sorry, been lusy at posting recently but I do read every day.

Hippy, fab to hear from you and wish you the best of luck for the future. Stay in touch and let us know what's happening with you.

Anne, sounds like you've got your hands full at home. 17 kids presents to buy! Just think of all the pressies you'll be buying your new arrival next Christmas!

Tamsin, it's great fun planning what to buy isn't it? If I was you, I'd take as much time off working as you can as the months will fly by once the baby arrives. I was actually due back at work last month but I got a doctors line as I feel like I just can't cope with going back to work along with caring for two children. Plus I think I may have left my brain in the delivery room and now my head is just filled with the Teletubbies! . 

Sarah, Daniel was exactly the same when he was first born and constantly fed all evening and never seemed to be full up. It's hard going but it does get better. Hope you get some decent sleep soon.

Marie, Ethan is so cute in his Santa suit. I think he's doing really well sleep wise for a breast fed baby but I know it probably doesn't feel like that to you when you're probably exhausted. Hope things improve with his colic and try not to worry too much about routine. You'll eventually naturally fall into one as he gets older.

Things are fine here. Daniel is still not a great sleeper. He's addicted to his dummy so when it falls out he wakes up. I'm trying to limit his use of it during the day now so he's not so dependant on it. Apart from the sleeping he is the most adorable easy going little boy. He and Jamie are so funny together and Jamie really makes him laugh all the time. Going back to the doctors tomorrow to see if I can get another line as I really can't face going back to work yet as I'm still really tired. Jason is off tomorrow so after the docs I'm leaving him in charge of the boys and I'm going to Stirling for a look round the shops and to have some lunch in peace, can't wait!

Hi to everyone else, Viv xxx


----------



## wolla

Marie - I'm jealous of your routine!!  Sleeping til 8/9am sounds fab  - much better than 5am!!  Am going to try putting him down at 7pm tonight, and waking him for a feed at 10.30ish to see if that helps - was going to try it last night, but chickened out - am scared that he won't go back to sleep again and I'll be up all night.  Hope Ethan's colic doesn't last too long.  Oh - Thomas has been on bottles since he was a week old.  

Put him in his big cot in the nursery for the first time today.  I've been putting him in the carrycot on his pram for daytime naps up to now, but he only naps for about 20 - 30 mins.  Put him in his big cot at lunchtime, and he was there for an hour and a half - he stirred a couple of times but then settled himself back to sleep again.  He looks soooo tiny in there though.

Viv - hope the doc sign's you off for a bit longer, you must be exhausted looking after the two of them.  Enjoy your shopping trip.

Anne - Wow, not long to go for you now.  It's exciting getting the nursery ready isn't it?  Good luck with all your Xmas shopping - I've been doing most of mine online as I just haven't got the energy to visit the shops.

I declared myself fit to drive again after my section yesterday - didn't go far, and DH stayed at home with Thomas but I wasn't in any pain at all.  It did feel good to be back in the car, and now I won't have to rely on my dad for lifts if I want to go anywhere.

Hi to everyone
Wolla
x


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


Marie - Ethan looks so gorgeous in his santa suit.

Wolla - did you try out your new routine with Thomas yet?

Viv - hope you got on well at the docs and are off till the new year.

Anne - OMG 17 kids to buy for, you'll be busy.

Tamsin - im quite looking forward to being a kept woman although it will only be for a few months when my full pay and SMP runs out (have decided to take about 9 months off) but will see how it goes, i might want to go back to work    

Sarah - glad to hear that Charlotte is doing well.

Sam Mn - hope you are doing well, its wonderful to hear your little ones heartbeat.

Sam - bet those girls of yours are keeping you extremely busy.


ive been having quite sore abdomen pains for the last couple of days so am wondering if the baby has turned, have also had a few b/h contractions, didnt realise they would be so sore,

big   to everyone.


xdebsx


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## sam mn

hi to all

just a quickie, im totally exhausted after going back to work this wk. not as bad stress wise as i thought so thats good.

hope all bumps and babies all doing well.

sam mn
xxxxx


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

I took Ethan to see Father Christmas!!    In our shopping centre, its free to visit, have a present and photo taken, so I thought 'What the hell' and took him in, I'll add his photo with Santa to the gallery later .. have to say, Ethan was VERY unimpressed and slept through the occasion!    

Debs - Its madness, I was remembering BH's with fondness yesterday    I had regular ones from 20 weeks, but from about 34 weeks, they were very sore and often took my breath away.  I can recall having to stop every few steps when I was about 35 weeks while walking round town because of the pains .. and had Ethan 3 days later!! aaarrghh! (oops, hope I don't scare you!!) 

Wolla - Yes, Ethan does seem to like his morning sleep, we've very lucky there!  Mind you, he wakes at around 6am, and I change his nappy, feed him and then cuddle him in bed until that time   so that could be why!!  (Soooo easy when BF to lay and feed him!)    Mind you, it does mean i've had to get rid of duvets and a lot of pillows to ensure he's safe, I'm very paranoid   (but then, when havent I been paranoid?!!  ) 

Viv - I seem to have relaxed so much more about his routine now.  I don't know why I got into such a tizzy about him going down so early.  He tends to go down now at about 10/11pm and thats fine with me - from 8pm onwards we're feeding and cuddling, and I love that time.     Hope you manage to wean Daniel off the dummy   

Anne - I can't believe how pregnant you are!!  OMG I SO miss being pregnant .. but then. DH always says we have something better now when I feel like that, and he's right.    But, the kicks are SOOOO lovely! 

Tamsin - I can see the tickers, can't you?  You're so right about not all babies liking the same thing .. Ethan hates being swaddled, he loves to have his arms up by the side of his head, even did in the womb, bless him!    He also seems to hate his Slumber bear, which has me stumped, as all babies seem to love them! (Ethan obviously missed the memo   ) 

Sarah - Charlotte sounds like she's following Ethan's routine from a few weeks ago    Are you BF her?  It does get better .. slowly!! 

Wow, can't believe I mangaed a whole post!  Ethan has a musical lights activity gym, and he can spend AGES under there!!

Marie xxx


----------



## sarahjj

Hi

Marie - how great to have taken Ethan to see Father Christmas! by the way - I love his picture in his Santa suit. I love Christmas, and with a baby it is just even better!!! How big is he now? It looks as if he has grown a lot. Charlotte is almost 9 lb now. Yes, I am bf her, and she feeds for ages especially in the evenings. The last few nights have been getting better though. She usually wakes up twice during the night for a feed, but has been settling down better after her feed now and going back to sleep.

Sam mn - hope going back to work this week has been OK for you. Don't overdo it will you  

Debs - hope you are doing oK and the BH are not too painful  

Wolla - glad you are feeling better and able to drive again. Big hugs to Thomas   How are you getting on with your buggy ( I remembered we have the same one) I love ours - we go out walking every day which charlotte loves  

Viv - glad to hear the feeding/sleeping get better! Daniel sounds just gorgeous. hope you get some more time off - must be exhausting with two to look after 

Anne - good luck with the Christmas shopping. I still have lots to do  

Sam - hope your twins are doing well  

Tamsin - hope you are doing OK. Did you get your tickers working again? Charlotte is a month old today - can't believe how quickly it has gone. Not long for you now! 

Hi to everyone else
love Sarah
xx


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## sam mn

marie how wonderful to take ethan to see father christmas.

sarah cant believe charlotte is a month old already. time is flying by.

sorry again for short post but work has drained me of every ounce of energy, got 3 days off now tho to sleep!

hi to anne, tamsin,deb,ginger, viv, vic, sam, wolla and hope all bumps and babies are doing well.

sam mn
xxxxxx


----------



## wolla

Marie - aww, that's lovely that you took Ethan to see Father Christmas.  He'll be much more excited about it next year I bet.

Sarah - yes, am loving my pushchair.  Thomas has his daytime naps in the carrycot bit (the only way I can get him to sleep during the day is by endlessly pushing him up and down the room)  We go for a walk every day too - have been quite lucky with the weather and only had one day when it's been too wet to go out.  Have you got the weathershield for it?  I've got one on order from Mothercare and it's taking ages to arrive - does it cover the car seat too?  Wow, can't believe Charlotte is a month already.  Time flies doesn't it?

Wolla
x


----------



## suziegirl64

Hello All

You know it's been such a long time since I posted, I can't remember all the threads I was on - so I'm posting all over the shop!!

Robert and I are so proud and delighted to announce the birth of our son, Franklin (Frankie), on Friday 1st December at 7.56pm, weighing in at 6lb 14.5oz. 

He was born by emergency c section after several hours of induced labour. I came home on Monday and I'm recovering really well and feel fantastic but tired. I had so many health problems during the pregnancy that recovery after a c section is easy peasy!

When they lifted my boy up for me to see and then later placed him on my breast, I thought my heart would literally burst out of my body with sheer happiness. We've waited a long time for our tiny bundle of joy but all the years of anguish have been wiped away in a single, truly amazing moment. 

Some of you may remember that I was filmed for the BBC's A Child Against All Odds but pulled out due to various differences. Well, watching the programme this week while holding Frankie moved me beyond words. I feel so blessed - ironically, one of the lucky ones at last.

I'm pretty busy at the moment (!!!) I will try to read and reply to messages but please forgive me if I don't!

Love
Suzie xxx


----------



## LiziBee

Suzie - lovely to hear from you, congratulations on the birth of Franklin! What was the inspiration behind the name?
Wolla - pleased to hear you like your buggy, which one is it? My weather shield didn't cover the car seat when fitted and I finished up buying a universal one. Have to admit it's a lot easier to use, the plastic is softer and it feels more secure when attached (the 'real one' just sort of sat there).
Marie - cute! All the Santas around here charge a fortune so I think we will wait a bit.

I was going to do some foot painting with Rosa today to make some Xmas cards but been told by a friend that it's a lot easier to rest their feet on the computer scanner and 'do it digital' - is this cheating and more importantly IS IT SAFE?

Had my first night out last night. I loved it but my girl didn't. Normally she sleep straight through from 8pm, so we naively thought that if we just shifted everything forwards half and hour everything would be fine, not so. She woke 4 times and when I got back in at 10.15pm she'd only just gone back off. I'd left a bottle but she refused it - nice to know they can't manage without me really!!

AF arrived this morning, the clinic say that once I've had 2 'regular cycles' I can give them a call to arrange to start the process again so fingers crossed for 28 days from now!

love to all
Lizi.x

Don't forget those pelvic floor exercises!!


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

I've been to 'sensory babes' with Ethan this morning, which is a really lovely class, where we sing, and massage our babies, as well as it being dark, with lots of lights, bubbles and lava lamps .. Ethan was mesmirised (sp?) by the lights on the walls .. until he decided he wanted a feed instead!      He really enjoys the massage, bless him. 
He also loves his gym .. he's been laying under his for nearly an hour now, I've hoovered, tidied up and now sat here for a bit.    Best thing I ever bought! 

Lizi - You brave thing, going out for the night!  I've got my first night out planned (don't get excited, its for July  ) and I'm already worreying about him crying and my  (and namely my nipples) not being there. 
I had no idea you were planniung on having another cycle!  How exciting!     We're thinking of giving it a go again in August, to avoid another years storage fee's (FET) but I suppose it depends on him feeding .. do you mind me asking if you're still BF?  (I'm not sure at all if you can have a cycle while feeding, so this will be interesting!)

Sarah - Charlotte sounds like she's doing very well!  Ethan has grown .. he's just over 8lbs now     Ethan woke twice last night for feeds too .. he tends to go until 5-6am, but last night, he fed 7pm, 10pm, 1am, 4am, 7am, 9.30am.  Piggy!  

Suzie - Many congrats on Frankie's arrival!  He's gorgeous! 

Wolla - Which pushchair do you and Sarah have?  

Sam - is your belly growing yet?  Won't be long now until you feel some kicks! 

Marie xxx


----------



## sam mn

marie i just look a bit plump at the mo. my mum reckons i look PG but she would say that. i cant fit any of my clothes anymore and resorted to buying a couple pairs of mat trousers, which im living i n at the mo. my belly botton is doing weird things tho, its gone all hard and i think its threatening to be an outty already! cant wait to feel the movements. 

ethan sounds as tho he enjoys his pampering and playing. i cant wait till we have our littleone. 

lizzi good luck with your future cycle. we have just bought sibling stock and think that all being well we wont leave it too long in between. mainly cos im getting passed it!

susie congrats on the birth of franklin.

im still feeling exhausted. dh is busy in the kitchen pampering me so im just enjoying being lazy 

sam
xxx


----------



## LiziBee

Marie - lactation (i.e. breastfeeding) has to stop before IVF but not necessarily for IUI. Ideally I'd like to b-f until she wants to give up but I don't think we would cycle before July anyway as we'd like to get at least one holiday in before having to do all this again. 
Got to go she's waking!
L.xxxx


----------



## suziegirl64

I can tell I've been offline for a long time because so many babies have been born to so many familiar names!

Congratulations everyone and thank you for your congrats in return.

Lizi - We agreed that Robert would choose a boys name and I would choose a girl's (As long as neither of us completely hated it of course!). The name Franklin evolved because Robert really wanted to call him Frank. I wasn't keen because, although it's a good solid name, I couldn't think of a little baby being called Frank. I thought Frankie sounded nicer but needed something else for the birth certificate - something more grown up and a bit unusual too. That's as interesting as it gets!! It also sounds very distinguished with our surnames! (Hark at me!)

Love to all
Suzie x


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi ladies
Just thought I'd pop onto this board as haven't posted for ages.
Hope you're all doing well and congratulations to all whose babies have hatched!

love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxx


----------



## wolla

Marie - the sensory baby class sounds great.  The pushchair me and Sarah have got is the Trenton travel system from Mothercare (I think we've got different colours ) - I've found it really good so far, although it's pretty heavy. 

Thomas seems to have a bit of a cold today, poor little man coughing and spluttering - it makes me really sad to see him suffering, he gets such a worried look on his face.  Hopefully it won't last too long.

DH has started his paternity leave today - he's tagged some holidays to the end of it too, so he's off until the New Year - yay, some help with the night feeds at last.

Sam - I'm sure you do look pg.  I was still convinced at 41 weeks that I just looked 'fat' and not pg   Make the most of DH spoiling you.

Lizi - that's fab that you're thinking of cycling again.  Do you have sibling sperm stored?

Suzie - Frankie is gorgeous - congratulations.

Hi to everyone
Wolla
x


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Ethan had his jabs yesterday, poor little man, but it wasn't as bad as I expected - I'm pretty sure seeing him have all the jabs. heel pricks and canula's when he was born and when he was tiny and ill, made it less horrible than I was expecting.  Poor little man cries if you touch his leg though - so sad.   

He did well last night - settled at midnight, and slept until 8.30am    

Wolla - Its horrible when they're ill.    Ethan's had a cold and is still really snuffly 2 weeks later.  

Ooops, he's awake,

Marie xxx


----------



## going it alone

Hi all

Sorry for this being a me post - don't have much time before I have to be back to feed them, still having to use mum and dad's computer!
As for my two, health visitor came today. Last week Elsbeth weighed 4lb 12 and Amelie weighed 6lb. Now they're up to 5lb 9 and 6lb 12! the little pigs. At least I can start demand feeding now instead of having to feed them every three hours, whether they wanted it or not. The night feeds should be a little easier to say the least. We always knew that they were going to come out big but I didn't know they'd carry on in the same vein. So much for me choosing a skinny donor to give them a fighting chance - my genes must be strong ones!

Suzie - congratulations on the birth of Frankie.

Wolla - sorry to hear that Thomas is not well. Elsbeth is a very snuffly but I don;t think it's a cold as she's well in herself.

Marie - can't say I'm loking forward to the injections. The blood sugar ones before every feed in hospital about killed me so goodness kows what I'll be like for proper jabs. glad to hear he settled well last night.

Love to everyone I've missed.

Sam xx


----------



## sam mn

sam i love the pic of your twins. they look adorable. and wow anrent they doing well with there weight. 

wolla sorry to hear thomas has cold. hope he is fighting fit soon.

marie oh injection sound a nightmare, hope ethan has recovered.

ive got MW appt tommorrow so looking forwarsd to listening to our littleones heartbeat again. still exhausted. when are youmeant to start blooming? im certainly not. 

sam mn
xxxxx


----------



## wolla

Sam - the girls look adorable - great photo.  Glad to hear they're growing well.

Marie - wow, 8.5 hours in a row, that's fab!!  I'm dreading Thomas's injections - I cried my eyes out when the m/w did the heel prick one (although it was when I was still having trouble b/feeding and feeling at my very lowest anyway).  Have got our 6 week check with the GP on Thurs, and will get a date for injections then.

Sam mn - the first few month's are exhausting, I'm sure you'll start blooming soon.

Thomas seems much better today, although he hasn't been feeding very well so doubt we'll get much sleep tonight.

Wolla
x


----------



## Ginger

Hi everyone

Sorry I’ve not been active lately – it’s all been a little overwhelming recently. 
I'm beginning to understand James better now and not panicing everytime he cries, but it's still heartbreaking to hear. Last week I was feeding him every time he cried, now I feel a bit more relaxed about comforting him and persuading him to sleep a little longer.

James is still jaundiced, and his weight gain has been slow so we were advised to start on 2 formula bottles a day. Since then he has put on 5 oz in a week and I have cut down breastfeeding to once a day. I know it’s not ideal, and I do feel a little regret, but he’s thriving and last night was a big breakthrough - he had a feed at 11.00, 03.30 and 08.00 - 5 oz of formula each time, very little spitting up, 2 FILTHY nappies and is fast asleep now!!

I thought he was constipated yesterday but maybe not - he went 24 hours without a poo and was gripey and grumpy looking like he had cramps - with a wee red face when he looked like he was squeezing, - could be adjusting to the formula - but he has had 2 stinkers in the past 6 hours so looks OK now. He’s still a little gripey in his sleep and looks a bit red in the face at times so I hope it’s just an adjustment time. 

I feel almost human and am keeping fingers crossed this is the start of a change - the magical 6 weeks is tomorrow ....... 

We are travelling to Ireland for Christmas and I can’t wait ……

Hi to Wolla, Sarah, Suzie, Moodycat and Marie …..and all the lovely babies, sorry if I missed anyone – it’s been an active board – which is a GREAT sign. I’m looking forward to Child of our time tonight and hope that egg donation is shown in a good light and that it helps to bring more angel donors to the clinics.

James is grumbling at me so must go but look forward to staying in touch

Ginger xxx


----------



## AnneD

Hi girls, I've been away for two days and seem to have returned to loads of news so sorry for the brief posts.

Susie -      Huge congrats on the birth of baby Frankie - cute name!

Ginger - Great to hear that James is thriving and you're getting into the swings of things.  Well done!

Wolla - aww hope Thomas's cold clears up soon hun  

Sam - what a fab picture - the girls look sooo gorgeous and great to hear they're doing so well too  

Sam mn - hope your midwife appointment goes well.  It's such a thrill hearing that ickle heartbeat each time isn't it!

Marie - aww love it that Ethan's had his first visit to santa and sounds like he's doing fab.

I've been up to Scotland with DH for two days as he had some stuff to get fixed up there but driving 950 miles in two days wasn't the best idea    Tired today but pleased to be home.  I know baby moving is a good thing but is it normal for them to be wriggling 24 hours a day    Think I've got a very active baby in there so I'd better get prepared for lots of sleepless nights    We went to our first Parentcraft class last week and have another one tomorrow night (three in all).  Didn't know what to expect but they're really interesting and informative so far.  There are only three couples there and we see the midwife for an hour and then the physio.  The physio asked if anyone had had any back pain and DH piped up 'yes a bit!' what is he like?!  Men eh


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi ladies
I get so confused as to what stage everyone is at so thought it may be worth having a role call so we can see where we're all up to. If you copy and paste the list and add your info then that might be the easiest way? What do you reckon? Shall I start?

Name Date Stage Due date Date of arrival Prediction
MoodyCat 14 Dec 06 31 weeks 14 Feb 07 Confirmed boy
Hopefully we can keep it going . . .

love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxx


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

Moodycat, great picture. Hope you're not still sore. Good idea about the role call.

Anne, whereabouts in Scotland were you? Can't believe how far along you are now. LOL at your DH!

Ginger, don't feel bad about giving formula. If he's more content and you're getting more sleep then it's worth it. You want to enjoy this precious time. I'm looking forward to the Robert Winston programme as well tonight. 

Wolla, hope things are going well with you and Thomas. Let us know how the six week check goes.

Sam mn, I think the exhaustion is just to prepare you for being a mum! Hope your midwife appointment goes well.

Sam, what a lovely photo and what great weights the girls are.

Marie, hope Ethan is ok after his jabs. That was really good him sleeping all that time. He looks so cute in his Santa suit!

Lizi, wow to cycling again! Motherhood must agree with you. Hope it all goes well.

Suziegirl, congratulations on the birth of Frankie, what a cute name.

Hi to everyone else I've missed. Things are fine here. Went to the doctors last week and got a line for 6 weeks, yay! Daniel has just cut his first tooth and it looks like the one next to it may be about to cut through. He can roll all about the floor and can almost sit up but is still a bit wobbly. I just love him more and more every day!

Jamie is really excited about Christmas this year and keeps asking when Santa is coming. He's now in a proper bed with a Thomas the Tank cover and he loves it. He goes down about 7pm and some days I have to wake him at 9am so he's sleeping really well. Just wish his little brother would do the same!

love Viv xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


viv - thats great, you'll have most of january off too which will be fab.

marie - hope Ethan is feeling better.

ginger - where abouts in ireland are you going to?  we go to donegal where my d/h's family are from.

sam - what a lovely photo, great weights too.

wolla - that'll be nice having your d/h to help you over xmas, does he go back to work in the new year.

anne - sorry, you must have had awful weather when you were up here, where were you?

sam mn - how did the m.w appt go?

suzie - congratulations on the birth of Franklin, what a lovely name

lizi - are you getting excited at your 1st xmas with Rosa.

tamsin - hope you are well.

vic - hope you are well.



Name                Date                  Stage                    Due date        Date of arrival            Prediction

Deborah            14.14.06            34 wks & 2 days      22.01.07


im so excited cos tomorrow is my last day at work for as yet an unconfirmed time, but i was hoping to take about 9 months if not the year off (money permitting) but ed's talking about buying a 2nd property again (the only way i was taking the 9-12 months off was because we sold the other one he had and had the profit) so dont know if this is a viable option any more, he's looking for another job so that i dont need to go back to work, but wont start looking seriously till he's had his paternity leave.


hope you all are well,


xdebsx


----------



## struthie

Ladies - if you look on page one of this thread there is a list of bumps and baies,if you would like to be added please let  Marie know xxx


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## LiziBee

So, was I the only one who was more than a little disappointed with last nights "child against all odds" programme? Very poor coverage of sperm donation.
Things are still a little mad here, various family members in hospital and they've confirmed Granddad has terminal cancer. I've had my mum and my dad both in tears as well as my sister., I wish I was closer so I could do more for them but I'm all ready to go down south next week. Trying not to think that there might be more than one empty seat next year. (Actually there will probably be 2 empty ones this year - I can't see them making it out of hospital in time.)

Sam P - I promise to get in touch soon!

love to all
Lizi.x


----------



## sam mn

lizi sorry to hear of your families illnesses and worries. itmust be hard when you live a distance away.

i agree re programme last night. i felt upset on the at the man they interview concieved be DS. if anything it would put potential donors off. it could have been so positive.

MW upset me again. i find here so patronising. when she saw that i had had an extra scan you said oh we have a worrier do we, its going to be a long PG if you stay anxious. im actually feeling much more relaxed about everything. on the plus side i was overjoyed to hear our little berties heartbeat again. i cant wait till i start feeling movements. when did you all feel them and how will i know?

hi to all, hope all bumps and babies are doing well

sam
xxxx


----------



## wolla

Sam - I felt my first fluttering around the stage you are now, but I think that that's very early to have felt it.  It won't be long though - I think most people feel something by about 20 wks, and then it just keeps getting stronger and stronger (until it feels like they're going to kick their way out of you )  Grrr to patronising m/w!!

Lizi - sorry to hear of your family's illnesses xx

Anne - glad you enjoyed your parentcraft classes -  at your DH - they think they've got it so bad don't they?

Viv - bet you're glad to be off for at least another 6 weeks - clever Daniel getting his first tooth.

Just been for our 6 week check, and we're both fine. Had trouble convincing her that I don't need any contraception, but she accepted it in the end (after telling me about her friend who had IVF twins and then fell pg naturally with twins again 9 months later).

OFf out to the pub for tea with my parents now.

Hi to everyone
Wolla
x


----------



## AnneD

Hi Girls,

Sam mn - grrr to your midwife   Does she know about your tx and mc?  If so then she's unbelievably insensitve and if she doesn't then it's such a typical reaction - they haven't got a clue have they?!  I have to admit that I've found most of the midwives I've met so far a tad patronising - think it goes with the territory    Just ignore her hun and concentrate on little bertie  

Lizi - totally agree about last nights 'child against all odds'.  It's so typical that donor sperm gets a bad press and comes across as so negative yet again.  The whole programme left me and DH feeling low and I was very teary.  It was so disappointing.  
So sorry to hear of your poorly family members - it's so difficult when you're far away too.  

Debs and Viv - we went up to Buckie, Inverness and then John O'Groats which was a fair old hike.  We got engaged in Inverness 3 years ago so we stayed in the same hotel yo reminisce.  Think we should have had an extra night what with all the travelling but typically we both needed to get back for work.

Debs - hop you do manage to take the whole year off.  I'm leaving things pretty open with work so I'm not sure what I'll do yet.  Hate the thought of working but can't afford to be out of the loop for too long but at least working from home means I can be quite flexible (in an ideal world anyway   )

Viv - aww it must be so exciting now that Jamie is asking about santa, he's getting so grown up now with a proper bed and everything.  Can't believe how Daniel is getting on too - it seems only five minutes since he was born  

Wolla - enjoy your pub tea  

We've got our second parentcraft class tonight and we're covering pain relief with the midwife and then an hour in the gym with the physio    Let's hope DH behaves himself


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


anne - how lovely to go back to the place you became engaged, best of luck for the class tonite.

lizi - its so hard having a family member in hospital without them being far away too  

sam - sorry you had a hard time with the m/w, is it the same one you see all the time?

wolla - have a lovely dinner.


had my last day at work today and also my last antenatal class and our hospital tour and ive now forgotten everything the m/f said about labour and delivery (think im blocking it out) am still unsure as to when ive to call in and then go in for the birth, i'm seeing my m/w again in 2 weeks so will ask her to refresh my memory.

big   to everyone,


xdebsx


----------



## nismat

Ooh, it's busy on here! I've not been on-line much in the last week, and there's loads to catch up on!

*Sam*, what a gorgeous picture of your twin girls! Their heads are making the shape of a little heart - bless! And you've clearly done well with them on the feeding front, from their weight gain. Must have been exhausting!

*Suzie *- congrats on Frankie's birth.

*Lizi *- your reminder got me doing my pelvic floor exercises!  For some reason, I only really remember to do them when I'm in the car - and I'm doing less driving now, which means I often forget to do them. Need to find myself a new trigger I think. That's very exciting that you are thinking of cycling again in the not too distant future. Providing all goes well with this birth/the early months, we will probably think about trying IVF again for a sibling when Pip reaches around 1 year old. I won't want to leave it much later than that, as by then I'll be 38. We've currently got 6 vials of sibling sperm in the bank, and are hoping to purchase a further 3 for safety's sake, but they are in quarantine at the moment, so we've got to wait until the donor can go back in for further tests. 
Sorry for the family illnesses 

*Marie *- sensory babes sounds like a lovely class; I don't think that there's anything like that around here, although there are plenty of music/movement/yoga/baby massage classes, so we won't be short of things to do! Hope that Ethan's recovered from his jabs. It certainly didn't seem to affect his sleep adversely!

*Wolla *- sorry to hear of Thomas's cold - it must be utterly miserable. Hope he's properly on the mend now.

*Ginger *- glad that you're getting more settled with James now.

*Anne *- what a long way to go in such a short time! Lovely area though. Hope tonight's Parentcraft class is helpful. I heard a report on Woman's Hour yesterday (Radio 4) which was talking about a possible link between epidurals and problems establishing breastfeeding (the sucking reflex). It would be interesting to find out what they think about it. Hope DH stays in line!

*Viv *- how lovely that Jamie is properly excited about Christmas. It must make the whole time so much more special. And it's great that you've been signed off work for a further 6 weeks.

*Deb *- hurrah for finishing work today! I'm sure that the relevant stuff about labour and delivery will come back to you when you need it 

*Sam *- I hope that you've ignored that insensitive midwife's comments  It's good that you are feeling rather more relaxed about everything now though, despite what she said. Hearing the heartbeat is great isn't it - always my favourite bit of the m/w appointment! As for movements, I started feeling them just after 18 weeks. It wasn't in the least bit like a fluttering to me, they felt more like the baby was gently pinching/plucking at my tummy from the inside! The first time I felt it, it was late-ish evening and I couldn't be sure if it was a movement or my digestive system!  However, when the same thing happened several evenings in a row, I decided that it was definitely the baby. I only really felt movements in the evening for a few weeks; it was probably at least a month before I started feeling movements regularly throughout the day.

We had our 28 wk m/w appointment last weekend, had my blood taken again and my iron levels are normal. The midwife showed us that Pip was head down, so we got to feel his/her skull which was really strange! In a nice way of course. I can't work out the body parts at all by feel. My bump has been growing significantly in recent weeks - here's a pic from last weekend

__
https://flic.kr/p/322321691
Pip is moving loads now, both smaller nudges and big swish movements when s/he turns. I had a few unpleasant stomps on the cervix last week which felt like electric shocks! We've ordered our pushchair/carseat now - rather early I know, but it made me feel better to be more organised! It still feels like there is so much to do, although most of it's to do with the smaller, everyday purchases. And we can't properly sort out the nursery until after Xmas, as my sister will be staying in it. So I really do have to clear out the rest of my work stuff in the next week or so, and say goodbye to its current function as my study. 
I'm sure that I had more to say, but I'm getting so forgetful these days. Scrambled egg brain!

Love to all,
Tx

PS, one of the things I forgot to say is that I still can't see tickers. Something must be wrong somewhere in my settings I suppose, although I haven't been able to figure out where! Oh well, never mind.


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## sam mn

tamsin love the bump pic. thats a might impressive bump. what push chair have you decided on?

deb fantastic news on finishing work. not that long and your littleone will be with you.

anne hope you get on well at second class tonight.

wolla glad you are both doing fine. hope thomas is recoverd form his cold. cant believe he is 6wks already.

thanks for all your comments re patronising MW. sadly she is my regularly MW, we had told her about MC and that we needed fertility txt to concieve but it appears that she had forgotten evverything about me, so will not be telling her any personal info again. but all that matters is litle bertie is doing fine and i dont need to see her that often.

sam
xxxx


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## wolla

Hellooooooooooooooooooo!!  Where is everyone?  Busy getting ready for Christmas I guess?

This'll probably be my last chance to post before Christmas, so just wanted to wish mums, mums-to-be, bumps, babies and everyone else, a very merry Christmas.

Love 
Wolla
x


----------



## LiziBee

I'm still here! Just getting packed to go down south for the festivities, however to add to all my troubles DH has got a tummy bug so we may not be going after all. It's gutting, all my grandparents are so ill (I still have all 4!) I can't risk them catching anything from us if we go down and I barely dare hope for Rosa to spend next year with them, so wanted to have all 4 generations together. (If hovering around hospital beds counts as together...)

How is everyone spending Christmas?
Lizi.x


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## viviennef

Hi,

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I'm so excited, only thing is that Daniel and Jamie have both got colds so I really hope they're ok for the big day.

Lizi, hope you get to see your Grandparents.

We're going to my mum and dads for Christmas and Jason's parents are going to be there as well so we can all be together for the boys. My mum is having 18 people for dinner so she's very harassed already!

love to everyone, Viv xxx


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## MoodyCat

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!
Bump rubs and hugs to all!

Hope everyone's doing well and looking forward to beautiful bouncing babies in 2007!

love
MoodyCat
x


----------



## Marielou

Hello! 

Sorry for not being around, I've been down in MK with my family, my Nan met Ethan for the first time, which was the most amazing experiance.  I love my nan to bits, think the world of her, and so many times I've wished I'd see my baby in her arms.   

Ethan is doing well - 10 weeks old now and 9lb 7oz!    I packed away all his tiny baby clothes this week  and he's fully in Newborn.  My big boy!!  He's also settling into a little routine, and loves nothing better than laying under his baby gym.  Also, has anyone else tried baby einstein DVD's?  Ethan loves his, and will lay watching it while I have a shower and get ready in the morning.  

Can't believe how many babies we have due in the next few weeks ...

Moody cat - A very Happy Christmas to you too!  

Viv - Love the photo of your boys, gorgeous!  

Lizi - So sorry to hear about your Grandad  
Hope you get to see your families - we're going down to MK to spend the day with all my family, DH's family is coming over on Christmas eve, which should be nice.  

Sam - Poor you with the midwife  I first felt Ethan kick at 17 weeks, but think they usually say 18-22 weeks is the norm for a first baby.   

Tamsin - Did you go for the Mamas and Papas Skoot?  I must admit   its a little modern for me, but I'm very boringly traditional and went for the Pliko Pramette  - but, I've never seen a Skoot, so at least you'll be th eone in the crowd with a different buggy, not the same     I'm thinking of getting the M&P Pulse for a lightweight stroller, for travelling etc.  Saw one the other day and fell in love with it, plus I haven't seen too many about.  SO exciting to be ordering a pram, isn't it?!

Debs - You're so close!  Blimey, I gave birth at 35.6 weeks, so only 4 days ahead of what you are now!   

Wolla - Have a wonderful Christmas   

Anne - Have you written a birth plan?  Any ideas for pain relief options etc? 

Marie xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone.


marie - OMG Ethan is getting so big, it must have been wonderful to see your nan with him, this will be your best xmas yet, if i were to give birth at 35.6 the baby would be born on xmas eve.

viv - hope you have a wonderful time, my mum and aunt came to my MIL's last xmas and they are coming to me this yr and then we are going round to the MIL's at nite (she only lives round the corner)

lizi - sorry about your grandparents, hope you get to spend xmas with them.

tamsin - ive only seen the skoot in the stores, not one on the street yet, they look fab.

moodycat - hope you are ok.

wolla - have a wonderful time with Thomas this xmas, it'll be the best yet.

sam - are you and the girls spending xmas at your mums?  bet you'll all be spoilt.

sarah - hope you have a fab xmas, your 1st as a mummy.


im so excited today cos my cot was delivered, d/h just has to get it upstairs and assembled, not too worried if its not done by xmas, d.h will have plenty of time to do it in the new year (we have a crib if theres any emergencys) and ive been washing all of baby things that i was given as gifts from workmates, its so lovely to see them all folded up and ready to be worn.


hope you all are well,


 xdebsx


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## LiziBee

My little girl is DETERMINED not to sleep this evening! I'm sat here typing with one hand in the hope that boredom will eventually send her off. 
Saw two beautiful little girls at lunch time, Sam P's twins!! Oh they were lovely and Sam is doing brilliantly with them.
Better 'waltz' the girl, she's getting a bit fractious!
love to all
Lizi.x


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## sweetcaroline

Hi Girls, Babies and Bumps

I've been a bit AWOL - I'm impressed that those of you with babies manage to post as much as you do, they obviously have more naps than Seb who is down to one nap a day which is sometimes only half an hour! 

Just popping on to wish you all a Happy Christmas and lots of luck for the 'imminent' arrivals.

lots of love Caroline xxx


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi girls
Good luck to those that are anxiously awaiting their new arrivals and congratulations to those that have hatched!

My babba's head is still down and is still engaged and I had some wierd contraction-like pains down my left side the night before last - nothing since tho.
My DH was 6 weeks early when he was born - so . . . who knows!
Just feel fat and breathless at the moment.  We're off to my sister's for Christmas so will be taking my hospital bag with me just in case (hope I'm not tempting fate!)
I'm not mentally prepared yet and the 'nursery' is still a junk room!

love
MoodyCat
xxxxx


----------



## AnneD

Hi Girls,

Moodycat - wow I think I'd freak out if I started having contraction type pains right now - I'm sooo not ready and with the kitchen being ripped out on January 2nd lets hope baby isn't planning any surprises.  Hope you have a fab time at your sister's for Christmas. x

Caroline - Hope you have a fab Christmas and Sebastian naps long enough for you to have plenty of turkey and Christmas pud  

Lizi - ooh so jealous that you got to see the twins.  Hope you, DH and Rosa enjoy your first Christmas together and that DH is better in time x

Deb - that is sooo spooky as our nursery furniture arrived yesterday too    Great minds think alike.  The room is painted and ready to kit up as soon as the sacks of Crimbo pressies are removed and delivered    I'm not too worried about it because DH says he'll put it up arund New Year and we've also got a crib for our room so there's no mad panic at the moment - think it'll feel really strange (in a fantastic way!) to see the cot and everything made up.  Decided to go pretty basic on the nursery furniture - a set from Argos, as I'm planning to go to town on the decoration and soft furnishings once we know if wriggler is a she or a he    Hope you have a fab Christmas and manage to get nice and spoilt! x

Sam mn - just wanted to add that I felt definite movement from baby at 19 weeks but a friend of mine didn't feel anything until 22 weeks and apparently this was due to the placenta being positioned in front of the baby.  Hope you have a fab Christmas!

Marie - ahh I bet seeing your Nan with Ethan was quite a moment.  Wish my nana was here to meet baby but I know she's here in spirit.  Wow Ethan is doing so well!!!  I haven't written my birth plan yet but we'll be going through it with the midwife at 36 weeks after my scan to check the position of the placenta as that could change everything    Our parenting class last week was about pain relief last week and it was really helpful.  DH is fascinated by the Tens machine so we'll definitely be getting one of those.  We're booked into a stricly midwife led unit with no epidurals or doctors on hand so ideally we'd like to have as active as possible birth there with as little pain relief as possible (in an ideal world!) but if there are any complications at all we'll be whisked to another hospital half an hours drive away.  I'm trying to remain open minded at the moment so we'll see.  I'll have to use your experience as an inspiration!  Hope you have a wonderful Christmas - though I'm sure you will   

Viv - hope you have a fantastic Christmas and Daniel and Jamie get rid of their horrid colds too xxx

Wolla - Have a fantastic Christmas with little Thomas and DH xxx

Tamsin - Yes the midwife did mention that an epidural can slow down establishing breastfeeding but they seemed to put it more down to the fact that the baby is dozy after the mother has used pain relief and even suggested that Pethidine can have an effect too but I suppose it depends on how late in labour you have it.  Love your picture - you're postively blooming and look really well!  Hope you have a fanastic Christmas!

Sam - hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your beautiful girls  

Ginger - hope you James and DH have a wonderful Christmas xxx

It's our third and final parentcraft session tonight and think tonight's installment is about after labour so we'll wait and see    Went to a breastfeeding clinic yesterday and was amazed that there were only two of us there.  I know it's a titchy unit but it was still a surprise.  It was really useful and quite a luxury to be such a small group.  They made me giggle because they'd made biscuits called 'nipple' biscuits for the occasion.  Sounds like there's loads of support for after baby's born too and even a breastfeeding drop in centre once a week in our village so that's good to know.  Just hoping I take to it and can manage to breastfeed.  I'm using my usual method of expecting the very worst so that hopefully it will be much easier.

We're spending Christmas Day with my mam, dad, two brothers and my oldest brother's wife and three kids so it'll be a lively one!  My older brother and his family have been away the last few Christmas's so it'll be great to spend the day with my nieces for a change.  My SIL has been funny with DH in the past and he wasn't keen to spend Christmas there but I've won him round so hopefully everything will go well. I love Christmas and for once I'm pretty well organised so no last minute rushes this year (fingers crossed!)

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.   

Lots of love

Anne x


----------



## nismat

Ooh, I like hearing what everyone is doing for Christmas!   There are going to be so many special Christmases amongst us, what with all the new babies, and those on the way   

I've got my family coming to us for Christmas (mother, stepfather, brother + girlfriend, youngest sister), plus a great (single) friend of ours. And we've got a couple more friends joining us on Xmas Day. My sister arrives tomorrow (she's hoping to get off work at lunchtime), then my mother & stepfather drive down from York on Saturday, and the others arrive on Christmas Eve. They'll all (except for my sister) be leaving on the 27th - at which point we'll start on nursery preparations - hurrah!

It's been a bit hectic in recent days getting the house ready, especially as we had carpet laid in the sitting room and new flooring in the hall on Monday, so the rooms had to be completely cleared out (and then re-instated of course). And I've been making curtains for the front room as there aren't any currently, and our friend Abi will be sleeping in there! I've also taken down my desk & some bookshelves in the study, making room for my sister to stay - and then for all of Pip's stuff in the New Year  We only managed to put the tree up last night (after I got back from yoga!), and I was up decorating it at 6am this morning (couldn't get back to sleep after my 4.30am bathroom visit). It looks lovely now, and makes me feel much more festive. I've spent the day cooking, making mince pies, sausage rolls, veggie strudels, various sauces etc. etc. There's only the cake left to ice and some red cabbage to make to finish off my prep list - the rest of the food prep can be done as and when, with help from the assembled masses. I like to make everything from scratch, but I really have tried to keep everything as simple as possible (or at least, simple for me ). I didn't manage to get in the shower until 2.30pm - by which time I'd used so much hot water for washing up that the shower went cold on me - ugh!  But I feel organised now, so that's good. Tonight we just need to get the mountain of ironing done, so that we've actually got some clothes to wear. Thank heavens that the cleaner is coming tomorrow afternoon!

*Marie & Debs* - yes, it is the Skoot that we've gone for. It does look quite modern/stark with its white frame (and boring choice of 2 different grey fabrics - we went for the lighter one), but we were just so impressed by its versatility/ease of use. Especially the way the handle flips over so easily for forward/rear-facing, and the fact that you can clip on the Primo Viaggio carseat to make it into a travel system, while still being light-framed. The folded frame only just fits in the boot of both our cars though - not much room for extra bags, they'll have to go in the back seat - so I hope that we don't regret the purchase for that reason; I did wonder whether the Pramette's umbrella fold might have proved more practical in the long run. I'm sure that we'll end up purchasing a light umbrella fold buggy further down the line anyway, whatever we started out with. I've only seen one Skoot "on the street" - if I hadn't been in a hurry, I would have stopped the family and asked how they were finding it


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## viviennef

Hi, just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I'm so excited. We've got reindeer food which is porridge oats and glitter and I'm going to get Jamie to sprinkle some outside then we'll sprinkle some in his room during the night and leave a stocking with the smaller presents in it.

Hope you all enjoy Christmas with your new babies and for the mothers to be, relax, enjoy it and make sure everyone runs round after you!

love Viv xxx


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - I'm so excited and can hardly believe that this year we get to celebrate it with our special little man. A very happy christmas to all - and a happy FIRST christmas to:

 Sebastian, Daniel, Rosa, Ethan, Thomas, Charlotte, James, Elspeth, Amelie, and Frankie! 



























​
Marie and Ethan xxx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


just wanted to wish you all a very merry xmas, and as marie said a very merry 1st xmas to all of those adorable babies you all have.


hope you all have a wonderful time,


  xdebsx


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## sarahjj

Hi everyone

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas.  

        

lots of love

Sarah & Charlotte

xx


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## Marielou

Hello,

Hope everyone had a lovely christmas - I'm still stuffed with food   
Mark bought me an eternity ring - 'for the birth of our first baby'   - 3 three diamonds in it - one for every IVF it took us to get Ethan.     Not like Mark to be so thoughtful!!

Marie xxx


----------



## going it alone

Marie - what a beautiful present. It's great that Ethan is growing so well. My two are similar. Elsbeth put on 25oz over the last two weeks and Amelie put on 24oz. They are growing out of clothes at such a speed. They are becoming chubby now and can now wear socks - such a milestone. I've put the tiny baby clothes away but have a sneaking suspicion that my cousin's girlfriend may need them. She has her scan on 8th Jan but I am certain she's having twins. There are so many twins on both sides of the families and she started showing so early.

Lizi - It was great to see you again. Rosa has grown so much. It'll be great in the summer when we can take our beautiful girls for a walk. Hope all is going well for Christmas.

Thought I was doing well - sorry must go need to feed!!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas

Love

Sam, Elsbeth and Amelie
xxx


----------



## wolla

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  It was soo exciting to be woken up on Christmas morning by Thomas shouting from his cot.  DH couldn't wait to start opening Thomas's presents.

Went to DH's mum's for a few days before Xmas - SIL & BIL and their families hadn't seen Thomas yet - his cousins were very keen to meet him, had a lovely afternoon in the park with them.

Deb & Anne - not long for both of you now.  Anne - you're birthing centre sounds lovely.  I would advise keeping a very open mind about pain relief though - and definitely get a tens machine - they're fab!!  Make sure you try it out before hand.

Marie - sounds like Ethan is doing really well.  I bet your nan was over the moon to be holding your little boy.

Sam - your two seem to be growing well too.  Which is which in the photo?

Viv - I bet Jamie was excited this year.  Did he wake you up at the crack of dawn?

Sarah - does Charlotte still fit in the carrycot bit of your pushchair?  I've packed mine away this week cos he just looks too squashed up in it.  Bit miffed to have only got 8 weeks use out of it.

Thomas is doing really well - we had him weighed last monday and he was 11lb 8oz.  He's out of all his newborn clobber and filling his 0-3 month clothes very well.  Anyone else find that all the clothes shrink as soon as you wash them (and am only washing at 30 degrees)?  He's in a really good routine now too - we put him to bed between 8.30-9.00pm and he sleeps through til 4am, and then again til 7.30am when we get up to start the day.

Hi to everyone
Wolla
x


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## viviennef

Hi, hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a lovely time, the boys got stacks of presents. I think we'll have to move to a bigger house to store them all. Jamie is obsessed with Toy Story so we got him the DVDs and they've never been off the telly. It's driving me mad. My mum and dad got him a Buzz Lightyear figure and he hasn't been parted from it, even takes it to bed with him!

Wolla - Thomas sounds like he's doing great. I find I'm the same with the clothes. I thought it was just me that shrunk everything! Daniel is sleeping a lot better now as well. He's now rolliing onto his side or his tummy and I think he feels cosier that way. Jamie is a great sleeper and is still in bed now! On Christmas day DP and I had to go in at 9.30am to get him up as we were so excited!

Marie - love the new pic of Ethan. Lucky you getting an eternity ring.

Sam - aww to the girls being chubby. It's so cute. I think Daniel looks like the fattest baby in the land in his pic below. Going to take him to get weighed next week. He's only 7 months but already in 9-12 month clothes!

Oh oh, I can hear Jamie stirring. Better go and get him. 

Love to everyone else, Viv xxx


----------



## Jayne

Hi   

Haven't posted here for a good while, but do still read when I can   Just wanted to pop by and say hello to all those that remember me and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Lovely to read how the bumps and babies are coming along   and such a special time for those first Christmas'  

Marie - Ethan's just passed Ben's birth weight of 9 lb 9 oz    

Love to you all   

Jayne x


----------



## nismat

Great to hear about everyone's Christmases! 
We had a lovely time with all the family down, although I did completely stress myself out trying to make everything perfect. I am sooo rubbish at delegating (even though everyone was more than happy to help out, and did so without being asked). Unfortunately, Karen and my stepfather, who have never got on particularly well, had a bit of an "incident" on Boxing Day (involving a tussle over the TV remote control  ), and Karen had already been generally getting wound up by him ever since they had arrived on the 23rd. She was good in that she didn't blow up in public and make everything awkward for everyone (and Mike probably doesn't even realise that there's a major problem), but she's said that he can never darken our door again. Great  . Trouble is, she's really stubborn, and I really don't think that it's just a heat of the moment decision. And of course I'm the one that's going to have to talk to my mother & Mike about it, since they don't even know about the ban. This is going to make all future family gatherings very difficult, as I'll either have to do them on my own without Karen (which is OK for family events like birthdays/short holidays, but not for stuff like CHristmas), or be with Karen & Pip as our family unit, but without my family who I'm very close to. Still, I'm not going to worry about it majorly now, although I do think that I need to talk to my mother soon - we'll be the piggies in the middle of 2 people who will both absolutely believe that they've done nothing wrong at all! 

Anyway, all that aside, I really did enjoy Christmas (although it is nice to have the house back to ourselves again now!). And it's now time to start getting ready for Pip's arrival! We're off to Mothercare World later on today to go for all the baby essentials like bedding, towels, cotton wool & creams etc. The furniture and big items are already sorted, but I'm really looking forward to getting the room ready. I'm still waiting for a sample of the Cath Kidston fabric (Circus Elephants) that we think that we will use for the curtains to arrive - a month after the initial request! I'd put in a second request via her website (the first was via John Lewis), but I think that I'll actually call up one of the stores to see if they'll send me a real life sample, as nothing has happened via either route yet. 
We can also order the rocker/glider chair and stool now that I've cleared out all my office stuff. We think that we're going to get the Dutailer Polly chair, paid for by Karen's Xmas bonus - I know that they are pretty expensive, but I daren't buy a cheaper one without being able to try it first. Has anyone got a cheaper version that they've been able to try before you buy??

I've also had a couple of pregnancy "developments" over Christmas. The first was that I developed a nasty rash on Christmas Eve - very sore and dry, and although it's now over more of my body than it was originally, it's not as bad as it was. Both itchy and sore now, but I've been to see both the midwives and my GP, and the general consensus is that it's nothing to worry about, probably brought on by the (self-imposed) stress of trying to make everything perfect for the first family Christmas in our house. It should just go away (or it may linger  ), and I've just got to "keep my skin well moisturised". The GP wouldn't even give me a prescription for any helpful creams, so I'll be out to buy a vat of E45 cream later today. If it's still the same in a week then he'll run some blood tests for liver function (to check for choleostasis; although the midwives said there was no sign of this, as you get a rash on your feet). Until then, I've just got to live in loose cotton clothing and keep myself cool  
A more positive development was that Pip's movements have changed totally - lots of much bigger movements as s/he somersaults, and it's now suddenly obvious where various limbs/body parts are inside the bump - great fun trying to guess arm/leg, elbow/knee, head/bum etc.    And the final thing that has happened is that I've started leaking milk!!!!  Only a tiny bit, but it's time for a purchase of disposable breast pads I think


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

We've been going mad sales shopping - lots of outfits for the coming year from Next/Debenhams etc as well as a stroller - I was going to go for the Mclaren Techno xt, or the M&P Pulse, but while in M&P, we decided we didn't like the pulse much at all, and fell in love with the Ziko, which totally goes against all I said about liking traditional pushchairs     Its lovely and lightweight, and best of all, half price!!  We're hoping to use it when I visit family in MK, or over in spain.  

Tamsin - Have fun buying up things in Mothercare!  I've seen a highchair I really like in there, in the sale, and might pop over tomorrow to get it - its the Babydan.    Feeding still seems so far away though! (hoping to get to 6 months exclusive BF)  
It so amazing to feel certain body parts, isn't it?  I don't think Ethan somersaulted at your stage, although my memory is already fuzzy, so he may have done!!   

Jayne - Lovely to see you posting, love the photos of your boys, they're so handsome!

Viv - Wow, 9-12 month clothes!  Is he very long as well?  Ethan is still in Newborn, I can't ever imagine him in 9-12 months, but I KNOW that soon I'll be saying 'I can't imagine him in newborn' - already, his tiny baby clothes looks impossibly tiny, I can't believe one day they were too big for him!  

Wolla - Not found that with the clothes, or maybe I just haven't noticed!!  Thomas sounds like he's doing very well indeed!

Sam - Wow, your girls are doing so well! How much do they weigh now? 

Right, I've still got to shower/get dressed    been really lazy today!

Marie xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


tamsin - ive had leaky boobs for 2 weeks now, have been using the tommy tippee breast pads and they seem ok.

marie - youve certainly been spending, glad you got what you needed, one of my aunts is getting me a high chair that i saw in the glasgow pram centre, cant remember which one it was now but my mum remembers thank goodness, she has 5 sisters and a brother so we wont need to actually buy anything ourselves except bedding, they are all very close and extremely generous, she's the baby of the family too.

wolla - have washed everything we have for the baby but must admit have not noticed any shrinkage but that may be due to the fact that i thought everything was very small to begin with.

jayne - lovely to see you 


hope you all are well, 

xdebsx


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## MoodyCat

Well, we did it yesterday.

We went to Babies R Us and spent £600 on all the bits we were mising after xmas. Travel system - GRACO, cot, bath, blankets, mattress etc etc.  It took ages but it's all done now thank goodness.
Just got to decorate the spare room now.
Really hope we haven't tempted fate.

Right . . . on to the birth plan . . . !

I'm never this organised - what's happening to me

love

MoodyCat
xxxxx


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## MoodyCat

Christmas Card Recycling

The Woodland Trust's Christmas Card Recycling Scheme runs from the 2nd - 31st January 2007 through WhSmiths, Tesco's and TKMaxx

Visit the website for more details and to find out what happens to your cards.

You can also recycle your Christmas cards at Sainsbury's. Throughout January 2007 all Sainsbury’s stores will have clearly identified recycling boxes positioned at the front of store for the return and recycling of cards.

Let the children cut up the cards for a craft activity. Perhaps make a lovely collage to remind them of this Christmas or cut them into various shapes, punch a hole in the corner, thread some ribbon through and you have next year's gift tags.


Christmas Tree Recycling

Plant it in your garden ready for next year.

Check with your Local Authority to see if they have a scheme for recycling Christmas trees .. this may be either by kerbside collection on an allocated day, or by taking it to specific recycling sites in your area.

Sometimes the garden centre etc that you bought your tree from will recycle it after Christmas. Remember to keep your receipt as this is often dependent on proof of purchase.


----------



## going it alone

HI all

Yet another quickie for me

The girls are both doing amazingly well, last week Elsbeth put on 14 1/2oz and Amelie put on 13oz. That's 39 1/2oz over 3 weeks for Elsbeth so she's up to 7lb 4 now. Amelie has put on 37 oz over 3 weeks and is up to 8lb 5 now. I do admit that I'm finding breastfeeding them difficult, especially since they've had thrush and passed it on to me which is extremely painful. I am giving mixed feeds but they are becoming more reluctant to breastfeed. So I'm now trying to perservere even more with the BF but it's not easy as they're not latching on well at the mo. 

Will come back and finish this later - duty calls
Sam xx


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Just wanted to pop on and wish everyone a wonderful 2007     Its definatly been a magical 2006! 

We've been out spending again   this time we've bought a highchair from Mothercare - the Babydan.  It was in the sales, so thats my excuse    - we'd saved up a lot of money to buy bigger items that he'll need this coming year in the sale, and its been worth it.     Next big buy on the horizon is the cotbed mattress and bedding, for when he's a big boy, I've seen the mattress in BRU but its out of stock right now.      

Ethan has started looking at his hands - so cute, and smiling lots at me.   I was reading my diary from a year ago today, and I sounded so sad, and had added a poem called 'Will anyone ever call me Mummy?'    It all seemed so far away and unreachable, its amazing how things can change in a year.    Ethan is 12 weeks old today, was weighed and is exactly 10lbs.    

Moodycat - I read on the 3rd tri that you wondered if your waters can break on the loo or in bed ... my sister's broke on the loo, and mine broke while in bed asleep.   If its your waters, you'll just know - no fear about that!    I got woken at 6am when I was 35.5 weeks, with a period like pain, which was shortly followed by another.  Then I felt a gush, and sat up and said 'Mark, I think my waters have broken' - he said 'You're joking' and I'll never forget the suprise in his voice.       

Sam - Well done you for managing to BF twins - I sympathiose over the thrush, I got it and mastitis when Ethan was 2 weeks old, it was agony.   Best thing to do is make sure you all get treated for it, and keep feeding through the pain - which can be the hardest thing to do, I know.  I used to sit there crying while I fed, and even made Mark cry once too.  Hope you're feeling better soon  

Debs - Been reading about all your new things from your cousin and Mum - you lucky thing!! Bet it all feels real now, doesn't it?   You're more pregnant than I've ever been now!!  I also found the Tommee Tippee breastpads the best  

Marie xxx


----------



## going it alone

back again, typing one handed while Libby feeds. Luckily mum is downstairs with Amelie. So the girls may have started school before I finish. 

Moodycat, thanks for the info on recycling. I know I bought my cards from Tesco and they're all Wodland Trust recycled ones. Well done on the spending spree... how's the birth plan going? the one I had in my head went out of the window with the pre-eclampsia and I was due to have a scan and then sit down with everyone to discuss a plan the day my waters broke! the girls obviously had their own plan.

Wolla - hadn't noticed it with the clothes, I just put it down to ever expanding twins. Libby/Elsbeth has the dark hair and Amelie is fair.

Deb - I found Boots slim breast pads better than Tescos. but beware, the filling turns gel like if you put them through the washer and scares the life out of you when you touch it! It's a god send when you can borrow things, I'm lucky to have been lent or given a lot of things, especially maternity clothes. Being the last one to reproduce has one advantage then.

Marie - well done with the bargains. I cheated - didn't fancy the sales with a double buggy so I gave my mum my vouchers etc and she went on my behalf, did well in the Next sale for girl's clothes. The Boots sale was good before Christmas. Got lots of mix and match skirts and tops. the girls are quite long so skirts are handy. just wish they made tights for tinies. We're all being treated for the thrush and the pain is getting better. plus the girls medication has been changed from drops to gel. it's easier and they love it. it helps to settle them at night.

I'm pushinf my luck here so must go. hi to all I've missed, Lizi, Tamsin and the rest.

Have a wonderful new year everyone.

Love from Sam and the girls.


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## sam mn

just a quikie to wish all bumps and babies a very happy new yr. 

finally my bump is starting to grow, i no longer look just fat. and i have felt little bertie move quite frequently now had no idea what sensation was to start with, like a popping feeling. they are quite faint most of the time but get the odd one that makes me jump with surprise  

sam
xxx


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## viviennef

Hi, just popping on very quickly to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hope 2007 brings lots more good news onto this thread.

Viv xxx


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## Jayne

Hi 

Marie - It's so lovely to read your posts and heartwarming how happy you are   I very much remember all the pain you've been in, and you deserve this happiness so very much.  I've loved so many stages with my boys, but one of my favourite ages with them was from about 10-16 weeks where they started to discover the world around them   Reading about Ethan laying contentedly under his gym and starting to discover his hands, etc. brings all the lovely memories back for me   You've got amazing times ahead of you with that scrummy boy of yours   

Viv - Love the pics of your boys   Bet they had fun at Christmas   Hope you're all well. 

Happy New Year to all.  May 2007 be very kind to each and every one of us. 

Love 
Jayne x


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## nismat

I'll post a longer message later when I've got more time, but just wanted to let Sam know about a link for tights for littlies http://www.peenyweeny.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=154596ef84e9480/shopdata/index.shopscript
It's on a site for preemie-wear, company based on the Isle of Wight I think 

Happy New Year all!


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,

Marie - Ethan is so gorgeous in his pic, i just cant beleive how generous people can be, dont think my mum can pass a baby dept or a baby store without buying something, ed said that a few years ago everything was different (when she had her breast cancer and that she's just so happy to be sharing this with us and after everything we have all gone through), i was speaking to her last nite and she has bought more clothes again, im very lucky because both d.h and i have very generous families and dont actually have to buy anything for the baby, in fact we are stuck at what to tell people what we need for the baby, i keep forgetting what ive told people and am now wondering if im gonna end up with 2 bouncers or swings (i think people would rather know what we need instead of just buying something for the sake of it) but they can always be used at other peoples houses.

sam - hope the thrush clears up soon, can only imagine how sore it is for all of you.

moodycat - ive been wondering about where my waters will break too, think im gonna look into getting some kind of waterproof sheet for our bed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.​
XDEBSX


----------



## viviennef

Happy New Year everyone.

I feel like I've been out partying all night but no, a certain little man kept me awake all night and I'm not talking about DP!

Daniel has a chest infection so he's on antibiotics but he was coughing most of the night and I'm totally shattered today. This is the first hogmany where I've been in bed before 12! Shows what parenthood can do for you but it's all worth it.

Jayne - lovely to hear from you. Your boys look so grown up now.

Marie - love the latest pic of Ethan. He's getting so big now. Wait till he gets to 6 months. I think that's a lovely time as they're developing their little personalities and they're so funny.

Will try and get back some time to do more personels but I'm going to check e-bay just now. Jamie is obsessed with Toy Story and we got him the DVDs for Christmas but he's scratched them already so I'm going to see if I can get another set for him.

Viv xxx


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## Marielou

Oh how frustrating! I just did a long post, and got 'an error has occured' message, so I've lost it!    

Was going to say: 

Happy New Year everyone!  

How was yours?  Ours was nice and quiet, just stayed in with a curry and DVD.    Was so lovely - I usually found NYE hard in the past, as there was never anything to look forward to, and this year there is so much.  I actually cried when the clock struck 12, I just can't believe how much my life has changed, nor how happy I am.  Went upstairs and kissed my little man, and then cried just looking at him. 

I'm going to be one of those Mum's crying hysterically on the first day of school, arn't I?!!   

Jayne - Lovely to hear from you, and thank you for the lovely message, it made me  all over again!! I am so happy, I never thought it possible.  I really enjoyed the Newborn stage, but I'm also really enjoying watching him develop ... just this morning, he has gurgled lots at me, which is a first, and I *think* he is trying to laugh!!  Also, when he's feeding, he looks at me with beaming eyes, and often comes off he breast to beam at me before going back on    He's a heartbreaker! 

Vivienne - Hope you manage to find a Toy Story!  Hayley my Niece is addicted to The Lion King, I can imagine the panic if she scratched it   Poor Daniel, hope he's better soon  

Deb - We was lucky like you, and had so much given to us, or bought for us.  All our big items, pram, cotbed, Moses Basket etc were gifts, and he was 4 playgyms!    Luckily, they're all different and he loves each one.  
re: waterproof sheet - Boots do disposable maternity mats, which you can use on your bed, or in the car if your waters break.  They were fab when mine went - I didn't have mine in bed as I didn't expect to be in labour that soon, but I used it in the car and it saved our seats!  When your waters go, they really go, you'll wonder where its all coming from!   

Tamsin - That website is amazing! I wish I'd known about it when Ethan was born, even the tiny baby clothes were too big for him, and he was wearing up to 5lb clothes (which look like dolly clothes to me now!) and they are SO hard ot get hold of.  I'm going to bookmark that page in case I have another premie (although I hope not) - he's still in newborn now, bless him. 

Sam mn - How lovely that you've felt movement!  Its just so amazing, isnt' it?!

Sam - Ethan is long too .. long and thin!  He's on the 50th centile for his height, and 9th for weight.  (do they count back so many weeks for the twins?  Ethan was born at 35.6 and they always count back 5 weeks, which I think is silly, you'd think they['d count back 4 weeks!   ) 

Marie xxx


----------



## Jayne

Hi  

Marie - Oh bless you     It's not surprising you're so teary with it all after all you've been through.  I had a fair few tears too - still do if the truth be known    It can be overwhelming at times when you think about how different it all could've been, and you never forget what you go through to get where you are no matter how much time passes.  And as for first day of school, don't even get me started!  

Viv - Good luck with the Toy Story DVD   Jack used to love that too.  Ben's not so bothered.  They're mostly into Scooby Doo, Thoms and Jay Jay the Jet Plane at the mo   
Yep, the boys are growing up fast.  Jack's in Year 1 now and Ben starts state nursery on 15 Jan   He's been going to a private nursery 3 mornings a week since 2 and a half, but it feels like a big step him starting 5 half days a week, and because it's a nursery attached to the school he'll attend, it feels like a real milestone.  He's going to love it there though   

Hope everyone had a good New Year's eve. I'm not much of a one for New Year, and we stayed in and watched Grump Old New Year, which I thought was very funny as it's me to a tee    Love Christmas, but not a New Year's person - wasn't even when I was younger/pre-children.  

Had our living room window shot through with a pellet gun at 1.30 am   Second time in 6 months.  We live in a Close and our house along with 3 others, happen to be very near a lane which kids can easily escape down after doing their damage, so these 4 houses seem to get targeted fairly often   Others have had car windows put through.  The area is good where we live, but this lane causes real problems with kids coming from out of the area.  It leads through to Sainsbury's, and we have a big football field by us, and they go and get booze from Sainsbury's and then head up to the field to drink it.  Nightmare!  Anyhow, it could've been worse.  No one injured and in comparison to other crimes that go on, it's minor to say the least.  Still a bit upsetting though   

Right, best go check the dinner.  Doing a roast for tea, then it's straight back on the diet tomorrow.  Gained 6 lb over Christmas!    What a pig!  

Love 
Jayne x


----------



## sarahjj

Happy New Year - hope you all had a good one with your bumps & babies!!

We saw in the New Year at home - the best ever with little Charlotte with us!

Jayne - hope you got your windows fixed - how awful for you  

Marie - latest pic of Ethan is gorgeous! Glad to hear he is doing well  

Wolla - yes, Charlotte has just about outgrown her carrycot too   Sounds like Thomas is doing really well, and your routine sounds good too. I am still having to get up to Charlotte several times most nights to feed her - she is ALWAYS hungry!!!!

Sam - sounds like your twins are doing brilliantly. You are doing really well to BF two - one is hard enough!!

Sam mn - glad you have a good bump now and are feeling lots of movement - lovely isn't it!!

Viv - hope Daniel gets better soon  

Modycat - well done on all your shopping !! Hope you are doing OK  

Tamsin - hope you and pip doing well  

Hi to everyone else - sorry - must go and feed Charlotte again!

love Sarah
xx


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## MoodyCat

Evening ladies

Well, I went back to work today - had swollen ankles and felt knackered all day!  Think I'm going to have to perfect the 'dying swan' act a bit more so can hone the sciving skills!  I go on mat leave on 22 Jan and I've already booked 4 days' hol!

Oh yes, this evening I had a lurvely surprise - babba had hiccups!  Sooooo gentle - it was fab! (The little things eh?!)

We bought the border and paint for the babba's room this evening - can't believe it!

Well, best be off as have to be up again at 6.20am to go to work for a hard day's scive!  

love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxx


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## AnneD

Hi Girls,

Just a quickie to wish you all a Happy New Year.  We had a quiet New Year too and it felt so lovely to think of there being three of us to see in the next New Year.  Love hearing about your New Year's especially with all those gorgeous babies  

In the process of ripping the kitchen out and getting a new one fitted so it's absolute chaos here and I'm exhausted already.  Our front bedroom is full of kitchen paraphanalia which has made me realise how much stuff i accumulate!  DH has almost made up all the nursery furniture though for the other room so we're getting there.  For once I'm not stressing about the work getting done to the house because pg means there's not a hell of a lot I can do - just lots of excuses to put my feet up and watch them hard at work.  DH is being an absolute star and is turning out to be quite the Bob the Builder   

Love Anne x


----------



## BBpiglet7

Hi Moody Cat   

Just popped on here to see how you're doing - not long now, how exciting, and doing decorating for your 'kitten' !!  

My sis comes down from Scotland next week for her baseline scan, and I've now started the Progynova tabs. I'm generally to be found loitering on the Woking thread, but look about the others from time to time too.

By the time you start your maternity leave, sis and I will be panicking about ec on 24th and ec on 26th! I hope I speak to you before then though.

Hello to you other ladies !

Take it easy


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## Marielou

Hello girls,

Sorting out Ethan's Christening today - looks like it might be 31st March!!  I'm so excited - I have a christening gown, thats really probably for a girl (given that it was mine  ) but I have to at least have photos of him taken in it, and I'm going ot get him a really cute outfit too.      
The gown is really special, because my Mum cut up her wedding dress to make it for me .. I was her miracle baby, - she TTC me for 9 years, and it means so much to have my own miracle baby wearing it.  I know Mum and I will be in floods of tears that day!   

Anne - Ooooh not jealous of your new kitchen at all     Those Magnet kitchen adverts have got me all 'kitchen broody' if there is such a thing?!!   

Moody cat - Awww Ethan had the hiccups a lot inside me, and gets them a lot outside of me too!!  It made me  when he first had them, I SO remembered them from when he was inside!

Sarah - My sister's baby girl (also a sarah   ) is always hungry too - just like Charlotte!  

Jayne - Grrr to the 'yobs!' - we have a similalr problem round here, nice area etc, but there is a chip shop not far from here, and the kids hang around outside it, I walked down that street with the pram this week and almost every house had a window boarded up.    So sad - makes you wonder where the parents are?! (probably at home, not caring   )  

Marie xxx


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## LiziBee

HI!
Just a quickie as Rosa is waking - it's taken me that long to catch up on all the posts!!!
Christmas day was lovely but there's been a lot going on on both sides of the family with illnesses and stuff that has really kept us busy plus we had a car accident on the way down south, the Friday before xmas. We are all OK and the car was drivable but the chap who ran into us is now querying the damage  makes me cross about being so polite to the old [email protected]!

got to go, she really wants attention!
Love to all
Lizi.x


----------



## MoodyCat

Hello girls

Hope we're all doing well!

We've got another growth scan on Tuesday when we'll be 35 weeks.  It's still not sinking in - feel as though I'm in limbo land at the moment.  Still at work, waiting to go on maternity leave, waiting to have the lickle boy.  I know I should be making the most of this 'quiet' time as I'm sure it'll be pandamonium after he's born!  I'm really really knackered these days and am constantly going to the loo with big wees - don't know where all the liquid comes from!

Piglet - good luck for ec at the end of this month - has your sister started stimming yet or are you still on down regging?  Where's the Woking thread - does that mean there's local threads on this board or am I being thick (blaming the pregnancy hormones!!)

Anne - it's very brave of you and DH to update the kitchen while you're pregnant!  Still, at least you can supervise the proceedings!  We've been doing the spare room up and it's chaos at the moment.  We've got baby stuff all over the house until the room is ready and then it's all getting dumped back in there.  We won't be putting anything up in case something goes wrong and it all has to go back - very pessimistic I know but I daren't take things for granted.

Lizi - glad you weren't hurt in the accident.  it really annoys me when people don't take responsibility for their actions - if he went in to you, then it's obviously his fault isn't it?! How old is Ethan now by the way?

Hi and love to marie, viv, jayne, debs, sam and everyone else who's on this board.  I'm rubbish at personals so apologies for not writing to everyone.

i think we need another roll call as I've forgotten where everyone's up to! (Brain dead!)

love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxxx


----------



## MoodyCat

Roll Call

Name                  Location                            Due date              Boy/Girl/Surprise
MoodyCat            STockport, Cheshire            14 Feb 2007          Boy (confirmed)


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Ethan slept from 8.30pm - 7am last night   We couldnt' believe it! 
I've added a photo of his smile to the gallery ... http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0

Moodycat - There is a roll call on page one thats updated ... http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=73895.0 but if you can't see that, I live in Staffordshire, Ethan was born 8th October, which makes him 13 weeks old today  and we didn't know his sex before he was born. 

Ethan is stirring, better go!

Marie xxx


----------



## sam mn

marie how fab that ethan slept through. i love the new pic, he looks absolutely gorgeous,

im still exhausted had bloods checked but all fine. really struggling with work. found out qualifying period for occupational mat leave was dec and jan, so really cant afford to take time off sick, got occ health on tues tho so will see what they say. any of you ladies felt this bad half way through? any tips? got scan on tues aswell which looking forward to but also a little nervous. told my mum that when we knoe all is well after scan ahe is allowed to start buying things. she has been bained so far.

hi to all hope all bumps and babies are doing well.

sam
xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone.


sam mn - best of luck for tomorrow, hope all goes well with occupational health.

marie - i love Ethans new pic, he's so gorgeous, well done on getting the christening sorted, we were thinking of arranging our baby's christening for around that time too, the end of march/beginning of april but will need to wait untill the baby arrives and speak to the priest to see if theres any space for then with it being near easter, d.h's birthday is march 28th and we thought it would be nice to have it around that time.

moodycat - hope the growth scan goes well tomorrow.

lizi - sorry to hear of the car accident, but glad you were all ok.

tamsin - hope you have your fabric samples.

anne - hope you are well, not long now.


big   to everyone.

xdebsx


----------



## sam mn

debs cant believe you are 38wks already. seems like yesterday when you were back from you hols and you waiting for af to arrive to get started again, and it never came   where has time gone. not long now till your littleone is in your arms.

scan tommorrow, feeling a little nervous. cant believe im 20wks and am now looking PG. 

sam
xxx


----------



## wolla

Sam - enjoy your scan today - you'll be amazed at how much your little one has grown.  Sorry you're feeling so exhausted - it's all worth it though!!

Anne - you're very brave getting a new kitchen fitted whilst you're so pregnant (mind you, probably easier now than after the baby arrives eh?).  

Sarah - glad you had a good new year.  We saw it in at home too - just the three of us (although DH and I only made it til 11.30pm and had to give up and go to bed)

Marie - I bet you're so proud of your little man sleeping through the night - lets hope it continues.  Thomas has been sleeping from anywhere between 8pm-9pm, through til 5.30am for a couple of weeks now and a couple of times has gone until 6.30am - it's a fantastic feeling isn't it?  Mind you, it doesn't mean you get to sleep for all that time does it?  If you're anything like me, you still wake up every couple of hours.

Deb - can't believe how close you are now.  Have you had any 'signs' yet?  Sorry, I bet you're sick of people asking you that aren't you?

Jayne - don't your boys look so grown up.  

Lizi - sorry to hear you had an accident over Xmas, but glad none of you were hurt.

Have just put Thomas down in his cot for a lunchtime nap - we don't have much success with that normally - he'll only sleep either on me, or for a very short time in his pushchair during the day.  But....he seems to have gone off to sleep now with the help of his Winnie the Pooh lullaby thingy.  it's strange cos on a night I can put him in his cot while he's still awake and he'll settle himself off to sleep with no music or anything, but during the day it's a different matter.

Had him weighed yesterday and he's up to 13lbs at 10wks, so is doing really well.  We're off to a baby massage class tomorrow afternoon, so am really looking forward to that.

we're not organised enough to have done anything about a christening yet - we were thinking of having it in the summer as we wanted to have a party afterwards in the garden, but have re-thought that idea now - (too much hassle) - so could really do it earlier than that.  

Well, not a peep from Thomas while I've been typing this, so I'm going to make the most of it and go make myself some lunch.

Love to everyone
Wolla
x


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


anne - cant beleive you are having a new kitchen fitted at the moment, hopefully you'll not be too put out by it all.

sam - OMG i know, cant beleive how silly i was, i even posted from teneriffe to see if anyone knew if anything i had used on my skin could stop my a.f showing up   , it all seems so long ago now, hope the scan went well today.

wolla - nothing yet as far as i know, im taking my RLT tablets everyday and had had a few wee niggley pains but nothing major as yet.


my pram gets delivered tomorrow, im really excited about it, cant wait to see it, 

hope you all are well,

xdebsx


----------



## AnneD

Hi Girls,

Deb - ooh our pram arrives today too    Wow can't believe you're over 38 weeks - it does just seem like yesterday.   Just being nosy but what are RLT tablets?  

Wolla - Sounds like Thomas is doing great, can't believe how big he's getting.  Hope you both enjoy the baby massage  

Sam mn - hope your scan went well hun.  I was so nervous before mine but really excited too xx

Marie - love Ethan's new smiley piccies - he's sooo cute and growing up so fast too.  Brilliant that he slept through the night!

Moodycat - yep we must be mad getting the kitchen done but part of me doesn't believe all this is happening and certainly not so soon    Me and mam blitzed Mothercare the other day because she made me realise that I needed to pull my finger out and get organised  

Lizi - thank goodness you're all okay after the accident but grrr to that stupid man  

The kitchen units are now in place thank goodness and now we're waiting on the electrician to move some sockets and fit lights, then the tiling needs done, a sink fitted, a new floor and finally a lick of paint - phew it's neverending and time's running out eek!  I went shopping with my mam the other day to get some essentials for my hospital bag and a few baby things but ended up completely fitting out the nursery with bedding, curtains and every other thing I oculd lay my hands on.  I was originally just buying bedding for the crib in our room and waiting till baby was born to do the same for the nursery so I knew whether to go girl or boy but have ended up emptying Mothercare.  Got the yellow giraffe bedding for the crib  and the Humprey's Corner range for the nursery and I love it despite costing me an fortune     All the nursery furniture is up so I'm in the process of washing and ironing all the bedding and baby clothes which feels very surreal.  The pram arrives today too so there's lots going on.

I got a phone call last Thursday from one of the midwives (I seem to see a different one each time   ) to say that I was supposed to have been in for my placenta check scan but as noone had bothered to tell me about it obviously I missed it.  I was very upset and ammoyed, partcularly when i had seen a midwife on the 27th of December and she didn't even tell me or seem to know anything about it.  Anyway, we're going tomorrow instead which is a bit late really but never mind.  I think baby's head is down so that sould indicate that the placenta is fine but fingers crossed we'll get the definite all clear tomorrow.

Blimey, sorry for going on so long - there's so much going on at the moment that I don't know whether I'm coming or going.

Love to you all,

Anne xxx


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi girls

We had a scan yesterday and they have estimated that the little babba is about 2.9kgs aka 6 1/2 pounds!  Eek!  We're 35 weeks and the average is 5 pounds at this stage.  It means that if he puts on 1/2 pound a week until birth he'll be a 9 pounder!  Jeez.  Hope he comes a little bit early.

Oh yes, they also said i couldn't have a water birth as i'm considered high risk due to my age, IVF, last pregnancy FDIU at 24 weeks, my operation for adhesions across my intestine at 22 weeks. They want to constantly monitor the baby.  I wouldn't mind but (apart from the surgery) it's been a text book pregnancy.  Still, can't be too careful.

Gutted though.

MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxx


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

We've ordered our cotbed mattress today (great link http://www.cot-mattress.com/?gclid=CL6SrPae1okCFQc8SAodFnCozw ) - we went for the reassurnace sprung mattress one.  Also been and bought all the bedding, some more baby towels (he baths nightly, so needs more than 3 towels!) and a blue changing mat for his bedroom. Funny how you get obsessed with pink/blue once baby is here! 

I've also had my hair cut today, and feel SO much better for it. It was halfway down my back, now its just above my shoulder, and I love it. 

Oh, best go, Ethan woken up from his nap.

Marie xxx

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.uk or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


----------



## AnneD

Wow moodycat that's one big bubba you've got there already, he's positively thriving!  It'll be interesting to see how big this baby is when we have our scan tomorrow too.  Sorry you can't have a water birth, still at least they're going to be keeping a close eye on you and sounds like you'll have the best of care.  Let's hope it's all plain sailing from now on    Our unit is so small that they haven't got the facilities for a water birth which is a real shame.

Marie - sounds like you've had a bit of a spree.  Eek I hope I don't want to re-do the nusery in pink or blue once baby is here


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie -thanks for posting the mattress link, we still have to get one for our cot bed.

moodycat - my m/w told me that 9lbs is the average weight for a baby now.

anne - they are raspberry leaf tea tablets, you can get it in tea form but heard its very yucky, i think they are to prepare the uterus for delivery (maybe someone else can shed some light on this) but everyone in their last few weeks on the 3rd tri board seems to be taking them, did the pram arrive ok, its so exciting isnt it, we were gonna do the nursery before the baby arrived but we are now leaving it till afterwards and do it in boy or girl colours.


hope you all are well.

xdebsx


----------



## nismat

Hi all, 
I've been too busy to post recently, even though I've been reading - or at least it feels that way! Doing lots to get ready for the baby's arrival - and of course realising that actually I can't manage to do quite as much physically as my brain wants/is used to me being able to do. I'm starting to get uncomfortable, with more restricted movement. And definitely less puff! 
Anyway, we finally got our new bookshelves from IKEA to keep all my work files/magazines on, in our bedroom, so now that they are constructed I can finish clearing out the study, to turn it into Pip's room. We also bought a set of white bookshelves from their nursery range, to which you can temporarily attach a changing table, then remove it again when the baby gets too mobile. So I've been putting all those together over the last couple of days, and we'll finish the moving of furniture etc. at the weekend. And I've found that the bottom section of Pip's shelves/dresser is the perfect size to hold 3 of the seagrass DVD baskets that Tesco is currently selling for under £4 each, side by side, so I'll be able to keep nappies & clothes etc. organised in those. I do love a good bit of organisation!

I finally got the Cath Kidston fabric sample, and have actually decided to go for the stone background colourway - it will look lovely as curtains, and I'm also going to make a nursing pillow from the same fabric. You can see it here http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=1-177-4-1&cid=CottonDuck&pcidl=&vid=187985&language=en-GB

We went for our hospital tour last Tuesday evening - it was just us and one other couple! It was with our lovely but mad midwife Lisbeth, who always has us laughing. She was telling us how if we used the birthing pool, we would need to position ourselves across it for actually giving birth "as otherwise you'll drown!!"  The labour suites didn't seem all that big, but the way that they run the delivery unit seems pretty good as they appear pretty happy to go with your wishes for the birth, providing there are no medical reasons to act otherwise. Of course we also got shown around the Special Care baby unit, and I just kept sending mental messages to Pip to stay put for a good few weeks yet!

Our NCT classes start tomorrow night: we've got 4 x 2hr evening sessions, plus 2 x 4hr Saturday mornings. 16 hrs seems like a hell of a lot - I can't imagine why it needs to be quite so long! Karen is coming along rather reluctantly, but we've already agreed that if it's not her thing then she doesn't have to come to them all. The last thing that I want is to not be able to get what I want out of them because I'm conscious of her really not wanting to be there!

However, the most exciting news is that we have finally got organised and booked our date for our Civil Partnership! After all the deliberations, and conflict over what we both wanted from the ceremony and a party afterwards, we have decided to separate out the legal bit and the big celebration - I'm not about to start organising a party now! But we do want to get the legal side in place before Pip is born, so that Karen can then easily get Parental Responsibility for him/her (and just in case, heaven forbid, anything should go drastically wrong during labour, she will be recognised as my legal next of kin). So, we are getting hitched on Friday February 9th (unless Pip arrives early!), with just a couple of witnesses in a very quiet ceremony, then we'll go out for a lovely lunch somewhere, with a few more friends. Then in the summer we'll have a big bash to celebrate both our Civil Partnership and Pip's birth (i.e. we'll probably include a naming ceremony). Even though we are doing it mainly for the legal side of things, and it's not going to be at all fancy/weddingy, I'm quite excited that we are doing this at last 

Will try & catch up with personals at a later date - good to hear everyone's news.


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

Tamsin - sounds like you're getting really organised. Your civil partnership sounds lovely and at least if you're just going for lunch it will be more relaxing than trying to organise a big do at this stage in your pregnancy. 

We had a thanksgiving ceremony for Jamie when he was 8 months old as we're not particularly religeous but we wanted to do something. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas so the church was all decorated and it was just our family and friends. We had a buffet in a room next to the church. The ceremony was very personal which is just what we wanted. The minister was lovely even though Jamie tried to pull her glasses off at one point!

Deb - I took raspberry leaf tea at about 37 weeks and had about 3 cups a day. I ended up hating it and I'm not sure if it actually made any difference although I did have a very quick delivery.

Anne - glad you got the kitchen all sorted out and I hope all goes well tomorrow for you.

Marie - sounds like you've got lots of nice stuff for Ethan. Well done on Ethan sleeping a lot better now. Are you still exclusively breastfeeding?

Moodycat - don't worry too much about the weight of the baby. I had a scan with Jamie at 33 weeks due to some bleeding and they said he was 6lbs then!  I was terrified as I had another 7 weeks to go but I delivered on my due date and he was only 6lbs 14oz so hopefully your baby won't be too big.

Wolla - glad Thomas is sleeping better now as well. It's strange when you think back to how little sleep you survive on the first few weeks and you can't imagine going back to that. Daniel is now going down around 8pm and we get up around 7.30am but he still wakes sometimes in the night but nothing as bad as he used to be.

Well, I'm off to bed. It was my birthday today, 37, how depressing! Had family round tonight and I'm shattered. Started a diet as well. I need to lose a stone so I can fit into my pre pregnant clothes but I can't stop thinking about food especially chocolate. It doesn't help that I've been given loads of chocs for my birthday.

Hi to everyone else,

Viv xxx


----------



## Hippy

Hi all   put my main "Hi" post on the other thread (i.e. Anyone using donor) but just popped on here to say  . . . 

WOW Deb30 can't believe you are now only 11 days until little one arrives, how exciting! Thinking of you! Nismat - can't believe your little one is not too far off either  

Love all the pictures of your cute little ones  


A very happy 2007 to all of you very special ladies   and your families.
Love
Hippy
xxx


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Not sure how long this one will be, as I'm just popping on and Ethan is starting to make murmerings from under his gym ....

Viv - Yes, I'm still exclusively breastfeeding, and so enjoying it.    Mark is enjoying my huge boobs too!!    (I've gone from a 32B, to a 32E, and I just got measured again, and I'm now a 32F!!!     ) 

Hippy - Hello!  Always love reading your posts, hope you're well?! 

Tamsin - How exciting to have booked your civil partnership!  You'll have to share photos with us, maybe we could have a virtual hen night in the chat room for you?!!

Deb - I went for the reassurance mattress, its just as good at Mothercare's cotbed one for £134.99 so I'm chuffed.    I drunk the raspberry leaf tea, started only 4 days before Ethan was born. 

Anne - Most of my nursery/accessories were cream, now I'm on a splurge of blue things!!  Think thats the nicest thing about after baby is born .. you just want to look at baby boy/girl things.  I got Mark to bring in the Mothercare catalogue etc so I could browse baby boy things in bed!! 

Right, little man is crying now,

Marie xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


hippy - its always lovely to see you back again.

tamsin - congratulations on getting the wedding sorted, i think having a joint ceremony with pip is a fab idea, it'll make it all the more special.

viv - glad you had a happy birthday.

marie - gonna show my PIL's the website seeing as they are the ones buying the mattress (they also got us the cotbed), the mattress looks fab, think i'd go for the same one.


had another m/wife appt yesterday and she thinks that the baby has gone back into the breech position, she couldnt feel anything in my pelvis, she said that she would definately expect the head to be engaged at this time too and its not, so im off to the hospital on monday to find out for sure.


hope you all are well.

xdebsx


----------



## sam mn

debs hope that bubba is the right way up. good luck fir monday.not long now.

anne cant believe you are embarking on kittchen refit so close to little one! has that pushchair arrived. which one have you gone for.

20wk scan was fab. it was so lovely to see bertie again, couldnt believe how much more developed he/she was. everything  seems normal. and now mum has started buying. she got us our first outfit. 

hi to al

sam
xxxx


----------



## going it alone

HI all
Making the best of popping round to mum and dad's to use their computer. 

Sam - glad your scan went well. The 20 week one really is amazing isn't it. I had them every 4 weeks after that and even though they were reasurring and I loved them, the babies got so big that you couldn't see much at once.

Tamsin - great news on the partnership dates. The naming ceremony sounds great too. That's what I'm thinking of having. I'd feel like too much of a hypocrite to have a christening as I'm not religious.

Deb - best of luck with bubs turning. Hope all goes well tomorrow.

Marie - Ethan has grown so much. Well done for exclusively breast feeding. You and Lizi are stars. I've always needed formula top ups and Libby doesn't breast feed well at the best of times. I nearly gave it all up last week and went for a few days just exspressing but I missed it too much so started again, with hardly any milk left but with a bit of work I should get some back.

We've all had this grotty cold so haven't been out and about as much as usual. Fortunately the girls have just been snuffly with it but it has affected their feeding a little, not the amount just the time it takes. Elsbeth had a chest infection so was on antibiotics before Christmas and she has never cleared the snuffles since then. She's a lot worse at night. I ended up taking her to the hospital through the night last week as the doctor refused to come out and see her as she was too young for them to do anything to! He said if she wasn't wheezing and didn't have a fever the only thing they could give were saline nose drops and I was already giving her those so he wouldn't come out. The poor thing could hardly breathe and it was making her panic (and me!!) so I took her to the hospital. The cold air must have cleared something and she was breathing a lot more clearly by the time I got their. Have our six week check on Tuesday so will mention it to the doctor again as it hasn't cleared up.

Must go. Will catch up next time I get the chance.

Love to everyone

Sam xx


----------



## sarahjj

Hi 

Sam - hope all your colds clear up soon. Hugs to your lovely girls  

Sam mn - glad the 20 wk scan went well  

Debs - good luck for tomorrow - hope the baby has turned    Hope you are feeling OK - any signs??

Marie - love to Ethan   Do you have him in his cot now? Is he sleeping through still ? Charlotte usually goes to bed by about 7.30, then wakes for feeds at about 11.30, 4am then 7am, so is getting better. but nowhere near going through all night!

Lovely to hear from you Hippy. All the best  

Viv - happy birthday for last week. Your thankgiving ceremony sounds lovely. We are trying to organise a Christening for Charlotte at the moment, but will probably be keeping it fairly small.

Tamsin - your plans for your civil partnership sound great. Congratulations! 
How did your NCT class go?

Wolla - sounds like Thomas is doing really well. Did he enjoy the baby massage? Has he had his first injections yet? Charlotte has hers this week - we are not looking forward to that  

Moodycat - hope you are doing OK  

Anne - hope the scan went well   

Lizi - hugs to Rosa  

Sarah
xx


----------



## nismat

I've been awake since 4.30am - I keep doing this at the moment; waking up for a pee, then not being able to get back to sleep afterwards. Grrr! At least I haven't got anything specific on today, so I can have a nap later. My poor head is killing me! 
I lay in bed until Karen's alarm went off at 6am & have been pootling around doing various bits & pieces on my to-do list since. There's just so much swimming around in my head at the moment that I am finding it quite hard to switch my brain off when needed. 
We had a busy weekend, doing lots of moving stuff around the house - my study is no longer a study - it's Pip's room! Not quite complete (I've only just ordered the curtain fabric, and we've still got to collect the crib/cot from my friend & order a rocker-glider), but it's so lovely to see it looking like a baby's room at last. 

We've now had 2 NCT classes, on Thursday night and then all of Saturday morning. I was rather unimpressed after Thursday's session (although the fact that I had had only 4 1/2hrs sleep the night before, then a long day doing my last photo shoot probably didn't put me in the best frame of mind). There should be 9 couples in our group, but one couple has already had their baby early at 34 weeks, so they are obviously otherwise occupied, being with him in the SCBU. Everyone seems easy to get along with, and there were a couple of women whom I felt I could get on really well with, so that's good. However, the teacher rather rubbed me up the wrong way - K & I felt that she was generally fairly patronising (although she is obviously working from the basis that we know nothing, which I suppose is right). She's been doing the classes for years and has her "patter", which meant that _everything _ split us into "the guys/fathers and the girls/mothers". I'd actually made a specific request on my booking form that she would give some consideration to terminology in the hope that we might get the occasional "partner", but absolutely no concessions were made. I'm honestly not expecting her to try & be overly politically correct, but it just felt like Karen's presence/role was being completely ignored - which annoyed me a lot more than it did Karen! The teacher even started talking to her assistant about the guys/girls split for activities when Karen & I were the only ones in the room, as we arrived first! 
I was actually going to have a word with her on Saturday if things didn't improve, as I didn't want to get wound up by such a silly little thing - and I'm also aware that she probably just doesn't know quite how to deal with the situation so is just ignoring it; however, she did self-correct to "partner" a couple of times (in 4 hours!), so I haven't said anything yet. Quite apart from that side of things, the Saturday session was much more informative (all about recognising/dealing with early labour, then different forms of pain relief). I'm going to have to watch out that I don't become the annoying class swot, as I seem to know the answer to every question! Clearly I've done a lot more reading/research than everyone else  There were a couple of things I didn't know about though - a drug called Meptid (sp?) which is an alternative to Pethidine, that has less side effects (especially on the baby). Anyone heard of it/used it?

*Debs * - hope that your little one is behaving and turns out to be properly engaged when you go for your scan today 

*Sarah * - hope that Charlotte's jabs this week aren't too upsetting for you all 

*Sam * - hope that the cold/snuffles clear up for you all soon, and that the doctor can offer rather more help/support on Tuesday. I think that you're doing pretty well to manage much breastfeeding of the twins at all!

*Sammn * - bet it was lovely seeing Bertie again! I couldn't believe how perfectly formed the baby looks then; the 20 wk scan is just amazing  And now that you've reached 20 weeks, the real countdown starts! 

*Marie * - great to hear that the breastfeeding etc. is going wo well for you. I hope my boobs don't grow that much though  - they were already a 34FF before I got pregnant and are probably around a 36GG now, although I haven't been measured since I bought some non-wired bras in the early weeks. They desperately need replacing (I've extended them to the utmost!), but I'm now waiting for 36 weeks to get some new bras for nursing. 
That cot mattress link looks really good doesn't it? I've just got to persuade my friend to finally get the crib & cotbed down from her loft - she's been promising to do it for weeks now!

Hi to *Hippy*! 

A belated happy birthday to *Viv*  Don't tell me that turning 37 is all that bad - it's mine at the end of March! I always thought that I'd have at least one child by the time I was 30 - so just achieving one before my 37th birthday is a bit behind schedule 

*Moodycat * - sorry to hear that your birthing options are being narrowed by your previous circs, but I suppose it's better that they are so cautious. Hopefully when the time comes you can have a fairly natural birth if labour is progressing normally. Shame about the water birth though - I'm hoping that the birthing pool at our delivery unit is free when it's my time! Hope that your baby doesn't turn out to be too big - I've heard of so many women who have been told that their babies are going to be big, and then turn out to be around the 7lb mark.

*Anne * - hope that all the kitchen work is progressing at speed  It sounds like your shopping trip was great fun - I am loving getting everything organised and we're nearly ready now! Just impatiently waiting for Pip to mature a bit more before we really start urging him/her to come and join us  Come the 38 week mark I'll be trying everything in my power to start labour though - raspberry leaf tea, reflexology, homeopathy, acupuncture, nipple twiddling etc. etc. ! Actually, given that that is only 4 1/2 weeks away , I really had better start practising my hypno/breathing techniques for labour, instead of conveniently putting it off until "tomorrow" 

Hi to everyone else not mentioned above; I love hearing all the baby stages/news, knowing that we'll be there too before too long


----------



## AnneD

Hi Girls  

Tamsin - hope you start sleeping better soon.  I went through the same stage and had a few nights where I was up for a couple of hours through the night but it seems to have settled down now and I'm sleeping through apart from the toilet break of course   Hope your classes improve - sounds very irritating.  We only had three parentcraft classes as organised by the maternity unit as don't think there are NCT classes here.  They were brief but pretty informative.  I'm busy looking at rocker/gliders too.  I was always going to get a real old fashioned style rocking chair as I love them but am coming round to the idea of a glider as they'e much safer and are really comfortable.  What kind do you fancy?  I'm eyeing up a  Saplings beige corduroy one on Ebay but I can't decide if the cheaper price means it won't be as good.  I like the idea of the corduory through as it seems to be more suitable for my house than the others.  As soon as our kitchen is finished (if it ever is   ) I'll have to get cracking with the raspberry leaf tea.


Sarah - big hugs to Charlotte   And thanks for thinking of my scan- it went really well , the placenta is now just where it should be and baby's head is down so fingers crossed it stays that way.  They think the baby is about 6 - 6 and a half pounds at the moment and estimate that by birth he/she will be 7 to 7 and ahalf pounds but of course it's all guesswork.

Sam - aww hope your gorgeous girls get rid of the those sniffles.  It's horrible when you feel so helpless.  When one of my nieces was a baby she seemed to have a permanent wheezy chest but luckily none of the test she had showed it to be anything scary - not nice though.  I totally applaud you for even part breastfeeding twins as it sounds hard enough feeding one never mind two    So well done you  


Sam mn - I'm so glad your scan went well, it's amazing isn't it?   Yeah we must be totally crazy getting the kitchen done at this stage but all the units are now in so it's now all the fiddly bits like electrics (the electrician is here today) tiling and flooring to do.  I went for the silver cross linear sleepover pram in Sofia fabric.  I ordered it back in August from the Glasgow pram centre because the sofia was limited edition and I was panicking I wouldn't be able to get it later on.  I was right because it took a lot of searching to find the last remaining matching car seat too but now they're standing in the nursery just waiting for their passenger     Really pleased with it so far as it doubles up as a carrycot with its own stand, pram and changes into a pushchair for later on.  Think it may be a bit of a squeeze in the boot of my car though - whoops. My sister-in-law is also giving us her big old fashioned silver cross pram to use too and a three wheeler jobby too so we're inundated with prams.

Debs - fingers crossed baby is behaving themself and is head down.  One of the midwives that examined me said that baby was breech but then another one said he/she wasn't and the scan showed that the head was down so sometimes it's difficult for them to tell.  Hope it goes well.  Any other signs yet?

Marie - ooh very impressive boobies Jordan     I was 30 FF before being pregnant but so far my back size has increased but my cupsize hasn't really altered even though as you go up in a back size the cup size goes down (very confusing   ) Goodness knows what I'll be like once my boobies start filling up though    DH will be thrilled    I must go and get measured properly this week for new maternity feeding bras as i don't have a clue what size to buy now.  Sounds like you're doing amazingly well with feeding and it's fantastic that Ethan is sleeping so well.  I'll definitely be coming to you for tips  

Hippy - A huge hello and big hugs to you hun.  It's lovely that you keep checking in otherwise we'd miss you terribly  

Viv - Jamie's thanksgiving ceremony sounds lovely and not something I would have thought of.  I'm not particularly religious either and as we didn't get married in church either I wasn't sure what to do on the christening front even though I wanted to mark the occasion in some way.  It's great to know that there are alternatives.  Of course I'll have to wait until he/she makes an appearance first   

Everything ticking along fine here if i ignore the fact that all my kitchen things are in the spare bedroom and the lounge     Just hoping that we do get everything finished in time for baby's arrival but if not then so be it.  Every day I keep thinking ooh i must pack my hospital bag and still haven't done it so that's definitely a job for today, honest!  Found out yesterday that someone else who was due two days before me has had her baby eek!  So I really need to be prepared.  Following my scan last week I ave two home visits (to this bombsite!) this week.  One from the Health Visitor and one from the midwife.  They're my first home visits so it's typical that the house will be in total chaos.  Well, off to pack that bag....

Love Anne xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


anne - hope the kitchen work is finished soon, i know what you mean about your pram waiting for its passenger, mines is the same.

tamsin - i had my 1st bad night lastnite, 1st of all i coudlnt get to sleep and then when i got up for the loo i couldnt get back to sleep, hopefully your sleeping pattern will sort itself out.

sarah - hopefully Charlotte's injections go well and aren't too upsetting for either of you.

marie - i was measured the other day for my nursing bras but am wondering if i would need to be re-measured later on as well, guess i'll wait and see, the bras look huge though (40f) would never have dreamt of being that size.

sam - hope you and the girls feel better soon.


i had a scan today and the scanner said that the baby was head down, so just a matter of waiting for him/her to arrive, saw the heart and lungs and lots of bones on the screen, couldnt get a clear pic though, so unless he/she turns up this week im back up next monday for an internal examination and to discuss induction which im hoping i wont need.  not really had any "signs" or anything, just quite a lot of CM in the last week and have been starting to have little niggly pains in my bottom , not quite sure what thats about, i stopped taking the RLT tablets over the weekend incase they did something to me and the baby was breech so will start taking them again, have any of you used "clary sage oil" someone mentioned it on the 3rd tri thread and i was thinking of trying it if nothing happens in the next week.

big   to everyone.

xdebsx


----------



## AnneD

Debs - 40F   Blimey I'm so not looking forward to getting measured     It's funny because I'm convinced that if anything, my boobs look smaller but then again anything looks smaller next to my bump.  Great news that baby's head is down, it's such a relief isn't it.

Marie - I did a search on Glider chairs on FF and found an old post of yours saying you were going to buy one of the Woolworths ones.  Hope you don't mind me asking you but did you get it and if you did are you impressed?  They're still available (babylo) and am tempted to get mine from there rather than ebay as I'm worried there'll be something wrong with the ebay one (it's a Saplings basic glider chair) and it would be a nightmare to return.  I've bought loads of stuff from ebay but when it's something so big I'm not so sure.  

Hmm bit of a   question here girls but did you or are any of you doing perineal massage leading up to the birth.  I know I should be doing it by now but just wondered if it's a waste of time    Keep reading I should do it then I don't do anything about it. Mentioned it to my mam and she pulled a face and said she'd never heard of it so that wasn't much help


----------



## nismat

Ah yes, perineal massage! Mmmn, haven't actually broached this one with Karen yet, so not sure if the idea will come as a complete shock to her, or whether she's already read about it (she usually turns out to have read more than I give her credit it for). I'm sure that it must help reduce the risk of tearing (as does delivering in water). I don't like the idea of tearing (would rather be cut than tear I think), so I think that we may well give it a go if she's willing. It's a while since we've been that intimate though!!  

*Debs * - great to hear that your baby is head down. Hopefully not long to wait now (and here's hoping for a natural start rather than induction).


----------



## LiziBee

Debs - tried the sage thingy, didn't work for me.
Anne - I did do it, I think it helped. I did tear but I did have an assisted delivery, it could have been much worse!
Got to go, 'baby bach' has finished already!!
Lizi.x


----------



## LiziBee

Sorry for short posts, by the time I've done all my moderating Rosa is either awake of the video has finished. (True to form she s just waking!) It doesn't mean I am not thinking of you, far from it!
Got Rosa weighed, 15lb 10oz, exactly double her birth weight! Her growth has slowed a lot recently (she's now only on the 25th centile), I'm hoping that now I'm weaning it will pick up!
Love to all
Lizi.x


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## sam mn

tamsin hope you start sleeping better soon. cant believe your 33wks already. where has time gone.

anne my dh has decided to undertake loads of diy. nothing quite as drastic as new kitchen, he is sorting out storage in the house, so building cuppboards and new shed. however cos we lack the storage in the first place all the materials are in the spare room (which will becoming the nusery!) cant move in the for wood!

debs glad your littleone is now in right postion. not long now.

sam hope you and your girls recover from your colds soon.

hi to everyone

sam
xxx


----------



## nismat

Ugh - I've been awake since 3am this morning! In other words, 4 hrs sleep. I had thought that I might manage more as I only got 5hrs the previous night, and didn't have a daytime nap, plus I had antenatal yoga yesterday evening which relaxes me. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way! 
I just feel totally wired all the time - I'm running on adrenaline (which is no doubt precisely why my brain won't switch off, but I'm not sure how to break the cycle). The only good thing is that I'm actually managing to function much better in the day than I could ever have anticipated on so little sleep, which bodes well for the upcoming sleep deprivation. 

I got my cloth nappy delivery yesterday - it's a second-hand trial pack of small shaped nappies (and wraps) that was being sold off from a nappy trial hire service that is closing down. It was a bargain at only £52 for 18 nappies + 8 wraps, although of course there inevitably are a few that I don't much like the look of! There's one each of pretty much every brand you can think of, so I'm looking forward to being able to try them out before too much longer, and then make some decisions about which brand(s) to go for in the next size up, which I'll buy new.


----------



## LiziBee

Tamsin - after washing them (with vanish in-wash or nappisan) give them a rinse in a weak solution of white vinegar. Wash them again and then stick them out on the line, even if it is raining, the sunlight will brighten them all up!

Sam - hope the forest moves soon!

Lizi.x


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

I've been away at my dad's wedding, sorry for not posting! It was a lovely day, very very busy and stressful, but also enjoyable. Dad was SO proud showing Ethan off, I'd bought him a tiny little shirt and trousrs that I'd found, and bless him, they were too big (0-3 months) so had to be rolled up, but it was so worth it for all the comments we got!

Had the vicar round last night, and everything is booked now for ther christening, so I've ordered the invitations this morning, from a really lovely little website - www.bopeepdesigns.co.uk - she sells them on ebay too (£5 for 10!) and they look lovely. So looking forward to seeing the outcome. It feels almost like I'm planning my wedding all over again!

Tamsin - Glad you got your nappies - soon the real fun will begin!  I love seeing mine drying, the tip Lizi gave you is a good one 

Sam - Sounds like its your DH who is nesting!  

Anne - Yes, I've got the woolworths chair and am really impressed with it, its so lovely and comfy and just right for feeding! 
re: perinal massage - I was going to start it at 37 weeks but never got that far.  I'm not sure if it helps or not to be honest, I tore naturally, but neither of my sister's did it and neither of them has stitches, despite both of them having bigger babies than me!

Deb - I look back on my little 32B's now and laugh, they look like a child's bra or something!  I still look at my 32F's and think 'woah!!'

Marie xxx

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.UK or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


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## Marielou

Oh, how exciting! If you look here http://bopeepdesigns.blogspot.com/ you should see Ethan's christening invitation! Well worth the money! (its at the top currently, but you may have to scroll down)

Marie xxx

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.UK or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie - glad the wedding went well, love Ethans christening invitation.

tamsin - glad you got your nappies.

anne - did vaguely think about perineal massage but couldnt reach it myself and didnt fancy asking d.h to do it, theres somethings i want to keep to myself.

lizi - glad Rosa is putting on weight, dont know anything about centiles yet but am looking forward to finding out.


had some really sore pains lastnite and was hoping that this was it but they stopped after 30 minutes, if they were only b/h's god only knows what i'll be like in labour.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


----------



## viviennef

Hi, just popped on in between Big Brothers.

Marie - your invitations are gorgeous. He looks so cute! Will really have to get my   in gear and sort out a Thanksgiving service for Daniel.

Deb - can't believe how close you are to your due date. Why does everyone elses pregnancies seem to fly in and mines dragged by!

Tamsin - hope you manage to start sleeping better. Make the most of it before Pip arrives!

Anne - hope your visits from your HV and midwife went well this week.

We've had an eventful week. Yesterday Jamie pulled off a little wheel off a toy digger and shoved it up his nose! Took him to the doctors but he couldn't get it out so we were sent to A&E and the nurse there tried to get it out with tweezers but only succeeded in pushing it in further. She then tried a suction thing but no joy there so we had to go to the ENT dept at the hospital today. The doctor there couldn't get it out either and Jamie was getting really distressed so he's got to go to the hospital next Friday morning to get it taken out under general anaesthetic! I've got to take him on Wednesday for a pre-op. What a nightmare. I'm a bit worried about him having an anaesthetic but they said he would only be under for a few minutes.

Still, it will be a good story to tell his girlfriends when he's older! Oh the joys of toddlers. Bet you all can't wait for that!

Hi to everyone else, Viv xxx


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## LiziBee

Marie - beautiful invites.
Vic - Oh no!!! My sister had to go to hospital aged 4 for sticking the crusts of her sandwiches up her nose, she didn't want to eat them and thought if she put them up there mum wouldn't find them!!
love to all
Lizi.x


----------



## AnneD

Marie - glad you enjoyed the wedding, I bet Ethan looked gorgeous!  Love your christening invites too, they're so cute.  Thanks for the tip on the nursing chair.  They didn't have any of the reclining glider chairs left at Woolthworths so I've ordered a babylo one from kiddisave.co.uk which was a bit of a bargain.  Can't wait for it to arrive because I'm finding it so hard to get comfortable now.

Lizi -   at your sister sticking crusts up her nose.  I used to do the same thing with peas and weirdly I have a vague recollection of doing it too.  Think I just wondered where they would go - they never came out theway they came in so that could explain a lot - maybe they're floating about in my brain still   

Emma -   at your old boyfriend too  

Viv - oh dear, poor Jamie, hope his little operation goes well and they retrieve that naughty wheel!  

Deb - Hmm know what you mean about perineal massage - I've just thought about it vaguely too and don't think I'll actually get down to doing it and can't face the thought of DH doing it either   Hope you don't have much longer before those twinges start for real hun  

Tamsin - I had a hopeless nights sleep last night too.  Didn't go to bed till midnight but was awake from 4am so ended up doing a load of ironing while I watched a dvd.  I'm exhausted now though.  Brother in law is coming to help DH tile the kitchen today so I might disappear while they're slaving away and sneak a little nap. Glad your nappies arrived - sounds like you've got quite an assortment.  Keep thinking about cloth nappies then not doing anything about it but I think I'll start disposables and see what happens - yes I know I'm a lazy ******    My decision making skills seem to have gone out of the window and I'm uhmming and ahhing about everything.  Can't even make my mind up about what baby montor to buy.  I'm tempted by either the philips dect 489 or the Tomy walkabout platinum but not sure if I need all the bells and whistles that they have especially as I have one of those egg nightlight temperature thingies too.

Sam mn - hope you get your storage sorted.  That's always an issue here too - it's amazing how much stuff we accumulate and that's before baby arrives!  Our loft is filling up fast  

Had home visits from both the health visitor and the midwife this week and was very chuffed that it was my favourite midwife.  Just hope she's on duty when it all finally happens.  Everything went well and seems like baby is slightly further down now so hopefully he/she will stay put!  Pottering around trying to put kitchen stuff away today in the finished cupboards and generally getting in DH's way but 'm eager to try and get ahead because it's three weeks since the kitchen refit started and I don't think all the fiddly bits will be finished until end of next week    

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend despite the stormy weather.

Anne x


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie - was showing d.h your christening invitation and he loves it too, i was thinking of making ours cos im quite into card making and crafts, infact the designs on the link you posted reminded me of some fancy papers i have and has given me some inspiration.

viv - sorry to hear that Jamie was in so much distress with the little wheel, sounds like it wont be too bad though if he's only gonna be under the anaestethic for a few minutes.

anne - lucky you getting a glider feeding chair.

emma -    at your old boyfriend.

lizi -    at your sister too.

tamsin - hope you are well.

sam mn - hope you are well.

sam - how are the girls?  hope you have all managed to get over the cold.


well its D-Day tomorrow,  but not holding out any hope at all of it happening then, i do have an appt at the hospital in the morning to discuss an induction (they said they would only let me go 10 days over) and im also having an internal examination, anyone know what this entails?  guess i'll find out soon enough though, will let you all know how it goes.


hope you all are well,
xdebsx


----------



## going it alone

Hi all - remember me?!!!!!

Lizi and Emma - love the sister and ex-boyfriend stories. Whereas I had an ex who had to circumsised due to an accident with a zip - which only adds to my "bad taste and bad luck where men are concerned" explaination to the sperm donor situation.

Debs - best of luck for the appt tomorrow. 

Viv - hope all goes well with Jamie. I am so accident prone that I dread to think what my two will get up to.

Sam - can't believe you're as far gone as you are - it doesn't seem long since you got your BFP on the donor thread.

Marie - Love the Christening invitations. He has grown so much.

Lizi - Well done with Rosa's weight gain. 

Tamsin - well done for going with the cloth nappies. I have gone for the easier option and gone for disposables. Like you I was a little annoyed at my antenatal classes as my partner was my mum and although there was a male/female divide the language was definitely there. I wasn't the only one in my class with their mum as their birthing partner either. I also had the prob announcing the birth in the local paper as well, with them insisting on seeing the birth certificate as I didn't have the father's name in the announcement!

Sorry for the me bit of the post - We've got over the colds thank goodness. Libby is still snuffly but the GP says that her lungs are clear and to continue with the nasal drops and hopefully with maturity and the better weather they will clear eventually. We had our 6 week check and Libby has to be referred to a specialist for an umbilical hernia, poor thing. Amelie is really suffering with colic too. They're sleeping better through the night. They were every three hours but now Amelie has gone as long as 8 hours (but only once) and Libby has done a 4 and 5 hour spell in one night. So at least they're going a bit longer. It's tiring now that I'm not synchronising their feeds through the night in an attempt to get them going as long as possible individually.
They're gaining weight well. Libby is up to 8lb 11 1/2 and Amelie a huge 11lb 3. Libby is in the 50th centile and Amelie's on the 91st! As they were prem they are recorded using their adjusted age so at 8 weeks old they were on the 3 week line. When I was feeling rough I decided to finish with the breast feeding, especially as Elsbeth wasn't feeding well anyway. I almost dried up but then I started feeling better and realised how much I was missing it so now I am desparately trying to get as much milk back as possible. Depsite over a week without feeding Amelie has still gone back on to the breast as well as before, with lots of formula top ups obviously. I never did the massage as I couldn't reach and I really think that it would push the mother daughter relationship a little too far!!

Must go

Love to all, Sam xx


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## LiziBee

Sam - amazed to hear the weight gain on the twins, if they keep going at that rate they will be bigger than Rosa in no time!!

Anne - I think I said it before, but it is worth asking local real nappy sellers if they know of anyone selling second hand nappies (most sellers are doing it from a deep ecological conviction and not for the money as that it very little so you wont be offending them!) It will save you a lot of money and if you don't like them you can sell them on again at little or no cost. That said, Littlelamb do a complete money-back guarantee.

FINALLY got a physio appointment come through. Obviously the wost of the SPD has now gone but I've waited soooooo long I'm not not going now!!

love to all
Lizi.x


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## nismat

*Lizi * -can't believe that your physio appointment has only just come through!  
Thanks for the tip on nappy washing by the way; of course I'd actually already put them on to wash extremely early (with my lack of sleeping) on that day of the storm, so I didn't dare pin them out on the line or I'd never have seen them again  I just stuck them on my clothes airer in the bathroom, and most of them were dry by nightfall, so now I know which ones to keep for emergencies only as they are slower to dry. There are a few that I really don't like, so I think I may be topping up my quantity with a few extra nappies well before moving up to the larger size. I was rather sad that neither a Bumble nor a Bamboozle was in the mixed bag, as these (along with the Tots Bots and the Fluffle) are the ones I'm keenest on for the long term. Karen is going to take some convincing about the whole cloth nappy thing, but she was rather taken with the Bet Lynch-style leopard-print Pro-rap! 

*Anne * - I can totally understand not wanting to make too many decisions at the moment, or wanting to commit to cloth nappies if it's something you aren't really evangelical about it already  However, if it's something that you think you _might _ consider, I would say that it's really worth contacting an advice service like the Nappy Lady now: http://www.thenappylady.co.uk/ to get recommendations, and a clearer idea of what it all involves. You can fill in an on-line questionnaire and they do you a tailored recommendation based on your personal circumstances - all for free, and there's loads of excellent information on the website. There really is no sales pressure, and they emphasise that it's way more important to get breast-feeding established (if that's your plan) in the early weeks than to try cloth nappies straightaway, when you're completely overwhelmed with all the new baby stuff. You can always try switching to cloth nappies later (which my sister is doing now with my 18 month-old nephew). But on the other hand, if you leave the fact-finding mission until after the baby is born, then it may be hard to find time to ever make it happen! 
How's the kitchen - nearly finished now the tiling is done?

*Sam * - the twins sound like they are doing amazingly! I'm sure that I would be opting for full-on disposables as well in your circumstances; those gorgeous girls must keep you _very _ busy indeed as it is  Hope that your milk supply increases again soon  Are you drinking plenty of water? One of my friends who was struggling to produce enough was advised to drink 3-4 litres a day, and it made a _huge _ difference to her supply.
I can't believe that the paper insisted on seeing the birth certificate because there was no father's name in the announcement!  I can understand them querying the text, but for you to actually need to "prove" your status; that's terrible! Almost unbelievable  but sadly true.

*Deb * - no doubt you've had your appt (and internal exam) by now. I imagine the internal was to check the state of your cervix, to see if it's soft & ripe or not, and to check if there are any signs of dilation yet. I hope that things start for you soon, so that you don't have to be induced. I'm sure that you both want to meet your baby as soon as possible!

*Viv * - oh poor Jamie  (and you for the worry)

*Marie * - Ethan's christening invitation is just lovely. Must remember to save the link for future reference!

As for me, I'm still really suffering with broken nights/not much sleep - it seems to have become a pattern. But I'm coping surprisingly well considering, and getting all the household jobs done that I'd been putting off (mountains of ironing backlog, hand-washing, sorting out cupboards etc. etc.) with the extra hours I now have each day. Thank heavens I'm not working any more though - at least I've got the option of trying to nap during the day. I'm also getting severe backache; my lower back has always been a problem area, so I've had aches all through the pregnancy. Unfortunately my usual "coping" strategies aren't having much effect any more and it's seriously sore/painful.

NCT classes have improved massively - this Saturday the teacher was using the word "partner" throughout, without any prompting! We had an exhausting session covering possible birth positions, induction, assisted deliveries, caesareans & what to expect from midwife care in hospital (most of the people in our class will have to rely on the hospital midwives as they aren't under the same community midwife team as us). What is quite funny is how roughly half the couples are as quiet as church mice in terms of getting involved and asking/answering questions, and the rest of us just jump in there and ask anything and everything. Overall though, it's probably a pretty good mix of people, and I'm sussing out who I'm likely to get on best with. Typically the two I like most are the ones who live furthest out of town! But both within a 15-20 minute drive, so not a million miles away.

We had our 34 week check yesterday (I still can't get over the fact that the midwives come to us, and on a weekend too!). Everything still completely normal which is good, although the midwife had trouble finding Pip's heartbeat because s/he kept moving away! Pip is totally mobile and not engaged at all - there are some extraordinary movements going on inside me at the moment. I suppose that s/he is making the most of still having enough room to be able to turn around & somersault


----------



## going it alone

Hi all

Have just got back from the docs - first immunisations!!!! Not fluffy bunnies right now. Mum came with me to help.

Have added a couple of new pics.

I'm trying to drink as much as possible. The thing I find the hardest is getting enough rest.

Must dash - dad's been left holding the babies!

Love to all

Sam xx


----------



## Marielou

Hello!

Debs - Happy due date! (if there is such a thing!  )  My guess for you is: 2nd Feb (sorry!) 8lb 9oz baby girl   
I make my own cards as well etc and always thought I'd make my own invites ... but its finding the time!  I once thought I'd make my own birth annoucements, which was just 

Sam - Wow, your twins are doing very well - Amelie is heavier than Ethan now!  Bless them, would love to see some photos   

Tamsin - Oooh not long for you now - Ethan was not engaged at all until I went into labour   I still puzzle about that one!!    I suffered with my back during late pregnancy too, although now it is, I'm glad to say, a distant memory  
(suprising how quickly you forget and think it was a doddle being pg!  )

Oops, Ethan crying ... I'll have to love you and leave you!

Marie xxx


----------



## tiffanyb

Hi guys,

I'm not quite ready to come over to this thread as only 10 weeks pg but often read your posts - it's lovely to hear about those of you who are pg and those who have recently had your precious cargos! 

Marie - your invite is lovely, Ethan is a gorgeous baby!

Sam - your twins are beautiful, twins must be hard work but so lovely.

Hello to everyone else, I know Marie and Sammn from the donor thread but thought I'd say   to you all.

Tiff 
xxxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie - i know what you mean, i too thought i'd make my own birth announcements and christening invites, think i'll try the invites though (if i have the time of course) cos i know my mum has bought birth announcement cards (she bought 1 pack of each) just for our family, you will probably be right about the 2nd of february cos thats the date ive been given for my induction if i dont go before then which i dont think i will.

sam - hope the girls and you are ok after their immunisations.

tamsin -  glad the woman at your class is getting better, didnt have the internal in the end cos only found out when i got there that it was actually their terminology for a membrane sweep and because the baby is not totally engaged i couldnt have one.


everything went ok at the m.w today but unfortunately couldnt have my internal (sweep) cos the baby isnt fully engaged, the m.w could still move the head so back up next monday to try again, if nothing happens them im being induced on 2nd of february so at least i know theres an end in sight   , think i'll have gone   by then though, dont know what im going to do with myself for the next 2 weeks, was looking forward to spending it with my new arrrival and as you can imagine i cant wait.


big   to everyone,


xdebsx


----------



## viviennef

Hi, how do you get a photo gallery? Just noticed that some of you have one and I'd love to upload some pics but not sure how to do it.

Viv xxx


----------



## going it alone

Hi all
Just realised my mistake - Amelie is 10lb 3 not 11lb 3!!! Blame it on baby brain!! 

Lizi could you send me the real nappy details as I'm becoming more interested now that I'm getting into routines it's getting a bit easier and worth considering. 

Have added some new photos to my gallery

Love

Sam xx


----------



## Marielou

Viv - To get a gallery of your own, you have to becomme a charter member - more on it here http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/content/view/320/181/ which basically means you either subscribe to the site, or buy one of the books on their amazon wishlist, to help keep staff and admin up to date on different topics.  However, if you don't want to do that, you can add a photo to the main gallery (the miracle baby and children one here http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/gallery/index.php?cat=5 ) which is, of course, available to all members. 

Debs - How are you doing today? You never know, you may find time for making cards ... its sounds like you live very close to your family, so you could always ask their help  Hope I'm very wrong on your date - I usually am! 

Tiff - I came over to this thread at 4 weeks ... was just so excited  so feel free to post away if you like!

Sam - I thought Amelie had grown a lot!  She's not much smaller than Ethan then - can you tell theres a size difference between the girls, or not really? Off to look at your photos now.

I've added a photo of Ethan too. 
Poor Ethan has a terrible cold, and is hardly feeding, bless him.  He's also very sleepy, goold old paranoid Mummy is watching him like a hawk 

Marie xxx


----------



## sarahjj

Hi

Marie - Ethan looking just adorable! Love your invitations too. Hope his cold gets better very soon  

Sam - sounds like the twins are doing really well. Hope they are OK after their jabs. Charlotte was a bit grizzly after hers last week, but calpol seemed to do the trick.

Debs - hope that little one makes an appearance very soon     Thinking of you!!

Hi to Tiff - hope you are keeping well. Have you been having any nausea or morning sickness?? 

Lizi - good luck for your physio appointment. Disgraceful how long that took to get  

tamsin - glad your checkup went well. Hope you are getting some sleep and your back isn't too sore  

Anne - hope you are keeping well - not long now!!

Vic - how are things??

Wolla - how is that little man of yours doing??

Viv - hope all goes OK for Jamie    

Charlotte is doing really well - up to 12 lb now. The sleeping is improving too, though I can hear that she has just woken up now so must go and see to her.  

love Sarah
xx


----------



## tiffanyb

Hi,

Thanks for welcoming me! 

Sarah - yes I have been feeling nauseous since about 5/6 weeks, but it's actually got a bit better but then some days I feel so ill! I get it in the evenings more than mornings, I go to bed feeling very unwell. Apart from that I'm fine, but have sore (.)(.) and feel soooo tired!

Hi to everyone else.

Tiff
x


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

Marie - thanks for the info on the gallery. I've uploaded some pics. Hope Ethan is better today.

Hi to everyone else,

Viv xxx


----------



## AnneD

Hi Tiff - I know you from the other thread but a big welcome to the other side    I was lucky in that I really didn't get nauseous but from what I hear the best tip is to make sure you eat little and often and try not to let yourself get hungry.

Sarah - wow sounds like Charlotte is doing really well x

Marie - hope Ethan is feeling better bless him.  Love the new piccie  

Sam - so glad your gorgeous girls are doing well even if mummy has a touch of baby brain     Blimey my brain has already gone so I don't hold out much hope for after baby has arrived .

Debs - hope you don't have to wait the full two weeks   

Tamsin and Lizi - thanks for the nappy tips.  I've been looking back over my baby magazines and I like the look of the Kushie nappies but they seem to start from a birth weight of 8lb 8oz so I don't know if baby will be big enough to wear them from birth.  Think I'll use the disposables from birth until I get the hang of breast feeding then move onto them afterwards, I'll see how I get on.

Had a bit of a rubbish few days.  Was struck down with flu the other night and ended up spending all of yesterday in bed after a sleepless night.  Was feeling a bit brighter today and have just been to the midwife but now it looks like I've got a water infection.  typical that i sail through pregnancy then get ill in the last two weeks.  It has forced me to knock work on the head once and for all though which is a real weight off my mind.  The kitchen is looking fab - Dh has put in loads of late nights and managed to finish the flooring and brother in law has taken a half day off work bless him so he's coming this afternoon to finish off the tiles.  Just the fiddly jobs to do now but the bulk of it is done so I'm hoping to put all my bits and pieces back in the cupboards and try and regain some sanity.  Just wish I was feeling a bit better though    I'll get the test results back on Friday/Saturday and if the infection hasn't cleared it looks like I'll need antibiotics.


----------



## nismat

Oh, poor you *Anne*, that does all sound rather miserable. Concentrate on getting better rather than trying to do too much. You want to be as rested as you possibly can be before labour starts! Glad to hear that the kitchen is nearly sorted; bet you'll be pleased to be straight in there again soon. 
Back on the nappy front, you may not want to hear this (so apologies in advance), but when I met my Nappy Lady contact a few weeks ago to see all the different kinds of nappies, she said that Kushies are actually one of the worst brands around  Apparently lots of people have leakage issues with Kushies, and as many of them have bought them as birth-to-potty packs, they try them and get put off the whole cloth nappy thing, when other brands often work much better. I got a classic or basic white Kushie in my mixed pack (i.e. not the all-in-one version, you still need an outer wrap), and having seen and felt lots of different nappies now, personally I would be less inclined to go for them, even if I hadn't been told the above, because they are made from brushed cotton/cotton flanelette, rather than terry towelling, and after repeated washing, this doesn't look as good (it goes a bit bobbly), and it seems to feel rather stiff/hard in comparison to terries. 
My favourites from all the ones I have seen are the Tots Bots (inc Rainbow versions), the Bamboozle (made by Tots Bots, from bamboo!), the Bumble, and the Fluffle (another Tots Bots-made nappy which is synthetic rather than cotton, but absolutely adorably soft). Of course, I have yet to put any of them into use!
Babies often aren't big enough to start on shaped cloth nappies straightaway (even if you're organised enough to get to grips with that and everything else as well in the first days/weeks), but you can use folded muslins inside a waterproof wrap instead. I think we'll be opting for disposables at first for an easier life!

Welcome *Tiff * - look forward to seeing you posting here regularly soon; it's about time we had some new mamas-to-be! 

*Deb * - hope you're finding things to keep you occupied. My midwife has already advised me to make dates for things like coffee with friends for after the due date, so that you've got things to look forward to/keep you busy, rather than sitting around the house waiting, waiting, waiting. Of course, they need to be things that can be easily cancelled! 

My back has been feeling a lot better the last couple of days, thank heavens. But then I managed to pull something down my right hand side this morning, simply by putting my knickers on!   So now it's painful to twist or bend sideways (the easy answer to which is "don't do it then!"). Sleep has got a bit better as well; I'm managing more hours per night, although it's in stretches of 1-3 hours, so it doesn't feel very restful overall.

Hi to everyone else 

Tx


----------



## AnneD

Tamsin - thanks for the information re kushies - i was only going by a review of nappies in mother and baby magazine so I'm pleased I hadn't taken it any further otherwise it sounds like it would've been a waste of money.  Hope your back feels better soon - the slightest movement seems enough to cause pain doesn't it.  I find that coughing hurts my tummy too.


----------



## sam mn

hi to all,

sorry not posted much. life and work has been soooo hectic. feeling tired but not ill anymore which is fab. looking forward to finishing work. but still got 10wks to go not that im counting or anything .

debs is the no news is good news. look forward to here of your long awaited arrival.

tiff good to see you posting over here. welcome. hope that nausea eases soon

anne sorry to hear your feeling pants. hope you are feeling brighter soon. not long for you either.  

marie love ethans new pic.

sam good to hear the twins are doing well.

sarah glad charlote is sleeping better

just back from MW. all well with little bertie. BP fab. so all generally ok at the mo. getting new car at the wked so will be ablt to fit littleone and dog in at the same time  .

sam
xxx


----------



## LiziBee

Anne - if you want to try a kooshie you can have my sample. It says something that I'm not using it though! I friend of mine has had terrible leakage problems with them. Hope you feel better soon.
Lizi.x


----------



## AnneD

Hi Emma - no haven't heard anything - hopefully no news is good news!

Lizi - thanks hun but yes it does say something that you haven't used your kushie - think I'll give them a wide birth!!!

Sam mn - glad you're feeling much better.  Getting my new 'family' car was such a milestone for me and made me feel very emotional.  Hope you enjoy picking up and driving yours.  I love my Nissan Note but will love it even more with that baby seat (and baby!) in it


----------



## lucky2010

A tentative hello from a very newly pregnant me!!!! Tested early on Tues, AF was only due today but have had two strong positives and definitely FEEL different.

I will hopefully be around posting more when I know that all is well but just thought I'd say 'Hi!'

Hope all is going/ has gone smoothly Deb.... look forward to hearing about your bundle.

Rach and Julie xx


----------



## sam mn

rach and julie congrats on your BFP. hope the next 8mths go well.

anne that little one will be in the car seat before you know it  . i will be said too see my sporty little car go but am excited at getting our family car. next to find the pushchair that will fit in it.

sam
xxxx


----------



## Marielou

Rach and Julie - Congrats, lovely to see you 'graduate'!!   

Anne - The first drive home from the hospital with the baby is just classic.  I remember being so sore, and sitting just staring at Ethan, so tiny in his car seat.   We were both so scared, Mark must have driven at about 10mph!! Very precious cargo on board indeed.   

Emma&Lottie - Not heard from Debs - I bet she's had her baby!!  

Sam - Which car are you getting?  Glad all went well at MW appt  

Tamsin - Wow, you are a wealth of information about reusables, and you've yet to have your baby!   I was still very 'in the dark' but in my defence, my local napopy lady was away for some time, and I was meant to see her at 36 weeks .... but I never made that appt!  

Viv - Love your pics, gorgeous boys you have there.

Marie xxx


----------



## tiffanyb

Ladies,

Hello to Rach and Julie, I too have only just started venturing on this thread as I am nearly 11 weeks pg and still very nervous! Congratulations on your news, it's wonderful! It'll be nice to have newly pg girlies to chat too along with all the other lovely ladies who are a bit further along or those who have their gorgeous little ones to cuddle!

I'm ok but still have attacks of nausea - I've not been too bad all week but yesterday and today have been a bit sick. I'm going out for a chinese meal tonight so goodness knows how the hell I'll eat much! At least with chinese you get to pick at everything which is great, and it's normally my favourite!

Hi to everyone, from all I've read it does sound like Deb may have had her baby?....

On the car front - I changed my car about 18 months/ 2yrs ago and bought a sensible golf which fits a pram in rather nicely - little did we know it was going to take so long to get pg! Never mind, at least it's all paid for now, I guess it's one less expense!

We haven't ventured in any baby shops or thought about prams etc, still feel a bit too nervous, did anyone else feel like this? I can't wait for 12 week scan to feel more secure, roll on 7 days!!!

Tiff
x


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


well, youve all guessed right, baby Hannah Susanne was born by ventouse on thursday at 04.43, it was a very traumatic delivery (am happy to P.M anyone who wants to know about it) but im very happy to say that we are now home and both doing well, dont even feel like ive had a baby, apart from some niggly pains where my stiches are, i still cant beleive she's mine, am feeling rather emotional just now and keep crying cos im so happy.


sorry for the short post but im sure you all understand i need to get back to a sleepy Hannah and extremely happy daddy,

will post a some pics in the next few days.

xDebs and Hannahx


----------



## DiamondDiva

oh, just wanted to wish Rach and Julie huge congrats on their BFP.

xxDebs and Hannahxx


----------



## viviennef

Deb,

Congratulations on the birth of Hannah. What weight was she? Sorry you had a traumatic delivery but so glad everything is ok. Are you going to write a birth story? I love reading about everyone's births.
Can't wait to see the pics.

Rach and Julie - congratulations on your BFP. Hope you have a happy and healthy pregnancy.

Tiffany - don't think the worrying ever stops but it does get easier. Good luck with your scan, not long now.

Things have been a bit hectic here. Don't know if I told you but Jamie managed to shove a wheel off a toy digger up his nose! This was last Thursday. Took him to A&E and they couldn't get it out then we had to go the the ENT dept the next day and they couldn't get it out either so yesterday we had to go to hospital and he had it removed under a general anaesthetic. The procedure only took a few minutes but we had to wait for over 4 hours after it to make sure he didn't have a reaction to the anaesthetic. It was a very long boring day but Jamie had a great time as there were loads of toys to play with.

Hi to everyone else,

Viv xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


sorry, meant to add that she was 6lb 15oz.


viv - glad Jamie is ok and didnt suffer too much i hope, not sure yet if i'll post a birth story because it was very traumatic for everyone involved including the medical staff, still not sure.


xdebsx


----------



## LiziBee

Debs - Congratulations to you and DH on the birth of your precious girl Hannah. Sorry to hear the birth was traumatic, I hope you get over any problems it causes you nice and quickly. (Have to admit I'm rather intrigued now as to what happened, hope it wasn't a rotten tear.)
Congratulations also to Tiffany and Rach and Julie!
Love and hugs
Lizi.x


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


just to let you know that i have now posted my birth story, the reason i wasnt sure about it was because when she was delivered the docs didnt manage to catch her in time and she landed on the floor, luckily she's ok but it was the worst moment of our lives when we didnt know what was happening to her.


hope you are all well,

xdebsx


----------



## Marielou

Blimey Deb, Just read your birth story - I can't believe they let her drop on the floor!     So glad she is ok though, and SO looking forward to seeing photos.  So much for me saying she'd be 8lb 9oz though!   

If you had lots of stitches, I advise a bath daily, or even twice daily - one day I was too tired so missed it, and really paid for it the day after! 

Marie xxx


----------



## tiffanyb

Wonderful news on the birth of Hannah Susanne. I've just read your birth story - I can't believe she ended up on the floor! Glad to hear you are both well.


----------



## sam mn

Congrats to deb and your DH on the arrival of your precious little hannah
         
sorry to read about your traumatic delivery.


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


thanks for the messages, as you can imagine it was the best and worst day of our lives, but she is just so wonderful, by looking at her you'd never know anything had happened to her, we had our 1st community m.w visit today and was explaining what had happened (she was from a different hospital) and she said that she was the most healthy looking baby she's seen today and we were her last call of the day, looks like the feeding might have turned a corner, my milk has come in properly, my bra feels like its filled with rocks and boobs are very tender but hannah seems to know and has been taking more and more with each feed, the m/w said that if i want to express (i'd told her this is what i did in hospital sometimes by hand) then its better to do it by hand because of the stimulation of the flow of the milk, it made sense at the time but cant remember why now, so ive just expressed 2oz for her feed later so d.h can give it to her, he's just put her down to sleep, he's on night duty tonite, im happy to get up with her (i did last nite twice and we were up at 6 this morning) but he wants to do it, think it makes him feel more a part of the feeding routine, she also mentioned using formula milk for one feed, but want to give the b/f a real try.  

Hannah loves her skin to skin contact so ed and i have both been doing it, i must admit that i love it as much as she does, it actually makes me feel closer to her than the b.f whicih i thought was strange but maybe i'll change my mind if it keeps going well.


hope you are all well,


xdebsx


----------



## AnneD

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS DEBS    

WELCOME TO THE WORLD HANNAH SUSANNE!!! 

Fantastic news Debs but  at Hannah's traumatic arrival - I'm so glad she's okay  Sounds like you're enjoying every minute 

Viv - glad Jamie's okay and they managed to retrieve that wheel!

Tiff - I was only 15 wks when I ordered our pram because it was a special edition and desperately wanted it but then didn't buy anything else for baby until after 20 weeks because I was so paranoid. Of course I now can't move for baby paraphanalia  DH actually asked me yesterday if there was anything else we could possibly need to which my response was 'of course!' 

Rach and Julie -   

I've been awake since 2.30am  with a stinking cold and chest infection. I've coughed so much that my muscles hurt so goodness knows what it's like for poor baby. Definitely need to go and see the doctor tomorrow because this is the fourth night with less than 4 hours sleep  Also have a mouthful of ulcers and an eye infection just to round things off. Timing couldn't be worse and anxious to be feeling better before I go into labour. Sorry for the whinge but it's really getting me down now.


----------



## lucky2010

hi there, congratulations to Deb. Can anyone tell me where I can find her birth story?

Rach x


----------



## struthie

Here you go Rach

http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=82934.msg1123092#msg1123092


----------



## Hippy

Debs & hubby - WELCOME to little baby HANNAH (gorgeous choice of name!)       so thrilled she is now safely in your arms. Haven't had the courage to read your birth story, but just relived she is ok. Enjoy many precious moments together  

Big hugs
Hippy
xxxxxxx


----------



## lucky2010

thanks Struthie! x


----------



## Marielou

Hippy - Hello lovey, so nice to see you posting  

Debs - Sounds like you're doing fab with the breastfeeding.  HV/MW do annoy me with their apparent fascination with giving BF babies formula    - if you and Hannah are doing wel land enjoying feeding it, then theres no need to use formula.  Of course, if you want to, thats fine too, just don't feel forced into it!  Glad Daddy is enjoying feeds too (Mark has yet to feed Ethan as I don't want him to have a bottle - naughty mummy!   - ) must be a lovely bonding time for them )bonding time for Mark is bathtime, he loves it, bless him) 

Anne - Ooooh, you're next, unless Tamsin does some specatuaclur que-jumping *ahem* not that I'd know about que-jumping, hey?!     Hope you feel better soon  

Rach - How are you feeling? Any signs or symptoms? 

Ethan's doing well, is obsessed with his hands now  and grinning and laughing away like a trooper.

Marie xxx


----------



## sweetcaroline

Congratulations Debs and DH on the arrival of Hannah      xxx

Hi to everyone else.  Sounds like so many of you are doing brilliantly with breastfeeding.  Sebastian will be one on Friday (I can't believe it) so I am thinking of weaning him.  I'm only feeding him at bedtime and in the morning, the rest of the time he has cow's milk from a cup.  I feel a bit sad about stopping though!

Sorry I haven't posted for ages but I do check in on you every now and again; it's fantastic to see the new BFPs.

love Caroline xxx


----------



## lucky2010

Hi *Marie*, I'm ok thanks. Have slightly achy lower abdo and HUGE and sore boobs, I can only just squeeze into my bras. We have decided to go for a private scan between 7-8weeks, just to put our minds at rest, 12 wks is just too long to wait!

hi to everyone else.

Rach x


----------



## sarahjj

Debs - Congratulations on the arrival of Hannah Suzanne            

Sarah
xx


----------



## nismat

* Dear Debs & Ed, 
Huge congratulations on the birth of your daughter Hannah Susanne *  ​
       ​
It's wonderful that she's with you, and that she's taking so well to breastfeding etc., but I was so sorry to read of such a shocking start to her life for you all! So glad that all seems to be well with her, with all the tests that they are now carrying out. I hope that you are both recovering from the shock and trauma of it too. Enjoy your babymoon!


----------



## struthie

Sorry Debs,I meant to say massive congratulations to you and Ed,enjoy every moment xxx


----------



## nismat

Ooh, we're on to page 15 of this thread now! I can't believe that I am moving so close towards the top of the list of due dates now, although to be honest, the sooner that Pip arrives, the better! Don't want to queue-jump Anne though   
I feel pretty rubbish/ungrateful for complaining, but I am so darned uncomfortable *all * the time now with my myriad aches and pains that it's really getting me down, and I'm not sure how much longer I feel able to carry on. My lower back, neck and shoulders are permanently painful, I've got a constant splitting headache, and my head feels like it's full of fuzz, plus I never feel like I'm properly rested, even when I've had a reasonable stretch of sleep. Moan, moan, moan, moan, moan  And it could still be another 6 weeks to go  I'm going for a proper therapeutic massage today, with a woman who is experienced in dealing with pregnancy issues, so I'm really hoping that I'll feel rather better after that. These last few weeks are going to prove pretty expensive, as I've decided to allow myself at least one treatment (massage/reflexology/acupuncture) a week before the baby comes, but if anything helps, then it's money well spent! I had a pedicure yesterday, and it certainly gave me a psychological lift 

Of course, realistically, I want Pip to stay put for at least another 2 weeks - partly to get to full term, but also so that we get to have our civil partnership ceremony on Feb 9th as planned! It's pretty much sorted now, although it hasn't involved much sorting, seeing as it's only us plus 3 family members! I'm not bothering with a new outfit, as it doesn't seem worth it at this stage of pregnancy (plus stuff available now is summery and too cold), but I've already got a lovely wrap jersey dress from Crave Maternity which looks really flattering, so I'll be wearing that. We're going to go up to London on Saturday afternoon, after our midwife visit, to go and buy wedding rings at Hatton Garden (Karen is an excellent haggler), and we've booked lunch at a lovely local restaurant for after the ceremony. I shall be treating myself to a glass of lovely dessert wine to celebrate the occasion (the only thing I can tolerate drinking) 
We've also both decided to change our names (we'd already decided to amalgamate our names as a surname for Pip), so that we will all have the same family name, so I've been organising deed polls etc. There will be a massive amount of paperwork ahead of us (me ) to contact all the relevant organisations, but I'm really happy that we will have a clear family identity. It'll be odd though to have to remember to say and sign a different name!

But once that's out of the way, Pip's welcome to arrive any time! Things I have thought of so far for trying to ripen the cervix/bring on labour are: acupuncture; reflexology; evening primrose oil; raspberry leaf tea; fresh pineapple. Any other suggestions from anyone? I know that there are all the things like eating curries etc. for if you are overdue, but our midwife said that they are only likely to have any effect if your cervix is already ripe. 

*RachJulie* - welcome to the thread! So good to see you over here   
I had to go and buy new bras virtually the same week that I found out that I was pregnant as my boobs were so sore and swollen, and I couldn't believe how quickly my trousers became too tight, when the baby was still so tiny. Your body goes through some fairly major changes really fast, even though you've got something no bigger than a grain of rice in your uterus. However, don't worry if at some stage in the next few weeks your symptoms suddenly disappear - it's completely normal for this to happen (although it's also completely panic-inducing).

*Caroline * - I can't believe that Sebastian is almost one already! I well remember you having to skip your planned first DI treatment because of mis-timing with your return from your honeymoon 

*Tiff * - welcome! We didn't start buying things (or even baby-window-shopping) until after 20 wks either- I just didn't feel mentally ready to do that any earlier.

*Anne * - commiserations on feeling so unwell; I can really empathise . I was feeling so run down and in so much pain over the weekend that I then started getting myself in a state as to how on earth I would cope with labour if it started any time soon, despite the fact that it is pretty unlikely. Not so for you however, so I really hope that you start feeling better soon. On a positive note though, one of my friends who had a stinking cold when she went into labour found that all the cold symptoms completely disappeared, as her body had to concentrate on more important things!

*Viv * - glad to hear that everything went OK for Jamie's wheel-removal op! Poor boy, but he doesn't seem to have suffered too much; I'm sure that it's all been much more distressing for you.


----------



## AnneD

Tamsin - ooh very exciting that your civil partnership ceremony is all planned and lovely that you're both changing your names.  When we first got married I still had my maiden name because I have to use it for my writing but as soon as we started tx it felt right to change it and it's amazing how much of a unit it makes you feel even though I never thought it would make any difference.  Hope you feel better soon.  I know how miserable it is when you're not getting much needed rest.  I went to the doctors yesterday and turns out I have bronchitis so no wonder I've been feeling so poo    On antibiotics now and had my first nights sleep last night (bliss!) so hopefully I'm on the mend and baby will wait until the pills have done their trick  

Caroline - wow I can't believe Sebastian is almost one year old    It only seems like yesterday  when he was born   

Marie - yep can hardly believe it's me next, still really surreal.  Just hoping I'm at full strength before it all kicks off  

Hippy -    great to see you posting hun  

I'm hoping I'm on the road to recovery now with all my ailments   but pretty typical that I've had no pregnancy ailments as such just horrible bronchitis    The kitchen is just about finished - just waiting for the electrician and joiner to come back and make final tiny adjustments then the rest of our bitsand curtains can go in.  It's looking great so all the upheaval has been worth it even though it didn't feel like it at the time    We've got the cotbed and furniture all set up in the nursery and have had for a couple of weeks but decided to make up the crib for our room the other night and the twoof us were sitting in the living room rocking it like a pair of grinning idiots    I even put all the bedding in it just so we could see the finished result    My dad keeps going into the nursery to see the pram and is just dying to take it out for a test run    Just pottering around now and trying to take it easy in between doing little jobs.  I've done nothing for the past few days with feeling so ill so I'll try and do a bit of cleaning today.  On the 'real' nappy front, I'm amazed to see that our local council have quite a few incentives.  You can pick between a nappy laundering voucher, money off nappies or an introductory pack worth £50 free.  I'll definitely be going for the pack but need baby's birth certificate to claim it so I'll start on disposables then send for the pack to see how I get on. Very exciting!  Still waiting for my glider chair to arrive   but our baby monitor arrived at the weekend so I've had a little play with it.  Looking for a nursing cushion now and keep checking them out on ebay and being outbid.  Almost ready for baby to arrive but won't be starting on the raspberry leaf tea until I feel better, just in case


----------



## Colly

Debs and DH congratulations on the birth of Hannah 

                    love Collyx


----------



## Colly

Hi ladies,
I now feel ready to make my first post over here. I was really nervous about the scan yesterday but now really believe that I am pregnant. Our baby was moving around all over the place and was measuring 4 days ahead. I will be having hospital care throughout with appointments and scans every week from 28 weeks and I will be induced at 38 weeks. The dr was very reasuring and we are feeling pretty confident.
I'm feeling better now as my morning sickness and tiredness seems to be subsiding and I start reducing the cyclogest today. I already have a noticeable bump so am pleased I can now feel happy about starting to wear maternity clothes. 

                                            love Collyx


----------



## nismat

Colly - it's been so long since I've been reading the Donor Sperm thread that I didn't even realise that you were pregnant - congratulations!
I'm glad to hear that all has gone well so far, and that they will be monitoring closely to make sure that everything is proceeding as it should, and to put your mind at rest of course. 
Hoping for a smooth ride for you


----------



## caz nox

Colly, 

Hello honey - glad to see you are feeling positive and youare going to be so well looked after. 

Carrie


----------



## Marielou

Colly - So lovely to see you posting over here    

Marie xxx


----------



## LiziBee

Colly - CONGRATULATIONS!!
Debs- I'll join Marie on the  the evening/night feeds are the most important as they stimulate you to produce enough milk for the next day (plus they actually produce sleepy hormones for both you and the baby, v.important I'm sure you'll agree!) if you really _have_ to put in a single formula feed make it a mid-morning one.
Tasmin - it's so nice to hear about your civil ceremony plans, hope it all goes well!

Rosa had rotten evening last night, screaming from 8pm to 10pm. I think she knew DH was out and didn't like it  He's not escaping tonight I can tell you!
love to all
Lizi.x


----------



## viviennef

Colly - fantastic to see you posting on here. Wishing you a very happy and healthy pregnancy. Have you been given a due date?

Viv xxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


colly - Huge congrats on the pregnancy, lovely to see you over here.

lizi - havent got much choice now cos my milk has dried up becuase she's not feeding properly, m.w said that she is a very lazy eater and wasnt stimulating me enough, the hand expressing is getting me nowhere, i feel like such a failure, i cant even do this one thing for her, ive had to switch to formula milk and it seems to be going ok, the m/w said that she lost 7oz before she left the hospital and had lost another 6 when she was weighed today, she's now only 6lbs 1oz, i feel like i cant do anything right, have been blubbing all afternoon im afraid, ed keeps trying to make me feel better but untill i see her put on weight im afraid that i wont.

hippy - i agree, Hannah was my grans name, well actually her name was christina but for some reason everyone called her Hannah, no one knows why.

caroline - cant beleive that Sebastian is nearly one already, is he having a party?

tamsin - hope your massage done the trick, love the fact that both of you are changing your name.

anne - not long now, sorry you are feeling so rotten, hopefully you will start to feel better soon.

marie - at the moment Hannah hates her bath, but ed loves it.


hope you all are well,


xdebsx


----------



## *Suze*

sorry to gatecrash ladies

just wanted to say congratulations to deb and dh on the birth of hannah susanne (love middle name )        

all my love
Suzi xxx


----------



## sam mn

colly good to see you over on this thread. glad scan went well.

anne sorry to hear you have been poorly, hope you are well before that littleone arrives 

tamsin cant believe you are 35wks. your family name and civil ceremony sound lovel. hope pip doesnt make an early appearance  

deb sounds like little hannah is doing well.

hi to all. sorry for short post, cant get comfy with lap top anymore.

sam
xxxx


----------



## wolla

Debs - firstly, a huge congratulations on the birth of Hannah and secondly - YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE!!  I couldn't manage to BF Thomas either - he just completely refused to go anywhere near my boobs, and after a week of expressing and giving him it by syringe I gave up and started him on formula.  I was absolutely gutted, and spent far too long feeling like a complete failure and crying my eyes out.  DO NOT waste these precious first weeks feeling like that.....please - you're a fab mum, you're doing what's best for YOUR baby, and she'll be just fine.  Thomas is absolutely thriving on formula and is such a happy, healthy contented little boy, I really wish I had done it sooner rather than really not enjoying the first week of my son's life.  If you want to PM me, please do - I really do know what you're going through - take care hun xx

Hi to everyone else - sorry not had much time to post lately, and have only had chance to read this page, so forgive me if I've missed any news...I'll try a few personals:

Anne - hope you don't have to wait too long now, and that your bronchitis clears up - poor you 

Colly - congratulations - fab to see you posting over here (I'm afraid I never get chance to read the other thread these days, so didn't know you were pg either).

Caroline - wow, Sebastian is nearly one - that's gone sooooo fast.  Mind you, I can't believe Thomas is 3 months already.

Rach & Julie - congratulations to you too.  Great to see a whole new batch of bumps coming through on this thread - I remember when I first started posting on here, I think there was only Viv, Caroline and Lizi posting - now we're a proper little community.

Hi to Marie, Viv, Lizi, Sam, Sam, Tamsin, Sarah, and anyone I've missed.


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


wolla - thanks for replying to me, i know im doing the right thing, just doesnt feel too much like it at the moment, think she'll be weighed again on thursday so hopefully will have put on a little weight by then, ed and my mum both said that if the m.w was concerned then she would have said but she was happy with her so it cant be that bad, am using aptimil (think this is what its called) just what was reccomended to me because its supposed to be like breast milk, she's had a few feeds of it now and it seems to be going well ( but thats what i thought about the breast feeding) so fingers crossed.


xdebsx


----------



## LiziBee

Oh Debs, I'm so sorry. At the risk of sounding like and echo You are a wonderful mummy, DO NOT your first precious weeks feeling bad about it, you're doing what's best for YOUR baby, and she'll be just fine.   
I can also reassure that some babies are just small and still manage a high metabolism, they still come out fine in the end. (Rosa can guzzel gallons and still not put on weight! )
Lizi.x


----------



## Marielou

Oh debs, another echo here - you ARE a wonderful Mummy,  do what is best for you and your beautiful little girl, and please don't spend her first precious weeks beating yourself up about it.      My sister had the exact same thing with Hayley, she went from 7lb 12oz to 6lb 15oz and soon regained her weight, within weeks.  (after switching to formula)  One day all this will be a distant memory, and you'll be telling someone else how it worked out best for you.   

Big hugs,
Marie xxx


----------



## nismat

Sorry for the feeding woes *Debs * - it must be so hard when it doesn't all go as planned, but it seems to me like breastfeeding is most certainly not the easy option, even when you really want it to work, and most women have some issue or another. If Hannah just won't take to it, then you don't have much choice in the matter, and you are absolutely doing the right thing by making sure that Hannah gets her nutrients in whatever way she can. After all, you have given her the best possible start with the colostrum that she took in the first days. 
Hugs to you though, it must be hard to feel rational about it all right now when it's such an emotional time


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

Debs - just want to say you are not a failure. Breastfeeding is a lot harder than people realise. You have a very much wanted little girl who has a mummy that loves and cares for her. That will be more important to her than how she was fed.

I struggled for weeks trying to breastfeed Daniel who seemed to be constantly attached to me and I felt like I really couldn't give Jamie the attention he needed at the same time. Daniel was a much happier, contented baby after I went onto formula.

Also it's totally normal to have days where you feel like you want to cry all the time and can't see things getting better. That's mostly down to tiredness and hormones. It does get better and I'm sure Hannah will put on weight just fine. No baby has ever starved themselves so it might just be that she's not a big eater.



Viv xxx


----------



## Marielou

OMG Tamsin, 35+6!  I gave birth then! (sorry, I keep telling everyone this!, but it just blows my mind and makes me smile and remember when I see a ticker saying 35+6) 

Not long until we'll have 3 more babies ..... Anne's, Moody Cat's and yours!

Marie xxx


----------



## natalie34

Just popped on to say congratulations to Deb and her DH - wonderful news on the birth of your baby daughter.   

With love,

Natalie xx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


just wanted to say thanks for the messages, i know i have done the right thing, i cannot beleive the change in Hannah in just 1 day, she is so bright and stayed awake for more than 4 hrs running this evening (after sleeping most of the day though) but the change is amazing, the guilty feelings are easing and im actually feeling quite good after seeing how she was today, but then got some upsetting news this evening, my mum had to be taken into hospital becuase they think she has a kidney infection (some of you might remember that she had cancer a few years ago and was in hospital a lot because of infections in her lumpectomy wound) and it just brought it all back, im am emotional reck at the moment, am waiting for my aunt to let me know how she is because she is with her, might need to wait till the morning now though cos its getting late and i dont think i'll hear from her tonite.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


----------



## LiziBee

Debs -  I hope she gets well soon. Glad to hear Hannah is doing well.
Lizi.x


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi Debs
Good to hear that things are improving sweetie.  They do say the first 6 weeks are the hardest.  Onwards and upwards!
By the way, I'm booked in for an induction on Monday at 8.30am . . . eek

love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxxxx


----------



## AnneD

Debs -   Really hope your mum is okay hun.     Great to hear Hannah is doing so well.  A friend of mine went through the same emotions with her first baby and had a real struggle to feed. The change in both her and her little girl when she went onto formula was amazing.  Keep up the good work hun  

Moodycat - oii!  you queue jumper you      Hope you don't mind me asking but how come they're inducing you so early?  My due date is Tuesday but sounds like you'll probably beat me to it    In saying that, we're off out for a curry tomorrow night so you never know    Huge love and luck for Monday    

My bronchitis is improving but much much slower than I'd like as my cough is still giving me sleepless nights    We're taking DH's sister, brother-in-law and my mam and dad out for a curry tomorrow night to say a big thank you for all their help (and endless food supplies from mam!) . It's an hours drive from here so something tells me I'd better put my bags in the car just in case!  Had a few little twinges yesterday which I'm assuming are Branxton Hicks (sp?) and other than that the baby feels very low so it hopefully won't be long now


----------



## Marielou

Moodycat - Best of luck for monday   oooh another baby on the thread, how exciting!

Anne - Ethan felt VERY low the night before he arrived, I thought it was him engaging    Hope it won't be long now for you  

Debs - Love to your mum    Glad Hannah is doing so well.  She' sounds very alert!

Marie xxx


----------



## MoodyCat

Hi girls
They're inducing me because I'm in the high risk category - IVF, 38yrs, big baby, excess water  .  Sorry about the queue jumping - it's like the January sales!  Even though I know that Monday will be here soon I'm still in denial and convinced that there's a football up my top!  Giving birth and labour is soooooooooooooooo far away in my mind  !

Good luck to everyone who's due soon 
love
MoodyCat
xxxxxxxxxxxx


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone.


marie - m/w today suggested that if i want help with the b/f then i can go to see someone at our local hospital (not the one Hannah was born in) so we are going tomorrow, even if theres nothing i or they can do at least ive tried, mum is not out of hospital, she had a urine infection and because of the cancer unfortunatley if she does get anything it tends to be 10 times worse for her than for you and me because of her system being so low, am so glad she's home though and feeling better.

anne - i cant beleive you EDD is so soon.

moddycat - very best of luck for monday, its so exciting.


am feeling much better now that i know that my mum is ok, just need to go shopping now, got a few things to get for the visitors we have coming to see us over the weekend, have already had half of the street in and one of my aunts and uncle in the last few days, got my dad and stepmum at the weekend and some of eds family coming too, need to get more supplies, Hannah was weighed today and she has put on 6oz since tuesday    , so needless to say we are all a lot happier.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


----------



## lucky2010

Hello to all,

Biggest panic ever last night.... I thought I'd miscalculated my eligibility for maternity pay.... My trust says you have to have worked for them for a year when you're 29wks pregnant to get full maternity pay.... we worked it out and we were two days short  I spent all night crying and Julie was saying 'that's the last time I let you calculate anything'. Panic was over this morning when Julie went to see the appropriate person at work who said we fit into another criteria and that all is well.... PHEW!!!!

I went shopping with my friend today who is exactly 10wks ahead of me, she has a lovely little bump. I kept talking about her being pregnant and then realising that I was too.... very strange but lovely feeling!!

Hi to everyone else.

Rach x


----------



## AnneD

Moodycat - just want to let you know that I feel exactly the same way about labour and birth - it's like it's not actually going to happen to me and I'm not really pregnant after all.  It's so funny that we're both in denial


----------



## sam mn

anne and moody cat, im also in denial about having to give birth but i thought as i got nearer to the end that this would change. obviously not  

moodycat good luck for monday.

anne hopefully the curry will do the trick  

deb glad your mum is home, must have been such a worry for you. glad hannah is doing better.

as for me, im absolutely knackered. week from hell at work. luckily im off today and on holiday next wk. so have a veg day. which i find hard cos im usually on the go and also so much to do in the home and spare room, still a junk room at the mo. so want to get it cleared so we can decorate and make it all ready for bertie. i know bertie will be with us for first 6mths but still want our nusery already for berties arrival.

sam
xxx


----------



## going it alone

Hi all

First of all, Deb, I felt exactly like you. Before having the twins I promised myself that I would try to breast feed and if it didn;t work out, I wouldn't beat myself up. I have never produced enough milk and always did mixed feeds. Despite my promises to myself I felt as though I wasn't doing enough of a good job not being able to bf exclusively. Libby was also a lazy feeder and I have struglled to even find teats that suit her. Now I give one or two breast feeds a day and the rest formula. They do not have nipple isses and switch from one to the other easily now. My two were weighed yesterday and Libby now weighs 9lb 15oz and Amelie weighs 11lb 3oz. That means that they have put on 5lb 8 and 5lb 4 respectively in 10 weeks. They've now been discharged from the health visitor and she told me that if she hadn't seen their notes she would never have guessed that they were prem and twins. Amelie is on the 91st centile size wise and Libby has moved off the 50th and is heading towards the 75th. Don't ever feel guilty. You are doing what is best for your baby, that makes you the best kind of mum. Good luck with the hospital.

Lizi - thanks for the PM. I have Lucy Joyce's e-mail from the NCT so will get in touch with her.

On a personal front, Amelie's colic is now awful and the health visitor has suggested colief as she suspects she may be lactose intolerant. So trying that today. She wakes in pain throughout the day and noght and I feel so helpless. If that doesn't work I have to take her to the GP and possibly get special formula prescribed.

Tamsin - love the new name idea. Someone I know hates having a different last name to her children. Her not so dear partner has suggested changing her name by deedpoll as he won't marry her.

Moodycat - Best of luck on Monday 

Anne - Best of luck for you too. I get to post so rarely you'll probably be a mummy by the time I post again.

Love to all.

Sam xx


----------



## LiziBee

Hi!
Just wanted to say that for anyone finding Breast-feeding hard, or just wanting a bit of support or advice, I've found La Leche League very helpful. They have a website http://www.laleche.org.uk/ or you can ring 0845 120 2918. They are brilliant! A bit like the NCT but specifically for b/f and are usually able to send a fully trained counsellor to your home if you need special help. I met a girl a few weeks ago who had never breastfed successfully (or so she felt) until she got help from La Leche. She'd been pumping and bottle feeding for about 8 weeks until LLL helped her to get a latch and then she was off! She thought she'd never be able to do it, but she has.
The NCT also have a website http://www.nct.org.uk and their number for b/f is 0870 444 8708 I've also found them to be really good.
Both the telephone lines are staffed by volunteers (AFAIK) and paid for by donations so I'm sure you will understand if it's a little hard getting through sometimes, do persist and keep ringing, it's well worth it.

Hope that helps.
Lizi.x

/links


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


sam - sorry Amelie's colic is so bad, hoping it will get better soon.

moodycat - very best of luck for tomorrow         


does anyone know any good shops for baby tights, have tried all the usual places, next, M&S, debenhams, adams etc. but cant really find any,  Hannah's been given loads of gorgeous dresses  but only 1 pair of tights and we are finding it really hard to get any.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

I'm probably too late now but just wanted to wish Moodycat all the best for today. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Deb - love your pic of Hannah. Sorry, can't help you with the tights, Jamie and Daniel don't have much use for them! 

Hi to everyone else,

Viv xxx


----------



## nismat

Hello all,
I did mean to come on and wish *Moodycat * good luck for today, but I hope that everything has gone smoothly with the induction and that you are well on your way to holding your baby in your arms   

*Anne * - how's it going? Hope that your horrible cough/bronchitis sypmtoms are receding now, making you feel more able to deal with labour when it starts. Although as you haven't posted for a couple of days, maybe those weren't just Braxton Hicks contractions....... 

*Debs*: it might be worth trying Gap for tights - I'm sure that my sister used to buy them there for my niece. Otherwise, given that Hannah isn't very old/big yet, you could try the preemie website I mentioned a few weeks ago - they have tights in 8-12lb size (and smaller of course for small newborns/preemies) http://www.peenyweeny.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=154596ef84e9480/shopdata/index.shopscript

*Sam * - sorry to hear about Amelie's colic; a misery for all concerned  How will they go about determining whether she's also lactose intolerant? Or is it just a case of trying her on a lactose-free formula and seeing if things improve? These issues aside (although I'm sure that they are hard to ignore), it sounds like both girls are doing really well on the weight gain front. Well done you!

*Sam mn* - enjoy your week off work! Is it holiday proper (i.e. going away for a last pre-baby holiday), or time off to rest and get ready? Good luck with clearing out the junk room - it is such a strong need to get the baby's room ready in advance, even though they're probably not going to be using it for some time, as you say!

*Rach * - glad that your maternity pay thing all works out OK after all  And as your baby will be born well after this April 1st, you will get much better entitlements than those of us due in the next couple of months (longer off work with allowances paid, and you can do a few days work through the latter part of your maternity leave, to "keep in touch" with your job, without losing maternity allowance). Being freelance, I obviously don't qualify for maternity pay from an employer, just state maternity allowance (currently £103 pw for a max of 26 weeks). However, I wasn't organised enough to apply for it by 26wks of pregnancy, and now that I am not working and could do with the money, they are taking 6 weeks to process applications!  I hope that they backdate the payments.

*Marie * - it looks like I'm going to be some way past your 35+6 before Pip decides to arrive  It's funny, but knowing that that was when you had Ethan, reaching that stage made me realise that our baby could come any time now  No signs of an early arrival whatsover though; I very much doubt that anything will happen before the due date.

We had our 36 week midwife appt on Saturday, meeting the last of the 5 midwives on our "team". They all seem very nice, and it's so reassuring to have met them, so that we will know whoever turns out to be on call when I actually go into labour. We are so lucky to have a community midwife team - it's made me feel much more secure about the whole birth thing, right from the word go. Somehow, it makes it seem like there will be a far less unknowns to it all. And it makes a huge difference, knowing in advance that they will be supportive of our birth choices (i.e. hoping to have a waterbirth, using homeopathy/yoga, and planning to avoid major main relief if at all possible although I have no intentions of being a martyr if drugs are needed ), instead of going into hospital, wondering whether we may have a battle on our hands if we ended up with an unsympathetic midwife.

The only issue at the moment is that Pip is presenting back-to-back, so obviously we want him/her to turn before the birth. I know that this could well happen over the next few weeks naturally, but I want to encourage it in any way that I can, as s/he has been in pretty much the same position for the last 2-3 weeks at least. I know that spending some time on all fours each day can help - but are you supposed to do something extra like make sure that your pelvis is higher than your shoulders while doing this? Any suggestions (either relating to this, or any other things I could try)?


----------



## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


tamsin - thanks for the link, will have a look, Hannah was back to back and turned when i was in labour so dont worry too much about it.


xdebsx


----------



## sarahjj

Hello all

moodycat - hope that all has gone well for you today     Can't wait to hear your news  

Tamsin - wow - any time soon for you! - glad your midwives all seem nice. Charlotte was also back to back when I was pregnant -  going on all fours for 10 min a couple of times a day is supposed to help, also if you have a gym ball then sitting on that leaning forward when watching tv can help. Charlotte did turn in the last week but then went back to back again when I was in labour.

Tracey - how are things? Hope you are OK  

Debs - we've also had problems getting tights for Charlotte! A couple of the dresses we were given from Next had tights with them so we've been using those. I also got some patterned ones from Mothercare, though they didn't have just plain white ones which was what I wanted really. Good luck with your search!  How is Hannah? Are you managing to get some sleep   Hope your Mum is OK too  

Sam - sounds like your girls are doing really well. I hope the colic is improving. 

Sam mn - hope you are having a nice week off work. Take it easy  

Anne - hope your are OK. Looking out for your news      

Marie - hope Ethan is OK  

Wolla - hope Thomas is well  

Hi to Lizi, Viv, Rach & anyone I've missed 

Charlotte is still doing well - up to 12lb 7oz now and we are at last getting into a good sleeping routine with usually just one night feed now   She is such a happy little girl too - we get lots of laughing and giggling at everything now which is wonderful!

Sarah
x


----------



## wolla

Debs - glad you're feeling happier with your decision, and that hannah is putting on weight and doing well. Hope your mum is recovering well from her infection. Love the photo of Hannah.

Moodycat - hope all went well today, and that by now you've got your precious baby with you.

Anne - wow, your due day tomorrow - only seems like yesterday that you moved over to this board. Hope you don't have to wait too long now for baby to arrive.

Sarah - glad to hear Charlotte is doing so well. It's just the best thing when your baby laughs and giggles at you isn't it? It makes my heart melt every time Thomas laughs (especially on a morning when he is just so pleased to see me, he laughs and starts kicking his legs cos he knows we're getting up for the day)

We had Thomas weighed today, and he's up to 14lb 4oz - he's very long for his age (which we'd guessed already as he grew out of all of his 0-3 month clothes length ways a few weeks ago.

We're taking him swimming for the first time tomorrow, so we're very excited about that - it's DH's day off, so we're all going. Just hope Thomas enjoys it.

Hi to everyone
Wolla
x

ps - have added a couple of recent photo's of Thomas - I think you can see them by clicking here http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7


----------



## sam mn

hi ladies,

anned any news?

moodycat hope all went well with your induction, looking forward to hearing about ur new \arrival

wolla  and sarah good to hear your littleones are doing well.

tamsin have you had civial cermony yet. hope your littleone turns.

on the note of turning any info on how to turn baby naturally when they are breech. my niece has just found out her littleone is breech and wasnt given any advice. just told they were going try and turn baby.

as for me enjoying my wk off. just pottering and doing bits and pieces around the home. we are going away for a romantic wked to devon. last one of just the 2 of us!

sam
xxxx


----------



## tiffanyb

Hi ladies,

Trying to catch up with all the posts on here, and get to know everyone too.

I had my 12 week scan yesterday and little bean is doing fine so starting to relax a bit and try to enjoy it!

Sounds like I can pick up some good tips from you guys, I'll keep reading!

Sam - on the 'turning' issue, my mate had a breech baby a few months back, she opted for the turning at 8.5 months and said she'd never do it again, it didn't work, apparantley there's only a small chance it will. She was left sore and felt guilty for putting the baby through it, which was silly but I can understand. She had to have a c section but had a gorgeous little girl. I don't know if that helps but I certainly wouldn't do it after what she went through.

A quick Q for you ladies, when should I stop taking folic acid? I know they say 12 weeks, should I take it for longer just in case?

Cheers

Tiff
xxxxx


----------



## LiziBee

On the turning issue, seek out an acupuncturist (apparently the success rate is similar to that of 'manual turning' and it's a lot less painfull. 
On 'back to back' Rosa turned from back to back to the correct position in the first hour or so of labour.
Debs - Matalan, nice tights, a good price and instructions on how to put them on!!
L&H
Lizi.x


----------



## AnneD

Hi girls,

Sorry for the me post but I figured you're all expecting 'news' but unfortunately I don't have any yet    Saw the midwife today and she was shocked at how much baby has grown in the last two weeks   and is concerned that there may be complications. As I'm booked in to a midwife led unit with no consultant available they want to scan me tomorrow to double check the size and position etc just in case.

Moodycat - looking forward to hearing your news


----------



## Marielou

Hello,

Bene having some teething probs with Ethan - waking in the middle of the night again and constantly sucking on his fists, poor thing.  Ethan woke last night at 5.30am but settled back off with his music, and some dentinox, until 8am   Had a MAJOR scare last night, we have one of those sensor monitors, well it went off.   I honestly have never screamed so loud (not even when I was in labour!) and we both ran up the stairs, me screaming and crying all the way ('Is he alive? Oh God, let him be alive!'    ) - Ethan was fine, if not bemused to see his Mummy and Daddy come crashing into the room, and then him being picked up, cuddled, kissed and then fed (he thought it was christmas, I'm sure!  ) - Mark had to hold him for a while, as I was just so shaky I couldn't.  Got a massive headache today because of it though, and a sore throat!    So glad we have the monitor though .... better safe than sorry.  If you remember, my niece went through that time of stopping breathing and being resussitated, I know thats uncommon but I'm sure the monitor was her lifesaver at times.  

Anne - Best of luck for your scan tomorrow, hope all goes well and you can still deliver at the MLU. 

Debs - I know my sister always had trouble finding tights for her little girls, think Gap is good.  One tip for socks is gap - they do a 2 pack for £3.50 and they actually stay on!   Well worth the money!  Ethan has such skinny legs that he's never had socks that stay on 

Tiff - Fab news on your 12 week scan, I took folic acid throughout pregnancy, but I was taking the pregnacare vits, and I'm veggie so wanted the additional vits.  Folic acid is safe to take throughout pregnancy, but you can sotp when you reach 12 weeks 

Sam - Enjoy your weekend in devon! How romantic! 

Wolla - Oh, Thomas is just scrummy!  I'm very jealous that he can lay on his front and support his head, Ethan still can't do that, he's still very small (still in a lot of newborn, some 0-3 month clothes) so I guess thats why, but it does worry me that other babies can do it and he can't! He's also not opening his hand and grabbing, he much prefers me to hold things for him!    Still, his thing is laying under his gym, talking away to his animals, for up to an hour, so he's going to be a chatterbox like Mummy!  

Sarah - Oh, its so lovely to hear them laugh and smile, isn't it?  I SO love the special smile Ethan does for me, makes me go all gooey 

Tamsin - My Niece was back-to-back, and she was told to sit backwards on a hard (dining room) chair, leaning forwards, or go on all fours, and it worked for her 

Tracey - Thank you for our chat yesterday, it really helped  

Marie xxx


----------



## viviennef

Hi,

Marie - that must have been so scary for you. The same thing happened to us when Jamie was about 9 or 10 months old. It went off when we were downstairs and I have to say I've never moved so fast in my life. I felt like my heart was going to explode! So glad Ethan is ok. Have you tried giving him Medised at night for his teething? It also helps them sleep and I've found it really seems to help Daniel. He's teething as well. He's got the edge of a little tooth at the top and the one next to it looks like it's about to come through as well. He was very grumpy yesterday which is not like him at all.

Anne - hope all goes well with the scan. Do you have an induction date yet? Let us know how you get on.

Tiffany - I took folic acid throughout my pregnancy as I took a pregnancy multivitamin every day with folic acid in it. It was Sanatogen pro natal vitamins and you can take them throughout your pregnancy and when you are breastfeeding as well.

Wolla - your photos of Thomas are lovely. Hope he enjoyed the swimming.

Tamsin - I think you're doing all the right things. We were told at the classes not to lie on your back and try and sit forward in a chair or go on all fours for a little while every day. Unfortunately for me Jamie went back to back during my labour and the same thing happened with Daniel so all my contractions for both labours were in my back. Can't believe it happened twice to me. It didn't cause any complications though so don't worry.

Not much happening here. I'm taking Jamie swimming today while MIL looks after Daniel. I feel like I haven't had any time on my own with Jamie for ages so I'm going to try and make this a regular thing. Daniel is doing really well apart from teething. He's huge and getting so heavy to lift. He's crawling everywhere now as well so I really need eyes in the back of my head now! 

Has anyone ever heard anything about Kitty? She posted on here ages ago at the start of her pregnancy and I haven't read anything since.

Hi to everyone else,

Viv xxx


----------



## AnneD

Hi girls,

scan went fine but baby has had a bit of a growth spurt and is now around 8 and a half pounds    Everything is set to go but baby just not in any hurry   Feeling fine but this waiting is getting a tad boring now  

Love Anne x


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## Colly

Anne - I hope things start happening for you soon.

Marie - You must have been really scared. I'm really glad he is ok.

Tiff - I'm still taking folic acid (in pronatal form) and will be taking it until the baby is born. Been taking the things for nearly 6 years now.

Moodycat - I hope everything went well with the induction. Looking forward to hearing all about your baby.

I'm doing ok although I stll find it hard to believe I'm having a baby. I'm looking forward to feeling my baby move. I felt Joey at 16 weeks so hoping it won't be too long. We have bought a doppler but have had limited success so far. I can hear the placenta and what sounds like a train in the distance (isn't it supposed to sound like galloping horses?). The heart rate display jumps around between 50 and 230.
Hello to everyone else and have a good weekend.

                                              love Collyx


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## LiziBee

Colly - a train is a boy and horses are supposed to be for a girl!
Just to say that sadly my Grandad died on Wednesday (if you thought I'd gone AWOL that is why). I'm off down south for the funeral etc. and then DH is away for a  long business trip so I'm staying down there, so might not be around for a while.
Love and hugs to you all
Lizi.x


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## Marielou

Lizi  - So sorry to hear about your Grandad     Much love to your family. 

Anne - Sounds like baby is a good size, I think you're having/had a boy!  

Colly - Ethan's HB always sounded like a train, which they say means a boy.  

Viv - Tracey and I used to wonder about Kitty, I believe the last we heard of her she was going for a 20 week scan?  I think she was between Wolla and I in due dates, so her baby would be around 3-4 months old now?  I hope she's ok.  

Ethan blew a raspberry the other day  and also is really chuckling and laughing now.  Have packed away most of his newborn stuff now, aside from some vests and sleepsuits, and about 3 outfits.  Aside from that, he's beginning to fit into 0-3.

Marie xxx


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## AnneD

Arghhh still no baby and I'm tearing my hair out!


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## viviennef

Oh Anne, I remember the feeling so well. I tried everything, curries, pineapple and even resorted to sex which was very awkward given that I was the size of an elephant and it was the last thing I wanted to do. Daniel was just to comfy in there!

Do you have an induction date yet? I know it's a nightmare but make the most of getting a good sleep and some time to yourself.

Viv xxx


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## nismat

Hi all 

Well, I'm a "married" woman now - or at least I'm civilly partnered   We had a really lovely day on Friday; keeping it very small and quiet actually made it very personal and memorable. The ceremony at the registry office turned out to be much more moving than either of us had anticipated (Karen could hardly get her words out, and I got rather teary when I did a reading), and it was lovely. Followed by a fab lunch at a good local restaurant - yum. We were totally exhausted by the end of the day, despite it being so low key! So we had a very quiet weekend at home, not really doing much at all, which was nice in itself. We did venture to B&Q yesterday afternoon, and I had my first proper BH contractions while walking around, which was rather exciting! I still think that it will be a good 3-4 weeks before we'll have Pip though (although Karen reckons 10-14 days - she's more impatient!).

*Anne * - it seems like ages that you are having to wait for your baby to arrive, although I know that you're not massively overdue yet. It must really be dragging though . Our midwives recommend arranging simple stuff like meeting friends for coffee etc., going to see an afternoon film or just watching funny DVDs, for after your due date, so that you don't just feel like you're sitting around, waiting and waiting. Anything to keep you occupied, but that is easy to cancel! Our NCT teacher said that all the things like curry/pineapple/sex to bring on labour only work if your cervix is already ripe - otherwise they are no help at all. But I have heard that reflexology and/or acupuncture (with a practitioner used to dealing with pregnancy) can move things along, if you think it's worth a try to avoid induction. I'm anxiously awaiting news of the birth, as it means that I'm due next! 

*Marie * - sorry for your monitor scare with Ethan - it must have been terrifying  Glad to hear that all is OK though. How's the teething going? Ethan's really hitting those milestones now, what with you having to pack his newborn clothes away.

*Tiff * - congrats on the successful 12 wk scan - hope you can start to relax into the pregnancy a bit more now you've "passed" that crucial test. Yes, you can stop taking the folic acid any time now, or carry on with it if you prefer (like others, I'm still taking it in the form of a pregnancy multivitamin, otherwise I wouldn't bother).

*Viv * - didn't realise that you had had back labours both times - ouch! It seems amazing that Daniel is crawling about now; it sounds like a nice plan for just you & Jamie to start going swimming together for some special time as well.

*Lizi * - sorry to hear of your grandad's death. Hope you are all doing OK.

*Moodycat * - looking forward to hearing news of your baby - hope that all went well for you  

*Sam * - hope you enjoyed your romantic weekend away - sounds lovely. We never did get around to having a "last break/holiday", which is a bit of a shame really. Too knackered to consider anything like that now! 
BTW, for your niece with the breech baby, I came across this website http://www.spinningbabies.com/index.php when researching how to get Pip to turn. It's not the most clearly written site, but there are some useful ideas on there, including stuff on optimal maternal positioning for _any _ pregnancy, to encourage the baby into the best position. Having treatment from a chiropractor (experienced in treating pregnant women) can really help, as often a baby may be breech/transverse/back to back because either the uterus and/or pelvis are not properly aligned, so it's not easy/comfortable for the baby to take up the "correct" position. And presumably this is why babies that are subjected to manual turning by midwives/doctors, often turn back pretty much straightaway.

*Colly * - hope that you start feeling your baby move soon - and start having greater success with your doppler. Don't know about the train/horses stuff, my baby's heartbeat always sounds more like Rolf Harris's boogie board thingummy to me than either a train or a horse!  Maybe I'm having a baby koala/kangaroo


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## Colly

Lizi - I'm sorry to hear about your grandad.

Tamsin - Congratulations to you and Karen. I'm glad you had such a lovely day.

Anne - I'd hoped you wouldn't be here today! I hope it happens very soon.

I had more success today. A definate heartbeat of 155 - 160 which registered for about 30 seconds on the monitor - I turned it off after this as I don't want to do it too much.

                              love  Collyx


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## sarahjj

lizi - so sorry to hear about your grandad  

Tamsin & Karen - congratulations. Sounds as if you had a lovely service   

Anne - hope things start happening very soon for you    

Colly - how lovely to be able to listen to the heartbeat   

Tracey - Max is growing up so fast! Hope you are OK  

Marie - sounds like Ethan is growing well. Hope he hasn;t given you any more scares. Its reassuring to have the monitor there though  

Wolla - love to Thomas  

Hi to Viv, Moodycat, Sam, Sam mn, Tiff & all I've missed!

Charlotte doing well, but is due to have her second jab tomorrow. The 1st was much worse for me than for her - she got over it it quickly, so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. 

Sarah
x


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


anne - do you have an induction date if you dont go into labour on your own?

tamsin - huge congrats to you and karen.

colly - its amazing to hear your babies heartbeat.

moodycat - hope the c/section went well, looking forward to reading your birth announcement.

lizi - really sorry to hear about your grandad.

tracey - Max must be getting so big now.

sarah - my h/v said that Hannah will start her immumisation program at 8 weeks, im dreading it. 

marie - love Ethans pics.


got the h/v coming again tomorrow to weigh Hannah, she's gotten a little bigger i think, and also longer, will find out tomorrow.

hope you all are well,

xdebsx


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## AnneD

Deb - hi, I haven't got a date for induction yet but I've got to go in for a sweep tomorrow to try and get things moving and then they'll make a decision from there. I've also just eaten a whole pineapple and drinking gallons of raspberry leaf tea so you never know . For some reason DH is convinced something will happen today  Hope you have a good visit with the h/v and that Hannah is doing well - love her piccie 

Sarah - Hope Charlotte's jab hasn't upset her too much 

Colly - great news on hearing the heartbeat. You're going to be so addicted now 

[fly] HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TAMSIN AND KAREN !!! [/fly]
    
Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I'm still waiting for baby to make a move though not very patiently  It's very frustrating because I can't really make plans or go anywhere because it means quite a drive and I would need a chaperone just in case  Going a bit stir crazy but going to one of the nearby towns with DH this afternoon so at least I'll see some other human beings and can feel a bit more normal for a while, well as normal as I get anyway  I don't think I've had any BH contractions(at least I don't think so  ) which is pretty strange, hope it's not a bad sign.

Viv - thanks hun, doing everything I can but haven't managed nookie yet   I am enjoying my sleep after so many sleepless nights with bronchitis though so at least I'm finally getting lots of rest. Fingers crossed I don't need induced but I'll see how my appointment goes tomorrow  

Tracey - lovely seeing you posting again hun. Max is so grown up now. Hope you're okay 

Marie - ha my mam thinks I'm having a boy too so maybe you're onto something there though I keep thinking I'm having a girl  Love your new Ethan pics, he's growing up so fast 

Lizi - so sorry to hear about your grandad hun, big hug coming your way 

Pottering round the house and doing a bit of cleaning today to try and stop me going totally nuts and then going into the nearest town with DH, it will be lovely to get out of the house and do something normal like go for a coffee, decaff of course


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## ckbe

Finally taking the plunge to join the BFPs! Still can't really believe I'm pregnant - it doesn't feel real at all......... but all is going well so far.........

C x


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## sam mn

just a quickie as knackered. had a wonderful romantic wked away. but did so much came back exhausted. lots of eating (and drinking for dh) but also lots of fresh air and walking despite the crap weather. even made it up and down clovelly (very step cobbled street for those that dont know) was quite impressed still have the staminer for that.

ckbe good to see you other here. cant believe you 15wks already.

thanks for all the info re breech babies and turning for neice. ive given her all the info so fingers crossed something may help/

tamsin and karen congrats to you both.

anne hope the sweep gets things moving for you hun.

deb love the pic of hannah.

hi to everyone else.

sam
xxxx


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## Marielou

Hello,

Hope everyone has a lovely romantic time tomorrow ...    - we migth even get a Valentines day baby!! 

A year ago today, I had my egg collection - I can't believe what a difference a year makes.  I was crying on the phone to Tracey last year, saying I'd never have a baby and look at me now.     Mark's taking us to the trafford centre tomorrow for some retail therapy (aka: spend far too much on Ethan  ) and lunch at this fab restaurant there that sells Tapas, lunch out with my two favourite boys (ok, well, It'd be nice to have a hunk there, so I'll settle for Mark instead     ) 

Tamsin - Many many congratulations!!           I'd love to see some photos!

Sam - Lovely bump pic, you're getting really big now!!

Ckbe - Lovely to see you over here! 

Anne - If you'd like to do some cleaning, pop over to my house - maybe seeing Ethan will encourage your little one to come out   - sort of 'Hey, thats my Mummy, not yours!' 

Deb - Had my HV round today, talking about weaning  (not going to wean for another 2 months yet) - hope Hannah's weight is doing well!

Colly - Fab news on the HB   

Tracey - You always say the nicest things      Will ring you later on in the week, if you're about?

Marie xxx


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## AnneD

Marie - hope you've had a lovely day at the Trafford Centre and bought lots of fab things.  Having a membrane sweep wasn't my idea of a romantic valentines but hey if it does the trick  

Sam mn - Glad you had a lovely weekend away.  All that exercise will have done you the world of good.  We went away for the weekend when I was 21 weeks and did loads of walking.  I vowed I would keep it up but of course I never did  

CKbe - lovely to see you over here hun  

Have had a membrane sweep today which was pretty painful and now I've got to go in to see the consultant tomorrow to see if he will induce me earlier due to reduced water and the size of baby.  You never know though, the sweep may have done the trick so keep your fingers crossed for me girls.  Even if it doesn't though, there was talk of even inducing me tomorrow   Bit disappointing that I might have to be induced though because it means I can't deliver at the midwife led unit - still, I can transfer back there straight after the birth so that's not too bad.

Anne x


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## Colly

Anne - Fingers crossed the membrane sweep has worked.

                love Collyx


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


anne - hope the sweep does the trick and you dont need the induction.

marie - hope you had a lovely day at the trafford centre.

sam - glad to hear you had a fab w/end.

ck - welcome and huge congrats on the BFP.

viv - hope the boys are well.


the h.v was here again today and weighed Hannah, she's put on 9oz in 1 week, she's now 7lb 4oz and we are so happy with her weight gain.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


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## sam mn

debs glad hannah is doing well.

anne hope the sweep did the trick.

marie hope you enjoyed retail therapy.

dh is just cooking a lovely romantic dinner (no energy to go out on  awork nnight) so enjoying being pampered. have had a lovely bath and some fake wine   (found a quite nice one from asda, white grape juice) and feeling v relaxed and pampered.

hope you are all having equally wondeful valentines eve

sam
xxxxx


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## wolla

Anne - I really hope that the sweep did the trick, and that by now you've got your beautiful baby in your arms, or are well on your way.  

Sam - I'm very impressed at you getting around Clovelly at 25 wks pg, I'm not sure I would've managed that!!

Ckbe - congratulations on your pg

Tamsin & Karen - congratulations on your civil ceremony

Sarah - hope Charlotte's jabs went ok - Thomas had his 2nd lot last week, and screamed the place down, but was absolutely fine afterwards - (after his first lot he was really grumpy all the rest of the day)

Marie - hope you enjoyed your retail therapy.  Love the new photo of Ethan - does he like his chair?  Was thinking of getting one for Thomas, but not sure whether he'd like it or not.

Lizi - so sorry about your grandad 

Deb - sounds like Hannah's doing really well.

Thomas has had a stinking cold this week, and has been teething too.  After sleeping through every night for over 2 weeks (8pm-7.30am - yippee!!!), on Monday he woke up every hour - made us really appreciate how lucky we are that he's normally such a good sleeper.  He seems to be over the worst of it now, and (touch wood) has started sleeping better again.

Viv - how are your 2 lovely boys doing?

Love to everyone
Wolla
xx


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## going it alone

Lizi - so sorry to hear your news. Hope all goes as well as it can.

Tamsin and Karen - Huge congratulations. I'm so glad that Pip didn't make an early appearance, now you don't have any legal probs with Karen being her parent. 

Sarah and Wolla - the girls are due for their second jabs soon. They were unsettled after the first and slept a lot. Hopefully the second ones won't have the opposite effect.

Anne - fingers crossed that the sweep did the job.

Wolla - hope Thomas's cold gets better soon. I hate feeling helpless when they're not well.

Deb - Hannah is doing so well with her weight - well done. That's earlly for the weaning talk. We get ours between 13 and 16 weeks. I get mine in a fortnight.

Sam - lucky you - what a lovely valentine's night.

Ckbe - great to see you over on this thread. Welcome.

Children's nurse came yesterday. Elsbeth's now 10lb 14oz and Amelie is 12lb 2oz. Because they are plotted on the graphs using their gestational/adjusted age Amelie is on the 98th centile! Amelie's colic is getting better. Last week I took her to the doctor's on Tuesday and he gave her infant gaviscon as he wanted to try that before changing her milk - no effect. I rang him on Thursday and he said he didn't think it would work!!!! Then he wanted me to change her formula and try different brands but I told him that I think she's suffered enough so he agreed to prescribe lactose free milk. Then he rang me back and told me to buy Cow and Gate comfort. So I went out and bought that and then went straight back out and tried another chemist and bought SMA lactose free (£4.98 for 430g!!!) So she's been on that since Thursday. Then I took her to see another doctor, lied and told him that she'd been screaming all weekend on Cow and Gate and he agreed to prescribe her the LF milk. I have to take a stool sample in to the docs to test for lactose intolerance. But I've got to leave it a while in case they can tell that I'd already put her the LF milk without them knowing. So now I've just got to get her rash sorted and then take her to the docs about her umbilical hernia (Elsbeth is at the hospital with her umbilical hernia in a fortnight!!!) I can't wait til they start teething!!! Any tips for good teething remedies?

Love to all

Sam xx


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## sam mn

sam sounds like you and amelia have been through the mill to get things sorted. hope the colic is better now she is on LF. they both seem to be doing well with there weight.

wolla sorry to hear thomas has had a nasty cold. hope he is on the mend now and letting you get back to sleeping at night  . i was quite impressed with my ability at clovelly, particular cos we bet another young couple to the top. however i do feel that i may have over done it as my back is now killing me and struggling to walk about. have been referd to the physio. hopefully that wont take to long.

anne, no news is good news. hoping you are holding your littleone as we speak  

sam
xxxx


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## ckbe

Hi all......

Anne - is there a baby yet

Am starting to think about maternity clothes - any advice where's good to get them from?

C x


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## nismat

*Ckbe*, have a look at this thread http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=14456.0 (and start checking out all the other Best Buy info - very useful! )

*Anne * - hoping that no news is good news, and that the sweep got things moving for you.

*Sam mn * - if your backache persists, as it may well do as you get bigger, then I would highly recommend seeing someone to treat it, especially if it seems like quite a wait for the physio referral (in our area the wait is so long the midwives told me it wasn't really worth referring me, but you may be luckier). I've had treatment from a McTimoney chiropractor (which is much more gentle manipulation than from a regular chiro or an osteopath), and it's made a massive difference to how manageable these later stages of pregnancy have been, when otherwise I'd have been in constant pain. I've also being going for regular massage (proper Swedish massage rather than beauty salon/aromatherapy type which is always a bit pathetic I find).

*Sam * - I hope that you get the issue over Amelie being lactose-intolerant sorted ASAP. The lactose-free formula certainly sounds pricey! Sorry to hear that they both have umbilical hernias - is this complicated to sort out? 

*Wolla * - sorry that you've had a bit of a tricky week with Thomas, but glad that he's getting better again now.

*Marie * - how come you haven't reported back about your shopping trawl? 
You were asking about photos from our civil partnership - we got some lovely ones; the best are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157594539576000/ I'm the one with the bump


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## nismat

I think that I may be nesting.........

I've been quite prepared for Pip to come well after my due date, but I've felt the need to compulsively organise, sort and tidy today. No need for cleaning, as our cleaner came yesterday (one of the best things we ever did was to get a cleaner), but I've been finding homes for/chucking out all the various piles of stuff around the house, as well as doing a 3hr stint sorting out the filing cabinet.

Things have felt different physically too - Pip's been moving around much more than normal, and the bump is super-firm and tight. Plus I've been getting lots of twinges in my pelvic joints.

Could it all be significant or not? Only time will tell.....

(fuller details on my blog http://panning-for-gold.blogspot.com/)


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## viviennef

Hi, just popping on to see if there's any news on Anne. Can't wait to find out how it all went.

Tamsin - your photos are lovely. Looks like it might not be much longer for you now. Have you decided on names yet?

Ckbe - get on e-bay and buy your maternity clothes there. I got lots of stuff at bargain prices as there's no point in spending a lot of money for just a few months. I actually buy most of Jamie's clothes there as well as I can get good quality stuff for a fraction of the shop prices and he always looks like a trendy little dude!

Sam mn - hope your back feels better soon.

Sam - sounds like you've got your work cut out for you with the milk. Hope things improve soon. As for teething, get medised. It has something in it that also relieves congestion and helps them sleep.

Wolla - it's awful going back to sleepless nights isn't it. Daniel had finally started sleeping really well then he started to get more teeth through so I've been up a lot with him this week. He's got 4 teeth all coming through the top so DP is in with him tonight so hopefully I'll get a good sleep tonight.

Deb - glad things are going well with Hannah. Are you getting much sleep?

Marie - hope you're doing ok. Read on another thread, probably the parents chat that you had more venture pics done. Are you able to get them on your gallery?

Things are fine here. Took the boys swimming today. Daniel is a natural in the water and loved every minute of it. I could hear other people saying 'aww look at that baby' and I still get that lovely proud feeling.

Only thing I'm slightly concerned is that HV weighed Daniel this week and he's a whopping 24lbs! He's really tall though, already in 18-24 month body suits just for his length and 9-12 month clothes. I've to take him back in 3 or 4 weeks to get weighed again. He's just on 3 meals a day plus his milk but HV made me a bit paranoid that he's a bit on the heavy side.

Viv xxx


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## Marielou

Hello!

I did survive the shopping trip   - although, only just!  Mark went missing in the food section of selfridges  , along with the changing bag, which contained my purse and mobile, so I couldn't contact him - after 30 minutes walking around looking for him, I asked an assistant if they'd put a call out for him, as I was hungry and dizzy with it,  but they wouldn't, another 30 mins or so later, the same assistant came and found me, saw how dizzy I was, and took me ot a cafe for a glass of water - the lovely waitress there gave me a huge pot of tea, fussed over Ethan, asked his name, and came back with a lovely heart-shaped biscuit with 'Ethan' piped on it in blue icing   They also gave me a plate of gormet chocolates (yum!) and refused payment when I eventually caught up with Mark.  So lovely of them! 

Just had mum up for the weekend, which was lovely.    She said Ethan is just like me as a baby, poor little thing!  

Viv - Yes, I can put the Venture photos in my gallery, but I haven't ordered them yet, go back on 8th March to view and order.  I'm so excited to see them, she did so many nice poses etc, I especially can't wait to see the naked ones!!!!!  
Wow on Daniel's weight gain!  Please try not to let the HV's worry you, I know thats easier said than done, but they always seems to be either worrying about too much weight gain or, in Ethan's case, lack of it.  

Tamsin - Your photos are gorgeous!  You are looking lovely and blooming, pregnancy suits you!  Love the photos with both your hands on the bump.   I felt an awful lot of pressure low down right before I had Ethan, I bet you won't be long.  

Anne - I bet you had a valentines baby! Can't wait to hear news!

CKBE - I personally liked Dorothy Perkins and you can't beat Next for maternity clothes.   

Sam (GIA) - The girls are doing so well weight wise!! Well done you!  Ethan is teething madly, mum looked today and said she can see a tooth under the gum and she's right, bottom front left is really showing white under the gum now.    I've found th ebest thing for Ethan is dentinox teething gel, best thing to do is try a few brands and see which one your babies like.  I tried teething powders, bonjela, plus loads of others, but none work well for ethan as good as dentinox! (I keep 2 tubes, one in my pocket at all times, another in his changing bag)

Wolla - Hmmm I'm not sure about the bumbo.  He's only small still and can't really support himself in it, as a result, I don't like putting him in it often as he bobs about so much.    I hired mine from a local toy library for 30p for 2 weeks, so not any money wasted if he hates it!

Deb - Well done on Hannah's weight gain, love her new photo!

Marie xxx


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## nismat

Just a quick post to say that there's no progress on the going into labour front, after becoming convinced yesterday that it was imminent! And our antenatal appt got postponed (only until tomorrow), as our midwife was caught in theatre delivering a baby this morning. So no updates on positioning/engagement until I see her. 

Am feeling decidedly sick this evening - we had fish and chips at the seaside for lunch, followed by hot chocolate and buttered malt loaf when we got back. Wish I hadn't now, as it all keeps repeating on me - not so pleasant on a re-visit!


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## DiamondDiva

hi everyone,


marie - i often loose ed in the smallest of stores, its a aregular occurrence for us, if theres a book section i know i'll find him there.

tamsin - loved the pics, like marie said i like the one with both hands on your tummy.

viv - try not to worry about Daniels weight, h.v's think they know everything.

anne - im thinking that you've had your baby by now, no news is good news.

wolla - hope Thomas's cold has got better.

moodycat - HUGE CONGRATS ON THE SAFE ARRIVAL OF DANIEL JAMES.


we've managed to get Hannah's christening booked, got it all arranged for 25th March, really looking forward to it, just need to get a christening gown now and an outfit for ed and me, my MIL is giving me a cashmere shawl that d.h and his brothers and cousins were christened in, its gorgeous, dark cream with white embroidery round the edges and tassles, am thinking of a white gown for Hannah, looking for quite an old fashioned one, quite long but simple, going into town today to buy some cards to make invitations and to see my work friends, they havent seen her since she was 6 days old, they are all dying to see her.


hope you all are well,

xdebsx


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## viviennef

Hi, just wondering if there's any news on Anne.

Deb - where did you hear about Moodycat, I haven't seen any posts from her.

Hi to everyone else

Viv xxx


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## DiamondDiva

viv - it was on the 3rd tri thread.


xdebsx


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## sarahjj

Congratulations to Moodycat!!!

Debs - your photo of Hannah is gorgeous. Good luck with your christening arrangements - the shawl sounds lovely!

Tamsin - hope you are feeling better. Any more signs?? Looking forward to news from you soon !!

Anne - hoping no news is good news and your little one has arrived by now!!

Marie - sounds like you had an eventful shopping trip!! Hope Ethan's teething isn't too bad. I tihnk Charlotte is starting too - we're getting lots of dribbling & rosy cheeks, though it doesn;t seem to be too uncomfortable for her at the moment.

Viv - Sounds like Daniel is doing really well - don't let the hv worry you.

Wolla- hope Thomas has got over his cold now  

Sam - sounds like the twins are doing well. Hope you got your formula sorted  

Charlotte is doing fine. We got through her second jab with no ill effects last week. 

love to all other bumps & babies

Sarah
x


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## Marielou

New home this way girls http://www.fertilityfriends.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=85469.0

This thread will now be locked.


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