h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Kelli,
Glad to hear the baby is OK and not too far ahead of schedule!

All fine with us too - the baby is doing well - though I'm now getting pretty bad front pelvic (symphysis pubis) pain which is making it quite hard to move but I'm having cupping and acupuncture at the maternity unit which helped before when the pain was in the back of my pelvis.

The name thing is difficult isn't it? We've only thought of one boy's name we both like and two girl's names - P's fault - he is a lot more fussy than me!
The names we have are all in the top 100 most popular UK baby names of 2006, but not in the top ten! Lists are here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=184

Of course there's always the possibility that we'll just be inspired when the baby arrives...

>> We are also starting to realise what a responsibility it is thinking up a nice name for spud


Piper? Maris? Edward maybe?

I wouldn't worry about the name thing too much. Some good friends of mine still call their son "The Toad" . He's loving it, he's fine, and he's nine next birthday

I still call Gruesome #1 Chickpea and she just turned 10...

glad everything is going well. My advice? As long as you have the basics for the first few weeks (and you'll be surprised as to how little you actually _need_ compared to how much the sellers of baby-stuff make you _want_ ) you'll be fine

We tried to avoid common names, too, plus I kept in mind initials (or else one of my suggestions would've been Deborah Isabel Pawloski...) We figured Faith wasn't a very common name, and Anne went quite well with it (plus the bonus that my grandmother's middle name was Ann). Well, when Faith was less than 2 months old, a family came to our church with a girl 6 months older than our little girl, whose name was Faith Anne as well.

I had a point, but Tom seems to be talking to a loan officer or something on the phone, and keeps asking me questions, so I forgot

years and years ago we met a lady with a lovely German name, which we liked and when we had Gruesom #1 we used it. Only for it to turn up on a Bad Girl on Eastenders but we wanted something that:

a) we liked
2) our English relations wouldn't have difficulty with
iii) Germans wouldn't have any problem with

her second name is Paige - after Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin

for #2 I wanted Evangeline (I'd been watching a lot of The House of Elliot) with Evie for short. But then I remembered a song by a German New Wave band (Nationalgalerie if anyone is interested) with a girl's name as the title so we took that. She's still Evie for short though. Her middle name is Jade because my favourite colour is green (but I'm well aware that Jade comes in other colours)

Actually, years before I wanted children I wanted Willow for a girl - from way back when I was at school. But then came the film, and then came Buffy so that was scuppered.

And even though I didn't know the gender of either of the Gruesomes before they were born, I never thought about boys names at all.

I was assisting in a C Section the other day - it was under spinal so the Mum was awake and exiciting chatting with Grandma. Once we got the baby out we gave it to her to hold whlist we closed up.

She annouced the name - I'm not going to say what it was but it was utterly utterly stupid.

Really had to restrain myself not to say 'really? no? you cannot seriously call a baby that! - please wait until the opitates wear off before actually deciding on a name'. It's just not the thing to say whlist you're sitching up someone's uterus.

Fortunately once we'd finished in theatre the Grandma said much the same thing!

Courtesy of the "What news story has caught your attention today" thread:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4191765.stm

Don't worry, kelli, it's not going to happen to you.

I know, makes the eyes water though doesn't it?!

Yes, it does. Hard to imagine that they were surprised by the baby's weight, isn't it? But then I guess they don't have ultra sound checks there.

And another 14ld baby in Mexico this week.

Meanwhile, suddenly and after having smugly said 'no' whenever asked about oedema, my feetand ankles ave swollen like balloons to the extent that I can't get any shoes on any more. Have had to come to work in a pair of flipflops

They don't look like my feet at all - strange puffy things

Had my first NCT antenatal class last night. Was good, they seem like a friendly bunch, and J had a good bonding session with the other dads-to-be. I think this will be really useful to him, and a good new network for me

Big feet - big babies...

I think I almost doubled in size (no, OK, from 55 to 80 kg first time, and 60 to 85 second) and I was terribly swollen. FIrst baby weighed 3.7, second 4.2 kg. And number 2 was an easier birth.

(Stay on your feet as much as you can, gravity is a big help! Let the labour pains do their job - relax and breathe slowly, don't fight them, and let the channel widen. Give birth standing on knees, hunched over a been bag in bed e.g. But maybe just being the second time helped most...)


Classes are good! But my DH didn't come with me much - he did the ob-gyn course at med school at the time! And second time, I can't remember going...

How much longer now?

Five weeks give or take a fortnight

You will be fine. Trust that.

oh it's so exciting!

is this a good time to mention that with Gruesome #1 I put on 5kg and with Gruesome #2 i put on 8kg (and wore jeans right up to the 7th month...)

Only if you want the rest of us to go !

Mol

I put on a few more kilos, but people only realised I was pregnant a few weeks before the birth. Thank goodness my feet were never swollen. A friend of mine had to wear shoes one size larger after the birth, her feet had 'grown' somehow.

my feet have got flatter and broader since I spent most of my 3 years maternity leave (including 2nd pregnancy) in birkenstocks or barefoot (or in Docs)

and I still have piles because I'm too embarassed to go to the doc about it (still not properly German then)

so no need to (and I'm a pretty hefty lass anyway, so I didn't need to put on weight.

Can I just say that Ralph is a great name for lads. Hardly any of us on this side o' the pond either!

*comes rushing in flustered*

I knew I was missing something. I suddenly realised that throughout my three months of imposed 'net blackout, I missed out on spud's stories

Soooo glad to hear all is going well, kelli.

*resists the temptation to trip the gorgeous, lovely Sho up in her running shoes - Sho's running shoes, that is wouldn't catch me dead running - does that make sense? Anyway, gotta come out of the parentheses...)

Weight goes on and weight goes off, kelli. I put on over 20 kg each time I carried a child. Both mine were big (9lb4 and 8lb7), one I pushed out one got taken out - but out they came. It is all well.

Only reason I did not birth one time was because I was paranoid - just terrified.. it did not help that I had little constructive personal support. So if you feel that way inclined, get the support you need and want. Sound advice you've been given - birth your baby upright as you can - it's kind of hard for the poor babe to climb uphill out of you, after all So make sure you feel confident with the people with you. If you are relaxed, it will all be so much smoother and easier all round.

*good thoughts for you*


W