The Ultimate Hard and Fast debt clearing mission

Cinny91

Hope things aren't too bad when you meet with your Doctor, Dinah. Even if he does strongly suggest against another pregnancy, and you and NIM decide you're not going to take the risk again, but still want another child there's always adoption or even getting a surrogate. I still say to Rich I'd like to adopt, but he's not interested at all.

Did you have fun with your Brother, Birdie? I have my Brother over for tea tonight, but I'm on one final weight loss push before the holiday, so I get the joy of making everyone fried chilli chicken loveliness while I sip on green tea (having HM veggie soup before hand, but still) If you're looking for nice bikinis Matalan has come really cute ones, I have this top with the matching briefs and it's really flattering. I also have 2 swimsuits from Asda (with full on control because I have a feeling I'll be looking less nice after a week of holiday eating/drinking ) and they're really sweet 50's kind of style, only £12 each.

Tete_en_l'Air

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Now off to donate blood :A if I have enough iron

Flower08 wrote: »

No one ever wants my blood for that exact reason!! My iron levels are always low (even when i'm on iron tablets) so people would probably be worse off having my yucky blood :rotfl:

Yup, I had low iron again Le sigh. The nurse gave me a leaflet with a list of high iron foodstuffs and said we're meant to have three things a day from it! I'm lucky if I eat more than one of those things a day more than once a week I think! But will try my best (I've recently discovered how much I love mackerel) and see how I go in three months' time. The nurse also said that 90% of women of childbearing age don't eat enough iron - I guess we do produce a lot of blood

Birdie85 wrote: »

Tete, I didn't get that button sewn on last night as I had to go and see my brother Will be doing it tonight though as I've got nowhere to be so there are no excuses!

Phew, no neither did I! But I DID battle with the computer wifi thing - had to get a new laptop and we didn't know the password for it, so had to reset it all, but it wasnt as simple as it should have been. Then I had to put on the antivirus but that meant first removing the pre-loaded one which was hanging on for dear life. So it wasn't an unproductive evening. Will do it tonight.

Speaking of my old laptop. What do you do with an old dead laptop that won't turn on? I don't want to ebay it as there is still stuff of mine on there - photos etc (all backed up, but I don't necessarily want someone else having them!) (Not that they're rude or anything! But you know). The Man in PC world said they'd recycle it securely for me for free if I bought a new one from them - not even a discount or anything! But it seems weird to me that we get money for old mobiles but there's nothing I've heard of similar for computers, and there's surely a lot more value in them? Anyone know of anything?

Sorry for that ramble there!

D&N you have done so well with money considering everything you have going on! :T

Cinny91

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

Yup, I had low iron again Le sigh.

Hopefully next time! What a pain though Every time I go recently they can't find a vein, so I don't even get to the point of have the quality of my blood criticised.

My Brother recycled an old computer, but he restored it before hand. He got about £40 for it, I think. Most mobile recycling places take in gadgets now.

Forgot to comment on the money clearing - I second Tete that you've both done an fantastic job clearing debt. I'd be proud!

Flower08

Birdie85 wrote: »

She's just being MSE because she doesn't want you spending money on replacing clothes she's grown out of, unlike Noah and Evie who clearly need to learn about saving money!

Sounds about right!! OH jokes that he can see Noah grinning everytime we have to buy him new clothes :rotfl:

Dinah and NIM hope it goes well with the consultant today xx

ETA: Just a though Dinah, but have you sorted out your child benefit? I know its probably not at the front of your mind but it might help with the costs of daily trips to the hospital.

Birdie85

I'll third the praise for debt clearing

Right, tonight is Tete and Birdie's 'Button it' challenge!

Thanks for the Matalan tip Cinny, we've got one nearish us so I might pop through at the weekend to have a look. Swimwear shopping is my least favourite thing, with jeans and bra shopping coming in 2nd and 3rd! :mad:

Had a nice time seeing my brother thanks Cinny, it was his birthday which is always exciting for me as it means it's 2 weeks to my birthday! We took him and SIL out on Sunday as his present but went through for family tea last night, minus OH who always misses out on family time as he's working, poor lad! He went about 4 months not seeing my Brother! My brother's got a new nickname as some little girls who live opposite his house, for some strange reason, started telling him that he 'Looks really stupid, Old Man. Old Man Chicken Nugget!' He was very upset that he was being bullied by 8 year old girls and told SIL. Who wet herself laughing then told everyone his new name! I gave him a box of chicken nuggets last night :rotfl:

Not really sure about laptop recycling Tete, have you had a Google for it?! Or do you know anyone techy who can wipe the hardrive for you so you can sell it on? I've got no idea about these things, my in-laws are the computer nerds!

wendz86

Sounds you are doing great with the money despite everything Dinah and NIM! I am in awe of anyone ehwo expresses that much , i didn't get on that well with it either. Poppy refused bottles so just got wasted but i did a bit to mix with her baby rice. Hope the consultant meeting goes ok.

Poppy is indeed very MSE, she is still in her clothes she got for christmas and got loads in next two sizes for her birthday so i hardly have to buy her any! She looks so funny as she is so small and walking round, people must think she is super advanced haha.

Cinny - i love that bikini, is so cute!

Birdie - glad you had fun seeing your brother, poor thing being bullied by 8 year old girls:rotfl:.

Birdie85

wendz86 wrote: »

Poppy is indeed very MSE, she is still in her clothes she got for christmas and got loads in next two sizes for her birthday so i hardly have to buy her any! She looks so funny as she is so small and walking round, people must think she is super advanced haha.

Oh, I'd play on that to tease people! 'Yeah, she's 6 months and walking already! Isn't that normal for all babies?!'

We've just decided on our team that we're going to have a bake-off of savoury goodies in a couple of weeks. I have no idea what I'll bake, I'm useless! Got some time to practice at least so guess what I'll be up to at the weekend!

Dinah93

Birdie85 wrote: »

Hope the hospital pump works for you... but 6 x 1 hours a day?! :eek: I've clearly got a lot to learn about motherhood!

Hope it goes well with the consultant today, don't worry too much if he does say that you shouldn't have more, things can change in your body in the upcoming years, or with the medicine they have available.

Bless teeny Poppy Wendz, she's so cute and dinky! She's just being MSE because she doesn't want you spending money on replacing clothes she's grown out of, unlike Noah and Evie who clearly need to learn about saving money! Do you think she's due a growth spurt?

Just hope you never have to exclusively express and you'll be fine! I do at least have a fetching hands free bra now so I can type while the machine pumps. Apparently I should expect breastfeeds to take up to an hour for the first few weeks anyway, not sounding like much more fun (especially if I'm still expressing to keep the supply up, I'm going to either have baby or machine permanently attached!)

Thank you very much for the kind offer Kavics - however my mum has paid for the loan of a hospital grade pump to see if that helps my supply. I've also been and got a prescription for some tablets which are supposed to help as the hospital machine got more, but not loads, so still don't know if it's me or the pump.

Grace clearly is not MSE as she's growing at an immense rate - another 110g gained in 4 days! That's just under 10% of her bodyweight gained in 4 days. She's now 3lbs

Consultant went okay, not great but okay. He said he certainly wouldn't tell me not to have any more if I wanted to, just to be aware it's likely I'd have similar issues. He'd give me a greater than 50-50 chance of delivering before 30 weeks again. That's scary tbh, as I'm not sure I could cope with a baby born more prematurely than Grace. However we've always said we don't want our baby to be an only child. He did suggest we shouldn't wait too long - more than 1 year for the c section to heal completely, but after that I'm likely to get further along in the pregnancy the closer it is to the previous one. We discussed any lifestyle changes I could make to try to help matters, basically there is no conclusive evidence to say any of it will make a huge difference, but regular exercise will help the blood pressure, there is some evidence to suggest more vitamin D and calcium reduces incidences of pre-eclampsia... so I need to be getting all my vitamins and exercising if we do decide it's something we're going to consider in a few years.

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

D&N you have done so well with money considering everything you have going on! :T

Thanks hon. I'm actually pretty anti-spending since we had her, I want to get things in the best possible place for her and so I can stay home for as long as possible. We're very slow on extra income earners atm, due to lack of time, but we have tried to cut down on food spending. This has been entirely cancelled out by an increased petrol budget and another mobile bill over £100, as NIM is driving every day rather than cycling, and I'm running the second car too. Phone bill was down to informing non-UK dwellers about the baby being born - decent enough reason to have a phone bill, but not something I'd budgeted for.

I did manage to get a MS for a car garage though, so they're paying for a service on our truck - great news as it is about 3000 miles past due and we were going to have to get it done this month anyway so that's saved us about £100.

Emzilla

Hi Dinah

Lurker delurking here!! Firstly congrats to yourself and NIM on the birth of Grace. She is absolutely beautiful.

I just wanted to say that my sister has had 3 premature babies. We aren't 100% sure why, but it just seemed that she couldn't go full-term with any of them. Her first was born at 29 weeks, but with each pregnancy, she went a bit further along. Her last baby was born at 35 weeks, which is the most she has ever gone.

Anyway, just wanted to give hope to you with regards to having more babies.

I hope that Grace continues to thrive and will be home with you before you know it.

Emz xx

Cinny91

wendz86 wrote: »

Cinny - i love that bikini, is so cute!

Thanks! I'm having to stop myself from buying it in blue and green too partly because I have another 3 bikinis but also because I did a pre-pack of my suitcase yesterday and it's already bulging (but thankfully only 12.5kg)

Poppy sounds like such a sweetheart! I'd probably let people believe she was a super genius baby too Go little Grace on her weight gain though :j how long do you realistically think it'll be before she's home?

And that's good news the Doctor didn't strongly suggest against another pregnancy. What do you think you'll do?

Can't believe that about your brother, Birdie!! :rotfl: Poor Old Man Chicken Nugget.

In work today as the woman I shift split with decided to cut her fingers on a hedge trimmer :eek: But it will put an extra £100ish into the holiday kitty, so I shouldn't complain.