12-24 weeks pregnant (part 4)

psychopathbabble

It might be different in different areas but you should get to hear the heartbeat at your 16 week appointment with the midwife I've got mine on 31st may (will actually be just over 17 weeks) so looking forward to that!

Yes it's hard to know how you will feel towards the end, I just know that I can't afford to have the full year off so want to get as much as possible after lo arrives before I have to go back. Hoping to have the 9 months where I get some money coming in and then some of my annual leave tagged onto the end.

Toots14

Congrats Freddie. That is great news.


I am 36+5 today and still working full time 9-5. I finish work on Friday afternoon when I will be 37+1 and taking annual leave up until 30th May when I start Mat Leave. I am really struggling this week with the heat in the office and the fact I can't get comfy at all at work. I would not be able to work for much longer without being a horrible, hormonal cow to my colleagues!


I have 7 more days annual leave which I am meant to take before my due date but my work have agreed to pay me for it instead.

FreddieFrugal

We still haven't heard the heartbeat! That's an excitement yet to come. Hopefully we'll get to at the 24 week appointment.

She didn't do much at the 16 week appointment at all because we'd had the scan just 2 days before. Just did blood pressure, gave us the maternity exemption form and that was it.

Showed people at work the photos. Lots of them said he looks like me!

The building work started yesterday too. Converting garage. Done the electrics today. Wall coming out into kitchen tomorrow (in theory)


The timing has worked out very well for maternity leave. She'll have the summer term holiday, take maternity from the first day back, have the full paid time plus 6 weeks unpaid, go back for the last week of the summer term 2017, then have the summer holiday again.

So she can have pretty much the whole of the first year (minus a week) with the baby.

ThinkPink

I'm really hoping we can afford for me to take the whole year off so I'll go back September17, as a minimum I would like until June off, I think I worked out my maternity pay Will run out start of June so I need to save now and hope I can save enough to keep me going. It may be be I return in August but use up a chunk of annual leave, will have to see how things go when I'm off!!

Baby has had a few quiet days, it feels at the moment like he's moved so movement feels more inward rather than outward and therefore not as strong, but I am still feeling movement so not worrying as much as I was last week.

FreddieFrugal

I made a spreadsheet to work out what our income would be with maternity pay takeaway expenses over that time to see what state we'd be in financially.

We should be fine, despite the fact she's the main earner. Double what I get. We won't exactly have a huge amount of spending money but nor should we have to dip into savings.

We've been very MSE pretty much our entire lives so we've always been savers. We've got a good emergency fund if the car suddenly bites the dust or something.

That said we're spending a lot at the moment preparing everything for the extra person in the house. Its not my natural state at all, all this spending.

But then what's the point in saving if you never actually use it for anything. I think this was the whole point of trying to be frugal all the time.

psychopathbabble

I have the opposite problem Freddie... my OH is a spender... his motto is that he works hard so should play hard which is fine, except we have played a bit too much the last 5 years and are now paying off a consolidation loan and 3 credit cards. Don't get me wrong, we are equally at fault but I have paid off £12k of debt on my own previously before meeting him and I can do it again but he really does struggle with the concept of saving and how a couple of quid here and there can really add up. I have worked out how we can get everything paid off by January but sadly this doesn't leave a buffer to allow me the full year off However it does mean we aren't completely in the s**t when I have 3 months on SMP.

I had my annual review at the doctors this morning and they are happy with all my results... I've just been told to watch my carb intake as my body will be under stress during pregnancy and with my underactive thyroid, I am at risk of diabetes occuring so need to be careful with that.

Still can't see my bump although other people are sure I have one! I'm convinced it's just my round tummy Oh and mothercare are doing their expectant parent evenings again in June and they have just opened for booking... it's worth it just for the 10% discount voucher (and 3% cashback when using a debit card registered with quidco!) if you are wanting to get anything from them!

FreddieFrugal

psychopathbabble wrote: »

Still can't see my bump although other people are sure I have one! I'm convinced it's just my round tummy Oh and mothercare are doing their expectant parent evenings again in June and they have just opened for booking... it's worth it just for the 10% discount voucher (and 3% cashback when using a debit card registered with quidco!) if you are wanting to get anything from them!

OH's bump seems to grow in bursts.

To start with it was just very steadily growing.

Then it's gone through stages of rapid inflation. Every 4 or 5 days, she just wakes up and it's much bigger than the day before.

Now it seems to be getting noticeably bigger almost by the day.

ThinkPink

I keep getting n zed comments about my bump, like Monday a colleague commented how my bump had grown over the weekend but then when I've told other people this week I'm pregnant and I'm 23 weeks they've said I'm not really showing!! I think i am now!!

I'm definitely the spender In my marriage and oh is brilliant at saving! I haven't properly worked out our finances but I've worked out if I put half what I usually do in our bills account there will still be enough to cover everything, then I have my mobile bill which isn't much but that's the only other bill I have, so I will just need to get used to not impulse buying, which to be fair since becoming pregnant I've stopped doing and actually for the first time ever I've actually had money left over each month to go into savings!! I'm hoping to save enough to give me the equivalent to at least two months smp to keep me going for another two months.

Hope the renovations are going ok Freddie.

Must have a look on mothercare.

I had been nagging oh that we need to go baby shopping but now ive said we can wait a few more weeks..... So apparently we are now going shopping for a new shed this weekend! How exciting!!!!

rubywhatashmoo

I'm still not sleeping through the night - being pregnant and trying to swap my body clock back to normal is much more difficult than normal! As soon as I get up to go to the loo in the night I'm wide awake - today that was at 02:30 Still at least it gives me time with peace & quiet to get things done around the house - my latest awesomely timed decision is that I want to sell the house and move closer to family (I moved to be closer to work about 3 years ago) but the house hasn't had much done to it since we've lived here (apart from a bit of decorating and a new kitchen) and the bathroom is beyond saving so we're seeing B&Q tomorrow night about a new bathroom :eek: Nothing like making things harder for yourself is there?! Apart from the bathroom everything else just needs fresh paint and wallpaper and new carpet which shouldn't (hopefully) be too expensive and will end up saving us money in the future as there will be a LOT more help with childcare if we move than we would currently have :rotfl:

This is the problem with sleep deprivation, your mind completely runs away with itself!!

Baby wise nothing new which is all good at this stage I'm formally telling work next Monday although my line manager has known for a few weeks anyway as she's also a friend. Was working out my maternity pay yesterday and it doesn't seem *too* bad which makes me think I've made a balls-up with the figures somewhere! Luckily I have another friend from work who started her maternity leave about a week ago so I'll be asking to see how much she's getting paid as it should be around the same as me.

pigpen

I woke at 3am for 2 hours last night too Ruby.. I was not impressed! I am now shattered!