A pound stretching maternity

MrsSave

Today has been a NSD :j Don't seem to have many of them so they definitely need celebrating :rotfl:

Spent the day in work, and then this evening I've sorted through ynab and made sure that all finances are up to date. It looks ok for the rest of the month (18 days until payday!).

I'm starting to worry about my maternity leave, which is supposed to start at the end of next week. I've yet to hear anything from HR so I hope it all goes through correctly.

hannahroberts1985

Hey Mrs Save, I've been reading but not had time to post so thought I'd say hey. Sounds like your still doing really well. All your wrapping antics is making me keen to start mine. I normally have a bit evening with a Christmas film and some mulled wine on though so think I'll wait a bit longer. The way my wardbrobe is looking though I'll need a few evenings to tackle it all. Loving the stocking idea I may need to do something similar with DP as I brought stocking for us all last year we've never had them before. Do you put the presents in early or the night before Christmas? I've been thinking if I hang them on the fire place any choccy inside would melt!

Yay to one more shift!!! Xx

Katzen

That is so rubbish that they still haven't confirmed! As if you need the extra stress at this point. Hopefully it all works out for you. Have you contacted your union for advice? They should be able to give you an idea of what you're entitled to.

MrsSave

hannahroberts1985 wrote: »

Do you put the presents in early or the night before Christmas? I've been thinking if I hang them on the fire place any choccy inside would melt!

Yay to one more shift!!! Xx

I put the presents in the stockings the night before Christmas every year. It's what my mum used to do, and I'd get so excited to open the bedroom door in the morning and find the stocking full and that Father Christmas had been!

MrsSave

Katzen wrote: »

That is so rubbish that they still haven't confirmed! As if you need the extra stress at this point. Hopefully it all works out for you. Have you contacted your union for advice? They should be able to give you an idea of what you're entitled to.

I think HR are generally rubbish. I've had a few problems with simple things with them. They did say they'd get in touch in November, so I guess they still have time. As long as I get paid at the end of the month!!

MrsSave

Yesterday I had a 'quiet' day apparently! Well, I was supposed to. Ds was with mil so I could have a rest. My mother knew I was home alone, and she was off work so was contacting every half hour or so for silly little things! I ended up putting everything other than the house phone on silent (I knew mil or school could contact via house phone if I was needed). I managed a little sleep, and then woke to find a message asking if she could call around quickly. That was the afternoon gone! Wasn't impressed!!

I had constant braxton hicks yesterday, starting mid afternoon until bedtime. Felt rubbish with them as well. Thankfully I slept pretty well and they've eased a little today. Felt pretty breathless and like I'd run a marathon after walking up stairs this morning though! My heart was racing! I'm pleased to be in the final weeks of pregnancy!

I took ds to soft play this morning as I'm finding it easier to be out of the house than home all morning with him now. He enjoyed, and we had a cheeky cake and drink there. We also popped to a couple of shops. I needed to pop to Tesco after our grocery delivery last night. I think it was one of the worst deliveries I've had. I'd ordered a beer selection pack, and was sent 1 bottle of beer instead. They didn't have the cereal I ordered so they sent a more expensive one and charged me for the expensive one, and then when I opened the raspberries this morning I found they'd already gone off. Oh, and there was a hole in the packaging of the bread! I sent the beer back, phoned last night about the cereal (they're refunding the whole cost) and phoned again this morning about the raspberries (again refunded). I didn't bother with the bread!

I've also ordered something from direct, and it has been sent to the wrong store! I phoned up about that this morning, and another has been sent to the correct store (apparently) ready to be collected tomorrow.

I've got dinner in the slow cooker today. We're having chicken wrapped in bacon and bbq sauce with sweet potato and carrots. I've never made it in the slow cooker before so fingers crossed it's good! Apparently I can add cheese to the slow cooker as well, but I'm not 100% convinced with that!!

I'm seeing the midwife again tomorrow, so fingers crossed my blood pressure hasn't increased any further. Hopefully they'll be able to work out which way round baby is this time as well! If not I have another scan next week so will know for sure!

MrsSave

Happy Thursday!

Ds and I will be staying home catching up on a few jobs this morning. We're going to do the laundry. There is probably a couple of loads to do. I also want to sort through the freezers to see what we have. I need to start making room for a few Christmas bits (we buy frozen party food for Christmas Eve so would like to get them in there, as well as a frozen lasagne/cottage pie type things ready for when baby make sure an appearance. Our freezers seem full up though so need to see what we've got.

I have 2 freezers. One is a half size chest (no idea what's in there!!!) and the other is an upright fridge freezer with 3 drawers. The upright is full of frozen veg and dump meals so won't be able to do much with that!

I also want to finish ds's Christmas cards with him.

I baked some jacket potatoes last night for me and ds to have for lunch. I think I'll stuff them with cheese and bacon then pop under the grill to warm back through. Yum! After lunch, whilst ds is at school, I've got a midwife appointment. Fingers crossed that goes ok. There's a local fair this evening, so will be heading there afterwards. We've told ds he can go on 5 rides, and we'll be eating dinner from a chip van or something. I have £20 put to one side for this evening, which will hopefully be more than enough.

MrsSave

Oops, didn't update yesterday.

Thursday I kept busy. I sorted through the freezers and made some room. Got everything in there all organised so I know what we have now. I sorted out the shelves in the boiler/utility room (dh likes to put things wherever he sees a gap - for example orange juice cartons behind the iron in the middle of packets of toilet paper!). I also sorted out the messiest cupboard in the kitchen. I took everything out, threw things that were out of date or are sitting there randomly and will never be used. I sorted all our herbs and spices out (I think I have more than Tesco!!).

I had a midwife appointment after lunch and it looks like baby is head down now. :j My blood pressure is the same as it was at the last appointment, so it hasn't gone up at all. I've got a consultant appointment and a scan next week, and then my next midwife appointment is 2 weeks after that. Would be lovely not to need that midwife appointment, but I definitely won't be holding my breath.

I also managed to empty the laundry basket and helped ds finish his Christmas cards. He then enjoyed free painting time, whilst I cleaned the cupboards!

Friday we popped into town for the morning. I had seen on another site that M&S party food was half price, could all be frozen and I still had a voucher from completing surveys. I ended up buying £28 worth of things, and it cost £9. I'm happy with that, it's all in the freezer and I've written on the calendar when we need to take it out to defrost. I've also threatened to put a reminder in dh's phone in case I'm in hospital!

As well as M&S, we also popped into Morrisons to pick up some more Christmas booze. I don't think we've ever had this much alcohol in the house!! I went for the 2 for £20 offer, and picked up a bottle of whiskey for dh and a bottle of Disaronno for me (post baby of course). I also bought a nice, big joint of meat in there for just over £4. That's Sunday lunch sorted!!

After that ds declared that he needed the toilet. Mothercare was literally around the corner so thought we'd pop in quickly and use their customer toilet. £50 later we left :eek: It's safe to say that this baby has enough clothes for the first month or so now!!! I'm keeping the tags on the newest clothes, though, and not washing until after baby arrives in case I could do with a size bigger (hopefully not by Christmas!).

I also bought the starter pack of milk, which comes in little bottles with teats. They'll be handy for when we first get home and are trying to get into the swing of things!

I've updated all spends on YNAB, and transferred money to all the correct places. It's just a shame that's what I was doing at 2am instead of sleeping!!

At 3am I was updating my next week's Tesco food delivery (and created one for the week after :rotfl: ). I'm starting to really fancy salad, and salmon and all heathy things so have been adding them. DH isn't fussed on salad and ds follows his Dad so instead of buying all the bits individually I've decided to buy pre prepared. It works out more expensive per 100g, but overall cost will be less because I won't end up throwing things away!!

DH is at work this morning, and has taken ds to mil so that I can rest. I must say I'm pleased about that this morning, as I hardly slept last night and my head has been thumping all morning.

It's Children in Need next week, and ds has to wear spots. He doesn't own anything with spots so I have ordered him the Children in Need top from Asda, which has spots on Pudsey's bandana. He will also need money for the day so need to sort through my change!!

Right, plan for this weekend:

• Finish wrapping Christmas gifts,
• Put up bookshelves in baby's room,
• Sort out sheets in ds's room. He has a drawer of bedding and the sheets for the moses basket, cot, travel cot and his bed are all mixed up in it!

Katzen

Morning MrsS,
You do like to keep busy don't you! Naughty you buying things in Mothercare though. I love it in there but it's always so expensive compared to supermarkets! Those bottles do sound a good idea though. Don't know what it's like in your hospital but in ours you have to take pre-made milk like that as you're not allowed to use powder. Although, I breastfed so even accounting for new bras (I think I now have wired, non-wired and nursing in sizes from 34B to 36D) it must've saved me a fortune! Well done on your Christmas wrapping too, I don't even know what I'm buying everyone yet

MrsSave

I much prefer keeping busy than sitting waiting!! With ds1 I was on maternity leave for a couple of months before he arrived, and spent a lot of time lazing about. My plan is that if I keep busy, this one will arrive sooner!!! Mothercare is expensive compared to supermarkets, but their things are lovely. I don't shop there often (for that reason!), but love the outfits I bought!!!

I tried breastfeeding ds1, but it worked out I couldn't. It was quite a stressful first few days, and I didn't produce a single drop of milk! Ds was very hungry. We had to limit the amount of formula he took on for his first few feeds as he wouldn't stop! I've figured this time I won't stop breastfeeding happening if it happens naturally (especially straight after the birth), but the chances are I'll have to formula feed so I've accepted that.

Our hospital provide milk for us. That's where I found out about these little bottles of pre-made milk. We picked some up from the supermarket on the way home from hospital as I hadn't a clue about how to prepare formula at all! It gave us a bit of time!

Ds and Dh are going to the cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday in a little while. I'd thought about it, and usually do go with them, but we went out for the afternoon yesterday and my pelvis is still so sore since then. It will mean that I can crack on with Sunday lunch, wrap a few presents and possibly have a soak in the bath.

This morning I've sorted out the snack/drinks cupboard. Took everything out, gave it a good clean, and threw things that had been open for too long. I organised the drinks part and worked out how much we had for Christmas (more than enough). Next will be the tins/baking cupboard. That will take longer and I won't be able to sit on the floor doing it :rotfl: