A new royal start

QueenJess

rugbymadfamily said:

Argh that's so annoying about work. The 3and is in sight though, not long now! Hope all well with bump and that chocolate is enjoyable again?!

Oh yes... it is starting to drag now.  On the plus side, I have found out everyone is getting a 2% pay rise from 1 Nov, so I will get a higher pay for the next 6 months (3 months pay + 3 months pay in lieu of notice).  That will definitely come in handy and worth sticking around a few extra months for.

Bump is ok, although I think this might be a more tricky pregnancy than the last one.  Will see what happens.  I did find out that it is a girl baby though, so will have one of each    It does mean clothes will be more tricky to share though.

Some level of chocolate is tolerated at the moment.  I'm going to give it a proper try at the weekend as I've got the ingredients to make chocolate brownies.  Fingers crossed!

rugbymadfamily

Aw that's super exciting to have a little girl! I've got a younger brother and in many baby pictures he definitely has a fair bit of pink on as my mum was sure she would have another girl so didnt buy any boy clothes 😂

That's really good news on the payrise, every little helps.

Best of luck with the brownies, got my fingers crossed for you!

MagicCat

Sorry to hear work has been so rubbish.
Lovely news about your little girl! I have a boy then a girl, I found with a few second hand bundles of girl clothes from eBay mixed in she's been fine mostly wearing her brother's old things. Although she is sometimes mistaken for a boy, particularly at the park when she's wearing his old rain suit and wellies (this may also be because she's still not got much hair so looks a bit like a bald old man  )

QueenJess

MagicCat said:

Sorry to hear work has been so rubbish.
Lovely news about your little girl! I have a boy then a girl, I found with a few second hand bundles of girl clothes from eBay mixed in she's been fine mostly wearing her brother's old things. Although she is sometimes mistaken for a boy, particularly at the park when she's wearing his old rain suit and wellies (this may also be because she's still not got much hair so looks a bit like a bald old man  )

That made me laugh. DS didn't really have proper hair for the first year and is very small, so he looked like a baby for a long time!

We didn't find out the sex last time, so the first 6 months of clothes are unisex. We've been offered a friend's old clothes and toys from their little girl and it looks like my mum couldn't help herself and has bought a few bits already. So looks like we should be fine for a while at least!

Just having furniture design angst now.. need to get it ordered this weekend, but can't quite decide on the layout of it. We want the same as DS but the room is a different shape... One to think about in the next few days..

QueenJess

Made a vegan cottage pie for dinner (there was loads!).  Bit of a risk with a picky toddler and a meat obsessed DH.  No one liked it (apart from me) and so I sulked and made myself some chocolate biscuits with orange icing for this evening.

Back to the drawing board to find more veggie meals everyone will eat.

QueenJess

Another totally rubbish day of work.  I'm back to surviving it by counting down, although I am arguing with DH about whether I should count the days until I finish or the number of days I have to actually work  😂

Smoked haddock kedgeree for dinner today followed by baked apples and greek yogurt.  Then chocolate biscuits with orange flavoured icing for later.  I forgot to cancel my veg box for this week and so I have a ridiculous amount of veg.  I think I'll be doing a lot of cooking for the next week or so!

Lots to catch up on this weekend housework wise.  I ordered DH an anniversary present for Monday, but have yet to make his card.  Also have to finally decide on the baby room layout to order the furniture online and order DS's bed.  Going to be a very expensive weekend    I think I need to get back to the surveys etc to try and make a bit of a dent in all this spending.

More toilet training this weekend... wish me luck!!

QueenJess

I'm totally exhausted already today. Dinner is in the oven (fish and chips) and I achieved all of the following:

• Finished planning out the baby room and spent ages then ordering all the furniture needed from Ikea.  Took forever as you have to remember to order every little component.
• Ordered DS's bed frame, mattress, mattress protector, sheets, duvet and duvet cover
• Filled the whole bin up up with leaves from the garden and also did some weeding.  Still more leaves out there, but need more bin space!
• Changed all the beds
• Did washing and hung it out
• Made chocolate brownies for pudding (uses one of my many beetroot..)

Spent a complete fortune now.. very scary!  I don't ever spend that much money in one go!  Don't think I'll be buying much next month and am going to have to loan myself the cash for all this stuff (on the CC) and then the joint account will slowly pay me back.  Just unfortunate it all came at the same time, but bought things which should all last years and years and years.

Once it arrives in a couple of weeks it'll probably take a month to get it all built (especially with a little "helper")!  Tomorrow I probably need to do less, although we need a plan for anniversary day meal (and I have to make a card still).  The restaurant we were going to order from doesn't do anything until later in the week, so I will attempt to make a start, main meal and pudding.  We will have a starter when DS has his main meal and eat after DS is in bed as a one off treat.  I'm thinking smoked salmon starter, lamb tagine main and then I may use the chocolate brownies I made today as the pudding.  Need to get it all planned with the shopping list tomorrow.

Going to put my feet up tonight once DS is in bed.

QueenJess

Didn't do much today.  Was up half the night with DS who has a cold (and so instantly gets croup).
Shopping list done for tomorrow and meal plan done for the week.  Trying hard to use up a load of veg in the fridge and whatever I have lying around in the freezer to keep costs down a bit.  Decided that although my veg box is expensive, it is so much better to get really fresh veg and forces us to have a larger variety.  I think I will keep it fortnightly as I've really missed having it.  No point in cutting back so far that it encroaches on quality of life/what I actually enjoy if we don't have to.

Still trying to convince DH we need a larger freezer for the garage... he is absolutely not impressed with the potential for losing more space in his precious garage *sigh*. 

I was explaining to DS last night what was going to happen on Monday with us eating separately and what our anniversary meant.  Then DH says "But we're not doing presents as agreed?".  Ur.. what?  I never agreed to any such thing!  I want a present!  I don't care if it only cost £1, but I do want something. *sigh*.  I suspect this means that I will get no present and no card tomorrow then.  Don't know why I bother to make a card, buy a thoughtful present and cook a 3 course meal for us.  Not happy.  You'd think he'd make an effort considering how difficult things seem at the moment for me with rubbish work and a not plain sailing pregnancy.

Now just a bit annoyed and not looking forward to next week with rubbish work.  Will keep opening my app which tells me the number of days left to get me through....

At some point I really need to get back to xmas/Jan planning.  Just feel overwhelmed after all the expenses this weekend.  Think I may do one more big stock up shop from ASDA before xmas so I'd better get that booked in soon I guess.  Lots to do as usual and will have to start ticking through things next week.

Dinner is in the oven at the moment - chicken casserole with dumplings.  Chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream for pudding.  I had a chocolate brownie last night and baby seemed happy with that, so I had another one  shhh.... 

Jessy103

I hope you got an anniversary card and present in the end!

QueenJess

Bit a nightmare week all round.  Work ridiculous again (apparently I am the only person who can actually just get things done..) and I've been juggling cooking dinner, looking after DS and trying to be on a conference call at the same time most days.  DS has been playing up which I think is related (lack of attention-itis) as I've been working so many hours and to top it all off I got DS's cold and so haven't been sleeping well.

So relieved that the week is over, although feel totally drained and rubbish now.  I really have no idea how it is possible for two parents to work full time and be able to cook, clean and look after children.  The house is now a mess and I continually feel guilty for doing everything 70-80% rather than being able to get everything done properly.  To be fair, neither I nor DH have 9-5 jobs and they are pretty full on, but still..  Kudos to anyone who manages all this stuff.

Somehow I managed to scrape the vegetarian toad in the hole with mushroom gravy yesterday.  I loved it and I think even DH liked it.  DS was in full tantrum mode so who knows really.

Too scared to look at the joint account.  I did look for a bit earlier, but it looks very negative and back to where I was months and months ago.  Bit depressing to have gone backwards.  Food over budget again as I've been so busy and the furniture I needed to buy is leaving a big hole.  I also totally miscalculated nursery fees and so am negative there too    Going to have to take a deep breath and start the slow process of paying this back each month.  I did have to loan the joint account money from the mortgage overpayment fund to make sure we don't go overdrawn in December 

So positives.... I survived the week and now only 62 days left before I stop work.  I accidentally discovered online that since I will be leaving within 15 weeks of when baby is due, I am entitled to statutory maternity pay.  Haven't told my company yet, but will have to in the next few weeks.  I suspect that they will pay me a lump sum, but that will be a nice plus.

I am enjoying having my veg and fruit box again.  I know it is more expensive, but the quality is excellent, it supports local farmers and makes me eat a larger variety than I would otherwise.  The evening meals are planned, but I am thinking about how to use up the rest of the veg/fruit that I have left.  I think orange muffins are on the list and tomorrow I'm going to make pesto pasta with leeks and peas for lunch.  Also want to make some millionaires shortbread at some point as I've almost run out of the chocolate brownies I made last weekend.

Really need to get through some stuff in the freezer as I just can't get anything else in there at the moment.  I'm still working on operation "get a bigger freezer" in the background, although I really can't afford to buy one now

Hoping for a nice weekend, catching up on some household chores, lots of baking/cooking and tons of time with DS.