Emma: Lol @ the boys Sometimes I hate it that DH is soooo not a drinkin' man cuz I would LOVE to go out on the town occasionally (when not UTD, naturally) but he never wants to and I'd feel awful going out with the girls and leaving him at home hahaha, but then there are times when I'm glad he's got no dude friends and spends every minute he's not at work, at home with me hehehe When I was in labour I started wanting my mum lol (who was at home and didn't have the car to get up to the hossy) and DH was like, 'Do you want me to go pick your mum up and bring her here?' I'm like 'NOOOOOOO WAY ARE YOU LEAVING ME FOR TWO MINUTES! TELL HER TO CALL A TAXI AND BTW IF YOU NEED TO P!SS YOU'LL DAMN WELL DO IT IN A BUCKET NEXT TO THE BED, YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE' hahah

Hahaha yes let's have ours on the same day and then do each others' BAs from our hospital beds via mobile phone LOL!!

Inductions aren't so bad, I was induced with DD and I only had gas and pethidine... lol gas will take you back if you have it, it really truly does just feel like you've pumped down a few cones and you get the dries lol, that woozy, giggly feeling?? Oh man I was like, 'Chief you HAVE to have a go at this, it feels like smoking pot omg I'm stoned lol' and the midwives were like
Lol tell DP to stay in the room and sneak some gas, then he won't need to disappear on you lol it feels exactly the same!!
But yeah I didn't need an epi or anything, yeah it hurt like hell but you just gotta try and overcome the natural 'fight or flight' response (apparently you tend to go into 'panic mode' and freak out halfway through lol, that's where things go wrong a lot of the time) and remember that just when you think you couldn't possibly bear another minute, little Jade will be there and it will all be over
Plus, induced labours tend to be really short (mine was 4 hours from start to cutting the cord) so that's one bonus I'm scared of a natural labour now hahaha, I don't wanna be pushing for 12 hours!!


Re the bills/direct debit thing, maybe try wording it so it's like, you want to start working as a team rather than two people sharing costs, kwim?? Might be less of a blow to his manly ego if you can manage to say it like 'we're not two separate people now, we're a family and that means bills etc are a shared responsibility' etc?? Maybe suggest setting up an account separate to you or him, not necessarily a joint one but just something other than the accounts you have already, and arrange for a bit of money from each of you to go into it and make it solely for the purpose of paying bills, kwim? DH and I have two accounts each, an everyday account that our pays go into/we spend from, and then we each have a separate online account where we can deposit money from our incomes and it is purely dedicated to things like long-term savings/bills - DH's online stash is for a deposit on a house, because he earns heaps more than me so he can put away more, mine is really just to put away whatever money I have left after paying my share of things so that I don't go out and blow it all on makeup and clothes at the end of the week when I see I have $50 left, kwim??
Sometimes I have to go in and take some back out because BIL doesn't cough up his share of the phone bill etc, but even then DH just pays that bit because he doesn't like us dipping into savings...
HTH