OMG for anyone here who has ever felt a little guilty about not posting for a week or two - paste a bloody big smile on your face and enjoy the pain of this lapsed Catholic who hasn't been on since - 19 July - and has small essays handwritten in front of her at the moment...

Welcome to zstar and lauren22 as well as human bean, cantwaittobeamum and josh'smum - it is wonderful to see the evolution of the thread as new mummas-to-be join - hope everything goes well for you all! zstar - sorry to hear about the spotting - I can remember how paranoid I was for about the first 13 wks - if the constipation gets bad again - cheap, effective remedy is pear juice - if you can keep it down - it is also brilliant for the first b/m after birth too to keep things civilised and manageable. human bean - I remember feeling really ambivalent and finding it difficult to get excited about this pg until I had passed little Marley's EDD and all the early panic points - it made me feel a little guilty that others were do excited and I kept wondering what was wrong with me - but I suppose defence mechanisms take all forms... josh'smum - I cried my eyes out when I saw Little One's hb this time - it seems another part of the healing process - can sympathise with the m/s struggles with toddler (DD is 4) and it has been a bloody hard slog this time to stay on top of the mundane realities and stuff that needs to be done and keep that bow-in-my-hair sunny temperament thing going on at times Welcome Sunny09 - a h and h pg to you!!

HannahD - congrats on little girl - it has been such a pink thread this time!!! It is fun buying the baby gear but lord - isn't there a lot of it out there???? Really happy to hear you have an awesome midwife and she makes you feel grounded and confident - really important

Greenslw - first and foremost - congrats on your ENGAGEMENT!!!!!!!! What fun to have so much going on - pleased your boss was supportive and you feel valued rather than 'oh well see ya then' and that they have spoken about the future with you! Have fun with your 'girly' prep - and may your U/S on the 31st go well...

megsmum - am kicking myself that I missed Emma's birth - but have left a birth announcement message for you - wonderful to hear how she is thriving and that you are coping well

Zachary's mum - so close now - am very excited for you!!!!

MeredithD and WTH - can sympathise with the 'what do you mean it could be soon...' feeling - DD didn't hang around too long and rocked up at 37 1/2 wks in the middle of tiling three rooms and me having just dumped 16 yrs of teaching resources (unfiled of course) in the loungeroom - brilliant planning of course when you are having a homebirth - mind you, did give DP something to seriously do for the first stage of labour... Meredith - glad to hear the wig has lifted your spirits a little and here's hoping that DS's excitement continues - my DD wavers between being really loving towards the baby and regressing completely to wanting to be the baby in response to the uncertainty of it all - makes for some very entertaining days... Hope you both have good news around your issues...

Rach2281 - wonderful to hear you have picked a name for your little girl - we have a list of both, same as before - such little commitmentphobes we are

Easha - can feel for the waddle-thon - I have to keep wondering if my keel sway was quite this pronounced last time and wonder what the heck it must look like from behind - at yoga I must admit when we get into figure 8s and other pelvic rolling I do feel like a bit of a git the way your stomach kind of moves independently of everything else... Easha and Erybery - sorry to hear BP has been higher than you would want - mine was higher first pg and didn't ease down until I finished work (too much on my feet) - I also had high ketones first time round but GTT showed normal and this time it hasn't been an issue (I have a sluggish digestive system so my body hacks into its own stores to compensate - hence the periodically high ketones) - erybery - love the hiccups in the pelvis - both my bubs have been big on that and it certainly is freaky!!!

Chappas - hope bub is prepared to do a bit of gymnastics for you - although as someone else here has said - breech doesn't automatically mean c-section - there are a lot of breech bubs who deliver well vaginally with midwives/obs keeping an eye on distress or heartbeat with a doppler or other non-invasive device (e.g. not full on strap down heart monitoring where you can't move) - sorry to hear about the pelvic probs - unlike first time I am getting my dodgy hip slipping out from time to time on the right at the moment in the arvos - keep freaking out random men in supermarkets when I clutch at the shelving and double up until it passes - I do get a warning twinge before it happens which is good - a lot of women who have had bubs in breech at this point have said to me acupuncture has been good at times for shifting position for them - I feel much better now I've been on liquid iron for a couple of weeks now - the anaemia really sucks doesn't it...

Tam83 - a very belated congrats on Maison's birth!!!!

Mollycat - great to see you powering along

pash - my bub has done a great cigar impression for a long time but is rounding out a little more in the last couple of weeks - love your analysis of DP's hormonal rollercoaster - he must love that!!!! I love playing 'guess what appendage that is...' - at the moment I think I am being mooned on a permanent basis...

babymiracles - great to hear you had a good scan - lord a lot of us seem to be packing and moving at the moment - apparently it is in the top ten most stressful life activities...

AFM - meetings with our homebirthing midwife are going wonderfully - I get reflexology each fortnight and it is divine. We have sorted our finances, the house is almost sane and apart from the periodic hip collapses - it is a very normal, run of the mill pg for which I am very, very grateful - bub is head down and bouncing around and I feel is likely to come sooner rather than later but we're so much more organised this time than last - I feel that it wouldn't bother me even if a few things were still undone... Turned cougar (40 with younger fella) in July (whoops - better change my signature for truth in advertising purposes... (not sure whether to be proud of that one or not) and am now past full on DD's bday and rellies visiting as well - we have all been terribly ill (hence our outing from BB for a while) but I think everyone is on the mend now - the wonderful hacking, mucuousy, digusting afflictions that seem to be plaguing everyone at the moment and have no social skills to know when to go... Just want to be well when bub makes his/her appearance (so WTH - my sympathies really have been with you on this long haul...) DD is stunningly mature and loving one moment and as frustrating and inexplicable the next about the bub - but I have a few friends with toddlers who have new bubs and it is interesting watching how each child deals with their new brother/sister - so onto the next evolution of our family I suppose

Good outcomes and much better health to everyone
Karen van