Hi ladies! Since I've been on a course all week for work, I haven't been able to surf so freely during work hours. I came home last night and just crashed on the sofa the whole evening, so now I have a couple days' worth of your posts waiting for me -- wow!

Where to start...

Rozzie: I haven't bought anything at all for the baby yet, but I don't know if I've struggled either. On Sunday week 16, which was the day before Beiron's EDD, I was s down and needed a pick-up, so I took DH out to the baby store and we just strolled around. I told him right away that I didn't intend to buy anything (that was to ease HIM), but that I thought it would be nice to look around, and to do it with him there too. I decided then that I would buy something after 20 full weeks, just as a way of celebrating. But here I am 24 weeks and I still haven't bought anything. But that's mostly because I thought I'd be such a good girl and have the second floor all rearranged by then, where in reality we're still only about 1/3 of the way through that job! No sense in buying anything for the baby's room if there's still a bunch of junk in there that has to be cleared out! But I have actually planned the whole room -- and I mean with pen and paper and a floor plan and product numbers from IKEA! We have a baby buggy because DH's sister has given us hers, and we have a blanket and some bibs that we got from an online friend when we met up with her in London, but those are tucked away at the very back of a closet because we received them just three days before losing Beiron, so it still stings a bit to look at them. I remember being flustered when we received them, thinking even then that it made me nervous to have baby things that early and to have received our very first baby things from an almost complete stranger...

About Alec's cousin's wedding: just see if Alec can rescue you from his grandfather's girlfriend; either you or he can come up with a line to say if she gets irritating. We were at Fredrik's cousin's wedding in February, and when the groom's father (who was a couple sheets to the wind) met me he did the "Wow, are you from America? You don't have an accent at all!" but then went from there into "Now tell me then, why is it that all those Arabs can be here for 20 years and still can't bloody speak Swedish?" Fredrik hopped into action immediately, knowing surely that I would have NO problem answering that question, but probably not wanting to see me cause a scene, hehe. He was all "Gosh, it's so warm in here, why don't we go out and get some fresh air?"

TM: Are you hanging in there? I feel like there isn't much to say, but just hope that you're getting lots of hugs from your DH. *hug*

Paula: Your raw foods eating plan sounds like about the opposite of the way I've been eating lately. Although I do eat lots of fruits and veggies and fiber and always have, so I get the nutrition I need; it's just all the other stuff that I DON'T need, hehe. I tried to do a vegan diet last year for 4 weeks, with no sugar, preservatives, anything but super natural stuff. It was no problem as far as enjoying the food, as we've always eaten a good variety of food and I had plenty of vegan-friendly recipes to take from my normal repetoire (perhaps cutting out the bullion cube with the weird preservatives or the added salt or so), but I only lasted a few days before I ended up breaking out in a rash all over my face! I don't know for sure if it was related of course, but it was weird.

Sue: hope you don't take my question the wrong way, but do they not recommend total abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy in Australia? Like I said, please please don't take my question the wrong way, it's just curiousity! Over the past months I've been noticing all these different things that you guys talk about eating and not eating, and I think it's interesting when we get different recommendations. Like I suspect that you guys have gotten a more strict recommendation about lunchmeats and coffee than we get -- they still say no more than 3 cups a day here, but I cut it out entirely for the first 20 weeks because I was more comfortable with that. The Swedish recommendation on alcohol is "not a single drop," and some of the guests at my Thanksgiving party -- all men, btw! -- questioned the fact that I was eating the pie that had been made with a couple teaspoons of vanilla rum! You should see the hullibaloo there's been here lately about them now saying, after copious studies, that it's okay to have a couple glasses of wine while nursing; people are actually saying that it was irresponsible for them to come out with that info and that they instead should have kept telling us that drinking while nursing is dangerous even if it's not true!! I actually know a woman who wouldn't use deoderant during pregnancy because there's alcohol in it. Swedes are crazy sometimes.

Sue and Helen - I have to have a giggle when you guys talk about sex. I bet DH and I could go 9 months without it and not even notice, what with how much spontaneous sex we've had for the last few years, heh. Then again, this pregnancy seemed to inspire us, so we had sex several times the first trimester -- and I ended up bleeding and freaking out every time of course! So putting it off for your peace of mind is certainly not a bad idea!

DD - crossing my fingers that you'll get your early Christmas present on the 23rd! Hope you can have some fun at the party tonight.

Issy -- I'm so glad to hear that your earlier fears might have been a false alarm. I know that there are some tough weeks ahead of you, but little poppy is hanging on for now, and we've got our fingers crossed that it will stay that way!

Laney -- what a scare! But I'm glad it turned out to be benign -- and that you were reassured with a thorough scan and not just brushed off. Yay for your little boy!