Born Oct/Nov 2015

Pillpusher, that is wonderful news! Holding thumbs for you!!!

Clueless, We had the same problem with a name for our first... I loved the name Nevaeh. Which is Heaven spelled backwards. But then everyone pronounced it Nivea...like the cream! So we decided to rather just go with a new name and then Elmarise just "dropped" on us out of the blue: EL (MIL name ELna), MA (Mom's name MAbel), RI (SIL name LeandRI), SE (my name LouiSE).

So it's a combination name of the women in our family.

Lauz, I'm busy going through the new ToysRus catalogue. Did you buy the nania group 0/1 carseat? I finally got my carseat (60%) voucher and R100 gift card from them. When I look at all the stuff then I realise how much stuff we do actually still need...

Clueless - did you try the butter/margerine under their feet trick? We did it with all our cats when moving and never had a problem. Also, close all windows and doors leading outside and then let the cat come out of the room. He'll smell his ownscent on the furniture

@Clueless - relieved that I'm not the only one with a room and not much else to make it seem like a nursery Good luck. BTW, I think acclimatise is the right word?

I must be honest that I would also be torn regarding the name situation that you're in. My personal opinion is that I wouldn't want my child to have a name that people struggle to spell or pronounce, probably because I spent so much of my life correcting people regarding how to spell and say my maiden name! I hope you can make your decision soon and be content with it, negative comments really aren't helpful, but you need to do what you feel is best as a parent. The meaning of a name is also so important to me, I can't connect with a name just because it sounds nice or is easy to spell/pronounce and has a meaning that doesn't inspire much at all.

A head's up. There's a Graco stroller on DailyDeals today here . And a dream light - projects butterflies on the walls and ceiling here

Hi Ladies,

LouiseM, that is truly a beautiful name! I have also come across the name before (cant remember exactly where now) and I have such good associations with it. Soft and feminine and beautiful!


LauzMayer and Pillpusher, I am right there with you. At the moment we don't even have a nursery. There is a room in the new house dedicated to that purpose, but at the moment we are using that room to keep the cat in, while she acclimitises (that's not a word... not sure what the correct term is) to the new house and the new area. So litter box and kitty food all over the floor, and I don't go in there much so I don't start freaking out about toxoplasmosis Not even curtains yet, the place is a blank slate. We are getting a nice compactum this weekend (second hand from friends moving to Scotland) as I hgave decided to let my daughter keep her own compactum. The one we have just consists of drawers and she is able to pack and unpack her own clothes in there. Taking it and putting it in baby's room will just cause issues, I fear, that could have been avoided. So obviously I have not bought a single thing for baby yet, cause I have nowhere to put it!

So the name... We really like Neve. But that is not the correct spelling The correct spelling of the name Neve, is actually Niamh. If you spell it Neve, it means something completely different and is actually pronounced Nev. No one in SA will know how to pronounce Niamh, and we are getting negative comments whenever we tell people of our first choice. (My daughter is named Isla Lorelei, and being Afrikaans from German descent, we already get family not pronouncing Isla correctly. Luckily in Jhb most people speak English). Argghhhh!! Maybe we will choose something completely different!

Pillpusher, so nioce to have gotten TWO "financial" surprises! How awesome about the grant, that is HUGE! Holding thumbs for you!

Morning ladies

Sjoe. I feel super unprepared now after seeing all that! Congrats on "announcing" your little girl's name. The two names do go so well together

Our nursery is still in a state of exploded randomness! I'll just stay reassured that we've at least got the basics covered. And we go away in just over two weeks, so DH needs to get both the nursery and the spare room sorted out so that his brother has somewhere to sleep when he house sits for us.

It was DH's birthday yesterday, so had the family 'round on Saturday night and saw in-laws again yesterday. Nice to hear most of them being quite excited about Eliana, with talk about baby clothes, etc. and asking when the nursery will be properly set up. She also was kind enough to kick around a bit yesterday, MIL missed feeling her nudge but could see it under my dress. The little munchkin had me worried about her 'cause she'd been so quiet on Thursday/Friday, but she's been making her presence felt again.

I saw such beautiful little girl things at the new Edgars branch that's opened in PE. But I'm holding back on buying clothes. I've only actually bought one item of clothing for her from a shop at this point. Got the extra stuff from the lady that I bought the compactum from, some stuff from my brother and his wife and then my mom bought some stuff. MIL said that she thinks that one of DH's brother's girlfriend's mothers has been buying stuff (that's quite a mouth full!) already in anticipation for the baby shower. I ended up sending an outfit up to my brother over the weekend, mom bought it when I was about 9 weeks and we didn't know if we were going to have a girl or a boy. So I think my nephew will benefit from his "Handsome like daddy, awesome like mommy" outfit.

I also had to buy another baby shower present for a friend, she has a registry at Baby City, but I'm not going to get there before Saturday and as it is I won't even be able to attend her shower due to work commitments. So just went along with toiletries and disposable bibs. I seem to end up buying baby stuff almost every month that I work at Clicks and none of it has been for my little girl yet

Any thoughts on registries for baby showers? I've decided that I'm not going to set one up. It's damn useful, but I don't want people to feel "restricted" in what they can buy or like I won't appreciate what they give if it's not from the registry or that they have to spend a certain amount of money. I've made a list of things that I'd like so that if anyone asks my mom and MIL can give suggestions. And hopefully people will be savvy enough to leave tags on if things need to be exchanged.

Congrats, @Kimmy33 on week 24. HVDB and I are at 26 weeks now It's exciting and scary at the same time!

And I got two nice surprises yesterday. The first was that my medical aid reimbursed me for my antenatal classes (which when I asked about if they would be covered didn't come back with a positive response) and the second was a response regarding a grant that I applied for for my studies in February. The original notice had said that successful candidates would be contacted in April, so when I didn't hear anything I figured it was another lost cause. But now they've said that I've made it through to second (and final) round selection so am holding thumbs and praying that this comes through!

Morning ladies!!
I was so prepared aswell with my first but now nothing, even hubby was asking me last night when are we starting to prepare for the baby..
Had a case of insomnia last night, am going back to sleep for an hour or so.
Enjoy your morning

Week 24 today!!

Hahaha Lauz.Mayer... I was the same with my first! Left everything for the last month as well! And then when it came I had no energy, felt like a beached whale and just wanted to sleep This time around I'll be ready.

Urgh!!! I'm so jealous of you going for your scan AND booking your bed already!!!

My next appointment is only the 29th...but I'm really looking forward to it as it will be my first appointment with my new gynae - based at the hospital I'll be going to

Then next scan, on my birthday - we'll be booking our bed! So it's still a month for me to go.

Thanks for all the support!!! It helps soooooo much to be able to share it with all of you, otherwise I just would've kept it bundled up inside...

Good Morning Ladies,

Gosh you guys are so prepared, i remember doing everything in the last month with my first, I am no where prepared like you all

Ive only just sorted out all the clothes we giving away and toys, next on the agenda is room rearranging and setting up but im taking my time

As for those pictures LouiseM -

And your daughters name is beautiful I actually know of a little girl named Larissa and she truly is a beautiful little girl!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend, looking forward to my checkup on Thursday and cant believe ill be booking my bed so much excitement

LouiseM let us know the outcome of the "work situation"

Have a lovely week all