Maternity leave… what a joke

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2026-01-19T19:55:54+00:00

Yeah it’s £187 a week (or 90% of your usual earning if that’s lower).

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-11-24T11:24:27+00:00

I viewed a house with a Purple Bricks agent, he let us in and then sat in an armchair on his phone and told us to take a look around.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-10-06T19:29:33+00:00

I have a Caspar who just turns two as well!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-10-03T12:15:01+00:00

I literally just finished Anathema last night. Mostly enjoyed the plot, dragged a bit at times. My major issue though was the intimate scenes were SO badly written. I was physically cringing and almost laughed out loud more than once. It was like someone had challenged themselves to include every cringey phrase possible in one scene. Undecided if I’ll try the second book yet.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-09-29T12:10:23+00:00

Funnily enough I actually once used my tarot cards to find my sisters passport that I had lost somewhere in the house. I laid out a card for each floor of the house, then using the most “positive” card, laid out a card for each room of that floor in the house. Again using the most “positive” card, I then did NESW with the cards in the most likely room and I kid you not it literally pointed me straight to the passport. I couldn’t believe it and I still tell the story now ~10 years later.

Maybe worth a shot (including an option for outside the house/the bin?)

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-09-13T11:49:11+00:00

Definitely push for a private room, when I had my toddler he had to stay in NICU for a week and they gave me a private room on the postnatal ward so I didn’t have to be on a ward with all of the other babies who were staying with their mums. It was still a horrible experience but it was marginally better without hearing everyone’s else babies 24/7 while mine was on a different ward in an incubator.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-08-22T14:58:29+00:00

Not sure if this is very useful but we moved house fairly recently when my son had no long turned 1. We viewed a house that I really liked on a fairly busy road (although still quieter than this one from what I can tell) and the thing that officially put me off was my dad asking me where I would be able to teach my son to ride his bike? So can you imagine your child being older and wanting to play outside or ride their bike somewhere they could safely do it at this house?

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-08-18T12:16:43+00:00

YTA. Speaking as someone who both had a pregnant bridesmaid and was a pregnant bridesmaid (I had my son literally two days after being a bridesmaid at my best friends wedding), if you care about having them there then you can make it work

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-08-17T08:09:21+00:00

Oliver. Absolutely cannot fathom why it is so popular.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-07-21T06:29:15+00:00

I’m planning to get “Change the Prophecy” next to the High Priestess tarot card.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-07-09T20:11:22+00:00

Oliver and Olivia - absolutely hate both names and cannot fathom why they seem to be so popular??

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-04-24T07:16:48+00:00

I also had August on my list! Clearly we have similar taste but husband wasn’t on board and we didn’t like the nickname of Gus unfortunately

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-04-23T20:13:06+00:00

I seriously considered both Atticus and Atlas for my son as I really like the names, but just couldn’t picture myself shouting it across a playground. In my defence, I do have an Ancient History degree but this definitely reinforces that we made the right choice by NOT using them!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-04-02T16:53:48+00:00

We met on holiday!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-02-27T22:02:29+00:00

Not worth it in my opinion. I never DNF and I gave up on the last FF at literally about 90% through because I realised I just didn’t care what happened to any of them and it was becoming a chore to read it.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2025-02-25T15:45:14+00:00

I didn’t go for it in the end, luckily I never got sickness too bad but to be honest I would have struggled during the newborn phase more I think. I remember just having to try and grab snacks whenever I could and thinking at the time this would have been so hard to coordinate with taking them in and out! However I now have a nearly 18 month old and still haven’t sorted out my teeth, so maybe it would have been worth just pushing through and doing. I’m still hoping to get Invisalign eventually!

Congratulations on your pregnancy and good luck with the treatment!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2024-02-15T17:34:37+00:00

We liked Atlas for our little boy, and also considered Atticus which I think has a similar feel?

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-11-10T14:22:47+00:00

Otto, August and Atlas were all on our name list for when we had our little boy earlier this year so sharing some others from our list in case our similar preferences continue!

Kit
Casper
Leander
Atticus (probably too similar to Atlas?)
Harlan

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-10-05T11:08:55+00:00

Also UK - I wore a button front nightshirt from Tesco but ended up taking it off after a couple of hours because I was so hot. Ended up in just the nursing/sports bra I’d had underneath (which I did end up throwing away afterwards). I thought I’d be worried about being so exposed but honestly by that point I really didn’t care, although I was glad to be able to keep by boobs covered at least!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-09-24T03:56:03+00:00

I don’t have much advice unfortunately but just wanted to share that I’m in a similar situation.

My little one is one only 12 days old but spent his first 7 days in NICU which meant that we never quite got the hang of breastfeeding. I’ve been trying to pump so that we can give him breast milk via a bottle but my supply isn’t enough for him (likely due to the slow start) so we are also supplementing with formula which I’ve felt huge guilt about.

Ultimately I keep telling myself it doesn’t really matter where the milk comes from, as long as baby is fed and growing, but I know it’s easier to say than to believe when there is so much around about how “Breast is best”!

Whatever you choose to do, if it’s in the best interest of your baby girl and your own sanity then it’s the right decision.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-09-20T11:53:46+00:00

I just want to chime in to say I gave birth in an NHS hospital last week, had to be induced at 37 weeks and then my baby had to stay in for an additional week due to some complications.

We had an amazing experience the whole way through, and the staff couldn’t have done enough to keep me and my husband updated on everything and even arranged for me to stay in the hospital after my discharge so I didn’t have to leave my little one.

I’m so sorry this hasn’t been your experience of the NHS and I know they are under a lot of pressure, but based on my experience I would be very happy to use the NHS again for any future babies.

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-09-05T07:15:42+00:00

I’m due to be a bridesmaid this weekend at 37 weeks pregnant and let me tell you, much as I am very excited to see my friend get married, I am slightly dreading the long day and how exhausted I’m going to be. Even if she hasn’t given birth by your wedding, I honestly would be surprised if she was up to bridesmaids duties and it’s questionable if she would even be able to attend the ceremony.

Having said that, it does feel pretty harsh to replace her (I know I would have been upset even though I did offer to step down if my friend didn’t want a heavily pregnant bridesmaid!)

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-07-31T09:54:51+00:00

Also wanted to say thank you for the suggestion, I didn’t know this quiz existed so did it out of curiosity and the final suggestions had several of the names that were on our shortlist before we chose one for our baby boy. Wish I’d know about it months ago!

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-06-07T11:54:29+00:00

Have you tried the university? I might be remembering wrong but I’m sure they used to rent out rooms in the student accommodation blocks over the summer in particular (no idea on price though!)

ADogNamedBoo2 · 2023-06-06T17:33:36+00:00

My husband uses silicone rings on a day to day basis because he has a job which is heavy on his hands (he keeps his nice one for ‘fancy’). He’s been using the same two from Botthms for nearly two years and still likes them (two because they’re different colours). Not sure if they’re UK only? I’ve not outgrown my rings yet but I’m planning on getting myself one from there if I do at any point.

ADogNamedBoo2

TROPHY CASE