I made a really excellent bolognese and I successfully made an enormous amount of it, so I could freeze several dinners’ worth for after baby arrives. It was REALLY good even if I didn’t have any red wine on hand to put in it. And even though my husband does most of the cooking and still will, and my father has…

Fair play! Hopefully you’ll come through this adjustment period soon and the gym time will be making you feel better instead of worse. It is intensely frustrating when things that are good for us long-term make us feel crap short-term.

That’s a whole bunch of shittiness and I hope things start looking up for you. For what it’s worth, 34 isn’t old, you deserve to be “picky”, and you absolutely haven’t missed the boat on marriage and kids. I hope it’ll happen for you soon.

Oh Maya, I’m so sorry that Ollie died. That’s a real loss, and grief is hard. It sounds like ye were very lucky to find one another (or maybe meant to find one another!) and that you gave him a wonderful life and a sweet goodbye. He sounds like a hell of a cat and a good friend. I’m sad he’s gone, but I’m really glad…

Pregnancy Thread!!

Going by a middle name is reasonably common in my family and country so I get it! Sounds like you’re happier with the first name though! 

Ha, that’s mad! I feel sorry for my compatriot; having an Irish accent in the States is great, you don’t want anyone stealing your thunder on that.

Wasn’t my middle name either, until this week’s deed poll! I thought about it more than your cousin but not by much! Now all my college friends & colleagues, including my partner, call me Newname and my family calls me Oldname (mostly) and my extended family seems to randomise, and one very senior professor has taken…

My parents always used this rule (“find another parent”) but I never got lost as a child. But the first time I travelled internationally alone, as a teenager, I was confused and overwhelmed and alone in a big American airport and I needed to pee, and I remembered the rule and asked a mother with kids for help ... and…

This! I never assume with any specific individual (unless I know them!) because as OddsSixesDiceMonogamy says, invisible conditions could mean that apparently-abled person would actually struggle with the stairs. I have CFS/ME so it’s not always obvious I need the elevator unless I’m using a mobility aid that day. But…

And I really really try very hard not to judge parents, but it also includes the music and sound effects on the video or game you’re letting your kid watch/play to keep them occupied in the restaurant or on the bus or in the waiting room. They can’t ALL be kids who would genuinely get really upset if the sound was off…

Oh god, that sounds awful! And on top of the cough too. My puffiness isn’t so bad but it’s still just fucking annoying. I’m glad you have nice hair at least! And a definite end date. I have no reason to induce and there are reasons not to if it’s not necessary, so, fine, but damn, I would absolutely love a definite…

I changed my name. Showed up to university orientation and just introduced myself with a different name. It was not a flawless system. Having two names inevitably leads to confusion. But it was worth it! Ten years later, I executed the deed poll this week (and also added the shared surname my partner and I both…

I was doing quite well through the middle. First trimester; horrific pain, but it abruptly went away around week 10. Second trimester; feeling increasingly good and looking increasingly pregnant which was kind of fun, I do not have a good relationship with my body so I was pleasantly surprised I was enjoying it…

Yep, I’m the same! It can be a symptom/sign of a neurodiversity like ADHD or autism, or a mental health issue like anxiety, or it can show up by itself. For some reason, trichtillomania, the same but for removing hair, is more “famous”. Maybe because it’s actually within normal behaviour to fuss at scabs or pick…

That sounds like dermotillomania. It is a glitch! I do it too, except I cycle through different versions; picking scabs (on my scalp mostly, not visible), cuticles, callouses, etc. I think for me it’s a symptom of ADHD, I’ve sort of repressed all my hyperactive fidgeting into this relatively subtle but self-damaging…

I was hoping you’d include more of the “best of” from the replies to Bernie Sanders’ tweet, because I couldn’t tolerate the amount of bullshit in the tweet thread (like “the most ridiculous bill I’ll get is the one you want me to pay for freeloaders to get medical care at my expense!!!1!”) and I was hoping someone…

I genuinely think this culture of grinding terror is as bad as the shootings themselves (like, in terms of the average school student; an actual shooting is much worse, but still only a tiny chance of it actually happening, whereas this is less traumatic than the real thing, but happens routinely to everyone). This is…

Same. My partner’s American, first baby’s due next week. People ask all the time, here and there, would we move to the States? Nope. We’ll visit, we love visiting, I would consider doing a couple of months maybe, as a sabbatical or something. But (a) don’t want to risk getting bankrupted by medical bills thanks, (b)…

Yup. It’s also in loads of the pregnancy advice literature. Although as I said elsewhere in the thread, I was told I should sleep on my left side, but that I wasn’t to worry if I woke on my back. Since that obviously meant I didn’t have to worry about being asleep on my back, I ignored the sleep-on-left-side-only…