Thanks for the welcomes girls --- been mega busy!

We have viewed a couple of wedding venues -- all so so expensive. Now considering a more intimate wedding with closest family and friends. What do you ladies think??

As for TTC OH just rund hot n cold so am just trying to put it to the back of my mind at the mo (not easy) but if it happens - it happens! If not, I have two beautiful children to snuggle and love xx

Hey D! DH and I eloped for our wedding. Our family actually encouraged us to do so as we saved so much money. It was wonderful, stress free, and it couldn't have been more perfect. I wouldn't change one thing. So yes, I'm partial to smaller weddings. I think it keeps you from having to impress people you hardly see or know. So my vote is for the intimate wedding as long as you're happy!

AFM, if the baby boy dream wasn't enough I watched a series of videos about what happens during pregnancy and it was so sweet and interesting! I have full blown baby fever right now! I'm hoping I ovulate in about 2 weeks and we catch! It will give me a late October baby. FX!

Jess, no O in sight for me. I thought maybe the other day, as my temp rose, but it`s gone down again today. I am thinking the high temps was something to do with the sore throat that I was waking up with. Ugh... looks like I`ll be going onto clomid cycle 3.

Gosh puppy! I'm so sorry I just want you to know that I'm thinking about you!

Baby D - Yes, totally go for the small, intimate wedding and make it really personal to you two and your family! We didn't have a 'big' wedding by most people's standards (about 60 guests) but it was at a really nice venue and we spent a lot more than I ever would have imagined wanting to spend. Fortunately, even though we could never have afforded a wedding like that, my stepfather is a very nice man who makes more money than he knows how to spend, and he really wanted to pay for it, which was very kind of him. But I would have been disappointed if we had struggled to pay for that ourselves. It was a great day and it was beautiful and fun and people still talk about how awesome our wedding was, but I think the best parts (for us and everyone else) were the bits that weren't expensive. We wrote our own vows. We did a really funky, non-traditional ceremony with an interfaith minister (so it was sorta part Jewish, part just spiritual, part Hindu-inspired since we met in India). The food was good and we just made it really fun and there was good music and lots of dancing. The venue was beautiful, so were the flowers and the cake and all that stuff. But what made it great wasn't the stuff that cost a lot of money. If I could do it again, I'd probably do something a lot smaller, even more personal and without all the extra fluff. It's nice to have a pretty venue, but it would have been just as great without (and a lot less stress for me!). In the end, I was having so much fun and the day went by so quickly that I barely noticed or cared about the stuff I'd spent so much time and money on. Would you think about just getting married at the Register's Office and then doing a blessing ceremony, like in your garden, and then going out for food and drinks at a local pub or restaurant or having like a BBQ or food at your home (or a family members)? We actually thought about doing this at my MIL's house since she has a really nice garden. We also didn't actually get married in our actual wedding ceremony. We did the quick ceremony with the Register people in the morning because we wanted more flexibility in the wording of our real ceremony than they would allow. I thought it would be weird to get married (legally) before our wedding, but it really didn't matter. The big ceremony was the one that felt real and meaningful and the earlier one was just about signing paperwork.

Emma - how are you feeling today? How is your husband? And Oliver? Hope you're doing great and enjoying secondtime mummyhood.

I'm feeling a bit grumpy today, as the work deadlines for me to stop work at the end of next week are looming. Also, annoyingly, we ran out of heating oil this morning. Apparently, the gauge on our oil tank doesn't work anymore because it still says we have plenty, but the heat didn't come on this morning and my husband went out to check what was wrong and opened up the tank to check with a dipstick and it was empty! So we are without heat or hot water until Friday which is the earliest date they can possibly deliver an 'emergency' order. Leave it to us to run out of oil the one week it's -3 degrees. So Tim is going to get us an electric heater on his way home tonight so we can at least keep one room at a time warm until then. It's fine, we needed to get one this week anyway because our house isn't very energy efficient and with a baby coming along we are going to need to sometimes heat one room a little extra. I'm just glad it didn't happen next month when I was in labour and needing to fill up my pool! But still it was just an annoying way to start the day. Now I just have to try not to freeze until Tim comes home tonight with the heater. I'm pondering working from bed today with the electric blanket!

Hi ladies, I'm feeling less sore today and dh seems to be better so is back to helping out! Oliver had a good nights sleep which has helped us all.

D we had a medium sized wedding as dh has a huge family, but to keep the cost down we did a lot of 'homemade' things and called in favours. My sister made the wedding favours, my mum made the wedding cake, my brother in law did the photographs and we borrowed his lovely car to transport people, a friend of a friend made the bridesmaid dresses and men's cravats, my aunties band were the entertainment for most of the night and my sisters dj friend finished off the last couple of hours. We ordered little things like serviettes, table runners, centre pieces, bubbles (instead of confetti) all off eBay. It's so much fun shopping around for the best deals too! One brill thing my sister made for us was a wishing well. She painted one she got from a garden centre and put sparkly bits on it. Then she wrote out a poem and put it on the roof of the well which invited people to write us a good luck message or give a piece of advice. She also subtly said how we didn't want/need presents but we would appreciate money towards our honeymoon. We managed to pay for most of our honeymoon with the contributions in the well! We had also sent that message out via our parents so people knew to expect that's what we'd want rather than having a gift list.

Puppy got my fingers crossed that clomid works for you really soon, thinking of you. How have you felt taking it? Only ask because dh cousin felt pretty nauseous while taking it, but it did work for her so all good

Feel sorry for you Mind that your heating has gone off! Our hot water broke yesterday, luckily we have had a new boiler fitted this year so it was under warrenty and we managed to get it fixed same day. Least you have a little hot water bottle inside you to keep you warm, and definitely think working whilst in bed is a good idea!

Jess good luck for this cycle, get in lots of bding! lol

Thanks for all the wedding stories -- some lovely ideas there! xx

Jess - thanks

Emma - I feel absolutely fine taking it. I would trade that for symptoms any day if it meant it would work!

How is everyone doing? Who got lots of snow this week? I know it snowed both here in the UK and in the U.S. by the sound of it. Emma, glad your husband is feeling better now. How are you and Oliver doing?

We have heat and hot water back again as of Friday. Woo hoo! I'm used to living in a drafty house and when we visit my husband's family, they don't even have central heating because they live in an old farmhouse, but geez, I don't think I've ever been so thankful for modern conveniences before! Heat I could manage without. We did have two electric heaters that we ran in our bedroom and in the lounge (though my many middle of the night bathroom trips were a big frigid!), but not having hot water for four days was rough. I am a big fan of long, hot showers, especially in winter. I was showering at the gym after I worked out or swam, but it's just not quite the same as at home. So I'm back to feeling a bit more human again this weekend.

I'm feeling pretty good today. The past two days my back has been killing me. I think it was just too much time spent at my desk without getting up to stretch this week, but today it's much better. I even took a nice long walk with my husband. We also had a date 'afternoon' out yesterday to see Les Miserables (which was soooo good!! I'm a big musical nerd, so it was great). Now today, I've been working since about 9am (yes, on a Sunday, yuck) because I'm determined to get my work finished up so I can start my maternity leave in a week. I'm feeling very overworked at the moment. I haven't had a day off when I didn't work at least a half day in about two weeks, which will be three after this week. So maternity leave will be well-earned when it starts! I'm getting tired and restless, so it will be nice. I've had my husband on house painting and cleaning duty all day though, so hopefully things will be mostly in order and ready for baby after this week. Our birth pool arrived on Wednesday too. It's sitting in the lounge now. We need to do a trial run setting in up next weekend, but just the fact of having it there makes it all see so much more real. Yikes! Now if only my scan tomorrow goes well, we're officially just about ready for baby!

Though I keep reminding this baby to stay in there cooking awhile longer because mummy really needs a week off to nap and schedule an afternoon at the spa before someone makes their arrival! So there's no rush.

Hi ladies, how's everyone doing?

Is there any poas going on Jess and puppy?! I'm excited for you girls, I really do have my fingers crossed for you.

I can't believe I'm going to say this but I wish I could do it all again now! 2 kids is our limit though, unless something changes drastically financially, and I am truly grateful for my boys. Olly is doing well - he put on 11oz in his first 12 days!! He is so chilled out and easy to deal with. I'm feeling 1000% better now my cut is healing. My muscles still hurt underneath but I'm back in my 'fat day' jeans so feel good about that. I'm 10lb off my pre-pregnancy weight but not stressing about it, it's fine.

So Mindutopia you've reached full term today, congratulations!!! Any twinges yet?? bet you'll be so fed up of people asking you that soon! I can't wait to hear your birth story, I really want you to get your home birth.

How is your wedding planning going D? Have you picked a date? Hope you are having fun looking for ideas.

Any news on your girlies Gen and Kerry? Hope all is going well.

Xx