Trapped toddler parents: support through winter and beyond

[squishymamma]

Following on from the previous thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4292353-Trapped-toddler-parents-Inspiration-and-support-needed-through-the-summer-hols

Not the most inventive name but apt I think...

Oh no @squishymamma that sounds awful. Hopefully he will fall asleep shortly and you can sleep as well.

DD slept much better last night, still not 100% this morning but I'm hoping she will perk up later

@Motherofmonsters, glad your DD feels a bit brighter this morning. Hope she is ok today.

@squishymamma, oh no that's a terrible night you will be completely worn out. Sending X10.
We've been up since 5.30. DS1 has developed a lot of anxiety since being sick on Sunday and keeps asking if he will be sick again or need a poo at preschool. I just keep trying to reassure him , perhaps I need to distract him with something.

Hope everyone is ok and gets through the day.

Thanks both, he's now in nursery. Has been super happy and not a lot of tantrums so I'm nervous have a long day of appts with DS2 so hoping he's not getting ill!

@Chocolatetrifle as you know I have a lot of anxiety about being sick - it always helps me to remind myself that I'm not sick often at all and just because it happened recently doesn't mean it's going to happen again. We have many more days where we don't feel sick than when we do hope his mind settles soon, it's horrible being anxious!

Hope everyone has a good day and DC all stay relatively healthy!

Just catching up - really glad DD is feeling better @Motherofmonsters, that sounds a horrible few days.
Hope you get through today ok @squishymamma. Its so tough when you are sleep deprived. No chance your mum can come to you? Or dh’s relatives - could any of them be useful? I know its not helpful when you're in the middle of it, but it really wont be long before ds2 is eating etc and you can leave him for however long. Its so tough at the time though!! I felt so frustrated at not being “myself” after DS but now I look back it was mostly because I was actually doing a good job of looking after him & thats not easy when you have a toddler also!
Hope DS enjoys preschool @Chocolatetrifle
hopefully when he gets there he”ll forget about having been unwell.
How are you today @giraffes2021?
We have just been to a lovely church preschool group. They serve the children a fruit snack & the parents cake and coffee! Just what I needed this morning!

Sorry for the long post - I miss this thread when I am at work!!

@squishymamma and @Lostthetastefordahlias thank you both. DS1 was ok at preschool, ate his lunch did his activities but apparently went to the toilet a few times to check if he needed a poo. I'm hoping he will slowly start to forget about being sick the other day and not thinking about the toilet so much.

This afternoon is Goo jot Zu's vs teddy bear tea party tuff tray.

Hope everyone has a good afternoon and getting through the day.

Hope everyone is having a good day

I'm meant to be packing as we are all going away on sat for the night with the in-laws to a lodge. We're leaving at 7am so need to get sorted so we can just bundle them into the car. Im currently drinking tea and putting it off

That sounds like s lovely plan for tomorrow night @Motherofmonsters. Hope you get your packing sorted.

I'm a bit at the end of my tether today, I seem to have two teenagers instead of a 4 and 2 year old yesterday and today. They are arguing and fighting and they make me feel on tenterhooks as I they just want what the other has got all the time and can perhaps exist together for about 10 minutes before it all starts again. So no amount of tuff tray excitement stops it all. I know it won't always be like this and it's insignificant compared to what's going on in the world but it makes me feel like shouting arggggghhhhhhhh! Think I did a few times yesterday actually but I've managed it better today. Anyway enough of my woes!

Boys just hugged each other and said I love you to each other before bed so guess they do have a brotherly love after all. Sleep well everyone.

@Motherofmonsters hope you have a lovely time at the lodge! Sounds great

@Chocolatetrifle just because there's worse things going on in the world doesn't mean the things you have a hard time with doesn't matter I have 0 experience of that just now, but it sounds rough being a referee all day every day.

I had a nice quiet day with DS2 today then played a lot with DS1 after he got back from nursery. He's really starting to try and communicate and it's very exciting for us as we are looking forward to actually understanding what he wants (though I know that's not always easy even with language...)

Nothing much planned this weekend, the weather's really nice so we're going to try and get the balcony and small bit of garden we have sorted and ready for planting. Have never really had any garden before so looking forward to it but also a bit nervous!

Anyone else got nice plans? Hope all your weekends start with a nice long uninterrupted sleep...

@squishymamma thank you for your kind words. What are you planning on planting? I confess to just buying the ready planted pots!

Today has not been very good here. Basically DS1 started crying as soon as he got to football and DH brought him home. For some reason he seems to be very anxious about everything at the moment and wants to be with me. His moods seem so up and down. I'm wondering if it's a 4.5 year old thing.

I've handled it so well all day then basically blew up after tea and left them with DH to go to mums for a cup of tea but it seems it was the wrong thing to do as he felt like I'd left him. All ok now but now he is saying he doesn't want to go to preschool on Monday. I think I just need today to end and start again tomorrow.

To provide some light relief to this message I attach herewith photo of our tortoise in a nappy pant in the dolly buggy, courtesy of the DS's.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the tortoise did actually do a poo in the nappy pant!

Sleep well 💤

I should add the tortoise does not always wear a nappy pant or go in the dolly buggy.

Evening!

@Chocolatetrifle that really made me laugh, thank you!! Sorry to hear about your DS1, hope the anxiety blows over soon. My DS1 comes to me for everything and I get super touched out, but he will go to DH if we expressly ask him too and it's not so anxiety related.

We had a really lovely day today, we actually went to a garden centre! No cafe though, here in Norway they think people only go to garden centres to get things for their garden...weird people. We bought some ivy for a hanging basket and a mix of flowers for our boxes, pansies and ranunculus bulbs plus a flower seed mix for pollenating insects. Quite excited to see if we actually get any flowers from the bulbs!

Then we bathed DS2 and DS1 obviously wanted in on the action. So he also had a bath, mini meltdown due to getting his hair wet, and now both DC are in bed and I am attempting sourdough bread. Will let you know how it turns out!

Hope everyone sleeps well

@squishymamma . Oooh, good luck with the sourdough. Let us know.

No cafe in the garden centre ! Our local garden centre had singing yetis at Christmas, I bet that definitely isn't a thing either!

Sleep well.

Anyone else having one of those days? DS1 woke up at 5am, DH went to sit with him determined to get him back to sleep. Didn't work and DS1 has been whiny. Then we went to church and forgot his dummy so he had a long, massive tantrum in the middle of the service because he was woken up by something and we had to leave. So, so embarrassed now DH is trying to get him down for another nap and I am wondering if it's too early for alcohol...

How's it going @squishymamma? Sorry it's been a trying day. Don't worry about the church tantrum it can't be helped, everyone there will have surely been there at some point and anyone offended by it quite frankly can just do one. It's most definitely wine o'clock.

Well we've been up since 5.40 and it's been a long day.

Not much to report really, slightly better than yesterday but still a chaotic emotion filled day. For some reason some days I feel like I can't relax in my own home because I'm refereeing and trying to avoid fights. This development seems to be ongoing as they both get older. My ds1 is up and down like a yo-yo.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm thinking of taking them both to a new toddler group that DS1 can come too also but don't know if I'm brave enough.

Hi everyone, well DS1 has tested positive for covid today and 8 others have it at his preschool since the weekend. So far the rest of us are negative. He came home from preschool this afternoon and just fell asleep, he has cold symptoms and his tummy is off. That might explain the odd behaviour over the weekend as he is always like that when getting ill.

Hope everyone is ok?

Oh no @Chocolatetrifle sorry to hear that. Hope you all get a mild run of it and DS1 feels better soon. Do you still have to isolate in the UK?

DS1 has been sleeping shockingly badly recently, think it's because of his language development. Up all hours of the night refusing to sleep unless one of us is there, and then he just throws himself around his crib chatting nonsense and giggling. Won't sleep in our bed so have given up trying that and instead getting a mattress for his floor

Had an okay day today though the playarea by our flat is pure ice so he fell a lot and had a massive tantrum when it was time to come in. I'm always so amazed at how fast they switch from one emotion to the other!

Hope everyone is well.

I hope your DS feels better soon @chocolatetrifle and you stay negative. DDs nursery have 4 confirmed cases today so I'm sure it'll be us soon.

Hopefully he'll start sleeping soon @squisymamma, a mattress on the floor sounds like a grand idea. I always end up falling asleep scrunched up in a chair.

We had a good time away, went to the zoo on sat, then swimming and a long walk on Sunday. Bathed the kids, put them in their pyjamas and drove home in the evening. They woke up when we got home but luckily went back to sleep easily.

It felt like summer was around the corner today, I had the windows open, dried the washing outside and pulled up some weeds from the raised beds. I really need to start planting seeds.

@Chocolatetrifle your two sound exactly like my two in terms of being a referee and fighting !! They could have the exact same item each but still want the one the other one has !! Chicken pox strikes again in this house for us absolute nightmare !!

Hi again, I've missed this thread! Finally getting more into the swing of full time work again (3 weeks in now), and have some spare energy for mumsnet chatting

Oh no! Poor little giraffe. So many spots

squishymamma I think your DS1 and my DS2 are going through the same phase atm. DS2 has learnt his colours and how to count to 4 over the last 2 weeks, this has also coincided with not sleeping well and random screaming tantrums. We went to diggerland on Sat, DS2 screamed through a good third of the visit, then again on the journey home.

Hi everyone,

Yes DS1 and me therefore and ds2 will stay at home for 5 days and if he has two negative LFT he can go back to preschool on Monday. dS2 is negative but coughing. About 11 children and staff have it at preschool now. There's no legal requirement to isolate here now @squishymamma
But we will follow the guidelines obviously. Ds1 has headaches and a scratchy throat and is full of dripping snot.

@giraffes2021 sorry to hear about the chicken pox too, hope your DC makes a swift recovery.

So obviously I've ordered some bits and bobs from Amazon prime to keep us occupied and we will be watching lots of Tele.

@Camomila how are you finding it back at full time work? Hope it's going well for you.

@Motherofmonsters glad you had a good few days.

What's everyone up to today? So far we've baked something that was supposed to be shortbread but DS1s snot dripped into the mixing bowl and the pretend food is on the tuff tray. I'm going to take the DS's for a drive and incorporate DS2's nap into it and dS1 might have a little nap too.

Hi everyone,

I'm counting down until I can get both kids in bed. I'm feeling very rubbish today, I feel like I'm ill but I can't really specify why. Hopefully that makes sense.

Sorry your little one has chicken pox @giraffe2021, hopefully they are starting to feel better.

Did you manage to get them both asleep @chocolatetrifle, hopefully the snot clears up