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...

I've had an eventful morning, had a knock on the door at 7.15, my mum had been walking her dog and had fallen over. She was absolutely covered in blood and shaking. Luckily it was just a few cuts so she she had a lie down and a cup of tea. Still a bit shaky when I took her home.

I've just completed the school run and DD has fallen asleep so I'm obviously at McDonald's. Shopping is being delivered this morning and then I'm not sure about what to do the rest of the day.

Hope everyone's morning is a bit more relaxing than mine

Oh gosh @Motherofmonsters how frightening for you and your mum. It's good you live close by (I assume)

Hope you enjoy McDonald's. What did you get? I love McDonald's breakfasts not the healthiest of course But I do love a double sausage and egg muffin with a latte and an orange juice. And the hash browns mmmm. Infact maybe I'll take my older ones at the weekend for a little treat.

Morning all! Just packed a rather disgruntled DH off to the garden centre with DS. I’m off work post night shifts and DH doesn’t work a Wednesday. He thought we’d all have a nice family trip out. The inch of dust on the bathroom floor says otherwise 😬

Good grief @Motherofmonsters just seen your update. Your poor DM. Enjoy your Macdonald’s xx

Hello, I'm nap trapped so using time wisely to read MN

@Camomila sorry to hear you got Covid but glad it's not too bad for you. Hope you all have a smooth recovery!

@Motherofmonsters oh wow that is quite a morning, glad your DM is okay. It's good she is so close to you so could just come to yours. I also love McDonald's but they have rubbish breakfasts here, all you can get are hash browns and 2 kinds of McMuffins. I miss the UK ones...

@AliceW89 hope cleaning goes fast so you can have a rest and enjoy some peace. I'd probably have done the same thing if I had the choice my bathroom (and my kitchen worktops) are probably the only things I clean regularly and thoroughly, haha.

DS1 is finally back at nursery, hurrah! I have been on the couch all morning binge watching Netflix and finally enjoying guilt-free cuddles with DS2. He's definitely had a different start to life than DS1 with much less attention and snuggles so hopefully now we can redress the balance a little

Hope everyone has a good day!

Thanks everyone, she had to go to minor injuries to get one of the cuts glued but was looking much better when I saw her again. Yes very lucky she's on the same road as me. I had a sausage and egg McMuffin and a chocolate latte, I feel a bit gross now though!

It's taken me over an hour to sort the shopping, DD is having a screech at me day. I've set her up with some beads and scoops though and she's finally amusing herself.

Enjoy your cleaning @aliceW89, I actually really like doing it when there's no kids around me.

I'm glad your finally getting some guilt free snuggles @squishymamma, I struggled with comparing my early days with DS and then DD but they don't know any difference and will definitely know they are safe and loved.

Hi all how's everyone doing?

FIL passed away this morning. I have managed to tell the DC, dS2 doesn't understand obviously but DS1 I think understood.

Have caught up quickly with the thread. Hope your mum is ok now @Motherofmonsters.

Sorry you have covid too @Camomila. Really hope you all feel better soon.

How did that day go @Plantsandpuddlesuits, how are you feeling today?

Glad you got some peace time @squishymamma.

Sorry about your FIL @Chocolatetrifle

DS is back at nursery and I am back at work. He woke up for the day at 4.30am this morning and 5.30am yesterday morning though.

Oh I'm so sorry to hear he's passed away @chocolatetrifle. I'll be thinking of you, we are here if you need to talk

Hi all, can I join? I was once on one of the old threads briefly absolutely ages ago during a lockdown although possibly with a different username. I'm on mat leave atm, I have a 3.5 yo DD and a 12 wo DS. I don't drive, and live in a city that is typically very wet so that is likely going to limit us over these winter months. My DD is 'spirited' - frequently throws colossal tantrums, almost never plays by herself, a terrible eater, and has recently taken to wetting herself a lot despite being toilet trained for 1.5yrs, she loves to be out and hates being at home for any length of time. DS isn't too tricky a baby so far (compared to DD who was an absolute nightmare of a day and screamed all the time for about 8 months), but he doesn't hardly nap unless on the go, which again is a problem if the weather's awful. Both kids have mild colds and have both been up loads over the last 3 nights. I haven't slept for more than 1hr at a time for 3 nights and probably averaged about 4hrs a night. Sooooo tired :(

I will try to read back a little. My condolences to poster who has sadly lost their FIL.

So sorry to hear your news @Chocolatetrifle hope you are all ok it can be hard explaining to children can't it. Thank you for asking after me, the potentially hard day was today but DH has caught my covid (you couldn't make this up!) so he's been WFH today.

Children are meant to be back to school tomorrow but we are waiting on (some of) their PCR results

It's my last day of isolation today so I'll be back on school run tomorrow (pcrs allowing) thankfully I can have the car as DH is isolating. normally we walk but seeing as I can barely walk to the end of the garden without a rest, school run on foot would have been let's say interesting.

Just taking it an hour at a time at the moment!

Welcome @SecondhandTable sorry to hear things are tough

Are there any playgroups on near you?

I only have one at home at the moment (my toddler) all my others are at school.

What about soft play? We have a couple of soft plays a short drive away, some of them are small which is good so you can always see your toddler.and don't necessarily have to clamber around with them 🤣

Welcome to the thread I'm fairly new around here too everyone is friendly 🙂

@Motherofmonsters are the beads and scoops like water beads? The kind that were all the rage in lockdown? I'm debating getting some for my toddler. Think that would go down well. Toddler likes scooping things like sand and kinetic sand and transferring aswell. Is it called a transport schema I believe?

Thank you everyone ☺️. I know we are just strangers at the end of a phone keyboard but I really feel the support on here, it's like I know you personally after being on here a year. Sorry, a bit emotional.

@Plantsandpuddlesuits, glad you got through the day but can't believe your DH has covid now, hope he feels better soon.

Welcome @SecondhandTable, you are in the right place here, lots of support and ideas, sharing good and bad days too!

Hmmm I bought an aqua beads fromHobbycraft and it was a disaster. Think it's different to water beads perhaps.

@Chocolatetrifle didn't want to read and run. So sorry to read about your fil, I am sending positivity to you and your family

We are moving house tomorrow & things have been unpacked by my 3 yr old as quickly as they have been packed today so DH and I are in for a long night but just to say I am so sorry for your loss @Chocolatetrifle. I hope you can find some time to look after yourself while supporting your family through this. You have been such a support and encouragement to me (& others on this thread I am sure!) please do let us know how you are feeling and if there is anything we can do. Will be thinking of you as Motherofmonsters said.
Welcome @SecondhandTable.

Thanks all 😊

@plantsandpuddlesuits - soft play is no good for me on my own really as DD won't go in and play alone for more than about 20 mins. I could maybe arrange to meet up with another mum I know who is the mother of one of her best friends at nursery, but I'm a bit anxious about it as she has started doing things like running off and refusing to come back, locking herself into toilet cubicles etc when we've been out with them before...so I have visions of her refusing to leave soft play etc which would be soo stressful with the baby, don't think I can face it. We do a lot of playgroups usually but they've all been off over the Xmas period. Our regular Friday group is back this Friday, but it takes me about 30 mins to walk, longer now that DD likes to walk most of it too, and the weather is looking to be almost freezing temps with sleet showers, so probably not going to be doable :( she's in nursery Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I've got both of them the next two days now. We have a regular Thursday morning playgroup but it's not back on yet tomorrow...so tomorrow is likely to be a loooong day.

@plantsandpuddlesuits They are those really tiny ones that you can just about thread on a pipe cleaner. She loves tiny things and luckily has never out them in her mouth. I haven't tried the water beads, they were definitely the thing in lockdown though.

Good luck with the move @lostthetastefordahlias. I can't imagine the stress of moving with little ones

@Chocolatetrifle so sorry to hear about your FIL, hope you're all okay

@tiddletoddling fingers crossed your DS sleeps longer tonight, nursery might have tired him out.

Welcome back @SecondhandTable - sorry to hear your DC are ill, hope they get better soon so you can get some sleep. I'm also on mat leave with my 2 week old, planning to do some baby activities when he's a little bit older - singing, maybe swimming, there's also a movement class I think. I'm lucky to live in a big city with good public transport but maybe there's something similar near you? Otherwise I live for playgrounds I found other parents through Facebook groups and the baby class set up by our health clinic and we have play dates which also helps.

@Plantsandpuddlesuits oh covid eh fingers crossed your DC's PCRs are negative then both you and your DH can have a bit of a rest in the peace and quiet.

We've had quite a nice evening of playing, DS was in a good mood after nursery. Still trying to figure out how to best order the day though, plus obviously having a newborn feeding for ages and on demand puts a spanner in the works - was almost late picking DS1 up!

Hope everyone (myself included ) gets some sleep tonight.

Ah didn't see the newest messages - good luck with the move tomorrow @Lostthetastefordahlias! Hope you manage to get a bit of sleep in.

@SecondhandTable, it's so difficult when both the children are ill at the same time with even more disrupted sleep. Hope tonight is better for you. Do you have any libraries or coffee shops nearby? Would your older one use a buggy board at all? Know it's not great if weather is bad for that. Would your oldest like going on a bus trip or something? Even a short one to get a cake on a coffee shop or something? It's hard work though when they try to run off, my ds1 was like that. I now have dS2 on reins just so I can at least keep hold of one of them!

@Lostthetastefordahlias good luck for your house move, how exciting! Appreciate how stressful it must be though organising everything and the kids!

@squishymamma don't worry about a routine yet, as long as DS1 gets to nursery that's all that matters at the moment, take time to relax with ds2.

Thank you everyone for your support, I'm feeling ok, hopefully we can all get a decent night's sleep tonight.

OMG, dS2 has just woken for the second time literally shouting 'telly on'! he seems to be dreaming and shouting at the same time.

Oh dear @Chocolatetrifle sounds like my DS1

We are in the throes of cluster feeding here, DS2 likes to be on the boob from about 9pm to 1am. I am a morning person and rubbish in the evenings, and DH is on the early shift tomorrow so he has to be up and out by 6.30am (meaning I have to be up and relatively functional...). Send help

@Motherofmonsters how's your mum now?

@Camomila @Plantsandpuddlesuits how you both feeling now?

@Chocolatetrifle sorry about your family's loss. I hope you are all coping and looking after each other.

@SecondhandTable welcome back. I'm a recent returner too. You sound like you have your hands full and the lack of sleep sounds hellish. Are you able to nap at all?