January 2012 - Thread 4

[shonnomanom]

Can believe we are on Thread 4 already! We must chat too much

Wormshuffler - you could always toilet train the cat...
Litter Kwitter
We tried this with our cats - one was doin very well, but his brother used to keep his les crossed till he had an accident, so we had to can the experiment for both :-(
When we move house we'll be trying it aain, it just wasn't practical here with one of them being unco-operative.

knittie - I like easy cook rice, I think I was the one who recommended it. Would be interested to hear how it goes :)

Really useful bf chat ladies thank you! Am keen to bf properly for a good long while so it's great to hear from people who've done it!

(and just to go back to cat stuff briefly; cakes, unfortunately the 'cat flap room' is the entire downstairs of our house! One big living room with no doors to hall or kitchen or indeed to stairs )

Ah. That kind of puts the kibosh on it then. So much for my handy hints!

Just nipped on to say "hi" and keep myself updated...
What loverly furbabies you guys have! If only I had access to all my photos I'd pop one of my beasts up...alas, they're on my old PC still.
Feel like I'm getting a cold again as well as still being so friggin exhausted after lastnight. Ah well. WIll go to bed after a bit more work...
NN all...

Ah, think it was you cakes and will report back when I finally get organised to try the biriyani again. I'm beginning to think it's just not meant to be, me being organised that is. I picked up a 5kg jug of Veetee American easy cook rice from Costco yesterday for £3.99. Such a bargainous place if you're eligible to join and the membership criteria is bigger than it used to be. Think my austerity-measures-to-prolong-mat-leave is getting bit obsessive!

wowee ghost your DH takes incredible pics!!

We got a freebie pack of baby wipes with our Tesco baby & toddler pack yesterday and on the front of they had a baby, bum in the air, completely starkers except for a little knitted hat.

"He must be chilly!" Says DH, walking up behind me at the kitchen table. Gently he lays one of the discount flyers over the top of the baby wipes so only the baby's head can be seen. "There! That's better, he's got a blankie now."

Well, I tell you, I spent the whole of yesterday unable to move that packet of wipes without putting the flyer back over the top of it because my daft husband had gone and made me feel guilty about this damn baby getting chilly without his blankie. When he got home and asked why the stuff was still all over the table I had to confess and put up with im laughing at me for about 5 minutes.

"It's all your fault," I grumped, "You know I always fall for your sob stories."

Came into the kitchen this morning and found he'd done this...

My husband is utterly ridiculous, but oh-so-cute.

That's a postit note, btw, in case you were wondering.

How cute, what a sweetie!

That is very cute makescakes

makescakes that is the cutest thing!

DH's have to put up with a lot don't they. Talking of Lansinoh - I was so ill-prepared for DD's arrival, I thought bf would be easy! After EMCS, had to send DH out to Boots to ask the lady behind the counter for 'nipple cream'. And he had to sit and take all my nail polish off before the EMCS.
We're lucky to have good 'uns!

Have a nice day everyone! hopefully better than yesterday - I am so clumsy, forgetful, dumb-ass, you name it - these days. Yesterday I got £10 cashback in Asda from the self-checkout, then totally forgot to take it! only realised this morning when I went to buy something at the garage! DOH!

makescake awwwwwwww, that is soooooo cute! Love it!!!! All this talk of curry made me want to cook one! So dinner is sorted, thank you ladies! x

On the subject of BFing, I had a nightmare feeding dd and had to reluctantly give up after 11 weeks. This time I am determined to succeed.

Asda do an own brand nipple cream, I'm guessing it's not in the same league as Lanisoh?

I have a sleepy wrap that I used with dd, got it when she was 6 months and was still using it at a year, we moved house when she was 11 months and I painted all the rooms with her tied to my back.

Only thing is that it's bright red, would like a more subtle colour. I have my eye on a Close Baby Carrier (anyone got any experiences??) loving the graphite butterfly one, but wow at the price.

Random query: I am waking up every night with a pain under my left breast where my ribs start, it feels like a rib is trying to protrude the skin. It's generally when I've rolled onto my back and then I struggle to roll onto my side again because of the pain. Any ideas?

Oh - does anyone know the rules on Maternity Pay if you end up NOT going back to work afterwards? My colleague told me today, she thinks that if you don't return to work for 3 months after Mat Leave, then you have to pay back all your Mat Pay?

cakes - too cute!

giraffe - I think Lansinoh's worth it - as everyone says it lasts forever (I BFed for 8 months and only used one tube). Can't help on your strange pain I'm afraid - could it be baby sticking a foot in a strange place?

DD ended up in bed with us last night and I eventually had enough of hanging off the edge of the bed and being kicked in the back, so I frogmarched her back to her room, with her wailing "I want daddy", finally persuaded her to get into her cot, started walking back to our room and the alarm went off! Must remember to check time before attempting such a stupid manouevre again. It's just so dark at 6.

mia if you're just getting SMP I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay that back. It's usually just any additional company maternity pay that you'd have to pay back (so I get a bonus when I write to say when I'll be returning and another when I actually return - if I either don't go back at all or quit within 3 months of my return, I have to pay those bonuses back), and the time scale also depends on your company. I know someone who just has to work 1 month and another with 6 months. It should be in your company handbook (or HR would know).

I'm not working at the moment but when I went on maternity leave with dd, I got my statutory maternity pay as normal. I was also offered additional maternity pay but to qualify for that I had to return to work afterwards otherwise I would have had to pay it back.

I didn't take the additional maternity pay, as I wasn't sure if I was returning or not and didn't want to risk it (as it was I was made redundant but that's a whole other story)

this might help

Morning,

cakes that is soo cute, your dh is very funny.
mia sorry to hear of your £10 loss :( that would be major blow.
kitty I soo want to join costco-i keep hearing brilliant things about it, but our nearest one is 45 mins away-the discounts are not worth the fuel cost :(
we do have a bookers in worc somewhere. I may look into that.

ugh-i'm supposed to be having a day off from "stuff" but it's not happening.

see my thread in www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1305019-WWYD-treated-badly-by-old-worksplace-and-they-now-want-me-for-some-casual-work help me with my dilemma.

thanks, just read up on it. Seems you get to keep your SMP, but anything else from the company you'd have to pay back.
Have tried contacting HR for a meeting, but the woman in charge is off for next 2 weeks - they don't put the mat leave info in our handbooks for some reason. Got to let them know when I want to leave soon, but I can't do that until they give me the info!

fish I'll have a look at your thread now

Oh yeah - also forgot to mention my random pizza hut pizza craving at 10pm last night, an hour after I got into bed. It was so bad that if the nearest pizza hut hadn't been 11 miles away I would have made DH go out and get one. As it was I went to all the effort of cooking upo a pepperoni one we had in the freezer, then I drank two mugs of milk and passing out until 3am when I woke up roasting hot. Weird night.

DH, bless him, said he would have gone out to get me a pizza if we hadn't had one. I am all kinds of crazy at the moment that yesterday I started crying because I had to keep getting up to go to the loo and I wasn't a camel any more.

"Oh dear," said DH, "You've swapped your hump for a bump" and damn him I started laughing and crying all at once, which is both uncomfortable and snotty, just FYI. He's coping with my loopiness very well really.

cakes your little stories today are making me feel all schmooey. Yours sounds like a lovely household.

I have apologiesd to DH for being a crabby cow. I'm a bit of a loon too what with either sleepwalking or spending half the night awake.

argh I can't keep up! cakes your husband is the sweetest - love the sentiment My DH made me pizza bagels last week on request - much faster than making pizza from scratch and really quite satisfying. I also sent him a text last night informing him that I'd heard a rumour that the best husbands in the world bring home salt & vinegar crisps from work, as I had a massive craving for them. He turned up with some kettle chips as he wanted to participate in the experiment. Looks like our identical pregnancies have reached a craving-milestone at the exact same time too!

redhead he is pretty good at photography but wishes he had more time and equipment, I think. I might ask him to do another photo project when the baby is born, a sort of baby's first year type thing, but maybe not 365 days again! He's very technically minded so loves to tinker with the settings etc.

I'm afraid I can't really help with the HR stuff. We don't have HR here and the American HR lady is just a token figurehead - worse than useless and has no idea about UK stuff. They're so aghast at the UK maternity laws that they think even SMP is excessive - no chance of me getting a better deal, which is the only major drawback of working for my company instead of a UK publisher so far. Still, can't complain, they're really looking after me in every other way, just a shame that we'll struggle a bit towards the end of next year.

CAT UPDATE: wandering cat is actually home! So she had her vet jabs this morning which makes her safe for another year, and we're locking the cat flap to try to keep her in for a week or two. That's presuming she doesn't just batter her way through it again (may need to block it off). TAKE THAT EVIL CAT-STEALING NEIGHBOUR!!!

Oooh - salt and vinegar crisps. Yummy. I can totally get behind that craving!

Yay for the cat news - I have to get mine jabbed tomorrow. I may have to win them round again afterwards with treats!

I am such a marketeer's dream - I now neeeed pizza and salt and vinegar crisps. Rats!

ghost - yeah! Sock it to your evil neighbour (obviously in a very polite, well educated way).