January 2012 - Thread 4

[shonnomanom]

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

lol - well I'm about to go make another chocolate cola cake. Here's the recipe for you Fryn so you can join in the merriment :-)

Hi every one
Been stuck in bed for 2 days now with this cold for 2 days. Dh took al the kids to school this morning except for dd2 who has the cold and the soar toe. All I have eaten in a packet of crisp and a few malteasers. OH had a bottle of water to sip. Going crackers as no one loaded the dishwasher and the whole house is going to the dogs. I am paying a friend to come do some cleaning on Friday but almost feel to embarrassed to get her to come as it really is bad. Trying to summon the energy up to do my 1h 1/12 school run soon.

Ds2 also lost his school trousers and came home in a cheapy pair that belong to some one else. I am very persemistic that even though they are named that they will be returned.

Will have to give the chocolate cola cake a go sounds interesting if I cans stand the shame of my kitchen.

[stares at the cola cake]

d.r.o.o.l....

My first thought when looking at the cola cake was 'heartburn'. Although i am tempted to try it.

nanny poor you, hope u start to feel better soon x

I know what you mean about school clothes. Dd started nursery on Aug30th and already one of her jumpers has went a walking. Its very clearly marked with her name so i dont understand how her teacher never noticed her name when puttinng her jumper on someone else's peg

im really interested in using a sling this time. Especially with thhe nursery run in the winter. But im a bit concerned about keeping baby warm enough when strapped on. Did anyone see the report in the newws this week about bbies suffocating in slings because there ot being used properly????

hope your all well x

The best (or worst?) thing about that cake is it's soooo easy to make.
Melt butter and cola, add wet ingredients to dry ingredient, stir and bake. Not heavy beating, no fancy folding, just mix and cook.

It is a very runny mix though, so you have to be sure your loose-bottomed tin doesn't leak like mine did! I lined it carefully this time though, so no burned cake on the bottom of my oven!

Hah - stir in curry sauce for dinner. It's been sitting in the cupboard looking at me. I might add some celery or something to try and pretend it has nutritional value because my fruti and veg intake has been practically non existent today, unless you count sultanas... I might go and eat a pear just to make myself feel better...

Shon - I think it's less of a problem keeping them warm when in a sling, because they get your body heat and you can fasten them inside your coat to some extent. I've not heard of any suffocation worries, though.

I love the idea of keeping my baby so close to me and I'm especially keen that DH gets to do it so he bonds too, because he won;t get to breastfeed or spend as much time with Sproglet.

I just went to Tesco did some shopping, paid, drove most of the way home and realised I'd left the shopping at the self serve checkout. Had to go all the way back and face a rather bemused guy who must have though i was crazy!

Good news about wandering cat.

Makescakes I've given up on fruit and beg intake, my body just doesn't want it. I've made lots of meals and frozen them all loaded with fruit and veg but all i want is cookies, icecream and crisps

addicted - so glad I'm not the only one losing my brain around shops. It's getting to the point where I'm getting shop-o-phobic because I keep making such an enormous tit of myself in them!

I just massively humiliated myself at work by asking a colleague if she wanted to come along to an event in town later, only for her to remind me that we have both committed to helping with another event in town tonight and in fact she was counting on me be there to help set up. I really thought it was next week and have completely failed to (a) put it in my calendar and (b) notice that it is, in fact, September 21st. Fortunately she is not too polite to tell me that I've got baby brain already. So I've just been scurrying around trying to sort out the stuff I'd agreed to prepare for the event. BRAIN FAIL.

Eek, help me - I have some major work events over the next few weeks and really don't want to get myself a reputation as a ditzy pregnant lady!

Ah Baby Brain! My arch nemisis!
I have developed a sense of paranoia due to me forgetting soo much. Can it get worse?!?!

Thanks cakes, obviously our heat helps baby but do you think they would over heat in a snowsuit in the carrier thingy? We'v had pretty bad winters the last few years so Im slightly concerned.
Here is the story about the sling. Dont think there has been the same issues with other brands. But its still a concern.

TIP OF THE DAY
B&Q have a Over Sixties Club. I know none of us are of that age, but if you can borrow a pensioner and get them to sign up free of charge to the club they get 10% of at B&Q every Wednesday.
Every little helps when we have rooms to prepare for when our bundles arrive.

Post it notes, alarms and reminders on my phone, writing everything down and putting in my calendar stright away. Just some of the ways I've managed to survive for the past 19 months (baby brain doesn't disapear when you have the baby, it gets worse!)

Shanon as long as your checking on baby and checking temp and stripping off/layering up as appropriate it will be fine. And tbh that's no more work than checking baby normally anyway I found I was constantly checking dd through the winter months, in her pushchair, carseat, crib ettc it was just so cold!

Another cat update: got home and she has broken the cat flap and escaped

Renegade Cat! Hope she comes home soon.

TBH I think im just over worrying as Dd was born in May and so wasnt a 'newborn' come winter time. Its a totally different experience with a newborn in deepest darkest winter. Also when Dd was a baby on bad weather days we would only need to run between the car and the house. Where as we have a nursery run every day now. The nursery is far away enough to get drenched but too close to imo to bother the car.

Shit. Just heard on news today that snow is due from next month () and Dec-Feb will be horrifically cold and snowy.
Joy.

Due to our position at the top of a hill with poor access and electric gates that the Landlord fails to maintain properly I am proposing to DH that he a) gets a sled with harness and b) finds out about how one conducts a homebirth as there is a strong possibility he'll end up being my MW...

Sorry about the cat ghost :(

ghost LOL about the cat, although maybe not for you! I can totally sympathise though.

5 years ago (nearly) we moved into our house and Rascal escaped. He went missing for five days. I was beside myself as we only lost his sister Tinker two months previously to a car and a busy road! 6am on a January Thursday morning DH (who was DP then) woke up thinking he heard a cat. It was lashing with rain and blowing a gale and sure enough we heard Rascal whining. He wolfed down three packets of food and slept for three days!!! In the summer months he goes on all night benders. Sometimes we have to shout for him, he treats our place like a hotel and brings home the local wildlife (rabbits, mice, voles etc, etc) to play with and gets huffed when they die of shock down the side of our Aga!!! He's often ate the mice and left their stomachs on the kitchen floor!!! Feel sorry for him at the moment because he's still mourning the loss of his play buddy, Mickey (our neighbour's cat). He lost when he battled with a lorry - rather badly!

On another matter, I had my 25 week appointment today. All is well. No weight gain, fundal height 24.5cm, one content and happy Peanut (who decided today was the day to display an ADHD moment!). Am confused though. We decided on being TEAM YELLOW but a part of me would like to know and I love the guessing game but the HB was 136-140 (which in folklore means a 'boy') and it was well and truly galloping like a horse. So off I trotted back to work, convinced it was now a boy (well, 70:30 as opposed to 60:40 in thinking a girl). Now when I goggled 'galloping like a horse' the internet is saying GIRL?!? I know it's just folklore but I was kinda hoping to guess easily ...

My pregnancy symptoms haven't geared towards boy or girl either. I was suffering from nausea but no morning sickness. I was more tired than usual (but it was the end of the school year), I went off all meat altogether until about 20 weeks, I've had no particular cravings although I am eating lots of sweet things and shellfish. My hair went very dry, suffered from a few more spots and my weight gain has been zero. I've a very neat bump, all front and it's middle - neither low nor high.

What do you think???

mum2be...not sure, but I think it might be a baby... :P My girl's heartbeat's like a barking dog...and I don't really know what a 'low' bump would look like, but at a guess it's high. I'm also all out front. Can't remember what heartrate was at 20wks or from last week (can barely remember what day it is).

According to my scales I'm now only 1/2lb of my pre-pg weight! No cravings, but have gone off cake, a few spots, but they come in 'waves', and my hair's thicker, but as usual...

...still haven't remembered to buy baking powder to see if that's old wives tale is a load of bollocks or not. Must do so.

ghost Sounds like you need a sideboard over the catflap. I've heard tale of cats pusing/dragging rather large potplants out the way to get to the catflap.

makescakes I also live on a very large hill...on a large hill...and am very paranoid I won't make it to Stockport. Already had my hospital/birth plan chosen for me as it's only ever the Stockport road that's kept open if it snows (if anyone's ever heard of/been on "The Cat & Fiddle" you'll undesrtand why I'm not doing Macclesfield). Maybe I should be looking at getting some form of helicopter licence instead of bothering with driving?!

shonno Interesting article. That's why I'm opting for a flat pram-style bit , (and thus the iCandy) early on, and am getting the Baby Bjorn, but am adding the same 90min rule to it. I spoke to the specialists in JL about it and they agrees with me over the flat-pram style, but said the recommended restrictions only at the moment applied to carseats.

DH's just finished making dinner, so ttyl...

addicted all I can say is DOH! I've run out of post-its, to stick to my forehead to my diary to remind me to buy post-its...driving me mental. Forgotten them SIX times now...

hi everyone!

nipple cream ordered. tick!

baby brain well and truly in operation - just did a recording session and despite it only being one very easy track, I made about 5 mistakes. People glaring at me etc. ooops. Will lose all my work at this rate.... on the plus side i think it was for a xmas advert so will let you know if i spot it on the tv!!

cakes i love your baby wipe baby post-it note covering story. So cute. also, i think it might be wise for anyone giving birth in winter to be up to scratch with a few birthing tips in case we can't get to hospital or the midwives can't come out!! i feel sorry for anyone that had to give birth during the horrendous snows earlier this year, must have been well stressful...

ghost sorry your cat escaped naughty pusskit.

oeisha hilarious that you have run out of post-its so you can't stick up a post-it reminding you to buy more post-its....

I have just read that article about the sling and i'm sorry but if you put a baby in a sling under your shirt and jumper you are just asking for trouble! I feel for the poor family but really. I don't think that it's fair that there will be some sort of anti-sling outcry just because of this one story.

I have had a hell of an afternoon. I get a phone call from my mum this afternoon asking if she can stay. She has left my dad-she's staying here right now, just gone up to bed, it's been an exhausting evening. I am emotionally tangled and wrecked and thats just me-god along knows how mum must be feeling. It's long and it's complicated and incredibly distressing but they are both as bad as each other, she has damn good reasons to leave. Selfishly theres part of that simply wants it all to go away-I thought I was already stressed to the max. At the end of your rope and you find more rope from somewhere. Dear god what am I to do with the pair of them? Dad is acting like he couldn't give a shit, he's already started looking for flats, he's got it all easy a nice little job and a nice group of social friends through work and a nice little mid life crisis motorcar. My mum has nothing but failing health, diabetic, seriously overweight and has angina, no job, just me and my sister and our kids that keeps her entertained. It's almost as if dad has looked into the future and decided he doesn't want to look after mum as she gets older and unfitter and he's breaking free. He dropped Mum over here earlier he didn't even say hello to me, not even a glance in my direction-just turned around and got back in the car and drove off. He hasn't sent a text or called or anything. Part of me is frickin furious and part of me is relieved. FFS he didn't even give his grandaughter a cuddle and he hasn't seen her for 2 weeks. Christ why now?

Numerour times I have posted today and yet I keep forgetting about the bloody slow cooker! Anyway, my boss uses Schwarts seasoning sachets for slow cookers and iv tasted the chicken curry itd yummy!!

Im already scheming my bad winter home delivery plan. One of my MW's lives in my village and iv figured out what street she is (the next street down from me ) and as her daughter goes to the village nursery Iv narrowed down which house is hers. I saw her go into a house but not 100% sure it was hers, could be a neighbours. Need more evidence.
After the terrible snow we had last year Dp is planning on leaving his car up on the main road whenever snow is forecast as there is no chance of getting out our street. As we are in a deadend the council dont even come out to clear our pavements.

Oh fish that's awful! How do things get that bad with people? Hope you're doing ok, try not to worry too much...

Oh fuck sorry for the x post fish. Such a horrible situation to be in at any stage in life. Could your mum not stay with your sister, ease your stress levels maybe? Sorry cant be of more help. But big (((hugs))) x
Oh and I totally agree why the hell would you wear the sling under your clothes. Especially in a warm country

thanks ghost its been a long time coming I guess. I have never known my dad not to fight for thier marriage before though when they have had rows. I think mum is hoping he will but i'm actually pretty scared he won't this time, he really does have the upperhand as it were-certainly the best deal out of it. I really think he's had enough too. Mum certainly has.

Right in the middle of my fecking pregnancy and it's not as if DH and I aren't dealing with enough right now. Just gotta keep myself calm.

fish shitting-crikey! (((hugs))) Feel free to rant on us whenever. We all need an out...

fishandlilacs so sorry to hear of your troubles. I'm afraid ditto - though not as serious as yours.

My parents aren't speaking, Sleeping in separate rooms. Mum had 10 weeks cigarette free and has now resorted to a 20 a day habit. Not sure what has gone wrong but I know if I ask (or anyone) it will be - "NOTHING!". It will be like that for weeks. Beginning to wonder if she has mental health issues (sorry tale!) but she can't be told to visit GP - unless you want your throat slit! From what I can gather, it's trivial stuff?!? My parents have had a volatile marriage all my life and when things like this go wrong the words "I've had enough. I'm out of here. I want a divorce!" are always spoken - by my Dad - usually because Mum won't talk to him so he always gives up.

She's missing her grand-daughter though. She's now 5 and hasn't seen her since before she was 2 as her and my brother fell out. Again, not sure what over but one thing I do know, my brother would have had enough of her temper and aggressive attitude. I've managed to find a way to deal with it and not allow her to have a reason to get arsy with me! It's bloody hard going though! Sad tale is, my brother cut ties with me and DH as we announced our engagement 22 months ago and refused to come to our wedding. We don't hear from them now. They're in the armed forces and we haven't a clue where they are.:( Each year gets harder and harder for her. I've told my dad this but being a man, I'm not sure he understands. He misses her too but deals with it differently.

Hope everything goes okay for your mum FishandLilacs Fingers crossed. x