Morning all,
InvisibleHand re the allergies - DS is 17 months at the moment and thankfully doesn't seem to be having any reactions to stuff now, which is a relief cos I suffered a lot with eczema as a kid and even now have the odd allergic reaction (in fact am staying at my mum's at the moment and have been having a lot of breathing difficulties - could be feathers, dust or damp). Anyway when he was a few months old and starting on solids he was getting a lot of eczema-type stuff on his face so we were really keeping an eye on what he was eating. Then he got hives quite badly for a few days (they didn't seem to bother him but were quite unsightly) but we couldn't pinpoint it to any food in particular. Then I realised he'd had a new soft toy in the last few days. I washed it but he was then getting reactions just by sitting on his playmat, so I washed that and anything else I could think of that could have come in contact with the new toy, and that did the trick. Could it have been something like that maybe? BTW I've also had a reaction to kiwi fruit in the past (only once though, oddly - it was a really overripe one - but I did look it up and it's apparently not uncommon and is becoming more prevalent).
zoejeanne yes, I had the funny heart thing quite badly when pregnant with DS. It felt sometimes like my heart was lurching, missing several beats a minute then racing to catch up. I was a little bit concerned cos a GP had once told me I had a heart murmur (which was a load of rubbish in the end). I mentioned it to the midwife and she straight away sent me to the consultant, who referred me for a full heart check-up (ECG and a 24-hour heart monitor). Turned out my heart is in fine shape - what I thought was missing beats was actually extra beats, and the palpitation thing is very common in pregnancy. They also told me that although it happens throughout the day and night, you tend to notice it more when you're at rest. It was great to have a check-up though - you wouldn't normally get that until you'd developed a serious problem. Anyway, when all this was happening I did a lot of reading about it on the internet and came across a possible association between palpitations and magnesium deficiency. I'd also come across magnesium deficiency in relation to leg cramps, which I was suffering from at the time. Bought some high-strength magnesium supplements from Holland & Barrett and they did seem to help immediately for both the cramps and the palpitations. Also stopped caffeine pretty much altogether and that made a difference too. I am getting them occasionally in this pregnancy too but nowhere near to the same degree (even though I'm not taking supplements or watching my caffeine so much).
Happy birthday Purple79! LadyT have a great holiday.
Off to my nephew's 2nd birthday/brother's 40th later today. Really fancy having a couple of drinks but will be driving back - probably a good thing as I could see myself getting carried away.
Shame about the meet-up last night but I can make next Friday so hopefully I should be able to meet a few more of you then. Will go and post on the meet-up thread now.