With IDOB and STT ready to go, the Wagon rumbles along!

[Kayzr]

Here we go new thread. Sorry for awful title!!

oops- that wasn't supposed to be a DS rant but ended up being!!- feel free to ignore!!

Hmm difficult one CANT. We have the same thing at times with dd2, obviously linked to tiredness and just sort of do what you're doing really. Then make sure she gets into bed really early (very challenging to do when they're like that)and it tend to work. Think you've dealt with it really well actually!

wow lots of chat

oh no diege what a pain up the arse!!!!!
not sure what to suggest!!!!
hope that u get it sorted sending over hugs and lots of wispas
and gino for cuddles
cant - dd1 is like that alot due to tiredness it is hard isnt it i try and ignore!!
good luck

my mum has been painitng the rest of our loundge pink.
she brought over the clarks cruising shoes dd1 had bracken is wearing
also dd1s vtech walker bracken pulled herself up onto it
she did her first sing and sign sign cat

Diege - and on your behalf. Cannot believe your buyers!!! I am a great believer in fate, so I would go with the maximum of £5 grand off if you can afford it and then say no more - if your dream house is really meant to be, then this will all work out for you, if not, then it will all work out to have been for the best (i.e. you will either a) find a much better, more of a dream, house or b) find out there was something wrong with your dream house). I cannot believe they have done this to you, I would be tempted to not even give 5 grand off myself as they are such chancers. They either want the house or they don't.

Can't - yay for weight loss. I might venture over to your weight loss thread, as I have a stone to lose. Should be helped by my half marathon training when I finally actually get to it - might get my exercise DVD on when DH is on lates Weds-Fri this week, now that DD seems to be doing better in the evenings.

IDOB - sounds like you are really settled into this mummy lark Yuck for your SIL - would have been the same if I had been in your position. Yay for Wii Fit. I have always said we would not have computer games in the house, but am sorely tempted by a Wii for the Fit and the family games you can play on it. You should definitely not feel guilty at having splurged on it.

STT - glad you are recovering well from c-section. I take it that DS2 is home from hopsital, but you just have to regularly have check-ups at hospital - hope I havent' missed anything serious? Re. bottles, I would say that 4 weeks is fine to introduce bottle if he has taken well to bf and it is just for his meds. DD still refuses a bottle here at 8 months (yesterday) - although have not tried it very regularly as I'm not so good at expressing, so I would definitely recommend getting DS2 used to it sooner rather than later.

Moosy - getting excited for you, but very impressed by all you are managing at 37 weeks (btw - feels like just last week you were 32 weeks, where did that time go?!)

Waves to Gruff, Ses, Kayz and anyone else lurking.

Sorry - Tink, meant to wave to you too

Hello Guys

Sorry its been so long
BTW, You do know me, I used to GiraffeYoga but fancied a name change.

Diege- so sorry to hear all that about your buyers, i'd be tempted to tell them to go run....

SO you lot all recommend Wii Fit then? We have the EA Active thing but if lack motivation. Maybe Wii fit is better. Does it actually get you out of breath?

Star- thanks for initiating the southern meet up. Really looking fwd to it.

Sooo much has happened since i was posting here everyday. Will try and stay on track now.

Hi everyone, IDOB, Ses, Tink, Cant, Moosy, Kay, Diege, Star, Gruff and everyone else.

The small giraffe is doing great. I never thought having a daughter could be soooo fab. She is just amazing. Sadly im back at work in 4wks (where did the last 10mths go?)

Great to be back.

that bolding didnt work did it! oh well, I am sure you know its me!

Hello! Just feeding DS as he got woken up by a big breakdown truck outside. Really noisy and loads of lights. He'd been asleep for 3.5hrs so I'm hoping he'll go back in his cot in a minute for another 3 or 4hrs.

Loads to catch up on.

Diege - everyone else has said it really but these people are scum. It is blackmail and you stick to your £5k limit. (Fingers crossed for you too!)

Gingerbreadlatte - good to have you back I don't know where the time has gone! How are you feeling about going back to work?

Tink - great signing from DD2! I'm sure she'll start to pick up more.

STT - I started giving DS a bottle of EBM at 3wks once every day or two and worked fine. It's only about once or twice a week now just so he carries on accepting a bottle.

IDOB - unbelievable from your SIL!! Inconsiderate and lazy IMHO!!

Hi to everyone else - Star, Gruff, Kay. Hoping to get a few decent hours sleep here but that truck is still outside!

Cant - DS does sound overtired but difficult to deal with I guess.

Sorry Moos - meant to ask how you're feeling? Are you all set?

Hi Ses
Hope DS went back to sleep ok last night.

Not feeling too bad about going back to work - but am slightly anxious as I dont know where I will be based yet- so i cant plan my journey or know how we will manage the nursery pick up/ drop off etc. I am trying to enjoy my last few weeks now- but it is abit of a cloud hanging over me.....

May solution is to have another one

We are off out today with our NCT friends, assuming I can get organised in time.

There is still a porridge covered high chair to clean down and a lunch to pack up for the SG.

ginger- Hello... glad to hear all is well!!

Ses- hope DS fropped back off for you easy enough.

Diege, tink, & anyone else who mentioned- DS was even worse last night than normal- being so over-tired that he just couldn't get himself off to sleep as usual... i'm half considering letting him have friday off due to exhaustion and having a lazy day and big naps... We're out with family on saturday as my sis is back from uni for a long weekend- i really dont want him playing up while we're out having a meal and trying to have a fun time... what would you all do?

SST- glad to hear DD is getting better at sleeping!! We've had a breakthrough in that I decided to drop DD2's dreamfeed and last night she went from 7pm till 7am without a feed. She woke around 5.30ish, had a moan but was back asleep within 5mins... the night before she woke around 5am and I decided to give her a very tiny feed as she'd gone a good length from bedtime at 7pm... but she literally had a couple of mouthfuls and went back off to sleep- so decided she didn't really need it. I'm gonna be getting on my workout DVD when my sis brings it back- that one really makes you sweat tho- so will need to get the sweats on.

to whoever asked about the wii-fit making you get out of breath- gingerbread??... i dont find it does now i'm used to it... when i first started the 10min hula hoop it used to break me out in a mild sweat, but after a few days my fitness increased and it's fine!!

Morning!

Yes - DS went back to sleep at about 11.30 for 3hrs

Gingerbreadlatte - I like your plan! Are you seriously considering ttc soon?
Enjoy your day, sounds good!

Cant - wish I could advise about DS but other than trying to ensure he gets sleep and weekend naps I don't know...

Diege - hope you get good news from those half wits today.

We had some good news yesterday. We've had planning permission granted for a single storey extension to our kitchen. We had originally wanted 2 storeys to give us an extra bedroom but we couldn't get that granted. This will give us a much better kitchen and we're hoping to put an Aga or a Range in. The dogs will love that and will probably vacate "their room" to sleep by the Aga. That'll mean the "dogs' room" can become a play room.
All v exciting anyway

Today I'm off to meet up with a couple of friends before Jo Jingles, then lunch in town with 2 NCT friends and then off to Mum's to remove her dressings from her shoulder for her. IT's all cleared up now and she's just having weekly physio which I'm ferrying her to each Friday.

Ooh - Gingerbreadlatte (btw your name is making me crave one - which I can't have because of dairy ), are you really thinking of ttc again soon? I know many people who have conceived within a month or so of going back to work. My mind is in two at the moment about wanting a 3rd and not wanting to go through a) pregnancy sickness again and b) this horrid sleep deprivation with a baby!

Diege, fingers crossed for news about house today.

Moos, hope you got the horse's legs done and then got some sleep last night. Hope these last few weeks are treating you well.

Ses - sounds like DS did well with sleeping last night. Long may it continue (and improve more if that's not too much to ask).

Can't - you have gone great guns on DD2's sleep. I will try soon to cut out DD's night feeds (well at least the ones after the late evening one), but I was set to do it last night seeing as she had had a couple of good nights and I wasn't convinced she needed food at the 4.30/5 waking time, then she had a bad one last night. She didn't really eat proper meals yesterday and was quite gripey - think maybe she is cutting her other top front tooth?! So she only went 3 hours max between waking last night and at the 4am one, I resorted to calpol at 5, as she was making all the trying to settle noises, but not managing to go off and crying and chewing. So, we'll see how she goes today (although I have to lift her from her nap in the puschair - fell asleep on way back from nursery - into the car seat in 20 mins to go to Baby College).

Can totally empathise with your situation with DS too - My DS was so tired leading up to half term that I said we would have a chilled week, then he was ill on the first weekend, so we did have a chilled week, but he was still shattered from being ill. He has been napping in the afternoons after nursery (falling asleep on sofa, or in car, seeing as he dropped his proper nap in bed earlier this year). Ended up last week keeping him off nursery for a couple of days to give him proper recuperation. It does seem to have done the trick as he seems to have got his energy and appetite back, so I would say go for it on keeping him off on Friday. I think it can be really full on for them at nursery/school and sometimes it's a lot to cope with. Is hard on you too. Would totally go with the early to bed thing though, as I have really found with DS that earlier bedtime does not mean earlier getting up - if he's tired, he goes to bed earlier and then he just sleeps until he needs to get up (these last few weeks he has slept through his bunny being awake - we have a bunny clock, which wakes up at 7am, as he was getting up way to early before and being shattered). I know our DS are different ages, but just wanted to empathise with you and your DS.

Right, must hang washing before going out.

morning

Ginger- seriously thinking about ttc? like SST said about people falling PG soon after returning to work- I found out i was PG with DD1 the day after i'd phoned my boss to arrange returning after having DS!! It was tough being PG with a LO, and tough having 2 'babies' when DD1 arrived- but the hard work really paid off by time DD1 was 6mths- they get on so well it's fantastic!!

SST- DS is going to be 5 in about 5 weeks time- so he's still fairly young really, and school is full on for him... he's doing really well and i think he's trying so hard that he's just creating more hassle for when he's home!! He still was having an afternoon nap until just before the summer holidays!! So has only been going a full day for a couple of months. I think the plan is to keep him off on friday and have a lazy day... films and nap's!! Will talk to his teacher and see if i can collect his homework book on thursday instead of him bringing it home on friday like normal.

ooh I was only joking about TTC the next one. We have talked about starting to TTC from next September though so not that far away! Not sure I could cope with stress of going back to work and being newly pregnant all at once. Though I do like the idea of as a small age gap.

Cant- how big is the gap between your DS and DD1 then?

Who is going to be the first of us to go for it then?

Ses- glad DS was ok last night. Does he sleep in his own room now or still with you ? (not judging btw, just curious. I kept DD with us til she was nearly 6mths and got lots of pressure from my group to do it sooner!)

Wii fit sounds great- might suggest it for xmas Since we have the wii already it isnt too much extra.

Just been out for lunch with my NCT grp. So DD ate her lunch of tomato and lentil pasta spirals and veg. Followed by pear. She then ate a good few forkfuls of my tomato and goats cheese ravioli.... Definately liked that- might stop taking lunch for her and sharing mine

Ginger- i have 15.5mths between my 1st 2!! Fell pg with DD1 when DS was 7mths old unplanned honeymoon baby she was!!

If i'm honest i am starting to get a little broody recently- but there isn't a chance of talking DH round to DC4!! and there is nowhere near enough room in our house for another. I suppose if we could guarrantee another DD then we could fit them all into the big bedroom and DS in the bathroom space when it's converted into a room for him.... BUT- thats just silly thinking!!

GBL I have 17.5 months between DD1 and DD2 and it was really hard work for the first 6 months but then it got a lot easier and I'd definitely do it that way again, they play so nicely together and they're really close as friends

I did get the horse's legs on last night, but overnight its head fell off and it won't stick back on so I'm going to have to make another one tomorrow and do it differently

Diege, I hope you hear from your fuckwits buyers today and that it's good news!

Can't - well done to DD2 for all that sleeping!

Moosy- i thought it was also you with a close age gap between your girls... think Diege has with her eldest 2 aswell, or am i making that up?

Yes GLT- agree with moosy- it is really tough... so tough that i was i think wrongly diagnosed with PND when i think i was just adjusting to being a mum of 2 DC's... however as soon as we got to 6mo and DD1 was starting to roll and sit etc they were best of friends!!... bit of a different story now- but think thats down to DS just being too much of a boy!!

Hello! Not heard back from the fuckwits ( I like that description MOOS )but wasn't really expecting to tbh. I've sort of resigned myself to the worst, so it doesn't actually feel as stressful as it all did a week ago.
Yes, I have a close age gap between dd1 and dd2 (16 months) and it was the best decision we made. I didn't find it especially hard with such a close gap (well, no harder than the other gaps)partly because I never really got out of the baby stage when dd2 was born. Wish we'd gone for a closer gap between dd3 and ds actually!

Bit more of an update on the house-front. We've been advised by the boss of the EA who's very experienced that the best course of action is simply to contact them through our solicitors saying that they either exchange on Friday or return the papers (ie. don't offer them anything). In his experience if you offer part of the 'ransom' money they will very likely ask for more a day or two before completion. So we're going to go with his advice and if they don't want to proceed will just have to take it on the chin. I can see his point as there is something that smacks of desperation about going down the £5 grand route, especially as there are absolutely no grounds for asking for a reduction in price anyway. Oh and we have a viewing on Saturday if they don't exchange!
Hope everyone is ok - very of all these lovely meals out with friends! And good to see you back GINGERBREAD! Know how it feels leading up to those first days back at work, but I promise you this is the worst part of it all and that you will soon start to feel more settle about things

Hi Diege- Glad to hear that you havent offered any more money. I reckon they will proceed - but were just trying their luck. Got everything crossed for you.

Moosy/ Diege/ Cant- you guys are very bad makes me really want a small age gap now.

Though I did just sit here thinking about it and wondered if I was physically ready for it and Im not sure... Am pretty sure DH isnt so its not really a discussion point.

Diege- thanks for re-assurance re return to work. I do feel that I've been thinking about it for too long now - I just need to get on with it. Fortunately DD is really settled at the nursery now so that is one less worry. THough, taking her 1 day a week will be very different to 5 days

Hi.

Diege, hope you hear from them soon. I can't imagine how annoying it must be!!! Fingers crossed for you.

Ginger, nice to hear from you. I have 21 months between the boys. It is a good gap and they adore each other. We're going to have a bigger gap with the next one. We're now thinking of ttc from June onwards. I can not wait.

Just got in from in from work and going to have some yummy curry made by DH.

Hope everyone is happy!!

morning - good luck diege

we have a 3.5 year age gap between the girls works out great

Hi Kayz
hope you enjoyed your curry

21months seems like a nice gap. A friend of mine has a newborn and older DS with the same gap. I know she is struggling at the moment but i think it will pay off when the little one isnt such hard work.

blowing a gale here today... and got lots to tidy up before our new cleaner comes for her first visit. She will be cleaning for us weekly once Im back at work so we thought we get her started early.

I know its mad, but I almost want to do a semi clean before she comes so she doesnt think Im really slack! I wont though- will just tidy up.