Marching into May, packed lunches all the way ! Join the frugaleers for frugal tips and friendly chat .

[QuiteCleanBandit]

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Bloody hell Fluffy that sounds like strep throat or a quinsy

Just caught up sorry to hear about your DGM and DF Sea

mammy have a lovely afternoon .
Im gardening -next door have the pool out -one of their DC has just weeed in it
The poor DF spent ages filling it and one of them now wont go in

Um em you might have killed him in 2 weeks. Ffs. He is being an almighty twat atm. If he is so very sick, I think he needs to see the ooh gp asap.

seacow under the circumstances, no one is going to batter you for some pretty plants to cheer the garden up. What climbers are you looking at? I love a fancy clematis, but have ordinary montana in the front as they grow so quickly, and the front of my uber tatty house needs covering like yesterday.

Spends: £136 exhaust (with cat), and a desperatley needed wiper blade.
£9 greggs, sausage rolls for dc and cakes for all.
£16 macdonalds an iced drink for all plus chicken selects for dp.
£32 in hobbycraft, a new A3 book for dd1 for gcse art, paintbrush, 2 tiny cross stitch kits and a ball of yarn (surprise).

I'm going to crochet myself a bag, and line it with denim and a denim strap, I have so much denim.

unescorted what yarn did you get? Please share pics with the yarnaholic here!

I mean quiteclean about the yarn! New yarn gets me in a blether clearly.

girlie glad your boy cat is doing better. Had he a missed cat bite? The twice mine has been at deaths door it's been an infected cat bite.

fluffy glad you got some anti biotics. Sometimes you just have to, you certainly haven't wasted the nurses time. Now, will you rest up please.

Em I would absolutely bollock DH if he said I was lazy! Get him told, that is not on at all!

Seacow Sorry to hear about what a tough time you're having at the moment .

I haven't caught up obv just popping in to say hi. I hope people are enjoying the bank holiday. It's been gorgeous weather here, I hope it lasts, although I don't really have much appropriate maternity attire for the weather and we are very skint so trying to keep buying stuff to a minimum. I also find that loads of stuff just doesn't fit me properly in maternity wear. I keep having this problem that a size 8 is too small and a size 10 too big, especially with dresses. I have bought and returned at least 3 maternity dresses so far. Sigh.

We are doing ok although DH's DGD is very sick, he has bowel cancer and then he was in hospital the last week with pneumonia, but recovered well and came back home a few days ago. He is normally a very healthy, tough bloke so it is really weird seeing him looking frail and upset.

Does anyone have any recommendations for breast pads, or breast pumps? I don't know if I will pump or not so I'm wary about buying a really expensive one but then I think if I do want to give it a go then I want whatever will make it easiest for me. So not sure what to do. I have 'ick' factor about a second hand one unfortunately so can't do that which is a shame.

Meadow I think the Medela swing is the good one. I had a cheaper one and it was more or less useless. I should have spent the money and got the better one.

Fluffy sorry to hear you're having a rough time. It really doesn't sound fun there. I hope the antibiotics help.

We had had a nice visit to grandparents, and db and sil were there too. Amazingly nice just to relax with family after so long of being on our own.

meadow I'd say a breast pump isn't a necessary item at all at first. You'll either take to breast feeding, and do that for a while (you def don't need to pump to get your milk in, your body does it just right), or won't and then can sort bottles etc. If you need to express to go back to work, you can get something later on.

I would not buy a steriliser either unless you are certain you won't breast feed at all. I have never owned one, and have 4 (ebf) dc.

And, you can get either item from boots (or big supermarkets) immediately if it's urgent, so for me its a not needed yet, buy if/when needed.

Oh fluffy poor you!

Girlie glad boycat is feeling a bit better

Meadow second hand ones aren't recommended anyway. I had a spectra 3 pump (exclusively pumped for the first week as ds in scbu) and it was good.

Agree you only need a steriliser once you use formula so don't rush.

It's hot hot here!

Lonely I agree. My one qualification on that is that if a person is very anxious about establishing bf then it might be a good idea at least to have a few bottles and some formula in the house, and some means of sterilising, even if it's just boiling in a pot of water. I found that having a back up option readily to hand really helped me to plod on when the going got tough. I was very happy to throw away my unused tub of formula powder, which I found in a cupboard when ds was 6. LOL!

6 cooking chorizos cut into bite-size chunks (approx. 450g)
Bag of frozen leaf spinach
Frozen sliced red onions
2 tins drained chick peas/black-eyed beans/cannellini
1 tin chopped tomatoes

Apart from salt to taste, hardly needs any further seasoning because of the chorizo

All in the slow cooker, makes 4-6 portions, freezes well. It looks, smells and tastes lovely!

I get what you're saying but I am planning to mix feed and haven't decided whether that will be breast + bottles of formula, or breast + bottles of expressed milk. I think it depends whether I take to expressing or not iyswim. Plus I am anxious about potentially having difficulty breastfeeding and then wanting to try expressing in that case and not having a pump to do it with and then having no other option but to give formula whether I wanted to or not...does that make sense? Having said that, I think I am leaning towards breast + formula just because the whole point of me mix-feeding is so that DH can do at least one feed a day or whatever and if I have to sit and express for that feed then surely I may as well just feed it myself in that case from my breast, so it will be more of an actual break for me to have the feed he gives as formula.

If you have loads of milk you might find expressing easy. A medela swing is probably the best though. Some babies mix feed well and others refuse boob once they've had a bottle. It's hard to plan so good that you're considering all these things now

Ask in the infant feeding section, there's bound to be lots of opinions there.

meadow you must speak to your midwife about your anxiety around feeding, and make sure it's in your notes for hospital: there is simply no way you will be discharged without established feeding, be it breast or bottle. So no just being at home with a fresh out of the box baby needing to decide how to feed it.

The help is there, make sure the staff at maternity know you are diagnosed. I'd say 98% of anyone you meet will bend over backwards to help you, but they need to know you need some extra help.

Mix feeding can be introduced gradually. Getting established bf takes time ime, just take things easy. There are plenty of fab jobs dh can do (like every nappy!) for the first little while, you just need to hold and bond with your baby. Your idea for bf and ff mix makes great sense.

Meadow (and Lonely) I think it's a good idea to be prepared. Our hospital was full to bursting and I discharged myself after 12 hours, because otherwise I'd have had to go 24 hours after birth without food or a bath and that was not happening. No way.

Em I can't get over your DH, what a tit! You are handling it so perfectly though, especially in the face of him calling you lazy!
Sorry to hear things aren't any better Sea.
Meadow DH bought me the Medela swing when I was in hospital after an emergency section and it's a fab bit of kit. I exclusively breastfed in the end but the swing was fab when I had loads of excess to get rid of and it helped when I as getting established.

We've had a great day out in the sunshine although I haven't drunk anywhere near enough water and have walked a good few miles. We had breakfast out as DH demanded it then went to our local Mayday Fayre which was fab and visited my dad and his gf on a stall they were running. DS thoroughly enjoyed playing with the salt dough they'd made for the kids He did not enjoy eating the salt dough that he sampled...
We're looking at a nice quiet night in while DS trashes the house.

Sadly Lonely the hospital threshold for deciding that bf is ‘established’ can be quite low in some cases (certainly ime- I was sent home because they were satisfied DS was latching on but it was a disaster - they also missed his tongue tie). However, I agree that most things can be bought if and when needed but I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the middle of the night.

One option that I would recommend as a standby are the ready made disposable bottles of formula. They’re far too expensive to use routinely but brilliant for the beginning when you’re not sure what you might need and just want to see how the first few days go before buying bottles, steriliser etc. You can get them in big branches of boots /mothercare and online:

www.mothercare.com/starter-sets/aptamil-1-first-infant-milk-from-birth-starter-pack-6-x-70ml/607514.html

They are expensive enough to be a last resort so you won’t give up trying the boob too easily! However, Meadow if you know you will want to mix feed then you will definitely need a steriliser and bottles so you may as well get that from the beginning. A breast pump is a bigger investment. I think some hospitals offer them for hire - they only have ‘closed system’ ones where you basically replace all the tubing etc between users so that might help with the ‘ick’ Factor? And give you some time to work out whether you are actually going to need a pump in the end. There are cheap hand pumps but they’re probably not an option for sustained pumping. It’s very hard to second guess what you might need until you see how it goes.

NSD so far. Couldn’t quite be bothered to go to the Garden centre. I think I might order from Waitrose Garden (I think Sunny recommended them previously and I got a couple of shrubs last year, was impressed with the choice and good quality). I am eyeing up this clematis. It’s for the bottom fence facing the house so I want a good display:

www.waitrosegarden.com/plants/_/climbers/clematis/normal-flowers/clematis-kermesina/ClassID.926

Love that yarn Lonely, and it will look great with denim.

Fluffy did you manage to enjoy your break at all?

meadow I had a tommee tippee manual pump. I didn’t get on with it if I’m honest. But agree with others - get your feeding anxiety in your notes then you’ll get more assistance if needed.

We’ve been to the beach. Via the stables. Ds went to see the horseys. He was fascinated. Dh came with us but sat in the (boiling hot) car. He has a slight horse phobia and there were a few milling about in the stable yard waiting to be hacked out.

My fave one was on the ride so I showed ds my second fave. She’s a big girl (16/2 I think) but is so gentle. She was in her stable munching on some hay. But obliged and piped her head over the door for ds to have a good look at her and a bit of a pat. He thought she was hilarious.

Then to the beach. Ds sat on the picnic mat and played with some of his toys. Then we had an ice cream (99 with a flake). £4.40 on ice cream for me and dh. Ds had a bit of mine. And by a bit I mean I held it out and he smushed his face against it and sort of licked it. Sticky messy sticky baby. We had a go on the sand too. He wasn’t sure initially but soon got the hang of sand. Buried his feet then acted surprised when he wiggled them out. And then stuffed a handful of sand in his mouth.

Also popped his sandy feet’s in the sea. We did splashing. And he thought the big waves were hilarious too. Especially when they “chased” us. Seriously that kid thinks anything is funny.

We are now home. I have worked out I can log into our router from my phone so can change WiFi password wherever the hell I am. This is useful.

Dh has been told that this behaviour stops. Now. And I’ve made him an appointment with the dr for tomorrow. If he’s too ill to do things on a weekend he’s absolutely too ill to do anything fun tomorrow. He’s off tomorrow anyway as we have a public holiday on Wednesday.

Sea I think Waitrose garden do cashback, i think w gardens is primrose gardens? Rather than a standalone company. And no, it was all shite thanks to being ill.

I think I've spent £15 in Tesco when dh went and I have a bill for the antibiotics they gave me in hospital this morning.

I have listed a dozen boxed Shimano bits on ebay, hopefully will recoup my money for the exhaust with them. Also listed the three(!) kiddy cycle seats that are cluttering my storage unit. These were all for ds. Used about twice each ffs. Two bid on already, but they are over £100 under rrp (we won't say how one lived in the garden for 2 years, my sister scrubbed it - I have listed them as used).

Too hot for tea really, but I've slung some sausages into the oven (still frozen!), and will do chips and dippy eggs to go with.

Well done em I'm sure this is mil impending visit behaviours, but if it turns out he has an awful viral infection or something, then he should have gone to the gp's a week ago, instead of mumping around being poorly and horrid.

£5 on two ice creams. Holiday company came back with a ridiculous cancellation offer. They are rechecking their figures.

Fluffy sorry to hear you are so poorly, fingers crossed the antibiotics kick in quickly

Thats rather a long time for DH to have a cold -hope its not pneumonia !
One of my friends had pneumonia without even realising they were that unwell.
Still doesnt excuse his behaviour which is frighteningly misogynistic and as for calling you lazy
I would explode !

Dh is downstairs finding out how much work goes into keeping this house going. Possibly more than he thinks and we don't have a baby to look after. His dm is very houseproud and his dad helps so he has decent role models there. I can hear hoovering and mopping and he's done his laundry.

I tend to do it all as I work short hours and he does 55hr weeks so usually I'm here every afternoon.

Wolf Do you need to email the CEO?. Their complaints dept are usually much more accommodating. A bit more human.

Those pre-made bottles are good Christmas. I slightly wish I'd known about those.

YY to Medela electric pumps. However I wouldn't buy one just yet. The hospital can usually lend of your want to try. Expressing can put extra pressure on those first few weeks. My suggestion is give bf a go as the first few days are considered the most important for baby. Make the staff aware of your anxiety, get it on your notes, and see how you go - one feed at a time.
If you want have bottles and rtf formula on standby. Get some Milton to cold water sterilise as it's cheap and if bottles stick invest in a steriliser.
Put your self under NO pressure to do one or the other. It's all about your welfare, baby being fed and making informed choices.
Hth meadow.

Em, as you know your dh is being out of order. Sooner this visit is over the better.

Today was lovely but spendy £30 ish.