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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Cauliflower Steaming On Such A Winter's Day - 10 / 10 thread

880 replies

FrannyandZooey · 16/01/2008 08:07

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page

OP posts:
aviatrix · 19/01/2008 08:36

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ahundredtimes · 19/01/2008 08:43

Have read thread as have been up since 6.30. Johnny Jet did not howl the house down, he made no noise last night - that I could hear - and appears not to have destroyed anything. But I woke up worried about him, and so came down, and he was very pleased to see me.

He is supposed to eat Weetabix with water and condensed milk for breakfast. I made it, and he had a little bit, and then went to talk to a cardboard box.

Soo having read the title - I'm fairly sure Franny that just everyone gets in the bed, and you are just extremely tired as result. Certainly when any baby slept with us, older children arrived and I think I put the baby if it was asleep in the crib next to the bed, and cuddled the others.

I woke up with both ds2 and dd in my bed this morning, so I may not be the person to listen to.

I'm also fairly certain i would have said 'ds1/ds2 I'm tired and I'm going to lie down and close my eyes. You can snuggle in next to me and talk to me, and I will grunt.'

I've never done, stay in your room until called in the morning, but I've also never done 'You're Here! I'll sit up and talk to you either.'

Have no idea if that makes sense. I suspect it falls into the Doing Nothing school of parenting.

ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 08:47

I did have project move to rural smallholding and have animals including dog

but this complex manouevre was somewgat stuffed by being dumped

so I can now justenjoy dogg tails on here

which i am sure suffice

ditto most other things in fact

a life most vicarious

MrsCarrot · 19/01/2008 08:49

You have the dog

Off to read thread - have been thinking about Franny dilemma in the night.

FrannyandZooey · 19/01/2008 08:56

100 I woke up in the night and was excited about Johnny Jet as well. and dp said rather disapprovingly "you were up late last night" and I said "yes but 100 has got a PUPPY" and there was some eye rolling. I am glad you didn't have to put him in a sling. He sounds easier than a baby. I wonder why?

OverR I found doing nothing worked beautifully for potty training. I did nothing and nothing and then for about one day I did something and that was it. Done.

For shepherds pie you need brown or green lentils or a mixture of puy lentils is ok, but a bit much to do all puy. I can do recipes later, am faffing before work right now. You can just cook your own things you know, you don't have to follow my recipes, it is just an example.

I liked the bit about the mornings being light and everyone snuggling up. Oh I hope it will be alright. I did have a few more things I should have said: Ds shouts out "Can I come in to your bedroom?" and we shout back "yes". I think this is the bit that might wake people up. We could teach him not to shout, just to come in, but then about once a fortnight we would get him in at 5 am. If he shouts at 5 am I usually go in and say "it is still night time, have a bit more sleep." He doesn't, but he does lie quiet-ish, and sometimes we can doze.

The other thing is from a sample of 1, my babies are not heavy sleepers and a 5 year old coming in to the room to have a quiet cuddle will wake them up, I fear. Ah well. Will have to learn not to be uptight about sleep (it was quite hard with ds because if he hadn't slept enough he was vile, and he quite often hadn't slept enough....)

Oh the other thing is we usually co sleep with baby in the middle. So I can do the feeding thing and then if it is just a pat pat thing or nappy thing needed dp can sometimes do it and I can turn away and pretend I can't hear. But the middle is where ds lies when he comes in (even though dp is not usually there, so there is no ADVANTAGE to being in the middle that I can see). Anyway I was saying to him "when the baby is here, you can go on this side for your cuddle". Much outrage. Oh dear.

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 19/01/2008 08:57

Sorry to worry you MrsC. It will be ok, I have decided not to have baby after all but instead to have small puppy. Will be much easier and ds will like it more.

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 19/01/2008 08:58

Oh and BLEUGH at chewing the blanket the dog had chewed. Dog slobber is my top reason for absolutely never having a dog.

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ahundredtimes · 19/01/2008 09:04

Well he did chew a different corner, sort of. But there has been a lot of licking. DS2 seems to like it. . . .

I'm trying to remember. It's pathetic. DS1 was very jealous when ds2 was born, but he was much smaller than your ds - not even 2 - and really couldn't even work out how to put on a good front. And that was complicated. I think after that, I got a crib which was by the bed, and then when ds1 appeared, and then later ds2, when there was a baby in bed with us, I scooped up the baby and put it in there to make space for the toddler/s.

It'll come clear I think how to play it when the baby is actually there, for ds as well as you. Our babies slept in the middle too, or on top of me actually, and then I think I probably shoved them over when a child appeared. Though both ds2 and dd were heavy sleepers - probably on account of having been up most of the night.

FrannyandZooey · 19/01/2008 09:08

I can't imagine picking up a child of mine and moving them, and them staying asleep. However I will try.

we have got loads of bed, about 10 ft, there should be no problem with having enough places to put people. I think it is just the moving and the shouting that might not work. Oh well I suppose the baby can catch up later, and I can just get very very tetchy and forgetful and slightly psycho.

OP posts:
ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 09:12

I did an awful thing to dd1 when we had dd2

well a whole raft of awful things actually

then dh went to work the other side of the country when i was pregnant and dd1 was 11 months old and came home at weekends and sometime on wednesday

at 16 monthgs dd2 was born then two days later dd1 went into hospital and her hip chopped and realigned

this was a major operation but the hospital was too far away for me to go at all as i couldnt yet drive so her dad stayed with her

after a week i went to see her carrying the baby and she wouldnt look at me

she came home and dad went back to work

she was in a head to toe plaster and i was breastfeeding and it was terrible

she really truly didn't know what had happened to her

i didnt know what had happened to me eiter

ahundredtimes · 19/01/2008 09:13

Yes, tetchy psycho is the way to go.

But remember this baby will be surrounded by much more noise than ds1 was - ie. it will have ds in its life. And it has been my experience that subsequent babies don't require/ or unphased by background noise somehow. Indeed that was how dd went to sleep, when there was a lot of ballyhoo she'd just sigh and drift off.

Maybe.

ahundredtimes · 19/01/2008 09:15

Oh Zipp, well i think that sounds hard on you actually. My Guilty Store Cupboard is quite full too, I have shut the door and leant against it.

aviatrix · 19/01/2008 09:15

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MrsCarrot · 19/01/2008 09:23

He sounds wonderful, 100x, you will all have great fun with him. I am very sad about the fact that I am allergic to dogs as I love animals but it has made me go off them a bit. I spent my teenage years working as a vets assistant and used to alternate loitering as a grunger with cider, to sitting in a tree with James Herriot and a bag of boiled sweets. I developed the allergy as a teenager.

Franny -

I am afraid I disagree with everyone and I thought I might but here goes. You may be completely different, but I am not very good at being tired. IME, going from one to two to three, although you can't imagine loving another baby when it does arrive of course you do, and nature does make you feel slightly less precious about the older child, or at least it feels that they can grow up a little bit in your eyes. Of course this can be concealed from them as they often feel this is a good time to regress a little bit. All normal. They often turn to their dad a bit more, going to the park a few more times while you rest and so on. This seems to be the natural order of things with most people I know.

I have never told my children to stay in their rooms, as such, but after the age of 5 or so, they most certainly are aware that they must not wake me up at silly 'o' clock if I am to be a nice functioning mummy that day. This may be because I have had my babies with the same gaps as you, a 2 or 3 year old couldn't be reasoned with like that obviously. I talk to dd very nicely about it, I say that although she is keen to see me and I her, isn't it annoying that babies wake up so much and if I can have ust a little more sleep then I will feel better and she has read a book our put a tape on till, say seven, then I will be brighter and the day will be more fun.

I am aware that some might think this puts too much pressure on the child to think about how you feel when they should be being children, but I think they can understand this if necessary. In my case this was necessary. There IS NO WAY ON EARTH that I can be pleased to see a 5 year old at 6am when I have been awake with a baby between 3 and 5 and we have just gone back to sleep. I take my hat off to someone who can think oh well, if baby wakes up again we will all have a cuddle I really do. I cannot function. I made up for it in the day, I hope, now when they hear F is awake they all dive in our bed. The cuddles are still there.

I also think gentle encouragement to perhaps look at the time and think, hmm, it's 5.30, maybe I will play with my brio a bit more before diving in to see mummy and daddy can't hurt. I think 5 is old enough for that but I know people who get up with their children between 4.30 and 6am so, everyone is different. If there is any way that you might partially sit in my camp and be UNABLE to stick to this routine despite night wakings, then I think you should gently introduce the concept of reading a book in bed sooner rather than later.

If not, then fine, stay as you are. I'm sure the do nothingg camp works perfectly well and plenty have more than one child but, well thats my (lengthy) position on it. Oh, and ds1 brings me a cup of tea in the mornings. It's great.

ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 09:27

it actually got worse after that...we eventually sold our house but the day we were supposed to exchange contracts and complete another person in the chain had a heart attack so some people had signed and some hadn't it was awful

so our purchase fell thru but we continued with the sale

had to move into a horrible inaccessible second floor rented flat that was the worst possible place for children

i camped in new town at the estate agents and house pirces were going up by 1or 2k a week

then i was watching live aid the first one

and there was a strange rumbling noise which got louder and then there was aterrible crash and the whole flate filled with dust

we stumbled out onto the landing...outside our flat..it was a big old conversion..and it was like thick fog and creaking noises

we went up to the flat above and the roof had fallen in with the entire gable end in this guys living room

luckily he had heard the noise and moved from the sofa to the window and the entire gable had collapsed in over him and behind him and he was stood witgh his glasses knocked off and absolutely coated in white dust

we rushed back to our flat to rescue children

but our part seemed safe

we were then evacuated by the fire brigade and not allowed to return to the building again which ahd a demolition notice put on it

it was the middle of the night and the only place we could go was my mums an hours drive away but she had packed everything to move on the monday

so then we had to go to dhs bosses house

he had to go back to the flat and climb up the baqck of the building and break in to get some of our things

MrsCarrot · 19/01/2008 09:27

Oh, and we had a cot/crib pushed against our bed though it was mostly just full of blankets and the babies slept on that side mainly as dh is a deeper sleeper. DD always comes and gets right in the middle, once it is time to get up thats fine she has her spot.

MrsCarrot · 19/01/2008 09:28

zippi

ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 09:31

dd2 was 3 months old and never slept through the night again after that

we didnt get our deposit back either because we didnt clean the flat

ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 09:48

i think that rather extensive extract from my autobiography/novel

meant to say

worry not franny and play it by ear

the best laid plans cliche drivelcliche

BBBee · 19/01/2008 09:50

oh zippi! that all just makes you even more amazing!

Sleeping - erm, ds was 3 when dd was born and we just put an extra bed/matress next to our bed to accomodate all the extra and carried on with various combinations of wake and sleep.

Not much help but can;t remember much else apart from a co-sleeping night feeding haze.

Was good though - I liked it, was nice a cosy.

ZippiBabes · 19/01/2008 09:55

i just have the kind of life where nothing goes right

or the simplest of things go horribly wrong

i suspect this year is going to produce another stack of them

it's why i get anxious about making decisions and trying to do stuff

cos it always all goes wrong

but of course you do have to just carry on regardless in the end

fullmoonfiend · 19/01/2008 09:59

at johnny jet...

Decides to go and eat bacon sarnie instead.

3andnomore · 19/01/2008 10:37

sorry for just flitting in every now and then...
but
I need help with my Essay:
thread here

please

Also, anyone here willing to read through the whole essay (it's not quite perfected, but it's written completely...just need to spell check and well, loose a few words, see if I put all the references in, etc...but it would be good to see what someone else thinks , am so scared that I missed the point or somehting)

FrayedKnot · 19/01/2008 10:52

Morning

Alarm clock did;t work

Dh annoyed me by getting cross with DS, which often happens in this scenario, and tbh I would prefer a 3 year old in my bed at 6am than DS & DH having an argument over the top of my head

I am going to suggest that if DH wants a lie in he will have to go and sleep in the spare room, and I will grunt at DS for an hour or so, then we can all get up an no-one will be grumpy.

I will just have to go to bed earlier for a while, and hope that DS starts waking later again soon

fullmoonfiend · 19/01/2008 10:56

how long is this essay?
I have just finished a module on communication with service users (mental health) but I expect it's on a much-more 'basic' level than yours.......