Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub - a German and Austrian autumn thread

[AntiqueMuppet]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Previous thread here

admylin Were you looking at a German height chart? (I just used one I found online, btw - I think it was a German one, so maybe DD1 is normal outside Germany. ) I find the Germans taller than the British or Austrians, so that might make a difference; at all her friends being far too tall. DD1 is 135 cm and, apart from being the smallest in her class, she's also the same size as most of DD2's friends (and weighs less and has smaller feet than DD2!). I'm not sure I'd want her to have hormone treatment unless it was absolutely necessary as I'd be worried about the side effects, but hopefully she's just short for her age and she still has a few years to catch up.

Vegans Hope you had a good time in the Black Forest!

Antique at the menu adventures; that's my excuse for just sticking to the wine! The Styrians aren't particularly comprehensible accent-wise either, from what I remember (DH went to university there).
We used to have a washer-dryer, but I didn't find the dryer particularly good; the separate dryer we have now is a lot better (although not very energy efficient, so DH is hoping it will give up the ghost soon - of course, like our ancient TV, it shows no signs of doing so). Obviously a combined washer-dryer is better if space is limited and maybe we just had a particularly inefficient model before.
Hope your DS is better soon, poor little thing - teething really isn't much fun (my MIL has only just stopped blaming absolutely every little niggle/bad mood the DCs have on teething ).

Indeed it was fab to be in the UK Ploom!! Yes admylin I did some shopping... sadly not that much stuff for me (no point with such a big belly ) but my Mum bought me a really nice grey waterfall style cardigan which was exactly what I'd been looking for. I needed another jumper but wanted something that would function when baby is here for BF etc.

My Mum was also very happy to be in the UK and do some shopping so we both had a really nice time. I also saw a few handbags I really like but don't really need one right now and the next bag I buy will be a changing bag

antique I don't mind family and good friends having a feel of the bump and I try to let them know it's allowed because I can understand how curious they are... but generally they ask before having a feel and the are really gentle; except for stupid middle bro and his poking! I would definitely be unhappy if someone - even family- went for a feel without asking... I find that a bit odd.

On the cot front I can't make up my mind... I'm not convinced about co-sleeping I move around loads in my sleep. Honestly I don't know how anyone shares a bed with me - DP and I have a superb huge bed and we each have our own mattress (but a massive duvet; which I insisted on :o for cuddling purposes), DP's sheet looks normal and stays put; mine looks like I've had a fight every night and often needs tucking back in. I know I would be terrified about squishing a small person and probably wouldn't sleep well... if at all...

Vegans where were you in the black forest? I'd love to see some more castles and things in Germany and we always have the excuse of travelling to see friends in Nürnberg or family München we should make more of an effort!

admylin have you discovered the bahlsen factory shop?? Don't go there it is very dangerous!!! :)

Just to add randomly to the dryer conversation...
Linzer the PIL have offered to buy us a tumble dryer and they have only looked at the Miele ones and are totally happy buying us an industrial sized one - which might be a little more than we need- but it is lovely of them and we will definitely be looking into it. But what I wanted to say was I am of the opinion (via my Mum) that a washing machine is good at washing and a tumble dryer is good at drying; when you combine the two neither function is great

Also if you need to do a lot of washing and only have the one machine it could be a bit frustrating. DP's dad also mentioned a washer/dryer that could wash 7kg but only dry 3.5kg (or something like that) which seems like a real PITA!

Nutella I tend to agree with your mum. Our separate dryer seems to dry clothes more quickly and with fewer creases than the washer-dryer and yes, we often have it on at the same time as the washing machine. (But if I only had space for one machine, I'd probably still go for a washer-dryer rather than just a WM.)

Re co-sleeping, I wasn't keen on the idea but tried it as DD1 was an awful sleeper and I didn't think it could get any worse. It could. (Well, she slept about as well, or rather as badly, as ever, but I ended up getting even less sleep.) Co-sleeping does seem to work brilliantly for some people - my SIL co-slept for five years - but I wasn't one of them. DD1 actually slept better when we moved her out of our bedroom into her own room.

We stayed in a place called Triberg, it was very nice. Self-catering, nothing fancy. The Hotel Inspector would have had palpitations at the clutter, crazy jigsaws that had been laminated and then hung on the wall like art, lots of dried flowers, but it was mainly ok. We didn't get to any castles, will have to go again!

I love co-sleeping, so easy for nursing, and changing nappies, and the snuggles are sheer bliss!

Hello!

Washer driers tend to be pants, co-sleeping works for some but depends hugely on the type of child you get - I sometimes usually end up in with DS2 in desperation from about 3am, but he jumps on my head and uses my hair to force me tplay peekaboo (or rather Kook Kook!) throws himself off the bed and screaches "ISSSSSSSSSSSSS DAAAAAAAAAAAA MUMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" while slapping me gleefully around the face... not so much of the snuggles, and changing his nappy in bed would mean poo absolutely everywhere as, I may have mentioned, he's not much of a one for staying still... Sometimes often I am tired enough to doze through being used as a bouncy castle/ activity centre/ punching bag, but I wouldn't say I get actual sleep... I do believe other babies and small children are all snuggly lovely cuddly when co-sleeping, but mine think if they have company it's time for a party :o He sleeps all lovely and snuggly in my/ DH's arms for a cat-nap though, and sometimes I lie down with him in the day and we get half an hour...

Time to go to work in a minute, apologies for sweeping in making blanket statements :o

Happy birthday Ploom Junior!

*Admylin I always think dd is small for her age, though actually now there are 4 of them in her class very close indeed in size, all the others are taller, some much, much taller - and her little brother is pretty much the same height, 3kg heavier and has bigger feet... DS1 is Bavarian size though and DD is British size I think :o She is exactly 50th centire too on the WHO charts where DS1 is between the top 2 lines on the chart for boys... People keep asking me if DS2 is 2 (he's not quite 18 months) so I guess he's going the same way as his brother (though they often ask when he's climbed to the top of something heigh, or attempting to half inch an older toddler's balance bike, so maybe it's that :o )

Hurt my back on Saturday, it was agonly yesterday, ended up at the doctor's and he gave me an injection and 800mg Ibuprofen (which work very nicely for a few hours :o ) tablets and a referal for physio twice a week - but it seems physios work weekday afternoons only, how's that supposed to work! I can't be the only mother of small children who's ever needed physio... hmmm... Ah well, off to take some lovely strong Ibuprofen and go to work!

Waves at everyone!

English Sorry to hear about your back; that must be really painful. Re the physio appointments, do you live in the kind of area where grandparents live a maximum of five minutes away so are on hand for all kinds of eventualities, or is that just here?

One disadvantage of co-sleeping for me (not that I'm anti it at all; it's great if it works for you) was that the few times I ended up falling asleep with the baby in the bed, I would wake up to find the sheets soaked with milk... I suppose that's only a problem in the first month or so though, if at all.

Quick maths question if anyone's around (otherwise it can wait until DH comes home in an hour or so)... DD1 has to answer the following question:

Runde auf den gegebenen Stellenwert und berechne den Rundungsfehler
a) 93 425 (ZT)

So, to the nearest ten thousand, that would be 90,000. Is the Rundungsfehler then the difference between the two numbers, i.e. 3,425?

I have heard the same about washer/dryers, you can only dry half the amount you can wash, and they are not as good as separate machines.

I bought a tumble drier on Ebay, barely used, it was a bargain!

English, ouch, agony. Backache is one of those pains that make you hurt all over and feel completely lousy. My sympathies.

I view the bouncy castle/punching bag toddler affections as a lovely firm massage! It's actually rather nice! :) He loves climbing on my back and digging his toes in, it is just like a Thai massage, and nice when he has long toenails for a little backscratch! :)
I must be lucky. DS stopped pooing overnight very early. I've even forgotten about changing pooey night nappies!

LT I only had overflowing milk issues for the first couple of months or so, and breastpads worked a treat. Fabric ones, not disposables, or the baby will get a mouthful of cotton wool if you aren't careful.

Happy birthday Ploomchen.

Ouch to bad back English, hope it gets better soon.

Never heard anything good about washer/dryers. Separate all the way here. Just getting to the season when we put the washing line away as it will snow soon.

Got to go as ds2 can't be bothered to nap this afternoon and a whole load of stuff has gone crashing down! Hope you are all having nice evenings and sorry for not including everyone.

Morning all and happy birthday Jenny (was going to write happy belated birthday, but realised it might still be your birthday there) - did you get up to anything nice?

Vegans Yes, I used nursing pads but would tend to fall asleep without putting them back in when I had the baby in bed with me (I realise that's a bfing-baby-lying-down-in-bed more than a co-sleeping problem!). I did use disposable ones - didn't even think of using fabric ones, probably because you just don't see them in the shops here. It would definitely have made economic and environmental sense, as I got through so many, although we never had any problems with the baby getting a mouthful of cotton wool.

Morning!

Happy belated birthday, Jenny! Hope you had a great day.

Can't remember who was talking about what, but we have a washer-dryer, I think it's a Siemens. I don't have separate machines to compare it with, but it washes well enough. I only use the drier for towels, pillows and duvets, but it manages ok as long as it isn't overloaded and I open the machine straight after it's finished. It must be 15 years old and still going strong, although it's got quite rattly. We've got the space now for separate machines and I'm sure we'll replace it with separates once it finally dies, but I agree with Linzer that a dual-purpose machine is better than only a washer if you don't have space for both (our duvets say they must be tumble-dried after washing, for example, otherwise they go clumpy).

I think you get what you pay for with white goods, both in terms of function and energy efficiency, so a middle to top of the range Miele is going to be ok. Plus hanging out washing is only an unbearable chore if you're not used to it, otherwise it's just normal (as long as you've got the space) .

I second what english says about some children being harder to co-sleep with than others. DD's idea of co-sleeping involved variously: burying her nose in my arm/side (very reassuring in a newborn pfb ), repeatedly sliding her hand (nails uppermost) under me and pulling it out again, pinching me, and most recently trying to put her feet on my stomach/chest/face.

My parents are arriving this afternoon, so I may well not make it onto here much the next two weeks.

Thanks for all the washer-dryer advice! I keep meaning to ask my dad about it as that's his area of expertise but haven't quite got around to it yet. I think we'll have space for separates, but will probably just get a washing maching for now and a dryer next year at some point.

Sorry, no time to reply to individual posts as the teething monster has awoken. Best dash off to administer cuddles and globuli!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for Ploomchen (like that name!!) - he had a nice day. He was over the moon with his presents esp a Star Wars sticker book that a friend sent from the UK - it actually trumped all the other presents he got. But he also got a good game from my BIL called "Das Verrueckte Labyrinth". I'd never even heard of it before but it was a huge hit with all of us so would thoroughly recommend it as a present.

cheas - have a fab time with your parents. Have you got nice days out planned with them?

antique - sending "get over teething soon" thoughts to you all. Every parent can sympathise with you [hugs].

I was never a fan of co-sleeping with any of my dc - I really struggled to get any quality sleep with them in the bed and if I was getting a few hours sleep I wanted it to be a decent sleep. In fact I didnt sleep well with them even in our room so all 3 were in their own rooms ASAP. We didnt have a room for ds2 after he was born so he was in his moses basket in the office after he was about 4 weeks .

english - hope your back is on the mend & that you managed to get a physio appt. The strange opening hours of physios/doctors etc here is crazy - surely people need an appt in the mornings too.

vegans - glad you had a good time in the Black Forest.

Waves to everyone else - sorry running out of time before I have to make lunch.

Ploom Glad Ploomchen enjoyed his birthday (I love the name too!). We have a travel version of Das Verrückte Labyrinth, which the DC really enjoyed playing when we were in Italy.

Antique Hope the globuli help! And the cuddles too of course.

cheas Have a lovely time with your parents!
I very rarely dry things completely in our dryer (only really things like towels and sheets) and still hang 95% of things up/out to dry. I just find it speeds up the drying process and usually do one schranktrocken cycle, which is a complete misnomer as nothing is dry enough to put away.

I get a whole extra hour to myself this morning as DS is going to a friend's after school. DD2 has spent the whole morning doing something called Trockenrasen pflege (am getting a bit paranoid about people googling!) and has IT straight after school, so DD1 will be first home today and will be out of school in about 20 minutes. Fingers crossed the homework and maths revision don't take quite as long today; we finally finished at 6.15 pm yesterday.

linzer wow, what is that skill preparing your dd1 for? It does have someting to do with grass right, or is it something else? Did you solve your maths question? Never came across Rundungsfehler when my 2 did that.

ploom glad the birthday boy had a good day! It's always surprising how something simple like a sticker bok can give so much joy! I've heard of your labyrinth game, might have a look at it in town as dd has been complaining that we don't have enough games. We have playing cards, dominos, uno,yahtzee, snakes and ladders and ludo and that's abut it. I think that's enough but dd compares that with her friend's game cupboard where she has 2 generations of games collected from oma und opa and her parents and many new ones too.

antique hope the cuddles could distract your ds abit from the pain.
cheas have a nice time with your parents. Are they staying with you?
english sorry about your back. Hope you can manage to find some physio. Although I didn't enjoy my shoulder physio at all, when I had it for my back years ago it was bliss. I got to sleep for 15 minutes on hot fango then a quick massage and a few exercises. If you weren't so far away I'd baby/child sit for you while you went!

nutella yes the Bahlsen factory shop is great isn't it! Ds's friend lives round the corner from it so it's handy to pop into before I pick him up! Have you seen the white baby bed on the tchibo website this week? It's a classic plain cot, quite a reasonable price too.

Better go and get lunch ready, ds is growing again and he could eat 3 times as much as his sister. He's constantly hungry and all his pyjamas, jogging trousers, tops and t-shirts are getting too small!

Right, he's napping & I've just warmed my cup of tea up so have 5 mins to catch up!

How long does the pain normally go on for? He seems to have three first molars coming through, two are almost through (huge lumps in his gums, hurts just to look at them) and one on the top which looks like it's just starting to come through. It started last Monday so has been a week and a half already, on & off, someone please tell me it will be over soon! The teething pain itself seems to come in waves but it's his poor little bottom which is bright red and shiny from the runs that he's had for a few days now. He screams if we go anywhere near the changing mat and nappy changes are torture for the poor thing. I've spent a good ?40 in the pharmacy over the past few days - I'm sure their eyes light up when they see a pfb! I'm actually wondering whether to take him to the Kinderarzt, but I'll try the stuff the Apotheke gave me first.
If anyone has any tips, oh wise parents who have been through this before, I would love you forever.

admylin Hope you managed to fill your DS up nicely without having to empty the entire fridge :)

Linzer I got all confused and thought the school were teaching your DD2 about shaving for a minute there!

Ploom Glad your DS had a nice birthday! The game sounds good, I might check it out next time we're in town.

cheas Have a lovely time with your parents!

jenny Hope there wasn't too much destruction earlier!

English Sorry to hear about your back. I hope you manage to get a physio appointment soon. Could you persuade a neighbour to watch your DC for an hour or so or is that not really an option?

Vegans Glad you had a nice time in Bavaria! We passed through on the way to Austria and I was really excited to see an old man in full Lederhose in the services.

Hello to anyone I've missed! Off to whack my tea back in the microwave!

So many exclamation marks in one post - sorry

Your poor DS, Antique. I'm afraid I don't have any useful tips as I don't remember the DC suffering all that much with teething (or maybe I've just blanked it from my memory as it was too traumatic!) or what I did apart from giving them plenty of objects to chew on. I have vague memories of buying some kind of teething gel, but whether I actually did and whether it helped much is another question. I did find those gel-filled teething rings quite good, though; the DC certainly enjoyed putting them in their mouths!

admylin From what DD2 told me, they were basically pulling up shrubs - or rather cutting them out (or whatever the correct gardening term is); they had to take in secateurs and gardening gloves. Am still not quite sure what a Trockenrasen is exactly, though!

DD1 put on her winter pyjamas for the first time this year last night and announced that they're now her summer pyjamas, as they were about 6 inches too short! I had a look at the label and they were size 110/116 (but they must have fit her last winter). After digging around in her cupboard, I found some size 134/140 PJs, but they were about 6 inches too long. But it seems silly buying her 122/128 when she's normally size 134 (and it's not as if I can even pass them on to DD2, as she'd have grown out of them by the time DD1 had finished with them).

Thanks, Linzer! We've had fewer runny nappies this afternoon (oh yes, I went through the nappy bin and counted ) and the teeth themselves don't seem to be bothering him too much any more. The lumps are really white now so hopefully the teeth with bust their way through very soon.
Nappy changes are still absolute torture but I've just been letting him crawl around with a bare bum this afternoon. I think I just had a panic as he had no symptoms apart from a tiny bit of grumpiness with the first eight teeth so this was a bit of a shock. And of course I convinced myself he had something really nasty wrong with him (thanks Wikipedia!)

Could you buy pyjamas in the bigger size and roll them up a bit for now? Or would that not make sense? [clueless]

That sounds promising, Antique. Sorry, forgot to mention before that we did have lots of problems with nappy rash and letting them crawl round with a bare bum definitely helped, as did Sudocrem (and avoiding baby wipes).

The pyjamas aren't really roll-uppable as the material is too soft; if they were just an inch or two too long it wouldn't be too bad, but she'd trip over if she wore them! Maybe I ought to look for some in size 134 rather than 134-140; I'm not really sure whether H&M do "single size" PJs so maybe I'll have a look in C&A, as they're about the only other affordable shop I can think of. (Plus DH gets 12% off there, which is an added bonus. )

antique - I remember so clearly going thro episodes of teething and then all the drama stopping as suddenly as it started. We probably gave our dc some calpol if they looked really miserable or used Bonjella altho the taste isnt great. About his sore bum, my only advice is to clean him using cotton wool dipped in baby oil at every change. Even for poos. This just seems to create a barrier and worked better than any nappy cream. I also think letting him have some bare bum time is also a great idea - that will definitely help to heal it. I remember tho that nappy changes at just past 1 year old were a nightmare with all 3 dc and we often used pull up nappies just for an easy life. I promise this time will pass .

Linzer - forgot to write before, I dont think it'd be the worst thing to just have it noted by the kinderarzt that you have concerns about your dd1's height. But you and your dh are an average height so I wouldnt expect her to be really tall. But at least last years PJ's show that she's definitely growing. Shame you cant get a 128/134 size - thats probably what she needs. My ds2 needs 116/122 which you dont seem to get either.

Need to get out early in the morning (as opposed to the last 2 mornings where I've gone back to bed after getting the dc out to school ) - need to get dd some ski clothes from Aldi. Going to buy her an adult S size and hope she gets more than 1 winter out of it. Also going to buy blue or black in the hope that I can pass it on to the boys - do you think it'll be noticable that its womens ski clothes or will the boys be able to wear them?

Hi all

Well I had a wonderful time back in the UK, and have stocked up on a few treats.... MacVitie's chocolate digestive anyone? :)

I'm just calling in to say I'm taking a mumsnet break for a little while. Thanks for the advice and support everyone, and best of luck with the families/babies/everything else.

I'm friends on fb with Linzer and am happy for her to pass my details on, should anyone want to friend me over there :)

Tschuß zusammen......

Cake Mmm, am quite partial to chocolate digestives - my biscuit of choice before I discovered chocolate hobnobs. Glad you had a good time in the UK; I'm feeling in need of some British retail therapy, but will have to wait until Christmas...
Will be sorry to see you go from the thread; good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and do pop in to let us know how it all goes! I sometimes think - usually after I've had to take a self-imposed break when I've been on holiday - that I should take a MN break as I waste too much time lurking, although cutting down on the amount of threads I post on has saved me a lot of time.

Ploom Good luck at Aldi this morning - hope it wasn't too much of a scrum. I can't imagine that blue or black women's ski wear would obviously be for women; the main difference is probably that they don't go up to as big a size, and I'm sure that boys could get away with wearing it.

You're right; DH and I are both average height so it would be very unlikely that we'd have a taller-than-average child. The other two aren't tall either; in fact, DS looks quite short compared to a lot of his friends - I should probably check where he is on the height chart too.

I'm feeling surprisingly alert considering that I've been awake on and off since 4 am (when DH had to get up for his flight to Berlin). I finally got back to sleep properly about 15 minutes before the alarm went off, which is always the way.

Now need to get everything ready for DD2's English lesson. I'd agreed with the teacher that I'd write all the sentences that I did with the DC last time (the ones she said were too difficult for them) on the board today, despite the fact that I more or less did so last time anyway, and thought that would take up a good part of the lesson. However, I discovered from DD2 last night that the teacher has already done so, so I'll need to find a bit more to do with them today.

Will get linzer to pass me your FB details - I know you havent been on the thread long but would love to hear how it all goes with the baby/restaurant/life in general!

So got to Aldi this morning at 8.01am and somehow still only managed to get a ski jacket for dd but no trousers . How is that possible?? But we're off to another town this morning to do some clothes shopping so might look in an Aldi there.