Durham / North East Meet Ups - 2012

[juneybean]

Hello hello! Here I am with good intentions to behave and show up to some meet ups since I utterly failed in 2011!

So we need ideas for daytime meets and of course we must not forget our night time meets

[b]Daytime Ideas[/b]
Beamish
Saltwell Park, Gateshead
The Giants Den, Team Valley
Botanic Gardens
Beach (in the summer of course, unless we want airborne children!)

Okay so ideas for January daytime, I think cake is definitely in order so I propose the one that's next to Ebony, the huge place, down some steps, uhh... Slug & Lettuce is it? CAKE!

January night time? Is this something we want to plan? I know we're always poor after Christmas!

[LeggyBlondeNE]

Sorry not to make it yesterday. I was morosely slogging through 5 days of missed emails at work after T was sick last week. She would be ill the week that her father was invigilating exams and so couldn't share the childcare with me...

SIL had to spend Monday morning with her eldest settling into nursery in the end, it was touch and go until Monday itself whether she'd make it for cake or not.

If there's another cake meet soon I'll nudge her again. I'm sure the Botanic Gardens look lovely in the frost you know... ;-)

[VikingLady]

Nice to meet you all on Monday, and your DCs are all lovely!

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

mine aren't lovely. they have given me the lurgy.

[Indith]

You think our dcs are lovely?

You poor deluded woman .

Lovely to meet you too. You'll have to come along to a night out some time (small babies are very welcome). They involve cocktails and food. Often curry. Balti special garlic garlic chicken garlic with extra garlic anyone?

I could murder a good curry. May have to con dh into having take away some point soon.

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

no curry before Feb 9th Indith! not after the trouble you had getting the interview date changed...

[Indith]

Not even a nice mild almondy or coconuty one?

[VikingLady]

So my lurgy is from your kids, spiffy? I may have to change my mind. Am sitting at home, trying to cram 10 hours of work into an 8 hour working day, with the coughing and sneezing triggering MASSIVE braxton hicks...

Am eating madras for first lunch to try and kill it.

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

not us if it is coughing and sneezing- temperatures and very swollen glands here but not actual coughs or cold. Sobbing with pain while trying to swallow as throat swollen up but no runny nose. Thank God it is Thursday and they are feeling better as they are all out of the house so I can mn from bed while feeling sorry for myself rest and recuperate.

Indith- go on then have a curry- I never bought into the curry brings on labour thing. Probably because I have craved curry every time. I would happily have had it for breakfast, lunch and tea but DH complained about it getting a bit boring. So we just had it for lunch and tea

I am going to have a fight with the hospital. There is a new rule that you have to be 15kg to have surgery. DD is 14.6kg (I have no idea what that actually means in real money). They are going to have to see if the surgeon will agree to do the operation. Can I scream? Please? They did M when he weighed next to nothing but now the rules have changed. The pre-op clinic said we might get through as she does have apnoea but I could do without being on tenterhooks til they confirm. aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh

[Indith]

Oh no Spiggy!

Surely that is just bollocks though, if the surgery is necessary why does weight matter? I get that surgery becomes safer the heavier/older they get but still....(if she fails can' I sneak dd in her place? She will have no problem with the weight thing, weighs almost as much as her brother).

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

Spiggy - is that because of the GA? DS had eye surgery under GA and he still isn't over 15kg. Clearly I need to make him eat more cake!

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

Kara- It might be because of the GA but it might also be because of the risk of bleeding with a tonsil op? Dunno. If they'd had that rule for DS1 then I'd probably still be waiting- he didn't eat because his throat was so sore so it would have taken forever to put on the weight. They operated on him twice when he was under 15kg as they did tonsils and adenoids separately.

Indith- I wouldn't have thought H would have had a problem with the weight as she is, erm, sturdy Do you still think tonsils might be the reason for D's sleep then? I should have shown you H's on Monday as I know they cause problems. I know a friend from work who lives Durham way had trouble getting her DS's out and he was 16! When they finally referred her he was sent to Sunderland and they said that it was one of the most severe cases they had seen

I might have a second option if they point blank refuse to operate til she hits 15kg. We don't have private insurance but we are in a mutual healthcare scheme. It is totally discretionary and you have to have gone through the NHS first to be diagnosed but if you have problems (like a very long wait) then can pay for you to be seen privately. They might be a bit more flexible with the weight issue. Failing that I'm going to cry at someone until they give in.

[Indith]

I just don't know. I know dd's are big and when she is at all under the weather (slightest sniffle) she gets the glands in her neck up and you can hardly see down her throat due to huge, blobby, red masses. when she is like that she gags on her food unless it is something like pasta that just slips down. It last for weeks. She is well at the moment and sleeping fairly well but she still snores. On the other hand, the consultant couldn't see any signs of adenoidal problems and I assume he knows better than me!

But then maybe she just has vivid dreams etc. More and more now she is older when she thrashes she cries out "no! no! stop it!" or something rather than just screaming.

I suppose we'll just have to do the sleep study. That will show for sure if there any fluctuations in oxygen levels.

Hope H can still have hers done, fingers crossed for youi.

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

How did he assess adenoid problems? The only way my lot have been checked for that is by asking if they have runny noses (permanently) or snore. Oh, the new one asked H to shut her mouth and held a mirror under her nose to see if she could breathe through her nose. They had their ears tested to see if they were blocked as well. With M we were told that they would only know if they were problematic once he was in surgery and they had a good poke about up there. They thought his tonsils were ok until they saw him unconscious under the GA and realised they blocked his throat. They didn't poke anything up the nose to see what they were like before the op. It does sound like the poor thing has evil tonsils (I am currently on a Calpol and Angel delight based diet as my glands are so swollen I can't swallow so I am def sympathetic!).

Was he ENT or general paeds? If you not happy then you can ask for another opinion. Hopefully the sleep study will help narrow things down as well- hope it happens when she's bad so they get an accurate picture. M had very vivid dreams . We thought it was because his sleep was disturbed not that they were disturbing his sleep IYSWIM. I know when I have a bad night with T I have some really bizarre dreams.

Speaking of T- I am going to have to put the side up higher on his cot. It is set up as a side car cot next to my bed with the side raised about 4 inches. I found last night that he had climbed over the bar and made himself comfy in my bed Luckily the room is so chock full of furniture while we do the kids bedrooms that there was nowhere for him to have fallen off the bed but it did still make my heart jump in my mouth when I saw him.

(PS I know I bang on about tonsils a lot so do ignore me if you get fed up of it. It just made such a difference to M when they did it and that was after them telling me that there was absolutely no problem with them, bit big but no infection, not connected with sleep, blah, blah, blah. Up until the surgeon called me down to theatre after his adenoids were taken out and said "I'll tell you now- that child has never slept. his tonsil block his throat when he lays down")

[Indith]

General paeds. Just looked in her mouth.

I shall wait and see what the sleep test results in, I'm guessing it will flag up if there is a problem since it will show oxygen levels and not rely on someone spotting something.

At the moment she has a slightly snotty nose and can hardly breath because she can't breathe through her nose and one tonsil is actually taking up about 3/4 of her throat with the other one taking up most of the rest (seriously, you get her to say "ah" and you can see it overlapping the dangly bit). This is of course perfectly normal tonsil behaviour, they are afterall only "moderately" enlarged .

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

Poor D Let's hope the tests come back with something concrete that can lead to appropriate treatment.
Indith sorry haven't got back to you about coming over with the clothes.
BTW would you make use of 1 tog 0-6mth grobags? I have 3 of them if you would like to borrow them? I wouldn't have thought they would be warm enough for this time of year but thought I would offer anyway.
I am just trying to sort out some appts this week (I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon, a telephone interview for a virtual call centre working from home job).

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

Good luck Kara- will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Indith- I hope the sleep appointment comes through quickly for D

Good news here- 5 nights in a row with T sleeping from 6:30 to 12:30/1ish. It was nearly 2 last night before he stirred and that was mainly because DD woke up. He then feeds every 90mins until 6. I then handover to DH and get 6-8 "off duty" I'm having more sleep than I have had for months still feel knackered though

[juneybean]

Dear universe,

Please send one year where something doesn't go wrong.

Kindest regards,

Juney.


I lost my nanna last week :( I'm alright just a bit of a shock really, and wish I could just have a nice year where my life goes swimmingly for once :)

[Indith]

:( Juney, very sorry to hear that.

Spiggy hope the sleep continues.

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

Juney, I am so sorry about your Nanna :( Was it very sudden? Though it doesn't make any difference, does it :(

[juneybean]

It was a bit sudden, she'd had a fire in her house a few weeks ago and had to be hospitalised for smoke inhalation but they let her out and said she was fine and she was found Monday morning last week by the warden (she lived in a bungalow part of a elderly community thing?)

The post mortem was only today so hopefully I'll find out more :(

[Indith]

Oh Juney, sending you lots of hugs.

[juneybean]

Thank you! -squishes-

Must have cake after the funeral methinks -nods-

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

Absolutely. You can talk to us about your Nanna then, if you feel like doing so!

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

Oh Juney, I am sorry to hear about your Nanna.

[juneybean]

Thanks Spiggy -huggles-

Still not sure what's going on yet :S

Hope you're all well though.