Dec 08 Ladies - LIghtning Strikes... and the usual gossip!

[Beans33]

Hope this works for everyone - I'm assuming Summer won't give birth in the next few hours!! x

Hebraic bo is genius. I quite liked the morning a eel too.

Avo and LadyT - will be happily picturing you two next Wednesday in the beautiful English country side making LadyT's gorgeous home and gossiping for us all. I'm glad things are looking a little cheerier anyway. And you have not hogged the thread at all - you have been so kind to us all for so long, I think everyone is glad of a chance to try and repay the kindness.

Another one keen (if that's the right idea) to hear about the coil. I've been meaning to make an appointment for about a year, but I can't quite bring myself to do it.

Rubes - DS used to get green poos whenever he'd had a bit of a rubbish feed. It happened every once in a while. Sorry you've been getting a hard time of it though.

Avo - that sounds very exciting about the house...

Kiwi - I am sorry about you both getting distressed over nursery - its hard. I guess the old mantra, "this too will pass" still holds true...

Just to clarify everyone - I didn't get pg on the coil, I got up the doofer when I was BF but having no periods. I have had my shiny (non Mirena) coil since March last year and jolly nice it is too. DH hasn't said that he can feel the string, though I can if I have a good rummage, and periods not too shocking, if a bit longer than I would like. It wasn't any worse than a smear to put in, either. An all round thumbs up from me (though given how little action there has been round these parts of late, I am not entirely sure that I need it.....)

Been for a run already. Am half dead.

Mornin,

Oh Sybs - "a good rummage" - priceless [crying laughter!]
A run already?? I need some super mum tips off you....
OH I meant to say a big thanks to all who commented so nicely on my post birth appearance, but I must assure you I am wearing pretty much the same in every photo not because it's the same day, but because I am still wearing maternity clothes (at 6 weeks great) and they are the only one's that fit as I'm too chunky for my normal clothes and a few other maternity clothes are now too big (thank heavens) which reminds me - does anyone want some maternity Jeans (Next 10Long) and a bump band and that light support vest I bought not long ago (although wore quite a bit)?

Thanks for the forking friendly food suggestions.... Yes he's had fish fingers quite often - in fact that's one of the very few of the forkable regulars he eats and cheese yes he eats that with fingers.

Lady, no treats planned for me (yet) trying not to bother mil as her sil and dd has just come back to the country as he has broken his hand and although the lot of them often offer to come over I'm a bit nervous of it resulting in more overnight guests (they have no fixed address here as constantly travel so it's easier if they stay at mil's as we need a break!!)
6 wk check is this afternoon but thinking of canceling and making it for Friday Arvy when dh is home to avoid taking ds, and well I was going to get shoulder x-rayed today but dh wanted to drive as he's so tired so will do that Wed afternoon as he's off also and can either come with me or stay at home with both.
Hmmmmm what else. Invis that would be fitting too as her feeding has been a shambles util the comfort formula so not surprised her poos are all over the shop. Hope things with your sis are better.

Gotta got, ds is bouncing dd in her bouncer - this is bound to end badly...

Ohh remind me later I need advice on what to do plans wise regarding a wedding overseas next year... I will give the options later

that was meant to mean my mil's son in law (so dh's sis and bil?

Lady - which day is your painting?????
Oh and I meant to ask. I have a few tiny tiny girly vests and sleepsuits hardly worn that dd has already outgrown and wondered if you would want them? Quite cute and in good nik - let me know. They are the tiny tiny size

Good god my children are on their final warning. This morning I fond an empty bottle of childrens multi vits not sure who ate them, the dog or children. DS2 has just washed the downstairs toilet floor with the toilet brush then DS1 was doing a poo forgot to push his willie down and has projectile peed all over the toilet door, walls & floor.

I beg of you!

Will be back later to catch up.

Ha Jam, that sounds like a classic morning. Rest assured that projectile pees are not the exclusive preserve of boys. DD1 often manages to projectile pee while sitting on the loo. In fact last week I suggested to DH that she might be a hermaphrodite as she makes more mess weeing that most men I know.

Bloody Tube strike. It took me two hours to get in for my meeting and now that I am here I have found out that its cancelled as nobody else bothered to struggle in. Sigh.

I'm still dreaming about the house I saw yesterday. But DH reckons the figures don't add up. Even if we got asking price for our house we would need the owners of the dream house to accept 10% below asking. However, according to Zoopla they are asking more than the house is worth and Zoopla doesn't even know what a total tip it is inside.

Having my house on the market is already driving me potty. It is VERY hard to keep a house show home tidy when you have two small kids. DD2 is like Effie's DS and refuses to be fork fed so every meal is carnage and I am terrified of a potential buyer slipping on a bit of half chewed sausage or noticing tomato soup hand prints on the walls.

LadyT, I am really looking forward to next Wednesday. I shall bring a picnic for us. Do you want me to paint the radiators if that is the toxic paint you can't touch?

Rubes - last week you said you swear by the carb free diet, so can I pick your brains about it? When you do it do you do full Atkins or just carb free? I have basically just ruled out the major carbs: bread, rice, pasta, grains, oats and potatoes. But otherwise I eat most things. To stop a repeat of the fainting I am eating rather too much egg and cheese which can't be helping the weight loss. The weight loss has plateaued which is rather frustrating when I am trying so hard. Partly I wonder if the plateauing is because I am (blush) rather bunged up. Any tips on how you make this diet work for you would be much appreciated.

Sybs - does the Mirena coil make you feel hormonal like the Pill. I can't cope with synthetic hormones so have steered clear of Mirena but some of my friends swear that it has none of the hormonal side effects of the pill.

For crying out loud, why do we have no pens in this house!!!

Avocadoes Thanks for the houmous recipe. I?ll give it a whirl at the weekend. That is so annoying about the cancelled meeting. They could have let you know!

LadyT Good on you for getting the chatty emails out, a very positive step forward. And lovely that you've had some nice replies already.

The ADs are beginning to work I think. The blurb says it takes between 2 and 3 weeks. The side-effects were pretty crappy to start with but I'm over those now. I need to see my GP next week to review how I'm getting on.

I'm another one considering a coil. DH and I have always relied on withdrawal and we haven't had any problems so far. But what with things being so rocky between us at the moment I feel I need to go for something more reliable. I'm not keen on anything with hormones as I did try the pill once but it just made me cry all the time for no reason. Avocadoes, I'm interested to hear that some of your friends have said that they have not experienced any hormonal side effects with the mirena. I was considering having a copper coil and not telling DH so he would continue with withdrawal for a double layer of contraception. Or would that be too devious?

Veggie Can't believe the builder wouldn't help out with a little bit of plastering, cheeky man.

Summer Sorry to hear you aren't getting any sleep and that Babysummer has a cold. I hope she gets better soon so you can both get some rest. I'm afraid that a bit of screaming from the second child was normal in our house. It improved a lot once DS learnt to bounce himself in his baby bouncer. Can't believe your feeling frisky already!!!

Kiwi Sorry to hear that your DD is crying when you drop her off at nursery. It's probably harder on you than her. Hope it improves soon.

Rubena My DCs have both used these plates which make it easy for them to scoop food onto their spoons themselves. The spoons are also easy for them to hold and use.

Jam Oh dear, big cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit, if not large piece of cake required ,and start again.

Well today is DD's first day at school. DH and I took her together this morning and she skipped off happily, so all OK. It is very quiet here without her! I have taken some photos but it will take me a while to upload them on FB as I had to borrow MIL's camera due to boring technical difficulties with ours at the mo'.

Ooh another school starter! Look forward to the pics.

Jam: any chance of going back to bed and starting again?

Avo: I wd be fuming about the meeting. I think you need to go out for a long lunch. Luckily I'm not affected by the rube strike, only the trains were delayed by nearly an hour last night and then this morning I had to dodge through the crowds walking to work without having done any basic research on the route . not feeling well-disposed towards my fellow man.

Tube strike! Though I wd be more sympathetic to Rubes going on strike...

that was funny Jam (but not for you I'd imagine!)

Nolda, thanks. I might look into getting that. Glad the probs with dh are on the mend with relate plans etc. Slightly devious about the coil thing and not telling but youo could always say you thought he'd just not be interested if he found out? Why wouldn't he want you to have one anyway? I think I missed a page on your story

Avo, of course you can pick my brains but keep in mind I'm far from Dr Atkins daughter or anything - just do what works for me.... I've done all variations in the past. (right now none but starting from after my 6 week check I may)
If you do the full on version you have to be strict as it involves eating a lot of fatty foods, so if you fall off it, it will backfire 10 fold but I must say I only did the full version once years ago and I didn't really do it as they say... I went anti carb completely but I also only eat the full protein stuff which is not fried or really really fatty iyswim? In other words I ate loads of meat, and all that but still not too much cheese and bacon etc. and it really did work.I always eat loads of eggs, salmon, tuna chicken, green beans etc anyway.

Mostly these days what I do though, just if I've put on a few kg or only have a few to drop is that I don't eat carbs at all after noon and sometimes not after Breakfast (except the odd glass of cheerfulness) but I usually have carbs at breakfast still.
If I have them at noon as well, I stay away from all the starchy stuff like white bread and rice etc and only eat the wholegrain ones ("good carbs") and then I have a no carb dinner of either fish or chicken (salads a lot in Summer) and or just what I'd usually cook ie stirfrys etc but I don't have the rice. I'll even have curly kale under by bolognaise sauce instead of pasta but that's about it really - I just basically don't eat carbs after Breakfast, or sometimes just not after lunch and for the times I do have them, I only eat the "good" wholegrainy type carbs, and load up on heaps of dark green veggies etc. and usually I can knock off those few kg's if I'm true to that.

For all the BF's out there... Last time when I was BF ds my body hung on to the last few kg's until I stopped BF then I literally shed it all really fast so I'm wondering if it was a coincidence or I will see the same this time. I just googled and apparently it's quite common for that to happen as your body clings onto fat stores as if you are pregnant but whilst you are bf in some cases.... if anyone is interested #

Oh and Spot I think you asked ages ago about the colic drops I use? They are called "Infants Friend" and they really do work best for dd. I will get you some sent over.

Effie!!!

Oh Nolda another wee one goes to school. I think we need to swap this to a pre- school thread not postnatal with all these big bro & sis going to school. Speaking of which Trace I can't believe it 1.5 years since L started!

DS2 just slept for just under 3 hours! I managed to waste a large amount of that time looking for a pen to fill out D1's British passport renewal. I found one but can't complete it because I need to find our citizen ship papers & I can't remember what my immigration status was at the time of his birth! Worst of all I can't remember our the date of our wedding. DH thinks it's the 20th April & I think it's the 21st! How bad is that. All a bit of a pain really but I need to get it off via courier tomorrow to Paris where all the European residents British passports are done(obviously ) as it runs out on the 16th! I think his Australian one runs out shortly after. Why can't passports be like any other membership, unless otherwise advised they just keep going! I'm happy for the money to come out via direct debit.

Avo sorry about the meeting, could you go childfree shopping instead central London shops will be quiet.

Everyone went a bit stupid about the whole Atkins diet like it was some strange bad for your health diet but it's one of the few diets that helps break bad habits like sugar addiction. If you completely cut out all carbs, simple & complex for at least 2 weeks you will break your bodies dependence on sugar and come out of it with better anti sugar will power.

On the BF thing a friend & I were discussing this the other day. We think that as well as your body hanging onto a little fat stores were it wants it, ie bum & tum, hunger & will power are a lot different when BFing. When I'm hungry normally I'm like 'ok I'm hungry I'd better eat soon' but when I'm BFing I'm like 'I MUST EAT A LARGE CAKE NOW!!!! Ok that's extreme but you get my meaning, it's a step down from pregnancy hunger but still an urgent feeling.

Gosh I've never had that hunger thing when BF Vaggie - perhaps that's why I am not the best at it
I feel your pain over passport red tape (literally) I just looked up last night all the stuff to do dd's passports {Aus and Brit) and felt sick at the thought of getting all that stuff done again - especially the Aussie - so much drama with photo's being right and all that. I only get time to trawl through it at night when ds is asleep but then I'm too tired and want to catch up with dh. I guess as soon as we have travel plans I'll be pushed to do it then....

YUK just started doing Citizenship stuff for dd no Vagola has inspired me since ds and dd are asleep -- and it's so much jumping through hoops.....

Jam - did your day improve?

that was meant to be "now" vagola has inspired me.... However now I'm at 4 posts in a row so clearly not getting much of it done..... the teething is back. Made ds some tuna pasta bake this morning and he attempted about 6 mouthfuls post Bonjela then refused and had 2 yogurts before throwing his bib off and wanting out of the highchair

We have it here too Pubs, or at least it's continuing. DS2 is up & down with feeding but the main problem is sleep overnight and frequent pooey nappies. And I mean frequent, he would currently give some 6 month olds a run for their money!

Pubes the Brits have decided to follow suit on the biometric photos, & have added a specific background colour in too! There is a website called passpics (or something closely resembling that), if you send (electronically on their website ) them a photo of DD which is full face and mouth closed if possible they will send you the passport size photos to the specification of both Australian & British within 2 days.

It is all a faff though, we have DS2's citizenship for Oz but haven't gotten around to the passport. I have to say now we are having to do both at once with Ds1 at once it is worth staggering the applications.

Oh & maybe I'm wrong about thr hunger in BF thing Pubes and I just happened to be talking to a friend who is just as crap as me at refraining from cakes, chips, bikkies, carbs, carbs & more CARBS!

no Vagarama, I've heard that quite a bit too - just never felt it myself...

Oh roll on dh home time...

I've changed my 6 wk appt and now it's sunny again

oh and clearly I haven't started my low carbs thing again. I just had a massive CARBonara for lunch and then some of ds's tuna pasta bake - great.

Another teething/runny bum/bad tempered/non-eating DS here too...just as I was thinking he hadn't been too bad of late.

Nolda hope DD's first day at school went well, look forward to seeing the pics.

avo shame about your meeting...

DD still loving school, although is slightly upset she didn't get a sticker. I asked her why not she said "because my bum wriggles too much and won't sit still" . Although on a plus point she informs me she has yet to sit on 'the special mat' which is where the children who don't stop talking have to sit. Give it time she'll be there if she takes after her mother

Vaggie - I just noticed your post - must have crossed! Thanks so much I'm going to check out that website now - that would be such a great help if I didn't have to go and faff around with dd at bloody snappy snaps while some 16 year old attempts top take her photo!

Thanks Vagolarama!! Checked it out - bloody brilliant!