September 09 - Hello world, we're here to destroy you!

[ChutesTooNarrow]

So the last thread could be used as proof that September 09 (and an August!) parents were kept far too busy by their babies to talk about them very often! Shall we see if we can get this one done before second birthdays (eek, 2 is so big) are upon us?

Mads had a crap night too, so I am clumsy and tired today. So clumsy I just fell off the piece of furniture I was standing on to put the tumble drier pipe out of the window, landing on top of a plastic golf club with my wrist bent. Ouchy. It bloody hurts :(

So packing and tidying are being hampered today both by my 'injury' and the toddler that wraps himself around my leg wailing

grrrrrrr

Ouch Baz!

The house we are currently renting has a special pipe in the wall for the tumble dryer. Just stick the tube in it and no more wangling it out the window. I was amazed when I discovered it, was all I could focus on.

Hey everyone! Hope you are all out enjoying the snow!! Just a sprinkling here, so not too disruptive, although would love it to snow tonight so that I can keep DD home from nursery tomorrow and play out in the snow instead!! We went to the local Christmas street festival last night and it was -5 degrees!! Brrrrrrr!!

Also took DD to see Cinderella that was put on by a local ballet company. She loved it and all of the sparkly costumes. The trouble was that being 3, she couldn't keep her voice down and just as it all went quiet at the end of the first half she said in a loud clear voice, 'How do they go to the toilet?' It was nice for just the 2 of us to go out together as since J came along I don't think we've done that.

Decorating still not finished so we've been sleeping downstairs all week . DH is now having to fix the breaks on his car, so don't think it will be finished any time this weekend!

Oh I'm so tired... Got back from London this afternoon and am done in! So nice to have a break though, and then to come home to snotty kisses from my three two little urchins!

Going to get an earlt night, praying Mads sleeps well and will be back with a sensible head on

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend?

we're still stuck oop north - bloody easyjet were atrociously bad yesterday, not telling us what was going on - we were waiting at the gate for an hour before another passenger told us the flight was cancelled - it took easyjet another 45 minutes to make an announcement, then they lost the luggage we'd checked in. grrr. DH and Oli are sleeping at the moment, I'm trying to get some work done, before another attempt at the airport. not a great weekend here. will catch up soon.

I'm popping in with a sheepish hello after meeting Barry at the weekend and realising that I need to say hello . I've namechanged for Christmas but I'm usually bratnav.

Going to read the thread to cath up with everyone.

bratnav! I'm still tired....Completely worth it though, I had a great time :)

Barry, i fear I got yours and your cousins locations confused and suggested a doula contact in London

Hi all, sorry just a pop in again.

Zoe has another chest infection and I now think this is how it is going to be for the rest of the winter it's only about 6 weeks since the last one (mid Oct)I've got an inhaler too but he hates it and using it is a nightmare.
Other than this things are fine here I'mogoing to look at my last school for DD1 tomorrow and then we will make our choices.

Ladyem. Dh has been having his counselling and it seems to be helping. We had a particulrly good weekend. There was a programme about CBT on radio 4 today. You should be able to catch it on the listen again,

Kveta - hope you managed to get home ok! Did Oli enjoy the flight?

Berry and Rudolf - (Hi Rudolf!! ) was it the MN Christmas meet-up than? If so how was it? I bet it is strange to put faces to all these names that we see!! Am very that you got a weekend away, Berry!!

It was all very....drunk :o

I nearly hyperventilated before walking in, was absolutely terrified, but everyone was lovely. I may have made a bit of a tit of myself but was away with the fairies on gin

I think I'll have to look into what sort of set up there is for doulas down here, nobody I know has used one.

kveta, hope you've made it back now, it's so stressful when travel plans go awry when you have a tiny person with you.

I want to get drunk it's been so long.

Sorry to hear Zoe is ill Peachygirl, sending get well vibes your way.

We had a follow up hospital appointment today with the allergy consultant. Finally got the results of the blood test taken six months ago. Gabe is likely to be prone to allergies but he is not severe on the scale. He is intolerant to milk and egg, and eating these may cause him discomfort. He has always refused to drink cow's milk and I am so glad I never pushed him to drink it. Gabe is not intolerant to soy so the consultant suggested we offer him soy milk instead. I got a massive pat on the back for still breastfeeding, which was nice. It was recommended I carry on for as long as possible really. Although what I eat could affect him, luckily I don't really eat/drink much dairy so I don't need to cut back on those. We really appear to be on top of the eczema though, it is just flaring for teething which is apparently quite normal. I do wonder if discomfort from these intolerances is one reason he is such a rotten sleeper, so its just a case of cutting back on them and seeing what happens really.

Who has snow then? No snow here! We rarely get snow on the South Coast, it would be ace though.

You are very brave for going on your own!! I'm not surprised you needed a drink or two!

Peachy - sorry to hear that Zoe is poorly. I hope that she feels better soon.

Chutes - Good to hear you got Gabe's results back. Hopefully with cutting those things out he will start to feel more comfortable. Fingers crossed for more sleep!!

Can I just have a proud Mum moment? DD still wears a pull up over night and last night was the first time she has taken herself to the toilet in the night!! At first I thought she must have been ill as she never gets up in the night, but when I went up ( we are still sleeping downstairs!) she was on the loo with her little torch!! AND her pull up was dry in the morning, so I am very pleased with her!

Little bit of snow here and the drive to nursery was a bit slippery through the lanes, but hopefully DD will have lots of fun playing out in the snow while I can stay cosy and warm!!

hi all

we're back down south now in the relative warmth, after a very long day at the airport yesterday! Still, Oli got an extra few hours of dog tormenting, so I'm sure he felt it was worth it. We gave him calpol 1/2 an hour before take off both times, and he slept for the entire flight. Our house was only 8 degrees when we got back, so we spent the evening snuggled up under a duvet with hot water bottles and the heating on full blast!

visiting my parents was, um, fun. Apart from the whole "you and your DH have no clue what to do with Oli/lack confidence as parents/are too gentle with him" lectures from my parents, it was ok. My wee brother is amazing with Oli, so they played together (he's 21 btw, not a toddler :o), and the 3 dogs took it in turns to suffer the infant. Oli was very taken with the dogs, and just kept pointing at them going 'do! do!' and looking at us as if to say 'there's a dog over there! a dog! can't you see it?'. He was less convinced by the chickens. My mum and brother babysat for us on friday so DH and I got to go to the cinema (harry potter, bloody excellent film, or maybe it was just the 3 hours with nothing else to worry about, and a bucket of popcorn to pick through?!) and do some shopping. It was nice not to have to cook for a few days too. My work meetings were great, got to catch up with some old friends from my undergrad days, as well as some productive meetings.

fungal thing is ringworm, and I'm not sure now what to do about it, as all the recommended treatments are not compatible with breast feeding.

Just went to lunch with 2 friends with teeny babies (7 and 4 weeks old), so I got to have a cuddle, and am now so broody it hurts. stupid hormones :o gorgeous babies though.

how was the MN xmas meet up baz? I'm going to try and work up the courage to go next year! this gives me 12 months to prepare/gird my loins/whatever!!

peachy, hope zoe is better soon, and you get some rest too.

ladyem, well done your DD! have fun in the snow!

hope gabe is ok chutes, and you get some sleep soon. I'm not bothering with alcohol at the moment; getting more than 4 hours sleep in a row has the same effect as a glass of wine! maybe a night's sleep will give you that lovely drunken feeling too?

sorry for that epic!

Kveta, you can put tea tree oil on ringworm thats an anti fungal.

Thanks for the good wishes, zoe seemes better now the antibiotics have kicked in.
Chutes I'm glad you got some sense out of the doctor. If some of the allergies are 'intolerances' could it be that Gabe might grow out of them, lactose intolerance I know can be like this.
Ladyem , indeed well done to your DD Mine is still in night pull ups and I would like to try again to get her out. Last time it was very hit and miss so I gave up and have relaxed about it.

Kveta - glad you are home safe and warm!! that you and your DH got to go out for the evening!! I bet it as lovely to relax for the evening and be child-free!

Peachy - I have tried getting DD to go pull-up-free overnight just once before and she woke up wet through and very upset that she had wee'd in the bed. After that I decided to leave it for a while. I also read that it is hormonal and you can't actually night train as they have to secrete 2 hormones, one to stop them making so much urine in the evening and one that helps them wake up when they feel their bladder is full. So after that I stopped worrying! Her nappy is usually sodden in the morning, so I thought it would be a long way off yet! Let's see what happens tonight! I don't want to get into the whole lifting thing, I'm not sure she would thank me for dragging her out of a warm bed to go for a wee!! At least I know she can do it now. She's stopping at my Dad's on Friday night, though so I'm not going to go pull-up-free until I know she is going to stay dry.

Also, do you put the tea tree on neat or do you dilute with other oil? I have been using canesten on DD, but it doesn't seem to be working any more.

Sorry for such a quick post BUT LadyEm, if you havent taken the tabs yet please dont.. If you can just wait until you see a counsellor as once on the drugs it can (in some cases) be hard to come off them..

As you know from watching dh on SM the other week, he suffers from anxiety and has never touched the drugs as was warned that it can be addictive (obv depends on person and type of drug). He saw a counsellor, psychologist and then out of his own pocket went to see a hypnotherapist. Within 2 sessions they had found the root of the anxiety and then spent the next few sessions working on ways to control it. He still does get the odd episode but he is much better at putting a lid on it before it gets too bad.

Anyway, not sure if that makes sense... If you do want to chat then dh would be more than happy to share his experience of his treatment with you xx

Hi April. Thanks for the message. I haven't taken the tablets yet as I haven't had chance to go to the pharmacist and I keep forgetting!! (Scatter brain!) Also I am going to go back to see the GP as I don't think she fully understood what I was trying to say to her so I might even have the wrong medication. Plus the fact that she prescribed them within 2 minutes of me sitting down makes me a little uneasy. I've been on them before, but a slightly different one and coming off them was not pleasant, so I want to make sure that if I do go on them, they are the right ones IYSIM!! I have been to a hypnotherapist a few years a go and he really helped me, I was anxiety free 99,9% of the time until I had J. I am sure it is hormone related, may be some sort of post natal anxiety, as I am having other issues in the hormonal department so I want that investigating, too.

It is hard and I am so used to feeling this way now that I keep forgetting that I am supposed to be on some sort of therapy now, be it tablets or the counsellor (who I am waiting to get back to me with an appointment). It would be good to hear about your DHs experience with the counsellor if he doesn't mind, as I'm not sure what to expect and I know I'll just sit in tears, which is highly embarrassing! Wish there was just a switch in my head that I could turn the anxiety off with! Logically, I know it is silly, but I just can't stop it!

It's just all a bit ironic that I am training to become a clinical psychologist and I can't sort my own head out!!

Thanks again! Hope you and bump are well!

ladyem don't worry about sorting your head out when you are training to sort other peoples!

I despair of my daughters behaviour (and quite frankly bad manners - no please and thank yous etc) and yet I should be able to sort these things out as I do with other peoples children!

I think you can put the tea tree on on neat or mix it with something like aqueous. I would try it mixed with something first then try neat if northing happens.

Dh has also had success with Chinese herbal medicine and was recommened this by a friend who used it for PND.

Interesting about the bed wetting Dd1 is also sodden most mornings but did amange some nightwhe we lifeted her. However I dio not have tumble drier and the thought of the washing depresses me at the moment. I stuggle to keep on top of the normal laundry.

Thanks Peachy! I'm hoping it will make me a considerate and understanding psychologist! Re: the bed wetting, I double-made the bed, so a waterproof sheet, normal sheet, another waterproof sheet and another normal sheet, then if she wet I could just pull off the first normal and waterproof sheet and not have to worry about making the whole bed again!! Only works once though as after that I had no more sheets!! But I know what you mean about the extra washing! Especially in this weather. Will give the teatree oil a try. The canesten isn't budging it!

Hey all!

We also tried pull-up free this week with ds (maybe something in the air) as he is desperate to not wear them but he wet the bed twice a night twice in a row, I don't think he is ready so we are sticking will pull up for now. He is disappointed but I know he isn't physically ready yet! A contrast to day PT as he was physically ready much earlier than emotionally, but hey. I also can't face the added laundry.

Ladyem, someone close to me is a clinical psychologist and her PHD was looking into the mental health of those treating people with MH issues, most people have/had a neurosis or two at some point! I'm sure personal experience makes a very good and compassionate psychologist anyhow. I hope the counsellor gets back to you soon.

I'm sorry so many of the babies (am I the only one who still calls dd a baby, dp insists she is a toddler now!) are poorly at the moment. We all have colds but nothing more sinister thank goodness.

Kveta, your trip sounds like a typical family visit, lovely but hard work! Glad your back safe and sound now.

All our snow has melted to mush and refrozen so the pavements are like ice, pretty treacherous walk to nursery today.

DD didn't get up for the loo in the night last night, and her pull-up was a bit wet, so we're not there yet, but it is a step in the right direction!! The thing is, she does like her nappy and that is going to be the biggest hurdle, I think!

I bet your friend's PHD was really interesting! I can't wait until I am at that stage. At the moment, I am struggling to remember why I thought it was a good idea to be studying with 2 pre-schoolers to look after! Will be all worth it in the end, though, so I have to keep that end goal in sight. In fact, if you see me on here at the weekend tell me off as I have a deadline of the 10th Dec, so I need to get my head down!

Grrr, the DCs are destroying the Christmas tree! DD is putting 2 santa decorations on a toy truck and whizzing them round the living room! J just likes to take the baubles off and kick them across the room. Why did I think it was a good idea to put the tree up this early?!!

Oooh, just noticed these

Hello everyone :)

Yet another green tide of snot in the house as both boys have an absolute beast of a cold. This has now spread to DP and my parents (no doubt mine is waiting until Christmas day ) Everyone is feeling very sorry for themselves.

Madok has awoken with a bloodcurdling shriek at 5.30am for the past couple of days. No idea why, but it sends me stumbling bleary eyed into their bedroom expecting to see some sort of horror.

We haven't had any snow since Monday, but everywhere is so icy it's been difficult to get out and about. I now have cabin fever

So is everyone all prepared for Christmas?!