June 08 - 42 days til Christmas, and Deb is coming home!!

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

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Where is everyone?

One more poo story if I may...

I've just come back from taking the boys to the theatre (school production) and realised that I have some poo on my clothes . So I think the door of that school is now firmly closed to us .

DH didn't manage to get the girls to bed. They are asleep on the sofa next to him, whilst he watches Alien v Predator . The 16 year old babysitter is better at getting them to bed .

Hi, well I'm back in the country!!! It's been a stressful time but we're here, the furniture is all here and all our 100 boxes . Removal men unpacked then asked us for an extra 1100 Euros, cheeky buggers. Don't know what we're going to do about that. House is fine but a little small compared to where we moved from, also one room has no heating which has scuppered plans rather!
Boys are great, Stefan has gone to a birthday party/sleepover at the neighbours , we only moved in on Wednesday Tristan is happy but we have to appeal to get him into the right school, appeal takes 2-3 weeks, don't know what to do with him in the meantime.Ethan is unsettled as you can expect, he's happy to see all his toys again, but keeps waking in the night which is unlike him.
Nigel and I are just knackered, and I am in denial about the prospect of moving again in 6 months!!
FFFFFFFreezing here but only a covering of snow, Nigel is not impressed.

So, hope you're all well, CONGRATULATIONS to Biscuits, am going to look on FB for photos.What else have I missed?

Glad you have got through the week ok Deb. I've been thinking about you and wondering whether the snow here was going to be a hindrance. Can you remind me where you are living for now? I was talking to James about your move, and couldn't think what the village's name is. PILs near Yarm have 4 inches in their back garden, maybe Nigel needs to drive east to get his snow fix

Not sure what the news on the thread here is apart from baby Biscuits. I have had my first week on my own looking after two and survived despite P having a vomiting bug and all of us having colds.

my sister had her baby yesterday afternoon - another girl! 48 hours and 20 minutes after Dorothy was born - and apparently Ruby was in the running for her name until recently - how funny would that have been!

Great news Biscuits. Your Mum must be thrilled if a bit divided between two emds of the motorway. Am I missing something though about the name Ruby? Are you saying that you were both considering Ruby at one stage?

Dorothy wore ruby slippers .

Oh

Deb glad you've arrived safely been thinking of you with the snow! (it was our moving anniversary yesterday so we are exactly one year apart we had a takeaway curry to celebrate which in my life is about the most exciting thing that can happen!)

Rolf really feel for you with T's tummy pain it's so awful isn't it? The Lactulose is fab but it is also worth getting her checked out at the GP, there are other things they might prescribe if she is very backed up to soften the stool that's already there.

Don't be too hard on your DH though I failed to get both children to their beds on Friday night and they both slept in my beds. Only had one of them last night - progress, right? The kids now call the spare room 'Dad's room' ...

Congrats Biscuit's sister! and can't you push for Ruby? still Lottie and Dotty is fantastic enough as it is, love it

Biscuits - congratulations, your girls both have lovely names!!!

H&S - Perhaps your nanny is worried that she will have to do more household chores. I was a nanny pre-kids and that would probably have crossed my mind.

Hi everyone! Lots of snow here over the weekend so sadly had to cancel my Christmas party . We did end up spending the afternoon building a snowman, sledding and eating mince pies in front of a movie though, so had fun anyway!

Abdn, how are things up your way?

Hello! I'm going to bring us back to poo - Iestyn still has diarrhoea and so do I now. (I was in a flat panic last night because for some reason I thought I was in labour i.e. losing the baby. But now I'm just in discomfort. Seeing the midwife today.)

It's all very white around here- the mountains are alpine, it's cold and whilst Anglesey doesn't tend to get heavy snow we have got more than usual. Beautiful cold day though.

I'm more concerned about my trip to St Andrews next Monday though - I'm giving a paper there.

I will add to the poo chat too! Thurs P had a D&V bug, Sat I felt dodgy but didn't materialise into more (but bear in mind that I had something similar at 38 wks pg, so maybe I have some resistance), and Sun DH got the bug in all it's glory. He's off work today so he must be feeling pretty awful. I have called in reinforcements in the shape of my parents who have just arrived. P having obsessed about playing with my Dad for the last 24 hours now wants to sit in the basement with me and make me watch "Due South".

We are also having terrible nights with P at the moment. W is doing what you would expect of a 3 week old, but P last night screamed for over an hour at bedtime, and then screamed again for over am hour at 1am. We have run out of ideas as to what to do, so are just leaving him . I have also hit a new low of slack parenting: I am now able to sleep whilst he screams in the night.

Today he is in a lovely mood though, and I actually feel like I had a good sleep last night and am feeling much better than yesterday.

Sorry, very self centred post.

Spider, funnily enough I got your sleep book out last night with the intention of getting it in the post to you - will try and get to post office tomorrow. Sorry you're having such a miserable time.

Sympathies heading your way too Dewin. How are you travelling to St A's?

Thanks Leo. I think we just need to tough it out with him and try and establish a new "normal". V impressed by all the snowy photos on FB.

It's snowing quite heavily again. If S's nursery is even open on Wed we'll do well to even get our car out of our estate. S had great fun yesterday playing in the snow though which was good.

Snow day today here - seriously, even people who managed to get to work were sent home after lunch. We've well over a foot in the garden, but it's compacted so if you added it all up as it fell, it'd be closer to two feet. I'm hoping to make it in tomorrow if the snow holds off overnight as we've snow tyres on the car but a lot depends on the roads and the other drivers (the snow tyres are brilliant because we can go and get the nanny at least!).

Dewin - I think there's a lot less snow down south in St. Andrews, my friend in Dundee has less than here. But it'll all depend on what happens in the 24 hours before you travel and it is supposed to get better.

DS1 is off school, probably for the week and we've already cancelled playgroup for wednesday just in case people don't get the message in time and try to travel. As much as I'm pretty laid back about driving in the snow (hit enough snowdrifts in my youth to know how slow to go) I don't like driving with the boys in the car!

Bah humbug - I hate snow!

Lots of snow here, I'm more nervous of driving in snow and ice after skidding a couple of times last year and terrifying myself. I think once I get to main roads it would be fine but getting out of our drive and road, which is fairly tight and on a hill is too scary. Anyhow DH has the van today. Can't imagine our flimsy double buggy would get through it either so looks like we are stuck inside, again. With the logistics of two boys naps, early sunset, snow, colds, potty training etc we hardly ever seem to get out these days.

Potty training has gone well here, he's not had an accident for about a week, of course now I've said that he will! We've had to fast forward to toilet use after I went upstairs at the weekend (when he was meant to be having a nap) to find him cleaning the poo out of his potty into the toilet himself.

Spider - hope the nights are improving.

Dewin - how did it go with the midwife? I remembered the other day that my other secret weapon for morning sickness, other than cereal bars, was porridge, it seemed to buy me slightly more time before I felt queasy again.
I also thought about you this weekend as DH was meant to be cycling up Snowden on Sunday but unsurprisingly it got cancelled.

Biscuits - congratulations to your sister.

Rolf - how is the constipation? Have you tried things like dried fruit? Whenever the boys seem to have any difficulty I give them a few handfuls of dried fruit and it seems to help. Prune juice is meant to be good as well but I don't like the taste.

Deb - glad the move went well.

Hello to everyone else!

Deb, great news you are back in the country!

Just back from weekend at Centerparcs, we had a really good time. Too much snow though - it looked great but was not too practical for the kids. We put t and e in creceh saturday afternoon and had a boozy lunch.

Potty training still going ok. esther pretty much has it now, but theo seems to hold on for ages to his wee and refuses to go on the potty sometimes even when we can see he is desperate. But then other time he is fine. He often doesn't wet his nappy at night and in evenings (when he has a nappy on in bed) he'll shout for the potty and then have a wee on it. This morning he had a wee on the toilet . But then he weed on the floor about half an hour ago. I am going to try rewards (Cars stickers) to see if that encourages him but I don't understand it really cos sometimes he is happy to go on it but then other times just shouts 'no! no!' Any ideas?

ktpie, sounds like the potty training is going well - can he undress/dress himself to go on the potty? I tried leaving the DTs with nappies off and a potty in their room at naptime = disaster! Poo everywhere, altho the poo may well have started in the potty for all I know.

neenz a sticker chart sounds like a good idea. Or chocolate for those wees/poos that go in the right place for those of us prepared to result to outright bribery.

Welcome home Debs

I have noticed today that while the top of my radiators are toasty, the bottom half is tepid at best. Combined with the crap boiler, I suspect that this is why our house is not veru cosy even though the heating is on constantly Waiting for the plumber to call me about it.

neenz - the poo thing is my worst nightmare! I have more or less called off the potty training and might start again at Xmas time when Luke is home for a couple of weeks.

I packed my hospital bag today in preparation for going into labour early. I need so much stuff for twins in an NHS hospital. All the feeding stuff alone means i'll need a suitcase (going to try BF but after last time not sure how much success i'll have). Booked in at The POrtland yesterday. I do hope I get to have it there - they even provide clothes for the babies!!

Neenz - he is wearing pull up nappies at nap time and at night, I hate spending money on disposables but there was a lot of faffing around going on about going to bed as he kept changing his mind about needing the potty, so this is easier. I need to buy some jogging bottoms for him as he only has one pair of elasticated trousers and is ending up wearing pyjama bottoms or shorts around the house.
J was fussy about using the potty at well, and would get really desperate and be jigging about, we used lots of praise and rewards, waving bye bye to the wee as we put it in the loo. Also I found he is best left unprompted, and he just goes off and uses it on his own. If I ask him he always says he doesn't want to go. But that may just be that he is stubborn.

I love the creche boozy lunch idea Neenz!

Sybil - have you tried bleeding the radiators? It's just typical that these things go wrong when it's cold. Just half a day without hot water last week was a nightmare for me.

Amber - have you thought about packing a labour bag, then having a second bag with everything else in the car? I had loads of stuff with me when I had S, and I remember being wheeled up to the labour ward snuggling S while poor DH was like a cart horse trying to lug all of our stuff with him.

Neenz - sounds like you had a good time on your hols. Boozy lunch sounds great!

ktpie - I won't drive in the snow either! Mind you, it's unlikely we'll even attempt to get the car out of the driveway for a few days. There are cars abandoned in the middle of the road round our way - I wouldn't fancy trying to navigate round them on top of the difficulties of driving in the snow! I think unlike other countries who get a lot of snow regularly, we're just not very well geared up for these spells at all.

Lots more snow here overnight and it's snowing again now. Sigh.

We have a couple of millimetres of snow here . It's so sweet when the children get all excited about it. It was FREEZING last night. We don't have radiators upstairs (need to get the rooms decorated first. We've had the pipes laid but can't yet afford the decorating or the (poncy so ££) rads! DH likes to do jobs very very thoroughly), so it's bloody freezing. Both girls are sleeping horribly, yet again, and DH is away, but last night I was actually quite pleased to have them in bed with me. When we woke up this morning the three of us were all snuggled up together like workhouse children. DD1's latest reason for not wanting to be on her own is that she's scared of Mr Bumble from Oliver Twist .

Can anyone recommend good sleds? I thought they'd be nice for Christmas. Fairly lightweight so we can drag them to the park.

Glad you had a good "holiday" Neenz .

Amber good advice from Leo about the labour bag. What's the criteria for delivering in the Portland? I know you've had enough but I'm excited on your behalf! The lady next door is expecting a baby any day now and I'm excited about that too.

Biscuits how is Dorothy?, and the rest of you, obv.

I made a table wreath, centrepiece yesterday and I'm very proud of myself. I'm not very good at crafty things so this is a big step for me.

T has totally lost interest in the whole potty training thing, unsurprisingly after her awful constipation. I don't mind at all about her being back in nappies but I hope it doesn't mean she's going to start holding onto her poos, poor mite. She was being a proper terrible two yesterday - winding up her siblings, hitting people, calling us names...