June 2009 - terrible twos here we come

[bigcar]

Here we are ladies

on the other hand I might manage after all

yeah it is the weekend . We are off to a pub for lunch,meeting friends. Got something to wear that makes me feel good despite my current size.
DH has taken A swimming and Z attached to me. Still a screaming banshee in the day and vomiting loads. Feeding all over the place, some days constantly feeding and other days getting 2-3hrs between feeds.
Have managed a trip into town with both of them, went to a museum, A was on top form

gauchita how you feeling? any improvements on the MS? I liked tonic water for MS.
We have a P+T buggy, love it. Tis a little heavy at times, but so easy. Friend has mountain buggy side by side- loves it too. Is a narrow double and fits through most doorways.
june what a bugger the nursery staff can't babysit. We are not allowed to poach them to be nannies but babysitting allowed. You must get a night out with DH, v v important.We don't really do valentine's but our wedding anneversary is in feb. I will be in France for work , with my best mate not DH.
bigcar I hope dd3's assessment goes well this week and the school has some great ideas and how to best provide for her.
Does E have many words? A hasn't had any new ones for months, although a few new sounds. Will give him a little longer cause his comprehension is going well.
Bless DD3 for beng a patient, some of the candidates sound a bit .
for the little boy passing away, such a crappy part of the sn community. Winter always a worse time for the little ones isn't it. I desperately hope some of the new medicines/ g ene therapies being developed for the life limiting diseases in kidlets work.

anyway, going to try and get screaming banshee for a sleep and can hear DHs car in the driveway. Hope you have a great weekend
allsheep, strawb, venetian hope you ok

Hi all!!

Snow, sorry to hear feeds and reflux are still all over the place at the moment. Is Z taking anything for the reflux? Hope it passes soon, poor her and poor you. I remember when M had colic during the first weeks and it was a hard time for all. MS still there, sparkling water with a wedge of lime or lemon is what i can drink these days

Bigcar, ooh everything crossed here for dd3 this week! We'll be thinking of her. Oh no, more paperwork for you coming up! Hope it's not as bad as the last one and you can get it done quickly. Oh poor E banging his head against the playhouse M's finger is better, it took a good few days for her to stop screaming every time we had to change her bandage. Only yesterday did she stay still it's hard to explain to them at this age that those things won't hurt. I guess she just remembered the first pain and had that in mind whenever we visited the finger issue

June, hope you manage to convince DH to do something (out) for Valentine's oh, i agree, our DC aren't babies anymore. I correct myself often these days whenever I say it to people as I can see their faces when they see M M is also very keen on walking but still likes to take naps or drink her milk on her buggy. I'm still unsure about what to do so I guess I'll wait, look at the sales as Bigcar suggested and then see. I guess that's a difference between the me when pg with M, I'm not in such a rush to get everything NOW That happened a lot last time

M came down with some cough and a bit of a sore throat yesterday. No work for me and no nursery for her, we stayed at home as she had temperature on and off all day. She's better today, at least the fever is gone now.

She had such a blocked nose last night she didn't use her dummy to go to sleep for the first time ever. She then didn't use it at all today and I had the great idea of not offering it tonight. Cue it taking me 2.20hs to get her to fall asleep but well, no dummy do you think i can get her to forget it if i keep doing this?

Off to bed now, really late for me

Waves!

Hello everyone,

I will post properly soon, but just to say gaucita that yes, sometimes opportunities just present themselves, such as the dummy extraction. I can't remember exactly when we took it away from dd. Somewhere between 2.5 and 3 which was not that ideal, as she was a bit wiser by that stage. It was handy during all the teething, and I didn't want to take it from her till she was through all that. Then we went on a big trip, so it was soothing for her to have it then. I slowly offered it to her less and less but then she suddenly got more attached. In the end we went cold turkey with some huge reward if she got through the week, but even a year later she would look longingly at them and sometimes nab other children's!!!!

About now probably a good time, or if she has a few more teeth to come through, it may be much easier on both of you to wait a teency bit longer.

Now I have a finger sucking ds so not sure how to address this one. Maybe mitts at some stage!!

Be back on soon.

Vene, thanks for your words of support I really need them! Yesterday she was up from 3 till 5.30 crying/complaining. Man, at those hours you really feel like giving up and just handing her the dummy and I don't know how but I didn't I'm just bracing myself for tonight

And you're right, it never seems to be the "right" time. Either because they're poorly, or teething, or because they started nursery, for example. We'll try and persevere, we'll see!

Hope you're all having a nice evening

afternoon all

snow, it's epilepsy that does the damage, we've almost lost a few others who've ended up on life support because of it E has still only got a handful of words although his understanding seems to be ok, I'm probably just being paranoid after having dd3. I know he had glue ear most of last winter and possibly this one too so have asked dd3s teacher of the deaf to have a look at him. How's Z getting on?

gauchita, how's M doing now? Dd2 and ds1 both had dummies until they were 2 or 3, it wasn't easy then but at least you can reason with them, we left the dummies out for the dummy fairy for one of them and the other one left them for father christmas E still sucks his thumb, can't leave that out for the dummy fairy

venetian, let me know if you solve the finger sucking one! How's F getting on with nursery?

just filling in the forms for tomorrows assessment, feeling rather panicky still!

waves to all

bigcar hope the form filling in is finished and you have in hand.
Asked about A's lack of language at nursery, they weren't too worried. Asking DD3's teacher sounds like a great idea, something to put your mind at rest.
Managing the epilepsy is so hard, so many drug options and getting the combo right always seems to take forever.
gauchita how was your night? We have dummy regression here. Were so close to getting rid of just before Z arrived and then teething started again. Tempted to keep it till we come back from our trip home in may. Good for soothing on the flight.
vene do you ever drug the kids with phenergen for the trip home? thinking it might be an option for A, he will be 22 months.
june any progress on some time with DH sans C?

Went to our lovely GP today. Now have a prescription for Z's reflux. Slow weight gain again this fortnight. Not suprising given how much she vomits
Off to try and get this girl into bed

Evening all!

Bigcar, hope the forms are over soon and I second the Sending you calm vibes for tomorrow afternoon and wishing they find they can offer DD3 the support she needs Will be thinking of you all.

Snow, oh, poor Z Fingers crossed for the medication to do the trick! I hear you on the flight fears thinking I kept BFing M up until my trip back from SA in November mainly because it was sooooo handy during the flights! She then stopped on her own in December.

Oh, thank you all for the tips/advice re. pushchairs I've decided to keep M's Maclaren, as it's on 10/10 condition and it's SO handy. It'll surely come useful in future. No more decisions atm I think the buggy board is a very tempting option, especially as M will be 2.3 by then. We'll see.

Last night she went to bed at 10, because she had taken a late nap and was full of beans, but that meant she dropped off as soon as she finished her milk She, however, woke up at 1.45am and then went back to sleep at 4 I ended up watching "UP" on the ipad with her or rather me dozing off and her watching How do they have the energy to be up at those hours?

Today she fell asleep at 7.30 without much fuss. I pray pray pray for her to either not wake up or wake up and go back to sleep pronto

Off to bed, I need to catch up on some sleep. MS has been horrible today, yuck.

Waves to all

snow - tbh, I haven't heard good things about phenergen. The occasional under-dose of Medised is about as far as I am comfortable to push the 'sleep inducing medicine' boat out. Anyway, the plane trips home get better and better the more I get used to it. The last trip was fine, until I was about 33 hours into it, and then the kids had a meltdown. When is your next one home? Thankfully mine isn't till December when they are almost 6 and 2.5 which will be nice ages for travelling.

bigcar - sorry to hear about the epilepsy. And the language challenges. It must be tough at times.

gauchita- I bought a double McLaren from a local second hand sale for £35, and although I've barely used it (dd preferred walking on the whole) it has been handy to have for the few times she has been sick or we've been on holiday. I'm going to hold onto it, as if I have ds's friends over, I can put them both in it to walk to the park. It's something I never had with no. 1 - extra carseats and extra buggy space. It's quite handy. It's been used so little I'll probably sell it for £25 or something. Also got buggy board for Bugaboo, but I found it hard to push from behind. I had to walk to one side of it. Also, as said dd wasn't all that bothered. Maybe round the Trafford Centre but not often. Also, as ds was a baby, sleeping a lot, we didn't go out that many places.

Sorry about MS being rough. What week are you up to now?

Now you have committed to the 'no dummy' then it's easier to stick with it. Sounds as though you are possibly past the worst. Her resistence must be waning.

Have you come across peopleperhour.com There seems to be some translation work on it. Not sure if too many people for the number of jobs, but no harm to mention it if you want to take a look.

june - will tell you about business ideas soon.

My news. F has tonsillitis and has probably had it for a few days now but I mistake some of the signs as 'teething'. Have been up at 2,3 and from 5 onwards for last 3 nights....so going to bed now as knackered. Now on antibiotics, hopefully he picks up. He has nursery on Wed and I'm supposed to be going down to Birmingham, so goodness knows what will happen. Whenever I start to feel I have some control over my life, it vanishes in a puff!

gauchita - my friend whose children were closer in age, loved her Jane. I liked using it too.

Hi all!

Will catch up properly once M's in bed but just wanted to say Bigcar, hope everything went great today

Venetian, oh no, poor F Hope the ABs have started working and he's feeling better. How are the plans for tomorrow? Hope F's feeling OK enough for you to be able to go. Oooh do tell us about your business news once you can Thanks for the tips re. buggies, I've never seen a Jane, but will look it up. Hadn't heard of that site either, will also have a look at it

Bigcar, hope you had good news

M yesterday for the first time since she was born didn't wake up during the night. She was in my bed, though... I was so shocked when she asked for milk and I looked at the time to see it was 6.45 Today she's back in her bed (had her in ours due to the constant coughing/dummy complaints) and she fell asleep straight after her milk, no fuss. God, even if she wakes during the night, if she simply goes back to sleep without staying up for 2+hs I'll be happy

Waves to all

I think she had this one Gauchita - Jane Powertwin Pro. They are Spanish. However it was three years ago, and things change very quickly every year in terms of what is the best product on the market. Second hand sales are handy (get there first) as you can sometimes buy a couple for dramatically less and decide which one works best and even sell the other.

F is not much better. Been on AB's for a day but a molar also coming through (number 17) and causing him a lot of pain. He has eczema too, poor sausage!

Might try and go to Birmingham on Thursday as he might be ok for nursery then, but probably not tomorrow.

Oh, and if you buy online I strongly recommend Lullabies. Outstanding service and good prices.

oops Lullabys

afternoon all

just to thank you all for your support The school we want have offered dd3 a place it was a fab assessment, they were great and I so hope my LEA will stick their hands in their pockets and pay for it [nervous] So, there will be all round come the weekend, too knackered to celebrate at the moment!

waves to all

bigcar delighted to hear the news, so so pleased for you. got feral kids so will try and get back later

bigcar fantastic news , have a lovely celebration weekend with ;)
I've not had much time to post but I did catch up quickly yesterday.
Hi venetian, good to hear from you :) this talk about long flights etc reassured me a little bit.

We'd really like to go on holiday this year, we were thinking hotel/buffet/swimming pool. I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm picturing the holiday waking up at the crack of dawn and having to find children activities to fill the day everyday in a foreign country AND having to eat out with the baby every lunch and dinner. Then babe will go to bed around 8:30, 9pm at a push and then what? Do we watch tv quietly in the room so as to not wake her up?
(not helped by the fact that dh never ever does the morning "shift", I'll be knackered by the end of it and he'll be frustrated that I'm so tired).
How do you guys work it out? I think we simply must do self catering for a start so we can have 2 rooms, make dinner ourselves etc, don't you? any tips??

We ordered some nice food for Valentine which I'm looking forward to. No chance of a date out, I brought it up again and it's just not going to happen. I'm not going to ask anymore as it is starting to sound like I am nagging.

Right, now I have a "fun" question for you all, here goes:
Do you french kiss? . What with Valentines coming up and being romantic etc the subject came up in the conversation yesterday, I assumed that everybody kisses with tongues, dh doesn't think so. I'm interested to know!

just got both kids down. A must be unwell as never has morning sleeps anymore. Supposed to be getting some work done but sitting here instead with a strong coffee.Z decided to scream for 4hrs non stop last evening, practising being a colicky and reflux baby.
Dh was at work, friends that I could ring for moral support or to mind A while I took her for a walk all moved away. Felt v sorry for myself whne I should be bloody grateful to have two beautiful children.
june we have had a few short breaks and holidays with A. Haven't done a hotel with him since he was wee, just self catering. Gites in France, self catered apartments-private rents and chains like Citadines (v souless but practical). Camping
As to the french kissing, we haven't kissed, hugged for months apart from the birth of Z things are not great . We used to though (but not in public!)
As to date night, bugger the nagging and try and find someone as a potential sitter. Maybe start with an hour out for a coffee as a compromise?
And as to mornings, DH gets A up almost every morning, gives him milk and breakfast, dressed on nursery days and gets himself ready for work so that I can sleep or feed Z in peace for an hour.He also takes A to nursery. Is there any good reason DH can't do the morning shift?
Really better go and do some work, Z stirring already, only been 15mins.
Sorry for the me post.
Bigcar, a think a bottle of bubbles in addition to the wine this weekend
vene did you get to brum? How is F?Business plans sounds exciting,hope everything is making good progress.
gauchita How are you? EXhausted? Hope that MS buggers off soon. SIL had a Jane pram, bought from a snooty shop who corrected the pronunciation of my BIL - not 'jane' but as a spanish company 'yane'. Nice prams.

gauchita - £94 of facial and massage for £25 today on Groupon - in Oldham though, but must be same distance as for me and seriously tempting Massage Groupon Deal

june - yes, give a long hard think about what is important to you on holiday and how you might go about getting that and be ready to possibly compromise on other things. We've found Spain good because tapas was so easy. C would always like 1 out of every 2 dishes we ordered. We'd eat out at lunchtime. Personally we are not keen on hotels - having to share same room as C and as you say, what happens after she goes to sleep. So we've always hired a cottage or villa and self catered. The hardest thing is having to do a big shop after arriving off the flight but otherwise it suits us. Then the children go to sleep in their own room and we sit up outside looking at the stars over a bottle of Rioja. If you enjoy nightlife then finding somewhere that has babysitting is important. Many places like to find babysitters.

If you are looking at hotels, but ones that are geared up for families then go to Child Friendly or Baby Friendly Boltholes or the Travel Section of Mumsnet has lots of write ups about places other Mums have gone on holiday to. Also the back of the NCT magazine has a few places.
I recommend taking your own car seat (possibly buy a cheap light weight one) as the rented ones can be really really rubbish. Ask if there are toys, cots etc available as some places have them. Ask if swimming pool is fenced off with a gate - now that really is a holiday killer if there is not fence or gate!!!!
I know some people who've had rooms above the hotel restaurant and their monitors have worked in there, but that could be risky!!!
You just have to take the plunge and start with a babysitter. Use sitters.co.uk if you can't find anyone trained, although usually girls at nursery want the extra money and know your child well. Go to the movies. Pop out for a naughty cocktail. Go for a stroll - anything, but it is good for your relationship. Just book someone and then tell your husband - I have a reservation at Cafe Rouge at 8.30 - we are meeting friends there....or some such thing he can't back out of?

bigcar - WELL DONE. You must be so proud of your hard work. Here's hoping LEA do rise to the occasion but must struggle to wiggle out of it.

snow - sorry to hear about the no hugging. Two children reduce the number of opportunities. Are you arguing, or is there just a bit of quiet emotional distance?

I have not made it to the Spring Fair and I am immensely frustrated. I don't know how I can be a mother and work. F has tonsillitis and it is a slow recovery. He is crying and grumpy and nasty cough and although I could have taken him to nursery, he would have been desperately unhappy and I couldn't do it to him. Also, as he just started two weeks ago, he isn't settled there so it would have made things hard. How on earth can I be professional and committed if children can throw your plans into disarray at a minutes notice.

Time to reintroduce myself to the ironing board. See ya.

vene Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try and get the courage to do this (go ahead and get a sitter and make plans).
The good thing about working for yourself is that it is more flexible and when the shit hits the fan you just cope.
Get someone to do the ironing/cleaning for you. My cleaner charges £7.50 an hour and she can do a lot in 2 or 3 hours, I pay the agency £100 a year.
snow I think it's normal after the birth of a baby, I remember one of the juners saying that she was quite, ermm, "active" with her dh and we really weren't.
sorry i have to go...

Morning all!

Vene, you know, I had never heard of Groupon until the other day when DH said he had got these great golf vouchers for £18 (usually £95) and I was Those are great bargains! I haven't had a massage/facial since before our wedding in 2006 so it'd be a nice treat Thanks for the link. Sorry to hear F's still struggling with his tonsillitis and that you couldn't travel today. Motherhood and work are not easy together, even if you have a nursery, because as you say, you can't just drop him there if he's feeling that poorly I had to miss a day at work last week (and it was my first week, eek!) when M got poorly and had temp all day. Hope he feels better soon. Any chance of making this up at another event? (Sorry, don't know exactly what it is about so I might be talking nonsense here )

June, I second what the other Juners have said. You're not nagging, you just want to have some (a little bit even) time for yourselves, for a coffee, a drink, a meal, you're not asking to go on holiday and leave C behind Get the babysitter and go for a coffee together, it's a small step, it doesn't take too long and he might see that there's nothing wrong with it Does DH not get the morning shift because he finds it hard to get up? I know DH would stay in bed until 11 if he could so when we arrange for him to take the morning shift he has to make a little extra effort Re. French kissing yes we do, not in public though, as Snow said. I'd feel , DH wouldn't, he's more of a "who's even looking?" man

Bigcar, huge congratulations again You must all be so happy

Snow, sorry to hear you had a hard night I hear you on the "having no-one" front (((hug))) A very "sensitive" acquaintance the other day asked me "so, are you ready to have two with no help around for you?" I seriously didn't know what to answer, my face hormones must have said it all and she immediately paraphrased and started babbling nonsense. Honestly some people... I wish we lived closer, so we could give each other a hand We're seriously considering an au-pair for the future, after DC2 arrives and DH goes back to full-on work. Nannies are not an affordable option for us so an au-pair would be a good option. Do you think that's an option that would work for you?

I think "dummy" battle is finished. M hasn't asked for it at night since Sunday and has gone to bed after her milk quite quickly so... fingers crossed! She slept all night Mon and Tue but yesterday in her bed she woke at 12.30 and I was so tired I just brought her to ours I must be stronger and go to hers and stay for a few mins until she's asleep again

MS still here although since waking up today it hasn't been THAT bad, fingers crossed for a good day.

M's desperate to speak now. She "talks" to me and sometimes it's reaaaaally hard to understand what she's trying to say and I can see the frustration in her face, poor thing These days she's saying "gracias" and "caca" (thank you/poo) in exactly the same way "tata" so we're relying on context

My translator and her DD are coming for lunch so I'd better go!

Waves!

morning all

anyone?

snow, how's A doing, hope he's ok. Did you make the most of your childfree time? Must be hard without your friends, let us know if there's anything we can do.

venetian, how's F, it's horrible when our los are ill. I'm sure you'll find a balance between work and dcs, it's just going to take a little time

gauchita, didn't you ask your acquaintance if she was up for a bit of babysitting then Well done on getting rid of the dummies, it's not easy at all! Communication takes a lot of guess work here too, E's pretty good at pointing for what he wants, I think he's trying to say 'don't know' at the moment, he's got (n)o sorted. Still missing the beginning/end off words, his favourite word is still ca(t) first thing he says on waking normally

june, hope you do manage to convince dh to leave C with a sitter, even if it's just an hour to start off with, you could have that discussion on french kissing Yes we do, although as the others said, not in public.

hope you're all having a nice weekend, waves to all

with dh for an hour or so is an excellent idea, I shall force him suggest this for tomorrow, thanks for that!

Now, (TMI) can someone help me out with AF please, last time I came on was on 21//01, now it looks like I am coming on today 13/02. That is a very short cycle isn't it? I'm monitoring it for the first time properly since birth.

I think I know now that I don't want to try for a baby this year . Well t least I know where I stand for now in my mind, but if I'm wasting my eggs I might reconsider!!!!

See, where I have been in France you always see teenagers french kissing in public (not loads and not all the time but sometimes), I think that's quite nice :) I want to live somewhere where people hold hands and kiss in public .

sorry this is all very mememe, I have to go again for now,

take care juners