March 2010. A lesson for much of life: Shut the door. Find the corkscrew.

[Arcadie]

Happy Christmas MMMs. This is my gift to you!

Hello lovely ladies
Merry Xmas!
WE are getting ready for Xmas dinner. 25 people for dinner :) I love big parties
LOve to all
xxx

Just popped in for the scan news - good news Pixie that there's only one and all looks well. Fingers crossed that continues. Sorry to hear that DD won't be home for Christmas though.

Can't help on the sleep thing ladies but deepest sympathies.

All set here for Christmas Day, although I probably won't be saying that at 12.15 pm tomorrow. Have lovely Christmas Days with your new little ones (and older ones too). Happy Christmas all!

Just popping in to say congratulations on the scan pixie

And merry Christmas to you all. Hope my fellow first time mummies enjoy their first Christmas as a mummy and that those with older terrors children retain their sanity

See you on the other side!!

Great news pixie on the healthy singleton sorry that DD2 isn't getting home.
I'm off to bed, I'm shattered (the last 3 nights have been baaaaaad)but at least the cranberry sauce is made
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!

Well it's gone midnight now so I (hopefully) am going to be the first to say happy Christmas Day to all you lovely ladies and your gorgeous babies

And Pixie, great news about the scan. And I'm sorry that DD2 is still in the hospital, but I hope you have a good day with the family nonetheless.

happy christmas lovely MMMs!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS [FGRIN]

Hope you're all having a lovely day x

Pixie - on the scan

to you all even

MERRY CHRISTMAS MMM! hope you have all had a fab fab day x

wil have a read and be back x

Merry Christmas mad Marchers! Meant to post yesterday but was too busy with general merriment . Hope you're having a great boxing day too! xxxx

Pixie - great news about the scan :)
Hope everyone is doing well and recovering from Xmas.
X

i did post yesterday but it doesn't seem to have come up...
i also slightly cut my thumb slicing gammon today which might impair my MNing soo......suffice to say...
Merry Christmas One and All and glad all is well in MMN land
xx

Belated Merry Christmas to all you lovely March ladies, hope you've had (continue to have) a brilliant time. And congrats pixie on good scan, and good luck telling the other DCs the good news. I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Winter wonderland white christmas looks so lovely on the news...travel chaos does not. Another flight for Afribaby's little afribaby tomorrow - via Addis Ababa to Beirut. Hmmmm, lebanese food.

DH and I are discussing whether it is entirely crazy to base major life decisions like Where Shall We Live on where the food is yummy.

Waves to all!

Ok, I've basically caught up but I'm currently at $14 for this current session (oh, I shan't take a laptop, it'll be a nice break from the internet and I don't actually need a lappy...) so shan't shout out anything other than:

pixie Yes! One! And beautifully beating heart! Lovely news.

melk You made me snort my gingerbread skinny latte a little with visions of the elk covered in hair removal strips. Is she suitably smooth now?

rkd My heart aches a little for you (botht he pmt (ack) and the fam situ. Chin up old girl!

Oh, and, y'know...

STUCK IN NEW YORK! STUCK IN FLIPPING NY!

Blizzard, what a wheeze. I was meant to fly this morning at 8.55 (it's currently 8.34 here) but flight cancelled and airport unlikely to reopen before this evening. And then of course there are many flights before mine that need rescheduling. I've never done 'this' before, being stuck and having to faff about and probably claim back stuff from the insurance (at least they let us keep our room here at the hotel and at the great rate I got when I booked it back in... when was it? October? If anyone knows it'll be archive trawller extraordinaire pixie!) so naturally I'm just checking my emails and mn'ing. Damn. Up to $16.

Note to self: you ALWAYS need a laptop. Essential bit of kit in any given situation.

Hi all.

Happy official boxing day.

Just heard my bro & SIL are expecting baby 2 (little sibling to Thea born in July if you recall) next July. Good times!

Just got back from spending a half day with PacificDogwood, plus DH,DBIL and 4 doglings. Hands up - who's a little [envy} of me? Eh?

manda how lovely to be stuck in NY! Enjoy! Hope you get back before the shine wears off.

So now i'm using my phone It caps at £40 of internet use so... finally got through to ba just now (was constantly getting the 'the lines are busy; try again later message) and we're confirmed on the first flight with room for us all. Nothing tomorrow, naturally. So wednesday morning we'll be homebound. Now i'd better check the hotel won't kick us out tomorrow!

valium feel better soon - poor you.

manda how exciting to be stuck in NY! Enjoy your extended stay!

pixie glad the scan was a good one

arcadie yaaaaaaaayy!! and indeed at your Pacific meet-up!

Hi again Afribaby - good to see you! And no, I don't think it's crazy to decide where to live according to yumminess. (although I live in the land of the haggis and the deep fried Mars bar, so.....)

'Tis my birthday today and I'm a bit as it's been...mixed. On one hand NO lie-in - apparently I "got up too quickly". On the other hand I did get a couple of hours bargain shopping on my own - bliss. On one hand, not much pampering today, have been doing all the usual jobs and chores I normally do - on the other hand, I did receive a voucher for a full body swedish massage. I. Can't. Wait. I wanted to go today!! Ok, I think I'm sounding a bit selfish and spoiled. Both my girls have been super-cute today and I did manage to get out all on my tod for a while which is something I hardly ever get to do these days. My other problem though is that, despite the fact I have stopped bf for a couple of weeks now, I appear to have a blocked milk duct . How can this be?? And I haven't a scooby what to do with it. I tried hand expressing earlier - just a couple of measly drops. I'm certainly not going to start feeding the baby again, and the pump doesn't appeal. I've decided to take a couple of ibuprofen, drink as much water as I can before bed and then replace head firmly in sand. Any advice gratefully received.

to all
rkd great news about Thea's sibling to be!! brilliant...crikey that's an age gap though?!
manda hope you get back ok, extended travel plans are only exciting for the first few hours i find....keep that british spirit up and enjoy all the american corn-sugar saturated efforts you can
heckle happy birthday and no you don't sound selfish and spoilt, i think perhaps you might have been a victim of christmas taking over a bit maybe? swedish massage sounds LUSH though, and glad you got out. perhaps a little bit of heckle-spoiling on the actual day might not have gone amiss though... glad the girlies gave you much love. on the milk duct front, i would keep taking the ibuprofen, and try massaging it, even with some oil so you can get a good motion going over it. warm showers over your back work quite well, as do warm/cold compresses (i find warm is better, some people prefer cold, partic if infected). pd has already successfully treated blocked ducts sans ABs but, then again, she was feeding..... Keep massaging, and keep an eye on it - if you feel a bit fluey then you might want to think about doctors. (and if you do end up with antibiotics, personally i need to remember to ask for thrush treatment too, cos i always get it and always regret not asking...particularly at ten pound a pop over the counter ). good luck and keep us posted....

well, news in the melk household mostly involves chicken pox and a very spotty thea...who, for her part, is pretty much taking it in her stride....so far..... she's also taken to pulling herself up over xmas, and beginning the Cruise....so we shall be walking by her birthday i suppose....nothing by the BMI standards, mind . we are up because of the cricket she made it till 445am, so not bad....and she's now wide awake cuddled up to her daddy semi-watching the cricket...

right. toodles. to all

Hello Ladies,

RKD WOW your gonna be an aunti again, they didnt hang around did they....
and yes very of the meet up with pacific, hope you all had a great time x

i was back in work last night and had to work a general surgical ward then over to delivery suit......omg.... I WANT ANOTHER BABY..... i went in the room i delivered Elliott in and came over all weird! lol i told DH who just laughed out loud.... "not a chance i have had the snip"... cas the reply:(

MELK i hope thea isnt too poorly with the chicken pox- its doing the rounds here in the m idlands too alot of Harrys school friend have got/had it.... Harry and Rosie both woke up with it just before Rosies first birthday, it wasn't to bad.

Also WD on the pulling up and cruising.... clever girl... were still not crawling, he is getting about by shuffling and sliding o the floor...so much so i got home from work to a very very pale dh..... asked what was wrong was informed Elliott has fallen down the entire staircase- OMG .... not a mark on him and apparently withing a few minutes was smiling and laughing again.... WORRIED ALL NIGHT LONG.... thank goodness babies bounce most of the time.... (DH got a right ticking off as i ahve been rewuesting the stair gates for weeks,,,, they are in the loft and i cant getmy fatass-- up there.

manda hope you get home safe and well as soon as and the delays dont cause too many probs for you

valuim get well soon if you have the flu bug we all had,,,, OMG rest up love x

Heckle happy belated birthday, sorry it wasnt the day you wanted but glad you got out and have a swedish massae to look forward too....

right off to sort some brekki.... love to you all x

Hello again, sorry for being a bit arsey about my birthday. I suppose birthdays with 2 children will never be quite as relaxing as they were with one or even none, and I'm going to have to get used to that! I guess I may have been comparing to last year - when I was totally pg and got to put my feet firmly up!

Travel - I'm just about to look into re-booking the ferry to NI for new year - fingers crossed

Boob - I've just caved in and fed R from the blocked side. It was becoming rather uncomfortable and I really don't want full-blown mastitis. It's helped, actually, so I'll keep an eye on it. My theory is that it could have been the ill-fitting underwired bras I've been so desperate to get back into as the blockage is just about where the end of the wire would be on your boob . Gah!

Oh yes and R is also showing signs of wanting to take off - trying to pull herself up and loves walking along holding onto someones hands!

morning all
can't believe i forgot to mention the Pd meet up, I can't imagine how cute the Doglings are all together... (had a moment thinking - god has pacific really got FOUR dogs as well as all those children??)
heckle you weren't arsey at all, actually i admired your honesty, i quite often feel a bit like that on my birthdays (particularly last year when thea was 6 days old) - await my grump in march

Anyway i came on to tell you all about my dream - that'll teach me for MNing in the middle of the night
so we were doing a big MMMM again and somehow it was based on some bunk beds at the end of pixie's DD2's ward....so we were all chatting nonchalantly about things but Really we were all Impatiently Waiting The Arrival Of Pixie....Who swanned in, looking most regal and tall...(and blonde?!) and had lots of nicely applied makeup (Melk wipes yesterday's mascara from under her eyes) and was just lovely...pixielett2 was lush too
Then it was time for bed so we all had to traipse across York University Campus to the Halls of Residence toilets to brush our teeth. Everyone was being weird and dressed up like Dungeons and Dragons characters...and I remember thinking 'hmm, this figures' (big at a certain York Uni alumni on here ). Anyway some large lady had a go at heckle and I promptly gave her a Right Telling Off (large lady, not heckle).
In the toilets Simon Cowell was also brushing his teeth and being hassled by people singing at him...I rescued him somehow by pretending to be his agent...
And then we all went back to my kitchen where Chris Evans made me make you all Egg Fried Rice using Xmas leftovers....."the trick is to ALWAYS use cold rice..."
[many times]

right better go the dog is chewing up something dead outside. welcome to the wonderful world of Melk