Dec 2008 - Hello 2011 the Year of the Toddler!

[DeidreBarlow]

Totally unispired but hope you all find it...

strewth I have a high vis jacket for work on the tarmac - don't think I'll be donning it for runs though Might just put a hi vis collar on the pooch.
Another carpet toilet incident deids!!!! Golly with bum licking, tea towel todger wee wiping and now coiling one up. i think you may well be trumping Beans! Your kids are pure comedy

All clean again. No more 'nappy-off' time me thinks. He was pulling my hand as I was typing my last post saying "mama yak, mama yak". I looked up and guess what greeted me.

Bloody hell its got to be wine time now surely?

Honestly Rubes, everything is good but one night I just couldn't sleep - no idea why - and the next night DD1 woke at 3 in the morning screaming from a nightmare and I couldn't get back to sleep after. I would love to come over as you know, and would have before in fact but everything seems all mad at the moment. This week DP has barely been at work (so we have been at the house mostly) and then next week I know I am having the chimney done on the 1st or 2nd and I need to be around for that, and possibly busy next Sat in the day, but late next week, (say Thurs or Fri) or early the following week could be a possibility? See how you are fixed. I am off to Mum's on either 10th or 11th so it will have to be before that (therefore can't make Jam's, as I suspected). Will be in touch about it. I don't know about DP being contacted by the Brits, I don't know anyone who has signed a passport who has ever been contacted!

Heavens above Indith, you do need a break. 12th Feb is quite a long time to wait as well. You poor old thing.

Right, off to tart myself up a bit.

Deids. Wine time started ages ago. There is no set rule.

Lady, Bummer about Jams. I'm busy on Wed 2nd and Thurs (fil visit) and the 3rd - my mates for hair at hers in Croydon.

Mon I may have passport interview... by the way it must be the Aussie passport they call for as they checked with dh's colleague last time for ds's. Oh well probably better as it's quicker if they don't

Blimey, too many littl'uns who are quite adept at using their potties. DD is just like Summer's DS and only uses it to procrastinate.

I have Jolly's number so could text, but if she's tied up in hospital would I just be a pain?

Trace how are you today?

beans hope you get some sleep tonight, and Avo I hope you feel better tomorrow

On the train, on the way to London - woo hoo! We have gin and crisps. DD is having a whale of time at Nan's getting stuffed with cake and sweets and running round after the dogs. I'm looking forward to some quality time with DH, plus a quality half hour and cheerfulness with LadyT. Lie in here I come ...

ZJ have an ace time Down South - make sure you come back again! I was wondering about texting JB too, but don't want to pester. Hmm. I'm feeling drained today and a bit weird being home alone while my kiddies are being cared for by someone else . But I'm doing as I'm told, have started reducing my pills and have been out for a brisk walk (as per instruction - I was actually told to make sure I have nothing in my hands (?!) so I walked briskly and empty-handed!) Had a mad cleaning frenzy this morning but the energy has worn off and I'm ready for bed now. Not yet told my parents - I'm a bit like ladyt in that I feel the need to protect them, and we've never been very open about things - but DH wants me to tell them, and I think he's right. Deep breath. I rang them last night to get it over with but got the answer phone. doh.
lady I am amazed at yout dd1's verbal ability! If P had been asked the same question, we may have got "beebee" if we were lucky!
indith sorry you're in a house of ills - hope you're all back to full health soon.
Sorry to be so rubbish with personals. Have more to say but will have to try another day.
night night x

Maybe just a cheeky little text saying we are thinking of her she doesn't need to reply but just say we hope all ok. Maybe?

Hooray ZJ!!!

We've had both Brits and Aussie checks of our passport app referees, but not recently, I think they do it a bit randomly.

Hooray for a new Aussie Pubie, the more the merrier.

Deids I used to get sore knees but I run mainly on the treadmill now, which I know is boring but i watch Tele or listen to my dutch language lessons.

Lady seriously, DD1 is a genius, she answered the question and then expanded on it, and through a little bit of imaginative play in there, that's like 3.5-5 year old level.

I cannot remember anything else that I've read.

DH and I are completely depressing ourselves by watching a Law & Order marathon.

Spot, I replied to your message.

DS2 has started on the "wots dat?" Questions for literally everything. He wants to know more words which is great but it gets a bit tiring.

Spot no I don't think Gaviscon helped but I don't think she had the problem to warrant using it. Best for dd's wind was the cartons. Downside - take up loads of room in your cupboard, & ££££
Have fun Zee

Rubes, Tues 8th maybe? Will message you or summat over the weekend. Hope you manage to imbibe a drop of cheerfulness with the cabbage soup!

Vag, there was a rocking horse right near the baby doll so she wasn't using her imagination, just her eyes I'm afraid. She is a good little talker and I'm proud but I know for a fact this is a lot to do with spending all that time sitting on her bum. If she'd walked at 12 months and not 22 months it would be a different story.

Trace, well remembered - I totally sympathise with the dread of worrying parents. Poor you. Remember we are all rooting for you.

ZJ, hope you are having tons of fun!

Lovely night at DP's work do/the cinema. DP had booked for The King's Speech, not Black Swan as he had told me. Anyway, I really liked it. Hmmm, it's late so must try to nod off.

Just a quicky as I have dd's swimming lesson in a bit, then we have ds's at noon but dh taking him today.
Glad you're having fun Lady - and enjoyed the film - will double check about the 8th. What would the plan be?
My bike arrived 0745! dh still in his underwear put it together of course. V nice, and def big enough for me SL!
We are now excited about a Summer / French countryside a la Vagola holiday and taking bikes. I scrolled back Vag and dh quite excited about your Condom Gite as am I.... we might try finding one too. He said there is a town in Austria called Fucking How he knows that I'll never know.... However wants France for the Tour access...
Right must go, and will be looking into that later.

Lady the describing what the doll is looking at is what I meant by taking it a bit further, the imaginative bit is the saying the doll is Dahlia. I assumed she must have a a toy horse near them.

I'm watching the tennis, I'd really like Kim Clijsters to win but its looking like she has muffed up the first set.

Rubs every year we say we are going to watch a couple of the pyranees tour stages but really its not really doable with the kids at these ages as its lots of waiting around. we might drive down to La.mans for the 8th July for the stage out of there and we will go to Paris again for the finish but I think we will leave watching the mountains stages until at least next year. But we will take my road bike a do a couple of little rides separately while we are there. DHs BIL did the tour etap a couple of times your DH should look into that Rubes.

Yeah Vag I know what you mean, but even if dh went off for the day and waited around he'd probably do that. The friends he goes to Spain with for that race over the Pyranees were on the Telly last year, running along side in the Speedo's - in true Aussie style - nice. it is quite funny when it's someone you know, otherwise not so much
Back from swimming lesson. DD was a star. She was demo girl for the first time swim unders

Hello writing to you from the gym chill out area, I've just completely shattered myself doing my core exercises and then a 45 min run. I only ran 6.2 km but I'm feeling a bit fluey so I think that's why I'm knackered. I know, I know, I shouldn't have run but DH is away from Mon- Thursday so I won't have free raine on gym time. I have DS2 booked into the gym creche on Tuesday but I'm not confident that will go well, so can't guarantee I'll get much in before we go away next weekend to centerparcs.

Rubes I've decided because I'm not going to get much exercise next week and DH is away I'm going to give your cabbage soup ago!!! Yes I know I knocked it but I think the way you use it to replace one meal makes sense. So could you FB me the recipe. I was thinking I might have it for dinner with a quinoa salad just to give me enough to get through the night. What do you think? I'm getting quite miffed that the weight is not coming off after 3 weeks of gym so I think this would kick start it.

Oh and DH and I want to be those mental people running along beside the tour riders, except not too close some are a bit dangerous.

noice workout Vag! can't belieeeeve the scales aren't changing with that kind of effort - puts me to shame.
Yes you did diss my diet didn't you but anyway, yeah you can google it and there are quite a few recipes all over the web but I'll FB you the one I use. Even though I've only been replacing 1 or sometimes 2 meals a day this week it wasn't by choice though I will say on day 5 I was down 1 kg just doing it half arsed with a curry, Chinese and the usual amount of cheerfulness thrown in! Some will say it's all water, but I have been trying to drink heaps of water to compensate. Who knows, it may be, but even so it has motivated me to do the full v ersion of the diet next week as I know from last time I kept the weight off..... until I got pregnant again that is!
Lady - still haven't heard back from mil even after I text her! I'm sure I will tonight so I will let you know when I do.

I wasn't dissing der diet, I was dissing you doing der diet...issit. I jus fought you di ent need to do it...innit. I think you is well fit already. Ya get me. I'll take a kg of losing anything right now. I really should have measured my hips and waist before I started I'm sure they must be smaller by now.

Deids how's your ankle.

We are off our tonight to a friends 40th so should be fun. I just need to get these monkeys to bed. DH is bathing them now. We have refused to let DS2 sleep today so he'll crash big time and stay crashed.

DD2's bottom is livid and blistered. Canesten, metanium not working. Back to old faithful sudocrem.

Did 5k run this morning. YAWN.

Hello everyone,

Sorry to get you all worried!

beans If it is thrush it will take a few days of the cream to shift it. DD is really prone to it when she gets a sore botty. Thrush looks like tightly packed blisters, sometimes with white bits and often with bleeding broken skin. Have you tried cotton wool and water rather than baby wipes?

JJ DD drinks the bath water too. I usually fill up whatever vessel she is using from the cold tap as a comprimise. Doesn't always work though and she sneakily tops it up with bath water.

ladyT DD loves to 'fly' to the snowman too. Whenever we put anything on the record player that isn't The Snowman, she wines and complains!

zoe Fantastic news on your friend's baby! Are you allowed to visit or are they keeping people and their germs at bay for a while? Have a lovely romantic weekend.

SL Could you try the playing with food thing away from the table to avoid the clash with table manners? He could help 'prepare' food maybe? I gave DD a bowl of frozen peas to stir the other day to keep her occupied and it worked a treat. She had a beaker of water which I told her to add slowly and she was happily amused for ages.

trace I'm not sure what the trainer meant by the note and comment but please don't give it a second thought. Not worth worrying about. I'm sorry you didn't get the outcome you wanted from the consultant. A walk everyday sounds good, so did Zoe's gardening suggestion - if you enjoy gardens of course! Just take a bit of time for yourself.

As you ladies deduced I've been at the hospital most of the past few days. BP has been up and down but thankfully not back into the hospitalisation threshold. Bit of a close run thing today with the reading from the community midwife - just under though, phew! To cut a long story short, protein is still high and they are not sure what is going on but I've been warned, as trace said, that I won't go to term and they might deliver the baby as early as next week. I'm not calm veggie! I'm really terrified of having come this far and then having the baby born so premature and small.

I'm also a bit bothered when I weighed myself today that I've lost a few pounds - that can't be good. The baby was on the 97% centile last week so presumably he/she are still growing nicely. I'm not sure whether to mention it to the midwives. They don't usually bother about maternal weight do they? I'm just a bit worried it might be related to my kidneys playing up. Sorry I've written an essay there .

Eveving all, dd2 on one of her feeding marathons so quick catch up.

JB might the weight loss be water? Not sure of the details of your kidneys but might there have been water retention that's getting better? How many weeks are you now? just thinkimg that dd2 was 97th centile so despite being early she was big enough not to need going to scbu.

[just remebered another joyous part of early labour, had been examined in mfau and told cervix still completely closed etc, nurse said "oh we'll just need to check with special care, they were very full earlier so if you do deliver today we might well have to transfer you to huntingdon [about 45 mins drive away]" great! thanks for that extra bit of stress...)

Very entertained by all the potty chat, the closest we've got is beign out for lumch with some pals today and dd very charmingly went up behind me, pulled my trousers out (damn you mat jeans and your elasticated waist...) and said "mummy clean nappy".

vaggie have a top party night out! Oh and re condom, DH and I have a hankering to visit this place firstly because the chapel would be fabby to sing in, but also because if you look at the map, it's just near a village called Arsoli

beans sorry to hear poor dd's bum is still sore :( sounds like you're doing everything you can.

well dh is off work for another two weeks, managed to get them to let him book annual leave at short notice, and thank goodness frankly, I'm terrified of having to do bedtime on my own tomorrow (he has choir) and that will be the case probably 3 out of 5 week nights.

right tea time, typing with left hand only too exhausting, am pondering getting an iphone for midnight mn during the feeds in which case will be here more often...

Thanks for tips. Will continue with canesten. Sorry to be so self-involved when clearly JJ and JB have so much more worrying stuff. And many others.
JB how many weeks are you?
I'm going to have to get some sleep now as know will be up loads in night and DH off to do half marathon at some ungodly hour tomorrow!
Sleep tight x

beans don't be a dafty, if you're worried about something it can go into the basket along with everything else. Frankly looking after two kids while your DH goes running is enough of a prospect even without sore botties. Hope you got some good rest

We had a small miracle this morning. DD2 had some milk, then I was dashing about tidying as DD1's godmother coming to visit, popped her in her rocking chair thingy and she's gone to sleep on her own. This is the thing DD1 never ever managed. Maybe, just maybe, we're going to have a slightly easier ride this time... [fingers massively crossed]

Ah, JJ, that is smashing!

How is DD1 this morn, Beans? Sounds so sore. Apparently my DD1 was up 8 times in the night as she suddenly has the mother and father of all colds...I am speeding back to the country after a night in town. It was so lovely to meet ZJ and also Mr ZJ, albeit briefly! Hooray. It was very thoughtful of you to stay in a hotel I really like and sometimes frequent, right in my going out patch It sounds like you are having a gorgeous, chilled out trip and I hope today is good too. Note I let you lead the way on what to say to your DH about our merry band, DP doesn't have a firm grasp on it all and I think I like to keep it vague, ho ho.

I find I miss the kids horribly if I come to London without them now. DD2 has upped the ante in this regard. I even miss DP as well

Gosh, Rubes, DD is such a happy little swimmer isn't she? Amazing.

Sore head, Vag? I am ok, I alternated the booze with water or soft drinks. But got to bed at 2 for second night on trot so a bit tired...

JB, I am glad you are still with us! You know how we get! Listen, I bet the weightloss is nothing but probably better mention it to the midwives.

Right, a restful Miso soup and lots of cuddles when I get home. Was supposed to be going over to the house with the girls to do stuff whilst DP gets some P&Q for his prep, but if O is that bad she may not be up to it.

Morning. I am suffering. I went clubbing last night for the first time in about a decade! I was never a big clubber even in my yoof. Last night we went to a friend's birthday party in a club in Camden. The night was called Guilty Pleasures and it was all 80s-tastic. Everyone was dressed up in neon leotards and sweat bands. I enjoyed the dressing-up part and the cheesy music part. But I also enjoyed the tequlia shots part and that is what I regret. DD2 rose for the day at 6.45am, three and a half hours after we got to bed. She then refused her morning nappy and shat on the floor. Nice. And now I have to take DD1 to a birthday party. At least the party is in Westfield and most of the other Mums were out with me last night so we plan to recover in a coffee shop while Westfield Little Gym staff care for our first borns.

Indith - when you say your DD is no longer in nappies do you mean she is potty trained already? Or did you do some form of elimination communication? Either way that is amazing.

JJ - Yay to the self settling baby. Lets hope it is part of a pattern.

Lady - Glad you had a fab night out.

Jolly - So glad that you are still with us but sorry to hear that the birth is probably imminent. Do you have a good NICU near you? At least you have had the steroids and you must be 30 weeks by now which sounds so much better than 20 something. I have heard 32 is quite a magic point in terms of development so I will keep my fingers tightly crossed for another fortnight.

Yo yo. So, have had 2.5 hours sleep in total. 1.5 in a straight row! Exhausted. DD2 was clearly in lots of pain, though, so I couldn't bear a grudge. We have a marvellous clinic near us which has a GP on duty 365 days a year, which is brilliant. So we headed down there this morning and DD2 has just plain nappy rash, not thrush, so we are back to metanium and keeping fingers crossed!

Lady - your night in London sounds lovely. And Avo - your night sounds heavenly too. I think we've had similar sleep, but luckily I don't have the hangover to go with it, you poor thing. But that coffee sounds gooooood. Now I curse myself for not buying caffeinated stuff!!

Right, DD2 in bed, DD1 following and me last of all. DH back from his half marathon in an hour. Will be to a v quiet house!!

Beans nappy rash seems so simple but it can be so all consuming when they have it bad because you just desperately want their pain to go away. Even if the caneston cream was unnecessary for thrush all these creams have a soothing and barrier content to them so it would have helped. When ds2 had his last teething nappy rash I found it wasn't just one thing that helped it was lots of different creams that eventually settled it.

That night sounds brilliant Avo and glad you can share your pain today.

I'm feeling quite queezy, thanks for asking lady. I had 3 glasses of wine and a bicardi and coke and was quite tipsy but not drunk but have a blurry slightly sore head now and very seedy. I'm currently sitting by the pool though. We are at out current fav Sunday hangout, a lovely pool and slide complex about 15 mins drive from our house. It has a decent little cafe by the pool so we just had lunch and now dh is playing with the boys in the pool.

Sorry had to post because dh wanted me to check the football score, its not good.

Jb I lost a kg at the end of both my pregnancies, in the last trimester. I think mine was the throwing up and not being able to eat carbs or much protein thing. No one seemed to bothered, but then there were no other medical concerns. I think its probably best to mention it. 32 weeks is significant because lung development is pretty good by then (esp if you've had the steroids) and though the sucking reflex isn't quite there its not far off. Wow apart from all the concerns, how do you feel about this baby coming next week? How is DH?

Lady sorry little O is poorly, give her a little veggie snuggle.

Jj I couldn't look at that link because the 3g is a little slow but loving that name.