Dec 08 Mums - Snot Beards, Farty Boos and Willy Milk (not how it sounds!) - let the fun continue!

[Beans33]

Here we are x

effie I always think drinking milk after medicine helps take away the vile taste. Not sure how you can get it down him though . Between spoonfulls of ice-cream?

sybs I'll be sorting out the PM stuff tonight. Sorry for not doing it sooner.

I'm on a break between hospital appointments - blood pressure profile this morning and an ultrasound of my liver, spleen blob and kidneys this afternoon. Not an very exciting ultrasound compared to ante-natal ones. They don't give you pictures .

Back later on.

Good to see you hanging in there Jolly :). How many weeks are you now?

Managed to get lunchtime dose into DS2 by bribing him with a lolly. Need to stock up...

DS ill again. No temp but quite lethargic, off his food in a big way and has a viral rash. He's just gone back to sleep again. When awake he just cries and says "no no no oh no oh no" but then again, that is almost a quarter of his entire vocab anyway. DH is home now (but asleep on couch) and fil is coming over for dinner (take away) perfect. Brother all morning via text asking if he can either A) come to NZ (fine with me but really not worth it now) or B) py for us to fly to his house for our last week hols instead of going straight home. To be fair it only adds a couple of hours on and I've been quite down about flying 95% of the way home and not seeing any family, but I'd feel bad about him paying as he can't really afford that with all his ex wife drama's. Twould be so nice to see him and family though.
Jam I was telling SL at RFH that I think I will try to come to yours on Fri if it's still on, then ds got sick. I would say I could see how he is but then you may want to postpone altogether until more people can make it incase ds still poorly and I have to pull out? I don't want to mess you around any more than I have.
Sybs - I got your message - and will sort it out, just need to get past tonight and this sick boy sorted and fil's visit Sorry to be so slack. Will try after fil leaves tonight.

In more positive news, DD got her passport through today! How quick was that lady - she is a fully fledged dual citizen now!

Jolly hope your tests go ok, and baby hangs on - tis sounding good.

Spot hope you're hanging in there.

Rubes: sorry DS is poorly. Here's hoping he perks up after a bit of sleep.

Thanks to Vag and PD I now have miso paste, instant miso soup, nori and dried kelp :). Yum.

There is something wrong with our scales, I have been running and doing core exercises 3 times a week and I've been eating next to nothing and I've still not lost an ounce of weight. It must be the scales. Anyway Rubes I've made another batch of CS and I'm actually quite looking forward to it for my dinner. I think I need to cut out bread altogether, so might have rice cakes and marmalade for breakfast instead, oh or maybe grapefruit, yeah, I love grapefruit.

We went to meet quincy the cat today and she is so cute. We pick her up on the 21st. DS1 loved her. We are meeting the ragdoll, Marshmellow, tomorrow.

Right boys asleep, soup time, will write more later.

hello hello. 38+1 and counting. the sunshine yesterday made me feel so fabulous, i got all my filing and admin done, descaled the showerhead, bleached the bath mat and then had a lovely mw appt at the hospital with the lovely joy who was a delight and made me feel better about all sorts of things.

and then i spent all night worrying if i was going to go into labour because it had been such a sprucing/nesting/happy day. i really don't want to be early - have booked a preggers massage for 39+2 and a haircut for then, too - don't want to miss out on those!

madam is still being dodgy with dh - screaming if he goes to her first thing in the morning to pick her up out of her cot and bring her in to me for a cuddle. she wants me to pick her up/read to her/carry her etc etc. ugh ugh ugh. her sleep is also suddenly being erratic, of course, when we've got only a few days more to go. ugh.

hope jolly is doing well - keep us posted - lady reminded me that katie is also sprogging soon. anyone else??? i have babybrain and can't remember.

Oh gosh, am really behind. Off to Mum's tomorrow and because of DP's work may be there up over a week (but could be back about next Tue or Wed) so will do proper catch up before I go.

Sorry about DS1, Rubes. Hope your PIL's visit goes really well. Reckon you will see your bro then?

Effie, I meant to say, our local big Sainsbo sells jars of miso paste (in the poncypants 'specialist foods' section) but I see you are now sorted. Mmm, I love miso. Love dried sea veg as well. Oh - have you tried bunging the antibiotics in choc spread or choc mousse?

Sorry about the lack of weightloss Vag. I sympathise. Unless I consume fewer than 1000 cals a day I just don't lose weight and 1500 is supposed to be diet levels. Soup for us tonight as well. DP has bought a new Magimix. Yes, it's rock 'n' roll all the way in the G&T household.

Vag, you mentioned 'bogan' further up the thread. I was going to ask you or Rubes about it as the word featured heavily in that Australian book, The Slap, and it was a new one on me. And boys wear Uggs? Surely not!

Oooh, soup ready.

Hello all,

jam is it just me on for Friday? Shall we postpone til more can make it? I don't mind!
Sorry about the lack of sleep on the part of your younger one. The little monkey. My older one is still awake. He threw a tantrum that he wanted to go to bed at 7 (bedtime now 7:30) and then started screaming at 7:30.

jolly excellent that you are still hanging in there....hope the appointment goes well

wg lovely to hear from you, what a nice day that sounds. I will cross my fingers you are not early and you get your massage! Sorry madam is still difficult re your DH. DS is a little the same since re me, this morning I went to see him and he looked at me and pulled a face and said "Daddy?". i tend to just make a joke of it or pretend to be upset. If it means Daddy has to play more tedious train games, that's ok by me.

vagorama sorry about the lack of weight loss, bummer. I have definitely found cutting down the carbs especially at lunch and tea helps. I am usually having soup for lunch with no bread or lots of salad, and minimal carbs at tea (apart from cheerfulness). I do have muesli for breakfaast though. Sure the soup will sort you out.

rubes sorry DS is ill.

Does anyone want to set a date for an evening meet up? As a suggestion how about Thursday 10th March, Friday 11th March, Thursday 17th March, Friday 18th March?

Also on the meet up front, I was wondering if anyone would be up for a night out away from home, in Central UK so north and southerners could make it? In the summer or at least a few months time? E.g. get a cheap hotel in Nottingham say, and go for a night out (without DCs as we are all saying how important us time is). That way some of us who think we will never meet might be able to. Just a thought anyway.

spot thinking about you and hope you are doing ok.

effie hope DS2 is doing better now.

Ooo SL I love the thought of that - Dec 08 on tour . I can't do 11th March but could do others. 17 march is st patrick's day so we'd probably want to avoid plastic paddy shenanigans, but suppose we're unlikely to arrange to meet in irish theme pub do they still have those?

Sorry for no show at RFH - I've had pretty shitty week. Found out my sister's husband has been having an affair, slagging her off all over the place and wants a divorce and thinks she should leave the family home. I have so much contempt for him I can't even be arsed to summon up enthusiasm to want to hit him over head with spade. They have 3 DCs and so many times she has gone the extra mile for him/put him first. Selfish selfish fucker. My poor girls.

So am very glum. Also both DCs up until 4:30 last night. WTF? Madness. They've never done that before. So am pissed off and shattered. Bet you're massively glad I found time to come here Am going to scout around for advice on relationship threads. That and hold my little ones close (in sleep inducing head lock).

Spot have been thinking of you.

Hello everyone,

Scans all fine today. 31 weeks now . I'm ticking weeks off here!

WG What a lovely day. Hope you get plenty more enjoyable nesting days before DC2 makes an appearance. DD does the same thing with DH if he goes to take her from the cot in the morning.

effie Glad DS2 took his medicine in the end.

SL I LOVE the idea of a big meet up! Count me in for sure.

vag Is it not just muscle? Do your clothes feel any different? Maybe your scales have broken! Great news on the meeting with the cat, it is so lovely they are going to get a super new home.

rubes Sorry to hear DS is poorly. There seems to be a lot of horrible bugs going round at the moment.

zoe Sorry I forgot to respond to your comment about my being fought over. I am very rare but the odd thing is that the expert doctors in my condition aren't interfering at all, it is all the others who are trying to 'claim' me! How are you finding working less hours?

ladyT I hope you have a good time at your mums. Have you decided on a moving date yet or are things on hold till the immersion is mended?

Oh let me know if you end up doing the midlands meet up, Ive been meaning to get back to Derby for a visit so I could time it in.

bogan unfortunately I couldn't find one with the obligatory ugg boots. It's their winter 'fong's' (thongs, flip flops).

Yeah SL I have a little spoon of rice with Dinner if I don't have soup but otherwise I only have carbs at breakfast which is what I'm thinking of getting rid of. I'm quite up for getting some grapefruit tomorrow. Then soup the rest of the day, then I'm going to a friends for dinner so will have some dinner with her and some cheerfulness. Then I'm going hardcore soup and grapefruit from friday all weekend.

urbaneski, what a shithead your sisters bloke is. Wanker.

Cross posted urbane. That's awful, your poor sister . I hope she is staying put. Surely he should move out if he has been having an affair?

Beans I hope you had fun with your Dad yesterday? Have a lovely day on Sunday, it sounds blissful. I have Friday off work and I'm still sending DD to nursery and I can't wait for a peaceful house with no noise at all

Effie I can't help on the ABs I'm afraid as DD is already quite a drug addict and welcomes anything on a spoon with cheers of "medicine, hooray". She has perfected a fake cough to try to con an extra dose from us. I hope what little you get into DS between lollies works pretty quickly. And on poorly boys, I hope your DS picks up soon Rubes

Spot how are you, and your boys, doing? I loved your fb post, about the harpist

Vag I love grapefruit for breakfast, yum. Tonight I've stewed some rhubarb which I'm going to have with yogurt in the morning. And knowing me I will follow it with a big bowl of cereal and several slices of toast, unless DD manages to half inch some of it

Have a lovely week with your Mum LadyT

Urbane your sister's husband is a shit . Is it your birthday this week? If so, I hope the week improves and you have a lovely day

Another week done Jolly . Fewer hours at work are working well thanks, having that extra day with DD is lovely - I used to rush round trying to squeeze lots of fun things into our one day and now it is much more relaxed and more fun.

I am with you on playing second fiddle to Daddy Summer, but it's not so bad. On Saturday DD was having her usual morning bounce on our bed and I said I'd get up with her so DH could have I lie in. To which we got "Mummy, no. Daddy, up, clothes on, breakfast now. Mummy, sleep, hike (light) off" love her. And YES to a big meet up, I think it's a fabby idea

Urbane: if you want to put together a posse to sort dickwad BIL out, let me know. What an arse.

Zoe: I'm finding fewer hours works well so far, apart from rushing about when I am at work to get stuff finished. I reckon my work is doing very well out of the job share as my colleague and I are trying not to leave anything for handover unless absolutely necessary.

Rubes: how is DS2 this morning?

I love the idea of a Midlands meet up. Is it too late to organise renting out a your hostel or similar so we can have a massive sleep over? DH's family do that periodically as there are squiions of them.

Youth hostel. And there shd have been a 'too' in my message to Zoe.

sleepover it just gets better and better

Hello Ladies

I tried to post last night but my battery ran out at the vital moment. I wanted to join in the soup fest. I was tucking into a vat of homemade spinach, chickpea and chorizo soup and it was delicious.

I am very distracted at the moment as we preapre for the big move. March 4th is completion day but DH is in Mozambique for 10 days before then so I am going to have to do a lot of packing myself. I keep getting carried away with interior decoration ideas which is madness as we will have no money to do anything but gosh I love the Farrow and Ball paint combination suggestions...

Urbs, I am so very sorry to hear about your sister's dick of a husband. When you say you are full of contempt for him do you mwan just now or have you always felt that he was a bad egg? i.e. is this a real shock or the realisation of the inevitable?

Spot - I hope little B is doing OK and you are surviving in the hospital. Are the nursing staff nice and do you have any other mothers around for support? I do hope so. I also hope your SiL puts her petty grievencies aside when she hears what you are going through. Surely she will offer support.

Jolly - I am so please you are hanging on in there. 31 weeks is good. Where would you feel safest delivering?

LadyT - Enjoy your break with your Mum. Have you removed all the dust? What a nightmare for you.

Must go as I am at work and colleagues are now trickling in. I love my floor between 8am-9am as 95% of the desks are empty but there are 5 of us mothers beavering away much earlier than everyone else. I often look up and feel a surge of pride for women and how hard they work to do the best for their kids.

Seriously. Where's Show Me Show Me? Who are these utter weapons on Big Cock Little Cock?
I am depressed. I miss Chris.

Arti: best of luck for the move. Not long now!

Cat: hope you are getting on OK. Thinking of you and B for the tests tomorrow :).

Beans: I feel your pain. I also recommend a few vintage DVDs for when CBeebies gets a bit much. We are on the Clangers at the mo which I find v soothing.

Hurrah for the move Arti, are you getting removals people in to help out? Could you get them to do some of the packing? That's what we did and it was ace, and not that expensive compared to the actual removal.

Effie, dunno about the YH, I was just suggesting a big city e.g. nottingham so people could come by train if wanted more easily, I would be worried the YH might be a bit scummy in towns but could I be wrong?

beans you are funny re "utter weapons". DS at nursery, phew. Still not getting much sleep so feeling knackered. DD has a cold now, am hopeful things will be better when it has gone! MIL coming in a week or so for the weekend, I hope she is sleeping ok by then as I may knife her if she says "Shouldn't she be sleeping through the night by now?" or "Oh you should just leave her to cry, I left your DH for 3 hours once".
Also DS's eating is abysmal, and she will have to comment on that. The combination of weaning and feeding him is bringing out the worst in him, as he gets no attention. I am totally ignoring him at meal times and saying, "Eat it if you want, if you don't fine", whereas usually I will do some mild persasion. I just can't be assed with it when I'm trying to feed DD as well. But he doesn't like the lack of attention and keeps throwing food around. He has eaten literally no tea for several days though, as Pasta Pesto has not been on the menu, and he has decided he doesn't like fruit either. Last night he threw a wobbler at bed time, as he wanted to go to bed early (fine apart from I wanted to get DD to bed first), and then went mental when DD was present for his story. He kept going "No Helen, Helen DOWN!" and screaming his head off. Eventually DD started crying anyway so I put her down anyhow, but GRRRRR, he is being a little brat!

You could be right Summer, I've only done it in a small posh Norfolk one. Will don thinking cap.

TMI alert: I finally went for my overdue (by more than a year) smear test. I hate them, I find them uncomfortable at best and painful at worst, but it's done! All being well, I won't need another one for three years. Am feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself, so tucking into chocolate cookies before getting on with some work.

Ah I need to have one too, wasn't sure if I could have done when pregnant, and was up the duff when last had a reminder. Oh joy.

Re sleepover Maybe we could rent a house or something but doing that makes it harder to add people at the last minute and harder to share costs. Just worried if we make it complicated it would never happen, so maybe book your own room in a holiday inn type thing would be the way to go!

I think I will need to do a venting AIBU post will try it out on you guys first though.

Anyway, SL RUBES you are both more than welcome to come over tom. If you would rather wait until there was more of us thats cool too.

RUbes hope DS is feeling a bit more chipper today.

ARTI exciting stuff re your house. I agree about the farrow and ball colours. We are goign to paint our lounge and there are several colours that are very tempting. Just got to wait and see how much the painter and decorator reckons it will cost.

Effie I like your style. We are re visiting Inspector Gadget at the mo.

LAdy have a super time at your mums.

JB good to hear you are hanging in there.

Vag if you are training that much I wouldnt have thought you need to cut your food intake.

WG sounds like you are nesting.

SPot hows things I did pmal at the harpist comment on FB

Trace how are you this wk?

URBs am super for you and your sister what a knob kockey.

So are you ready. Oh and by the way am not dissing GP's just my surgery, if anyone has any idea which GP I should believe please do let me know.

Took DS2 to the GP's today as he has had a cough that he has had for approx 6-8 weeks! Anyway he has been earleir in the month where I saw a female Dr who I really like doesnt dismiss your reasons for going and actually checks the child over. At the time we saw her she prescribed AB's for an ear infection and told me that often a cough that doesnt go away is a sign of an ear infection. Hey ho off we went did the course of ABs all fine but still has this cough.

It has gotten particularily bad over the last couple of weeks to the point when he wakes for about an hr he coughs continously an awful hacking cough that makes him vomit. So DH said this morning look lets take him back to the GP and see what they say. GP basically told me he has no idea why other GP said what she said as it makes no sense and that there is nothing wrong with a child who coughs like that and only come back if he is still coughing in anther 6 wks. As from the age of 1 -5 a persistant cough over the winter months is fine. All he could do would be to order a chest xray which was not needed. He did not check his ears his throat or anything else. Am soo pissed off I specifically said I did not want to come in and ask for ABs but as a parent it would be wrong of me not to get him checked out. He made me feel so stupid for bringing him in. And the whole one GP saying one thing and another something else just makes be so confused and somewhwat angry. This is the same surgery that told me BF after 6 mths was not necessary and that when I went in complaining about sore wrists and aching bones it was because I was lacking in calcium from BF. GRRRRRRRRRRRR

So basically I am sure somesones DH is a GP and I cant remember is it JJ? Anyway what is the right thing. Is a cough that has lasted nearly 2 months ok should he have checked out DS2?? I dunno I just feel quite hard done by as if I was completely dismissed by him . Not helped that DS2 was mid mini tantrum and DS1 the second we enter the surgery turns into a raving loony who refuses to do as asked. And of course am going back there tom for my app about pain in legs think I should just cancel it as am sure its going to be a complete waste of time.

SOrry huge essay there.

Jam: I have no idea about the medical side, but that doctor certainly needs to brush up his people skills. And why is a persistent cough fine for the under 5s? Especially if he is distressed and it's affecting his sleep. Def get another opinion. Do you have a good practice nurse? I find our nurse practitioners are really good on the persistent childhood ailments and more likely to actually listen to you. Could it be asthma related? Do you have an inhaler for him? I ask cos DS1 gets v wheezy after viruses and we were prescribed an inhaler to use, though he doesn't have a formal asthma diagnosis.