Dec 08 - tears, tantrums, giggles and piddles - and that's just the mums!

[traceface]

Or maybe piddling whilst giggling is just me?
It's so sunny here I feel Spring has sprung - where's that daffodil emoticon gone? Had a friend round this morning for a natter and cake - muchos snot and tears but all good. Think I might go for a little bike ride now to blow the cobwebs away.
And no vag - not a chance!
rubs don't you dare spend all your time tweeting - your first loyalty is here!

Ugh I am so fed up with DS1's sleep. Yes that is DS1. I'm fine with going in in the night if he has nightmares but it is the waking at 5 am that I can't deal with. Not every day but once or twice a week. Last night he wouldn't go to sleep until after 8, was up crying at 2 am, and up at 5. I tried to get him to go back to sleep on my bed but he just ended up waking DS2. I have been such a wimp about getting tough on his sleep, but I'm going to crack down on the 5 am. DH's strategy is to go in there and lie with him until he goes back to sleep but that doesn't work when he's away and I'm on my own. I have one of those sleepytime clocks where you set the sun to come on at a certain time. I think it's time to start using it and tell him stays in bed until the sun comes up and just ignore the screams. Feel bad but I can't deal with 5 am after being up with DS2 all night. Am now sulking and ignoring DS1 while he watches TV.

Mom: DS1 is an early riser too, though now it's more 6am than 5. I'm contemplating one of those clocks that 'wakes up' once it's morning - bunny shaped? I thought it might be easier for him to understand than 'it's too early come back in half an hour.'

Just read your post properly - looks like you have one already! Let me know how it works.

Aaah, that list brought back memories. It was such an exciting time waiting for everyone to pop! Now look at DD1 sitting on sofa with jam on toast, watching Peppa and wearing grown up knickers. Weeeeep...

Off down to see Dad this morning. Can't wait!

DD2 up from about 5am, but she does doze on and off. She's ready to greet the day from 6am, but can also be ignored for a while. She's got a duck comforter which helps. She sucks her thumb and nuzzles it!

Lachlan has removed his nappy and is refusing to put it back on. Lets hope for not too many puddles on the floor. I really wanted to wait a bit at least until after our hols. Never mind lets hope he gets it quickly.

OH and does anyone have advice on severe nettle rash. Poor L on Monday evening got out the bath covered in it. It looks like he has been scalded. It is travelling all over his body and we cannot fathom the reason why. The GP has put him on anti histamine in the hope that it will sort him out. But we are now into Thursday and it is horrific. It disappears then reappears somewhere else. ON Tuesday afternoon I would say 90% of his body was covered in it. The GP said if it start appearing round his mouth asap to A&E so quite scary really. Any advice anyone - Vag, Jump?? Any other medical bods out there.

Beans have a super time with your Dad.

Mom much sympathies as you know we have had the nightitme/early waking here too. TBH the only thing that consistently works is to do a bit of mean mummy let him cry it out.

Trace where are you this wk, everything ok?

LadyT the sticking at 2 thing is always on my mind. SOme days I feel 2 is enough other days the longing for a further child eats at me. The difficulty is . With DS1 & 2 they wear accidents so to have a 3rd we feel like we have to make a real decision which makes it more real IYSWIM.

ZK I like the idea of the wobble it off machine. SOunds far more preferable to slogging my guts out at the gym.

Vag, I love that you call DS2 biscuit tis a bit like this house if we need DS2 to come to us we call sweeties.

Arti that is the sweetest story about your DD1.

Lady any news on the moving?

Right must crash on. We have the dentist this afternoon really hoping he doesn't mention DS1's giant gap from sucking his thumb, no idea how we stop that. Actually Sybs how is your DD getting on with that now?

jam - will email your q to dh and see if he has any other ideas.

we had a miracle last night, bedtime much better as dh on hand to do S, but the biggie was that E slept from 8.30 until 4 am! so instead of feeling like a heap of tepid poo, I have energy and vim! and a large cup of coffee helps She rolled herself onto her front, and instead of all the usual writhing and fretting, must have felt happier. My reasoning is, if she can roll herself back over, not a problem :)

lovely to see the list again, we do need the name changes added tho as it's still confusing me sometimes Trudy 10lb4, well done you! Zuleika, you need to redo all your spreadsheets about weights and dates

Thanks JJ.

Also massive hurrah for sleep!

Thanks JumpJockey! I have to confess it was a c-sec, after 17 hours of labour. I'd hoped for a VBAC but I gave it my best shot. Turns out my cervix doesn't do that opening thing, but it did me a big favour as I would never have been the same again if I'd had Max naturally! DD was a planned c-sec as she was breech and I didn't get as far as going into labour with her. Glad to hear you had a better night last night, makes so much difference doesn't it? The nettle rash thing sounds scary - has Lachlan eaten anything new? I hope that calms down soon.

Jam I have a thumb-sucker too. At about seven months Max discovered his thumb and promptly started sleeping through - whatever happened to that?? He's a dedicated thumb sucker and sometimes tries to use his hands with his thumb still planted in his mouth - cute, but not good for his teeth. He's never yet let the dentist anywhere near his teeth but we're going in a few weeks so we'll see what he says, not that I plan to mention the thumb sucking. Max gets so much comfort from it and I'd have to handcuff his hands behind his back to stop him so I'm just letting it happen. I sucked my thumb til I was FIFTEEN and my teeth are fine.

Hello all. Need to do a tonne of catching up, so apologies right now for what is going to be a me-me post.

Firstly, work is still shit and this afternoon I have a job interview for what is essentially my job anyway. So that will be fun.

Secondly, and more importantly, have just had results of a blood test. A few weeks ago (Easter) my niece came to visit, and then the next day was diagnosed with Slapped Cheek Syndrome. Due to the risks with pregnancy my doc/hospital gave me a blood test and it turns out I am not immune/ don't have antibodies to it. So I'm freaking out slightly. Don't suppose anyone else has been in the same boat in the past?

Sorry Kiwi, I haven't, but surely if you'd caught it from your niece it would have been apparent by now? Easter was, what, three weeks ago? I can imagine you are worried but from what I remember the longer along you are the better it is - are you about 16 weeks or so now? Hopefully someone will come laong who knows more than me. Sorry to hear about the job nonsense as well. What a shame.

Jam, that uticaria on your DS2 sounds just like what happened to a mate of mine at university. He came up in all these dramatic hives which seemed to move around. It was from doing washing in the sink and not rinsing it properly and it went away with antihistamines. He had eczema anyway. Did you use a new bubblebath? Had you cleaned the bath with something? Traces could have remained and gone into the bathwater. Us moving - well, NO carloads have gone over this week as DP has had a headache of a trial (WG - he is co-defending with your mate ND, if you are reading!) but the plan was to move for good a week on Sat, ie weekend of May 21. So we shall see. I have got a new pack of boxes arriving tomorrow morning so can pack up more stuff.

DB, I amazed you are a 14 as you don't look it. Also, you look lovely in your pics so I am not surprised you turned heads and I am sure you still do. On my better days I think "Ach, I can still shop on the high street (as opposed to the Big Bertha catalogue), how bad can it be?"

In fact, I must apologise to you all for whining on about it. It's a stupid and indulgent thing to moan about, really. Also, Vag, you made me feel better because I am a similar weight to you above what I was before I had Child 1, ie about 12kg. To take the opposite tack, I am slightly more muscly than I used to be before kids - eg, my arms (though fat!) have a bit of muscle tone. I suppose that's good. The knockers are ok. I only have the stretchmarks I had before I had kids and I've had those since I was really young. So despite the podge it could be worse I guess...

Trudy, funny you mentioned a trampoline as I had a bit of a bounce on my mini one yesterday afternoon. Pelvic floor seemed ok but sometimes it feels a bit suspect if I cough, though nothing ever actually comes out (sorry, tmi).

Oh ZJ, I do love that list. I reckon there are two dozen of us still posting, out of, what, 60 there? But I think that's great. I love that you sent JB the bits for her Kenwood! And gosh, JB, you did have such a rough pregnancy and you hardly ever complained....And ZJ, DD1 still has milk before bed and she's a skinny Minny. I worry more about the fact that she takes a sippy cup of water to bed every night as I think it's going to be hard to keep her dry at night with that little habit...

Beans, how was your Dad this morn?

And Rubes - you've vanished again! RUUUUUUUbes! A few others are quiet as well, come to think of it.

Hurrah for extra sleep, JJ.

Thanks Lady. Well, the test itself was a week or so ago, so I think that even if I had caught it from her, the antibodies wouldn't yet show up, so I think they will probably test me again in a couple of weeks. Searching old MN threads on teh subject, seems some people then get tested every 3/4 weeks throughout their pregnancy, plus get extra scans, though I was probably going to have them anyway due to DD being so poorly when she was born.

kiwi - I had exactly this situation, in that S had what we suspected was slapped cheek, and the blood test showed that I hadn't met it either. I think you just have to go back in a couple of weeks for another test and see if you've caught it. If so, the earlier in the pregnancy the better, so you're definitely at the right time. If you have, they'll keep an eye on certain things (heart in particular) but chances are you'll end up where I did, which is exposure but no sign of actual transmission to you. Fret not lovely. SL also had exposure and can probably reassure you as well.

Jam - this is what DH says "A rash is fine, as long as it doesn't cause too much in the way of symptoms. Rash is always going to look worse when child gets hot eg bath. Any symptoms? Pain? Itch?

Allergic reaction can last a long time or take a long time to develop. Antihitamines fine as long as the child is on enough. The Addenbrooke's allergy clinic often gives higher-than-usual doses in cases of significant reaction so it may be that a dose higher than it says in the book would be required."

Mom sorry to hear about the bad nights. Is it to do with the actual sunrise? (ignoring the clock business) It gets light here at about 5, I've just done homemade blackouts for our room (ie blackout fabric with stick-and-sew velcro, stick to the window frames) so E doesn't get woken too early. Massive hugs.

ZJ - mook at bedtime is a vital part of the routine here. Not sure how else we'd get her to have her however much it's meant to be a day. they don't give milk at nursery any more, so we're forcing it down her at breakfast and tea and bedtime. Goodness knows what that study is all about tbh.

JJ thank you, that's really reassuring to know. Fingers crossed..

Kiwi I know nothing about slapped cheek, but do hope it's just a scare. How was the interview this aft?

We were due date pals Trudy, DD was also due on Christmas eve but arrived 2 days early and about half the size of your DS! He is the third biggest babe on the list

Jam I hope L is ok and it just a nettle rash, but strange that it's moving round. Poor little man. The wobble machine is actually called a 'flabelos' and was v funny, even my ear lobes felt like they were wobbling! My thighs are already feeling like they've worked hard today so I'm taking it as a good sign and will measure myself tonight to track my progress over the weeks

Hurrah for sleep Jump!

Thanks for commenting on the milk everyone, pleased to hear I'm normal (in that respect anyway)

DD has been coming home from nursery recently and saying she's been in the naughty corner and being really pleased about it. So I went in early this morning to chat about it and see if should reinforce the message at home. It turns out they don't even have a naughty corner and she's making it all up , strange child. And excuse my boast, but apparently she's so good that she was strategically placed to play nicely when Ofsted came round, and not part of the group sent on a long walk

I am feeling a bit grim today, hot and cold and bad head, so I pretended DH wasn't able to pick DD up and left work early. I can see where DD gets the fibbing from now!

ZJ that is so funny.

Thanks JJ. It does actually seem a little better today. I spoke to the pharmacist a the surgery and he said that with L's chunky solid frame that I could up the dose by a considerable amount. So will give him a bit extra and see what happens. Lady we have not changed anything in his diet or in any washing liquids etc. The only 2 things it could possibly be are 1, he had peanut butter on Mon, but he has been eating that since he was about 1yr. Or 2, on our dog walk on Mon he was shwooshing the wheat but again that is something he does reg. So no idea.

Kiwi no idea on the slapped cheek thing. Sorry work is still an arse.

Oh and on potty watch here, still cant believe the little blighter want to give it a go. I would say 70% successful at home. Put a pull up on as was lazy when we went to the dentist. He does seem quite happy to take himself off and pee on his own. Only problem was after lunch in the space of 45 mins he did 7 wees and 2 poos. Can you just imagine the car journeys. Muuuuuum I need a wee, 5 mins later Muuuuuum I need a wee.

Oh and Trudy. Dentist said his gap looked smaller and looked like he was sucking his thumb less. I have removed the taggie during the day so he doesn't wander round aimlessly sucking his thumb and fiddling. DOing his best dime bar impression

Oh Kiwi you poor thing. You can't help but worry. I'm not 100% sure of the implications, I know certain diseases are more of a problem in the first and last trimester. JJ will know more as she went through all this with DD2 didn't she? So how was the Clayton's job interview then, ( I think that is a reference only Rubes will understand).

I'm getting quite excited, DH has got his annual leave sorted for Christmas, new year so I can start bookings our flights. Ive discovered AirAsia a budget airline which flys out of Paris and Stanstead for a lot cheaper than the usual suspects and flys into the gold coast. It means having to book separate flights from here to Kuala Lumpur and KL to GC but we will stop in KL a night anyway and then will be staying in Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia for a week on the way back. DHs mum, my sister & my cousin live on the gold coast and my mum is about 2.5 hours from there so it all works well. We can catch a train for Paris in about 3 hrs so it is the best and cheapest option to fly out of. We are not going to go down to Sydney this time because its just too hectic trying to fit it all in, but hopefully my big brother will come up to QLD, my nieces all live on the sunshine coast so can see them easily & many of our Sydney friends have family in QLD so they will be up there for Christmas anyway. Oh its so exciting!!!! It's a long way off yet but its something to look forward to.

Very bizarre, I had refreshed but for some reason didn't get from JJs response onwards until I sent my last post bizarre. Also meant to say to Jam, if in the instance the redness did develop around his mouth, give him a dose of his anti histamine before you go to the A&E. Rash around the mouth can sometimes be a sign of a reaction that may spread & involve the airways. So I think your GP is being cautious, he would rather you turned up at A&E with something that is just a bit of redness around his lips, than not turn up and has redness lips develops into airway constriction which by the time you realised it would be a major emergency. If it is airway tightening a quick dose of anti histamines would buy you a bit of time in the event of it being a severe anaphylaxis. However, it all very unlikely.

Oh and Trudy your DS is a big boy, is he still big now? Sorry you didn't get your VBAC but glad he arrived safely.

I'm freezing. Resorted to snuggling up in DDs towel she sits on on sofa in case of accident now no nappies. I caught her crouching to crap in the playground in parent's village this afternoon. Managed to plop it into the potty. TT is the only time I've ever been grateful for DD1s constipation because her poos are so solid that they roll rather than splat on the floor.

Kiwi, I'm so sorry you're having such a worrying time preggy and work wise. I'm afraid I don't know about slap cheek. Am thinking of you.

Dad was ok. In lots of pain and worrying about it. He is a terrible worrier and is driving Mum a bit bats! I can see why. He's so lovely, but a pain with hypochondria! Rightly so, in this case though!!

Dreadful headache. Off to find nurofen x

kiwi what a worrying time for you all round . i hope the interview went well this afternoon. fwiw i think you write very well and enjoy reading your stuff. fingers crossed on the testing front.

mom i'm pretty sure i'll send t to nursery that day as he's been off so much recently with all the bank holidays.
on the sleep front, does your ds1 still nap? i find if t doesn't sleep much in the day he gets overtired bt bedtime and is more likely to wake in the night.

jam hope the increased dose has an effect. at the number of poos and wees in so short a time.

ZJ we still have milk at night here. in a bottle . hope you have a good nights sleep and feel perkier in the morning. if not, def pull a sickie.

i've just realised maybe i baby t too much for his own good. he still has bottle at night, dummy, sleeps in a cot and has no interest in tt. on holiday he was on a matress on the floor but i had to stay with him until he fell asleep, whereas here he just gets on with it himself. so maybe i'm lazy. but he does seem a lot younger than his peers. i suspect i also let a lot of things go because i was pg then had competing new baby in hospital, but can't use that excuse any more.

sorry forgot to refresh from earlier and missed a few posts. beans sorry your dad in pain - sounds v legitimate and not hypochondriacal but must be stressful for everyone around him. what can he take by way of painkillers?

Vag hooray for cheap homeward bound flights

Actually Beans, I think the people who worry about and note every symptom are probably safer than the ones who say nothing, think something's not worth bothering the doctor about and soldier on! So I applaud your Dad's hypochondria (and think it is hardly that given what he has been through, poor man!) Hope het gets some good pain relief. After DH was sick I made a promise to myself never to neglect symptoms, however minor, and I haven't stuck to that and I need to get back on it! (DH had awful night sweats sometimes, for months before he was diagnosed, and we just thought it was just something weird and ignored it. When it was in fact his lymphatic system going into overdrive).

Anyway, not trying to be gloomy here! Good morning, everyone! Actually came on to say to Spot that we have only fairly recently kicked the dummy for DD1 (which she did only have at night, but still), she still sleeps in a cot (we will get a proper bed shortly after we move) and also DD1 still has three bottles of formula a day (her other drinks she drinks out of a sippy or just a normal cup, she likes to choose according to her fancy). Ok, the bottles are because she drinks more that way (she is only 11.5kg and her younger sister is 9.5kg!!), but what I am trying to say is...don't beat yourself up about any of it. If that's the pace at which he seems comfortable, so what. I know DD1 is so ready for a new bed now and is really looking forward to it. But I am glad we waited because it makes moving seem exciting to her rather than worrying. She had a nightmare about 'robots' last night I didn't know she knew what a robot was. It must have been something on the tv. Oh dear. She was quite upset.

Your trip sounds ace, Vag.

Spot DS2 still has 3 feeds a day, I lie with him when he is going off to sleep and is a long way off being TT. I wouldn't worry, so many people want their kids walking and talking within weeks after they are born, they are grown up for such a long time. Maybe he is the maturity age he should be and so many others are being pushed out of babyhood.

Lady I think DD1 is heavier than my DS2, I haven't had him weighed recently, his next HV check is next month, but he has been around 11kg for a while now. What does everyone else weigh, I think he is on the 50th centile or just under here.