March 2010 - Babies: "Climbing like an evil genius". Mummies: "Avoiding the Shred DVD"

[Arcadie]

Welcome to those with a March 2010.
Happy Easter from me....
Unwrap it quick!..

Oh, it's a new thread. I was hoping for chocolate.

Shroomer, will be thinking of you tomorrow. Good luck - both for the procedure and the result x.

I bumped into TLC on another thread (I did not 'recognise' her though ) and tried to lure her back here. She, DP and LO are doing well.

Morning ladies

Shroomer good luck today - hope that they remove all the scar tissue and it all goes well.

PD at 2 hands, 2 DC - life must seem simpler with only 2 when you're used to 4! Hope you're all having fun, including your big boys out in Germany.

Evitas glad to hear that things have improved marginally with the upstairs neighbours. Let's hope it continues to improve and hope you get through your upcoming work-filled weeks.

MissP bouncy castles are well fun! DS has been on them just a few times and likes them a lot. Though is one true love is the slide, which he appears to be able to handle himself now (embarassingly, he goes mostly with nursery on their little outings, as I haven't taken him to the park in weeks!).

Fliss well done on the weight loss! Am quite as am starting to expand, not so much due to pregnancy as due to my ability to eat only stodgy foods...

So, [fingers firmly crossed] things seem to be going OK with this pregnancy. Am now 7+4 and had a private scan on Saturday and it was good, nice strong heartbeat and spot on for dates. DS found the whole thing fascinating, and DH was delighted, but strangely I'm not as reassured as I was when we had a scan at 7 weeks with DS...guess it'll be a while before I feel more relaxed in this pregnancy (though my mum reminded me the other night that you don't really relax until you have your baby and then a whole new set of worries kick in!). Roll on my NHS scan on 9th Sept!

In other news, our lovely tiny nursery is closing down. It's run by a charity and the two nurseries they run are making a loss, which they can't sustain any more. We used to privately wonder how they managed to stay open (v cheap and a max of 12 children) but am v sad, especially for the staff (job hunting in this climate is not easy). I was super stressed last week, as we found out when we got back from camping in Wales and we had to find someone by the time we go to the States on 25th August. Luckily, we've found a lovely childminder who DS seemed to hit it off with. Phew!

And all these riots are crazy. The ones in Tottenham & Hackney are really not far from where I live, which is quite frightening. DS has clothes from some of the shops looted (like Boots and H&M in Wood Green). Horrible to think of the criminality that lurks just below civilised society (and hate that a bunch yobs have ruined all the good work that community activists, charities, churches, youth workers etc do).

OK, best go off and do some actual work!

Shroomer good luck today, I hope the procedure goes smoothly and fingers crossed for good results.

Flip so pleased that everything is going well. The rioting is frightening, isn't it? DH was out after work (near King's Cross) and I did start to get slightly antsy after about 10pm. It's just mindless, opportunisitc thuggery though, which makes me quite .

Ok, need breakfast. to everyone.

Sorry, guys, I'm doing an awful job of keeping up - I'm far too engrossed in the fact my body is still messed up post miscarriage (last two months I've had an 8/9 day lp ) and that my head is still pretty messed up too. And I would have been 35 weeks yesterday so have far too many due date thoughts clammering amongst the worrying about getting back to normal, random rage and random tears. Sorry.

And now the flipping riots! scoob been thinking of you and your colleagues. Hope you're not slap bang in the middle of anything.

shroomer Lots of good luck for tomorrow. I really hope they sort out your issues for you

Eh, better go and wake James. He's been sleepng the last two and half hours He also doesn't have sentences but seems to understand lots and lots (ask if he wants a bath, he'll say 'yes' and run to the bath. Same with bed. Same with 'pressing the button' on various kitchen appliances.) But as for words he only actually says yes and no with any true meaning. And will tell me 'mooooo' when I ask how a cow goes. WIll point to his nose, mouth and eyes when asked. So he understands - just not talking yet.

Manda You shouldn't be worrying about getting back to 'normal' - it's been no time at all still really, and you have nothing to be sorry for.

Shroomer I hope that today got you some answers.

evitas Fingers crossed for continuing improved relations with the neighbours :)

Flip I have everything crossed for you and TinyFlip

Why don't all these idiots just go back to whichever rock they crawled under? My sister's store in Birmingham was looted last night when she was working :( One of the managers was beaten, they took various things (Tesco store, have seen various pics on FB of people with Tesco items and it sickens me to think they might have been gained at the expense of my sister's safety at work) and smashed up the checkouts, but couldn't take the cashboxes out of the self service tills. The store opened today with the four self service tills running, and my sister is expected to be in work again tonight :( We've told her not to go in, but she's going.

Bit of an up and down day here, our 2nd wedding anniversary yesterday, had some lovely news this morning (which I will save for another time) but it's been blown out of the water really by a phone call this evening to say that DH's nan has kidney failure. She's been in and out of hospital for years - the first time I met her nearly 6 years ago she was on her death bed (having then recovered and been back home for a good couple of years as well as some long-term stays in the hospital again). He's never lost anyone before so the next few days are going to be hard - but as the family are in Liverpool I am very reluctant to take DD up there when his nan dies. I feel terribly selfish for saying we won't go with him, but I don't want to take her somewhere that has the chance of being very dangerous.

Then again, there's an English Defence League march near here on Saturday so I get the feeling that there's going to be a lot of trouble along with that .

Morning all.

Swinging by quickly to hope everyone is safe and well.

Been a rather interesting few days here in Hackney and though the trouble has only been a couple of mins away our street has stayed untouched.

Fliss so sorry to hear about DH's nan. Sending him strength.

Manda take your time, cut yourself some slack. I imagine it takes a long time to move on from this and of course will never be forgotten.

Flip I've been thinking about you and your little bean lots. Be lovely to see you soon.

Shroomer hope all went well.

All fine here. DD has a lot of words and is just starting to string them together (mainly by adding 'more' to whatever it is she wants). She has totally stopped sleeping and is having hideous tantrums though. Gah, so tired I could cry.

Very emotional roller-coaster of a month work-wise. Amazingness and heartbreak all at once - it takes its toll a little.

Hoping for peacefulness tonight for all the MMMM ers

Glad that you're all safe squiggleywiggler. The crap sleeping and tantrums are also regular events in the FP house again, I am trying to put it down to the learning to speak and the brain being unable to switch off properly, something akin to the growth spurts but just in the brain instead.

DH had the call from his dad at 12.30am to say that his nan had gone. Apparently it was peaceful, painless and all of her children were there with her. It was very quick seeing as he had the call at about 5.30pm and at midnight she died - very sad as we saw her about 10 days ago and they were all set to discharge her because she'd recovered so well!

Oddly, DD woke up on the stroke of 12, DH spoke to his sister today and apparently DN (who has slept like a log all night since newborn) also woke up on the stroke of 12, and their cousins little boy (so their Nan's other great-grandchild) fell out of bed at midnight.

They all think it was their Nan getting the children up to play, which is rather a nice thought :)

Quick update cos feeling groggyish from the general anaesthetic. If you could imagine the best outcome of the surgery possible ... that's what happened!!

:) :) :)

Not much scarring. Scarring pretty much limited to cervix (a bit a top of uterus too). But my uterus walls hadn't collapsed shut or anything nasty like that, and he could see my tubes. Good outcome.

Great news shroomer!

Bet you're looking forward to normal periods your next bfp now!

Hurray for Shroomer :)

Flip glad to hear the scan went well. I'll keep everything crossed for TinyFlip (Fliss I loved your expression :) . Sorry to hear about your DH's nan. And how weird was all the children waking up at the same time....

squiggleywiggler nice to see you again. I really hope that you and all the MMM mums in london will have a peaceful night. it just looks terrible on TV

Manda I understand that this time must be difficult. Just be kind to yourself.

Nothing new here, apart from the terrible rain :( PD how are things on your side?

Hope everyone is well
x

(I am not kidding on that one btw)

evitas, yep, v v wet here - I am off tomorrow and will need to find a way to entertain my 2 littlies without drowning us all. I do have a pair of teeny-tiny welly boots I could try Joe in .

shroomer, phandabbydosy news! Really delighted for you.

Manda, sorry to hear are feeling sad at times. Of course you are. Who wouldn't be?? Be kind to yourself and eat chocolate. I so hope things will look up in time.

Fliss, glad to hear you are doing well .

I am at all your talking babies - v cute. Joe says 'hiya' for hello and goodbye and clearly understands stuff, but no other words. I cannot wait for chat. He certainly does know how to make himself understood though - and it's NOISY! And he is a mad, evil climbing genius - he can now scale our play fort thing in the garden and slide down the big-boy-slide himself ! He is also scarily fast on our Wheelybug ladybird ride-on thing (best toy, ever. In the history of toys ).

squiggley, I hope you did not have anything too heartbreaking going on.

All of you living close to riots/looting, do keep safe. It is so sad to see the pointless violence, loss of life and property - I just fail to see any kind of 'political' aim behind it all; just total lack of perspective in life, no sense of responsibility for their actions I am so saddened for the families of those 3 young man who were killed .

Today is DH's birthday, we had steak and .
I feel an early night coming on...

PD Jealous of DS on the ride-on toy - DD sits on hers and occasionally scoots backwards looking confused.

Shroomer Fantastic news

As for the good news that I inferred to earlier - it appears that my Shredding has been in vain and it serves me right for not doing it sooner. I woke up at 2.30am on Tuesday feeling very sick indeed and thought it was a little early for the post-anniversary-wine hangover to be kicking in, had a little maths-and-light bulb moment and by 6.30am had not one, but two BFPs (just to make sure!)

Am VERY early on (4+5) and DH and I agreed not to tell anyone but with the call about his nan in the evening, we told his mum so that she could tell his nan. There you have it, the circle of life in full swing.

, congrats, Fliss!

Yay Fliss!!! So pleased for you! I read your first message yesterday and thought, I bet I know what the good news is! Anyway, my smuggery aside, it really is very exciting news and hearing it hopefully has helped your DH's nan.

Shroomer - very pleased to hear the encouraging news from your surgery. You must be very relieved. So - full throttle ahead, eh?

Flip - great news on your scan. Sounds like miniFlip is making him/herself comfortable.

manda - really sorry to hear that you are struggling to get back to the normal you but, as others have said, that's surely only to be expected. Thinking of you, though. You'll get there .

Squiggley - scary to be that close to all the insanity of the last few nights. It just defeats reason, doesn't it? So much ignorance, idiocy, hopelessness and entitlement all rolled into one. (Who heard the BBC interview with those 17 yo girls? I was so dumbstuck - naive that I am, obviously) that I had to listen twice.)

Pacific - sounds squelchy up there. But hope you enjoyed your and early night and have managed to think up a way to entertain your two little 'uns. Oh, am I right in thinking that you have a Merrell Wakefield? I have been lurking on some of the waterproof coats threads on S&B, as am trying to decide what to buy for my upcoming (most likely cold and wet) summer holiday. I only have a bog-standard hillwalking stylee Sprayway or a "shower-proof" Boden coat. Quite fancy the Merrell as I fancy it would be OK for mooching around the shops/playground etc. Would you recommend? Or do you have something else?

Re speaking: aside from "dat dadun" for "that's Daddy", "quack quack" and "bye-bye" (if that counts as two words), DD is a one word child. I think "duck", "shoes" and "mi'k" (milk) are her favourites right now. It's really noticeable how much her speech has come on in just the last fortnight. As someone upthread said (sorry, forgotten - sleep-deprived. again), maybe this learning to talk lark has something to do with the bad sleeping. DD has still never (never, you hear me!) slept through but the last few nights have been goddamn awful and, consequently, I feel like the walking dead. Had a massive list of stuff I wanted to get done at work today but here I am, mainlining caffeine and typing this instead.......

Thanks ladies :) Only popped back in to say anyone on FB, PLEASE PLEASE don't mention it as we've not told anyone else (my parents included) and suddenly got a bit paranoid that it might be let slip!

Ooh, lots of exciting news! Glad to hear the procedure went well and the outcome was good Shroomer.

And yay Fliss, congratulations! On a separate note, Izzy is just now getting the hang of her Wheelybug, and even now she sometimes just pushes it round (in weirdy hunchback stance). Sorry to hear about your DH's nan; your post about all the children waking up at midnight brought a tear to my eye.

Happy birthday MrDogwood (DrDogwood?) :)

squiggley hope everything's calmed down near you.

Sariska I think I remember Arcadie hypothesising a while ago that developments often seem to be preceded by a few sleepless nights. Makes sense (and maybe makes it easier to deal with if we know that it's a) temporary and b) for a purpose!).

Uh oh, I think she's waking up. Time for lunch. (And quickly, on that note; how do I switch Izzy's nap from before lunch to after lunch? She's tired at about 10.30-11am; if I try to wait till after lunch she's practically asleep in her highchair! I think she'd sleep longer after lunch though, and the afternoons are loooong with no nap.)

...I think she's settled again. This morning I finally got around to phoning a local nursery to make an appointment to go and see it. It looks good from the website and would be very handy (about 5 mins' walk away), but I'm not sure whether to hedge my bets and go and see some others too, or just wait and see how this one looks first. And I think I'm giving up the idea of going back to work part-time; there just aren't any part-time jobs around in my field :( I've been really lucky to stay at home with Izzy this long though tbh, so I shouldn't complain really.

Definitely go and see some other nurseries - if only to confirm that you did indeed pick the right one first time

Fliss how wonderful! A tinyFliss on the way! Congratulations

MissP I think our childminder adjusted V's nap time gradually. Like everyday she would just push it 15 or 30 minutes, and now he goes to sleep around 1pm, or if he's very tired around 12.30ish.

Sariska... could she be teething? my sympathies. how is work going? Not long before the masters starts, is it?

PD hope you had a good evening yesterday.

time to go back to work. One of my supervisors is pushing me to the limit... but I just need to keep calm, just another couple of weeks before submitting the thesis.

Fliss congratulations . Delighted to hear your news (also suspected as much when I read your earlier message!). Sorry about your DH's nan, but I'm glad she got to hear your good news before she went.

MissP would also recommend going to see a few other nurseries - we went with our first one but it was really interesting to see others, as there are such different styles. We did the same thing with childminders this time - spoke to a few but have gone with the first one we saw...on the nap front, it's not something I've cracked as at nursery DS sleeps after lunch (so much more going on there) but at home he's usually napping by 10am. But then I don't usually take him out and about in the morning and I bet if I did he may well stay awake later. I quite like the morning nap though, as it means we can head out all afternoon without worrying about him sleeping!

Manda sorry to hear you're struggling, but you've had such a traumatic time of it that I think you're doing amazingly. It's still so recent, and your body is still healing. Try not to worry too much about the LP, though I used to take high dose B Vit complex myself when I worried about my LP before I had DS (my LP is about 12 days). But it may also be worth a trip to your GP for some advice.

PD hope you had a good celebration for MrPD last night - the flooding and weather sounds awful for you guys (you too Evitas and is it with you too Heckle?).

Big waves to everyone else.

PS Shroomer meant to say absolutely delighted to read your update - great news that it went so well!

Any words of wisdom here re Joe's dietary requirements? - he is driving me nuts with fruit/veg refusal!

MissP, absolutely go and see other nurseries, even if it is just to confirm that your initial decision was the right one. Maybe you wouldn't want to hear that I looked at lots of nurseries for DS1 which helped me decide to go for a CM .

Sariska, yes, I am the proud owner of a Wakefield and it is fab! Properly water proof, none of that wimpy 'shower resistent' nonsense, goes just beyond my knees (I am 5' 6'') and does not necessarily look like it belongs up a mountain, so all good. It does have freakishly long sleeves, but frankly, rather too long than too short. Also, it is quite taylored which was fine when I bought it, but the recent dampness seems to have shrunk it around the waist ...

Still raining here. Apparently it is to be better from Wednesday again - not soon enough, as my parents are going to be here for a long weekend returning my big boys to us and they will tut...

Toodles, all

Congratulations fliss

I'm in panic mode. We are travelling tomorrow to portugal. We had a baptism on Monday and then V's baptism will be on Sunday 21st (huge family gathering). I'm so stressed. Still need to pack and the worst of all I'm taking my laptop = work with me :(

enjoy the weekend
x

Hi all,

my apologies again for being a post and run person atm.

1. Congrats Fliss - really pleased for you. Looking forward to living vicariously through your experiences.

2. Shroomer so pleased it's gone well. It's been tough times for you my lovely, but that sounds like a good result

3. Manda I'm so so sorry to hear of all the conflicting emotions in your head. It must be such a stomach lurching time getting close to when little T was due. I think of you often even when I'm not on here and hope that you're healing.

4. PD re food intake.... assuming he's not coming down with scurvy I would: keep offering him fruit and veg. Make a game of eating it (like a chipmunk / crocodile / faster than your brother / eat a whole tree of brocolli). Purée it and hide it unscrupulously in stuff. FWIW Simeon mostly abhors anything healthy and lobs it around. Older two were much better at everything

5. sariska and MissPenteuth To add fuel to the sleeplessness hypothesis- Simone's just had a ton of sleepless nights followed by: a desire to talk!!! Still mostly garbled nonsense but the occasional "door" "Diddy" (his big bro) and, according to a load of people on the kids camp we were running "I can seeeeee yoooooou"

6. flip Glad it's all still going well.

7. skidd you still on t'other thread? Nice to see BT's little girl on FB!

and arcadian news.....

Urm.....

There isn't any here - but as Misspenteuth correctly spotted from Facebook I am an aunty AGAIN.

Brother and SIL have had I O N I E (It's Greek for Violet apparently) who is so cute and squinchy and snuggly. Sadly for us ( although great for them) they're moving to Dublin in a couple of weeks.

Sister and BIL are doing well with Maddy and Soph - the girls are home now and getting on really well, although apparently not settling well at night. I can't imagine how hard it is to get TWO BABIES to go to sleep......

Simeon is still super cute. So smiley and happy (apart from when DS1 attacks him randomly) toddling about, hitting people with sticks and blunt instruments and throwing anything he can get his hands on. Revelation of the fortnight is that I think some of the sleep issues were just that he wasn't getting enough exercise. now we make sure to go for walks most days and have taught him some rules for road safety so we can trot round on the pavements.

OK Must go to bed. DH on night shifts and I may have another 5:45 start again tomorrow!!!

Lovely to hear from you Arcadie :) I'm so glad to hear your DSis' twins are home and doing well, especially after what must have been such a frightening experience with the TTTS. And awww at "Diddy", that's very cute.

Hope you got packed and off to Portugal evitas. I'm sure V's baptism will be lovely.

I have a manic few weeks coming up; wedding anniversary and seeing friends this weekend, sister and Dad visiting next weekend, then DH's parents visiting, then travelling up to Aberdeenshire to visit DH's grandparents, then DH's sister staying with us while she looks for a flat in London, then DH's parent's visiting again, then my sister's wedding mid-September. That's probably more socialising than I usually do in a year. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.