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.

Flip I think work is a really good "theraphy". At least (in theory) you need to focus to have it done

donttry building a house is a huge project, and it can a give you mix of feelings: joy if it goes according to plan and a lot of headaches if things things start to deviate from the original plan and "budget" (this is my experience as an architect). But it's very rewarding to have your "dream home"

I'm also having rough days: my best friend found out this morning that she had lost her baby. She went for the 12 week scan and the foetus had died nearly 4 weeks ago but she didn't have any symptom. This was her first pregnancy and she's also gutted. Another very good friend, found out last week that her 6 month baby has cerebral palsy. She started noticing that he wasn't reaching the milestones and still had very primitive reflexes.
Oh dear... I really don't know how to behave, what to say to both of them...

Love to everyone, especially Manda and Flip

My HV is coming around this afternoon for DS' 1 year review. Not sure what it involves other than weighing him and checking he's meeting milestones.

I've got myself some work with an American uni (but working online), starting in May/June. So I've arranged to put DS into nursery 2 days a week. Even if I don't get enough work to fill 2 days, I'll be happy if I get enough work to pay for his nursery and for me to have some time to myself. It's silly but I've been playing out conversations in mind where I'm on the defensive (relative/stranger/friend:'Why do you want to work?' Me:'because I can't not work in my field for 2 years and expect to jump back in'; 'because I would like the money'; 'because it's good for DS') Arghhh. Why do I feel the need to prepare a defence?!

On a lighter note, I was looking after a friend's posh beanbag the other day. DS managed to get into the room where it was being kept and nosedived into it. He has a cold. Nuff said. My friend called to say she'd be over in 5 mins to pick it up. I had a hairdryer on it trying to dry up the snot.

Shroomer if you think a bit of snot is bad, try reading this thread

evitas your poor friends. Awful situations all round :(

I know what you mean about feeling defensive about going back to work. In an ideal world you wouldn't need to, but it may be worth having a stock answer (and not just "bugger off it's none of your business" ), rather than feeling flustered and later thinking "I wish I'd said [X]". "I need to keep my hand in and it's good for DS to socialise at nursery" sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Oops, mixed up my paragraphs a bit there, the last one is to Shroomer also.

Yeah. My friend should be grateful it was snot not poo.

Shroomer you just made me laugh @ the snot story!
I you don't mind may I ask: What is your field? how did you find the job, I mean did you use any specific American academic website? I'm asking because I'll need to start job hunting soon, and academia and research are not doing well, and I'm getting nervous

evitas - it's taken me ages to find this freelance american thing. I'm only doing it to keep the CV ticking over and get a bit of income - you'll see it on jobs.ac.uk at the moment - Walden uni. Google Laureate group too. You're right though - there's nothing out there at the moment for researchers/lecturers (my field is psychology and education, specifically research methods and stats, oh God I've just fallen asleep).

Shroomer - so you are the right person to help me with my factor analysis and logistic regression

(shroomer quietly sneaks out of the room and comes back with a new name and an occupation which doesn't require knowledge of factor analysis or regression, such as Spider Trainer).

shroomer at spider trainer! Am a fan of spiders in theory but in reality I turn into a gibbering wreck around them. If you could have seen the size of the spider my DH liberated from our living room last night...honestly, it was the size of my fist! Well done on the freelance work though.

just checking in- how is everyone?

WE're well - Simeon's sleeping through (ish) and occasionally eats food rather than just lobbing it on the floor.

He's still not quite walking on his own but just wants to push things around and walk behind them all day.

Oh and he's taken to tantrumming by lying flat on the floor in the manner of a much older child. Super. Glad he's picked wisely when choosing what to be precocious in.

Mighty sad and worrying times for our family though. You might remember that my sister is 20 odd weeeks with twins. They've just picked up twin to twin transfusion syndrome and have operated on her placenta today to cauterise any of the blood vessels that the recipient twin is using to nick all the donor twin's vital nutrients etc.

We're just waiting on the scan to determine whether the operation was a) successful or perhaps b) has caused a miscarriage. Given the situations with Manda and Flip too (I hope it isn't heartless to say this) I am just so overwhelmingly grateful that I have my healthy kids after nigh on trouble free pregnancies. I don't think I ever really thought about anything going wrong.

Those of you that pray - please do. Those of you that send good vibes in people's directions - please send them towards Birmingham now!

rkd Nope, I haven't found that a heartless comment That's how it is for most of us; blithely carrying on unawares until we're hit ourselves (or someone close to us) be it pregnancy or any other situation, really. And, that's how it should be! I never worried an iota when pregnant with DD and DS1 (even though DS1 was a relatively high risk pregnancy). I'm sure, if I decide to 'try again' that I will be a quivering wreck until I hold my healthy baby (following another super-quick labour that - imagine! - was actually painless! ) but I sure don't begrudge another woman not worrying, or being grateful for having had 'good' pregnancies. I wish that for all of us, as much as I know it'll never be true.

As I'm actually having a fairly 'good' day today, (the first) so I do have some spare positivity - it's all heading in the direction of Birmingham for your DSis and DTs. The good news is the TTTS has been picked up, I hope upon hope they've corrected it and it all ends beauifully.

Can you all stop mentioning spi... spi... arachnids, please? I can't even lurk if the 'orrible, 'airy monsters are gonna be hanging out here!

Funny. My neighbours phobic of those too. Won't mention em again.

Arse. NEIGHBOUR'S.

RKD thinking of your sister and DT. I'll pray for them
Manda glad you are starting to feel a bit better
Flip also thinking of you.
Shroomer definitely not a good idea to change the name. I promise I wont ask for any help

Everyone back home is very worried about the economic situation. We all knew it was bad... but, there was some hope the government wouldn't ask for financial help. Anyway, I love the British humour: "Poor"tugal :)

Thought you were Argentine evitas.

RKD fingers crossed for sis.

Just back from yoga

manda quick run there's a spider running up the back of your sofa!!!

Hi Ladies, I've not been at my usual office this week at work so havent had time to skive off come on the thread for a few days. Hope you're all well and sorry Flip and Manda for your losses.

Hope you're all well and had lovely Mother's Days. Im gearing up for my Birthday weekend in Leeds next weekend with the rest of my family. And looking forward to chilling out in a park this weekend should the weather hold up.

Just came online to quickly update my iPod, off to bed now cause I'm shattered and could do with the beauty sleep

Have a lovely weekend if Im not on before then x x

RKD! omg- hope all is well for your sis and her babies x

hello been lurking and just want to say how sorry I am to hear your awful news flip and manda and how impressed I am with your fighting spirits in this awful time. Glad work is helping flip and that you're feeling positive today manda

Also sending lots of good vibes to RKD's sister, how scary for everyone but fingers crossed all will go well

evitas - have you read Andy Field for stats help? I can't bear him personally but he is quite good at explaning stats, especially regression

shroomer - I am also a psychologist with a interest in education (reading) - how wierd is that? Also potentially unemployed come September and also feel the need to justify any kind of working-related decision if only in my imagination...

All going well here, DS2 still not walking but almost almost there - also VERY stroppy atm - can a 13 month old have tantrums??

DS1 has suspected ASD - first assessment last week - all very stressful but am still hoping he might turn out to be OK and if it is ASD it is very mild - this parenting thing doesn't get any easier, does it?

(PS It's DrSkidaddle)

Morning all

Am very itchy. Have just spotted nits in one of the children.

That's made you forget about the spiders, hasn't it?!

After a horrendous performance on Monday bedtime from DD, I cracked, and we have undergone CC at bedtime. Never ever thought I'd advocate it, and when we tried it months ago it didn't work. But after 90mins of her screaming and kicking whilst being held on Monday, I gave up, and put her in the cot. And by 9pm was asleep. And 8pm on Tuesday. And 8pm Wednesday. And 7pm last night.

Middle of the night is still pratting-about time, but even last night, it only took a quick swig of milk and a couple of 'lie-down' moments from me before she went to sleep (instead of the four times by 1am AND 4am that DH went through the night before)

But argh, NITS!

Sending good vibes to your sister Arcadie, it must be so terrifying.

Glad the sleep training is going well Fliss. Sleep here is still a bit hit and miss, although I have tried putting Isobel down awake for naps a couple of times now (used to cudle her to sleep after a bottle), which seems to be working.

RubyLovesMayMay nice to see you on the thread again. Hope you have a fab birthday, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather for you :)

Manda, I'm glad to hear you're having better days. I hate spiders too; I won't even touch the picture of one in one of Izzy's books.

Hope everyone's enjoying lovely sunshine. It's gorgeous here, almost too hot for me actually! And how do I persuade Isobel to keep her hat on apart from staples?

Skidd Another psych - that is weird! I second the Andy Field book recommendation.

DS had his 1 year jabs this morning. They've changed the regime so he got his 13m jabs at the same time. He cried the minute he saw the nurse - I wonder if he could have remembered he from his 4m old jabs?!

Ugh. Nits. They must be a form of the s word non?

Arcadie how stressful for your sister . I can't even imagine how scary that must be, but I really hope the op was a success and she delivers two healthy babies. I'm sending shedloads of positive vibes to Birmingham. Please update us when you can.

Skid DS (12 months) can walk but doesn't really. He's king of the cruising and crawling (which he started at 11 months after he'd started walking tottering around). How worrying about DS1. I hope it works out OK.

Donttry of your yoga - must start yoga again. I'm jealous of my work colleagues, as they're all at the yoga class subsidised by work and taught by one of the hottest men I've ever seen (a Spanish former dancer - no wonder it's a popular class ) but my shorter lunch breaks mean I can't. Was also that you thought Evitas was Argentinian (though of course I can see why!).

Evitas the news from home must be worrying for you - I found the situation in Ireland stressful, although I live in the UK quite a few of my family work in the public sector back home and have had paycuts of 25%. At least they have jobs, but it's been a horrible time for them. Though Poor-tugal is classic though!

MissP keeping a hat on DS is a challenge but I persevere (mainly as his scanty hair is super blond and he's inherited my pale Irish skin, so I worry that I'll have old wifeys scolding my mothering if I let him out and about without a hat on in the sun! Feel like I should have a sign around his neck saying "don't worry, I'm slathered in factor 50"). I found one with a chin strap, which helps. But mainly it's being eagle eyed (he chucks them out of the buggy) and sitting under shade when at the park. I have had moments of thinking about super glue though...yesterday for the laugh I was trying to get him to wear the baby shades DH got him last year. They last all of 5 seconds!

Big waves to everyone else - hope you're all enjoying the fine weather. It's scorchio here and I love it (even if I had to de-disgustify my toes this morning before breaking out the flip flops!).

Had my final scan at the Whittington today and it's officially all over. I'm feeling relatively lucky, as I had no pain, the bleeding is now stopped and I can actually feel my body gearing up to ovulate again. Amazing things, our bodies. That this day last week I was still pregnant and now my body is gearing up to ovulate again. But relative to others, I feel like physically at least it's been OK.

Have taken the day off, DS is in nursery, so my and DH spent a lovely lunch picnicking in the back garden. He's now working from home and I'm about to head back out (possibly with a glass of wine...is it too early in the day for a glass of wine??).