Feb 2010 - we're stroppy, sassy and splendid (and that's just the mums!)

[BigBadBear]

New thread!

Fantastic news bc

BC that's brilliant news, really excited for you

BBB that would be great, do you have paypal so we can cover postage?

DH is better today, it isn't displaced so doesn't need plaster or anything more. He's been told to use it as much as it allows with exercise being important but realistically we're looking at a few weeks before he can lift DD. They drained loads of blood from it this morning and that improved things loads. Some kid pushed him off his bike as he cycled past (luckily with no traffic around)

He has tomorrow off work as leave that he sorted out just before leaving yesterday so we'll use that as our anniversary. We had a bit of a blow up last night, but things are starting to get out in the open so that's a good thing. Otherwise we don't normally row so things build up.

Not sure about a bed for DD. Looking for one at the moment actually. Going to Nigel in her one and her in a cotbed. Want to get the damp issue sorted out first before I put her so close to the ground. The sleeping bag wasn't deliberate, just the zippy thing fell apart. I think I need to force the movement to one nap now so have accepted that I need to get up and out in the mornings to make that happen. Maybe it will help sort my sleep out as well.

Me me me post coming up

DD won't go down for her afternoon nap and that's after refusing her morning nap today aswell. I wasn't too surprised about the morning nap as she's been showing signs of dropping it for a while (although always still shows the 'tiredness signs' bang on a couple of hours after waking which to me suggests she still needs it). She was so tired by lunchtime she could hardly eat (I should have brought it forward an hour, but chose to go out to a group instead ), so I cut it short and put her to bed - silence for half and hour and she's been up and down since then. I think she thinks that's her nap. I am not happy with half an hour for the whole day, partly because she needs the sleep (on top of teething she's now got a cold), and partly because I need a flipping break!!!! I am soooooooooo tired, was awake from 4.30am just couldn't get back to sleep, and I just need some time to myself

I know that I could cope better if I wasn't so tired, but I am so tired, and I am finding it such a struggle at the moment I wish I wish I wish I lived nearer my parents. I just need someone to call on to help me out for a couple of hours at short notice.

Apols for the self-pitying post! It's not such a hard life really is it.

PA glad you got stuff out in the open. The most important lesson I learned from my last relationship was that I bottle things too easily, I need to express my discontent at the time not bottle it and then complain to everyone else but not to DP. Now I make a conscious effort to tell DH when he pisses me off. I'm sure he loves it

Hope you're having a nice day today.

Bc that's wonderful news - I'm so chuffed for you!!

Aw, scones, that's rubbish when you get cheated out of a proper break. And rubbish that the insomnia is such a problem. Life always seems tougher without enough sleep, you've got every right to feel a bit self-pitying about it!

Well, I've just about got over some weird 24-hour gastro bug. Achey, feverish, no appetite, squitty, exhausted - hit me yesterday afternoon just before the PILs arrived to do a few odd jobs for us (bless them!) and disappeared this afternoon after feeling - ahem - crappy all morning and last night. I just hope I haven't passed it on to DH and DD - and if they have caught it, I hope it's gone as quickly as it was with me.....

PA DD is still talking about you and your DD - she sends her love.

IC I would like to say that DD feels the same but she is currently 'woofing' at her stuffed dog we also have first two words stringed together as she says 'night night daddy' 'nightnight mummy'. glad your illness seems to have been a short one.

scones those are the hard days. Hold onto bedtime and the fact there's a good few days just waiting for you

another 3 hour waking, 12:30-3:30, just as I was going to sleep. I hope today is at two nap day.

Also having nap problems here. dd2 is determined to drop her one nap of the day after lunch. Right now she is jumping in her cot and very much awake... If she sleeps she does at least 2 hours and is then impossible to get to bed before 8 in the evening. If she does not sleep she turns into a little monster by 4pm and has to be in bed at 6. Can't win either way... I'm reluctant for her to drop the lunchtime sleep because I really need that break in the day [selfish emoticon]

Aw, bad luck PA and BG....

Two weeks ago, my MIL airily told me it was easy to get toddlers to take a nap. When I asked her what variety of magic she employed for this, she said, "Just read them a story and get slower and slower and slower..watch their eyelids droop."
I decided to give it a try then and there, and yep - it worked on DD and still does. The best books are ones with a "listable" situation on the last page. I just go round and round reciting the names of things in the picture and it does indeed (usually) work like magic.
Anyway, I thought I'd pass on the tip in case any of you could make use of it.

I'm a bit concerned because it's DH's 30th birthday on Tuesday and I haven't organised anything for it. He'll be at school all day and won't want to stay up late, so I'm a bit limited. I think I'll attempt to bake him a cake and do something a bit special for dinner (not sure what, yet!) and I'm organising an intimate lunch do the following Sunday with his sister, her DH and a couple of friends. He really doesn't want to make a big deal of it. But if anyone has any thoughts to offer, they'd be very welcome...!

IC I think your plans for your dh sound lovely. How about a handmade card from Rosie eg with hand or foot prints? My two love making cards for daddy and he does appreciate the effort they have put in even if the result is often pink and glittery and a little messy

Lovely idea, BG

well she had two good naps today thankfully, so the day flowed quite nicely in the end. Go back to one nap tomorrow if the night goes OK.

I really can't remember what I did for DHs 30th. I know we went away for a weekend but I think his family paid for that. We've done the prints for both fathers days so I think that tradition will remain. What about moving his b'day to a better day.

Permission to moan? (and stands head held slightly lower than usual next to tired Scones afer a 3.5 hour night - DS2 was able to tell us he had a sore tummy).

DH is away for the weekend. We did a Sainsburys order earlier in the week for tonight so that I'd be set up for the weekend (and onslaught of the 'helpful' inlaws tomorrow). The time slot came and went for delivery and finally I rang our local store. It has disappeared into the ether. I have nothing but homemade dairy free chocolate cookies to give DS1 in the morning and the fool on the end of the phone seemed to find this vaguely amusing. So, DS1, DS2 and I will be traipsing to the store in the morning to do the weekly shop after all, having neatly copied out by hand the 'order that never was' from the screen. If I wasn't so tired (and still migrainy 5 days later, but that's a different story), I'd be amused/take it as a challenge. As it is, I've had a little weep and I'm going to bed ready for another tricky night with two coughing boys for company over the monitors.

Sorry.. rant over..

Scones and PA I hope things are soon looking up for you. Having a baby and a toddler will be easier than this bit, except for those odd occasions like today when the one who was up in the night has a lie-in while you have to get up with the other one ...

IC hope you are feeling better and the others don't catch it. I held two parties for DH's 30th and he took me out for dinner for mine - I'm still moaning about it and I'm nearly 35!! Like the hand print idea.

I'm not even going to mention naps for fear of jinxing my hour of salvation each day!! The in-laws will no doubt want fascinating conversation during it tomorrow, or wind DS1 up so he won't sleep at all.

p.s. Took the boys to a toy shop this p.m. to buy a new jigsaw to keep us busy during the rainy weekend ahead without DH (as jigsaws, being educational, are surely guilt-free shopping?!!) I turned round from said jigsaw display to find DS2 had climbed over a dolls' house (using the floors in it as steps) and into the window display. He obviously took the owner's instructions to 'let the children' explore quite literally! DS1, not to be outdone, then climbed his way up the filing system in my office when I popped in to find something. I really cannot believe that all children are like this?!!

bethy DS is like this which mean that my hairs are turning white as he is so fearless.

scones poor you but it will get better once baby is out.

It seems that DS is also experimenting dropping his only nap of the day, we shall see.

Rant alert
I knacked this morning as DH phone has been ringing 5 times for an hour during the night (a member of staff left yesterday and was trying to get his job back). DH did not answer but had to keep his phone on as part-timers were workibg instead. It's going to be a long day.

DS is awake so I need to get up. I will use the coffee machine a lot this morning.

It should read working

Huge sympathy to bethy - argh, the very last thing you need when coping with two less-than-healthy boys and in-laws.....

Likewise to SB - meh.

Well, DD did one of her occasional unexplained nocturnal wake-ups last night. The sleep training has made these much more infrequent and much more quickly dealt with when they do happen (it took DH about ten mins to get her resettled last night rather than the hour-plus episodes we were having) - but it hasn't stopped them happening entirely.

I wonder if DD occasionally has a nightmare or night terror and that is why she sometimes gets upset in the night. She's already showing that she's got an imagination by playing "pretend" games, so it wouldn't surprise me.

Anyway, I repaid the favour by getting up with DD at 06.45 and letting DH have another hour in bed. Well, it is his birthday soon...!

Bethy let us know how you survive the weekend. OTOH your second post made me laugh and I do find them reassuring. I've been taking DD to a coffee shop for an hour once a week, luckily people don't seem to mind the climbing and running around and begging for biscuits and stealing the sugar cubes left on peoples saucers

DD was a lot better last night, quite a few quick wakings but they only required intervention. She was generally unsettled and struggled with deeper sleep for several parts of the night. She also knows about weekends but has got the wrong message so gets up too early. Which means just as I have some help to get her through on one nap, she needs to have two; with the first catching up on night sleep (well if she goes off that is). It was 6:15 today so not too shocking. Wonder what's working through her head atm.

IC I would not be surprised if you DD had nightmares/terrors as I'm sure DS does too.

bethy good luck with the shopping

PA at the begging

Oh dear, we all sound a bit weepy and sleepy and tired (ten points to anyone who recognises the literary reference).

beth hope your shopping trip was OK.

SB, PA, hope you are both OK.

IC your plans for DH's birthday sound lovely (though I am reeling at how young he is). Mine and DH's birthdays are within a few days of each other so when we both turned 30, we took the week off work and went to the north Norfolk coast to a gorgeous B&B for amazing food and long walks on the beach (which I had arranged for him), and then he took me to Budapest. I came back pregnant with DD1!

I have absolutely no idea what I did for my 30th... too long ago [feeling old emoticon...]

BBB at your trip to Budapest and the little surprise you brought back. I took dh to Berlin for his 40th and then from Berlin to Budapest for three nights, and back to Berlin... The Budapest trip was a real surprise to him (thank you easyjet) and we have very fond memories.

IC I also wonder about dreams. dd2 freaked us out a week or so ago by waking very upset about 11pm and telling us 'Oma' (grandma) had been to see her in her room. dh and I have seen too many ghost movies and for a moment got very very scared that something had happened to my mum!!! Well, I managed to wait to the morning to phone and she was very chirpy and very alive

Well I'm back from DDs swim lesson and we all had a good time. She cried because she didn't want to get out at the end bless her. No way could DH have done it and I suspect despite his protests he won't be able to do it next week either. Not sure why I was apprehensive about getting in with her but it was a doddle. An old pair of big shorts and a maternity vest did the job admirably, really glad I didn't spend money on a swimsuit.

spooky stuff BG

BG great pix

Off to bed now, both DH and my mobile phones are off so we should sleep fine.

Night all

Thanks for the support folks. Today I've been at the top of my game, all because I only had to deal with one short wake up which was early in the night. Isn't it amazing what a difference sleep really can make? Shopping was actually fine and we were home by 10a.m. I have to say I actually felt very proud of myself, which is ridiculous because so many parents take more children shopping than I did every week without batting an eyelid! I had a rest this afternoon (and the inlaws were great, to give them their due) and when I got out of bed my pelvis (SPD/PGP) was not happy that I had pushed 4.5 stone of boys and a full trolley of shopping around a supermarket for over an hour. We'll see how it is in the morning. The good news is that DH will not be able to expect me to do it again in a hurry as a result .

PA glad the swimming went well. It's one of the last things I did with DS1 before having DS2 and you won' be able to take her for a while soon, so a lovely thing to do. Glad I'm not the only one with a crazy child. I wish you a peaceful, relaxed, jigsaw completing/picture-drawing DC2 (if you want one like that!!)

BBB like the birthday presents .

SB hope you have a quieter night.

BG and IC I'm convinced my two have vivid dreams like DH does (although hope they don't involve nipple tassles like his do - or at least that's what he's slept talked about in the past!!) DS2 started sleeptalking when he could only say, "No!" so I assume the dreams accompany it.

Anyway, off to bed now in case the bad nights return. Can't wait for DH to come home tomorrow p.m

Yepee, no staff nightmare last night, so it was a restful night ans DS even give me a lie-in until 7.30am.

bethy glad that you survive shopping but shame about your SPD

Feeling a bit ill after attending a 2 year old's birthday party... Well, they did say to the adults they could help themselves, too, so I think I overdid it a bit on the cupcakes...