July 2010: now they're all 1, some me-time has begun [huge feck-off sarcasm emoticon]

[CakeandRoses]

am bf A and telling F off and have still come to the rescue.

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

Hope you're feeling better cake (I'm so glad I re-read my post for once as I'd written your real name then!)

Like kk, I have felt quite poorly today. And ds1 has been pushing my buttons today, thanksfully ds2's been pretty good.

Haven't meal planned yet tsc due to not-feeling-wellness but so far have got the following meal ingredients in my cupboards
(tonight) breaded mushrooms then quorn spag bol
quorn curry and naan bread
pasta bake

[kkfairybrains]

what's up with you mlic?
i've got a weird cold/flu type thing. feeling like complete shit all caught up in head and throat and real bad pains in my tummy the last 2 days.
i have pork chops, mince and chicken in so will be something to do with these the next 3 days and i'll freeze a bit of what we have to do E for the weekend while i'm away.
you find your lotto ticket woodlands?

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

Picked up ds2's sickness and diarrhoea bug :(

[kkfairybrains]

:( not nice. poor you i hope you're feeling better tomorrow

[Woodlands]

poor you, mlic and kk... get well soon, both of you.

I didn't find the ticket, no, and it was a lucky dip so no idea what the numbers were. However I did find £20 I didn't know I had in my jacket pocket, so that's a bonus. If there is publicity in six months time saying that the missing winning ticket was bought at Waterloo station... that was me.

[viksam]

Hello everybody,
Hope the poorly ones are feeling better!
mylife regarding the milk feeds its probably a good idea to encorage him to drop it, i really dont think he needs it, or i could start giving it to him earlier?? Ohhhh who knows!
My friends who came at the weekend are the same ones who we went to croyd with earlier in the year, they have a 10 month old and they told us at the weekend that they are expecting again! how lovely, so there will be the same age gap between their children, 17 months, and the same age gap between the new babies, 5 months as the first babies. Shes been spotting though so she has an early scan today so i'll be waiting to hear from them, really hope everythings fine.
We went for a walk up a lovely hill yesterday but D has a really bad fall and bashed his lip and nose. His nose really bled and his lip is cut, he also cut his hand and wrist. I overcompensated and stayed really really calm and just cleaned him up and waited for the bleeding to stop, then when we got back into the car i had to have a little cry, it did shake me up because there was so much blood. Hes absolutly fine now, just a fat lip and some grazes to show for it.
D was awake for an hour in the night 4-5, i didnt go in till 4.30, with what seemed like a bad tummy?? It seems that every night he wakes, WHY????????? I cant deal with this and a new baby, im shattered now today! Never mind, like everything, its just a phase.
trudyla whens ur due date? cant be long now! how u feeling?
chu are u less sick now?
cake glad u had a good party!
I have a week off this week, but have to go to basingstoke on wednesday, bummer!
whats everyone doing this week?

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

I'm feeling much better today thanks. Poor D :( It's horrible when they hurt themselves, imagine how I felt!

I don't think he needs to drop his milk feed or have it earlier, he just needs to have it in something he can hold himself so that you can feed the other lo. The only reason ds1 doesn't have his milk too close to bedtime is so that he doesn't wee all night and that doesn't work anyway but he still has a cup of milk at 5:30pm ish

[viksam]

No i really cant imagine how u felt it must have been horrid!
He does hold his own bottle but only lying flat when im changing him so i maybe should change him and start to give him it sat up. Is there anything else you did or whish you had done in preperation for #2?
I have just looked at our finances, and left D sleeping for far too long!!, we are skint and have a cot, a double buggy etc to buy and a room to do up and DH has just been moaning on about money too so god knows where we will get the dosh from!

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

First of all don't worry about a cot - baby will be in a moses basket/crib for the first 5 or so months anyway so there's no hurry there. I assume you have D's moses/crib still? Why not try to manage with your sling and single buggy for a while, until baby gets bigger and the weather gets better?

And as for doing the room up - have I mentioned the fact that my 15 months old toddler still sleeps in a travel cot in the spare room? Seriously, don't worry about trivial shit like that.

DS2 lies down on my bed and drinks his bottle watching in the night garden before I get his teeth cleaned and into bed. I sit on the bed and cuddle him, but only because I have nothing else to do at that point as I'm literally just waiting until he finishes so I can put him to bed.

No, there's nothing I remember wishing I'd done in preparation. Particularly as you're having another boy I think there's nothing you really need to worry about. Certainly not material things like cots and buggies, not until next year anyway :)

[viksam]

Tbh thats what i thought id do re the buggy unless we decide to sell the icandy before xmas but, like u, i dont really want to sell it, id like to get another winter out of it at least! Maybe something wil come up nice and cheap. I know what you mean about the room, but we are moving D into the other room as its over the garage and nice and quiet so i would feel really mean moving him from a lovely decorated room to a dingy hole. I think i am putting too much pressure on myself though i must admit. I suppose im daunted enough at the prospect of having to do it all over again when D is still a baby, i just want to be as organised as possible.

[viksam]

Im sorry im being very selfish, how are u mylife? What u doing today? Thank you for ue opinions, they are always much appreciated!

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

It won't be a dingy hole, just make sure it's clean, the walls are painted and nice and light and nothing else matters! My friend's lo slept in a cupboard drawer (pulled out I might add) for a while as she's so disorganised

I'm fine thanks :) Going to my friend's but not until her daughter finishes school about 3:15 so just hanging around until then. I was going to go to the park on the way but it's been peeing down so everything will be wet. I wouldn't mind the kids getting wet if we were coming home afterwards but we're going to my friend's so not the best idea I don't suppose.

I'm debating about making bunting for some of my friends kids as Christmas presents. Namely the younger ones who don't 'get it' yet (ie ds2's age and younger) with their names on. What do you think? I think I'd like bunting for either of the boys if someone gave them that as a present but is that just me?

[Woodlands]

aaargh. Picked J up from nursery and he hadn't had a nap - great, I have something I really have to do this afternoon. I got him home having just about managed to keep him awake in the pushchair (I can't transfer him without him waking up, and he will only have one sleep cycle in the pushchair, so only sleep for 40 minutes), and BF him. He fell asleep while feeding and just comfort sucked for ages. I kept trying to detach him but he wasn't having any of it. After half an hour (and I was really really thirsty by now after a 2 mile round trip to pick him up and then a long BF) I managed to detach him and put him in his cot, but he woke up in the process. He is now in his cot chatting away to himself. So he has had enough sleep that he won't go back to sleep, but has had a total of less than 30 minutes. And now I can't do the stuff I really need to do. GRR.

[viksam]

woods thats really annoying, what happened this afternoon?
mylife i would like bunting and i would like it even more if it was hand made with my child in mind. I had a few things hand made for D's room and one of them was bunting out of an old sheet with seaside images on.
I suppose thats why i want to do the other room up because i made D's room so lovely with bespoke things. Hope u had a nice time at ur friends this afternoon. Regarding the wet i really want an all in one suite like chu's S, so i can sit D in the sandpit and he doesnt get sand in every crev!

[Woodlands]

I think that sounds like a great idea. I have some my friend made for my baby shower which says 'Baby Woodlandssurname' on it which I love.

viksam he's managed OK actually, he's pretty tired now (watching ITNG) but has been quite cheerful. Thankfully.

[CakeandRoses]

hello all,

that's such a pain woodlands - does he usually have a nap in the morning at nursery?

how're you now mlic? the bunting sounds like a lovely idea!

vik we tried to get F a bit more independent esp as i knew i'd be having a c-sec (and we'd been so pfb with F so he didn't do anything for himself before that) - stuff like going up the stairs himself.

re the sleep - F was always terrible and we survived. you will. if dh can deal with one of them and you the other then at least you should get some good nights/periods.

A's 4th molar is all the way thru and she now has 10 teeth broken thru and 2 more on the way now. could do with a break from it.

right, pasta bake and garlic bread and mucho vino here i come.

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

That's exactly what I had/am having - pasta bake using shop bought sauce, garlic bread and mucho vino

Yes to be fair vik it probably depends on what D is doing, like cake said. I can't remember how old ds1 was when he could go up and down the stairs alone but there's 19 months between my two and the stair gates had come down when ds2 was born so probably 17 months(ish) DS2 goes up stairs alone (with me very close behind him since the 'arm incident') but he can't be trusted to come sown alone just yet. He comes down on his bum but holds my hand(s). I can't wait to take them down again - it's like taking the crib out of the bedroom, you don't realise how much room they take up until they're gone.

WRT sleep, ds1 started sleeping through fairly consistently from 18 months just in time for his brother arriving. Just because D doesn't sleep well now, doesn't mean he won't before the baby arrives :)

I'm fine now thanks :) Had a minor setback this evening but generally feel fine thank you. I'm of all those teeth though cake! ds2 has just to say broken his 8th tooth so he has the top and bottom middle 4.

How are you doing Dylth? When's your GP appt?

Trudyla are you ok? You didn't think you'd get to your due date so how you feeling?

kk are you feeling better today?

TSC my not very helthy meal plan now consists of
Monday (see above)
Tuesday - fake chicken burgers, chips, salad and coleslaw
Wednesday - quorn sausages, veg and potatoes of some sort
Thursday - enchiladas
Friday - quorn curry, rice and naan
Saturday - erm probably pizza
Sunday - fake roast dinner

[Spirael]

Can I come to all of your houses for dinner? You're making me feel hungry!

Thanks for the help regarding soft play and birthday parties. None of my friends have children yet and Mindy's the only child in the family, so I'm completely clueless about stuff half the time!

I'd like personalised bunting for M if someone gave it to me, MLISC :) I think that's a great idea for a present. There is an appalling lack of bunting in my house, but M does have her name on her door, which hopefully makes up for it a little bit.

Getting a bit disheartened with house selling at present, we haven't had a single person interested, and we're £15k cheaper than other houses on the street that are the same as ours but don't have a conservatory!

When do toddlers need to move from a cot to a bed? I'm getting worried that M's going to need to move to a bed before we can move house... But we can't fit a bed (or even a cot bed) into her room at present!

I can't believe A has so many teeth, Cake! M still only has 6, most of which appeared around her birthday. There've been no more since then... She seems subscribe to bulk-teething every six months or so.

Had a really nice weekend, I was one of the winners in the Mumsnet Kevin McCloud webchat ages back, so got to go to Grand Designs Live as a VIP and meet the man himself over a champagne breakfast. It was ace!

Then today I've booked my birthday treat for when I turn 30 next year. Fantastic seats to see my favourite Shakespeare play in Stratford-Upon-Avon, spending the night (child free - courtesy of grandparents!) in a B&B. With a 4 poster bed! I've never slept in one before.

However, to counter balance the good... My Xbox 360 has expired! [cries pathetically]

[viksam]

Well, a first tonight in our house, DH bathed D as he normally does and unusually D was lovely, hes usually really whingey. I take that time to do jobs, put washing away, cook tea etc. I had taken D's milk up and popped it on the banister because if D sees me he will want me so i have to stay right out of the way. I went up at 7 as they had been ages and dh had already put D in his sleeping bag and said he would put him down...........i had to fight the urge to take his temperature!! I wonder why he did that?? GREAT but really really weird. I looked in the mirror just to make sure i didnt look like shite!! D cried after a few mins so DH went back up to resettle him. I usually do all of that but im really pleased that dh decided to do it, id just really like to know why tonight.
cake I have a scan in 6 weeks to check my placenta has moved up, if not it will be a c-section here too, D is ok going up the staires but i havent even thought about him coming down on his own, i shall try that. Hes getting good at using his fork and spoon but only when hes in the right mood.
When was trudylas edd then? Ohhhhh we might have our first #2 already!!
stac hows R, and who phoned!!!! nightmare!

[memphis83]

hello everyone sorry ive not been on now i only have my old laptop i couldnt get the net, dh is away and im so bored its taken 4 hours to get the net on! so here I am!
cakes hope you had a lovely birthday
mlic cheeky cow that bought your pushchair can swivel, you shouldnt offer a return as it would give you extra grief of having to wait for icandy to sort but she will have it for a while john lewis told me icandy are really behind ith returns at the mo so karma has truely bitten her on the arse!
viksam I bath L then make his bottle, lie him in the cot and pass him the bottle for him to feed himself he has done it for months, he has never wanted cuddling with a bottle from really tiny, he wont drink from a beaker even if I gave him a beaker and nothing else for days he wouldnt drink it.
dh my DH wakes at 4 most days for work and still helps with the wake ups and totally takes over on a weekend, he also does all the bath rourines when he is here!

Medieval night weas fantastic but I didnt sleep well in the abbey, I was scared of falling off of the giant bed! we have also viewed the house it is amazing! the kitchen is all intergrated with a range cooker, 6 burner, double oven! our tiny table will look lost at the moment they have a 12 seater in the room! so after xmas we will buy a sofa and a new dining suite for it, it will double as a playroom, we have built in wardrobes too! we move on the 4th of nov but have keys to this place til the 8th so a nice relaxed move!
L's teeth are causing so many problems, cronic shits, banging his head, pulling his ears up 6 times a night, I cant do much more I feel so bad for him but if I took him docs they would just say its teeth but usually a few days later a tooth should appear surely, this tooth has taken weeks of me saying its bound to pop today and it never does! :( any advice? im going through so much nurofen and calpol and its not healthy for him to be dosed up like this but the doc dont agree!

[Woodlands]

oooooh the kitchen sounds fantastic memphis! no advice on the teething, it's grim, isn't it? J still only has six teeth, like Spirael's M.

J can go up and down the stairs fine on his own (though I'm always standing just below him). It's funny, he may not be able to walk but he certainly can climb - he was climbing on huge logs in the park today and on quite a big climbing frame. Not looking forward to the climbing trees stage...

Spireal am v jealous of the champagne breakfast with Kevin McC! And of the birthday treat next year. Our X-box also expired a while back, it's just gathering dust now. DH kind of wants to get it fixed/get a new one as he has all the expensive games sitting there, but we thought we might buy ourselves a Wii for Christmas.

Cake, no, J doesn't normally have a nap at nursery - he does sometimes, but it's always rather nice if he doesn't as then I have a chance to do stuff at home while he sleeps! I don't know how he goes through till 1.30, at home I can't keep him awake past about 11am.

[WhatSheSaid]

Spirael A went from cot to bed when she was about 2 and a half - mainly because G was due a couple of months later. I know of 1 family that had their 14 month old in a bed (I think with bed guard - we never used one) because they needed the cot for their second dc. Which Shakespeare play are you going to see?

School holidays here so A is off pre-school, it's quite nice just lazing around in the mornings and not having to get her out of the house at 8.30.

No meal plans here, I'm trying to go a bit low-carb for me as last time I was at the drs I weighed a kilo more than I did the day after giving birth . Depressing and I can't even call it baby weight anymore. So I'm not doing anything too drastic but am trying to cut out v carby and sugary stuff. I have never been on a diet in my life, always just stayed around a 10-12 but I am going to have to do something now.

G is on top form, wrecking everything she gets her hands on.

[memphis83]

woodlands I went into Blockbusters today with my mum and they had pre owned Wii's for £50! they have a warrenty too! was looking at an xbox 360 for dh they are 160 with a game he like shooting games I wasnt going to get him one until his birthday in march as we werent planning on moving til after then as I wont have it in the living room but now we will have a playroom for L and DH he can have one in there!
spirael I know its not healthy but my half brother is 4.5 and didnt come out of his cot til his 4th birthday and he is the size of a 6 yo, she doesnt need to be moved until she is toes to bottom head to the top, obviously that isnt what people usually stick too but if you havent got the room til you move it will be ample til 2 at least!
my meal plan is
tonight waffles and fishfingers
tues probably the same as dh wont be back til about 10pm and would have eaten out
and the rest of the week we will be using up all the wedges, fries and meat in the freezer that we have!
just cancelled my virgin tv and net as they dont do the villages and sky and talk talk dont provide free net into the village so looks like I will be paying silly amounts for tv and net, gutted as this is one of my bills!

[kkfairybrains]

Still feeling rough here. Have beem crying all bloody day too which hasn't helped. My db moved to london today. It was only decided last night as my cousin was over for the weekend and got him a job over there driving a van delivering around europe. He's been stuck in a rut here for a long while now with no job and no will to get one either. So happy for him cos its a new start but he's had to leave his gf here and now mum will be at home by herself. He was very lonely going and drove over an hour to me to see E before he went. So sad day all round. Really glad i'm going over on thursday now cos at least if he needa help wit anything I can give it to him.
Memphis that house sounds amazing!

[MyLifeIsStillChaotic]

Memph that kitchen sounds fab! I'm wel jel
And as for having a playroom

ds1 has a terrible cough but no temp at the moment. He got calopl at about 2am, ds2 woke at 5.45, I gave him a bottle as I was too tired to get up then ds1 up for the day at 6.45.