Dec 08 Mums - happy new year, happy new thread and soon some happy new babies!

[sybilfaulty]

Happy new year!

Sorry for the rubbish title but wanted to get the new thread underway. Let's close the door on some of the sad events of 2011 and look forward to a better year in 2012.

Morning ladies, we are off to the slopes today. We are picking DS1 up from school at 12 then driving over to Germany. We had planned to do the 9 hour drive over a couple of days but after meeting friends and family in Australia who had driven 12 hours to see us we felt a bit woosy, so decided to do it in one go. We'll get in so late that the hotel we are staying in has left us a code to get in rather than wait up for us. I'm so looking forward to it as both boys can do ski school now so will be lovely for everyone. Last time we went DS2 was 5 months old and just had to sit in the cold and watch us have fun and eat chips.

I'm not sure if you remember but we are going to the place we went to last time, where I got chatted up, then a few hours after that I up ended myself on a bench while feeding Jordi. I had to be rescued by a bunch of hysterically laughing Germans. They were very efficient with the rescue, a lady took Jordi while the men pulled me up, while I scrabble to pull my ski tops down over my boob.

Well anyway I'm quite excited and hoping that my ankle holds out, but also have this weird belly thing, I've had a strange bowel thing lately, (TMI alert) I have really funny poo in the mornings and have to go to the loo heaps then it settles down. I know that its a symptom of giardia and I should really have gone to the drs by now but thought it might just have settled down.

Also I wanted to weigh in on the vitamin thing. As a paeds nurse I would say don't use them as kids need to learn what foods give them what vitamins so their bodies will naturally crave what they need. However, as a mum of a fussy eater I give DS1 wellkid chewable tablets and DS2 wellkid syrup (because he didn't want to miss out on something his brother was getting). I think it was Lady who mentioned the iron, its particularly important because low iron can cause a loss of appetite. I've started taking vitamins again, I think while I was breastfeeding my body did all those things that BFing bodies do to retain vits & minerals like the calcium retention thing. Anyway, since I stopped feeding DS2 I've started getting more grey hairs. So I'm taking more vits to help that, the same thing happened after I stopped feeding DS1 and it got better when I started taking vits again when I was getting myself boosted up before ttc for DS2.

Aubs, I think your a super SAHM, your putting the rest of us to shame, now stop it and go back to work. That image of DS2 singing to her class was sweet, don't know that song though, sounded very funny.

hi chaps. am of your skiiing trip vag - I'm really looking forward to going skiing en famille and have just put it back a few years. But in a lovely way DD2 still being divine - she really is an advert for babies. Am sure it won't last so am enjoying every minute. And thank goodness she is because other two seem to have one thing after another at the moment. DS has another cold/cough thing and huge black bags under his eyes. Both of them have been given asthma inhalers in recent weeks. And on Wednesday DD1 was walking across the playground when suddenly she screamed and couldn't put any weight on her leg. So we were at the GPs and in A&E then, and then all day today. the hospital were wonderful - esp the play specialist that distracted DD1 while she had her bloods done but after ultrasounds and x-rays they're still not sure what it is and she still can't walk properly . Better than on Weds when she couldn't walk at all, but she's got a terrible twisted limp thing which is a bit heartbreaking to see. We've basically got to wait and see if it gets better and then go back next thurs

so sorry self indulgent me post. DS is learning to read and is sitting next to me. he's got as far as "hi chaps" so I think I should probably stop. This is unforseen consequence. Damn that pesky school.

Hello all,

J is vomiting again. I can't believe it, it is only a few weeks since the last bug. We had to cancel all her birthday arrangements. She is crying lots too which is not like her at all. DH is away too so it is hard being stuck at home with them both. L is happy as we've been watching lots of cbeebies.

My grandad is really poorly too. He is 101 though and it is probably his time to go.

The garden is overrun with frogs looking for the pond we removed last year. I took L out to have a look. 'oh look mummy those frogs are cuddling'. Oh yes a garden full of randy frogs!

Hello ladies, sorry for long absence, i have no hope of catching up properly sorry :( things are a bit silly round here, no evenings to speak of for mn as dh has been getting home 8-8.30 most nights and I'm knackered enough to fall asleep on the sofa byt about 9.30... Ayway, E doing fine now that she got over her vomming bug, but we have trouble with S.

Basically, she's not had a poo on the loo in about a month and a half. Tracing it back, she had a bit of a sore bum when she got bunged up briefly, and since then has been holding onto her poo excessively and having lots of leaking or accidents where she refuses to poo but a bit comes out anyway. At the moment it's 2 or 3 changes of knickers a day, she sits there going red in the face and holding her bum but insists she doesn't need a poo, if we carry her up and sit her on the loo it can be a good 20 minutes with nothing happening, she throws an utter wobbly and refuses to let anyone wipe her properly and as a result her skin and bits are all sore :( this morning we missed gym club as we need to leave at 9.20, at 9 she started to look red and stiffened up, took her to the loo, she wouldn't do anything but said the poo was coming soon, and in the end she refused to be wiped so had to be showered and then it was 9 bloody 35. She's been on lactulose for a couple of weeks, but still won't actually let herself do anyhting so it's all backed up.

Any ideas for how to get her past the psychological barrier and do a blimming poo? We're ending up with having to change her pjs every night as well and nursery are regukarly throwing away knickers, but (reasonably enough) they don't have the time to sit with her on the loo for quarter of an hour every time she looks funny.

Shall now attempt to read a few pages and find out what you've all been up to while I've been up to my ears in hot washes and dettol...

Sybs, so sorry about your friend. Sending big hugs lovely.

ZJ your birth story is just gorgeous, you should post it in the childbroth topic for all those people who hear nothing but scary stories. And how amazing tnat you and your job share bo had your babies on the same day!

Beans - hurrah for your dad :)

Urbane, blimey poor dd's leg. Any improvement since yesterday?

JJ. Been there, just about coming out of the other side with ds. Hopefully.

You MUST absolutely get to the Dr and refuse to go anywhere without something better than lactulose. She is doing runny poo which seeps out because there is a blockage. This blockage is stretching her bowls but not shifting, the runny bits are poo squeezing round it. So she needs something to shift the blockage but she then MUST stay on supplements until she is completely back to normal, it takes time for the bowl to go back to normal after stretching and if you just shift the blockage and think you are in the clear then chances ar you will be back at square one within a matter of weeks.

You might find it impacts on wetting too. The pressure of the bowl on the bladder can cause leaking and everything gets screwed up. Ds pretty much has had to learn all his toileting signals again from scratch, he no longer had any idea when he actually needed a wee.

There are a couple of different things the Dr might offer you. They will be movicol which works in a similar way to lactulose but is stronger or fybogel. Fybogel bulks things up so it makes it pretty impossible for them to not poo and increases the signals they are getting. Obviously your GP will know best but I'd have thought movicol would be your best starting point. We used fybogel for ds but at the time he started it we didn't have an impaction to shift, we then added senna so that his poo was being bulked up and he was getting the signals but he was also going daily. On fybogel alone he was still only going every 3/4 days and wetting constantly.

Lactulose alone for shifting impactions in small children is useless, it really is and I don't understand why GPs keep on at it. We kept being told to increase the dose, increase the dose until poor ds was just trying to withold liquid poo it was horrible.

If you PM me your address I'll send you a great little book aimed at kids called "lets talk about constipation" which explains the problem to them with funny pictures of poo stuck in your bottom and tells them what they can do to help. It was sent to me by another MNer who has also been there.

Some tips though, make sure she drinks at least 6-8 water based drinks a day. It is also best to try to have a set poo routine, so a time of day such as after dinner when she sits on the loo to try to do a poo. Let her use the potty if she would rather (ds used the potty until he was nearly 5 for poo). Some people find dairy can be constipating so if you continue to struggle you might want to try a diet change for a while. Goat milk is much easier to digest (and you can easily get milk, hard cheese and yoghurt). you would have to do this for a couple of months to see if it makes a difference.

Hope some of that helps. Do get her to the GP on Monday though and refuse to leave until you are listened to and get more than lactulose and remember it will most likely take time to get fully back to normal.

I have another fecking tummy bug. Spent all last night feeling really sick and having huge amounts of diarrhoea. Joy.

Indith - thanks for the reply and all your experience, glad to hear ds is on the mend. With S it's not an impaction (dh has felt her tummy and it's pretty normal), so the trouble is less getting her poo to soften as persuading her just to do it. She's not sitting straining to get it out, more the opposite - a bit like when you desperately have to hold in a fart in a job interview! So in a way the medication isn't making much difference, she's making things worse for herself by refusing to poo which makes it harder (sorry everyone for this charming tmi) so when she finally does go it's sore again. She had a big soft poo in her sleep a few nightd ago so we know that the actual bowel is ok, it's her fear of doing it that is the real issue.

And of course we don't want to make it worse by constantly going on about it, but when we know she needs to go, we have to take her to the loo and that's getting to be so often. She's not a happy bunny about the whole thing :(

Hello everyone

Thanks for all your kind messages about my lovely friend. We had the funeral on Friday which was sad but wonderful, then I drank 400 pints of wine and - gasp! - smoked 20 fags at the wake. Yesterday, her sister and I spent the afternoon clearing out her dressing room, and I now have 14 bin bags of lovely clothes for the charity shop in my car. So very sad.

I have only skimmed but am very sorry about Urbane's DD's leg and JJ's DD's poo. Hope everyone on the mend a little today.

Will try to catch up properly now. thanks again for all your support and good wishes.

Love to all xx

Maybe try fybogel for a bit then, it will make it much harder for her to hold onto it and give her some bulk to push against rather than all the dribbling. Sympathies, poo trouble is just horrible.

Sybil glad the funeral went well. Hope you are ok x

Jump I've no experience but how about a book about poo? My DD is very keen on hearing about how we make poo. Maybe something about the body. Also does she go with you to the loo? Showing her you are going to poo might give her confidence to try and poo on the potty again.

Sybs So heartbreaking. Do look after yourself.

Indith Sorry to hear you are poorly again. You must be shattered.

Sickness continues here. Bleugh.

Sybs Thinking of you, I am glad the funeral went well. x

JJ No experience so can't help but I hope it all gets better soon for you.

Urbane How is your DDs leg now? Hope she's better.

Indith Could the sickness mean labour is just around the corner?

I am getting fed up now of being ill. My nose is completely blocked, my head is in agony and my throat hurts. My ears are now all funny and I can't hear properly. My nose is also bleeding when I blow it. I have a dr appointment tomorrow but I am not holding out much hope. Especially after the nurse told me to take ibruprofen and have some lemsip. Both of which you can't take in pregnancy.

Hope everyone is well.

JJ - DD1 has issues and now DD2 is struggling with constipation too. Dd1 has Movicol Paediatric Plain which gets things going after a few days. Do not get adult Movicol. We were given it initially and it just gave her squits. I now give them each a sachet every other day and it seems to be regulating. Getting either of them to drink more than one cup a day is nigh on impossible. They're like camels!! That worries me a bit too!

Sybs, are you doing ok?

Went to see Dad today. Was lovely to see him, although he does now look like he's dying, which is tough. He's suddenly looking terminal, but I think that's mostly the chemo. Hopefully he'll perk up when chemo finishes in 3 weeks. Had a weepy afternoon on DH. But then went for lone walk and am now feeling a bit happier. Girls were so well behaved, I was very proud.

Anyway, must go and do bath. Sorry for brief post.

Kayz, hope you feel better soon xxx

JJ - lots of sympathy from me about the withholding. I have a copy of 'Poo Goes Home to Pooland' which you may find mentioned elsewhere on MN if you search for withholding. It is written by someone as part of their final year of Doctoral Training in Clinical Psychology. The idea is to read it to your child to encourage them to do a poo on the loo. I can send it to you as an email attachment if you PM me your email address.

I also bought this book which was helpful.

DS's problem started when we were trying to potty train him and we had to give up as he was so miserable. It then took a while to stop the withholding when he had a nappy on! Dreading giving it another go have just been hoping DS will decide to do it one day of his own accord . Anyway, hope you get it sorted it out very soon.

Hello all, it is very quiet on here.

Urbane How is dd's leg now?

Beans Hopefully your dad will look more like his usual self when chemo is over.

Dd1 is asking all sorts of questions at the moment. Why do we have eyebrows? Why are my friends human? Why do cats have whiskers? Why don't I have whiskers? How do I see? Google is being very helpful!

JB, you need a copy of this brilliant book

Sybs, fags and booze sounds like the best way to cope in the circumstances. Do you have mementoes of your friend?

indith - hope your tum is getting better as well, kayz has a very good point there about dodgy tum = baby on the way... :)

Beans does your dad have some care from a macmillan nurse or similar?

Kayz, hope the cold goes away, it's rotten not being able to take any drugs. How about hot whisky and lemon...?

Thanks all for the advice, I had no idea so many of our kids had poo trouble... Indith and Nolda, shall PM you both, thanks. I'm trying very hard to be patient but it does get hard when I've had to shower her twice within an hour (she refuses to let anyone wipe her without shrieking) and there's a permanent smell of poo lingering over the house... Have resorted to bribes, if she has clean undies for a whole day she will get some Disney Princess knickers Has it come to this...?!

Just popping on to say wouldn't it be amazing if Indith had her baby today? I always thought 29 Feb would be the best birthday ever. Come on Indith, jump your DH, eat some pineapple and climb the stairs!

Is anyone doing anything special with their extra day? A radio program I was listening to is encouraging people to do today what they have never done before. I wish I had the time and energy to think of something. DD2 has been copiously sick in the middle of the night for two nights running. So much sick. I am exhausted. I have been pretty brave though. Maybe that's the thing I have never done before.

Urbs, how is DD1's leg? On the mend I hope. It sounded worrying.

Still pregnant.

Absolutely nothing happening.

Aubi, welldone for dealing with all the sick, that's such a big deal for you and you should feel very proud of yourself!

I have a school friend whose birthday is today, she says it's kind if funny but actually a pain in the neck when you're little as you never feel it's really your birthday - so Indith, hold on a bit longer!

Thanks very much to Indith and Nolda as well for your messages, greatly appreciated.

I'm spending the day in bed with fever, thanks very much E for passing this one on to me... though I suppose sleeping from 9am to 1pm and waking up all disoriented is something not done since student days, which sort of counts as never before :)

Hello,

Indith, are you hanging in there?

I have been to Flamingo Land today with DS2 on a playgroup trip. They have been doing about Penguins so we went to see them. It was really good and he had a great time playing on all the huge adventure playground stuff. I wanted to have a go but I wasn't allowed We did have a little disaster as all the children were given a chocolate biscuit(penguins ) and DS2 thought they were for the penguins so chucked it into their enclosure. A zookeeper had to go and get rid of it so they didnt try and eat it. Luckily everyone saw the funny side.

The boys suits for the wedding arrived today. They've just tried them on and they look so so adorable. A proper tearjerking moment.

Hope you are all ok.

well obviously you should feed penguins to the penguins? Did he give them the wrapper too? I'm sure they could do with a good joke. I love it when there is mass penguin eating, you can exchange lame jokes just like Christmas.

Still pregnant. Nowt happening. Tis a boy thing clearly, just like his brother.

How is your head Kayz?

JJ I posted today. The lady at the counter weighed it and said it was fine on a normal stamp. I was a little , hope you don't end up having to pay for it.

No I had been given the wrapper. I don't get the chocolate!

I am starting to feel better!! I went to doctor again on Monday and got more antibiotics which seem to be doing something.

That's good. Sinus pain is one of the worst things ever.

Got sickly DD2 here tonight. She's been at nursery all day while I've been down to see Dad, who was on much better form. Still not looking great, but he was up and about and wandering around. He even ATE LUNCH! Hurrah! No to Macmillan nurses as yet. He's not that far along the road yet, but they have investigated it for towards the end. How grim. But nursery called to say DD2's temperature was 37.7. So I hurtled back up to London and they called to say it had gone down to 37.1, so not to worry. Went to collect her at 4.30 as usual and they'd failed to tell me that at 4, it had gone up to 38.8. Poor little bird. Anyway, calpolled her and put her to bed. She's been asleep since 5pm. Suspect a busy night ahead. But she was being so good at nursery. Clearly felt totally shit as was just lying quietly on her bed mat. Any tips on what to do? I guess just lots of liquids. Ribena at the ready to get sugars down her.

DD1 enjoying DD2's illness as she's being allowed to watch The Incredibles and I'm letting her not have a bath tonight! Plus she's had a lollipop. Her teeth will rot. But she'll be happy and gummy!!!

How are you doing Sybs? I'm pleased your dear friend had the wonderful send off she deserved. Hope you're ok?

Indith hate to ask as I know it's seriously annoying, but how are you doing? Were DS and DD late babies too? Sending new month = new baby vibes to you

How is DD's leg Urbs? I hope you've found out what it is, or is has gone as quickly and randomly as it appeared

The poo problem sounds awful Jump, I have no advice, but it seems like you've had loads already. I hope S gets better soon and something gets her moving again

Your 'year of travel' sounds like a lot of fun LadyT, I am excited about the possibilities of where you could go and can't wait to see what unfolds. I see on FB that Pisa has had it's dramas! And Vag's ski trip pics look fab too. I hope you've both had fun on your travels?

Thank you to Jolly for the lovely card . Not more vom in your house, you must have had your share for the year now?! How is your Grandad? 101 is a cracking age and I bet he's got some tales to tell!

And Aubi is also dealing with the vomit in your house. Gross as it is, does it make you a bit proud? It should

That's great that your Dad is eating and looking well Beans. How is DD2 this morning?

Get well soon to Jump and Kayz, gosh anyone out there not ill? I love the penguin/penguin mix up Kayz!

We're all ticking along nicely here, time is just flying by. A is still being Miss Chilled, which is lovely as it's giving me time to do things with E. I know all of you have been here before me, sorry to bore, but can I ask about bedtime? A is either having a growth spurt, or starting to cluster feed, as the last couple of evenings she's fed for 20-30 minutes at a time (much longer than her other feeds) and then grizzled for about half an hour before demanding more boob. And this has gone on from 5pm til 11pm, when she's magically gone back to 3 hourly. She has timed this impeccably with DH's trip away this week, making it v difficult to sort tea for E, get her ready for bed, do stories etc. Particularly at bedtime I'd love 10 minutes to devote to E, as we normally enjoy a quick cuddle and chat about the day before lights out. If I am feeding then A is physically in the way and if she's grizzling/crying, then E doesn't like the noise. Last night I took A downstairs to feed her, 'as she was being too noisy at bedtime' and promised I be back for a cuddle with E once she'd finished, and for the first time ever E got out of bed and shouted down "I'll just wait here on the stairs Mummy, don't be long". I don't want getting out of bed to become a habit! Should I just put A in her pram and shut the kitchen door and ignore her, so we can have 10minutes quiet time, or has anyone come up with a better solution?