December 2011: Of Mice, Men and Tables

[NorthernChinchilla]

Here we go...I hope!

Thanks all, still bleeding :(. aethel that's why I never test early. My luteal phase is 17 days, I'm 11 days late so I assume far too late for implantation? If I were miscarrying when would my hcg levels go down to zero, ie how soon will I be able to know? If the faint line keeps getting darker does that mean there's still some hope? Sorry but I have a million questions!

mopsy poor thing, I'm crossing my fingers for you that it's not chicken pox.

Sorry dsm, nearly bedtime!

I think putting this week in a box is a good idea. Our friend who wanted to buy the flat gets a decision from the bank tomorrow, bound to be a no this week. It's taken over a week so we're not optimistic. My mum normally comes round on Sunday night, thankfully she's on holiday so at least I can mope in my pjs and eat masses of chocolate once the DCs are in bed and not have to pretend to be normal.

Ah seven :( really hope you feel better soon, it's really rubbish for you :(

Minimopsy was warm all day but calpol has helped (decided, just in case it IS the pox, I'd better avoid ibuprofen) - managed to avoid giving yet anything since 2am and she was ok but her temp was still 38.5 so thought calpol would help and she's already normal after half an hour. It works much better than ibuprofen for her it seems. She's currently wailing cos I put her to bed but it's normal 'I don't want to go to bed' wailing, not like last night's inconsolable scree hung. Fingers crossed she drops off and gets a decent night, for me too .

DSM, hope Darcie is in bed and the tantrums have stopped :)

'screeching' not 'Scree hung' WTF?!

Ooh, dsm, the end of term grumps: my DDs have short fuses too at the moment. Hopefully it will improve soon.

dH informed me that DS seemed to like the "new" Avent teat but it leaked in the old style bottle fixture: compatible my arse. Will have to go to boots to spend arm and leg on a couple of new style bottles to fit them, it's worth it if it means he takes more. At the end of the weekend I think we have done OK with Operation Go-Slow-reclaim-Boob: he's now taking
2-2.5 oz per bottle instead of the 0.5-1 he was taking before, albeit sl

Oh seven, what a crap week. Hopefully it'll become clear tomorrow what's going on if you test again/are still bleeding heavily. Not fun but at least you'll know where you stand, which is better than this uncertainty. Did you get the toe strapped up by the way?

And poor little mini-m, really hope it's not chicken pox, but sounds like it could be. Fingers crossed that no spots turn up and it is just another virus or similar.

Your DS is obviously one determined baba aethel, I can just picture him spitting the shields out and diving in ! I'm on alert now that DS has these two teeth through, for nipping and whatnot whilst bf'ing. Whereas we'd hear him sucking and slobbering on toys, you can now hear the 'tap tap' as his little gnashers go...
It's so weird though- he spent ages with 'classic' teething signs: drool, pain, bright pink cheeks, hideous nappies- and then it all disappeared for about 6-8 weeks and then the bloody teeth came through !

We had a lovely day out at the castle, barring the journey their, as DP's satnav app on his phone hates us malfunctioned again. It tried to take us (in car) down a footpath you couldn't get a pram along and then across a golf course! Got there in the end, but with some swearing. We're v careful with the budget now, but went mad and treated myself to a ver naice NT flowerpot...how middle aged?!

Albeit slowly... Am Bfeeding him now and then will see how things go, he's now on morning, afternoon, night, early hours BFing with two bottles at approx 10am and 3-4pm (these are replacing bfs plus he used to "snack" at many other times!). I'm going to try replacing the afternoon feed at some point when he's more comfortable with the bottles and them drop the morning feed and then the night feed
(eventually). Sigh. I never had this with the DDs....maybe it's a boy thing!...

seven if the line gets darker its still a positive test. Usually takes about a week to become negative, but it's what they call "non quantitative" ie it doesnt tell you how pg you are or correspond to a number. Oh, and you mentioned earlier that leaving the test to dry made the line more
Obvious: I'm afraid that after the reading time (2-5 minutes) the line often shows up anyway whether you are pg or not as the test has "worn out" (its usually mentioned in the instructions). So rubbish though it is, best to wait three days and repeat the test to be sure (and if its positive but still bleeding go to your GP for an early pg unit scan).

northern I done it using YouTube, shh dont tell aethel. Glad you had a good day, other than the crap nav

Thanks aethel, knowledgable as always.

Seven Hoping the bleeding stops and you still have a BFP when you test again.

Mopsy Hopefully MiniM doesn't have the pox and it's just a nasty virus that will go soon.

Aethel Hope it won't be to long before your 'reclaim the boob' mission will be complete.

Darcie is asleep. Sky will be shortly too (hopefully)

Sky has her first visit to Nursery tomorrow which will be good. Other than that will be a housework day

I've probably missed too much to catch up properly, but I hope minim doesn't have to pox, and I still have my fingers crossed for you seven. I hope you have better luck reclaiming the boob, aethel.
Following your determination, I have upped my reclamation project. The last 2 days I have only done the night feeds.
In other news, there was a tiny little wild bunny in the garden this morning, and then later a squizzel.
Mr Murray lost Wimbledon, but we're v proud anyway. Didn't he do well.

Aaarrrggghhh getting it in all angles now as DD1 has been a cow bag for bed. DP thinks I'm to blame probably and it seems he has a favourite daughter I'm prob just over thinking, tired and being irrational but hey!

When I was transferring DS over aethel, I found that whilst he was still bf, and at the beginning, he would only take 60-100 ml max for each bottle feed. As more feeds were swapped for bottle ones, and those feeds became fewer, he rapidly took more, and was soon taking the 'full' 200ml feeds. It did happen organically, and it sounds like your DS is similar...but your Operation appears to be progressing well, if slower than you'd like owing to your determined and cunning child

Good work on the toe seven, blimey!

And I've just seen in my post, there, it should be there not their, AAAARGH

I hate having severe PMT worse this month as AF arrived about 2hrs ago and is 3 days late I feel like shite!

question for those switching from bfing to formula or substituting a little bit - anyone managed to switch using anything other than a bottle, or is that just setting yourself up to fail?

We've been using a bottle, but I can't see why a baby cup wouldn't work as well. But I suppose with a bottle, they still feel that "latch", or still the suckling - it's like nursing and may be comforting to lie back and nurse, looking up into your eyes - it's just like bf-ing. Perhaps with a cup they might feel a bit disjointed..?
When BOi hasn't drunk the full 200ml, this weekend I've put the rest of his milk in a cup to have with food later, but he's shown no interest.
We haven't got our washing machine yet, so I gave my mum two bags of washing to do on Saturday. I'd forgotten about this yesterday until I'd had a few glasses of wine, so I couldn't go around to pick it up. Fast forward to this morning as I'm driving to SILs to drop off BOi, angry phonecall from DH, "Where are my work uniforms?"
Well. I can not be responsible for dressing myself, BOi and DH. That's not fair. Yesterday, I made dinner, and DH took the plates back to the kitchen - but he just dumped them there! It just meant loading up the dishwasher, no real effort involved Grrrr! At bedtime, I took our glasses down and then had to start clearing up - as well as getting BOi's stuff ready for today, and my things ready for work. Grrr! We're going to have to have a couple of words about weight pulling, methinks. He's usually very good, and he did spend the weekend working hard and jet-washing the patio and balcony, etc..
Mini-rant - Sorry.
But it's just the little things like that that grate.
We agreed that as this house is so big, we have to really keep on top of keeping it tidy and clean. And whilst the whole place is still upside down and full of boxes, then we really need to keep our living areas on good shape.
On Saturday morning, I didn't go with BOi to have his first haircut. There's just too much to do in the house. You have to grasp those moments when he's asleep or not there to get as much done as possible.
He looks fab. I need to remind DH to post the pics on fb.
There was one girl cutting his hair, one catching it in an envelope, and one taking photos. Three girls cooing over him, and DH sat in the middle, for £4. (and he forgot to give them a tip!! bad daddy.)
You can't leave BOi alone for a moment. (I need to buy a walker, and a playpen, don't I?) He's crawling at speed now, and when he gets to the couch/wall/cupboard he's climbing up onto his feet. But he's so unsteady that you have to get there and support him.
How're the poorly babes and mums today?
BOi has another cold. Again. :(

Just read that back, you can tell I've not had any Rice Krispies this morning can't you? (I've ran out.) V disjointed and a few errors. Think of it like a mind-gym exercise, I'm just making your brain work to set you up for the day.
The buttie-van will be here soon, I'll get a flapjack or something.
I wish you all a good day, may your caffeine be fulfilling!

Darcie's woken up full of a cold, although hoping its her hayfever playing up!

Sky had me up every 2 hrs last night - not sure why tbh - I can only think of trapped wind, as she had trouble passing wind. She's happy this morning tho and she has her first nursery visit too.
Darcie has got Sports Week at school so no uniform just sports wear

Verbal diarrhoea. Sorry. Just wanted to add that Rice krispies were a habit I picked up early in my pregnancy. I used to eat rabbit food granola. But it's an addiction I can not drop.
That's it, I'll leave you in peace now and get some work done. :)

Morning all! MMmmm rice krispies.

Minim finally has a temp of 37.4, which is higher than usual but normal phew! And seems a lot happier, I even got a smile. No spots! Unless some appear today I'll have to conclude it was 'just' a virus. V bad night, up at least ten times. I stopped counting after eight! Ugh. Wrecked.

oi an alternative to a playpen is to use a travel cot if you've got one. I filled mine with play balls to make a little ball pit, and used to chuck DD in there. DS now uses the walker when I'm in the kitchen, and he loves it.

Of course, I forgot that somewhere in between the boxes there is a travel cot... And he loves the ballpit at his GPs. Thank you for the reminder!

I done another test this morning, the line is very much there, as is the blood. Will phone the EPU when they open.

seven good luck with everything. Could it be implantation? I had five days of light blood when I was pg, I thought it was a light period, but it turned out to be a baby. Good luck. x

Good luck with everything Seven hopefully the EPU will be able to see you and find out what's going on.

Sounds like Boi is is a bit of an adventurer Oi! Jack is doing the same he's standing up against most things now but he's started letting go after he's been there a little while. Then looks confused when he lands on his bum! His crawl is really odd though, he is on one knee and one foot. Loooks a bit funny but he gets round quick enough.

DP has now finish his stupid long weeks at work and is starting to be a normal human being again! He has this week off so we both get to relax a bit more.

Thanks oi and BJR. They told me to phone my local surgery. The nurse I spoke to said there's no point having an appointment and all I can do is wait a couple of days, and the head nurse will phone me later. She said I need to rest and let someone look after me, I'm at home with the DCs and DH is stuck at work :(

Sorry for me, me, me post.

Oh seven good luck and hope the head nurse phones soon (((hugs)))

We have a boba sling which I love love love. Would highly recommend to anyone. It's a bit higher in the back than the ergo or the beko gemini so it was better for my tall chubby DS (10kg!!), does back and front carry, and has extra long straps for anyone larger or taller than average.

Well it's only been a week but I'm not sure how much longer I can stand coming all the way in to work every day - it took me 2 hours to get to work today and I didn't see DS awake at all on Friday. He was asleep when I left, asleep when I returned, and this was after I had left work purposefully 40 minutes early to see him. I cried DH and I spent all weekend talking about options and what to do - going to try and stick it out as long as I can but another mat leave sounds pretty appealing right now. I'm going to try and build a business case for working from home whenever I can but I don't yet have enough work to justify it, and if I'm working from home this soon after returning from mat leave I won't be visible enough to get work IYSWIM.

As an attempt to take a proactive step I've started a blog on my specialist area of law, so potentially that could keep my hand in if I leave here. Unfortunately like a dope I started it under my old MN name which means I have namechanged to this one! I'm sure you all recognize me anyway, what with my american spelling