December 2011: Of Mice, Men and Tables

[NorthernChinchilla]

Here we go...I hope!

Well done LMF for giving blood!

When DH has 2 days off a week we do like aethel suggested hawthers. It really helps, DH says he'd go crazy if he was a SAHD..I'm already mad so it's not made any difference

Pompoms for BJR Jr's first tooth! And future pompoms for Figgy tooth!

We didn't go for a specific theme, but the pictures on Ds's walls are 50's comic covers or adverts for robot toys. When he gets older it will be a horrible clash of colours (found a company that make massive road rugs, the ones you can play cars on?)!

for aethel.

Started Shred last night, and I spent all night worrying AF was coming on when it was just my abs going 'Yaaay! You remembered us'!

for OH DSM.

AWCH I picked up a great rug from IKEA (150cm x 150cm or thereabouts) which has a windy road all over it - going past a circus, a castle, a hotel, a petrol station, an igloo, a beach, mountains, a volcano, a whale (in the sea) and other things for... I think it was £12.99. I should look it up, but it was a bargain. I like the comic book idea also. Super heroes... hmmm... (But I also like the tree decals you can get....)
More thought required.

I've a friend who collected lots and lots of comics, old and ew, and made a collage on the back go her son's bedroom door. Completely covered it, then covered the collage in something washable and hard wearing (varnish?). It looks stunning:)

Also, you can get roadmap carpet but it's not cheap. Perfect for boys though:o

dsm do you have a joint account or split the bills? When do you go back to work?

LMF hope you enjoyed the theatre. Well done on giving blood. I'm a carrier of thalassaemia so they won't take mine, I was referred for tests after my blood droplet failed to sink miserably.

oi that rug sounds awesome! I paid £6 for a tiny wafer thin road mat from ELC. eBay is brilliant for big stickers for kids bedrooms, i got DS a big train filled with toys one and some aeroplane ones, DD has big pink owls on a branch and flowers.

AWCH glad AF hasn't arrived. Is the shred as hard as I've heard?

Pregnancy test was inconclusive. At first glance it looks -, but at the right angle in front of the window I'm sure I can sees very very faint (almost like a shadow) line, though i could just as likely be imagining it but DH agrees with me. Im now 5 days late though and I'm never normally more than a day late, and I was 8 days late before I finally got a very faint + with Eva.

Seven We don't have a joint account and will never have one. DP pays all the bills as I'm on mat leave but when I'm back to work I'll split like we did before. I currently pay for monthly food shop, inc Sky's milk & nappies. All DD's after school activities such as swimming for both of them, sensory for Sky, Brownies for Darcie & her singing lessons. Also trying to pay for things for our wedding. I also top up my car with fuel and make sure the girl's don't go without. On top of paying my phone bill and paying off some debt I have (before DP). I don't think he realises I'm on SMP so have lost around £500pcm. I think with my PMT and feeling a bit low I'm just over reacting a bit and having no money in my bank account is getting me down.

I go back to work in Oct btw.

Oi, before we had DS the spare room had a tree stencil (cheap one from China via eBay), it was lovely but needed to come to so we could repaint, it didn't damage the paint behind it (it was up, in direct sunlight, for 3yrs)! DH hates them so no more!
this is the rug we're looking at, but it depends on if we put DS in a single or double bed as to what size we get.
Love the carpet idea LMF, but we're going to move when the market picks uo (!) so trying to keep it all neutral. I did our dining table a few years ago in black & white comic prints.

seven, ooh exciting! Fingers are crossed, would you be happy with such a small age gap?
I don't think shred is as hard as everyone says it is...but I'm only one stage one! I guess it depends on how fit you are?

DSM, is there a reason you'd never have a joint account? I've found it helpful when it comes to showing DH how expensive DS is!
Hope you feel better soon.x

AWCH DP doesn't want one. Something about controlling where the money goes or something. Wasn't really paying to much attention :(

I have to confess that my Shred Dvd is still in the wrapper ....shame on me!!

I am however enjoying my potato, cheese and beans pie from the canteen at work .....the best £2 i have spent all week.

DSM it sounds like you are doing brilliantly making your SMP spread that far as it is, i chugged through almost all my savings on top of my SMP and i didnt have all of those activities to pay for!!

It's controlling yes, and not just the money. You're a family, you should be sharing the financial burdens and highs.

Where's the day gone?! It's got so late!

LMF The thing is tho. I know if i'm short on money all I have to do is ask for it. I think its just even tho DP & I have been together almost 5yrs for the first 3yrs I lived on my own with DD1 and used to making things go far and having to do things on my own without the help of DD1s Bio father. So I have alot of trouble saying or asking when I'm short as I always try and figure out a way of finding it or dealing with it by going without a few things. It doesn't help that I do have some remaining debt (before DP) and if I didn't have that I would be better off.

DP is trying to pay off the wedding so that isn't hanging over us too. I guess I'm just feeling down and having one of those months where things are going to be really tight :(

figgy love your rug. V bright colours and a very intriging road pattern. Love it! I bought this from IKEA, without having done any research - 140 x 133cm - it's much simpler, the colours aren't as vibrant, butthe content is good for learning. Another option for you. :)
dsm I do not envy you the money hassles. We have a joint account precisely so that I have visibility of OUR money. I'm the main earner in our family, but I also used to take care of most of all our family expenditure (food, mortgage, bills), and before the joint account, his earnings weren't contributing. And I didn't have complete trust in his financial management ability... (for good reason, BTW, I wasn't being a cow. We had some ishews.) Now we have a joint account I can see where our money is going. - Maybe this is a way forward for you and your DP (if he has visibility of how well you stretch your income, he will be impressed and the trust will grow).
And for what it's worth, our money is precisely that. Ours. We (now) save together, and sometimes we are frivolous together. :)
AWCH I found a nautical theme image online where they had painted a compass on the ceiling. I can do that. I can. It will look great. Honest. I really want to do it now.
BOi has been given two mobiles. One of dinosaurs and one of fish. Perhaps we'll put them up in the dining room - potentially his temporary playroom)...
seven good luck! I'm afraid you're going to start me getting broody again. No. Not yet!

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted for AGES but have been keeping up with you all. Just didn't have much to say and been really exhausted as DD still not sleeping well. She went through a phase of 1 or 2 feeds a night and that was manageable but for the last week she's needed settling every hour so I'm feeling pretty awful. Just don't know what else to try, I've tried everything I can think of and all the usual suggestions, but I'm not going to let her cry as its not for me. She goes back to sleep as soon as I pick her up so it doesn't take long but means I have to get out of bed every hour so its like having a newborn again!

Oi congrats on moving house! Very exciting deciding on nursery themes etc.

Kate DD is the same with eating, very little interest. She's much better with finger food than spoonfeeding but doest eat much of either. I wish she would as it might make her sleep better!

Seven I had such a faint line on my pregnancy test DH wouldn't believe me but I could see it! Ended up buying a load more tests to prove it to him! I found the blue ones eg Clearblue came up more obviously than the pink ones.

I had a load more personals to respond to but have totally forgotten them already!

DH and I have a joint account and I control all the spending/saving etc. It works best for us that way. I personally would find it very strange sharing a house/children but not our finances, and eg owing each other money or having to ask for it. But I know it does work for some people - my brother and his wife have separate accounts and then a joint account for household expenses.

It is our anniversary on Saturday and we had planned on going out for dinner but DD has been so unsettled in the evenings I'm worried we might end up cancelling at the last minute or being stressed out leaving her. She has a cold at the moment which is making it worse. Am wondering about postponing it for a week or two until she is better and more settled so we can go out without worrying if the babysitter is coping or not. What would you guys do?

GeeandTee, minimopsy went through a phase of waking every hour (not to be fed, just needing settling), interspersed with a horrid few nightsof waking every half hour. So I understand how you feel. Zombie isn't the word. But she is now

Oops didn't mean to press post... She is now only waking 3 or 4 times and she even slept through once. So there is hope, everything is just a phase! Hope she improves soon.

Also if you're stressed about leaving your baba and won't enjoy the evening, I'd postpone for a week or so. But if you know and trust your babysitter, I'd go for it!

All our accounts are joint in name and we have a joint credit card but really we only use the credit card jointly, we each have our 'own' current account (although they're technically joint). But it's 'our' money as Oi says. Just on a practical note, my uncle warned me that when his wife died it was an absolute nightmare trying to sort out her banco accounts that weren't also in his name. Not to be morbid but it's worth thinking about. It's easy to do as we do and make the accounts you have in your own name joint accounts, but keep them separate in theory. We don't use Internet banking for our 'separate' joint accounts (if that makes sense), but jeep them for personal spending and use the joint credit card for groceries and family purchases.

FIL now said goodbye, and I've been feeding DS most of the day, it's just a cold I think as his temp has settled but he's still
Feeling sorry for himself, poor thing.

How do these purees sound (I batch cook while cooling dinner. Love my cuisinart mini blender and little pots!)
Butternut squash with buttered mushroom
Corgette, Carrot and sweetcorn
Fishfingers,carrots and buttered leeks
Leeks, butternut squash and sweetcorn

And todays finger food involved buttered crumpet, malted milks and french bread. Not sure much is being ingested but he's enthusiastic at least...

Anyone fancy buying my place at what we paid for it. We've just got new neighbours (as in, they are moving in right now) they sound lovely. I don't mind swapping... Oi? You've still got stuff in boxes you'll hardly notice the change from dream house to bachelor pad

Hope he feels better soon aethel, that all sounds lovely...are there baby specific Fish fingers on the market? DH is a Fish Finger Fiend & we've got about 100 in the freezer atm.

Gee, like you I get stressed leaving DS if he's not happy..so I would postpone it if she was still a grump on Sat, just because you don't want to 'ruin' a nice night out thinking about DD.

Oi! Nautical theme is awesome, we got this mobile for DS (it needs a hook), it's lovely. He's not noticed it yet (well, he's not slept in his own room yet)!

DSM, I'm a proud person when it comes to money too, although you've allowed to have a tight month when you're paying for a wedding! I hate the idea of being in debt (aside from Mortgage I've never had any, mum was awful with money & spent my childhood lying to Baliffs about her being out) so we did our wedding/honeymoon as cheap as we could to avoid credit cards.

Puts on for the nightshifters.

Can I ask those of you formula feeding how much water your LO's drink? I've been offering DS water throughout the day but he doesn't take very much. There's been quite a lack of poo the last few days compared with when BFing and I'm worried he's getting a bit bunged up

Yeesh- my Chief Exec couldn't go to an event in London tonight as his LO wasn't well, and seeing as it was about my specialism he asked if I wanted to. Which I did, but it was frantic last minute arranging, flying by home to get changed into something at least unremarkable (it was in one of these historic places in the City) and leaping off.
I will collapse in bed tonight.

Gee- you could compromise and do what DP and I did last weekend, which is have a fancy meal at home? We did the full works, and of course it costs about a 1/3 of what it does out. That would either substitute, or tide you over until DD is well enough to be left?

Our friends have had to cancel coming this weekend, my mate is in the Forces and he's been dragged into work at the last minute ...but that means we'll get to go to the castle to celebrate our anniversary that we missed out on last weekend !

You lot put me to shame you know, I really must get a few more things for DS to play with. The sort of by accident not really theme in his room is sheep, given our rural Northern roots, with a hefty dollop of ancient pre-loved furniture.

And seven, get thee to a bloody chemists now and get a decent test, the suspense is killing me !

DS is having a hungry couple of days, he's not gone longer than 2.5 to 3 hours between bottles for the last 36 hours. Looks set to do the same again tonight, he's already been up for one feed so far tonight!

On top of that he had frube and rice cakes at breakfast, cheese on toast and mango for lunch, savory muffin snack and a bowl of fish pie for tea. Can't believe he's eaten that much on top of all the milk. Right, off to make 3rd set of bottles of the day.

Hope everyone has a peaceful night!

BJR hopefully you'll fill him up soon!

kate DD has a sippy cup with her solids, though up until recently I was offering her 60ml water in a bottle once a day, though not stressing if she didn't want it.

northern it's not the tests its my stupid body! Anyway decent tests are a waste of money. With Eva I was 8 days late, finally a faint + on tesco and asda, clearblue digital said not pregnant

Someone remind me, is it 6 or 12 months for tap water?

Sky slept all night and is still asleep was put down at 7:30pm Darcie is up and watching TV in her room.

Kate Sky has a cup with every meal time of water.

Seven I think you need to give your body a stern talking to as the suspense is bloody killing me lol.

DP came home last night and was really sweet. Made tea - Spaghetti Carbonara. Brought me some new shoes. And gave me money to cover Darcie's school dinners & Sky's swimming lessons & gave me lots of cuddles too