December 2011: The one where DSM gets married...

[LittleMissFlustered]

:o

Will read back over thread now but just wanted to say I can't chime in on DS's day because I don't know I'm not around at all in the week, and on the weekends I just kind of wing it. I know he's getting at least 2 large bottles in the day, plus BF morning and night. He's a massive eater some days and other days seems to subsist on air and drool.

Just reading back and I see some OH problems...just speaking for us I'm 100% sure that if we hadn't done a total role reversal over the last two months we would be at each other's throats. I can't describe what a positive effect it's had in DH actually understanding what goes into childcare and "wifework" and now he actually steps up in all departments without fanfare rather than doing one night waking and expecting the dad of the year award.

Also yes this first AF has been horrendous. As in, I had to rush out and buy a new pair of trousers at lunchtime today having flooded through a super tampon I thought it was just me forgetting what AF is always like, but I see it's been bad for lots of us.

Cherry a bleeding bum hope you get that emergency appt tomorrow.

Northern hope your DP sorts something out, what an arse of a boss - is he searching for pastures new?

Figgy congrats on the pay rise!!

Woohoo xiao! yay for you!

Welcome back Xiao glad to hear work have agreed and you have a longer term plan bugger em!!

Cherry that sounds terrible for DS, 1 of my ante natal girls has some problem her dd was pooing 15 times a day and got terrible rash hope u get a dr appt soon

Oh dear cherry, hope you can see GP tomorrow. Poor little baba (and poor you!).

Hi everyone,

Got a bit freaked out last night as DS seemed to be breathing very fast in his sleep, but he woke up because me and DH were both hovering above him and DS gave us both a huge big grin! DH slept in the room with DS as he's a light sleeper to keep close just in case. DS did a big poo at 3am which is unlike him, he's usually very civilised and waits until 6/7am ;) Definitely getting him in to see the dr today just to put my mind at rest. I'm quite happy to sit and wait all afternoon if the receptionist tells me they're fully booked again....

This morning we are going to have a look at a nursery. It's the closest one to where I work, but I haven't heard anything about it good or bad so best to have a look! My first choice would be for my friend to childmind DS, but I need her to get registered with Ofsted etc so I can use the childcare vouchers, so I'm just keeping plan b in case she doesn't get registered, but I'll have a proper chat with her on Friday when I see her.

Northern I switched over to OBEM when I saw your post! I thought the Brazilian woman with triplets was amazing! It wasn't as exciting as the normal episodes because they were all planned c-sections and it was more worrying than exciting because of the risks for multiple births. Very brave ladies on there last night!

Xiao that's great that you've got part time hours now, that commute isn't really sustainable for a long time IMO. DH catches the train to London, but it's only 30 minutes and the journey is an hour door to door and I think that's about enough for anyone really. I prefer him going by train, he had to drive to his old job which was 30 minutes in normal traffic, but up to an hour and a half sat on the delightful M25 in rush hour.

Figgy did your friend ever get to the bottom (excuse the pun) of it or did it just clear itself up?

I'm just thankful that DS isn't puking up as well so I know I've not given him food poisoning or something! His bum still looks sore this morning, but I bought some metanium cream and that seems to be helping.

Will try to update later!

Hope everyone has a good day - and it's nearly Friday! :)

Welcome back Xiao - it's great that part time work has been offered to you - very exciting now that you can earn a living whilst building up the super secret own business. (Hedge funds - yeah, of course, I have hedge funds, and tree surgeon allowances, and ... :/ I'll stick to my colouring in marketing strategy and very important business dealings... ahem!)
Af - urgh - pregnancy does seem more attractive at this moment - in my head! I had no idea how heavy it would be, and (very sagely - for me) so I wore a thin maternity pad for the first couple of days as insurance. It was a good thing, and saved me the cost of new trousers!
Cherry how's LO getting along? When BOi had a bad nappy rash, it was a real spotty rash, it almost looked like eczema, the dr gave him Canesten cream, and that cleared it up very quickly. We also have an antiseptic type cream called Fusidil, which was for red raw skin on his testicle.
Figgy pay rise - nice!! Congrats.
Xiao - back to work bonus.
Nope, not jealous, not jealous at all.
I am in the middle of budget setting for next year.
I hate budget setting.
I hate excel spreadsheets.
I prefer the colouring in parts of my job.
Oh but, very, very good news of the financial variety. First of all, my uncle, who has no kids, very generously gave all his nieces and nephews an extra slice of grandad's estate. (estate makes it sound grand, it wasn't, grandad had a little 2 up, 2 down in a scruffy part of town). Not a big sum of money, but very nice all the same.
And...Mum and dad gave us a loan over the house buying period, just to bridge us in case transactions happened at inconvenient times. They came home from hols yesterday declaring they don't want us to pay it back.
Tis all very helpful and wonderful now that DH doesn't have a job.
I really hope he gets something sorted soon. I'm having great difficulty not shopping for the house. I bought a new rug for BOi's room today.
I am dying to get started - I want to get builder-types in to give us quotes/advice, but I can't do anything until we have a steady stream of income and know where we are.
GOT...TO...SHOP...!

Hi all,

Good news, DS had a big poo this morning after breakfast, but nothing since :) It may or may not be a coincidence, but I did give him a big bowl full of natural probiotic yoghurt yesterday! The nappy rash is looking a but better, but still worst he's ever had it! Oi that sounds horrific having it on his dangly bits

I took him along to the appointment anyway as his breathing still seems a bit too fast which the doctor agreed with but because DS is happy within himself, bright and alert the dr said just keep an eye on him and it is probably something viral like bronchialitus (not sure of spelling) and a hangover of the diarrhoea. I also asked the dr to put DS's birthmark in his records as it's blue and looks like a bruise on his back - don't want people getting the wrong idea! It's a Mongolian Blue Spot birthmark and more common in Asian people, white people don't tend to get them.

The nursery visit was good, I was there for about 50 minutes. I was very happy with the lady showing me around and everything seemed well organised and well set up, but I wasn't quite feeling it. I'm going to arrange a couple of other visits to other nurseries to get more of a feel for them and see what's what.

I know the feeling of wanting to shop Oi - it always strikes hardest when you know you really shouldn't lol!

Wow Cherry, that sounds like the coolest birthmark ever. I wants one! A Mongolian BlueSpot, sounds like a type of very expensive pedigree cat! All I have is three billion lots of moles, very common or garden. Really glad your DS seems better.
I think that the 'feel' of a nursery is very important; I bet you'll go in one and just know that it's right.

Lovely that some more people have had some good news on the finance and job front, that's great; I can almost feel the pull between Oi and the shops but you're doing a great job resisting...bar the rug...was there anything else that you're not 'fessing to?
And for you too Xiao, good to see you back. My DH did 50% of the mat/pat leave too, although to be fair he was very hands on before, but I think it really does make a difference. The bond between DP and DS is lovely to see, and if only DP could get over his the-bin-may-be-overflowing-with-rubbish/nappy sacks/green waste-delete-as-applicable-but-I-won't-empty-it-because-it's-not-Thursday-itis and other household stuff it would be fabulous!
Still, he's better than he was, I'm not embarrassed to invite people round any more

We're all pretty knackered, but are just about staggering to the end of the week. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I can drop DS off at nursery and pick him up, and make it 4pm not 5.15pm- can't wait

Thank you for the welcome back everyone it's nice to have nice news to impart for a change. cherry I'm so glad your DS is a bit better, hope he is back to rude good health soon. northern glad to hear another OH has done the same, it makes such a difference - would that we were like Scandinavia and men had to take long periods of solo paternity leave. Oi have you seen the cool kids rooms on apartment therapy? Makes my credit card twitchy...we are moving after Christmas and I am v excited to decorate a room for DS!!

Speaking of dangly bits ...anyone else's son a willy fiddler?? It's been weeks now and still, as soon as his nappy comes off, he's right in there. I'm starting to wonder if he has an itch or something...my mum thinks he might do himself a mischief! I can just imagine the GP laughing in my face if I brought it up though...

well, we're officially on the market. It's my long day at work tomorrow though, so no web searching then. Have rightmove searched with DH and hope to do some viewings of properties in our target area next week. along with another school viewing because if we move we'll spend the next 11 years doing primary school runs so I want to a)have one nearby and b)actually like the school in question. now to try not to obsess about some of the gorgeous properties out there that we are bound to miss out on, and speculate about why the ones on the market longer/more affordable ones are reasonably priced....aka what's wrong with it....??

Argh. Too much adrenaline. Decaf then bed for me I think.

Xiao I've got a fiddler here too . It's like his favorite toy. The worst is like happened today: DS does a giant poo, hand goes straight in nappy as soon as I open it, hand gets covered in poo, then whilst I'm cleaning the hand before it heads mouthwards, he dunks both feet in and starts spreading it everywhere

Kate I can't remember whether I said, but a few weeks ago DS managed to actually grap the poo filled nappy when I turned my head to get a wipe and pull it up onto his head!!!!!!!!

We had an unscheduled shower shortly after

And I always make sure everything is to hand now prior to undoing the nappy.....

Have woken up with a site throat and stomach cramps af is due so hoping that just hurries up so can get on with it. DS has shuffled across his bedroom and is now fighting with his wardrobe door as I've put the hair dryer in it and he'd been having a swell time pulling the back off of it.......wilful little toad.

How do u ladies clean out dc's ears? Here they are bloody disgusting can u use cotton buds now?

Sore throat obviously........it's days like this I wish I drank coffee

Cleaning ears: i try and give them a good swooshing in the bath with a soapy sponge, that does the trick mainly. Otherwise I wait until I see the nugget forming (ugh!) and use my finger to gently touch it - it's sticky stuff, so it then gets wiped onto DS's clothes a nearby tissue.
northern do I really have to confess? I bought a load of HIlfiger boys clothes in an ACHICA sale, and 2 prs of boots for me in a Kurt Gieger sale, I bought some stuff from All Saints and Karen Millen sales, but they all went back. That's all.
Xiao another willy fiddler here - as soon as the nappy is off.
Kate and Kitty you had me laughing out loud with your poop stories.
I have some good news here. DH has been offered a temp job - IT support in a college library. It's only part time, and we don't know how long the contract is, and his hourly rate will be horrendously low because the temp agency are in a great position knowing that there are a lot of people out there looking for jobs and desperate to work. But it's a job, it's money, it's back in IT, and in an educational institute and he's entertaining thoughts of getting a degree and training to become a teacher - so it's all good.
I'd better get on, I have a budget meeting at lunchtime, but before that have to get a passport photo and go into Manc to apply for a visa for China. Coffee first. Have a great day y'all!

Oww china i would love a job that i get to see the world. Ok so i would like to emmagrate to USA as well but dh condition stops us :(

A quick question how old was your child when they wipe on their own? Is 3yo too young? Air is now dry day and night and now he wants to wipe on his own. I think its something he has seen or done in school!

I know. I am lucky. However, as I'm spending half of October abroad and away from BOi, I don't feel so lucky. (Next month is extraordinary, it isn't always like this.) And, because I have a family now, I don't tag on extra days to see places as I used to when I was single. So I'm flying all the way to Shanghai, which I have always wanted to visit, to be shipped to a factory in Xiongqing (?) where we will meet for a couple of days, before getting shipped back to the airport. I dont know if we'll see anything of Shanghai. However, I am flying there on my 40th birthday, so I'm hoping that they'll try and do something a bit special. The guys are from canada, germany, UK, India, France... they can't ship us all out there and not show us something, can they?? I have no idea how far Xiongqing is from Shanghai...

It's not even in Xiongqing, it's in Changzhou. (I don't know where that is either.)

Lol i would be getting a wolrd map and putting pins in everywhere i went and take lots of photos

With video phones and skype you can still see BOi everynight and he has his Dad plus he will not remeber the first 4 years of life.

It should be a good 40th tho

Its Air's third day at school today and i alteady hate taking him and picking him up. I find it hard to get anything done with the timings. He goes in the afternoon 12:15 to 3:15 so it takes an hour to get everyone feed and school uniform on and walk to school so 11 till 12:30 i cant do anything. Also his sleep routine is off and he has not got up till 9am then naps 4 till 6 and sleeps at 9 or 10

Also hv turned up yeasterday after not coming on Tuesday. She checked the child in need with sw and it was closed in April but noone told us

The case is closed and the evil hv has moved to a different area. I should be happy but i feel let down by all of it :(

Hope stood up on her own yeasterday. She was holding on to sofa and let go with both hands untill she relised and then put her hands back on it

Oi I think Changzhou is about 90mins away from Shanghai. I only know that they make special hand painted combs there that are very pretty and have been made there for something like 2000 years. And in Beijing we used to get something called a Changzhou sesame biscuit which must be from there.

There was a famous Song dynasty scholar named Su Dongpo who either lived or died there. (or maybe it was in Hangzhou...). Anyway he was one of the "drunken poets" who seems to have been pretty jolly and wrote lots about food and drinking. There's quite a famous and rather soppy poem that has a line about "why is it always a full moon when we're apart" and ends up saying something about if we're both looking at the same moon then we're not actually apart. Or something. Except much more eloquently Maybe cherry can set me straight...

I have some of those combs. My Chinese marketing mngr brought them as gifts to my last mktg mtg.

Prawn satay stirfry tortillas. Diet be hanged

and in other news, we have our first viewing tomorrow. Bit tense, and frankly a bit reluctant. What happened to the happy-shopper vibes I've been trying to cultivate...? Sigh.

On the up side, DS is doing really well at the childminders and seems to be enjoying it muchly. Yay.

Hi everyone, I am still here and have mostly caught up on the thread. I dropped off for a while as DH got a bit fed up that I was on MN and not talking to him but he is not the most chatty so will sometimes still post I think.

DS is now at school but part time some days. He is happy enough but would gladly stay at home given the choice. He will gradually become more full time, which will give me more time with Freya. I am back at work 2 days a week and enjoying the change and the money will be good to have (although we now have to start paying for our extension we had done!) Freya has had a week of teething nightmares - temperature, runny nose, bad nappies and nappy rash, clingy, whingy, waking at nights, not eating - the works. DS never did this so it was a bit of a shock. She now has one tiny tooth just through and seems a lot happier but boy I hope we don't have a week of that per tooth! she is at nursery one day a week and in laws one day a week whilst I am at work.

Things with DH still not great but that seems to be quite a common theme on here. I have lowered my expectations a lot, and try not to get wound up about his laziness and attitude but still get disappointed at times. To be fair I do have high expectations generally. I think it is good not to make any life changing decisions whilst the children are so young, especially under a year as it is tough.

Right to bed for me as expect another get up tonight and its been a full on work day.

aethel hope the viewing goes ok tomorrow.

cherry glad to hear that DS is ok again now. Eva has had awful nappy rash too this week, cracked and bleeding and crying when wiped. I was hoping it was teething related but it's almost gone now and still no teeth.

oi great news that DH has found work, may not be ideal but better than nothing.

Nothing much to report here. The other party's solicitors have finally got their arses into gear, they think it'll take another 3 weeks(ish), my parents new house should be around 4 weeks so it should work out fine. However the solicitor also made us sick by telling us they're dealing with a beach hut sale for 20k more than the flat sold for .

oi I know you asked why the solicitor said it would cost so much if my parents pulled out. She was concerned whether they had already exchanged contracts, apparently if it fell through after that they'd still have to pay 10% of the house purchase price.