April 2011: losing sleep and gaining shoes, toddlers share with us their news

[ecuse]

I have taken the liberty of starting a new thread.

Pile in!

etc

Maybe you could smell it Ali , my house has that lovely warm chocolate smell. I doubt the cake will stay intact for tomorrow's coffee morning. It's lucky I don't have any clotted cream in the house otherwise it would have been devoured by now. Warm oozy chocolate cake smothered in melting clotted cream You better get over here quick Star.

Have a fab few days away Ali, it sounds blissful.

Mmmm cake

Can you waft the cake smell up here ILike - we've got another viewer in half an hour! Nothing, then they all come at once. It's fun to explain to a viewer that there's a napping toddler but don't worry, you can still see her room!

Ooh, Ali, give us a wave from the A30 when you pass!

F's been home with DH all day. Up and down with calpol doses. He's had lots of naps: been asking for bed! Sleeping again now, so not sure what tonight will be like!

I picked up some baby nurofen on the way home, so we'll get that going between calpol doses to even him out a bit.

Do you think it would be unreasonable to send him to the cm dosed up?

Well done on the sleep front A!

Well that was short lived. The little pickle went from 530 to 1010 last night and is now spending the night playing catch up. This is his third feed so far.

He's probably enjoying being able to.get all that extra milk out [hsmile]

Ohh poor F UBW Hope he starts to feel a little bit better soon.

I was eyeing up that mascara just last week Ali but since I'd already spent £100 on their stuff I thought better of it! I normally use Dior mascara but it's getting to be an expensive habit but I've never found another mascara I've liked as much as that one.

Chocolate cake sounds amazing ILTMI

kitty You sound like you're doing a great job with your new little man, your posts about 4 hours sleep are giving me the heeby jeebys though, I'd kind of blocked that from memory!

Not much to report from me otherwise, TTC-but-not-TTC commences anytime ERTD fecks off and hopefully I don't get preggers before January but anytime immediately after is fine!

R is getting more and more amazing each day, she has a complete little personality now and can speak probably a lot more than is necessary! She's also cutting about 4 molars just now too and is soldiering on regardless, apart from the odd gurn in the afternoon she's not complained much at all.....so much so that I actually didn't know the first one was even through til I gave her some bonjela on Sunday, so god knows how long it's been there!!

I hope F is better UBW.

How about putting the mascara on your Christmas list MrsW. I am very excited about your TTC-but-not-TTC! If you don't want to get pg before Christmas, why don't you chart until the new year. You'll then have an idea of your cycle which should help TTC. That's what i've done before.

Ds3 went to MIL for 2 hours this morning. The first time he has been looked after by someone other than me or dh . He was very excited about going - he dragged his bag that we packed to the door! He was fine while there but loved coming home. I cleaned the kitchen while he was away [hhmm]

Ahh, I've finally got my afternoon MN session and a brew. M usually feeds to sleep about 1/1.30 but not today. Instead wriggled around twisting my nipple everywhere , hitting me and trying to put fingers in my mouth and up my nose. After unlatching her and shouting at her I eventually stomped out with her in the pram and she finally dropped off about 3. Now I'll need to wake her up about 4 or she won't be tired at bedtime and we want an early night again as she was a pita last night 3-4.30am too.

It will be on the christmas list ILTMI :)

We're just shagging (to coin a thread!) until January, if it happens before that then so be it, I'll just be having a sober 30th!! Promised DP I wouldn't chart/temp/go mental this time around. He doesn't even want to know when I'm ovulating, although it'll be hard for him not to notice when I'm up for it for like one week every month! Just going to count days so I know how long my cycles are. My pg with R was a total fluke anyway as I conceived the day ERTD was due to start and that took a year of CBFM, ov sticks, temping & FF etc so my body is a teeny bit unpredictable!! The month I did fall pg I hadn't been doing any monitoring at all so think I should just wing it this time around and not obsess except for maybe the 2ww I do think some of the TTC stres contributed to eventual PND as well and that's not somewhere I want to go again either. So nope just relaxed happy shagging for me :)

Are you a SAHM ILTMI? R gets shipped off to various grandparents all the time as DP and I are both working (almost) full time, I totally hate it :( Have been fortunate the last few weeks to be on nightshift as it means I have longer stretches of days off to spend with her.

Oh Chilli that doesn't sound like much fun :( Naughty M.

Yes I am a SAHM

Your dp not wanting to know your cycle made me chuckle, I think the majority of men are like that aren't they [hgrin]

I hope you had a better night chilli

First day of half term - hurrah. I am looking forward to not having to be all dressed and ready by a certain time, and no making packed lunches! The next week should be about seeing friends and not very much else. The extra pre school sessions have left ds pooped.

Last night wasn't too bad. She's got a cold which may have something to do with the wriggling, though it might be that she just wants to look at the radio . And more importantly she's asleep now.

I think we might be joining the not trying club soon too (can we blame Kitty for getting us all broody again )

Hats off to ILike, JKS and Ali being SAHM - I think I'd go crackers, I'd enjoy going to playgroups but the occasional morning that I have off work when M is at nursery is bliss

How many calories do you think I would have burned at soft play hell this morning?? Knackered.com!!

Loving those 'not trying'

My swab results still aren't back!! Grrr

And they've just moved my 6 week appt to Wednesday instead of Monday. Grrr.

Grrr on your behalf kitty

Hats off to those FT SAHMs. I'm in month 2 and I really can't stand it! That may be because we're still half moved in. Crèche days save my sanity and I'm desperately trying to find a job. I think I need something to keep my brain active which isn't performing keyhole surgery I cars to remove crayons.

We're only 'not trying' because we have nothing to aim for. At what point do I start getting concerned? Yay MrsW and chilli! The race is on MrsW are you on the JS thread? I started that! It's weird seeing it go through it's various evolutions.

ILike so exciting for DS3 - very cute mental image there.

Ali enjoy your break.

UBW how's F feeling now?

M is going into his bed tonight. Eeek. I am concerned DH and I don't actually have a proper action plan. I may whack a single mattress in there and sleep on the floor for a week or so.

Frakk - I would personally only get concerned when I had a regular (for you) cycle, had sex when I knew I was ovulating, had a long enough leutal phase for implantation, but still wasn't getting pregnant.

But there again I am Mrs 28 day cycle who ovulates on day 14 with mittleschmerz - so there is no mistaking when I ovulate. I can really recommend a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni someone or other. A great read and it has lots of 'troubleshooting' chapters to it - which also cover bf'ing iirc. I'll take a look at my copy and confirm that.

I enjoy being a SAHM, but since having ds3 I have been looking forward to resurrecting a career. I would have done it sooner but I cannot put a young baby in nursery/childcare. Maybe if I had to I would, but luckily I don't have to. I enjoy the freedom of being a SAHM, but more recently I have felt the need to rediscover me. That's part of the reason why I am Chair of our NCT district, it keeps my brain active. I just need to work out now what I am going to do [hhmm]

Ok, I had a quick look at the book.

The book is about using charting to get pregnant and as contraception, and most of the bits relating to bf'ing concentrate on charting as contraception. But that doesn't matter as you still need to chart for ovulation signs.

Anyhoo, in brief, it seems there are two things that you can do.

1. Watch for changes in mucus. You may have a few false starts/anovulatory cycles before your cycle comes back.

1. Chart your temperature ( you have a temp spike when you ovulate).

All quite obvious really.

You may be one of the people whose cycle only comes back when you stop feeding completely?

I have TCOYF and am fairly familiar with signs of OV (hence recent hope despite no ERTD) but I'm just confuuuuuused. Charting is no good if you're constantly getting colds

If it happens it happens, if it doesn't I can live with a bigger age gap.

Hello all!

I'm SO pleased it's finally half term!

Very exited for those on the cusp of TTCing! Our current plan is to stop at the one, but we'll review in a year or two.

It's mainly financial constraints.

I work ft. I've got huge respect for those who stay at home, I found mat leave hard enough! Although summer with a toddler was.pretty fun, and he's much more fun now generally! Also, I really love my job and want to continue. It now forms the majority of my identity. I was the main earner until v recently, which made the bulk of the decisions for us anyway. We were lucky that DHs hours meant f was only p/t with the cm for the first year whilst we both worked f/t.

F is much better now thanks! his temperature was down by weds night so he was back in nursery yesterday and today.

Frakk Don't give up hope on potential BFP just yet. I've probably said it before but I actually conceived R just I was due ERTD so didn't get a BFP til a full 2 weeks later. Don't know why that happened but it did and that was after 11 regular ish cycles.

I have days when I'd love to be a SAHM but mat leave confirmed to me that I would hate it! I was going mad by the time I returned to work! Do wish I could afford to work a couple less days though!

Oh and yes I have been lurking in JS

What the heck does ERDT stand for I feel like a novice with this TTC business!

We're not trying yet but will start sometime in the new year. Our biggest limitations are childcare costs. Paying for two places in nursery for a lengthy period would be a real struggle, so that's holding us back a bit.

I'm not sure I'm cut out for SAHMhood. I love the thought of it but am not sure I'd cope! I currently work 4 days and although I love my day off with DD, sometimes looking after her is so relentless. I go to work for a break!

Evil Red Tide of Doom, Star!

Took me a while to work that out too. Much less twee than AF.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one that feels that way, Star. In RL everyone seems to have lovely sleepy cooperative babies who they love being at home with. Me and F are freaks!

I go to work for a rest too! I'm actually considering upping my hours at work, not for financial reasons but because I want to show willing when the next round of promotions come up. Last week when I was off with B alone was so tiring!!

I know what you mean about your work being the majority of your identity UBW. Even though I dreaded going back to work after mat leave it really is a big part of my life.

In still on the fence on number 2 but last weeks snuggles with my friends newborn definitely stirred my ovaries a wee bit! But according to my GP no tccing u til I'm off the ADs.