Brooking no argument for babies who sleep, eat, smile and behave perfectly at all times. Yeah right!

[scarletfingernail]

New thread, here we go...

scarlet, augmentin and me get on just fine if that helps :) . Brooking its the same for your Ds....

Routine routine routine here, v tedious but only 2 night feeds last two nights for s. Sadly b still on two but at different times. scream regardless of anything mine are walked/ rocked in buggy/driven to sleep at those times, no matter how long they sleep for afternoon nap is same ish time, bedtime is same time in same way with entirely predictable hour before it. Fingers crossed its maybe working. We'll see. Mine would not/ have not found their own routine, I just do it as I've the three to manage.

Dream, I know it's killer because they are both waking up twice at different times, but 2 wake ups is great! I would kill for M to only be up twice. Sounds like they're sleeping so much better.

Scarlet, hope DS got on fine with the Augmentin. If not, though, go straight back to the docs and request a different type. The last thing a poorly child (or anyone, for that matter) needs is diarrhoea on top of the original illness. They should change the ABs with no fuss.

I took M into bed with me at 10.30 after she'd been up three times - big mistake! I did sleep better to begin with - if she cried I just stuck a boob in her mouth - but then I woke up at 3 sweating buckets and so uncomfortable, with an aching back. I'd worn my dressing gown to bed so my arms wouldn't get cold, which was clearly a mistake, but once I wrestled it off, if I stuck my arms out they froze and if I had them under the dressing gown (used as a blanket) I was sweating. At 6 I handed M to DH so I could squirm and squirm and squirm to my heart's content, which woke her up. I can cope with a couple of hours co-sleeping, but not a whole night. I am worried that M's rash is going to turn out to be hand, foot and mouth or something infectious and she won't be able to go to nursery tomorrow morning and I won't get my long-anticipated lie-in!

Gave you got a doctor's appointment for M Too? Hope it is nothing serious / contagious xx

Have, not gave obviously

Well, technically I have a doctor's appt for myself, because I had a mental block on Thursday and when they asked for my date of birth I gave them mine instead of saying 'it's not for me, it's for my daughter'. However, I'm sure that won't matter. I'll tell the receptionist when I get there. It's the open surgery thingy where you have to arrive at 10 and you're seen, apparently, first come first served but also in order of severity of ailment, however that's supposed to work.

M has two rashes! Her scabby nipples are a fungal infection and she needs Canestan, which the doctor gave me a prescription for, and her new arms/legs/bum one is viral, apparently. It'll go away on its own, and it just means she has a bit of a virus. I think with hindsight that she was worst on Friday morning - she had a temp of 38, but I actually thought that was normal until I Googled it randomly the next day and realised that it was up a bit.

Scarlet how are the ABs going?

Too glad you've got some more info about M's rashes, hopefully they'll clear up soon now. The virus won't keep her off nursery will it? What did the Dr recommend?

Little A has had her second reaction today, poor thing. The first food she reacted to was pineapple. Now she's having a reaction to strawberries. Nothing serious luckily, she just comes up in a red blotchy rash everywhere the fruit touched (cheeks, neck, hands). Last time it went within 24 hours on its own, but this time I've given her a little piriton and it seems to be clearing much faster. I don't think I'm going to take her to the Dr's for allergy testing, I'm just planning to be cautious with introducing other fruits, and try her again on pineapples and strawberries in 6 weeks or so. Unless you ladies think it's foolish not to go to the Dr's for confirmation / advice?

Oooo also DH and I have pretty much decided on the Maclaren XLR stroller (works out about the same price as the XT but it's slightly bigger). Only Mothercare have it in red, so naturally I have to buy it from them Does anyone have a mothercare discount code?

Good choice re the stroller Scream sorry no discount code here.
So far so good with the ABs, thanks for asking. But he has only had 2 doses as we were told it was very important not to administer with anything less than 8 hours in between doses. Fingers are crossed.
I wouldn't have a clue what to do about allergies. I think I waited until after DS was 1 before I gave him anything which I'd read could potentially trigger a response, but you know me and how neurotic I am.

Brooking for M to have a speedy recovery Too. How do you get a fungal infection in your nipples?

Thanks all for your words of encouragement. We've had a terrible night. DH ended up in bed with DS when he was still awake coughing at 2am. DD then starting with the coughing and she is full of snot and I ended up bringing her in with me because I was worried in case she started with a high temp too. DS is being foul today because he is so tired. My house is still a tip from the boiler upheaval and I have no energy or inclination to do anything about it.

Scarlet hope dd doesn't get the temperature thing :( Can DS be bribed / kept out of trouble with a bit of tellybox? Hope he isn't too troublesome. If i's any consolation, my DS1 is being a bit of a pain today too and he isn't even poorly so has no excuse!

Scream no Mothercare code I'm afraid - how much of a rush are you in as you can normally get 10% off if you wait long enough. You can get 5% cashback from Mothercare on quidco though?

What's quidco Biscuits? I've heard people mention it before but I have no idea what it is.

you sign up for it and then when you buy things online if you click through from their site to certain retailers you get cashback. Have a look at www.quidco.com. There are loads of sites that count on there and you can often get 5-10% back.

I think we've used it for 18ish months and have accrued nearly £300 of cashback. And that is with me being slightly patchy in remembering to use it!

I've just had a quick check online and Quidco seems pretty unpopular! Not quite a scam but certainly very unreliable with lots of stories of accounts suddenly being closed and Quidco keeping all the money accrued in the account! If you have any money still in your account with them I'd take it out asap Biscuits! I guess it's probably fine to use them if you take the money out immediately every time.

Online shopping is such a minefield! I'm pretty conservative with it though, lots of people are happy to take more risks than I do, and I'm sure they get much more in return because of it!

You get the money paid to you automatically, or I always have Scream. I've never heard any bad reports but never actually looked tbh! I might have a look later......

when i had a quick google there seemed to be a lot of complaints about accounts being terminated but these were all dated 2006, and people complaining that money takes ages to go in, which it does. The transaction has to be tracked which usually happens same day, and then confirmed by the retailer which can take a few weeks or even a couple of months (i think they have to confirm that they have actually completed the transaction iyswim) and then it has to get paid so it can take a while, but as i say we haven't had a problem with it and I'm not aware of anyone i know having an issue, But if its not for you then fair enough

Well your 18 months of experience definitely outweighs my ten minnutes of googling Biscuits! So long as you're getting the money automatically paid out of your quidco account into your bank account, clearly it must be fine! Sorry to cast any doubts, I'm just inherently skeptical when I can't see an obvious benefit for the company offering the service!

x-posts again Biscuits, thanks for the extra info! Makes a lot of sense! I may give it a whirl!

I have to say though scream i only went on my dad's original recommendation - i suppose it is kinda risky that they have my bank account details if they have a bit of a dubious history!

I was supposed to have a clam nice afternoon off this pm, girls in nursery all day, stopped work at midday, hair done and last bits for xmas. It was all rushed and manic though - work would be have been better!

I'm quite strict with naps - 10 to 11 and 2-3 roughly here.

The benefit to quidco is that the retailers will pay them for sending people their way. This is how easyfundraising works which is what we use to raise funds for guides.

oh my god, what on earth was I talking about? Jeez.

I got as far as the bit about yule logs and then dissolved in a fountain of drool Pomme! So I have no idea what you wrote for the rest of your post!

Sooooo,

Can I have a bit of a moany whinge?

I'm feeling a bit down at the moment but every time i try to tell dh how I'm feeling we end up having a row :(

I don't quite know what it is that I'm feeling, just a bit stuck on a treadmill. I think in a weird way I feel as though I'm missing out on the build up to Christmas, which is a bit stupid (well this whole thing is probably stupid so I'll just write it out without pointing out the specifically stupid bits!). We've decided what we want to buy for people for Christmas but don't really have time to get anyone to babysit both boys so DH has been going late night shopping after work. Which is OK but I just kind of feel like I've got all the crap jobs in the run up to Christmas because I'm stuck at home because it's too hard to go anywhere or do anything with the two boys.

Now I'll insert another little disclaimer here: I KNOW I am so unbelievably lucky to have my two boys, and even more so to be able to choose to be at home with them, and I know that DH misses them terribly when he is at work and often can go days, if not a week only seeing them when they are asleep.

However, that doesn't preclude me from finding it a bit repetitive having to wrestle with DS2 for every nappy change because he won't lie down, having to wrestle with him every time he has to get in to the pushchair or car seat, having him cry quite frequently at the moment for various undetermined reasons (teeth?), not having time to have my own breakfast because DS2 is crying for his and I have to get DS1 out to pre school, etc etc etc. My list of insignificant moans goes on and on. In addition, DS1 is constipated so hardly eating and a bit grumpy, and he really isn't hearing well at the moment (I think he must have the waxiest ears of a 4 year old ever so we've been to the doctors a few times and have been religiously inserting olive oil drops for him but it's not working so we're now awaiting a referral to Children's ENT for him to have them syringed or something). So even when he is being lovely and having a nice conversation, I have to say everything 3 or 4 times. And that is when he is TRYING to listen to me. When he isn't listening it's even worse so I have to shout to get his attention a lot which makes me feel grumpy and bad for being shouty Mummy. And when he does hear me he doesn't necessarily hear what I actually said, so, gfor example 'look, there's a cat in the garden', 'where is there a cow?', 'No, not a cow, a CAT', 'I can't see a cow' and so on....

So I'm just feeling a bit down at the moment. But when I try to articulate any of this to DH he just says 'so put them both in nursery, or you can look for a job if you want', but he's kind of missing the point. I don't want to change anything. And I don't need DH to solve the problem, I just want him to listen to me. Oh I don't even know what I want. I don't think anything needs to change - I can do everything I have to, but sometimes I just feel a bit bored of wiping sick up and washing up and putting washing on and picking up food off the floor etc.

So anyway, I told you it was a long and pointless moan - sorry. I do feel a little better for writing it down.

Oh and I have another thing that I don't know quite what I think! Different thing though. DS1 wandered into the kitchen with a lovely nativity scene christmas card today:

'Look Mummy, it's a card with Mary on'
'yes, that's right'
'Which one is trying to kill him?'
'pardon?'
'At pre-school, they said someone was trying to kill him'
'Do you mean King Herod? I don't think he went to Bethlehem so he's not there'

followed by me trying to divert the conversation away from that particular aspect of the nativity story. Sometimes the bible is quite heavy isn't it? I did read DS1 the nativity story the other night but stopped before it got to the bit about King Herod ordering that all baby boys be killed - AIBU to not want to discuss that bit with him? Or am I being daft?

`Aww biscuits, men are so dense aren't they?! I bet he moans about his work sometimes but doesn't want you to tell him to resign...

I find the repetitiveness of childcare really hard and last weekend having done 3 work days was so much happier (even with the annoying PILS there!). So, work is a good solution for me, but I want to so that's different :)

I think trying to get out with them is a good thing though. When A wakes up we're going to get shoes for dd1 and get la sandwich somewhere. Whilst it will be annoying and difficult I do still think better than just being at home.

We're always here to listen to rants for you :)

I don't like talking about anything to do with death with dd1 at all. I totally avoid it.

Hugs for Biscuits - I definitely hear you on the repetitiveness of childcare! It's frustrating that you can't just slack off sometimes. When I was working occassionally there would be a morning where I just couldn't make myself get up early, so I'd go back to sleep for half an hour and get to work dead on time instead of a bit early as usual. Or days when I really couldn't be bothered to cook dinner, or tidy up, so you just let it slide for one night and tackle it the next day. With kids it's just so relentless, and you can't ever just let it slide! If I really can't be bothered to wash DD's bottles for the umpteenth time that day, there's just no leeway. If I just need an extra half an hour in bed, it's tough. Having ranted all that out though, my point is the same as the point you made - they are gorgeously wonderfully perfect and we wouldn't change them for the world. So I'm sending lots of solidarity hugs your way, to get you through the not-so-perfect bits. Also, I love Pomme's point about your DH not wanting to resign! You should definitely mention that to him!!

I'm a bad evil person who has resorted to CC as of today. Last night was just insane. She cried Every. Single. Time. I put her in her cot. This means I didn't get any sleep at all until I tried co-sleeping at 3am. From 10 til 3 I was just trapped in my darkened room doing an endless cycle of failed transfers. Even after 3 she kept waking, crying and needing to be settled. So I got the odd 20 minute nap here and there, mostly sitting up in bed, until she woke for the day at 8 I am a broken woman.

So when she got tired around ten, but wanted to carry on playing, I instead put her to bed in her darkened room, sang her usual lullaby, put on Ewan the sheep, and left :( I kept an eye on her with the video monitor, and went back in every 5 mins to resettle her with the same lullaby and other sleep cues. In the end it took half an hour for her to go to sleep. We'll be doing the same for her 2pm afternoon nap, and overnight. :( I'm dreading it, and I feel so incredibly sorry for her, but I literally cannot do it anymore!

Un-mumsnetty for you Biscuits. It's horrible when the one person you're meant to be able to talk about everything to won't listen :( Definitely bring up Pomme's resigning point! I agree that if you can get out - even just for walks - it might make things slightly better? I make sure I do that at least once a day during the week, purely so I don't go mad (baby groups x3 at the moment, then walks on the others). I think Father Christmas needs to bring you a Day Off for Christmas - just one day where you're whisked away and do something completely different! I also think your DH would feel differently if he handled the childcare for a day (or maybe even an afternoon?!) once in a while. I think my DH really understood where I was coming from after he looked after Iz for a day. He complained about her falling asleep on him and not being able to get lunch until after 2pm - to which I pointed out 2pm is earlier than I get lunch quite often..

Rants always accepted. It's always good to get things off of your chest :)

The relentness and repetitiveness of it all is one thing that's making me wonder if I would want to return to work. Don't get me wrong, I love Iz and being home with her, but I think I might appreciate her and our time together more if I go out to work. On the other side though, it might give me a chance to kick start my composition work - I think it'll come down to whether I'm successful in my funding bids in the new year. I think DH would rather I stayed at home and looked after Iz than she goes anywhere (even to my sister in law), but he has to understand the sacrifices we'll all have to make if he wants that to be possible.

Scream, un-MN-y for you too. I hope the CC works out. It must be so tough :( You're not evil though - you've tried lots of things, and CC works really well for a lot of people. At the end of the day, she's getting older and can understand more now, and you need some sleep!

I'm very lucky in that Iz's sleeping seems to be settling down a little bit more now, touch wood. We've now had three nights in a row with only one wake up between me going to bed and 'morning'. We did have blood curdling screaming before I was in bed last night though - not sure what that was about - although think the second tooth might have finished cutting now, so that might be it.