Dec 08 Mums - Happy New Thread, You Beauties!

[beans37]

Come join me....

I think you might be right there Indith. I have good socks for them better put them on. But I think next time we go sledging will put them in full ski gear. Every time they crashed they got snow in every little crevice. Then that melted near their bodies and they then felt wet & cold. Where did you get the socks.

Indith as its an Australian course I can defer the payment of my fees until I am working in Australia again. Is that what you mean by student loan. I can fill out some forms online and the uni does the rest. But there is some problem with the forms on the governments side so there has been a delay. A friend did it last year and said it was ok.

It should be interesting Lady. It is an area I have experience (from both sides these days) & I believe it's an area Australia could do better. I quite like the uni I have gone with and hope I can do the PhD with them also.

I got the dc's socks through Perilla. Not cheap but very good and they should last a few years. They are a bit bit on them but they don't seem to mind!

Student finance is complicated. I already have a student load through them from first degree whcih I don't yet pay back as I don't earn anything above the threshold. Because the midwifery is NHS funded then I will get a bursary through NHS. Student loans comprise of a basic payment and then a means tested part which includes all the extra stuff like childcare etc. NHS students are not entitled to the means tested part because all that gubbins is hopefully taken care of by the NHS funding. But I did think I was still able to get the basic payment, at least that's what I was otld last time I spoke to them.

Oh well, toddler group this morning after dropping the boy at school then I will try to squeeze in a call before picking the girl up form nursery.

Ooo, we have snow! Well not landing yet but hopefully we'll get some. For the children of course.

I've just been to get vests and long johns for DS. He can't stand the cold. I can't believe he has Viking blood in him!

DH has a new car (2nd hand), so I have mine back, Hurrah. Hence celebratory trip to M&S and Sainsbos.

According to the beeb we are due more snow starting tomorrow afternoon and ending around Tuesday .

Makes me happy! So long as it behaves and doesn't start early as I would like to be able to go to Sainsburys tomorrow before it starts. I have my £10 gift voucher for the mumsnet wholegrain challange :) PLus we have no frozen veg left. And I think the pasta stocks are low. I probably just need a Tesco order really

We've had our snow since Tuesday, a bit over it now, it's a bit tricky to cycle on and poor Ds2 is so cold. I rugged him right up today but still his little cheeks were so cold.

I need to find tenants to fill two of the three bedrooms of thd London place. Two of them need to move out but the third wants to stay. Urgh gumtree here we come. Anyone know anywhere I else to advertise a flat share?

Vag do an advert on Facebook. I know friends who have always done it this way and never had a prob. They open it up to all of their FB friends and have always found someone on their friends list who was looking or via a friend of a friend.

Well done, the Vag! Brilliant to be doing phd. V impressed. Wish I had inspiration with something to do with my life that I'd be passionate about. Although my kids are basically that!

Cocking Nora indeed. -9 this morning and due to be the same tomorrow. Lord help us. Thank god I bought the salopets a few weeks ago. And long sleeved thermal vests!

Pregnancy symptom: total bloody exhaustion. Can barely function after about 4pm. It's ridiculous. And my boobs are starting to ache. Am desperately sleeping on my front while I still can! Saddo.

Watching LLL and thinking of you all.

Salopets and vests for girls, not me. I wish.

I'm not doing it yet Beans, Masters first then phd hopefully.

I've decided if I ever win the lottery I'll get Phil and Kirstie to find me a house.

DD is asleep in her cot. She kept crying and crying and I needed the toilet so I left her to go and she went to sleep. I'm very tempted to go upstairs and check but don't want to wake her up.

Blimey ladies, my efforts at catching up are being challenged - 17 pages in as many days! But it's so lovely to read, even if I'm failing to say anything. Apologies now if I miss anyone out, which I will but not deliberately. There's so much I've wanted to say as I've been reading, but quite a lot of the time the conversation has moved on quickly without me

Firstly, a little yippee from me to Beans, do you have an EDD, if this ones going to be a sticker? And also yippee to Arti on the successful scan

I hope everyone is through the pox, and the Spot family has finished vomiting. Will B have long to wait for his rescheduled op?

Happy new house wishes to Nolda

I can't believe both Beans and Deids DH's have been right twonks recently, glad they've seen sense (of a sort) now. Deids I had the opposite row with my DH over Christmas, in that he thinks I should stay at home because on paper I'm almost in a state of negative cash flow after paying for childcare and commuting at the moment, although this will improve again by the time DD is in school full time. Fortunately he quickly realised that finances and expenses are 'ours', not 'mine and yours' and that long term I'll do better to hold onto my job now. What really pee's me off, isn't that he feels the girls would be better off out of childcare (he loves their nursery), but that he just wants someone to facilitate HIS life so that he's not expected to help out at home and so his meals are cooked, clothes ironed, and so he can have an admin/financial/dogsbody for his business (but not an equal, note, we discussed the option of me working with him but he says he doesn't trust me enough run an arm of his business and I refused to do it without recognition that I have skills and can take responsibility for them) But we are sorted, so I'll stop ranting

Congratulations on getting DH snipped Summer! No third for you! Someone asked on our thoughts on no 3 on the last thread. I was really quite open to the idea, with DH less so, but since he had the lump on his nads and I had to think about the possibility that he could lose one (and so his fertility) I realised that I wasn't that bothered about missing out at all. And unless DH scales back his work at all, then definitely not, as some days I barely feel like I'm coping with two

Beans I was thinking about Trace the other day too and wondering whether I should text her? I don't want her to feel pressured to keep in touch, but I miss her

Woohoo Vag on getting your masters place

Has everyone moved their 4 year olds up to the group 2 booster car seat by now? DD is finally big enough and I don't know where to start. Who can recommend a good one?

Lovely to see you ZJ! Hurrah! DH rows are so irritating innit?

Kayz! Well done DD! Long may it last!

Can they go on just a booster seat now? Without the whole chair bit?? That would be ace. Think we're getting a scenic or a touran or sharan if number 3 sticks.

EDD 17th Sept.

I don't know about the booster without chair - DD1 is still so teeny that she's in the second car seat with 5 point harness, but need her to move on for DD2 to have it

Beans we had a Touran & loved it. We compared the scenic with Touran, really not that much difference we just on the day preferred the Touran. I think we're a bit square rather than round car people. Loved the parking itself thing too. Ds2 is in booster. For short trips we just use the booster but for longer trips we use the back bit.

Hi ZJ.

Kayz how old is dd now? When you said you left her to cry and it was only to go to the toilet, firstly I mis read that initially and thought you were saying dd was crying and wanted to go to the toilet so you let her, to which I thought, Struth, I must get on with the tt ing dd! Then I re read and thought Crikey, I'm sure I left dd much longer than that when she cried!
Well done Vagerooli there's no end to your motivation! Love your snow pics- so weird but lovely having snow on the beach!

Beans the little bean could share my bday if it hangs on until the 25th

ZJ - My job pays a pittance and really only aids in the odd travel costs plus a tiny getaway here and there. Fortunately dh wants me to work for him and I want to cut back on my job (even more if thats even possible) I've always wanted to contribute more financially (although i have furnished him with some decent travel and holidays for about 9 years now) but looks like it will work over here - we are scaling things up as soon as this exam is over. Eek! Glad you two came to agreement on it.

Lady will text you. Dh is going to look at his schedule and see which day he's busy longer as one may work better than the other but let me know which works best for you also. Very happy to drive to you and just catch up and hang out

Oh and also that's right what type if seat do you mean? Ds has been in one that is fwd facing and has the harness but over 17kg the harness can come off but it still has the seat with the back and just uses a normal seat belt. Haven't taken the harness off yet as he still fits it despite being 19kg. Skinny bugger. We had the stage 2 ones in our other car but have now put one if each in each car if that makes sense as dh picks the kids up often and became too much hassle switching seats. Am thinking ill take the harness off ds soon as he's big enough and its a royal pita to strap him in. It's a recaro and I live the seats but hate the straps.

Rubes, she'll be 7 months next week. I was bursting for a wee so left her crying so I could go. Our bathroom is downstairs. So probably left her for 5 minutes.

Loads of people on Facebook have been posting articles about how leaving babies to cry makes them have lower IQs and become criminals and other stuff like that. So was feeling a bit terrible.

Kayz don't worry.

Repeatedly leaving a child to cry for LONG periods with no comfort MAY cause damage. Leaving your child for 5 mins to go to the loo/make breakfast/get an older sibling ready for school does not.

Dd is in a high backed booster with seatbelt. It is one of those that had a 5 point which you then remove past 18kg.

Oh gosh, Kayz, don't worry about that. Honestly, you're not leaving her for ages at a time regularly. I wouldn't say I did CC with DD2, but I did let her cry for a while until shed reached a point of being too wound up to self settle, then would go and see her. Probably a max of 8 mins. Couldn't bear any longer and DH had to almost restrain me from going in sooner! Got there in the end. about 2 weeks ago. Maybe there's something about being born on 20th June!

Kayz, I'm sure it's fine to let them cry for a bit. It's not like you left her all day. I ended up letting DS cry it out and he's fine...ahem (joke!)

I haven't been out with friends for weeks and the snow is expected to hit us late afternoon. Think I'd best cancel

Oh and DS in high back booster with normal seat belt now! It makes it so much easier switching seats between cars and I sold his maxi cosi on eBay and got a good price too

Thanks everyone

DS2 is still in the harness but that is because we haven't taken it off yet. I might try and get a new one instead as it is a bit rubbish.

Kayz a lot of that research is flawed, it is not like they can do a control. I'm ok with anecdotal evidence but I think when they dont look at other contributing factors it makes the research unscientific. The only cry it out research I believe is the one where they looked at cortisol levels. This research only seemed to show ill effects under 3months and even then it only showed a possible decreaded ability to deal with stress. Kayz just trust your instincts.

Lance Armstrong sucks

So who wants to play a "what's up with dd?" guessing game?

Past few days have seen EPIC tantrums. She is shattered, horrible, screaming and shouting.

I had thought it was a growth spurt as she had been eating us and nursery out of house and home.

Today after the school run we went to bf group. Dd had rosy read cheeks and ears from school run. But on of her cheeks is still bright red.

Hum.

I wonder what will develop......hope she didn't pass anything on to the little babies, I'm normally ultra careful about going to bf group because of the teeny babies we come into contact with. I send them to school and nursery with pretty much anything except d&v, chicken pox and death but never bf group!