March 2013 - 6 months down, 210 to go!

[StormyBrid]

Old thread.

Keep on rambling, ladies, we have a whole new thread to fill!

Eig glad you're back in one piece, now you just need to forget yesterday's birthday catastrophe and reschedule it for next weekend instead!

DH does very little around the house but my word can the man cook, so the 'what's for dinner' question here is answered with 'whatever you're happy to cook for me!' I do manage to cook about once a week but it tends to be a one pot wonder!

The cake was good, the babe is still asleep, DDad has walked the dog and made me 2 cups of tea and I'm cuddled with the dog watching telly. Life's not all bad!

worse he's not that bad, really. Put it this way: I enjoy life with him in it a lot more than life without him.

SoYo at my dad's it's laminate flooring (for ease of cleaning up the trail of snuff he leaves wherever he goes). He's got a great big blanket that he folds over several times and puts under the playmat, which stops any nasty head bumps. Doesn't help when she throws herself forward right off it though!

eco tell me more about these teething granules? Because I'm running out of ideas. DD went to bed an hour ago and she's still screaming. I'm at a loss. Not entirely happy about revisiting controlled crying right now either, as I know full well half the problem is she's getting stuck on her stomach, and letting her cry won't result in her flipping herself over.

Happy belated birthday to Eig! Sounds like a very good excuse to have an extra birthday when you're feeling better.

Well Southwold has survived relatively unscathed. We have counted two roofless houses, but that's about it really. Not many trees round here and because it wasn't coming in from the sea the beach huts are fine. Sad news from closer to home with the young tunbridge wells girl in the caravan though.

Yay for wors on fb!! It's so lovely to see pictures of all the babies. Hands up for a meet up at plonky's huge wedding?!?

Stormy- def would say don't return to cc tonight, dd is usually really good at settling isn't she? Which would definitely imply that something's amiss. Could well be teeth, guess you've tried calpol etc? Failing that, just lots of cuddles to sleep, you won't lose all your good work in one night!

Eco- enjoy downton catch up. So much good tv at the moment, good thing I'm going back to work soon, I've never watched so much tv in my life!

Right, bed time. Wishing you all peaceful nights and sensible mornings!

stormy they are by nelsons and come in a box full of sachets. homeopathic. witch craft! £4 ish from boots. a friend swears by them so we gave them a try. they are supposed to help with the pain. not sure what the homeopathic remedy for flipping is (we tried rolled up bath towels under sheet either side of cot until eco baby was proficient at flipping both ways though)

Yes stormy we found the cal gel works wonders here we did try the granules but they didn't seem to work.

Argh! Just lost massive post and no time to re type.

Big point were happy birthday Eig! And re nappies, I forget who asked now - Eco? - check out strip washing on nappy lady or fluff heaven FAQ to get rid of piddly smells.

Morning all, a what a lovely storm free one it is too. I'm glad we all survived unscathed. Had DH at home yesterday as there was a massive tree down near our local station. We got a mention on National news! Lucky us. Luckier me though, as when the man is home I get to go for a run. I am trying to ignore the fact I used to be able to do 10k without breaking a sweat, as these days it's more like 5, and wrecked... but hey, it's a start.

Stormy sounds like a pretty good basis for a relationship that. I guess I could say that about DH too now

Eig Ugh. Not fun. Really not fun. Huge sympathy and a sachet of rehydration crystals to you. Happy birthday for next weekend, when I assume you will be holding deferred celebrations.

Hello to all the facebookers. Just been on-line having a look. So many gorgeous babies! Speaking of which mine has just woken up. I hear squeaks.

Well, if they're homeopathic teething granules I think I'll give them a miss. Homeopathy only works because of the placebo effect, and I can't see that having much effect on a baby with no expectations. We do have calgel, it's just awkward getting it in there.

Last night she went to sleep in the end after the man held her hand for a while. This morning she woke up screaming at ten past five. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but I couldn't calm her down. Tried picking her up and cuddling her, no joy. In the end (and in tears myself) I left her to it, checked the time, and got back into bed. Six minutes later she stopped crying. A few more isolated whimpers, and she went back down until 8am. Is she big enough to have twigged that screaming gets her attention in the night? Also, it feels really really crappy when you can't stop your baby crying with cuddles. SoYo, how the hell have you coped with this for so long?

The man has decided storms aren't scary. Because four people died, all by trees. Therefore clearly it's actually Ents we need to fear. I was a bit and sent him off to work.

worse I figure no relationship's going to be perfect, and we've definitely got some good things going for us. Like the way it's been two years and we'll still never had a proper argument. And he's very good at pandering to my idiosyncrasies (you can't put a pink lid on a green bottle, it has to be pink with yellow or green with yellow, because otherwise it feels wrong, and so on). He's also done wonders for my mental health. As for him, I think he's just happy that I don't throw plates when I get wound up.

Eig happy birthday. Not the ideal way to spend it I'm sure, but happy birthday nonetheless.

Eco I may investigate the granules. After much googling I think we're having teething poos. Yuck. Smelly.

Glad to hear the storm largely passed everyone by. Phew.

Ok ladies, wedding invitation etiquette. Great big question mark ? we'd like to have a registry office wedding in July and reception about half an hour away at my parents. So do we lay on transport for people to get from a to b? Do we lay on hotels? Both? If the wedding is at lunch time and he reception is supposed to go all night do we lay on nibbles for the afternoon or leave people to their own devices for a few hours and tell them to show up for dinner? It's a very polite nightmare.

Best go rescue the baby. Poor mites covered himself in porridge.

If you had an unlimited budget, Plonky, I'd say yes, lay on transport and hotels. But as cash is an issue you don't need to bother. Provide information about local bus services and taxi companies, people can make their own way. Plenty of nibbles for the afternoon, and expect people to end up a bit shitfaced if you're not giving them a full meal for ballast. People can sort their own hotels out, just do a spot of research into where's good, where's convenient, and where's cheap so you can point people in the right direction.

Stormy ds cries if I leave the room without talking to him. Here at he age now that they can understand distance, being apart from us, and get our attention accordingly. In another six months (less if you're Something) they'll be toddling into our bedrooms and putting their pudgy hands all over us instead. Til then I think it's a fine line between comforting them when they can't settle and letting them get on with it if they're not too grumpy. I understand the tears though, we had that ourselves last night.

I like your thinking. I think when we send out the invitations I'll include details on parking, hotels and taxis. I will get a quote on the taxi front as I wouldn't fancy getting a bus all that way in my finery, but hotels are definitely beyond us. I think for our more frugal mates (sans kids) I will offer for them to kip in tents in the garden. As dinners likely going to be ahoy roast the least I can do is offer canapés. Thank goodness I will get some freebies from work!

Tents in the garden is a good idea. Also, is it likely that a fair few of your guests will end up driving in their own cars from wedding to reception? If so you could do some matching people up to try and arrange lifts for people who'd otherwise struggle. And you're allowed a swish car for you and the groom, you know!

There's no doubt I'll be going in a car! Can see how it would look otherwise, but I wouldn't expect my guests to have to get buses. Though we're on a small budget (hence homespun reception) I don't want people to feel unwelcome.

Making the phone call to sort dates once ds is napping and I've sorted the kitchen .

Plonky most people will drive to the church so laying on a bus from church to reception just means their cars will be stranded (friend learned this the hard way). Is there plenty of space to park at your parents? If so I'd guess those that don't have a designated driver will leave the cars there and collect in the morning. Give local taxi companies a ring to see if they would have enough occupancy for a load of taxis between say 10 and 1 and if so tell them you'll use them alone if you can work out a deal?

When you send the invites send a list of local hotels/B&Bs etc and try to include a mix of budgets and maybe put some local taxi numbers on there too.

Canapés are always good and go a little way to soaking up some booze pre-dinner. It's always that bit between getting to reception and dinner that can be a bit slow at weddings. If its going to be a long gap and you're in a big garden in summer how about having some garden games around the place to keep people occupied if they want. A friend had croquet, giant jenga, limbo and rounders which when mixed with a couple of glasses of fizz and fancy outfits is very amusing. We would have had something similar but instead we had thick snow and 150 people having a snowball fight at 1am after getting snowed into the reception!!!

As for timings, make sure you leave longer than you think for everything!

I loved organising my wedding!!! Great fun and somehow fairly stress free so I'm always happy to add my mostly unwanted I'm sure opinions!

I hate to rain on the wedding prep but who the hell swapped my serene DD for THE DEVIL CHILD? She is no longer the happy baby I put to bed last night. Oh no. She started yelling at me at 7am and hasn't stopped since. She brought up a bit of milk on me, just as i'd got dressed and all over her nice clean grobag and then darn right refused to have her morning nap until I slammed about and got the pram together and threw her in it and steamed on up the road. She's snoozing now but possibly not for long. And now DH is suffering from the tummy bug I had on Saturday (only much worse, of course) so is all 'can't go near her, just in case'. Smashing.

Anyhoo - LOVE a wedding. Made a spreadsheet for mine as I like to be veh organised. I would suggest the same - If you're having a hog roast, can they also do a buffet? If not, Sainsbury's, Waitrose or Mark and Sparks do really good party tray things (and wedding cakes...) which won't cost the earth. I was thrifty with everything (except the dress) and managed to find a really cheap local florist who did my bouquet for £25. Do you have any good friends who are good at photography that could do your pictures or video? Or trawl the local college for photography students who need to build a portfolio - you may end up with something very 'arty'. Beg, borrow and steal - lots of people will have something they want to lend you from chairs to bunting to a veil. See what's out there. Oh, and most importantly, use your Clubcard vouchers for your honeymoon - I saved £1000 with mine!

Wonder week, Any? Aren't you about 35, 36 weeks now? And the next ww is week 37. Just occurred to me that might be part of the problem here too - the last time DD was this trying was week 22, when we had a whole week of grumpiness then plain sailing right through ww26.

Oh yes stormy - I fear it has finally hit (although later than I thought, thank goodness). We're in week 36 and the WW is week 37 so it looks like two weeks of hell have now arrived. Yeehaa. Time to enlist reinforcements...

I'm pretty sure we're there too Any! Moaning Minnie has taken up residence in this house. We have however survived a trip to Ikea to stock up the GParents house with some baby kit.

Plonky, Any is right, it's always worth asking for a discount. We didn't pay full price for anything at our wedding. Plus we had an M&S cake that was amazing!!

Plonky I'm so excited for you do you want Soyo and I to be your wedding planner I think food is the key to a an enjoyable day (but I am a person who needs to eat often and gets sulky if I don't). We had apple juice and home made muffins on arrival at venue so people could refuel after a journey, we had pimms and then lunch, then we had afternoon tea with loads of cakes so that people didn't have a long stretch of time considering a trip to the Shell garage for a mars bar so as not to get ravenous, then we had dinner, and finally wedding cake So, in answer to your question, go for some canapes yes!
Stormy I thought homeopathy worked on the basis that it gives your body a bit of what causes the symptom and that your body responds by reacting to that substance and kick starting a healing process. I think NHS trials have concluded that homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo. However! if you are at the end of your tether then anything legal is worth a punt imo! I have heard Mums call teething granules 'baby crack' because of it's efficacy with their baby. Maybe babies are either lovers or haters.

Pud thanks for nappy advice: I'll take a look. I'm guessing you don't have this problem then..... Hhhmmmmm.... Does ecobaby have especially stinky wee I wonder.

Eig and Any may you be rid of the family ailments soon.

Worse I can only dream of 5k at present. Running feels like a downward strain on the pelvic floor and also my boobs feel wild when running. I used to do half marathons and regularly stomped out of an evening to 'process' some thought or other. It's been so long. How did you start again; just bang, straight into half hour sessions? I really want to get back out there.
Today, with a blank day ahead of us, we went out to lunch (or our version of lunch more suited to someone who has no maternity pay any longer: cup of earl grey for me, picnic for baby, hummus and pitta bread in car on way home for me) and had a few laps of our lovely park. I managed to catch the sunny part of the day and eco baby now has some ruddy cheeks and is sleeping.

I'm off to Dad/sisters tomorrow to see this headstone and commune with Mum a little so I'll see you all when I get back. I get teased for going on MN when I'm there!

PS - Soyo I have now caught up and have a spring in my step now. Thank heavens.

I also wondered about a wonder week, Any. Speaking of, do they go by gestational or birth age? I'm trying to decipher whether ds is exhibiting signs of merely teething, or being a child prodigy. Clearly the latter.

Eco you and SoYo could sooooo be my wedding planners. You might refuse, though, on the grounds that IABU. I'm basically feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. Disclaimer : am not Jesus, so my guests may be hungry.

Loving all the advice though everyone, thanks. Afternoon tea and lawn games plus booze sounds perfect. I might have already decided which wine were having! Oh and it's booked now. 2pm on Saturday July 27th. I expect you'll all be there

eco from an article on Ben Goldacre's website I bring you this description of homeopathy: "sugar pills have healing powers conferred upon them by being shaken with one drop of the ingredient which has been diluted, so extremely, that it equates to one molecule of the substance in a sphere of water whose diameter is roughly the distance from the earth to the sun". As for the like curing like business, the short version is some bloke made it up. I'd definitely recommend Goldacre's book Bad Science for a much more thorough overview. I'd also recommend it if you think you might have a wobble about the MMR jab, because he covers that whole debacle pretty thoroughly too.

Plonky they go by gestational age. So if DS was a week early, he'll be a week late on the wonder weeks. DD managed to turn up on her due date, so I never have to bother doing the maths on that one.

So far today we haven't had too much shouting. This is because after first nap we went to my dad's, then came home to see my uncle and his family who've come round to see the newest niece. Between them they kept DD sufficiently entertained that she managed to stay awake from 11.15 to 3.30. With a bit of luck she'll now sleep until 5 and be all set for a 7.30 bedtime. I'm having issues on the timings though. I can get her down at 10 and up at 11.30 in time for milk, no problem there, but then the next milk is due around 3.30. If she naps before then, she's got to do three and a half or even four hours awake, which is a bit of stretch at this point. If she naps after that feed, same problem but earlier in the day. Any suggestions?

Already got my fascinator, daaaaahling

Plonky I'm so excited for you I have completely forgotten what I was going to say to everyone else. No matter. I'm sure it wasn't very interesting. I am often not very interesting, but it doesn't stop me writing... a lot...

As far as wedding planning goes I'll leave you experts to it. I was rubbish, did the entire of mine over the phone, which might explain why I ended up with something that was not even remotely 'me', although very 'Mr Worse'. My only advice... relax. People get so het up... and you know what, on the day it doesn't matter if the caterers mess up, the registrar forgets your name, the ILs start a fight... whatever.... because you'll still marry the man you love and everything else is incidental.

Sob.... love a good wedding I might even go and dig out the wedding photos I nearly burnt but thankfully didn't, and have a good old snivel

Our power has just gone off. Fk. I'd better post this before the battery fails too....

Oh shit Wors, make sure you conserve some battery for MN emergencies! Get those candles on and the camping stove out!

Eco enjoy that spring in your step, mine was more of a slightly uncomfortable wobble in my step, glad to be back though!

Plonky I'm in for the wedding planning and a firm believer that anything is possible whatever the budget, it just might take a bit more effort than if you just threw money at it (which I'm pretty sure is what we did but we made a pact to never work out what we spent)!

Stormy/Eco I truly believe that homeopathy has no scientific basis and probably doesn't work much of the time but sometimes the placebo effect is amazing and sometimes things work that science can't explain and there's no evidence base for. Plus, if it doesn't do any harm its worth a try, I've tried the granules and DD seemed to think they were 'the shit' and they shut her up so that's good enough for me! Plus I can't be too scientific because obstetrics has bugger all evidence base, in fact most of it is based on years of experience, educated guesswork and a bit of witchcraft!

DD has figured out I can walk away from her. How many years will it be before I get another shit in peace? On the plus side, I caught her rolling from front to back this afternoon. Has she just worked it out, or was she fibbing about it all along?