December 2011 - the one where we do the Twist and Shout

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

New thread.

these babies are nearly two and a half

mopsy hope your plan works out and you manage to complete when you get back. I would say I'm not looking forward to broken nights again but they've never stopped here, plus DD1 is an early riser, I think even now I can probably count on one hand the number of post-6am wake-ups she's ever had. Still I wanted them close together so we can get the baby stage done in one long continuous stretch.

I think we're actually in our forever house tbh, I can't imagine wanting to move. We have four bedrooms and a lovely big garden, plus I'm still madly in love with the new kitchen. Don't get me wrong there's loads that needs doing on it but it will be great when it's finished. I'm not boasting btw, it's ex-council on a now mostly private council estate, we got it for a bargain £143,000 because it was flea-infested and absolutely filthy.

Well tomorrow is the day I had DD2, a few contractions earlier which came to nothing.

How lovely seven, sounds a perfect set up. Sounds like your body is gearing up, though I still reckon Octoberbaby will surprise us all

Have you landed safely aethel? Do tell us about your vair posh new residence!

I'm not glad to hear others are suffering, but glad to hear we're not alone iyswim? For us I think pray that it's just because DS has been so out of routine, being off nursery, having his Gran visit, and then going to stay in Brighton, and hoping it will settle. You can cope better with the crap sleep when that's the norm, but 1.5-2 years of decent sleep (albeit another hideously early waker here too) means that any bad periods really hit hard.

How are you feeling mopsy, has everything settled down?

Chilled day here, park, housework, and then walked with DS into town to get a present for a birthday party he's attending next week. We're going to a farm/historic/activity play thing tomorrow as a treat, and then I'm doing some serious gardening in the afternoon- die forsythia, die [manic wild-haired cackle emoticon]

This is my forever house.
...I just need a lottery win to do what I want with it! I'm going to have to start saving/spending less. And I need to get the single person's discount on the council tax. I think I can afford to carry on living here ok. And the 15 hrs free Childcare will help next year too.
I've got some savings, so I really must get the windows sorted before winter!
And the toilet still needs fixing. (I've been ignoring it, I have 2 others and they suffice. But I need to get it done soon as it's in boi's bathroom, and when he starts toilet training, we need to be ready!
Well done for getting this far seven. Hope you're not too uncomfy. X

I refuse to talk to people about moving house outside of this thread as they're all a bit weird about it! We have a 2 bedroom flat and would like to move to a 3 bedroom house but in the road next to is a 3 bedroom ex-council house sold for £365,000 within a week of being on the market a couple of months ago...and it needed completely redecorating, new kitchen, new bathroom. House prices around here are crazy!

We will just keep on saving up and at some point if we can't afford a 3 bedroom house we will just have to look at other areas!

DS is awake in his bed singing and talking. I can hear him saying "wake mummy up" so I'd better go!

Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend :)

Woah chip, take it yr London/Home Counties way with prices like that, and where it's a topic of fevered conversation! We're in a relatively affordable bit of the Home Counties, so 3 beds r 150-250 ish.
DS woke at 5, so DP is napping...

You guessed right Northern! We're in Herts, need to be near/near enough distance from a train station as DH works in Central London. There are cheaper towns/villages nearby but we're reluctant to move out of our immediate area as we have some very good primary schools and it's a really safe and friendly place.

If baby no.2 is a boy that will take some pressure off as it doesn't matter if DS and baby share a room forever, if baby is a girl I've told DH we will need to move by the time DS is 5/6. Hopefully that buys us some time and house prices are supposedly going down in re next 12 months. Also I'll be working more hours and paying less on childcare in a couple more years! Just got to keep reminding myself to look at the long term picture :)

House prices in and around London are insane. It is so ridiculous.

Hiya!

It's extremely pretty here. Am sat in the games area on the wi-fi... It's in a seperate building up stairs so have to make an effort to get here. Went to Haddon Hall with the two littler ones today (they loved it) and have just had some Bakewell pudding (yum!) v relaxing so far apart from the usual kiddicare requirements. Total break away which I think we all needed....

Where are ye staying aethel? sounds fab!

aethel you're not staying at a place called Haddon Grove are you?

We stayed there last year, it had a seperate pool house/games room. It was lovely.

Eek, outed! Yes, fixya, we are, and it's still lovely! (We are in Ash cottage: all on one floor so no stairs fpr kids to fall down. The only slight collywobble is there's no front gate and it goes straight onto the 60mph road outside so close eye on DS is needed outside!) it's so nice to be here on a joint holiday with friends, we have been a bit peripheral to the social group for years cos we had kids sooner than most of them so while we still saw people we were kind of off the joint hol list... Now most of them have caved and reprodced we're not the unusual quantity anymore!

Okaaaaay, that is too weird. I just checked the sitemap and we were in Ash too! YY to the main road/no gate issue. We managed to scare ds into holding our hands until we got round to the courtyard bit by reception. Not sure what bribery we would use a year later!

Don't want to ruin your holiday, but ds had a poo incident in the bath

The pub in Monyash does an amazing lamb shank. Worth a look if you can fit it in.

In other news, DD turned 1 last week (or as DS says "Immy is number 1)

I got my first dog bite whilst delivering on Sat. Not serious, more of a tooth shaped blood blister and saw a nurse today to check who confirmed no need for antib or anything.

Oh and if anyone is considering the new Centre Parcs in Woburn it is pretty good. We went for the day as my Gran was already there with my Aunt, Uncle and teenage cousins. Didn't see much of this site, but felt more compact than Sherwood and the pool is definitely more toddler friendly.

Ummmm, can't think of anything else really. How are we already due the next lot of babies

Still no baby, I'd had DS and DD2 by now, back is killing me today, though hasn't been hurting at all during my entire pregnancy, other than sciatica

I know chip, my Dad is near Berkhamsted, lovely area but one of my favourite games is to look in the EAs' windows to give myself heart palpitations!

Glad you're having fun aethel, and how weird is it that you and fix have been to the same place... I had that once with one of my friends, we were both from the same Lancashire town, and I then bumped into him when we were on family holidays in York, and then on Jersey- we spent the first hour just going "no WAY"! Clearly you and fix both have excellent taste Are you going to try the caves?

And I'm sorry for wishing Octoberbaby on you seven, hope she arrives soon

DS woke again last night, and we ended up in the spare room. This is absolutely killing me, I'm off to bed after this. I know that this too shall pass, but I've had all the intellectual ability of a park bench today at work, Bob knows how I managed to fake it....

Aw it'll come soon seven I assume that this is the last one for you?

Ds size 6 pampers are starting to dig into him am going to have to ramp up the potty training. The pull ups must be quite big as they used for older kids or is that a mistaken assumption?

Us too Northern ... eventually after ages cuddling and calming I went back to bed. Then she started off again. Eventually just had to leave her, as it was whinging and fake crying. She eventually dropped off but I was feeling terrible but Me. Mopsy was firm. As he said, if she was truly upset it would be a different story but if it is fake crying, I shouldn't give in. He was right and she did go back to sleep on her own !

Amazing coincidence re house! Sounds fab. Great area too. Are ye going to go to Chatsworth? Pretty close by I should think.

seven, hope you get a bit more comfy... back pain horrid

figgy I find the pull ups really small...

I only bought pull ups once and thought them small mopsy thought I must have got the sizing wrong but maybe not.

Have the day off work tomorrow and we are putting DH grandads ashes in the ground with his dearly deceased granny then free lunch with the in-laws and inbetweeners 2 before pick DS up from CM as we paying for the day anyway he may as well go there.

I'm sat on the floor trying to play with the skunk he has been disgraced today as the last few days he's been climbing onto the conservatory sofa for asleep which I don't blame him considering his bed constantly smells of Wee regardless of how often we clean it out but as we discovered he's also been climbing on sofas to piddle all over them he has had that luxury removed. Poor thing I keep telling myself that he's had a hard start to life and I shouldn't kick his arse into next week

Glad you're having a good holiday Aethel I cannot wait until mine in September!

Fix it's a small world, my friends sister is at Centre Park in Woburn at the moment and I was thinking it sounded lovely!

Ahh Berkhamstead too posh for Lidl is really nice but I think I'd struggle to afford a bedsit there ;) I do love The Rex cinema and all of the restaurants there though! It's nice to visit for the day and visit the castle and walk by the canals.

I hope you manage to feel a bit better today Seven. I have a theory that the last weeks of pregnancy have to be awful so that you lose the fear of giving birth as you just want the baby out!

Not a lot to report here, I'm remembering the pregnancy insomnia again now! I keep waking up at silly times in the morning. I must get a replacement bulb for my bedside lamp and then try reading a book back to sleep!

My biggest nephew is 15 today. 15! That's nearly a grown up! God I feel so old.

My baby half sister, who was born the day after I started university, got her A level results last week. I also feel old!

We are getting older, wiser and even more fabulous!

Although my PGP is getting really bad and I feel like an old lady shuffling along

Sorry you're suffering mopsy.

figgy Christ yes, definitely the last one!