March 2013- the one where plonk gets married!

[Gerrythetootallgiraffeswife]

Perilously close to filling the old thread suddenly!

Oh, and eco before going to Edinburgh, I'd had no length of time away from him so I did jump in at the deep end. But it's sort of made it easier to have him away overnight and things now. If that makes sense.

eco there is a great facebook group called Breatfeeding Older Babies and Beyond - might be worth joining and posting a question about going away and maintaining supply. There are many ladies on there with alot of breastfeeding experience who would have useful advice on this point.

Good plan Rainbow.

Inspired by the mad ladies of MN I am doing this mad crash diet one. Started Sunday and so am on the crappest day today but am down 2.2lb as at last night already. Just want to get back to a stage where being sensible seems to have benefits rather than comfort eating about how fat I feel .

Garden is very nearly clear. Shed is tidy. Boy is back from grandmas and fast asleep for the next fortnight I reckon.

Holy hell Wotta. It's made me hungry just looking at it.

Eco I second Betty's (?) idea about a try before you buy night away.

I'm having good days at the moment but DD is being an absolute douchebag at bedtime. She's got a molar pushing through which I suspect is making her less fond of going to bed but tonight she grabbed both cheeks and tried to yank them off my face. It got to the point where she wouldn't lie down and wouldn't let me pick her up for a cuddle. She screamed at me, pulled my hair, grabbed chunks of flesh from anywhere. I just dumped her in her cot and walked away saying 'be like that then, go to sleep'. 30 mins later, I was in the pantry, DD was asleep. 3rd night in a row. Four nights away seems like a great idea to me...

4.5lb lost now though... What's that? Yes, the noise is my stomach rumbling... But I get steamed fish for tea tomorrow! And all the feckin grapefruit juice I can drink.

Oh and mega nap interruptus by mega poo. Early night then...

any big hugs to you. I don't know what to suggest because I am going through the same thing with bedtimes. Ds decides he don't want to sleep in his cot anymore and prefers my bed. It comes to 10pm and we are still having bedtime wars. I think the bottom canines are coming through. Its really tough going when you know they are tired yet they fight sleep. Is dh away at the moment? Anyone else that can come to help you at bedtimes?

wotta you know the weight you lose will come back once you eat normally again?

eco I think you should set out on your trip but come back early if you or dd are struggling.

wotta I've briefly looked at that diet before. I like the ones that give you set meals so you don't have to think Spoke to DP last night and we're both going to do it next week. It clearly works; 4.5lbs!! Well done you

Yummy, I have deliberately chosen a diet which is not about stripping water out of your system for exactly this reason. I had ballooned very quickly in recent weeks due to stress and lack of time meaning I have not been able to exercise and have developed a very unhealthy relationship with food as a result (a reward for how terrible I feel, a comfort for how fat I feel, etc) so am just taking this time on holiday to kick start things. It won't get me very near target weight again, that will take sensible eating and exercise which I will just have to prioritise more than I have been, but if my waist bands physically do up again then it will be easier to go to work and feel good. I have never had to done anything like this before but really felt the need to take control over much that was out of control (weight, shed, garden).

Next up: getting new tube lights for the under cupboard lighting in the kitchen (much harder than you'd think ) and decorating our bedroom. But the latter won't be before I go back to work on Monday.

Oh and I am knackered this morning after a 3am wake up with DS about I don't know what. Think night terror but was much harder than usual to get him back to sleep. Had to stand stroking his back for ages before he dropped off and every time I moved he cried again. Totally unlike him, so I've broken the ultimate sleeping baby.

Any those bedtimes sound awfully familiar. Not fun, are they? We have them from time to time, and the thing that keeps me out of the metaphorical pantry is turning off the baby monitor. Sometimes they're going to have a good scream and there's nothing you can do about it, so leave her safe in her cot and take yourself out of hearing range for the sake of your sanity. Hopefully it's a phase that will pass quickly.

Nothing much to report here, except that Fartypants is attempting new words daily, and is starting to get the idea that asking for a biscuit works better if she says (or signs) please.

Ah so you don't just lose water? I will have a look and maybe try it too. Dh is naturally slim so shame he can't be my diet buddy.

I forgot, I do have one other thing to report, since we're talking about losing weight. I'm not doing so, because I keep getting mugged by biscuits. But I'm not gaining weight! About the only upside to being large is that your maintenance calorie level is kind of high, and you can pause your weight loss efforts for a biscuit binge without too much damage. And it seems that maintaining the same weight has given my dreadfully saggy fat apron (which was grim to start with, then I lost four stone then got pregnant so it was hideous) opportunity to shrink!

And in other news, Fartypants just did a great big stinker, or so I thought. Mid nappy change I realised she'd actually done half a great big stinker. Then the other half put in an appearance...

wotta we had lots a few of those nights but, touching Lots of Wood, they have settled for the past week or so. In our case I also think it was night terrors (he sounded Scared) combined with teething and possible the 18m sleep regression (if that's a thing). Take heart, we didn't do anything apart from lose lots of sleep for a couple of weeks and we are back to normal now.

eco what feels right to you? I'm sure your milk supply would be fine, it's just how you think DD would cope. I stopped BF a while ago but have only had one night away from DS I think. I can understand if you think it would be hard!! I'm sure the 'me' time would be very worth it though.

Not much else to report..

Wotta if you run away to a hotel, can I come too?! Similar nights here. Utter hell. Days aren't a awful lot better to be honest. Wtaf is going on with these toddles? I had thought it something to do with the stress of the holiday, or the sickness bug, but based on what everyone else is saying it looks like it's developmental. Well here's to them developing themselves right out of it and onto a more amenable phase. Soon!!!

Not sure what the bed time strategy is tonight, as DH has said he'll cover it. Given last night was a 2 hour job, I'm hoping he has applied his consultant's brain to the problem and come up with a workable solution. Aside from leaving her to cry that is. I haven't the necessary nerves of steel for that.

Speaking of DH, he's away for a couple of nights next week.... Lucky bstrd

I was going to ask if this was a ww because the bedtime challenges we had these couple of nights.

Tonight is better so lets hope we can ride this phase out too.

Google say there is yummy, along with sleep regression. So now we know!

Unless there's another ww very hot on the heels of the last one, yummy, DS theoretically should be over it. But I doubt he's read the book, so who knows?

Fartypants decided to share her muesli with Zebra today. He's covered, and quite revolting, and like a fool without precognition I completely cleared the washing basket yesterday. So he's going to have to stay revolting. I don't understand how she can bear to carry him around in her mouth.

I didn't know there was a sleep regression at 18months. I think that explains ds's lack of appetite.

stormy you have achieved a miracle. I don't think I have seen the bottom of my washing basket for a long while. In this weather things don't dry quickly on the airer, too warm for heating to go on and I don't have a garden. The joys of being in a flat.

Anyone still stare at their dc and say wow you are amazing and I still can't believe I made you?

The trick to the miracle is called a tumble dryer. Thanks to a lack of space it lives in the back yard under a lean-to my brother built, and it's powered by sticking the plug through the kitchen window, but my god, the thing is a wonder. I can get two loads washed and dried and put away in a day.

An eighteen month sleep regression, eh? Bedtime is still variable but slowly improving, but the past couple of days there's been naptime resistance, which is most unusual. It reminds me of how the afternoon nap fails used to go, just before we dropped to one nap. I'm not ready to drop to none!

I too am frequently overcome with wonder. I made a person. A real one, that walks and talks and has an unhealthy obsession with chocolate finger biscuits. It's mad.

Diets... I've now lost a grand total of 4 and a half stone! I still can't quite believe it.

We have sleep regression too - bedtimes, even when daddy does them - have become scream fest, so we try several times in a row, and when DS waves at me that's the time he goes to sleep. So weird.

He's currently strapped into the high chair watching CBeebies and I'm on a terribly boring conference call listening to my team in India droning on about systems architecture.

Work is truly bizarre at the moment.

Eco I'd love to go away for a few days, I'm starting to feel stretched too thin now, especially when we've not booked any sort of time off work this summer. Obviously we don't have the bf issue either but I very much need time in my own head alone just to survive. Not that I don't miss DS and love picking him up from nursery because my heart bursts every time he runs to me with open arms, it's just difficult to keep going and going and going with no break.

Wow Alba. That's impressive. I know these things haven't always been easy for you, how are you feeling at the mo? Hope good despite bizarre work .

Phew, I found you all again.

Stormy I can't wait to try fartycups when were back home in the real world again. As you may have guessed, I'm rather fond of a good bit of trumpy humour.

Doli good on dh for bearing the brunt of bedtime. Was he successful?

Alba 4.5 stones?! Crikey, that's impressive. How long has it taken you to get there? Are you still alive after such a deathly boring conference call?

Wotta and Summert good look with your reckless dieting. I hope you're stocked up on shitter tea and extra soft bog roll. I feel like I may join you in a daft diet when I get home. Half of me wants to just go whole foods/primal and take the softly softly catchy monkey approach, and the other half just wants a stone off NOW.

Madeira is nice, as ever. We've had some good weather and driven over the top of the mountains today. Ds has been relatively well behaved. We borrowed a car seat from friend of the PILs and my word, it certainly puts the forward vs extended rear facing argument to bed. The seat we have is compliant, but it is literally only a lap belt. We had a horror of a moment on the dual carriage way at 80kph. Bad time to realise the hold locks weren't engaged.

I'm not accustomed to being around so many people. It's lovely but exhausting. Although company is nice the only time I'm getting to myself is sleep! Every time ds is naughty I tell him no, sometimes shout if he's doing something completely unacceptable, like hair pulling, and immediately MIL and FIL come looking to see what's gone off. Similarly if ds needs to nap and is acting up, MIL has a habit of wanting to snap him out of it (usually by clapping her hands) rather than letting me get on with getting him off for a nap. I've tried to have a quiet word but I think tongue biting, patience and wine are watchwords until Tuesday! Thankfully we're having the day to ourselves tomorrow, and I'm quite excited. We're going on a cable car into the mountains again. Mmmmmountains. Very peaceful when the city is hot.

I'm trying to make the most of our time here. When we get home it's a case of hunkering down to save every spare penny and get out of our atrocious rental. So the break here is good. And good that formerly silly SIL has had a very sensible conversation with me re how apparently capable, nice men will turn patient, calm women into nags through wilful ignorance. It's the problem I think we've all mentioned. And she's had a word with DH! Ha!

Otherwise? 18 month sleep regression + travelling. Oh and we're sharing a room with ds too, so...I think I'm going to have a beer and some choc!

Just quickie to say Trumpy, that photo of you on the slide in your race suggests that there's not a stone to be lost. You look well buff! Have a lovely day tomorrow. When sharing the yurt with Ecotod last weekend we rigged up a heath Robinson partition that made no difference in real terms but felt better

My memory has gone to buggery. I can't recall anyone's news. Hang on, am going to try hard......

Alba great work on your weight loss. And for being able to work with no childcare in place. Does that happen regularly?

Wotta, has coventry been kind to you? Did you tell us already? Back to work Monday?

Sorry to all of you suffering hard bedtimes. It's perhaps a taste of what's to come for us, being as Ecotod was late March. Sigh. No one tells you toddlers don't sleep. I thought six months and it'll all be fine. Wrong! Glad things are better for you now shattered. Am happy to chat via pm if that still useful on sleep matters.

We're coming to end of dh having week off from work for his birthday. We've stayed close to home this week and done some local sightseeing and some little errands that needed doing. After a trip to the zoo I can report that seeing real animals featured in books is popular. Giraffes! How exciting. And the five pounds dolly pushchair we bought from argos today is very popular. Her road safety for the poor baby in somewhat lacking though.

Stormy is dd still headbutting? Ecotod is headbutting sofa several times in a row. Bit worrying or just part of learning?

Any how are you feeling? After having help with dd for over a week now I'm feeling brighter. But I've also arranged childcare. started an exercise class and begun snogging my dh again All of which help I think. Three more weeks before doc wants to see me again. I'm still writing each night and getting fresh air everyday too.Some of the other resolutions will have to wait.

Oh, and dh liked his scrapbook that I did for his birthday yesterday. He was touched and grateful but I think he'd have been equally happy if I'd have shoved them in a shoe box and stuck a big 30 on it

Still undecided about conference. Mostly do breastfeeding grounds. Thanks rainbow for that Facebook group suggestion. I'll check them out