March '13 - packing up our troubles and getting excited about the new babies

[ecofreckle]

It's that time again. This thread is going to explode with squishy babies. Which is nice.

Stormy I'm so sorry about your poor mum. It must be so hard for you all, but at some level she will know you are there for her and that must help. I really hope life is kind and you are not genetically predisposed to the same illness.

Not much to report here other than I have single handedly got them both into bed this evening without either having a major meltdown or me crying myself. I call that a result. A double result in fact, given the dogs were making my life really difficult by barking loudly at foxes all evening. I guess they felt entitled - one peed in their food bowl the other night.

Is tongue tie a problem later on then? Given Babax has an unsnipped tie should I be worried?

Question - why is it toddlers only really kick of when you are out and about and everyone you know is about to walk past? This evening I made the mistake of staying in the park until about 10 mins past hungry o'clock. Result, Worselet refused to walk home, much preferring to be carried under my arm kicking, screaming, and head butting me, while I stoically stared ahead and tried not to wheel the pram into the ditch. I got many looks. You know the ones - slightly pitying, slightly judging, and a lot there but for the grace of god go I

We had a similar walk back from the park yesterday, minus the pram. She tripped and hurt her hand, and when she showed me it had blood and duck poo on, so going home to clean it properly seemed a good idea. She was most unimpressed.

TT can cause speech difficulties, because the tongue can't move freely to make all the sounds we use. My reading last night indicated that it can also cause chewing issues, which FP definitely has. And the way she gets food stuck in the top of her mouth, and doesn't push it out with her tongue, she just opens her mouth wide and lets it fall out. I am fully expecting to be fobbed off again later though.

Oh are you seeing the GP today Stormy? Sending you lots of strength.
With DS I think there was mainly lip tie - his top lip is pretty stuck down, frenulum seems very short/tight, though it did seem to snap (blood included) several months back. The main thing with his TT is that his tongue is completely flat at the end, and forms a bowl when he cries. I'm very interested to hear what your GP has to say, if anything at all.

Worse well done on the bedtime front. Did they treat you to a good night?

DS attempted a meltdown in Morrisons yesterday because I wouldn't let him have Spiderman plasters. I tried reasoning with him, I tried bribery, and then quickly gave up and said "OK, DS, bye bye, I'm going home. See you later." Slowly walked to the end of the aisle and he ran after me asking me to stop, then held his hand out and walked with me. I definitely had my smug face on a bit afterwards.

I saw a small cat (juvenile or female, kind of like my own cat) get run over this morning, right next to me. 60mph road, I was stationary waiting to pull out around a parked car, so the oncoming driver couldn't take evasive action. Cat darted out into the road at full pelt and got squished. Horrible. Almost cried. Thankfully DS didn't see it, and by the time I had dropped him off and was on my way home someone had moved the cat. It was collarless but looked too well groomed to be a farm cat
Tried to give my own pretty kitty a big fuss when I got in but she's a right sour puss in the mornings. She just gave me The Look and started licking herself.

You had trouble with bf too, didn't you Plonk? Top lip tie interferes with opening the lips properly and achieving suction. Shouldn't cause any trouble if it's snapped though. We're at the doc's at 3pm. I have quite the list of ailments prepared for both of us.

The walking away trick is a good one when they don't want to move. The other day the man was trying to cajole FP into going up to bed, and she was protesting and crying, "I can't! I can't!" which is her current favourite phrase. I told him, just go upstairs, she'll follow you. And she did. He was amazed. I was amazed he hadn't discovered this before.

Right, I'm going to cuddle my cats and never let them out again.

Oh good heavens, I lost you. But I'm back now and I'll try not to ever lose you again!

stormy sorry to hear about your mum. I hope you're all providing strength for each other. And good luck at the GP. Hope you're not fobbed off.

bungle well done on the tantrum handling. If I walk off and say "bye bye DS", he waves and says "bye bye mummy" Quite the independent little fella.

worse well done on the successful bedtime. How did you celebrate?

eco we still haven't had any climbing out of cot escapes but a bed seems like a sensible option soon. My upcoming holidays are when I plan to start potty training and try out big beds. When did they stop being small little babies?!

Been very busy my end with the new job lark. Boy is it hard going back to full time after so long off/part time. DS has started to wake up earlier, probably because he can sense movement and gets disturbed by us getting ready, so at least I still get a couple of hours with him in the morning. I don't half miss him all day though, and I'm not busy enough yet in my job to get engrossed. I will be in September, and all I have to remember is that in less than a week, I'm off for six!! And it's so nice doing family things in the evenings now that I finish earlier. We've been swimming and gone for long walks, and it just feels worth it. We've discussed how it's not a long term plan though; it's to pay for the wedding and qualify for ft mat pay when we have another. It hit me a lot harder than I thought it would about not being there for DS during the day.

And on top of all that, the wedding is in 6ish months, which is creeping up a lot faster now that we're both busier so it's been all systems go this week. I say all systems go, I've booked a makeup artist and have researched pamper and beauty treatments so it's not exactly been a hard task. Plus, we've decided on our invitations which look to take a long time to make, so we need to get on that soon. Also had first dress fitting at the weekend and I LOVE IT. Now it's healthy eating a gogo!!

Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough. So I shall wave to the rest of you (Betty, Yummy, Wotta, Shattered) and pootle back off to work!

Slight posterior tongue tie confirmed. Operation to fix it is under general anaesthetic, so we've got a SALT referral first to see if they can teach her to use her tongue properly.

What a palaver Stormy! it'll be nice if SALT can fix it but at least you've got the referral. Given that they failed to spot it when she couldn't even drain a small bottle I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be more than "slight". But im hardly qualified to say anything

Something I want to see you in your dress!! Great that you've been able to find time to do things with ds in the afternoons too.

Ds has got the idea of a fruit and veg garden. We've had to come inside because he's eaten half the raspberry canes and pulled up two lettuces. Nevermind that he won't eat lettuce because "it's too wet".

I say slight because it's obviously not as bad as some - the tip of her tongue moves well, she talks pretty well, etc. It's obviously far enough back that the previous doctor just totally failed to spot it. Today's doctor didn't just look though, she actually had a feel around in there. But when you put it like that, I can't disagree - there was a period of time when I couldn't get an ounce down her without her screaming, but she was still growing (albeit slowly). Further investigations should be standard in that sort of situation. Even now it's problematic. She basically eats weetabix, toast, and sausages at the moment. And biscuits, obviously. I presume the niceness of biscuits makes her press on through the discomfort.

I don't think this thread has ever been so quiet! Is everyone ok?

All well here Bungle, if a little wiped out. Babx is wonder-weeking, Worselet is being a typical two, and DH has been up in London or away at the hotel a lot recently. Ah the larks....

That said, the typical two phase can be oh so very cute. You can't move more than an inch in this house without coming across a stuffed toy, wrapped in a blanket, carefully put to bed in the pram/on the sofa/in Babax's bed... you name it. Plus yesterday Worselet took great pains to point out that her toy cat 'was NOT Babax's'. 'NOT' . I hasten to add no one has ever given it to it Babax . On a slightly less possessive note I got a 'well done' for buttering her cracker in the correct manner. Go me!

Off to a 2 year old's birthday party today. Weirdly I am looking forward to this. Could it be because I have a very long day ahead of being home alone with two dcs?! I suspect it might be.

Hope everyone else is ok, and noone else was up at 2am although I suspect Shattered might have been

Bungle, Gerry how are the bumps?

Stormy does she eat better at nursery? Worselet eats pretty much anything these days, but for ages she ate a wide range of food at nursery, and sweet FA at home.

Damn worse I'm really not sure how you cope! You sound like superwoman. I think the birthday party is a good shout in the circumstances.

Bump is coming along nicely but I feel fat and disgusting. Not helped by generally feeling a bit out of my depth with a toddler and bump, and realising that in four months I'm going to be dealing with a newborn. Dh's paternity leave is up in the air thanks to a merger, and my delightful sister has already informed me that I will have to make every effort to see her after our babies are born, because they want to hunker down. I know she doesn't mean to bake me feel bad but you can imagine the effect this might have on a v tired pregnant lady!

Sorry for the me, me, me post. DH and I have had a v trying week and ds has been poorly again. I will be more positive later!

Hi everyone, sorry for the silence. Life just gets in the way sometimes.

We are all ok here. Same old same old. I am actually managing work much better than I thought I would. Mind you it's only working because we are running the household like in we are in the military. Everything is planned, organised and thinking one step ahead. When something happens to mess that up that's when I will be stressed.

gerry enjoy your well deserved summer break.

shattered is ds2 in some sort of a sleep routine yet?

worse enjoy the kids party. I quite enjoy the kids parties. Its fun. Bravo to you for going solo, quite often by the sounds of it.

stormy sorry to hear your dm is deteriorating. How are you feeling?

eco have you been on any fun adventures lately?

something welcome to the world of full time work. Hopefully you and the family will find a routine soon. Missing ds is a big disadvantage but we make the most of the time we have together and for me we probably have more quality time together. Also, like you going back full time is a means to an end so thinking like that keeps me going.

wotta how are you and ds?

My brain has stopped I hope I haven't missed anyone out. We are off out to visit family and celebrating the last day of eid. Have a fab Sunday everyone.

yummy I like the sound of military levels of planning and organisation. Should make life run much more smoothly. Glad you're coping with the work side of things.

Not much to report here, except I have been listening very carefully when Fartypants talks. I had assumed that she's talking well for her age, and stumbling on some sounds while learning is to be expected. But she can be rather indistinct when she's not concentrating, her L sound is more of a Y, she lisps a little on S, can't say her Rs (but who can at that age?). All of these things I have been assuming will correct themselves in time, now I'm wondering if it's TT related. And as for her TH sound... I'm a big fan of elision, typically eliding an unusually high proportion of phonemes in any given sentence. I had thought she's just copying me and I need to set a better example and enunciate clearly. But no. She cannot make that sound. She'll ask for 'at one, with a hint of a glottal stop at the start. We've all been practising and trying to show her, but she can't do it. It involves not quite biting down on one's tongue. She can't stick her tongue out like that.It'll go out a little way over her bottom lip, but to rest it on the top front teeth almost touching the top lip is beyond her range of movement - she can only poke her tongue towards her top lip with her mouth closed.

So we're at the dentist for a second opinion tomorrow, then probably back to the GP to see if there's any chance of the op on the NHS, and if not, the man will have to go flutter his eyelashes at FIL.

As for the mother situation, it is grim beyond belief. She's hallucinating constantly, off her food because she can see Things in it, keeping the curtains closed because she can see Things in the bushes, climbing the walls, lurking in the flowerbeds. She's stopped asking after her granddaughters, she's barely talking except about what she's seeing, it's obvious it's deeply distressing and all-consuming and I don't know how much longer we've got before her mind cracks under the strain. And this is all just in the two months since my birthday. And it's like staring into my own future. Grim.

Anyway. How's everyone else? Cheerful and sunny, I hope?

Hi all. I'm on nights and have been on and off all week so don't know if I'm coming or going.

Stormy, DD can't make any of those sounds either. I think that's completely normal for their age and stage. Maybe it's worth seeing SALT for their opinion before rushing in for the op?

Yummy, Happy Eid! I'm sure there's a much more appropriate greeting for the occasion but I'm afraid I don't know it. When I was working in Hull over Eid we always had a huge buffet going all weekend with all kinds of yummy treats. Mmmm.

I'm off to bed with madam in the hope we can both have a nap before I'm at work again tonight. Toddlers, night shifts and busy DHs don't mix well.

Hope everyone else is well and Worse hope you get a break soon!

Eid Mubarak! We learnt that on Let's Celebrate, a CBeebies programme that's only on on high days and holy days. Fartypants was most taken with all the sparkly clothes.

Betty that's the trouble, it's really too early at this stage to say whether there are speech issues or just normal toddler development. Which makes me think we'll end up waiting a bloody age for any help at all, and in the meantime she quite clearly has eating issues.

Another one here that speaks really quite well but can't say r or l really. See what dentist says. Sending love to you stormy, things with your mum sound really tough. How often do you see her?

We've been in Norfolk playing camping. I can report that using black out blinds is a rod for back I've not had much sleep and the packing and erecting were painful but we had an ace time. Totally off routine. And we survived. We have returned feral but I've had a great bath so feel less minging now.

Yummy great that you're finding full time okay so far. Well done that woman. Same to worse. And bungle you look lovely in your holiday snaps. Not fat. A little bit up duff which is just lovely. Betty when do the nights end? Have you posted a selfie to hunt yet?

Need to away to my mattress and black out blinds Night all

Norfolk camping looks great eco, looks like everyone had a smashing time. Feral is the first rule of camping.

yummy hope you enjoyed the last day of Eid (quite shocked my phone doesn't recognise the word Eid!). Also glad to hear you're coping well with full time.

Betty do nights just make you feel all topsy turvy? Must be difficult with a toddler to boot.

Stormy sounds awful about your mum. That's a wee understatement of course. So sorry.

Language wise ds has a lisp, uses k sounds for t and y for most L sounds. So yellow is yeah-yo. In all honesty he sounds just like most of the other kids in his nursery room. And bad mummy that I am, neither of us are currently registered with a dentist. Really should see to that.

Ds found dh's decades-old large Zippy toy and has insisted on having him for sleeps. Very cute. Not so nice when you're cosleeping and a toy the size of a newborn gets rammed into your back.

Right, must be more positive today. Ds developed a wheeze in Friday evening, his chest is very noisy especially at night, abs he's off his food but not poorly in the usual way. We've had three bad nights so it's off to the gp and I'm certain it's asthma.
But, I'm going to be positive. We're doing something about it. although it'd be nice if we could get an appointment and not just have to sit and wait an indeterminate time!

eco I did see her weekly. Only seen her once since hallucinations started. It is very very difficult. I expect you're thinking 'at least your mum is still here, you should be making the most of it'. But there have been so many personality changes thanks to the brain deterioration that it feels like my mum died a long time ago, we're just waiting for her body to catch on.

Plonk (do you mind if I still call you that?) I predict DS will be prescribed an inhaler, and the first question the GP will ask will be whether you smoke. FP got one last week because this cough has been constant for two months. It's worst at night and when she's leaping around, and the inhaler makes one hell of a difference.

Can I have another rant about clothing sizes? FP has gone through the knees of all but one pair of jeans, so we got several pairs in age 2-3 and they're so big even on the waistband's smallest setting that they keep falling down to her knees. Guess she's living in leggings until she grows a bit more!

Only if I can rant about 2-3 clothing being far too small in some shops Stormy! It's so funny the different sizes and shapes of these toddles isn't it?

Last night was loooong, mostly spent in theatre and now it's a full day with the toddler. I suspect a lot of Dora and biscuits will be employed!

Eco I did indeed tweet to Jeremy sounds like Hunt. What a knob jockey.

Daftest part is I just swapped to the last remaining jeans that fit. They say 3-4y in! Most of our stuff is classy supermarket stuff, and there definitely seems to be a size difference between clothes labelled for girls and clothes labelled for boys. Drives me demented. If we really must market them at different groups of child, how about just going by size? Then I could get straight legged trousers that fit without going down a size.

Thank you all for the Eid messages.

stormy I would have a chat with the health visitor even if you won't get the referral to SALT now just keep the health visitor updated so its all in dd's records.

bungle you have developed a cute bump. Giving you big hugs. You can always be negative to us our duty is to listen to you and then tell you to think positive.

Clothes sizes are a mystery to me. The waistbands are all to big no matter what size we get. Also, what's with having drawstrings on trousers/shorts if you can't use them?! Which silly sausage designed those.

Right, better get back to the office. Happy Monday everyone.

Thank you yummy, it's hard not to feel enormous when everyone is floating around like waifs in summer clothing!

Ds currently has clothing ranging from 18-24 months to 4 years. It makes no sense. It's like vanity sizing for kids.

We got an inhaler! I cant tell you how relieved I am at this. Since dh's asthma attack a few weeks ago I've been dreading ds suffering the same but not having anything to help him. Irritating that our surgery has had such a problem with time wasters though - we had to wait an hour and 45 mins to see a doctor!

Did you also get a crazy aerochamber thingy complete with instructions on how to administer the inhaler to a teddy?

Ummm do you know I can't say I did. I didn't get asked about smoking either, but I did get asked about other family with asthma and if he has eczema. Don't think I could have coped with being patronised!

We got the asthma question too, but the answer was no to that one. Fartypants seems to like having her own special medicine.

Dentist yesterday re TT was useless. Not sure what to do next on that one.