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

597 replies

ecofreckle · 08/05/2015 20:39

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

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
yummychocolate · 26/07/2015 12:50

wotta we are going bank holiday weekend, so if you are around we can have a meet up? I have to reassure dh you are not so random stranger on the internet. Smile

bungle I am enjoying my job. Yes it's very stressful and the systems are frustrating but I am happy with my job. I knew I liked my job before but the managers I had made me feel like a rubbish worker and lost all confidence in my abilities.

stormy get well soon. I probably will have to join you in some sort of exercise I have zero motivation to do so.

worse go for it, you will be a great teacher. Don't underestimate the stress and paperwork.

shattered is toddle ds playing up? We have the same here. The tablet for distraction is our best friend. This stage will pass and we will look back and think back our toddles were complete angels.

I have now lost a little over 3 stone and had a wardrobe clear out today. It felt good now I can go shopping.

In toddle news I took a drastic step to get ds to eat something this morning. I refused to give him a kinder egg unless he ate something. After some crying he agreed to eat a yoghurt. I said he could he eat 1 spoonful but he voluntarily ate the whole pot. The bribery worked this time. Ok I will probably get flamed for doing this but I couldn't let him just drink bottles of milk the whole day. I felt good sticking at it and we all won. He's now shouting out for milk from his room and refusing to eat lunch. Hmm

yummychocolate · 26/07/2015 13:37

I told ds if he ate a small piece of bread with his soup I will give him some milk. He ate 2 whole slices of bread with his soup and forgot all about the milk. Result! I am so happy I can cry.

ecofreckle · 26/07/2015 13:48

Thrilled for you yummy. That's a big deal. Well done for being so patient for so long. Soup and bread is a great place to resume your career.

Stormy did I share that story somewhere? What was thread about? It was first day in new job. Terrible timing. A wasp on loo paper. Sting inside my lady garden area. Ice pack stolen from kitchen and put inside pants wrapped in tea towel. So not only was in pain with a lump in my trousers but I had a massive wet patch from melting ice too. Not my finest hour. There may have been some Googling

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yummychocolate · 26/07/2015 13:55

Oh my Eco. Of all the places you could've got stung. Ouch!

StormyBrid · 26/07/2015 16:21

It was in Classics, first page, thread about embarrassing injuries. Certainly qualifies! You posted on it near its beginning, two years ago, but people are obviously still adding to it.

So where exactly in the downstairs region are we talking? Hairy area or mucous membrane? I've had a mosquito bite in the former. Which wouldn't have been too bad except my body really doesn't react terribly well to mosquitos, and the area of swelling tends to be about half a foot wide.

ecofreckle · 26/07/2015 18:21

definitely mucus Stormy Shock

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WelcomeToTheBungle · 27/07/2015 08:43

ShockBlush

StormyBrid · 27/07/2015 08:49

Is it bad that I'm thinking 'It would have been so much cooler if it had been a bee, bees die when they sting you, you could have come up with all sorts of silly bee-slayer nicknames for your fanny'?

SomethingBeginningWith · 27/07/2015 09:05

Oh my goodness eco

And well done yummytod on the eating.

In something news...DS has developed a refusal to wear nappies or pull ups. Send help.

BettyBitesBums · 27/07/2015 20:35

Oh Eco! Ouch!!!

Something, I'm sending you luck and virtual gin. I'm dreading the day madam wants big girl pants although that does still seem a long way off!

Yummy that's a whopping weight loss. Well done you! Any chance you could send a bit of will power this way? I've got a good stone to loose but seem to have absolutely no ability to stay away from eating large volumes of utter crap.

WottaMess · 29/07/2015 16:24

We have a viewing on Saturday! ShockShockShock

Plonkysaurus · 29/07/2015 21:13

Just checking in because it's beyond quiet here...oh and I've reverted to type Grin

That's good stuff Wotta, will keep everything crossed.

Ds is constantly making me laugh now. The things he says. "Oh the light's come up" if I turn a light on.
"I work at nursery, in Garden Room",
"turn it ups and down" if somethings not the right way up,
and my personal favourite "eh mummy, stop, my do it".

Oh and we know the names of about 15 different dinosaurs. I think he's actually educating me on this one...

StormyBrid · 30/07/2015 16:02

Fingers crossed they love it, Wotta.

Dinosaurs are popular here too. So far I've made sure she chooses ones that I can identify, and tend to steer her away from ones I'd have to google. Two year old attempts to say Stegosaurus are entertaining. I just hope she never gets into Jurassic Park, otherwise we'll end up in a never-ending argument about whether the raptors are Utahraptor or Deinonychus. And I won't be able to teach her how to say Procompsognathus because I can't even say it myself.

Not much news here, except one of the dreadful reprobates I thoroughly enjoyed my mis-spent youth with has died. It's a bit surreal.

And in other news: I give up on mealtimes. I am so sick and tired of thinking of meals that I like that FP might be willing to try, and slaving over the hob to produce something, anything that she might eat, and every time, without fail, she does not eat a bite, and she screams and screams. I'm sick of the incessant whingeing for food that she then refuses to eat. I'm sick to fucking death of sausages. Just sausages, because she won't eat anything with them, because she'll only eat one type of food no matter how many are in front of her. She will not eat anything plant-based except bananas, and only then if they're mashed into weetabix. She won't eat pasta, she won't eat rice, she won't eat potatoes. She won't eat meat unless it's processed into sausage form. She won't eat bread unless toasted with red jam.

What the hell am I supposed to feed her?

I asked her what she wanted for tea. She said bacon. I will be presenting her with a slice if bacon, cut into manageable pieces. If she doesn't eat it, she'll be going to bed hungry. And I will probably end up shouting at her, which is probably counterproductive, except the concept of counterproductive implies the existence of ways through this that are productive. No such methods appear to exist.

yummychocolate · 30/07/2015 20:16

stormy i really sympathise. I don't know what to do to. The bribery thing only worked on Sunday because I don't have the patience or energy to listen to him crying that he doesn't want to eat.

How was dd's appetite when she was weaning (pre-toddler months)? Sorry I can't remember what she was like.

wotta good luck. Hope it all goes well for you.

StormyBrid · 30/07/2015 22:21

Unfortunately we have no good old days to look back on - FP has been deeply suspicious of this whole nourishment concept since the word go. On the plus side, she's getting pretty good at realising when further pushing will result in me going slightly ballistic. She ate her bacon without complaint.

ecofreckle · 30/07/2015 23:03

Great news Wotta. You'll be baking bread and picking posies then I imagine. Fingers crossed.
Stormy I've no advice but there must be loads of threads about non eaters? Isn't there a good book that always gets mentioned? It must be so stressful, I'd be losing the plot too. Bacon is a good victory though. It's not sausage.

I'm just coming off five days solo parenting. I'm a relative lightweight; I find it suffocating. My patience has all gone. My man has now arrived at dad's for a couple of nights so I'm off the hook. We came straight here from moving totally out of our Norwich house where Ecotod was born. It's been a tearful few days all in all! Mega tantrum today over mean mummy not allowing the purchase of a Disney necklace from supermarket. Despite lack of patience in dug my heels in despite the gathering crowds. I also discovered that you can shove a frozen gift card into a cash point press some buttons and get it back again without too many issues. That helped get me off the hook. Sigh. I'm drinking wine now and soaking in a bath on my own. We've been sharing wee flavoured baths whilst I've been solo. Why bother sitting on the toilet when you can skip a step and just do it in the bath standing up to a great fanfare?

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Plonkysaurus · 31/07/2015 07:07

Five days solo is nothing short of heroic eco. What a week you must have had. Vouvray and éclair for the beautiful lady?

Does it have to be proper meals, Stormy? Family dinners have saved us here but i can see how that's terrible advice if you're already doing that and just want to get some nourishment into FP. What would happen if you casually left snacks at toddler height?

Ds took an hour to go to sleep last night. First we had shouting for ice cream, then milk, then dinosaurs, then mummy. I Let dh handle the whole ordeal.

Fave dinosaurs include : allosaurus, brachiasaurus and postasuchus. Says All those ones brilliantly but stegosaurus is simply "spiky one" and t Rex is "tee wreck". Which is sufficiently unprecocious for my liking.

StormyBrid · 31/07/2015 07:29

Five days is indeed impressive, well done eco for not cracking up.

Unfortunately, we have tried leaving snacks around. If they're not biscuits, she's not interested.

Plonkysaurus · 31/07/2015 07:35

Biscuits with a bit of fruit/veg puree smeared on?

This may just be one of those maddening things that she'll grow out of. Toddlers are highly suspicious of anything that's not a chocolate digestive.

StormyBrid · 31/07/2015 08:23

It's nice to think it might just be a maddening phase, but it's been going on right since the day she was born. I'm fairly convinced the tongue tie is at least partly to blame, because she certainly acts as though chewing is troublesome and uncomfortable. My dad was trying to commiserate with me yesterday, pointing out how ridiculously fussy I used to be and how I drove them demented. But as I pointed out (and he agreed), she's far worse than I ever was.

StormyBrid · 31/07/2015 08:27

Oh, and I stumbled across an Annabel Karmel book of recipes in the charity shop recently. Had a look through it last night. By the time I got to the end I could have cried - there is not a damned thing in that book that she'd eat, with the possible exception of burgers (or 'burger sausage' as I've named it in desperation - occasionally this works) and biscuits.

Plonkysaurus · 31/07/2015 08:40

Can I pass on some advice that my MIL gave me?

DBIL was certified as high functioning autistic when he was about 7. Mealtimes were one of those sensory overload and meltdown scenarios for years. For a long time he only ate coco pops, weetos, and bourbon biscuits. She fretted and worried for a long time until a specialist dr told her to stop, gave her multivits and sent them home.

It took two decades for him to get over his aversion to real food but now he does all the cooking for himself and his girlfriend. In fact he tells her off for being fussy!

FP obviously doesn't want to be forced to eat, and can't be coaxed. Eating is important and she will get there eventually, but it's not going to change overnight. MIL still made DBIL eat with the rest of the family even if he was having cereal for tea, so that the desired behaviour was modeled to him. But really it was just something to grow out of.

StormyBrid · 31/07/2015 08:53

I do try not to stress about it, honestly. Mostly take the view that whether she eats or not is up to her. It just gets to me sometimes and I have to have a rant.

At my dad's yesterday, he was eating some grapes. She asked for one and he obliged. She put it in her mouth, didn't even close her mouth, made a yuck noise, and opened her mouth wider to let it fall. Handed it to me and told me to open it. So I bit it in half, offered it to her, she refused. Asked for another one and told me to open it. I peeled it. She cried.

StormyBrid · 31/07/2015 18:27

Well this is slightly embarrassing. Anypants seems to have forgotten I have a DD - with the same name as hers! - rather than a DS. I guess in this strictly gendered toddler world, Outer Space is for boys only.

So. Bets on how many minutes before Fartypants gets herself out of bed?

SomethingBeginningWith · 31/07/2015 19:37

stormy I read it that she was replying to Christie's comment?

We're not braving the big bed until we've moved him into the bigger room (and decorated it), bought a stair gate, and bought a step for him to climb in and out of bed. Because it's bloomin huge! It'll last him til he's about 15 though Smile

Potty training is going well. Only a handful of accidents but he's letting us know when he needs to go or going unaided himself sometimes so I'm really pleased it's working. Plus, pants are adorbs!

eco kudos on the 5 days soloing. I admire your dedication to baths. I'm in full on summer holiday mode and 5 days of solo daytime parenting is exhausting so I don't know how you've done it! Grin

And DP has just ordered our celebratory takeaway for our 2 weeks off together so I must away. Happy weekends to all!