November 2014 - the one where they answer back.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread.
Hop aboard.

Oh anna, welcome to the world of nurseries... DD had high fever and colds every 2 weeks during the winter, her 1st being bang on xmas time, but since end of April she has been fine. Some of those bugs can make them look really bad, DD with one couldn't focus her eyes they were all over place, we got her very quickly to a&e, by the time we got to see doctor she was fine, eyes back to normal and laughing. So fun times ahead, but it will be well worth it at the end.

Sorry to hear your DS is poorly. It's so difficult to know what to do when they can't really tell us how they feel. My DS has a cough which woke him up at 0450 but thank goodness he managed to get back to sleep. First sleepover at my parents' house this weekend. They're in their 70s and I think they're bricking it. I'm sure he'll be fine but wish I could convince DS to be a good boy for them but he's definitely too young for bribery!

He's fine now and he's definitely going back in today!

Annoying lingering issue is broken sleep and he was up for the day at 5am but I'm not bloody keeping him off for that! They'll just have to figure out his nap in there!

Tbh I need a bit of a break from him, lovely and all as he is. Cos yesterday he was tired and wasn't always that lovely, lol.

Oh Anna, sorry to hear that! Hope you can get some rest.
Been poorly here with a horrible cold, ds is fine but has a bit of a funny tummy. Got a migraine yesterday, only lightened up by the fact I got a call in the evening to say I've got the job I interviewed for!!! Only 4 hours on a Saturday, but it's a great start back into the world of work. Will have to miss out on a bit of social stuff, but not too much, hopefully.

Congratulations posmork!

My last day tomorrow, I've been on gardening leave skiving off this week and now 2 weeks holiday, it's been lovely. Very much looking forward to leaving drinks tomorrow, we're going 'out out'!

Yes delighted you got that job posmork it'll be the start of good things! And definitely consider nursery - for all that DS got sick after just a week I still feel like a new woman having the few hours break. I actually am going for brunch with people! And doing errands at my own pace and can occasionally even dawdle at them!

That coupled with DS finally self settling without us in the room has made a huge psychological difference. He's asleep by 7.15 now - turns out it was our presence keeping him awake, even though we ignored him and he really wouldn't let us leave the room. Not really sure what we could have done differently though except the whole CIO thing which is too traumatic for us.

Anyway between those two changes we're positively chipper!

Lady dolly what are you going to do with your 2 weeks off?

Well the cm is off for a week so I'll be limited on the grown up stuff. Local paddling pool, ikea trip, a festival, day trip to London. Grown up time will be over at my allotment when I can.

When I picked up dd earlier the cm gave me her bag and we went to leave and dd shouts 'baaaaag' - we'd forgotten her lunch bag. Cm hands it over and says 'good girl' to which dd replies 'I good girl!' - I KEEP being surprised when she has a new development, especially talking ones, must be boring for everyone else but I love it!

Hi everyone , sorry, it seems like AGES since I was last here...no particular reason.

Congratulations on the new job posmork; welcome to the world of nurseries Anna (for the 1st time since DD started last Nov, we've been germ-free for 2 consecutive months - it's a bloody miracle!); and ladydolly, still nowhere near your DD's level, but I had my first proper "mummy" today . I've been hearing "da-dee, da-dee,da-dee" for what seems like weeks. Also had "gar" (car) and "apple" today - I'm one super-proud mummy!

Ds executed his first practical joke today.
Yesterday, I found him in the downstairs loo with his toy trains. Told him it wasn't a place to play and guided him out, closing the door. He spent a good few times knocking on the door from the outside, saying 'woo-woo' (his word for train). I kept reminding him not to use the toilet for playing.
This evening (bearing in mind I've used that loo multiple times today, and so has ds), dh goes to use the toilet, lifts the lid and, splash! A toy train falls in. Ds had managed to hide a train in the seat so I couldn't see it, but it would fall in with dh.
Of course, not intentional, but dh and I are now convinced he's a practical joke genius!
Said train is now sterilising in a tub of miltons...

Christ. Another virus! A filthy stinker of a cold this time, & all the Vicks in the world didn't get the household to sleep before 5.30am this morning. DH says we seem to be paying for them to make DS sick!

Oh no anna hope you get some sleep later on and DS recovers soon.

ladydolly I so get the obsession with every new skill they master. DD suddenly started to say "I don't know". Considering we have been out of country for the last week and she hasn't heard a word in English, I wonder where that comes from.

DS has first sleepover with my parents tonight. They're in their 70s and quite nervous about having him stay. I've bought some things for my mum like bubble bath and boats and a new tommee tippee as it wouldn't occur to them that they'd be needed whereas PILs house is basically like a childminders. God I hope it's OK because they HAVE to have him overnight in August. Keep your fingers crossed please!

strawberry I don't know what's more worrying, that they can pick stuff u p out of nowhere or that they get stuff from us! It wasn't until DD started staying 'yeah' instead of 'yes' that I realised how common I am! She's given that up in favour of saying 'ok'... which isn't quite as bad.

MrsA I'm sure they'll be fine, overnight is probably easier than a daytime now they're bigger.

annarose how frustrating that you finally get bedtime nailed only for a virus to send it tits up, hope it passes soon.

I am massiver hungover today and my super awesome other half has taken dd out for the day to the village carnival while I fester on the sofa. Totally worth it for an awesome leaving do.

Went to Costco today dh decided to rejoin the 2 boys snacked their way round with all the tasting stations from chilli pork belly, nectarines, dried fruit, BBQ chicken, meatfalks to dairy free ice creams, cashew nuts.

Then they shared a giant beef hotdog

Honest they had lunch an hr before we went

eastmids I love Costco for all the free samples. DDs would love it too if we ever took them.

I applied for a new job. Basically a slightly higher level role in the same place for a year (nursing people, it's a Secondment to Band 6 on my ward). Yesterday my manager rang to tell me my interview is next Friday and I have to do a 10min presentation. I think they expect it to be a PowerPoint presentation, but I haven't used PowerPoint since I was at uni over 10 years ago and can't remember how. I do not have time to research and write a presentation and learn how to use PowerPoint by Friday as well as look after DDs and work night shifts and pack for the holiday we are going on the next day. I don't have evenings because DD2 usually doesn't go to sleep until 9pm. I can't go to any of the offered interview prep because I have no childcare and I haven't been to an interview in over 10 years. I don't desperately want the job, and am seriously considering not taking it any further and not going to the interview. (Thanks for letting me moan about this, I can't decide what to do)

happy there are a lot of people who are sick to death with PowerPoint presentations, especially the ones with data overload. How about considering some alternative way of presenting whatever you have to? Maybe worth a quick google? You going alternative route to everybody else might capture people's attention. And if you go for PP, it's fairly easy and intuitive, you should be just fine after the 1st slide.
Sooner or later you will have to go to some interview, if you aren't too bothered about this particular role, use it as a training ground for when your dream job comes up. Please, don't give up! Give it your best shot and see what happens.
I don't have much idea about recruitment in nursing, but I would struggle to believe you will get dismissed over lack of PowerPoint?

I agree, you could even use a 'back to basics' theme. I prefer to present a bit more 'improv' style aka blag it so just put an image on each slide to give people a visual reference and chat my way through it. Having said that, I'm pretty familiar with ppt, I'm not working this week, email me what you want on the slides (text, bullets, images, diagrams, colours) and I'll put it together for you, no problem. Thursday will be pretty busy but before that I have time.

Hi guys, any tips for a baby who can't sleep due to a blocked nose? 2nd night in a row here and DH and I are in bits. DS woke up wailing loudly at least 25 times last night despite being literally slathered in Vicks. I offered water too but he only wanted it once. He has no temp and goes back to sleep immediately - but only lasts about 30/40 mins.

During the day he's in good form as he's upright and not too congested but lying down is hell. Needless to say his nap is a nightmare too.

Can't face another night of this - anything I can do to make it better?

Hi everyone, been a while! Lots of job congrats in order for those starting new jobs and happy I agree good to do the interview just for the practice. Do what you can - dh take dd for a walk in the evening so you can prepare?
Anna sorry to hear about ds. And sorry to say your dh is right that you are paying them for him to be sick. It will probably go on like this for a while BUT at least you've started the process now and painful as it is at least childcare will be there now when the baby comes. Try the hot bowls of water and vicks in his room thing? Seems to help dd a bit. It's hideous I know. Lots of for you.
All quiet enough here for the time being. Dd 2 is being an angel for sleep. Going down on her own with a kiss and sleeping 12 hours. Considering how sleep deprived I was for the first 13-14 months of her life, I'm still not used to it. Dh had to get a bit tough with her a few weeks ago though, she seemed to be going through a stormy patch where nothing was up, just neediness! So he went in and gave her a hug and told her everyone in the house was asleep and it was time for her to go to sleep too. Put her down and left, sometimes there was crying and sometimes not but he just kept repeating as necessary. Now she resettles so much better instead of staying up for 2 hours.
If I could freeze her at this age I would. So so cute and fun.

Happy a newer way of presenting iin interview iis the old way literally key points on post it notes stick on wall and explain your points 10 poist its 1 min each.

I do lots interview and now do unseen presentations givong them an allocated amount time to prep on arrival all a pre presentation telks you often is they can read, pop into pp and read again.

Anna you're not going to like this, but when DD get's THAT bunged up and because she normally sucks her thumb but can't when her nose is blocked (can't breathe), she ends up crying loads...consequence? We end up sitting in the rocking chair in her room with her on our lap so that she falls asleep sitting upright. Then (after about 1.5 - 2 hrs...) we can put her in her cot bed.. I'm assuming you've got the head end of his bed raised so the bed's sloped??? We also put a rolled up towel under the mattress so that it sloped a bit more.

Vicks on soles of feet then socks somehow works (witchcraft).
A dot of olbas oil for kids on a muslin tied onto base of cot. Bowl of boiling water under the cot.
Head end propped. Nose sucker thing (or if you're my mum just suck it out with your mouth-yuck).

Never found something to solve the blocked nose at night problem Anna, and we have dummy too which adds a dimension. Sorry! She's got better at it though with practice and now a cold doesn't necessarily = no sleep for all of us. I do use a boots vaporiser but if the Vicks isn't doing anything I doubt that would either. Sorry about all the illness, it really sucks.

We picked the wrong time to go on holiday to Devon last week - it was cold wet and generally rubbish last week, this coming week looks amazing. Oh well at least I didn't have to worry about sunscreen! We'll definitely have the paddling pool out tomorrow.

He slept through! Don't know if it was just because it was Night #3 or because we literally threw everything the Internet had to offer at him, but something worked!

He and his room stink to high heaven of eucalyptus, lol. He hasn't had a bath all weekend either as he was a little Antichrist (seriously, we had a very stressful weekend, he wailed/acted up at fecking everything ) so I am seriously thinking about sending him into crèche today as grubby as he is.

I know DH will want to keep him home today "to get over it properly" though. Hmm.... might have to put my foot down. He's had 12.5 hrs sleep & is roaring laughing at Teletubbies as we speak!

mrsA how did your DS get on at the grandparents?