November 2014 - the one where they answer back.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread.
Hop aboard.

Oh happy life is not doing you any favours is it? Any reinforcements you can call in??

We had xmas #1 today. 15 people at ours but was relatively stress free, everyone chipped in bringing food, dm made games, kids were on great form although dniece wet herself 3 times and poo accidents twice. She's 6 months older than dd, not looking forward to potty training now! Dd got a scooter from my dm but was more impressed with the peppa pig colouring book. Great day and happy cos this 2as my 'real' xmas since we have mil coming for xmas and she is an awful woman (dp and his brothers also feel this way so its not just me) who had already tried her hardest to make it as complicated as possible and created bad feeling. Dd likes her though so must put a brave face on things.

Tonight DD2 is too full of cold and coughing to sleep. DH thinks it is going to end up as bad as when I worked a nightshift twice and he had to bring her to A&E, I start 2 night shifts tomorrow night...
I am currently going through the annual trauma of making my parents and in-laws photo books and trying to tidy the house as in-laws will be here for a bit tomorrow.
In more positive news, the threadworms seem to have died off pretty quickly. DD1 went to bed without crying about her itchy bottom, thank God.
Shall we cheer ourselves up by posting a birthday photo now all the birthdays have happened? Here is DD full of joy at the gift of a toaster and showing her cheesy grin to a rabbit

Perhaps I will have died of exhaustion by Christmas. She didn't stop coughing and crying about it until about 3am when I woke up sitting up on her bedroom floor with her lying across my lap. I slept on her floor and she woke up a couple of times then woke up more at 6.20. She has gone back to sleep now but I haven't because it is time to start getting DD1 up for school. I am working tonight. If I am lucky I will get a nap for a hour, but essentially I won't go to sleep until tomorrow morning in about 29hrs. And I didn't get the fucking photo book done either.

Is DD2 at home with you all day or do you have a nursery? I can't remember.

By the way, did you ever have that Physio appointment for her? I remember you were wondering whether to take it up.

If it's any consolation we have had a horrendous weekend here too, though with the baby. We'll have to get her to a GP today as she can hardly breathe, poor little thing. I basically haven't slept all weekend as she couldn't sleep with her hideous cough.

My sympathies about the night shifts though - when I go back to work I'm really going to be looking for a job with as few as possible.

BTW - haven't if you are out there, let us know how the pregnancy is! You must be about 6/7 months now, surely?

Anna she is at home with me today. The plan was that my in-laws would come over for a couple of hours so I could at least have a nap and/ or wash my hair, but a couple of weeks ago FIL caught a milder cold from my children and was so ill he couldn't get out of bed, so I said for them not to come. Hope your DD is better soon and we all get some sleep before Christmas!

oh god these winter coughs are awful aren't they. DD was coughing and unsettled here last night too and I'm very tired. It's just ongoing. I am trying to throw everything at this coughing business, bought £££ manuka honey which I have been administering to both DDs, and also £££ multivitamin tonic and probiotic, and also a £££ Salin Plus salt therapy machine for DD2's bedroom. It's scary though when little babies get coughs Anna isn't it? Hope DD is ok.

God happy you need some sleep woman. So hope you get that nap today.

We're back from my GP (whom I love so much, you literally always get a Monday morning appt at short notice) and it's Bronchiolitis, which I suspected. Thankfully not severe enough for A&E etc so we just have to keep an eye on it and wait it out and use lots of Vicks/Olbas Oil etc. Half star have you found anything you really rate? Like you at this stage I'm willing to throw money at it. Snufflebabe never did much for DS tbh.

I have to admit, this is the first time I am realising the full weight of having two rather than one. Cos DS was hideously congested last week, and now she is. Whereas before we'd be having an "easy" week this week with him getting better. It's a bit daunting! One is definitely easier. I can see how people stop at one.

Happy thank goodness someone else is still bf past 2 its like you shouldn't do it anymore admittedly ours is just bedtime now. I have taken some meds not recommended when bf because he is now a toddler and equally iits once a day.

Ds2 hasn't bothered much about the decs I hung jingle bell decorations on lower branches he can touch so that's done the trick he doesn't touch anything else.

We t to m&s to pick up dh present ordered to be delivered yesterday got there just after 9am not there, not sold in store so she reordered with home delivery and refunded me delivery charge, then they will send back my original order in 7days and that will get refunded. Then get home had an email at 10.07 to say my original order was ready to collect so was probably there just hadnt been sorted...

Anna I know you will but any slight concerns with dd whip her to A&E bronch in little babies can become worse quite quickly equally they pick up v quickly I had a passion for nursing bronch babies (due to personal reasons I won't share now ) and remember the winters well with "bronch bay" made night shifts go v quick with 6 poorly babies to care for.

Happy I used to do the photo books for all 4 grandparents and 1 great nan with ds1 I Havent done them since ds2 they take so long and such hard work, we just get a Xmas family photo done and get enough for all, last yr we had pixifoto this yr will be a v early trip to max photography as I have been less than organized.

Is there anything you really rate?

Well, I know it doesn't prevent everything but just keep boobing her loads, really. As far as I know the big danger with bronchiolitis is that they can get too lethargic to feed. But usually breastfed babies want to suckle for comfort anyway and I do think it helps keep a lot of them out of hospital.
It's early days with the Salin Plus machine but it's meant to be effective over time. Who knows!

Try manuka honey for DS, see if you can sneak a bit of tumeric into his food somehow (DD1 rejected her warm honey milk because it was too weirdly yellow from added tumeric but I put some into a smoothie and she drank that!). A blob of Vicks dissolved in a couple of bowls of hot water in the room for them both. Just ride it out really

eastmids ha, I'm off to the bronch bay tonight or maybe we will have 2 bronch bays by now plus most of the cubicles full of bronchs. I did wonder if it would really matter if I had some worm medicine, as probably the issue is it passing in the milk to the baby and it isn't suitable for under 2s but I was giving it to her directly anyway, but I knew the pharmacist wouldn't be able to cope with this level of questioning (it's not the greatest pharmacy but is the only one I can get to without trekking into the city centre). I finished my parents photo book. DH said he would do his parents, but I suspect he won't and I will end up doing it on Wednesday with hours or minutes before the deadline for ordering.

Anna I can also totally see why people stick with just one child. I can't imagine why people have 3 or more (remind me I said that if, in a few years time, I start talking about another child!!)

Hi everyone.
Just checking in. Very busy with work and Christmas preparations and 2 x birthdays.
Got ds some things but no stocking fillers yet. Decided that dh and I won't do each other stockings any more.
Ds is massively bossy and independent and insists on doing everything himself still. Light switches, doors etc are favourites.

Any good ideas for stocking fillers?

I've just skimmed through but Happy I'm going to see Frank Turner tomorrow! I'm so excited I might wee!

Will pop back an update later although general points are birthday good, Dd starts preschool after Christmas and ex twat is getting worse.

Ark Frank was amazing. Have you seen him live before? I have 4 or 5 times, but I thought last week was the best. It was a great chance to forget about being a grown-up for a couple of hours!! Have a great time.

Last few weeks have been a bit eventful. About 10 days ago DD suddenly started having really bad tantrums, she was throwing herself on the floor for any reason and without reason. She was crying really bad on the drop offs at the nursery. We started to be really worried if she still wasn't well after the last virus. Then last Friday tantrums finished just as sudden as they started. Works out that the little boy, with whom DD has created a very strong bond over the last months, has been ill that week and returned on Friday. DD was over the moon all day Friday and has hardly had any tantrums after that. We have our little happy girl back. Is that even possible that a two year old can get so upset about a friend not being around that she goes on for a whole of the week poisoning everybody's brain?!

Another Frank Turner fan here, seen him twice but not DP's thing so will prob only see him at festivals now. Enjoy ladies.

Stocking fillers here - stickers, crayons, socks, peppa pig figures, colouring books, light up ball, dvd, matchbox car, mini chalkboard.

We got dd a flashing wand plastic tat at an xmas fair a couple of weeks ago, best £3 I spent that day. She loves it. Waves it around saying 'magic, magic, magic!'

strawberry wow! What a sensitive soul! Very sweet. Dd's best mate from cm left in sept and she still tells me she's seen him that day. Onlybjust stopped talking about him. Never upset though. Yesterday she told me that 'mummy not go to childminder, my go by myself' (she used childminders actual name) she's 2!! And already she's trying to get rid of me :(

Ds2 stocking is wooden animals, some paw patrol plastic crap, choc penguin, paw patrol toothbrushes, mini book set, mini George pig teddy.

When ds1 was this age he had some those megablocks cars that co e apart £3 and 3 for 2 in boots but we now have them all.

Stickers, bubbles, expanding face cloths, little instruments like harmonica go down well also

So Frank Turner was awesome. I have no voice and I cried when he played Next Storm haha.

On a different note ... Dd has her first morning at preschool tomorrow. Gulp.

I know I keep saying this, but I am so tired. I worked out that I have had 18hrs sleep since getting up on Sunday and not slept for more than 3hrs in a row. DD has spent all morning whinging. I think I might join her in throwing myself on the floor and crying! It was easier when they were tiny and you were sleep-deprived, you just cuddle them on the settee while watching rubbish daytime tv instead of having to entertain them.

anna how is your DD now?

re stocking fillers: I seem to have ended up getting both DDs much the same kind of things, including stickers, pencils, a glitter snow globe with a lion inside from Tiger, colouring books, palace pets (pointless little plastic animals), socks, books, bead necklaces. DD2 is getting a plastic pony like a My Little Pony from Poundland because she loves DD1's ponies.

happy will she take a nap at some point? Make sure you lie down too as soon as she goes down, no matter what other jobs have to be done...I have started doing this when I really need to catch up on sleep and even a 20 minute nap can keep you from feeling that awful dizzy sick feeling...

Stockings - yep same here both DDs getting the same kind of stuff! Children's scissors, markers, a unicorn pen, a satsuma, chocolate coins, oh, and DH decided to get them both a light bulb that changes colours and can be remotely controlled

What I really want to get them is a Knock Knock joke book. DD1 has just started with these, and creates her own bewildering and not very funnyknock knock jokes which just crack her up, and DD2 too. This morning they were both in our bed with DD2 shouting out a knock knock joke that DD1 had made up. It was really very cute

happy is her cold improving at all?

I am having a tough week, no point saying otherwise. DS wasn't sick a day till he went to crèche so I am completely unused to this level of illness in one so tiny. I'm quite upset by it, but being a nurse I have a good game face.

It's Day 6 now and she is has a constant barking cough, a terrible wheeze, cries a lot and only feeds for about 2 minutes every 3 hours. I have been awake since 4 and was awake since 3.15 the previous night, just constantly comforting and rocking and soothing etc.

I've said it a million trillion times but thank God for the crèche! DS has picked this week to be openly defiant. He keeps pushing boundaries like mad. Really pissing me off as I don't need that shit right now!

For example he keeps climbing up on the coffee table in front of the TV. So every time he does it we go Uh-Oh! & pretend he's broken the TV and turn it off. So now he's decided he doesn't care, that standing up on the coffee table is totally worth it. What's more, he's started pressing the buttons on the box to "break" the TV himself. As if to illustrate how little he cares about it shutting off.

And the selective deafness OH MY GOD! We get mad and tell him to Get. Down. Now!.....and he just blanks us! And I can't wrestle him down when I have a spluttering baby in my arms.

Sorry, bit of a rant there. Dreading the weekend tbh. Poor DH is getting no sleep either ( not just with the coughing - DD keeps puking all over her sheets/my nightclothes/our duvet at silly o clock) and he's having to work miles and miles away at the moment.

God that was a bit long sorry! Am going stir crazy and have no one to talk to about all this!

Anna you poor thing! I also was really taken aback by how much DD2 picked up compared to DD1 who never got anything at that age. It's all the stuff DS is taking home from creche. It's a bit scary and exhausting trying to get them to feed enough. Just keep trying to get as much boob as possible into her and hopefully she'll be on the other side soon enough.

It may be that you and DH may have to sort of mentally 'write off' the winter but it WILL get better. If you have reached peak 'we've ruined our lives by having DC2' feeling yet, that is also totally normal when they are small, ill, and no-one's sleeping. It will get better. In the meantime creche and TV are your friend and just ignore/distract DS for now if he's looking to get a reaction. You can implement discipline once you've caught up on sleep!

Just checking in guys, it's been a while. Sorry to hear you are all having to cope with poorly little ones.
DS is fine. A few more melt downs over rice cakes and gingerbread, but he's two, after all, so what do we expect.
But, I'm really struggling. Seem to have been ill with one thing or another since the end of September, and been really low. I've got anti-depressants from the docs, and they worked for a bit, but with this constant bug (headache etc), I just can't seem to do anything. Freelance job is making me anxious and stressed, and I'm not sure I want to keep going with it. All in all, feeling horrible and like a bad mum to ds as we're not getting out as much as we were when weather was better and I felt fit.
Oh dear, what a ramble. Really hope Christmas perks us all up.

Big hugs to everybody struggling with things at the moment.

DD at the moment goes through a hunger strike phase, she hardly eats anything in the nursery, comes home and stuffs face with the one item of food she doesn't refuse in particular period of time. And she talks A LOT about chocolate. Also she seems to be going off iPad, prefers normal toys finally.

Language wise there is big progress, but when she says "all done" it really sounds like "oh damn". There have been few times I froze just to realise nothing bad was intended.

Have other children become weary of people they know but don't spend time with regularly? DD keeps ogling her cousins and grandparents whenever she seems them, just few months ago she was happily playing with them!