Jan '07 part 3: Final score - 69 days, 28 boys, 21 girls weighing over 26 stone in total (thats over THREE TIMES Kate Moss's body weight!)

[2Happy]

And huge respect to EaH, without whose efforts we never would have had a list

(And yes, I am one of those sad people who finds things like temperature sensors in cars really interesting. Nerd.)

LTH has been around on chat and few other thread

Havent seen 2happy for a while and no recen tpostings when I did a search

Think Lizz was around earlier in the week

Oh my God do you think the others may have a real life outside of MN???

Good job theres you wilkie, UD, Rgee and shimmer or I would actually have to get off the laptop and do something

Oh EAH - are we really that sad????

Is nobody glad im back iv missed you lot

laughalot - i'm glad you're back! welcome home!!!

EAH - not sure whether to be proud or insulted by you insinuating i don't have a real life! i do, honest!

well today has been fun, i very nearly clocked MIL one when she came in just after i'd been feeding Zac and he was finally getting all sleepy and tried to snatch him off me. picture the scene, if you can. there's me, on the bed, left tit half hanging out, attempting to wind Zac and do my bra up at the same time in an unfamiliar bed/position. in whisks MIL (without knocking, and yes i know it's her house, but still...) attempts to grab Zac off me.
Me: Erm, he's just been fed and he needs a nap.
MIL: I know, but i want a cuddle.
here's what i wanted to say
Yes, you might want a cuddle, but he is not your teddy bear, he is a small individual in his own right and not to be mauled about because you want to. don't try and make up for your failings with by harassing my son!
here's what i actually said:
No, really, he needs a nap. I'll bring him down later.
she still tried to snatch him off me though, which thoroughly upset him, so then i had to feed and settle him again, whilst seething myself which wasn't very helpful!

so i took him downstairs about an hour later. cue her and FIL overstimulating him with tacky plastic toys which are all 6 months+. felt like shouting HE'S ONLY 10 WEEKS OLD! he got really upset and cranky and i started to cluster feed at 3 instead of half 4 as usual just so i could get him away from them! can't wait till Zac's old enough to crawl away from them if he wants to.

ooh, i've just remembered what REALLY irritated me....after she'd upset him by trying to grab him off me and then attempting to entertain him with horrible noisy Disney toys she had the nerve to suggest that he might be windy, or cold. then she said "Ooh, perhaps he's thirsty!" at which point i turned around and left the room as if she had suggested giving him boiled water i could not have been held responsible for my actions!!

however, she did cook a stonking roast dinner, and we're leaving early tomorrow morning! thank god for MN is all i can say - at least i can come on here and rant!

(sorry for long post)

But we knew you would come back to us laughalot (albeit a temporary enforced break hehe)

I do feel a bit of a saddo at times as I probably talk to you lot more than my real life mates some weeks (actually best mate is now a confirmed MN addict especially on her april 07 antenatel thread

oh girls be proud of your addiction I am, even though I go out most days with dd's and play with them etc I do find the days seem so long and a quick fix of MN helps the day go by (not sure what everybody else does all day maybe its just me or maybe they lurk and read like I used to do that before I met you lot )

UD hae a safe trip back tomorrow and hope MIL is better behaved in the morning!

Right am going ot sign off and head for bed so night everyone !

Awww Laughalot - it is good to have you back

UD - you need to read Jane Green, The Other Woman....seriously, think it was written about your MIL

EAH - think the reason MN is so addictive is that I can say whatever I like cos I don't know you and I don't feel judged which is exactly what happens in RL

wilkie - you've never been JUDGED on mn?? you've obviously not been on the right threads! but it is lovely here, i have to say!

on a totally different note, i watched the SWMNBN program the other day.... and is all i can say.

UD - Noooo, have been judged quite a few times - there are many many self righteous ponces out there. I meant this thread - absolutely love you all

Laughalot is pissed on all that wine urban has forced me to drink

UD - I know which program you mean but what does SWMNBN mean?

I am a bad mother. I am drinking a cup of tea whilst catching up on MN gossip, watching my lo get narky for being left on her own too long. Surely I should be going to see her? Bad mother!

Welcome back laughalot.

By the way UD, I LOVE your MIL stories. Not helpful to you I know, but perleeaaaassseeee keep visiting them so you can report back

me, too, rgee, am eating corflakes and drinking tea quickly while ds1 watches LO on the changing mat, only minutes before we have to leave for school.. feel like I need this five minutes

Just had to share this with you .... received in post this morning the boots parent club vouchers. Do you remember the first ones where we got free pampering products for ourselves ? well this time its money off pile cream !!!!!

How our worlds have changed !

kat gone are the days of luxury!

SWMNBN- she who must not be named (think theres an explanation on home page?)

Ud's Mil stories would make very amusing book

Had nightmare morning dh woke ellie up at 4.45 as he was late for work and rushing around she decided wasnt going back to sleep, came downstairs I then ended up buying some fancy dress stuff of ebay as it was a bargain (can't resist a bargain!)

Went to have a shower at 7.30 and ellie said she was hungary, I said I'd do breakfast in a moment then came downstairs to find 4 pints of milk on the kitchen floor plus a box of chocolate wheetos (choc cereals are a favourite!) and ellie sitting on the sofa with the smallest bowl in the house and the biggest spoon trying to eat the breakfast she had made!!!

She's never been able to get nto fridge but had worked out that if she dragged her chair (got a small table and chairs in lounge for puzzles etc) she could get the fridge door open, think she must have taken the lid off milk and then tried to lift it out of fridge but it would have been to heavy. Puzzled how she got the cerels out though as we have child locks on most of the cupboards (except the one with all her plastic bowls/beakers/plates) Have washed the kitchen and dining room floors 3 times and still smell milk aaaarghhhhh bloody toddlers give me my newborn that doesnt move anyday!!

EAH, try and see it as a positive start in her getting her own breakfast, the sooner they get their own cornflakes while you stay in bed the better ok, ok, she's too young yet but my 9 and 5 year old do that now and it's fab, I even get a cup of tea!

Ud- I have endless similar mil stories but as she died a year ago, it seems a bit, well, distasteful to moan about her, but honestly, she WAS a bloody nightmare. I got the cooled boiled water bit too, and I use to raise my eyebrows as the room was told that 'Hayley can go and feed the baby while we get on with...'or, 'I think it will be difficult for you to lose weight while you eat so much...' or 'you really could get a little job now, Hayley, you're not so stupid you can't work a checkout'.. {the best thing about getting a first for my degree was telling her!!).. or 'perhaps we should leave Hayley here', we were at the dump, or 'I never felt better than when I was pregnant'when I had morning sickness, or, 'I worked up the minute I went into labour, I was still doing the wageslips during contractions' well, well done you, you old bag... there were far worse, much worse horrible weekends spent there but you know, can't moan about the dead. Hey ho!

And please, UD, tell me more about this cluster feeding, your LO seems to sleep a lot more than mine. Is he in his own room?

Hello Ladies, Just a quick question for the bottle feeders among us.....
Have your periods returned yet??

George will be 9 weeks tomorrow and mine hasn't. With teh old Ds's I had one 4-5 weeks after they were born, but thers no sign of it this time.

I'm not really complaining, it's FAB really.

I expressed my milk for a month for him, could that month delay my period for this long??

Lth - I have bottle fed from day 1 and never expressed Hattie is 10+3 and havent had a period yet although think it may be on the way as after spending far to much time on ttc boards prior to her think I was ovulating last week!!!!!!

LTH - J is 9+3 and I think I have the beginning of signs of period but it's certainly not full flow or anything, just a bit pink.

Thanks....this was a new one on me so I was a bit puzzled.

seems the norm though....well for us at least

UD I am wowed that you were even online at MIL's, did you take your laptop or use their pc? If you used theirs to rant about them - GO GIRL!!!

Tell me about cluster feeding too please - I seen to remember you saying every 20 mins or so but how long do you do it for?

Wilkie- hope J's naps sort themselves out soon.

EAH - sorry I got thw wrong day for the christening, I was thinking how nice it was to have it on mothers day...a week ahead of myself though. My dad is a minister and everyone keeps asking us if we arehaving Ellen christened. Its not actually a conversation DH and I have had yet. When i suggested I might take Ellen to sunday school he said he wouldn't be going with us if we did. My dad married us so it would be nice if he baptised Ellen, he is methodist and they tend to baptise or have a deducation/thanksgiving rather than christening. I was only dedicated sonot really that bothered what we do for Ellen but would be a good excuse to get everyone together I suppose. Hmm does that make me a bad mother ??

DH is an Everton fan and is always on a fan chat site so MN is my eqivalent!

Hello everyone.
Sorry I've not posted in a bit - I have logged on but by the time I've finished reading all the posts I'm too knackered to type! Actually been a bit busy, now I'm 6 weeks post-section there's not so many people falling over themselves to help out, so I've been facing the reality of life with two kids (and a husband who's more away than present ATM ).
There have been way too many posts for me to catch up properly, but quickly:
vinorouge - you mentioned lo crying when you put hydrocortisone cream on. IME, if the cream stings you should use ointment instead - there are preservatives in creams that can sting inflamed skin. The cream is a bit greasy, which is why people prefer to use them, but the ointment has fewer additives so is better. Same goes for moisturisers too.
carrotcake - the wedding sounds great, hope you get to set a date soon.
UD - I know I've said it before, but is your mil my mil??!! That rant about Z not being her teddy - I could have written it word for word when I had ds1. I just wanted to shout "he is my baby, he is not here purely for your entertainment, woman!". She's been really good this time at taking ds1 for days out, but last week said "you're 6 weeks on friday aren't you so you won't need any more help?". So you get ds1 to really love days out with you, then drop him just because it's 6 weeks after his brother was born?! I'm sure she didn't really mean it that way (maybe) but she has just the most tactless way of putting things.

I also have to confess that I am the world's worst mother. It has taken me 6 whole weeks to notice that poor ds2 is totally tongue tied (great, ds1 inherits my eczema and my pig headedness, ds2 gets my TT). There was me getting frustrated at his continual squirming at the boob, and he's flipping got a reason! Am going to try and find out if it's too late to snip (it gets thicker a few weeks after birth so they don't like doing it so much...can you tell I've been researching on the internet?!). I doubt my GP will know (and don't want to turn up 2 weeks in a row!) but there's a local breast-feeding advice midwife, hopefully she'll know what's what.

And now I'd better start thinking of a new thread title, hadn't I?! Do you realise this thread has only lasted less than a fortnight?!

hey everyone, we're baaaa-aack!

oh, it's good to be home, even if Zac is completely clogged up because the IL's have their central heating on ALL THE TIME!! no more real gems from MIL this morning, except for her noticing Zac's frequent feeding (he's been upset and clingy - probably down to the disruption in his routine) thus prompting her to regale me with stories of how when she used to drag dh round london with her he'd get whiney and she'd have to "feed the brute", and that Zac obviously wasn't satisfied with my milk and i should give him some formula!!! cause obviously a 1lb a week weight gain is irrelevant! still, she did get us £100 of Asda shopping and fill the car up with petrol so i shouldn't complain...

right, cluster feeding. the way i started was just sitting down with him and a book (or the latop!) at about 4 in the afternoon and just having him on the breast, 20 mins each side so i didn't get sore, until it was time for his bath at 7. he started off doing it for the whole 3 hours, but now he's on and off and feeds probably for 1.5 hours in total. the way i got told was that by doing this the baby's ensuring his milk supply for the next day! it works for Z but my friend tried it with her LO and found it didn't really help, so who knows?? it made me quite sore for the first few days and also very very thirsty!!

Zac's started to really dribble lots and also has very red cheeks. MIL said she thought she could see a shadow on his gums and i suppose i shouldn't discount the possibility that he could be teething just because she said it.....

Glad to hear we're all bad mothers

EAH - Ellie is very clever to have worked out the breakfast routine on her own. It made me smile anyway! All this to come...

Vino - If DH is an Everton fan, he must be pretty happy today. Can you milk it?

Kat - I think I may need to use my voucher

UD / 2Happy / carrotcake - any more good MIL stories? I am really entertained by them. I have a lovely MIL so will not experience this sort of thing (hopefully). My mum is lovely too but "doesn't like children" so I don't see her very much.

RGee - fortunately my mum had a tube of Germeloids in her medicine cupboard.