December 2006- where they've grown so much we spend more time talking about our lives than our children

[Indith]

Well that and our pregnancies and other non-dec '06 children

Tis a good thing I feel.

Ah, and Castles, commiserations and congratulations on being class rep: have just managed to avoid that one, but think it means I'm now going to be lined up for setting up PTA instead Have also volunteered to do regular reading with kids in dd1's class, which will be relaxing in comparison.

Novel writing! Wow!

And I doubt varicose veins where the sun don't shine will make you nostalgic about pg in quite the way you would like

Ooooo, sounds painful.

Ouch Indith. Poor you and Lennied. I can't say I have any nostalgic feelings for pg. TG!

Sound's exciting Eli! Also overwhelming. I think I would just run and hide if I had to produce 50,000 words out of nothing in 5 weeks. Any themes/instruction or are you just staring at a blank page so to speak? I was thinking more along the lines of speech therapy for myself. But will involve 2 years of study and really having to crank up the old brain cells which I'm just not sure are there any more.

PTA! Setting it up! Yee Gads. I think being class rep of a Reception class is a complete cop out in comparison. Although, I also do reading for Year 2 and Reception which I love.

No let up on work front for DH sadly, as long as he remains a UK Banks analyst and there is so much going on in his sector. I am so pleased to be out of it all.

DD2 woke at 3am this morning and didn't go back to sleep. Hopefully it's not the start of something ... arrrrgh ... wish me luck!

castles I was up at 5 which was early enough.

Seem to have cracked the daytime naps. I dont take her to bed. I put her on the sofa at 1.00, put the tv on and within 5 mins she's asleep.

Castles - my masters is in Educational Inclusion so have lightly touched on speech therapy. It seems very practical from the bits I have done, and most parts of the UK are desperate for speech therapists at the moment, plus there are a lot of associated careers. Would definately be worth looking into.

Anne - (seems very strange calling you that, you are definately not an Anne!) glad you have got the naps back on track - we managed 2 in a row this week and then back off them again today. She seems to only sleep in the car nowadays.

Indith, yay that ds an angel again! Would love for them to get together for a playdate, that would be fun.

Courses sounding fab, I have already been considering what I might like to do once dt's are older & I have done my return to work stint to pay back mat leave money! I think if I didn't have something to look forward to that was just ME I'd be utterly boring and simply talk about babies, nappies, buggies and changing bags all day long.

I have all of the green gable books, my dad bought me the set when I was 14 or something.

I have a nanny now (I feel so middle class...) albeit part-time and new cleaner started today too so really the superwoman thing is nonsense as I have so much support. AND my dp comes home every night at 6 and does bathtime for the boys as I am cluster feeding from about 4.30pm until 8.30pm at the moment (arggghhhhhh). So castles, I bow to you!! Don't know how you manage it!

I think helping set up a PTA is far more scary than staring at a blank page...actually, come to think of it, fairly similar

I'm not going to attempt more than 20,000, Castles, and yes I have an idea and a couple of thousand words and a main character lined up. Can't quite believe I'm attempting this, but has been on my 'one day I will...' list since I was 23, so I must! Speech therapy sounds wonderful, and 2 years will go by in a flash (especially as you'll be so busy ). And we will all cheer you on. Understand re dh's job...what a time to be a banks analyst

AQ, having had p/t mother's help recent years, am still totally impressed. You don't get off superwoman status that easily

Indith...um, no, maybe not...I still have some, how shall I put it, legacies in that department to remind me of pregnancy. Thanks for the reality check, and hope you get to sit comfortably very soon.

Oh, and dd2 has had the most appalling runs today - after months of healthily bouncing around - and is eating nothing. Still cheerful though, and asking to go to bed which is sort of nice, though for the wrong reasons

I wonder if this is why she's had that little hard gland in her neck these past few weeks? Must ask the doctor at some point.

Have had weird day with dd1's friend rushing up to me at school, bursting into tears, and begging to come to our house and not the childminder's today. She says childminders LO is hitting her. I've talked to her parents, who say it was probably a one-off (they hope) and am now attempting to take dh's advice and let go but...her big teary eyes are still in my memory. Urgh.

Hi AQ - how is the feeding going generally? And pleased to hear you have a nanny - am very over cleaner, I would like one for Xmas I have told DH, am not sure he realises that I am deadly serious

Am having a pre-baby feeding crisis. Consultant says I need to have introduced bottles (of EBM or formula) early on in case arthritis flares and need to stop b/f suddenly to go on meds. Also he thinks I should be getting DH to help during nights when joints are stiff and I am not very mobile (did this with DD but then she was bottle fed). Midwife thinks this is a very bad idea and also thinks I need to be doing night feeds myself to establish supply. I trust midwife more but know consultant is trying to look after my health rather than just be a stick in the mud, which is far too rational to appeal to me but I know it makes sense. Feel like I'm doomed to failure if go his route. I do need to have a plan - at present plan is sod the lot of them, I will be able to manage it and arthritis will conveniently not flare up for first 6 months at least So as for that plan....

Anyway, hoping you are all catching up on your sleep by now. I wil happily stew on this til morning...

Eli - hope DD2 ok and 20,000 words will go by in a flash too you know, am very impressed. I have always wanted to write a novel, with my family there is plenty of inspiration . Perhaps when I've finished baby-producing (that will be next year then) I'll join you - by which time of course you will be a bestselling author

LenniEd, get thee to a bfc or ring one of the helplines - they will know far more than the mw and consultant put together. Are your arthritis meds definitely contraindicated for bf? I have vague recollections of you talking about it before but it is buried very, very deep in the cell that used to be my brain.

Indith, I'm wincing on your behalf.

Eli, good luck on the course and with the PTA - I reckon a bunch of competitive alpha mums is far scarier than writing a novel

Lennied - have you tried posing your question on here so someone like Moondog or tiktok sees it?

LenniEd you might also have a look at kellymom.com

Congrats on the nanny and the cleaner, AQ! I would say those are the essentials atm.

Lennied def post on here, you will get loads of info. MW is right though the night feeds are so important for supply, but since you have an arms reach all you'll have to do is lie there anyway

Castles speech therapy sounds great [linguistics geek]. I've a friend just started the course in Sheffield and another who wants to do it. It is very competitive to get on the course though so if you were to go for it you'd need to make sure you had experience in all areas (kids, adults etc). The friend who got on the course had actually been working for a year as a speech therapy assistant.

Mmmm nanny and cleaner AQ. Very of the cleaner! Glad you have the help, even superwoman needs some support (trying to think now, does superwoman have a sidekick in a batman and robin way?)

nap-dropping looms (am comforting myself with thought that Oli's ds has always been very ahead and is waaaay ahead of dd on the nap-dropping front)

Oli, nothing very alpha about the mums I've met so far, fingers crossed! I think its more a case of persuading a bunch of nice women who are terrified of competitive alpha mums that they far outnumber the odd one or two who might be lurking in the playground undergrowth.....at least, I hope so, otherwise I'm taking to the hills...

LenniEd, I have no idea what the right way is for you but I totally understand the stress of having conflicting needs and opinions from your support team. What I do know is that there is no one 'right' or 'wrong' in all of that, and that muddling through as best you can is bound to play a part...sorry, not v helpful

Wishing Castles and various LOs more sleep....

Hence the purchase of the arms reach Indith, that and DHs nightmares about suffocating DD which lasted 6 months after we stopped co-sleeping.

My hands are the real problem in the night though, not very dextrous but hopefully will muddle through that issue.

Meds definately contraindicated Oli have talked about other options with consultant but unfortunately I have issues with my white blood count dropping on some of the meds so they won't risk trying me on them esp just after pg when immune system is weakened anyway.

Anyhoe have posted on b/f - overcome my immense fear of that topic - hopefully someone will be able to help.

Oh bum, was hoping it was one of those blanket 'oh no, you can't' when actually there is research to say it's okay. There's lots of knowledgeable people on bf/ff - you should get some good advice, I'm sure.

Too bad about the meds, lenniEd. I was like Oli thinking they were just taking the blanket approach

You will love the co-sleeper no matter how you are feeding. Ds1 had severe nipple confusion so we gave ebm for many months. I started just letting dh sleep on the co-sleeper side since I was pumping at night in the beginning, lol.

btw, indith, I had a good friend with varicose veins "up there". She really suffered with them and wore those medical support hose during much of her pregnancy.

LenniEd, was just remembering, dd1 had the occasional bottle from the beginning and BFed fine in spite of it...also occasional formula from the beginning (complicated long story involving me being unconfident and dd losing too much weight etc). I know its not recommended practice for BFing, but wanted to tell you my experience in case you decide to follow consultant's advice: needn't mess up BFing, IME.

dd2 also had bottles from early on (maybe one per night), tho always preferred breast, and ditto no problems. I used NUK which have shaped teats, and used the latex ones which are softer than the clear sort.

Thanks Eli, that has made me feel so much better. It really does get so confusing sometimes, so much advice but all of it different. Am definately going to get in touch with some of the local support groups in advance. I also need to get things clear in my own mind and accept that whatever I manage is good for me and the baby. At the moment I am seeing it too black and white, an all or nothing kind of thing, when really anything is better than nothing iyswim .

Jabber, I am already dreaming about the co-sleeper (it hasn't arrived yet), I so wish I had known about them for DD. Last night I dreamt the baby arrived and was asleep in the co-sleeper and a game show host came and told me I needed to go on a reality TV show for 2 weeks and I begged him to let me bring the cot with me! The things pg does to your mind!

Lol Lennied, I also have strange dreams at the moment, mostly involving Guides this last week...camp was actually very good so I don't know why!

My surestart grant came through so I've been researching prices of things in different places to work out what to spend John Lewis vouchers on and what to spend grant money on to get the best deals. The Indith house shall soon have a bedside cot, a vacuum cleaner that actually sucks and a vax carpet cleaner Already ordered some "bits" of newborn nappy stuff and some lilypadz and am totally in love with the nice lady at Twinkleontheweb who phoned me 5 seconds after I pressed "confirm" to say they didn't have something in that colour, checked a replacement and got my order out before the post went that afternoon!

I shall go for as many es as I can get in one day and put this to you lot as well as the antenatal ones. With the vulvic veins, I know they are fine for labour etc so long as not really, really bad but what about sex? Quite a lot of friction going on there...is it safe? Does it risk bursting them? Or is it in fact good for them since increased bloodflow means less pooling of blood. Not that sex is on the menu given that by the time dh gets home from work I'm usually half asleep on the sofa but I have fond memories of last time when I was jumping the poor man every chance I got And I suppose I may have to lie back and think of England some time in the next 10 weeks or the poor man will go mad

no no no no no, not even out of any amount of sympathy. Mr Lenni just not getting any right now . Doesn't help that this little blighter wiggles like crazy and seems to permanently be very low down with its foot in my fanjo so bits are swollen up and sore. I don't know how anyone can feel at all horny when their belly is flipping round at different angles. Fortunately DH finds it equally unappealing and judging by the speed of the internet connection on my laptop, is downloading suitable quantities of relief material on his PC, which is just fine and dandy with me right now. But of course the tide will change on that as soon as the baby arrives - well maybe about 3 months afterwards

Oh I hate low lying baby swollen fanjo. This one was like that until after our honeymoon the little blighter. Sooooo swollen and sore. Then it moved and I had a little bit of respite, even had some enjoyable sex and then these things came along It is honeymoon part 2 a week on Sat and I was kind of hoping that after a couple of nights away I might have slept enough to feel like it.....

LOL, LenniEd, I was like that with all my pgs. No nookie for me, no siree. Except when I was overdue and would have done anything to get things going .

Indith, no idea - have a look in the archives maybe, you can't be the first MNer to have wondered!