Feb 08 - Lessons in Dressing An Octopus (Or Cooo-eeeee, We're Overe Here!)

[swottybetty]

New thread guys

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Andrew and Henley! xxx

Aww Sally, you let it all out...nocturnal breastfeeding is a PITA but really makes a difference, my DS3 stopped bf at 2.5 and immediately started picking up bugs at nursery that he hadn't before, even if Dr Hillary Jones thinks breastmilk has no nutritional value past a year we ebf-ers know different!

And that's a bummer that you can't go part time, if it was just DH saying that you could probably work on him...on the other hand we do have a tracker mortgage which has come down hugely but DH hasn't had any work since before xmas (and not much since last summer) and we're going to have to take our kids out of school (I have to keep off those lefty schadenfreude threads about why this is apparently a good thing for society...I'm more concerned about my children having their lives turned upside down). So at least you still have a job even if you'd rather not!

Swotty yes I know you're Tyaca - your DD actually looks much more like my DD as a baby, my children have thus far either been skinny and dark blonde, or sturdier and strawberry blonde - Felix is a cross between the 2...definitely have lots of children, it's fun! Although I wouldn't think that if I hadn't spread them out a bit, 5 children under 5 would be a nightmare. IMHO. Anyway, are you having a homebirth?! Go for it...

Sarah - Rosie is gorgeous, all that hair! My DD was still just baby hair at 1 and I couldn't wait for her to have beautiful long hair...good luck with persuading your DH that a 3rd baby is a good idea!

Gill, if it's chicken pox it becomes obvious quite quickly, may be just a viral rash. Which soft play did you take him to, IIRC you live around where we lived in London so I've probably been to all your local ones...I bloody hate soft play though, even the nicer ones! Missed the bankers yesterday but I always try and switch from cbeebies to Parliament channel for PMQs on a Wednesday, more entertaining than those new presenters on CBeebies anyway!

Felix is demanding attention so must go, bye!

We went to Wood Green Slacker. Might try Clissold Park next time a bit more yummy mummy territory :-D

Happy Birthday Andrew and Henley! Hope everyone has a lovely day Rozzy and MissNat.

Well I'm no longer sure if spots are getting better or worse. Faded in some places but still quite noticeable on his face and now all over bottom and legs. Guess not pox though. More diarrohea as well - phoned the nursery this morning to say he wouldn't be in and they said he's not allowed back till 48 hours after last bout! Know what not to say next time!! Also cough and cold still pretty bad. Hey ho. Me and DP both taking half days off so I'm going to be working late to make up time.

Sorry to hear you've been so down Sally. It's so hard isn't it. Hmmm. My advice - talk to work again and tell them you are DEPRESSED and need to spend some more time with your baby - will they come to a compromise? Maybe they will think they're at risk of having you off work for months with depression and might agree to a 3 or 4 day week? Always worth a shot. And go through all your outgoings again with DP to see if there's any other savings to be made. Have you got any family that could help with childcare? We also bought (our first house) at the peak of the market on a fixed rate mortgage. So painful paying such high interest rates when the base rate is so low.

Hiya everyone.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. We have had a lovely day - half term here so we could go out for the day. Took them to their favourite swimming pool (lots of chutes/fountains) which is around a 40 minute drive away so we don't go there very often. Then we took them to pizza hut for lunch (dh was checking where it was on-line and got a 50% off voucher on their website!!).

Happy birthday to Henley too - hope you had a nice day Misnat.

Sally - It must be hard working full-time - I can understand you feeling down. I couldn't afford to work part-time were it not for the fact that DH can look after them when I'm at work so we don't have to shell out for a nursery. Nurseries are so extortionate aren't they? Have you thought about a childminder - not sure how much (if anything) cheaper they are but quite a few of the kids at ds2s preschool are dropped off by childminders and they're all lovely. As well as it being hard working full-time you must be exhausted if you're still feeding a lot in the night. Not sure what to advise really but hope you're ok.

Swotty - just saw that if you are due after April you will be entitled to a one off government payment of £190 after 25 weeks pregnancy.

Gill - that sounds like a virul rash. Tends to spread out over the body and fade first where its come out first iykwim. Generally comes out towards the end of an illness so hopefully means Malcolms on the mend.

Hope everyone else is ok.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. Henley has has a lovely day so far. My mum has come down from Manchester so we went to pick her up from the train station. He loved all the trains and cried when we walked away. Were going out later for what should have been a quite meal just me DS, DP and my mum. DP has decided to invite all his fooking family which includes my bitch of a MIL. Im really not impressed . But its Henleys birthday so im just going to have to put up and shut with the cow. Aaaarrrggghhh.... rant over.

Happy birthday Andrew and Henley, hope you enjoy ur meal miss nat

Hiya,

had a better day today. I told my supervisor I am finding things v tiring (with the not sleeping and everything) and she has got one of the others to help me out for a week or two which is a big relief. So work is a bit less stressful now, for the moment at least.

Also DH came home early tonight, collected DS from nursery, gave him his tea, AND did all the washing-up...all by the time I got home. Hurrah.

Gill no we don't have family nearby who could help with the childcare. Stupid mortgage. We only have a little house and it's not in the best area - and even so I have had comments from my family to the effect of "ewww, can't you afford a better house than THAT?" Well actually no, we don't all have high powered jobs round here! I do think DH is right about the money - if anything it would be slightly easier for him than me to go PT b/c he earns less than me. But of course he does not want to/need to. We did consider childminders Rozzy but not knowing many other mums round here it was hard to get recommendations, except for ones that were fully booked up already - I think they are only allowed to look after one baby at a time (and q right too if you ask me).

Thanks for the encouragement on the bf Slacker - it is true that the nursery newsletter always says "there is D+V going around" and DS has not yet come down with it once. And yes I am grateful to have a job, honestly... it's just that I don't feel I'm giving it my best and so I feel it's a bit of a waste.

All together now... Good Enough is fine, Perfect is toxic all the way...

Glad you had a better day today Sally - I'm sure tiredness is a huge factor. And yes I think it probably is hard to get a good babysitter as the best ones will be booked up as parents will keep their kids with them long-term. The only other thing I thought of which is probably really bad financial advice (from a supposedly sensible accountant) which could help finances in the short term is to extend the term of your mortgage. When we moved here 3 years ago we took the mortgage out over a slightly longer term. Theory is that it makes things more comfortable whilst the kids are little and I'm working p/t and we can pay more to reduce the term again when they're bigger and I can increase my hours. Probably wouldn't make enough of a difference to make the change from f/t to p/t though.

Oh and I have an update on my no bonus, pay cut at work - they're going to give us an extra 2 weeks paid holiday to compensate so I'm pretty happy with that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LEILA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

sorry its a bit late in the day OMY, but hope you have had a fab day with dd xxxxx

hi everyone, how are we all????

Happy Birthday Leila. Hope you've had a lovely day

Just a quickie from me. Heres a few pics from Henleys birthday yesterday.

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101193&id=695280049&l=bcaa4

Hope it works. Will try and catch up with everyone later.

P.S Henley slept in till 10.45 this morning

thanks for birthday wishes! back later!

Happy Birthday Felix, Rosie, Andrew and Henley! Sorry I missed you - have been working - ugh!

Happy birthday Leila!!! Hope you are having a fab day Omy.

Great pics misnat - glad to see you've got him started on the housework already!

Happy birthday Leila, Andrew and Henley. I haven't been around properly this week cause I've been busy at work so sorry its late. Hope you've all had lovely days.

All ok here, DS has a cold but nothing worse so far. The sickness from the asthma medicine has worn off and I am cautiously optimistic he's ok.

Sally, sorry you were feeling down. I hope things are looking up a bit now. Its nice your DH gave you a break too. Sometimes people don't realise how tough things are until you really shout about it I guess.

Gill, any news re the spots? Sounds like a virus not chicken pox this time.......

Ah - time to read and catch up - phew! Mad week with work, half term now though so that's a relief. I felt sad that I wasn't able to have birthday day with Leila as I was working all day, but tomorrow all the family are coming round for lunch so that will be nice and I will bake her a cake then. (How did it go with MIL Nat? - Your pics are very cute!)

2 weeks extra holiday sounds great Rozzy.

Sally - I'm not surprised you are feeling down - I feel so sad by Thursday afternoons - the third day away from her - it is a physical longing and it is very hard to concentrate on work when you feel like that!

Sarah - are your spotty babes feeling better yet? Such a relief to have got over that hurdle - no more chicken pox EVER! (unless you have another baby he he)

Re MMR - I am a fan of immunisations and as there are no contra indications in the family she will have the 3 in one asap - when do they do it? is it 18 months?

Hey Slacker - nice to hear from you - I was wondering how you were! My DH hasn't worked for a year! So he is the nanny at the moment which is working out nicely for him! I am getting a bit fed up with it though!

The image of Felix falling asleep on you at night is so sweet - I did that with DD1. Interesting to hear you say you wouldn't want to face toddlerdom without BF - I have always stopped at a year before but now am thinking of continuing - funny how people expect you to stop at a year though isn't it? It really helps with the teething miseries - and we have only got 2 teeth so there's loads more miseries to come!

Re boob size - I shrunk to empty sack A cups after both DDs and it took about a year for the fat to come back to a B cup - which I had previously been. I am loving the D cups I am at the moment, though my bra situation is a bit horrendous - I only fit into the 2 pregnancy bras I had and they are rather grey now. I have resisted buying any more bras as I keep thinking I am about to stop BF so it will be a waste of money as my size will change - but now I am thinking of continuing BF (if only to enjoy D cuppness for another year or so!) I really ought to buy a couple of nicer bras! Hey it's my birthday next week - might treat myself!

I have been trying to teach Leila to sat a few words and she copies me sometimes - I think she said leila today - or was it la la??!

Swotty - Did anyone hear from PK? She was (is!) great. What on earth is CAT???

LLjjKK - thanks for the sweet offer of crayons! Where did you get yours? I am very disappointed with the Early Learning Centre - it was brilliant 16 years ago but seems to have changed hands!

CAT- is mumsnet email thingy!!!!!! thats all i know!!!!! (i paid £5 for hte membership and you can the email other mumsnetters instead of posting on threads!!!)

i have emailed PK-via CAT and heard nothing as yet but will give her time xxxx

bought the list forward again-

COSIMA IF YOU ASRE LURKING HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ISSAC- HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A FAB DAY XXXXX

??-01-08 - Ladlemonke -
04-01-08 - Gingermumi - Toby
10-01-08 - Egg - Rebecca and Jacob
10-01-08 - Miniandme - Abby and Jack
19-01-08 - Leesmum - James
21-01-08 - Saskia71 - Boy
23-01-08 - Beansprout - Theo Daniel
26-01-08 - Gill79 - Malcom
??-??-08 - Expectingkat -
29-01-08 - Countto10 - Jack
31-01-08 - ALKAR - Daniel Joseph
31-01-08 - Merlypuss - Thomas William
04-02-08 - Lucyand2 - Isabelle
04-02-08 - Morningglory - Alexander &Isaac
06-02-08 - Jooseyfruit - seth -
06-02-08 - Blondiep15 ? Charlie
07-02-08 - Sarahmikeandharry - Rosie Olivia
09-02-08 - Slacker - Felix
??-??-08 - Mutha2beagain -
10-02-08 - Ayshirelolo - Alexis Zoe
08-02-08 - Jo9977 - Daniel Brian
??-??-08 - PK616 - Kya
09-02_08 - Loobyt - James Edward -
11-02-08 - missnatalie - Henley Ethan -
11-02-08 - Rozzyraspberry - Andrew -
??-??-08 - Rapunzelle -
12-02-08 - Omy - Leila
13-02-08 - Cosima - Isaac Louis
??-??-08 - Manamana ? Stanley
14-02-08 - Mymissus -'Digby'
14-02-08 - Blue Domino - Clara
15-02-08 - Lljkk aka OneHandedTypist
16-02-08 - Sallyinyorkshire - James
17-02-08 - Wotsits ? emyr
??-??-08 - Sherida -
19-02-08 - Widgetsmummy - Bethan Grace
20-02-08 - Amy78 - Zoe Isabella
??-??-08 - Filly
??=??=08 - Pobletsmum
22-02-08 - Bessie123 - Daisy Hannah
23-02-08 - Bovril Sarnies - Seren Fenella
24-02-08 - sireedubs-Daniel James Henry
24-02-08 - K27- Noah Jack
27-02-08 - Readytopop - Olivia Rose
26-02-08 - Violeta - Sophie
13-02-08 - Ruva - Saba
26-02-08 - StrawberryCornetto - Joseph
27-02-08 - Lovemymum - Katherine Natalia
28-02-08 - Mitford Sisters - Hector James
28-02-08 - Tallulah1978-Elijah
29-02-08 - lailasmum - Toben Spencer
01-03-08 - Samsmam - Sophie
07-03-08 - tyaca - Esther Dear,
??-03-08 - Redbush- Annabel Holly
17-03-08 - ferdie

happy bday leila! and also to isaac

i am very sad aren't i!!!!!!

just dont wanna forget any little darlings on their special day xxxxx

OMG just been reading a thread in the news section about the DAD at 13!!!! its shocking, xxxx i hope i bring my children up to know what right and wrong etc !!!!!!

those poor kids have no idea do they???

The mmr is done at about 13 months old,our twins arent having theirs so we're preparing to do battle with the health visitors over it but will be sticking our ground.Our eldest is severely autistic and our dd1 has traits,ds1 autism i dont think is connected to the mmr but dd1 difficulties definately are,she was fine till she had it,speaking etc then 2 days later she started screaming and screamed round the clock for over almost a fortnight,she lost her speech and still now at 6 has speech difficulties and sleep problems.
The vaccine settles in the gut and jack already has problems in that department so we dont want to put his system under any more pressure,not to say they wont ever get the jabs but it certainly wont be any time soon.

Mini - had no idea about DS1's autism . Poor you. Was it evident before or later than the MMR? I'd like to say I'm 100% sure about the vaccine but must admit I'm anxious. When you think that what is most beneficial for most of the population isn't always going to be what's best for the individual it makes you wonder what it would take for anyone to admit there might be issues with a vaccine. DP is (in his usual manner) very opinionated about this so it would be a massive issue if I was to question getting it done, and anyway I do believe in vaccination. But. Is anyone getting them done separately?

Well, some good news here as I've got a new job to move to when my current one ends at the end of the month. Had an interview yesterday and hilariously almost forgot to go! Was planning on leaving an hour to get from my office in Victoria over to Hammersmith, with time to sit down and go through my notes when I got there. Except the interview was at 4 and I was planning on leaving at 4 to get there. Reality dawned at 3.35. Not sure what my colleagues must have thought when I leapt up and ran from the office without a backward glance not to be seen again that day .

Happy Birthday Leila! And Isaac in case Cosima lurking.

Malc getting better slowly but has been right off his food and very tearful. I'm getting plenty of sleep though! Spots pretty much gone. Treated him to some new washable nappies today (almost 6 months since we last used them ) but think I will wait till the bottom explosions have stopped.

MissNat love the photos. Henley is indeed a bit of a cutie and somehow looks really grown-up! Must be his big boy tracksuit .

On my own tonight but have made a very tasty dinner of delia's leek and bacon pasta bake. Yum yum. Off to the telly with a glass of white. Have a good weekend everyone.

Glad you got the job Gill - and glad I am not the only one who's brain is a bit addled!

Mini - sounds like you have had a rough ride, I don't blame you for not getting them vaccinated. Let's hope most of the rest of the population do have the vaccination though, as your little ones will be safer then.

Congrats re the job gill, must be a weight of your mind. Wheres malcolm been whilst you've been at work this week, did nursary take him?

I am on a night shift tonight. I vowed never to do one again but they were desperate and had no-one else to do it. I just couldn't say no! So far its been horrible, really really busy. Computers aren't behaving and casualty keep ringing me telling me patients are breaching and here I am on mumsnet . Oh well better get back to it...

Hope you survived the night shift alkar. I really admire anyone who works in any kind of medical job.

Quiet Saturday here, DS sleeping and DD watching tv. DH off skiing again........ Anyone doing anything exciting or romantic today?