December 2006 - The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray, tshghho now let's keep these bugs at bay

[LenniEd]

I got all brave and made us a new bug free thread...

Hugs for all of the poorlies

I have had a pedicure and a manicure today. Lush.

Indith, that's progress on the sleep front . And clever girl rolling over! I still get comments from my mum re. ds2's sleeping/eating that aren't direct criticisms but the implication that I'm doing something wrong is very much there . Drives me nuts but I tend to grit my teeth and ignore it as best as I can. I've put a note on your music thread about stopping in for a coffee on your way to Wales if you need a stop. FB me if you want to know more precisely where I am but I'm close to the N Wales border.

LenniEd, how's DD? Any improvement on the jealousy front?

EV at the mani/pedi. Would love some proper girlie pampering.

Eli, I missed you too (and everyone else too, of course ). How's DD1's bugfest?

Bebe, can you send him but keep him off for 'tiredness' several times a week? Our Reception teacher often tells us if a dc has seemed particularly tired and it's seen as an unofficial okay to them having a day off. DD will be having quite a few in the first couple of terms, I suspect. A full day at preschool completely wipes her out and she only does that once a week.

Ooh, that was a colourful one, wasn't it?

Very colourful Oli

No better with DD I'm afraid, she's just generally a whinger right now. It's starting to drive me slightly crazy. You know that I've reached the end of my tether kind of gritted teeth patience look you sometimes find yourself with - well I have that look most of the day! It's not helping that DS hasn't settled since his growth spurt and is waking a lot more often so I'm not exactly in the best state for dealing with constant complaining/foot stamping/strops. What's more annoying though is DH and PIL are making it far far worse by indulging her where as I ignore her and it is all over quickly they try to talk her round/entertain her and I get since they don't have to put up with it all week. I'm ranting, I'll stop now

I'd like some pampering too - I look forward to a shower fgs!

Bebe - don't worry about having two - all these lovely ladies cope just fine. I've just hit a little bump in the road and that is just a phase of course

Oli - I've just boxed up your breast pumps to post back to you. I've stopped expressing at the moment since DS is a bit awkward with bottles and in 8 weeks he'll be 6 months and then I'll probably give him formula if I need to give him anything when I'm out. I'm planning on weaning him off me a bit once he gets to 6 months and I'll carry on doing mornings, night times and maybe 1 daytime feed myself. I need a bit of space now, and I think it would help my relationship with DD since he really does feed an awful lot during the day. Also I am hardly losing any weight now which I'm sure is due to the amount of time I spend sat on my backside feeding!

I'm glad they've been put to good use during their time across the Pennines .

I'm also with you on the tantrum front. DS2 still has at least one epic tantrum a day, usually more and it drives me beyond demented. I seem to spend the whole day trying to avoid stuff that will set him off but anything can trigger one and often there's no obvious reason. I've started to shut him in the hall when he really kicks off because I just can't physically listen to the screaming. It feels really mean but he pushes me so close to the limits of my control that I'm worried about totally losing it with him. Sleep deprivation definitely doesn't help either. He's going through another bad phase and dd hasn't been too settled in the night either so I'm losing a couple of hours most nights.

I'm turning into a crazy woman, staggering around muttering 'this too will pass, this too will pass' slightly manically .

Oh, and now I've got that off my chest, when I stopped bfing ds2 I sudeenly dropped half a stone in about a fortnight. Apparently some women lose masses when they bf, others tend to retain a certain amount until they stop.

Your post-6m plan sounds grand, especially considering you didn't know whether you'd even be able to get started in the first place. Are you back on any drugs yet?

olihan and lennied - stops in the older sibling are normal at this age. But you know that, dont you. Ignore them and they will get better

Sleep issues awful but pick a method of dealing and be as consistent as you can.

So nice to have you lot back

Bugfest now passed on to dd2, who is therefore more inclined to the whining/grumping/growling the rest of you have described....and possibly to me (my eyes and throat are stinging), so I may join dd2 in bad behaviour

I'm very proud though: I walked most of a 12 mile practice power-walk this morning and am now a little less terrified of attempting next weekend's full 16 mile thang. Still not expecting to finish it, but at least not having nightmares of dropping out after 2 miles in total embarrassed heap. I may not be able to move tomorrow, of course...

Sleep deprivation is still fresh in my memory here (went on far too long with dd2), so major sympathies to all those in need of zzzzzzs and to all other poorly ones. How are yours now, Indith?

Indith - it is little consolation but DD was a terrible, terrible sleeper as a baby and she was formula fed from birth - it makes no difference ime how you feed. She didn't sleep through a single night until 15mo and never two consecutive nights until 18mo. But now she is pretty reliable for 12 hours every night. There has to be a big disaster for her to wake - falling out of the bed is pretty much the only thing that does it.

And talking of sleep DS has become a bit of a snuggler. He wakes at about 1am for a feed and it is a struggle to get him back in his own bed. He grumbles a lot when I move him into the co-sleeper. At 4am there is no chance! He spends the last few hours of the night snuggled up with me. Not very restful, but quite cute.

Yes Oli, I have been really grateful for them - they were very useful. Just a shame DS won't really take a bottle now. I'm going to start him on a cup as soon as I can. In some ways it is a blessing he won't take a bottle - getting DD to give up hers was a long battle.

Not back on drugs yet but have a review on Thursday and know it won't be particularly positive. My hands are bad. And my knees aren't great. I don't need the meds yet though so I'm going to hold out. They aren't all that great for my long term health so best to try and stay off them as long as I can - not just from the bf perspective.

Yes it is lovely to have you all back. I have missed you.

I missed you all too. Knowing some or all of you are in similar straits as me keeps me (relatively) sane .

I can't hear you Lennied! La la la la la la la la.

She is esisting naps these days too. Gone from being able to pop her in bed awake 3 times a day and she would sleep to well...erm...at mums and over the weekend I have been able to feed her, let her suck my finger etc for however long it takes or pop her in a sling and go for a walk but today on my own with dh back to working from the office I have ended up putting her in bed when she is tired and letting her scream while I answer the phone/get lunch for ds etc then going back and giving her a cuddle. I hate it but on the other hand she goes down after a couple of mins screaming and a cuddle Not so sure about screaming at ight though. Last night she crashed ot before having the chance to feed so woke a bit later then slept til 10 then did 3 whole hours (but ds had a terror and then lost his dou dou so got me up twice in that time) but then only did one more hour before starting to wriggle and squirm and moan. It was like she had really bad trapped wind only nothing ever resulted and after 2 hours of that she gave up on sleep completely.

Ds and his terrors are really getting to me at the moment. I'm a complete slave to them. If he doesn't have at least 2 hours sleep after lunch, often more like 3 or even more, he has them that night. Result is we absolutely have to be home for lunch at 12. We cannot be driving home just before as he will fall asleep in the car and then not nap (we went to the beach yesterday morning, he slept 45 mins in the car before lunch and then didn't nap and had 3 terrors last night). He gets them probably 3 nights a week if he is over tired, wound up about something, coming down with a cold or over ailment etc. He is starting to want the potty now so I guess that being a new development will be triggering them too. I am just fed up though, doesn't exactly give you much time to do anything if you have to be home by 12. And it isn't like I can think ok doen'st matter today we'll just deal with the terrors because the day out will be worth it as because he tends to have so many in one night thye affect the quality of his sleep, so he is tired and ratty the next day, so more prone to having them and you have to play sleep catch up. He has been ratty today so I can probably expect them tonight. Sometimes if he is too bad he has them in his nap too so then it just gets even worse. Grrrrrrrr. I know nothing can be done, I just hope that he does grow out of them but everything seems to say that if you have them you keep getting them.

Dd doesn't think sleep is a good idea again. Arse.

Yes, the sleeplessness is just awful. Both of mine were absolutely terrible sleepers. So much so that now that ds2 mostly sleeps through I still tend to wake up unless I've taken some benadryl.

The last week or two I have begun to get a little bit of energy back. Feel like I might be able to tackle some projects around the house. There are still wayyyy too many boxes in the garage from the move last year (eek!)

Indith, have only read briefly but sound's like you are having a hard time. Will come back with something constructive to say later. In the meantime, it does get easier. Oh yes

AQ, hope you are OK?

Oh no, sorry Indith, I am no help am I.

Happy belated Mother's Day Jabber - is that right?? Was it yesterday? Were you pampered?

Hi everyone,

I think EV may have gone on holiday ;)

Sorry about the sleepless nights...

Are you working your way through the 19th century MT

Good move, EV

Poor sleepless ones. Not that its brilliant sleep-wise here, but as some of it is cold-related I'm hoping it won't last too long...

Hi all

Sorry to hear about all the poorly LOs...

EV - Very at your manicure and pedicure.

Oli - funny you should mention keeping DS off for tiredness. I mentioned this to the Head Teacher and she told me he could sleep there I just don´t get it...

Lenni - thanks for the encouragement, I still can´t imagine there being another baby, when it does hit me its going to hit me like a ton of bricks isn´t it
Hope things have turned a corner????

Eli - well done on your power walk, I am muchus impressus! Kepp up the good work, I bet you feel great

Indith - so sorry to hear about the terrors. Unfortunately I have no good advice can´t imagine how thoroughly knackered you must be...

Still no firm date for CS, I am starting to get very scared about it all now. My Mum arrives tomorrow, not sure how I feel about that really, she was a nightmare when DS1 was born and not much help at all

keeping you all on my radar...
bebe, it will all be alright, gets easier to let ds grow up and he will still need you! My 5yo needs me more than ever despite being at school. you will cope with 2, try to imagine the joyous bit when first introduced to new baby which you know about rather than the unknown of toddler plus baby. FWIW, ds2 lurves his siblings to bits and from what I saw so does indith's ds.
Hi indith, hope terrors and sleep settling urgh! getting back by 12 hard, I remember that bit and it's starting again now but won't last forever?
must go it's 5.30am (I know it's your waking up time castles, but I was hoping for another hour!) went to sleep when kids did last night so naturally had to get up at 5 to clean up kitchen etc dp did do the bottles and clean the bathroom though
have rethought ads, think I must, cried half of yesterday.

AQ - THANK YOU, that´s very sweet and just what I need to hear right now
Please re-consider the ADs, they might be just what you need to lift the cloud a little ((((HUG))))

Yes, AQ, just echoing bebespain really. x

I found out that I didn't get the job today. Hey, I'd have to be some kind of superwoman if I'd have got the first job I applied for. Well, in my mind, it's a test run for the job interview that will be ideal for me. I'm a little bit off colour with a cold so I'm going to have a look and start applying in earnest tomorrow.

Indith, there will be a point where you just turn a corner wrt sleep. Hope it comes soon for you.

LenniEd, that's so sweet of you to remember Mother's Day. I actually did have a very nice and got some pampering which I was fairly about but delighted.

Sorry about the job Margo. A good trial run though and as you said it's hardly every the first one you apply for, is it?

AQ, get thee to the chemist for AD's. I couldn't survive without mine and have finally gotten my head around that.

bebe, sending good birth vibes. When I had ds2 my mom was going to stay and help. Unfortunately she succumbed to the VERY bad stomach virus that struck down dh and ds1. Since ds2 was a bit of a preemie he and I had to stay away from everyone for a week. If someone had told me that beforehand I would have panicked but it was so much easier recovering from an elective section that everything went fine.

Bebe, don't fret pet it will be fine

Sorry about the job Margo but like you say, good practice for the next one.

AQ, you are delaying the inevitable! Any reason? Have you asked your GP about a referral to a counsellor?

Thanks lovely ladies for your kind words - you are all so sweet!

Yes sorry about the job Margo but good on you for seeing the experience in a positive light. You can learn a lot from interviews and I´m sure your ideal job is just around the corner. I shall take a leaf out of your book and apply your optimistic emoticon to my c-sec fears...fear what fear?? There, all gone!!!