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...

Commiserations from me too, Margo.

Bebe, afair, the reality of having two is so much easier than the thoughts of it while you're knackered, stressed and very hormonal . You do just get on with it because you have to and sometimes it's bloody hard but other times it's amazing and you muddle through it all.

AQ, one of you lot (castles, poss, maybe you though) told me that if I had a broken leg I'd get a cast put on, ADs are just a cast for your mind so you should use them if you need them.

Indith, much sympathy on the terrors. Haven't had that but still get more broken nights than not with ds2 so I know exactly where you are with the sleep deprivation. I have to confess, when he was at his absolute worst and in that vicious cycle of bad nights/bad naps/overtired I used to give him Piriton or Medised after the first couple of wake ups or before his nap to knock him out. I'm not overly proud of it but it did help to break the cycle, especially the ones before his naps because it wore off after about 2-3 hours so he'd have had a decent sleep and didn't go to bed absolutely exhausted.

Eli, I did a 6 mile power walk last night with some of the mums from school and thought of you . My bum muscles were so sore by the time I got home. Make sure your shoes fit properly is all I can say.

Hi, MT .

bebe - Having 2 is much easier than the first as you know what you are doing so have less anxiety. It is tiring as you cant rest when the baby does and the 2nd demands attention at the most inopportune moments. Best advice I was given : If they are both crying, deal with the older one as the baby wont remember or hold it against you

I like that tip Maggie!

I like it too - will have to start doing that.

Arthritis review went well for odd reasons. I thought my arthritis was getting bad but turns out I've got carpel tunnel syndrome! Got to have injections in my wrists next month to see if that solves it and if not a minor operation to widen the canal around the squished nerve. Is related to my arthritis but prob brought on by pregnancy. Arthritis is pretty well under control - yay! No horrid disease modifying drugs!!!

AQ - Have you started the ADs?

That´s a really good tip Maggie, thanks for that!

And I know I keep saying thanks but I really do mean it, all your words of wisdom and encouragement are a big help especially as I´m stuck here and don´t have many ladies to talk to [saddo emoticon]

Indith - hope there´s some improvement on the terrors front, been thinking about you

LenniEd, I had carpal tunnel with both pregnancies. Worse with ds1 iirc. Luckily it resolved without surgery. Here's hoping yours does too.

Indith, fwiw, ds1's night terrors did finally go away. It was so awful to be woken up by screaming in the middle of the night every night. My deepest sympathies to anyone going through this.

sorry, been swamped these past few days, lost track of everything.

Oli, 6 miles is great - I actually found the next 5 easier than the first 6, last week! I have twinskin socks now, which should help the feet. I'm not sure about tomorrow, v frustrating, but I have the dds' cold which is exhausting and I feel all weak and wobbly: should I push through or bottle out or do a mile or two and see?!? I want to go!

Bebe, FWIW, I think dealing with the reality was much easier than the anticipation, re #2...I recovered much faster from a planned section, and dd2 fed much more easily than dd1 had. Its harder to rest, though, so don't feel bad about using DVDs/tv/offers of help whenever you can. And great tip from Maggie, I agree. Oooh, so close now...I'm getting excited for you...

Indith, more sympathy from me on the night terrors - horrible. dd1 had them a little older, and used to rage and refuse to be comforted, weeping and shouting...at 3am it all sort of goes in, iykwim, and used to leave me feeling really wobbly. Especially with a small baby to look after too. Take care of yourself, y'hear?

Right, two very needy small creatures here, thats my allotted MN time over

Eli, you'll be fine once you get into the swing of walking. There'll be so much camaraderie among everyone there that it will pull you along, regardless . Much luck if you decide to go.

LenniEd, great news on the arthritis front, less so on the carpal tunnel but I guess at least it's fixable and won't require lots of drugs [glass half full emoticon].

Oooh, guess what, guess what..............................

Indith and Mr Indith and her Ds and DD are coming for lunch on Friday .

If I'm AWOL for the rest of the week it's because I'm frantically cleaning in order to prove that I am actually a domestic goddess and not a lazy slattern!

I wouldn't worry Oli

Dh has taken the dcs out for a walk so I have until around 12 to clean in peace. Must do it, tis very theraputic once I start.

Lennied that is great re arthritis, carpel tunnel not so great but better than expected is good.

for the job Margo

I agree with Maggie on babies bebe, toddlers are so much worse than newborns when ignored! I think I found things got a lot easier and we were properly settled into life with 2 when dd stopped needing to be fed the instant she woke up. She is so easy now, she can doze while we go to the swings, wake up and instead of screaming and forcing me to freeze to death feeding by the river while attempting to stop ds from falling in it she happily gurgles and giggles watching her brother on the swing

She still doesn't sleep mind. We are on a week of me sleeping inthe spare room to try to break the milk cycle as I'd resorted to latching her on every half hour to 45 mins to get her back to sleep. 1st night she woke at 9 and was resettled a million times until 10 (am attempting to get 7-10 sorted out, don't want to feed before then) then did 3 hourly until about 5.30 when she started trying to declare it daytime. Last night though she started at 8 and woke every bloody sleep cycle again. I fed at 9.30, 12.30, 3.45 and then had her dumped on me at 6 as she had been up since 5. I def have an early riser on my hands I could just about cope with it if she slept before getting up at 5 though!

On the plus side, having ranted about terrors we have not had any since Sunday night ds is sleeping really well (slept til 8am today!) He seems to be ready for a later bedtime now though and I'm not sure I can cope with that until dd sleeps! He gets out of bed 5 mins after we put him to bed and though he is happy to get back in he chats until about 8.30. In an ideal world I would bath them together, put dd to bed, ds would have dinner with us then go to bed at 8 but I need dd to sleep 7-10 else I'll go mad with no child free time at all.

Right, off to clean.

Indith and Oli a dual cleaning frenzy prior to meeting up?! Oli, am very , have a great time with the Indiths.

And you're right, I was so busy talking/listening that it was fine...I felt better anyway this morning, so went, and once there was not about to drop out: I did it! Feels great, life in the old dog yet and all that.

Margo, I missed the bit about the job..., and of course you are right, it was only the first application. Any others you fancy atm?

Glad one out of two LOs is sleeping well Indith, sounds familiar to me - there's always someone having a dodgy night, even if its me

How exciting Oli and Indith

Off to bed with sinusitis but be back soon. Had DD's belated birthday party yesterday and am whacked.

Catch up soon

And - have to tell someone - the dds had made a 'well done mummy' poster, a cake, and pink balloons and party hats for me, and were at the finish line cheering (with dh, of course). And we raised, between all of us, over half a million £ for breast cancer charities

Boast over

Happy birthday LenniEd's dd for yesterday

Sorry about the sinusitis, yuk, hope you feel better v soon LenniEd. X-posted there.

MASSIVE congratulations, Eli - you don't do badly for an old bird, do you . Seriously though, it's a huge achievement and the half million pounds will do so much good. Be justifiably boastful . Bless your dds with their poster too, did you have a little tear?

LenniEd, hope the sinusitis clears up quickly. Have you ABs?

Wow Eli, that is AMAZING, well done you! And well done your DD's too. What a fantastic achievement.

Well done Eli!

Sorry about sinusitis Lennied, hope it passes soon.

Night 3 of gently kicking dd's bum on the sleep front and is was ok but the girl has a cold again and of course has passed it to me. Nothing worse than feeding in the early hours feeling your throat get all horrible when you just want to burrow under the duvet. Have put her down for a nap and sat ds in front of beebies so I can feel sorry for myself for a few mins. My go on a paracetamol hunt.

My house is all clean so long as you don't look in the spare room (furniture and random camping crap dumping ground) or the dining room (paperwork dumping ground with dining table and desk overflowing with stuff to be sorted). Of course the intention is to spend a little time each day sorting the paperwork but the reality will be that a little time each day will be spent washing up/hoovering/cleaning the loo/doing the laundry and generally trying to stop the house from winning the battle so the dining room will never be done.

Ds had a terror last night, was a whole week after the last one though! And he went to bed really late as we had people round so he escpaed to come and say hello and be generally entertaining.

Do you think there was a link between the going to bed later, and the terror, Indith? dd did seem to get them more when extra tired and/or stimulated, IIRC. A whole week without excellent, hope its the start of them going altogether.

Get well soon Indith and LenniEd

Thanks for the cheering I did shed a tear, but mostly because I started to read Gloria Hunniford's book (in the bag of free goodies all walkers were given at the finish line) about the loss of her dd. Not the right thing to read at bed time. The dds made me smile a lot, dazed as I was...

Yes Eli I think so as he gets them when overtired and while I think he probably needs to go to bed at 8 rather than 7 these days 9.30 was a bit late! Bless him though he was very cute paying attention to the conversation and making appropriate comments then demanding Caroline (fromthe Thomas series), Bear Hunt and The Little Mole.

Congratluations eli!! What a massive accomplishment

Indith, I think eli is right. IIRC night terrors do occur more often when they are overstimulated.

LenniED, hope the sinusitis clears up soon.

Oh, and my computer is now fixed with no major data loss

I'll have to leave catching up on all the news for another night, but just trying to keep you on my radar

Well done Eli - I've done the Flora Light twice and felt a bit emotional when I passed the finish line. (not like me to be emotional )

Indith - Yuk to bug grottiness - I'm on my way to recovery now. But it's rotten when you have very very young children to tend to at the same time.

I've applied for 4 jobs tonight, so onwards and upwards!

Hurrah for functioning computers, Jabber

Aahhh, Indith, almost worth it then. Is the mole the same as the mole sisters series? Very cute if so, want to know about it if not (like mole stories). Though I'm hoping Mamie's unexpected appearance tonight (en route to Paris tomorrow to empty dgm's house, which is almost sold, amazingly) and dd1's ensuing excitement/cuteness doesn't result in nightmares tonight. She was rather bouncy at bedtime, having eaten some of our Peking duck take-away on top of her own pasta earlier

On topic of sold houses, survey on ours went well, solicitors expecting exchange to be possible in couple of weeks...maybe complete end June/early July. O god. It does feel huge after nearly 12 years here.

Indith, hope you feel better by Friday (not that I mind you bringing germs, you can do a swap with my dcs ). FWIW, ds2's sleep always gets far worse if he's had a late night or a run of bad nights. Glad dd is improving slightly, though.

Phew, re the computer, Jabber. My laptop is still dead and there's about 6 months of photos on there. Un-backed up, of course .

Saw an 8 day old baby yesterday. Sooooooo cute but no broodiness on my part. I think my baby days are well and truly over .

x-posts, sudden flurry there!

Margo, tell me about the Flora Light? Is it a running one? I'm all keen now You sound like a veteran to me! Good luck with jobs, four is good going.

AQ, know you have probably gone to bed (hope so, anyway) but hope all is well - consider yourself radar-ed back, please

Oli, me too - two newborn babes at school this morning, one of which is the one I got to play 999ers for, and they were lovely. I felt gooey, but not at all overall. Whereas the friend I was with had broody written all over her face - big difference!