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...

Well done Indith - I am trialling the joggler for MN.

Thanks for you help on the other thread Eli. We haven't spoken to the GP about it but DH will speak to them when he goes for his pre-op on Friday.

I will have a read through and catch up.

Well done Indith! Any store at all?? Pick somewhere where you can treat yourself definitely nothing baby related.

Sorry about constipation - poor DS.

Am ebaying here to see off all my baby equipment. Sold my tens machine for £40 already, and am working on the rest now. Is wonderful to see all the enormous inaminate objects go.

What is a joggler? [dumb emoticon]

I'm thinking Fatface Have to tell the powers that be. The joggler is some fancy gadget thing that holds all your plans and sends you texts to remind you to do stuff I believe, I'll have to get Margo to instruct me on it!

GP said for the moment just keep ds on the lactulose and try to up his fluids so shall keep battling on. Since his fave drink in the world (apart form breast milk ) is milk, what is worse for constipation, lack of fluids or dairy? Have been struggling to get him to drink much today but I know if I give him milk he'll down the lot.

Oh, so like a texting diary sounds interesting - but I like writing in my diary so not for me.

Yes, with you on fatface. And no straying into the children's section

I'd go with the milk, but I'm clueless so ignore me. Why not breastmilk? Or is it too much of a pavlova?

Ooh, well done Indith - sparkly new clothes for a sparkly new house .

re. DS, could you water down the milk a bit? Or just let him have bm, that has a good 'moving' effect iirc.

With LenniEd on the Joggler, I love my Organised Mum calendar too much to defect to more technology!

, sorry castles. Do you have much to do with him?

Eli, course sounds fun. I'm carrying on with my cake course after the summer. I love those 2 hours of concentrating on something completely outside of dcs/house/dh. Pure bliss .

I'm trying to sort ds1 and dd's rooms atm. All I seem to be doing is moving clutter from their rooms to the rest of the house. So they have lovely tidy organised rooms but the rest of the house is a pit .

And I'm trying to make a VW campervan cake. Looked easy in the picture.

It isn't!

I love my organised Mum calendar too how MN is that!

Ah, but which one do you have?

I had the Weekly Planner calendar 2007/2008, loved the tear off shopping list every week .

I tried the Lifebook this year for it's kitchen-to-bag ability & hate it, could never work out what was going on so only use the month-to-view page of it now.

So from September I will be using The Home Planner Calendar. I think it's as close to perfection as I will achieve in a calendar .

Cooeee. I'm back

Oooh, I lurve the Life Book. Am peed off though that I lose 3 months so to speak when I buy a replacement.

DD1 possibly has swine flu. I just hope it's not a UTI which is the other possibility

Oh, no, castles, swine flu?!When will you find out?

congrats on vouchers & joggler (not that I've got a clue what it is), indith - fatface excellent choice (aq peers down at fatface necklace, top & cardigan...). What did you hear back from the gp? How long has this been going on for because I'd be tempted in your position to ask for paed referral just to make sure there aren't long lasting problems (but then I am a bit wary of these things given ds1's history).

courses sound grand Eli & Oli, I was thinking of looking at something for sept but prob. booked up already. Need some stimulation to remind myself that I'm still in the human race sometimes.

I have life book (hated it) and the calendar which I think could be useful but haven't been arsed to fill it in. I have an iPhone and a v.v.v.small pink diary. Seems to work so far, I carry both with me everywhere! I like the online listmaking etc but not putting calendar items in using one finger typing.

lennied, job sounds fab, hope you get it!

jabber, when are bloods back for ds2?

welcome back ev! how're things?

had day off today, went to ikea (you know I love the place!) with mum and NO dc's.

Castles, I like the fact I can fill in odd bits and bobs that are going to happen between Sept and Dec instead of scribbling
them on the end of August's page in no particular order. I just transfer them over as soon as the new one arrives. As soon as DH gets paid next week I am ordering my new one .

AQ, I bet there's something at your local college that you could do on one evening a week. What sort of thing do you want to do?

Ikea also my spiritual home, went on Tuesday for furniture for dcs' rooms. I did have ds2 but he was oddly well behaved after I bribed him with a big bag of Daims.

LenniEd, forgot to say good luck with the job. DH applied for a new one last week which will be a million times better than his current one and exactly what he wants to do (and it's better paid ).

There's confirmed swine flu at DH's school now - 1 pupil (who was sent in to school with obvious symptoms ) and a member of the office staff (who came in to work despite the fact she was obviously ill ). DH is meant to be going on a 9 day working trip to India on the 23rd July, anyone like to place a bet on when he gets it?

I love my life book - this years (2009/10) is so much better than last years too as they've put all those annoying in between month pages at the back. We had a weekly planner calendar last year but have just taken delivery of my shiny family planner which is much nicer. I go all precious over it at this time of year and write everything neatly and use the stickers. By December standards have dropped to a less worrying level. DH daren't write on the calendar until after Christmas.

So not only are we united by the month of our DCs birth, but also by our calendar choices.

Castles - Swine flu it's creeping ever closer here too. My DSis teaches at a school with about 25 confirmed cases now. I hope her DS doesn't get it. I worry about DH with his asthma. As I'm sure many of you do with your DCs/DPs.

Good luck to your DH Oli

AQ - Also interested to hear what kind of thing you were thinking of. And I still haven't emailed but I haven't forgotten either. I love Ikea - far too long since I last spent a fortune went.

So today I learnt (again) why I don't attempt shopping with two. Bloody nightmare. Made worse by needing petrol on the way home and pay at pump machine broken so had to drag a screaming DD across the forecourt whilst lugging DS+car seat and resist urge to shout "Shut up!" at her as she wailed "Caaaaaake!" at the top of her lungs. Then having finally got them back in the car I realised my car keys were on the counter in the bloody kiosk. Arrrrggh! And breathe.

Welcome back EV!

You do realise you lot are discussing calendars right? I am terrible at remembering stuff so I probably should get involved!

AQ GP said to keep pushing fluids (am struggling since trying not to give him milk!) and keep on lactulose but if he has another bout I will be pushing for more.

Ds was doing so well on potty since being back in the security of nappies and was asking for it a lot but since the uber bad poo has been refusing it

Hello EV

I love IKEA too but dh thinks it is hell on earth, of course it is hell on earth with dh and dcs. Wonder if I can persuade dh to let me go on cheap rug and cushion buying trip with a friend and not him after we move? (because obviously we will be moving because the structural survey will be fine and on Monday we will be able to ring solicitor and give the thumbs up to exchange)

Hope the swine flu passes without doing harm.

I ahve pulled something in my shoulder I'm sure of it, I keep gettingreally horrible pain from it but hey ho what would a Dr tell me to do, rest it?

I can hear ds singing in his room He is giving up his nap again isn't he

Indith, try icing your shoulder. I had major shoulder problems a few years ago and the physical therapist told me that you can sometimes go wrong and increase inflammation with heat but you can never go wrong with ice. 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

What dosage of lactulose are you giving? A lot of times you need more than you think. We were using Miralax and it might be different but AQ would know what to advise.

Indith, yeay on the winning, but ouch re the shoulder - don't let it go on too long, if its not improving, without visit to GP: agree they're not great on shoulders/backs etc but if it gets 'stuck' a physio might help. I had one once that got a bit 'frozen' and took ages to be all well - hopefully won't happen to yours!

Castles, sorry about your FIL...it was so scary and upsetting when my father was diagnosed. Email me if you want to chat about it, BP was v helpful to me at the time (she had experience) and v reassuring. Dad, btw, is in fine form at 82 - 18 months on - and seems to be in full remission.

Also sorry re dd and unwellness, swine or otherwise...lots around us, too, and with dh's recent asthma history am also a bit worried. Not sure whether to worry about the dds or not - one has mild, virus triggered asthma and the other, well, you all know more about her breathing history than anyone would care to

Lots of helpful posts on Childrens Health section re kids with asthma - and DPs, too, LenniEd.

Oli, good luck with the campervan cake - sounds extraordinarily difficult to me, but what do I know!

Oh - our house sale if finally de-blocked: neighbour's basement plans are being surveyed next week, and our buyer wants to set contract exchange date! Won't be moving till start of next term now but barring disasters on survey, we will be moving after all. Longest drawn out sale in the history of sales

castles, I think I missed the news on your FIL. I'm so sorry

Thanks guys It's actually my step-father who has prostate cancer. Someone asked if I have much to do with him (sorry can't remember who): he's been married to my mum for 23 years so quite a bit I suppose. I wouldn't wish cancer on anyone obviously. My RL friends are a bit concerned about how my mum will play this one (our relationship is a pile of cr** at the best of times). Hey ho, back to the counsellor as soon as I can afford it!

Eli, great news on the house

DD1 went back to school today but she's been asleep on the sofa since 5.30pm so not sure how she is really, although she did do a 1.5 hour sponsored walk followed by swimming lesson today and she is a 110% person

Still not heard anything from BP. Really hope she is ok and just doesn't want to know.

Oooh, yay, Eli moving after all! But where to?? are you planning on renting?

Indith, I know nothing about lactulose as ds1 has been on Movicol from the start but agree with jabber about the dosage based on talking to other mums. And I shall close my ears at any idea that my ds will give up his nap before Christmas although he has given it up at nursery 2 days a week (aq wails now....). What can I do, the little darling won't watch ANY television argggghhhhh. At least I put a stairgate on the living room last weekend so all 3 now stand there squawking at me rather than crawl around me as I try to cook dinner. I am absolutely sure that you can use your powers to persuade dp that a trip to ikea perfectly in order. It is sooooo cheap for things like that, I love it! Extremely pleased btw to hear that you watch Neighbours

Have only just twigged that EV is back durrrrr, I hadn't really got used to the other tbh (and indeed still think of you as FGS!). Aren't you closet neighbours fan too?

Oli, how goes the cake? Not sure what kind of course, I have no interests/hobbies/life so never know what to do. At the moment all I dream of is a quiet tidy spot in my house to read books, can you do a course on how to achieve that? The only thing I've done in the last 15 years that I really really loved was an evening course on architecture. Fab.

castles, how is dd? And sorry about your FIL too

umm, what is link between asthma & swine flu as I am asthmatic? I don't read/watch news anymore, I live in a vacuum.

lennied, horrible shopping trip, I can imagine having done it myself, I get this knot between my shoulder blades about 30 seconds in and a tension headache. Even taking ds1 is ghastly (I want, I want, mummy can you buy me everything in this shop and the next 5 shops NOW).

I think a great deal of my time & energy over the last year has been devoted to thoughts of calendars. It's good to know I'm not alone. After 2 lifebooks I"m not going to bother anymore tho (even if they have moved the monthly thingies to the end, Lennied). The stickers are quite nice. DS1 & ds2 think so too which is why I don't have any left. The dt's have also become reaching, grabbing little ratbags as of last week and my god they move fast.

Hi All

Never really got used to Maggie so glad to be EV again.

Sorry to hear about the big C, castles

Yes, I am a neighbours fan. Love it.

Spent years watching neighbours, but seems like a looong time ago...didnt' even know it still existed

AQ, yes, rented - there are a couple of possibles on, but we'll have to move fast! Re asthma/swine flu: asthmatics have a risk of their asthma being triggered by the flu (as in any flu, I imagine) and are at higher risk of breathing difficulties than non-asthmatics. Basic advice is to make sure you have all your meds, use your preventer well (if you have one) and generally keep your asthma under control as much as poss.

EV, I'd forgotten all about FGS...now I'm nostalgic...that, and all this Neighbours talk, has me living in the past

Castles, sorry, that was me rushing - yes, of course, step-father. Hope your Mum behaves, my step-mother was a bit of a nightmare when my Dad was diagnosed, tbh.

neighbours is ace

AQ I am ning at the image of a herd of small children jabbering away from behind the gate reachiing out and brandishing empty bowls as you prepare food. Perhaps a little more Dickensian than the reality!

My children are in bed and as I am falling asleep and there is bugger all on TV I am about to follow.

Everything crossed for a decent night from dd, she has been ok the past 2 nights. This morning I even dumped her back in her cot wide awake at 4.40 and the next thing I knew it was 7am and she was gurgling happily Don't think my body knows what to do with sleep though, I feel like a train wreck!

I like EV better than FGS - although I did like the interim one when you had hurt your leg(?) EV? Can't remember exactly what it was FunkyGlassStocking??

We left DS last night for a night out with friends - first time really, only left him during the day before and not longer than a couple of hours. I left him asleep at GPs but DD woke him as they shared a room and he cried for 2 hours until we came back I wish they had called us. Am a bit that they didn't. Also DD has been out of pull ups for the last week and has been waking at about 5.30/6am for a wee and then going back to sleep. She stayed over but they obviously slept through her asking for the toilet and she wet the bed. Poor soul was slept in it until 7am. We're meant to be leaving them overnight on Friday, I feel sick about it.

Hope you get a good night Indith. I hate that zombie feeling when you get some rest finally, such deep sleep. The only cure is more sleep.

Not a soap fan here - don't really watch tv at all I'm permanently out of the loop as result.

Sorry - pressed post too early...

Castles - Also sorry about your SFIL.

AQ - I am a calendar devotee, although it is a little disturbing that as result I never have any idea what I am doing when. If I am parted from my diary I am a walking disaster. In actual fact I am a walking disaster with my diary but hey-ho!