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...

Can't imagine packing all the kids up AQ. You've definitely got more energy than me.

Swine flu...eeek!...I vacillate between denial and terror as dh is leaning very much toward the new vax and I am quite fearful of how the dcs may react. With ds2's excema and tendency to run fever so often I am now worried that he is as sensitive as ds1.

The daily mail thing is just annoying. A well known MNer has lifted an entire thread in leau of actually writing a weekly column and it has people worried of being outed. I think they have a very good point as the UK is smaller than one tends to think. I'll never forget the thread someone started about some badly behaved children in a restaurant and within an hour the mum was posting and

The DM stuff makes me a little nervy too Jabber. I don't really mind this thread being in the public domain since we are all pretty incognito and in amongst the chat it would be hard to find anything particularly easy to lift out for journalistic purposes but has put me off other threads - especially sharing experiences with others. Can't say I will be going near any sensitive birth/pregnancy threads for a while after the article.

I recall original threads where we announced names and dates of birth

I think those would be hard to find really now. You would have to either trawl through pages and pages of posts or know the nickname of the person who posted them and then trawl through pages of search results for that person. Also so many people have left the thread or namechanged that being able to identify who is who now would be pretty difficult. Plus first names and DOBs don't in themselves help identify any of us. Perhaps we should all namechange and then there would be no trace!

I did look to see. If you type in Ds2's name to the MN advance search it does come up in the post-natal thread. I hate to delete the post though as it was my first one back from having him...Thought about name-changing but looking at the post you would see jabberwocky and any posts up til now so then thought "What's the point?"

Of course, with me living in the US I'm at far less risk so it's more of a theoretical thing. I went through a phase of only posting on a couple of long-running threads that would not be likely at all to be picked up so may go back to that

Its a difficult one. TBH my personal stance on it is that someone would have to be searching for one of us iykwim - they would have to know us off MN and be trying to find us on it. If someone was doing that then they obviously could use those old threads to confirm our identities but they'd have to find us first. Now I'm starting to sound paranoid... will go to bed before the men with straightjackets arrive

I found the posts really easily by searching on dd's "firstname lastname". I have had my posts deleted so the only ones that stand are the ones with the summary of all of us.

I wouldnt delete my entire history as it is nice to see some of the issues that came up and I have regularly namechanged. It's like a diary of development. However, if you are in the position where someone may seek you out, as I am (long story) then it isnt ideal.

No, not ideal by any means. I've asked for a few to be deleted. Nothing major - just a couple where I had given my email address, not identifiable from it though, but just to be on the safe side.

Have never asked for a post to be deleted, I really haven't given it any thought! Eeek. On hols from sat, might not get the chance to pop back in although I can lurk online a bit. Getting even more stressed about it all and my lists are not complete. I just want to sit on my arse and watch tv tbh! sigh, best go and do something useful.
Have a good 2 weeks everyone, when I come back term will have started for some yikes. I have new school uniform but labels haven't arrived so it's a last min job just like last year.

I have been following the DM thing. Dear me it goes on and on.

Thank goodness your dds are better EV. How are yours doing AQ?

Castles - my mum wasn't diagnosed with thyroid problems for ages. Blood tests are sometime negative for a while.

The flower girls were lovely EV. Did you see my recent additions to FB. DD2 had a lovely bruise to go with the pox spots!

I'm lurking mainly...

Mysterious lurker - are you M?

Thanks dailtstale - havent seen your pics. Will go and check your pics in a bit.

I might start posting in the fb group a bit more for anything sensitive. do any of you read it?

Lenni - yes, I am the bra-giver!#

LadySt - I have a little look every now and again...I'll probably post a bit more on there in September.

I've been thinking I need to get in the habit of doing FB more. It's just so hard to add one more thing...

Hello

Am back, and finally beginning to feel like I'm back, after 3 mostly great weeks away...good weather, good people, and the first time ever we had a whole holiday without rushing dd2 to a GP.

Speaking of which, am sorry to see poorly LOs and hope they're better v v soon...AQ, special sympathy for breathing worries with ds, I know how upsetting and stressful that is. How is he now?

We're still (its getting embarrassing even mentioning it) in house hell limbo, with PWA about to be signed but buyer getting increasingly neurotic and bizarre, and my instinct says this is not good. Wondering if we should just remarket, urgh. A year so far, are we mad?!

Apart from that, and a badly sprained ankle (dh trying to do frisbee stunts on the beach on last day) we're all well and glad to have a couple more weeks before school kicks off - and pre-school begins

Indith, you probably wont' see this by now, but hope move is going well and is fun, if chaotic, and that getting back online isn't too tricky (past experience ).

Catch up some more soon, sorry to be rushing!

Lovely to see you on here again! Glad you had a good time. Will catch up properly at the weekend when DH away and family gone home.

I'm back!!!!

I have missed you all. My sorry little life is even more sorry without MN.

Hope you are all ok, AQ how are the dcs?

I can't name change, way too confusing for my little brain, I am probably pretty traceable though.

The new house is lovely, lots of space! Instead of shoving stuff into whatever storage was in the rental of the time all the baby stuff, camping gear etc has been sorted and stored properly! I have boxes of baby clothes by size and gender and it doesn't matter if they are not full to bursting because I'm not trying to get it all into 2 drawers! IT feels wonderful and very satisfying. We only have a couple of boxes of odds and ends left to go (you know, the ones with thigs like stationary, sponge bags etc that you never quite know what to do with) so my goal is to get them done by the end of the bank holiday as then it is dh's knee op so I know full well that nothing will get done for a while after that. Keep the unpacking momentum going!

Ds loves it here (though he keeps telling me he is scared of new houses). He loves his "new" bed (my old bed from my parents'!) and is sleeping so well! Until we moved he was up several times a night needing a cuddle but he is sleeping through, til at least 7.30 and napping Dd decided to do some teething and get a bug jut to ruin the good work we had been doing so I am back to collapsing point. TO make it worse she is in the loft and the bathroom in dows=nstairs and at the end of the extension at the other end of the house so I get up, go up to her, down 2 flights of stairs to the loo, up a flight back to bed, out of bed, up a flight to her......She really isn't feeding at all at night at the moment just is so unsettled. Mind you I would be if I had my second tooth coming, a temp, was producing forest green slurry instead of poo and had today come out in a rash. Poor girl. Dh has said he will sleep in her room fri, sat sun to give me a break as after Sept 3rd I'll be on my own til he is mobile again.

I feel I ought to be doing something useful while they are both asleep.....

Indith, do something useful?!? You sound like a flurry of usefulness. You are almost unpacked after a house move, I am almost unpacked after a 3 week holiday

Hope dd better soon, I sympathise with the stairs at night thang (us in loft, dd not and currently waking me several times a night with anxious wails of 'MUMMMAAA I need a PIPI!' as she's hell bent on going commando (ref nappies). And has forest green etc too, though from nose as opposed to other end (hence down another flight of stairs to kitchen to get soothing milk etc, which results in more pipis, etc).

Anyway, congrats on the move, house and space sound great and worth all of it

Do you like my new look? Mwahahahaha...

(Northerner who lives in the sticks btw)

DH away until Monday so lots of MNing time on my hands - yay!

Hello all! I'm back too, it's like a reunion on here atm, isn't it .

Indith, glad the move went well, vv impressed at the speed your t'internet is up and running, not ot mention stunned at your organisational skills - will you come and do my house when dh's knee is fixed? I'll pay you in cake, if you like!

Hope AQ's dcs are all better and she's having a lovely holiday.

Is Castles away with the loopy MIL atm? Hope she's surviving or at least taking IV gin to take the edge off!

Eli/Indith, am with you on the stairs thing during night wakings. Ds2 was in the loft during the worst of his shenanigans and it was soooooo tedious trudging up and down all night.

Hullo, EOTT, I know who you are . TDS had me flummoxed for a good while though.

Life chez Oli has been, erm, interesting for the past few weeks. DH went away for a week, I realised the constant rows and not agreeing on anything was wearing me down too much and life was much easier without him . DCs went to my mums for a couple of days as he got back so I told him I thought we ought to consider splitting . Horrible, horrible few days, we put a brave face on it for the dcs then I went out to my dad's. Had a good chat with my dsm about it all, then spent the rest of my week being spoiled rotten by them so went home feeling a bit better. DH had got in touch with Relate while I was away and we had our initial session on Monday which was quite positive so I'm hopeful things are looking up for us. We've a long way to go but it's not looking as bleak as I thought.

On the plus side, my cake business is officially up and running. I've got my first commission from a client who I don't know (word of mouth referral from a friend of a friend) plus a wedding cake [fear] in October for a friend of SIL's who saw my FB pics. I've also got to do a Star Wars cake for one of ds1's friends this week. So it's all go.....[half scared, half excited ]

Dd's 4th birthday was last week, her cake's on my profile and this time next week she goes to school .

On that note, I'm off to start sewing in name tags. Oh, the joys!

Oli Sorry to hear about the relationship stuff. You never let on. I hope relate really helps. I think DH and I could do with some marriage counselling. We aren't at the considering splitting stage but there is a lot of bickering. I've noticed lately that we do it in front of DD when previously we didn't and she is taking note.

Didn't say anything to anyone, I am the original bottler . I'll let you know how it goes, AQ has said in the past that Relate saved her relationship with DP so I have high hopes.

Our issues mainly seem to be down to communication, or rather poor and lack of it. I guess it's a fairly classic problem when you've got young kids, stress over work/money etc, you're knackered and you don't get much time for each other. My dsm and the PILs both said they went through similar at this stage of their marriages. We just seem to need a referree to keep us focussed - we tend to get waylaid into tit-for-tat, 'my life is harder than yours' stuff so we never achieve anything and it's all snowballed to breaking point (mixing my metaphors a bit there!).

There's a couple of good Relate books on Amazon that we're working through before our proper sessions start, I'll link if you like.

Could you link them for me please Oli - I can order them from the library. The mobile libray man might look at me like that but ho hum.

back for a day between holidays
oli, so sorry to hear about you and dh, no idea it was like that. Relate did save us a couple of times and even now helps us get through some bad times (at the moment not fantastic). Jabber also tried counselling and that helped her too, didn't it jabber? Really glad you're trying to sort it out, but hard to see wood for the trees sometimes. same for eyeliner - is there a relate in ur neck of the woods?
indith, house sounds great, glad it went well. dd not so good although at least ds better, if not one it's t'other!
eli, welcome back, do hope house stuff gets sorted vv.soon!
got to go, leaving at 2am to drive to scotland! been ok week, had to be persuaded to go away again but nice to be home if just for a day! dc's all well again and all v.lovely with exception of ds2 who is still major PITA. Spends whole day running after me saying where nunny, where nunny (can't pronounce m). Getting v.worried about ds1 and ds2 and their development after speaking to dad & stepmum (both paeds). plus ds1 has to have GA in 2 weeks to remove stupid thing from his ear. How do I talk to him about it anyone? We've got pre-assessment in 10 days where ped.nurse will talk to him about things, but need to raise it somehow.

Anyway, really really must go now and will check in again in a week!

Hi AQ - hope you have a good time in Scotland. What are you worried about with DS2? His speech? Or more general development?

Not sure on the op for DS1 - how does he feel about doctors generally? Would he take to the idea badly? If he would I might be inclined to let the nurse explain since then you can take on a supportive role rather than him feel betrayed. If he is likely to be okay about it but worried rather than cross, I'd tell him myself since could control better what you say than the nurse will and could just give him some information rather than all of it in one go.

Have had a really shit week here. We'd planned to go away for a couple of nights for my 30th in April. Booked a nice hotel in Italy and PILs agreed to have the kids. Yesterday FIL informed me that they have booked to go to their holiday home at the same time so can't have the kids. When I asked why they booked for then he said it was because they wanted to take his sister and that was when her holidays were and she didn't want to go later in the year as it would be too hot. WTF!! When I said we had booked hotel and couldn't cancel without losing our money he replied with "Oh well." MIL has offered to reimburse us but I'm still really cross and it's about more than the money - I don't want to go when it isn't my birthday and there really isn't anyone else we could leave the DCs with. I don't see why they think it is ok to make us cancel when we booked this months ago. And they go away every 6 weeks, so they really didn't need to book for the same time - knowing we had already booked for then. Whay didn't they discuss it with us first? Only option now is to take the kids with us - but would have to change hotel since current one is adults only. Hotel company will let us swap to sister hotel. Am so annoyed about it all.

And to make matters worse I have a lump in my breast. I've been aware of it for a couple of months but thought it was a bf thing and would go. It hasn't and now I'm starting to worry so am going to GP on Tuesday, am sure it is nothing.