jan 09; dream feeds, sod mummy's needs, shes on her knees...the one where it all starts to get better (hopefully)!

[fourlittlefeet]

here we are; a bit early, but one more task done. tick

MissJ - sorry about the car, just when I was going to post to say I hope you like it. I've had mine since DS was born and am used to it now and love it.

I miss people and places too - we used to live in Leeds and before that I grew up in Oxford and the change to middle of nowhere is hard at first. I have adapted now and there are only a few times when I yearn for places to go without loading up the car. I also should try and get out on the lanes with the pram but it is no exercise with a toddler. I find it helps to keep the pram in the car and my changing bag plus my moby wrap (and I can now I've got room in the CRV!) and then all I actually need to load in is the babies and myself which is a lot less like hard work than doing the whole lot before every trip. How are you finding baby groups? If there is anyone you gel with then ask them out for coffee or for a walk somewhere. It really makes a difference once you have friends with similar age children as they grow up together and entertain each other while you can have a chat.

Hope doc went well ray and it isn't thrush.

How are things there Tree? Any change after the osteo?

MM- enjoyed reading your lovely post about your trip up here. Am planning a day in Lytham as I type.

here's one on daughters:

A Little Tooth
by Thomas Lux

Your baby grows a tooth, then two,
and four, and five, then she wants some meat
directly from the bone. It's all

over: she'll learn some words, she'll fall
in love with cretins, dolts, a sweet
talker on his way to jail. And you,

your wife, get old, flyblown, and rue
nothing. You did, you loved, your feet
are sore. It's dusk. Your daughter's tall.

First timers - or second timers - if you go to groups and things then don't be afraid of being bold about asking mums if they want to meet up and do things. I used to be really reticent about it but know myself that I love to have things to do and there won't be many Mums who'll not be glad of some adult company. I'm always looking forward to days out with other mums and their children or coffee at each others houses and things.

Afternoon,

I was going to post about what a lovely day I'd had, as I caught two buses to Mums with DD in the moby this morning. We had a lovely few hours together, scoffing cake, drinking coffee and chatting etc. DH picked me up and brought me home after lunch, beautiful sunshine. I felt really good in spite of the fact that the bloomin dog had us up 4 times in the night by howling and barking. (DD on the other hand slept for 8 hours straight!)

BUT

When I arrived home, I took the dogs outside and discovered the howly dog had a bad stomach - OK so that explains the howling and at least she is booked in at the vets tonight anyway. Kept her outside for ages (have to stay outside with the dogs as we don't have decent fencing thanks to the trustees that manage the house -don't ask it's complicated!) came back in, fed DD and when I went back in the kitchen only to discover she'd been ill again all over the kitchen and bathroom floors. Cleaned up and disinfected, took her back outside then brought her in and went to fetch the boys from school.

When we got home the boys were being a nightmare fighting etc went in the kitchen to deposit lunch boxes and found the dog had done it all over again. Cleaned up again, went and dealt with the still scrapping boys, came back to find there were now two dogs not only pooing but also throwing up everwhere. Slung them in the dog crate, cleaned up, then one of them started retching in the crate so let her out, shut the door again only to end up with one being sick in the crate and one on the kitchen floor! Then every time I cleaned up after one the other did it again and because they were sick behind the back door I couldn't open it to get them out! Then to cap it all they both managed to run through each other's mess and spread it around the floor and in all three dog beds. Meanwhile the boys were rolling round the living room floor play fighting, which inevitably ended in tears. At that point I rang DH in floods of tears for him to say "well its not the end of the world is it?" - I hung up on him and he hasn't called or text back!

The dog messathon continued for over half an hour and I now have one locked in the crate with no bedding (as they managed to be ill on all of it and I've had to bin it) and one locked in the back porch.

When I finally got back in the living room after finishing the cleaning, DS2 (who had heard all the sobbing, wailing and the phone call) looked straight at me and said "why haven't we had our after school snack yet" wtf!!!!!

I am really hoping its not what they had when DS2 was a baby as the vets couldn't identify it but thought it was probably viral and it went on for 6 weeks!

Have calmed down now, but at one point just sat in the kitchen surrounded by yukk sobbing my heart out and not knowing where to even begin cleaning it all up.

Right, got to go now - more yuk - this time at least its contained in a nappy!

rray - hope that esme got sorted @ drs creams sound lovely
luv the smell of apricot

mm hope u r ok now
sounds awful is horrible when all kicks off @ once

had gd day here

poor you, moose. i suggest a big glass of wine at the earliest opportunity. or, failing that, cake.

Thanks. Gone a bit off the idea of eating though.

Despite using a whole (large) bottle of zoflora antibacterial disinfectant and half a bottle of savlon plus some bleach solution and a tea tree rinse, I don't really want to cook tea in the kitchen. (Have also nearly stripped the skin off my hands using several different antibacterial handwashes and gels!)

Can't get a takeaway in time for the boys though as no-one delivers round here and DH is taking the dog to the vet as soon as he gets home.

Got a fruit bowl in the living room, but feel a banana is perhaps more than a little meagre for two growing boys' evening meal! Banana and apple perhaps - Oh God I am going to have to go and cook something aren't I.

MM what a terrible afternoon! I hope DH gets home soon and helps you sort all the mess out. And can't believe you are being kept up at night by dogs rather than babies!

Thanks LenniEd - I do actually love the CRV, it's fab being high up, and your idea of keeping everything in the car is a genius one. I am going to put a big box in the back and fill it with things like spare nappies too. And I did meet another lovely Mum this morning - we actually talked about work and what we used to do, and not just babies, which is a first for my groups so far!

stripey love the poem.

Must stop typing as LO has fallen asleep on the boob and need to keep him awake until 7pm.

Look what you've made me do - the mention of that Virago book of birth poetry made me go off and search for it - I've just ordered a secondhand copy from Amazon.

I love Sylvia Plath's work and am thinking she wrote several about babies, must dig out my copy of her Collected Poems (wherever that might be)

There are also some lovely songs to babies and small children - most of the ones I know of were addressed to sons. My favourites include
David Bowie, Kooks
Ewan MacColl, The Father's Song - the version I listen to most is sung by Dick Gaughan

OK, so it continues. Dogs seem to have settled down now but then the bottom drawer in the kitchen where I keep a lot of our food completely collapsed and the pasta sauce I was cooking blopped up out of the pan and all over my new top!

After the dogs episode DD decided to fill 4 nappies one after the other - obviously she didn't want to be outdone by the dogs!

Is it just me or does this page look weird to anyone else? I've got all the text squished down the right hand side of the page and just an empty blue box on the left. All the other threads seem ok though. Weird.

Yep gone strange for me too MM - not sure what has happened?? Sorry to hear about your poo/vomit filled day - ick.

Wine... what is that?

Oh, I don't like this... can we move if it doesn't fix itself please?

I have the same problem with this and my other postnatal thread (April 2007) and someone from June 07 has started a Site stuff report to Tech thread about it. Glad it's not just me but it's really annoying.

Is it about long threads?

Yep - same on my other postnatal thread too.

elkie I love kooks!

this is a bit too weird to read!

breast is finally getting better... ds has been ravenous today and is draining each side properly at last, after his fussy eating due to his cold.

Display same for me too - glad it's not just the couple of glasses of red I just drank

Elkiedee the Virago book of birth poetry is lovely - lots of them make me cry!

moose hope the dogs are feeling better ....

love the poems...

this is plath's poem about her daughter. gorgeous.

Morning Song
by Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

It's all gone wierd on the screen for me too.

Elkie, I love kooks too...
think I'm feeling ridiculously sentimental at the moment, keep listening to soppy songs and reading poetry and bursting into tears!

Moose- Poor exploding dogs and poor you! Hope they ar e better tomorrow. Exploding puppies are no fun.

I haven't seen the book of birth poetry, gonna see if they have it in the library. I need to start looking for a good love poem for our wedding ceremony. Think we have fixed a date, 27th July. We looked at this funky littl erestaurant in angel today, called Fredericks, you can get married there and have the reception, they have a really lovely courtyard garden. Going to look at another place in shoreditch tomorrow and then choose... there seems to be a hell of a lot to do

DS has first lot of injections tomorrow, he's already had BCG though...means I have to get up super early as hell baby clinic runs on a first come first served basis. When DD had her first injections I wasn't ready for seeing her scream and I nearly punched the poor nurse for hurting my baby, it made me really teary...

Nipple shields seem to be doing the trick with my fast milk flow. Jude's still windy, but he's a lot better with the shields.

Going up to newcastle on Thursday for a week to see in laws so am going to do a bit of shopping and go to bravisiimo to get a couple of decent breast feeding bras...any recommendations? I am a 34/36 E/F at the mo and I have m and s and mothercare ones and they are rubbish.

Stripy- I studied that poem for A level and had completely forgotton it. Its a beautiful poem, I think she writes in such an honest, open and loving way about her children.

All squished on one side for me too.

moose what a day, hope today is better.

Esme had jabs and was a brave little girl, only cried for 30 seconds and doesn't seem to have had any problems since. She now weighs 10lb 9 at just over 8 weeks, and as we thought she is tall, just over the 75th centile. Her weight continues on the 25th.

skin, doctor thinks just dry skin. Anyone any recommendations for something to put on it? Obviously don't want to put anything perfumed on it, its on her face.

ps

missJ So sorry to hear you have scrapped the new car. nothing massive i hope!? I too am in the TANK driving club, i drive a massive Audi Q7, you'll soon get used to being a beast on the road! I have managed to remain scrape free, although i think i need to credit that largely to the parking sensors, and mother and baby huge parking bays! :-)

Morning all.

Well 1 £60 visit to the vet, 1 injection, 1 packet of stomach pills and some antibiotics for her ears later we managed to have a good night, all slept well, even the dogs! Mind you DH did sleep on the sofa so he could deal with her if she howled, so maybe him being in the next room was enough comfort for her.

The vet was concerned she might have an intestinal blockage and was frankly more than a little OTT and scaremongery about it. Fortunately I have studied dog health and first aid and have also seen this before in this particular dog and that coupled with the fact the other dog was throwing up as well meant it couldn't possibly be a blockage. I really don't like most vets, they cost a fortune and have misdiagnosed my dogs so many times I've lost count (including my beautiful Boxer cross who they managed to contaminate a fine needle biopsy for and therefore misdiagnose the type of cancer he had resulting in the wrong treatment and us losing him 10 days after DS1 was born - worst thing about that was that I told them what he had and they wouldn't listen and I ended up being right. Couldn't even get a second opinion at the time as it was during the foot and mouth crisis and we couldn't get hold of another vet for love nor money.)

There has been no more d&v since yesterday afternoon, thank goodness, but she is still looking decidedly green around the gills (if thats possible for a black dog) and obviously feeling sorry for herself. The other dog has been fine though and is back to normal this morning.

Actually we all overslept this morning and DH had to rush the boys off to school as DD and myself were still not finished feeding let alone dressed and washed!

Right, must go, DD yelling the house down!

hkz I have the 'emily' bra from bravissimo - prob not super support but very pretty and comfortable.

rray love those wide bays too! the other day I was parking at waitrose and a man in a car full of kids was giving me dirty looks - I realised he couldn't see Nye's car seat from where he was - so smiled at him very sweetly as I got Nye out of the car. Talking of waitrose, I only just figured out they have these massive trolleys with a cage on front that the car seat fits into - brilliant! Nye loved being wheeled around the aisles and was asleep by checkout.

stripey thanks for posting the poem - 'cow-heavy' - perfect description of how I felt!

MM hope you ended up having a decent evening.

ray good to hear Esme didn't mind her jabs too much .
for her skin - have you tried any of the Weleda baby stuff? They have a face cream which is lovely, we use lots of the Calendula range with ds and I'm sure we will with Rosie too..

"cow heavy" I'm so with you, missj!! I love the line "your mouth opens, clean as a cat's" but think that Plath's cat had better teeth than my little old stinky lady..

hkz My fav bras are the Elle MacPherson nursing ones, they are pretty and comfy. You can order them from an Australian site (which I will remember if you're interested) for much less than they cost here. Not sure what the support is like as I'm only a D cup (ha ha. never before in my life would a D cup be ONLY)

moose grr at the vet, so frustrating when you're kind of not allowed to know better than them. glad you had a better night though. You deserve it, at long last!!

Lenni can I ask you some questions about the pelvic floor/prolapse stuff? maybe not on here, sure no one wants to read more about it - my email address is on my facebook page, if that is any better?