August 2007 - new thread as I can't find one!

[shrinkingsagpuss]

Hi all,

VERY VERY long time no see..... just had a little catch up - my goodness, HOW MANY of you are preggers??? Gosh- NOT ME!
Can't believe our beautiful babies are talking walking noisy toddlers.
Evie is still a monster - always has been , always will be. She talks constantly, and is now stringing words together, like " I'll do it" - usually in relation to feeding herself, or getting dressed.. and usually accompanied by a small tantrum.
She does finally sleep through the night.. after a fashion- is up between 5.30 and 6.15 - still a shock after Billy who slept 7-7 from 4 months.
But - she does eat anything which is fab (compared to Billy), and she is happy to walk, or go in the pushchair, so its easy to take her out - unlike Billy who always wanted to walk no matter how long it took.
She has a passion for dolls (oh crumbs), handbags, and hats - she is SOOOO not related to me!
Take care all, can't say when I'll visit next - good luck with the births!!
xx

hi all, sorry i've not been on for a while, things have just been hard with the miscarriage.

Callum is keeping us very busy though. He's doing fairly well with the potty training and sits in it every day but still wants his pull up nappies on in between. I think when we get back from a week away at the end of nov, we'll just bite the bullet and have no nappies at all and see if a crash course (so to speak) is better than this

We're also moving him into his bed this weekend so hopefully he'll be fine, i don't think he'll bother too much as he sleeps in the bed with me when dh goes to work anyway so he's very used to it.

C's fav phrase atm is "all aboard, choo choo" except it sounds more like "bore doard, choo choo" which never fails to make me laugh He can count the objects now whilst he is counting which is nice to see, he can get to about 12 then he starts again

my2-glad you and dd2 are having lovely muumy daughter time and your dd1's stories are very funny. Apparently when i was her age i had convinced my teachers and best friends that i had an older sister who lived in Australia )she was my imaginary friend and i'd just started watching neighbours, hence the Oz part{wink]) and my teachers asked my mum why they sent my sister to live over there, mum had lots of explaining to do to them, oops

gill-glad everything is sorted with the childminder, that must be such a weight of your mind. It is a pain for you having to have ds potty trained if he's not ready though! My nephew was 3.2 and he is still occasionally wet at nursery now and he is 3.7, the nursery just change his clothes and praise him when he's dry. My SIL has let him pick a sweetie that he wants (jelly beans atm) and if he has been dry at nursery he's allowed 1 and that has been a good incentive for him.

hersetta-Caitlin sounds so incredibly adorable and thats very good with her letters. I know what you mean about the delaying tactics. If we want C to do anything he doesn't want to he comes and gives you neck cuddles, knowing how much we find them irresistable and then says "love you" and starts giving lots of kisses, he''s not daft my boy

Last week we stayed with PIL as dh was away on business and C's cousins were up visiting. Every night MIL made the grown ups hot chocolate. Then on friday, MIL, Callum and I were shopping and we asked Callum what he wanted to drink, he thought very hard and then said "hot choc please, me's very tired"

Anyway sorry for the mammoth post.

Please wish me luck. I'll be finding out today if I've been selected for compulsory redundancy today

Hope you're managing to come to terms with the mc helibee. I can't imagine how you must be feeling. WRT potty training, we went cold turkey with dd from the beginning with nappies only at bed time (she's only just gone dry at night). We had a week or 2 of accidents and then she was fine, as long as we kept a potty close to hand.

Ds said to dh the other day 'Daddy, you're Simon Cow' (Simon Cowell). Dh's name is Simon so he thought it was funny to call him Simon Cow. He's such a nut case.

Hope you enjoyed your chocolate conker. Shame about the wine. Struan must be like my dd. She's got size 8 feet and they grow very slowly, much smaller than her peers and we get very little choice of school shoes in her size. Ds is in a 7 at the moment so will probably overtake her at some point soon.

how did it go?

Well, apparently no news is good news. I was told that if my manager didn't phone me then I hadn't been selected. I'm still not out of the woods because if anyone successfully appeals and I'm next on the list then I'll go. I won't be safe for sure until the middle of December. Fingers crossed.

Ds spent the entire weekend ignoring everything I asked him to do/not to do. I found that quite stressful.

We've got our first parents evening tonight. We're last to see the teacher as I work til 5 and dh wants to come too. I overheard her telling a mum this morning that she'll probably be running late cos she talks too much Hope we don't end up sitting around for ages waiting.

Good news gill.

Just bumping our thread so we don't fall off the first page.

I have just updated my profile with a (unflattering) photo of DD taken yesterday at basketball.

I thought then that you're dd played basketball - thought that it was some new thing like soccer tots - doh!

Gill sounds a bit hopeful then.

I've hit the point where ds2 has become a boy with the cheek, getting lots of "no! naughty mummy" whenever I do or say something he doesn't like! This is the first time I've not got a cute smilie baby coming up from behind to remind me that someone loves me and I'm finding it quite tough! I can see how people end up with 12 children - I have to remind myself that I have plenty of babies and need no more!

Banana - how did the scan go?

Even better news - I've been offered a permanent job! Same company, same department, just a different team. I still get to work from home 3-4 days per week. It's such a relief.

loler - Dd tells me daily that she wants to keep me forever and ds is always shouting 'I want you mummy' from his cot. Although he has started telling me that I'm a fleabag (that's what my dad calls his cat). He has also learnt 'I hate you' and 'You're stupid' from his cousin He doesn't know what it means though. I know what you mean about wanting more babies though. I've been having to put myself off having babies since March due to not having a secure job. There's nothing to stop us now but I guess I should settle into the new job before making any plans.

Hi folks, great news about the job Gill! chuffed for you.

Loler, the scan went well thanks, they put me forward a week (I thought I was 13 weeks, she said 14) so now 14+5. Stupid sonographer said I wasn't feeling baby movements, that it was "just hormones" which annoyed me because I remember the sensation from my first pregnancy (I would have accepted what she said had it been my first) and I felt him move at 17 weeks, only two weeks off that and it's my second, why is it so unbelievable that I'd be feeling it move now?

I think they literally say that because I'm overweight, consultant said the same last time at about 18 or 19 weeks which is ridiculous. I think they need an anatomy lesson to learn that fat is on the outside of the stomach muscle wall, not inside the bloody womb!

Had a bit of a shit day, James has been trying it on. Shamelessly copied from my antenatal thread: I'm having a very moody tearful day today, probably because ds decided to wake up three hours early so I only had about 4 full hours sleep. It's as if they know when you're not up to the job of parenting and they're as naughty as they can be - he poured his cereal all over my paperwork, poured my drink all over the rug, wiped sudocrem into his shoes, crumbled a biscuit all over the livingroom floor, thrown everything everywhere and swung from the roman blind so it's all wrecked.

I've cleared up now but the place was a right mess and I've done nothing but shout and plead (then burst into hormonal tears which he's never seen before so laughed his head off at - probably for the best!) Poor little sod, at least it's playgroup shortly so he'll have a few hours of fun while I rock in a corner get something done and shake off this mood.

Er, I haven't got anything done, but at least the headspace has helped a bit! We could do with cutting down the hours James does at playgroup though, we're so skint. It sucks, that time is precious for both of us! I suppose needs must though.

I hope you're all doing ok, helibee hang in there hon, you sound like you've coped so well, must have been so hard for you. How are you feeling in general at the moment?

I start my new job tomorrow - I'm a bit nervous but looking forward to it. Beats the boring job I'm doing now.

We finally got rid of ds' dummies. We tried in April by only allowing them at night but they slowly crept back in until he was hooked in the day again. I stole an idea from one of the mums at school. We told him that the babies needed his dummies. We wrapped them up in Christmas paper and told him that Father Christmas would come to collect them and give them to the babies. He got something in return. At first he wasn't too keen on the idea but we kept telling him how kind he was and that made him smile. He's asked for them a few times but hasn't cried.

I'm constantly tired at the moment. Dd doesn't go to sleep until at least 9:30pm and ds wakes up to 6 times a night. Fortunately not every night though. I think it might be his teeth bothering him. His last 4 molars still haven't cut through.

Everyone ready for Christmas? I've wrapped up all but one of the presents and written all the cards. I did it a couple of weekends ago when I got the opportunity (those are few and far between). My mum, dad and nan are coming to our house this year and dh is cooking. I haven't gone mad with presents this year. I've got more than I intended but nothing big or expensive. Ds is mad on Chuggington at the moment so one of his presents is a Chuggington DVD.

Hope things have got better James. I remember screaming at dd when I found all of my make up emptied out onto my bedroom carpet. I apologised and gave her a big hug a few minutes later though. I'm normally fairly tolerant when it comes to spillages and dcs drawing on things but dh wouldn't have anything to do with ds when he took all the little logs and gravel off the fireplace. I felt quite sorry for him. He didn't talk to him for hours. How's the pg going?

Good luck for today Gill - hope everything goes well.

Nearly ready for Xmas in our household, just a few things left to wrap up (icluding my DH's birthday presents as it's his dirthday on Xmas day as well).

We're not around for Xmas anyway as we're off on holiday to Egypt on Sunday so am looking forward to some nice warm weather. DD is very easy to please as when you ask her what she'd like father Xmas to bring her she says 'Egypt'!

She's also going through a funny phase of saying 'I can't do it' to virtually anything. We were in the car last week and she had just sung a lovely version of the grand old duck of york. I said to her that was lovely, can you sing Mummy another song? to which she pitifully replied 'I can't'. I asked her why she couldn't and she said (even more pitifully) 'because my fingers are too small'. How do you respond to that??

Potty training was going well (at home anyway) but she's had a cold the last couple of days and when i ask her it she wants to use her potty she just say's 'I can't Mummy'. Not pushing it at the moment but if it continues I suppose I will need to be a bit firmer with her soon.

brand new photo of DD on profile which was taken by a press photographer when she invaded the basketball court at a game recently during a time out to dance in front of 500 people.

Gill hope the new jobs ok.

Glad you managed to get rid of DS dummies, we tried the given them to Santa with Lexie but when we asked her what present she would in exchange she said 'new dummies' don't think she ready yet.

very cute pic hersetta, have a fab holiday

gill, hows' the job? We have gotten Callum to give up his dummys in return for a microphone, he's obsessed with music and singing and so far so good.

lizzie, lexie is very cute with her reply about more dummies my nephew was 3 before he was ready to give his up. how old was lizzie?

how is everyone else doing? We're going away on tuesday so i'm very excited. Callum is so pleased as he's going to have a whole week with his grandad, auntie and uncle and then joined by another 2 aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents- he adores all the family, every day he tells me who is married to who and then tells me that they love each other, then that he loves them

Dh's granda died last week and Callum had been going to see him in the hospital every day for months. We tried to explain to him that he wouldn't be seeing his great granda anymore as he'd gone to heaven. A few minutes later Callum came and told me that it was ok because grandma (my mum) was looking after great granda in heaven with Jesus so sweet and melted my heart.

Anyway Merry Christmas

The job's going really well thanks. It's hard picking up where someone left off in the middle of email conversations but I'm getting there and my manager is really helpful and understanding.

It was my birthday on Saturday. For some reason, all dh got me was a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers. This is despite having asked me what I wanted and having told me that he's having a Playstation 3 for his birthday in February. I waited all day for the surprise presents but I didn't get any. I could understand if we'd discussed not getting each other anything due to lack of money, as we've done in previous years but I don't remember having that conversation. I've decided that I'll be going shopping in the new year to buy myself something.

We're having Christmas dinner at our house this year (for the first time). My mum, dad and nan are coming round. Dh will be cooking and it will be my job to keep the dcs out of his way, otherwise he will get very stressed and start shouting. He'll probably do that anyway.

If I don't post beforehand, hope you all have a lovely Christmas!

blimey - it's been quiet on here!

Just got around to having a flick through various posts - have fractured my wrist on the ice, dh away and feeling very cabin feverish! The bright side is I get a month off work!

Hope everyone had a good christmas and new year - mine was excellent, ending on the high of a new nephew! Good luck for all the new arrivals of 2010 - some of you must be getting quite close?

Gill - I've given up with my dh and present buying - I buy my own and tell him what he's bought - the bonus is that you always like what you get!

Hi loler - glad someone else is around, but sorry to hear about your wrist - poor you.

We had a lovely Xmas in Egypt. Weather was perfect the whole time and a lovely 27-28 degrees. Caitlin had a ball and made friends with the very friendly camel on the beach. She used to take an apple from breakfast every day to feed to 'Bobby in the camel' as she used to call bobby the camel!

Think she also developed her first crush as she used to slink off to hold hands with one of the entertainment crew - she has good taste, he was cute!!

Started potty training in earnest about 10 days ago. She's doing well - we've only had one accident in the last 2 days.

Hello. Christmas seems such a long time ago now and the kids are on holiday again. It makes life easier for me as I don't have to rush around in the morning on the days I work from home and I get to take a full hour lunch break instead of having to make up time for picking dd up from school.

Dd is doing really well at school. She hasn't cried or clung on to me for weeks!! She's also come on leaps and bounds with her reading and writing. Something seems to have clicked into place. Before Christmas she was getting very frustrated with reading and couldn't write her name without copying it. Now she sounds out a lot of the words in her reading books and can write her name joined up on her own (they are teaching cursive from reception age).

Hope your wrist is on the mend loler. Are you getting lots of help around the house?

We've started potty training too Hersetta. We were going to do it at Christmas but ds had a tummy upset so I decided to wait. I took 3 days off last week to get him started before he went back to mum's today. At first he had quite a few accidents but he was clean and dry all weekend. It's hard work trying to persuade him to sit on the potty but he will do it eventually if I promise he can play with playdoh or if I read him a story. He's also had dry nappies in the morning 3 nights out of 5 so that will be a bonus if he's dry at night too. Dd wasn't dry at night til her first week of school.

Ds has started coming out with some funny phrases like 'oh bonkers' and 'ing ang oo, makka pakka moo mummy'

Hope everyone is well.

Hi Gill,

Glad the potty training is going well. Caitlin has only had two accidents in the last month and there were both last week when she was a bit poorly. She doesn't even tell us anymore, just takes herself off to her potty, pulls her pants and trousers down and does the business. She always makes us inspect the contents though and she is especially proud of big poo's!!

We don't put her in a nappy for naps now as she is always dry. Night time is going well, she's dry most nights and even woke me us 2 nights ago to say she needed a wee but we're not going to rush that at all.

Caitlin has started to make up words at the moment which is very frustrating as I have no idea what she is going on about!

Thanks. He's not been very co-operative for my mum so he's had a few accidents at her house over the last couple of days. She's too worried about upsetting him though so she doesn't make him use the potty if he doesn't want to. It's early days though and he's still learning to recognise the feeling of needing a wee. He's got really good control though. He can hold it up to 7 hours in the day unless he drinks loads. I always know when he needs to go because he keeps holding his willy and dances about a bit. If he wasn't starting pre-school after Easter I probably would have left it til the summer holidays but I guess one bonus is that we'll save money by not having to buy nappies.

Sounds like Caitlin is doing really well. How sweet that she's proud of what she's done Did you have to use rewards to encourage her?

Caitlin is starting pre-school after Easter as well and is so excited. She has her school book bag which she carries abound the living room and tells everyone who's vaguely interested that Daddy will be comming to pick her up after school.

She is SO proud of using her potty. Especially for number 2's. It took a fortnight for her to do a poo on her potty and after she did her first one we made an emourmous fuss with lots of cuddles and high fives plus she got a small childrens chocolate bar. Afterwards she would occasionally ask for ' a chocolate treat' but she seems to have forgot about the reward system now.

That's good that she's excited about pre-school. We've been talking about to Alex for months and he's finally accepted that he's going. We keep telling him about all the fun things he'll be able to do. He said the other day that he's going to play with the little boys. He doesn't want to play with the girls because they talk too much

We're really pleased with his progress on the potty and he likes using the toilet too. We don't often have to prompt him anymore and he's had no accidents at mum's for 4 days, even when they've been out. I kept having to tell Katelyn off for announcing that he will get a sweet after doing a wee or a poo in the potty - I don't offer any more and he rarely asks for one.

We'll have to see if dh does any better for mother's day this year. It was hardly even acknowledged last year. He didn't even get the kids to make me a card. I know he's planning something because last night he was taking pictures of the kids. Katelyn let it slip that it was for mother's day. I'd sort of guessed anyway.

hi all just a quick hi

gill and hersetta glad that potty training is going well. Callum was doing well and then was very poorly with flu and chest infection for 3 weeks and that has put us back to start again! Nevermind

Callum has no dummies anymore though, he hasnt had a day one for many months but had at night until last month and it was no problem giving it up thankfully.

How are the pg's going? Hersetta are you ttc again yet? Gill are you still waiting for the job situation to calm down before you ttc no 3? I'm hoping to start clomid in the next month or so for no 2. My wbc count has been a wee bit raised but hopefully that has come down and i can start the clomid as i def feel ready now after the miscarriage.

My dad has moved in with us and C is loving having his grandad here.

Gill hope you and all the other mummies had a good mothers day.

Glad Alex and Caitlin are excited for nursery. Callum starts school nursery in August every afternoon and his wee best friend is going to be in his class so he's very excited to be a big boy but he does keep saying "mummy you coming too, help me for cuddles" Bless him he'll forget soon enough i'm sure

Hello all,

Nice to hear from you Helibee. Poor Callum with his chest infection...sounds horrid.

You did well getting Callum to give up his Dummy. Caitlin still has hers at bedtime but I have told her the Dummy fairy will be taking it on her birthday to give to little babies and will leave her a present in exchange. When I asked her what present she wanted, she just said pitifully ' my dummies'.

Well still not 'officially' TTC yet as my periods haven't returned yet after having the contracetive injections. I hopeing they be back in another month or two so I will at least fell like we are going somewhere.

In othe News, Caitlin was so excited about pre-school we rang them up and asked it she could join after Feb half term instead of Easter and they said yes so she is going to a couple of sessions a week and loving it.

thats great hersetta about pre-school. Will Caitlin start every day after Easter? Is it a nursery pre school?

As for the dummies, we told Callum that he would get a present if he gave it up during the day, then he was only allowed it for a wee bit at night then he had to give it to his new baby cousin (my SIL is pg). We then arranged to stay at MIL for 3 nights and told C that we didnt have a dummy here but he could hold mummy or daddy's hand instead. Then when we went home he asked once but we just said that they'd gone to Auntie Han for the baby and he just said, Oh right, and that was that thankfully.

Hope your periods return soon, will be thinking of you. I'm just hoping that the clomid works as well this time as with Callum. We'd be ttc for 16 months, then on the 2nd cycle of clomid i was pg (so 18mnths in total). Thankfully this time our new gp has been monitoring my hormone levels since C was 1yr and he knew that i'd need clomid to conceive and to keep my hormone levels high enough. Apparently thats why i had the mc so fingers crossed this time all goes well.

Hi folks - after a rather long absence, I am going to try and keep up with mn a bit more - although thankfully this thread doesn't move too quickly to read all the posts!

Glad to hear potty training hasnt been too hard for people - we have kind of started but not properly - need to set aside a few days to do it- Struans skin has been bad recently so if his clothes are off he just scratches and scratches so makes sitting on a potty a little more difficult, but he's done pees and poos in it, so he gets the idea - just he forgets to tell me when he needs a lot.

I love the change in the speaking just now as well - gone from little bits here and there to full on never shut up talking. He loves make believe stuff just now too - constantly dressing up as things and putting on funny voices.

Hope the clomid works Helibee, and hope things work out for you too Hersetta. Must admit number 3 has been crossing my mind recently but no decision made yet.

anyway i have a grumpy 10 month old wanting me to play, so will come back again soon.,

Hi all. I'm at home with Alex today. He's got the start of chicken pox. Katelyn had it a couple of weeks ago. He had a temperature this morning and was very lethargic. You wouldn't know it now but I've had him dosed up with Calprofen and Calpol. Unfortunately he's going to miss Katelyn's birthday party on Saturday

Mother's Day was ok although Katelyn wasn't well. I got a lovely photo of the kids smiling nicely with their arms round each other.

Poor Callum with his flu and chest infection. That must have been miserable. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for your wbc count to come down helibee. My job is safe now but I'd like to wait for a while longer until ttc number 3. I'm thinking of starting next year. That's also partly because I'm so tired all the time. Alex falls asleep in the car every day when me or dh picks him up from mum's after work and often he wakes in the night or very early. I'm hoping when he's a bit older that he'll grow out of it. Knowing what I'm like in early pregnancy, I just don't think I'll be able to cope. And knowing how unsympathetic dh was in my last pg, he won't want to help me out

That's good of Caitlin's pre-school to let her start early. We tried to get Katelyn in a month early so she could start at the same time as her cousin and they wouldn't let her. We visited Alex's pre-school yesterday and he loved it. He got to do painting and drawing and he made a rice crispie cake. I think his favourite bits were the cars and train set. He never gets to play with children his own age so I think it's going to be really good for him. He'll be doing 2 mornings a week and then 5 sessions from September. I can't wait til it's funded - £18 a week is a lot of money for us to find.