Jan 09 - weaning,smiling,laughing and chatting and loads more fun to come:)

[stripeywoollenhat]

there.

Tree so sorry to hear such sad news.

We also had news of a bereavement today, no-one very close to us, but will seriously affect certain members of the family, most specifically my sister who now lives too far away for me to be able to help. Have been feeling very useless today, wishing I could be there for her and her family.

Meanwhile, back in the Moosecamp dd is still showing strong signs of teething, general clinginess (really, only Mummy will do - not even Daddy is good enough at the moment - tis a tad exhausting to say the least) red cheeks, restless sleep, mega drooling, biting everything in sight and really gross nappies. Have ordered some Ashtons and Parsons teething granules, some Dentinox gel and some Nelsons Teetha just for good measure, hopefully at least one of the three will help the poor little sausage.

Only had a half hour of consecutive sleep last night between dd being restless and next door's gate banging in the wind. Every time the gate banged she woke up then I'd just get her settled and it would bang again - I was in tears I was so tired at getting up time this morning and no option to stay in bed as its half-term holiday. DH got up and latched it shut twice then finally lost his rag and wedged it shut with a piece of wood at 5.00 am. It makes our whole house shake despite not actually being directly attached to us. I can't believe it doesn't keep them awake but they never get up to do anything about it.

All that was on top of the night before when next door but one's daschunds were out yapping in the garden for an hour at 1.30 am! They have such annoying screechy yaps at the best of times but at that time of the morning its like nails on a blackboard.

So apologies for not having read the thread, will try and catch up tomorrow if I get some sleep tonight.

Oh Moose!

Sorry about your loss today, and also very sorry about the night from hell sleep wise. How frustrating.

Thanks for kind words Dog and Moose.

Will keep an eye on my man - but don't really know what to look out for.

I feel a thread coming on!

Tree, sorry to hear about your dh's former colleague.

sorry to hear about deaths, tree and moose.

missj wait until he yells and scares himself... their little faces just crumple poor things!

Pat- wow for tooth.

After odd afternoon, ds slept just fine last night- weird.

stripey and MsSparkle -hope you're okay

tree, hope your DP is ok....

Hi sparkle and all,

He is yes. Had a chat last night, some tears and general depressing talk of work, bitterness, hating the new place [they are horrid employers and regulary come over to his station and say 'haven't you finished yet, x over there would have done that much quicker'] and so on.

So he is going to the Dr to see if there is any councilling available, to help him deal with the crap and the fall out of having your world tumble on your head.

Poor man, he has the 'the fear'.

But he is OK, in that we are sound as a pound here, and have a happy house. Bless him.

(D)H has just told me I'm fat....

ok I am overweight (2st 9 to lose) but have already lost 8lbs.

Sparkle at your DH, How very dare he use the 'f' word. Congrats on losing 8lbs, much better than I've done so far!

Tree-your poor DH . Hope counselling helps, my DH had a bad patch a few years back where he lost a few close relatives and a work colleague in a very short space of time. He didn't have counselling in the end but I'm sure it would have helped. It's difficult to help about work stuff isn't it, I always feel kind of useless when DH moans about the pressure at work, I have no idea what its like to work in a super-competitive environment.It should be such a happy time for you guys as a family, maybe this will see him through .

Moose sorry for your crap night and your recent loss too. It's soooo annoying when something other than children is keeping you from sleep. i get so frustrated about DH's snoring and in the summer when window open I could throttle my neighbours who turn up their telly v.loud and have it on till at least midnight. I'm sure some these people wear earplugs or something, how can you not hear creaking gates or dogs barking????
FWIW Ashtons teething powders helped enormously with Zach in the last 2 weeks. I'm hoping the worst is over now the first is through.........Actually just remembered wen DD's molars came through, oh the joy!

Not bad night in the cot last night. went till 3.30 and then till 6.30 and then 8am. Wouldn't go down till 9.15 though so don't feel like I got much of an evening. DD slept in our bed with DH last night, he did not look happy this morning, she's full of beans

Oh no Dog !!! Do they have it bad???

morning
oh tree how awful
hope dh ok

mm - sorry for your bad news and bad night

cant believe bracken is 18 weeks now
she is getting so stroong
her legs are comstantly active
pushes herself up to sitting when on my lap
she is so scrummy i could eat her all up

she is such an angel 2

brackens carpet fitting today and getting pics

Sparkle - totally unhelpfull. Grrrr If he isn't perfect maybe ask him how he would feel if you pointed out his fault in such a way.

Briliant work on the 8lbs!!

Dog - the pox!! Oh no - it seems to be going about. Hope they are ok poor mites.

he's also overweight... when I pointed this out he blamed me think he's having a bit of a bad day.

it's just so bloody de-motivational! I'm doing great but fell like I'm doing really badly now.

Ohhhh Sparkle >>>

8lb is brilliant!! Go buy a new top right now.

Maybe show him this thread? It's usually a deal maker in our house

.....but the girls on mn say so.....is a frequent wail in my house

You are doing great, dh on the other hand isn't and has had a 'speak before brain engages' moment. His issue not yours.

Perhaps he would like to take over the meal making if he feels you are under par?

Sparkle-you are doing great!!!!!!!!!! My DH also blames me for some of his weight, says he got into bad habits when i was pg and scoffing everything in sight. Errrmmmm, do they have NO self-control

Give thm a nice salad for tea. [few floppy leaves and half a radish]

LOL tree- love to see his face if I dared to give him a radish!!!!

In fairness he does quite a lot of the cooking and its generally healthy, it's the stuff we eat after dinner that isn't. Oh, and the crap he eats at work (not really anything to do with me then is it!)

tree So sorry about your dh's colleague. Glad dh is doing ok.

sparkle Grrrr at dh! 8lb is fab! DP also put on weight and blames it on having children, one of his colleagues pointed out he was getting a 'Daddy tummy" not long after dd was born I think its more of a 'drinking 4 cans of Becks every night' tummy

dog sorry to hear about the dreaded pox invasion. At least you're getting it out the way in one go. How is Isla coping with it?

pat DP always leaves his salad untouched as if I'm insulting him with it! My dad is the same and he's 84!

Crap weather here, dd has exhausted herself already and crashed out, was thinking of taking them both to soft play round the corner... not sure if i have the strength though, its hell on earth, especially on a rainy day in half term.

Sparkle grrrr at husband's comment and double grrr at trying to blame his fat on you too! Unbelievable! LOL at 'daddy tummy' hkz, very inventive...

dog boo for pox, but like hkz says, at least you'll have it all out of the way now.

tree how great that you and your DH can talk about his low feelings like that - hope he gets some good support from the GP too, def should push for counselling as it can only help. They sound horrible at his work. Sounds like bullying to me - he should keep a diary of those kind of comments, just in case it really does become intolerable.

MM sorry to hear of the bereavement affecting your sister.

Hay was fun yesterday - not crowded at all, and lots of interesting stalls to visit. Went to a couple of talks too, and Nye was brilliantly behaved - watched with interest and then when he started yelling (!) I just put him on the boob and he fell asleep... Also breastfed him in a yurt, what a brilliantly 'hay' thing to do!

Warning - MIL rant coming up - So got back to the farm, and after feeding him, left him with OH while I drove to the station to pick a guest up (40 min round trip). When I got back, MIL complained to me that she had tried to give him a bottle of water when he started crying, but that DH had said 'he wasn't allowed to', and MIL then basically accused me of being precious about the baby. Well, maybe I am precious, but he is my baby, not hers, and he is my first baby and I am learning all the time and I can damn well be precious if I want to. I didn't even really care about the water, I don't think BF babies need water, but it's not going to hurt him (I was just lucky she didn't try to give him formula mixed with cereal as she has hinted at!), but what really pissed me off was DH saying he wasn't allowed, like I am the only one in charge of our baby.... this always happens when I leave OH with Nye at the farm, MIL basically takes over and tells him what to do. Ugh, she drives me crazy sometimes. I can't leave Nye with her because she believes in letting babies cry and might give him formula or food. She can be really lovely, and it's only because she cares and is trying to help, but she's on her own planet when it comes to childcare. Let's face it, things have changed since 35 years ago, which is when she had her last baby....

Phew, rant over, sorry. Hope everyone is having a nice day. We are off to Hay again, this time with OH, which will be nice.

hi

miss jackson - grr about mil know what you mean!! dont get on with my mil either has also got really old fashioned idea about bringing up children!!

they were giving her grandchild milk all the time was having in excess of 30ozs a day!!
then found out she was allergic 2 it!!
also let her sleep in a silvercross pram in the garden @ the age of 3 years still !!!

received brackens pics really nice have put them up
also got afro gomb and new belt.
received a boden voucher 2 for 11% off and £10s bought dd1 a blue whale tshirt just had to pay 65p

OMG Books what a thought that we will one day be the dreaded MIL! Mine is usually chilled out but she does give DD too many sweets! Still could be worse, she never tried to interfere with babies feeding/sleeping etc she just can't discipline children, doesn't have it in her. Actually its my mother whos always going on about giving Zach baby rice as he's such a big boy . I told her all about the tongue thrust thing and latest research and she listened and then said 'well if he's sitting and got a tooth then he really should have something other than milk'.............aaarrrrgggghhh. I'll do him when he's ready and not before as its just one more hassle if he's not quite there.

MissJ Glad you had a lovely day, hope hay not too wet today.

HKZ LOL at the salad dodgers! DH is not at all homophobic but insists the salad, coleslaw and particulary quiche are all 'for gays'!!! god only knows why

Dog poor little Isla, hope she gets over it soon. I seem to recall it not lasting long when my friends DS had it as a baby.

I also talk about my 'friends on MN'. despite being a member of various forums sport related and having tonnes of internet friends DH still takes the piss out of me whenever I mention it and has taken to calling himself DH! Oh, I also showed him a thread on the 'relationships' topic the other day and he was horrified!! .

DD fallen asleep on the way back from shops and the garden centre so put her to bed without having lunch, feel a very bad mummy!!! In my defence, she was cream-crackered.

Tree hope DH is bearing up, he's a lucky guy to have you there to support him - you always manage to make me feel better and you are so devoted to your family.

Dog oh no! Just when you thought you'd escaped them getting it as well. I hope they both only get it mildly and don't feel too poorly.

Sparkle OMG! My DH would never survive a comment like that - and he knows it! As for blaming his weight on you - well there'd be a bin bag of belongings outside the front door when he came home from work if he even thought about trying that one! Unfortunately, my DH has never carried any weight no matter what he eats and has a natural preference for healthy foods anyway so I'm on to a bit of a loser to start with. 8lbs is fantastic, I have at least 2 stone to lose and have been stuck at the same weight for about 6 weeks now. I would really like to lose more, but feel that its probably a bit unrealistic as I haven't been down that low for about 15 years now.

MissJ you have my sincerest sympathies re the MIL problem. I won't bore you with the details, but if I hear how perfect her kids were and what a supermum she was one more time, I am likely to be found with my hands round her throat!

Pat haven't forgotten you asked about some meal ideas for the detox. It really depends how strict you want to be, if you are just omitting refined sugar then its a case of label reading or sticking to vegetables, salads and a small amount of fruit, so salads, jacket potatoes, wholemeal pasta, porridge, stir fries etc. Bread is a no no I'm afraid as there is nearly always sugar in it, I usually substitute it for Ryvita Honest Goodness Multi-grain as there's no sugar in them. I go for goats cheese, hoummous and avocados to add a bit of flavour to the salads as most salad dressings also contain sugar. Fruit juice should really be avoided as well really as although it is natural sugar its highly concentrated.

You will probably find it all very tasteless to start with, as we are so used to all the sugar in our diet that our tastebuds tend not to work properly and take a bit of time to adjust. I'm usually very strict for a fortnight and then start to allow myself some dried fruit or honey on my porridge and start to eat more fruit. Usually by then I am starting to feel better and find the sugar cravings have subsided. I'm thinking it might take a bit longer this time as I have been such a cakey pig for so long now.

Those of you who were wondering about when it gets easier with two or more, I have to tell you about my morning, it was lovely.

Had breakfast with the boys and dd in her high chair then dd watched with delight as her brothers danced around the kitchen to Pop Junior while I did the washing up. It was so funny and cute to see them both doing the cha cha slide together, dd was squealing with delight and giggling her head off. Then ds1 helped to bath dd and she was over the moon to have her brother there, as the boys are usually in bed or at school when she has her bath - she really showed off to him with loads of splashing and shouting. Finally dd had nappy free time wriggling around like a looney, while her brothers kept moving her toys around so that she had to roll to reach them (she still didn't roll over though - apparently she saves that particular trick for the middle of the night). The whole morning was lovely it really made me appreciate being a mum of 3. The boys have gone upstairs to play on the nintendo dsi now and dd is asleep so all in all not a bad day - let's just hope I haven't spoken too soon.

brackens room all done
new carpet lush and pics plus new furniture
pics on fb