Dec 08 mums - embuggerance to it all - sleep or no sleep we love our babes

[waitinggirl]

i hope people don't mind, i took the bull by the horns and did it. title a bit naff, but more important the thread exists rather than search for a better title. hope i haven't stolen anyone's thunder...

Morning ladies. DS2 much the same this morning but discovered no Gap in Derby, so may have take him to River Island or Zizzi otherwise will sit on it for now and see how he is tonight. He seems worse at night I think mainly because his snot and cough is interrupting his sleep. Got him to have a good sleep from 6.30-7.30am by drapping him over a big pillow to open up his chest a bit. We all slept downstairs in the living room. The floor is a mass of matresses and I'm tempted to leave it that way as I think we will need to sleep here again tonight. It was so much cooler than upstairs. DH carried DS1 down from his room at 10pm so he didn't know he was downstairs until 6am when he was women by an unsettled DS2, he sat bolt upright and with an excited grin on his face said "how did we get like this?" however as he couldn't get back to sleep with DS2's crying and phlegmy cough he went back upstairs for another hours sleep with DH.

DH is a bit stessed. His company is reducing his team from 11 to 5. He had a one to one meeting with the company CEO yesterday and basically everyone can either take a redundancy package or reapply for one of the 5 jobs. He said to DH that he would 'appreciate it' if he would apply for a job and hinted that he he should apply for the team leader job. However, they are changing the job description dramatically and will be no longer be doing security testing on anything and everything but instead just testing on the products the parent company supplies. It's an area DH specializes in but he doesn't really want to do it exclusively as he likes doing lots of different stuff and loves the challenge of testing on new products etc. Also when we go back home where the Market isn't so big being specialized is not always a good thing. So he is thinking he will go for the redundacy package. It's not really worth stressing about as he already has companies interested and an IT agent who nearly wet himself when DH rang yesterday to see what might be available. I think he's just a bit feeling despondent that his company has done this to his team which are a nice bunch inc his 2 lovely bosses.

PMK forgot to say well done to your DH, does he follow the Tour when it's on, has he ever done the tour Etape? I love the Tour I organized my mat leave for DS1 so I could at home on the couch for it.

Kayz I think DS1 would want to take over from that driver when he retires.

Morning All

Thanks for your lovely birthday wishes. I had a lovely day - it really made me realise how many lovely local friends I have made since I had DD1. Most of my old friends are spread across London and work full-time so it is hard to meet-up with them regularly. A few days ago I was a little sad as none f them were free in the evening either and I envisaged a rather lonley birthday. Then one of the v nice mums I had met near here suggested that I invite people to mine for drinks in the evening (so that I did not have to get a sitter). I invited four other local Mums and made a big pasta dish and we had so much fun (and a few bottles o cheerfullness). Also another local Mum, who could not come to mine, invited me to lunch at hers and cooked a yummy lunch and treated me to lots of pink wine. So it was all very cheering and fun.

LadyT - sorry I missed your mention of coffee today. It would have been lovely but actually I am interviewing yet more nannies this morning so it would have been hard to arrange. Let me know next time you are up. Any news about the house? I say your thread in property. I really hope you get good news. We have also put another offer in on a local house. I am trying not to think about it as all our purchases go tits up!

PMK - how exciting about your lack of precautions! Looks like you were right to get that P&T so soon. I hope Paris is lovely and lets hope your DH's little men swim as fast and efficiently as he cycles .

Veggie - I hope its a good redundancy package that your DH is being offered. Might this hasten your return to Oz or mean another UK move? Or will he probably et something else local? Where would you like his next job to be?

Trace - I hope P is feeling better. Good luck with the application.

I am still worried about this thread. It still does not show up anywhere for me and without the link ZJ gave me I would never find it. What if some of our less regular friends have the same problem as ZJ and I and come looking for us and assume we have stopped posting. I would hate that to mean we might lose Poison, Katie, Turnip, Verso and others. Do you think we should start a new thread?

Gosh I used the word "lovely" alot at the start of that post. I clearly should have been bought a thesaurus for my birthday .

No pics of the kids. DS1 won't bloody stay still long enough. I have 1000's of blurred pictures of DS1, some look like there is a ghost!!

Well I have iced the cake but it looks bloody horrible. I don't know why I ever thought I would be able to do anything remotely good

Oh Kayz poor you, is it really that bad, it may not be the cake you had in your head but walk away from it and have a look again later. Or invite a good friend over to give you an honest opinion.

Arti most of the jobs at DH's level are what they call 'location independant' which is posh manspeak for can work at home or on the client site, and as Derby is the belly button on the UK we are well placed here for him to travel anywhere he needs to in the UK or Europe as good air & train links. At worst we might have to move back to London but it would have to be a very good package to make up for the extra cost of living in London. I think we will still wait til late next year to move home as DH has a savings plan he wants to fulfill before we go home so we have a decent amount to move over with.

Kayz I bet it doesn't look as bad as you think it does. Are you a bit of a perfectionist?
Arti glad you had such a lovely day
I'm happy with the idea of a new thread - would hate to lose people over technical probs!
My application isn't finished yet but I have a more pressing task...make a cake! It's Lucy's 5th birthday today and she asked for a butterfly cake so my plan (which takes into consideration the fact that I can't bake cakes) is to place a chocolate swiss roll as the body, cut 2 wing shapes from a slab of chocolate brownie and ice the lot! Sounds like it could be the world's worst birthday cake but I'll see what happens anyway!
Better get on with it as P has just gone for a sleep. Still not herself but has eaten some parsnip and apple today so she must be getting better so no need for me to go to Gap either
see you later xxx

oh and I meant to say what an absolute major embuggerance about little T's tongue tie. How immensely frustrating. I think Spot has every right to feel very hard done by about the whole thing. He must be a very determined little eater to be managing so well!

I most certainly am not a perfectionist!!! But MIL is and I have already had a few snide comments about how I should have got one from a shop or got someone else to do it.

Here are some pics.

PMK I'm on the border of east london and essex, are you anywhere near by?

veggie Sorry to hear about your husband's job, my hubbie was made redundant just before my son was born and he has a very specialist role as well. When he finally looked for another job (not until my son was 2 months old, I wanted to kill him!) there were few jobs out there, but of the few that their were they were very interested and moved very fast because it was hard for them to find anyone good and who did what he did. Fingers crossed that it all works out well.

Yesterday he came off food strike and actually ate a decent amount, but today he is back on it, and just projectile vomited the bit he ate. Last week I think he was teething and that was what was bothering him but still no teeth here so who knows? This week I think it is the heat.

I'm also trying to get him to take a bottle, I need to think about going back to work and I can't whilst he refuses them. Ideally I would like to continue his morning and evening (and night) breast feeds and do the rest via bottle. It's been over 3 weeks now with me offering it once a day but on a bad day he refuses completely, on a good day will take 3 fl ozs and on an average day will take 1 fl oz. I have tried every teat and now I am sticking to the silk MAM teats, and tried different formulas. Oh well - it's a good excuse not to return to work!

kayzr The cake looks fine to me - and it is much better to make your own and for it not to be completely perfect than to buy one, so much more thought and love in it.

Thanks Row!!

Veg yeah he wanted to do that one - think it's just work getting in the way of enough training - not to mention if he rides too much ds & I barely see him as he sleeps too much then, so probably a combination of things - he's a little dissapointed at the moment as he's wanted to do quebrantahuesos last month, but it was on my mum's 60th and originally we were going to go home then, but then it got pulled forward (our Aus trip) after which it was too late to enter so he was grumpy that weekend as all his mates had gone. Never mind, he's probably doing one in Wales in a couple of weeks and then we're going to Lake Como later in the year. Also wanted to do Marmotte but we are going to Paris to meet up with my rellies this weekend
Sorry to hear about your dh job - yay move to London! Don't go home yet - times are tough over there these days!
Hi Arti weird that you are having probs with the thread - it's been fine for me. Yeah hope it doesn't take long for dh's guys to swim especially now that I've decided to go for it! it didn't last time so fingers crossed! Your birthday sounded nice especially after a tough week or so.
Row I'm the other side of London (quite handy to watch a spot of tennis ) but hopefully we can do a central-ish meet up soon.
Gee it's hot again today - so hot I can't bring myself to go outside for a walk so waiting for it to cool a bit....
Kayz cake looks fine - if it were me I'd have to buy one - I'm an ok cook but cannot bake cakes to save my life

Kayz I'm sorry have I got the right pics, they are of a spendidly iced White cake, if that's it then all good, or is there more with the othe bits on. Sweetie you know however amazing your cake turns out that bee with an itch is going to say something evil about it. Just accept that and when she says the inevitable just say 'well lucky it's not for you it's for D, and can I assume you don't want a slice then'.

PMK you have to tell your DH to cycle up to the church of the Madonna Di gisella. It's at the top of a steep road climb and apparently she is the patron saint of cyclist. The tour Di Lombardi goes past there. DH and I road up to it in 2003 and for cyclists it's amazing loads of famous cyclists have left shirts and even bike frames there as a little offering to the lady. When we were there they were building a cycling museum next to it as it's just a tiny church and there is so much stuff that has been left by the creme del a creme of cycling that they need a museum for it as it's cycling history. If you do go I might ask a little favor as I got a little shild thing to go on my bike when we went there but my bike got stolen in 2005 so I lost it. Very sad. He is going to love the cycling around there the whole lakes area is a road cyclists dream. Lady is going there soon too.

Oh gotta go DS1 is getting cranky as the washing is in the way of his car!

That is it for now Veggie. It is a very very pale blue. Going to add finishing touches on Saturday so will take more pictures of it then.

Well I think it's fine just remember whose day it is Kayz and it's certainly not hers.

Anyone watching the Murray game?

I'm watching Murray. Really hope he wins. Also hoping for Hewitt to win. I had a huge crush on him when I was at school.

Me too on both Kayz.

Wow Juan Carlos just didn't turn up did he.

Just overheard my neighbour talking about me!!

She was chatting to a friend in her garden and I was changing DS1's bed. Her friend said "So what are the family next door like?" Neighbour says that "the Dad is nice but the Mum is one of the spiritual(sp) people". Friend laughed and asked what she meant. "Oh well she had a home birth which is wierd, breastfed and has a sling, I mean what were pushchairs invented for"

Also went on to tell her that I don't agree with smacking(after a convo we had about it), don't let DS1 out in the street and that I try to make most of our food. She has actually asked if we own a microwave when DS1 told her I had made lasagne!

Just slightly annoying.

Mmmmm kayz I wouldn't be too offended if I were you. She wouldn't like me either I don't have a microwave, I like to cook, I haven't taken the pushchair our for ages and don't like smacking. So add that to the HB and BF and I is proper spiritual innit! Oh and I wear sandals. I forget there are people like that out there.

Hey Kayz next time you see her tell her you going to start going door to door to try convert women to homebirthing

Kayz I think your cake looks fine, you should be proud....

Sounds like your neighbour is a bit jealous, or perhaps just being lighthearted about it ? Its horrible when you overhear people talking about you though , even if they are being lighthearted.

PMK good luck with the swimmers/Paris !

A fly flew in earlier on and DS1 was sitting in his car, and he said 'Get out, bloody fly!'. Must stop swearing ! Now he is sitting on his potty, he has been on it for about half an hour. I think he desperately wants something to happen...

Kayz - All sounds like compliments to me ! Impressed with your cake making, btw.

PMK and others struggling with finger food...my DS is a finger food fanatic (you win some...eating, you lose some...sleep), so I'm getting lots of practice trying different things. Not sure if any of this will be helpful, but here are the things that are working for us.

We have been using a lot of finger foods as "dippers". It seems like he enjoys sucking on a green bean, for e.g., that has been dipped in hummous rather than just plain (surprise, surprise!). For savoury, I have been using loads of different things as dippers: rice cakes, toast fingers, toasted pita bread, steamed carrot sticks, steamed beans, tomato slices, etc. For dipping, I've tried hummous, guacamole, cheese sauce, etc. But you could use any kind of savoury puree you have, as long as it is thick enough to dip. For sweet, I use rusks, toast, or I have been making biscuits with oats, dried fruits and a bit of fruit juice and butter. The homemade ones work really well because you can shape them into the perfect size for them to hold (I've been doing long rectangles so that I can dip one end and he still has room to hold the "dry" end). Sweet dips, I have tried loads - he loves yoghurt, any fresh fruit puree, etc. I just dip whatever the thing is, hand it to him, he sucks and chews on it, I load it up with more, and he is away! It is a nice way that they can feed themselves messy stuff like yoghurt or hummous without the palaver of him grabbing the spoon from me and sticking it in his eye.

Not sure if that is helpful at all, but that's what is working for us!

Well, yes, she'd be talking about me as well. And I eat lentils as well as BF etc etc. And I like them too !

Right I'm off out one of the mums from nursery whose DH works away during the week is having a girls night in hope J doesn't cause too much trouble here at home for DH.