Sept 08: The End of an Amazing year

[Pacita]

Here we are: the thread that will see our LO's first birhtday...

Thanks everyone I just can't imagine how her husband must be feeling today. My facebook is full of the most negative set of status updates you've ever seen! We have another friend who is also in her 30s with two small kids and has terminal cancer, thankfully she didn't know the friend who died yesterday as that would be so hard for her.

We're thinking of coming back from the Lakes straight after the wedding on Saturday rather than staying til monday which had been the plan. We want to be here on Sunday with all our friends together, but its going to be a very late night doing the three hour drive after a wedding reception!

I'm having a morning of not being able to get through to people on the phone, its very frustrating. I'm not in the mood for being ignored by my solicitor!

Hello.

So sorry to hear all the sad news

Not much happening here. Oh F has a new tooth so that makes 5 and he has learnt how to stand up from sitting on the floor.

The holidays are nearly over I will be going from having 3 dcs at home to 1 as dd starts school and ds starts preschool in sept.

lolly are you going to be run off your feet doing school and nursery runs from now on?

Yes meglet

For the 1st 2 weeks it will go like this, dd starts school at 8.40 and ds starts at 9.15, they both finish at 11.45 so will have to pick up ds early after 2 weeks dd goes full time so i will pick ds up at 11.45 then have to go back to pick up dd up at 2.45 oh and then leave for work at 4.30.

It will be non stop but at least ds will only be going 3 days a week.

It makes me tired just reading that .

Yowzers lolly. I always thought I'd have more time once dd starts playgroup/school but clearly not!
Well I'm almost packed for the wedding of doom. Recent events have made the issue of coach travel pale into insignificance. We're going to drive via the wedding venue today to check out the parking situation for ourselves. We've decided to come back on saturday night or early sunday rather than stay the weekend, to be together with our friends at church the first sunday after our friend died.
And today is survey day on our house. Really hoping no nasties are thrown up. On the plus side next door has gone on the market for £10k more than ours (its an end terrace) and my friend down the road sold for £5k more than we did, so if our buyers try to be cheeky we've got a lot more wellie behind us to tell them to get stuffed coz they're already getting a bargain!

Carrie sorry to hear your bad news

I have managed to get through two whole weeks of work and it feels like I have not been away unfortunately. My MIL has been a star looking after E full-time so my real test comes in 10 days when I have to start doing nursery drop-offs and pick-ups. However I should stop moaning as Lollyheart, my head is spinning just reading what you'll have to do

Hope the wedding goes well carrie, and you get back to see your friends and support each other.

lollyheart !

Poor DD has the most terrible nappy rash. It is seriously bad and clearly so painful. I had no idea it could be this bad. She wails and screams every time we change the nappy or touch the nappy area. It has been going on for 6 weeks like this, and we have been to the GP 3 times. Yesterday she was put on antibiotics and steroid cream, as the GP is afraid that if the skin breaks we will get a bacterial infection on top of the fungal infection. It is horrible and I can't believe there is not more we can do to relieve her pain. We are only using cotton wool and water now (definitely less sting-y for her) have cut out tomatoes from her diet (seemed to help for a while) switched to ever stronger rash creams (now on the yellow putty of doom aka metanium) and spend lots of time with nappy off (yay for cleaning up soup-like poo from the bathroom floor ). GP said it is teething-related. She is doing copious runny poo and and now has another 4 top teeth to go with the 2 on the bottom.

When will this end? Any suggestions please? I just can't bear to watch her going through this.

Ponymum poor sweetie. I remember when dd1 had a really bad nappy rash. she bled it was that bad. we kept her with no nappy on as much as we could (she hardly ever pooed) and washed her bum often with cooled boiled water, a shower head is great for this. she was left with slight scarring for a couple of years but as she grew they faded to nothing.
Don't use a barrier cream with disposables as it clogs it up so rash will get worse. (that is what we did listening to advice from grandparents who used washables) we have found bepanthen to be brill.

are you still breast feeding? If so keep her off food for a day or two, it sounds like the runny poo could be a gastro thing.

Hope she gets better with the antibios.

Robyn still not quite crawling but she can shuffle round the living room quite well. she goes round in circles to get to where she wants to go.

Carrie I hope the wedding was trouble free and that you'll be able to comfort your friends in this difficult time.

Pony, poor little darling. I hope she heals soon. I have previously an expensive but very effective homeopathic cream call SOS botanicals, which worked wonders. Definitely nappy off is a good thing.

I am also having the strangest things wiht DS. He has always always loved his food. He seems to be very hungry, I put him in his high chair to feed him. He has some finger foods in his tray (boiled new potatoes and green beans, which he usually loves) while I offer him some lentils wiht a spoon (which he normally loves). He starts screaming, screaching and crying inconsollably. Sometimes, when distracted he will eat hungrily, then start screaming again. Today I had to stop feeding him. Not even the boob would calm him down. I stopped feeding and now he is happily playing, but has barely had any lunch. Why does he get so upset? This started a few days ago, and I don't know whether it's teething related. Anybody has had anything like this before? He is normally a very contented guy, and he eats very well...

DG, eagerly waiting for x factor!!!

Ponymum Has your dd had any egg yet? If she has and you know she isn't allergic, you can apply egg white as it is high in zinc and leaves a protective film on the nappy rash.

Pacita Do you offer water with food?

my guess would be teething pain pacita in which case it shouldn't last long. I've seen similar before but not for as long as a few days.

digi take it your sis wasn't on this week then? I've sky+d it but wasn't allowed to watch it despite telling dh that I kind of knew someone who's sister was in it (I 1st of all tried to tell him I knew someone who's in it but he wasn't having any of that). I'll watch it later on.

Took the boys to a farm today with loads of animals to stroke. DS2 loved it, he was fascinated by all the animals and stroked a few of them and tried to copy their noises.

Just book marking - back from a great camping holiday in Devon although I think I'll be spending the next week washing!

The weather was extremely changeable but we found plenty to do

Sorry to hear about your friend Carrie

Glad to hear that your MIL wasn't being just mean Imo

M is now really confident in her walking although she clings to random people's trousers for a bit of stability . She's also very adept at climbing slides then letting go and turning herself to slide down. Our friends nicknamed her 'spider baby'!

She didn't eat too much sand and seemed to enjoy waking up in a tent with us all there.

Foxy my two now seem to play much better - it's lovely to see isn't it.

at ninja's DD not eating too much sand.

DD had her 1 yr check yesterday, everything was fine, which I pretty much knew, but it's nice for it to be official.

I might be getting somewhere with XP. He went to family mediation on his own this week (I went in May) so we can sort out access, maintenance etc and has been strangely polite in his text messages since [hmmm]. We should be starting mediation together in Sept. I just want it to be all over and finalised at last.

Book marking as just got back from holiday in France.

ponymum poor little thing. Hope it clears up soon.

Dsis wasn't on last night. If they're doing it in order of audition days then she was on day 3. So probably third episode.

DS has been vomiting since 4:30 this morning. After first vomit I breastfed him, he brought all that up. Then kept vomiting till he brought up blood. Then he had a couple of hours kip. When he woke I fed him again, 5 minutes later that all came back up. But no blood. He doesn't have a temperature, so I'm inclined to leave it for a day before calling the docs. Worried as he's never ever done this before. Don't know what it could be. Should I be trying to give him solids in the hope that he absorbs some of it before bringing it back up or should I stick to milk and breastfeeding? It's just my supply is so low during the day since working fulltime, worried that's not enough for him.

A little good news for you Meglet. Times must be very stressful.

Well the HV is doing a home visit next week because we are an 'at risk' family now and Baby Starlight is diddy (almost certainly down to neglect obviously )

I'm expecting to be told to give up bfing on demand but my shining reference as a bfing peer supporter just came through plus an additional note that I am in close working contact with a bfing counsellor so hopefully that should send her packing.

I haven't refused the visit because all the toddler groups are shut and I'm bored - also I have no intention to antagonise someone who can help me fight social services for some money!

I'm sorry about my posting name atm but it is my LA-fighting persona!

Dg Phone nhs direct. I'd stick with as much bfing as possible for a couple of days and not worry about solids.

agree with starlight dg. If you call NHS direct now you might be able to get ds checked out today. You really don't want to be calling them in a panic at 11pm on a sunday evening, like some of us have been known to do .

Aw DG Haven't seen your Dsis, but there's some tough competition, and as usual quite a bit of easy competition!

Well, I'm ashamed to confess that I almost neglected my lovely son trying to catch a glimpse of the DGsis, but was sure I missed her because of minor things such as feeding and bedtime. Great to know that was not the case!

What I did see made me slightly sad. Am I the only one to think that every single one of the judges is a self-centered, mean, thoughtless and manicured twat?

Thanks all for suggestions re: erratic feeding behaviour. Today he was back to his normal voracious self. I think it WAS teething, as his top teeth have finally cut through. He is also very mobile and I'm exhausted. I think I may get a playpen...

No Pacita You're not the only one. At one point I told DH 'I can't bear it, - turn it off', but curiosity still got the better of me.

Why are my children still not in bed?

DD's rash is slightly better today. We had a great day out walking on the moor top with the heather in bloom. It was fab - amazing views! DD was grinning from ear to ear the whole time in the back pack. And guess what? I used a she-pee for the first time. What a brilliant invention! While I was peeing DH said, sorry I just have to look at this. He said it was both totally weird and totally normal at the same time. I don't think I can ever do the mooncup, but I may very well become a total she-pee convert.

well done ponymum although I think using a she-wee is a lot braver than using a mooncup (personally I just wee behind a bush)

Anyone's little ones are biters? M has just started biting when she gets really excited (usually the shoulder) and she's done it to poor DD1 as well . If I see the open mouth coming I shout 'M no biting' which sometimes seems to help - any other ideas?

M just loves soft toys/doll ... She picked up a minnie mouse today, cuddled it with her head to one side and then rocked from side to side - so sweet

How intriguing, what on earth is a she-pee? I have got horrendous images of a portable catheter. Reminds me of labour. Blargh!