Dec 08 - 9 months in, 9 months out!

[jumpjockey]

Hope you don't mind the dodgy thread name but all our babies are 9 months old now or in the next few weeks

Oh and having sent her another message yesterday, which she's not responded to, I've checked the work diary and she's away, but hasn't put a vacation message up warning people. She's just dreadful!

Poo and bum, wrote a nice long message and lost it. Tut. Will re-do later. But argh for you JJ. Were you counting on that money this month?

jj for you! I hate incompetence! It really winds me up, especially when its someone messing about with your money. Hope it gets sorted soon.

Hello to spot, pingu, mom and anyone else I've missed. spot DS reminds me of a puppy sometimes. Whenever we eat if he's not in his highcahair he hovers at your knee looking for scraps. He regularly swipes food off DD too. No wonder he is such a chunky monkey

trace L is a very lucky lady having you as a mummy! Sounds like you had a great day together. DD said yesterday "I don't like harry anymore". Than about an hour later when he was trying to ruin her game playing with her I heard her declare she "loved him sooo much" and that her was her BF

Who mentioned poo?? DS can easily have 3-4 dirty nappies a day. DD usually informs me, she has a highly tuned nose!!!

Have just been for a run which has really cleared my head, strange but I feel lots better and more positive today after a bit of sweating!

We are taking DD to see the Illuminations in Blackpool later. Poor thing is sick of mummy moping and being tired so she deserves a treat. Nodoubt chips for supper and even a bit of candy floss, but het its only once in a while right?

Just a quick update, MIL does have cancer of the kidney (possible secondary in the liver). They have ruled out surgery due to her general ill health, and have said that chemo wouldn't be much use so they are to try some other type of treatment. She will know more next week when she goes back for the results of tests she had this morning

DH has not taken it well at all, even though we kind of expected it tbh.

Oh DD I'm so sorry - that's so sad for you. What other type of treatment are they going to try? What do they say the outlook is? I'm so sorry. Your poor DH, must be heartbreaking.

I'm off to the doctor in an hour for my booking in appointment. I must be all of ooh, 5 weeks pregnant - maximum! I'm actually really chuffed about it now and am happy as larry. Haven't mentioned moving house again - will wait til after Christmas I think. Although annoyingly, there is a baby boom on our street at the moment and houses are going for an astronomical price, which I think won't last into the new year, hence my pushing DH. Never mind. He's too indecisive. But he's lovely too!

Must say, it's great to be back on here and hear all your news.

I'm back to work on 1st December and knowing it's only for 6 months, I DON'T MIND! HA HA HA HA! I've never really been a career woman, more of a working because I have to type person!!! Can't WAIT to be full time Mum next year with my two little squeakers. Hurrah! (Fingers crossed this pregnancy lasts).

By the way, on the Xmas present front. I came up with a genius one - you can get on ELC.co.uk a CD singalong, which has 2 microphones attached. My niece and nephew both love musicals so have got them that for their combined birthday and christmas - one between them. HEe hee. But it's £40 so too expensive for just one of them for birthdyay and Xmas! Plus 2 CDs. They'll be chuffed to bits! Feeling quite proud!

Just a super quickie to say to Daisy that I am sorry about your MIL. I hope they can do something. Are you still off to the Illuminations? Lovely for kids, I went myself when I was a nipper and we also used to go to the Walsall ones (ooh the glamour) but they don't seem to be on any more due to lack of interest. Anyway, just wanted to say that I am thinking of you and your DH's family.

And JJ - any progress? Because that is disgraceful to be effectively diddled out of that money due to that woman's incompetence. Any hope of righting it/complaining about her (mind you, when you have a problem with HR, who is there to complain to?)

Hope the booking in appointment went well Beans!

Right, have to get back to the grindstone but will write more later to others.

I have just bought some lovely dirty fresh carrots and kale from the farm shop. Ooooh, loving autumn. Oh yeah - booked a hol to Egypt 23-30 Nov. Luxor, hotel on banks of Nile. So DD will be celebrating her 1st birthday in the Valley of the Kings (and Queens!) - in a sombrero, behind a sunshade and smothered in Factor 50, of course...

Hello Ladies!

It's been AGES since I've been on here. Hope everyone is doing well. Haven't been able to properly catch up. But did remember a few things from my quick skim. Will try to look back and catch up with what's going on with you lovely ladies!

BEANS congratulations on your big news! That's fantastic!!

veggie sorry to hear about your step father. and daisy also sorry to hear about your nan. Thinking about you guys and your families.

Well things here have been going okay. Judah is crawling/walking/talking and is into everything!! Can't believe that he is officially 10 months today!

I have been living in the land of doctors appointments! I've had three infections in the last 2 months, tonsillitis, sinus and then chest infection. That resulted in me having blood work taken twice. Still coughing up a lung so I'm scheduled to see the doc again on Friday. Ugh... so tired of being sick!

Judah also has had a few viral things and the doctor told me at his last appointment that he heard a slight heart murmur. So I have to take him back in for a check-up on friday to make sure it's nothing to be worried about. Since Judah was having heart issues they asked me about my family history and decided I should have an echocardiogram. So I went in for that today. Everything looked good. Although I must say I was totally weirded out at having to lay naked from the waist up on the table. I like my boobies to have some privacy.

sorry daisy meant to say MIL.

Hi everyone, am now trying to re-write my post from this morning, so very annoying when that happens. But firstly, I want to say to Daisy how sorry I am to hear about your MIL, your family has been hit so hard at the moment

Your tale of your night out Rubena did make me chuckle , although I can well imagine that you did not feel at all like chuckling at the time. Like SL, it did make me think of Outnumbered, which I really enjoy but I?m started to worry that it isn?t actually a comedy, more of a premonition. Veggie I?m so glad I?m not the only one who isn?t secretly relieved when other children play up and

Verso and Trace how lovely your days out with your older DD?s sounded , I?m really looking forward to being able to enjoy similar days out with DD in the years to come

You were very generous with the towel for Christmas Urbane , our DD got nowt. Oh, apart from the hundreds we?d spent on the cot, pram, clothes, toys etc

Jump DD normally does a poo a day, sometimes every other day (although she gets a good session in her bounceroo to shake things through if it goes that long). I worry that isn?t enough, but then when she was just BF she only poo?d every 3 or 4 days, so this is a vast improvement

Great that you?ve found Leo a good home Veggie, that must be a weight off your mind. I think you?re doing a marvellous job, getting everything ready for the move. I can?t even get the clean laundry packed away at the end of the day! You deserve to lie down for a month once you get to Holland

Pingurocks great to hear from you, and well done on the sleeping! And also great to hear from Kimberley too ? what a strange procedure! Hope that J gets a clean bill on Friday

My DD is a terrible hair puller Spot, and regularly tugs whole handfuls out of people?s head (ouch). She gets a stern no and completely ignores me. Unfortunately I can?t quite give the hair back like you can with a toy

Whilst DD was at nursery today, I went bra shopping to get measured. I explained I?d finished BF and the lady said ?congratulations? ? think she meant congratulations for BF, not for stopping . I really enjoy a good underwear shopping session and I got fitted with a lovely and very comfy bra. Unfortunately I may have to take up a job that involves showing it off a lot as it cost so blooming much!

daisydora - so sorry to hear the bad news about your MIL. It must be a shock even if you were kind of expecting it.

jj - hope you get on their case, personnel sound appalling! As far as poos go, DS is a once a day kind of guy, but DD used to be 4-5 a day explosive poos. Mind you, she does have multiple food allergies and does seem to poo less these days, so who knows...But I understand that there is very wide variation in what is normal.

spot - can empathise with tales of foraging child! DS unmistakably gets annoyed if anyone is eating within sight and he isn't offered a bit...for the time being its pretty funny, but I can see we are going to lose patience with this one, especially as he is the worlds messiest eater. Breakfast in our house goes something like this - give DS his breakfast porridge (along with some fruit chunks to distract him so you can get a chance to feed him). Clean up. DS begs some of his sister's toast, makes a mess. Clean up. DS begs some of my cereal, makes a mess. Clean up. DH brings out his toast etc. You think I'd learn.

Knackered today as had a (work) day trip to Somerset. Quite nice to get the time out on the train, even though I was doing work stuff. Somehow more efficient than faffing around in the office! Had excessively bouncy welcome home from DD as she decided I was a trampoline, not a mummy.

Morning all,

Kim hello!!

ladyt at your holiday. Sounds fab and what a way to spend your 1st birthday, lucky O!!

veggie how is the packing going?

A much better night here from DS! Hoorah must have been that Blackpool sea air. We did go to the illuminations as we had promised DD and despite DH not feeling like it, he didn't want to let her down. It was a bloody disaster! It took FOREVER to get there (I forgot it was half term) DD was starving by the time we got there, and wanted sausage and chips. I queued for 20 mins for her food then she dropped her sausage and went into meltdown as she was getting tired, literally screaming "my sausage, my sausage"! Then some old man tripped and fell in front of us, so I ran to help letting go of DS pram which didn't have the brake on. DH grabbed it but not one person helped me get the old man back on his feet and there were people everywhere! Anyway once fed we all got back in the car started to drive through the lights and within 5 mins both DC's were fast asleep in the back of the car, so we never got to see them all!

Morning,

Sorry about your MIL Daisy LadyT I am very jealous of the holiday. I could really do with some time away.

DS2 has slept the last 2 nights. I am hoping it will last as I am exhausted and I have done a lot of long shifts this week so really need some rest.

Hope everyone is well. Will be back later probably if I can get on before work.

bookmarking so i can tell you all about wales later. madam up at 4.45am this morning. this is now a worrying trend - any tips to get her to sleep longer? she really does need it - she goes back to sleep after an hour or so. ugh ugh ugh.

so ironic that we cracked the going to sleep thing, only to have this raise it's tiring head...

WG - This seems the exact trend. They start sleeping through, and then they start waking earlier and earlier. Still happens on and off to us. From what I have read, seems to be either related to being overtired at bedtime, or going down for first nap too early, or too much daytime sleep. My approach has been, if it has been about 11 hours or more since bedtime, I just get him up and start the day. If less than 11 hours, I shh him in the cot, but don't get him up (one day this took 45 minutes, but it did break the pattern).

daisy at your poor MIL. Hope they can get the treatment she needs sorted asap. And sorry the illuminationms didn't go so well, though I did smile at dd shouting "my sausage" poor sweetie!

WG/MoM the sleep thing, dd often has a bit of a burble at 5ish but if we put the music on her monitor back on (twinkle twinkle!) then she usually goes back for an hour and a half or so. Seems to be something to do with the light wakenings during the sleep cycle, if we go in to see her she wakes up completely but if we leave her in the dark with her sleepy music she seems to get the message. Would that work for you? Also if she does wake I try to delay her first feeding until usual time anyway so she doesn't get into the idea that 5.30 is breakfast time.

Re crappy work lady, I don't think there's any chance of seeing the cash lost from ML, but I'm seeing my HoD this afternoon to talk job share practicalities so will certainly mention that this lady has basically been rubbish throughout. I feel kind of guilty as she's very nice and the institution is going through some pretty hard times at the mo so she has more on her plate than she probably expected when she started a few years ago - but still. I did a customer service course that said your colleagues are just as important as your external customers and letting them down is as bad as letting down external people. We're not relying on the money but as the washing machine has just gone kaput it would have been v handy to have it this month as we need a new one (servicing would cost £160!!!!! and then only guaranteed for another 12 months )

zj am v amused at the idea of sticking dd in a jumperoo to get her poo moving

Just have to share that dd's latest funny habit is blowing raspberries on every available body part - especially on my thighs while I'm on the loo Oh and her toy box is a little wicker basket next to the radiator under the front window, she can spend probably half an hour climbiggn on the basket, grabbing the net curtain, letting go, climbing down, back up again etc etc. I swear she's going to be a mountaineer

I am v interested in all these sleep discussions as things have gone haywire yet again with us. I don't think the clock change helped, instead of feeding from 5-6 DS2 is now feeding from 4-5. Ugh. The getting him to sleep thing has pretty much gone back to a disaster area as well. I may have to grit my teeth and stop all night feeds. Ugh again. I'm really not sure about it (NOT a good start to any sleep training) but I need. more. sleep. So does DS2 for that matter, and DS1 was up at 5:30 this morning. I had a breakfast meeting and made up for my broken night with 2 sausage sandwiches and a very large coffee.

Daisy: so sorry about your MIL. Your illuminations chat did make me giggle though, as I remember being taken to see them as a kid. The only time we managed it, despite spending most summers at my nana's in St Annes, was one year on a very dirty tram with a very grumpy father who (having been brought up in the area) didn't see the point. We didn't go again . I have very fond memories of Blackpool and Fleetwood.

Re: the meet-up tmorrow I may be able to make it as am in the office not a million miles away. I have to go to Stevenage in the morning (boo) so it will depend on when I can get back in.

Congratulations Beans!

So sorry to see lots of sad family news. I hope things go as well as possible for all.

dd thinks she is a newborn again for poos and is doing wonderful up the back numbers . Mind you she still feeds a lot so they are never all that solid.

Dd's sleep has improved without us doing anything which is rather nice. Thursday she slept til 10, then 3, then 6 and Friday did til 12, 4 and 7! She hasn't been quite so good since but she is better than she was and is sleeping all evening til gone 10 which is fantastic so I am hopeful that it will sort itself out soon enough.

Dd loves beggin for food too. The instant someone is eating she comes and stares They grow out of it

Daisy: V sorry about your MIL. Sorry but the illuminations tales of woe are hilarious though!

On the sleep front, DS does the early waking too sometimes. Well he pretty much always burbles at about 5-6 but sometimes this escalates, but usually he goes back to sleep on his own. I avoid going in to him if I can at all. I consulted Gina Ford about the problem when he was reliably waking at 5 and refusing to go back to sleep, also googled it, and the suggestions were make sure room is stupidly dark so that they can't see toys, they come into a light sleep around then and if they can see toys then they may start to play and wake themselves up, reduce daytime sleep, put to bed earlier (bizarrely - guess this fits in with the overtired when goign to sleep thing) or put to bed later(which woulc seem logical and does seem to sort of follow with DS but apparently doesn't work in general) And then there is the whole wake to sleep thing which Aubergines mentioned, where you vaguely wake them up earlier than they wake normally and then they go back to sleep (ie at 3am or so), to break their sleep pattern....this sounds hard work though!

Anyway I do wonder if it has to do with sleep patterns, as DS was doing it consistently while he was still having dream feed, so I thought sod it lets drop the dream feed, what's the worst that can happen and he slept til 7am!

Hi all.
daisy how are you? You have such a lot on. Thinking of you. Your illuminations talk made me think back to my young days when our church youth group went on an annual trip to Blackpool, and I always came back with one of those massive sugar dummies which then sat half eaten in the fridge for the next 6 months . Sorry to hear about the sausage incident . I feel her disappointment. Bet veggie's ds1 could empathize too!
Indith great news about the sleep improvements...here's hoping for some more!
Well Lu has been with her friend from down the road for a bit today but has returned home a thorough grump, so DH has taken her for a hedgehog hunt! They've gone out armed with camera and magnifying glass to see what autumn creatures they can find! I get to stay home and go on mumsnet prepare a lovely tea for when they return Will try to pop back later...off to start a thread about an ishoo with the girl down the road...I'll try to link to it later for your input ladies!

I think this is the link to my thread - but I'm no whizz so not sure if it will work

Hello girls,

no time for my fabled catch up again, so sorry. I'm off to London tonight and will see some of you in the morning.

Someone asked about poos! Anything between 0 and 4 a day. 2 an average?

Just a quickie as I'm absolutely knackered after our Legoland trip, but wanted to say Daisy I'm so sorry about your MIL, and also your rubbish trip to the Illuminations, but it was quite funny, sorry!
Also, LadyT which hotel are you staying at in Luxor? We stayed at the Meridien for our honeymoon and it is absolutely my favourite place in the whole wide world, even if I was scared to leave the hotel for the first few days after an incident on our first day...a long story that I'll bore you with some time!
And to whoever mentioned the link between ttc and good sleepers, well spotted! I don't think I'd be going for number 3 if 1 and 2 were not angels about their beds!
Night all x

Morning,

I'm hiding from DH as he is trying to descale the iron so he can iron his shirt. It is his Grandad's funeral today. He was 94 so has had a good old life.
I'm staying at home with the boys as they are too little to go.

Hope everyone is ok.

Hiya everyone,

Been blummin rubbish at posting as usual but am heading to the meet-up so looking forward to catching up with some of you there.

But just wanted to say congratulations Beans - thrilled for you. And daisy & Veggie sorry to hear your sad news.

Anyway, must dash so see some of you later.

have a wonderful time all those of you going to the meet up. veggie - sorry i won't be able to say goodbye in person - but enjoy enjoy enjoy! and KEEP POSTING! (although i dare say i needn't have said that, what with you being quite possibly the most prolific poster we have - how you manage to do it all with 2 little ones and all your activities, i do not know!)

daisy - so so sorry to hear about your desperately difficult times. i will keep thinking of your family. i did, however, love the blackpool stories and i, too, feel the pain of the lost sausage.

well, back from mentalist wales. FIL is out of hospital and way way better than we thought. it wasn't malignant, but could well have turned, so they did a good thing whipping that part of the bowel out. he had a tricky recovery - lots of vomiting, a paralysed bowel etc. his temporary colostomy bag is causing much hilarity as the poor man farts without any control at all. at least we can all laugh about it (although cracking a smile on MIL's face on this topic is pretty tricky - she has placed anti-bacterial handwashes and air freshners in EVERY ROOM in an effort to wash and spray her huband out of her life - this woman does not like dealing with bodily fluids, i can tell you).

MIL wasn't quite so bad as expected. she only stormed out once, which is good going. although on the way up we stopped off at dh's cousin's house where two of his aunts (and the crazier two out of the FIVE SISTERS - one an alcoholic, the other reminds me of lily savage) told him that his mother was behaving dreadfully towards his dad.

anyway... my main problem wiht MIL now is that she is so desperate to show off with madam that she never allows her any down time, or indeed, any time on her own at all. MIL is constantly shoving her face in madam's, screeching "tuppence" at her at any and every opportunity. when she's crying, when she's happy, when she's grizzling, when she's eating, when she's having her temperature taken, you name it. it is like she is so desperate to show she is being a "good" granny (although she insists on being called "grammy" for reasons to complex to even begin mentioning, even though she herself often forgets and calls herself granny, only to correct herself a couple of moments later - this woman is so CONSTRUCTED!)

oh, and a classic MILism - when madam was born she was 7lbs, 10 oz. mil said "oh, that was the same weight waitingboy was when he was born". this weekend we heard about another baby in teh family, born at 8lbs 1oz and what did she say? "oh, that was the same weight waitingboy was when he was born" - this woman REINVENTS HISTORY TO SUIT HERSELF ALL THE EFFING TIME!

anyway, enough. suffice it to say, i loved ladyt's description of ungritting her teeth after dinner with the inlaws. i, too, have been ungritting for a while.

madam woke up at 5.55am today - felt like a lie-in. what crazy world do i live in when 5.55 is a lie-in?