April 2009 - Chapter 6 - The one where Nutty reappears and the babies eat FOOD!

[Swaliswan]

I hope that this will do you all as the last thread ran out.

Let the fun and chocolate eating commence...

[Feierabend]

Ah it will be an emergency appt now Swali because her jabs are scheduled for tomorrow 11.30 and I have been advised by some wise mumsnetters that if it's a skin infection at all (the bad, weeping bits), she probably shouldn't have the jabs until it's cleared up.

Well done for going running, I would never be determined enough, I hate running.

I am still in the middle of my marathon catch up but can't believed I missed BB and Springy and the animal sex!

[Feierabend]

The bad news of the day is that my council is introducing a new recycling scheme which means the refuse bin full of nappies will only be collected once every fortnight. They must be barking mad. Can you imagine, next summer when H does proper poos, them sitting in a bin for two weeks in hot weather?

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Our council already does that Feier - they collect food waste for composting and recycling once a week, and wheelie bins once a fortnight. Actually, it is fine, even in hot weather, especially if the nappies are wrapped into tight balls.

Hope Doc gives you something useful for DD's eczema

Swali - running! I'm very impressed. My only exercise is pushing the buggy around the hills of Bristol and lugging heavy Orbit around in the sling... And I hope you're feeling better after stupid HV comments. They are a pain in the arse.

bronze that's rubbish of the hospital. Bah. Have some chocolate. How is DD feeling?

Orbit didn't bite me once today! Hooray! On the minus side, he's still having really short naps - 25 minutes this morning . I tried a dummy today but he was singularly unenthusiastic.

[Feierabend]

H has completely stopped having daytime sleeps in the last couple of days well she had two 20-minute power naps today, that was it.

WFH I thought I'd escaped all this recycling rubbish when I left Germany. I must admit I loved getting unlimited free plastic bags in Waitrose and putting all my litter in the same bin but now the UK is playing catch up when it comes to being 'green'. Tsk. I am rather sceptical of these schemes actually working properly. Have a funny suspicion everything ends up in the same landfill site anyway. I'd much rather all the unnecessary packaging was banned in the first place. This is MY soapbox BTW

Really must go to sleep now. Nighty night.

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

It's true, we do have a long way to go to catch up with the rest of Europe on recycling! But I can reassure you that it doesn't end up in the same place - the system isn't perfect but my job is for an organisation closely connected to recycling and waste and it is definitely recycled.

Is it true that in Germany you're allowed to leave excess packaging in the shop when you buy something and they have to dispose of it? I dream of that here when I see the layers and layers of plastic you get when you buy something tiny like a memory card for a phone.

[bebemoo]

Yeah we have a travel cot and I keep a bag packed with disposables (feel a bit guilty abt the disposables, but I cannot bring reusables really- I do use eco ones though AND we've not had any nappy rash since we've started having a day and a bit in them...perhaps it's the break and change from one kind to another) and clothes and toys. I wash the clothes on Thursdays when we return and they go right back in the bag.
Not sure what I'll do with BLW in a hotel restaurant... but hopefully I'll figure something out.

[JumeirahJane]

Hello warriors, after a bleary-eyed, not very thorough read-through...

Bronze, it bloody well beggars belief that they lost the notes and even more so that they wouldn't even see you because of their incompetence. Didn't the NHS recently spend millions on a central computerised notes system, or am I imagining things. Anyway, grrrr, and I hope you get seen pronto.

Auld - lol at A wriggling over to eat the chequebook, and now wondering about DH's lost ATM card

Well I had my first 3 day migraine attack in over a year, I'd forgotten how awful they are, poor lil M had to make most of her own entertainment, which made me feel even worse But on the bright side, IKEA finally had the antilop back in stock so we are just waiting til the time is right and off we go.

Woohoo, my parents are coming out to see us for M's birthday next year, I can't wait. They just webcammed us, and M waved right back at them. Ah these little tear-jerk moments that we will look back upon and treasure.

Wishing everyone happy, healthy/ier, non-biting bubs this week.

[AuldAlliance]

Morning all!

Lovely sunny day here in Provence, after endless days of rain. Alex loves his CM and giggled and chortled all the way along the road to her house this morning. The rush hour drivers must have taken me for a loon, as I was laughing out loud at the jokes of a 5 month-old.

Bronze, I'm sorry you're getting such crap treatment. We need Boff to help us reband the Fanjo Warriors and kick some arses in the NHS.

JJ, sorry about the migraines. Do you have IKEA in Dubai, then? . I've just twigged that Jumeirah is that big palm tree thingy, isn't it? What's it like living there?

bebe, the image of someone peeking in your window and finding you expressing into a bowl is an interesting one!

Re recycling, the UK is streets ahead of France. We still have to lug our stuff to recycling bins, of which there are precious few and which are often overflowing. Many people just don't bother. DH recently declared he was sick of living "surrounded by rubbish" (i.e. with a box of recycling stuff waiting to go out) and that he had better things to do with his weekends than go to the bins. So I now have to keep picking bottles, etc. out of the kitchen bin.

Right, back to work. Have a great day, ladies.

[Feierabend]

Yes WFH it's true. That law was put in place something like 15-20 years ago! And oooh did we get excited about unpacking stuff at the till and leaving all those unnecessary boxes and plastic trays behind! I wish they did something similar here. Recently had an interesting encounter with the 'green till' in Waitrose (what makes it 'green' is that they don't provide plastic bags ) and I suggested to the shop manager that if they really wanted to be greener, they should reduce the ridiculous packaging around things like their 'perfectly ripe' pears and avocados. Two plastic trays plus foil to wrap four pieces of fruit that should be sold loose! Which brings me onto my other favourite bug bear, why do I have to pay a premium to buy ripe fruit and veg? They shouldn't try to sell me unripe fruit in the first place! 'Home ripening' my arse

Sorry. I did enjoy this little rant

[bebemoo]

JJ migraines
Touch wood I've yet to have one myself. It was actually one of my huge concerns once we got pregnant as I kept saying what will I do when I cannot take care of Sprite(her name at the time) because I'm miserable in bed? Cue huge crying fit followed by some quiet reassuring words from dh and lots of cuddles...
I've yet to find out what I'll do especially since Dh is now away from home during the week...

[bebemoo]

I have a question then too...why try to sell tropical/warm weather veg in a moderate weather climate? They've got to be picked unripe and transported unripe which means they get to the stores under-developed so even if you do put them in the window to 'ripen' they taste horrible. Melons and many other fruits here taste nasty.

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

I guess by that reasoning though we wouldn't be allowed any tropical fruit at all in this country - no bananas, melons, kiwis, mangoes, grapes, pineapple etc etc

Would be a bit miserable, really, wouldn't it?

If you've never had a mango straight from the tree in a tropical climate, then you don't think the ones here taste horrible, I guess.

[Guimauve]

Hellooooo! I have two hands! I've been lurking but too apathetic to post, so now I need to read back I think!

Briefly - Schulte - sorry, v.late reply, no real time limit on the steroid creams under medical supervision, but hopefully you'll have seen the doc today and got further advice.

Bebe - I mostly agree re: veg, but I'd be sad without my bananas! Our farm shop actually had some local melons recently! If only summer fruits weren't so expensive. I absolutely refuse to pay for blackberries in the supermarket when they can be had for free all over the place. Now if only raspberries/ blackcurrants/ strawbs etc would grow wild in the woods! There are actually lots of blackcurrant farms (?) around here, but I think blackcurrant scrumping might not be the way to go!

Picked 2lbs sloes at the weekend for making sloe gin. Planning to go out for rosehips this weekend, chestnuts in a few weeks. Someone DH works with promised me damsons and then chopped the tree down

[Feierabend]

Oooh chestnuts, yum. We usually steal them from the Queen in Windsor park

Bebe what frustrates me most are the unripe pears, plums, peaches and nectarines in the shops. I would guess all of them can be grown locally (or maybe on the continent in the case of the nectarines and peaches but that's hardly a long way away). So why can't they pick them when they're ripe! Ditto melons btw - they grow in places like Spain and Greece. Shouldn't be that difficult to get them here nice and ripe then should it?

[Guimauve]

Froggy - How is DS's toe now?

WFH - Your Storchenwiege is lovely. Does it give you any strain in the shoulder/ back from being on one side? I avoided ring slings, even though they looked easy, becasue of that.

Re: Pumping. I managed approximately an ounce this morning , though I found that breast compression helped a little. I may use my eBay habit to look for an Ameda. I tried giving him some ebm with a syringe yesterday. It was moderately successful, around 4 of the 5mLs probably went in! I'm not sure whether it was just because he loves chewing on the syringe though! He happily takes his paracetamol as he loves the syringe!

H definitely managed to swallow a bit of his mumped banana, as evidenced by nappy! However, last few days, poo frequency has upped to 2-3 daily, quite watery. Colour fine, smell fine, but very runny. Would these be teething poos?
6 months in 26 weeks. I think I'll start giving H some food, although I don't think he'll be entirely stable at sitting up on his own. I'm thinking lots of butter, avocado, nut butters etc. Lots of high cal stuff. I think I'm going to get him weighed tomorrow - I suspect there may be some suggestions of weaning!

Frekkles - hope you had a lovely birthday! How is H doing this week?

Bronze - how ridiculous about Nia's appt. As if another doctor couldn't just have seen her anyway, and treated her as a brand new patient with blank notes. Did they even have a record of your appointment?

Best post now - H is getting bored.....

[Guimauve]

Jeez, I've got a bad ! habit too....

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

On the fruit thing - saying they can be grown locally is all very well, but we have:

• a very over crowded island where land is worth so much that it's hard to run an agricultural business that makes money, especially when selling the land for housing is much more lucrative
• large international supermarkets (Wal-Mart, anyone?) driving prices down and also insisting on such huge orders that it's difficult for local farmers to survive at those prices and to fulfil those orders
• also consumers demanding fruit out of season, meaning it has to be sourced elsewhere as we don't have the climate or the room for the huge greenhouses
• and very little demand by the big supermarkets for local varieties of fruit such as our lovely apples and pears, because they might be too low yield to satisfy the demands of huge companies, and too nobbly to meet their exacting shape criteria
• and sucessive governments which have done very little to support local agriculture, and in fact destroyed it in some cases.

If you shop in farmers markets and local greengrocers and look for fruit that's grown in this country and only buy in season then you get lovely, ripe, wonderful fruit in this country. But Tesco sells utter rubbish.

(p.s. Waitrose fruit and veg is very good though...)

[bebemoo]

I wholly agree WFH that's really what I mean.

-also consumers demanding fruit out of season, meaning it has to be sourced elsewhere as we don't have the climate or the room for the huge greenhouses

• and very little demand by the big supermarkets for local varieties of fruit such as our lovely apples and pears, because they might be too low yield to satisfy the demands of huge companies, and too nobbly to meet their (or our)exacting shape criteria

I've said as much myself to people. And Tesco and Walmart and other large conglomerates are terrible at squeezing profit, but if they didn't and the veg cost 2x as much would we complain about that? (But we wouldn't if we never knew any better)

I do of course buy fruit and veg out of season (though I try very hard not to). I also buy as local as I can. And things bought fresh are by far better tasting. I just find it disappointing that I cannot get lovely watermelon in summer... I love watermelon and cantalopes and honeydew melons... mmmm so juicy and sweet. But I dare not get it here because it's utterly tasteless tart or even bitter (and coming from someone who'll eat a slice of lemon that's saying something).

[Guimauve]

This may put you off your locally-sourced lunch, but 'tis very funny

[Feierabend]

I hate Tesco. They are evil.

Taking H to A&E with infected skin

[bebemoo]

oh fiera

[bebemoo]

gui funny my dad's like that... my dh not so much

[Guimauve]

Oh Feier , good luck, I hope they see you quickly and get something prescribed swiftly.

[dawntigga]

Waves.

I sold my comic collection on ebay and it's gone now.

SniffSniffTiggaxx

[bebemoo]

awww Tigga
what was it?