May '09 - We've had our first tooth!!

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Here we are, in honour of baby O and the first tooth through.

Hi all.
just looked at my early morning post which is full of spelling errors. and of course I almost never use capital letters and my punctuation is poor. that's one-handed typing for you , but you understand what i say, don't you?

bodyconscious, sophie, my vericose veins got really bad this time so i'm loathe to go bare-legged and have given up wearing skirts altogether unless the weather allows for opaque tights/leggings. am about this as i loved wearing shorter skirts (not too short, mind).

dandy, we went out today to buy a jar and bag of marbles each so we could put a marble into the jar for every good behaviour. the girls are excited so let's see if it helps. dd2 (just turned 2) seems to be the bigger whinger/tantrummer at the mo. she's had 2 big ones today lasting 15 min each and had to shut the door on her (though that made her scream louder). ah, the 2's can be really tough. I'm hoping dd3/Harper skips the terrible part of the 2's.

meet-up, would love to meet up with you guys. it would be best on the weekend i spose as I could 'borrow' DH's car. why don't we plan something for early next year after the busy holidays?

Hi! Loved reading through last night's chat! I think it was Fi that said about taking the house coats off for the photo shoot - gave me a scary "Calendar Girls" image!!

Meet up idea is great too. We'll have to sort out a central point. Who's furthest north / furthest south?

DS is still struggling with his gums. Another night of being disturbed every 2hrs. V clingy and dribbly and just not as happy as usual. I'm using teething gel and Ashton & Parsons granules with occassional Calpol. I'm sterilising the oral syringe before each dose. I guess that's still necessary at 20 weeks?

My mum has been back from her 2 week hols for 3 days and is already annoying me which is a shame as she can also be v helpful. Yesterday I was trying DS in a mothercare version of a Baby Bjorn and she commented that she sees them used by people with a newborn and then a toddler in a pushchair. She told me I wouldn't cope if I had another when O was still a toddler I think she means she wouldn't cope if I asked her to babysit both. I didn't tell her DH and I are planning ttc DC2 from next May! (oops! Did I say that out loud!)

ses I don't bother sterilising spoons for calpol etc. Actually, a lot of the time I don't sterilise bottles. I just put them in the dishwasher.

Thanks Llare , that's helpful. I won't be so paranoid then!

Right DS has gone to sleep and settled in his car seat. For how long, who knows! But I'm trying to cook up a batch of pork casserole so will go and chop my onions!

I forgot to tell you last night about my sister's hair styling disaster. When she was about 15 I think (maybe slightly younger), she was trying to curl her hair with tongs, stopped concentrating for some reason and burnt herself. Right in the middle of her forehead - it was quite a big mark, and you could see the shape of the curly bits on the tongs! She didn't have a fringe to hide it, poor girl. My brother and I were quite rude to her about it for a long time.

Meeting up sometime would be good, but not sure how practical as like others I can't leave A very easily, and I don't drive. I will find a suitable housecoat just in case.

Today I've cleaned my kitchen. Not sure a housecoat would have been much good, a biohazard suit might have been better and double . I cleaned the fridge, can't remember when I last did it (it was certainly cleaned in 2005, but after that I can't be sure again). Anyway, Kim and Aggie would have been quite interested in the contents, and the...erm....growths on the shelves. I can't believe I'm telling you lot. It's a good job you don't exist, I would never tell anyone real how disgusting it was. Anyway, I feel like a domestic goddess now!

Oh, and ses - you might have been able to guess from my previous post, but I've never sterilised a medicine spoon/syringe in my life. The girls have survived so far...

flippineck When we did the kitchen we got a big American fridge freezer (it was left on DH's hands after a dispute with a customer about the colour of the ice dispenser , it was still £££ at trade price though) and I promised myself I would clean it thoroughly every month without fail. Ahem . The more visible parts get a wipe every six weeks or so but it hardly ever gets a proper clean

I'm dithering about at the moment and don't really know what to do with myself. DH rang an hour or so ago to say his mum has been taken into hospital. She was critically ill with peritonitis (as a result of a tumour blocking her bowel) about 4 years ago and has been frail ever since. DH didn't have any details but it's something to do with her kidneys and very serious - she needs to have an operation urgently, which I imagine is a big risk in itself given her poor health. DH is heading home then either he or all of us will go over to the hospital, depending on how she is. I'd normally not want to take H but in the circumstances it may be nice for her to see him.

Hmmm I don't bother sterilising thinks like calpol syringes, teether toys etc either, I figure if DS can survive licking the carpet (which he does frequently- he even put one of DPs stinky socks in his mouth yesterday) then he ain't going to botheres by a calpol dispenser that hasn't been sterilised

Despite this I was pretty disgusted when I had Jake that the water in the cold water steriliser (for the breast pump/ feeding cups) by my bed in hospital wasn't changed at all for the few days I was there and they never changed my sheets which were all sweaty, bloody, milky and generally horrible ...but that was different because my little angel was all tiny and vulnerable whereas now he is a whopping great solid thing

Spangle sorry to hear about your MIL and an unfortunate X-post I'm sure that hosp is far cleaner than the one I went to

spangle good wishes to you, DH and family. Hope your MIL is ok.

Another one who only really sterilises bottles. My MIL was shocked that I don't sterilise A's toys before I give them to her. I figure that if hands go in mouth and she's rolling around on the floor, unsterilised rattles aren't going to harm her too much.

Meet up sounds good, we'll have to do some sort of map to work out where the middle of us all is. At least if we're all wearing housecoats, we'll recognise each other

spangle I hope your MIL is OK. It must be hard for the family.

sterilising spoons When I had my PFB I used to sterilise his spoon and his plate . Luckily after about 3m of this madness I came to my senses and I haven't sterilised a spoon or plate since

fridges DH is the worst culprit in causing growths. He keeps putting teeny weeny bits of left overs in the fridge (e.g. 3 slices carot and a tbsp of peas) and then leaves them there. I then remove the container many weeks later. I've actually got another 2 containers in there at the moment that I'm putting off opening, cause it wont be a pretty sight. Of course the longer I leave it the worse it'll be...

housecoats My dad sent me this. I knew he'd come up with the goods. He's a computer wizz! Anyway. They're exactly like what my Grandma used to wear. Maybe I should come in one of those

Belgian What does U Kunt mean? [snigger]

jenn Snigger away if you like, but it only means 'you (polite form) can'. I remember sniggering, together with all my teen classmates, in English class when we had to recite the verb to cut (cut, cut).

Hahaha

That wasn't random btw, it's written on that link you posted...

Is it?

It is too. Well it says that you can order via e-mail if you want. Only if you want, though. Not sure how you go about ordering if you don't want to e-mail. Maybe you just need to shout at the computerscreen or something.

Jenn - I did wonder but guessed it must have been on the link!

Thanks for all the confirmation about not sterilising. Feel a bit silly and all PFBy now!

DS slept for nearly 2hrs which is v unusual! I managed to make a huge batch of pork casserole, a batch of stewed apple, a load of washing, sort out towels in the linen cupboard and mend one of DS's tops!

He woke up and within a few minutes was grizzly, dribbling and chomping again. Giving him a feed and then I'll try the powders again with add in of gel as needed. Hope to have a better night tonight!

Ses I was wondering the same about sterilising. I hadn't bothered the last few times since H is constantly sticking toys, his hands etc in his mouth anyway but felt bad, particularly this morning when one of the NCT mums was anti-bac wiping everything in sight. Feel better now!

DH has gone to hospital to visit MIL. She's ok-ish in herself at the moment (as in awake, chatting etc) but it's very frightening as if they don't operate she wouldn't make it past the weekend MIL is having the op tomorrow so we will be hoping and praying she's strong enough to get through it.

I think H may be teething. He's been very grizzly, biting on everything and wanting to feed but breaking off after a few sucks crying. I've given him some Calpol (well, tried to!) and he's asleep. Hopefully he'll be able to have a good feed before going down for the night.

spangle sorry to hear about your mil . I hope the op goes well tomorrow.. will send positive vibes for her.

belgian i stayed with a family whilst on my foundation year course before my degree & the mum was german. Fantastic cook and managed to make me put on weight eating all her fantastic food... I was a veggie at the time so i'm not sure how she managed it anyway she had house coats just like those. notice i said 'she had house coats'

I've suddenly remembered I wrote a tips post about things to try with teething lo's for someone on FB.. i'll see if i can find it and post it here. Some of the tips are for when they are older and are in the weaning stages though.

spangle so sorry to hear about your MIL. I'll say a little prayer for her this evening.

Belgian my DH is exactly the same when it comes to boxing up teeny-weeny portions then leaving them forever in the fridge. He also over-cooks quantity-wise and leave a spoonful of peas or whatever in the saucepan and it drives me round the bend. I have to threaten now and again until he cleans out the fridge.

Meet-up yes, seconding the new year sometime. Realistically there won't be a good time before christmas. What shall we do?

Fi broody? faints and ses you too?!

spangle, thoughts with your MIL and family, what a tough time.

also, Harper is going through similar feeding scenario of wanting to feed, breaking off, crying etc. i couldn't figure out what the problem is so have guessed teething.

sterilising, we stopped sterilising things when dd1 was a baby and noticed she'd picked up the dog's squeeky toy and was chewing on it - i did one of those slow-motion-running-across-the-room 'nnnnooooooooooo'. but it was too late. so figured there was no use in us sterilising bottles etc. all 3 DD's seem to have pretty good immune systems as a result.

ok here it is... was written well over a year ago so not sure if the links are still valid.. will preview and hope

Finn now 23 months has been teething on and off since he was 4/5 months? he?d get a load at once and then none for ages

To start off with:- the gel filled teething rings cold from the fridge worked. As teething worsened we did the frozen banana batons, frozen mango slices & any of his other favourite fruits that froze! Cucumber batons from fridge also a fav (minus the skin).

When they stopped helping we moved on to the fridge cold metal spoons? they really helped cut the teeth through (my health visitor suggested this one, i was sceptical and thought it would be too hard but was wrong on that & in the end we ended up keeping a few in the fridge to rotate!).

Really hard biscuits are good too? we have one in uk for teething called ?Bickiepegs? and we tried the ashtons & parsons teething powders

All of above helped with front 8 teeth (4 top & 4 bottom). The incisors and molars came next and needed combination of hard cold things to chew and teething gel of choice? one we use is dentinox teething gel as it numbs the gums and doesn?t taste like bonjella and i could use it when he was v.tiny. I found the easiest way to apply it is with a rubber finger tooth brush
just apply a bit to the ?bristles? and let baby chew while it?s on your finger.

These days it?s his last 4 back molars to come through and none of the above really fixes it so it?s dentinox to take the edge off and going straight for a dose of calpol paracetamol to ease the pain.

You?ll find the teething comes and goes and the nappies can get plentiful at peak of teething? for v.sore bum nappy rash when sudocream not helping try a v.thin layer of metanium ointment
and if nappy rash looks blistery & cream refuses to stick to it or skin looks shiny with/without white spots? the nappy rash may have turned into thrush & you?ll need to get a proper prescription cream from doc to fix it.

These are the things we?ve discovered so far and thankfully finn only has 4 teeth out of the 20 to go hope above helps you & your little one?

I remember those times so well? I hope benjamin?s teeth come through quick so you get a breather before the next lot

Fiona
x

That's not bad.. only had to sort the toothbrush link. I bought these as a 3pk in boots and they're available in many other places...