June 08- the shoes, the food, the glamour!

[pureeandpearls]

Struggling to load pages these days and saw we were over the 900 so took the liberty of starting a new thread.

BDQ - x post and similar problem with manky sippy cups. They all seem to have flaws, they either leak or go manky.

Oh we have one of those straw cups Ktpie, but haven't used it as S couldn't fathom out how to get any liquid out of it! Did it take J long to figure it out?

I heard the same about sippy cups, but yep we used them too! I do take all the valves etc off cups now though because S isn't too bad now for tipping cups upside down etc. I think I'm going to revisit the doody cup around the end of the year.

BDQ - you have to make sure it is put together right, can be a bit fiddly, I've given it to him before to realise later that nothing is coming out, although saying that I'm sure you would have checked! His friend has one the same so he probably just copied him, can you demonstrate?
J is terrible for tipping cups upside down, we have a fairly simple one, possibly a Tesco one, which we use at meal times, it doesn't have any valves and if I turn my back he has tipped water all over the table!

It's not like my health visitor has ever bothered getting back in touch after that visit at 6 months so she won't know I ignored her advice!

Hi guys, very quick post from me as I'm in bed with mastitis . It never rains but it pours eh?!

Firstly, thank you for all your lovely messages of support and congrats - I have read the thread and was very touched. Michael was obviously wanting to wait until Thursday to make his grand entrance so him and his brother could share a birthdate (15th), makes remembering their birthday so much easier.

My waters were broken at 2am cos my BP was climbing and unresponsive to meds. I had an epidural put in beforehand - no point trying to do it afterwards! I was fully dilated by 5am, started pushing by 5.30am and out he popped just after 6am.

I wasn't discharged until yesterday cos my BP was still high. A lovely MW had me transferred to a private room and lo and behold my BP came down!

Michael is asleep in his basket next to me and is unbearably cute - sooo tiny! Which reminds me Essie, definite yes to the baby clothes please!

I've just managed to eat some food and am going for a shower now before braving some expressing - the pain is hideous . I'm off to the bf clinic tomorrow morning to have his tongue tie snipped cos the NCT counsellor thinks that is what's causing the problem.

Anyway, will try and load some photos later cos I'm aware everyone is dying to see the new arrival !

As for recent non-baby talk on here - I'm in total agreement with you all that Brendan Cole is a twunt!

Welcome back Sponge! Lovely to hear about Michael and looking forward to seeing some pics! Sorry the bf iis proving a challenge - ouch on the mastitis!

Ktpie - the cup works like a straw is that right? I tested it and it seemed to work ok, but S couldn't seem to fathom that he needed to suck it up to get anything out. I might try it again. Have spent a small fortune on cups!

Must go and do some revision now. Only two weeks till my exams. Why oh why have I left the revision so late again, I had 6 months to do it and now I'm trying to squeeze it into a month

Sponge the FB pics are gorgeous! You look fabulous too. Well done to everyone. Sorry to hear about the mastitis. That's very unlucky to get it so quickly isn't it? At this stage I don't even think my milk had come in. How is Alex BTW?

Sponge massive congratulations, your ds is just perfect! Sorry to hear about your mastitis, hopefully it will clear up soon. If you are still having diffuculty feeding we are here to support and will not judge you on whatever decision you make.

Re cups I really like this one 360 cup. DS can drink from any side like a normal cup but it's non spill.

Sponge - beautiful pics! Well done you! Lots of sympathy for the mastitis, I felt blooming awful when I had it.

BDQ - yep it's just like a straw. Hope you have some luck with it.

Goingto - that cup looks good, how does it work?

J is currently dancing around the living room so can't be feeling too bad, no more nasty nappies since first thing this morning. DH thinks he is a cartoon baby as when he gets tired he has massive cartoon bags under his eyes and when he was feeling poorly last night and this morning he went green in a cartoon style.

Great pics sponge!

We have the 360 cup too goingto... But again S couldn't figure it out. He was very puzzled by it. I don't think he could understand that he still needed some suction to get the water out. Poor boy. I've got a cupboard full of cups and never a clean one he can drink out of when we need it

Thanks for the cup help everyone

Sponge - welcome home, your FB photos are fantastic and you look great. ds2 is just gorgeous, how's the big brother coping with it all?

Mastitis - as a veteran of the dreaded mastitis you have my sympathy. What helped to ease it for me here was warming the breast before feeding/expressing (hot flannel) - that is if you get prior warning that you're just going to feed, sometimes you just don't get the chance. Then after apply something cold - the cabbage leaves did work despite my 1st thoughts. Big cabbage like a savoy, here it was a white cabbage, take some leaves, cut out the thick stalk piece, lay them between kitchen roll and using a rolling pin flatten them , then leave them in the fridge until you need them.The curd cheese I was also prescribed didn't work so well and was very messy. Really anything as long as it's hot before and cold after.

Is M still refusing the breast?

Can't really add anything to the cup advice as J has the basic Tommee Tippe for watered down juice at meals and then drinks milk through a normal straw which then gets thrown away.

Sponge, the mastitus is very bad luck. Did it start with a blocked duct? If so (and for the next time) the best way I have found to prevent it is to try and clear the duct with a breast pump. Feed as normal and then pump afterwards on an empty breast. Try to position the pump so it pulls strongly on the blocked area. This has worked really well for me this time around. Once you get it though, all you can do is try to get antibiotics asap. Hugs to you and Baby Michael - and a big kiss for Alex for being an ace big brother.

Bdq sympathy re cups - agree that half of them need them need dyson like strength to get anything out( what a waste of money the anyway up cup is). And it's hit and miss re tipping up here_ although all seems a waste of time given she only really likes milk in a bottle.

Sponge great news that you are home. And Brendan is a twunt but while we are talking scd it has to be time to think about replacing Bruce.

Sybil- I wouldn't worry re taking cot but do take a grobag or blanket to make it homely.

Ktpie- sympathy re j - it took e about 5 days to get over it. She wasn't particularly I'll - just vile nappies and a bit off her food. Stopping dairy helped.

Whinegums sorry about your horrible week.

Whinegums, sorry about your friend's cancer - that is such bad luck and understandably very upsetting. Hope she recovers fully.

Sponge, great pics! He and you look great. Hope the mastitis clears up quick - I just found feeding and expressing as much as poss helped clear it. Good news about getting M's tongue tie fixed - hope it does the trick.

On cups, I just use the tommee tippee 1st cup and the cow beakers for their milk. What is a sippy cup? They don't tend to drink massive amounts anyway - but they do drink more when I take the lid off. They spill a lot down themselves too but they seem to like the novelty of having no lid and drink loads more. I was going to suggest it for Edie Poppy but have you tried that already?

Thanks Poppy - J has had a more normal nappy this afternoon so hopefully it is passing.

Neenz - we have a cow beaker as well. I would call any of the cups with a lid type things a sippy cup, don't know if that is right or not.

I feel really tired and have hardly done anything today, DH put a load of stuff in the loft with a little helper who can manage to climb onto the first rung of the loft ladder, little imp.

I keep putting off posting until I can catch up properly, but have left it so long this has fallen off the threads I am on!

So jumping back on board.

BTW, absolutely loving the KiwiKakapo name. Will name change when I leave the UK, for some reason anything else seems like tempting fate.

Lovely to hear from you Sponge - Good luck at the BF clinic, I found them to be fantastic, hope you do too.

Back from Bristol now - and sorry Essie, didn't get round to arranging a trip up to see you. Can we arrange a November London meet up before I go? Felt weird coming back because coupled with the usual relief you feel when coming home I was thinking that it's not for long!

BDQ - With your HR hat on, am I right in thinking that holiday pay is normally about 1/260 of annual pay?

OK - piles of washing to do. Ah the glamour!

PS. I'm now feeling broody after looking at Sponge's FB pics, DH just said "are you?" in a completely disinterested way when I told him.

Bdq - yep, that sounds right PP, but only if you work 5 days a week. If you want me to check a calculation for you just fb me.

You mean a day's holiday pay don't you?

Thanks BDQ - it was just a quick sanity check. Work have agreed to pay me 17.5 days holiday on top of my redundancy pay, so that's some extra cash I didn't expect.

Oh I meant to say after Amber's GB comments made me laugh, I actually did meet him when he was chancellor. He opened our building at work. (But I was threatened with being fired if I asked him about abolishing tax relief on private medical insurance for pensioners....so it was just a handshake and hello).

Oh I meant to say after Amber's GB comments made me laugh, I actually did meet him when he was chancellor. He opened our building at work. (But I was threatened with being fired if I asked him about abolishing tax relief on private medical insurance for pensioners....so it was just a handshake and hello).

Is it holiday pay that you would have accrued on the notice period PP?

On GB, I bumped into him once, quite literally! We were both walking down Whitehall, it would have been around 98 I think. Friend's DD plays with his DC now!

Thanks for your help BDQ.

It's actually holiday pay I've accrued whilst being on sick leave. It's a bit of a hazy point of law as far as I can tell, however my solicitor raised it and I think HR have just decided it's easier to give it to me than argue. (Which is lucky, because the legal costs to pursue it wouldn't have been worthwhile).

Quite approachable in real life I thought.

Think my final day in the UK will be 21 Nov. How soon is that!?

Yeah, I suppose it can be a wee bit hazy, but the law is moving much more in favour of protecting holiday for those on sick leave, so if I was in your company I defintely wouldn't want to argue about it.

I make no pretence to know him in real life, but the people I know that do tell me he's very different to how he comes accross.

Right, have done my bit to help the economy tonight at Boden, jojomamanbebe and photobox (although, all with discount codes ) so off to watch Fringe.

Hope Sponge is having a good night at home with her boys!

That's some good shopping there!

Funny moment when discussing sick pay holiday:

HR: No, she was on sick leave and company policy means that she doesn't get holiday.
Solicitor: How does that comply with the working time regulations?
HR: She wasn't working, she was on sick leave.
Solicitor: The regs apply to all active employees.
HR: Errrrrrr....well company policy is...
Solicitor: Company policy doesn't over rule EU law.

I think that was the exact moment I knew I was making the right decision.

OK, think we'd better stop this becoming an HR forum now!

Morning all, up early with Nigel today as he's off to the UK until Thursday - so I'm home alone until then.Tristan said " don't you think it would be nice if he could take Ethan with him Mummy?" Little brothers can be a nuisance!

Sponge - hope your 1st night home was OK, good luck today at the clinic.

Pumpkinproject - I can't believe it's all happening so quickly for you, only a month left in the country. Have you got much to ship out? How are all those plans going? Do you have accommodation in NZ already?

BDQ - if you're reading this you shouldn't be, get revising!

Ktpie - How's J this morning?

Poppy - how's E? Any more steps?

Going2 - I can't work out the 360 cup, is it open at the top?

Spider - did you get the remote out?