lau - Sorry you had such a shitty time of it on Thursday. Phrase about it never raining for pouring springs to mind. Hope your DH feels better soon.
I'm feeling exceedingly pissed off because we met up with a close male mate of mine and his girlfriend, who have a 3-and-a-bit-month-old little boy. Not only did the girl steal my baby name (I normally hate the petty concept of a name being stealable, but she asked me what name I was planning if one baby was a little boy and I said Guy - she said it was 'OK but not to her taste at all'... and promptly used it when she gave birth in early August a few weeks down the line), but she was constantly needling me about the fact that, somewhat embarrassingly, Guy seemed at times to be more articulate (I use the word loosely but true nevertheless) and spatially aware at not yet 4 months than James is at not far off 9 months.
Thus far I'd been reasonably relaxed about it, he's hardly 3 years old so an inability to crawl efficiently/walk/say mama, indeed utter anything other than burbled gobbledigook, is hardly worrying... just put it down to him going at his own pace. But she kept on and on about how admittedly Guy was Einstein in the making etc etc, so James might seem a big unexceptional in comparison, but still, was I not perhaps a little concerned? etc. And then she effectively told me not to worry, because J is an exceptionally good-looking baby so it didn't matter if he was hopeless at everything else, or words to that effect! I'm pretty laid back so she got no visible reaction out of me and happily I think that irked her but still! I'm furious! I may not be concerned yet but at times teeter precariously on the brink of being concerned as is natural, so why deliberately try and nudge me in that direction, particularly when I'm weeks/days/even potentially hours off popping out two more! Why do some women derive pleasure in stressing out others to try and validate their own experiences? It makes me so annoyed.
Sorry for epic rant, just can't stand the competitive culture rampant in so many other mums!
The maternal alarm bells aren't going off with James because a) he's not even 9 months old for a couple of weeks yet, so hardly lagging dangerously behind by not reciting Keats and running marathons already and b) I was a very, health-visitor-astoundingly early talker but a pathetically late walker, whereas my ex (Jim's dad) was running along like a child of 4 at 9 months old but barely said a word that made any sense until he started school. I think perhaps Jimmy just drew the short straw of both elements, so to speak! Hope he hasn't done though, no reason to suppose he'll be behind but in the dark of the night I do think about it.