May 09 - Six months on. Sleepless nights, hen nights and a sexybuilder.

[HeadlessLadyH]

Over here!!!!

dandy I can see why you fought so hard WRT dd going to this school. They sound like they really did deal with the situation well on the whole. I'm glad the deputy head had been asked to speak to you and sasha/ellas mum before you had to ask to see her... it shows they have good teacher communications in place Your chat at the PT next week will be easier now.

Dandy sounds like the school handled the situation well. It's an important lesson for LOs to learn that we each have our own ideas but we need to listen to and respect others', even if they're different. I remember my Mum threatening to withdraw me from school assembly because she felt it was too religious - I argued that I should be allowed to make my own choice whether to attend or not and she shouldn't impose her views on me. I must have been an awkward child

Pukester I really hope it isn't a new round of illness - you've had way more than your fair share (and I hate to think what you'd have to change your name to )

Ses yay to O moving - clever boy!

Interesting about the toothbrushing. H's tooth is just becoming visible so it's been on my mind. Haven't got him a toothbrush yet though.

Mini rant if I may: I've been to the hairdresser's today for a cut and colour, leaving H with DH at his (DH's) showroom. Both previous times I've been I rushed straight back to take over, but this time I thought, no, I've had so little time to myself since H was born, so after I'd finished at the hairdresser's I went for a latte & muffin & read of a newspaper. Only no sooner had I sat down than DH rang asking when I was getting back so he could put H down and do stuff < and 'now he knows what it's like emoticon'>. To be fair, he does do as much as he can to help with H when he's at home, but I was a teensy bit annoyed as I'd put this in his diary weeks and weeks in advance, so he could have planned around it and let me have a bit of free time in peace.

spangle gi-us-a-twirl then ooo you have my sympathies wrt dh & getting some time off for you without H. G will be 6months on friday and the only G free time i've had is when she's fallen soundly asleep and i've dashed off to collect ds from pre school leaving her to snooze with either dh or my mum to keep an eye on her (depending on whose in). I can still count those few 30mins on one hand atm! DH does help out with them both at the weekends but mostly seems to end up more with ds and me more with G.

I have finished my collage photo prints for xmas cards, calendars and photobooks order now so excitedly waiting for it all to arrive now

jenn how's this bug going? I saw from your fb update that at least there was no vomiting this time which is something at least. Def no fair for you to have more of it though

Ah, Fi, I should remember I have it easy with just the one! And I feel a bit guilty as DH has only just got in from work - he's hired a skip for tomorrow and needs to get everything sorted as we are going to have a second viewing of a nursery tomorrow morning. Luckily he has hired someone to do the skip filling for him!

Ooh I had a little splurge on Christmas things at Mothercare earlier today . I bought this for H, along with some Christmas bibs and pyjamas. In my defence, I missed out on getting him a Halloween outfit. Can't wait to try it on him.

Evening everyone,

dandy So there was more to the story then. The school sounds wonderful

momi glad you had a good dental app't. They're never nice, aren't they?

running I hope your 1st weigh was as good as you hoped

spangle @ you DH. Men, hey?

ses @ O playing with the JJ doll.

I'm very tired tonight. I just came online to check on my eBay auctions finishing today and I might go to sleep very soon. I'll hang on until DH phones though.

I've had some bad news from home. My 91yo grandmother is in hospital. She was in ICU, but is now on a geriatric ward. My mum (who's a HCA) had been expressing her concerns for quite a while to the GP about my grandmother looking pale and that she's having black stools. She was suspecting internal bleeding or something equally sinister. Anyway the GP kept brushing off my mum's concerns and then 2 days ago she did bleed and it turned out my mum's suspicions were correct. They've tried to do a colposcopy, but couldn't proceed because there seems to be a blockage. So they're trying again tomorrow I think, but we think she must have a tumor somewhere. I'm going to talk to dh about going over to visit her sometime soon. Apparently she's not very well at all.

spangle I've been eyeing up the girly version of that. It's the first time I'll have a 'proper' baby at xmas. Ds was a tiny nb and dd1 was a few days short of her 1st b'day and walking, so I'd love to get some of those 1st xmas things

spangle that outfit is really cute... I wanted to buy something similar for ds's 1st xmas but dh hated it so we compromised on a red/white stripy top & red trouser set with a reindeer motif on it & matching white hat with reindeer antlers DS looked adorable in it and i'm going to buy something for dd's 1st xmas. Haven't worked out just what that'll be yet & this time i'm not asking dh for his opinion before All those of you with girls what have your dd's worn? Ideas please...

oh belgian i'm sorry to hear about your gm. It doesn't sound too good does it Hopefully they can find the blockage and then know what to do next...

just had a peek at the other mothercare xmas outfits... how cute is the pudding one and the elf lol. I think dh would kill me if i bought them lol.

hey I've just discovered that next still do the reindeer hat i've got i'll have to find where i've put it

Oh fi That hat and booty set is sooo cute!

Well, we don't think it's appropriate to go through major surgery at my gm's age, especially with her being as frail as she is, so if it's cancer then she'll probably go down the palliative care route. From talking to her I'm pretty sure that's what she'll want too.

DH just phoned, so off to bed now. I think I might leave the dreamfeed tonight to see what happens. She's still not taking it half the time lately.

night night belgian, about your gm but at least if it is cancer they'll be able to make her comfortable and pain free.

Just a quick post from me, MN has been playing up for me and hasn't been letting me post
Thing's have been very hectic here, I could do with a rest DP's 30th is in 2 weeks, I'm trying to plan the wedding, then there's Christmas too, my head is just all over the place...

Baby J has been to the docs this week, a rash appeared all over him after having weetabix for the first time, so they've reccomended holding off it untl it goes and then introducing it again, to see if he has a wheat allergy I havn't changed washing liquids etc but they also said the wheat allergy would be rare seeing as no-one in our immediate family has any intolerances to wheat, so we'll have to wait and see...

So apart from me being ran off my feet, I'm ok, DD is ok, I'll try catch up, but you lot do like to chat! lol

Am I the only one with a LO with no teeth BTW?

jael, Harper doesn't have teeth yet (although she's been teething for a few months now).

belgian, re: your grandmother. hope she's ok.

Dandy, sounds like wise words from the school, good forward-thinking communication.

I'll name check others but am just listening toH whinge-crying, trying to decide if/when to pick her up. she's not normally awake at this time but i peeped in through her door, her eyes were wide open and as soon as she
saw me she started screaming.

ohhhh, it's been at least 10 min and the neighbour is going to wonder. going to pick her up.

jael G has no teeth either... some days her cheeks are bright red and she drools like a river... the next day back to normal and no teething signs at all I hope J doesn't get a rash again with wheat but if he does at least there are still a lot of things he can eat and the gluten free ingredients are a lot better these days to make your own versions than they used to be when we were growing up (dh's brother is coeliac).

Spangle Shame on you!

Belgian Oh no your poor GM. I really hope the news isn't as bad as you suspect.

Dandy I like the result of your story. It made me ponder if there are such thing as Humanist schools. I've been to a lovely humanist wedding, and the longest most deathly dull humanist funeral you can imagine.

Ds is fine in himself, I just can't risk sending him to nursery when his nappies are so loose.

I had Dd2 weighed yesterday and I was (but not too concerned) at her weight...Then I compared the dc's red books. When she was born she was 29oz heavier than dd1 was. At 6 months, there is only 10oz difference between them. Now I know dd2 has been sick for 10 days, but dd1 basically refused any milk or solids for a week at about the same age when I was in hospital for a week with meningitis. I hasten to add, that dd2 is absolutely fine and I'm not worried in the least (what with all her frequent feeds through the night and day....) but it just goes to show you never can tell. DD2 is also much much much longer than dd1, and so I suppose all her energy is going into growing. Dd2 now wearing 9-12 Next sleepsuits, and too small for MandS 12-18 months, but has grown out of their 9-12.

Hope all those with sickies are on the mend. I promise I won't change my name to shitster

Evening all

Dandy glad you had a good and constructive conversation with the Deputy. The school sounds fantastic.

Fi how cute are those outfits?

Spangle sending empathies about DH's not understanding. Mine is particularly dense when it comes to seeing how hard work it is to look after LOs, especially when he's away all week, then expects (and has - which is my fault) lie-ins at the weekends because he is tired. Poor lamb

Looby hope you are doing OK

Belgian what sad news about your GM. I hope that the Drs find the best and most appropriate treatment for her

Jael... and breathe...! Take it easy on yourself . G shows no signs whatsoever of getting teeth BTW. And I have no intention to start brushing his teeth until he is 1+ [v. bad mummy emoticon].

Right. I've been stewing about my work situation and I wouldn't mind some advice about how to handle it. Apologies, but I think this is going to be a long post !

The facts are that there was a restructure right before I left on mat leave, and I ended up working in a new role in a new team for quite a senior Director, but I don't have a team to manage myself, when I did previously. My Director / team / HR / Director's PA have made absolutely no effort to contact me or keep in touch during ML. Which is OK (sort-of) because I know it's difficult to know whether people want to be left alone during ML. I have struggled with this as I don't know anyone at all to be able to phone 'on the quiet' to figure out what is going on.

So my request to return to work and work 4 days out of 5 was sent in early Sept. I had to phone at the end of Sept to confirm they had received it, and they had (they don't acknowledge letters apparently. Very helpful.) I have emailed 3 chaser note to my boss (I don't have his phone number) & 2 to his PA. He has responded a couple of times apologising and promising to get back to me. But then hasn't. So I started ringing HR. I have now called her 4 times. Each time she has been supportive and promised to chase my boss, but each time nothing has resulted. The latest communication was on Monday when my boss wrote to me saying he was having trouble getting his boss to sign it off and he would get back to me. Which he hasn't.

I don't really know what to do next. I don't want to create a confrontational situation, but I do feel I need to make a stand because this is getting ridiculous. Luckily I have flexible childcare arrangements, but given I should be in the office in 6 weeks it's getting stupid. Should I write yet another email stating that as I haven't heard anything I will assume 4 days a week is fine? Should I chase HR again or what? Or should I leave it? I think the reason it is taking so long is because there is going to be yet another restructure, so my request is in that mix. But from my point of view I feel completely forgotten and unimportant. Any suggestions on what I should do next? I'm thinking another call to HR because she was sympathetic.

Oh and teeth cleaning....I have the same chocolate teapot of a HV as SmokyTom and she told me the same thing. Use adult toothpaste, (18 months ago for ds) and my eminently sensible dentist said to clean the teeth with no toothpaste as mentioned by somebody else. He said that the most important thing is to remove food that might be stuck in the teeth. I'm afraid I've used toothpaste for so long already, I can't bring myself not not, but figure I don't need to beat myself up about it. I've fed both the older dc to sleep, (having already cleaned their teeth)to no detriment. Believe it or not, but one day they won't need bf to sleep and will happily lie down and go to sleep after a nice story or six.

Jael I too have had MN gremlins. They swallowed my posts for a few days and even now, I can't enter a thread part way through, only if I click on the title. Must be dem codes

X posts - Pukester great to hear from you. I really really hope the illness fairy leaves your home promptly. What a horrible 6 weeks it has been for you and your family.

Tummum How frustrating. I would be tempted (but not brave enough) to say that seeing as you have given them the required notice, you will take their silence as permission, as you need to confirm with your childcare at the earliest time. If you don't confirm days with your childcare then you will have a problem going back at all......on second thought perhaps not. I'm angry on your behalf!

tummum i'd go with a call to HR again as the lady there seemed nice from what you've said... They may well be going through another shuffle but that doesn't help you much does it? you may well have to do the 'who shouts loudest gets attention thing' though by the sounds of it.

pukester mn seems to be fine on the laptop for me but on my phone it's really playing up atm... really annoying as i'm finding i can sometimes get on to read but posting it really doesn't like

right off to dream feed G and bed for me. Night night xoxox

damn. lost my post. MN is annoying most of the time.

tummum, I'd call HR and if you don't have luck then write the email saying you assume 4 days is ok since you haven't heard otherwise.

seems like some of us aren't getting great support for returning from our employers .

pukester, hope things are better at your house.

I'm off too, Fi.
H asleep.
good night to all.