June 2008: New Year, new thread, new names, new words, new goals, but no resolutions!

[abdnhikinginawinterwonderland]

New thread since the last one's at 997 posts...

Hi Rolf, haven't been around with you for nearly a year! I feel the same as you about BFing. D is my last baby - my hormones are messed up with the coil anyway.

Actually on the subject of the Mirena coil, does anyone find they still get the hormones associated with having a cycle, but no blood? I get very premenstrual, and very horny mid-month, but nothing else. It's so long (since the mid 90s) since I had a normal cycle so I can barely remember what it was like!

Abdn, what fun baking bread! And glad you are not too cold. When I hear about temps of -26, I think of you! Where is your DH at the moment?

Goddess - loving the new name. Have you stopped work then, oh HR Queen? Or are yuo like me and trying to do both?

after all the disaster and stress when I was pregnant, I am loving work - just three days a week. I'm in a much more interesting job than I was before. But all civil servants are just waiting for the election to see what happens.

Essie, is Tedibersmorad something in Welsh?

DH and DBIL are out drinking this evening. DBIL lived with us from when Dorothy was born till March last year but has been in Afghanistan ever since. He goes back on Monday so he has been taking advantage of being here and doing lots of good stuff. (Mostly eating bacon and leading DH astray but anyway!)

UDC DH is home - he's got a short trip planned at the end of the month but that's it and it's a bit warmer in the river valley than up in the hills - we were just -11.

neenz our boiler was definitely worth it, we'll pay it off in 8 years and the house is definitely more comfortable.

rolf hope your DD1 is okay and that you've heat upstairs soon - I wouldn't want to be sleeping in a room without heat at the moment!

hi all, we've also had to have the heating on too - we live in an old sandstone house, and only the back is double glazed. full height bay windows are lovely in the summer, but they suck the heat out in this weather!

C has developed a new game, which is v sweet. we stand at either end of the hall and say 'ready, steady, GO!' and she runs towards whichever parent it is and hugs our legs. it's great! She has also decided that she likes to give out her goodnight kisses through the bars of her cot, so we have to crouch down and be kissed as though she is in a small person prison! Oh, and also this week, she has learned how to say her own name! (or something akin to it!) If you say what's your name she replies with 'Larlot' and points at her chest. it's very cute.

Teethwise, we're up to 10 now, although 4 are very recent.

I'm going to watch dancing on ice - although I feel as though we could all take part this year instead of Dr Hilary Jones, or whoever else is in it!

Essie - what does your new name mean then - have you decided to keep it?

Hi UDC - long time!

Hi UDC, good to 'see' you. I'm still working, but trying (notver successfully) to be a domestic goddess too!

S has had 12 teeth for a while, and his 4 canines have broken through so I guess that's 16 teeth. That sounds a lot! How many do they get again.

biscuits I'm always so envious of C's chatter, S's is still pretty non existent. Nowt wrong with his memory though. DH had cbeebies on his laptop yest while feeding him a yoghurt. I got a yoghurt out of the fridge earlier and he went and found the laptop for me to turn on!

Another terrible night here, fingers crossed for a better one tonight!

That is so sweet about C, Biscuits.

DD1 is asleep in bed now and seems to be feeling a bit better. Still no radiators upstairs or in the hall though. We took the old ones off for when the plastering was done, and now the new pipes have been laid we can go ahead and get the floorboards repaired, then sanded, then get the decorating done, then save up for new rads, then get them fitted! So it will be a good while before we are warm up there. We have open fires as well so are using them, and the stoves downstairs help to heat the whole house, but it's still pretty cold upstairs. Downstairs is ok, thank goodness.

My beastly eye has gone sore again. I'm so pissed off, and it's soooo uncomfortable. It's not swollen like last time, which apparently was the worrying bit, so I haven't gone to the GP, but it is very bloodshot, oozy, itchy and sore .

DId anyone read the wedding dress thread? It was so sweet, people so excited about their beautiful dresses and showing off photos. It was lovely.

tedi right, you have to tell me what your name means, I've just tried to translate it on line, and no luck. It's driving me mad!

rolf sorry about your eye, sounds sore

UDC nice to hear from you, (I'm vivaglasvegas!)

Don't be jealous Goddess S will be chattering soon, C just takes after me, she's a chatterbox!

Brrrrrrr Rolf!

We'll have to arrange a meet up when the weather clears biscuits, the C can teach S.

Good idea, as long as she doesn't teach him that his name is Larlot.

Hurrah, we've finally got our broadband connection. I think I'm too chunky for Howies clothes, but I do like their catalogues (print addict).

B won't ever let me have a look at his teeth properly. The only way to see them is to turn him upside down, which makes him laugh and try and get a quick squizz.

Ah Biscuits, v cute. B can say 'hat', 'hot' and is attempting 'tasty'. Dada and Mama, but not always with meaning. Other general babbling too, V poor in comparison! We do get tons of kisses, but so does everything at the moment, including his reflection, various toys, etc.

Rolf I hope you have hot water bottles. I can't bear the cold. DP de-iced my car this morning when he left (bless) but I had to rescrape the windscreen an hour later. Your eye sounds bad, poor you.

Has anyone else been called to take the anklebiters for the swine flu vaccine? I haven't had anything from the docs/HV/etc.

Aaarrggghhhh, another terrible night here and we were all up way before the crack of dawn. Grrrrr.

bugger we've not heard about the vaccine either, in fact I've been meaning to phone the soca and find out. S babbled loads too - it's quite funny. You can hear him practicing new sounds - I keep wondering if he'll just babble away for another year or so then suddenly start talking in fully formed sentences

bugger our appt for the vaccine is on the 19th for both boys. I think the fact that it's supposed to have been rolled out over Christmas is delaying things. I'll be pleased when it's done and they have immunity (it's ten days later I think...)

Fraser's talking up a storm which is so strange after DS1's silence. They are such totally different personalities. I am sort of glad I didn't have mumsnet with DS1 though as all this talk of talking toddlers would have upset me. I was worried enough as it was - and for absolutely no reason. He has more than caught up with his peers now and makes me laugh with the things that come out of his mouth.

Off for more sledding in the snow - it's foggy here today too which is odd. Don't think I've ever had this combination of fog and snow before...

I love CC!!! First time 30mins, next time 5 mins, thereafter never more than 3 mins. A complete revelation and a very happy Mummy - and little boy. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Bought some amazing rosemary bread from riverside market today - trying to stop myself eating the whole loaf with yummy butter. (BTW, I always thought of anchor as premium brand butter in the UK, in NZ it's the cheaper stuff. Still tastes good tho.)

Rolf - sorry about the eye. Bit worrying for you - I hate eye problems, they always seem so much more scary than, say, ankle problems.

Been bitten by bloody mossies again, they clearly have a taste for the english blood.

Wow, swine flu jabs. Has the 'epidemic' got worse? Ry has had to have more vaccines over here for Hep B and smthing else, I forget. Nurse couldn't believe he didn't cry. Injections have never bothered him too much, but he normally gives out dirty looks to the person injecting him. Not this time, the only protest was that he didn't like the jelly bean she gave him afterwards!

Hoping that you all are nice and toasty. I really don't envy you the weather you have. I love snow, but only for a few days. This has got to be one of the worst winters for a long time - any change forecast soon? Neenz - that's a lot of money, but hope it will be worthwhile.

C'mon Essie, you've got to tell us what your name means!

Nice to hear from you UDC. I seem to recall that Christian loved having his uncle over last time, is it the same this time too?

Lots of talking here, but not necessarily words as such. "Hereyouare" comes out as all one word when he is giving you something. "Hi", "Hiya", "Bye", "no", "yeah"are all I can think of right now...but he will babble at you very seriously.

Great about the sleep PP. It's lovely amidst all this snow and ice to hear of trips to the market for rosemary bread!

Goddess sorry you had another crap night. Thea isn't sleeping so well either. She cut her mouth a couple of days ago and just when I think it's healing, it starts bleeding again. When she wakes up in the night I find her sheet has big splodges of blood on it.

T isn't really talking but loads of babbling including a very sweet blurblurblur noise which makes her very happy.

My eye is worse today. I would just assume it was conjunctivitis but because of how it was the other week, I'm not so sure. The pharmacist has given me some cream for it and told me that if it doesn't improve to call the out of hours GP. DH is out at work today so I can't get into a taxi (too many children!). These things always happen when he's busy at work. He has a 5-day trial next week and was given the papers only a couple of days ago , so he'll be working long days all weekend.

We've been up since 6am too. Ouch. At least B is having a decent nap now, so that's let me sort a few things out. A couple (i.e. two!) chums are coming over this afternoon. I might have a couple of sherbets - I've thrown together a duck casserole in the slow cooker, so it doesn't matter if I'm wankered a bit tiddly, and DP can be the adult in charge!

Ta for the replies re SF vaccine - can't say I'm too keen for B to have the jab, but I definitely don't want him to have SF. It's the lesser of two evils isn't it? Biscuits, just wondering, what's your take on it if you don't mind me asking? (I understand if you don't want to go there though!)

PP that is good about sleep. I wish I was tough enough to do CC again. I'm just too soft.

Abdn, we had the fog yesterday. More snow overnight, but not too much. I'm off to enter some more holiday competitions... I finally put together the lightshade I won in the VW competition this week - took two nights! It looks pretty good, but I still would have preferred the diamond earrings - or the car of course!

Hi All,

Rolf- poor you with the eye - I hate all eye things so I was a nightmare when Luke scratched my cornea. I hope it gets better soon. Sounds like antib's might be the answer.

I am thinking of taking Luke to the doctors to try to get his adenoids removed. He has terrible black bags under his eyes as he never gets good sleep because he can't breathe through his nose. he has never really been able to breathe through it and we once took him to an allergy place and the doc said it was his adenoids. Mark has the same problem and judging by his dad's smelly breath so does he (means you can only breathe through you mouth so smelly breath is common). I hate the idea of him having an op but if it means he can sleep properly then it's probably worth it. What do you think?

PP - Hurrah for the sleeping! CC does work great doesn't it but you do sometimes have to do a reminder when they have fogotten! Luke had a terrible night last night but not his fault as it was his nose again. I got no sleep at all as we kept having avalanhces of snow fall off the roof!

Ooh Bugger - Duck casserole - yum yum!

Luke hasn't had anything about SF vaccine either. I asked the doctors and they said nothing had gone out yet and to wait. I guess he may as well have it but who knows when it will mutate and the vaccine will be useless.

TMI alert but my period is so much less heavy after a month on the pill, it's great! Maybe i'll keep taking it after I have another baby (fingers crossed). Don't like the idea of a coil and i have to take tablets every day anyway for my thyroid sowon't be any more of an inconvenience.

Talking wise Luke is flying. I feel bad writing it down because I don't want anyone to think I'm boasting (maybe I am a bit ) but Luke can say probably more than 50 words easily. He picks things up so quickly and quite a lot of it from the telly. He has even started counting down from 10 to 1 'cos he learnt it from Show me Show me! No sentences though other than hello/bye bye/night night and then mummy/daddy or whoever else he is talking to (doggy, cat etc!). It has made life much easier because he can tell me what he wants although sometimes I wish I didn't understand (again, again, piggle piggle.

We got him some new shoes today as they leave the kiddies shoes on all day at nursery and I wanted some comfy ones for him. I still cant believe how expensive they are - £28 from Clarks!!

bugger we will have the vaccine here, DH and I have both had it already through work, no word yet from our GP though. C's friend had it just before Christmas though (the vaccine) and she was fine.

sorry about all the bad sleeping recently - perhaps it's the weather? (apart from you PP!) we had some snow overnight here, although it wasn't forecast. makes walking on the pavements much easier though!

we're going away next weekend for a friend's birthday - in a stroke of genius she bookedthis lodge last july. It's the closest place to the ski slopes at Glen Shee, so there's no way it would have been available in this weather. Think we might be rather cold though!

That lodge looks gorgeous Biscuits - very romantic! I wish i could ski - never tried it as I'm far too clumsy i'd probably come bck in plaster!

Hello everyone - rolf how is your eye?
pp how was last night? Am with ktpie and neenz now on cc - I go by tone of crying rather than how long as I has become more than obvious that e will stay awake as long as she can regardless of how tired he is sometimes.

amber what kind of shoes did you go for? Am o. The frequent shopper plan with our local place as you get a free pair after ten I think (better than nothing) but must admit I only bought shoes there. Used sizing to get slippers and wellies in bhs.
And no news on sf here (not even sure nanny has been offered a jab yet- promising news on that front as nanny has suggested a friend who looks greAt on paper, knows Edie as has been on playdates with her charges and seems lovely- but is travelling so no final decision til we meet her in person. Fingers crossed - although shame as Edie and nanny really bonded now).

udc glad you are liking work as I enjoy it too Now for the adult time- helps I work with a nice bunch too.

Re ttc although am still very much in two minds booked an appointment to see someone at zita west in two week as I am not ready to call it a day and do want some answers if any on what is holding up. At very least thus means less wine time and healthier diet for me which is no bad thing...
Sympathies as early starts here too- wonde if it's the cold...

Hi guys, feeling ill again and been in bed for two days with some sort of virus - raging temperature, aching all over, hacking cough. All very tedious. I'm so over being ill .

Anyway, can't remember much cos you've been so chatty these last two days!

PP, yay on the CC - it really does work when they're ready for it. Bizarrely, on the subject of sleep, Alex has gone from being a terrible sleeper to sleeping until 8.30/9am every morning since Tuesday! And then having a 3 hr nap in the afternoon too! Mad - but we're not complaining. M's sleep hasn't improved at all and he's still on at least two, sometimes three, night feeds but at least it means one of us can get a good night's sleep!

Amber, worth asking about the adenoids - not something I know anything about at all but your doc will be able to advise.

AH, IKWYM about MN being a double edged sword as far as comparing LOs goes and your reassurance is much appreciated! As you say it really doesn't make any difference in the long run - I was talking in full sentences by the time I was our LOs age and it doesn't mean I can talk better than my peers now!

poppy, good to hear you've possibly found a nanny replacement. And good luck with the ZW appt. Worth getting checked out just in case its something easily sorted.

UDC, good to hear from you .

Sorry to hear about illness/feeling ill Sponge, Neenz and Rolf, hope you are better soon.

We are expecting more snow again tonight/tomorrow but fingers crossed the tesco shop arrives in the morning. Dh has returned from dubai so at least at won't be snowed in home alone with the kids this week.

Amber I would go to the dr and ask about the sleep problems. At least then you know what your options are.

Penguin, thanks for remembering about Nate. I'd actually forgotten that you and Tediber were there in person when he first turned up! Yes, C loves having Uncle Nate around and keeps on suggesting that Adam and I go out and leave them to it! Glad that all is well in NZ. Interesting Anchor being the crappy brand!

Neenz, I remember 8 weeks as being pretty bad! thinking back, I also remember you and I being on the same TTC board last time and you changing your name to (and twin beans!)

Bugger, C and D both had their swine flu injections this morning. (More strange psychicness) Dorothy was too busy smiling at the nurse who gave her the injection to notice anyhing whereas C had to be held down physically ... (older so knew what he was coming) Dorothy is absolutely fine, Christian is a bit sleepy. He had the egg allergy one whereas D had the normal one. The blister's bigger too - though that could have been all the thrashing around ... the NHS wouldn't have licensed the two vaccines if they were dangerous. THey had a Committee who evaluated the evidence and made recommendations to government.

Rolf, how's your eye? I would find it nigh on impossible to look after 4 kids with something itchy and irritating. How are you diong?

Amber, sorry about Luke's adenoids. Interesting that your DH has them too. Language, nursery first boys often do very well with language - DS was like Luke. Obviously Luke is a boy genius as well. Dorothy is finding talking harder but has no problem in communicating what she wants! Favourite word 'No'.

Biscuits, how wonderful - you'll be skiing! Who needs Chamonix!?

Sponge, sorry you're not well. How do you manage with the boys?

Poppy, keep my fingers crossed for you.

UDC, interesting to hear that yours have had the SF jab already - we've heard nothing here .

As for managing, I am extremly grateful for the snow as dh has been snowed in since Tuesday so has been looking after them for me. He's much fitter and healthier than me thankfully . I haven't been well since M was born tbh, which is getting quite depressing now . The girls will tell you I've been an old misery guts over the last few days .

I feel quite laid back about J not talking much, I think it's because I keep being told that I was late to talk but once I did it was in sentences, I think he is going down the same route, he said "down there" last week while pointing at the biscuit he had dropped. He is funny though, he won't say things again if you ask him too. Did I tell you I caught him practicing his clapping in private when he was a few months old, as soon as I walked into the room he would stop. I caught him practicing walking on his own a few times as well. Strange child!

Poppy - I was going to ask where people were getting slippers from. We got some Totes ones and they were good but the soles weren't very thick and they have worn through. The few shops I have been to with slippers seem to have toddler slippers which are too small (he is about a size 5 now) or kids slippers which are too big. We have a BHS near us as well but it just does homewares, rubbish.

I'm feeling so massive and uncomfortable now, I'm 37 weeks today I picked up the car seat yesterday from my friend so I think I have pretty much everything, it all just needs sorting out and hospital bags getting then this baby is allowed to come (well if it isn't too snowy for the ILs to make it over here to look after J that is).

Blimey ktpie - hasn't it come round quickly?!!! It seems like yesterday that you were in early stages and now you'll be a 2x mummy in less than a month!

I got Luke some slippers from Gap. They are kind of sock slippers although saying that he does pull them off after a while. poppy The shoes I got him today are these ones shoes. What a good idea, that loyalty scheme. I have no choice as Clarks is the only place nearby. Still, at least their shoes are well made.

I am with you Sponge on talking as my mum always told me I talked early but and my sister talked much later but my sis is the one who was always brilliant at English at school.

Thanks for the adenoids comments. I think we'll see if we are covered on health insurance. I'll arrange n app to see my miserable doctor.

Been snowing again today. Our garden is full of fox prints but I can't see how they got in as there are no holes in the fence. Bit worring with the kittens coming.