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...

ooh, nice boots ktpie!

Amber I'm glad you're feeling a bit brighter.

neenz we brush Fraser's teeth after lunch and every night, he actually likes it now although it was a struggle at first.

Rolf i think the loose skin thing is something we all have after pregnancy so not gross at all. Getting it all done at once sounds sensible, and not really cosmetic if you need the hernia anyways.

Fraser woke at 2 and then 4 last night and DH has a really important meeting about a new contract today. Poor man didn't get back to sleep in between - he'll be okay today but will be a zombie tomorrow I'm sure. DH is great because even after all that he told Fraser how wonderful he was this morning. (I barely woke up both times - one of us just needs to go in to fraser and tell him to "go back to sleep it's still nighttime" and I can pretty much do that on autopilot now.)

Morning guys, still feeling like crap - this virus is really taking it out of me - and soooooo over this snow now!

A is back at nursery today - dh just dropped him off and texted me to say he is wondering round with a hard hat on looking quite content!

Rolf, that sounds like alot of surgery - you poor thing . Hope you get it sorted - I would love a tummy tuck but can't see dh ever agreeing to it somehow! Although I did nearly back him into agreeing to another baby yesterday - but he spotted my trap at the last minute and said no!

Oh and sorry to hear about DD -it's been such a weird start back to school for them all though hasn't it, with all this snow? Keep the communication lines open with her teacher and review it in a couple of weeks maybe?

Essie, I'm impressed at you knitting your own hat - I knitted one for A (which is on my ravelry page) but not one for me. I want to knit A a stripy scarf - does anyone have a good pattern? I'm not sure what I'd do with all the loose ends when knitting with stripes?

Goddess, please go and start a G&T thread about S's teeth - it would be hilarious! We try to brush A's teeth twice a day but it's a major battle!

Sorry to hear F had a rough night AH - talking of sleep, do you ever read some of the sleep threads on here? They're awful. Some poor new mum will come on asking for advice as to how they can use some form of 'sleep training' to get their child to sleep through and they get jumped on by a hard core of MNers who basically think that if you let your child cry for more than 10 secs they should be taken into care . It's truly ridiculous. I never get involved cos I know I'll be shouted down by the mob but I do feel sorry for these women - they must be left with the impression that they are the only people who try and get their kids to sleep!

Hello all. Goddess very at the boots. I fancy a pair of Timberlands, the reduced ones, but can't really justify. Although it is my birthday tomorrow...

Teeth - not brilliant here. Iestyn has a few now, and he sometimes lets us brush, sometimes not. But funnily enough this morning my plumber came to look at the bathroom, Iestyn wanted to be picked up, and he saw the toothbrush and insisted on it! So we're going to try to brush mornings as well as evenings. (Goddess - sympathies on your teeth. I've had rather a lot of trouble with mine too since getting pg. Odd.)

Sponge I avoid the boards. I happily claim not to do sleep training, but I have done some... Funnily enough, we stayed with our friends and goddaughter (8 months) on the weekend, and they said they would never ever do sleep training or controlled crying, and she's always been a bad sleeper (like Iestyn). But when she woke at 10.30pm ish, they let her cry far longer than we would have done with Iestyn, and we were even getting uncomfortable! But this is not a judgement on them - it's just that we (and they) claim we would never do CC. It's denial, clearly! (It was funny on the weekend - my friend gave in after seeing DH and I glance at each other and said 'you just can't take it' , and then Iestyn woke at 11pm and cried, and DH went up within 3 wails and my friend said 'wuss'! So we reasoned that Iestyn doesn't normally wake so when he does, we deal with it swiftly, because he doesn't need training now. )

Rolf re-reading my post it was weird. I was trying to say that my student got her tuck on the NHS because the NHS botched up. Instead I said 'all your own fault', which I didn't mean, but anyway you didn't take offence. But I am sitting here with an overhang of my own and plenty of sympathy (and a smidgeon of )! But don't have a tummy tuck then ruin it by having another baby, now!

Right, must go, I just sent an e-mail to my publisher asking for an extension on my book deadline so I really shouldn't be on here.

Sponge, with the stripes you have to thread the dangling wool up the side of the edge. I knitted ds1 a stripy scarf last year and did this and it worked out ok. I've just started to knit a stripy beret for dd this morning as I noticed her old hat is getting a bit small. I also ordered some wool for a jumper for ds1 so lots of knitting in the pipeline for me I am on ravelry too but have forgotten my password. I should get them to send me a new one so I can update my page.

j is a nightmare with a toothbrush. He hates his teeth being brushed and refuses all the time. After a couple of days we tip him upside down and tickle hinm to get a good clean in but otherwise I tend not to worry too much. The older two were very similar and have managed to get to the big teeth stage with perfect milk teeth. (Unlike a friend whose ds had to have filings in his milk teeth despite her very strict cleaning regime. I think it is all a matter of teeth genetics sadly).

I agree with Sybil, ds1 and ds2 had similar teeth cleaning regime the same diet etc and ds2 had to have a bad tooth taken out and also a filling, ds1's teeth are fine. I'm hoping that Ethan follows ds1 as he loves to chew the toothbrush but doesn't like them being cleaned!!I'll join you on the G+T Goddess as Ethan also has 16 teeth!! All those teeth are probably getting in the way of the words!

Yep I'd do a stripy scarf that way too Sybil, I've found it works better and is neater using that method if you limit the number of colours.
Essie - I'm impressed at the hat too, I tried to crochet DH a hat and it was way too small.
I finished my first ever sock yesterday, stupid thing to knit as I have socks but strangely satisfying these are the ones. I've just started the second.

DH does toothbrushing here, he is in charge of bathtime, I can no longer reach into the bath. I think he has mixed success but we are still in the policy of leaving J to it and not having a fight about it, but then he has only got 2 teeth so easier to be laid back about. Hopefully J will have inherited DH's strong teeth, he had one of his milk teeth removed last year as it was finally starting to dissolve after nearly 30 years but still has one milk tooth left. He has 4 molars missing (I have 4 incisors missing, we so shouldn't have had kids!) so the milk teeth had never been pushed out. He only brushes his teeth once a day as well, minger, but has no fillings.
I've got quite a few fillings but all done by the dentist I had when I was a teenager, since I changed dentists I've not needed any, makes me think he was a bit keen.

Have any of you crafty types ever heard of / attempted digital scrapbooking? I came across it yesterday and was wondering about attempting to make some cards. This site has quite a bit of free stuff to download. Not sure if my printer would be up to scratch though.

J is very grumpy today thanks to his cold, think he is a bit bored of being stuck at home too, we should have been going to a friends today, she is having 10 toddlers round this afternoon, but I thought we had better keep our bugs to ourselves, plus I've been feeling rubbish.

Forgot to say it's snowing here again, and it's really icy, too icy even for DH to cycle to work, he had to turn round and come back for the van, that means it's really bad!

Hi Deb!

I'm on ravelry too - I'm Essie3 (how original!) but I don't use it. Mainly because I don't really knit - I made the korknisse and the hat, and I'm making a similar hat for my brother now (he loved it so much!). But I don't really like knitting that much... It also hurts my wrist.
Sybil and Sponge I also worried about the loose threads on a stripy scarf. Next question for knitters - my mum made me some moc a socs, and they're great as slippers but slippy. So I wonder if you can get rubbery grips like on totes?

LOL ktpie at the teeth. I only have 20 (like a baby ) but apart from last year's problems, they're pretty good (3 or 4 fillings, but I've had one filling redone 3, yes 3, times because of dentist botch ups; the other problem was wisdom teeth). Iestyn has around 7 teeth now. And DH has no fillings at 36. But really impressed at your husband still having milk teeth!

I sometimes venture onto the sleep boards - I find it quite refreshing dishing out some of my CC advice when everyone else is saying the opposite.

Back at work today - feeling yuk but went for a lie down earlier

Spooky - there's a thread somewhere today on teethbrushing issues in toddlers!

Tedi happy birthday for tomo!

On the bus home so too hard to read/type any more!

I saw this thread and thought of you guys!

Thanks for the tips on scarves sybil and ktpie - I just worry that the ends sometimes don't stay sewn in well and then start to come loose and look a bit scrappy. I knitted a patchwork blanket for Alex when he was born and had lots of ends to sew in, and after a bit of use it just started to look a mess . Maybe I'll just do a stripy hat and stick to one colour for the scarf!

I'm knitting for my friend btw, the one I mentioned who has just undergone her seventh IVF cycle - she saw the heartbeat for the first time today . So chuffed for her.

Sponge - I hadn't read Sybil's post properly and what I would do for a couple of colours is do an even number of rows of each one don't cut off when you finish a colour and just repick up the ball of wool of the next colour when you change, that's what I meant about only using a few colours, also not doing too many rows of each colour. Does that make sense? I've done it for 2 colours before and you couldn't tell at the side where the overlap bits were and there is no danger of them coming loose.
Or you could use a long circular needle and have the stripes going the other way and leave the ends as the fringes. Bit limited by length of needle but if it is for Alex that might work OK. I saw a pattern in a book for a blanket made like that, although it might have been crocheted, then the length wouldn't matter as you aren't limited by needle length, same principle though.
Not sure about the grips Essie, I bet there is something, maybe hobbycraft or somewhere like that sell something?
Sorry non-knitters, I'm rambling on about knitting again.

Good news about your friend Sponge.
I haven't had a creme egg yet, still working my way through the mountain of Christmas chocolate.

Nothing exciting to report from today. J has been grumpy, that is it.

Sponge - I don't think I could go through 7 cycles of IVF - congratulations to your friend - she certainly deserves it.

Luke is awful with teeth brushing - I think I mentioned it before and started a thread but didn't get any good advice really. I have to pin his arms and legs and hold him in a head lock!

Am I the only one to dislike creme eggs?

I would love a tummy tuck after I have another baby. Maybe I'll have some of my redundancy money left over!!

I was meant to go and visit Puree today but the bad weather put a stop to it. If I manage to get to see her I'll say hifrom everyone.

Amber, very very few people would go through seven cycles of IVF - it's a v complex situation, this final cycle was donor which is why it worked. They should have moved onto donor a long time ago but her dh wouldn't agree - all v .

Sorry to hear you couldn't get to visit puree - say hi to her when you get through .

sponge Can I ask how many cycles do people normally try for? We've friends just starting their third cycle and because of complications it's less likely to work for them than normal (not an egg issue). It's so hard to watch them try and we've wondered if (worst case) they don't have luck how long they'll put themselves through this. (Money isn't an issue for them.)

Tired day here - and I know I should take the boys swimming but I'm feeling so lazy...

Can I have some sympathy please? I was on call last night, so went to work for 8am yesterday, was there until 1730, had to drive to another hospital to do three emergency scans, got home at 2000, had tea, went to bed, got called at 0050 went back into work, had to do a very long and drawn out case, so got home again at 0620, went back to bed, got phoned again at 0645 and have had to come back in to review another scan. I wasn't this tired or sleep deprived when C was a newborn. AND it's really cold outside.

That's horrible - I'm amazed you're still standing upright! Hope you'll at least manage some sleep today.

Biscuits - that's rubbish, hope you will be getting paid well for all of that.

Sponge - still pondering your scarf and was thinking if you knitted it in the round and made essentially a long tube then all the ends could be inside so would be a lot neater, then you could just flatten it when you finished and use the tassles to fasten up the ends. I have shop bought scarves made in that way. Might be a bit boring to knit if you did it in stocking stitch though.

We went out this morning to Tiny Talk and the van skidded across the ice twice on the way to the main road, very scary. Then we got stuck getting onto the drive (due mainly to the shoddy state of repair of our drive) when we got back. J was excited to get out and spent a lot of time running around shouting, my abdominal muscles are aching though so I'd better take it easy this afternoon.
DH had been very thoughtful and spent ages last night scraping and salting the path to the van and all around it so I would have a clear path this morning, then he forgot to put the bins out so I had to drag 2 full bins all the way down the snowy drive!

Penblwydd hapus Essie ! Hope you had a good one x

Biscuits, you can have plenty of sympathy for me - I cannot believe the hours doctors are expected to work tbh, and you have my undying gratitude that you do it, cos I never could!

AH, hmm, difficult question to answer - IME most couples set themselves a target of three cycles, that's what we did. But it depends on so much - money obviously being one of the main factors, but also IVF itself can be a diagnostic tool esp for those who have unexplained IF. So, for example, one friend of mine found with normal testing that there were no problems but when they had their first IVF cycle it was discovered that she had very hard 'shells' on her eggs and it was impossible for the sperm to penetrate. They switched to donor eggs and she now has a 7 mth old son.

I do know of another friend who had nine cycles - first 4 were negative, 5th one ended in stillbirth at 5 mths, 6th and 7th negative, 8th m/c at 7 wks, 9th resulted in twin boys. I think the most I've ever heard of, but I didn't know the woman involved, was SEVENTEEN cycles - and I don't think she ever had a baby . A woman at my clinic though has five singleton children from five IVF cycles !

Sorry, could bore for England (and Scotland!) about infertility and IVF will shut up now.

Had Michael weighed today - he is now 11lbs and has slipped to the 4th centile .

ktpie, that scarf sounds complicated!

As long he is not losing weight, Sponge, then I wouldn't worry about it. They put weight on at their own speed. Is the HV concerned? I hate those centile graphs! E slipped right off the bottom but I was never worried cos she always put on weight, even if it was just a few ounces.

Biscuits - you have my utmost respect, that sounds like a very shoddy stint of on-call! DH used to so on-call for police stations, they'd start 5pm Fri and finish 9am Monday, and he'd have to do a full week in the office either side!

First day back at work yesterday and I was shattered. It is harder being here than at home with the DTs, but only cos it is an hour's drive each way and I don't have access to all my food here to keep MS at bay. Feeling absolutely rotten, the MS is definitely getting worse, hopefully peaking now tho. I am sure I didn't feel this bad with the twins. . Not working tomorrow though, will try to drag my ass out to playgroup.

Sponge - I hate all the baby weighing palava. It all just makes you worry. I didn't like the clinic I was meant to take J to either. Guess I will be back into all that fairly soon. How much does he feed? Does he seem well?
I think it was more my description of the scarf that was complicated!

Neenz - I've found this pregnancy worse than the last one, and all the symptoms came earlier. That probably isn't much consolation is it? Sorry to not be of more help. Can you take a load of food into work with you? I had a drawer bursting with snacks when I was still at work and pregnant.

Sympathies biscuits. How's your name working out in keeping you off the biscuits btw?

happy birthday essie (no fancy welsh greetings here)

sponge I've posted on your fb. I've spent many an hour worrying about S's weight as you may recall, and I'm firmly of the mind now that the growth charts are nonsense. I don't think they've been updated since the 70's when 12 week old babies routinely had sugary rusks in their bottles and were guzzling down a plate of mince n tatties followed by pudding with custard!

Thanks for all the birthday greetings! Had an odd sort of day - DH had to leave, work is a big stress at the mo (too much to do, not enough time...my own fault too but I'll probably be in Saturday - note to self: will prepare lectures well in advance next time...) but I've just had an interesting trip to B&Q to discuss my kitchen ideas. I'm after an additional unit, but I've added bits and pieces bringing the total up rather a lot...
Actually, your opinions: I have a smallish kitchen, with a massive dining room open off it. (So I will never put a table in the kitchen - it would be cramped, and the living area is open off it. I also have a separate living room/tv room.) There is no window in the kitchen, but there are halogen spotlights so it's not too dark.
I'm short on storage, and short on worktop space in the kitchen. I decided on getting a sideboard type thing, but then thought maybe a fitted kitchen unit would be better (my walls are wavy!). But, do I just get a base unit with a worktop, or do I also get wall units? I have the space, it would leave a metre maybe between the two sides, but would it make the kitchen cave-like? (I suppose it is cave-like anyway, what with the lack of window, and besides, I'll only be cooking in there, not chilling out!) WWYD?

Sponge 11 lb - how old is he in weeks? 8? 10? At 13 weeks Iestyn was 11 lb 4. Seriously, whatever you put on here I bet I'll beat you by my son being lower. I am so competitive... Last weigh in at 13 months, he was on the 0.4th centile. ( isn't that not on the centiles?!) He's now around 25lb at a guess (he won't stay still on the scales). In this house, it's centiles schmentiles. And anyway, he was little at birth - same as Iestyn actually! - so it will be a looooooooong time before either of them are large. My non-medical opinion is that babies born at 6lb won't be on the 90th centile within 3 months - surely the maths of that doesn't work? The graph would be a weird vertical line? Anyway, I don't know what I'm talking about really.

Think I might go to bed now!