May 09 - The Sleepless Babies Club, All Dubious Fashions Welcome

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Ladies.

Hi Fi!
bath sounds lovely. I had a choice (from DH) to have a fire or a bath and I chose a fire with a glass of wine and MN/FB.

I love the clarinet, btw. I hope one of my girls plays an instrument which is why I though it would be good to start the cello again.

I played the flute in school but never really got to grips with reading music. I knew which keys to press and what the notes were but I could never work out how long to count for. I remember playing a piece of music for GCSE and it sounded nothing like it was supposed to. Unsurprisingly I had an E for the GCSE and I wasn't asked to re-sit! I really wish I could play the piano but I know I'd never get the hang of it. I think I am musically challenged.

I sometimes force myself to talk about G because I feel like I spend most of my time talking about his big brother. Even at his 9 month check I ended up talking about B!

Mmmmm. I've stuffed my face with pancakes. Tomorrow I have to run a mile for my training schedule to record my time and I really don't want to do it. It seems so faaaaaaaaaaaaar. I'm really not meant to be a runner.

I also learnt the clarinet and in fact a few days ago a friend gave me some music to "go and get to know" so I could play a Mozart trio with her on violin and someone else on piano. I did warn her that I'm a bit rusty...
In the past I've also done choral singing (once a concert in The Barbican in London) but I've never had a proper singing lesson. Would love to sometime...

DH has got Silent Witness on from last night. It's really scary!

Pula - sorry but lol at doing pg test! Bet the adrenaline was going!

Dandy - I think Judy Blume was pretty tame but not as far as my mum was concerned!

ReeBee - lovely news about your friends. Hope everything works out well for them. Maybe they'll have really chilled babies after their relaxing time with you?!

Fi - bath sounds lovely

Llare - from what I've seen of my friends LOs, I wouldn't worry at all. I hate it when HCPs cause unnecessary panic.

btw from my eye popping search earlier lol I found a few pages that listed ALA's best teen fiction & the classics that have at some stage been banned by the ALA... I was surprised to see so many familiar titles on the banned/challenged list! the top 5 on the banned/challenged by the ALA list are...

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Fi, Iloved 1-4 you listed but didn't read color purple. As you know by my dd3's name, TKAM is my fave book .

It just goes to show how powerful the written word can be and provoke such a vast array of strong emotions...

I'm loving all this book talk. As much as I love the girls, it's good to have conversations about other stuff too.

fi - interesting list of books, have read all of them and am surprised tbh! Of the five, I think Great Gatsby is my favourite. Haven't read the Grapes of Wrath for a very very long time though, maybe I'll find it our of the loft to reread it at some point.

younger - I learned the cello when I was in school, but never managed any grades, tbh I liked the idea more than the practicality and didn't practice enough. And I'm pants at reading music, not much hope really!

DH has been lovely this evening. While I was feeding A and getting her ready for bed (DD1 had already crashed out) he went to Sainsbos and bought us tea and a bottle of wine! He can't cook so it was pizza and garlic bread, but he'd laid the table, got candles out and everything, bless him. We had a proper chat about ordinary things (not children!).

Thanks all for the chat last night too. I do realise how preposterous it is for me to want more children when I'm struggling with the two I have! Although we went to a birthday party today, and it did remind me that other people's children are hard going at times too . or maybe that should be a

Oh flip, I find my two children ridiculously hard sometimes, especially the oldest!

Re books, perhaps we should form an online book group?

fi some of those previously banned books are hard to understand. I loved Maya Angelou though. She's another I devoured as a child.

The Great Gatsby holds strong memories for me. Happy, happy memories and is my favourite book.

My DB worked for Penguin when i was a teen and he gave me armfuls of books. I read Jane Austen, the Brontes, Henry James, Saki, Gabrel Garcia Marquez, George Orwell. Kurt Vonnegut . Pretentious, moi? Funnily enough, I read mostly tripe now (or light froth). I can't conceive of reading James or GGM now, it would hurt my brain

Just drinking a can of lager and watching Mock the Week. Classy lass me.

Ses- Silent Witness was great! I won't give any spoilers. And even though i was sure the test was going to say BFN, there was still a "what if" going on in my head lol.

All this book talk makes me feel a bit about my lack of reading as a teenager (and now) I don't score well on those "100 classics you have read" lists. I mainly read crime fiction. I was heavily influenced by telly - I remember buying "Demsey and Makepeace" books which were probably a bit old for me at the time, and got into Dorothy L. Sayers after watching the telly dramatisations- I have read her books over and over, as I have with Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre (so I have read some classics .

I've just remembered another book secret! My mum used to read Mills and Boon type stuff, she always had bags and bags of them because she and her friends used to swap them regularly. I used to read them without anyone knowing, not sure why, embarrassment I guess, but I could get through a couple on a Saturday afternoon when all my family were out. Pure escapism, perhaps I'm a romantic at heart!

pula at the pg test! Could be a false negative...

belgina - yay for C's rolling!

tummum - business sounds exciting! I may be in touch about the careers stuff, I'll see how it goes.

reebee - how exciting about your friends.

flippin My gran (mums side) had shelves of mills and boons... i went to stay with her (then in her 80's) for a two week summer holiday in Aberdeen when i was about 16yo... i must have worked my way through pretty much her whole collection in that time ... GAH i was bored as she didn't allow me to go anywhere... was a relaxing fortnight though and i came home knowing a lot of her favourite authors which made present buying a breeze!

DS is off to his 1st football class with dh this am.. looking forward to an hours peace.. well with G

dh & ds are at football.. so I've put on C4 and saw that the last ever episode of friends was about to start.. now i used to watch friends for a while but stopped watching after ross and rachel had emma.. so here's where i need someone to put me out of my misery.. if rachel is living with joey and ross is on his own.. what happened to emma?

fi Emma moved in with Joey, I'm pretty sure of that

llare I'm surprised your HV was concerned about G's inability to crawl. As you know from here quite a few of may babies are still stationary + I've always learnt that there's one milestone babies don't have to reach and that's the crawling one, because some babies bottom shuffle and some skip it and go straight to walking

books I haven't read any of the books mentioned, in the list, but as I said before I think it's probably due to me not being English. I read quite a few of Dutch/Flemish classics you guys wont know ;)
DS has picked up the reading bug though. He's ravishing the 'beast quest' books. He read 1 after school and has already finished the 2nd one I bought him yesterday this morning. He just sat and read read read until it was finished. Took him about 2h I'm wondering if he could master my Harry Potter books. He'd like them...

C's tired. I think I'll hop into the bath with her and then put her down.

Fi glad you are enjoying Friends.

I think G might have chicken pox. He has been a bit out of sorts the last couple of days, and today I found a few spots on his tummy... . But he hasn't got a fever on anything, so maybe it's just spots.

We have absolutely nothing planned for this weekend, which is nice after the running-around-the-country-ness of the last couple of weekends.

for a nap that is of course... put her down for a nap

llare I was going to say the same as belgina- I wouldn't worry. My DS1 never crawled. There was a 10mo at playgroup the other day who had no interest in crawling either and I know babies 12mo+ who are just happy sitting and don't make the effort to move towards toys at all!

Thanks for the reassurance. I was quite surprised that she was so concerned. I had no concerns about him at all yet she is normally so sensible.

It is a lovely day here. The boys have gone out with DH so I am pottering around. I had a lovely lie in so I am feeling so much better. I put on a new top this morning and when I came downstairs DS said "you look really lovely mummy," which made me feel ridiculously grateful. He has a thing about my pink scarf too. I wonder if he will give Gok Wan a run for his money?

Hi there, I hope all those feeling ill are getting better.

Belgina - great youve got an ap

Pula - I tidy up before a cleaner comes into my house, so I don't think it'd work!!!

I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to going back to work - I'm worried about getting us all ready and out of the house and to nursery before I get to work by 8am!!!!!!

Flippin - glad you've started counselling. Know what you mean about not coping with toddlers - ds1 is such hard work atm

Headless hope you have a productive talk with your dh. I tend to play musical beds with ds1 atm, while dh sighs and tells me the time

Those of you with coils - do you get any lower abdominal pain? I can't work out if its all just settling down, my period is on its way back or somethings wrong?!

Loving the teenage reading topic - I was an avid Agatha Christie fan and have all her books . I remember secretly reading one book, I think it was Judy Blume. I didn't read many classics at the time, but made up for it with my English degree!!

Dandy - have been pondering your flashback move. Could you not just break up the book into sections, so that there's a clear break for the flashback and then go back to the main story after - does that make sense??

I'm very about those thinking about ttc again. I'd love another - not quite at this moment, but know dh doesn't want anymore and although I quite like the idea - the thought of 3under5's would finish me off!

Tummum hope your lo doesn't have chicken pox

Llare - grr for your scaremongering hv! Did you make a Dr's appt? Hopefully he'll set your mind at rest.

Bleurgh, I'm ill . I was up in the night being sick, haven't been sick all day but feel queasy and my stomach hurts. The girls have both had loose erm, movements, but are both quite happy so DH has taken them to the park - it's a beautiful day here, we were going to do something en famille but I can't move. DD1 has been lovely to me, she tucked me up in a blanket on the sofa and stroked my head, and said 'shhh, sleep tight mummy, get better.' Moments like that make up for some of the battles I guess!

llareggub - I'm surprised your HV was concerned. DD1 never crawled, and at her 9 month check she couldn't/wouldn't weight bear. Our HV just said if she's not doing it at 1 then it would need to be looked at. LOL at min Gok Wan!

tummum - hope it's nor chicken pox, or if it is it's not too bad for you all.

flippin sorry you're ill. That was me on Tuesday, though I felt much better the next day so I hope that's the same with you.

Tummum hope it's not chicken pox.

llare another grr for your HV. I agree with belgina, crawling is not a reliable milestone (I hope, H is nearly 10m and can't crawl and doesn't say 'dadada' etc either). Fortunately the HVs in my area are like the ones many MNers would invent if they could - very supportive of bf, into BLW/baby wearing/co-sleeping, but not preachy with it. They don't even have 8/9 month checks here, or at least I don't think so - I haven't been for over 2 months!

Books I pinched a lot from my parents' bookshelves - Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, some Kafka and Solshenitsyn . This book. More teenage-friendly books included John Wyndham (he of Day of the Triffids) for a bit of sci-fi, and Alan Garner (still love his stuff). Romance requirements fulfilled by Mr Rochester and Heathcliffe. And for the raunchier side, Fanny Hill. Never dared take it off the shelf for long enough to read it all the way through though, in case it was missed or, worse, found in my room .

I'm another one who didn't 'get' Catcher in the Rye. Or On The Road.

Better go, loads to do. Being ill this week and all the extra laudry has gotten me so behind with housework and other stuff I wanted to do. And H's terrible sleeping doesn't help. It's getting beyond a joke now - most of the night he needs re-settling every hour or so, including the majority of evenings, too, so I'm not even getting a proper break then. DH tries to help out but H won't have it, so it's always me. I think it's probably due to teething, but calpol and/or calpufren seem to make little difference to the number of wakings. Time for some sleep training? I'm exhausted

Oops that should be Heathcliff . Not sure where the extra 'e' came from.... I'll blame it on sleep deprivation!

spangle no wonder you're exhausted! what is H's routine like in the day wrt naps and food/feeds? i don't know if we'll be able to suggest anything but willing to try.. hopefully it is just teeth x

Hi everyone!

I know I have been AWOL for ages and ages. I have just come on and found this so wanted to bookmark.

I am going to make an effort to come back into the world now that I am starting to feel sane again. I also remember how I really enjoyed you all and am looking forward to catching up on what I had missed

Going to go read all 550 posts now so I kinda know what's been going on!

This may sound silly, but I hope I am still welcome and if not just let me know