November 09 babies are growing up quick, and mummy's getting used to getting covered in sick!

[PreggoK8]

Hope this has worked...

anyone else with another child being eveil to their first child - i get really angry at DD1, she is a toddler so drives me demented but i am not a violent person and she makes me want to be...can u have post natal depression towards your first child...don't have any feelings like this to DD2, just feel soo angry and sad sometimes..and always fighting with DH...do i just get a good nights sleep or am i going insane??

Weston sometimes I do get really stressed with ds, I have to physically walk out the room or put in his room for five mins sometimes. I think its virtually impossible to be calm all the time with a baby and toddler/small child. not sure about whether it would be classed as postnatal depression, but it probably is some sort of depression not helping, and think that a good nights sleep definately makes you feel better. I can definately say I stay calmer on a day where I slept well the night before and fly off the handle for everything when I havent.

I've been finding dealing with DD1 very difficult too, even though she's just acting her age and probably responding in her own sweet way to me having higher expectations of her, having to be more independent and me seemingly never being able to do what she wants when she wants it. I saw red yesterday and yanked her my way when she was running off and she banged her head against the door frame. The worst bit was, internally I wasn't thinking 'oh my goodness are you ok? I'm such a bad mother', I was thinking 'serves you right. Now you'll listen' . And all this was over her not washing her hands properly and me wanting to show her how. I'm shocked at myself and don't really know where it came from or, more to the point, where it's going.

sleepless I -used- -to- live just off the Old Ballynahinch Road! That's where we're headed. Funnily enough I bumped into a girl from Kilkeel at baby massage. It's such a small world in Co.Down! We once had a boat at Killinchy - gorgeous place. So is Geneva though!

DD has just conked out after a day of virtually no napping, and she is in her crib. Woohoo! She's really struggling with her gums and is constantly chomping and drooling. Not to mention red-cheeked, bloated and full of unexploded poo. A fabulous concoction.

TOK I could imagine DH saying something similar, but not meaning it at all on reflection. He complains about kids a lot and seems to struggle with the day-to-day reality of them, but loves them and the family to bits at heart. Your DH is probably just going through a bit of mourning for the old life. He'll get over it. It's easy to pass the buck.

I went swimming in the sea today

thanks hobnob and trikken always very reassuring to know I am not the only one, I have had a few instances just like that hobnob and I knows its unfair on her cause as u say u suddently expect them to be grown up but they just push all the buttons and on top of sleep deprivation its just too much
heres to deep breaths and being calm cool collected mothers..

Has anyone else had one of those days when they just want to bang their head against a wall? sighs

Hope you're all okay. Large glass of wine and an early night needed here, I think.

Weston Glad you mentioned about DD. You are not on your own. I've been having some nightmare days with DS. Good or bad attention he doesn't seem fussed. Mainly bad attention of late. I have up until now been very controlled, but there is only so much I can take and he has really been pushing the buttons. We have lots of time out and up to your bedroom moments. He is the sweetest child when he's good, then he turns into a devil at a flick of a switch. Today, he's been an emotional rollercoaster, it's like I have a teenager in the house at times. I have these moments of guilt as I could deal with him better at times. I tell myself it's another phase they go through! Lots of fresh air tomorrow for us, that seems to help settle his mood swings.

SirBoob Glass of vino and an early night sounds good

Pav You are a braver women than me! Did you wear a wetsuit?

TOK Can only echo what others have said. Hope you clear the air with DH, these things shouldn't be left to fester.

Thanks Skorpion the book has some very good reviews. I will order my copy tonight.

I'm going to watch Simon Cowell interview with Piers Morgan in a moment. I have this weird soft spot for him. Not physically though!! He seems a really nice man

fruit yes, i might be brave, but i am not mad, so yes i wore my brand new sparkly wetsuit! I feel knackered now though! In that, i have been swimming in the sea kind of tired, my muscles hurt, partly due to my beach babe impression running towards the sea, til i ran out of energy, the sea was further away than it looked Only my feet and hands were cold beyond feeling! The rest of me was lovely and warm.

However it was not so warm feeding Reuben. It was quite cold and windy out, and just as I got zipped up he wanted food, more food, so i had to sit there with it undone to my waist, and fed him, top half only had a bikini on, a little cold, yes!

weston we have been really lucky with DD and her behaviour towards Reuben, she has been lovely and sweet with him. However, her behaviour with us, with DH in particular but also with me has been at times impossible. She hit me the other day, with anger, and I was so upset. She also screamed at me harder and louder and longer than I have ever heard before. I have found her behaviour up to recently so easy to manage, or, rather not easy but i have been able to 'get it'. But some of her behaviour lately has been so difficult, so hard to deal with I have despaired and actually wondered what on earth to do. Sometimes she seems so out of control that I just don't know what to do. I know this behaviour is related to DS somehow even though she does not take it out on him luckily. A few weeks ago, her behaviour was so out of control I did not recognise her.

It will get better and the little girl you know will return. And fighting with DH, its a given now that we have a spat at least once a day. Lack of sleep has a lot to answer for. IS there anyone who can help out, give you and DH a break, or at least give you a chance of some good solid sleep?

Oh I forgot to mention about nipple chewing, can't remember who asked. With DD a few (entirely involuntary) shrieks and rapid pull offs sorted it. But they do give you the slyest, cheekiest look before they do it, just like they know exactly what they are doing!

The miracle nap only lasted half an hour. She came back downstairs for a bit of crying, cute grinning, screaming and feeding and is now out for the count on my knee as usual. I don't want to move her until I feel ready to go to bed myself in case she wakes, yet I can't do anything except watch crap TV with her on my knee. I can barely reach the laptop to type. What has happened to Saturday night TV?

sleepless I didn't answer your Losec question. I don't know how long she'll be on it for. We got the prescription via the HV so haven't actually discussed things with a GP yet. We see the gastro clinic at the hospital on Monday week so will ask there. What worries me is I think it's quite hard to come off. Time will tell.

Hi all

Another angry toddler here too, I've noticed it in the last few days and was going to post on here and see if anyone else was having the same thing! DS1 has limited patience anyway but has been really short tempered of late and when I ask him what's wrong he says he's angry. I think it's the reality of a baby setting in and the reality of less mummy time tbh. Which naturally adds to the guilt.

Fruit my boys are 3 days apart (oh and the 4 years too!) so I suspect we're in the exact same boat. I find going out with them is easier especially as the trips are geared towards DS1 as DS2 doesn't care where we go. If you can't sort childcare, I'm happy to bring DS1 to the meet up so both boys can play and then you can come if you like?

I am so tired today, it's now been 4 nights where Ioan's been awake/unsettled from 4am and so that's when my decent sleep stops. Had a right old go at dh today for being unhelpful, talk is cheap in this house and I need to see more action ... and not that kind of action either!

SirBoob how are you doing? Been thinking about you today and yesterday. Is Bryn sleeping any better? Am away next week but thought when I'm back I could take both boys out for a couple of hours and let you sleep? If I take them in the car then they'll sleep too and you'll get a rested Bryn back

Right, bottle is chilled so off to bed. Hope you all have a restful night

Thank you all so much for your support and advice. I did talk to Dh today. As many of you suggested, he said he didn't mean to upset me and apologised for the way it came out. I told him how I felt about his comments and he said that he wouldn't change the dcs for the world and he knew what he was doing when we were trying for children. He is just finding it incredibly hard to adjust to how much of his time (i.e. all of it!) is now taken up with looking after the dcs.

So I do feel better having gotten the apology. I am much more chilled out than him and don't tend to let things get me down so it is difficult for me to bite my lip and resist the urge to scream "get over it already!!" at him . Glad we talked about it though. Thanks again ladies. Will catch up tomorrow with all your news.

AFternoon all, think I have just about managed to catch up. Anya slept reasonably well last night after a few awful nights. I had been just feeding her automatically when she woke but last night I just held her and she fell back to sleep so only fed at 11pm and 2pm then slept until 8. I am certainl not going to hold my breath that this will last though!

weston I think we can all agree that our relationships with DH's/DP's are more strained now that we have kids. DH and I never used to argue (seriously!) but now its a different story. Adjusting to different priorities in life is unsettling. And hobnob I too have had "serves you right" moments with ds. There's only sp far you can be pushed!

Pavlov bbrrrr! to bf by the sea! Brave lady!

skorpion and sleepless I also do remember life before dcs however what I do not remember is what on earth I talked about becausemy dcs are the topic of all my conversations these days!

Crying baby, gotta go...

TOK really feel for you having your night out spoilt when in any case you only wanted to sleep as it was!!! Glad you got to the bottom of it and cleared the air.
I suppose any parent would have some sympathy with the sentiments so cackhandedly expressed- I mean, my life is immeasurably better for having the dcs and I would never wish it otherwise, but a Sunday morning lie in with the papers, just once, would be bliss! So would being able to walk anywhere at a decent speed, or leave the house having only sorted out the things I need...

Trying to write personal statement for job app at the mo, two sides in support of application. Is it only teachers who do this or does every job ask for it? It's a pain, have been at it for hours- well, between long bouts of aimless internet surfing, biscuit eating, cup of tea making....
After I have done that ds wants me to apply to go on Total Wipeout.

Just a quickie to say hello and to sympathise with those struggling with older DCs. It is very hard with a young baby and toddlers so be kind to yourselves and don't expect perfection. Such a thing doesn't exist.

I got back from my glass-blowing day last night and I had THE BEST TIME EVER! Although I hated being away from the DSs and DH and cried all the way down the M54, M6 and M5 on my way there. But it was brilliant and I recommend it to any of you with a slightly arty disposition! It is very manual though too - I found carrying big poles with molten glass on the end really hard as they were so heavy!

Toby has his first cranial osteopathy appnt tomorrow. Excited, nervous, curious.

wook DS1 is a total wipeout fan here too!

BBL Ioan has had some cranial osteopathy and it was great. I've had it whilst pregnant and it's just lovely and can work a treat. Hope Toby enjoys it.

We gave Ioan his first taste of solids today, pureed pear, and he seemed to quite like it once he'd worked out what to do with it! I think in a few more days he's going to really love his food, we managed a good few spoonfuls today. I was in my element yesterday steaming different foods then putting them all in little pots. Am quite sad!!

Thank Scarlotti for the offer of bringing your DS1 along. Part of the reason I don't want to venture up town with DS1 is he can't be trusted to walk with me. It's a new thing he's been doing of late, running out of my sight, trying to cross roads without me, the list is endless! I went through all this when he was 2!! He is a tall boy and too big for a pushchair, so I'm having to carry with me a wrist strap for he's own safety. DS has also started to fear the dark and woke me up last night as he was spooked being in his own room. Managed to get him to sleep and then we had a bed wetting incident. I was up 4 times with him through the night. I hope we're in for a better time tonight

BBL Glad you had a wonderful time. Also good to hear that Toby is feeling lots better with the excema

TOK Glad you cleared the air with DH

Scarlotti et all. I have posted on FB. I am not sure if i can make it tomorrow. I will know in the morning (or rather, midnight tonight!) but know you are leaving early scarlotti. But i have your mobile so i will text to let you know, and post on here for the other ladies going (mortgage company took a rather large payment from me which they should not have taken, and it was meant to be returned by tomorrow but I am not convinced it will be after receiving a letter yesterday saying something different to a telephone conversation I had until then, i have a grand total of 64p )

Fruit DS1 is afraid of the dark now too, it's a recent thing and quite common at their age. We've bought a glow light and it's worked a treat. It's a night light that turns into a torch when it's taken off the stand, so it helps when he goes to the toilet at night. We use a buggy board if I'm out with the both of them, but luckily he's pretty good with holding on to the pram if we're out and crossing roads etc.
Hope tonight proves better than last night.

Pav nooooo! Really hope you can come as would be such a shame if not. Happy to loan you some dosh if that helps fill the tank with petrol? I can bank wire it over

scarlotti that is so sweet of you, thank you. But i could not possibly take any money from you, but [hugs] i really appreciate the offer. It is either an admin error, ie wrong letter sent. possible, but knowing my luck not bloody likely. Or its a human error, ie she did not do what she said she would (give me the money back!) And that is more likely as that is how life goes isn't it. I am furious, and very sad about it. Normally it would be fine to manage for a few days, but salary went down this month to pretty much nothing, as you all know what thats like, so i was not best pleased.

I have plenty of chocolate ice cream-- food for us though

It's sods law that these things always happen when it's the most inconvenient, and the companies involved always treat it as just another mix up without any thought for the consequence to the customer.
[big pout emoticon] if it means you can't come though.
We could always move it to Thursday instead if everyone wanted, or I could do Thursday too as I'm heading back east that day?

scarlotti that is what I told them. They were not going to give it back at all, they were going to 'add' it to my mortgage til i told them that, i told them they had screwed me up and she said she would send it (3-5working days) and that was the beginning of the week, so tomorrow is the latest it can be in. But the letter that was sent, said something different.

No, don't change it. Because 1) i might still be able to come, and 2) if it is not sorted by tomorrow, even if they resend the payment immediately it will still take 3-5working days, so might not be in til friday and 3) it is not fair on brood and ninja who are also coming.

I am really sorry to mess things up . AND i cleaned the car for the journey and everything.

But I might still make it. So lets keep our fingers crossed for something to be on my side.

Right I am off to bed. Should have been in bed over an hour ago as DS went to sleep at 8:45pm! I am going to sleep, and get up early as if I am heading to Brissool, and hope I am stressing for nothing. Safe journey tomorrow Scarlotti and i really hope i get to meet you, brood and ninja

I hope you are going to get photos up of this meet up by the end of the day!! Very jealous indeed! Hope you get to go Pav

Well, I admit defeat with this application and I am off to bed!

Running club tomorrow morning so I have to take ds to school in my rather hideous running kit (very close fitting lycra ) and then meet the others at the school gate at 9, completely in public, aaarrghh! I have run round the block (about 500m I spose, at a push) five times this week and have lost 3lb! Wow!!!

Loving those weaning pics, been inspired to buy a second hand Bumbo!