DEC 08 - Welcome to the house of ill - We're riding a poonami

[MomOrMum]

This was the only thing I could remember some saying should be the next title!

Sorry about the poo situation, Jam, that sounds really upsetting for everyone. . Hope he turns a corner soon.

LadyT, wish I could advise on UFH but have never lived anywhere nice enough for tiles. Glad your DP came good on the mothers day gifts, I got a home made card and half a rhubarb tart and a semi-lie in which considering DP's form is actually pretty good.

We went snooping round a village today (Steyning if anyone knows it). Was nice but gave me the wobbles. DP quite liked it and I think fancies living somewhere more rural.

Got a query for the collective wisdom. T is on a food and milk refusal thing at the moment (Think must be related to teeth although he seems quite happy in himself) so I imagine will be hungry in the night. Do you guys who are FFing still give bottles of milk in the night if your DCs wake up hungry? I'm not keen to start a habit but can't imagine he'd get back to sleep without.

Oh dear Jam, so sorry he is still suffering. Poor little lad. And poor you, having to clean all that up! Let's hope it was the grand finale and he is on the mend tomorrow.

Spot - O is usually a heavy sleeper at night (lucky her, I wish I was) but when she has very occasionally woken up in the middle of the night, I haven't given her a bottle (mainly because it didn't seem to be hunger that was the problem). If she was ill I would have no qualms about giving her a bottle but otherwise I don't think I would. However, as T has been refusing stuff, if nothing else looked like it was going to settle him I would probably give him a bottle. This refusing stuff is a pain, isn't it? O had her porridge this morning and a banana but apart from that has only wanted milk all day and point blank refused anything else. She decided to be hysterical at the mere sight of a spoon after the morning and brushed all finger foods onto the floor. Sigh. She wouldn't even eat vanilla ice cream at the restaurant yesterday (they brought her a little pot of it) - screamed her head off and acted like it was pot of dog poo.

Good morning all,

Hope you all had lovely days yesterday. DH rang late yesterday afternoon from work to apologise to me (this was after some comment in the morning about me being a shit parent for letting to DS cry for 10 mins at 5am). Anyway he came home from work at 6.30pm with an Orchid(which was lovely) and a bottle of pink Chmpagne, I was very meh ab out it tbh. He only did it out of guilt. Still I will enjoy drinking the champagne!

Jam, sorry about the sickness still

Spot, I would give the milk if T wants it in te night. If he is suffering and it settles him, you can always reduce it gradually as he gets better.

Kids whining for breakfast, back later

Thanks for the advice, I did indeed give T a huge bottle in the night and then some ibuprofen about 3 hours later as he's just been very screamy and I can only think teeth. Would luuurve some unbroken zzzzzs though.

Daisy, sorry about the guilt gifts, how did you react when he apologised? Get that champagne out for breakfast

jam / Spot sorry about all the illness teething, and what a mess when the poo explosion happens in the cot have only once had that happen but in the form of vomit so not nearly as bad.

Spot / Lady We have that refusing stuff when the teething is bad - however not the waking in the night so much as long as I've dosed him up with neurofin.

He will usually accept milk but I remember one day when he was only having half his normal milk and no food except rusks or a piece of apple - and I mean a piece. It really only lasted while he had really rosy cheeks for about a day or two so it sounds like that to me, but who knows. Hopefully it'll come good very soon.

I have worked out that the Dentinox teething gel is the only thing that works quick as he calms down within 10 mins of applying that after trying every else, which then lets him get settled enough to go back to sleep. Maybe try that before the bottle though I expect if he's not had much to eat all day then he's probably hungry as well so really hard to know isn't it.

Jam: hope DS1 is better this morning. DS2 has had a run of exploding nappies but is otherwise fine, so I'm putting that down to teething.

Spot: hope you got some sleep and that those teeth come through soon.

I have yet another cold and my eye still looks spectacularly bruised. Am trying some arnica cream. It's still sore - I suspect the cheekbone may be cracked but assume there's little to be done about it. Still at least it's sunny!

Hello all,
Hope you all had good mother's days! DS decided to wake up at 9:45 on Mothers day! What a lovely surprise (the fact he was up most of the night screaming we shall forget)
Jam I hope the house of ill departs soon. That sounds horrible.
Spot yes we do feed him in the night when he wants it (bottled milk). He went through a long phase of it at the beginning of the year (after sleeping through for 5 months), and I couldn't believe it had started up again. It just stopped though of it's own accord and now he mostly sleeps through. On Saturday night he was unhappy in the night and DH gave him milk at about 4am. Last night he slept through again (though he woke up frequently wailing and went straight back to sleep, so I think he probably has teeth issues too)
LadyT sympathies on the fussy eating, I have to say though that DS has improved MASSIVELY. I think he might be more hungry, not sure but he is basically willing to try things, and usually willing to swallow food that he's obviously not that keen on (which is most things except certain jars, fruit and yoghurt), even if he doesn't eat that much of it. He's by no means a good eater but he's soooo much better. So fingers crossed that O improves soon as it is sooo frustrating.

ds has improved massively as well Summer. I remember we both have had similar stories in the fussy dept. but is also nothing like the likes of most of his little mates. He goes really hot and cold so one day will wolf loads of food down and the next day only a few mouthfuls of somethings and really turns his nose up at some. it has really helped to think of his nutritional needs over the week rather than over each day as otherwise I'd get too stressed about it one day and then if I tried to force it too much it would make him worse. I have noticed he prefers my cooking rather than jars unless it's spaghetti bolognaise, in which case he will eat it in any form!

Where's Kiwi??

Oh Sybil you make me laugh

Oh no, DS defnitely prefers the jars. I think it's my cooking :-(. Actually the nicer I think it is, the less he seems to like it!! (unless it's cake)

Glad there is light at the end of the tunnel Cos when we were out at quite a posh place on Saturday afternoon, she had been utterly impeccably behaved - sitting nicely at the table for 90 mins whilst we ate, and waving queenily at favoured guests, offering the waitresses her toys etc - UNTIL the kitchen sent her the little pot of ice cream as a reward, and she went ballistic. Just screamed the place down. Odd really, as sweet dairy is right up her rue.

Well Daisy, I am glad your DH apologised, at any rate.

L has got quite fussy of late having been a complete dustbin previously!

It's so beautiful today outside! I have two photographers and an assistant here moving stuff around and setting up lights etc for today's photoshoot. They are very nice and polite and respectful that it is our house. L has had her sleep and then our old nanny who is helping out for the day is going to keep the kids entertained for the day (thank goodness it's not pouring with rain!). Kelly Brook apparently is arriving at 2 and bringing her dog with her - its a pug apparently. So I will be feeling very fat old and ugly by this afternoon then. All good fun so far.

How exciting Turnip! Your house must be very swish

Ooh Turnip that is exciting. You will have to let us know where the photos are going to be!

We have a photographer coming round to do photos of our house to put it on the market. I am excited enough about that - that it's going to be on rightmove - WOW!

I think they will be on the Reebok website - but I doubt my house will be in any way identifiable as they will be mostly closeup shots of Ms Brooks and the new Easytone trainers. Rubena - it is more that we have two large open plans rooms and are in North London that makes it suitable for photos and so on.

Summer you will have to let us know when you are on rightmove. I love looking at people's houses!

It's good that you like looking at houses Turnip - must mean you still like your job! I am sure my house is not as glam as things you are used to though, but I will show you when it is on there! I am hoping they make it look nicer than it is, tee hee (but not too much nicer or people who come round will be disappointed!)

Indeed I like every kind of house big and small. Sad but true. When getting your house photographed the main things is the old cliche of clearing all surfaces and shoving everything into cupboards etc (I always dispair when I see estate agent shots of houses with knickers hanging on the radiator and piles of newspapers).

Turnip, how exciting an afternoon with Kelly Brook and her dog! I bet the dog has a daft name like foofi

DS is also a fussy sod after previously eating anything you put in front of him. Its so annoying. Some days he eats nothing but greek yoghurt and hob nobs. I can always be sure he'll eat both.

I am decluttering the house today - I never realised quite how much crap I have accumulted. I have just filled a bin bag of clothes from both dc's cupboards that they'll never fit back into, and another bag of paperwork that should have been shred about 5 years ago. I should really sort through the toys but DD normally gets over excited about the crap McDonalds toy at the bottom of the toy box that she hasn't seen for a year but refuses to let me throw away......

hehe ours will be as clear as we can make it!! Cupboards already stuffed full with our "tidying". I think it looks very tidy and not too cluttered but I know some people have different standards.

Yeah daisy I was going to sort a load of toys to put in the loft and just as I was about to do it, DS walked up and started getting excited and shrieking at one of them that he hasn't touched in ages.

Oh daisy I also wanted to say what a shit your DH is being making a comment about you not getting up to your DS for 10 mins at 5am! Blimey if it's that bad parenting in his opinion he should have shifted his arse himself.

oooh me too - love to look at houses on rightmove! I'm thinking of putting our flat on Sarah Beeney's website to see if we get any interest privately.

Just been out doing a spot more gardening - and by gardening I mean picking up dog poo and raking up dead grass and crap. It's just not the same in the sunshine without a nice glass of chilled chardonnay.

ds has been helping and nearly knocked himself out with the rake

The dog is driving me nuts - she is in season and just tried to do it to ds [nice]

Right, house expert-os, another boring question from me (I do apologise, there might be a few of these): at some point I am going to have to buy a carpet for the living room in the new house, as there is just concrete on the floor at the mo. It needs to cover not just the living room but up the stairs, and landing, and then two sets of other stairs which go in different directions from the landing. Can't really have stair runners as the stairs have board on. I need something cheap, hardwearing and nice. I have peeped in John Lewis but I suppose I ought to go to a cheap carpet place. But I don't want something that looks naff. I like creamy coloured carpets but in areas of such high traffic I think it's asking for trouble. Any brain waves?

To all those decluttering and tidying up the garden, I admire your resolve.

Lady - I'm afraid i'm not much help on the carpet thing as I'm a wood floor fan all the way. I like carpet for the bedrooms but that's about it. We put new carpet in the bedrooms of our flat and we did that only 3 days before the tenant was moving in therefore we went for a middle of the road average but also hard wearing carpet since it was tenanted. It will help a lot to go and speakl to the carpet people and tell them what you want out of it. I'm sure there will be others here with something to say more helpful

Hmmm LadyT I don't really like any type of carpet except light coloured carpet either. We have a cream carpet in the hall and stairs and we just take our shoes off and make sure we clean it (just with a cloth, etc) straight away if we do get mud on it. But we have only had it for about a year so far. It does have some marks on it but looks generally good still. It was a hardwearing middle of teh range carpet either from Allied Carpets or similar. Is there any way you could get laminate or something though for downstairs? AS in retrostpect I would have preferred to get wood flooring or laminate in the hall as it is much easier without the worry of it getting dirty.

I am sure turnip and the other house afficionados will be along with better advice though.

Oh on the Under floor heating (or ufh as those in the business, i.e. Turnip call it!!) we were offered to have it installed in our kitchen, I think it would only have cost 300 quid more but we said no as we were already over budget. If it might make the ceiling seem too low i would say no to be honest, though I do kind of wish we had had it now!! I just make sure I wear slippers in the kitchen.