May 2009 - A new start. Mine's a large gin please.

[runningmonkey]

Here you go ladies.

eveningl
just a quick catchup - have been sorting out stuff to ebay whilst watching masterchef

M has a really bad cough again so think it could be a rough night

We're really lucky normally M sleeps 8pm till 6.40am ish most nights and has done for about 4 months

Can't believe she'll be 1 in 17 days! we're having a bbq party to celebrate with mostly family but a few friends too (prob about 8 children, 25 adults) must be mad but we see our friends once in a blue moon so it'll be nice to see everyone

period still carrying on - 11 days now but just yucky not heavy

Morning!!

Dandy (come baaaaack) Happy anniversary!!! Have a great weekend in paris . It's our 7th anniversary tomorrow and we were going to try to get away for a night but it doesn't look possible so have decided to go to the movies and out for a meal (oh the glamour and romance) but I'm looking forward to it.

OK so The List. Before I start can I just say I love MIL and step FIL and get on really well and have been having fun while they are here so The List is just for fun (although contains actual events )

MIL got a cold when she arrived probably due to aeroplane bugs etc and she took 12 (yes 12) vitamin C tablets and vast amounts of red wine instead of rest, fluids and paracetamol that DH and I suggested. She then proceeded to be sick for 10+days.

They don't eat. Just once a day. I think it its to control weight so MIL can drink wine every night .

They drift up for the day around 10am (when we have already been up for 3+hours) and if we want to go anywhere for the day they are all 'Whatever...we'll just go with the flow...lets not worry about planning anything... lets just get on a bus and see where we end up...' Which is all well and good except when you have a baby and toddler in tow who need food and sleep in some sort of regular pattern.

They offer DD biscuits at 8.30am and sweets at 7pm . They give her juice in one of Rs baby bottles. MIL is all over DD trying to get her to kiss her and hug her which DD hates. Luckily DD is now warming up to her alot and giving more cuddles.

They have bought the following items from our local Asda (which they pronounce Asla) smart price lager (2% alcohol they didn't mean to get low alcohol but just got the cheapest), 4% red wine again didn't mean to get low alcohol, Smart price bread (gross), smart price toilet rolls (just wrong) and 2 trays of halal chicken thighs that was marked down . This was after I had said not to get anything as the fridge and freezer and cupboards were full.

So nothing too bad and mostly funny. They are darlings really but only half way through their trip!

febes for some reason the halal chicken made me really chuckle! I hope you survive the rest of the trip!

fi am so sorry, completely missed your post about being poorly yesterday, I hope you are feeling a bit better now, sounds horrendous.

Had a boring day today, attempted the supermarket shop with no list and A to entertain. Spent £70 and don't seem to have any of the things I actually needed. Doh! Back to online shopping next time.

I'm getting a bit concerned that A is trying to drop a nap (currently has 2), she goes down fine in the morning but the afternoon nap is getting more and more difficult - today it took almost an hour to get her to settle. Ideally if she's going to have one nap, I'd rather she dropped the morning one... otherwise our afternoons are going to be looooooooong! Any suggestions as to what I could try?

Hi ladies,

febes- i read your post whilst I was bored at work- it made me chuckle . I particularly liked the cheap low-alcohol lager and wine - that sounded delightful. Hope they will see the error of their shopping purchases, including the rough loo paper .

running- ah yes, the 2 naps into 1 dilemma. I think every baby is different, so you just have to see what works for you. With DD we gradually moved her morning sleep on, keeping her up a bit longer every few days (giving snacks when she was flagging) until she was having an early lunch at 11 and napping after. Eventually we got her onto a 12pm lunch with a 1.5-2 hour sleep after. We'd just have to deal with a difficult 5-6pm if she was up early from her nap. With DS he was like your A, refusing to go down for his second nap, even if we delayed it, so he would have a morning sleep at say 9.30-11am and that was that for the day, so we decided to just keep him up til after lunch when he would definitely be ready for his nap- luckily he didn't get over-tired where as DD would have which is why we had to do it gradually with her. S generally stays awake all morning if he's entertained/busy, and then sleeps after lunch but then it's frustrating that he only sleeps for an hour or so as I would love a long break too . As he only sleeps an hour or so a day, I am sure he'll be giving up his naps sooner than the other DCs who used to have 2 x 1.5-2 hour naps a day when they were little. Sometimes they would have a 3 hour afternoon nap when they were down to 1 nap a day .

Ta pula that is really helpful. I only dream of 3 hour naps! A sleeps about 40mins in the morning and then usually about 45- 1hr in the pm. I think I will try to keep her up and see what happens. Might make us a bit housebound for a while as if she is the slightest bit tired and we are out in the car or pushchair she is out for the count (feel terrible complaining about this as it used to be a lifesaver!) and who knows what will happen at the CM when she starts back in a week's time!

Right must go watch masterchef be sociable with DH. Hope everyone is ok x

Hi all.
Really must go to bed but wanted to say hello. Febes, your post made me laugh! OH, and happy anniv for tomorrow.

Pula, great advice on the sleep. I think H is moving towards the one sleep day as well. She currently sleeps about 45 min in the morning and 90 min at lunch but going down later for her lunchtime nap, almost skipping it. I think I'll keep her awake longer in the morning.

running, hope you can get A to sleep ok. who won MC?

hi to everyone else. really tired now.

hello! Thanks for the get well wishes. I'm glad to say the extreme dizzyness has gone and my period too.. I have never had this with a period before & was awful. it was like i was drunk without any alcohol.. no fair! I have had the dizzyness before.. when i was anemic after having DS. So i'm wondering if my iron is borderline and maybe that's why it happened when my period started? i'm going to take some iron tablets a few days before (if i can work out when that'll be!) and hope it helps. very odd all in all.

febes your PIL post made me chuckle

happy anniversaries to you febes & dandy i'd just love a potter around paris again

belgina i loved the annual village duck race participation with super duck.. must hunt out your photos on FB

daytime naps.. G generally has one in am from about 10ish till 12 & won't give in to another for the rest of the day. if we're at the toddler group we go to on tuesday am's then she won't give in to sleep until after lunch and will sleep about 2hrs then. on an unusual day she'll nap for 3hrs or do two naps of no more than 1.5hrs each. DS slept way more but i suppose the fact that there was no rampaging toddler accidentally waking him.. probably helped!

big wave to all I haven't NC'd x

Glad you're better Fi

am really excited: my sister and her 16 mo DS are arriving tomorrow morning! they're staying just a few days (she works for an airline so can just hop a flight on a whim).

also excited to see dandy and sinnin for a couple of hours tomorrow aft (on a whim!).

anyone else want to come to York? I looooove visitors! it's a great place to visit as well!

younger- enjoy your meetup tomorrow and how exciting for you to see your DSis and DN for the weekend .

fi glad to hear you're feeling more normal, and am at your amazing sleeping G and how you think 2-3 hours a day isn't that much . I was also spoilt with DD and DS1 who would have naps of 3-4 hours a day when on 2 naps a day so DS2 with his 1 hour and a bit if you're lucky is a bit of a shock, although it does mean I can get out and about. DS1 hardly ever went to playgroup as he was always asleep although i would wake him just to take him to "tinytalk" once a week.

I was off work today as DS1 was sick in the night so couldn't go to nursery. It was such a sunny day so a real shame we were inside.

morning

we've had an eventful couple of days..

M is now crawling well - finally and into everything

had a phone call at 2.30am yesterday morning from my mums care home to say she'd had a bad asthma attack and was on her way to hospital met her there and got her settled finally got home to bed at 5.30am [yawn] so had about an hours sleep before getting up with M

the hospital think it might be asthma or possibly COPD brought on by 50odd years of smoking (she gave up in dec) so they are monitoring her and she's having oxygen/nebulizer

so off to visit her later.

DH being really unsupportive - couldn't understand why I had to go down to the hospital to be with her - I couldn't leave her on hjer own could I! I'm the person they always call first rather than my dad who'll be 80 this year and is getting more frail

Meanwhile M's chest got worse again last night and she's quite rattly this morning with a phlemy cough so think we're off to the docs again today.

Sorry me, me, me

by the way febes your MIL and step FIL sound fun glad your getting on okay

younger have fun with your sis/niece

fiBTS glad your feeling better, looks like my period has finally tailed off - after 12 days

looby sorry to hear your mum is in hospital. fwiw if it'd been my mum I would have gone too or my dh just so she wasn't on her own & make sure she was ok.. hope M is ok at the doc's too. x
pula your post wrt G's naps made me put like that she's doing alright isn't she?! mind you on a bad day i'm lucky if she has 30mins here and there.. those days are full of a cranky G and very loooong.
younger have fun with your sis! & her little one of course. & a meet with hinny n dandy yay!

M improved dramatically before we went to the docs but the advice was to continue with her inhaler if she was struggling a bit - up to 4 x daily

Went to see my mum and they'd moved her but managed to see her on the new ward out of visiting hours. She'd had a fall yesterday in admissions ward and is being uncooperative with the respiratory nurse unfortunately so looks like she'll be in for a few days

Went for a lovely walk in the sun after the docs. M slkept for an hour in her buggy - then we had lunch down by the river time for milk and hopfully a nap so I can do some cleaning

Hola!

Spangle - I'm so sorry to hear about your MIL. Hugs for you and your family. Can't believe H is one!

Febes - re your ILs!!

Dandy - yay!

Headless - glad all is going well - wondered if you'd be leaving us to go onto a 'due in ...' thread.. so you're staying here.. at least for now...

periods - been having mine for ages, but they were pretty heavy to begin with.

Whats with all the poorly babies? How naughty! M has had 'the' bug - the Dr in A&E diagnosed flu, but she pretty much seems to be over it now.

So I'm back home, still hobbly. So lovely to be back and not with my MOTHER (aaargrghhh) - but DH and I have not been getting on AT ALL, so many rows... yesterday was the first day since I'd been back that we hadn't rowed. And it's not just bickering. Lots of name calling (him calling me names mostly) and me homfing out the house in a huff (which must look funny me on crutches). Makes me so sad. Came back to over 2 weeks worth of washing and ironing (pula he wasn't joking!) which still isn't finished. He ironed 3 of his work shirts the other night and then had a go at me as I didn't thank him for doing them!?! WTF? Cue another row.... I think we need a bloody good holiday, it's been one stress after another chez sausage. Also went to the GP today to finally get my bloody (literally) piles sorted (sorry, TMI!). Got a referral to a colorectal surgeon to get them lopped off - either by 'banding' or injecting stuff into them to make them fall off. Yuck. Can you imagine if they fell off into your knickers and you were just wearing a skirt and it landed round your ankles whilst out at fancy drinks or something?! (HAHAHAHAA me at fancy drinks?!)

Ah well. ILs are here tomoz (reetbobblydazzler) and DH and I are off into town to watch Oliver and then meet some friends for dinner in Covent Garden, so should be the tonic that we need...

Anyone here strangely already addicted to that awful Over the Rainbow thingy?!

that I missed the easter emoticons..

Can't believe I am back at work soon. Ok, so only for a few months, but still. Not looking forward to the stupid commute....

lalalalala

good to have you back, Grumpy! I feel I'll be changing back to momi soon; Youngerthan just doesn't feel right either.

It was lovely meeting grump and Dandy. I already knew grumpy was(is) lovely and glam and found dandy to be lovely and glam as well! Defn needed more time to chat and hope to get a chance to meet up again soon.

looby, take care and hope your mum is better.

saus, sorry, had to at the piles conversation. hope you get them sorted once and for all.

everyone else hello! i have an hour of work to do so I can settle down with a glass of wine and sisterly chat in the evening sun. DN is gorgeous and has slept better today. he makes me long to have a boy.... ah, too late now!

have a good evening/weekend all.

Hi everyone,

not been on for a few days as completely knackered from a work/C's difficult sleeping combo. We're still working at it. I'm also feeling a bit down at the moment. It's mainly work. I'm really really not enjoying it, but not sure what I do want to do

grumpy welcome back. In my mind you've always been grumpy

grumpy, younger, dandy glad you've all had a lovely meet up. I'd love to come to York one day, but it's just that bit too far for a day IMO.

saus also was my reaction to your pile story. I hope they get shrunk/removed soon. Hope you and your dh are getting some lovely 'couple' time today (I saw something like that on your fb status)

looby Hope your mum gets better soon.

The weather has been lovely here and we've had a few days of being outside a lot. It's just great where we live now. We're right across the village play ground and the dcs spend most of the day playing there and never seem short of a play mate They really became friends with the post master's son and this morning dd1 dissapeared. It turned out that she'd gone over to the post office to have a look at their cat and to see if the little boy was home . The irony is that she dissapeared just as I was telling someone on the play ground about the time that she dissapeared in Legoland.

Dd1 has also finally been seen by the orthopaedic team. There's nothing really wrong with her, except that she is lacking strength and so we've got to do some more excercise with her. I've also got her a small gym ball to sit on while watching telly, cycling and horse riding were the other things that were recommended. The lack of strength makes dd1 a bit slower/more clumsy compared to her peers, which in turn affects her confidence. I think she'd love horse riding, so I'm going to look into that being that we're living in the countryside. I hope I can find somewhere that's not too expensive.

That's it from us for now. Hope you're all enjoying the sunny weekend too.

Oh, one more thing. What are you all getting your lo's for their 1st b'day? I have a wheely bug in the loft that I had been saving for the occasion, but I don't think C's ready for it yet. She's not walking or even crawling yet, so I don't think she'll be able to ride it. I think I might save it for xmas, but I really don't know what to get instead.

Evening! I hope you are all well.

I started back at work last week. I did just one day due to the bank holiday and didn't have any IT access so just swanned around drinking coffee and saying hello. The hard work begins next week!

We went out this evening but had to come home early because poor G wouldn't settle for the babysitter. So we are sitting here all dressed up with no where to go!

I'm very pleased that you had a luuuverly meet-up and also very envious too.

I've no idea what we are going to buy for G's birthday, Belgina. I'd thought about a wheelybug too but he doesn't seem ready either. The inlaws have bought one of those trolley things with bricks. I've thought about this but it is a bit too pricey really. It is a cliche but he'd probably prefer the box! But DS loves the Cozy Coupe so it would be handy to have another, similar thing to avoid arguments.

Morning all.
Sorry have been a bit quiet. Been sooooooo tired that have been going to bed really early all week. Cept for Thurs when I had my 2nd time ante natal girls round, and Fri when we went to some pals for dinner. We have decided not to tell anyone else our news (apart from my parents) for now, until we've had the scan next fri and know how things are progressing.So it was quite tricky to keep my wine consumption to an absolute minimum. One glass each night. 2 glasses a week I think is ok - well its what I allowed myself with all my other pgs and both DSs are ok (so far!). ANyway, I think I got away with it!

I had to tell my folks - you may remember my dad lives in South Africa part time and we had planned a visit there in late October around half term. I don't think I'll be able to travel at about 8 months pg (still crossing everything). Mum and Dad have been very excited about us going and mention it ALL THE TIME. Dad is also back for a couple of weeks at the mo so when they nipped up on Wednesday evening, and after the tenth mention of going in October, I caved and told them. They were pleased at our news, but disappointed that we can't go. So are we!! But pleased at the same time IFYKWIM.

llare LOL at your first days back "swan ning around".

belgina I keep thinking its pointless buying a present but I know I will not be able to resist!

grumpy and momi you will always be!

saus how was your night out with DH? Hope it was luverlee and you manage to get back on track together. And at the piles.

DS1 is now nagging me for the computer! Can you believe I am about to cave in to a 4 year old?????

Morning all.

Have to say sorry to hear of your bad news Spangle hope your DH is doing OK.

Belgina I have no idea what to do for G's bday. We have so much stuff, I don't really want to get him anything .

Llare oh no... home early. What a mare !!

Saus hope you had a lovely evening

Grumps love your name, you've always been grumpy to me

Very at the meet up.

Well, this week has been a bit shite, TBH. G has been really poorly with double ear infection, tonsillitis and conjunctivitis too. And work have been an arse about me taking time off to look after him. Then he got allergic to the antibiotics. On top of that DH and I have been at each others throats for a while, and I didn't get an interview for a job I really really wanted.

BUT yesterday was a great day. Such lovely weather. We went for a family bike ride around a local lake and A rode around on her own bike all of the way. Then lovely picnic, then friends around for a takeaway. And I have a tincey hangover

glad all is going well for you.

Tumm We had a brilliant little shoeshop where I used to live, but it had to close due to the strong Euro. She sold European shoes which ended up costing nearly £60 which the lovely lady couldn't justify. Anyway. I loved the little shop because 1) the woman was very knowledgeable about measuring shoes 2) she seemed to have a wide range of narrow fit shoes in (she told me she did, because of the large amount of customers having trouble finding narrow fit shoes and word of mouth sending more and more people her way) and 3) she always felt genuine and would never recommend new shoes if not needed, which I never feel is the case in Clarks

tumm- I think local independent shoe shops are great and tend to use them for the DCs. I was really when I went to clarks for DS1s first shoes- they sqeezed his feet into shoes (which i queried at the time) which i struggled to get on after a few days, so we had to go back to get a new pair. S wears some soft pram shoes (trainers) ATM but i am trying to decide whether to get him some proper pre-walkers, or just wait til he is walking.

As for birthday presents, i am thinking of getting S a cosy coupe as I know DS1 would love it too so it would definitely get used. We seem to have most other toys already and really don't need more! My mum always likes to spend £50 for birthdays, so i could even suggest she buys it and then we'll just get him something small .

Better go- will catch up later- off out now.