Dec 08 ladies getting re-clackered, with tantrums from toddlers we're sure to be knackered

[traceface]

Loved your title rubs
Never started a thread before so hope this works...can anybody find it?
hello....

Effie I assume you found your way. You probably worked out it is very easy. It's practically a straight line from the station via an underpass through the westfields then eventually onto the Quad & assembly rooms. I think there are even little tourist street signs that point the way. Was it lovely to watch?

We went here today. It was lovely and sunny and was just nice to wander around. They had a great play area and farm and little things for kids to do as we wandered around. It's like a huge botanical garden for Tulips & bulb things. It was just really lovely. It's the second last day of the season so some of the flowers had been picked but there was still heaps there. They also had lots of cool little things throughout like a shrub maze and a glass maze. Also a set of stairs in the water that just go up and down. As you can imagine we have a million photos of Tulips.

Glad to have you back Kiwi I had a look at some of your photies on FB, very nice.

Hello Beans. Gotta go there is something very bad in DS2's nappy.

Sorry I also meant to add, LadyT, that my niece, who has had a heart condition since birth, went from 50th to Below the 0.2 centile line. Because of her condition (which was completely unrelated to weight "issue") she sees endless top consultants and not ONE of them was concerned. She's now 2.5, back up to about 25th centile and a happy chatty bright little thing.

Veggie: it was v straightforward. My aunt said 'ooh it's the other side of Derby'. But then it's not that big! I had s lovely walk through the park and the town in the sunshine. The ceremony was good, mum was on near the beginning so she didn't have too much time to get nervous. The pro vice whatsit who was congratulating the graduates didn't get a chance to say anything! She shook his hand, gave him a wild look and scarpered for the steps.

'The other side of Derby' that's funny. People do tend to drive there more than walk I think, it's the middle is anything. Did they have a ferris wheel in the big Quad that you cross to get to the assembly rooms, DS1 called it the Derby eye. He thinks ferris wheels are all just variations of the London eye. I love the wild look. Where does your Aunt live?

In Derby but I can't remember the exact address
(must ask Dad for details). There was no wheel but there was an enormous bouncy castle.

The ceremony was touching, loads of different ages and backgrounds as you'd expect. One woman who received the degree on behalf of her late husband (sniff). And a guide dog who got his own round of applause when he peeped out from under his owner's robes and grimaced at the audience. No-one tripped up though. I'm sure we had at least one tripper at my graduation but then we had to kneel down (v tricky the day after grad ball).

Should add that it was an Open Unicersity degree, hence the wide range of graduates.

Awww Effie that's lovely.
Very quiet on here today, how unusual.
We have had a busy day looking around these cottages and helping Mum and Dad clear out their house. I took loads of photos today which are up on FB, but for those not on it, here is a link
I'm feeling a bit daunted now having had a proper look around and realising the scale of the work. Dad also dropped a bombshell today in that he got the price wrong, they have actually been valued for £40k more than he thought, but DH is still convinced that we can do it. I need to stop thinking about it all now, otherwise I will make myself sick(er) so am off to bed.
See you all tomorrow x

Hellooo, quickie post before I drag myself off to bed. Another bad night's sleep last night, groan. If I wake up for some reason, that's it, I'm doomed. DD is still a bit congested from her cough and cold and is snoring like a trouper, and it resonates down from the mezzanine where her cot is

JB, I picked 'Topaz' out of our Hitchcock box set, on the basis that neither of us had seen it. It was ok but I read after that it is largely considered to be his worst film.

Rubes, I really hope you are feeling a bit better today. It's awful that your local midwife is so unapproachable. If you get no joy with her or with the nice one, I am seeing my lovely consultant a week on Monday and I am very willing to ask her if she's every heard of this sort of pain in this sort of location. Let me know.

Effie, that's cool about your Mum's graduation. Glad it went well. Loved hearing about the guide dog. They're all the cuter for being so solemn, somehow.

Kiwi, it's very nice to have you back, and glad to hear you had a good time (even if reveille was a little earlier than hoped for)... I found your anecdotes particularly reassuring, so thanks v much for sharing those...

Beans, I did smile wryly about your saying I should remember why I moved to the country in the first place I DIDN"T want to move here at all but we figured that my living in London wasn't a great idea once DD was born Prior to that I was just here at weekends and maybe one night in the week. DP hates London and his practice is predominantly Thames Valley (ie Oxford and Reading) and chambers are in Oxford, so it was kind of move here or split up, really. Actually, though, we did have a little picnic this afternoon in a deserted field up the road, which was nice. There are lovely things about the country (I love actually seeing the seasons, the air is fresh) but sad to say I could probably list more things which get me down about village life. Isolating, lack of amenities, a certain mentality....Anyway, cricket has been cancelled so I am scuttling off to London a day earlier than planned.

Veggie, I do love a nice botanical gardens. There was a tulip display near us in Switzerland but I didn't have time to go. Bet they are better by you, though!

I really hope you get your cottages, Katie. I will have a gander at your photos tomorrow, I am on the duff laptop at the moment.

We have been trying with various calorific foods with DD, none of which she is interested in. I made her porridge with double cream and jam today, which I was so sure would be a banker, but which totally bombed. I am however thinking there are shades of Andy Pipkin again, as I was giving her her morning bottle this morning as she sat astride my leg (she still has some bottles as opposed to cups as she drinks more) and there was something wrong with the teat and the milk wouldn't come through properly. I took it off her to fix it and she got so mad that she raised herself up and down on her feet using her own steam about four times, like an angry goblin warming up for a fight She has never done anything like this before, putting weight on her feet and particularly initiating it has been apparently anathema to her. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Night night all.....

Morning - argh, i'm up early this morning with a stabbing type pain this time. dh told me to do a few things in a half asleep voice and muttered that its trapped wind - he was right. This baby is kicking my arse! Also up late as ds was up screaming at 11pm - started with teeth I think - so gelled him up and a happy camper, then turned to just wanting to play and not wanting to go back to bed (this is a new thing) we could tell he was trying it on with us, so after putting him back once, him screaming, then bringing him down again, and seeing his instant cheeky, "I fooled you" type smile he was back in the cot in a flash and the dh "leave him hard arsed he's just being a bugger" type approach was used and he cried about 15 minutes then off to sleep.....

I've officially reached the weight I didn't want to go over this pregnancy - hilarious, and 10 weeks to go Lady I'd love it if you'd ask your consultant - just for a different opinion if nothing else. To describe it again. It is anywhere from the middle to the top half of my bump, and is a definite bruised / burning sometimes pain. But feels sore on the inside of the skin if that makes sense. Like when you get a really really nasty bruise and then someone pokes it! I can't even bear when I'm carrying ds and his knee is just rubbing on it. It's almost always non existent until mid to late afternoon and or the evening but rarely if ever in the morning. And we're pretty sure It's completely unrelated to muscles separating anymore (In fact we're almost sure I don't have that at all)
I took ds to swimming Sat, and he's starting to not like the going under part. Didn't mind at first but now he knows it's coming. Oh well I am thinking of taking him mid week as well to a pool and practice, now that I'm confident of dunking him myself. Felt like crap after though so didn't go to work. Only 2 days left next weekend
Kiwi - welcome back - sorry about the early mornings.

Katie bugger about the 40k - I had a look last night but the FB link didn't work and your profile showed no new pics but i'll have another look. Hope you can get sleep and not stress so much about it all soon. I will try and remember to send you a FB message soon so you can put name to name etc.

Lady - was thinking about some other calorific foods - the sugar thing seems a bit to me too like Vaggie said was it? What about Avocado, peanut butter, full fat cram cheese (ds loves that in anything) See if she will drink those vanilla milkshakes from Mcdonald's (going against what I said about the sugar) but dh was once saying to me that they used to bring them around the Great Ormand St hospital to give the Cancer kiddies purely for their massive calorie content to get some into them - just a though plus they are YUM.
Oh you really do hate not being in London don't you. I used to really like cities but it all changed for me when I got the dog and the baby Now I really want to be further out but my ideal scenario would be somewhere lovely and rural ish still with great local restaurants and wot not but with easy access to get to London and the airport without hassle. ie Henley It's apparently what most people want tho - hence the price tag. dh on the other hand would rather be wherever he can get more land and space around and a bigger house for your money - ie Devon but I just felt too isolated down there and it was mostly because when my family visited it was a 7 hour round trip to pick them up, and my work is always at major airports anyway - not to mention if I wanted to sightsee with people visiting in London - but again all that is because all my family are overseas no doubt. Gosh this is major waffling now and I can hear ds waffling in his cot too. I will charge my coffee and head up to get him I think.

Morning All

DH has taken DD on a run with him again, so am at a loose end and thought I'd say hi. Feeling v perky this morning, despite waking every hour on the hour. But it was the lovely sort of lethargic waking when you can just drift around for a bit before wafting back to sleep again. Heard DD coughing at 5.30, but thought it was 6.30 (my eyesight is so bad that I can't see my bedside digital clock properly), so when she woke up properly at 7, I thought it was closer to 8 because of previous error. So now feeling quite smiley.

Got 5 people coming for a BBQ today and it's COLD! But never mind. We haven't done any shopping yet, but it's Sunday and nothing opens til 10, so taking it gently. DH painted our outdoor table with varnish yesterday evening and it's not dry yet, so guess we'll be eating inside. Thank GOD! It's too nippy for me.

Lady - I'm so sorry, I didn't realise that you didn't really want to move to the country. I do love London, but have to admit that I'm so keen to move out now. Although would probably move to Bristol so am not too far from a city. How far from Oxford are you? I have a couple of friends who live outside London - one couple own a farm and if you were interested, I could put you in touch with them? They don't have any kids yet as are just starting up their farming business, but do let me know if you fancy it? Plus O might enjoy their sheep!

Much love to all.

x

Bean's O's got sheep in her new back yard! (Sorry to but in!) when I visited the new Ladypad (sorry that sounds a little tenalady-like but we saw the sheep only a stones throw - lovely!
We have a new regular egg supply from a farm down the road - I would love to live around here where we are now even but with more land [mega £££'s though]
Have a lovely BBQ Beans We need a new outdoor setting and then I think I might host a MN BBQ but having said that maybe I'll do it after dd is born so 1) I can show her off and 2) I can get cheerful

Afternoon ladies,

Got back from camping yeterday...it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Plus the kids just love it. Actually we stayed at a site that I think Poison recommended to me last year. If your lurking big thanks it was really good. Thank you all for your kind words re: DH. I think things will get better for him/us. It will just take some time and I have never been the most patient of people!

Rubs Sorry about your problem with divarication. Just to add that a frind of mine had this with her 3rd pg. After some physio post birth she is fine again. Although I'm not sure she was in pain with it - I'll ask.

ladyt So sorry about your troubles at the mo with little O's eating and finances. If it was me I would try everything - sugary/fatty whatever and if you stumble on something thats a hit with her then shovel as much of it down her as you can. For example DS ate 4 mini dougnuts this morning at church. Everytime I looked round some old dear was passing him another thinking he hadn't been fed. Believe me the boy does not need extra calories. Anyway I'm off topic, good luck...whoever mentioned the McD's milkshakes, sounds like a brill idead.

Right best tidy up the house looks like a bomb has gone off....

Daisy glad your camping went well. Nah I don't think I have the divarication thing after all as the pains I'm getting are nothing to do with anything like that apparently. I'm going to double check with my pathetic excuse for a midwife butI think it's fine and the pain might be just the way the baby is laying or something.
We have bad teething here - all today as well as last night. he really won't eat too much - It was me Daisy, about the milkshakes! Might head off to maccy d's myself!

Hello everyone, just spent the last 90 mins reading to catch up (was on holiday for a week in Lancashire) and now T has woken from his nap so can;t post properly now but back later. .

spot whereabouts in Lancashire where you? Just being a nosy mare seeing as thats my neck of the woods

rubs we've had a few bad nights with the teeth. Including one on Friday night which was entertaining to say the least at 3.30am, somewhere in the middle of a fieldin the Lake District

I know we have spoken about what words everyone DC's can say but DS, who is possibly one of the eldest of the thread babies says nothing. Occasionally we'll get a 'dada' but mainly its just grunts followed by finger pointing.

Oh and I forgot to add earlier that my cousins little boy is doing great and is now breathing on his own. My cousin is doing really well too, very calm about it all and has been expressing morning noon and night so that they can give him her milk in neonatal. Such a relief for them and nice to have some good news for a change!

Daisy that's great news - wasn't he born at only 28 weeks or something? That's my gestation now! Don't worry re the words thing - ds is not the youngest either and only says dadada, bubub, yer, oh, and oof (woof) (none of them in the right context)the rest is grunts too and it's getting very old. He has upped his frequesncy of grunting though

Yeah rubes he was 28 weeks. I think he was only about 2lb ish too. Amazing really....

Cock, catch up will have to wait, just got loads of questions from the publishers about the manuscript and it needs to go to the typesetters tomorrow. Eek!
Just to say, Daisy we were staying in a cottage outside Chipping and visiting the in-laws in Preston.
And great news about your cousin's son. .

Pubes how's your belly today. I was wondering was there any event that happened that started the pain, like when you lifted DS. I wonder if you have actually done something to a muscle, those poor abs are pretty stretched. I would just go to your GP and get them to send you on to your consultant if concerned, the MW really won't have an idea I don't think and will prob refer you to the GP. Also you were saying DS is suddenly scared of the water dunking. DS2 loves animals esp big ones but is suddenly a bit nervous around them. I think maybe they stepped up their awareness a bit and realised somethings are scary and can possibly cause pain. If your trying to familiarise him with face in water again get him to blow bubbles on the surface for a bit then it's him putting his face or part of in. DS2 loves blowing bubbles, but he also uses the opportunity to drink the water!

Did you enjoy your hols Spot sorry.

Glad the camping trip was ok, we've had late night tent screeching from DS2 when we camped on that Bristol to Derby ride. Got some glares the next morning.

I'm shattered, we rode to a big park near our place as it had a little minature railway system. When I say little I mean the trains etc are little but it is actually a huge system of tracks and sidings and sheds, turntables, crossings, signals and a multiline platform! It was perfect child size, which meant DH & I had to fold ourselves onto the carriage thing, which were thankfully opentopped. The boys loved it. It runs every weds & sun so obviously will be a permanent feature of my life. SL your DH would love it.

Then we wanted to go bowling in the afternoon as there is an alley at the park but the lanes were booked out. But we discovered a huge indoor play center attached to the bowling alley. It had a great gamesroom with bar but we would have had to throw the boys in the bouncy castle they had in it and hope DS2 stayed entertained and safe so instead we went through to the huge softplay. Finally a soft play I really like. Again like the gamesroom it has a bar serving all sorts of drinks and food, it had a nice cafe looking over the soft play but not right in it and around the soft play they had a racing track with the coolest little electric cars. The baby soft play was really good compared to others I've been to were it seems a bit of an add on. But DH & I actually took turns taking DS2 onto the big frame thing with his brother because I wanted to go on the big slide he was really loving it.

Right both boys are shattered and asleep so off to enjoy some dinner and Dr Who on iplayer.

Hi Vaggie - wow a soft play with a bar - sounds like my idea of heaven! Sounds like a very fun day was had!
Re the weird pains - no I can't remember any one thing I did it just came on gradually and is not in one spot only - it's always the top half of the tummy but can be any place really - just a very bruised tender burning feeling. I haven't had it as much today at all, so will see how it goes this week. I have an appointment with the crap local midwife on Thursday so I will run it by her and I'm sure she'll be completely unhelpful, but I also have to go into the hospital at some point to get some 28 week bloods taken and in the past everytime I've been in I'm managed to flag down a m/w with some question and they have been really helpful and literally given me an appointment then and there so hoing to do the same. Still nothing from the consultant, but if the pain is bad again early in the week I will sit and wait for an appointment at my GP. Vaggie, I have googled the exact pain and found this so I feel better knowing i'm not alone, as it's exactly what they are describing here. I will ask the pro's anyway to be sure.
Tomorrow ds's bed (well mattress) arrives so I hope he feels better teeth wise! He's gone to bed no probs tonight all gelled up and also with some Nelson's powder and ate a big dinner thankfully, after not much really since breakfast. I hope he is ok as I'd like to put him in the new bed tomorrow night without the hurty teeth otherwise I might hold off.

Dear Pubes, I wonder if you had the same thing I had with DD2 - that was due to her being transverse so her head was tucked in and her spine was presenting and every time she moved the top of my bump would ache. Bloody sore though, poor you. She will be worth it in the end though.

Lovely LadyT, I am so sorry you feel down about the HV. The HV I saw for Lucy 5 years ago now blamed me for her starting on the 98 centile and then careering down towards the 50th in a matter of about 6 weeks. I asked if that would just be catch down growth as neither DH nor I is huge and she looked at me as if I'd farted and said it was because I BF too much. Dreadful woman. I hope you get some good advice from the nutritionist, but in the meantime I would second whoever said that calories from cream cheese etc prob a good thing. I am sorry too that country life is rubbish in parts. Can I come and see you? I would happiy hop in my motor and have a day out in Oxfordshire. I agree that many of these playgroups are dire but there are sometimes very interesting folk loitering in them - prob worth checking out just to see who's around and might be up for coffee and a gossip. I can't really offer any advice on the £££ thing either I'm afraid other than to say I'm keeping everything crossed for some good book news soon. Thinking of you.

Katie, I got the text about ths book and will post it this week. Cottages look exciting. When's the Dec mums weekend love in going to be scheduled?

Effie, that's lovely to read about your mum amnd her OU degree. I heard on the radio about an old dear being awarded a degree aged 94 today. God bless the OU and accessible education. My mum got an OU degree in the 80s and I sometimes teach a couple of their courses, so I am very fond of them and support them hugely.

Jolly, Matthew has a very firm grip on mother earth as well. His feet are like 2 barges. I love love love the Clarks shoes for girls, but agree that indep places often good for the wider foot. Primigi is a good brand.

Beans, when's the move? Am looking forward to seeing your new gaff. Every time I'm at the Latchmere I think of you, tucked away in Battersea. I am so pleased that you are on ML and looking forward to doing your mummying again. Cannot believe there will be ano baby on the thread in about 5 weeks. Wowser!

Hi Veg. Your evening sounds lovely. I've a chicken in and am looking forward to a glass of tinto in front of some rubbish telly.

Daisy, that's great news about your cousin's little boy. Fingers crossed he goes from strength to strength.

Hello Spot, nice to see you. Hello to everyone I've missed. Had a quiet day, bit of work, bit of kids, bit of shopping. I accidentally bought these when I popped into M and S today. Where I have got to go in a pair of 4" platform shoes I do not know, but they'll be cheery next to all the mum flatties on the shoe rack.

Right, wine.

X post Pubes, that does sound like the pain I had with DD2 and her transverse lie. At least rubbish MW should be able to feel your tummy and see if she is side to side. That said, no one spotted DD2 was transverse til the morning of my section....

oooh lala Sybs look at you and your shoes! Do let me know if you pop out to see Lady as that's not so far for me and I'd love to invite myself pop along too A couple of people have mentioned it sounds like the baby is laying a funny direction, and now that I think about it, at my 20 weeks scan they had some issue with getting a good look as she was going on about the position of the baby, all tucked up and all that but to be honest I wasn't really listening as just desperately looking for a willy or a girl looking bit. perhaps it's that - I'll do a little pushing and shoving massage to see if I can get her to move at all.
I'm having a lovely glass of cheerfulness tonight I've been a bit bad in that department recently