May 2009 - one year on

[Tummum]

Here you go ladies...

Oh, C and G sound very similar, Belgina! G is asleep and has been since 8.30ish.

flip I like your new name! Very summery

tum another def vote for cottage here too. Caravan sounds too much like hard work and you need a little bit of a break too (although did like flip's suggestion the most!)

momi can't spill any Lost answers yet as not sure llare has watched the finale yet.

llare hope your nights get better. We've noticed a definate improvement in R's sleeping with him being close to walking. All the effort seems to take it out of him and consequently our nights have improved. You may rememeber that we have also not had an unbroken one in months. I can offer no advice as we are spectacularly inconsistent in how we deal with him when he does wake though!

belgina gold star for you and your mammoth post! I also notice that sometimes at night if I wake up, I feel quite woozy , beyond exhasution. Ie that its not just tiredness. Having 2 babies growing must really take it out of your body especially an old knackered one like mine!

On the upside, I've only put on half a stone despite actually eating for 3!

Oh, Lost. I've watched it now. I was distinctly undewhelmed by it all. Hurumph.

As for sleeping, I suspect that our problems are in part due to a lack of belief in a system or a failure in consistency. Both DH and I just do whatever we can on the night to get the little darlings back into bed and asleep. I can never remember things like pick up put down. I wish I could! It doesn't help that a friend of mine on facebook is posting that her 6 month old is sleeping through and I am feeling very resentful. We shall all be sleep deprived together...

smokey crikey you got me all weirded out there. Managed to access the thread half way through and saw smokey had CVS......I was thinking wow Smokeytom......and then scrolled up and down a bit to realise you'd name changed. Phew! I'm pissed (again sorry) right now so will try and catch up on the thread tomorrow. Boy am I owed a lie in. Dh got a 10am one this morning!

smokey Gees I'm bad at this and congratulations on the RESULTS of the CVS. I am social ineptitude personified.

I'm going to bed. Too many late nights and early mornings.....and wine.

I've seen some lovely comments about my lovely children Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the meet up and will post about it soon. I just need a couple of litres of water and my bed for a good 24 hours....the chances of that? slim.

After the evening I've had, I wish I drank! Both boys having tantrums and DH nipped off to work leaving me to deal with them. I ended up sitting on the landing upstairs, head in hands, while DS2 screamed in cot and DS1 screamed in his bedroom. Oh to be supernanny at times like that!

I fear I may have joined in with the tantrum for a couple of minutes and came downstairs to calm down. I am now feeling like I really need a supernanny to teach me how to behave.

Gah. Perhaps a virtual glass of wine will help? Still, they are asleep now.

We had a lovely day at the National Herb Centre near Banbury. If you're ever in the area it is well worth a visit. We saw deer, buzzards, tadpoles and obviously lots and lots of herbs. It is set in a beautiful valley and is free! We tramped around their trails all morning, had a lovely picnic and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Right. Off to top tantrums with some housework. The joys of motherhood, eh?

I have a small child who smells of cabbage farts .

My whole house stinks.

Good evening everybody!!

llare would a slice of pineapple upside down cake help?

Evening all. Very quiet on here this weekend. It must be the nice weather or everyone is traveling up and down the country doing some bank holiday sight seeing.

Llare Hope things have settled in your home now. Walking away is a very good strategy. I suppose your boys must have been shattered after a busy day in the herb centre. Fatigue is one of those things that triggers tantrums, isn't it. Tiredness tantrums are usually solved with a back rub in my house. It's like magic for some reason

I'm pretty excited about yesterday's Eurovision result for Belgium. I was jumping up and down with the voting. DH and the ap thought I was going a bit bonkers

C's still suffering with the molars. I can feel 3 more just under her gums. 2 nearly through, poor thing. Last night was pretty bad, waking every 1.5h, keeping me awake for nearly an hour at the time. I put her to bed with some calpol today. Fingers crossed we'll get a better night.

Other than that the weekend has been lovely. Just hanging around at home, having a drink and a chat. It's been a weekend of long talks about the future, mostly mine. I still haven't worked out what that future will be, but I know that I can't stay a mw forever. I can't cope with the stress of it. However I can't think of a related other job either, so at the moment I just plod on. DH, however, suggested me dropping a day at work so we can work something out without needing an ap. We're both not enjoying having aps in the house anymore and so our next one might be our last.

grumpy Can I have a slice of pinapple upside down cake? I've heard of it, but never had it.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

llareggub - that sounds hard. Your day sounds lovely though, up until then. Hope you have a peaceful night.

grumpy - sorry, but lol (and eurghhhh) at cabbage farts.

A's sleeping is dreadful. Fab until 4am, then it all goes terribly wrong. I need a miracle, please.

Belgina - crossposts, Hello! Glad you're able to have constructive talks with your DH, and that you can find a solution soon.

(passes Llare a virtual gin) sounds like a tantrum nightmare

Grumps, can I have a bit of pineapple upside down cake too please?

Flip - sympathies at the lack of sleep

Belgina - hope the thinking is going well. It's good to have an option to reduce your working days to try to reduce the stress. I think that you are a fabulous midwife, but can understand that it's a very stressful vocation

My friend brought over her week old baby today. She had a three hour water birth (her first baby) is a finding breastfeeding a doodle and not painful at all, has no stretch marks and is already in her pre-pregnancy jeans. Humph. I'm so pleased it's going well for her, but I am a tinsey bit jealous. And a bit (shuffles feet) broody.

Sorry for no holding. I'm using my new iPad toy but can't figure out where the blooming star key is!

That would be B olding, not H olding !

Thank you for the support. We are all quite tired and I think you are right in your observation about tiredness induced tantrums, Belgina. Belgina I am sorry you feel that way about midwifery but I am pleased, if you see what I mean, that you have reached a point where you can talk about doing something else. So many people crack on doing something they hate because they never realise that they don't need to. I wonder if the NCT need someone like you to run their classes? You'd be fantastic!

Tummum I am very jealous of your ipad but as I have a MacBook and an iTouch I suspect I could not justify an ipad purchase. If the keyboard is the same as an iTouch then the * button is quite hidden away:

Press the .?123 button
On the left there is a button marked #+= Press it and it will take you to a 3rd keyboard where you will find the * button.

Grumpy the upside pineapple cake sounds lovely, thanks!

flip I need the same miracle, I'm afraid.

Morning all.

llare hope you had a better night. Tiredness is a peculiar thing. Tantrums are a definate side effect here as is going completely hyper, thereby inducing a tantrum when hyperness has worn off.

belgina how about being a doula? I know it doesn't necessarily put your midwifery skills to the test, but as everyone has said, you have such a calming way about you, that anyone would lucky to have you with them throughout their birth, and you would get to build some lovely relationships and see through the whole process with families. I reckon that would suit you down to the ground!

LOL at your pissed up confusion jenn! I wish I could have met your lovely children - everyone spoke very highly of them. What are your secrets????

grumpy any of that cake left?

OK. llare and momi, Lost. I was also a little underwhelmed when I watched it, although I did cry at Juliet and Sawyers reunion. But the more I have thought about it, ( and I have thought about it a lot!), actually I am happy with the ending. It took a while to get my head round the side ways puragotory thing, but now I have and as it was all about the characters, I felt happy with how it resloved. As far as the island side of things resolved, there were a few unanswered questions that could do with sorting out ( what was that temple all about in the final season, why did the Others take the children, what was the deal with the women not being able to give birth). I think there will be a few more as I am still thinking about it, but the purpose of the Island resolution I kind of got and am happy it all fitted in.

I've been watching some of the programmes on Sky about the show, and I had forgotten how hot Jack was at the start. I was always a Jack girl although he did begin to lose it midway, but he pulled it round at the end!

R is being exceptionally cute at the moment. I am so in love with him its not true! His latest thing is random pointing at things (anything!) and saying ook. My mother swears he is saying Look, and I'll give her that! He has also perfected his winning smile and it just melts me everytime. I think he will end up a mummy's boy, whereas DS1 is definatley more of a daddy's boy.

Morning all

I meant to post more last night but ended up having a horrendous gallstones attack, excruciating pain from 9.15ish to about 2am. I was supposed to be seeing a Consultant about them but my GP's surgery (who initiated the appts) fucked up and I am trying to get the issue resolved. I need my gallbladder removing, I almost drove myself to the hospital last night to camp out and demand they remove it NOW!!

Anyway, there's still pineapple upside down cake - it's really nice . belgina it's a very retro cake, I remember it from my childhood, I make a different version that's like 'Eve's Pudding', I caramelise the pineapple in a pan with butter & sugar, place it in a tart tin, then dollop a sponge cake mix on top (but with an extra egg and brown sugar (I used delicious dark molasses sugar), not caster) - I reckon on 175g each butter, sugar, flour, 3/4 eggs, couple tbsp milk and a splash of Malibu if very common like me . Bang in oven, 20-25 mins. Cool couple mins, deftly (ha!!) tip out onto plate so pineapple is toppermost. The classic has glace cherries in the centre of each pineapple slice but I realised too late that I had no glace cherries.

llare I hope today is better for you.

flip S has only in the past couple of weeks been sleeping well. I feel your pain. She sleeps from 11ish to 5 or 6 most nights now. We didn't do anything differently, so I can't offer any advice, just sympathy.

tum I must admit I'm unconvinced by the iPad but feel free to convince me!!

belgina I second the doula idea.

smokey I blubbed a lot at Lost (old romantic at heart) but remain pissed off and disappointed at the ending - lazy writing I think, they didn't bother to address many issues. Loved seeing Sawyer and Juliet again though......

Cabbage Farts is a little less smelly today - honestly, the smell was horrific. She's just patting and poking DD2, who is trying to watch TV. I sense arguments ahead........

So, what's everyone doing today?

TMI alert for this post. Faint hearted look away...

Aaargh will have to NC next time - I'm doing bloody well SITTING here. I am in so much pain it's stupid. Was ok yesterday, although a little woozy, until it was time to do the first poo. OMG. I think I passed out afterwards, as I went straight to bed (it WAS bedtime) and when I next woke it was morning. Don't know why I remembered Grumpy but it was some recollection about the first poo post labour when you just have to do it and you go all hot and cold and sweaty and have to take your clothes off and pace in circles round the bathroom. Anyway, THAT all happened, but I think my hard poo was coming out sideways, and there was sooo much blood dripping out (vom vom vom). I've had my internal piles (WTF?!) injected with some sclerosing agent so they will fall off after the bloody supply to them dies or something (bleh) and the giant external one has just been chopped off, seemingly with a blunt, rusty hacksaw it's that sore. I've had a peep (somehow) with a handmirror - BIG MISTAKE - what a MESS! Hopefully things will be better when the swelling has all gone down and my poo is nice and soft. Had another hard poo this morning...... ow.... have been glugging lactulose so much that my tummy is gurgling VERY loudly, and am now drinking loads of water, which is scary as it makes me want to wee, and if I sit on the loo my bottom thinks I need to poo and it starts to come out and I bleed again.

Ahem

Sorry about all that. Had ILs here yesterday - didn't tell them what I'd had done but when I was out the room MIL did say to DH 'is saus ok, she looks ever so pale and tired' (Ha, hope he felt guilty) - they also kept making comments on how M has grown and 'ooh she wasn't doing that the last time we saw her, what, a month ago was it?' Gr. They also bought her this awful giant pink bird thing which I think is off t'telly which sings about doing a muffin dance in a very grating accent. Double gr.

On that note, I think I need to go and lie down for a bit. Thanks for all your thoughts, everyone!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

saus DO THE MUFFIN.....DO THE MUFFIN......DO DO DO THE MUFFIN

That one by any chance?

And yes, 'twas my dump. I also had to do squat thrusts

God poor you, I really hope things start to heal soon. Your poor bum

Just in the first throes of another gallstones incident. The agony will kick in shortly.

saus ouch ouch ouch. You poor poor thing. That has to be one the most painful things I have ever read. I remember one piece of advice given for the first post birth poo which may, or may not assist, which was to lean forward as you are sitting there and it will assist in gently easing it out.

grumpy I may well have a go at your cake, it sounds so yummy, but it will have to wait till later on in the week as I can barely make a sandwich after a work day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

DH is currently experiencing what my Thursdays and Fridays are like as he has had both DSs allllllllll day. I've been on call and been out for a good few hours, and on returning, had to lie down and rest for a bit. So DH is now doing bathtime whilst I lounge around doing naff all. Amm off duty in 24 minutes time. Can't be bothered to cook and feel it would be churlish to ask DH to do so so takeaway pizza tonight, I think.

saus Ouch. Poor you. Hope your nether regions look like their old self soon.

grumpy That upside down cake sounds nice. Will have to make it myself sometime soon. Poor you and your gall stones. I hope your GP gets the referal sorted soon.

tumm How's the iPad? I'd been wondering about them and what their purpose is. DH seems to think it's a small laptop, but it's not, is it? It can't do word processing etc... Saying that I do think I'd like one, just so I can watch telly and MN at the same time. We've only got a desk top you see. It's in the living room, but still...

flip 4 seems to be the cut off here too. On the days that she does sleep well, it's only until 4-4.30 and after that she's very very very very restless, whimpering, tossing and turning and generally keeping me awake. Hope tonight is better for you. I've decided to keep that dream feed going for now. Without it she wakes at 2, with at 4 . I'm pretty sure C's the only 1yo in the world that still needs a dream feed

Thanks for all the suggestions re my future . Oddly enough becoming a doula had popped in my mind. Simply because it seems to be the fun parts of midwifery (or what I find fun any way, i.e. supporting women) without the reams of paperwork that go with it. Only this week I was poached by LW to help out as it was busy and I had this woman who could do with my undevided attention, but I kept having to stop to write every 15min. So annoying and disruptive. I hate this defensive practice that we're being sort of forced into nowadays It keeps being drummed into us that if it's not written down, it didn't happen and when the day comes that you end up in court...

doula Just wanted to add that in a way doula-ing would feel like taking a step back. After spending all that time getting my mw degree I'd feel it's a shame to waste it by going the doula route. I think I will stick to the community plan for now and see how I like that first. I'm also keeping my eyes and ears open for any other jobs that require a mw qualification, but aren't exactly being a mw, IYKWIM.

Will stop these ramblings now. I'm just pondering out loud really.

Night everyone.

Hello!! I'm back from York. Was great to meet you all and the gorgeous DC. I've posted my photos on the FB group.
Everyone's said it all really but it is so lovely to meet up and find people exactly how you imagine them to be and just as lovely as you imagine

saus - I could feel a tiny bit of your pain as I read your post and that was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Hope it improves quickly for you and that your DH is a bit more understanding and looks after you.

smokey - hope you enjoyed your pizza and that you made the most of DH being on duty with the DC (even if you were on call for most of it)

Grumpy - ouch to gallstones. Hope you manage to get it sorted soon.
LOL at Cabbage Farts! Glad she's less smelly today (for your sake!)

Tummum - DH is thinking of getting an iPad. Is it really that fantastic?!

Llare - sounds like you had a v trying time of it. Hope the sleep/tiredness is improving.

flip - loving the new name!
O is also waking up 4hrly at the moment. Due to molars - there's 2 just poking through now.

Belgina - I also second the doula suggestion! Would you travel to Surrey for my DC2 if I get that far?!

Hello ReeBee , momi , Jenn , Reggiee and anyone else I've missed!

sausage - ouch, that sounds miserable. Have a gentle hug. Hope things improve soon.

grumpy - ouch and hugs to you too, gallstones do not sounds nice. At all.

belgina - have you ever thought about becoming in independent midwife? Not sure about the practicalities (or legalities, insurance etc) but it could be very different to the NHS.

Right, this is going to sound really daft. But today I wore a proper bra, not a nursing bra, and OMW it felt good! Proper shape! DH noticed . I've stopped feeding A during the day now, it's just morning and night (and in the night again [sigh]). Don't think this is connected to the waking though, the sleep probs were going on before I changed things.

llare, hope things are better (?) today after the tantrums, sleep issues, etc.

grumpy, cabbage farts . how're the gall stones today? do you think '3, 2, 1, relax' hypnotherapy style would help (desperate attempt as I've got no other advice).

saus, poor, poor you. I've just read your post and am speechless. I really hope you feel better very soon and you have sufficient painkillers.

smokey, I was a Jack's girl as well .

Ses, glad you had a good time in York. It was so good to see you again.

flip, ikwym about the proper bra. now that I'm not bfeeding anymore, none of my pre-preg bra's fit, i don't fill them up anymore !! must get re fitted.

Tumm, how's the ipad?

Belg, hope things fall into place with your job.it's a shame that MW's have to write so much down nowadays. one of my friends who just had a baby complained that all her MW did was sit in a corner and write.

Ree, hope F had a lovely birthday!

Jenn, Regg*, everyone else, hope you're all well.

just had a lovely day with H. older two are at inlaws so I cuddled baby all day. unfortunately, I had to take her for jabs as well but it was a mere moment of pain then she bravely forgot about it. Gonna crack on with work whilst the older ones aren't here (they're back tomorrow eve).

Evening Momino! Hope you get some work done. I had the same problem filling bras after I'd stopped feeding DD1 - luckily for me I was pregnant again a month later so filled up again quite quickly!

Very quiet on here today, hope all ok.

Hi Flip. Just watching Have I got news for you (love Ross Noble).

I realised I don't have to do any work tonight since H is at nursery tomorrow and dd1&2 not home till 5pm. so relaxing with telly, MN, FB.