Fab Feb 2009: when they're good they are very very good, when they're bad they're todzillas...

[dinkystinky]

New thread for us to chat about our little jekyll & hydes...

Danny is currently stood next to me rearranging my DVD collection - I will be doing a work out to charlie & lola tonight apparently, while DS1 will be watching Billy Blanks Taebo with his pre-bedtime cup of milk and DH's history docu is hiding out with Diego in the city of lost toys...

Hey all,

elkie, good to see you back on here and I have my fingers crossed for your mum.

mos - awesome news about DS1's exam results. Does he know what college he wants to go to at Cambridge? What course will he be doing? Good to hear the purchase of the house has gone through. Is there much more work to be done? I can totally understand your hesitance about returning to KSA, does your DH have much choice about when he can come home full time? (he works for KSA branch of UK company, is that right?).

SM Well done for confronting those girls, I would never have said anything. Good that they didn't get too aggressive. Good news about the bunk bed.

bumps I would say to enjoy your current job as much as you can - then I think you'd need to do some kind of access course? so you can maybe do one in general health which could work for both career options, and make a choice at that time. It will allow you to see if your current passion is the novelty of working again etc., or whether it is the job itself you love. Don't forget, being a midwife will leave you feeling just a warm and fuzzy as your current job.

Well done to A and I for sleeping through the night. I've always throught we were very lucky as M will go 7:30 to 7:30 without much fuss, but maybe 4 nights out of 7 one of us will have to get up to give her her dummy back. Can't face taking it away for good, though. Will do 'dummy fairy' in about a year when she can get her head around it more.

Had a lovely day in Brugue yesterday, went to the Choclate Museum! and the Bascilica of the Holy Blood, had a yummy lunch of Flemish-style beef stew and frittes, and a beer or two! Then a boat trip and a bit of shopping and came home!

Now have a day of washing, ironing and baking (chocolate torte and baked custard tart).

Enjoy your weekends all!

Hello all sorry to post yesterday and run but got called into work early...

Thanks all for the advice, i think i will carry on with the plan as I wasn't going to start the MW degree until ds started school anyway.

MrsY thankfuly I dont have to complete an access course as I will have my NVQ level 3 in Health and Social care by then (providing I pass that is lol) so that coupled with my other qualifications covers the entry requirements... I start my level 2 in two months and that takes 6-9 months and then will go straight onto the level 3 when I complete that..... How was your day out yesterday, was the beer cold and the chocolate creamy lol?

Elkie welcome back and I hope all goes well with your mum..

SM cant belive that about the pram what a disgrace...

on the nappy front DS will point to his bum and say poo with a look of destain on his face and will lay down with legs in the air until you change him.. But he will happily walk around in a wet nappy until it falls off him with out so much as a grunt... me thinks i will have trouble potty training this one

hope you are all well and enjoying your weekend..

hello all

SM blimmey, that woman in Tescos was brave arguing with you What a pain knowing she had nicked it but not being able to prove it.

MrsY DS still debating which college but think he is favouring the one he stayed in when he went to the law conference there in March. Pembleton? (probably completely wrong but it begins with P) He wants to read law and has been firm in this choice for several years now.
Done a lot of work on mum's place but still need to do a lot of decorating.
DH does indeed work for a UK company but based in KSA. We need to have a long hard conversation about when he comes home.

Glad you had a lovely day in Bruge and you must let me have the receipe for the chocolate torte, sounds yummy.

bumps good idea to plough on towards your original goal. Good luck

Hello everyone.
I've been on a hen-do this weekend. There was 8 of us, we drove to Poole and did windsurfing, then camping. It was so much fun!
I didn't manage to stand up on the wind surfing board and I ended up getting so frustrated with myself, i got out half an hour early. It was a 3 hour lesson but was loads of fun and I ended up spending time just sitting on the board and enjoying the quiet!
We then went to pitch our tent, which as there wasn't any men around, was a smooth operation.
6 bottles of champagne later, we got showered and changed and headed to a Thai restaurant (first time for me) and then on to a pub. The hen got so so so drunk, was very funny.

How is everyone?

Hi everyone and hugs to Mrsy (you've had some great advice from your US consultant and the other ladies on here re M - there is a lot of hope for her and cardiologists progress in leaps and bounds every year with what they can achieve) and congrats on getting the job at M&S - you must be so excited, MsLucy (glad you had a lovely birthday - hope you're feeling abit better this week), congratulations to MoS re her DS1's results and completing on her purchase of her mum's cottage, congrats to KBN for her DD's birthday and her lovely summer (despite the weather), congrats to LittleSez for her and DH getting through their bumpy patch so well, welcome back to Elkiedee and best wishes for her mum's swift recovery, congrats to Summerrain and Littlesez on finally sleeping little ones and glad you had a great time on your kids free night and hen weekend SM (am in awe of you confronting the buggy stealers though - agree with the others on their advice re punishing J rather than L for stealing his dummy - we have things the other way here with Danny mugging poor DS1 for his favourite toys constantly. We employ the naughty corner for Danny). Think that's everyone but apologies if I missed anything or anyone off - isnt intentional!

Had 9 days in the Vendee - bit cold and rainy to start off with but then glorious and sunny. Danny and DS1 loved it (DS1 enjoyed the kids club on site, we had great time in the pools and at the lovely local beaches and markets) - DH and I would have loved it more if the bed we had wasnt so uncomfortable that we had a terrible nights sleep every night. Lol at all the poo poo talk. As we were in a mobile home with showers and no baths, we had a small baby bath for danny for the first time ever and he LOVED it - so much so he'd get himself undressed (including taking off his nappy) to get in it - and his new word is bath time. Just telling him his bath time was coming up would calm him down, start him toddling off to the bath room and undressing. So cute. His other new word of the holiday is Boob. When tired he now says Boob and signs please. So cute. Am absolutely shattered now though and not looking forward to work tomorrow. And still have to find somewhere to move into for the building work starting on our property. Ho hum.

Hope everyone is good.

Forgot to say, Bumps - its great you love your job so much and long may that last. But its not to say that your grand plan wont come to fruition too - just see what you feel like in time.

Welcome back dinky
Glad you had a good holiday, but sorry about the awful sleep.
danny sounds so cute with boob and bath time lol.

dinky, A does the same for his showers, i have to take him in every time i shower as he has fits if i don't. He's too impatient to undress himself though, a few times i've forgotten to close the shower door and turned away to get something only to come back and finding standing in there fully dress... little maggot! He's got a differant way of asking for boob though... he just dives at me like this and clamps on, whether there are clothes in the way or not! And for his evening bottle he stands in front of the fridge pointing up and making his 'i want' noise.

You mentioned signing... could you give me any advice here?

Glad the holiday was good.... we miiiissssseeeeedd you though

I missed you lovely ladies too Summerrain. Lol at A invading the shower fully clothed and clamping on

We have a hard back baby signs book we got from amazon when DS1 was little which has pictures and some basic signs (milk, please, thank you, more etc) which we read with DS1 when he was little (is v cute - DS1 still does the sign for sorry when he's saying sorry about something nowadays) and have read it with Danny too - he's picked up milk and please only from it but likes looking at the pictures. I think MoS does sign and sign classes so she's probably the resident sign expert on here - but yes, I do think signing is a good thing to do with A as will help reduce his frustration at not being able to communicate.

Hey all,

Having a v. bad day today. M has been given a doll by MIL which says mummy, daddy, cries and so on. When it cries she picks it up and says 'shh, there therem shhh' it's a real tear jerker. Plus I've just got my appointmnet for my de-breif and I'm really crapping myself. Now we're got to this stage, I don't think I want to know! M is asleep, so I'm currently wallowing in my own self-pity, and having a bit of a cry.

Glad you had a good holiday, Dinky, bless D with his signing and new words!

SR - we sign, so I'll check out your thread when I've pulled myself together...

{{{{Mrsy}}}} sometimes a cry is the best way to get a bit of a release and start feeling better though.

Oh MrsY I'm sending you huge hugs. Its ok to feel sad and cry - and you'll find that lots of things might set you off. But please keep in mind what the US consultant said on Skype - you may have been given a worst case scenario and it may be that M will have a full life as an adult, including becoming a mum herself. And as for your debrief - write down all the questions you'd like to have answered and discuss them with your DH. If you're still feeling really raw, defer your debrief (they'll understand if you explain why) until a later date and time. You have an awful lot to process right now about M's health so its fine to focus on that for now and come back to your debrief later.

MrsY huge hugs xxxxx

Morning.

jacob has his pre-op assessment at the hospital today. I'm quite nervous.

Jacob has been trying to teach Luke how to use a potty, is so funny!

morning all
MrsY hugs to you and I echo what dinky has said, make sure you right down all your questions as otherwise you may well forget some when you are there.

dinky welcome back, sounds like the holiday was quite successful in the end.

H is a boob man and I'm really trying to get him off now as its starting to annoy/frustrate me. God, that sounds awful but I just want my body back. I've been b/f constantly for almost 4 years (in October) and I've had enough. Makes it worse that he pinches and scratches now as well as biting.

SR yes, I teach baby and todder signing. I have bought some really good materials, cds, books and a dvd from a company called Signing Hands which are really good. I think they are some of the best on the market. Please be careful when buying from bookshops as I've noticed quite a few have ASL (american) instead of BSL (british)

Think I may have some spare materials here if you want me to send you some (will FB you later regarding this)

Which reminds me, where is STW?

Good luck today SM - hope all goes smoothly. Lol at Jacob potty training Luke.

MoS - I'm a firm believer in bfing for so long as it works for both of you. If its not working for you now, then its time to call it a day - no need to feel guilty. Hope things are a little less hectic - and much less sleep deprived - in your household nowadays.

Thank you so much MOS but i've just discovered that ISL is completely differant to BSL.... apparently more similar to French SL

As it is possible, like MrsY said, that this could be a long term issue (hopefully not but best to be prepared) it's probably best we start off with the sign language he'll need to know to communicate over here. Thank you so much for the offer though

Either way i think we'll start with PECS so that dd and ds1 can communicate with him too.

SM... {{{hugs}}}} It'll be fine, J's a trooper and once it's done he'll be so much better off... i used to suffer badly with tonsilitis and it is really horrible.

MOS.... I was feeling much the same as you about the bf-ing, 6 years straight of pregnancy and bf-ing and i felt like my body wasn't mine anymore. As soon as A learned how to manage a bottle though i substituted a bottle for his evening bf and started giving more milk and juice during the day and it made such a differance to me/us. He takes about 400ml every night from his bottle, way more than he was getting from the boob, which means he sleeps through and i don't have to feed him til morning. Some days he goes all day with no bf, other days he has one or two little ones but his only longish feed is while we're lying in bed in the morning and i feel so much more human now. I wasn't even really aware of how badly the long evening feeds and the constant waking through the night were affecting me until they stopped!

morning all..

hope you are feeling more possitive today MrsY. My friend was born with a hole in her heart that was inopperable. She was told that it would not be safe for her to carry or give birth so her parents were told when she was 2 that she would never be able to have children.

When she was 17 she got pregant and refused to abort the pregancy. She spend most of her pregancy in hospital and had to have a c section at 35 weeks but she became a mum!! Not only is medical science progressing all the time but I believe that our bodies adapt to situations as well... And if the worst prognosis does develop then there are other ways for M to become a parent, on another thread that I go on one of the ladies has just got pregant for a sarrogate family, and there is always adoption too... Dont dispair, it is in no way a done deal...

MOS I felt the same and gave up BF when ds was 14 months old.. He instently started sleeping through the night when i stopped and is not the best sleeper around. On the downside however he has not had a drop of milk since as he still refuses a bottle or beaker if there is milk in it, I am getting around this by giving him dairy as much as possiable but there is no way that he gets enough but dont know what else to do really...

Welcome back dinky, hope you had a lovely holiday.

SM good luck today

SR I did some baby signing with DS when he was little and it really helped me to know what he wanted. Jessica has picked up a few bits as her second cousin is deaf and has been teaching her a few bits... I think it is a great idea that you both learn to communicate with each other, could you get some help from a local charity for the deaf if there are no classes near you?

OMG please excuse all the spelling mistakes in the last post I am typing one handed (and clearly with only one brain cell as well)

Its ok bumps - we know each other well enough to excuse a few typos! That story about your friend is brilliant - hope it helps MrsY.

Summerrain - hopefully the fact that A can now take a bottle is a good thing for his speech development too (as he's figured out how to cope with his tongue tie in a different way - just as he also adapted somehow for bfing). Hope the signing goes well.

SM - hope it went well today.

Oh yes, everyone please wish me good luck vibes - have potentially found a lovely flat (as opposed to dingy shithole) to move into. Now just need to pray that the landlady agrees to our proposed rent and moving in date... and noone else nabs it before us!

fingers crossed dinky. We could all give you glowing references if that would help

Morning.
dinky Hope you get the flat. keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Yesterday went fine, we just filled in some paperwork.
he's going in next wednesday. he needs to be there at 7:30am and no food after 3am and nothing to drink after 6:30am. They think he'll go down at about 8:30am and will then stay in over night because of the sleep apnoea(sp?)

Thanks SM. Glad yesterday was ok and I hope that Wednesday goes well. Hopefully all will go quickly and J will enjoy being made a fuss of on the ward afterwards.

Hi guys not been posting much as not much to say! but im still here. How is everyone today?