June 08 - a Coalition for all (even those with May or July 08 babies).

[DomesticGoddessInTraining]

Abdn liked the title so I just went ahead!

Hmm, I don't know about the toddlers and babies deb, but I could do with some good sleep wishes!

Chronic insommnia tonight - worse it's been in ages. Went to bed at 10.30 then lay awake until 1am when M needed a feed (he only took 100ml so definitely a habit/comfort thing now ) and am now downstairs killing time catching up on emails and MN .

I hate not being able to sleep .

Are you still there Eddie?

So, how was the rest of the night Eddie (for you and for M)?

spider if you've a good network of friends then that's a good quality of life too (says the woman who gets hebejebbies in London because she's not good in crowds...) But it is brillant here (and two hours from Edinburgh so rather irrelevant to your DH's job hunt).

Eddie hugs with the insomnia - I ended up seeing a homeopath for mine which helped - and I think it got so bad because of my anxiety about DS1 sleeping, which might be relevant for you. It makes their bad sleep habits so much worse if you can't sleep easily! (What about drugs? A single dose of Piriton knocks me out for 8 hours...)

deb amazing hailstones - we used to get storms like that when I lived in Calgary and everyone would run out and throw blankets over their cars...

Did someone mention Edinburgh ? While Ime the anti-English thing is a bit over-played, if someone English was going to move to Scotland, I'd say Edinburgh like a shot!

It's a beautiful city, great location in term of visiting other places, it's quite small for a city which has all sorts of benefits, very family friendly and is very geared for kids, and. I live here

Downides - it's full of English people , it's not Glasgow (which is where I'm from), it's colder than Southern England, housing prices pretty expensive.

Ooh, for the first time ever I'm having problems posting from my iPhone too!

Decent schools in Edinburgh and summer babies go to school age 5, not age 4. Having been through both the Scottish and English education system myself, I prefer the former. I definitely preferred the Higher system to A levels.

Poppy - how did last night go? Think we're going to go for it next weekend with big bed. Loved the stickers btw!

Last night went ok- only one wake up(and actually seemed to stay In bed although I left some books/ soft toys that were accessible).

After all that discussion on ikea bed turns out dh bought that for France - she is in the bed with the edge on but it's against the wall and she hasn't messed about too much. Just put her down for a nap and no worse protesting than if she was In a cot. Also she hasn't woken me or herself up banging the end or side of the bed which was happening in cot.

Sympathies on cc eddie but I do think its probably right thing to do ESP given that didn't take much feed in night. I know I was a wimp as you told me to cc with e and I put it off but it did work when I did it. Re insomnia no advise outside the obvious- it was probably worse as you were stressed after cc. My sleep is definitely more easily disturbed and harder to get back to sleep after I had e.

hey everyone.

poppy you handling this really well. You are obviously a really strong person.

I am having a packing break. All the photos/pictures have been packed and the house is now starting to look a bit bleak. And a bit grubby where the paint has been bleached by the sun around the edges of the photos. I am finding deconstructing our home a bit unsettling.

Sybil, it will all be worth it in the end! When's your move date?

Eddie, 90mins is not that bad on the first night. It seems an age though when you are going through it I know . What's his routine like in the day? Does he nap in his own room, regular times, getting himself off to sleep? I think that really helped with the DTs.

Have you tried breathing techniques for when you can't sleep? Take a deep breath in for four slow counts and then breathe out for 8 quick counts. Just focus on that and it means you can't think of anything else. It has really worked for me during the pg cos I am waking up quite a lot cos of discomfort or needing the loo.

Abdn, that pic of Fraser on FB is so cute! Like when T ended up half on the readybed and half on the (cold) floor when we were camping. At least the readybed is floor level - how on earth did F end up like that and not wake up?

Just waiting for midwives to arrive to do homebirth visit. They were supposed to come yesterday but a woman went into labour. I couldn't compete with that!

Good luck with visit neenz- do they offer you loan o a birthing pool or is that not your thing? And would agree that any visualisation technique good for sleep.

Am not sure about brave Sybil - I do wonder if am in denial and op may make it all very upsetting and raw again. Then again my biggest feeling about all this is being resigned and fed up to be having difficulties. Also much as I would love another having one child does take away some of the pain.

And sounds like packing going ok- those patches from sun always amaze me at quite what a contrast they are .

Watching tdf and relazmjng as e out with dh an her all time hero her big brother - they are very sweet together .

Good luck with visit neenz- do they offer you loan o a birthing pool or is that not your thing? And would agree that any visualisation technique good for sleep.

Am not sure about brave Sybil - I do wonder if am in denial and op may make it all very upsetting and raw again. Then again my biggest feeling about all this is being resigned and fed up to be having difficulties. Also much as I would love another having one child does take away some of the pain.

And sounds like packing going ok- those patches from sun always amaze me at quite what a contrast they are .

Watching tdf and relazmjng as e out with dh an her all time hero her big brother - they are very sweet together .

Hey ladies what do you think about this where to post unwanted pregnancy issues. I definitely see this as an area Mn should
Be there to share and support on and can see why not all
In conception would be happy. But to stick it in antenatal tests - WTF? Am I just being over sensitive?

Sadly this weekend e has discovered peppa pig- I have a feeling this fad could last a while ...

poppy agree with you that it doesn't belong in antenatal tests - that's an area where people are dealing with serious issues and fears for pregnancies - putting it in it's own topic would be so much nicer for everyone.

Fraser's going through some sort of mood/developmental leap at the moment. He's tired all the time - way less energy than normal - and wants to cuddle a lot. When I lie down with him though we have lovely chit-chats and conversations so I'm wondering if he's just exhausted because there's so much going on in his head...

Thanks for all the sympathies re: insommnia, I think those who suggested that it was connected with the CC are right. I couldn't stop thinking about M and wanted to make sure I was ready with cuddles as soon as he woke up .

He didn't wake again til 5.30am (after the 1am feed) so not a bad night.

Anyway, what a difference a night makes? He took ten mintues to go to sleep tonight, incredible .

Hopefully this is the start of a trend and not a one off, and hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight too .

That's brilliant Eddie, and I'm feeling less guilty now too!

DGT - thanks for your thoughts on Edinburgh. I looked on rightmove with a radius of 5 miles and whilst properties certainly aren't cheap you could get so much more there than we could get with an extra £200k here.

AH agree that having friends and family in striking distance should not be under estimated. Having a big house where you are isolated isn't a quick route to happiness.

We have lived in the S.E for 5 years now, and whilst most of my uni friends are within an hour I am only just beginning to feel that I have good friends that I could turn to in this town. It is down to my personality as much as anything as I am seemingly outgoing but hesitant about making closer friendships. Not sure why though. I would be loathe to up sticks completely, but on the otherhand if we do want to relocate then now is a good time to do it before P is in school or I go back to work.

P and I went to my Auntie's this afternoon for a birthday tea for her grand daughter. The 5yo loved the presents from Monsoon. You were right Deb and others!

Spider - so pleased she liked them and yes if you're planning a move it would be sooooo much easier before school age!!

Poppy - I agree, there should be a separate forum for unplanned pregnancies, it is such a sensitive issue obviously.

Abdn - I did see 1 car in the village covered in blankets, maybe they'd been to Canada??

Sybil - good luck with the move, packing up a family home is emotional, when we moved out of our house to come here, I sat at the top of the stairs and cried!!But that could have been fear too, you've got a lovely big house to go to and make your own.

Eddie - sending you sleep vibes for tonight, sounds like M is getting the hang of it.

Hi to everyone else, not much happening here, hoping to hear some more positive news about the house this week.

Spider - have a look on espc.com - it's the main website for properties in Edinburgh.

One other great this about Edinburgh is of course the Festival!

I must emphasise that the weather sucks though.

Thanks DGT.

LOL at the weather. I had a boss who was from Glasgow but studied in Edinburgh. She talked about the "Edinburgh hunch" which is how you walk into driving rain in Edinburgh, i.e. One shoulder first.

On the unplanned pregnancies - I think it would be completely insensitive to put it in with antenatal tests/choices. People have to make some heartbreaking decisions following ante-natal test - completely inappropriate to put them in with others who have to make difficult decisions about unplanned pregnancies.

Eddie, how was last night?

Lol, Spider. If it's any consolation, I'm sure winters are milder (and the country doesn't shut down in the same way when there's a hint of snow ).

Spider, most of the time I love living in Scotland (Glasgow not Edinburgh though), but, yes, I have encountered a fair whack of anti-English feeling, but the lower down the food chain the worse it's been IYSWIM. Usually it's not a problem - I work in arts/media/education, so my colleagues and friends aren't narrow-minded, so I don't encounter it in that way. I worked in a glorified call centre for a little while once when I was in between jobs here, and I really noticed it then though. There was once a report published here called 'We hate the English but we like you because you're our mate' and I think that is very true. It's all supposed to be in good humour, etc, so I'm told anyway, but I don't feel like that.

Anyway, there are many positives, and because in general I don't associate with people who have those kinds of views, I don't have to deal with it.

I had more to stay but B is demanding my attention - Glasgow bank holiday here so I'm off (oh yes, another plus, more hols!).

Is it really raining in Edinburgh? It's lovely here so it's hard to believe but the mountains just south of us sort of block us from the weather.

It's like a miserable November day here Abdn.

Ah, forgot about all the random extra local holidays (whether or not you get them depends where you work) but they are very local. So Bugger has a bank holiday today but we don't!

I concur with Bugger's views on the anti-English sentiments. I think it is worse in Glasgow than in Edinburgh, simply by the fact that Edinburgh is much smaller, lots of English people live here, and a bigger proportion of the population middle class/more affluent in Edinburgh. I do love Glasgow as well though and would happily move home if they right opportunity came up.

S has just gone down for a nap. Lots to do, but I think I'll just have a rest!!!

Oh, can I have some colour opinions here? We're going to redecorate S's room this weekend to coincide with the big bed (is that a good idea?). We got the jungle stuff that I posted before but DH and I are disagreeing on the colour. I wanted to go with a green colour similar to the furniture in the picture here (Oh, the link might go to a picture of a storage box, but I'm referring to the room picture on the bottom left beside it.)

DH wants to stick with blue. To be fair, almost every room in our house apart from the lounge has some green element. We've got the duvet cover in the picture I linked to.

DG, what about picking out the orange as a colour? Maybe do a 'feature' wall? Not a big fan of blue, but it's a personal thing!

M woke at 1am and I tried to resettle him without any succss . Fed him and he took about 15ml and then woke again at 3am and took another 150ml .

Then both boys awake at 6.30am.

Not the best, not the worst.