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

[DomesticGoddessInTraining]

Abdn liked the title so I just went ahead!

wow Rolf, you killed the thread!

tumbleweed....

neenz, are you having your baby?

Good morning everyone, how are you all? Anyone out there?

morning Deb. can you hear the echoes in here?

I'm currently bribing C to sit on the potty while watching shaun the sheep. so far no end product, but she's sitting nicely. She's got really tricky about nappy changes, particularly dirty ones, getting very upset and angry at the thought of a dirty nappy so we thought we'd see if she'd like to try toilet/potty. so far, we've had one successful pee, but nothing else. She was very pleased with herself though!

How are things everywhere else?

Biscuits, you were right, Neenz posted on FB to say she had her baby this morning.

Deb, I know exactly where you're planning to buy. Nice!

We went to a day out with Thomas and Friends yesterday - it was great! And then I had a night out with my friends last night, which was even better.

Wave to everyone - I thought B was settling down for a nap, but he's not!

Well done Neenz! I missed that on FB, glad you went with your first choice name, Dan is lovely! What are the twins making of the new arrival?

Who's next, is it Spider?

glad you had a great time yesterday Bugger, a night out is much deserved I think!

Deb - meant to say that renovation project looks promising, and with everything ripped out in kitchen etc already, you get a blank slate and don't have to pay someone to take it all away - also the outbuildings must have lots of scope for all sorts of things - a music room for DH perhaps?

Congrats neenz!!!

Suburbia, glad you approve, it is a lovely area,

Biscuits, looks like a chalenging project but my stepbrother has his own building form so he would look at it with us.

poor Ethan fell in the nettles this morning, good job he still had his cardi on, only about 2 inches of stings on his wrists!

Congratulations Neenz! Great news.

Nothing exciting happening here, DH has been at a bike race all weekend, took the van too so we have been stuck at home.
We are going to Scotland next week for a holiday, we are going to stay with my Grandma, can't wait.

House looks great Deb, I love the gardens, barn and land.

Congratluations Neenz!!!

ktpie, whereabouts are you going? weather is looking more promising up here, honest!

Congrats neenz x

Well done neenz. Poor Ethan deb.

And biscuits similar here that e aware and hates nappy changes but no joy on potty but early days yet.

Congratulations Neenz

Congratulations to Neenz, Mr Neenz and the Neenz-lets!

waves to all....nothing much to report. ToddlyV is potty training in a slow but organic way, babyV is crawling and eating and putting on the pounds and I am, slowly, trying to lose them ;-)

Biscuits - this is where we are going. My Grandma used to live here, but it got too touristy for her so she moved. I'm looking forward to the break. We are driving up on Tuesday so DH has a day to recover before the drive.

I'm very proud of DH, he came 3rd in his race, it was a 24 hr race, he does it as a team of 4, he's not quite mad enough to do it solo. The 2 teams that were ahead of them were semi-pros. He's fast asleep on the sofa now.

Just seen that Neenz has put some photos on facebook, going to go and have a look.

Well done your D, Ktpie!

Aren't those pictures Neenz put up gorgeous? What a sweet baby.

We've had more family trips out this weekend than we usually manage in a year! All thanks to the lovely floor man. We went to Manchester yesterday and to Conwy today. Yesterday was great (I got up early and made sure everything was ready), and today less so (because I was tired and had dust-fatigue). In fact I've got total deadly dust-fatigue and completely lost the will to see this through. We're moving out tomorrow for 4 nights and I should be getting things packed up and sorted out. I want to stay in the house to supervise the furniture being moved around (if only to protect my dignity when drawers are being pulled out) but not sure how to do it with the children running round and dangerous tools everywhere. Dh seems to think that I can manage it, supervise everything, and get the family moved to a local apartment .

I'll look at Neenz's baby pics before I go to bed so I can think of that instead .

Hope you've all had a good weekend.

Deb the house looks brilliant. All that land! How is the sale going? I hope there was some progress whilst you were away.

I posted earlier but it didn't actually post. All I said was:
Neenz - congrats
Biscuits - yes I'm next unless you put in an early move.
Deb - were there Highland cattle in one of the photos of that house. Could you renovate whilst living there?

We have been to Ikea this weekend and now have rawl plug issues.

Night all.

Been away for weekend but will ost later just to say congrats to neenz!!!

Hiya - Lurking...congratulations Neenz, I laughed when I saw the name - result!

Spider - When is your due date?

Nice house Deb.

Poppy - That sounds really crap for you at work.

Can't seem to catch up properly at the mo! Been a busy week or so, mountain stay (a mountain pronounced Fukapapa ), job interview, snotty grizzly toddler, FIL and his bro both rushed to hosp with 24 hrs of each other. FIL came out today, but they didn't actually diagnose anything.

In good news, managed to find both Top Gear and Outnumbered online.

Marking place x

Hi Penguin - hope the family all ok. EDD not till 11 Nov, so not for a bit (I hope). I think the third trimester officially starts this week.

I am feeling a bit tired, light headed at times and achey in my muscles after I have done something like walk upstairs. Not all the time though. Debating whether my iron is low like last time. MW not till next week and then I wouldn't get those blood tests back for another 6 weeks. Might go to Boots and buy a pregnancy iron supplement of some sort. Anyone got any experience of this?

Spider - you should try floradix - nowhere near as harsh as iron tablets and does't make you constipated.

Penguin - blimey - hope everyone is OK hun!

ktpie - have a lovely break and congrats on your hubby's race

Rolf - bet the kids are loving all the trips!!

Valium - impresed with the potty training - blimey Luke still not anywhere close to it I don't think although I'm not sure what signs I should be looking for. Nursery certainly haven't mentioned it. Maybe I should ask?

Neenz' little one is very cute!

We had a great w/e away to the MIL which I though would be awful but she's really chilled out - even Mark mentioned it. Luke had a fab time as they have loads of toys there (Lukes older cousins from America come and stay for a month every year) - even a bouncy castle!! We took him to the zoo as well and he had a fab time screaming with excitement about the sealions!

I feel rotten again - very emotional and seem to cry every day. Fairly sure this is normal though. I am a whale already - nobody can believe it.

Hi everyone, thanks for the congrats

Biscuits, that is well freaky, how did you know I was having the baby?

As you know from FB Daniel Jacob was born at 2.23am yesterday at home .

Waters broke at 6.30pm (good timing as we were just getting the twins out of the bath and into bed), contractions started about 7, MW came, I was 2cm. By 10 they were 3-4mins apart and I thought I would be quite far along but I was only 3cm! I was gutted cos was in quite a bit of pain. I got in the bath and tried to use the visualistaion and breathing from hypnobirthing. MW didn't want me to have g&a so early on but I was in quite a bit of pain so after about 30mins she let me on it. It got really painful so I got out of the bath and started walking around with the contractions which was better. I had no idea how dilated I was tho cos they don't examine you and I was in so much pain I really didn't think I could take it much longer. I was all for going to the hospital so the MW said 'right get your bag' but of course i didn't want to (not least cos I thought it would be an hour or prob two before I could have an epidural so prob no point!). At 1.30am I said 'I can't do it any more!' so the MWs knew I was close. I didn't know though, I thought it could be hours longer. Contractions were lasting more than a minute and coming less than a min apart and it was very very painful . It was much worse than with the twins which I didn't expect at all - I thought it would be much easier with it only being one baby and my second labour. I was stomping around, moving from foot to foot, grabbing onto DH and complaining very loudly - can't believe the twins slept right through it!

Because I had no idea how dilated I was it was a surprise when I was ready to push. I just suddenly got the urge and out came his head. I was stood up leaning over the bed which is how I'd imagined it. Then a minute or so later I got another contraction and he was born. It was a massive relief it was all over!

The MWs examined him and were a bit concerned about his breathing so at 4.30am we went to the hospital and he got checked over. He was all clear tho after loads of tests - I think he was just mucousy so wasn't breathing properly through his nose (he was breathing through his mouth which apparently is not good!). We were discharged at 1pm so went home for a sleep. My mum was looking after the twins so it gave us chance to rest.

He hasn't fed very well (only really latched on twice since birth) but I think he is just sleepy and mucousy so not really worried yet. I'll just keep trying to latch him on and hopefully when milk comes in he will get better. He seems content and slept 1-6.30am last night (I didn;t tho - I kept poking him to check he was still breathing!) so it's all good so far!

The twins have been very good with him, T calls him baby sid (my sister's baby) but when I remind him he says 'Baby Daniel, baby brovver' and like to stroke his legs (he is pretty gentle) . E is not as interested but she says his name too, she plays her cards close to her chest.

congrats neenz! Welcome to the world baby Daniel (love love love the name by the way, that has always been one of my favourites)

sorry to hear amber and spider not feeling so good. Spider is your blood pressure on the low side? I had the dizziness but it was bp related rather than iron

Aw, congratulations again Neenz. Glad you got the home birth you hoped for and that Daniel is doing well.

Amber I wouldn't worry about potty training too much yet - I think boys tend to be later than girls generally. We haven't started with S and I've a few friends with boys who didn't start till quite a bit later. I could be wrong, but most of the people on here who've tried it are those with girls am I right? I do know someone who has started potty training despite her DD clearly not ready (turned two a couple of weeks ago). 6 weeks later she's still having accidents regularly throughout the day.

ADVANCE WARNING FOR DEWIN (AND ANYONE ELSE WHO DOESN'T LIKE SICK RELATED STORIES - DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

We had a lovely weekend away at a family wedding, but unfortunately S was violently sick on the plane (during the ascent when we were all strapped in). He's never been sick at all so far so I think he gave himself a real fright. It was horrible to see, and he was covered in sick, while sitting in a puddle of it. Thankfully, he was really good at letting us clean him up and clean up around him. Even more thankfully, I had a lot of spare clothes for him! The airline staff were as good as they could be although we were asked to clean it up and put all the tissues etc in a bag and seal it as they weren't allowed to touch it at all. They also weren't happy that we wanted to move seats and said we had to be careful he wasn't sick again because they couldn't afford another seat to be out of action for the rest of the day (FWIW, I realise that this is something they have to think about, but tbh, I don't give a flying f... when my two year old is being really sick). They also refused to give us a lap belt so he could sit on our knee because he has turned two. I hadn't thought of this before and can't help but feel that the age thing is a bit arbitrary. S is a lot lighter than a few strapping 23 month olds I know!

That aside though, we had a lovely time - the wedding was great and we spent the weekend with my old school friend who has 3yr old twin boys. Lovely boys but seriously hard work! Eddie - their nighttimes are a bit like yours and have been since they were born.