Bumpkins & Babies Chat Thread

[colsy]

Maffie, How are you?

 

[Maffie]

Maffie, How are you?

I'm feeling bit better today thank you.

Well im just pottering about today,OH is working over night and im feeling a bit lonely, must say ive found the baby groups a little bit clicky. Anyone else found this? Most my friends have lost co9ntact since having noah so trying to get to know new people.

 

[Chaos]

Mornin' girls!!

So we went to a strawberry farm yesterday with my mummys group. It was so much fun, the baby however did not take a nap ALL day! She was in a really good mood all day too!! Towards the end of the day she got loud and hyper, but she does that when she's tired lol. I dunno how she did it because even I needed a nap yesterday!!

In the PM we went to visit my friend in hospital who had a baby on Mothers day (Sunday gone) He is SO tiny .. I swear, Autumn was NEVER that small .. it's insane! He was like picking up a bag of air!!

She was teething hard on Monday. Where her 2 front top teeth should be, you can't see her teeth, but that area is red and swollen and hard lumps. I think they may be on her way. I had lost my hylands teething tablets that day too, but I found them now and its' like a different baby today! I love those things!!

Maffie ~ Sorry to hear you've been having problems So they think the baby is ok?

Flora ~ Hows Mr.Harry doing?

Kte ~ Loving the pictures!! The video on facebook was making me laugh, I was telling her to put the ball in the hole!!

Aimee ~ Glad you're feeling better!!

Ok I gotta push the hoover around and pick up toys, the OH's Great great Aunt/Uncle are coming to meet the baby for the first time today .. no doubt we'll have a bunch of knitted stuff brought. I have a big bag up stairs she's never worn lol. Either the arms are 28 times too long, or I can't get them buttoned up!!

 

[Kte]

=Afternoon all,

Chaos - I held Nij's cousin's little boy a few weeks ago, he is so tiny and still floppy at almost a month old, I don't remeber Chloe been so floppy for so long - I was freaked out a little holding him! Congrats to your friend btw Glad the teething powder has cheered up Autumn too.

Maffie: Hope your feeling better. Admittedly I didn't get to many baby groups but ones that I sat in whilst waiting for my MW appointments put me off. Always one lass sat there saying 'I do this, I do that, me me me' and the rest just kind of sat there listening to them and not much else as they can't get a word in edge ways . . . or once there was these two women in the weaning group who didn't sit next to eachother so Nij and I sat between them and then they proceeded to have conversations over us! I'm sure there are good groups out there too, its just finding the right one.

 

[florabean1981]

Flora - Thanks...Hubby is absolutely smitten with his Gekko but I'm sure that a Zoop will be on his shopping list. He had mentioned something about it but to be honest, while I do dive occasionally (have my PADI OW qual) he's far far more into it than I am - He's getting a new weight belt for father's day! lol

OH keeps hinting at buying a twinset... i told him i'd kill him if he does coz we still have no wardrobes & tons of stuff needed for the house! Computerwise, OH now has a Vitek, D4 panda, a Stinger, a HeLo2, his precious titanium D9, a D6 with red straps & white housing (1 of a kind that he put together with spare parts, the idiot) & some kinda hybrid stinger-gekko thing that he got bored & made, hehe. I love my pink D4... even tho the only use it'll get is as a watch & maybe for checking the temp at the local pool I got a cool new pair of Fannings (Reef flipflops with the bottle openers on them) for Easter & a blue & black shortie wetsuit as a wedding present... I think his friends are trying to get me to dive!!! They keep giving me all this stuff, but who knows when i'll use it, but i donmt wanna seem ungrateful, so i suppose i might use it surfing this summer or something?

 

[Kte]

Flora - Thanks...Hubby is absolutely smitten with his Gekko but I'm sure that a Zoop will be on his shopping list. He had mentioned something about it but to be honest, while I do dive occasionally (have my PADI OW qual) he's far far more into it than I am - He's getting a new weight belt for father's day! lol

OH keeps hinting at buying a twinset... i told him i'd kill him if he does coz we still have no wardrobes & tons of stuff needed for the house! Computerwise, OH now has a Vitek, D4 panda, a Stinger, a HeLo2, his precious titanium D9, a D6 with red straps & white housing (1 of a kind that he put together with spare parts, the idiot) & some kinda hybrid stinger-gekko thing that he got bored & made, hehe. I love my pink D4... even tho the only use it'll get is as a watch & maybe for checking the temp at the local pool I got a cool new pair of Fannings (Reef flipflops with the bottle openers on them) for Easter & a blue & black shortie wetsuit as a wedding present... I think his friends are trying to get me to dive!!! They keep giving me all this stuff, but who knows when i'll use it, but i donmt wanna seem ungrateful, so i suppose i might use it surfing this summer or something?

Aimee & Flora : Some of this is like reading a whole new language

I used to surf a little, not done it in a few years tho, be interesting and maybe commical to see what I can do nowerdays!

 

[florabean1981]

Harry's fine it seems, other than another crap night's sleep- he woke 7 times in 12 hrs!!! Now he's fast asleep on me

Maffie, hope you're ok. I know what you mean abouit finding it hard to meet new ppl. My friends all live in other counties & the local ones dont bother contacting me anymore, other than to ask when i'm coming back to work, which is kinda annoying. i havent found any baby groups worthwhile going to yet, as Harry is either too old or too young to take part. I have also found that it's cliquey (sp?) & full of unemployed young mums, or OTT neurotic older mums who rely on their hubbies for evefrything. (no offenece to anyone who may/may not feel like they fit into those categories, lol) I feel like I dont fit in anywhere, but at the same time, i feel quite lonely & worry that Harry will be missing out on important social interaction?
sorry I'm rambling

here's some recent pics of harrybo...

 

[Maffie]

Flora you described just how it is here.

 

[florabean1981]

there should be some groups for us middle-era mums (by middle era I mean not teens, but not 'old' either & not with a dozen other kids already either) who are educated past high school/college & wo have jobs we plan to go back to (at some point in life, lol) & who aren't planning on living off benefits for thr rest of our lives, popping out a child when we might be forced to get a job.... Sorry, rant over!!! grrrrrrr.

 

[jo_79]

I have never been to any baby groups with chloe or sam, just wasnt my thing. I do worry about Sam not interacting well with other babies though, chloe was lucky as my other friends had babies too.

In september chloes new school is opening and they will have a brand new nursery attached to it so im hoping to put sam into it so he can mix with other babies.

 

[florabean1981]

Jo, that sounds cool & also handy to have them linked. I go back to work in sept, which is a logistical nightmare with childcare so I've no idea how to go about that as yet. There's an awesome children's centre nearby, but it's onloy open 8-6, which is useless when my shifts are 7-5, 12-10 or 4-10...

Q: for those of you not back at work yet... is your boss pestering you about when you're going back? I've had 3 letter's of mine so far in 2010 asking me whe n i'm coming back. I feel a bit pressured.

 

[Maffie]

Alot of the mums also seem to be in the im better than you as I have a better car, better toys, designer this arrrggggg.

I was hoping to make some local friends but I dont think its going to happen and the one friend I do see I see less when they have a BF as they get totally absorbed in that.

 

[Maffie]

Flora ive now got a new boss and a new office and no one bothers contacting me at all, im taking holidays until September I think, dont thik they will be impressed when I go back as i'll only be back for 8 ish weeks.

 

[colsy]

Re baby groups ... have you tried contacting the NCT and finding out about local groups in the area? Our NCT branches run loads of different things and we've made some potentially lifelong friends. Also, it probably depends on the sort of area where you live, but certainly our Sure Start Children's Centre is amazing in terms of what it offers. I had thought all the classes (most of which are free of charge) would be entirely populated by teenage mums, but actually it's not like that at all and there's a really good mix of people.

Also, maybe try doing internet search for baby signing, baby music, swimming and baby massage in your area?

I got a sore throat and a bit of a cold, and I think Monty must have it too - his sleeping has just been a nightmare. Not quite as bad as Flora's Harry (7 in 12 is hard - I do feel for you), but even so it ain't what it was. Hard to put down for a daytime nap, hard to get to sleep at bedtime, and hard to get back to sleep after a night feed.

 

[florabean1981]

Flora ive now got a new boss and a new office and no one bothers contacting me at all, im taking holidays until September I think, dont thik they will be impressed when I go back as i'll only be back for 8 ish weeks.

not much they can do about that, so they'll have to just lump it. i think my boss would have a breakdown if i got pregant again soon. out of the 10 members of staff, 2 of us just had babies & another 3 are pregnant, due 2010, so i think that's why she keeps sending letters as she's panicing about shifts. i like my job n want to o back, but due to the shifts, i think it'd mean the end of bfing for us & also what do i do for childcare, especially when oh is away for business & also i dont drive & i8t's too far to walk, so i'm limited by the bus schedule too??? i worked out that if i go back full time, then minus the childcare costs from my wages, i am left with a pathetic £148 per month.... is it even worth going back full time, or even at all is what my oh thinks?

 

[florabean1981]

Re baby groups ... have you tried contacting the NCT and finding out about local groups in the area? Our NCT branches run loads of different things and we've made some potentially lifelong friends. Also, it probably depends on the sort of area where you live, but certainly our Sure Start Children's Centre is amazing in terms of what it offers. I had thought all the classes (most of which are free of charge) would be entirely populated by teenage mums, but actually it's not like that at all and there's a really good mix of people.

Also, maybe try doing internet search for baby signing, baby music, swimming and baby massage in your area?

I hadn't even thought of trying the NCT! That's on my to do lost now, thanks for that Colsy! The SureStart here is geared very much at the unemployed & getting ppl back into work & offering skills like maths, IT etc, which is FANTASTIC for those people to be able to access that kinda stuff for free, but useless for people like me, which is unfortunate. I did the baby massage course, which was 3 sessions, but no one really talked to eachother & I used to go to the BFing group, but got bored, because it cost me £3.85 on the bus to sit for an hour & feed Harry with a bunch of Navy wives (nothing against them, they just didn't include me in their coversations & it was hard to get a word in edgways & they all kept going on & on every damn week about how small Harry was & it kinda got to me- my problem, not theirs I know, but still). I dont see the point in the baby signing since I already know Makaton thru work & did the level 1 BSL course when I was in high school, so i think that's more useful. I did hear that they're thinking of doing a mums & baby Yoga course, so I will defo sign up for that if they go ahead with it... I need to lose my saggy tummy! lol

 

[Kte]

Flora: I just had to inform mine in writing when I was intending to come back so they never pesterd me then thankfully.

I had the same dilemma re wages too, SAHM and skint or work full time and be skint! Now Chloe's nursery is closer to my work I think it's good, she really gets a lot out of it there and I would be quite upset in a way if I had to keep her home all the time as mad as that sounds. Not that I don't want to spend time with her! She has a little friend called Harry too, he usually waves good bye to us but yesterday he cried when I took her home!

Colsy: Hope you feel better soon & Monty and that he gets some

 

[florabean1981]

kte, that's so cute!

 

[Chaos]

re baby/mum groups .. I found my mums group on meetup.com
You sign up, put in your post code, select how far out you want to search (5, 10, 15 miles ect) and then choose the kinda groups, I chose stay at home mums/family.

Its such a good group. When I joined there were 4 members, now there are 66 and me and my friend just took over running it. We do 2 or 3 play dates a week at peoples houses/parks and then a few mums nights out/in a month. SO glad I found it.

I really like meetup.com cause it's how I made friends when I moved to London.

Ok back to cleaning before the inlaws arrive!

 

[Kaites]

The baby groups here kinda suck too. Now that I don't have access to a car during the day, it's harder for me to get to them and tbh, I don't like the other mums at them much either The suburb that I live in is sort of divided into an older section (where we live and I grew up) that is slightly older mums (aka over 30) and a newer, trendier section where most of the mums who go to the baby groups live. They just seem more cliquey too Yoga was okay since we were pretty much too busy with the yoga to really socialize but Emma still got exposure to other babies. I should sign up for another session, but am completely unmotivated- I'd rather go for a bike ride.

Maffie- Hope you are feeling better today

Flora- we had a rough night too. I'm convinced it's teething. I stopped counting the number of times I got up to help Emma settle, but I'm guessing we were pretty close to 7 times too. Poor kid- I heard her waking and self-settling a bunch more times too so she was up a lot last night. I hope Harry has a better night tonight I have the same issue with shifts when returning to work so I think I'm going to work from home instead. Around here, home daycares charge ridiculous rates if you need childcare outside of the conventional 7am-5pm and daycare centres won't take her because of my shiftwork. Childcare is such a headache!

Kte- Chloe's boyfriend sounds cute

Chaos- hope you have a good visit with the in-laws

Colsy- hope you and Monty feel better soon

Not much going on here- Emma's napping. I should be doing housework, but somehow ended up on the computer Random question- anyone else get annoyed when others post pics of your baby on their FB profiles? The reason I ask is that MIL posted a few pics of Emma today and it really bothers me. I should probably just get over it since my mum does it all the time and that doesn't bother me but for some reason, MIL doing it makes me a little annoyed. I think it's because she makes zero effort to spend time with Emma yet posts these photos like she's some kind of doting Grandma To top it off, she only posted the photos that she's taken with Emma and DH, BIL and herself- conveniently left out any photos of me and Emma. I know I shouldn't take it personally (long story there) and I should rise above the pettiness but it just rubs me the wrong way. Anyway, enough of b*tching about MIL

Hope everyone is having a good day!