Whew had a lot to catch up on. Spread it across several days so undoubtedly have forgotten a lot, but here goes, and apologies in advance for a monster post...
Pretty - coke with mouthwash sounds about right. Can’t stand it. Please share any future tests, hello!
Gigs - I hear you on the mum fails. I think perhaps rather than having failed at anything, these were just things you really wanted and so of course it feels really sh*t. Will you keep going with BFing and supplementing? Maybe some of the suggestions the other folks here had would help boost supply/quality/whatever, if you wanted to go that route of course. OH, re: diamonds, as I think I said before, I was obsessed too and then overjoyed since I discovered moissanite, coz it’s way cheaper, just as clear/hard/long lasting, and sparklier/throws more rainbows. Maybe put a bug in hubby’s ear that when the business is thriving he can get you a little bling-blang to celebrate your hat-trick. As for cosleeper success, I hope it keeps going well! I have no advice, since my “solution” was to just give in and bedshare for life. To be fair, it had a great effect on my sleep for the first year.
CB - your car story is wild! And did you get much snow? Can’t remember now. I’ve seen pics from friends in Basingstoke and they got soooo much! One friend fashioned a 6-foot snow slide complete with steps for her son, ALL from snow!
Erin - congrats and happy to hear you’re adjusting to the idea of having a baby. The onesie reveal is so awesome. I was never ever a baby person either AT ALL, though always knew I’d love my own. It did take a while to feel that all-consuming love, though. I find parenting a toddler a lot more rewarding (but also more exhausting) than a baby.
Flueks - you’re hanging in there, yay! I can’t rememver if you said, but how’s V feeling about her little sister arriving soon?
PL - I’m so on baby watch for you. I can’t tell you how intrigued I am about the sex (gender lol), whether it’ll all happen quickly, whether you’ll get your vbac, what name you’ll go with etc. Get some pork sword in already!!! There is NO way that baby is turning upside down with such limited space at this stage, esp just from a bit of willy.
Shae - I had something to say about something you said a while back but forgot, so just know I did have something to say that involved you. It was going to be profound, obviously.
Kitty - I think it’s great that you want to switch careers and do something you’ll enjoy more or find more stimulating. It sounds like you’ve got quite a solid plan. While I did do my A levels in the UK, I went straight into working in the financial sector and doing exams for becoming a financial adviser but I hated that. It was all sales, really, which is not my thing. My dad always expected me to go to uni and I always thought I would, so I started feeling like I’d let myself and him down as time kept ticking by. Then I moved to Canada at 22, thankfully did not get hired at the Toronto offices of the investment company I’d been at in London, and then enrolled in an undergraduate program in psychology at 24. I definitely have no regrets about that. Of course I didnt have kids at the time, but I do still have 2-3 years before I finish this PhD and that’s with a Tilly. Money’s tough esp coz where we live is so expensive but DH makes okay money, he works at my uni so my tuition is waived, plus I have scholarships. Do you have ideas about possible careers within those areas of interest you mentioned? Re: psychology, if you’re considering becoming a therapist, there are certainly ways to do it in the UK that don’t take forever or cost an arm and a leg. A friend of mine in the UK went through some counseling training program and I’m fairly sure she’ll have a pretty decent set-up. Kind of wish I’d done the equivalent here rather than literally over 10 years of postsecondary education just to get a doctor title. It has definitely been intellectually stimulating but perhaps a bit overkill.
AFM (coz my above biography wasn’t enough) I realized I hadn’t updated on my friend with preeclampsia. I think I’m gonna repeat a lot so forgive me. So the day I’d seen her in hospital, she’d said she thought it was a huge overreaction that they’d made her stay in hospital (which was one day after she’d discharged herself to go to an important work meeting because she didn’t want to wait for crucial blood results despite ALL the symptoms of preeclampsia being present, and was also the same day she was told her baby had a skip in his heartbeat). Can’t remember if I mentioned, but the docs gave her a steroid shot to boost lung development in case baby had to come early, but she and her hubby refused the second steroid shot (supposed to be two shots 24 hours apart) coz her hubby saw on google that the shot could cause ADHD and other learning difficulties later in life (he’s got major anxiety around health stuff). She asked our friend group’s advice and we all (including our med school friend) said ADHD is far less scary than potential respiratory distress, plus I’d looked fairly extensively on research databases and could find only one study that found a link (small sample, imperfect design yadda yadda yadda) but of course it had hit media at the time and therefore was now appearing to be a solid “thing” for anyone naively googling. Turned out all the docs there basically reassured her of the exact same stuff but they still chose to ignore it. The next day she went really downhill and they finally realized refusing the second shot was a huge mistake, and luckily, previously unbeknownst to them, they could just about sneak the second shot in within a 36-hour max window, so thankfully they did. She was induced the day after that coz she had signs of liver damage, and the poor thing was basically in horrendous pain from even just the cervical checks and foley insertion, so she got an epidural but then was still feeling extreme nausea from the magnesium she was given for the pre. After 36 hours, she wasn’t progressing much and they didn’t think baby could handle waiting for pitocin, so they did a c section. Their little guy was 3.5lbs and my poor friend didn’t even get to see him properly until two days later once she was out of some awful mental fog from the magnesium and the most exhaustion of her life. He’d ended up being born at 33.5 weeks and will stay in NICU for a while (he’s been there almost two weeks already). I feel for them a lot. She broke down when they came home without the baby once she was finally discharged. I can’t even imagine. Makes me realize how lucky I am, and all I did was moan about going overdue. Admittedly the haemorrhage wasn’t much fun, but taken together, it also just highlights how much we all seem to go through when bringing babies into this world.
In other news, we had awfully cold weather last week. We took Tilly to daycare daily (40-min walk each way) in the most intense subzero temperatures. One day is was -35 CELSIUS with windchill. Of course it was the only time we’d left our car seat in a different town so couldn’t even get cab. Anyway we survived. Except now DH has hardcore flu and Tilly just for fever tonight too so I’m just waiting for all of us to be bedridden corpses while trying to look after an equally sick toddler and each other. Fun times.
pics are cute though. I mean he looks like every other swollen newborn in our family right now lol
super cute pic of Myles!
my are still supposed to come up this thursday but weather report is calling for more snow Wednesday.
I hope V gets anothet opportunity this winter.
yup I'm gross.
, and for some reason it’s making me want to breastfeed? 
also you didn't fail at birth. You gave birth to 3 beautiful boys and it doesn't matter vaginal or CS.
'course now he won't nap anywhere but on me 
