The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

Cinny91

Birdie85 wrote: »

I'm sure Ryder will be welcome if you want to come Cinny! I'll probably bring Zach.

I wish! He's almost, but not fully, out of his stubborn bolshy phase. He would knock everything over because he's too dang big :rotfl:

That's great news about the maternity pay, not such great news about the shoes! Is it anything your contents insurance would cover?

Can understand why Gracie loved the slippers, I'd really like them in me size

Birdie85

Would be funny watching Ryder cause havoc, but I understand you not wanting to bring him! We'll have to have another meet when you can come.

I'm lucky that I've made friends with like-minded girls through baby groups and we all do different crafts so have introduced new things to each other. We've had a few afternoons crafting and taking it in turns to entertain the babies, there really is safety in numbers when it comes to the smalls. Actually had one friend at mine yesterday afternoon and I was showing her how to scrapbook her holiday photos whilst our boys played together. Nice way to spend maternity leave! I'm gutted it's coming to an end, also trying to figure out when I'm supposed to have time to work on my little business once I'm working full time?!

Devastating about the shoes! I've lost loads of pairs of shoes to mould sadly. Since they're already ruined can you chuck them in the washing machine/give them a good hand wash to see if any survive? Might be an idea to take photos and see if your insurance will pay out anything...

Another KIT day today and I spent the first hour sorting out my PC as a contractor was sat here then moved to another desk and stole a load of my cables! :mad: I was already in a bad mood as Zach woke at 5.15 this morning for the first time in ages (he usually sleeps well past 8, lazy sod!) so I'm tired and he's been poorly for a few days so I'm worn out with that and already dreading bedtime as it's been so bad all week... meh. At least I got to drink a cup of coffee whilst it was still hot!

Dinah93

Just wait until he's walking, then you'll be posting 'meh work sucks but I GOT TO GO TO THE LOO WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE!'

Aye I'll give insurance a call, I just reckon they'll find a way that it's my fault even though they've been in there 4 years without ever a problem before.

Honestly once I was back full time (and even then my full time was 3/4 days a week maximum but the other was medical appointments) I didn't have much time for anything but work, housework and Grace stuff. I managed to go to yoga for 2 hours a week and I'd usually manage to see a friend and baby once a week too. Every other week I'd go out for 5 or 6 hours on a weekend with mum or NIM. My own hobbies and my little crafty business went out the window because they just weren't as important to me as seeing people and being with Grace once she started to respond to interaction Only reason I have time for dads stuff now is that NIM works 4 long days so I can do a bit in the 3 days off and mum has Grace overnight one of the nights he's working.

Dad's business launch on fb has gone well, have three enquiries for products for companies (mugs, tshirts, tote bags) and then a custom mug off the lovely Birdie. No etsy sales yet, but I need to get more designs off him to photograph and get up to keep it visible.

Breastfeeding social this morning, every time I think about how much easier formula would be the thought of not going to this group anymore keeps me going! Its so blinking hard to bf when you have a toddler too, all that lovely snuggling with your baby and a dvd for a marathon feeding session is out the window when you need to disentangle a 2 year old from the banister, get her juice, kiss an owwie etc.

NIM and Grace at the Great North Children's hospital this morning for her 6 monthly lung check, then he has several errands to run so should get a bit of work done after bf club. I find it so hard to prioritise, work or ironing for example. Grace has no top halves of clothes left and the ironing pile is about 5 hours worth at this point, but I have about 25 designs to do so they need to be done today so I guess Grace will just have to continue the odd summer dress-leggings-cardi combo's I've had her in the last few days. Maybe the real issue is I need to accept not everything gets ironed?!

Ben slept 11-6.20 last night He did 5.5 hours the two nights before that too... I'm hopeful this is the start of us cracking sleeping through the night.

Birdie85

Great news about Ben sleeping more! He's doing so well. My friend kept going to 'boobie group' as she calls it even once she switched to formula as the leader said she was great support for the other women so even if you do end up switching, you won't need to worry about losing the group?

Oooh that's a good idea about custom mugs and suchlike for businesses... I'll have a word with my brother to see if he needs anything printing for his company. Will get back to you!

MIL has said that she can take Zach until as late as I want on her babysitting days when I'm back at work so at least I'll have one evening to do my craft stuff, I'll just have to be strict and pencil in that time to work on my 'other job'. I just have so many ideas and not enough time! Why did I decide to do this now and not 2 years ago when I had oodles of spare time?! I normally get about 1.5-2 hours on a night to clean up and craft if I'm very organised but this week that's gone out of the window so I'm feeling a little extra meh about it all. I have had 2 orders picked up this week though which makes me happy. My friend who makes jewellery has signed us up to do a craft fair in November and she wants to share a table but I'd rather just have my own since my frames take up plenty of space and I want to sell cards and other prints I'm planning on making but I don't know how to nicely tell her that I want to do it alone? It's only £5 for a table so hardly breaking the bank. I'm trying to get my 'brand' out there IYKWIM so don't want to attach myself to anyone else, especially as I can't confirm the quality of the stuff she's planning on selling. Before this she kept going on about selling our stuff at a car boot but didn't want to cheapen what I do by car booting it! Am I being a daft cow?!

Oh and screw the ironing. Especially for the littlies! I've only ironed a couple of shirts for Zach in his 7 months and they were because it was a special occasion. Everything else just gets dried then stuffed in his drawers and he doesn't look like a ragamuffin for it!

archersluck

So nice to have some chat on the thread again
Glad all the mini mse'ers are doing well, so many babies now!
I really like your dads designs Dinah, tried to favourite some on etsy but can't remember my log in and it's linked to an old email, will try again at some point.

Not much new here, living in Scotland for the referendum was interesting, got a pay rise at work and hoping for a promotion soon as I turned down one at another site as it would mean moving again. Still saving for a house, at that stage where we could get a flat but would probably make more sense to wait until we're properly settled somewhere so we shall see!

Dinah93

I think my washer spins too fast, all the clothes come out in small little balls and you have to eek them back into a flat shape, but they're mega creased!

Spent the night putting various photos of sheep onto mugs, sadly not the right shape photos so I had the option of lopping off their legs or their heads.... a very disturbing decision to make.

Definitely not a daft cow Birdie, people want something for nothing at car boots, there is no way they'd pay what you want for your frames, they'd be offering £1-£2 at best, NIM went there and it was all 20p for clothing, £1 for a whole box of books, 50p for nana's ornaments, at the end of the day he'd made £20, of which about £6 went in fuel and we took the remaining 6 bags to the charity shop because life is too short! For £5 I'd just say to her 'lets get two tables as my frames are so big I think I'd need a full table otherwise I couldn't take much without completely crowding out your stuff'

What time does Zach go down to bed? Just thinking on an evening you should get some time after bedtime most nights, if you've all been out all day there can't be much housework to do, where here 3 of us are home most of the day 7 days a week, one of whom pukes everywhere and the other is a toddler so the place is a constant bomb site.

Good news on the house savings Archers

Dinah93

No real money news today, that maternity pay isn't in yet even though it said it would be, I've done about 4 hours work for dad as NIM had Grace at the hospital and then I've done some more since bedtime as very unusually Ben is napping, he's usually awake all evening. Going is a bit slow tonight as I'm feeling utterly grotty, had a coil put in this afternoon and now have horrendous cramps and feel sick and dizzy.

clearmydebts

Hi all,

Great to see everyone on here chatting away again! Tete - lovely to see you back. I think you are very brave for trying teaching out. So sorry it isn't working out for you. I agree with your friend, don't make any rash decisions. I am so sorry to hear that your Dad is so unwell. We had our own health scare with my Dad last week and it has been horrible xxxx

Hello to everyone else. Birdie - Zach is getting so big and cute on FB. Fantastic to see Ben coming on so well too Dinah, he seems to grow in every photo.

Re: Toilet training. The advice I was given was to try them for a week and if there is no success in that time give it up for a few months. I had a few false starts with Max and one with Evie. He was trained at 2.5 and her at 23 months. But they both were trained at night time way after day time. For Max it was nearly a year after and with Evie we are just going to start trying to see if she can manage it. Max was afraid to do a poo and I found 'Poo goes to Pooland' a godsend on Youtube. Reward charts really worked for both as well. And they both hated any potty training books!

Dinah93

Grace is just convinced that I'm being mean to potty to put it though such an ordeal! She manages to give feelings to everything, she apologises to things she trips over, sometimes she won't eat because 'it'll hurt the strawberries'.

Had a nice time at the festival of thrift with the lovely Birdie yesterday. Maybe there was a thrift side somewhere we didn't get to, it was so crazy busy! On our side it just felt a bit vintagey with people selling a loaf of bread or jar of jam for 4x what the supermarket charges, but at least it was free entry!

Had a nice day in the garden today, finally got the plants done for the nicu nurses so maybe we can take those down tomorrow.

ruby_eskimo

Hi everyone, again, glad to see some chatter on the thread.

Tete - Sorry to hear that things aren't going well at the moment. Hopefully things will start to look a little brighter soon *hugs*

Glad to hear all the babies are doing well; a friend of mine is currently in labor so I'm just waiting for the phone call to say my new godson here!

Ladies, just need to vent a little: Went to try on wedding dresses at the weekend and fell in love with one that I'd seen online prior. Only problem is that it's a bit "bigger" than I thought; it might be described as a princess dress with a definite train to it. It didn't look as big once I took the hoop off but when she laid the train out properly there was certainly a lot of dress there! I felt so amazing in it but it's a bit more dress than I really wanted and is at the upper end of the budget. Have spent the weekend trying to talk myself out of it because I think it's just too much to pay for a dress that I'm going to wear for one day. But it's just so pretty and I felt so good wearing it. Going to try more on in a couple of weeks so might find something else I like but I just can't stop thinking about this dress!