Time flies when your having fun !!

Well it's been a while since I blogged and I've kind of missed it. I am now a mummy of two which is jolly good fun. My oldest is now 2 and a half and my youngest, 15 weeks! I'm going to start writing again shortly as all of the memories of frustrations from baby 1 are coming flooding back :-)

Play Cafes...

Are they a great place for mums to hang out having a coffee and a goss whilst their little one plays safely in a haven of fun? OR are they germ infested, overpriced, cramped rooms of chaos? There's no denying that these places are ideal for letting your little one run riot and have fun whilst you sit down for ten minutes. But, you do find they get full pretty quickly and if like me, you find yourself accidentally stepping on a child or a mum whilst trying to manoeuvre out of the four foot by three foot ball pool, your asking yourself why you came!! You also get those mums who become completely engrossed in their convo's that their missing their Damien esque kids shoving/hitting/grabbing the nicely behaved ones!! (oops sorry Damien didn't mean to lock you in the Wendy house, ps don't shove my daughter again mwah ha ha) Some of these places also have toys to play with but when my daughter came toddling towards me the other day with a mouldy doll, in a mouldy buggy, out came the hand sanitiser, the wet wipes and the obligatory 'no darlin dirty, eugh eugh'. I do these places are great fun but it wouldn't hurt to be a bit cleaner or have a smaller limit on how many kids could play? ...

Has it really been three months ?! Oops!!

Due to an unexpected housemove, the blogging had to be put aside for a wee while. But!!! after a short absence I'm back!!! (for those who enjoy or even read my blog :))!! Anyhoo, my daughter is a few months older and I have still been enjoying the joys of transportation with a toddler in tow. Looking forward to sharing my experiences again :)

What a week .....

Well it's been over a week since I blogged
And I'm sorry to those who actually read this lol :) in 24 hours I found out my house was going to be reposessed due to the landlord not paying his mortgage, we had a trip booked to Butlins which we still went on and on the way there the brakes went! Luckily there was a garage nearby and two hours later we were back on the road! Got to Butlins and whilst the lovely helpful Butlins staff are faxing through a tenancy application to estate agents for a house we saw that morning, babba decides to throw up everywhere and the bright red 'sun burn' marks she has on her makes us rush to the hospital ASAP. Babbas ok thank
God but what a day!! So, I will
Be back to blogging shortly on my experience at Butlins.....

The Doc's.....

Now, I have a burning question (and would also like to provisionally apologise in case this blog offends anyone)
 
Why is it doctors surgery receptionists are so rude? Now, I do know one lovely one so she is clearly an exception but the others I have dealt with, jeez!  Manners are free you know !!
 
Pre-child, I didn’t frequent the doctors very often. In fact I didn’t want to waste their time and would much rather suffer than go through the rig moral of arranging time off from work and making it up etc.  Plus us women just get on with it as oppose to the whole man-flu thing.
 
However, since my little ray of sunshine came into life and mixes with other little rays of sunshine’s at nursery and swimming I have been to the doctors more times in the last 12 months then the past 30 years and nope im not exaggerating.
 
At first you go through the ‘paranoid’ mum stage.   ‘is that a rash?’ ‘Is the glass test where you can see the rash through a glass or cant see a rash through the glass’ and ‘right im gonna Google it and see what comes up…….’ then scare yourself silly with the 1098,000 possible illnesses they may have!!
 
I especially remember the time babbas temperature rose to a whole 36.2 degrees when she was three months old and I spent all night ringing the NHS helpline and taking her temp every half an hour. 
 
Anyway, as a new mum doctors all know we can be a bit paranoid and neurotic and why not I say, when it comes to your child health is the most important thing and I still swear that mothers instinct over rules anything.  Everytime I have contacted the surgery, I’m asked stupid questions, I can’t ever pre-book appointments, I’m told if im that worried to go to the Walk in centre etc. (if it was that worrying of course I would do that silly woman!)
 
So when there had been an outbreak of the ol’ chicken pox and my little un suddenly had a couple of angry red spots sprout up, I thought ‘uh hah! She has the pox’ (my mum did have to ask me not to tell everyone that my baby had the pox as apparently it is different than chicken pox in that it is a Victorian std of some sort! Oops!) Excellent I thought, she seemed fine in herself and better for her to get it now then when she is older.  As you all know nursery/schools wont take them until the spots have scabbed.  (I have never understood this, isn’t the contagious period the two weeks before the spots appear??!!) So, after trying to sort childcare/swap days at work/book leave off work, I rang the docs to say I thought that my daughter had chicken pox as she had a few spots so could I see someone that day please. I was told that no one could see her and to be honest, there wasn’t much the doctor could do so they wouldn’t see her anyway.
 
Ooohhhhh I see!! I must have missed something, are all receptionists now medically trained and act as some sort of a triage??!! What a jolly good idea.  Oh hang on, nope your not medically trained and im ringing a doctors to say that my 13 month old had a rash which may be chicken pox and your saying no one will see me???
 
So, I politely, sternly and slowly explain the situation again. I - think – that – my – 13 – month – old – daughter – may – have – chicken – pox – but – she – only – has – 4 – spots -  so – I – don’t – know – if – its – something – else………
 
I know chicken pox cant be treated but I need a diagnosis!  What I have also forgotten to mention is that we had also just returned from Spain and I wanted mozzie bites and malaria ruled out but the receptionist smirked! Smirked !! ok, maybe the babe hasn’t got malaria but this is where the neurotic mum part comes in.
 
The receptionist still doc blocks me so I try another method. I call the doctors secretary herself.  She of course understands my worry as a first time mother and arranges an appointment for me to take babe in.  This is because as they always have, wait for it, emergency appts at the end of everyday especially for children.
 
Anyhoo, she did have chicken pox but was one of the lucky ones and only had 8 spots!!!
 
So, the moral of the story? Lunacy is perfectly acceptable in cases when it comes to your child being ill.  I must be fair though and add that my doctor is great and will always tell me to come back if im worried whilst assuring me that im  not a lunatic mother.  Even after the time when  he was trying to take babbas temp, and he asked me to hold her whilst she was sitting up, one arm and hand supporting the head, the other her hand.  So, while he was putting the thermometer in her ear and she of course started to cry, I rubbed her hand to soothe her.  It was until Doc said ‘ I know im a bit upset about upsetting your baby, but there’s no need to comfort me….and I am married you know’ Yep, you got it I had been in fact stroking my doctors hand not my child’s……………………..

Advertising my blog

I don't profess to be a writer or someone who is taking this blog too seriously.  As described in my profile, this blog is a chance for me to have a rant and a moan about shopping with a buggy, that's all.

I think because when I first posted this blog to my Facebook profile, I received such a positive response I felt like my blog had a purpose (without sounding dramatic). 

Because of my new found confidence, I posted the link on Facebook (several times), Twitter, Digg and I went to Babycentre and posted it in one of their forums.

Boy was that a mistake.  I asked for constructive criticism and it turned out therewere alot of 'meanies' (ok, complete bitches) out there.  There were also alot of constructive mummies and should they ever read this, even though they didn't like my blog, I thank them for their feedback and have taken iton board :). ( Ps due to my post being a 'blog' it got suspended so I wasnt able to post anymore thank you blogs). 

Since when did the websites we relied on for advice, turn into some sort of 'cyber bullies forum'.  I admit, when I first became pregnant I used these baby forums for everything, 'does the faint line mean i'm pregnant' ' what day am I actually ovulating' etc and I found them helpful.  However, on sharing my blog I didnt realise I would get a reply like 'stupid bitch' 'is she thick or something' 'I live in Exeter and she's talking shit'.  I'm just glad I don't have to associate with these people and clearly my concept is lost on them..........

H & M

I love H & M clothes, in fact when I found out they had a kids section I was very pleased indeed.  H & M is a  low price high fashion store and I couldn't wait to see what I could buy babba to try and make her into the little fashionita I had dreamt she would become!  The Exeter shop is huge and yep, not to disappoint, the children's section is on the first floor only accessible for those mum's who have a pram via a lift.  A lift which is located at the back of the shop!! Now, for those mums who think why take a pram to all of these shops, take a sling.  When shopping, I end up with bags.  Babba also has her own bag, her changing bag.  Carrying a changing bag, a baby in a sling and any bags of shopping I have purchased is more of a pain in the ass then getting prams into shops.  Anyhoo, I'm at the back of the store waiting for the lift to come down.  (does anyone else get alot of electric shocks pressing a button for a lift or am I some sort of a freak?!)  One thing I have noticed in my newly found time in spent in lifts is that lifts just aren't for those moaning minnie mums like me, they are for staff to transport clothes rails up and down.  I'm sure that they are equally annoyed when coming out of the lift faced with mums prams and kiddies !!! So, I'm in the lift, again a small one, gets up to the first floor and get out of the lift.  Now why is it, and I admit I do this too, that when waiting for a lift even though 9 times out of 10 someone will be coming out of the lift before you can get in, we still wait for the lift right up close by the doors. Which means we have to reverse right back to let someone out.  When there are lots of rails or other mums behind you this is not fun.  Once I got out of the lift and headed through the women's, men and older children clothing section I got to the baby bit.  There was alot of lovely things but not a great selection! Boo!! I did manage to pick up a tres chic Rolling Stones dress for her though. How cool am I.........