Posts made in March, 2010
Taking charge of your fertility – falling pregnant
An unusual thought occurred to me today. It was one of those really cool thoughts that seem to arrive at the most perculiar times, you know the ones, sitting on loo, brushing your teeth, preparing your cup of tea. Even during sex!!
Don’t worry there’s no X-rated stuff here…my peculiar thought occurred to me this afternoon when changing Pickles nappy. I was busily distracting myself from the sight and smell when it suddenly came to me that my trusty ‘girly bible’ of success is truly A SUCCESS!
The success began roughly two and a half years ago when hubby and I were fed up with seeing ‘negative’ on our pregnancy tests. Pee after pee we were both tired and simply disheartened by the whole situation. Then I discovered a book.
This book quickly became my ‘girly bible’ and it finally made it all so clear as to WHY OH WHY we weren’t pregnant. It was my life for the next short couple of months until that unhappy negative changed to a positive and Pickles was conceived. After reading my ‘girly’ bible and having thoughts like ‘oh my god, that’s what that is’ and ‘eeww, do I really have to do that’, we were pregnant. I swear I kissed that book many times over. I had rubbed its belly as though it was Buddha so many times and now we were about to be Mummy and Daddy. YAAAHOOOOO!!!!
The books called Taking Charge Of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It all made sense to me, such clear sense. From learning about my body, understanding when to have sex and the reality of how small the fertile window truly is.
Anyway, my peculiar thought…to be honest it is really exciting and uplifting. It’s the kind of thought that just makes you smile. And it takes a long time for that smile to fade. You see, we fell pregnant using this book and …the thought that struck me today…in the last year and a half three people have borrowed this book, all of them struggling for their second baby, and voila. As Raymond Blanc so succinctly says. One has had her baby and two are pregnant!
I wanted to blog this ‘peculiar thought’ to let others know about the book. It works. Four woman I know, proved it.
If your struggling to fall pregnant borrow a copy or buy a copy, read it and enjoy it. It truly is a wonderful book. Any book that can bring life is worth more than a billion words in any blog and I hope these words help someone else.
Happy reading and all the best to you.
Jay Marie
Read MoreCall Batman! I need help: To potty or not to potty?
Someone call Batman. I need help!
To Potty or not to Potty that is the question.
For a few weeks now I have suspected that Pickles is ready for Potty Training. She ticks all the boxes in the ‘are they ready yet?’ Potty Manual and more. She knows when she is doing a poo and has had (what Hubby and I have aptly named) ‘Poo Corner’ for over a year now.
Then this morning…
With my head down losing myself in Facebook, Pickles came up to me wanting to take her top off. Then she was tugging at her trousers trying so hard to get them off. When I next turned around she was comfortably in ‘Poo Corner’.
Pickles has been telling me for about a week now when she has done a poo. She tries to take her nappy off all the time, she hates poo changes and after getting out of the bath, she promptly wees.
Anyway, I said nothing and moments later…”Mummy, Mummy” and pointing to her bottom she said “Poo”. I asked her if she had done a poo and she smiled back at me with a “yey”. Now this entire scenario has never happened before. On reflection, she obviously wanted her trousers off as she was aware of needing to do a poo and did not want to do it in her nappy. Two more poos today (none needing her clothes off) and I am now confused.
Pardon the toilet talk guys.
The problem: Is Mummy ready? Is Pickles ready?
I am aware I need to be ready for this and I have come prepared with my trusty manual of ‘Potty Train in a Week’ but should I do it? Ohhhhhhhh the pressure!!!!!!!!
Should I make a date next week or the week after and hide away from the world in an attempt to potty train Pickles. ‘Be afraid’ I told myself, ‘very afraid’. I am not a squeamish person, blood – no worries, I love CSI, I love Dexter, but poo, be it baby, adult, dog..I am crap at it (pardon the pun). I hate it. You would think after two years of dealing with it that I would be OK, and I am…when its in a nappy. The thought of it on the carpet…oh woah is me!
I began eagerly reading the Potty Training book this afternoon and realised that I have made a massive, I mean, according to Gina, MASSIVE boo boo when it comes to toilet training. A big NO NO is introducing a potty until you potty train. We have had a potty sitting in the toilet for months. Pickles sits on it all the time and pretends to do ‘wee wee’, but when it came to trying it over the last few days for real, all I got was a big “noooooo” from Pickles.
Ahhhhhhhhhh, help…my potty training has flown out the window, taking off after a flock of birds.
Help, help, help. If you are a friend of Batman, can you get him to email me? And if your a friend of Gina Ford, can you get her to call me. And if your none of the above, I would love your ideas.
Best
Jay Marie
Read MoreDon’t read this blog post either
Oh how ironic!!
Irony. Coincidence. They both leave us in wonderment and this morning I was left in utter wonderment.
One week after I posted my “Don’t Read This Blog Post” post, I am confronted with the idea of ‘Don’t’ in a way I would never imagine.
Pickles woke up this morning with a craving for DVD’s. ”Donall” she said pointing to the TV. Oh not again I thought. I can only be subjected to Mickey Mouse Playhouse so many times in one week before I start acting like a Duck. The theme tune is already haunting me, I thought. ”Donall” I heard again. So with my tool box of ‘distraction techniques’ I went to the DVD cupboard and let Pickles choose one to watch.
My distraction worked I chuckled as she pulled out a DVD that had no ducks and no mice. Its called Sing and Sign. A DVD we bought over a year ago but had rarely watched. ”Good choice” I said to Pickles. ”You sit on the couch with your toast and Mummy will put it on”.
NOTE: In case you haven’t read my first post on this topic, you can read it here… Don’t Read This Blog Post.
Now I have to admit, the few times I had played this for her previously was when I was desperate to get the washing done or to clean the kitchen or do some other Stepford Wife type job, so I was generally out of the room. I knew she loved the DVD thanks to the catchy tunes. Needless to say a few minutes in, I was in shock.
I stopped in the kitchen, hand grasping the bag in my hand and let out a big “NO WAY”. I turned to face the TV and my jaw hit the ground. I had totally forgotten about this little number. I stood there with a bemused grin, giggling a wicked little laugh to myself.
These are the lyrics:
Don’t wipe your nose on the sofa
Don’t shut your fingers in the door
You shouldn’t, you mustn’t, you can’t touch that
And Don’t leave that biscuit on the floor
Here’s a childs interpretation:
Wipe my nose on the sofa
Shut my fingers in the door
I shouldn’t, I mustn’t, I can’t touch that
And do leave that biscuit on the floor
!?!?
I just had to laugh.
I know I have a passionate relationship with not saying the word Don’t and I try, try, try not to say it to Pickles but here I was listening to it in lyrical form, on a DVD, a teaching aid for children no less. The irony of it. An entire song dedicated to saying the word Don’t.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I love the sing and sign idea and the DVD really is good but “What are you teaching these kids” I grumbled, “And what are you teaching the parents?”
So out came the same pair of cranky pants I wore when I wrote the last ‘Don’t’ post and as I pulled them onto each leg, I grabbed my invisible mobile phone, phoned Scotty and beamed the DVD up into the Star Trek Universe.
Read MoreDon’t Read This Blog Post.
I am so pleased you ignored my message and decided to read this post.
I just finished watching the new ‘Jo Frost’ (SuperNanny) parenting show and today she touched a nerve, my big nerve, the one that once rattled doesn’t leave me alone. It runs from my ‘I am not happy’ nerve all the way to the ‘I am now really really upset’ nerve. So I had to write this post…stick with me here!
Today she must have said the word DON’T more than I have fingers to count.
Do me a favour just now, and DON’T think of the colour purple.
What did you do?
I bet you thought about the colour purple, whether or not you were aware of it. You see the brain works in fabulous ways and in order for us to understand what NOT to do, we first need to understand what TO do. Therefore, we have to think about the colour purple in order to understand what not to do.
Another perfect example: Remember the title of this blog post?
So now imagine saying ‘don’t’ to a child. The child has to try and understand the subject before he/she knows what not to do. But our little angels whether they are two or ten, sometimes don’t have the stamina to get back to concentrating about the word don’t after thinking about the subject, so the subject becomes important and off they go.
The brain is also a mighty curious creature, that’s how it learns. It loves to be stimulated. So when you say ‘don’t’ do something our brains can be curious. With age comes understanding so as adults we have the capacity to not do what it is we are told (or the choice to do it anyway given the consequences). Our little angels generally can’t understand the consequences of our don’ts.
Don’t is a negative. No, is a negative, think of more negatives and start saying all these words to yourself. In no time at all your mood will change. Now run that same script on our little angels and soon the little devil starts to surface. In my experience positives get you so much more in return than negatives and ‘don’t’ is one of the worst.
On the show, this poor six year old girl was being hounded firstly by her Mother “don’t do this, don’t do that” then in comes Jo (all with positive intention) and ruins it by her constant “don’t do this”. If only she had turned her don’t into a do.
Oh we love do’s. The brain loves do’s. Its so positive. And who doesn’t like a positive.
I have already seen it in Pickles, and she just two. Thanks to a really rough two weeks with tummy bugs and what-nots, my exhaustion meter burst at the seems a week ago and I suddenly found myself being a ‘don’t’ Mummy. The change in Pickles was pretty much instant. Even at the tender age of two they can be affected by ‘don’t’ and I quickly found myself with a little rebel starting to surface..
So next time your little angel is about to, or is doing something you don’t want them to do, think about what it is you DO want them to do and say that. My perfect example has been over the last few days. Thanks to exhaustion and the inability of my legs to get moving quick enough, I kept saying ‘don’t’ throw the dog food over the floor’ to Pickles. Oh how the thought of having to get the broom out for the millionth time drove me potty, and not the plastic kind! So instead, I said to Pickles ‘that’s doggies food, lets leave it in the bowl’…fast forward to today and the dog bowl has sat there in silence and Pickles now has a little angelic glow.
Oh, and DO pass this on to anyone who might enjoy reading it.
Jay Marie
Read MoreHormonal and ready for a face lift. (Or is that a boob reduction?)
Oh my gosh!
In -3 degree weather and in total darkness I decided that I needed plastic surgery. Am I unhappy with my nose? Yes. Am I unhappy with my bum? Yes. Am I unhappy with my tummy? Yes. But it is none of the above to which I wish a sharp knife to hover over. It is my dreary, saggy, dare-to-look-up size D breasts that I wish could magically appear back to a size C.
Read MoreI want to be a size C again.