Babies Born September 2006 #101

[**Helen**]

Belle-I hope Julia is ok.

[Freya]

Hey Helen how are you travelling???

Shell, what sort of things do you do at Gymbaroo?

Well Ripley actually had a NAP in his COT for 2.5 HOURS. Now he is a happy little lad sitting in his play centre thing spinning himself around chewing on his bib. Poor thing has been constipated for the last few days, starts in the arvo and the next morning he poops everywhere, its disgusting. Ive been giving him diluted prune juice and some of the Brauer's Stomach Calm and he seems a bit better. If it hasnt gone away by Monday Im going to take him to the Dr and get a scan or something done. Im paranoid he has an obstruction or something. Poor tyke spends hours grunting and straining then boom in the morning without a sound he poops and it goes all up his back.

Ive been supermum today - Ive done 3 loads of washing, made a dark chocolate mudcake, cooked up 2 more buckets of homemade washing gel. Im making lasagne for dinner tonight and if I fold all the dried washing and vacuum then I can officially say no chores for the weekend Yippee! If I can manage to give Dh some love tonight then I can add superwife to the list to, but I think he's got buckleys I'll prolly collapse in bed and pass out til morning

I wish I could do all this everyday. By monday I'll be over it and lucky to do one load of washing and the dishes.

[Nelle]

Whoa Annat, that's a busy day! All I've managed is to get Si to an appt and back! Though, to be fair, we were up a lot with Si last night, he seems to have mixed up day and night a bit at the moment!

And homemade washing gel? I'm intrigued...

[Visitor7]

what's homemade washing gel anna?

[Freya]

Oh Nelle these days dont happen very often lol But Im trying really hard to do my housewifely duties a bit more frequently.

Would you like my washing gel recipe? My MIL thinks people spend waaaaaaaay to much on normal wash powder when your clothes come up just as spiffy (or even better I reckon!) with some homemade stuff that ends up costing around $10 for litre's and litre's. You only need 1/2 a cup too and can make it smell like whatever you want! She made some for me when she was here last and the only thing I had to replace was a bar of soap. Its saving me atleast $200 a year, what I would normally spend on *just* washpowder. I just made about 12ltrs and that should last me atleast 3-4 months.

I'll share it here so everyone else can steal it if they want

Unfortunately you CANNOT use it in front-loaders

Super Laundry Gel
Prep - 20 min
Makes - about 8-10ltrs

You will need:
1/2 bar of plain/laundry soap (or Sard wondersoap/Sunlight Soap - has stain removing properties -, you can also use homemade bar soap)
1/2 cup Lectric Soda or Washing Crystals
1/2 cup of Borax Powder
Water
Bucket with a lid (I use 2x 5.1ltr buckets with lids and just halve the 10 cups of hot water/3.8ltrs of water and the soap mix between the buckets)

Grate/Cut up the soap and put it in a saucepan. Add 2 1/2 ltrs of water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and Borax, stiring until it is dissolved. Remove from heat.
Pour 10 cups of hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Finally add 3.8ltrs of water and stir again.
Let it sit for about 24hrs and it will gel. Its not a solid gel, more of a watery gel. Its a low suds soap so dont panic if you dont see many suds.
You can add a fragrance like lavender or orange essential oil if you like. You can also boost the load by adding a scoop of napisan or even one capful of Eucalyptus Oil. If you dont think the batch is strong enough, add double of the Borax and crystals next time you make it up.

Super easy to make and it works a treat. Saves money too so pay it forward to someone else!

[shellbell3]

Interesting recipe, I'll have to get off my fat ass at some time and make it!

AnnaT- if he is pooing the every morning alot then I wouldn't worry bout him being constipated, maybe its all wind causing the pain or just weird feeling of it all getting thru. Is it coming out hard?
Oh and gymbaroo is great fun, half the lesson is physical type stuff, theres stuff to climb up and down on, tunnels, swing, trampoline, then second half is where they sing songs with actions, play with toys based on whatever the topic is. Like this term is transport and today was fire engines.

Beatrix- Poor you! I guess on the upside you did get them all done at once, Teleah should be done now wouldn't she and Annika won't need another til 4 so thats good. Hope they settle for you.

I'm exhausted, looked after my nephew this evening while my sister went out so he and Ash were so wound up running round together, at least they both went down no probs. They play so nicely together, its very cute, hes 6 and he looks out for Ash, makes sure she has a toy to play with and stuff.

[Visitor7]

We had a great night last night, Emily only woke once But she has the sniffles, which she's had for the past couple of days, but today her nose is running. What can I give her? I'll have to pop down to the chemist soon I suppose.

Have my sister here for the weekend. She broke her ankle really bad, in 2 places last week. The dr's were intially going to operate, but they decided to see how it heeled in a week, then will review it next week. She's staying with my parents, but they've gone away this weekend, so I'm babysitting her.

shell - I bet you had a good sleep last night after running around 2 kids last night!

belle - how is Julia?

[**Helen**]

Belle-You are probably busy with Julia, but just wanted to make sure that she is ok? I hope that things are starting to look up.

Jodi-I dont think there is really much you can give Emily, except for heaps of cuddles. Maybe elevate her bed at the head end slightly and perhaps invest in a snot vacuum(the one Nelle talks about). Hope she gets better soon.