Babies born~September 2007 #58

[Ginger]

girls i have severe gastro and so does the little J-man, so i think i'll have to give sat a miss. we might be ok by then, but probably still infectious? idk?

[MamaPan]

ok- maybe we should postpone??? I am ok with that - hope you feel better soon...

[Artechim]

MD, bummer about DH going away. Is he gone for long? I always have a poor me moment or three when my DH goes away, it is just such a long day with no one to help. Yay for finding some no brand pull-ups. We use them at night time and they are expensive! It is about $11 for a 12 pack!

Cally, cute outfit! That was nice of the milkbar lady.

Ginger, hope the gastro fairy leaves soon and L manages to avoid it.

Trill, A sounds adorable! We were playing at kindy the other week and the teacher and some kids made blueberry muffins and handed them around at the end of the session and W stood up and said (in a very loud voice) "this is too yucky, I need to put it in the rubbish" lmao but he can also be sweet - the other day he said that A was "my girl, sometimes I pick her up and she stops crying because I make her feel better" (total crap, he has never even tried to pick her up but it was a nice thought lol)

MP, how is J going? Sleep getting any better?

A bit of advice needed: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...ld-you-do.html

[Trillian]

I read that earlier and didn't have time to reply. It is a tough call. According to the My schools website, our school is on the lower end of the socio-economic scale too which is utter bull**** to put it frankly so it is possible that the system NZ uses is just as screwy as this country ROFL and in that case the rating may mean very little in terms of quality of the school. Also the other school may have it's own set of issues too kwim? No school is absolutely perfect but you have to find the one that is perfect to you. One of my closest friends has the choice of 2 schools for her two children. She is a teacher herself and she sends them to the 'bad' one because she said they actually get better funding than the other school because technically they are classed as disadvantaged and they have better access to aid programs etc. They also have a better cross section of ethnic groups and the kids get along better and there is little to no bullying but the other school is nearly completely white students. What affirmed their reasons for sending them to this school is that there are 2 primary schools, but they all end up at the same high school and the students from the 'white bread' school are the ones who cause most of the trouble and have trouble assimilating with the children from ethnic backgrounds simply because they have not been exposed to it. What I would do is go and see the school, talk to the principal about your concerns re the rating and ask what strategies they have in place to deal with bullying etc because you might be surprised. Don't forget that you only see a small part of what goes on in that school and trust me when I say there are little turds in all schools LOL!

[Cassius2]

hi girls!

Sherie: oh trust me i totally agree with the little turds statement LOL! my cousin went to an exclusive private school in brissy and the crapulent stuff that went on still gives me cold shivers....and yet, it rates high as in the rankings.

ohhhh i NEED the no brand pull ups!! i cant believe how much they are to buy branded. bought them once in italy and liked them, but couldnt justify paying almost $1 a nappy.

G: oh dear! not the gastro!! you poor wee ducky! i am happy to go the following saturday...same time same place...

AFM: all good here. finished off my first draft of my thesis! woot woo! am totally exhausted and came with the news that my oma has had another stroke. doesnt really surprise me as she was taken back to toowoomba (against all our wishes but my opa is adamant to bring her as close to home as possible). and of course she went back to the care of of her old GP...who prescribes her ENDONE PATCHES the woman doesnt have acute pain (she has an identified addiction to pharmacueticals). these patches can cause bleeds in vulnerable people and my oma is on asprin-y type meds for her bloodclot issues so you can imagine the outcome of that the hospital has warned my grandparents about not using them and had banned them from her when she was in the nursing home in kingaroy...in fact, they would do full room searches each day AND search my opa (poor man i am angry at him but also understand why he gives them to her IYKWIM). but alas, at the new home they arent fussed and her GP has direct access to her room. not a good combo.
i want to put in a formal complaint against the GP but have no idea of how or where to start...and then there is a part of me that has kind of had to 'accept' that this is what my oma wants to do with her life IYKWIM. i dunno...

[Trillian]

ARGH! Just did a big post and lost it!

Anyway, the gist was Clare, I am so sorry that this has happened. The Dr is being negligent because he knows the risk and likely outcome of giving it to her and yet he does it anyway. Your poor Opa though I can totally understand why he would be doing it though. I really hope she pulls through again But on a brighter note, I am very happy that you've finished your draft, must be very relieving to have it out of the way.

[Ginger]

so sorry clare. i don't know what to say. just hugs xoxoxo

sorry to pull out on our meet-up. we're feeling a lot better today but i still think the right thing to do is postpone. i'm such a PITA and i can't do next sat as we ahve a 30th birthday on the fri night so the kids won't be getting to bed till a little later (always happens when grandpa babysits) so will prob need a sleep-in. can we make it sat June 5th or any other weekday before then?

um, sorry i've forgotten everything. head is still so foggy from being sick and over-tired. jsut wanting this week to be over.

arte- i would go the school and check it out for myself. i have taught at some of the 'rougher, poorer,dodgy' type schools, and most of the kids are just so lovely. i honestly think that the low socio-economic thing becomes a much bigger issue at high school than primary- because the teenaged kids are more likely to be influenced and affected by their peer group than the littlies JMHO of course. i think you will find that the majority of primary schools are pretty good- some better than others, of course, but none of them truely shocking iykwim? this is not true of high schools though, some of them are absolutely atrocious.

[Ginger]

ok arte- just re-read your thread about schools- sorry, i read it yesterday before you had replied again. ifyou have seen fighting there and know someone who has taught at the school and had to give it up, then i would def not be sending W there. get in contact with the out of zone school and find out what their admission policy is. is there any private schools in your area? one that he could catch a bus to?

[Isadora]

Hello girls, sorry I have been MIA, I am so lost with this new forum layout and I am so out of whack with what is going on in everyones lives these days! I have been busy focusing on uni work and family life in general. I also took an enjoyable break from bellybelly as I was feeling down in the dumps with ttc #2. It has been nice to not think about it so much, but I have missed everyone and knowing whats going on with you all. FB in a way has kept me in the loop a little. Anyway I am dropping in to say we finally have some fantastic news, we are expecting #2. I had a scan this morning, I am 6 wk 3 days, its in the right spot and the heartbeat was perfect. SO, knowing that, I am much more confident and eager to let a few people know. However, we have shocking luck with our holidays....as I found out two days before we were due to leave for o/seas, I spent the whole weekend in emergency trying to rule out an ectopic. However due to it being too early, they couldnt give us a diagnosis, so they advised us not to go. Deep down I knew it felt different this time around, but the risk was too great, our insurance would not cover any o/seas surgery due to being warned not to travel. Instead we flew to Melbourne & we spent 6 days in Melbourne, and drove along the Grt Ocean Rd to Adelaide over 3 days, then spent two days in Adelaide. It was a nice little trip, and at the end of the day we are thankful for our chance at #2 and there will be plenty more trips to Malaysia in the future. Amazingly two sonographers now have told me that this pregnancy has come from my left ovary (dodgy side) and the tube on my right (good side) has come over to pick it up, I never really believed that theory deep down, but seems it is possible! M is doing so great, she is a cheeky little miss but just talking heaps these days and is lots of fun for us. Anyway girls, I just wanted to pop in and share my little secret with someone, as I am waiting till the 2nd trimester to tell most people.

[AnyDream]

Isadora, that's wonderful news! Congratulations and you know we're all sending our bestest sticky vibes your way. Here's to a happy and healthy pg! xxx The great ocean drive is lovely, glad to hear you enjoyed our fair town Radelaide...next time give me a bell and we'll have our own mini-meetup here.

Ginger I hope you are feeling a lot better and catching up on sleep asap.

Cass, I'm so sorry to hear about your Oma . I'm not sure but I remember when my nanna got close to the end of her life she was hooked on painkillers too - I think her doctors considered it kinder to keep supplying rather than challenge her with a withdrawal when she already had a multiplicity of health issues to deal with and was clearly nearing the end of her journey. It was never clear to me what all the drugs she took was for but I do remember how much angst she displayed over her medications when she was admitted to hospital - classic case of old lady self-medicating - 20years later I recognise some of those drug names in the meds they've given me at times - so pretty heavy-hitting stuff. If you do decide you want to take it further, I would suggest starting with a letter to the practice manager - if they have one (some GPs don't) - alternatively you could contact the Medical Board of Queensland, or even contact the nursing home manager to discuss. I guess it may depend on whether you think you can get a result that will positively affect your Oma and Opa's quality of life, or whether you just want to follow through on the principle of it, ie be clear about what your intent is before you start the process or it could get muddy, kwim?

Well done though sweetie on pushing that draft out. A very very big pat on teh back for you!

Arte, I"m just going to enlarge on my answer in your other thread...I did a teaching placement at a couple of schools with a similar demographic - that's not to say all areas that flag with a lower socio-economic status will be problematic but it does sound like there are serious issues with that particular school. Anyway it was clear to me during my placements how much stress the kids with issues placed on those without issues - not just behavioural disruptions (read = violence) but also learning stresses - when a teacher has several kids in the class who *still* don't know their alphabets after nearly 2 years in school, have parents who can't read/don't feed them/don't even speak the same kind of english as the rest of us (and not due to ethnicity either), the teacher needs to invest so much time and energy into those kids just to impart the most basic literacy/numeracy skills (like which end of the book you start at, or that a 1 and 0 together mean ten and it stands for this many fingers) then the other kids in those classes miss out. I have heard 6 year olds swear so bad it turned my straight hair curly. So I think you are right to be making whatever decisions you need to send W to a better school.

[Artechim]

OMG Isadora, I am so so happy for you! I was hoping you would drop by soon with an announcement xx

Clare, sorry to hear about your Oma.

Thanks for the feedback about the school situation. MD, the situation that you described is pretty much what I am worried about and what seems to be the norm at the school. I wouldn't really care about the decile rating if it was a good school in a poor town, but this school is far from good. Trill, I have heard from relief teachers there that the teachers have very little authority over the children and the bullying policies don't seem to work ie relief teacher saw one kid punch another in the guts so she marched them to the principals office, where the victim was told "you know x has an anger problem, why did you go near him? Stay away from him when he is angry!" and that was it, back to class. Seems wrong to me. And since the Ministry of Education report said they couldn't guarantee the safety of students at the school...
I have called the other school in the next town and if the capping/zoning goes ahead (school doesn't want it but Ministry does), then priority order is: kids in zone, kids out of zone with older siblings attending, children of the teachers and then any other vacancies are filled by ballot drawn by the police. So there is no way to know if he could go there until very close to the time ie no time to relocate. There are no other schools public or private that are within a one hour drive. It is looking likely that we will leave the area if the zoning is introduced.

[Trillian]

OMG H!!!!!!! I had a feeling that you may have been - something you posted on FB the other day got me wondering but I didn't want to say anything JIC. So a huge Congratulations to you all!!!

Arte, well that changes everything! It would be unlikely that if things are that bad now, they aren't going to change unless there is a major overhaul of leadership at the school.

[Ginger]

omg i think i am psychic!!! i was just thinking of you today H and thinking that you were pg!!!!! big congratulations to you guys, please come on here more and keep us updated on everything. we missed you so much!!

arte- do you think you will move house now? is that a possibility? what does dh say about the whole thing.
we are very lucky that our local primary school looks like an absolute cracker. locals rave about it and i know two people who went there and loved it. i checked it on the my schools website, even though i think the whole thing is a crock, but i just couldn't help myself. anyway it rated super high so i'm pretty happy about that.

[Cassius2]

Anyway I am dropping in to say we finally have some fantastic news, we are expecting #2.

THIS IS WONDERFUL, FANTASTIC NEWS!!!!!! so so soooo happy for ya babe!!!!! YAY!!!!!

G and MP: yeah next saturday is out for us too...off to bendigo for the day....soccer...LOL! i am trying to escape to Townsville for teh weekend after but will keep you posted in the next coupla days...

MD: thanks for the info. my reason for complaint is more so for the protection of others. my oma is far too gone now for it to be of any use. they put her through withdrawal several months ago and it went really well and she 'came' back to us, but what with returning to toowoomba i realise it is a no win battle for her. this particular GP has been supplying her with pretty hardcore stuff for close to 15 years now. and then when she was in kingaroy did some really dodgy stuff by filling out scripts in my Opa's name so he could pick it up for her....really gross.

[AnyDream]

Cass - that's awful, and just so wrong. Sounds like he has forgotten his duty of care a long time ago. I can't believe your Oma was actually off it and he's given it to her again!!! So heartbreaking for you .

[Trillian]

Far out! That is wrong on so many levels I think you should still persue it because if he has gone to those lengths with one patient, I imagine he would be doing it with others.

[Leemar]

Hi Girls,

Cass- Sending you hugs
Isadora- Sooooo Happy for you Congratulations

Well girls all good here DH bought home a puppy tuesday night she is a 12week old golden retreiver and we named her Daisy.
She is so cute. I have also posted some photos of the kids in my album on here so feel free to check them out.

Hope you are all well.

[Ozstar]

Isaodra I am so incredibly happy for you!!!

Will jump on for more later, trying to get some work done.