LoveMyLisiate

Hello all,

Long story short my partner proposed to me 4 years ago, we had two babies since then and as I am now a stay at home mum, we cannot afford the wedding and are focusing on buying a house.

Now, we are going to Vanuatu in two weeks. It was a gift from my mother and was intended as our honeymoon. I have arranged for my partner and I to be married while over there, he has absolutely no idea.I have arranged for us to go see the beautiful local waterfalls in the morning. I have a small box with his wedding band in it and I have inscribed this poem on top:

I love you flaws and all,

And I know I always will,

Even in a hundred years,

I will love you forever, love you still.

Marry me?

I want to give it to him that morning at the waterfalls and we are getting married late that afternoon. Followed by dinner at a nice restaurant where I have arranged for us to have a mini wedding cake as dessert.

Does this sound ok? I'm so nervous...

We recently acquired a baby lorikeet and over the past few days it has been fine. I feed it multiple times a day as instructed by the breeder that we got the bird from and have been giving it lots of cuddles and attention.

Tonight however, I have placed it inside its little nest and covered it for bed (as we have been doing since we got it) and it is constantly making noise. We have covered it so there is no light getting in and given it water and a feed but it is still doing it. Its a constant little bird cry, over and over and over again with no rest and is steadily getting louder. We have looked into the nest and it looks like he is asleep... but definitely doesn't sound like it!!

He is only 6 weeks old. We are getting a bit concerned :( its been going on for a few hours straight now. We have cared for baby birds before, but never this young.

Thanks in advance.

I had our little girl exactly 2 weeks ago. I only had grazing and had to get 3 stitches which have healed and bleeding has also stopped.

When is it safe to start having sex again after childbirth?

Hi everyone,

I'm currently 37 weeks pregnant and feeling extremely sick in the stomach to the point where I am unable to eat. I was feeling this same way the night I went into labor with our first born. Did anyone else have this as an early indicator that they were in labor? I havent eating anything for a few hours now, But I just can't bring myself to eat :( I'm also unable to move around too much as my tummy hurts when I move

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

My nephew is 4 years old, I have always been there since he was a little boy and we always had a great relationship. Unfortunately, now he doesn't seem to like me anymore.

I love my little nephew, but he's sort of turned into a little trouble child and my son is 2 years old and loves to copy him. Now I have no issues with my sister letting her son do what he wants, he is her son and I believe its her right to raise him how she feels, but I do not agree when my son starts copying every single thing he does.

When my nephew runs off in a shop and hides, my son follows and it takes me 5 minutes of absolute panic to find them and they both think its hilarious (I'm 35 weeks pregnant so its hard to keep up when they run off). I've asked my nephew multiple times not to do this and explained that its not funny when we think they're lost and that his cousin is learning off him and he should be a good example, but he just ignores me or tells me to go away.

My nephew also has a bit of a foul mouth. His parents swear alot while I do not agree with swearing in front of kids so we don't do it in front of my son. When my nephew is being naughty and I tell him not to do something, he tells me "go away". My son has picked this up, and while its not the worst my nephew says (my nephew often tells me to "f*** off", "I'm sick of you", "I wish you would die", "leave me alone, you're a c**t", etc) I don't agree with my son talking to people like that. We tell our son not to talk like that and after a couple of days he stops but then we see my nephew again and he starts again. Whenever I try to say something he ignores me and my sister is like "its not like he's swearing... he's just playing".

Am I in the wrong here? I'm upset that my nephew now doesn't want anything to do with me... my son loves his older cousin and asks to see him daily, but I really don't want him picking all these things up and my nephew won't even listen to me :(

Just checking our local council website it says that for a function of over 50 people or more we need to have a permit and pay a fee. It doesn't specify about weddings and I'm not sure what to do? We're only setting up chairs and a small, easily collapsible bridal arch and packing it up straight after the wedding.

We are having a TINY wedding (20 guests max.) and having a casual BBQ afterwards at one of our local parks/reserves.

Do I still need to have a permit from the council? I have sent them enquiry e-mails but have not heard back from them :(

This is my second pregnancy and I am now 34 weeks along. In my last pregnancy with our son I experienced painful braxton hicks only in the last couple of weeks before our son was born and they only lasted for 15 or so minutes at a time.

Last night as soon as I went to bed these painful contractions started... I actually woke my partner because I was squeezing his hand so hard. They lasted for about an hour and eventually I was able to go back to sleep. I have an appointment with my midwife next week and I was planning on asking her about it then, but just wanted to know if anyone else experienced this and if it was anything to worry about?

I'm just a bit worried, they were much more painful than the braxton hicks I experienced when I was pregnant with my son and this time they've started earlier... should I be concerned?

We are having a baby girl next month and we like to buy something on the day our baby is born to keep to give as their 21st birthday present.

For our son we bought a limited edition, 13 year old single malt whiskey that was bottled the month he was born. This has already been wrapped and put away for safe keeping until he turns 21.

Now, for our little girl I have some ideas but I'm not sure about them:

1. Buy a gold charm bracelet with solid heart. Engrave the heart with her name, birthdate and weight.

2. Buy a gold baby bangle, engrave with her name and birthdate. Let her wear it until she's outgrown it and then keep for her 21st.

3. Buy a gold charm bracelet and buy a new charm with meaning for each of her birthdays and present to her for her 21st birthday.

Thoughts? Any other ideas you might have? Thanks in advance!

I am currently expecting our second child (33 weeks along) and we have a little boy that has just recently turned 2.

Now, I am really confused as to whether or not I will need a double pram once baby has been born. Our son used to hate his stroller so we just bought a normal one a couple of months ago. But now, he loves sitting down in the stroller and having his juice or a snack while I do my shopping. He'll climb in and out of it quite happily (I have to unstrap him and unclip the safety bar each time lol) which is good because there is no way I can carry him anymore.

So should I buy a double stroller? I'll be able to carry our baby girl in the baby carrier for a few months at first while he sits in the stroller... but once she gets too big for that I'm not sure if he'll still be so enthusiastic to sit down? or will he? I have no idea... some other mothers please give me advice on this! lol

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant, working full-time on night-shift, doing all the cooking/cleaning and have a little toddler thats full of energy :)

With our baby girl's due date drawing closer and closer I'm getting a bit anxious and find myself staying up to do things rather than go to sleep. I usually get about 5 hours sleep on days that I am working (I work night shift, and then come home to watch our son while my partner works day shift) but at the moment that has been cut to about 3 hours. On nights that I am not working I get about 7-8 hours sleep.

I'm a little worried that lack of sleep might affect our baby? I haven't been able to read anything about what lack of sleep might do to baby but I do know it says to rest when possible. Its just so hard to do when there is so much to do atm. My partner helps out when he can but he works 6 days a week while I only work 4 so I do most of the cooking/cleaning.

Does it affect your baby or pregnancy at all not getting enough sleep?

I just had a 1 hour nap on my lunch break and now when I stand up I'm in quite alot of pain. It feels like there is quite alot of pressure on my "girly part" when I stand and I really feel like baby is about to very painfully come out. :( anyone else had this? How do I ease the pain? I'm finding it hard just to walk to the printer.

Thanks in advance

My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon and plan on going to a tropical retreat for 5 days. My fiance wants to leave our children behind (they will be almost 3 and 6 months old by that time) but there is no way I can leave my young children for that long.

Has anyone else gone on a honeymoon with such young kids? They both sleep very well and are very quiet... mostly on our honeymoon we just want to lounge on a beach/by the pool and do a tiny bit of sightseeing. I don't think it will be a problem but my partner is a little concerned.

Our son is turning 2 and I asked this same question a few months ago about him grinding his teeth. Everyone said there's nothing you can do and its just a phase but its been over 6 months now and its only getting worse!

Before he used to only do it in his sleep, but now he does it ALL the time! He does it when he's going to sleep, in his sleep, when he gets angry, when he's being cheeky and even when he's just doing nothing!

I just took my 4 year old nephew to the dentist and he does the same, the dentist told him he's ground his teeth down to the point that he has to be careful what he puts in his mouth (like his fingers, etc) because he's teeth are extremely open to infection!! He has to wear a guard in his mouth now :( I feel so bad for my newphew and I really, really don't want the same to happen to my son!

Please help! Everytime he does it I tell him 'No, don't grind your teeth' sternly and/or I give him something to nibble on instead but its just not working!

Hi everyone,

We're having a baby girl in May and I've started trying to think of idea's for her as a gift. This is something we buy on the day she's born (or the day after depending on the time) and we want to keep and present to her on her 21st birthday.

For our son we bought a 13 year old, limited edition, single malt whiskey that was bottled the same month he was born. It's now sitting in a safe until his 21st.

I'm not sure what to do for our little girl, maybe buy a gold charm bracelet and add a meaningful charm on every birthday she has until her 21st? Thoughts? Any other idea's you might have?

Thanks in advance :)

Please note: Before you mention it, our son already has an interest bearing account with money we gave him which we will also be giving to him on his 21st, we'll be doing the same for our little girl. I want an actual special gift to be able to give them too.

My fiance comes from a family of proud alcoholics, they drink until they pass out, then wake up and keep drinking until they pass out again. While I hold nothing against them for this, I don't want them getting completely hammered at the wedding and breaking anything in the venue (which they are known for doing). So I was going to just have a set amount of alcohol and have a short reception.

This afternoon I was telling our fiance how wedding plans were going and he told me that his family will be bringing their own alcohol! I got a little upset and told him that the wedding reception was only going to be going for about 4-5 hours and I didn't want people getting out of hand. The converstation ended there and we'll be discussing it a bit more calmly later.

Am I being rude by wanting the reception to only run for a few hours and not the whole night? Personally I feel its a little rude to bring your own alcohol to a wedding reception when there is already alcohol supplied.

There will be plenty of young children there and also we are meant to have everything cleaned up and packed up by midnight PLUS we're meant to be going to a hotel in the city that night as a small honeymoon (we're having a baby girl 6 months before the wedding so we're going to wait until our 1 year anniversary to have our real honeymoon).

Hi everyone,

I was planning on having a large seafood platter at our wedding reception but I'm not sure how to make it work. We're having a cocktail-type reception with only finger food being served.

There will be roughly 50 guests but we are only setting up about 30 seats at tables and the rest will be those tall, small trestle tables (I think that's what they're called lol). Mostly because I know a few won't be eating and will only be there for the alcohol (my fiance's family are all alcoholics).

With it being that kind of reception there is no way to put individual dishes out for people to dip their hands in to clean up after they are done eating the seafood. I considered just having peeled prawns and oysters but really wanted to have crab there. I also considered just having little dishes for people to rinse their fingers in on the large dining tables, but then its possible more than one person will use the same dish.

Any advice or recommendations on what to do here? Anyone else been through this?

Our wedding colour scheme is Purple, gold and white. So i was thinking we have Deep purple lisianthus, lavender and white roses in my bouquet? The stems will be wrapped in gold silk and criss-crossed with purple organza ribbon.

I'm making purple and gold holders for my bridesmaids and placing one white large rose in the centre (they are wearing deep purple dresses). Similar to this: http://www.my-wedding-reception-planning.com/purpl... (first picture on page)

And having small white roses and deep purple lisianthus with gold ribbon for boutonnieres. Thoughts?

I was going to go with real flowers and do them ourselves but am considering using silk flowers now. I had a quick look at the prices and the price of real flowers would actuall cost more than using the silk ones. Also I found a great design that goes wonderfully with our colour scheme purple and gold:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/350524164665?ssPageName...

I was determined to use real flowers (I love real flowers) but that will just be one extra hassle on the day (we're doing alot of the wedding ourselves and have 2 children under the age of 3) and this way I don't have to worry about the flowers wilting after spending hundreds of dollars on them :) Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

We're getting 8x 24pk cases of beer, 6x regular sized bottles of champagne and there will be 2x slushie machines full of cocktails.

We're on a pretty tight budget, but I think that's enough isn't it? There will be soft-drink, juices, coffee and water for people that don't drink and the people that will be there with their kids. There will also be little cocktail snacks of course.

We are due to have our little girl in May and our son will just have turned 2 by then. He's currently in the whole 'I'm going this way and YOU have to follow' stage and is prone to running off. I've always thought those little backpacks with a sort of 'leash' were a bit degrading but now I can understand why they would be useful for a mother with more than one child.

Once we have our baby, I can see it being difficult having to chase down my son while pushing her pram so I'm considering getting one but still can't shake the feeling that it would be degrading and just wrong.

What are your thoughts on those little 'leashes' or harnesses for kids?