SmEllY!

I am picking up a 10 week old puppy tomorrow (medium size breed). He is a boy. I already have 2 grown dogs (small breed) at home, the female is sterilised but the male is not as he has an undescended testicle. If I introduce this pup to the other dogs early enough, will they get along okay? I will be getting this pup sterilised as soon as he is old enough.

I haven't seen anybody elses testicles for over a decade so I am not sure. My husband's balls are each the size of a chicken egg and seem kinda large to me - is this normal? I don't even remember if they have always been this large or if they have grown. He is almost 28 now and was 18 when we began dating, do they grow in that time period?

How do people on high incomes force themselves to budget (do they even do that?) to build savings? I want to save more money but find that I spend pretty much my husband's entire monthly salary every time and the only time we make any progress with savings is when he gets a bonus (and then we spend it on investments!)

How do you budget and stick to a budget when you know that you dont really need to?

I have an 8 and a half month old son, I am still breastfeeding and at night in the past couple of weeks its like he wants to keep suckling while he is sleeping. This is very uncomfortable for me and I try to put a dummy in his mouth and move him a bit away from my body but he wakes up and freaks out. He is SOOOOO attached to me, to the point where he wont even let his dad hold him when he is sleeping. This problem is only recent, he usually sleeps for a few hours in his cot at night then he wakes, I feed him, he passes back out and I move him to the centre of my bed so that I can get comfortable again. Do I need to stop breastfeeding to break his attachment to me? I dont want to stop because with my first 2 children I didnt manage to breastfeed for as long as I had wanted to and this time I have surpassed my goals and it has become so much easier as well as being good for him. I cant think of anything else besides removing my 'food source' status that might help.

I have a half-size tennis court at one of my properties, but no net. The posts are there to put the net up. I am having trouble finding a 6m tennis net, although there are a lot that come with the poles to stand up, I just need the net... I can see badminton nets for sale and these are 6m. Would they be suitable to use? I dont really care if it isnt proper just that it attaches alright. I rent my place out to holiday makers and they keep asking me where the net is : /

Hi guys,

I am paying some guys to do my garden for me. It has overgrown and my husband and I have no time to do it. I said I want the garden to be made simpler. We have five different garden areas and I have to choose plant types for them, however I dont know a THING about plants. We live in Western Australia (tempertate climate area) and we are very close to the ocean, it is quite sunny and windy and very dry summers. 2 of the areas are really stumping me.....

1. Front garden - Consists of a square lawn surrounded by garden beds and a fence, not many plants at the moment, there are a few hibiscus which the guy recommends removing as they are growing tall and blocking sun from other plants, a few native bushes and one weird tall tropical looking spikey plant

2. Pool garden - Pool area is paved, pool in centre, garden beds surrounding. Currently a bottlebrush tree, a rubber plant, apple trea, pear tree, orange tree and 2 dead trees which we are definitely removing. I dont like having fruit trees in that area so think of it as a blank canvas as I will give those trees to my mother. I would like "tropical-ish" plants in this area to make it lush looking and maybe even provide some shade.

Please help!

Do you immediately write it off in the next financial year or do you have to leave it on the depreciation schedule for the full time period?

My balcony setting was just destroyed by the wind at our holiday rental and I am not sure if I am supposed to leave this on the depreciation list or get rid of it?

Have just booked our family's first cruise of the South Pacific. I have never been on a big ship before but I am a chronic vomiter who spews on ferries going over the sea, planes going through turbulance and feels like puking if travelling on a train or in the passenger seat of a car for longer than 20 mins.

I think that my motion sickness has a lot to do with my vision because if the windscreen is dirty, I am travelling backwards or sideways and my sight is blurred I get very nauseous.

People (including the travel agent) told me that cruise ships are so big that you do not notice the waves, I hope to god this is true because we will be on the thing for 7 nights. If you have been on a cruise did you feel sick or not and do you normally get motion sickness in situations such as I have mentioned?

Thank you

My 3rd child is now 6 months old and since I had him it hurts me to have an orgasm. I have not been to my post birth check up because of lack of time : (

I had a natural birth as I have with all 3 of my children, he weighed 10 pounds, but my 2nd child was bigger than that so I am not sure if it could even be a birth injury as I have had bigger and I have not sustained injuries in any of the births. The pain is making me avoid sex with my husband and he thinks I am just not interested which is far from true. It feels like kind of like cramping or aching inside and I keep freaking out about cervical cancer as I have not had a pap test for 4 or 5 years : ( Due to the pain starting after giving birth though I am assuming it is not coincidental and must be something from having the baby and might go away gradually. It only hurts during the clitoris type orgasm not the penis type (lol tmi... sorry) so I especially dont let him touch me there any more. Has anyone else experienced this?

Since the birth after the lochia had finished I was getting 'my period' once a week for one day despite breastfeeding full time, I am still breastfeeding and in the last 4 weeks I have not had any bleeding at all, does this mean my body was adjusting to the changes or something?

I went and got a quote for our cruise today. My husband and I have 3 children and as such we were told we would need to book 2 cabins and sleep seperately as only 4 people were allowed per cabin. When 4 people share a cabin the first 2 people are $900 each and the second two are $300 each, so basically we end up paying full fare for each child (and they are only 7, 4 and 1). It worked out only costing $600 extra for my parents in law to come to.

I called my mother in law to ask if she wanted to come and that they can just pay the adult fare each for the cruise of $900 and we would pay for their flights (about $1000). I figured then my husband and I could sleep in the same room and spend time together instead of alone at night as we need some family time hence the vacation - he works too much when we are home!

As soon as I ask people they assume that I am only inviting the in laws so that they can babysit and I am pretty sure my in laws will assume that too, but I just really want to be in the same room as my hubby and also I enjoy his parents company, unlike my own parents who are really annoying to be around his are easy going and we get along really well. Is it wrong of me to invite them for these reasons? Am I being selfish? I think I am kinda but I also have been wanting to do a family holiday for a long time as I think it would be nice to have adult company on our travels.

What do you think?

I am having tooth pain only when I eat sweet things like chocolate. It goes a little while after I stop eating it. 6 months ago I had a molar removed after it became infected and needed a root canal (was much less traumatic and much cheaper to just get it pulled out) and that is the last time I have been to the dentist. He did not say that he saw anything wrong with my other teeth. Is it possible that my teeth are just sensitive to chocolate for some reason? It is my top teeth on the right hand side. I also just had a baby 5 weeks ago and I did not really notice the symptoms until after I gave birth so Im not sure if having babies can be related to tooth problems... Anyway I take it that I am just going to have to go to the dentist however I am kinda time-poor at the moment and I have a needle phobia so I am hoping someone tells me that it might not be bad. My mum thinks it is because I was brushing my teeth too often (up to 5 times a day with an electric toothbrush) and that I have taken the enamel off : /

My husband works a lot. When he has days off he is constantly on the phone, emailing and working on his laptop. When he is asked to go away for the weekend he goes (albeit unhappily) and then during the days off that he gets to make up for being away all weekend, he goes in to work for a few hours.

We have three children 6,3 and 1 month old. It is SO frustrating to me that of the 2 days per week allocated to his family, he manages to somehow give at least part of that time away to his work (for free nonetheless). I understand what he is trying to do, I know that he wants to be successful, but he is only 27 and I wish that he was not so driven while our children are so young! People - including him - will tell me that this is how it has to be if I want to keep the lifestyle that I have (which is really annoying because I didnt ask for this) but I really just want him to be with me and with our kids, he is a wonderful husband and father when he has time for it. He gets paid almost a quarter of a million a year, which might not be much to a lot of people, but I personally think we could survive on half that. I just dont get what he is striving for or why and I dont know what I am supposed to do about it because I have tried being angry and it gets me nowhere. I have tried being supportive but that makes me tired with the three kids and my studies and everything else. How do women with workaholic husbands cope? How do you handle your situation? I often feel so lonely and abandoned and just plain mad at him.

My baby is only 10 days old, I know things are still very fresh however he is my 3rd child and I am spending literally all day and all night feeding him. I havent been able to do housework or spend any time with my other 2 children. At the moment their father is at home for another week so I will see if things get better over the next week. I know that 'breast is best', I breastfed my eldest for 3 weeks exclusively before I started supplementing formula because I was feeling so down and depressed from being isolated by my breastfeeding (I do not have the confidence to feed out and about, always confining myself to a spare bedroom even when I visit my relatives), with my son I breastfed for 3 months and stopped only due to a really bad infection. I am feeling so unbelievably overwhelmed by this 3rd child, I am not sure how I will function once my husband goes back to work and I have to be driving the other kids around to school etc plus doing my assignments for university when I am pretty much a feeding machine.

I know that once I stop breastfeeding I will be much happier and feel more capable of coping, but I also know that I will feel enormous sense of guilt that I didnt succeed for my baby. Having said that my daughter who was breastfed for 3 weeks is very intelligent and rarely gets sick so I am wondering if the stress is needless and if there werent such a push to breastfeed from health staff and my friends, would I still stress so much about it. I have suffered from post natal depression in the past and am really worried about getting it again from isolating myself and being exhausted in general with nobody really around to talk to or to help me out. I guess I am worried that breastfeeding might contribute to this. Thoughts?

I just gave birth to my 3rd child a week ago. I went home from hospital the next day and have been feeling overwhelmed ever since. My husband is home for 2 weeks but once he is back at work I will be all alone. My older children are 6 and 3 years old, my daughter is in full time school, which might seem like a blessing but it just means I have to try and get her to school and back on time every day and that nobody will be home to keep the 3 year old company during the day while I am breastfeeding what seems like ALL DAY.

My house is an absolute disaster zone, I had it all clean before baby came but since then I have just been sleeping when I can and not keeping up with the housework, expecting hubby to help but he mostly just sits at the computer all day, though he does help with the kids.

Please tell me it gets easier?!?! The child health nurse was at my home yesterday and she asked me if I have any family or friends nearby, I do not, the closest relative is 40 mins drive away and never visits ( my mother in law) and my own mum is an hour away so when my husband is back at work I really will be on my own. I dont even remember what it was like the last time I had a newborn as it was 3 years ago and an entirely different situation, I feel like my family has changed so much from the new addition, much more than it did when we had the 2nd. If you can tell me about your experience as a mother of 3 that would be great : )

I am almost due with my 3rd baby and I dont remember actually feeling any pain prior to labour with my first 2 kids. I had really strong and frequent BH contractions before I had my 2nd child but still no pain. This time around I have been having strong contractions for many weeks and in the last couple of days they are actually getting quite sore and I am getting period pain along with them however they go for a couple of hours and then die off again. I have lost my plug, I have had my 'bloody show' my belly appears to have dropped in the past 24 hours and now I am getting diarreah. I was already 2cm dilated before all of this happened. I am 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant and am booked in for induction in 36 hours. I am scared of being induced and hoping that this weird painful not-getting-anywhere stuff will turn into something real before they put me on drips and machines : ( Did anybody else experience a long drawn out whatever this is? Can you tell me when you finally eventually went into active labour?

I am booked in to be induced in about 36 hours. Last Friday my doctor gave me an exam, I was 2cm dilated, 75% effaced and she said cervix was favourable. She did a stretch and sweep during the exam and I expelled my mucus plug pretty much in one go on sunday. Since then I have had contractions every night on and off and getting more ainful. I feel like I am in a ve

My doc wrote that cervix was 2cm dilated and 1cm long and forewaters bulging. I understand the dilated part but not the 'long' bit and does it mean anything that forewaters are bulging?

I am having my baby in 4 more sleeps if not before then. It is my 3rd child and I stopped breastfeeding earlier than I would have liked with both previous children due to problems when they were having growth spurts and increasing feeding

* first I started giving her formula at 3 weeks because she was constantly wanting to feed so I assumed that I was not making enough milk and after one day of non-stop feeding I gave her sup feeds without giving my supply a chance to catch up - I didnt know that this was how it happens.

* second I fed him for 3 months through growth spurts until he actually cut my nipple with his fingernail and it got infected. I continued to feed through the pain until I developed a really bad infection, then overuse of the other breast caused that one to become infected also and I ended up stopping : (

I really want to make it to 6 months+ with this new baby, when should I start taking fenugreek or something? Also my previous babies were 8 pounds 13 and 10 pounds 4, this baby was measured by scan 2 weeks ago to be 4kg at 36 weeks which is why I am having him/her a week before my due date. My last giant baby came out and had problems with getting low blood sugar because my milk took 4 days to come in and he was already very large and needed more to sustain him so if there is anything that can boost the colostrum at the start that would be handy too : )

I am 38 weeks + 3 days pregnant, this is my 3rd baby. I am FED UP. I had false labour with consistant contractions for 8 hours when I was 34 weeks and since then started losing plug. Doctor gave me a membrane sweep on Friday to try and speed things up for me as I am so uncomfortable and booked in to be induced on Friday at 39 weeks anyway.

On Friday the doc said I was already 2cm dilated and have a favourable cervix. On Sunday morning the biggest chunk of my mucus plug fell out onto the floor (I felt it coming so called my husband for a towel first lol) and it did have the bloody part in it. Since then I have lost quite a bit more mucus but nothing like the sticky solid mess from yesterday. I woke up at 4am with painful contractions this morning but they only lasted for 2 hours and were quite far apart (15-20 mins) so my husband went to work. Since then I have only had period pains, no more belly contractions. I feel so grouchy and sore and basically exactly how I feel when I get my period or am about to get it. During my contractions I noticed that my back also hurt this morning not just my belly and my legs and butt were aching too : (

Is something ever going to happen or should I just try and put it out of my mind and wait for Friday for the doc to break my waters? I am terrified of hospitals and needles so would rather go into labour on my own but all the false alarms are pissing me off badly. What is a definite sign that I should call my husband home from work besides water breaking? He works an hour away, I have no family nearby to look after my kids so I can get to hospital and my last labour was a total of 2 hours long so I am also nervous about him not making it for the birth.

Sorry for the long question!

I had been losing little bits and pieces of my plug for the past 4 weeks. Anyway I was just standing in the kitchen (after having sex with my husband) and while my legs were closed I felt something was about to come out so I called for a towel while I held it in (I have had my water break at home before and boy is it messy!) and then when I opened my legs a big huge clump of sticky thick mucus, yellow brown and red, fell onto the towel. I am assuming that this is the remainder of my plug probably in its entirity due to the size. On Friday at 38 weeks I had an internal exam and my doc said that I was already favourable and 2cm dilated, she gave me a sweep but I dont think it did anything, well until now anyway.

My question is, if the whole mucus plug is now gone am I likely to go into labour before Friday - my induction date? If you lost a large clump of plug similar to mine, how long did it take before you had your baby?