The playground of the MESH- where members of the ESH community bring their toddlers and tweenies to go on the swings, without always having wipes or a snack on them.

[starcuntmole]

Welcome to our new Fred- a place for ESH with older offspring to mull over the delights of tantrums,toiletting and t'education. A well stocked bar and assorted 'good with children' bar staff are of course on hand, together with a full compliment of complimentary therapies to aid weary mothers (and fathers) through the trials of toddlerhood and beyond. We have a wall of fame for our most proud BMM, (Bad Mother Moments) and a large bin to dispense with all the absolutely useless surplus advice we get from our less than ESH acquaintance. Pour a gin and get stuck in

[HighPriestessBoo]

Cheers cuntofshineystars nice one. :o Molina et la toilette is it? How's it going?

[starcuntmole]

Hi hi! Have to have dinner- see you after! !

[starcuntmole]

I'm back- boo where are you? Quick, come and tell me all about wee.

[HighPriestessBoo]

Sorry was watching Outcasts. What do you want to know about wee. It's warm (at first), yellow, smells of ammonia? :o

How old is little Mole and what have you been doing so far?

[LadyGoneGaga]

Hello! Come to check out the new pad.

My little guy has been poorly for the last day - high temp, croupy cough. But he seems to have shaken it off now! Must have a strong immune system (I knew 32 months of breastfeeding would count for something!)

Are you potty training, Starry?

[HighPriestessBoo]

Oh yes how did that go Lady did he self wean? Smallboo is still having some if he gets in with us in the night and on some mornings when I don't get up for work.

Oh how lovely to be back on a fred with you again

She is, and having some trubbles by all accounts but I think we may have lost her for the night...

[starcuntmole]

No, am here! We just started today

[starcuntmole]

Hey gaga! Loved the egg the other night- where do you get your inspiration from?

I posted that so you'd know I was here. It's funny really -every other parenting type decision i haven't necessarily followed the crowd, worked it out for myself having first informed myself of as much available info as poss and have have been relatively confident with my choices- but I just feel really helpless about this. I've never been good at letting her run around without a nappy on- I'm not OCD (seriously, you'd know that if you saw my house) but have a bit of a thing about bodily fluids. (Apparently I gave up nappies for my sister who was born when I was 23 months and never had an accident, ever.I think it scarred me!) So.. we did the whole choose potty, big girls pants etc. I have a week with nothing on, been planning to try it now for ages. We have magic stars. But I kind of thought she'd just go, 'Oh ok mother, I shall now be using a potty whenever I feel the urge, don't trouble yourself about it,' and when she weed all over the floor just after getting off the potty I realised it wasn't going to be that easy! We're only one day in, I know, I don't know why I'm so anxious about it. And I have no peer pressure at all, all her pals have been 2 1/2 onwards, so it's not that. Rant over.
Am jealous of the still feeding- I was really sure it was stopping me geting pregnant, so stopped in May last year (she was 22 months) It worked, got pregnant next month She does still have a relationship with my boobs though, that really unnerves my mum- if she's upset, she shoves her hand donw me top and it make her feel much better. DM said 'you'll have to wear polo necks for a week to stop that' [again] but I like it so there [tongue stuck out emotion] What age did your lads get dry?

[starcuntmole]

Forgot to say, she's 2.7 (that does mean 2 years 7 months doesn't it? It's not a decimal fraction of a year? Cos I'm fucked if I can work that out)

[HighPriestessBoo]

He was in pull-ups for ages (the tapes on the nappies were cutting into his legs so I switched).

He came out of them at the end of September so he was 2.8 - and he was dry at night straight away - although I didn't ditch the night time nappy for a week just to be on the safe side. I had tried about a monthish before and he wasn't having any of it.

I wish I had some great advice to give but really he did it all himself! He knew when he was ready and I just went with him (as is usual with my Aquarian bossy boy!). He used to hate his potty and wouldn't even entertain the idea of sitting on it and then he just decided he would give it a go. He's at nursery two days a week and I talked it over with his keyworker as to when we both agreed he was ready.

I didn't give him shed loads of praise or choc buttons or anything - he was just really pleased with himself. We had a few books too - the one he liked best was 'The pop-up potty book' (which he still likes to read now sometimes). Sorry that's not much help is it?

[HighPriestessBoo]

oh no, I broke fred already :(

[starcuntmole]

No, it's just slow moving. Molette has just ran around the kitchen singing 'Mr Spoons' and I had a flashback to Steve Wright in the afternoon when he was cool ish

Well, today has been unmitigated fail- not a drop in the potty, and 3 massive wees all when I was out of the room for 5 mins as she'd just been on the potty and couldn't possibly neeed to go. I think she's sufering a little from performance anxiety! Just had quite heartening chat with DM who's back from round the world trip to see other grandchildren,who told me to keep persevering and I was generally being crackers. I think trip was alot of fun from my SIL-first-time-mum's point of view Did you know they have sleep school for babies in Oz? And the baby can fail DM said I would be pulling my hair out at their gina fordesque ways I always thought they were more lentil weaving than us- my sling came from there, and they're big into reusable nappies, etc- just dictators on the sleep front maybe?
M currently dressed in a cat costume with ballerina skirt round it. And no knickers. Classy bird.

[HighPriestessBoo]

Sleep School? What do they do if they don't sleep to requirements?

SB asked to go to bed and went to sleep a whole hour earlier than usual tonight. Bliss.

[starcuntmole]

Quick- do stuff!

[HighPriestessBoo]

I'm running a bath and I'll be asleep by half ten I reckon!

[HighPriestessBoo]

I lied.

[SilverSky]

MESHs you're welcome to visit the FESH Spa & Creche anytime! Can't do linky as am fick innit.

I will be popping in here to quaff your booze too !

[cheggers]

'ello.

also second silv's offer of you girls visiting the Spa. would be lovely to see you all (not that i have much say as i only manage to post there about once every two months )

in the meantime though - boo and gaga (or anyone else that knows) - could you give me your wisdom on extended breast feeding?? i presume it was all baby led with you both?

for instance - when did they start decreasing their daytime feeds? and do they just end up having morning and night feeds near the end?

i have going back to work decisions and not sure i can be arsed with the whole pumping while at work shizzle.

ta!

[HighPriestessBoo]

Cheggers It's so bloody hard to remember. It wasn't totally baby led with us, I had to put my foot down when I didn't feel comfortable about things and I needed him to realise (over time) that this is my body and I need to look after myself too. At first I made a rule that he couldn't have any when we were in public places where people we didn't know could see - I think he was about 14 months ish then.

Then I introduced a rule that meant he could only have it when we were lying down on a bed, so he would sometimes still have some in the daytime if he needed me to settle him for a nap. I think he was 2ish when I did this but I can't say for sure. He dropped his nap at 2 1/2 ish and that's when it just became at night and first thing in the morning. I breastfed him to sleep for ages - I think that stopped when he was 2 1/2 ish as well. It's mad how much you forget and how quickly.

Btw - I went back to work when he was ten months - he had water when he was at nursery and then he had bf at home (he would always want a feed straight away as soon as we walked in the door after me picking him up at first). I had no problems with leaking or engorged breasts which really surprised me. On the days I didn't work (am part time) I just fed him as I usually would and my boobs just adapted accordingly. Again - another surprise, as I had been worried about it. When he was 12 months he had cows milk when he was at nursery.

Hope this is all helpful :)

Will pop into the spa of course - thanks for being all inviting (and Silver too :) )

[LadyGoneGaga]

Not popped in for ages.

Boo I was a big wuss and made a fuss every time he fed as nipples were killing once pregnant. But also supply dwindled and dwindled (especially since he started doing overnights with his Dad for a couple of days) and we just started having milk from a cup and a piece of fruit before bed instead. I was quite relieved. Although sometimes he likes to "smell your boobies" or fondle them too.

Cheggers like Boo I went back to work when MiniG was 11 months old. Was shitting myself as he refused bottles, wouldn't drink a lot from a cup. But fed him in morning, he had a carton of formula for them to offer him (he hardly drank much at all) and water and food when there. Then would have a massive feed when I got back from work and again before bed (and during night too) so he made up for it. So don't worry about stopping just cos going back to work!

With the extended thing I just carried on doing before and after work and never really saw much reason to stop. He is 2.9 now and stopped a couple weeks ago.

Starry keep it up with the potty training thing. She'll get it eventually. We trained when he was just past 2, I tried before that but he wasn't ready so I stopped but this time he was dry within a couple of days. The poos took a LOT longer and he still has the odd poo-ey accident at nursery now. Less so when he's with me though, funny that! He was dry at night most of time but has regressed a bit last few days as he's been sleeping a bit deeper and longer so might get some pull ups as sick of changing sheets.

Thanks for the FESH invite...will pop over. Need to have a look around before catapulted back into nappies and sleeplessness.

[SilverSky]

[LadyGoneGaga]

I hardly ever expressed. He refused bottles anyway and had to throw away my freezer stash . We managed . Much more practical than formula for me

[SilverSky]

Not sure how would work with nursery days as I work 8 miles away.

[milanomum]

Starry We are toilet training too! Funnily enough, she'll do a poo no bother in the toilet, but pees all over the place. I just haven't been bothered to whip off the nappy yet a) because I don't know if I have enough clothes to change her 5 times a day and b) because the idea of cleaning rugs, sofas and everything else makes me tired I think it's just a matter of me making the decision though. She just started telling me when she needs to do a poo, whereas before it was literally hours and hours of asking her, sitting on the toilet, getting off the toilet, getting on again...etc etc. You'll need extra patience pills for it.
I'm thinking of doing a star chart for her too.

As for BFing, minimilan refused to do it anymore after 9 months-ish which was a bonus for me because I never had to go through the traumatic weaning off process, but from 7 months or so until 9 months she only fed twice a day anyway. I never expressed because I couldn't - she fed for 10 mins every 2 hours up to 6 months so I think i just never had the possibility to get an extra feed out!

[LadyGoneGaga]

Silver no, God no. I didn't feed him at nursery. Packed him off with a carton or two of formula in case. He was 11 months by then so didn't really need milk in day and just breastfed pre and post work.