Sept 08: They're under starters orders .... and they're off .... well, some of them!

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

I thought I'd use this title as not all of our delicious babies are on the move yet, including mine

[Meglet]

Bookmarking.

Crawling is a double edged sword isn't it. My first thoughts were "yay! She's crawling and can play on her own". My second thought was "bugger, we're going to be in such a pickle now" .

[digitalgirl]

also bookmarking.

DS has a temperature so did not do any creeping/crawling today, very clingy and no appetite. Am very much looking forward to putting this weekend behind us. When's the next bank holiday? Not till August?

[swissmiss]

bookmarking.

i was hopeless at keeping up with last thread. need to try harder this time!

DG - how awful, hope things get sorted soon after the break-in and ds perks up soon.

swissbabe is well and truly on the move now, nothing is safe anymore. her brother was helping her climb stairs and taught her how to push her truck this weekend . it's going to be fun at my mum's for rest of week, her house is so not child proof. whole family (her 5gc, 3dc + 2dp visitig) going to switzerland for her 60th.

is our FB group active? was browsing and came across it.

time to get off here and get packing.

[Hopefully]

Urgh, been suffering with some hideous gut thing since last night - T actually slept beyond 6am (all the way till 6:30!), but I was up and down to the bathroom every 20 minutes from 5:30
Quite glad T's at the childminder's today - I have a very modest To Do list, then I may treat myself to a nap and/or a bath before picking him up.

Definitely no crawling here - T is more than happy to sit in one place and shout at me when he requires something.

[notcitrus]

hello - sorry to hear about the burglary digi - and get well soon hopefully!

A will crawl fast if something really grabs his attention (usually the router or an open doorway...) but otherwise keeps forgetting how - he keeps his tummy on the floor and uses his toes. But yesterday he kept pulling himself up to kneeling and even standing in the bath, and he's been pulling up to kneeling a lot this morning. So low shelves not A-proof any more...

[Pacita]

hopefully ditto on the sitting baby issuing orders situation. Do you reckon that's because they're destined for high office, or just that we've spawned lazy babies? Sorry about the gut thing - I suggest you treat yourself both to a bath AND a nap. You definitely deserve it, and they're both free!

It's now two weeks that I don't feed Diego at night (still no sign of AF) and today he actually slept from 8 till 7:15. Of course, I was awake at 6:30 wondering what was wrong. I really do have to rein in these silly neuroses.

Digitalgirl, I so hope the police catch them. Mainly because you may get back your things, but also because it would be the first time I hear of such a thing in London, which may revive my faith in them.

[swissmiss]

How have you managed that Starlight! My 3 have been up since 6.30 and I'm now ready for a nap.

Hope - feeling any better yet?

Somedays I wish swissbabe wasn't yet crawling as life would be so much simpler. I'm sure its only because she is desperate to keep up with DS and DD1, the other 2 were still at the sit and shout stage at this age. She does a very determined commando crawl but it means she gets into everything esp. the older ones toys. I don't know how many times they were told to put their lego away/play with it in their own room yesterday.

[notcitrus]

A has started refusing to go to sleep again after his 7am feed... so the fact that he's sleeping pretty well most nights isn't much consolation. Resorted to a pillow and blanket and dozed in the dining room for a while while he explored my feet and I blocked off the kitchen.

MrNC has just put stairgate across the top of the stairs, and A has determinedly explored the landing and bathroom. Took about 15 minutes to get there...bless!

[Ponymum]

starlight - are they up yet?

[newlark]

bookmarking! Haven't posted for a while as I normally have ds in a sling so can't type very easily (and keep trying out new names just to confuse things - was most recently TooMuchTV).

Can't remember who was asking about slings at the end of the last thread - I have a patapum which I think is excellent for front and back carries - it is similar to an ergo with buckles for easy adjustment but much cheaper as it isn't from the US - they sell them here. Connectas are also popular and highly regarded. I also have a woven wrap sling which I love but takes a little while to get the hang of.

[imoscarsmum]

Brand new thread!

No crawling here at all, not even much rolling (occasionally at night she'll roll onto her back from her tummy, then wake up and shout for us as she hates sleeping on her back). I do want her to get mobile but then i think how easy she is atm - plonk her down amongst her toys and she'll sit for ages and ages, happily playing.

We went to Lyme Park on Sunday and had a proper family picnic. C sat on the rug (slathered in factor 50) and munched her sandwiches, while DP and I ate ours and had a flask of tea, was fab.
Yesterday we went into Chester for lunch and she sat with us and shared buttered asparagus spears and steamed mussels. I was a little hesitant about the mussels but she was fine and chewed down at least 4 whole ones. Am loving weaning now, especially after bf went so wrong - C will eat anything and I feel like I have done something right with food

DG sorry to hear about your burglary - it's bloody rotten and so annoying/frightening. Hope things get better soon.

Hopefully am impressed by your relaxed approach to childminder - well done. C is currently at Nana's house for the first time and it's the first time she's spent a whole afternoon away from me. I was quite tearful as it's the downward slope to returning to work - next is settling in sessions at nursery and i feel sick when I think of work. i need to grow a backbone, i know!
What i want to do is wrap her up in cotton wool and never let her go but what I need to do is help her grow into a confident little girl who has strong relationships with family and friends.
Roll on 5.15pm......

[imoscarsmum]

Oh, meant to say that C wakes up between 6.30 and 6.45am every morning, whatever time she goes to bed. At this age, my sister's DS woke every day at 4.30am, irrespective of the time he went to bed. He did grow out of it and now, at 6, wakes at 5.30am . I think you just have to go with it.
Given that I'll need to get up around 6am when I go back to work, her waking time works for us. Wish I could tell her when it's Sunday though!!!!

My friend who works at M&S has to get up at 5.30am every day to get her DS to nursery and onto work every day!!

[digitalgirl]

Another early riser over here. DS wakes between 5am and 6am (again no matter what time he went to bed or how many times he is up through night). If he wakes at 4 then he comes into our bed for a sleepy BF which usually knocks him out for another couple of hours.

His temp is down today but still no appetite. Am not worried, his legs are amazingly chunky so can't see him going hungry for a while! And of course he's BFing like mad. Which means tomorrow when I have a full day at the office I'll be slowly morphing into some sort of super-sized porn star.

DS has 'selective crawling capabilities' i.e. whenever I'm around he whinges until I pick him and and take him to his destination. Otherwise has started to slowly move towards things with purpose rather than accidentally end up two feet further away from where he was plonked.

Update on the burglary - household insurance is covering us, so is car insurance. But we stupidly didn't opt for a courtesy car. Won't be making that mistake again. Its going to cost us £230 to hire a similar car for a week. So really should have paid the extra £20 or whatever it was.

[Hopefully]

Hmm, maybe I should stop whinging about 6am starts.

T is still off colour - a bit chesty, and he's been sick a couple of times over the past day or two, really mucousy and unpleasant. Think I might pop to the doc's with him this week if he doesn't improve, as he's been off colour for about 10 days now.

It's looking more and more like returning to work isn't going to be feasible for me - with the nearly 2 hour commute each way, I think work just aren't able to support me doing the short hours I would need to in order to spend any amount of time at home. Pain in the neck, but a bit of motivation to sort out some freelance asap. Going to do some proposals over the next few days and make a concerted effort. After all, I only need to earn a couple of grand a year to make the equivalent of working 3 days a week in my old job, paying for full time childcare and season ticket!

[DebiTheScot]

back from hol and in the process of catching up so will post a few things before I forget them.

Carrie yes I'm doing 1 bf a day and it's going fine. I'm still not sure if I should only ever give 1 side and give up on the other or offer alternate sides each day though. I'm doing alternate sides but can never remember which side I should be on.
I am also guilty of heating feeds up in the microwave. But only before I add the powder so the shaking once it's added will take away any heat spots.

meglet yes very wriggly baby here too. Forbidden toys and the Thomas song sometimes work but not always.

ILTMIMI I like those short romper suits too and £4 for 2 is a bargain. Cheapest I found was £9 for 2 I think. They were great on holiday as shorts and tshirts always seemed to end up with a gap round his tummy when he was picked up or in the buggy so the romper suits meant no worrying about suncream on tummy. And yes they'll be good for sleeping in when it gets hot.

[imoscarsmum]

Hopefully feel free to whinge - that's what we're here for! And some days I wish that C would wake just 30mins later, after the magic 7am! But that's generally cos I've gone to bed past 11, so is my fault.
C also has a mega nap after her breakfast, which means we either have to be ready to go out straight after her 8.30am porridge, or I have to wait for her to wake up later on. But she has now dropped to just 2 naps a day - one about an hour and a half in the morning and then about 40 mins after her 3pm bottle. When I think back to October when i posted that all she did was sleep during the day and I was worried.......

And my nephew, at 6 years old, can now be told that whilst he might wake at 5.30am (and raring to go), the rest of the house does not so he has strict orders to play quietly in his room for an hour. My sister keeps saying she read that Richard Branson was a very short sleeper when he was a boy, so her DS is clearly a genuis!

And I feel for you hopefully re your commute. When I worked for PwC, I used to do 70 hr weeks, easily. My job is now so flexible that 2 days a week I'll be at home and the rest I'll be home by 5.30, so a 2 hr commute each way would mean I'd never see C.

[DebiTheScot]

ds2 very nearly crawling and pulled himself up a couple of times on holiday. He's hard work at the moment though as he gets so annoyed when he can't get where he wants to and needs entertained more.
He is starting to move around the room though much to ds1s annoyance- he was after his playmobil earlier- and it looks like he might crawl on hands and feet and not bother with knees.

digi really sorry to hear about your break in- sounds awful. I'd be totally freaked out if it was me. Glad the insurance are covering it though.

ds2 wakes at 6.40 no matter what time he goes to bed at. Dh entertains him till 7 then I feed him.

Had a good holiday, we were staying with friends so had all the home comforts and ds1 had lots of toys to play with. DS1 and their daughter played nicely most of the time apart from ds1 bossing her about a lot. And ds2 spent the week bullying their ds who is 2 months younger!

[newlark]

starlight - I don't have a connecta myself though know people who do so not sure - it might be the height at which you have the baby on your chest/back? With the patapum the straps don't cross over, they are rucksack style but you have a chestbelt which keeps them on your shoulders and gives the support. It took a couple of wears to get everything adjusted right but the patapum is my "go to" carrier at the moment (and I find the sleephood easy to use when ds falls asleep ). They come up occasionally on the Natural Mamas FSOT board and ebay.

[newlark]

Oh and no proper crawling from ds yet but he can drag himself across the carpet to get at dd's toys

[digitalgirl]

I'm obviously on high-alert at the moment. Just returned from the out of hours doc after being told DS only has a viral rash not meningitis. Didn't think it was anything serious, but I couldn't work out if it was disappearing after pressing the skin...and I know these things can escalate quite quickly. Wanted a home visit as we're carless and cashless at the mo, but they said no-one was available and if we were that worried we should call an ambulance. Managed to get a lift from a friend in the end. Glad we haven't had to make two emergency phone calls in less than a week. What's next eh?

I want to go back to complaining that DS has no teeth and not having enough time to book a haircut.