Trapped toddler parents: support through winter and beyond

[squishymamma]

Following on from the previous thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4292353-Trapped-toddler-parents-Inspiration-and-support-needed-through-the-summer-hols

Not the most inventive name but apt I think...

@Motherofmonsters DD is not sleeping that well at the moment as we have just moved house but the Gro Clock has generally really helped from when she was 2.5 to help her get the idea of staying in her room and going back to sleep. I would recommend the Purflo clock that we have now over the Gro Clock (which broke), as it does not have a lead (you have to remember to charge it, but I was never that happy with the Gro Clock detachable lead being in the room with DD) and crucially you dont have to put it on every night it just goes from yellow to blue every night & vice versa in the morning at the time you set it. They are both expensive buts its certainly been worth it for us!

Sorry to hear of the difficult birth experiences, it is so common and so little spoken of. I have to say I am confidently done with 2 dcs, I have 0 inclination for any more, perhaps because I had two hideous HG pregnancies of vomiting 40 times a day! The things we go through!
I have new nursery settling in this morning - then I am going to try to find our new local garden centre @Chocolatetrifle

That is adorable @tiddletoddle I would have definitely nodded off with a toddler shushing me to sleep.

@Motherofmonsters I've never tried a grow clock - both my DC are allergic to their own beds anyway and like to sleep with me

3 out of 4 of us are now out of isolation Poor DS2 cried at the front door when DS1 went off to school though. I have taken today and tomorrow off to hang out with him. Might make a giant happyland city on the living room floor.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for toy kitchens they like. I want to get DS2 one for his 2nd birthday - I know the ikea ones are meant to be good but I don't think DH wants to go to ikea again for a long time after our car breakdown

@Motherofmonsters yes the gro clock was fab for us. Depends on age and communication skills of child I think. I first tried it and it didn't work on night one so I put it away to take back to the shop. Then lockdown happened and I didn't get to a shop so a few months later I tried it again in desperation. It was wonderful.

My d was waking up at 4:30 so we set the allowed wake up up for 4:35 😬 so that she didn't have too big a challenge to deal with and didn't have to stay in her bed for long. Then each day we increase it by 5 mins and the eventually her own body clock shifted until it was 6:45 get ups.

We didn't use it for naps. We've put it away for now but I imagine it'll be something that gets used again as and when we need it.

@Camomilahow about IKEA kitchens on marketplace?

What age does everyone find gro clocks work from? Bit premature since ds is only 13 months but thinking ahead!
We aren't sleeping well either atm, ds is teething and his pee is basically acid so his poor bum is blistered and sore and he's hardly eating

What a great idea @squishymamma I bet your ds is so pleased to be able to help with his baby siblings bedtime

Looks like not many if us are getting much rest atm! DS did a 4hr block but his bedtime has been moving backwards and I've started to really struggle to fall asleep so I only got 1.5hrs then. He then had a 30 min feed (unheard of in the night these days) followed by waking every 2hrs thereafter for repeated 30min long feeds. Shattered! Luckily DD (and DH...) slept all night. Just got to get through tonight as DH does one night feed bottle on Tuesday nights.

We just hosted a short playdate, was reasonably successful. Three three year old girls and 2 newborn boys. Definitely makes the day pass quicker. 2.5hrs ish to kill before DH is back...

@Scotabroad24 gro clock from 2y 4mths approx. Also look on market place as they come up regularly for £5-£10 so grab one when it's comes up. Ask the seller if they also have the little story book it comes with too.

Thanks @pompomsgalore, we live overseas and not sure if gro clocks are a thing here but I'll check. Kids here go to bed late and wake up late, our friends think our ways are odd!

@secondhandtable, hope you have a better night tonight, and if not that tomorrow night comes quickly so you can have a good rest!

We are off to France tomorrow, leaving 6.30am for a 3hr drive to the airport, hoping DS will sleep in the car for a while and won't be too miserable with his teething and sore bum!

@Scotabroad24 good luck with the travels.

I used to live in Greece and the kids there would be up till 1am and wake up late and they were all tired and miserable all the time.

Hi all, we have a gro-clock somewhere but didn't use it, I was a bit dubious about the lead too like @Lostthetastefordahlias said. Hope you found the garden centre? .

Hope the trip goes well @Scotabroad24

Glad you had a more successful night @squishymamma.

Can't believe you were up at 4 this morning @Motherofmonsters, you must be exhausted. Hope you have a better night.

Not much to report from here. DS2 has been shouting at me most of the day and both boys have been a bit overexcited this evening for no reason whatsoever with ds2 only going asleep at 8.30 after a one hour nap this morning and dS1 has just gone asleep now despite having preschool this morning etc.

Tomorrow I have plans to set up a little office/writing station for DS1, going to get out a children's stapler, hole punch, pens, paper, pencils etc and see if it inspires him to practice writing and mark making and then we will probably go to the garden centre.

Sleep well everyone with hopefully not too many disturbances.

Thanks everyone, Glo clock has been ordered. I really hope it helps as it makes the morning so long. I have been lucky today as DD went to nursery and DS school so I've cleaned downstairs and got rid of a big chunk of stuff from the corner of doom in DDs room. Took DS to the barbers after school, he was really really good. I could tell he hates every minute of it but he didn't fuss.

Great idea to have a little office set up @chocolatetrifle.

Sounds like you got to the bottom of it @squishymamma, I hope it's worked for you tonight as well.

@camomila the Aldi one that comes up for sale every now and again is really nice. It's quite compact. I bought a massive one from Facebook marketplace and regretted it as it took up so much room

Hope your journey goes okay @scotabroad24

My children hate me, DD woke up at 2 got her to sleep. Got into bed DS wakes up at 2.45 goes to sleep at 4.50, DD wakes at 5...

Popped to Asda to get a birthday card for FIL. DD spots the bras and shouts mummy look boobs, beautiful boobs they're pretty aren't they?

She fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up when I brought her in so I'm sat drinking coffee and eating pastries I also picked up. Going to be a looong day

Hope you make it to France safely and without too much drama @Scotabroad24!

Good job cleaning @Motherofmonsters, I have been slowly refilling my cupboard of doom fully aware that future me will be really unimpressed...sorry to hear you had such a rough night though. Its been a bit of a rough time for you with sleep! Enjoy the coffee and pastries, the small pleasures are so important in these seasons I feel

We also had a rubbish night but nothing as bad as @Motherofmonsters, our clever strategy totally failed last night and DS1 took an eternity to fall asleep. Whenever I sat with him he just messed around in his crib. Then DS2 decided to have a load of really long night feeds so I slept maybe 1.5 hours at a time, then had an hour of changing and feeding and getting DS2 back to sleep. No sound from DS1 until 6am but then DH (who had been snoring away through all the feeds) takes him while complaining about how tired he is, then sits half asleep on the couch with DS2 saying how wonderful I am for getting DS1 ready and out to nursery while making sure the house isn't a tip...?? He's WFH today and I've been a bit, er, frosty to say the least

Sorting out my wardrobe today and packing away my maternity clothes and finding my jeans - I've been rotating between 2 jogger bottoms and otherwise I've had to wear dresses, so I'm very excited to both see if I fit in them and have something more exciting to wear

Thanks all, got to the airport but ds is now full of energy because he slept in the car and is currently running up and down the lounge

@motherofmonsters oh no what a shame, eat all those pastries and maybe a few coffees whilst she sleeps!

@squishymamma sorry to hear your strategy didnt work last night, hope tonight is better!

@Motherofmonsters, you deserve a night away by yourself after last night. Really hope you get more sleep tonight.

It's cold but we are outside in the garden with the Peppa bubble machine.

Hope everyone is doing ok today.

DS2 decided to join the early wakers and woke up at 5am today. We had a nap together from 9am-10.45am though so am not feeling too bad.

His self-isolation finishes tomorrow, I'm so excited for him/me

We've done lots of mark making today and have read all the dinosaur books (many times) but are having a rest now and watching the 'cars' shorts on disney plus.

Mother - oh no, what a night!! Hope tonight is a bit better! I can't wait as DH does a bottle for one of the Tuesday night feeds.

Squishy - could it be a growth spurt, how old is baby now? Mine has been waking two hourly the last two nights (12 weeks) and also wanting to feed for like 30 mins at a time til I kick him off. Before this he was sleeping much better and his night feeds were like 10-20 mins. Am hoping it's the 12 week growth spurt and will soon be over...

Scots - have a safe journey and a fab time in France.

Morning was good here, DD's nursery room is closed because they can't staff it due to covid absences. I brought her along to the breastfeeding support group I go to and they were great, got some extra toys and colouring out for her and her friend from nursery also came, me and her mum are quite friendly now as we have the kids the same days and she also has a baby albeit an older one. PM tough though, baby doesn't sleep and cries from overtiredness, DD doesn't get attention because of demanding non-sleeping baby and then tantrums all the time. I had a perinatal mental health appt via phone which I had forgotten about and the irony of having that with her spending the whole 15 mins screaming and following me around room to room screaming! To clarify this is my 3.5 yo Im talking about and not the baby!

@SecondhandTable 3 year olds can be horrific. For me it's the hardest age so my sympathies. At least they could hear your reality at the other end of the phone.

Tomorrow is my baby's first birthday. My oven has broken so the cake is an absolute disaster. I ended up cooking it in my neighbours oven and when I came home I realised it was raw in the middle so I attempted to use my top oven which is very unreliable and now it's burnt to a crisp on the outside and raw in the middle.

Arghghgh

Oh nooooo @pompomsgalore at least the 1 year old won't be bothered about the cake!
My mil baked an extrodinaire of a cake for ds 1st birthday, was so excited for everyone to see and taste it, party went smoothly and it wasnt til after when we were congratulating ourselves that we realised we completely forgot to take the cake out and sing happy birthday

@pompomsgalore, happy first birthday to your baby! Hope you have a lovely day. Sorry to hear about the cake, did you get a new one sorted? Reminds me when I grilled the fairy cakes instead of cooking them!

How is everyone?

It's a lovely sunny crisp day so might venture to a national trust property later.

DS1's preschool have a case of headlice so obviously I've panic ordered nit combs and shampoos etc from Amazon Prime. I really hope he doesn't get them!

@Chocolatetrifle here the nit comb I find the best and it's great with just conditioner. Any cheap, thick conditioner and comb comb comb!

Well the cake looks great but it's hell underneath. We are vegan otherwise I'd have just gone out and bought a new cake. They aren't readily available round here so I had to find a solution. (We aren't annoying vegans by the way so don't hold that against me).

@Chocolatetrifle forgot to add the photo of comb

Cake looks great! I'm impressed you were organised enough to make it! We didn't do much at all for our DD's first birthday, just not organised enough. Also she's been v shy until recently so she's never had a birthday party yet. She says she wants one for her 4th birthday but that's not until the summer so we will see how she feels nearer the time. The problem is she gets loooooads of invites so there are absolutely loads of kids we'd need to invite back including many that she rarely sees and probably wouldn't even recognise. So I'm not convinced she'd like that, but I can't throw a party and only invite half the people when she's been to others parties.

Tried a different playgroup this morning with DS, was nice, one of my friend's goes and everyone else was super friendly too
DS loved it, he was just enjoying watching all the kids. He had his 12 week jabs this morning.

Lovely day here too albeit cold.

[quote pompomsgalore]@Chocolatetrifle forgot to add the photo of comb[/quote]
Fantastic cake!!! You've got so much patience and talent, unlike me!😂

@pompomsgalore thank you for the nit tip!

Wow, your cake is fabulous!

@SecondhandTable hope your DS is ok after his jabs.