Further freakingly fantabulous adventures of the 40+ Mummies Part 2

[blueblackdye]

Our 2nd thread is full but it won't prevent us from laughing, moaning, keeping on supporting each other, sharing and chatting over our new life with 1 or 2, even 5 children !
Here you go, fantastic 40+ Mums, a brand new thread for all of us, old friends from the pregnancy thread or new joiners

Scarecrow - hope you have a good journey home today (just in time for rain?) - sounds like it was a really successful holiday. It must have been really hard in the heat - it wasn't too bad where we were - luckily there was a nice patch of shade outside the tent until lunchtime and in the evenings it was just amazing to be sat outside and feeling warm and not to have damp cold grass underfoot!

LRM - wow only 9 weeks left! Just keep reminding yourself that you will still have plenty of time to spend with Baby Monkey even when you're back at work (I have to keep doing this as hoping to just go back 3 days a week and will probably return to work around the same time as you. The diet thread is v quiet at the mo, but my weight is still dropping slowly - 16lb since easter now. How are you getting on with your fitness etc?

BBD - I will have to find your postings about weaning as was dead impressed at the variety of foods you made for A. Sounds like you've been super busy over in Paris - hope more restful times are on their way. By the way, there's a v interesting thread on getting babies to sleep through the night here - I'm reading with interest as we're still on 1 or 2 hourly feeds at night and can't see it getting any better any time soon. Plus she doesn't go down til 10pm and so I have no time to get stuff done!

Chairman - nice to hear positive words about returning to work. Eating and going to the loo sound appealing although not sure there's room in my brain any more for the sort of work I used to do - hopefully it will all come back to me. How did the syringing go?

Rosie - Congratulations!!! So glad all is well, especially after your horrendous experience in hospital, but how fab for you and DP that the hero Egyptian doctor turned up. Lovely for you too that you didn't need stitches as I found that aspect of the birth quite bothersome (and still feel a bit odd down there frankly). I hope your first day on your own with her has been ok?

Somewhere - thanks for reminding me about the nappy covers - totally forgot after all camping palaver. We've since had another couple of leaks, although she now hasn't gone since Saturday and so we are due another big one! Was actually meaning to start getting her into washables but just never seem to get round to it. I think I've got a couple of covers lurking upstairs somewhere so I will give them a try.

I know what you mean re ageing parents and state of mind. DP's dad and my stepdad are similar ages (mid 70s) and in similar health - few ailments here and there. Whereas stepdad sits most of the day, is waited on and has given up on most aspects of life, DP's dad is on his own, independent and tenacious. Spends his days doing DIY and hillwalking! He had a major op on his ankle/foot just over a year ago and we winced as we watched him growl at offers of help and practically crawl home on one leg and now back to days spent DIYing and walking for miles. Will be interested to see how MIL gets on with fasting as wondered if similar may work for my DM - a life spent bloody dieting and she never loses weight and projects her issues onto me

Goat - wow your big trip is nearly here! There was an interesting thread a couple of weeks ago about someone with a DS of possibly similar age doing long haul and she was talking about drugging as was so scared of enduring the flight. In the end, everything was ok and all the other passengers were really kind. I'm sure he'll be happy with new toys appearing every few hours, when he's not charming the crew/passengers. One thing I've learned from the various trips away we've had so far is that she doesn't need that many clothes because if she poos/voms over anything I try to wash straight away so that it doesn't stain. My most useful weird items so far for trips have been a ziploc bag containing tube of travel laundry detergent, bar of Vanish and a couple of clothes pegs, plus inflatable duck bath - doubling as bath and playpen! We've also made loads of use of the mattress part of the Littlelife travel cot (but not used the cot part). I'm sure Ewan will love his holiday too!

More weaning fun today - took Baby E to a friend's house (she's got a 1yo) and I borrowed the high chair to feed her some carrot puree. All going well until suddenly bloodcurdling screams like I've never heard before - it was quite unnerving. Then I discovered the cause - 1yo sat at base of high chair sinking his teeth into her foot! Poor little thing - it made me realise what a cheery little baby she is as she rarely cries, and certainly not like that. Back home, I tried to feed her some pureed mango/stewed apple and she was a bit indifferent to it. Also got really fed up with it going everywhere so, seeing as she was being fed in her chair in the garden, I just handed her the bowl to see what she would do with it. 5 mins later, she'd tipped the contents out and coated her head and the high chair with it. She was then quarrantined in the garden until I found a plastic container, filled it with water, stripped her and plonked her in.

Waiting for thunderstorms to start and think I just heard the first rumble of thunder - anyone got rain yet??

Thank you eagle some brilliant advice there! Had completely forgotten travel detergent so am off to supermarket...

And am definitely planning to rely heavily on BG's ability to flirt outrageously and charm the pants off the most unlikely people.

Yes good advice there eagle I shall take it for my intrepid trip to the wilds of Cornwall.

Re the nappy wraps if your baby is one of those liquid poo babies, and if there is one too many orange stains on the bedlinen/your clothes/your fave baby romper/the curtains and wall, it does solve the problem. They also look cute, kind of old fashioned. Not great in the heat of course.

Your dad sounds excellent.

By the way just after speculating yesterday about my mil, she has just experienced a Christmas miracle (tm midget or lrm) in that her dodgy knee went snap and suddenly wasn't dodgy any more. She's lost lots of weight on the fasting regime (although she is still huge) and also perhaps her body has gone into the fabled 'repair mode' that fasting is supposed to produce.

Wow goat New Zealand!!!!! One of my dreams. Is it just to go there or do you have relatives out there?

Xxx

goat - have you rung airline and made sure you are allocated a bulkhead seat with cot or bouncy chair contraption in front? or at worst the extra lwf room? in my experience it is not obvious to the computer so you need to ring and make sure/insist.
DD always slept welll long haul as long as not over excited. The thrum of the engines maybe? Toys good for stop overs though.
biggest mistake we made in Australia (DD 7 mo) and US (nearly 2) was to not insist on usual sleep routines and a bit of tough love about resetting in first 2-3 night's, by which time job seemed harder because she had got used to being fed or cuddled to sleep several tunes a night. In retrospect not taking the easy option the first few days would have made rest of holidays much easier. As always,with small people there are no short cuts

Cycle - DH's favourite place is Ace Cafe. It used to be an irregular date/day out treat pre dc. Taken DD but not yet taken T. You sound like his perfect girl (I do cycling with coffee and beer), camping between Easter and my birthday in Sept only ( and increasingly with dodgy hip only on a mattresses!) and motoring not at all if I can help it

Baby some has just given herself a love bite on her forearm.

awww bless babySome. I just love the way your love for her blooms in your posts

Hi everyone! Can I rejoin the thread (if anyone remembers me from the pregnancy one)? I'm 45 now, and Rosa is now 7 months. I also have DS aged 9. She is a gorgeous girl, very happy but a real chunker, 23lbs when she was weighed last week (same as DS was at that age, and he's now a streak of the proverbial so I'm not worried, despite the HV looking aghast and asking me what she eats). Will try to catch up properly when Rosa goes down at lunchtime, but hope you're all well and enjoying these babies!

Hello Knotty, welcome back amongst old friends, of course I remember you, Rosa seems to be perfectly healthy ! How is DS reacting ? Has he been jealous as you feared ?
Eagleray, thank you for the link re sleep, I will watch it too and might apply some of these tactics.
Somewhere, yes, my extended family is a bit of a madness thing, 20 nieces and nephews, all first degree, between 28 and 7 yo. What else can I expect with 9 siblings :) The bbq went well, we had chipolatas and merguez, cotes de boeuf, greek chicken on brown rice, fennel salad, greek salad, lamb meat balls on couscous, chocolate cake, carrot cake and fruit salad, on top freshly picked cherries from the tree ! It was nice seeing family and friends but time flew quickly and I have not had a chance to sit down and talk properly to all of them.
Scarecrow, are you now back home ?
Goat, when are you flying out ? Hope your family will welcome you properly and you have a great time.

AFM, it is hectic over here but ok on average. The temperature has gone down a bit today so I might get a chance to send kids out in the garden, they have been hiding in the shade, shame ! A sometimes forgets to hold on furniture and throws herself forwards, she has a few bumps and bruises on the forehead but nothing serious although I will take her to see the osteopath in 10 days. She pushes her playpen around the living and dining room, I will need to revarnish the woodfloor before I go back to London ! She likes to clap and does it on demand, how funny. We took her to the swimming pool and she laughed of delight when going down the slide. She will be 1 yo next Monday, I can't believe it.

Xxxx to all, LRM, FF, Midget, Cheese, MrsW, chairman, Rosie, cyclecamper and every one else.

Scarecrow the Singapore Airlines bassinets are 768 mm long. BG is 770 heel to crown! So too long for the cots which are apparently also v narrow so putting him on the diagonal not an option either. I have tried the Moby wrap again and he is very comfy and actually sleeps on me, so hoping that will suffice
Somewhere, BG has done that too and lo

Argh! Phone.
...and looked very bemused.
Knotty lovely to see you again! Welcome back!
Bbd what a feast. Between you and midget my fantasy eating life is gourmet. Btw we fly out on Sunday.
I have stupid amounts of stuff ready to pack. The question is, will we use it all?...

Thanks BBD, nice to be back amongst you all. Your list of food for the bbq has made me hungry again and I've only just finished my lunch! DS has been amazing with Rosa, he's very protective and has to be the one to get her out of the cot in the mornings. No jealousy at all, mainly due to the large age gap I guess. I'm very grateful of the chance to see him be such an amazing brother, given that our original "plan" was for him to be an only. Your description of Anastasia is gorgeous! Rosa is on the point of crawling I think, she keeps sitting forward and rocking but hasn't really discovered her knees yet! She loves her food and has yet to refuse anything (although I know that won't last!) but does delight in blowing raspberries when she has a mouthful of hummus. Her sleeping is pretty good and she slept through from 7pm until 7am at 14 weeks which I couldn't quite believe. But she's recently started waking at 5.30 and having a little chat to herself, but I think that might be the heat.

Rosie I don't know you but congratulations on your beautiful girl .

Hi to anyone else who remembers me, and I'll try to keep up with the thread and also attempt to put an up to date picture of Rosa on my profile if I can remember how to do it.

Cross-posted Goat! Have a fab time in NZ not jealous at all and am perfectly happy with planned week away in Cornwall... in November.

Another one here that remembers you well Knotty. So glad you and Rosa are thriving. You should write the weaning bible. And indeed the parenting one, given how lovely your DS sounds. Please do stay now

BBD your feast sounds amazing. Domestic Goddess (or the French equivalent). I would be proud to make one of those dishes. Our raspberries about to fruit - have you a good tart type recipe. Oddly I'm not a fan of cake, but love pastry/biscuit type stuff. As is obvious when you see me!

We are back from holiday. We have some lovely memories, but to be honest it was tough with heat and travelling and lack of routine - I would love to be a free spirit but like me my son does love a routine, and the resulting sleep deprivation was almost at torture levels. Plus DD was too excited to sleep before 9-10pm so lost all my me time/headspace. I'm not good with loss of either one; the combination was not great. I had my first episode of proper depression for about two years. It only lasted about 24 hours, possibly less, and I dealt with it well, but was a bit shocked and it knocked my confidence a bit. Worth it though for memories of wild swimming with DD, of her saying WOW THE STARS when she was looking at the inside of a window shutter , of all that quality family time, and runnning (a small amount!) in the mountains. I love mountains.

I really got to observe T even more too, and he has changed a lot. He's grinning loads, chatting away with coos and gurgles all the time (he is quite a charmer really, I like to think in the BG mode though clearly I might be taking liberties there!), and he is grasping things but at that cute stage where not quite sure how to let go! He has rolled from front to back and back to front once, but think they were accidents. Having a lot of good sleeping on front, usually for naps or in the nearly-morning hours, though does also sleep on back.

Helloooo! I'm so sorry for my rather lengthy absence - and this post will have to be kept short as baby KK is having a snooze and will no doubt be up very soon.

Hoping to get a new phone in the next couple of weeks which will mean I'll be get into MNing again - I've missed catching up with you all. My blasted phone doesn't even seem to like me lurking - crashing all the time and being generally useless

Congratulations to rosiedays and bbm - just wonderful news!

scarecrow your holiday sounds amazing! And I'm full of admiration for camping with 2 young children - you make it sound very easy and something I'd be able to give a go.
knotty I remember you from the pregnancy thread - you were one of the names further up the list than me! Lovely to see you on here!
goat have a wonderful time in NZ - another amazing holiday - ooh and packing cases - not my specialty - always always manage to take a ridiculous amount of clothing - I'm one of those 'just in case' it snows/monsoons/high temps sort of packers, leading to nearly everyone who picks up a case I've packed to say 'flipping heck what the hell have you packed - have you left anything behind???'
somewhere just love your posts - particularly when you talk about baby S. A lovebite on her own arm - just too cute....
eagle aahh...the weaning world. It's due to start for us in about 8 weeks, off to a health visitor chat about it tomorrow. I suspect it'll all be about BLW. Knowing me, I'll try and do a bit of both - BLW and purees.
chairman tinnitus is just dreadful, you poor thing. So disorientating. I hope that it's fading away now.
bbm a first birthday already?? Where has the time gone? What have you got planned?

Speaking of which are there any BLW gurus on here? I'm sure I'll find out more about it tomorrow - but apart from bananas, breadsticks and broccoli, I'm not sure which other foods to try first.....I'm anxious about the choking side of it, but people have reassured me that that is unlikely - just far more that he will gag.

AFM, we're all doing fine, me and DH are getting on much better, baby KK is up a couple of times a night but it feels fine as he seems to eat and then goes straight back down. He is an early morning waker - around 5am is the norm, but know in time this will probably change so just going with the flow this time.

Best go, baby KK is starting to stir, then need to collect DD from nursery - life feels like it's in fast forward mode sometimes!

I know what you mean about FF mode knicky. It's nice not to have to do the school run for a few weeks.

I think I've managed to put an up to date photo of Rosa on my profile .

Hello Knotty and welcome back!! I remember you very well, and in fact was just thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you are. (Have to confess to feeling quite sad when people disappear and spend relatively silly amounts of time trying to imagine how they are doing now). (also think about Riversidelibrary often and wonder how she is as she had her little boy about a week before DD)

Little Rosa is absolutely gorgeous! Very cute pic of her with photo of big brother

Great to hear from you too Knicky and pleased to hear that you and DH are doing better these days. I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you with BLW - I'm just making things up as I go along as got a bit annoyed with the way weaning is defined as method x or y. In fact, although I'm doing purees at the mo, it would appear to be baby led as Baby Eagleray insists on feeding herself. I load the spoon while she waits with her left arm outstretched. Then she swings it round, swipes the spoon and stuffs it into her mouth. And sometimes she remembers to open her mouth while she rams the spoon in too! Some days I let her get on with it, and other days I heavily supervise and wrestle the spoon back off her, depending on how much cleaning up/changing/bathing I can be bothered to cope with.

We do have a major constipation problem at the moment though, so am probably going to ease off the food until it's better. Poo is MIA since Saturday, apart from a couple of fairly firmly-formed lumps. She's getting pretty miserable now so might take her to baby clinic tomorrow to get advice.

Gosh Scarecrow so sorry you got depressed while you were away. Think you did an amazing job coping with life on the road though. I've found our trips away quite stressful at times and certainly never restful, but at the same time it's not been as difficult as people warned! BiL has slightly older children and now says he wishes they were more adventurous when the children were younger as he thinks we've made it look relatively easy! And lovely moments you had with DD doing wild swimming! Baby T sounds adorable too - and nice to spend quality time with him in a different environment.

Goat feeling anxious for you and your packing! Remember to leave an extra day to pack, then unpack and remove all the stuff you don't really need then pack it all again (we didn't do this for our trip abroad and looked quite foolish at the airport) - in fact there's a photo of DD sat in her car seat at the airport in Greece, presiding over a mountain of luggage and bits and bobs - have no idea how we managed. Moby is a great idea - sling, plus blanket or anything else you need a length of fabric for. I took the Hana (similar to Moby but a bit thinner) on holiday and put her in it once we were through security and she went batshit crazy (as she sometimes does when put in a sling) - we were definitely the people you look at as you board a plane and pray you aren't sat next to them...

BBD - can't believe that A is going to be 1 already. Funnily enough, Baby E is 6 months old on the same day! BBQ sounds incredible - an absolute banquet.

Somewhere - not sure if I mentioned before, but Cornwall is where we've just returned from! It was lovely, although always a bit of an epic trip to get down there. Are you camping?

This coming weekend is going to be a bit of a stresser for me - in order to make some money, I'm hosting a person from overseas for a few weeks. I was only allocated the person a couple of weeks ago so feeling under pressure to get the house shipshape and to be prepared to provide 3 meals a day! And on top of that, DSis is coming to stay for a few days too, bringing one of her boys with her (and arriving at roughly the same time as overseas guest). Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Hah! I'm putting together a shortlist of easy recipes and will just have to live by a timetable for a while until I feel a bit more confident juggling it all. On top of this, DN is a horrendously fussy eater so think I will tell DSis that if he won't eat what I've cooked, then she will have to cook for him. Was hoping to move the dining table out into the garden to allow more space but think the sudden onset of rain has put paid to that...

Also must remember not to swear, nor to wander around house with boob out.

Thanks Eagle ! Really hope your baby's constipation gets better soon and that the clinic can help you. And good luck with your visitors! Whereabouts is your overseas person from? Hope you remember to put your "girls" away, and if you do swear, just think of it as broadening their English vocabulary . Knicky, can't really help on the BLW front either. I sort of do a mixture with DD I suppose. I spoonfeed her some pureed stuff, but also try to include some finger food at every meal, although she does like to try and stuff the whole thing in at once and then sit there staring at me with it all hanging out of her mouth. Did amuse myself yesterday watching her chase a piece of slippery avocado round her highchair tray .
Not a terribly exciting day planned - I'll do a Jillian Michaels DVD whilst DD is napping this morning and sweat a ridiculous amount, then off to Argos to collect a feeding booster seat to leave at my mum's so she can look after DD sometimes. Boring jobs in the house and spend some time with DS whilst DD has her lunchtime nap, then popping up to my friends for an hour this afternoon so DS can see his best mate as well. God that sounds even more boring now I've typed it out . Hope your days are more exciting.

ds got up this morning not wanting to wear nappy. You wear a nappy or sit on loo I said. So she removed nappy, put trainer seat on loo, climbed up and did a wee. I have siezed the moment as she is supposed to be potty trained by time starts at Montessori in September, bit consequently quiet day sorting holiday chaos and cooking up meat from our inadvertently defrosted freezer now being spent chasing an increasingly reluctant toddler around persuading her to drink more and sit on the loo or potty....or washing pillow cushions (don't ask, imagine). She is napping in a nappy.and am tempted not to wake her as is a blessed relief for an hour or more! T almost totally ignored poor lamb. DH is impressively oblivious to it all and cleaning car parts in his shed and grumbling if kids go too close and asking for cupsbof tea (wtf). Because that was what he had PLANNED to do.

DD is (not) potty training, not my 15 week old DS

I hear you scarecrow, my DP does that as well. Last Sunday he said "I've emptied the dishwasher for you" in a very proud voice, and couldn't understand why I asked why it was "for me". Whilst he was doing that, I'd been sat on my backside watching TV. Oh no, wait a minute, I was hanging out laundry, putting another load on, supervising DS doing homework and changing/dressing DD .

Oh dear Knotty I'm familiar with that 'did it for you' phrase - DP puts the recyling/rubbish out 'for me' even though at least half of it is his rubbish...

Lovely story Scarecrow re your DD although have a funny picture in my head of your tiny DS announcing to you he was going to go without nappy... How lovely your DP is able to get on with what he planned to do regardless of whatever else is happening. I asked my DP to take DD out last weekend so that I could get on with some chores/paperwork interrupted. Instead he sat in the same room with her as me looking at stuff on his laptop and I couldn't concentrate at all, yet am supposed to be grateful...

Constipation update... went to see HV this morning and she suggested prunes and also whispered about some brown sugar in some water as not supposed to recommend it so went off to the supermarket then made up a concoction of purred prune mixed with some plain yoghurt and also put some brown sugar/water in a bottle for her to play with. A quick nappy check just now has revealed something small and solid in there so at least it's started coming out

All I've done this week is tidy, tidy, tidy and house is still a shit tip plus have had workmen in getting all sorts of repair jobs done (including having all of my bannisters replaced as they were too wide for a crawling baby).

Knicky the visitor is Japanese - hope my house isn't too much of a culture shock for her... So you are doing the Shred? I've lapsed of late but hope to get back to it soon (without scaring my house guest)

Right - upstairs now to investigate nappy...

Oh yes, the old babysitting computer app: know it well! When I'm not around DH amazing - hardly on computer/phone, plays games, reads books... When I'm here he's a lazy so-and-so! I actually said something and he's taken dd swimming (in a nappy!) and Tom and I are sorting laundry and about to make up mince and fish pie...after a quick check of MN! Okay, better at least chop an onion...

Glad things are starting to "happen" EagleRay! It was me that mentioned Jillian Michaels - I do all of her DVDs on rotation basically. I started with the Shred a couple of years ago and got a bit obsessed . Managed to lose 2.5 stone but then Rosa decided to put an end to that! I've got just under a stone to lose to be back to where I was before the pregnancy and it is proving tough to shift! I use MFP to track what I'm eating and try to do a Jillian DVD 6 days out of 7.

Sorry Knicky and knotty - I'm terrible for mixing up similar sounding names

Currently in ikea cafe eating things I shouldn't while BF and trying to stop baby E from tank