***The All New 2 or More Under 3 Thread!*** Join the Madness Here!

[TattooedGrrrl]

Here we go again- join here if you have 2 or more kids under the age of 3. Feel free to update / whinge / look for advice / gloat about how sleep you've had

For any newbies, I have 2 boys, aged 2yrs and almost 9mths.

hi Luckymummy- i know what you mean, but they are sometimes both in bed by 6pm, and then up before 5am. Going to try it anyway- it can't make it any worse, can it?!

loopy hope your DDs are less tired and sleeping more, we were planning to put ours together when Izzy was 9 months but - because they are both such good sleepers - we think that if it ain't broke....the naps are prob a good idea, aparently a lunchtime nap is related in some way to nightt'sleep (good lunchtime nap=good night sleep) but I cannot say if true

cazwa I know what you mean about potty training setbacks. Freya was in normal pants at night and lately she is back in pullups. Still dry 100% in the day so thankful for that.

chaotica really hope your Freya is no longer being sick, must be awful to know there's not much you can do! And now you have it too! Well, I guess when you've all had it then you can take a deep breath and look forward to keeping your food down and not having a bucket on permanent standby

grrl mine are full of snot too - mmm lovely. Izzy is cutting her front top teeth but Freya snuffly too and I have a sore throat Just saw your pissed off post and I really feel for you. And with you working aswell! Can you be any tougher with them? I.E they wake but no toys and keep room dark etc.

simpson surely if your DD can crawl then the sitting is just a preliminary? We don't have an 8 month check here and not sure re the po0 situation - Izzy does 2 big ones a day and Freya the same. Nice topic

Welcome lucky and your girls sound like mine in the sleep department. It will get lots easier for you once your new DD is crawling. Izzy started crawling just last week and it's amazing how muchy Freya now plays with her. They keep ending up sitting giggling together in the downstairs loo with me trying to move em out! but really, I know it is exhausting but I take it your youngest is
sleeping 12 hours at night, so at least you are firing on as much full power as possible! (and even then it is tiring no?!)

Wave to JKS and kaybee

Am on DHs laptop whilst mine is still at Laptop ER. Arrrgh! Anyway, will check in soon I hope, things fine here except for the colds and the teething. Can't wait for christmas!

high five to you all

just marking for later

Hi all, am flying through as Im promising myself to be in bed by 10pm, have been going to bed the last 2 nights close to midnight with lots of wine inside me and its caught up tonight!

Grrl, god what a mare, that is pure torture. I was going to second the advice about the more they sleep the better etc but hadnt realised they were in bed before 6pm, Id say thats early in my humble opinion, would they last till 7pm? We've been pretty desperate strict in this house for getting them to bed by 7pm and (god please dont strike me down for saying this) have pretty good sleepers. They used to wake early over the summer but are getting close to 7am the past week or so.

Ha, Ive so cursed myself. Hopefully I have taken your curse away grrll and you will get a liein!

Quick opinion check, is it really sly of me to do the following? My mum thinks so. Its my birthday this weekend, first time in 3 years Im not pregnant so can get pissed and have a knees up. MIL has decided to come up to stay (hasnt asked). DH works evenings/nights so she has offered to babysit and get up with them in the morning. However I was going to stay at my parents with the kids and get them to get up with them so I can suffer a hangover quietly till mid-morning. Although she is getting up with them I know I will hear them cry and end up getting up myself and feel dreadful. Plus I dont want her to see me roll in drunk (god I sound like an alchie!). So Ive arranged to stay at a friends house who is also goign out that night and come back mid-morning. Is that sly of me?? She hasnt seen the kids in ages so she will get plenty of time with them....

Hi Ladies,

Just calling in to say goodnight (and now I've read, I've no time to post...) so just a quick one...

Everyone on the mend here although we had a family sick day today. DP was delirious and DS was back to being a sicky baby, but we're over the worst... Only Freya probably has all sorts of odd impressions from the explanation 'daddy has a bug in his tummy'

Cazwa - you may be sly, but it sounds like a damn fine idea Go for it!

Hope your two sleep longer Grrrl... Maybe later nights are a good idea (IMHO of course!) You seem to have them going to bed nice and early and that isn't making a difference... (Come to think of it: Usually DS naturally sleeps about 10 and a half hours a night, so he'd be up with the 4.30 crowd as well if he went to bed at 6 - so I put him to bed at 9pm and sometimes persuade him to sleep longer by putting him in our bed at 7.30. I have a feeling he'll only do the 10 and a half hours once he's alone in his cot though.)

Hello!

Well, i managed to keep George up until 7.05pm, without a day time nap. Dyl went down about 20mins before. I'm going to keep edging their bedtime on 5mins each each night George goes down 7.20 and Dyl 6.30pm. AND- George got up at 5.15am, which is an improvement, and he was coughing like an old man, so i wasn't going to force the issue today. And apart from waking soaked through at 3am, Dyl is still sleeping!

DH has the day off today, so we're going to cafe for lunch, then into town for a wander

Cazwa- sounds fine to me. Just say you don't want to disturb the kids when you come in, so you're staying elsewhere.

My 'run' is next Sunday I haven't trained enough by half. Going to have to job the first half, and prob walk the 2nd. But a long as i finish i don't mind.

And the builders are gone! Time for cleaning and painting now

i mean jog, not job!

Hi all

Just back from GP's and she thinks that DD may have a dairy intolerance Have to cut out all dairy products for 2 wks except for ff and see if things improve. It could also explain why she whinges so much!!

Have to get her weighed frequently to make sure her weight does not drop.

Can't remember if the pureed/mashed food in freezer had milk/cheese or butter in it. Grrrr....

Evening, ladies.

What a pain for you Simpson. I can't remember quite how old your DD is, but we had to cut out dairy with DS for a while because of eczema (did him no good at all, but I decided it was worth a try). I hope it works better for you. We got on quite well with the Allpro soya yogurts, and the vanilla desserts and 'custard' which is like the dessert but a load cheaper. (Has sugar in, but I decided I couldn't cut that out as well.)

Hope you had a nice day, Grrrl.

cazwa your plan sounds fine to me, it is your birthday afterall?!

Grrl Do your little ones nap in the day? I believe the phrase is 'sleep begets sleep' (no I didn't know what 'begets' meant either ). The sleep book reckons that if they nap in the day they sleep better at night. My DDs have always slept well in the day and well at night . Sometimes, DD1 (2.5 yrs) would, at the age of about 18 months, sleep in the afternoon til 5:45pm, I would get her up and literally bath her straight away and put her back to bed at 6:30pm, and she went to sleep!!!
It might just be worth still letting them nap in the day. I'm sorry, I don't know how old your lo's are? My DD1 still naps for up to 2 hrs in a day. DD2 who is almost 6 months, has two, 2 hr naps and an hr nap a day, and goes to bed at 6:45pm.

OK, I know what you are all thinking now....'but LM74, how can you find it so tiring when your lo's sleep so much?!'

Well, the answer is, I am a bit of an Anthea Turner in the housework dept.....constantly clearing up, sorting out, de-cluttering, putting stuff on ebay or freecycle. I'm not a mad woman when it comes to cleaning as such, hoover 2-3 times a week, bathroom cleaned once a week . But the washing pile is endless....I'm sure you all know what I mean! So basically, when they are asleep, I get to work!!

Anyway, the good news is, DD2 sat up on her own yesterday for the first time. I can def remember with DD1 this making quite a difference to how easy she got, as she was less frustrated and could see and do more.

Took DD1 to a soft play place today and some little shit boy hit her as soon as we got there, so she was so upset and wouldn't go in the playzone for an hour til he went home. He was a right little thug, pinching other children etc etc. And his parents just sat there snogging!!! (they were quite young!!).

Anyway, all in all, today was a good day, so I have to grateful for that .

Grrrl Hope you have a better night. The other thing is, what happens if you leave them when they wake at 5am? DD2 used to wake at 5am, so I kept getting her up to feed her, but then the book (ha ha!) said that past 4 months they shouldn't be allowed to get up before 6am, even if they stir. So I just left her. She whinged a bit, but then went back to sleep til 7am. She wakes sometimes even now between 5 and 6am, but I just ignore her and she goes back to sleep eventually. She doesn't even seem to disturb DD1 (they share a room).

Sorry for mammoth post, I'm afraid it's a trait of mine .

Night all... XX

Chaotica - DD is 8mths. Will have a look for soya based yogurts, fab idea Only on day 1 and am already running out of ideas for pudding other than fruit

Chaotica - just found those desserts on internet, they look ideal so guess I will be stocking up on those tomorrow

Luckymummy74 - Your poor DD1, bless her hope she got over it.

Lucky- George is 2yrs and 5mths, Dylan is almost 1yr old. George would happily sleep 2hrs in the day in he was allowed- he was usually having 1hr nap and still waking so early. Dyl sleeps between 1hr and 1.5hrs a day. When they wake they cry and shout, and often George will then need changing because he'll have a dirty nappy. And i don't go in for CC or crying it out, so i won't leave them like that.

They went to bed the same time tonight, so hopefully they'll sleep past 5am at least. George had lots of exercise today and 20mins nap. (He was NOT happy to be woken though- mega hysterics)

I think the early bed time is the main culprit, but he really would sleep all afternoon if you let him aswell.

should say, George not napping yesterday wasn't intentional, he just didn't have one. I'm aiming to let him have 20mins in the day at the moment, and see how things go.

hi- don't know if you still remember me! anyway, computer broke down for a few weeks, now back online... will try to catch up. but first... off to bed, i am knackered!!!!

i hope everyone is ok!

Grrrl George must be almost exaclty same age as my DD1, she was born May 06?

I hope you had a better night?

Hi beforesunrise

No Lucky, i did not. I had the same shitty start to the day, both up before 5am, ignored them until 5.20 when Dylan started crying properly. One day something seems better, the next it's back where we started.

I'm having the kind of day where you wish you could just start over again. I've been bitten, pinched and puked over all day, emptied the potty seemingly a thousand times, and i'm in horrible mood, so have spent most of the day either shouting at / ignoring the kids. I feel like a poor excuse for a mother at the moment.

Oh Grrl you poor thing, sounds like you're having a terrible day.
Sorry I don't know what to suggest re the early wakings at your house, you'd think now it's nice and dark in the mornings they'd sleep longer? Doesn't seem to be related to the time they go to bed then I guess........

Hi grrrl totally understand your shit mood and I would be the same. Infact I am the same because Izzy has been a knightmare today wanting to be carried all the time. And I feel bad about not giving enough attention to Freya who has been playing alone most of the day I reckon start with the bedtime at 7 and see how it goes. It is always 2 stpes forward and then 1 back but just keep with it. To be honest, I think you have done a brilliant job re Dylan?George who used to sleep into your bed so allow yourself a victorious smile for that

Everyone else, my laptop is buggered - I mean the motherboard has had it so I have to send it to the states to get it fixed free by HP [is aparently a known fault with my particular model] but will not have computer til bloody ages. So, sorry my posts are fleeting right now, wishing you and yours happy days

sorry to hear about your sleep woes grrll... do they at least sleep through until 5? mine are (relatively) late sleepers but they wake up about a gazillion times between them and no one ever ends the night in the bed where they started...

Well, i let them sleep however they wanted today, mostly because it was better for them with the way i've been.

Dylan slept for 3 hrs all together (although he's looking peeky, so i think he needed it) and George for 1hr. They were both in bed by 6.30pm!

Not a peep since.

Beforesunrise- they do usually sleep until then yes, although sometimes Dyl wakes and i give him a cuddle for 10mins or a drink of water.

I think i need to resign myself to the fact that it's how they are right now- they are well fed, warm, their room is dark, they are comfortable, they get enough exercise etc etc, there's not much else i can do.

And i'll be glad for tomorrow. I hate days like this - i worry George will remember me being horrible to them

Hello All

Sorry to hear about your sleep problems (and your shitty day) Grrrl. I thought the later bedtime might fix it (but as you say, maybe that's just what they're like). Also, the later bedtime will probably take some time to kick in so I'd try to keep at it if I were you. (Although it might not work...)

Anyway, as Jewels says, you've done really well to keep Dyl in the cot these days so you're getting somewhere. (Connor seems to be improving with that too. He's no longer automatically settled if he's in our bed he just slaps me and yells "MA" and points at the door so that rather puts me off (that and the possibility of being puked on as I was over the weekend ) - I just hope I can keep to it once he's well and he can go into his sister's room. (And then DP and I can get our room back )

Who was it who was talking about bf and working? I've managed to keep it up although I haven't expressed for DS nearly as much as I did for DD: I couldn't be bothered with it, and the weather was so hot that it was a bit pointless anyway even with a cooler/fridge at work. So he's had more follow on milk than her, but only while he's actually at the CM's.

Grrl I'm sorry to hear you had such a shitty day, we've all been there haven't we (well I have!) where all you seem to do is taking the toddler to the loo, or change the baby's nappy or wash the clothes that the baby has just shit all over.....
I definitley have lots of days where I seem to be at the end of my tether, shouting at them, being stroppy with DH, telling DD1 off etc etc.

Does anyone else just wish the time away? I cannot wait til my DDs are 2 and 4 yrs old. I'm convinced that will be easier, but DH says it will just be different challenges .

I was very fortunate to have a night out at a friend's for dinner tonight with 3 of my best mates. It was lovely to have time away....we laughed and chatted all night, hence why I am on MN at this time!

Anyway, I will check in the morning to see what time G and D woke up grrl.

Feel quite ill today

Anyway- George slept until 4.50am, ignored him for 10mins until he started declaring he'd pooed. Dyl is still in bed.

I'm working until 2pm today- should hear about that secondment. Hope hope HOPE!

I GOT THE JOB!!!! [GRIN]