March 2005 part 3 - Support for the sleep obsessed!

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Which of course, we all are

jambot - at the risk of resurrecting my mumsnet reputation as the queen of quinoa, and making you all think I'm a healthfood nutter .... if you're after protein you can't do much better than quinoa. It's a complete protein because it contains all 8 amino acids, essential for human growth. Plus it's rich in iron and calcium.

I buy quinoa flakes (make sure you get flakes, not the whole grains) from the health food shop, and make porridge for Iris, which she seems to love. You can boil the flakes in milk for 4 minutes, or I do 1 heaped tbsp, to 2-3 oz of milk and microwave it in a covered bowl for 1-2 mins. Then I stir in some pureed dried prune or apricot or some mashed banana to sweeten it!

At the risk of sounding ignorant - WHAT IS QUINOA?
Never heard of it! Sound good. What does it taste like?

OK. I've read up. Sounds great. Will have a look for it at our local health shop. Hope they stock it - this is darkest Africa after all.

Yes, quinoa is this funny grain thing, actually I think it might not even be a grain, but that is the best description. The whole grains can apparently be used as a kind of rice replacement in savoury cooking, but frankly I think they taste rather bitter and are a bit worthy. I've used the flakes for both my kids as I was keen to avoid wheat and gluten for at least a while given my atopic, allergenic tendencies. The flakes make a pretty ok porridge, but are definitely improved with some nice fruit! I only thought of it because of the protein thing - I know quinoa (pronounced "keenwa") is this kind of super protein, because it is a 'complete protein'.

It's definitely in the hippy health food category though .

I've come across the net things for stuff like banana - sounds brilliant. I really should invest in one. We had great success earlier with a cucumber baton. Iris entertained herself with it for 15 minutes whilst we ate our lunch! It really helps that she doesn't have teeth - she just sucked the soft stuff off the hard skin.

Must work on some newer photos - all the latest are still on our camera.

Went to a NCT nearly new sale today and got Freya a baby walker for just £10. She loves it! She just sits in it at the moment and then pushes herself backwards, perhaps she will master going forwards sometime soon!
Also, her new grobag arrived today. It was getting quite difficult to get the other one clean and dry in a day with the colder weather coming.
All in all she has been quite spoilt this week.
Aaah - she's worth it!

Hurrah - i've done it.
Photos of Freya have been added to the photobucket!
Please take a look

Thanks Jo - she's lovely. Looks like her Daddy. Ethan looks proud of his little sister.

Oh Jo she's just adorable and her and Ethan are like two little peas in a pod. What a smiler and I actually think they both look like you.

Hello everyone. Have had a very sad day today. A friend of mine who I have worked with for about 12 years passed away last week after an 18 month battle with cancer and today was her funeral. She was happily married and had a son aged 7, the same as my DD and a daughter aged 5

For my friend, I think this is a relief in a way to be free of the pain and suffering she has been going through for so long. But I feel so awful for her family, for the fact that her lovely husband has lost such a fun loving wife and that their children will grow up without their mother from such a young age.

I haven't been able to stop hugging Harrison since I got home and was desperate to collect DD from school so I could have her close.

Loved ones are so very, very precious.

busywizzy - what a terrible, sad thing to happen. Thoughts going out to you. It makes you stop and appreciate what you've got in life.

BUSY- how sad, and from the sounds of it, she was far too young. Her poor children; growing up without their Mum.
On another awful not, I had a terrible dream last night. I dreamed I left Lauren in the bath and forgot about her. Came back and she was just floating in the bath. Feel quite sick just writing about it. I did manage to revive her in the dream, but it was absolutely terrible. I've had dreams like this a few times. In another I gave her to an absolute strange whilst swimming in the sea and went in. When the stranger came out she said she'd dropped her and she sank! God, what is wrong with me? Is it normal to have such frightening dreams about your child. I wake up feeling gutted.

Sorry.....awful note.

jambot - totally normal, though nonetheless distressing, I get these dreams too - where I've just forgotten about the baby or left them outside in the freezing cold. And drowning is one of my big fears - I have complete paranoia about it. Don't think I told you guys about losing 3 yr old dd1 on the crowded beach in Spain this year - dp was with her next to the water, walked 5ft to get the spade, turned back and she was gone. I was convinced she was in the sea. Utterly ghastly. Then the longest 15 minutes of my life as we searched for her until I had to announce over the lifeguard's PA system in English, and finally someone found her wandering between the towels and brought her back.

On a cheerier note it is sunny here in London and we are off to the cafe in our local park, then a long session for dd1 in the playground and even Iris gets a go on the swings these days.

That must have been terrible Pidge. You always hear such awful stories about children going missing, that it's so easy to panic when your child goes walkabout. Luckily I've a child who can't go anywhere ....yet!

Hi everyone, we don't have internet access at home yet so have to wait until I am back at work to catch up (now theere's and incentive to be here)! Thanks for your support last week! I know it will get better once it becomes routine and normal to be back at work! ...And I agree undisturbed lunches are a very nice novelty at the moment!

Buzzywizzy - so sorry to hear about your friend .

ZoeC, great to hear from you again !

Jambot, I have bad dreams like that as well and during the day everything around me turns into a tragedy waiting to happen. I get totally paranoid that something will fall on Niklas or I will drop him..... I think (or hope its quite normal. I'm terrified of dogs and had a really bad vicious dog dream the other night, luckily I woke myself in time to not get to the end of the dream though.

On the protein front, we are sitll not doing too well with giving Niklas a diet with protein. he has a littel bit of cheese sometimes, and has had fish and meat once ! Now we have moved and are more settled I really have to spend some more time with Annabel Karmel's book.

We had a very good and very bad weekend. Thursday night Niklas woke up being sick, he was sick every half hour, but had nothing to bring up. we got so worried he had swallowed something and it had got stuck that we took him to hospital. Saturday morning it was my turn to be ill, and sunday dh spent the day in bed.
On the good side the non-sick moments were great, we have banished the tv to a room in the basement (I hate it) and now spend much more time playing with Niklas together - Jambot, don't get it reconnected! Dh made Niklas a little house out of a big packing box which he crawls in and out of. wE are going to paint it for him.
Niklas was very clingy though, has a bad appetite and couldn't get him to eat anything much more than breast milk the whole weekend.

Hello everyone.

Harrison's sleeping has been much better of late and he is now mostly going to bed at 6.30pm, sleeping through until 5.30/6.00am, having a feed and going back to sleep until 7.30am

Having said that, DH was poorly at the weekend (aching limbs, tiredness, almost dying in his humble opinion ) and I think Harrison has gone down with it too. He was really unsettled and grumpy yesterday, very clammy to touch and off his food. He was hard to settle for bed and I had to go to him 3/4 times before I went to bed myself. Then he woke at 3.00am and I had to cuddle him back to sleep. Had just got back to sleep after settling him when DD came in at 4.00am to say her quilt had fallen off the bed. Aaaaaarrrggghhh

Have been giving Harrison calpol regularly during the day and that seems to be keeping his temperature under control. He's napping now and if today is like yesterday, he'll sleep for about 2 hours this morning and 2 hours again this afternoon. Best place for him at the moment until he gets better.

Leo - hope Niklaus is better now.

Sorry everyone is having such bad dreams. Can't say I suffer from these but I think that's because Harrison has only recently started sleeping through so I haven't had the luxury of reaching the dreaming level of sleep for a while Having children is so joyous but is also the greatest worry in the world and IME you just never stop fretting about something or other. With Harrison it's sleep, feeding, hurting himself as he tries to sit up. With DD, it's falling off her bike and wondering what people will think of the constant cuts and bruises she has on her arms and legs , trying to make sure she is growing up polite and well mannered, is she happy at school. It just goes on and on and on

Hope everyone has a nice day

I'm reading a book ATM called "What mothers do" by Naomi Stadlen. She says there that such bad dreams are not secret wishes or some such Freudian stuff, but a way of mums keeping alert and rehearsing what to do to prevent accidents happening. She makes a better case for it than I can write here. They are terrifying but quite common.

Cristina7 - that sounds absolutely right. I often think that my dreams are my way of working through stuff that worries me, and making sure things go better in real life.

I'm feeling somewhat sleep deprived today - we had some visitors overnight who arrived nearly at midnight, then Iris woke at 2am, 4.30am and at 6am wouldn't go back to sleep. Just drank a very large mug of tea and ate two enormous homemade chocolate biscuits to keep me going (the biccies were the size of saucers, as I rather messed up the recipe quantities ).

Still, enjoyed seeing our guests, and am now planning to do a bit of cooking whilst Iris sleeps. Better get on with it actually before she wakes up and spoils the plan!

serena is a green nosed baby. lovely. she is terribly snuffly and abit cranky.

Grace also has a cold - and we have had a few rough nights. She's sleeping now though so I guess I should get off here and do some housework before the school run .

Niklas is 100% better and after quite a few quite bad nights he slept last night from 8.00 through until almost 6.30 this morning :! So I also feel great again! And its my last day at work for the week !

I found out today that my neighbour (2 doors away) is from South Africa and her husband is English , they have a 13 month old girl who goes to Niklas's nursery 2 mornings a week. Nice to know I am not completely surrounded by strange swiss village people !

Niklas is obsessed with finding things to pull himself up on so he can stand at the moment! it really worries me as he hasn't worked out how to sit down again and when he gets tired standing he falls over - so we are going through another phase of head banging at the moment ! Yesterday I had the patio doors open, Niklas was playing in the living room. I turned my back to do something for a minute and when I turned back Niklas had disappeared , I found him out in the garden trying to climb up onto a box with and grab a fruit bowl which he had seen me put apples in ! He is really so cute at the moment and its unbelievable in the past 2 or 3 weeks how much he has developed.

leogaela - so cute about niklas being after the fruit!!

Iris can now lift one hand when in the crawling position, so now just needs to work out how to coordinate this with the other arm and her chunky legs!!

am off to oxford st with iris to do some clothes shopping for the girls ... what fun!

Hello everyone.

Harrison finally seems to have mastered the art of sitting up and as long as he doesn't get too excited at this new found skill of his and flap his arms madly in the air (which makes him fall backwards) he can sit up for quite a while

He's also got his appetite back and ate quite well yesterday. I still think he's under the weather as he keeps pulling at one of his ears and tilting his head to that side so a trip to the doctors is in order me thinks.

Leo- how cute Niklaus sounds. It will be all hands on deck now he can move and you'll quickly understand why all us second time mums are in no hurry for our new little ones to master this On the protein front, have a look at Annabel Karmel's website. There are some really quick and simple but very tasty recipes for chicken dishes. Harrison particularly loves the chicken and vegetable dish with apple.

Have a good day everyone

Well done Harrison! glad Harrison is feeling better and the ear pulling is nothing more that curiosity. Great idea, I will look at AK's website in a boring moment this afternoon (I am sure I will find an hours or two !)

Bonym & Misdee I hope your girls also feel better fast.

Pidge, what a lovely time you seem to be having always baking cakes and biscuits, going shopping in Oxford street! Great, enjoy and don't forget to buy something for yourself! Wow, I miss having somewhere decent to go shopping, Zürich is hopeless!

Niklas is very cute ! But yes, you can't take your eyes off him for a minute. We have a play pen which I am not keen on using, but he is not even safe in that at the moment as he pulls into standing on the bars, I like to be around to catch him when he falls!

BusyWizzy - Have just printed off the Annable Karmel recipe you suggested. I think Freya will love it, and it looks nice and simple to make.

I have a AK book, and have made Freya quite a few things from it. One of her favourites is the chicken with courgette and grapes.

We really aren't getting on very well with lumps at the moment though, she will filter out anything that is not blitzed and spit it out.

Have started my Xmas shopping! Bought Freya a Tumble Time Tigger from ELC at Bluewater today, and got DS1 some Knex Building stuff. Anyone else getting organised yet?

Leogaela - Are you doing 4 days at work at the moment? Have a lovely day tomorrow at home with Niklaus.