March 2005 part 3 - Support for the sleep obsessed!

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Which of course, we all are

jambot - that's it. I can verify it is totally delicious. My older daughter loved it last time my mum cooked it. Can't remember where she got the recipe from now, but she had a friend living in South Africa, so maybe from her. Must say I've never understood the biltong thing. My dp lived in Zimbabwe for a year, and he was never converted to it either!

Drat - Iris just waking, no more mumsnet for me!

The biltong sounds great to me but... sweet egg custard....yurrrrgh!

We have bits of snow in Zurich last year we had loads. It was snowing on the day Niklas was born. It was the best snowboarding season ever and I couldn't snowboard , but the sacrifice was worth it though ! Can't wait to go this year, I am getting all tingly thinking about it!

Niklas doesn't say dada or baba either !

Big success from Annabel Karmel tonight - pasta with tomato and mushroom sauce. She loved it! .

I will do as you suggested with the chicken Pidge, and mix it in with something else - sweet potato maybe.

Busywizzy, so sorry to hear about your friend. I would do as already suggested and get tickets/vouchers for an "experience" of some sort. How about an aromatherapy massage? I got one for my dad's birthday a few years ago - he'd never had one before and absolutely loved it.

Well, Grace is now in bed (and quiet, so I'm hoping asleep!) and I must go and sort dd1 out now. Dh is away at a conference tonight so I am going to have an indulgent evening with rubbish telly and lots of chocolate .

Wishing you all a peaceful night.

Not got time to read and catch up....
last wednesday, we got a phone call at school to say were gping to be inspected......5 days later!!!!
so mondya andtuesday they were in!
So i have had 12 consecutive days at work......wokred last friday and have to go in tomorrow for inset

anyway 0 hols next week!
bit of a breakthrough with harry's sleep......three nights ago, he discovered he could sleep on his tunny
and what a diffence....last night he didnt wake for his 10pm feed....slept til 1:30, woke briefly, slept til 5:00 had a wuick feed then backto sleep
in cot for half the night then in with me

but it is brill

i have probably jinxed it now but there you go!
hope you re all ok

popsycal - brilliant news on harry - iris did the same - rolled to her front and slept wonderfully. Then she stopped rolling over, so now I put her down on her tummy. Definite improvement. Also I have been gradually cutting back the nighttime feeds minute by minute. Have been avoiding reporting here for fear of the MUMSNET SLEEP JINX! But .... tempting fate .... she's been going through from 7pm to 3 or even 5am over the last week. Hope Harry heads the same way & good luck with the inspectors.

How much food do you give your babes? I swear Iris would eat me out of house and home if she had her way. Yesterday evening she had a whole pot - 4 of those really big ice cubes of main course, then half a mashed banana, then she spied the rest of the banana and more or less grabbed it out of my hand and scoffed that too. My dd1 was a pretty good eater - not fussy - but never ate on this scale!

Hi Popsycal. Glad the sleep is better. Sounds like you need it, with work being so hectic.
Pidge - Lauren eats enough for a small army! For dinner, she's on eight teaspoons of protein, eight of veg, plus about another eight of yoghurt and fruit. She would eat a whole pot of yoghurt on her own if she could - she's crazy for the stuff.
She really likes fish. Did the AK cod, with tomato in a cheese sauce. Nummy Mummy!
We are now finally sitting. Although still a bit wobbly. She is so happy at the moment. Laughing at everything. Was looked after by our staff yesterday as DH and I had to get some stuff for our new kitchen. She loves all the attention and she was transported around on the back of our lovely housekeeper, Mavis. All the black women carry their babies on their backs, tied on with a blanket. Lauren loved it. Actually it's almost exactly the same as the Ergo carrier that I bought, which she also loves. Have put a pick on the bucket.

Pidge, when I make up food for Harrison, I put two heaped dessertspoons of pureed mixture into a pot which roughly half fills one of those Avent storage pots for food and breastmilk.

Harrison has three heaped teaspoons of porridge mixed with cows milk for breakfast, he has a meat pot of meal for lunch followed by a hot pudding (custard, rice pudding etc) and he has a pot of vegetarian food for tea followed by a petit filous yogurt.

In addition to this, he has a full 8oz bottle at about 6.00am, 4oz mid morning and mid afternoon and another full 8oz before bedtime.

I think he eats really well compared to many of the other babies I see regularly.

Popsy, good to hear from you and that Harry's sleep is getting so much better. Hope inspection is OK.

Great news on the sleep front (no pun intended lol) Popsy - let's hope it continues.

Sadly, I should have followed Pidge's example and not told you all about Grace sleeping through 2 nights ago. The last two nights she has been much more restless. Not sure what is going on but every 2-3 hours she yells and then wimpers or grumbles, but mostly for a max. of 20 secs, then goes quiet again. Don't think she is even waking up. Once or twice she hasn't settled quickly, but will if I go in, pop her dummy back in and stroke her head a bit. I have fed her at about 5am and am wondering if this is maybe the best I can hope for for now - she does go back to sleep after that feed until anywhere between 7.30-8.30am. Reading that back, it sounds as though I should really have no complaints, but after that one night I naively thought she'd carry on doing it! Daft eh?

Grace has about 1/5 tablespoons of cereal mixed with 3oz of milk, plus fruit for breakfast, 6 ice cubes of something savoury for lunch and a whole yoghurt, and similar for tea but fruit instead of yoghurt for pudding. I tried Pidge's tip of mixing the chicken and grape with something else today (sweet potato) and she ate all but one small spoonful! Success - thanks Pidge.

Have just been looking at the photobucket - Lauren looks so cute being carried in that blanket jambot. All the babies are absolutely gorgeous - I mean really, March was obviously the month for beautiful children to be born . I have added some new piccies of my beautiful one!

Hope everyone is well today and enjoy your weekends!

Big hit with mine is chicken with banana and avo.

jambot - I think Iris would eat mud if it had banana with it!! Actually, knowing babies she'd probably eat mud anyway! I love the look on her face when she gets banana - like, mum why don't you give me this delicious stuff EVERY mealtime?

She just had her first fish - sea bass! Rather deluxe for a baby, but we happened to be eating it last night, so I saved her a spoonful and mixed it up with some squash and broccoli, and as ever she wolfed it.

Sleep is a mystery to me. Three nights ago she slept from 7pm to 6am without waking to feed. Two nights ago she woke at 2, 4, 5.20 and 6.30, and last night she woke at 10.30, 12.30 before going through till 6.30. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. [Baffled emoticon]!

Must scoot - am about to have my postnatal tea group descend so must get the biccies out and put the kettle on.

Hello everyone.

Haven't posted for a few days as Harrison has been a bit under the weather and has been seriously hard work Had to resort to giving calpol every four hours over the weekend as he was sooooo grumpy and tearful. He was so unsettled that I had to go to my friend's party by myself and DH stayed home to babysit as it didn't seem right to inflict a baby who can scream so loudly on the babysitter. Poor girl would never have come back

Seems much brighter today although isn't eating too good still. Saying that, made him cauliflower cheese last night and added brocolli (leftover Sunday lunch) and he ate it like it was the most delicious thing in the world. It looked like frog spawn!!!!!

Sleep seems to be still going OK, with only the occasional blip. Quite regularly now he's sleeping through until 5.30am ish from 6.30/7.00pm, has a feed and goes back to sleep until 7/7.30am. He's started playing up a bit when I put him down for a nap but I think that he's reaching that age where despite how tired he feel's, he wants to stay awake and play. Hasn't helped that DD is now on half term so his idol is around making him even more determined not to want to be put in his cot. Once he goes off, he's still sleeping really well twice a day.

Oh almost forgot, lost DD in John Lewis on Saturday She went missing for 10 minutes and it was the longest 10 minutes of my life. When DH found her, I burst into tears and everyone in the shop was looking at the mad woman clutching onto her child as if she was about to be stolen at any momet. Pidge, can't begin to imagine your fear loosing DD on a beach as at least I sort of knew it was unlikely she would have been taken. Had to come home in the end as I couldn't stop crying, but DH bought me a lovely top to cheer me up

Have a nice day everyone and hope to see some more posts soon. Seems a bit quiet at the moment.

Meant to add that I made the tomato and mushroom pasta from AK that Bonym recommended. Can't say it was the success it was in your house though. Harrison took one mouthful and clamped his mouth shut with his, 'if you think I'm eating that muck, think again' look. The next time I tried he started crying the minute he tasted what it was so think we'll give that one a miss from now on.

Trying baked butternut squash from AK today. I'm getting to be quite the domestic goddess. Not on Pidge's scale of course, but who knows, I may one day achieve those dizzy heights

Busywizzy - sorry Harrison didn't like the pasta sauce - hopefully the squash will be a bigger hit (Grace loves it although that doesn't mean anything given the tomato and mushroom disaster ). Glad he's feeling better.

How scary to lose dd1 - I can imagine how you must have felt, poor you.

Pidge - sleep is a mystery here as well. After going from 6.30 - 6.05 last Tuesday, it has been all over the place. She seems to wake every 2-3 hours and cry a bit. She'll usually settle herself really quickly but we have to go in to her normally twice a night to give her dummy or ssshh and cuddle her. She had been waking for a feed about 5.30am but is getting earlier and earlier - it was 4.30am this morning. We tried to calm her without a feed but I eventually gave in at about 5.15 and gave her 3 mins worth! That was enough to settle her again so I don't think she can be really hungry.

She is really vocal recently and we have long conversations although her vocabulary is a bit limited - "ba" is the most used word with "mmmm" and "aaaahhh" close runners up ("mama" seems to have been forgotten sadly!)

busywizzy - poor you losing dd - I can really empathise after our Spanish beach trauma. I can still feel that utter panic, as we hunted and hunted. I guess it's an inevitable experience of parenthood at some point, and absolutely ghastly.

LOL at the dizzy heights of domestic goddessness. Thing is I only really do sweet things. Last night dp rustled up amazing sea bass, and as ever I was on pudding duty!

Iris is a bit grump these days too. She can sit brilliantly, but is no longer content to do that. Instead she launches herself forward into crawling position onto all fours, and gets stuck and grizzles because she can't go anywhere.

Don't even want to think how it must feel to loose your child - even for a minute. Must make you feel absolutely sick. There have been a spate of terrible child murders in SA over the last month. Children being abducted and then found in the bushes mutilated and murdered. Absolutely awful. There was a huge headline making story about 6 months ago. This 21 year old girl paid 3 poor, out of work guys about R100 pounds each to kill the baby her ex boyfriend had fathered with another girl. They got into the house pretending to be delivering the parcel - locked up the nanny and the girl's brother, went into the babie's bedroom ( a little girl), and slit her throat. The whole country was totally shocked. Luckily the police caught this girl - who looks like the sweetest, prettiest little thing, who wouldn't hurt a fly. What kind of sick jealousy would make you want a baby dead. Apparently she did it to seek revenge against the father for breaking up with her!! Imagine being phoned at work to be told your child has been murdered in its own bed?
Sorry to be telling such an awful story but still can't get over it. It's like a movie plot.

Sorry about errors - wouldn't let me preview for some reason.
Lauren is also in full voice at the moment. The tone of her voice has changed and she's making new sounds. She doesn't shut up from morning till night! Think we have a major chatterbox in the making. What toys are yours enjoying at the moment? I find it's a bit of a difficult in-between stage. Not ready for blocks and shape sorters etc, but bored with her old soft toys and rattle type things. Any ideas?

On the toy front - Freya is a big Power Rangers and Batman fan (courtesy of all the inappropriate toys DS1 keeps giving her to play with - I really must supervise them more!)

Half term here so DS1 and I have spent the afternoon decorating his play room in a halloween theme - it looks great! Freya slept thru it all.

no time to catch up really..but we are backto sqaure one as harry does not like sleeping on his tummy anymore
grrrr
i must get tough in the night!!!
trying to get organised with food for harry.....making afew different pasta sauces and about to do ome chicken stuff...have cod lined up too to sort out.....

did i tell you he has an inhaler?
he has had a dreasful cough for about 5 weeks now.....not ill at all - no temperature, feeding well and sleeping as he normally does but everyone has been nagging me to take him to the docs.....anyway the doc agreed that he should nto have antibiotics but said the inhaler may help. probably a post viral thingy....

anyway
harry hates it!
will take him back to docs next week if it doesnt settle
on a different note,....one of my best friends is in labour RIGHT NOW!!!! positive pain killing vibes please

popsycal - good luck to your friend. I have a friend expecting a baby any minute too, and am getting increasingly excited!

Sorry to hear Harry has gone backwards on the sleep front.

We just had one of THOSE nights. Iris did ok (by her standards), waking at 4.30, 5.30 and 6.30. But we were also up between 12.30 and 2.30 with dd1 throwing up everywhere. Inevitably this morning she is bright as a button and insisted on eating a sizeable breakfast, whilst dp and I look haggard and worn out!

Oh well ... half term here too ... and we're off to see the Gruffalo at a local theatre with one of dd1's friends. Not sure what Iris will make of it!

Pidge - Took DS1 to see the Gruffalo during the summer hols - he loved it (and so did I!). It is very good. Freya was a bit younger then so fed a bit and dozed a bit and also smiled a bit!
Have fun. Weather here rubbish, so no outing to the park today and really can't face a soft play centre, so not sure what to do really.

Oooh Popsycal! How is your friend and the new baby?
HAve you tried sleeping Harry on his side? That's Niklas's favourite sleeping position. Hope the whole thing with the inspectors went OK.
Hope his cough gets better.

Pidge - Niklas was a grumpy for weeks while he was trying to master crawling. Now he is so happy that he can get around himself.

So I had my 4 days off work which was really great. I seem to have much more patience for Niklas now and can find that extra bit of energy that I was sometimes lacking before.

Niklas's favourite food is definitely apple. He can eat a whole apple but doesn't have a great appetite for much else, at the most eats half an avent pot of puree at lunch and dinner and breakfast half a banana and cereal. He prefers to eat bits of food or finger food than purees, but then I never know how much he is eating. He also likes strong flavours, carrot and potatoe were a big NO, but I added loads of onion to it and he was happy as anything. He is definitely still a big milk fan. He can always find extra room for milk.

Toys - Niklas's favourite toys are his toothbrush, tube of cream for his nappy rash (which he has started to get recently), the musical part of his cot mobile (which I have taken to pieces), books, and if I can get him interested in anything else the baby lego (the box is essential)is the best. He also loves the spinning top.

Niklas has started going to bed earlier and earlier (more like 7pm now instead of 9) , but wakes up around 5 everyday now (as well as waking once for a feed and at least one other time), I've tried everything to get him back to sleep, we've given up and started to just get up early. I met one of our new neighbours yesterday, she has a year old boy who sleeps from 6.30pm to 9am without waking up at all !

little girl at 9:45 last night...no pain relief so I am guessing it went pretty quickly as she would have demended it if she was allowed I am sure

harry sleeps on his side most of the time...has done since early on....

anyway - tonight is the night.
i am wearing a bra and a tight t shrit and he is not coming in the bed

hahaha
famous last words

oh yes....
cod and sweet potato is a hit, as is pasta in mushroom sauce (both AK recipes....)

Popsy - you're getting tough . Hope it goes ok tonight. Congrats to your friend btw.

popsycal - hope last night went ok.

We keep swearing we're going to get tough with Iris, but recently she seemed to have been improving of her own accord, and when she regresses there's always some reason why I end up giving in and feeding her, like we have guests staying, or she wakes dd1 up, or she's a bit poorly.

Could have really done with a good night last night, after the previous night's 2 hour vomiting episode from dd1 followed by Iris waking hourly from 4.30! So we went to bed at 9pm, and guess what time Iris woke ..... yup, 9.30pm. And she was inconsolable despite an hour of cuddling etc. Finally gave in and fed her. She is full of cold and streaming snot, so am hoping that was the source of the trouble. She then woke at 2, 4, 5.45 etc. Boy could I do with a nap!

The gruffalo was great. Can heartily recommend it to any of you with 3+ year olds. My dd1 was gorgeous, shouting "I've got a book with a gruffalo in it" when the eponymous beast first appeared! Then "Go away gruffalo" every few minutes from then on. And Iris was so excited she refused to sleep throughout, until about 30 seconds from the final curtain call, when she finally gave in and started snoring!