December 2009 - Still waiting for our Silent Night

[BlathIceSkate]

New thread

I got Catherine her first pair of shoes today :)

It's a good job she's waited this long to walk though as when I took her to Clarks to be measured, it turned out she is on the smallest size they do - a size 2. It's meant she's had to have 'cruisers' rather than walking shoes but at least now she has something to protect her feet. We went to the park yesterday with Alex and one of his school friends and she was desperate to be down and walking around but she only had socks on and I was worried about her standing on something sharp. At least now all I have to worry about is her falling over

Glad the eighbour wasn't in your garden Blue. That would have been very odd.

Hope Conrad's teeth are through soon and he starts to feel better so you can all get a good night's sleep.

A better night with hardly any wailing! Hope everyone has a super weekend.

Hello! I am still here, been feeling a bit under the weather this week with a slight sore throat/cough coming and going, nothing very much just made me feel a bit tired and I had loads on at work this week so been trying to go to bed early hence not much time for MN!

Blue, so glad to hear you had hardly any wailing, fingers crossed it continues for you.

Lee - yay for Andrew! I think Imogen is going to be the last one to walk, she'll go for miles holding onto a finger (well obviously stopping every 5 seconds because she is distracted by a leaf, or the ground, or the sky or something equally fascinating!!!!), and she is capable of taking maybe 6-8 steps alone but very rarely does it. One of her hips was twisted a bit at birth and we had to keep having scans at the beginning before getting the all clear. My understanding is that as her muscles build up it will turn her foot in, but haven't seen much sign of that yet so one of her feet turns out almost at right angles a lot of the time and she often sort of drags it - other times it looks much more like the other foot. I sometimes wonder if I should be more worried, but out of our NCT group only 2 out of 6 are walking confidently alone so I'm going to give it a bit longer I think...

Blathers your cakes are amazing, if you ever need to make a bit of pocket money you would definitely be able to so I reckon! Hope Catherine is enjoying her cruisers, Imogen needs to go back to be measured, her first pair I think are not quite too small, but not too far off now.

Hello to everyone else!

Hope you're feeling better now Hercule and I hope you're still getting quiet nights Blue. Yey for walking too. Catherine's been walking for weeks holding fingers Hercule but now she's decided that she can let go there's no stopping her - She walks everywhere. I'm sure Imogen won't be far behind.

Glad you all liked the cake. Making them for a living is a lovely idea. The problem is that they take hours sometimes and for the amount I'd be able to charge, it would work out a lot less than minimum wage. Plus when it's not going well it is sooooo stressful - awful when it's just a cake for us but I'd have a breakdown if it was for someone else!

I think I'm best off sticking to just doing family :)

My sister has asked me to make one for her 30th and I'm already panicing!!

Thanks blathers, am feeling a bit better now! My parents are back from NZ on Tuesday which is slightly earlier than planned as they were going to be coming back via Japan which they are now not doing so that is good news for me! Your cake for your sister will be fab no doubt!

I have just taken Imogen to the farm for the first time with MIL and we had a lovely time. They have a brilliant in indoor play barn with a fantastic area for toddlers and she loved all the animals, she got to stroke some of them and was so excited (although the trying to wash her hands properly wasn't all that easy!!!). I think we're going to buy her a season ticket as if we go 9 times in 6 months we'll have saved money and I would happily take her there once a week (although realistically that won't happen!!! Once she is walking, there will be loads more play areas she can go in, both inside and out which will be good too.

Anyway, looking forward to DH coming back later this evening. I have a hen weekend next weekend, will be the first overnight (in fact two!) I have spent away from Imogen I realised, so that will be a bit bizarre probably, although I am looking forward to it. I think I will be sharing a room with my SIL who is lovely and has a baby who is about 9 months so we shall probably not stay out too late and have lie ins, although we do have to dress up on the saturday night...

Hope you are all having lovely weekends and as lovely weather as we have here.

A good, busy weekend and a reasonable amount of sleep - just very little happening in Conrad's cot. He usually settles in it well at bedtime, so it's not the cot per se, but he won't move back into it if settled somewhere else. While it's cute snuggling down with him now and again, we would prefer it if he'd sleep on his own in his cot!

Have been using sheet and blanket, so might try sleeping bag tonight. It's not much but worth a go.

Hercule I'm sure next weekend will be relaxing knowing it's not your baby and you don't have to get out of bed, even if it won't be quite the sleep-fest it might have been.

Blue - she isn't bringing her baby sorry I meant we would both be baby free and having lie ins!!!

We also use a sleeping bag here, but only for night time sleep, although I know some people use them for day time naps. I think for us it works as it definitely signifies bedtime - Imogen now holds out her arms to have it put on her, or picks it up and tries to put it on herself if we are being too slow!!! Hope his sleep keeps getting better for you...

Spa day sounds lovely as does the camping (I am a camping sort of girl although haven't done much for ages!)!!!

We use a sleeping bag too. That, milk, story and bathtime definitely signal bedtime for Catherine. During the day she has a blanket for naps. We've finally cracked those too. We do milk and a story just like at night and then I lie her down and leave her. She puts herself to sleep now. We've had such a fight with her and sleep that this feels like a massive victory right now.

Now if I could just get an extra half hour in the morning......

Well, instead we went for ditching the cot and just putting him on a mattress, room secured by a gate on the door. It's just made it more comfy for whichever of us ends up joining him! Having spent a night with him, I think it's his cough, which wakes him up, disturbs him getting back to sleep, which ends up with him being tired and frustrated. Bedtime is generally fine: bath, stories, song, bed - it's just what happens after that!

However, nothing seems to shift a cough except time so I guess we just have to wait it out. He's been checked out twice in case it's a chest infection - I did warn the GP I'd be paranoid about him since he was one of the bronchy babies.

I hope his cough gets better soon Blue. You must be desperate for a nights sleep!

Catherine has done two mornings now where she's slept until 7.20 I'm hoping it's the clocks changing that have done it not just a random fluke. I've even set Alex's GroBag clock forward by 15 minutes so his Sun doesn't come up until 7am in the hope of getting a few more minutes in bed tomorrow. I've been doing the 30 day shred so I could do with the sleep right now :)

TBH as I haven't had an unbroken night's sleep for about 18 months I think I'm getting used to it!

Hope your mornings continue to go well Blathers - good work.

No such luck. Obviously it's imperative that someone in our house gets up at 6.45 as with Alex's clock reset, Catherine decided to wake up instead!

She woke Alex up too so we had them both in our bed jumping around.

Ah well, maybe tomorrow...

Maybe we'll all get a child-free Mothers' Day lie-in!

Best wishes for Mothers Day everyone. Really hoping DH has learnt his lesson from last year but even if not, I'm getting a much needed lie in and I have organised lunch at a local pub with SIL and MIL so at least I won't have to cook.

Hope you all have lovely days too.

Have you all seen the thread about the MN Spring meet-up? I'm really tempted to go....

Happy mothers' day lovely mums! I am in Bristol on my hen weekend, and have managed to get away with having about two drinks all weekend. we did it's a knockout yesteay and my arms really ache today! I am looking forward to going home though and giving Imogen and dh a cuddle and seeing my mum and gran too. Hope you all have lovely days.

Well, I got a Mothers' day lie in, and to go to a friend's party in the evening. Then got kept awake by Conrad till nearly 2.30 and woken up again at 6.30. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Hope you all fared better.

Like the new name Lee but I don't get the reference I'm afraid

I had a brilliant Mother's Day this year (which made up for the awful one last year!) Sorry Conrad kept you awake Blue.

Argh, am so sorry, the thread dropped off my Threads I'm On list and it took me ages to get round to finding it again!

Things are ok here, I know what you mean, Lee, about the developmental leaps, Noah's understanding has come on so fast in the last couple of months, we keep finding things he understands that we didn't realise he knew

I am having my first night away from him on Saturday night, eek! Have got to get him used to it as it's only 4 months til my due date (another eek!) and I'm likely to be in at least one night and I am the only one who has put him to bed so far. I think he'll be absolutely fine with DH, although DH is a bit more apprehensive!

I really must try and get on here more often, I feel like I'm always talking about myself as by the time I read all that I have missed, what I have read about is over!

Like the new name Lee - I think it is a literary reference if I am right?!? Haven't read the books though - are they good? Hope I'm not talking rubbish...

I think we have walking here!!! Suddenly last Tuesday Imogen started doing some walking on her own for short distances (like 3 metres maybe?), but when she fell down to her knees she would just crawl and most of the time she still wanted to hold onto a finger (not a hand though, that resulted in a mini-tantrum obviously). Then tonight after dinner, she just walked across the room, she fell over but just got up in the middle of the floor then continued walking. Didnt want to walk to either me or DH as that would have ended her walk, so she just kept walking around the room, falling down, getting up again, walking etc... it was brilliant! She did get a bit confused though when she picked up her toy cars, as she wanted to make them go along the ground, but wanted to walk at the same time and couldn't decide what to do!!!

Kate, hope all goes well on Saturday. I had my first two nights away this weekend just gone. I did miss her much more than I thought I would, and driving up the M4 to Bristol I felt a bit silly wanting to go back for one last hug!!! Once there though it was fine and I had a nice time, although on the Sunday I did just want to come home for a play!!!! She woke up in the night for DH (twice and wouldn't settle easily) - part of me felt sorry for him as she is a nightmare when she wakes up now (which luckily is rarely), but then part of me was a little bit pleased he found out it isn't all as easy as he thinks. We currently have practically no food in our house though as DH didn't go shopping as 'Imogen was having too much fun'. Hmmmm..... we just had beans on toast for tea tonight!!!!!

I only have two days left until my Easter holidays and am looking forward to that!

Does anyone know anything about chicken pox?

There have been 5 confirmed cases at Alex's school (he has never had it) and this afternoon he has developed the runs. No spotsyet. Could it be related?

Catherine is also not her usual self. She loves bathtime and usually cries to get in but tonight she just screamed while she was in there! I got her out and dried and dressed her but she still just cried. She only stopped when we snuggled down to read a bedtime story but she was still doing those stuttering inhales they do when they've been really crying. I had to snuggle her until she fell asleep and she's been putting herslef to sleep for ages now.

We've been well (ignoring them both having conjunctivitis) for a few weeks now, it must be time for someone to get ill again