March 2010. A lesson for much of life: Shut the door. Find the corkscrew.

[Arcadie]

Happy Christmas MMMs. This is my gift to you!

(catching up on OB@Xmas whilst both girls sleep.....and the tears (crying kind not the foofoo kind), ladies, the tears...)

BMI DD is still taking 6 bottles of milk a day, although with BLW it's harder to see how much food she's been getting in. Until this week though she's only had two and a half teeth, and now it seems that another 5 will be through this week. Yes, 5 of the buggers all in one go. She has a doidy cup for water at mealtimes but prefers to pour it over the table and then lap it from the mat like a cat.

We do a similar bedtime routine to Siamese, and usually DD is down by about 7pm.

Siamese I was wondering, how DO you bake with a 10 month old? It's not like they can do much stirring or egg-cracking, although DD does seem to enjoy eating cake just like Mummy

fliss 5!! I reckon we'll get three this week though, and I'm clinging on to the vain hope it is this keeping her up at 3am.

Baking - I was just thinking about you wrt this! I was thinking what kind of activities a CM might do (not ceebebies :) ) DD seemed to have helped stir at nursery, but today she helped tip in the raisins and sat amongst the ingredients. She watched me stir with interest, I explained Nigella style what I was doing, and looked through the oven door at what we'd put in. She liked the end result too - Hugh's oat and raisin cookies :)
The 'Wonderweeks' book reckons they begin to understand processes around now so I though she might like to see something through from beginning to end. She also thinks the washing machine is magical :)

How was first day at work ang?
did DS like you coming back Evitas?

Sat amongst the ingredients. I hope you mean before they went in the bowl. Messy!

DS didn't seem very upset with my absence. In fact the CM said he had a good time crawling around, chasing the dog and trying to play with the other two children. He even had a 45 minute nap in the pram
He'll go from 9 till 5 twice next week, and I'm feeling much more confident :)

BMI writing ... oh well... it's going.
It has been harder and harder for my DS to drink milk! I know he's not getting what he's suppose to, but on the other hand he has yoghurt and cheese and he's much more interested in food rather than milk.

ang how was your DS' day?

Melk @your cousin's story.

Siamese baking?! very very impressive :) How's your sister?

Pixie great news on your DD recovery! Sorry about the eczema

Heckle good to see you around. Hope your DF's hip replacement goes well

RKD was your DS's first day at school today?

Bluey Marathon ?! Well done and good luck! How's the work going?

Smac how are the Welsh classes going? I think it must be a difficult language, isn't it?

Sarah how's E. doing? Is he better?

I must say I'm very impressed with those baby walking! We are not even close to the classic crawling...

For those who had premature babies before (pixie and PD, if I'm correct) How long did it take them to catch up? I know every baby is different but I think DS stills a little bit behind his peers. Sometimes I get a bit anxious about it. Every time he does something new I get so excited but them I look at other babies and they have been doing that for a while... and I go :(

Ok, time to prepare dinner.
Waves to everyone.
night night

Poor your cousins melk

Great ideas re activities pixie and siamese. Pixie sorry about elbow and glad your DD better. Do you put the flour etc in an uncovered bowl? Do they try to eat it?

BMI I also have a nighttime routine, It's the only thing that (most of the time) worked. Is very like Siamese's one though lately she's falling asleep between 7 and 8 whereas it used be between 6 and 7. DD sleeps about 2 hours in total for naps on a good day, either in 2 naps or 3. Can take her twice that long to get her to sleep lol. On a bad day....well....no comment....

Trying again to get DD in the cot alone to sleep (for the last few months she's been sleeping in arms then bomb disposal antics to get her in the cot without waking up). It changes all the time. Anyway, is taking ages and I stay with her, picking her up at times, but she's not screaming blue murder and falls asleep eventually. Tonight after about an hour or so I picked her up and said to her words I hoped she'd understand "DD, mammy and daddy love you. DD fall asleep in cot. mammy and Daddy downstairs. mammy be back" Seems to have worked!! Which pleases me. Hope I'm not wasting my time and I'm not sure anyway why I think it's so important for her to get to sleep in the cot.

Anyway dinner is served. Ang and evitas thinking of you.

Evitas sorry x post. meant thinking of you and the CM. Now your DS is thriving. He looks full of life and very engaged in life. Don't compare him with others. Therein lies madness. A baby of an friend of mine is not as active as DD, yet on the other hand she was much more visibly excited by things months earlier than DD, so was concentrating on different things obviously. I know that might be hard but they all have their own timetable. It doesn't mean he's behind. I never heard anyone say about an adult, "oh she's a great walker, bet she walked early"

Just popping in to say thank you for your support. Ds was very good at nursery, managed a couple of naps and ate his lunch and snack. They said he was very happy and didn't cry at all. He spent most of the day crawling around exploring.
I am knackered, I take my hat off to those of you who do 12 hour shifts.
Feel much better about him going to nursery tonight as he seems happy.
evitas glad your Ds day at cm was a success.

Off to bed owing to
stupid baby waking and
stupid insomnia and
wonderful news about my friend who had a baby at 1am which I got the text about at 2:30 and
her son who was staying at my house for the day and night and

uuurrrrgggggghhhhhh

DS1's first day tomorrow. Feeling chipper but know I'll be RUBBISHLY snivelly about it tomorrow.

Love to all

Shout outs soon

Evening, all .

He Who Must Be Obeyed is in bed - I've only been up twice in the last 45 min to settle him again . Not great, but hey ho, I am hoping it is teeth again and Will Pass.

evitas, my DS2 (born at 31+4 weeks) was quite late at hitting his milestones (did not sit securely at 10 months, walked @ 17 months) and I would say, was around 2 years old before I did not think of him as needing special consideration. Strangely, the physical side of things did not worry me at the time, however he was also a very serious baby and barely smiled at all until about 9-10 months old and that scared me - he has now made up for it in sheer cheek and he is the more physical talented of my 2 older ones. And had No Fear .
I agree, never ever compare your DS to anybody elses child. They really all do things in their own time. And I've met your DS - he is perfect , nothing wrong with him, honest!!

Well done to all those braving first days/weeks at work and first separation from their LOs. It is usually the babies that take it all in their stride and the mummies that are gibbering wrecks ! I hope everybody has found childcare that they are happy with - that makes all the difference.

Not much baking going on here - certainly not with Joe... at best he gets a few Cheerios to play with/eat. He has taken to eating HUGE amounts of food - I honestly do not know where he puts i all. I do know where it ends up though - mahoosive nappies here .
Milk: who knows?? He has about 4-5 breastfeeds/day and drinks v little water but eats a lot of (pureed) fruit. I have stopped buying baby yoghurts because he would have 2 or 3 at a time and can easily demolish a grown-up sized yoghurt in one sitting.

Dh is at work, bedtime for 4 went ok, DS1 even went to Tae kwon do on his own tonight (was v proud of his achievement!) which ment for a non-hectic evening - well, relatively speaking anyway. DS2 has quit TKD which I am quite sad about but he had been moaning about it for over 3 months and I had become fed up making him go twice a week...

Must go and watch some 'Silent Witness'. Night, all!

Oh, very bestest of luck for ArcadieBoy tomorrow - how exciting!!

You'll be just fine

Congrats to your friend RKD, hope you get a good night's sleep tonight. Good luck for tomorrow :)

Well done ang on surviving your first day back, and well done to your DS at nursery. And evitas I'm glad DS got on well with the CM.

Pixie it must be a weight off your shoulders to have told DD2 about the new LO on the way.

Thanks for the milk and sleep advice everyone. I think tomorrow I'll try waking her up from her morning nap if she goes past 90 mins (then might cut back even further if that helps). How do I wake her without upsetting her and leaving her grumpy for the rest of the day?

Morning ladies. Despite being up sInce 5.30 I feel okish because DD woke just once, at 1 (wow-6.30 till 1 is 6.5hrs! Imagine if I had gone to bed then too!). I am putting this down to not feeding to sleep at 6.30, but shushing her which took 20 mins but was worth it :) but I don't think 5.30am is sustainable!!

Good luck on the no tears today RKD
Melk are you in contact with your cousins? Where are they going to stay? Did you see the thread about sharks? (not helping)
pixie good activity ideas- but DD would immediately empty the bowls :)
donttry thanks for the link, I think we've tried most of what was suggested. The vet has tried too. I've contacted the breeder to see if she can help find him somewhere he will be happier (but I keep crying when I think of not having him :( )
Sister still pg, and as bored as me.

morning all
well done siamese on the getting up front, and the shushing - i am currently listening to my monitor bellow SHUSHSHUSHSHUSH at thea who is, er, not listening.... i know it's a bit early for her morning nap but she was sort of showing all the signs. Thanks also for the shark link! love it. my cousin's house is the only one standing AFAIK so she is ok and they are helping their neighbours to clear out etc - it's pretty awful though, no bridges, no roads, no way to get into town, and food is running out. feel very helpless, i know once it's settled down a bit there i can cobble together a box of stuff to get to them but there is NOTHING we can do now, short of hopping on a plane and getting out there with some building materials?!
pixie whilst in awe of the Texture Bowls, i'm with siamese, there is NO WAY they would stay upright. and since the dog doesn't do flour or dry pasta (and that's the only way it's getting cleared up) it's not happening until summer. (I suppose giving her bowls of different textured steak would be just wrong...)
siamese Am sorry about the cat too, I don't really know what to suggest but i do know of others whose cats just NEVER took to them. in fact one family ended up constructing this weird tunnel to the garden shed so that the cats never entered the house again . imho if he is happier elsewhere then that must be better than banishment. you poor thing though. MY cat is, i think, the source of our recent Rat infestation which not only kept us all awake but KILLED MY DISHWASHER for which our insurance is null and void.....GRRRRRRR. so if he kills rats on a regular basis i might just take him
rkd good luck today.by now you are either sobbing/walking wistfully away from the school gates. btw am sorry about my random excitement on fbk with regard the new baby - for a moment there i thought the lovely Carrie was pg at last and deserved a clap on the back. I did various sets of maths to work out if this was possible (perhaps 20wk scan?) but now i realise i'm Completely Wrong.. am obviously massively pleased for your other friend though.
pd i just flicked across some other threads and saw your sad one about the swine flu man. awful. the toddler in birmingham story got me - just terrible. am sorry you had to do this but well done, you at least are making a difference, my lovely.

Brain can't compute much more so BIG to all. here the pox is, er, well it's plateaued i think so i hope we can start getting out and about soon. I've started being hardcore with Thea and her naps, i am putting her down sans milk and whilst she cried, she is now quiet/asleep. i'm hoping this might pave the way forward. (it sounds like a small thing but for a while there, a bottle of formula was the only way to get her down - she will feed forever on the boob and whilst i love her room, i have little desire to spend hours at a time there )
OH and (sorry for waffling on) just a little one - last night, i fed/settled thea at about 1230, (took an hour, both boobs, many times). this meant I was basically wiped out at 3 to do anything when she cried - so DH sorted her. Poor man is KNACKERED today. In contrast I actually feel fine. But it did make me realise - THAT is why i'm wiped out at 7am when he leaves for work without so much as a wave from me. I don't feel vindicated, so much as, er....relieved that i'm not lazy?!!

right. bored you all enough.

Chicken pox is slowly disapearing from here too MELK- Elliott back to his normal self, eating, shouting, playing, bum shiffling everywhere, its fab, he also slept from 6-30 last night till 7-20 this morning, i cannot tell u how refershed i feel especilly after a night with 2 of my closest friends, dinner and 4 bottles of wine

Glad to hear your on ELk is getting better too

Siamese, sorry about the cat, its sad isnt it as they are still part of the family, although i am thinking if oonle there was someone i could call to take my darling DD! (joking!!!!!!!) i asked the breeder but sadly dh wants to keep her!!!!!

WD on sleep with Charlotte too, :( @5-30 wake up though

How w2as the first school run RKD hope Pds Hankerchief severd you well x

Right off to do some house work before attending a funeral( a friends step father) he passed away on boxing day after a number od storkes and dementure, sad but thats life i guess

BBL

Mummyelk is officially a legend for texting me at JUST the right time as I was walking away from school.

Sarah is a love for facebooking me a lovely message.

PD won't thank me for the mess I made of her hanky but...

tis done. DS1 is officially a schoolboy. I have a child at school. I am that old.

rubbish night's sleep but have an hour now with kids out or sleeping to get some jobs done and get ready for toddler group this pm.

thank you all soooooo much for your kind words and your lovely support. I know I'm a total sap but it's nice to know people care. :)

Ah glad it went off well RKD

Whifff....must shower...

I've not done a proper catch up - later, hopefully, but this is especially for sariska - disable autocorrect like this: go to settings>general>keyboard>autocorrection>off. Simples!

Also

Thank you thank you.....

PD Still don't know how you're sane with such little sleep but I'll sprinkle all the sleep dust in the world your way.....

Melk at textured steak bowls. DH would LOVE that.

evitas my niece who was 11 weeks preemie caught up by about 18 months but I guess if DS is 6 weeks preemie it should take him less time???

Pixie Respect to the texture bowls. Will try it now that I have some one on one Simmy time. on a wipe clean floor

fliss and Siamese are you talking about our BABIES helping with the baking? Like, 9 /10 month olds? I barely let DD (aged 3) help....

big at rkd for calling me a legend, much appreciated...
nothing much else to say! have lurked a bit on MN today and realised/remembered a) what a time-sapper it is b) how addictive it is c) that quite often it makes me a worse mum for it "in a minute darling, yes yes, i'm glad your sister finds it funny when you sit on her, yes yes at the top of the stairs, hilarious darling, listen i'll be in in a minute i'm just finished my work "
but i HAVE had a lovely day with them both so in all - it's been a good day