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

[Arcadie]

Happy Christmas MMMs. This is my gift to you!

Wow, walking babies! Mine's still pushing off with his toes and dragging himself around with one arm.

God I miss work. And there is no work out there. Jobs in my area are few and far between . I feel that I need to do something with my brain before it shrivels away. At the very least, I want to have 2 mornings a week to myself - sorry if that sounds selfish. However, my local nursery only accepts babies if you sign up to 4 mornings a week (or 2 full days). I can't afford that.

Babies ... cooking? .

Popping in to say that I just cut Isobel's fringe! It was really getting in her eyes, so I just snipped an inch or so off once she was asleep. She was lying on her side, so it may well be completely squint. I can always hack away have another go in daylight tomorrow. Also, she fell asleep at 10pm, which is still too late, but it's a step in the right direction. I got up at 7am with her this morning instead of bringing her into our bed for another hour's sleep, and woke her from morning and afternoon naps after 90mins.

How did DS1 enjoy his first day at school then Arcadie?

Shroomer, not selfish at all.

Melk I turned round from the computer earlier today to find Isobel's hand this close to the cat's food bowl. Roaring "Hey, no!!" at her was enough to stop her in her tracks, thankfully. Will pay more attention in future

I'm not sure I could give Isobel free reign with a bowl of flour either. I balk at the mess she makes with her own food, never mind giving her anything additional to throw around the room.

OK, I realise that Isobel's haircut wasn't really exciting enough to warrant an exclamation mark. Someone else post, please? :(

BMI- good job looking at facebook! I cut DS hair when he was two weeks old. Now he goes to the barber with daddy.

Off to work soon til 2am. The thought of Mexico in 5 days is helping me' cope ;-)

Can't recall who was asking about sleeping through- evidence in books and confirmed by DS shows the earlier I manage to get him to bed- the longer he sleeps- generally. He has 15min about 9.45, 2 hrs at 1pm and I do my best to get him to bed by 7.15. Normally sleeps til 6. 6.45 if I'm really lucky. If I put him to bed later he us overtired. Apparantly that makes them produce cortisone which apparently stops them self settling when they wake in the night. I find here tgatscabout 5am!

BMI how did it look in daylight?

What I'm getting at is we tried allsorts and actually the better sleep he gets during the day and earlier he goes to bed equals happy house.! I searched loads online in hope- whilst I'm not complaining cos I know I'm lucky he sleeps nearly 11 hrs most nights cos i work shifts I'd so rather it was 8 til 8! Still, can't have everything

Arcadie No, I?ve not been brave enough to let DD do any baking, although we did have some gloop out yesterday which provided much entertainment. Apparently it as also mightily tasty, although I am not convinced how flavoursome cornflour and water actually is! Glad DS got off to school ok Did he enjoy it?

Shroomer Not selfish in the slightest, hopefully something will come up for you soon. Can you put DS with a childminder for two mornings a week if the nursery isn?t an option?

BMI Loving the picture of DD?s new haircut DD?s needs doing but at the moment we?re still going for the comb-over and putting it off. Fingers crossed for an earlier bedtime tonight!

Scooby Since we?ve set going-for-a-bath time as 6pm (or earlier if DD is tired) I?ve noticed that DD is sleeping MUCH better. It?s only half an hour or so earlier than before but it?s made a huge difference. Tonight she was in the bath at 6pm, and was bathed, dressed, fed and spark out with me back on MN for 6.30pm, she'll be woken up at about 12 for a bottle if she's not up at 11pm (although this will be dropped soon we think) and then will sleep until about 6.30am. Before, she was often up at 11, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

IWCAS Your HV thinks a 10 month old baby has a behavioural issue because he's not sleeping through? She needs to get herself on this thread, she might be in for a shock.

Walking babies?
Baking babies?
Baby haircuts?
Baby behavioural problems?? WTF

I think I must be in the wrong thread, sorry ladies, as you were...

On the upside, it IS beer o'clock here!! Chin-chin!

Cheers PD

7 1/2 hours in one go - now that IS something to celebrate!

I would be very happy with midnight to half seven
chin chin I'm having a beer too

Today DD whipped up a mushroom risotto and some souffles, which were horribly heavy but we had a chat and she knows where she went wrong so I don't think it'll happen again.

I'm drinking heavily too, cheers. Tonight is night One of Operation Sleep. She went down awake at 6.30, and I held her down her hand till she went off a few mins later. Hooray! Then it went tits up after 50 mins which never happens so I pu/pd and she went off again until 20 mins later!!! So I did it again... It's going to be a long night! Do u think I should try and drop both feeds tonight or let her have a feed after 4, say?

Monty - Grr. I have had a lingering scent of Eau de catpiss hanging round me all week and I couldnt figure out what it was, until I was caught inthe rain this afternoon on the way to a coffee afternoon. My perfume got considerably stronger and I worked out that the changebag had been marinated in cat pee and the rain was releasing the full flavour. Noone said anything at coffee, but then no one sat too near either... Bag now outside until I can work out if it works like skunk spray and never comes out, or a wash will do..

Will report back on all issues soon :)

A 10 mo with behavioural issues because he's not sleeping through? and Am glad that I have accidentally missed DD's 10 month review wi the HV here. On a good night she wakes 3 times (and thinks anytime from 5am is wake up time) but every 45 mins is not unheard of.

Today has mostly been a Laundry Day. I need to outsource it. DS is kind of potty training and as well as the inevitable wet trousers now and then, his keeness to use the potty when he woke up this morning involved him removing his nappy alone and unaided. In his bedroom. And there was more than wee in it. DH cleaned DS up but then came downstairs, where I was entertaining said early-waking DD, and made it abundantly clear that he didn't have a clue how to tackle the carpet, rug and bed frame. He does now .

Oh, yes, and then, this afternoon, DD did a spectacular projectile vomit in her sleep. On my bed. I don't think (famous last words) she's ill. Rather, she was coughing - and eventually coughed so much that her, me and the bed got liberally coated in semi-digested salmon, broccoli, potato and milk. Bleuurgh. Didn't stop her stealing a biscuit later on.

Still, if she is going to get I'll, now is the time to do so - before I go back to work next month. She had her settling in sessions at nursery this week. Today I left her for an hour and apparently she'd been fine for 50 mins and, even then, was distractible with books. Fingers crossed for her 3 half day sessions next week. I am planning to keep myself very busy.....

How is DS1 liking school, Arcadie?

Shroomer, have you checked out your local Sure Start centre? Mine runs (very low cost - £1.50 for an hour) creches to coincide with e.g. exercise classes. The local sports centre used to offer it too but their creche has recently closed due to funding cuts. Anyway, it might not get you a lot of time but maybe something is better than nothing?

Heckle - many thanks for the iPhone tip. Now my mistakes will be all my own work!

Sounds like a messy day Sariska. Hope the weekend is less stressful.

and at your HV iwcas. If not sleeping through = behavioural issue then most of us on this thread (and most parents of 10 month olds, I'd wager) have got problems. Glad to hear DS is sleeping better. I'm working on cutting down Isobel's naps (woke her after 90 mins in the morning and an hour in the afternoon), and she's just gone to sleep (at 9pm; still moving in the right direction).

Interesting to hear that going down earlier equates to sleping longer, scooby et al. I'm sure I've heard that before. The problem arose because we've always fed Isobel to sleep, which was fine when she used to do bath>bottle>zonked by about 8.30-9pm. But these days she's been staying awake after her bottle, so DH kept pushing her bathtime later so she'd be tired enough to fall asleep. Good to know that that's entirely backwards . I'm now working on shifting everything earlier instead.

Sorry to hear of your cat woes siamese. Our cat peed on DH's laptop case not long before Isobel was born. We think it was in response to us throwing her out of our bedroom at nighttime, in preparation for the baby arriving. Not nice. Make sure the bag gets a very thorough wash, or the scent will encourage him to keep returning to it iyswim. Good luck with the sleep training also.

Isobel's fringe was a bit squint in the cold light of day, as expected. I evened it out this morning. Made it a bit choppy deliberately anyway, so as to not look to blunt. I still think she's cute :)

Well, I hope you're all enjoying your beers/wine/gin & baby biscuits I'm counting calories atm, so no alcohol for me. Might have a sneaky hot chocolate later though.

Just in from work. Bosses had a meeting on Monday and my part time application was discussed - again. Will any of the w give me' an update? Of course not.... I'm off from Sunday for 2 weeks and due to start new hrs in theory on my return. Emailed big boss who even denies I even made a first application in October ...... Not looking good.....apparantly I'll hear 'something' next week. Useful in Mexico...... It's only been ongoing now nearly 4 months.....

Hmmmmmmmmmm

I'm sooo stressed I'm still awake- again- despite finishing work an hr ago.

More importantly----
IWCAS- WTF!!! Does she have a clue? Does she need arreting for masquerading as a bogus official aka HV??? Xx

Arresting even!

IWCAS DD did exactly the same thing re walking. Been there, done that, prefer crawling. How were the baby biscuits? We still have boxes of Christmas chocolates which I must scoff throw away so that I can start eating more healthily again.

Siamese DD is clearly very talented and she could put out a cookbook for the other babies to use, we could all buy them copies for their birthdays, or next Christmas! I do hope you manage to get the catpiss smell gone. Apparently cats don't like citrus smells so perhaps you could give the bag a good spray with something citrus once you've cleaned it. You might smell a bit like a fruit stall but it's got to beat the alternative?

Sariska I hope you had a less productive night last night!

Scooby :( for work still pratting you about. Hope you get the answer you want (and that you got some sleep)

Uneventful night here, hoping the rain holds off a bit this afternoon so I can get out into the garden and carry on Operation Titchmarsh which was begun in October and not progressed since...

scooby one of my NCT friends is being given the runaround by her bosses too re part-time. Love the idea of you arresting IWCAS's HV!!! Ha ha. have a ball in Mexico. I went there for a few weeks for my 30th birthday and went all over. DH loves it too. Still hanker after renting a house there for 6 months and living there.

The hvs here all advocate CC and not feeding during the night. When I pressed one of them on that by saying "What? Even though my DD has separation anxiety and is obviously hungry?" and looked askance at her a few times she finally admitted that it was basically just the "party line" so to speak and she did actually feed her babies in the night". Ha!

Siamese I dropped to 1 feed from 2-3 a night and it is going well. She seems to need the 1 feed still but going to try her without soon. I basically know whether she needs it or not if she goes back to sleep sans milk relatively easy and doesn't wake up hungry again an hour later.

sariska lol at the little biscuit robber. My DD vomits every bloody day. Tis embarrassing when around in friend's houses. Have any of you got babies who puke every day or should I be worried?

Shh I don't want to tempt fate but we've had only one waking the last two night...oh PLEASE please please let this be the new world order!!!

Hi, all, most unproductive day here today, lots of MNing rain and mooching around the house.

Well, after the Good Night we had a Bad Night . 'Nuff said.

Donttry, whether I have my mummy hat or my doctor hat on, it galls me when HV spout 'the party line', but at the same time they want to be considered professionals in their own right, gah! Then again, I have worked/am working with one, who had her first child a few years ago and who went about telling all and sundry that she had NO intention to BF, that it was all a bit 'icky' and 'Third World' and anybody suggesting otherwise was putting undue pressure on new mums. Much as she is entitled to feed her child anyway she wishes to, I am not sure that the way she went about spreading her opinion was very diplomatic.

scooby, have a lovely holiday . And grrrr at your boss.

sariska, DH is of the opinion I should feed Joe only cream-coloured food as it is kinder on the cream-coloured carpet when it comes back up . Shame he likes carrot/tomato slops, teehee! I should buy shares in Vanish carpet-cleaner...

siamese, I've been meaning to say for aaaages, so sorry to hear about your troubles with your cat. I have no experience/knowledge with cats at all, but I know how horrible is when you even have to contemplate to give a loved pet away . Have you posted on 'The Litter Tray' here? Is there anybody nearby who could take him? My grandparents ended up adopting our family dog when we went to the States for 3 years when I was a child, so we got to see him again on our return. By which time he had totally accepted my granddad as his master, the fickle sod!!

BMI, will you stop the calory counting: you have no need to and make me feel guilty because I do.

I am sure there was more, but cannot think; this hanging about the house makes me all sluggish. Tomorrow is going to be an active day. Good intentions, and all that...

Please Dr PD I've done two Davina's two night's running and whilst I feel much less puffed, my shins REALLY hurt. PLease can you tell me either how to fix it or can you tell my body to lose weight without diet or exercise? You could write it a drs note or something.....

'Dear ArcadieBod, much as you serve your owner well, her life would be lighter if there was less of you. So, shrink, just a bit. And tell PDBod to do the same...'

Hth x