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

[Arcadie]

Happy Christmas MMMs. This is my gift to you!

Ah come on now folks, there must be more of you out there with amazing sleeping through babies. "fess up, I promise we won't trip you up and rub cake in your faces be jealous.

God PD he's gone so quickly from pulling up to standing alone!! DD has been standing for months but only the last couple of days has been letting go sometimes.

Books, well Wolf Hall is great.

Ang re blubbering about nursery. You won't be sued and sure as my first boss said to me when I said was nervous about being sued "sure that's what your insurance is for". Like WTF, you're supposed to say you won't be sued as you are sooo fabulous.

BMI DD screams like a demon sometimes too. It really really puts me on edge. Bluey MARATHON training. OMG totally missed that one. You legend!! I seriously barely make it up the stairs I'm so wrecked.

had a lovely post almost ready to publish earlier then got distracted, then life took over again and now, several hours after trying in vain to settle a fractious baby (not to mention the [concern] emoticon i should be showing for the spots appearing on DD1 )...and i'm done......KiT day for me tomorrow so i should make hay methinks in case the rest of the night follows this evenings patter
will try again tomorrow.
to all and i promise i had lots of shout outs to do
zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nope, not watching OBEM here - labour bores me now : I think I am really DONE

Donttry, now I am confused, I was sure the e-versions were cheaper... Must be because I usually buy old/random stuff that is no longer in bestseller lists etc.

Oh, oh, I liked Kate Atkinson's latest, 'Started early, took my dog', but I like all her stuff. And Christopher Brookmyre, my satirical hero . And the whole Shardlake series by CJ Sansom. And 'Shadow of the Wind' and the other one by the same author (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). Oh, I am on a roll - but needed Amazon open in another window to find any of these names ...

And Joe is NOT standing on his own, he thinks he can, but he cannot, really, he can't . Won't be long, I am sure, but for the time being he should really only hold one breadstick at a time... And he has taken to stealing Cheerios out of DS3's bowl at breakfast . Clever boy!!

Hello all :) Sorry for not dropping in sooner, I get sucked in to reading AIBU. MUST TRY HARDER!

IWCAS Glad the return to work wasn?t so bad, hooray!

evitas Loving the commando crawling

Rinders What gorgeous girls you have!

Arcadie Hooray for crawling Simeon. I have ordered the 30 Day shred DVD that hs been raved about on other threads so that I can ?torture myself-- try and do something about the jellified enormity that is my belly. I can just see myself now, DVD on, Jillian barking instructions at me whilst I sit on the sofa finishing the last of the Christmas chocs thinking ?Ooh, that looks a bit hard!? My Davina pregnancy-and-post-natal exercise DVD still has the cellophane on it?

PD for DS pooing in the potty, how proud! You know that if there?s anywhere you can be TMI about your childrens poo it?s here! Wow for walking too!

Donttry DD?s sleep is generally from 7-12, 12-4, then 4-5.30/6ish. Of course, she does throw in the odd night or two where she does whatever she pleases but then settles back into her usual pattern. Everyone I know in RL with much younger babies seem to have the latest upgraded model which goes to bed at 8pm and stays there until about 8am without any requirement for refuelling. Bah.

Ang I?ve not watched OBEM tonight, still horribly disappointed that DD wasn?t born at home, so can?t bring myself to watch hospital births. Didn?t watch more than about 10 mins of the Christmas one.

No news to report chez FP, DD has taken to trundling up and down the living room with her walker and is doing lots of standing up without holding on, but is not yet walking. We have a couple of words (mama/dada) and we swear she said ?Oh sh*t? when she dropped her spoon earlier, but have bought the baby signing book that some of you were posting about on FB over the weekend, to see if we can reach some sort of understanding with her. We also have two new teeth which have appeared today, a friend suggested giving DD a toothbrush to chew on so I gave her one yesterday, she carried it about a bit and lo and behold, the teeth have come through. If only we?d have known it was so easy to solve her teething issues before!

And thanks for all the reassurance re milk still being there, feel much better now knowing that all is normal ? these are the things they should tell you in the books but don?t!

Hello all, just majorly lurking here because RL is rather demanding at the moment. In brief - DH has a tummy bug so I feel a bit like a single parent (respect, you chaps), my DF is currently in hospital getting a hip replacement and taking a while to get back on his feet, in every sense, DD1 is fine, back at nursery thankfully and DD2 is dying to get on her feet and run around. She wants to be led around at every opportunity and has today discovered bumshuffling. We are definitely On The Move.

oBEM - recorded, looking forward to watching it again through different eyes

Books - books? Reading? . Nope, I really don't know what you're all on about. I remember once looking at a leaflet about 2 months ago...but that's about it.

evening ladies.
I've been lurking but not had much to say really.
I was going to ask about sleep but didn't want to be depressed by the large number of sleeping through babies but I am delighted reassured that Baby G sounds entirely normal in her regular night wakings! She hardly takes any milk in the daytime and her reverse cycling is not because she doesn't see her mummy, she could have booby anytime she wants it but she LOVES her food and you know there are just more intersting things to do in the daytime.
She will stand happily but no interest in taking steps. She crawls fast now and separation anxiety kicked in big style today when I tried to leave her in another room for Welsh class. In the end she sat on my lap and gazed adoringly at all the other 'students'.
Too tired for shout outs but I'm not watching One born either. I didn't watch the first series and won't be starting now. Absolutley no broodiness here at all. Infact was horrified by the news story last week that Implanon was not the reliable contraception that I was lead to believe!!!Anyway it appears that the headlines were misleading and it is reliable if inserted correctly. I can feel it in my arm so it's not as if they left it in the cannister.
I really feel that I need to cut back on the chocolate consumption but BF is really not using up the same number of calories as it once was and I have a seriously unattractive spare tyre... joins arcadie on the sofa to eat another chocolate sprinkled doughnut whilst admiring excercise DVD collection still pristinely wrapped in cellophane with fliss
Hope ill children, partners/husbands, relatives are all getting better. Please do not send spots this way, I am loving that our weekly activities have resumed if we got the pox now I would not be happy.
Respect to all you hard working mummies and yay to all the happy adaptable babies that are getting on well at nursery, CM whatever and eating running away and everything
pixie love the 'this time last year' flashbacks
rinders lovely to see you back.

PD twasn't me talking about the e-books. All that stuff is way over my luddite head.

Ooh what's the baby sign book? I got some ones from the library but they were all american (with american sign language) so I sent them back.

Donttry This is the book

Hope the link works - it's BSL rather than American

If not then it's called My First Signs: BSL (Baby Signing) by Annie Kubler

V quickly as should be in bed.

YY to MMM City Marketing meeting. Sounds v important. The Witness Box? Or Starbucks for cake?

donttry I'm SW Trains and sadly I don't think they sell cheap peak returns in bulk. Will check tho.

Christopher Brookmyre - I have met him. He is kind of a relation by marriage (DH's cousin is married to his sister).

Books: am reading The L-Shaped Room (unmatched motherhood in the 60s - bookclub book).

OBEM - yep, watched it (and kicked DH when he said, "that's what you were like" when the shouty lady got going). Dunno if it made me broody, tho. Did make me realise (again) that I'm glad to have had a "good" second birth. It sort of smoothes out the less good first one - so I think I know what you mean, ang. Also feel a bit wistful for my waterbirths that never were.

Hope KiT day goes well, Melk.

Night night all.

Unmarried not unmatched!

Does anyone know if you can turn iPhone spell checker off?

sariska starbucks opposite FF in feb?

Finally! A minute to myself and a PC :)

Hope everyone is ok and recovering from nasties? sarah Ive said it before - you clearly need a break - sick again! please put your feet up and let someone else plan mad parties take the strain.

Charlotte had her first hour without me at nursery yesterday and had a lovely time judging by the pics (!) - they were baking and she was covered in flour :) She didnt cry until I came to get her - in direct contrast to the little girl who spends the day stuck to my leg and crying for cuddles.
Good luck with nursery tomorrow Ang, he'll be fine. DD's first full day is a week on monday and DH is 'working from home' that day so I think we'll go out to lunch and to the cinema!!

Pixie how is DD2? Did you tell her about DC6 at playtherapy? And I am awed that you get up 8 times in the night and function. Nights like that are rare but nasty. You get a badge, at least, supermum.

Monty, my male siamese, is on his final warning. Since DD arrived he has turned into a nightmare, and Ive been turning a blind eye to occasional spraying, fighting other cats, fighting his sister, tearing round the house, chewing DD's toys (he has pica - once ate a hole in a brand new top from monsoon that hadnt even made it out of the bag ) but now he has taken it to actual squatting and peeing in the house. and Ive no idea what to do. He isnt ill, he doesnt respond to pheromone plug ins, he didnt respond to cat valium.. so Ive contacted a cat rescue centre. Im so sad! He is my little fur baby but I cant cope with him. As well as the above he is too loud now too, he really is unhappy. Curled up on my lap now, purring - he cant wait for DD to go for a nap or to bed so he can sit on me :(

Melk I hope those spots werent anything serious?

PAcific ooo - walking! Did his brothers walk early? DD is cruising faster than ever, and occasionally makes a leap from one piece of furniture to the next, sometimes with success!

Bluey where was/is holiday? mmmm warmth...

Like Smac I am encouraged by the lack of sleeping through babies, if that doesnt sound too mean. I reckon every one in real life I know with babies our age are lying then, we cant be some kind of flukey insomniac baby group can we?

fliss let me know how the shred dvd looks works, Im toying with it too.

My sister is due any minute now with DC1 and Im sitting on my hands to stop texting her 'any news?'

sariska no, I dont think you can turn off autocorrect on the iphone :)

Shred DVD is good, but it is hard. It consists of three 20 minute workouts, each harder than the last. You do 10 days of each level, after which time in theory you're fit enough to move to the next level. It is pretty intense, but the 20 minutes goes quick.

Rhanks fliss - looks good!

Siamese have you seen this thread about cats and babies? How exciting about your sister!! The nursery sounds fab.

Books - anything by Marian Keyes is a good laugh (though sad as well).

DD took her first steps today!

BMI Hard is fine if it's only for 20 minutes. Will give DD something to amuse herself with, watching Mummy swear at the TV!

donttry DD also took her first steps today

Siamese Put the phone AWAY DH's cousin had a baby girl at the weekend, and today we found out some friends are also having a girl in May. Out of the 5 RL babies born since DD, only one 1 is a boy. There seems to be some serious gender imbalance going on round these here parts.

donttry!!!! huzzah for DD!! brilliant! DD2 thinks about it but she did think about crawling for about four months so am resolutely not holding breath....
loving the autocorrectness....
obviously had the Wittiest and Most MMMs Mentioned in my previous, as unpublished post.....but hey.....RL is uncompromising all consuming, yep??
sarah feeling your pain, once again, on the spots - it seems DD1's bout of pox when Thea was 11 weeks old was, er....perhaps not enough to give her immunity....she is COVERED. and using her god-given toddler right to refuse food/drink/drowsy potion Piriton/Medicine/potty "my wee-wee is too spicy mummy" ANYTHING HELPFUL ....
On the UpSide [manic] my KiT day was fine and apart from the usual 5 hours on the phone to IT ("no, i was on maternity leave", "yes it was a baby", "no i don't remember my password, sorry, it was a year ago" "yes i am a bona fide member of staff" "no i'm sorry i don't know where my Authorised I.T Specialist is") i achieved nothing much
is bluey doing a marathon?!! ...i thought i was going well on the May 10k....(claps pd on back, me too, well done lady)
iwcas glad work was ok
rkd thinking of First Days At School....(i think it's next week, people on fbk seem to think it's this week....they are probably right, i am probably wrong...either way...thinking of you..)

And In Other News: re the Oz floods in Brisbane - my cousin lives in Toowoomba with her two lovely girls/DH/DM etc and had to watch her two neighbours houses wash away in the floods.....two neighbours were killed (their children saved) and they are currently stuck in their house with no power and a bit of food....Am absolutely NOT doing a Count Yourself Lucky thing - am just a bit at it happening to someone i love and know and massively, massively THANKFUL.
Oh, and I watch OBEM tonight and a) i could do it all again and b) i love my DH for enjoying it almost as much as me and c) the shouty one needed to Get OFF HER BACK!!!!!

as you were.
massively missed everyone. sorry.

Apologies, ladies, it was manda who'd asked about the kindle, oops!

Also, I feel like such a fraud: Joe is Not Walking, never was - he climbed up 3 steps. Of our stairs. On all 4s. He is nowhere near walking and as I said cannot stand without holding on to something for balance.

Well done Donttry's DD! They are all growing up so fast...

Siamese, no warmth, skiing. Can't wait as I didn't go last year, being roughly the same shape as a hot air balloon at the time, and DH went without me. DD is going to have a go, too, so I hope she likes it. Can't help on Monty but presumably the vet can't help?

Melk, you make me laugh. Even when dealing with your pox ridden too-spicey-wee-wee family you make it funny.

And how horrid for your cousin and family, Melk. just seen the pics in this morning's paper and it looks horrendous out there.

A quick selfish post:

I left DS with the new CM. I stayed for about 1 hour and he seemed fine. She asked if I wanted to leave so she could change his nappy and try to put him down for a nap. I'll pick him up in an hour...
Now I'm at home trying to focus on my work but my mind is so far away... It's a mixture of emotions: I'm glad he seemed to like her but also it's the first time I'm living him with a stranger... (I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about)

Waves to everyone
x

Afternoon all, Isobel is having one of her now-standard looong morning naps. Great cos I get to do my exercise DVD, have a shower and eat lunch, all in my own good time. It does mean that I'm in my jammies till 11am, but never mind. The flipside is that she seems to be staying up later and later at night. 11pm last night Not sure what to do, she's Just Not Tired any earlier, even after bath and bottle.

I'd also like some advice about milk, as she's still drinking 6 bottles a day (about a litre in total). We give her a cup of water at mealtimes but she doesn't drink much of it. If I try to cut back on milk she wakes up hungry at night. Should I try giving her water in bottles (maybe replace the ones after lunch and dinner)? I think I need tp up her solids as well, but she's just not interested in eating more. And she still refuses anything but smooth purees. Lumpy food get taken back out of her mouth for investigation, and she just refuses to eat as much. She gets finger foods too, but most of that gets left in the highchair or on the floor. Chewing seems to be beyond her, but then she only has two teeth.

OK, self-centred bit of post over. Probably.

Melk, sorry to hear about your family trapped in the floods. It sounds awful. And poor DD1 with her spicy wee-wee

evitas have you picked DS up from the CM? Hope he enjoyed himself and you managed to relax a bit. How is the thesis writing going?

PD you've inspired me to pick up my book again (also reading the new Kate Atkinson). I love her books; Behind he Scenes at the Museum is one of my favourite books ever.

Well done to donttry and Fliss' DDs on walking! Very impressive, and a little bit terrifying. Strange to think that come Summer time we'll be running around after them.

siamese are you an Auntie yet? And did you try to CC? I'm reconsidering my decision to postpone asleep training (se above re: being awake till 11pm). Best of luck with it if you do give it a go.

Pixie have you seen all your doppelgangers all over MN? Seem to be Pixies popping up everywhere. APixieinmyCaramelLatte, Pixie83. Unless you're namechanging to confuse us

Bluey hope you enjoy the holiday.

Isobel is still asleep That's over 2 hours now. Of course if I try to get anything useful done she'll wake right up.

Right with you evitas my ds at nursery for his first full day today. I am sat at work trying not to think about him or I cry

BMI my opinion is (and Im in no position to give advice) that perhaps DD is sleeping too much at nap time. What happens to her bedtime if she doesnt get a long nap (ie you are out and about?) Can you wake her from her nap and see whether it brings bedtime forward? Do you have a bedtime routine at the same time everyday? We have tea at 5, bath at 6 and shes in bed by 6.30 everynight.

And the milk, while Im spouting crap giving opinions - will she take it from a cup instead of a bottle, so it becomes less of a comfort thing and more of a nutritional thing (given that bottles are 'meant' to be phased out soon anyway?) Certainly cutting back on the milk may help with the solids - when do you give her milk? DD still bf but she is bf's at 11 and 3 and 6.30 and once at night on a good night.

Im soooooo boooored! Im going off my head! Taking the lead from nursery, DD and I have done some baking today and she helped :) didnt eat much raw egg