FEB 2010 First birthdays beckon and toddlerdom approacheth...uh-oh!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

It's humbling to look back at the last year and see how our LO's have gone from helpless newborns to action-packed pre-toddlers.

BRING IT ON!!!

IC She is lovely and bright. And doesn't look underweight. I have seen skinny baby and toddler (sunken cheeks and stick legs ) and their mums not being worried.
I think if you don't fit the 50% most pead. HW and MW will have a fit. You need to find someone who look at the whole picture and remembering yourself to do that.

With those new curves DD2 is still over for height (but barely) but down to 91% for weight (yoohooo!).

Thanks BG
Does everybody comments on how similar are your 2 DDs?
I got that all the time, I can't see it. I have even post 2 similar pictures of DD1 and DD2 at the same age, for me they are very different but all my friends comment on how look a like they are.

DD's on an actual centile!!! Whoop, whoop!!
Thanks for that, BG - and also for the comment about the blog, that's a lovely thing to say. And of course I don't mind you sharing the link. Especially with anyone on here!

Thanks also mamaloco - bless you!
I tend to agree that DD's fine, although what you said about being a bit too healthy rang a small alarm bell.... I tend to use wholemeal flour in my bechamel sauces etc. (yup, smothering in cheese sauce is a very useful technique!!!) because I'm not a big fan of how overprocessed and high GI white flour is. Having said that, DD quite often has bits of white bread, (and lots of fat and stuff) so hopefully her vitamin absorption is okay. She does eat a fair amount of fibre because pulses form a significant part of her protein intake, but I don't suppose there's much we can do about that. She farts a lot!!!

And mamaloco, ugly, your DD2? Believe me, I've seen some minging babies in my time and your baby DD2 wasn't even close.

My sister and I always used to get "You can tell they're sisters!" remarks, but we look nothing like each other. Selective perception, I think. We do have similar mannerisms and tricks of speech, so maybe that's what they mean....

Oh, and BG, if it makes your DH feel any better, Dr Green of Toddler Taming thinks toddlerhood mostly starts from around 18months old, although he admits it varies from child to child...

mamaloco I usually get 'they are like peas in a pod' or else 'cheese and chalk', so I am not entirely sure whether they are alike at all. In fact, I am not entirely sure where dd1 comes from to be honest... .She must be a very good genetic mix. dd2 looks much more like dh and definitely has his eyes and lips.

IC I'll keep telling dh that we no longer have a baby... in the hope he gets so upset that he suggests we need another one!!

CS I went back to work when dd1 was 11 months and dreaded it for weeks but in the end it was much easier than I thought! Keeping my fingers crossed for you and I am sure you'll be fine.

I've bought a Valentine's card which simply reads 'I love you'... I realised that I can't remember the last time I actually said it out loud to dh . I guess it's sort of implicit really after 16 years together with plenty of ups and downs. We get on really well at the moment ( do have our moments of course like most couples)and I wonder if I should be a bit open about how much I enjoy being with him. I'm from a background where we didn't continually kiss and cuddle and tell each other how much we love each other (Can't remember ever telling my parents I love them, when clearly I do! Maybe it was just too obvious). Mind you, if I suddenly kept telling him I love him all the time he'd get very suspicious... . So it will be the Valentine's card and actions (speaking louder than words).

But he really did annoy me this morning

You're teasing us about what your DH did to get up your nose, now...!

Yes, I'm all for lots of "I love you"s out loud. A little while back I realised I hadn't really said it much to my parents much in recent times (if ever). And it struck me that if anything was to happen to them, I would feel terrible about that. So now I always end visits and phone calls with "love you!"

I say it to DH a lot - and DD too. I think it's a good habit to get into!

I remember once on a camp-site in Germany I was washing up (it was one of those semi-open washing up areas linked to the men's and women's washrooms) and a woman beside me suddenly called out "Ich liebe dich!!" to her husband, who was on the other side of the room divide. The "liebe" had a splendid upward intonation, too.

I thought it was really sweet. Especially as Germans (probably unfairly) have a reputation with many other nationalities of not being as demonstrative as, say, the Latins....

No doubt you have some views on that, BG

ML your DD is gorgeous! And IC your sdoes not look overly-skinny. Really.

I also get told all the time that my DDs look identical. Or, like BG that they are completely different. I think they are both beautiful, and that's all that matters (though DD1 gets utterly doted on by DH and my ILs, and DD2 much less so - which makes me a bit cross).

Ha ha ha... just realised that my marriage is turning into my parents' . Not a bad thing as such, they are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. What I mean is that my dad just has to make a seemingly harmless comment and it sets my mum off like a firework (it's not harmless to her, it's annoyed her for 50 years! . This morning was a bit like that in this house with dh making an unnecessary comment about washing not yet having been folded away... Well, it was still wet last night, and besides I was running late getting myself and two children ready and out of the house, so I was not going to do it right there! Simple as that, IC

CS dd1 also gets almost all of dh's attention at the moment but the baby is fighting back!! She's got a very special smile for him. She also uses him as transport... She'll hold out her arms to him, then when picked up, will point to where she wants to go and then announce 'Da!' to tell him what she wants . It's usually something she is not supposed to have eg fridge magnets. dh is wo well trained he'll give it to her... (she knows I won't give it to her)
The other day dh told me he is really pleased that dd1 has inherited his love of music/talent but he thought the baby had not. Told him to give her a chance, she's not yet 1!!

I haven't read everything yet, but IC I'm confused about how your DD has only just got a centile because she looks so huge. I know the US charts only go down to 3, so she went off those ages ago but the UK ones have the 0.4th on them. Is it a similar thing in Spain?

DDs sleep has been very disturbed and she hasn't been napping as long as she should either. Just a long week of being overtired. Last night she woke every 60-90mins but I fed her on alternate wakings which is only slightly worse than previous nights. Told DH to defrost a load of milk today and fill her up and put her down. Hopefully that will let her have the long nap she needs. I'm assuming it's the 46 week sleep regression come a week late.

Plus I have a UTI, red wee is always freaky (I blame all the sex, so worth it). Now if AF would just hurry up and arrive as I know it's sometime around now, but entirley sure when.

Sorry about your asthma attack BG much sympathies, I understand how horrible they can be.

stan I think it's been explained already, but it's avoiding being able to use food as emotional leverage later.

but in good news I ran 5 miles yesterday.

Hey, PA - bad luck on the sleep. Could well be the tail end of the ole 9moSR. Here's hoping it passes quickly. Likewise the UTI!

Well, DD's been on something like the 0.2 centile (or thereabouts) according to the Spanish charts pretty much since she was born. My excitement was in response to BG suggesting DD's current weight and measurements correspond to the 9th centile in the UK....

I'm feeling a bit chuffed with myself because I came up with a way to get DD to eat some green veg. I made her spinach and broccoli pancakes and she loved them - ate three.

IC congratulations on the centile!

PA - hope the UTI isn't too painful. I used to get terrible cystitis when I first got together with DP - one time it became a UTI - it was horrible. You have all my sympathies.

I've had the most brilliant news today about my return to work. Like CS I had been wetting myself with nerves about my return on Monday. This was compounded by the fact that my previous job was gone, everyone I used to work with was gone, I am public sector and so everyone's jobs are under threat and there is a massive reorganisation going on across the Department which means everything is up in the air. As of this afternoon I still didn't know what I would be doing on Monday. Just got a phonecall from my old boss who offered me a job in her quango (it's one of the saved ones). I realised straightaway that my HR had asked her to find me something because I was such a headache to them and I was right. They have offered to pay for me but give me to her for the 4 months I have before my next mat leave. It's going to be great! It's a lovely team, fascinating work, they won't expect too much from me and I'll be out of the madness of my home Department's reorganisation and job losses. I'll be safe and well taken care of during my pregnancy. I am so lucky. Perhaps all this luck professionally provides the balance to all the shit I've had with infertility (not that I believe in any nonsense like that). Sorry, gabbling now - but I'm so happy I could cry.

Also - what can I put a couple of pics of my DD on so I can do a link to here?

I will come back later and reply to everyone but just wanted to say well done Stangirl, that is excelllent news about work.

I was thinking, are we all on Facebook? We could have a private group and share photos there maybe.

bear Yep, I'm on facebook...
Quite envious of your planned trip to Italy in May!! May have to make some elaborate plan to go in that direction myself (my sister lives near the border to Switzerland, so we could combine that with the dolomites etc.)
Oh, and sorry I haven't posted on your 'never done that' thread yet. Can't think of anything I haven't done

PA thanks for sympathy! Cold air and walking quickly up a hill pushing dd2 with dd1 sat on top of the pushchair (we were very late) is not very good for asthma!
Hope your UTI clears soon.

Stan your party sounds lovely. dd2 has hers on Saturday but I also have a friend coming over on Thursday (her actual birthday) so we can have a bit of cake on the day.
Oh, and great news on your job!!

Right, must do some ironing. I swear dd2 has probably grown out of things by the time I reach the bottom of the pile... Jokingly mentioned this to another mother at dd1's pre-school and as soon as I did realised I should have kept my mouth shut. Said mother is a SAHM with a rich husband and two girls in private school... of course her cleaner does all her ironing. Of course, how foolish of me to think otherwise.

I'm on FB too.

PA ouch! I'm subject to them too, you've all my sympathies.

stan good news on the job.

CS deep breath, everything will be fine. You'll manage to deal with the girls, housework, job, [panic look on my face!!!] (only joking).

BG poor you with the asthma, I get a crisis quite often for the same reason (minus one child).

bc good luck with tonight sleep.

I'm on FB too.

BG I haven't ironed in years. I just don't own anything that needs it and DP does his own work shirts. Never had anything for DD that wasn't ok with a hanging dry. Go on - be a slattern - give up the ironing!

OK I've set up a secret FB group for us. It has nothing in yet. We can set it to closed if we want, so it is searchable.

This is it's email address
[email protected]

I am assuming that people email it, then I can add people from there? I haven't done this before. I've called it 'Feb 2010 - Celebrating our amazingness'

Alternatively, we can make it open for a few days, let people find it and then close it.

Stan I also didn't iron for years (and dh does his own shirts) but started again when dd1 started her pre-school. It's a private school so I wanted her to look slightly less crumpled (And no, she probably won't go into reception there... we are a bit too poor for that)

PA can't work out how the FB group works...

I think you can email the group

I'll make it public, then you can search the title I gave

you can send a message to the email address from your facebook accout.

Just click send message then type address instead of persons name

PA lovely. Just sent my request to join

I've made it unpublic again, but if anyone has problems with the message option let me know.

I was just thinking that it was about bloody time I finally got a photo of DS1 and 2 out to you lot somehow and couldn't remember PA's previous instructions. Will try this. Thanks PA.

Sorry about the UTI PA - I can sympathise as I had loads after pregnancy-though nothing to do with too much sex I can tell you, and more about the horrid catheters that blighted my life for a month after each birth!

Super news Stan.

Hope you are feeling better BG. I get the same problem in the cold and hope you are not too worn out by the attack. Pregnancy seems to have sorted mine in the last few years.

Anyway, off to try and find PA's secret link!!

Hmm.. will need to unhide it for me I think (and you can't just look me up either due to my settings). If I don't get into bed now, DH will probably divorce me as it's bedtime but I'll try and get back on tomorrow evening for another try.

it should be searchable now, but content (not that there is any) not shown

Evening all. Sorry it has been ages since I posted so will only comment on the recent stuff, though I have read everything.

Joined Facebook but then never used it, so this may be the push I need to get myself up to date. Will have a look when I get a spare minute. About 2014 then....

IC and mama belated happy birthdays for your dd's.

Been nodding in agreement with lots that you have all been saying. mama about low fat diets, bethylou about not stressing about sleep issues so much second time round, and CS about losing confidence. I go back to work in about 10 weeks and am dreading it. One of the reasons being a lack of confidence. I cope the same way you do by bluffing basically. I reckon if you can fool people you are doing ok, then you probably are. stan great news about your job. You sound so enthusiastic about it. My ds also tucks in to 'naughty' food with much more relish than he does my lovingly prepared organic stuff. I can't believe I let him nibble the odd choc biscuit to be honest. He is so slim too so I justify it that way. I was so PFB with dd. I remember being secretly horrified when her nursery made Easter nest cake things one year and they had chocolate eggs in. This was her first chocolate. She was 2!!! How things change for number 2.

If I had posted a week ago I would have said that ds was eating much better and even sleeping a bit better. Now, however, he has never slept worse. And that is saying something. He won't have naps longer than 30 minutes, won't settle in his cot at all, and is often awake for 1.5 to 2 hour stretches in the night. Help. I am going mad. I have even had the odd little cry about it this week. He eats hardly anything then bf all night to compensate. I am really sore and can't wait until he is 1 and I will try him on some cows milk or formula. It is like he can't switch off and is never, even still. Don't get me wrong, he is so cute and I am so proud of him. He is chatting away, taking about 6 steps, climbing stairs, trying to feed himself with a spoon etc.

I know it is just a phase/regression or something but lack of sleep really affects everything, doesn't it, and I haven't had a sleep longer than 4 hours in over a year.

Anyway I can hear that he has woken up so I will have to love you and leave you. I was wondering where sunny has gone. Maybe she is back at work and too busy to post?

IC DD 26 Jan
ML DD 28 Jan
SG DD 2 Feb
BG DD2 3 Feb
SB DS 4 Feb
CS DD2 9 Feb
LBH DD 12 Feb
BL DS2 14 Feb
BC DS 15 Feb
Chinook DS 16 Feb
Scones DD 22 Feb
PA DD 5 March
Abs DD 7 March

Have added ds. Resisted the temptation to add myself for the 4th. Trying to make the most of my last 30 something birthday!

Chinook your DS shares a B'day with someone very special