June '05 Mummies 5 - the one with lots of smiles, and lots of cuddles.

[katzguk]

one brand new shiney thread, title thanks to eym.

Sfx and RHM I can do the 7th too - meeting around lunchtime would suit me best as I have to go to see a school first thing. I must admit to using which ever tube is nearest and just lugging the buggy up the stairs as necessary but a walk across the wobbly bridge is a lovely way to get there. We actually went today to see the new Rachel Whiteread boxes - I think it's great and dd just loved it - really suitable for children of all ages I think.
Charley - we had the Tripp Trapp pulled up to the table so dd would feel as if she was eating at the same table as us so didn't need a tray. I also embroidered her name on the head rest thingy which she is really proud of now....what a soppy old mummy I am.
Re the constant interaction question I remember when the maternity nurse arrived to help us out with dd the first thing the she said to me was 'Put that baby down - you don't need to carry it round all the time'......wish I'd remembered that with this one, he loves being carried about, absolutely hates being put down anywhere. That said he's started doing that sweet baby thing of trying to kiss me all the time - big, open mouth, baby dribbly kisses - delightful and yucky at the same time

Welsh/sfx - 7th it is then? I usually get there around 10.30 ish, but meeting lunchtime is fine as I like to go on those talks they do, then have a bit of luncheon. I have to leave around 1.30 ish as have to collect Dd from nursery, unless I can get a willing mum to collect her too!!! Does that sound do-able? (feel a bit like Cinderella....)

I saw the boxes this week too, thought they were fantastic. Gonna try an experimental visit a la famille and see if Dd will interact in any way with the art. Last time she just ran up and down the corridors laughing....would be nice to make my children enjoy what I do (heh heh)

interaction- it's just not possible to do it all the time, and that's ok! Now I have 2 it's not really an issue, I try to give him quality time when I can and also Dd interacts (well squishes) him quite a lot. Credit to him he just is so chilled and gives her the most beautiful smiles - clever boy.

wendy house a complete success, dd LOVES it to the point of crying that she had to come in and have her tea. I think its really cute - even got little flower boxes on the outside by the window.

just quick one

welshie/rhm- 7th fine was hoping around 11-12 so that i can leave at around 2.30. dont fancy westbound district with city types and children leaving school. usually dont use blackfriars station but seems at this point to be most direct route for me. what are the escalators like? any staff around? never been on tube with buggy feeling mine kind of big.

attention- i am afraid this one being my first she does get a lot of interaction, sometimes have to remind myself she needs own time to entertain self.cant quite believe she is mine. guess second is different anyway.

discussing highchairs, think might go for folding type since space is an issue, not yet decided.

Hi everybody!

So, today was supposed to be the big first food day! We were armed with camera, film, etc, and guess what? he basically didn't take anything in!

Guess I'll have to continue to eat all that food to keep him going for a bit longer!

Very envious of you guys day out at Tate. I walked right in front of it this week as I did another tour de force in London, trying to take care of a bunch of bureocratic stuff with DS in tow. I really hope one of these days I can go down south to enjoy! I walked basically the lenght of Oxford street but couldn't stop to pick in not even one store :-(

Cp - I think DD is fine, she is just really petite I think. That said I plotted the otherday all of Dhs and mine baby weights and found out that he was a 9% child himself, although he is above average now. So who knows?!

MrsW and Jonah, have a good trip!

evening junies
going to be selfish and mememe now but I'm in a right state.
read this
Feel like such a crap mother.

Evening mums hugs

we ve been shopping today, finally bought something for my sisters wedding in three weeks, I cant belive I even have to think about wedding with all thats going on with baby georga.

Our little girl is doing well has managed to take some bf milk so were all praying now.

Ive been thinking about a high chair too charley, maybe one with an inner bit in lol you know what i mean. Im glad you feel you can now share your feelings with us charley, im sure you have lots of good friends and support around you as you seem a lovely lady so be strong.

RHM sorry to hearabout your mastitus i had that with dd2 hope it clears up soon, and how lovely your party sounds awwww bless.

Trib hope the moves goes well for you, and your poor little one having reflux some doctors just dont listen do they.

Lynny how lovely winning the tickets to a medival night should be a great laugh, you deserve to have some fun you go girl lol.

nite mums another day tommoro xxxxxxx

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Quicky ladies, so peed off with my neighbours (as usual) - not only do they appear to be holding a cocktail party in the room underneath ds' bedroom (which might as well be in the bedroom for the amount of soundproofing we have, but one of their stupid mates has just buzzed our door to be let in. Annoying at 10 but if it happens at midnight I am going to lose it. Better sleep last night (thank goodness) but was woken by a random phone call at 10 past midnight - a local number but just hung up when I answered. Gee thanks.

dh has just suggested we try and move ds (whilst asleep in his cot!) into the next room which is thankfully above the empty flat.

Thank god this is the last Saturday night we'll be in this bloody place - next weekend we're away visiting family anyway.

FIL-just read yr other post - what a worry! You're not a crap mom, gosh I do that sort of thing all the time and am just lucky that it hasn't happened to me. Actually there's times now I have two where I totally forget I was in the middle of something with the baby and go back to find him 'half done'........I hope babes is fine (sure it will be) but don' t beat yourself up

sfx - don't know blackfriars tube, but what I always do is wait at the steps for someone to help me. If that doesn't work I look for a staff member. I've never needed to do this but there's also those help buttons to get a staff member too. Escalators are fine with most prams, you just need to work out how many steps yr pram needs and where you have to stand (which happens straight away with an initial struggle IYSWIM). Have to say I've always had help from fellow passengers.

just realised I'm first post - mornin' junies!!

Trib - sorry about your neighbours - can you say something to them?

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Hi everyone

Lost - Sorry to hear about little ds rolling off the bed, what a shock for you. he sounds like a sturdy little thing, watch out for any of the signs you were told to relating to head bumps and injuries and then stop blaming yourself.

We have the tripp Trapp for dd1 (2.5months) and I can't wait for dd2 to get hers as well. They are brilliant! Dd1 now has no rails on hers, so it is more like a chair and she can just get in and out to sit at the table, which obviously has its -ve points!!! We never needed a tray, just pushed it right up to the table, it's perfect. Also, they last for ages, dd's cousins still use theirs at 8 and 12 yrs. They're an attractive piece of kit too. Not sure about the MB one lookswise, looks like it's just landed from outer space...

Welshie and SFX - Lucky you having the wherewithall to go to the Tate!!! I could probably make it too, but it would need some getting rid of dd1. We have quite a lot happening culturally where I live too, but I never manage to get out there and actually see stuff!

RHM - Can you really begrudge your friend with twins them both sleeping through??!!! Sounds like she may need a little rest!

Mrs F - Wine after 6pm is my rule, which is wind down time for all 3 of us. I may have a glass while dd1 is eating her supper, it makes me sit down and talk to her instead of rushing round doing stuff and ignoring her!!!

Speaking of interaction, I'm not sure where it came up but some of you mentioned not doing it all the time with your gorgeous babies. Are you mad??? My dd's are stimulated appropriately from the moment they wake up, to the moment they go to bed !!!! Not. Don't forget, babies can get over stimulated too and they need to be able to spend time alone playing and discovering for themselves and not be totally dependent on us to amuse them and or interfering in their natural 'play' times! This is all code for, don't feel bad for leaving babies for 10 minutes to surf MN, read the paper, wash up, put make up on, chat on the phone, make beds etc etc etc

JonahB - have great hols!!!!

Guess what? I am not even dressed yet and dd2 is upstairs bashing her baby gym, I'd better skidaddle before dp gets back

morning mums hugs

great news our litle girl is aloud to go on a sideward shes started feeding wow im so pleased bless her.

Lynny im so glad you enjoyed the fair with your family, how lovely DH went on the rides with her.

right go to go dinner at ML today xxxxx

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Aw welshie - embroidering her moniker on the tripp trapp - ds is doing those big sloppy things to me too - not so much kisses though I fear - he just tries to eat everything that goes near his gob

SFX - space is an issue with us too regarding highchairs, that's why I think we need one that will look ok all the the time at the table - we wouldn't have anywhere to put it away.

Lua - lol at your attempt at feeding ds! What did you try him with? I've put my red book away, not "doing" ds's curves for a good long while.

Foundintranslation - hope ds is still fine - I'm sure he is - this sort of thing happens all the time - my hv says they "bounce"

EYM (think I'll call you Yorkie from now on like someone else did - I like it!) - Georgia must be doing really well to go into a sideward already! Hope things become a bit more relaxed now for them. We're not blessed with having a large supportive family like yours sadly - they're all scattered around the midlands or Up North, and tbh we're not very close and they'd not be much use anyway, although my father's been regularly in touch on the phone since ds arrived and keeps offering to help out. He was completely useless with my and my brother (left when I was 1/didn't see him until I was 6 etc etc) but he did a good job with my little sister who he had with his second wife. So I might eventually bury the hatchet a bit and take him up on his offer when ds is a bit older. Friends-wise, I have a few around here, but not really really close ones as we've not been here that long and I never really made the effort. A few of the ones we do have have offered to babysit, but I'm not ready to let anyone else look after him yet - he has his little peculiar ways I guess and I'm worried that the recent progress I've made with him re eating and sleeping might be upset. Don't feel particularly strong about dealing with what happened with ds tbh - quite the opposite in fact lol.

Lynny - ds has been going cross eyed when he's peering at close-up things for weeks - it freaked me out (of course) to begin with Hope you've got egg crumbs and boob milk on your nightie by the way to finish off the slovenlyness

Trib - I feel so frustrated for you! Your neighbours sound like ignorant wankers - are they renting? They obviously have never had a baby. Can you speak to the landlord? We've started with the annual 3-month season of fireworks round here - I HATE those noisy ones - they set off all the dogs and now, of course are going to interfere with ds's sleep. Noisy ones at non-public displays should be BANNED

Lippy - come along if you can - would be lovely to meet up again. Anyone else fancy the outing to the Tate? Looks like the 7th of Nov at about 11/12 (tbc)
Bero - please don 't beat yourself up about this, as someone else has said you did all the right things. We just can't stop every accident happening but doing the right thing after is what's important.
Sleepwatch - in our house all is going quite well - last night he went from 7pm bed time until 530 without a feed - am aiming for all the way through in the next couple of weeks. We had the usual bit of time spent talking/complaining (ds not us) but that has come down from the hour and a half we began with. I'm feeling like we're getting somewhere now.
And I managed to cook dinner for 6 too - need a big rest today....

Hi Charley - awaiting your cat honey - hope you're doing ok

Welshy - congratulations. We're a bit behind here, but feel like we are making progress too. For one thing (and it's a biggie) he is sleeping to 7.30 rather than 5.30.

Bero - hope ds doing well. I guess as our babies start moving themselves around there's going to be more and more of this.

Charley. Sorry, got it wrong on the highchair. We've got the Svan one - it is as lovely as the Tripp Trapp but has a tray. The tray goes on and off really easily, so you can bring it up to the table without the tray or use it with. Right at the moment, its good to use the tray as ds can have a couple of toys in front of him to play with (for the eight seconds before he drops them off the side to see what noise they make). Also it creates a kind of baby mess zone which stops at the edge of the tray. Later on I think it will be nice to move it right up to the table so that we can eat together. We got ours from Lullabys - it's here

Am feeling so dopey that I'm not sure I can remember all the conclusions of the Bettelheim book . I think that it was suggesting that the hardcore nature of the experiment - i.e. only about an hour a day with the nuclear family, and children being raised almost entirely in a peer group - was a reaction to the sometimes stiflingly-close nature of the families that many of the early kibbutz-folk came from. Perhaps unsurprisingly the generation that were brought up that way have themselves flipped back towards a very close nuclear family model. Generally he suggests that the hardcore kibbutz model has more in common with institutional child rearing than the more positive communal child rearing that we've been talking about (lost of adults and children within families but all looking out for each other.). Phew, sorry - a bit long.

trib - maybe one last Junie meet up with as many small children as we can gather at your flat. at 4 am. with bagpipes. we can all ring your neighbours' bell to ask whether they know what time it is.

Also - any Junie thoughts on my latest prob very gratefully received. violent ear pulling whilst feeding

FIT, don't worry about the fall too much. I did something similar once with DD. Was getting us both ready in the morning for work/childminder. Turned around literally for 3 seconds to reach her socks, and turned back around just in time to watch her fall to the floor. I lunged out of course and managed to break the fall but she did hit the floor, then screamed for a few minutes. She seemed okay apart from screaming so we proceeded out the door and I dropped her off at the childminder. But wow did I feel like ahorrible mother. She turned out to be fine, so I definitely know how you feel.

I am so jealous of the Tate meet up, and sad it isn't on a Saturday whe I can join you. Anyone fancy a Saturday meet up sometime?

Evening ladies.

Hoping to do one proper catch up before my fingers go on strike. Stung by the comment from one of the estate agents on Friday ("I know you have a baby, but you have too much stuff in this apartment") I have been attempting a turbo-declutter, this involving basically rearranging cupboards to make more space for all of dh's rubbish. As every time I declutter, I have come across timesheets from 1997, receipts from 1999, more laptops and cameras (at last count I think dh has six different cameras and about four laptops) and crappy trinkets from the MIL that we can't throw away "in case she asks to see them". Yeah right! Those things are GONE.

Lummox, loving the bagpipes idea. I have complained to the landlord in question before, have to be careful not to do anything which could be construed as a neighbour dispute with being (possibly) about to sell.

All I can add to the kibbutz discussion is the plural is kibbutzim (as I am sure someone else has already mentioned). Hurrah - my course on the History of the Jews in Latin America was not a complete waste after all! (There were no kibbuztim in the course, obviously, but other -ims like Sephardim).

Welshie - excellent sleep, well done ds. Mine has managed 730 to 445 but only does that to tease me; last night it was 230 again just for kicks. (Also probably because some of the other neighbours came home p*ssed then and shouting in the street). Dinner for 6?! Unimaginable.

charley - have similar feelings to you about letting relative strangers babysit ds. My mum, fine. But anyone else I would have qualms about.

lynny, good for you, hope you and the nighty have had a good day together!

EYM, great news about lil Georgia, she's coming on in leaps and bounds.

Lippy, most impressed by your full-on "child stimulation" programme Maybe the rest of us could leave our Junies with you for a day or two so they could properly entertained.

Talking of twins, I saw the dad of the local triplets out this afternoon pushing their triple buggy. Nearly had a nervous breakdown just out of sypathy.

lua, sorry to hear the first food was a bit of a let down! I'm sure he will get the hang of it soon.

rhm, the wendy house sounds brill. One of my nephews went through a phase where he loved his paddling pool so much he insisted on having every meal served to him in it

Haven't thought about high chairs but I hear that the bog standard Ikea one is excellent value for money, practically indestructible if v basic.

Glad to hear so many others are on a mission to countdown til bedtime from getting up, that does make me feel better. I've had a couple of nights of slightly better sleep (neighbours excepted) so am feeling a bit more chilled about life.

We have a couple of letting agents coming round tomorrow (hence turbo-declutter) so we can look at the renting option. One thing we're considering is turning our exceptionally huge living room into two rooms, so that our 2 bed flat becomes a 3 bed flat. For the sake of a wall, a door and moving a couple of light fittings it might reap some real benefits, have to think about that.

Right-o, must dash. Best bit of decluttering was finding a bottle of wine in what I thought was an empty box Well, would be rude not to sample it in the circs I feel.

Have a good evening all!

evening all
this was a strange and labour intensive weekend, but i feel it will pay in the long run - talking about sleep again.dd seems to be getting the hang of settling herself to sleep for daytime naps. wish i could say the same for when she wakes up durng the night.
we will get there i guess, but having taken a peek at jan05 babies thread its not a done deal.

i am full of admiraton for those of you who manage to get dressed at decent time, put make up on (!!!)do chores and care for babies.
i think i am just about coming out of the shock of birth and all that followed.

regarding mood i just realised i stayed indoors all days of the week which clearly is not sane or healthy. felt better going out today, really must make an effort to go out more.

weaning - glad to report dd seems to be a good eater so far. we just started two 'meals' a day, still single fruit or veg puree with rice and EBM.

lua- sure taste for solids will come i found timing is crucial and tricky.

RHM- plan looking good. think am just fussing being first time mum and all. i used to take niece and nephew around town all the time in their buggies, but that was years ago and i seem to worry more about my own

trib-neighboursthought this might amuse you
although nowhere as good as lummox suggestion
having to deal with eatate agents on top of it all is my idea of hell.

lynny-glad nice time was had, medieval party sounds great, do they let you eat with your fingers?

welshie- good going on sleep, long may it continue.

charley- yes see what you mean about chair, decided to ponder a bit longer.
about babysitting i am really just talk, at the moment the only person i would entrust with sole charge of olivia is one of my sisters who is a mother. but i do have close reliable friends keen on helping, she is 'socialising' with them but no way will i leave her with anyone else just yet.

eym- glad georgia doing so well.hope sister is recovering and feeling better.

going to have dinner which dh cooked and put my feet up with the sunday papers and the telly on.
good nights all

Welshie - really happy for you! I'm afraid I can't say the same... We made some progress but now we stopped... Can I ask what are you doing when he wakes up? Are you just letting him settle himself back, or do you go in and do something? Sorry, for the questionaire but I am getting to thepoint of either letting him cry through (which is "cruel" but fast, done that before [shame]) or go back into bed with me....

f.i.t - Did the same with DD. Felt so absolutely guilty! I got up of the bed to take a shower and thought she would be okay sleeping...But she is fine! As everybody said on your thread, most of us has done something like it!

Lynny -medievalbanquet sounds great! I would definetely go without the teeth?

Well, tried the rice a little bit thicker today and am happy to report DS had two trys of it! We'll keep persevering!

Now, my problem of the day is that DS decided he wantto sleep in his tummy! He turn himself immediatly upon being put in the cot! What do I do? I don't think DD ever started turning this early? anyone else faced with that?