November 09, new skills are fun - look what I can do now, Mum!

[DontWorryBaby]

New thread for our little handfuls!

ursi good to 'see' you, and glad to hear you're feeling a little better and able to enjoy food. Hope the ms goes for good soon.

I do think he's waking out of habit even though he drinks all the milk he's offered. Am sure that when (not if!!) he stops waking and feeding in the night he will eat more in the daytime and then hopefully that will help him sleep better at night. I will see how tonight goes, and might take up water for during the night so at least we are still doing the same routine - in that he gets taken out of his cot and fed something.
I will report back tomorrow and just hope that I have the strength to see it through at 3am!!

This afternoon has been tough! Back with the DS' from 4:30 and feeling rough from the copious wine last night made for a loooong 3 hours before bed! Peace now though, at last!

Just having a Saturday Night Lurk.
Hope you're all well.

Evening all

Fruit Hope you?ve got a healthy household now! How is C sleeping?

Scarlotti Poor Smithy/Stacey!! Glad you had a good night out!

MsI Hope you are feeling better? Nothing worse than vomiting in public! You?ll be talk of the steamy at the nursery - they?ll all think there?s another little Roo on the way!

Pav Hope your friend has recovered well? What a frightening story. How has your Roo been sleeping recently? Still on the right path I hope?

Ursi Good to hear from you! I?ll be 27 weeks on Tuesday so just about to start the third trimester! This pregnancy has flown in. Starting to struggle a bit with my pelvis so I?m trying to be very careful and make sure things don?t get any worse. Didn?t have SPD in my first pregnancy - it?s definitely there just now, but fairly mild. I think Katster was around 10/11 weeks ahead of me (but could be wrong) so she must be in the last few weeks now? Nothing mentioned on facebook yet anyway. Hope you have your scan soon!

skorpion Hope you are keeping well ? any news of first appointments yet?

No news here. Ethan woke up crying before 6:30 this morning, which is very unlike him. DH got up with him. I realised during the course of the day that Ethan?s blinds and curtains were already open ? silly DH hadn?t closed them after putting Ethan into bed last night so it was most likely the sun rising which disturbed him! He?s also got a bit of a cold and has been quite grumpy and hard work all day. I?m exhausted! So what am I doing online at half nine...? (Won?t be on much longer anyway!!)

Need to look into buying a sling since I don?t think Ethan will be too pleased if I have my arms full of new baby and can?t play with him as much as he?d like. Has anyone used a sling before? Any recommendations? Still haven?t bought a single item for baby no 2 so hoping to get a few things organised tomorrow. All from home though! Shopping/research online for new sling, cataloguing existing collection of baby clothes to organise what we need to buy etc.

Anyway, exhaustion is kicking in so I?m going to log off and wind down before bed...

Hi Everyone :wave:
Its MissSese just changed my user name!
Hope your all well , was having a little chat to DWB on FB so thought id pop on and say Hi!
We are doing well Pearl is a little angel and i'm loving being a stay at home mum. Even more so now we own our own house ( moved in January) and have a garden for Pearl to play in! Still in London just a bit further out!

Waves at S&P Good to see you back.

Thank you ladies for asking after the DS' and I. C is finally on the mend and full of energy. He ate quite a lot of his dinner tonight. First time in weeks. Another tooth has cut today, I make that the 5th. He is also trying to walk and getting better with his balance each day. He is so happy that he's getting the hang of it. I look at him and my heart melts. He is still so little, I could fit him in my pocket .

Looking forward to a week off school and work. Need to recharge my batteries. Just hope the weather improves so we can get out and about.

Things aren't too great on the sleep front. I've stopped the co sleeping when C was feeling better. He has a habit of waking up from 12am onwards for 2hrs each night. He wakes on/off and will eventually settle until he wakes for the morning. I'm doing cc and not given in by bringing him to the bed. I go to his bedroom and find his dummy, stroke his head then leave the room. He doesn't cry for long then drifts in and out of sleep. Something is stopping him for those 2 hours to fall back to a deep sleep. The teething could be part the reason but he's always been a terrible sleeper. We had a good run of sleep for a while with a brief feed at night and back to sleep until 6. I still feed him once during the night. I want to give this up but he really hasn't been eating enough during the day lately and I need to build him back up.

DWB Sorry to hear you're suffering with SPD. How are you feeling?

scarlotti How did it go last night without the dreamfeed?

ursi Glad to hear you feel a bit better. Such a nice feeling to start enjoying some food again!

Pav Hope your friend and baby are doing well.

Sorry if I've missed anyone.

I've done it again!!

You know who I am. I only name change for the CM board as I like to keep that separate!

Just to add. I was co sleeping when C was ill as I couldn't leave him to cry. So in theory he should be ok to go back to his bed for a full night without the night crying. I give up on trying to guess my DS!

Nice to see you S&P

Fruit glad to hear he's on the mend, and well done with the cc and sorting out the nights.

Last night Ioan woke at 11:30 and cried on and off until 1:30! I didn't give in and feed him, tried with water which he was most disgusted with. Also tried taking him in my bed, then back to his cot. In the end, I gave him some calpol in case it was his teeth and that helped as he went back to sleep and woke at 6:45!
He's been teething again today so I'll try the calpol first if he wakes tonight, but am sticking to my guns now. We've done two nights without milk and I have to carry it on. I am dying on my feet here, the tiredness just isn't funny anymore and it's making me feel blue. I was getting angry last night when I kept going in so it has to stop.
We've been swimming today and he ate heaps of lasagne for tea so am hoping he's tanked up for the night. I really hope it doesn't take too long - it's hard in the middle of the night when I don't have anyone for support as the temptation to cave in is strong. This has to work though as I can't see an end to it otherwise.
He's also standing more and seems a little interested in walking about, but one of his feet bends around when he first starts to try so I'm wondering if I should get him checked out at all. If I turn it the right way he's ok, but I wonder if the odd angle it's at when he's bum shuffling might be a factor.

Fruit A bit worse today after helping DH carry the shopping up the stairs to our flat!! Actually feels like bones grinding together today. I am a firm believer in being pregnant, not an invalid, so will feel like a bit of a fraud if I start saying "sorry, I can't carry that" but DH has seen me struggling ever since so at least he will understand. Still hoping it will just clear up as it's only been an issue for about 5 days but this might be it for the remainder of the pregnancy. Ah well...

Both you & scarlotti - stick by your guns and hopefully you will see a quick improvement. It is so true that with sleep we can handle anything and your sons have both shown they can do it - you just need to stay strong and stick with it now. Sounds like you are both quite determined anyway.

Right I'd better go get the ironing (least favourite household chore) finished then into bed soon. Oh yeah, my washing machine has broken. Going to buy a washer/dryer this time - any recommendations? Mum said she loves her Hotpoint, DH found lots of anti-Hotpoint reviews online. Seems like a bit of a lottery but they're so expensive I don't want to pick the wrong make or model!

Well done scarlotti for keeping it going. I'm sure it won't take long to get him used to the idea of no dream feed. He seems to be a good eater so in theory he shouldn't need the milk. I know that tiredness you are talking of too well. I've been doing the cc for the 4th night tonight on my own as dh is on night shift. With regard to I's foot. I would show your GP to be on the safe side. Hopefully it's nothing but ever in doubt get it checked. Both our ds' are coming along fast now with their mobility. Hope you hangover has gone. Mine always last for a couple of days!

dwb I've not experienced spd but I struggled with a lot of aches and pains with both my pg's. Back pain with the 1st and bad sciatica with the 2nd. Both times I had to seek treatment. It's miserable when you still have a little way to go. I also tried to get on with things but I had slow down as I was making it worse. I'm sure the ironing won't be helping you. Let your DH do the heavy stuff as you take it easy! I'm sure you know this already

DWB do be careful with the lifting and doing too much, you don't want to do any long lasting damage. I too am a firm believer in pregnancy not invalidity, but SPD did get me quite badly the last time and you're not being pathetic by being careful.

Fruit I will take him to the gp then and get it checked out. Am sure it's nothing but better to be safe.

Hangover is finally gone, thank goodness! I did feel rough still this morning as the 2 hour sleep disaster last night didn't help. Hopefully tonight will be better. He definitely doesn't need the milk so it's now just cracking the habit of waking up.

I will be careful - since DH is a temporary teacher and doesn't get paid for holidays, I need to work as late as I can manage to. I can remind him of this if he shows any signs of thinking I'm shirking my responsibilities!! And remind myself if necessary!

It's just impossible difficult to follow all the guidance - don't carry heavy loads (my son??), avoid stairs (I live two storeys up!) etc. I'll do what I can and hope for the best.

DWB have you been referred to a physio by your midwife? I did and it was very helpful, they gave me a support belt and some exercises to do to strengthen the muscles. They show you how to steady your core for lifting etc. which helps.

Well, last night Ioan woke at 1:30 so I went in and gave him his dummy, he cried for about half a minute then went back to sleep!! he then slept until 5:15 so I gave him his bottle, then he went back to sleep until 6:45!!
I'd have had a great nights sleep if the ruddy fire alarm hadn't also gone off at 2am still at leastfull night's sleeps seem to finally be on the horizon!

I wish I had some wise words about sleep, but Lucy's is still such a lottery... Saturday night was awful - awake for a couple of hours - settled only by milk. I don't think I am strong enough at this moment to try to break that habit. Will do anything for some sleep.

Ursi I had a dating scan on Friday and was 9+2. That puts my due date on the 21 September, I think. Still feel sick pretty much all day starting at about noon. Could pretty much live on bread and cheese. So much like my first pregnancy!

Pavlov Goodness me! I hope your friend recovers well, what a shocker...

DWB Do take it easy, although I know exactly what you mean. How are you supposed to do that with a toddler, eh? Lucy has become a bit of a clinger recently and is happiest in my arms. I am only a few weeks pg, but starting to feel strange pulling on muscles everywhere...

Lucy is walking!! Well, she looks a bit like a drunk duck not really sure what her feet sre doing but loves to stick her hands up in the air for me to hold them so we can go for a walk around the house. Looks very pleased with herself. And she made me cry on Saturday: every day I drop her off at the nursery I leave with blowing kisses (kiss my hand with a mwah and wave). She did that to me. Looked so precious.

Sorry if I've missed anyone, hope you are all well.

I haven't yet Scarlotti, I'm not due to see a midwife again until 14th March. I'll see how this week goes. I suspect I'll be ok until the weekend again - commuting and working don't seem to pose many problems. It's being at home which is more physically taxing!

Skorpion Nice to hear from you. Re the strange pulling on muscles - the first pregnancy symptom I recognised this time around was sneezing and feeling like I'd pulled a muscle in my tummy! Funny how quickly everything starts to loosen off and move. Hope you are over the sickness soon x

dwb I made banana and walnut loaf. It was delicious. Made my 2nd loaf yesterday. And it's nearly all gone! I also had to make something with ds1 so he wouldn't feel left out. We made chocolate rice krispie cakes and they are so addictive.

Good news scarlotti. I'm sure you are on your way to some well deserved sleep filled nights. We had a better night. Only 1 hour of being unsettled. He is teething though so I feel we're doing ok. Stupid me in my 3am haze i took him to my bed without thinking. Had started to feed him and realised where I was. He swifty fed and I placed him back in his cot. He didn't like that at all. I felt really bad.

skorpion hope your morning sickness passes you by quickly. My friend is pregnant and she has had no sickness at all. It's funny how some women are affected and some not.

Hello ladies! I'm sorry I've been AWOL, again, at parents' and don't get much chance to hop online. Will try and catch up with everyone. DWB just seen your pic on FB - your bump is looking fab!! Mine is somewhat elephantine! Saw MW today, am 38 w tomorrow, yikes. Not engaged at all but apprently this is normal with second babies? In right place which is a bloody good job after the amount of all-fours crawling I have been doing, and swimming to try and stop him going back to back!
Anyway, will stop rabbiting on and catch up on everyone's news...

Skorpion glad you had a dating scan and all looks well! Good timing for the school year, as well! As a teacher, you have picked the ideal due date! I hope the MS is passing a bit now?

DWB did you choose a sling? I am investigating myself, and a friend has recommended the Close one. Apparently it's quite easy and soothes the babies quite nicely. I hope you're taking it easy. I have had a lot more aches and pains this time. My hips and pelvis feel totally b*ggered. Sounds like you might have proper SPD though, so make sure you get it sorted. My MW said she could refer me for some physio - could yours maybe do same? Or GP if you can't wait until next appointment? I found that I really couldn't push a shopping trolley or pushchair, which is not ideal, obviously! But somehow the movement, and esp going round corners, seemed to have me in agony for days after.

Ursi how are you and bump doing?

Fruitpastels, I like the sound of the cake. I do things like that in the middle of the night too. S woke up at 3 am last night, had a little squark and I raced in, absolutely convinced he had fallen out of his cot. I think me racing in all flustered made him wake up properly, whereas if I had left him a minute or two, he would probably have gone straight back to sleep.

Morning all, sorry for the absence. been busy with non-sleeping child again.

scarlotti you needed that night out I bet! Hangovers are the pits though and they put me off going out at any time. However, I did have a lovely bottle of wine with a friend on monday, followed by another, followed by at 4:30am waking boy and a grumpy dad. That'll teach me, but luckily I don't seem to get bad hangovers from drinking white wine. Did you know that you get stronger hangovers from drinking darker alcohol such as red wine than lighter alcohol? Dark alcohol is full of cogeners in which irritates your brain and stomach. Hence the worse headache. That was a good Fact of the Day eh? but you probably already knew that .

fruit I know who you are now when you namechange! I am not sure what to do about routines etc when Roo is poorly. He woke at 4:30am the other day and would not settle and we thought he might be feeling a little unwell or teeth hurting but we did not know if we should break his routine or not! . He has had a green face for the last two days now so obviously unwell, although nothing that is bothering him.

scarlettandpearl waves! hey ! Glad to hear things are going well for you guys and Pearl is developing well. Is she walking yet? or still happy to crawl like a missile?

something weird happened there, and it all disappeared, but then appeared again! I had not finished posting!

My friend is well thank you everyone for asking. Apparantly it was very touch and go for about half hour as she was 'bleeding out' or something and the doctors had to literally hold her uterus shut with their hands. She also had a reaction to medication they used to try to help stop the bleeding. She does not recall very much of it other than thinking 'how will he look after two of them on his own' but her dp recalls all of it and is quite traumatised. He said he himself thought 'this is it, this is just me and the children'. Poor man! However, once the bleed was stopped she recovered well, and within 2 days was up and about! her baby is doing well, had to have a feeding tube as not suckling well but this is normal apparantly for prem babies. However she pulled the tube out yesterday so they have let my friend try to feed herself again (bottle with some expressed, some formula). Hopefully they will be home on thursday or friday.

Sleeping - we have I beleive cracked it for most of the night. He will now sleep from 7pm-5am. But this 5am is the sticking point. Sometimes he wakes a little before, sometimes he will wake a little later. He had 3 days of 6am+waking then went backwards and woke early again but he now has a little cold so that might have something to do with it. He woke at 4:30am and DH got up with him and Roo screamed the place down for 2 hours. But yesterday he came into bed with me at 5:15am, breastfed and dozed til 6:15am. And then today, he slept right through til 6am without a murmer.

There are two things I am wondering about. 1) exercise. He was bought new shoes yesterday and he walked all through town with them. So had lots of exercise. But then the other day he also crawled on the beach for hours and this followed a 4:30am start so unsure. 2) Food - he ate a lot more little and often yesterday rather than big meals, and then he had his main meal at 4:30pm, followed by a good supper of ready brek at 6pm. I wonder how much difference this has made? Or a combination of.

Or. It is indeed all random and nothing I am actually doing is making a difference at all, he is doing it when he wants to

Oh but he is so so so cute. We bought him some new shoes yesterday, his first pair, they are startrite ones and have little lions on the front, furry ones. He loves them and is very proud. In fact yesterday was a 'growing up' day. He got new shoes. He went into his big car seat (with a pink cover as it was DDs! I will eventually get another cover for it) and he loves facing forward. He also was put into little walkers nappies instead of the normal ones yesterday which he was very proud about indeed. He is so so happy. He just seems to want to wonder around giggling and laughing with his sister, occasionally coming up to rest a casual arm on me and make me melt with love and then off again.

Although currently he and his sister and snuggled together watching Fireman Sam, nice and still and calm.

sorry that is what you get from lack of posts from me...too long!

Hello all!

I've missed you all, we've been so so busy with cleaning and decorating the new house that I've not had chance to pop in! DH and I have just got back from a lightening visit to his parents in Devon for his aunts funeral, we went down 4 pm Monday and got back 9.30 pm last night and spent 10 hours in the car! We also ended up having to sort his parents out while we were there, his Dad has been in bed for weeks now unwell, but when we saw him yesterday he wasn't just unwell he was in agony! So, we called an ambulance and he has now been admitted to hospital where he can be helped.

Pav It's great to hear how happy your little man is and I remember Hen having that day when they suddenly grow up. I think with the sleeping it is just random, i've tried doing everything exactly the same everyday but hen sleeps when he wants and for how long he wants regardless! (thankfully he is going 11 - 12 hours most nights) I'd like to think eventually every night will be good!
So glad your friend is ok, it must be awful for her Dh watching it all happen.
Scorpion and Ursi glad the pregnancies are going well and I really hope the sickness is over soon.

DWB I think sirboob uses a sling alot, I have used a couple but not sure they are that good I'd recommend.

Scarlotti glad you enjoyed your night out, I bet you needed it! I was laughing at your cat names and how you got the sexes wrong, we got 2 cats a few years ago that should have been girls but ended up as boys! I'm now surrounded by boys, I feel the need to buy pink things for my new house just to remind everyone that I'm a girl!

Anyway enough ranting from me, I'm going to go and pick my boys up from my mums.

Kaster wow not long now, are you all ready, with your bag packed etc? I'm so excited for you, I love hearing of people having babies.

Oops sorry for long post, and I've know idea how Kaster's message ended up last!

It's going to be another long one from me...

Fruit I loved having home baking. I don?t do it often but it is a nice treat on those rare occasions! My first essay for uni is due in next week and I haven?t even started it yet so there won?t be any baking going on this week but maybe next.

Katster Re the sling ? I?ll be going for a woven wrap (I think) but there are so many to choose from! I think the website recommended to me is slingguide.co.uk which explains the different types but once you?ve chosen a type it then directs you to a page of about 20 different online retailers. Haven?t got beyond that yet! I?m looking for one to be used around the house if needed, not too fussed about using it when out, I?ll probably just use the twin pram. Looking forward to hearing your news shortly ? have you decided on names yet?

Pav Delighted to hear your friend has made a good recovery. I?m guessing this will be their family complete now? It?s frightening how quickly things can go wrong, her poor husband must?ve got a real fright. On the sleep thing, I?d say it?s random. Ethan sometimes has days where he devours food and others where he picks all day and still sleeps well most nights. Exercise seems to help him with daytime naps but I wouldn?t say it has much effect on his nighttime routine. I know the 5am starts must be horrid at the moment but just look at how far you?ve progressed over the past few weeks - stick with it and the morning will hopefully improve with time.

Tigger I know that feeling of being overrun with boys ? even our dog is male!! I quite like having 'my boys' though. It's a nice feeling.

Well we had an odd night last night! Our new washer/drier was arriving today and after asking DH to hoover the hall and kitchen yesterday evening before I came home from work, it needed doing properly (surprise, surprise!) but I didn't have a chance until after Ethan was in bed. I thought he would sleep through it as he usually does but realised around 9:30pm he was wide awake, shouting at the top of his voice and everytime I checked on him he was sitting upright in the cot and refusing to lie down. I checked him before I went to bed around 11:30pm and he woke with me going in. After ten minutes I just said to him ?mummy is going to bed, will you lie down and go to sleep please? in a very stern voice and walked away. Unfortunately DH did the same when checking him about 45 minutes later so there were further tears after midnight! The strange thing is, there were long periods of him playing quietly in his cot and from time to time I?d hear him saying ?dooooooog? or something else and scout (his teddy) was singing away. I thought it was quite odd that he was wide awake during the night but content at the same time? Not sure what was going on. Then up at 7am shouting ?hiya!? as usual. Funny little creatures, aren?t they?

The ?spd? hasn?t been too bad these past couple of days ? I genuinely think it?s being at home over the weekend with a one year old which aggravates it the most. The commute and being in an office all day is reasonably manageable. Still keeping an eye on it, if it shows signs of deteriorating I?ll ask for a physio referral to make sure I?m doing all I can to prevent it worsening.

I think that?s all the goss from this end. Still nothing prepared for this baby, 27 weeks now. I?ll get my first essay out of the way next week then make a serious effort to get organised. Someone ask me after 3rd March what I?ve done to prepare!