July 2010: Weaning's in full swing, the kitchen floor's covered in ming

[CakeandRoses]

And voila: our 6th postnatal thread... which neatly works out roughly one a month [maths genius emoticon]

Sorry Hotg im off to bed safe in the knowledge that im actually quite glad im not BF! Hope everyone has a good night. xx

I would be around more but i have teething baby, a 3year old who wants me to play Little Red Riding Hood with her CONSTANTLY (I get to be the wolf though ), in-laws arriving back tomorrow, plus we're going away for a week soon so I have to pack for that, oh and do my parent help turn at kindy, do a food shop (online I think), clean the house and walk the dog.

Trudyla noooooo don't worry about restricting food. A was the chubbiest chubster of a baby that you ever did see and yes, they do level out once they are walking and crawling. A was 9 kgs at 6 months and is now nearly 3 and a half and is only 14 kgs! G is also a gorgeous chubby baby, I put her in Bumbo at a friend's house a while ago (we don't have one) and her legs are so big they got stuck in there .

vik i've not done cc or cry it out, too wussy for that jazz. A's a pretty good self-settler but she's had loads of props in terms of swaddle, dummy and even a muslin over her eyes if she was over-excited. if she wakes up, i go to her as there's always a reason such as needing a feed or her dummy (not that often thankfully). F was a terrible self-settler and still is now at 2.5 so i'm not sure if i can advise!

Oh god. I've finally scraped together the courage for shred. Ignorance was bliss and knowledge hurts like hell.

also, felix's potty stats today are as follows:

At nursery:
Accidents: 0 (until dh picked him up and then he weed everywhere)
Potty usage: 0 (he held it all morning and then all afternoon)
In nappy (during nap): 1 massive one apparently

At home:
In nappy: 1 poo in night-time pull-up
Accidents: 1 (but i think it was en route to potty)
Wees in loo: 1 (Yay!)

Nursery said the fact he held it so long may be a good sign in that it shows he can hold it and is aware of it.

i'm feeling a bit more up for it again now. plan to focus on it all this week with just brief trips out with him in training pants (not pull-ups) to retain sanity.

Way to go Felix! Cake a friend of mine has been bragging to me about how she was out of nappies by 7 months and shouldn't I be thinking about starting with Gwen, I thought I'd die laughing!

Ouch hg and mlic

cake well done Felix. Holding it that long is a good sign!

viksam sorry ur feeling low. hope things improve on the nap front and u can get some rest.

Evelyn was a chubster too but there's nothing to her now either. She was a proper michelin baby! They store extra fat for when they start crawling and walking/running.

Hope ur all having a good night and getting more sleep than me

Lucas was very good on his baptism as was about to start crying until he spotted the water in the font. He tried to get in for a play! He was quite noisy during,singing to everyone. Evelyn was being very cute too. Must try to add some pics to my profile. mlic he doesn't suck his thumb although I'd think it from pics. He was chomping on both thumbs all day!

Viksam when G was 6m, I decided that I could take no more nights of getting up every two hours and we started sleep training in earnest. The first thing I did was establish a proper bedtime routine, so, dinner feed at 6, bath at 6.30, bottle at 6.45, bed at 7. The first night of cc was total hell and it took about 2hrs of 10 -> 15m intervals for her to sleep. The only way I got through was knowing that she was fed, dry, winded and just really didn't want to sleep. The next night it took an hour. The next fifteen, the next seven. Then it stopped working and for three nights it was full on hell. it gotso bad I called cry-sis in. in tears and they told that nearly all babies have a short regression early on in sleep training and to persevere.
four weeks down the line, I know that when i put her down and then on the mobile, she'll be asleep before it's finished and she only wakes onc she's a much happier baby all day too. it ws really the hardest thing I think I've ever had to do, but i'm so glad I did.

happy to talk about it if you want to call me, I know how awful you must be feeling x

Oh, MLIC, I wish I'd timed my response to Viksam better- you sound absolutely shattered. IS there anyone you can call to just come and give you a breather for a few hours so that you can sleep? I know that ultimately it doesn't solve the long term problem, but at least it might make you feel a little better in the long term. I honestly think you've been incredible with everytign you had to deal with so far.

I'm terrible at dieting. Before I met DH, I only ate once every two days, and survived the rest of the time on tea and cigarettes, so I was teeny-tiny, but incredibly unhealthy! As soon as I got pregnant the weight piled on becuase I had to start eating. My stomach is killing me this morning from Shred. Did you ever finish it?

MLIC, does W nap during the day?

Oh dont mention smoking, Ive been missing it more and more recently, I even dreamt I smoked last night
I know Ive done so well and its much better for my health etc but I loved smoking and Im seriously missing it now.

mlic Dylan is the other way round! Cant get him to sleep but is ok once asleep, well if you dont include last night lol.

I looked at the clock at 3 but he woke up before then, then 6 but he took ages to get back to sleep.

needle the furthest I've got is day 17, I keep starting and then having visitors for the weekend and there's no way I'm doing it in front of them. Level 2 nearly killed me but I'm determined to start again soon. At the moment I'm running home from any groups we go to (well, I've done it once and plan to do it today), must.shift.this.stone.

viks I'll pm you in a bit.

S has woken up after a 30 mins nap we're off to a stay and play this morning then a run round the park , home for a nap for the kiddies then sainsbury's delivery and might finish the second book club book if they sleep long enough. Only got it yesterday but once I start a book I just have to finish it.

mlic I'm debating sleep training but S is the same, he'll go to sleep with very little crying (usually) but just won't stay asleep. He woke for the day at 5.30 today too...ARGH!

G used to be the same MLIC and Chulita. I used to put her down at 7, then she'd be awake buy 8.30 and refuse to go down till 12, then up at 2, 4, 6.30. I would honestly recommend giving it a try, because if it doesn't work, while it'd difficult for you, it doesn't actually hurt them and they wont remember it, and if it does work, hurrah. I found it helps to make sure Gwen has a big feed at 6.45- about 8oz, then again at her night feed, somewhere between 10.30-12, but MLIC I know you've had problems getting milk into W. Is he doing better on that front now? Gwen dropped her night wakings gradually over the month, so until about 4 days ago she was still waking at 12, then again at 2.30, and before that and 12, 2.30 and 4.30. The biggest thing for me was to get her to actually learn to sleep though. I suppose if it isn't getting them off to sleep that's the problem it might not work so well. Have either of you tried Cry-sis? They were really nice when I called, and genuinely seemed to know what they were talking about.

MLIC these days I have a major meltdown if DH so much as leaves a teabag in the sink! Queue screaming, crying and general hysteria, and my baby has been pretty easygoing, as far as I'm concerned, to get this far without murdering anyone on your part is amazing!
What kind of stuff do you do at your craft morning? I'm considering going to a sing and rhyme group i've not been to before, which is just round the corner to me, but I'm not sure if it's mother and baby or mother and toddler, or whether G will be too small.

DH, I totally understand your point. I bought a packet of cigarettes when G was about 6 weeks old, and started smoking, but only when she was safely down for a nap in another room (this is when hubby was still on 60 a day) but I couldn't deal with the smell. Every time I had a cig, I had to go and have a shower before I could pick up the baby and in the end I couldn't be bothered. Hal has now gone 80 days without a cigarette, no patches, no gum, just cold turkey and I'm so proud. I figure if he can do that from 60 a day, my 10 a day really shouldn't be a problem any more.

Have given in and bought a travel system for getting around London, as I'm having to give up on the sling. Gwen nearly sqirmed her way out of it yesterday- I think she's going to be an escapologist. I managed to get this one though. which is great, as it fits the car seat we already have for future babies. Has anyone else used it?

my sympathy to mlic and all for bad nights. 2nd terrible night in a row here too, A is still backed up from her eatathon on Monday and is obviously in pain and it's waking her. I gave up trying to get her back down and put her on me in our bed at about 4am but couldn't sleep. finally managed to put her back down at 6am and had 2 hours of broken sleep til 8am.

woooooo, spooky - she's literally gone red, teary-eyed and started grunting as i'm typing!!

i'm not feeling that much up for potty training after the crap night but i'm taking mlic as my inspiration, if you can do it with your long-term sleepless state then i can after just 2 nights of crap sleep.

and on that note, how often would you ask E if he needed the potty to begin with?

its a big'un - she's still doing it several minutes later! i'm scared of opening this nappy...

oh and thank you all for your cheering on of F

Cake, i hope it's not as bad as the gastirc volcano we saw the other day. My DH hasn't changed a nappy since G was 2 weeks old, but on Monday she happened to have a very audible crap while he was reading to her, and I was hoovering, so he decided (in his words) to surprise me, and change it himself. (I think in his head a changed nappy is on a par with diamonds, in terms of amazing gifts)
Sod's law that the first time in 7 months he tries to change a nappy, it'a a poopernova that literally sprayed from her hair to between her toes. I've never seen anything like it. I came into the bedroom and he was just staring at her in horror. I wiped her off as best i could and initiated emergency bath procedure, at which point dh picked her up only to have her giggle, and pee all over him. I don't think he'll be changing any more nappies.

it actually wasn't that impressive - more to follow methinnks

good grief needle - that sounds like a horror show. serves dh right that he got that one

potty training arrrghhhhh, keep me strong, keep me strong!!!

he's had 2 accidents (wee) this morning, both when he's been in his booster seat. he'll happily sit in the potty for ages, not do anything then get back in his booster and wee for england.

in fact most of the accidents he's had over the weekend were in the booster too - is this common?

and to make the day even better, A's 2nd tooth is about to come thru. crying whenever i put her down (really rare for her), won't bf or eat So every time i put her down to deal with F she's screaming....

and the house is still covered in dry laundry from the weekend's piss n sickfest.

At least it's dry! Here its invariably wet laundry on every surface, which takes days and days to try.