FEB 2010 Tottering into our second year...!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

A few first birthdays left, then we're full tilt into walking/talking and a mountain of mischief

DS says 'tia' which I think is either 'ta' for thanks or 'tiens' (take in French) when he wants us to get something for him.
No other recognisable words.

It's so cool when they do things that make you realise how much they actually get - I really think there's been a jump recently in comprehension and speech. The other day DS saw picture of a stripy ball in a book and pointed at it and then went and got his stripy ball. He can also recognise cats but he thinks lots of other four legged animals are cats as well. His favourite word is 'that' - he points and says 'that' when he wants something or 'thathathathaTHAT' if it's made of chocolate. He doesn't have many words he uses regularly beyond no, mum, dad, cat and that.

SG I am quite envious of you afternoon on the sofa. Glad you are clot free and hope cough clears up.

IC DS loves cheese too. He doesn't do teething subtly though, he soaks his tops with dribble within about 5 mins of me putting a new one on.

LBH Fingers crossed your DD sleeps better tonight. So sorry you've been having such a hard time.

SC Good news about the colour free Calpol, thanks for letting us know. Will get some. Hope DD2 is feeling better.

Waves to SB, PA and everyone else.

dd2 is still in a right state and looks terrible because she's wiped her nose and rubbed her eyes, causing her eyes to go green and oozy... She asked for banana at lunch and dinner and had nothing else . She enjoyed going to the park and walked along the railings to look at the ducks, but then wanted to be back in her pushchair and reclining rather than sitting up. In bed again at 6 tonight. I may take her to the GP in the morning after all although they will probably tell me that yes, she is absolutely streaming with cold, but it's just another viral illness...
I must admit I am a little selfish when it comes to night time. She's had calpol at bedtime because her temperature was high again and she is quite unsettled in the early evening. The last two nights I have given her nurofen when we went to bed at around half 11. That has lasted her until the morning and she slept very well. (Selfish in the sense of not waiting for her to wake in distress at 2am and taking ages to settle again... I like to pre-empt it when I know she clearly is unwell).

Waving at everyone...

soc :( hope the next few days go better.

LBH DD was like that for a week, get as much rest as you can. She was just grumpy for the entire time she was awake for days. tbh it was hard to enjoy her.

Every animal (in book or RL) is either 'ka' (cat) or do (dog) although crow seems slightly different and does a slight crow noise (she stops in the street for every crow).

climbing was good but very cold (it was at the top of a mountain). It rained a few times for a min each, but then a beautiful rainbow would come up. It was weird because it was below us straddling one of the lower peaks. That is how to skive off an afternoon from work.

Oh, SC I am sorry. I don't think it's selfish for wanting your baby to have a comfortable night.

PA How lovely about looking down on the rainbows. My DH was reading over my shoulder and laughed at "stops for every crow".

My period has started, properly (I had a couple of bits of spotting and thought it was coming before) - it's really (sorry TMI) heavy and I feel achey. Still, it's good that we can have a go at TTC in a couple of weeks.

Ooh Bc I got a flush of excitement for you when I read that (about TTC). Is that your first period post DS then? best of luck! Enjoy the trying!

SC that DD2's still not well. Hope the GP can help... (and I'm totally with you on the night-time. It's much better for the DCs' recovery to sleep through rather than wake every so often, anyway.) (she tells herself)

How are you today Stan? Hope you're not back at work and are still relaxing with the cat. I must say that sounds absolute bliss.

PA Still no words from DD beyond nana (banana, not Nana) and now she has definitely decided that I'm Daddy and DH is Mama. It makes us laugh. Your climbing sounds amazing. Any news on new job?

LBH hope DD is feeling better.

I took DD to the swings for the first time yesterday. She was pretty umimpressed. But absolutely loved going down the slide and wanted to do it again and again and again (she doesn't vocalise this, just points, but it's effective communication none the less!). I got a bit bored of it after a while

Swimming today, yay

And happy Friday everyone!

Aw, Soc, sorry your DD2 is still poorly . Nothing wrong with helping her sleep better - it'll help her get well.
Out of interest, what's the medical advice on giving ibuprofen to babies? Does it have to be with food, as for adults? I've got some in the medicine bag, but haven't felt the need to use it yet.

Rainbows, PA, mmm.... lovely!

Ooh, Bc, how exciting! You, me and
Abs busily popping the folic acid...

Scones, my DD isn't too keen on the swings either. Her favourite thing is to sit on the ground in play areas and pick up handfuls of grit. She gets very cross when it's time to go.

dd2 slept from 6pm last night until 7.30 am and was quite chirpy when she got up. Her eyes are still quite pink but she has definitely turned a corner. Lovely to see her excited about half a weetabix, too and she had a decent helping of Linguine for lunch.

LBH hope your dd is getting better, too. The explosive nappy could have been due to the antibiotic

IC I do give dd2 the smallest dosage (2.5ml) of nurofen followed by a good few glugs of water. She's never had a problem.

PA That sounds like a fantastic climb!

dd2 also not keen on swings, quite unlike dd1 who is a total speed freak and spent hours on them at this age, going as high as physically possible.

Soc pleased to hear DD is on the mend.

IC when DD was ill recently they didn't say anything about food or water with drugs, just that i could give Calpol one time and baby ibuprufen 2 hours later and keep alternating like that.

Well after a rubbish few weeks with DD being ill, me being continuous unwell and DD away a lot in France, yesterday and today have been great. Weather's good. My boss has forced me to have a second day sick leave to ensure I feel better. I went shopping and bought some fab maternity cargos. DP (having returned from France late last night) is picking up DD from nursery. So i can sit on the sofa again! This afternoon I shall watch a horror film..... and I've got a good horse in the office Grand National sweepstake. Oh, and I've just had fried eggs and bacon for lunch. All I need now is a curry for dinner and a nice shag with DP and it'll be an excellent day. Perhaps I better warn him....

Stan Sounds like your weekend is shaping up rather nicely

Hello everyone!

Big wave, woefully out of date with news.

All good here. I am having a bit of a work/life wobble at the moment, happens on a monthly basis, I think! It must be related to my hormones as I have these black days of wondering why I do what I do and is it normal to feel so overwhelmed by everything all the time and wondering if I could be happier as a SAHM (on a personal level). I sometimes think YES! Especially now with the nice weather and no threat of being cooped up in the house. Other days I think NO! My career is important to me and if I give it up now I will never get it back. Also there is the issue of not being able to afford to give up working and us needing both incomes for the moment. So I wobble on.

DD has become afraid of taking a bath. I blame DH for using the shower head on her to rinse her hair, which she has always hated. I took a bath with her last night but she just clung to me like a limpet wimpering (although she did get a bit of amusement by tweaking my nipples first!!) I think we will have a break from bath time for a while (although she comes back very grubby from the cm so usually needs a good scrub).

Big wave again, will try and read all your news and catch up.

FC I alternate (sometimes daily) between really liking the idea of work and never wanting to be a SAHM to hating work and wanting to be at home.

I think I sound like a broken record... I go on an on about this.. Apologies!

No worries, I want to talk about DD awful sleep so much I started a support thread

FC you're not alone! I have exactly the same concerns/worries.

DS loves the swings, he laughs soo much the higher he goes.

I also gives ibuprofen before bedtime (2.5ml), he takes it before his bottle.

IC your climb sounds fab, I hope you're managing to have better nights.

stan like your program.

DH is working tonight so I'm watching crap on tv but we'll have most of the weekend not at work

I received my appointment for my scan... 20 May!!! Thankfully I'm not in a rush

FC DD became scared of baths about 2 months ago and remains terrified. From the moment she knows she's going in she's screams like we're torturing her, full on tears, holds onto the side of the bath and tries to climb out. This doesn't let up until she's out and being dried. I haven't found anything that improves matters - but we have to wash her - so 2-3 times a week we all go through this hell. She's so melodramatic about it that DP and I laugh at her now. Nothing else we can do.

dd2 also went through a phase of being terrified of the bath (because she knows the big bad shower head will come and rinse her hair...). She seems to have learned to accept it and has lots of splashing fun with dd1 first. I have also started washing dd1's hair first so dd2 can watch until it is her turn (doesn't help that dd1 makes a huge fuss about getting water in her eyes ). I think it's a stage they go through when they realise that, actually, they don't have to put up with it and can try to climb out . Oh, and running after dd2 with a hairdryer to try and dry her hair is another battle. She likes to escape and hide

As for work vs SAHM the thinking and worrying doesn't stop when you don't work! I remember feeling terrible about working (although I rather liked the salary!) but now I find myself longing for work! And it is certainly hard to go back to work after having a baby, but at least twice as hard to be made redundant, have a baby, and then start from scratch trying to find a job! Mind you, with hindsight, I should not have gone back full time after dd1 (long story, felt they were trying to push me out and replace me, so I retaliated by going back full time which was my right... PND made me somewhat paranoid, too). I am now hoping to find something to do, preferably at my old salary, for three days a week. I think that's a good balance with three days work, four days home. Oddly, I am much more soppy about putting dd2 into nursery than I was with dd1...

Keeping my fingers crossed for those ttc . My mum's very confident prediction, if I tried again, is that we would have twin boys . Rather puts me off actually . Maybe she thinks I should make up the numbers ( her and my dad conveniently had girl, boy, girl (me), boy...)

SC at your mum prediction

I had a nice relaxing bath tonight. It was great to take time for myself for once. Just me and a book!

DS loves his bath. He tries to climb out but for the moment obey when told to seat down. He also tries to climb in when DH has his bath. I haven't tried him with the shower yet but judging by the commemts I'll wait.

Where is everybody? I know... in the sun

Have a good weekend

We sure were, SB! It's a gorgeous day here and we've had a friend to stay, so we went to the Retiro for a picnic with her. Ace.

I'm very pleased to hear your DD2 has perked up Soc!

Oh dear at the bath tales, fc and
Sg

Lordy. I was just saying to DH that I haven't been on MN all weekend and there will be loads to catch up on... but it looks like everyone has taken full advantage of the fantastic weather!

We had a lovely day today, a pub lunch, a visit to a lambing farm then a lovely, sunny bike ride with DD in her trailer. She actually had a little nap during the ride, which was great as she was meant to be napping while we looked at lambs. We saw one being born!

Hope everyone else has had a good weekend.

I agree, we've been quiet this weekend.

DS is definitely heading towards one nap a day but at the present he seems ready for it as he's not getting very grumpy about getting less sleep.

He was also quite happy to watch the horses of the Grand National on tv

Hello all. Sorry it has been so long. Ds had a week long d and V bug, which I found more stressful than he did. He was ok in himself but didn't eat much for a week. He is only on the 2nd percentile for weight so I was getting a bit worried about it. He is fine now but of course dd had it the week after. Ds was teething at the same time and he now has 16 teeth. I am sure there should be a long gap now until his final molars appear. Phew! It is lovely to have the teeth so early, but I am sure it has affected his sleeping and eating such a lot to have been teething constantly for almost a year.

Isn't the weather fabulous? ds has been loving the swing in our back garden and the sand pit/water play type thing we have too. We have been doing some gardening today and he loved 'helping' us with the potting. At least I will have someone to blame when my salad doesn't grow.....

Interesting to see you all discussing work. I go back a week tomorrow and don't want to go at all. The only silver lining is that I have now lost 18 lbs and can fit into my uniform again. Ds has been for a few settling in sessions at nursery and last time I could hear him screaming as I got into the car .

We don't have a bath at home so both dd and ds take showers every day. They both love it and ds now just plays at dp's feet with the water pouring all over him. Maybe if your dc's aren't keen on the bath, a shower might be worth trying?

It's been too long to do individual replies but a couple of things have stuck in my memory to say.

PA glad your scan went well, and scones when is yours?

bethy your ds sounded really brave in hospital, when do you get your results?

chestnut you have been quiet recently. I hope everything is ok with you and your dad? I don't know if you remember that my mum was rushed to hospital last year with a pulmonary embolism. She is fine now though a bit scared of travelling long distances, as apparently it was a flight and long coach ride that caused it.

Gosh, what a long post. Love to all x