*~*~* August 2010 *~*~* where does the time go?

[CherryPie3]

Only 5 spaces left on the old thread - wonder how long it'll take us to fill ths one up?

Happy chatting :)

Nope, that's him up for the day. I occasionally put him back down but then he'll scream for as long as I ignore him.

dogwalker S likes to crawl to my legs and try and gnaw on them If the au pair is any good she'll make friends with him quickly and your mum should be able to see what she's like with him over the next couple of days.

Chulita T is the same, once he's awake, that's him, he plays for a while in his cot, but then after 20 mins or so I can hear him getting gripey and I have to go and get him before the full on screaming occurs. Long gone are the 8pm to 8am sleeps, mores the pity.

Lol at the gnawing your leg, maybe that's why he doesn't want to eat too much, you're tasty enough for him

can't say I blame him really.

I see I'm not the only one with a biter! I have lots of little teeth shaped bruises on my legs and arms. I hope think he's just doing it cos he's teething, although he definitely prefers to bite me over toys. I don't know how to discourage it really - I try not to react, just gently push him away and say 'no' but I can't help the occasional yelp of pain and he thinks it's really funny when I push his head away

dogwalker I hope things are going well with the au pair. I'm sure as they get used to eachother they'll get along fine

I think we must all be very tasty dishy mums and that's why our LOs love to bite us .

The au pair and T are getting on very well, long may it continue.

T say ta yesterday. My DM has been teaching him for the last 2 months to say ta when he gets given something and he has never bothered before but last night at dinner when we were passing him his food he said ta everytime, [gush emoticon]

So he can now say Mama, Dad-dad and Ta, still no crawling but walking with the aid of the vtech walker thingy. Oh how quickly they are growing, wish I was still at home to see it all.....big sigh.

Hope everyone is well and Belly hope E's tummy has got better. Take care xx

Elodie bites me too, mostly my upper arms under the pretense of a cuddle. She's still not wuite right - has had a barking cough for nearly two weeks now - not as bad as it initially was - and for the past few days has been off her food and seems to need more daytime sleep. What she has eaten has been coming through undigested. I'm in two minds as to whether to take her to the doctor/ hv as she appears to actually be coughing stuff up then, as she doesn't know how to spit, swallowing it. That said, her third tooth (top one) has broken through so it could all be linked?

Belly I reckon if she's still off colour, take Elodie to the GP on Monday. There's no harm if there's nothing wrong. Just a bit of time faffing about.

Eli bites me loads, or tries to - especially my face and nose! For a while I was trying to pretend it was his version of a kiss (ha! how desperate) but now he's taken to biting my arms too. I just try and gently tell him to stop, or distract him with something else.

Well, the big news here is that I saw a sleep consultant on Thursday and she's given us a method to work with to get Eli to sleep by himself in his cot at night. It's a mixture of pick up put down and controlled crying and a few other things. Not rocket science, but now we can at last be consistent with him at night as we know exactly what to do. Last night (our first night trying) was pretty hard going in the early evening, but he slept from 8pm - 3.30am without a proper wakeup, just some noise and shuffling about here and there. After 3.30, it was back to Eli's usual early morning tricks... he was asleep again by 4.30 by himself but then woke up at 5.30 for the day. SOOOO early. The consultant reckons we'll be able to fix this, but I am a bit sceptical. Tonight he took much quicker to get down, but we've had a few more wake ups/sporadic crying, but he's taken himself back to sleep again.

It also looks like E has dropped his afternoon feed, so I'm now only feeding at wake up, 10am and bedtime. In the next few weeks, I'll be dropping the 10am and replacing it with formula to get ready for the nanny starting. I tried to express recently and got barely anything! Feeling quite nostalgic about the early days (am I CRAZY??! They were so hard!) with my return to work looming and Eli's 1st birthday right around the corner. I'm sure you all feel the same. It's great, but it does go painfully fast.

Is anyone else's little one a little bit crazy/clingy at the mo? E has perfected a ruthless scream for when he's bored/left alone for a second/having his nappy changed/having his clothes changed/eating something he doesn't care for... bloody hell, it's wearing me down a bit! But I flicked through Wonder Weeks last night and looks par for the course at about 43 weeks. 43 WEEKS!!

Much love to all - have a good weekend!

Oh! Meant to say to Devon congratulations on the daytime naps! Bloody brilliant. And that thread you linked to make me feel so much for the OP. Not many people can possibly understand what it's like to have a baby who is such a poor sleeper... it literally drives you mad. I'm still so tense about E's naps and I know my friends/in laws/NCT friends think I'm nuts. But when people say "they'll sleep when they're tired" I can now bitterly laugh and tell them that my baby slept for 40 mins of a 12.5 hour plane journey and was hysterical, yet awake at the end of it. How'd you like them apples?

so what did they say about early wake-ups? It seems the only way S will sleep beyond 5.20 is if he wakes up for 15 mins or so around 4.00. Both of mine have been pretty ill so we've been having some rubbish nights. This morning L woke up at 5.50am (grr) while S slept til 7.30. She hardly ever wakes up that early but she has had a fever for the last 4 days so she's not 'herself'.
nat you most definitely are crazy, although we're aiming for a couple more, the first few months are my leastest favourite of all! S has an ear-shattering shriek that he uses to great effect quite regularly. L didn't drive me mad like he can!
belly I'd take her in if she's still off colour, 2 weeks is a long time for a bad cough.

Belly I agree with the others and take her to see the Doc, best to be get it checked out.

Nat so happy for you that the sleeping is improving, long may it continue and I'm with Chulita any tips to get them to sleep longer in the morning.

Thomas also has a piercing cry reserved just for me. Think it must just be a stage they go through, well at least I hope so.

He is now starting to mess with his food. I've been doing BLW but sometimes I spoon feed him, porridge, stewed apple etc, he has now started to spit his food out, but not spitting it on the floor, letting it dribble out, testing the consistency type thing, before smearing it all over his face with both hands and of course smiling at me the whole time, cheeky monkey.

I've had a change of heart on the honey thing after reading up on it, he has only had it a couple of times, but have now decided to wait until older, so he is now restricted to just cinnamon to sweeten. Thanks for the info.

Hope everyone is well, take care xx

thedogwalker I wasn't meaning to send you scurrying to google in fear! It's only a few weeks now until they're one and apparently the danger ends (anyone else sceptical about all these dates where something is not fine one day but fine the next due to an arbitrary date??). I think our LOs share a birthday if I remember correctly, 21/08? Cinnamon to sweeten is a great idea, I also use mushed up fruit in porridge (strawberries, blueberries, pear, apricot, peach, the world is your oyster - even papaya once when I was feeling flush). Oh, and v impressed at your LO saying 'Ta'. We do get the odd mama and dada with meaning but most of what E says is just lovely babble.

Share your early waking tips Nat! The days of waking after 6am are few and far between at the moment, although I do usually manage to persuade E to go back down for a bit longer if I feed her. Although I also sometimes wonder if that is reinforcing the waking...

My DH took E to the doctors' and she said she was fine, apparently coughs can linger on after a virus for up to 6 weeks! I really just wanted her to listen to her chest and check there was nothing worse going on, and there isn't so that's good. Her tummy seems to be more normal now and she's eating better too (or at least today she is...). I however had an upset stomach this morning so have been working from home so as to be nice and close to the loo, lovely!

Is anyone else still waiting for their '8-month' check? They're supposed to contact you about it and I haven't heard anything at all. They originally told me it was any time between 8 months and 12 months, but would probably be around 10 months. Which we've gone past now...

Also, what are anyone's thoughts on introducing cutlery? I let E play with a spoon and when she was being very difficult the other day she ate a bit off it herself (we do a mix of finger foods and mushed up stuff). And how are you supposed to teach them to do the right thing with them??

belly they forgot S so I contacted them to ask and they made an appt - might be worth hassling them.
wrt cutlery, it took L about 18mths to use a spoon anywhere near reliably but I've been giving S a spoon to 'help'. I might move onto metal ones soon because the plasticky ones aren't quite big enough anymore!

dogwalker I hate the spitting food out, makes everything so much messier than it needs to be, grr!

Belly not a problem, I'm glad you let me know as I was obliviuos to the risk, I'd been using cinnamon and only introduced a bit of honey just to mix it up abit, never realising he wasn't supposed to have it, so best air on the side of caution.

Thomas has a cough for ages, still has some days, but he had a chest infection at 8 months and even though his chest is fine the cough has lingered, ope E gets better soon.

Thomas had his 8 month check at 9 months, as I had just moved, I went to see the HV and whilst booking him in she did the 8 month check at the same time.

Thomas chews his plastic spoon as he chews everything . I have bought metal for him but not introduced it yet.

Oh the spitting food out, he does it so slyly and with a smile on his face and now he's started saying 'oh oh' straight after, taught to him by the au pair . I want to be stern with him but all I can do is laugh.

Hope everyone has a good week ta ta for now x

I haven't even heard of an 8 month check let alone had one! What does it involve?

I put food on a spoon and give it to J to put in his mouth. It can be pretty messy but he will rarely let me put the spoon in his mouth for him. I'm not going to let him have both bowl and spoon for a while though - can't bear the thought of the mess!

Just bought a new car seat for J as he's getting to big for his. It's pink though (well grey and pink and it's a fairly muted shade of pink). It's the older version of the one we wanted and the newer version (coming in various colours) cost £70 more so we decided J would have to cope with pink! We'll have to just pretend we're being incredibly PC :)
It's a rear facing one - chulita am I right in thinking L has a rear facing seat? How do you find it? We're thinking of rigging up a little mirror so if we look round we can see his face. Also, was it you that said you re-use huggies little swimmers nappies? Do you just rinse and hang to dry?

I reuse the boots swimming nappies - just as you say rinse then dry out. I would usually only get two uses per nappy though. And I
'm yet to have a code brown in the pool!

Yy marzipan both of ours have rear facing. L is 2.8 and although her legs are curled up we're often off on long journeys and she's never complained. We have a mirror so we can see them/they can see us. The only downside is that if they drop toys they're usually out of reach but that's out-weighed by the safety aspect imo.
And we re-use swim nappies, the one S is on now has been used 7 times so far. Just rinse and dry, proper huggies ones though so must be better than Boots We've had no poos either so far, must be lucky!

Ooh, reusing swim nappies, eh? Brilliant, as I'm down to two and they seem to be impossible to source in our neighbourhood. TBH, the swimming has been going down like a lead balloon with Eli recently. I think it's due to his extreme tiredness (the lesson is at noon, which also means he has his lunch a little late) but he cried almost the whole half hour last Sat. Not sure whether to continue or blow the swim fund on something like Gymboree once the term is over. Honestly, this kid has a more expensive exercise regime than me or DH!

Well, sleep training has gone a bit tits up because Eli has been ill the past few days. He's gone down quite well in the evenings, but we're getting more wake ups again, and the early mornings are still with us. No magic spell as yet from the sleep consultant re early mornings - she reckons they're the toughest because, at that point, your kiddiewink has had the bulk of their sleep and sometimes they're just UP. Two nights ago E had slept through from 7pm until 5am and I woke up and panicked and went to check on him to find him crumpled up in the corner of his cot. Must have crawled about a bit in the night. I felt bad for him, so moved him and woke him up. What a doofus! The next night he woke up at 5am and grumbled and moaned for 50 mins, but we left him to it and then he miraculously fell asleep until 7.15!!! AMAZING! But yeah, it just seems to be random. The sleep consultant reckons the better/deeper they sleep at night, the more likely they will be to keep going. But she also reckons that once it's 6am, if they've woken up, that's it for the night.... Ho hum. There are no quick fixes.

So what rear-facing car seats do you guys have? I'm quite keen to get another Maxi Cosi seat as the Cabriofix has been brilliant for us, but in my (scanty) research on group 1 seats, I can't see that they do one.

Oh, and re sweetening things - I often put some vanilla in Eli's porridge/rice pudding. It really does lift things a bit.

I got the besafe izi combi X2 - appears I bought the last one as it's gone from the shop's website but it looks much like the X3 just a different head rest here

Maxi cosi do one too here but I don't know anything about it. I'm sure someone will on the car seat topic though.

J sleeps in all kinds of funny positions and seems to move around a lot in the night. We have a peep in every time we go past cos he's so cute :)

It's so hard to get any consitency with nights isn't it? We just don't seem to have any long stretches where we're not away and he's not teething or ill. Although he has some good nights I don't feel like we've made progress in the last couple of months.

The early mornings are such a pain aren't they? J has been doing quite well recently (not sure how) but this morning I think DH's alarm woke him up at 6.15, grr
I'll have a look in my sleep book and see if has any useful tips x

6am is fine, it's when they wake at 5/5.20 when they really shouldn't be UP imo.
We've also got the Besafe Izi Combi for both of ours. We bought them from [[http://www.prams-pushchairs.co.uk/besafe-izi-combi-x3-isofix-rear-facing-seat-black-p-620.html here] but paid £100 less for L's 2 years ago and £50 less for S, the price has rocketed up! The X2 and X3 are very similar but the X3 has a moveable headrest so as they get older you can move the headrest up. I'd have had the X2 for S too but couldn't find one!

Oops, www.prams-pushchairs.co.uk/besafe-izi-combi-x3-isofix-rear-facing-seat-black-p-620.html forgot a ]

Thomas has just moved in to his bigger car seat. I had the maxi cosi family fix base so went with the front facing pearl. It got decent reviews from which. Didn't really consider rear facing as Thomas's legs were already crumpled up and now he's facing forward he loves it.

I'd like to think that if forward facing wasn't safe then they wouldn't be allowed to sell them (IMO).

Hope everyone is having a good week, take care xx

thedogwalker I agree up to a point, but after finding a few research things online DH and I were fully convinced. In some scandinavian countries all seats are rear-facing til about 4. Each to their own though, and in some cars you just can't fit a rear-facing. We're quite lucky that our car is like the Tardis so there's loads of room!

F is in her new forwarding facing seat and much prefers it, tbh I didn't really consider a rear facing seat, though the old rear facing seat is now in DH's car (though the straps are so tight on it now, she can't have a coat or cardigan on when she's in it!) We got this one Baby Weavers Car Seat we got the same one for my parent's car as they have her one day a week. The seat reclines as well, so useful for that 800 mile round trip to the inlaws...

We're up to 10 teeth now so half way there (I think?!) Re the early waking, anything after 6am is fair game in our house, oh how I recall those pre baby lazy weekends in bed surrounded by the papers eating my pain au chocolat washed down with gallons of tea, followed by a leisurely shower (including washing my hair - gasp!) seems like a different life now, I suppose it is, it'll never be like that again, but I didn't have the most gorgeous baby snuggled up for cuddles then either so thems the breaks!

A friend told me on Monday that Posh had had her baby and called her Felicity - she said she immediately thought of me and how annoyed I'd be. Fortunately it seems it was a bit of internet gossip, but I'm hoping she calls her something else!

We don't have 8 month checks here, just one at about a year (though they're so far behind this seems to be happening at about 15 months)

Does anyone have any recommendations for good bath toys, the ducks and stacking turtles are losing their appeal now and I'm looking for inspiration?

10 teeth, Devon?! That's amazing. E seems happy with his two teeth - heh. Not sure we're ever going to get any others, the way he's going at the moment.

God, I also miss those lazy weekend mornings. Or being able to shave my legs in the shower as a matter of course, and not having to organise a 'long' shower, in advance, with DH! Heh.

The ducks and stacking turtle have totally lost their appeal in this house too! E now prefers to stand up and grab at all of the non-toys (candles, glass jugs, whatnot) I've stupidly still got on the ledge next to the bath. Or he likes to try and grab the taps, including the hot one. Hmmm. It is, to say the least, a bit hectic.

We're going to have to go forward facing in our car. DH is 6'6" and we just can't fit in a rear facing seat...