*~*~* 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 :)

Hello everyone, enjoying the snow? J loved it yesterday when it was blowing in his face :)
nat, I though the best bit of pregnancy was the huge appetite I had. Love eating but usually don't have a very big appetite.

J is currently asleep in his pushcair after the walk home from church but this is the first nap he's had since tuesday! Surely he's too young to stop napping? I've still been feeding him and putting him in his cot but he just plays for a while and then starts crying a bit without looking remotely sleepy. Anyone else's dropped/dropping their nap?

Marzi - argh! Don't. You're giving me the fear - naptime is PRECIOUS time!! I thought Eli was dropping his nap last week as he was taking ages (like 40 mins?!) to go to sleep and wasn't sleeping long, but I think it was an illness/teething thing. He's back to normal this week, thank God. I could really do with his lunchtime naps lasting another year!!

Hi all
Marzi T still goes down for a nap after lunch when he's at home and at nursery. He doesn't sleep that long at nursery, about 40 mins, but I think that is due to the noise from the other children. However at weekends he goes down for about 2 hours. I hope too that he keeps his nap time as it really refreshes him and me.
I am now 22+2 and as DH is away and missed both the scans, I've just booked a private scan as a surprise for him when he comes home. As he is really upset that he has not been able to see the LO. So I'm looking forward to gettng another glimpse at DS2. Still no name sorted, will discuss with DH when he comes home.
Hope everyone is well, take care xx

What a lovely surprise for him dogwalker :)
Don't panic nat! He has had naps the last 2 days so fingers crossed it was just a blip, although he has taken ages to go to sleep at bedtime .
I was thinking though that in a way it would be easier if he does stop napping before I have another LO, as currently my day revolves around his nap, so it would be easier to fit round a sibling if he didn't need a nap. I realise that sentence structure is crap but don't have the brain energy to change it!
Hope everyone is well :)

F naps better now than she ever did as a baby! I'm sure she gets drugged at nursery - 12pm after lunch they all go down at the same time (there are no young babies in her group all about 12-18 months). She refuses to go in the cot room (much wailing and gnashing of teeth) but will happily sleep on her little mattress with the toddlers who also lunch and sleep at the same time. It's so strange how the nursery manages it - routine I suppose. Her days with me, I do resort to driving her around in the car for a while to get her to nod off then take her home to sleep - about 1hr 30mins.

She's been having 1 lunch time nap since 11 months old, best thing ever was going from 2 crap naps to 1 good one where I can actually get something done. nod off on the sofa

DH has been very good about not mentioning that which shall not be named i.e. TTC DC2, my mum is a different matter and raises the issue at every possible opportunity. F is her only grandchild and it looks set to stay that way unless my sister steps up to the plate and produces some offspring - argh - the pressure!

Naps are a puzzler - I'm still getting a decent long nap, most days, but it is often preceded by a fair amount of chatting. E does her nap in the morning (for various complicated reasons relating to childcare on the days I'm at home) and I do suspect if I pushed it back there would be less talking prior to sleeping. She naps much better at nursery than she used to, sometimes as long as an hour and a half. All the LOs in her room go down after lunch on little mattresses - I popped in the other day to pick up something DH had left there during naptime and it was v good. At home she naps about two hours, but sometimes she is down for about three because that is interspersed with or preceded by chatting.

I was quite lame about the snow - my DH was away and I wanted to do some playing but E doesn't have any wellies and I was just concerned about her getting wet feet and being miserable and cold. We went for a walk to the park and I pushed her on the swings for a bit but she wasn't too keen, think it was just a bit too cold, despite her super snuggly waterproof all in one.

Wish I had one of those.

Congrats dog on another little boy! What's your dude date nat ? Mine is Oct 1st, I'm 6 weeks along now so still early days. I have my booking-in appointment with the midwife at 10 weeks, March 8th which feels like aeons away. We've already got a boy's name - the same name we would have used had S been a boy - but drawing a blank at a girl's name. It's important to me to have Irish names but not ones that are going to be mangled here in the UK so easy pronunciation is key!

S will also have a long 2 hour nap when we are at home, usually something like noon to 2pm but at nursery, she'll only sleep for about 40 minutes and comes home absolutely stupefied with tiredness. Ever since we got back from NZ on Mon, she's been consistently waking up 2-4am and as I have to get up for work at 5.30am coupled with first trimester tiredness, I am really struggling. Hope she re-adjusts soon. When she wakes, I've just been taking her into bed with me in her room but she loves this and last night (this morning!) when I went into her at 2am she was already standing up in her cot, pointing and excitedly saying "bed! bed!" so I fear I may well have created a proverbial rod for my back?

S also comes to me saying "nappy nappy" when she's done a poo - like nat asks, if anyone has any tips on how to capitalise on this, please do share.

Oh and will I need a double buggy? S will be 25 months when DC2 arrives....

Come on then Maketea tell us all about NZ, give us the low down.

NZ was lovely and hot and beautiful. We'd been before so it was less about sight-seeing and more about catching up with mates and going to a very fun wedding at a vineyard but frustratingly I couldn't indulge in all the yummy wines and got to play sober driver instead . Then we had 5 days in the Cook Islands - I hadn't actually accommodated for the International Date Line and thought we were there for 4 so the extra day was a nice surprise. Totally beautiful - lush tropical paradise and still a bit underdeveloped so nice and unspoilt without hordes of tourists. S had a ball paddling in the warm sea and eating mango, papaya etc fresh from the tree. But oh her jetlag is killing me now......

MakeTea what a fab break am v. !

F makes it very obvious when she is doing a poo - lots of concentration and standing still for a couple of minutes (the rest of the time she's a whirling dirvish). Every time she does it I say "Have you done a poo poo?", and "Where's the poo poo?" Now she points to her nappy when I ask where it is. Last night she did one just before she got in the shower so I showed ther the dirty nappy and said "poo poo" - I think this might have been the first time she'd seen one - she's normally flat on her back when I change her and I put dirty nappy straight in bag, so now she knows what it feels like, smells like and looks like!

We're off to the in laws next month for a week, so I think I might introduce the potty when we get back, just to get her used to it being around, perhaps sitting on it for a few minutes before she has her shower/bath in the evening.

Is anyone else still using bottles for milk (or did I end up being the only FF)? F still has a bottle of full fat milk in the morning and evening as part of her routine and loves it. I am expecting from MIL when we visit, but I don't think 18 months is really unreasonable to be still having a bottle, is it? She has a sippy cup with water during the day, and I did try milk in this, but she won't drink the whole lot like she does when it's in a bottle.

Much love to all and growing bumps x

J also makes a very obvious 'poo face', and sometimes comes to lean against me while he strains! His words are still more or less limited to 'byebye' and 'woof' though so I think it'll be a while before he's asking to go to the toilet.
Maiden I haven't used bottles but I don't see why toddlers shouldn't have a comforting bottle of milk if they want it - after all it's the equivalent to bf and I think bfing a toddler is fine (although not everyone shares that view of course!)
MakeTea the Cook Islands sound wonderful, I'd love to go there sometime (except that I don't really like travelling )

I think the issue with bottles past 1 is that because the milk stays in the mouth longer they're not good for teeth - I think the advice is to try and lose the cup by 1 but I don't know how important that is really. E stopped taking a bottle at 6m and since then she's had breast or cow's milk in a sippy cup so it wasn't an issue. And still bf once or twice a day. But Maiden if she is eating a decent diet, then as long as she's getting lots of cheese, yoghurt etc, it doesn't matter if she downs the milk like she normally does so maybe worth persevering with the cup?
I am having a really rubbish week. First, I broke my favourite mug. Then, my laptop broke (prob not permanently) which I need to work from two days from home and my work IT refused to fix it because it's private equipment. Then I had massive complications getting the work laptop they loaned me to work. Then E got sent home from nursery with suspected chicken pox. After me and the dr agreed it was prob just a viral infection, her rash has changed and it now looks like chicken pox. And to top it off, I woke up this morning with no voice feeling really quite ill (unlikely to be the pox as I've had it twice, just random cold).

All in all, pretty rubbish. I'm trying to work but really just want to go back to bed but if it is chicken pox nursery won't take E next Tues so will have to 'save up' some goodwill so I can look after her.

Advice if anyone has any... my DH has never had chicken pox. He will have been exposed already so is there any point trying to keep him at arms length? I read somewhere that 15 mins in the same room as an infected someone is probably enough so maybe at this stage it's pointless.

Thanks Belly and Marzi, cheese is her favourite food so I'm not worried about the amount of calcium she is getting, it's more the "comfort" aspect of it - particularly her night time bottle. Might give it a few more months weeks then try it in a cup one night, she really wouldn't understand at the moment if I stopped it now, it would be like taking away her favourite teddy. Don't get me started on the dummies...

We've had 2 horrible nights this week with teething - proper pacing the floor with her at 1am, 3am, 5am then having to go to work - anyone got any spare matchsticks for eyelid propping ? Must be her big back molars, she's got all the others, but after I've dosed her up with Calpol and teething powders I can't think of anything else to help her, she won't chew on the cold teethers and I can't get Bonjela onto her gums she's so upset. This too shall pass

Belly what a crap week, I hate it when it seems like one thing after another is going wrong. Hope you and E are on the mend soon

How are you doing belly - did it turn out to be the pox? I dread chicken pox - I've never had it and am now 8 weeks prego. S did have hand, foot and mouth disease recently and - negligent parents or tough kid - but we didn't even notice, nursery did! It was a very mild dose - literally one blister on her thumb (which she sucks so I thought it was from that), 3 on her feet and a couple on the roof of her mouth but totally fine with it. In terms of bugs, we've had conjunctivitis once, a nasty eye infection called periorbital cellulitis and a few ear infections and colds but generally, no dramas thank goodness.

Hello all

Haven't managed to post on here for ages!

So it turns out 4 kids under 4.5 really quite hard work..

Henry not the worlds easiest baby he likes a cry.

Re naps T still has 1.5/2 hours around 1 o clock which I may have to cry if she drops!

Anyway better go & do something constructive (get dressed..)

Tea My due date is 21 July, which actually seems alarmingly soon! So much to do, so much to do

GYA hang in there!! How old is Henry now? I found 3-6 months with E probably the most challenging of all. But hey, you're a childrearing expert so I'm sure you know it gets easier. Even getting onto Mumsnet (dressed or not!) tells me that you're doing something right. I'm in total denial about how much busier our life is going to get come July. It's SO full already

Belly did your DH escape the pox??

Trying to think of all the exciting stuff I've been doing since I last posted. We're doing up our flat at the moment (well, talking and planning a hell of a lot and not DOING very much). That said, this week DH and I have taken three days off (1 down, 2 to go) to paint and decorate while Eli is at our friends' who we share a nanny with. It has been great having a day bumbling about the house together working on stuff, with no 'you take Eli while I do X and then I'll take him and you do Y and then we'll both do Z while Eli does...' You know, the constant handover treadmill.... zzzzzzz. However, DH and I have just had a row about some painting he's done in the living room (slap dash work while watching the bloomin football) so perhaps this bodes ill for tomorrow!

Can't think of anything exciting actually - Eli was ill for a solid week with a vomiting bug, followed by diarrhoea, followed by a fever, followed by a molar coming through. God, it was awful. It was the most ill he's ever been - he didn't have a wet nappy for two days, didn't eat for five. He was too weak to walk, bless him, so I just had to hold him all day and all night essentially until he got better. Last week I felt like a shell as I was just so shattered after the experience, but luckily I'm feeling a bit more myself now. Second pregnancy definitely not as much of a breeze as the first.

Anyone else up to anything good? How are the kids? Trying to think of an Eli update - well, he can say his own name now (although he says 'Ee-eye' rather than Eli). He is obsessed with lifting heavy things. Would sit and read books all day if I let him, oh, and loved dim sum when we took him out for Chinese the other day!

Love to you all xx

Hi all,

Well, it was the pox, and actually other than childcare being mildly complicated that was not a problem. When DH came with it with a vengeance two weeks later, that was 100 times worse. He looks like the victim of some kind of horrendous plague, and has been having awful fevers and not dealing at all well with the itching. He's finally on the mend and I am exhausted - no downtime at all as DH was mostly too ill to help with E at all, so no even teeny tiny lie-ins, and I've had to look after DH a fair bit too. It seems a good argument to get chicken pox as a child if you ask me. On a very shallow note, I literally cannot see how my DH's lovely face, currently resembling the craters of the moon with alarming scabrous volcanoes, will ever look remotely normal again.

We're very broke at the moment - with both of us having careers in jobs which pay poorly (archaeology and journalism) and living in the unbelievably expensive area that is Oxford, we just have no money spare to put aside at all. If we had to pay for more than one day's childcare I think we would be ruined, thank God for my lovely DM who comes in twice a week.

Doesn't stop me being broody though. I am thinking of hawking my kidney and all other non-essential organs/limbs on the black market to give us a bit of a financial cushion...

Hope all well

Your poor DH belly, that sounds nasty. I've been ill with a chest infection which is taking ages to get rid of. My poor ribs feel like they've been hit by a bus! We've just had a long weekend at my parents though which was lovely and restful. Mum got up with J each morning so DH and I could lie in :)

I hope Eli is better nat, that sounds like a nightmare week. There seem to be so many bugs around at the moment. J has had a low level runny nose and cough for a few weeks but thankfully nothing worse.

I am very pleased to report that J has gone back to napping well again. Such a relief!
He started nursery last week, just going one morning a week. He's there now and it feels very strange. I have butterflies in my tummy worrying about whether he's ok . He only cried for less than a minute when I left him though so hopefully he'll have a nice time.

Gosh, it's quiet here, in't it? Thought I'd bring round some festive treats!

Belly gosh, that sounds horrific. I remember when DH had flu last Christmas and couldn't really do anything for a week - it was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life. I hope you've been able to rest up since and that your DH's lovely face is returning to normal! Not itching seems to be the key, but so bloody hard to resist I'm sure.

I completely hear you re finances too. Feels like every single penny here has to be accounted for and very little in the way of luxuries or treats. Every time we cut back on something (say, gym membership) the money just disappears into thin air, so we never seem to get anywhere. Rubbish. Listening to the news this week has just made me more depressed - beloved NHS under siege, tax cuts for rich people, tax rises for grannies, benefits cuts which hit the sick and vulnerable. Bloody brilliant. You can really start to see the pinch around our neighbourhood with children's centres offering a lot less activities, libraries opening less and dropping their toddler groups etc. Sad.

Marzi Eli is much better thanks - still wakes up once or twice a night coughing like a 60 a day smoker (who the hell can afford to smoke these days, by the by??!) but he's much more himself, thank god! How's J doing settling into nursery? I'm sure he'll get used to it really soon. It's actually lovely seeing them be a tiny bit independent and developing little friendships with other kids. Eli loves to list his friends. He rattles off their names (or his versions of them) at random points in the day. So funny.

Had my 20 week scan this week and we decided not to find out the gender this time. I was ready to cave, but DH was adamant. All looked good and the baby was very cutely yawning the whole way through the scan. PLEASE GOD CAN THIS ONE BE A SLEEPY BABY!!!!!! I don't think I can face another year of being awake all the time.

Much love to you all and try and pop on and post your news. xx

hello ladies,

its been a long time since I checked in. Lovely to hear of all the new bumps and I'll partake in some easter egg nat :)

I'm still a completely mesmerising bubble with Xander, everyday I still stare at him and think wow you are mine and so appreciative that he came home. Just totally inlove with him - it would take me an age to fill you in so I'll just direct you to my blog and his five month update - yes he is already that old!!

Would you believe I'm already broody for another? Pregnancy terrifies me, but this new baby stage is just delicious! I know I probably will cope as badly as I did through X's pregnancy, and it will be a hellish 8 months again, but we will have one more. But not yet, maybe start trying again in another 12-18 months time. So there is a 2-2.5 year gap. I think it important to try and give X a sibling on earth, I don't want his only sibling relationship to be visiting a cemetery.

I've been thinking of you ladies because today it is two years since my 20 week scan with Belle, 2 years to the day she became Belle. I can't believe how rapidly her 2nd birthday is approaching. How can it be that long already?

it is also one year today since we saw X on the screen for the first time as a 7w old blob! I've been wowed all day by looking at the tiny blob on the screen and looking at my boy now! Isn't it amazing in a year he has grown from that to this!

Anyway ladies, I hope you are all well. This thread is so quiet! Where are you all!! :) Much love xxx

Hi everyone! Mmmm yummy choccy eggs!

Lovely to hear from you caz I keep up with your blog via Facebook and love to follow Xander's progress. Can't believe it's been 2 years since we were having 20 week scans with our August babes - I was thinking of it only yesterday as I had my 12 week scan with #2, almost 2 years to the day since S's 20 week scan. I love that you are broody and willing to undergo what is no doubt a difficult journey again, good on you.

belly I've been terrified of chicken pox since my BFP and with having a toddler at nursery where outbreaks of all sorts of lurgies crop up as I've never had the pox myself and it can be v bad in pregnancy. So I had an extra bloodtest yesterday and the hospital just called to confirm that I am in fact immune which is a relief. Scan was lovely - baby was sucking its thumb and doing a break dance - am due Sep 26th. We won't find out the sex but I thought it had a "boyish" profile.

Finances - just not funny is it - I haven't yet recovered financially from being on mat leave last year and obviously now earn much less as I'm part time. Plus we need to buy a car - DH uses a van for work but it won't take 4 of us so that's another big expense. Not to mention the fact that I am a terrible driver - nervous and incompetent.

Come back everyone, keep the thread going..!

xx

Hi everyone

Caz, so lovely to hear how you're doing - Xander is so gorgeous! It's great to hear how much you're enjoying his development and all the new things he can do - that just gets better and better IME

Exciting scan news. I am still sooo not broody though - starting to feel a bit concerned about it actually as I was the most broody person ever before I had J, and I'm a bit worried I'll never really want another one . I did have a nice dream last night about being in labour though - I got to 10cm with only a very mild tummy ache

I think J was a bit happier at nursery last wednesday, he was apparently splashing and giggling at the water table with another boy so that's a good sign. I hope he stops crying at drop off soon though, it's heartbreaking!

J had a really bad fall in the garden on thursday. He was crouching at the top of 2 steps and just toppled forward and landed on his face on concrete. I can still hear the thud :( He has a massive graze on his cheek, a nasty gash just above his eye and some cuts on his forehead. When he woke up yesterday morning his eye was almost swollen shut but it's looking a lot better now. He was very brave though - only cried for a minute and then was quiet and still while my friend cleaned up the blood and put some cream on
I'm trying not to be overprotective now but I am a bit paranoid about it happening again

Caz so lovely to hear from you. I'd been meaning to check in with your blog for ages to see how Xander was coming along, so that was good timing. What a handsome little guy - it all goes so fast, doesn't it?!

Marzi sorry to hear about J's fall :( I caught Eli this evening in the garden about to tumble down some steps - literally had him by the t-shirt, it was that close. I guess there's nothing we can do (unless you want to hover over your child 24 hours a day making them and yourself completely neurotic) but it's horrible when they hurt themselves, isn't it? Eli has decided that 'falling' is hilarious and was essentially falling off the steps on purpose so I could catch him. It's his new favourite game, whether we're talking the sofa, climbing equipment at the playground, whatever. It's completely maddening and I keep trying to explain to him that I can't always be there to catch him and that he needs to be cautious about heights!! Argh.

Tea remind me of your due date again? (pregnancy brain)

Is anyone else a gardener on here? I'll not go on about it if not, but I'm finding it so hard to find the time to get out in the garden and actually achieve anything. Eli loves being out there, but needs supervision - unless I want whole trays of seedlings thrown on the ground (as happened today). Could have cried. It sounds pathetic, but it's hard to carve out an hour here or there to do something 'frivolous' like gardening (as opposed to vital, like cleaning house, washing up, laundry etc) so every set back feels like a big deal.

Annnyway, now that I've got that off my chest, I'll leave you ladies to it! xx

Hi all,

Sorry I've been absent.It's lovely to hear the pregnancy/baby news. I've had a really miserable couple of weeks. Month really... after LO and DH had chickenpox, then DH developed a nasty cough which kept me up literally all night for at least two nights. Then after that had improved, E got a really nasty sickness bug and spent days either throwing up or lethargic, sleepy, and clinging to mummy in a small whimpering mess. Then once that was clear, I got the bug and spent about 24 hours chained to the toilet, then left so weak I felt like passing out every time I stopped being horizontal. I'm mostly better now (working again anyway) but haven't been able to stomach much more than the odd piece of toast - anything more I end up regretting.

It's been really trying and I've got really perhaps uncharitably crabby with my DH - one of the days I was off sick he decided he was ill as well and a couple of times just vanished off leaving me with Elodie on my own. I wasn't best pleased.

We're yet to have any really dramatic accident type falls, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

In other news, Elodie is completely obsessed with the rabbit in our neigbours garden (the flat above ours, their garden sort of is behind ours). It's a brilliant way of stopping a tantrum at the moment.

Oh Belly, that sounds really rough. I hope you're feeling better and have had a chance to rest over the last week. This winter has been awful for illness in our house - mostly Eli and DH. I cannot actually believe how much annual leave I've had to take from work to look after Eli while he's been ill. The equivalent of a couple of weeks really, because I'm part-time. I knew that people went on and on about how often kids get ill but I guess I never really believed it. I hope we've seen the last of the winter bugs anyway. (Also, I find it really annoying that DH is allowed to be ill, take time off work and lie in bed. When I've been ill this winter, I get the whole 'Well, I guess I could take the day off work if you're really that ill but...' and so I've ended up pretty ill and have looked after Eli anyway. GRRR.)