July 2010: C'mon threadbabes: eat like MLIC's; drink like TSC's; smile like Memphis's; laugh like Cakes's; crawl like nearly all of them (except Cake's)... but mainly: sleep like Spireals

[CakeandRoses]

Here we be (phew!)

Chul I was totally speaking for myself in the bitch stakes it was my poor aunt who put up with me. We have a fab relationship now

Mlic is W still unwell? I have to say you have done a fantastic job with both your boys. Repeat the mantra?

Advice seeking here dd waking every hour on the hour from 2am sometimes a shsh pat works but then she cries like a bleedin airraid siren and there's no settling her even if we bring her into bed. Any ideas??????

bloody typical - i have a night off from here and you all get gabbing, and funny with it too

mlic that sounds so fuck-awful, i don't even know what to say . keep texting/MNing/FBing etc, altho it must be hard to summon the energy, it'll help to keep talking.

tsc sounds lovely there too . 2 hours of screaming baby and a creme egg is a perfect form of foreplay i'd have thought

stac really sorry about your friend's mum.

right, need to get to bed so sorry for everyone i've missed - will post properly tomo

tsc the fag and wine I can understand but why the creme egg?

mlic I get those days too when all I've done all day is fend off crying children. The other day I stuck S in bed and phoned my parents with L literally chasing me in circles through the house and round the garden crying. It was the closest I could get to being by myself

Totally x-posted with you both last night and then trotted merrily off to bed. Didn't intentionally completely ignore you.

Took the littlies out to the grocer's yesterday and L decided she wanted to shout 'fruitbowl' at the top of her lungs the whole way there. Quite amusing! SIL has finally gone into labour (I think) so I'm sitting around checking my phone every 5 mins for news [excited]

stac I have no suggestions for 2 hourly wakings, sorry! Has she been doing it for long? sometimes these things last a couple of days and then they moved on to something else.

Last night was up at 12.30, 3,30, 4,30 and 5.30 and only the last one was baby-related. L's skin is bad and DH wasn't the quietest getting going.

D was good last night, woke up once around half 5 then slept til 8!

Ive got a busy day today, Im going to see my mum in the morning, then Ive got a sing and sign group then after that going to see my friend (which tbh I cant really be bothered to do, she lives in the middle of a city so I have to pay for parking just to take the kids to the park then Ive got to battle with rush hour traffic to get home.

< Can't remember anything I wanted to reply on as relegated to blackberry as children are watching Thomas on Mac >

Lovely to have you back mlic. Missed you! Shame about craft thing but sounds like the stress of getting them there wouldn't be worth it. Is it sunny there again today?

chul you did make me laugh re 'I didn't say I was a bitch' and the creme egg comment :D

Your night sounds restful. Hope you make it thru the day ok

trudy I've always cooked lots but only started baking about 15 years when I went vegan as I couldn't live without cake! I find it relaxing/enjoyable and like chulita 's pair, F likes 'helping' and A is happy watching/playing. If you'd like to start baking I'd ask friends (inc us!) For some easy, fool-proof recipes and just try one or two til you're confident with them. Once you've cracked it then you'll probably feel happier to tackle any recipe. mlic only started baking recently and now she bakes all the time.

Although it can be a bit tempting to have a cake tin full of cake, I tend to follow a rule where I only eat home-made cake and no other sweet stuff (aside from the odd bit of chocolate) so it kind of balances out.

Aside from dada, A's only gabbling, no other proper words. As tsc said no-one will care/remember who did what once they're 5!

tsc I think I'm in love with your doc ;-) she sounds amazing. Any improvement in Fong yet?

stac sounds like teething to me < nods wisely > Is R due one? A's tooth is half broken thru but the other half is still annoying her - she was up crying last night with it and resorted to our bed which is rare.

Looks sunny here today and we've got felix's music class later where we'll hopefully meet some of his/my friends. What are you guys all up to?

Just a quickie from me. Will post more later.

MLIC This will cheer you up. Me and DP had tears streaming down our face, we laughed so much, especially since we'd just spent an hour dancing through the living room with M to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da to stop her from screaming:

He is an Australian comedian and so, so funny. I urge you all to watch it, unless you take things too seriously and will report me to social services after.

I'm off to the post office to pick up a missed parcel and will probably miss another one today while I'm out so I'll have to go again tomorrow but I really want to get this cos I think it's L's flower girl dress and I need to get her shoes to match.
I've ordered a 'new' stairgate after nearly killing myself tripping over the freaking bar on our old ones. I'm hoping it'll turn up today (even though I'll miss it) this one doesn't have a bar across the bottom so I should survive the crawling stage without serious injury.

dh our city is split in half by a river and there's only one bridge across it. Seriously, any time anyone invites me to go somewhere and it's north of the river my eyes glaze over. Thankfully all the children's centres are this side so I can walk to the groups but I feel you on the paying for parking and rush hour traffic.

mlic at your little naked boys, they love having nothing on don't they!

trudy I love Tim Minchen, we've got both his stand up dvds. He is hilarious!

chulita I think Im going to suggest going to another park on the edge of the city where its free to park

*Minchin, love him so much I cant spell his name.

Morning all! Sorry things didn't go well yesterday, MLIC. :( I hope today will be a better day (and you manage to all get dressed!). Is the sun shining where you are?

Nothing particularly exciting to report here. M is still working her way through bug after bug at nursery. This week we have a cough and rivers of snot, though she seems as utterly unphased by it all as ever. Even when she coughs so hard she's thrown up, which has happened a couple of times.

She's not wheezing or struggling to breath, seems absolutely fine in herself, is eating well, etc. How long should I let the cough go on for before I start to worry and take her to the doctor? I have a feeling I'd get the look and told to continue with the Tixylix if I took her in at present!

Seems M is still lagging behind on a lot of skills. Very of all the articulate and mobile babies! Particularly KK's E.

M is still just rolling, not inclined to crawl and can't get herself back to sitting. She can stand for a few seconds holding on to something, but only if I put her there. She had one attempt to pull herself up, failed, and seems to have given up!

Nothing like words yet, unless you count the streams of rarararara, dadadadada, mamamamama and (new) bababababa we hear! However she did finally clap for the first time yesterday! Though isn't waving yet.

Does anyone else have a slowpoke of this magnitude, or am I alone with M now?

Lastly, a query for those in the know...

Milk and bottles! M currently has 3 x 7floz bottles per day, between meals and one before bathtime/toothcleaning. Formula at present, then she'll have full-fat when she's 1.

Is that about the right amount? When do I start to reduce the amount of milk (or don't I?) and when should I be shifting her off bottles and on to cups? She can drink from a cup, but it's a struggle to give her one as she immediately tries to turn it upside-down. Preferably all over me.

Did he wake up in the night tsc? What do you do if/when he does?

Oh haha sorry I must've missed that in your post.

I was going to Shred this evening and then DH came home from work and ordered pizza despite me pleading with him not to. Now I'm too full and fat to exercise...

tsc it's a start though that your dp is happy to give it a go. DH loves cuddling S but he goes in and picks him up/shushes him/chats away which rather defeats the purpose. I'm not sleep training at the mo so it's not a problem but I'm going to have to lay down some rules if we ever decide to.

Evening all

Thanks for your answers and tips about cooking and baking. I think I will try and focus on the cooking for now, in the interest of my weight. I couldn't cope with baking a cake and not eating all of some of it.

I think I will have to start getting a bit tougher with M. So far she has always got her will. I can't bear to hear her cry but I think I may have created a little monster who will scream as soon as she doesn't get her will. And her will mostly is to be carried around by me while I sing and dance with her. My doctor and midwife have stressed again how I should not carry anything heavy and I did have belly aches today so I feel like I have to start putting her down and maybe even leaving her to cry every now and then. That is the plan anyway, not sure if I can stick to it.

MLIC I had to laugh at you hoping I would only see the nice and positive stories about small age gaps by chulita and cake and not by you and tsc. During the day I mostly succeed with these tactics, thinking it's all gonna be lovely and OK. But at night I toss and turn with terrible fears of what is coming. In fact I have started a thread in parenting, asking for helpful tips, so I can sleep at night be as prepared as possible.

stac I have no helpful tips about the frequent waking but just wanted to let you know that I really, really feel for you. Must be so tough. Remember, it won't last forever.

Saw my midwife's 6 weeks old boy today. My word, he is tiny. Couldn't believe M was ever so tiny, but in fact she was even way, way smaller. Awww.

Night all.

evening everyone! had a bitch of a day to put it nicely L has been a grumpy little so and so, he is finally pooping but its so smelly and not much of it so he has had a bad tummy all day, im struggling to sit him anywhere now he has well and truely grown out of his baby chair, he feels out of sorts without a chair to lie back in, we tried him on a bean bag but he wasnt having any of it!!! ive trawled the net for chairs that have a recline for him with no real joy!! my mouth is droopy and fat i have a top lip like a rodent, and the stitches feel like little spiders in my mouth!
mlic glad your back those noodles sound amazing!!! i think L is like your boys he hates getting dressed but dh hates him with no nappy on with fear of a mess on carpet and the dog biting his bits off!!
trudyla there was a woman at work last week who was pg when i was and shes pg again she is so calm, i asked her if she was scared, her baby girl is so dainty like a 4 month old so it wouldnt be like me lugging my fat boy about, but she has 2 older ones that are a year apart and she told me she was calm as your barely out the baby stage it doesnt seem too much of a transition! i thought of you!!! she was so positive she made me feel broody for a split second!!!
cakes ive got my new friend onto houmous her 17 mo loves it he sits there with peppers and cucumber dipping away felt like i had shown her the way to houmous love!!!
L still isnt drinking and is now only drinking about 4oz of his bottles at a time, i manage to get about 10ml of fluid in a syringe but then he gets wise to it and wont open his mouth he isnt touching finger food either!

tsc oh thats fantastic, but im not supposed to be laughing due to my stitches but im now laughing through gritted teeth at i didnt have to chop my tit off and leave it with him!!!

will post unselfishly properly later but need some help re hols. i'm now v keen on Ibiza as it ticks a lot of my boxes without actually being Italy

but where to go, with children? and not a full-on 'self-contained' resort.

anyone been recently?

my sister has been loads but always says in grim locations. I actually lived there for 6 months but twas so long ago that i've not a clue about it now.