FEB 2010 Coming on in leaps and bounds and little steps

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Where did our babies go?!
Anywhere and everywhere, the moments our backs are turned!!

I'm currently sitting in the hotel corridor trying to get DD to nap

soc what a few weeks this is turning out to me :( hopefully it means nothing worse can come your way for a while.

We're having success (so far) with the moving bedtime. For the past 6 days she has woken up at 6 am. It's actually light outside now when she wakes. We will continue moving forwards with the aim of 7pm-7am, but if we can get to 6:30 I'll be happy. While we're away this weekend it should be easy to not put her to bed until 7pm.

I've just realised I need to sort out insurance for our road trip as my health insurance expires on my last day of work. I could risk it taking some time to filter through, but travel insurance is cheap enough and it would be good if we had to cancel.

Turns out DD is afraid of the bath, any ideas other than taking her bath on our road trip. I'm thinking of starting to pull the shower curtain around so she gets used to being enclosed.

PA won't there be baths on your road trip? I don't know the details, but presumably some of the places you are going to will have baths as well as showers? Otherwise could you get a small paddling pool (an inflatable one)?

IC I keep meaning to ask how your leg lasering went...?

Hope all the poorly LOs are on the mend?

She's afraid of normal baths, which is the problem. We don't have one and she uses her baby bath. Hope that makes more sense.

Will have a look at inflatables :) (room in the car will be a premium) it will have to be small as American motel bathrooms (and baths) are tiny (our sink in this one isn't even in the bathroom).

PA you need something like this or take a shower with DD (I seem to remember you saying that she's used to it from the swimming pool)?
Looking into your travel insurance, just check the cover you will be getting been pregnant. There was a thread over Christmas of someone on holiday in US at 28 weeks who lost her water and had the baby there, she had lots of problems with her UK health insurance.

I hope I don't sound to alarmist (Sorry)

Waves to everybody else

Waving back at everyone... we made it to the UK with one spotty child . She's covered head to foot now in spots (except her face), some of which have merged into more of a rash. I am still not totally sure it's chickenpox but the pharmacist I asked this afternoon was reasonably convinced and gave me calamine lotion. Will see tonight/in the morning if she's got proper blisters. [wanders off to google roseola]

Founds this on chickenpox which sounds very much like what dd2 has... 'The rash normally appears in crops... The rash starts as small, itchy red spots. After approximately 12-14 hours, these spots develop into fluid-filled blisters, which are intensely itchy.'

Dd1 had it quite severely at about this age. I am glad dd2 gets it over with when young but wonder about what night I'll have... [selfish emoticon]

I'm glad you made it back, Soc - but no rest for the wicked, eh? Ah well, at least with chicken pox it's over and done with - but not much fun at the time.
I suppose I'll miss out on the fun of that with DD seeing as she's just had the jab for it....

Good stuff on the cleaning, SB - I hope your DS isn't going down with anything, especially with friends coming to stay. FX

You can get little fold-up portable baby baths as well, PA - pretty small, but your DD is another dinkster, isn't she? That may be another potential solution.
I brazenly went to my mum's sans baby bath and DD was a bit nervous of the big one to start with, but I put a non-slip mat in, ran a very shallow bath to start with and put loads of toys in for her and thankfully, she was soon okay with it.

The laser epilation went fine, thanks BBB! (Another bear on the thread - now we've got three, who's going to be Goldilocks??!)
It's certainly not painless - feels like little flecks of hot fat jumping onto your skin, but I soon got used to it and even went into a semi-doze while she was doing the backs of my legs.
What I hadn't fully appreciated was that you need a few sessions of it for the hair follicles to be fully exterminated, so I'm booked in again for six weeks time. Which could be a problem if we're successful with our ttc as it's not recommended while pregnant (having said that, I think they're uber-cautious in the UK, whereas I think here they will still do it as long as you're not trying to get your bikini line done)
Still, after the first session, the hairs grew back for a bit, then most of them fell out, so I haven't had to shave since. Which is the whole idea - I like having smooth legs, but can't stand faffing about with the actual hair-removal.

Welcome home sc I guess you'll know if it pox by tomorrow morning. Hopefully she'll sleep fine and DH and DD1 are on the mend too.

DS2 definitely has chicken pox - now at about 50 spots so relatively mildly so far. Some of them are huge and manky. DH is going to Lincoln for a long day tomorrow to visit his gran for her 89th birthday and I will inevitably be dealing with two grumpy children. DS1 hasn't got the rash yet but has a temperature, sore throat and is generally more miserable than usual (and that's saying something!!) Off to bed now before the night gets going but just wanted to say hi to SC and hope your pox victim is feeling better soon and you get through the night in one piece!

Long weekend? It is here!! I'm bored of being stuck at home already. Don't forget that while chicken pox is very minor to most people, that it can cause abnormalities in fetuses in early-pregnant mums who catch it and it is also dangerous to people who are immunosuppressed (e.g. on chemo). Newborns should be avoided too - which rules out a visit to my friend who had a royal wedding day baby yesterday and our mutual friend who will have IVF twins anyday - not fair!

Will be back when the pox allows.

Thanks some good ideas. We had the same issues in the UK (tried lots of fun toys etc.) was hoping as the baths were shorter over here we might be OK. Oh well.

I followed Southsea's thread at the time (being in America and all). I'm also going to look into how much our premiums are and whether I can pay privately for a month.

I think of DD catches chickenpox she should have it quite mild since she's had the vac. Otherwise I would be sticking my fingers in my ears Hope all the poorlies continue to improve.

My two DDs had chicken pox last September - they caught it from DH who had shingles. I had a pretty hard few days, but it was just that (a few days) and then it was over. My main problem was that although it was good they had it at the same time (so we weren't stuck in for too long), DD2 was miserable with it all day but slept OK at night, whereas DD1 was pretty good during the day but cried all night. Poor things. But they had a decent dose of it, so I'm hoping it's done and dusted (apparently if they get it when they are under two years old, they may not build up sufficient immunity so may get it again, but if they have a decent dose with lots of spots it should be OK).

If you can, get some PoxClin. It's a bit pricey, but is much better than calamine. Most Boots stock it. If nights are a problem because they are scratching, you can use Piriton syrup as well as Calpol or Nurofen.

Good luck beth and soc! And welcome back soc.

Thanks for telling me about the lasering IC. I'm very tempted to get the home IPL thing (Lumea) but it's a big investment at £280, so I'm trying to work out whether it'll work with my Asian skin and dark hair.

PA sorry I didn't understand your DDs big bath phobia. A little paddling pool may well do the trick as you could even put it in the shower tray for her to splash around in. The inflatable ones take up hardly any space and don't take long to put up.

I've had a very indulgent weekend with the DDs at my ILs since Friday morning. DH and I have been out with friends one night, then yesterday we went shopping (on our own!) and out for dinner. I've been waking up just before 7am regardless (four years of programming!), but it's been very nice to lounge around in bed, reading the papers and eating breakfast like we used to. Having said that, I'm really looking forward to seeing my girlies in an hour or so! Lots of cuddles needed!

Shopping On Your Own!!! :)

BBB I looked at Piroton today but is was age 6+ so i didn't buy it.
Anyway, dd2 has no sign of blisters so whatever she has is unlikely to be chickenpox... she wasn't keen on calamine lotion either, so I put oilatum cream on her tonight. She is still covered head to toe in spots though but has no fever now and seems reasonably cheerful. Not sure I should bother phoning the out of hours GP service if she's not terribly unwell with it. I remember the first time dd1 had a rash and I rushed her to the GP, only for the GP to shrug her shoulders and tell me there are thousands of viral rashes that don't even have names.....

I did a small Easter egg hunt again in the house today because dd1 missed all of Easter. dd2 loved it and was very good at spotting little Easter eggs and bunnies (I did keep it simple and eye level for her) but she got terribly cross because dd1 can walk faster than her and as soon as she pointed at something dd1 rushed to get it

Was thinking earlier how pathetic both girls are in getting dh's attention and approval... Last night I looked at a book with dd2 and she pointed out a banana and said 'Nana'. dh happened to be in the room and told her 'Well done!!'. She was so chuffed he'd noticed that she shouted 'Nana' after him twice when he'd already left the room

Well we're back :) Beans on toast for dinner tonight me things.

DD has made me laugh this evening. She loves her balls. She wants to copy us by bouncing it high and/or fast. When copying the dropping from a height she normally holds it up so far that it drops down behind her. While trying to do it hard she gets a bit overexcited and wanting to do it quickly so she touches it for a nanosecond (not really giving herself enough purchase to throw it) She also does a little stamping/waving arms up and down when she sees the ball rolling towards her.

She also hold up her phone to her ear and says hello (bearing in mind that we very rarely use a phone)

However after just one try at the hotel bath we're going to have to ease her into her bath again as she cried tonight. Just one little thing causes problems (MIL and one spoon of porridge) no wonder she had nursing strikes and fussy eating when younger. Wonder who she gets that off.

She also woke up at 6am every day, so it's starting to feel real. She even woke every hour from 3am today and she still went back off at 5am.

That all about us but tough

Oh SB No problems with Velcro on the nappies. She has shown no interest (so far). She is never is just a nappy though, either naked or at least a nappy plus vest.

Soc Good to hear you are back, and your DDs are fine.
My GPs in the UK told me to always get a rash checked, nobody shrugged... But then I have been known to have heat rashes checked too

PA Does your DD have a play doll so she can wash her baby too? doll bath are pretty cheap (around 5 pounds).
You can also use a flannel to soap and rinse like our Grand Parents did.

DD2 1st proper word is row , actually row row, meaning I have to sing the song which goes with it
She also says banana and lunettes (as in don't touch my glasses! repeated over over and over). She is very keen on trying to talk and can parrot some combinations (i.e il pleut, I don't know....) otherwise talking all the time she is not running and still speaking esperanto

oops nap over

Finally home and dd2 was incredibly cute just now walking around the house saying 'oooh'... 'aaah'... 'oooh!...'aaah!' And repeat . I guess two weeks away is a long time for her.
Thought earlier that second children really have a rough deal. dd1 had two mild colds in her first year (both picked up at baby groups) and was well over a year when she had her first cough. dd2 has had lots of colds and coughs and other bouts of illness, mainly thanks to dd1 who brings things home from nursery.

Hi everyone, hope you're all enjoying the last of the BH weekend

Soc glad you're back after your rather horrendous-sounding 'holiday'. What have you decided re DD2, GP tomorrow morning perhaps?

bethy how is DS2?

BBB so the DDs were at inlaws and you stayed home? What a fabulous idea. I must suggest it to my mum Lounging in bed reading the papers...

PA great news on the wake-up time. DD slept til 8am this morning after a brief resettle at 3am which is par for the course. Thank goodness for the lie-in - I needed it after walking 13 miles yesterday, carrying DD for part of the way. I thought "13 miles, pah that's not very far" but I certainly felt it last night, and feel it today too! (It was a charity walk around Bewl Water)

SB how has it been having visitors?

Looks like I'm stopping BF The past few nights I've taken DD's beaker of milk from tea, usually unfinished, upstairs and she's finished it off after her bath inbetween having (unsuccessful) goes at my boobs. This morning I tried to avoid a BF entirely by giving her a beaker of milk instead, but she cried and pawed at me so I let her have a go but she soon realised there was nothing there I know it had to happen one day but it still makes me feel sad. Mind you the BF is soooooo painful now I'm glad, too.

I could do with another cup...

scones I also discovered walks are very different with a baby strapped to you. I need to investigate the back carry hold in our sling, that should make it easier. Being in a desert didn't help either. Well done, not sure I would commit to 13 miles with DD.

sorry about the feeding. I'm not quite at stopping yet but last night was the most painful it has been.

mmm coffee

I think we will buy the tub SB linked to as we need other stuff from amazon anyway. We looked at a foldable tub but they are still quite bulky. Once she's fully back to normal we will do a switch. Thanks mouse but (i) there is no way we could show something to DD if it needed to last more than 5 secs and the bath/cleaning isn't the problem, but bath tubs.

Soc that's very cute.

We had a 5am wake up (but not get up until 6) but it was my fault. I resettled her at 10 so she woke for a feed at 12:00. She then goes 5 hours until the next one so the waking then was too close to get up time.

Right this week me and DH shall be going to bed at 8am for the duration, that way no pressure to do stuff for the first few nights but build up to it again.

fecking bolds

You don't need to be in the bath tub to wash with the flanel PA hence my advice, stand on the mat and wash (used to be the way when no bathroom existed), much smaller and portable than the rest.

ah now I see. We've tried that we're too crap and she's too wriggly (and dirty) banana and everything really gets everywhere and like to stick into her hair. Washing her face in the mornings tbh only get's half done. just to get the worse of it off

Will she shower in your arms?

a normal shower yes, but in the hotels here the showers are normally over the baths so no. We'll see how the inflatable gets on. Yesterday back at home was OK just the worlds shortest bath . Maybe they'll go swimming a lot most hotels do have pools.