March 2005 part 4 - The nights are getting quieter.....

[BonyM]

Not that I want to tempt fate...

Persevere with the signing, Grace will just take off one day and then they'll come very quickly. We did signing with Dominic too (we had to at the beginning, after we found out he's deaf) and it took him about 2 months to sign back. With Sylvia (she can hear) we signed almost from the beginning but she's only signing now, so i think they just have to be ready developmentally and 10-11 months was about the time for both.

I hope Niklas's fever subsides. It's worrying when they have it, we are giving lots of Calpol at the moment (fever and diarrhoea but fine otherwise and eating OK-ish).

Sylvia understands "no" but I don't say it as she starts crying... So i just take her away and try to distract her with other things. Cables, yes, what is it about cables and remote controls?

Leo - doh! Now I remember you're in Zurich, of course, at least I got the country right

Dad called me earlier, he said it's -20 C in Bucharest. JK Rowling is visiting Romania at the moment, meeting up with lots of dignitaries.

Had a easy-tough day with Niklas today. He won't eat and still has a fever which is worrying (our one bottle of calpol is running out fast!). He has slept a lot, but only on top of me, he wakes up and starts crying if I put him down in bed, so I have spent most of my day on the bed with him sleeping on top of me. A bit frustrating as I still have unpacking and washing to do after the weekend, but still nice to have an excuse to do nothing ! He has perked up a bit now and is destroying the office as I am writing, but at least he is happy !

I am wondering if he has hand foot and mouth as he had some spots on his tongue and now has sore bit behind his bottom teeth.
What clever babies you all have! The most clever things Niklas has managed to do is copy us clapping our hands and says mmmmm when he eats, which is very cute. And he is walking quite well now.

The signing is a great idea, I wanted to take Niklas to sing and sign classes but never got around to it , there always seems to be so many other things to do on my days off!

Get well wishes to Sylvia and Lauren.

woohoo!! Caleb took his first steps this weekend! Am so excited, he's started standing up and grinning before sitting back down but the other day he took a couple of steps. Have a massive smile on my face now.

When I tell him no he screams at me, if he's upset/frustrated/angry he crawls round in circles then lies out flat shouting. Try not to laugh but it's hard. He also has 2 teeth and a 3rd about to break through. I've started planning his birthday party, can't believe our babies are about to have their 1st birthdays!

Hugs to all the poorly ones hope there feeling better soon.

Forgot to add, picture here of caleb dressed as Santa trying to get the mincepies

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and one here of him giving me a cuddle

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Calebsmum - LOVE the pic in the santa outfit! Next year you'll be able to post one of him actually scoffing the mince pies.

I can't believe they're nearly one either. My mum just asked me what Iris wants for her birthday, and I was completely floored. Mind you it is still many weeks away.

I'm "working from home" today and then next week will start my new project with work. Feeling a bit more optimistic about it. Anyway, it will be good to get stuck in to something.

Cristina7 - I could potentially be on for doing a museum, though things seem terribly frenetic at the moment. I think it's to do with going back to work, suddenly my days off are rather fraught and filled with jobs!

Niklas is still sick today. His temperature is still over 39 ! He has been crying and moaning or sleeping all morning. I've given him something a bit stronger than calpol now and he is playing on the floor quite happily.

Doidy cup looks like a good idea! Where do you buy them from? can you get them from boots? I'll add it to my shopping list for the next person I know visiting the UK.

If Niklas goes to sleep on his own today I will sort out our photos, add some to the photobucket and catch up with all the new photos there. Haven't looked at them for months!

If you Google Doidy you will find a website that you can order them through.

Hmmmm - doidy cup looks intriguing. Is the idea that they can drink from it themselves? What are the odds of Iris keeping it on her high-chair tray for more than about 20 seconds before chucking on the floor I wonder!!?? My current attempt to encourage some independence is to let her 'feed herself' yogurt. This involves her vigorously thrashing at the yogurt with her spoon, spraying it in all directions and then just occasionally it occurs to her to shove the spoon in her mouth.

Feeling very pleased with myself as I just did my longest ever run of an hour and a quarter (nearly 8 miles I think). Not quite in JoPG's league yet!!

Took Lauren to her first Mums and Tots this morning. She loved it but wasn't really interested in the structured goings-on. All she wanted to do was crawl up to all the other babas and pat them and their Mums! Very social is my child. Very cute but couldn't get her to sit still for a minute. Got the Doidy cup so will give it a go. She's supposed to learn to drink from it Pidge, but think it will be the same as Iris - all over the floor. Will try some water first.

No way do I let Grace drink from the doidy cup on her own! It would be all over the highchair/floor/her/me in seconds . Eventually it should be good for teaching her to drink on her own but not yet!

Can I ask if any of the breastfed babies are sleeping right through the night yet? Ie. an 11 or 12 hr stretch? Grace was going from 6.30pm to about 5am, having a feed and then going back to sleep until about 7.30-8am. The last week she has been waking closer to 3am (2am one night, latest 4am) and won't settle unless I feed her. She did settle one night but then was awake again an hour later and so I had to feed her then. Thought she was supposed to start going for longer, nor shorter periods! This is all new to me as dd1 slept through the night from 5months and we've never had a problem since.

BoneyM - ditto our dd1 slept through from 5 months on breastmilk alone! But Iris has been a whole new kettle of fish. She is now 'sleeping through' going from a final feed at 7pm to 5.30am or on a good day 6am or once or twice even 6.20am. Still a long way from dd1's 7-7 routine! But not bad. Trouble is if I do feed Iris at 5.30 am there is still no persuading her back to sleep afterwards.

Well, tried the cup with a tiny bit of water. You are right, there's no way she can do it on her own without spilling everything down her front, but she had the general idea right.

Sylvia goes roughly 8pm-8 am but with 2-3 feeds during the night, sometimes just 1 or 2.

We went to see March of the penguins today. Quite good. Sylvia was making the sign for "pig". Hmm.

Hello everyone. We're back from Birmingham and it's been the saddest week. The funeral was terribly hard and watching DH and his brothers lower their dad's coffin into the ground was one of the saddest things I have seen. I'm glad it's all over and we can try and get back to normal (if that doesn't sound too bad).

DD's birthday is tomorrow (she's 8) so I've had to whizz out today and get cards and presents as we've just not had time to sort anything before now. Her party is on Sunday (DH's birthday the same day) so 16 children to entertain and cater for. What a week.

Harrison stayed with my mum for two days and was a really good boy despite never having stayed with her before and being quite poorly with his chest infection. It's actually given me hope that he might settle OK with the childminder as he only cried once in the two days I was away. I didn't really have time to miss him with everything else going on but it was still lovely having him back with me today.

NEWSFLASH - We have forward movement I wouldn't really call it crawling as it's more like a slow creep on his hands and toes but he can now move around a little bit and get to things I don't want him to touch. Standing up, cruising furniture and walking still seem like milestones that are a million miles away but he's quite chuffed with himself at the moment

We don't have any words still and I'm very impressed by all the sounds the babies are making which are close to words. Harrison says 'mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm' when he's eating (his greatest passion in life) but that's about it. He's still on spoon strike so still self-feeding. It makes mealtimes very easy for me as I do nothing but watch him stuff food in his mouth and then pick it up when he spits out the excess. Clearing up though is a job and a half

Hope Niklas is better soon, hope Lauren's bottom and Sylvia's runny tummy get better soon and hope your job goes well Pidge.

Right off to unpack cases (ours, DD's and Harrison's) and wrap presents, so night-night everyone.

lol at Sylvia signing pig whilst watching the penguins! Caleb says cat, mama, dada and mmmmmm. He also whispers and mutters to himself which is funny.

I'm also running, can only manage about 2miles though, go running 3 times a week. Am enjoying it and finally fitted into a pair of jeans i've not worn in nearly 2 years. Hope to do some fun runs later in the year.

Brought a load of stuff for Calebs 1st party, balloons, banners, cups ect. Am also making his birthday cake, a carrot cake in the shape of a teddybear. Todays practice run ended up with a cake that sunk in the middle, wouldn't come out of the tin and was still gooey in places need alot more practice.

Caleb also not sleeping through the night yet, he goes about 7-7 waking up 3-4 times and ending up in bed with us around 5ish.

Busywizzy sorry you've had an emotional week, hopefully things will start getting better. Congrats on Harrisons forward motion though

Well done Harrison for being such a good boy and for the 'forward movement'!

Niklas's temperature has come down to normal again today !

I'm at work today as I took my work days off to look after Niklas - thought I had better show willing! I did get my bonus today though so there is a silver lining !

BW - happy 8th birthday to your DD. Well done to Harrison for all his wriggles!

I've been thikning some more about saying "no" to Sylvia and whether it's good long-term. If I always distract her from going near the plugs but don't actually say "no" or let her understand that she's not to poke her fingers in them at any time, I wonder if this is a good strategy. She might still want to do it when I'm not looking.

Cristina, its a really difficult one, I worry all the time that we are doing the wrong thing and are going to end up with a disobedient, badly behaved, monster child.
I have started to say no to Niklas and have been quite stern with him, he definitely understands but disobeys deliberately so we end up taking things away from him or moving them out of his way anyway. I think he is testing us and working out where the boundaries are. I always try to explain to him why he can't do something. I guess he doesn't understand the words yet, but I hope he will in time. at the nursery they put him in a corner in a highchair if he disobeys 3 times. Then they talk to him and tell him why.

We have had one success. We were at the end of our tether with nappy changing, had tried everything but were always chasing a pooey bum around the bathroom. It was starting to be impossible. We started by telling him to stay laying down, and put him down several times and end up holding him down by his arms and talking to him sternly until he calmed down and stayed down. It seemed really drastic and horrible, but now he lays down calmly until the nappy is changed.

We are actually thinking about going on a course to get advice about this stuff.

Been busy, but am here for a quick post.
BW - Hope your DD has a lovely birthday party, and that you can all enjoy it after the hard week you've had. Lots of kids' smiles is sure to cheer you up.

Freya defintely understands 'no', and even undertands (I think) some of the things that she is not supposed to do - it just doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't do them. For example, she is obsessed with the video and has already jammed her fingers in the slot once. She crawls over to it, looks at it and then deliberately looks at me for my reaction before starting to touch it. She then screams the place down when I move her.
Her other favourite trick is to try and get in the cat basket with the cat. Our cat is not impressed at her one final bit of space being invaded so I am constantly moving Freya away. She is a bit of a pickle.

Took Freya to Jo Jingles music class today. It is for babies from 6 months to walking so she is right in the middle of the age range. She loves it. I took her last week too, and she had a massive sleep afterwards. It is all so new and exciting for them that I think it really wears them out. Anyone else tried any music classes?

As an update for whoever asked, Freya is still b/f twice a day. I am aiming to stop at about a year (though need to get Freya's agreement to this) She sleeps approx 7 til 7 (tho will probablt be up early tomorrow now that I have said that) - the curse of mumsnet!

Isn't it funny how they are obsessed with the things they can't have! Lauren is obsessed with my Mum's glass coffee table and will hot foot it straight there the minute your back is turned. Think she's convinced she's missing out on something.
Her bottom is still really bad and I think she might have a bladder infection as she's now crying everytime she does a wee. Poor thing. Let her crawl around the garden this afternoon with no nappy on and as she wants to do head stands every 5 minutes, her bottom was stuck up in the air, getting a bit of sun! Made the very stupid mistake of not putting a nappy back on before giving her her tea in her high chair. You can only imagine my horror when she started with her 'I'm going very red in the face because I'm about to do VERY HORRID POO' look!!!! Won't go into the dreaded details, but you can only imagine. Silly Mummy!!
This head standing is so funny. She seems to find looking at the world upside down very funny.
Glad Niklas is feeling better Leo. Breaks your heart when they aren't well.
Oh yes, our latest trick is being able to roar like a lion. Should have taught her a quieter animal, as she now spends half the day roaring at the top of her voice!
Decided I definetely have a thug for a daughter. No sign of being a shy retiring type!

Just put two new pics on the Bucket. Lauren took a step on her own today. Don't think she meant to, as she hit the ground after about two seconds and looked quite shocked. Presently at her spot at the window shouting at the cat in the garden.

Jambot - Don't know whether you have seen the tip of the day on the mumsnet home page, but it recommends putting a muslin soaked in camomile tea inside baby's nappy to soothe nappy rash. Maybe you could try it?
Congrats on the 'walking', it won't be long now!

Thank goodness the runny tummy and nappy rash seem to be turning the corner. She only had two dirty nappies today and her bum, although still very red, is no longer raw and weepy. Thanks anyway Jo, will bear that tip in mind.
My latest challenge is getting Lauren to lie down in her cot. She keeps pulling herself up in the cot and then getting stuck and crying for me. She's also fighting her afternoon nap at the moment. Still seems to want the morning one but then fusses so much after lunch that I just finally get her up. If I put her to bed at 6:00 instead of half 6, she just manages to last. Thought they were meant to drop the morning nap first.

Jambot, so glad Lauren's bottom is on the mend (the things we talk about). Harrison's big nap of the day is his morning one which lasts anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours. One day this week when he was poorly, he slept from 9.30am until 1.30pm . Depending on how long he sleeps, he also can sometimes fuss quite a bit about his afternoon nap and I sometimes have to resort to taking him for a walk in his buggy or a drive in the car if it's close to school pick up time. I think that nap is going to go first for us as well. What I expect is that his morning nap just starts later and later, until it eventually starts after lunch but hey, I'm no expert

DD's birthday party was today and it went really well. I held Harrison and everyone else ran around doing everything. Last year I was pregnant and didn't do anything then either so all in all, I've had an easy couple of years birthday wise.

DH's birthday is today as well and he always seems to miss out on being treated as it's so close to DD's. I'm planning on finding a babysitter for next weekend and sorting someting nice out for him after the horrid few weeks he's had. There, now I've said it so it will have to be done

Hope everyone has had a nice weekend. I'm off to clear up all the wrapping paper from DD's presents and to try and find homes for more toys, games and other stuff !!