Feb 2010 - we're stroppy, sassy and splendid (and that's just the mums!)

[BigBadBear]

New thread!

DS went to bed at 5.55pm today as he decided to skip his nap. He wasn't acting over-tired or whingy, he was just ready to sleep. Also he ate most of his dinner (for a change) - veg soup thickened with bulgar wheat and buttered bread soldier.

So my conclusion of today: DS eats probably too much at nursery (most day he has seconds at lunch) and he's probably ready for no naps.

bethy good luck with your appointment, I hope it will not reveal anything serious and FX your DS1's diet will get sorted soon. at your DS2 telling off your DS1

PA I think it's time to go to Next/Mothercare/Boots/Ebay and buy a winter hat for your DD (plus all the other winter essentials)

there are other winter essentials?

PA Gloves or mittens, thick coat, scarf, waterprrof shoes... That's what we use with DS anyway.

Winter gear depends on the child... dd1 only every needed a winter coat and even that was rarely done up or she threw it off whenever possible. That girl has inbuilt central heating . dd2 is the opposite and already insists on gloves and hat. Today on the playground dd1 was in a summer dress (I made her put on tights at least) with a not very thick coat open. dd2 shuffled around miserably in wooly hat, thick winter coat with hood up, tights under leggings, and mittens, and then demanded to go back in the pushchair so she could slide as far down into the footmuff as possible...

I can't imagine her leaving on a scarf. Assume we'll buy a glove and hat set, hoping charity shops will have something. She runs warm, we've only just put a babygro on her actually. Footmuff is mainly because her seat is so exposed being the front of a tandem, although will try a blanket while we wait for a cheap one to arise. What do people use for waterproof shoes, little wellies?

I need to spend some proper time with her tomorrow, think she's feeling it a bit now. Especially since last night and today Nigel has been a feeding machine. Hoping that means sleep tonight though.

beth how do you plan to switch over to cotbed? I was thinking mattress on floor and removing everything from room for inevitable running around.

By waterproof shoes I mean leather shoes sorry for the confusion

dd2 sneezed at least 40 times yesterday and by last night was full of cold . This morning she slept until 20 past 8 and only woke because dd1 went into her room and threw a soft toy at her because she really wanted to have breakfast! Sadly no lie in for me though because dd1 was up before 7...

DS slept until 8.20 this morning too! So he slept for 14 hours I think it may be because he didn't nap yesterday; this won't repeat today as he's having a nap now.

Thanks to who said about giving stir fry to her LO. I did a beef stir fry with egg noodles this lunchtime and DS really enjoyed it. Do you use soy sauce when doing a stir fry? I did and now wonder if it was too salty for DS (not that disturbed him)

Well, dd2 has been in her cot for a while but very much not sleeping. Will get her up again in a minute... Had hoped she would sleep because it seems the best thing to do to get over her cold.

anyone got advice about poo? DD atm has one somewhere in the morning that is massive, very runny and necessitates an entire outfit change. Thinking of cutting her soy yogurts out the diet for a few weeks.

oh and she also woke at 8:30 . We're almost worried about how much sleep she seems to need currently.

dd2 just produced a nappy full of coins... dh lets the girls tip out a jar of small change and they like to jump around on the coins on our bed and make it rain [hhmm]. Quite how dd2 got so many stuck to her bottom I am not sure. She was surprisingly energetic this afternoon so I don't think her cold is too serious.

PA does your dd eat a lot of fruit esp bananas? I have no idea about why her poo would be like that - I would have pointed to dairy and/or eggs but she's not having that...

Arf at the money-filled nappy, BG
Sorry to hear DD2 is full of cold. Rubbish. I hope she gets over it quickly.

bethylou 2011 is THE year for better health for your entire family - and that includes you!!

I hugely admire how upbeat you are so much of the time - it can't be easy for you.

SB I think it was me who mentioned stir-fry and noodles. I'm very chuffed to hear your DS went for it! I add soy sauce too, but I tend to "rinse off" DD's portion a wee bit so it won't have too much salt in it.

PA I can only think it might be something fruit-related (the big runny poos) and does she drink loads of water? I'm having to do full outfit changes more often with DD now as well. Her nappies are on their biggest setting, but I think her bodies are a bit tight, so "wring out" the soaker sometimes. Or occasionally it's because the nappies are a bit too loose around the legs because the elastic on some of them is starting to go a bit. Bloody annoying.

Well, DD was awake for around 2 hours the night before last. I over-compensated for her being too cold in her room, so I think she was too hot. Once I'd taken off her cardigan, she slept until gone 08.00 thankfully, as she needed the lie-in and so did her exhausted parents. It did give us the opportunity to move her routine forward in preparation for next weekend's clock change, though. Last night we did lights out at 20.30 instead of 20.00 and she slept through and woke after 07.00, hoorah!
I'm not kidding myself she'll do that consistently every day, but we'll keep it up until next weekend, then move the next half hour into GMT. I'm not too worried about it, DD adjusted in no time when we moved back from Spain, so I don't think it will take too long for her to get with the change.

Thanks for the recipe IC - I have no idea when I will feel the energy to bake again but hopefully the urge will return at some point (I love baking usually and bake a couple of times a week but haven't felt like it for a while now...).

bethy I think you're lucky to have gone as long as you have if that's your first bath-poo incident! We've had a few. Good that your GP has referred you to neurology, and the gynae too, fingers crossed it's not too bad...?

SB poor you if DS is dropping his naps Honestly that is my worst nightmare, DD is still having 2 a day fairly reliably, I don't know what I'll do when she drops them both

BG glad DD2 isn't too under the weather.

PA no idea re poos, DD has mainly runny poos which are just horrible to clean off the liners I didn't know it could be caused by fruit. She does eat fruit twice a day.

After waking at 8am yesterday - on my watch!!!!! (although I'd been awake since 7 ) - DD was back to her usual tricks and woke at 5.40am today - ugh ugh ugh. She settled in bed with us for half an hour then DH got up with her bless him.

IC I admire your forward planning re the clock change. My head is firmly in the sand about it. If I don't admit it's happening, maybe it won't have any effect!

I have finally got round to cleaning the double buggy we bought second-hand so we're pretty much good to go I need to mend the foot muff actually, I should just do it but I'm sure I will put it off and put it off until it's urgent (it doesn't seem so cold that she needs it at the moment).

I had reflexology yesterday to prime labour but of course it didn't work. Now I've accepted this one will probably be late, I think I'm looking at a November baby I'm going to try to enjoy the last few days of pg instead of moaning about it.

dd2 has decided that the clocks have changed already and slept to 8 again. She's also just gone down for a nap and the way she looks and sounds it will be good for her to have a rest. She sounds hilarious when she speaks with her cold - all sh and ch sounds, a bit like Sean Connery trying a Scottish accent

Scones how are you doing? Won't be long now, and I agree with others who said it is a lot easier having two children rather than a toddler and be heavily pregnant!

Just wrestled DD into her buggy for a nap after a fun morning hanging out with friends. She was overtired, so everything became an issue. It can be tough because one of her favourite tactics is to ask for a cuddle (once she's strapped in and snuggled up), which I find hard to resist, but I know it's just a way of procrastinating and will only result in another battle to get her back down, so I read her a story and thankfully, that settled her down and she nodded off.

DD woke at 06.51 today, which is still in the right vicinity for the hour change. I wouldn't have bothered to start the change a week ahead if she hadn't had that lie-in on Saturday morning. Mind you, she was overtired when she went into her cot last night and protested a bit so part of me is thinking it might have been easier to stick to my plan A (smash the routine in one go when the clocks go back) as this seems to be prolonging the agony a bit more than necessary. Hey ho.

We are one day into half term (two weeks here ) and I already wish dd1 would go back tomorrow!! Having said that, dd2 is really enjoying her sister's company and really enjoyed a relaxing weekend with dh home. She's now quite sweet in speaking English to him and then turning to me to say the same thing in German, just in case I hadn't understood . Or speaking to me and then translating for her Papa... There is a fair bit of mixing languages going on at home but we generally try to stick to one parent one language for the girls. mous how are your two getting on with all their languages? Well, as for IC's dd, we've had another lovely get together and her mixture of English and Spanish is just delightful!

how lovely BG on multiple fronts

I'm remembering how much breastmilk on clothes marks.

DD is truly back in a protein phase. Tonight's dinner was tarka daal (with coconut milk) and left over tofu (she ate 1/4 of a block) and all her daal (no rice or veggies) plus half my daal. It's always so nice when she actually eats, it does seem to be all or nothing and now we know she's off carbs we can tailor meals for her.

Personally if cooking from scratch I don't worry about salt, as anything too salty will taste it. Its when using sauces or pre-made stuff I worry as the salt flavour can be easily disguised.

DD is now off soy yogurts (as I react the same way to 'soy dairy' as regular dairy) and DH has been told to eat his breakfast in secret as she steals some of his. She eats less fruit in the UK than she did the US so don't think its that. Anyway we'll see what happens.

Tomorrow I have both DCs on my own for the first time

Thanks for even more good wishes. I'm really not dealing with it all in any other way than trying to take things one step at a time and doing what is right by my boys - i.e. giving the consultant who hasn't written the letter to BCH 10 days after he said he would a bollocking in the morning!!

As for transfer from cot to cot/bed, we just went for it with DS1 and it was hard work when he was jus 20 months. We spent three weeks of evenings doing 'rapid return' - just silently putting him back in each time he got out until he finally fell asleep (with lots of tellings off from the child minder/mother in law). Our rooms aren't big enough to put the cot and bed in at the same time and DS1 was going into a new room too. DS2 will stay in the same room so I hope that will help. We also have a stairgate across the doorway to stop them escaping further than the doorway. DS1 wasn't distressed, just excited so that was fine by me.

DS2 has also had a couple of lie ins but only after some early morning wake ups from which I failed to go back to sleep. DS1 has contunued to wake early.

Thanks for the reminder about the clocks IC. I'd completely forgotten.

For any of you living near a Sainsburys, their half price toy sale starts on Thursday this week. I will be in the queue at about 6:30a.m. ready for the 7a.m. opening here

DH has returned with the cot bed so I'm off to look at it. Not quite sure which day we will give it a go - will keep you informed!!

bethy scones PA you are all doing really well! scones good luck I remember waiting (and waiting and waiting...) for DD1 to come out...

BG Well, DD2 is still non verbal (when do I have to really worry?), she is even going backward, "wawa" instead of "allo" , but sometime she does say something intelligible and it is perfect, it just doesn't happen again. I.e. it is complicated like "ordinateur" "amandine" "grand father J..", so I know she can talk, but day to day she uses about 5 words which varies, if a new one comes an old one goes away... and all very simple mama, papa, dodo, caca, no... (OK more than 5 then but still not a lot).

DD1 talks to her sister in french, to me & DH in english (once she realised, around 2.5 yo, that I understood perfectly well), and plays in romanian. She does translate everything for me though, in romanian, although I do understand.

PA Soy is common "irritable bowel" food. May be that why your DD has poo problems? I am not suggesting you cut it out as it is your main source of protein (I guess) but it might not suit her. I.e. if she has soy yoghurts, plus tofu, plus soy milk, plus sprouts, plus additives in bread and biscuits bases (watch out for lecithines)... it might just be too much.
I found out I was intolerant when usual face cream put a sign "new with soy" and my face went bright red . Since then I do understand why I had so much trouble with food in Japan. I can eat soy based products from time to time but not every day (not even every week). I have been told it is quite a common problem.

Thanks all for the concern. DH is fine. We won't be back in the UK as the job market is dead there. We are very open. We will try to stay put for the school year as we think it is really important that DD1 learn to read properly. DH will try some independent work for a while, and we are trying to wait and see where the job market will take us.

DD1 has never been traumatised by any changes we have made on her behalf. (bed arrangements, rooms...) We had a few adjustment days (i.e. same as betty walk back to bed in silence) but nothing major. She also knows that if she is sick or scared she can sleep with us and sometime as a treat.
DD2 has had no change so far.
I had to sleep on a mattress on the floor from 15 months due to my DB needing the cot. My mum think I was fine just needing a little walk around from time to time, what ever that means! .

Slightly at the rising time and nap on here though

Hi Mous good to hear from you! You sound very calm about your job/location situation - which is fantastic as if you can't change it there is no point getting stressed about it. I would stress all the same though. It sounds like your DD1 is getting along famously - 3 languages!

Good luck with the cot bed bethy

How was your first day with 2 DCs PA?

I had my cleaner for the first time today - I've just walked back into a really, really clean house and it is bliss! It is funny too that they always feel the need to completely rearrange your belongings, maybe to prove they've done a thorough clean, I don't know, but I know from past experience there is no point putting them back where they belong - they will just be rearranged next week I have budgeted to have her for four months and I will just really enjoy every moment of it.

BBB Lovely, thanks! I don't think there is much going on here but in the Midlands where we used to live there were fantastic processions through the park and into town

Ooh, Diwali!

Thanks BBB!

How did it go today, PA?
The good thing about lentils is that they are carby as well as proteiny, so your DD isn't going no-carb if she's still scoffing them!
Mous may have a point about the soy effect - I strongly suspect it was a factor in my own IBS - along with too much wheat bran, too many tea tanins and too many horribly busy and horribly early mornings on an empty stomach.....! (I was eating All Bran with soya milk every day).
How's little DS doing?

Yes, it was lovely to see BG and her lovely DDs again!
Unfortunately, my DD is going through a very wary stage when it comes to other children around her own age at the moment, so wasn't always the friendliest of visitors! She's had a few incidents at toddler groups recently and I reckon she's also a bit of a control freak (like her mother) so can't handle the unpredictability of other children very well (she's fine with adults). That, plus being very precious about her personal space and you've got a fine recipe for dubious reactions to other toddlers, no matter how well-meaning their intentions! She either backs away and clings to me, or yells threateningly at them in the hope they will back off. I hope she'll get past it soon.

I imagine the different languages she's contending with may be causing your DD2 to do more digesting before she starts producing her own words, Mous. She'll probably blast into action soon

(Come on, Scones baby!)

after a bit of a disastrous first two hours, I knocked my self together. Last night of course was a shocker and the worse one to date so I didn't want to admit I had to get up. But then I got everyone dressed and fed (DD has a second breakfast with me) and we hit the shops, so DD has a hat and mittens and DS has nappies (always handy). I had intended to go a church group thing just as something to do to get us to nap time but I couldn't find it. Anyway DD lasted until 1:30pm and slept to 3 no problems and I even got 30 mins myself . DS actually carried on sleeping so me and DD got some lovely one-on-one time while eating lunch, for once she sat cuddled next to me. The last bit I cheated so had In the nightgarden on while I fed and winded DS, but I was there to talk it through with DD. Then our usual 30 mins of singing got us through until neighbours starting coming home, at point DD stands at the window being a nosy neighbour We survived!! Tomorrow I have to be at library at 10:30 though but my brother is coming at lunchtime for a few days, so hoping to get a big batch of cooking done.

Thanks for the confirmation mous, being aware of how easy it is OD on soy, she has oat milk for breakfast and averages tofu once a week over a month. She when I'm being lazy rarely has processed soy for dinner i.e. pretend meat stuff. Two days in, poo is loads better but that might have been the lentils. IC could you post a rough guide to that soup we had at yours?

Sorry for the far more than required long post and enjoy tomorrow mous

IC does she lighten up as the session goes on? I have to say that's one of the reasons I've continued with the childrens centers (but moved to a less busy day). She generally runs around doing her own thing but isn't as overwhelmed by the other kids as much, especially when they try and steal the buggy off her (that's pretty much all she does, push either the buggy or the bike things around)

Also realised tonight I forgot to book her jabs in while DH was on pat. leave .