December 2010 - 'I read the manual, she shouldn't be doing this just yet!'

[DuelingFanjo]

Tah-Dah! New thread, hope this is ok.

old thread here

So our babies are becoming more independent, saying more, eating more and bumping into stuff... Seems to have gone so quickly!

How are you all doing? How is it being back in work (some of you)? I have a month left before I go back and leaving Bob with my mum is getting harder rather than easier :( I want to spend more time with him not less, though I do understand that I have to let him go and get used to being with her. Not looking forward to the settling in at the nursery but hope by October it will all seem normal for both of us.

Oh oh... I have just been having a snoop and discovered cheeseandgherkins is pregnant and due in march. What happy news!

Thanks Yueling and Strix, at me being crazy but what can I say, I like even numbers. I did wonder about the lady job strix .

Great news about cheeseandgherkins, lots of love to her and her family.

We have finally had to put the stair gate up, we did when F started crawling but then took it down as DS1 couldn't open it despite numerous demonstrations and F honestly wasn't interested in the stairs. However DD left the sitting room door open and I found F half way up so the gate is back, DS1 is just having to holler for help when he gets trapped!
F is not showing any signs of walking yet, on one hand I am thankful as he manages to cause enough mayhem from hands and knees, on the other hand I am finding it harder and harder to pick him up unless I get him to stand first due to my expanding bump (26 weeks on Tues).

wow notso that is very exciting news and DC4! Hope all goes well in April!!

Great news about C&G too.

Strix YF and MrsSL lovely to see you both again!

Bea is walking with enthusiasm and trying to run but hasn't learnt to pick her feet up yet. Went into Clarks last week for her feet to be measured and came out with a pair of shoes in the sale.

We all toddled off to Victoria Park today, they've installed some lovely new equipment, but there are still things there from when I was little and Ma n' Pa took me. She was shrieking in delight being let loose, tried to eat the sand, slides and swings are the most fun. DH made a fool of himself on the big slide, his coat made his flight swift and long and he landed with a bump :)

Toe is ridiculous, I still keep banging it and Bea still keeps managing to whack it. It's already wonky from when I last broke it slamming it in the door, as my dressing gown was caught on the handle and came open, flashing the poor postie. :)

I am still BF'ing Bea though she's not particular about it during the day, sometimes if she's not feeling too great or just wants a love she'll seek me out. I am amazed that I've got this far, I can see it tailing off in the near future, though as she's slowly loosing interest.

Thanks kellestar

Well done with the BFing, I was hoping to feed Finn for longer but I went away for a long weekend for my friends hen party when he was 7 months and despite me persevering for two months or so he just didn't get back into BFing after a weekend of bottles. I also wonder now if my supply was affected by the pregnancy.
Poor you with the toe, I dropped a wooden chopping board on mine this time last year. I think DS1 has stood on it everyday since I did it! My nail is still not fully grown back.

Can I ask if people still have the same pram they bought a year ago? We have a bugaboo bee, but to be honest I'm not sure DS2 is going to fit in it for much longer, which says more about the pram than it does DS2.

My older two had mclarens ay this age but I'm not sure I really want to invest in a new pram.

I suppose everyone else has walking toddlers now. My fat lazy boy crawls around mopping up the floor with his knees.

strix I had a Graco travel system, it quickly got put in the shed, picked up a Maclaren Techno XT off eBay for £30 in great used condition, it's light and takes all sorts of abuse. For me it was just that I struggled to lug the graco in and out the boot and was fed up of putting the shopping on the floor in the back rather than the boot. I am always keeping my eye out in case a better one comes available, they cost a fair bit new, but the cheaper options don't come well reviewed on MN.

strix I am still using my Bugaboo Cameleon, I love it, it suits my needs perfectly. I am gutted I have to part with it to buy a big-ass double.

I also still have a crawler, he has only recently stopped commando-ing and moved to hands and knees. When he used to wear his fleece all in one he was like a human duster on the wooden floor!

congratulations on the pg notso good to hear Finn is doing well

congratulations on the new job strix I don't envy you your commute though! I was wondering about lady job I changed from my big bulky travel system in July to a cosatto buggy

fingers crossed for your promotion MrsS

I knew C&G didn't have too much longer to go, but March - how exciting for her and her DH.

good to see so many old hands back on the thread

M's started his induction sessions at nursery and seems to be taking to it like a dream. He somehow managed to pull his bedside unit over onto himself last week, biting through his lip in the process so that ended up in a trip to A&E, but they decided to leave it to heal on its own. He's very fast on his feet, is obsessed with the bins in the kitchen and climbing on anything and everything. I have warned the nursery staff but I fully expect to be given at least one accident form every day he's there!

Can't believe that I'm finally on the countdown to going back to work. It's been great to be off so long and I'll miss being at home, but I think once I'm into the swing of it, I'll be glad to be using my brain again!

Well I've been signed off sick with the chest infection I seem to have had since november - booked for an X-ray and on 2nd lot of antibiotics
So sat at home watching DS dance around front room with his musical wand thing - dancing consists of walking round In circles until he falls over dizzy!
I measured him this morning and he is as tall as DD was when she was 6 weeks older - it was when I noticed his head reached my hips - bit of a tall boy but less chunky now

hope you get better soon MrsS

we all have colds at chez Max

I had a bit of luck this morning, the mum whose car I hit before xmas gave me £50 back as the repairs to her car hadn't cost as much as she was told at first.

Hi all, just wondering if any of your LO's developed diarrohea after the MMR and other 13 month injections?
F has had it for nearly a week now, I was up three times last night bathing him and stripping his cot as he was caked in it

Good news on the £50 max and glad to hear transition to nursery is going smoothly.

Hello all and congratulations notso! That sounds worrying about the MMR, I don't remember anything like that with dd but I have booked M's jab for dd's birthday on Monday as I have the day off work - eek hope it doesn't spoil the party. Hope F is better soon.

Glad the new job is going well strix. I'm back 4 days a week until the end of next month when it'll be 5 days but I've shortened my hours so now finish at 4 which is working really well. The kids love the childminder and dd is doing well at pre-school which is great so I really don't think about them much while I'm at work.

I'm still breastfeeding before bed and in the morning, M still wakes in the night but settles fairly quickly so it is all doable but it would be nice o get more sleep. Glad to hear that I m not the only one still bfing!

My sister had a beautiful little girl yesterday! Very exciting, can't really remember M ever being that small...

Thanks 93pjb Hope M is okay on Monday, my older two just had longer naps on the day of the jab then a bit of a temp, runny nose and 'the grizzles' three or four days later.
Congratulations on your new niece. It's funny how quickly the memories of newborndom disappear isn't it. I am finding it hard to imagine DC4 as a baby when F seems very much a baby still, I bet he will seem humungous when DC4 arrives.

F is really not himself, he slept for 17 hours yesterday, he woke up briefly for a drink mid afternoon and then a bath and a piece of toast and a drink in the evening.
I woke him at midnight as he had been sick and filled his nappy, but he went straight back to sleep.
He has been sleeping again now since 9:30, am going to take him to clinic when he wakes up as I couldn't get into the Doctors until tomorrow.

Dropping back in after ever so long (when I think I only posted a couple of times!) - where does the time go?

Glad to hear that cheeseandgherkins is expecting again. Very good news.

notso - Congratulations! Am jealous of your small age gap. I wanted to have DC2 quite quickly but breastfeeding seems to, in my case, act as the contraceptive that everyone says it does. I hope that your little boy is ok, and that the trip to the clinic went well.

Tom is into absolutely everything now - he can run and we have to watch him all the time. He keeps us busy, but it's great fun too.

Had his MMR a few days ago. I always feel horribly guilty as he really hates injections, even though it's the right thing to do.

Glad we are all mostly well - speedy recovery to those who are not!

notso hope F is better soon. we've had a D&V bug going round DD's school but although she had it, luckily it missed Matty.

good to hear from you coco

Had to take Matty to A&E a while back as he fell over and bit through his lip. The HV rang last week to follow it up and realised she hasn't done his 8-12 month check. I pointed out that I'd chased it up with the HV at the baby clinic 3 times and quite frankly, I'd lost the will. She was apologetic and said she'd never been told but it [grr] 's me because basically, if we'd not taken him to the A&E, I strongly suspect he'd never have popped up on any of their radar. As it is, he's not had his MMR yet (by choice we're leaving it a couple of months) but for all they know, I might not be aware that he's due the jab. Then, despite me explaining that I could only go to one particular baby clinic because all the other ones clash with school picking up time, she asked me if I could go to see her in clinic at 3pm!!!! Er, no, I've just said I have to do the school run! [exasperated sigh] Anyway she's going to come to my house to do it instead.

M had another session at nursery this morning, and he's going again on Thurs.

It's snowing here!

Max - Is there a reason for you delaying the MMR? Bob still hasn't had his as I have cancelled twice, once for inconvenience and once because he had a temperature of over 39. I expect he will get it in the next couple of weeks when he's almost 15 months.

Hi all, great to hear all your news. As I said B has had a really high temperature but is lots better now. He's back in nursery after a long break over christmas and it was like settling in all over again, then he got ill so really he's not been there consistantly. Managed a full week last week and he seems very settled.

We have been doing BLW and B still eats very little. I try not to worry particularly as the nursery tick 'all' on his food form. Though a couple of times they have mentioned he doesn't eat much so I am a little confused but trying not to make a big deal of it. I sit him in his chair 3 times a day and try all sorts of food and some of it goes in. Hopefully it will just click one day like it's supposed to. He will feed himself with a spoon or fork but only a few mouthfulls before he starts chucking stuff around.

He woke me up 8 times last night and so I have decided to try to stop feeding him back to sleep because I need him to learn how to sleep through. We are still co-sleeping so I plan to use that shush and put down method, definitely not cut out for controlled crying.

He is confidently walking, loves wearing shoes and is very jolly and good fun.

My sister also had a baby a week or so ago which is really exciting

Hello hello!

YF Bea still has her 10pm BF and goes to sleep on the boob, but not at other times of the day. When she's drowsy it just pushes her over the edge. We still co-sleep before DH comes to bed and once he goes to work. She likes to curl up next to him with her head snuggled into his neck and he gets stiff and achey as he won't move her off him.

Max sounds like we have the same HV :] she really presses my buttons for some reason, always wants appointments when we have a paid group to go to that I've told her doesn't suit us [it's the reason I can't go to her drop in sessions] still not had a 12 month check up.either, not that it's a problem.

Bea had her MMR, two weeks yesterday and she was really cuddly yesterday, as in climbing onto my lap and whinging if I wanted to move for a pee or a glass of water. So had a lovely cuddly day with her.

She got two bumps to her head at baby group [had forms to fill in too] and it looks like she has devil horns coming up through her forehead.

We've been overwhelmed with groups in our area, but it all costs so much money. I go swimming on Tuesday mornings £3.50, NCT Bumps, Babes and Toddlers £1 and Messy Play £1 but wanted another Music type group as she loves it, but it's £5 for the cheapest group that wasn't that recommended and £7.50 for the recommended groups. A lot more than I want to pay, but if it's fun it might be worth it. I just really hate it when they're all a bit too perky and annoying.

CocoPopsAddict- Thankyou you are the first person who has said they would like to have a small age gap to me! The BFing did not work as contraception for me at all.

maxpower The health visitor I had for DD and DS1 was rubbish, thankfully we have a new one who is fantastic, visited me at home every week when I was feeling low and called to see how I was feeling about this pregnancy too.

YuleingFanjo Shush/pat worked really well for F, he was going down in his cot in our room but then coming in to our bed and not settling at all.
I had one long night thinking he was never going to sleep but after that he has been really good, we just say shush,sleeping time now if he wakes and he usually goes back to sleep.
Next step for us is getting him into his own room before DC4 arrives.
Congatulations for your Niece/Nephew

Kellestar You are very lucky, there are hardly any baby groups close to me. One really rough toddler group that makes me want to bathe F and I in Milton when we come out, everything else is either in the 'posh' outskirts of town or in the really rough estate- either way it means a 40 minute walk each way or forking out for the bus on top of the price of the groups.
We do go swimming but thats going to be a bit difficult once Dc4 arrives.

F finally got over the diarrohea, his measles rash has come out now but doesn't seem to be bothering him. However I saw his Godmother yesterday and her daughter has just come out with chicken pox so I am expecting that next as they were sharing cups and dummies last time they saw each other!
Despite DH's best efforts he is not bothered about walking.
He is however a chatterbox, he is is asking "wha's 'dis" about everything, can say most family members names in some form and asks to fee' fissshhh(feed fish), bus teef (brush teeth) and have mo' puds (more pudding!)

YF no real reason as such. DH was a bit worried about the specualtions over MMR & autism when DD was small, so it took him a little while to get his head round it all. I was happy to wait to get DD immunised until DH was happy to go ahead with it. So basically, we're just going to give Matty his when he's about the same age as DD was (iyswim).

notso glad F is better

Matty manages to say 'daddy' and 'hello' but that's about it. But bless him, he has trouble getting a word in edgeways amongst the rest of us

Notso - no problem, and best wishes.

We have lots of playgroups round here - quite a good one in a local Church which runs four mornings a week (£2 a session) - we don't go that regularly though. Mostly we see people at the park.

Kellestar I know what you mean about the cost, and often classes want you to sign up for a whole term as well, is that the case with yours? I mean the music classes and stuff. I have to claim a record though. Was going to take Tom to a trial session at the Little Gym in Westfield (West London). Then realised the cost of the classes was... well, over the term, which you had to sign up for, it worked out at almost £20 for each 45-minute session!!

cocopops it's ridiculous isn't it. They are advance pay as well, per term. If you miss a session you luck out unless you have a doctors note to prove it was avoidable. I don't think I want to commit that much to a group, and what if she hates it and I've paid for a term in advance. That's what put me off so far. I like the groups that you can just turn up to without feeling like it's a big commitment.

We are lucky to have such great groups around us, but the ones within walking distance are hellish, either a chaotic group where there is no organisation and toys are abused [kinda like that class on toy story 3] and don't want Bea to be like it. Or they are churchy with the hymns and prayers and preaching, which I grew up with but don't want to put it on Bea [or myself] so we travel out of our village to the surrounding areas.

Hello!!! After a long absence I've popped back to see how everyone is doing. Good to hear that life is mooching long well for most of us. Here life is pretty good but busy. I went back to work a month ago and so far so good. I wasnt looking forward to it, but the reality is actually quite nice! The work is good and my commute is better (they moved office in my mat leave) and the threat of redundancy is gone again now for another year. Also I'm LOVING my 3 day working week. Its such a difference to the 4 days I was doing before. It just feels the balance is good now and I dont miss the kids that much. We've been juggling the childcare of Jude for a while between my MIL and DH but he starts his settling in sessions with a childminder next week. I did have him down for the same nursery my other DC went to, but I think I'd rather he try something different and get the chance to go to playgroups etc. We'll see how it works - I guess the nursery is always there in case this doesnt work well.

Strix, yoiur commute / job sounds pretty intense! Hope you are getting on OK though.

DF (YF!) - Jude was waking like that and he was waking multiple times a night. I was feeding him to sleep and he was using me as a comforter so I had to knock it on the head. My solution was phasing out breastfeeding (he wasnt feeding well anymore anyway) and moving him into his own room. Got to say he didnt really need any controlled crying. I just stayed with him putting a hand on his tummy until he slept then slowly he got used to it all and now can go to bed awake and I havent had to get up to him in the night for months. Makes me feel so so much better and more human . Especially with work now.

Fingers crossed for C&G - must look out for her news soon...

Hi to everyone else - hvae forgotten all the updates now... Heading home a bit early soon to a poorly DS1 with a tummy bug... My MIL has had him and DS3 today so she'll be welcoming the break

chooster good to hear all is better with your work and getting back into it.

Bea now has her fifth tooth coming through and she seems more disgruntled with it. Anyone tried one of those amber necklaces/bracelets/anklets? quite a few at the groups I go to have them on, but Bea is such a bugger for removing things, she hates anything in her hair like ties or clips. it's long enough to braid now, but it all comes loose when she yanks at it, so think she'd do the same to those amber things.

MiL is stressing me out about car seats at the moment, we have a 0+ britax first class plus, my parents wanted to buy one too to be able to take her out and about, in laws didn't want to buy one as they have the group 1-2-3 seat which has been used by the neice and nephew, which is fair enough, we got the seats on offer in Boots at £75 [normally £159] each. Now MiL wants to put her in the 1-2-3 seat but she's not yet 9kg [just about 6.3kg] and won't be the right weight until at least next spring if she follows the line. She just doesn't get about why it's not safe. She's small sized and rear facing for as long as possible makes sense. She even picked up a car seat off freecycle that was tatty as hell, had no fabric cover and was just solid black plastic. I said no, she's really huffy with me, she called me this afternoon she'd been down the used kids stuff shop and they had the same car seat in, used for £25 and wanted to know if she could buy it. I've said no, I don't think 2nd hand from someone I don't know is safe. She's now demanding my parents share their seat with the IL's, I've said no as they bought it, it's their property, they can use the one out of our car. I've left DH to enforce the rules, he is on my side and has had enough of them going on and on about me being OTT.

Got to dash dinner smells done!

Hi all,

I went back to work today. Was ok, and the commute to my new job is much shorter and doesn't involve trains so that's a bonus. I'm not sure how I'll feel about being at work M-F though. I guess time will tell. Today was a bit draining as it was just induction so I was being talked at all day. Plus I have a cold. I was ill on and off for 6 monhts after I went back to work after having DD so I'm hoping I'm not in for a replay of that.

Matty's settled really well into nursery. He was giving his key person kisses by day 2! He was with my DM&D today. They looked after DD for us one day a week before she started school and it's left them with a wonderful bond, so I'm hoping Matty will get the same out of it.