April 2011 - Hello Grindstone. Nose here, reporting for duty.

[DairyBeetle]

Plumps comfy pillows, shakes warm fluffy blankets, passes them round, sleeps

Believe it or not after last nights vomit fountain M had the best night for ages. Woke up just as we went to bed and got a feed, easily went back in the cot. Then nothing until 4.30am when she had another feed and slept til about 10 past 8 which gave me time to have a shower. She then tried to roll off the bed as I was sorting pillows out in order to sit and feed her, fortunately I got managed to grab her just in time :)
She's been sicky today but nothing like last night, just sort of possetty (is that a word?). I'm hoping she's ok now, but I'm being careful with the solids just in case.

Oh, I'm up for secret santa too, but am generally a bit rubbish at it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/1344590-Personalised-Vintage-retro-print-stockings-with-30-off Thought I would share this with you, I ordered mine today and they have been reduced from £25 to £17.50 for today only. The retro material prints are gorgeous.

Who was talking about the complicated purée? I had one that H wouldn't touch (I tasted it and though yeuch too). Added a spoon of Philadelphia and it was transformed. H wolfed it. It was a chicken casserole thing (Gina Ford recipe).

I generally just give H what we're having these days. I tend to make extra and freeze the surplus.

Was thinking re: secret santa, should we also post an up to date list of baby's names and clothes sizes for those who are participating, that way it won't give the game away if we happen to have forgotten what someones LO is called? And obv clothes sizings as not everyones LO will be the same size (I realise the limit is only £5 but you never know what you might pick up for that if you hunt hard enough )

No more spuking here today so yesterday must have been a one off. However R has now turned into the incredible non-napping baby :( She's literally cat-napping maybe twice a day, long gone are the 1-2 hour naps 3 x daily!! It's making things interesting to say the least. As long as she keeps up 12 hours overnight I better not complain!!

Have now purchased size 4 nappies so hopefully that helps with the damp situation!

Cycle R has whatever we're having now too, can't be bothered faffing about with seperate recipes. She's had spag bol tonight and will have carbonara tomorrow (we ate out for tea tonight, we don't have pasta every night!!) I've just been making 2 portions for her so one gets frozen each night so I have a little stock, failing that I have the occasional jar in the cupboard but tbh she much prefers home cooking!

SIL is fine and now just waiting for next week really. Feel sorry for her as she now has to go the larger hospital for a managed labour as baby will be slighty prem. The one night she was in there were 2 women in labour, there was no space in delivery for them so they had to labour on the ward until the last minute (!) and they weren't allowed their DHs with them as visiting finishes at 10pm!!! WTF! So now SIL is worried that if she's in and delivery suite is full she'll end up in the same situation. I think that is completely ridiculous and have told her to kick up as much fuss as possible. Hopefully as long as baby is ok once born and has no feeding probs etc she'll be able to transfer straight back to community hospial where everything is much more relaxed!

As for my parents they are now stranded in Cyprus as the baggage handlers at the airport have gone on strike!!! My mum is supposed to be working tomrrow too!!

Thanks for the advice re cough. I took L to docs this morning just because it sounded very chesty but fortunately it sounds worse than it is and isn't on her chest according to doc. Glad we went as now feel more relaxed about it now it's been checked.

Hi all.

Have caught up with you all but can't name check at the moment so hello and hugs.

First weeks been fine. I've gone to three days so it's now officially my weekend. Dare I say I enjoyed it? S has been great for his grandparents tho I know they wouldn't tell me if he wasn't. Nights have been a strugge tho while he readjusts. Up at 4 tue am and dh had to hod him in the end while I got ready. Up at 1140 wed wet thru. Had to feed him when he still wouldn't sette after an hour. And last night he sicked up some of his bottle while feeding cos he was being greedy and hadn't burped. Had to change him and took ages to resettle. Then he woke again at 3. And again at 6 cos that's when we leave. I've had him asleep on me cos he wouldn't go back down. [sigh].

Count me in for s's. Feel free to give me the overseas peeps as I can post from work for free

Got to take s back to the docs today as we spilt his medicine

Sassy - DS1 had a cough last winter that went on and on and on. He was fine in himself, just all this coughing! The GP couldn't do anything but it is hard not to worry!

Star - reading your post about P getting stuck made me grin. I had to stuff cushions between furniture and under the coffee table when DS1 was little because he would reverse under things

Bad night here, T is teething again and has got a cold with it. Not much sleep had! Off to my parents today for them to look after the boys while I get my hair cut. I think I will have a nap there too before I drive home!!

Kitty x-posts, glad you enjoyed work

Morning all,

Sorry to hear about people's bad nights, hope you get some improvement soon.

Regarding coughs, F's had one hanging on for ages. It's more a problem at night, and I'm not sure he hasn't learned that a good dramatic hack brings me running faster!

Humanity has almost returned to the Fullerene household. It's amazing how a few days of gastric turmoil & worry will take you back to your pre-preg weight (like, 2005!). I am completely exhausted though! Sleep today, work tomorrow.

zzz

Buck, Hope you've had lots of sleep today! I had to google your name yesterday as someone suggested on Baby Names as a name ending in an een sound! Would like to say I understood the wiki page but...... ermm :o

Addresses are flooding in for the secret santa. I quite like MrsWajs suggestion of listing names and ages again. If you want to just add that to your messages I can pass them on. If' you've already sent through your address I have looked back at the stats thread and FB page, so I only need clothing size if you want to pass that on and I'll update the spreadsheet :o! I feel a chrsitmas namechange coming on!!

Fizz I'm only on my phone atm as at parents but I will let you have my address for SS later this evening.

Just facebooked you Fizz - count me in for secret santa. What's the budget again?

Glad that normality has been restored to the Buck household. We could do with a dose of it here. P has a horrible cold and is feeling very sorry for herself. She looks so pitiful. Poor baby :(

After much deliberation, I've decided not to contact the RL acquaintance I've spotted on here. Two reasons for this: 1. I only ever see her very, very rarely (when our mutual friend has a party) and 2. she's going through a very hard time at the moment and has suffered from mental health problems in the recent past - I'm worried that contacting her could cause real anxiety.

I have decided to speak to my best friend (our mutual friend) and ask after her. I don't want my BF to know about my (or her) mumsnet life, so will do this very subtly. Hopefully this will nudge BF to get in touch with her (if she hasn't been recently) and she'll then be able to provide some RL support. It sounds like acquaintance could really do with it :(

Glad to hear work went well Kitty.

That must be a really difficult situation to be in star, I think it's a case if damned if you do, and damned if you don't. So sad that she is having such a hard time at the moment.

Baby I and ds2 are really engaging with each other and it's so lovely to see. If ds2 is playing on the floor, baby I rolls in his direction and starts grabbing him and playing with his toys.

Baby I is also dropping breast feeds left, right and centre, and is eating huge volumes of food. I guess all of that rolling around the floor needs to be fuelled somehow

I hope you had a chance for a nap today Ali, and does your hair look fab? I also meant to say about buying shoes already. I am not looking forward to buying two pairs of shoes at a time

How long are you back in the UK for over Christmas Frakk ? Are you very excited?

Welcome to newbies :)

Kitty Glad it went well!

Love the idea of the MN-SS :)

Buck I'm relieved to hear all is now ok.

You do make me smile ILTMIMI

Fizz Sounds like you're going to have to get "cirrus" and stand your ground in this job (see what I did there).

A day which will no doubt go down in family legend happened here today. After asking my DH to move his hammer out of the bathroom (! honestly why is this even considered a decent place to keep it?!) after me moving it to his side of the bed to get his attention and him putting it back! he decided in fact his original plan of downstairs bathroom was optimum. This morning whilst I had R in my arms F reached out and took the hammer and knocked a hole out of the side of the loo!!!!!!!! I've just spent the afternoon hunting down and paying my Christmas present money given to me by my lovely Grandad to a plumber for a new loo. I will also need to pay for new flooring in there now as the new loo doesn't fit. What a joy it is. I feel like I'm married to Frank Spencer.

Does 7 month sleep regression exist and if so does it mainly apply to night sleeping or just any sleep? R is totally fighting the whole nap thing now. I put her up today at 10.45 as she was clearly tired - eye rubbing, ear rubbing, gurning etc as soon as she hit the cot she went into full on melt down so I left her for 5 mins as she quite often does this and then just drops off, nope 15 minutes later she was still going. Eventually after half an hour of tears & snot and a few attempts at making herself sick(!) she did fall over, only to wake 15, yes 15 minutes later :( I'm totally at a loss, she used to be a really good napper and now terrible. I don't mind if she doesn't nap per se but she is completely wiped out and so no use for anything all day except crying and generaly stressing me out!!!
She is MAJORLY teething just now, the drool is out of this world and her cheeks are beaming red 24/7 but would this be stopping her from napping? There are still no bloody teeth to be seen though :( Although I did feel her gums this evening and there appears to be a huge lump on her lower gum right around at the back of her mouth, as though a molar might be about to erupt.....is this even possible??? I really just wish something would come through as it's terrible to see her like this and it's pretty tough going for us too with a constantly distressed baby.

Fizz Have mailed my address for SS

Arch I now have comedy visions of your Frank Spencer-esque husband! Although a broken toilet is far from comical - you have my sympathy, this time of year is expensive enough without household repairs to be dealing with too.

ILTMI I just remembered from the antenatal days - was it you that was writing a novel? And if so, do you go under your FB name or do you have a pseudonym?? Just being nosey :)
I think I may have been in cahoots with R as dropping feeds was her fun thing to do last week, hoping we've resolved that for now while teeth are monopolising her day!!

Arch what a nightmare. Sounds like the kind of thing my rather random DH would do. I'll tell him that story next time I find pedals in the kitchen.

MrsW I think F's joining in with the sleep regression tonight. We're on our 5th wakeup already. He had been getting so good too. Maybe he's to warm...?

Oh, and a friend's baby's first tooth was a molar, so could be that. And by the time you can see them all the hoo-har seems to be over. F's got a full front set now. I love his new toothy grin!

No, it's not me who was writing a novel, but now you mention it I remember someone was too. Come on, own up, who was it

mrsW - keep at it with the naps, things will return to 'normal' eventually. Teething can be disruptive and painful for them, and distressing and frustrating for us - an all round pita really! Can I tentatively suggest that if dd was rubbing her eyes, pulling ears etc, she may have been over tired, so it was difficult for her to drop off? I also think our lo's are becoming VERY aware of their surroundings and put more effort into being nosey rather than napping?!

Lol at being married to Frank Spencer. Luckily dh is a builder, so he is capable, but he does leave tools and random objects around the house - which of course ds finds and plays with. Stanley knife anyone? Ha, ha, not really.

Oh, and I keep meaning to say, can people please list their blw and finger food successes. I need some inspiration ........

Here are some favourites in our house

Hummus on flour tortilla
Mashed avocado on flour tortilla
Strips of streaky bacon
Meatballs and pasta
Strip of cheese
Strips of thick ham
Scrambled egg with cheese
Crumpets
Malt loaf
Savoury muffins (cheese and onion, watercress and goats cheese, ham and cheese)

Ds2 is a flippin nightmare this morning, very emotional and throwing himself around. Is it wrong to be glad that he is going to his granny's this arvo?!

Yep overtiredness might have been a possibility ILTMI, it's a very fine line between her not being tired at all and then suddenly being over tired. I need to get her down somewhere in between!! Try too early or too late and neither is succesful!

Buck So far I have escaped night time waking - with the exception of last Saturday and really hope we manage to avoid it a bit longer! I can hear her sometimes babbling or rummaging around at random times of the night but never to the extent that she fully wakes up or cries. I turned off the heater in R's room as I thought she was maybe too warm overnight. It's a bit knackered and ony has two settings - hot or off! Very helpful!

Can't offer much in the way of finger food success as all we have mastered so far is toast. If I'm doing traditional weaning should I just crack on and start offering random finger foods anyway? [naive emoticon]

Not wrong at all ILike. P was a mega whingebag yesterday and I was over the moon when DH arrived home early and carted her off for a walk!

We're not doing much BLW here but chunks of bagel with either butter or cream cheese always go down well. I'm always stuck for finger food inspiration, so thanks for starting this conversation up!

Spinach and goats cheese tart
Croissant (am I even supposed to give him that?)
Porridge balls

Will have a proper think when on a computer to avoid replicating.

MrsW I feel your pain with the naps, I haven't got the hang of T's cues at all. DS1 would get this thousand yard stare and rub his ears, then I would put him in his cot with his dummy and he would drop off.
T I completely miss and then he's past it and screaming.

Finger foods.
Strips of chicken/lamb/beef/ham
Potatoes in fingers or lumps
Croissant
Crumpet
Cheese
Any veg, even peas he is managing now
Apples, pears or melon
Pasta in tomato sauce or pesto or with bolognaise
Sandwiches
Shreddies
White fish or salmon in big flakes

Basically I just put lumps of whatever our meal is on his highchair tray. We spoon feed weetabix, yoghurt and sometimes a few other things like bolognaise sauce (he would feed himself the pasta) or mash.

I am planning to try him with some egg and also quiche soon.

Better night from T, still awake all evening but went 11-7 with only one wake up.
But DS1 woke at 5.15 and wouldn't go back to sleep! So DH has taken the day off and done the morning shift while I've had a lovely 3 hours in bed, and he will have a sleep later. Bleugh.

So far we're still predominantly on sticks of fruit and Veg. Her favourite by q mile is roasted sweet potato. Also mangos apple and banana. We spoon feed her weetabix and ready brek for breakfast although she's not very interested. Have also made her fishcakes and until cakes for.lunches which went down ok. We eat after she's gone to bed so she can't share dinner with us. She also likes c ream cheese on toast or rice cakes and mashed avocado on toast. Oh and she took quite well to spaghetti pesto when we had that foe lunch recently. I was surprised! We've only been at it 4weeks though.and she really doesn't eat that much. Far more gets mashed into her hair or thrown on the floor!!

Sorry phone typing on a train. Lentil cakes not until! Bloody auto correct. Forgot to say she loves plums and papaya too, both of which she'll eat in wedges, skin on, and just suck the flesh off. Am going to try same with apricots and peaches next time I get to the shops.