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

[DairyBeetle]

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

I win worst mother in the world award.

H fell down the stairs this morning. I turned away for a second and heard the sickening thump, thump, thumpthumothumpthump. He'd crossed the living room and landing in five seconds flat. He cried immediately for a couple of minutes but I rang MIL in a panic and went to A&E. He has a tiny bruise on his forehead and that's it. The doctor couldn't believe he'd fallen so far because he was so chirpy.

I feel terrible and DH sounded very angry when I spoke to him. He must be furious, I'm a fucking idiot. I can't stop thinking about what could have happened. It's 15 steps to the bottom.

Fizz I found the image of the flying wheelie bins and dirty nappies very amusing for some reason! WRT B's lack of solids is he a bit under the weather at all? As soon as S is coming down with something or his teeth are bothering him, he goes right off solids and just wants milk. Though he will usually eat breadsticks and cherry toms! Odd child!

S is getting clingy as well, but only when we're at home and someone else is there. He's fine when I leave him at nursery or to go to other people for cuddles but as soon as I try to go to the loo he starts up, even if he's with DH!

We've had a little more sleep here the last couple of nights, but I think that is largely down to S taking 5oz of milk from the bottle this week (instead of the 1oz a day he had last week). He also seems to have had another growth spurt, after having short stubby legs for ages the last month he's grown out of all 3-6 trousers and now the 6-9 month trousers!

Right I best get on and do some work!

X Posts with Cycle You poor thing! These things are always worse or the Mum than the child! I'm glad H is ok and I'm sure your DH isn't furious just worried. (((hugs))) and as it's a little early for the stronger stuff.

Hugs cycle. He'll be fine. M has fallen off the bed 3 times now they seem to be made of tough stuff but it's bloody scarey when it happens. I'm sure you're giving him lots of hugs.

Not even the floor is safe - she's just headbutted the bedpost after going to investigate something interesting. Magic boobs come to the rescue again :)

Oh cycle

Babies go floppy when they fall - like dancers learn to (there's a ballet where Job has to fall down a flight of steps actually) so it doesn't hurt them as much as it would a tended up adult. Honest.

My mother maintains that you need to teach a baby to crawl down stairs the minute they learn to crawl. We live in a flat but I'll be using my parents' stairs as soon as we get there to that effect.

Oh cycle poor you,, you must have been shitting yourself. Hasn't happened to us yet only because we don't have stairs!

No crawling for Joanna here yet (7m 2wks). We have rolling in both directions, pulling herself forward on her tummy if she can find a spare table leg and sitting. She pushes up on her arms but hasn't worked our how to get onto her knees yet.

She's sleeping better. Usually about 9pm to 9am with one wake up anywhere between 1 and 6. She's mix fed with a big old bottle (8oz) before bed. But she had that when she was sleeping terribly too so I don't think it's a BF/FF thing.

we also have high pitched screaming b(ut in glee rather than anger) growling and head scratching. No words or anything approaching them yet unless you count raspberries and babababas.

I may have put her in an elf costume and made her into a Christmas card this week . With all due respect to your B, fizz, I do believe she's the cutest little elf ever! (btw think we have the same costume - ASDA?!)

Oh no Cycle how are you feeling now? H is obviously a sturdy wee thing and I'm sure he's already none the wiser as to what happened! R bashed her head twice yesterday rolling from sitting into my friends kitchen unit (I was getting my hair cut and not being very attentive!! ) she now has a tiny wee bruise on the side of her head but is perfectly fine otherwise. I think they're more resilient than we give them credit for.

Fizz weather here isn't great but not quite as bad as it is with you I don't think. We have lost the lid of our green box though and the conservatory sounds like it might fly off the back of the house!! Did you get a new hob this week? I vaguely remember something being mentioned about that but wasn't 100% sure

Got stupidly excited this morning thinking my secret sants parcel had arrived as the postmark said "Jersey" major duh moment, sorry GGF! Turns out it was the new insert for my diary! Then there was another parcel addressed to R with a Surrey postmark, so I racked my brains (fat lot of good that seems to do me!) to think who was from Surrey but gave up and just opened it - it was a christening card and gift from DPs aunt!! Still nice all the same. :)

Think R must have been browsing MN whilst I haven't been looking as since the mention of seperation anxiety a page or so back she now seems to be trying it out for size. Little petted lip and whining whenever I go out of her sight! Gaaah.

Cycle - hope you are ok now, sure he will be fine. And as for DH, even if he was a bit cross, he was probably more worried. And just wait for something to go wrong on his 'watch' he'll soon realise these things happen :)

Oh Cycle, what a scare to get. If it make you feel any better I fell down the stairs around this age and I am perfectly normal

MrsW I got all excited yesterday too when an amazon delivery arrived for B thinking it was the Secret Santa, but no, it's from my friend. It's so so difficult not to open them. I'm a present squeezer at the best of times, but when it's for B I can't help myself. I did not look at the invoice in the box at all, oh no siree not me

Ecuse, yes it's Asda! Although it no longer fits him, so I'll have to get something else fo rhim to wear on Christmas Day. do youthinkI'll have time to make one of these

If you do fizz please make it the Santa one complete with moustache.

Cycle Glad to hear H is ok, I remember getting the phone call to say that DS had been taken to A&E. I went into blind panic mode and then burst into tears, it must be even worse if you're there to witness it yourself. You can babyproof the house from top to bottom, but they'll still find something to hurt themselves on/fling themselves off.

On a happier note, took the children to see Father Christmas today at DH work (they deck out an office as a grotto and take the children up in the "elf" lift. DS was very impressed and sat on Santa for his picture. Despite me telling DH to just hold baby P next to Santa for the picture so she'd be smiling, he decided to plonk her on Santa's knee too so we have a lovely picture of a screaming baby P. (insert Itoldyouso smiley here).

DH is now out on his departmental Christmas curry night so at least my cold has its advantages, I won't be able to smell him when he crawls into bed later.

Tomorrow we're going to take DS on his first trip to the cinema, to see Arthur Christmas. I have visions of me sitting with DS in the foyer after half an hour as he's got bored waiting for DH to come out (hell would freeze over before he left a film before it was finished).

Oh Cycle what a horrid thing! :(

DS1 was rushed to A&E aged about 5 months because he bounced sideways in his door bouncer and crashed into the door frame really hard with his head. We were possibly a bit PFB there.
He also rolled off our bed more than once!

T has fallen off the bed three times - the worst was the other night when he was sleeping between DH and I and crawled out over DH (no mean feat - he is not a small bloke!) and we got woken by the almighty bang and then yell of him hitting the floor

H will be fine, and JKS is right that your DH's perspective on all of it will change as soon as any kind of injury occurs while he is in charge.

chilli - T headbuts into everything here. He put his hand on a small ball earlier and with the weight and pressure it propelled him into the side of the sofa with a proper bump. He will learn

I have been trying to finish my online shopping this evening, and now it is mega late. Really must go to bed...

What a scare for you both Cycle. Glad that H is ok though. Thank goodness that babies seem to be such resilient little things.

We're all set for another hellish night here. P went down at 7, was resettled at 10:30 and is currently screaming (and I mean really screaming) while we take it in terms to try and calm her

I feel crap about it at the moment. How can nighttimes be getting worse? She used to wake once or twice a night and now it's four times. We don't even have the occasional good night anymore. I feel like things are never going to get better and I'm so fed up of being tired. Aaaargh!

Thanks ladies, am feeling far better now. BIL arrived with a babygate as soon as I got home and reassured me that all the babies in their family are daredevils, my sister drove over as well to cheer me up and made tea when I burst into tears while recounting what had happened. DH then got home to see H was giggling and bounding around as usual and calmed down almost instantly. It was just the worry of it all.

We had the monitor on the highest setting all night and when he woke at three really snotty he wouldn't go back down so thankfully I was forced to sleep on the sofa cuddling him...

Hope the storms aren't battering our northern ladies too badly!

Totally true about DH being a bit more circumspect about blame flinging once they've damaged the baby. My DP has been quite cross with me for.minor bits of damage I've inflicted on her (dropping my mobile phone on her head whilst trying to MN and BF at the same time!). Tells me I have to stop being so bloody clumsy etc.

Then thwarting other day he was entertaining her in her cot with balloons (she loves kicking around in there with 3 or 4 balloons, she's nuts for them). He was making her laugh by blowing up balloons then letting themfly around the room when he let go of them. It was all very charming until one of them flew into the clock hanging above her head, knocking it off the wall and straight onto her face (there's a bit of babyproofing that hadn't occurred to us!). She screamed blue murder and he was terrified. Luckily she was fine after a cuddle but I notwithstanding has shut him up about me being clumsy!!

Thwarting other day? How do you even get from 'the' to 'thwarting'??

Welcome to my world dude!!

Ecuse. not dude!!

star I can't think what to suggest other than repeating "this too shall pass" maniacally. Is your DP doing his bit? Resort to takeaways, sod the housework and cancel daytime plans for a while to maximize your chance of getting some sleep when she does? I find it's the broken nature of it that gets me as much as anything. Four two hour chunks is NOT THE SAME as an eight hour stretch.

I thought you'd gone all Wayne's World/Bill and Ted on us then Fizz. I rather wish you hadn't corrected it!

There is a lot of "this will pass"-ing going on at the moment. I just hope it passes sooner rather than later! After two hours of screaming and two feeds, she eventually went down at 2am and slept til 7.20am. I always feel ok after a five hour stretch, so today isn't proving too hideous.

I'm lucky that DH really pulls his weight. TBH, it was him who spent the majority of the time trying to settle P last night. He very much sees it as a two man job and luckily realises that I don't spend all day sat on my arse, mumsnetting and eating biscuits (although today has been spent doing exactly that - ssssh!). Unfortunately I'm rubbish at sleeping when he's in with her because I'm always worrying that he's got to get up for work or that she'd settle with a bit more milk (stupid because she never wants more). No chance of sleeping in the day - she's a fan of the micronap and rarely has a long snooze.

By the way Ecuse, I saw your pictures of J on facebook and just wanted to say how gorgeous she is. She looks absolutely adorable!

Oh Star, that sounds grim.

Is there anyone who can watch the baby for a couple of hours so you can rest? Now I've had H I totally get why sleep deprivation is an effective form of torture.

Yes, my parents and the ILs are happy to watch her so we do get a break thank goodness. To be honest despite the broken nights, I don't usually feel that bad in the daytime. I just can't stand being woken up when I'm asleep! I end up getting really frustrated and make things worse by thinking about so and so and their amazing all sleeping baby and fretting that P will never get there. .

My mum thinks this is payback. Apparently I was exactly the same as a baby and it went on like this until she stopped BF at 14 months. Oh lordy...

Can someone remind me When we need to post our SS presents by? And are we all opening them on the same day or when they arrive? Super excited! I love mail!

It sounds as if all the Aprilites have had coughs and colds and been in the wars of late. We've had a super busy past week or so with DS celebrating his 3rd Birthday and his first week at preschool. It's been emotional! Now it's all go in the run up to Christmas. I have done nothing in preparation so far.

Cycle, glad H is absolutely fine. That must have been terrifying. And sickening to hear. S has fallen off the bed and I also managed to somehow bang her head into a doorframe the other day when I was walking carrying her facing forwards. Do not know how it happened but I felt so guilty . She screamed and screamed and screamed, mainly from the shock I hope think.

Aussie hope your DP is on best behaviour now.

Fizz how did the childminder go?

Star hope you get some relief tonight or get a nap in this afternoon. Now don't hate me for what I'm about to say, S is certainly not an amazing sleeping baby...but...

I decided last week to go all hardcore on S and swap her bottles in the night for water. Has anyone else tried this? I didn't dare Google the longterm effects this might have on her in case I was put off by what I found. Never had a chance to do the evil milk/water swapsy to DS as he was bf. Anyway, first night she was a bit , had a few sucks then chewed the teat. Second night, didn't want the water so I had to rock/shhh/dummy-plug a couple of times. Did that for a few nights and last night I only had to dummy-plug once in 12 hours. I dare not write about it as tonight will undoubtedly be awful but I think we may have some progress! I was getting so fed up of her waking 3 times a night to have 1oz max of ff all night.

14th is the last parcel posting date before Christmas! But if you have GGF you might want to post slightly earlier!

Childeminder went fine. He loved it! DH & I went round last night so DH could meet her and her family. She had 4 boys 12,9 a 5yo twins! When we got there she had forgotten we were coming and was inthe middle of putting up her tree! It was like an explosion in a Christmas factory! The twins were very cute with B and "decorated" him, with santa hats and booties! I was really nice to see. We have made the right choice, B is relaxed with her and she is really lovely.

Just need work to confirm my FWR! I sent it in on Monday and not even had confirmation that it was received

Fizz - hope it gets sorted asap for you.

Everyone will have a different opinion on whether to carry on offering milk (either kind) at night at this age. I'm mostly of the school of thought that they are old enough to make it through the night without milk. And if you offer water a few nights and they decide to sod that and sleep instead that can only be A Good Thing :)

With DS1 he was sleeping through until we all got norovirus when he was 7months old, i went back to feeding him at night to help him get better, then we sort of ended up with that as a habit until i thought, hang on he was sleeping through. so did CC (was tough the first night) and he went back to sleeping through in a few nights (3 i think).

With DD now I just give her her dummy back and walk out, she seems to go off to sleep or else stays quiet either way suits me

Though last night I trialed a dummy clip thing clipped onto her sleeping bag - at 3am she was banging it on the cot may give that up as a bad idea!

I've now got an ear infection so I've been off sick again today (that's three weeks running now where I've not done a full week at work), I'm just bloody sick of us all being, well, sick!

Poor S was throwing up in the night again last night (oh it was fun time in our house last night!) it's just phlegm on his tummy triggering it but it's horrid to see and clean up. As S managed to vom over our bed we slept in the spare bed, except there wasn't room for DH who ended up on the floor. He insists it wasn't that bad as he was warmed by the central heating pipes under the floor!

Thankfully after another vom incident this morning S has been fine all day. Fingers crossed we don't have a repeat tonight! (And not just because we have no spare bedding!)

I'm still waiting for my S. Santa present to arrive so that I can wrap it and send it on. I'm starting to panic it won't get here in time.