July 2010: It's about time, that we all went back to rhyme!

[Spirael]

Though mutiny is always an option.

x post again

I eat tea with the dds at about 5/5.30 and either save some of it for dh or he gets himself something when he gets in (crap wife alert ). So once the kids are in bed there is nothing for me to do except drink wine and watch TV.

See ds2 wants/needs his tea by 4.30/5pm. There's no way I could eat that early, I'd end up eating then and again when dh got in - I'd be like a house end!

conclusion - F has too many toys in his room, i make life difficult for myself and i'm too soft

i think i'll prune the toys in his room actually as he only really plays with his trains and car park in his room. hopefully it'll all be easier when i stop bf too.

we don't usually eat til 8.30 - 9.00 but i'm not that bothered about that.

i compare bedtime to how much easier it is with dh here so i don't get the same motivation every day that you two get.

dinner at 4.30pm - wow! mine usually eat around 6pm but it's not unusual for it to be later.

we run on med time here i think!

Yeah it seems early to me too, but they just don't want an afternoon snack so are starving by that time, as they have lunch at 12.

But yes in short you are too soft

I suppose if I think about it, I eat at about 7.30 and go to bed about 3 hours later. I just couldn't go to bed without letting my food settle. So I suppose it's all relative - they eat about 2 hours before they go to bed. Neither of them wake in the night for food so I guess it's just how they work.

Dinner at 6pm...gosh mine are upstairs, playing hide and seek in the buff whilst waiting for the bath to run at that time

Bedtime here usually runs pretty smoothly, but I can imagine it's much harder with two. It goes:

5.45 tea
6.20 ITNG
6.50 bath
7.00 stories
7.10 BF
7.30 into cot, lights out.

We are having a sleep issue, which I posted about on the sleep board the other day but we still can't decide about. Basically, J started waking earlier and earlier, and I took to feeding him and putting him back in his cot, where he would go back to sleep till 7.30-8 or so. Great. But that feed crept earlier and earlier till it was at 4ish - so he was basically having a night feed again. Not good. At the weekend we decided to do sleep training and had a couple of really bad nights (on Sat night he woke at 1.40 and frequently thereafter - I wouldn't have fed him then anyway). But then Sun night he slept through till 7.10 - fab! Mon night he woke at 6 and I brought him into bed and fed him there in the dark, and then we tried to settle him back to sleep with us. I think he dozed a bit but he was restless and we certainly didn't get any more sleep. Then this morning he woke at 5.55. It was obvious from his cry he was still tired. So I (naughtily) went into his room, fed him and put him back in his cot. He slept till 8.30 and has been the most well-rested, cheerful, happy boy all day.

I just don't know what to do. Should we enforce his first feed being the start of the day and not let him sleep again afterwards? or are we being stupid and should we embrace the tool we have to tackle early wakings? I reckon if he wakes before 5.30 I should not feed him - but then if he wakes at 5.25 that will probably be it for the day and he will be grumpy and hideous all day.

any advice?

woodlands Oh I can't give any advice on early waking, I'm up with G at 5.30ish every day. She doesn't seem to suffer from the lack of sleep.

cake I don't do bedtime by myself every day - maybe once or twice a week dh isn't home before bedtime. The days he's home he always does A's bedtime. I think I posted this before - she's actually harder to get to bed when he's home just before bedtime e.g. 6.45 because she wants to stay up and spend time with daddy and not go to bed.

Got to go pick her up from preschool now.

always blows my mind that you're doing daytimey stuff as i'm going to bed wss

tis a tough one woodlands. there's no right answer, that i know. with F I just held out from giving him that early feed so it got later and later, he'd usually go back to sleep once he'd had it so that kind of worked but was tough for a week or two or holding out from bf him til a certain time.

with A, i've been a wet blanket. totally useless at any kind of night-time discipline at all partly because she's been teething almost non-stop from about 6m and partly just cos i don't have the willpower/patience/ability to catch-up in the day second time around and i also just don't care if people are judging me for what she's doing sleep-wise like i did with pfb.

at the mo, i'm feeding her at around 5 - 6am, she'll then go back down til 7-7.30. it would be nice if she didn't wake up that early for the feed but it could be worse.

do you mind doing that extra feed? if you don't mind that much then maybe just go with the flow for a while and see what happens.

i really don't think much of what happens now sleep-wise is that meaningful. they're still huge babies really and if some of them want extra comfort, milk or whatever then i don't think you'll look back and regret giving it to them when they're way past this stage and independent little souls.

mind you - i'm saying that with F in bed with me! he appeared round the sitting room door (scaring the life out of me) at about 11.15 for the first time ever! he'd shut and locked the stairgate behind him too! he just said he wanted a cuddle. i could have put him back in his bed but it's quite nice to snuggle up to him with dh away.

BFN! Which is a relief :o right now is most defiantly not the right time for a baby.

Still no sign of my period so I won't relax completely until it makes an appearance but both times that I was pg before I was able the turn the test as soon as my period was late.

dylth glad you got the result you wanted, it's always a worry when you're late.

Speaking of which....when I gave up bfing just over a month ago it kick started my periods again. So that was about 32 or 33 days ago. Im still taking the pill every day, admittedly sometimes late but it's the kind you're meant to take at the exact time every day. Well I haven't had another period since then but not sure whether to expect one or not because I'm still taking this pill.

vik he settled well last night but still woke up a few times. He is getting better with settling though, I just sit there sshing him I don't have to even touch him now so I'm hoping to start moving away from his bed gradually.

FIL is buying us a toddler bed for D for Xmas which is v generous. I think D will be happier in that too. I'll feel better knowing he's not practically lying in the floor esp when it gets really cold

memphis sounds like your step mum has got a good deal there! My mum is a med sec too and she loves her job and I think I would too..

dh If it's the mini-pill you're taking (which you take every day, no break, and you are meant to take at the same time every day) you should get a period while taking it. But when periods return after birth/bfing they can take a while to settle down, I think I had 2.5 months between my 1st and 2nd period after my first baby.

Unless you're up the duff

I am on the minipill, I am really crap at taking it at the same time every day. But I am 40 and it took me nearly 18 months to get pg second time round so I reckon my chances are pretty low.

Dylthan pleased that it's the wanted result!

Really pleased for you Dylth.

I used to be really good at taking the pill, until I had ds2 and now I am totally shite at remembering.

It's official. DH has manflu :(
Great timing for our anniversary on Saturday :(

That's nice of your fil dh. I wouldn not recommend [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thomas-Tank-Engine-Toddler-Bed/dp/B0019DM4TC this one]] - I hated it. It is now dismantled under E's bed and I hope never to need it again!

W has been having tantrums all morning. It's going to be a long day I think.

this one

I hope I'm not upduffed! I'm going with the theory that it's taking a little while for them to settle down.

mlisc I don't know which one he'll get but I'll let him know to avoid that one. Thanks :)

glad you got the result you wanted Dylthan!

dh I'm also on the mini-pill and currently have my second period since J was born. I can't remember when the first one was but I'm sure it was well over a month ago! I must start making a note so I can figure out when to expect the next one. I think they can be pretty random when you're on this pill. I have some cheapo pg tests I got from the pound shop and I do one every now and then just to put my mind at rest (though am beginning to get to the point where I would be secretly pleased to get a BFP, but we're not planning to try for another 9-10 months!).

thanks for your insight cake - wise words there. I don't mind doing the extra feed at all, I'd much rather do that and him sleep in until 7.30-8 than be up at sparrowfart. It's just the principle that a 16 month old shouldn't be having night feeds... I guess I should stop worrying about what other people might think.

He slept through until 7.10 again today anyway!

Def not upduffed, period has arrived whilst im out and no form of tampon etc. brill.

Also D fought his nap for 2 hours then slept for a whole half an hour.

Ack dh great timing!

dylthan glad you got the result you were after

I just had a naaaaaaaaap! L went to sleep for an hour so I'll suffer for that later on but it was so worth it. We didn't go out this morning, I put frozen planet on and they both sat through most of it, made fresh brioche and now I'm feeling napped but a bit out of it so mister maker (doesn't deserve capitals) is on while I wait for S to wake up.
DH had to be awake at 5 this morning for a day romping over the brecon beacons so he's going to be shattered this evening, won't need to cook though cos he'll get a burger on the way home.

Am I the only person slightly disappointed with dylthans result?
In 9 months time when we all want fresh baby pictures to look at we'll only have stale ones...

Chul - (sorry, your baby won't be fresh in nine months) rest really is the only option, unless you want to be on a zimmerframe! make sure you do get taxis, even if you are embarrassed. Its less embarrassing than publicly collapsing in agony.

With regards to bedtimes, we do dinner at 5:30pm whole family, including DH (who gets home about 4 most days) and spin it out with devotions, what did you learn today etc... Until 6:15ish.

Then it's bath and bed and stories (number of which depends on how long bath took) then lights out at 7pm.

Sometimes 6:45pm - depends how tired I am

I am naughty though, because I let DH do everything from dinner onwards whilst I sit and read MN Elle take a bottle of milk to bed with her and Will still has a dummy.

Well D fell asleep in the car at half 3 so I'm thinking about moving his late morning nap to after lunch about half 12/1 because atm he's having a v short nap at 11 then falling asleep in the afternoon so I'm hoping if I make him wait til after lunch he'll combine the 2 and have one long nap

My mum and I had lunch in a cafe and I paid with mums money, it came to £11 so I have the woman two 10s and her till went funny and she gave me £18 change. I told my mum what had happened and she put it away and didn't think anything of it (free money!) then the woman came over ad said she thinks she gave us too much change and we were vague and said oh I didn't notice its been put away etc. my mum said let me get my purse but the woman said oh don't worry? So we ate lunch and left but it felt like we were being watched the whole time. My mum offered to give it back but the woman said no, was a bit odd really.

S has cried all afternoon without a break, he cries cos he can't have my phone, his car won't go in the transporter, car won't stay in the transporter, car is in the transporter, wrong car is in the transporter (see a theme?), he's too inept to link his duplo trains together, L is playing with him, L isn't playing with him, he's on my knee, he's not on my knee etc He keeps pointing at stuff he can't have and whinging, and when I tell him he can't have it he collapses on the floor and screams. DH isn't due home for hours yet and I've completely had it.

I forgot a MW appt today too due to all the crying, I hate missing appts.

Oh Chul! That sounds awful

I hate days like that. Wish I could come give you a half hour break.

Chul I think there's something in the air - W has been a nightmare all day :( Exactly the same as S: fighting with his brother over stupid things, pushing E when he was sitting on my knee, W wants to be up, he doesn't want to be up, he wants a drink, then flings it when he gets it. And just like S he collapses and flings himself about when I say no. Sooooo frustrating.

Brioche sounds lush. Glad you don't have to cook :) Haven't really thought about tea here yet...

DH I couldn't have not said something! A woman let me pay for my shopping once than was about to let me leave without paying for my lottery ticket. Despite me saying I needed to pay she still didn't realise - she was a bit frazzled - but I couldn't walk out without paing for it so I repeated myself and she clicked!

Brioche is lush but DH has just staggered in the door saying he's not eaten all day apart from a roll around lunch so potato waffles/fish fingers are in the oven for him.

10 mins and they're both in the bath, currently mesmerised by Abney&Teal which is a godsend at the moment!

dh I'm the same, I'd have had to say something!