Feb 2011: the one where the babies are destruction machines

[ChestnutsREASTIEingOnTheFire]

...or is that just mine?

Is that becuase you couldnt face it? Or cos you dont think you could do it with children? I did my nurse training when ds 1 and 2 were very small,why not look into it?
The day is going very slowly cos im so tired

Thanx for support re mil. haven't heard back from her re email yet, am nervous about upsetting her, but i could feel my anxiety comoming into play again.

Ponyo, my dh is the same, he has an iphone and if I leave him with the kids i have to remind him to actually talk and play with them as he goes into 'internet mode' and we loose him for a while. It annoys me hugely!

Congrats to KnittaKid on her pregnancy!

ledkr Coupled with not being able to face it (I couldn't deliver a stillborn baby) and no money to go through uni!

Wow at knitta/milkmachine I often think about her and little Pablo.

Not knittakid/milkmachine, a poster who was on the antenatal thread but had a miscarriage. I don't want knitta thinking I'm starting rumours about her!

blizy - I've not had your experiences but I couldn't face it either. I'd love to be a midwife but only the good parts of being a midwife and none of the bad. Have you looked into positions with nurseries?

american you've made my day re: knitternottwitter

blizy knitta is a different person to knitternottwitter very confusing but I am fb friends with knitta and last thing I heard she's doing OK. Actually I think she might have asked me to say hello to everyone only I forgot so belated hello to everyone from knitta. Needto is also OK

blizy it must be so hard being a childminder . DO you have a master plan for what else to do other than mw?

ems completely onyour behalf - how annoying for you. I'm the same as you - really bad at confrontation so I'd have to do it in an email or get dh to. Wish I could stand up for myself more.

Well back from morning from hell. They've changed the length of my cookery lessons from 1.5 hrs to 1 hr and that coupled with awful slow ovens it's just impossible to cook decent things with very slow low ability students. But did chat with head of learning support who said there may be up to a days work in their dept on a teachers wage from september which sounds perfect - no extra stuff to doat home like now. Only thing is they won't know until september how much and if they need me, so I'd have to resign not knowing if I'd be returning....it's a big risk

Ah right american I know now, that is fab news! I have looked into a few nursery vacancies, but nothing that excites me yet.

BTW ledkr I know it's awful how you're struggling with Dilly but it makes me feel better that even experienced hats like you struggle with these matters too - I remember you saying on the ante how you'd had a bedtime routine in the past with all your other dc and it had always worked and you had them sleeping through the night relatively early and expected dilly would be the same..... . It seems some babies are just in borgs words sleep resistant. Where do you get a sleep consultant from btw?

expat it's a Chicco one - very cheap, but C loves it and it's comfy for us, so does the job. Also, yes C goes through phases of eating not much and then phases of eating like a horse, I do try and just go with the flow but it's hard not to worry. On the whole though, it seems to even itself out.

Also, C is having 3 bottles a day of about 6-8 oz each, but she is in the process of dropping one of them (the mid-afternoon one) I think, she's a bit meh about it.

So pleased to hear about KnitterNotTwitter I have wondered about her.

reastie house schmouse, who needs a roof that doesn't leak, wiring that works, and you know, glass in the windows...!

blizy sorry to hear you're struggling with your work dilemma, I can totally understand it though. I wouldn't worry too much about 'closing doors'. Childcare seems to be quite a transient thing and I don't think anybody judges people for changing their job/arrangements to suit their current/future situation.

Naughty C woke up at 6 this morning, clapped and giggled for 5 mins, then went back to sleep. I'm beginning to think she's a bit off her head. Maybe she was having a hilarous dream.

Dx

reastie It did work at first,remember she was sleeping 12 hrs at 7 weeks. It has got me down so much i keep thinking there is soemthing wrong with her
I cant believ i used to think early waking was a problem,id kill for just that tbh.

Yes I remember ledkr . All I can say if my mn toddler book says that some babies who were great newborn sleepers can somehow become awful night wakers, but not sure if that's useful at all given we're not yet in toddlerdom.

delia C sounds like such a sweetie in her cot from the stories you tell unlike alice

I have an odd question I was wondering on earlier not sure who to ask about it. As you know my mum/mil are sharing alice duties. So if either of them are ill I can't get anyone else to look after alice - so if my mum was ill I'd have to have the day off to look after alice. Is this right/OK? Can I get told off at work for this? Has anyone had to do this? I assume it will be unpaid which is fine, but I'm just unsure as to if parents do have to take off days to look after their dc as childcare is ill (never known anyone to do this). I know they do when their dc are ill but that's different isn't it? Turns out my dad is ill so I'm guessing my mum may ahve caught it by next week when she starts alice duties - which would be typical!!

Reastie I has to take time off ill with d&v once, the parents took the few days off work unpaid.

reastie there are two things which spring to mind re your childcare/time off thing. On the one hand, most of the places I work have done it so that you can have the first day off (unpaid) to allow you to make other arrangements, but then they kind of expected you back in, i.e. you couldn't stay off indefinitely. However, there is I think officially a thing called 'Family Leave' which is for this kind of situation and it's up to a week a year I think, again unpaid. I am not sure how employers deal with this, as I think they have to allow the family leave, but they have in most cases kind of expected people back after a day.

Might depend very much on the mood of your employer, although it shouldn't!

D

You used to be able to take up to 5 days parental leave of absence in a year to look after your children/ go to funerals etc. Your school should be able to let you know what you are entitled to reastie.

Great news about knitter!

Hope D settles down for you ledkr. Have you started back at work yet?

C sounds v cute delia.

We have a snow day today. There's a good foot of snow piled outside my patio doors and a howling gale so no school for anyone!

Hi tad yes im back Mon and Tues,im enjoying it tbh,dh has Dilly so fairly stress free for me.
Well ive been researching Dillys probs all day.It seems as if she has separation anxiety which can be worse at night. Add this to teething and another cold and i think its hardly surprising she's not sleeping.There are many babies on mn all the similar age all acting the same.
Dh is having her tonight whilst i sleep with Ella in my bed. I think we are going for sanity at the mo untill hopefully it passes. I have made a Drs app for tomorrow cos her chest is still nasty and that is since before xmas,saw Dr last week but it seems worse.
reastie I think it depends upon your employer.I get family care leave,few days paid and whatever else unpaid. Dh had 6 days when d had her operation-paid I have worked at idiot places who have no sympathy and i just call in sick myself. Im too old for morals.
Dill has been sweet tho,she pats her chest and says "lilah" then my chest and says "mama" and so on,she calls dh mama too cos cleft stopped her pronouncing Dada but she said it at 3am

Been soooo busy this week, haven't had much time to come on.

ledkr sounds grim with D, you must dread night time. It will pass, but that's not much help now is it.

tad hello, and to snow, tis foggy and damp here.

reastie I have no idea about employment stuff!! Hello though :) Re work I'd leave. No point spending most of your life doing something you hate and that stresses you out.

expat S has about 3 beakers of cows milk a day. Ish.

delia that's not naughty, it's cute . S seems to be sleeping later in the mornings now . It's coincided with her dramatically cutting down on daytime sleep. She's been having about an hour (maybe less) in the morning, and 1.5- 2 hrs in the afternoon.

I lost 4.5lbs this week and got my 3.5st award and Slimmer of the Week too! I was surprised cos there are loads of newbies in group now, maybe some competition at last! Got out for a run this evening after 2 rest days too, 16 mins of jogging, who'd have thought it!

ledkr I'm too old for morals HA HA HA HA!!!!! D officially a genius as well x

Hi all,

wow ledkr clever Dillykins, she's doing well with her words and associations! Shame about the sleep (or lack of), I honestly assumed once A was sleeping well at 2 months old that was it - good sleep forever! How wrong I am - though she is doing ok compared to D thank god

reastie I need to find out what my work does in relation to A being poorly and not being able to go to nursery. We don't have family nearby so me or dp would have to be off. I have a feeling I'd be off unpaid, I;d love to call in sick tbh but we have redundancies again this year and next and they go on sick leave so I don't want to be taking any time off sick, boo.

american a big yes to A sometimes eating loads and sometimes being v picky. She is having about 5 oz milk first thing and before bed, and 2 bottles in the day. Sometimes she refuses them completely and sometimes drinks 5/6 oz. It is confusing Don't know if that helps

delia cuuuute about C in her cot, A is either asleep or awake and crying

deb 16 mins of jogging, I am so impressed! Well done once again, you'll be wasting away to nothing

Well dp is talking to me now it is reassuring (and not surprising) that the other menfolk are just as annoying re: computers.
To be fair he did make an effort when we got in from picking A up from nursery, he was playing with her instead of heading straight to laptop. She had a good day at nursery and some better sleeps so heres hoping for a good night tonight

tis true Deb,i will be embracing my old age and being cantankerous and rude to everyone

Hello ladies.
Only read the last few pages so I apologise if I missed anyones big news.

Ledkr poor you I hope d starts to sleep better for you soon.
Emski well done for laying it down to mil.
Reastie do what is best for you.
Delia good luck with the job hunting.
Blizy hope you find a job that sets of sparks.
Deb well done you that's amazing

Freya finally has the hang of crawling. I'm so relieved. We had her 9 month check last week, they've told me we have to go back again in march as she is really little and not pulling herself up. She still only weighs 18lbs and has dropped to under the 25th centile for height yet she eats like a horse.
She can now say mom dad yes hiya and she tries to copy sounds

Hope everyone has a peaceful night

reastie trying to get childcare covered when family member is ill is the one big minus point with having family provide childcare. I haven't had to panic yet (touch wood ) but I had to practically sell my soul to get last Sat night off work because Mr W wasn't able to mind A and my parents and pils had done so much minding last week when I was running to the hospital that I didn't like to ask them. I'm with ledkr on the phoning in sick myself! although my old workplace was brilliant re unpaid family leave.

ledkr really feel for you re Dilly not sleeping. It can be really soul destroying. Anna still isn't the best sleeper, she goes down fine but wakes up in the middle of the night but I just take her in with us. Hope Dr appt goes well and Ds chest clears up.

americanexpat I had a bit of a bad run with Anna from Christmas, she just refused to eat anything, coupled with her dodgy skin/ nappy rash I was climbing the walls. Since I took her off the formula she is doing a lot better, but some days she will eat fine and then she'll have very little for about 3 days. My mum says my sister and I were exactly the same - she called us little camels, we used to stock up for about a week on food then eat nothing for about a week

blizy Can you work out how much/little money you need to bring in, then maybe do something completely different for a few months. I know no-one is taking people on but it might be worth a think. I didn't work for around 18 months about 8 years ago. I had a horrible time with anxiety/depression and couldn't face work. When I was ready to go back, I literally just walked into an employment agency and took the first post I was offered. It worked out really well for me. I know you have to keep up with training etc as a childminder but something different for a few months might give you a new look on childminding/nurseries.

Waves to tad yay for snow days Mr W had his appendix out, the patient is trying my patience

Oh X-posted with lots of people

ponyo glad you and dp are speaking again

debka meant to say well done, skinny malink!

hubbard Freya will be grand, she's just doing everything at her own pace x

Hubbard aww to Freya, she is another clever one with her talking then! Glad the crawling is going well A has only just started drinking water from a beaker, she only took little sips for months and just this has started having 'proper' drinks from it, it's amazing how quickly they can get the hang of something isn't it.

Wiggles hope the patient is doing ok and another at you and your sis being little camels, just like A!

Bed for me now, I have somehow watched half an hour of a programme called Fat Girls and Feeders which is a bit bleurgh even for me so time to turn the tv off I think

Evenin,

blizy sorry to hear about your uncle, hope all okay with your auntie.

ledkr nightmare re D and her sleep, N is very similar. I started a bedtime routine when he was 4 weeks old, and it did us no good whatsoever so I think it depends on the baby. We are in the process of considering buying a massive bed!

Speaking of which N fell out of bed last night, so have ordered a bed rail off amazon and some big hair thingy from babyliss

hub well done re crawling and her massive vocab. N still has no words (nil point), but we were in a carpark yesterday and he kept pointing and saying Garrrrh (like a pirate) so I kept loudly saying "yes Nathaniel, it's a car, clever boy" and furtively looking round to if anyone was watching. He says Gaarrgh all the time, I might buy him an eye patch and peg leg.

Oh he's awake, and eyeballing the laptop eagerly so will have to go

Morning, A was up nice and early this morning so gave in at 6 and got her up
She is currently being a bit nuts and bouncing and laughing but in a slightly manic way

Borg massive at N the pirate, gaargh is quite a good word really, it can be interpreted in many ways can't it

A is climbing on me and getting toast everywhere the nutter, back later.

Morning, Anna got her first pair of shoes complete with photo reastie. I am quietly sobbing at the fact that she's in shoes.

Borg A shouts aaagggh a lot, or ah, ah especially when she's climbing up the back of the sofa and threatening to jump off the edge . She has mastered the art of climbing down off the sofa so she thinks she's the bees knees!