October 2011: Gaining teeth but still losing sleep.

[sassy34264]

hope this works! the pressure is on at 3.30am!!!!

bb3 wow, that's a hard one! if he cant hear, i guess saying 'poo goes in here' might not work. how about everytime he poos, picking it up and putting it in the potty and clapping.

i like mamma's idea of a smiley face and sad face for when he gets to the stage of hit and miss (he is just in the miss stage at the moment- poor thing)

i do think though that consistency is the key. its bloody hard though. im not looking forward to potty training the twins, im fx that they will just get it

I meant the actual seeing poo going in loo and don't everytime might help. Ds2 used to save bye bye to it

sorry mamma eva is still pooing ok at the min. chloe had problems, and i was told to put some pure orange in with her water. i think they all struggle a bit when they move onto solids. isobel still does hard pebble poos occasionally that she really struggles with. i just usually up her water.

also bb3 be prepared to make up a poo dance.

if only i could teach you mine..............

sassy personally I think you should put your poo dance on youtube for us all to watch

DCs are the mend, DD has a been a bit tired and grumpy this morning but managed playgroup OK and got through to lunch for her nap. DS is even in his basket atm (normally only lasts 30 mins but still lovely).

Sunday night wasn't great. DD woke at least every 30 mins and was awake for 3 hours at one point. DS slept but couldn't be put down after 11pm (well only for 5 or 10 mins here and there). However DD did three naps yesterday, although were tricky to put her down for and spent a lot of the day crying/shouting, it meant we caught up on some rest. Last night DS spent more than half of it down and DH was able to rock him back to sleep so that I only fed him every 2 hours.

BB3 your night sounds worse, was DH not around to help out? Personally my plan for TT is to have help around for close to a week. Getting DH to take a few days of work and my mum/siblings a day each, so that I have someone to chuck DS to when I need to respond to DD. Well that's the plan anyway.

penguin

i could..................but i wont!

i still have some shame pride, albeit, not as much as i used to have!

god your night sounds horrendous but you sound so chirpy! i would be seriously contemplating murdering everyone around me. i am absolutely SHIT without sleep. i just cant do it. i get really frustated angry the night before, if i know i wont be getting enough sleep.

Ahh, sttn was of course a one-off. Today Leo has decided that 4.58am is morning and after two other nightfeeds and a dream feed is determined to get us all up for the day.

Bb3 - with my oldest they were dry pretty quickly but would just poo their pants for weeks :( all I could do was try to take them to the loo very frequently and sometimes they got it right. I'm sorry I have no idea how to make it easier except maybe wait longer if the accidents are so frequent.

Mama - I hope the appointment goes well and fx there are no concerns.

BB3 - re potty training I left my DD until she was 39 months - partly due to having M and partly because I wanted her to decide that she was ready. The thing that got her really wanting to start was picking a present to have once all the poos and wees go in the toilet, not sure how you can explain this with lip reading/signs though. I definitely recommend bribery - immediate rewards - a choc button for a wee and a bigger sweet (choc frog, fudge bar) for a poo - she only poos every 3 days so she's not being overloaded with sweets. We have a bag for each set of treats and she chooses her own straight after she's been.

One of my friends said that you need accidents for them to understand which was a brilliant bit of advice -maybe take him to the park or in the garden where it won't mess up your house, then he'll get the feeling of having an accident and when he wants to go.

Hope that helps! I feel for you - potty training is a scary step.....

bb3 sorry don't have much advice re potty training when communication is so hard. Do you know if he can hear anything? Or if it's just vague noises? You could maybe try making a certain noise like whistling wen you do a wee? Take him to the loo with you then show him what you've done etc then just set a 15 min or so timer an take him to loo every 15 mins your bound to get the timing right at some point doing it that often then when e does get it do loads of smiles singing dancing etc so more visual than speech IYSWIM
I also got a book from tesco called pirate pete's potty which has lots of pictures that might be an idea?
I also do the chocolate button for a wee or poo. C is now dry mostly but still not doing poo in potty.

I meant to say that I made DS a treasure basket which seems to be a hit more so with his sister, especially when I get the saucepans out. He also had a hoummous sandwich yesterday after stealing it of me so think I will continue giving him a little sandwich for lunch.

Loving the poo dance and saying bye bye to it down the toilet . I have nothing useful to add, except to say that weaning poo is quite different from ebf poo

Have lived here for 5 years FD. Met DH (a Dutchie) while I was travelling in South America. He came out to see me in NZ and when I got back to Europe (6 months earlier than planned, skint and lovesick) we went back and forth between Holland and the UK for 6 months before I moved out here. I can?t imagine moving back to the UK now. All DHs family are on the doorstep (often quite literally in the case if MIL/FIL!) here and I prefer working here ? I find it much more family friendly and less pressured than teaching in the UK. Have had a ?colleague day? today so have been cycling and eating yummy cakes all day with the teachers and support staff in my school (imagine the field day the Daily Mail would have if a school in the UK did that with taxpayers money!!!!!!).

Glad S has settled in her room.

cheshire DH always puts M in ridiculous combinations of clothes! (and tee hee hee at your SIL )
pen the Dutch are painfully blunt. When I went off the pill my acne flared up, but we hadn?t told anyone we were ttc. One of my colleagues just said to me, ?What?s wrong with your face?? and my MIL started lecturing me on my diet (apparently I must have been eating too much fatty food). I was

All this speaking of chocolate?I found a packet of Cadbury?s mini eggs which I got in Feb in the UkKand hid in my underwear draw on purpose so I would forget about them and not scoff them as soon as we got back the Holland. I remembered yesterday afternoon and managed to eat them while DH was sleeping
Sorry BB no advice on potty training (the joys yet to come!). I second seeing sassy?s poo dance on You tube.

Glad to hear DCs are on the mend PA

Where did you live in NZ, engels? And the idea of the dutch being so blunt makes me shudder. At least feelings are less hurt when everyone is passive aggressive

No advice on toilet training sadly, but do have a few travel tips with babies. You may have thought of it already but one thing I found invaluable was, if the airline let you, keep a frontpack with you for after you check in as it can be a real pain carrying a baby through customs and around the airport etc. Wish we'd had one in March when we had a 5 hour delay in one airport ...

Argh just wrote massive post and lost it.
Will post later but one urgent thing please don't put your baby on work top or table in bumbo unless you're there with them, my friends baby managed to tip out yesterday and fell head first he's ok but she'd only turned to put something in sink it happened really quickly. Am as I always leave E in his while cooking etc.

Was just passing through Pen. was doing 3 months travelling before heading to Oz. My best friend lives in Auckland though so spent quite a bit of time there before the 2 of us went on a 6 week road trip round the North and South Island. DH only came out for 13 days over Christmas/New Year which was amazing and kind of cemented our relationship. I love NZ...would love to head back with M to catch-up with my best friend and see some more of the country.

And the Dutch do passive aggressive just as well....my FIL has taken it to new levels since M was born ("Are you cold M? Yes, it's cold in here isn't it? Mama and papa need to turn up their heating don't they?" Grrrrrrr... ).

Just dropped DH at work for a few hours so am going to try and get some school work done.

Pebble - that bumbo thing sounds scary :(

pebble that does sound v scary. Did the whole bumbo tip or just baby? I'm constantly leaving mhairi on C's art table as its the right height for feeding her when I'm on the couch but M's bumbo has a harness and toy tray so she can't get out of it

DS started coming out of his bumbo a few weeks and haven't used it since. It was borrowed so we just returned it. We do have one that sits on a dining room chair that has straps I use sometimes now, although it is mainly DDs for dinner time. tbh DS never sat right in them.

I spent a month on north island as have family out there. Would love to do a 'tramping' holiday in south island.

agree with pen always took DD in a sling on our airport travels, handy when in the long US immigration control line..

pebble thanks. I needed reminding as J been arching and straining in it and only matter of time. I think I'll sell it as not likely to use for another.

Just clocked the date, DS is 6 months today

Happy 6 months to DS penguin

Not tried taking W on holiday yet, the furthest he's been is an hour down the road to my parents where we stayed while DH and FIL moved our stuff between houses :) I think you are all rather brave.

W has started to get upset when he's left in a room on his own for a minute or even when I'm in the shower and he can't see me, think he's starting to realise he's a separate person. Strangly though he's ok going to bed and plays happily in his cot in the morning before calling for someone.

Must go, need to finnish cooking while he's asleep!

Oh Yay happy 6 month birthday.

Have decided to just take it slowly with DS and take him to the bathroom with me / DH whenever we go and sit him on the toilet for a bit and hope he learns.

yes holidays we will take the double stroller that we can use up until we board the plane and then the slings in our hand luggage for coming off the plane / waiting for baggage! I'm now sticking my head in the sand about it all now as it's far too daunting!!!!

bb3 am jealous your airline lets you keep the stroller until you board plane, we had to check ours in which was really annoying.

I think they recalled the bumbo to put safety warnings on them about not putting them on surfaces actually, or did here in NZ anyway. TBH I have been a bit dissapointed in the bumbo, may sell it as well.

engels and penguin am always happy when other people have seen the North Island! So many people see the South Island only - although to be fair that is where the wow scenery is. We would like another tramping holiday too, don't see it happening for a few years though sadly.

Happy 6 month Birthday it's flying by.

Anyone elses sleep improved then gone tits up again ? I can't believe we had gone to waking every 4 hours to now going back to 1-2 hours. She seems hungry as won't settle from just cuddles and I am non the wiser after checking the Internet and the sleep section here. Worse still when it gets to 6am she stayed asleep 'til 10am then! Yawnnnn!!!!