March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Hello all, come and add your babies to the list and let's see what adventures they bring!

That was a bit long

Just one slight warning Broody - we have found that once baby is in the bed he digs his heels in and refuses to leave again! Callum wakes the second he is put in his cot, he sleeps on our bed even for daytime naps. Have you found this English?

We clearly will not have that problem.... Appears even cosleeping will not get her or us longer than an hours sleep at a time

Sorry to hear that co-sleeping hasn't helped yet Broody - it may be worth persevering. When we have been away it takes Callum a few days to 'get used' to a new bed before he settles again (if you can call it that, despite co-sleeping he still wakes frequently).

Hi all. I was hoping you may be able to offer some recommendations?

After a few days away and two very long car drives, we have decided that we have finally outgrown my very tiny Ford KA. We are looking for a reliable five door car, with a good boot size (but not too big). I wondered if anyone had any suggestions for any models/makes to look out for that are particularly convenient to have with babies?

Hi pommes. I have a Peugeot 307 and I find it is more than enough space, good boot size for our Quinny, plus room for shopping too.
Thanks for your advice to stick with the co-sleeping - last night was much better as she is getting used to the idea of me being beside her (but cheekily pesters for a booby snack when she doesn't really need it!!) I've already found she is cuddling me properly which is so cute

Glad things are getting better, broody! I hope this is the solution you need :)

I'm afraid I don't know anything about cars, pommes. DH does all of that for us!

A question for the co-sleepers: how do you handle the baby going to bed before you do and/or sleeping later? Tessa has been sleeping in a side-car crib, which has worked great. I pull her over when she needs to nurse, sometimes let her sleep next to me after, and sometimes slide her back in. But now that she's crawling and pulling up on things, I'm afraid to leave her alone in the sidecar or on the bed before I head to bed or in the morning.

And we got keys to the new house! Spent the weekend painting. Tessa loves the big empty rooms to crawl in! Off to the States on Thursday (I can't believe it is so soon). I'm worried about the long plane flight, but there is so much to do between now and then I barely have time to worry. I suppose that is good :)

Hi pommes after struggling with my three door Astra for nearly 3 years we have just got a vw passat it's a fab car ample room for both DDs HUGE boot which easily accommodates my double pram and anything else I need to fit in very safe and lovely to drive happy car hunting!

Thank you both for the suggestions. We have the Quinny Buzz too Broody so that is really helpful to know; to squeeze the buggy into my boot at the moment we pretty much take the pram apart (wheels included!). Law I have told DP that there will be no more babies until we have a suitably sized car so I?m glad there are cars out there that can accommodate a double pram - I?m hoping for a car that will do us for at least four years so need to consider these things!

Callum?s bedtime is 8pm, Mad, and we go a couple of hours after. I tend to put him in the middle of our bed, with pillows either side for safety. My ?bedtime? is then when he inevitably wakes to scream find out where we are, this is usually by 10pm at the latest. We are both then usually woken for the day by DP getting out of bed to go to work at 7am.

How are we all going with weaning? Callum tried avocado on toast for the first time ? he loved it! Spaghetti bolognaise went down well last night too, he loves playing with anything ?stringy? (DP?s earphones included!).

Evening all,

It's been very quiet on here. How are all your babies doing?
I thought DD was going to get her first teeth last week as she was very grumpy, irritable and it appeared that the gums were being stretched by little white teeth. But nothing! I think they're retracted! I imagine it won't be long as she has been grumpier than normal. I'm hoping that they just pop out over night, but we won't be that lucky!

I've also even given my date to return to work so my maternity leave is going to come to an end . I think that I am actually slightly excited about going back as I will only be doing 2 days (I'll have to remind myself of that thought on the first day of nursery!).
Pommes I'm glad Callum is enjoying his food. Carbonara was very messy but fun in our house

Hello from the States! We've had a busy trip so far. Seen lots of people and I gave a presentation for work. Today is US Thanksgiving, which we're having with my Mum. Tessa has been really grumpy today, and I don't know why. She also has some jetlag, and tends to get very fussy around 8-9pm UK time. Although I think that is getting better, as it is only right now that she's getting happier today.

She's been a star of eating out -- lots of restaurant meals on the trip and I've gotten quite good at cleaning up the floor :) Only one outfit change required so far, when she grabbed for a water glass and poured it on herself. Poor LO looked quite shocked at all the cold water, but didn't cry.

When are you headed back, pink?

And, pommes, I hear you about the stringy things! Tessa has made a beeline for the electrical cords in every new room we've visited. Gack! I'm wondering if they are getting more desirable because I never let her reach them.

Hello all, how is everyone? How are all the babies?

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving Mad - Tessa can say she celebrated Thanksgiving as well as Christmas in her first year, that?s pretty impressive.

When do you head back to work Pink? Best of luck if it?s imminent. I start back in the middle of January and I am still actively trying not to think about it.

A friend of mine had a baby two weeks ago, Callum and I went to visit on Friday. Baby seemed so teeny and fragile that I can?t believe Callum was her size less than eight months ago. It really demonstrated to me how quickly they develop.

In the last week Callum has found out how to push himself into sitting position; he doesn?t do it the conventional stomach-crunching way but lies on his tummy, opens his legs into the splits and pushes up/backwards with his hands. When he?s upright and doing the splits he moves his legs in front of him and, hey presto, sitting!

I think I am starting to see very early signs of language acquisition too ? whenever he sees our cat he shouts ?gat, gat, gat? ? although it?s just as likely that I am mistaken and slightly too impressed by his nonsensical baby babblings. Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

Sleep is still awful ? we woke about four times last night and he refused to drift back off unless he was still latched on, making sleeping somewhat uncomfortable for me!

Hi all.
I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving. I bet you're feeling Christmassy now!

I've just found out from work that I return in the middle of January so not that long to go. I don't feel ready for nursery yet but I know Izzy will love it. She's so nosy that the constant entertainment from other children will keep her occupied.
We've had a busy developmental week. She started waving on Wednesday, got her first 2 teeth on thursday and started making more definite babbling noises on Friday. Thank goodness she's caught up a bit as we've got her 9 month review on Thursday (she will only be 8 months and a week so behind to start with!). I've not had her weighed since she was 16 weeks so it will be interesting to see how she is doing, hopefully not crept up too many percentiles!

We've had a few new babies arrive recently. It is amazing how tiny a new one is. Makes me broody for another... Then I remember how hard the first few months are and change my mind!

Ooh it's all very quiet on here. Is everyone ok? How's the Xmas prep going? Xx

Wow, it has been quiet! Glad to see your post, broody, or I'd wonder where everyone had gone.

I got back from the States earlier this week and found our phone and internet were out. Just got them back, and we move on Sat -- no internet in the new house until mid-Jan! (I guess they couldn't set it up over the Xmas season?) So I'll be offline again soon.

Tessa was a great traveller. We had a good time meeting lots of relatives, and she was a star at the wedding reception. She's actually been more difficult at home -- too boring, I guess :)

Hope everyone is doing well, and that Xmas goes well. We'll be spending it unpacking! Although we do have an artificial tree and so hopefully will put that up and get some 1st Xmas photos. (Not sure if we'll have a fridge by then, which might make Xmas dinner problematic...)

Great on the travel front! A few of our friends have recently taken their babies abroad and had good experiences of flying so I think we are off to Portugal in the spring. We need some sunshine! Pre Poppy, our hols were always quite exotic - hong kong, Bali, Borneo, Dubai, Monaco... - so we've definitely missed our sunny days this year. We have a log cabin booked for January in the lake district and we are looking forward to that, to get away and chill out for a few days.

Poppy is doing well. Food remains a constant source of happiness for her - she adores pretty much everything we put in front of her! Sweet potato mash, yoghurt, organix sweetcorn hoops/carrot fingers/tomato wheels (like crisps but not) are defo her top faves though. She is developing her inner diva though already and gets quite stroppy if we have yoghurt or rice pudding or the Plum bread and butter pudding pouch on the table and she wants it NOW not after she's eaten her main course. She will arch her back or whinge/whine til you give in and give her some. She will always go back to her main and finishes it beautifully but it's like she sees pud and wants it straight away. V odd.

I've not been great though tbh. Those 18 weeks of nighttime hell finally took their toll and I wound up with mild pnd. I had a major breakdown when I took poppy to be weighed at a drop in clinic, complete with tears and the shakes, and the health visitor was clearly very concerned about me. Luckily, the sleep situation has got better and so it's helping me to get back to my old self (well, Pre pnd, not proper old self pre baby!) and I'm starting to enjoy motherhood again. Most of the time.

Oh, I don't know if I mentioned this but very sadly, my dear horse died in July. It was a horrid time. Topped off by the suicide of a friend at work in August a few weeks later hey ho, life went on....

So how are you all fixed for xmas? Is anyone back at work? How's it going? And nursery/childcare - how are your LOs doing with it? Xx

Oh broody, sorry to hear of your PND :( Hope things continue to look up! I remember when your horse passed, but didn't know about the suicide. How terrible. I'm sure that stuff contributed, and I bet the sleep deprivation didn't help at all.

I took that Edinburgh scale twice -- the first time the HV gave it to me was the week a work colleague died unexpectedly and my friend with brain cancer passed away. Her cancer was a very aggressive type, so not completely unexpected, but when she'd congratulated me on Tessa's birth, her tumour had been static for 4 months and they had some hope. She'd only been diagnosed last July, so it felt for a while like everyone was dying suddenly and made me feel like life was very fragile. I was bursting into random tears. But having a happy new life around helped a lot.

We haven't moved yet! Not finished packing and the roads are flooding, too, so good excuse. We're going to give it a go again tomorrow. Did get the TV installed and working today, so we'll be able to watch all the Xmas specials :)

And I had best get back to packing....

I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of both of your friends, and your horse too Broody. How awful.

We've had an eventual week. Last Friday, our alarm (very fortunately) alerted us to a carbon monoxide leak - four hours in A&E and half an hour of oxygen through a tiny mask later we were discharged home. The emergency gas board switched off the gas, hot water and central heating which made for a cold weekend.

Callum has tonsillitis and his first course of antibiotics now. Des

Agh, pressed post too early!

..... despite being ill, Callum is still very much enjoying crawling and putting everything in his mouth. The poor cat is even more traumatised now that baby is so much more mobile. His sense of humour seems to develop by the day; imitating him coughing provokes the loudest giggles!

Extreme sleep deprivation, hormones, new responsibilities, body changes and the stresses/strains of everyday life are testing for anyone - Mother Nature roles them all into one after childbirth! I'm glad things are looking up Broody and hope they continue to do so.

Happy First Christmas to all of the babies!

Hi all, so sorry to hear about the PND and breakdown broody and about your friends both of you that's awful.
Fyfe is doing well, doing lots of new things which is just lovely. Very excited about Christmas. Hope you and your families have a good one!

Glad Callum is okay pommes!

Happy New Year! I hope all the babies had a lovely first Christmas!

Happy new year!
What new thing are your babies doing?

Happy new year all!! Hope all your christmasses were merry

Well Poppy is a real character now. Her personality is developing day by day and she has mr broody and I in stitches with her antics most of the time. This week has been a developmental biggie - she has gained her first tooth, started to stand independently (when holding on to my leg/the sofa) and then start cruising. Can't believe it, seems she's growing up so fast!

Im sure you have heard this tip before but just in case you haven't.... for those of you with friends or family you don't see often enough (that's gotta be many of us, surely?) but you want them to be involved with your babes... Print a photo of them and stick it on the side of an old tissue box and give it to baby to play with. They spend hours looking at the faces of their aunts/uncles/grandparents etc on the pix and so when they see them in real life, they'll be happy to play with them or be cuddled by them. It worked an abso treat for us today when we saw Mr Broody's brother and sister in law - previously, poppy has been v clingy and hates to go to her aunt but a week of looking at her photo, she had such a lovely time with her This morning we were so relieved!! And aunt had tears welling!!

Great tip, broody! We've been video-chatting with distant relatives, which I think helped a lot when we saw them in person.

Ack, we've been away from the internet for AGES! It's supposed to be installed on Wednesday (currently taking a quick chance to visit elsewhere). I can't believe how much I miss it.