March 2005 part 5 - Can't believe they're almost 1!

[busywizzy]

This time last year, we were all enormous, waiting for them to arrive - now they're almost 1

Sylvia took her first steps on her own today!!! We were at a LLL gathering, DS was there too (half-term) so he got to see her as well. She tried a few more for DH at home.

Leo - I haven't heard about the job in Geneva. They said it can take up to 5 months to decide, though. I've applied for 8 jobs in total, the others in London.

Hi girls, its serenas birthday on the 21st feb, cant belive its almost here. really i cant.

she is sleeping better, but feeding more lol. hasnt been well the last week so is purely on breastmilk whilst her stomache settles.

We went for an 'assessment' (no idea on the correct terminology) today at a modelling agency. they are very interested in serena, and have said to contact them if we wish to proceed. I am dithering purely for the thought of going into london regularly scares me somewhat (i used to do it all the time, but not with kids in tow and not by myself). But Peter is 100% for it, despite it meaning we can spend less with him if she gets called for castings etc. So will sit on it for a week or 2 and then decide.

Hooray for Sylvia - that's brilliant! I love it when they start walking. Alas, Freya is some way off it yet, but she is now standing on her own - albeit very tentatively and not for long before she loses her balance.

Popsy - Hope Harry is now well on the mend and that his checkup goes ok. What a rotten time for you.

Leo - How is Niklas coming along with his walking. Is he getting more confident now?

Well, we had a great time at Center Parcs. Really nice to spend some time together as a family (unfortunately it has meant that DH has had to work late tonight, and Valentine's too). Freya loved the water and had loads of fun. One pool was shallow enough for her to crawl round in, so it was nice for her not to have to be held all the time. DS1 was off down all the flumes, and his cycling really improved too.

I have been neglecting this thread recently and there is so much to catch up on!

Hope Harry is feeling better popsy - flaming GPs - why do they put everything down to a virus?

Grace has been a bit under the weather for the last 10 days - first with a cold and then the last two days has had an upset stomach - we had 4 dirty nappies before leaving for school this morning, but thankfully none since. However, she has been really off her food since she got her cold and doesn't even want any extra breastfeeds. Is fine in herself though - mostly jolly as ever, so I am not overly worried. Might take her to the clinic tomorrow though to check her weight (haven't been for weeks).

Despite the minor illnesses we had our best night ever last night - went to sleep at 6.30pm and didn't wake until 6.40am! Even then, I think it was only because she heard dd1 get up to go to the loo (I think the whole street heard her tbh ).

She's not been settling so well for her daytime naps though - whereas she used to go off without a murmur, now she starts to cry even before I've put her in her cot and it takes a little while to soothe her. Am hoping things will improve once she's fully fit again.

We don't have any words here yet, although she does say "mama" and "dada" I'm not entirely convinced that she knows what they mean. Sometimes she seems to direct them at the appropriate person but at other times it seems completely random.

No clapping or pointing either, although she does wave goodbye (but only when she feels like it!). Incredibly mobile though - has stood on her own a couple of times for a few seconds and is getting to grips with her push-along walker.

Oh - meant to say, welcome back munchkinsusie.

I often call Grace "munchkin" and every time I say it, I mentally say to myself "munchkinsusie" but I hadn't been able to remember where I got it from !

Leo - At this age they need about 500mls of dairy a day to get the calcium they need. Lauren has 175mls milk in the morning. About 100mls with her cereal. Usually some sort of cheese at lunch and yoghurt for her pudding at dinner. Then she has 225mls milk for bed. Happy to announce that her bottle is a thing of the past! Gave her a cup for the first time at bedtime last night and she didn't even blink. Glugged it back like there was no tomorrow. All her liquids are in an Avent 'sippy' cup by the way. Tried her with the Doidy cup and although she gets the idea, it still goes all over the place.
She is pushing her block trolley all over the place, but no steps yet.

Jambot - you sound v organised with Lauren's feeding.

Sylvia is still such a tiny baby. Thing is, I know she could eat more, but she hasn't got the patience. She just gets up from her chair (old high-chair, we lost the reins for it) and won't eat any more. I vowed not to start chasing her around the house with teaspoons of food - as I did with DS. Sometimes I do it because I forget. At least she tries all new food, DS still doesn't.

Misdee - good luck with Serena's modelling career, if you decide to go for it. I must say, you sound so brave for even thinking about taking your 3 into London and entertaining them for hours/days at a time for these shoots.

Wish me luck for today - i have two meetings at work.

Niklas slept from 7.30 to 4.50 last night, then had milk and back to sleep until 7 :O:O:O! Starting to feel as if I am catching up on my sleep finally and feeling much better again.

Misdee - the modelling sounds great, from the photos I've seen Serena is absolutely gorgeous. Would she make enough money to cover the costs of going ot London?
I also can't believe that Niklas is almost 1 - a week tomorrow !

Cristina - I am sure Sylvia eats as much as she needs, if she is happy and active its best not to worry about it, a good idea not to try ot force her to eat.

Niklas is walking really well now, but still not ready for shoes yet, he still loses his balance after a while. He made a big improvement the last few days while he has been well!
He has a disgusting habit at the moment of picking things up off the floor and putting them in his mouth. Leaves and stones off the ground outside, someone elses dropped chips in the Ikea restaurant...... ! Anyone got any idea when they stop doing this? I know some babies don't do it, and some like Niklas do it to excess!

Busy is quite this week, is she back at work?

Hello folks - HArry is definitely on the mend now.

He slept 7:00 til 10:30 - quick feed then til 3:20 - quick feed then til 6:20

what is that all about

I have to pluck up the courage today to give our childminder her notice since I am working two days in afew weeks. She has been with us for 3 years - ds1 loves her to bit, Harry not so much

She knows I have been unwell and have struggled since going back to work but I feel sick thinking about it!
Any advice?

i am shattered. serena kept waking up, so did dd1. dd2 (usually the worst sleeper) slept all night!!

the costs of getiing into london is 12.50 for a travel card. hopefully she will make enough to cover all costs and boost her trust fund and savings account a bit.

popsycal, must be hard telling your childminder. is ds1 at pre-school yet? what are you going to do on your days home?

ds1 goes to pre school on a morning
my mam or sister is having the boys when I work (bizarre arrangemtn til sept of one full day and 2 half days)
on the days i dont work i will be a mammy

Christina - eventhough Lauren is a big baby she also doesn't eat very much. Far less per meal than the recommended guidelines, and she hates being in her high chair. She's ok if it's finger food and she's distracted, but other than that she moans right throughout the meal. Loves chicken with banana and avo and also the mince I do which has rice and veggies combined with it. She's never refused any food I give her and is keen to try new tastes - just not very much at any given time. Only thing I've noticed she eats a bit reluctantly is egg, which is a bit of a pain for the future as there are so many nice, easy eggy meals that you can do. Hope she doesn't decide that egg is horrid - like her daddy!

my goodness, you guys can write alot in a week!

popsy - sorry to hear about harry, hope he's well on the mend by now. i just hate gp's, they always seem to think we're just worrying mothers and fob us off with a virus.

misdee - very interested to hear about serena and the modelling agency. like all mothers i beleive that amy is gorgeous and could be a model but have never considered doing anything about it! do you know how much she's likely to earn (ie is it worth the expenses?)

cristina - amy goes throgh phases with her eating, one day she'll eat everything in sight and then other days she'll eat hardly anything. i used to get quite worried about it but am managing to be more relaxed these days. i'm sure sylvia is getting enough, so try not to worry.

JoPG - i've never been to center parks but amy and i love the water so i could see it as a possible holiday. how long did you let freya stay in teh water? i mean, how warm was it in and out of the water so that she didn't get cold? and which one did you go to?

BonyM - amy is now refusing to daytime nap at nursery. at home she's having about 2 one hour naps, at nursery she's only having 1 half hour nap. last night she was therefore too tired to drink her bedtime bottle and she therefore woke up at 4 am demanding some milk. i'd forgotten how horrid the night waking is - my sympathies to all those who have to get up in the night. by the way, feel free to use munchkin - it has always been one of my nicknames!

jampot - impressed at the ease of your change of milk feeds. amy has been having her morning bottle sat in her high chair and out of a different sort of bottle/cup than usual, so i think tomorrow i'll try giving her milk in a sippy cup and see how she gets on. the problem i've found so far is that once the cereal gets presented she won't dink any more milk so we have to wait.

right, better get on.

Big hooray for Harry and Niklas for having better nights. Let's hope all our little angels are finally deciding to give us some decent rest!

Grace slept until 5.30am, had a good feed, but then wouldn't go back down like she usually does. We had about 35mins of screaming and yelling with both dh and I trying in turn to soothe her. Dh finally managed to get her off to sleep again and I had to wake her at 7.40am. Not sure why she has develpoed this resistance to going to sleep all of sudden. She yelled again this morning even before I put her in her cot for her nap but this time cried for less than a minute before calming down.

Jambot - Lauren seems to have adjusted to having her milk from a cup very easily. Grace has only recently started drinking a discernable amount from a cup - hadn't seemed too bothered previously. She is getting good with her doidy cup but I think it will be a while before she can be trusted to hold it by herself!.

Good luck with the modelling misdee, if you decide to go for it.

Popsy - try not to worry too much about telling your childminder you don't need her any longer (easier said than done I know). I'm sure she will understand, and after all, if you hadn'd had Harry, you would have had to give her notice when ds1 started school anyway. You must feel so much better though about only doing 2 days at work.

Have a good day everyone.

Popsycal - great to hear that Harry is on the mend and that you also had a better night sleep last night! Did you do anything different? Did he sleep in his own bed or with you? do you have another plan to get him to sleep better? I can understand re- the childminder, they really become part of the family don't they. But really great that you can work 2 days a week!

Munchkin - are you also working? How much do you work?

Misdee, sorry you've had a bad night . I think the modelling sounds like a great idea, a really good way to save some money for Serena's future.

Bonym - maybe Grace is just a bit unsettled because she has been ill. Maybe she is ready to reduce the daytime naps now.

I could swear that Niklas was trying to ask me where we were going this morning when we were getting ready to leave to drop him at the nursery. He kept shouting the same sequence of da da da da at me, and when I asked him if he wanted to know where we were going he replied something like dja! When I told him his face lit up and he was all happy and calm. He was really happy when we took him out of the car and left him there. We watched him sit down and start his breakfast with the other children, he was soooooooooooo cute I couuld have stayed and watched him all day ! I am so glad he seems to be so happy at the nursery. But do you think he will start to enjoy being there more than being with us !

Right, that's my sentimental waffle over, I really should try ot do some work this week !

Bony - Lauren isn't drinking her milk out of a proper cup. It's a 'sippy' cup. She's not very good with the 'big girls cup' yet, although she grabs it eagerly when I try her with it.
So chuffed! Lauren has started giving me kisses. Very wet open mouthed slobbers, but they are wonderful. It's only been in the last week that she has really started to show any signs of physical affection towards us. Comes for a short cuddle and touch before she's off again. Very sweet.
I think we should start our own March Babies modelling agency. Think we are blessed with a particularly gorgeous crop of babas. But suppose every post-natal group thinks the same!

wow doesn't time fly when your busy! At the mo DP has a form of dysentrey (sp) so i'm really busy and knackered! On the Caleb front it's his birthday on Tuesday and he's a real mummys boy, always hugging me and giving kisses. Likes to wave and say hiya, mama, dada, cat, dog and no!

Let us know how the modelling goes misdee and glad Harry is better popsy. JoPg we also go to Center Parks for along weekend in April, hope you have fun!

Niklas is not well again ! He has a bad cough and his breathing sounds like a steam train. Doctor says it is like asthma, gave him some homeopathic medicine but said he will have to have an inhalator/ventilator (???) if it doesn't get better! He has a high temperature again though, so we am worried he has an infection. How can we tell? Could the doctor miss it?
Popsy - didn't Harry have an inhalator(or ventilator) at one time. Did he just have a cold that had gone to his chest?
Its getting really tiring that Niklas is always ill. We just get him settled and sleeping well then he gets ill again. If it goes on for much longer maybe we are going to have to rethink our childcare arrangements !

Busy where are you? Are you back at work this week and too busy to talk to us? I hope everything is OK.

As birthday week starts next week I just thought I would add this in again !

Serena - 21 FEb
Caleb - 21 Feb
Niklas - 23 Feb
Sylvia - 1 March
Harry - 6 March
Lauren - 9 March
Iris - 9 March
Amy - 10 March
Freya - 17 March
Harrison - 18 March
Grace - 20 March

I was thinking of 3mummy today....

Yes Popsy, what happened to 3Mummy? Anyone heard from her on any other threads? Wonder how things are with her.
Sorry that Niklas is ill again Leo. Must be so upsetting, and as you say, almost impossible to get him into any routine.
Can't believe the birthdays start next week. What do you offer in the way of eats at a first birthday?

Glad that Caleb's doing so well, Calebsmum. Would be nice to see you here more often. Sorry about your DH. Hopefully he kicks the bug pretty soon.

I do a search on 3mummy every now and then and have found no sign of her. I hope she is ok .

I've finally got around to adding new pictures to the photo bucket :O!

Jambot - I am going to do simple food and was going to offer spaghetti bolognese (and salad) for everyone including babies (I would have made it baby friendly), but one of the mothers said that her baby (11 month old) couldn't eat it because she couldn't chew yet (!!!!), so now I plan to do a baby meal from Annabel Karmel which can be pureed as well and the spag bog. I am also going to make a normal birthday cake.

I'm off to bed!

Hello everyone

Glad to hear most of the babies seem to be on the mend but very that Niklas is poorly again Leo. What a worry it must be. I remember when DD first went to nursery, she picked up everything going for the first six months but then it all settled down and she became a super immune LO and never got anything. Fingers crossed that things get better for you all soon

Well, what a week we've had in the Busy household (hence no posting) DD has been on half term and this is my last week before going back to work so I wanted it to be nice and special and had all sorts of lovely things planned. Monday we went to Leo's (soft play) and did baking and made jewellry and Valentines cards for DH. But from there onwards, it all went to pot

Harrison has had an awful hacking cough that has got worse as the weeks progressed and has been having terrible attacks in the night that keep us all up for hours. Taking him to the doctors tomorrow as they think he has a bad chest infection and possibly croup Popsy, that's what Harry had isn't it - any advice about how to help and how long it might last. It makes me wince everytime I hear him coughing and he just cries and cries

On top of that, DD has come down with a nasty tummy bug and she's been throwing up all over the place and can't keep anything down. She's also got a high fever and has spent the last few nights in bed with me (when I haven't been up patting Harrison's back) whilst DH has been in her bed. Last night she was sick at 10.30pm, again just after midnight and again half an hour later, then Harrison woke up coughing and I didn't get him settled until about 3.30am. He woke coughing again just after 5, went back to sleep at 6, then DD woke at 6.30 feeing sick again I'm hoping tonight is better (at least for DD) as she hasn't been sick today. I'm also hoping that I won't have to wash anymore sheets tomorrow - my washing machine has been on overdrive this week with all the sick it's had to deal with.

Feel like a complete wreck through lack of (no !!!) sleep, worried they won't be better by next week when I go back to work and that my last week which I wanted to be so special, has been so problematic. Oh well, that's how it is sometimes.

On a brighter note, Harrison has well and truly mastered crawling (it's almost laughable isn't it when you're all posting about standing and walking ) and plays quite happily at opening and emptying drawers and pushing doors backwards and forwards - who needs toys eh

Still no words (seriously impressed by Caleb's vocabulary) but loveable as ever with all his kisses and hugs. He's also a demon at doing 'if you're happy and you know it' with the actions for clap your hands, touch your head and wave goodbye. He may be slow (big understatement) at physical devvelopment but he's a genius in all other ways He's so impressed with himself about knowing where his head is that he bashes his head madly whenever anyone looks in his direction

Right better get off to administer more medicine to two poorly children. Just before sign off - Popsy, so glad Harry's doing better and good luck with the childminder, Pidge, hope you have/had a great few days in Oxford and Jambot, food for 1st birthdays usually gets eaten by the adults so I'd cater for them if I were you.

Leo, thankyou for thinking about me. Made me smile for the first time in a few days

Right I'm off (sorry, really long post) - have a good nights sleep everyone and keep your fingers crossed that I get some. I don't want much as I'm not greedy but a few hours would be lovely

Oh Leo, we crossed posts. Just seen the piccies of Niklas - he is sooooooooooo cute and how gorgeous does he look in his little wedding suit

You're clearly a yummy mummy if you're doing Annabel Karmel for Niklas's birthday food My 'guests' are having sandwiches, grapes and raisins, all courtesy of Marks and Spencers I'm sure I'll be considered the hostess with the mostess though when they see how much alcohol I've got in - needless to say, I won't be dieting that day