April 2012 - little people who actually DO stuff now!!

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

Ta da

Oh wow beyond that's great.

newmummy I'm back to work in Jan doing 32 hours over 4 days. A will go to nursery 3 days per week and my mil 1 day. Ds1 will go to breakfast club and after school club and we will be poor for the next 4 years!

A is not doing much of anything. He's happy to roll around on the floor, spin himself 180 degrees, be fed by me and that's about it. I feel like I've neglected him the past couple of days with all the prep I've had to do for tomorrow and I was on local radio today to promote tomorrow and talk about the charity etc so poor A hasn't had any attention. Sunday I will be making it up to him with plenty of cuddles and playtime.

Love that beyond. A bum shuffler :)

jam good lick for Tuesday. Fliss hurrah fir application forms, how exciting

I have DD's cold. Urgh :( I wonder if I've got a tooth coming through

Lordy. Good luck, obs. Good lick indeed!

Fliss: good luck with the teaching!! I did History A-Level (many moons ago...) & loved it.

Another mover; great news Beyond!

Hug: you are Superwoman!!!! How on earth have you managed all that with a small child & a baby! Where do you get tour energy from? Well done, hope it's all going well,

We have 'Dada' & 'Baba' here! (Proud Mummy Emoticon please!). It started two days ago & I didn't believe Daddy...but all the way round Asda yesterday she 'Dada'd' constantly!

Holly: hope you're all getting better.

Off to do final prep for DD1 & DD2's joint birthday party...25 hyper children......wine is top of the shopping list for later ;-)

jelly wine would be on mine too. I'm exhausted now! We made £245 which is amazing but I have a ton of cake left :).

Wow - hug - that's amazing!! (double whammy too, eh!)

Fantastic Hug!! Well done....does cake go with wine ;-)

A wee query ladies...naps/routine/milk/solids... What do your LO do now? DD is pretty haphazard re naps. I'm a bit worried that our busy schedule of school/helping out at MIL/shopping (though just extras as DH brill at helping with this) & DD1 & 2 dancing/gymnastics etc is causing this! I'm still BF on demand & still doing 1 night feed & starting day 06.00-06.30. Bedtime is 21.00, so it's a looong day when I'm still feeding at night. Daytime naps today were 30-40 mins 3 times. She wakens screaming every time! I do sometimes wait a bit to see if she'll go back over but usually she doesn't. I keep waiting & hoping for a REGULAR long nap that I can plan to do things during AND a sleep longer than 4 hours (PLEASE!!!??). I'm not fussed on the idea of forcing a routine on Em, but if I'm actually hindering her develop one then I'd try to sort that.

Did any of you 'encourage' a routine?

Hi Jelly, we also have an older child with a school run to do ,activities etc to take him to so DD has to be flexible. There's a sort of a routine to the day though which goes like this : gets up 6/7 am ,breakfast(porridge , milk), school run, milk around 9/10 am , nap , lunch around 12/1 pm + milk , nap, school run, dinner around 5pm, milk , bed normally 6/6.30 pm . Wakes up for a milk normally once a night around 11/12 then sleeps until morning 6/7. Has slept through too but is now having a growth spurt I'm sure and she's not eating too much at mealtimes yet so we have a while to go until she stops waking up... DS slept through consistently from about 9m.I've never followed a minute schedule with either child but have created a some sort of routine from an early age. Because I had to formula feed both they were having a good amount at a time at regular intervals and always seemed happy with that . The length of her 2 naps is not set in stone though. It depends on if we're home when she'll normally sleep longer, or out and about when she can wake up easier. Since my older one is at school in the aft i try to have a little nap myself if i have time or at least a bit of a break...DD also often wakes up screaming so thats normal.

DD is getting into a sitting position by her self :) and crawling everywhere !

Oh wow nordic. A finally put weight through his legs. I still have to hold him up by his middle not his hands but its an improvement. He's still not sitting (other than for a few seconds) or crawling though

jelly our routine does very coz of bf on damand, and she is dropping alot of feeds now!

DD wakes at 7/730am no bf if bf early hrs! just porridge/musli at 8/830am. Then morning nap at 930/10ish its normally between 45m-2 hrs. Then lunch at 12ish solids then a nap around 1pm again for 45m-2.5hrs then a bf when she wakes! Sometime a small half hour nap at 4-5ish if tired! Then tea solids at 6ish, bath at 7-730 then bf then bed at 8pm. Wake up's at night normally are 1am and 4am. But can change! Sometimes just once. I Try not to bf on last one and push till morning the bf at 6/7am. :)

This is only if I'm at home in the day, if out naps at different times. But try to do solids at the same time!

She's been kind of half sitting by herself , lounging really while leaning on to one arm for a while now and I thought one day she'll push herself upright . Today while playing one minute she was on all fours and when I next looked she was sitting:). Didn't see her do it. It's funny how they just learn things at their own pace . Even though its not my first child it still surprises me and is exiting. She's real trouble now . Into everything naughty, so curious . Not that interested in her own toys but investigating everything in our house. I'm forever moving her/things and telling her no. She looks at me when I say no and stops but often after a while goes for it again, she just can't resist.

She sounds like loads of fun Nordic :)

No crawling here yet. Fine by me as we're really no where near baby proofed! E is happy rolling around though. She'll tip herself forward while sitting and almost get onto all fours but then flops down on to her front.

Jelly our rough routine is (depending on what time she gets up):
7am up and BF
7.30ish breakfast (porridge, toast, fruit or yoghurt)
8.30 a pre-nap walk (weather permitting but of course we have a fair chance of it being ok, if cold)
9.00 nap (around 1-1.5 hours)
11.00 BF
12:00 lunch
13:30 nap (usually around 1.5 hours)
15:00 BF
17:30 dinner
18:30 bath (not every night), story, BF and bed
19:00 asleep (hopefully!)

And then sometimes one wakeup at around 3am. Sometimes none. Sometimes more BF during the day too if she needs it (she usually has a few mins BF before naps but I've only put the "full" feeds above). The schedule is completely flexible and she'll nap in the car/pushchair if we're out but for less time.

I guess I did encourage this pattern to a certain extent but only from about 6 months and that was after figuring out when she was naturally napping. It means I can plan my days based on what time she wakes up and I know things around lunch time are usually okay. Except when she decides to do a 3 hour nap and that messes it all up .

Well I cursed it by writing that post. Been up & down with Em for last two hours (now 2.45am). Something going on with poor love: pain? developmental? cold?

Routine, eh?? We are rubbish at this and need to sort it out slightly - but our lives run by more of a weekly schedule than daily. We get up at different times each day (never early!) sometimes it's 7.45; sometimes it's 9.30.

This bit us in the arse yesterday as Bill decided he was really tired at 6pm, having slept for about 3 mins all day! I fed him, we put him to bed...and he didn't settle. Tried shushing, patting, singing, feeding, hugging, nappy changing - everything!! He eventually fell asleep, on me, post feeding, at about 10.25pm.

Nothing wrong with him other than he didn't want to sleep !

Fortunately he then slept straight through till 8.30am but I've said to DH that maybe, at the least, we should try to get up at a consistent time in the morning and have a proper breakfast time to be completed by 9 at the latest.I have a feeling our shocking morning routine may be part of the reason DS struggles to nap so much. We are not 6.30am risers (although from February we will be up at 6.15 every day)

Quite embarrassed writing this. I hope I'm not the only slovenly mother on MN.

hen not at all! Do whatever works for you. Our wake up time can vary from 6.30 to 8.30 and the day adjusts from there.

We might have a routine but I've been up every hour with Em since 1am (now 5.30). Poor love is not happy.

Oh poor little Em...and poor mama!

Poor you and poor Em :(

Our day has always started 7.30 latest just because if we don't I ant squeeze all of DD's bottles in before she gets crabby at 7.30pm!

I'm struggling at the moment with solids and milk and how much of what and when. It's so bloody confusing. Bah.

Holly, I read that once they are on 3 meals a day they should have about 500-600 ml a day but DD is still having an extra 150ml on top of that because she keeps on waking once a night since she isn't eating enough solids yet. She normally has a breakfast of porridge and then a bottle in the morning around 6/7 am, a bottle around 9/10am , lunch 12/13 and then a bottle and dinner 16.30/17 and then a bottle at bedtime 18/18.30. I have cut down from having a couple of ounces more of milk at a time to move on to more solid food and she seems to be eating increasing amounts .

Thanks hen and holly - she's been clingy but has at least managed to nap today so hopefully we won't get a repeat of last night. Just been to the park and had lunch with a friend who has an 8 month old. I'm hoping that wore her out so she'll have a good sleep now!

Aw poor wee Emily Vintage: and you. Is she possibly cutting another tooth? We're still having disturbed nights; generally 1 feed (down at 21.00ish/up at 2/3ish & 6ish for the day), but lots of crying in her sleep & a bit of dummy replacing. I do worry that I'm creating potential problems by racing in to her quite quickly, but it's partly instinct when I'm half asleep & partly cos I don't want the older two girls disturbed.

Thanks for sharing your 'routines'; it's really interesting to see what all the babies are at! Henrietta; 'slovenly', not at all!! Baby has to fit into your lives, so whatever works to make you happy as a family! Hope the finger's ok?

Well done baby Nordic!! Emily loves sitting up & hasn't been keen on tummy time for ages now. So no crawling/pushing up to sit here.

Oops! Just conked out & dropped the phone on my nose. Time for sleep! Gave Em a 'dreamfeed' at 23.45 cos I was at work today & missed 2 feeds. So, as an experiment & to relieve my poor boobs, I fed Em in her sleep. Wondering if I might get 5 hours???!!! Fingers crossed!

A up and ready for my first KIT day.

I dont want to go.

You can do it jam. I found the thought of it worse than actually doing it. Good luck!

Fingers crossed all goes well jam,

I'm so glad im off this Christmas, I've never not worked, being in retail. We normally work up to Xmas eve we just 1/2 days off! Can wait to spend some family time/ Christmas shopping and time with dd! :)

Dd is doing so much crawling everywhere, getting pretty quick now, she cries sometimes when I leave the room. Now she waits by the stair gate, its pretty cute!
She is cruising round the furniture and today pulled herself up from sitting to standing! Can't believe what she is doing! She also crawls for a bit then sit up. And she took a few step with a baby walker/ holder thing.

I love having her do these things early but I feel she is growing up to quickly! :(

A is babbling like a goodun. He can say dada clearly and hiya. He waves, is finally putting weight through his legs (but not fully) and rolls all around the room. It's like things have all of a sudden clicked.