October 2011 - my, oh my, how the first years flew by!! It's birthday season!!

[MummyDuckAndDuckling]

So excited that the first birthdays are upon us! Will try get a copy of the stats..

just had a read of your other thread

wanted to say that my mum stayed with a husband for years (Was the younger siblings father) because she thought it was the best. In reality we (my siblings) viewed our family as a single parent situation and were just waiting for the split up which happened 8 years too late. They (well at least C) will know and even uprooting them (we've just moved ourselves and didn't feel bad for uprooting hem, DD has been having a great time and DS hasn't noticed) will be worth it and makes things better.

ok, my question of the day is how are you ladies getting the babies to go to sleep now? Are they all still either bottle/cup of bf?

More recently it's taking an hour+ to get P to initially go to sleep at bedtime, I know her teeth are hurting so that is distracting for her but if if she was 18 months (for example) what would/did you do then? Do you put them in their cot with some milk? Do they not just kick off? She is not really hungry so I am wondering how to get her to fall asleep without the feeding . Am I deluding myself

Ed could you change the mortgage to interest only and rent the house out? Rents are more than mortgages at the moment.

Climbing you climbed SIX mountains?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it is NOT your fault he turned to drink! Tell SIL to take off her rose-tinted spectacles about her brother.

climbing W has a bedtime routine that goes a bit like this - Bath (every other night), pyjamers put on in his room, read story, last milk drink offered (bottle), put in bed and popped/zipped into sleeping bag, give dummy, say night night and turn off light, leave room. Sometimes he'll sleep straight off, sometimes he'll move a bit, chatter etc but we leave him unless he becomes upset, if that happens we go back in offer bottle again and replace dummy if he's dropped it and that's usually enough to settle him unless he's ill when it can take a bit more. ( W has always been a fairly good sleeper tho so I don't know how much is what we do and how much is him)

chesh yay tooth

ed I can't really give any advice but stick with what you want to happen (and tell his family to but out!)

Mhairi has bath most nights then pjs on then she hears a story well C gets a story while M plays on floor with toys then we go into her room where her bear plays lullabies while I give her a bottle, she usually gets a bit dozy by the end of the bottle but is still "just" awake then I put her down and leave and she goes to sleep.

I've tried her with cows milk a cpl of times in her cup and she doesn't seem interested

I asked about changing the mortgage to interest only before I finished on may leave and the bank refused unless a suitable payment vehicle was in place (which we don't have) plus it would really anger and annoy me to pay an inflated rent to someone else when I have a perfectly good house of my own that is cheaper and is already "home" iyswim.

ed sorry things are tough with H. I think he's calling your bluff as you've given in so many times before. If you stick to your guns and start looking for a place for you and the children to live (but realistically find somewhere that he could also afford) then say you're moving out with children and leaving him paying x on mortgage (which he can't afford) play up the kids moving etc. and the stress and worry. Then hopefully he'll realise he should leave you there and move out as you're going to be living separately whatever he does. (Sorry long winded and a bit garbled hope you see what I mean?) xx

Cheshire yay teeth! Loved the cake on fb

Climbing as always in awe of your exercise (mountains!)

Happy birthday to all those I've missed xx

Pah! Strawberry and Ed P's bedtime is go on the potty, read, top and tail bath whilst kicking off/trying to remove things from the wall/arching her back/telling the neighbours she is being attacked etc, pi's on, general distraught hysterical-ness, bf, sleep < I drink wine > I hate doing bedtime, she is so calm in the mornings but since I went to work DH does the mornings now :( Why are your bedtimes so calm sounding

I did try and alternate between warmed cows milk and bf tonight and she did have 2oz's in her cup (and thought it was hilarious) but still mostly had bf. I will try again tomorrow.

Sighs < can only aim for a nice sounding bedtime as other babies have >

Ed I meant rent somewhere smaller/cheaper though and then rent your family home out. What about a guarantor so the lender lets you change to interest only? Although Pebbles idea is good.

Ed I don't have any advice but can do hang in there. And have a .

Cheshire You're not alone. Seb is sometimes calm and sometimes not at bedtime. Often we get him dried/changed in stages, with him playing and crawling about in between which helps. We always have noisy toys around now to distract him. It works for a while... . Could she be overtired by then? Have you tried bringing bedtime forward?

Seb's been back in our room for a few nights. He was sick all over the place at 4am and 2:30am on Sun and Mon night. We got through two lots of sheets and three sleeping bags and he ended up in a 0.5 tog with blankets on top as it was all we had left! We brought him back to our room to keep an eye on him as one night we put him back down and he was sick again lying down and was chocking on it. 'Twas slightly scary. He's been off his food since then as well, although seems to be a bit better today. Proper sick is nasty!

Quiet here!!

Not much happening with us.. Took S to be weighed on Wednesday so I could mark in her baby book her weight and height at one year old. She is 23lbs 4oz and 73cm tall . HV was very impressed with her cloth nappies!! Said she is the only baby she has seen wearing them . Went out today and bought her her first proper walking shoes. Totally grudge the prices in Clarks so went to brantano and got her lovely ones there for £16. She got lots of money from her great gran for her birthday so I was told by her to use that. Want to get her some boots next month so the shoes will do for now. She's a tiny 3 1/2. Awww

Right, mummy and baby play date is in my house tomorrow so I've got cleaning to do.

Hope all goes well with your wedding and E's birthday littlepebble. Have a wonderful time. Can't wait to see a photo of you all when your home from Italy

Poor baby S tally . You must have got such a fright!!

I'm here and not at all drunk

Sorry to post and run but have a quick question...

Have just bought M's first pair of proper shoes (and nearly fainted at the price....60 euros for a pair of Clark's shoes Everyone always told me that kdis shoes in NL were really expensive, but I didn't quite realise how expensive till now. Same pair would be 20 euros cheaper in the UK. Will be stocking up in the UK in the future). A colleague has also given me a bag of old shoes/snowboots/wellies from her youngest and was planning on using them for M as well (need to check the sizes), especially as extra pair to keeo at nursery and get covered in mud . MIL has just sternly told me that I should never give M 2nd hand shoes to wear as it's very very bad for his feet.

What do you guys think?

I'm on holiday but not on holiday iyswim pen but don't worry, it's raining here too!

Started my half term yesterday, just picked up M's cake for his bday party tomorrow.

Oh and Duck got M's feet measured yesterday (at 2 different shoe shops just to be sure) and he's 22 which is a uk 5 and a half!

ed Sorry things are so stressful for you right now. My only advice would be to stick to your guns re: separation/divorce. You're not happy anymore with DH. If he won't leave then get out of there. Even though in the short term things may be shit - in the long term you're giving yourself a chance to be happy.

Going to put M up for his nap now and then tidy my house to IL Dutch standards

have a good weekend everyone.

engels S first little per walker shoes were 2nd hand from a friend who's girl had only worn them for a few months. They were in perfect condition so I thought why not. I don't know about them being bad for there feet but I wasn't going to pass up the chance of them. I think if you go by your own judgment, If its just a pair that are going to be used in nursery and most likely end up muddy I don't think it's a bad idea. I plan to keep a hold of the shoes S grows out of if they are still in good condition. It would break my heart just to throw away shoes that still have plenty wear in them that I thought the next sibling could wear or a friend could make use of

DD has had loads of second hand ones. When we in CA, they didn't even measure feet and recommended against. Said to just try them on and see. tbh even with brand new measured ones, most people don't realise they've outgrown until they have really outgrown them so they've been badly fitting for a while.

I think the school of thought is the child can't mould the shoes themselves but then what about harder shows like wellies? I wouldn't go for a battered pair but if they look in good nic then I would/have done.

I would have though good second hand shoes would be fine like everything else at this age they must get worn for such a short space of time before they outgrow them.

tally how's S now?

Just had to take S up to hospital. Poor little girl woke up from her nap earlier and was covered head to toe in a rash! All over her face and body. Was huge big spots though, almost like blisters so it threw me as to what it could be. NHS advised straight to see doctor. Gave her piriton then headed up. She suspected just an allergy to something she's ate, but I'm clueless as to what. Only thing she's had today different from normal was a few sips of fruit juice, but she's had orange before so who knows! It was going down as we got there but she gave us some cream to apply anyway. Got such a fright!! Have been meaning to buy a bottle of piriton for a while to have 'just incase'. Cue mad dash by papa to asda to buy some for her! All fine now though, we are back home and she's snuggled up having a sleep on me

Exactly what I thought ladies. Different if they're being worn all day everyday once they're in school, but M wears slipper socks at home so his shoes are only for 2 days a week nursery and when we go outside.

Think I was more annoyed at the way she put it. Just had a discussion with DH about how stern sounding Dutch is - MIL basically said "You must not....." and also called me "girl" which I find incredibly patronising, but seems to be something older people here say when speaking to the younger generation and maybe I should be grateful that at the age of 31 someone still thinks of me as a girl. The Dutch language is not very diplomatic and neither are the Dutch

x-post Duck Amazing how quickly these things can come on. Hope she's better soon. x

Aww poor S, glad she seems to be feeling okay again now, fx. Sometimes P eats stuff that makes her face a bit blotchy but within 30 minutes it's back to normal.

We bought P some shoes from Next Engels for £6. There are not pram shoes but not full on hard school-type-shoes iykwim. We just put a few different sizes against the sole of her feet - it was all very technical .

They are similar to these - but Poppy's are less girly (think they might be boys shoes actually!)

www.next.co.uk/x504856s3#769430x50s3%20-%206%20mths?i=3to6mths

Tally I hope S is feeling better

Happy Birthday to Baby Bilb and Baby Engels in advance.

Actually what date is Baby Climbing, he seems to have dropped off the list :)

he was on thursday but party tomorrow

yeah somehow he didn't make the list, nor a edited version.

DS has joined the poorly club, hope you are over your shock duck