December 2011 - they'll soon be one, put away the <haddocks> and bring out the bunting!

[seven77]

I loved kate's thread name but thought we needed a birthday theme for this one. We'll soon have 6 weeks of birthdays to celebrate!

Pleased to hear your Nan is feeling a bit better DSM

Welcome back Air. I hope things have calmed down for you since the bonfire traumas.

I got DS weighed today. He's now 22lb 12oz and still tracking approx 80th percentile. I was relieved to hear that because he's still pretty rubbish at eating, but I guess he must be getting enough on average!

It's DH's birthday tomorrow, so I baked a cake today for DD to help me decorate when she got back after nursery. I think it's going to taste a bit ropey though, because I completely forgot I'd put it in the oven and it was in for 40 mins rather than 20. I've got so scatty since I had the kids

for the promotion MissRee

Hope the cake doesn't turn out too bad Kate

Speaking if weigh ins, my Mum took Freya to clinic yesterday for the first time in 2 months! She now just over 16lb and still following the 25th perfectly

Firstly, congratulations MissRee, that's brilliant! Doing 379 people's jobs obviously worked out for you ....hope it comes with a pay rise? And you have my sympathy about having the implant removed...I had mine done with a hangover, so it made me feel sick.

Nowhere near as bad as the inserting of it though: although it didn't hurt, as I bruise easily I looked like someone had put my arm through a mangle!

how's it going?

You're OK giving cow's milk from 6 months in things Bee, and then from 12 months as a drink, so if your DD is coming up 12 months I'd say you'd be OK...I think you're also meant to knock it down to 300ml from 600 at 12 months, anyone know?

Hope you're feeling a bit better and ready to ttc AWCH; a mc is such a horrible thing to go through, so glad you've booked the holiday. Not that it 'makes up' for it, but it's good to be able to treat yourself.

Hope mopsy and Octoboy get well soon.

DS fell asleep in the car when he and DP picked me up. Didn't harm his appetite though, three mini naan filled with houmous, tzatziki and guacamole, half a humzinger, some banana, a yoghurt and half a plain biscuit!

No shower for 3 days? Eh?

They had to root around a bit to get the blasted thing out so I think I have more steri-strips than normal. They said no shower for 3 days and then cling film it until Tuesday!

I have a dead arm as DS has finally conked out after a ninety minute whingeathon (teeth again). You could use his cheeks as nightlights :(

Fingers crossed I can put him in the cot without him waking....nnngggg...

Hope the sinus/tooth pain is improving mopsy...

Evening everyone. Just quickly marking place on new thread (wrote plaice automatically first time!). Can't believe the babies are nearly one. Freya has had a couple of months of shocking sleep due to illness and teeth, but (touch wood) the last few nights have been a bit better again. She is beginning to cruise and is a cheeky monkey - into everything and just smiles and laughs if you say no!

Good luck to all ttc no 2. I am very happy with two and no desire to add further to the family!
Sorry to those feeling ill and ill babies and grans too.

Really hope you have a bath MissRee, eeeeek!

I've remembered the random question I wanted to ask everyone- Xmas trees. What do you do when you've got a one-year old who'll just go over there, get pine needles in his feet, eat a glass bauble and then electrocute himself for good measure?

Have you all got places you can put them out of reach; can you fence them off; or is it as I suspect and we just can't have one for a couple of years?

This is really taxing me!

We will be putting ours on a table! We won't have a real tree and instead will be settling on a real wreath for the front door and I'll stand outside sniffing it

(Yes we have a bath )

Oops. Just summonsed upstairs by a plaintive voice wailing "mumm, I been sick in my bed"... Cue a poorly DD2, who fortunately only had a small puddle on her pillow. Come mr Calpol, you are needed...
tomorrow's work is gojng to be a juggle methinks...

Christmas trees northern: we had a one-metre rule: anything below one metre in height is plastic and/or chewable. So our few glass baubles were right at the top (or stowed away for another year). Oh and if you get a real tree splash out on a cast-iron base, it makes them nearly impossible to pull over. Use fairy lights with the flex right at the back so they can't getto the extension lead. Get a non drop flat needle version so the needles aren't too pointy. And consider some fake shiny presents at the front to divert attention from the real ones!

Xmas tree and baby my plan:

1. fake tree

2. wooden or cloth decorations

3. led lights so the dont get hot

4. repeated "no dont tought" and remove baby and distract with sonething she can have

5. last resort put baby in play cage for most of December

Things are going ok with DP at the moment. We have talked a lot and have managed to get as far that its more his problem with him rather than a problem with us. I think a lot is to do with him dealing with his guilt of seeing DS everyday and not DSS.

I think Christmas tree is going to have to go somewhere out of reach or not go up at all, or I will spend most of December running in circles after DS. He is stubborn and not easily distracted from what he decides to climb!

Well done on the promotion missree!

We'll buy a non-drop tree this year, and it'll have to go in the hallway anyway, we don't have room with the playpen in the front room. I often shut the front room door when we're in there so she can't escape as I'm mean. I love Christmas, and it's not Christmas without a tree. Plus I don't think DS would appreciate it!

Ah christmas trees - what to do... We always have a big real tree, with all lovely prezzies underneath. But it would be impossible to keep BOi at bay. He's so stubborn, and just like yours jiggle, I say No strongly, he smiles and carries on, I say No a couple of hundred times more, he smiles and then does something else that he knows is naughty. I'm so glad it's not just mine that tests the waters like this. I was worried that there'd be no taming him.
Maybe a tree, with a fireguard/fence around it like they have in shopping centres?
air you could put the tree in the playpen!
BJR that certainly sounds plausible that it's guilt-related due to not seeing DSS. Does he accept this is a factor? If so, he'll be less likely to go back to wanting you to leave. - He now has to start to cherish what he has. Good luck.

We're not bothering with a tree this year (rabbit climbed the old one a few years back & tipped it over), Northen IKEA sell a this bit of cloth with a tree printed on it, you could pin it on the wall & then tac decorations onto it?

If it weren't for the lifetime Ikea ban in this house we'd get one of them.

Congrats MissRee!!
Aethel, hope you had a good night & DD wasn't up all night.
SMS, hope you've had a good night?

Bee, the official guidelines is no to cows milk before 12 months (looking into it, they've done studies which suggest those on cows milk before 1yr are more likely to have anemia or have lower iron levels), although looking through many forums etc it seems some babies go off formula milk before then & people swap over anyhoo.
DS is on 4 bottles (840ml/28oz but he's not taking it atm) & 200-300ml of water a day, he took the whole 210ml of full fat really well yesterday (he's self feeding with the sippy cup now) & he slept through the night...until 0700!? Wake up time is normally 0530!

AWCH are those guidelines about no milk before 12 months referring to switching from breast/formula to cows milk as their main food/drink source? I always assumed it was fine to use in food (porridge/cereals etc) provided it didn't interfere with breast/formula intake.

I hear what you're saying with the DSS guilt BJR. DP has felt it too since having Freya. I think in our situation it's slightly different being a boy/girl combo. I fear there would be more sibling rivalry (as such) had Freya been a Fred. Is there any chance you could have DSS more often? Do you have him every weekend? I think that makes a huge difference for us as its not that much different to the time we spend with Freya after factoring in working etc.

DS is currently at his second settling in session at nursery. I'm trying to keep busy! He had first session last week and it didn't go well - he refused his bottle, refused tea, and cried for most of the two hours. He was playing quite happily today, but once again burst into tears the instant I left the room. I know he'll settle eventually, and will benefit from it. I've been through it all before with DD, but it's not stoppping the mum guilt

We'll be having real (non-drop) trees again this year. We have two - one in the lounge that I decorate classily, and one on the landing that DH and DD can decorate more 'colourfully'! We've been lucky with DD so far. She was 8months old and immobile for her first Christmas, and 20months old and understood the meaning of 'don't touch' last year. I think this year with DS will be more of a challenge. As aethel said, I put anything more breakable up out of reach. I also learnt last year that chocolate decorations were a bad idea with DD around

Fake tree here as real ones make me snizz >_< I'll probably end up suspending it from the ceiling:o

We had a real tree last year for the first time and I bought all felt decorations from Cox & Cox in anticipation of this year's one year old toddler shenanigans! I had enough time between the beginning of mat leave and giving birth that I actually planned for stuff like this. Thank goodness because otherwise we wouldn't have any decorations at all this year - too much going on!

After a lovely British citizenship ceremony in the afternoon, I got almost no sleep last night - watching all the blogs, US networks etc and pressing F5 F5 F5 to get the updated voting scores. Massive relief at 4am when it was called for Obama, and so much good news in the Senate and ballot initiatives. Amazingly the state where I vote, NH, now has NO male politicians at the national level - two women senators, two women representatives and a woman governor!! All Democrats except one who is a lunatic Tea Partier - sadly she wasn't up for reelection last night and we won't get a chance to throw her out until 2016.

As an aside I'm so pleased Obama mentioned a warming planet in his acceptance speech as something he would deal with in his next term - for the sake of all our children, THANK GOD a US president is finally willing to speak out about climate change.

Fake tree here. real ones make us sneeze. A tree will be going up and Sky will NOT touch my tree!

So proud of my bean she is going on 4 singing gigs 3 xmassy ones at local Xmas lights on nights and her big gig at Portsmouth Guildhall. %23Proudmummy

I was keeping tabs on the election through the night feeds last night, was happy at four when I saw it was all over bar the capitulation from the Romney camp. I've been buying papers today for a friend who is a politics geek but working out east. Will grab the US imports tomorrow then will be shipping them out at the weekend for her.

Better day for us: dD has settled down and no more barfing ,phew). dS still teethy but not upset by it today. We'll see how the night goes.

Hope your nan is ok air.

is it just me or is it blooming freezing out there??

Oooooh, thank-you everybody for all the ideas!

The one person at work I asked just said that her little boy never went for anything, wasn't interested in shiney stuff and would respond to 'don't touch!' so not a great deal of help there, seeing as (like lots of others) DS's entire existence is based around crawling off, poking, fiddling, grabbing, investigating and generally not stopping.
Oh, and poncing food like a champ

I think we'll get a smaller one, non-drop, on a table, and felt decorations (or similar) for the lower levels. Then lots of cheerful Xmas decorations through the house.

Thanks for the link AWCH- I too refuse to go to IKEA though. I'd avoided it for 30 years, went once, swore never again. I'll send DP if we ever need it, but it's one of the circles of hell as far as I'm concerned.... We did get the high chairs from there on the recommendation of people here and all of the rest of Mumsnet, so I suppose they're not all bad.

Very glad to hear about the bath MissRee and hope the arm isn't giving you too much gyp? Are you going to celebrate your promotion? I'm giving DS full fat milk in cereal and similar, think it's fine.

Glad things are OK at the moment BJR, and hope they improve. By the way, what happened with the nursery, as you were getting some grief there- did they buck up?

Sorry to hear you're suffering on the baby settling front Kate; at least you know it will get better, but I know it's cold comfort at the mo.

What an amazing day for you Xiao! How did the ceremony go? I guess you'll have just missed out on voting, having become British just now, or did you squeeze an early vote in? I too have been following it v closely- my degrees are politics/IR- and was very, very relieved this morning.

We're just bloody busy at the moment, we're one week off the big change at work and we're all collapsing under the pressure. We need to double the size of the office at least to cope with what's needed, and it looks like we'll get cut further But just have to keep on going, can't let myself worry about what might happen.