August 2005 - they're on the move

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Here's the new place to chat about all our wonderful babies, while they still are babies.

Kate, sorry to hear about your nanny. But having your LO as a visitor must have meant a huge amount - my grandparents died when I was a toddler, but I know my parents said that visits from us were the most important thing in the last few weeks. I'm sorry for you, though.
Josey, it's mad about the BCG thing. There's a higher incidence of TB in the UK now than there has been for the past 50 years. My HV and Doc are both very cross about it - pure cost-cutting on the govt's part. You can pay for a jab in due course, if you're worried (and I think you have every right to be. Don't think family history means your more likely to succumb, but does go to prove it's worth taking steps against if you can.)
As for birthday plans, my MIL - organiser extraordinaire - is already trying to wrestle cake-making duties off me. I'm tempted to let her do it, but part of me thinks I'd like to do it myself for the first birthday. But I know her cake will be miles better than mine - she does it for a living. Bah! Tempted to buy wonderful cake from Kondiment & Cook and pass it off as homemade. That will wipe the smile off her face! LOL!

Hi there, I wonder if you would all mind me joining this thread? I have used Mumsnet since I was pregnant last year but have only just found this thread!

Bit of info, I had my first child on the 8th Aug 05- her name is Missy. I live in Dorset with Missy, my fiancee Martin and my choc lab Smitten. I am Nat by the way and am 26.

I went back to work when Missy was 6 months and work 3 days per week as Special Projects Manager for Dorset Police.

Missy has 4 teeth and is just about walking, not quite yet but she is almost there. She crawled backwards at 7 months and forwards from 8 months. She is brilliant with food and eats what we eat, she sleeps from around 7-8pm until 6-7am. But it wasnt always this good! She had cold after cold when she was really young and we had some terrible times! She also really struggled whilst her teeth came through. Missy has a really strong personality and certainly knows what she wants! I am a bit worried that she is living up to her name, a right little missy! She seems to have some madam tendancies, I just hope that this will change when I am able to communicate with her properly.

Has anyone been abroad with their LO's yet?

Everyone seems really friendly here!

Hi Nat777 Welcome! Love the name missy. We're thinking about going abroad at the end of october with ds to Greece when the weather is a bit cooler and we won't need to take a steriliser or bottles or worry too much about food etc. But at the moment we're just talking about it, seeing if it's possible.

So sorry kate about your sad news

Josey - your lo is cute!! I obviously didn't read it properly kipper!

For ds' birthday we just going to have a tea and cake party for him with family and close friends - just a little gathering. I think you should make the cake yourself cakehead, as it is special. I'm going to have ago, even if I do make a hash of it!

Hi Nat! Welcome to our lovely thread! Yes we're a lovely bunch. You and I must be the furthest apart- I'm NW Scottish coast.

Look down a bit and get a link to the stats thread, add your birth details (well, Missy's!) if you want to!

We're off to Canada in September. Are you planning it? Bit nervy about the time difference more than anything, but ds is a good sleeper so hopefully we'll survive it!

Look forward to hearing more from you!

ps Nat, my SIL has a college friend called Missy- apparently she is the "coolest" because of her name, they all love it. 'Tis groovy.

Hi Panicpants, thk u! Most people comment how unusal the name Missy is!

My Dad lives in lanzarote and really wants us to go over but I am soo nervous about travelling, what if she hates it and screams for 4 hours on the plane? Am also generally worried about Missy not adpating to things out there, I know I must sound a bit over the top just seems such a mission!

God I would love to bake Missy's first birthday cake, not sure I could do a very good job though!

Sorry to hear your news Kate. Welcome to the thread Nat and Cakehead. Nat, we took DS2 on a flight when he was 8 weeks old (he pretty much slept or fed through it) and in the car to France at Easter. We're driving back to France in a month and flying to Spain in October and I fully expect that flight to be awful. It wasn't until DS1 was over 2 before he was bearable on a plane - beforehand he just wanted to walk around and wriggle all the time, hating being stuck on our laps. Having said that, a flight is only a limited period of time, many kids take a nap (particularly if you time it right), you can take a stack of snacks & playthings, and it's worth it once you're there. We've never had a problem with the boys adapting to a new place - I would recommend going for it.

kate - so sorry to hear about your nanny. never know what to say to console people but i know this poem helped a lot when my grandad died. that was really sudden - whole family were staying together for christmas, grandad got ill 2 days after i told everyone i was pregnant and died of a heart-attack when he reached hospital. glad we were all together and had been having a good time with him just a couple of hours before. as you and others have said, its better than him being here and being ill - i never really saw him as old (at 75) and i'm glad i can remember him that way. sorry he never met charlie (grandads middle name), but at least that gave us something to hold on to and, as you can imagine, my nan thoroughly spoils her great-grandson! sorry to go on so long about this! as you can probably tell, i still think of him a lot but, as queenrollo said, try to laugh about the happy times - apart from the silly tears since i re-read that poem so i'll move on!

Nat - welcome, absolutely love your ds's name! i'm still petrified at the thought of taking ds on a plane - i just know he would find it all really exciting and want to explore! he's also in the habit of shouting really loudly when he's excited - not sure other passengers could/should put up with a couple of hours of that! we're thinking of visiting my aunts villa in spain over easter - hopefully he'll be a bit calmer by then! probably a very long shot but a friend from uni went to work for dorset police, i think in poole. he's called greg tucker - would be very wierd if you knew him!

cakehead/bramblina - my mum's organising a party for ds's birthday. we were going to go to a nature park on the actual day then go to her at the weekend. wanted to do it here but our families and close friends are just too awkwardly situated - mine are an hour away in essex and dh's are 5 hours away in devon, with our friends in bedfordshire. thought it would be easiest if the in laws stay with us then we all travel to mum for the party. at the moment my oven is out of action so it's looking like mum will be making the cake but i would love to do it myself - i think i will in future years as ds will be able to help (not sure that's the right word?!) me.

Thanks everyone, I think I am going to have to 'bite the bullet' and go and see my Dad. I am sure she will be ok, am just a bit nervous!

Kipper22- I dont recognise the name but there are a few thousand people who work for Dorset. I am going to be very nosey and look him up though!

Bramblina-I have added Missy's birth details to the stats thread, thk u. Am very jealous of your trip to Canada! Good luck with the LO and I would be really interested to hear how you get along.

I have a question for those with LO's who have teeth, are you all getting on well with brushing their teeth? I have been trying to brush Missy's since the first one came through, but she just hates it, closes her mouth and gets into a real state. Does anyone have any tips pls?

kate - so sorry to hear about your nanny.

Whereabouts in Canada are you off to Bramblina? I love Vancouver and have relatives there but we're not brave enough to take DS over yet... we're doing the UK holiday this year and next I would think and then perhaps we can venture further afield.

Nat77 - my DS only got his first tooth a couple of weeks ago. But he's fine about the toothbrush as he's been playing with toothbrushes and chewing on them for ages. perhaps get a toothbrush for her toy box? and encourage her to brush your teeth (or teddys) too? DS loves cleaning teddys teeth and has been trying to poke the cat in the face with the brush for the last few days!

Still no teeth with my LO, although we have a toothbrush to play with. Just lots of ferocious gumming. Any other August babies still awaiting their teeth?

My LO now has three words she can say -'woof', 'look' and 'up'. At least, I think that's what she's saying Not quite sure why she started barking before she started using words, but she did. We don't even have a dog...

Isn't it just the most interesting time now? We're having Missy-style temper tantrums too - mainly if something gets moved out of reach. And she's also started throwing herself backwards and going rigid when something's not going her way. Quite effective, actually. Might try it tomorrow in my 10.00 meeting at work.

Hi there everyone, welcome Nat! It is lovely to have new people joining us at this stage - I kind of expected the group to contract, not expand!

Ds is doing well - has really got in to the crawling now and is off investigating the whole house, so we are finally having to get round to baby-proofing. I think his second tooth is going to make an appearance around the same time as the first one (which is still only just peeping above the gum)as he is dribbling like crazy at the moment.

And I'm joining the ranks of the cotcrawlers - ds has worked out how to turn over and crawl about in bed so I spend a lot of time rescuing him and flipping him back again as he hates being on his front...argh! Thank goodness for grobags, at least they impede his progress

Suzi2- Thats some great advice re the toothbrush, thx so much will def try that.

Cakehead- I am seriously impressed re your LO saying 3 words! Wow!! Missy has been saying mamma and dadda for a while, but I am not conivinced that she actually knows what she is saying! She has also started saying 'uh oh' again I didnt think she knew the meaning, yet she says it when she has dropped something so maybe! LOL that you dont even have a dog! You have just described Missys little tantrums perfectly!

Cakehead LOL! You can have my dog if you want....

Ds also says oof, and will flex his muscles when prompted! Very cute!

Suzi we fly to Calgary, the drive about 3 hours over the border in to BC and my sister has a ski lodge in Fernie beavertail lodge . She used to live in Vancouver. It's a 10 hour drive away, we'd love to go there too.

suzi, just remembered to ask dh about the curry - he has dictated the recipe:

1 lb of chicken breasts
medium sized onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 inch fresh ginger, finely chopped/grated
1 tablespoon medium curry powder
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 knorr chicken stock cube
1/2 pint water
1 tablespoon cornflour
4oz raisins
1 small tin crushed pineapple
200g natural or greek yoghurt

Finely chop onion, fry in a little oil. Add finely chopped garlic and ginger. Mix in the curry powder, add chopped chicken breasts, fry for a couple of minutes. Add in the tinned tomatoes, raisins and pineapple. Chop up the stock cube and add in. Add the water and let it simmer for 30 mins. Thicken the sauce with a tablespoon of cornflour mixed to a paste with cold water. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in yoghurt, and serve. Bon appetit!

(this is enough for four adults btw so you can freeze some for yourself and freeze some in cubes for your ds!)

Apparently the yoghurt is the key to stopping it being too hot whilst retaining the taste. It's ds's favourite! (well it was until he had omelette for the first time today )

Miaou, ds isn't keen on the rubbery texture of omelette- I'm so cautious of the egg being under cooked. What do you do? Or does he just like it like that?!

So sorry Kate to hear about your nanny. Thinking of you at the funeral and hope all goes as well as it can.

Thanks for your messages about the Child Trust Fund and MMR. There is such a loot in the news at the moment about the outbreak of measles that I think we will get it done at 12 months.

Welcome to Nat and to little Missy. DS has now gone to France twice, Amsterdam, Turkey and we are off to Italy this week. On the Turkey flight of four and a half hours he screamed and screamed both ways. At first I was really conscious of other passengers getting annoyed but then I completely relaxed and thought there are so many babies that fly that I should not care about what other passengers think. We had one man next to us (very cramped) with DS on DH;s lap the whole way and he made it quite obvious that he had not paid to be on a flight with a screaming baby. When DH reminded him that he too had been a baby who most probably did his fair share of crying he was lost for words and we did not hear from him for the remaining three hours of the flight. Ha ha ha!

DS's tonsillitis was so bad last week that he refused to eat or drink as it hurt him so much to swallow. We got extremely worried as he had a completely dry nappy and he ended up going to casualty twice to be syringed with liquids to avoid dehydration. Fortunaterly he took the liquid as they were then going to put him on either an intraveinous or nasal drip overnight which I am sure would have been quite distressing for us all.

He is now getting better and whilst he is drinking his milk he is refusing to eat ANYTHING apart from Petits Filous.
How can I try to get him back on his food? We are off on hols on Thursday and I really want him to be back to eating so that he can enjoy himself and eat what he is given in the baby club. Any tips of what I can give him to wean him back on to food?

For those of you with a Boots nearby, there is currently a deal on where they are selling packets of Huggies Convertibles (double up as pull ups or nappies and very useful when DS is crawling around the room refusing to stay still for nappy change) for £1.00 a packet as they must be discontinuing the range/ changing packaging. Get there quick!

(We make it runny bramblina! Am sure he will come to no harm but then I am quite relaxed about things like that).

Tigerlion, so sorry to hear your ds has been so poorly . How about trying him with something really bland just now, eg baby rice, just to get him used to different things again? Failing that, can you mix some different stuff into the yoghurt (even carrot etc, puree), just to alter the tastes very gradually. I guess he has got used to the lovely cool feel of yoghurt in his sore throat, poor wee man!

Miaou ! Eggs, I'm just a bit wary but hey, we'll soon find out if it was a bad idea!

Tigerlion, your poor wee ds. If it were us, I think I would go back to pureeing everything. If he was only eating the PF I think that would make me stay clear, I know quite a few kiddies who are rather "addicted" to them. Even if your ds only eats fruit, at least it isn't encouraging a tendency for the yogurt. I would stick to simple things too, just maybe one fruit at a time or chicken and carrot casserole. My ds loves his liver casserole (AK), it would blend well as liver is so soft and quite a simple taste. Would he eat some bread? If ds is getting fed up with what comes off the spoon he will always chomp on some bread, or breadsticks. Cut watermelon in to 4 or 6 inch strips, a good size for his little hands and interesting colour too. Ds has that in the garden, and tonight for pudding as he was stripped off already. I got a good recipe on here for home made baked beans- soak half a packet of (Tesco's) haricot beans overnight, then boil them in fresh water for half an hour, remove the water, add 2 tins chopped toms and good squirt of tom puree, bake for couple of hours. The recipe also said add worcestershire sauce and molasses but I didn't bother and ds loves them anyway. These are good warm with either a hard bolied egg yolk (good protein) or grated cheese mashed in. And ds can dip his bread or breadsticks. Tesco do mini breadsticks- great for our lo's wee grasps. HTH Tigerlion, and you have a lovely holiday. Where are you off to? Has ds done all this travelling through holidays or other? He's a lucky lo, either way.

As for the boots offer- fantastic, I'm going through tomorrow. Where are you? It may not be everywhere. Here's hoping!

We visited MIL thisafternoon, ds sat in the garden in just bodyvest, great nappy free time, while we had a glass of wine. What a lovely summer we all have ahead of us with our los. We had our M&T summer party yesterday, then went down to the beach, ds's first time ( when they're on your doorstep you just don't appreciate them...) he loved it, digging his tootsies in the sand, then the paddling! Oh! He sat down, and giggled everytime a wave came towards him! Going to my Mum's tomorrow till Saturday, she's bought him a paddling pool! Hope you all have some lovely weather this week.

Kate, thinking of you today, hope you're doing ok .

i've been trying to post this for ages but mumsnet wasn't letting me... so here goes this time...

tigerlion, all I can suggest is to offer him cool, smooth foods. Things like those long life fruit pots kept in the fridge. Or back to veggie purees! But I would also put loads of finger foods out for him (including tempting biccies and things) and see if he has a shot at any. If he doesn't feel pressurised and eating seems fun (and optional) then he might just try a few bits and pieces again.

My DS is fussy and strong willed and was worse when he had bronchiolitis although was not completely off his food. I just kept offering things and tried not to stress about it as that makes him worse. He puts things in his mouth so cautiously (like I'm trying to poison him!) but soon got back into tasting things.

i find with ds....if he's feeling a bit off (generally due to teething) he will eat just about anything if it is cold/room temperature, but won't entertain warmed up stuff.
quite thankful actually, it makes feeding him out and about much easier!!

i think we may be getting a molar soon as ds left gum is really swollen, not his usual little teething bump. and he really chomping on stuff.

Yesterday went very well, thank you for thinking of me.

Tigerlion, sorry your little one has been unwell and what a well travelled young man he is!! We're off the France on Saturday for a few weeks, I can;t wait after all the stress of the last few weeks, we definitely need the break. We are also trying to teach ds1 a few french words and it's very cute. He's a bit confused about where we're going though. when I ask where we're going, his reply? 'Frank's'!!!

DS2 is teething his temperature keeps shooting up and he's getting very tired, I just hope he's OK on holiday. Still as a pharmacist DH has packed enough medicine to see off the plague!!

Kate100- Have a great holiday, u lucky thing!

I read something below re pullup's and am wondering if anyone is using them? I havent investigated at all so I dont even know if Missy can wear them at her age/size? She currently wears pampers number 4 and is 20lbs 1oz, pullups sound so much easier, does anyone else use them?

Nat, the Huggies Convertibles can be used as either nappies or as pull ups. I use them as nappies most of the time apart from when DS refuses to stay still when I can just put them on like underwear. Far far easier, believe me! He weighs 21lb and they definitely make them for his weight, I think starting at 18lb. They had them at the Bootsa that I went to on the Kings Road in London and I have told friends in Wiltshire and Manchester who both managed to get some. But get them quick before they run out. £1 a pack (usually around £7) is a true bargain!

Thanks for the suggestions for food. I did not give DS his mid morning feed (which I have been doing since the tonsillitis as the doctor said to get as many fluids into his body as possible) and as a result he ate some carrot and sweet potato purée and two yoghurts. I am starting with the bland food as suggested and hopefully he will eat the yummy things in the baby club on hols.

The only reason we have been away a fair amount is my husband has quite a few trips abroad for work. When I manage to get on to really cheap flights, I go along with him as it is far more fun than being stuck at home and he has the hotel room anyway. We had great fun when he had some work to do in Utrecht as I took DS into Amsterdam and it was so easy. When boarding the trains or buses about ten people ask to help and they are so friendly.

However tomorrow is one of our first real holidays with him where we are going for a week at Club Med in Italy. We got a really cheap deal from Avant Garde Travel, a website I saw advertised on Mumsnet where they got 25% of the price including a free room upgrade. They have wonderful food there and everything is all inclusive plus they have a baby club where we can leave DS all day. There are two babies per carer and they are meant to have fantastic activities. We decided to treat ourselves to our last real holiday before the baby is born in October, plus I am in the last few weeks of when I am allowed to fly. For those of you who only have one baby, I cannot tell you how quickly the second pregnancy flies by. You do not have a minute to think of yourself as you are constantly looking after your baby. I prefer it this way as it makes the time go quicker!