December 2012: This too shall pass, this too shall pass

[HoneyMumandSon]

keep repeating the mantra...

hales i loved your slushy post! Even though I don't post very often I find it really reassuring to see what you're all up to and knowing that our problems are pretty normal.

DS is practicing swinging his legs over to one side... He is obviously working up to rolling over but not there yet.
I did notice at my "mummies fitness class" on Monday that DS was the only one who lay there with his arms out like he was doing a mini aeroplane impression

Moan needed- I'm poorly sick, been trudging on with a horrible cold (and amazingly gross bogies-sorry) for almost three weeks now. Then yesterday morning I came down with a tummy bug (yup, both end explosions, not pretty) dr was super unhelpful while trying to be sympathetic. So I have no fancy drugs to make me feel better and no hope of really "resting" just some expensive horrible tasting re-hydration salts.... Just need to moan. I daren't even eat cake :( someone else can enjoy my piece and I'll enjoy some later in the week.
But I am feeling much better today!! :) and DP is home looking after DS while I lay in bed - I'm a very lucky spoiled lady.

Songs -you are my sunshine makes me cry so I don't sing that. I do sing "5 little speckled frogs" or " the grand old duke of York"... There must be others but I can't think of them

Oh nutella, you absolutely have my sympathies re tummy bug. I was sick on the weekend and god it was grim. Breastfeeding while nauseous is just awful. I kept just hoping I wouldn't puke on the baby.

I sing songs from the musical Matilda to C! They're a bit long and wordy but more interesting for me!

You know what everyone? This too shall pass is true! C has been a crappy napper for weeks now, and this morning she got tired and shouty so I swaddled her, closed the curtains, cuddled and rocked her with the dummy for about 3 minutes, put her in her crib drowsy and without the dummy, and she's asleep. I kind of want to shout from the rooftops. It's just like the books say! next I need to work on her actually staying asleep for more than 15 minutes

WL, that's weird - is your body responding to a growth spurt perhaps?

Pidj, nice one R! Is that rolling back to front or front to back? I dunno which comes first. C is very close to rolling front to back, she ends up teetering halfway. Looks hilarious and she looks very confused.

WL mine were like that for a couple of days after ds's growth spurt. He got quite uncomfortable and chocked etc but it only lasted a couple of days.

I'm going to make banana muffins today I think. My rather late New Years resolution is to always have some home baked good in my cake tins

Clarella apparently the tesco value one is dairy free

I know what you mean about You are my Sunshine makin you cry - I think happy songs like that are tear jerkers.

When R was born I was singing the Elbow song that goes 'and holy cow I love your eyes'...'lying with you half awake and stumbling over what to say, well anyway, it's lookin like a beautiful day' and I always cried at that! (Nuts!).

Happy stuff today: I got an extra hour and a half sleep his morning after I thought R wanted to get up :) she has been reaching out this morning to touch the dog and now the pair of them are sitting looking at me :) I slung together a Victoria sponge and it actually looks nice so there are good cake options today :)

It's snowing and there's a hole in my wellies (dear Liza) so that's not good but at least it gives me an excuse to buy some nice new ones...

What's wrong with rocking?

R is going front to back - pic on fb of him nearly over. Not sure which way round is meant to be first though

R gets put in the door bouncer if I'm going to be in the living room/kitchen (it's on the adjoining door) or on the mat under the toy arch if I'm going out of sight :) he will eventually be gated into a baby-proofed living room

Nope, not thinking straight - back to front

The 'rod for your own back' brigade tell me that rocking is bad...

Sleepless, my sources tell me that brigade's advice is to be taken with a lorry full of salt. I hate hate hate the phrase 'rod for your back'. It's just a shortcut to maternal guilt.

Yeah... I guessed that :)

It's just cos she sleeps in a hammock which is really easy to rock - I get a bit nervous about when she outgrows it and you can't rock a cot! She should be in it for a good few months yet though.

Ds's Moses rocked and I used to always rock it but now he's on a cot he goes straight down

Quick post before reading back...

I was wondering if any of you would be interested in an offer that's proving really popular on a Facebook group I'm on. It's a play kitchen (mobile link, hope it works on pcs) reduced in price, which can be reduced further using this new customer offer to buy for £27. There's also a similar cupboard style kitchenette or garage.

I've come down with awful diorrhea from 5am. Hoping I avoid vomiting and it clears up very quickly. T is fine so far, so I'm religiously hand washing and disinfecting everything to try and stop him and DH getting it.

Thanks spotty, that's good to hear :)

they're super yum!

Pidj afaik rolling front to back is easier. Some babies don't roll at all. R is obviously doing really well!

Sorry to hear about PND worries. I had to take T for his jabs alone yesterday and cried. It's awful hearing them in pain. However, this cued the doc asking me all the PND type questions. It's good she was on the ball, but bad because it meant I had to wait longer talking to her wit T screaming instead of going through to waiting room to feed him calm.

At T's 10w checkup he nearly rolled over while the doc was examining him on the table. However he's never showed much inclination to do it at home because I'm an awful mummy who doesn't do enough tummy time.

I'd love cake, but so far have only trusted myself to eat one bit of dry toast. Going to send DH out for some drugs for stopping diarrhoea, I only have half my bowel so I'm really suffering and I think am more in danger of dehydration.

stacks my mum's old remedy for diarrhoea is a bit of sugar dissolved in hot water and drunk warm. Not saying it's the same as modern medicine by any means, but as something to drink it tastes nice and I do find that I tend to have a solid stool after it, if you'll forgive the overshare.

A quick question. Those of you who've spent time with your baby's grandparents (on either side) - do they ever help with nappy changing? My mum always helps, sometimes even before I can get up she's in front of me with her arms out to help me. But my inlaws, who we're visiting in Oz, haven't done a single one. They've actively avoided it. Eg the other day my husband jokingly said that it was his mum's turn to do one and she didn't go along with the joke and said she had to make a phone call. I know nappies aren't particularly pleasant but wet ones really are inoffensive and Z's poo doesn't smell bad when he's had aptamil / breast milk (it's the s26 that makes them more noxious and we only use that at night or on the road). It's not that we need the help, and my husband is really hands-on so I'm hardly doing them all myself, but they're going to see him for a few weeks a year at most and I'm just a bit disappointed that they didn't want to help out. They're happy to hold him but they don't really stimulate him actively or anything, especially DH's mum. The most they do is put him under the playgym but even that doesn't really happen unless we're the ones doing it. He's learning so much and changing every day so it's not as if he's only capable of sitting there like a doll.

But then the more I hear about the way DH was brought up, the more it sometimes sounds weird, eg MIL isn't a fan of getting up in the morning and when he was little he would get up himself and get his own breakfast (she'd leave out the cereal and pour a portion of milk in the fridge) which is all well and good until I found out he was doing this at TWO AND A HALF. I'm sure he was very capable but isn't it better and, well, NICER for a young child to start the day with someone else's company?

seconds that sounds horrible. I wouldn't even do that for dd1 and she's nearly 6! Poor DH. I encourage my mum and mil to do nappies as you get loads of lovely eye contact, smiles and chats. How sad that they don't take more of an interest.

Seconds - my MIL jumps at the chance to change a nappy. She's not very good at it, but I just let her get on with it. She sees it as a chance to spend time with him. Helps that he loves getting his nappy changed and usually smiles loads. My dad would change one if asked, but probably wouldn't offer, he changed loads for my DN as my sister was lazy cheeky spoiled brat err, just like that. My mum, I'm not sure. She drove 7 hours each way and spent 2 nights close by us, but visited for 2hrs total and didn't want to do dinner/lunch with us. She's a bit weird though :)

Some children seek independence quite early, and also never knowing any different I'm sure he didn't mind getting his own breakfast. We were self sufficient kids from a young age as my dad was a single parent to 4 kids, with 2 only 11m apart. I remember cooking dinner when our neighbour who was the same age wasn't allowed to touch the toaster.

My dad was, and is, a wonderful dad. He just didn't have much time, and was trying to get off benefits and into work at the time by going back to college/uni.

wl, stacks, y you're right, there is a lot of eye contact and smiles etc when nappy changing, and they're missing out on that. When Z was first born he cried through every nappy change but now it's like playtime for him.

stacks your dad sounds amazing. A somewhat different situation to leaving a toddler to get breakfast because you don't like getting out of bed early!

To be fair to my inlaws they adore little Z and are very proud of him. I'm just surprised they don't want to get more involved in the hands on childrearing aspects that are more than the cuddling / holding. In a week's time they won't see him till Christmas!

Exactly. Like you stacks I was very independent very early as my mum was a single mum of 3 and working very hard to support us. BUT as seconds says, a whole other ball game from just not wanting to get up. I am very fortunate that I can spend more time 'mothering' my children and teaching them independent life skills in a gentler fashion. Im sure my mum and your dad would have rather done it this way if they had a choice. Also (my fave saying warning!) just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Indeed, it's not a great way to bring up kids, forcing early independence. I'd always like DS to have morning company. My DH is very much not a morning person, and we rarely share breakfast times, and even when we do he's not up for talking at all. I'm really looking forward to sharing breakfast with T. I've been thinking about buying a high chair for him already (one of the stokke ones from eBay, with a newborn insert) so he can sit at the table with me sooner than 6m.

My mum changes the occasional one, my mil never has. Imo, grandparents are for spoiling and playing - but then, my mil does a lot to support sil with her two (7yo has severe ld) so i try to make it so she and r have a fun no hassle relationship iyswim. If i get the job,my mum will do the childcare or at least support dp with it :)

pidj I do see what you mean about spoiling and playing and that's definitely how things will hopefully be on future visits. but he's too young on this visit to get that much out of playing with them whereas nappies could have been a good way for them to have some time connecting together in a different way. And also a way for them to feel more involved, given that they are only going to see him for a couple of weeks a year if that.