March 2013 - 6 months down, 210 to go!

[StormyBrid]

Old thread.

Keep on rambling, ladies, we have a whole new thread to fill!

Stormy I put mini-Yo in the big kids seat at the front of the trolley. 2 of our local supermarkets have harnesses in them so she can't slip to the side etc and for the other ones I bring a scarf or big muslin and tie her in! The other option is to carry her round BT she's getting too chunky to do that for more than a few minutes.

I'm fecking exhausted. DS woke at 1am and wouldn't settle. I was too tired to deal with it, and the house was FREEZING so I put him in our bed. Three hours later he started to grumble and kept on for two hours. Then dp woke up and was about as supportive as you'd expect at that time - apparently I know he has to get up for work at 7 so why is DS in our bed? I cried. He didn't apologise. I shouted at him, a lot, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

And then this morning at breakfast he's all 'what do you have planned today?' And 'love you Plonky.' Might have told him where to go and what he could do to himself once there.

And that was just one bad night! SoYo how on earth do you cope?!

KF I hope you get a good result.

KF good luck with the meeting.

Re supermarkets, we're at a horrible in between stage where dd can't really be in the lying back seats, but is too heavy for the sling. We also usually shop at lidl and having her in the sling whilst trying to pack the shopping which is being unceremoniously chucked at you (as is lidl's style!) is hard work. I've tried the toddler seats twice, once successfully, the other less so. Not sure she'd cope with a full shop yet though. So in the meantime I'm back to ordering online from sainsburys til she can last in the toddler seat! Will probably only be a couple of weeks I would guess!

Both flights were fine, 6am on the way out meant she had a bottle on the way up, and slept the rest of the time. God knows how I would have managed without the dummy on the way back though, we had no ear issues but other babies on the flight screamed a lot! 3 hrs is plenty for me though, she was very well behaved but god does she fidget, it's a long time to have her on a lap, even with two of you to share!

Right, off to see DM. Never thought I'd be the kind of person who wanted to see my mum as soon as I got back from being away. We were never close. Being a mum definitely changed things.

So I'm guessing you're all going to the supermarket in a car, rather than walking. This is the problem I have - if I walk then I've got the buggy, and can't handle a trolley too. Fortunately we have local shops (cheap supermarket, independent butcher's, greengrocer's etc) just round the corner, and the supermarket has excellent baskets that fit over the buggy handles perfectly. Gets us out and about every day, which is good for us both.

Speaking of getting out and about, there's a rhyme and sign thing at the Methodist church up the road tomorrow. Considering giving it a try, but feeling very uncomfortable about Going Into Places On My Own. Am sure motherhood was supposed to cure me of my stupid anxieties about such things.

Plonky give him a flick round the earhole from me. Sounds like he was at least trying to make good over breakfast though, which is a good sign.

Thanks for the reminder that I need to get a photo album, KF.

vj MN was having server issues yesterday. Probably not helped by the quantity of people coming from all over the interwebs to check out the penis dunking thread. No news from me, except that I've gone into super healthy eating and daily exercising mode, to shift weight before trying for another baby because I am clearly insane. Two pounds lost so far this week, and it's only Thursday!

something my detective skills don't warrant much praise - with full name and vague location known it's not that hard to find people, and about the only thing Plonky hadn't got locked down was a photo of a baby of the right age, which clinched it. Mind if I add you too? The more cute babies on my feed the better.

Plonk stupid o clock is when bad moods tend to come out in everyone but at least he knew he'd upset you and tried to make it back to normal. When the bad days and nights hit, they hit hard, don't they?

stormy of course you can. I love to have my feed full of beaut babies too

Just caught up on the penis dunking thread...wow, just wow! I need something to take my mind off it. Lazy day watching Disney films with the boy it is!

Not bad Plonky, the tattoo that is. Rather more class than Cheryl Cole's ar%e . Speaking of which, is it just me or was does tattoo artist strike anyone else as not a bad job for a bloke. I'm no expert but I'm guessing whoever the lucky lad was he must have spent literally days in close company with her backside.

With you on the nights - it only takes one bad one to wreck your week. I've started counting anything over a 4 hour stretch as frankly amazing. I'm also getting sick of the number of people who have told me that 7 months is when babies go clingy and weird, and never sleep again. I am hoping this is another one of those fictions told to people with fewer and or younger kids just to scare them.

Stormy your detective skills out do mine.... I have failed to either facebook or steal the identity of anyone on this thread. I have got a buggy you can run with though, specially purchased for that purpose. I have however yet to run anywhere with it. Two reasons. 1. Pot holes. I don't fancy the worselet's chances against the best the council can offer; and 2. I'd feel like a tit. Running in an obvious 'I am jogging' way = ok. Running for a bus = kind of ok. Running along after a buggy = tit. Fact. But don't tell the yummy mummy's because they might lynch me.

Re supermarkets - I shop on-line, for everything. This is why I have two types of yoghurt I never eat in the fridge and various items of clothing that will never fit in the cupboard. I am either afraid of shops or lazy. I'll let you guess

VJ Heellllooooo Glad the holiday went well. Good to see you back.

KFF hope it went well.

Something how many teeth now??!!! I have teeth envy

And finally, penis dunking? Dear god. That's put me right of the idea of bedside glass of water.

It's very quiet round these parts at the moment!

I've finally hit a wall with this sleeping business. Madam has got to the point where she's not even settling being picked up and walked around and fed so something's had to give. Last night we started sleep training! I know I couldn't do controlled crying so we're doing gradual retreat but in a very gradual way in that we're not trying to stop all night feeds immediately, just keep her in the cot in between and get longer between wakes.

Someone had linked to a great old thread about it from the sleep thread so we did it last night and it was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared and was pretty much the first time madam has ever gone to sleep lying down! It was definitely a better night than the last few weeks so we're carrying on and hoping tonight is just as successful.

Hope everyone's ok! I keep thinking about Eco, not a great time to be in the US with everything shut down!

Go miniYo! That's fantastic, SoYo. Keep it up! If you're consistent she'll soon get the hang of it.

I must have not been paying attention, because I had no idea the US is shut down. What's that all about?

worse fully agreed that buggy running = tit. I too have a buggy that can be jogged with, but I don't believe in jogging. Besides, it's enough exercise just walking in this wind. It's so bitter I've put DD in a woolly jumper for the first time in her life. She looks adorable. Should've done it ages ago!

Seven months means extra clinginess, you say? Hmm. Sounds about right - Fartypants isn't being weird, but she is much happier to just chill out on my shoulder or my knee than usual. It's nice, she's very snuggly and warm. Am thinking of the winter to come and envious of the co-sleepers - bet it's well toasty with a baby to cuddle up to.

Hello lovely ladies. Congress shut federal services as a protest against Obama's health care reform. This means the two week road trip part of our trip has been ruined as it was a tour of seven national parks. It's very sad for us after the saving and planning. But there's worse things in life eh?
Great start soyo. Same with you stormy on the eating front. Kff what happened with job chat? NOw's not a fun time to work in local government eh? I face the same. Fingers crossed. Glad your hols fun vj, and yes, after three hours of plane you are ready to get off, I agree! Sending hellos to you and everyone else from outside the gates to the grand canyon. Boo.

stormy co-sleeping and baby wearing means a permanent supper soft hot water bottle next to you - I love it (although love it less when the hot water bottle kicks me full force in the stomach in the middle of the night!)

soyo would you please post a link to the sleep thread you mentioned? Would love to find a way to increase gaps between waking between 11-6am!

We shop online for everything except fruit and veg and meat which we get from the local farmers. Online shop takes 10mins and can't abide wasting time in a supermarket.

We have had extra clinginess for weeks here now with no signs of it relenting yet. Just a phase I hope!

Eco that's so crap, I'm really sorry. My lovely friend and her DH have been unsuccessfully trying for a baby for a year now and are getting very sad so treated themselves to a similar trip to yours with 5 days in Yosemite and they're locked out too. It's so shitty!

Rainbow here's the link to that thread
We're doing a fairly soft version in that we've decided once she's down, she's down for at least 4hrs but after that I'll feed her (ill tackle night weaning at a later date), I keep my hand on her rubbing her tummy and shush and talk to her while she goes down rather than being silent (ill gradually withdraw that over a few weeks if it works). Picking her up and settling her just seems to be making the screaming worse at the moment so it seems the right thing to do at this time. I've been slowly reading through the whole thing and for some people it was very hit and miss for a while so we'll just have to see how tonight goes. Fingers crossed.

Hello all. Oops I've missed a few days updating.

leni I really hope the row has got things moving forward and not just cleared the air. It'd be a pain if things get crap again.

eco that's such a shame about your trip :( Stupid yanks :( sorry to any US citizens reading this thread

And without name checking everyone else, we still have no teeth here although I did dream about DD getting her first one last night. Hurry up DD!

I posted on beakergate fairly early into the thread and then couldn't believe friends (who I suppose may now actually be MNers ) sharing it on FB when it got mad.

A busy week here with the cute sixmonther. Organising a nearly new sale here to raise money for the village preschool and it's taking a lot of work between me and a friend. And I've just been elected secretary of the preschool committee (less work than Chair and Treasurer too close to the day job was my reasoning) and tons of other stuff going on.

DD is actually sleeping far better through the night and hasn't woken before 5:30 these past few evenings, stuffing her at tea time seems to be the trick and she's usually pretty hungry so that works fine. She on three fully meals a day now and BFing is getting less consistent apart from the first one at 6ish. I tend to feed her mid morning and/or mid afternoon but if sh naps for a long time or were on the move and she makes it to the man exterior meal (ie lunch or tea) without a feed, that's fine and she isn't too grumbly.

Talking of which, she's v grumbly now and I think she's anticipating tea time so I might give her a booby munch to keep her going...

Ah damn typos.

Oh and I am back to work two weeks on Monday, although on leave so not back in the office until the 4th Nov. I went and signed the contract and other forms at the CM this week and I'm just so happy with her. I spoke to my director this morning and told him that I really want a challenge so we'll see what happens. I may start putting feelers out for something else but I have a cushy set-up at the moment working from home and then going to London etc when needed at work's expense so I only think I'll move if I find something I actually want to move for iykwim.

Best of luck for tonight soyo - fingers crossed for miniyo to sleep until 8am

worse we have 8 teeth now, and judging by the rosy red cheeks and grumpiness, I think there may be more on the way. But don't have tooth envy, teeth means biting and biting hurts a lot! He has got a cute, toothy grin though

eco so rubbish about everything being shut down, hope it doesn't affect much more of your trip!

We definitely have clinginess here, it's quite nice though from a baby who has never really been into cuddles and just wants to be off, so although I am hoping it's just a phase, I'm enjoying it too!

I had a meeting at work today, I think there's a chance for me to get relocated to a different department, working less hours but on a higher pay scale which would suit me to the ground. I'm just going to email now and keep pushing, it'd be nice to have something new to go back to instead of my old job that I was never really keen on, it was just a foot in the door so hopefully that door is now opening slightly.

Well, I'm exhausted so it's off to bed. Hope the sleeping methods work well for all tonight!

Fewer hours, more money - yes please something!

DD went till 5:20 so a little bit earlier than the past few days but after a quick lunch she went back to sleep until about ten mins ago and is now happily gurgling away.

I must work out how I'm going to stop that first morning feed really. I know I can keep it up if I want but the days I travel to London for work I have to be up at 5:30 and out the door by 6 so it's not going to be possible.

And although I know it's common for milk to keep in production just for two feeds a day (morning & night), would it still be there for just one feed? Hmm, questions...

Can I ask you formula feeders how much milk your DCs are on now they're all fully onto solids? I need to move DD into a bottle mid morning and mid afternoon (if she's awake) but not sure how much to give her. With her big dinners shes dropped on average to 6oz for her 7pm bedtime milk and I don't want to give her too much in the daytime so she reduces the amount of solids she's having. Would 6oz be a good place to start?

Eco miserable timing. I can't even think of a funny side to take the sting out of the tail. It's just full on miserable.

SoYo how'd last night go? Better than here I hope. The usual stomach problem was grumbling away from early evening, so I was working on the basis it would be a rough night. It was. I have had approx 2 hours sleep in total, and DH was away so I couldn't even split the shift. It's at times like this I wish I drank coffee, as tea just isn't cutting it.

Something 8? That's a grin full . Only two here, lower incisors, which makes her a rodent I think. A very cute rodent mind. Without meaning to sound all 'my child is baby einstein', because she is frankly not, I'm fairly sure she knows biting hurts. She'll chew my finger with gradually increasing nips, carefully watching my face until I wince. Then she stops.

Good luck everyone who has potential job moves in the offing. Exciting times.

Hope you all have fun packed weekends planned. I'm dead on my feet so plan to drift aimlessly about the place doing as little as possible. I am also on my own, so as little as possible means 'everything'. Joy.

Eco I have seen on the news this morning that some, Grand Canyon included, are open again today. Hope you're still in the area?

We have no teeth here but pretty shocking sleeping. Dummy returns every hour or so last night- the get gradually closer and closer together! I left DH to it because he's going to be away Monday to Friday for at least the next month so I'm making the most of him being here at the moment. And I had pub night book club last night with the girls so I have a hint of a red wine headache...

Wing- I would say we are pretty well established with solids now, and we're on 3x7flozz, although she probably doesn't always finish all of that, I'd reckon we average about 17 flozzes a day.

Right. I'm on a tea, toast, and paracetamol search. Good days all!

eco I heard on the radio this morning that they are going to reopen the national parks as it's affecting tourism so much. You might be able to squeeze some in before you head home?

worse that sounds like a rubbish night :( DH is away all today so I'm on my own too but at least I had a better night
DS has a birthday party right in the middle of today so I can't plan to do anything exciting with the DCs eg visit their cousins or go to the Trafford Centre. And when I'm on my own I prefer to be out and about as driving around is entertainment for them all by itself Oh well. I'll just have to think of something...

Is there anywhere you can get out to worse? Perhaps even just for a walk for some fresh air with the worselet or a local woods or something.

Well guess who's having an unaccustomed nap? What with the nocturnal partying and everything . Personally I preferred the day time nap refusal version of the worselet, but as with everything in life you get what you're given, and you roll with the punches. Or something.

Wing good call. I did the forest walk thing, and feel a lot better for it. I have also done endless tummy massage and puréed an industrial amount of pear and prune. I wish I could crack the whole constipation issue without resorting to lactulose. It's getting beyond a joke now.

VJ a month of running solo in the week is hard core. You have my sympathy. I hope the nights improve for you -any idea what's caused last night's upset? It's weird isn't it how the life and times of all things baby and their funny five minutes seem to run to a pretty much identical plan. I'm definitely less sceptical about wonder weeks, growth spurts, sleep regression and rest of it now.

Right, I'm waking the worselet. I need her tired tonight, not beautifully rested and ready for a night of jumperoo and building blocks.

SoYo hope the sleep training works. I am astounded by your tolerance for poor sleep, you've done incredibly well. It makes me so angry when people get uppity about it because sleep deprivation is real torture. Here's to long, restful nights in the weeks and months to come .

Something sounds like a result!

Evo when do you fly back? Hopefully you can now get some park touring done.

Vj applause grin

Worse hug? Would it have been hilarious if I invited everyone to look at my new tattoo if said tattoo was on my arse?

Wing DS has four bottles a day, we tried three but he wasn't really ready. He tends to have 5oz in the morning and around 11am, 6 at 3pm and 7oz at 7. Apart from the bedtime bottle I offer 6oz, and sometimes he only manages 3oz.

We've just got back from our 'dirty' weekend (aunt flo arrived this morning, humph). Aside from some shocking food in an allegedly naice hotel, and the hotel trying to overcharge us to the tune of £50, we had a nice child free evening. Start back at work in a week and a half. Hoping we win the lottery before then.

Thanks Plonky, so far so good. Fingers crossed for the night. I'm exhausted so I'll update properly tomorrow. Wors I hope you have a better night.

hello everyone and thanks for the heads us about the reopen. we purposefully chose some campsites with wifi but they have all been shite and googling has been impossible. we had spent 5 days hanging around the grand canyon and finally drove away yesterday....and then we found out! bah! but we are currently in bryce canyon national park which is fairly awesome. back to vegas thursday. boo.
as we are in motorhome we tried switching to spoon feeding for the sake of the mess. ecobaby went on hunger strike so we had to revert to self feeding. I spend most of the day prepping or cleaning up from feeding time at zoo! although did hike with her in back pack yesterday and today and she has finally figured out how to nap in it. she has not dropped any milky feeds at all....have I a greedy beast or am I overfeeding her or anyone else in same boat?
worse you sounded uncharacteristically a bit down in an earlier post. we are sending big chic chip cookie burger tastic yanky hugs your way. I was pleased to hear of the healing powers of the woods.
soyo you said you are tired, how was the second night?
plonky glad you got your weekend away. after living in same room as our dearest forvlast couple weeks I am dreaming of a baby free night. just last night dh and I were joking about there being a niche in market for baby equivalent of kennels.
vj 4 weeks? did I remember that right? yoour dp needs to get some serious points in bank. what's he planning on?
stormy how's weekend healthy eating or do you relax a bit more on weekend? we have been trying to eat healthily as normal but away from California it's been so hard. even the bloody baby food has added sugar in it, vile.
oh, and worse, we put teaspoon or two or three of puree prune on ecobaby porridge for couple of days. that and this massage and we have had no hard adult pellet poo since: long fairly firm strokes along colon but opposite way to what you think, i.e. up and left. do that 3 times and then 2 in other direction. that helps blovkages free up rather than further compacting.this on advice of osteopath. may it grant you poo aplenty.
it is ten pm here in mountain time and it is freezing out, I anticipate plenty of night feeds to keep baby warm. night night and hello everyone else.

Can't namecheck properly as on phone, which is playing silly nuggets, so excuse me if I'm not about much at the moment.

This night weaning thing seems to be working. Last night she woke up screaming inexplicably at 9.15, then slept right through until 6.30. Now, if only I could persuade the cats to stop playing Random Irritating Noises at five in the morning, all would be awesome.

SoHo, how's the sleep training going?

Stupid autocorrect, SoHo should be SoYo.