October 2011 - we can hardly believe its true, our babies are turning two!!

[MummyDuckAndDuckling]

Hi!

Hope you don't mind me starting a new thread as once again, birthday season has begun and the first of our October babies are turning 2! Would be lovely to hear from everyone past and present
Ill try copy over all the stats again when I'm next on the laptop.

Hope everyone is well :)

I'm here too!

I was a bit surprised at the excitement that Halloween caused...up at 5am! And overtired/grumpy/overexcited tempers and tears. I may have to play down the birthday and Christmas if this is anything to go by! My two little ladybirds were very cute though!

L is loving being a big sister and has been great with M. Very grateful for that! Having two is great but, my word I'm tired! L stops nursery next week, so I'm losing my two days a week of catch-up time, I think that I'll have to accept that housework will no longer be done and plan for a spring clean when she starts her new nursery next year!!

Any advice for third birthday/Christmas presents? Anything that was a big hit with your little ones? L is getting an easel for her birthday but we're stumped for Christmas, and have friends and family asking for ideas too!

Oops, you dropped off threads I'm on.

mrsh how come L is stopping nursery? Are you staying off for a year? We are keeping the nursery going as otherwise Max will lose his place and will be a problem when I go back to work, even though it'll only be 5-6 months before he starts school.

Please all of you with 2DC tell me again that this will be easier with 2DC rather than being pg with a toddler!

Feeling better since vitamin shots but getting bigger and bigger, baby very active and still 3 weeks of work with all the marking and plannign and reports that go with it!

Just put M in nursery for 2 of my days off with him the next 2 weeks so I can get all my work done (otherwise I am going to be very unpleasant to live with!).

We made a decision of no big present from Father Christmas. He gets a stocking which is mostly useful stuff like socks, PJs, character toothbrush etc with one or two smaller toys (this year a hand puppet and a dinosaur projection torch).

Plus, it's Sinterklaas here from next weekend so he will get a few presents in his shoe and a bigger present from PILs and BIL/SIL (we tend to do Christmas with DH's family rather than Christmas). For Christmas he has presents from my family and friends (though may get some of those after Christmas when my parents come over on NYE).

My parents gave DS money for his birthday which we will buy him something with in the summer.

No progress on potty training atm and tbh have decided not to push it while I'm pg. DS is still pooing in corners or under tables and not telling us. Yesterday he woke me up with the news and nappy had leaked all down his legs and over blanket - not the wake up call I was expecting!

Weeing will be in potty but only if we prompt him - he doesn't recognise that he has to wee himself yet.

How is everyone?

Hi all, I lost you!

Engels it definitely is easier with two, I found being pregnant so hard with E. Not being able to move quickly or carry, but so much easier afterwards. I was thinking about it only the other day and I think it might have put me off a third as pregnant with two would be really tough!

I'm just about to start Christmas shopping no ideas for E yet except clothes as he's grown so much.

Engels maybe wait with potty training until you're off work?

I was thinking that too killa Will be off at end of November and going back in early May so plenty of time to crack it then.
3 weeks and 9 days of work to go!

SO much easier with a baby and toddler than being pregnant Engles!

I lost you all as well! Just did a look through the post-natal clubs to find y'all again ...

Engels it is easier, I reckon, because while you don't get much sleep with a newborn at least what you do get is higher quality! And you can move again. And that's neat you don't have much longer left at work

Killa and Mrs I have no idea for Xmas either! A wants matchbox cars so might just get him a whole pile of those, although it doesn't feel like a very good gift plus the wheels always come off

waves to everyone else!

I am good - went back to work for a few weeks before taking redundancy, so have been at home with the kids since early Oct which I am really enjoying. I've also been busy with job interviews, including a job I really want, so now just have to wait and see whether or not I got it. If not I don't imagine I'll find work until Feb/March at the earliest, as things here tend to wind down for the summer. Plus, I really want this other job, but sadly wanting something an awful lot doesn't always make it happen.

That aside I have nothing to report! A is into dinosaurs at present, and found myself having to talk to him about death last week which took me by surprise as it wasn't a conversation I'd been intending to have for some time. I'm not even sure how we got there, he just asks so many questions. I don't really mind, though, he'd good company

Pen what did you say? I thought E had asked some difficult questions but we haven't had to do death yet!

They are so cute though the things that come out of their mouths. Especially in the car, I just get a stream of consciousness from the back seat it's very funny.

I just told him about it in a matter of fact way about how sometimes things go away forever, but heavily implied that it only happens to animals. Was tricky - I felt blind sided so didn't give a very good answer at all!

W announced from the back of the car the other day that 'people don't last forever do they mummy' pen and then moved on to chattering about Octonauts!

He's gone to nursery today dressed as Batman for CiN looking very pleased!

Anyone else still in nappies (kids, not posters!)

Seb still not really interested. Even with chocolate buttons as a prize. He just doesn't seem to recognise when he needs to go. His nappy at night is still sodden in the morning. He has pull ups in the day and will usually pee if we put him on the toilet but lately we've been having to fight him to get on there. He's the last of his (rl) contemporaries to still be in nappies.

We had a 2 week hell of potty training in August, with endless accidents. So we gave up. Last week L announced she wanted to do a pee pee in the potty, one week later we had our first totally dry day!

I read the Gina Ford book about potty training in a week, did exactly the same thing both times. It's all about being ready. I was beginning to despair that it would never happen and I feel like it just clicked overnight.

M is still in nappies. Will pee on potty and occasionally ask for. Often dry in mornings but poo us another story altogether...will hise under table or in corner, then deny pooing. Am leaving it till he's more ready. Finish work this week then will be off till May. He's got a year before he starts school so still time.

W has been in pants for a couple of months now tally but he does still tend to have on average 1 accident a day. We found that he was ready but while he was still in pull ups he wouldn't use the toilet, pants was the only way forward!

Just bought a FP My potty on Amazon black Friday deals. It sings when they poo or pee . Let's hope this helps. Someone else said about pull ups not helping, I put him in pants the other week but he just wet himself and didn't even seem to notice, just carried on playing. He's very headstrong and you just can't force him to do something that he doesn't want to do (or it's kicking and screaming time.) I'm hoping one day (someday soon?!) he will just decide.

How is the potty working Tallulah?

E is potty trained most of the time now but tends to have the odd accident when he's at nursery as he's too busy playing and forgets to go to the toilet quickly enough.

I'm up with J who's deciding whether he'll go back to sleep. I'm shattered it's been six weeks of no sleep between both boys. E wakes frequently with scary dreams and insists on lights on in bedroom etc. I had hoped by three he's sleep through but maybe I was kidding myself? Any advice welcome on how to get him to stay in bed and settle alone.

How is everyone getting ready for Christmas? Nearly done here and putting tree up this weekend. So excited this year I think e really gets it now so can't wait to see his face Christmas morning.

Hope all are well and getting sleep! X

M is the same tallulah. I really want to try again but at 36w pg am knackered (and full of cold) and wondering if it'd be better to try after Christmas when new baby is here.

Sorry to hear you're having sleep problems killa . M has stages of waking and wanting light on. Is his room getting too hot or too cold? We usually have heating off in bedrooms unless it's freezing but M kicked all his covers off last week and woke up. He keeps going on about monsters atm (from an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine!) so we're trying to reinforce that monsters are only in books and stories.

With M it was only the tough love approach that worked - go back to sleep or we'll take your night light away, "Mama is cross", and last winter bribery if he stayed in his own bed all night!

Have a meeting this afternoon at nursery - thought it was just the standard yearly observation they do, but found out last night it's not and the woman (not sure what you'd call her in English - a pedagogue? so social skills? SEN?) was specifically asked to come and observe M - which they didn't tell me either when I picked him up last week after the observation (the group leader had not been told she was was there to observe M -and I specifically asked and was told she wasn't there for M) or when she rang up Friday to make an appt with me. I only found out last night when I picked him up and his group leader was really apologetic about the bad communication as she obviously hadn't been informed properly either.

So now I'm a little concerned about what exactly she wants to talk about. M is a handful and very strong willed, and not potty trained. Freaking out a little

Getting ready for Chritsmas and baby here. Going to spring clean lounge for Christmas decorations going up this weekend, get maxi-cosi and pram out of storage and sort through my Christmas shopping today before I head to nursery.

Started ML at end of last week though only feels like it now that M is at nursery. Battling a rotten cold though so not sure of I'll get half the stuff on my list done.

Okay, meeting went better than expected. She didn't see any of the negative behaviour that one of the group leaders was concerned about. Agreed to give potty training one more try before Christmas and if it doesn't work out will try again in the New Year.

Wish me luck!

engels we are having no luck whatsoever on the potty training here! I am drowning in nappies with 2 of them and am SO over it.

I go back to work in Feb so really want to nip it in the bud before then, but who knows. A CAN use the potty, he just WON'T. He goes at nursery when his friends go (they have the toilets in the same room), but won't at home.

Mrs I might look up that GF book. Your story gives me hope!

That singing toilet sounds awesome.

Glad meeting went well Engels, how worrying to have a meeting like that sprung on you.

I think tough love might be the approach with E from now on. He's definitely going through a very wilfull stage.

We're off to the theatre with preschool tomorrow and I'm going to have to chat to other mums and I don't know any of them, I can feel myself getting tongue tied already!

Okay mrsh - you need to tell us what GF says! M has just announced over breakfast that he wants to do a poo on the toilet

M has chicken pox! Luckily I 've already had it and it doesn't seem to be hitting him too hard - mostly spots on his chest, back and in his hair.

Glad the meeting went OK eng shocking communication from nursery! Hope M isn't feeling too poorly.

3 pees in the potty and 2 accidents. Not too bad (and the 2nd accident could have been prevented by me if I hadn't got caught up emptying the hoover!).

He's off his food this evening though and fell asleep on the sofa so have packed him off to bed early.

Go M! (And Engels!)

GF says to put them on the potty every 30mins for the first two days, so no leaving the house. She recommends them wearing just a top and underwear so there is less to pull down when they go. Have a star chart/treat of some sort. (We give L a smartie). Also have two bowls of soapy water at the ready - one for the floor/sofa and one for soiled pants...nice!

After the first couple of days you don't need to put him on quite so often but still regularly.

We were doing really well but then had a bad couple of days, last Friday I took both girls to a soft play and had to deal with pee, poo and puke in just 60 mins! L had a few days of more accidents than successes but, when I looked back I realised that I'd got a bit complacent and hadn't been putting her on the potty enough . We then had a few nights at my mum's and things got much better again, because both mum and I were telling her to go on the potty a lot more often.

I'd say that it'll be a tough week or two but don't give up! Make a big fuss of the successes and no big deal about the accidents. Also, have LOADS of spare clothes with you wherever you go and don't forget to bring socks as well as pants and trousers.

We bought a travel potty called Potette Plus which I'd recommend.

Good luck!!

Ahh yes MrsH soggy socks - the bit of potty training no one warns you about!