November 2012 - Roll on summer, we want paddling pools!

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/2060460-November-2012-This-is-the-new-fred-just-like-the-old-fred

GT, R still goes in his sling, on my back. My mum was very yesterday that I could walk a hilly mile with him there, but it's fine. He weighs half of what a DofE rucksack with all the camping gear in would!

I have 4 hours R free. Am thinking about going back to bed even though he didn't wake at all until 5:45 this morning then went back down till 8:30 when I had to wake him up to get on with the day

Woo it's quiet today. Today's my first day freelancing in over a fortnight since J has been at home on chicken pox quarantine. After 19 days he didn't get any lasting spots. They'll probably show up today at nursery making me look like the worst 'let's share the contagious bug around' Mummy. The chemist reckoned despite repeated exposure (think sharing food, drinks and toys with two contagious children on six different occasions!) he must have still had some immunity from me from BF. Which is daft as my sister's son got it whilst BF. It's a shame really as it would have been nice for him to get it now before we have a newborn in the house.

I really didn't want him to go to nursery today actually and he was very teary at handover. I found it harder to ignore his tears too. Maybe when DC2 arrives I'll just keep him at home with me until he's entitled to his free morning nursery place at our local primary school (at age 2 years and 10 months). I really felt like I was packing him off when he would rather be with me and I'd rather he was with me too. I thought I'd be desperate to have a bit of time off and hand him over but oddly I was much more relaxed for the fortnight he was at home with me day in day out. I guess our routine slowed down, we were more on toddler time and I was much more alert to his needs and interests and generally much more chilled out as we didn't have to rush to be anywhere or make a pack up, or get out of the house. Not what I was expecting to feel.

I've been taking photos of our DIY and gardening to add to the thread pics - I must boot up the Mac this evening to upload them. I think we are probably the last to do his bedroom up though, and bad Mummy that I am, it's not in the pre-baby number 2 plans.... I'm going to wait a couple of years until he can have some input himself rather than having to redo it to make it less 'babyish' in a couple of years time. Tight arse eh? I'm telling myself this is the green thing to do! Also I'm not sure what sex of baby he will be sharing his room with.

Could I ask advice on how old the baby should be before I move it into Jonas' room? I was assuming he / she would kip in with us for the first six months, but then it seems that the bear would be very young to move them into J's room. He'd only be two and a half. Do we need to rearrange the rooms upstairs to make two baby bedrooms do you think? We have two more bedrooms downstairs and DH and I intend to move to the big one in the future when the kids are older but until that point we'd like to be on the same floor. Any advice would be great lovelies xxx

yw I would plan on them having a bedroom each if you can. I want my girls to share at some point but only when they are old enough to not deliberately wake the other iyswim.

As for nursery... You might find that when LO arrives J will really benefit from nursery. His life will be turned upside down and a break from the LO will ensure he gets time to release lots of energy. Obviously he'll need to be happy going before otherwise he could feel like he's being pushed out. You may also find you will appreciate him being at nursery once baby arrives - for bonding and also because you'll be knackered. DD1 was at nursery four mornings a week until LO was 6mo. Everyone benefitted from the arrangement.

My house stinks of nit repellant. There is a case at nursery and apparently dd1 was playing with the kid who had them just before they were found. Gross. Don't know which parasite I hate most: ticks, nits or worms.

YW if your career won't suffer, you can afford it and you enjoy the time with him, I'd keep him home. I'm a SAHM because a) I don't have a career to wreck by taking time out and b) the childcare would take more than what I could earn going back to the workplace. R will go to nursery for his entitlement, but that will be for his benefit as much as mine. It helps that I have local family support for when I'm ill/stressed though. I think you need to have things decided and established when MiniYW2 makes an opinion though to minimise disruption :)

Re: bedrooms. R's is the white/blue colour we painted when dp moved in and we swapped to the other bedroom to make it "ours" (we live in "my" flat so redecorated a bit to make a home together) with nice curtains (frogs, elves and fairies, it's a Liberty print my mum found and turned into curtains and a matching floor cushion) and a couple of pictures on the wall - an alphabet one and a limited edition poster designed by a friend which has Elvis and Marilyn Monroe on! I've got some wooden animals and will at some point paint a jungle mural on the wall or a piece of canvas, but will most likely leave it fairly neutral until he's old enough to have an opinion. Tbh he only uses it to sleep at the moment as he's downstairs with me all day! He has a built in wardrobe, chest of drawers, book case, rocking chair for feeding/stories and his cot, but it's a good size double so room for another bed when needed.

PR apparently nits hate tea tree oil. I don't know if it actually kills them but it might be worth combing through her hair when you condition it to keep them at bay? I'm not looking forward to nit combing R's mop

R refused to nap for my mum. By 3:15 he was starting to get hyper, which is his first sign of tiredness, he dropped off briefly in the car on the 5 minute drive home, I managed to tickle a sausage, a yoghurt, a drink of milk and an orange into him and popped him into the bath to play. Cue shouting and pointing at his room, so he was in bed at 4:45! He was down at 5 last night too, slept till 5:45 this morning when I changed his bum then I had to wake him just before 9 so as not to wreck the day so fingers crossed for another good night like that again. Please can the sleepy dust plane do a fly-past just in case?

I was plagued by nits as a child. Tea tree shampoo works wonders.

Today's party trick: Drinking a full cup of water from an open cup, independently, with no spillage. I've never seen him so proud of himself

I have lots of treatment, both preventative and curative in my cupboards :) along with a stock of worm meds for animals and humans and masses of anti tick and flea stuff for the animals.

But I can't stop scratching my head.

I have a Chat thread on packing for a holiday in Tenerife if anybody would like to help me out.

I am not looking forward to nit treatments.

Eliza that made me - both times the absence of booze in a drinks order have immediately given me away to good friends!!

YW - DD was going to nursery 2 days a week before S was born. We considered pulling her out for my 6 months of mat leave to save £££ but we kept her in for several reasons. I wanted her routine to continue with as much normality as possible - before S arrived I was actually quite traumatised about the effect it would have on DD. Once S was here, it was v guilt relieving to know that nursery was 2 stimulating days rather than a whole week of all day Peppa marathons that I recall in the v early days, she would have to go back anyway and I wanted to keep the place and she was so well settled in that I didn't want to change that. I also liked the idea of some 1-on-1 with the time with the new baby, and actually those days were chilled and lovely (a baby that stays still is a piece of piss to look after compared with rampaging toddler). So while every family has different requirements, my experience is such that my view is that if you can afford it, I'd definitely keep him in.

Lovely day and weekend. Ikea was bloody hard work though - DD was fine but S ran away when walking and screamed in the trolley. It got too much to bear and as we had a car full of crap from our trip I decided to just get every stuffed dog in the place a couple of bits and order all furniture online for delivery, rather than risk an epic domestic arrange in store. Apart from the fact 2 of the things I wanted and which would have fit in the car aren't available for online ordering < face palm >

YW I would also try to keep J in nursery - he's bound to be unsettled going in for the first time after a few weeks away. F would be, and, iirc, she is at nursery much more than J? As to rooms. Guess it depends on temperament of new baby? In our old house, F and dsd would have been sharing, which would have been horrendous given how dreadful Fs sleep was is.

Zamboni am glad to hear big domestic was aborted! We were v restrained last time we went to Ikea. Think we bought a lightbulb.

PR boo to nits. They are the worst, I reckon. Just because they are so fucking stubborn. Good luck.

VQ I am glad to hear your cough is finally on its way out. About time.

Lily xx

Had a lovely day at the zoo today, F was a wee superstar. We have "woof woof" and "more" today She knows lots of animal sounds, so was a noisy trip lol.

Evening all :) much better day here on the eating front and quite a bit happier in himself too so maybe something has shifted teeth wise? He's mumping a fair bit and isn't asleep yet but we've had visitors so he's thinking he's missing something!

Little kickers sounds good gt :) and I am keeping e in a cot until he can climb out I think, I am in no rush to transition to a bed

Big hugs lily glad you're ok now

Glad you didn't see j at 2am stunt 5:30 is definitely preferable in my books!

Rubbish weather here too chick :(

Well done to your j too vq!

Eek! Well I'm glad you had a good nights sleep last night at least pr

What did you do with your 4 hours in the end pp?

Impressive again chasing :D

Aw bless you both yw, perhaps when baby 2 arrives you could maybe still put j in nursery but not as often? Bit of a compromise?

Nits hope they piss off soon if there are any pr

zamboni e was a bit of a so and so in tesco earlier! he isn't usually but he kept dropping to his knees if i dared change direction, and wailing when I picked him up!

Tomorrow, I hope the weather is better, and e is going for his pictures, hopefully! What's everyone else doing ?

Sorted R's room out and had a snooze on the sofa :o

www.wrigglesgiggles.co.uk/poppin-csp.php#!/~/product/category=9177011&id=35652117

Talk me into/out of spending out on these ^ please? I'm washing nappies anyway, right? And I use probably a pack a month @ £2ish a time so would have my money back in a year or so...

Farm animals are now all Baa here

Haven't found any yet. DD1 is loving all the grooming though :o

Just found out an old friend is upduffed with dc2. Am insanely jealous. Wtf. That was not an emotion I expected.

All animals, real and mythical, roar here PP. With a token eeeeek for a mouse and oooof for dogs!

We have ooof for dogs too Zamboni Lately he has been like a parrot, copying everything I say time to curb the swearing... and he kept repeating 'happy' to himself earlier . Was so lovely spending a full day with him. Next one will be in July when I have a week off work. We went for a meal with my family and every time I left his sight he properly screamed. A definite case of separation anxiety.

YW keep him in nursery. You will not regret it. You will need time to bond with DC2 and he will benefit from continuity and time to be a crazy loon which he will not get the same at home with a new baby. The bedroom issue is what put me off buying a house like yours as I would want to be on the same level as the kids. Keep baby in with you as long as you possibly can is my advice. My kids all have their own rooms although DD2 often gets in bed with DD1. They are allowed official sleepovers if it is not a school night, but would fight if they shared.

I have had a week of good sleep. I feel 10 years younger

Just saw animal sound chat. Not read thread.

Everything, everything meows in this house. I woke p from her nap yesterday and she opened her eyes and stretched and said "meeeeeow"

He was very jolly when I collected him so clearly enjoyed it. I just don't like the feeling that I don't know him as well when I don't see him all day, and logically I don't on those days.

VQ our bedroom is massive 22x22ft - and J's had an odd shaped arm / 'wing' off it because of how odd the attic conversion layout is. If we lost say 6 - 8ft off the width of our room - and used up the odd shaped wing from J's room we'd end up with two 10x9 kids rooms and a 22x15 master. Its only plasterboard walls (not load bearing) I wonder what it'd cost?

VQ that's the best news I've heard all day :o

No opinions on muff fluff then?

Jonas divided every animal in the zoo he didn't know the name of / or the noise it makes into Betsys or Miaows. Rhinos (initially a Betsy! Go figure?) got a "wow" and are his new obsession. I got him a wee plastic one so 'Nyeno' now goes everywhere with him.

PMSL @ muff fluff Pidj. Don't do it. My mum immigrated here in the 60s and sanpro are her number one best thing about 'civilisation' instead of having to wash out rags.

PMSL @ muff fluff Pidj. Don't do it. My mum immigrated here in the 60s and sanpro are her number one best thing about 'civilisation' instead of having to wash out rags.

Stunt my mum said the same about my nappies but then she had to crochet her own

I might knock some up when I feel in a sewing mood just to try. No scrubbing, just rinse and bung in the machine at 60 :o

Gross. But I say the same about reuseable nappies actually. I am green in as many aspects of my life as possible but sanpro and nappies are disposable in my house.

Why not go the whole hog and replace bog roll with washable rags?

Ehm. Not convinced by muff fluff. Purely my own issues - nothing actually wrong with the idea but I also don't fancy a mooncup.

Yes to nursery and yes to own rooms yw. I despised sharing a room with my sister and I always said I would give my children a choice. Seeing as you have space I would go with vq's suggestion.

I know exactly what you mean bp. Been there. I am so confused about what my womb wants and what my head wants and what my heart wants. It changed so often I have no idea how I will feel at any given moment.

My sister always had nits as a wee girl. Long flowing locks and a penchant for close contact. I was a cold fish with cropped hair so no such issues for me!

Pil have gone. P had an ace day as did they I think. She adores her grampa so much but sadly it makes granny a touch jealous. Any one else have a baby who doesn't like people trying too hard?