November 2012 - Roll call!

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/2109948-November-2012-Bring-on-the-summer-fun

Calling all lurkers! If you're reading but finding life too hectic to keep up then please check in and give us a brief update.

Cross post pass we had dancing to ITNG here too tonight. I thought I'd videoed it but when done realised I didn't press the button properly! E now loves a wee dance. So cute. Glad P was back to normal at bedtime. Gives me hope!

Oooo I said wee. The haggis amongst you is rubbing off on me!

Oh shit, sorry. I forgot that stunt asked about bedtime. I sometimes get muddled between what gets said on here and what gets said on FB.

I would feel daft giving advice stunt as I have no experience but it must be so hard. I suppose it is only tradition that tells us that the wee ones go to bed first - if you can come up with something else which works then why not? Are the older boys likely to become more bedtime independent any time soon? Or is that missing the point? It seems a shame that it is so hard for you to get j to sleep. Seeing as DH is away I reckon you should come up with your own solution.

Sounds better eliza.

I decided to leave things as they are given some of the experiences of you and the other quichesters with more than one. Also like you we have big changes coming soon and I can't see that she will get through 5 days of childcare without a nap as she will be kept far busier than waffling around with me. Maybe that helped? Maybe she was just hugely over tired last night? Too hot? Hungry? Who knows

< waves >

Seeing bonny Scotland on the telly makes me want to come up and see the Scottish ones!

Stunt have no advice but whenever I have had problems with bedtime with L I went right back to basics. It seems to work but I know you have so much more juggling 3

Pass glad it was better and yay for mini Eliza and mini pass dancing. We get a full on concert from L most nights when ITNG is on!

Hiya to everyone. My brain is so tired with work and DH away and getting sorted.

F and I have an awesome bond, poor dh lucks out though. He tried to give me a cuddle this morning and F yelled "miiiine" before grabbing my leg

Does anyone else occasionally get a bit shocked/overwhelmed by just how much they love their little person/people?

Stunt what is it that stretches Js bedtime out for so long? Sounds tough

Glad to hear O was ok at nursery, Chasing.

Yes bp! I still find myself a bit stunned when I see a small walking, talking pocket-rocket actual human being who I grew.

I am glad she shares me with DH though. Poor dh!

Oh! I knew I had a story for you. Not very interesting now I have bigged it up.

We went a walk yesterday and p was full face licked by an over excited German Shepherd puppy. She likes dogs but it would appear she likes then from a distance. She was a bit shaky and stunned at it but chuckled a bit later on when I was retelling her the story - "belle the doggy said hello with her tongue, schlerp!!" But today when faced with a dog on a path she started to mutter "no hello doggy" and got a bit clingy and upset. Poor wee soul - the dog was much bigger than her and just came out of nowhere.

Hopefully she will get over it

BPLP I am. I have his pic as my work desktop and when I click to the desktop seeing him just takes my breath away. Any delay home gets me so antsy - despite being so fat and preggers I near gallop to nursery! Its utterly surprised me how tangible it is. He is a sook and seemingly is never (yet!) sick of cuddles. Tonight he was feeling peaky and just cuddled into the bump and played with my hair whilst watching ITNG so I cuddled and sniffed his head - bliss. Simple simple pleasures

Stunt I agree with Pass you know far more than us love! My sister tends to settle her eldest first and youngest and most demanding last if that helps?

I have been up and sniffed her curls twice already this evening She is just tooooo scrummy!

pass exactly the same happened to E a couple of weeks a go. (seems like E and P are copying each other!). She still loves dogs but if they get too close she says "bye bye dog" and asks me to pick her up. The same also happened to DD1 (this time from a dog who we knew but was bloody massive) and she took ages to get over it. I think she was 2 maybe when it happened and it's only in the past couple of months that she has started to like dogs again. She still gets a bit jumpy if they look a bit out of control. It's a shame as I love dogs and quite often think of getting one. It's the clearing up of dog shit that puts me off!

Forgot to say that in both my girls cases the dog actually knocked them to the ground. In DD1's case in the mud with the dog on top of her.
P will get over it. In a way I think it is good for them to be a bit weary of strange dogs. I always make sure DD1 asks the owner if she can stroke a dog before she touches them.

Pass I agree with Eliza wary of dogs is probably a good thing. J terrifies me by just bowling into strange dogs for a kiss and a cuddle if I don't scoop him up. Jumping up is one thing I wanted to teach Betsy not to do - its hard as she assumes all toddlers are her best pal and / or are furnished with biscuits but I don't want her scaring anyone. In all likelihood my yelling at her like a fishwife to 'sit' is probably more scary!

J is completely hyperactive at bedtime. He's completely bonkers. Tonight he was practically falling asleep into his dinner. He had his bath, bottle, PJs, teeth, sleeping bag, five board books and then whammo he's racing around his room like a mad thing. He won't lie down, he's twitching and juggling about, standing up, climbing out of bed, etc. DS1 is exactly the same: takes ages to get to sleep but when he's out, he's out. DS2 goes to sleep really easily but is a much lighter sleeper and is frequently up during the night. We're trying to do a gradual retreat method of getting J to go to sleep without us there but it's slowing gap. Nap times are exactly the same - unless he's out in the car he can't sleep. He used to be able to self-settle but all the disruption from starting cows milk put paid to that.

Oh and DS1 is 11 going on 5 so he's a nightmare at bedtime. He's still awake now and making noise in his room even though I turned all the lights off up there.

They are eliza!!

I did see this one coming as I noticed it running off the lead and the owner was pushing a buggy and shouting on it. P was pushing the buggy so I mostly managed to get myself between her and I but it was amazing how determined the dog was! It was repeatedly licking her face then her fingers then was in the bottom of the buggy licking p's dolly!!

P was fine and quite safe and the chap was apologetic so all is well. Thankfully she didn't end up pushed over as I am fairly jumpy of dogs myself. I agree that a wee bit of wariness is very sensible - I grew up among farm dogs who could be very dangerous and unpredictable if treated the wrong way. There were also lots of lovely ones who would sit and tell us stories so I don't want p scared.

Poor wee DD1! Being properly knocked over must have been be very scary.

O struggles to sleep some evenings. There is no rhyme or reason why. Some nights he goes down like a light off, some days, he cries for a while.

This evening was one of those. I don't usually get him back up. Only go in 10 min intervals to reassure and lie him back down or if he is really raging, rather than angry protests.

I took him back out the cot this evening because he was crying tears, and the room had reached 30 degrees and I thought fuck, he's just going to get hotter and hotter. I let him run about upstairs for 5 minutes while I went in to DS1's room to cry at the shit tip pick stuff up. I came back out to the landing to find O lay on the floor in the dirty washing piles I had just sorted, with every single manky dirty disgusting muslin cloth removed out of them. 7 cloths in his arms, cuddling them and sucking them all.

Honestly, it's quite ridiculous. So he went to bed with 7 muslin cloths. Which have now been removed for the wash!!

Often that's the only thing that settles him. Giving him more muslin cloths to be honest. The more he has the happier he is.

I suppose that's no help to anyone else though. But just thought I'd say, I think it's happening quiche wide. So it must be normal.

Hey stunt would it help at all if your DS1 read J his stories while you put DS2 to bed then you could put J down while DS1 maybe watches a bit of tv to chill before you then get him to bed?

I expect if it was going to help you'd have probably already thought of it. Just thought I'd mention it as a friend gets her eldesr to read to her youngest in the evening if she's in a rush to get them to bed before going out and it's lovely for both her kids. Made me look forward to the day that my DS1 could so that for L or I occasionally!

My boys have been in nursery today and DD was lovely and chilled out so I was able to get some work done whilst she slept then headed out to town for a bit of window shopping and some tea and cake. While I miss my boys when they are at nursery, it is lovely being able to enjoy a peaceful cup of tea and a newspaper with a sleeping baby. Something it is virtually impossible to appreciate first time around when everything is so worryingly new.

L is really soppy at the moment too, interesting to hear that the other quiche babies are as well.

That would be a good tip Rowing but DS1 struggles with reading aloud. He either goes too fast or he over exaggerates everything and it sounds weird. He's having a real issue with rebound hyperactivity at the moment so in the evenings he's running around, shouting and being silly. His impulse control is awful. Last night he locked himself in the bathroom so he could keep reading his book. I don't know what's worse: that he's sneakily reading after lights out, or that he thinks I'm too stupid to know what's going on. I would be sympathetic to him reading at night but he can't get up in the morning. I have no idea how he's going to make the school bus at 8:30 when school starts next month. So DS1 doesn't have the self-control to get himself to bed and DS2 still needs to have a bedtime story. DH is back a week on Friday so we may start some sleep training then but it's a difficult time of year with it being so light. I'm going to take J to soft play today in the hope that it will wear him out. Swimming might be good for that too.

That sounds exhausting stunt. How are you coping?!

No. More. Egg

Having got entirely used to 8am starts, 5.45 was a liiiiittle bit early today. And my word, what a wee whinge bag!

for everyone.

Us too BigPig I blame Pom Bears.

My main way of coping is by shouting at the children and crying a lot Rowing. I'd rather let J's bedtime go to pot than have another day like that. FFS my DH has only been away since Monday.

stunt you might be better off, for the time being, in settling the older boys first and then J. You know yourself thought, it is all trial and error and where kids are concerned there is never a magic answer as one size doesn't fit all and what does fit one day doesn't the next. What would I do if it happens when the girls are over next week. Well..... I would.....cry. No. I would probably not exactly settle the girls down but put them somewhere else with a book, or maybe a film, you are lucky in your house that you have loads of different living areas so you could do that with the boys.

I would settle DS1 to quiet play with his Lego, then I would do warm milk and story with O.

My other option will be, if it is warm like this, to embrace it and put them all outside In Their swimmers and turn the sprinklers on, have a glass of wine and watch them get over tired, then though all my damp, suncreAm smelling, happy children to bed.

In fact it probably will happen on a least one day as they will all be overwhelmed with excitement to see each other.

I better get some early nights this week hadn't I?

Am I a wuss for being In tears because my fridge freezer has broken down?

As well as the fact I have a fucking bin issue which is so confusing I won't go into suffice to say I have overflowing wheels bins and every bin the the house is full to exploding.

And a headache.

And I wish today would just go away.

Afternoon everyone :) E has been hilarious this morning! Really funny. I gave him cereal with milk this morning and it hasn't made him sick which is good. It makes no sense to reinstate a bedtime bottle does it, since he's gone to sleep without it fine for over a week now? Would there be anything wrong with a before bed snack or cup of milk or something?

what a clever little fellow yw!! E has apparently told MIL he needed a poo but has yet to replicate it! I suppose I should actually get him a potty or something. I remember when my siblings were little mum had some of those brightly coloured stairs that go on the toilet, are those considered any good alongside or instead of a potty?

I'm not sure how you're coping with that heat lily!

E can be nuts before bed too, but touch wood goes down ok, particularly atm

gt i had waves of happy come over me this morning as I had time to clean the bathroom

bless him chasing sounds like he's doing so well at nursery!

stunt I wish I had some advice for you, sounds exhausting!

ITNG dancing sounds cute :) E doesn't watch it, but my nephew used to love it

Yes bp sometimes when he sits on my knee and his little fingers are playing with his hair or stroking my arm and he doesn't seem to even realise he's doing it I feel like I might burst. Or when he points at me and grins his biggest grin and exclaims 'MAMMY' and then runs up and hugs my legs. Sorry to hear the egg didn't do any favours :(

Pass hopefully p will get over her scary doggy encounter - I do think being wary of strange dogs might be better than assuming they are all friendly as unfortunately they aren't.

Your muslin story made me chuckle det he has a real obsession with them doesn't he!

oh wanda you sound like you need some hugs. Have plenty of them and rest assured I too would be in tears. The bin issue would stress me out too. Do you have cover on the fridge freezer? or is it in warranty? Hope you manage to get it sorted, and have some more hugs xx

We've loosened the reins here. The stairgate is open most of the day, so he now gets to wander the house. So far so good. I'm a bit inner stressed about it when he goes off upstairs. I get visions of him doing what he usually does when I'm there so makes no bloody difference things he shouldn't be.

I've also let him go in and and out the garden free range, as it's all safe for him now.

He's currently running up and down the hall way 'hoovering'. He likes the hall as it has laminate, and is good for rolling toys!

We've spent the morning in the garden, and had hours of water fun with the hose pipe!

Wanda those things would send me in to melt down. You aren't a wuss! I hate stresses like that.