June 2013; Toddling into our second year!

[BeanCalledPickle]

New thread ladies:-) I think we filled about ten threads when pregnant and this is only our fourth post natally!

Man these children do my head in. You've been in your bed an hour. It's pitch black in there. There is nothing to do. You are shattered because you only had an hour sleep today and spent the afternoon running round the zoo. So why are you running in circles round your cot? All I can hear is you singing tick tock tick tock and old macdonald had a farm. GO TO SLEEP

I suppose it's quite endearing and when she does sleep ahe sleeps well but for the last couple of weeks every nap and bed time has involved the hour of running around cot beforehand. She is NEVER going to be trusted in her own bed and will be in her cot until she is seven.

Oh I'm so glad I'm not the only failure. for the last 2 weeks bedtime has been a freaking nightmare.

Currently the child is employing guerilla warfare which involves howling from her bedroom Mummy Mummy Pease! Last night at 11pm she woke in a state and i ended up with a hairy torpedo in my bed (she slept at 90 degrees to me and kept hitting me with her head).

I had the perfect bedtime child before. Sobbing quietly into a glass of wine (thank god lent is over)

I blame the clock change. Bedtimes here have been atrocious all week. Tonight was the first time since pre-BST that didn't involve wails and tears and general dismay. Pity as it's also been our first week of full on busy-ness, each of us working 4 days etc etc.

Sympathy all round. And / accordingly xx

How do you explain the whole week before the clocks changed?

Personally I blame DH

Ah yes. That's true. Then yes, your DH was a twit! Hope things improve promptly!

Went to sleep at nine and woke up at 630. Urgh!

I think I'm having one of those days where you see the grimness stretching on forever. Can't imagine trying to settle her in a bed, or trying to toilet train or being summoned because she needs a poo at 3am! Couple that with a new baby in 3.5 weeks and it's overwhelming!!

Had a chat with a professional mum at work (she's had 3 kids so I consider her a professional rather than my amateur status) and she thinks I might have to start restricting Lil ' naps. Except I bloody love nap time. Almost as much as I love my quiet evenings.

What a dilemma

How much does she nap?

DD has one nap of around 1 & 1/2hrs.

I'm really going to miss my quiet evenings when baby arrives.

Yeah I was wondering that myself. She doesn't seem to need a nap as much anymore. Though the biggest disruption to her bedtime routine is if we go somewhere and she aleeps on the way home late afternoon. Then she really won't sleep easily at all.

I love nap time as well. But I guess it's days are numbered in terms of it being time for me. With new baby in the house I was never going to get the same peace and quiet!

I have mixed feelings about nap time - I love the 'time out ' but I get very stressed if he doesn't get his nap at the right time (as know this will result in chaos at bedtime ) and I hate the bind of it right in the middle of the day. We still get 60-90 mins as from 1pm

DD sometimes has more than 3 hours! But she only sleeps for about 10 hours at night so needs more during the day. She's never done 12 hours at night.

Our house is just constant naps with 2...almost always 1 napping from 9.40 until 4pm!

How do you ever get out Hungry??

DS still needs his nap. Anything less than 1.5hrs is a short nap for him. He conks out before midday. But yes, it does dictate plans somewhat. Like you Sunbeam I get quite stressed about naps happening but that's a hangover from when nights & naps were religiously bad and I was of the mindset that good naps = good nights.

I would be okay to give up naps if we could magically bypass the patch where they sort of need them and sort of don't!

DS is decidedly wonky tonight...only sleeping in 30min chunks & crying 'mummy' in his sleep. If he doesn't sprout spots in the next day or so I'll eat my hat.

I go to work. Poor DH us the one under house arrest!

We sometimes disrupt DS' first nap as he can catch up later, but generally it's a pain in the arse as I don't think it's fair to muck their sleep about. It was much easier with 1 child, it has to be said!

DH still has to have a nap if he's off work, so I can't see DD (who takes after him in most ways) growing out of needing one anytime soon!

I agree that it feels like a bit of a bind in the middle of the day. Though that's probably more in my head; if we happen to be out during nap-time she's good at getting through without and when we get home she'll just tend to have a shorter than usual nap. As long as she wakes by 4pm she's fine at night.

I'd forgotten how much babies nap; I remember that DD couldn't go for more than 1 1/2 - 2hrs without a nap for the first months!

Am smiling at thought of Cuphats DH- who I'm sure she has previously said is a big bloke of 6ft plus- having an afternoon nap:-)

Polly has the oddest nap time of all the toddlers I know. She tends to go back to bed at 11am and has her nap before lunch. It's nice in a way as we just never bother getting up and dressed etc until she is back asleep. Then when she's up we can all have linch together etc. Though if we plan to go somewhere of an afternoon then that will be when she decides not to sleep at all. She can definitely go a day with no nap but the next day needs to catch up.

I think most people end up a bit crazy about disrupting naps don't they? We have local friends we never see because their child aleeps 1-3 and neither of us is willing to mess around!

It's one thing I didn't appreciate with a new baby- you can take them anywhere and they will just sleep as they go. I will be making more of this next time!

His family do it too and it drives me mad. He likes a good 10hrs at night too. I was very surprised that he dealt with the sleep deprivation much better than me when DD arrived.

I'm glad you're all the same re naps. My family (who we don't see very often) think we're mad. They claim that my niece never napped after she was a few months old (I'm sure that can't be right!).

DD has never been good at sleeping outside of the house! She would just cry with tiredness until we got back!

The idea of DD going without her nap fills me with dread. She'd be an utter mess by 4-5pm!

Weirdly, after saying she never slept for 12 hours, she slept for 12.5 last night and was a delight when she got up. I'd much prefer that - with a 2 hour nap - to 10 ish hours and waking grumpy, but having a 3+ hour nap. Shame they don't do what's ideal though!

We had a lovely morning in the garden while DS slept today. He's not much of a sleep anywhere baby. He's OK, but it's not quality sleep. To be honest, I'm amazed he's sleeping at all right now as he has 6 - count 'em - teeth coming through at once. One popped through on the journey to my parents on Sunday. That screamathon was great. :-/

You don't make children that teeth easily do you?! Were you a nightmare teether as well? Apparently it's hereditary. Polly gets a bit dribbly and then there's the tooth. I'm very grateful for this! I hope the little one is the same.

Have you tried to manipulate her nap? What happens if you get her up after 1.5 hours instead of three? At nursery they have a choice between sleeping at sleeping time or not at all which you'd yhink would be a nightmare but actually seems to have established her in a decent pattern with minimal effort from us.

Looks like I've accidentally started maternity leave. My building shut last week because of the major electrical fire you may have seen on the news. It has failed to reopen. The electrics are fried. So there is a massive pile of files on my desk and my personal drawer is full of embarrassing lregnancy related things like pile cream and giant pants. Not exactly the smooth handover I had hoped for...

He was fine with the first two. I think the problem is the number coming through at once. I wouldn't want 6+ teeth sprouting at the same time either!

I've no idea how I teethed. But I had most of them before I was 1.

If we got DD up early she would be an utter mess and be tearful / grumpy. It'd be a nightmare. She didn't nap properly on Sunday or yesterday and it's not fun being around her at all. It's easier to let her just nap as she needs to.

Can you pop in once the building opens to fetch your stuff? Do you have a close colleague who could box it up for you? Not an ideal start, but it's a free couple of days off!

Enjoy mat leave Bean! Do you have any plans of nice things to do before Beanlet appears?

DS has chickenpox. And a cough and a cold. He was sent home from nursery with spots and a raging fever. He's just thrown up not long after most recent Calpol. He's now velcroed to me on the sofa watching tv. I'm watching spots appear before my eyes Poor little boy

I hope you're getting free time off before your actual mat leave starts, bean.

Hope your poor DS recovers soon, Mrs.

Yeah it's free time off. I'm trying to think of things to do but I'm so bloody huge it's difficult to do much!

No hat eating for you then Mrs! Hope the small boy feels better soon.

Lil has had a few occasions when she hasn't napped and was irritatingly fine. A bit manic but not terrible. This gives me the fear that naps are on the way out.

Generally the day after she's been at nursery she has a monster nap of 3 and a bit hours. DH woke her at 2.5hours today and it took a lot to get her up and then lots of cuddles once she was up. Bedtime is getting easier again though we've pushed bedtime back to 8ish rather than 7.30 - I'm hoping we'll be able to keep naps for a lot longer. Yes its an arse in the middle of the day but it gives me a chance to do housework sit on my bum and watch telly

Sit on your arse as much as possible, Bean, as you'll rarely manage it once number 2 comes along! I'm on holiday this week and I've still only just plonked my bum on the sofa...I was bloody planting tomato and sunflower seeds. As you do!

Sorry DS is ill, Mrs. I hope he feels better soon.

I'm keeping Polly in nursery while I'm on maternity leave. I don't want to disrupt her little life more than necessary. I also have no appetite for dealing with two alone! I don't think I realised last time that tiny babies are actually quite easy and you can do a lot so I'm looking forward to actually making more of the time. I have never watched breaking bad and now seems a good time to start!