November 2014 - The one where they won't stay still.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread, new moves, new poo!

Ahhh! Got it! well, just looked it up!

Precious First Born

Not enjoying being back at work much so far. Beginning to wish that I'd saved up more so I could've taken a year off. Maybe it will get better??! It's kind of ok once I get stuck in but I'm so fed up on the drive in the morning. Dd was oblivious yesterday morning so didn't cry much when I left, but this morning she got very upset. I haven't done a whole day yet though, as they haven't been able to provide anywhere for me to express, even though I did let them know I would need to do this, so I've been coming home early. I'm doing three days a week so not at work tomorrow but back in on Friday.

for you Caz, it's so hard.

DD done her first full day at nursery today, 8:30-5:30. She has apparently been happy as Larry, eaten all her lunch but not had her bottle at all. Feeding like a champ on the boob but refused bottle at nursery so far, though both her DGMs have got it down her no prob. Going to keep expressing for now in case it's just a settling in thing but looks likes she's going to wean herself off milk in the day eventually.

Although it's nice to know she is happy there, it's so so hard leaving her. I cried this morning which is so silly as she wasn't bothered about me going at all. Flipping hormones! Hand holding on offer for everyone feeling the same.

Can I ask how much your DC are eating now, in terms of variety? DD still pretty picky, keep trying new stuff or stuff she has refused in the past every few weeks but she's not having any of it!

DD starts nursery in less than 2 weeks and I start work in a month, the same week as DD1 starts school. I have no idea how any of this will work- DD2 has never spent more than 4hrs away from me, I haven't got round to reducing breast feeds, I can't remember if I did before DD1 started nursery, she still doesn't sleep and I will be working 13hr days on no sleep, I've no idea what will happen when I work nights as she feeds loads at night and mostly only sleeps in my arms, i can't work out what time we will need to get up to be ready on time on the days I am taking DD1 to school.

Last night she was awake 3-4.30am, and MN was broken so there was nothing to distract me from the tiredness, how fed up I was and how uncomfortable (after 9 months my back, neck and head are tired of sleeping sitting up).

Next week DH is away for 3 days on a course. My mum is coming to stay, which will inevitably involve criticising my parenting, especially that she isn't in her own room, that she wakes up at night, that I don't leave her to cry but go up if she starts crying after I put her to bed.
DD2 can't go in her own room anyway as DD1 ruined the carpet, the only decent carpet in the house as we got it new when she was a baby. While we weren't using the room we let her build a den out of child table and chairs and duvets and let her go up and play in it, thinking she would be having tea parties with cuddly toys etc. then DH discovered she had poured bubble bath/ shampoo/ baby lotion on the carpet and duvets, then he found engine oil spilled up there too (why the fuck was engine oil up there?). We cannot afford to replace the carpet.

Oh happy have a huge hug. You sound absolutely shattered and at the end of your tether. You are being an amazing mum to both your DDs, and especially to DD2 who clearly needs you a lot.

You do need to try to get a break somehow though for your own sanity. How can you engineer a couple of hours where you can have a break? Can your mum watch DD2 whilst you nap? And remember to try to ignore the 'advice' comments like the rest of us try to...They're not doing the full time looking after and time dulls the memories of their own difficult times. Sending you lots of love xx

Big hugs for those of you back at work ( im a bit jealous which is silly but I really miss my job )

Anyone's babies got eczema? Dd is absolutely covered in it. We've tried everything over the counter and the doctor gave us Ultrabase cream which is also doing sod all despite smothering her in it twice a day. Baths every other day in oilatum isn't helping either so back to the docs for us today. Want to avoid steroids so might go down the herbal / elimination diet route And see if it improves. Luckily she's not bothered in the slightest by it but if it starts cracking and bleeding she will be so sore.

I'll try and upload a pic later, can't do it on my phone for some reason.

twiglet in answer to your question, my dd is eating anything I put in front of her except weetabix . So, she's eating chicken, pork, beef, lamb, cod, salmon, sardines, lentils, butter beans and the whole variety of fruit and veg, cheese and yoghurt. ...basically, she takes after her mother and is a human dustbin

ark you probably have tried, but I will still mention -Aveeno cream. Few months ago DD had a dry patch on her forehead. I thought it could be eczema, it had all symptoms apart from being itchy. GP thought it was fungus and prescribed some cream, which never helped. Then somebody recommended Aveeno and the patch disappeared. Also the dry skin behind ears was gone in few days. Hope your DD is better soon.

twiglet DD is of them strange babies who like fish and seafood. Also she seems to like Spanish food, whenever I make something it goes down a storm. Potato tortilla yesterday, even though just 15 minutes ago she wouldn't eat anything else I offered.

DS has a bit of ezcema on his cheeks. I use Lanisoh, tbh. Just cos I have a half tube of it still hanging around (DS loves chewing on it, lol).

Huge hugs for you happy If I were you I've just plonk a blanket over the carpet, fuck it. Or go down to the pound shop and get a rubber backed floor mat.

By the way happy does she have a dummy? Cos it sounds like she needs to suck on something and you're it!

Aw, thanks everyone for being so nice about my exhausted moan.

I thought we could put a rug (possibly one which DD1 thinks belongs to her although she doesn't actually use it as it is her fault the carpet is ruined) or something over it, but DH claims the oil fumes are an issue. He announced this morning that he is going to borrow a carpet cleaning machine from someone on Saturday, clean it, then move her cot in on Sunday. This is unlikely to actually happen because he doesn't do things he says he will and the machine doesn't fit in his car.
anna no, no dummy. She's never had one and I guess I can't introduce one this late although I would be tempted if it meant we got some sleep.
thisis I don't know how I get a break. With DD1 my mum and MIL were looking after her for a few hours every now and then, not for my convenience but so she got used to them before I went back to work. They don't seem interested in doing that with DD2 though. There are 2 days in 2 weeks time when both DDs are at nursery. Maybe I'll spend them in bed! And, hard as it is, I will try to ignore my mum's 'advice' and comments. She says we were all in our own room and left to cry as soon as we came home from hospital, so her parenting is very different to mine. When I was pregnant I joked that I was having another baby so I would have one who liked me as DD1 is such a daddy's girl. That has backfired somewhat.

twiglet she eats a wide variety of things though not very much of them. She has been exposed to less of a variety than DD1 was because she can't have dairy, but is happy with reasonably spicy.

I introduced a dummy at 7 months in an effort to get better sleep. I was terribly conflicted and guilty at the time as he'd had zero interest in it before. But I was desperate to cut down the feeding during the night as he'd been eating by a good 6 weeks at that stage and I knew he mainly needed comfort at night by then.

I am not kidding when I say that it completely saved my sanity. I just don't know how he would have started sleeping through the night otherwise. I mean, how do you do it?! He'd wake up, i'd plonk the dummy in and he'd go back to sleep! He was still waking up the usual amount for about a month but then he started finding it himself (it was pinned to his front) and at that point I moved him out.

Now he half-wakes, fumbles for the dummy with his eyes closed, and goes back to sleep again. Its AWESOME.

At this stage I don't give a shit if he's still sucking on it at 4 like Harper Beckham! Whatever helps!

Anna I love your posts - they really make me laugh !!!

Happy, I think you are a saint

Happy I got to a very bleak place about a week ago where I was totally exhausted and feeling very unable to deal with life full stop. I never get to do anything that I used to do, but DP (despite being a good dad) still seems to get to do all his stuff (football on a Thursday, working on his car at weekends etc etc) and I am always left holding the baby regardless of what I'd like to do. Now some of this is unavoidable - we are starting to renovate a house which will take up all of our spare time and I accept that I will have to sacrifice things to a degree, but before last night the last time I rode my horse was the first May Bank Holiday. My horse is soul food for me and before DS appeared, he was the most important thing in my life bar nothing. I was beginning to feel like I was just a servant to DP and DS. I have no decent conversation to have with anyone any more which is knocking my confidence no end - all I seem to be able to talk about is bl**dy babies because I do NOTHING else day in, day out - absolute horror. Anyway, I had a complete melt down last Wednesday when DP walked in through the door and we ended up negotiating that he would come home early from work on a Wednesday night at 5pm, and that that time from then on would be mine to do what I want with, whether that be sitting on the sofa and letting him do everything with DS, or, like last night, getting out on my horse .

Hmmm, I obviously needed a bit of a rant...anyway, what I'm trying to say is can you negotiate something similar? I totally get how debilitating the exhaustion and constant looking after is.

If it's any consolation my DM does exactly the same. She frequently tells me to leave him crying, that I'm spoiling him/making a rod for my back, in her day they just left us to cry it out - she told me if I was crying she'd put me at the bottom of the garden so she couldn't hear me. We've always had quite a tricky relationship..... It's just what they did in her day - the research now shows that lots of input and attention now with babies who are clingy and need us means they will be more confident toddlers and children and that there are unlikely to be trust issues. (probably not much consolation to you at the moment when you're shattered) I can't tell my mum this because now that I'm a mum I know the guilt that she will feel and I can't do that to her, because she was only doing what they all did in those days and she thought it was for the best. I just tell her this is my way of doing it and leave it. (I do still get very cross, but ranting here is very cathartic!)

Ark I second the Aveeno cream. I've got the Shea Butter one for DS and it worked wonders on his eczema in under 24 hours.

Thanks Twiglet, you and other here have it a lot harder than I do but I can't help thinking that dd is too young to be without me yet.

Ark, the only thing that works for my persistent eczema on my hands is to cake it in emmolient cream (I got zeroderm from the docs) and put on a cotton glove over night. The doc told me to do this (steroid creams have been rubbish) but maybe check if that's a suitable thing to do with a baby.

Have I got the chubbiest baby out of all of us? 36+5 / 8.5mths and dd weighed in at 10.88kgs / 24lbs today

Oh god I feel spoiled, I've really felt like I can't cope this week, there's not enough hours in the day, I never stop, like, I never just sit down. Even when I sat down to watch bake off I was doing the tesco shop on line and listening to dp go through every possible scenario of how to decorate the house. Really, I just want to go to the gym sometimes and keep my allotment weed free BUT, I've no where near the challenges you guys have and dp takes dd for a few hours a day on the weekends. Perhaps I just need to adjust to working again and the whirlwind that comes with it.

happy dd was the same a few weeks back and suddenly moved to once or twice a night, it actually really helped to make the decision not to feed her every time she woke, I realised that I could rock her back to sleep in less time than it takes to feed her but you could just find what works for you. Can you put a crib in the living room and sleep on the sofa next to her?
I also didn't reduce breast feeds before going back to work and it's been fine. And I'd spent one day of 6 hours away from dd (as well as shorter spells she spends with dp) and again, she's been fine. It will be fine, just so whatever works to get you through the day (and night).

haven't great work feeding that girl! :) DD was 8.5kg at 8 months/34 weeks and she was 75th centile.

Dd has always been brilliant at eating, the only thing she hadn't liked was potato but just the last week or so she's got a bit pickier and outright refused the lentil bake I made her, she spat it out and then wiped her tongue over and over to get rid of the taste!! She liked it a few weeks ago!! Also not as keen on veg now, she used to love broccoli, not so much now. But also a fish lover, I buy the fish pie mix and just cook a few off at a time for her.

havent I bet she's lovely! Nothing like a lovely squidgeable baby. I think DD is about 8.5kg but I haven't had her weighed for a while as I am embarrassed to have to get her dressed again in front of the HV because it either ends up with me pinning her down with my leg or giving her my iphone to play with ... today she nearly bought me two garden loungers off ebay while I changed a particularly nasty nappy!!

Any other babies got no teeth yet? DD isn't suffering too much with it thankfully but she's been showing symptoms since 5 months. No signs of anything about to break through. She does get impatient with how long it takes to gum food down to swallow-able consistency. I really hope she gets some soon, I'd like to expand her food repertoire a bit.

DD starts at nursery two afternoons a week in september, while I do a bit of my self-employed work; then mid october I go back to work part time and she'll be there two full days a week. I'm kinda looking forward to it but also dreading it too. I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Hugs to everyone having a frustrating time at the moment. I know we've all got different things going on but I am finding this phase particularly tricky as they starting to show their personality and test us. I feel like I'm having to start learning to actually parent, not just be food/comfort supply. On the plus side they are so so super cute at the moment when they are happy and smiley.

No teeth yet and not the merest sign of any. But has been teething since 4 months!

Its getting a bit boring now!

Tooth 4, 5 and 6 came through this week, still waiting on the top middle 2 though... very strange little fangs going on for now.

With food though, deapite having teeth she prefers to chew with whatever part of the gum is hiding the next tooth!

No teeth here either - but again, has had the teething signs since she was about 3 mths. Last night she had a temp of 38.6..... am hoping that the 5ml of calpol sorted that out - will take her temp again when she wakes up. ...

Why is it that babies are most attracted to cables, plugs and chargers?!

There's a ton of toys in the room and all he wants is to play with wires and he's crawling like lightening now. How do you deal with this? I'm plonking cushions down in front of them but that isn't a long term solution!

On the plus side he's a LOT less whingey now he can get to things on his own. He's never been happier!

.....oh god he's just gone behind my chair to play with the standard lamp.....

Anna sounds like it's baby jail time!

Dd isn't crawling but can get from one end of the living room to the other and I have no idea how

Anna, I also have cushions in front of wires and a bag of plastic balls blocking the way to the corner with all the plugs. She's currently ignoring all her toys and playing with the Hoover!