June 2013: Here come the terrible twos!

[HungryHorace]

New thread. :-)

Ha ha, yes, I think it must be! :-)

And no, wouldn't change it. Would like more sleep though!

I'm one of 3 but the thought of three terrifies me. 3 years between all of us so my mum could try to forget the awful morning sickness she had each time

I imagine 3 to be like Outnumbered. They'd run rings round us!

Quite. The clue's in the name It makes for quite funny telly mind you! I suppose once they are all walking/talking/sleeping/toilet trained then it's different. This bit where they aren't doing much of the above is quite intense...

That won't be happening as we have an agreement that she will stay my tiny girl:-)

How is Juno doing now, Bean? Share some more pics!
Exciting, Sunny! We were a bit careless last week and I'm slightly nervous about it. I fear two, never mind three!

You're all making me scared now. Am 7 weeks ish with no 3, and the way E is behaving right now (rampaging round her room while she's supposed to be napping, having managed to escape her CIT, even while wearing sleeping bag inside out so she can't get it off. Supposedly) I'm worried I might have bitten off more than I can chew.

Cot not CIT obviously!

My sister came round last night and helped me put Lil to bed. When I pulled out the duct tape to put Lil's nappy on she all but fell over. Despite having 3 kids close together she'd never heard of having to duct tape a child's nappy on.

Moral of the story? No matter how many kids you have the next one will still teach you something new.

All good here. And by all good clearly I mean more exhausted than I ever thought possible but there we are! Just found out that Sean will be paid for twelve weeks under his companies new policy for the shared parental leave. Bonza! Entertaining the idea of him taking some while I'm still off and heading off somewhere for an extended holiday.

Where would you go with a 2.5 yo and a six month baby?!

The back yard! We would probably stay in this country as I couldn't face the hassle of airports. So I'll keep out of this one!

DD looks to be dropping her nap, which is interesting. She's definitely slept better the nights she's had a much shorter nap. Just need to get DS onto 1 nap and life will become far more simple!

We are investigating a playgroup for DD too. There's a 2 hour 'leave your child' one at a local church for £6 a session that is apparently good, so DH's job next week is to investigate! Hopefully it'll work well til she gets her free hours.

The exhaustion of 2 is definitely far greater than 1, isn't it Bean? I didn't think that was possible.

Can your DH take his leave at the same time as you? It doesn't have to be after you're back? His company is very generous. I'm impressed!

Okay this exhaustion talk is scaring me.

When pregnant I could barely keep my eyes open through the day. In first few weeks of DS I would get so tired that my muscles stopped working properly (used to get shakey carrying a small baby at night). I appreciate the big blood loss and a refluxy babe won't have helped but I CAN'T be more tired than that!!!

I may be slightly late with it, but congratulations Aloha!

I'm secretly quite jealous of you all having/trying/about to have more. Have just had a massive clear out of dds baby things. Not sure what's in store in the future, but I figure IF another is ever on the cards then it'll be such a massive age gap things would probably need to be newer anyway. On the other hand, I also think I couldn't handle the sickness and lack of sleep again because the rare nights I am allowed to sleep right through are the best thing ever so clearly you're all crazy too

Bean - you go somewhere where there's easy entertainment for Polly in the doorstep (and beyond). So that you can keep to a minimum trying to manoeuvre two children to get to a certain place at a certain time.

We Center Parced for the first time ever earlier this yr. It had never been on our radar pre ds but made for a genuinely relaxing time as it was easypeasy. There were plenty of families with toddlers and babies, presumably for the ease factor. There's a similar place in Northumberland that's much cheaper . I wouldn't be brave enough to travel abroad with two dc that young but I'm a wuss

Pink, I remember us supporting each other through the nightly night wakings way back. We hired a sleep therapist back in January and it was sorted within a month! DS now sleeps through in an 11-hour stretch; I would never have dreamed it was possible. Best £200 ever spent!

That's interesting sunbeam - she is much better than she was and some times we can go a really good stretch and she sleeps 10hours, or longer. So I shouldn't really complain. Last night wasn't a good night, but, that's the worse it's been in a little while. Mainly now I can go in give her a pat and she goes back. It's come so far. And I think sometimes when you have good nights the one offs seem a million times worse than they actually are. If that makes sense.

Yes yes yes to occasional bad nights somehow seeming worse! I think my bodyclock tunes into regular wakeups and so they are easier to stomach. The unexpected ones are tougher to handle imo

We get tag teamed with bad sleep.

And poo.

Am I selling the idea of 2 yet?!

I think that's it Mrs. Especially when there is seemingly no reason behind either! I could do things exactly the same day in day out, and sleep would change. I kinda figure I have some night when I can't sleep etc usually the nights she sleeps. Oh the irony! guess they do too.

Yeah HH. You make it sound good I'm totally remembering how well you sell it for future reference!!

Oi enough of this "its so hard" talk. Just tell me about cuddles and squishes and first smiles.

Stop it! Stamps feet

Oh yes. I have fallen folly too many times of waking up at a time ds often wakes, and then stayed awake for ages anticipating a wakeup which doesn't happen. I fall asleep again finally and then ds wakes up. That's what they call Sod's Law :)

Sunny! I'll no doubt be joining you in the foot stamping in a few months. I'm still in denial that our decision to have dc2 means any of what we've just been discussing here. Obviously we would order a sleeping & calm baby next time...

We actually entertained the idea of campervaning round New Zealand when Polly was little but didn't because we didn't want to lose Sean's salary. Now we don't have to lose it but it feels overwhelming!

We went to centre parcs as well and it was fantastic. Perfect for their age!

We are going to lanzarote in September. Am hoping this won't be too much of a drama. At least with Polly in a seat it should be more manageable than not.

It's weird that with two I now wonder why I found one hard. Babies are like weight loss; the theory is straight forward, move more and eat less, but the reality is much harder. I'm bored of waking up twice yet the postnatal group is full of people who can't put them down, or they wake every hour etc. I can't imagine dealing with that!

Play Group sounds good HH. Does your children's centre not do something like that for free though? Ours does. Heavily oversubscribed though

Thanks everyone! Haven't read all the posts yet, but no, there was no signal in hospital! Just catching up on everything now.

Baby James arrived on Tuesday morning! I was very surprised when after all that stress I ended up being first on the list! He was 8lb 12oz which was a surprise too; DD was 9lb 10oz so I was expecting a massive one! Will put a couple of pics on fb. He's doing really well, is feeding like a pro already (unlike DD!) and my milk has already come in! Totally besotted with him!

Will read the rest of the posts later!

Hello! Long time no see, I think I lost the last (or last but one?) thread and have only just found you again!

So, M is 2 already, his birthday was 10 whole days ago (16th) :o he got a sand and water table and a balance bike, and is chuffed to bits with both! I'm not mentioning the 3 changes of clothes he got through today after tipping water all down himself...

He isn't saying much yet - I've just filled in the questionnaire for his 2 year check which is in about a week. Questions like
"is your child using 2 or 3 word phrases?" (No)
"can your child jump with both feet off the floor?" (No)
"can your child complete a simple jigsaw?" (no, although he could probably eat it...)
"is your child speaking at least two other languages fluently" (no)
"is your child studying astrophysics at Oxbridge?" (no)
I may have exaggerated slightly

Aloha congratulations - going from 2 to 3 is harder than 1 to 2 IME, simply because they suddenly outnumber you!

Pinky I am chucking out baby stuff left right and centre :o it actually feels quite good! Fortunately I seem to know lots of people having babies this summer, so there've been lots of grateful recipients.