September 2014 - Babies turn 1!

[lilone1234]

First birthdays are starting to arrive and our babies are becoming toddlers! What will the next year have in store?

Thank you for the nice words everyone. xx Oh Team, that sounds hard too. I remember how hard it was when DH had his op and couldn't help for a few weeks so you have my every sympathy. I'm also the higher earner out of me and DH and there's no way I could afford to go part-time. To be honest we struggle for money as it is.

Reading all of your posts I feel I am very lucky with work. I do three days a week and it's not really a job I can take home nor am I expected to work long hours. I have to say though that I do feel like I'm doing a full time role in a three day week. Which is inevitable I guess, especially if you don't start out as part time but you drop your hours. People still give you the same volume of work. But I shouldn't complain, I'm very grateful for what I have.

Calpol has been out recently here to. Seem to have one cold just rolling into the other at the moment. DS refused his breakfast so I knew he was feeling unwell this morning, he loves his food! Today was actually the first time I have ever popped into the nursery to see how he was doing. He was fine, giggling away as I peered through the window. Was really nice to see actually.

I can report no pregnancy here either this month. Felt a bit disappointed but not too worried. More annoyed with DH for being so bloody big headed saying I definitely was pregnant and it would happen on our first try. He thinks it's funny but it's not. Hopefully he's learned his lesson.

Fever every where then, we also had to give two doses calpol last night for high temp he's been better since.
Zana I completely understand why you did what you did, if my work was not flexible with hours I would do the same
Fate your explanation on being SAHM mum was lovely. I do completely agree with everything you said... Only in my life I would prefer not to be the one staying home, and dh is same,so we don't get anywhere I guess
Kitkat thats so so difficult, I very much feel for you; is 15 hrs standard for nurses? And for such difficult speciality too ...
Team , I understand your experience too...
I feel so lucky with work -hearing all your experiences... I work full time but can be flexible slightly with starting and ending time which is brilliant ; i can take time off as and when necessary from my AL, but I have to deliver for all deadlines and i have to show profitability ...

Have to now go check on ds to see if he is hot again

Resigned today! I'd planned this for Thursday but have been feeling anxious and strange since last week with the anticipation that I just did it today.
Thank you for all your thoughts on the subject, it's been good to see everyone's different viewpoints on here.
In my ideal world I had wanted to come back to work for three days, or worked longer days equating to full time but it's difficult to get that with my job( I had something lined up but that fell through). I do realise that I am lucky in being able to quit and knowing that we will manage ( ok so work on the house will have to be pushed back and we may have to skimp on holidays etc ). I am actively looking for another job though, hope something turns up!

Hope all the poorly babies feel better soon. z has had a constant cold and an awful cough pretty much since the end of September! I've had her checked over to make sure there was no serious infection in her chest ( thankfully no) and have resigned myself to her being like this until the weather improves.

We've been dosing with paracetamol and ibuprofen ( but v sparingly ) as have nursery ( usually a phone call from them to okay it with me as she's fine when I drop her off but is stripped down to her nappy by the time me I collect her just before they close). I do wonder sometimes if I withhold the pain relief too much, but if she's eating and drinking okay I let her body fight it that way. It's still horrible seeing her ill though.

Awww Zana she is beautiful. Good on you for resigning too.

Well done for resigning! How do you feel about it all now? Your DD is so cute, such gorgeous hair!

I'm feeling "lighter" if that makes sense. DH is convinced that they will offer me what I initially wanted ( 3 days) and that I'd be mad to turn it down ( close to home and nursery) but I very much doubt that will happen.
Laughing at DD's hair this morning as she reminded me of Krusty the clown from The Simpsons! It's so unruly on both sides of her head!
She likes to dance to anything! And is obsessed with Raa Raa the Noisy Lion on CBeebies but I do try and ration it.
We started sending her to bed without a dummy last Thursday and so far so good apart from last night where I had to give in.
Has anyone got to dropping the bedtime feed yet? How did you go about it?

Good on you for resigning. It must've been a huge relief. What did your employer say?

If we could afford for me give up work / take a career break I'd love to. Work is so stressful at the moment and there is currently no sign of improvement any time soon. I feel like I'm doing a bad job of everything, work, home, being a mum. We're on holiday in a couple of weeks & I can't wait.

We give DS a cup of milk about 6pm while he's playing downstairs. Some nights he drinks it all, others he's not fussed. We could probably drop it all together but we struggle to get enough fluids in him so I don't really want to drop it until he's upped his water intake.

DD is also a RaaRaa fan, but she's totally obsessed with Mr Bloody Tumble. Tumble is one of the words she can say, and she asks for him far too often!

I would like to keep DD having her bed time milk, similar to Topsy, mainly as she's crap at drinking enough liquids no matter how much I try! I would like to stop using a bottle though. Does anyone have a good non-spill milk drinking vessel suggestion?!

Oh, and DD has started singing recognisable tunes! Cutest thing ever. Just got another molar coming through, but still no top front teeth or any canines. DH is convinced there is something wrong with her teeth

We've got a miracle cup Team. It's fab. They drink out of it like a normal cup but it has a silicone seal on the top which only opens when your lips press on it. DS chucks his all over the place & we only get the odd drop out if it lands face down on the floor.

http://www.munchkin.com/uk/cups/spoutless-cups.html?store=europeuk

We got ours from Sainsburys for about £4. We've got two at home, one at the CM & one at DMs. He only uses them for his milk but you could use them for water too. It doesn't matter what we put his water in his just doesn't want to drink it.

Team, DD doesn't have her top front teeth or canines either. She has six teeth - middle lower incisors, lateral uppers, and top and bottom premolars on the right. Wonky grin! I can feel the top middle incisors under the gum, so I know they're on their way. Eventually.

Ladies please tell me how I can get ds to eat with spoon and fork instead of with his hands? I am failing...

Oh and Fate, your post about the impact of house price on the whole life is so so true and interesting. To be honest I never thought about it like that, but it all makes sense... There may be also other reasons for me not wanting more than 1(/2) kids or being SAHM but it is not as if I have a choice either, while living/working in Great London ...

Sorry sorry for three in a row- I forgot to say Zana, she is so cute and beautiful x

I can't imagine what no front teeth looks like in a baby our children's age. Then again, my Mum tells me my cousin was 18 months before she got her first tooth.

DD sometimes doesn't have her bedtime milk at all. I suspect the milk-as-a-drink stopping will mark the end of bottle use, rather than needing to force the bottle issue.

I have just started giving DD a spoon and fork Nazly. Not for 'wet' meals that would get messy. But for meat and veg kind of meals. I also have a spoon and a fork and well as DD having hers and we do a lot of swapping. I stab something with my fork and leave it on the tray. Or I load a spoon and leave it for her to pick up. Then I take the spoon/fork she put down when she picks up mine, and load that one ready for her. She has started getting the stabbing action independently from watching me - she'll be using a fork before a spoon.

She does some funny things with the spoon and fork though. She spent ages stabbing a carrot with a fork the other day and as soon as she's speered it, she then removed it from the fork using her fingers and ate it with her fingers. Or she spent ages picking up individual peas and putting then into a spoon with her fingers, which defeats the object of cutlery.

Fate - the pea putting into spoon sounds adorable!

I also just give spoon and fork and do similar to Fate, Nazly. Sometimes she wants to try, other times not. With her being a fussy eater as it is, I'm happy to let her eat with her hands still if she eats something!

That's also biggest reason for not dropping bedtime milk here. She doesn't eat enough dinner and always drinks her bedtime milk so don't want her to wake up hungry! She has that in a cup now too so we are off bottles! She's also showing interest in drinking from an open cup rather than a free flow beaker but gets a bit over enthusiastic!

Zana - your little girl is beautiful!

For those of you who have been on holiday, did it wreck your DCs sleep? DS is finally starting to wake less and sometimes sleep a bit later. We are going way next week (woop!) for a uk break and as much as I plan to keep to our routine as best we can Im worried his sleep will go to pot when we get home!

Polka we didn't have too many issues when we've been away. Try to keep routine etc as familiar as possible. DD was a bit unsettled whenever we've been away for the first night or two (presumably because she was in a strange place) but soon settled. xx

Also meant to say well done to Zanashar on handing your notice in. Hope you find another job quickly. xx

My favourite thing at the moment that DD does is she's started trying to copy the actions to 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. It's very cute. :)

I love the putting the peas onto the spoon thing Fate! So cute. xx

We just stuck to our usual routine and it was actually all fine. The most difficult thing was all being in one room. One morning she woke quite early and tried to wake DH by whispering "Daddy"!

We have only recently started DD using a spoon, and then only with relatively stodgy things like risotto and porridge. We each have a spoon and I sometimes help the food to get on the spoon and then encourage her to stick it on her mouth! In between all this I just shovel in as much food as I can, otherwise meals would drag on for hours!

Pleased to hear that other people have little ones with similar teeth development

Thanks all. Am planning on taking his bunny, duvet, books, dream sheep etc!

DS does try to pick food up with a fork and scoop with a spoon but he isnt great at it. I often have two so load one while he is shovelling the other in!

Thank you all - I have a feeling her little face is going to get her out of a lot trouble in the future!!! she's starting to get v grumpy now when she doesn't get her way.............no matter where we are!

Polka we were away for a week in September and I had the same worries but Z was great and there was no real disruption to her sleeping (apart from on the flight over). Hope it all goes well and enjoy your time away!
We made sure we took her favourite toys for sleeping with, and half our luggage seemed to be her food and nappies etc.

Nazly don't feel like you're failing because your DD isn't using a spoon yet, because even once they do get started they will 'relapse' and go back to everything being fed to them. Z was regularly and somewhat successfully grapsing the concept of a spoon to eat food but now has decided she prefers to use her hands.........even for breakfast cereal and mushy foods! Giving her her own spoon and having one for yourself to use definitely helps though (I found it stopped her from getting bored and allowed me to sneak food into her before she realised - sneaky but effective), but when she ends up wiping a loaded spoon all over her hair................

Today she called someone by their name, unprompted ( it was Monty the cat though). Now to teach her the other two cats' names!

At the risk of outing myself this was DS at Christmas. Ive always enjoyed seeing everyone elses DCs and how much they've grown. Can we see a few more pics everyone.