November 2014: The one that needs baby-proofing!

[ladydolly]

And maybe ends with 1st birthdays!!

Frequency even

Ha moggle it's so funny you say about green leafy vegetables! Few months ago one of my friends shared on FB article in Spanish by some doctor who seams to be an authority there related to babies and their feeding. He was saying that as soon as a baby can chew on a piece of paper she can also chew on a lettuce. I was "Oh, I got that nice lettuce in the garden, I should give one to dd!" She might have been able to chew it, but she was very clear she would not touch the thing. It's only about now I can trick a leaf or two into her...

Actually later today dd started to eat proper food for lunch and dinner. It has been as if the light has been switched on! So I quietly hope shout out loud on Mumsnet we might have a better night tonight. I start to think it's a cold and teething 2-in-1 with her, she even tried to get her teeth into the bar of the swing seat.

Lady in my case it's more of an intention than the plan, I keep my options open

Lady dolly same feeds here Inc the night :)

Ha, ladydolly, I don't really have any plans for anything at all. I'm just muddling through the days and the nights as best as I can, just trying not to fuck anything up too much, that's all I can hope for most days.
It's half-term this week and I am off work so not as exhausted as usual but still...

On a brighter note, I got my 4yr old to try her new school PE kit on this evening as they need to start taking it to school after half-term. She liked the plain white t-shirt and blue shorts so much she is wearing them to bed
Also, there is such a thing as cat toothbrushes??! Is there such a thing as a cat that will let you brush its teeth?

happy that is why I have so many unused cat toothbrushes! You get one on the lid of the toothpaste we buy. I just let them lick the paste off my finger as that's supposedly better than nothing. They will let me touch their teeth and mouth when relaxed sitting on my lap but I think as soon as a brush got involved they'd be, wtf is that?!

hello everyone it is green here, sorry to be awkward for the purpose of the thread but I have NCd.

Been a while since I last checked in, we've had a bit of a time of it, both dds have had croup, dd2 first (scary and knackering) and then dd1 (only a tiny bit less scary and knackering). It has now been two full months of non-stop nursery bugs (particularly for DD2) and I am so fucking sick of it. It does however serve us right for being a bit smug about DD1's excellent health to date because it's clear to me now that it nothing we were doing or not doing it was just that she didn't go to a bloody nursery!

Anyway. The consensus seems to be that it's all good for their immune systems in the long run but I am a bit darkly suspicious about this -- at least if they get struck down when they're older they can talk and are marginally less miserable...?

So in the face of constant illness and four new teeth sprouting, sleep has been a bit elusive of late. We did however change things up so that DH now puts DD2 to bed and does gradual retreat with her. It has worked so well so quickly. (I had tried it with her before and it worked not at all, but it seems that dad-power was required here.) The second night he did it she slept 7.30-3, quick feed, back down til 7.30. Much rejoicing that morning. Since then however the cough has kept waking her so although she's going to sleep on her own quickly she is still waking up lots. Not much to be done about that but at least it's a good habit established.

In the middle of it all, DH decided I really needed some sleep and a break (I really did!) and took DD2 away to MIL's - 2 hours away- for the night. My first 24 hours (more like 20 actually) without her! I feel a bit awful saying this but it was fab. DD1 and I went to the cinema together and for a bite to eat afterwards, then home to bed. I kept thinking I had to be on high alert for DD2 all night. It wasn't exactly a night of unbroken sleep as DD1 was doing the barking cough a bit and I also had to get up to express, but it really felt like a break. And DH got on OK with DD2, he basically coslept with her for most of the night. She has been his stalkerish fan ever since.

Dropping bottles, dummies or feeds on the brink of 1 is something I just can't get worked up about. Once DD1 was off the boob at 13/14 months, she had a big cup of milk before bed and one again in the morning, also I think she had one before or after her afternoon nap if memory serves. The bedtime milk in particular she just loved and she kept that up for at least a year afterwards, possibly more.

DD2 has 2/3 breastfeeds during the day and 1/2 at night 9and a small cup of formula on weekdays). She likes formula so over time we will probably gradually replace/merge it with cows' milk. Going to buy the expensive cows' milk that has added vitamin D as we forget to administer it all the time.

Eating has nosedived a bit after a great start :( I'm 'glad' (not really but you know what I mean) to see it's not just her being fussy. Because she is so tiny I am sneaking olive oil and nut butter into anything she will eat at the moment.

DD2 is one on Hallowe'en. I thought she would be walking by now, but she has been mown down by so many bugs she hasn't had as much chance to practice. She is not far off it, but is so fast at crawling she may not have a huge incentive to walk yet either. Words have really taken off though, and she is now going around shaking her finger at various things that are 'Hoh hoh!' (e.g. my tea and the stove).

Finally: anyone got any ideas for a Hallowe'en birthday cake?! I have purchased orange food colouring and black food colouring (classy) and nothing else.

Hi Half / green :-D
Wow sounds like you've been through it :-( We are almost at two full months with a streaming cold since starting nursery, although last week we randomly had a break which was nice. DD's eating was awful at the start of the colds, having at last got the stage of eating a good variety and amounts, we were down to a few bits of cheddar and some fruit for most meals, for about a month. I was despairing but she's getting a bit better now.

Our DD sounds a bit like yours too - she's rock steady on two feet and can stand up fully, without holding onto anything - the only one in our NCT group who can - but two of them can walk already! She's so speedy at crawling she definitely doesn't see the point! We are being a bit PFB and making her practice by holding our hands and walking with her. DH is being quite competitive over it, keeps saying "She hasn't done ANYTHING first out of the NCT babies" (I add, apart from being born!)

What about some kind of cobweb cake? orange buttercream and drizzle some lines of black coloured thin (icing sugar/water) from the centre to the edge and join them up to make a cobweb? Could make a butterfly cake with black colouring to be a fly, or spider with some licorice legs?!!

Cobweb cake - yes! perfect, thank you moggle. Great idea and it sounds simple enough for my tired brain. My go-to cake is a Delia Smith fruit sponge as it's so easy to make, but I can't think of what fruit would be Hallowe'eny enough for the filling. DH said mandarin oranges would be weird, fair enough. Kiwi and passionfruit? Gah. I'm OK at baking usually but the thermostat on the oven in this new house of ours is a bit dodgy so it will have to be something quite simple.

Oh DH is SO PFB...about DD1 and she is nearly 4! I think he will always be pfb about her but that's okay, it's allowed :)

With DD2, if we try to hold her hands she shouts and yanks them away but can be seen secretly standing up by herself if she thinks we're not watching. No pressure! Her favourite thing to do is push DD1's child's chair up and down the hall, using it as a walker.

It is interesting about the crawling though. I can't get over how fast DD2 is. DD1 was a crap crawler but walked a day before she turned 11 months.

Halfstar I sympathize with the coughing ds2 has had this cough for 2mths now and I am pretty certain it's developed into croup going back to doc on Fri, ds1 has also had it 2weeks and husband had it last week. Poor ds2 has been at nursery 8weeks and just seems to have been unwell the whole time not ill enough not to go but colds/coughs etc. Gp did the whole it's better for the immune system while young etc.

Halfstar poor DD, lots of snot and cough in this household as well, both DD and DH have cold, so I am on inevitable waiting list to be next.

Maybe this serves for some further cake inspiration although I do like cobweb cake idea, not as creepy as some of that stuff:

satinice.com/fondant-tutorials?field_t_tags_tid_1%5B%5D=527

Am realising I'm getting away with murder not using a nursery.

Have noticed people recently saying he "should" be in one though, for socialisation. One more thing to be paranoid about, lol!

Anna I've had that too, we go to enough baby groups and friends for socialising so I think dd is ok lol

Argh! The playing around / shouting / chatting / laughing / crying / throwing herself around her cot bed has started again . Went on from about 9.30 - 12.15 this morning. Picked her up a couple of times to try and calm her down, but then it all kicked off again within a few minutes of being put back to bed. .. really hope this doesn't continue over the weekend as it's the first time I'll be on my own with dd during the night. ...

Anna unless your DS shows huge interest in other babies and need to interact with them I would relax. We have very similar setting at home with DH working from home most of time and me not being big with baby groups. In September on a flight I noticed DD was all over other kids, she had to grab at every child passing the isle and smile/shout at them. So I thought I better drag ourselves to some of the groups to give her opportunity to socialise with other kids. First two weeks she was quite salvage in the groups, she would shout out and wave at every single baby and parent walking through the door and act to attract everybody's attention. Now 4 weeks later of baby groups and she could not care less about other kids, she is after me there because I can give her hand to walk around the place.

There are tiny kiddies next door and when we meet them iutside he just looks at them rather nonplussed. So I don't think he "needs" it, really. That said, if we have No2 he's going whether he needs it or not! But thats ages away.

Though my period better come soon. We are officially trying etc but I told DH that I was on Day 32 and no sign and he almost burst into tears! "Noooooo!" DS has been particularly hard work this week. His sole nap has stretched to 2 hrs but he's still bloody tired constantly i.e. Whiny, defiant and refusing to eat dinner. He's on a 6-6 schedule ever since the clocks changed (though he wakes us at 5.30) and we're having zero luck pushing him later in the evening. Total meltdown. So we are exhausted and feeling SO OLD right now. DH looks like he needs a Zimmer frame some mornings!

Oh and DS has started whining loudly whenever I go into a shop with him as he finds them boring. He likes the street. I was in Boots yesterday at the till and he started "Neeeehhhhhhhh" and when I shushed him and turned back to the lady it just got louder. "NEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!" I was mortified!

........IT BEGINS......

havent when we have those nights the following night is usually better as he's so tired, so fingers crossed for tonight.

Some idiot rang the bloody house phone at 4am!!! Dd slept through it which is nothing short of a miracle as the phone is in the hall next to her room head .

Holiday was a success! We kicked dp onto the camp bed so dd and me could have the big bed to ourselves as she wasn't sleeping for more than half an hour in the travel cot. I woke up halfway through the night on the Saturday to see a little stripey bum sticking up while she slept

Our local NCT Is running a 'low bangs' fireworks night on Sunday , they've got an indoor soft play for under 2s and were meeting up with some local baby friends. I'm so excited!

Ark Sounds like a great weekend!

We didn't have much luck with the antibiotics but luckily the childminder had zero problems so we just let her do it! So she's been much better since Wednesday, I'd almost forgotten how happy she normally is.... until last night. She went down at 7 no probs but woke at 10 and didn't go back down until bloody 2am. She'd just cry as soon as we put her down. I was so tired I just couldn't take it. I was probably making it worse as she wanted boob on and off the whole time and I'm sure I was empty. She's done with the bottle, wants nothing to do with it at night time so it's all down to me again. I think she had a tummy ache, she was sneaking out some stinky farts!

anna babydolly also very vocal in shops but I put it down to her liking the acoustics! I can't believe how much she's talking now, I mean obviously it's baby babble but she accurately copies words we've just said to her now and again and it totally freaks me out!!

I taught her early on how to get down from the sofa/bed by sliding off backwards on her belly but in Dubai the bed was really high so when she landed she fell backwards and it's scared her I think because she's not tried to get down since then :(

lady dd did the same! Went down at 7 and up at 9:30 till nearly 11:30. I kind of got to the end of my tether and left her in the living room with DP and buggered off for a late night dog walk!

Dd really was just awesome this weekend. It was cold and windy and she had to spend a lot of time in the buggy because there's nowhere safe for her to crawl due to the cars moving about all the time but we hardly had any whinging. Dp did amazingly well on track too bar a minor prang on the end of Sunday's track time meaning his car is now a bit wonky at the back. It's so lovely just seeing him really enjoying himself. Dd was in her element with all of dps mates holding her and sitting her in their cars. I'll try and stick up some pics this evening when I can use the laptop without a certain someone 'helping'

Oh we had 2 and half hours of crying stuck on the m25 in solid traffic coming home but tbh im doing my best to block That memory out!

If you get a spare 5 minutes pop over to the thread about Xmas on discussions of the day - it's lovely!!

Anna does your ds nap at 9.30am or earlier? If you're wanting to get him back to more of a 7-7 routine but struggling to push bedtime past 6pm, I found the best way is to slowly shift the morning nap a bit later. So if he naps at 9.30am, move it 5mins later every 3-5 days til it consistently starts at 10am, wait a week or so to let him adjust & see if he starts waking a wee bit later (he should) which will enable you to also shift bedtime out a bit more. If he's still getting up earlier than you'd like, push the nap slowly on towards 10.30. Eventually he will nap after lunch say 12.30ish but this may not be til he's more like 15-18 months.

I did this with my ds who was an early waker & it worked a treat and plan to do similar with dd once she is better. We currently do up 6.30(ish) nap about 10am (usually 1.5-2.5hours) & bed 6.30/7pm. She occasionally has a short catnap late afternoon if morning nap was on the shorter side but this means she needs a later bedtime.

We've had a bit of a crappy half term week so far with dd being poorly. She's had loose nappies, eczema flare & a cold, plus she's teething so nights have been horrendous & she's now starting to cry the moment I put her in the cot . Hoping she's over the worst soon.

Seems like there are a few of us having the same problem at night. ..last night dd was up between 8.30-12.15. So far tonight she's been asleep maybe 20 mins since going to bed at 6.45 . Think it's gonna be another long night. .. good luck to everyone else!

Fallen off the thread yet again.
We've fucked about with sleep the last 2 Fridays and last night I just couldn't get him to go back to sleep when he woke at 0345. He wanted boob so much that dh had to take over. Luckily he did go back to sleep for him.
Morning nap continues to be quite easy with no boob but he wakes in the night and if it's before about 0300 it's easy enough but later than that and he's hungry and sleeps lightly so very difficult. I really don't want to start him on a cup or bottle of milk or revert to boob at that hour. Any thoughts?

no omama he naps from 10.30 - 12.30!

Mind you he slept till 6.15 this morning and we didn't get him up till 6.30. This is huge for us.

Took ds1 to a Halloween party this evening and dh stayed home with baby and knew I would be back 7.15 and thought I would have a baby desperate for milk as normally has a feed at 5 +6.45 but fed at 4.30 before I went and came home to an asleep baby n still asleep.