November 2014 - The one where they outrun us!

[MrsAukerman]

New thread ladies.

No poo all day here. Very odd and he didn't seem to have much room for dinner (but he managed to squeeze in 2 digestives and most of a banana and a tangerine afterwards. Bit moany at bedtime but quick to go to sleep.
Talking about bedtime, does anyone else have a DH / DP who can make baby do things you can't?
DH says DS points at the cot to ask to go in and falls asleep in the cot happily but if I try to put him in awake he freaks out so I have to get him asleep on the bed then transfer him.

We're averaging two poos a day these days! I have no idea why. He eats fruit but not excessively, maybe twice a day max.

We have builders starting today for a few weeks. Dreading getting him down for naps. And DH gets very stressed with builders so I'm going to have him huffing and puffing about everything he can find for the next 3 weeks and making it all more stressful than it needs to be. We weren't expecting them till May so yesterday he was moaning that they were coming already as he had a day off today and they were going to ruin it with noise. Who the hell moans that builders want to come early???

happy happy anniversary! Ours is on my due date lol, so I doubt we'll be celebrating much!

ladydolly any news from MIL?

Ready to leave for the school run this morning when I realised that DH had not taken the pushchair out of the car boot when I asked him. Usually his work is 10 mins away and he would be able to bring it home then drive DD1 to school, but today he was on a train to another town. DD2 is heavy and I would have struggled to carry her all the way to school and back. DH suggested the smart trike bike, but it was in the playhouse with the impossible to open door, which only DH has the knack of getting open. I got it out of there in the end and we weren't even late for school, but I could have done without that added stress. I have had to recover with a warm drink and a pain au chocolat left over from DD1's birthday!! Now to clean the house with help from DD2(!) as in-laws are babysitting tonight, and make sure DD2 fits in a nap as she won't be able to fall asleep on the afternoon school run today.

Our anniversary is just of how long we've been together since we're not married but still a coincidence hey?

Babydolly poos 3 or 4 times a day. CM said its the most of any child she's had (that sounds like a boast! It's really not!! Ew) and its because she eats so much but I think she eats a normal amount. Just one of those things I guess.

MrsA I certainly follow DP's lead for new things since his 'techniques' seem to work (annoyingly). He set up a bedtime routine that I now follow.

Mil. Nothing. I don't expect anything until she has received the full amount of sympathy from everyone she knows. I predict I'll receive a letter telling my how awful I am. I'll take it from there. The situation is fine with me, if she uses me as a hate figure she can leave DP and his brothers alone. DP actually seems a little relieved, I think he always thought I underestimated how awful she could be and he knew she'd turn on me eventually.

How are you feeling anna? Are you more tired than last time? I'm so scared of being pregnant with a toddler, I felt so sick for the duration of my last pregnancy I'm not sure I'd cope very well.

I'm not going to lie, the first 3 months were grim. Much much sicker than last time and I got very depressed, "what have we done, this was stupid" etc etc. Thankfully on the stroke of 12 wks it swung entirely opposite and I've had tons of energy since. That's different to last time too when I had terrible fatigue the whole way through and really found it an endless grind.

So I actually feel fab these days and am in very good form as a result!

I am shocked at how different two pregnancies can be - I'm much fatter and I'm spotty. Last time I was lovely and neat and my hair dried out so I barely had to wash it at all. I was all smug! So I feel better......but look worse.

The further it goes on and the older DS gets, the more I'm glad. He's lively and outgoing and is always looking for devilment and a sibling will be a good distraction for him.

The only thing that's difficult really is picking DS up. It's getting hard and is only going to get harder but I can cope with that. But tbh I don't have to do it that often nowadays.

So, I'm on holiday this week (well, I work 3 days so have 3 days off) and today is the last of my 3 days on my own - kept DD in nursery (we've paid for it and I had a ton of things to do that would have been impossible with her). It's only now, at 12.30 that I've had a chance to sit down and relax!!! How does that happen?!? . And the only thing I seem to have done for myself is get my hair cut....ho mum...

Same as babydolly, we're averaging 2 poos a day. If I collect her from nursery and they tell me she hasn't has a "soiled" nappy I end up praying that she does one after dinner and before bath time!

DD still full of cold and snot, bless her. Calpol is helping her to feel a bit more perky and her eyes lit up when she saw the play tunnel I'd bought her (£8 from Asda or 2 for £10) - 1st day she was in and out of it like a rabbit; 2nd day she insisted on throwing socks / football / anything she could get her hands on down it; 3rd day and she wanted ME to crawl through it! I'm not a spring chicken anymore and no where near as flexible as I once was

OK, so here's a long shot...I know our DCs are only 17-18 months old, but is anyone else thinning about schools already? Around here there's a wide variety of schools (state / private / shite / excellent) and it just seems a minefield......

Yep. I already approached the school we want but they aren't accepting any applications for our year yet. It has a nursery attached which we also want to use when the 15 hours kicks in. It's less than 100 metres from our front door and has the best reputation out of all the schools we're in the catchment for. They also aren't accepting applications for the nursery yet.
I even think about secondary school, our closest is NOT GOOD but the next closest is good (I actually think it's very good but ofsted only says good) so hoping we get that one. All our neighbours kids go there so should be ok.

Look at who we've become??!!!

I'm hoping DD will get into our nearest primary school as it is well rated by ofsted and local parents and is very convenient for my route to work and DH's walk to the station in the mornings. However the next closest one isn't much further away and seems fine, NDN kids go there and they're happy with it, and it's close to DD's nursery (so if we had a second DC and they went to same nursery, that would be convenient). And it has a purple uniform which is AMAZING. (I am easily pleased)

I'm afraid I'm one of these people though who can't bring myself to worry too much about ofsted ratings though so I'm not really thinking about it yet! I mean by the time DD goes to school the ratings might have gone down or up; the admissions process might have changed... who knows! My brother and I went to some not great schools ofsted wise - but in good areas - and we both turned out fine so I'm applying the same shaky logic (we live in a pretty decent area and there are no real sink schools, and we're lucky enough that we'll be able to afford some extra curricular stuff for the DC, so I'm sure it'll be fine...) (puts head back in sand)

We signed DS up for a school at 3 months old!

BUT it's a non denominational school and is one of the most popular schools in the city (and the nearest to us!) so we knew we had to. Here in Ireland the vast majority are catholic so if you don't want that then this is the only school. I was kinda embarrassed in front of the Secretary until she told me most parents do it on the way home from the labour ward!!!

Now I'm starting to get paranoid that even so we might not get a place so will be signing him up for ordinary religious schools also. We are actually catholic and DS is baptised so thats no problem it's just that we're little heathens really, lol.

Thank god there's no ofsted stuff here - all schools are much of a muchness and are all pretty decent so that's not a concern. My mate in the UK is really struggling with a choice at the mo as the only "good" rated one in her area is fee paying and they're not rich. I don't envy her.

Most areas you apply to school via the council application process so no matter what school you put child namne down with the process has clear cut criteria and you apply autumn before child starts and get told place at beginning April.

Oh and living next door to a school doesn't mean you are catchment as the cut off border could be boundary line between you and school, pur nearest school is not our catchment and actually ds goes to pur equally nearest school in next village also not catchment but v lucky to get a place (low intake, low child protection area, low special educational needs, low looked after children which are all priority)

We moved house to be nearer better schools and will move again if ds2 doesn't get into ds1 school

I've put ds down for our local pre-school, about 5 mins walk away, which is attached to lower school (though no guarantee he gets in!). It's rated 'good' and I go to yoga there, so had a nosey and it is nice and light and airy. The rest of the lower schools are about 20mins walk away in the town centre, so not as convenient. Fingers crossed we stay in the catchment area. There's a huge new development being built south of us, so the area might move south with that. There's a lower, middle and upper school system here, which is different from my educational background, so will have to get to grips with that at some point.
It still feels such a long way off, but I'm sure we'll all be discussing uniform washes and lost coats and playground politics before we know it! X

DD2 will go to the same school as DD1, but we didn't consider school when DD1 was this age. Some people would say we should have thought about before we bought the house as we were thinking of having children in it at some point, but that wouldn't have worked out because someone in our street did that - they bought the house assuming their DC, who is the same age as DD1 but was a baby at the time, would get into the school the child previously living there went to, but that school has become so much more popular over the past few years and he didn't get in. They almost sold the house and moved despite loving the house and the area, as they were allocated a poor performing school, but managed to get him into a different good school from the waiting list. If you live where we live and aren't Catholic and can't afford to pay for private school, it can be a bit of a problem. I am Catholic so DD1 goes to Catholic primary school, which is the nearest school to us. I didn't care about Catholic school, but wanted a good school that I could get to as I can't drive and it is the only one.
I don't need to worry about pre-school, as she will go to the pre-school room of the nursery she goes to now.

Oh on the poo front we can sometimes go 3days without one and other do 2 a day.

OK have never used cloth nappies for ds2 we had a few cheapy biurth to potty for ds1 which we used occasionally can't be doing with extra washing but for some reason I have been suckered into bargain cute tot bots v4 Frugi prints on bogof so £16.99 for 2 n free postage!! (The little nappy shop in case anyone else wants bargain)

Eastmids, I use cloth nappies, not too much extra washing (I do a load every other day), and some of the prints are so cute! I kind of prefer seeing them poking out of trousers than nappies. We don't use them overnight though, maybe when ds is a bit more dry. Haven't bought any new ones for ages. Use Little Bloom from Amazon as they are only £2.00 or so each. They've worked really well for us, except a few leaks, which is to be expected. Wish I had bought more with velcro than with poppers though, as ds just wants to run away while I'm changing him now.

Had a couple of horrible nights here where we tried ds out on a floor bed (we thought cot was waking him up as he was dropping dummies over the side of it for fun, then getting upset when he couldn't reach them). He SCREAMED for an hour last night, then conked out at 8pm. He did sleep until 7am, rather than be up a couple of times in the night, so we're going to persevere with it. He's definitely cutting down on the amount of day time sleep. Only had half an hour for his pm nap at 2.... no rest, eh?

New problem. DD keeps hitting the other children at CM's. She's quite... headstrong and very confident. I've seen her hit and push a little girl at sing and sign but luckily the girl fought back and they sorted it out amongst themselves. The CM wasn't complaining about it, actually she was just worried because when she gently told DD 'we don't hit, we share' DD had a meltdown and cried her eyes out. She has this reaction with me too, when I've told her off in a gentle way (no shouting, just explaining) she gets SO upset. If I have shouted she just seems to think it's funny. I want to have a more gentle approach to parenting/disciplining, part of me wonders if actually she understands that even more and that's why she cries. Is it? Is being so upset normal? Am I a hysterical parent of a PFB? (in fact don't answer that).

Well I dont know anything about hitting (as DS is at home so isnt around other kids enough to do it!) but he's very sensitive. We're pretty gentle parents but if he twigs he's genuinely upset us/let us down he gets very upset and we have to give him a cuddle and reassurance.

I suspect its because at this age they dont know what they did wrong. Or rather they know they did something wrong but dont understand the rules of why it was wrong. So they understandably get distressed.

But I think with repetition it gets easier for them as they learn the "rules".

I think hitting stropping etc all part of being 12-24mths where they can't communicate v well and actually children under 2 have no concept of sharing they don't play with others but play alongside them.

Hi everyone - sorry it's been ages! Been lurking and following but just never seemed to get a chance to post. Sounds like these kiddos are growing up fast all around
Dd2 is generally great HOWEVER we seem to have hit the 18 month old sleep regression. Sleep had been sooooo good, but now she's waking for a couple of hours 4/5 nights out of 7. Argh. Teeth do seem to be a big factor but having spent some time on google it all just sounds very regression-y.

I don't think she's hitting other kids (yet) but plenty of time for that to start! Dd1 never hit or bit at all so we couldn't get that lucky again. lady the tears in response to your gentle 'disappointment' are probably a great sign of empathy.

Food generally still great but if she doesn't get the meal she was expecting she has an immediate tantrum and tries to throw it back at me. Can usually calm her down by putting her on my knee and getting her to have a bite then transferring back to high chair.

Speech coming along steadily enough, still mostly sounds like babble to anyone but me and dh but that's normal! 'My' is the word of the moment

Everyone under 8 or so is "baby" and he'll say bye bye, book and ball at the appropriate times. More and no and ow and uh oh also feature heavily.

18 month sleep regression????? Didn't even know it existed...just Googled it: "the worst one yet"....brilliant. Hopefully still got a month to get ready for that one then.

Welcome back HalfStar

LA LA LA 18mth sleep regression not listening to you

I read that the 18mo regression is more about 'testing' parents and bedtime/sleeping routines whereas previous ones have been developmental. We had 2 terrible nights and then she started sleeping through so really hoping that's a regression of sorts and its not all about to go to pot!

We've had my friends staying this weekend, one brought her dog so DD has terrorised him. It was a handful though, they don't have kids so I spent a lot of time moving hot drinks out of the way and closing stairgates but we had a boozy and delicious dinner out last night and hours of digging at the allotment today.

Dd has had lots of opportunity to chat with new people, she's taken to 'defining' things - 'that's a dog' 'that's a tea' 'it's hot' and hilariously when her dad wanted to help her with dinner she clearly told him to 'go away'!!

Welcome back Halfstar! Though I have decided I am not dealing with ANY sleep regression, thanks! He's only been sleeping through five minutes!

Though interestingly (and entirely unrelatedly) DH was saying today he thinks DS is actually coming OUT of a developmental spurt, as he's suddenly a bit less manic/irrational after a rather trying few weeks. He's also been drifting off within 20 mins of bedtime this weekend as opposed to previous tedious 45 mins. I wonder if he hit it a bit early?

Very jealous of the ones with words - however we have noticed in the past few days his language comprehension has really escalated suddenly. Today he could actually point to items in a book! Ok, only three things......but still! Massive win for us as he's still no nearer making any recogniseable sounds, so its a big sign something is happening in his wee brain. Yay!

Well, the good thing about having a baby who doesn't usually sleep through is that I am not scared of a sleep regression because I am not used to sleep yet. A sleep regression would just be like a return to our normal! She slept last night, but Friday night she slept for a couple of hours then woke up for about a hour and repeated through the night. The problem is probably partly teeth. DH said it looked her gums were bleeding slightly today where her teeth were coming through!