November 2014 - the one where they answer back.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread.
Hop aboard.

Hairdressers been twice but we let it get wild before going because ii am tight £6 a time for a little boy but they are v good some refuse to cut if thery won't sit still ds1 was great til 2 then used to scream until he was 4 it was embarrassing he mostly sat still though, ds2 has been fine but I predict tears next time

Anna so far we have been playing hairdressers because DD wouldn't let anybody with scissors near her. Even nails we have to wait for her to fall asleep, mainly it's a nap time on a weekend to make sure there is enough light not to injure her.
Last time we cut her hair, we got in the car and when she fell asleep, parked up in the garden centre outside the town. DD in the car seat fast asleep, us two on both sides of the back seat with scissors... admittedly she would have looked better if we had used a bowl on her head

I cut DD's fringe myself twice, and then took her to a hairdresser a few weeks ago to trim the back properly. I took the iPad and she barely noticed what was going on - no drama at all!

Been to the barbers once. Ds didn't keep still, so ended up with a very strange cut! Now, we pretend to go the 'zee baby spa', where I trim nails and hair whilst putting on a terrible French accent about how we do 'zee best treatments for zee discerning petit babas'. It's awful, but he's so captivated with mama talking strangely that he tends to keep still. He likes watching his nails being cut, and listens really carefully to the 'snip' of scissors.

Visited a third nursery today to try and find a place for him a couple of mornings a week. It had a huge garden, staff seemed sweet, but the inside looked a bit shabby/ well loved. What have you guys found to be the most important thing about nursery?
Also, they charge for bank holidays even when closed. That's bonkers....

Woah moggle exciting times!! Good luck!

New job going fine although they are really casual dress wise so I have a bundle of 'smart' clothes and no where to wear them. 1st world problems I guess but I feel an ebay selling spree coming up.

I've still not cut dd's hair, she has a full on mullet, it's past her shoulders at the back and shaggy fringe at the front despite not even having a trim. I'll be putting it off as long as I can!

CM thinks she's heading towards dropping her nap, she's leaving it later and later in the day, today only 20 minutes at 3.30. I'm selfishly gutted!

Oh no ladydolly!! (Re: nap). I don't know what I'll do when DD stops napping. I know a 4.5 yr old little boy who still naps for two hours every afternoon! He's starting school in sept!! And his 2 yr old sister also naps at the same time... Shows that Gina Ford does work for some families!!

posmork ours charges for 365 days a year as you're paying for the place, not the time. Its exorbitant and doubt we'll afford it next year but its already been brilliant even before the new baby is here as Im having a gruelling old pregnancy.

Ours is nothing special inside as its been open for 20 years and is in a modest semi-d. But theres squillions of toys, a good staff ratio and everyone seems very chilled and easygoing. The attitude is very much "we're here to please the parents" rather than them telling us what to do.

Outside is small but nice bouncy astroturf stuff so soft landings if theres a fall. I'm not worried about DS being hurt out there running around.

we were super nervous but tbh he loves it. It provides far more stimulation and fun than we can.

I suppose I'd rather they spent the money on staff ratios than decoration, as long as the interior was obviously safe.

DD woke up at 2.20am and stayed awake for 2hrs for no apparent reason. I thought those days were over for us!

On the day she turned 19 months I took DD to the HV because she wasn't walking independantly. She made a referral to physiotherapy, and 2 months later while we were on holiday, the letter came asking me to phone up to book an appointment (wonder how long the wait for an actual appointment is if you have to wait 2 months just to be sent a letter inviting you to make one). I don't know what to do now. DD can walk by herself now reasonably well for a short distance, but would much prefer to hold my hand. She tends to fall over straight away if I let go. One day on holiday she fell flat on her face twice in a couple of hours on a path that was like concrete with sharp stones sticking out of it, cutting her face and forehead. I see other kids much younger than her walking much more confidently but then they have been doing it more much longer, DD has only been walking on her own for a few weeks really. I suspect that she no longer meets the criteria for physiotherapy because she has proved she can walk, but, partly because of my job and partly because my sister has a DD who couldn't walk until she was 2 and is still quite delayed at nearly 6yrs old, I still wonder if there is a reason she didn't walk until so late that will impact on her doing other things and if there is something I can do to help her. What if I make an appointment and take her and they think I am wasting time because she doesn't need physio now she can walk? DH has thought all along that she is absolutely fine and there is nothing wrong with the fact she didn't walk until nearly 20 months and that I didn't need to take her to the HV in the first place, so there is no point in discussing it with him. I have always alternated between thinking she is fine but just lazy and worrying that there might be some underlying problem. Do your DC regularly fall flat on their face? Did they when they had been walking for only a month or 2? I know that I am one of the people here most qualified to know what is normal development etc but I don't know what to do with my own DC!
Anyway, sorry this is very long and rambly and I probably should have written it when less exhausted.

Honestly I think DD did fall quite a bit only a month or two after starting walking. TBH she wasn't that keen on walking outside so she didn't do much, plus it was winter too.
But, if I were you I would call up and make the appointment. Like you say it may be another few months until the actual appointment, by which time you'll either be happy that there's no problem (and can cancel) or if she's still pretty unsteady then some advice might be useful. I'm sure this happens a lot - my friend's DD was slow in all motor development so my friend got a physio referral. At this point she was a year old and still couldn't sit up for very long unsupported (all other development normal). By the time the appointment came she was cruising so my friend wasn't really so concerned. The physio said she was hypermobile and suggested a particular brand of shoes for her with ankle support (they may have been Kickers) and she did start walking independently pretty soon after that. But that was related to her particularly floppy joints so I don't know if ankle support would help or hinder your DD.
What kind of shoes is DD wearing? Does she still fall when walking barefoot in the house? My DD still goes through a slightly 'trippy' phase when we size up in her shoes, as she gets used to them. She has really grazed knees at the moment as we've just bought size 5 for her.

Yeah we fell flat a lot. Cos I have vivid memories of having this thing of not running over unless he was crying but instead calling over Up Up Up! You're OK! And we did that a LOT. But it worked - he quickly wasn't that bothered about falling.

Make the appointment. By the time it comes along it'll be far more apparent than it is now which way it's going. You can cancel if she's making lots of progress.

I just got "Toddler Taming" delivered today. The order is a result of lots of tantrums last rainy weekend. We'll see if it has any gems of wisdom!

Thanks for the replies. I had a feeling I had posted a load of rambling nonsense. Good point about making the appointment and then cancelling it if I am happier in a few weeks, that was kind of my rationale behind seeing the HV as it would be better to get into the system and then cancel if not needed than wait until I was convinced there was a problem. Thanks for talking sense to me! Will try and get round to phoning them later if the DDs stop whinging at me and I remember where I put the letter.

moggle she is wearing Clarks pre-walker soft-bottomed shoes, because when I took her to get them she wasn't walking well enough for the hard soled ones. A few weeks ago I took her back to see if she needed new ones but her feet hadn't grown. I wouldn't be surprised if she is hypermobile, as that is part of my niece's problem and I am a bit hypermobile (at the age of 34 I still sit down on the floor with my legs in a W position, bent so my heels touch the top of my legs)

anna let us know if you get any good tips from Toddler Taming (remember when the DC were babies and lots of us bought the same gentle sleep-training book on each other's recommendations?)

Happy, I'd say go for the physio appointment. I have a friend whose baby is not yet walking (same age as ours), though she was prem. She's progressed loads, and friend was saying it's helping her put movements together, and helps a lot just with spatial reasoning and co-ordination. Worth trying out, even if the wait list is long.

Sorry Moggle, forgot to say best of luck, hope all went well, fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for reassuring words Anna, you've set my thinking straight and I think I will sign Ds up. sure he'll love it.

He's been really out of sorts today. FIL and MIL just left after popping round to put his big boy bed together (!!!!) and he was yawning and cuddly and off his food, despite telling us he was hungry. Another growth spurt on the way I think, or a bug from the nurseries we've visited the last couple of days. He's down for his nap (at 11.30!) so we'll see what the afternoon brings. Long walk in the buggy I think.

So dh took ds2 back to go leg much worse and not ezcema its viral apparently iits nasty looking to leave it alone and he will review next Fri he wants to see iut as he will tell if any different rather than another doc or nurse.

Oh and to a!use you all past week ds2 having loosed pops and many a day prob due to being on milk ladder yesterday morning change poo nappy leave naked take to bin come back walk past playroom huge stench of shit yep everywhere shout dh (its 6.30) and ds2 has walked in it trod it into lounge half way up stairs oh yep shit everywhere dh cleaned it all inc using bissell cleaner we have cream carpets.

Ohhhh but it gets better today I get in at 5 dh had just got back from gp and said oh just changed him he poo at doc so I said oh you are brave no nappy well 10mins later ds2 comes in the lounge from playroom does massive fart poo down leg n yep he had shit on p!ayroom floor again dh hadn't learnt!!!

Keep falling off the thread. DD is suddenly very affectionate, she gives squeeze hugs and kisses with a "mwah!" if asked and occasionally on a whim. She keeps trying to cuddle/pick up her 8 month old brother, who weighs about the same as her. It's lovely to see them starting to get along. I gave her a biscotti earlier and she handed it straight to DS, then cried because she realised that she didn't have a biscuit anymore.

Lol at biscuit woes!
We're leaving ours this afternoon and staying at PILs tonight then off to our festival tomorrow early morning. Arrrrgh!
See you all on the other side. I keep telling DS he's going on holiday to GPs and his favourite cousin is going too so I think he'll have fun.

annatha any tips for me when I have a second next month? Anything that really helped? Some days DS seems like such a baby still that I can't imagine one even smaller!

Another week at crèche - another absolutely filthy cold. But I feel I'm getting better at this lark now! God though the snot! It's never ending! We did laugh yesterday when DS wiped his nose on poor Bings ear. Serve the little whinger right! (I hate Bing)

Another night shift broken up by taking my own poorly baby to A&E. She was breathing 80 times a minute with a heart rate more than 180 per minute and a temperature of nearly 40. She looked really poorly, and I say that as someone who spends my working day looking at poorly babies. She had been sick after calpol at home, so they gave her ibuprofen and once her temperature came down she looked much better. But we don't know what is wrong with her. She doesn't have a chest infection or a UTI or anything else they could test for so we just have to hope she doesn't get so hot and unwell again later. We were short staffed at work so I had to go back after DD went home. Now we are all exhausted, I have to go back to work tonight, DH had hardly any sleep between trips to take DD to A&E and pick her up, in- laws are coming tomorrow in case I am not home from work before DH has to leave and the house is a tip. :(

Oh happy she must have been really poorly for a children nurse to say their own child was I'll enough to go to a&e you must have been v worried - I too leave things til they are proper unwell..

Hope nightshift goes OK tonight when I am feeling that shit I always think there is an ernd time it will be over and won't last forever

Happy hope night shift went OK how is dd

eastmids Well, DH rang me up at work at midnight and asked me what he should do. I didn't know what else to suggest without being able to see her, but it turned out she looked really poorly but then, quite quickly, lots better. She hadn't seemed ill at all during the day though, she was eating and drinking and running round in the garden like normal. She isn't quite back to her usual self, but that might be partly because she is still tired from being up nearly all of Saturday night. It turns out there might be issues at work with the fact that I should have been working not sitting in A&E for those 4hrs :( My manager was supportive this morning as she has children too and said she would probably have done the same thing but it is she has to look into things that happened that night that could possibly be linked to the fact that there was one less nurse for a few hours...

Oh shit that's the last thing you need.

But I'm sure it'll pass over - people have to leave work for lots of reasons. What if you'd gotten sick yourself? There has to be a contingency.

What are the ratios over there? Here it's often 11/12 patients to one nurse so it's horrendous. But over there I think it's a lot more forgiving.

Oh fuck off to them trying to lay the blame any issues happened because there is never back up plans I worked in a lovely dgh and was used to ward having to be shut to new admission for the night as on!y 1 qualified nurse on shift and adult ward next door on special care baby unit downstairs were on call, moved to big city big hospital with several children ward staffing crap day n night let's just shift people arpund all night no one gets a break and staffing is never at right level and that was me done with ward work been in community nearly 13yrs. (Although same shit different environment but life's not at risk)

Sorry for the rant feel so cross for you we working iin a caring profession yet little care for the professionals in it.

I hope your dd is better soon and in my book family comes first work shit is just that and soon sorts itself one way or another

happy that so sucks! What did they expect you to do?! Pretend everything was fine and carry on?! Did it take 4 hrs because they didn't give your DD any priority and you had to sit around waiting for hours? You would think that it would be an obvious thing to do to ensure you are back to work asap, but the amount of times I have seen people doing contra productive things because there is some rigid process or code of conduct in place....

anna are you going to batch cooking this time round while expecting Nr2 to arrive? Have you heard about Instantpot? I bought it when was returning back to work and it is one aaamazing piece of kitchen ware. We use mostly the pressure cooker function and it definitely frees up lots of time.

Evening all .

Happy really hope your DD is back to full health now - sounds like you've had a rough time of it

We're going through a very "testing" stage at the moment. For some unknown reason she's suddenly decided that she will not feed herself her dinner (despite being more than capable of doing so) and the only way she'll eat is if we feed her . The last 3-4 evenings have been full-on temper tantrums with tears flowing, snot pouring, and DD trying to fling herself out of her high chair. Tonight was the 1st time when we basically ignored her (or tried to, but it's bloody difficult when your ear drums are being ruptured). She ate the absolute minimal amount, but amazingly was quite able and willing to eat a banana and 2 strawberries afterwards....

She is turning into a complete cheeky monkey and knows EXACTLY what she's doing - it's hard not to laugh sometimes

In other news....may have a look at this "Instantpot" that you mentioned Strawberry....found out last week that I'm pregnant - VERY early stages, so fingers crossed. Bit nervous as am in the 40+ category, but very pleased and am already thinking that I must do more batch cooking (although trying not to get too carried away!)

Hope everyone else is doing well

Oh holly whiskers havent! Congratulations!
If you look at instantpot, make sure you don't buy it for full price. Have seen Amazon having them on offer now and then for about £80.