August 2007 - milk, mash or puree - take your pick and take cover!

[shrinkingsagpuss]

James - sorry, couldn't wait any longer... hope my link works...

Had quite a productive weekend. My dad came round to fix the upstairs radiators. Apparently there was a problem with the flow and dd's room was like a fridge. We had to put the fan heater on every night before she went to bed. I can also get my washing dried a lot quicker. I put my washing in the back bedroom and it was soo cold it was taking a week for it to dry. Also got the xmas tree up and decorated and caught up with a mountain of washing.

Wow - you've got a hungry baby yorkshabird. Ds was 16lb 8oz at 16 weeks but he's not that hugry - just a big boy. His dad is a big built 6' 8" and I think he's going to follow suit. Ignore them about the weaning, they're all different and some need it earlier.

I'm not bothering with father xmas this year. Dd hasn't asked to see him and he visited her pre-school last week anyway. Telling her that father xmas isn't coming if she doesn't go to sleep makes absolutely no difference. She's still not going to sleep til 10 or 11pm each night despite taking her to bed around 8:30

James - that's awful. I moan about my dh but he's an angel compared to your dp. He doesn't deserve to be with a lovely person like you!

james - think i would have in no uncertain terms told where Dp could shove his plastic xmas tree

loler - on my way to work every morning i used to pass a man who wore a sandwich board saying 'santa is satan' and i made the mistake of telling DP that in earshot of DD1 so for a while she went round saying 'look there's satan'. thatnfully she's stopped now and santa's are now santa's.

gill - must be a relief to have heat again! does your DD sleep later in the mornings? or is she up early too?

hi yorkshabird - welcome! i've got a big dd2 too (she was 16lb 7lb at 12 weeks!) but unfortunately she is not a sleeper like yours.

we've started on the messy sticky solid now too - she had her first taste of apple yesterday and i think that it's fair to say that she absolutely loved it - she was like a shark with the spoon, got so excited when she saw it coming, smiling squealing legs going, then smled once she's eaten each mouthful.

She's still normally up by 7am at the weekend my2weegirls. I can't tell most of the time as we have to get her up at 6:30 during the week.

I'm starting to think more seriously about starting solids in the new year. Ds's appetite varies so much at the moment that I think it might help. He can have 5oz at 7am, 9:30am and 12pm one day and then 8oz at 7am, 11am and 4pm another day. His sleep pattern hasn't changed and he doesn't wake up for feeds. He sleeps normally from about 8:30pm til 6:30am so I'm not sure what to do. I know there's no point posting about it as I'll only get told by everyone that he still only needs milk.

Gill - do yourself a favour and put it off until it does effect his sleep pattern. Am so of 8 till 6! We had one night of midnight till 7am at the weekend - although still had to get up for ds1 who seems to have started dreaming! But after that fluke ds2 has gone back to waking ever 3ish hours. He's really snotty at the moment so putting it down to that.

So looking forward to friday - 2 weeks of not having the morning grind of getting out the door. Looking forward to catching up with friends - school really hampers social life!

gill - at least one of your dc's is sleeping well! my DD1 isn't always the best sleeper so i know what it's like. maybe she needs less sleep than other kids her age? has she dropped her daytime nap? could you try a slightly later bedtime to see if she goes to sleep quicker? though that could very easily backfire...

Hello!

Gill, it's so weird, our boiler was playing up yesterday so we had no heating either until dp fixed it. Meh, for all his faults I'm glad it happened while he was here, if it'd have happened today while he was at work we would have had frozen!

J went to bed with woolly mittens on last night as while he does usually sleep through he often wakes to ask to come in our bed because he's cold, and his hands are like ice outside of his grobag. And yay it worked, he slept all night in his cot!

Speaking of sleep, since starting with the purees James sleep seems to have gone a bit awry. He was sleeping 7.30 til 7.30, but now he wakes between 10.30pm and midnight for some reason. He hasn't pooed, doesn't seem to be in pain with his teeth, seems warm enough, quite happily guzzles a bottle if I give him one but doesn't wake screaming for food, so it's odd.

Maybe I should hold off on the purees a while longer then. At this point though he likes them he won't miss them if we stop. Hmm.

Wonder what's happened to Tasha, maybe it's her internet connection? Hope everything's ok.

I probably will wait loler. I don't really have time to puree at the moment with dd messing about every night. Ds has been snotty since he was about 2 weeks old but fortunately it doesn't affect his sleep anymore.

my2weegirls - It's funny, I was going to comment to dh that I was glad both dcs slept through last night but he started moaning that ds woke up last night. I must have been soundo for dh to have to get up to ds. I normally wake first. Dd still needs her daytime nap. When she's at mum's in the week she will either sleep in the buggy on the way to school and stay asleep for a couple of hours or she will fall asleep on the way home. Often we will try to wake her after 2 hours but sometimes she's just in such a deep sleep that we leave her for the night. On Saturday we stayed in all day and she was so tired that she leaned over on the sofa and fell asleep at 7pm. We put her to bed but she woke up at 10:30pm. She'd fallen out of bed. We forgot to put a nappy on her so I went up to find her weeing on the carpet. I got her back to sleep only for her to wake again at 11pm. I just don't know what to do about it.

gill - the wee soul peeing on her carpet (just wait till she decides she doesn't want to wear at nappy at night!). she sounds quite similar to my DD1 (who i think is a few months older? - will be 3 in jan).

we tried lots of things - and the thing that worked for us was no napping later that 2pm (and waking her up then - meant that we might have a grumpy girl but a wee bit chocolate as a special treat helped with that). then making sure that no naps lasted longer than 45min (which roughly ties in with the sleep cycle). she now goes most days without a nap and (touchwood) is generally sound asleep by 8pm - though up sometime between 5 and 6am and maybe up to pee at some point.

Funnily enough she refused to wear a nappy on saturday night after she did a wee on the carpet. Fortunately she was dry in the morning. She was happy going back to nappies last night though. She's definitely not ready as she's not dry at night yet. Dd is 3 at the end of March.

I might have to try waking her after 45 minutes if she goes to sleep in the car. I'll also have to get mum to do the same if she falls asleep on the school run (as long as she's not feeding ds).

I'm off work tomorrow . I've got to take dd to the hairdressers (you only get kids prices on mon-weds) at lunchtime and then ds has his last injections in the afternoon. It's payday too so I might treat dd to a new dress for xmas.

Bums and willies, I didn't lose anything this week! Not sure what happened there, I thought I'd done ok but apparently not. Nevermind, at least I didn't put any weight on!

Hope everyone's doing ok in the run up to christmas! Any nice homemade babyfood ideas?

Hello Again

we have been away, everything is coming around so quick I didn't get a chance to say, and now it's almost Christmas.

I've read the thread but should of taken notes as i can't remember who said what.

Banana- hope things are well with dp now, you two sound like quite a dynamic pair. i think my dp and i are too old and tired to fight anymore, we are a true old married couple. we will have to work on some romance again when we get to sleep in the same bed together for the whole night

Gill- my ds doesn't go to bed till 9.30/10pm either, we stoped naps in the hope he would go to bed earlier but he spent a week being irritabile and still going to bed late.

Loler??? sorry to hear of the friends and parasite, rather strange, I imagine you will be going to stay with them when you get some horrible infection

re: toddler groups, they are an experience, when i lived in the city it was all about your former career and going back to work, and now i live in the country it's the complete opposite, most of the mums have never worked, or just done non -career type jobs, they are very friendly and tell you everything I have made 2 or 3 good friends but we are a bit different, in terms of values,issues, political opinions, etc. My school girlfriends and i are all very similar in these aspects, i wonder if we have all just melded into having the same outlooks through time???

LL had jabs today, so horrible he was looking at me as the needle went in, and i think blames me. Although normally he has been very smiley and giggly, i hope it lasts forever

Hi ladies - havent been on for ages ,sorry been lurking but never get round to posting!
James - sorry about the lack of weight loss, but you have done well so far! keep going!

GillL im afraid i have no words of wisdom () to give you ds1 was a star at sleeping but as my2wee said we did have to stop his afternoon naps at 2.6 as he would never go to be at 7!!

well we have started on the slops here!! Ds2 was really moany and feeding loads on Friday and sat so on Sunday i tried a little baby rice and hey, but the 3 spoon he was opening his mouth!! i say he was ready!! we are following the Annabelle Karmels idea as its been so long for me , cant remember how it all works, got a fab hand blender for half price yesterday so he has parsnip and sweet potato for lunch today!! Our little summer Bundles are growing up to fast

lol Uki, I don't know about "dynamic" (more disasterous) but we do seem to be having a lot of make up sex recently. Hah, had a vision of make up sex being sex with both of you wearing lipstick and blusher then. Odd.

James is opening his mouth baby bird style too once he remembers what the bowl bib and spoon means!

I feel really really down today so think this could be even more pmt. Ah this fortnightly period this is a hoot...not.

I've overspent in the past two weeks trying to get all the presents ready for christmas, and forgot to pay the council tax, so I paid what I could and then a direct debit went out which I had thought was due to come out on the 25th, so now I'm overdrawn and it's left me stuck as we have no washing powder or washing up liquid, plus the nappy stacker is looking worryingly empty.

And when I went on my calendar to check when the direct debit should have come out, I saw that according to my reckoning, my maternity pay stops in three weeks. Plus dp's boss is being an arse, not letting them know when they will be paid (by cheque) whether it will be before or after christmas, and the money I'm due on friday is already spoken for. I am now officially panicking.

Plus I have the dentist today and I'm scared. Altogether it's not the best week ever! Bah.

I'll just have to stop moaning and start jobhunting!

poor you james - sounds like a horrible position to be in, patricularly at this time of year - hope that something turns up soon.

ds is loving his food - and he is also putting absolutely everything he can get his hands on into his mouth. have to keep an eye on him all the time.

finally got the eczema cleared up - my dad and brother (GP and pharmacist) conferred and offered their advice. they had been holding back cause i have been going to my own gp, but was so grateful to them as it cleared up really quickly with the new cream, and while he was happy before, he is soo smiley now - loving it.

James ,as conker said, do hope things pick up for you, what a rubbish time for it all to be happening!

Well ds2 had his potato and parsnip and LOVED IT< creid when it had all gone must be mummy great cooking!! - for thoses of you that are weaning what is you daily schedule food/milk times etc , just want ot see if im on the right path!

Hi folks, feeling better this evening, sorry about my miserable moaning posts! Things aren't as dire with money as I realised, and I found out my maternity allowance doesn't run out til mid february so I have a few weeks to have a look round for a job, phew!

At the dentists she just took some xrays, and I confessed how scared I was and asked about sedation (because I'm scared of bottling out of going and losing teeth that could be saved as a result) and she said she might refer me to a practise which do sedation on request, so that's a bit of a weight off my mind too! I know I'm a big wuss but Anna doesn't like pain!

I made extra steamed veggies for tea tonight and pushed them through a sieve, so he now has two little pots of carrot, potato and broccoli mush in the freezer for his tea tomorrow. He had cheesy spinach and potato bake tonight which smelled like evil, and James wasn't too impressed. Mummy ended up covered in manky green vom. Yummy.

We don't really have a feeding schedule yet, we've just been giving him a little dinner before we have our dinner, at about 5.30pm ish, then he has his bath and his bottle before bed. For now it's just tastes of things for fun really, not worrying about getting him onto three meals a day.

Conker, glad to hear your lo's eczema has finally gone, all it takes is the right cream. After suffering with mine all over my face for 6 weeks I finally was given the right cream and it went after just one application! Aren't you lucky having a gp and pharmacist in the family?

hi uki and pink nice to hear from you.

we're just doing solids as and when just now as james says we're just doing it to get different tastes - so it can be any time of the day!

james - that must be a bit of a relief - both about the mat pay anf the sedation .

and it's such fun getting covered in puke - dd1 has another cold (and asthma) so she tends to cough till she's sick which she did all over me monday night - petit filous, corn, juice, chicken goujons, strawberrys, green beans do NOT smell nice regurgitated - eeeeeuuch. i think she'son the mend as she actually slept last night, however think dd2 is now getting it...arrrrg.

conker - as james says it's great when you get the right cream - must be nice to have your smiley boy back

today i'm going to build all dds toys for wrapping so that we don't have to do it xmas day - nothing worse than trying to put things together when they want to play with them

Hello all. It's my birthday today and I'm stuck at work

I used my last day's leave yesterday to take dd to the hairdressers and ds to have his last injections (for now). I started off really well and got parked in town to meet mum on time. I opened the boot only to realise that dh hadn't put the buggy back in there (after he took mum to get her xmas tree). Fortunately I didn't have to drive all the way back home cos mum lives 5 mins drive from town. I got her double buggy down to the car and only just managed to get it in the boot. Managed to get everything done in town and then had to drive back to get ds's injections done. He screamed the place down and proceeded to be miserable for the rest of the day. Dh didn't bother coming home til 8pm cos of the accident on the A13 which affected the M25. I had to pace around the living room and jig ds about trying to get him to sleep before I could think about getting me and dd some dinner. Normally he's very good and goes to sleep really easily. I gave him some calpol and he was in a much better mood after his sleep. Dd didn't go to sleep til 11pm so I'm knackered today.

uki - I just get so tired having to wait for dd to go to sleep before we go to bed. If it gets to 11pm then I'll just go up anyway and tell her to stop singing. I'm going to try waking her after a shorter nap and see if that helps. I couldn't wake her up this morning. I had to put her in the car in her pjs and dress her at mum's. She woke up when I put her in the car seat and asked where we were going. I think she was a bit confused cos it was still dark.

James - I've got 2 large washing baskets almost overflowing as I ran out of washing tablets on Sunday. Ds was supposed to go shopping on Monday but we didn't have any money. We got paid yesterday but he didn't get home til 8:30 so he's going tonight. I'll probably spend the next 4 days doing washing.

Happy Birthday Gill!

Sorry you're stuck in work, are you doing anything nice for it tonight or this weekend? Hope your ds is feeling better today, the jabs are unpredictable, sometimes they seem to feel fine and unaffected by them, and sometimes they just feel dreadful. I know J was affected the most by this last lot, he had quite a temperature after them. I would just give calpol after them whether or not, since they can't tell you how they feel.

Have you asked your HV what she thinks about your dd not going to sleep til late? Sometimes they have a fresh perspective on things. Sometimes they talk crap too.

Oh, don't talk to me about washing, I've loads to do! Need to get my finger out and do some housework!

Gill- wow 11pm is pretty late, no wonder she is ultra tired in the morning, my ds is a bit the same, but we don't have to go anywhere in the morning. I wake ds if he naps for more than an hour.

JB- Lol make up lipstick sex, I'm having trans gender visions now.

Poor LL has been quite upset by vaccination, has big hard red lumps at sight and didn't go to sleep for 2.5 hours past bedtime tonight, I had to put him in the pram and walk in the dark in the end even after paracetamol. anyone else had side effects???

YES HappyBirthday Gill

I hope you do something to celebrate tonight, or at least get out of cooking

Thanks We've got no money so we're not going out anywhere but mum is doing a dinner for me on Saturday. My sisters and my nan will be there so that will be nice. My older sister lives in Derby so I don't get to see her very often. I haven't seen her on my birthday for years so it will be nice to have her there.

I would talk to the hv but I find her quite patronising and she just states the obvious. When I told her my milk/bottle-obsessed dd wouldn't eat because she fills herself up with milk she just told me not to give her milk - well duh! I'm sure she'll just tell me not to let her have a nap in the day. It's impossible to do that cos she falls asleep in the car (or buggy when she's with mum) and there's nothing I can do about it and, if we don't let her sleep she screams and has major tantrums. If waking her after 30-45 minutes doesn't work I think we're just going to be stuck with it for a while.

happy birthday gill - get your dh to look after the dc's for an hour or so and you go and have a relaxing bath, with a glass of wine and some ear plugs or music so you don't hear what is going on!

Happy birthday Gilll!! i know it was yesterday!
I've been lurking, but we've got the builders in and it feels strange sitting on the computer playing on MN!

I currently do not have a bathroom, and the builder is planner to be here sat and sun to try and get it finished in time for xmas! I will be so pissed off if I have no bathroom!

My two are full of snotty colds again. Evie has been coughing to hard she makes herself sick, and loads of phlegm that she can't breath through. She isn't interested in baby rice, but does love her vegetable purees so I'm just giving her sweet potato and veg at lunch, and skipping tea right now. She'll let me know when she wants more. She is gradually getting better at night.

So I take it we still have no rollers? Evei lifts her bottom off the floor, and twists, but doesn't move her shoulders. She is also fascinated by everything and everyone, she puts her hands on my face now which I love (except when she then grabs my hair or glasses) and giggles when you blow raspberries in her neck. Funnily enough, she still frowns at DH as if to say "who are you?" !!!!!

Well, HAPPy XMAS to you all, what fun with our lovely new babies. I expect it will get v quiet here for a whilw. Its DS's 3 rd birthday in Jan, and the builders will be back to split his room in two for DS and DD what fun. Before we know it, I will be back at work (blurgh...)

Sorry to hear about the colds, sagpuss. James has a lingering snotty nose which I am not allowed to clear for him or he will have a tantrum. I don't know if anyone believes in astrology but surely I'm not the only one with a rather theatrical leo on my hands?

He's lovely and smiley and really lovable all day, until you vaguely piss him off and then suddenly he'll start screeching like a banshee, and if you try to distract him out of it with the things he normally laughs at (for some reason saying "ah boo boo!" is consistantly hilarious no matter who says it. It must mean something rude in baby language) he'll screw his eyes shut and scream louder. Such a little drama queen.

Aaw, yes he has started to stroke (well, gently smack) my face when I lean over him, it's so cute but it'll never take priority over swinging off the ends of my hair

He hasn't quite rolled over independently yet, but he pulls himself onto his side if he can find anything to grab, and it's all good practise I spose. They're probably taking longer to learn than summer babies because they're always wrapped up warm in layers.

I fed him homemade carrot, broccoli and potato puree last night. It was ever so slightly lumpy because I only mashed it all with a fork as finely as he could. He seemed to enjoy the first few spoonfuls but he soon seemed got full up so maybe I should have thinned it out a bit more. Trial and error I spose! Not looking forward to today's nappies...