Sept '07... I'm forever blowing raspberries and my cheeks ache from smiling so much....

[PurpleLostPrincess]

Here we go! (or should I say here wii go!?). I'll try doing a link too...

Incidentally, I had a dream last night that Cerys suddenly learnt how to blow proper raspberries! Don't know where it came from but it could be that she has been trying since she was about 4 weeks old and did it entirely by accident yesterday!

PLP xxx

Kinki - I know what you mean about them being spread thinly, it is just not right, thing is its not as if there isn't anyone to do the jobs, I personally know at least three women who are desperate to be midwives but they can't get the training due to cuts. Its just not on, this government is crap, so much so, more and more women are going to die and be let down at their most vulnerable time of life due to bloody money makes me so mad.... and breathe. You could just call her though couldn't you?

Dal - diet is going ok although the last two nights have spoiled it somewhat (too much wine , so need to be good now till next weigh in on wednesday and get some exercise in

Dal, you are def NOT a bad mummy. Fact.

More than most you give such careful and thoughtful evaluation to your big decisions about your ds. And that's a good thing.

Just reading your last post about excercise, I was just wondering if your supply has been affected since you started training. I not long posted on kyala's thread about how if I'm a bit dehydrated (sadly not because of any noble excuses like being on a treadmill) my supply is affected. Maybe upping your fluids on your training days may just help.

MrsF, yeah, I'll probably give them a call.

Evening all

kyala - glad you are feeling happy about your dd's weight gain, the girlies on here know everything!

dal - thanks for your wishes for my Dh but it is canadianmum's poor DH that had the accident, mine is fine, if a bit silly! That champagne did go to your head Like kinki says, you are a fab and very thoughtful mum and I always admire the dedication you show to Ryan's well being with feeding, routines and the rest - not to mention getting back to yummy-mummy status so soon in your skinny jeans - I think I may cut the legs off mine and use them as evening gloves for the likelihood of getting them over my arse anytime soon.

Mrs F - respect for dieting, but wine is surely an essential part of any sensible diet, no??

toadstool - great to see you again, glad you are up and about, but sorry if they are encouraging to give up BF if that is not what you want - what is the reasoning? Hope you feel better soon. xx

kinki - blimey your HV provision sounds beyond dire. I don't know about you but i often find it very disheartening working for the NHS these days -its only ever about money and sick people are just not a profit making industry. After the budgets and paperwork there is hardly any room for patients which is so wrong. As a ward manager all my budget and staffing control has been taken away as we are not trusted to make sensible decisions anymore (probably justified in my case tho'!) - ooh sorry everyone rant over!

To those of you with many small children, kinki, twit amyclaramum et al - what is your worst time of the day? I have decided today that bathtime/bedtime are making me insane. By 7pm I have very little loving and giving left in me and just want to sit on my arse and open the wine - just as three girls who have been ok during the day become the spawn of the devil, and DH works shifts which means he is not usually home in time to help - any advice to stop me comitting GBH. Tonight I parked the DTs in front of a DVD in pyjamas asking them to not come shouting to me as I was feeding and settling Millie, just as Millie was dropping off DT1 bursts into the bedroom with a soft toy dog on her head yelling "Millie - look at my funny hat!", Millie wakes up screaming and we start again - ten minutes later DT2 stomps upstairs screeching "mummy you are very naughty - you mustn't run away" - comes into the room just long enough to wake Millie and say "oh there you are, I'm watching telly you know" and is off again. I can feel a blood vessel pulsating in my brain and each night I need escalating volumes of wine to calm me from the toddler induced red mist. How do you all do the evening routine? Actually I can see the funny side of it now they are asleep, especially the dog on the head, but at the time do not feel so light-hearted!

Sorry for long, ranty and largely irrelevant post - anyone who has read this far is very kind and patient!

Hammerhead-PMSL about your jeans!!!

Kyala I hope you feel reassured from going on the feeding threads.

My Millie has a suspected ear infection-she was due to have her jabs this morning but I told the nurse that her ear has been gunky over weekend and also she has been sleeping badly which is unlike her and she took temp which was a bit high.

Got to go back this afternoon to see doctor.

On a brighter note, im in the process of booking some private ice skating lessons as I have decided I need a hobby which will be fun and get me in shape. (However only have 2lbs left to shift before im back to pre pregnancy weight so not doing too badly).

Hi everyone ! Had a busy weekend with sick children and neice's 1st Birthday party and finally putting christmas decs away in loft

Hammer - it is the WORST time of day and I don't really have any good advice (i keep focussing on the glass of wine when I get downstairs to get me through !!) My dd's are a bit older so our normal routine is to put all in the bath together and then get Eloise dried and dressed in her room leaving them to have a play in the bath. Then put Eloise on her mat for a little play while getting the DD's sorted - teeth cleaned etc , . Then we all get into my bed with stories - they read to me and I read to them whil I'm feeding Eloise. Hopefully she drops off and I put her down in her cot then get the other 2 settled - they can read their own books or listen to story tape . Could you try getting the DT's to watch a special "bedtime" dvd while you get lo off to sleep ? Or put lo in bouncy chair in DT'S room while you read stories to everyone ? Good luck !

Sorry got to go and feed lo now - back later xx

Hammer, the evenings can be a bit frought here too. Liam likes to feed a lot in the run up to bed which doesn't help either. But things that do help are:

• I don't bath Liam every night, I do it about every 4-5 days or sooner if needs be. Instead he has a good wash morning and night, it helps that he goes several days between poos.
• Ds1&2 don't bath together so much now, separating them means its done a lot quicker. I encourage ds1 to shower in the mornings and ds2 gets a bath during the day sometimes.
• I know this will sound -ing (and make me sound awful), but I don't do bedtime stories. Instead we do stories downstairs while I'm feeding Liam. I read to ds2 while ds1 reads his school book or joins in. If they've been good they can have music or a story tape in bed.
• For now we get ds1&2 settled before Liam goes down. It's easier this way as if I were to disappear with Liam the other 2 could get over excited.

Tbh I find the mornings more of a struggle. Dh helps in the evening if he's here, but he's blardy useless in the morning. He'll get up and dressed, make himself a drink and then go to work. I can get the kids all washed/showered, dressed, fed, ready for school/pre-school, bags packed etc for 8.30, but I'm often doing the school run unshowered and in yesterday's clothes. There doesn't seem to be enough time for me. I'm having a good day if I'm showered by the 3.15 school run!

Which is what I should be doing right now, so I'll sign off now.

Good Afternoon
The Kelmcd household is rather a tired and grumpy one at the moment!! Arben is back to feeding 2hrly during the night and we are both quite exhausted. Thankfully he doesn't wake properly so just feeds and goes back to sleep but it is starting to take its toll. I have posted on the feeding "thread here" and got some good tips and reassurance, Thanks Kinki
Other than that, Arben had his last lot of injections on Thursday, poor little lamb, he was so brave unlike his mother who stood and cried
I haven't had him weighed since he was 12wks but am sure he is putting on the weight, his 3-6mths sleep suites are getting to short already and my back is killing me from holding him i am suprised i dont have arm muscles like the incredible hulk
Hope you are all well and LO's are behaving themselves

Oops hammer! sorry . thank you for your kind words.

Kelm - saw your thread on bfeeding. Hopefully it is just a growth spurt and the feeding will settle again shortly. I have moved ryan back to 3 hrly feeds during the day, so am not only feeding more frequently but it is also taking a while to feed as he is fussing at the breast again. Right now I am trying to ascertain if his behaviour is growth spurt related or whether he is showing definite signs of weaning.

He can sit with support, head is held up no problems. Is pulling everything into his mouth (fists go in straight into mouth after feed). He still looks hungry after feeds but is refusing breast. Feeds have become more frequent and he has start waking more in the night (although have not had to reintroduce night feeds - touchwood). He is also doing the whole mimicing us eat....so he is doing all the textbook stuff they say. So thought, right time to start weaning, but then I read about the longer term damage they say can occur from weaning before 6 months. So now I am in a total quandry.
I see the GP on weds for his jabs, so will ask her views.

Are any of you weaning? (apparently mnetters who wean before 6 months are not fessing up for fear of being shouted down).

Hats off to all of you with more than one DC. Ryan is a fulltime job!

Dal21 - i wouldn't say i am totally weaning but i have given Arben some baby rice stuff which he took really well. I am just slowly introducing it, not in any hurry tho. he maybe gets some with his lunch bottle every couple days. He seems to be enjoying it

Dal21 - i wouldn't say i am totally weaning but i have given Arben some baby rice stuff which he took really well. I am just slowly introducing it, not in any hurry tho. he maybe gets some with his lunch bottle every couple days. He seems to be enjoying it

hi kelm - thanks

well I had an interesting night. after upped food intake during the day, Ryan only took 5 fl. oz at his dreamfeed as opposed to 7 but slept heaps better. Woke only twice compared with previous nights....so may keep trying that for a while...

..am sure as soon as that starts to work, something else will come into the equation!

Morning Dal

morning mrs f. how goes it?

Apart from my neck, very well thanks.

Ben slept from his last bottle at 6pm last night, till 6am this morning seems last week was just a blip after all, must have been a growth spurt, it will be interesting to see how much he weighs on thursday

Morning all - i'm very of those of you getting sleep things improved for a bit last week but now seem to be getting worse again and last night was a shocker! I can hardly keep my eyes open which results in snapping at ds1 and a lack of motivation to do anything. I'm meeting PLP today though at a soft play to tire out ds1! So hopefully will lift my mood

So last night settled both boys together just before 8 Alex had 2 bf between 5 and 8. DS1 stirred at 9.15 when we went to bed but settled quickly, Alex woke at 10.45 for 5oz formula then back to sleep, DS1 awake at 12.30 - major issues (bad dream?) took 1/2 hr of cuddles to calm him and settle, 3am A wakes for food but won't go back to sleep, try to ignore whingeing and keep giving dummy but still going at 4.30 so bf again which gets him off to sleep ds1 awake at 7,A at 7.30.

The feeds don't seem too bad it's the wakefullness! And DP well he only got out of bed once and that was to scream at ds1 at 12.30 making my job of calming him even more difficult!

Dal - re weaning i weaned ds1 at 5 months when his feeds were every couple of hours and he was waking several times a night for food. He was ready for it and took to food very well. Alex is now 17wks and i won't be weaning him any time soon - he is becoming more and more interested in us eating but thats all part of the learning!

Kelmcd - sympathies to your grumpy house ours is very simular - if you find any solutions let me know!

Well, after all my complaining yesterday Arben slept the best he has done for a long time. He took 6ozs at 10pm which sent him off to sleep, i gave him a 2oz dream feed at midnight, he then didn't wake til 5.45. He had a 15min boob feed then back down til 9.30 I think the fact he was in his door bouncer for 45mins also helped wear him out a wee bit long may it last but i have a feeling it will back to the old way tonight!
Have fun with PLP Chatty and i hope you get a better nights sleep tonight
Have good days to everyone else, this rain is keeping us indoors again

Had our last set of jabs yesterday and Linus was very sore indeed afterwards, so he napped from 3pm - 9pm and then wanted to play for two hours until we finally all went to bed at 11pm. Nothing like maintaining the routine eh? Today he is back to his usaul chirpy self, currently playing peek-a-boo with himself and finding it hysterically funny.
He's off to the childminder for the first time next week - just one morning a week for a while. But i took him along today to meet and greet and he thought he had gone to heaven - toys galore, big babies and someone who actually knew what they were doing.
Am moving him to his own room in two weeks as well, as he's now only waking when i go to bed or move or wake myself, so think he needs his own space now. Then it's weaning and before i know it he'll be treating this place like a hotel and asking to borrow the car.
S
x

just uploaded some more photos

She is gorgeous Sophus
How big is she?

he's all man kelm! he's nearly 18 wks and is nearly 18 lbs. he's a tall strapping boy (and a real mummy's boy)

he's all man kelm! he's nearly 18 wks and is nearly 18 lbs. he's a tall strapping boy (and a real mummy's boy)

Hello all, baby sleeping so time to hit mumsnet!

Hammerhead - just wanted to join in regarding the bedtime process with more than one child to sort out. Now that DH is home due to his motorcycle accident, the 5-7pm hell slot is now quite easy. I am dreading his return to work though. The wine bottle will be open at 5pm and the rescue remedy bottle will be standing by. It is really the worst part of my day by far. I am going to try to get supper sorted out well in advance of school pick up so we have more time for homework. And Anna will just have to feed as and when, at least she gets me to herself for 2-3 feeds per day!!

baby up now

hopey - to answer your long ago question, dh got hit by a lorry coming the other way and turning right in front of him. We are still waiting for the police report ("held up due to christmas" - but the accident happened 3rd dec ). the bike was a write off. dh has just crutched down to the physio who lives on the corner - very convenient! can your dh drive??

any tips on getting anna to sleep for more than 30-45 mins in the day??? she does it at night so why not the day???

dal - very impressed that a first time mum is not obsessively getting her babe weighed every week - top marks

canadianmum - Ben doesn't sleep for more than half hour 40 mins at a time in the day, I'm not too bothered though as he sleeps so well at night

Sophus i am so i know Linus is a wee boy, i have no iodea why i said she, i am so sorry