August 2007- Half a year of sleep deprivation later... (but we're finally back in our skinny jeans!)

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

New thread! Whoop whoop!

hi all

lo latest is to try and copy what i'm doing! so if if bang 2 bricks together she does it too, if i go 'aaaaaaa' she goes 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' - it's quite funny. she is so nosey! is forever trying to peer round corners or if someone is out of her eyesight she's looking round for them.

i took both dds for a wee shot on a friends shetland pony on sat - dd1 loved it! dd2 had a wee seat on but was much more impressed by the cows who were sticking there tongues out - she kept squealing at them.

leifmum that must be a weight off your mind about your job. i'm sure the sofa's will go well together

i'm trying to get dd2 into a routine with food too, so that it's easier for her, me and childminder - but it never works out how i want it too.

yes - i've put dd2 into next size car seat. she'd have ended up with rounded shoulder if i kept trying to squeeze her in. i do however, always have it in the recling position rather than her sitting up all the time

tasha - glad ou had a good break, did you dp look after the 3 boys on his own - if so please tell me how did it as my dp struggles with the 2 of them whilst i have a shower never mind anything else!

Had an awful night. Ds was asleep and snoring at 6pm yesterday so I dream fed him at 7:30 but he woke at 2:30 and wasn't interested in going back to sleep. Dh and I spent the next couple of hours putting his dummy back in but he just spat it out each time. In the end we just had to ignore him and let him cry himself back to sleep. We were both too tired. I ended up getting up late. Luckily I had the bad traffic to blame for being at work late. They'd closed the bridge from Essex to Kent so everywhere leading to the M25 was murder. Dh was good to me this morning. He put the kids in the car for me so I didn't get soaked The fatigue is starting to get to me now and I'm trying not to fall asleep at my desk.

Gave ds some cheese yesterday and he loved it. I don't give him much finger food as he's so easy to spoon feed and I like having very little mess. Every time I give him toast, rusks etc he and the bouncer get covered. It's also much easier for me to spend an hour making a pureeing a batch of dinners rather than cooking fresh every night to take food to mum's for the next day. I was cooking at 8am yesterday when ds went back to bed. I get a lot of satisfaction knowing all the good stuff that's going into his dinners. Although I did make him a rice pudding on Saturday which he liked. It had lots of sugar but also milk and peach puree. I enjoyed it too.

lollipop - Ds is still having 3 bottles a day but can have anything between 1oz and 8oz, no rhyme or reason as far as I can tell.

I agree re: terrible twos merging into terrible 3's. Dd will be 3 in a couple of weeks and there is no sign of behaviour getting better and her attitude is definitely worse.

leifmum - we had to transfer ds to a bigger car seat. He was far too wide and his arms were getting squashed. We lay it right down though so he doesn't have to hold himself up (he can't sit yet) and so his head doesn't drop down when he goes to sleep.

My2weegirls, the copying thing is so cute isn't it? J has just started it too, if we smack a hand down on his tray he does it too. He's also starting to recognise words, if I say "where's daddy?" he looks straight at him. Dp is ever so chuffed by it, especially as J doesn't recognise "where's mummy?" as dp doesn't say it as much. He also seems to know "toys"

Gill you're so organised, I don't know how you proper working mums do it, especially those of you with more than one child to sort out. Are you mashing the food or pureeing? We bought some stage 2 babyfood the other day, J seems to like it but didn't seem too keen on the one with whole grains of rice in.

The mess with blw is horrendous and wearing I must admit, I get tired of changing his clothes three times a day, wiping every single nook and cranny of the walker and having to attack him with a wet flannel. Bibs are useless, I've seen him pull his bib up to look at it, whilst simultaneously wiping his hand on his top underneath. But thanks to your reccommendation I decided to try some vanish spray and it's good stuff, so I've rescued a few vests and things now (cheers!)

Sorry you had a bad night with him, J is being a bit of a pita with sleep right now too, I just had to swaddle him to get him to sleep for his nap. He seems to have abandoned his second helping of sleep in the mornings too so we are getting up earlier these days. Can't complain though, I'm getting more done round the house!

I don't actually sit down in the evenings until it's time to go to bed or I just can't face doing any more washing, washing up or tidying. Don't sell yourself short though James - it's much harder work to be a sahm or part time working mum. I just sit in front of a computer all day while you have to feed, clean and entertain a baby. And your dp expects you to do all the housework and cooking.

I'm mainly mashing food. If I've been doing meat and veg together then I'll whizz it up in food processor but not too much so it leaves a few lumps. When I steam fruit I chop it up quite small and leave it as it is. He seemed quite happy with the rice pudding I gave him on Saturday. He'll pretty much eat anything I give him. I reckon if I didn't mash the veg he'd be quite happy. When I give him banana I just break small pieces off for him and 'gums' it a bit before swallowing.

Glad the Vanish spray worked for you. I find it even works on stains that have been dry for a few days.

gill hope you get an early night tonight. is the weather bad with you? we've just had rain here but nothing newsworthy.

james - it is cute (wait till they are 3 and start repeating what you say though especially when you don't think they are listening!!!!!)

dd2 is going through a phase of not wanting to sleep in her cot during the day and will scream till she's nearly sick. happy to slep in my arms (as she is now - holding onto a chunk of my hair )) or in the buggy, but it means i can't get anything done.

my2weegirls, Callum is the same when sleeping, happiest in my arms or sometimes on a giant cushion on the sofa next to me, he has a habit of trying to hold onto my mouth or chin whenhe sleeps though

Callum is really poorly with a tummy bug and has been vomiting and diahorrea since thurs, the nappies smell pretty ad too so i thinkhe may have rotavirus! It's heartbreaking watching him so sore and he is refusing pretty much all food and drink excpet for the odd ounce of milk or water! i wish i could put him back in my womb to protect him, although not at the size he is now!

leifmum-great news about the job and house-the sofas sound lovely!

my2weegirls-what do you do in the nhs?

tasha-glad you had a great weekend

james-i wish i could get Callum to eat more-we pretty much do blw, but he wont let me feed him anything off of a sppon atm, i'l try again when he's better.

Gill-you are so organised, the weather and traffic around the QE2 bridge was awful today so i'm surprised you managed in to work at all

night night x

Hello all,

Well got through my first week at work Ok and had a lovely weekend with Caitlin. She's almost doing different thinks on a daily basis now. She's started hugging you around the neck when you pick her up which is so cute and last night when I got home from work she kept kissing my check. Mouth wide open and complete with dribble but she looked pretty pleased with herself. think that's because I have always kissed her check and said 'kiss' to her.

Biggest thing though was her first word which she now repeats over and over again - what was it I hear you ask? "Mum Mum Mum Mum" yay !! She said it all the way round tesco's on Saturday and then whilst we were getting changed after swimming in the afternoon. I have been trying to teach her Dada, but everytime I say it, she thinks it's some hillarious new joke and peels with laughter.

Tried a couple of new foods over the weekend - hummous and pita bread - big success although she did seem to be wearing most of it, as was my homemade fish pie made with regular and sweet potato. Was up till 11.00 making a new batch of frozen veggies for her. Sometimes I feel like I never stop.

helibee - hope callum is on the mend soon. it's horrible when they are ill and can't tell you what they want. if he'll take juice then diarlyte (?sp) is good for keeping him hydrated.

i'm an information manager/consultant - mainly work on developing data at a national level - going back to work on improving thaetre data that is collected from hospitals.

hersetta - that's lovely her saying mum

dd1's asthma was bad last night, she coughed and coughed till she was sick. dp managed to get her to the bathroom but didn't tell her to bend over the toilet - grrr. she's fine now.

hi all

we have been away, sorry i didn't get a chance to say that before we left just about to catch up, anyone pg yet ?

I got to bed a bit earlier last night my2weegirls. It was 9:30 instead of 10 but it's better than nothing. It was very windy and wet yesterday. Ds woke up at 3:30 and didn't want to go back to sleep. Dh told me it was my fault for putting him to bed too early and then went to sleep on the sofa downstairs. I think it was because of his cough and cold. Fortunately he was asleep again by 4:20.

helibee I don't have to use the bridge or the tunnel but I have to drop the dc's off at my mum's in Dartford and all the roads leading to the M25 were queued up. Dh has to go into Essex though and it took him 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to work instead of the usual 20 minutes. Hope Callum gets better soon. It's so awful when you can't do anything to help. Has the doctor been able to prescribe anything?

That's so lovely Caitlin saying mum Hersetta My ds is still a big baby - no teeth, no words, doesn't sit, doesn't crawl. I'm quite happy to be honest though. I hated the baby stage with dd so I'm trying to savour it with ds. (Secretly I can't wait for him to say mama )

Gill - she says it but I don't think she know's that me IFKWIM. Think she's just repeating what I've said to her. As for being a big baby, Caitlin isn't even rolling fully yet. She gets to her side but can't flip right over. She is sitting up though, just has problems with her balance if she moves her head too much though and then topples over so we have cushions all around her. No teeth here as well.

Lexie getting over her cold, but still no sign of her teeth just lots of goo .

She is noisy, sitting up and has just starting crawling unfortunley she is stuck in reverse . I keep finding her stuck in corners.

cant keep up. had a pretty mad day ds2 had to go to the childrens hospital for blood tests and scans as he had a golf ball sized lump on his neck they are going to try him on a/b.

ds3 gets wieghed tomorrow so can you rum james bum on the screen again james.

i got my essay back today and scored 83 im well chuffed.

my goodness at the talking my ds2 doesnt even say mum never mind ds3 (slightly worried) he just kinda barks and ive just learnt his very unique language.

my2weegirls-dp did watch all 3 on his own. im glad he knows what its like now. hope everyone is well i was only able to scan through.

oh and i bought one of them bumbo seats yesterday and its great! must get more pics up. lo is so close to crawling, when i put him on his belly it looks like ive abandoned a new born on the floor though lol

off to do bed time. ive to do my next essay so ill pop back on later xx

hiya, Callum has been a lot better today-he loves the organix corn carrot sticks and he managed to keep one of those down today. He's also taken more milk and we put dioralyte in his water just to cover all the bases . He also cut his first tooth the other day too so that has been hurting him, poor wee soul, it never rains but it pours!

As for sitting/talking etc, he's a real chatterbox and sometimes babbles for hours on end, often to his dummy and blanket hje's been saying dada since the middle of jan and we have daily renditions of that! On sat he started saying mama, however he says it in a way which makes it sound as if he is being tortured and needs me to rescue him-hersetta, Callum is the same, i don't think he knows it means me as his mummy but hey it'll come soon enough. He can sit on his own but wobbles if he reaches too far for a toy, not sure if he'll crawl but he's not far away from walking. He doen't roll over though.

Anyway hope everyone is ok, tasha sorry to hear about ds2 hope everything is ok. i was thinking of getting Callum a bumbo, so it's good to hear that you like it!

my2weegirls-hope dd1 is ok, my wee baby cousin has asthma and it's so hard watching them struggle like that-big hugs to her and you!

Not sure how to get Callum to eat more, i feel so inaduate when i hear what James eats i def need to get Callum to take more in quantity!

i've just put dd2 in her cot for a sleep so will see how long she lasts....

hi uki! hope you had a good time away, was it somewhere nice?

oh tasha - how scary! has the lump gone down any? and that's fantastic about your essay now i just need your DP to speak to my DP!!

lizzie - my dd1 went backwards for 2 weeks when she first crawled - you should have seen and heard her giggles when she eventually managed to get out of reverse.

helibee - glad Callum is on the mend . dd1 is fine now, thank you. though i have upped her steroid inhaler for a few days. how are you feeling now?

as for the talking dd2 is a little miss chatterbox too - though don't think i can make out many words, we went round the co-op yesterday with her in the trolley shouting 'i-ya, i-ya, i-ya', maybe that could be hiya??

off to phone to see if i can get dd2 to go to, 2 different nurseries for her free places (so that childminder can take her to closest one to her and i can take her to the one that's attached to the school she will be going to).

hope everyone else is well and having good days?

have good days everyone.

Hi folks, hope everyone's ok, having a bit of a shit time of it with the dad thing, could do with two weeks in Barbados!

tasha, how is ds2? was the lump his glands? congrats on your essay score, that's really good!

helibee, what I write here is what I give him, not what he eats! Most of his food is now being dropped on the floor, as he's at that stage. This mornings toast and banana was completely rejected, but a pot of summer fruits puree was devoured with lots of "mmm"s and no complaints about being spoonfed! He's unpredictable.

The throwing thing is really frustrating but I'm trying to remember he's doing it for a reason (to learn that things come back) and not get annoyed with him. I feel like I spend all day picking up toys and bits of food, only for him to accept them gratefully and fling them straight back on the floor! gah

The travelcot is a godsend, I have it set up in the livingroom. The slightly slippery base means he can move about quite easily and reach his toys which can't get away! He'll happily spend half an hour chasing his toys around safely, and it's improving his movement a lot, right now he's in there getting up on his hands and knees, but he can't move like that yet. He usually creeps backwards on his tummy!

He can sit up but we still have pillows all round him. He can roll onto his front, and occasionally from his front onto his back. Still no talking, he's adopted a fake laugh at the moment while he thinks is terribly witty. It's quite cutting when you pull a funny face and he goes "haha, ahaha." and stops dead, no smile. I can see he's going to be as sarcastic as his father!

James, i don't know what to say re your dad.

james-

11lb! my bum-rubbing worked! (rubbing james bum on the screen, not MY bum- your lo would gain about three stone if I did that lol)

I'm ok, sending dad a note today to ask him to leave me alone which is scary but for the best- I have to think of James. Wish I had someone to hold my hand while I posted it though!

Too much to do today, and J is having a screamy day so everything I do has a lovely whingy soundtrack. I'm feeding him, changing him, giving him toys, letting him watch cbeebies, cuddling him, singing songs with him, putting him in his bouncer, walker, travel cot full of toys, "walking" him round the livingroom etc- he's just being a grumpy arse! I think he picks up on my moods too easily and plays up.

Going to brave the wind for a trip to the post office in a minute. NOT wearing my saggy pants this time!

have a hand for holding here

Ok, can't promise mine doesn't have babypoo on it though! lol No seriously though, ta. Here goes.

ok have put on my marigolds

be brave

hope you're ok james. did your pants stay on?