Sept '07 - I'm sitting..I'm sssitting....I'm sssssitting......I'm ssssssssssssssssitting...... THUD!

[sophus]

thought i'd start us off

Hi everyone! Havent been on for ages and too much to catch up on.

Hope everyone is good. Our holiday was ok - it rained for 3 days and Ryan wasnt 100%, so whilst it was lovely to have the time with DH, I was very glad to be home.

Re. other news - we are hopefully on the move. Have put our house on the market. The time away gave us the time and space to definitely decide that London isnt where either of us want to raise Ryan, so we are hoping we get a decent offer soon and we can be out! I have told my boss who has been amazing and think I will still be able to do something for them regardless of where I am based - which is lovely of them.

Hope everyones DC's are well. Ryan is showing zero inclination towards crawling but will happily bounce around on his bottom. He is such a delight though - more and more personality is starting to come through.

Will try and skim previous posts to catch up on news, but have stacks of stuff to get done round the house.

Hi Dal,
We've missed you! Wow, big news on the house front - do you have any idea where you're going to move to?? I know exactly what you mean about London. We didn't move out in order to have a baby, but equally we never would have had a baby while we were still living there. But then, I get the feeling you're in a rather leafier bit of London than we were!!
Glad your holiday had some good bits. We haven't braved a holiday with Paul yet, but I'm quite glad we're going away with family this year, to give us a bit of a break. From talking to other people, I get the feeling that once you have DC your holidays are very rarely an idyllic relaxation-fest any more - you always have to take the rough with the smooth!

thanks lollypop i thinks its a blessing after i hd a sun who never slept, and when did was never in his own bed this one goes straight down straight to sleep i'm so lucky lol.
is anyone else really freaked out that time is going too fast and our babies will nearly be one, dont know why but fel really sad her growing up too quick , maybe i jusrt a bit wierd lol

we should all have some kind of meet up with our little babies !!! xxx

sorry mrsbumblebee muisse yor post thanks shi is but does that mean she ll have bad time when she its two lol.

bumbe how did he like the farm thinking of taking dd but all farms here are bit poo

I know what you mean about time going fast, Hayley! I think the reason it doesn't bother me more is that I guess I'm just assuming I'll have another LO at some point, so I'll get to do the whole baby thing again. But then DH isn't altogether keen, and of course you never know if you'll manage to conceive or not, so I fear it's rather a major assumption to make!!

dal21: Is Ryan doing the bum shuffle along the floor or just bouncing? My friend's little boy did the bum shuffle for months before starting to crawl and she went through trousers and sleep suits like you wouldn't believe!! Hope you've got plenty stocked up for him!
Well done on making a definite decision on moving, have to agree with you on London and children, it's definitely an adult area isn't it? (I've never lived there myself but a good few people I know have/do.) Great news that your boss is so understanding about it too, must be nice to have a boos that has human qualities about them?! lol

Hayley: Noooooooo! I've been avoiding letting my brain think about the 1st birthday, don't mention it again! You are all banned from mentioning anything close to birthday!!! I just don't want her to grow up She's just soooo cute, this little bundle of fun that smiles at everything (except me having to say "NO!" to her, will explain why in a bit), I don't want her to grow and learn about how you can scream and shout and cry and get attention/her own way etc, though she probably wont need to do that I'd give it to her before she even knows she wants it! My darling little angel!

Ah MrsBB lucky you even get to think about having another, Lolly is definitely our last unless we win the lottery (would be able to afford continual pampering throughout pregnancy to help avoid SPD, caesarian section and nanny , not to mention being able to afford food and clothing once baby's born ).

Well, things are back to normal in our house nothing to get excited about any more! Woke up this morning, after one of the worst night's sleep (yes that includes Friday night lol) Lolly woke up at 7:30, gave her a bottle, then DD1 woke up with a sticky eye, cleaned her up, got her back into bed, 8:00 DH's alarm went off, hit snooze, DD1 came back in our room, got her back into bed, Lolly finally finished her bottle, changed her nappy, attempted to get back into bed, DH's alarm goes off again, he get's up and goes downstairs, DD1 comes back in, then back to her room to play, comes back in with dressing gown and wellies on! (Great look btw) DH leaves the house and I'm still trying to convince myself that if DD1 goes into her room and has a good play I might just get half an hour's decent sleep. . . it's not happening, so I get up moody as anything, what a start to the week eh?!
Ho-hum, guess it just kicks it to me that it doesn't matter how often you can go out and enjoy yourself, if you don't get enough sleep then that amazing feeling you had when you were out just disappears, never to be retrieved!
Oh goody, I'm back to my whingey winey self, glad to have me back ladies?!
xXx

Hiya everyone,

Great pix lolly, looks like you had a fab time. Your dress is amazing!

Dal, where are you going to move to? Do you have the pick of the country? I'm always entertaining fantasies of living in a lovely victorian vicarage with a huge garden somewhere in the country.... and then I remember both dh and I do jobs that don't exist outside of London (doh!) and we can't

Luca has been really disturbed in his sleep the last few days, my sister thinks he's having a developmental surge or something. I'm sure he's about to walk and apparently they quite often have disturbed sleep before they do something new. I don't know if anyone's got any experience of that. All I know is that last night he slept from 7pm to 8.30, then cried and cried until 9.30pm despite all my cuddles and attempts at bfing (he wasn't really hungry) He then slept from about 10.30 to 1.30, I went to bed at 11pm, frustratingly I couldn't get to sleep until midnight, then Luca woke up at 1.30 and was awake until 3am. Nothing would settle him which is so unlike him. He just wanted to chat. Eventually I was such a zombie I turned on his musical light projector thingy which I don't normally use as it's too distracting and went to bed as I had to get up at 5am this morning for work. He then woke up at 5.30 so poor dh had to take over while I got ready for work, and now here I am in the middle of a 12 hour shift having had 3.5 hours sleep boo hoo! I'm sooooo tired. My friend at work uses the same childminder and she came in to work at 10 this morning saying Luca was fast asleep at the childminders. Typical!!

I've got to dash, off to Blackheath for work... Hope I don't doze off in the car!

TTFN x

Hi All

Head fairy - you poor thing with no sleep ! Eloise is doing the same thing - keeps waking up and also won't go down in her cot at bed time - don't know if its her teething or what really ! Just very tiring !

Dal - glad you had a nice holiday and sounds like you had the chance to make some plans for change - where are you thinking of moving ?

Lolly - I had a fab birthday-do on Friday and then crap sleep all weekend so I know how you feel !

Hayley - Eloise is 10months today and I feel really sad in a way as she is nearly 1 and not my little baby anymore ! I get really sad when I pack away clothes she's grown out of ! How silly is that ??

Helloo everyone else - hope you are enjoying the sunshine ! Its my 40th birthday today so I'm on housework strike and just enjoying my day - opening cards and getting flowers delivered !!

Happy Birthday!

It's been a while since I was last here.
babytwit is crawling [aaaarrrrrggghhhh], sitting and generally making a nuisance of himself.
he finds it hard to fall asleep too atm, a combination of teething, light [warm? lol] evenings, big brothers and being more aware of everything in general and more physically able.
[bad mother alert] I tend to go to him only if he is screaming, or might be being sick...

[ahem]

oh and ds2 bum shuffled rather than crawled, and they can walk slightly later than crawlers as they don't need to adjust their position to see people and things as much iyswim..
ds1 was [I think] just about walking around now, and I couldn't find him any shoes small enough. I had some lovely comments about him looking weird 'cos he was so small.

Twitmonster That's amazing that your ds1 was walking at such a young age!
I don't think you're a bad mum for not going running at every little noise your ds makes, in fact it might just make for a more patient child (I know DD1 is definately a lot more patient for me doing exactly that in the first place, but I do think I tend to pander to Lolly's whining more than I did dd1's, cos I'm a lot more impatient myself what with rushing around the house after dd1 and then, seeing as I'm up, I might as well be rushing around after Lolly too, so we'll see how this works out for me, it's definitely making a difference where my weight is concerned! )

Thanks to all for the lovely comments about my dress, I just wish I could wear it all the time, might just be tempted to wear it into town next time I go
xXx

Happy Birthday Amyclaramum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMYCLARAMUM!!!!!! !!!!! Hope you have a lovely day!

Yes, we've had Cerys awake in the night quite a bit lately. It started a few weeks ago when she either had a bug or started teething (still not sure which!?). Thing is, she loves her bed so much that there's actually not much I can do to settle her. I run up and down the stairs (she's downstairs in her nursery) but rarely even take her out of her cotbed. If I do, she tends to get even more frustrated - based on her cry, I'm sure it was the pain of teething. Since then, she seems to have got into a habit of waking for an hour or so but not properly in that she's not crying, just flapping around in her cotbed. She's not mobile yet so there's simply nothing I can do except sit and watch her on the monitor until she goes back to sleep! Like you twit, I only really go to her if she's extremely distressed or ill or going to be sick or something (hasn't happened in the night yet). We have the advantage that her room doesn't have a window so its always dark with the door shut. However, if somebody knocks on the door, the dog barks and that wakes her up - grrrrrrr!!! !

Lovely to see you dal! Well done on making a decision about moving - have anywhere specific in mind?

Lolly, hope you get some more sleep tonight!

Yes, a meet up would be lovely - how about a date in July, maybe before the older kids split up from school? Either that or after they split up and they can all keep each other amused while we natter? How about the same place again? (I missed it last time!). Let me know as I'd soooo love to meet you ladies!!!!

PLP xxxx

Hello everyone, it looks like we are all busy nowadays, it takes ages before finding time to sit down and catch up and then there is no time to post

Lolly - your dress looks lovely, I wish I could sew but I don't really have the patience or inclination

We went on holiday last week to Cornwall, it was really nice to all be together but the weather could have been better. The week before was glorious apparently but we got all the cloud and rain

Ben is 8 and a half months now and has started moving around, he is a whizz in his walker and is walking quite well whilst holding his arms, he is not crawling yet but is assuming the position nearly so won't be long now. I think he had a growth spurt last week whilst away, I've never known him eat so much, he has slowed right back down again the past couple of days. I'm going to get him weighed on thursday he certainly feels a lot heavier

He still has no sign of any teeth but it doesn't stop him with the finger foods

amyclaramum Happy Birthday for yesterday, hope you had a lovely time

New pics of Ben in my profile

Hello ladies, just popping in to ask your opinion/experience: Cerys seems to be refusing the spoon pretty much completely unless its a yoghurt or jar or fruit!!! I'm all for her having a phase of feeding herself only but most of it doesn't seem to be going in! I've just made her dinner - mini fishfingers, vegetables (peas,carrots,sweetcorn) and a waffle. I've had to make twice as much as I know she'll eat on the basis that most of it hits the deck and the dog gets it. Bless her, she seems happy enough and is getting some of it. She seems to 'fist feed' but the majority of the time the food falls out of her hand before it gets into her mouth. I know she'll get the hang of it soon but wandered if anybody else makes lots more or if you make just enough and if it doesn't go in, tough!?

Also, I've noticed she'll take a bite out of something, then spit it out, then carry on taking bites etc. For example, she'll pick up a pea, put it in her mouth, chew a bit, then pop her tongue out and out it drops but she'll keep going - most entertaining!!! lol

Hi PLP,
I tend to just make a normal sized meal, and whatever Paul doesn't eat, that's tough (though I'm quite happy to recycle food from the floor - no dog here to get to it first!!). I do notice that he sometimes eats far more than at other times - if he's not wildly keen on a meal then he'll only eat about half of it, particularly if he's feeding it to himself. For some reason, he'll keep taking food from the spoon even if he's not enjoying it - and even though he far prefers feeding himself, IYKWIM - it's like a reflex action! Have you tried letting Cerys feed herself with the spoon? Paul quite likes it if I put some food on the spoon and then put the spoon in his hand - he's then reasonably good at getting it into his mouth.

Personally, I don't worry too much about Paul getting undernourished. He's still having three milk feeds a day, which he usually doesn't finish, so I figure that if he has a meal where he hasn't eaten enough, he'll just take more milk to compensate. Also, it says in my baby book ('What to Expect the First Year', which I find excellent), that babies generally start to eat a bit less around this age, because their growth slows right down. It says it's quite common to feel like more food is going on the floor than in their mouths.

HTH

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for you kind words. Nice to know I was missed.

Looking at a few areas, not committing yet. Want to sell our place first and see what we get for it, then make some decisions. We had one offer which we have refused, market is much slower than it was a year ago, but then there arent any other houses in our area with off street parking and 4 bedrooms, so we have to wait and see.

PLP - i tend to agree with MrsB re. not worrying too much about how much they eat. The annabel karmel book says at this age, not to look at how much they eat day to day but what their intake is like over a few weeks - and I have noticed that somedays Ryan wont eat much, but he will make up for it on other days. Ryan still takes (probably not for much longer) food from a spoon but only if he has finger foods too. I am basically trying to let him lead on the food front and if he doesnt eat much, to let him be. HTH

I also need some advice. Am trying to start weaning Ryan onto a beaker from his bottles. I am doing it on the morning feed when he is at his hungriest - one morning he took it fine, the following morning was a complete battle of wills. I lost.

Havent tried since. Any advice? I am trying the dr. brown training beaker.

Am off to town today to meet up with a Uni friend with our bubs. Should be a fun day.

Defo up for a meet up. Lets get some days in July sorted. Hopey - will you see if Kink will come? What day works best for people?

Hugs to all.

Hello everyone, happy birthday for last monday amyclaramum. Sorry I'm a bit behind, I've had a manic three days at work this week.

Lisalesslumpy, glad you had a good holiday even if you did miss the best of the weather. It's typical isn't it? That always happens to us, my dad always used to joke that the phrase he dreaded when we were on holiday was "oh you should have been here last week, wall to wall sunshine..." Yeah, great, whatEVER!

PLP - Luca is pretty terrible at feeding himself, he's very lazy and when I do give him stuff to feed himself, he drops it or throws it on the floor. I try and mix and match, as he's still letting me spoon feed him I'll have something in a bowl I can spoon in to his mouth at the same time he's throwing stuff on the floor so at least I can satisfy myself he's not going to starve. He's still pretty small despite the fact that he's all but walking now, so I'm always paranoid he's not getting enough food. That said, he's not thin, so maybe he's just going to be short. He also has days when he'll only have sweet things from a spoon, so I give him a yoghurt and let him entertain himself with some toast and cheese. I used to get really irritated by it all but then I caught myself and realised poor love has got to learn how to do it and that might take some time. Just because he can get every single one of his toys in his mouth doesn't mean that he'll get it right first time with food.

Dal - I haven't tried using a beaker for his milk feeds yet, but Luca drinks out of a Tommee Tippee cup pretty easily. It's a free flow so it does sometimes go everywhere, but he's getting better. He can drink water out of one of those anyway up cups too now he's got the hang of sucking it.

I hope everyone else is enjoying the sunshine, take care xx

Come to Kent, Dal, come to Kent!! No tips on beakers, I'm afraid - Paul has his lunchtime milk from a beaker, and took to it straight away. I use a free flow spout one.

Hi to everyone else! I'm in a very happy mood today - have just heard that my psycho-neighbour from hell is moving out in 3 weeks' time, after 2 years of trying to sell his house. Though on the downside, Paul's on his third head bump of the day already...

PLP: Most babies don't actually eat a lot (don't forget they've got tiny tummys!), and she'll get the hang of it herself, it's all about practice, the more she practices the more she'll get in her mouth.
As for spitting things out and then having another bite, I think that's all part of the practicing (DD1 did all of this) it's testing texture and method of eating etc.
My back up is soya custard, if Lolly doesn't seem to have had mush for dinner/lunch then I'll shove some of that in her gob and she's a happy bunny!

Dal: I've tried 2 different cups, one's a beaker with a lid (her moo-cow one, sooo cute) and the doidy, she's actually better with the doidy (not sure why, she doesn't look at the drink in there and uses more of a lapping technique than a sipping one Strange cat-child that I have! ), but I'm a lazy mummy and haven't done it very often .
(Not sure that was very helpful Am in a funny ol' mood today!).

Update of the day:
Lolly's into the crawling stance so DH is giving it a week before she's off! I think it might take her a bit longer, she's still not sitting up by herself yet and I'm meant to be going to the HV's tomorrow. . . shall I chicken out again?!

Got a link for the gallery of photos from the ball if anyone's interested? (I'm not in a single one of them which I'm a bit miffed about but it was more of a goth event so maybe they thought I was a bit too norm to put on there, ho-hum):

midsummer night's ball

Anywho, I'm off again, DD1 woke up from her nap and is making a mess already. . .
xXx

Morning!

Amyclaramum - a very belated happy birthday to you. sory missed that one the last time i posted.

Headfairy - Ryan takes all his water from a tommee tippee beaker without any problems - has done for months. I want to use a different cup for the milk though as since he seems not to like it, I dont want him to start rejecting the water if he thinks there is milk in there. Tried again this morning, took an ounce or so, then mouth was clamped firmly shut.

MrsB - thanks for the invite to kent. Kent isnt on our list, sorry. Hoorah for you getting rid of your neighbours though!

Lolly - am thinking I may use the doidy tomorrow. Ryan laps at it too, and more can end down his front, but he quite enthusiastic about it. Ryan has also in the last 2 days started to get into a forward stance. Is forward sitting on his feet with his weight on his arms, so goodness only knows how much longer it will be before he is off!

I may post on the feeding board re. my beaker issues.
Hope everyone has fab days, we had really good fun yesterday in town. The mamas and papas cafe on regent street would be great for a meet up if we needed somewhere central that everyone could make.

Hello everyone !

Thank you for all your birthday wishes - I had a lovely day and had a fab cake (in the shape of a handbag ! - not sure if DH is saying I'm an old bag or something )

PLP - agree with what others have said about looking at Cerys's weekly intake rather than daily and I think its a developmental thing to not want spoon feeding isn't it ? One of Mums at my NCT group was saying her daughter only wants finger foods now !!

Dal - don't really have any advice for you - maybe try in feeding! Eloise still has her milk from bottles (or boob at night !!). She has a beaker for water but spends most of the time throwing it on the floor !

Is anyone else finding nappy changing a struggle ?- honestly its like wrestling a ferret (not that I've actually wrestled a ferret but you know what I mean !)

Hello to Head fairy and Lolly and everyone else - hope you are all doing ok ?

Hello everyone,

Dal - good luck at finding a solution to Ryan's milk drinking. I've been away so long, I didn't realise he wasn't too keen on his milk. I hope you find a suitable beaker for him.

amyclaramum - not only nappy changing but dressing, putting any kind of cream or lotion on, giving medicines, just about anything that involves me pinning him down for a minute. He's desperate to be off. He's got a stinking cold and cough and conjunctivitis at the moment so I'm currently having to give him three different medicines and it's a struggle. I've taken to dressing him on the changing table again as he's less likely to roll over and crawl off, he tends to lie still for just a second longer on there.

Lollypopz - the pictures are pretty cool, it's amazing the effort everyone went to.

Very little news to report here, poor Luca is so snotty and grizzly, he went to bed with hardly any tea or milk in him today but he was so tired his head was nodding during tea so I thought it was better for him to sleep. I made him some lovely raspberry jelly today and I've got some thick Jersey cream for his pudding tomorrow so he can make it up then! Still no sign of walking yet but he's cruising everywhere. He does his Marcel Marceau impersonation going around the walls in the living room I spend most of my time removing things he's found and is shoving in his mouth. He had a leaf in his mouth this morning when we were in the garden and I just caught him picking up some dried bird poo and about to put it in his mouth yuk!!!!!!

We've got a lovely quiet weekend coming up, nothing planned at all. So nice cos we've got 5 weddings coming up next month, three in one week!!!!! So we're going to enjoy the peace while we can, I hope everyone else manages to get some too

xx

Morning - Have caved on the beaker front. Back to bottle. Baby happy and back to drinking milk.

Will try again next week.

At least he's getting his milk Dal, Luca still has his milk from a bottle. If he's happily drinking water from a beaker I think that's probably ok, he'll move up to taking milk from a beaker eventually. Good luck with it though x