'January 08 shiny new - year babies , Keep rolling , rolling , rolling !'

[lilyloo]

hope everyone finds it

Hi gingeme - hope you enjoyed soft play. wow! george is eating reallyb well.

welcome back Nicky

sorry about 'early starts Ange - we often have this problem too. haven't really found a way round yet.

Thanks so much for that Fragolina - it's probably the best 'weaning from the breast' advice I've had. She's taking an ounce or two at each offering and we have just bought some of the 'Closer to Nature bottles'. If it took you a month that's great news because I'm giving it three. Can you tell me, did you feel at all down when doing this? A friend of mine had to stop fairly rapidly and she got terrible hormonal depression.
Sorry to hear about the soap incident. My friend had something similar with an older child recently. The child got a slice of lemon from a galss and got some in her eye - which she proceded to rub with her lemony hand. It was awful, poor little tot!

MM - Some people say start them off with a little medecine cup - this seems to be advice that is especially given to bf mums, so might be worth a try. Sabela does much better without the spout, although it's a bit messy. I've also heard that this is a good thing to do because they may refuse a non-spouted cup later on (although there are one million and one bits of advice like this, aren't there? ) TBH - and you might not like the sound of it because I don't - Sabela likes - LOVES! - drinking from our glasses the best and drinks the most from them. I'm always on tenterhooks because of her teeth, though. Sorry about your jaw.

Lily - any progress today and last night?

Hi Lucky, JKS, Simpson and all. Where are you? It IS raining for heaven's sake!

i'm here
my laptop (lovely new macbook air!) has decided it won't connect to the web anymore
so have to use dh's pc in his home office.
not handy when ds1 is about.

tired, ds2 up at 2 for a feed, getting down about it now, why won't he sleep through????
of course a bottlefeeding mum told me today that her 12 week old is sleeping through now
thing is ds1 was by 12 weeks and he was bf so i don't think it's that anyway.

dh taken ds1 out for new shoes and to give me a break from him, he's just so defiant and exhausting atm.

right, ds2 whinging about being left alone, might give the door bouncer a go, back later, maybe!

JKS - from what I can work out, it's just the individual child. I've heard countless tales of mums with one child who slept like an angel, the other woke constantly.

Our routine is very similar or the same as those of mums with sleeping children. Aside from the fact we woke her every two hours when she was tiny to feed her, when she wanted to sleep, I can't find a reason.

Hello everyone,

Hope you and your little ones are well. Not been on for a while, life has been crazy and hectic with my girls. If you can recall, I last came on because my DD2 was just not eating, so now we have been referred to a dietician as she is just not gaining weight. Also she is not talking (i.e not saying mama, dad etc at 8 months) so been told that it might be her tounge tie that is affecting her speech so HV refered her onto another specialist...

Fingers crossed for us, it just seem to be one thing after another......

sorry should have stated clearly that she needs to see a dietician as she does not eat despite trying baby lead weaning, baby rice with milk, varius purees, finger foods...she's not interested at all and does not drink that much milk either....

Hey ladies

LaTrucha I know what you mean about baby?s scratching themselves, when I got Xavier from his cot after his morning nap he had one on the end of his nose, can?t think what he scratched it on! Xavier?s teeth are still really bothering him poor think, I hope Sabela?s don?t hurt her as much this time round Hope the new routine for Sabela gives you more time to sleep! Ds has one of those closer to nature bottles (amongst others) and I give him his early morning feed in it, I think it?s his favourite. Have you tried a doydy (sp!) cup? I?m wondering if I should get one, like Sabela, Xavier prefers the spout off.

Hello Madmouse hope you are feeling better hon. Sorry to hear about the dental work ?eeek! That?s good news about the poos, what are you giving him for dinner and could you swop it for lunch to see if you can get an earlier poo? DS isn?t great with the TT cup we have either, just can?t get the hang of it. He is good with one of his cups but it leaks when you take it out with you so I am desperately seeking another one. If I need to get water down him I give it to him in a bottle, I would prefer not to but in this heat, he needs to drink enough.

Lilyloo ? how is DD now? Poor you, what a scary time! (has it put you off camping?)

Fragolina your milk plan sounds good, I hope DD gets better with the bottle for you the gist of the book was to try and understand the other?s point of view and really to say it how it is and not to assume that the other is thinking about the same things that you are e.g. about what the child needs. Not rocket science really. LOL at your thoughts on your MIL, my parents were young and wealthy when I was born and had two live in maids (we lived in the Far East) so it is a different ballgame altogether! My Mum does adore DS though and no one can make him laugh and giggle as much as she can I know what you mean about the wobbly belly ? I really need to get into shape what a softie you are re the kitten! It is such a cutie though (I have a pure black cat too, have had her for 9 years ) enjoyed your lovely pics! That was quite a reaction to the Cow & Gate, that?s what my DS gets. Ohhh enjoy the massage! DH came home with flowers for me but they were from his uncle not from him!

Gingeme ? My DS is into the same sort of ?clapping? as yours is! I?ve starting putting him in his bag again so he can?t roam as much in his cot. It?s so sweet when I go in and find him sitting up studying the cot protectors though.

Lucky ? hope you had a better night last night

Welcome back Nicky6, glad you had a good time and looking forward to hearing all about it.

Sorry to hear that Angechica could it be teeth? DS has been waking up crying and I think it?s due to that. How exciting about your new family member, hope she doesn?t keep you waiting too long!

JKS ? sorry to hear you are still not getting much night sleep out of DS2, don?t know what to suggest I?m afraid, I?m one of the lucky ones and have a sleeper (sorry)

Hello Amani! sorry to hear about your worries with DD2 my DS isn?t talking yet but he won?t be 8 months until end of the month so I don?t know if he?ll suddenly start or not. I didn?t realise it was something to worry about

Evening all yaaaawn

Well just about recovered from our trauma!
I decided not to take dd as she was settled and just monitor in the night!
Typically she wakes about 9.30 after walk in centre closes She was just unsettled so not drastic enough for a and e and hours of waiting!
Si i waited for our neighbour (nurse) to come home.
Took her over there and she confirmed it was a bite but a localised infection not a travelling one. Apparantly if you see a red line from the sore then it's travelling.
She said to leave it until the morning as even if i got prescription i wouldn't likely get it that eve anyway.
So we had the most terrible night with her and eventually gave up at 3 sent dp downstairs and we sat up in bed having loads of cuddles.
Got a doc apt at 9am and basically it is an infected insect bite. He gave us antibiotics and cream for it. Currently it is a large red less swollen circle with a big black scab in the middle. Poor dd looks like she has a black eye
No idea what insect it was but yes Mrs Mc has def put me off with a baby anyway.
Last night abs started to kick in so we had about 5 hrs and today she is much happier in herself!
Feel completely drained by it i hate that feeling of helplessness!

Although on a plus note she started crawling today so am now getting baby gates down from left!

Amani poor dd it seems one thing after the other!

MM thanks for concern ouch sound painful! I guess they are letting you know al the 'what could happens' a bit to cover themselves like NHS Direct

Frag cute kitten but i not a cat person would much prefer the massage enjoy!

Nicky glad you had good time!

Mrs Mc i would also feel upset if dd cam home with scratches. Does she say anything ? As for the dummies i have to admit we loose loads of those!

Gingeme dd the same with our dog she is fascinated by her!

Lucky hows the spare room coming along ? Have you started dd's ? Are the kittens here now ?

JKS / Ange as we have been here many times before i despair ever of dd going more than 4 hours? Is this just me now ?
p.s Ange hope lo is here safe and soon

Sorry if missed anyone think i am caught up

La Trucha sorry just love that Sabela was so pleased to see you why do they wake up and seem so cheerful in the middle of the night and when they are so happy it's hard to get cross by it!
And i am testament to the individual child as dd1 was a dream sleeper ds and dd2 both nightmares , go figure

baby gates from 'left' loft she across the room in ten seconds

Amani I feel for you hon . Nothing worries us mums more in the end than feeding and weight gain. It looks like you tried absolutely everything and more. It is good that your hv is proactive, but I am wondering idly whether a dietician is the best person to refer to at the moment, as they can help maximise calorie intake etc, but what you need to know is why your lovely dd is not eating or drinking milk. I would ask for a referral to the community paediatrician if I were you, to look into the cause of the problem. It does seem a bit early to worry about speech, and of course speech and eating solids are related, as they require the same muscles, but a comm paed can look at the whole picture.

But yeah, I do know how you feel, we know that Nathan has a small head and is likely to develop cerebral palsy, then I take him to doc with a big lump on his bum and the doctor asks does he always breath so noisily and I just want to say leave me alone you lot and curl up somewhere. But the little ones need you, so on you go. Anyone supporting you?

Susie, you rock, took lid of tt cup, still spills most of it but actually seems to drink and swallow . Poblem is can no longer let him use the thing for hammer/discus practice with the lid off .

Nicky welcome back.

Lily you too. Glad things settling down. Yes, I was getting a bit worried about you and dd yesterday when you did not post to let us know how she was doing I though you must be in hospital with her. See not content with worrying myself sick over my own brood .

Feeling a bit down today as brother off on another bender .... but then I looked at all your profile pics and it made me smile loads! Thanks guys!

Susie I bet mine helped

what sort of bender brother up to? (If you want to talk about it that is )

Lily forgot to say well done with crawling.

Oh, yes Lily - well done!

Bor, like my Mum is an alcoholic. He'd moved in with a friend who unfortunately but not unusually had alcohol in the house. My brother drank it all and got kicked out. I hate to think of my brother behaving like that. And so sad for him.

susie that is difficult for you, especially it being mum and brother.

my brother is a sex offender with children . He did his sentence in prison, came to faith, moved in with my uncle and aunt who got him back on his feet, got him a job, helped him sort out finances (they are real Christians ) now he got himself a relationship with a very damaged 16 year old girl (he is 30), got kicked out of the house and has gone awol. My dad refuses to talk about it and there is no contact. To be honest I told him I do not want to see him.

Why do our family members do that?

Boo....lost the thread and haven't caught up since last Friday....

Just sticking this in as a marker - off to the shops now, will do my utmost to catch up and post before this reaches 1000 and disappears again...

No idea how others with 2 kids or more find the time these days - I feel like there's no MN breathing space during the day and I'm too tired at night !

Hope all are well?

MM - Does he see his children? Presumably not at the moment if he's AWOL. I have a great deal of sympathy with alcoholics. It really is a vicious disease of body and mind. I spent a long time trying to 'help' my mum, as did my other brother. We've settled now for a sort of unreal, friendly relationship based on the fact that she's given in, knows it is incapacitating her and will kill her but she tries to keep it unnoticeable to others. Probably not all that sucessfully. My brother is another matter. He's got a paranoid mental illness but he's sober most of the time. He just doesn't take the alcoholism seriously. He's recently started meds for his mind but he thinks that means he doesn't have to deal with being an alcoholic. He's much youger than my mum was when it all started with her and I feel he should have more perspective and be able to stop it. I can see this just being a problem forever. I swore I'd never try and help another alcoholic after a truly horrendous experience with my mum but have got sucked into it. (Basically DH said, how would you feel if Sabela went to university and was taught by him and she'd never met him). The worst thing is, he doesn;t give a damn about me. We've only ever had about two conversations in my life - this is no exaggeration - and he's stayed in my house for weeks at a time and I'm sure will do again. He's never wished me a happy birthday and hasn't acknowledged Sabela's existence in any way. Sorry for BIG offload!

I have absolutely no chance of catching up! Sorry everyone.

Toby does backwards crawling now, but we're thinking we are going to have to get stairgates and fireguards sooner rather than later. Everything seems to cost so much! Ah well, as long as it keeps them safe.

Hope eveyone is well and coping with their LO's. I have had great night's sleep here abd still feel completely knackered. I think it's this damn awful weather.Did I blink and miss the summer???

Rough night last night - teething maybe? Who knows. I'll keep this short anyway, as think I'll catch a snooze while la principessa is sleeping.

LaT - So sorry about your bro's bender! Hope he'll be able to start over being sober. Sounds like you've really given a lot of yourself, and its so hard not to try and 'help' - my MIL's a gambler so I sympathise with what a nightmare addictions can be for family. Don't worry about offloading - that's why we're here!!

Madm - wow, your aunt and uncle are incredible to have given him such a chance, and such a shame that things have deteriorated since . I can only imagine how hard it must have been to decide to no longer see him.

Lily - good to know it wasn't a travelling infection and that its looking better. Yay for crawling!

Mrs McJ - I have a doidy cup, seeing as I tried almost every kind of cup/bottle to get T off the boob, she loved it for a while but she now wants to fling it around and blow bubbles into it. Have a soft spout beaker that I removed the valve from and she seems to quite like water out of that. I grew up in Kenya with cook/maid etc - and so miss the help now! It seems like another life. I have cousins who have never done their own ironing, and spoilt as it sounds, I am SO jealous.....although I am also loving having DD to myself and not sharing her with a nanny.

Amani - think madmouses's suggestions about comm paed sound very sensible. Also I didn't know that not speaking by 8 months was something to be concerned about either. poor little dd - does she seem happy in herself though? Sounds like you really have tried everything feeding wise, so hope you're not beating yourself up about it.

JKS - Everything just seems more difficult when you've had little sleep, so hang in there! I don't think there's any magic recipe for sleep (I wish! ). T still wakes up at least once in the night, which I can cope with (although she was up last night from 2:45 until 5am! Ouch)

Welcome back Nicky6

Ange - any news on your bro's baby?

Filly - waves!

Betterhalf - Forget missing summer, seems we've skipped autumn here too and jumped straight to winter! Had to turn on the heating last night, boiler still not right.

My SIL is pregnant again, and has 'told' us all (i.e. her dad, sis, bro and me)by a passing reference to 'this baby' in a joint email. At least she emailed her mum in more detail separately. I find it SO strange, considering we live in the same country.

massage yesterday was FANTASTIC! Although haven't had a professional massage by a man before and found the sensation of the hairs on his forearms being rubbed the wrong way when he was doing my back very weird. Esp coz he was really v hairy.

Afternoon ladies.
Try freecycle betterhalf
Hi Filly
Sorry to hear about your brother LaTrucha
I went to court this morning. I was a witness to my friends soon to be ex husband as he was drink driving. Very nerve racking but I told the truth and thats all I could do. Anyway all over and done with now.
Dh took all the boys to playgroup this morning. The first one of the term. They all had great fun by the sound of things. George has decided 6am is a good time to start the day now He shouts as loud as he can once hes fed up with the toys in his cot till one of us gets him up. Realy could have done without it this morning though.
Dh went to his gp about his back yesterday. He does have a degenerative disk but the gp says its not major and the physio is going to help. He also signed him off work for another two weeks
My big boys are with us for the weekend. They have moved from Scotland now back to Bedford which means I'll see them a bit more now .
Right lo awake from his nap now so I'm off.

Afternoon all!

Does anyone know where Lucky is? IT's not like her not to post for so long.

Fragolina - sorry for rough night - ~YAY! for the massage. wouldn't a maid be gorgeous! My MIL had a maid with her first three, then they went broke and she had 5 all on her own, not even family. And yes, I do think that's a very weird way to announce a baby is on the way!

Well done for witneesing Gingeme. And YAY for big boys being closer to home. It must be lovely to have DH at home - unless he moans about his back all the time of course!

Yes, Betterhalf - the summer did only last for a blink of an eye.

MADMOUSE! MADMOUSE! - and anyone else who's planning on making the leap from breast to bottle - get a Tommee Tippee 'closer to nature' bottle. They're fab. Sabela took 4oz last night on her first go with it. She's only managed two oz so far withthe others.

Is Sabela the only baby not crawling? She looked like she was about to start but then didn't [desperately-trying-not-to-care-as she-know-it's-not-really-a-developmental-must emoticon]

aah we have had to move tv cabinet as dd can get round the back and found the wires this am !
We have also had to move ds football trophys as she nearly had one as a hat and she now finds great fun in pulling our old dogs tail when she is asleep and stressing her out! Even she is taking a nap while dd is
Oh the joys of a moving baby!

LaTru and MM both storys!

Sorry but I really can't catch up.

I'm having a horrid time at the moment and feeling quite alone.

We're meant to be fostering kittens and getting a homecheck on Sunday. We also had our new HUGE bed delivered today so all the stuff that was in the bedroom has gone into the spare room that I tidied half of. Now it just looks as though I might as well not have bothered.

The whole house is a mess and DD's not the kind of baby to allow me to tidy up at the moment which means i'm gonna have to do it tonight while she's asleep and miss out on my sleep. Its not like I could catch up on sleep tomorrow either cos I'm gonna have to tidy while she sleeps then.

Anyways... sorry for wingeing and i'm sorry for no personals.

DON'T miss out on your sleep to tidy up Lucky! If there's something that really needs to be done, DD can whinge for a bit.

I don't have a choice LaTrucha - DP in bed so have to keep her quiet or she'll wake him up.

I HAVE to get the rooms sorted before Sunday so I have no choice.

Wish I could give you a hand.