APRIL 2008 - The One Where They Can Eat Food & Shoes & Toys ........

[FrankenSoph73]

Thought as the messages were coming in thick & fast I´d start new thread. Don´t know if it´ll work though. Fingers crossed.

it's sooo cold! I'm sure our house was warmer than this last year. Hmmmm....might need to re-examine the curtain situation.

Scorpio, sweetheart, I'm so sorry your DH has been such an arse and is putting you through this. It's such a stomach-hurtingly awful thing to discover, especially when you feel that your DH is everything to you, to find that you have seemingly not been everything to your DH. I can't advise on the relationship but would encourage you to try to find some time to focus on something that is purely about you as "you", not you as "mother", or you as "wife". It's easy to get submerged in all of this, and I think sometimes that our confidence and self-image can take a knocking partly because we lose a sense of who we are. Sorry, not expressing this very well. This isn't to imply this is in any way your fault, just hope it might help you recognise your own value - just wish your DH hadn't squashed it by forgetting how precious you are for a stupid moment.

oh god. Stupid stupid stupid neighbours are letting off extremely loud fireworks. Will be so annoyed if B wakes, he's been touchy all day, had a hissy fit around 4 and I'm not confident that tonight is going to be any different from last night.

Early to bed for me in prep I think.

Ladybee, I suspect it's because we were all pregnant this time last year that we feel so cold now.

The fireworks are really annoying me too. I wish they would ban private fireworks sale (am ok with organised "shows", but every second person setting stupid loud ones off and scaring the living daylights out of pets and small children is really not on. (Says grumpy old woman here.)

Waiting for dh to come home as I fancy a long, hot bath but don't want to risk having to get out if R wakes up - it has to be long and bubble bath and everything.

thev fireworks>? diwal, one of the bigger Hindu festivals so not a random thing LOL (before anyone starts an aibu and gets a bashing)

Diwali- typing again!

That walker looks fine, only reason we don't have one is because this house is all angles and narrow corrdors, would be no use. He hates his bouncer which is odd as the others loved them.

he can now propel himself across a floor by himself- 4 or 5 metres- in a psudo crawl

Thanks for the advance warning, Peachy. However, I don't mean it's wrong in itself, I just don't agree with private fireworks set off, as every year loads of animals get either hurt by it or freak out and run away etc. I think it should be organised events only. (But not feeling strongly enough about it to venture out in the rocky world of AIBU.)

Hey - a friend of mine has just told me it's snowing in Milton Keynes where she lives! Can you believe it! In October! LadyBee - maybe that's why you are feeling colder tonight!

Annoying fireworks going off here too - it's a miracle Gigi hasn't woken up yet. I also wish they would ban private firework sales. My cat's hate fireworks - poor Joey is now under the bed shaking.

Oh poor Joey!!! I've started closing the window in the sitting room at night (well, I only needed half an excuse, as it's freezing air coming in!) as I'm afraid the cats might get too scared when outside. Even when inside now they're visibly shaken when really loud ones go off.

Oh had forgotten about Diwali - I usually get lots of diwali messages as work with a team in Delhi but being at home...missed it. Oops.
Note I am not in bed yet. Watching silly Bond movie instead.
Hope you managed to get your long bath Sal.
I am procrastinating. I am supposed to be doing my Flexible Working request. blah.

Thanks everyone. Can I ask, the 'not leaving baby in the walker too long' thing... Is it the same with baby bouncers too?

No fireworks here thank goodness...
(Pokes Scorpio) Hope you are alright hun...

xxx

I think so, don't have one myself but when I was asking about them the ladies here who had them were suggesting about 15 mins as a session I think.

PFJ, I think so, yes. Can't remember who, but someone on this thread seemed to know a lot about it. I think there is some good research into it, but I just can't be bothered enough to find it, so stick with a couple of mins for safety sake. Will see if I can find anything for you.

Right, have bored myself trying to describe my tasks and responsibilities I think I need to go to bed.

Good luck Ladybee! When does it need to be submitted?

Thanks gals xxx

Hmm. Still searching, but rather strong advice against walkers here

I think thats enough.. bugger, I was hoping to make Jack's day with one of those..... Poot.

oh great, just found some really bad references re bouncers too... here
So I need to do proper parenting? All the time???

Damn, it's probably not the greatest risk in the world and I know you can't cotton wool them, but I'll pack mine away on the back of this quote:
"In this newsletter Dr. Sheldon Campbell of Campbell of the Campbell
Chiropractic Health Centre gives his opinion on Jolly Jumpers. ?what
you can?t see is the major physical stresses it causes on the child?s
body while jumping. The spring system that allows the child to bounce
up and down, places high velocity force and stress on the spine.
Research has shown that the compressive forces are up to 50 times more
when bouncing in a spring loaded system than when bouncing or jumping
on your own. Furthermore, jolly jumpers provide little to no back
support for infants; risking fractures, sprains, and strains; paving
the way for weaknesses later in life. Of all infant gear, it is my
personal belief that jolly jumpers pose the most biomechanical stress
to a child?s lumbar spine than any other baby toy or gear. It is my
recommendation to not use them."

Sal, if you put a walker on a flat surface where there is no drop for a sensible amount of time you will be OK. Generally these accidentsa re caused by tossers who allow babies to be in them at the top of the stairs, or near steps, or wwhere there are items on the floor that could cause the thing to tip.

Well I am glad to know of the risks of bouncers and walkers tbh, its something I never considered before. Thanks to Denny for starting off the convo and to Sal for being lovely and looking stuff up. and for scaring me! Heh.. only kidding.

Have decided will make sure baby isnt in the walker for more than 30mins, but I really don't think baby will be using it to run around intensively the whole time anyway. I think he'll probably wander about to look at the room from different angles and then just play with the toys on the table attached to it.
He gets tired of his bouncer after 20-30mins, he mainly likes to use it to turn around amd look into the dining room as well as bouncing, so again.. if baby isnt bouncing constantly the whole time I think I can justify the fun he gets out of it.

Anyway... enough of all that.

look here and click the Lullabies in the Kids Stations menu in the middle. I found this today to help Jack get off to his nap and keep him there while I try to clean the oven.... hope you like it.

XXX

OMG Jack is still happily asleep, housework is done, and the current tune playing on the radio station above is a lullaby version of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters. Soooooo lovely!!!

(sneaks off for a roll-up)

Have it on now PFJ, its lovy ta

oh fab link!! there are some great things. Now if I could just figure out how to get online via our tv I could have it playing through decent speakers. Something to set DP onto this evening I think...

Request needs to be done by the end of the week, sigh. I'm going back on the 2nd January, bigger sigh.

Well, the pay off for that freezing night seems to be a beautifully clear sunny day today, think I should try to take advantage of it and get some things done outside.

Great link, thanks PFJ!

Re crawling, walkers etc - luckily no steps here, so we're safe on that one. Everything else is however still very child unfriendly (e.g. amplifier, dvd player etc all baby height!), so need to get that changed almost immediately!

I had to laugh this morning. Roelof is starting to crawl (yesterday about 20 cm, so not far), but this morning he seemed to have forgotten the mechanics and is trying the grasshopper approach... He goes up on all fours, but then kick back both his back legs simultaneously. Really funny. This only lasts for a couple of minutes, then he's tired. Not sure how I feel about this with the flight on Saturday - would prefer him to be stationary until after!