December 2007 - Oh what fun, they are almost ONE!

[Caz10]

OK here we are ladies!

Skid Agree entirely. DD is 1 on Thursday and although I still think of her as my tiny baby in comparison to DS it's very weird thinking that this time lat year we didn't even know her!!! And moving to Oxford - lovely part of the country. DH comes from just outside of and we always have happy experiences being down there. Sorry that I know naff all about nurseries down there but I can get my MIL and FIL to as the young mums at church where they send their LOs... Oh yeah and - OFsted is evil. Ignore everything they say, it's like they live in opposite world.

Mellymincepies think the Christmas name all good. Harrrraaaah for an operation date. Hope life returns to normal very soon afterwards. Congrats on your land of no snot. It's back here with a vengeance and has brought me the mother of all sore throats so that i haev almost totally lost voice. Shouting at DS round shops today v entertaining. I don't think.

Claraquistmas aaaahh that time of year when we celebrate the birth of Quist..... I haven't had the guts to cut out DDs morning sleep. I guess I'll leave it until she's not sleeping her normal couple of hours at lunch adn then see how I go. But the 20 mins nap in the morning is a blessing and a half as it's the time I can get dressed..... When she stops sleeping I'm going to be a naked Archangel. And Noone wants one of them...

DundeeM How have you got LO signing? I've tried for ages with DD and nothing. DS was really good at it but DD ignores everything I say and sign (apart from perhaps milk).... Which ones does yours do?

Claireybaubles hope the thrush all sorted ( if that's not faaaaar too intimate a wish) and that the wedding was a marvellous time, that you have a sleep trained and perfectly adjusted small person waiting upon your return. I always have to remind myself when I leave DD and DS with g'parents that they've had a total of 7 kids between them and probably won't wreck mine .... but it comes hard as I've worked so hard to sleep train them both and not just ply them with sweets give them a balanced diet..... Ahhhh control freeak mother that I am.

And breeeeeeaathe. As you were ladies. i'm off to watch rubbish tv and update PLTS onto the KS3 SOWs for MFL.

Bet you wish you were doing that.

Ah but one more thing to post. My mate's thread has the amazing title "What were you doing last year?" (or something like it) which amuses me because by my reckoning people with DCs born in Sept were probably TTC or getting BFPs this time last year... But I thought it was an interesting topic for our lot. This time last year I was begging for my 3rd Stretch and Sweep to get DD to exit via the appropriate chute and not require another induction.... You guys?

Wooo AG well done!!

Secondary school lingo is very confusing, we are all glitter and pantos atm!! What is PLTS? Managed to figure out the rest!

This time last year...what is this, the 7th? OMG holy schmoly I think I was 1 day away from going into labour (although I didn't know it then obviously). Yip, 24 hrs from now it will be exactly 1 year since I started going OW OW OW and pressing buttons on that useless but nicely distracting little TENS machine! Also MN-ing at 3am between contractions, with the on-line contraction timer open on the other screen

Wow that is quite scary, esp as dd is my 1st I had NOOOOOOOOOO idea what it was all going to be like etc. OK I feel officially a bit freaked out...

Quick change subject who is watching X-Factor??!!

Oh - b-fing - dd feeds from me less during the day when I am with her since I went back to work too, only maybe twice more than the days when I am away...I am actually not too fussed about cutting back just now just going to go with the flow for now although I do need to tackle night weaning at some point...BT you can be my inspiration!
My periods have been back for months now too, so if we ever TTC no.2 I can't see the BF being a hindrance.

My mum takes DD to baby signing, and I amazed at how much she picks up, especially when I don't practice it with her at all - she does milk, dog and duck now (very useful ...) Well milk is, but as we have a dog and she signs dog every time she sees him, approximately 5 thousand times a day, it gets a bit wearing!!

D'OH it is the 6th...

Weren't my willpower - 'twas DH's. I was sooooo tempted to go to ds as his crying was so heartrending at first, but it soon became just a general whinge.
Was worried he might hate me in the morning but when I have gone into him he has been sat up in his cot reaching for me. I feed him and then I get lots of lovely smiles

Hi Everyone

I've managed to borrow bil's laptop again so can have a catch up..

BT - Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time lately, haven't quite caught up with everything thats been happeneing but i hope you are ok??

Insy - Congratulations on your pregnancy , I hope everything's going well.

Skid - Great news about dh's job. How do you feel about moving?

I can't believe that this time last year most of us were still waiting for our lo's!! I don't know where the time has gone!
Ethan is 1 on saturday so we are just having a little tea party for him with family and a couple of his little friends.

I've also had 2 poorly ds's as well. They have both been full of cold for what seems like weeks. It has taken me 4 trips to the doctors to get anti-biotics for ds1 if i had been given them in the first place he wouldn't have got as bad as he did.

Hello to everyone else, hope you are all ok.xx

caz10 - I've had to watch x factor when had friends visiting, caught some of it, saw last nights as at in laws - you a fan?

we do baby signing - ds2 is doing 'more' gets excited at 'milk' and 'drink' sign but nothing else, whats really sweet is I did sing and sign classes with ds1 and I'm singing some of the songs to ds2 and ds1 joins in, I swear he does more signs now than he did before he was talking! its lovely when he asks Toby is he wants something and signs as well, yesterday he was asking him if he needed a clean nappy with sign when he'd just filled it AG - stick with it it takes ages for them to get it but its been great with ds1 (and a real grandparent pleaser my mum and mil where always gushing about how intelligent he is that he was communicating before he was talking )

skid - you'll be just down the M40 from us, we live in leamington spa, good luck with nursery hunt, we're going with work nursery, they don't have space for boys on wednesday so I'll have to use some annual leave so start with but glad they have somewhere I'm happy with - never going to trust a child minder again, too many eggs in one basket!

fifi - ds is 1 a week on tues, we're having tea party with grandparents and brothers and family only (small house!) - anyone else trying hard to seperate xmas and bday's? I'm saying no if anyone asks if they can do joint bday and xmas pressie, is that wrong? I just feel for his first bday at least it should be its own little special event, said I'd rather he got bday pressie than xmas as he's too little to know about xmas and will have stocking from us anyway...

BT - lol about sleeping thro at 6 wks I remember thinking that too!

Insy - Some peple have asked that, like my brother said he would just buy ethan a few extra bits for xmas rather than get him something for his biryhday but ive said id rather have one small present for his birthdy than extr xmas ones, its even harder for my dad, his birthday is xmas eve bt i always make sure he has a little something.

Oops...whats with my spelling tonight??

Oooh, all these birthdays creeping up on us! This time last year I was thinking "right, if baby is not here by the end of the week it can stay in until at least Boxing Day!" (as it was she took me at my word and stayed in until a week into January!)

Skid, Oxford is so so beautiful and great for shopping! It is an hour and a half or so from where I am. Yesterday I gave Evie her morning milk from her cup instead of boob and she took it quite happily (as if she thought the change in routine was amusing), she was not so impressed this morning but after initially pushing it away she then picked it up and drank a fair bit. Will keep this up for a few days and then look at dropping the final feed, not sure how long any kind of supply will hold up but she doesn't seem unhappy about not having boob, just a little unsure of the change in routine. Will let you know how dropping the last one goes but suspect it will be harder for me than her

Right, off to do a little ironing and have a cuppa before bed, sleep tight to all!

Ooh, just before I forget, are any of you thinking of signing up to Sky and would like a free Sky Plus box? Been sent some more vouchers for recommending a friend!

Ooooh Beckle we are hoping to get Sky when we move home in Jan but not sure if we are allowed to have a 6-month contract as we won't know if/when we will move again. I will let you know!

I totally agree about separating birthday and Christmas. I am lucky because dd2 is two weeks before Christmas so it's far enough away to be an event in its own right (although I remember my brother, born on the 14th, always used to get joint presents...), but it must be hard for those born on or around the 25th.

This time last year, hmmmm, I was probably desperately having a (very painful) sweep and willing myself to go into labour, having been booked in to have a C-section on the 11th....it didn't work. I was ridiculously fat and waddling around the supermarket not really enjoying my last few days of relative freedom (oh little did I know!). I was also probably desperately buying Christmas presents knowing I probably wouldn't get another chance. A bit like now - although this time it is because two full-time children and Christmas shopping just don't really mix....

Hats off to all of you still breastfeeding, you must feel really proud to have got to the one year mark. We're slowly starting the switch to dairy but of course still need to wean her off a bottle and onto a cup. She's very good at drinking water from cups so I guess it's just a matter of time.

The latest on the morning nap front is that having got up ridiculously early this morning she needed a sleep and went down at 8.30 ok and is still asleep (oh, just waking now..) so it will be interesting to see how she naps after lunch....

have to say baby signing is utter marvel. can still just about remember sitting weeping at kitchen table back in february saying 'but mummy doesn't know what you want' to a very pissed off 12 week old baby girl. on the other hand, when she sits there doing signs for 'more' and 'toast' (dh made that one up) despite having rejected half her dinner it is a leeetle frustrating, but has generally made life easier. is also v funny, and quite wierd how quickly/quietly she has picked things up. last night we had 'book' for the first time.
to be honest, i think the success is largely due to the fact that she is so damn grateful to be able to make me understand what she wants, cos the whole mum-tuition thing has been a bit hit and miss.

and this time last year my dh was very happy about our attempts to move things on a little bit, and i was sick of the taste of pineapple

Morning all. Lots to catch up on I see.

I'm interested to know how people are getting on giving up and cutting down on BF. I seem to be doing more unfortunately. In August and September, DS seemed to be rejecting me and I had almost cut it out to a quick 2 mins before bed and in the morning. Now DS seems to want more and more. Doesn't help that he's been through colds and upset tums so I think he needed the comfort and hopefully good antibodies.

After a string of bad nights with 4am wakings, including small hours of Sunday morning when DS came to bed with me from 3.15 and managed to wriggle, cry and sit on my head until 5.40 am, last night he slept right through until our alarm woke him at 7am. Happy days. If only he'd have done that yesterday and we might have had a long lie in. He's been in our room as my Mum has been staying in the spare room.

Got the tree up yesterday. Ever since DS has been taking to it and pulling all the decs off.

Yes I too am anti combined Xmas & b'day presents, especially as ds's is on the 27th December!
Ds woke up a lot last night the only good thing was that I was able to go in a comfort him, and I didn't feed him. Gave him some calpol as I think it was his teeth keeping him awake - he had a dummy in both hands and kept putting them in and pulling them out alternatively while crying, poor lamb. Calpol soon sorted him out! Still waiting for tooth number 8 to make an appearance!
Eventually I guess he'll sleep through!!!

Hooray well done Mr Skidaddle . Now get writing that thesis

Clara ds had only just got into a nap routine a couple of months ago and then started to be a real pain to get down for his afternoon one, then for the morning one. However I have now found that if I strap him into the buggy and chuck a blanket over the front of it he will go off quite happily. It does mean that both his naps are slightly shorter than they were when I was putting him in his cot but it is far better than having to fight with him for ages just to get him to go to sleep!

Had ds's birthday party on Saturday, and weren't we lucky with the weather? We've had torrential rain on both of dd's birthdays (at the end of may) so now think that |December is the time to have barbeques! My sister made an amazing train cake for him, if I can get hold of a picture of it I'll post it (terrible mother that I am I failed to charge the camera battery so have no pics of the party-hopefully I'll do better for his actual birthday on weds.). The mulled wine and spiced cider went down a treat too (grown ups only of course).

My friend's wedding is on Saturday, am looking forward to it, but dreading leaving the dc all at the same time. Oh and dd has completely un potty trained herself so my mum has to contend with that as well as ds' non sleeping so feel v guilty! And I don't like my outfit but have no £ to buy anything else, oh well, a couple of glasses of champers and I won't care (or will sit in a corner crying that I look shit and I miss my babies )

Dundee I took one dose of fluc-wotsit but thrush still seems to be there, had a telephone consultation with gp but he first didn't know you could get thrush in ducts, then looked it up and told me to just apply the cream so I think I'll just buy another tablet. Wouldn't normally go against gp advice but have read it on several sites now and feel like I know more than he does on this subject (I know, I know, you shouldn't trust the internet either...)

This time last year...hmm was stomping around panicking that I still barely had a bump and that ds was going to be under 5lb and praying that he came before his due date so I didn't have to go to Bristol to be induced. And he came just in time and was a very reasonable 7lb

Bouncing, that's what DS does! He swaps his dummys until he drifts off to sleep . Well done you for stopping night feeds. I did at 6 months and from then on DS slept better in general. Must admit to letting that resolve slip a little lately and have given him the odd bit when am at the end of my tether in the night.

Am I a horrible mum? Haven't even thought about a present for DS at christmas. [hangs head in shame and wanders off to the shops]. Did give him lots for his birthday though.

BT that is amazing progress, if I go in to ds he will not settle unless I stick a boob in his mouth. And at the moment he wants it all day too because he is poorly, ashamed to say that sometimes I just want to tell him to piss off and leave me alone for a while

Wizz someone else got ds what I had got him for xmas so now need a new idea...and I thought I was all organised by buying so early!

Reminiscing about this time last year Clairey, I was walking round like I was 80 after my CS and spending most of my time hunched on the sofa trying to feed a very small DS to get him to birth weight again , yelping and crying in agony with mastitis and cracked nips. Endless bleedin' visitors.

Repeat mantra... it won't be the same next time, it won't be the same next time...