September 08 Remember what we were doing this time last year?[wink]

[Debs75goldrings]

So what were we all doing this time last year?

Diego had his jabs yesterday and was fine all day, but today he's hot and bothered, very sleepy and grouchy. Is it normal, this delayed response?

I came on here to moan about ds's failure to gain weight and see that topic has already been covered today!! HV came for 12 week check and ds is 11lb14, which is only 7oz more than he was nearly three weeks ago. Up until then he'd been consistent at 1/2lb a week, sometimes more. Having been on the 25th centile from birth he's dropped to the 9th. It makes me feel like my milk is insufficient. Plus having had a bottle of formula at bed time since he was 3 weeks old, he's started refusing it this week. I've usually got a few ounces down him, but tonight, nothing. This just makes me feel trapped, because although I don't want to give up bf, I now couldn't even if I wanted to. Also dh has booked me a surprise evening out next week as my Christmas present. He's booked something (I suspect west end theatre but really don't know) and it involves my mum putting the dcs to bed, which depends on ds taking a bottle. I won't be able to relax and enjoy our date if there's a chance ds is back at grandma's screaming the place down starving hungry and refusing to eat

imsantasmum baby swimming is one of the best things I ever did with dd. One of my few sadnesses about having dcs so close together is that I can't take ds coz I don't have any family who could regularly babysit dd while I took him.

Hi Pacita Thanks. Lorea's passport arrived today. My dh had to go throught London last week and he went to the Consulate. He wants a Spanish passport too. When we married in Spain they made in mistake and they wrote in the marriage certificate he was born in Bilbao. We did not notice till we arranged to have the Family book done a month later. What a follon! He had to convince them in the justice place he was not spanish. Very funny at the time.

Lorea had her jabs 2 days ago and she has been sicky too. It is normal.

plusone - DD's the same, she'd finally started sleeping in her crib during the day at least for one nap and having a 1.45-2hr nap at lunchtime, but this week, nothing! she wants to feed constantly, but today as I haven't been feeling well (laringitis coming back so guess antib tomorrow) I just held her til she eventuall fell asleep (always sleeps well on me especially when I'm dying for a wee..) as I was just exhausted...

poxtola - they look soooooooo cute!

btw, first time I had my passport done at the Italian Consulate in London, they made a mistake. I hadn't realised, til months later when I was going through passport control in italy on my way back and the policeman kept on asking my date of birth and laughing: according to the passport I was born in 0978!!

Donkey - hopes it works out!!

Night night all. Just put xmas decorations up so feeling pleased. Hopefully I am in awe - how the hell do you manage to look after a baby and make an xmas cake?! Some days I don't even manage to feed myself, let alone bake a cake! Impressed

PS Tried to do the paint thing with C's hands but concluded i) you need 2 people and ii) not worth the effort of getting paint out of her fingernails!!

thanks everyone, it somehow makes it much better if I know you're all going through it as well!

carrieon ds had started refusing a bottle before i went to the spa for the day but he took the bottle no problems when i was out.

ImSantasmum - Water Babies is fantastic, I've been taking DD since she was 8 weeks (now 13w). I bought a baby wet suit off Ebay. It's made by Splash About and it's a wrap for 0-6 months so worth the money. I have found though that she enjoys it more when she has her arms covered as she's a bit warmer, so I've been borrowing a wetsuit that has arms but because it's a bit big I've been putting my wrap over the top as well. Water Babies say that you can start taking them at 12lb or 12 weeks, whichever is first. I thought that she was very nearly 12lb when we started but it seems that the measurement was taken wrongly so she was undoubtedly lesser in weight and also 4 weeks earlier than they suggest, but she really took it in her stride and I'm really glad that I signed up (as I thought it was a bit pricey tbh and for what it is I still think it's pricey but I wouldn't have wanted to dunk her under for the first time without having a professional there).

As for being a hippo - darling there's always the odd cowbag skinny mini but generally everyone else will be a bit bobbly around the edges! There's one woman with a figure that makes me want to kick her under water when she's not looking, but everyone else is as you'd expect after having a baby really so when my thunder thighs hit poolside I'm not overly self-concious.

Oh, and DD has started sleeping properly again I think, she was sleeping from 9pm to 6am without waking and then hit 12w and started waking up at stupid hours of the morning once or sometimes twice per night. She's 13w now so hopefully that's the 16w spurt done nice and early

lollipop my ds2 was waking more at 13 weeks too. He's about to hit the dreaded 16 weeks and was up twice last night. He woke at 5am and then 7.45am on Wed night/Thurs morn but last night it was 2.30, 5 and 6.50!

imsantasmum try doing the painting with feet instead of hands. It's a lot easier as I'm guessing what made her hands so hard was that she wouldn't 'un-fist' them and obviously she can't do that with her feet.
I did ds1 and ds2 hands and feet on 1 piece of card when ds2 was 4 weeks old and then framed it, it's quite cute.

I'm meant to be packing for going to Scotland tomorrow so I'd better go and get on.

DebitheScot that's a very good point about doing her feet rather than hands. Of course, my addled brain would never let me apply some sort of common sense to my day! I may try again over xmas.

lollipopmother many thanks for the comments about waterbabies, they do seem pricey but get good reviews. My local site says you can take babies from birth, and one lady brought her 2 day old with her. Not sure about that but C will be 3.5 months when we go. I am looking forward to it though.
One question - how do you manage to change yourself and DD without putting her on floor? Do you bring pram in and if so, do you just leave it in the changing rooms? It's simple stuff like this that bothers me. My session is at local 4star hotel, so I'm expecting good facilities but imagine wet baby and wet mum = tricky drying and changing. Any tips you have are appreciated.

DebitheScot that's a very good point about doing her feet rather than hands. Of course, my addled brain would never let me apply some sort of common sense to my day! I may try again over xmas.

lollipopmother many thanks for the comments about waterbabies, they do seem pricey but get good reviews. My local site says you can take babies from birth, and one lady brought her 2 day old with her. Not sure about that but C will be 3.5 months when we go. I am looking forward to it though.
One question - how do you manage to change yourself and DD without putting her on floor? Do you bring pram in and if so, do you just leave it in the changing rooms? It's simple stuff like this that bothers me. My session is at local 4star hotel, so I'm expecting good facilities but imagine wet baby and wet mum = tricky drying and changing. Any tips you have are appreciated.

Oops

imsantasmum they'll probably have a baby change thing - a bit like a changing table. Or maybe if it's a hotel plush benches to put C on. Good luck it sounds great! I've been taking M swimming since she was 6 weeks and she seems to really enjoy it. I just wrap her in a towel, get MYSELF ready first and then her.

Our local mum and baby group did feet christmas cards for us, very sweet. You can get spongy pads to dip the feet in, but a guess a normal sponge with paint on would work as well.

Christmasflower lol at you being over 1000 years old

poxtola lovely photos

Oh I used to love taking DS1 swimming, & he is an excellent strong swimmer now & I liked to think it helped taking him when he was tiny (the baby group near here doesn't acept them until they're 6 months sadly) but I must tell you our OMG moment imsantasmum - we'd been going regularly & getting the hang of it (they often have special big cubicles with a baby changing mat on a bench for you, no need to take the pram in) anyway we'd had a great time & I pulled down DS1's swim nappy confidently - horror! 2 little poos dropped out! proper poo shaped little poos if you can imagine (he was maybe 10 or 11 months & on solid food) but of course they didn't just fall on the floor, they landed in the gulley they have to take excess water away. But it doesn't just work for water, it carrys poos away too. So balancing wriggly baby in one hand I attempt to reach the departing poos before they float past the next changing cubicle and the next etc etc. Sadly I never caught them!! (did not have the nerve to knock on the next cubicle & ask for them back....

LOL jinglejenpets, I wonder what the people in adjoining cubicles thought.

I really want to take D swimming, but his skin is quite dry/scaly, will the chlorine in the pool not make it worse?

pacita DS always had dry skin and excema but he still went swimming a couple of times a month. We just wiped him down with baby wipes after the swim (to get most of the chlorine off him) then slapped on a bit of cream and bathed him when we got home. His skin never seemed to suffer.

Robyn is 3 months today and just starting to come out of her small 0-3 month clothes. When she wears her reusable nappies we have to use 3-6 as she has a huge bum (like mother like daughter)

I have really bad excema, my legs are covered in old scars and rough red skin. I've found that swimming is fine. i can tolerate chlorinated water but not a bath with radox in (feels like bathing in needles)
When i get out i use parriffin cream it is like thick white vaseline and on the plus side it seems to even clear up the worse patches. Aqueous cream stings, so does e45.

I can't wait to take Robyn in as she is finally liking her baths. Last night she watched Olympia(woohoo) whilst splashing. Then sat in her chair for half an hour watching the horses. Wonder when I can get her in the saddle

Have decided that we are going to try and get her up a bit earlier each day and see if we can shift her 'night-time around. Feeding her earlier in the evening just gave her a longer feed then a longer sleep so we found we were waking her later and later in the morning.

Last day of school today (boohoo) but my birthday tomorrow so can't be all bad.

debs happy birthday for tomorrow. Thank you so much for mentioning Olympia! As soon as I saw your post I turned on the telly... aaaahhh! Unfortunately DD is currently asleep on my lap so I'll have to get some "pretty horsies" brain washing encouragement in later in the weekend!

Evening all. Just on my way out for a friend's 30th. We're off down south for two weeks tomorrow, so will only have internet access when I can sneak off from the family!
I hope you all have a wonderful, sleep filled, healthy Christmas, and a happy new year. A million thank-yous for getting me through this pregnancy and birth malarky, here's to a wonderful 2009!
xxxx

Donkeymum It's the one thing i have missed whilst being pregnant. Stopped going when 6 weeks preg but still had to take dd1 up until another rididng school shut down on us in September. Remembering dressage tests is great for getting through contractions tho

off to Scotland tomorrow until 5th Jan. Fingers crossed the train won't be too late or too stressful. Don't know how much chance I'll get to keep up so have a great Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year.

I am so looking forward to going riding again. Although not quite sure when I will (a) be able to afford it, (b) be able to get away from T for long enough and (c) be able to contemplate sitting on a saddle with my new 3rd degree tear scar!

Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well. I finally got around to posting christmas cards and massage papers for Pacita and Hopefully. Yay me =)