June 08: All we want for Christmas is a good night's sleep!

[bitofasnowqueen]

New thread!

josey not sure how to describe it. It just looks like she's going about it a different way than Fraser. You can see that she's trying really hard and that it's a real challenge while it looks like Fraser's almost doing it by instinct. Do you think she's using her brain in a different way than other babies? All I can say is I'm impressed at how hard she works at things! (And she is fab and so sweet! This all makes her sound like an incredibly determined person but there's also the sweet cuddly side of her when she snuggles into your arms and relaxes). (I know I'm going on a bit about Olivia and not gushing about other people's LOs but Olivia has more challenges, she deserves more cheerleaders!)

On another note - comparisons between babies should be banned. Everyone has different strengths and also we're all different judges of what constitutes sitting and crawling and other milestones. In an ideal world all we'd care about was how happy our kids were... too bad I'm neurotic by nature...

Thanks paro and thanks josey. Hedgehog posted a link on my other site and I bought a present from there. I hate secret santa.

essie the only suggestion I can make is friend in antenatal class had same issue -she is having some lucky with a cup and resigned herself to b/f for longer..sadly not an option for you but cup may work. no one can say iestyn isn't determined...

HH, Definitely go with that CM if she seems right. The others probably have no room so are not arsed about ringing back . Don't worry, you don't have the only baby who doesn't roll - Esther doesn't either and she is 30 weeks! She does seem pretty close to crawling tho - closer than Theo. She can pull her legs up right underneath herself but doesn;t know how to move her chest up and forward. Theo just tips himself onto his back from a crawling position (we don;t call him Simple Simon for nothing)

Josey thanks for the suggestions re name - now I just need to work out how to change it!

Nursery got Luke to eat 6 spoons of pureed veg today - why won't he eat mine?????

He's still ill however I've put him in nursery as I got no sleep instead of keeping him home - guess that makes me a bad mother but I must have some sleep to survive. Bought some Tixylix but I've read that infant cough medicine doesn't do anything at all.

BTW I have bought biccipegs for teething and it does say they help strengthen the muscles ready for speech. They taste like dog biscuits.

Wow, lots happened whilst I was away in Woolworths buying clothes for Iestyn. Hilariously, Woolworths in Tooting was sold out of most things except the Wales fleece, the Welsh dragon bibs, and the Wales rugby kit. (I am not joking!)

Ok, some responses... Ali we have decided to give up on the bottle for a bit and just bfeed him. We'll try again some other time; it doesn't really matter at the moment but might do in January! Nanny was dismissed in very friendly circumstances; nothing dramatic, but I'm not paying £80 for someone to bring Iestyn in to me at 4am. £80 for a full night's sleep, yes! We've been offered a troubleshooting nanny but it's too expensive and I'm not really expecting miracles. Sharon Breward MBE suggested introducing a cup as a plaything (ooh, Hedgehog, you could be up for an MBE too!) and gradually working on the hand to mouth co-ordination. She also said what Ali said (another MBE!) bad vibes, tension affecting him.

Weight - I step forward as the mother of the smallest boy on the thread! Iestyn is just over 13lb at 25 and a half weeks, and is on the 8th centile. Shame I can't step forward as the slimmest lady on the thread too... [hwink]

Now, on the boasting. Iestyn is typing this for me and says could you all stop it please, you're being silly. It's keeping him back from concentrating on the high court judgement he's preparing.

Neenz my respons to your question about burning Esther was...well how hot are your purees?! [hgrin] Ho ho ho.

Finally Snowqueen yes you did mention the creme egg and I studiously ignored it. Don't mention it again!

Nighty night - all alone with Iestyn overnight tomorrow, and he's squealing for a feed, my little boob man. Totally advanced, no?

Back now - snuck downstairs to ask advice on a non-baby matter.

Kitchen is old, oven was tempramental,and we were going to have the kitchen re-done at some stage in the future.
Last night the oven blew, and it doesn't work at all (probably needs a new element).
Inlaws due to come to us for Christmas.
Can't get a new kitchen before Christmas, and don't want a random new oven before Christmas and before the new designed kitchen.

What would you do? Pay £70 or more for a new element, just for Christmas? Or manage without?

Any ideas how we could manage without? We have a functioning grill and a hob. I have a spare microwave in Wales and I'm going there next week.

Morning

Concert day today so at 2pm spare me a thought as ill be dressing 25 shepherds!!!

FLeur had an awful night coughing, pain from ears and to top it off she has conjunctivitis too, i feel so sorry for her. We have our staff do tomorrow night and were either going to take her or leave her with a friends mum and her LOs but now we cant do either, anyhow we are both sooo knackered dont think we can be bothered

Essie- oven, if you dont want to pay 70 pound then i think you could manage with just microwave its amazing what you can actually cook. You could get a microwave cookbook from charity shop or ready made xmas meals from shop no?
If i remember you were having a debate on whether to feed in inlaws turkey or no Well if you dont get oven fixed then you cant!!! (evil grin)

Right off to work will pcatch up this pm

essie We have this and it's been brilliant and we cook most of our oven meals in it (as our cooker is insanely big and energy inefficient). Could you incorporate one into the new kitchen or borrow one from a friend?

and essie what growth charts are you on? Mine show Fraser on the 8th centile and according to yours he'd be higher up and I could wave it in front of the HV next week.

Food is definitely helping fraser sleep longer - up at 2:45 and 5:45 today!!! That's almost only once a night (which would be a first).

Good luck paro I don't envy you today!!!

Essie - get the element. There's no way you could cook Xmas dinner for 4 without an oven unless you were going to do microwave ready meals (imagine no roasties!). There's enough to think about at Xmas without having to worry about what you're going to cook that doesn't need roasting! Anyway it could be months before your new kitchen is done and so it's not just Xmas you need an oven for (actually dunno how much ovening you do so that could be complete rubbish). I have decided to get my entire Xmas dinner from M&S although annoyingly, all the bits need roasting in the oven at different temperatures - how silly is that?

Luke up all night again with the cough from hell. It's getting worse so the antibiotics are obviously not doing the trick. I am gettting worried about him. Off to look up bronchitis and whooping cough on t'internet and then probably to call an ambulance knowing my paranoia.

okay - advice please from mums of older boys (Josey, Deb, etc!). Now that Duncan is toilet trained and his, umm, boy parts are more accessible, he's playing with himself all the time, especially in front of the TV. Is this just a stage? Any hints on how to get his hands out of his pants? I don't want to teach him that touching himself is bad - just that he can't do it in public! (And that includes in front of me too).

agree with amber Essie get a new element - even if you do get a new kitchen could be a while beofre its fitted.

amberc sorry luke is poorly -how long has he been on antibiotics? also is the mucus green/yellow (sorry if tmi but if not its prob not a bacterial infection). can you make his room damp (towel on radiator) and warm his milk a bit more than usual -hot drinks can ease throats/chests. Is there a walk in clinic near you you can take him to?

ok at risk of outing myself nice to know that the agency I had qualms about re rates is quoted here

link

well if its a stage it lasts a long time...

no seriously - heard this from friends -it is a phase and you have to keep gently telling them its not nice to do in public etc. apparently they do stop but it is mortifying when they do it (friend had a 4 year old who was completely obsesssed with it)

Poppy he has not produced any mucus and he's only been on the antibiotics for 3 days. I have the humidifier on all night for him. He's been to the docs but she listened to his chest and said everything is fine. Am worried because I just heard a recording of whooping cough on the internet and it sounds exactly like Luke's cough. Who invented the internet? Bastard.

Hi all - was away for the last few days but back now

amber re. the cough - does Luke have a temperature/the runs as well? When A had a bad cough a few weeks back the doctor said he had a respiratory virus called RSV. It's extremely common, and there's nothing they can take for it as it's virus. Not sure if that's what Luke has, but A's cough was awful. It cleared up though of its own accord after 2 weeks and he's absolutely fine now. I did loads of research and apparently the only time to worry is if they have trouble breathing/are wheezing (e.g if chest sinks in when breathing, or if they go blue!). It's horrible listening to the coughing though, so sympathies

Will catch up on other posts later!

cross-posted amber - apparently the cough for RSV sounds exactly like whooping cough (p.s. if you google RSV don't get worried, it's really common and I heard from many others that it usually just passes with no other symptoms)

hi jingle

and curse the internet - but prob sounds worse than it is cos he is still so little. what jingle said sounds right re worry if they can't breath.

AH just wait until he plays the willy guitar as my 8 year old nephew showed me

Essie, I'd get the element. Unless you wanted to cook something that wasn't a roast. But that's not too Christmassy is it? Altho we are not having a roast this year.. my dad is cooking curries instead. No one really bothers about the roast and mum has to run arond all day preparing it (and she's a veggie!!) so we have convinced her not to bother this year.

Amber - the DTs have had a terrible cold and struggled to sleep but I give them Medised and it really clears their noses and helps them to sleep. You have to lie to get it (tell the chemist your child is 2) but it is not harmful for babies unless used with other paracetemol products. In my eyes, they need to sleep to recover from their illness so it is better for them to have something that is going to help them sleep. This time last year we could have all used it with no problems (cos it was for 3mths+), but the guidelines have now changed (but not the medicine ). I'm always going on about Medised but I do think it is great for clearing stuffy noses - it doesn't just knock your baby out... I have used it for teething and it doesn't work cos it is still only paracetemol and if the pain doesn't go away they don;t sleep. But IME if they are not sleeping due to a cold/stuffy nose Medised works wonders (Calpol does not!)

I am feeling very guilty at the mo about the amount of time I spend on the internet so I am going to try to stay away a bit today !

Hi amber - Caitlin has had bronchiolitis cough (from RSV virus) for a couple of weeks now - I panicked too because there has been a case of whooping cough at nursery but of course she has been immunised against that - dr. said don't worry, it'll clear up, you'll just have bad nights for a while. It does sound awful but is v. common in winter months, something like 1 in 3 babies get it. Of course take back to dr.s if you are worried about his breathing but although cough sounds awful, on its own is probably nothing to worry about, serves useful purpose of clearing gunk from passages and babies don't seem to mind it as much as we do. Damp towel on radiator really helps as poppy says.

neenz think you should change your name to something involving medised - although agree wtih all you've said - sleep essential to getting better and if you're using it

sensibly you'll be fine

Essie, Jamie often does help with my typing, which explains all the random letters my posts often have!

About willy fiddling. We did the gentle please don't play with it routine which achieved nothing and resorted to 'it will fall off!'. At which point he would look concerned and ask if it would really and we would say, no but its not nice don't do it. This shock effect seemed to work much better. At seven he still does it absent mindedly sometimes and I still tell him it will fall off, but now he just laughs at me and says no it won't. He does still stop once it's been brought to his attention though.

Jamie is small but hasn't been weighed in weeks and I do't plan to weigh again until the 8 month check. Much less stressful that way.

I'm really laughing about aqll of this will talk. With two dd's it's all new to me but something I need to be prepared for with ds.

DS is so diiferent to the girls development wise. He's now 6 1/2 months and both girls were crawling at this age. DS can go from his back to his front and only twice has he gone the other way (the last time was weeks ago). He can sit unsupported but not for very long. I am pleased as it means he will feel like a baby for longer and not be walking at 9 months as I really couldn't cope wth that!

That's meant to be all of this willy talk - can you tell who still has a fever and didn't sleep last night!