Dec 08 - Nanny Anne's Apprentices.

[daisydora]

Thread started - hope i've done it right!!

kayz as you know you are absolutely right to ignore your MIL. There must be LOs who do have serious problems with the shape of their heads but for the vast majority it totally sorts itself out. Having said that - of course - this is one of the things I did worry about with DD as she always turned her head to the side - so I was sure she was going to end up with a long head. Until DH pointed out that I have a weirdly long head. So that's nice.

I also meant to say Bisou that for the last few days DD hasn't napped for longer than 40 mins at a time - when she was doing a couple of hours before. Have no idea why though.

Re the shorter naps, I seem to remember ds1 went through a similar phase. He used to nap for a couple of hours then started waking up after 30 mins or so, but once he learnt how to settle himself again he went back to have longer naps.

jump thanks for the tip. Ds2 isn't keen on the sling but I do have a carrier for him which he liked. I think I can turn it around so he can face outwards, I'll give that a go & see if it helps.

lal - do you live in a cricket obsessed household as well? only thing which got dh through the excruciating first 3 weeks of dd being a monster at night when we brought her home. screaming baby in one arm, cricket on sky on the telly with the sound turned down.

also, loving the "i can't read" comment - ah, bless...

lovely day here. first weekend day where we haven't had visitors - just the three of us. went for a walk in a beautiful park not far from us, ate homemade pizzas, and tidied up the front garden while dh watched rugby with dd. wouldn't it be great if we could count on weather like this all the time?

singing yesterday was wonderful - just a bunch of (mainly women) us in a church hall singing lots of acapella songs together - some people are tone deaf, some professional singers, but we all love singing. dd loved it, too and i had a friend to take her off me now and again - just lovely. and some of those songs just made me cry - all about love and family and when you sing them all together, i become a weepy mush.

dh back to work in the library to write his series tomorrow. boo hoo. he is desperate to encourage me to go out one evening post feeding to meet some friends, but i just don't really want to - i like feeling cocooned at home. maybe i should.

also - wanted to ask. although i have started a small freezer stash of expressed milk, i haven't attempted to give her a bottle yet - am i being stupid? should i start? or is it possible to go straight from breastfeeding to solids, bypassing a bottle? am beginning to worry about weaning - don't know what the hell goes on. dd is only 2.5 months, so i've got a while, but while i'm happy bfing exclusively, i worry i will be shooting myself in the foot later.

lovely evenings to everyone

Effie am telling myself that will wait until it's warm enough for DS to run about with no nappy before I start toilet training. But that's probably only procrastination...

Agree am going to try BLW this time - bottled it last time but cannot see how I'm going to find time to do Annabel Karmel shenanigans.

wg you can bypass the bottle if you don't want to use one. When you start weaning, you could introduce a sippy cup instead.

I must admit, I loved pureeing , I'll probably do the same as I did with ds1, I only did about a month of proper purees & then started lumps etc, seemed to work quite well.

lal if it makes you feel any better, ds1 toilet trained in the summer & it was much easier!

can someone explain blw (presume baby led weaning?) and its pros and cons?

also - re: naps and routines - dd has found a 3 hourly routine - eat, do something, sleep, repeat (a la baby whisperer, i suppose). she generally naps for anything between 30-60 mins about 3/4 times a day, so not long. i get her to sleep by walking her in the pram or by swaddling her upstairs in her moses basket. she occasionally falls asleep on me at about 4/5ish. and then bedtime is always the same:
6.30 bath
7 feed - cram as much as possible down her (generally both boobs for about 40 mins)
and then shush her to sleep/hold her until she falls asleep which takes anything from 5-30 mins.

she sleeps from 8ish to anything between 2-4, wakes for a feed and goes back to sleep in 5-15 mins. she did sleep through the entire night once at about 8 weeks (now 11), and last week she had 3 nights where she woke up twice (v unusual), but one night feed is the norm. in case that is of any use to anyone.

WG BLW is fab I did it with Archie and is sooo much easier than purees the general rule is that by 6mth a baby has a very strong gag reflex and has the ability to chew (even without teeth) we had a very memorable family meal with DS1 when he was about 8mths with 2 little teeth chowing down on steak.

this blog is by a fellow mumsnetter called aitch if you search her nickname loads will come up about BLW

also Gill Rapley from UNICEF has sort of pioneered it

WG that sounds like a fantastic night time routine to be in

BLW sounds by far the easiest option for lazy mums like me... plus I love the idea of a little nipper deciding how much they want to eat and being more part of the family dinner table. Plus (did I mention this before?!) I'm really lazy...

lovely stories about I can't read and where my juice Does anyone else still get that crikey feeling, that our little babies are the most amazing people and that it's such a miracle that they came into existence? They've only been alive for 3-4 months, that's such a short time, and they've learned so much, they're starting to have their own personalities and they're smiling at us and generally being lovely a lot of the time

Just a quickie as I must go to bed and catch-up on SLEEP. Its so nice to hear about everybody's lovely days.

Lal - I got your message and replied. I think we may well have crossed paths at work - its nice to know I was not going mad in thinking I recognised you.

WG - I did not give DD1 a bottle until she was 9 months (or should I say she never accepted one). I BFed exclusively for 6 months and then introduced solids and water in a cup and continued to BFeed until she was 14 months. I did get her to take a bottle from 9 months as I returned to work and she still wanted milk before her naps. The only downside to them never having a bottle is that you must be there for each and every feed, but in some ways that can be nice.

Re naps: a baby's sleep cycle is usually 40 mins so they come into light sleep at that point and it is normal for them to wake. As they get older they get better at settling themselves back to sleep if they are still tired. DD2 will only nap for 40 mins if she is in her cot but if we are out and about in the pram then the movement seems to lull her through light sleep and she will nap for hours.

I'mnoteven going to pretend that I've caught up, butwhilst Iremember:
Bumbo's - never had a problem with DS falling out of one, but I'm sure it is possible. I rate them, DS loved it and DD seems to like hers, for about 10 minutes at a time. Means that she can sit up and look around, chat to me whilst I'm cooking etc.
Weaning - I tried DD on some baby rice today and she wasn't too impressed. I am quite keen to get her onto solids as she is such a big baby and very hungry. She is now taking eight 6oz bottles a day which is way more than the reccomended 5! However she is now sleeping 7.30 to 7am. I weaned DS at 3 1/2 months as he was also very gutsy. I'm not going to push DD, but will try again next weekend to see if she is any more interested.
Sleep - I find that if DD wakes crying then she hasn't had enough so I try to shush her back to sleep/put the dummy in to settle her. She usually goes back off and wakes
later in a much better mood.
Totally forgotten what else I was going to say, off to catch up properly.

I will def be BLW wish I had known about it with ds1 would have saved us so much stress and heartache. Also WG like arti we didn't give ds1 a bottle and like Arti it was not through choice but it worked out ok ds1 I didn't go back to work til a year and by then he was using a zippy cup. He didn't wean very well but that wasn't due to only having the boob. This time I'm leaving it until ds2 can open the fridge take the food out himself and prepare and eat it!

Lal & effie your ds' antics have had DH I in tears. I actually had to hand DH the itouch to read yours Effie because I was laughing so hard I couldn't speak.

JJ I was thinking a very similar thing today looking at ds2 he is such a lovely man I just love him to bits. He also seems to be shaping up to have ds1s sense of humour he loves a good cheeky laugh esp at his daddy.

DS1 has a cheeky sense of humour and even when he was a bubby I always felt be would have one. He loves making up little cheeky things to do. His favourite is if DH asks him how to say a certain work in Chinese he giggles and says it in English but with a over exaggerated
Chinese accent, like some 70s comedian taking the P.

Kayz I'm so chuffed we are 4th now and villa have difficult games coming up. Speaking of Villa I wonder where Reban is.

All you ladies singing is inspiring me. There is a local community choir that rehearses each Thursday at a venue about 5 mins walk from me. They welcome car shower singers and I have been thinking of checking them out. I love to sing but am no Kylie Minogue, but in a choir who cares so might have a look. The only problem is I can't commit to every week with DH working away.

Veggie: the choir would be a great idea, I'd love to join one if I had the slightest chance of holding a tune!

I've stsrted singing as well! Its just once a month for the church band at the family mass but its good to get back to some music. Up until ds1 was born, I played the clarinet but haven't played since. I'd love to start again & find a group or orchestra to play in.

We had some success last night. We managed to give ds2's 11pm bottle 15mins later & he didn't wake up then until nearly 4. I think if we keep pushing it till later & start reducing the amount he has at 3 we might get him down to a bottle a night

sleep NOT going well for us at,
m, DS2 now going to sleep at 7:30/8 and sleeping till 11ish, but then waking every 2 hours (yawn). I'm hoping that first stretch will get gradually longer if we stick to the samr routine but no sign yet.

Morning,

DS2 woke us up about 3 this morning by sucking on his fingers very noisly. I was expecting him to wake up crying for food but nope. But then I couldn't get back to sleep until half 4. He woke up at half 5 for a bottle in the end.

I am tempted by BLW too. I hated all that pureeing when DS1 was weaning.

Hope you are all ok this morning. Its very sunny here so will probably be in the garden all day again.

Phew... in the middle of catching up back later!!

Lucy's asthma is terrible. Very little sleep. No school again today...of to GP in half an hour. Poor thing. She's really struggling to breathe. I had my first moment last night of thinking it would be easier without Phoebe . Just because Lucy's chest has taken her into hospital several times, and I was saying to dh that if she had to go in now, I'd have to take P with me (BF...) or he'd have to go, but I couldn't bear to not be with Lu in hospital. Anyway, we'd manage whatever but it was easy to drop everything with just one child.

Better go and administer more cuddles. P is sleeping nicely at the mo...sssshhhhhh!

trace so sorry to hear Lucy is poorly with her asthma. I do hope she improves soon, good luck at the GP's.

kayz I thought my mil was a nutter - yours is totally bonkers! Do you get on with her as a rule or has she always been like this with you? I honestly don't think I could have kept my mouth shut.

cat Yay for T sleeping through, hope it rubs off over here!

wg our routine is similar to yours except ds will not sleep afterbhis bedtime feed he justs starts laughing and talking non stop He had bedtime feed at 7.30 last night but I did manage to get him to bed for 9, he slept till 4.30 which was V good. Although I had been up 3 times by that point with DD who appears to be having nightmares!

Can't remember everyone else my minds gone blank - hope everyone is well though

Morning boy 1 off to nursery and boy 2 having his nap but will be up soon. Have done washing up and cleaned the cupboards and skirting boards in the kitchen (how sad is that) now having a cuppa anyone wanna join me for one? Mines a strong white coffee.

veggie - Just finishing my breakfast and dd is grizzling a bit so presumably about to wake up - will knock back my decaf (sigh... it's so not the real thing!) and catch up later

trace - fingers crossed for Lucy, poor love, hope the doctor goes well.

Trace you def need a coffee why don't they have coffee machines in surgery waiting rooms.

Jump why don't you slip a bit of proper coffee in there I just dilute mine in my blood stream by drink lots of water at the same time.

Daisy We got on until we told her I was expecting DS1. She didn't want us to have children because of DH's disability.

Trace I hope Lucy gets better soon. Sending you love and hugs!!

There is this advert for ringtones where this cartoon skeleton says "Silence, I kill you" It's quite funny but this morning DS1 came out with it. He is now running round shouting "I kill you". I now have to find a way to get him to stop saying it.(It is quite cute though)

Kayz on the weekend I was talking to DH and the word course came up in the conversation but DH who wasn't listening properly perked suddenly because he thought I'd said intercourse I laughed and said wow you must be gagging for it. Now DS1 is walking around saying 'gagging for it, gagging for it' I hope he doesn't say it at nursery!

Thats quite funny Veggie. DS1 is now calling DS2 Devon. I'm not sure where it has come from but it is better than Bob which is what he was calling him last week.