Dec 08 - Nanny Anne's Apprentices.

[daisydora]

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

Morning all, just a brief stop in as off to the cinema and lots to do round the house first - but just to say re BLW and reading etc, if we're honest all our kids are going to be pretty much up to the same speed by the time they reach 10, so whatever we do, as long as we do it because we feel it's right rather than trendy, and we show our kids we love them enormously whatever progress they make and however long or short a time it takes, they're going to be fine. LadyT summed it up really - confident and kind, and everything else can come in its own time.

right - off to hang the laundry out and nosey at next door's builders! (the lean to of my late pipe smoking neighbour* is being knocked down )

*that sounds like a sentence from a 1930s foreign language phrasebook

Anyone fancy a trip to the zoo with me n Mr T?

Morning!

Verso - so sorry you are feeling bad again but just remember that the sleepless baby stage will be over soon, you will go back to work and you and dh will get back to normality. That is all just a few months away so there is no need for regrets. Your dd1 will love you for giving her a sister to go through life with. God knows I always wish I had a sibling - it's a great gift.

I am trying to space out dd2's feeds today. No more constant snacking. I am hoping that might help our nights too. I am also about to go for a lovely sunny swim in our gym's outdoor pool and dd2 is going to the crèche there! I am quite nervous about leaving her but I have booked it to coincide with one of her naps so I just plan to settle her myself and then go. If it works this could become a regular thing. Just imagine an hour off to swim in the sun.

Got to go, she is grumbling .

Arti that sounds like bliss.

Spot name your day Would love a trip to the zoo.

Morning all. Summer I think the idea of trying both types of weaning is perfect. Ds1 would definitely have been a BLWer but I didn't know about it then. He now has a serious dislike of all the foods I tried as purees I have the BLW book and admit I will be trying it first but ds2 may be different. Also I will be waiting til at least 7 months also. Oh and Summer I so wish I could be a fly on the wall when your friends starts weaning, and well just about anytime he children do anything. I hope she settled down about disliking mess, cos with kids things get messy.

Lal that's exactly how I feel. I have heard mothers say 'oh he can't read/swim/count yet' of 4-5 year olds as if they have a learning disability. My benchmark is that DH didn't start school until 10 and he speaks 3 languages has a computer engineering degree and has just a general love of learning. He is constantly looking for more exams to do for his work as he loves it so much.

Verso I don't know what to say about your DH I am flabbergasted. But I am also really really concerned about you. You should never be made to question having another child please do not think about that again I was and always will be the right thing to do. I think you both might need to talk with some sort of mediator or relationship coucellor before this gets out of hand.

WG you go with what you want to do. Expressing and bottle are good for some and for others no one is right or wrong. What is right is doing what you feel is right for you two.

summer/veggie my sil hates mess as well, to the extent that if we (rarely) visit them, she walks round after ds1 with a cloth if he's eating! & he's not particularly a messy eater any more!

Some of the cutest photos I've got of ds1 are ones of his face covered with food! & I mean covered, I think one was a courgette & pea soup so he looked like the incredible hulk

veggie you're right about learning, I've always loved doing courses etc & I'm sure it was because I wasn't pushed into anything. I'd rather ds1 thinks that school is fun rather than a chore & let him develop in his own time.

Oh another thing I was going to say re weaning, I found ds1 loved having a spoon & was trying to feed himself from the beginning, lots of fun!

morning!

The snotfest continues here

Where is London Zoo? I am clueless on London's geography. The York train goes to Kings Cross - is the zoo in easy reach from there? (don't laugh if it's millions of miles away!! I said I don't know The South )

Verso - I agree with Veggie - I think your DH needs some kind of talking therapy re work, marriage, illness, parenting, expectations...perhaps he's depressed himself? It sounds like it would do you all some good if he could sort himself out. It's very selfish of him to continue how he is. Getting him to go would be the challenge though I guess. Please don't regret dd2. As you said, she is wonderful, and you are the best mother she could want, and the she is the best sister for dd1. Like Arti said, in a year's time this will be a memory of a tough time, and things will be more normal...This too will pass. [hug]

WG - am also stuck on boob only - through choice though. My HV keeps suggesting bottles to allow me more rest but I can't bring myself to do it. She did say I could skpi bottles altogether though and just go to a sippy cup when weaning - I think Veggie said that too.

Sybil - glad Lucy is well. Hurray!

it's cold here again today . yesterday mowing the lawn in a t-shirt, today back to jumpers and central heating!

Trace You can get the tube from Kings Cross to either Baker Street or Camden town. If you go to Baker Street then you can have a lovely walk through Regents Park(and get lost like we did).

Trace London Zoo is in Regents Park.
Verso I am at your DH's actions. I think others are right, perhaps he needs some counselling.
On weaning, L is not very keen on baby rice so have stopped that for the moment. I would love to try BLW but don't think she will wait that long. She has 8, 7oz bottles a day now, which is just ridiculaous. Between 4pm and 7.30 when she goes to bed she feeds every hour which is exhausting. She is obviously tanking herself up for the night as she then sleeps until 6.30. Any advice on what I can do/ give her to fill her up a bit more in that period? My mum mentioned putting baby rice into her last couple of bottles, but not sure if that is a great idea (she also gave my son chocolate aged 7 months - with nuts in ).

Verso....it's like you don't know what's going on in each other's head. I don't want to sound patronising, but have you tried couples' counselling? I say that because if ever things got difficult with DP I would try it like a shot (in fact have wondered about it sometimes, as there are a couple of sore subjects that we can't seem to discuss without it descending into a row. Not that he isn't great or that we don't get on well, but, you know, I get frustrated occasionally). It might be a way you could air resentments frankly and talk things through without killing each other. But listen...I bet things will improve when DD2 is a bit older and you are back at work. It may just be a waiting game.

Best tube for London Zoo is probably Chalk Farm on the Northern Line (unless you walk through Regent's Pk as Kayz says). I know this as it is right by my office

Sorry about your crap day, Ros - hope today is better.

Lal - I just LOVED that story about you spreading it that the water in the sinks was dangerous.

Summer, I don't know if DP will be a competitive parent. Having a child quite late (he is 40, I'm 36) has to an extent innoculated the pair of us about people going on and on about their kids' achievements and fretting themselves into a frappuccino about where they are on the spectrum of attainment. We say "she is ever so advanced for her age you know" to each other in an ironic way all the time, when she just does normal baby stuff. However, he is much more of a worrier than me and did ask his mother a)if DD was getting too fat (she is smallish for her age if anything) and b) was anxious when she took about a week longer to smile than the book suggested. Gah.

Off to Waddesdon Manor in a short while and need to have a row and shower so must dash, but have a dilemma: DD is going to MiL's on Thursday as I have to have my veins done on Friday morning in Harrow, near London, and DP is at work. I thought we'd drive up and collect her Saturday morn but DP is saying Sunday lunchtime. I have left her for a night quite a few times, and now she sleeps from 12-8 it should be less of a bother anyway, but I do worry that all that time away from us will be too much. The good thing about her staying until Sunday lunch is NOT that we would have Mothering Sunday lunch with MiL but that we would carry on to my Mum's after, which is about 20 miles away, and DD and I would stay there for a couple of days.

Enjoy the meet up, South London ladies, if it still goes ahead. Sorry not to come, and sorry also to Arti and PMK about not managing to come into W London yet. I am very keen, I assure you.

Oh, and Jump, enjoyed the sentence about your late neighbour's lean to.

oh dear Verso hope things turn for you soon - good advice I think about the counciling.

lady thanks for the massive laugh about O not appreciating the lemurs!! Your DP sound quite the character! And 1 week over due smiling For a minute just now I thought you were off for a quick argument (row) instead of the rowing machine!!

I might be up for the zoo! I went to a ball there once but never to actually look at the animals!

I am pumping away again... desperately hoping B doesn't get too bored with his stuffed animals he likes to punch on his bouncer!
He had a feed at 8pm and then a 5oz bottle at 9 last night which he couldn't finish - well he sort of squeezed the last ounce down, and then slept until 7am!

Am going to try expressing between every feed today to see if supply picks up and therefore flow is faster as yet again the first feed of the day with fast flow was a breeze, and second one he fussed and fussed...

I have signed up for Weight Watchers! I'm going to my first meeting next Thursday. I did go before so hoping it works.

Katie - your DD is drinking precisely double what my DD has! She has 4 x 7oz per day! Wowzers. They are probably both at either end of the spectrum, though.

PMK, oh yes, he is a pain in the arse character all right

That was meant to be crossed through. Rats.

Oh, and PMK, I want to see B in all his finery too! For a minute I thought it was your DH in the Aussie kit (although...why not? Everyone knows doctors are pin ups)

Veggie We HAVE to get to the FA cup final!! Just looking at the recipes on WW and they have a section of recipes dedicated to FA cup final day!!

Verso am so sorry you are having all this trouble. I think relate sounds like a very good idea.

Oh I love going to the zoo we have memb to Colchester zoo which is a bit pants I really love Whipsnade zoo in Bedfordshire its fantastic! I also have very fond memories of going to Edinburgh zoo as a child they used to take the penguins for a walk.

Gosh all this weaning toalk am afraid I am a bit militant about not doing it until 6mth as babies guts just havent developed enough to take solids also milk is the main source of nutrition for babies for the first 12mth of life. Ok end of my rant.

Loving all the new names PMK1 glad you didnt go with KNB just too much fun to be had with that.

Veggie how exciting about A reading. I think you can totally encourage the sort of number and letter recognition that he has if you dont want him to be reading war and peace before starting school thats fine he is just having fun with it all right now. But I did do a dissertation yrs ago about this and the general concensous is formal education is wasted until about7yrs old. The governement is begining to recognise this and for reception and yr1 at school are very much play based now.

Oh dear am really spouting forth today its the childcare person in me.

Sybil am delighted that your DD is ok. Its all worry worry worry being a parent I suggest a large G&T tonight to celebrate.

Aaahh Barbara Woodhouse altogethere now SIIIIIT.

Now must go and have a shower having a family crisis at the mo not me thank god but it means I have spent all morning on the phone, phew parents I swear I will never put my boys through the rubbish my parents have put my sisters and me through.

lol LadyT nup, not dh in Wallabies gear, in fact he wouldn't be caught dead in it, but in lycra cycling gear I could! Should be the other way round really!

Was thinking of this instead of the bumbo - anyone had one?

Just a quick post on the food issue, will catch up more later!

Katie my DS has a lot of milk too, though not quite as much as your DD. Today he took a total of 1200ml (I calculated your 8 x 7oz as 1400ml a day!) and I think guidelines say 150-160ml per kilogram per day - how much does she weigh? Josh was 7.5kg at last weigh so the amount of milk he's drinking would be about right. We're thinking of giving him a little bit of rice cereal just before bed though too, as the poor bugger still wakes up ravenously hungry several times during the night despite having so much milk during the day. He went to bed tonight at 7pm, and I couldn't resettle him when he woke at 11pm as he was too hungry, and when I fed him he wolfed down 150ml in 9 minutes! He would have had more than that too, only that's all there was in the bottle. We were trying to get to just one feed a night, but I think we're going to go to two because he still obviously needs them and I don't want to deny him food just so I can get a bit more sleep.

Arti we've tried to spread out the day time feeds too. Doing just one big bottle every 3 hours didn't work for us though (it = a very grumpy and grizzly baby!) So now it's half a bottle when he wakes, half before he sleeps. And his wake + sleep cycle seems to be up for 2 hours, then nap for 40 mins. He seems much happier with this, so we'll keep with it for a bit till he gets a bit bigger and is on solids so can go longer between feeds. Snacking can be so annoying though, esp when breastfeeding!

ps: Katie perhaps your DD is having more milk than the average baby as she needs it to grow all that beautiful hair! She is just gorgeous

Veggie you are my guru. I'm always amazed at how well you remember and write things. I love reading up on bf, weaning etc and reading the science behind it but I never remember the whys and wherefores well enough to be able to explain them to others.

And dd wants me so no doubt I'll have forgotten everything elsse later....

Not at all tempted to do any weaning here. He's only just 3 months old so not even really going to think about it until he is about 5 1/2 months. I'd like to try BLW so will start looking into it in a couple of months.

DS1 was just under 6 months as he had woken a few times in the night so we gave it a go.

PMK They look really good!! I love the colours.

Afternoon ladies,

Trace was right on the If Destroyed Still True Forever ditty. It used to be scrawled on pencil cases and exercise books at school!

Ros I still have my Brownie badges and my animal lovers project binder filled with information on my cat Timmy - including his pawprints, the poor cat must have been thrilled to have his paws dipped in red paint

The girl next door joined the Brownies last year and I was so excited on her behalf! I sang the Brownie Guide song with her and got all misty eyed.

LadyT Magnificent lemers . DH expects DD to be interested in things too (he took her to a steam railway on Sunday with my brother - DD wasn't overly impressed apparently!) and doesn't realise that to a baby everything is new and exciting, even mundane things like the light shining on a saucepan etc.

My brother does have a job - replenishing and packing at Tesco. He struggles with lots of things, reading and writing, social skills but the staff are very supportive and he enjoys his job very much. He is looking towards moving into a shared staffed house in the summer which would be great for him. My research area is with people with learning disabilities and he inspired me to go into that line of work - knowing that people can be very ignorant and life so generally excluding for people with learning disabilities.

SL I had a quick look at the weaning topic on MN the other day and you can mix and match BLW with purees. Someone said that it depends on the meal really, for example weatabix is not a food for BLW for example so spoon feed breakfast and then do BLW for other meals.

verso Your situation sounds increasingly worse . Would your DH participate in any talking therapy either alone or as a couple?

sybil Great news on the blood test

arti That swim sounds divine. It is lovely and warm here now although it was freezing cold and foggy this morning.

katie At the baby clinic the HV was saying that baby rice in the bottle is a bad idea but I can't remember what the reasoning behind it was .

It's interesting all this talk about formal education, reading etc. All these things to read up about and make decisions on. Parenting is scary!

Oh JB I would be really interested on your research I have always wanted to do research into early contact with health professionals for parents of children with profound and multiple learning disabilities and how this affects their acceptance of their childs condition and some other bits to do with compliance and stress.

Jam I would love to pick your brains too one day.

Indith I am just a health trivia nut. Breastfeeding is just my latest fad. I find everything to do with it just amazing but equally amazing the politics behind it. I want to get the book which is out now the politics of breastfeeding. Did you know it very nearly died out in the 60s. It all started decades before when doctors believed that women really shouldn't be trusted with the rssponsibility of soley nourishing children so of course medicine needed to give them some 'guidelines' which actually interferred with the process causing many to be unable to feed. Oh sorry I'm spinning off on one.

Went to garden center and am none the wiser might have to pick Kayz brains too. What was that book?

Oh and I feel we might be in this one K