JUNE 2008- tantrums, shrieking and lashings of Gin (and that's just the mums!)

[pureeandpearls]

Thread number 123 or something like that

neenz I was told eye level was for bigger carseats but the baby ones where only safe until there heads reached the top as they need to be better supported at that age. Will have to look into it!

Amber good luck at the dr's.

neenz I found this on a carseat safety website

Once your child is above the maximum weight for a rearward-facing seat or the top of their head is above the top of the seat , they should be moved into a forward-facing seat. It is not important if their knees are bent in the seat, provided they are still within the seat's weight range.

Hello - sorry, been working and stuff!

Firstly, Puree and Amber, the wedding is still on (and quite soon, better watch that expanding waistline of mine...and find a hat! Anybody got a fascinator?), so babysitting is still on! But now I'll have to admit that Iestyn gave up on taking a bottle after a 3 month fight and 2 weeks of taking it...but it's ok, he manages with getting his ebm (or even cow's milk) on cereal.

Carseats - Iestyn is still in his teeny one and we're holding off with getting another because we can spend the money on booze earn interest on the money. But Iestyn is clearly so small you could tread on him, so probably better off asking someone with a normal child!

Mother's day was lovely; Iestyn was in such a good mood, and there was a card, a handmade one from nursery and a shop bought one, and some sunflower seeds, and even a daffodil which Iestyn picked from the garden . He also ate a petal. Yesterday we went to waterbabies, and he was ok and didn't cry apart from when we tried to force him to swim on his back. And today it was the photographer at nursery and I'm totally and unnaturally excited about such a pathetic thing!

On nurseries, LOL at Neenz and Amber for having to pay extra. If you don't pick up your baby at 5.30 here, and they can't get hold of you or the backup numbers, they...CALL SOCIAL SERVICES!!! (I wonder how many times I'll be tempted by that babysitting service before Iestyn starts school...)

Amber I'm so sorry to hear that Luke's still not sleeping - I was thinking about you in the shower this morning (the only peaceful moment of my day so I tend to stay there as long as I can and get all of my thinking done!) and hoping things were better.

We're still using the infant seat for Fraser but are planning on moving him into the Britax convertible seat (rear-facing) next month.

neenz the nursery charging more sounds odd - I've never heard of that before.

I'm v tired today, Fraser was napping and I put Duncan in front of the tv and then fell asleep on the sofa . He woke me when winne the pooh was over to get me to press play again - and I did

Aberdeen it's been a long time since someone thought of me in the shower

Thanks for that going, need to keep an eye on T then cos he is getting a bit big now! Abdn, is the Britax one a 0-4yrs one? Will you have to sit him forward facing eventually or can he be RF till 4? I looked at the RF ones and they were too big for my car.

£50 for being 1 minute late!! I think we'd better go for that CM after all then cos DH is not very good at leaving work on time.

thanks for all the car seat talk

lol amber - abdn thinking of you in the shower!

Hmm, I am in danger of having a sense of humour failure with poor P. He just seems to be grumbling all the time unless I am holding him, feeding him or playing with him. I suppose it is inevitable after last week's holiday when there were two other babies and six adults to play with. This week he is stuck with me! I have tried to make his day as interesting as possible with trips out etc, but I'm just not cutting it for him at the moment.

Anyway I currently have spag bol cooking and it is danger of burning as I have relented and let P have a BF for bit of peace. I am finding it hard to cut BFs down to two a day plus one at bedtime on the HV's advice. However BF's are the only chance I am getting to catch up on the thread and post quickly!

What an incoherent post! Better go and rescue tea (cue more wailing).

Amber, I hope you get the sleep issues sorted. I'm finding them a killer, and I'm not working, so I can't imagine what it's like for you.

Ali, that does sound hard, to go down to 3 BFs. I would love to cut the night feeds, atm we have bf first thing, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime. Then another two - when I go to bed, and maybe around 3-4am. If I refuse, much screaming ensues, and when I'm so knackered, it's easier just to feed. Any advice welcome...

Hello everyone

Amber I don't think of you in the shower but all the same I'm sorry the sleep situation isn't any better . DH and I are going for a more extreme solution to our girls sleeping with us - we're buying a bigger bed! I saw a ridiculously over the top one here www.frenchfarmhousefurniture.co.uk/beds/6bretonbed.asp

but we are probably going to get something that won't look so ridiculous in our suburban bedroom.

I don't suppose any of you are good at catering for huge numbers of people? Thea's baptism is on Sunday and I have invited about 150 people (maybe more??). I'm not doing anything very fancy. Lots of vegetable crudites and dips, cheese boards with grapes, hot canapes (from Costco), big fancy cake (cooked by someone else). I'm not doing sandwiches or anything that needs any preparation, and will prepare the crudites the night before. I've borrowed someone's teenage daughter and friends to heat up and serve the hot things. Is there anything I should have thought of and is there anything else I can serve that would be nice (and easy)?

Rolf, I did the buffet for the DTs' baptism (for 100 plus 30kids). Easy things were chicken legs (bought already cooked), savoury eggs, pork pies, pasta salad, all bought direct from Tesco. We didn't serve anything hot. I did sandwiches as they were really easy. Also, costco do really nice packets of cold meats, you could serve them as they are. They also do pizza which you can serve cold and pre-prepared sandwiches. Where are you having the do?

Ali, do you know why the HV is saying cut down on BFs? I am cutting down too at the moment but I still feed them first thing, after lunch and before bed, and sometimes mid-afternoon too. I am only cutting down because I don't think they need so much any more, I would do more if they demanded it. I think if P is not eating much and prefers milk to food then just keep BFing. Are you still BLWing? I think BLW goes hand in hand with demand BFing. Nothing wrong with wanting to cut down of course, but nothing wrong with not cutting down either IYSWIM.

Phew - happier baby now that he has eaten ALOT of spag bol. What a mess though.

Whinegums: the conversation about cutting down on BFs was from the sleep specialist HV. Rightly she suggested that I stop BF P to sleep for naps. I was surprised that she thought I shouldnt feed him first thing and give him breakfast first. I am having some success with this except when he is sleepy at a time that I'm not expecting it, so then I feed him and he falls asleep: Doh! Neenz, yes I am doing BLW. You are correct that it goes hand in hand with demand feeding, so this is a bit of a change of tac for me.

Now here is the interesting thing: last week when we were skiing DH and I left P with our friends for 2 mornings from 8.45 to 12.30. I very nearly didn't do it as he had been so unsettled when I had left him with DH earlier in the week. So when we weren't there he was perfectly happy, went to sleep when they took him for a walk and didn't demand to be fed. So I conclude from this that he isn't as hungry as the demanding would indicate, and he is looking for comfort from me.

Wow, I can barely cater for the 4 of us Rolf, seriously impressed!!

Yes our nursery is a call social services if you don't get them on time one too ... you can book them in for an early for extra money (8.15 onwards) but it closes at 5.30 and that's it. Think it's reasonable though as most of the staff have childcare to think about too.

Had a lovely treat today, the nursery have a new 'sensory room' and the manager showed me round, it's got a massive lava lamp, twinkly lights, a projector with coloured lights on the wall, soft furnishings - all it needed was the smell of stale fags and I would have been back in a chill out room in the early 90s.

Bit at a loose end here, neither child slept this afternoon so they were both asleep when we got back, and are both still asleep in their cots now

We are still demand bfing here, though it's mostly at night now. I know I should stop feeding her at night if I want her to sleep but secretly don't want to, she's my last baby and it would feel like a wrench losing out on those nighttime snuggles. In fact I have given up on any pretence of sleep discipline since dp was ill, Caitlin just came in with us as that was the least disruptive thing and she's still co-sleeping most of the night now. She is getting ideas above her station though, she clearly wants the bed to herself and wriggled round till I got up at 6 this morning, then starfished out and slept peacefully till after 8 - I clearly need to get her the bigger bed!

No advice on BF I'm afraid, nor on the catering since after the Christening we schlepped all the way to Shropshire for this weekend DH has bowed to the inevitable and decided we need caterers and we've invited half the number Rolf has!

Essie- what colour are you wearing? I have too many a few hats and fascinators if you need one. Looking forward to meeting you!

Amber- sorry you are having such a mare. I really hope the doctor finds something (((hugs)))

Our nursery doesn't charge extra but it costs £50 a day so I'm guessing they don't need to! They will also call the Social Services....as will the CM. Do they not allow for the vagaries of the London Transport System? Eeek!

Just had a very chilled bedtime and P fell asleep as soon as he hit the mattress, without any crying.

I will now try to write a slightly more considered post...

Whinegums/Systems - should also say that our night times are still hit and miss here. Since we did CC, going to bed has become very striaghtforward. Most of the night is pretty good too, but the early morning can be quite variable. The sleep HV permitted one night time BF "for now", but sometimes it is two BFs in the end. The other trouble is that P is an early waker, and we struggle to ignore him or re-settle him once it has got past 5 o'clock. Does anyone have any smart ideas?

So the HV's recommendations are:
Daytime: 3 BFs
Nightime 1 BF
The reality is:
Daytime: 4/5 BFs
Nightime 1/2 BFs plus coming into bed from 5am onwards as often as not.

Rolf - hats off to you on the catering. That sounds like quite a feast. I don't have any advice though as I am rubbish in the kitchen.

neenz it's the 0-4 one. We used it for DS1 from birth and turned him around at 2 years. He's still in it now, but I'll move him to a stage 1-2-3 seat now and move F into the Britax rear-facing. It's not one of the big ones - it fit in my old Polo

amber as I wrote that I thought it sounded strange but glad that it made you laugh rather than made me sound too strange...

whinegums have you tried dropping the dream feed? It actually made Fraser sleep longer when we stopped his. It might be a disaster but it might help...

Wish we had a bigger bedroom so we could get a mammoth bed - DH and I both love to spread out and as soon as one of us is away, we revert to our single sleeping habits.

rolf hummous and veg and breadsticks always fills people up and keeps them happy. We did finger foods for our wedding (we're cheap!) and the hummous was the most popular. We only had about 16 to F's christening though.

Rolf I have a strange vision of you heating up your neighbousrs teenager and friend on a spit. I feel I may have misinterpreted your post.

C still poorly, temp 39.4 pre-calpol this evening very clingy and grumbly but no symptoms of anything specific, apart from presumably co-incidental teething.

better get back to her, just trying to keep up...

viva I know the official line is that teething can't cause a fever but mine often have a low-grade fever and are clingy when teeth are coming through, and so many other people say the same. There must be some kind of a link - maybe the teething suppresses their immune system and they pick up more viruses? Whatever, hope she feels better soon.

Ali, it's so hard to know what to do for best isn't it. lol at the HV saying she 'allows' one BF!! Cheeky mare. Yes, she is right that BFing to sleep is causing a problem. You know that anyway. When I stopped feeding the DTs in the night I actually upped their day feeds to five. When I tried to cut down from five they started waking in the night. Just the last couple of weeks when they hit 10mo I cut down to 3/4 BFs. When I started feeding them in the night again 'just once' it soon becomes twice a night and earlier and earlier on and with more and more difficutly getting them back to sleep. Now I don't feed them in the night at all. It has made me much more relaxed about how much food they eat too, cos they tend to sleep through now whatever they eat (although they like so many things now that it is rare/never that they don;t eat very much). I think you are probably right that he is not hungry some of the time he is demanding to be BF.

As for after 5am, sometimes we have had success if we just sit them up and give them toys to play with in their cot. They just play quietly and often go back to sleep. Sometimes it helps if we leave the light on.

Rolf and Neenz, I'm similarly impressed - we're having caterers for Alex's naming ceremony!

viva, sorry to hear C is still poorly .

Ali, great news on the evenings - no advice on the mornings I'm afraid, we have a similar problem although Alex wakes at 6am which is slightly more bearable. He wakes in a really grumpy mood though and I'm sure he could do with another hour (as could I!!).

SA, lol at the sensory room with a stale smell of fags!

Ali sympathies, but no idea what to suggest really. We've cut down on the bfing here, but not really deliberately - more because he's going to nursery. But Iestyn sleeps through most nights now. If he doesn't, though, I just bf him, so it's not just you, whinegums! Puree I'm wearing a black satin skirt and a gold top (which is much nicer than it sounds! - I think it's officially called 'champagne' colour). Black hat/fascinator? (Everyone, Puree is quite amazing - childcare, hat hire, there's no end to the woman's helpfulness! )

I think I can smell burning so I'd better go. Weird, nothing is cooking or anything.

Plus the postnatal topic is all stupid and one-sided tonight.

I have the perfect black fascinator/hairband thing....just have to remember where I put it.

Off to bed- in addition to completely ruining the hard work I have done on my pelvic floor, this coughing has given me a wicked headache.

Oh, puree, do you have the terrible cough I have? Pretty harmless, but I sound like a consumptive. And it's really, really annoying because I can't stop coughing!
Hope your headache is better. And that your pelvic floor...well, firms up or whatever it should do? I have a fitted carpet in mine.

Viva, no you're quite right about my post. That's what we Catholics do at Christenings . Sorry C is still unwell.

I fell asleep whilst putting the girls to bed and have just woken up feeling all crumpled. Thea is yelling away - I think she's decided that any time out of my bed is a Bad Thing. She's got new teeth coming through and seems to find all the cuddles and feeding are a comfort.

Thanks for the advice on food for the baptism. I'm really looking forward to it.

I had a look at DS2's homework earlier this evening. He had to write a list of compound words that relate to the body and the little monster had written "bumcream". DH and I have had a happy evening thinking of all the compound words that would have been even more inappropriate

ohh my mumsnet page has gone all screwy! The stylesheet's gone wrong and everything's in a column to the far right of the page

Fraser slept through the night until 5:30! But Duncan got his foot caught in his bed rail and was up screaming at 2. We both feel like we've been hit by a truck this morning.

Ali love the idea of permitted BF - Fraser is stronger willed than me on this every time, let alone a HV! For early waking, when Duncan was older we tried the wake-to-sleep and woke him at 4 to get him to sleep until 6...