Fab Feb 2009: too sleep deprived to think of a new thread title

[dinkystinky]

'nuff said

herby that holiday you've booked sounds fab. Sounds similar to the Mark Warner type hols. We actually looked at doing a Mark Warner one in Mauritius (I think?) later this year but they were not particularly helpful. we wanted to book the package excluding flights as obviously being in the Middle East wanted to just fly to Dubai (just over an hour from here) and then down to Mauritius from there but they would only give us £100 discount for not having the flights which was rubbish. Might look into where you are going for next year.
We've decided after all the travel this time that we don't want to do too much long haul til the kids are bigger. Had 14 hours stopover in Dubai airport yesterday which was a killer

MrsY, your pamper sounds fab, could do with a pamper myself and am counting the hours til DD goes back to nursery on Sunday

Hello. We're back. Yes, we are back home the day after we left. We arrived at SIL's yesterday at midday and left today at midday. Dp said if he could have got us all out and our stuff without making too much noise we would have left at 4am this morning.
Luke now has Jacob's cold so just is not settling at all, I have had the snot buster out but it's not clearing the massive backlog of crap up there!
He was a complete misery all day and evening, and although for the most part, he laid quietly in the moses basket, he didn't sleep but when I tried to he'd scream....my BIL is telling me what to do for the colic as I was just holding Luke over my shoulder while watching telly and not being incredibly soothing for him, so I had talks on bottles to use and ways to feed blah blah bblah so I said pretty much what I've said here, not convinced anything will do it and that I'm doing all I feel I can and convo went on so I said how hard it is to have a colicky baby while ds1 has been poorly and he said him and SIL coped fine with a colicky baby (fucking heros) so I did point out that there is a 3 year age gap between theirs. I don't know if that makes it easier or harder, but it's different so IMO can't ompare. That gave me the ump abit. I'm calling dp a 'c-word' at 5am so we just dcided to come home.
I haven't caught up because we literally got in an hour ago and I'm still supposed to be unpacking while dp has gone down the shop, don't want him to think I'm obsessed with you guys or anything
Will catch up after dinner. Hope everyone's ok and colicky/jabs babies are settling down.

Quickly, when's the next growth spurt due? I think Luke is having one (or needs extra food for this cold) but thought the next wasn't til 4 months????

I went and tried on dresses today for 2 weddings coming up.

I think I may have to do nil by mouth for the next 20yrs.

Pah - MS - you've got a great figure. What were the dresses like?

lbb - sorry to hear about the bad trip. Sounds like you were definitely better off leaving the 'help' of the in-laws and heading home. Hope Luke is feeling better and you guys get a better night tonight.

Just wanted to check - at 9 weeks M still doesn't finish 5oz (sometimes 4, sometimes less...) and is starting to dip under her line. She was on the 25th anyway, so isn't exactly chubby, so should I be worried, or will she catch up sooner or later? How long should I leave it, before taking action, do you think?

And herby am v of you TT tickets - if you don't have any rl friends who want to go, will an imaginary one do?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why didn't one of you tell me that going shopping with 3 under fives was a stupid fucking idea.

it was hell, absolute bloody fucking hell.

we spent more time in the toilets than shopping, ds1 was in escape mode and kept running off in big shops and disappearing and i had to hiss 'stay with the baby' at dd and run after him...... how i came home with the same amount of kids i left with is beyond me. btw.... how the hell are you supposed to do public toilets with 3 dc's and a buggy? how? they don't all fit in with you!

i barely saw tkmaxx or next which were the reasons i went to the damn city (not counting sodding passport)

and i took a wrong turn on the way there which added half an hour to my trip and did the same blody thing on the way home and ended up in the arse end of nowhere... ok, leitrim, same differance.

pass photoes didn't come out right so i still have to post passport photos to them. aaron was in shitty humour, why is it he's in great form every single day of his life except the one day i need him to be? my shins are bruised as hell from the cunting seat2go which got about 10 mins of use all day so was a complete waste of time.

the only up side is i got some nice bits for aaron, and some shoes for the older two, and a school bag for when ds1 finally gets control of his bodily functions and goes to playschool. speaking of which, he peed in the toilets a few times but wet and pooed his pullups too so not sure whether that's a succeess or failure. at least dd didn't wet herself for once.

am destressing with the remainder of the easter eggs and some white choc and cranberry cookies (sorry flabby tum but i bloody deserve them today)

glad you're back with us MOS holiday sounds less than relaxing but at least some bits were enjoyable. that's so annoying about the cards but at least you can't be tempted to use them if you don't have them

lbb ... 'helpful' rellies and their stupid advice made me want to scream when i had it with dd. had everything from 'you should ff, she's starving' to 'i was putting babyrice in the bottle at that age [5 weeks]' to 'why don't you try XYZ as it worked for us'. imo the people who have some magic cure that worked for them didn't really have a colicy baby

MS, shop online, that way when you try things on you're in the safety of your own home if they don't fit instead of having to do the walk of shame past the ever so helpful assistant who knows you couldn't squeeeze it past your hips keeps me sane

Sodding computer just ate my post - I didn't realise you couldn't scroll to a different page without losing what you've written. 'Twas a long one too. Now I haven't got any time as I have to go to collect O from nursery. Am the living dead at the moment . Sam been asleep since 9am today just waking for feeds, so I'm dreading tonight.....

Will try to get on later to catch you all then.

KT I think the next lot of jabs are in about 4 weeks time. I'm sure Luke has his next week or week after (2nd lot). I made dp hold ds1 when he had the MMR jab because I just couldn't do it, I kind of felt that at 13 months, he had alot more understanding and I didn't want ds to assosiate a second of pain to my face iyswim.
PT I've just read back my last posts and thought, wow, I really sound like I know what I'm talking about and it almost makes sense, but OMG, if you'd all seen me last night! I was in tears from 11pm until 5am and actually realised I'm a rubbish mother to newborn babies, and was thinking why the hell did I decide to have another one? Why didn't I remember how hard I find all of this? Suppose it's all normal though, I just can't wait until Luke gets to about 5 months, this lack of sleep is destroying me. I also cried for the whole 3.5 hour journey home today and now I have a banging headache and feel awful. Oh well.
dinky yeah, the number of posters and the number of posts have lowered in number haven't they? Hopefully it's for all the right reasons, that everyone is enjoying their babies and don't need this space to rant!
herb Sounds like you and ds had a lovely day and a massive well done to him for doing so well on the potty training. I'm thinking baout buying a potty and having ds1 nappy free after his tea so I can whip the potty under him when he pees so he can see it all collecting and make a super slow approach to it. I don't plan to start PT seriously until he is atleast 2 and a half, so about another 10 months to go.
KT Poor Poopy not having the gaviscon.
I'm starting a pushchair in te park exercise thing in May (I think) arranged through my local Sure Start centre. I'm doing it more to get out the house for a real reason rather than walking around the shops and to get to know some other mums. I'm quite looking forward to it, although my pushchair is massive, I'm hoping someone else with a double has signed up too.
I got into my pre-pregnancy trousers yesterday!!!!!!!! I can't sit down unless I undo them, but I got them on so I figure it counts......no one can see I've tucked aload of extra baggy flab into my knickers either! It does mean now, I may have to try to wear thongs again which I haven't done since ds1 was born.....
MoS Good to see you again Not too sure what to say about your hols apart from it sounds like you are possibly as unlucky as I am!
MrsY Luke mostly stil only manages 4oz 3/4 hourly and he's 10 weeks. He is in between the 75th and 91st line, so I'm not at all worried..........
I was very paranoid about ds1's feeding, he was born on the 98th line (very top one) and came flying off of that at one point and I really panicked about it and allowed the hv's talk me into majorly reducing his feeds. IME, their weight goes up and down so often, it's hard to know what to do, one week M might put a shed load on, the next she might not put anything on, but you can't really cahnge the amount of fod that often, just too much messing around isn't it? I used to get ds1 weighed every 2 weeks, I don't remember the when Luke was last weighed......maybe as M is under the 'average' line, you could speak to your hv about your concerns, but there is plenty of time for her to balance out iyswim, and I'd try not to worry too much unless she drops quite a bit quite quickly. It may have been that she was a bit unwell one week but will now pile it on.

PT I couldn't agree more that if they found a cure for the colic that worked instantly, then it just wasn't colic! Don't get me wrong, pleased their dd came out of it (for whatever reason), but why do some people think they know it all? I get on fairly well with the IL's but do get a bit peeved when they've got that look like I'm doing something wrong.
STW I did the same thing a while ago. I now cut and paste with each page turn. Hope Sam's a bit better..x
If you ever do that again, I wonder whether going to 'edit,undo' works for it, or did you try that? Not much help now, I know, but if it happens again, worth bearing in mind

LBB - sorry you had such a stressful and short trip. IME babies tend to want to feed little and often when they have colds - though that's bf babies - as they get very thirsty rather than hungry so just have thirst quenching bursts, so you may need to break your feeds in two or something till he's better. Also, get him in the bathroom when you shower (or just in a steamy bathroom anyway) prefeed and he should be able to breathe abit better and feed a bit better. Hope he doesnt do Danny's cold trick which is to vom on a parent (generally me) after a feed when he sneezes or coughs - not great...

Pink - god that sounds like an absolute nightmare....you deserve a medal after a day like that (made of chocolate and gin bottles). DS1 has also taken himself off to wee in the potty 3 times in a row today (so has earned his PP trainset) so progress is being made.

Our nanny just tried Danny out on a bottle of expressed milk - nothing doing (he rejected it with total contempt then demanded boob as soon as he saw me) so clearly have another only-the-very-breast-for-me baby here like DS1. Operation bottle feed or cup will just have to commence in August before I head back to work....

dinky he has been taking close to 6oz's 3/4 hourly (4 hourly mostly because I'm trying to feed to routine rather than demand but am now thinking maybe demand is the way to go?????). Maybe I should also try to give him some more water. Atm I try to give him some at 10am ish and 4/5pm ish as these times are when he starts to get really ratty. The cold is pretty new but, I have been putting him in bathroom whilst I shower.

We are going tomorrow to get Luke his cot. His head is now pressed firmly onto the top of the moses basket as he can push himself upwards when he kicks his legs out so have told dp the basket is no longer use-able and we need a cot asap.
Luke will not sleep laying flat due to a blocked nose, so dp wants to stay in the living room overnight with Luke sleeping in his recliner bouncy chair (itr has a stand to take it off bounce iykwim) but |I don't think it's a good idea all night, because it means his back isn't straight.

Lbb poor you sounds very stressful - when the dc's are like that it's just so much easier in your own home isn't it rather than with company offering a mountain of "helpful " information.

PT God hats off to you, I would have turned into fishwife shouty mum and probably ended up bursting into tears.

Dinky - well done DS1 !...we've had another good day on OPT here too so I'm feeling a little bit more relaxed about going out and about as long as I have my "potette" ..we did have to do an emergency stop en route from the supermarket yesterday and it was chucking it down with rain. Found a quiet side street and let him pee in a puddle by the car.

We've been at a friends house this pm - she has a boy a week younger than ds and a little girl 6 months older than DD . The boys play really well together and we had a proper chance to catch up which isn't the case when there are more of us there. The boys ended up in the [downstairs] bathroom playing with the bath toys in the sink getting really really wet - still they were quiet, happy and didn't make too much mess and my mate is pretty relaxed.

Out for a drink with some girlfriends tonight and dinner tomorrow night - my life is looking a bit more civilised .

herb Have a fantastic evening. Very [nvy], but tink I might die if I went out socially atm!!!!

herb, I'm very of your evening out

LBB - can you prop up the head end of the moses basket on some books (we prop the head end of Danny's mini cot up with a cushion under the mattress when he has colds which helps hugely)? Probably slightly better than Luke being in his bouncy chair all night long - though if its only for one night and the only place he will sleep am sure it wont be the end of the world if he does sleep in his bouncy chair tonight.

Sounds like you had a nice day Herb - hope you have a lovely night tonight.

STW - sorry you are having such a total and utter shocker still. Sending you be strong vibes and Sam stay asleep tonight vibes.

MS - in the 5 months after DS1 was born I had to go to 3 weddings. The experience of going outfit shopping was the most depressing in my life! Separates (if taking Frank and bfing) with fabulous accessories is a good way to go - though if you really want a dress, I found Coast and Monsoon were the most erm post-partum friendly places for dresses...

Hi all,

Apologies in advance if I miss loads.. firstly thanks for the kind messages last week.. just realised I did not manage to to say thanks

The meet up sounded utterly fantastic.. and I would love to come to another one.. would be great to do one when MOS is here and before if people have time..

(((lbb))) sending you hugs and sleep/no snot/no colic vibes.. i am so sorry.. similarly ((STW)) hope you get some sleep..

MOS well done for keeping your head in all the holiday drama's!! I don't think I would have managed it..

PT.. i am generally in awe of your ability to deal with 3 under 5, but the thought of your shopping trip give me a new found respect again !

Herb very envious of your 'real life' social activities !!

Dinky I have a expressed in bottle refusnik here as well.. i was so efficient with DS1 as we started expressed bottles in week 1 and he never had a problem!

Mrsy what a lovely present from John !!

MS... i am sure you will find the perfect dress... also try department store personal shoppers (ie debenams etc).. fun and free !

to all discussing weight.. i am right there with you, I have a stone to lose and a crazy sweet tooth (which i have never really had before) think my weight is actually going up .. i would really recommend pushy mothers/baby bootcamp type activities if you only have 1 baby.. i loved it with DS1 and it really made a difference..

I am now nearly recovered from the chickenpox which was horrible, but at least I seem to have minimal scarring which i was worried about and the DD/DS were hardly affected.. we didn't make our holiday but did manage to change the tickets to early may and i have extended my maternity leave till end of june.. so alls well that ends well ... phew.. super long message.. sorry if i have missed anything out !

dinky Great minds.......I have just folded a small blanket and put it under the mattress, haven't heard anything from him as yet, so hopefully he has settled.
nkweto Glad you have recovered and that the dc's weren't greatly affected. Also good news about the holiday dates being changed.

Now that ds1 is better, I'm thinking about how to get him to settle himself at night again. Dp just tried to leave him and ds1 went crazy!!! He has always been so good at being left to settle himself, I wonder if this now may be a touch of seperation anxiety? He has had a tough few months what with hte arrival of Luke, the upheaval of his dad being off work for 3 weeks, then going back, me being in and out of hospital with post delivery infections, then getting poorly, it all feels like we're at the bottom of a huge landslide and I don't know where or how to begin bringing us up again.
In the past, I have been a fan of CC but ds1 now becomes so distressed so quickly that I just can't do that now. I'm thinking of maybe starting off sitting on his floor instead of laying (we lay there and pretend we're asleep), and just shuffling a bit more towards the door until we're sitting outside.......sound ok? And would the moving away be a bit every few minutes or a bit every day iyswim? Or does anyone else have any other ideas? Maybe I should post on the sleep board but I always get people telling me I should sit stroking him until his 35(!), at least I know you lot are living in the real world, I do think some people on MN are mostly just having a laugh

Nkweto- personal shopper is a great idea.

Pink- I'm always worried I'll order, hate it and then not be able to return it for some reason, packaging or something, and end up paying for something I don't want, or am I being silly?

MIL has offered to have F for me on tuesday so I can hit the shops so who knows what I might end up with.

I have a tired, cranky baby on my lap furiously sucking his fists even though he has just fed for ages... I have my right tit out as I type, there doesn't seem any point putting it away...

I wish he would sleep, he falls asleep for 30 seconds and then wakes up crying.

MS Hope F settles soon.

Nkweto - glad you're better and you managed to reschedule your holiday. Hope all is good with your little ones now. Am not panicking too much about Danny being a bottle refusnik as know we'll get him on bottles or cups eventually - DS1 was too and we eventually got him to take a bottle by going non-confrontational approach - me disappearing during the day, just coming home to express, and DH having a quality time weekend with DS1, offering bottles of expressed milk when he was hungry - took 6 hours for DS1 to realise there was yummy milk in there but once he started taking the milk there was no looking back...

MS - Danny has days like that. Hope he finally manages to tank himself up and has a loooong sleep.

LBB - you could try getting a comfort item for DS1 (soft toy, comforter, blanket) which he will take with him for sleeps (make sure you get more than one of it though as there will be hell to pay if it gets lost/left somewhere). As DS1 is gettng old enough to understand you can get him to help choose it and explain its for him to take to bed with him to help him sleep at nights so he doesnt need mum and dad to come to help him all the time. The slow removal technique has worked for people I know - you start off sitting by the bed for sleep time, then you start sitting abit further away, then by the door, then you say you're just going to go out for 2 minutes and come back, then 5 minutes, then 10 minutes etc. They then get used to settling themselves to sleep while you're out the room - though it does take a long time to take effects (you're looking at several weeks at least). Another method you could try which we did with DS1 when he was 4 months is shush pat - you start off shush patting them to settle them, then just go to shushing them in person (which you can then eventually do over a baby monitor from bed).

dinky Thanks for sleep training advice there. Ds1 does have a bedtime bear that he has always cuddled to sleep, since about 6 months old. Since Luke's been born ds1 hasn't been able to put bear down and now carries it around the house. It is very sweet, but I have always tried to restrict it to bedtime, although with the trauma of a new baby, he can have it around the house, but we don't take it out with us. I did once last week when he was unwell, he was still holding beadtime bear at the door when he had his coat on so I allowed him to take it to the docs. He hugged him all the way there, threw a huge tantrum in the waiting room because I wouldn't let him out of pushchair, but bear was not a comfort at that time, hence him being a bedtime bear. So, in response, yes, he has a bedtime comforter
This is why I like CC, because it only takes 3 days, but he is getting awfully distressed, he screams so loud and hard, he gives himself a coughing fit. I thought maybe the gradual withdrawl might be less traumatic for him.......he also knows that at the moment I spend alot of time in with Luke while he settles

think we're having another growth spurt here, aaron has been attached to my boob since 1am only breaking briefly to nap. my poor boobs are all sad and empty.

at least the weather here is gorgeous, if i can ever get him down i can finally get some gardening done!

mrsY don't worry too much about the feeding amounts as long as it is going in and M is happy. Lilian is also hovering around the 25th centile and rarely takes more than 4oz at a time but she seems happy and healthy despite the constant vomiting! My DS used to down a 9oz bottle at this stage but DD is obviously less of a porker!

MOS your holiday dramas leave me exhausted! I haven't managed a trip overseas with kids yet - took me long enough to convince DH that we could cope with a journey to Cornwall last year.....

Nkweto glad you have recovered now - chicken pox is bad enough for little ones but much worse for grown ups, poor you.

PT - you deserve a medal for your shopping trip (or a labotomy).

labotomy i think.... my mother rang last night to 'check if you're ok.... you're very brave ' she's delicately suggested that if i feel the urge to shop again it might be wiser to leave the older 2 with dp and take her to help with aaron in case he's grumpy so i actually get to shop

nkweto, glad you're back with us... lucky you not to get any scars, i still have CP scars and i had it for my fourth birthday!