June 2008: the One Show (almost)

[Essie3]

No purée it's not silly that's mean. I am annoyed as we are having one but zero effort was made to accompdate fact I work so they are having it on a thursday. I may be able to get away for an hour if I work at home but it's not guarnteed and it's annoying for the nanny who has a lovely routine of activities for edie. Sure she will break it for anything I want but still feel it's a bit much cos one thick woman seems not to understand I work . Amber you are nicer than me as I am glad to be away on big day to avoid orfanisng it

UDC I'm really sorry to hear about your DH. That sucks.

Rolf glad the communion went well, despite your lack of help from DH!!! Could you put the football on at the party and turn it into a bit of a cup final theme?

Poppy and five I'm having problems with cups too! S is FF and still on 3 bottles a day. He's 10.5 months now so thinking its time to start weaning him from bottle to cup for at least one of the feeds, but he just wont take milk from a cup. He can drink out of a cup, (both the standard HV tommee tippee one and a doidy cup) but TBH he doesn't drink a lot.

To those with babies around the year mark - what are you doing re: feeding now? Have you started cutting down milk feeds, giving FF or BF from a cup or are have you switched to cows milk completely? Would be really interested to hear how/what people are doing and apologies if you've all had a big chat about this while my head was in the books .

Glad to hear you've been converted five - I'll have to go hunt you down via Ambers page.

Puree that sounds a bit mean. Have been very impressed with all your cakes and parties. Great pics on FB.

Amber - what about a soft play party? You only need a handful of friends with babies or small children?

whinegums I missed all your job stuff - are you ok?

On the first birthday front, DH and I have finally decided to get a sand/water table for S. He might not fully appreciate it this year, but we reckon it'll have a fair bit of longevity. We're going for this one. He's getting lots of other toys which I know he'll love for his birthday, so if he really cant enjoy this until next summer it wont be the end of the world (although if anyone wants to reassure me that it's a fab present for a one year old that would be good)

S doesn't mind teeth brushing, although I'm not convinced how effective we are at brushing his teeth . Perhaps I should watch the teeth brushing dvd I got from the HV?

Has anyone really taken against having a bath lately (the babies that is!)? S has been a nightmare over the last week or so! He stands in the bath and clings on to us, refusing to sit down etc.

Right, I need to go and think about some new nappies before bed, so I'll say goodbye for now - hope you've all had a lovely bank holiday!

Hi all, just a quick one cos I really should be in bed!

Thanks for all the good wishes re: Alex - he's much better, but I'm gutted that we missed out on our planned meet up as I'd been looking forward to it for ages.

P&P, think that the party thing is totally out of order and I would have been v upset tbh. Petty in the extreme - you didn't invite me so I'm not inviting you .

BDQ, and anyone else talking about drinking milk/water, we have now switched A to cows' milk for his morning bottle, he has a snack in the afternoon, and then formula in the evening. We intend to knock formula on the head completely in the next couple of weeks as we go on holiday on 13th and don't want to take the steriliser.

A still has all his drinks out of bottles as he thinks the TT cup is a toy and likes to empty the milk on his head or on us! We will try again when the weather is a bit cooler - in this heat we just need to get fluids in him and he drinks loads of water from his bottle which is a relief.

Rolf, a garden full of plastic toys is definitely in order!

Thanks splodge- when did you drop the afternoon feed? Did A drop it or did you actively wean him off it? I do worry about S being dehydrated - he'd never take water from a bottle and he drinks such a little amount from his cup.

Amber the mental picture of you glugging baby milk made me smile!

puree I can totally understand why you?d feel a bit hurt about the party. Groups are very strange things! I felt that way when my NCT group all went on holiday together and we didn?t (couldn?t afford it but we weren?t even asked). It?s taken me a while to get comfortable again and you?ve still heard me complain about them before.

BDQ Fraser is 11.5 months and I?m still feeding him three times a day (5am, 4pm, bedtime) but we keep offering cow?s milk in a cup (especially when he?s hungry) and he?s starting to take it really well. My plan is to drop the 4pm feed in the next month or so.

Thanks for the sympathy guys (and abdn at your NCT lot)

BDQ- Cecily has been drinking her milk from a cup for quite a while now as when we tried this cup she took to it so well we got rid of the bottles. The teat is soft like a bottle teat, which I suspect helps. She dropped the 2.30 feed by herself- when she drank less than 1/4 of her feed I stopped giving it to her, and she just has water/juice now. We're down to two milk feeds (first thing and last thing) and have just switched to cow's milk after Tesco's decided to substitute 8 bottles of Hipp Growing Up Milk with........

....4 kilos of dried spaghetti!

FWIW when the milk got dropped she started drinking more water from cups. And I LOVE the sand table- it's such a smart one and will definitely last (bet you'd get your money back selling it on eBay when he's outgrown it too!)

I feel shamed by Sponge as I stopped sterilising when Cecily started eating the dog and anything else she could find when she started crawling!

BDQ great substitution by Tesco!
DS2 doesn't like football at all and one thing he was really excited about with his party was it being 2 hours with no football. Sometimes at playtime he gets lonely as al the other children are playing football. So I've actually promised him that there will be no media on at all during his party, and tried to console DS1 (who is football mad) that we'll have a news blackout and record the cup final for him to watch once the party is over.

I would quite like to drop some milk feeds but not having much success. She's still breast fed on demand, which is quite a lot and certainly whenever she's tired. She isn't eating a great deal either (could those 2 things be connected )

UDC v sorry about your DH's redundancy.

Just a quick one to say 4 BFs a day here, although it is 3 on days where we are busy and he forgets about it. Rolf -I have the BF when tired issue too, feel better that I'm not the only one.

The glorious pink laptop doesn't want to connect to the Internet today so I am back to the iPod.

Thea drinks water quite well out of my glass or cup, but when I give her a cup/lid on her highchair she just throws it until the lid falls off! She has cows milk on oatibix but hasn't been interested in it as a drink yet.

Ali and Rolf I read the BF-tired thing wrong and was just about to chip in that yes, an extra BF during the day makes me very tired too. I really notice the difference if I feed four times a day instead of three.

That is interesting Aberdeen. I haven't managed to analyse the tiredness to BF thing myself. How is work and nursery going now?

still 4 bfeeds day here too

I haven't noticed any correlation between tiredness and the number of bfeeds a day.

We are having a lovely lazy day out in the garden. The boys are pretending to have a baby. DS1 has a rugby ball stuffed up his shirt and is groaning (worryingly realistically), and DS2 is being evil midwife (also worryingly realistically) and saying "oh for goodness sake, you're only having a baby". I have no idea where they learned this from - they've never been around when I've been in labour and have never met an evil midwife.

Rolf

Rolf - haaaaaa - children are mad aren't they?!

I don't know why I have to substitute formula for cows milk. It's much better for them isn't it - full of vitamins? Luke is still on 5 feeds a day!! I have asked the nursery to try and help cut down the day feeds. He eats up all his meals though so maybe I have to substitute the bottles for some other snack to make up the calories.

Don't know what to do about 1st birthday. Mark has already decided that we are going to see his mum on that weekend as his sister is over from the USA. Maybe I could do something the weekend before but I would be petrified nobody would come!

Puree - I cannot believe Tesco - some of their substitutions defy reason but that one is completely off the scale!

BDQ - Luke loves his bath but he stands up the whole time and I just pour water over him. He likes playing with bath things on the edges but I am on constant tenterhooks worrying that he'll slip and bang his head!

If you want a party Amber- have a party!!! If no-one comes then call me. I love cake.

I was told by my HV that babies need formula for the iron until 2 whn they go to Semi-skimmed milk. Or you can give them full fat and vitamin drops. Friend's HV said that this rule only applies if you live in Tower Hamlets and put your cigarette out before your ante-natal check and feed your kids KFC for lunch. If you live in Bromley and worry that their diet is varied enough, you need not worry. I like the sound of this woman, so am following her advice (albeit second-hand) as can't stand my HV.Plus full fat waaaayyyy cheaper than Hipp!

Sorry- Cecily Interruptus. Also meant to say that your day ounds dreamy Rolf. LMAO at your kids- my brother used to play Germans at length when little. He knew all about Iron-Curtain Germany despite only being 4 and never having been. I think they know more than they let on.

Glad I didn't have evil midwife though

I LOVE the idea of playing 'Germans'!! I'm fairly sure that when I was a child some of our games used to involve Hitler (they used to also involve Michael J Fox but in a different way!!)

It's taken a looong time for our boys to stop playing Germans - quite a sensitive subject here in Austria!

Hello, hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend. I'm still at my mum's. B has had a rotten cold over the past two days, and he's got another tooth coming through, so that's been fun.

DQ, thought you might have missed my post about job - we x-posted I think, my last post appeared just after yours (sorry to everyone else for reposting):

I'm feeling a bit pissed off tonight. I applied for a job that I'd actually done some years ago, on a short term contract for a maternity cover. It's come up again, as a permanent job. I was good at it - I really was! - and I've got even more experience since then. I fulfilled all the criteria, and I think my application was absolutely fine. And I haven't got an interview for it! It's a little complicated in that it's the same company where DP works, it's where we met, but surely that shouldn't be a reason not to interview me. It's a pretty specialized area, and I'm certain that there are very few people that have more experience and qualifications than me for it. So I'm feeling very angry, and somewhat despondent. I'm having no luck with job hunting .

Just had to offload...

DQ, if you're around, and you have a mo to share some HR experience, is there anything I can do, apart from ask for feedback? I'm sure they'll just trot out something about other candidates with more closely matched skill sets or something...

Oh, B has a lovely black eye as well after he bashed into a table. He's ok on the tooth brushing, as long as I let him have a go after I've done them, and he wants to stand up in the bath all the time as well. Sigh.

We're not doing so well on milk from a cup - a little bit of water sometimes is about it. 4-5 BFs, unfortunately, two of them are during the night!

Better go, there is mischief going on!

Hello all! Snatching a quick mnet moment because I'm in London but alas, Handyman Dan hasn't been quite so handy in finishing the job, and we're therefore camping. It's a bit stressful but also good for us to make the effort to go out of the house, and it's really cute to watch Iestyn crawling along our empty living room. I have lots to say but I also have a takeaway waiting...

Amber funny you should ask about teeth brushing because we're having similar problems and I was going to post! Iestyn has a cutie little toothbrush, but he keeps putting his tongue over his teeth, won't let us brush, but will clean the bath and his crevices with the toothbrush, and screams when we take it away. (Oh God, I just know I'm going to have to start saying things like 'toothbrushes are not for testicles'...)

Also interested on the cup debate, but only from a distance, as I do appear to have given birth to the baby who would rather starve to death than take a bottle. HVs always say 'oh he'll take a bottle when he's hungry enough'. Bollocks. Nothing will get him to take a bottle. He has the occasional swig of water from a doidy (with me holding it because otherwise it's more messy than doidy - an aside, 'doi di' in Welsh is 'won't you come?' - quite a sweet way of saying it). But yesterday he appeared to drink some of my banana milkshake from a straw. Will have to experiment with more milkshake.

Five hello, will seek you out on fb. Deb, Ali and whoever else asked, we're down to 2 feeds here (morning and evening) but sometimes three. But I always did have a mahoosive letdown!

Hello to everyone in fact, and I will try to post properly at some stage!

Quick post for whinegums - can you message me the info via fb and I'll reply tomorrow when I'm at work and have my hr hat on.

Must go finish the evening tasks but waves to all and thanks for cup, bottle and sand table feedback! Oh and bath time stories too!

BDQ, it was a combination of A dropping it and his lazy/useless mother constantly forgetting to take milk out with me so having to substitute!

P&P, what can I say, I am of course the perfect mother! The major hassle is washing the bottles, and putting them in the steriliser keeps them away from the cats!! It's no biggie - but can't wait to put the bloody thing away .

Rolf, I love the giving birth story - hilarious!

Amber, I'm with P&P on this - ff is expensive, milk much cheaper and the HV is talking bollocks about them needing it til they're two! She must be on the payroll of Aptamil ! As long as LO is getting a balanced diet they don't need ff after the age of one. Lol at only needing it if you put your fag out before your a/n appt. Like everything though, it's entirely personal choice - it won't do Luke any harm to carry on with formula, it's just much easier not to!

Essie, ROFL at I brushing his testicles!!

Continuing on the cow's milk discussion - is anyone else giving vitamin drops though? We do because F was exclusively breastfed and I heard somewhere that you should from 6 months onwards (not sure I believe it but with my kids I tend to follow the policy of 'least harm'). What is the consensus?

I am at work today fuming over the behaviour of one of my staff members. He had me in tears with the mess and headache he's caused. The worst bit is that I'll not have any time to do the parts of my job I love because I have to hand-hold and supervise him.

And DH is still waiting to hear about a permanent job so I can't quit yet. Shell was in the papers today with the news that they might lay off 2000 people, fortunately DH doesn't work for them!, but it's not a secure time these days...

sorry to be so self-absorbed...

whinegums did want to say how crap about your interview. do you think there's an internal candidate?

AH, really sorry to hear about your job stresses - that's crap when you have to work with people who are incompetent .

As for vit drops, one of my NCT mum's friend's swears by them apparently - esp when kids are at nursery/CM. The virus that Alex had at the weekend was caught from one his NCT buddies, who got it from nursery and A hasn't even started in childcare yet so they'll be plenty more where that comes from .

Are they easy to administer?