Dec 08 mums - from rolling to sitting and everything inbetwean

[waitinggirl]

there i've done it - hope that is ok.

Why on earth would a bf baby need vitamin drops? I think I shall put more trust in my bm, its a wonder that mankind survived before vitamins were invented if the stuff that a mother produces, evolved over many years to be exactly what her baby needs isn't enough.

kim sounds like a rubbish workshop. There are a couple of things though, not that I'm having a go, I really am not and I think that it sounds as though they could have put things much better. Jars don't have a great vitamin and other good stuff content as the processes they go through in order to be long life etc kill a lot of it off. You don't need to be wonderful in the kitchen to steam a bit of veg or boil a potato. There is nothing wrong with using jars but it is good to mix it up a bit. On the cups sid of things it is the way they drink that differs, a spout with a valve etc that they have to suck quite hard from can affect the way the teeth grow (like dummies or thumb sucking) so a free flow one with a hard spout is better. Of course, again, there isn't anything wrong with using a spouted cup as a transitionary cup for a little bit.

JJ no idea really for co-sleeping. I think dd is going to be difficult for that as her sleep is so rubbish so like you I think she may sleep better away from me but I don't want to be up and down like a yo yo if we put her is a separate room. Of course we would have to have a separate room, she cna't go with ds the way her sleep is! With ds it was very easy, he went down in his own room and came in with us when he woke so it gradually got less and less as he woke less.

Just a quickie as I am supposed to be doing work but Kim, (glad you had a nice hol) can I just say I am fuming about what you said about the weaning clinic? It's a good job I wasn't there as I probably would have blown a gasket! Who organised this class? Was it a local thing, or NCT, or a doctor's thing?

I HATE these things which make mothers feel bad. My DP's sister is a fancy pants dentist and all her kids have had dummies. Her little one, who is 2, has a dummy attached to a muslin so she can carry it around. There is no way she would risk a dummy if it was that bad for teeth - besides which, the decent dummies you can by are created by orthodontic specialists.

And there are jars and jars - surely. They'll be telling you to dry your clothes with a mangle next. DD has a combo of fresh stuff (banana, sweet potato, mango and the like) and baby rice or porridge and organic jars. I am happy with this.

Arti, I will look into the trains and try to get an early one. More later!

Kimberley: nowt wrong with mixing jars and other stuff as far as I can see. Not that DS1 would touch jars . As LadyT says, mixing with plenty of fruit and other finger food sounds reasonable.

Am recovering from the morning of poo: took the DSs to the woods for a toddler walk, DS1 happily did a wee in the park toilets before setting off. After we'd finished and were having lunch DS2 did a huge poo which went through all his clothes necessitating a full change at a picnic table while trying to stop DS1 running about and losing himself. Then DS1 decided to entertain me further by pooing his pants. So off to the toilets to sort that out, whereupon he managed to smear the stuff all over me, the toilet seat, everywhere. I'm ashamed to say I shouted at him and slapped his hand . Not my best parenting moment. Anyway, we got some lollies and yet more pants on the way home and are now friends again. Got some full fat cherry coke which was the filthiest soft drink Asda had to offer and slowly calming down...

JJ: no advice, I'm thinking DS2 will sleep better in another room but then he'd be in with DS1. Not an option at the moment as he is once again refusing to go to sleep in the first place, think it was the heat. He ended up in our bed in just a nappy last and slept pretty well from about midnight till 5.

Hello,

Sorry I have been useless recently. I've been doing alot of stuff with DS1. We made cheese biscuits today and I did some apple for DS2. I also tend to give jars occasionally. Especially if I am in a rush or going out for a day.

My mum is buying my brother and me a car!!! She is going to give us lessons. I am really looking forward to it and hopefully I'll learn pretty quickly.

I am very tempted to join in with ttc again later this year but I think it would be better for us if we waited until next year

I hope everyone is ok today!!

Hi Kim glad you had a nice holiday vacation. Your weaning workshop sounded horrific! I'm so tired of all this "can't do this and that" kind of crap! I wasn't going to use a dummy originally until my HV and a MW both told me I was doing more harm than good when he was obviously pining for one during his bad weeks of wind - sucking in so much air and making it worse, yet the amount of people (my babies great grandmother included) that tutted at the sight of one. It made my blood boil.
tbh I am trying to wean B off the dummy (at the moment he only uses it for about 5 mins at night then rips it out himself and I shove it back in at 3am) but reason being as I can't stand the sight of a LO toddling around with a dummy in their mouth when they can pull it out themselves, and they talk while it's still in etc a-la-my nieces at one pointnot to mention the fact that he wakes up and wants the dummy but not a feed! At the moment though it seems to give him some relief from teething so I give it to him instead of my finger to chew!

B is having 4-5 formula feeds a day, plus one puree and I have made up some combo's of sweet potato & cauliflower (quite keen on) potato and carrot, (not as keen) butternut squash and potato (bit how's your father about) and sometimes i mix it with baby rice, sometimes not, and also have in the cupboard Plum organic superfoods and he's particularly partial to Pumpkin carrot and mango and mango & banana, plus Hipp Organic banana, peach and yoghurt. i find these bought ones really handy if I go out as I can't be assed defrosting the pureed stuff and dealing with all that etc etc. tell whoever ran that course to stick it up their clacker!
I have been told however, about the Vitamin D thing that is lacking from breast milk and would need to substitute some, if I was still BF-ing then, but I'm not so haven't given it a second thought really.
Where's Turnip? on holiday right? Turnip i see you are around on FB are you lurking? I wanted to know about the creche and if you ever used it and joined that gym??? I will FB you (I hate that expression!)

Well Kim I am officially a bad mother I use the dummy holder things, I don't understand how it stops them putting it in themselves, esp when DS1 cant yet, the best he can do is hold the side plastic bit and then shove it in his eye. I've fed DS1 from jars, I found cooking beautiful organic pureed food he refused to eat too painful. At one stage he would only eat Hipp organic cougette & mozzerella penne pasta. Also I am a soft top tippy cup user. If I hadn't used them DS1 may still be on the boob. I find their approach quite bizzarre,are they trying to help mums or put the fear of god into them, it's quite old school.

WG no baby in the western world needs vitamins. BF babies get all they need (including a very bioavailable source of iron so don't believe what HVs say about that it's from old dumb research based on bf mothers iron levels) from their milk. It is more than enough to sort them out exclusively for many months to come. Solids for now are just practice for when they go off breastmilk completely. FF also do not needs vitamins, the iron & vits in formula aren't as easy to absorb so to make up for this they put loads in so that the baby will basically absorb what is needed. From 6 months babies have different requirements as they are learning new sills and growing at an alarming rate. Breastmilk changes to accomodate this and formula companies have come up with follow on formulas for exclusively FF babies. Does that all make sense.

Wow cross posted loads there. Kimberley there you have it they officially don't know what they are talking about. The not enough vit A&D in BM is an old thing that has been disproved so I would discount pretty much everything else they said. Also what the hell has dummies got to do with weaning.

Blimey that weaning talk sounds awful. Its like saying we should never ever give our kids convenience food or chocolate. Like I never eat it myself and must always give the kid lentils or something worthy instead (!) (I love lentils, so no offence to lentil lovers).

I've BF both mine without vitamin drops after 6 mo, I had never heard of them being necessary and dont see why they should.

WG sorry I have probably said things about you knowing best on here that may well of got on your tits. No offence meant. But do they really care about you and your DCs welfare or just about lining their own pockets, sorry, cynical view . I think that no-one would know exactly what your baby wants and needs over the first few months, they can only offer advice. If anyone did actually know, the advice wouldnt always be so contradictory, probably because all babies/mums are different. I think what many of these texts dont actually tell you is that its fine to make mistakes and learn as you are going along, and that a bit of trial and error is OK. Also, as your child grows and nothing bad happens while you have been flying by the seat of your pants a bit, then you start to get a bit more confidence in your own capabilities as a parent. So I think they have their place but cant replace your own experience - as mums we are uniquely placed to know our own babies best for the simple fact that we spend so much time with them. And there cant be many mums that just dont want the best for their kids, and I think the parenting industry exploits this somewhat. On the other hand, I think things like mumsnet and this thread are brilliant, for advice, and I would definitely ask for advice here and listen to what you guys said.

For what its worth I was a bit of a panicky mum with DS1 and cooked everything from scratch etc etc, and stressed about all these issues A LOT. I dont know why, I am second of 7 kids and my parents never sterilized, bought baby Einstein or whatever, I had a fantastic childhood ! I'm a lot more confident now, probably because DS1 is 2.5 now and is a reasonably well behaved, good eater. Well, except for saying f**k the other day (DH's fault).

indith What you said about the cups makes sense. Why couldn't they have just said it that way instead of making it sound like I was going to damage my child for life? I do think that we will have to make some kind of transition with the softer spout first though...

lady it was a NHS thing. They even gave me a handy little weaning book to take home...woohoo. I should've gone ahead and left when they told me I couldn't bring my buggy into the building!! Such a waste of 2 hours!

pmk We are also weaning off of the dummy as well. But we figured the dummy was better than his thumb. DS only uses it for sleep or when he's getting restless. I brought the dummy with me to the class because the class time was during his normal napping time. I figured he would start to get tired and might need it. I was glad I brought it especially since he had to sit on my lap for the whole workshop and got tired and really fidgety.

veggie I said the same thing about the lanyard as well. I guess they are saying that he shouldn't have access to one all the time. But I say better to be attached to their clothing while I'm out and about so i don't have to go digging through my bag to find it or be picking it up off the ground.

oh well... I'll just keep doing what I've been doing. DS hasn't died on me yet.

Oh and I just came across the Vitamin stuff in the wonderful NHS weaning booklet and they don't even give you a reason as to why you should give your child the drops. All it says is that Vitamin D is only naturally present in a few foods and from sunlight and that it is "sensible" to give it to you child from age 1-5. If they are breastfed and drinking less than 500ml of formula per day then you start them by 6 months. There's no reason as to why you should give it to your child.

On a happier note, DS is rolling over from both his tummy and back now! He's also been trying to get himself up into crawling position. I also have a cute video I am going to try and post to FB later!

NJAN Your comment about your son just cracked me up! Our greatest fear is our DS first word being f**k! DH says it all the time as well! haha!

Hi everyone. Sounds like you have all been making the most of the sun. We've been out in the garden a lot and having lots of walks. DS seems to get uncomfortable with the heat by the end of the day so really enjoys his slightly cooler baths.
We've been swimming today and to a baby group. DS must be exhausted as has been asleep since 5pm! Very unlike him to sleep for so long.

PMK - our local pool is lovely but I have to leave the car seat by the side of the pool and wrap DS in it in his towel when we get out as there is one changing table which is always in use (and DS would probably roll out of it - I finally witnessed a roll and there's no stopping him now!). A friend just puts his DS on two towels on the floor and he managed to roll into the next cubicle when his back was turned!!

Kim - I'm shocked at the weaning class you attended. I sometimes wonder where these people get their advice from - everyone always seems to have somethnig different to say!

Spot - I also thought that letter was out of order. I assume it was probbably just an acknowledgment to your GP that he was aware of other issues (but seems inappropriate really).

NJAN - we are also wondering about next DC - may see you or PMK on 2010 thread (hopefully). Considering trying at end of year so that I'l be nearly at the end of my job (one year contract) when more heavily pregnant.

WG - yes the guidelines do say to give vitamins but must agree with everyone elses coments on here and I am certainly not giving DS any extra vitamins!

Kayz - how generous of your mum to get you and your brother a car.

Verso - Well done re interviews.
I have also watched a couple of episodes of supernanny - quite entertaining - but dipping in and out of a few books and hers I have found the least helpful (sorry LadyT).

LadyT - was thinking of you when Howard was fired. I'm looking forward to it tonight but really do cringe at this interview stage that they have!

JJ - we have the same dilemma with co-sleeping/ cot in room etc. I try to start him off in his room but have been pretty relaxed about bringing him into us for night feeds - if I fall asleep then fine but if not I take him back to his room. He seems to like waking up with us but I do hear him amusin ghimself in the cot in the mornings which is cute. I do think we disturb him also (DH's snoring). Our breakthrough was he slept through on Monday night (from 10pm to 7am) - it was brilliant. I did have to go and express at 4am though but didn't mind! He went back to three hourly last night but at least I know he is capable of more!

Trace - we also have the chicco highchair - am not mad keen but mil bought it for us in a sale. It does take up a lot of room.

DS will be six months on Friday ( I keep having flashbacks of the labour). I can't wait to start foods for him - he has sucked on the odd bit of cucumber but as a few others are doing - we will do a mix of blw/purees and bf whenever he wants.

Feel I have rambled on a bit - DS still asleep - v strange - some snuffling so maybe about to wake.

evening all, just popping in quickly to bookmark my place.

Need to have a proper read through but I have seen there's much talk of weaning! That's an ongoing theme in the tilly household as well!

No major news here apart from ds2 rolling out of his bouncy chair onto the tiled kitchen floor . Fortunately he's ok, guess I'll make sure he's strapped in from now on. Ds1 was great though giving him lots of hugs & kisses this afternoon because 'ds2 might be sad from his accident'.

I do need to go & finish an essay now but will come back, read through everything & comment properly.

Well, Modern and any other Apprentice watchers, there's no one to love now Howard's gone. I suppose Kate, but I have gone off her a bit recently...Mind you, should be schadenfreude aplenty in tonight's episode. I hope nasty Debra gets hauled over the coals. The interviewers are usually rather unpleasant and unfair, as I recall.

Verso, I misled you when I said I was working in the gardening as I wasn't gardening, just doing writing work on a rug! Whatever the opposite of green fingers is, I have got 'em. DP is trying to grow tomatoes, peppers and aubergines on the roof terrace (he planted them today) but I am greenfly in human form. How was the retail therapy?

JJ - we are about to put DD's cot up on the mezzanine gallery in our bedroom. It's the only other space we have. I feel a bit guilty too as she won't see us in the mornings, but the bedroom is so cramped we just can't stand it any more. I figure she sees a lot of us in the day - particularly as she is not a fan of daytime naps!

Kayz - sounds exciting about the car! I haven't had a lesson for so long, I think I have forgotten how to drive. Groan...

Arti, KMP and anyone else who fancies joining in, I will be in the Orangery at Kensington Gardens from midday tomorrow. I will wait until one o'clock and amuse myself with coffee and the like and if no one's come by then, I will return to my flat!

Summer, it is good to hear from you. I feel so guilty I have been so rubbish with the fatties thread. I don't appear to be losing any weight but the exercise must be paying off a bit as I am now fitting into a size 14. Just about. Amazing. To be thrilled about getting into 14s

Effie, your pooey morning sounded very trying indeed. I was thinking today about the logistics of zooming around with two children, and realised that were I to have another, my zooming days may well start to stutter to a close. It's just about possible with one, if you are bloody minded (I'm certainly that) but not sure it is with two. Hmm.

Right, back to the grindstone.

LadyT, what about Yasmina? I quite like her! & I love the interview episode, think James is in for a bit of a rough ride!

I'll be watching the Apprentice - good practice for my interview tomorrow . Retail therapy was a bit pants (not that I bought any) because I was working on some stuff for tomorrow and dithered a bit and then didn't have time to go all the way to Oxford Street and ended up pootling listlessly round a few shops in Clapham and going home empty-handed. Sigh.

WISH I could get into a 14, LadyT. (I suppose I ought to actually try doing something about my mahoosiveness at some point! But as I'm smaller than I was before we TTC I haven't been motivated yet... yes, I was really big before!!)

FWIW I have been known to use jars and Plum foods and DD2 also has a dummy (but never at night). She seems quite peachyfine to me . I have a book a friend gave me which is lovely on the subject of weaning - says "purees are all very well but one eye must be kept on convenience" ... and I do remember the agony of spending hours cooking up batches of lovely puree/mash just for DD1 to decide she didn't like whatever it was...

Oooh, I'm not sure, Tilly, as I think she is bossy without being all that bright (mind you, that's 90% of 'em on there) but I think she is probably very good at what she does and I always like her dark skinny jeans that she wears when they are mooching around in the penthouse, I think they look fab on her.

Shame about the shopping, Verso. Hope tomorrow goes well

LadyT - yes I've gone off Kate as well. Tilly - I do like Yasmina - she's prob my fave now.
BTW there is a 8pm Apprentice programme also on tonight.

Hello everyone,

lal Sounds like you were a victim of your LO choosing the wrong time to explode too but just from the other end!

veggie I came to the York meet up because it is only a few hours from Manchester and DH sometimes works at the office there. It would be fun to meet if you are over this way again.

ladyT I know how you feel re the garden privacy. We have an odd garden arrangement where there is a unmade lane between the yard and the garden. The gardens are tiny and you can't sit out there and read a book or whatever without neighbours wanting to chat. It is nice that people are friendly but sometimes I want them to bugger off so I can read in peace .

verso When do they let you know about the job? Got my fingers crossed for you.

effie What a dreadful series of poo incidents. Hope the cherry coke had the desired effect.

Can't remember who was asking about the bumbo tray, WG? You just ease the tray off from the central stem thing and unclip the bottom to release it. DD really enjoys her bumbo now she has a tray to bang.

I don't like the interview episode. They are too mean. No one really acts like that in an interview surely?

All this weaning talk is very interesting, keep it up ladies! It's really good to hear how things are going. We may as well hold out till 6 months now, only 2 weeks to go. We're going for BLW mainly with the odd puree. I have a sudden enthusiasm for purees though as I got a tuppaware type set thing from Ikea yesterday and it has some teeny tiny sized tubs that are crying out for a puree!

Goodevening, we have been at DS1's school BBQ. They have BBQ's each term during the warmer months, and wine & cheese evenings in the coolers months. It's a way of getting the parents and everyone together as a social thing as well as families who are thinking of sending their kids to the school to come and have a look at the school and find out from the parents what it's like. It was quite good fun but now we are having a bit of trouble getting the boys to bed as they are quite excited.

Also I forgot to tell you earlier we had a fall off the bed incident last night. Seems to be a bit of a theme with this thread at the moment so don't feel so bad. DH had gone into DS1's room to sleep because DS2 was a bit unsettled with the heat so was kicking him. DH put a pillow next to DS2 to stop him rolling out of bed but somehow he wiggled around it and fell off the bed below the pillow. The first I knew there was a loud thud and then a wwwwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!! He actually fell between the bed and the nursing chair. There isn't much room there and the base of the nursing chair is quite hard and has sharp bits (I know as I have kicked it and it's hurts). Somehow he didn't hit the chair?! Luckily DH put the pillow where he did, if DS2 had rolled straight off that part of the bed his head would have hit the Maroccan chest I use as a side table. We have now put brought the body pillow back up so if DH leaves the bed again he will put that beside DS2.

Oh no VG glad ds2 ok! I whacked ds's head on my laptop screen last night (how, I know!)I was undressing him, and he wouldn't bend his arm so I may have lifted his arm up a little high and he almost did a little flip and really really slightly knocked into the laptop sitting next to him on the bed, but I think he only cried due to my reaction as I was scared of what dh would say who witnessed the whole thing! (only scared as I always say he is the one who is very 'ahem', casual, when it comes to baby care! dh's exact words were... "nice one, you would have ripped me a new **hole if I did that" I would have too....(note to self - lighten up -
I'm watching The Apprentice too - (have paused it as the phone had rung, and now I'm on mn!!) Must get back to it, but at least I can FF through the ads now!
Anyway, I will come along and meet you Lady, barring any unforeseen hold ups! I will text you if I am late / something comes up! can you make it too Mom and Arti?
Right back to The Apprentice....
Good luck Verso, and funny poo story Effie!

Does nobody like Lorraine? If she would wash her hair then she would be my fav. She is scatty and a bit odd but actually quite good at the job - I can see a tinsy bit of me in her!

I will come along tomorrow LadyT. I will have to leave at 1.20ish but that gives us just over an hour. I too will text if there is a prob. Looking forward to it.

DD2 ate 6 mini rice cakes today. She is a rice cake fiend. They are surprisingly sticky, messy things. She has bits of dried rice puff stuck all over her now. I have also discovered that if its pureed it has to sweet potato, she has hated every other puree. If its solid it has to be a rice cake, everything else is dropped instantly. So just like me, my girl is into her starches - poor thing - my life long obsession with carbs can be seen on my thighs and in one of my chins.

Ahhh...no Apprentice for me as I am forcing myself to bed as last night was an ALL TIME low. Awake every 30 minutes from 10:30 - 5:00. We are trying him in his cot instead of the Amby hammock and clearly he is not best pleased...and maybe still a bit jet-lagged. So I have decided to ditch the dummy too because the nights can't get much worse, so may as well get it all over with at once! We are trying shhh/patting and pick up/put down a la Baby Whisperer.

Will also have to miss the Orangery tomorrow because A) I am afraid to leave the house without a dummy and B) I need to stay close to home to try to get things back on track.

Am steeling myself for a shocker tonight, but hopefully within a few days we'll be in a better place and someday I'll actually manage to make a Mumsnet meet up?!

Right. DD in bed (managed to settle herself from being put down pretty awake after her last feed ), DH doing the washing up (triple ) and I have the laptop. And lovely to see so many people after the dry patch last week.

veggie sorry to hear you feel DS2 is getting a raw deal in terms of mummy time. I'm sure he knows you love him just as much and now that he's got you all to himself especially.

kayz the shoe measuring thing - how does that work? Do they take your cash before measuring up? Can't you get them to measure then have an urgent phone call and have to leave?

indith did I read right, you bought a house in Wales?! How massively exciting. Hope the sleep situtation starts to improve for you soon, I'm sure dd is juyst playing tricks on us

trace hope the nits are gone soon [scratch scratch] I used to get them loads as a teenager as I had long hair that was quite thick. I found it oddly pleasing scraping the little eggs out with my nails. Is there any news about your friend with the overdue baby? Fingers crossed.

JB oh dear to your poo story! They do know how to time them to perfection... Glad you had a lovely trip, sawing the log sounds a bit mad but I guess that's probably what other people would think about British traditions like tying tin cans to the going away car.

Spot - booo to that rather tactless letter, but it may just be terminology. DH said 'psychosocial support' is about flagging up to HVs to give extra encouragement to people that they're doing a great job and trying to help when they're feeling stretched a bit thin - as you have been what with dealing with all of poor T's problems. So it's more just telling the HV that they may need to give you some extra help because your baby has a few more needs than others, than suggesting you have any psychological issues. Blimey, when WG and I met you it was clear you're doing a brilliant job, but you're having a more exhausting time of it than a lot of us.

trace and others - re weaning, I was advised by the BF counsellor friend that at this stage solids (whatever form you give them) are as an extra on top of milk feeds, so we shouldn't be cutting down at all. Once the nippers are getting hungrier and finishing whatever solids they're offered, they might decide themselves that they don't want as much milk, but it's not a case of swapping one for t'other at this stage. So not sure where that Jo Frost advice comes from!

Lady - will FB mail you about the Henley tickets. Am very impressed that you have a mezzanine - that was one of our pretend names for dd whenever anyone asked before she was born - Sigismund for a boy, Mezzanine for a girl. And Jocasta if we have another daughter

zj glad you had a great holiday, what was your secret for keeping things peaceful during the flight? We're off to canadia at the end of the month to visit my brother and his family (they're expecting a nother baby in November ) and it's 9 hours each way

NJAN and others - shall we say Thursday 18th? Would anyone else like to make the trip up? If the weather's crappy I'll host as my house is v close to the train station. Not much space but hey, babies aren't that big...! NJAn hope the nursery trial went ok.

WG/lal we have the trip trap, lots of people I know have said they found it brilliant and we thought well, it will last for years so in the magic of cost per usage it comes out at quite a good price, we got it from Kiddicare as a package with the baby bits, we went for the harness as she tries to stand up and get herself out when she's run out of patience. Word of advice - if you do get the baby set and cushion and harness, don't assemble the chair first as you'll discover each of these extra bits needs you to unscrew the side and refit the seaty bit and then retighten. This caused me to swear a great deal and DH to have his first ever proper top of the voice yell at me of our whole marriage So best avoid this if you can!

lal/veggie/verso/kimberley/ anyone else having PG scares - am vvvv impressed that you're getting that far, we're still in the middle of the no shag desert. I just don't feel sexy, and whenever we get to bed time I just want to sleep

MoM sounds like you had a fabby trip, sleep problems aside. Hope you can get things sorted out. What are your secrets for the flight? (see above...!)

verso great news about the interviews, will be keeping fingers crossed for you

kimberley what a dreadful sounding class. Horribly judgey lot of people, it's not as if you're giving him a mars bar to suck on

effie sorry about the poo story. I can share one which will hopefully make you feel better as it's all my fault dd had been in one nappy all night so this morning her bot needed a bit of airing. Put her on a blanket in the living room with one of those mats for when your waters break under her so she could have a kick about and freshen up. Lo and behold she did a wee, but I just moved her across to a dry bit of mat and went to get nappy from bathroom. Came back and there was a huge runny poo so dashed for a mus to mop up the worst solid bits, came back and there was another huge runny poo. So my lesson is learned - do not put baby on rug unless they've had a poo already!

veggie i did giggle at the thought of DS shoving a dummy in his eye!

modernlove blimey - 10 til 7! you miracle worker! We're leaving it another couple of nights to see if the better sleeping is because of us being out of the room rather than just sheer luck, and then will have to work out what to do next.

Final thing before I go - a good friend has just had a baby (about 4 weeks ago) and is planning to do a coast to coast walk with her DH when baby is about 4 months, putting her in a sling. Is it just me or are they mad? I didn't want to sound discouraging, but they don't seem to understand that a 4 monther will need so much more time and looking after than it surely is possible to give when you're out walking for 8 hours a day?

I agree JJ, they would be better doing it now, lots of time close to mummy at 4 weeks is great. Not to mention better for their backs at this stage. However, I can say they will work it out. When I was pregnant and just after DS1 was born DH and I thought we could still continue to have cycle touring holidays. We thought we could just plonk DS1 into a cycle trailer and off we'd go cycling around a country (we thought holland because it's flat and so easy to pull the trailer around) for up to 7 hours a day! It didn't take us long to realize that babies need more than just a boob every now and then and might get quite miffed about being stuck in the baby trailer all day. Funnily enough we are planning a cycling trip to Holland in August. However, we will just camp in one place, not touring with all our gear on the bikes, and just go for a little ride for no more than 3 hours every 2nd day at the most.