Dec 08 mums - from rolling to sitting and everything inbetwean

[waitinggirl]

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

ladies... I have a pushchair / buggy dilemma, I have a very very nice Out-n-About nipper 360 in perfect as new condition which I love and apparently is perfect if you don't have children close together - or if you only have one young child, but since I am planning on another one very soon, I know I should have bought the P&T's sport with the double attachment Do you think I should sell it now while it's new and i'd get more for it and ge the P&T? or use it until I need the P&T's and accept that I will practically have to give it away at that point? I'd almost consider a straight swap with someone - given that I'd probably have to take a more used buggy in return... Thoughts??

I would try to sell it and then get a P&T's. It is a fabulous single so it would be great to use until DC2 comes.

"DC2" aaahhh!! sounds funny / scary!

I am really broody!!! It is driving me mad!!!

PMK - If you are happy with your buggy I would stick with it for now. I have the P&T and TBH I am not that happy with it. It keeps getting punctures (which is a problem lots of friends have had with it too), also I do not think the smaller seat is that hard wearing. Its heavy too and does not fold small. As you are not TTC yet you probably have at least a year until DC2 arrives and that is ages to enjoy your buggy. When you get to the point of needing the P&T there may be offers going (I got mine on offer).

Kayz - I saw your thread on needing a cure for your broodiness! No advice on a cure I am afraid. Although you could try watching the ITV documentary on children who never sleep. It was on two nights ago and featured one girl who has only ever needed about 3 hours sleep in every 24 hours . Even those three hours are not in one chunk! Her parents were on their knees with exhaustion. It put teh fear of God into me that a DC3 might be like that. There was also a thread on MN last week about having three kids where quite a few people said they were struggling... So if you want cures those are my suggestions. They did not really work for me though, I keep going all gooey over little babies!

Trace - I hope P is feeling better. Its so sad when they are poorly. N is just getting over a cold which features the sweetest snuffling I have ever heard.

Right, better go, I have DD1 with me today and she is standing on the front step shouting "Mummy, do you know that cows' breasts are called udders?" .

I just want to put it on hold for a year. It's driving me insane.

I'd go for another now if DH would let me

Probably because he's the full-time daddy so I've got it easier than he does. That's my excuse

I think DS might be cutting a tooth. Or something. He keeps waking up and has really red cheeks and seems in pain. I've just given him some baby panadol though and he seems to be doing a little better, fingers crossed...

cambridge ladies - end of the week is good for me, too for coming to cambs. means i can then drive onto my dad's in suffolk for the weekend.

Just bookmarking and will write more later. But just had to say Arti you DD1's comment has got me in the giggles. How old is she?

Not caught up properly yet! Just back from a wonderful day at the wildlife park with DC's and DH. DS just having bedtime feed, my legs are killing me - I must have walked miles! But DD still running round like a loon and she walked all the way too. Where do they get here energy from????

Right boys are asleep and I'm sitting down about to chill for the evening. I have recorded the Michael Mackintyre show from sat night and looking forward to a giggle. Just put my tea on but won't be ready for a bit so just catching up in the interim.

The DS' and I got back from London this afternoon, DH has gone onto Milton Keynes as he has a public speaking course that he is doing through work on for today & tomorrow. He is doing it with 2 other men that work in other parts of his company. As preparation he had to do two 5 minute presentation last night to present today. After doing them the tutor gives them feedback. One had to be of a personal subject and the 2nd was a professional presentation. For his personal one he had to talk about one of his personal achievements. He decided to talk about facilitating DS2's homebirth and catching him. He was worried that as he was presenting to men they might find it a bit boring or even a bit too personal. As it turned out his was the least personal. One guy talked about surviving testicular cancer, twice. The other guy talked about his two DD's being his greatest achievement, but he didn't actually get to finish his because he burst into tears 2 mins into his presentation! How sweet is that! DH said he also has a tattoo of us LO's names on his chest, so they were comparing tattoos. Although, DH still has put DS2 on his yet.

DH is also a little stressed because his company is putting in cost cutting measures. They are making everyone take 12 days unpaid leave over the next 4 months. He isn't so annoyed about the loss of money but that he and his team have do much work on over the next 4 months they don't know how they are going to fit the days in and what their client will think when they have to put off or even turn down work. I think the company hasn't really thought it through. Most of the company is low on contracts so they feel that not having people sitting around being paid is helpful. But DH's section is doing very different work. They are a smaller company that was taken over by this bigger company. Basically if DH's section don't work for every £1 they save they will lose about £100 of work (this may be a slight exaggeration). Also they seem unwilling to reduce his teams targets in line with the fewer days he is working. The targets are linked his bonus so that is really annoying. We are just going to assume there will be n bonus this year.

Kayz you seem to have the opposite problem. How can they expect him to work effectively with no days off. I assume he is getting overtime, can he take some of it as extra days off rather than paid, so he could have a longweekend at home with you and the boys?

Oh I meant to say about the furniture, rearrange it. Oh home is continually evolving. I know I will get it exactly how I like it then we will move to Australia.

Bisou lovely to see more of you on here. Where do you rehearse? Is it a long trek into rehearsals. I could happily catch up with you when in town. However I lice the south of Sydney. My brother lives at Cronulla and I have friends down south so I'm sure I could do some trips down for a catch up when I'm home. I'm quite a mobile thing, I like getting about.

PMK it would be nice to meet you one day, also when I finally go home we can do Aussie meet ups when your over. Have you planned another trip? I would love to go home again between now and late next year when we go home for good. My aunt, mums sister, is quite unwell with a terminal illness, and may unfortunately pass away soon. I'm not that close to her but she has always been around so that is a bit sad. But my mum is obviously quite upset and I wish I could surprise her with a visit to cheer her up. But I would need to take both boys really as DH could take that much time off work and DS1 is full price for the fare so would be a bit expensive.

Oh gotta go DH is calling.

No Veggie No overtime, no extra days off or anything.

What! How does that work? These companies are taking the P with staff pay and working hours because they know their staff will just be grateful to have a job.

Evening everyone,

ladyT and trace Thanks for your sympathetic words on my annoyance with DH. I'm happy to report my anger has now subsided .

ladyT Your description of how your DD goes to sleep is just like my DD. She reaches out and strokes the face of her gloworm. It's very cute! I have to leave the room too or else she stays awake.

trace Lovely dress. They have some pretty but simple white cardies at M&S. I wore a fascinator to one of the weddings I went to recently, and it looked nice but not over the top. DH got rather mixed up and called it an interester!

Poor P, hope she feels better soon.

SL We haven't started weaning yet either! DD is 6 months on Monday though so I need to get organised. When are you starting?

ZJ I understand your cot conundrum completely. Getting DD to sleep in her cot during the day is hit and miss so I certainly don't have the answers, but I try and differentiate for DD whether I'm putting her in her cot to sleep/nap, or for play whilst I shower or whatever. I put her at different ends of the cot facing the opposite way, with her mobile for play and her gloworm for sleep. As I say it doesn't always work but like you I don't want to make a massive issue out of it because she goes to sleep well in the evening.

Right, DH is away so it's chocolate, heat magazine and an early night for me .

hiya,
DH out cycling so I am overdosing on old episodes of come dine with me with one eye and on here with the other, whilst consuming some beer!
I have been feeling really tired all day and saying I will go to sleep early but now I am not tired, typical.

veggie that is crap about your DH's work. Is it legal to make people take unpaid leave and then not alter their targets to reflect this? Sounds dubious to me!

And kayz how does that work? Surely he must get paid overtime or time off in lieu for working his day off?

Jolly DS is not 6 months for a couple of weeks yet. He is not that interested in eating yet, I made some purees for the freezer today and could not resist giving him a taste. He yanked it into his mouth when i offered it, pulled a face, appeared to swallow it but then most of it reappeared! And he didn't seem interested in finishing off the spoon.
I am not going to push him, we are on holiday the week after he is 6 months, so in some ways if he is not weaned/weaning then this would be convenient. However, he has started waking up more at night, and is hungry when he does (he guzzles and goes back to sleep), so I am thinking maybe he might be ready soon. Anyway going to talk to the HV tomorrow at the clinic even though i don't really respect what they say as it seems to be a lottery round here, one friend was told, "you should should should wait til 6 months" (which is fair enough), another was told to go ahead and start to wean at 16 weeks! (unimpressed with this advice!). I have already decided I think my take on it, whcih is that although I am not going to do BLW I am happy to take it easy and not push DS and see what he wants and not worry too much. At least to begin with.

Oh and cambridge meet up...I could do this friday if we decided to do a mini one jj and njan or the end of the week is good for me in July any time.

Home alone here too JB but don't have chocolate...better sort that out for tomorrow night.

SL I think it's better to wait til there def ready even if it's way after 6 months than to start to early. First few months are just practice whether you do BLW or purees.

JJ we are BLW similar to you, it's probably more whatever is close give it over for DS2 to shove in his mouth rather than specially preparing anything. So far he's tried strawberries that are supposed to be a no no, pizza express bready things wheat and probably too much salt, orange segments, citrus, and pasta sauce covered penne, way too much salt and processed wheat! Oh well he seemed to like them all. DS2 is very different to DS1, DS1 seemed to be uninterested in anything but boobie milk until he was about 9 months but DS2 is desperate to put anything chewable in his mouth and gets quite angry if we don't give it to him quickly enough.

it's a mmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee post.

where has my sleeping baby gone? from about 6 weeks - 16 weeks she woke once at night. regular as clockwork. tonight she went to sleep at 7.10, woke at 9.20, 1.30, 3.15 - and now i can't sleep. i can't work out whether she is hungry, unable to self-settle, having a bad dream etc. i am more sleep deprived now than at the beginning. and because i'm no longer a "new mum", i feel i can't ask for help (wouldn't know who to ask anyway) - dh is working his nuts off (last 2 mornings has had to be up at 6am and gets back at 8pm). he is trying to be nice to me - an hour ago in bed, he said he would tickle my back to get me to go back to sleep, but after a minute his hand stopped moving - he had fallen asleep. and while i am pleased that he is getting some sleep i am also FURIOUS that he is getting some sleep. normally he will come home in time for bath, but the last 3 nights i have done it on my own because of his schedule. and then he reminded me that he is out late tonight as well. am beginning to get a slight taste of singlemumdom - dear lord, how do they do it?

i am now tempted to start solids, even though i hadn't wanted to and loads of people have said that is a myth about starting solids making them sleep better. i had wanted to wait until 6 months (only 2 weeks away) as she doesn't seem hungry after a feed, is only mildly interested in my food, etc, but am now so desperate to try anything.

i feel pretty pants. and pretty sorry for myself.

and this afternoon she was really tricky - the last 3 hours of her waking day felt interminable. and today we have a swimming lesson planned, and nothing else. and i am feeling a bit scared of her and panicking that i won't know what to do with her or how to calm her down/get her to sleep if i need to. i know it's just one of those things and i just need some proper sleep, but sitting at a laptop with tears streaming down my face at 4.54am isn't going to help.

Morning,

SL No he gets nothing. They only pay overtime if you work over 40 hours and by working yesterday he only went up to 29 hours this week. They won't give him an extra day off, they don't do things like that. He just gets no day off.

Oh dear WG.... this exact thing happened to me.... Remember I thought it was jetlag, but then it went on well beyond that. I have started solids 2 weeks ago and he is 6 months today. For me it hasn;t made any difference, and he is still waking at night. The dummy is putting him back to sleep however, so wish I could get him off that. Only thing I haven't done is give him the solids for his last feed? I usually give him solids at 2pm-feed-ish, and then some milk to follow (of which he doesn't seem to want as much) but from today I'm going to give him some solids later in the day too - providing it doesn't put him off his milk intake. It's not fun is it - I feel worse now than the beginning too (since he slept through at 6 weeks!) He started waking at exactly 4.5 months. Perhaps teething?
Will she nap today so you can both get an hour or two before swimming? What time is the lesson?

oh and dh does that back rub / fall asleep after 30 secs thing too... it turns into me moving his hand for him - yeah that's relaxing - hopeless...
I'm dealing with the bloody mobile phone going off still too, and the flashy, blinking light on it - why is it SO hard to turn the bloody thing onto vibrate / silent and put the screen face down? WHY????? I'm confiscating it tonight....

WG Since DS2 has been having solids he has been waking during the night!! It is bloody horrible as I am so used to him sleeping 9-7 every night.

Commiserations from this corner on the waking. Last three mornings has been up for the day at 5am - solids have made no difference. Have read so much on sleep it's doing my head in. Sounds like it's one of those developmental things but it's still really frustrating, totally identify with your being unable to ask for help as you're not a "new mum" any more.
Do you want to meet up today WG for a caffeinated beverage or owt?
I'm beginning to suspect T is a bit bored now -he has his gym which he's basically grown out of, his tippi toes which is great but for half hour max, he's not really into the baby einstein vids (he's more of a mover than a sitter and watcher). My latest theory is that he's not sleeping well at night as he's not doing enough in the day. He likes swimming but we can't do that every day! What do your babes do?

I think you might have something there spot.... On the days that ds goes swimming or is awake and active a lot, he def sleeps better at night (despite what all the books say)

Hi WG hope you got back to sleep. My DS2 is doing this too, as did DS1 I seem to remember. Last night DS2 woke quite a few times. The way I deal with it is to let him feed to settle if he needs to and then stick him back down again. If I am really tired/early in the morning, I let him sleep in bed with me. But I do feed lying down in bed so neither of us really wake up. This will pass, she will sleep, and it will seem like a distant memory soon.

I can sympathise with interminable days. One thing I would say is that I didnt follow any bedtime routine with DS2 and I dont think it matters too much. i rememebr being terrified of not giving DS1 a bath every night in case it meant he didnt know it was bedtime. DS2 gets bathed only ~twice a week with DS1 and it doesnt matter. I decided when DS2 was born I couldnt do that whole "bath every night" thing as I just found it a real chore tbh. (He does get a good wipe every night though instead!). If you find some things a chore, give yourself a break, it wont hurt.

I'd say today do something that you really enjoy doing, and let DD watch you doing it - whether that is window shopping or gardening, or baking a cake (I find very theraputic), reading a chapter of a book, or whatever. Then it doesnt feel like your whole life is about someone elses needs.

DH and I had a fight last night so I drunk some gin. Was a bit weird to feel a bit pissed for the first time in about 3 years Feel very heavy headed this morning Gotta go, DS1 and DS2 talking to themselves in bed...

Sympathies on the non-sleeping babies, no suggestions I'm afraid, just struggling through as well but I agree that solids haven't made any difference! Even giving ds2 some tea at around 5-ish hasn't changed anything!

spot ikwym about frustration, ds2 is the same. Doesn't want to be in his chair, in his bumbo, on the mat, held. Have to say I shouted at him yesterday 'I don't know what you want so just stop grumbling' . I think he wants to sit up/start crawling & is getting annoyed that he can't.

kayz that sounds rubbish of dh's work, he has to give up his day off & gets nothing?! Like veggie said, they probably think everyone is just grateful to have a job that they don't care how they treat them

veggie likewise dh's job! Surely they should evaluate each team individually & then decide about the forced leave etc.

Have to admit, I have no broody feelings at all! I've really struggled going to 2 & don't want to repeat the experience going to 3.

I'm also thinking about going back to work. I've had 3yrs at home & tbh am getting a little bored . But at the same time, I can't help feeling guilty for not giving ds2 the same time I've given ds1.

Anyway, need to get ds1 ready for nursery, back later