Sept 08: They're under starters orders .... and they're off .... well, some of them!

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

I thought I'd use this title as not all of our delicious babies are on the move yet, including mine

when I say powdered, I mean in flour form, rather than as polenta dough

DS1 got his next belt at karate today! Proud mummy moment!

Toby very unsettled so no more MN for me tonight....

I assumed it did but could only find it in the dough form. And I did also suspect that cornmeal and polenta were the same thing.
The shop assistants didn't help either. They didn't know what it was and looked at me as if I'd asked them to find something like cavier for me.
So do you know where I would find it?

Oh and to top it all I've had Jingle Bells in my head all day and it is driving me insane

Poor effy, i'm glad she is on the mend.

I'm still bf about 3/4 times a day, i have no plans to stop any time soon, i dont want my last baby to grow up to fast

Well he is growing up to fast we were at my ils at the weekend, mil brought him a toddle truck, he went straight up to it and pushed it across the room

He never stops talking, he can say mama, dada, his new word is nana. my dd was the same, walked and talked early, my ds1 walked and talked alot later tho.

He was sleeping through the night untill 2 nights ago, he has started to wake once or twice in the night, i think it is teeth.

My dd had her 1st visit to big school today, it went well but she would not let go of my hand,

oh my goodness lolly your son is a genius! If I hadn't seen him when he was still quite small I'd be questioning if he really was born in Sept and not June!

Sure dd will get used to big school in time for Sept.

Have just sent you meglet and hopefully a facebook message. Anyone else in Hampshire area want to join our meet up?

Happy 9 month birthday to Baby Ponygirl and Baby Starlight!

We decided to get real tonight with putting DD to bed. She actually fell asleep in the car on the way home from nursery at 6pm (a 5 minute drive ). But I thought, no, we'll do this right so woke her up, gave her a bath, bottle etc. She did her usual hilarious 'I'm at a party' thing, but we finally got her to sleep at 7:35 pm. Not bad! A couple of jiggles and cries since then but nothing too bad. Fingers crossed!

We think that DD may have chickenpox. How likely is this? She has red pimply spots on her bum. Strange place isn't it? If they still look the same in the morning I'll get her to the doctor (again - I'll just put the car on auto drive ).

Hi all - Effy's a little older (will be 10m on 20th June) but is also cruising and speaking.

She can say dada, mama and nana too. I wasn't sure if I was imagining the nana but yesterday evening when she had her supper she was saying 'nana nana' at me and then opening her mouth for the nana.

She's been cruising for about a fortnight and nursery keep telling me stories about her suddenly popping her head up in unexpected places. She's still really small though so can't quite reach some good cruising sites.

Ponymum agree with Starlight chicken pox does proliferate really quickly so if she's got loads more spots this morning she's probably got it.

It is still just a few red pimples on her bum, so can I assume it's not chickenpox? I was surprised there weren't more this morning after what Starlight said, especially as I remembered during the night that there was a notice at nursery saying there had been some cases of chickenpox. I will keep inspecting her to see if any more develop.

I am feeling a bit bereft today as DH has gone to London for 2 days. It's not that he's away, it's just that his trips like this always remind me of the tube bombings (he was on the Edgeware Road tube when it was bombed ). It is a strange comfort to me that there is a tube strike! I really don't want DD to lose her daddy.

DS has also been cruising for a while now, but then he's been used to using his legs from being in the walker from about 5 months! Started off on his bedroom floor using his cot bars to walk along and around his cot. Thought he wouldn't bother with crawling because of that, but he's doing really well with crawling. Can do the length of the house without stopping! (our house is short)

Nappy changes are now a huge battle. He can flip midair (while I'm holding his feet up). I'm having to pin him down, wipe bottom, get clean nappy into position, then do everything else on the fly.

ponymum DS also had spots on his bum when he got his rash. Probably something mild she picked up at nursery.

we have the flipping mid-air too and the thump of the head and cry when I flip her back (ooops)

M has now started pointing, is this a development milestone? She started doing it with the childminder (typically) when she was at a toddler group and saw my next door neighbour who she knew well.

Ponymum sorry you're feeling low.

My DD1 had chicken pox when she was 1, she only got 7 spots and never noticed!! I'm hoping that M will be getting them next week as we were in contact with a poxy child over half-term.

M is constantly chatting but nothing directed. We get mamamamamama, bababababa, dadadadadda, nanananana, and lots of really cute sounds.

wow lolly your ds is miles ahead of my dd. she can only blow raspberries . We have a had a few 'raspberry' conversations, until i realised i probably shouldn't encourage them too much and try and get her to say mama, dada etc.

I have had a rotten morning trying to get my laptop set up for printing and it's been such a faff . Poor dd ended up having to go in her highchair with a pile of finger food so i could concentrate without having to keep scooping her up each time she bumped her little head on something.

ponymum ds had chicken pox at 8 months, he was grizzly for 24 hours but had very few spots. In fact it took 2 days before I even noticed them they were so faint and not many of them, GP confirmed it was chicken pox but did mention that babies who get mild cases can still get it when they're older.

Flipping: No
Crawling: No
Cruising (!): No
Talking: No

My baby is still very low maintenance

lol hopefully. Make the most of it. It won't last

ds2 flips too. Only thing that stops him is giving him the car keys. And even then we have to be very fast.

Yest I made the silly mistake of leaving him downstairs sitting in middle of living room floor while I went up to get ds1 up from nap. Sent ds1 downstairs, sat on loo for a poo, then "muuuummmmmyyyyy Andrew's spilt your water everywhere"
Couldn't do a lot tho so just had to poo as quick as I could!
He'd pulled himself up at coffee table, poured my water and ds1s juice all over everything inc himself and my hand written in a pen that ran thankyou letters for ds1s birthday presents. He was quite happy though plying in the mess!

Manic day at work today with some horrid children- 1 shone a torch in my face and was very rude when I tried to take it off him for shining it at someone else. Off home now.

Oh god, the flipping when nappy changing drives me nuts. M gets pissed off, I get pissed off and it's always the poo nappies when he flips about the most.

debi - I guess little shites are one of the downsides of teaching, you must be the master of biting your tongue!

For those little ones who are crusing, how do they get into the standing position?

Debithescot I have just laughed & laughed at you sharing stories including when you have a poo!!!!It must be the babies' influence!

sorry that was maybe a bit much tmi it was an important detail though in my really not that exciting story.

ILTMIMI unfortunately for that little sod I've not got back into practice of biting my tongue and he did get a bit of a bollocking.

DS2 gets to standing by stretching up when sitting, pulling himself into a kneeling position then up to standing.

How pathetic is this? I've just really hurt my hand while reading a book! Was holding a really thick book in 1 hand while holding ds2's milk bottle in other and now from my thumb and pinky holding the book open my hand really, really hurts. And I've got a shooting pain up my arm! I can't believe how sore it is, going to be embarrassing tomorrow trying to explain my injury if it still hurts!

C has the beginnings of a tooth at last after months of drooling & chomping on her fingers.

She still can't roll,so nappy changes are still very easy - in fact she often helpfully holds her feet,making it even easier to clean her up

Sleeping - she's been waking at least twice a night for ages - did have 1 good night the other night with just 1 waking but unfortunately my ex decided to come knocking on the door at 1.30am (when he woke dd1 who didn't go back to sleep til 3) ,4.15am, 6.30am, so sadly I didn't get much benefit This morning she thought 4.30 was morning - I gave her toys to play with & dozed beside her til she was ready to settle down again, then she slept til nearly 9, but dd1 was up around 7. I am shattered all the time. Though my fault too as I stay up late enjoying some time to myself.

ponymum dd1 once had some spots mainly in the nappy area, then 1 on her finger and 2 on her foot,and it was hand foot and mouth disease. Otherwise might be just any old virus.

sunshine - how scary with effy being unwell,hope she's OK now

Sunshine Glad to hear effy is doing better. I had croup as a baby and my mum said it was really scary at the time.

Robyn can tell when we have the sky planner on and thinks we are going to watch Blues Clues, DS's favourite show at the moment. She gets really excited until we put something else on, then she turns away and plays.

She loves Meg and Mog as well

Still not crawling. She can only go 5 mins at the most on her tummy, she is pushing against her feet tho.

splish how are you managing on your own these days? Does your ex p see the children? Did you get your house sorted out?

I would love a baby that doesn't flip over at changing time, dd is a PITA when we do it. She managed it with a icky full nappy earlier and had poo halfway up her back and on her feet, pah!

ILTMIMI DS can pull himself up using his cot bars. But the rest of the time he's only cruising because I've propped him up against the sofa.

He also likes to run while I'm holding his hands - it's hard on the back, am waiting for his arms to get longer so I don't have to bend down so much.

splish and meglet am in awe of both you coping without a DP. I have DH and also my mum helping out for half the week. And only one DC. Can't imagine doing it by myself with two.

Those of you who've had two under two. Tell me, would you recommend? Have been reading a couple of 'it's awful for the first 6 months, then it gets easier' threads. Making me wonder if I should be thinking about a bigger gap so I can enjoy DS on his own a bit more. But part of me wants to give him a sibling close in age so he's got a playmate.

DG - I think that any age gap has its pros & cons. My age gap was 2.9, and that seems good in many ways - i had ages with dd1 to enjoy her.She's out of nappies, can entertain herself well as very imaginative, though does want me to join in all the time. She's old enough to help out with dd2 - likes to feed her, gets me nappies, but also tries to lug her about a bit - dd2 adores her,and I'm sure they're still close enough that they'll be good playmates. I don't think there's any "ideal" gap or anything.

Meglet - tbh I did most things anyway, so if only I could actually get ex to leave me alone, like would be better. It's a long and complicated story that I talk about under another name on the EA thread. The house is not sorted because there's no money to sort it and I have no will/energy / drive to get up and paint in the evening. Must motivate myself! My bed is broken now, so my table cum sofa cum bed, is now a mattress on the floor! It is a bit like a bedsit within a 3 bedroom house. The good news is that dd1 can bounce to her hearts content now that there's no ominous creakng from the bed

Meglet - dd2 likes to feel around her nappy area when the nappy is removed, so if the poo is soft I have to clean up any poo within reach very quickly!

Does teething make poo go softer? Usually she has very firm poo, but last few days it's been much softer & messier - tmi!

splish sorry to hear everything still isn't going smoothly with your ex p. I'll have a look at the other thread. Totally understand where you are coming from when you say you did pretty much everything even when he was there . My family help me out all the time now and life is a little easier as I can rely on them and they are happy to help, unlike ex p. However in the last 10 days we have agreed what days he will see the dc's (5 days a week, inc 3 bathnights) and its going well so far. I think someone has given him a bollocking and he's grown up a bit.

digital I have a 22 month gap between ds and dd. I fully expected the first 6 months to be crap, which it generally was. But I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel and now dd is getting a little personality and moving around they can play together. TBH I find the whole newborn period really gruelling so wanted to get it done with as soon as possible. Its strange to think I'll have 2 toddlers by xmas .

Meglet- I'm the last 1 to post on there, but you're a brave woman if you're prepared to wade through that thread, it's so long now. Anyway, am getting some support from WA, which is helpful.I'm also planning to go to a Homestart family group next week for people with dc under 5 who live with stress - the kids get to play in another room while the adults have a chat. I don't have much support, as my sisters don't live anywhere nearby, and I don't have any other family. His mum as dd1 at the weekend sometimes but that's a bit fraught at the moment as his mum thinks I should let him stay here,and almost every time I let him in I end up regretting it. Other than that,only break is when dd1 is at pre school 2 mornings, or ex takes them to the park for a couple of hours (I think this has happened about 3 times, possibly 4 in the last 8.5 months)