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

Great Pacita I'm glad it's getting such good use.

I'm enjoying carrying M a lot more now that she goes on my back happily it's great to take DD1 out and be hands free.

starlight that's really nice to note the anniversary of me joining! That means that it was a year ago when I went off on sick leave with the SPD. (Ah, the fond memories! ) Thanks for the gentle introduction to MN - you have all been so kind. Does my one year anniversary mean that I am a real grown up MNer now?

And to those with the stationary babies, DD went overnight from staying roughly where she was put to galloping across the room in a flash. So who knows what tomorrow may bring for your LOs? Watch out!

I keep asking all my RL mummy friends to meet for a coffee or lunch and they look at me as if I'm mad -
"the babies will never stay still!!!" "we have to go to a playcentre"
As I'm in lone parent mode all week, I ate my tea tonight on the sofa with C sat happily on the floor playing before her bath. She ate 3 massive whole strawberries for her pudding tonight!!

And...she has dropped her afternoon bottle. we now just have bottle first and last thing. Not sure if it's right but it's what she wants and she's eating so well, even wolfing down natural yoghurt without anything to sweeten it!
It's going to be very strange going out during the day without a bottle and flask of hot water. Now I have to think of healthy snacks for the afternoon......

Does anyone struggle to 'play' wth their babies? I get on the floor with her and try to but it seems to fall flat and I never know what to do really and i always resort to singing to her (when in doubt, I sing!! i am tone deaf, hee hee).
Ah well, back to desperate housewives on sky+ and cheesecake and strawberries.

Hahaha at grownup mumsnetter, ponymum, I still feel like the new kid on the playground in some threads. But if I look back, I am so grateful for all I've learned in this thread, and for all the support back in that blurry period when I had a newborn and no instructions manual.

Ninja i really want to do back carry, but I get my knickers in a twist when I try that with Diego in the ergo. How do you do it?

I've got is sussed with the connecta as long as I have a chair. It does help if someone else is around though. Better ask an expert.

M never liked being on the front though, and she likes playing with my hair

imoscarsmum amazing you should ask - I thought earlier of posting my pathetic play breakthrough story. I realised about a week ago that I am so slack as far as active, imaginative play with DD. It's more like, is she OK with those toys down there? Not crying yet? Fine, that'll do.

So I introduced the drums! Sounds simple, but DD and I get wooden spoons, plastic spatulas, and some upturned tupperware containers. We do duos. She rocks! Also, one of our other favourite things is reading a book called Clip Clop (well it would be, wouldn't ). She loves it when I jiggle her along to the story. When I stop she looks at me and jiggles back and forward as though to say "Keep going, silly!"

I'm impressed you got them both home awake debi. My two were zonked out in their cots within minutes of getting home. DS kept talking about Baby Handrew all the way home , i think the cbeebies links have confused him!

We have pottered about this afternoon, DD managed to eat a bit of plastic bag, about the size of a 10p, that wafted out the cupboard when I was having a clear out. I tried to get it out her mouth but she swallowed it, as she's eaten her dinner since I think she's out of danger. I expect it will appear in her nappy tomorrow. DS spent the afternoon in the garden painting the shed with water .

Hurrah for children in bed Starlight!

M manages to get around by a sort of crawl/bum shuffle/rolling. We go on holiday in mid August and I'm hoping he doesn't crawl properly then, but I think he will be.

Effy is murder for playing. She gets bored very easily but she likes noisy things (so she has a bucket full of instruments), paper (ripping and chewing) and hiding in things (she loves the wendy house and nursery and DS's wigwam) so we're going to put her ball pool up this weekend. Actual playing with her from me doesn't happen so much but DS plays with her and she loves it.

pacita I haven't been to Park Road pools with DS yet. I've been taking him to lessons with Tiny Swimmers. They do a couple of sessions on Sunday morning so DH gets to come along as well. I say gets to come along, 9 times out of 10 he's the one that gets in the pool. First time I got in the pool with DS he cried the entire time, desperately clinging to me and refusing to let go or let me turn him around. Only cheered up in the last five minutes of the lesson to inspect the screws on the pool steps. Second time I got in the pool was last Sunday and that was only because DH wasn't in the country. A bit less teary, but still very moany. Dunking him under three times probably didn't help.

I keep meaning to come on here and post about my terrible non-sleeping baby. But he's just woken up from his nap so will have to go and get him.

T slept to a record 6:40am this morning before having a bottle and going in the pram for another hour. It's the first time he's gone beyond 6am for ages. Wonder whether it had anything to do with him only having 2 naps yesterday instead of three? Will probably find out today, as he always only has 2 naps on the days he goes to the childminder as there's far too much going on to waste time sleeping!

I'm theoretically working today, but all the emails I'm getting tell me my writing's wonderful but freelance budgets are less so at the moment are very disheartening.

Was vaguely thinking about when we'll TTC number 2 last night, and have decided that I definitely don't want to have less than a 2 year age gap - partly because I like that T will be the oldest in his school year, and less than two years would mean number 2 being young in their year - so we won't start before December I don't think. Probably it'll end up taking 11 months and I'll have an August baby anyway!

carriebo I have sent you an email

Hopefully I have an August baby!! But then I didn't really plan at all, and he was a bit early too...
ILTMIMI Did you find somewhere suitable for your holiday in the end? Hope so...we are having lunch tomorrow with some friends who I was going to recommend, but they were full up during August too.

Well, we have a very cranky baby here this evening as he's so used to sleeping in his cot every day he wouldn't drop off at all in the car on the way to IKEA this afternoon, or on the way back, so now he's shattered. The big summer sales start here tomorrow so we're off shopping again.

Thanks starlight but she adores them and her bum's always been great, no nappy rash ever.
Funny you should say that cos hv came today for 8m check and along with our 3 (3!!) free stairgates and fireguard, she also told me that strawberries were not recommended until they were one due to risk of allergies. i told her we'd already tried her on them so no bother (must remember to order that baby-sized roll of outdoor cotton wool soon )

I also spent a few mins explaining BLW to her and how wide a diet C has. She didn;t seem concerned that we're on 2 bottles a day now but then she asked "so, is she eating any finger food yet"!!. I'm either rubbish at explaining things or she just didn;t listen.

She also said a couple of things that concerned me and before I post elsewhere, thought i should ask here first:

She tried to make C stand up, which she wouldn't. I think she was tired.She then said her leg creases weren't identical. The first creases by her girl bits are but then the rest don't match up. She also said she had an slight indentation in her back which may also be related and asked me to take her to docs.
Anyone know what she means and should I be worried? I'm not too much cos the woman is a bit crap but i will take her to docs.
C will take weight on her feet but not very often.
Ta.

Ooh, and what phrase do you use for 'girl bits'? With boys, willy is a nice name for it but for girls, i find vagina too clinical and front bum, well

I don't think you can beat fanny for a girls vagina

Uneven leg creases are sometimes an indication of a hip condition. I don't know anything more than that. It's probably nothing to worry about. Go and see your GP if you are worried.

M has only started to put weight through his feet in the past month.

jenpet - yes we have found somewhere. It's in Normandy, in a village between L'Aigle and Verneuil. I really thought we weren't going to find anything. Many thanks for thinking of us. DH LOVES France, so I may be picking your brains in the future

Robyn has unidentical creases. the crease at her ankles one is about 5mm the other is 15mm, and she can't stand too well , her knees give way.

Is the indentation on her back just above her butt crease? my first hv said it was nothing to be worried about and would flatten out but it is still there. Don't want to worry you but my sis 'thinks' it might be related to spina bifida. BF thinks it's a throwback to when we had tails

We are also going to the drs were hv says we will probably be told to keep an eye on it.

She was also a bit surprised aboyut blw. When i first mentioned it at 4 months she was dead against it and said 'baby rice first'. When I told her she was eating what we ate and feeding hjerself thankls to blw she was a bit hmmm but then said at kleast she's eating lumps.

She also put that Robyn was standing when she obv isn't

iom ds2 today ds2 has had 1 bottle of milk! He stopped taking any from me in the mornings and as he had hardly any anyway he now has cows milk in the morning (yes I know I'm bad) as it didn't seem worth making up formula for him to only have 1 or 2 ozs.
Then today he's had 4oz of a bottle at 3.30 and 0.5oz just now! Point blank refused to have any more.

Even on a good day he only has about 8 oz of formula and a third of a cup of cows milk.

Don't know anything about leg creases but hopefully the doc will be able to reassure you that C is fine.

3 stairgates!!!!!

mmm quick internet search says babies who are 1 should be drinking 1/3 pint (350ml) of milk a day. DS2 only drinks about 300ml on a good day now I think.

Does it say why they should be drinking that much milk? Just for fluid intake? Or calcium, or fat etc?

Whatever the reason there are ways around it. If your ds' fontanelle (sp?) isn't dipped, he's continuing to grow, and he's having plenty of wet nappies, I shouldn't worry.

DS is loving Wimbledon. He is fascinated by it!

Hmm...now bit worried bout creases as google mentions 13 weeks in traction/plaster!
Debi the indentation is about 1.5cm above the bum crease, don;t think it's low enough to be a 'tail' (know what you mean by this).

Re milk - up to 12m, they should be having a pint of milk a day, which is about 568mls (not sure how 350mls is 1/3 pint?). This can be a combination of formula and other calcium sources such as yogurt, cheese etc. The reason they say this, I'm told, is cos they need the calcium & iron in formula.(don;t ask me about bm, no idea!).
Hv said as long as she's having as much formula as she'l take, plus plenty of calcium & iron rich foods (which she is), she'll be fine. I've been making cheese sauces with formula too, and she has her porridge with formula. we've always used ready made formula , so it's just like pouring milk for us.

After 1yr, they can have cow's milk but still need plent of calcium rich foods. Think high fat & full fat (lucky beggars!!)

DD has her 8m check tomorrow but I've never even looked at her leg creases - must check them out this evening. She's standing all the time too (and trying to let go which makes my heart flutter!) so I'm not at all worried about her.

Hopefully she's an August baby and is absolutely going to be the youngest in her year.

As for milk she has about 4oz during the day but frequently leaves some of it. At bedtime she has a whopping 8oz and then another 5 for dream feed (but she rarely finishes that). She loves her food though so I'm not concerned about her not getting enough nutrition.

On thing that concerns me a little though is the difference between her and DS who I BLWd. At 10m DS was feeding himself always and was pretty good with a spoon. DD is norwhere near that! She really hates it when you try and get her to do it herself as she can't feed herself fast enough for her appetite!

yes you're right iom clearly 350ml is not 1/3 pint, doh!

Says its for the fat, calcium and iron. Main reason they shouldn't have cows milk for main drink before 1 is because of the iron which was why I figured that for that drink 1st thing in the morning where he doesn't have much anyway that it wasn't going to make much difference.

I'm not worried about it as he does eat yoghurts and cheese sauces and cheese (sometimes- he changes his mind about whether he likes it every week) and green veg which has iron in it.What else is good for iron?
And he has got better at drinking water and isn't dehydrated.

350ml, approx 2/3pint was what it actually said