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

lol @ Granny Murray!

Sorry things are so tough at the mo digi. As Meglet said, you and dh have to be a team to give one another the strength and emotional backup to get through this tough time.

Remember that no solution is going to work straight away.

Morning! Back from holiday in France for a week. Was really lovely, despite repeated early nights due to having T with us. We did have one really nice meal out with him in the pram next to us, and he slept perfectly.

Sleeping here is OK - he usually needs one or two quick resettlings, then does his usual trick of getting up at 5-6:30, having a bottle and then sleeping for another hour or two in the pram. Not perfect, but close enough for me not to be bother to change things at the moment. I'm sort of figuring that his sleep will probably improve in the winter when the nights get longer again, and if it doesn't then, and I'm bored of getting up at 6am (I quite like it at the moment), we'll think about doing something about it.

T is doing lots of leaning forwards and patting his hands and lifting his bottom up, but if he attempts anything more he just falls on his nose. Think he'll probably get onto his hands and knees in the next month or so, but he doesn't seem to have a particular desire to go anywhere yet (phew).

I now feel a bit better about the babysitting service. I phoned them first thing this morning and found out that the babysitter has been on their books since Feb 2005, has had 66 recent bookings including babies, and has a nursery nurse NVQ. OK, I think I am satisfied now! Apologies for airing my major panic in the thread!

starlight !! Don't spoil my opinion of you as a paragon of perfect parenting!

Ponymum both me and my friend have used Sitters in the past and have been really happy with the service. The only reason I don't use them now is that I use one of DS's favourite nursery nurses.

Anyway I am really glad I use her because she has proved to be so calm in a crisis.

On Weds me, DP and some good friends were going to see Lenny Kravitz and Rachel (nursery nurse) was babysitting. I had a call from nursery earlier on to say DD was a bit chesty again so I spoke to Rachel and she said she was fine with still looking after her.

I was intending to go straight from work to the concert but I ended up popping home to get changed and meet up with the others. When I got home DD was upset and was having a croup attack. Rachel had taken her into the shower which had helped a little. I gave her a cuddle and some Calpol and she seemed a little better. I ummed and ahhed about going but DP persuaded me I should.

Just after Lenny came on stage I got a text message saying that Effy was having some problems again and was a little blue. I called Rachel and I could hear Effy breathing really heavily in the background. I asked her if she could called NHS Direct to see what they said. She did and they listened to Effy's breathing and sent an ambulance. DP and I left the concert (only saw half an hour of it) and met them at the hospital.

Anyway, hospital was horrible. DP took Rachel and DS home (he was very excited about his ride in the ambulance) and I stayed with DD. We were left for 2 hours and she was struggling and blueish - not a nice experience. We finally saw a really lovely German dr and we finally have a proper diagnosis!

It turns out that she is one of the 5% of babies who develop croup from a bacterial infection. He saw her tugging her ear and asked me if she'd been drooling, vomitting and had loose, smelly stools. I said yes to all of them. He then looked in her ears and told me that her left one is bad but her right one is terrible - she has Otitis Media, an infection of the middle ear.

She's obviously had it for about 5 weeks and has seen four doctors in that time, including one last Tuesday who told us that her ear was a little red but nothing to worry about. DP is furious!

Anyway, she's on Erythromicin and had Thur and Fri at home with me (she was so miserable) but is so much happier and more herself now. Am worried as apparently untreated OM can lead to glue ear and grommits. Also feeling bad that we left her when she was poorly

sunshine that sounds really scary. I'm glad she's feeling better now

It was scary but am so thankful we now know what's been wrong for the last 5 weeks. It's been obvious she;'s not been right but every time we took her to the drs came away thinking we were overreacting.

Sunshine I'm glad that you have the right diagnosis now.

I had a quick flick through the pushchair conversation with interest as I have pushchairitis by proxy. My SIL is due in September and I have been looking at suitable buggies for her and have been trying to persuade her to get the Silvercross freeway (I would have loved that one but it did not fit into my fiesta!).

April 2010 - I think I will pass on that one

Sounds very scary sunshine ridiculous that it took so long for a doc to properly diagnose her but at least they have now.

I'm passing on the due April thread too thanks.

Carrie booo that you might lose that house that you love. If it's meant to be you'll get it and if not you might find an even better one.

DS1 had a high temp last night and then was sick. His temp has been high today but goes back down with calpol. He's got a runny nose too. Sounds like a normal bug but of course I can't help thinking it could be swine flu!

Happy monday everyone. sunshine what a horrible experience for you, I'm so glad you've finally got a proper diagnosis and appropriate medicine, and such a good babysitter!

ponymum ENJOY your night out! But not too much or you'll be the first on the april 10 thread

Welcome back mamamufin I've been wondering how you've been doing, glad to hear you're loving it all I remember meeting you the day you stopped work for maternity leave, I can't believe that was a year ago!

I decided over the weekend to do something about the dcs early waking, so with great sadness I've dropped dd's daytime nap. She now falls straight to sleep at 7 rather than playing for over an hour, and this morning slept through til 7 instead of playing singing loudly from 6. I'm sure 12 hours sleep is much better for her than 2 at lunch at 9 at night.
Similarly I've got strict with ds, and don't give him more than 2 hours at lunchtime, and wake him at 2:30 even if he only went to bed at 1, and this morning he also slept til 7 instead of waking for a bottle at 6 then being put back to bed.
Hoping the improvement lasts, coz I've now lost my lunchtime break so it'd better be worth it!

Still no feedback or offers from the two people who viewed the house over the weekend
My friend reckons it could be coz we have a massive lounge but its divided into small living area and small play area. She reckons people need to 'see' it as a large lounge that they could imagine focussing in. Also it doesn't have a focal point like a fire, just a tv tucked in the corner.
I just want to move
Someone at church yesterday advised me to get dd's name on the waiting list for the playgroup that I want, she won't start til sept next year, but we're not in the catchment yet, need to move!

Focussing? i mean relxaing. Doh, was writing half of one sentence and half of another at the same time!

T seems to have cut down to 2 naps a day (finally!), and it's making his night time sleep better - he's having anything from 20-60 mins in the morning about 2 hours after waking, then another 1-2 hours in the afternoon. He still does the bottle-pram manoeuvre at 6am, but is generally more settled.

Carriebo it must be so frustrating waiting for house to sell. DP and go round in circles occasionally about buying, but the long and the short of it is that we just can't raise a decent deposit yet, and we're not prepared to saddle ourselves with a high interest rate. Hoping that prices will fall a bit more, or at least stay static for a couple of years, we'll probably be in a position to buy in a year or two.

Sunshine how horrible, but glad you've finally got the right diagnosis and effy can start improving.

Thanks all.

Of course because she's been sleeping loads during the day, she's not sleeping as well at night now so am absolutely exhausted!

Hopefully I'll be able to come on here and chat about something other than her being ill.

sorry x threads the other night pony. Then my comuter lost power. Gosh yove been thru it. You deserve the easiest pregnancy ever next time. I think there is defo something in letting nature take its course .

Just caught up. Gosh sunshine hope e is on the mend now.

Hi carriebo what happenned to the on? Where are you moving too? Not too far I hope. By the way, I think that dividing up your living room works well as people can imagine living there. Very functional. Seperate areas to play, eat work etc.

carrie I Cant believe its been a whole year since I saw you. I have officailly finished maternity leave today!
Ive got a months paid holiday now then a months unpaid parental leave then back to the grind the 7th September.

Dhoh I meant computer not comuter. I dont know how well I ll be at work lol xx

Im still too festive. How do I change my name back to muffins? arghhhh

I think you go into 'My mumsnet', log in (with your email address), then go to something like 'my details' or personal info, or something, then you'll see your talk nickname, with the option to change it.

Ooh, listing some more stuff on Ebay - made over £100 with the last lot, hoping that my old cameras will make me a few quid this time. Mostly I want the money so I can buy some accessories for my kenwood chef (geeeeeeeek emoticon)

It's just taken me about 45 minutes to read through the posts since I last got a chance to use the computer.

Carrie - must be frustrating trying to sell your house when you've already seen a house you really like

Sunshine (perfect name at the mo) - glad you've got a diagnosis at last, hopefully it'll clear up soon

DG - sorry you're having such a tough time at night. Baby splish gets fed to sleep, and wakes once or twice at night to feed, but is not usually even properly awake, so just feeds and drifts off again, but I co sleep with her which makes it easier. Dd1 was a total boobaholic, and got to a stage of waking almost every hour to snack.. I spent a mad week when she was about 13months odl going cold turkey on night time feeding. When she woke, I put her into her pram & read while pushing it to and fro with my feet, & sung twinkle twinkle little star for about 1-2hours then she'd sleep til morning. Avoided crying, and after the week, I put her into a cot for the first time, she rolled over & slept 12 hours straight, and has been a good sleeper since - anyway - there's no 1 right answer, you just have to do what feels OK to you / dp / baby

Baby splish is on the move. After a couple of weeks of intensive bottom bouncing practice, she figured it out. Well, sort of. I went for a shower leaving her playing in the bedroom with dd1 & found she'd followed me. She has developed a very awkward and fairly slow manoeuvre using 1 foot and 1 knee - not very efficient. She is trying to stand unaided as well. She also has 1 stumpy tooth, and seems to have learned to wave - however, she doesn't seem entirely au fait with the proper reason for waving, as this morning i caught her sitting looking into the wardrobe, waving at the contents

Oh, and she loves loves loves papaer and cardboard too. And phone charger wires.

drops in to show off new if temp new name.

v busy as back at work, dh working away.

roll on 17 july.

dd2 is fab. chilled. can go from sitting to standing without aid. wants to enter the 100m crawl and a bottle and cup refusnik but now getting interested in cups.

drops in to show off new off temp new name.

v busy as back at work, dh working away.

roll on 17 july.

dd2 is fab. chilled. can go from sitting to standing without aid. wants to enter the 100m crawl and a bottle and cup refusnik but now getting interested in cups.

Hi Foxy! When are you losing your beautiful hair? I heard a rumour... for charity isn't it?

18/07 yup, an orphanage in Goma, Congo

Thanks hopefully. I feel like my oldself now .