Dec 08 mums - embuggerance to it all - sleep or no sleep we love our babes

[waitinggirl]

i hope people don't mind, i took the bull by the horns and did it. title a bit naff, but more important the thread exists rather than search for a better title. hope i haven't stolen anyone's thunder...

I have just had my period so I can't be!!

Back with more later, but just adding my stats to the size chart. Another big bruiser of a boy to add!

DS born 8 lb 13 oz. Had him weighed yesterday (6 months, 1 week) and he is 21 lb 5 oz now. 27.5" long.

The past two days I have carried him all day in the sling (into town, etc.) with not a twinge of backache. The Ergo carrier has saved my life!

njan- DS had his first wee in the potty last night! Totally unpropmted, I was the phone and he managed to take his nappy off and sit on the potty by himself. He told be he'd done a wee but I didn't believe him as he usually says this and there isn't anything there. This time there was so I gave him a chocolate button as a reward. He then spent the next hours desperatly straining to do another so he could have more chocolate. Thats my boy anything for chocolate

lal- love the idea of keeping them under the sofa. Went to a wedding recently and DD cried the whole time until I put her in a carrycot under the table- then she giggled away to herself for hours. strange girl.

I'd also welcome any hints on dealing with 5am starts. DD thinks that it getting up time and while I can cope with getting up during the night, getting up for the day at 5 is never going to happen. At the moment snuggle up with her and try to subdue her with milk feed her but she isn't having any of it and just giggles and kicks me. We are moving in the next few weeks so will try her in her own room then to see if she will just gurgle away to herself. [wildly optimistic emoticon]

jj am now a big fan of homebirths- definitely want one next time esp as MW told me that I probably wouldn't have time to get to hospital. Timetable was 8:30 eating dinner with few niggly contractions, 9pm get in bath, 9:05 waters broke, 9:10 shouting for ambulance, 9:15 ambulance arrives, 9:20 holding baby. Am feeling worryingly broody especially as one of my friends has just found out she is having twins. Lucky AF not returns so am protected from acting on my impulses although I've been having those weird kick like feelings as well. I'm not pg- I've been paranoid enough to test!

Which, the thing about Adebayor or the pregnancy?

Honestly both!!!!! He just can't leave!! I hate it when all these bloody footballers say "Oh I love Arsenal and I want to stay" Then a bloody week later of they go to Barcelona. Me still angry at Henry? Never

On the pregnancy thing I can't be pg!! Just can't be.

Wow Spiggy! The next one will just fall out while you are having a cup of tea

I've also been paranoid enough to test as have had those phantom movements etc. Not sure how on earth I would be pg enough to feel kicks though, I'd have to start calling myself Mary if I were

Last night not great, dd woke a lot and then woke at around 3 bright and happy and up for the day Left dh in bed and went downstairs, got her back to sleep at 5.15 so went back to bed and she bloody well woke again at 5.50. She finally went back to sleep on the bus on the way home from toddlers and I've managed to get her into bed. Ds also blissfully asleep. I do so love having a toddler who strongly believes in sleep, makes dd slightly more manageable!

Ah the bliss ends, I hear dd's wails over the monitor

This PuPD is not working! Well, it might be but I can't bear it, feels like controlled crying, he wouldn't even calm down when I picked him up and was just choking and coughing. now he's just silent in his cot looking at his teddy bear probably wondering where it all went wrong {massive projection there}.
So was basically stroking his head and talking to him for 45 mins and he's still not asleep, are there any experts out there who can help??

arti WOW Amazing! I'm really pleased for you - let us know how tonight goes. Does Mrs Sleep offer advice on daytime napping or does she just take night time sleep as a thing on its own? I mean does she think one influences the other?
Spot I can offer no advice as I still have a baby who wakes for 3 or 4 feeds a night so any advice I give should be flushed down the toilet! You have plenty of my sympathy though...any news on the possible tongue-tie?
Lal - lol!Babies under sofas!
ZJ if you want you can bring dd round to mine for her naps and clean my house for me I think I have built up an immunity to germ-itis! The gradual water/milk thing sounds like a good plan. I'm still unable to get P to take anything other than Boob-Direct. Really needs resolving before she starts nursery but like you I can't do the whole cold turkey thing.
I just had a very yummy lunch at a new cafe in York. It was this savoury waffle thing with veg in it and a tasty chutney. yum. I need the calories for BF. Then I had a Mars Bar on the way home. I needed those calories too
Kayz - do a test! You can still have Aunt Flo when you're up the duff!

See now I knew there was something else I wanted to say when I posted but couldn't fo rthe life of me think what it was. Thankfully Trace started her post off with it.

Arti that is fab on the sleep front, all the best for tonight, I take it Mrs sleep tells you what to do if she wakes now you are on your own? Consistancy being the key and all that.

spot our first night of pupd was an unmitiagated disaster. All I can say it that we have found a method that seems to be working ok for us. I find that if I go in as soon as she cries she gets all excited. If I pick her up t confuses her and results in more crying when I put her back down but if I leave her after the first 30 second indignation at mummy daring to put her down she just grizzles and winds down (generally). She tends to still need another visit after a while (the grizzling starts to go towards crying again) but often I just give her a stroke, maybe a few seconds finger suck to calm her and leave again and she goes off. SO I suppose experiment, follow your instincts about what is right for you and for your baby. Dd currently fast asleep in the sling as she has been crying and rubbing eyes but fighting sleep and I saw precious little point in making her sleep in her bed when there is clearly something bothering her.

You're right about the instincts Indith, I should probably focus more on what is/isn't working than what the book says, I just don't know if being there while he cried for an hour made any difference.

Hello girls

Just wanted to do a quickie catch up as I am racing off to London for the night so forgive my brevity - have contact lens check up tomorrow and then a mole scan as I have a suspect mole on my leg...or at least, I think I have. I have had it ages though.

Arti - WOW on the sleep consultant! That is just incredible. How was the house view yesterday? I have a meeting with my boss at work on Tuesday to discuss my plans for returning to work. Hmm, if they try to renague on my working from home there is going to be trouble.

Kayz - crawling at your house too? Gosh!

Jump - any joy with my delivery? It was supposed to come yesterday...Sorry your DH's parents are being muppets about swine 'flu. The general public amaze me sometimes and not in a good way...

SL - As to sleeping through, well, there is one baby that does - mine, and has done since 12 wks. I don't want to go on about it because I know so many people are really suffering and I actually feel a bit guilty, somehow. I am extremely grateful and couldn't be less smug - I am under NO illusion however that it is purely a fluke, I have done nothing special at all, and it was only because she chose to do so. I can almost guarantee, from what people have said, that if I have another, it will be a different story...

Spot, are you feeling better today? We only won £30 in the pnb quiz which we are putting in DD's post office account, but it genuinely felt like an achievement

ZJ - DD is drinking 4 x 210ml per day, plus a small amount of solids three times a day.

PMK - sorry about Barcelona but I hear the weather is going to be good here so that's something. Enstone is not on the railway line - it is about 3 miles away from the station, as per here...so not ideal, another village, but...unless one has bottomless pockets it's all a bit of a compromise, as you know...How long is your new tenant in for?

Effie - Yes, I have been mixing Ella's Kitchen with plainer veggie purees that I have made and hope to reduce the ratio over time...I tell you, I would like to tell Ella where to stick her Kitchen. A lot of the purees are 70-80% apple or pear and they have ruined my baby's palate. Won't make that mistake with the next one!

Verso - all sounds positive about the new job. When is the start date?

Veggie - I could go to Krakow longer than DP but it's easier to go with him for the sake of practicalities...When is your next trip? There are so many places I want to go but I need to rein in my horns, financially speaking. So a short trip to Krakow is probably good...

Lal - lovely to see you. I did laugh at the water spraying incident. I do wonder whether kids with an elder sibling develop at a faster rate, just thinking aloud.

Spiggy - welcome aboard!

Right, need to get my stuff together. DD and I are out in Notting Hill tonight.

JJ - patients not parents. Doh. Trying to do too many things at once as usual.

Now worried you will all be burning small effigies of me re: DD's sleep habits. Mind you, she doesn't really sleep in the DAY. Also, something else will bite me on the bum later as life is just like that

Hello everyone,

I'll have to be quick as DD is refusing to nap. She is happy enough thumping her feet on her mattress for now....

effie I bought a rhubarb plant from the garden centre after the one my mum gave me died. Maybe they don't like being moved.

ladyT Hurray for your friend! . Well done on the pub quiz, you can do some swatting up now before it resumes.

Any slightly broody feelings I have had recently were broken when I met a lady this morning pregnant with twins and a boy that will be 15 months when they are born. Can you even buy triple push chairs?!

zoe You put me to shame on the clean house front. Well done you. Re FF. DD has 3 sometimes still 4 bottles. She used to take 8oz prior to weaning, but now varies in how much she takes. Never less than 4oz but usually 6. Hope that helps a bit.

arti Three cheers for Mrs Sleep. I love veggie's comment about Mrs Sleep tipping her hat to the grateful parents and skipping off into the morning light .

spot Crying episodes like that are really hard to deal with. DD is v hit and miss with her daytime napping so can't hand out any pearls of wisdom I'm afraid.

DD is now sat next to me munching on her book, yum .

trace Sounds like a lovely lunch, possible location for a meet up perhaps?!

DD shows a similar enthusiasm for all things sweet. Although I did find that if I leave all the mangled bits of food on her highchair tray from her 'main course', bits of corn, cut up omlette, carrots sticks etc, she tends to go back to them after she's had something sweet and fruity like melon or peach. I made meatballs for DH last night and DD picked up one and took a huge bite. She may not be following me down the vegetarian route!

Just got back from gp. He also think it is normal family tiredness. So is anyone else here struggling to stay awake? I spend all day trying to keep awake and trying to persuade DS1 to play with his toys because i'm too tired. I did manage to make him sort out a blood test.

Kayz I'm glad he at least gave you a blood test. Are you still trying to lose weight? Maybe that is also making you tired as you are getting by on less calories, also I think NJAN mentioned thyroid problems that she has I wonder if the blood test could extend to that? I'm quite tired today but I would say hugely tired, I think you would know the difference really, is D sleeping ok now?

Lady that def true about siblings, I think DS2 has been desperate to move about ever since he clapped eyes on his brother. Its really sweet to see him watch his brother walking around I'd playing in the park and he is completely enthralled by it. However, it can also be opposite and make them lazy to develop. My 4th niece took ages to walk and talk because there was just no need to. Her 3 older sisters used to interpret her wails and grunts and get everything for her. She just had no motivation to move about. However she is just as sporty as the rest of them and has competed in 10km races beside her sisters, and she's still only 12 now. So just shows it all makes no difference.

JJ I was thinking about your working days is there a CM or nursery that does half days? One of the nurseries we had the option of sending DS1 to in London would take children for half days and his current nursery does too. Maybe you could do a combination of full days and half day to coincide with DH's half day. I assume his surgery won't budge on which day he takes his half day?

Well had a good and bad day here. I did the 'pop in' thing with 2 of the ladies that had said to do so anytime. One wasn't in, and the other was but I was running a bit late to pick up DS1 from nursery but I gave her my number and I'm going to stop by next week for coffee. Then one of the nursery mums invited DS1 and I over for lunch next week so we can have a chat and our DS' can play which will be nice. So far it has mainly been the girls that DS1 has had play dates with so will be nice to play with his male mates, esp a non hitter. Then on the way home from nursery DS1 and I found the best playground ever tucked away behind some shops, I even enjoyed playing on the equipment.

When we got home though DH & I discovered that the basement flooding was worse than we thought in the recent rain (it always floods but we thought our stuff was protected) and a lot of stuff has been quite badly wet. In particular my memories bag. It's a big suitcase full of photos, memorabilia and just general bits and pieces from the 2-3 years that I was over here before I met DH and I travelled copiously. I went through it and amazingly a lot of it was salvagable and the stuff that wasn't was missable. It was lovely looking through all stuff again, I found a poem I wrote that is actually quite good loads of letters from friends and family. But it was also a little sad, I found photos of a lovely friends of mine who was killed when I was just pregnant with AK, he was cycling early one morning and a man who had been driving all night fell asleep at the wheel and hit him. So I cried a little looking at his smile in the photos so full of life. The nice thing is I have always planned to meet up with his daughters one day and show them the photos do they can see what their dad got up to in his youth. I also found a letter from my wonderful Nan, in it she was telling me how the health care system back home was in a bad way and they always seemed to be in the news with bad treatment stories (she told me all this because I'm a nurse), sadly my Nan died because of not being cared for properly and was left alone for too long and fell, which caused a brain injury which eventually killed her a few days later. So I found this particularly sad to read.

I still have loads of photos to go through and it has been lovely showing DS1 some of my travel photos. He was particularly taken by a photo of me and a friend in a colourful truck in Pakistan on the border with Iran, which the driver had let my friend and I get into while he was stopped at the same hotel as us.

Right sorry I've probably bought the whole thread down with all that. Also DS2 has been in a right hump today, which has made sorting the bag difficult. He has left a total of about an hour all day and has just grizzled contantly. He has also barely taken much milk or solids so I think he must be close to getting some teeth. Still I wasn't very patient with him poor pet. He's gone to sleep now so I should get some tidying done and sort the last of the bag.

Oh and Lady, I think it is lovely to know night sleep is good for DD we have this thread so we can be open, no need to edit out the good bits.

Oh and Spiggy I loved my HB but next time I'm putting on my birth plan that I want my baby delivered just after tea time like yours.

kayzr I had tiredness problems with DD1 but not so much this time round... (watch me take that back if I have another early start tomorrow!)

Well so much for the new job . I had to do their pre-employment health questionnaire and it's very clear how you MUST declare EVERYTHING - so I put on it about being treated for PND and now they want me to see their GP for an "assessment" of my "fitness to work". Aaaaargh. Why can't these things ever be straightforward?

I'm discussing start date with my boss tomorrow (I've been out of the office for the past two days - yesterday with DD1's school thing and today on business). I suppose I should assume it will be ok GP-wise...

Veggie- just make sure that you add on your plan that you would like the paramedic to actually listen to you when you tell him that you are pushing so that he doesn't try to get you out the front door as the head is crowning Still, at least she wasn't actually born on the garden path.

Verso- not sure what the ins and outs of your job interview were but what they are probably going to look at is whether you will need any adjustments or support in your job. If they did refuse you a position then they are potentially risking a Disability discrimination claim (depending how long the PND lasted/is likely to last) and there may even be a potential argument for Sex discrim as PND is childbirth related. At our place we often refer people to occupational health but it is to try an spot where working conditions may be a problem so we take preventative action. I had one myself. Hope that puts your mind at rest a little.

DD is refusing to go to sleep. I thought today was going too easily. She had a 1/2 day at nursery and behaved like an angel. Slept fine, drank her milk, tried some lunch. I'm blinking knackered and just want a bath and possibily a large glass of wine and she is merrily playing away. Aaaaaargh.

It is lovely going through stuff like that veggie but it brings sad memories alng with the happy. It is very sad about your friend. Hope you are OK and not too upset especially with your DH being away. It is nice to offload onto someone at the end of a difficult day. That's what the thread is here for though I suppose!

I wouldn't be too concerned verso I'm sure it is merely covering their backs exercise. They can't discriminate against you because of PND.

On the hitting topic veggie what are you meant to do when other babies smack yours on the head?! At this music group I go to there is a rather energetic young boy who goes around smacking much younger babies. Poor DD looked really shocked when he came across and slapped her head. Last week he shook a 6 week old baby's legs when the poor thing was asleep in his car seat! His mum comes over and gets him eventually but just sits there calling his name for ages whilst he merrily carries on hitting.

spiggy Hope you get DD to bed soon. Could you try giving her a bath and signal that it is winding down time and not playtime? Unless a bath re-energies her of course!

Right off to watch my Sky+ed Ugly Betty.. toodles, or should I say,

Kind regards,

Jollybear

Verso: this happened when we hired a member of staff at the library, it's basically an insurance thing as far as I can see. Anything that may impact on your job means a GP referral.

DS2 not happy in this heat, refusing to sleep. Gah!

good evening all,

my, this thread moves so fast! i can't keep up. plus am posting on the no sleep til brooklyn thread and trying not to repeat myself or continue conversations that i haven't been having on here.

so this is just to keep my eye in whilst i have a small glass of wine and before i go and watch the 5th series of lost with dh upstairs.

arti - very rude question - was mrs sleep very expensive? and is she based in the south east? and does she have a long waiting list or does she arrive down the chimney?

lots of love

stainesmassif

DD asleep. Not in her cot noooo that would be too easy. She's in her swing (marvellous invention, best £70 I ever spent) Now just have to get her upstairs to bed, think I'll make that DP's job

I am fascinated by the idea of Mrs Sleep Arti! Who or what is this woman... I must confess that we too have a sleeping through baby since 14 weeks and that my other 2 were like that. But as LadyT says, something bites on the bum and in our case they are normally quite challenging toddlers.

Veggie sorry you were sad reading through your box of treasures, it can be bittersweet. I can't beleive BTW that J is crawling as are a few of the babes. Wow!!

Kayz sympathies on the tiredness thing. I often feel utterly zapped (even though I shouldn't given that L sleeps through but I must confess she is a noisy b*gger too). We'll see what your blood test reveals.

Going for a walk in Finsbury Park tomorrow with Spot if anyone fancies it. 2.30 outside the caff.

Off to bed. Sad but true!

Thanks, everyone (I know you're all right!) - and spiggy in particular as we've only just met! >waves<

veggie I forgot to say your post about your flooded basement and all your photos was really touching.