Jan '09 'All we are saying is give peas a chance....and carrots and broccoli and cumcumber and........'

[hongkongzoe]

...here we go ladies, right I'm off to catch up!

Ok - I am now going to go into full on mushy goo mode. I was sent this in a card when I had Harriet, tears fell I can tell you!

Her little shadows.

I saw a young mother with eyes full of laughter
And two little shadows came following after.
Wherever she moved, they were always right there -
Holding onto her skirts hanging onto her chair,
Before her, behind her - an adhesive pair.

"Don't you ever get weary as, day after day,
Your two little tag-alongs get in your way?"

She smiled as she shook her pretty young head,
And I'll always remember the words that she said.
It's good to have shadows that run when you run,
That laugh when you're happy and hum when you hum -
For you only have shadows when your life's filled with sun.

Hia all! just a quick visit as am off to bed in a mo.

HKZ hope the hen night goes well. Enjoy!

poor moose I really hope you get some rest in and feel better soon. Men can be poo! I bet if he felt rotten he would make a lot more fuss!

tree sorry to hear about your mum's partner. Hope it turns out to be something easily treatable.

qumps hurrah to your good night!

We had another awful night. DD slept for 20mins to 1hour at a time. She seems more settled so far tonight. Only been up to her twice since 7pm. Had a lovely bath, as recommended.

Have given her soother and she keeps cuddling it!

Anyway, am off to bed. goodnight!

EEk! just realized I missed loads of pages when catching up. Will read tomorrow as my eyes are tired. Hope all is well with everyone. xx

Hope HKZ has had/is having a great hen night and enjoys that lie in.

MissJ, I dropped Danny out of his pram at about two months old.

I'm still using Conor's moses basket and it's getting ridiculous. Although he's quite light for his age, he's quite tall too, but it's his mobility that worries me, he is now leaning up on his elbows out of the basket. And his cot won't fit right next to me in our room.

kitty sympathy on the bad nights!

MissJ it is so awful the first time, isn't it? (still remember dd... )

Tis obviously the day for falling and accidents- in the garden, my pod chair swing thingy tipped over when I sat down in it today... with DS in my arms
He wasn't hurt, but I think I squished him a little, keeping him off the ground... he howled... mostly in surprise. I have a v sore arm...

Loving the poems but stop with the donut talk!!! I like the maple syrup ones... mmmm

prob can't eat them atm, bound to have dairy in!

*rray/pat it is a bit isn't it (the couple thing) ... the bf just is crap in some ways... especially on days when they want to feed every couple of hours... come evening you just think... leave my body alone, it's mine, it would be nice to have it to myself for a few minutes! (not that it is an issue when your DH has the piggy stuff... )

I have no hope in Hell in catching up. Sorry. I have at least read this page.

tree Beautiful poem.

kitty DD has undertaken a similar sleep schedule. I am hoping it will change soon because I am tired.

peach Ya. The last thing i want right now at the end of my day is more manhandling. (Sorry DH)

oh ya.

dog Did you get married?

morning,,,

missj as the others said, DS1 fell off the bed twice, once with me when he was 3 weeks old and once with DH at 6 months. Also has fallen downstairs at 13 months (big bump on head A&E) and hit head on concrete step about 6 months ago (lots of blood and a&E). James OK so far...

rray frightening isn't it? James did it to me a month or so ago, he had moved into the corner of the cot and was breathing very shallow.

eppm arm ok?

rray/Pat/Eppm i am just on the cusp of giving up BF as am getting a bit fed up with it and want to get back to work. Am going to keep going though just in case it helps with swine flu. Fortunately DH is with me on this so am going to be working and popping home for feeds or expressing (have no stock of BM at all). not the most productive work days but think it'll be best. have a medaela breast pump which is a bit pants, any reccommendations?

dog congrats on namechange, it's a big step isn't it!!

sparkle I have that pump too and it is pants so no better advice I fear. That was part of the reason I started with two bottles of formula in the day for when I went back to work. The crafty sod still hates the formula and will have days where he will take about 6oz between about 9am and 3.30pm, and days like yesterday where he will take NOTHING! I don't BF him during day though as I don't want my boobs to start producing then IYSWIM, they are quite good at not leaking now. So he has effectively weaned himself off milk during the day and seems ok with it (has 3 meals a day and drinks to keep himself going) still has BF in morning, 3.30pm, 7pm, 10.30pm and once/twice in the night.

It's a bit of a nightmare as I am having all the faff of cleaning and sterilising bottles only for him to hardly drink anything and effectively be still a BF baby!

Anyone any ideas, shall I just start giving him formula in his doidy cup? I have switched to follow-on formula and changed brands to a cheaper one as it was heart-breaking how much money we were wasting (a tub was about £8.50).

Relief to read about alll these accidents. Horrible though it is for you it is a right of passage for parents and children. DD is and has always been the worlds clumsiest child and the worst was picking her up from the childminders where she effectively had her own accident book. Once scraped off loads of her face on a fall, it looked horrible but she was clearly not bothered and was all smes when she saw me. You just feel reallly bad going out in public when they have these big marks all other them, feel like everyone will be judging!!

Oh, just remembered me tipping the buggy, FACE-FIRST, into the road when she was about 18mths. Still don't know how exactly I did it, but miraculously she was unhurt!

Lovely poems by the way, SNIFF!

Love the poems, especially the anti-cleaning one dog ; might put that up in my kitchen!

LOL at your dream tree, that is too funny!

Thanks for sharing all your accident stories, makes me feel a bit better. I knew something would happen sooner or later, but it still doesn't stop me feeling terrible even 2 days on. Last night I had to keep checking him!

baby just delivered for feeding, more in a bit...

Pat What a naughty little monkey saving himself for booby every day - the doidy cup has got to be worth a go, he seemed very confident with it and if he drinks water from it, surely f milk will be yummier?

ray Hope you have a lovely reunion with OH - bet he will be desperate by now to see you and Esme. My DH had to go away for a week to an expo in Germany when Nye was 8 weeks old, and he ended up booking a flight home a day early because he simply couldn't bear the separation any longer! As for naughty stuff, I am sure it is completely natural to feel that way while BF; I think it is slightly different for me and OH since we have only been together such a relatively short amount of time (not even 2 years ).

sparkle I have the avent electric pump which does the job well enough - I do find it much easier to express if I stopped looking (!) and read a baby book instead. But I still have hardly any supplies - dog I know what you mean about OHs handing out the ebm like it's free - they have no idea of what it takes!

eppm glad you both survived your pod swing accident - sounds scary! I would love one of those garden swings. Have dreams of sitting there in the evenings with a glass of wine... but sort of feels like summer is almost over here , just crappy grey weather.

kitty meant to say thank you so much for telling me about your grandmothers' reaction to your LO - I am going to visit next week and am really hoping she will react to him even if she has no clue as to who I am. Sorry for your bad night; can you catch up a bit today with a nap?

Waves to chef - when are you moving to your new place?

Talking of moving, maybe Spink hasn't been around for a while because she is busy sorting that out, waves to you if you are there!

Elkie amazed that C still fits in his moses basket!

dog Congrats on name change! I tend to use either my old name or my married name depending on situation! Glad Maddie (is that really her name?!) behaved - we all love a bit of sideways cantering . Might get out myself later if it's not raining. I am such a fair-weather rider! By the way we got an amazing write-up in the Washington post today, I will post a link if anyone is remotely interested.

Sorry for long post... having yummy coffee while LO sleeps. Oh, and bought a jumperoo on ebay for £40, picking up tomorrow!

Article about our riding centre here

with dd1 when a baby fell backwards out of seat once and banged head

bracken is in highchair now and 6mnths old today

Morning,

Feeling a lot better this morning, just a bit achey.

MissJ don't beat yourself up about it, as others have said, its a rite of passage, they all have a few bumps and its usually us that suffers most. Ds2 is constantly having bumps, its got to the point that his teacher thinks its an improvement if he's hit something other than his head! Remember a few weeks back? i almost brained Elizabeth on the butchers block when she lurched as I put her in her high chair, she was fine after a couple of minutes - I shook and cried with guilt on and off for two days!

Lovely article by the way, it looks like such an idyllic place. I would've been there like a shot as a teenager, but gave up riding after a nasty fall when I was 17. Spent half my life down at the stables until then.

Dog Elizabeth is exactly the same with the chomping and dribbling and she's waking between 4 and 5ish but not wanting to feed. Dh decided he would black the window out with cardboard last night in case its the light that's waking her, but she still woke up at the same time. Dh only decided to do that after he swapped sides of the bed with me when I was poorly in the night and it was him that was kept awake. He finally said last night that I must be exhausted if she's been doing that every night - erm, yes, I think I may have mentioned it to him a few times actually!

We have a crib from ebay that hooks onto the side of our bed. Its bigger than a normal crib, but smaller than a cot and only cost us about £40 plus delivery. The mattress it came with wasn't great though so we had a new one made for it for £19. They are shown on ebay with really horrible drapes, but we gave those to charity and bought our own bumper set. crib here mattress from here

I love it, can't recommend it highly enough, although we now have the 'spare' side slotted down between the bed and the crib (about 4 inches sticking up between me and her) as Elizabeth kept wriggling onto my side of the bed without me knowing about it.

Right, off to move the boys bedroom around.

Yay! happy half-birthday Bracken

Am a bit narked to hear medela is crap... I was about to buy an electric pump, as we're going to need plenty of ebm with ds' intolerance... ok- what is good?
I can usually get decent amounts out with my manual avent... but it takes so long, and is boring, and makes my hands hurt... want something a bit easier tbh.

missj wow- congrats on washington post piece!

eppm - i think an avent might be the way to go - the medlea is a bit fierce on the nipple compared to my manual avent....

dog - I think that's what I'm looking for! it'll be fine sterilised won't it?

what about this one

thanks dog, have now got that one on watch too...

anyone wants to try the Medela I'll send you mine but suspect I''ll have put you off with the word "fierce" ...