Sept 08: The End of an Amazing year

[Pacita]

Here we are: the thread that will see our LO's first birhtday...

Hurrah for af! Ponymum I have created a chart on excel which is pretty much the same (if not the same) as the one in the book, as the one in the book was a bit small. If you would like me to email it to you let me know.

Where's Hopefully? I haven't seen her for ages.

ILTMIMI spreadsheet... mmmm, yes please! You should be able to get me by clicking on contact poster, as I have signed up for CAT. If it doesn't work let me know.

I haven't subscribes to CAT and I'm too tight to pay a fiver, so I can't get hold of you that way.

Are you on our Sept 08 Facebook group? My initials are SG and I've got a grey top on and glasses on, and am holding ds.

Hello ladies, I am back from holidays. Help! I need a holiday!

Fortunately, DS is now fit and healthy, and seems to have grown up loads while he was ill. He is taller, sharper and cheekier, and a danger to himself and others! He has also developed the ability to screech in such a loud, penetrating voice that he paralyses the enemy into submission. Does anyone else have this problem, and how do you deal with it? I kid of fear encouraging this behaviour by complying, and letting him become a bully!

Happy birthday Fraser, Meredith, Alfredo, and I'm sure I'm leaving somebody out - happy birthday babies all!

Ponymum and ILTMIMI (and DG I guess too?? ;) ), loads of conception vibes your way. DP and I had a moment of "yeh, let's do it!" but we are both so knackered that the moment passed. I may be decrepit by the time we get onto it again...

Ladies, can I ask again about menus? What are your LOs eating now? I don't know if I'm feeding Diego enough, or whether I am stuffing his face. He just had a plate of vegetable stew and cous cous big enough for his dad! And I'm still giving him the cereal and fruit compote for dinner... I think I need to sharpen up my act...

Oh, and I forgot to wish star and debs the best of luck getting the best out of the system for their LOs

by the way, i cannot find any reviews for playpens in the reviews section of mumsnet. Are playpens frowned upon by the mumsnet community and I didn't know it? I was thinking my life will be very very difficult unless i buy one...

ye, - they are cages!

Seriously, - I wouldn't say they are frowned on but as always MN can have pretty strong opinions and some say that you whole house should be toddler-friendly and that you baby should be allowed to accompany you as you move from room to room etc.

I kind of see them like car seats myself. Essential, but you wouldn't leave a child in longer than is necessary for their safety.

We got the babydan, but it is now open and cuts off our kitchen.

I'm not TTC! I charted to get pg with ds and I plan to chart as a source of contraception.

Playpens - if your lo is happy in there, why not? There also very good for putting the baby in when you have a toddler tearing around the house.

We don't need a playpen as our house is quite small. We do have gates on the stairs and kitchen though.

Oh, and with the screaming I look ds straight in the eye and tell him no. If it is a 'I am having fun shriek' then I don't mind and let him carry on.

DS does NOT like being told no. He has a real paddy. I thought that wouldn't happen for a while.

LOL, I think I'll purchase a cage then, for my own safety!

I'll try the stern NO for the screaching ILTMIMI, I have had no success with whispering to counteract the screams. And sorry to assume you were TTC - you just sound so on the case!

pacita we have the babydan, and bought a second set of wall mountings so it can be across the kitchen (open plan) or lounge (good for containing large numbers of children) or in playpen mode, which someone suggested was a good idea to put dd and her jigsaws in there so ds can't come and ruin them! Not that he's moving yet . We got ours from ebay and we love it, just phoned up babydan to get the extra wall fixings.

ponymum I would email you my temp chart from ttc but its on the old computer! We created it quite quickly in excel - remember to do 0.1 degree incremements up the y axis and up to 45 days across the x. I used to take my temp first thing in the morning before getting up, and colour in the little square on my chart. I couldn't believe it when my temp actually went up when the books said it would! I charted for two months, and once I knew my body was behaving correctly I stopped charting and just waited for nature to take its course, which it happily did

dg

pacita I must be evil as I use one! Well I have the mothercare travel cot, and I keep it set up behind the sitting room door so I can pull it out when needed to use as an emergency 'safe place'. I use it maybe once every couple of days for situations like if I'm mopping the floor with bleach in the bucket, etc. I pull it out and put a selection of toys in with her, and she really enjoys it. Is that bad? I suppose because it is never for very long, and she can see out all the sides to watch whatever is going on, she finds it quite a novelty, pressing her face against the mesh and laughing. I am not sure what else I would do - shut her in another room? It seems much better for her to be where we can see each other. But call it a 'cage' if you wish.

ILTMIMI I am not on fb, so use this: j r p twelve (as a number) at [northern city with a large minster] dot ac dot uk. Cryptic enough for ya? (How paranoid am I about spam?)

Ponymum the mopping floor situation and other similar ones are exactly why I would like a temporary cage safe place!

FGS. I don't mop my floor. No need coz Baby Starlight just cleans up the crumbs etc.

Found her STANDING on the window sill a couple of days ago. She'd climbed up the back of the sofa and was in between the window and the blinds . I only noticed because they were rattling.

wasp that's hilarious! I thought mine was bad at climbing up things but hehasn't mastered that one yet!

pony the solution to where to put the baby while doing housework is just to not do housework.

Dh would be buying me a cage playden like a shot if he thought it meant I would do housework in the day !

I'm only off 2 days and have to make up the hours that I don't work on the other 3 so that I can collect DD1 from school etc and he still thinks I should be able to do everything in the time. I, however, think I should take M to toddler and music groups and to see my her friends

So Debi I agree with your no housework strategy (although why did I end up mopping the floor at 11.00pm last night )

M is saying 'no' so we have fun to come.

Another poorly baby here. Robyn is teething and for the last 3 nights she has had a temp. It seems to spike in the night and be down in the day. She has been on calpol and ibrupofen for the last 2 days so am at Dr's today. We haven't slept since Friday so I am shattered. At least DS is back at school today so we have some peace.
Starlight I had some advice for you re your ds but I am so sleep deprived my brain has pushed it out in favour of remembering which day it is. When I remember I will post it on.

Robyn is crawling after us all the time now so we are hving to put a gate up at the kitchen. I remember DS at this age getting upstairs through the stairgate. He was putting his toes round the bars like a monkey and climbing over. When we moved the gate on to the stairs he was squeezing through the bannisters(2 long planks) thinking he was really clever.
Robyn won't tackle the stairs yet, phew.

pony I have the mothercare travel cot as a baby prison playpen too! He only goes in it when I have to go out to the shed if its raining etc etc. Also very handy if I need to be on the phone without a little person shreiking and trying to wrench it from me!

Re: what MN approves of...I wouldnt worry too much. By rights I should have hounded off here years ago...I FF, use disposable nappies, jars of baby food and have a playpen....I am all that is wrong with the world...

Hello! Haven't caught up yet, just back from camping (in a campervan) in Holland, which was surprisingly not difficult with a baby, and lots of fun! Although I was horribly ill (thought I had flu, but it went away in about a day...) on the day of our friends' wedding, which was a pain.

We don't have a playpen, but mostly because we don't have the space - I can see that it would be a useful thing once T starts moving. I'm vaguely planning to make one room completely baby-safe (probably our dining room), and use that as the emergency baby dumping ground! He has started reversing when on his tummy, which when combined with the rolling/pivoting on his bottom skills, mean he is practically as mobile as a crawling baby! Much more comical though.

Welcome back hopefully - you were missed

It is M's birthday today! Hurrah.

We went to the zoo were everything according to M was a cat But he really loved seeing the animals. I was a bit at the size of the cages but they all seemed to be well looked after.

We then went out for lunch at got back home at dinner time in a sweaty mess as the day started cloudy and ended up being 26 degrees!

ponymum - I have taken a guess at your cryptic email address and hopefully you should have an email in your inbox

ILTMIMI Happy birthday for M

Starlight have had a nap so can remember what I was thinking of. We saw something on the news last year about milk and auitism. IT was about the different caseins and dairy intolerance. Apparently cows milk has A1 which we can be allergic to but Guernsey cows are A2 which autistic kids can digest. The other milks you can try are goats, buffalo and human milk. I noticed you were still expressing so thought it might be worth a think about putting DS on your green expressed milk.
just a thought, the full article should still be on Channel Five news.

Happy birthday M and all the other babies who have just celebrated their first birthday.

Debs I sympathise completely. We've had two hellish night on the trot and have blamed teething but she does not have a temp. I was thinking it was something viral as she had a little rash on her foot but that has gone now and we are left with grumpy, dribbly, snotty baby. No nursery today or tomorrow and MIL has been a star and looked after her instead. I am hoping for a decentish night tonight

ILTMIMI Happy birthday M! And thanks, I've got the chart!

It's DD's birthday tomorrow. DH and I had great plans to make birthday muffins tonight, but we are too tired! She's having some tricky nights.. teething? Anyway, we're exhausted. Maybe I can whip them up in the morning...

hello ladies, it's funny that we all seem to be having non sleeping babies. Since coming back from greece, diego has been waking up at night loads, and I've been feeding him at night for the first time since he was 7 months. God, I hope this is just a passing phase brought about by being ill and abroad...

Happy birthday M! And welcome back hopefully.

we're getting disturbed nights too - starlight, what's the theory?