Fab Feb 2009 - hey ho, hey ho, its off to babyproof we go...

[dinkystinky]

off we go again

Oh Dinky - sounds like you are having a lack of sleep nightmare, my sympathies. 3 hours was our average sleep for most nights in the first 4 months, but at least I didn't have to go to work then.

Not been on for aaaages - how are you all? I have only read the last page but will do some catch-up homework later tonight. I've been really busy trying to cram everything in before I go back to work next week, and DH has been away loads and keeps taking the sodding laptop with him. I think work should provide him with one - it's been lonely here!!

I'm on the final countdown now to back to work and I'm finding it all a bit overwhelming. Today is the first day that both DD and DS are at the childminder all day - I was a wreck leaving Sam . Seemed much worse than when I left Orlena. I think it's because we had such a rough start with Sam and I really struggled - now he's gorgeous and my little buddy and I feel a bit lost without him. Then there's actually doing the job - what if I can't get my brain in gear? Anyway, we'll deal with all that next week....

Had a difficult weekend staying at a friend's house while DH was away. Her children are a little bit older than mine, and she's never been a routine person - her kids just eat and sleep whenever. My two are in pretty rigid routines (Orlena less than Sam) and I kept explaining when Sam needed to be fed and sleep etc, but it all just went out of the window and Sam spent most of the time screaming withhunger or tiredness. Plus, I couldn't operate her stairgates, her kitchen had locks on every door and drawer and the dining room was at the opposite end of the house to the kitchen. Anyway, it all got on top of me and I spent alot of time in tears so I'm a bit worried i'm not fully over the pnd.

Allergy weaning still in full swing here - next dietitian appt in December so we'll try Sam on a bit of wheat just before that, then dairy nearer to a year. I'm so hopeful that this wil all pay off and Sam will be allergy free!

Sorry for selfish post - I will catch up with you all. Just had a call from the childminder - Orlena has a temperature so not sure my day home alone will be much longer.... Oh, and the childminder has recently told me she's pregnant - aaaaarrgghhh.

Re Ironing, I'm really rubbish at it and you can't even tell most of the stuff has been ironed so I really don't know why I bother, honest to God, our clothes look better before they've been ironed!
Rosie I use a rubber bib with the pocket for Luke and he still gets food everywhere! I did buy one of those long sleeved plastic ones, but Luke didn't seem to know how to move his arms in it! (Clearly gets his brains from his mother)
MS lol at the image of you brushing F off outside
Katie I do have a sewing kit, but again I am rubbish at sewing so I tend to save things for when I see my mum or just throw things away

Luke has been pants with his naps the past 2 days. He has been a bit stubborn. Ds1 was and is the same.

dinky Really don't know how you are doing it. I had 2 bad nights and was nearly in tears yesterday wanting a nap, I wouldn't last too long if I was working too. It will pass soon and all of this will be a distant memory.
My downstair's neighbours baby is like D then. He is up and playing between 11pm and 3am. I hear them every night and the mum told me she gets him up and feeds and play through that time so she gets to sleep until about 11am.

STW Sorry you've been a bit lonely We could have met up in Kingston again.
Being out of a routine that you have all worked hard to get into is tough, it happens everytime we go to dp's sisters and it bugs the hell out of me, it doesn't mean you are not over the pnd, it might just have more to do with hating that horrible noise the lo's make when they get upset.

I'm going to try to get on FB again now.....

Dinky Al and I are sending Danny some sleepy vibes. My thoughts are with you. No sleep and working is no joke as my DH keeps telling me
My problem is I just don't hear Al wake so DH, the world's lightest sleeper, ends up doing the dummy run or whatever he can to settle the baby without waking me or DS1.

Ironing? I love it. My escape every other Sunday is to the spare room where I get on down to some serious ironing and watch a lot of crappy tv. Everything, apart from undies gets a blast of steam.

BLW is not really happening here - although I did get a better high chair (IKEA) in the end. I just don't have the confidence that Al would eat enough if I wasn't spooning it in. He does get finger food snacks though.

Not back to work until mid Jan but it is starting to creep up quite quickly now. I think it will be OK as I'm happy in my job and I've got childcare I'm confident in. I'm getting the house valued on Thursday as we're tentatively thinking about moving once I go back to work. Our house was always big enough before Al came along but now we're feeling pushed for downstairs space and there's no room to extend.

Wots up with FB today? Are you all still posting on there too?

pluto that's how I felt at the start, that Luke wouldn't get enough food if I wasn't spooning it in, but now I think he does, and when he gets ratty, I just give him a bottle.
I spoon fed ds1, but BLW is working for us this time.

Ds1 is ready to potty train. He has been tellig me for a few days when he needs a wee, so starting now. Not sure how to go about it though. My plan was to go straight to the toilet as the potty looks so uncomfortable and is quite small, so he can't even get his willy in it! Plus it is just an extra step isn't it? Potty to toilet when I could just go straight to the toilet?
I sat him on there a while ago and he went rigid and screamed. I have an insert to make the hole smaller and he still screamed. But the minute I stood him back on the floor and told him if he needed to wee, he'd have to just wee, he wee'd all over the bathroom floor.
I've suggested to dp that if he culd sit on the toilet for a while and tuck his in to wee and take ds1 with him (and me when I go) he might get the hang of it?????

What did you guys do?

pluto I haven't been able to get onto FB all day. spotty is having trouble with MN so she is posting on our group page there.

I am now off to read the archieves on potty training. What an interesting evening \i sm in for!

I'm like that too, Pluto. I do sometimes hear her, but more often than not it's J that gets up with her. She is still in our room though, as we haven't got ourselves organised enough to sort out her room .

I'm good at ironing, and I don't mind it, but I just don't have time. At the moment, I just wear non-iron clothes (luckily my work are really relaxed and we mostly wear jeans and a nice top). J wears a suit, shirt and tie to work, but he irons his own shirt in the morning while I feed M.

Rosie - we BLW, and she's pretty good at not messing up. We roll up her sleeves and tie a muslin round her neck like a huge bib, and then use a tommee rubber pelican bib over the top of that. We have a plastic sheet underneath the high chair to catch most food, and I tend to drape a muslin over myself as well!

We've just stated a new routine with only three bottles, and that has resulted in two longer naps (rather than three naps). Only the second day, but really hope that it improves her night time sleeping too!

Hope you are all well - lbb I had to do a test a few weeks ago too! Was really torn between wanting to see the line and not see the line! Have to dash - J just got in from work and said he wants to take his two girls out to dinner. First time feeding her solids in a restaraunt, so am a bit nervous, but so hungry!!!!

PSL Hope the BLWing in public goes well.
I did get a few odd looks in pizza hut the first time I took Luke, but that might have been because he ate more than ds1! lol

We have DS in our room still, as we need to build him one, basically. Until our loft is converted we have only 2 bedrooms, the girls in one, us 3 in the other.

The building regs are dragging on, our neighbours on one side are objecting, etc., and in the mean time ... things are not really hot hot hot in the Coco household. Marvelling at all these pregnancy tests being waved around. Blimey you lot are unstoppable.

Ha, have managed to batter the numpties into submission on my deal, hurrah! Good to put my bad temperedness at lack of sleep to good use

STW - sorry you're feeling low; its always a stress when you're somewhere where they deal with their kids in a totally different way which throws your kids (but makes coming home to your own space so much nicer!) and I know well the going back to work blues. It will be fine when you're back at work though so try not to let it cast too great a shadow over your last few days off. And Sam will still be a brilliant little fellow when you're with him. Hope O is ok and her temperature has gone down. And aargh re your childminder being pregnant - does that mean you need to start the search now for a new minder or do you have a bit of breathing space?

PSL - hope you had a nice meal out with M. Her table manners are obviously much better than Danny's! Though we do resort to the muslin round neck and lap approach when eating out with Danny - that and giving him foods that cant splatter too much.

Pluto - wierdly my DH is a light sleeper but I'm always the one woken up by the kids. Prekids I used to be able to go to sleep deeply in the most unusual and noisy places (thanks to spending 6 months doing environmental work sleeping in the middle of a jungle in Tanzania)- sadly is a skill I have lost.Hmm, maybe I could persuade DH to let me go back to Tanzania for a few months to rediscover this magical ability

LBB - hmm, am hoping to return Danny to the nights being for sleep and days for play mentality I've worked so hard to drill into him. Really couldnt do what your neighbour does (even if I didnt have work to go to). Re potty training - little boys are terrified of the big loo so I'd start with the potty if I were you (baby bjorn ones or throne like potties are good for boys) and then work up to the loo and standing up wees. DS1 now mostly does standing up wees but loved his potty. Not that keen on sitting on the loo unless to poo. Oh and star charts for wees are a great idea.

up with snotty baby

well done on the deal, dinky. v impressed with your juggling skills, particularly on no sleep for weeks. It will get easier.

Thanks dinky.
Will look at baby bjorn potties.

Must feel like a giant game of sardines at some points in your house Coco! Dont get me started on building regs and planning permission - just found out last week that the permitted development application we got approved last year to do work to our house has been overturned due to change in legislation so its back to the drawing board and ongoing battles with Brent council jobsworths... sigh... Hope you get your approvals through soon though. Are you hoping to put one or two bedrooms up in the loft? DH and I have agreed that we're not going to try for no 3 (yup, the nocturnal habits of my little insomniac havent quite put us off the idea) until we've done the house up (or at least the main bits) so we're hoping to get it sorted during the course of next year. Hope R is better now and you managed to get to bed shortly after your post.

P.s. Nanny managed to get 11oz of milk into Danny yesterday and he was only awake for one and a half hours in the night from 2 last night (which I think may be a reaction to me going to work as he just wants company - will hopefully pass) so result! Feel semihuman today..

We have this potty for DD downstairs.....its great for sitting and watching TV on and easy to empty. Have cheap ones upstairs in bathroom and her bedroom and this for going out.

Dinky.......that's good news about the sleep.....perhaps he is turning a corner?

LMN Thanks
They don't make it easy with all these different designs do they? And potties are so expesive!! Am shocked!
Did you go cold turkey?
Think we will. Will start on saturday which gives us these next few days to get a potty/padded toilet seat, stock up on a few days food, get some books and spend some time talking about it and to mentally prepare myself lol.

fingers crossed LMN - though as far as I can tell even the good nights' sleeps are only a phase at this age too...

we have

this potty

very comfy

and most importantly Coco very easy to clean!

Yes sort of cold turkey......its been around for ages and we always encouraged DD to sit on it in the evening when watching ITNG and then last Monday week, she was bare bummed as I had to deal with DS and to my surprise she took herself to the potty and done a wee and a poo, so I seized the moment! She hasn't worn a nappy since. Bare bottoms definately help and constant access to the potty. Asking for it, comes later. When out, she sits on it at every opportunity. Before getting in the car, when we get there etc and I'm careful not to let her sit in the buggy with a drink. So far, so good.

Lots of praise (and stickers).

Good luck x

Dinky.....I'm sorry if I am stating the obvious here but I've FF my E from day 1. He is a real PITA to bottle feed atm as there is always something more interesting going on and he spends most of the time trying to bat the bottle out of my hands, bites on the teat spraying milk everywhere etc. The only time he takes a lot is when he's really hungry. But, if I lay him down flat....cot, floor, swinging chair whatever.....he takes a lot more. I know its not natural really, but he really takes so much more this way. After his last feed of the day in his cot though, I lift him up, he does a huge belch and then goes to sleep . He also prefers his milk at room temp (which took me ages to get my head around).

Just ignore me if I'm bleating and talking rubbish

Thanks LMN - will try the lying down thing at the weekend. At the moment its more like trying to bottle feed an octopus! Have tried room temperature formula on Danny - he will not go near it and will only have it if its really quite warm, pernickety little thing that he is... He's pretty good at going to sleep after his evening BF its just the middle of the night ones he wants to play after....

morning all... I need a slap and a great big one... i am feeling really really broody (sp?) and am thinking that 3 would actually be nice!!! ..

There are several problems with this:

1. Mark will say we can not afford it, and the other two will suffer
2. I dont think I will cope with three (but then again I didnt think I would cope with 2)
3. We own a mid terrace 2 bedroom cottage with a communial footpath at the back so little room to extend, and we couldn't afford to move
4. I had an awful pregnacy with owen
5. I had two horrific labours and dont think i could do it again
6. Owen doesn't sleep and did i say Mark will say no anyway......

bumps same here. lol

On the potty training, how long did you guys stay indoors for?
I want to start before I chicken out, but we have to go out on friday, so shall I wait til the weekend or just keep taking him to the toilet and the travel potty whilst we're out?

LBB I potty trained Jessica a week after her second birthday. We didn't alter our plans at all so if we went out then we still went out iyswim.... However we gave up after failing too much and she clearly wasnt ready!! ... Started again when she was 26 months and it was much better this time.....

I used pull em ups but treated them as knickers for the first week. So they were big girls knickers. The second week we put her in knickers (lots of accidents and frustration). The third week she asked for peppa pig knickers and has been dry since both day and night....

Good luck... My advice is if he is ready he will do it if not then he wont dont force it and keep calm.....

another problem about getting pg again would be that I am too old (36 in december) and I have no income as I have no job so wouldn't be able to help with household bills....