October 08 - The race is on to be the first to walk!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

My money's on Q.

Short and sweet list this time.

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz
22nd Sept (Due 10th Oct) - Lozza70 - Boy - Sander Gene - 7lbs 5oz
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz
3rd Oct (Due 6th Oct) - Bethoo - Girl - Maia - 7lbs -
3rd Oct (Due 26th Sept) - purpleflower - Girl - Rebecca Jill Erzsebet - 8lbs 10.5oz
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz
9th Oct (Due 17th) - Marthasmama - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz
20th Oct (Due 16th Oct) - bigmouthstrikesagain - Girl - Polly - 8lbs 7oz
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz - Home water birth with gas and air.
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz
28th Oct (Due 31st Oct) - Jojay - Boy - Edward Alexander - 7lbs 7oz
31st Oct (Due 20th Oct) - KnickersOnMaHead - Boy - Samuel Paul - 9lbs 11oz
1st Nov (Due 22nd Oct) - SmudgeyDoodle - Girl - - 8lbs 2oz
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz

HMM- No idea about baby fancy dress I'm afraid. Asda did used to do nice halloween outfits for little ones but I had a look on their website but they all look like they are for older children.

While we are looking for clothes...am I being unrealistic to look for a pramsuit for J this winter? Mothercare has one blue one which is ok but not lovely. Mamas and Papas have a gun metal colour one which really isn't what I want and that is all I've found on the web. They mainly seem to be only up to 9months. Should I just be getting him a coat? Am thinking a pramsuit would be better as if we are out and about in the pram his legs might get cold. Blankets get kicked off so can't rely on those. Lost a perfectly good one somewhere in M&S today.

Evening ladies, I feel like sh*t this evening. We had a lovely afternoon at my sister's house with her family and my parents. After dinner I put S in his sleepsuit and gave him a feed. Straight after that he projectile vomited everywhere. Once he'd calmed down, I put him in the bath to clean him up. He was standing up trying to mess about with the taps so I thought I'd take him out. I turned around for a split second to pick up the towel and in that time he slipped over, went under the water and banged his head on the bottom of the bath really hard. Their bath doesn't have a mat and it was quite slippery from the emollient cream. He was so shocked and upset (as you would be). It was horrible and now I feel like a really crap parent. He's fine now of course but Dp's first reaction was to say "Did you let go of him?" in a really accusatory way. He's since said that either of us could have done it, but i feel rubbish. Sorry this is me me me. I'm going to bed.

aubergenie - ds has a big gash on his chin from yesterday morning, when he seemed to fall 2 inches and bang it on the floor - blood all over my nightie and his sleepsuit. Then today he bashed his mouth on the seat of a little ride outside Tesco that I sat him on because dd had had a go on it and cut his mouth. I think they are just at that accident prone age.

Rachie - get one of these. We bought one for ds in the sale at the end of last winter ready for this winter , and he's worn it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks already.

hmm - is there a theme for fancy dress (and who on earth does fancy dress for a 1 yr old's party?!)? We made ds' costume for the fancy dress party that he came to in July - could you do that?

Awww Aubergenie. I know how you feel and I know that anything I say won't make you feel any better. When M fell down the stairs DH and I instantly blamed each other. You didn't do anything wrong at all. Accidents happen and S is absolutely fine. I am very much of the opinion that they babies need to have a few incidents (minor ones of course ) to teach them about life & the consequences of their actions. S had a fright, but in the end that is all it was. He'll have forgotten by now. M doesn't go up stairs so much after her fall by the way!

Rachie - You can get pram suits in 12/18 months or you could look for a snow suit (same thing really!) instead. I got one for M when we were still planning on going to the US.

Hmm - M&S have Halloween outfits for babies. For girls there is a witch (booo, why always a witch?) or a unisex spider outfit. I figured that M has years to be a witch, while she is still young she is going to be a spider. Sainsbury's had a pumpkin outfit.

I am very tired and have forgotten what everyone else has said! I'm going to bed in a mo. Night night

Oh Aubergenie sorry to hear you've had such a crap day. It can happen to anyone but it must have been a shock to him and you. I'm sure DP didn't mean it, you know what it's like in the heat of the moment. You're an ace parent (and a domestic goddess to boot)

Oh CSWS, that romper suit is SOOOO cute! I could put Poppy in that with some bunny ears and she'd be sorted!

No theme CSWS and they're having non-compulsory fancy dress for both children and parents. I think it's a great idea actually, they'll all look really cute! I may even do it for Poppy's first birthday! Oh and me make Poppy a costume? Hahahahaha that's a good one! Yeah, just before I bake a cake to take along

Oh and I got the costume for DS's amusement more than anything else.

X-posts 50ft. I forgot to ask was a pram suit the same as a snowsuit so you saved me a question! I have 2 snowsuits that were given to us when Pops was born that she was way too small for last year.

I didn't really want to go down the halloween route if I can help it, it seems lazy. There's a fancy dress shop in town so I'll go have a look on Monday.

Crap Pops awake, laters.

Thanks for the reassurance ladies. I was a bit tired and emotional yesterday. You're right of course, there are going to be lots of bumps and bruises and it's all part of growing up.

I have to say, the thought of having to organise a fancy-dress outfit for S would probably send me over the edge at the moment. The thought of M dressed as a little chubby spider is very cute though.

It's this one Aubergenie. I can imagine S in the skeleton outfit......

M is currently entertaining herself climbing in and out of her Bumbo chair. I am giving it to one of the April 09 ladies (who is a lovely RL friend) and I think M is just trying to get her money's worth! I find it highly amusing that when I first got the Bumbo, nobody had heard of them & they could only be bought from Bump to three. Now they're pretty much an essential purchase. That makes me feel really old!

So teachers, talking to me about teaching..... For a while I have been weighing up whether to teacher or do midwife training. My concern is that if we decide not to have another dc, I have an op and then I regret it, that being a midwife might be a little hard, emotionally. I have heard that there is loads of paperwork with teaching but you ladies all seem to love it.

Are you thinking of primary teaching 50ft? It is a great job is so many ways - the children are great, you really feel like you're making a difference, every day is different and you feel like you're constantly learning, it's autonomous in that you are responsible for your own class, the holidays are fantstic (and very child-friendly of course)! The downsides are that classes are too big, the curriculum is over-loaded - we are expected to teach too much stuff in too little time, there is far too much paper-work, the hours are long (I start work between 7.30 and 8 and finish just before 6, I resolved not to bring work home, but have already failed at that this term), your children's results are continually srutinised and every school is terrified about Ofsted turning up on their doorstep. I do think it's very dependent on the school that you end up in. I'm lucky in that although I work in a very deprived part of London with all sorts of social problems, my school is a good one and the staff get a lot of support. There's a consistent approach to behaviour management which makes a massive difference. Other teaching friends of mine have been less fortunate. One was signed off with stress after a particularly nasty case of work-place bullying, another has got all a terrible stress-related skin problem that always goes away in the holidays.

Teachers are always moaning but I think I'd be hard-pressed to find a job that gives so much variety.

Unless you work in an american or international school in the UK .

Yes, I imagine your school experience is very different Star. Do you have an American equivalent to the National Curriculum or can you teach what you want (within reason)?

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about your poor ds's black eye Pistachio. On reflection, S has got away quite lightly so far hasn't he?

at your dh this morning MM!
'Friend' is no more.

Aubergenie - I have been thinking about it on and off for years! In fact when I did my degree I and the BEd was my second choice. I am well used to paperwork having been a civil servant (and a caseworker at that!) for 6 years and am definitely used to pressure of workload. I do want to do midwifery but I am worried the potential emotional impact and also the fact that I'll be nearly 40 before I even qualify. I'm so flakey!

Pistachio - I did have to laugh about you nearly drowning dd. It sounds just like us, did you immediately blame each other? When M fell down the stairs we each thought the other was checking on her. Glad poor T's eye is getting better.

CSWS - He is still fuming on your behalf! What a nasty bitch!

I would say that if you do decide to go ahead and do a PGCE, then it would be worth considering the part time option to fit better around your family. The PGCE is incredibly full-on and very hard to manage with children. I know someone who gave it up just before the final placement because she found the pressure on her family too much. One of the girls on my course got a TA job after finishing her PGCE so she could spend some time with her daughter as she felt she'd really neglected her during the course. If you go for the p/t option, you do need to be available full time for the placements, but the rest of it is only a couple of days a week which makes it much more manageable.

Star - your dp did the GTP didn't he? How did he find that?

50ft - It might be worth doing some volunteer work in a local school to get a sense of how things are on a day to day basis and whether you'd like it.

Yes, DH did the GTP and it was A LOT of work. He managed and he's now qualified. It's hard to find a school to sponsor you for it unless you want to teach secondary math or science in all honesty... he fell into a really lucky spot. PGCE is also pretty full on. His NQT year (this year) requires quite a bit of work as well, but not nearly as much as the GTP.
He teaches secondary History.

I agree - volunteer first and see if that's what you want.

In America, elementary/primary curriculum is not dictated by the national government as far as exactly what is to be taught as it is here. All states and districts reflect a similar "american" feel, but testing requirements, standards...etc. vary state by state. We have adopted standards from American and International School curriculum sources for Literacy, Math, Social Studies and Science. We have quite a bit of flexibility as to how we teach, but there is a curriculum that our school has adopted that we must teach. We use the Colombia University writing workshop model (Lucy Calkins), A reading workshop (if you read the book Reading with Meaning by debbie miller, this shows how we do that - and growing readers). We use Everyday Mathematics (lots of international schools use this now and most of America, funnily enough), we have a varied social studies curriculum that covers history in an "international" way, trying not to be american or uk biased... if that makes sense. well, it's all on the website... sorry to drone on... I find this stuff interesting but realize it's boring to most!!

Hey all csws saw your FB and she is not at all nice, good on 50ft and her DH

Had a party at my mums last night, it was her b'day and they had told me we were going out for a meal so got there to find all my friends in her living room they had arranged a party to cheer me up was lovely actaully. Off to get kids now as they stayed at in laws over night.

Did I ever mention that I trained as a secondary maths teacher?

Loving your post on my fb myjob!

Bloody hell CSWS - I've just read those fb responses! What a charmer!

I've just come back from my sister's house with a garden rocker/seesaw thing and an empty sand pit. S is probably too young for a sand pit isn't he (I'm thinking mouthfulls of sand)? I was wondering whether to fill it with balls or something. What do you think?