April 2009 - Chapter 5 - The one where no-one is allowed to feel guilty (except about all the chocolate...)

[Guimauve]

There will be chocolate fines for the guilty!

thanks Jumjane. I was just wondering. I've done blw before but not known at the time there was a label for it. I think I'm just a little worried I've done it wrong (not that I knowq how)

swali I think anyone who'd tell me to wean Sam now is to scared to I've told off that many busy bodies well meaning people that they don't bother. Someone did ask me recently if Sam was ok as 'babies should cry and he doesn't do it often' You can't win for losing!

jj if dd will stay still you could try filing[sp?] her nails down. Works a treat for Sam

NoGuiltButMightJustFeelSomeForTheChocolateTiggaxx

It is pretty much common sense with or without the fancy name isn't it? Haven't found a flaw in the reasoning yet, though still irrationally dreading telling our rather traditional doc that this is what we're doing. Have your blw DCs proved to be good or fussy eaters since?

Hahahaha, i can hardly see the screen for laughing , M just made herself jump with an impressive display of synchronised burping and farting. Hahhaaahaha

Filing, dur, I never even thought of that, thanks Tigga

Two rashers or three?

3 please - I'm watching my figure

Anyone elses schedule now a bit out of control?

Monday - Rhyme Time - every 2 weeks and walk of about 30 minutes
Tuesday - nothing thank goodness!
Wednesday - Baby Cafe every other week pm and baby yoga every morning
Thursday - Jo Jingles am and Puddleducks pm
Friday - walk with friend around a lake

In between all of this I fit in a bit of cleaning and remembering to eat something that isn't chocolate!

GladSheHasADiaryOrShe'dNeverKeepItStraightTiggaxx

erm I sometimes go to mums and tots on a thursday afternoon

oh yeah swimming on monday morning

I seem to spend my life walking to/from school/playgroup

Ah, but bronze I only have the one! So he's the only thing I have to do. I tell you I did less before he was born!

VeryBusyScheduleTiggaxx

I did no groups when I had one what on earth did I do with my time?

hello all, hope everyone has had a nice Sunday.

Quick question to those of you with tummy tubs: are you still using them? A wouldn't sit in his, and tended to stand up, with his arms around the rim like some louche bloke posing at the edge of a swimming pool. I've now put him in DS1's old bathtub.

DS1 has a stinking cold coming on. Fingers crossed it's not swine flu (such a horrible name, the French call it "grippe A", which is less porcine).

Hello all

No tummy tub here Auld, sorry, but we no longer use Orbit's bath seat, as he's too wriggly, I just swish him about in the big bath, or hold him in a sitting position. That reminds me, must get a new non slip mat, the last one went horribly mouldy and we never replaced it as DS1 was big enough not to slip over. How does one stop them going mouldy? I always hung it up to dry, but it still went all black underneath. Ergh.

bronze the BLW book is mostly common sense, but it is quite interesting. But also quite expensive. The library might have it, though? As for doing it 'wrong' the first time - if your children are alive and well and eat food then you can't have gone too far off track, let's face it

Went to kite festival today, we took both boys and the Kari Me sling and the Little Life backpack carrier, but no buggy. Hard work, it's quite a walk, and we were chop and changing - sometimes Orbit in Little Life and DS1 walking, sometimes Orbit in Kari Me and DS1 in Little Life. Kari Me was great for Orbit to sleep in, it still definitely has its uses even though he weighs a ton now. Haven't mastered the hip carry in it yet though, must study their little diagrams on the website a bit more.

Must go and do ironing. Sigh. Orbit is in a new nappy/wrap combination tonight following lots of advice on my other thread, fingers crossed for no leaks as we had two last night.

Gave our Tummy Tub away because I didn't get on with it at all. Just lie Felix in the bath without anything now - works OK.

Tigga I used to have a social whirl such as you describe, but it went a bit pear shaped when DS1 went off to preschool. Hoping to rebuild again now with E.

WFH Kite festival sounds amazing. Fingers crossed on nappy combo.

Not really caught up. Still exhausted, still a completely shite mummy but now with added adipose tissue. I seem to have put on 3kg with stress eating I'm sure I shall perk up eventually, but at the moment I'm desperate for winter to start so I can put my meaty arms away.

I'm still using the tummytub though we do play the stand up sit down splashing game

wfh is he in a vest at night?

No, just a babygro and sleeping bag. Thread here

Hi all, hope you all had a great weekend.... can't believe I step away for a few days and the thread is almost full!!

I must read it when I have a free week

Oh, yeah, nearly new thread time again! Nutty should be back in time to give it a dirty, filthy title!

Congratulations on the successful operation, MrsG - that is really great news.

We still use the tummy tub but we also use the big bath sometimes too - just as it is, no inserts or anything.

Very flat weekend for me here. Just too tired. DP spent a lot of time with V to give me a break which makes me feel doubly crap for not being able to pull myself together. I have stopped the morning expressing for the freezer to try and get some energy back. Totally feebly cried at the bottom of the stairs last night at the thought of having to go up them. Shoot me now.

Auld, how is the milk thing going - any progress? That sounds like the biggest pita ever.

JJ, sorry I missed the bacon - would have really hit the spot. I am thinking of BLW too but I am wondering if it delays the time when they are taking in significant amounts of food, and in that case if she will need formula when I am at work in Jan - or would she need it anyway? I don't know about expressing at work.

Feeling weary these days, I wonder if this is a common time for a dip for mothers.
Maybe I should have a blood test like Bebe! Although I was anaemic before and I don't feel like that. Just very very tired.

We don't use a tummytub either. When Sam first came home we used the sink as he was sooooo tiny! Then we used his bath a couple of times but that wasn't really practical so he's been in the big bath since about 8 weeks old and loves it. He can't stand showers though!

OffToRhymeTimeTiggaxx

gingersarah whichever way you do V will still need quite a lot of milk at that age - this is from BabyCentre:

"by his half birthday he'll typically be down to three or four bottles of 7 to 8 ounces each every day. He'll likely remain at that three- to four-bottle pace until his first birthday." (That's talking about formula, but it gives you an idea).

When DS1 started nursery he was on formula in the day and bf morning and evening, which worked really well for us. No expressing for me, and he still got the benefits of 2 bf a day.

However you wean, solids should be gradually replacing milk but won't completely replace it until she's a lot older. Of course at 12 months V can have cow's milk, which makes life lots easier.

Tiredness doesn't sound normal to me - do you think it might be a good idea to see your GP and get checked out? It sounds a bit extreme, even for someone with a small baby to contend with. Sending you some high energy vibes

Ginger, I'm exhausted too. Went to the chemist a while back for some iron pills and the girl said I should go to my GP instead as taking iron when you don't need it is bad for you. I can't face the queue in the surgery, so had done nothing. Today I went and spent a fortune on special multivitamin and iron pills for PG and BFing ladies, with 100% of the RDA of iron in. Will see.

The expressing is absolutely knackering me. I've given A 2 bottles of expressed and scalded milk today, so will see how they go. I expressed quite a bit yesterday and DH someone knocked over the brimful Avent pot in the fridge and spilt it all so there was nary a drop left. Finding the puddle was like seeing some precious treasure trampled underfoot. At the moment I'm not at work much as it's resits and meetings mainly, but I think that when classes start up at work and I'm in 2 long days I may just cave in a give Alex formula in the day if I haven't enough expressed milk, and feed him when I can. Not sure my body will understand, but TBH I never seem to get that really overfull feeling, so maybe it'll work out.

On another note, DH kindly looked after the kids so I could go to the cinema on Sat afternoon. His suggestion. I saw The Reader and found the cod German accents really distracting. Why? If they were going to speak English, surely that's utterly artificial anyway, so they could just have used their normal accents? Why speak in fake German-accented English?
I did feel like soothing Ralph Fienne's troubled brow a lot.

Ooh, and thanks for the tubbytub feedback. If the 3 baths in this new house weren't (a) covered in paint; (b) so limescaled it'll rip the skin off you and (c) in a room where there is no hot water, I'd shove Alex in one of them. As it is, I'm sticking to the plastic bathtub for the moment, and mopping up tidal waves as he kicks like nobody's business.

tubbytub??? where is my brain?

Auld - sorry to hear about the milk spillage - is there a French saying equivalent to "no use crying over spilt milk"? If he had said that would you have hit him?

Maybe you are shattered because you have 2dcs and a job... I hope the vitamins do something for you. I have no idea what is normal and what not.

Thanks WFH. I will give expressing a go but it might have to be formula.

Tried on some clothes today and I am not quite as grossly fat in them as I expected. On the other hand, the clothes themselves are seriously naff.

Trying to do the couch-to-5k thing I did a couple of years ago - gosh it was so easy then, now I can hardly run at all.

Ginger, fortunately the French equivalent is "ce qui est fait est fait" or I would indeed have bopped him one. Although actually if he had trotted out such a trite notion, even without the milk allusion, I'd probably have swung for him!
Why are you trying on naff clothes? Because the shops are full of naff 1980's revival clothes? Or is there a deeper reason? You need something nice to boost you, I reckon. There's no way you can feel positive about motherhood, I have decided, if you don't treat yourself to a few clothes to make you feel better about yourself.

You could well be right about the causes of my tiredness. I am a little worried about what is going to happen when I actually start teaching again. On Fridays I have three high-level translations classes more or less back-to-back, with an hour's lunch break in the middle which will doubtless be given over to solving Erasmus problems. I then have to rush back to get the 2 kids, bring them home and do supper, baths and bed. I am not entirely sure what state I'll be in by the end of Friday evening!

Tell me about couch-to-5k. What is it?

I have just discovered Bonne Maman little chocolate muffins, and am in danger of overdosing. You have been warned...