May '09 Fine and DANDY vive la difference! 3 months on and our babies and lives are changing.

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Well Dandy!!!!!!! Just for you after an annoying night

We put J upstairs with DD at bedtime after his night-time feed, well not with DD, she's in her room, and J is still in with us at the mo...we've yet to cross that bridge yet. Is everyone keeping baby downstairs with them until they go to bed? I did this with DD, but thing's/life was alot different back then, and our "routine" wasn't very good to say the least DP didn't get in from work till midnight at the time, so I kept DD up with me

Jael I put DS2 to bed upstairs now, as he was being disturbed by telly and stuff. S generally has 2 naps a day, maybe an extra one if they are short. The general rule is if his last nap ends after 3pm then he should be fine to make it through to bed at 7pm. If its earlier, he gets crabby around 5 so we take him out for a walk or something.

Today was difficult as he woke from his nap at 2pm, i had the school run at 3, went to asda after and picked DS1 up from nursery at 5, which prompted lots of screaming from DS2 in the car, and me getting very cross with DD for all her whining in Asda, and her refusal to put DS2s dummy in for him in the car . I was soooo cross i felt sorry for her (there was a tear on her cheek when we got to nursery).

Jael - if DH is out I like to keep H with me to keep me company. At the moment we're doing it because it's easier - H takes ages to fully go to sleep and this way there is no need for one of us (ie me) to be sitting in the bedroom & maybe letting the meal go cold. In a few weeks when he's getting too big to fit in the moses basket I'll try putting him straight in the cot a bit earlier.

H has hardly had any sleep today - one 'full' nap of 40 min and 2 of 10min. He's asleep again now & hopefully will do a decent stint otherwise he'll be grumpy at bedtime.

I looked at another post-natal thread and that was also bold - sorry to shatter your illusion Belgian!!

Spangle That's the main reason I kept DD downstairs with we when DP was workin lates when she was little, I wanted the company. We've still got J in his Moses basket too, think it may only stretch to another week or two though

Pula J doesn't have "naps" as such during the day, I can't say I know for definate that he's going to nap at a certain time. He has like 15 minutes here, half an hour here, and then 1 long sleep in the afternoon. So in the daytime he stays downstairs with us, and if he naps he naps in his moses masket downstairs, whereas, at night-time he goes straight down to bed, however this will all change in a week or two when he goes into his cot I guess when he does fall asleep in the day i'll just have to bring him upstairs?? I havn't worked that one out yet lol

Evening! A rare post from me after 8pm

we don't really have a routine except that a and I are usually tucked in bed by 8.30 most nights!

Swimming was fab. It's a local swim school but v sim to waterbabies from what I hear. A loved it and there were two mums I vaguely know from my village there which was great. Am really looking forward to next week

running those swimming lessons sound brilliant. I'm still

llare how's tummum doing?

I'm glad the swimming lessons went well Running. DS2 loves the pool.

Belgian, I'm sure Tummum will be able to tell you herself soon but she's fine and dandy!

Hellooooo! How weird, I just logged on and saw your message Belgian & Llare. Well my break from MN didn't last long . My new resolution is to only log on when DC are in bed and all jobs around the house are done, because I missed you guys.

Running swimming lessons sound fab.

Hope Moni got OK Ok at the embassy.

As for sleeping and routines we don't have one apart from bed time when DDs go to bed, I put G under the mobile and he normally pops to sleep or screams, depending on the day. Then, when DDs are in bed (about 7) I change him into bedtime gear, give him a feed then pop him in his cot, go downstairs and collapse on the sofa in a heap.

PS Llare rainhat was in the pushchair... I should have shown it off !

evening all! what's with the bold?!

Lots of talking, apologies for lack of namechecking but there's too much for me to catch up on so late.

Jealous of the swimming - I used to take DD1 but I can't take her now as I don't have anyone to look after A. I could take A on the days that DD1 goes to the CM, maybe I should investigate the creche at the leisure centre too.

Sleep/bedtime routine - I managed to work something out last week that is an improvement for both girls, but still not great:
5:30 - all eat tea (DH usually home, but not always
6:15ish - upstairs for bath. No TV between tea and bath. Get DD1 in first, then A. Wash etc. A out, dried and dressed for bed. DD1 ditto; A probably crying.
6:45ish - all on to my bed for stories and songs. A usually has a feed.
7:00ish - DD1 into bed; final songs etc
7:15ish - back downstairs with A for another feed.
And then this is where it all falls apart. A still feeds a lot in the evenings but still falls asleep whilst feeding, if I try to put her down though she wakes and is really cross. Eventually gets to a point where she will sleep, but no idea when it'll be, some nights it's 8pm, others it's 10pm. We really need to get her to sleep earlier as pretty soon she's going to have to go into DD1's bedroom as she's growing ot of the moses basket.

Daytimes are a bit random too - she'll usually have one long sleep (2+ hours) but sometimes it'll be in the morning, sometimes afternoon. Otherwise it's little naps here and there.

I really should go to bed. S has already woken and had a feed at 10.30 and DH is away overnight. I hope i have a good night- DS1 has already fallen out of bed once.

I might start taking S swimming especially now he's had his 4 month jabs and his "colic" has pretty much gone. He loves his bath so i hope he will enjoy it. I think there are sessions on Tues and Weds which is good as they are the days DS1 is in nursery. I used to be a member of a swimming club when i was aged 8-16 so want my DCs to be confident in the water. It's one of the things that is hard with more than one DC as they need 1-on-1 attention when they are very little.

morning everyone.. quick post before taking ds to pre school then i've got a morning without errands today

flippin our routine is almost identical to yours.. only differences are that ds does his bath in the am before pre school or in the pm when i bath G. we used to always do ds bath after dinner and before bed but he's going through an over tired phase before bed atm and it was just too much for him. G feeds evenings too and the time she drifts off to sleep varies like you.

Morning!

Loving this bold!!

Routines - I'm definitely with the let's wing it gang but then I only have one to deal with. I guess a routine may be even more important once you have more than one!

Swimming - Neither of my parents swim and as a result I didn't manage to swim unaided until I was 10yo and even now I don't really enjoy it and can't swim far. DH doesn't swim at all. I really don't want our inability to impact on O though so would like to take him but don't even have the courage (never mind the money!) to do a course. I spoke to one of my NCT friends and she said she and her DS would go with me and O in a few weeks once she's gained her confidence with her DS.

2nd of 4 post natal groups for us this morning. Then this evening, I have my first night out! It will be strange being away from O for a few hours but probably good for both of us and also good for DH as O and I are going away to York for a few days tomorrow! All v exciting!!!

Mornong everyone.

The bold thing seem to be continuing.

tummum Glad you're OK. Your new resolution sounds good. I should adopt it too. I've got myself RSS in my clicking finger from being on tinternent for too long each day

C's got her 3rd lot of jabs today. Poor thing. It's at my new surgery with the new nurse too, so I'm not sure how good/bad they are there.

ses Hope you'll have a lovely night tonight.

swimming I suppose I could take C during the day on my own, but I think it's always nicer when there are a few other babies about. Our local swimming pool is also very nice (slides and wave pool!), so I'd love to take all 3 swimming some time, but I don't feel comfortable taking all 3 on my own really, even though the 7 yo can swim and doesn't need hands on care.

My b*y cat has been really naughty last night. She's partly destroyed the tie backs on our landlord's curtains. I wonder how I can hide the damage. Then this morning she meowed to be let in at the back door, went straight through to the front door and meowed to be let out through there .

Right, and now following Tummum's example I will log off and not come back until this evening after all my chores are done.

I forgot: pula I hope your night went OK.

Ses, there is absolutely no need to spend money on a course. There is nothing to be gained from it at all. Just going to the pool for a splash around is fine for developing water confidence in babies. As they get older then of course a course of swimming lessons is worth it, but not as babies in my very humble opinion. Put it this way, I used to swim with a woman who went on to become an Olympic swimmer. She didn't start swimming until she was 6 years old, so no child will lose out if they don't go to Water Babies or whatever.

I'm trying to decide whether to walk to baby group or not. The sky looks ominously black and I haven't got a raincoat that fits nor can I find the raincover for the buggy. I also need to get to pre-school for noon so time is tight. I can't quite work out if I am being lazy or not.

The house is a tip but I've decided to worry about that tomorrow.

have a great time ses & very brave of you to take O swimming when you're not keen but i'm sure you'll enjoy it with O more than you think you will

Morning all,

Well my night was surprisingly good. DS2 stirred at 2.30 but i put his dummy in and that was enough for him and then he didnt wake until 5.30 . He had a REALLY big feed then, and was quite awake and we both struggled to go back to sleep, but think we did around 6.20. DD/DS1 woke at 7.20. I had to wake DS2 at 8.20 as it was time to take DD and DS1 to school and nursery. We were nearly late on DDs second day but we couldn't get parked nearby, then DS1 kept running off whilst i was trying to get DS2 out of the car. Just a shame we live about 2 miles from school otherwise i would walk.

Oh and next time, I will definitely get DS2 out of the car first- just wasn't thinking straight- DS1 is really bad for running off and he had his reins on but i needed 2 hands to get DS2 out.

ok.. had to boot up the laptop to check out the bold.. It was just normal on my phone. I wonder how long it will last for.

I loved the idea of waterbabies classes and we booked them for DS. They were expensive and we had to mpay for the whole term up front. He loved the first lesson, screamed through the 2nd and continued to have meltdowns everytime we went. I spoke to the instructor as he was the only baby to be so upset and she said she'd never had one that reacted as strongly as ds before and that ones who initially didn't like it ended up loving it. We tried switching to a different session just incase it was the noise of this particular pool he hated... so off we went to taunton. To cut a long story short... we gave up after 6 sessions as he got so overwhelmingly upset each time I couldn't bear it. I tried getting a refund for the remaining sessions but had no success with that either DS much preferred going to our local pool at a time it was really quiet and there was just me, him and hardly anyone else. I'd love to take G swimming but haven't got round to it yet.. maybe i'll take her when ds is in pre school one am.

Morning,
DD 2nd day of nursery today before she starts her proper sessions next week. So we've got to be ready to start walking by 12
She's amused me with two little comments this morning, the first being "Aww daddy must love you now mommy..." after seeing DP had bought some flowers for me lol and the secong being "Mommy, did you hang the washing on the airer?" to which I replied "No darling" DD says " I thought it must of been daddy anyways, because all the washing is inside out and you don't hang it like that..." lol she's 3 and a half! I can't believe she notices things like the washing on the airer! I feel a little that I may be passing certain things on to my daughter though. I welcome DP help, but he wouldn't think to turn the washing the right way before he hangs it on the airer to dry, whereas that it one of my many pet hates lol

hello everyone

It's been a while since I've been on, have just about managed to catch up on all the news - very interested in the bedtime routines and the swimming.

Belgian how annoying about your cat. That's what worries me about renting with animals - oh well!!

We've been very busy looking at houses to rent in Cumbria. We've seen one we really like and have applied for it but I know someone else had already asked for the forms so we'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed it might work out in our favour, not sure I fancy living with my mum and dad!

One of our dogs, Jester, had an argument with some barbed wire also at my mum and dad's on Saturday morning - cue emergency vet's appointment, general anaesthetic and lots of stitches. He'll be fine but is very sorry for himself. Sigh. (PS Yes, Grumpy he is insured - thank goodness! he is wearing a lampshade collar which is merely adding to his general air of gloom.)

We had our NCT reunion on Sunday which was great fun.

Felix is doing well but the HV referred him to the GP re head circumference; I went today expecting to be sent away with a clean bill of health but the GP has referred him on to the paediatrician. I'm not hugely worried though as the GP said he seemed bright and bubbly and there were clearly no developmental issues.

why's it bold?! I do not LIKE it!

ReeBee - sorry to hear about the paed referral. Hope it comes through soon so you can get it off your mind.

I don't know how you lot with 2+ DC get anything done. I seem to have lost the ability to do stuff with just the one! I think it's because he's not slept much in the day so far this week combined with the new ability to roll over meaning I can't leave him: our living area is upstairs with the stairs leading directly into the living room, and yesterday I popped down quickly to fetch the post to find he'd rolled over twice towards the stairs I've been nagging DH to find a solution to the stair problem for a while (a normal stairgate won't do as it's open on 2 sides, plus there's a gap under the bannisters). I'm considering a playpen to use in the meantime though I'm not sure where it's going to go!

Spangle- travel cots make good playpens, they are cheaper and of course, can be used as travel cots when you go away, and can be folded up quite compactly and easily when not in use.

Reebee- sorry to hear about your referral- is it because his head circumference is big or small? What could it mean developmentally- sorry to be a bit dumb about this. And sorry to hear about your poor dog- sounds painful.

Jael- your DD certainly sounds very bright and observant. I find my DD has an amazing memory for things- its just amazing what LOs absorb and remember.

Afternoon all . Rubbish night's sleep for me being woken up by DS & DH so am having a stay at home/lazy day and enjoying some peace and quiet before DDs come home from school. Am also excited that my ebay bargain of a coat for G turned up this morning, like this one. I Love it !

Spangle - I second Pula's suggestion. Might also be worth looking at BabyDan play pens like this one as you can be quite flexible with how you arrange the bars. I bought one off ebay and used it for a fire guard in our old house.

Reebee- sorry to hear that the GP was not as reassuring as you hoped, although good to hear the GP was happy with development so far. Hope the paed takes one look, and signs you off

Anyone got any matchsticks to keep my eyelids open? I feel like the newborn days today !