March 2009 - The crawling / walking / talking race is on . . .

[jollyjoanne]

the new thread for March 09 mummies

Loli that is encouraging news. here's hoping you won't need the induction after all. I hope all goes well, keep us up to date if you can manage...tis very exciting!

xxx

39+6 today which feels v bizarre because on the first of March this year I had James - at 39+6!

In a little under 6 hours I'll be 40wks. Fed up is now a pretty epic understatement. About 8 mins between contractions at the mo so progress is being made but they're still just about talkable through and I can get through them reasonably ok if I crouch/squat a little and tip my head back (for some bizarre reason, don't remember that from last time around)

Still have my jan 1st induction but praying I won't need it. Doubt I will but my luck has a habit of draining at the most inappropiate of times!

Hang in there loli! Maybe you'll have one 2009 baby and one 2010 one...

Bit of news here, Gabriel took 5 steps today (holding onto my hands)at 10 months and 1 week.

Loli fingers crossed for you, hope it all goes OK and the two new babies make their way into the world as smoothly as possible.

OOOh does that make gabe the first walker? That is impressive.

I was also pretty chuffed today at Mae managing to pull herself up to standing on her own today, although she has done it before never while I've been watching - which is juat typical! But no sign of walking yet. Feel a bit , but sure I will be over it soon.

No idea jolly he can't pull to standing (or sit up from lying down) yet but if put on his feet and supported he always walks now, is very funney as he's fine with right leg then obv has to think about his left and you can see him thinking 'why do I have two of these, aaaargh!'.

Ooo! I wonder what's happening with Loli - hope it's going/gone well and that you avoid that induction .

I must big up my little man here. He'll be walking unaided by 10 months, I reckon. He is cruising, can get on his feet without any help from me or furniture and trots along if you hold his hands.

It is utterly terrifying! I spend my life dashing across the room as he stands - a beacon in a sea of hard floors - although, touch wood, he has only fallen on his bum so far.

I can see that the [even more] active stage of parenting is about to begin. He is into everything, which is a nightmare as we have moved into house which is still a tiny bit of a building site, so there are lots of no-go areas.

Treasure those stationaryish days, people .

Oh and, MissMod, thanks for the Antilop tray reassurance.

Wow, lots of walking action! I think we're a little way off that yet - M is too comfortable and too good at crawling. Her big sis was the same - didn't walk until 14 months!

I must say that I'm looking forward to M walking - she's getting a bit too heavy to chug around in my arms all day and in this cold weather it would be nice to be able to take her to the playground and her not be crawling around in the dirt.

More sleep misery here - M has a cold which seems to render her unable to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a stretch. When she's better I'm determined to get her into a proper daytime nap and bedtime routine, with none of this co-sleeping constant feeding malarkey. But it seems cruel to adopt it while she's feeling poorly. Then again, I'm so sick of moaning about how sleep deprived I am.

Loli keeping my fingers x'd for you.

Hope everyone has a jolly new year - we're off up north visiting friends.

yarnie yay for Spike, he sounds very advanced.

loli any news?

Missmode - I am with you in the sleep deprived misery. He is waking almost every night now, but always at different times and for a different reason each time (seemingly) Arrrrghhhh! He was quite poorly over the holidays and same as you, I really don;t want to start some sleep-training regime while he is feeling ill. I don't know if they work, tbh, if you read up enough threads and speak to enough mums...Good luck and know you are not alone and feel free to moan

Loli, good luck to you too. See, I am tired uncreative and can only say 'good luck' but it's sincerley meant.

We had a very quiet Xmas and New Year, just missing the folks in SA, but it has been wonderful to spend time with DH. And Ben loves the attention! He is also cruising all over, and he can crawl at breakneck speed especially if he spots a cat! He's becoming more assertive each day and babbles away all the time. He is still king of naps, at the moment having a monster nap of 3,5 hours...will go and wake him because, seriously?!

And what do you do to keep busy in the snow? Well, we've still got loads of snow here in Skotland.
Bye!

Happy New Year everyone...

colds all round in the kanga house too. Yuk yuk yuk. Lo had a fever this morning, just my luck as first day back to school, up early busy morning etc and she only wants to be held. She seems ok for now though.

loli any news on the twins' arrival???? waiting here with anticipation....are you home yet? did all go well?

Our lo is cruising too and crawls fast, and in fact is looking for me now, must go!

xx

MissMod We are also mired in sleep misery. We have decided to try and knock the night feeds on the head as he has been taking a fair amount of his milk quota at night. Consequently, I was up 8 times last night doing shushing, patting, repositioning (and rocking, where necessary), etc. Tonight is night 6 of no feeds, I think.

We have had some better nights, but are hoping we can at least get back to only a couple of awakenings, which is what we were on before.

I am feeding him up and encouraging him to BF during the day and I'm pretty sure he's not hungry when he wakes now, as he settles fairly easily. But still, all the sojourns from bed are taking their toll. I feel pretty rotten today and have a sore throat and headache.

We're sticking at it for 2 weeks before we reassess, although if it doesn't improve - what then?

I'm going to be a mess in 2 weeks...

What are other people trying to get their LOs to sleep through? I am determined that our approach will involve as little crying as poss.

I feel really quite spoilt, Mae is sleeping from 10 through to about 7 most days and is only waking once or twice during the night. Normally just shoving her dummy back in is sufficent to get her to go back to sleep. But every so often she refuses to go back in the cot so we have to have a cuddle with mummy and daddy and wait for her to get back to deep sleep before even contemplating getting her back into the cot. These nights can be really draining but I think they are mostly related to her feeling under the weather or the teeth coming through.

Also wondering how Loli is getting on. Although presumably she has her hands rather full with 3 little ones!

Yep and yet more colds here, we just seem to shake one and then we are all over come with another. And Mae really does not like having her nose wiped, which means an almost constantly snot covered baby!

Hope all is ok Loli.

Sleep wise Robbie sleeps 6.30pm to 7am with no waking. But it has taken 3 children to get this. DD1 didn't sleep through untill she was 2 and dd2 would always wake at 5am untill she was 18mths.

Have you tried giving him some porridge before bed, I found that help with DD1.

As for Robbie is now crawling (thanks Santa ) and i didn't realise how fast he was until he crawled raced from the front room straight out the front door head first .

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year Sorry for appearing to fall off the face of the planet... I don't know where my time goes these days, lol.

It's going to take ages to catch up, especially with Amy wanting every second of my time.

Anyway, nice to see we're still here and I promise to post a bit when I can.

Amy isn't crawling on hands and knees, but is doing a combo of rolling and backwards shuffling. I have no idea if this is normal! She was 9 months yesterday. We do have 8 teeth now though and I am just getting over mastitis. Joy!

Must go, she's got her legs stuck round the play gym

Yarnie, I have full empathy, Ben still not back to his old sleeping self and me getting more tired, whiny and grumpy. I'm going to try weaning him off the night feeds by giving herbal tea instead of milk - my mom suggested it and I'll try it a few nights. Last night he woke at 3, ravenous, and I could tuck him in after his bottle, nighty-night and left him awake, he fell asleep no prb. But I didn't, aaaaarrrrrrgghhhh. Feel very sorry for myself today.
But I read up a lot and it seems like just another phase and I'm trying not to get too stressed. Hard though, when you're tired and can't think straight.

I have a random query for you all...

I'm marrying my DP in April. We're having a very small registry office do at 3pm and then a big party at the Young Vic.

My query is, what on earth do I do with Spike? I obviously want him there for as long as would be fun for him, but at some point he will have to be put to bed. We are staying the night at a London hotel (even though we live in London ). I have my own thoughts, but wondered whether you had any helpful suggestions, as all my plans seem flawed in one way or another?

Congrates.

i would just take his buggy and put him that when goes to sleep.

yarnie we got married when DS1 was 3 months, book a nice room for parents/PIL and get them to babysit Spike once he needs to go to bed.

Hi everyone - good to see some regular names back!

Yarnie I've been trying the shushing back to sleep - it was working quite well, I think we got to about eight days where there was no milk from 11pm to 6am. But she was still waking every 2-3 hours. Then she got a horrid cold which she's only just getting over so we called a halt on it for a while.

Congrats on the wedding! I too would recommend using the good will of friends and family to help with the babysitting so you can enjoy your day.

Back to the sleep issue (of which I'm completely obsessed until it's solved) I'm hoping that Dr Jay Gordon (whose advice I'm following) is right when he says that a few nights (I can't remember how many) they just stop waking up. It seems hard to believe, but I pray that it be so.

I've also decided to stop breastfeeding. I'm fairly sure that once formula is the main source of milk they sleep for longer. Unfortunately M won't take more than an ounce or two at a time at the mo. She's determined to foil my plans...

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the radio silence - I've been pretty manic over the Christmas period and going back to work last October... but it seems I might have some time on my hands again come May when I go on mat leave... I went for a scan yesterday, thinking I was perhpas 8 or 9 weeks - turns out I am 18 weeks today! Yikes. Did half my pregnancy without even knowing it.

So am due June 9th. Can't wait! Already got a rather prominent belly (thank god I'm 18 weeks actually, was starting to think it was twins if I was only 8 weeks!) And start mat leave beginning of May and don't go back again till Dec. JOY!

Sounds like all of your LOs are motoring along. Pen is crawling all over the place but no cruising yet. She's been sleeping through from 6 months 7 - 7 with no waking, but I think this is down to a combination of factors for us: stopping breast feeding; starting child minders, starting solids and 3 days of "sleep training" (she got the knack on the 4th day and has slept through ever since).

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and to see if there were any up to date pics on profiles? I have added one of Penelope taken at Christmas in Houston.

Photos please!

wow boobz, that's great news! what a surprise to be so far along.

we are having a bad run of nights as well, mostly due to fever and bad colds, but also my reluctance to do sleep training.

how's everyone coping with the snow?

lovely pics by the way boobz

kanga Working from home thank God!

Kids are a bit non-plussed by the snow.

Congratulations, Boobz! I relished each moment of my first pregnancy, but I have to say, it must be great to discover you're already half way there with no. 2! I don't think I will find pregnancy so fascinating second time around.

Thanks for all the tips for the wedding, everyone. Still not sure exactly what we'll do. I expect Spike's going to change a lot between now and then, so I might leave it a while before I decide.

It's interesting to hear about everyone's sleep situations. Boobz, what type of sleep training did you do?

I'm VERY happy to report that on night 7 of our sleep training, Spike slept through from 7pm until 6.30am I'm particularly pleased because it hasn't involved any crying, really. He had a few big grumbles on nights 1 and 2, but nothing we didn't get occasionally on ordinary nights. He's also had no milk between 10.30pm and 5am for the whole week. I very much hope that tonight wasn't a blip and that we continue to get more sleep.

MissMod I hope you get quick results when you get back to sleep training. I have done a lot of reading on it (haven't we all) and most people see results within 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, I have a stinker of a cold - my first in about 3 years, so I'm feeling particularly sorry for myself. No doubt Spike will get it and undo all our good sleep training(!)

Hey Yarnie... regarding the sleep issue, it kind of evolved over a couple of months something like this:

12 weeks old: Sleeping from 7pm to 5am, one quick BF at 5am, back to sleep and then up for day at 7am.

16 weeks old: All hell breaks loose, with sleeping from 7pm to 11:30pm and then waking up anything from 3 to 7 times a night for feeds, finally getting up at 7am. I was exhausted and very fed up my previously good-sleeping daughter had decided to wipe out all sleep for the next 4 weeks!

20 weeks old: Start doing CC to get DD down from 7 feeds a night to 1 a night.... I put her down at 7pm, did CC with Shh/patting for all times she woke until 1am, then fed her once at the first time she woke AFTER 1am, and then CC with Shh/patting for all subsequent wake ups until 7am. It took 3 days of this to get us down from 7 feeds a night to 1 feed a night: DD "worked out" there was no point waking before 1am as I wouldn't feed her, and then after she had had her 1am(ish) feed, there was no point waking up until 7am.

24 weeks old: Penny starts CM, stops BF and starts solids. We do 3 days of CC / Shh/patting to drop final 1am feed; after 3 days of limited crying, she sleeps through 7-7 for the first time, and has done so ever since (obviously hiccups due to teething / illness, but I have never fed her between 7 and 7 since).

CC / Shh/patting consists of: going in every ten mins whilst she crys and stay for one min, rubbing her belly and shhing her. Leave after one minute. Crying escalates until eventually she gives up and goes to sleep. First night took 1.5 hours of crying, 2nd night took 30 mins of crying and 3rd night took less than 10 mins of crying (didn't even have to go in on that one). 4th day, sleeping through.

But I do think it's easier if you've stopped BF-ing...

HTH!