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

[jollyjoanne]

the new thread for March 09 mummies

Poor everyone ! sorry to hear about chicken pox, puss-y ears (wrote that as pussy ears first which doesn't seem right ), colds, teething, chest infections...

We;ve managed to be illness free in this household for a whole 2 weeks... so must be something due . In fact, I even managed to get back to the gym this morning. I think the creche were quite surprised to see Lara as what with conjunctivitis, holiday, chicken pox and easter hols she hasn't been for about 5-6 weeks. However they did say she now needs to come with a warning label as she's so mischievious and getting into everything.

Hope all the illnesses pass soon and sleep is restored!

Hi all - just a quick word to say hello and "courage!" to everyone who's a little or a lot down and exhausted and ill.

I am in the "lot down" category, because I flew to the US on April 12 for a 4 day trip. You guessed it. Still here. Not booked to get back until APRIL 28.

I miss Rhys so much it's not even funny. DP has been good about putting a few clips up on Youtube, and I speak to him as often as I can, but...feeling very weepy. I am just SO GLAD that my parents are there with him, so I know he's getting a veritable overdose of love and attention, but...

And guess what? He started walking.

Bright side: In a lovely resort in Boca Raton. Able to sleep through the night. Our global CFO is stuck here with us, which is oddly comforting.

Dark side: Been rainy and cloudy. Really hard to get motivated to work. Am with 30 colleagues who are mostly cool but some of whom I would dearly like to feed to the alligators at this point.

Darkest side: I MISS MY BABY.

OMG corgi that would be my worst nightmare getting stranded away from my babies. Have my fingers crossed that the flights are flying out on the 28th [though to the resort and full nights sleep!]

slick a virtual hug to you. Kanga is right, it is not just the lack of sleep but the worry and stress over your lo's that goes with it. No wonder you got a migraine.

When Rosie had that gastro bug and hadn't eaten for 2 weeks I lost it completely - just broke down in floods of tears - horrendous. I was just getting through each hour as best I could.

And when they are your dd2's age it can be particularly trying - I once smashed a glass in teh dishwasher because I slammed the door shut so hard due to my dd1's nonsense. miss dd1 has just entered the "why" phase - it is relentless - ugh!

And poor wee Melissa - hope she's on the mend soon (no experience of ear infections here - so no advice - sorry)

And kanga how fantastic that your dd1 is off her meds - a big ray of sunshine for you all! And agree - your dd2 is just so cute standing there all grown up - aw!!!!

Rosie is finally getting to the non-grumpy stage of chickenpox - the frantic head shaking has stopped so I think the itching is better. Most of the spots have scabbed over - but she has a beauty on her eyelid that makes her look like she's been punched!

Her nightime shenanigans have been escalating too. She used to wake, get a quick cuddle (max 30mins) then settle back down to sleep. After 3 hours of cuddles last night and her complete refusal to lie down in her cot I have to say I just left her to howl. I always said I wouldn't/couldn't do it - but my tether had gone and I had to do something to bring it to an end. It did work - she finally settled after 20minutes and slept soundly until 7am.

Am dreading tonight - not sure if I will be able to tough it out or not - will report back..................

OMG Corgi - that's terrible. You poor thing. Try and enjoy the sleep (although suspect its not much consolation).

Slick - I meant to say on the migraine thing. If you got them when pg then presumably it was hormone related so might have been related to period coming esp. if it was unusually heavy (mixed obv with the stress/lack of sleep). I sometimes get them before periods, sometimes not...

Good luck tonight meep - sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I don't like it either adn its never worked with L but I can remember having to do it with dd1 sometimes and sobbing as she cried but it did do the trick after 1 or 2 nights.

thanks wheely. Last night I was too tired to sob - just hid undr the covers

corgi you poor thing! I had something similar when DS1 was wee, DH (who was a SAHD) broke his wrist while we were at the ILs in Wales and had to stay there wit DS1 for 3 weeks and I had to come home to work and see them weekends. It's horrible at the time but the babes are no worse for it, I think we suffer more! DH put a photo of me up where DS1 could see it which he said helped him.

Gosh so much seems to have been going on in the lest week or so.

Kanga - Fantastic news about dd1. And hope that the preparations for the move are going smoothly - are you shipping stuff out?

Corgi - I really feel for you. A few nights away to sleep and relax and feel like an individual again, rather than just a MUMMY might be nice but two weeks is just a scary amount of time. Thank goodness for the internet!

Lau - glad you had a nice birthday. Can't believe the cost of babysitters though - my parents are really under paid (free).

Slick - really hope you've managed to get a bit more sleep and that the LOs are all back to their more healthy cheery selves. It is never good when you are feeling so down and knackered. I can confirm that the inhalers thing is a nightmare, Mae already has one - but we are lucky if we can get her to put the mask on for a few seconds let alone the 30 seconds that it is supposed to be! I am glad she hasn't had a chest infection yet so we haven't had the breathing scares that you've had.

Meep - good luck on the sleep, hopefully your LO will learn quickly and it won't be an experience you have to repeat to often.

Missmod - bit surprised at the Dr not even looking in the ears - everytime I go to the docs they seem to check her ears. And I now know that her ears are generally pink all the time and only actually sore when really inflamed. Never had any pus though.

Can't believe all these babies walking, still no walking here, just the cruising round the furniture and pushing her little pushchair that she has been doing for ages.

Mae has however, discovered all the bad things in our house too, all the plugs, trailing wires, the dust bin, the washing machine, the toilet seat, the buttons on the sky box . . . the list just goes on.

But her latest favourite activity is much more fun - she loves singing - she keeps on going 'row, row, row' and putting her hands out and rocking back and to until I sing row, row, row the boat!

Corgi You poor thing. I know I start feeling down after about three days away from them - I miss their cuddles and the endorphines I get from them - I guess also the adrenaline drop is noticable!! So I can't imagine how you must feel. Hope it passes soon for you.

Thanks everyone for supporting words and virtual hugs. I stayed at Mum's after a rehearsal (which I had to leave early as just felt so rubbish) so managed to get some sleep, and DH said they slept all night, which is a first in a long time. I just hope it means they are through the worst of it. Nick has had another two teeth push through so that now makes it 16 that have come in. Like buses.

Meep Is v. hard leaving them to cry. I would leave my DD2 to cry in a second if she weren't so obscenely loud and wakes everyone else up. I could have had her sorted a year and a half ago if she were the only one.But worth persevering if you can. Esp is she is needing cuddles to settle. Hope things improve for you.

(Glad also it's not just me that's prone to meltdowns! )

Wheely I think that's exactly what it all was - period, no sleep, stress, teeth grinding.... Just hope it's not going to be a reocurring thing.

Jolly I'm with you on the Sky Box buttons. On - off - on -off - on -off - on - off....Arrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! COME AWAY FROM THE TELE!!!!!!!

That would be re-occurring. Why doesn't it look right?? Why has my spelling become tragic since I had all these babies???

Sorry to hear of everyone's woes (although it is comforting that I'm not alone )

M's ear is still gooey but the doctor said it's probably viral and I'm only to start a course of antibiotics if she gets a temperature. Apart from the obvious discomfort with having a gloopy ear and nose she seems okay so I've held off for now.

Corgi that sounds terrible, poor you. I'm missing both dds and they're only in childcare until 3 this afternoon! I remember a friend of mine went on holiday without her DS when he'd just turned 1 and her DH coped fine (with grandparental help, I might add). She reckoned he (DS not DH!) didn't miss her much and of course, now he has no memory of it (he's three). Hope that helps.

Slick I cannot BELIEVE the number of teeth Nick has - Melissa has six with another two incisors threatening to erupt. Am quite that you've got so many 'out the way'. I've put so many night wakings down to teething but there are so many more ahead it's depressing.

I think it's 'recurring' btw

Jolly the row thing sounds so cute! No singing here but Melissa is obsessed with DD1's Fisher Price baby grand piano - she's been on it at least half an hour a day for the past six months. At this rate she'll be the next

Missmode : Martha Argerich. Ben loves baging away on my piano, he is so tall he can reach up and bang-bang. Well done Melissa!

Slick, hope you're ok, and the lo's. Migraine sucks.

Meep, Ben sometimes sleeps through - only to wake real early. Tbh, at the moment we just take it as it comes and hope it will pass, he never wakes at the same time or for the same length of time. Hard, hey!

I'm back on my Ad's, I think I was trying really hard to convince myself that I was doing ok, but was not really. In the last few weeks I've just cried and cried, and had bad insomnia, even on those nights that lo sleeps through. Not worth it just now to try to work through it.

Corgi, hope you get home soon. The thought of a hotel room and undisturbed nights seem delicious, but I can imagine you miss lo too much.

We're loving the warmer weather, and he now loves to go to the park and swing. And walking, wow, just amazing, and he's already trying to run! Juts now he's tearing after one of the cats, haha!
See you all, bye

It's not the Sky (Virgin) buttons for us, it is the remote control - it is the ONLY toy worth screeching for!! And dd1 gets terribly upset when Rosie manages to switch Dora off (though I am alwayssecretly pleased!!)

Thankfully we've not had to repeat leaving Rosie to howl. She's slept through for 2 nights in a row (though my chickens are nowhere near counted ) and she actually seems happier going to bed at night - probably because she is now getting enough sleep! It probably was just a wee habit to break as there was definitely a pattern developing - I am not sure I could have kept going if she continued to cry endlessly

missmod and jolly Rosie is also a musical wee soul. Her big sister is definitely not - was never soothed by music or singing as a baby, sings completely tunelessly and dances out of time (very cutely though). Rosie stops if there is music and bounces and claps in time to it - singing calms her down and makes her smile. It is fascinating to see the difference between the two of them.

mdavza are you living in a different Scotland from me - it is absolutely freezing in Edinburgh! I keep going out in summery clothes and then getting chilled to the bone by the arctic blasts! And well done you for going back on your AD's - if that is what works then go with it - and put the tears behind you.

slick my friend thought that Rosie has already got her molars - not sure if that can be right - but she's got lots of teeth in her gob that's for sure. Am impressed that you've managed to count Nick's - I woudl get bitten if I tried that!

Day off today - so I am hoping to get to the park....fingers crossed the sun stays out!

Was just in the middle of a post when the wee monkey came along and switched the computer off.

Miss Thank Christ one of us can spell. I can't beleive I used to proofread as part of my job, my head would never be out of a dictionary these days....

Mdavza I echo what Meep says. I think you have done the right thing for you and I think it's great you've had the strength to think, 'this just isn't working, let's make it better'. I'm sure you'll come off them when you're ready and I hope they help you meantime.

Meep Could well be her molars, N has his through. His all came in in quite a random order.

Speaking of random, DD2 at lunch said, "I think the bird is hungry. I think he needs a sandwich."

I asked Nicholas if he wanted anything else after lunch and I could swear he said; "Money!". Don't we all pal, don't we all....?

He had everyone up at 4am for ages with his teeth again (well, actually his crying)so the lack of sleep continues in the Slick household. I went to Tescos with them first thing and turned round to find he had chundered all over the floor, the trolley, his hand and my bag. Just ace.

Right, better go get number 1 kid. Later.

Hi All

Gosh! It's all been going on here, hasn't it. So sorry to hear about all the illnesses. We've all had stinking head colds for getting on for two weeks now, including over our wedding - yaay(!)

Corgi I had a tear in my eye when I read your post. How awful to be stranded from your LO. Wishing you a speedy journey home - not long now!

Nothing much to report here. Except the wedding, which was lovely . Spike is doing really well. He's pretty much running around. He likes to try and copy me speaking and just loves it when I understand what he's saying!

Sleep is still pretty crap. One development is he goes down awake now and has no trouble getting to sleep, and with no fuss. We have been extending the time between his feeds and easily got him to 4-5 hours. The recent illness, the fact he's teething his molars and the wedding have meant we've stalled on the training. Need to get back on it!

I've heard that the first part of their sleep is meant to be the deepest. Is that everyone's experience? Spike seems really unsettled initially (say, until midnight) and sleeps much better after that, often only waking once at about 4 before the morning. Sadly, this means that 13 months in, we're still not really going out, as he frequently needs resettling between bedtime and midnight (just a pat and a shush - but he can tell when it's not us patting and shushing!).

Also, I still nurse him to sleep for his naps! Isn't it terrible. It's because I've wanted to sort out his nighttime sleeping before tackling the naps and you can see how far we've got with that! Anyway, I'm going to start trying to get him to nap without nursing when we come back from honeymoon. Do you all just pop them in their cots and leave them to it? Those of you who don't - what do you do?

Spike sleeps on a mattress on the floor, so if I leave him when he's not minded to sleep, he just climbs off...

congrats Yarnie on your wedding!! Lovely to hear it went well.

I have to say re sleep I got tough and did sleep training, but it works after a few days. You have to be ready to do it yourself though to be able to cope with long periods of crying.

x

sigh another tech genius on our hands here! Gabriel is cruising well but not talking much, but can take remotes apart beautifully!

congratulations Mrs Yarnie!

Yarnie I think bf babies may still do that restless needing to feed thing in the first part of the night. With Rosie she normal;ly slept soundly until the wee small hours then was just a screachy bouncy angry bundle of nonsense!!!

We now have had 4 nights of sleeping till around 5.45am. One night of 20mins howling and it seems to have worked. Hmm - I bet she is lulling me into a false sense of security!

But she is now toddling about if you hold her hands. Dd1 thinks it is brilliant and holds one hand while I hodl the other and Rosie just giggles and shouts as she shuffles along. I had forgotten how cute it is when they realise they can walk!

slick hope Nicholas is better. DD1 has had a weird vomit bug - perky and playing then a sudden vom then back to playing. She was only sick twice - very odd. Just praying Rosie doesn't get it, I don't think I could cope with her being sick again - I would go to pieces

congrats Yarnie! Any chance of any pics of the big day?

Meep They have sort of slept through the last two nights although DD2 had a night terror again on Fri night and it was really bad - don't know if it was the anti-b's coming out of her system, but now DH is off to work and I won't see him tomorrow evening and she seems like she is coming down with another one. I'm holding my breath. Nick looks like he has ANOTHER tooth ready to burst through. I don't think I'm gonna get much sleep tonight..... Hope DD1 is better now?

I had my concert last night and luckily had the strength and reserve to get through it all ok. I was pretty nervous before we went on stage, and had a weird tinging down my arms to my hands during 'Ombra Mai Fu' but I clearly must have been holding my breath with anticipation before hand! After that it got better. I couple of mistakes in one song but nothing that a blind man running for a bus would notice.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Mdavza, don't be hard on yourself, if being off the ads isn't working for you then you gotta do whatever you can to help yourself. The first few of years of parenthood are difficult enough as it is. It gets easier apparently (or so I keep getting told )

Yarnie, Melissa does all of her daytime naps in her buggy. It's a Phil & Teds which she can lie flat in. I usually pop her in there about 10.30am when she's had her milk and go for a walk until she's dropped off. She's so used to sleeping in there quite often I don't have to even leave the house, she sometimes drops off on her own. Congrats on your wedding by the way!

Glad the concert went well Slick!

Poor Melissa still has a gunky ear. Going to the docs again tomorrow to see if there's anything else we can do. It's clearly bothering her, although she doesn't seem to be in any pain and I'm fairly sure she can hear through it okay.

No unaided walking here yet, but she's taken to grabbing my hands and getting me to hold hers while she walks to where she wants to go. And she seems to go through phases of using the same word for everything. Last week she'd point at things and say 'meme'. Then it was 'gaga'. Now it's 'bap'

Just realised my last post about napping and buggies makes it sound like I put her in the buggy and leave the house without her! Hopefully you get what I mean....

Congrats yarnie!

I am back, and so happy to be here. I actually got back on Friday evening, a few days earlier than planned and a mere 8 days after my scheduled return...have to say that our staff travel department really did move heaven and earth to get us all home as soon as possible - 19 of us ended up renting cars, driving across Florida, taking an Air Berlin charter to Dusseldorf and then making our way home by hook and by crook. I grabbed a taxi with a French colleague to Cologne and then the high-speed train to Brussels.

And I have to say that walking in and seeing Rhys' eyes get huge and seeing him practically levitate out of his high chair ranked very high on the list of Really Good Feelings. He launched into a 15-minute torrent of non-stop yammering, clearly telling me ALL about what his days had been like, and has not let me out of his sight since.

Must say - I feel very much out of the habit of being a mum! Nappy changes? What are they? Waking up at 6am? WHAT?

My parents left yesterday back to the States, so we are having to "rough it" on our own again. My poor mum was just beside herself at having to leave Rhys.

R has been going to the playrgound lately - loves the swing, and yesterday figured out how to turn himself around on the slide so he can go down backwards and on his belly.

Ooops, he's yowling - got to go. Thanks for all the good wishes for my return!!

Corgi Oh, just fantastic for you. You must have been quite teary at the whole thing. Clever boy telling what he's been doing and no doubt asking 'Where the bloody hell have you been??!) Am so glad. Hope you don't have to go away for a while.

Miss Yip, I was just about to phone Social services.... Hope the Dr can give her something to ease her ear.

Well, no sleep again for me last night but I had gotten some at Mums on Sat night so I don't feel too hellish today. Really gotta wonder why the 2 year old is screaming the house down about chocolate and bananas at 3am...

Congrat on the wedding Yarnie ! Glad all went well and enjoy your honey moon. Daytime naps here are a bit hit and miss. If we're out at the right time she'll nap in the buggy/car but won't unless she's v. tired. I can put her in the cot and she'll go off but only if she's really ready for it. We don't really get much daytime napping though but dd1 had given up by 18 months ish so I'm not holding out for anythin much better.

Glad you're back where you belong Corgi ! Hope you soon get used to stinky nappies and early mornings .

Sorry your nights aren't getting better Slick. I am amazed by the number of teeth N has - Lara only has 6 (and in a slightly odd order) and hasn't had any news ones for ages.... Doesn't seem to stop her eating everything though and her best friend (well her only friend being a poor deprived second child) is 15 months and only has 1.

Mdavza - sorry to hear you're back on the AD's but well done for going back to them if that's what was needed (if that makes sense). As others have said, its a hard slog this baby business...

Nothing much to report this end except this weekend L seems to have suddenly grown up - walking (a bit of trying to run after dd1) everywhere, talking a bit (anything feathered is a quack quack, mummy, daddy, Anna (dd1) mainly and doodoo which means puppy - her special cuddly although she has said it to dogs when we're out sometimes). She'll also go and get things when you ask her too (which is great if you're a lazy arse ). And, in true wheelybug family tradition she seems to be a girl who loves shoes....

miss Rosie's wrod of the day is "dat" accompanied by much pointing

Hope M's ear clears up soon.

Glad you're home corgi - I felt a bit tearful at the tale of your reunion!

slick my 2yo has meltdowns about random things in the night - she's almost sleep talking. She also likes to take her pjs off - then cries because she wakes up later and can't find them!

Hoping you get some sleep soon....

I'm off work again today - Rosie now has the vom bug - but like her big sis it just seems to have been a 24 hour thing - today is the day of the noxious nappies though - I am surrounded by the aroma of poo - it just doesn't go away !

How competely radge did I go at my 2 year old last night??! She had gone to bed and is now in the eldest's room temporarily til we get them all sleeping through and the eldest shares with Nick. I had done up both rooms last year and Eilidh's room is her pride and joy. Did we not just find that she had drawn all over the wall in black crayon! I was soooo pissed off as it is so hard to remove or to paint over - it always shows up like veins or something. She got a total bollocking as it's not like the first time. Then she got me back at midnight by having a night terror - probably linked to the aforementioned bollocking. Counterproductive at every turn. That's me....

Hope everyone's faring better.