Happy New Year everyone.
june we too were drinking champagne and eating blinis with prawns.
whenskies - jools holland had some brilliant people on the show - I loved Ruby Turner. Re: Caelan's development, I've had friends with concerns (a friends daughter was almost 2 before she walked). It is best to voice your concerns to your health visitor as they see so many babies they are better placed to discuss it. Along with snowwombat - I might be joining the lose 2 stone before March thread soon.
snowwombat - I think I will try the hummus. Didn't think about that.
strawsam - how great to see your aunt/uncle on their fleeting visit. I've travelled around Cambodia and visited some friends of my parents who are missionaries and they were so grateful for the visit. I think when you live in third world countries you are so grateful for family & friends who make that extra effort to visit (either here or there).
I was never going to do CC with DD but for my own health in the end I had to, because she got into the habit of only sleeping on me (at night) and I was getting so little sleep that it was very dangerous in the daytime. I'd tried everything else and nothing had worked. I had to let her cry for 30mins at the beginning of the evening (she was 5 months) and then for a whole hour in the middle of the night. At the beginning of the evening she was quite tired so ran out of steam quickly and fell into a slumber. Second time around was the hardest. During the crying the tone changed - at first stunned I wasn't coming, then angry, then upset, then silent as she reviewed her options, then hollering, then more surprised, then really upset, then almost bored, and then the realisation that crying wasn't acheieving alot so she went silent, a little sob every few minutes and eventually sleep from the exhaustion of it all. It was horrific at the time, but I knew that once you embark on it, you have to stick to it, and letting her cry this one night, was better than me crashing the car with both of us in it. After that she never cried again and settled happily to sleep by herself, with no behaviour change. It was hell, and I was so grateful it worked quickly. It is hardest with the first child I think. With F, I know he needs to cry a little from time to time when he goes down to let go of all that frustration and tiredness in his body. It doesn't happen often. But I listen to the tone of his cry and can tell loud grisling from real upset, and then I pop up to cuddle him. Everyone should do only what they are comfortable with, but without sounding heartless, if your whole life someone had come when you cried, you would be pretty indignant/surprised/upset that they suddenly didn't one day. All in all we were both very quickly much happier people as we were both getting proper night's sleep so I am an example of it having a positive result. But it needs to be managed properly with a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve, and just suddenly deciding to 'let her cry this time', doesn't sound like a cunning plan.
skillbo - congrats on engagement. It is exciting isn't it!
naat - do you mean the French call English babies prawns? I think F is definitely a lardon. Our nickname for F is Jiggly and if he's not jiggling he is doing pelvic thrusts, so I am thinking of putting together a short music video by the baby band 'Jiggly and the Pelvic Thrusts' (I'll rope in a couple of other babies to be the drummers and guitarists)!!
Shame not to hear from ermintrude, tee or littlesarah or the girl from Edinburgh (with Alexander). I wonder how they all are. Have they all gone to Facebook? I wonder if I should get the old list and we can do a quick update of what's going on.
re: weaning - F feeds much better when he does it himself, than when I spoon feed him, so I am going to try and get him to be independent as soon as I can. Some meals are a bit tricky i.e. cereal and fruit at breakfast, rice pudding, meat, cottage pie etc. Can anyone who is Baby Led Weaning tell me how they get around these problems.
He was in heaven eating a croissant this morning. But not something I will do too often with all that butter (40% I think!)
And lastly, we are finally thinking of tying the knot after a three year engagement - for next Christmas, which I am now thoroughly looking forward to. I am so glad we delayed during the 'baby years' as I want to really enjoy the planning and have some time to do it properly.
And we had a bd this morning - third time since F was born!!!