May 09 - Pumpkin (or champagne) anyone? We're doing the Monster Mash!

[ScarySpangleMaker]

In honour of sausage's forthcoming nuptials, with a nod to imminent weaning.

sausage have been wondering how you were today. Look forward to hearing about the shoe! lol

reggie good to hear the prolapse was only moderate and really hope the exercises make a difference.

catching up bit by bit...

jael sounds like you're all having lovely family times atm and bet DD looked so cute in her outfit too. How are you feeling these days? much better I hope?

well ds's bedtime went really well tonight although he was in bed early 6.15pm which will mean he'll be up early (6ish) no doubt tomorrow am. G did a really noisy poo when I was just finishing ds's last story lol . G eventually drifted off to sleep just before xfactor. Going to try and have an early night... dream feed g a bit earlier and hope she doesn't wake me too early fingers crossed.

evening all.
Just a quick one to say hello.
reg, would have loved to see you in York! please look me up next time.
Fi, how's the CP?
sausage, glad you had a good time an dlooking forward to hearing about it.

everyone else, hope you're well.

nothing much here to say. ok weekend. dd's ok. blah, blah blah. wish I could make up something interesting but am a bit too tired tonight. nighty night. x
[trudges off to bed, dragging feet]

Morning all!

reggiee - hope the exercises help you.

saus - how's your head today? Did you have fun?

jael - good to hear from you

chocbunnies - likewise!

Well, what a night. And not in a good way! A has been gradually going to sleep earlier and earlier, which is fab, last night she was asleep by 7:15. But then she woke at 2 for a feed...and didn't go back to sleep until gone 6 . I was holding her for ages but could feel myself starting to get a bit cross, so DH (bless him) took her downstairs at 5. She's still snotty and windy (teeth, I reckon) but not particulalry grumpy so I've got no idea what to try - this keeps happening, but last night was the most extreme yet, normally she's only awake for a couple of hours and I can doze. Next time it happens I'll ty her with some calpol just in case her teeth are uncomfortable, but as I said she's not majorly grumpy so who knows?!

Flip You must be shattered and its only Monday. I hope you have a quiet day ahead.

My night wasn't much better. R has been going to bed really well the last 3 or 4 nights which is great but waking lots for feeds. Last night it was 9.45, 12.30, 2, 4, 6, 7.30. I am going to have to tackle it with a bit of tough love. I'll get DH to sleep in DD's room in the spare single and 'train' R to go through the night with only one feed. I think that is ample at this stage. I wonder if he will agree

Morning. Just time for a quick post before shooting out to
a. coffee at a mates
b. mother and baby pilates!!!

So a busy day here and R just having a nap.

saus can't wait for your hen night post. Hope the head is better by now!

We had a bit of do on Sat night too. I found it v difficult to get in the mood though as I just had this fear of what the day after would be like with a hangover. Thankfully, a neighbour with a DS similar age to my DS1 said she'd have DS1 in the morning which was an absolute god send. R was no trouble and when DH finally surfaced about 10am, it meant I could get back to bed.

So we "started" the BLW on Sunday. Well, I put some carrot and broccolli in front of him, banana this morning. Its going to be slow I think. He wasn't that interested but did squish the banana for about 3 seconds. I've just got to remember that it can take a couple of months for them to really get the hang of it. I suspect DH will be nagging me though before the week is out to give him some mush on a spoon.

Oh dear, R has woken up. Better go get him dressed. Back later.

Hope everyone had decent nights last night and fi hope your DC getting better.

Oh. R stopped crying. Will leave him bit longer.

febes - your night sounds worse than mine, at least I had a reasonable chunk of sleep before she woke. Hope the 'training' works for you.

I have got a fairly quiet day as DD1 is at the childminder's. I need to do the ironing but apart from that nothing planned. I was going to go back to bed when DH and DD1 left this morning but when I went back upstairs A was awake again!

DD1 was a dreadful sleeper too, I really hoped we'd get a good one with A as she is a much calmer baby generally than DD1 ever was (is!). How much are your babies sleeping during the day now? A usually naps three times, but now it's rarely for more than 30-40 minutes. ecery now and again she'll have a couple of hours, but that's getting more and more rare.

I tried A with a bottle of EBM yesterday, she took it no problems at all fortunately! A week on saturday I'm going to the Sanctuary spa in London for the day with my pre-mummy friends, so excited! DH is very much less excited about his day than I am about mine though!

Sorry, bit of a me me me post. I'll ty to be more sociable later!

Hello! My gosh I need to pop in here more often, sorry. Can anyone catch me up with any juicy gossip?

We're all good here, I've been whacked with the PND bat but I'm coming out the other side now. Been referred for counselling so we'll see how that goes. DH has been off work for nearly two months with suspected helicobacter and we're waiting to see if he's going to be offered redundancy from work too. Kids are all grand, I've been very naughty and started Greer on solids because she started waking up three times a night (!!) after being a sleeper since the day she was born. She's loving it, I'm not loving her stinky nappies!

febes and flip sorry you had bad nights. FWIW I was up at 3am for a complete babygro and sleeping bag change and then a bottle. For R, of course, I hadn't weed my babygro!! All done by 3.20am and then DS1 trooped in armed with duvet and pillow. We made him "camp" on the floor! He slept till 7am so it can't have been that uncomfortable. We are trying to encourage him to stay all night in HIS OWN BED, so we try not to allow him in ours.

Hey there blotted. Good to see you and glad to hear you are feeling perkier.

R is def wailing now so am def off now.

Laters peeps.

blotted - hello, glad to hear things are improving for you. Hope things work out the way you'd prefer with DH's job. I was thinking about you the other day, you and your cakes!

headless - poo at that time of night just isn't right, is it?!

Apologies for excessive use of ! in my last post.

morning

Chicken pox either it's the mildest dose ever.. just one spot! or not cp but a general lurgy that gave him a temp for a few days, affected his appetite and now developed a really nasty sounding cough with sore throat

fi- i think it sounds more like another type of lurgy- if i were you i would treat it as such, and when he's better you shouldn't feel like you have to stay inside. My DS1 had a really mild dose of CP when he was a baby, but even he had a handful of spots not just the one.

blotted - glad you are on top of the PND. I have been on ADs for a few months now and feeling almost "normal" again.

febes and flippin- sorry to hear about your bad nights. I have decided to get tough with DS2 as I need sleep. Last night he stirred at 9.15 due to trumps, and usually i would feed him in the hope of an early night and a few hours kip before the next feed. But instead i put him back down which triggered some angry crying. But 20 mins later he was asleep and then "only" woke at 1.30 and 4.30 which was a good night for him. I have decided to resettle him if he wakes before 10pm or less than 3 hours since the last feed. I will let you know how it goes. I am also tempted to start solids properly (he's had baby rice 3 times) as he is not settling well for daytime sleeps so i am wondering if he is hungry- I have been feeding him before a sleep which i don't really want to do every time as he used to be so good at going down awake and settling himself.

flippineck- I would say S usually sleeps between 2 and 3 hours in the day, which could be a few little naps (30-45 mins, but the occassional 5 mins on the way to playgroup etc) or one big nap (yesterday he had 3 hours at 11.30am). He is usually up at around 7 or 8am and in bed by 7pm.

hiya blotted i've been keeping uptodate with your rss blog feed when i have the laptop on.. love the fact that 3yo ds can use your phone camera

Pula - How are you finding the ADs? I've been so resolutely against them in the past but I'm now thinking that if they'd just reign in the horrific anger, maybe they'd be worth it?

Fi - yes, DS! Little bugger that he is. How are things with you? x

blotted - i think the ADs have been great for me- i did have horrible side effects at first, but they are fine now. They do leave you feeling a bit numb- for example, i haven't cried in months, even at really sad TV things or in despair when the kids are playing up, but i guess this is better than blubbing all the time. My DH wasn't sure about them either, but has changed his opinion now- he finds me very calm .

Well, after grumbling about A's lack of sleep, she crashed out about an hour ago and is still soundo. I have managed to have a shower and start the ironing have a cup of tea and some biscuits.

Can I pick your collective brains about PND? It was what Blotted said about the anger that has made me think. Ramble alert...when I did the post natal questionnaire, my score was borderline but I thought I was ok, but I'm wondering now if it's more than that. I wouldn't say I feel particularly down but my temper is much worse than it's ever been, over reactions to things (especially DD1, poor thing) and my fuse is very short. I also have days where I just feel just not interested in things. If I get me and the girls out of the house it's much better, but embarrassingly that's partly because in public I have to react more reasonably to DD1's general two-ish behaviour. DH just keeps excusing it by saying it's because I'm tired (and of course, I am, see my earlier post about all the bad sleeping!) but I'm wondering now if it's more than that? Feeling better talking to you lot, I'm not sure how easy I'd find to talk to anyone IRL.

flippineck- it was the anger that first alerted me/my HV to the fact i might be depressed. I didn't like how i was with the DCs and didnt feel in control of myself. IT IS worth doing the PND questionnaire again or talking to your HV or GP if you can. Apologies for capitals but cheeky baby on my laP [HGRIN].

Oh, and S just had a 2 and a quarter hour sleep too, so i got to list some more maternity clothes on ebay to raise some funds for christmas shopping .

I think you're right pula going to give ds a few days to feel a bit better and see how we go.

flippin i found my fuse a bit short yesterday in the run up to dinner time.. my mum bless her came up for 1/2 an hour to occupy ds so i could have a break while making our dinner. in the end he didn't eat anything & was asleep in bed by 6.15pm today i'm not as tired and i'm ok. if your fuse is constantly short though i'd redo the test or talk to hv/gp as i'm rarely like yesterday all the time iyswim. it can only help if you're wondering about it.

today's keep ds occupied project is making bread.. after creating major flour dust clouds in the kitchen the dough is done and proving so we're having lunch.

Fi I'm really good now thanks, I'm completely over my operation and getting about with the DC, eating fairly normally too. I'm down to a "healthy" weight all because of the strict diet I had to follow, so I'm very happy

I'm on a form of AD for my panic attacks, I've been on and off them for three years, off them while I was pregnant with J, and I'm fine on them. I'm sure someone knows more than me, but I'm sure it's all about getting the right one for you.

Baby J had two sleeps in the day, he goes down awake and self soothes himself to sleep, and the same at bedtime. He's got himself into a routine now. He's on 3 meals a day, goes down to bed at between 7 and 8pm, whenever he wants his bedtime feed, and has his morning feed at 6:30 am.

Jael- you sound so much happier on here and on FB now your health is improving. Sounds like baby J is in a great routine too