January 2009 - "This is halloween, this is halloween, babies wake in the dead of night..."

[VerySpookyLennipillar]

A homage to the Nightmare Before Christmas song. DH obsessed with that film, we all (DD included) have to watch it on Christmas Eve.

OOOOOO spooky empty echo thread.

W0000ooooooooooOOOOO!!

Well done Lenni. I thought about us needing a new thread a couple of posts ago, but then instantly forgot again.

BOO!

Phew! So glad its you Tree, I thought this thread was proper haunted there for a minute!

I love your W00000ooooooOOOOOOO Tree

Off to bed now.Glad to be of service Moose.

Sleep well, mind the ghouls don't get you...

Stop doing that Tree! Oh my poor nerves - quick, someone fetch me a brandy! (Purely medicinal you understand.)

S'only me!

If the ghouls would kindly fly over the cot and in someway mesmorise my child into sleep they would be welcome!

DH is on a 120 complicated trip with the mummymobile, he has it on a tow truck.

I ought to stay up for him....zzzzzzzzz

I also need to wash my hair and frankly I smell. Won't risk waking H for a while yet though.

Night Lenni!

120 miles

Dd is still awake with eyes that need matchsticks and a screech capable of waking the dead!

I really want to go to bed, but fear there would be little point.

ahhh its liek the old days. Getting on for this time last year when there was no point us going to bed because of insomnia and aches. Its a year ago!!!!!!!!!!!

Fright night!!

Hello everyone....spooky thread title...I like it
Hope everyone is good. Have been lurking on and off but never catching up as am exhausted at the moment and trying to limit my internet addiction time.
Tree I saw your eggy thread, hope it all goes well, what an amazing thing to do.

Lenni Love nightmare before christmas...looking forward to introducing it to DD this year.

Jude is good, nine months today, still not impressed with food, detests puree, throws finger food on the floor but will tolerate the occasional large chunk of meet...he's 24lb now though, so its not like he's wasting away. he's not crawling and very frustrated as he still has a weakness in his left arm. We are waiting for an MRI scan (loong wait list) and a new physio referral etc etc so still no closer to getting a diagnosis. He is a happy chap apart from that though.

Loving all the gorgeous baby pics on FB, looked liek a top christening Tree, and like Gump's pics of centre parks, very cute little boys.

Am on attamempt number 2 for potty training DD, she is so not into it, she grins at me saying 'Mummy I done a wee in my knickers' as she wees in her knickers. great. Might put it on hold again and try and get the smell of wee out of the carpet before christmas.

So is anyone expecting again yet? Dog..are plans for number 4 on hold now you have your new four legged baby? Am pretty sure we are going to try for DC3, btu waiting until January to get some energy back start trying.

Only one more day of work until half term...bring it on!

Halloween emoticons too

Hello HKZ, its nice to see you. Glad to hear ds is a happy man, although a shame about the wait for MRI. Go girl on trying again!!

OK - this is a very deep sleep. Am going to chance it.

Wish me luck ladies, I'm going in [to the bedroom]

Love the new thread title Lenni, that's a good one. Only problem with a new thread is that I instantly forget what was on old one... sieve for a brain .

Good to hear from eppm & hkz, glad you are out there lurking if not posting - I am often the same, and read avidly only to be interrupted just as I start posting. edgar this is quite the horsey thread - I have 70 horses for example . But they are OH's really.

tree agree with moosey that you have a lovely house - no wonder you don't like to leave it. We have got a lot of our stuff from a brilliant auction place nearby which does massive farm and house clearances every 3 weeks. We leave silly bids and sometimes get lucky.

Lenni sleep? Don't be ridiculous. N is worse than ever. At least you can get DS to sleep without feeding him. Do you want stripey's NCSS?! It's def a good read - I just need to motivate myself to put the plan into action. But am going to leave till after the job now, as I want to co-sleep the whole time - will make up for all the time I won't see him in the days.

tree I am the same with running - had a personal trainer, got super fit, could run for the first time in my life.... then got pregnant. Never again will I run. stripey your DP sounds pretty fit with all the running!

MM facebook - please. Don't worry about privacy - you can put your settings up soooo high that only your 'friends' can see your profile and pictures - you can even limit the actual friends that can see each picture. So you could join under the name MM, just make friends with us lot, set your privacy to friends only, and no-one but us will be able to see anything.... would be fab to see you and your LOs .

N awake. Sigh.

Hi HKZ, good to hear from you. Sorry the hospital hasn't sorted out the arm thing yet, hope you get some answers soon. Great news about trying for dc3, I've never regretted making the decision to have 3.

MissJ, dh is absolutely dead set against me posting pictures of the dcs online, so even if I joined I wouldn't be able to put pictures up without a causing a row. I don't really think it would be fair for me to join and look at everyone else's pics without sharing some of my own. I am working on dh though, but as I am also working on him over the whole getting ds1 assessed issue as well, I have to go very carefully and pick my moments. He's usually much more amenable, but the poor guy is exhausted from looking after me and the dc's through all my recent ills whilst going to work and doing freelance work at night.

Would you believe dd is STILL awake. I have officially given up trying to get her to sleep and she is now bum shuffling around the living room making daft noises and giggling hysterically for no apparent reason. I think she is just totally manic now, silly child has slits for eyes and huge bags under them to boot. I have sung her to sleep - she woke up again after 5 minutes, cuddled her to sleep - again awake after 5 minutes, put her in the swing - no way hose, she screamed the place down and fed her to sleep (oh no, my mistake, she didn't actually go to sleep that time). I am so not enjoying this, I need sleep and my temp is up now as well.

I think I'm going to try giving her some teething powders and take her back upstairs to try again. She's got to fall asleep soon - hasn't she?

Holy crap, I'm back. I've checked out for a bit. We went to Ontario for a 'vacation' to show off bubs, and it was very fun indeed. The best was the skeet shooting. Shot my first shotgun. Some highlights were that I needed to wear bear bells and hunting orange when I went out to run because of hunters and hungry bears. Needless to say, I didn't go out running to often. Moose steaks at the in-laws was great... love moose. The fall colours of northern Ontario are simply beautiful. After skeet shooting, there was a coyote prowling around the barn in mid afternoon, so our niece and brother-in-law went out and shot it... it sounds awful, but if they are around in the day, they are hungry and will do about anything. We went to Toronto on a day trip to eat and see art. DH's side of the family all got together for us too, which was very nice, considering a couple of them have had a huge falling out. All in all, very good, but incredibly tiring... everyone had spare beds that were about as old as their homes. We didn't get much sleep. DD travelled very well though and loves flying. We took a small plane to Vancouver, so it flies pretty low and DD was pealed to the window. Funny girl.

DD is walking now. She crawls like a bat out hell but now she is balancing herself and walking around the furniture by herself. Its exhausting. I never seem to stop. Just when I think I've cleared up anything she can get into, she finds a new way. She is very calculative. Too smart for her own good. She is definitely doing two signs now; milk and poo but since being away, the potty training has gone to the crapper. lol.

I haven't had much time lately for mn but I'm am going to make a better effort. I miss you guys... (cheesy, but true)

[moose] DD has been the same lately and I have no energy to deal with so instead of trying to put her down, I let her wear herself out, even if she is tired. Even if her eyes are slits and bagged, if she's happy, I leave her. I find she calms down sooner than later that way and even though I need the break, I find it better than that frustration you get when you keep putting them down. About posting pictures of your little one on Facebook: I don't post any shots that show her vagina, but it is safe. You can set your privacy settings so that only your friends can see your photos/profile and our group is private as well, so only people in our group can see the pictures. However, I have recently found out purely by accident, that if you file share, (like on Limewire, Napster, those sorts of sites) people CAN access your pictures that you have on your computer, regardless. That's scary.

What are our babies up to? C was really difficult to get to sleep tonight - I normally feed him to sleep and put him in his cot when he slides off (and sometimes when I wake up again and realise) but tonight he was biting and hitting me and trying to crawl away. I resorted to putting him in the cot a few times and picking him up when he started to make too much noise. He finally went off though.

I think from reading your messages, i am mean mummy. I always woke Esme slightly before putting her in the cot, so she'll happily go off to sleep solo. But- there have been the odd time where i've just let her cry. If i know she is OK, got her bedtime bunny and not hungry then personally, unless she is REALLY wailing, i will let her cry for 5 mins - she never gets that far. Is everyone still BF morning and night? The new HV came to see me the other day & seems a tad surprised that i was. Esme is 9 months on friday.

No crawling OR walking here, OR pulling up in Cot. Just isn't interested. Oh well.

Baby classes- presently none! Went to quite a few pre-moving, now i went to tiny tots at the village church and Esme was the youngest by about 2 years, and the old bats of mothers were VERY unfriendly. Only one mother bothered to even say a word to me. So am not planning on returning.

Going to take her to swimming class, sign and sing that i have just researched online.

missj yes barn LOVELY and cosy. We have underfloor heating for the first time & its brilliant.

We have only rented barn, so on the house prowl. Put an offer in on a house yesterday. Needs re-doing. Would take 4 months for building work & extensions to be done, but at an estimate would make us a whopping £150,000 profit if we sold it on! Can't really say no to that!!!! Fingers crossed offer accepted!

morning

dd2 is 9 mnths as well she is getting everywhere on her front combat stylee cant keep up with her. she can sit herself up from lieing. wants everything. she hates lumps just having purees. will eat heinz biscuits or goodies crisps or rice risps.

soc- i with you on leaving to cry for abit i would havre no problem with sleep with dds here

we used a electric baby swing only used up to 6 mnthsd old. great for newborns she was getting abit big for it and i was usuing it to plonk her in all the time.

have a cold here

Hi Chef, holiday sounds great and a real connection with the great outdoors. I really miss getting properly out into nature since we moved to this horrible surburban jungle. Am I right in thinking you have been eating Moose! What if we were related? You might have eaten one of my relations!

Spoke to dh briefly about facebook last night and he's still very anti. I forgot to say actually, that when I was searching for something the other day on google, someone's facebook page came up as a hit and I could click straight into it. I was surprised, so went onto facebook and did a search to see if they had a public profile and it was as I thought, it said I couldn't access that page as I'm not a member and it was private! Must admit, that has put me off a bit as well, we just can't rely on technology 100%.

We don't do file sharing anymore, although dh used to a few years back. We got round the whole file access thing by keeping all our documents and photos on a separate hard drive that we only plug in when we want access to something. It also means they are protected from viruses and computer crashes etc.

Elkie, dd went off after the teething powders, put her down in her cot, she wriggled for about five minutes then conked out. Not sure if it is her teeth (although we have had a fair bit of nipping during feeds this week) or just the chammomile that relaxed her enough for her to finally go off.

Soccerette, up until about a week or so ago, dd went down in her cot like a dream, into cot - lights off, off to sleep, no problems and if she ever didn't fall straight to sleep she might grizzle for five minutes then give up and go to sleep. No chance anymore though, she wouldn't just cry for 5 mins, she winds herself up to screaming pitch in a matter of minutes and I can't leave her then as she'll wake the boys.

Dd is still feeding every three hours (or occasionally 4 hours) between 7.00 am and 7.30 pm. Between 4 and 5 feeds a day, depending on how she is feeling and occasionally a later one as well since she has not been falling asleep at night. I'm finding it quite exhausting to be honest, but she is still fairly small so I guess she needs it. She is having 3 good size meals a day as well and can put away more home made fruit porridge in one sitting than her 5 and 7 year old brothers do!

My HV sent a letter with an appointment date when dd was 6 months old, but we were on holiday so I had to cancel. Spoke to her on the phone when dd was 7 months and she said everything sounded fine so she'd see me at the 8 month check, for which I'd receive an appointment letter. Dd is now 9 months and I haven't heard from her since.

Everything crossed for your house offer. Hope it comes through for you. I would truly love to move house, but no chance of that for a few years.

Hey chefswife good to hear from you - sounds like DD is keeping you busy! Trip sounds fun too but I know what you mean about other people's spare beds - nothing beats your own.

soccer I don't think you are mean mummy, I think you are probably quite sensible mummy, as you now have a baby that drifts off to sleep like a dream! But I do think babies are just different - right from the start if I tried to put N down, he wasn't having any of it. We had a better night last night anyway so am feeling more human this morning. What a shame about the baby group - maybe try another one nearby, or ask your HV if there are any other people with babies E's age that might want to meet up? Yes, we are def still feeding morning and night here. And about 6 times in between! Things will change soon though as I start a job on Nov 23rd for a 10 week contract - so N will be switching to formula unless I can express enough each evening for a full day. Not sure at 10 months it is worth worrying about too much. Do you find that these days you get asked lots of 'how long do you plan to feed for?' questions? I do... like it's weird that I am still breastfeeding. Gosh, first we get made to feel like we must bf, then six months later it's 'when are you going to stop?'

tree I literally dreamed of your muesli this morning! Am going to make it, sounds so yummy.

MM I do understand your DH's reluctance about fb - it's not the end of the world - you will just have to come along to a meet up one day!

Off to playdate with 2 little friends now. And their mummies obviously

Thanks MissJ. I did say to him, that we could up the privacy setting so only my named friends could see any pictures - his response: "Yes, but who are these people, honestly? You don't really know do you? They could be anyone!" That caught me on the back foot as I am so used to chatting with you all after the best part of two years that I think I sometimes forget that I don't actually 'know' you. Was a bit of a jolt really.

Enjoy your playdate. Dd is ..... asleep!

soc - good luck with house sounds great

hi mm - bracken is 9 mnths 2