Fab Feb 2009 - 9 months in, 9 months out, now they're sitting, standing and crawling about

[TheHAUNTEDHouseofMirth]

Here we go again!

Aah, DH and I often have those issues when we switch sides LBB. Though I'd be livid if I got pushed out of bed at 4 in the morning for it...

STW - I dont think you are being too fussy. As LBB said, you need to find someone you are comfortable with the kids being with for so much of the day - and as Sam is still really little, and O is only just 2, it is important that they have somewhere where they can have a good nap. Have you been in touch with your local surestart centre - they may be able to recommend local childminders to you (know they helped out a couple of women I knew with finding childminders when their childcare arrangements fell through at the last minute)? Have you thought about maybe looking into nannyshares (maybe with someone with a baby and older kid at school or 2 older kids at school) - I know a couple of people who are doing nanny shares and its working well for them - and alot cheaper than putting 2 kids into nursery? Given you live in prime commuterbelt territory am sure there should be some nannyshares around if you did want to look into it. Hope your childcare woes get sorted out soon.

Have had a horrid week of illness in the dinky house - DS1 came down with bug on Sunday and was off sick from school till yesterday - which is precisely when Danny got it (whose sleeping had already been crap all week due to teething and is now practically non-existent). So am now on day 5 of very little sleep indeed and having to deal with poorly crying child/ren when I get home. And our nanny is ill with the same bug too... aargh. Fortunately am not too busy at work this week so can just about cope. Am just hoping that everyone is better for next week and neither DH nor I get it. We're meant to be taking the boys to go see Santa at Selfridges tomorrow (yes I know its insanely early but was the only slot left by the time I got my slatternly arse round to thinking about a Santa visit) so think will see how the boys are tomorrow morning before deciding if we go or not as dont want to be responsible for giving Santa the lurgy...

STW - re the planners - yup, am pretty angry that we went to all the time and expense of getting plans drawn up and approved without them warning us we had to start the work immediately or it would be revoked (normally you have a couple of years to start the work). So is back to the drawing board where instead of a side return we could have 3 metres stuck onto our kitchen to effectively create a utility zone (hmm, useful - not) or stick a redundant 4metre courtyard into a kitchen extension with a delightful view of a wall DH and I are mulling over what would be best to do to add value to the property and also give us space enough to be able to deal with 3 kids (and all their washing and tat) in the house.

dinky anything you'd like to tell us? THREE kids? hope all the lurgies clear soon and you get to see Santa.

STW second and thirded, you ask for what you're comfortable with. it's good to draw up a list of what your priorities are with childcare, with some people it might be something else that you're less worried about so do your list and feel entirely confident in sticking to it and not feeling like you're being fussy. for me, where and when they sleep is very high up the list.

lbb it sounds like your dp is a very brave man! with both dp and i not being the most slight of people we decided very early on in our relationship to invest in a super kingsize bed. best decision we ever made i think. even if we only have a few milimetres left either side of the bed!

thank you all for your kind words.

No, no news to tell KBN. Our plan - which hasnt been put off by Danny and his distaste for sleep - is to have 3 kids - not planning on having number 3 until house is sorted though as quite like having a bit of a gap between all the sleep deprivation that goes with small babies....

We're a superkingsize couple too - though that doesnt stop the duvet discussions as we're both duvet hogs...

Hello all!

My apologies for recent abcence. Things have been pretty tough really, some of you may remember that both the HV and GP wanted me to go on anti-depressents. So far, I am working through the fog without them, but I am starting to see the appeal. M is a dream (on the whole). Two teeth, lots of hair and lots of personality! We bought her first pair of shoes last night as she is standing and has walked fallen forwards into my arms. She?s really not far off walking, which is both enormously exciting and hugely terrifying! She will certainly be on the go by Christmas!

I am working part-time, but only temping, so still desperately looking for that elusive part-time perm job that?s close and pays well! Talk about mission:impossible! I think once that issue is resolved I will feel better ? money worries and feelings on inadequacy both playing starring roles in my emotional dram at the moment. We have sorted childcare now though (I managed to bury the hatchet with MIL rather than in her!) and we now only have one day a week paid for childcare, with a lovely CM just across the road from us. I take her across in my PJs and then go home and get ready for work!

I do try and lurk, but have been lured into fluffier forums! Now my working hours are more regular, I hope to be able to check in more regularly and stay in contact more. Are there any plans for a Christmas meet-up?

Take care all. xxx

kbn big hugs xxx just a quick check in my nights are consisting of breast feeding at the mo, i love bf but at this time of night i am exhausted love to all xxx

hello all, just had a chance to find you and catch up

dinky sorry about the planning problems and lurgies, hope the DC are well enough to go and see Santa this morning

KBN sorry about your ex and hope all goes well, can't be easy as you can't always switch off your emotions

STW what a pain ref childminder. Can't believe your old nursery was £2,300 pcm! That is crazy, not worth going back to work. Hope you manage to find a suitable arrangment

THOM thanks for advice about thrush. H is on medicine for 10 days (so another 3) but I'd never considered I could get it (on my nipples?) should I have cream then? They don't look different, just the normal battered and bruised boobs with some scratches as the litte rat needs his nails cut

PSL glad you've reached a truce with MIL. I've made it clear to DH I'm not going to see his mum again. I went out of my way in the summer to take DD and DS to see her and FIL (about 1 hours drive away) and they kept making excuses. The one time we did go at the beginning of Sept with DH just before we returned to KSA his mother refused to move about 2 foot to have her photo taken with the kids. That was the last straw for me the old witch.
They didn't even send a card (let alone a present) when H was born and 'forgot' DDs birthday in October. Cow

Hope everyone else ok x

funny, i seem to be having an awful lot of conversations this week about the merits of superking size beds.... we made the switch a few months ago and omg, it's so much better. no more hanging out the side when the kids crawl in, no more tug of war with the duvet, no more having to lie straight as a board right at the edge if you don't feel like touching cuddling your bedmate..... fabulous

KBN.... i'm so sorry you've had such awful news, of course it's normal to be quite upset, you married him so there must have been strong feelings there once and those don't just disappear when things don't work out. you have my deepest condolances and i hope the funeral goes smoothly {{{hug}}}

STW... i hope the appointment with the CM goes well and the kids have a smooth transition. this really was the last thing you needed wasn't it?

dinky... grr on your behalf about the planners, what a nuisance. hopefully whatever solution you come up with will be even better than the original plan though.

I've had a mad weekend... just to top off an insanely busy week. I have my second OU assesmant finished, dd had her nose cauterised again, i'm now treasurer of the playschool commitee (responsibity... eek!), cat had to have her stitches out and a million and one other jobs.

then on friday night was the playschool night out where i ate far too much lovely food but sadly remained sober as i was driving myself and 4 others. poor A had to cope from before 8 til after 2 with out his human dummy/milk supply... he was surprisingly good for dp though, although very much awake when i got home at which point he gorged on so much milk he procectile vomited all over both of us, himself and the couch... lurvely!

we braved the floods and drove to athlone yesterday for our annual pre christmas shopping trip (all the more enjoyed as we couldn't go last year due to dp's pneaumonia). we half drove and half sailed the roads were so bad and had to drive through rivers that had swamped the roads a few times. got some gorgeous clothes for the kids though.

weird drive home though, halfway back some knacker threw a bottle at the car which hit the windscreen, luckilly all ok but dp went all red mist and got put of the car and ran down the road after them what he thought he'd do if he caught them is beyond me and i had 999 dialled on my phone before he gave up and came back. then a few miles further on it started raining and the when he turned on the wipers the drivers side one snapped loose, it must have been hit with the bottle and the bit that hold the wiper to the moving arm was missing... luckily i'm paranoid about this stuff since being stick in the puring rain with no wiper once so i had a spare in the boot. then to top it all off we were stuck behind some drunk veering all over the road at 25mph for a couple of miles... so you can imagine dp's mood when we got home

having a lazy day today and then tomorrow i really must tackle the christmas cakes... i've never been this late doing them before!

God BRT - how do you find time to breathe??? That sounds like an uberhectic week - hope you're having a nice lazy today to rest up after it. And re the idiots on your drive home.

MoS - hope you've recovered from your thrush now and life is treating you well. Your MIL and FIL sound really quite odd - do they not like little kids or is it something else you think?

PSL - nice to see you on. Glad all is good now again with MIL - long may it stay that way. How is the lovely M doing?

Well Danny seemed a little better yesterday (despite a horrid night with v little sleep again) so we chanced going to Selfridges to see Santa - DS1 enjoyed it and Danny seemed in good spirits so was probably worth it but god, the chaos at the photo booth afterwards sapped me of any christmas spirit I might have had from the santa experience (long queue and incompetent staff = 20 minutes wait with tetchy kid while they took my order, failed to print it off correctly, ran out of printer paper and couldnt find the replacement and then finally offered to post the photos to me this week - I rather suspect I will never see those photos again). I know it was the first day but as we were in the second hour of slots of that day one would have thought they'd have sorted themselves out by then...

Unfortunately Danny took a turn for the worse last night (awake literally every 30 minutes doing his feeble impression of bawling and really struggling to breathe) so had to go see emergency doc today and now he's on baby ventolin. Really hope he starts to take a turn for the better now as is killing me seeing him so unhappy and being unable to eat or sleep

Though on a brighter note he walked across our living room yesterday pushing his wooden blocks trolley - looked very proud of himself

dinky Sorry to read the boys and nanny have a nasty bug. Hope they get better soon. Jacob not too well at mo, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I also want a third baby, but dp is set against it and refuses to budge. He said if Luke was our first, we wouldn't have had a second! He said there is no way he's risking having another baby like Luke, but I told him they are all different and yes, Luke is a crier but he'll come out of it (I hope). I really really want another one but we are only just scraping by and can't afford another one unless I go back to work and I don't want to just yet.
psl Sorry you've been feeling a bit low. I know exactly what you mean about money worries and feelings of inadequecy though. I really don't think I'd have managed at all without the AD's. They want to start weaning me off them when Luke turns 1 but the thought is very scary!
That's lovely about M nearly walking. Luke's trying to pull himself up to stand but isn't even close, he gets too frustrated too quickly and just screams! (far too much like his mother)
I'd be up for a pre-christmas meet-up.
dinky Hope Danny gets better soon. I don't think Luke will be happy until he can walk. We have a brick trolley, but he is nowhere near ready to push it. He likes to take the bricks out and post them through the bars of the child gate on the kitchen.

Ugh, I have the boys' bug now... I hate it when we're all ill at the same time. Though have dragged my sorry arse into work as will get more peace and quiet here than at home with a tantrumming DS1 and a really quite poorly feeling Danny - fortunately our nanny is better so she's up to the challenge...

LBB - hope DS1 is ok. FWIW DH and I think Danny is a much more grumbly baby than DS1 was - he tends to make his displeasure known very quickly - and from what I recall my little sister was the same as a baby, so maybe its a second child thing being rather quick to express how you feel?

Hey all,

Despite being a dream sleeper at first, M now sleeps very badly at night and often wakes us every half hour or so between 12-7. Poor old J, because I sleep through her waking when he?s around, is very good and manages most nights. A few weeks ago he had to practically kick me, give me the monitor and then went in the spare room to get sleep. But yesterday, as she hardly slept during the day, she went through almost all night ? is that the answer? Keep her up all day so she sleeps at night? Can I ask what other lo?s sleep routines are?
Luckily she?s a good eater and generally very happy, or I?d be tempted to return her!

lbb - I am putting off going to the ADs in case I feel the same way, tbh. I have a massive and ugly family history with addiction etc, and although I can see the way ADs would provide a safety net, I would then fear that I wouldn?t be able to cut the net down.

dinky - I just love that look achievement when they do something a bit bigger/better/longer! M has a brick walker thing too, and she can speed through the sitting room and kitchen. She is standing unaided for minutes at a time, and can even clap while standing. Yesterday she started squatting up and down (she has always been a bouncer) and look so chuffed with herself!
She really is lovely, but I still can?t quite think of myself as her mum, I feel more like an aunt, but I guess that will change.
She gets horrid coughy/nosey things too. She can be so bunged up, and of course her biggest annoyance is horrid old me trying to de-bogey her before a bottle/sleep. She?s been on antibiotics twice now, and I?m so desperately hoping that she?s not going to be an ?ill? child. Hope things get better for you all soon, especially you. There?s nothing worse than being ill when others depend on you for something.

KBN - I?m so sorry to hear your news. It?s totally understandable that you have mixed emotions, I don?t think love ever dies completely. God Bless.

STW - I?m here! Sorry to hear about childcare wows ? it is such a pain, isn?t it? I hope all goes well and the right option presents itself soon.

PT - What a week! Glad your shopping trip was successful ? but what a journey! I guess all is well with DD?s foot/leg? If it's not cheeky to ask, how are things with you and your DP? I remember there were some issues a while back. Did things work out ok with that job?

MOS - How funny some people are with kids. M?s grandparents are all a bit the other way, but for her sake, I?m glad they want to see her so much. Apart from my father who is a total knob.

Hope everyone else is well, and staying safe and dry in all this horrible weather.

PSL Luke gets up at 5:30/6am, I try to get him to nap at 9am and that can last anywhere up to midday. I then try and get him to nap again at 1/2 for a couple of hours and then he's in bed by 7pm and generally goes through unless he's teething or got a cold.
His routine isn't quite as strict as ds1's was, but I do remember having to 'teach' Jacob when it was nap time.
Is she ratty if she's up all day?
RE Ad's, understand how you feel and your worries. My dad has been on them for over 20 years and my mum should be on them.

dinky Hope you get better soon. Must be horrid.

I've just had a call from a lady I did a party for telling me one of her guests has been diagnosed with swine flu.
I'm ok, but the whole swine thing is doing the rounds badly here again, is in most of the schools and my friends 2yo has it now, so fingers crossed mine don't get it.

hello all, hope everyone ok and those that were ill are recovering.

Even though its hot (well warm as its got a little cooler over the past few days) we have all had bugs here DD and H have both got coughs and colds which isn't much fun at night.

BRT/PT what a nightmare day you had. Can't believe someone threw a bottle at your car. I'd have caught the bastard and beaten the crap out of him.

Good to hear some little ones are on their feet now. H has been pulling himself up for months now but no sign of him actually walking anywhere other than up and down the side of the sofa

Just popping in to say hello after bumping into Stinky on another thread

I'm dealing with beeing made redundant but still having to sit in the office every day, DS1's winter vomiting bug, absent husband, rushing between two different childminders, and DS2 who is now walking along the coffeetable. Hope that everything is well?

Stinky

God America - sounds like you've got a hell of a lot on your plate now - including an insomniac DS2 (who I hope is now sleeping better) - no wonder you havent been on here much! Hope life starts to get a hell of a lot better for you very soon.

Am off sick today with the boys' lurgy and about to head back to bed again to try and sweat the evil thing out. I swear I never used to get this ill pre-kids....

Dp's got some sort of bug now. He was up all night chucking his guts up. Nice. In the sink because there wasn't time to lift the toilet lid.....

LBB, sounds like your DP has the same bug than my DS... I'm sitting in my office and wasting time online because my stupid boss cannot be bothered to be here and they cannot make me redundant before the boss comes back. On the bright side, I have almost completed Xmas shopping.

I hate this time of year. Am feeling so rubbish - can't breathe, lungs hurt and coughing like a 70-a-dayer. We're off to Paris this weekend for a stag/hen do and long weekend away (first time since M!) and I know I won't shake this before we go. Grrr.

Speaking of 70-a-day - lbb are you still fag free? Hope so, you were doing so well.

Hugs to america, how shity to be made redundant at this time of year. Well done you for using your office time so wisely! Are you looking for other things as well as shopping online? Hope you have a good redundancy package...

Dinky - hope you're now feeling better? Did D have a better night last night?

And hope all with ailing children/partners aren't suffering too much either.

Hi PSL - have a great time in Paris. The parisians smoke like chimneys so you'll fit right in with your smokers cough Am sure you'll have a wonderful time - wish I was going...

LBB - hope your DP is better and that you and the boys didnt catch it. There are so many bugs doing the rounds at the moment we're all bound to be suffering at any given time.

PSL - feeling abit better thanks. Still no voice to speak of but well enough to drag my sorry arse into work. Danny's sleep is improving slowly - only awake 3 times last night and up for the day at 5.30 - so fingers crossed we'll get him back down to only one wake up in the not too distant future...I saw in your earlier post that M's sleeping has gone all over the shop too. Must be an age/developmental thing (Dinky clings to that thought)

PSL Yes I am still fag free!! although I wasn't quite 70 a day (was getting there). Tbh, I've had 1 or 2 when I've been drinking but it is so foul.
dinky dp's a bit better. He went into work last night and then let me have a lay in this morning. I'm fine, but think ds1 is getting something now. He really stinks!!!!!!! Everytime he farts I think I'm going to be sick. He has done a few very soft poo's today, so hoping it's working it's way out (sorry TMI)
Luke's as whingy as ever but I think tooth number 2 must be on it's way. The past few days have been nightmarish for him.
On the positive, Luke is getting soooooo close to crawling. He can do it backwards and is trying forwards but can't yet manage or just can't be bothered as he is super quick at dragging. He is known as Slug-boy here.

Re sleeping. I'm sure they all go through some sort of seperation anxiety thing at about 9/10 months. IIRC Jacob did.

dinky hope it all gets better for you soon. one thing after another hey.

don't laugh.

i bought the feckin train

i showed A in the shop and he was facinated and i didn't have the heart not to

feel free to laugh, dp is

forgot to say, A had his 9 month check today and was pronounced 'the perfect breastfed baby; wiry, strong and alert' [smug] he even showed off his standing and walking on hands and feet (and his dislike of lying down and being dressed but ho-hum)

weirdly he was the second baby today the doc had seen who had aspirated pneumonia at birth and she said the last case she'd seen before this was over 5 years ago.

BRT Glad all went well at the 9 month check. Luke hasn't had his.

Am giggling away at you and the train here BRT Sounds like A will love his xmas present. Danny will be getting a bumpy ball and something to chew on this christmas... perfect gifts for our little puppy Glad to hear his 9 month check went well - they dont seem to do them round our part of london (probably as our health visitors are all so bloody useless).