May 09 - Six months on. Sleepless nights, hen nights and a sexybuilder.

[HeadlessLadyH]

Over here!!!!

Looking good Grumpy! Have fun!

Ses I have a Nanny who was a Nursery Nurse at the nursery both DDs attended. I really liked the nursery because it was small and friendly, but then the Manager changed and it went downhill from there, so we approached the (now) Nanny. As it turned out, paying her direct to look after DDs was actually cheaper than 2 lots of nursery fees, but I think more experienced Nannies can be much more expensive. Having a Nanny is much more convenient with no pick up / drop offs, can stay later if you have to work late and is lovely for the DC to be able to be in their own home and together. The disadvantages is that you have someone working in your home, so you need to be tidy / discreet (well, I find this difficult) and you need to manage her as an employee, which can be tricky if you need to tackle issues where in a nursery you would speak to the manager. Also you need to manage the Nanny's holidays to coincide with your own, and work out what to do if the Nanny is off sick.

Grumpy have fun

Reebs glad the housemove went well

G's sleep training seems to be going well [doesn't-want-to-jinx-it-emoticon]. After offering him cold milk when he woke up, I moved on to sort-of CC by leaving him cry for quite a while, and then just picking him up and settling him before putting him down again without milk. Last night he woke up at 3.30am for a couple of minutes crying, and then self-settled, so I think we are on the right track. Phew.

Thanks tummum, flippin and others for feedback on CMs, nannies, nurseries.
Just back from visiting 2nd nursery and actually have a better overall feeling about this one. Nice garden area with large part sectioned off for under twos, all cots in baby room, little campbeds in other rooms, all sleep areas in separate rooms, generally pretty spacious. My main question from prospectus was that they woulddn't store EBM but they've said they do if parents sign a disclaimer over contamination so I can consider what I'd do. They're also open slightly longer than the other one I looked at but still slightly cheaper! Finally one of the other babies in our NCT group may be going there too.
Lots to think about!

ReeBee - new house sound great!

Sorry, gotta run - poo explosion!

Ses Glad you liked the nursery. I found that DD had EBM at nursery for a few months(5-7 months) but once she was on 3 good sized meals a day with snacks(about 9months I think) I just fed her morning and night and she had water during the day with lots of dairy in her diet. I still feed her on my days at home if she wanted it. I also mix fed for a short while (around 8 months)giving her formula when I was at work and then on my days at home I fed her as normal. My boobs coped with the change fine.
On you NCT girls night make sure your phone is turned on silent. He can always rock him or take him for a drive in the car !!

Grumpy I'm sure you are all loved up with DH now so enjoy .

Better go. It is the arsnic hour here.

Quick question: DS2 has porridge for breakfast which I make with EBM. When can I use cows milk instead? He has been fine with fromage frais and it is a real faff to express in the morning just to make his breakfast. If I can give him cows milk then I can just give him my porridge. Simple.

llare as I understand it cows milk is fine with cereal from 6mo but not as a main drink until 1yr old.

Why is it that A is a contrary little madam who doesn't seem to want to do anything be picked up, be put down on front, back, sit up, feed, nothing UNTIL DH walks in He even said 'oo isn't she smiley today'... aaargh

Llare- I am still 'miss leaky boobs' so i just collect some milk in shells to use on Ss weetabix. But if i run out of EBM i was also thinking i would use cows milk as i'd heard it was ok from 6 mo.

Ses- I used to send DS1 (9mo) to nursery with 2 big bottles of EBM as he was still having a couple of BF during the day. However, he would hardly touch it, so after a few weeks i decided it wasn't worth all my expressing efforts, so I just said they could give him formula, which he still didn't take much of. Like febes he would BF on his days off and my boobs coped fine. I would just express a little at work if i felt uncomfortable.

Well I just had a bathtime from hell. I had all 3 DCs screaming in the bath, for different reasons. DS2 was just tired, and fell asleep at 6.20 so at least i could then get the other 2 down (by 6.50) although DS1 is still chatting/singing to himself. He still naps 2 hours at nursery [he won't sleep at home] which means he isn't tired at bedtime- I might have to ask them to limit his nap there!

Thanks for that, Dandy, running and pula. "Real" porridge for DS2 tomorrow instead of Plum porridge. So much easier!

Dance class Dandy? sounds fun!

Blimey a lot to catch up on in just one day.

reebee good to hear your move went ok. You'll be all sorted soon.

grumpy enjoy your DH's return

ses not much to add to the nursery/nanny/CM debate here. DS1 goes to nursery. It was a recommendation from a friend who had twins there. When we looked I was still pg and had nooooo idea what we should have been looking for. Having said that, DH and I knew when we looked around that we were really happy with it so we looked at no others! It just felt right. Happy kids, low staff turnover and other parents raving about it so thats where he went. We had a parents evening tonight which was lovely. Just to find out what they do all day is great as when they get to pre school you don't get the daily diary that you do when they are babies/toddlers. They do some fantastic stuff and its down to nursery that he knows his letters, numbers and can write his name now. All ready for school. R is going there too when I go back. We've made some great friends too through the nursery so all in all, I think I would say that I am a fan of nurseries!!

pula similar here too except DS1 decided that he didn't want a bath and then he did but by then it was too late. Cue tantrum and deliberately weeing on the carpet. Little monster.

Haha. Not much to add she says and then waffles on about nurseries. Sorry.

porridge - this is my plan too! Have to say I'm struggling to fit in one meal a day for him at the moment. Maybe it'll get easier as I give him more of just what we're having.

Febes and Pula - thanks for sharing your experience with EBM at nurseries.
Thanks to everyone else for their helpful comments too. The more I picture it, the more I can imagine using the nursery I saw today for DS. Will discuss it through with DH and mull it over before a definite decision though.

DH now home but on the phone for work. He just asked what time I was going & back tomorrow. I said about 7.45am til about 6ish. He said "Really? What am I going to do?"
I need an evil grin emoticon

Evening everyone,

Lots to catch up with again. When DH is at home he hijacks the computer and then claims he barely used it

grumpy must be enjoying hubby time again.

childcare Not much to add, only that we've had ap's only because due to both our working hours being totally unpredictable and unsociable and no nearby family we need some sort of live in arrangement, but can't afford a nanny. I'm looking for an ap with good childcare qualifications now though, due to C being so little. Also agree with the gut feeling. It tends to be right.

reebee Sounds like you've arrived in a nice place. Hope the cooker gets fixed soon too.

MrsSaus Nice to hear the story of your wedding. Sounds you had a great time, minus the MIL shenanigans. Hope you get to move closer to your job soon too. That would be lovely

long days As DH is working away half the time my days tend to be long too. Luckily my 3 dcs are angels and are rarely difficult at the same time. They tend to do it in manageable one by one sessions, lol.

Well here we've had an eventful day here. I left C with dh for the longest ever. First to go grocery shopping while she was napping and she didn't wake during the whole 1.5h, which was nice and then I went to the dcs' school to 'celebrate' their creative homework. I was gone for 2h and C was awake for the whole time with DH. I was only down the road. At the end of it my boobs were telling me it was time to go back, lol.

The biggest event of the day was when school phoned because ds went hot and then nearly fainted during assembly. We think it's because DS got up in the middle of the night some time to play with his nintendo ds. I had taken it away last night, because I knew ds would play with it in bed otherwise. Then when DH woke for the toilet around 5 he saw the lights on downstairs, but presumed that it was because I'd forgotten to switch them off. Instead of going down to switch of the lights he went back to bed because he was cold. Anyway when I got up ds was already downstairs, I didn't think anything of it as that's usual. Then DH mentioned the lights and from there on we worked out ds must have already been down there, so heaven knows what time he got up. He seemed OK though, so went to school and obviously only lasted until around 11.30. When he came home we put him to bed and he slept for 3h . So now we've got a 24h DS ban and after we're going to have to invent some new rules too and start to hide the thing in our bedroom at night so he can't get to it. Gosh, what a story. Hope I haven't bored you all to death.

The BLW is going vvvvveeeeerrrryyyy slowly here. C's just not interested in food. I tried her with a spoonful of fruity fromage frais to see what she'd say and she pulled a face of utter disgust, it was so funny!

Belgian My DD didn't like fromage frais at first either it took a few months of pulling very funny faces and spitting it out before she started liking it. R seems to wolf down anything I give him. He had fish pie tonight.

Febes- S sounds like your R. He hasn't refused anything yet! I think fromage frais is his favourite (he makes lots of mmm mmm sounds) but guess i shouldn't have given it him before 6 months (oh well).

Pula I started with the intention of going slow as it was about 3 weeks early but R snatches things out of my hand and shoves it straight in his mouth. He is a fatty boom boom and I love it.

Both my other 2 loved fromage frais. Goes to show that fat babies aren't necessarily ones that want solids early or are especially hungry, lol. I know I'm being impatient, but it's all a little of an anti climax really. She squashes food, holds it, but doesn't even attempt to put it in her mouth half the time. I think that if food rattled or was like paper she'd be much more interested!

Evening all!

All this talk of food....A ate rice cakes and a pear today! NOt tried her with much else really, she eats a bit, plays a bit, well that's it really.

do you mind if I join in at this hour? even if I smell of sick? H is fine but has sicked up milk a few times today (gagging herself with spoon/my hand/whatever she can find).

reebee, hope all goes well with the house sale. house sounds great and I can't wait to visit you .

grumpy, enjoy your DH, that's really sweet that you get the flutters or whatever you called it still after 10 years. i need that feeling back .

belgian, made me smile about your DS staying up all night - musthave been a ball for him! but glad he's ok.

llare, i started putting cow's milk in Harper's porridge at 6 mos mainly because i figured she was getting milk in cheese on toast and i'd also given her a jar of banana porridge made with cow's milk. luckily, I haven't noticed any allergic reaction.

pula, three crying in the bath at once. I'm amazed you had them all in the bath at once. you sound like superwoman to me. I thought of you this morning during our nursery run. I'd wanted to be downstairs eating breakfast at 8am. I couldn't even get dd1 out of bed till 8. it was actually Harper's 'fault' as she slept a bit later. She then took ages to BF so I couldn't physically encourage DD1&2 to get ready quickly (though it didn't stop my loud verbal commands). anyway, we left for nursery at 9am. at least they were in time for 930 snack .

gonna take a break in posting to get a cuppa and do this in bed. DH is away tonight so large bed to myself. can sttreetttch. well, I say 'To Myself', yet I'm sure a little someone will need to snuggle with me in the middle of the night .

hello

only 2 more days to go and DH is home but gah i'm reeeeaaaaallllly tired so apologies for not name checking.

namecheckamnesty is gold, Fi. we're all using it !

hope the 2 days go quickly for you.

why aren't I asleep? I have a feeling H will be awake tonight. prob since DH is away so 'twould be typical for baby to cry in the middle of the night which would wake up dd1 who would scream and I wouldn't be able to go to all at once.... am I a pessimist?

actually, H slept from 8pm last night till 7am this morning . I know she can do it just not sure why some days she doesn't sleep well.

yes, it's mememe in this post but I'm all about rambling tonight.

i should be heading off to dream feed g and bed... but have been pottering with farmville and ordering a birthday present for my friend kids that live in NZ. I found a online NZ firm so at least i don't have to worry about postal problems from here and it should arrive in plenty of time for her ds2 2nd birthday next tues feeling quite chuffed as disorganised me as usual left it to late for sending from here

I'm disorganised as well . i never get christmas gifts on time to the US. must be sure to send my mother something before Nov is finished. please remind me!

They only charged 2NZD to gift wrap and put a card with it... thought that was really reasonable.

I'll try to remind you! But my memory is mince most of the time these days