Sept 08: last year they were cute little bundles that smelt of milk and vanilla, but now they've been replaced with a babyzilla!

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

A new thread for us as the last one was running low.

I am finding the opposite. Robyn is sleeping through every few nights and is having good hour to 2 hour naps during the day. Last night she woke up at 2, 4 and 6.30 but during the day she had had a 90 min nap and the night before had slept through 9-6. It is very haphazard but I am getting 2/3 nights sleep a wake. About time, I haven't had a full nights sleep since I was 4 months pregnant.
I think it is linked to her walking as she is off everywhere and is pretty fast.

I am finding the opposite with M's daytime sleep too, he'd have three hours if I let him.

My opinion would be persevere with the daytime naps Hopefully. I wonder if it's T's new walking skills that are keeping him awake? I remember reading somewhere that when they about to learn or are learning a new skill there are little things in their brains that are fuseing together and developing, and for them it's like the equivalent of when we lie in bed and can't sleep because we've got too many things to think about. Does that make sense?

DD is in her own room and if she wakes up I try and get her back to sleep - normally she just needs a cuddle and a pat. If she persistently wakes she sometimes comes in with me and DH. She sleeps in the middle of us (we have a huge bed) but she doesn't settle well normally so I usuall end up taking her back to her cot. She has no problems getting out of bed though - as soon as she started trying I kept turning her round and saying feet first until she got the hang of it.

As for the being pushed over I just don't worry about it with her. It's possibly the product of having an older brother but she's more than happy to fight her corner and loves playing jumping and rolling around games with her brother and her daddy. Unless I thought she was in real danger I leave her to it. She only throws a tantrum (yes at this early age) if I try and stop her doing anything she wants.

DS2 has never slept in our bed apart from once in a hotel when he was about 7 months old as we were all in the same room and he was disturbing ds1 as he wouldn't settle.
He's generally a good sleeper but even if he does wake up and needs settled, holding him and shoogling him is all that works. If we were to put him in our bed he'd just wake up and crawl about I think. But that's prob just because he would like the novelty factor.

Thanks for the good luck messages. The move went really well. Both sales had gone through before 11am so we were then under pressure to get the house cleaned quickly but it was good having time in the new house to get sorted before the boys came back. Their rooms are sorted and the basics have been dug out of boxes but there's an unbelievable number of boxes to unpack. And we don't know what's in any of them because we didn't pack them.
DS2 has slept fine in his own room and I am loving being able to have the light on and read before I go to sleep! It's also great not to have to go through the living room to get from the kitchen to the dining room 17 times every mealtime!

Work is busy too so don't know when we'll get all the house things done but hopefully not too long.

ugh...daytime naps...dont get me started!

Toby has dropped down to only 45 mins some days which is really hard as that is when I do the structured HE with ds1....dh and I have been discussing it today and we think we are going to take his cot down (which is really too small for him anyway - he is 98th centile for weight and height!) and try him in ds1 old single bed with guard rails on either side.....he is very young but its the only way we can see to get him sleeping well again. He shares a room with ds1. We are going to try to put pillows around him on our bed for daytime naps (we have a bed guard on one side too) as he still really needs his sleep he is so sctive during the day....will let you know how it goes

A has got pretty erratic with napping - anything from 10 min (I mean, why bother?!!) to 3 hours plus an extra one.

Not sleeping too badly most nights but some refusing to go to sleep again after waking about 30 min after bedtime, and waking early. Since we figured out that too much milk was causing his constipation and have limited him to a pint a day however much he complains, he's been pretty good. Haven;t co-slept since he grew into the moses basket - tried it a couple times but he just got out and crawled off!

Yesterday I thought a work trip would be less tiring than looking after him - I'd be sitting down after all. I was wrong - he doesn't have me leaving home at 5.55am, returning gone 10, and dealing with statistics for 7 hours straight as well as transport via Birmingham...

He enjoyed sing and sign today, mainly the musical instruments and running around the church hall afterwards. Although he did cry a lot when another baby tapped him on the head with a shaker, rather like the mini muffin. I'm used to kids in the playground calling at me saying "I didn't touch him!"...

Well today he had a 10 minute morning nap (in the words of NC, why bother?!) and then 45 minutes after a really active 2 hours at playgroup.

The trouble is, as long as he gets a little snooze in somewhere, he's perfectly happy, so I don't think he's missing out on much. Am praying that he sleeps more once he's properly walking though, as maybe he'll knacker himself out a bit more.

My DD (16 mo) loves imitating things:

e.g carrying handbags around
cleaning her face
putting my make-up on
wearing jewellery
brushing her hair
brushing her soft toys' teeth (not her own, no chance)
me if I say OW very loudly when she pulls my hair (accompanied by demonic laugh)
dancing
playing the piano (well, banging the keys)
reading (upside down with babbling noises)
talking on the telephone

All very sweet. Less sweet habits:
screaming if you try to take a top off her
lying down on the floor screaming for 15 minutes at a time
tipping bowls of Rice Crispies over
hiding the smart card to the television amongst the books in the book case
arching her back when you try to get her into a car seat
going mental if someone accidentally mentions the words milk, cake or biscuit.
sometimes not finishing her early morning "business" by the time you have changed her nappy, and just as you are about to leave the house and are already running late for work, hey presto, she's done it again. Then you have dilemma of bunging her in the car anyway and pretending to childminder she did it en route, or changing her quickly, whilst she is wearing an enormous winter coat, boots and tights.

It all sounds very familiar messa lol
Thanks for the bugaboo bee imput hope
Also hopefully I used a baby dan pram seat on my bugaboo chameleon for a good 8 months. This saved me getting a double buggy! It is not designed for our pram but fitted great. There is 4 years between mine so ds1 walked mostly, but jumped on and off when we went on long day trips, holidays and when we where late for pre school! Much easier than buggy board as I could not use it witout banging my legs. Only 5ft 4.
Got to go. Working all weekend! Doh! xx

OMG. DP is looking after T today. He napped for 90 minutes this morning. How unfair is that?!? He's just taken him to the pool (for the first time!), so he'll probably get knackered and have a sleep this afternoon too.

Where is everyone?

Hi Messa - are you new on this thread as I don't think I've seen you before. Anyway, welcome

DH and I went out for a meal together without ds today. It's the first meal out we've had together since ds was born It was nice though, apparantly on Gordan Ramsey's F-Word it won best English restaurant - or something like that, I don't actually watch the F-Word anymore.

Oh look, when did these appear?

[bsmile}

Were they put there for Debi?!

Oh crap, I cocked that up!

cool.
Are you boredil2mimi a meal without children sounds lovely. What did you eat?
Where is everyone ????
I have just secured a bugaboo bee off ebay, whoooppyyyy! I cant wait to get it

Been lurking, but have nothing interesting to say. [bbiscuit]

Have had a lovely weekend, DS has been a joy. A Joy. Bit of teething today, but was fantastic at his grandparents yesterday, slept on the car journey there and back and still went to bed ok.

Had a full day today with swimming in the morning and an afternoon with our NCT antenatal group - was great seeing all the little ones running around playing with each other. All developing different abilities at different rates. DS is definitely the heaviest.

[bbiscuit]

why no work?

Have had a knackering weekend Robyn has decided to wake up almost all night and I am falling asleep as I type this. By 8 in the morning she is getting grouchy cos she hasn't had enough sleep, like mum like daugfhter. She is napping really good during the day so I get a rest then but i ned more sdleep. Think sharing our room is a bit of a problem so going to see a couple of bigger houses on Weds. Maybe when she can't hear her dad snoring she moght start to sleep through. And if not she will be in a different room so I won't be able to hear her

Busy weekend with lots of cooking - and a terrifying episode.
A woke at 5.30 but MrNC got him to sleep again with some paracetamol (he has a nasty cold atm. Again.)

Woke shortly before 9. Fantastic! Went to get A up and found him drinking said paracetamol with the bottle upended in his mouth!!! I saw where MrNC had put it, a good couple feet from the cot, and there's a bloody child-proof cap on it! Luckily it was mostly empty to start with and most seemed to have gone down his front, and NHS Direct were sure that a lot more would be needed to be a toxic dose, but still, very scary. Despite a happy A bouncing around MrNC on the phone, until I had to read the bottle when he got very upset I wouldn't give it to him. Have spent much of today looking for more house hazards - thing is he can climb and use long objects to hoik things out of reach, so we're a bit stuffed really. Argh! Another trigger for those baby-dying nightmares...

Rationing milk seems to have sorted A's constipation out, although had a bit on Friday - he's being very fussy about food and refused tea at nursery on Thurs, so his keyworker gave him a banana. He ate the whole thing. He's throwing almost everything except bread products, so I made apple loaf to sneak apple into him. Recipe didn't turn out quite right as the apple wasn't moist enough, but A's been eating it.

How scary NC! Glad he's perfectly OK. Sometimes I am very grateful for my barely-mobile baby.

DG glad DS has been chirpier/sleepier!

Have had a lovely weekend but T has come down with the same cough/cold thing that DP has, so last night wasn't great, and I'm not holding my breath about today and tonight either!

scary NC - M loves jars and bottles and I'm dreading something like that happening here.

Well I managed to lose M in Ikea yesterday. We were playing in the kids bit and I looked away for a second, turned back to see her running off, by the time I'd managed to haul myself jump up from the floor I couldn't see her.

Luckily she was found a few minutes later 9felt like 10 but probably wasn't) where we'd been, lying on a bed trying to put the covers over her!

Notcitrus - I'd be terrified! D is also into opening and closing things, putting things into things, and tasting absolutely everything. I have all medicines in a cupboard in the kitchen, but at this rate, he will suss out how climb up and open that too!

I have had to place child catches in the knives drawer and cleaning products cupboard to keep him away. He regularly empties all other cupboards and particularly enjoys dragging a very heavy skillet all round the house.

DG - It was just a phase. Phew. Now can A's good phase rub off on D, please? He is in the most awful teething grouchy mood. Do any of you find that your LOs are so loud that they paralise you with the sheer power of their screams? D sounds like a cross between fog horn and a car alarm. Probably louder.

I have visions of baby pacita with the heavy skillet.
Scary stories nc and ninja
Baby mufin loves our vegetable draw atm. He regualy kicks spuds around the house and just loves to peel red onions, All cupboard baby proofed except this one though.

We also went swimming this weekend and DD is a total water baby. She will not hold on to either me or DH any more but goes swimming off (obv. with her bands on) after DS or after her daddy or me and we just have to follow her around the pool. She loves jumping in and has no qualms about going under water at all.

Loving the Burns Night emoticons [bbiscuit]

Don't you think that looks like some sort of hooligan?