May 2009 - Don't forget to wear your good shoes...

[belgina]

Right, new thread...

Sorry about the title

Cocktail anyone?

oooooh pula glad you ordered The Dress. Hope you like it. Shall be wearing it on Friday night for a night out with 2 girl friends, so I may brave the cold wash at the weekend.

belgina a late shift sounds a bit scary! When do you actually start?

The child free day was then taken up with sorting laundry, making up beds and travel cots for a pal and her 2 who are coming up tomorrow for the weekend! So glamourous!! Was gutted to have the hair appointment cancelled as I desperately need my roots doing and was hoping to go back to work feeling all groomed. Oh well.

Fingers crossed for a good night for all.

Dandy - your going to have to share the party game that involves DS. Bet he'll love it!

Pula - hope all's still going well tonight

Febes - wow on R and all his teeth! Hope he doesn't suffer too much and you get a good night.

Belgina - getting info from work makes it all seem so real doesn't it

Fi - crocs sound like quite a good toy. I might invest in some!

LadyH - sorry you didn't get your hair done. When are you back at work?

Jael - glad things are all a bit more positive for you

Well I have my first full day at work tomorrow and O has his first full day at nursery. I don't actually start back until next Friday but there's an all day meeting that would be useful for me to attend tomorrow. I've sorted out my work bag and outfit tonight and asked DH to be prepared to help in the morning. I'm aiming to get O to nursery between 8 and 8.30 so he can have breakfast there and I won't get to pick him up until about 5.30pm at the earliest.
All v real

Sorry ladies, I was going to do a grand catch up but A has just started crying! DH has gone up to shush her, but I suspect it won't work and I'll be required.

Lovely day here, spend some time with a friend I don't see very often. The girls were both very good on the fairly long car journey, which was great.

Catch up tomorrow!

Dandy you're brave! What is going to happen to your poor DS??

Headless I'm of your child free day even if it wasn't especially glamorous. at two loo rolls - hopefully not accompanied by anything else.

Belgina I'm sure you will get your MN time back when you get through that 'polite' phase with your AP (not trying to imply you would be impolite, of course!). Hmm, starting back at work with an evening shift on labour ward... nothing like being thrown back into it. Good luck with delegating C's bedtime. I've always done H's bedtime but I'm going to have to let DH tackle it in a couple of weeks when I go out with the NCT girls.

Jael great to hear things are getting better, and that both your DCs are doing so well.

Pula good luck for tonight. Let us know how you get on. I'm sure your HV is right and consistency is the key. I've got a HV coming round on Monday - unfortunately not 'my' HV from when H was born (who is fab, quite into attachment parenting, BLW and the like, as opposed to the 'no night feeds after 6m' brigade), she has left - so we will see what she says. I told her I wasn't up for controlled crying, at least not yet, so hopefully she has some other ideas up her sleeve.

Oh and pula well done on the presentation. I get really nervous about things like that.

On no ses So quick. It'll be OK on the day I'm sure, but the thought of leaving them is just so horrible, isn't it? I'll miss C big time. I'm so worried about her sleep times too. I'm back at work for a week of induction and manual handling from the 1st and then shifts from the 8th.

fi C loves my crocs for some reason. Thinks they're really funny for some reason

ladyH You'll be very busy tomorrow then. It's nice to have friends over, but it does create a flurry of housework.

dandy 21 guests . The most we've ever had was 11 (boys) and that was plenty!

dandy 21 children to entertain oh my! I am intrigued about your adapted DS as teddy bear game lol... if he's anything as strong willed as G pass the parcel will definitely be out
belgina nothing like being thrown in the deep end to get you back into the swing of it but hopefully C will be a delight to DH or AP at bedtime... although from a cuddles pov i'd be of missing them while at work too

lots of x posts!

Well, I wont be on my own on LW. Those shifts so I can be on with someone senior, I presume to follow around for a bit, because I wont know where anything is, lol.

fi So far C has actually not been a delight for the ap and she must be wondering what she's letting herself into. Yesterday C had no solids whatsoever, then took forever to fall asleep (which included lots of screaming), then today she wouldn't nap and of course was incredibly grumpy (which again included quite a bit of screaming) in the afternoon, but unfortunately for C 5 is too late for a nap and too early for bed IMO, so I had to keep her going and she ended up having her dinner on my lap for the 1st time in months. I did tell the ap that C really isn't normally like this, but I'm not sure whether she beleived me

well at least your ap won't be surprised by any screaming from C belgina...

although for her sake I hope she doesn't get too upset & inconsolable or it'll make you feel even worse about missing bedtime

That's c not being inconsolable not the ap or dh!... arrrgh must go to bed my brain has started to leave chunks of my train of thought out of my sentences!

Belgina- it's funny about the no naps after 5pm thing, which I also follow. I will sometimes put S down at 4.30 for a 30 min catnap before tea, but otherwise I just keep him up. The other day I went to pick S up from nursery at 5.30 and he was asleep but luckily only since 5.15.

My DH has put S to bed a few times when i've been working away or something, and S hasn't taken much milk but went to sleep very nicely for him so obviously didn't miss me that much .

Pula J is fortunately a very good sleeper at night, and if he does wake for a 6am feed, will drink his 7oz feed in ten mins and go straight back to bed until we get up for the day at 8am. He has a mini cat nap around 11ish of about 30 minutes, and I have FINALLY got him into a routine of an afternoon nap, which now works perfectly for me. He goes down after lunch and fruit, he feeds himself, so he tends to sit in his highchair a while eating lol and then he goes down between 1:15/1:30 and doesn't wake up until 3pm which gives me just enough time to get him ready before leaving to get DD from nursery. J doesn't have any other naps. He has his dinner at 5 and then bath and is in bed at 7. The routine gets a bit higgledy piggledy at weekends, but weve worked out that he sleeps in the car VERY well, so if we make sure that if were out, were driving betwen 1pm/3pm if you get me, that may sound stupid, but it kinda works...ask me again in September and I very much doubt he'll be in the same routine, as i'll be on my course

been up since 4 . I just can't sleep, nothing to do with DCs waking. Feeling anxious lately about...well, everything.

Dandy, sometimes H has a nap at 5. When she does, I try to keep it down to half an hour then put her to sleep for the night about 730/8pm. She's starting to drop this afternoon nap, though, as her afternoon/lunch nap is moving later to 1.30-3pm like Jael's J.

Jael, good to see you again here .

will catch up on other posts now. I could have an hour of sleep if I wanted but don't think I'm capable. I know it will catch up with me at 3pmish time.

getting tired now . and DD's will be waking up soon .

Pula, how did last night go? hope you got sleep.

Belgina, C will settle for ap soon, I hope. Must be strange to have someone living in your house... or, are you used to it? I was an AP in Italy in '92/93 for a single mum and her 5 year old. loved it and was very good friends with the woman. Am now on FB with the little boy who's in his 20's now .

Ses, hope you have a good day at work. You(and O) will be fine and get into the 'swing of things' quickly.

got to go down to get more coffee and milk for the girls. breakfast, we have drinks before going down to breakfast about 8am. H seems to be cutting down on most of her milk feeds. I'm still bf morning and night with a 6/7oz bottle of formula in the early afternoon.

hope all are well this morning.

Morning all!

younger - sorry to hear you're feeling anxious. We've been up for hours too, so feeling your tiredness. DH had to get up for work at 5.15 and managed to wake up the rest of us . we're still in our pjs though! Will have to get moving soon, the hairdresser is coming round at 9 to mine and DD1's hair.

Al this talk about daytime routines makes me feel slightly inadequate! We don't have nay kind of routine really, just patterns that vary depending on all sorts of things. I don't put A to have a nap at any particular time, she just falls asleep when she's ready (usually either after a feed or in the sling/pushchair). We try not to let her sleep after 5.30 though, and will wake her up if she's asleep then. Poor girl usually has to fit in around whatever else is going on!

Morning ladies (yawn )

Well S is still asleep in his own room and hasn't had a feed since 11.15 . However, we did have fun and games from 2.40 to 4.10, but overall I am very pleased . I spent 45 minutes trying to resettle him and it got to the point where he wasn't even calming when i held him or patted him and he was soooo loud i just needed a break. So i went into DDs room next to his (she was away at her GPs) and did some CC (5 mins, 10 mins, then 15mins). He was actually quite quiet during these periods, but basically was stood up at the bars when i went back in, and got cross when i laid him down and left. After the 15 mins one, I heard a big bang as he must have bumped his head, so i went to comfort him, laid him down and rubbed his back. He must have decided that he'd had enough of all that and gave in to sleep. I did hear him cry at 4.30 but he calmed himself. Better go- DH has just woken him up . Time for his feed, and better get ready for work.

Jael- what course are you going to be doing- good for you .

younger- sorry to hear you are feeling anxious again . anything we can help with?

flippin why do DHs make so much noise and wake everyone up . I always worry when DH has an early train to catch.

I am back on as S doesn't seem that interested in milk so that gives me confidence to keep persevering with the sleep training. And he's so happy and excitable and making kissy sounds at me

Morning all.

pula first thing I thought of this morning (almost!) was I wonder how pula's night has gone? Sounds like progress was made even if it was exhausting for you. WIth any luck by Saturday you will have a baby that sleeps at night!

My first thought was actually - what time is it (it was 6am), and where is R? (still in his own cot and just chatting to himself!). This is the 2nd night in 4 that he has gone through! DS1 also went through so miracles can happen. Am not counting my chickens as am inclined to think that the little ones are deliberately lulling us into a false sense of security and maybe after 2 more good nights, they will be back to normal service.

dandy 21 children. Are you completely bonkers?? But Pizza Express is an excellent choice and at least you won't have to do the clearing up.

re the (late) afternoon nap. We have the same school run prob at 3.30 and sometimes R would still be asleep. So, if I am being clever, I will put him for his nap in his pushchair so I don't have to wake him to do the school run. We have no real routine to speak of. Sometimes if he has had an early lunchtime nap, he will need a power nap at 5 too so I will put him in his pushchair for 20 mins. It all depends on what time he conks out at lunchtime/afternoon. It doesn't seem to effect his bedtime though as bath time has a magical tiredness button , and as soon as he is out of his bath, the eye rubbing starts.

younger are you ok? Those sort of wake ups are horrible. YOu try and try to "not think about stuff" but its all you can think about at that hour. Off load if it would help.

ses have a good day at work. Go and be a Proper Grown Up for a bit! No baby talk allowed.

flip send your hairdresser here after you're done, would you?

Am so looking forward to seeing my friend later. She has had a rough time of it in the last year so my other pal and I have booked her in for some beauty treatments on Saturday morning so treat her. She needs some me time and pampering.

Hi All,
Just bookmarking. Will catch up later when A naps.
Hope all ok x

Blimey, 21 children Dandy I don't know of any party games really but pin the tail on the donkey went down very well at a recent party we attended. I like sound of the adapted teddy bear game.

Belgina and ses good luck at work.

sausage how is you head, young lady?

pula so last night sounded a little better. Fingers crossed.

younger how is the potty training going?

I had a lovely day yesterday. I went to the gym and then met my team at work for lunch. It was so nice to eat without the boys. We had 3 courses (bliss) of fantastic food and agreed to come back in April for a sort of welcome back to work lunch for me.

G really is crawling now and trying to pull himself up. So ner ner to the HV. Silly woman. He was so sweet last night when he woke up at 10pm and wouldn't go back to sleep. Who could be cross when a little chap is smiling and saying "mamamamamam" and waving? I was thrilled until he said "mamamamama" to DH too. He really is a sociable little chap

younger sorry you're feeling anxious. 4am is the time i always worry about things too. i usually end up getting out of bed, make a hot chocolate and putting freeview on to shut my brain off. or i boot the laptop up for a potter on fb/MN & i have even been known to get my sketching book out! most times one of those helps me settle enough to sleep. remember we're always listening if you need to off load to quell the 'my brain won't switch off & can't stop worrying and it's the middle of the night'.. some of us may even be up too if our dc's young and old have anything to do with it! x
great night pula quite a change already! fingers crossed tonight is even better x
flippin G has different nap routines depending on where we are that day.. at home she'll nap before lunch and not at all in pm and get v grumpy around 5pm when we eat dinner. if at playgroup she'll stay awake all am from 6am!! and sleep after finishing lunch at 1ish.. other days it may be short nap am & short nap mid pm.. just depends on what we're doing too.
dandy if G falls asleep late pm close to 5pm i let her sleep a short time then wake her when her dinner is ready. she usually ends up going back to bed closer to 8 than 7 on those days but i just let her crawl around & play in the lounge with us.. DS is usually asleep & it's lovely to have some G only time when it happens.

took me so long to post that i knew there'd be lots of x posts! and there are