October 08 - Got ourselves some crying, talking, sleeping (sometimes!) walking, living dolls.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Well somebody better start the new thread, so might as well be me!

No stats this time .

CSWS, I have the solution to all your anti-camping gripes. All you need is this and this and this your grumpy post did make me chuckle

Thanks for the advice re the lisp folks. I'll tell DH he's jumping the gun by 4 years

Where's the portable hot running water though hmm?

Why the toilet? Don't most campsites have toilets and showers? I remember when camping with dh a long time ago, it was so cold one night that I actually curled up and slept in the bathroom area on a bench as it was so clean in there and so so sooooo cold outside (Edinburgh).

I think you'll find that the toilet was hmm's idea of an ensuite for me, but I require more than just a loo!

ah I see. yeah, that would not suit me either.

My kiddos are at PE for the moment and I had 10 mins to eat lunch so instead I placed ocado order - yes, finally back to ocado! and guess what???? It's CHEAPER than my tesco order was!!

And Q ate his lunch (FINALLY) some courgette potato cheese thing and the other is cous cous with chopped green beans and chopped peanuts. Both very varied versions of AK recipes.

Blimey - 10 mins is quick for a food order! Just done mine and it took me about 45 .
I think their prices are ok tbh - mine only costs a fortune at the moment (about £180 per week ) because I am ordering so much meat and fish due to the diabetes.

no meat ordered here. And only £40

ok I've been to see dr. I couldn't see colours this morning just for a short while. Vision is fully restored now. But have had this pounding sinus headache and a headache that feels like it's behind my eyes for days and days now. And I'm not feeling much better. Dr said my eyes are fine and it must be "stress" I just don't see how stress can cause someone to lose colour vision?? It totally freaked me out because I've always had perfect vision.... never had fuzzy vision ever. Not like migraines either - aura is totally different.

Sorry for the ramble... wasn't sure if Ronshar or anyone else may know what could have caused this?

Can someone explain to me what a "night nanny" / "night nurse" does? I know someone who is going to train to do this as a job... She said it's for when babies are first born? I don't get it. I don't get how that would have helped as a newborn. ? I didn't ask much because I didn't want to sound stupid.

Night nanny will come and stay at your house, have the baby in with them if you want and either bottle feed it or bring it in to you to breastfeed and then take it away again and wind, change, resettle etc. Helps you to get some sleep in the early weeks.

I just feel like Q was feeding every couple of hours and I wasn't sleeping anyway! Also, not sure how she's going to do it... maybe she will sleep in the day - but she has her own dc (a little older, 4yo and 6yo).

Ok, been looking at this and freaking out a bit. Q doesnt even do animal sounds. I KNOW there's a language explosion at some point and it's different for every child. I've studied this and taken many linguistics courses which cover language development... I just can't help feeling strange that Q just doesn't talk! We talk to him all the time, cm talks to him, friend used to talk to him... cbeebies, music... he is surrounded by language constantly... ugh. I know I know he will talk eventually... Sorry for the useless vent.

and I Know he walked early...etc. but this is just frustrating me. I don't even mind if he doesn't talk for several months... it's not about that. It's just me worrying that he's way, way, way behind developmentally - not physically, but socially

Star, sorry to hear about your headaches, I'll leave Ronshar or someone else to provide any useful advice though. I was under the impression a night nanny could basically take over at nighttimes to allow the parents to rest (assuming the baby is ff, of course!) but I presume they can also just help out if you are bf by settling a baby after a feed/changing nappies etc, so that the mother can get more rest? I don't know whether that is actually what happens though....

We've just found another allergy for ds - kiwi fruit . He went really itchy and was violently sick after eating some of dd's kiwi but perked up after about 45 mins and reading up about it that sounds like kiwi allergy. In a funny way I hope it is an allergy as we are due to go up to visit my gm in a couple of days and we had to cancel our visit before Xmas because the kids had a stomach bug.

Star, when I was worrying about dd talking, I was told by HV that as long as she babbled and understood what we were saying, not to worry about her speech, she'd pick it up. She really began chatting from about when M was born (so when she was about 17 months)

Our friend's ds only started talking at about 2, before that he was a grunter! He can chat away fine now though.

Just read your link - at 18 months (Q isn't 18 months yet, remember) they should:

• be able to follow simple commands - he can follow complex instructions, you told us about him bringing you his wellies when you said to him that he would need them for going out
• Have a vocab of approx 5-20 words, you told us he says dada, birds (pronounced in his own way of course) and I'm sure you've mentioned some other words. They don't have to be pronouced perfectly
• have jargon with emotional content - his 'uggle buggle' would seem to fit that perfectly!
• repeat a word or phrase over and over - you've mentioned that he does that with dada at least.

He seems to be fine compared to that chart - though tbh I don't worry as much about them any more! I think because he was so advanced with walking you are probably reading too much into his not talking lots yet. Mind you, it is frustrating. I keep thinking that I wish ds could express himself better rather than just going 'urghh, urghh, urghh' when he wants something. I'm not a mind reader

star - DD still can't walk but she can babble - ("toast" is her favourite word at the mo), and i suspect both she and Q are perfectly normal!

Oh bugger re kiwi Ekka. It is quite a common allergen though.

Star - my ds says less than yours, and whilst I'd like him to say more, I am not at all worried that he is 'behind' developmentally. He is behind where dd was at this point, but her speech really took off around 19 months, and I think that boys do tend to be a bit later than girls with their speech.

Pistachio - how do dogs woof in Italian?

I'm actually kicking myself about the kiwi as I did know it was a reasonably common allergy, but had just forgotten, so I wasn't careful enough. But as you say, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid! And luckily the reaction was short, if rather unpleasant for ds.

Thanks everyone - Ekka you're a sweetheart to go through that whole thing!! I just can't see that stuff properly with my own child for some reason. I was having a rough day. Sinuses feeling better but still headache behind my eyes and it's making things difficult.

How awful about the kiwi - I guess at least you know now.

Pistachio how is the way your kids are growing up bilingual different to the way you did? Really curious. He sounds sweet. I love the doon dang for music!

Unfortunately we're having a lot of shreiking and stamping feet and grumpy face when Q wants something at home... he doesn't do this with cm, of course. She thinks he's an angel. Are your toddlers doing this?

Yes that does make sense. My best friend (from home) grew up bilingual (german and english) and experienced similar to you (learned english through playing with other children in kindergarten) and speaks both languages with no hint of accent of the other.

Language aquisition is fascinating isn't it, even more so for bilingual children. All the children in my class except one have a home language other than English, and many arrive at school with no English at all. Now, although they sound like proper east London kids, lots of them still make basic grammar mistakes e.g putted -ed onto an irregular verb to make a past tense like "swimmed", "eated".

Star - Sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. Do you think it is stress that's causing it?

I'm at home again today. I've caught Stan's bug and haven't eaten anything since yesterday lunchtime. I feel really guilty as I've had to have a lot of time off this term and, as I'm already only part time, it feels like I'm never there. I usually pride myself on never taking time off work.

A friend of mine had a night nanny to help her out for the first week or so after a very traumatic labour and emergency C-S. She took the baby so my friend could sleep, then brought her in for a breastfeed, then took her away again to wind, change, settle etc. She said it was brilliant and that she'd recommend it as a present for someone who's had a baby, but I'm not sure if I fancy it personally.