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 .

pistachio - dd only ever slept 10 hours a night, generally 8pm-6am. To give you some hope, she now does closer to 11 hours.

What time do yours get up with bed at 7 myjob?

our bedtime routine is bath at 6.30 (if she's having one - definitely not every night) then to bedroom at 7 to get in pyjamas and sleeping bag. Bottle of milk (yes... still on the one bottle a day after the hell that was trying to stop over christmas.. ho hum). Then clean teeth and staright into the cot around 7.30, where she chats to herself for a while before droppiong off. i leave the room straight away otherwise she just wants to play.

she'll susally sleep until 6.30/7

HMM i would have been up for meeting today (am in london bridge) but had to take some time off yesterday as emma had too high a temperature for nursery... so got some catching up to do at work today.

Q has a bath at around 6 (every night because I need to clean him every day... because I am who I am ), then out by 6.15/6.30, watch night garden, play with kitchen and dh and I... anything he wants. He can drink milk during this time at his leisure. I usually say "last call for milk" at around 6.50. We read him stories at 6.45/6.50, stopping for the last song on ITNG and Q waves bye-bye to it afterward. Then I brush his teeth, he's given his cup of water to have in his cot and DH takes him into the bedroom. We turn on "scout" to 10 min of "bedtime music". Q reaches for me after a cuddle with DH, I cuddle him for a couple of minutes then he points to his cot, gets in and goes to sleep.

He's waking a few times in the night at the moment, but just wants to be held so once I get him in my arms/our bed he's straight back to sleep.

Sometimes he wakes when I get up to shower at 6am (SUCH a lie in from our previous childcare arrangement!!). Sometimes he sleeps until 6.30 when we wake him. On weekends, he'll sleep until 7 now (sometimes he's up at 5am, but if we play it right and let him in our bed, he'll sleep until 7ish - one time 7.30 ). I think he does need 11-12 hours at night. And his nap in the day. He gets really tired.

I wish I could meet you HMM but too far and can't get in until too late.

Ksal, Q does chat to himself in uggle buggle before dropping off as well.

I am the worst parent on this thread then!

Depending on the day, bedtime varies from a nice easy Wednesday where we have bath/showers and then story (if I can be bothered, which W never listens to anyway) then bed by 7pm.
Or it could be a gym night in which case I get in from picking H up around 6.30, shout alot, and then try to get them into bed by 7.15!
G bedtime is 8pm.
By that point I have really had enough and just want to go to bed myself!

50ft. Dont worry I will be knocking on the asylum door myself if I ever, ever, think about getting my IUD removed
Go with your head this time. Ask for your gyn appointment to be moved forward if possible.
Taking into account the risk from your ovary, then personnally I would ask to get it over with as soon as possible.
Then that way I could move on with the rest of my life and make most of what I have been blessed with.
You have a mostly lovely DH and two beautiful children.
You are at the beginning of a new career with the lentil weaving hippies sorry NCT.

Talking to over.
The sun is shining and I am feeling fab. I am telling myself this as I am having a really bad week and reversed into the garage door yesterday. Not told DH yet

lol at worst parent on the thread! You are SO not. I look up to all of you with admiration

I think your bedtime routine sounds great. If I had 3 dc I'd be proud to get them in bed at all.

Q went through a little phase of a few months where he would play with books and point to stuff but wouldn't sit and read with us. I was so But now he has his favourites and wants them read over and over and over and OVER again... gets tiring, but so glad he enjoys them!

I also made him book out of a flexible 2 ring binder with laminated card with pictures of him and us and his friends stuck on. I write a word or sentence on each page... like
"Daddy" with a few pics of daddy and daddy and him...
or
his friends names
or some of him at the park with
"Q playing"
....etc.
He LOVES this. And since it's in a binder, I can swap out or add pages to it anytime. He can "find" people/pages I ask for now, too

I also like it because I leave it with him at cm in the day and he can "see" dh and I. CM has her own page with her name in there, too, so he "sees" her at home, too! I've put dh and my parents and aunties/cousins in so although we don't physically see them much, he'll "recognize" them when we skype (he does!!) and when we visit them/they visit us.

LOL at the garage door!!!!!

oh oh ohhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I had my annual review meeting today and it went SOOO well! Yeah! They are very happy with the extra work I've done and with how I'm doing with my class They said so many nice things!! I felt so awkward! But feel nice, now!

csws I was just reading the chav baby name thread earlier by chance and saw your name (which I rarely do other than here!!) and was ROFLing at your comment!!! You're brave!
I hope you don't think that of my Q's name, too, though.

Oh I can often be found on baby name threads star, hoping (but failing) to be inspired. The OP on that thread asked for opinions, so got them - no point pussyfooting around! It wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to be a troll though - why bother asking otherwise?!

I saw someone describe Q's name as chav on a thread a few months ago, and I was - I really don't know what planet that person was on, but certainly not the same one as me. It's not a name that I was particularly familiar with before, but I really like it.

HMM - I've just seen that you've been in Canary Wharf today. That's just down the road from me. I would have loved to meet up with you instead of the mammoth trip to Tescos that I did this afternoon. What a shame. Did you have fun?

Our bedtime routine is that dp gives ds a bath between 6.30 and 7. Quite often they hop in together and I hear cries of "Hey S, stop pulling that, it's private!" and S laughing his head off (S is a bit obsessed at the moment). Then it's pjs and stories, then I take over at about 7.30 to give ds a feed and put him into bed. He usually goes to sleep on his own, but sometimes I lie on the bed next to him until he drops off.

Well done on your appraisal Star! I'm being observed next week for my professional development thing. I HATE being observed.

50ft - Is it worth getting a second opinion as to whether the hysterectomy really is the only option? Consultants can really vary in their approaches on this kind of thing.

Evening all
Sorry i've been AWOL for a few days, we changed broadband and I was confused...
Right, where to start..
aubergenie - I'm to be found in Canary Wharf most Thursdays as my office is there - we should do lunch!
50ft - I haven't been allowed to tell ANYONE in real life (or probably here, but that wasn't specific ) but DH had a snip 2 weeks ago.... woohoo
Can you imagine the whinging???? (Double it and you get close)
Anyhow, even though we are both 100% sure we don't want any more children. When he got in the car and drove to his appointment - I cried.
I think that even when you know you've made the right decision (and obviously I didn't have anything permanent done) it's still a bit of a shock? Does that make sense and is that any help??
Anyway, I'm physically falling apart here slowly, not only do i have to go back to the docs with my side/tummy pains that i had the ultrasound for, but my wrist has gone crap again and I've had to strap it up and make another consultant appt.
Does anyone remember the episode of House, where after his leg is ok he has to go back to the walking stick?? I am House with my wrist splint.
Only less famous and a lot less rich....
Lordy, verbal diarhoea! I'll get my coat...

Well done to Peppers DH.
At least someones DH has the courage to go for the snip.

Thank you Star. Dont admire me, I only stagger from one day to the next and when the children are in bed asleep I congratulate myself that I have got them all through another day alive!
No skill involved at all I'm afraid!

Its interesting hearing about others bedtime routines - we only do a bath once a week, unless they are really filthy .

Pepper, sorry to hear you are still not feeling right, I hope they get to the bottom of things soon - it must be hard managing three kids even when you are feeling 100%!

Star, glad to hear your review went well, you must be feeling on top of the world.

I've spent today rearranging the kids bedrooms so now dd has moved back to the larger room into a proper single bed and ds has moved into her room into dd's little bed. So I've been busy with flatpack shelves etc and now have two children in beds . Matthew has already fallen out of bed once, but didn't wake, we heard a thump and went up to find him curled up on the sheepskin rug on the floor fast asleep .

I just read back through when I went into labour on our antenatal thread long ago... I cried .

So did we Star.

sorry about the rough day, pistachio. Glad you're feeling better today. Lunch out sounds nice. DH and I should really get the 19 year old across the street to babysit after Q is in bed while we go out for dinner/movie or something.

I distinctly remember discovering that my waters had gone and thinking to myself "how on earth can I stop this from happening?? I'm not ready yet!" I was on my bed with my laptop, planning my lessons for the next day and did not see how it was possible that I have a baby all of a sudden 2 weeks ahead of schedule! lol

I had also forgotten a whole bunch of those other posters. SO many disappeared!

pepper - I remember that episode of House. He's been a lot better since he ditched the narcotics though .
Am sorry that you are falling to pieces.

Where is everyone today?!

I think I'll go an re-read star's birth stuff then!

Ah yes, just had a good read through. Those were the days eh?

Poor Pepper - hope you manage to get yourself back together soon. Yes to lunch one day too - that would be lovely!

We had a busy weekend. I had acupuncture on Saturday morning (So relaxing - if I could afford it, I'd go every week.) then took S out for the rest of the day. Then we all went to the city farm yesterday and did a long walk and came home for a roast dinner. Then we got depressed about house prices as we realised that if we have another baby we wont be able to afford to move to a nicer area and will have to stay amongst the litter and dog sh*t for a while longer.