November '09 and the months are flying by, our 3 month plus troop, and us, the knitted boob group!

[SirBoobAlot]

New thread, we chat so much!

London meet-up have booked us a table at the southbank branch of Giraffe for 12 noon. Table is for 10 adults and 10 babies so they'll sort out some way of fitting us all in!
Table is under my name, which you should know from fb. Ursi just look for the table with all the babies!

Thanks everyone. Feeling better now as Rosa is clearly fine. You're right about the shock making her cry, as well as my howling once I'd scooped her up and cuddled her.

V organised booking a table scarlotti but of course, probably a necessity, so good thinking!

Only did it as I looked at the place on the internet and it said you could book my brain isn't functioning well enough to have thought of that myself!
Pleased Rosa is fine raggie

Right, must learn people's proper names before Monday so I can link posts to faces!

Fruit your appeal could be good but if it helps, not sure it will, in case you don't get the school you want, DS1 goes to the rubbish school as we moved house in August so had no choice where he went (really bad SAT scores, problems with the old head leaving and taking the internet codes with him and leaving the school heavily in debt). I rang the good school and they just laughed at me down the phone 'do we have a place? You must be joking!' Not quite those words but that was the impression. At first I was really upset about DS1 going to this school but now he loves it, he's made two very good friends and is actually top of the class! His teacher is lovely. There is a real mixture of children there, some from very poor households with horrendous parents who swear and shout at their children on the way to school but I'm thinking that at least here he gets to experience different people from different backgrounds and the other school, the good one, is really snobby and has had problems with bullying. DS2 is going to go to the same school as DS1. The school is actually improving under the new head. I've grown quite fond of it and am on the PTA. DH is a governor.

I've realised that my PND symptoms are far, far worse once a month, before my period (since I bottle fed Toby from early on my periods came back quite quickly). I have had a hell of a week telling DH I can't go on any longer and feeling down and anxious and it suddenly occured to me that I was pre-menstrual. I'm going to try vit B and magnesium pills as well as fish oil to see if that helps. Or perhaps I should go on the pill? I never used to get such awful PMT but researching on the web shows that after children it is quite normal to develop bad PMT.

raggie it is frightening when sometihng like that happens. DS fell off the sofa when he was younger and did a full flip over, landing on his head. I watched it happen in slow motion from the sofa and was so upset DH had to come home from work to calm me down! When I phoned the docs they said it is a good sign if they cry straight away and the nurse reassured me that it happens all the time. I'm glad Rosa's OK and also that you are too!

I went to a create your own fragrance thing today that my sister bought me last year for my birthday. It was really good fun and I have come away with a unique fragrance (apparently ). Was just nice to spend 2 hours away from dcs and not thinking about dcs Bad mummy!

DS is staying at BILs tonight so DH is cooking a Thai green curry with thai fishcakes to start, yum! Looking forward to it. Going to go crack open a bottle of vino. If my recent attempts at drinking alcohol are anything to go by I shall be asleep by 10, which I'm sure is not how DH hopes the night will end .

Hope you are all having a good weekend and sending lots of sleepy vibes to all the babies xxx

raggie try not to worry about it, i am told babies are akin to us falling when we are drunk which reassured me when DD1 BEFORE the ages of 3 months had:

• been to a&e as fell off the bed
• hit head off wooden beam in overenthusiatic father throwing in air
• fell off changing mat..on top of chest of drawers...
• need I go on...

and she has made the ripe age of 3 years with only 3 trips to a&e....

hope ye are all well

i find the mamm bottles the best and tesco are selling them at bargain price of £3.80 for 4

easter only 2 weeks away and this time 2 weeks i will be in packed church with screaming baby and screaming toddler wondering why on earth i agreed to a 9pm christening...

sainsburys extra 25% off wine if u order 6+ for home delivery...

Thanks weston although I've never.......actually . I was about to say I've never actually flown through the air when drunk, but I just remembered I have . AND I landed on my head. I WAS pretty woozy the next day but that's probably because I had to get up at 8am to catch a flight and I'd gone to bed at 5. Halcyon days of youth. FYI I was trying to recreate the 'lift' from Dirty Dancing. Ahem.

Fathers, eh? About half an hour after the incident as it shall now be referred to, DH and DD cracked their heads together and she had a red egg for half an hour too. I said, I know you're trying to make me feel better DH, but there's no need to injure her further...

After I'd calmed down a bit I rang my friend who has a 3 & 2 yr old and she gave me a similar catalogue of mishaps, including the time when she couldn't get the door shut, it seemed to be stuck, so she kept pushing it and pushing and......yes, you've guessed it, her LO had her fingers caught in the hinge

My friend said she didn't realise as her DD was not crying, rather doing the 'silent scream' of extreme horror. Poor wee thing.

Phew, that's a lot of blushing for one post.

If anyone wants to call off the meet-up on monday, I'll know why...

Very that I can't hang out in London with you all, or even post to MN when you're up and about!

We've had a fun six weeks traveling around and reuniting with friends and family but now we're getting back to normal life and it's daily stresses. Still looking for a place to live...

In the meantime Maeve has gotten her first cold. We have no health insurance, and of course it was a Saturday that it finally got so bad I couldn't ignore it anymore, so the only option was to go to A&E! For a cold! And it will probably cost us hundreds of dollars! At this rate, I should just fly back to England for health care

raggie I can't imagine how frightened you must have been... glad Rosa is OK, and thanks to everyone else for posting your scary stories. It's good to hear that babies are tougher than we think.

Add us to the sophie the giraffe list - we got one as a gift. Have to agree with maman that it seems more like a dog toy but apparently they're very popular in the US, too. Currently LO's (and my ) favorite toy is a Jelly Kitten Zebra we bought at John Lewis.

Aggh, really missing England right now!

its daily stresses! Sigh. Sleep deprivation is eating my brain.

Thank you again for all your wise advice and experiences It really helps. I've gone from feeling upset to angry today. I don't think we have a leg to stand on with the appeal . Going to speak with the admissions team tomorrow about the appeal process. I won't harp on about it all. It's making my brain frazzled. DH is back tonight I can't wait to see him walk through the door. Thanks again for all the support

Longway Hope you get your new home sorted out very soon. Poor Maeve, is she feeling better?

Raggie I can add a few accidents to the list as well DS1 has had he's fair share. I hope you feel better about it today.

Meetup I hope you all have a lovely time. If you arrange another date I would love come and join you all. DS1 still has a cold, and my MIL has one too and she is my main source of childcare. To be honest, I'm so consumed with this school stuff, I'm not great company at the moment. Make sure you take some pics!

Lemon How is Isaac getting on this weekend with BLW? We've got 4 weeks to go until he's 6 months old. I think he'll be more than ready by then to try some new tastes. Still need to read my book and get prepared.

I bought a sippy cup yesterday. Feels a bit strange buying stuff like that. They are growing too fast. I love seeing him doing new things each day, but I also have twinges of sadness that he's newborn days didn't last long enough.

Scarlotti I'm really not sure on the offering of water at 4am. Are you weaning him still? He probably still needs he's feeds of a night. I find our night feeds last 4-5 mins. It's starting to exhaust him now. The morning wake-up is getting earlier as well. Great news on the job! Sounds an idea working arrangement for you .

I know we have a couple of teachers here, but I've lost track of what some of you do as a profession?

Hope you're all having lovely weekends

I meant the feeds are exhausting me, not him!! I really need to get more sleep..

BBL I feel for you with the PMT - I had it really bad before pg with DS1 and after that too. Am wondering what another pg will have done to my hormones, and desperately hoping it will kickstart them again and I'll be nice! I changed my pill when it first started to one that mimics your cycle, in that the hormones in the actual pills change levels depending on when in the month you take them. More of a faff as you have to take the right one on the right day iyswim but it did seem to help a bit. Maybe you could ask your doc?
I found the mirena coil dreadful for the same reason. The synthetic progesterone just turned me into a banshee over the period of about 18 months
Since I had that out we were using condoms and now I'll probably have my tubes tied - I am definitley not having any more hormonal contraception as I'm far too sensitive to it all.

TOK hoorah at your mummy free time I have some booked next Sunday to use my massage voucher from valentines day - can't wait!

weston am sure the christening will be lovely and maybe your dd will even be asleep? Well until she get's to the water bit anyway If it makes you feel any better ... I've arranged Ioan's and it turns out to be the same day as the first ever Brighton marathon so 12,000 runners and all the spectators will be heading our way for the 9am start, with my friends and family trying to also get here for the 10:30 christening [aargh emoticon]
Can't change the date as IL's have already booked their flights from Aberdeen. Sigh.

raggie omg, your poor friend! It's awful when they do that silent screaming bit. Hope Rosa's egg has gone down a bit today.

longwayaway great to hear from you. you're missing Blighty already but am sure you'll soon settle in. Ouch at the cost of the cold

Fruit good news on your dh coming back tonight so you can share the angst. Appeals for primary schools are based on the admissions team not having followed the process properly. Unfortunately the classes are capped at 30 so it's much harder to win as they can't just add pupils in like in secondary. Anyway, get all the info you can and take it from there.
Oh, and I'm in IT contracting so theoretically should be able to be quite flexible!

Have still been doing the purees but am still not convinced by it all. Fruit like you the 4am feed only takes 5 mins and he's started to wake at 6am which is a killer. My BLW book arrived and I'm wondering if I can do that instead.
DH did the night shift last night for the first time and ruddy DS1 woke at 5:30 so I had to get up to see to him. Typical. Did drop back off though and I do feel better for it today.
Think I'm dithering on the BLW thing as I'm scared if I do that, then he won't sleep through for ages and I'll be working but feeling like a zombie. Is this likely do we think? Logically not I guess as there's no link between sleeping through and weaning. I need to keep reminding myself that DS1 was nearer 8 months before I got a guaranteed full night, and I was working for 2 months with a 4am wake up - bottle on the stairs so much more disruptive!
Interestingly, last night with dh feeding he only took 3oz at 11 and then 3oz at 4, so he doesn't need as much as I thought in the night.

Fruit they may put your DS on a waiting list for a different school. It's still only March and people move house / move away. That's what happened to us. We got a place at the village school where we used to live and I had a close friend who's son didn't get a place because he lived just outside the village and they'd filled their allocated spaces. She was gutted. However, he was top of the waiting list so when our house sold and we moved to Shrewsbury, he got DS1's place

Scarlotti It really is a hard time when we want our babies to sleep through, or at least have a big chunk of sleep without the early waking. On top of the added pressure of returning to work. I'm due to return to work in June. With all this broken sleep, I'm not sure how I'll cope with looking after my kids as well as childmind . I think the answer to the weaning is to go with the flow. I think you mentioned you may do BLW and spoon feeding. This may work well. Nothing is guareenteed with these babies is it? You think you have it sussed, then they change their mind over night, about sleep, food, milk and the list goes on. Our babies are similar with their night time, so it will be interesting to see if weaning changes there sleep patterns for the better.

BBL we are automatically on our 1st school choice waiting list. We won't know how far down the list until May time. Appeals are not heard until June/July. I am able to re-apply for other schools and go on their waiting list as well (not sure how many I can choose). I'm having the house valued next week. Just to see if we can finacially move out of the borough. Whatever school DS1 attends it will impact DS2 as well, both DS' will be in primary overlapping 1 year. Also, the secondary choice in our area isn't tempting us either. With the high birth rate for DS1's birth year, this problem may well follow us with secondary schools. This is a stressful cycle of events that can be life changing.

I really don't understand my baby. He wakes at 5am and wants to go back to sleep from 6.30am until now! I was unable to sleep as DS1 was awake

FRuit if it any consolation, ds got to the so called 'best' school in the area ( I say so called because while it is genuinely an excellent school in many ways, a key factor is simply that it's in the heart of the studenty/professional area of the city and virtually all the parents are ex students who have hunga round and so tend to be academically pushy, highly literate etc. You would have to have a truly, truly crap school to do badly with kids like that!!, whereas a school that takes more of a mix or an intake that is skewed to the bottom can be brilliant but will often struggle to have a good reputation or do well in league tables- so unfair!)
Anyway, his friends didn't get in, but by Christmas had both appeared in ds's class as they moved up the waiting list so don't give up hope, it can happen.

As BBL said, sometimes schools being monitored by Ofsted are actually on the up and in teh process of turning round. Also getting involved as a governor of on the PTA, volunteeing to go in and help, is a really good way to have more influenece as a parent.

Often 'poor' schools will have poor teachers it's true, but equally often you will find teachers in these schools who are dedicated and excellent, and just choose to work in more difficult schools/with tougher kids.

FWIW, I am not at all keen on going to stand at school gates and wait for ds at times because I have a bit of inverted snobbery and can feel a bit and very out of my depth when surrounded by lecturers, publishers etc. I would really like ds to mix with people who are a bit more down to earth- fortunately he will at secondary school.

Scarlotti I picked up an NHS leaflet on weaning the other day and I thought it was pretty good. It seemed like the advice had changed since I weaned DD as now they suggest offering finger foods as well as purees from the beginning - so I think you're idea of combining a BLW kind of approach with purees seems sound and sensible. eg. it might be easier and quicker to spoon feed porridge in the morning when everyone is in a rush, but offer finger foods for lunch when you're a bit more relaxed and probably eating that kind of thing anyway.

Raggie sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday with that info - James is feeding LOADS - but I'm glad to hear that Rosa is perfectly well.

london and scarlotti, thanks for organising, I'm really looking forward to meeting you all. Please wave if you see someone with a bright yellow/orange sling. Even with glasses I'm rubbish with finding people and it won't help that I do not know any of you

raggie, scary story but very glad to hear that Rosa is fine.

Sorry for all those with school troubles. I wasn't aware of all those problems.

Raggie - I dropped Bryn when he was a few hours old. I fell asleep with him on my chest and he just fell off. There was a thread recently in _Chat about dropping children; you will not be the first, you will not be the last.

I have had the most God awful weekend. Am still in shock. We got a call Saturday lunch time - DPs Dad was found dead in his hotel room on holiday in India. Christ... I don't know what to say or do. So shaken up. I was very fond of him. DP has never lost anyone before. I can't get the sound of his mum crying out of my head.

Nothing more to say for now, really. I do hope you'll forgive me for not replying to you all today.

Hoping tomorrow will take my mind of everything for a bit.

SirBoob unbelievably awful- thinking of you and your dp

Fruit last post came ut a bit wrong/poss smug, I meant to just reassure you that waiting lists can sometimes move surprisingly quickly. However, strict monitoring by Ofsted can result in the school really imrpoving- sometimes it gives a school the kick it needs, maybe some key players in the school's badness will be made to leave sometimes, etc. It's so sad that all schools don't get more of a mix in the first place- a proper comprehensive for everyone would be nice. I generally believe that a bright child who has great support at hhome will succeed in any circumstances but I have worked in troubled schools and you may well be right to have serious concerns- it can take a long time for a school to start to turn round and time is what the kids don't have- they just get their one shot. So true that this is the one chance each child gets and so awful that for so many they don't get a fair chance.

Raggie Hedy flung herself backwards yesterday and it was all I could do to catch her- really felt for you, so scary!! They are getting strong now.

Meet up so jealous again! Please agree on another date while you're all there!

Thanks Wook. Your posts didn't come out smug at all . I appreciate the advice and experience some of you ladies can share with me. The key is for me to visit the school and meet some of the teachers and see how happy the kids are, and how they behave. I'm sure my instinct will tell me if it's the right school for DS to attend.

Sirboob How terrible. Thinking of you both. Take care.

Sirboob So sorry to hear the news of your dp's dad. x

raggie Reuben fell off the bed, he screamed, i screamed, he cried for a short while then fed all ok. I felt like a terrible mother. It happened to dd too, same roll (you would think i would have learnt , so it is perfectly normal. As DD grew older there were a few instances like this, heartstopping moments like falling from a chair straight onto her head, aged 1, that was terrible, heard the thud, she started vomitting that evening, dash to casualty, not related at all, she just happened to have a bug too, but it was terrible when she first starting vomitting (for me, DH thought i was overreacting, as has happened on various occasions since!).

Sirboob sorry to hear of your DPs loss. What horrible news .

meetup oh i wish i was coming! I have a great time ladies!

I had a terrible terrible dream last night. I won't even go in to it as it was so awful. I woke from it in a sweat, and had tingly palms and could almost taste the adrenalin, i actually felt ill. It was 1am and DH was still up, we had to go and sit for a while in the kitchen and i cried my eyes out. The feelings, the fear and emotions were so real i can feel it now. Normally, there is something in my dream which makes me somehow aware it is a dream, even if it feels real, and the feelings feel real, there is a tiny something that tells me it is ok. But not this time. There was none of that. It involved DD and I had to go and check on her, and the weird thing was that she was awake, just sitting up as i walked in, not grumpy as normally is when tired, she looked up and said 'oh mummy, i was waiting for you' and smiled 'why were you waiting for me baby girl?' 'because i wanted to give you a cuddle' and she cuddled into me, made happy sleeping noises and then went to sleep. It took all my might not to cry into her hair. And I could not go back to be for an hour, was too scared to sleep

But i wonder if i had a fever or something? My muscles ache like I have/had a fever, i have a sort throat this afternoon and a stinking headache, like a coldy type one.

SirBoob so sorry to hear the news, thinking of you [hugs]

Fruit and Laugs yes, am going to do a combo of BLW and spoon feeding I think but at the point where he's ready. Have read the first few chapters of my BLW book and really like what it's saying so the purees will stay in the freezer for a bit and come out as dips later on. I'll still spoon porridge and the like but am going to let him dictate the pace. I think my eagerness to feed him was because I wanted to get him onto solids before I went back to work. Have now realised that it's no big deal and I can do it whilst working, so am just going to chill a bit more about it.

Pav sorry to hear you had such a scare. Your DD sounds very in tune with her mama though

Looking forward to putting some faces to names tomorrow