November 09 - rolling, laughing and cutting teeth ... but us mama's are still not getting sleep!!

[scarlotti]

New thread for us

sirB Ethan loves his high chair. In fact, he napped in it on the day it arrived about a week ago. Hasn't done since mind you but he's happy enough in there and I'm trying to put him in every time I eat a meal. He's not really eating yet but I thought it made sense to get him used to spending time in it.

hobnob i think it is really hard with a safe seat. If you vote another way, it would probably be wasted anyway, so if I was in that situation I would vote as a protest vote for a party that would not win anyway like the green party. So the government who gets in does not get all the votes and think they are really popular. Either way your vote will probably not count for much in a safe seat. That is why i think there should be a form of proportional representation, a two tier system. A collection of national votes for the position of PM at the top, and then a normal fptp system for local MP, so you could vote for who you wanted locally, and still vote with your conscience at the top and your vote would not be wasted if you are in a safe seat (or any seat tbh as i vote more than the other person is all you need, so if they get 20,000 more votes, that is 19,999 votes that are worthless, they should count. And there is only party that would consider PR as a system that I can see ( guess who i could be voting for?). Oh i went on a bit there eh? .

So, 1 ice cube is about 1 oz. R is on 1 cube each meal, with a little bit of porridge mixed in, and a splash of milk, so i guess it is probably 2oz in total, and he eats about 2/3rds, but only because I don't let him. laugs i think if i was to offer more, or a jar like you did, he would wolf the lot down. How long have you been feeding him solid now? We gave R a banana to hold yesterday, while he was being fed some mashed up, and he just cried as he tried to put it in his mouth as he did not really get it. So not ready for BLW yet .

Periods - i have not had one yet, but it is threatening. Has been for a while and I am suspecting it is going to be heavy. So i might go get the implant put in sooner rather than later and that will sort that one out

R's sleeping is all over the place. I can't seem to predict what he will be doing at night atm. Last night he slept 8pm-10:30pm, 10:45pm-12:00am, 12:15-1:30am - 2:30am, 2:45am-5:45am 5:45am-now. He insists on milk by pushing himself down, and he does seem hungry in that he is guzzling lots. I guess weaning is not instant . Oh well, i just have to go with it. I won't stress about it as other than his sleeping he is the most perfect baby, can't have it all.

Apart from the serious lack of sleep which has knocked me sideways, I am loving being parents to two children. This morning (even though it was 6am) DD came into bed very quietly and while i fed R, she held his hand and stroked his cheek 'i love you wooben, i love my family' she said. I kissed her, DH said 'shh or i will boot you out of bed' he is not a morning person.

Aww Pav sounds blissful! I agree with the PR argument, tactical voting shouldn't be an issue. Today should be interesting!

sirboob DONT by baby porridge! Seriously! You have a MIll attachment on your new food processor. I looked the other day at the price of the baby porridge and it is like £2 or more! the porridge with fruit was £2.50 . You get a tiny amount in a plastic bag in a box! It is all packaging. I bought some normal porridge oats (offer, 2 for £1 a while ago), two handfuls into the mill and its the same amount pretty much as you will buy. It has cost me like 20p most? if that? I mix it with milk and frozen cube, and then 'steam' it in hot water to melt the cube/soften the oats, or i soak it in formula for about 30 mins (as soon as I get up).

Meetup - Before september is good for me. DD is at school for her first ever term in Sept and going back to work too means my organisation skills will already be tested to the limit!

scarlotti I am glad work went well. I am on one hand looking forward to work, on the other feeling very guilty for wanting that as I love being with the children. I am applying for my uni course this week, needs to be in by end of May. I might have to defer to next year because of funding issues, but once i am on the course if i get on then we will look at those issues.

Pavlov nooo I have the mini chopper. I am rather of your food processor!! But thanks for the tip off

SirB I bought the baby porridge, and it is expensive for the amount you get. It mixes with water though, not milk (has milk powder in it) so it good for a lazy slattern like me Ready brek is just as good and much cheaper, and it's the right consistency already in the box. You can then use ebm or formula to mix it with - formula is easier in that you make it hot, and so the ready brek thickens. If you use ebm, sit it in some boiling water to heat it up a lot, then mix with the ready brek. Don't microwave it as you kill the antibodies.
Yes, I did get your text, sorry forgot to reply. Will look at the diary and let you know.

Pav know you're taking it slowly, but i see no reason why Reuben shouldn't dictate the pace of his weaning. Isn't that also BLW? You will find that the night feeds drop to just one as soon as he's eating more. I always know when Ioan needs more food as I get woken up for a few feeds at night.
I am enjoying work and the guilt is very low as I'm only doing 3 days a week. The stress levels are also very low compared to 5 days with dc's. I can focus just on work on those days, then cleaning/sterilising/cooking etc. on the non-work days. Now I just have to jiggle things around to pay all the bills, but I'm going to manage some way or another. DS1 is now chimney sized ...

Still feed Ioan breakfast in his bumbo as it's in the kitchen. He also does the spring up and down like an ironing board (and only just misses the wall cupboard with his head!!) so it has a limited life span I feel. He likes his high chair, but only with an insert. SirB are you putting Bryn in it as it is? I found with both DS' that it was too roomy and they felt insecure. Bought a padded insert and that made all the difference. We also use cushions here and an old fleece that can get mucky so a free option!

James only woke once last night. AMAZING!!

Scarlotti It sounds like you have a good balance there.

Re the meet up. I think the main thing to work out would be where to meet, and then once we've established who's willing to travel that far, we can find a suitable date? Would it be fairer to meet somewhere central (is Birmingham the middle of the country?) or the place where the most people live (London?). Either of those would be ok for me. I don't drive, so somewhere with good rail links would be great! Or we could have a Northern meet and a Southern one - although I think that would be a bit of a shame...

I'm feeling heartily depressed at all the Cameron front pages on papers this morning. It's not even over yet! Gah. All this right wing media...

laugs but well done James!

scarlotti thing with the taking it slowly, I will be happy for him to eat as much as he wants soon, but don't want to overstretch his little tummy just yet, and also want it to get used to having food in it rather than just bm. And his bowels! Poor thing, thought he was going to explode today when he forced out a more solid poo than normal! I am looking forward to him sleeping better at night though!

sirboob oh sorry thought you had the big one!

Er...its Pavlov here! forgot to change my name back

Scarlotti oh thanks for that, we have some Ready Brek, might just do what you've suggested instead! Hoping that if I'm expressing every day for a little bit (got a night out at the end of the month, yey!!) so should have enough milk to hand express a bit for porridge. No worry - seeing as you've gone back to work and stuff, think its perfectly acceptable If you could let me know by Friday afternoon that would be great, as that's when we need to book the tickets

I'm using cushions in the high chair as Bryn is a shortarse like his mother and am wondering if that's why he doesn't like it; think he might be getting too warm, and he's such a warm baby naturally.

I got this text this morning:

"Good morning. This is a historic election - please remember to vote Conservative, and to tell your friends why they should too. Together, we can bring change."

From "DCameron". Thanks for that Dave... Way to get the young peoples vote. Remind them to tell their friends for vote Tory. Loving the fact they have Michael Caine pumping for the under twenties .

I have just been trying to explain to DD what it means that we are going to vote

Me: We have to go and decide who we would like to be in charge of running the country
DD: (hand in air) Me, me, I want to be in charge of running the country. Meeeee.
Me: Oh sorry it can't be you, it has to be a grown up
DD: (starts to cry) But will there be a little job for children?

Oh dear, I have a lot to learn in the parenting stakes I think!

Aww bless her Laugs!

Laugs, I wonder if she will ever become an important politician! And then you can tell her what she said when she was little. How cute.
sir and scarlotti, obviously I'm not a porridge expert but I read somewhere (well, probably in my book), that when you want to do a cereal-milk dish but are bf, you can just mix it with water and bf afterwards. Would that be an option?

Laugs Your DD sounds like a bright little girl.

scarlotti Glad your first day at work went well

Trying to get to grips with BLW over here. C gets really excited when I place him in the highchair. He shouts for food if I'm not quick enough! sirboob maybe give B a couple of weeks and try the highchair again. I have noticed C looking more comfortable this week in his highchair. He is now 6 months.

Liking your name IDemosthenes I had to look up it's meaning

Me: ok we are going to vote

DD: we are going on a boat

Me: no we are going to vote

DD: where we going on the boat...

(repeat above dialogue 299 times..)

welcome to the life of a 3 year old...

Oh laugs poor you with your ruined election evening but at least you got a good night's sleep! You can watch TTOI tomorrow eve - you'll be needing a laugh if the results are as predicted.

We tried some courgette today. Didn't go down as well as the previous sweet fruits and carrot however.. Hope doesn't mean I'm in for more wake ups tonight. Am associating the feeding of solids, albeit a little teeny amount, with good sleeps so far!

SirBoob No No No to the Ready Brek it contains too much salt for babies.

raggie It's looking grim isn't it, but I am trying to hold out hope. Another thread I'm on, people have been saying there are queues at polling stations - I just can't imagine anyone standing in a queue for plastic dave.

Ninja didn't know about the salt so thanks for posting that.

ursi I'm still offering bf's but he's not interested so making breakfast with milk is an attempt to get more into him.

Today he fed at 3am, 5am then not again until 2:30pm. Breakfast and lunch in between though. Spoke to hv in the clinic and she's said not to worry, as long as he's having around 1pt milk and I'm getting dairy into him in cheese/yoghurt etc. then there's nothing to worry about. It looks like we'll be settling on a morning feed, one around 2:30 then one around 6ish.
She also said to drop the 10pm one, but will wait until I don't have work for a few days first as he'll wake earlier in the night I'm sure!

I gave Ioan my ballot paper and asked him which he wanted to choose - about sums it up for me.

Am loving the stories of toddlers and voting!

ds didnt seem too interested when I explained about daddy voting (mummy didnt vote as I dont know who is better or worse so seemed pointless to vote about something I know nothing of.)

Had a nice day today. Even though it has been a very overcast and drizzly day. Actually got round to putting a cheque into Annabelle's CTF that I've had since she was born and hadnt gotten round to taking in.

scarlotti Does it feel strange not doing as many bf's? Are your boobs hurting?

I tried to explain the election to DS1 but he wasn't that interested. I guess it's rather boring to a 4 yr old boy. He liked the visit to the polling station at the local school (the one he didn't get in to!!) DH may miss his vote by a couple of minutes. Waiting for the tube and yet to catch the train.

DS1 has become very inquisitive about lots of things this week. I'm being asked a million questions a day. It's so nice he is showing such interest in 'real life' stuff, but it's given me a headache!

We've had lovely weather today. I hope it lasts out for the weekend.

Fruit yes it's a little odd and I feel fuller than I have in months! It's also quite sad in a way as I presumed I'd be feeding a lot for longer but he obviously has other ideas

DS1 here asks about everything. It's very tiring at times!

DWB I know I got the bumbo a bit late, but she hadn't really shown signs og wanting to sit upright until a few days ago. She's also a bit smaller - a couple of weeks ago she was 6.4kg, 14lb - so am hoping to get some use out of it. Have noticed that she does the same rigid thing when she's bored with it, so obviously can't just leave her in it. We also got a highchair at the same time (tahnks Laugs for the recommendation) but haven't put it together yet.

Scarlotti good to hear your going back to work has gone well.

scarlotti Hopefully you can keep going with the feed before bed and in the morning for a while longer yet. I think with blw I'll be feeding through the day for a while longer. I'm not back to work until Sept so it works for us. What days are you working? Glad to hear you're getting more of a balance with work and home life this time around.

Are some of us staying up tonight for the results? DH will have 15 mins to get from his train stop to the car to the polling station. I hope he makes it

I'm strangely addicted to the programme, Pineapple Dance Studio . I'm watching it now..