Dec 09 - We've found our fingers, we've found our toes, what happens next nobody knows

[Claire236]

Starting new thread before we run out of room. Now to link from the old one. Could be interesting

GS - Well done Catherine!

DD is so close from back to front... her arm stops her from going completely... but to be honest watching her now it could be any minute!

I see what you mean about bathing Bex... I don't have much choice - this week for instance I am home alone every night at bath time. I find it better to have my room nice and warm - and the towel ready on the bed. Then I bath her leaning over the bath and when she is done I get her out and carry her to the towel. I get wet but that's ok... I tried once to get her in the towel on the bathroom floor which was a pain. It's only about 4 steps to my room from the bathroom. She has only complained when she gets a bit chilly so I have to be quick about it and wrap her up all quick whilst singing! Works for us!

I've been prodding Imogen to push her over and then cheering and making a real fuss of her to try and encourage her which she seems to quite like. If she wants to get to something though, she just sort of manages to wiggle herself over to it on her back by swinging her legs up and around and down again!

Klerka - just seen you on the blw site. I think your dd must be more or less exactly same age as Imogen (8th Dec?). I'm really looking forward to starting now. I have given her big bits of cucumber to suck when out having lunch which she seems to like and as shes a bottle refuser I started giving her a bit of formula out of doidy cup this morning in the hope she will learn how to do it. She did do quite well for a first attempt so I have hope for eventually leaving her with someone else! Bex, are you still going to do blw and when are you due to start?

Hendo... yes, Holly is 9th December! I am itching to start but want to wait maybe two more weeks and a day when DH is home... she was chomping on some cucumber yesterday as I was trying to calm her gums.

My Mum brought round the highchair today - it's looks perfectly good for our purposes and Holly looks so cute in it. I haven't tried her with anything yet. I might try some baby rice in the next couple of days before anything solid - I will need to dig out my pump and express a little to mix in I suppose.

Yes - we're starting on the bank holiday weekend. Going away for the week so dh can be there too - just deciding what foods to start with now... Also using the cucumber party for her gums and partly to get her used to handling a bit of food. I've also let her gnaw on some biccy pegs in the highchair which went down quite well with her. I am really ridiculously excited about it all - can't believe we're all coming up to 6 months soon, that's half way to 1!!!!!

I haven't let her hold a bit yet... scared she will suck it down - her suction is so powerful... are you just using a finger shape of cucumber? I have some melon in the fridge I could try that for now?

First time I had half a circle and held it for her myself - she sucks really hard sometimes and suctioned it into her mouth then went wide eyed with surprise! I managed to just grab it back out but since then I've given her big rings of it - probably about 4 cm across as she can't actually swallow these, and I've made sure they aren't cut too thin so they can't bend. I would be happy to give her finger shaped ones to be honest - I'd make sure they were quite long (5 cm +?) and quite chunky but I may be slightly paranoid about her sucking action too!!! I think worst case scenario when it's quite big is that she'll suck it in quite hard, but it will still be poking out the front so she can't actually suck it down... hope that makes some kind of sense!!!

Hi Hendo and Klerka, just a real quick msg to say yes, I am still going to do BLW. Anna is 6 months on 13 June, so will be starting it around then. Still not got a bloody highchair though!

Hello, all. Had a hideous episode this afternoon, a bit hard to explain but here goes:

Was trying to take d to the very nearby park on her bicycle with ds in the carrier. Dd has been dreadful about just cycling off, before we started I explained to her how important it is to stop when mummy asks etc and at first she was fine. To get to the park when she is on the bike we go a longer route than usual as this way there is a long cycle path she can go on but first we have to cross 3 roads; first one no probs she stopped and when across it, second and third are the same road but because of the path layout we have to cross it twice iyswim. Crosses second road fine with me then starts to cycle off, I explain that she must stop before crossing the road again but she doesn't and is far too far ahead of me for me to stop her. She then goes onto the cycle path, I can't see her for the tress that line it and I'm v.stressed and cross that she didn't stop. Finally catch up with her and explain that I am veru cross that again she has not stopped when told. Make her get off the bike and walk, explaining that we are now going straight home (the shortest route) and not going to the park. Cue tantrumming etc from dd. Now need to cross the road again (at a crossing) and I'm struggling to hold dd's hand and stoop down to hold and wheel the bike, ds is crying and so is dd. As I struggle ds slips out of his carrier and falls head first onto the road . It was horrible, horrible, horrible. I got such a fright. Ds was crying as was dd. Struggled to the side of the road, I was sobbing too now, ds has grazes all over one side of his head . Some very kind passers by helped me home, one lady put dd's bike in her boot and dropped it off at my house, another helped me walk dd and ds home as I was still so upset and a very sweet teenage lad on his bike had cycled stright home, without me knowing, and got his mum out of bed (a nurse on night shift) to come out in her car to check that ds was ok.

Ds is fine now, apart from his little head looking sore, but it was such a scary experience. He could only have fallen about 20cm as I was so stooped over but I still feel traumatised.

Sorry for mammoth post but needed to get it all out a bit iyswim.

Oh LaDiDaDi what a frightening horrible experience for you - don't apologise. I'm so glad though that such nice people stopped to help you and check you were OK. Glad to hear that your ds is fine now. Wish I could think of something more helpful to say to make you feel better...

Also hope you've got someone you can get round to make you lots of nice cups of tea full of brandy sugar.

Oh LaDiDaDi.... So sorry for what happened ... you poor thing - what a terrible shock for you. I bet you are traumatised. We know they are going to get into scrapes but it doesn't make it any easier when it happens does it.
You say he is ok now apart from a sore head. I hope your DP is home to look after you. Have a nice glass of something once the DCs are in bed, you deserve it after this week.

Oh no how horrible. Great that there are nice people around.
Big scoffing of choc deserved surely

Oh how scary!! Glad DS is OK now LaDiDaDi and that lots of people helped you. Bless the teenager getting his Mum up for you.

Ladidadi you poor thing.....what a shock, i dropped dd into a drawer when she was about 5 months......fortunately she didnt turn her head and landed head first in my knickers.... but cut both shoulder on the drawer. take a lot of deep breaths and have a strong drink!!!

ds has been rolling from back to front for 5 weeks now but hasnt mastered going from front to back and instead sort of shuffles backwards......can move a fair distance though but gets cross as the toy he is trying to get is getting further away!!!!!

dd made us all benas on toast tonight and ds had a suck on some toast and had a few mushed up beans....low salt ones and only a few....he loved them. i have been giving him cereal with gluten in without realising so i think he is ok with it as he seems fine. he also tried hummous on a rice cake.....only to play with while i feed him.... but he loved it so he took over with that.

LaDiDaDi - that must have been awful. Lovely to know that there are people who will help.

LaDiDaDi-hope you are feeling a bit better after today - what a nightmare. I dread anything happening to anna and even when silly things happen, like i cut her nails too short, my heart breaks for the poor little mite. I am absolutely sure your DS will be fine and so pleased that people came to help you.

Thanks everyone, we are all feeling better this morning and some of the redness on ds has started to fade so that all that is left is the actual grazes iyswim. He is his usual happy self.

Scared to take dd out on her bike again when I'm on my own with ds, I can't put him in the buggy as then I definitely couldn't manage bike and pram and dd if I needed to but equally I can't manage to push the bike myself with ds in the carrier!

LaDiDaDi - Hope you are all well this morning?

Feeling good today. I had noticed over the last couple of weeks that I was starting to feel down. DH works unsociable hours - he went out for drinks after work the other night and got to bed at 3am and I was up with DD at 5.30 - I wasn't the nicest about that to him in the morning. Must add there that it is totally normal in the catering industry when you finish at 2am to go for a pint after - I used to do it all the time... but I don't think it was just that... money is tight, and I got teary at being home a LOT on my own trying not to spend... Anyway - I had let the house get a bit less than tidy/clean. Yesterday DH didn't start work until 3pm and we blitzed the house top to bottom. It didn't take long once I got started and I felt so good about it. Sounds pathetic now I write it down as our house is tiny - it doesn't take long to keep on top of things but I had slipped - I just let everything get on top of me a bit.

But, money saving = NO chocolate in house for over a week and tried on my jeans last night - got them on - they were t-i-g-h-t but on!

Got parent group today so going to get the bus into town afterwards. Need to return something to John Lewis so I will have a look around and get some veggies from the market to make another cheap and cheerful but delicious soup for dinner.

Don't know why I just wrote all that so sorry! Just feel more positive and am happy about that. Want to do an hour in the front garden later when DD goes to bed... I need to start just doing an hour here and there and it makes all the difference! Thanks for listening!

Thanks for your kind words Lee...

I remortgaged the house last month so on a fixed rate - great peace of mind and saving £45 a month.

This morning I have signed up for a 0% balance transfer credit card to begin to settle the minimal amount we owe - but it was worrying me. AND just transferred gas/electric supplier (received bill from the winter this week and they wanted up our monthly direct debit by a massive amount as we got a bit behind with me being home all winter and it was so cold). New supplier will cost about £30 a month less plus they give us a start up bonus of over £100 which will nearly settle the old account. I am good when I get organised...

So didn't mean to sound smug...

Klerka, I know how you feel about the house. I am v. lucky and we have a cleaner once/week but even so it gets messy and grubby between times (and she is on hols next week). It's such an effort to keep it nice and then I feel fed up because within 10 min it's a tip again! Laundry alone is ridiculous, I have three loads on the landing to put away, another load on the airer, another in the machine and I also want to strip and wash our bed today!

I think that I will try to go out with dd again this evening when dp comes home from work so that the two of us are there, either that or take her to a different park, we have to go in car to get there, where there is a big playing field with a path around it that she can cycle around with no dangers and even if she gets far ahead of me I can always see her.

Right, ds has stopped feeding, must go and do laundry!!!