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

LOL Snitch I did think that when you posted it but am far to polite to say it!

I want your sisters job. Does she want to swap?

Those sachets are great arnt they even if you dont need them that day they are a great peace of mind if you are out on a day trip to somewhere remote thats unlikely to have shops nearby selling that sort of stuff.

It's what I meant when I wrote it but when I read it back and realised like it could look like I was showing off.

You don't want to work for Waterstones ABF! My sister only has her job because she questioned the reasons they used for making her redundant and they admitted that they'd acted illegally and had to give her her job back!!

She loves working in a book shop but I think she'd rather work for a different company.

Plus, you'd have to move to Doncaster for the swap. It's my other sister that lives near you.

Quiet afternoon going well so far. Catherine's just had a feed and DS is watching Tinga Tales...

Bugger, I always imagined it to be a nice quiet serene place to work.

Didnt think you were showing off either I knew what you meant by it!

Nope, it's just as back-stabby and seagull managed as every other retail job I think

Glad you knew what I meant. We're all getting to know each other quite well now I think. It's nice

I was talking to one of my friends today who I met when we were at Antenatal group before we had our DSs. The 3 other women I met up with this morning were all from that group in fact so our children are all the same age. She was saying that it's quite sad that we didn't get to do the same thing with the new babies and didn't have a group of friends with babies the same age as our new ones - but I suppose I do, albeit in an online way.

Very glad everyone has had some good nights recently.

My current reading list appears to mostly consist of Little Miss books although I have managed to read the Baby Led Weaning book by Gill Rapely in between!

Home alone this weekend as dh is taking the scouts away for the weekend. Imogen has already woken up twice since going to bed - how does she know?!?!

Glad ds1 is on the mend Lee36. I sometimes wake ds2 up when he starts nodding off & it's close to naptime as even if he only has 10 mins it's enough to put him off having a proper nap. I put ds2 down in his cot at roughly the same times every day but only when he looks sleepy & leave him for 5 mins. Initially I'd often have to go back after 5 mins & settle him down again but now he usually goes to sleep after a few mins of making this odd drone type noise he's taken to making when he's nodding off. Bought him this music & lights thing that goes on the side of his cot which seems to help as he gets mesmerised by the lights.

GS - I know quite a few people with babies of similar ages to ds2 & whilst it's nice to have that bond we do seem to do rather a lot of baby talk. I'm trying to convince myself that I do have an identity outside of being a mum but find myself struggling to find anything to say to them that's not baby related. For me a big advantage of going back to work is that I feel I regain my identity. Pathetic that my sense of self is so closely tied to my job I know.

Does anyone have any experience of teaching a child to ride a bike. ds1 (5) wants his stabilisers off but he's not very confident on his bike. He's had a few goes without his stabilisers but can't get his balance at all.

oooohhh claire dd is 8 and just mastered the riding a bike thing.....finally!!!!

we made a step for her to rest her foot on while she got her other one on the pedal right then told her to look forward and go for it.....after a few attempts with us holding......dp just let go (i was too chicken) she just did it!!! Within an hour she was turning corners and braking!!! now we have to cart the bike to school so she can ride home.....hard with a pram too but i am soft so do it anyway. ds is way way too big for a front carrier and i am too scared to put him in the back pack yet!

No-one had mentioned the bookstart books to me either and I looked it up earlier and it looks like you should get them between 7-9 months although at discretion of HV you might get them earlier. I found it here.

With naps, we don't have a set routine, so somedays we have a series of catnaps and some days we have not so many longer naps. I have tried to be more regimented but it just became a battle and so I gave up. If she wakes up crying from a nap I try to resettle her and that helped extend some naps early on. If she just woke up talking or blowing raspberries then I got her up and carried on!

snap hendo i do the same....day and night....if he is crying he generally needs longer and if chatting has had enough. Think we get an average of 4 hours split up into chunks throughout the day but not sure! He will go down ok but doesnt always stay down..... i have a nature sounds light show nad i put this on with blind shut but curtains open during day....he is usually asleep by end of sound bit which lasts 15 mins then restarts if he cries loud enough adn sometimes distracts him

I really need to get Catherine's naps sorted. She really doesn't sleep for any length if time at all unless we're out with the pushchair or in the car seat. I think I'm going to try putting her down at about the time we do DS's walk to preschool so whatever we're doing, she can nap at the same time.

Looks like my HV was very early with the bookstart bag then as we got ours at Catherine's 6 week check!

Took the new car out this morning. Managed to get an hour out to finally get to the hairdressers. I managed to get there OK and parked it up but had mijudged how long it was (it's an estate) and needed to pull forward about 2 feet but the auto handbrake wouldn't release!! Ended up calling DH from the car park to ask him how to move the car!! Managed to move it in the end and got a lovely new haircut though which was great - pity Catherine threw up over me this afternoon so I had to wash it again, I'm sure I'll never be able to do it the same myself.

Oh and bike riding - DS has a balance bike since November. We took him out today and he was zooming around, feet up and balancing, steering around corners and having a whale of a time - he's only 3!! I can't recommend them enough. You could always take the pedals and stabilisers off your DS's bike Claire and make it into a balance bike? We read that learning balance first and pedalling later was the easiest way to teach children to ride and it's definitely working for DS. Have a look on Youtube for 'Early Rider', there's some great videos of children on balance bikes. I think because their feet are on the ground and they're totally in conrtol of thier speed it gives them loads of confidence. Worth a try maybe?

[http://www.mothercare.com/VTech-Baby-Bear-Sweet-Dreams/dp/B000JF9MFK?_encoding=UTF8& light show here]]

it has 3 settings....lullabys, nature sounds, and both together....it can be set for different time lengths and the music or sounds come back on if they cry but i dont think the lights do so not too in your face, it also projects onto ceiling. we only really use it in the day but have used it in morning for an extra 15 mins..... ok 30 mins in bed!!!!!

light show here

I'd never seen a balance bike until we moved to Germany & over here that's all you see, only English children seem to have stabilisers. They're a much better idea than stabilisers as they actually teach balance which is ds1s problem. I can't believe how many 2 year olds & sometimes younger I see whizzing round barely touching the floor on balance bikes. Definitely going to get ds2 one.

Hi everyone. Not been on his thread for yonks so have just read through and tried to catch up on everyone's news.

We have no books donwnstairs, they are all upstairs in the spare bedroom and on the landing. In the front room we just have a massive tv, so the HV probably thinks we are a right bunch of dullards! Although if she saw my transport planning textbooks from my MSc, it woud definitely cement that opinion!

Had our first meal out alone yesterday. I went to the theatre in the aft and left anna with DH, then after the show, DH, Anna and a couple of our friends met met me in the pub. After a couple of drinks DH and I went off for a very nice meal, whilst our friends looked after Anna. Was so great to have a bit of time just for us, even though walking back to their house it was freezing cold and p*ssing down with rain.

Anna is back to sleeping through again, know we are so lucky in that respect. However, day time naps are another story and different every day. just depends what frame of mind she's in i think.

We are starting baby swimming on tuesday and then on Friday we are going up to Northumberland for the weeend to stay in a holiday cottage with a bunch of our friends and their LO's.

In terms of weaning, am going to try BLW, so nothing doing here really until she is 6 months. Need to buy a highchair first!

Anyway, hope you're all ok and have a nice bank hol!

Don't we have some dead boring books between us. Astonishing since we're all so witty & interesting.

Had a bit of a horrible experience yesterday which carried on to this morning. ds1 & another boy were play fighting yesterday when the other boy got ds1 on the floor & started squeezing his neck between his legs so hard he was shaking with the effort. I shouted at him twice to stop & was about to haul him off ds1 as he seemed to have totally zoned out & it was like he couldn't hear either me or ds1 crying & saying he was hurting him when his mum appeared & he started crying because ds1 had bit him. I hate to think what might have happened if I hadn't seen him. Then this morning at school saw this other mum & she said something about them still not talking. I said it was hardly surprising after what her son did to ds1 & she said that it was provoked 'by all accounts'. As she totally ignored what I said she obv is talking about what her son had told her. We had words & I was really shaky & upset by the time I got home as I'm not good with confrontation. She has phoned me since & while she still won't accept that what her son did was beyond normal boys fighting she has at least said she'll talk to him about how dangerous what he did could potentially be. I think I kind of steam rollered her into it mind you but I feel quite proud of myself for standing my ground. I also told her I wasn't going to be telling ds1 off for biting as if someone was squeezing my neck & refusing to let go I'd think any retaliation would be reasonable & while ds1 is far from perfect he's not a biter. It's going to be awkward for a bit as we see a lot of their family & dh & her dh are friends. Sorry for the long post which might not even fully explain the situation but I needed to vent.

oh my God i think you were very restrained..... but it always seems to be the other way that the other parent doesnt or wont see what their child did wrong......hope your boy is ok!!!

i was at a baby group the other week in the 'baby' as opposed to 'toddler' are....a toddler came over and grabbed ds face with his fingers in dss eye!!! I threw myself across the mat an shouted "no touch!!!!" the boy jumped off but was too young i suppose to realise what he had done????? (he is about a year old) the mother was very sorry and told me i did well not to flatten her thug of a boy!!!! refreshing to find an honest and 'normal' mum!!!!!

sparkly - Thanks. Was starting to wonder if I'd over reacted because of the other mum being so flippant about it. If ds1 ever did that to another child I'd think we had a serious problem. Nice to have a mum apologise, I always worry that the other mum is going to have a go for shouting at their precious child in situations like that.

Got ds2s passport today which he looks quite ridiculously cute in. I look like an escaped convict in mine (& my driving licence, work ID etc)

Strangulation si really dangerous. You definitely did not over react. The zoning out would have really scared me too!

Ds and Catherine have thier passports now too. Catherine was only 8 weeks when we got her photo done, she's going to look completely different at almost 8 months when we finally go on holiday! No way they're going to be able to tell its her just before it runs out at 5

At least she's decided she liked DH this weekend - my arms can finally have a rest. There's a reason I can do more push ups than him, it's from constantly carrying children around.

Claire, you did the right thing about your ds, it sounds very frightening for you both.

Just rang up to get ds's passport photo done, though we've not sorted out hols yet but dp seems to be making progress with the psychologist with his flying phobia/general holiday and travel anxietes so I'm trying to be hopeful and prepared without being too excited if that's possible!

Ds's sleeping is rubbish again. He's really snotty with cold, as is dd, but yesterday evening he was back to being like a newborn, the longest he went without feeding was 1 hour and other than that he was constantly latched on from 7.30-11.30 and tbh probably beyond that as I gave up trying to put him down in his basket and just kept him in bed with me.

Need to sort out his next lot of imms (running 3 weeks behind) and stuff for dd's birthday tea on Friday. She got her new bike on Sunday and loves it but she's too fast .

Claire - you definitely did not over-react and it was good to tell her, even if she didn't really quite believe her child was in the wrong. If it happens again, and again then she might suddenly realise that her child has a problem and it isn't everyone else! We see that at school quite often...

Lee - what a lovely way to think of that and congratulations!!!

Hope this weather brightens up again soon, I was just getting used to the sunshine and had bought Imogen some baby banz sunglasses which she is yet to wear outside of our living room...