November 09 - solids and crawling underway but sleepless nights still here to stay!!

[scarlotti]

New and shiny thread

Hi all, I am so with you on the sleep deprivation due to teething. It seems once Millie's teeth came through we had approximately 2 nights respite before she started teething again...aaarrggh! Last night we went out and left the kids with the babysitter and when I got home Millie was awake and had been pretty much the whole time we were out. Luckily some Calpol and boob sorted her out but she ended up in our bed as she wouldn't sleep in her cot. She has had horrible nappies today, hope this tooth comes through soon!

My SIL is still with us and I am so enjoying having her here. My maid started last week too and it makes life a lot easier but still feels weird having a stranger around. I still find myself clearing up and tidying as I feel like I am being lazy, also I am not very good at telling people what to do! but it is nice having an immaculate house for a change!

pav hope you managed to get out for your sailing, sounds like you need some me time.

Ds had a lovely birthday on Friday, we took him to the Zoo and had cake and lots of presents, he was thoroughly spoiled! Right, it is sunny here so I am off to take the kids to the pool, have a nice weekend everyone!

Hobnob That's great news. These things seem to sort themselves out when they're around the 1 yr old mark.

Pav I know how you feel. I have been clearing out the nursery over the last few days, trying to get rid of all the stuff that's been dumped in there and it's nearly ready. DH is working a shift today, so I may wait to put C in his own room until next week. We had a better night, but still up at 12am/3am and then up at 5.30am. He had 3 big meals yesterday and tucked a big dinner away. Even the food intake didn't improve things by much. I don't like the idea of moving him out, but it has to happen at some point.

Longway Hope you have an even better night tonight.

DS1 is looking through the Argos book and asking for every toy! I can't believe Xmas isn't too far away. I'm looking forward to the season change and getting in to warmer clothes. Autumn is such a pretty season. Also, we'll be heading for all the birthdays soon! C will always have a spooky birthday theme as he's a halloween baby.

Sending out lots of sleep vibes

Sorry to hear you're all suffering. I am too Last night he woke at 2am for his first feed as food yesterday had been hit and miss again. After feeding he stayed awake for about an hour, grumbling away in bed.
As mil and pil are down, DH is in my bed so I think Ioan was surprised and excited to see him there we also have teeth coming and the startings of crawling so am sure that's part of the problem. Yawn!

Fruit I love autumn, too. The slowing down of everything...

I cannot believe we're heading for the 1 b'days so soon. First one in just a few weeks!

Sorry to hear about poor nights, I can join in, too. Lucy had awful Thu and Fri nights, waking up every half hour in pain with teeth (I think, because we have nothing to show for it yet). She had only suffered one bad-ish night before each of her first two teeth, so this has been a bit of a shock. Had to sleep with her in the spare bedroom on Thursday in the end.

I have also gone cold turkey with the night feed since Friday (wasn't sure about it what with the teething to consider as well). She slept without milk OK last night. I was going to offer her water instead but she didn't wake up for a feed at all. I am really hoping we break the habit soon, she has loads of food during the day and should be OK to last through the night.

Longway, interesting to read about DD's night time wakings. We usually get the big crying session at the begining of the night. I am also trying to get away from the habit of feeding Lucy to sleep in the evening. The first night I tried this I put her to bed after the feed still awake and got on with folding laundry in her bedroom. She took 15 (FIFTEEN!!!) minutes to fall asleep with a bit of grumbling. Since then it has been worse and I have to fight my own urges to just pick her up and give her milk when it takes her up to an hour to finally go to sleep. I just do lots of patting and shooshing.

I am actually wondering if I'm introducing too many changes at once... She's all giggles and singing and pulling funny faces and babbling happily through the day, so hopefully all is forgiven :)

SirB glad to hear the scan went well, such a worry for you.

Pav CIO = crying it out. Like you, I'd reached the end of my rope so I was ready to do something drastic! Turned out to be easier than I thought. But I think we're in a calm spot between teeth cuttings, so ask me again in a few weeks I hope you get DS's room in order soon, so you can get some sleep :( Getting M into her own room was definitely instrumental. In fact she slept through the first couple nights after we moved her! (That didn't last, sadly.)

skorpion We also have a big crying session in the evening about half the time. I chalk it up to the fact that her dad gets home in the evening and she's excited to see him, and despite being really tired she wants to stay up and play. Sometimes DH will sit with her until she goes down, otherwise I let her cry, only going in to soothe her very briefly (give her a dummy, tuck her into her blankets) every 10 minutes or so until she falls asleep. I find that if I'm in there any longer she gets upset that I'm not picking her up.

helips Enjoy your clean house!

Fruit I love autumn as well. Me, DH and DD all have autumn birthdays so lots to celebrate here :) Our wedding anniversary is next week, too - I keep forgetting We'll spend the day driving to a national park in the mountains, camping (sort of) for a couple nights.... with my parents and grandma. Yes, we'll spend the night of our 3rd anniversary sleeping in the same cabin as my parents. D'oh.

Lots of broken sleep here. I long for a full night

Another early start here again today. We seem to be falling into a pattern of longer stints at night (most welcome!) which go through to say 5, then he wakes for a feed but no longer drops back off again after. My day is starting around 5:30 every morning - I can't sustain this for long!
This seems to have coincided with him moving into his own room, but I don't really feel I can go back on that now it's been done. I wonder if he's waking more before the feed as it obviously now takes me time to hear him, then get out of bed and get him - do you think this is possible? Or am I just babbling rubbish as it's so early?!

Have had a nice weekend with the il's too - lovely to have enjoyed their company, and consumed some lovely wine, but it has left me a little sad that if things don't work out with me and DH then weekends like this won't happen again. Why is there such a widespread knock on effect when a relationship doesn't work - with all the ramifications around dc's/il's/extended families, I can see why lots of people just 'suck it up' and get on with it. I just can't be like that though - and that makes me feel a little selfish

Hmm, philosophical for this time in the morning ... lack of sleep does strange things!

Emmeline can now blow kisses! It is rather cute and she does it all the time. I think poor DD1 gets quite annoyed with me for it as I get distracted from dressing her when her sister starts blowing kisses and giggling :)

It's wedding central here. I think I'm going to forget going on the bus- the bus company are making too much of a fuss, wanting me to go in for a meeting and wanting to know what colour bridesmaids dresses we're having and so on, which is putting me off, so I might just get a lift there in a car. My mum is trying to persuade me to ask my uncle for a lift as he has a nice car and I could go with just my Dad (but obviously my uncle would be driving). I think there may be ruptions when it becomes apparent that nobody is walking up or down any aisles at this wedding, never mind on the arms of anyone. I will enter the stage with my parents either side of me, and my parents have a speech/reading. I'm a bit worried that just my Dad seems to have written a speech as well- I'm sure I said "could you two please prepare a speech", which I would have thought includes them both. I just can't bring myself to have one of the most important days of my life be so obviously sexist as to only have male speeches etc- I'm not the sitting quietly type! I'd just feel so silly, especially since we have very strong women in my family. Also, there will be 8 females on that stage and only 3 men- we can't leave it all to them!

My mum told me that Dad is taking his father of the bride responsibilities seriously- he doesn't really have any, no more than the bridesmaids anyway! I'm hardly the blushing innocent young bride, leaving home for the first time, am I? That ship has sailed - the two kids hanging off me would indicate that! Bless him though, he insisted on paying for the legal fees. He is unemployed most of the time, so it was a lot of money for him, but he can say he paid for his daughter's wedding. My mum is sending me some money today as well, so can't really complain :) It is wedding present as well as it is £500 and we're not sure we can find £500 worth of stuff to buy for the wedding, although the budget is getting a bit out of hand.

Would it be OTT to label the ham with a flag say "Nice Ham" or would that look odd to non-mners?

My mum seems to think that I will be going to the venue to set up, then going back home just to get changed, then to come back. I don't think I cba with that, so I'll get changed there. Most of the wedding conversations have been about me trying to get across that we don't even want a lot of the faffing. Sigh.

Anyhow, must dash, sorry for ranting!

Is there a new thread or is everyone just up to their eyes in teething and spending all day trying to childproof their houses?!

Butterpie your wedding sounds cool- are you doing a speech? I did one at mine, as did dh, plus his two best men and my best man. It's good not to go with stuffy old gender roles at the wedding, but lots of people find it hard to get their heads around, especially the older generation. Also, is your mum maybe shy? Public speaking is hellish for most people.

Many guest to our wedding did not think God Only Knows was a good song to file out to as it starts 'I may not always love you'! It was massively commented on. Also after mine I was very frowned upon for going to the pub with all my old mates from school for an hour instead of going home with dh to wait for the evening do to start. In retrospect, I think perhaps that was a bit odd, and rather telling!!!!

So exciting for you- all this preparation and it will be over so quickly, it will be a blur. Hope you're getting it all filmed and loads of people to take photos.

Well, H continues to be the world's most forceful baby ever. When she finally conked out this evening I let out my breath for the first time all day, it seemed!

I don't think there is another thread, i hope not at least or else that one passed me by!

butterpie you sound so excited for your wedding, i wish i was going to be there!

Bear cub can walk properly now holding onto our hands. I am not sure if it is a natural ability or rather Needs Must, as DD has been dragging him when standing and he either walks or falls! Well, that is one way to learn. He walked for me yesterday and when I said to DH 'look he is taking steps properly now' he said 'yeah he has been doing that with DD' i told him off for not telling me! Bear cub also stopped feeding this evening when DH said goodnight at the doorway, he sat up, did his royal wave at him and whispered and DH melted .

Sleep, well one good night, on sunday, only woke twice, i woke lots. Last night, he woke lots but settled himself on some of those occasions, and i settled him without boob twice, and twice he settled with milk. He woke at 5am hungry though, I heard his tummy rumble!!!

I am enjoying being back at work. 8am-1pm is a great shift, it is working very well, as the kids are not too tired when I see them in the PM and neither am I. We took DD swimming this afternoon to a lido and bear cub paddled his feet, the sun came out for a bit and I realised how lucky i am.

DD got her gcse results today - I'm so proud she got 2A*'s, 10A's and 2 B's am so delighted for her as she worked really hard and so has got the reward she deserves.

scarlotti that is brilliant news!

that's really good scarlotti! well done your dd!

Butterpie Ooh exciting! not long to go now! again wish I could be there and am looking forward to seeing pics of your big day!

Pav glad you are enjoying work! Is your dd starting school in sept? Just wondering as I thought she was about the same age as my ds.

Annabelle is standing up in the playpen now, and is beginning to want to walk holding on to peoples fingers so am thinking she is going to be walking faster than her brother did. He took ages to crawl though. And she now waves 'bye bye' as well which is cute. Its lovely to see her emerging personality!

Butterpie had a look at your foodie threads and your wedding plans sound fab! I hope the day goes brilliantly.

Scarlotti well done to the girl! You must be sooo proud. What are plans now?

Msyikes I love that song. Sounds like DD has inherited her independence from her mum :) Or do you think it's the scorpio thing?

Pavlov great to hear you're enjoying being back at work. Two months left for me and I do not want to go back to the office. I would love to work from home - with Lucy off-site for, say three days in a week... One day.

Well, she seems to have weaned herself off the night feed. I haven't given her any milk at night since Friday. This doesn't seem to make her especially hungry first thing in the morning and is less disruptive. If only I had the sense to go to bed earlier myself, but I have become a night owl comparing to a few weeks back...

We're going to a wedding this Saturday, first time I'll spend the night without Lucy.

Thanks for the congrats, she's off to 6th form college to do her A levels so a new chapter for her. DS1 starts school too in a couple of weeks so all change here!

Anyone else suffering from the early starts? Ioan now wakes around 5am for his morning feed but doesn't go back to sleep! I'm shattered. He then sleeps longer for his morning nap, so I'm worried it's fast becoming a habit.
Any ideas on how I can change this? I suspect that he's waking hungry (he seems to feed well) and then as he's almost had enough sleep, he thinks the day should start. He's in his own room now so maybe he's waking more before feeding than he was when I just lifted out from beside my bed? Then he'd seem to feed and then fall back asleep.

I just don't know what to do. I'd go to bed earlier if I could but he's still dream feeding at 10:30 and takes around 8oz now! Am I not feeding him enough in the day?

Was supposed to go to a local park today but it's so wet we've had to cancel going to a soft play place instead now - not the nice serene day I'd imagined..!!

Hi all, I'm just back from three weeks away and haven't caught up at all. I hope everyone's well.

We had a brilliant holiday in London and I am totally fed up to be home. REALLY need to move. Now. We have no space and I am yearning for a garden!

Scarlotti congrats to DD - excellent results! Is it normal to do 14 GCSEs now? That seems like loads.

Ms I am flirting with using this title too. I use my maiden name for work and my married name for motherly stuff, which is a bit confusing but I sort of like. For me the only reason for changing my name was to have the same name as DD. But then it's a bit strange calling myself Miss when using my maiden name (but I can't be Mrs 'Maiden Name', can I?) My mum's been married 30-odd years and says she still feels like her maiden name.

I am lucky enough to be attending Butterpie's wedding on Saturday, so I shall be the Nov 09 reporter-at-large for the day

Oh forgot to say - HELP - James has got into such a bad habit at night, probably because we've been sharing a bed on holiday. He's having about 5 or 6 feeds a night! Any suggestions - do I just go cold turkey? He's in our room, so harder to ignore...

How many feeds are other babies having in 24 hours? Apart from this night-time madness, he's also having at least 6 daytime feeds, which seems like loads to me. I'm sure DD was down to 3/4 daytime and no night feeds by now (nearly 9 months) and cut to 2 feeds by 10 months. Humph.

ohh look at me!!! I'm on mumsnet!!!! yay!!!!

The Playpen has arrived. My sanity has been saved (what little was left anyway)

Butterpie bestest luck girl. Hope you have the day of your dreams xxx

Scar well done on producing a genius

Laugs nice to see you (vitually)

Pav best foot forward I hope (and sorry to read about the incident)

I went for an interview for a job I should have got but got struck by a massive attack of nerves and cocked the whole thing up . They phoned and wrote to tell me I didn't get it. Surely one communication would service? No need to rub salt in the wounds. Still licking my cuts but hopefully I'll live and learn.

ninja oh yes the incident, I did not post here as i was too myself and didn't want to frighten anyone. But possibly should have. I learnt a lot. presuming we are talking about the same thing!

laugs yet again I think you are me, Roo wakes about 5-6 times at night occasionally he gives me a break and it reduces to about 2-3, rarely once, and then I get all excited. But it does not last. I am going to go cold turkey with 3 of them. and give him one waking before midnight and two after. Like you, I am sure DD was sleeping through by now, possibly one feed at 1am we were working on. I recall, because she slept badly at 7 months and we attributed it to extensive travelling to and from london and feeding to sleep at 1am/2am/3am and so worked hard to change it. I fear I am going to have to be stricter with DS now too. Day time - he feeds 3-4 times? once at around 6:30am, then nothing til 2-3pm (offered milk at 10am ish, bit hit and miss whether he takes it) then sometimes he has more just after dinner, then two lots at bedtime. I think he needs more food in the morning, to replace the milk he no longer has from me. Let me know how you get on if you go cold turkey.

Not much else going on, had a very hectic day at work today, and worked half hour longer. I swore i would not get into doing this, but i couldn't not do it, as it involved risk issues. As long as they don't get used to it . And Roo is still teething these damned top ones, he has all the signs of them coming through, just no teeth [grrrr]

sorry meant to say ninja sorry about the job.

Scarlotti wow on the GCSEs! I did eight when I was at school - that's loads!!!! We weren't allowed to do more than that.

Butterpie oooh exciting!!!! I am keeping up with it all on facebook though.

I haven't been here for ages. I hope you are all well. Seems like lack of sleep is a big feature at the moment. It will get easier, I am sure. Nine months is a bit of a tough age I think. DS1 went through a terrible sleep phase at this age.

Toby is doing well. He's almost shuffling, not quite (we don't seem to do crawling in our family) and he's got two teeth now at the bottom. He's said 'mamama' and cat and cup. He's just a delight. He'll eat everything and anything. He's just had a bowl of pasta with chicken and peas. He's now smearing banana all over his high chair!

I love autumn too :) my favourite season as it is the lead up to Christmas and I love Christmas. I just love the back to school feel of autumn too and the sun always seems to shine in September. It is DH and mine tenth wedding anniversary in September too.

Anyway, can't believe we are approaching one year. Wow squared!

Ninja sorry about your interview- it wasn't meant to be and there will be something better for you, chalk it down to experience- they lost out! Fools! Horrible when you feel you didn't do yourself justice, I went to an interview once and it was like my brain and my mouth belonged to two different people. I could think fo the answers, but I could barely say them, it was just horrible, like someone had seized hold of my throat. Deep breaths next time!

Scarlotti you must be very proud- what amazing results!!

Laugs in 24 hours H will feed probably four times, I feel a bit sad, she's never seemed to be that excited by milk and I think except for the night feed at bedtime she couldn't care less. DS fed like yours does, I wonder when he would have ever stopped if left to his own devices!

Another autumn fan, always feels like new start time for me and I love the smell of bonfire smoke and all the mist. I found last Autumn so spectacular, I think because being on ML and waiting for H for so long made me look around and take it all in more.

teething I think I know the exact moment when H cuts a tooth- she got her second yesterday and it involved half an hour of screeching and a look of great anger and bewilderment, just the same as with the first one!

She's now trying to walk alone, which is exciting and funny- she'll be cruising, then stand, see something she is interested in, take one or two steps towards it and then fall over in a heap. I am pretty sure she'll get there within a couple of weeks but it's a very, very scary prospect- we're in for a bumpy ride!!

3 more weekdays with the kids for me, then start my new job. So it's probable that when H does do her first proper walk I won't be there to see it pav I also worry about getting sucked in to doing a little bit longer each day, we should make a pact not to and to get home to our families! hard though.

Recipe I find 'I Can Cook' on cbeebies v v v v v v v v annoying- it's the baby language the presenter uses to patronise the kids- 'sticky wicky' etc. HOWEVER, ds made the baked spaghetti recipe for lunch today and it was DELICIOUS!!! It's on the cbeebies webiste. Was really easy for him to do and he was SO proud

Laugs enjoy the wedding

Ninja sorry to hear about the interview, hope you're not too despondant.

BBL DD got 2 for her science, 2 for her IT and 2 of them were taken last year, so it's a total set of results I've posted. They do seem to do more these days than when I was at school though.

pav glad you're enjoying work but be careful you're not sucked into the 'I must do a little more' trap - I sincerely feel that nobody thanks you for it and if you do it once or twice, you're almost expected to and never thanked for it. I've been in on a few Thursdays (my day off) as some meetings were organised that I didn't want to miss. Now meetings pop up on Thursday's more regularly so I'm convinced people don't try as hard to find another day now. Have put my foot down so hopefully they will rearrange them!

msyikes hope that tooth came through, poor H.

I took DS1 to the gruffalo today then we went to get his school shoes sorted, along with wellies and daps. It was so nice to have some time just the two of us, a rare occurence these days, and I think he really liked that too. Am going to try and do this more often if I can.

The sleep saga continues - last night Ioan took less of his bottle (5oz) then woke at 4am for a feed, but went back to sleep until 6:45!! I feel like a new woman.

So... should I limit the dream feed do you think to try and keep the slightly earlier waking? At what age should I be dropping the dream feed?

Just got back from a couple lovely days away, thought you might be on a new thread by now but I guess we're all pretty busy these days

Laugs I went cold turkey about a week ago. The first night was bad (an hour plus crying) but on the 2nd and 3rd nights there was only 5 minutes of moaning and since then she's slept through. Except last night we were camping and it all got screwed up, so who knows what tonight will bring On the balance I'd say it's definitely worth a try M sleeps in her own room, though, which I think is key.

Ladies

Fwiw - apparently there is a 9 month sleep regression. There is so much going on with them - teething, crawling, etc. - that their bodies can't cope and so they are restless. Not uncommon for them to stand up in their sleep then wake up stuck as they can't get down! Might explain some of what's going on for us....