Dec '09 - We're learning to roll, we're learning to eat, all we need now is to learn how to sleep!

[hendo77]

New thread everyone...!

Ive been given my friends and family vouchers for Early Learning Centre and Mothercare if anyone is interested??

Oooh yes please if you have any spare that would be very lovely! How is your back btw?

Yes please ABF :)

Did the Yorkshire Puds work last night Hercules? We've got Catherine going from 6.30 till 6am most nights now. I can highly recommend Butternut Squash Risotto and Red Lentil casserole for their knock-out capabilities too

What are you guys getting the babies for their first birthdays and Christmas this year? I'm really stuck.

Alex got most of the obvious things for his first Christmas and Catherine has them all as hand-me-downs. She's got loads of clothes in hand-me-down form too. I know I could buy her some new clothes but she's probably got more than she could ever wear already so it's probably a bit pointless. We can't fit anything big in the house!!

I want to get her something lovely but can't think of anything she needs

No, it was a one-off!!! She just woke once though for milk at 1.15 ish. I do now have hope she will sleep through eventually on a more regular basis, but she's still quite variable as to how much she eats depending on her tiredness and stuff, so just trying to get the right foods at the right times at the moment!

I don't know if you like this sort of thing, but I've bought them as gifts from this website - they are brilliant, send the stuff really quickly and it is lovely. You could get written on the back happy first birthday from mummy and daddy so she'll have it to keep forever. They do all sorts of clocks name plates for doors, pegs for coats etc... but those guardian angels are quite nice too I think.

We've bought some books so far and probably will buy something from that website - although not sure what yet. We haven't actually decorated Imogen's room but are planning to do so in february so maybe a height chart or clock or something to go in her room.

Christmas and Birthday list is pretty much this...

Jingly ball thing we bought in hamleys.
taggie book
ELC light and sound drum.
VTech learning tree.
Sophie the giraffe
ELC 1st xylophone

Im quite liking the look of the Vtech workbench thing but am still deciding on that one.

The trouble is ive still got loads of Jakes old ELC chunky vehicles and stuff up in the attic so dont want to get too much and be bogged down.

Anyone wanting the vouchers can PM me their address and I'll post them out.

My problem is that I've put all the good stuff on the Christmas list for the family! This is the problem with having 5 silblings between DH and I - lots of people who want to buy presents. I'm not complaining, it's gret that they're all involved and generous, I just wish I had a bigger house to put it all in :)

Great ideas Hercules and ABF. At the moment I'm considering a really cute rag doll I've found that looks just like one I had when I was little (she doesn't have any dolls yet) and a tent. She loves Alex's pop up tents and I'm sure she doesn't mind that they're covered in cars (and ABF, if you know an easy way of refolding them, I will post you a dozen Krispy Kremes ASAP :) ) but I'm guessing as they get older, I might be glad of her own one to stop arguements and then maybe a simple chain or bracelet? I know she's way too small right now but I still have the chain my Grandad bought me when I was a baby and treasure it. Maybe a charm bracelet to add charms to as she grows? Can't decide whether it's a lovely idea or a it lame. I was looking at that website you suggested Hercules and saw the jewellery boxes...

We have the Sophie Giraffe and Catherine loves her. Try not to get her wet though, ours went in the pool for a few seconds on holiday and hasn't squeeked since. We have a great taggie cover for the bumper bar on the pushchair too that Catherine loves.

We got Puffy rather than a wheelybug when Alex was small. I got him out last week to give him a wash. Alex was still trying to ride him even though he's way too big now :)

He's also got a name jigsaw that we got from ebay. They arrived really quickly so maybe not too late?

Ooooh lots of ideas - thanks everyone!

DH and I have just had a 2 hour blitz of cleaning our house (downstairs anyway) and now I have two sets of books to mark but at least I have recorded a whole load of rubbish reality tv to watch whilst doing it!!!

Blathers - you'll be proud to know that I have sorted my christmas name already thanks to the christmas name thread!

HerculesPoiroastinOnAnOpenFire

(had to cut the g from roasting as one letter too long!!!)

Not pathetic at all - I saw your post this morning and have been thinking of Christmassy things all day for you!

Things that rhyme with Lee - Heavenly, Ye, ChristmasTree, Frosty, Sparkly, Merry, Turkey, nativity, holly, ivy...

Things that rhyme with sunshine - mulled wine, christmas time...

Or of course anything christmassy onLee like you already have!!!

Have been rubbish at keeping up with this thread!

Sorry to hear about the babies having accidents but very of those of you who have had full nights sleep.

Not much to report here other than at the weekend we had Henry the Hippo to stay from school. We had to carry it around with us all weekend and take photos and then print them out and stick them in his book ("Henry's Travels") and write a little story about what Henry did. Now I know it sounds cute but I feel like it makes the massive assumption that every child's family has a digital camera and printer which I don't really think is fair. Any way, I was gluing and stickingg at 10.30pm last night to get my homework done!

Have just bought dd some Xmas presents today but not sure what to do for ds.

Aaaarrggh! Now Catherine has a temperature too. I knew something was up when she slept for twice as long as usual this morning.

The sleep is lovely but the grotty, unhappy child between sleeps is not so nice.

Oh no - hope that everyone gets better soon!

Work is manic this week - too much marking, but all done now (well except for one 6th form class set of tests I'm saving for tomorrow!) so off to bed!

At least tomorrow is my last day before the weekend...

Woohoo! A second sleep through last night. I have hope before the party season begins. I texted my dad and he said if she does it one more time she can sleep at their house one night

I can't believe Imogen is 1 in two weeks time. I am going to start to introduce cows milk for her daytime milk feed from tomorrow as my formula box is half full so if she takes to it well I won't have to buy any more formula. This may be a silly question but I assuming you just give the same quantity of cows milk as you would formula. Also the formula is often slighly warm when she drinks it, do you think I should slightly warm the milk so that it isn't cold straight from the fridge?

I'd also like to get her to start drinking her milk from a beaker (one feed at a time for now). Do you use the beakers with vavles? So far Imogen drinks waters out of the beakers, but without the valves so that it is free-flowing?

Sorry for all the questions!

Right, I'm going to keep talking to myself and if no-one comes along in a little while, I'll turn out the lights when I leave!!!!

Gave Imogen cows milk today for her afternoon bottle and bedtime bottle and she didn't have any problem drinking it, so I think I've bought my last box of powder - woohoo!

Now I need to just be extra careful making sure she gets enough iron and everything in her food.

Hope you are all well... (I realise that was not the correct place to use it, but I wanted to use it!!!)

Sorry Hercule. Everyone in our house now has the lurgy so it's all a bit miserable round here and I didn't want to bore everyone with my whining.

The silver lining on being stuck in the house for the last fortnight is that I've bought 90% of my Christmas presents and got all the bits for the Party bags for Catherine's party - and I only spent £1.67 per child without filling them full of sweets and plastic tat. QQuite proud of myself :)

Very proud of Catherine too. Even while being ill and with Alex getting up in tears 3 or 4 times a night - she's still sleeping through, well, until about 5.30am anyway. The last 2 mornings, she's even fallen back to sleep in our bed and I've managed to doze until about 7am which I have really needed. Being ill is bad enough bit being ill and having 2 ill children who need drinks and cuddles and medicine every 5 minutes is even tougher.

I love the emoticon. There's a whole thread discussing what it should be used for though!

Oh and glad the cows milk is going well with Imogen. I was supposed to start swapping Catherine's day time feeds now she's 11 months but I can't really do it while she's poorly, it wouldn't be fair.

Roll on getting better. I'm totally ready to have my boobs back now!

Oh blathers, feel free to come and unload on here its getting toooooo quiet again. Hope you all feel better soon.

What did you get for your party bags?

Well, I've got a mixed range of children so I was trying to find something to would be suitable for all while also avoiding the usual plastic junk that gets binned as soon as it gets home.

Most of the children are almost 4 as they are Alex's friends and then there are thier little siblings which range from 15 months down to 5 months so I got....a packet of chocolate buttons (plus a mini lolly for the bigger children), a little pot of bubbles, a cookie/playdough cutter in the shape of either a Ladybird, a Butterfly, a Snail or a Spider and a mini Mr Men or Little Miss book. I'll wrap un the obligitory slice of cake to go in too and we're making a handprint bauble for each child too but they won't get that for a few days after as it needs to be glazed and fired.

Sound good?

I think we're finally turning the corner on the lurgy now but it's been an awful few weeks. Both of the children woke in tears this morning and both are refusing to eat at the moment (milk is the only thing Catherine will have) It's just so hard to start the day like that knowing that DH will be going to work as he hates taking time off even when ill and that I've got it all on my own all day.

Those bags sound great - are the handprint baubles a kit that you buy and do at home or are you going out to do them somewhere?

Glad you're all turning the corner. When Imogen had that tummy bug and was just a little bit grizzly and clingy I was almost in tears some days at the thought of being by myself with her. That's with just one baby and she wasn't even that gad so I feel you pain and at least it's Friday tomorrow so only one more day until you have extra hands at the weekend!