any other over 35 first time mums?

[Borboleta]

Good morning ladies,

Lots to catch up!

Lightweight: welcome. I think you just put a smile on my face and Claire's . We are going to be 40 ( me this year and Claire next year) and we have been thinking about ttc around 40 years old. Great to hear you are a mommy of two and your little boy is just 2 months old. How sweet. Is it super hard to keep up with them?

Clio: thiago likes that Pocoyo episode too. Wish you lived closer so we could have a Pocoyo night for thiago and J.
And good point on the fruit. He will eat pineapple, strawberry, blueberries, oranges, pears, bananas, and I cannot start his feeding with fruit otherwise he will ignore the rest of the food that is on his tray. The other day we made pasta and he refused to eat it! Actually we were at a friends house ( have to agree with him the pasta was not good) . So we ended up at burger king after the party ( we were still hungry ) and I gave him chicken nuggets and he loved it ! I did too !

Charlie: so good to hear how well Sophia is doing. She is trying to sit? Man, time flies!! Can we see a picture of her now? And yes thiago is crazy with his night time sleep!!! I never know what the night holds for us!!! Last night he Sttn !! He is a great napped though. Yesterday he had a 1 1/2 hour morning nap and then a 3 hour afternoon nap and slept thru the night.
And two friends of mine are going for super long trips to see their families. One is going to Iran and the other is going to Malaysia to see her OH family and them Poland to see her family ( and she is 14 weeks pregnant and has a handful little 17 months)!!!! She is bringing loads of food , iPad and she is sitting in the front of the plane where there is more space for little ones. Still going to be a nightmare I guess. And the doctor told her to try Benadryl at home first because sometimes the baby will have an oposite reacting and then you will have a bouncy baby in the plane. Can you fly at night?

Sabrina: i meant to ask you if you miss leaving here. My OH has family in charlotte too. I have never been there but I bet it is beautiful. And I loved NY when I went there about 12 years ago!! Wonderful city to visit. When thiago is older I would love to take him there.
And it sounds like you might have a climber on your hands!!! thiago has not tried to climb anything thank goodness . Little Finn is not wasting anytime now. Have you put the gate on the stairs?

I know I had something to ask storm but I forgot what it was . Oh well I will remember later.

We Sttn last night. 9pm till 6am . It was lovely. At least he gives us a break once in a while. Oh, and he is saying dada. Not sure he really means daddy or he is just saying but my OH is taking as dadda. That is how we call him dadda.

My iPad is almost out of batteries. I better post this and charge it before I loose everythingL

 

[SabrinaKat]

the only thing stopping him now is his 'American' leap frog toy (sent by my stepmother/dad) as he can easily press the buttons to get music, etc., but my god, unless we literally restrain him (jumperoo or highchair, not with duct tape!), he's crawling as fast as he can and trying to climb up everything. Me thinks I am TOO OLD, but at least, it's exercise, right?

hope all are well - yay for sttn, Borboleta!

bye!

 

[Borboleta]

Remember what I was going to say,

Question: how much milk your LOs are drinking now that they are 1 year old? I got thiago down to 24 oz, so he has 3 8oz bottles a day. It really helps him eat more food but I normally give him his bottle before he takes a nap or night time and man he loves when I give him the bottle. Poor thing you can just see him crying at first when I am preparing the bottle because he wants it so bad and them when I give it to him it is like the world is a wonderful place again. His poops are a lot lighter color too.

Another question: have you wean LOs off the bottle or are you trying to? I am thinking about buying this sippy cups that are transition to bottles and give it to him for his naps and just give him a bottle at night time.

And last question for any of you that LO still has his pacifier: thiago loves his. I am really trying not to give it to him while he is awake although sometimes he goes into this biting rage and I just stick the paci in his mouth. I have no idea how I am going to wean him off of the damn thing!!! I think I should have tried earlier and now I might as well just wait until he is a little older and come up with the pacifier fairy that will take his pacis and bring him a gift instead. Maybe around 2 years old when he start understanding things a little better. I am still going to keep trying to avoid giving him a paci while awake but during naps it is tough!!

Oh, storm: I now understand when you mentioned L being starving and needing food now !! Finally thiago is at this stage!! I thought it would never happen !! Is L still having about 40 oz of milk daily?

Claire: I forgot to congratulate you friend for her pregnancy. Send her sticky vibes from me. So she already has one right?

 

[SabrinaKat]

Finn still drinks about 20-24 oz a day of formula, although he now gets about 5oz of milk at creche (so about 20 oz) about four to five times a day (we learned to give more frequently due to previous reflux), so he has a bottle when he wakes up, after lunch, before his afternoon nap, after his afternoon nap and before bedtime. He drinks his formula from a small NUK wide bottle (my hands couldn't do the longer, heavier bottles at the time!), but he uses a sippy cup for water and with meals at creche. He also will drink from a regular plastic cup with help, so I drink loads of water (sparkling) and he wants a little of that as well....he eats loads, too, but we alternate, e.g. bottle at 7am (or when he wakes up), an hour later, some toast and porridge, snack an hour after that, nap, bottle, snack an hour later, etc.

must go, somebody just woke up!

bye!

 

[julesjules100]

Claire – what lovely news about your friend! Given her history, have they given her some sort of hormonal support (e.g. progesterone)? Fingers crossed this one is a sticky bean for her. Look forward to the pic of the wedding cake – impressive as I wouldn't know where to begin. At my SILs wedding last year, her mum made a 3 tiered cake, which looked lovely but I don't think she embedded the right supports to bear the load of each tier and half way through the reception it started listing dangerously and had to be disassembled!

Hope you had fun at Westfield as well as Lucy. That must be a perfect location for you to get to from Rickmansworth for midweek shopping so very handy! I'd have said sod it and gone in for a glass of bubbles even with a LO in tow.

Clio – totally agree on the stairs but will need to give you a pic of them especially the winder bits so you'll see what I mean. The railing is only on the tight winder side so the poor little chap would have to have feet about 2 inches long to be able to hold on and get round and down them. It's just wall on the other side of the stairs. Sadly don't have a floor that can be solely dedicated to LO. He'll be up on the top floor (the 4th!), which is where all my stuff lives too plus a couple of little guest rooms. It's going to be a killer lugging him up and down to the top but I have set up changing stations on the 2nd and 4th floors so in theory there shouldn't be more than one flight to climb when we need a nappy change. Not ideal. On the upside though, DH is getting really excited about the idea of the new house so perhaps I can nudge it along a bit quicker Our house at the moment is in central London but I have no desire to be there for the next move. Really want a proper garden and a bigger property not connected to anyone, lol! Party wall is a dirty expression these days. Will be in commuting distance back into London and if we go for the area close to Claire (i.e. Gerrard's Cross) then it will be a 27 min overland train journey into West London (DH and I would still need to take the tube over to our respective places of work though). It's tricky in London as lots of the areas we're looking at are all the same in terms of drive time into the centre BUT the train service is highly variable (some can be 50 mins and that's before you even have to get on the tube - major issues for the daily commute into work).

My pride and joy was "Cognitive maintaining factors in sleep-onset insomnia" (oh the irony) which was in Experimental Psychology. When I finished that I headed into the City to do a financial qualification so effectively did nothing with that degree or indeed my undergraduate. I was so fed up of research at the end of it that I just couldn't stomach it anymore.

You are correct in your understanding of the UK court system – James is currently a barrister and is hoping to push to QC in the next 3-4 years. It's a long process to get there and no guarantee that he will. We'll have to wait and see. He is completely focussed on getting there (nothing wrong with that) but it would be a shame if he pins everything on doing so as he has already done very well and at some point you have to take a step back and say "You know what, I did ok…this is good enough". I think it will be very hard for him if he doesn't get there but guess time will tell. I think he may take it a little easier when LO is born but not sure how long that will last for (and of course the new house is the perfect "excuse" to work longer hours as we'd be leveraging up again etc, which has already started bringing up, cheeky minx).

Yes, my career will indeed suffer as a result of having over a year off – I had hoped to get to Director this year but obviously now that's not going to happen. C'est la vie, I can't focus on that part at present and will worry about it at a later date.

Battlestar Galactica – I haven't seen that in years!

Lightweight – 2 under 2, eek! That said, all being well, I'll be in the same position by the end of next year (if my body and science allows). How are you finding it?

Charlie – that's funny that you hate hospitals so much even though you worked in one! I can't stand the places at all, they freak me out so much! The one that Grandma was in first was just so awful.

I'm 34 weeks today and funnly enough over the last week things have started getting materially harder (back and groin pain, bump feeling really distended now etc). Obviously logically I know I don't want him to come early at all but I can't help secretly thinking that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if he did come at 38 weeks. Naughty me The sleep is horrific most nights and I'm usually insomnia ridden from 4 till 8. Joy! Overall though, I really should't grumble as there are so many who have it far worse than I have had or do now.

Borboleta – very pleased you had a good night of sleep! Long may it continue!

Right, I'm off to look at the weather forecasts. Supposed to be taking the train back to London tomorrow morning but the north of the UK is apparently about to get a load of snow overnight and as I'm booked on a train that is coming from Glasgow, I'm going to be lucky to make it if the weather is bad! That said, it doesn't take much for the UK national train system to fall apart at the sniff of the white stuff.

x

 

[SabrinaKat]

LO very fussy tonight, whether it's teething or frustration at not being able to chase the cats, who knows?

told/suggested to my OH that we would go down to his mother's for a FEW hours on the Saturday before Easter, but if she starts anything/makes any inappropriate comments, etc., I was taking Finn out of there and going for a walk through Kilkenny (very pretty town). He wasn't impressed with my attitude, but I think (even if I am ungracious) he should appreciate my situation. GROWL!

Clio - started watching a documentary on The War of 1812 (PBS America), which I only remember that the British burned/burnt out the White House and Dolley Madison escaped with a picture of George Washington, which was damaged...and oh, the attack on Ft. McHenry resulting in the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, but had NO IDEA that we Americans had attacked Canada (and lost the battles (only done the first two, so don't know about the attack on Montreal in 1812)) - eek!

hope all are well. Having a well-earned glass of wine. It's cold, windy and awful here (do appreciate that weather in Alberta is worse, but hopefully, you also get decent summers?) -- come on Irish 'summer'!

bye!

 

[AngelUK]

Good evening ladies

Clio I can kinda hear the waboo too in Alfie's purr so yeah may well have been that. Shame J doesn't do it any more cause I bet it was cute. I think Tata is not so bad for a cat? It means daddy in Romanian mind you but there are after all only so many syllables in existence. Morgan is a female cat right? Anyway, s/he sounds like a sweetie to let J maul him/her like that and not retaliate. I thought Alfie was good but he wouldn't be that patient. How lucky Morgan isn't jealous of J.
Does J still hump things? Cause I think Sebastian is sort of humping too and has been for a while! I just didn't realise that was what he was doing! OH is embarrassed but I think it kind of cute in a weird way. What he does is a little different to J though. He mostly does it in his bouncy. As I may have mentioned, the boys have Baby Björn Bouncers and as you can see in the pic there is a strap between the legs. So Sebastian would hold on to that tightly with both hands and make swimming movements up and down with his legs. I thought he was maybe having a poo cause he usually strains a lot and starts crying after a while but since recently he also started making those movements when straddling my leg and facing me. So I really think it has to be that, right? How odd that it makes him cry though.
I don't think I have ever seen an episode Battlestar Galactica but I am/was a firm Trekker. I sooo love Patrick Stewart's RP accent. So sexxxy! lol

Sabrina I bet by the end of the next week F will be climbing that sofa! Golly he seems to have had a leap forward suddenly with things he learnt to do hasn't he? Sorry he is in teething hell again, poor boy!
And I totally agree with your plan of taking Finn out of there if MIL is being nasty! Why should you meekly sit there and take it. Finn is too young to understand now but this is not an example of treatment of you which he should ever be shown! And bugger to ungracious! If that is what you are, then what is she?!

Claire I love Westfield! It is so well designed with those clear roof bits, it feels quite airy. I just wish their Massimo Dutti was a little bigger as that is my favourite clothes shop.
Congrats to your friend and her pregnancy I hope it will be a sticky bean
Looking forward to seeing pics of the wedding cake you are making. I bet it will be another triumph How is your mum these days btw?

Lightweight welcome Please don't worry about catching up, just jump right in and share any experiences if you wish. I would love to hear how you are finding it with 2 under 2

Charlie Thank you for your good wishes The coffee-maker goes well with our fridge which is also retro and also light blue. We also have a retro Dualit toaster but OH bought that in red. I love retro design in the kitchen and I SOOO lust after a Kitchenaid but we neither have need for one nor the space. Shame. lol
As for Sophia's teething, poor little thing, she is so little still too! And to have a cold to boot! Poor baby! But I hope she will be lucky like your friend's children and not suffer beyond that first one. My boys didn't seem to suffer with any but it is so hard to tell sometimes cause maybe that is what is making Dominic a bit whiney lately. On the other hand he stops whining and laughs when I bounce him vigorously on my knee.
When you go out with her in her pram for her nap and into a cafe, does your voice not wake her? I avoid all eye contact with ppl in the park cause I dread that they may want to talk to me and I would have to answer cause I know it would wake the boys for sure. Even at home when they sleep in their bouncies, I only sign with OH and he pretty much is not allowed to enter the room as the floor creaks lol Golly how obsessive I have become about those naps.
We took the boys to the gymboree yesterday. They are still at level two as they do not pull up to stand by themselves at all yet. We only have one lesson left this term and then there is catch up week. We shall see if perhaps they are ready for the next level next term.
I hope you can manage the family trip to Australia. I bet it would be great to go visit places with your mum, that she knew all those years ago And I have only been to Amsterdam once, but I remember how lovely I thought it was (though for a Swiss born gal the flatness of the countryside was disturbing lol).
Like Borboleta I would love to see a newer pic of Sophia.

Borboleta yay for sttn! Hope you get that again tonight
Do you give T all that fruit raw or do you steam some of them first? But then again, I suppose since he has molars it is quite easy for him to eat.
As for milk, I know my boys aren't 1 yet but they get three bottles a day, each of 180ml (ca 6oz), one first thing in the morning at around 7, one at 3pm and one before bedtime at around 6:30.
We are also trying to limit the use of the dummies/pacis. I am hoping to only give them at night and for naps. But I usually do take one in when we are at the gymboree in case Sebastian gets very upset. Usually his dummy (plus a cuddle) will sooth him. But I think we will also wait for a little longer before attempting to take them away completely.

Jules congrats on 34 weeks And there would be nothing wrong with your LO being born at 38 weeks you know. Mine were born at 37 weeks as planned and they weighed 6.6lbs and 6.37lbs respectively. I think they would have been bigger had they not been twins but I was told that even so they were a good/normal weight for singletons too. So why not wish for your boy to come a little early
Hope you get to London safely and that there is no snow. It is supposed to be Spring after all!

As for us: we are still struggling with feeding Sebastian anything lumpier than a stage 2 meal. For tonight OH had made pasta Carbonara from Annabel Karmel's book and we let them pick up the pasta shapes one by one from their tray and feed themselves. They both quite enjoyed that and it was clear that they loved the bacon and the cheese though I think they had a bit of trouble with the pasta. At any rate it is hard to say how much they had of it as there was a lot of dropping and spitting out still. But on the whole it was a success I think. So we will slowly try more things like that. Maybe even try the chicken burgers again too cause possibly our mistake was to give it into their hands and not let them pick it up by themselves? Dunno but something needs to change. The only problem I see with this is that it is so hard to say how much each boy actually ate. Quite apart from it taking absolutely AGES for them to eat.
Well I will now go back and sit on the sofa with OH. So hopefully you will all have a lovely night and I am sorry if I forgot anyone. Am tired even though the boys sttn and OH got up with them today. I just need to sleep better myself I think and not wake so many times through the night.
Sleepy dust to all xxx

 

[Storm1jet2]

Ok I'm lost in this thread, have been utterly rubbish keeping up this week! Work is so busy I'm only managing a ten minute lunch, I'm helping one if the guys in Bahrain with a migration project so its spreadsheets and scripts galore.... What fun...

Borboleta L drinks 8 to 10 oz before bed, around 20oz during the night (sigh) and 6oz at nursery... Oh dear.... But she eats well, isn't overweight so I'm not worried. We have her one year assessment on Monday (3 months late) so I'm bound to get a telling off! Ho hum....

Welcome lightweight! You must be one busy lady!

Those of you thinking of number 2, has anyone started ttc? We are heading towards starting but probably give it another few months.. L teething hell is helping postpone, oh that and we haven't moved house yet!

The weather here is woeful, its so windy the letterbox keeps knocking which is freaky! Thankfully dh is home.

Anyway bed for me, I wonder if we will get the promised snow!

 

[SabrinaKat]

TBH, Angel -- as long as the boys seem interested in food, that is the more important thing - we do finger foods of whatever we are eating and LO will eat some of it (no seasoning, except for a sprinkle of herbs), and we use a spoon for applesauce, potatoes, yogurt -- but we are trying to eat the 'same' together, so LO feels like a big boy. Of course, he will offer to the cats, but we kept them out of the room tonight and LO seemed to eat more. Who knows, but his nappies are wet and poopie, so he's okay overall.

weather here not great, either - although it appears storm in NI and across Scotland (jules?), will get snow, we'll just have boring rain, heavy winds and COLD - growl!

LO has gone off to sleep, so am hopeful that another sttn? He didn't really sttn for my OH last night, but my OH's almost immediate (within 5-10 minutes) to put LO into bed with him, which I try not to do (I can't sleep much then, at all), so we shall see.

hope all are well? hugs, etc.

bye!!!!!!!!

 

[Claireyb1]

Gosh, so many posts already!

Borboleta my friend does not have any children,this would be no 1.
Jules she is not taking anything for the pregnancy. she has a private consultant who has run every test possible on them both and they had everything tested after the last mc and no issues were highlighted - sadly they were just unexplainable losses she says she feels different this time,so fingers crossed this is her rainbow baby!
TBH if I was with my DF we would have stopped for bubbles,even with Lucy in tow
Storm just lie at the 1 year check! tell them what they want to hear - unless you want to be told off and put on the naughty step!! lol
Angel I will post pics of cake later - it's not a mega complex one tbh. Mum is doing so well thanks for asking. if she is up to walking around Westfield then we know all is good! I agree,Westfield is a lovely place to shop(midweek) so spacious and Jules it's very handy for me,just a quick zip down the A40.

Lucy has had a temperature since yesterday afternoon, but I don't know why?? 38.6. she is kind of fine in herself,perhaps a bit more clingy than normal, but I can't see any signs of anything wrong???? viral?

 

[Claireyb1]

here is the said wedding cake.

 

[julesjules100]

Beautifully elegant, love it! Well done! X

 

[kosh]

I tried to post a few days ago - can you believe that forgot my password for BnB?!

have to pick up Gael
will try to catch up (a little bit ) later

hope you're all doing well!

------
ETA

happy belated bday Angel!
happy 34 weeks Jules!
welcome lightweight
great cake claire!

 

[julesjules100]

Bit of a random one UK ladies but has anyone bought any of the Little Green Sheep mattresses before?

I ordered one for my Bednest and it arrived today - it really does smell of sheep, which is a bit off-putting... Hope it fades before he arrives! x

 

[Claireyb1]

Bit of a random one UK ladies but has anyone bought any of the Little Green Sheep mattresses before?

I ordered one for my Bednest and it arrived today - it really does smell of sheep, which is a bit off-putting... Hope it fades before he arrives! x

I have a Bowron sheepskin and it has started to smell more "lamby" as time goes on, but with this I do have the option of dryclean or machine washing. What does it say on its care label?

 

[julesjules100]

Cover can't be removed so they recommend the use of a mattress protector. If any spills go over that then they can be "sponged" off. Doesn't appear to be any option to full clean. Dies say that as there are no chemicals used in production that there's no need to air. No, unless you want your baby thinking he's sleeping in a barn! Baaaa x

 

[Borboleta]

Claire: the cake is beautiful!!! You are super talented!

Kosh: I was just thinking of you.

Jules: sheep mattress!!! I am very confused! Why do you want a mattress that smells like sheep? Is it for you or for the baby? By the way have you narrow down the baby's name?

Running errands with OH and little T. No sttn but oh well. And I started giving him a sippy cup with milk in it before naps and he did well. Looks like we are just to give him a bottle before night time. Oh, and we turned his car seat. His is facing forward and loving it!

 

[SabrinaKat]

LO a bit fussy, but did sttn last night. Again, I couldn't....finally did my research and found out that my 'old' anti-depressants, had a component helpful in dealing with migraines (I only use for sleeping at night) and the new ones have some bad side effects, which I got, e.g. metallic taste in mouth, dry mouth, etc., and without the 'help' of the previous, all my headaches were NOT due to a flu/cold, but stupid, stupid new meds and it didn't help me sleep! (I have a recognised sleep disorder, so the anti-depressants were more to help me to relax to sleep, CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) gave me good techniques, but yes, sometimes, the depression does hit. BUT A MONTH OF HEADACHES for no real reason? GROWL! So, on the old meds and will let you know -- but at least, I know it's side effects and not my body getting suddenly OLD.

hope all are well? hugs, etc., and a beautiful cake, claire!

hugs!

 

[charlie15]

Claire, you are a talented lady, lovely elegant cake and yes let's rearrange meeting up, maybe when the weather gets better, some sunshine would be just lovely right now!

Sheeps mattress, hmmm I also have the bowan sheepskins, no funny smells there.

We have the dummy problem too and I really don't want to wait past 6 months to deal with it! Last night I don't know how many times I had to pop S's dummy back in, we woke at 8 and I really felt like I hadn't slept. We have OH's family coming over in 2 weeks for S's christening, then once OH has a few days off we will tackle the night time dummy! I've managed to get rid of it during the day, but it's the night time that's a killer. Oh we'll hope we have a better night tonight and good sleeping wishes to all for the whole weekend.

 

[AngelUK]

Stunning cake Claire! So elegant! Hope your brother likes it!
Glad your mum is all fit again and yeah she must be if she can go shopping at Westfield
And Oh golly Westfield on a weekend! Shoot me! Shoot me now! If I have to endure it I come out in such a foul mood that it would be way better, I assure you lol.
Hope Lucy is ok now and the temperature has gone down? Could it be teething related?

Sabrina do you and your DH eat your dinner with F? I know it is meant to be a great family bonding thing and instill good eating habits etc but... I don't think I would want to eat my dinner at 6pm :/ I always look forward to having it with OH after the boys are in bed. But as for portion control, I guess I am terrified that they eat too little and then wake at night hungry. Plus we have had sttn for such a good while now that I don't want to lose that. What a selfish reason! lol
Sounds like we are in for snow too according to OH. I am so fed up with winter! Why didn't we choose to live in Tuscany?! lol
Hope you can sleep better tonight now that you have figured out the meds etc.

Storm why would they tell you off at the assessment? Cause L has too much milk? But if she is good in her weight then surely giving her less milk would mean she might lose some weight, which would be bad? I hope you are wrong and all they will tell you is that she is one gorgeous little girl

Jules sorry never heard of the sheep mattresses. But I must admit that the smell of sheep is one that I find especially off putting. Hope it goes away too
Have you made it safely back to London now?

Charlie I remember we were thinking of getting rid of the dummies at around 6 months cause we thought Dominic's waking was due to his losing the dummy too. But I don't think it was that cause since about 7 months they could put the dummies in by themselves and that didn't improve Dom's sleeping at all. I think that he didn't wake for the dummy but that giving him back the dummy soothed him back to sleep. Might this not also apply to Sophia? But anyway, back then I have tried to follow Pantley's Gentle Removal plan and I think had we persisted and had we not been so exhausted it would have worked well. Might be something for you to try? Hope she sleeps really well tonight and that you get to recover a little

I am off to have a bath with relaxing lavender essences. Boys surprisingly slept for 1h 40 in the park today. Typical, cause it was a horrible afternoon with a really strong icy wind and even bits of hail! But I dutifully pushed them round and round. But now my back aches and I need a soak. I hope you are all well and all get a lovely sleep tonight