any other over 35 first time mums?

[Leeze]

And she's just woken up! I hope it wasn't the light from my phone. Typical. Well, I can carry on now anyway! Sabrina, I sorelate to what you're saying about ebay. I've got so much off there. Maternity stuff, toys, grobags, baby clothes. I love getting parcels through the door, it feels like getting presents somehow! And most things have hardly been worn. My favourite sleepsuits go terms of quality are from Next or Marks and Spencer so I love looking out for them on there. I love a good bargain. Or bundles. I particularly love bundles! A colleague of mine recently went to France and bought Kia a few things from a flea market and they were all really lovely. So my latest thing is to look for French designer bargains from these 3 different makes and to add worldwide to the search option. I've just had 2 little bundles from France and it feels even more exciting somehow. My OH said he thinks it's what I do to relax instead of drinking and I'd say that's pretty true really! X

 

[clio]

Now I remember what I forgot:

Leeze--J has caught onto the trick of the TT bowl and mat. When he's bored or finished with his food, he picks at the mat, very easily gets it undone and whips it from the table, along with whatever food was left. This afternoon, I sat next to him and literally held his plate down to keep the mat in place. He kept batting my arms away, so in the end, I had to take it away and let him eat from the table. I need to get a plastic mat for times like these...

Oh, I made him fish sticks for dinner today! Just cod dipped in egg then rolled in a cornmeal/flour mix and then fried, but he ate it right up! Yaaay! Success! (I haven't cooked in years, so I'm so proud when 1) something turns out okay, and 2) he eats it.)

Angel--re: injections. I have two more sessions and then we re-evaluate. Though I've got to say, there is a bit of a difference now. I'm not getting as sore as I was before. Yesterday I had to fight with some knobs to get J's car seat harness tight enough (and lost the fight), and also pulled the stroller out of the back of the car. This would normally result in two or three days of constant pain, but I've got only intermittent pain. So, maybe something is working.

Re: shoes--could they be any cuter??? I love the monster ones in particular.

Re: the twins' personalities--it must be amazing to watch their two different personalities emerge even more. And they sound so sweet. And like rascals. Wait until they get mobile... And yay for Dom's tooth! What is it, only 18 more to go?

Re: switching milk--we tried this too at 6 months, and it didn't turn out well. J got so constipated from the extra iron that his poo came out in hard, compact balls. At his 12 months app't I'll ask the pedi what to do. Right now we're just sticking with what we've got.

SabrinaKat--how wonderful that Finn is getting on so well at the creche! I felt jealous hearing about it. Eventually we'll have to do something to socialize J, because frankly, his cousins are hellions and they're the only other kids he knows.

Re: naps--how on earth do you "cut out" naps? How do you even manage to get THREE out of him? J napped for 45 minutes today. We tried to get him down at other times, but he screamed the house down each time, so that was the end of that. J's naps are up to J. And we never get more than two out of him, and that's on a very, very good day.

Borboleta--my husband is even wackier than me. He makes up stories, creates alternate lives for the cat, and started calling J "Jonah Balogna," which quickly changed into "Jonus Balognius," the Roman Emperor who played the banjo while Rome burned. This then quickly morphed into the phrase: "Jonus Balognius, leave us alone-ius." (Though I'm not letting him say that anymore because I don't really know what J understands at this point. I don't want to damage his ego this early on.)

Re: food--Yay Thiago! J's Oma thinks it's great that you can determine their preferences so early on, so you're not fighting with them later. J, for example, hates anything chickpea. Which makes me sad, because I love anything chickpea.

Re: kicking around--J used to do this before he became mobile. He'd get so excited that it was like he couldn't contain it and flailed his arms and legs all the time. We used to call it his "River Dance," for which my husband chastised him for being "so 90s."

Re: naps--Again, how are you controlling these naps? This is a completely foreign concept to me. It sounds like a fairy tale...

 

[clio]

And she's just woken up! I hope it wasn't the light from my phone. Typical. Well, I can carry on now anyway! Sabrina, I sorelate to what you're saying about ebay. I've got so much off there. Maternity stuff, toys, grobags, baby clothes. I love getting parcels through the door, it feels like getting presents somehow! And most things have hardly been worn. My favourite sleepsuits go terms of quality are from Next or Marks and Spencer so I love looking out for them on there. I love a good bargain. Or bundles. I particularly love bundles! A colleague of mine recently went to France and bought Kia a few things from a flea market and they were all really lovely. So my latest thing is to look for French designer bargains from these 3 different makes and to add worldwide to the search option. I've just had 2 little bundles from France and it feels even more exciting somehow. My OH said he thinks it's what I do to relax instead of drinking and I'd say that's pretty true really! X

Maybe you should drink and go on ebay. Then you'll never know what might arrive at your door...

 

[AngelUK]

Sabrina I agree about the quality from baby Gap versus Primark! Primark do really cute things but they do shrink and fade and yeah bobble. Also, when they get a lil tight the design sorta stretches oddly as if the print was only at the very very top of the surface. I don't like that but am usually seduced by the price and the design. lol Lately though we bought some stuff at Asda and that is much softer and seems better quality.
That is so cute that Finn is making friends already! I bet that makes leaving him a lil easier?

OH loves ebay! He bought lots of Baby Boden and Baby Monsoon stuff there and all absolutely perfect. Clio can't you limit your searches on ebay to Canadian sellers? Over here we can select UK or worldwide etc.

Skweek will you actually be having a waterbirth then? I heard good things about it re being less painful but it was never an option for me and the twins.
To be honest the idea of having one's coccyx pushed back into the right position by birth sounds incredibly painful to me! But maybe birth itself will mask that additional pain?

Borboleta How did this night go? Well as I write this you are still sleeping of course so I am crossing my fingers that your little boy is sleeping like a little angel!
And yes I am constantly fascinated how different my boys are. Dominic is already so much more confident and outgoing. Sebastian is a lil shier but also much more thoughtful. He can study his hands or his dummy for any length of time! But on the other hand he doesn't like the playpen half as much as Dominic. I usually put the boys in there after getting them up in the morning. Dominic loves bashing his toys and chats and laughs. Sebastian is much quieter and likes to pull on things to put them in his mouth. But unlike Dominic he only likes to do this for about 20 minutes. Dominic seriously likes to be in there anything up to 40 minutes. I always take them out at the first sign of Enough.

Clio OMG Jonah is adorable! Love the new pic in your sig and the one with the plates is just too funny! I am sure he already does have your sense of humour! I meant to say, I too laughed at your comment about his suicidal tendencies at mealtimes though I am sure it must be really frightening! Does he climb over the stairgates too? Now that would be awful!
Keeping my fingers crossed for your injections!
As for the Follow on Milk, so far no constipation but his poo is noticeably darker already.
And as for your comment to Leeze

Leeze your poor little Kia! I too hate it when my boys cry and I cannot help them! Hopefully her sleepings will now improve. It must be exhausting for you! How did this night go? Does your OH take alrernate nights with you or only weekends?
When are you going back to work?
As for Fulham, it is actually South West. Here is a map of the London boroughs and Fulham is the small one in orange wedged between Kensington, Ealing and the river. I don't know Hackney very well, or Crouch End but OH's mother lives in Haringey, so North London is not totally alien to me.
Kia's birthday is really soon! Are you having a birthday party for her?
Which French designers do you especially like? Tartine et Chocolat? Or maybe Jacadi? Both have such lovely things with such French chic!

Right I have to go and entertain my little men. byee

 

[Leeze]

Angel, if you've just hooked me up with some new french labels to lust .after then whoop whoop whoop! So far it's Grain de ble, Bout chou and Lili Gaufrette. But i'm so checking out those other ones too! Crouch End is in Haringey so you should pop in for a cuppa when you go to visit MIL! I love how Dominic and. Sebastian are developing different personalities. I think it's really important for twins to have some individuality. Sure I was going to say something else but Kia just got up! We actually had a much better night. She slept from about 11.30 till 2.00 then from 2.15 all the way through till 9.00. She's my hero today. Its the first time in ages she's slept that long in one block. Oh, and quickly to Clio - because i'm breastfeeding. I don't drink while she's awake. And because she isn't guaranteed to stay asleep once she's settled I don't drink then either. I do really miss it but on the odd occasion i've done it i've just worried she'll need a feed and I haven't relaxed. This means I do all the nightshifts too although OH gets up too if I ask him to. Got to run. Have a lovely day all xx

 

[SabrinaKat]

um, sorry re: naps. LO does sleep pretty well during the day and at night (unless bad teething). He'll take a nap about 2-3 hours after he wakes up in the morning, another 2-3 hours after he wakes up from that nap and another 2-3 hours after he wakes up from that nap; so for example, yesterday, we gently woke him at about 6.45, he had a nap attempt at 8.45 at creche, but no go - so another attempt at 10.20-11.30, another nap at 1-2.15, and then at home he slept from 5-6.15, and bed proper around 9ish. Sometimes, he will only take a 15-20 minute nap, other times, an hour+, there's no consistency, so hard to plan things. We do have some sleepless nights, tho, and/or demands for food at 1 or 2 am and/or teething issues as well, so LO isn't always consistent in his sleep. I do feel for the middle-of-the-night parties from other LOs, but fortunately, it appears LO got his ability to sleep more easily from my OH rather than from me!

I love M&S, too -- I bought some vests for him there last week and they wash/dry on the line very soft, so ordered another sleeping bag and some babygros from them on-line -- I absolutely love internet shopping on brands/sites I know well as I am starting to hate shifting through sale items at babyGap and/or waiting in long queues! I'll have to look at those french baby things, I bought two outfits on ebay from emile et rose, which are British, but lovely velvet playsuits for christmas and for a wedding, but they were too big for the wedding we went to in July!

I had a proper lie-in this morning, I heard LO and dada around 7.30 and was able to roll over and slept until 11am -- that's the longest I have slept since LO was born!

bye!!!!!!!!!!

 

[clio]

Oh my, I find myself in the most bizarre situation where the boy just went down, OH is napping, and no one is bothering me! And I have a full half hour before I have to be somewhere! Now this is luxury...

SabrinaKat--what a lovely lie-in! It's almost as if you didn't have a baby! I'm still very impressed by your nap schedule. J will only go down if he's over tired. He has the determination and the strength to fight you if he's still got an ounce of energy in him.

Angel--Yes. J is quite the character. He has now taken to standing in front of a couch pillow on the floor in the living room, holding his arms out like a bird and flinging himself forward. He hasn't climbed the gate yet (it's only got bars and is very tall, so I don't think he can), but heaven forbid you leave it open for even a second, because he typically beats us to it and crawls like a monkey on speed up the stairs. (Do monkeys crawl?) And what he likes in particular about his new mode of transportation (apart from the speed the plastic plates give him) is that he can put things ON the plates and take them places, totally eliminating the need to walk. The high chair incidents weren't so much scary as annoying. He also had really bad manners in that chair. When we could get him to stay in the chair, he refused to sit properly:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8471/8124012029_80b0a318b5.jpg

All of us much prefer the booster seat.

So I have decided to take the age appropriate guidelines as merely suggestions. As I was peeling the sticker off of the booster seat after his first meal, I noticed that it said 18 months+. And because he's not doing so well with the spoon (things kept falling off), I bought him toddler forks yesterday with metal tines. Those we have had success with; he could actually get the food to his mouth. He ate his oatmeal this morning with a fork.

Oh no! I have to go! Where did that half hour go? I'll respond more later...

 

[SabrinaKat]

J looks very comfortable, actually! Our LO slouches down in the highchair and/or tries to sit upright in his bouncy chair, so it depends on his mood. I just had an image of Jonah moving furniture (or a cat) on the plastic plates that he uses to get around.

we're off out to dinner in a few minutes and have a sitter for LO; she's somebody who I trust completely -- found her through an ad for a cleaner a few years ago and Finn loves her -- she offered to babysit a few months ago (I was hesitating about whether to ask) and she has sat for us a few times over the past...

I'm having terrible problems with my hands today -- I had mild carpal tunnel before LO, and during my pregnancy, it got very, very bad (I did physio a few times, which helped), but now, the two middle fingers seem to be cramping with odd electric shocks at times, e.g. when typing on the computer, when I was folding some laundry, etc., so am a little worried and might have to go back to physio. There's no history of arthritis in my family, so can only assume that the damp cold of the Irish winters are finally catching up on me, sigh.

hope all are well.....! (and here's karma for you -- LO wouldn't settle for his early afternoon nap, and we decided to skip and now he is asleep, but I thought that hopefully one of the other restless LOs/mummies maybe got our 'good sleep' for a nap today?)

bye!!!!!!!!

 

[Storm1jet2]

Hey everyone, I've been awol for a while, just been feeling really down with the sleep deprivation and L first kidney scan didn't go the best. Looking forward to catching up on all the posts I've missed which is a lot!

 

[clio]

Ahhh. I'm back and OH is taking J to his parents, so I get a nap (but not before writing on here, of course...)

For all of you who hate to cook (me included), I found this amazing solution (this is where I was). Late into my third tri, a friend dropped off some frozen meals for us. I thought she had made them, but no--it turns out that she went to a place where they have essentially created "Cooking for Dummies." You choose beforehand what you want (i.e., for today I chose chicken pesto penne, honey dijon pork, coconut shrimp, and lobster mac and cheese, among other meals). When you go, they have stations set up, where they lay all the ingredients out for you with very easy-to-follow instructions and you go zip zip zip, tossing everything into ziplock bags and voila! My food for the next month is prepared, and it only took an hour. Then you take it home and freeze it. And since my husband can't eat wheat, I get all of it, so it lasts longer. So years of frustration regarding my dinners have finally ended.

When I came home, I found tons of J's toys littered all over the kitchen floor. Yup--the plate skater had been very busy. Then I turned around and found J transporting his tambourine as well, but not on the plates. Rather, he found that card stock works just as well and was using my first Mother's Day card ever, unfolded, to move things.

I hope he becomes an engineer or something. I hear they make good money.

SabrinaKat--I'm so sorry about your hands. Osteoarthritis does run in my family, and I learned that knitting can help keep your fingers nimble longer. Would it work for what you have? And nope, J did not receive F's nap. The one I put him down for lasted exactly half an hour.

Skweek--that's wonderful about the water birth! And when they say that your tailbone can move back into place during labour, is that then permanent? I can't believe that you're going to pop any day now!

StormJet--it sounds like you're having a rough time. Is LO sleeping badly? And what is wrong with her kidneys, if I may ask?

Angel--do you see aspects in the twins which mirror you or your OH? Like, is Dom more like you and Seb more like your husband?

 

[AngelUK]

Leeze yes we think it is important too that they are seen as individuals. I guess them not being identical makes this easier but still both OH and I are always careful not to dress them the same. We have some basic things double but they never wear them on the same day.
Kia sleeping from 2:15 to 9 sounds like a dream come true! I hope she does it again tonight

Sabrina I am so sorry you are suffering and really feel for you! The cramping sounds like it might also be trigger finger? I had that and also really bad carpal tunnel during pregnancy and it got even worse just after birth. I couldn't hold my boys cause it made my arms burn with pain, apart from my fingers being numb and as if asleep! It was so bad that I couldn't bear to rub my boys' backs to burp them even! Then my water retention went and less fluids pressed on my nerves and tendons and it got better. The trigger finger completely vanished. But lately I wake at night cause my right arm has gone to sleep even though I am not lying on it! And when I hold a pen or a spoon to feed the boys, my fingers go to sleep! Very irritating. I think both problems, carpal tunnel and trigger finger are due to tunnels being too tight and getting irritated. My mother had both and had several operations for it. So let us hope what we have is not that or not as bad!
How lovely that you got to go out! I really hope you had a lovely time

Stormjet I have been wondering how you are. I haven't seen you on the other thread either, though I don't post there so much myself now. I am sorry sleep is still so terrible. Is there anyone who could take a night shift once in a while? I know from experience that one full night of sleep can do wonders for ones' mental health. What did the kidney scan say? I hope it isn't too serious?

Clio cooking for dummies sounds ideal! Wish they had that here! Are all those recipes ok for J to eat too?
Btw how did J find out that trick with the plates? It is incredibly ingenious as well as funny! You obviously do have a very smart boy!
As for your question, I am not sure if they are like us. Dominic is so incredibly jolly and happy and I don't think I could ever have been like that? But mum does say I used to giggle all day long when I was his age, so maybe? He certainly gets his food impatience and greed from me. He gets really upset if he sees his bottle and doesn't get it NOW! He kicks his arms and feet and squeaks and cries. And at night he cries and then shouts! Me too. Well, inside I do lol.
Nick is much more quiet than I am and I guess Sebastian is too but I am not sure it is the same. Sebastian is much more sensitive than Dominic too. He frightens easily and I have learnt to suppress my sneezes when he asleep or he might wake and cry but he will definitely jump when awake. Also, when Dominic cries, he will too. And he is scared of strangers and if they crowd in on him, he will cry. Dom loves all the attention! So apart from Dominic's impatience especially re food, I am not sure I can really say if they are like us.
Do you see traits of both of you in J? Or is he more like you? He looks incredibly cute in that pic with his foot on the highchair tray. Btw are those fire-engines on his romper? Very cute imo but I am guessing actually too boyish for your taste?

 

[Borboleta]

Hello ladies

Little t slept better last night until 5am!! Then I fed him and he slept until almost 8am!! Thanks Advil!!

Clio: that photo of J is hilarious!!! You must laugh of and with him so much.

Storm: what is happening with L 's kidneys? We missed you.
I am on my cell so will respond properly later.

 

[Leeze]

Storm, sorry to hear things have been tough for you. Don't forget we're here for you. Is Lydia ok? Will she need treatment? I hope it's nothing serious. Xx

 

[SabrinaKat]

well, those whom the sleep gods wish to destroy....we had a huge party last night from 12 to 2 am! LO had fallen asleep for the sitter around 8.30, but I knew that he should have had another bottle and/or gone to bed later, and we were awoken by LO around 11.30, and he had a bottle, etc., and then pretty much refused to go back to sleep -- my OH went to bed and by 1.30, I was exhausted so 'asked' my OH to try to get LO back to sleep. GRUMBLE and GROWL -- my OH makes me feel so incompetent and worse, acts like he does everything for LO and complains that I don't 'help out', which is nonsense as I do pretty much everything for LO!

LO woke up at 7.15am (but due to clocks changing it was 'really' 8.15), so at least got a few hours sleep....

storm

to everybody else -- will chat with all later, as LO is now trying to eat his feet so must give him some real food. Question - clio and other cat mummies -- does your LO try to eat the cat food yet?

bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kosh]

quick hello ladies
gael has been ill on and off for the last 2weeks, started with a cold, temperature, then he had a rash all over his body, temp again, blocked nose, teething, you name it...he obviosuly feels cr@pall the time and is almost constantly crying. he does this thing where he sobs and shakes his head 'no' as if life was too much at the moment

re.pictures
skweek - lovely bump, i'm jealous i want mine back! i felt so much sexy while pregnant!
clio - love the 'assisted crawling'

storm - same here

all ladies - hope you're well

 

[Rowan75]

we have a little BOY!!!

woo hoo! Michael! yey!!! hes Gorge! we got a dvd as well so we can show Martha and keep lovely he's a little cutie!

 

[AngelUK]

Wow Rowan congrats! He is gorgeous! Love the 3d piccie! Soo sweet! Aww!! Aw man, I want another one!

 

[clio]

Rowan, congratulations! Now, I'm trying to decipher your post (did you go out for drinks afterwards to celebrate and then write it?), but I take it you're calling him Michael, and there was a third pic which is not there anymore? Michael is a gorgeous name! And now I really want to see that third pic!

Again, congratulations!!!!!

 

[AngelUK]

If you thought there was a third pic cause I said 3d, I meant 3D as in where you see him not as a shadow

 

[kosh]

congrats rowan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!