Bumpkins & Babies Chat Thread

[florabean1981]

OK, so I just had a loooonnng & tearful conversation with my boss & she was really great! I feel so much better. My shifts are still a bit pants, but it's the best she can do & with the economy being the way it is, social services wont let her hire anyone new unless one of us quites, so she's kinda stuck atm too, espcially since one of the girls on maternity leave at the moment is only coming back on 16hours instead of 39 & the other pregnant girls went on maternity leave last week & doesn't know when she'll be back...

She's giving me a week 1 rota only, rather than the 2 week scedule, so at least that's good & she's compromised on some of the shifts, so now, when I go back, I'll be doing mon 4-10pm (on my own), tues off, weds 8am-4pm, thur 8-4pm, fri off, and every other weekend doing sat 7am-2pm & sun 2pm-10pm. Still not the greatest of hours, but much better than the first ones she gave me. At the worst, it'd mean using a CM for the weds-thurs shifts, getting a permanant babysitter for the mondays, then OH take over from her when he gets in, and the weekends I have to work and OH is not working, he can look after Harry, and the ones where he is working, I will either have to use a CM or Harry could possibly sleep over at my sister's or her & her 2 boys could sleep here at mine in the spare room... (Kinda thinking out loud, lol)
Once OH gets paid next week, we can get a better picture of our finances & if it's feasable, I may try & drop either the sat or sun shift. The only other option she could offer me was night shifts (10pm-8am) but I dont want to do those, as night shifts killed me last time I did them & I only lasted 4 months before I quit, lol.
Oh well, at least I feel like I'm making headway. And as for the pumping at work, she said so long as I'm not on my own during a shift, I could lock the office door & she would buy me one of those lockable money box type things that I could keep & store my milk in the freezer so that the service users couldn't get to it or anything, so that's pretty helpful too.

anyways..... I'll be quiet now. (until the next thing pisses me off!) Thanks for the advice & support everyone- it really helps, ya know?

 

[colsy]

How's Monty doing otherwise?

Thanks for all the opinions girls - keep em coming! Monty doing fine and dandy - BLW is great fun, and so far there's nothing he won't eat, LOL. Ah, did I mention that nights are crap in terms of waking up for milk? Oh well, can't have it all ways - at least he's happy and smiley most of the day, each and every day. What a change - I just can't remember what it was like in the early days when OH and I struggled big time with all-day grizzling etc.

He has rolled from front to back, but not from back to front - ahead of the game in some respects but lagging behind in others. That's my boy! Sits up for a few seconds - including in the bath, which is a godsend - so much easier And he takes soooo much weight on his feet - reckon he might walk before crawling (as I did), as he loves standing up (whilst being held, obviously) but hardly ever likes being on his tum.

Sorry I still haven't responded to all the other Bumpkin news. We've been out on a Sure Start walk this afternoon (Maffie, you should join us - Buxton Fairfield Sure Start alternate Tuesday afternoons) - gorgeous weather so Monty and I extended our hike to make the most of the sunshine.

Right, jackets for tea now, with homemade veg chilli. Then to watch the rest of Friday's Ashes to Ashes (anybody else think this is THE best series in about twenty years?).

 

[Chaos]

Phew, Mama is POOPED out! We spent 3 hours there. Autumn passed out for the last 30 minutes lol. I gotta go clear out a room cause we're taking a stray cat in and I need the space for it, but I thought I'd show you what Autumn got to touch today! She LOVED it!!

Corn Snake!
https://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/ChaoticOtter/Forum%20uploads/051810029.jpg

Chinchilla!
https://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/ChaoticOtter/Forum%20uploads/051810046.jpg

Skunk!
https://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/ChaoticOtter/Forum%20uploads/051810065.jpg

Baby Tiger!!
https://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/ChaoticOtter/Forum%20uploads/051810095.jpg

Horse!
https://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i260/ChaoticOtter/Forum%20uploads/051810106.jpg

Ok I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. Not even going to get dressed! So I'll have time to catch up. Happy Tuesday, all! =)

 

[Maffie]

Colsy I think work wise its a fine line between doing the best for your family and making yourself worse off for it. I think a temporary job is fine if the positives outweigh the negatives. From the outside I can see the positives of extra money, it's not long in the grand scheme of things, it may perk your husband up if he's been feeling run down. A change is as good as a rest.
On the negative side it will put more strain on you and may make husbands susceptibility to bugs worse.

I dont think i'd be happy but I think i'd say there are more positives than negatives.


Are the walks good Colsy, I like the sound of them but worry im too unfit Maybe I should try one when i've been to my mums.

Fleur glad to hear your boss was more understanding.

Chaos looks like Autumn had a great time, she looks so animated in the pictures, gorgeous!

Kte how are you today?


Well i'm tired, lots of walking and shopping and general catch up with some of the girls off here today. Just waiting for dinner to cook and watching blood, sweat and luxuries (quite interesting to watch).

 

[florabean1981]

Chaos, those pics are fabulous! And wow, Autumn looks so grown up these days- I bet she loved every second of it; from what you've said about her, she seems like a very interactive little girl who's into everything!

Colsy, glad to hear Monty is doin g well with the blw & also how much better your days are. I hope he'll start being better for you at night now. Harry has been better the past 3 nights, only waking up twice, but quite evenly spaced, so it hasn't felt too bad getting up to feed him.

Does nayone else's LO end up the wrong way round in their cots? I put Harry down the right way on his back, and when I go in in the mornings to feed him when he wakes, he's always upside down with his head in the toys & a big grin on his face!!! Silly boy. I've had to re-evealuate the toy situation coz he managed to eat a chunk of fur from on of them & also I'd forgotten to take a cardboard tag off one of them, and he ate half of that too Found them in his nappy thisevening, lol! Might have to invest in one of those toy hammocks I think.

anyway, better go to bed. got to do some more painting tomorrow.

Night all!

 

[Kaites]

Good evening

Hope everyone had a good day! I managed to half-tidy the guest room (in other words, all the stuff I was organizing is still strewn around in little piles, making a bigger mess than before ) and I got out for a walk with munchkin. It's been warm here (about 25C) for the past couple days and it's making Emma cranky and hard to put down for naps- it's not even super hot yet, so I'm kinda dreading summer nights (I really don't want to have to use the air conditioning...). Anyway, rest of the week is supposed to be warm, so I may have to try to set up our little pool in the backyard Emma sorta liked swim lessons and loves playing with toys in the bath tub now so it could be fun.

Flora- that's great that you talked to your boss about the schedule situation. Even if the shifts still suck, at least your boss knows your concerns and might be able to take them into consideration if possible. That's funny about Harry and the toys I have Emma's above her head, barely out of reach but she usually wiggles up a bit and must play with them in the morning because I usually find one or two at the bottom of the crib. I've found paper in Emma's diapers too She ripped off a piece of a flyer and swallowed it before I could fish it out of her mouth and then I found it in her diaper, still readable, the next day, lol

Colsy- Hope Monty's night feeds calm down for you We went through a patch where Emma was waking like crazy for milk a few weeks ago too- felt like having a newborn again

Chaos- Awesome piccies of Autumn and the animals. I love the "I don't know about this one" look on her face in the snake pic Looks like she had a ball with the mammals though. We're going to a tiny zoo around here for Father's Day- hubby can't wait to show Emma the big cats, lol

Well, I better stop procrastinating and get off BnB- was supposed to be working on home daycare stuff

 

[Maffie]

Morning all, just got up as my tossing and turning in bed is disturbing Noah. He's just had a feed and gone back to sleep. I am lucky that this feed he feeds and zonks straight back out.

All this talk of zoos is making me want to go to one. We are off to the seaside wih my mum and brother next week so im looking forward to that.

In regards to BLW or TW as anyone's babies dropped any milk feeds now they are eating solids? Noah still feeds lots and i'm wondering if he should of dropped any feeds or if he's just got a massive appetite? He's still floating just below the 9th percentile (currently just over 15lbs). I might be over worryig about it all TBH.

 

[colsy]

Are the walks good Colsy, I like the sound of them but worry im too unfit Maybe I should try one when i've been to my mums.

Yep, the walks are good fun. They are easy, as far as I am concerned - but then I was pretty fit before I got pg, and I am an outdoorsy lass, so I guess it depends on what you consider a hard or easy walk. Well, that was a helpful answer if ever there was one! So, let's be more specific - generally the walks are flat, or at least with minimal hills (the hills that there are shouldn't bother you as you are used to them living in New Mills). They are fine for all sorts of buggy, not just all-terrain. (We have a Bugaboo, but I always use it in the 'city' format rather than the off-road format, and it's absolutely fine.) Yesterday's walk was about four miles in total, but we stopped half way for drinks, cakes, feeding, changing, etc. We left the carpark at 1pm and were back again about 3.30pm. If you want details of the person who runs the walks, PM me and I'll give you her email address.

I shan't bore you all with details of last night - let's just say we were up between something like 3am to 6am. Hmmmm ...

 

[Kte]

Morning all, (most likely afternoon when this gets posted!!)

Wow! Lots to catch up on!

Flora - So glad you were able to speak to your boss again and work out something better. Cardboard! That's taking BLW to a whole new level! My cousin used to eat the stuff all the time when we were little, maybe aged 4 or 5; its an early memory of mine! Chloe just ends up with her head sqwidged in a corner as far as she can possibly get, produces the best bed head!

Chaos - Extremely cute pics!! I don't like snakes but a pink one! lol! She looks to behaving such a great time - not surprised your pooped! How's the stray?

Colsy - I love Ashes to Ashes! Soooo looking forward to Friday but not as its all over!

Maffie - I'm fine thanks today How are you? Noticed you were posting early! I did the same to Chloe last night, last night I wasn't as fine and my tossing and turning disturbed poor Chloe (bad mummy) so much so I was late up, normally set off to nursery/work at 7.15 but I woke at 7 - Chloe was still zonked. She is super cute to wake up the the little sleepy bum Glad the meet went well too She hasn't really dropped a feed, just the amount at night if that makes sense.

Kaites: Did you manage any homedaycare stuff?

Sorry is I missed anyone with this catch up - its taken me all morning to get this far!!

 

[colsy]

I just realised that I didn't make it at all clear in my query re OH working that he will be going away to do the project. So it's eight days and nights on my own with Monty, with OH working two hours away, meaning he won't be commuting, LOL.

Just thought I'd mention it, in case that changes anybody's opinion.

 

[Maffie]

Kte I just cant nod back off at Noah's early morning feed. It did mean I blitzed downstairs but im tired now.

Colsy will send you a pm in a mo for details. It sounds good. I have quite a rugged buggy. I walk lots but struggling to shift the weight I gained when I had knee surgery.

It sounds like Monty is having one of those phases. I call them that when Noah has them so I can imagine they wont last long and will be just that a short phase away from the norm.


Well we have discovered daddy cant put Noah to bed as he doesnt do it very often and when he tried the other night there was full on upset and screaming. He is seeing him so little at the moment (like 30 minutes in a day if we are lucky) I wonder if its having an adverse affect on him.

 

[Chaos]

Mornin!

Well cat (He is now named Charlie!) is all vaccinated and upstairs in his room. He's quarantined for a week, so next week I'll start the introductions to the boys. Vet says hes about 3 years old.

Flora ~ You couldn't have put it better about her being in to everything. Yesterday she discovered, whilst rocking on her knees and hands, if she puts her hand forward she can actually crawl .. yea I spent the rest of the afternoon chasing her off my computer cable that has now captured her mobile attention!!
Autumn don't end upside down, but she does navigate and jam her self up in the top left hand corner of the cot in the night!

Kaites ~ Oh gawd, my AC has been turned on for weeks lol. NC humidity is just too much for me.
Re Autumn and the animals .. well the Chinchilla she grabbed his head like she grabs the cats!! I almost died lol. The cats don't care, they are used to it, but that sucker would bite her! On then 5 minutes later she gabbed the big cart horse by the nostril!

Maffie ~ Oh take pics at the Seaside .. I really miss being so close to the sea.

Re BLW .. Nope, she still has her 5 bottles a day + solid foods. She's actually started chewing now!

Kte ~ I was freaking exhausted lol. And I still had a mums night out I said I'd attend to go to. I finally got home at 11 and just fell in to bed.

Colsy ~ yea I assumed he'd be away 8 days in a row day and night. I still think you'll be fine. I have a friend here whos husband travels to Europe for work, he's been there 3 weeks so far and her daughter is teething with molars. She gets thru the evenings with the aid of a good bottle of wine

Ok I need to get a shopping list together and install some stair gates.

Happy Hump Day!!

 

[colsy]

I have a friend here whos husband travels to Europe for work, he's been there 3 weeks so far and her daughter is teething with molars. She gets thru the evenings with the aid of a good bottle of wine

I remember wine! That's that nice red stuff that used to slip down a treat before TTC. Only drink tiny amounts these days, as I'm BF. I'm also of the opinion that even if I weren't BF, then I think I'd prob be very wary of drinking too much when I was in sole control of baby, just in case I suddenly needed to drive the car or for some other reason be 'available'.

I hope your friend's daughter's molars come through soon. I've heard they can be nasty.

Oh, and good luck shopping for a stair gate. Does that mean, Chaos, that you think some first steps are imminent? (BTW, over here, car boot sales and eBay are great for stair gates.)

 

[Chaos]

I have a friend here whos husband travels to Europe for work, he's been there 3 weeks so far and her daughter is teething with molars. She gets thru the evenings with the aid of a good bottle of wine

I remember wine! That's that nice red stuff that used to slip down a treat before TTC. Only drink tiny amounts these days, as I'm BF. I'm also of the opinion that even if I weren't BF, then I think I'd prob be very wary of drinking too much when I was in sole control of baby, just in case I suddenly needed to drive the car or for some other reason be 'available'.

I hope your friend's daughter's molars come through soon. I've heard they can be nasty.

Oh, and good luck shopping for a stair gate. Does that mean, Chaos, that you think some first steps are imminent? (BTW, over here, car boot sales and eBay are great for stair gates.)

We got a couple of stairgates given to us, I just stained them to match our wood.

Re steps .. she stands by her self and she'll walk on tippy toes if you're holding her hands. I really would prefer her to crawl for a few months before walking, cause mama aint ready to be chasing her around!! lol

Re my friend, ya she's having hell with the molars right now. I remember when I had 4 wisdom teeth come thru at once .. those suckers HURT!!

 

[florabean1981]

Maffie, Harry's dropped 2 feeds a day, so is currently on 8-10 BFs instead of 10-12, which is nice I must admit. He still only has 2 meals a day though, because he just isn't into the whole lunch thing & I dont see the point in making mealtimes a battlefield & he's gaining weight the best he's ever done, so I';m sure he's being sustained well enough & will let me know when he needs more.

Chaos, yay for the crawling! Harry's figured out he can use him toes to scoot forwards & push on his hands to shuffle backwards & turn round n round like a pivot on his tummy, but that's it so far. he has however developed a weird thing on his back where he pushes his feet down & back at the same time as throwing his arms up above his head & he can scale the room in a matter of seconds, which is funny to watch- it kinda looks like he's doing a baxkwards butterfly stroke, iykwim? He seems happy getting about like that at the moment. He's also started rocking while sitting up, so I think butt shuffling is gonna be next on the cards for him.

Colsy, other than on my wedding day, I've been wine free since pre-pregnancy. I kinda miss it... will miss it more once BBQ season kicks in, lol!

 

[Maffie]

Evening all

Well dinner has been refused, lots of tears and screaming. Think the teething is properly kicking in, he's snoozing next to me after yet another boobie feed. OH just fell asleep upstairs too so looks like just me for dinner thats in the oven

 

[Kaites]

Hope everyone is having a good day! Emma decided to wake every 2 hrs last night. She stood up from sitting on DH's lap after dinner and launched herself forward, into the pillows at the end of the couch, startling herself. This led to a full-on cry fest, complete with hyperventilating, all while Mummy was upstairs enjoying a nice hot shower (apparently Daddy wasn't who she wanted at that time). I think it set her off for a night of not being able to self-settle. I'm hoping tonight is a better night

Maffie- to Noah- hope his teeth don't bother him too much tonight! Emma seemed to briefly drop some milk feeds, then started waking like crazy during the night to feed for a while, and is now back to taking her "regular" number of feeds during the day It doesn't feel like there is a whole lot of "weaning" going on here, but I'm just trying to go with the flow. Of course her doctor may have other ideas, but I'll worry about that in July, when we have our next appt. We have the same problem if DH tries to put Emma down to bed or even cuddle her before bedtime. She'll allow him to read her a story on his lap, but after that, it's gotta be back to Mummy's arms or she'll flip. DH is working long hours too.

Colsy- I hope Monty lets you sleep a bit more tonight Especially between 3-6am I treat myself to a glass of red wine whenever I cook Italian food. I definitely miss those evenings of leisurely sitting, chatting and demolishing a bottle with DH.

Kte- Can't say I got a whole lot accomplished- Emma woke a few minutes after I got down to business Hope you have a better night tonight

Chaos- Autumn grabbing the animals. Emma does the same with grabbing our cat by the ears. Way to crawl Autumn! We're still at the wiggly-mobile stage so she's not going too far and certainly not quickly, lol I hope the new cat gets along well with the others once he's introduced!

Aimee- hope the moving went well over the weekend!

Well, I better go get some housework done- blah!

 

[aimee-lou]

Hi everyone,

just a quickie from me - got a few bits to do before I head off to bed. Earl is waking up A LOT at night and early in a morning so I'm shattered lol. But it's all worth it as we've shown our first inkling of a crawl today - we are rather alluringly 'humping' the floor for the want of a better expression lol.

I'm also getting a bit sick of the phone ringing. With the move, there's so much going on bill, bills that need paying, changes of addresses, blood tests, arghhhhhhh I think I'm going to go potty by the time we've moved. The weekend went well if not a little bit of a rude awakening of what it will be like to live with the in-laws. My MIL is lovely but she fusses like no-one's business. Still, better that than imposing so I suppose I shouldn't grumble. I just hate it when people fuss over me......Im 26 and a mum of 1, I'm sure I'm capable of getting myself a bowl of cereal once Earl is down for his first nap of the day (bearing in mind that nap is normally around 8am!)

Before I head off to make some tea and things, does anyone have an opinion on the Baby Whisperer? I'm watching her, and have done a couple of times now, and she seems to spout a lot of rubbish as well as common sense that anyone could say.

I'm talking about the other night when she said to take a dog out of it's home then bring it back when the baby is in there - so basically invading a dog's territory with young that isn't it's own. . Tonight's episode she has successfully managed to confuse the living daylights out of a 2 year old buy mucking about with timeouts and stickers, and now she's attempting to do PUPD with a clingy 15month old which you know will end up with an awful lot of unnecessary crying!! I'm sorry if anyone likes her stuff, and she does come up with some good points, but I just think she fails to hit the mark in my opinion.....just cos Calista flaming Flockhart likes her!

 

[Maffie]

I used to like watching suppernanny but sorry to swear she pissed me off last week on an American version. She had a go at a women for breastfeeding and said her child should be on bottles. Now everyone should feed as they like and I dont like how she muscled in there and said her little girl had been feeding too long. I felt like the women was beaten into doing it rather than really wanting it iykwim. Granted the lady was doing extended feeding but all the same I felt she was over bearing.

 

[Kte]

Aimee: TBH never watched / seen anything of her Sounds like i'm not missing out! Well done Earl on his . . er . . crawling Hope things settle with the move soon

Maffie: Hope Noah sleeps better and I hope you do too I used to like her in the beginning but now I think she has lost her touch too. Kind of makes a point for the sake of it.

Chaos: Chloe grabs ears too, tbh I was a bit shocked at them letting the Chinchilla near her, especially when the keeper had proper gloves on! I used to hate having so clean / sell them (mind you rather handle one of them than some Syrian hamsters!) Hope the cats get on well once quarantine is over. WOW super busy! Hope you got a well deserved rest or did little miss I want to crawl now stop that?!?

Kaites: Thanks. Hope Emma is okay after launching herself

Colsy: I had a glass a few weeks back at the girlie night and then a coffee pretty much after, I'm like you, when I am in sole care I worry I may need to drive somewhere. Can't remember the last time, had 1 at the Christening and that was it, I remember as Nij got about 8 pints bought for him and I got 1 drink offered - nice huh! Other than that, last time was before I was pregnant. How are things with the OH working issue?

Fed CHloe some of the Ella's pouch food today for tea, I had to pop into ASDA to get baby milk (she sure goes through the stuff, 1 tub a week just doesn't last) and remembered I hadn't got the home made puree out of the freezer :doh: She seemed okay with it, better than the Heinz home stuff I got free from Welcome Break. That stuff seems okay but its a bit more jelly like and I think its better warmed up and since my microwave is dead that's a no. She only as a tiny amount for tea anyway and its going to be weird as next week they are starting her tea and nursery so I will only do it at weekends now, kind sad But I think better for her as we get in around five, by the time she eats it's half six then it's ready for bed at seven and she is usually zonked at seven thirty. Thats not even a bath night! So maybe it will be better for her digestive system not to eat so late. Still got a new bunch of purees to make up at the weekend though, can't wait!

Right, bottles to make for the night and then I am off to bed to catch up on last night!

nite all