march lambs 2010 come on ladies

[MiissMuffet]

Ella got her 1st tooth for xmas. merry xmas everyone xoxo

 

[Seity]

Aww, so cute. Yay Ella! I love the pic with Santa!

Merry Christmas all. I got one of my gifts early... a Flip video camera, so I can take lots of video of Gabriel's first Christmas

Who else is left with a toothless LO besides me now?

 

[CocoaOne]

Yay Ella! Every year you can sing to her 'all I want for Xmas is my two front teeth'!

Seity- M is still toothless.

Merry Christmas everyone! We've just got up and waiting for OH to get up (well, we'll wake him up in a mo) so we can open pressies and then head to my mum's.
M gave me a great Xmas present - slept 7:30-7:30 with only one wale up for milk at 5am!!!!

 

[MiissMuffet]

cocoa- everyones been singing that to her all day Her 2nd one is about to cut through shes handling it sooo well

i hope everyone had a good day x

 

[Seity]

Cocoa - That's brilliant!
Gabriel also gave me the best Christmas present by sleeping 10-6:30 without a single wake up!

 

[CocoaOne]

Woo! Well done Gabriel! He's starting to get the hang of this sleeping malarky now!

M got sooo many presents that I've got no idea where they are all going to go! I'm going to gather them all up tomorrow and take a pic to show her when she moans that she's got nothing to play with

Right, I'm off to bed. It's been a very tiring day, and doing all again tomorrow, but I doubt M will sleep as well tonight!

 

[jj-rabbit]

Merry Christmas everyone, hope everyone has had a fab day xxx

 

[lynnikins]

Merry Christmas All, hope you had a wonderful weekend my boys got totally spoilt considering our budget and i got the things i wanted and DH loved his presents so all around good time

 

[vegasbaby]

MM: Hooray for Ella's first tooth. Also, great photo with Santa.

Cocoa/Seity: Glad to hear you got the gift of sleep.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was a lot of fun (even if DH and I were a bit hungover from our Christmas Eve celebration). Charlotte got so many wonderful things from Santa, friends and family, yet she won't play with any of them for more than a minute and then she goes back to pulling DVDs out of the drawer of the entertainment system or chewing on a dog toy my mom bought the pups. Grr. At this stage what is your LO's favorite toy? I think I need ideas for her birthday. Everything else here is great, just busy with all the paperwork and preparation for the new house.

 

[CocoaOne]

M hasn't really got a favourite toy. Like Charlotte, she plays with one for a few minutes and the crawls off to go and climb on the TV stand and hit the TV

Sleep has been bad again - awake every hour on the hour last night and took 80 minutes for us to rock, cuddle, feed, sing and hair stroke to sleep tonight.
Does anyone else's LO need to stroke your hair to get to sleep sometimes? Quite often I'm bent double over the cot with my head next to M so she can play with my hair to get to sleep. I wish I had long hair!! The things we do to get them to sleep...

Sometimes I can just put M down awake and she'll go to sleep on her own. Most of the time though I have to rock/feed/cuddle etc. *mutters something about rods and backs* ahem.

 

[greenlady]

Hi All

Just a quick pit stop. We're here safe and sound and had a busy christmas with loads of family for 3 days running. The flight was fine, Flora was much better that day and ate and drank OK, she slept really well on the flight and actually compared to the other babies was a real angel so we were very proud of her. She's been a bit sleepy here and the night routine is a bit odd - she's sleeping at night but also feeding frequently during the night. She has been meeting about a million people per day and it has been tough but we think she has handled it amazingly well.

I've got a bugger of a sore throat and cold which is a shame but I think its easing up now. I also just didn't sleep well for about 3 days so its been tough. I think we're more in rhythm now, today is a chill out day and we might go out to dinner later as my folks can babysit.

Hope everyone had lovely time over the festive! x

 

[hivechild]

Hi all!

I hope everyone had a wonderful first Christmas with their LO's. Apart from him being awake at 5:30am and refusing to go back to sleep, and napping sparsely throughout the day, we had a great time when all was said and done. I was exhausted by the end of it but the good news is, so was he and he slept a good 12 hours and I actually managed to sleep 8.5 hours that night for the first time in well over a year! It was beyond fantastic!

Cocoa - Ronan strokes my hair when he's nursing. I can tell when he's zoning out for sleep because he's really gentle, but if he's fussing or overtired, he yanks it. Thankfully he has his Cuski in his cot as his comforter when settling to sleep though. My hair's not nearly long enough for him to reach when he's in his cot!

GL - I'm glad to hear that the flight went well and Flora is feeling much better. It's great that she's coping so well with all the changes and excitement of the trip.

VB - Ronan is the same with being far more interested in everything that isn't his!

This is a picture of him on Christmas morning climbing into Bailey's box of presents :
https://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs772.ash1/166221_480787894212_536234212_5976348_2297199_n.jpg

Also, here's a video of him saying 'Up!' as he's climbing the stairs. I only got him going up the last couple. Needless to say I was too busy chasing him up them and making sure he didn't slip before then. Stair climbing is our new fun game to tire him out before naps and bed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbZU66R9AhQ

 

[blondeNklutzi]

VB - so exciting about the house!!! Congratulations!!

Another thing I noticed last night, his upper lip band starts at the bottom of his gums - ours are further up. Did some reading and apparently a lot babies grow out of it as the jaw grows but if not then it will have to be cut since it can cause bad positioning of the teeth. Anyone ever heard of it?

My lower lip band thingie was like this and I had to have it cut because it pulls the gums in front of my bottom two teeth down so far that the root is almost exposed. No dentist ever noticed it until I was 18 years old. I think most babies do grow out of it, but rest assured that if he doesn't, its a very very simple process and doesn't cause much pain at all! I am actually going to have to have it re-done because mine grew back (very rare I'm told).

I have been away forever. Between homework and housework and practicum and working with clients, I've been swamped. So here are some Mika updates, and I will try to read back as far as I can, I'm sure I missed a lot!

Mika is crawling like a champ now, pulling up, and attempting to cruise. He just got his second tooth yesterday, and looks like a silly little boy with just two bottom teeth! He's still not saying anything other than da-da, doh-doh, and doo-doo. He has given a couple kisses, and yesterday he was "tackling" me and crawling away and giggling when I caught him. I'm not sure how big he is, but at his 9 month check-up he weighed 22 pounds. His 18 month clothes are fitting almost perfectly now.

Is anyone else's baby not really exhibiting a lot of social skills? He doesn't try to talk really, or wave, and very rarely gives hugs or kisses. He really is fairly content to play by himself, but he will throw tantrums if he is taken from something he can't have.

 

[CocoaOne]

HC - crikey - he's quick! We're having trouble finding a stair gate to fit, so I'm hoping to get away without having one. Our house is so small that she should only be able to make it up the first 2 steps before I catch her (we'll see how it works in reality... )

BNK - most of the babies at the group I go to are around 10-11 months and they are the same as you describe - don't really seen social with the other babies. I don't think they really understand! Lol. M used to babble and shout at the other babies, but she's become more subdued too. I wouldn't worry!

GL - glad the flight was better than you expected! I hope you're all having a fab time and you're feeling better.


Sleep is still bad here. Some kind of regression maybe? I wanted to take M swimming today (haven't been in ages) but she's got a snotty nose and a slight temperature so having to give it a miss.

 

[hivechild]

Cocoa, I thought I could get away without a stair gate too and we did well for awhile as he showed no real interest, then one day I turned my back on him to grab up my cup of tea (already made up) out of the kitchen and when i turned back he was 1/3 of the way up the stairs and making a beeline for the top. I think my heart actually stopped! Anyway, stairs are now blocked off!

BnK, good to hear that things are going well for you. Ronan doesn't really get the social thing but i think a lot of that is just the age. He is watching and learning though. He will wave bye bye but only on his terms and when he feels like it. He wasn't talkative for a long time but now he is jabbering away all the time. They get there when they're good and ready, and then there are times they seem to completely forget something while working on learning new things.

As for the tantrums, oy! I think a lot of it is just frustration with not being able to physically control something and to not be able to effectively communicate with you. I've found that having something else to give him as I'm taking something away or removing him from something really helps minimize the tantrum.

 

[lynnikins]

Just stoping in for a read as on dhs phone will post a bit later with the news etc...

 

[CocoaOne]

Right. I need help and advice ladies!

Today I applied for a job (I should find out by the 9th Jan whether or bot I'm definitely being made redundant). If I get this new job, I'd probably be starting sometime in Feb or March, maybe beginning of April if I can swing it. April 18th was the date I was due to go back to my old job anyway.

But applying for it has really hit home that I don't know how M is going to cope. She still won't drink anything out of a bottle, and will only entertain a few sips from a cup because she thinks it's a game. Is she likely to change within the next 8-10 weeks?! It doesn't seem likely. My plan was to BF before and after work anyway, but surely she can't go all day without any drink at all? It's not even as if she eats lots of solids to fill her up.
I'm still hoping that her sleep improves before then too. The new job I've applied for is as an analyst, so I'll need to concentrate on a lot of numbers and data which will be impossible on my current levels of sleep.

So, I'm after suggestions on how to encourage her to drink from a cup or bottle. Do you think she'll take it if I leave her with someone and she gets hungry enough?

I was hoping to go back part time too, but most of the jobs that are coming up are full time

ETA : I think the interviews forthis new job are likely to be when OH is on holiday. I know MIL will offer to have M, but I'm debating whether or not to ask my friend to watch her - because my friend BFs her 5 month old and if it comes down to it, she can BF M. No idea if she would, how do you even ask someone if they'd be up for feeding another child?!

 

[hivechild]

Firstly, I hope you get the job!

As for the bottle/cup thing, Ronan absolutely refused to use either to drink milk from for a long time. Once since then I've bothered to give him milk in his doidy and he slurped it all down. I gave it to him toward the end of a meal when he wasn't hungry which was good.

In another 8-10 weeks, you may be surprised by just how much she's changed and how long she's willing to go without a feed!

Do you express? If I think Ronan's going to not get enough opportunity to nurse during the day, I will make him up some porridge (quarter of a cup of oats) with 4 oz of BM so that he's getting that bit extra. I know that he's always got a big appetite early in the day around breakfast time and he does love his porridge, especially when I mix in cut up fruit with it, so it's a guaranteed extra 4oz I get into him without having to be concerned about him drinking it down.

Does she like yoghurt? You could try giving her some ebm in a doidy cup mixed in with yoghurt so it's quite thick and more yoghurt than ebm but still drinkable. If she takes to that, start gradually reducing the amount of yoghurt until it's all ebm. You can also make ebm smoothies with blended up frozen fruit if you think she may like that as well.

 

[CocoaOne]

I don't express routinely because it seems pointless when she won't drink it. She wouldn't eat porridge the last time I tried it with her, but I'll try again I think. She doesn't really have a massive appetite at breakfast at the moment because she feeds all blimmin' night

She doesn't drink yogurt at all, will only take it on a preloaded spoon (the only part of eating that inthink she actually enjoys!) but I'll definitely try that. Part of the reason I think she doesn't like drinking from the cup is because she gets over excited and lunges for it, then gets shocked when she's left with a huge mouthful of water!

Thank you for the suggestions

 

[hivechild]

Will she drink through a straw cup? You could try a smoothie in one of those. The only reason i suggested the yoghurt thinned out with milk was because it was a familiar flavor.

I hope your can find something that works!