Babies Born February 2007 #9

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Kel, we just dropped the feed - I gave blood so I needed my liquids, DS has now had 2 days no lunch feed and is grumpy in the afternoon but not too bad. End of the week he won't even miss it.

Go Brendan speed-crawler!

Hope El is feeling better soon, Cate, Chicken pox sounds bad in a baby!

DS is saying thank you again, that's 7 words! (I cound ang-oo/thank you as one word). And I figured vav means kiss, so we have a bit better communication now. So proud! And he slept almost four and a half hours last night, I just hope he keeps going longer and longer... he's been on 3-3.5 hours for the last week, slowly increasing. He is such a star.

[mummycate]

Ellie is doing so well with this possible chickenpox. She's eating better, and getting to sleep easier, by that I mean she'll sit quietly and eventually go to sleep.

We went to sizzler tonight, and I vented in boohoo room.

Ellie only took 30 mins to fall asleep tonight! I think because she ate a heck of a lot (for her anyway) and was all tuckered out.

Liebling is a little champ! So dang smart, makes Ellie look like the class clown, lol!!

Well done on weaning bubs! So much easier for mum down the track!

Its bucketing it down here, and apparently the dams are getting a good fill. No way near a good capacity but filling nonetheless.

I've been feeling pretty good lately, which is good.

[~Jayne~]

CATE _ Bugger you had a bad time @ Sizzler. What a shame. How is El going now with bedtimes? Do you think it's because she knows that things are 'different' now that Daddy is not at home with her & Mummy? What a brave little girl with the Chicken Pox, it can't be nice for them!

RYN _ I think you need Alan to come & sort Liebs out. Claudia was having me up every 2 hours again & only going back to sleep on my boob & the other night, after she'd been in bed for 2 hours (it was 10:30 at that stage) she started again, alan went into her & picked her up & said 'NO Claudia, Mummy is NOT coming, you are going to start behaving at nighttime & sleeping like a big girl' snuggled her into his arms & she was asleep in literally seconds & she slept until 8:45am the following morning without a peep! Couldn't believe it! The next night she slept right through til 6am & had a feed & went back to bed until 8am. Then last night she woke about 3am & I just went & gave her a hug, put her back to bed & didn't hear from her until 8am! It's amazing! Clever boy with Liebs & the 'thank you'. Claudia says 'TA'.

SMYLIE _ Was it another tooth that Jem had? Santa didn't come to the party with the 2 front teeth for Christmas, so he sent her one the other day! Now she has 5. Two bottom middle teeth, 2 either side of the top middle ones & only 1 top middle tooth. I think the 6th one isn't far away beacuse it's all swollen up, like a water blister. Is Jem going down easier for you now & sleeping longer? What are her daytime naps like?

SAL - WTG on Brendan & his crawling! My goodness me that didn't take long to happen! What a little super-star he is! I bet you don't know yourself now! LOL @ the quick escapes towards the door! You gotta be quick! Maybe a playpen? I got one for Claudia for outside & it's great!

KYM _ I was nodding in agreement about not having to wear the breast feeding 'friendly' tops! I'm soooooo looking forward to being able to wear a dress or something! How is Monkey now? I know what you mean about 'needing' the feed during the night, Claudia seems to need a feed at 6-7am & I'm ok with that, so long as she sleeps overnight until then.

ME/US _ Well Alan got a call back to china a week earlier than anticipated, so that's upsetting, but we are makign the most of our time together. Alan's mum had the girls for us the other day & we went to lunch together & then did some shopping. We are busy weeding gardens & getting outside maintained for his next stint away. Claudia is going great, she is saying TA all the time & she took TWO steps on NYE all on her own, but hasn't done it since. She is standing on her own a lot of the time, which is great. Jessica gets very excited!

Love Jayne

[mummycate]

Alas it wasn't chickenpox, it was I have no idea. But its going away now. Dinner bbl.

[mummycate]

Wow taking steps and standing by herself! W2G Claudia!!!! El is way off that. Everytime I get her to stand up on her own, she just sits. And that's the only way she sits on her bum! She usually sits on her knees, to quickly crawl again.

Yes Liebs is making us all feel stupid, Ellie really only says dadda and mumma and nananana.

No more teeth on their way. No bumps, no ridges.

[Early Kids]

Will hopefully come back and post later, but just wanted to say Cate, I love that pic of El, shes gorgeous!

[smylie]

tooth number 8 is so close i can basically touch it.... and jemima is over it too!

jayne - you once said that your girls had a late bedtime, do they have a late nap in the afternoon too?

[KymH]

Sally - if Brendan is anything like Monkey, he'll soon be standing and cruising - she has just done it all in a couple of weeks - crazy!

But we are also no where near the very clever Claudia and Liebling with standing and stepping on own. Though funny story the other day - Monkey was standing at her little FP table (an old one and fairly lightweight) and started to push it and step forward along our rug; it seemed to have just enough friction for her not to fall!!! It was like she was telling me look Mummy, why didn't you get out the pushalong walker earlier!!! Needless to say the FP ride and stride is out! If you are looking for a pushalong toy, I think these are great, as they become a bike too.

All this talk about teeth - Lisa where are you? - Harrison and Monkey I think were the only 2 in the gummy-bear club.... I think Kel, you might have once joked about them getting teeth 2 at a time to catch up - I have heard this is pretty much what happens..... apparently if you get them late they all come together.... not sure if this is a good thing or if we may need to warn the neighbours!!!

Kinda funny how a few of the bubs have weaned their lunch feed at the same time.... I know Monkey was mainly because I needed her too, but if I had have been really taking notice, we probably could have stopped it anyway - you are such a good mum, Kel - you always seem so tuned to Jemima - I wish I could read Monkey the same way.....

I am enjoying being back in my t-shirts in the day; now just need to get into some new sexy bras..... aahhhhh one day..... (Actually, I am such a BF tragic, that I just know that even the reward of sexy bras won't stop me being sad when we finally stop....)

Cate - am glad it wasn't the chicken pox.

Jayne - bummer about Alan leaving early - I shuddered at the mention of weeding.... I HATE gardening! The irony of this is that we have a rather large yard that is quite high maintenance - YUCK!!!

I think that's all for tonight.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Oh Kym, I'm starting with the sexy bras soon. Just 2 feeds a day and one is done in my nightdress (OK, negligee, I can just push it aside for DS in the morning), so I may as well not wear feeding bras.

Kel, hope tooth 8 appears soon!

Cate, I'm glad El is better

Jayne, thanks for the offer but I can't deprive you of Alan even more! Claudia is so clever walking - DS is very hit-and-miss with it, he seems to want to walk when he sees older toddlers so I can't wait for playgroup to start again.

As for me, well, new mattress for DS and he did over 5 hours last night; that's sleeping through (technically)! So proud. He's also going to sleep in his own bed - he's still going to sleep around 8pm, but at some point he'll go earlier. We start him in his bed at 7.30 - so my arms are shot to buggery from all the patting. Before I patted him to sleep, when he was in my arms, it was 7.45ish. He's just woken up, cried for 5 seconds, and by the time I opened his bedroom door he was asleep again. That's good (8.30 now)!

DH and I have a new mattress too, but it's coming in 2 weeks' time. That's great - my mattress is 7 years old, the springs have gone and DS did cover it in spew in the early days. New mattress is very good news!

No new words lately, but he is saying Mumma a bit more which is nice. The next thing to teach him is to accept someone else there when he wakes up - he hates going to sleep and he hates waking up, DH had him for 30 minutes today just after he woke up and he did not calm down at all. But DH refuses to sing to DS. Having said that, Friday DH had DS for almost 2 hours and could have done longer so that was really great news. (For the girls who recently-ish joined, in the early days, well the first 7-8m really, DH did nothing with DS unless I forced it so DS never really accepted him too well when the seperation anxiety started.)

OK, I need to heat up a wheat bag for my poor back and I also need to shut up, I talk too much! Love to you all.

[smylie]

need help
jemima wont go to sleep without pulling my hair........ i mean she will but it is an awful fight.
benji was up last night with her as she pulled a random midnight feed and then was pulling the fine bits of my hair that hurts heaps more than usual and i just COULDNT do it so benji took her and she cried and carried on and then eventually settled and went to sleep
but this is not cool
it is just her comfort thing she pulls at my hair with the hand that is about to go in her mouth so she thinks it is full of hair then sucks her 3rd and 4th finger til she goes to sleep the other hand sometimes continues to pull my hair which is what hurts........
i'm thinking a toy or silky fabric or something???
cant control cry her at the moment coz of teething and even not teething we just cant do it as i personally would hate to cry myself to sleep

ps - thanks heaps kym for saying i'm a good mummy, sometimes i feel like i am but sometimes i feel like i am doing the wrong thing by not forcing her into a routine etc but as i have found out she creates her own and i just go with the flow.... but all my friends are VERY pro routine which makes it hard or makes me feel silly....

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Kel, I bet you have more of a routine than you realise. I have a baby-led routine too and it rocks, keeps us both happy! OK, so I did start guiding it at first but it suits both of us and always has. TBH I'd go mad with a "at x o'clock you MUST do this" and the like, but we have a general rhythm to the day and it works for us.

I'd be substituting the hair for a cuddly, be it a toy or a blanket. And keeping my hair pulled back! DS has figured out how to take out most of my hair things so I have to keep my head back from him sometimes. She'll get the hang of the cuddly soon enough, not like my Liebling - Jem is so clever with things like comforters, DS has only just got the point of Herr Hare and he's been sleeping with him since 6w old! He cuddles him to sleep every night (I forced him to for long enough!), he has his last BF with him, he plays with him when he's upset and it calms DS really well, but he has only just realised that Herr Hare can be held at night... I tell you, he's very clever but oh so very stupid too when it comes to calming down and resting. He went to sleep without Herr Hare tonight, hope he'll be OK!

Haha, nearly missed it, but it's time for Kirsten's birthday for real! Happy birthday chikadee, have a great one.

[KymH]

Kel, I'm soooo hearing you....

I think perhaps Monkey and Jemima have some secret communication going via their angels or something.... (don't want to weird people out, but I kinda believe in angels)..... we have the same hair thing often - Monkey pulls the little wispy bits at the nape of my neck even when I pull it back, which is always! OUCH!!!

I can only agree with you and Ryn, try a "blankie" type thing, whatever you choose to make it. My sleep chick did say that blankies can be better than toys depending on the baby, as sometimes the toys are still too stimulating and they think it's play time not sleep time...

My MIL made us some after my sleep consultant suggested it - she cut up an old muslin wrap and doubled it to make it stronger, then edged the squares with satin ribbon. She also cleverly added some little extra strips and tags of ribbon (her 1st grandaughter, Monkey's 3yr old cousin, has a huuuge addiction to satiny stuff and has 3 - yes 3 satin covered pillows that she MUST sleep with every night!). They look gorgeous!

Jury is still out on how well these are working for Monkey, but I do think she is starting to take to them. She has never been one for comforters of any sort except in the human form, so it's taking time....

And I also agree with Ryn, baby led routines do rock! This sounds like what you do, you just don't think of it as a routine..... And I know what you mean, it's kind of a contradiction to call it a routine sometimes!!! I like to think of it as a "vague pattern"...

Hope tonight is better....

[KymH]

Oh, just quickly.... the reason I am "worried" on my mood thingy, is that Monkey starts family day care on Tuesday.......

We are doing a slow introduction etc... but I'm still going to miss her! And of course I am incredibly worried about how on earth the carer is going to get her to sleep!!!

This tues is just a few hrs in between her naps, Wed I'm hoping to leave her there for the afternoon nap, then the following week I'm hoping for 2 full days, but with me still available in case of disasters before I start my job on the 22nd...

[mummycate]

Kirsten!

Kel, yes, try a satin pillowcase, sewn into a smaller square, rather than one of those expensive "binkees" if it doesn't work. Ellie loves to cuddle something, and I put a pillow in beside her and she sleeps over it, I'll post up a photo. Since she's on her back, SIDS is not a problem.

My routine is more of a "its been x number of hours since last ... " So she must go for a nap after being awake for 4 hours, if she's tired earlier, she goes down earlier, but at four hours, she needs it. So if she naps 10.00-11.30am, she must go for a nap no later than 3.30pm. Bottles are 3 times a day, so that's not a problem.

[smylie]

i will try to remember to get something for her to cuddle tonight when/if she wakes for a feed that seems to be the one that frustrated me the most.... last night was not cool, mainly coz it hurt.
my hair is up and she pulls it out, even when we are not feeding or going to sleep and that is so so so annoying words can not explain! (but i am thinking we are all copping it the same)

jemima and i dont really even have a kind of routine as every day is different with regards to places we have to be and when we have to be there, so basically when she is tired she sleeps when she is hungry she eats..... this varies from sleeping 2 hours after getting up or sometimes not until 4 hours after she has woken up depends what is happening.... swimming is the only day i try and FORCE her to have some kind of nap in the morning and as it has been a couple of weeks where there has been no swimming i am not sure how she will go without the breastfeed i used to offer her before it was time to go.... again the only time i would offer boob otherwise i wait forher to ask...
i have one very big booby today, last night she randomly woke at midnight (you know that coz she pulled my hair out and i almost cried) but that is the last boob feed she has had and it is now 5.30pm!!! so tonight i know what booby she getting first as i am definately offering her a before bed booby feed.....
she doesnt talk as much as the other bubs by the sounds of it she definately has mum/mumma/mummy happening and dad and daddy and da da which i think is dog and ba ba which could be in relation to bath and she makes a barking noise and she makes losts of tthththth thth th noises.... i'm loving how she will do as she is told ie "ta mummy" means whatever she has in her hand or more importantly in her mouth she will take great pleasure in bringning to me! wherever she may be which is awesome when she puts random crap in her mouth.....

about to go for a walk with benji the dogs and jem so that will be a nice end to the weekend, this weekend feels like the end of holidays coz tomorrow i will maybe try and go to the gym and tuesday is first mothers group for the year and wednesday first swimming lessons....... at least i have my own car again to get around in i was sick of having random white loan cars to loose in the shopping centre carparks while my baby was getting fixed!

i guess the next step after finding a cuddly/ blanky/toy thing will be to get her to go sleep with it and no me.....

bugger it just starting raining.... maybe no walk...... or we get into rain gear... highly doubt that....

[~Jayne~]

KEL _ Just very quickly as it's 11pm & I should have been in bed HOURS ago. CLaudia has a blankie type thing, it's a pooh bear that is attached to a square of like felt/velvety type of material. YOu can actually push the square into pooh bear's back to make it an actual teddy bear, but Claudia likes it 'unfolded'. OVer here they are @ Kmart & BIG W. There is a tiny tag on it that Claudia flicks at while she is feeding. I got her onto the pooh bear by always tucking it under her arm with EVERY feed & putting it in her hands when she went to sleep. Slowly over time she has got attached to it. I also try & give her pooh bear when she cries. Jessica has a 'piggy' which is Piglet from the Pooh Bear but a much larger stuffed toy & she has been seriously addicted to him since she was 16 weeks old. He goes EVERYWHERE with her, including next door to play with the little girl. She has him tucked under her arm all the time. It's gorgeous. But anyway, the reason I got Claudia stuck on the pooh bear was because she used to pinch my boobs when I was feeding her & it hurt like hell! Also, I wanted her to have a comfort toy like her sister because Claudia doesn't have a dummy & I wanted somethign to be 'looking after' her while she slept. Maybe you should try & see if you can get one of those? I think it was about $12? Somewhere around there? Also, best & Less sell these like animal heads on a blanket that has satin edging. Jessica got one given as a gift when she was born & I always see them around Best & less even now, 3 years on.

I will do personals tomorrow. BUt quickly a gush for me...... Claudia is SUPER clever. Yesterday we were having a big clean up outside & pressure spraying all the paving & Jessica's scooter was up against the wall, & next thing I turn around & Claudy is standing on the scooter, exactly how you would & just standing on it. Not moving, not makign a sound. So I took her for a whirl around on it & she loves it! She even dangles one foot off! BUt now I have a sore back beacuse I am always whizzing her around on it & when I stop she screams & shakes the handle bars! TEMPER! LOL. Also, she says 'Mum-Mum, Dad-Dad, Bubba, Nanna & Ta'. We are teaching her to say Jess but her mouth moves but no sound atm. She also puts her hands on her face to do peek-a-boo & does the big 'aaaaahhhhh' but hasn't got the 'boo' out yet. Very cute! She is standing a lot. Took a couple of steps last night to reach for our friends little boys bike when they were over & she gets the stools from the breakfast bar & pushes them around like a walker & she pushes a little hippo walker around that is meant to gobble up the peekaboo blocks, but doesn't. She is sleeping like a 'super star' as well! So RYN, if you want, I will hire Alan out to you? Being in China next week is half-way to your place anyway! LOL, What's another 12 hours of flying time? LOL.

Love to you all & goodnight!

Love Jayne

[smylie]

hey hey
i didnt have to find a cuddly thing as she slept slept slept!!!!!!! she is just waking now after we put her to bed about 12hours ago!!!! legend child!!!!!! thank goodness as i am so tired for no reason
she didnt pull my hair that bad when we were putting her to bed so i didnt get toy was thinking about it though

but as i said she is just waking so i better go.............. so happy she slept slept slept

from kel

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Jayne, I don't think I need Alan.

Saturday morning he slept 1.30-6.30.
Sunday morning he slept 12.30-6.40
Last night he slept 9.30-4.20... nearly seven hours! If he keeps this up then he'll be sleeping through by the end of the week! He was then up at 5, 5.30, 6, 6.15 and 6.30 this morning, but seven hours! I am so chuffed with him. Praise God that he's sleeping at last! Long may it continue. And another huzzah, he goes to sleep in his bed now! Wednesday and Thursday night it took an hour of patting and comforting, Friday and Saturday a half-hour, last night five minutes! He was asleep before I finished his lullaby, even though he started crying when I put him into bed (just crying, not distressed, and he went to grizzling within 10 seconds). He's so wonderful.

We got his new mattress Friday, btw.

I also gave him a haircut this morning, I'm tired of hearing what I pretty girl I have. Blue jeans, blue top reading "little man", blue jacket, blue shoes with a train on them... he ain't a girl! So now his hair isn't over his ears (he twisted as I cut it so one side is 1cm higher than the other... lucky he has lots of hair to hide the mistake!) and the back had a quick helmet-head trim too. I'm glad I did it myself even if it isn't great: ?9 ($22) for four snips of the scissors? OK it isn't perfect but it would have to be if I paid for it and I can't see DS sitting still enough for perfection.

What a clever Claudia for playing with a scooter!

What a clever Jem for sleeping!

OK, I need to write our routine down for MiL so when she looks after DS she knows what to do!