I kinda feel that way, too—there’s been some good stuff here!
Bunch of youngsters with no kids over there anyway...
(lucky bastards)
No, I don’t mean that—it’s just sometimes when you’ve been up till whatever the hell the time is and you’ve still got ironing and clothes sorting out to do and you’ve just been on your hands and knees on the kitchen floor scraping godknows what off it and and then you go into the playroom and there’s just stuff EVERYWHERE and you can’t find the remote and all you want to do is crash and then one of them wakes uo and goes ‘dad, i want to go to the toilet’ and that wakes the other one who wants a drink...and...zzzzzz
where’d everybody go...
I get Ava to sleep that easily maybe one night in six or seven.
Ha—it’s all about routine and things have been a lot better in the last month. “Dummies and puppies?” Ava asks as I’m towelling her down post-bath; her cot contains a few pacifiers (yes, we’ll phase ’em out eventually) and a couple of plush dogs, y’see. And off she goes.
Wearing her mum’s specs:
Out in the snow:
Tallulah gets ready for snow outing:
AW
AWWW AWWW AWWWWW AWWWWWWWWWWWWW
you just broke me
Two days to go, so looks like I may have a Sandbox baby...
Could be a Valentine’s Day baby like Ava! Fingers crossed for you.
Sunny & I toured the maternity ward today. Coffeemaker & microwave in the delivery room, ooo wee!
Thinking of you Meg!
Alice and I walked a very long way in the rain this morning for her first round of immunisations, only to find that the appointment card we’d been sent was totally wrong and we were supposed to book with our own GP (two minutes walk) after all. Argh. Still, defers the agony...
Question: how do you implement a ‘routine’ while still feeding on demand (and when feeds are demanded at fairly random intervals)? Alice slept from 6.30pm until midnight last night, neatly missing any bedtime routine window we might have had. And I hate to wake her up when I don’t know when we’re next going to get any peace...
the feeds float above the routine, don’t worry about it. at this age I would just have a few pre-bed things...a cuddle, a song. One thing I recently learned is that you have a great bed opportunity 30 min after a feed, that’s when the milk hits the gut and makes them sleepy.
Ah, here we go—an aerial view:
whoops:
Oh, that mass of curls. What a gorgeous little fella.
Your site reminds me that I need to take pix of Ava in the bath (she’s often at her hilarious best when splashing about), in monochrome (that great Jan 13 one!) and I need to take more videos.
Ava still pronounces her “L” as “W” despite Daddy’s best efforts at instilling palatalisation (“watch my tongue—LuLu.” “Yuyu!”). It’s cute, we’ll just leave it. Her command of numbers is still haphazard—one through twenty but rarely in order and she confuses 8 and 2 for some reason. She’s a bloody sponge though—it’s incredible to watch her absorb all this stuff and chuck it back at you.
Sending easy labour vibes your way Meg! Hope the little one doesn’t keep you waiting too long!
Now that morning sickness has finally passed, even though we’ve had a scan and a teeny bump is emerging, I’m finding it really hard to remember that I’m pregnant, it’s almost as if I’m in denial, which is very very odd. In 3–4 months time if I look back at this I’m sure I’ll have a bitter chuckle to myself.
Still, 136 days until I go on maternity leave!
More fluff please! Douglas, that’s such a gorgeous head of curls!
Aw, curly!
I felt the same Vicky—mainly because I always imagined I was going to look enormously visibly pregnant from about 4 months onwards, which was far from the case. Plus I didn’t have any morning sickness to speak of and generally felt ‘normal’ most of the time, so it was very easy to forget, sometimes.
Question: how do you implement a ‘routine’ while still feeding on demand (and when feeds are demanded at fairly random intervals)? Alice slept from 6.30pm until midnight last night, neatly missing any bedtime routine window we might have had. And I hate to wake her up when I don’t know when we’re next going to get any peace...
Just go with the flow. She’s still young and thus not open to much *coaxing* (in my opinion). But I did make sure that I would do the feeding in the same place and would also put her beside (with the telly on, so she got used to noise) after the feedings in the evening. That way she more or less got the hang of “night time is sleepy time.”
Ophelia has been extremely clingy (after Japan). It’s a bit difficult as I want to do my work in the shop. But it’s flattering as well of course.
Yo peeps
Oh, it didn’t work!
Ava is 2 today and that was supposed to be a little sequence of photos from birth to recent.
Here are the other two, FWIW...
She has such beautiful eyes!
So her birthday is on Valentine’s day? That’s so sweet and befitting for a cute girl like Ava!
She’s 9 days, 6 months, 13 months and 23 months in that sequence.
oh that pic in the crib is great! hb ava!
lou’s gone all mellow and snuggly lately:
the sweetest thing is when she wraps her arms around me and plays with my hair. i just melt
Happy birthday Ava!
Oh teens, I want to smooch that handsome boy. What a sweet face.
I want to pick Louis up and cuddle him.
Doesn’t look like I will get my Valentine’s baby after all, as he/she shows no sign of turning up today. So from tomorrow I am officially overdue and up for following any advice on how to get things moving, unless they involve castor oil.
Poor Meg.... for advice on how to get things going—lots and lots of sex apparently, what a hardship!
It worked for me!
Happy birthday Ava! May your third year make you even more adorable :)
Good luck Meg! If all the sex doesn’t tire you out, try walking up and down stairs a lot.
So... Ben had another set of spells, starting on Monday morning. He was diagnosed with having actual seizures after an EEG picked up a very mild seizure. It is unclear what is causing the seizures. They are of the staring variety. He does not shake, or clench, or do anything other than sort-of stare blankly for a few seconds. These seizures do not hurt him or damage his brain. Usually, seizures are caused by some sort of trauma or scarring of the brain, which probably occurred in-utero. He had a sonogram yesterday (with babies, they can look through the soft spot!), and they didn’t find anything macroscopic. He is going to go back in for an MRI at some point to get a much closer look at his brain. For now, and probably for at least a year, he is going to be on anti-seizure meds (because if he were to have a longer seizure, it COULD damage his brain, since he could lose some oxygen). He has been put on Keppra, which is a newish drug (at least in terms of its use for kids) that tends to have less drowsiness than some of the others, although it can make babies a bit more irritable. We’ll see, I guess. If it doesn’t work, there are some other options. Ben hopefully comes home tonight or tomorrow, barring any other unforeseen circumstances.
Poor little Ben. And poor you, how stressful. Is he home yet?
Hope he does well on the meds, and good luck with it all.
Oh David! What you must be going through. :-(((( How is your wife holding up? I saw the pictures and he looks so beautiful but oh so fragile. I really hope the medication helps and they can find out what causes it. You’re in my thoughts. :-(
Doesn’t look like I will get my Valentine’s baby after all, as he/she shows no sign of turning up today. So from tomorrow I am officially overdue and up for following any advice on how to get things moving, unless they involve castor oil.
FIrstborns are usually late. :-) Good luck with the delivery!!!
My friend’s baby was due last Friday, no doubt she’s climbing the walls by now. (Don’t feel like advising her to make with the sex tho, as her partner is my boss. Ew.)
I think Ophelia was about five days late. I was crawling around on all fours the last couple of weeks. I could not walk properly, but like a penguin, which amused my husband to no end and infuriated me. hah !
Funnily enough I can walk a bit easier now the head’s fully engaged—seems to have taken some of the weight off my back.
Sadly, as we live in a ground floor flat there’s no easy access to stairs for walking up and down. As for teh sex, we’ll see tonight ;)
Oh, David—hugs to you and you family!
Ben’s back home, as of last night! He seems do be doing well, although the thought of putting a three-month-old baby on brain drugs bums us out a bit. Anyone know of any alternative therapies for Partial Focal Seizures?
Here are a couple of pics from the hospital, when Ben got hooked up to an EEG.
Wow—poor little Ben. All those wires! Hopefully he won’t need the meds for long.
Meg, I never had any luck inducing with sex or anything else I tried. (Possibly because sex is so hilarious at that point, though). I do remember thinking, BRING ON THE PAIN I CAN TAKE IT. It is so uncomfortable at the end.
Um, that second picture might not be one your wife wants out on teh open internets.
But yes, poor wee Ben.
good point.
Did they miss each other while Ben was in the hospital? (Twins fascinate me.)
It’s hard to tell. The first time, when we brought Ben home, they had a little “conversation,” where they would each take turns talking and listening to each other. They are still a little young to really understand the presence of each other, but they do cute things like hold hands when they breastfeed together.
Awwwwww.
What Luna said.
omg awww.
I think I am feeling mine move! Lots of squirming movements and the odd kick—mostly when I have eaten too much and there is no space left for the baby!
Archel, you had SPD didn’t you? I have pain in one side of my groin when I walk so I am wondering if that is the same thing. Is there anything you can do about it?
omg david that’s so cute!
David, big hugs for everything that you and your family are going through, I hope things settle down soon and normality returns.
Liz, when are you due again? I forget and it’s on old ILE. I keep hoping to feel something (16 weeks and 2 days) but it’s still early days yet I guess, and the placenta’s at the front which could mask it until later :0(
I felt first movements around 16 weeks, it’s such a great feeling :)
Liz, there’s not a huge amount you can do about the SPD I don’t think—I was told to keep my legs together as much as possible (!) ie bring both feet together on each step when you go up stairs, get out of bed by swinging both legs to the side etc. Also, sleep on your side with a pillow in between your knees. I had a lovely V shaped pillow which was a livesaver (and is still handy now for support when feeding).
I’m 18 weeks and thought I wouldn’t feel anything for a couple more weeks but it must be an energetic baby.
Thanks, Archel. It isn’t a definite diagnosis but I’ll talk to the midwife next week & try the pillow thing anyway.
xpost to Vicki: I’ve got an anterior placenta too and although I had a few very faint flutterings from around 15 weeks, I didn’t feel an actual definite kick til 20 weeks. And even since then, I don’t seem to have felt as much movement as other preggos I know. Hopefully it’s a sign of a laidback baby—could explain why he/she is in no hurry to come out!