sillywoman

Yeah, I couldn't ever do it myself Molly, & now she's a teenager & responsible for her own hair sillygirl washes with shampoo too, but I just thought with babies that I had the perfect way to test the 'self-balancing' theory, and it really does work. They all have lovely shiny hair that does regulate itself. Lucky things. Plus the bonus for me of never having to do the shampoo thing on reluctant kids. Really almost everything I do is ultimately motivated by laziness!

shuffles feet & comes out looking sheepish . . .

OK, Keef, hands up to the comment - seen in that light, I'll withdraw the request and retire to the corner to consider my shame. :-$

Errr, a little controversial, but I've never used shampoo or detergent of any kind on any of my fours heads . . . and you'd never know it to look at them! They don't need it, clean warm water does the job on hair, add essential oil if you need a certain smell. Why bother with shampoo & all it entails?

Hmmmm, interesting. Never heard of it either but am off to google 'rusty pipe syndrome' now. Oh the things our bodies can do!

Oh Molly, (or maybe someone less scalded) please please post this on the unmentionable thread, please. It made me laugh so much. It really is the last word in common sense and good humor. Well done Molly, how on earth did you find it?

Oooh, good books! But Blaniac, have never heard of any of yours (except the brilliant Scarry books) will go & seek them out in the library to see what I've missed. Candj - not my thread about baby book club - someone else's. I loved Dr Seuss, but my kids were a bit 'meh' about it, except the Lorax - they loved that for some reason, and the Grinch of course. Ko, I'm with you on 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' - a real classic.

Wow, private education is so stressful from the start - I had no idea. You poor, poor things. All I had to do was find a nursery where I felt my child could be happy, and that was hard enough (took 4 goes to find the 'perfect' nursery), but it wouldn't have met Anna75's criteria.

It's a bit like going into the deep end of the swimming pool, I tend to paddle out into other parts of the forum a bit at a time and then paddle quickly back to safe waters when I'm too far out of my depth.

We've got two sets of bunkbeds that we got through freecycle. My only tip would be to make sure there's enough headspace in the lower bunk once the mattress is in, enough that you can get in easily for a bedtime kiss or middle of the night cuddle should you have to.

Having misunderstood the title of the 'Baby Book Club' thread, it got me thinking; What would you say are the classic titles on your bookshelves for your under 5's, you know - the books you can repeat verbatim because they've been read so often, with language &/or graphics that just catch the littlies imagination. My recommendations on first thoughts are; Almost anything by the Ahlbergs, but especially 'Here's a little Baby' & 'The baby catalogue' Clara Vulliamy; 'Wide Awake' & 'Goodnight baby' Eric Carle; 'The Hungry Caterpillar' Helen Cooper 'The Baby Who Wouldn't Go To Bed' (3-5yrs tho) Michael Rosen 'Going On A Bear Hunt' I know there's loads more, but it's all fading into the distance for me now that my youngest is 6. Anyone else got any tried & trusted favorites?

I'd love to come along too, but have a busy week so can I say I'll come if I can (sorry to be so noncommittal)? Had one hospital, two at home & one transfer to hosp.

Yes Happy Mothers Day all you lovely, funny, clever ED Mums. Hope you all have a lovely day, and thanks for being there when I need help & advice, & for making my attempt at Mothering that little bit easier!

Goldilocks, I'm one of the ED teachers and I have intensive courses running in ED at least once a month, sometimes twice, up until Christmas (except August), I'm also running one long course a month, with the same exception. If you email, or phone my booking secretary Alison Johnson on 0844 243 6921, or [email protected] then you'll get a real live (really nice) person to help you, much better than the website, which seems to be causing much confusion al round.

Then I really doubt that your opinion is based on any long term life experience of the realities of raising small children. There are far bigger issues to get your knickers in a twist about than a toddler weeing down a drain.

They used to do it at Jags, don't know if they still do? Crystal Palace used to do Saturday & Sunday daytime sessions too.

Ah yes, sorry It was trinity - Trinity, how do you stop yourself eating all the sweeties in the jar?

Belle, how is he? Any update?

Err BeccaL, how do you stop yourselves from eating all the sweeties in the reward jar whilst they're at school?

Very wise posts from Molly, and others. It sounds like you're going through the New Mum Hell that a lot of us have been through. Imagine us all beckoning you on to come through the other side! Find some mates, baby groups are good; and can I just defend my NCT Mums here, most of my lovely Mums are just that - lovely, absolutely lovely & I consider myself fortunate to know them. I've only encountered one or two with leanings to competitiveness over the years, and for them it was mostly a way of covering up their own anxiety. Actually they were lovely too. It's not just NCT Mums who are competitive - can we please not link the two, because it's not FAAAAIR? (last sentence spoken as a toddler wail); Take Bumpy up on her offer& jhng out with her group of normal night wakers! The age thing is irrelevant, in fact as MOlly says - there are probably loads of Mums casting envious eyes your way. Please ask to go through your notes form your birth with a midwife at Kings, it sounds like you may have something called PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's increasingly recognised as common after a traumatic labour & birth, and manifests itself as overwhelming anxiety, sleeplessness, flashbacks and reliving the experience over & over. It's your brain trying to make sense of your experience. There are other symptoms too. If this sounds familiar to you then please google it. Sheila Kitzinger runs a telephone support line for woman who have this, called Birth Crisis, they may be some help. If you think "Nah, that's not me." then please follow up Molly's suggestion of possible PND, 20-25% of women get it, more common with those who feel lonely and unsupported. Ruth B we're all rooting for you. you sound like you're a great Mum, and in a few months you'll feel quite different I'm sure. Love SW.x

10p for each year of their life, per week until they go to secondary school when it all gets reassessed. So the 6 year old gets 60p per week for example. They use it to save up for plastic crap and are expected to get birthday pressies for immediate family (no more than ?2 - & with some help for the littlest ones) out of it, plus have a little bit saved up for holiday spending. But didn't start with the older ones until they were about 6 or 7. Younger ones have had it since they were old enough to catch on, natch. Household chores are expected to be done as part of being a family. Not sure I want to go down the route of paying for them as mine are a bit too sharp on that score & I can see I'll end up paying for every little thing. Do pay extra for exceptional help (washing the car?), or maybe treat to a choccy bar or book, or something. Washing up, setting the table, making beds, help with the shopping & laundry I expect for free! What a dragon Mum!

Everyone told me that at 6 weeks it all starts to get better - personally, for me that was utter rot, it wasn't until about 20 weeks that my shoulders started to come down from around my ears, and 6 months before I felt that this baby thing was manageable (she woke once a night for a (whisper it ;-)), bottle at that stage, & did that until she was about 17 months. But did settle fairly easily after. However, all my babies all had trouble resettling after about 2 or 3 am at that age, and it just gradually got better. As other posters have said, get loads of help, catch up as much as you can during the day when he naps, and I would say consider whether co-sleeping is working for you? It may be that the first step is to persuade BabyBaldock to do a bit more sleeping in his cot if he's a 'thrasher'. Maybe the first & second evening sleep, then bring him in to you after that if you feel you need to - and gradually get him used to the idea that sleep happens in his cot. I think your plan to get him used to sleeping without the dummy is also a sound one, but remember plans take time and determination, the last thing is very hard when you're sleep deprived. be very, very kind to yourself. If your plan doesn't work at all after 5 days then step back & reconsider. Try something else. But take heart, his sleeping isn't actually shocking at all, & you won't die of it! It's completely normal sleeping/ feeding behaviour for a little 12 week old as others have said. The other NCT Mums are all either extremely lucky, or exaggerating, or maybe indulging in some competitive mothering? I would hang out with the other Mum with a night owl more for a while. You need a mate who knows what you're going through. Just thinking, is his cot in a separate room? I know the current advice from FSID is to have babies in with you until 6 months, but I have to say that by 12 weeks I was ready for some space, & having them in their own room meant I couldn't hear the snuffley whiney "I might be waking up soon" noises, and sometimes they went back to sleep again (I'm a 'definitely not' to a baby monitor, though I know that some find it helps them sleep more securely, I just felt I didn't need to hear every little noise. If they needed me they'd cry & I'd hear it, coz I was only next door.) Don't know if any of this rambly stream of consciousness post is of any help to you? I just wanted to say "hang on in there" really, and change one thing at a time if you feel you need to(starting with the easiest). And don't believe all you hear from other Mums. Love SW P.S. This post is with my Mum-of-4 hat firmly on, obviously I couldn't possibly recommend bottles, separate rooms and all that (completely normal & sanity saving stuff) if I had my NCT teacher hat on.;-)

A sheepskin is fab - the answer to all your problems. Well, OK, maybe not all . . . .

HeidiHi - I think I love you!

. . .though I might consider allowing him to get to the first cry before picking him up to feed, rather than catching him before he cries? Babies go through light sleep & deep sleep patterns just like us & it might be that for one or two of these snuffly wakings he's in light sleep & might go back into deep sleep if he's left. It's a judgement call really - only you can tell of he's hungry, or you're 'catching' him before you think he'll wake. If he still wakes every 2 hours, then it's a growth spurt & normal 9 week old behaviour - he is still a very little baby, & that's what babies do. It won't last forever.