MSE Parents Club Part 16

rach

*BigBird* wrote: »

Can I ask a question of those of you doing BLW - how easy is it to prepare stuff in advance? I started Joe off with the mushy stuff and he's quite happy with it, but in the last week I've tried him on a few finger foods and he's LOVED it So I'm wondering if we switch to BLW instead. However I do find the mush convenient as I can make it in batches and then just pull some out of the freezer and zap it in the microwave as and when needed. Could I put things like steamed carrot sticks and broccoli in the freezer, or would I need to be making it fresh in small batches? (That's not such a problem for me, but I just know it will be far too much trauma for DH to cope with!)

I had a chat with Joe's childminder about it this morning and she's quite happy to give it a go, so I just need to get my head around it now.

I tend to steam a few veg at once, carrots, parsnips, courgette, new potatoes, sweet potato, sugarsnap peas etc etc and that does a couple of days of meals as i tend to do one or two veg a meal.

L's menu is similar to others, something like:

breakfast - strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, mango, banana plus some own brand shreddies, porridge (i make it thick then let it cool in lumps so he has it as a finger food, he can't get enough!), mini weetabix/oatibix, crumpet

lunch/dinner - pasta with grated cheese, cheese on toast, crumpets, cherry tomatoes (i quarter them which he seems to prefer to halved), new potatoes steamed or roasted with herbs, veg sticks, soft cheese, chicken, scrambled egg, pitta bread, cheese straws.

I do want to do some new things though as his menu is quite samey. any ideas welcome!

Metranil_Vavin wrote: »

Giz - he's come back with a bunch of 'corporate jargon' reasons why I can't work p/time. Fact is there is another girl in the team who came back from mat leave 3 years ago and they wouldn't give her a day off, so they were never going to let me!

I'm scared to find another job too. It's so daunting when you have been at a place for so long. The thought of startng again terrifies me, and my priorities have really shifted since having Josh.

MV - rubbish about your work. No advice really i'm afraid i'm not up on this kind of thing

My contract runs out just as i'm due to return to work and they're not renewing it. i'm quite pleased but dh is constantly going on about how poor we are and how it's my fault cos i don't have a job (even though i technically still do!), how i should be looking harder etc etc. I have said until L's sleep is sorted i'm not looking properly. I have set up as self employed though and am working on my first piece of work which will bring in a bit of money. TBH the more he goes on about it the less inspired i am to look. I am only hoping to go back 2-2.5 days a week and then try and build up the freelance work as the money's better and it's more flexible.

L's sleep is still not great, CL I had to laugh as you cited a bad night which was better than L's good nights and he's so much older. I've read another sleep book this week and am now trying to slowly cut down the night feeds this week and then we can start some sleep training (i think we will have to use the dreaded controlled crying) next weekend. I wanted to do it this weekend but dh has said he's too tired to help...which is a bit annoying as it's me who now has to get up as usual every night.

CL

I really feel for you Rach. We've only had about 2 terrible nights and I literally had an emotional melt down. If the LO is cranky in her cot I lift her into our bed, but my DH is afraid of rolling on her (he's a very heavy sleeper) so he usually gets up and goes to the spare room. One night she had been crying all night and my DH had slept through it. At about 6am I woke him to tell him I hadn't had any sleep and was about to ask him to get up a bit early for work and take her, so I could get some sleep. But he was half asleep and thought I was sending him to the spare room, so got up and walked out of the room. I cried all day when he was at work and chucked a total wobbly when he got home. If I had of just asked him to take her, he would have done it with no complaints, but in my tired and emotional state I was sobbing at him that he should "just know" that I needed help that morning. I was a bit of a pyscho!

pigpen

freudianslip wrote: »

Is it wrong to be in complete and utter shock that it's school holidays again.. very soon! How will I cope!!!!

Come spend a day at mine you'll be glad to be back with your peace and quiet and sanity!

delain wrote: »

Whaaaat? It better not be holiday time again :rotfl: I love my children but is it just me that finds you have to wake them up on schooldays but at the weeekend and in the holidays they're pinging out of bed at 6 :eek:

Mine finish Friday for half term.. they've only been back 3 weeks!! but then there are 8 weeks until summer so that makes it easier to bear.. and KH is unaware but he has them both weekends due to him refusing to get them this weekend.. which is the only reason I didn't kick off about it.. but when he gets back he is being told not to book anything for his weekends without checking with me first.. I don't give a toss what he is doing but I am going to get very difficult about changing weekends unless I gain from it!

Rach.. I really think your DH needs to get a grip.. he is being very very childish and mean.. about both the job and the sleeping.. I know you love him and we only gets bits of the story but he really does need to pull his weight at night and back off with the money thing.. you have a roof and food and warmth so long as the bills are paid who cares if there is no money left over!? It sounds like he is not coming to terms with there being 3 of you I wouldn't be told what I should or should not be doing I'd dig in my heels and refuse to do a thing.. I honestly couldn't cope with it! I hope you can get something sorted with little man.. it does sound like he has got himself into a habit of waking at night now rather than needing to be awake and fed.

sir_monster

Totally agree PP, but I think Rach knows that!

Do feel for you all with older kids, I get annoyed with all these holidays as pretty much all our groups stop that keep me sane - apart from swimming and bumps and babies, not sure how I will cope with the long summer holiday - I just can't stay in the house and by then money will be short so can't lounge in coffee shops and I don't really do parks as don't like loose dogs.

pigpen

SM.. She is just too nice!! It makes me sad knowing things are getting on top of her and I want to come rescue her.. Shall we steal her?

(just talking about you Rach.. .. we'll steal L too.. )

Becles

I'm in a minority who loves the school holidays

The boys haven't seen KH since Christmas, and haven't spoken to him on the phone or chatted online to him since then either. We know he's around as he updates his FB page with Farmville etc. Josh pointed out this morning that it's Fathers Day in a few weeks, so he'll probably get in touch soon so he gets his present.

Thought that was sad that he's thinking like that, but thought I'd share, to give you reassurances that children are not stupid and if your KH behaves like a complete KH, they will suss him out.

rach

pigpen wrote: »

Rach.. I really think your DH needs to get a grip.. he is being very very childish and mean.. about both the job and the sleeping.. I know you love him and we only gets bits of the story but he really does need to pull his weight at night and back off with the money thing.. you have a roof and food and warmth so long as the bills are paid who cares if there is no money left over!? It sounds like he is not coming to terms with there being 3 of you I wouldn't be told what I should or should not be doing I'd dig in my heels and refuse to do a thing.. I honestly couldn't cope with it! I hope you can get something sorted with little man.. it does sound like he has got himself into a habit of waking at night now rather than needing to be awake and fed.

I know, and you're right. I keep trying to tell him that my shoulders are broad but not that broad. I am also good at digging heels in. Sometimes I think I should just up and go but i don't think we're at that stage...yet! i am frustrated I've let it get like this as I've always been such an independent person, I lived on my own for 5 years before getting married and shared for several years before. If I keep going on about it he just resorts to the old 'well you wanted a baby', which is true but now L is here he loves him and wouldn't be without him. I know he has worked hard to get the job he has and is frustrated that he has less money than before he did all the study etc but it's not my fault my work haven't renewed my contract and anyway I would have always still been on mat leave at this point, in actual fact I am actually going to be bringing in money which i wouldn't have done this early thanks to getting the freelance stuff. He has never before being controlling but he's getting to be about the money, saying I can no longer have my spending money (£100a month) etc and keeps saying how i've overspent the tiny (£150/month) grocery budget etc.

sir_monster wrote: »

Totally agree PP, but I think Rach knows that!

Do feel for you all with older kids, I get annoyed with all these holidays as pretty much all our groups stop that keep me sane - apart from swimming and bumps and babies, not sure how I will cope with the long summer holiday - I just can't stay in the house and by then money will be short so can't lounge in coffee shops and I don't really do parks as don't like loose dogs.

You can come round my house and let the boys beat each other up! OMG by then they will probably be crawling though :eek::eek::eek:

pigpen wrote: »

SM.. She is just too nice!! It makes me sad knowing things are getting on top of her and I want to come rescue her.. Shall we steal her?

(just talking about you Rach.. .. we'll steal L too.. )

LOL I would honestly be lost without sir monster, I'm so glad we met on the preg thread!!! :T

aaaaanyway, that aside he has cleaned the kitchen and washed the floor this morning. I nipped to the post office where for once there was not a massive queue and then we all went to the park, L loves the swings. L has just screamed his head off going for a nap, mainly as he wants to play with daddy i think as daddy's playtime is more exciting.

re the nights, i am sure it is habit, i've been keeping a sleep log like this one and he has woken every night at 3.30am for the last 3 nights! Other nights he has also been waking early in the morning 5.30 or so and not going back to sleep, last night put him to bed 20 mins earlier as my new sleep book suggests and didn't hear him til 7, though had turned the monitor off but we can hear him if he cries! My plan for this week is to try and wean him off both night feeds, I really don't think he needs them and he is not feeding well in the day (solids are fine though). Last night I only fed on one side per waking, tonight I will make them shorter and poss again tomorrow then will try water from sippy cup later in the week. I know he won't necessarily not wake but I'm happy to hold him back to sleep this week, I just want to know that he is capable of going the night without a feed so that if the waking persists we can be more tough. I know controlled crying is not popular and believe me I was so so anti it but I really feel that L is chronically overtired now and for all our sakes and being kinder to him in the long run we need to get him sleeping more. I have tried every kinder solution going and they work for one or two nights but not any longer.

CL - thanks, I think I'm just an auto pilot now. We do sometimes bring L into bed, usually just with me but it's not really feasible now unless we get a bedguard as he's rolling all over!

pigpen

You could both get the train up here??? Then we can have a scrum with 3 of them killing each other lol.. might be fun!

rach

pigpen wrote: »

You could both get the train up here??? Then we can have a scrum with 3 of them killing each other lol.. might be fun!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Leopardlady

Hi Ladies,
It has been very quiet on here!
Well we have had an eventful day, got little William up as usual this morning, and gave him his breakfast, then an hour later i get to go back to bed and OH takes over with W. But within 20 mins he is up with W sitting on the bed saying that W has been very sick. W is listless and not very happy at all, and by this time he is vomiting up luminous yellow bile! So a quick check on NHS direct and then off to A&E.

Three hours in A&E and finally some fluids in without being sick and then sent home. W is back to happy and chatty but we are feeling quite frazzled. I have to go back to work tomorrow as i had this last week off as my right shoulder completely froze! So OH is planning to work from home to look after W as he now has 48 hrs out of child care! Oh well I am so relieved that he is doing so well and the listlessness has left him. Now please keep your fingers crossed that he will sleep well tonight and be fighting fit tomorrow


I hope you are all coping well and the weekend has brought some relief for some of you who have had a tough time recently. And have you been kidnapped yet Rach?