MSE Newborn to 1 year (& beyond!) baby club 3

lazywife

3 hour nap Nutella... woweeee. What did you do with yourself?!
I'm watching the ideas on outdoor stuff. T isn't there yet as he's not quite walking, but very much an out and about sort of little chap, so many hours to be spend outside I think where he can burn off his energy. Are those collapsible tunnels any good? I like things that are easy to tidy away! Thanks for the idea of looking on ebay/gumtree Delain.
I liked the idea of baby signing, but think I missed the boat. T doesn't really sit still long enough to look at what I would be signing.
I've felt like a proper mum today (it's only taken I year!) I've got all excited about getting plates, cups etc for T's 1st birthday, far more excited than finding a new dress for a wedding. And the last 3 comments I've made on fb are to friends about teething, newborns sleeping and other baby stuff! We weren't going to do anything for his birthday, but we've been persuaded (just going to stick them all in a room with his toys... supervised of course! No planning as such).
Cake, don't know if I said, love that pic of the girls!
Nursery settling in is going well. We've another session on Wednesday. I'm confident if T can be without me for 30 mins or so, he'll cope all day (not clingy, just gets upset if I leave the room... think he thinks he's missing out on something!) so the 1st session I played with him, then next session I sat in the corner whilst they played with him and then crept out for 50 mins and he wasn't fussed. Next session I think I'll only stop a short while and head off. Hopefully it'll keep going well. I think any nursery nurse (and SAHM) has far more energy than me. Seem to have boundless imagination to think of things to do with LOs.
L.xxx

serendisglair

Watering can!!

My LO (25 month) is obsessed with watering anything and everything (occasionally plants but more often than not the stones/ornamental cat/patio/bird bath all get watered).

We have other toys but the novelty in them seems to be getting them out and then he wanders back inside.

He also likes his cheap bubble blowing lawn mower from wilkos.

We just came back from my mums and she had a little wendy house she bought off a friend for a tenner and that was a hit - mainly for climbing out the windows though......

Hope that helps

*Nutella* wrote: »

Hello ladies (and gentleman )

Hope everyone's well and enjoying their weekends. We went swimming today, and LO giggled and smiled her way through the whole session, then had a three-hour nap

I need some inspiration please.... We've got a nice back garden, but don't use it much. Ladies with older children, do you have any suggestions for good outdoor toys and/or fun stuff to do in the garden for an almost two-year-old? I'm not after big stuff like slides and swings, as we have those in abundance in local parks, nor do I want to get planting as we're hopefully moving in the not too distant future... She loves her giant inflatable ball, but what else would be good (and not too expensive)? Ideas most welcome

Rummer

There are all sorts of wonderful ideas for outside play and The Imagination Tree is well worth having a look at. Some things we have had/will have:

• Play house
• Sand pit
• Water area
• Weaving - ribbon ext through a plastic coated wire fence
• Growing area - wellies and buckets as a garden
• Kitchen - for mud cooking
• Picnics
• Bubbles
• Paddling pool
  • Chalk paint on the wall
• Tent

We also spend lots of time of craft activities linked to the garden:

• Painting pebbles
• Decorating bird houses
• Making bird food
• Bug hunts
• Peg decorating
• Creating a nature area
• Building a bug hotel

fran-o

Hi everyone, still reading just not posting so much! Baby is 12 weeks old tomorrow, doing great. Just been to health visitor and he's almost 15lbs, doing so well! Getting long so we'll have to move him from basket to cot soon.

I'm going to have to start thinking about nursery soon as I live in a busy suburb so places likely to be oversubscribed. Baby's name is down for the work nursery but we may not get a place. It's been useful to read all your comments, there's lots to think about. Hope you get sorted CD.

Re outdoor play my cousins (4 and 2) loved playing with their Lego play people in a washing up bowl of water, you could add food colouring for a change.

Have a good week all x

Bangton

WalkingOnADream wrote: »

Thanks for advice re nappies. Leaks seem to have stopped as randomly as they started but I haven't changed anything.

Lo is 6 months now and I think the 6 month sleep regression is starting despite us only just having finished the 4 month one:( Lo has started refusing to go to sleep at bedtime and isn't settling until 2 hours later than normal. I'm not sure if this is caused by a) now in own bedroom b) it being lighter than usual thanks to the sun not setting until later or c) no longer needing such an early bedtime. Has this happened to anyone else?

Can anyone recommend a good large floor covering? I want something to cover a large area of the floor so I can leave lo to play safely. We've got carpet but lo is obsessed with licking and sucking so I can't leave him on the floor as he just sucks the carpet. We've got a dog and occasional slug visitors so I want to avoid this! I've tried using a blanket but I want something that's not made from fibres. I was looking at those big foam playmats which would be perfect but then I read something about them containing a dangerous chemical so some European countries have banned them? Also needs to be cheap and not something lo can scrunch up. Any ideas or suggestions? Has anyone got the foam mats, are they really unsafe?

I didn't know there was a six month regression but we had a brief time where lo wouldn't go down (about a week).. touchwood he will go down and sleep forever more now! !!

We've started putting him down at 7 (bedtime had crept forward to 6.30) and it seems to suit him. He's also needing less sleep in the day. He used to have 4+ hours but I started to find he battled me ferociously not to have that last nap (he'd arch his back, flail his arms. . hitting me in face! ). so I've adjusted his naps. He's now awake longer between them so he has less sleep in day but at the moment he's going down well and settling well for all sleeps so I think it's worked

hugs though. . It's awful when they stop settling again. mine started to flap his arms like a butterfly when I put him in cot in protest!

*Nutella*

WalkingOnADream wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a good large floor covering? I want something to cover a large area of the floor so I can leave lo to play safely. We've got carpet but lo is obsessed with licking and sucking so I can't leave him on the floor as he just sucks the carpet. We've got a dog and occasional slug visitors so I want to avoid this! I've tried using a blanket but I want something that's not made from fibres. I was looking at those big foam playmats which would be perfect but then I read something about them containing a dangerous chemical so some European countries have banned them? Also needs to be cheap and not something lo can scrunch up. Any ideas or suggestions? Has anyone got the foam mats, are they really unsafe?

We've got this mat and it's absolutely fab It's not the cheapest one around, but worth every penny - it's been in use every day for a year and a half and gets a machine wash every couple of weeks, and it's still in excellent condition. When LO was little, we used it for tummy time and she loved exploring it - now that she's older (nearly two) we sit on it to play with her toys/Lego and read books (yep - plenty of space for adults too). Personally, I wasn't keen on foam mats as I think they're harder to clean and end up looking grubby quite quickly - I wanted a mat I could just chuck in the washing machine.

*Nutella*

lazywife wrote: »

3 hour nap Nutella... woweeee. What did you do with yourself?!

I slept for an hour, did some cleaning, ordered a new swimsuit and sat down with a coffee and a magazine for the first time in weeks. Bliss

Glad nursery settling in is going well!

*Nutella*

Ladies, thanks so much for all your ideas for garden toys - you're all wonderful Serendisglair, we do have a small watering can that I'd completely forgotten about, so I will definitely dig that out, and we also have bubbles somewhere. Rummer, I love some of the ideas for smaller stuff, as I don't want to invest in larger items until we move house, but can't wait to explore playhouses and the like! Although at this rate, it'll be autumn before we move, and all the outdoor stuff will be on offer

*Nutella*

Sainsbury's baby event starts Wednesday, ends 20th May Includes snacks, Pampers and own brand nappies, Huggies wipes, Cow & Gate growing up milk, Johnson's toiletries and more.

continualdiamond

Hi everyone.

Been at work today . Haven't had to get up and go to work since the 4th September. It felt really weird but then once at work felt like I'd never been away. I went in as one of my KIT days as it was a training day, hubby had lo as we don't have anyone that can look after her for us.

So I felt completely fine leaving her, will be a different story when I'm at work properly with dropping her off at a nursery or child minder. Still no decision yet, but am making one this Thursday.

Re mats in the house, we have laminate flooring down now, got rid of the carpet. We bought a lovely rug so the floor wasn't so much if that makes sense but then I put down a big baby blanket on top of the rug for her, it's huge and is really a blanket designed to be used in her bed.

Not that I've tried it but I've seen people use small paddling pools inside and place lo in it with a sheet down over the plastic and then place all the toys etc in it so it's kinda like a play pen. I thought that was quiet clever.

Re sleep my lo is 7mths on the 6th May and her bed time is later now. When she was really tiny we put her down at around 8pm (obviously up many times in the night), then as she got older it crept forward more, like 7pm, then 6pm.

Now she has her afternoon bottle about 3:30pm and is wanting a nap around 4pm for about an hour sometimes shorter, has her tea around 5:30pm and then is happily awake until about 7:30pm. That sees her through till most mornings of 5:30am, has a small bottle and then goes back to sleep for maybe another 1 - 1.5hrs.

Hope everyone is well. I'm off on hopefully a nice picnic tomorrow with the other 3 ladies & babies from my antenatal group. We try and catch up properly once a month.