February 2017 Babies Club

greenttc

dreamstar wrote: »

Oh best of luck greenttc.
We're a house full of snot here too. Poor baby has her first cold and cough at 7 weeks. No escaping it with a germy toddler I guess.

I know that's my big concern, tiny sick babies are so helpless it's awful. Nothing to be done though! Toddlers are just not great with hygiene or covering sneezes or blowing noses eh?

So is it easier or harder than you expected dreamstar? I feel like if I can just get to 12 weeks I'll be grand!

dreamstar

greenttc wrote: »

dreamstar wrote: »

Oh best of luck greenttc.
We're a house full of snot here too. Poor baby has her first cold and cough at 7 weeks. No escaping it with a germy toddler I guess.

I know that's my big concern, tiny sick babies are so helpless it's awful. Nothing to be done though! Toddlers are just not great with hygiene or covering sneezes or blowing noses eh?

So is it easier or harder than you expected dreamstar? I feel like if I can just get to 12 weeks I'll be grand!

I'm not going to lie - it's been a lot tougher than I'd expected. But we're finding our feet.
It's dealing with the toddler on little sleep that's tough. And the guilt when they're looking for your attention. But you realise how easy newborns are. :-)
Seeing them together is lovely though.

ally_pally

Hello all,

Hope everyone is keeping well. We've had a funny old few days of it. The best way I can describe it is that my little one suddenly seems really emotional. I know babies and toddlers feel everything very keenly anyway but this seems to have ramped up massively recently. She seems on the edge of a tantrum a lot.

She's sometimes a bit weird around her dad too - if he brings her upstairs to change her, she screams and cries "mammy" and reaches for me desperately. Once they're upstairs I can hear them both laughing and having a great time. I feel like she's starting to get frustrated at not being able to communicate. Everything is "NO!" because it allows her to express herself but she's not yet able to put words to lots of the things she wants. It can be exhausting!

catrionanic

Ally I think that all sounds pretty normal. The terrible twos tantrums often start around this age (ours have!), and being unable to communicate properly is obviously massively frustrating for her. You're gonna see huge advances in her speech over the next few months though so hopefully she should get less frustrated.

My boy was never overly clingy to me, but definitely became a mammy's boy a couple of months ago. His dad will take him upstairs for a bedtime story and he will shout for me. Once I'm out of sight, he's totally fine again. But if I pop my head round the door to drop something in to them, the tears start again.

Similarly he doesn't mind his daddy leaving for work etc, but when I'm working he has a big big cry as I leave.

I figure in 10 years he will want nothing to do with me, so I'll enjoy being the centre of his universe for now!

Have you tried baby signing? My friends little girl doesn't have much speech, but she signs a lot and is able to communicate really well that way. They should pick up the signs super quickly at this age too.

Might just help take some of the frustration away for her a little.

ally_pally

I might look into signing actually. I feel like her speech is grand for her age and she seems to pick up more words daily. But she seems to understand EVERYTHING, way way more than she can say so that's obviously frustrating her.

fits

I’d say both my lads are a bit behind with speech and language. One of them has been accepted for early intervention services but there’s still a long wait for speech therapy. He’s not walking yet but that’s more a case of confidence than anything. He can walk easily holding on to me with one hand We moved house three weeks ago. Don’t know ourselves! Some of your toddlers seem really advanced with speech!!

smaoifs

fits wrote:

I’d say both my lads are a bit behind with speech and language. One of them has been accepted for early intervention services but there’s still a long wait for speech therapy. He’s not walking yet but that’s more a case of confidence than anything. He can walk easily holding on to me with one hand We moved house three weeks ago. Don’t know ourselves! Some of your toddlers seem really advanced with speech!!

A girl I work with has twins too (2 in December) and she says they don't have many words but spend all day chatting and babbling to each other. Says it's very normal for twins to not have as many words as singles cos they communicate so well with each other.
I've heard a few parents in work say they by the time they do get to the speech therapist, the child has caught up and hasn't needed any further intervention.

catrionanic

How are all the boys and girls? Any inventive Halloween costumes among you? I'm afraid I've just taken the easy road and bought matching vampire onesies for Liam and the new baby (who is now overdue) in Tesco!

Liam has started referring to me and his dad and his granda by our Christian names. It is very funny, but I really don't want it to replace Mammy altogether as Mammy is so much cuter!

fits

One of mine calls his dad by his name. I think it’s funny. Coming up with costumes is my least favourite thing. Do I have to???

We have been put into a speech and language class for parents by the hse. It’s an eight week course -two hours a week. So it’s a fairly big commitment. But we definitely have most potential to improve the language. Starting next week. He still won’t let go when walking. Insists on holding a finger. I guess he will take off one of these days. He is generally much happier and easier these days though. And the communication is coming along. He has been so frustrated all along.


Having major terrible twos with the other. He is fiercely independent. The high chair is current battleground. Not sure whether to persist with it or move to regular chair. When we have tried the regular one he barely eats anything.

Best of luck with the new arrival Catrionanic!

tangobelle2010

Any news on the new arrivals yet?

catrionanic

tangobelle2010 wrote: »

Any news on the new arrivals yet?

I'll let greenttc tell you her own news, but I had a little boy on the 20th. Fantastic delivery and recovery going well, plus he's feeding like a champ and piling on the pounds. Liam doing a great job at being a big brother so far. He is always asking to see the new baby and talking about him and giving kisses. He is a bit rough with him though so I've to have eyes on the back of my head, but generally delighted with how he has adjusted overall.

greenttc

I had a little boy too! He arrived three weeks ago now and he is very different to his big brother.

My wee February 2017 lad is such a challenge at the moment which makes things difficult, he has major tantrums and go through days where he is just so grumpy and moany and screams about every little thing that slightly annoys him, I think lots of it is jealously but most of it is just another phase. How long do these tantrums last though, are we looking at a whole year of them? Or do we just get better at managing them, it has definitely been the hardest part of parenting so far!!!

fits

We had a rough few weeks with tantrums with one of ours but they have eased a bit again. So I don’t think it will be a whole year of it. Phases I guess.

tangobelle2010

Congratulations! Both of you in full swing of two under two! Hope you're both looking after yourselves and taking any help offered to you.

My lady is so headstrong and bossy its scaring me! Tantrums daily here too, some days are worse than others. She's still a little behind speechwise so I'm kind of hoping some of it is due to frustration at not being able to communicate what she wants all the time. Some of it is also due to her wanting what her big sister has, a daily battle!

Her favourite thing right now is colouring and she's constantly looking for paper and crayons, etc. My walls are already bearing the brunt along with coffee table, kitchen table, sofa. She's a mini banksy

catrionanic

Tangobelle, have you heard of No Mess Colouring? It's basically crayons that only work on the correct paper - won't mark your sofa etc. I've bought some but not tried them yet... they're in my box of tricks for placating toddler when breastfeeding newborn, once daddy is back at work!

Doing ok with tantrums here for now. He has a major meltdown, kicking and screaming, when you try to force him into his buggy after the park etc. Please god it'll stay at just that for now as I can't deal with tantrums on top of everything else!! We are moving house in two weeks though so I'm expecting him to be more unsettled in the weeks ahead.

dreamstar

Awww congratulations on the new arrivals guys. Fantastic news.

Tantrum city here too. Especially like you said getting into the buggy after being out. I have to bribe him with food. We've been to a lot of play centres lately as it's great for getting him to tire himself and I can feed baby. But great seeing him interact with other kids. His little excited face!
We're also teething quite bad here and he's up a lot at night the last week. It's been very tough going with a 3 month old too. Thankfully her night feeds are stretching out.

ally_pally

Congratulations Catriona and greenttc on the new arrivals. Such lovely news and I'm in awe of you managing so well with 2 under 2! Myself and my husband talked last night about trying for a second so we'll be starting on that soon enough. Although we nearly talked ourselves out of it thinking through the logistics of childcare and how we'd actually cope with two!! But we pretty much talked ourselves out of ever having kids worrying about the logistics of it all and now we can't imagine life without her.

dreamstar

Ally I reckon if any of us thought too much about it we'd never have kids never mind more. I still don't know what I'm going to do with childcare , work etc. But we'll manage whatever happens. Wouldn't change a thing.

catrionanic

Ally, we didn't think about it at all... number two was a wee surprise!!! You'll find a way to manage though. Fortunately we don't have childcare costs as I work weekends and Mondays, and my parents will take them on Mondays. We are lucky. It's sad that childcare costs limit so many people from growing their families, though.

greenttc

Tango, I wouldn't have considered my lad as speech delayed, I think he actually talks lots but when he gets frustrated he never uses words despite actually having the words for what he he wants to give out about, maybe he just hasn't copped on yet that he can just say what he wants instead of screaming.

Dreamstar I am the same with food bribery, I have packets of raisans everywhere to hand out in times of need! The cure lots of tantrums!

Ally, you defo can't think too much about number two or you totally wouldn't do it, especially if we knew how scary those first few weeks of having two on your own is!!! But we are delighted with our two now, well, we are delighted with how great it will be for them in the future at least!

Caitriona, must look up those crayons! I got a lidl version of aqua doodle which I must find and take out for wee man but I like the sounds of no mess crayons. Anything else you got that has worked well? All tips welcome!

greenttc

Tango, I wouldn't have considered my lad as speech delayed, I think he actually talks lots but when he gets frustrated he never uses words despite actually having the words for what he he wants to give out about, maybe he just hasn't copped on yet that he can just say what he wants instead of screaming.

Dreamstar I am the same with food bribery, I have packets of raisans everywhere to hand out in times of need! The cure lots of tantrums!

Ally, you defo can't think too much about number two or you totally wouldn't do it, especially if we knew how scary those first few weeks of having two on your own is!!! But we are delighted with our two now, well, we are delighted with how great it will be for them in the future at least!

Caitriona, must look up those crayons! I got a lidl version of aqua doodle which I must find and take out for wee man but I like the sounds of no mess crayons. Anything else you got that has worked well? All tips welcome!

catrionanic

Greenttc, I haven't unleashed my full arsenal of bribery yet as I'm saving them for when daddy goes back to work and my parents are no longer helping out. But he absolutely loves putting wooden beads on a string - would keep him entertained for a good 30 mins - although he needs some help threading them. Also a fan of stickerbooks and books in general. And I got him this small car ramp thing as a present from the new baby which even I love playing with- very similar to this one: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71LAgzRh%2B7L._SL1388_.jpg

Plus lots of little hot wheels cars to bribe as necessary.

greenttc

catrionanic wrote: »

Greenttc, I haven't unleashed my full arsenal of bribery yet as I'm saving them for when daddy goes back to work and my parents are no longer helping out. But he absolutely loves putting wooden beads on a string - would keep him entertained for a good 30 mins - although he needs some help threading them. Also a fan of stickerbooks and books in general. And I got him this small car ramp thing as a present from the new baby which even I love playing with- very similar to this one: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71LAgzRh%2B7L._SL1388_.jpg

Plus lots of little hot wheels cars to bribe as necessary.

Yes my wee man loves books too, especially ones that he can point pictures out and say what they are. What does Liam do with the sticker books, can he move stickers around?

I have a beads and string set which he currently wears as a necklace!!! Must take it apart and see if he is able to do the threading part yet cause I think he would be the same and spend ages at it, thanks for reminding me about it!! He loves sorting stuff or moving things into particular order or just opening and closing things over and over again.

He has a car set like that which I have saved for Christmas, I think it will go down well!

I think recommendations are the best when it comes to picking toys! They really are all very similar in terms of interests at this age aren't they?

catrionanic

They really are. Liam is very into stacking things and making towers at the minute too. Must get the stacking cups back out.

There's a great Instagram account called play.hooray, full of brilliant play ideas. Worth a look.

catrionanic

They really are. Liam is very into stacking things and making towers at the minute too. Must get the stacking cups back out.

There's a great Instagram account called play.hooray, full of brilliant play ideas. Worth a look.

greenttc

catrionanic wrote: »

They really are. Liam is very into stacking things and making towers at the minute too. Must get the stacking cups back out.

There's a great Instagram account called play.hooray, full of brilliant play ideas. Worth a look.

Yes! Stacking is great too! Our wee man also has some of those jigsaws that are shapes with the little knob that you fit into a board with matching picture, he can't quite get the pieces in but he is able to match the pictures and loves saying no no no to all the wrong spots and then yay for the correct one.

Brilliant insta recommendation, I am always trying to find things like that on insta but hadn't come across play ones yet only blw ones etc, thanks again caitriona your a treasure trove today!!!

catrionanic

My friend also just recommended those wall walker sticky things for when you're trying to do something with newborn - get your toddler to throw them at the wall and catch them when they come down. So I've ordered some off Amazon- only about €2.50 for six and free postage. They generally say ages 3+ but I'll not let him at them unsupervised.

catrionanic

My friend also just recommended those wall walker sticky things for when you're trying to do something with newborn - get your toddler to throw them at the wall and catch them when they come down. So I've ordered some off Amazon- only about €2.50 for six and free postage. They generally say ages 3+ but I'll not let him at them unsupervised.

dreamstar

One thing that keeps my guy busy for ages is thus wooden board with a house on it. There are all different locks and bolts to open the windows of the house. Don't know what it's called but he loves it.

Also Moana. It's his favourite movie. If I'm desperate I stick it on.
It's so hard coming into the bad weather now coz walks were my saviour. Stupid winter!

greenttc

dreamstar wrote: »

One thing that keeps my guy busy for ages is thus wooden board with a house on it. There are all different locks and bolts to open the windows of the house. Don't know what it's called but he loves it.

Also Moana. It's his favourite movie. If I'm desperate I stick it on.
It's so hard coming into the bad weather now coz walks were my saviour. Stupid winter!

We have that board too dreamstar, ours has six houses/doors and there is an animal behind each one. Its a Melissa and dog toy, think they are called busy boards. They are really good but we had to take ours away from wee man cause it was being used as an unintentional weapon on the baby, he was trying to show it to him but almost plonking it on his head! We will take it out again in another few months