[*Ames*]

Thanks guys!

Ok... a bit of info about us... The last year has absolutely flown - I'm sure you'll all agree with me. I was on my brothers laptop yesterday and found some photos from the day Talia was born which i hadn't seen before and i got a bit teary... too cute and it kind of transported me back to the hospital room when my family were visiting and taking the photos. It's so amazing to think that the little girl i look at and play with now was the one that was kicking me and rolling around inside...

Tali is a happy, giggly girl who loves seeing children. It's so funny when we walk past kids at the shops or see them in the street. Talia starts laughing and genuinely acts like she finds them fascinating. I'm the eldest on my side of the family and my siblings don't have kids yet so she's the only baby. My DH's side - my sister in law has 5 kids with another one on the way but we don't get to see them too often as they don't live very close. I own a dance school so she gets to see all the kids at dancing occasionally.

She isn't walking yet but stands on her own and cruises around furniture and crawls like a speed demon. lol She eats anything - so far anyway. I've heard they get to a point where the fussiness kicks in but so far we're lucky that she loves her food.

She doesn't sleep through the night anymore. Hasn't for a long time actually. She goes to bed between 7-8pm but will wake at about 2-3am and doesn't settle all that easy. If i bring her into our bed she goes to sleep straight away and will then wake at about 6-6.30am. I know i've probably created a bad habit but at that time in the morning i'm so tired, my DH is so tired, it's just easy to bring her in with us. It doesn't bother us (yet) as she goes straight to sleep. My GP told me at the 12 month visit that i should start breaking the habit but it's just so hard when i teach at night so i'm crazy tired and then DH's alarm usually wakes me at 5.30am when he gets up. I did try the controlled comforting/crying after the visit... it probably took about 45 minutes for her to settle with me going into her room every 5 mins or so to lay her back down. The next night i was a zombie and couldn't do it. We'll get there i'm sure... i just need to pull my s*** together and deal with being tired for a week or so.

The question of the 2nd bub is in the air. It sucks but timing is a huge factor for us. As the end of the year is a crazy time for me workwise (concert, kids exams etc) there is no way i could be due around that time. September was perfect for Talia. Now though, my sister is getting married in either Oct 2012 or Jan 2013 and I'm maid of honour. I know it's probably quite vain but i don't want to be pregnant at her wedding - a big whale in my dress and waddling down the aisle. lol I can't be due then either. All the focus should be on her so in my mind i'm thinking either trying to fall pregnant this month or Dec. DH isn't 100% on board yet. To be honest, i don't even think i'm 100%. I'd love another baby but can i do it? and then what happens with work next year - i'd have to hire new teachers...? There's no guarantee I'll fall pregnant straight away this time either so that's also in my mind. Maybe i should just stop thinking about it and whatever happens happens?

Anyway, that's a tiny bit of me and my princess Talia.

♥-patricksmum-♥ - Wishing you all the best with #2!! Fingers crossed for you.

wingless_angel - Good luck on your new journey! The first pic is so exciting!

[paddyboo]

Patrick is exactly the same when he sees other kids! He starts squealing, pointing, clapping and laughing. It's quite amuzing. Its not like he doesn;t see other kids, he has 5 cousins nearby and he goes to daycare 2 days a week

This post has been edited by ♥-patricksmum-♥: 02/11/2011, 10:23 AM

[*Ames*]

haha precious moments and traits from little innocent angels.

[mibi]

Hi all,

welcome *Ames*. Your little girl sounds very cute. Good luck with the decision about #2. There's always pros and cons to timing. I had 22mths between my boys and then 3.5yrs between DS#2 and DD. Both have their good and their bad points.

WA - your little bean looks gorgeous. Hope things with DH are improving.

SL - hope you're all feeling better.

We are all going ok. Ella is turning into such a little munchkin! She is mostly down to 1 nap a day, but this morning she slept 10:30-12. So I thought I'd try her with an afternoon nap - she wasn't interested. She was happy enough though, so I left her in there while I got dinner started and when I went in, not only had she thrown her wrappie over the cot and her teddy bears, but she'd also pulled her jeans off and they were on the floor too!I can't believe she's starting that already! She has just started survival swimming lessons and was actually floating on her own for a few moments in her 2nd lesson. But this week she was too cranky. She hates it, but she should be floating quite well by Christmas, if she goes as expected.

Boys are good, although they got stuck into their halloween lollies this afternoon and went nuts on the sugar. I hope they enjoyed them because we won't be doing Halloween again! (Not just because of the excess sugar - but we are Christians, so I don't agree with the whole philosophy, but it was very hard when our neighbours put on a street party and then the kids all went trick or treating together. I think next year we will just have to go for the night.) Jake was reading me his home reader tonight - I can't believe how far he has come in his first year of school! Reading quite well already! I did have a bad mummy moment yesterday though - I forgot he was getting a special award at assembly and missed the presentation. Worst thing was Brad was home and could've made the presentation too, which would've made Jake's day. And the first thing Jake said was "why weren't you there Mummy?"

We are finally clearing out Mum and Dad's house this weekend.

[ness07]

Hi Everyone ,

Im new to this parents group but i used to be in the pregnancy group for sep babies 15th to 30th.

I have a DS called Jacob born 29th of September , he is such a happy little boy and i love him to bits.

Its so nice to see some familiar names are here

Ames: I was reading your post and it sounded very familiar !! my DS Jacob has similar sleep issues. Jacob goes to sleep around 7-8 and will wake at around 11-12 , i usually rock him to sleep in the rocking chair for about 30 minutes to an hour at this stage. Then he will wake again from 2- 4 and at this stage he screams and wants nothing but milk , so i bring him in to bed for a BF. We both go to sleep but i wake up again about 1/2 to 1 hour later to put him back to bed. He then will wake from 6:30 to 7am but lately he is waking up at 5:30 ready to go and has been very unsettled during the day. Since this has been going on for so long and i cant seem to put a stop to it, i have booked someone to come over to help with settling and have also booked trescillian for a 5 day stay., I hope one of these things work! he also wont settle with my husband at all , which makes it harder.

Its so nice to hear all the little ones are doing well !! a belated Happy Birthday to all bubs !! Its amazing how fast that year went !

Take care

Ness

[paddyboo]

welcome ness (& Jacob)! Wow, that must be so hard for you, hopefully tresillian can help

so I have booked Patrick in for an assessment with the speech pathologist. I am hoping they say he is fine but I would never forgive myself if there was a problem and I didn't get it investigated for another year or 2 so he would be that much further behind in him language development. My main concern is the lack of understanding, you would think by now, even if he couldn't say anything, that he would know who mummy and daddy are???!!! Do all the other bubs here say any words, do they have good understanding of things? Can they follow simple instructions (eg come to mummy) or imitate sounds?

other than that, we are still teething, Pat is getting his 2 upper incisors but it is strange, they cut through (just) 10 days ago but haven't come down any more since?! I eventually had to go to the GP to get some stronger pain relief because he was in agony! Anyone ever heard of this? I'm wondering if I should take him to the dentist?

hope everyone is well
sares
xxxx

[mibi]

sares - Ella is only just starting to understand what we say (in the last 1-2 weeks I have noticed a change). And she still doesn't understand that much. This weekend she learnt where her nose is and she will look at the person if we say where is dad, jake, riley, nanna or pa. She doesn't for mummy though! Ella doesn't need to understand "come to Mummy" because she is always following me wherever I go! But I don't think she would. the only words she says are "up" and "there". She also copies "oooh" and can go "uh-oh" but that's it. There is a wide variety of normal for bubs at this age and I saw both with my boys. Jake was diagnosed at 3 with a very mild language delay. Riley was virtually speaking in sentences at 18mths, whereas Jake knew about 4 words and a few animal noises. I wouldn't be worrying yet, personally. Did you get his hearing checked? If you are really concerned it will put your mind at ease, but it is very early days yet for their language development. The guidelines say to expect a bub to say around 10 words at 18months and they are still a while off that.

Teeth seem to move up and down a bit before they fully come down - sometimes it's just from a bit of swelling of the gums but other times it's just because they are still moving around, and settling into the right spot. Ella still only has 6 teeth. She hasn't had any come through for a couple of months now.

Welcome back Ness!

Mum and Dad's house finally settled on Friday so waiting for the cheques to come through so we can pay a nice chunk off our mortgage. Sad and stressful week. Glad it's behind me.

DH and I are off on a date tomorrow night -can't remember the last one. I think it was our wedding anniversary back in February! Yay! Movie and dinner.

[paddyboo]

yeah we had his hearing checked because the MCHN was also concerned and that was fine. I am pretty sure it will be fine and maybe we just need to put more effort into teaching him things and this would be the best result but I just want to make sure. Pat is such a funny little thing in that he won;t practice stuff, he just watches and watches and one day is like "i'm gunna do that" and he does. His first steps he walked 10 steps across the room! I joked with DH the first time he talks will probably be a whole sentence

yeah the teeth thing is weird, it is driving us nuts though!! The GP had no idea, I wondered if I should see the MCHN or the dentist maybe, I have heard of impacted teeth but not this, it isn;t moving up and down it is just sitting there with a little bit poking through, very strange. It wouldn;t bother me but it is obviously causing him agony, he grinds his teeth and pulls at his teeth, cries in his sleep its so hard to watch and not be able to do anything

Have fun on date night occbee!!! DH and I have been trying to have DVD date night once a week which is nice

[forosoco]

hi everyone and welcome to the newbies!

i haven't had a chance to write lately but have been reading everything. we're doing ok here. jesse isn't walking yet and i don't see it happening very soon, but he has started to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time and is cruising around everywhere. as long as he walks by christmas i'll be happy! DD only walked at 16.5 months so that would be an improvement for our family!

i feel like we've been going going going for weeks now and it's not gonna end anytime soon! december is always huge for us because apart from xmas and chanukah (my family is jewish, DH's has christmas) we also have DD's b'day, my b'day, DH's b'day and our wedding anniversary. plus 2 other family b'days as well. this year i feel like we've started even earlier than usual with preparations! plus we have 3 separate xmas celebrations because DH's sister will be overseas over xmas so we'll have an early xmas celebration with her family, then xmas day with DH's grandmother and aunt and then boxing day with his dad. it's all very confusing!

but anyway... i'm excited for jesse to be have all this excitement because he'll at least understand things a bit more this year. he's not getting very exciting presents but he just loves opening things so i'm sure he won't care! there are way too many toys in this house so he's getting pyjamas and a new drink bottle from us and santa, and then when DH's family asked what he'd like we said he loves and towels! haha. poor jesse!

[Allymeg69]

Hi everyone, I feel like I've been away for ages, have been reading too but not finding time to reply.

Ames and Ness, lovely to know a bit more about you and your little ones, I do hope the sleep issues get better for you soon, I am just so thankful we have a very good sleeper - if he doesn't sleep well it's a sure sign something is wrong (as over the last week - more on that later)

Occbee, that must have been really hard, finalising the property, I hope you are feeling OK and that you enjoyed your "date night".

Foro, you'll probably find Jesse surprises you one day, and just takes off! I know what you mean about feeling like you've just been going going going, we've been doing a bit of it here too, and now I look at the diary and see how close we are to Christmas, AAGGH! We're doing Xmas up here with all the kids, then going to Sydney for New Year just with Alex to see all my rellies and friends. My mum rang yesterday to ask me to let her know some ideas for presents, that is SO hard, we really don't need anything much and anything they do get us we'll have to transport back from Sydney after Xmas, oh well thinking cap will have to go on.

Sares, from what you've said about Patrick before it does really sound like he is the kind of kid who just quietly absorbs everything, and then just surprises you by doing rather than practising, so it might well be the same for his apparent understanding of what you say. Will be interested to know the outcome of your investigations though. Re the teeth, Alex was a bit the same, they'd cut through then sit, I don't think his top teeth have really come as far as they can yet, and they've been there a few months now.

Wingless, are you out there? Thinking of you and hoping you are keeping well and that all is OK with Zara, Claire and little bean.

AFU - phew, a busy time. Had a great Melbourne Cup lunch out with DH, a real treat, even though we didn't win anything. That all seems like a long time ago now. We had a nice weekend away fishing two weekends ago, Alex is getting so curious on the boat, loves seeing the fish, and we've found a very effective use for a walker-harness, keeping him from getting up on the sides! We had my step-kids for a few extra days last week, as their mum had to go off urgently interstate with her partner, then they went to their aunty's place while we went away to Perth for my BIL's 50th, and we got them back again on Sunday night, will be glad when they go back to their mum this Thursday, they are good kids and I love them but wow, it's full on sometimes, not naughty, just non-stop talking mostly!

It was lovely to be able to see my SIL and 2 BILs plus FIL & MIL and assorted friends in Perth, the party theme was "Hunters and Gatherers", I found Alex this cute little camoflague outfit (see pics on FB if you are a friend). Unfortunately Alex was a bit off colour while we were there, running a temperature on and off, we thought it was just teething (and he was getting some, 2 new uppers are through, but towards the back, a gap of one space on either side from the front four to the new ones, 2 new lowers are just about here). However Monday morning when I was dressing him to go to creche I discovered a rash all over his body and it also appeared across his face so off to the doc. Apparently it was some sort of virus, nothing dangerous but he has stayed home yesterday and today as well, has the all clear to return to creche tomorrow, and meanwhile I've been struggling to do a bit of work from home. He has been sleeping quite a bit to catch up, his sleep was really broken and poor for several days. I hate it when my little man is sick!

We have also found out that he has a perforated left ear-drum, he had no outward signs of it, but ear-checks at creche found it at the start of November, and I got the doc to look at it on Monday, he said it is actually quite large and I have referrals for an audiogram and ENT specialist, but have just been told it could be 6-8 weeks before we can get the audiogram done!!!! Currently trying to find out if there is any way to speed that up. I don't think he has a major problem with his hearing, he certainly responds to us and understands, and he is making more and more sounds that are much more like proper words, but it is still something that needs to be dealt with.

OK that's enough of an essay for now, better make a pretence of doing some work while Alex is sleeping. Keep well everyone,
Ally