Peekaboo!

The baby is 8 1/2 months old and is developing so quickly and has a really cheeky personality. He now plays peekaboo with me in the car. He sits in the passenger seat and hides his face in the side of his car seat, then peeps out, looks at me and laughs his head off.

The patience of a saint?

The end of another rained-out bank holiday weekend. Despite living in one of the rainiest cities in the UK, there is so little to do with young children on rainy days. It is particularly difficult when you are trying to entertain 2 girls aged 8 and 9 and two boys aged 2 and three quarters and 8.5 months.

Sunday morning was spent at Head Over Heels, our staple rainy day haunt and the afternoon was spent in and around the house, which was OK as a birthday tea was on the menu. Then Monday morning we ventured to the park, only to be rained out after 10 minutes. A lot of TV-watching later and we set off again...this time for the Museum of Science and Industry. Us and just about every other family in Manchester with children under 12.

The girls seemed to enjoy it and were particularly impressed with the view it offered of Granada Studios and the filming of Coronation Street. Equally, my toddler was very happy to be there, but can only concentrate on something for about 3 seconds before he's distracted. Hence, I spent an hour following him around from exhibit to exhibit, alternating between trying to persuade him to wait his turn and consoling the baby (in the pushchair with the buggy board attached), who currently starts balling whenever I am out of view.

The real fun began however, when I announced it was time to go. This was not welcome news to a tired toddler and I was forced to carry him kicking, punching and screaming all the way back to the car. Luckily my friend took control of the pushchair or I would have been in all sorts of trouble. It was she who declared that I had 'the patience of a saint' as I managed not to lose it despite being beaten black and blue (yes a few more bruises have appeared this morning). I put this down to the fact that having two young girls to stay has made my weekend so much easier as they have entertained/looked after/played with my toddler and allowed my often low tolerance levels to remain relatively high!

I am also learning that no matter how bad a tantrum appears, it will be over as soon as we have moved on to the next location or activity...once I got the toddler into the car, gave him a cuddle ("I NEED A TUDDLE AND TISS!") and set off, he started making faces and noises at the baby who giggled manically all the way home. All 3 of us arrived home with smiles on our faces.

Another year goes by...

Today is my birthday. I have now been on this planet for an almighty 38 years. How did I get so old. Managed to pick up a (luckily) rare cold over the past few days and woke up this morning with a streaming nose and a sty in my left eye. Is this what the next year has in store for me!!?

After checking on the baby, the first person I saw this morning was my toddler. 'Say happy birthday to mummy,' I said. 'Today is my birthday.' Upon which he burst into hysterical floods of tears and started screaming 'MY birthday. MY birthday.'

Luckily, I have a good friend and her two daughters staying for a few days. The girls are 8 and 9 years old, so perfect 'looking after toddler' age! And the friend turned up last night with flowers and champagne and this morning sang happy birthday and gave me a lovely present. To top it all, she has now taken the toddler and her 2 girls out for half an hour, giving me some respite whilst the baby is having a nap.

My partner took the opportunity of her visit to play some golf and have a rare night out with one of his mates in Leeds, so I missed out on breakfast in bed, a soothing bath, a relaxing massage, complete and undivided attention...sorry, I was daydreaming for a moment. With 2 children under 3, I can't remember the last time I had a bath...getting time to shave my legs in the shower is no mean feat!

The baby did mark the occasion with his third tooth. His first appeared at 6 months (bottom right), his second at 7 months (bottom left) and now the top left has broken through the gum today. Hoorah.

Another week goes by...

It's Wednesday again and again I haven't written a word since posting 3 times last Friday. I either simply don't find the time or when I have a spare 5 minutes, I don't have the inspiration or inclination!

On a roll

Since I seem to be in the blogging mood today, thought I'd just take a moment to say that whilst my children are no doubt challenging and new challenges arise every day, they are also the funniest, most beautiful, clever, loving, entertaining and inspiring little people and I would not change them for anything. I have more laughs, cuddles and kisses than I have had at any other point in my life and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Sleep training

"Don't be frightened to try such methods as controlled crying and sleep training..." A direct quote from a very timely piece of direct mail which arrived from Pampers today - all about 8-month old babies and sleep. As it happens, I decided against buying a new cot to sort out the baby's sleep problems and my first plan was to simply sleep with him for as long as it took. Unfortunately, that didn't work either as he wouldn't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time and was very restless from 4.00am, eventually getting up at 6.00am. So still, neither of us were getting any sleep.

It seemed my only and very last resort was the dreaded controlled crying. We eventually did this with our first son when he was 11 months old and it only took one night and he has slept from 7 til 7 almost every night since (touch wood). So I know it works, but really, really, really didn't want to have to do it again.

Having run out of choices however, three nights ago I put the baby down to sleep, put my toddler to bed and waited for the baby to wake again. When he did (at 8.07pm), I left him for 10 mins, then went to check him for 2 mins, left him for 10 mins, went to check him for 2...and after 1 hour and 5 mins of desperate screaming that pulled at every cell in my body, he went to sleep...and slept until 6.40am.

The second night I was to leave him for 20 minute intervals and after waking at 8.07 again, 2 visits to check him and 50 minutes of screaming, he settled to sleep until 6.55am.

Last night, he slept until 9.22pm (its amazing how you count the minutes when attempting this) and then cried for 18 minutes before sleeping until 6.15 this morning. I didn't even get to the checking point.

Let's hope that we get to only 10 minutes or preferrably no minutes of screaming tonight.

But the laughs keep coming

Coming home from nursery last night, I had the following conversation with my eldest (aged two and three quarters):

Him: 'What am I doing tomorrow?'
Me: 'What would you like to do?'
Him: 'Go to nursery.'
Me: 'No, you don't go to nursery on Fridays. What else would you like to do?'
Him: 'Me go to nursery.'
Me: 'No, not tomorrow. Don't you want to play with mummy and the baby?'
Him: 'Me go to nursery. Daddy said yes.'
Me: 'Daddy's been away at work all week, so he didn't say that.'
Him: 'Yes he did. You a dumbo!'

And they say children tell the truth!

Is there ever enough time?

My last post was nearly a month ago. It comprised 23 words and is the only posting since 30 March. What happens to time? And where do I start?

A brief update of what has happened in that time (I will fill in some of the details later - provided I get time of course!!):

Went to stay with my mum in Wales for 2 weeks, but the baby wouldn't sleep so came back after a week, when he was firmly ensconced in my bed, waking every 2 hours for (breast) milk and I had severe sleep deprivation.
Managed to get him back into his cot and attempted to introduce bottles in the night - he took a full bottle 2 nights running and then flatly refused to have a bottle anywhere near him again. At least he's not being fed in the night anymore.
Didn't stop the night waking though and 2 weeks ago we set off for a holiday in Cornwall with him still waking a number of times in the night, often for 2 hours at a time.
Unbelievably, on hols he woke a couple of times a night for the first 5 nights and slept through thereafter.
Came back home on Saturday full of hopes and plans for all the things I was going to do -
see friends, start exercising, post to my blog every day, maybe venture on a night out - and he's stopped sleeping again...he appears to hate his very expensive and beautiful cot bed and matching bedroom...he far prefers either sleeping in my arms as I sit in the chair in his room or snuggling up in my bed (I have conceded defeat both of the last 2 nights after wakings every half an hour or so!).
What to do? I am so tempted to buy a cheap cot like the one they had at the holiday house - it was little and he liked to hold on to the round spars at the sides...maybe he used them as a comforter...again, what about the beautiful expensive comforter that I bought before he was born?...not good enough apparently!
Whilst this does seem like a ridiculous strategy, I would currently do anything for some sleep. Tonight I am going to have to try the dreaded sleep training (aka controlled crying) and see if that works. If not, I will be off to IKEA tomorrow morning and building a new cot tomorrow afternoon!
And at the same time as all this, we have reached the 'terrible two and a halfs' with our eldest son. I never realised how easy it is to fight with a toddler. I start every day vowing that its not going to happen and by 9.30am I am threatening him with all sorts if he does not do this or that.
Oh how I wish I could chill out!