The new rolling ILX parenting thread, since the other one was getting unwieldy

We only have benches in our house, so we needed the chairs.

I'm like famous and shit

You sounded good! Good advice too. Of course when youre the one who is pregnant youve got to get the drinking and sleeping done 9 months before the kid arrives. the day you find yourself standing in the bathroom holding a stick with two stripes sure sneaks up on you.

Thanks, for the high chair suggestions everyone. Id ruled out the ones you put on an existing seat but they do seem to make sense now.

I belatedly agree with the booster-on-existing-seat suggestions, I got some enormo graco model from my mother-in-law and it takes up half my kitchen. Check out the book Baby Bargains from the library, it compares and rates both kinds (and a lot of other items as well); there is a toddler bargains version too. I got a booster but had to return it because it was only rated to 30 lbs, reached long ago. I have that problem with a lot of items unfortunately, this kid is enormous. I think he's 34 pounds now at 20 mos? I know he hit 20 before 6 mos and we had to junk some things (like the car seat) that we expected to use for a year.

Here he is with me recently, I feel like he's going to be taller than me any day now. :)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1104/1121152076_1f2ac748c9_m.jpg

Oh Teeny, your boy lookes so cute. I love his hair. I love his... EVERYTHING. I sometimes wish we could hang out (with the other mini-ILXors and their 'rents). :-)

We bought something like this:
http://www.dreambaby.be/dreambaby/dbad/957212_5.jpg

It's handy but difficult to clean. So much food, crumbs and *shit* gets underneath the cushion. But it's very stable and she loves to sit in it (even when not eating).

hay what do yall think of this

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

It seems like really great, useful advice. It's one of those things that feels intuitive after reading it, but that maybe I wouldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks for posting that!

We are also on the lookout for a highchair... gotta be one with a tray 'cause we are going down the baby-led weaning route. Gonna be messy!

Hi everyone.

Just getting back to the land of the living after Alice's second operation, this one to repair her cleft palate. It went fine and she's very cheerful about the whole thing, but since getting home she just won't sleep (and since she was doing pretty much 8pm to 7am every night before it's been a BIG shock to the system). Also she won't drink liquids at all yet, whether by bottle or cup, so the only way to get milk down her is with a spoon, mixed with solids. Fingers crossed this is all temporary...

Re. high chairs, we just recently got this cheap and cheerful one from Argos which does the job fine (it doesn't fold away but it doesn't take up much room either). We'll probably get a booster type as well at some point.

We have something like this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3754559/Trail/C%24cip%3D1500006108.Toys%2Band%2Bbaby%3EC%24cip%3D1500006115.Baby%2Band%2Bnursery%2Bequipment%3EC%24cip%3D1500006125.Highchairs.htm

Megan seems comfortable in it plus the top bit handily lifts out to become a low chair with the bottom bit flipping round to become a table. It's magic!

Quite at home in hospital:
http://photos-756.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sctm/v121/230/70/632911756/n632911756_214122_8302.jpg

Alice is such a doll!

so happy!

Oh she's gorgeous. Give her a cuddle for me.

Where can I get an adult sized fleecy thing like that?

yay for alice! she looks to be in a perpetual good mood! even when she's not sleeping at night I bet she's hanging out in her cot smiling. and huzzah on the arrival of julia with the amazing eyes!

we have done pretty much all baby stuff on the cheap and been pleasantly surprised at how long it has lasted. we bought the ikea blames wooden high chair in the winter sale back when we still lived in the flat where we ate at the coffee table every night and fed ava in the bumbo on the floor. she was itsy so she could still sit in it at a year old when we moved to a house that had room for a table. that ikea high chair has been fab! we didn't buy the tray but it pushes right up under the table and it's sturdy.

now that lulu's claimed the high chair and to give ava a break from standing on her knees on a big person's chair at the table, we've bought one of those stokke tripp trapp chairs: http://www.stokke.com/functionality.aspna=UK&la=EN&div=C&nr=01&p=TrippTrappFR

it's got the adjustable slats and should last her till she's 10 or so. but it comes with a high-chair bit for babies, if we had it to do over again I'd consider getting it as a high chair. they're outrageously expensive new, but ebay is totally your friend if you're hunting for a tripp-trapp, there are gazillions of them for sale and lots of people spell the name wrong, cutting down on the bidding competition.

if we were made of money, of course, the kids would be kitted out in mozzee nests! all you lottery winners out there will be pleased to know that the eco black nest is back in stock!

http://www.mozzee.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=30

(can you tell I don't know how to put images in here?)

My friend sent me a link to this site, which also seems great if you have money to burn.

we ended up getting this crazy thing:

http://www.coochicoos.com/images/BoonFlair_white_web.jpg

maybe a booster later for grandparent stays.

Man, that is one fantastic booster!

sunny, does that go up and down like a barber chair???

ive never been in a barber chair so i dont know but i can tell you it has a pneumatic lift (that button at the bottom. same thing?

Ha-ha. That's hilarious. Is that some kind of pedal at the back? Does the tray come off? How does it work?

the pedal at the back is the brake. the tray comes off and has dishwasher safe liners.

its basically a boat seat - the padded part is the same material - so it doesnt absorb anything and there arent any nooks and crannies for food to fall into.

Sweet, that's an e-ticket ride right there in the comfort of your own home.

that is a fabtastic high chair! who makes it? am I the only one here who sees great baby stuff and thinks for just a tiny fleeting moment about having another baby just so I can have an excuse to purchase it? it's a disease, I know. in real life I'm trying to declutter like a fiend, giving away babe stuff as fast as it can be outgrown.

Haha craft ho! It's made me think that maybe nagging for a grandchild could have its rewards :)

its made by Boon who make like a total of 5 things

Pam (right?), even now being pregnant, I am sometimes tempted to go for a third, but then I realize that I am not looking forward to the first couple of sleepless months. Certainly now that my husband is getting a job (leaving the shop), I am in serious denial mode about the sleep deprivation. But, honestly, yes, sometimes I think:"Well, three kids would be lovely as well!" But I gotta stick with the plan and that is two kids. Stop. No more.

So who do you give the *clutter* to? I am not sure who to. I don't know anyone who will be delivering after me, so the only option is the daycare. They are very much open to gifts (duh!). Anything from clothes to blankets. Not sure about furniture but I'll ask anyway. It's a bit silly to throw it all away.

I was the one of three and after a million supercramped car vacations and fighting over the treats in the cereal boxes, I think there was an implicit agreement we'd never have three kids of our own when we grew up. our cars were never made for long road trips and you could easily spend 14 hours with your brother's big stinky feet wedged a little bit too close to your nose. much like the pain of labour, I guess my sister forgot about all this, because her third (a girl) is due in about five weeks, yay!

if I was a little bit younger and we had more living space we might think about it, but once we get two or three dogs in the fam (right, mike?) it might be a tight fit in the manse.

in the effort to make more space for the dogs (just wait till I can get both girls to ask dad daily if we can have a dog, he'll crack then for sure, we've already been working on those "language lessons") I have been giving babe clothes to a few friends and rels who are due soon, and the rest are going to the charity shop or to people on the freecycle list who are looking for clothes and toys. it's a shame the kiddie clutter is only a drop in the ocean here.

I do think age has something to do with it. Maybe if I was ten years younger, I'd have gone for a third. Who knows...

Ah a dog. Sadly, and I think it's always a bit morbid when saying this when our doggie is still alive, we won't get any other dogs after Lucy's gone. :-( We don't have the discipline to go for a walk every day and clean up the mess on a daily basis. On top of taht I'm extremely scared of having a new dog, you can never predict their personality. That said, I realize that (for example) Bassets are great dogs for kids. So Mike, get a Basset! :-)

I have just been looking at the websites of two schools in our vicinity. Next year Ophelia has to *enroll* in kindergarten and I want to be prepared. Maybe a bit too early, but I'm due in October and I don't think I'll have the energy to drag myself to a kindergarten the upcoming months when taking care of two kids and running the shop on my own. I feel a bit shocked and saddened at how fast (my) kids grow up. I can still remember being pregnant with Ophelia. Next year she's off to kindergarter. Maybe a third one is in order? ;-)

im not even pregnant with a second one and im thinking about a third. im too old though, i think. too risky. even a second one feels like id be tempting fate right now. ive definitely gone baby crazy though. its hard to imagine a little over a year ago i thought kids were gross and annoying.

ive had some fun reading the old parenting thread (started when O was just 11 days old(!) and louis just 7 weeks awww).
Hello Mudduh Hello Fadduh: ILX Rolling Parenting Thread

Oh good God. I've been battling a pretty intense case of baby fever for the last six months or so until I just read the birth stories towards the end of that thread. I think baby temp has returned to normal, at least for the time being.

Birth stories can do that to you. But don't let them put you off babies forever; birth is a relatively brief event. Plus, there IS pain relief available, you know. ;)

(I say this with absolutely no intention of going through it again myself... but two kids seems to be the max I can handle. Others mileage may vary!)

Two is the max I can handle, and I've got three!

Hmmm, maybe you should loan them each out, one at a time, on a rotating basis!

I do try. Their grandparents never complain about not seeing enough of the kids :)

It's not so bad really, just that tonight I'm on my own and Megan decided she would take 2 hours instead of her usual 30 minutes to go to sleep.

I'm glad we waited until the two boys were at school before having a third, I think three young 'uns at once would have killed me.

ENBB don't let the birth stories put you off! Good births are possible, mine was ace! Water birth at the 'home from home' birth centre which is midwife led, no pain relief! I'm definitely going for a home birth if there is a next time.

It's the colic and seemingly constant feeding that's brought me back down to earth...

There really is a huge range of birth options out there for you. I actually did have a pain-killer free birth with my second (not really my choice, but Julia was in a huge hurry to arrive). And I might even opt to do it that way again. It's really all kind of amazing.

vicky, two words that will save you: GRIPE WATER

mmm gripe water best of all the waters

I'm with vicky, it's not the labour so much as the adjusting to being at home with a babe that eats 24-7 and prefers to keep you up watching crap middle-of-the-night TV instead of lovely afternoon morse repeats that knocks you for six. but if my births had been more difficult I might feel differently - nothing but a tens machine and gas-n-air both times (against my will, I should add, I was always all about getting the big drugs fast but was too far along when I wanted them).

people fear being induced because it's supposed to be more painful but lemme tell you when it finally kicks in it happens really fast and I reckon it may be worth the trade-off. I was in hard drugs-demanding-but-not-getting labour with ava for only about 90 minutes. and only about 10 minutes with lulu (though I was in the hozzie for days before that trying to get the induction drugs to take and battling high BP and having her wee heartbeat monitored because she wasn't growing, which was a real worry). I suppose you never know what you're going to get dealt but if we didn't forget about the pain eventually nobody would ever have more than one kid. I do remember telling mike during lulu labour that if I could go through this he could bloody well deal with a 2-second procedure to get the snip, so there was definitely some pain going on. I've just forgotten it!

lulu never had full-on colic but she stayed congested for weeks and it made it hard for her to sleep. infacol and gripe water didn't seem to help much at night. we eventually started bunching a pillow under her top half so she slept on an incline and that helped a huge amount.

im not even pregnant with a second one and im thinking about a third. im too old though, i think. too risky.

The risk is apparently somewhat exaggerated. My therapist said they overemphasized the risk. Of course you have to be careful, but you have to be at any age anyway.

Oh good God. I've been battling a pretty intense case of baby fever for the last six months or so until I just read the birth stories towards the end of that thread.

I'm less scared now, but still worried because, well, you never know and secondly I'm a total hypochondriac. That said, I know what's in store (if I have a natural delivery). Don't be scared though, even if you're induced, like I was, and bleed like crazy, which I did, it's one of the greatest experiences ever. There's nothing that compares to it. Giving life is such an amazing and surreal experience. Also, it made me laugh with the saying that men are the strong ones. Don't. Let. Me. Laugh. Women are the ones who are strong. :-)

I guess talent runs in the family

I'm pretty sure that's one of Ligeti's Etudes. Great stuff.

I can't believe Pam, when supposedly working, is posting on here giving me the hard-sell on dogs! We have a dog-on-wheels and a pair of Yoshitomo Nara puppy bookends, what more could we need?

HI DERE!!

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/AGF/2794~Beagle-Pup-Posters.jpg

GET THE PUPPY!

A question for everyone: What are your kid's favortite tv shows/dvds/videos etc.

Beeps isnt old enough to have a favorite yet, i guess, so shes forced to watch my favorite:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4316/144082934b633f79603rr8.jpg

my husband objects to wonderpets because one (all?) of them talk with a lisp. I object to Dora because of the SHOUTING! We both like Backyardigans. The kid only likes Maisy. I try not to do too much TV but I try not to worry too much about it either. Today the kid is sick and I am nominating Moose A. Moose for a Nobel Peace prize.

"this is sewious!"

im not sure thats a lisp but its something that probably requires a speech therapist

i haven't heard of moose a moose