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

Even snot can be cute!

Poor thing, my lot are all full of colds at the moment too. Something satisfying about doing a good job of picking out their crusties, isn't there?

Lulu is a mucus machine right now; Ava seems to be on the mend. I'd be home with them but for the fact that the rest of my department is ill too...

Here's a little series entitled Autumn With Ava...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/1707232755_c89eeab796.jpg

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Awww, poor Alice! Aidan has a cold too, but fingers crossed isn't as snotty as that.

Lovely fall/autumn photos! There's something very pleasing about bundling Aidan up to go outside, in cute coats and hats.

Ophelia still has a runny nose, but at least no more ear and throat infection. YAY.

She's been expanding her vocabulary and grammar skillzzzz at rapid speed (mostly thanks to my mother who's keen to teach her new things). First sentence she used: "You 're not allowed!" (to Lucy, our dog, because she likes to steal O's cookies).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2053/1727290497_d65a312bc3.jpg

She went to the beach yesterday, with my parents. :-)

it's been too long since I've visited here, all these beautiful babes cheer the soul, don't they? poor alice's nose! lulu's got a snot fountain going on 24-7 too, she's finding eating and drinking a challenge since she can't breathe well with anything in her mouth. it's good to see folks getting autumnal! there's nothing better than kids in a pumpkin patch. we're getting in the halloween mood ourselves and made scarecrows this morning:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2292/1730140599_749f4784cf.jpg

I was trying to make our scarecrows friendly instead of scary (friendcrows? maybe not) so they wouldn't freak out the younguns coming to lulu's halloween birthday bash on saturday, but in retrospect faceless = scary. adjustments will have to be made.

we do have another daughter besides ava, she's just too fast to get snapped lately. I put lulu down next to ava and our faceless galpals about 10 times today but by the time I'd backed up again to take the photo she had already powercrawled over to my feet. but she digs autumn too, I can tell by the way she was eyeing my candy corn breakfast of champions this morning.

about the teeth, I happen to be fond of the gap! I won't be all that sad if ava keeps it for a while. who didn't envy the pool kids who could shoot a perfect arc of water through the gap in their teeth?

lulu is about to turn 1?? that went by quick!

too quick! the year has been one big blur. and I'm so conscious of the fact that with the eldest tasmanian devil to look after who doesn't take afternoon naps any more, I don't get much one-on-one time with lulu at all. I'm really looking forward to january when I'm doing mum-n-tot swimming classes with them both - the leisure centre I just joined has a creche, so you can drop one off at the creche for an hour while you do a swimming lesson with the other one. can't wait!

when we were at the leisure centre joining up, we went to the cafe which has big glass floor-to-ceiling windows that look onto the pools and ava said she needed a wee. I had no idea where the loos were but I had the porta-potty with me so she dropped trou and sat down right there to do a wee in front of an entire swimming class of kids who looked about 7-8. they all literally fell over laughing and pointing at ava. not that she minded, thankfully. when do they start to get embarrassed about things, I wonder?

I haven't been on this thread for ages! How do you all find the time to post so much with young children??

Madeleine Alice was born on 1 July so she is already more than three months old; I can't believe it!

Here she is at a few days old:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1028/714691342_7bb8213ff8.jpg?v=1183551651

and here's one of her showing off her red hair with dad:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1366/1462322422_46204faf99.jpg?v=0

Congratulations to Vicky and all those others who've had babies recently - I guess Nath must be due any minute so good luck with that.

I'm going to make sure I check this thread more regularly, so many great photos.

Any minute? Yep. Tomorrow is my due date. *sigh*

Also, be warned: Miffy will TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE if you don't watch it. O is obsessed with Miffy and Hello Kitty. :-)

Hi Nath! Good luck with that...

We went to Amsterdam just before M was born so we already have many Miffy things and we are going to Japan in a couple of weeks so I guess the Hello Kitty avalanche is on its way!

You went to Japan when O was quite small didn't you? How was that? How are things like breastfeeding in public looked on there? I am going without her dad as he'll already be there so any tips on surviving an 11-hour plane trip with a four-month old will be welcome (not sure whether I am mad to even contemplate it but...).

I haven't done this thread for too long either. Anyway:

Hannah is Sharpay.

Oh my god. That viseo is amazing. SO CUTE!

Thanx. She is in serious High School Musical mode at the moment.

You went to Japan when O was quite small didn't you? How was that? How are things like breastfeeding in public looked on there? I am going without her dad as he'll already be there so any tips on surviving an 11-hour plane trip with a four-month old will be welcome (not sure whether I am mad to even contemplate it but...).

Trust me you'll do fine. She was already about a year old and by that time I wasn't breastfeeding anymore. (I stopped around ten months.) But our employee went when her baby was just a few months old and now again with her second baby being a month old. Y'know, I think it is actually easier when the child is a baby, it's not as if s/he will know s/he's on a plane. That said, of course take-off and landing might create some problems due to changing of altitude. I did the horrible mistake of loading Ophelia up with food PRIOR to landing which caused her to do some multiple projectile vomiting. ROFFLE. Otehr than that it wasn't a problem at all. She wanted to crawl, so I let her. She didn't want to sleep in the crib, so I took her and let her sleep on my shoulder. I didn't get much sleep, but I didn't care.

In Japan they don't really breastfeed in public, but according to my mum they have a lot of rooms where you can breastfeed. (I didn't notice this, but I'm sure she's right.) Japan is very much pro-breastfeeding so don't worry if you don't find a place: it won't be frowned upon if you do it in public. Even if they would mind, they won't gawk are you, that's just not in them to do such a thing. :-) (Funny story, my mum once saw a six year old lift his mum's top to suck on her nipple!!!! On the metro!!! WTF!!!!!)

Don't fret, just go to Japan!!!! Be assured, you'll have a lot of people going:"OH KAWAI AKACHAN!" (Cute baby.) :-)

Oh, ask for a crib before you go on the plane. Another tip: maybe breastfeed while taking off and landing, it makes the change of altitude much easier on the baby. It's like chewing gum and swalling for us: it makes our ears pop (or however you say it). :-)

True about babies being easier when traveling than toddlers. E. went to Florida when she was 5 months old and had absolutely no problem. Then she went to Seattle just before she turned 1, and that was a miserable experience. There's no way I'd take her 3-year-old self on a plane now (or her sister, who's going to be 2 in December).

I'm still dithering over whether to take (2.5-y-o) Ava on a long train journey to see her grandma in a couple of weeks. It happens to be a day when the West Coast mainline is riven with engineering works so I've actually booked to Birkenhead North (walking distance from the homestead) with three changes of trains cos it's quicker than going to Liverpool. Aside from the backpack of supplies/porta-potty/her clothes and the lack of any time to myself, I just wonder about keeping her occupied (and not chasing up and down the aisles) in that environment for so long (the longest leg going up = 2 hours, but coming back = 3.5 hours). I may need another backpack for the books...

take the kid on the train, michael jones! your wife might like a break from 2-tot-wrangling and trust me, your daughter will love the train trip. she's better behaved these days than you think. but as a biased party needing a break from 2-tot-wrangling I would say that.

today I just needed a quick dart into the post office from a parking space nearby so I didn't bother putting the buggy together, I just carried lulu and let ava walk. and she didn't run away from me once and she put all the candy back when I asked her to when it was time to go. (mark steel from telly was behind us in the queue, perhaps she was starstruck?). the train seems easy to me compared to a plane, I salute all you jetsetting parents.

you tube isn't cooperating and I can't see the hannah video, boo hiss!

also, congrats on the arrival of madeleine alice, she's a beauty!

yay! maddy a. so beautiful. All these babies are beautiful!

here's a vid of beeps looking not so beautiful as she suffers through a dinner of green beans. added bonus: me making the stupid noises i have to sometimes make to get her to open her mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-RHtyQPxgE

and some pics

beeps and her friend the horse dog:

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5100/beepsandverucalb1.jpg

just beeps:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4914/beepsinthesunuz7.jpg

once again beeps does not disappoint in the cuteness stakes. did you try to get a picture of her riding that fab unnaturally ginormous dog?

we went to a friend's house today where about six crazed 2.5-year-olds and their baby siblings all regularly meet for lunch and fighting over toys, and her jack russell was all over lulu like she had baby food smeared on her face or something. lulu was in dog heaven.

OMG Beeps is soooo cute. <3

<3 <3 <3

How much does she look like PP?? Holy moly.

Thanks for the Japan tips. I'm sure it will be fine & I'm looking forward to it actually.

Cute picture with the dog!

We went to the SF POM (parents of multiples) Halloween party in a park today. Here are a couple of snaps:

Ben as a chicken:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2045/1780859694_efe4d44ed5.jpg

Owen as a swinging turtle:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/1780014721_2df2643615.jpg

Much cuteness all round! And congrats on Madeleine liz!

Alice eyes up an unsuspecting friend's drink:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2185/1799058910_896b40dc45.jpg?v=0

A cunning plan is hatched:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2219/1798193457_6526f472f3.jpg?v=0

Success!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/1798193461_4818521f13.jpg?v=0

All Alice needs now is a white persian cat to pet while she hatches her schemes.

chicken and turtle twins look cute! do they eat candy yet?

Oh look at Alice! She's also dressed so adorable. Those tights! That skirt!

Ophelia is sick again! She's been good for a week or two but has a cold again. :-( Poor thing. I guess it's normal, but damn building up that immune system is really not that much fun for her. Apparently I was rarely if ever sick as a kid which frightened my mum. hah! Then when I was about 15 I was sick all the time (chickenpox! ear infections! lots of other things!)

I went on the monitor for the second time. On wednesday they'll be inducing the delivery. Hurrah? Yeah, but also frightening prospect. :-)

I'm willing to bet that from the time your contractions start to when the baby is born will be under 4 hours.

Good luck nath! Here's hoping nature takes its course before Wednesday...

But I was induced and it wasn't that bad (not that I have anything to compare it to!)

how long was it from first contraction to delivery for you archel?

http://www.appelstein.com/rake.jpg

raking leaves this weekend.

I THINK I got my first proper contractions about 1am, and Alice was born at 6.25am. So yeah, not long!

I only had the prostin to induce, didn't progress to needing my waters broken or the oxytocin drip. It's the drip which is meant to make labour more sudden and so more painful, I think? But mine felt sudden enough - I didn't have any gentle build-up contractions at all, just instant agonising ones.

yeah me too! for me the first contraction was at about 10:30am (actually the first few showed on the monitor but i didnt feel a thing - about an hour later it started to hurt) through 6:30pm when beats was born BUT i had one hold up that nath wont have and i took 3 hours to deliver her because i refused to push the right way out of fear id go number 2 on the delivery table. :(

inducements seem relatively quick

So you two had to do "everything?" I mean, I had (natural) contractions with Ophelia but the rest they needed to induce (so also breaking my water and *opening the hatchet* har har). The total amount of hours? Uh, 27 hrs? Something like that. I have read that inducing is more painful. So uh EPIDURAL PLEASE.

I have to be at the hospital at 7:30. They'll do a "lavement" (cleaning of... sorry to be so blunt... bowels). Urgh. The previous time they also give me one (a pill which I had to shove up where the sun doesn't shine hahaha) but I felt so awkward - as the toilet was an open one in the room - that I didn't do much. hahaha TMI anyone?

good luck nathalie! I was induced both times (two weeks late with ava, two weeks early with lulu, with oxytocin gel rather than a drip) so I don't know any other way but induction gets two thumbs up from me. if it's going to hurt like hell I'm all for being in the express lane.

however long it takes you're soon to have another gorgeous girl for your troubles, can't wait to see the pictures!

Sunny, I read a memoir of an L&D doctor who called that the "positive poop sign" and used it as an inducement to get teh mommas to push the RIGHT way! Hmmm. I wonder if the enema or similar is actually helpful in freeing people up to push, or if it's just ONE MORE INDIGNITY on poor body in labor.

I was in labour so bloody long without really eating anything that there was nothing to come out by the time it came to push. My friend had warned me that she hadn't pushed like the midwife told her too and ended up having a forceps delivery because she wasn't pushing properly, so I made sure that I did!

good luck Nath! Got everything crossed that it goes quickly and well and we'll be waiting for fluff of you're new little one!

Our baby is away at college and is sick, and I'm all sad because I can't take care of her.

God. Getting old and having your kid grow up is... hard. Better than the alternative, though.

Howie had first proper fever yesterday, v worrying (especially after I Googled 'meningitis symptoms', BAD idea) but much better this morning.

Sending good birthing vibes Nath's way, looking forward to meeting the new arrival!

It never ends, Meg. My baby is 19 and when she reported cold/flu-like symptoms yesterday my first panicked thought was "OMIGOD! They get meningitis at college and DIE!"

*headdesk*

awww...she'll be fine, I'm sure.

Hey, any more Halloween kid pics? Beeps was the only kid in daycare not dressed up today :( BAD MOM

happy halloween, everybody! here are some pics from lulu's halloween birthday bash on saturday, when bee and cat put aside their claws/stingers and felt the love.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2123/1810767746_a787980352.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2159/1809930679_5f67cdb917.jpg

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tonight, on actual halloween, ava wouldn't put the bee gear back on and lulu's catsuit was in the wash for our trick-or-treat excursion to two nearby friends' houses. instead ava wore a ladybug hat and antennae (she told me at dinner she was a "ladybug monster, rrrr") and lulu went as a baby.

OMG! so gorgeous!