Skyline Drifter

Midwife appointments? Or ante-natal clinic appointments? I'm not entirely sure how often the wife saw midwives, she used to pop into her doctor's surgery on a Wednesday for that. I think she went every couple of weeks or so. I'm presuming you actually mean appointments up at the maternity hospital to have scans, check progress properly, etc? First one we were up a lot but we were deemed high risk with our history and they kept a very close eye on us. We certainly had appointments at 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks, 20 weeks, and about every 4 weeks thereafter I think. After that pregnancy went without a hitch when Steven came along we were downgraded to "normal" and very struck by how little we were then asked to attend. I think we had a 12 week scan, 20 weeks then nothing until into the 30's. In some respects it was quite reassuring that they were confident there was no need for detailed monitoring second time around (and it also duly went without a hitch). I would think policy will differ from hospital to hospital but if it's not your first and there's no history of problems they won't want to see you very often. You can always request to see them more often if you want though I don't know how co-operative they'd be if they felt it was unnecessary. We certainly were always told if we wanted an earlier appointment it wouldn't be a problem.

Does she nap at all during the day? As I've said before, we used to let Thomas fall asleep in his own time before taking him to bed. That tended to be sometime between 9pm and 10pm though it was occasionally beyond that. He sleeps right through to 7:30am normally from that but he also tends to take a nap of up to an hour mid morning and mid afternoon. That routine worked fine for us and would possibly still be going but for the arrival of Steven meaning we've got a little more rigid with Thomas. He's going to bed at 9pm on the dot now and doesn't seem too bothered about it. We may try to ease that back to 8:30 after a while too. We'll see. He tends to be hyper in the early evening though so I can't believe he'd happily settle down at 7pm or particularly close to it. He doesn't have a dummy or any particular comforter though. He used a dummy briefly from shortly after he was born until he was maybe 3 or 4 months but he was never that bothered by it and we quickly discarded it. Hopefully Steven will be the same. He uses one now but he doesn't seem to like it much and doesn't keep it in for long.

I'm not sure particularly why he should or who is going to do anything better? It's a fact that outside of Murray we're honking at tennis (at least at singles tennis - Fleming and Skupski are a half decent doubles pair). There's no real excuse for losing to Lithuania right enough but it's not Lloyd's fault especially if Murray chooses not to play (and I can see the point, at this level what is the point in having Murray destroy some semi-amateur, we're not playing for honour here, we may as well give game time to the other players). You can change the coach if you like but he won't magically have any better players to pick from.

I think there's probably a happy medium somewhere but to be honest that hasn't been a major issue for us so far. Thomas hasn't really complained much about any of his teeth coming through (and he now has eight). Couple of nights when he's woken crying or screaming but even they may have been coincidental for all I know. We gave him some calpol last night and not a note from him till he got up this morning. Neither has he ever whined much when put to bed. We used to just let him sit up as long as he wanted with us downstairs to fall asleep when he was ready (which tended to be 9:30 - 10pm though occasionally later) but since Steven arrived he's been getting put to bed at 9pm. Occasionally cries for 2 or 3 minutes but then you don't hear him again. Steven so far is a much more needy baby in that generally if he's awake, and not feeding, then he's crying. But he's only three weeks old today so we'll see how that carries on. We've certainly found that routine works well for us though. EDITED to add - If anyone's interested, last night was a MUCH better night and I got almost eight hours solid sleep! Wife was up for two hours in the middle of the night but even she got eight hours in two stints. Could cope no bother if they were all like last night. Would be driven insane fairly soon if they were all like Saturday night was!

What a feckin' awful day! Got about four hours sleep last night after Steven decided not to settle until after 2am and then Thomas woke screaming at 4:45am. Got him settled again but he was up at 7am. And BOTH of them have spent most of the day screaming their heads off, in Thomas' case probably because another two teeth have appeared. It's taken two hours to give each of them their dinner too. Time to start bathtime routines now. Better get them to sleep earlier tonight.

Cheers. Just got him down to sleep in his cot which is why I'm sitting nearby with the pc on to see if he settles. He got loads of clothes and a couple of books etc and a big box of heliium balloons that play 'Happy Birthday' to him that he thinks are great.

Mmm. Out of curiosity I did the following: Checked the properties of the photo posted to find it's from Britax's own website. Followed that to find the actual product on the manufacturer's website. Clicked on the tab next to the photo on that website that says "Instructions & User Guides" Got to Page 3 where it says: Seat is suitable for use in front passenger seat but if the vehicle has an airbag, the front seat should be slid all the way back or nearly so and instructions of the vehicle manufacturer should be observed. So technically yes it can but I'd guess almost all vehicle manufacturers recommend you don't.

Yeah. Finding it hard to believe that one of the first things it says in the accompanying literature is not whether or not it's safe to be used with a front seat airbag in the UK. They all seem to spell that sort of thing out straight away in BIG letters.

We haven't really had to deal with two screaming children at the same time yet. I expect it will happen sooner or later. Thomas slept right through the night last night even when his brother awoke in the next room. We took him downstairs fairly quickly though and although there were a couple of screaming fits down there he's not all that loud yet and I doubt the noise carried much into Thomas's room. It's a pain having to deal with these four hourly feeds again by the way. I thought we were past all that. Hopefully not for too long and so far Steven doesn't appear to be anything like as jaundiced as Thomas was so the rigidity of the feeding pattern doesn't have to quite so militarily observed.

We didn't win anything last year! Steven's conception was just extraordinary luck. We discussed whether we wanted to stop at one and decided that we didn't especially want to so took no measures to prevent it happening. However, given the long list of problems and heartbreaks we had on the way to Thomas and given our respective ages we really didn't expect anything to happen so soon if at all. Neither of us wants a third particularly so there will be no more unless it's some sort of accident!

......and extremely vital.

Thomas will be 1 on Friday. The birthdays are four days apart (and are in my signature incidentally )

I deny everything (except when it suits me to claim that he was named after our first ever Cup Final scorer!). The man himself has already texted me claiming that I've named him after him. "Steven" is after nobody in particular. I've always liked it and though it took a bit of negotiation with the wife, there's no more to it than that. "John" is after my dad and my maternal grandad, both of whom are / were John.

Steven John Lithgow Born at 16:46 this afternoon after a very long 22 hours in labour. 8lbs 10ozs. Thanks to all for the good wishes.

Congratulations. Maybe. Or maybe I am. It's our second child but I took Thundermonkey's post to imply we've had problems with false starts and delayed labour before when in fact we haven't.

Yes, I'm aware of it. They weren't gone for long. She got about 40 minutes sleep maybe but they are back. Mostly 10 - 15 mins apart and lasting just under a minute.

Mm, she hasn't had a contraction for over 20 minutes now and has managed to fall asleep. Perhaps a false start after all then. If there isn't anything in the next half hour or so I'll try to get some sleep myself. EDITED to add: Not going to be a Valentine's baby then.

This time? There hasn't been a previous time. Two days overdue. And I've nothing better to do at the moment than sit here on the pc timing contractions. Not regular enough or frequent enough for them to want us to come in yet.

Congratulations. Effective early labour pain means No 2 is probably due imminently! Or maybe not........... We shall see.

Ditto. Except I did see Fudge's post. I've seen worse. But it was complained about and removed. If other posts headed the same way they should have had the same done. Most of the thread should have wound up in the Gold forum frankly.

Nothing significant about today's date, just today is fairly convenient in terms of not having to cancel things. I had work to do yesterday that couldn't wait a fortnight for instance so I was pleased to get that done before it all "kicked off". If I hadn't I'd have had to come in next week regardless of paternity leave. Also on a purely selfish basis if No 2 would arrive today or tomorrow I probably wouldn't have to miss the football at the weekend. I also have a funeral to attend tomorrow in a different town 20 miles away which I'd rather not miss ideally (and don't really want to have to sit with my phone on in the church either). Generally speaking in terms of an impending fortnight off, the sooner the better. If any of that starts to get into March it will cause work issues. I don't have any other February work that can't wait though. Thomas arrived after about 6 or 7 hours of labour but he was induced and I believe that tends to make things slightly quicker. His birthday is February 19th so No 2 arriving on the same day would be very convenient in some ways but I don't think Mrs SD would be happy to be still in this state for an extra week!

No. Still waiting. Officially due Friday. She was getting a "tightness" and cramping this morning that may or may not be the early stages of contractions. She's not really sure. As she was induced last time she's never gone into labour naturally so isn't sure what to look for. I'm at work and there's been no panicking phone calls yet though. Today would be a good day for it all to happen actually. Hope it does.

On the contrary, he was no better at all this morning so Mrs SD decided he was going to the doctor just for a wee check up and rather than the expected, "aye he'll be miserable for a day or two, just keep an eye on him" they actually decided to have him whisked up to the paediatrics ward at the Infirmary where they opted to admit him! To be honest, I think they were just being better safe than sorry. They checked him over, ruled out anything else, took his temparature, pulse and oxygen levels, all of which were fine, and then put him on a "little and often" liquid diet as well as giving him some biscuits and calpol which is basically what he'd have gotten at home. He was a bit brighter at tea time and and drank a few ounces of milk so they've let him home again and he is much brighter back in his own surroundings now. He's scoffed a whole banana just half an hour ago and is heading for bed shortly so thankfully he appears on the mend. What a crappy week it's been though. Congratulations

Yeah I know. He was tried on a wee bit jelly later on and has since thrown that back up. He's actually gotten more miserable as the day wore on. He looked ok this afternoon. He's not actually as ill as he was yesterday but he appears more miserable about it, maybe because he's hungrier? And he's not sleeping properly now. Instead of his usual hour in the afternoon he's had a few ten minute cat naps. He also woke twice tonight when we thought he was away to sleep properly. That isn't like him. Neither is the fact he didn't enjoy his bath. He has finally gone to sleep about 8:30 and we've left him with his gran. She may have a long night........

Mrs SD much improved today. She hasn't tried a full meal but she's eating and drinking ok and hasn't been sick since yesterday afternoon. She's still a bit weak and tired though. Thomas is looking better today and hasn't been sick at all (and his one dirty nappy was a normal looking one, not liquid). He's obviously not right though, a bit "gurney" and generally miserable looking. He's slept off and on all day and wants held and walked about all the time. It's wearing. He's had some plain biscuit though and has been drinking a bit of water which he won't normally do. No sign of him throwing it back up yet. He's staying on at his granny's at the moment so Mrs SD can rest properly. The good news is I'm showing no signs of getting it yet. The bad news is I twisted my ankle today. Heard a loud crack so for a short time I thought I'd broken the bloody thing but it appears not. I'm wary it'll swell up overnight though. We'll see how everyone is tomorrow. I might go back to work, even if for a short while if Thomas is ok (and presuming I can actually drive).