We generally did everything together the first few days and that really helped me to feel like I was involved. Think I changed more nappies than mum did. Feeding can really cause some worries but the little ones are very resilient - after 2 days we gave up breast feeding (little one not interested/not getting enough) and moved to expressing. Worked really well, but within a week she couldn't express enough for our bottomless pit so switched to a combination with formula. After 2 weeks gave up expressing (she would be expressing for 2 days just to get enough for 1 feed) and switched to formula alone. He grew fast, drank loads more than the 'recommended' but continued to progress fast so we just became 'baby lead' rather than sticking to set amounts. He still drinks more than most kids now, just water during the day and will polish off at least a litre most days.
Apologies but I've not been back to this thread since my post then (March 2019). Wow. Life has moved on so much since then!
My little dude is now 3 and a few months old, pretty amazing reading my own words from back then (and before) when trying to figure out how long it had been since reading & posting in here... Harry is doing well, still ahead of the curve in everything, proper chatterbox and bosses us all around. Is it possible to be independent at the age of 3?
Weighs 15.8kg is 1.03m tall and into everything. He can (reliably) count to 15 and fairly well up to 30 (which amazes me). He has interest in the alphabet (calls writing 'ABC's!) and can identify certain letters and say what words begin with that letter, amazing considering he was off nursery for 5 months (due to lockdown) and proves we must have been doing something right... Although didn't force anything on him and he did watch far too much telly some days...!
Having a good day but almost ended up in floods of tears at work reading
@robj20 story. Wow what you've been through. I'll admit I had to skip to the end of the thread to prove to myself there was a happy ending before I continued with the read while at lunch. Hats off to you and hope George has continued to amaze. What a story! I'd like to say I can relate/sympathize being what I went through when born early, but lets be honest I don't remember anything about that (8 weeks early in 1980), only the stories from family and a few scars from my 11 weeks in hospital. It was a huge relief for me that my boy (Harry) actually arrived 4 days late! Huge respect to you and hope things long continue for you all.
One thing that occurred to me later was that once he starts school, how on Earth do parents who both work full time cope with all the school holidays, in terms of childcare whilst working?
Would be interested to hear your views / situations. My partner will go back 3 days a week once her maternity finishes up, and obviously school is a LONG way away yet, but it certainly got me thinking! Particularly with the summer hols...when they are too young to be left alone in the house etc.
Pretty much there ourselves. I work usual 5 days, other half changed job from 3 days and now is starting 4. We did some rough calculations for when he starts school (September 2022) what we'll do as basically between maxing holiday allowances we are going to be 8 days short. We've not factored in any other cover, or parents/family into that yet, so will probably easily cover. But basically I reached the point of saying I'd take it unpaid from work if it really came to it. In reality my work is very understanding and it would be unusual for me to need to do that, much more feasible to WFH a few days, will cross that bridge when we get to it. For us me working a 'long' week (currently 42h), compared to my other halfs (28h), yet her being paid quite well, makes it less of a financial drop for us. Also in my mind a sacrifice I'm more willing to make - I have more savings than her, generally spend less of my wage, so will 'feel' it less. In my mind I'll put some money to one side to cover it, but in reality I'll just not worry until the time comes. Other half will probably stress about it many times before then, with some crazy ideas about what we can do, for me to know in the back of my mind what we can fall back onto (and will probably end up doing).
My other half is trying to convince me to commit to an eletric ride on for my toddler, i don't see why a balance/pedal bike wont do.
In my experience they are often poorly made, underpowered and get chucked in the back of the shed after the second day, anyone got a different opinion on them?
We've had an electric quad (we paid £5 for S/H) and now a 3 wheeler police motorbike (paid £35). Both very plastic and make me think they'd just break within 5 minutes (but didn't). Mini has used both alongside a balance bike he's worn the hell out of (that I snagged for £10 barely used from a fb group). We're a family for bargains lol. He prefers the balance bike and is amazing on it, whereas the battery vehicles are more like a 'fun' thing to play with occasionally in the garden for 20 minutes. If he wants to do some serious wizzing around/walking the dog/going to the woods, the balance bike is first and only thought/consideration. Can spend 2-3 hours on it sometimes. Almost like he 'gets' how that works, can go as fast/slow as he likes, doesn't need buttons or it running out of charge, can bash it around without M&D shouting (too much...) and just seems to enjoy it more. TLDR; give them a choice, you might be surprised which they want/prefer.
Still contemplating what is the best route for putting money away for our little one until he is older and mature enough to spend it wisely.
It's tough, we have some mini-ISA thing which transfers into a regular account when he reaches some point before 16, under our control, then at 16 transfers to him. Mostly ended up with it alongside our Mortgage/Current account with Nationwide, just so we had 'something' for friends and family to transfer to than anything else. Still some grand parents who prefer to send a cheque, generally get them to address it to H (as that's my initial too), pay it in mine and transfer the money. Or usually just keep track and then buy him what we need with it from there.
He's so much fun when he's in a good mood but when he's on one it's so tough to keep him from melting down. They say teenagers have mood swings but it can't be much worse than this!
Not too long ago we had a 3 hour end of world meltdown because some of the batter fell off the outside of a fish finger and daddy couldn't stick it back on... #parenting
child care is just nuts, we had ours full time at one point and it was over £1.6k per month. That’s more than my mortgage.
Tell me about it. Ours is £138 per week for 3 days. And that's without any early/late dropoffs in a quite 'cheap' area of the country in probably the cheapest nursery we could find. It's £150 less pm than our mortgage on a 4 bed detached house with garage and 3 gardens... Like I say cheap-ish part of the country. The other half working 3 days a week couldn't cover the childcare and mortgage on her own. But it's ok, we get 'free' childcare start of next year... By then my other half will be working 4 days a week. It's going to be amazing having that extra £500+ per month we thought... Oh no, there's admin and coverage fee's from the Nursery which are not covered by the Government childcare voucher, so with our increase in childcare requirements (3 to 4 days), along with those fee's means we'll 'only' be paying £380 a month. It's a massive reduction, but still not quite the £120 we thought!
I'll try and frequent here a little more than I have been (regular in the cycling sub), but still some catching up to do...!
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. We purposefully didn't bother with either of ours as we figured it was easier long term, just have to put up with a bit of teething and lots of soggy toys
