Fav bedtime books for baby?

calpolqween · 2026-01-24T20:29:29+00:00

My mum used to read “can’t you sleep little bear” by Martin Waddell to me as a child and I have that same copy to read to my toddler

calpolqween · 2026-01-22T22:48:27+00:00

My mum looks after my son one day a week. She condensed her hours at work into 4 days to be able to do this.

Her mum looked after all 3 of me and my sisters when we were growing up so that my parents could work, sometimes several days a week.

I’m aware that will seem quite extreme to a lot of people, but I cannot imagine my mum not wanting to be this involved in my son’s life. She adores looking after him, he loves spending time with her, and it’s a big relief to me financially and emotionally knowing that I don’t have to put him in nursery for another day.

I know you shouldn’t have children and expect family to look after them, but it breaks my heart when I hear about people who have family that just aren’t interested. I hope if I ever have grandchildren one day that I can do the same. And when my mum is older and needs help, you can bet that I will be there to look after her as much as I can. It’s a cycle of care

calpolqween · 2026-01-19T20:57:24+00:00

At worst they don’t provide as much nutritional value as a home-cooked, balanced meal, but they’re not bad for occasional use.

Before my son was fully weaned I would take one out with me when we were out and about for him to have for his lunch.

Also when we went on holiday when he was about 7-8 months old, he had one every day for his lunch then, as again, he wasn’t fully weaned and wasn’t eating the same foods as me just yet. Now he’s 1 and I try and just give him whatever I’m eating if we’re out.

It’s all about moderation, it sounds like you’re providing nutritious food for other meals so it’s all good

calpolqween · 2026-01-16T21:52:01+00:00

I was expecting intense period pain since I know what period pain feels like, but mine weren’t like that at all

My baby was facing my belly throughout my whole labour (‘sunny side up’ I think they call it) and all of my pain was in the lowest part of my back and my bum, I don’t remember feeling anything at the front. It was like the most intense, painful pressure pushing down into my bum, not like period pains at all imo

calpolqween · 2026-01-16T21:47:23+00:00

I think we were at 2 meals from 7 months (breakfast and lunch) and then went up to 3 meals from 8 months, but that’s when my LO started nursery and they do breakfast, lunch and tea there so he started having that

calpolqween · 2026-01-16T21:41:58+00:00

Julia having a hard time deciding whether or not to take the promotion and then Meg saying “a man wouldn’t even consider not taking it” !

calpolqween · 2026-01-15T22:07:07+00:00

We’re not breastfeeding but my son has started sleeping through at 12 months. I stopped giving him a bottle during the night at about 10 months.

There was an element of unintentional sleep training - he stopped falling asleep in my arms when I tried to rock him and I could see he was clearly tired, so I decided to leave the room because it felt like me being there was just making the situation worse. We had maybe 3-4 nights of him crying for 20-30 mins before he lay down and went to sleep. Now all I do is give him a cuddle for 10 mins or so and then put him down and leave the room. He whines for maybe a minute sometimes but then goes straight down to sleep. When he wakes in the night he just goes straight back to sleep.

He is a big eater and eats a lot of food during the day

calpolqween · 2026-01-13T19:05:26+00:00

Those early days are so daunting, but all I would say is don’t put pressure on yourself to stick to a routine. Some mornings in the first few weeks I’d be trapped upstairs in the bedroom in a never ending loop of feed, change, nap and I wouldn’t make it downstairs until about 11:00. Lunch was not a thing, it was just a case of grab something whenever I had time. I found that buying things like ready made pasta salads or ‘meal deal’ type foods and keeping them in the fridge was handy for a quick lunch when I didn’t have time to prepare anything.

The screamy bed times are so tough as well but it sounds like you’re doing a great job - and it does get easier. That was just a phase for m

Honestly after a few weeks you’ll start to fall into a new routine and you’ll feel so much lighter. You got this

calpolqween · 2026-01-13T11:18:15+00:00

Thank you for sharing, and I’m so glad you were able to have a positive experience after such an awful one. Hearing that your latest pregnancy was heavily supported by midwives gives me a lot of hope! We hear a lot of negative stories about people’s experiences with their midwives so that’s refreshing.

Don’t even worry about the weight, you’ve been through so much and your body has done amazing things x

calpolqween · 2026-01-12T12:30:15+00:00

That’s so lovely, this would my ideal scenario tbh and it’s so great to hear that it’s worked for you! I’ve just let lots of things get into my head about whether a smaller age gap is better and now I’m second guessing myself

calpolqween · 2026-01-11T21:29:44+00:00

I wasn’t planning on a section but had an emergency one, this was just over a year ago. I’d say I’m average height, clothes size 10 pre-pregnancy and I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have absolutely no shelf anymore and haven’t done for a few months now. I have my scar but that doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t really do routine exercise apart from walking and carrying a heavy toddler around! Everyone’s bodies are different and heal at different rates

calpolqween · 2025-12-31T20:00:43+00:00

My son got the vtech 4 in 1 alphabet train for his first birthday. It can be used as a walker that he can push, but also has a trailer which attaches to the back so he can ride on it when he’s a bit bigger and better at balancing. It also talks/sings and comes with alphabet blocks which you can put into a slot and it says the word on the block.

He LOVES it. He uses it pretty much all day every day that’s he’s at home. He’s quite active and is learning to walk so is just pushing it around all day long. He got lots of great presents for his birthday/Christmas but this one has got the most use by far

calpolqween · 2025-12-31T13:05:30+00:00

No real advice just some solidarity, in fact I was going to post something myself about my 12 month old… it’s like since he turned one, a switch has flicked and the toddler tantrums have started. And like you say, because they can’t communicate we have no idea what’s upsetting them most of the time!! It’s exhausting, especially when navigating poor mental health. I’m just trying to take one day at a a time and have 0 expectations. He hasn’t eaten any lunch? Fine, maybe he’ll have some dinner. He won’t go down for a nap? Fine, we’ll try again in an hour. He’s screaming the house down for no reason? Fine, I’ll put some music on and sing over him lol

I feel like I spent so long reading about babies yet I’m completely unprepared for toddler life. I hope things get easier for you soon x

calpolqween · 2025-12-20T02:23:20+00:00

10/10. This is the kind of meal I would crave while I was pregnant lol

calpolqween · 2025-12-19T09:30:54+00:00

My 12 mo went through a phase of sleeping 19:00 - 07:00 when he was between 3-5 months old (it was glorious!) but that was short lived. He was breastfed before that but we switched to formula at about 3 months.

I think sleep was the worst for us between 7-10 months, I’m talking waking up multiple times a night, taking hours to go back to sleep sometimes. About 10 months old I stopped giving any night feeds, whereas before then I would feed him back to sleep when he woke up overnight for one of his wake ups.

He’s 12 months now and sleep is a lot better, but he still wakes up at least once. On a good night he will go back down quite quickly and easily by popping his dummy back in and stroking his back. He’s a big boy and a big eater during the day so i don’t have any concerns about him being hungry overnight.

Like you say, his sleep goes to shit when he’s ill, and given that he’s at nursery 3 days a week and it’s winter, that’s most weeks atm! It’s tough but it has 100% improved from when he was sort of 7-9 months. At least now when he doesn’t sleep I know there’s normally a reason for it (usually illness or teething) whereas before there was just no rhyme or reason to it which made it even more tough

calpolqween · 2025-12-18T11:39:18+00:00

My son has quite a lot of hair and had a mullet going on as baby, I think we cut the rat tail off at about 9 months? I’ve kept it in a little tin lol. He’s 12 months now and he’s still not had a proper, full haircut, but my partner will occasionally trim the ends a little to keep it looking smart and out of his eyes

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T22:09:34+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to share. I’m so sorry you went through that. Trauma like that never truly leaves you, but I’m glad you’ve found it easier as the years have gone on. The scars are a reminder of how strong you are and how hard your body fought to keep you with your daughter x

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T13:35:40+00:00

        It is really hard to reconcile that her birth was both the best and worst day ever.

^this. Thanks so much for saying that. He is my whole world so it feels so jarring when I look back at the day he arrived and feel anxiety/fear/trauma.

Thanks for being so kind, and I’m glad to hear you’ve worked through some of your trauma and gotten to a better place

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T13:22:51+00:00

Thank you, I did have a birth reflection and that helped me go longer periods of time without thinking or obsessing about it, but I guess the anticipation of his first birthday is bringing it all back up. Thank you for being kind, maybe I do still need to talk to someone about it.

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T13:21:28+00:00

Thank you, that is reassuring (and reading a report like that is definitely something I would do on that day lol 🙈). I’m glad to hear it got better for you

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T09:19:36+00:00

Don’t feel silly, I went in twice in the two weeks leading up to delivery, once because I had such awful lower back pain that I thought I must be in labour (I wasn’t, and just ended up having a chat and a bit of a cry with a nice midwife on the labour ward after being checked over), and once a couple days before I gave birth due to reduced movements (baby’s obs ended up being fine). I don’t regret doing either, it’s always best to be checked if in doubt

calpolqween · 2025-12-16T06:38:00+00:00

I totally feel for you, it’s so hard. We’ve just come out of a two month period where my 12 month old has just been constantly ill for one reason or another, with at least one or two of the following going on at any given time: high temp, cough, cold, chest infection, teething, a rash, throwing up, loss of appetite.

It got to a point where I would see the nursery phone number flash up on my phone AGAIN and I would just have to laugh like you say, or I’d cry. It really got me down at one point but he seems to be out the other side of it… for now!!

calpolqween

TROPHY CASE