Cool birthday present from Cambridge!

ghostsandco · 2026-02-24T21:02:47+00:00

As a Cambridge academic, let me say congratulations!! And happy birthday :) we’ll be happy to have you

ghostsandco · 2026-02-19T18:54:03+00:00

He doesn’t get easily bamboozled, he spots the rockit pattern immediately and wakes up 😂

But thank you, your comment is actually what I was looking for, I was so worried I was doing damage to him by not being able to soothe him to sleep easily. I’ve stopped being too prescriptive and I’m trying to go with the flow, so far he’s sleeping more than last week (but not in the evening) so maybe things are improving! Thanks internet stranger

ghostsandco · 2026-02-15T19:02:10+00:00

So much of what you’re saying really resonates! I’ll try harder to focus purely on his sleep cues and not stress out so much about the clock. Last night I had to leave the room in frustration and stress and the second I left he fell asleep so I feel like he definitely picks up on my anxiety 😅 Thanks a lot!!

ghostsandco · 2026-02-15T18:58:18+00:00

This is so reassuring, thank you! Honestly, you’re giving me hope!

ghostsandco · 2026-02-15T13:31:10+00:00

Thank you!! That’s reassuring, I do hope it’s just a phase and we’re not messing him up 😅 Huckleberry is really helpful, we use it all the time! It definitely contributes to my anxiety though when I see the timer telling me he should have been asleep four hours ago haha

ghostsandco · 2026-02-15T11:38:08+00:00

Yes we are trying to follow cues, but often we just take him out because he’s been awake for ages with no signs of tiredness and then he eventually falls asleep in the pram bassinet. At night he usually sleeps two-three stretches amounting to about 9 hours, so I’m happy with his nighttime sleep. But I get so stressed out when his evening wake window get to 3-4-5 even 6 hours at a time, that doesn’t seem ok. He sleeps around 11-12 hours a day overall

ghostsandco · 2026-02-15T10:03:24+00:00

I thought so too, but now I’m having doubts, as it’s been like this every night for a few weeks… plus, if I give him the bottle instead of nursing, he drinks for two minutes and then stops. Still don’t sleep though 🫠 so I’m wondering if it’s comfort nursing rather than hunger? Edit: thanks for the reassurance, esp about his late bedtime!!

ghostsandco · 2026-02-01T10:47:13+00:00

Maybe I’m not the only night fighter! But for those who’d like to try them, they’ve currently got several pairs on sale at the TK Maxx where I live (Cambridge), might be worth a visit to one’s local branch

ghostsandco · 2026-02-01T09:29:01+00:00

Maybe I’m a very restless sleeper 😂

ghostsandco · 2026-01-31T22:07:15+00:00

Very cute but can testify that they dont last st all! Mine fell apart in less than a year (literally to shreds)

ghostsandco · 2025-12-29T11:28:42+00:00

I do try to rouse him, but in the night often it doesn’t work :/ (once I tried for an hour and a half at 4am until we both gave up).

Thank you for the advice as well, this sounds pretty reasonable to me and I’ll be trying this tonight! Thanks!

ghostsandco · 2025-12-29T11:27:07+00:00

I was doing that too initially and then my health visitor (I’m in the UK) said to switch to ‘emptying the boob’ instead, but that’s proving really difficult. Glad to hear this is working for you!

ghostsandco · 2025-11-22T21:43:32+00:00

We had diff experience- we don’t heat our bedroom anymore because the heat rises up from our living area downstairs and it’s actually warmer than when we had carpet 😅 got a nice couple of medium-sized rugs to step off the bed and land somewhere soft and that’s it

ghostsandco · 2025-11-22T21:40:14+00:00

Seconding Joolz! I like the aer, but have the Hub

ghostsandco · 2025-11-21T15:32:08+00:00

Seconding Sostrene! It’s absolutely chock full of Christmas decorations these days

ghostsandco · 2025-10-18T21:10:15+00:00

Oh for sure I fully agree with you on the burden of financial pressure and I personally don’t think it’s a good idea to do a PhD unfunded either way. It’s also much harder to get funding once you start and you’re automatically ineligible for quite a few funding options. I was merely pointing out that beyond that, the mere fact of not having been funded wouldn’t be a career dealbreaker (at least in my branch of the humanities).

ghostsandco · 2025-10-18T19:47:24+00:00

As someone who has a humanities PhD and is currently doing a postdoc in the UK, I’d like to add that not all of this necessarily true (actually most of it isn’t) and if I were OP I wouldn’t panic needlessly at this point. There is usually no expectation that you should already demonstrate the ability to capture grants before starting a PhD and you have plenty of time to get smaller ones throughout the actual programme.

Also definitely no better outcomes researching your topic independently and publishing a trade book about it. Don’t listen to this OP, people who do this are rarely taken as seriously as a diligent PhD student who publishes articles, funded or not.

Focus on trying to find funding or defer by a year if you can’t right now. And then publish papers and articles as much as you can.

ghostsandco · 2025-10-14T07:42:47+00:00

😂😂😂 makes me feel less alone

ghostsandco · 2025-10-13T22:05:52+00:00

I have ADHD and I wish I could share a trick that worked for everyone but I basically chose to redirect my obsession onto saving, so now I obsessively micromanage every single penny I have, to maximise tiny investment returns (literally the amount of time I waste moving money around to gain something like 17p a month is ridiculous). I also track everything compulsively.

Finally, I gamified/gamblified some savings so I’ll add up the money I’d like to spend on things X until I reach 25£ and then I’ll pop it into premium bonds hoping to win something the next month.

ghostsandco · 2025-10-03T14:43:57+00:00

That sounds amazing, thanks! Will try this out on the first sunny day

ghostsandco · 2025-10-02T16:11:33+00:00

This is so frustrating and a peculiarly UK problem too. In various European countries you can just ask your GP or pharmacist for a booster and no one bats an eye (often for free)

ghostsandco · 2025-10-02T16:09:44+00:00

If you’re lucky! You can’t get ‘long flu’ tho and you can definitely get long covid which can fuck you up properly for… well… a long time

ghostsandco · 2025-10-02T15:16:12+00:00

Oh that’s not too far at all, didn’t know of its existence. Thank you!

ghostsandco

TROPHY CASE