TTT.....

[AtLongLast]

OTT / self-indulgent I know, but Toddler Twin Tantrums..... aaargh! Just as well they're so cute too. Ds2 was v funny today wiggling his bum singing uh, uh Bobby' in response to me dancing round the kitchen to Bobby's girl'...

Must must get to bed, but in a nutshell YES Kate - re. beds. Firstly these were the ones I was hankering after a few months ago, especially since I saw recently they were going for 1/2 price! BUT they not seem to be sold out and I am gutted. Although.....

My DB has a daugher the same age as the girls, and they made the decision to put her in a bed just before her younger brother was born in April. So - single girl, good sleeper, in bed age 2.4. It has been A. DISASTER.

Three months later - their entire evenings are still made up of putting her back into bed. She sees bedtime as a joke. They get no break between her bedtime and when the baby goes 'down' at 11pm ish. They are at the ends of their tether. I am now wondering whether cots till 5 is such a bad thing

Am about to send bro details about Gro Company sheets/sleeping bags combos but does anyone know of anything else to help??! Otherwise I am seriously staving off the whole bed situ......

Links ladies, I want links!

I like those floor beds muck , but I don't love them..

Hmm, is your DN still having a nap in the daytime? If so, cut it down until shes sleeping at night.
We've been there with DD2, bedtime was just hours of brilliant fun for her - we tried the 'back to bed' technique (Supernanny) - of simply not uttering a word and taking them back to their bed. When DC senses any anger/frustration etc, it makes them 10X worse, so the key is to stay emotionless.
It half worked for DD2, but still took us a long time - she is soo stubborn, but I image a 2.5YO would give in sooner.

Have they tried sitting in her room? First few nights you can sit on the end of their bed til they've settled, and then you gradually work towards the door, until 1 night you sit outside.

We did a technique with DD2 with books - I would think that your DN is too young, but its still an idea. We basically sat her in our spare bedroom (nothing in there but a bed and furniture) with 5 books and said that she can choose when she wants to go to bed. We had our doubts as the first night she stayed up until about 10.30pm, but went to bed with no fuss at all - a total winner for us as no technique had worked up until now. Gradually she would get more and more bored and choose to go to bed earlier.

With DD2 we found that a technique would work brilliantly for a few months/weeks and then she would start being silly again.

One thing I might suggest, just to break the cycle, is that your DBro leaves your DN up at night until maybe 10/10.30ish (bearing in mind they've cut out the nap) or basically until she is literally falling asleep standing up - then take her up to bed. She'll be so tired that she should just go straight to sleep. The next night she should be sooo tired, but again, keep her up until she is super tired and then put her to bed. Every few nights make it a bit earlier.

We definitely feel like the girls are ready soon - we're not going to go out tomorrow and buy them, but we'd like them to be in beds by the beginning of September.

Now E is back to her usual cheeky self, she might be a monkey at bedtime, but the only thing stopping her is being wired up to her feeding machine... so she can't physically get out anyway! Oh god, I sound so horrible, but its one less child who can be running around at night!

We may even keep the cots up, but in the spare room, and threaten that they will go back in if they mess around.

Looking forward to seeing some more beds being sold to me!

:) the only other bed I like is the Anna bed from J; may end up getting a couple of those just because it's easy.

We are the house of illness at the moment, well at least - Eve is ill and as the least stoic female member of the household we all know about it. She has been moaning all day "I'm REEEEALLY poorly Mummy!" and generally wailing every couple of minutes. Poor thing has now lost her voice, completely, which came on from nowhere just before bedtime when she suddenly could only croak/whisper. Poor love.

I'm also all of a dither (again) about nurseries as the whole pre-school 'bit' looms large on the horizon. Our nursery gave me forms last week which they wanted back in THREE days later (grrrr) asking me exactly what hours we wanted them to attend pre-school in January. I honestly have no idea how this all works and if it's normal but apparently from January we will be entitled to four mornings and one whole day entirely FREE each week. We can then either top that up so that they are there up to five 'standard' days per week (8.45 - 3.45) or pay extra for 'early morning club' or 'afternoon club' taking it from 8am until 6pm. It all sounds brilliantly convenient and economical, as it's a Surestart place. For them to attend 8.45 - 3.45 would cost us £96 per week per child. I don't need anywhere near that much attendance at the moment but knowing that there is that flexibility should I get a job feels really reassuring.

On the other hand, I have been wavering about sending them to a Montessori nursery. It is of course more expensive although also gives the discount for children aged 3+. It's a bit more fluffy, a bit more 'what I imagined', etc etc. It is also 5 miles away; their current nursery is 1 mile. I think I'm answering my own questions here really. We don't know what we want to do for sure when it comes to proper school - unfortunately we are out of the catchment for the good local primaries and so to cover our bases have put their names down for a good local private school although part of my soul shrivels up even to say that out loud...

Hmm, we've got cotbeds all round so not needing to look at beds for a long time. The boys' cots still have a tall headboard when converted & I'm not so keen on that. We have this for dd which I prefer & the toddler bed version would be even more my preference though I would like a slightly higher foot end..

Poor Eve LadyM, though I guess a moaning child with lost voice might not be all bad . Ds2 has been a whingebum /extraordinarily cheeky/ pain in the bum to ds1 over the last week. Not ill as such but I think he's been under the weather. He spent a couple of nights in with us cos he just wouldn't settle - that's a first since dd arrived. Dp has been the proper ill one here - gastro bug, and don't I know it. Usually the crappest ever nurse but after a convo with a friend last week I vowed to make more of an effort . And now he keeps bloody telling me how he is.. Started to (inwardly) lose patience when he insisted ds2 must've damaged his kidney when sitting on him. Dutifully took him to walk-in where they confirmed my suspicion that he'd pulled a muscle...

Annoyingly, because the boys were overdue, we missed the cut-off to qualify for summer term funding so we have to wait til Sept next yr to qualify. I thought it was going to be bad enough going to work paying 3 lots of nursery fees til April... then found out it was actually til Sept. & aaargh... schools. Hv asked recently if we'd put our 2 down for one yet & was not impressed that we've barely thought about it.

Good news is I've managed to buy that LK Bennett Dress Brand new with tags from eBay at a steal but the bad news is that I can't find my bank card anywhere, I need to move some money to use the PayPal account
It was last seen in a pair of sticky fingers, I'm so bored of looking for it, I've even checked the freezer

Cerubina How was your holiday? Are you back yet?

Kate I've PM'd you with the expectant triplet mum's details, she said she'd love to ask you some questions

Mucky Hope Eve is better, schools/nurseries are a nightmare, I just hope we can afford to send them to the private school we like because otherwise I'll have to find god (and am still not guaranteed a place) or they"ll go to an awful school bloody London!

All My DP has the pain threshold of a gnat, and is sooooo trying if he is I'll but has zero empathy if I'm under the weather hope it is all looking better. Nursery fees x 3 ouch!

Brora sale is now working shame I spent all my money on a dress I'll probably wear once

Looked at the Brora site links the other day & there's some lovely stuff. I bought a new pair of jeans at the weekend & actually enjoyed it cos I've lost a fair bit of weight recently obviously if I buy a new wardrobe I won't put weight back on. As dp said: more an ego trip than a shopping trip. So, I'm now keen to try lots of stuff on, especially from sites that do free returns .

Yes, dp much better thanks. To be fair, he is fantastic to the extreme when I'm ill which, in part, prompted my guilts last week when talking to my friend. Thing is, if I almost ignore him he just gets on with it & receives sympathy by the truckload when relaying his woes to his Mum. If I acknowlege his illness he puts on his `little boy lost' voice and gives me constant updates which drives me mad. & he's such a drama queen that he can't possibly have a pulled muscle or chest infection - has to be kidney / lung pain... Not saying a pulled muscle isn't really painful but really!

Well done on the weight loss All, I weigh 2 kilo's more now than I did when I was 5 months pregnant, I just need to exercise but I'm too bloody lazy

Thanks - but purely down to bf I think so can't really claim too much credit. Certainly hasn't been down to any effort on my part judging by the number of cakes I've made / eaten recently. My task is to now maintain it (and perhaps lose a bit more now I seem to be on a roll)....

I've started doing Callanetics using an extremely hilarious eighties dvd. I expect to be lean and toned within the week - will report back.

Hope all poorlies make speedy recovery.

Well done on ebay dress Lavita! Good work.

I think I know the DVD tarti - are you wearing "the kit" to go with it?

ALL - congrats on the weight loss!! You say it's just through breastfeeding, I didn't lose a bloody OUNCE after the girls were 2-3 weeks old; in fact it was when I realised the weight was increasing that I decided to try to do something about it.

Brora - yes, had a look although was gutted to see the elephant dress was sold out in the girls' size. Didn't end up buying anything else - am trying to be good - it feels like I've gone mad recently as we've "needed" to buy a few bits for the house (garden chairs, Sonos music thingie, etc.) and as the old adage goes; "it all adds up". Especially when your DH has lost his job

Yes I gained while bf too so well done ALL!

Oh yes am leotarded and helmet-haired

Oooh my first package from Half-Pint Chic arrived today LVB - I caved in when I saw they had a Caramel Baby sale... fab prices, beautiful clothes. I would never ever pay full price for their stuff so thanks for the tip off re that site - it's really good!

tarti - have visions of you Flashdancing your way around the house. Go on, get a perm...

I am currently sat at the Apple store in Covent Garden having had my iPhone screen replaced at vast bloody expense. Apple - never known for being modest - call their customer service representatives "Geniuses" and I am currently sat at the "Genius Bar". Honestly, they do make it hard for you to like them, don't they?

Sorry, didn't mean to sound so tactless . I didn't lose weight bf the boys either but just put that down to me mix-feeding them so not `doing it properly'. Thinking about it, I suppose we have had far less pasta / rice recently and I do tend to top-up the boys' plate with stuff from mine so maybe bf not really the reason...

The Genius Bar ? Wonder which job title Customer Service Reps use when generally describing their jobs. `Yes, really, I am a Genius'. Cringy!!

No no you weren't being tactless! I bet you aren't eating 25 bowls of muesli a day, are you? That was my entire diet () for the first 3 months at least. But then I was a snivelling wreck for most of that time, felt like I was in a Japanese endurance programme or something

You must be feeling fab that you've lost some weight. It's so nice to feel as though you're getting a bit of 'you' back...

Yes yes re. the Geniuses. I always feel mean being mean about Apple employees because they're always so nice, but you know - in a kind of robotic not-really-human kind of way... it is an alternative universe in there, it really is.

Greetings, just logging on quickly while DH takes bambini out for a spin in their buggy (they're really going to enjoy that, having been in it or high chairs or car seats all day!). This is my chance to put feet up before the packing up begins. Returning home tomorrow and am not sorry really. It's been nice on hols if we ignore entirely day 1 which I never want to recount or relive but so different a proposition from what I used to think about holidays. Same shit etc definitely true but it has had lovely moments. LVB and mucky I hope you enjoy your upcoming trips as I'm sure it gets easier with age theirs not ours.

Currently in Suite Novotel - worth paying the extra and getting two rooms mucky (we didn't!). Three nights have probably stretched the concept a bit too far.

Well done on the weight loss from me too, ALL. All the better if it hasn't felt like a slog for you on account of the bf too. Anyone else feel a bit bleuch about the state of their image/grooming/wardrobe since having nippers? It is definitely brought into focus by my impending birthday but for a while has been creeping up on me that I feel like a total frump and badly in a rut. Hardly know where to start in sorting myself out, but thought several times about wandering into a hairdresser here and telling them in broken French to faire quelque chose! The state of me when I don't have a hairdryer... .

Right, better get on I suppose.

Good luck with packing cerub. Glad your break has been ok (on the whole - won't ask about The Day Which Must Not Be Mentioned...). Agree about holidays now bearing no resemblance to holidays.

I am just starting to get a bit of mojo back style/appearance-wise but I certainly spent the first 18 months looking and feeling pretty dreadful. Hair is still an issue, actually I went to the hairdresser yesterday and she said she could see the 'ring' of fuzzy hair regrowth about halfway down my hair (iyswim) which is from where your hair starts to regrow after pregnancy: she correctly guessed the age of the twins from this!! Anyway she explained that the regrowth is why your hair can seem frizzy for a long while after children and only say 4 yrs on (depending on your style/length obv) does it grow out and look normal again.
Do you still use your BBH mucky? I don't, think my hair's too long it makes it too much of a faff.

I certainly need more make up/time spent on hair/thought about outfit than I ever used to, to look reasonable. Though I suspect this is down to age as much as motherhood.

Am sitting watching Wimbledon bathed in sunshine as hail pelts against my sitting room window. The garage is submerged in four inches of water which I am studiously ignoring for the time being.

Yes - I think that's exactly it Cerubina. It just hasn't been a slog. Though have to say it's not baby weight as I didn't gain any in either pg really, but it is extra weight I've carried for oh... at least 10yrs . I vaguely remember aiming to do something about it by the time I was 30... and let's just say my next biggie is v shortly after yours .

My grooming has never been up to much not admitting to recently going back to cutting / colouring my own hair. Funny though that I bought jeans/top at weekend & when I went to get ds1 up from his nap while wearing them he asked if I was wearing my PJs. At least he noticed I suppose....

Glad you've had some good times from your hols - good luck with the travelling tomorrow.

What is with this weather Tarti?? I hope not too much damage in your garage & that it gets no worse. We're in brilliant sunshine here today too bar one brief downpour. Hard to believe some of the FB updates from your direction, and that someone has died not too far south of us. Weird. & of course we're going to Wales this weekend & it's due to pee down there yet again.

Yes, I do use my BBH tarti - went through a phase of not, but have recently rediscovered it - although I have had a lot of my overlong hair cut off and now have a longish bob-ish type of thing. I also realised that if only I bothered to remove the excess hair which had built up around the brush, it would go back to being far more effective.

Crikey girls, I am in love with our new Sonos music thingie. To our shame (and my frustration, since I love music) we have had no music system for a few years now - I used to use iTunes and plug it into a dock - then lost it all when my laptop completely died and I had no backup. Now I have this little Sonos player which looks like a big speaker (cost about £300) and have downloaded app to my iPhone and using Spotify can play whatever albums I like from the internet (requires Spotify premium @ £10pm). So I can take the Sonos thing to whatever room I'm in and my phone links wirelessly to it, DH can use his phone to control it although not if I have my way... so chuffed! A world of music awaits :)

Sorry if that doesn't interest anyone!

Cerubina - I hear you re. style/feeling frumpy having had kids. I don't think it helps that I had kids fairly late in life, so it was easy to go into it feeling like I was clinging on to being a 'youngster' but have come out of the other side moaning about aches and pains and thinking that my legs are too old to wear anything above knee-length. You'll feel better when you get your hair sorted I reckon. I've had lots of mine lopped off. Need to get those pesky grey hairs seen to next. I'm also determined not to slip-slide into wearing the kind of things I've always hated but which now seem vaguely attractive options...

How long have you been having rain up north ALL and tarti? We've had bloody loads although last few days have been quite dry and warm. But if ONE official person talks about us having a drought this summer, I will despair!

I have never seen anything like the rain we had this afternoon - the sky was completely black and you literally could not see anything for the sheet of water pouring from the sky it was incredible.
Stopped hours ago but everything still at complete standstill here. Fortunately I was at home the whole time with nowhere to be, and DH is at his parents' with the girls as he's got a job to do near their house and has kindly taken the girls so I get two nights child free!!
Really must get to bed to take advantage of the opportunity for sleep...

We've actually had v little rain over in our bit of the NW LadyM. Seems weird to think there are so many flood problems so close to us in all directions! My brother is still trying to get home from work via public transport in Newcastle... 6 hours & counting! It has been incredibly humid here for the last couple of days though - maybe we could do with a good storm!

Flooded garage sounds awful tarti - any better today? We used to have that kind of rain a lot in Switzerland, often so bad if you were driving that you'd have to stop the car, even on the lane of a motorway, and just wait until it had passed because it was so torrential.

ALL - has been v humid here too. Hope your bro got home okay!

Juliet had a fever of 40 last night too, and as of about 6pm last night I could feel my glands rising... now feeling rough although thankfully managed to palm off get the girls into nursery so at least can take it a bit easy. I'm meant to be off to the opera tonight to see Damon Albarn's "Dr Dee" at the ENO. Whatever next?!

Ooh lavita what were you deleted for on the tom/Katie thread???
All dry today. Phew. Got to go into school tomorrow 9-2 so am in big grump. Only thing which will cheer me up is online shopping... Come on girls don't let me down!!

Tarti So glad your garage has cleared up - saw on DayBreak this morning a lot of houses that had floods over 4ft, looked so awful :(

I'm on my own tonight, so would quite like some online shopping to entertain me! Got an email from the Half Pint Chic website (child version of SecretSales) and its still pretty crap.

We've got a summer wedding soon, so girls need some nice dresses - have a small eye on this but not sure if its wedding-y enough.

This one is absolutely gorgeous... It may be the one!

This is pretty cute too, but the price tag isn't so pretty.. I love how all 5 girls could wear this dress though!