Late Jan 2011 (some very, very late!) - here we go!!!

[ThreeBubbasAndManyBumps]

Graduated
JJKM - Twin Girls
Stars - Baby Boy
FloraPost - 6th Jan - Baby Boy
Mimou - 14th Jan - Baby Boy - 7.3lb
Zippy - 14th Jan - Baby Boy - 7lb
LadyBuzz - 18th Jan - Kali Margaret Briany 6lb 1oz
Scuba - 22nd Jan - Baby Girl - 6lb 13oz
AmIGoingMad - 25th Jan - Baby Boy - 7lb 5oz
Gallicgirl - 26th Jan - Alys May - 7lb 2.5oz
BubbaAndBumps - 27th Jan - Lachlan Robert - 12lb 3oz
Travispickles - 27th Jan - Saskia Faye
Fuzzy - 28th Jan - Evan James - 8lb 8.5oz
*Saltnvinigar - 28th Jan - Henry David
Ryuk - 28th Jan - Ezra - 7lb 4oz
TheBreastMilksOnMe - 30th Jan - Amelia Rose - 8lbs 9.5ozs
SaraL77 - 31st Jan - Reuben Mark - 7lb 2
Pootle - 2nd Feb - Jacob - 8lb 9oz
cyberfairy - 4th Feb - Rowan - 7lbs 7oz
RockLover - 5th Feb - George Christopher - 8lbs 4oz
RunningKatie - 5th Feb - Isobel Millie
CupcakesHay - 5th Feb - Jesse William - 7lbs 1oz
Crystylline - 8th Feb - Xavier Louis - 8lbs 11oz

Count: 8 girls, 15 boys

Still Huffing and a Puffing..?
Shanster: 30/01 Boy (1DD)
Faraway Trees: 22/01
RobynLou: 24/01 ?? (1DD)
Loopylu: due 31/01 (1st?)

Here we go, down the slippery slope of parenthood. Slippery thanks to the poos, wees, leaky boobs and goodness knows what else :o :o

We'll be here to hold each other's virtual hands through the tough nights and delightful days, and to laugh at each other's stories of comedy nappy changes , and the fear (or not?) of getting back in the saddle, and coating some cervixes just for the fun of it again!! :o

Hmm - hungry again - well fair enough -he hasn't fed since 10am - must be staaaaarving!!

bubba "little" lachlan sounds just like Jesse. Seriously - he's non stop feeding - although on the plus side i do get about 3-4 hours out of him at one point in the night - but then back to 2 hour feeds. I don't think he'd be that bad, but the hiccups ruin everything, and his wind. And then he might throw up a little and cry cos he has a wet shoulder - so i have to change his outfit (although he's always throwing up on mummyt's shoulder - and no such luxury to change for me!)

My bouncy chair is in london - so Jesse has to make do trying to kick mummy's scar.

Also Jesse has a wake up period at about 5am - where he thinks it's a good idea to make mummy dance with him in front room listening to glee and singing to him. he's too young to realise i'm tone deaf

Missing DH a bit today... - getting a bit tired of having to do everything myself... nappies, changing outfits, washing, feeding (obviously on that one!) - crysty i am going to admire you doing it on your own til the day i die!

rock hope DD got on ok!

Ooooh - have a look at this - my dad said I could pay for a highchair this way: job for us mums!

hahaha my DP showed me that. Quite frankly I would want more than £15 for 10oz!!

Wonder if it would catch on?

DS is asleep - gave him bath in the baby bath - bloody hell i'm shattered - my scar is KILLING me! Could do with a nice chinese take away, curl up with Dh and sleep for 12 hours... nice dream eh!

Oh - stupid question - what do I do with bottles i'm expressing in - for taking them out? Do i need to buy some sort of insulated bottle holder?

And i assume most restaurants warm up bottles???

breast milk is ok at room temperature for up to 6 hours. My change back has a pocket which is partially insulated which is pretty cool :)

Most restaurants will warm up milk but I'd be inclined to ask them for hot water in a bowl so you can do it yourself as I wouldn't want milk going in microwave. You know you can give baby the milk at room temperature and it doesn't actually need to be warmed up?

We used an insulated bag and we've used it time and again (through weaning etc too - I think many of baby buys aren't worth it, but def was worth it this one)
Many restaurants will warm them up for you (but be careful as their microwaves are way more powerful than domestic ones),or give you a bowl of boiling water to put it in. Something I used to do if I knew when DD was due to feed (if it was fairly soon after leaving home, which inevitably it was), was warm it up before I left the house, pop it in the insulated bag and it would be the right temp. by the time they were hungry.

L has put on weight and is continuing steadily on the 99th centile, (thought not compared to birth weight as he was waaaaaaaay off the scale . :)

sorry x-post with gallic

thank you! Think i'll go internet shopping tomorrow and buy an insulated bag. Dad is getting the HUGE bag of bottles from the loft tomorrow morning and the sterlisier and i'm going to dig out the pump from under the bed later.

I think it's very impressive about Lachaln - and at least he's a healthy boy

Glad to see Lachlan is putting on weight Bubba, had Evan weighed today and he's now 10lb 7oz so is following the 75th percentile which is fab.
Think DH has just about won the D back. He took DD out for quite a while yesterday and was up trying to wind E at 3 this morning though then complained he was tired this morning (so how I've been feeling for months then) but suppose I can forgive him .
Right better go 2 hungry children to feed x

Yeah, me too Fuzzy he's 12lbs 8.5ozs now, was worried because of the big puking a few days back, but keeping him upright after feeds seems to have settled it all.

Good luck with expressing cupcakes - first thing in the morning always works best for me.

Happy St David's Day everyone
Hoping to get some time to make Welsh cakes later

Must remember to ask my mum if she still has the Welsh lady costume I had when I was a kid to inflict it on DD one year. That may be a bit too cruel though as we don't live in Wales. Those were the days when I was little and we got a day off school for St David's

< stands aside to let the tumble weed blow through>

Where did everyone go? < makes note to self to get a life>

Hi Fuzzy - am here, just been busy doing... well... what do we do every day that takes the whole day?? Actually have had a friend and the health visitor so a BUSY day!! Sas has piled on the weight again, over a pound in a fortnight.. MBM (My Bloody Mother!) thinks have buffalo milk but I think Sas is just very greedy!
Hope all well...

I'm here too but have done a food shop then had a friend here all day.

Impressive weight gain by Saskia there travis - L feeds loads (every 1.5 hrs atm :() but his weight gain is minimal relatively speaking.

Bracing myself for tomorrow - first time I'll have done all three on my own for longer than 2 hrs, I;m sure 10 hours on my own with two spirited girls and a boobmonster feeding so frequently will be fine >>reaches for the

Oh yay other people .
Sounds like you're doing a fab job Travis. My HV asked me what on earth I was feeding Evan as he's put on loads of weight .
Bubba hope you feel better soon, nothing worse than feeling poorly when trying to amuse toddlers I find. Good luck for tomorrow, I find a friend in Cbeebies .
Been trying to put Evan on his tummy for a little while on his playmat but he just rolls onto his back, thought they weren't supposed to do that yet, completely forgotten when DD did stuff. Could do without him being an early mover, need at least one of them to stay where I leave them!

Qu. for Fuzzy, Gallic, Rock & LadyB - are you going to supplement what you're not getting from a child trust fund for your littlest one (if you got them for your other(s)?). We can't really afford to but it seems massively unfair otherwise...

Advanced Rolling Award goes to Evan!!

I don't have other children but we are looking at getting a savings account of some sort. We are going to try to put the child benefit in it and cope without it for day to day stuff. It should soon mount up as long as we don't touch it. It also means we can put any money gifts in there that Alys might receive for her birthdays or Christmas. DP thinks we can manage but I worry a bit about finances later in the year when my maternity pay drops. We still haven't decided what to do about me going back to work.

Bubba, not sure what we are going to do for George yet, but to be honest DD's dad and her godfather deal with her trust fund. Stupidly I didn't ask to be involved and when we got divorced it didn't even cross my mind. I don't contribute to it, so I suppose I haven't really got much say.

I would like to open a savings account for George and DD, but not sure when I will be able to do it as we are not exactly loaded, especially with me not working.

In fact I have been thinking about how shit my CV is due to only working on and off since DD was born, terrified that no-one will want to employ me when the time comes :(.

I am enjoying George more since I got home from my parents and we are getting into a (sort of) daily routine. I especially enjoy the afternoon walk to pick DD up from school, it's good to get out. I'm going to make a dr's appt next week and beg them to let me drive again (I will be 4 weeks post section on Sat) because I'm hardly hurting at all now and I miss my car. I LOVE my car!

Forgot to mention that my Mum and I had a major row last week (she hates the fact that I have moved away from her) and she's barely talking to me, even though I've done nothing wrong. Last week staying with them was sooo stressful and I really don't want to go back, although will have to in 3 weeks as DD has another access visit to her dad. I hate to say it but my mum is becoming a nightmare and is really not someone I can rely on or even relate to any more. It makes me so sad.

Also because of all the stress my anxiety has flared up, so I'm trying hard to relax and make sure it doesn't get out of hand. However, despite the doom and gloom I have just written, I'm actually feeling pretty good today and hope for another good day tomorrow. :)

Sorry gallic don't know why I invented another child for you??!

We started up a savings account with DD1 when we were relatively well off but didn't think future children through so we've already had to dip into it to open an account for DD2 :(

Sorry you had a rough time of it with your mum rock - Have you got some hobby that can help you relax and de-stress?

I can empathise Rock - I have had a difficult relationship with my mum and have had to distance myself from her so as not to let her take over. But now I have the GD and have made it clear the boundaries she is behaving. As for anxiety I have suffered in the past, ended up taking citalopram for 6 months when it became unbearable. Feel free to talk about it if you need to- I absolutely understand how awful it can be.
Good to hear from you all - it was a bit lonely earlier, wasn't it fuzzy?

Rock glad to hear your feeling better now you're home, sorry to hear about the trouble with your mum. How have your DD's first few days at her new school gone?
Bubba we're looking to set something up for Evan, probably an ISA to begin with. We're very lucky that the DC have very generous grandparents and great grandparents so we gave some cash to start it off. Not sure how to keep them equal mind you as think it's difficult to find a savings account similar to the trust fund one that DD has.
Evan did the rolling thing again so wasn't a fluke, he's working on his award acceptance speech .
Hoping DD decides to go to sleep a bit earlier tonight (she's been allowed to stay up until now as her grandad is here from the States), she didn't give in until 11 last night.
Glad some of you are back now it was awful lonely earlier

Travis I did a 6 month stint on Citalopram and had CBT and it worked wonders thank God. I'd had over a year of feeling sick 24/7 and panic attacks leading to me being virtually housebound, I couldn't work for a year. Hence I am very keen to not go through it all again!

Fuzzy DD is getting on well so far at school, although I don't think she was impressed with her school dinner today so it's back to sandwiches tomorrow lol.

George is having a bit of screamy night this evening, he's not settling after his feeds and is just being a miserable little so and so. Hopefully that will improve when we actually have to go to bed as I am the night shift person (well and day shift I suppose), which is fair enough as I don't work. It's bloody knackering though I have to say.

bubba we were thinking of starting one for Kali, we put £10 a month into the boys CTF so will probably do the same without the £250 though we couldn't afford to do that.
They all have savings accounts that any birthday/christmas money goes into - the boys are loaded

rock glad DD is settling into her new school.

I have sciatica its so bloody painful - I am thanking god for the left over pain killers from my section, I have to go back to work on Saturday and it will not be nice in this pain

Hi all!

Sorry to hear about the sciatica LadyBuzz :(

Has everyone else been inundated with weird advice? From my relatives you'd think DS was at simultaneous risk of death by freezing, overheating, too many germs, not enough germs, overfeeding and starvation. My mother has also been baffled at my not wearing a towel over my shoulder while breastfeeding in my own house, to 'protect my modesty'.