April 2011 - Hello Grindstone. Nose here, reporting for duty.

[DairyBeetle]

Plumps comfy pillows, shakes warm fluffy blankets, passes them round, sleeps

I would go back to the GP too, maybe try and see another one?

I'm not sure about being done or not...always said I would have 4, DH remains unconvinced but then he wasn't sure about having any more than 2, I'm one of 4 and he's one of 2 so it does make sense.
I am keeping all the baby stuff for now and we've said we'll decide when DD is 2ish as I love having just baby-time with DD when the boys are at school so would ideally prefer to wait until she's ar pre-sch at least for a few sessions a week.

Rubbish night last night, DS2 has a bad cough & cold and has been up at night for a few nights. Last night he woke DD, DS1 (not DH until i woke him) & possibly the little girl next door! & my parents.
DD then was awake and crying for ages, had her dummy, i wasn't going to feed her & i'm sure she wasn't hungry, she just wanted someone with her, so i sent DH in and went back to bed

Fizz I would go to the GP as well. Even my 'bad' CS scar from having DS1 was healed up fully and completely fine by now.

Cycle poor H :( Hope he gets better soon.

ILike I haven't heard that word for ages! Douchebag I saw you complimenting someone on their use of it on another thread

No more babies here either. I am a bit :( about it, but in so many ways we feel right as a foursome. I will always be a bit sad about not having a daughter, but that is something I need to come to terms with.
I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of not needing to cart cups, spoons, bibs, highchair, travel cot, gigantic toys and all the other gubbins with us everywhere we go and I really don't want to start all over again on that front!
There is of course the other issue of needing a bigger house, holidays costing an arm and a leg, and the looming question of private secondary school if we stay here and the secondaries stay as utterly crap as they are at the moment.

That scar sounds sore Fizz. Another one here who thinks it would be worth going back to the doctors.

We appear to have joined the poorly baby club, although the illness seems to be a bit of a mystery. Daytimes aren't too bad but night times have been awful - lots of screaming, thrashing about and dirty nappies. It could be teething, it could be a poorly stomach but whatever it is, it's giving us a severe lack of sleep! DH and I have a tag team approach going on last night but we were up for hours. Urgh. Hopefully tonight will be better.

Definitely no trying for no. 2 in 2012 here. We would definitely like another one, but I'd like to get a full night's sleep first! Ideally we'd like a 2.5 - 3 year gap, largely so that we can avoid having two in nursery for a long period of time. It'd cost us about £1,500k to have them both in nursery full time, which would more or less ruin us! I'm also not sure that I'd be up to having two really tiny ones at the same time idea. I take my hat off to those of you that do it!

Any plans for NYE? We're off to a party but neither of us are particularly thrilled about it. I think I'd rather have an early night!

Ok ok I'll go back to the docs after new year! :o

On teeth news B appears to have 7 and 8 coming through too . Discovered while slathering on the bonjela before bed tonight. Is it normal for so many to come through at the same time?? He is also loving grinding his top and bottom teeth together at the moment. Horrible horrible noise, I hope he grows bored of that soon!

We are going to friends tomorrow night for a right "guid hogmany swally" as she put it!! They have a DS a day younger than B, we met in hospital! So I can't imagine it being like the parties I went to in my early 20s!! Ah those were the days!!

We have the Pox here!

What a PITA, I was so looking forward to DS1 being back at preschool on Wednesday!

star hope tonight is better.

fizz s grinds too that's how I found his top tooth. We are 4 with 5 and 6 coming. I think it's quite common for them all to come at once.

Ali oh noooo . We had a call from my sil this am. My dn might have the pox and we spent yesterday with them, hope their Dd of 2 months doesn't get it.

We are staying in tonight. I went all sentimental and said I wanted it to be the three of us.

We're having a quiet one. We should have been going to friends for tea - M is improving but still not right and we're exhausted from getting up in the night with her. If we see midnight it'll be due to baby wake ups. Still, we have steak and chips, followed by apple crumble for tea :)

Ali oh dear

We are having curry then going to bed not intending to see midnight in this country at all! So HNY from me

Happy New Years Eve Everybody !! We are also having a quiet one and staying in, well DP is out with his dad & brothers & promised to be home for bed & bath and then its the 2 of us seeing in the new year.

Im oddly excited for 2012 & the amazing year it will be with watching DI having loads of firsts (steps, words, etc) & hopefully DP & I getting back to our oldselves & hopefully also trying for no 2 ! Wonder who will be the 1st to announce it !?!?

Im currently sitting down with a glass of chocolate wine (not ot everyones taste) its totally yummy, i got it at the xmas food festival, its very festive !

We have also been suffering bad nights with DI the past couple of weeks, she has always been a good sleeper right from the start so its a big change & sooo fustrating not knowing whats wrong. Some nights she just wont go to sleep & just crys when i leave and then smiles & laughs when i come in, i cant leave it longer then 10 mins to go in if she's crying, should i try longer ?

Past few nights wakes up & just crys unless i hold her, I was up from 2-5am the other day, i dont think we have ever had to stay up that long and those of you who deal with this more often, you are amazing, its soo fustrating ! & ive just had a few nights !

Chilli Dinner sounds perfect !

Ali Hope the pox dont itch to much :-)

A quick questions for those around, for those FF how much milk r u giving each day total on top of their food ?

Well im off to make Mango pudding ! yum yum !

Oh & before i forget, DI is a lefty !! she eats, sucks thumb all on her left hand, only rolls to her left. DP & I are righty, I wonder if she will write with her left hand :o

Happy New Year All, May your 2012 be as amazing as our 2011 !!

Happy New Year all!

Sympathies Ali, the pox still hasn't arrived here after F's pre-xmas exposure.

Aussie I was going to ask a similar question. F is now 9 months, and since I've been off for xmas he's had BF morning & evening, and only a token ounce or so of formula during the day. He doesn't ask for BF, but will have if offered. Does that sound ok for a 9 month old?

Obviously he's having 3 meals + snacks during the day too.

Happy New Year!!

We're home and back to into the world of internet access and working laptops - huzzah! I shall be catching up with MN tomorrow but for now best wishes to all Aprilites from the Beetle household.

Happy New Year everyone!

Ali hope the pox departs fairly swiftly! Sending virtual hugs, calamine lotion and for you!

Happy new year everyone. It was a pleasure spending 2011 with you. Here's to 2012 [cheers]

Oh no Ali, that sucks!

Sorry to hear you're still suffering Fizz, doesn't sound nice at all.

We're slowly going mad here. H's tummy so sore he'll only sleep on us for comfort most of the time and both of us are exhausted. The diarrhoea is starting to improve and he took proper food yesterday for the first time on nearly a week but he'll only eat smooth purees so I feel like I'm starting all over again!

Happy New Year everyone!

DS1 won't entertain the idea of calamine lotion, so he's under a quilt watching The Gruffalo's Child, with his hands out on top so that he can't scratch. Bless him, he is being so good and has finally recovered his appetite!

T is well, still doesn't either sleep well at night or nap much during the day. Hey ho.

Gah posted too soon.

Cycle - you poor things, and poor little H (hug)

I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012, and may it be a year where we all get more sleep than we did in 2011!!

I hope the sleep fairy visits us all this year (and soon). We're on every 2-3 hour wake ups and even with early nights I'm ratty by 5am and resorted to the shouting 'just go to sleep' style of parenting which I then felt really guity about. Dh took her downstairs and played for an hour and I slept. I could really do with at least one long stretch of sleep a night though :(

Ali and Cycle hope everyone gets better soon.

DH is back to work tomorrow :( And I will be eventually this year :(

Happy new year everyone! Party was great last night. B didn't really settle when we put him to sleep in the pram and woke up at about 11, so we took him through to the party where he became the entertainment! A room full of adults watching a 8mo roll and scramble across the floor. He is going to be a performer! He lapped it all up!! He then got tired and grumpy just before 1 so we headed home. DH was driving. He needed a feed to go to sleep, but he eventually went down at 2. Great we thinks, he'll sleep longer in the morning! Yeah right! 6.30 on the dot he summond one of us to his room. DH got up with him as I was still tipsy ! We were going to go out a walk today to blow away the cobwebs, but he has decided to sleep all afternoon! Why do they do that!

Anyway, I hope everyone had the New Year they wanted! I'm off to have some more paracetamol and consider having a shower!

Happy New Year everyone, and yes please to the sleep fairy visiting our houses!

Glad to hear H is on the mend Cycle. Baby I was the same with his food during and a little while after being ill. Normally he very rarely has puree/smooth food, but for a few days that was all he would eat.

Poor old ds1 Ali, sounds like he is being a trooper though! M still hasnt had the pox and I'm baffled as to why not because he has been in really close contact with people when they were in infectious. Does it have different strains? Maybe he has natural immunity to some?

Buck - I am sure there is a recommended amount of fluid, milk and calorie intake, but I have no idea what they are and they are just a guide. If F has plenty of wet nappies then I really shouldn't worry. A fit and healthy baby will let you know if they are hungry or thirsty. I have also found that their weight tends to plateau around about now because they become more active and I think they start to learn that feeling just a little bit hungry isn't the end of the world anymore - especially when there are lots of distractions around and about. In short, trust yourself, if he is having a varied diet and you are offering food and drink, then he'll be fine

Happy New Year everyone

Good luck to all those planning babies in 2012, you brave things. I was adament until DS was 2yo that I was only having one, then suddenly changed my mind. So far the 3 year age gap is working out well for us.

I was packing away some of P's baby clothes today and sorting through DS old baby things for a friend as I won't be needing them again. Alas, I will now also be padlocking my knickers

ali Sorry to hear the pox has arrived. Virasoothe Gel is great for the itching. We watched Gruffalo's Child on New Year's Eve, it kept making DS jump which he thought was hilarious.

P is starting to improve from her cough/cold. She also finally has some teeth poking through. Thanks to the combination of illness/teething she's been boob mad lately. I BF her last night before going out and settled her but she woke up just as we were leaving. My mum was babysitting so offered her a bottle but she was having none of it. Mum couldn't get her to sleep until 11.15pm . (It was her 9month birthday, she obviously wanted to celebrate it). DS was happy enough as he got to stay downstairs watching his Charlie & Lola boxset. He went upstairs at 8pm and told my mum he was tired now so going to bed. They all ended up sitting on my bed for a story.

Normal bedtime service was thankfully resumed this evening.

H is asleep, in his cot, it's a New Year miracle! Yaaaawn, am off for a lie down.

Hellooooo

Hello

I think that I might have a mild case of PCD (post Christmas depression). The decs are down, DH is back at work, all the yummy food has been scoffed...boo. I'll be back at work before I know it. Double boo.

So windy here today. Hope nobody has been blown away!

Fizz - are you still on the ground? Weather looks awful up in your neck of the woods!
It has been blowing a gale and raining buckets here, but only a few branches and bits of rubbish in terms of debris.

Star - I always get that. We've still got our tree up, that will come down on Friday, but I've taken down the cards and a few other bits.
I am trying to make myself a list of little projects that I can focus on, we've got a few family weddings etc over the next few months as well which is a distraction from the general yuck-ness of January and February!

Just about! Due to the amout of cake and biscuits I've consumed recently I am firmly anchored! They have closed our shopping centre and outlet mall. I've heard rumour of Asda closing too! It has calmed down quite a bit now though. This morning was wild! Pictures were shaking on the walls!

Tree still up here too. Think I'll take that down later. DH is back to work tomorrow and I have my "big meeting"! My friend is meant to be visiting sometime this week for an overnighter with her 2 girls, but with the weather she can't get here. All the bridges are closed at least for today! You would think we were in tornado valley! Crazy!

Baby Jogger question. Is it worth getting the foot muff? Or will I just invest in a cosy all in one for B?