Hello ladies!
Sorry I've been away so long. Somehow slipped out of the habit, and then we moved house, and then I started my new job which has been okay but totally mental, and I wanted to read the thread properly before rejoining it and not just come in all me-me-me and I just didn't manage it until now.
But I've missed you guys so much! Have read through most of the thread and I can't believe how much I've missed! 3 pregnancies and four babies! Congratulations dyna and cc and double congratulations esk! I'm sure twins will be hard work but just think how much more you'll know and how much more confident you'll be this time round. And you'll have such a lovely little family - it'll be awesome for all three of them as they grow up.
So val, you are ttc? Anybody else? (I'm sure there were others and now I'm forgetting). We are ttc, for about a month now, but despite thinking I was getting AF the day we decided to go for it, I actually haven't had a period since coming off Cerazette almost 10 weeks ago, and I don't think I've ovulated either. Grrrrr.
val I totally understand your swinging from wanting to be full time and wanting to be a SAHM and everything in between. I never expected to love being a mum this much (I thought I'd love it, I just didn't know I could actually feel this way) and I miss Isobel every second of every day that I'm away from her. We do a big juggle: I'm FT, but this term I've done 9-7.30 on Monday, 9-3 on Tuesday, 9-3 on Friday in the office, and then 9-3 at home on a Wednesday. I have Thursdays off, and then every night from Sun-Thurs I work from 8-11 (minimum - there have been a lot of nights I haven't gone to bed until 2 or 3 or, on one occasion, 5). It's a bit of a killer, especially as I have a long commute, and I always wonder if it's worth it and if I should just do 9-5 every day. But I'd hardly see Isobel in the week and I know I couldn't bear it. I love my job, I know that later on I'd regret giving up on my career if I gave up now, and we can't afford for me to stop work anyway. But every time I think about being a SAHM I just know I'd love it right here and now. I wouldn't be bored. So I swing too.
Hi nickel! Glad you're managing to combine bookshop and baby :) How is Eleanor? I read about her eczema (is it eczema? I might have skimmed that page 
).
How is everybody else? frak, how are you?
A quick round-up of us: Isobel will be 18 months on 3rd January! EEEk! She has loads of words, is lively and gregarious and cheeky and chatty with people she's comfortable with and sometimes shy in crowds or especially with men. She walked around her first birthday. She loves dancing and penguins (she has Happy Feet in her stocking this year) and In the Bloody Night Garden. I stopped BFing at 11.5 months. Next time I won't bother with a bottle at all (there was no point in all the stress I had about it), will try to take more maternity leave, and hope to stop BFing at around a year again. It was right for us.
I think that's it! Oh, and as nomorechoc (what are you called now???!) already knows, last night I went on a work night out and drank too much wine and puked in my handbag on the way home. Some things get a lot, lot less frequent, but they don't entirely change