Caution! December 2011 babies can be hazardous to health, bank balances and carrot sticks!

[LittleMissFlustered]

Sorry seven, didn't mean to be insensitive, totally forgot about your flat :(

oi renting is certainly an idea and there are even a couple of houses up the street to rent but not sure I can cope with the idea of moving twice! Will have to think about it. We're in a popular commuter town so there seem to be lots of buyers around here despite the rescession.

Should be celebrating but feel a bit sad about leaving this house! It was our first house and both children were conceived born here (not actually born in the house but ykwim).

Sorry, enough me me me. Nice to see you back lmf and hope you had a relaxing evening everyone. We had lots of sauvignon blanc :). (oi I am very picky about my whites and will only drink sauv blanc, gavi or gewurstraminer or bubbly). Hope we all get good nights. I should have been in bed ages ago!!!

aethel I wouldn't be jealous its nor like it buys me any extra sleep. And its high calorie stuff too (infatrini for those in the know)

Octoboy just went 8-3!

Just as DP was due to return to work tomorrow, his back has gone again and he can barely move I think a trip to A&E is in order as soon as we can get GPs to come collect Jack and Freya. I'm shattered... been up since 4am with him. I don't even have to do nights with Freya any more!!! Gah...

I'm also now concerned about finances now. He's been off on SSP for 2 weeks now. We can barely afford to scrape through the month when he's on full wage and me on half wage. Plus I've got to pay travel to work out of June's wages. It's really stressing me out

missree hope DHs back gets better soon, are you back to work soon? I'm having mild sciatica at the moment finding it hard to pick lo up at times so he has my sympathies.

Well the minute we turned out light last night and I mean within seconds lo woke up I decided to leave him for a bit as he doesn't cry he just grunts and coos 20 minutes later he's still going, then he thrashes around, smacks his head on the unit to his cot mobile (viewed by me on the monitor) and so commenced the screaming which continued until he had a bottle. Luckily after finally getting to bed at midnight he did sleep until 6.45. Dh getting arsey says he can't continue like this, he can't work, sleep and so we need to feed DS more so think we going to fully introduce lunch from today and maybe even dessert after his dinner and see if that makes a difference.

Have sold his baby swing on eBay now he can sit up so that's being collected today and then off to a summer fair and dog show at a local country house. Please weather hold off!!!!!

Hope others got some nice sleep!!

I'm back to work on 16 July Figgy. can't arrange to go back sooner than that as the family members looking after her can't look after her until then I don't know what we're going to do until July's payday.

Money sucks.

That is all:/

I was only joking gee, I'm happy for you really. Just hope my turn comes soon as we can barely afford the council tax on it.

Well done on the sleeping octoboy, keep it up!

figgy have you tried giving him a bottle just before you go to bed? Lunch will hopefully make a big difference.

missree would any friends/family be able to give you a loan until July? Hope you're not at A&E all sodding day too long.

Eva is screaming every time I leave the room today, best get the wrap out!

Well the GPs will be here in half an hour to pick up J and F. J will be dropped at his mums and F will go home with them. DP is trying to nap sitting up on the sofa (he can't lie flat at all) but J keeps being a noisy little bugger excitable watching tv and waking him.

I'm knackered already and the day hasn't even begun even though J keeps asking if it's lunchtime yet

I think a loan from the parents is the only way to hold off the bailiffs survive until I get full wage, Seven. I hate hate hate borrowing money

This end-of-mat-leave really is the tightest bit with babies misree, SMP is tough (though better than nothing) and I really hope your DP improves soon so that things get easier for you on both the comfor and financial front.

Three wakeups (I think- it's a bit blurry) amd today's job is to shuffle the beds so that DS is in with DD2! And buy a box of no 1 aptumil as we're having another crack at the bottles just to remove that variable. hawthers, I know well that formula doesn't equal sleep, but when sleep deprived We'll try anything that might help! dD2 used to have a bottle at 7 and then a BF to put down at 8 so I might try that.

LMF Well Done to Octoboy.

MissRee Money sucks. Really hope someone can help you & DP gets better soon.

Sky slept from 8pm - midnight in our room. She had trapped wind then slept from midnight till 7am in her room in which DP got up with both girls so I could have a lay-in.

Got my cousins little boys christening today, should be nice to get dressed up.

Hey I have a question. Those of you who are FF. When are you going to change to follow on milk?

Not formula feeding now, but I miss with my middle one and we never went onto follow on:) Used first milk until switching to cow's milk at one.

Mixed, not miss. Bad typing + autocorrect = epic fail.

Glad to see your phone's still got it in for you LMF !

We're stocked up on the spirits side Oi, for cocktails, but with wine it's a bottle at a time. I have to say my boss had a double wine fridge- it was chilled on one side for white/rose and slightly warmed on the other for reds. It is my dream to own one and to have it stocked

So sorry for everyone with the money/house worries. I got made part-time against my will (long story) and seeing as mine was the bigger salary we had to cut back to the bone. It just colours everything and it's crap . Hope your DP gets his back sorted MissRee, that's rotten, not what you need.

Last night was a bit grim- DS woke at just before 2am, and for some reason did his inconsolable yelling and crying. He's only ever done it once before, in the evening, and can't be put down. So there was no way the dummy was going to work, so he was jiggled, and then I just peeled him off and put him next to me in bed, and gave him bits of me to hold/grab. Got off about half an hour later. Tried a repeat at four, and then woke at six.

Cheerfully handed him back to DP at 7 and went back to bed!

Have had the housepainter round, and today is shopping/washing/being domestic day, with a large side order of European football.
Am also continuing with our baby steps with weaning- yesterday it was a bit of toast and banana, and so far today he's gummed the hell out of a strip of toast with a wee bit of Nutella on it...you're told to give them what you're having so why not?! We'll do some more fruit and veg and a bit of yoghurt today too.

DSM I plan on moving to follow-on milk when F hits the 6 month mark. It's recommended on the side of the tin as the follow-on milk has extra vits and minerals etc it's also on offer a lot of the time as they're allowed to market it differently to first stage milk

Oh oh oh exciting news... Freya can now poke her Tongue out!!! Ridiculous amounts of excitement here as I thought she was doomed never to be able to eat a sugar donut and lick her lips (or always be the winner in a non-lip-licking contest, if you want to look at it that way)

have spoken to OOH about DP (not sure how we would have survived a wait in A&E with him not being able to sit/stand comfortably) and they've prescribed the strongest painkillers they can without going onto morphine and the likes (barbiturates?). Apparently a bad back is only A&E worthy if he shits himself or can't get a lob-on... not sure I'll be testing the latter any time soon

dsm I'm now starting on follow-on milk. Gradual introduction has proved that Eva no longer has lactose intolerance, I'm just doing a bit of both while I use the old formula up.

missree Eva also had a tongue tie when she was tiny which has gone now.

misree the other thing to watch out for with backs is buttock numbness (centred around the back passage) so if he feels like he's sitting on an ice block or goes completely numb there, a visit to A&E is needed. Or if he gets sciatica down BOTH legs rather than just one coupled with leg weakness.

Halfway through Operation Move Too Many Beds Around Too Little Space and have stopped to feed DS while DH dismantles and reassembles the cot in the DDs' room. Both DDs extremely excited by this!

And in other news, DS took an ounce of formula without a fight!!!
The "first formula" is perfectly good for up to a year, babies are bettrr off getting their iron from egg yolk and greens. Having said that, the followon stuff like aptumil 3 is similar in form to so-called "hungry baby" formula (more casein in it, sits in tummy for longer) so if baby was on that or you are trying to zonk them at night then follow-on may be a good idea. Certainly it's in no way especially superior to first milk nutritionally. --and if the evil marketing peo

And if the evil marketing people are the same as when I had the Dds, they make the scoop for follow-on milk LARGER while flogging you the SAME SIZE PACKET of formula for the SAME (extortionate) price. So if finances are tight it is cheaper to use first milk (or go for something on offer if you can find it)

What follow-on milk would you ladies recommend as DD2 has been on C&G Comfort milk since being on Formula.

Any sort should be OK dsm, it's often a question of try it and see. The "comfort" type milks are more like first-milks in style as they are whey based (easier to digest), but as Sky is older now you may find she's fine with a followon six-month milk, you may prefer to keep her on comfort and make sure she has some iron in her diet. No one brand is better than another according to the internet info out there.
From 12 month moo-cow milk is just fine for all babies (apart from the few with genuine milk allergy and they wouldn't be OK on regular formula either). All this "growing up milk" nonsense really is the formula manufacturers trying to screw extra ££ out of mummies with no justification whatsoever

Hey all, hope MrMissRee's back is soon better. Good luck with the finances. I understand the hatred of borrowing, I think I'll need a bridge loan off mum when we complete the house purchase, but it should be just in case, I hope we won't really need it. I also hate lending money. When family ask (and it's only happened once) I felt obliged to say yes. Shudder!
We went round to our new house today to meet the sellers and sort out last bits.I hadn't realised how much stuff there still is in the house. There's quite a bit of furniture, and all the cupboards are full. DH went up into the attic space and that's full too. They said, make us an offer for the furniture you want. I said, my offer is leave the furniture and anything else. I'll clear it out for you. He accepted my offer.
The kitchen table alone is worth over £500! there's a Stokke type cot, 2 sets of kid's bedroom furniture, a rowing machine,... I shall pile whatever we don't want into a spare bedroom and get busy with eBay. The money can then be used for carpets, wallpaper, paint, etc etc.
Ali is 6 months old today.