These babies are going to be calm, easy and sleepy at all the right times, and we're brooking no argument about it!

[Biscuitsandtea]

In here ladies - the other thread was getting full up so I thought I'd better start a new one.....

Will do some links to / from this thread but in the meantime please make yourselves at home

This year its a red and white spotted one with furry bits of the hood. Vair cute.

Eye went back down so I phoned the Dr and they cancelled the appointment with the proviso that I keep an eye on it and call back if it swells up again

Aww that sounds cute Pomme. I picked up DD's in Mothercare, they've got quite a few nice ones to choose from this season here

I accidentally started my Christmas shopping today I went to John Lewis to spend some birthday money I was given but ended up buying a few gifts for Christmas instead.

Oh and my post being smug about DD's sleep yesterday came back to bite me on the bum when she woke up starving at 5am this morning . She's still snotty and snuffly Biscuits but she doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

Hope DD's ok Jen?

Cross posts Jen, pleased she seems better

I've got a very cute navy suit with stars and a fur lined hood for f. Thinking we'll need it as going north for Christmas.

It's from sainsbos

Bloody nightmare here... S really, really coughing, often til he's sick. Miserable. B too, plus temperature and super miserable. DD now feeling better, though on day 7 of no food, losing weight quickly now. S can't sleep at night, too bunged up and mucousy, he wakes every time he's laid down. I've got a pillow under the mattress for both to prop them up but its not enough. And oh, how I prefered just feeding when they woke. Neither will feed, so its walk, rock, jig, sing. For hours in the night, and get one down and the other wakes up. I am so, so fed up, I'd like to leave home. Arghhhhhh!!!! It's just not getting any better, its illness, or not settling, or gum/teething pain, or something. With no end in sight :(

musical I've got a John lewis multi colour polka dot footmuff on my single bjcm. I don't mind about putting my hand under it to fold/ unfold, but for the double, as there's two straps to pull I went for the baby jogger ones for the boys. They are just black but cosy, and the buggy is purple anyway.

Oh god dream, poor you. If dd's feeling better she will start eating soon and the weight will go back on. it's so scary to watch them get skinny when they're ill isn't it? Makes me beside myself a bit. But then it's always surprising a couple of weeks later when they're back to normal again.

It will need! It will get better, they will sleep. 2012 as the year of no sleep will just be a family anecdote...

oh dream that sucks. :( don't know what to say but offering brooking anyway. i have pics of DS1 at about 16 months when he had a bug and he looks so skinny and poorly because he wouldn't eat properly for weeks. he did pile it back on as well, hope it won't be long for DD.

i really want to go to Sainsbury's for matching snow suits now!

after last night's giggle fest, we're waiting till DS1 is asleep before adding DS2. DS1 has been really cute with him today, i love watching them - even when DS1 is keeping him awake or totally distracting him from feeding.

we had DS1 in bed and DS2 playing in his cot while we were getting them ready and when we both left the room to sort stuff, DS2 got upset. DS1 jumped straight up and went to cheer him up with a toy. what a wee dude.

Dream I'm so sorry the world is still not giving you a break. What a relief DD is on the mend though. Have you got any extra help at all while eveyone's ill? Is DH better now?

Sorry to ask something completely irrelevant to anything that's been mentioned today, but Biscuits/Scream I saw the Pacapods in JL today and I now really want one. I love my changing bag but I've ruined it by cramming far too much in and it's ripped the leather where it's been hanging off my pushchair. I'm potentially using a changing bag for another 2-3 years so don't want to make do. Biscuits is it the Napier that you have? And is it big enough? I imagine you have slightly less to lug about as you still BF in the day, do you think I'd get all my junk in it? Scream remind which one you have and how you're getting on with it?

I do indeed have the Napier scarlet and it is pretty big. You're welcome to view it next time I see you . I'm not bf in the day anymore, just at home in the mornings and evenings so I have all that guff for ff to carry in the day. Now, previously, it was awesome as I had the change pod packed in it and then used the middle bit for all my purse etc but it sort of filled the gap where the feeding pod should be iyswim. However, now we have meals and ff rubbish to cart about it can get a bit full. If I have both pods in it I can still just about fit my stuff in but I can only take the essentials. Often what I do though is just stick the feeding pod under the pushchair or take it separately. The pods however are great I think. I can fit in a couple of Ella's kitchen pouches, spoons, bibs, a carton of formula and a beaker without too much trouble. If I'm making formula from powder then I need the tommee tippee flask, powder dispenser, bottle and beaker so obv no way that is going to fit in so I take another bag if that's the case. Although I could fit the powder dispenser, bottle and beaker in if I didn't have food pouches as well.

However, generally speaking I'm really happy with it. It's comfy to carry and I have loads in it, especially without the feeding pod.

By the way, we've just watched episode 1 of Homeland (series 1). Very good so far. DH was a bit at the amount of 'women in underwear or less' shots . But it was good. Lots to think about and question. Oh and we wondered how there can be a second season. Surely they just find out eventually if he's dodgy? Anyway, no doubt all will be revealed in 11 episodes time

I think Scream has the Portland?

Oh, and brooking for a return to good health in the dream household. It must be v to see dd losing weight but as the others say I'm sure she'll get her appetite back soon enough and be back to her former self. In fact I'm going to brook no argument about it.

Now I'm supposed to be in here settling DS2 who was grumbling, but I came in, stroked his back, and he went to sleep (magic hands me ) so now I'm hiding MNing while DH puts the shopping away

Best go and help....

Gearing up for another fun-filled night shift here. DD is such a sweetie but she finds it really hard to get to asleep. She wakes up so frequently throughout the night, and is increasingly distressed each time because she's just exhausted still.

I've been having a fair bit of success with a 22.30 dream feed, it seems to prevent waking until around 2/3ish. I'm toying with the idea of doing another dream feed at 2, but I don't want to encourage the habit of feeding in the middle of the night still. She used to sleep from 11ish to 7ish about 3 nights a week before our hol. I keep hoping she's going to miraculously go back to that without me having to actually do anything! Wishful thinking of course. Maybe I should do the 2am dream feed but gradually substitute water for milk before dropping it?

She's taking to the spoon-feeding really well, not so keen on the blw though. We've pretty much ended up with porridge/purees and a bit of finger food on the side to play with. She's really not interested in feeding herself at all. At the moments she's having a bowl of porridge plus playing with some fruit around midday, and having a bowl of carby vegetable puree plus playing with some steamed veg directly before bedtime. She's still drinking the same amount of milk as before, in addition to all this food. Yet when she wakes up in the night I canNOT get her back down until I give her some milk! Last week it was definitely a growth spurt, but this week she's gone back to her normal amount of milk, she's just insisting on having it throughout the night as well as the day. Sigh... Any advice No Brookers?

Scarlet I still adore my Pacapod - I've got the Portland. I love the look of it, it still looks good despite the many varied substances that have been spilled/puked on it! It attaches to the pram easily. It has enough space for quite a lot of clothes/toys/parent stuff. I love the pods as well. Every time I use a public changing room I'm glad I only have to take the teeny change pod in with me. It makes it easy for utterly hopeless DH to actually pack/check/use the change bag as well.

Sending hugs to Dream and all your poorly DC. Glad DD is on the mend, hopefully S and B won't be far behind. Hang in there hun!!

Jen I hope your DD's eye is fine from now on, sounds like a stressful day!

Loopy you sound like a saint to be putting up with your ILs and your chocolate stealing DH, outrageous! Remember, this too shall pass!

Oops, better go get the dream feed ready before DD wakes up... Hope all the mini No Brookers have a good night tonight, and cut us Mummies some slack!

Oooh so pleased you're watching Biscuits. The naked women become less as the series goes on and as the plot thickens. I remember the thread on the telly section on here we were all a bit about the naked women for the first couple of episodes. There's a really uncomfortable scene - I think in the 3rd series. You'll know which one I mean when you see it. We're 2 episodes into the second series now and it's brilliant still! You'll love it by the time you're 4-5 episodes in.

Thanks for the Napier info. That's the one I was looking at and I'm pretty sure I'm going for it. DH is about it as he only bought my most recent one for my Christmas present and I didn't even start using it until early May so it's not lasted long. It's that blasted TT flask that weighed it down too much and it's only thin leather so it's ripped and I've had to do some DIY repairs so I can still hang it, but it's not going to last long.

Doh, not 3rd series, meant 3rd episode.

Scream I love the size of the Portland, sadly I think it's out of my price range. Gutted I didn't just get it before instead of spending even more on 2 bags

No advice re the feeding sadly Scream. My only experience is with DS and I wouldn't say we had the easiest time. I did manage to cut out his 10pm dream feed at the same time we started weaning so something must have gone right. That was the start of him sleeping 12 hours through. But we didn't BLW, we did mush and mash for the first couple of months at least and didn't progress with finger foods as quickly as we should have. I think we started with one meal a day, around lunchtime. We only cut out the dream feed to start with. By the time he was 1 he was having 3 milk feeds a day and 3 meals a day. By the time he was 18 months 2 milk feeds and since he was 2 he now just has a cup of milk before bed.

Have you tried making her last feed a formula feed now that she has had some formula? That might see her through longer.

Her last feed is formula Scarlet :( I usually bf her about 45 mins before dinner. She has quite alot of dinner, then we do the bath/baby massage, and finish up with 4 -6oz of formula around 7.30pm, directly before putting her in her cot. Then the dream feed at 22.30 is another 4-6oz of formula. She STILL wakes up around 2/3ish though, and then again an hour later, and again an hour after that. Each time she is clearly still very tired and fretful, but she won't go in her cot and she won't even settle in my arms until I give her either a bf or a couple of oz of formula. She wakes up for the day around 7/8ish.

Not sure what to do. When she was younger I didn't mind as much, I felt like it was perfectly normal. Now I'm worried about all sorts of things - overfeeding, reinforcing bad habits, not teaching her to self-settle. I have such bad teeth myself, I really want to night wean little A before her teeth come through.

Despite all this food/milk she's still only around 16lbs, which means she's gone below the 50th percentile for the first time. I'm not worried about her weight at all, I just mean that she's not chubbing up as a result of all this eating.

Loving the snowsuit chat! My sister bought dd a gorgeous winnie the pooh pram suit (is that the same thing?) which looks like a bear :D

Dd is still fighting sleep and has been 'possetting' all day but the infacol seems to have really settled her tummy touch wood so at the very least my late night will be less stressful :)

We did have our first up-the-back poo today though which was a shocker! What a shame I'm still too sore to bend over and change bums...... Teehee...

Oh yes, I've just remembered, Too you asked if it didn't hurt when ds2 gnaws at my knuckle? It really does!very often I end up taking it back sharpish as it is so painful. But then at night when he's practically asleep I must confess I tend to grit my teeth and put up with it as it does make it easier to settle him. If he starts biting them and I give him a toy to chew on, like those plastic links or something he'll normally end up waking up and banging the toy up and down the bars of the cot (like some old fashioned prisoner or something ). In the day I don't let him get away with it, or even at night if he's awake properly I say No and take my finger away, but when he is oh so nearly asleep I do let him do it

Ah Fluff I bet you were sorry to miss out on that nappy . I saw on the other thread that you had thought a change unit might have been useful - bet you didn't wish it at that precise moment!

I can still remember my first one like that with ds1. He must have been a little older as I was on my own at home, and typically just about to go out, and I recall being really confused as to why he felt wet when I picked him up, until I realised...

Up the back poos, gotta love em! The only thing I'll say is that it took me a while to realise it, but generally a complete disaster-story nappy (total explosion, clothing destroying armageddon) was actually a sign that DD was in a too-small nappy size. Not sure why, but I kept expecting DD to outgrow her nappies by waist-size, when actually she outgrows them first by poop-volume! My signal that it was time to move to size 4 came last week, with the horror of her first post-weaning dirty nappy. Jaw-breaking!

So, DD has decided sleep is for losers. Considerately of her, she's protecting me from this immoral pastime by refusing point blank to go back to sleep. Apparently the second dream feed should be at 1.30, not 2...

DS2 now back in cot. he spent a whole one hour at first, then up, then another hour, then a while on the feeding pillow on my knee while i dozed.

not sure why he's not settling, but i can hear him rustling about again.

I'm not impressed with a) all this running back and forth, b) the fact i can't feed lying down because there's no cot to stop him falling out now, c) i can't just look over and reach through the bars to settle him.

he was all sideways last time so might have been awake chatting happily before i heard him.

we had lots of leaky wee at night last week, I've eventually given up and he's now in the same size 5s as his brother. monster baby! less leaky poo so far and nights better too.

right, it seems quietish now. better try to sleep.

hope you're getting peace too scream!

:o very true biscuits

You might be right scream - we've not measured her but dd seems so be quite a long baby. She was only 7lbs 7oz at birth but she's busting out of her newborn clothes and is already in her 0-3's.

I hope dream is having an easier night of it tonight :( I'm sure dd will gain the weight back once she's betthough.ke everyone says - still understandably upsetting though.

So tonight I've discovered that even if dd settles and sleeps, she still wakes for her 3am "pleeease go to sleep" feed of desperation despite not really being due til 5 which I think is cheating :o

*better though, like...

stupid phone.