Still brooking no argument whatsoever that these babies are happy, healthy and awesome for 2013 too.

[jaggythistle]

eh. attempt at new thread. yo.

did a big post but pet beat me to it for number 1000!

Marking place.

Thanks Jaggy. Have you and your boys had a good Christmas?

yes thanks, it was lovely to see DS1's wee face, but we're all just a bit exhausted with this cold bug. i seem to have got off fairly lightly so far but DH has man flu is feeling rough. touch wood the boys seem to be on the mend, but still coughing and only just eating again. DS2 has been feeding sooo much, i had him balanced on my knee during my starter yesterday!

DS1 is working his way through the presents and seems to be enjoying it. Christmas mk 2 tomorrow when in-laws arrive with more presents!

we are doing dinner and i chose this moment to bake my first ever cheesecake. it is in the fridge but I'm panicking that i took it out too early and it's too wobbly. there could be an early morning dash to the shops! :(

Ooo good luck with the cheesecake Jaggy! DH used to make baked ones all the time, and often panicked over having taken them out of the oven too early. His always seemed to crack... fingers crossed yours is perfect :-)

Congratulations Stacks! Hope you're recovering well from the CS, and hope you get home tomorrow. Enjoy your lovely newborn snuggles :-)

Thanks for the well wishes re the cold. Iz seems to be getting slightly better, but I'm getting worse and fluey. Off to bed soon. Have baby Vicks type stuff for her. DH went to Norse earlier where he was told Karvol had been recalled at the moment, so wasn't on sale?!

We had Christmas mk 2 today. Iz got lots of new clothes, and another walker even though we told step MIL that MIL was getting one. Christmas no. 3 at the weekend, but until then I can rest up, eat lots.. and maybe brave the sales as we need to return a couple of things.

We also appear to have way too much food. Party round ours, anyone?

have peeped in the fridge and it seems to be set.

i destroyed the top surface earlier though, when i tried to cover it with foil to put it in the fridge and it stuck to it. will need to do some kind of repair job tomorrow.

maybe a stencil with cocoa powder/icing sugar quite thick might cover it...or melted chocolate. i could melt chocolate, pour it into a festive cookie cutter (got a big star somewhere) on a bit of oiled foil. then chill to set and hopefully lift off and put on messy top of cake? hope you don't mind me thinking out loud here! that way i wouldn't be putting hot choc onto the cake.

hmm we can only get Calpol plugs at the moment. i thought the karvol one felt better as well, that would explain why we can't get refills.

Yes I've not been able to get my hands on a Karvol refill for months. I ended up buying the Calpol one for DD but I don't rate it as much. I wonder what the problem with Karvol is...

Oops, sorry for filling up the last thread! Thanks for the new one, Jaggy!

yay! congratulations to stacks for a Christmas baby. lovely news.
happy Christmas to all, hope everyone had a lovely day, we did. ds was at peak excitement and still hasn't calmed down. dd loved the bread sauce and Swede and was covered in both by the end of the meal. my folks left this morning only to be replaced by dp's folks who will be here for s few days. and our new sofa arrives tomorrow, yippee!
dd has gone in her own bedroom for the first time tonight and I miss her even though she's only next door
must catch up on the thread as I feel way out of the loop, see you soon brookers x

Jaggy, DH has turned to both melted chocolate and icing sugar in the past to disguise cracks! I think white chocolate was most successful. I'll have to make him attempt it again now we have a new, reliable oven - I think the dodgy ovens in previous places we rented never helped..

Ninja, hope DD sleeps well in her own room!

Apparently the person in Boots didn't say why they couldn't get them in, but said they hadn't been able to for a while :-(

Still full o' cold. I think Iz's tilted mattress helps.. only I've had to get up twice tonight where she's rolled onto her front (her favourite sleeping position), has wriggled.down the bed, and then becomes an angry crawling baby stuck at the bottom!

ha weird. about 2 minutes after we went to bed last night there was a wee noise from the boys and DH was on at me that one was crying. i did tell him i do this every night and i thought they were ok.

i went through and DS1 was upside down in his bed so i rearranged and tucked him in. DS2 was wriggling about squeaking quietly while asleep and trying to get comfy. he was on his tummy like a wee caterpillar and slept for over 2 hours, then i also found him at the bottom of the cot looking puzzled.

he's slept for another few hours there (up coughing again), so fingers crossed when this cold's away he might sleep even better.

Quickly Jen as fractious babies, but S is a choker/vommer. However since 8 months he's spoon refused almost 100% of the time, so is blw. Kind of he eats a lot of junk food as he won't touch anything else- like waffles, wedges, etc . My top tip- if you have a vommer who doesn't just bring back the stuck bit but hurls til their tummy is totally empty- clear the tray and stop feeding immediately you think they've had a half decent amount. It's just been time with him, he wasn't ready before. He will still regularly choke at the end of a meal and bring the entire lot back though . Think overflowing pelican bibs, full tray, all over the floor. So, so, so frustrating... And just feed a mixture of finger foods and puree/ pouches. I know 2 paediatricians and one paeds dietician (my mums colleague I harrass) and all say do a mixture.

Marking whilst packing manically. Suitcases hold so little!

D'oh! Only just twigged the last thread had maxed out!

I hope you've all had great Christmases?! We also had two, one on Xmas Day itself the other on Boxing Day. Little A had a wonderful time seeing everyone and throwing all her new toys about. Unfortunately she got completely over-excited on both days, so wouldn't go to sleep until incredibly late (after 11) and was then yoyo-ing up and down all night long. She refused point blank to go into her cot, but even co-sleeping didn't get me more than an hour's sleep at a time. Sigh.

Today is our first quiet, calm day at home, so I've gone back to Day 1 of the cc. Her morning nap was a nightmare, took over an hour to get her to sleep. The afternoon nap only took 5 minutes, which was such a relief. I'm dreading tonight though because she's back to her late-bedtime-late-wake up, and I think getting her to sleep before 10 9 will be impossible. All fun and games - it was silly of me to start the new sleep training just before Xmas. I was at the end of my tether though. I just hope we can get back to where we were before too long.

On a separate note, I don't think I'll be moving back home soon after all. In fact I'm leaning towards a formal separation at the moment. I don't want to drag down the thread with depressing and non-baby-related talk, so I promise not to go on about it. I just wanted to tell you, I guess because it's so hard to tell people in RL. Rather dreading life as a single Mum, it's certainly not how I saw myself turning 30, but hey-ho life goes on.

Please don't let me ruin the festive season however! Does anyone have any funny Christmas moments to tell us about? What about the people who usually get "unusual" gifts - any new ones this year?

Bon Voyage pomme. Brooking that all goes to plan and you have a brilliant 2013. Let us know when you've arrived.

Scream that really is very sad news. I'm sure you're thinking everything through carefully and I know you won't make any decisions that aren't sensible. Could it be though that things had just seemed worse because of having to spend a lot of time together and with rellys over Christmas? . Christmas can be stressful on a relationship at the best of times but if there's problems there already...Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn and I obviously know very little about it. It just seems such a shame when you've been together so long and it's still so soon after A's arrival.
BTW don't feel as though you shouldn't be telling us about it on here. If you can't discuss it with anyone in RL it's important you get to vent somehow. How many times have I thread hijacked over completely trivial stuff?

Cooking again tonight, this time for friends. Massive chilli on the go here. DS is saying his ear hurts, DD'S crying through being overtired? Friends not yet here and I'm wondering if its too late to cancel and hide under the duvet until the weekend

Oh and funny gifts, sadly not this year Scream. Mum and me are both extremely disappointed.

Scream, sad news. Please feel free to vent about it here though, as scarlet says, as it's important you have an outlet.

Sorry to hear about A's sleep too, but I suppose she has had a rather mad few days - as we all have! Iz's is all over the place too, though that's because of her cold too. Good luck with re-employing the CC - I'm sure you'll be back to your wonderful nights in a couple of days time.

Don't think I had any funny gifts...! I did get a Pungi - an Indian snake charming flute - my father has decided to get me weird and wonderful musical instruments for the last couple of years! My DH got a coat that's completely not his style.. but other than that I think all my gifts were relatively normal.

Hope your night went/is going well scarlet!

Braved the sales today to return a few things. Madness. Luckily we went quite early, as I imagine it would have been worse later. Feeling very bunged up, so will be heading to bed once DH has resettled Iz and we've watched the end of Outnumbered..

Marking spot

So sorry to hear things are not better scream if its any consolation both first years of my boys' lives were incredibly tough on our marriage with divorce mentioned many times. Fingers crossed it works out for the best for you and a

Pies not lies!

musical, here's for quick return to health for your DD

Ditto for your dc scarlet, how did it go in the end? Worth seeing your friends or just too much hassle?

jaggy, DD had no sleep regression at 9 months. I am brooking no argument R, B and S don't either because I'm breaking anyway . Boo to all the illness Chez Jaggy too.

scream, that's very sad news. I'm sure you won't rush into anything and its really obvious, but do you still have similar long term hopes/ dreams/ plans?? I'm another having a hard time now. Becoming parents is incredibly hard, especially with some of your dhs issues around family since he lost his parents when young. Coming from a 'broken home' I'd do anything within reason to keep dh and I together for the children, but equally unhappy parents do not make for a happy homelife. Has the councelling (so?) helped? and brooking for speedy resumption of good sleeping from little A!!

Ciao Bella pomme! Updates please. Really, nothing at all from dh for Xmas?

S rolling around really well now, B rolling a bit- they were rolling in totally synchronized tandem style thus morning, wish I'd had a camera!! So cute. And B babbling Ga Ga Ga Ga, da da da da etc. S loving walking round holding your hands. (I know they're not exactly early with these skills at nearly 9 months but I'm still super proud) .

at mince lies!

sorry to hear that scream. :( don't worry about talking about it, I'm away to bore you all about cheesecake again FFS.

my choc cheesecake was fine, could have done with a few more minutes in oven to be perfect i reckon. i made a chocolate star which hid the messy top and PIL really seemed to enjoy it. DH did lovely main and starter.

oh and DS1 came and tasted the pudding, I'd let him help a bit and he liked the star. it was nice to see as he doesn't ask to try stuff much at the moment!

DS2 in bed at last (still coughing) so I'm away to bed. night night!

Oh, and sleep still depressingly horrendous from S. He slept in 10 min stretches only on Christmas night. I was a broken woman the next day...

Hurrah for the triumph with the cheesecake and your ds1 trying it jaggy :)

Aw that's lovely dream, tandem rolling sounds cute!

i can't remember if DS1 had 9mo regression but I've read a few threads about it. his sleep is fairly rubbish anyway tbh!

R still can't figure out the hands for crawling, but gets around by rolling and stretching for stuff. he can get back up to sitting from lying down which made me when i saw him do it the other day.

he was much earlier than DS1 with the walking holding hands, he's been obsessed with it since before 5 months. grandparents get all tired out with him insisting on standing!

Funny isn't it? DD was like R with the walking holding hands, amazingly early, S has got it in the last few weeks, B still doesn't!