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

[jaggythistle]

eh. attempt at new thread. yo.

Some news over in Conception :)

Ooh just peeked over but didn't want to post as not sure they know who I am and didn't want to intrude but woop woop for the lucky lady. Brooking from afar that it works out.

Have just weighed M on my bathroom scales and she's slipped back down the centiles. Last time I weighed her (at 8 months) she was on the 75th centile and now she's only on the 25th. Do you think I should take her to the HV? I did think she was looking longer and skinnier! Maybe I should get my sister to help me measure her height when she gets here. (Hello, come in, welcome, you came for lunch, but first, help me measure a wriggly baby because I am neurotic...) She has actually lost weight - down from 19 lbs to 16.75.

Are you using the same scales? Try weighing something you know the weight of and check that they are correct. Weigh the same thing 3 times in a row and check it comes up with the same weight each time

Bathroom scales only give a vague idea too, I tested mine when I weighed the boys and if I weigh me they don't alter with or without pajamas etc. When you think baby scales go to the . something of an oz its no comparison if you're comparing her to a proper baby scales weighing. Or was it the bathroom scales last time too?

The boys sleep is totally awful at the minute. S is teething though, definitely, got bottom two just starting to show properly. Don't know what's up with b, guessing maybe teeth too. Clearly it wouldn't be the right time to do cc but god, I'm so tired :(

Lovely to see you pomme update us when you get a chance!

scream hope you're holding up ok

scarlet, I'd do exercise as its meant to be helpful with endorphins etc & I'm an ex-exercise addict, soon as I get some sleep im restarting . But either way your plan sounds great and very positive.

It was my bathroom scales both times. I hope they're accurate - I'm about to start weighing myself and dieting tomorrow after I eat this bar of Toblerone. I was about to say that I might take M to the weigh-in clinic on a Thursday afternoon but I will be at work so I can't!

Dream, ouch with the teething/no sleep. I hope the teeth come through quickly and the twins' sleep settles down.

just popping in to say hi. life is v busy here, not sure where the time is going! ds back at school and dp back at work on mon so will have a good catch up then. bugger. got to go, roll on the quiet house on monday morning.

hey all. back home safe with my wi-fi connection.

i so can't be bothered going back to work on Monday...

will update at some random time of the night...

Oops, I dropped the laptop and the screen now has a funny green and black line on it. Maybe it will go away...

M sabotaged my attempt to will her back to sleep at 6.30 by producing an enormous nappy. So we've been up since then. She's scoffed a whole Weetabix and is now doing her impression of an Andrex puppy with a toilet roll.

Too what centile has M been (roughly) tracking? Is she eating ok and getting plenty of milk? As long as she seems healthy I wouldn't worry much. Maybe take her to get weighed in a week or so if you're still concerned?

Hope the laptop recovers!

Welcome home, Jaggy !

I liked the first childminder I saw yesterday. The second was ok but just starting up so not very experienced. When I asked what she'd do with DS all day she said she'd go out with the buggy. Great for a bit, I thought, but all day?! Got another one to see on Monday, then I'll make up my mind.

Dream hope the teeth appear pronto. I dreamed that DS produced 5 in one night. Clearly a wish-fulfilment dream! Teething is rubbish, isn't it? We've only had one bad bout (and still no teeth) but I'm dreading the next.

Teething is truly rubbish Pet. Iz's first bout lasted four months, and I think we're heading into round two... eek! Five in one night sounds remarkable though..

Welcome home Jaggy! :)

Too, echoing what the others are saying - if she seems healthy I wouldn't worry too much. Did I read somewhere that she's getting longer? Could it be partly because she's moving around more, which is burning more calories..? I found that with Iz... Glad M's sleep is doing so much better. You and Scream are such an advert for CC! And re the job - yes, it does feel nice to have made a decision. I stil feel a bit niggly about it though, even though it's clearly the right decision (and everyone agrees). How's the laptop?!

Dream, also hoping the teeth appear pronto.

scarlet, sounds like a fabulous idea! Which way are you thinking you'll sway? If it were me I'd go for the qualification, but I'm a learning junkie - soooo desperate to do my PhD in the near future, purely for the love of learning! If I won the lottery I think I'd spend forever studying...

Also missing Biscuits! Looking forward to hearing all your news too Ninja when life becomes less hectic.

Scream, I hope DH's aunt managed to persuade him to stay for longer? Hope all's going as well as possible...

Feeling shattered at the mo. I'm on antibiotics for my cold (sinusitis), and I think they've zonked me out - woke up twice in the chair in Iz's room while 'settling her to sleep' at points last night. Oops. Her sleep is back to being shocking - think it's teeth again judging by the way she's pulling at her ears. :(

Am flu ridden. DH has man flu too. It's not pretty. Getting the jab next year for sure

Oh no raaboo. I'm just coming out the other side of it (on antibiotics - have never had to take them for cold/flu before - worst bout I've ever had). Take care of each other, and I hope it passes soon. DH and I have also said we'll have the jab next yr after how bad it's been this yr.

Oh no raaboo, nothing worse than 2 ill parents and 2 pre school age children... How did your dh find it the other day BTW?

S has tips of two teeth you Dan feel now. Still nothing for b, but just to make myself more miserable we've started the dairy challenge... Fingers crossed!

Eek, hollering from B, back to settling for me...

Why oh why is B such a pain at bedtime atm?! Dh having a lovely bath with DD while I baby battle...

Incidentally we had a lovely day today, went to soft play, had a calm family lunch (!!) went for a walk for babies to nap, everything went to plan, even tea time wasn't as horrendous trying as usual when we got home. Huzzah :)

And Brooking for a quick return to health to you too musical and much less teeth faff this time.

sitting with DS2 while he attacks some apple wedges which he loves. i have a special Ikea device to core and wedge apples, it rocks.

not sure when we'll get these guys to bed. we were away to DN's ridiculously over the top 3rd birthday party. 3 hour round trip so DS1 fell asleep on the way home and has eaten the chocolate out of his party bag.... DS1 totally didn't enjoy it and hardly saw his wee cousin while she ran about and was made to do stuff by a rubbish children's entertainer who couldn't sing for toffee.

just imagine i posted this about half an hour ago.

going by the wee red face we may be getting a high chair poo here...yay.

FFS that half an hour bit was meant to be at the bottom. i stuck my phone in my pocket and forgot to hit post. DS1 in bed and DS2 in sleeping bag. hope sleep occurs soon...

We keep getting high chair poos, Jaggy ! Have to suspend feeding while the straining is going on.

Actually DS is being a pain with food. He was happy being spoon-fed most stuff, then he was ill/teething over Christmas and off his food, and now it's like a switch has flicked and suddenly he's aware of different textures and doesn't like them . For example, a fortnight ago, he liked risotto. Now, not. He'll eat his breakfast weetabix off a spoon (thank goodness) but for lunch and supper he wants to do it himself. I've only had success with banana or Philadelphia on toast. Tried eggy bread - yuck. He'll eat banana and satsumas. What else can I feed him? He's rejected baked potato with Philadelphia, courgette sticks, cheese omelette, potato and pea fritters... We had some success with fish fingers and carrot batons, but I can't just feed him fish fingers and toast, can I?!

musical and raaboo I'm no brooking for a swift return to health chez vous.

Dream glad you enjoyed your day. Good luck with the dairy challenge...

pet, snap except total spoon refusal for S. He will only eat pasta and cheese sauce, so that is all I feed him for tea and he rarely eats hardly any breakfast or lunch (though he will have fruit and banana somtimes) and he doesn't hardly bf in the day, maybe once briefly, and he wants to feed all night ARGHHHHHH!!!! I've tried sweet potato wedges, cheese omelette (oh, just seen you said that), spaghetti bolognaise (won't even touch it), I do try flaking white fish and mixing it in his cheesy pasta, but not sure how much goes in, tuna mayo pasta, keep meaning to do something with lentils in effort to get iron and protein in him. And push him around in the buggy all day for the childminder?! WTAF? sounds like what my MIL would think is appropriate . IMO she should be taking him to some activities like playgroups, library bounce and rhyme things, to the playground for a swing- the kind of things a parent would do, surely, isn't that the point of using a childminder?!?!?! Glad you found one you think you like already, that's promising.

Incidentally he's just had his first wake up, has just about gone back down without a feed, but sounds a bit hoarse and was very cross. I bet he's getting another cough/ cold bug.

*jaggy, think that's an amazing effort for you to turn up to a birthday party that involves a 3 hour round trip don't know I would . Seriously, 3 year olds need entertaining?! and cringe for thre bad singing.

scarlet and biscuits, thanks for the talk of Homeland a while ago, I messed p at Christmas by buying it for dh but also totally forgetting I'd told mum we might like it... so dh got 2 copies but the point being, we're so hooked! It's great but a bit scary for my usual tastes

Biscuits, where are you? We miss you! Have just noticed you've unfriended me on FB - hope you're okay.

Am knackered and shaking in every limb - just restarted the Shred. Owww.

M has finally, finally accepted a spoon for lumpy/savoury food, thank God. Bloody BLW It means she'll now eat thick soup, mashed potato and, tonight, fish pie. Brooking that Pet's DS and Dream's S will follow suit soon! Advice from HV or no advice from HV, I might ignore BLW next time around and go with spoon-feeding - at least then you can get some food into them.

Dream, FX that the dairy experiment shows B to be okay with dairy now! And also Brooking that there is no more illness in the Dream household for the next 6 months at least.

Get well soon, Rahboo and Musical!

Musical, I hate the ear-pulling thing! Tonight I was cutting M's fingernails and toenails after her bath and she started really crying. I thought she was just protesting so carried on until I noticed blood on the hand I hadn't cut yet. She'd been pulling her ear and jabbed her nails into it so hard it was really bleeding, poor little mite. There was blood pooling inside her ear. I got quite a fright but when it was cleaned up it wasn't as bad as it looked.

The laptop has some extra blue/green lines across the screen, but seems to be working fine despite this.

The cc really did work here. It was absolutely horrific to begin with, but it has paid off so well. I guess I'm on the fence. I don't want to be going around saying 'do this, I did it and it was brilliant', because it might take some babies hours to accept it and fall asleep rather than M's 7 minutes. I suspect that if further babies are as bad sleepers as M at 9 months I'll be tempted to try it again, and I'll have DH/Mum/Dad/PIL/sister/Uncle Tom Cobbley and his grey mare all going 'do it, do it, it worked last time, what are you waiting for?' from about 3 6 months. I'll just have to hope that subsequent babies aren't as bad and the question doesn't arise.

Pet, glad you found a nice childminder!

Jaggy, am also looking at Monday with dread! I've managed to use that WundaWeb stuff to fix the hems on two of my work skirts by way of preparation so at least I've got some clothes to wear.

Jaggy that sounds a bit grim. You're a much nicer person than me, there's no way I'd do the preparation and stress of a 3 hour round trip for a 3 year old's birthday party. We did similar for a relative's 21st when DD was 3 months and that was bad enough but at least we didn't have to suffer a children's entertainer just a load of drunken adults prodding and fighting to hold DD

Fingers crossed you've found a good childminder there Pet. I'd also be a bit by the one buggy walker one. You'd expect her to have some idea of activities locally.

Yay for another Homeland fan. Dream, DH and I have serious withdrawal symptoms now the second series has finished. The 3rd hasn't been filmed yet and Claire Danes has only just had her RL baby so we might be waiting a while. At the end of the 1st series we couldn't work out how they'd make a second. But now the second has finished we can't wait for the 3rd. Best thing on telly for years.

We do a mixture of feeding techniques with DD. Mainly spoon feeding because she's still so tiny and only puts teeny bits of weight on every couple of weeks. There'd be nothing of her if I left her to her own devices every time. She wasn't even 15lb the last time she was weighed almost 4 weeks ago. I'll take her next week and pretend to listen to the waste of space HV see an improvement hopefully.

we don't see DN very often so didn't want to miss her birthday. DH is seriously getting more annoyed with his DB and SIL though. they are really superficial and hard work, also they will happily drive practically past our door and not let on that they're over our way. their hobbies seem to be champagne, fashionable things, socialising and ditching their daughter on the nearest grandparents.

i probably sound like a right bitch, but they really are our polar opposites. DH is just losing patience with them, whereas i try to grin and bear it to keep the peace. i really hoped having dc might bring DH and his brother closer, but it's had the opposite effect tbh!

on the subject of food, even though i tried spoons first, it's taken DS2 about 2 months to get properly interested in stuff on a spoon. he mostly survived on toast, nothing or bits of pasta. ok and some baby biscuits So blw might not be the culprit - just a cheeky baby! he still prefers to self feed if given a choice.

Quick post to keep up with the lurking. T has been having some issues with wind the last couple of days, so a bit more challenging than his earlier eat/sleep behaviour. He currently sounds far easier than all the older LO's, though I thought newborn was meant to be the hardest stage for stress and sleep deprivation.

Oh my God, I go back to work tomorrow!