JAN 06 - so what's THAT you're eating mummy?

[loomer]

Here we go then... I've also updated my album of photos on the \link{http://health.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/mumsnetpix/photos\Yahoo site}, it'd be great to see recent pics of all our angels on there!

ty tickle

I thought Talia was trying to crawl today, she cannot work it out thought and gets v frustrated!

Had Abbie's 24 month check today she is fine, 81cms and a whole 22lbs at 2 years old. Tried to have Talia weighed but they had no scales, will probably take her next week as tomorrow is officially her 6 month birthday. Was strange seeing Abbie's milestones, first tooth 6 months + 2 days so T beats her by about 4 days. First rolled 7 months, so T has beaten her hands down on that one. I reckon T must be about 19-20lbs now and was 68cms at 4 months.

BBQ went OK back garden now looks like a branch of ELC with all the new toys.

Hope everyone else is doing well and not sweltering too much.

Tickle - there's a great website called www.cottages4you.co.uk (or.com) that would be perfect for you. But if you google holiday cottage rentals it'll throw a whole load back at you.

Happy B'day to Abbie

Hope everyone else good. Am too hot and smelly to type more at the mo

G xx

Thanks Georgie - but what we really need are long term tenants. The place is SO out of the way, that once you've made it up the track in your 4x4, you need a good hour to be shown how to work the water pump down at the stream... Changeovers every week would be tough to manage methinks.

Know what you mean re hot'n'smelly! And it's not just me... Poor Theo gets all sticky when he's on the boob. He had vaccinations today - I had been putting them off, as he had a cough that wasn't going away. So he even had the indignity of a blood test (heel prick) to check for bacterial infection, before we could see he was well enough for vaccs

Watched a documentary tonight on a jeans factory in China. Makes me think 2ce about buying clothes... wow those girls are worked hard .

Stay cool
Txx

hi girls
very quick mail from my hospital bed. had gall bladder removed today, and feeling sore but thrilled to have got thru the anaesthetic. lay in this bed early hours this mornin writing lola a letter just in case and blubbing myself to sleep! hope to be home tomorrow. love lis x

Good to hear from you BBWBL! Hope you're not too sore - fab to have got the op over & done with. Wishing you a speedy recovery

Get well soon Lisa!

Really hectic here, school hols, acclimatising F to nursery/MIL, hours spent weaning! Dp's grandmother died and we had a whistlestop day in Devon for the funeral He is still feeding once in the night which I am tolerating at the mo (he is in his own room now), hopefully nursery will wear him out although I like a later bedtime so we can see more of him, luckily dp will be picking him up 3-4pm. Am off to my mums on Monday for a week but will probably not resist logging on there! Have a good week all.

Just a quickie...

Lisa - so glad to hear that your op is done now. Hope your recovery is swift. I did chuckle at your letter writing episode, I know I would have been the same!

Bit of an odd question: Has anyone else had problems with their knees??? Mine have started to get really sore and achey - I noticed it about a month ago, and it's getting worse. I've never had any joint problems before - and certainly nothing wrong with my knees, but they're both starting to ache now in the afternoon/evenings, even when I'm resting. I can only think that it's because of the kneeling/getting up/sitting down with babe-in-arms that I've been doing since DD was born. Wierd.

Scarlett now has two lovely little teethy bits (only a couple of mm) in her bottom gum, so sweet. She doesn't seem to have suffered too badly with it, just rather grumpy and a little bit of nappy rash.

Still no sign of her getting the hang of crawling - she doesn't like to be on her tummy for more than about three minutes, and just wants to stand up all the time... Not sure if she'll ever get there! She's not very mobile at all, but then a friend (mother of three) told me yesterday that they don't start moving about until they're able to sit up on their own - is that right? Scarlett's still very wobbly when sitting in the 'frog' position, so that doesn't bode well.

Hope everyone's having a lovely weekend. Thank goodness the heat is starting to abate!

Amber - sorry I forgot to respond to your question about weaing and sleeping...

Scarlett seems to have settled a bit more at night now, only waking once for a short feed - I don't think she's really hungry, just habitual. But she has taken to sometimes waking up screaming around 9.30pm, she seems to be really distressed, but then she stops very suddenly after about 10/15 minutes, and goes immeadiately into a really deep sleep almost as though you've just knocked her round the head with a brick - really odd!

I can only think that it's digestive pains from us feeding her solids too close to bedtime - sometimes if she isn't hungry when she wakes from her afternoon nap (4pm) I'll offer her food later on, sometimes as late as 5.30pm. Then she's in bed by 7pm, perhaps this is a bad idea?

How's Lizzie doing?

weaning that is, not weaing, or even weeing!

hi loomer - can't help on the knees really - i'm a back pain person , but generally i think we all have to be careful lifting & carrying them now - they're getting so heavy!

on the sitting & moving - i have always loved the time when they can sit up their own... it opens up a whole new world to them i imagine the strength & coordination to move does come after that for sitting up unaided (bit like me in the morning ) But they are all so different, and once she does start moving you might wish for the days when she stayed where you put her

I went out last night for the first time since Theo was born - without him at least. A girls' night with my mother group - really nice girls, 6 of us. We were at one house for supper, then the plan was to go dancing. Unfortunately my mobile went at half past midnight - DH said Theo had been shouting since 10pm, and it was probably time for me to come home Soon as the little monkey saw me he was fine, stuck his thumb in, and slept through (after a good suckle). Probably good I went home, as 2 of the girls were out til 5am Work would not have been fun after that (that's when I realise I'm not 20 any more!)

Hope everyone is doing ok. Am looking forward to a 2 wk visit by my mum & her best friend next week - they are renting the cottage across the road!

love
Txx

Hi Ladies,

I am sooo glad the weather is a bit cooler today. Alex has not been sleeping well with this heat. He has 2 fans blowing in his room (bc we can't get it under 29C) but he doesn't seem to like the feeling of air moving about so it is very difficult to get him to sleep. And he has now taken to waking up at 4 or 5 am! We can't really leave him to cry very long to see if he'll nod off again for fear of Thomas waking up. Last night we resorted to moving him into his travel cot in the bathroom (which is downstairs and does not share any walls with Thomas). He slept like a baby there! I, on the other hand, was lying awake feeling guilty for sticking my son in the bathroom, cussing the baby monitor for tuning into some neighbour's child and DH for turning on our fan. I never thought I would look forward to the end of summer!

Loomer, no problems with knees here but you're probably right about the babe-in-arms theory. Have you tried a sling or a hip seat? You'd still have to carry the weight of the baby but mabe it would give you more freedom to kneel etc. in a more suitable manner.
Crawling? I am definitely not expecting any crawling action here for a while. DS1 didn't crawl until he was about 9 months. That's 3 months to go - half his life so far!

Alex is sitting on my lap, munching on a piece of bread - looking very grown-up. Now that the weather is cooler, I've put some dungarees on him but they're a bit too small. He's grown so much in this hot period of wearing hardly any clothes. I may have to go shopping soon

Hello all, glad to hear everyone is doing well, this will be a quick update as my family are up for a few days, the house looks like a bomb exploded but I'm trying to stay calm and not run around tidying everything up .
Just wanted to let everyone know how wonderful Bee was at the weekend for her debut screen appearance I was super excited to sit and chat with Mr. Stephen Fry (he's always been a firm favourite of mine!). I couldn't believe it! Bee didn't fuss once, in fact she looked right down the camera lens and was happy to be passed from person to person.. even falling asleep at a convenient time and waking when they were beginning to need her. The director said she was the best baby she'd ever worked with, which was a huge relief. I'll let you all know when the show starts, although she'll only be in two brief scenes, still was a wonderful and exciting experience.

Can you tell I'm excited and leaking pride Sorry, I shouldn't gush.

Aside from that, Bee is desperate to crawl, tis hilarious as she really can't! The heat hasn't bothered her too much (don't feel bad Eshay - if your lil'en was happy there then tis the best place! I used to love sleeping in the bath as a small child, so much cooler!)..

Must dash, everyone is trying to inflate an air bed through the car, and it just isn't working !
Love and rainbows to all
x

hi everyone hope you are all not too hot down South, it's cooled down an awful lot here and was raining quite heavily today.

Lisa - you poor thing you really have been through it, I hope this op is your turning point and you are soon on the mend. Sending you some get well wishes.

Loomer - I am only speaking of my experience of Abbie but she was moving way before she sat up on her own, she took absolutely ages to sit up. She rolled first, then did commando crawling (very funny) for ages, then started crawling with both arms and legs at 11 months, finally sat on her own, then got up and walked at 12 months. She never rolled over until she was 7 months either. It's so true they are all so different.

Tickle - glad you enjoyed your night out.

Eshay - I am with you on them looking more grown up now, Talia loves her toast now too. Will have to join you on the shopping trip I cannot keep up with this girl on the clothes front. Do you buy them the same things clothes wise? I had always said I wouldn't but I have succumbed, mostly because if I see something really nice I have to buy 2, they do look really cute next to each other in their pram in the same outfits though

Lilstarry - that is fantastic news about Bee and her acting debut, you must tell us when the programme is going to be on.

Well first Abbie's news. On Friday she told me "no nattys" (nappies) so I was like OK then, we have had one accident since then, I am so proud of her she's only a week turned 2. Typical Abbie though, she decides when she is toilet trained! I was v laid back about it and said I was going to wait until she was at least 2 1/2 but she's had other ideas. She got a book about potty training and we have been reading it and she's caught on that way I think. Only thing is today she announces she is doing a poo whilst I'm feeding T, so I have to unlatch her mid letdown (v unhappy T) squirting milk everywhere, to chase after Abbie and wipe her bum before she uses her fingers. The joys of motherhood!!! Feel like all I have done is empty potties this weekend.

As for T she's is just a little star. Teeth are like little razors. Weaning is going well, favs so far are strips of pear she can hold and munch. She goes to bed at 8, has a dreamfeed at 11, then thats her until about 5 when she'll have a feed until about 8 so it's not as bad as it was. I'm still shattered and theres no chance of number 3 being made anytime soon (poor DP)!

Hope everyone else is doing OK feel like I have waffled enough.

Lisa - Feel awful for not sending my well wishes - hope you are making a quick and wonderful recovery.
Let us all know how you are fairing.

Well done Abbie!! It's fantastic that she's made her own decision, heehee - poor you tho', can't be easy with such a lil'en! Long may it continue tho'!

Bee is not settling for her morning sleep, can hear her chatting away! Better go try and soothe her. Where has the sunshine gone? Have my family up and was looking forward to showing then Norfolk in the sunshine, bloody typical!
Love to all xxx

hi all - feels like I've been away for aaages (& by the posting I have a lot to catch up on!

Lisa - congrats on finally getting your op! - hopefully life will now be much easier for you.

Sweetkitty - brill news about Abbie! Only one bum to change again. Hope it's still going ok. Dom's fang is razor sharp too (it burst through on 17th, the day before his 1/2 year!)He screamed blue murder the first time he bit me (& I yelped) but has taken to just nipping then pulling off & staring at me to watch my expression - little sod!

Tickle - good for you having a proper night out. How's Theo doing after his visit to the hospital? Had a panic whilst I was at my mums as Dom keeps pulling his bits so hard that the skin split under his willy. It looked so sore but I stuck some sudocrem on it & made sure he couldn't get to it for a couple of days & it's all healed now - boys eh!!

Loomer - food intolerance test was done using kinesiology (muscle testing) Dom had a virus whilst we were away & everything went through him intact (Disprol gave him the most horrific itchy rash too but that's another story!) so I went back to fully breast feeding for a week. I'm starting the whole weaning thing from scratch again but introducing one food at a time this time to double check in case anything was missed. I'm actually wondering if there's a link between him having antibiotics (through me during labour) and these intolerances. I wonder wherther they wiped out his gut flora so completely that he's less able to deal with things (coincidentally DD became lactose intolerant at 5 mths following antibiotics for a water bourne D&V thing)

Lilstarry - you must be so proud of Bee!! do remember to tell us what & when she'll be making her screen debut!

Eshay - have taken up your fab tip on "cloths in the bra for bed" inspired!! Dom's so much easier to resettle now - I just shove one under his nose whilst rocking him & bam - he's gone. Thanks.

Rach - hope you're having a fab time at your mums & sorry to hear about DPs gran. Great news about your bf though. When do you start back at work? If ever you're near Swindon/Chippenham.....

Lyra - hope you're keeping ok lovely - I think of you often -

Hope everyone else is ok & sorry if I've missed something crucial!
Dom isn't crawling but can get to most places he wants by rolling & turning. He's still an absolute joy, despite being an erratic sleeper, & I don't want to start work again but - hey ho... DD gets back on Friday morning (YAY!!!!!!) She's e-mailed a couple of times and sounds like she's having a whale of a time. I can't wait to see her again. Anyway - a long soak calls (would prefer a shower but it broke just before I went away & they can't fix it until the end of Aug!!!!!) Cheerio for now X

hi girls - v quick one while tomorrow's fairy cakes are a-bakin...
Nice to hear everyone's news, with famous babies and potty training

ooh iris... you talking about intolerances reminds me of ds1 - he had anti-bs as a newborn (docs were a bit worried about his renal valves not being properly formed at birth, and they wanted to guard against urinary infections).

He had loose poos always, til he was 3.5, and we never got to the bottom of it (no pun intended!), despite seeing a couple of docs. Then he and dd1 both had some kind of infection (can't remember what it was) so they had a-bs as a last resort. We gave them a big probiotic course afterwards and ds1's stomach has been right as rain ever since. It was only later that I twigged that the anti-bs might have knocked his gut flora from the word go...?

Spare a thought for my poor sis in Australia. phoned yesterday - they have their first baby, 12 wks, and my sis has slipped on the stairs carrying little one, so broken her own elbow cos she couldn't put her hands out Not sure yet if they need to pin it.

better go
t xxx

oh boy, ive missed out on loads...

Angus is doing great, little charmer. smiling and giggling like crazy at every opportunity. no teeth yet, but hair is thickening up a bit. he is sooooooooo cute too. movement-wise, hes starting to crawl, forwards as well as backward as of this weekend just gone. been sitting pretty well for a while and pulls himself up to standing holding onto stuff too. this is all in advance of when his brothers did it (as far as i can rmemmeber) but then, he has a whole lot more incentive and opportunity to learn by watching them. he LOVES just sitting and watching them play. for refernece, archie never really crawled at all, and Max crawled for ages and we thought hed walk much later coz he was so happy getting about on this hands and knees, but they all even out in the end. seriously not worth your time to worry about milestones - they'll do what they'll do when theyre good and ready.

we all went, en famille, to the Big Chill festival this w/end and that was great fun. so much so that we're thinking of heading off to another festival ina few weeks time. we're not doing a summer holiday as such this year... but last years was so much stress i think im pleased about that.

anyways, great to read that you are all doing well. hope Lisa is recovering well from the op - got ur email today so will respond soon as i can on that :-)

so knackered now, im off to shower and bed xxx's to all

hi everyone

It's been illness all round at Chez Kitty the past week, firstly Abbie had a horrendous stomach bug for 36 hours, couldn't keep a thing down and kept being sick mostly over me. Horrible to see your normally lively toddler just lying on the sofa not talking or smiling even. Was worried about T getting it but she didn't and Abbie has made a complete receovery.

Then on Sunday we eventually made it down the coast to visit relatives, nightmare with a bored 2 yo in the back. T was really unsettled then I noticed she had thrush in her mouth. Sunday night she was really bad, crying a lot and feeding and her dummy were hurting her. Monday I phoned HV and got a presciption for us both then had an awful time actually getting the antifungal drops. Monday night was horrendous poor wee thing was so unhappy but she seems to be better today thankfully.

Solids are going OK we are up to two meals a day, today she had some eggy bread followed by some strawberries, then some Annabel Karmel Lovely Lentils and a yoghurt. Mostly BLW with a spoon for the yoghurt (am not that brave) she's still not that keen though seems to be a total boob fiend.

Abbie's potty training is about 80% successful I would say, still the occasional accident. That's about it really sorry to go on, hope everyone else and their little ones are well.

Hi ladies,

SK, no I don't buy them the same stuff although it does look very cute. It seems that sorting out the washing is complicated enough without having two of the same but in different sizes - Alex' clothes often seem to end up in Thomas' drawers when DH puts away the things
Great news about the potty training. T is ready too, has done the odd wee and tiny poo in the potty. We haven't really started yet, have not had a good window of opportunity. Maybe this weekend? I showed him his new toilet seat with handles and he had a go on it. he looked so grown up but really it was a bit scary I think. He had to sit very far back and it was difficult for him to clamber off again. Will save it for later.

Iris, I am so glad the face cloth cuddle is working for you! It so often happens that something works for one person but not for another. Alex has two cloths, a bunny and a bear that smell of me in his cot so he can always grab something in the night. Sometimes he throws them all too far away and then I have to go in and put them closer. Not very often though as there are so many to choose from. I do always insist that they stay IN the cot so he doesn't get used to having it during the day. That way there's no chance he will end up dragging cloths, bunnies or teddies everywhere we go and there's less chance of losing a favourite.

Tickle, how is your sister? Dh once tripped on the stairs while holding Thomas while I was looking at them coming down the stairs. awful! Luckily he managed to grab hold of the railing and was fine.

Alex is liking his solids a bit better these days. he just doesn't like simple purees it seems. He loves the BABYLICIOUS Fisherman's Pie (lazy me) and pasta with tomato sauce, sausage, onion & peppers. He's on 3 meals a day now with 2 milk feeds and milk used in the meals of course. Porridge for breakfast. This lunch time he ate a whole
banana, 4 cubes of fisherman's pie and 4 cubes of pasta. And he wanted more!
Seems like an awful lot for a little fella!

This afternoon I am going to be on Dutch radio, talking 94 whole minutes) about living in London/England. They didn't have any of their correspondents available so the radio station's trainee mentioned me. I hope I won't stutter too much! Wish me luck!

That is 4 whole minutes. The 9 was a missed bracket... I wouldn't know what to say for so long.

Hi all

hope radio went well eshay!!

just a quickie to say we are christening Theo tomorrow... he will be Albert Theodor! Big name for a small boy, but dh & I had our first flat on Albert Bridge Road

Still up past midnight baking, so better go

t
x

ps my sister didn't need her elbow pinned, thank goodness, and she can pick Chilli up carefully when she is right in front of her. Poor thing About 6 weeks in a splint thing (not a heavy cast tho)

Hi all! Have missed out on loads whilst being hectic with summer hols and 'back to school/work' mindset.

I'm back in work today!!!!!!!!!! (not sure which emoticon to use yet, will see how I go!)

Had a long meeting in head office last week and it was like I had never been away. Finn has had lots of settlement visits with nursery and today is his first full day (well 9.30-4), he seems to be fine and they all love him as he is soo smiley. He is sleeping better-ish 7.30pm - 7am with usually only one feed (getting closer to 4.30am - very close to daylight, he was wide awake this morning but I put him back down and I assume he went back to sleep!)

It feels very weird to be at home without him (Billy is asleep on his activity mat as usual - I think he is missing him too!)

Hope everyone is well and having a great summer - anyone had to fly this week? My older 3 are with their dad mainly until September so I hope to get the house in some order too as well as spending some quality time with dp.

Tickle - I love the names!

Eshay - how did it go?

Lisa - how are you?

Great news on the potty training front girls!

Oh and my first task in work is to write a piece on attachment theory for a child development module - how ironic! I shall be unbiased of course...

Hi all. Long time no speak. Have been getting used to my first summer with 2 girls and no pre-school to give me a break! Have managed to stay fairly sane. Mollie has been away with her dad last week and this week so just me and Libs. Have actually been finding it harder with just one of them. Last week was tough. Was feeling pretty blue. Think I was missing Mollie and started to question my mothering skills. Bit of a depressing spiral as all I could focus on was years and years of doing exactly the same stuff day in day out... cooking, feeding, cleaning, running around after 2 kids. No time for myself. Felt pretty worthless and that I didn't have a lot to offer. All I could talk to DH about was boring kids stuff blah blah blah. I think I remember hitting the same brick wall of exhuastion, bordom and depression when M was about this age too. It's not that I hate being with them, it's just that I never think I'm doing as well with them as I should. Should I play with them more? Should I be taking them out more? Should I be teaching them more? I always think that everyone else is doing so much better than me. Does anyone else want to scream when they have to empty the dishwasher, do the laundry, make the beds for the umpteenth time this week? And its all there to do tomorrow as well.

Anyway, I've given myself a good talking to and got Libs and I booked into some fun mum and baby classes that start when M at achool in Sept and I think I'm going to get a nanny to come every other Friday so I can get some time off. And I keep trying to chant to myself that all I have to be is 'good enough'. I don't have to be supermum all the time.

I've also decided that I need to do something else with my brain, so I'm looking into becoming a property developer. Just v simple stuff. First time home type of things. New kitchen, new bathroom, lick of paint and back on the market. it's something that I'm good at (I gutted and re-did my first house for £10k) and I can fit it around the girls schedules. Am hoping to start doing my homework when M at achool and buy my first property in the new year.

As for little Miss Libby, she's a smiley mummy's girl at the moment. She's sitting and standing realy well, but refuses to crawl. Just lies on her tummy and bawls until someone picks her up. Am doing a bit of tough love as she'll never learn to crawl otherwise. She's a complete foodie. Loves anything savoury and hates fruit. Have to try and disguse it. Petite Filous about the only thing she'll eat with fruit in. She's kicked the 5am waking now (thank god). Goes down about 6.30pm and wakes about 7ish. Slept until 8am the other day. I was so scared that something had happened that I asked DH to go in and look at her. She was laying there with her muzee in her mouth just staring at her mobile.

Anyway, sorry for being so selfish and hogging so much space. Just needed to get it off my chest.

We're off on hols with my ma and pa on Sunday for a week. Have booked us into a campsite in Britteny. Mobile home not tent! Am v excited as it looks like a fab campsite with loads to do for everyone. Hope weather better there than here.

Hope everyone else OK. Love and hugs to all the wee and not-so-wee ones. G xx