November 2012 - Babies going trick or treating

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/1870430-November-2012-Babies-are-getting-busy-busy-busy

And I have finally decided what to buy O for his birthday. He is getting a personalised wooden Noah's Ark (thanks MM ) , the Tomy Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs, some foam bath shapes and a book. I don't want it to be too overwhelming for him so I will probably let him open them in stages throughout the day. He is spending his actual birthday with me and my Dad & Stepmum - we will take him out for the day somewhere, then XP has him the day after, his party is the day after that and then the day after that (1st Dec) I am taking him to see Santa and buy a Christmas bauble. Want to make that a Dec 1st tradition every year.

Yeah to tear free bath times!

donna our bill is scandalous. Worry not miss doon for you are not the only one.

VQ The veg packs and meat packs all are used for more than one meal. We never have any veg left over. Generally we go through 1.5 boxes of chicken breast fillets a week, so around 9. That is for 3 meals on average. We each have one fillet, no extra for O if he is having it, I make it stretch out as he only has a few pieces.

I bought 3 bags of potatoes. This covers roast potatoes, wedges, chips and mash. Then what is left over will make things for O, mash, potato cakes, or DS1 for lunch might use some.

Big bag of carrots does 3 meals.

Remember what little ones eat is far less than an 11 year old. DS1 eats almost what an adult sized portion is. I do give him a smaller amount but he is never satisfied and will ask for more when he's finished, or start raiding the fridge if there is none left.

Lunches are definitely a big downfall now I have reviewed it. We are having 4 separate meals. I'd never thought about it like that before.

Me and DP sometimes eat the same - but then some days he is in work, or I am in work, or we are both in work. Lunches never seem to pan out. I do either a cooked breakfast style thing, a bacon butty, omelette, soup, noodles, salads, sometimes it is just a yogurt with fruit and cereal bar. DP has beans or spaghetti with bacon/eggs/toast or whatever, sometimes he has a sandwich.

Pre-SW I never ate lunch. Or if I did I certainly didn't cook. It was just snack stuff from the fridge.

I buy a loaf of bread, bacon, 30 eggs (we cook a lot with eggs, and I use them for snacks, some weeks we don't use all of them, sometimes we do) tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, noodles, salad, beans and spaghetti. This covers whatever is wanted or most appropriate for lunch.

DP often takes left overs to work, we do freeze portions too.

DS1 takes a sandwich, 2 pieces of fruit and a yogurt to school, sometimes he has crisps with this or a cereal bar.

We have several meat free meals, I always have done.

I'd like to think I would take the syns in the yogurts, but all my syns are accounted for each week. And I use the yoghurts before bed when there are no syns left, as a free food to fill me up til morning.

When I am at my target weight I will stop using them. Same for the noodles.

I won't stop cooking with frylight though! I love it!

What would really work well is if we all had sandwiches. I don't like them though. I like them as a toastie however. But not practical in work. Also, we sometimes use our bread allowance on other things, so I don't have bread as an option every day.

I just don't like most fillings plus bread together.

Doesn't work for me. Not sure why. I did try a ham sandwich a month or two ago when O had one.

I've always been fussy with food. I don't eat cereal (don't like it with milk, too dry without), sandwiches (and I wouldn't even try it if it had any kind of butter or marge on!), I'm not a tea or coffee drinker, don't like alcohol. Don't like ketchup/mayo/most sauce accompaniments. You know all the stuff that normal people like? Yeah, I don't!

Chasing I think we might steal that Xmas dec tradition (and MM's festive PJ tradition) I'm really looking forward to taking him to the Christmas markets and to see the reindeer in Princes St gardens. Edinburgh is amazing at Christmas. I think we'll reinstate a Polish tradition we had as kids which was Wigilja - the vigil - staying up late on Christmas Eve and being allowed to open one present before bed whilst the parents got tipsy on wisniuwka.

O just broke the blinds.

Pulled them down. Completely snapped.

I am NOT HAPPY.

Fucking fucksake.

Fuck fuck fuck.

Can you afford it det? Do you care? If you are happy and it works for you then grand. You have worked hard and it doesn't seem to me that you have many extravagances. If shopping is costly but you can afford it then so be it.

I love, love, love Christmas.

My family are not religious so I am afraid I am a fair weather religious ceremony fan.

Growing up my family were really poor. Like eating potatoes for days poor. Despite this though my mum saved every single penny there was to making Christmas amazing. We got a big present each and piles and piles of wee ones. We weren't allowed to get up until dad had finished feeding the cows and had come home to light the fire so we would lie in bed all excited - some years it was as late as 10:30 if there was a cow emergency!

Then we would go round one at a time and open a present each. Everyone had to ooh and aah at every present opened and we would make careful piles to take away to our bedrooms.

Over the years I hid letters about school trips and the like because it wasn't even worth asking but Christmas happened the same way every year even through major financial crises.

I don't believe that stuff spoils children. We weren't spoiled and we new never to ask for anything from a very young age.

P won't have that and I am glad in many ways as it means that my parents struggles were worth it in that I don't need to. But I am now wondering how to make it special in that same way.

Well, we pay all the bills and still have some spare. It just makes me :( as there are other things I'd love to spend the money on. Ideally I'd like to be budgeting at £80 a week.

Time will tell. I'll go mega strict soon and see how we get on.

Can anyone help on the following products? We get them all from Aldi but are they cheaper and do the same job elsewhere?

Nappies, baby wipes (not aldi but Huggies - tried lots but always gone back to the same), tin foil, washing up liquid, bleach, toilet roll, kitchen wipes, washing detergent, fabric softener, dish sponges, polish. These are the things we buy in addition to food. Obvs not every week. But they do add a big amount on to the bill. Estimating around £20 a week.

£20 a week on household stuff? Now that does seem a lot.

Ditch the wipes and use kitchen roll and spray. Everything else is masses cheaper in aldi than anywhere else for the quality you get.

How much polish and bleach do you get through?

Lost my post!

What I as saying was that I didn't mean to get on at you det just to offer help if we could reduce it a bit. There are syn free non branded alternatives, for example the muller lites are expensive but could easily be replaced. The noodles I agree probably couldn't but have a look here I discovered this site and can save a fortune. Also fry lite has cheaper alternatives too. I did SW recently and my bills rose a bit due to higher volume of fruit I was buying but not astronomically so!

Consultant was ok. We've not to reintroduce dairy until at least 3years old and it will be likely in hospital. Eggs he may outgrow by age 4 and nuts by age 5. Great!!!! We are allowed to give soya 1+ milk and soya deserts. I've to slowly introduce the other potential allergens (dhs) one at a time and catch carefully.

She talked about sleep and said we should try sleep Scotland website but they deal with children with additional support needs which James doesn't fit into. She said she recommends we put cot back in his room and try and crack it over the next 3 weeks before my surgery but added that it's easy for her to say! I ended up in tears. She can't suggest a touting or anything to try and CC didn't fair well when he screamed for 90mins!! I called sleep Scotland to ensure that they can't help and they said to call cry-sis but I'm not sure what they could suggest that we haven't tried?!?

No idea what we spend.

H eats what we have now. So easier. But it's easier as I'm at my mums n she cooks with less chillie. Mil has more spice in her food.

We are still having screaming bath times

Ok can't concentrate. Painful nipple

I can't wait for Christmas, we are taking Sinéad to Thomas Land at drayton manor at some point in December, they decorate it for Christmas, play festive songs and it snows at least 3 times a day. We will take her to see Father Christmas while we are there aswell. I can't wait, dp was right in saying it's more for me than S

A Costco membership might be worth it for you , you know. We buy toilet and kitchen roll in bulk as well as any other household stuff they have on offer. Worth a look

Lovely mental picture Pass :-)

Det I use value Tesco nappies £1.44 for 20 or 18 pull ups. They work just as good as any other. Only use huggies wipes though, or washables. Aldi washing up liquid and clothes wash is excellent. Toilet roll from Iceland of all places. I understand what you say about DS1. He will eat more than my girls put together. We have sandwiches every fucking day in the week, but J has soup or another meal I have made and frozen. Do you like stews and casseroles? You can really pad them out with veg and lentils. The frugal food threads are ace btw. And your fruit bill? Bananas can be pricy and we only get a small bunch each week. We have apples and satsumas if in season, and value grapes. Saves a fortune as DH used to buy a tub of blueberries just for his cereal when on SW.

J is such hard work poor boy. I am sick of him being sick.

I agree with Izzy that nobody is having a go at you Det. I would happily come and stay with you as your meals sound lovely :-)

I have done all my Christmas shopping bar MIL, and have bought stuff for her to give the kids as she is ill in hospital. If she does not like it then we have birthdays covered for the girls. Sylvanian families feature heavily, and playmobil and Lego are making an appearance too, in a hope to have something gender neutral for J to play with when he is bigger. I managed to find a fab chess set of the Simpsons for DH at a car boot, and also have got him a leather wristband with we love you daddy on. I now need to start sewing little odds and sods. Impossible to sew with a small boy permanently attached to me though.

vq what sylvanian did you end up getting?? My maple manor arrived yesterday and looks amazing!!! Must catch up on bargains thread again! Hopefully minus all the nastiness!

Evening all, have tonnes to catch up on by the looks of it!

I know i'm muchos behind but a belated happy birthday to pr's LO :)

pikz Oh wow sounds very cute!

kirrin I don't think I could skip for 5 minutes either :/ On a more positive note though I am now able to do situps, or some! I downloaded an app, can't remember if i mentioned it before, that reckons it can get you to doing 200 situps in a day. Well today I managed 44, the longest 'set' being of 11 in a row. For someone who fell to the side after 3 situps less than a fortnight ago, this isn't too bad! Could you/would you swap coke for a diet version maybe? The only one I like really is pepsi max/pepsi max cherry. Coke zero is ok but diet coke is gross.

Apple I know i'm late but I'm so so sorry :( I've never experienced anything similar but it looks like some people have positive stories to share so maybe yours will end up that way too? Take care of yourself and make sure you rest as much as you can.

Sounds like a lovely day you had yesterday yw

poor N kirrin hope she's ok after banging her head, bless her

Hope you got a biiiig apology fatima!!

Lovely mm it's so sweet when you start to get words :) I haven't really had much out of E for a while after such a promising start, but never mind!

Glad H's bday went well GT :)

Oh gosh charlee hope Zara is ok, I think i'd take her to be checked out, maybe a quick phonecall first before you go down. Bless her, hope everything is ok

vq poor J and poor you :( so unfair! Hope he's better soon, poor little soul

pass your bite looked awful! I did not post on FB cos I wanted to put that I'd love to pop it I like popping things

Sounds like lots of babies can do lots of things - I have seen E clap a couple of times, but he doesn't do it much/ever and he can vaguely wave, but with both hands. He doesn't shake his head or nod, and completely ignores me most of the time. He seems a bit 'behind' but I am trying not to worry, he's very happy and does okay most of the time. He's got his 12 month check in a couple of weeks, so I guess we'll see what they say there. He can and will talk but says words for a few days and then you don't hear them again!

I like all the food chat :) I am also stealing ideas Sugar wise, E gets some things, but not often. Sometimes I chuck a biscuit his way or whatever but try to keep his 'treats' to things like raisins/fruit/yoghurt. I actually have no idea what our food bill is, as it changes. I know I am rubbish at budgeting and spend far more than I need to. If you count pet food my bill is a fortune but isn't so bad without. I too have a fussy kitty. Well two actually. One throws up cheaper brands and the other gets very sore and scabby on cheaper brands. So cat food is about £15 a week alone. I reckon I spend about £100 for 3 of us and that's with one being little E, but then also that would include the cat food. I REALLY need to budget a bit :| I get E full fat stuff and us diet things.

For lunch last week E has had... soup with bread in, omlette with ham, quiche, sandwhich, sausages and beans on toast, pasta and sauce, and crumpets with some other bits like cubes of cheese that he throws on the floor and boiled egg etc to make it up a bit. He tends to eat our tea, most are made from scratch. Last week he had thai chicken curry, spaghetti bolognese, steak and potato pie, toad in the hole, sunday roast, pasta bake and jacket potato with cheese and beans. Sometimes he has the SW stuff I do, sometimes not, it depends what we have. Usually he has what we've had the day before. Oh I forgot breakfasts... he had spaghetti on toast, scrambled eggs, beans and sausages, porridge, weetabix, fruit and yoghurt and some soreen, cheerios.

det i'd be screwed without tomato based things as E really loves them! There's a cheesy vegetable sauce in the AK book but I think it has milk/cheese in it :/ maybe it could work substituted with something else? Tbh though it sounds like he has quite a variety to me, especially considering the limitations you face with the allergies and whatnot

Hope you're feeling better today chasing

hope it goes well with the consultant tomorrow izzy

Hope you got good news stunt

Pr hope things work out one way or the other, you sound so very strong and capable I know you'll do the right thing whatever that ends up being for you

apple hugs

well done pp on the weight loss! I have now lost 7.5lbs in total since starting SW, it seems to be coming off really slowly but I am trying and it is coming off, so i'm getting there! I am aiming for a total loss of a stone by xmas, I don't want to aim too high and then not look like i'll get there and think fuck it iyswim and just eat crap again. Hope you did get a nice glass of for your efforts this morning!

E has had a good nosey in the loo too and he can lift the bleddy seat! I keep the bathroom door locked now, the little toad.

well done on the bargain mm

yaay for tear free bathing chasing! Love your idea for getting a bauble every year, that's really sweet. I want to get E a dangly for the tree, my mum has hers still from her first xmas, and I have mine

det Instead of kitchen wipes we use spray and a cloth. I got a load of teatowels and cut in half and use them as cleaning cloths. Have glass cleaning tea towels for window cleaning/tv/glass cabinet etc too. Might be worth a try?

I too can't wait for Christmas. I am trying to save up some money, I really need to, but I end up going mad at Xmas. Really need to not do that this year!

Can't remember wht else I wanted to say other than gt you are doing fantastically well :)

Arggghhh I need to do Xmas shopping

Det our food bill is high. A 6ft7 mainly meat eating man who has 3 huge meals and snacks a day will do that. I budget as I can and cook from scratch but it's still high.

Still worrying about Ls eating. Worried he won't eat veg unless mashed. He also spits lots of stuff out!

Haha, I didn't think that for a second, just looking for useful advice!

It can be difficult though as we all have different likes/dislikes. I seem to just have expensive tastes .

Thanks Izzy I'll have a look on that site.

I'm also not keen on going to lots of shops - I did on mat leave, but my time is precious now, so the 2 hours it takes (plus putting away time!) on a weekend is about all I can tolerate .

My meals are lovely VQ . Especially as DP is the main chef in this house!! I like cooking, but DP always wants to do it, so I let him. Except chilli. And roasts. They are MINE!

I found bananas cheaper than apples btw, although it depends what you guess I suppose! I get around 6-8 for £2 where as I get more bananas for the same price! Unless they are on offer in Aldi of course, then I get 2 bags of apples .

The tesco value nappies could be a good place to start. I pay £4.49 (I think) for a 48 pack. This lasts us a week and a half. I think we use 30 a week on average. 2 packs of baby wipes minimum a week. I now get one pack of huggies for bottoms and faces when necessary. I have cheap value ones for hands and other things that need wiping.

We don't get through loads of polish or bleach, but we do get through loads of washing up liquid, tin foil and washing detergents etc. It all adds up as some weeks you don't need any of it, or just one or two things. Other weeks I need a shit fuck tonne of it, and I want to cry .

I am NEVER giving up my kitchen wipes!!! EVER! I won't go in to the reasons why. But I love them.

Pikz I noticed this with O. Veg mashed goes down much better. Veg in finger foods, not so good. Peas and sweetcorn do, but that is it.

He had potato wedges with pork (left over from making a freezer meal for him and DP) and I did some frozen carrots with them. He ate 2 carrots, no wedges, and a small amount of the pork. The dog had a luffly dinner!!

Oh yes, dog food. That will be why I am averaging £20 a week on non food items! £6.99 a week. :(

chasing I would still go to the baby group. People are used to seeing snotty kids, especially at this time of year. If I didn't go to groups when E was snotty I'd never get to them. The only thing that annoys me is when mums don't wipe their childs noses and the snot dribbles everywhere.

I adore xmas. And I've nearly done all my christmas shopping for the girls which is dangerous as I need to make sure I don't buy too much more. I will take the girls to our local garden centre to see Father Christmas (and it just happens to be one of the best grottos in Kent). DD1 was petrified of FC up until last year so just a warning to those who don't have experience of grottos. I'm fully expecting E to be the same and I won't be making her go up to Father Christmas. One of my favourite photos of DD1 is of me trying to put her on FC's lap and her looking terrified and crying mean mummy but it does make me smile everytime I see it! Last year I took DD1 to the christingle service at mil church. When we got home I was doing the usual of putting a carrot down for the raindeer, mince pie etc for FC and DD1 just looked at me and said "mummy, I'm too tired for this. Can I just go to bed". DH thought it was hilarious that I was running around creating xmas magic when all DD1 wanted to do was go to bed. Think it will be different this year though.

Sausage casserole was fab and there's enough lentils left for lunch tomorrow!

Sterilising tablet dissolved in water with a splash of washing up liquid in an old squirty bottle cleans everything here. One 80p pack has lasted since before R was born i do clean honest

I remember what I forgot now! It's only quick, promise!

E usually has his bottle in the morning then breakfast an hour later. However today he didn't wake until 8 and when I went down to do his bottle I discovered there fucking wasn't any, dp forgot to make them and I forgot to check!!! Anyway, I panicked and gave him breakfast instead. He ate TONNES compared to usual! At least 3 times what he would normally, and then I gave his bottle about 15 mins after. Because it was getting late in the morning. He only had about 4oz.

Do I go back to bottle then breakfast or leave it like this now he's older, or space it out a bit so breakfast then bottle a bit later? Do I even still give a bottle or put formula in his sippy cup? It wouldn't hold 8oz though, only about 4 or 5 maybe. And I have no idea how much he would drink. If he has breakfast first then his bottle it puts him at about 12oz if he only has 4 in the morning. He is one in a fortnight.

Thanks quiche :)