December 08 ers still going strong.

[Vagolajahooli]

Hello ladies, can you believe we will be entering into a 6th year of this thread this year?

I've just treated myself and ordered stupidly expensive pair of sheepskin slippers Can't wait for them to arrive! I find slippers wear out after 2 month so this is an experiment to see if you get more for your money.

JJ Dd has lost most of the buttons off her cardigans . Her shoes are ruined. She's grown out of her age 5-6 tights. One of 2 pairs of gloves are lost. Where on earth do the missing gloves go? Most schools must have 100s knocking around.

Blimey, yes school dinners cost a bomb. Dd2 will get her 15 free hours after Easter which will help a bit. The problem is everything has gone up in cost but wages have stayed the same.

JJ at the end of last term they did a lost property box just for dd's class. half the contents were hers . She is hopeless. I don't know what she does when she gets changed for pe as every time she brings home her kit it is filled with random clothing. I take back these stacks of unlabeled pev tops and have to ask the teachers to look for hers as I run our of them at home by the time she had come home with 3 random ones and none of hers! everything has her name stamped in including socks.

ds1 just goes for losing important stuff at beacer events and it doesn't get found. ski gloves and the amazing monster hat mt sister knitted being the latest.

children.

grumpy poorly clingy baby on me. rotten cough and cold. has all the snot in the world in his lungs. none of us has slept for days.

How much are school dinners? ours are £9 for the week. Not too bad I don't think. Look forward to this few school meals for Ks1 thing if it every happens! School meals for all children were free around here until the year ds1 started school. missed out there!

Oh Indith. Misery. The illness seems to be constant with you. Are you bearing up? Thinking of you.

I have 2 very spiky hairs on my chin and our bathroom bulb has gone so I can't see them to whip them out. I'd replace it, but am too short. Waiting for DH to come home and replace it. Being hopeless. Bring on Friday night. I miss him.

PS please can someone remind me how to give up breastfeeding?

205 a school dinner here. I'd never do packed lunch as it'd be way more. Especially given that dd seems to only eat pate etc and they're free from sept! ds so far only lost 1 shirt. No idea how. I'm convinced whoever had it unpicked the name label.
I'm flogged. Well done you deids. I'm cutting way back myself. Def since the nurse told me I was dehydrated today oops.

Beans what do you mean? Mentally or physically? Just don't put the baby on your boob?

Indith our school dinners are £2 a day, after school club is £10 a day which includes a decent snack if S remembers to eat anything... At the moment E is having 5 meals a day as there's breakfast at home, then they have cereal, lunch (2 courses) and tea (2 courses) at nursery, then she always has a bit of whatever S has for her tea. She's finally starting to get taller, thank goodness...

Hope the snotty baby gets better soon - can you have a nice warm bath together and let the steam do some work?

Beans - torch? Do you have one of those swanky iphone app things that is like a mirror? On bfing - E started to bite at bedtime so we said she would have a cup instead. She's pretty much wound down by then anyway though - how often are you feeding at the moment?

I feed when she's up in the night, then all feeds til 6ish. then I do formula bottle at that feed and the 10.30 feed. I just don't want to get mastitis again and am keen to start cutting back a bit as am still very much on demand! although admittedly she only really feeds every 4hrs but grazes in the afternoons.

School dinners are £2.10 a day here. I'd hate to make packed lunches everyday.

School lunch £10 a week here. But both mine have packed lunches. DD because all her pals do the same & DS because he's a fussy bugger. Although if the free meals do come into play from Sept here then he'll just have to get over his fussiness

Beans re: stopping bf. I just cut out a feed every so often. So I never got engorged/sore. Once she weans she may cut back a bit herself.

DH is making me watch Crimewatch...it's utterly depressing!

Fark I just lost a post.

beans, my bf days with dd happened of their own accord due to the tt. dd just wanted the bottle more so I was expressing a lot and ended up full time feeding bm from a bottle, which was the beginning of the end, but it all worked out. Just introduce less boob I guess?

Hearty, saw your thread but must admit only read your bit therefore didn't chime in as I didn't read replies. Honestly I don't know how people do it - especially with 3. DH earns a good salary with 2 jobs, and mine can only be counted really as travel perks and grocery money, but I even had to cut down dd's nursery and she's on the 15 free hours. Most nurseries do that pre-tax thing as every one we've been to has, so that does help and is the reason we kept her one full day, but otherwise if we needed full time it would cripple us. I'm assuming the AP is of great benefit and you've weighed up the pro's and cons but is it worthwhile if the baby isn't covered? to be fair, mine haven't had as much illness as you've been through, but I think that's purely case by case. You've had a bad run. Can you look at a CM or cut back to part time, or is after school club an option for the girls? I guess its hard to justify working unless all three are in school as childcare costs must cancel out salary and all that - but if you love your job, it is a tricky one. It will all work out - I remember a while back the anguish over the house purchase and stretching yourselves for the ideal house etc - and that worked out (I assume?) Hope it gets better x

Our lunches are 2.20. DD likes the puddings. I wish we could choose her menu though as she has jacket potato with tuna about 3 days a week.

Beans Not sure how to cut down. Dd2 went on nursing strike at 13 months and stopped herself. She was only on 2 feeds a day by then so apart from having to express a bit off a couple of times, we just stopped.

I've just discovered that you can unclip the dishwasher spray arm things to clean them. Hopefully the plates might start coming out a bit cleaner!

Beans I don't have a bloody clue how to reduce or slow feeding really. I'm sure I'm supposed to. I can merrily give out the advice to do it slowly, cut one feed at a time to avoid mastitis and all that gubbins but putting it into practice on my own children? Ha! Ds1 self weaned in a lovely gradual manner age 13 months. he was in childcare so didn't feed in the day, he slept through the night and loved solids so was so stuffed after dinner he didn't want to feed. So he tended to feed around 4/5pm on pick up and 4am. Then he dropped the 4am in favour of sleep (ah sleep ). Then he would ask every other day, then only a couple of times a week, and then I couldn't remember the last time he had asked. Dd I tried and tried to distract her to reduce feeds to morning and night only but she jsut didn't understand. She fed about 10 times a night. So when she was nearly 2 and I couldn't stand it any longer I told her it was all gone and that was that. She never asked again. Still woke 10 times a night though but wanted a cuddle instead . All gone was something she could understand. If I say no to ds2 when he asks at an inconvenient time he gets his best pet lip out and gives me wobbly puppy dog eyes so I can't refuse.

She has the odd bottle, how does she react if you offer a bottle instead of boob in the day? Are you able to anticipate her wanting milk to offer a bottle before she starts asking for boob? She may then not ask for boob if she has already had milk.

When do your slippers arrive Hons? I do love a good pair of slippers. Mine are all trodden down and not at all soft and lovely any more. I want some celtic sheepskin ones. Shame it isn't my birthday til September.

Ds2 is pissing me off . I feel terrible writing that. But he gets colds sooooo often and when he gets them they really seem to affect his throat. Each and every bloody time. He just coughs and coughs and coughs and screams and screams and fecking screams and coughs more from the screaming and screams more from the coughing. He won't sleep because as soon as you get him to sleep he wakes himself up coughing. He has a sore and swollen throat, swollen glands, coughs up mucus, refuses to eat, jsut wants milk and Wont. Sleep. AT. All. Ever. Any progress we might make on sleep just gets wiped out by illness. It will take at east 2 weeks for him to stop coughing once the snot goes and then we will manically try to make progress, perhaps get him to fall asleep in his own bed once or twice and the next cold will come along. The child will be 2 in March and I can count on one hand the number of times he has slept more than 4 hours in a row. 1-2 hours is the norm. And usually only one 2 hour chunk a night, the rest is 10 mins, 20 mins, 45 min, maybe an hour.

I need sleep so much.

My mum got the DC Celtic slippers for Xmas and DD some big Celtic boots. They are lovely. I want some.

Beans, I just stopped feeding DD during the day when she was about 15 months and then stopped altogether at 17 months. I didn't cut down really. Just stopped.

Indith, you poor tired girl. you definitely need your weekend away. how is your Mum doing?

I've found my Dad's favourite white wine reduced on Ocado. it's called Picpoul de Pinet and is deeeelicious! would highly recommend it if you want to treat yourself, anyone!! it's a bit more than I'd usually pay, but am loving it. especially with DH away!!

every time I watch that SMA ad. when they say, 'Take it from us, you're doing great', I feel like weeping. and I always think how I'm really not doing great, I'm winging it totally and feel like I fail quite often! am too hard on my gorgeous girls. or too soft. or unkind. or just flailing uselessly!!! aaagh!

eurgh i hear you Beans just sat down after a screaming match with DS2. God i know he is adjusting to DS3 and its really tricky but fuck me he is really hard work. anyone?

I hear you Beans. I made DS2 cry when we were practicing recorder yesterday, he's 5 for goodness sake, it's supposed to just be a bit of fun.

Not sure about the weaning. Both mine didn't come off until a bit later and it kind of just stopped. Could you pump a bit and feed just with the bottle and reduce each day.

So I met with DS1's teacher and the lady who tested his IQ. She adored him and said she actually tested him longer and observed him than she normally would because she enjoyed working with him and because he enjoyed the test. Anyway he did well, he is just short of being cconsidered gifted. But he has terrible reading and spelling, and has a problem with understanding the concept of time. She said children like that will learn eventually but they do also have problems with reading and also they wonder if his language acquisition skills are not quite up to scratch and being extra tested by learning in a second language. They also want to test him for dyslexia. They said it is possible to be dyslexic in one language but not the other. He reads in English well enough. Anyway, he seems fine but still needs a bit of work.

Oh and I've been accepted into a master of teaching course

Indith That all sounds very hard. Once his cold settles a bit could you stick some ear plugs in and leave dh to it? I went away for two nights with work just before Christmas and the uninterrupted sleep was amazing. I'd forgotten how it felt. Is there a friend you could visit for a night? Even a cheapie night at a Travelodge? Dd2 sleeps better when I'm not around because it is me she wants! Maybe ds2 might be the same.

I don't think my slippers have been dispatched yet. Boo.

Beans Of course you are doing great! I'm overwhelmed with two half the time.

I'm off for an early night. I almost lost my voice today, too much coughing. Night all.

That's great Vag, well done!

Sorry baby bobbed off can actually type with both hands.

Vag thats good news re DS1. Great news on the masters too, I really think you will be an awesome teacher.

Indith jesus that sucks. DS2 suffers from the cough cough wake thing. A friend suggested to me to one night give him a dose of piriton. The anti histamine made him drowsy enough to fall into that deep sleep without coughing. We do it for a couple of nights and it seems to just give him enough rest so that he can fight the cough. Might be worth a try.

Blimey Arti I didnt realise you worked such long hrs. nanny share or a childminder might work??

Hons we too discovered the arms thing on the dishwasher a revelation in cleaner dishes.

Right dominos pizza calling DH out getting drunk networking