January 2014- the one where the babies move more, but sleep less!

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Hope this is ok!

Yeah, she's been sleeping in her pram as is slightly upright. She's just looks so pathetic and cute!

Forgot to say that L has been testing boundaries too. 'No' just makes her giggle and run away with whatever she's not supposed to have.

Just wrote a long post and lost it!!

GSR sorry she's not well hope she's feeling better soon.

Altered I was thinking of you the other day as we hadn't heard from you for a while. Glad to hear things are good apart from nightmare family gatherings and nappies!! S is incredibly clingy. She whinges at every play group we go to if I'm more than a meter away from her. I bet everyone thinks she's always like this! She's fine at home.

Thought I'd be struggling to get S not to fall asleep this afternoon but she was full of beans until 7pm. She had so much energy, it was exhausting. I can't believe she didn't even nap today. Hopefully she's not going to try and drop the one nap she has because then I'll have no time to watch Real Housewives

I am failing miserably with bedtimes. DH is out pretty much every evening and DD has started napping again so she is staying up later.

I was so proud of keeping N dairy free for two whole days (I know, it needs at least three weeks) and the TB has gone and nicked DD's cheese toastie and eaten it. . Toddlers are trouble!

I feeling a bit better because I have help with N for a few hours a day now. One if MIL relatives is due to marry and needs extra cash and as she never finished school or worked before hasn't been able to find work. I need the help and don't mind training her up. She isn't doing nappies or looking after him alone yet but she is great for stopping him launching himself onto the glass coffee table or chucking stuff into the toilet.

She also loves cartoons, which is lucky really. Only trouble is that N is quite attached to her so gets his shoes to go home with her and nuts me if I try to stop him.

Yep, definitely got a breast pest here. Mornings aren't too bad, but if I'm home from about three (or when I get home from work) till bed time is just feed feed feed. Or blow raspberries into my belly button

Developing a cake saga. Made one mix. Recipe said enough for 2 x 7 inch tins. I only have 8 inch tins. Mix looked far too little for anything other than a pancake so whipped up a second batch, cleaned, up, felt smug and Nigella-y.
Was just testing cake no 1 (as much thicker than recipe so times all to pot) and managed to catch the teatowel holding the cake tin so burnt self and dropped it onto the floor. And yes, it could have done with 5 more mins. I am now scarfing collapsed not quite done cake with wine. Arse! Need to buy icing sugar tomorrow anyway but think DH might just be getting a thin sandwich cake at this rate. I will also attempt to hide the evidence of the failed cake in a very safe place.

Sorry to hear about all the poorly ones, it is so hard when they are ill.

Good to see you back altered.

felix P is currently not napping at all. I hate it, I don't get a break and she is such a whirlwind at the moment. I'm hoping she'll go back to it when all her playgroups are open again and she gets tired out.

We went to a local fun day thing today, and there was a petting zoo. P was loving the lambs and rabbits, but then I heard a scream and turned to see her being attacked by a big cockerel don't laugh It had bitten her finger and wouldn't let go. Blood everywhere, poor thing. I made her chicken curry for dinner in an act of revenge. She's been very good, but her finger is a bit mangled and she won't keep a plaster on

Aww, poor P! I bet she'll like the story when she's older though.

L woke up at 3 with a temp of 39.8. I have her calpol but it's still 39.4 she's like a little hot water bottle. Rang nhs 111 last night after panicking myself reading about eye infections and going blind and they told me to book a GP appointment today.

Altered at him wanting to go home with her, bless him!

Puggle sorry your cake isn't going well. Would you be able to buy one instead? Is the 'very safe place' your mouth?

Book that's awful!! I am at revenge chicken curry though. I didn't even know they could bite (which is probably the most ridiculous statement ever).

GSR let us know how the doctors goes.

S was horrendous last night. She woke up three times before I went to bed, then again at 12. Then she woke up at 12.40 absolutely screaming. No idea what was up with her but I've never seen her cry like that before. Brought her in to bed with us, which I've never done before, and she laid for 40 mins staring at DP and laughing. Put her back in her cot and left her to cry eventually she woke up again at 3, then 6 but went back to sleep after a few minutes. I thought not sleeping yesterday might have the opposite effect at night.

Poor P! Spray plaster was on offer in Tesco this week - I bought 4 cannisters for summer scraped knees - would that help?

Felix you have seen through my ruse about the safe place! H and I had broken up cake for breakfast like it was Christmas this am so am motivated to make another layer today. Due to H being allergic to dairy and egg buying cake is a bit more tricky so have to channel domesic goddess here

Good luck at the doctors. And we have another boundary tester laughing at "no." Hope we get it sorted quickly.....

Hey all,
Been totally absent lately trying to get to grips with toddler + new job + in laws here on an epic 4 week + visit.
Hope sick babies are feeling better soon. E has had a cold for at least the last 6 weeks. It doesnt really bother her but weve been giving her Zyrtec to dry up the constant runny nose and I'm starting to worry about whether its too much. I'm so over snot though.
E is being super naughty at the moment. Esp if she is tired &/or frustrated. She punches, slaps and bites if she doesn't get her own way. 'No' was just getting laughs, so Daycare have told me to tell her 'stop, that hurts mummy' with angry face. That doesn't really work either. The only thing that works is if I pretend to cry and then she stops and gives me a hug. I lol like a right eejit doing that in public though.

For those doing cows milk are you doing it in bottles still? E has 150ml first thing and last thing in a bottle but I think I've read it should be in a tippy cup now. Is that right?

Also really random question, I really think I read somewhere that they should eat plain white bread. When I said that to my mothers group (NCT) here they laughed at me. Do you give your LO brown / wholemeal breads?

Felix -hope you manage to improve sleep situation soon. Sounds painful for you... Is yor DH helping the odd night so you can sleep through occasionally? Nothing worse than a wide awake / slightly hysterical baby in the wee small hours

Book - I have a life long phobia of birds based on a run in with a pheasant when I was 4. It make eating out in summer impossible Hopefully P wIll be too young to remember. I am not sure if I could've saved E in a similar situation. I often push her pram towards pigeons to make them fly away

Gunshot - hope Drs goes ok. It's probably nothing but always good to check x

Sunshine he doesn't hear her in the night so by the time she's woken up then I've kicked him awake, I am up anyway. He does get up with her in the morning on the weekends though and I have a few hours of glorious sleep

I read about the white bread thing. I think it's because they add extra vitamins to it so it's better for babies. That may be a lie though. I give Sylvie milk roll because I secretly want to eat it too.

4 weeks! That's a long time!

I've read that they shouldn't have wholemeal, I'll have a Google later but it might have been something to do with too much fibre?

I read they should be using sippy cups too, but when L is tired or ill she'll only use a bottle. I keep trying with the sippy cup but I'd rather she's hydrated!

The doctors given a penicillin prescription incase she gets worse, otherwise said to carry on with calpol and lots of fluids. She screamed the whole time she was being examined! Apparently her ears are a bit red and so is her throat, and it has some white spots. Mostly reassured but still keeping a closer eye on her.

Poor L, I hope she improves soon!

Sunshine I forgot to say I'm going to try pretending to cry and see what happens. I bet she won't care though

Also S just has some milk before bed but in a bottle. I've kept it as an indication that it's bedtime rather than using a sippy cup.

Gunshot, yes 4 weeks is a challenge. They are in a hotel though otherwise I think one (or more) of us wouldn't be standing now. Mostly it's all upside to living 15.000km away but once a year or so it totally bites you in the bum.

Glad Dr didn't find anything too serious. Penicillin is truly a miracle

Felix - to make the crying thing work you have to really really screw up your face and whine. Plus it only really works when other adults are looking at what an eejit you are. In the home doesn't have the same effect

Bed time now here before jumping back on the treadmill again tomorrow. Does anyone else feel like it's just so bloody relentless at the moment? I adore being with E as she's so much fun and more interactive right now, but the constant 6am start, work, daycare pickup, dinner, bath, bed, housework, crap dinner (with )cycle every day just makes me feel a bit like a hamster that can't get off the treadmill thing. It's a bit...just relentless i think

Ahh, she's just come up in a rash. Could just be a normal viral rash, but it looks very similar to the first stages of chicken pox.

Argh, hope she isn't too itchy gunshot. Hope it is just a normal rash.

Has she been exposed to anyone with chickenpox?

We have just had McDonalds for breakfast and I LIKED IT.

Feeling a bit sick now though. I want to go back to sleep.

GSR have any more spots appeared?

Altered you can get McDonald's delivered there can't you? I'm so jealous

S has been standing unassisted for the first time today!! I'm so pleased!

Well done S!

The doctor is 90% sure it's not chicken pox, it looks similar but apparently chicken pox would have blistered by the time we saw the doctor (about 6 hours after the rash appeared). She's still got spots all over her torso, nappy area and face.

No one we know has chicken pox, but 2 weeks ago we went to the christening in a church full of kids, then later last week we took her to a soft play centre. Pretty sure that was where she picked up whatever it is as we also took her 17 month old cousin and he has very similar symptoms, but no rash yet.

She's been screaming all afternoon. Twice she's been totally inconsolable. Not looking forward to 3 hours in the car on Sunday!

GSR that's weird! I wonder what it is? Has she been any better tonight?

S woke up very upset at 10.30 and wouldn't calm down so came in to bed with us. Got her to sleep at 1.30 but she woke up after an hour then every so often until 4. She woke up and has been sick a few times there's a sick bug going round here so I think that's what she's caught. I'm wide awake now after having about 2 hours sleep because I'm worried about her being sick again!

Oh no felix.

Hope both S and L feel better soon.

But good work S standing unaided!

Boo, sick babies :( Hope everyone is better soon.

Definitely sick bug! I'm just waiting for the moment I start vomming too. It's days like today that I could really do with a tumble dryer.

Oh no :( Ls not been sick at all with this which is lucky as we're staying at dad's and he's broken his tumble dryer. If she had been sick the doctor would have considered scarlet fever, although he did say the rash is too smooth. Apparently the SF rash feels like sandpaper.

She woke up at 1 inconsolable again. Screamed for what felt like hours and thrashed around in our bed. Slightly better this morning though.

What does the rash look like? S has had a long nap and seems better. She's eating a crumpet and I'm hoping she's going to keep it down.