July 2016 #3

[primarynoodle]

Hello all! Can't believe we're on thread 3! Let's kickstart with a then and now photo :)

Here's Annie at 4 months 4 days

Thanks for all the messages. He's breast fed and isn't dropping just not gaining very quickly. He's my second child with a cows milk and soya allergy so I'm dairy and soya free again which is hard at this time of year!
Xxx

ruby just seen the poster! The person who made that clearly hasn't bf. Nothing 'yummy' about leaky boobs, whipping boobs out in public and bras that unclip!

That sounds hard verytired. It sounds like you're an expert at this already but M&S have an offer on the sparks card for money off dairy free chocolate. I didn't even realise they did it.

Failing spectacularly to respond here! But v important: yes to tomorrow bluebell! Where & when and do I need a red carnation in my lapel or something?!

London meet-up
(From left to right in the first pic) Jasper, honorary August-baby Eric, and the darling of the thread FifiRebel's gorgeous Luca.

Ruby, we are meeting 12pm - 3pm at Boston Tea Party, Alfred Street! Sorry I didn't reply earlier - I've been at my nephew's first birthday party and only just got home. Going to catch some z's now so that I am on form for tomorrow! Xx

Hurrah - see you there Ruby!

Have fun ladies! Sorry not to have made any of these. We're still in sleep regression (though hoping it's getting better slowly) and all full of colds. Really not on the ball with arrangements! Sorry!!

Also ruby - razor teeth here too. Changing position has helped a bit. I'm sitting him up to feed on the left else it's actually unbearable.

Wrote a long message that I managed to lose. Grr. Hope the Bath meet up was fun; absolutely gutted to have missed it. Hope you enjoyed BTP- photos please!
My tummy is still really sore, and I've discovered burns on one of my boobs as well. Breast feeding is almost impossible For those not on FB I had an accident with a bottle of freshly boiled water yesterday. I'm very grateful none of the children were hurt, but my god it's a pain I won't forget in a hurry.

Retreating to bed shortly.

verytiredmummy welcome!

sunday yes to the dummy! 1/3 of mine haven't taken to one, the others have. Saviour for me personally

Omg ruby a tooth!?!? Ahh!

primary so clever!

My catch up has been unsuccessful .. George is awake again .. will try again soon

Oh cookies - I am on Facebook but not very good at it! So sorry you're in the wars - last thing you need. You poor thing. Hope you heal quickly all sounds awful for you. Bed is the place definitely. Sending very gentle hugs xx

Welcome verytired - oof dairy free at xmas! Gosh these babies like to make things challenging eh?! There's a fantastic brand of dairy free choc - let me check the name. We need choc! Xx

Came across this - not sure if you said you're soya free too verytired but sure there's something on here. Also you can make loverly 'fridge cake' with raw cocoa and coconut oil, adding maple syrup/dried fruit for sweetness.

www.peta.org.uk/blog/11-of-the-best-vegan-chocolate-fixes-and-where-to-buy-them/

primary meant to say, hope you're ok waiting for those scan results. That's so stressful for you and your DP x Sounds like Mo and Annie are rolling buddies - he's gone front to back once - talk about making life difficult for himself!

Sunday hope thinks get better soon. If it helps - mo's sleep suddenly got better last week. He had a cold and had to sleep and now fingers crossed (will probably regret writing this) it seems to be a bit better x

anna hello! Hope you got to enjoy your hair cut. Doing the same on Thurs as M just took a bottle! So excited!!!

Hey everyone,

How were the meetups for those of you that made it? I was envious yesterday of you all in Bath but Raff is so coldy and chesty we couldn't have made it if we wanted to!

Cookies you poor thing, I managed to drain a pan of potatoes over my hand when I was about 15 (not concentrating and talking on a housephone on a cord so more worried about stretching it so I didn't have to hang up) It was agony and I can still see the scar when it is really cold!
Burns are so horrible.

Re Dummies also wish we would take one here he is not interested at all. Could never get DD to take one and getting her to stop sucking her thumb at night is a nightmare.

We have just got some Nuby bibs which have a teething triangle at the bottom, think they are about £4 for 2 so not the cheapest but have been a hit here. I am going to buy some more for Raffys stocking.

Primary I hope you get the results soon, can your dp use his inside contacts to speed things along? Also my hair grows stupidly quick and I am desperate for a cut. I am thinking I may go for a chop as it is annoying me having to constantly wear it up due to tiny grabby hands.

Very tired you poor thing think dairy free would finish me off I think. Are you weighing every fortnight?

Still having crap sleep here, but we I had a stretch of four hours the night before last so feeling more human :) DH took us away to a cottage for the weekend to celebrate my birthday which was very lovely.

Can excessive tiredness make your eyes seem more blind? It is more likely I just need to update my prescription but I seem to be getting less able to see without my glasses!

We are off to see the HV tomorrow about weaning will report back any gems of wisdom!

Someone has found his feet!!

Gosh indians that is tough for your family. As you say, it's good that's it all coming out but tough no less x

rolly - oh the dream 4 hour stretch! We've had that twice over the last 4 weeks and makes such a difference!! I made the mistake of saying out loud that Mo's sleep had improved yesterday.....he got his own back by waking up every hour from 11pm last night...Argh!!!!!! Hope you're getting some sleep over there x

Cute pic becks - look at him go!

Wow Indians what a week! Glad it is nothing more serious for your dad. Must be so weird having the press camped on your doorstep, have they spotted the fabulous hair yet :)

Ha Cheery I feel like I could do with another four hours already ;) We had all the wake ups here too, we mostly co sleep but Raffy couldn't settle. He has a cold so hoping when it clears up we may return to the four hour stretch a couple of times a week.

Ah Becks he is such a cutie.

rolly I hope Raffy feels better soon. Poor little thing. Yes please to weaning info!

becks fab feet finding!

indians I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I hope he's on the mend soon. It's horrible the abuse that went on but it also frustrates me the impact that journalism can have on people's lives too. It must get frustrating having the mob outside.

Wow indians you really do have t all going on. H in those clips is just too much by the way!!

rolly I really hope R feels better soon. So much of it about - yuky . Ouch to your story! So horrible . It was such a shock and still so sore. I've been back and forth to the docs for dressing changes and it hurts to do literally everything . Where is your scar? They said mine could be pink for years.

Let us know about the weaning HV advice. I've snuck in some baby rice with expressed breast milk these past few days to try she help sleep - he's loved it.

becks that's so cute! How scrummy indeed .

cheery yey to hair cutting! And bottle taking! You'll feel like a new woman. Finally got mine cut .. it had been over 10 months here!

How many babies have teeth already?! I felt like this was ages away?! Ahh babies stop growing!

julf bluebell and any others.. how was Bath?!? Lots of FOMO here ( fear of missing out!)

tams my bullet journal has got steadily less pretty as I've gone on, but the structure is working really well for me. My favourite bit is the monthly to-do list - a month seems to be what I need to get through a whole list at the moment!

verytired oh that is tricky. I'm vegetarian and I would struggle if my diet had to change to vegan! The Anna Jones cookbook A Modern Way to Eat has a lot of vegan recipes if you're looking for inspiration? As do the Honestly Healthy cookbooks.

Cookies how are the burns my lovely? We missed you at the meet-up!

Cheery that fridge cake sounds amazing. I have a friend of a friend on one of the Bath Christmas market stalls doing flavoured raw chocolate- bloody delicious but rather pricey. I bought a box for DH for Chrimbo as a special treat.

Rolly how is Raff feeling now? Miserable being poorly in this cold cold weather. Glad you had a nice birthday weekend! It's my birthday this week and I knew DH wouldn't have planned anything so I asked him if he'd mind if I went to my book group that evening - he was very offended, whoops! So I'm not going to book group now, ha!

becks it's funny when they find their feet isn't it?! Ruben spends hours just rocking around on his back like an upturned beetle!

Indians so sorry your dad is unwell, and that you've had to deal with a media scrum at this time. Bloody great news about exposing the abuse though. Hope the relief of that helps speed up your dad's recovery xx

Cheery every hour?! Oh you poor thing! Is Mo feeding every time or just wanting settling? I wish I had some advice but Ruben's sleep is still a total mystery to me!

primary how did the scan go?

Bath was super thanks! It was just me, julf and Ruby in the end - a lovely little group! We managed to find one another - though Ruby's joke about the red carnation might actually have been sensible as I kept sweeping the cafe to see if anyone else had turned up, and even asked a random lady with a baby if she was here for us - she wasn't! The babies were beautifully behaved, although Ru got a little whingey round the Christmas market while I was buying him a present - but julf's rendition of A Bear Went Over A Mountain cheered him up a treat! All in all, a great day, and we are definitely up for doing it again in the new year. Julf also suggested a larger scale meet up in July, somewhere central, to celebrate a lot of first birthdays?!

Am posting a pic of Ruben and Jasper as I can't remember if Ruby has posted H on the thread before and don't want to put his gorgeous little face up without permission!

Ruben has been asleep since 7pm and it's now nearly 6am. I am wide awake and in possession of the largest boobs the world has ever known.

On another note, my car has smelled funny for about a month. I had put it down to DH consuming kebabs in there (ick) but as it has now been a very long time since he had a kebab I thought i should investigate. Discovered the floor in the back seat, passenger side, is soaking wet - well actually, it was frozen when I looked as it is so cold here. This can only have come from water from a sports bottle as I am paranoid about any other liquid spilling. Any ideas on how to dry it and how to get rid of the smell, and what order I should do it in?!

Hello all, sorry I've been quiet these last few days!

Had a lovely time with Bluebell and Ruby on Monday, and with FifiRebel and Eric's mummy last Friday. Looking forward to meeting others at future meet-ups, I hope 😊

Sunday - yum to marmite and ketchup (not together!)
I'm going on an NCT-run session tomorrow on introducing solids. I'll report back!
I had to google Gigi Hadid too 😀
My hangover after my night out wasn't too bad, and was even easier because J was exhausted after his Big Night Out - he didn't wake up until 1030!
Thanks, yes I'm hoping the joint problem is just a post-natal thing.
Hope E is fully recovered now?
I used dummies quite early on and J liked them, but then he started spitting them out so I stopped bothering. I'm thinking of reintroducing a bigger one though, in the hope that it'll help with the evening sleeping, and also to reduce his suckling during the night. I think until I've reduced his reliance on my norks at night, I'll struggle to persuade him to sleep in his own bed.
I agree with you re BF/FF and those posters.

Hey Primary I'm sorry you're having such a tough time. Hugs to you.
Well done on your weight loss!
Wow, amazing how fast your hair grows! I'm having mine done next week - looking forward to it!
I think I need to start using white noise again too. It's funny how you can just slip out of the habit - I haven't used it for weeks, even though it used to be fairly effective.
Hope you have a nice weekend. Thinking of you and your DP.

Tams - ha ha, glad you liked "omnishambles" 😂 I think it was coined a few years ago by The Thick Of It.
Ha ha, "The Biscuit Diaries" would make a great name for a bestseller!

Very - sympathies for you going dairy-free at this time of year.
Yes I agree, leaky boobs are totally unglamorous!

Cheery - hope you're ok, and recovering from the sleep regression, cold, and razor teeth 😬
Enjoy your haircut too!

Cookies - so so sorry to miss you on Monday. How are you doing? It sounds awful - and I'm sorry to hear that you're still in so much pain. But yes, really good that no children were hurt.
Great idea re the baby rice.

Rolly - Happy belated birthday!
Hope Raff is doing ok after his cold/chest, and hope you've managed to get some better sleep.
What news from HV re weaning?

Becks - great pic! 😀

Indians - wow that really is a helluva week. Is your dad doing ok?

Bluebs - happy birthday, my lovely!
Upturned beetle - ha! Even funnier now that I can picture him so clearly 😂

Ruby - let us know if you're happy for us to post pics - I've got a couple of absolutely adorable ones of the three boys together!

For those who like wooden toys for their babies, we discovered a gorgeous stall at the Bath Christmas market, with really beautiful wooden puzzles and book-ends. Here's the website in case anyone's interested:
http://www.woodliketoplay.co.uk/shop/
Our littlies are probably a bit too young at the moment, but the chicks/elephants/penguins/tortoises on p4-6 might be good in another few months / a year. I'm going to mention it to the grandparents, for Jasper's first birthday 😀
And while I think of it, I also like this company, which has a good variety of toys in the Nursery and 12m sections:
http://www.orangetreetoys.com/toys

DH is away for a fortnight, so I've just spent a couple of days with my parents, and Jasper saw some beautiful Christmas lights and reindeer at a local farm 😊 Am visiting two sets of friends this weekend and next, which I'm looking forward to too.

Just a quick catch up. I'll read back more tomorrow.

Indians your poor dad hope he recovers soon and hoping the press go soon that must be horrid.

I was hoping dh would be back from Monday but it looks like one more week away. So far he was in bed for two weeks of Monty-Beaus life while I struggled looking after him and all the children when he had his op and now he's been working away for 16 weeks. All we do at weekends is argue. He's tired from work and I'm tired from juggling all the parenting alone for four as well as keeping on top of housework. Sorry a very self absorbed, feeling sorry for myself post. On a good note Christmas is my favourite time of year.