November 2014 - the one where they test boundaries.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread ladies. Jump on board.

Brussels sounds fab lady.

Yeah we haven't started the books at home... Was v impressed as his good eye is patched for whole nursery day.

Eye clinic today co operated best he ever has (bribery all the way) and has improved vision in his bad eye she did say it could be they got more accurate readings this time so will continue with 9hrs a day at least 4 times week patching and review in 2mths, squint is still v poor and we nortice it more and more we know he will need an op around 7yrs of age as don't see any miracles happening

Hey, I'm doing OK. Flipping massive now. 33 weeks tomorrow, got induction booked for Jan 11th (will be 37+1) if they haven't come of their own accord. Last day at work today (should've been last week but someone didn't pull their finger out or read their emails so thought I'd be nice and come in for a few more hours today). I feel past full term now, my ankles and feet get so swollen and backache whenever i try and stand up for more than 10 mins. Fortunately BP is all fine so just need to try and keep my feet up (haha!!).

DD is fine, turned her room into a big girls room this weekend. Basically entailed swapping her little cot with side off for a toddler bed (no room for anything bigger unfortunately until we can put her safely in a mid sleeper); and swapping her big chest of drawers for a smaller one and matching wardrobe from ikea. She loves seeing her dresses all hung up and loves her pink drawers... we got ikea ones where we can swap the fronts for different colour ones later on! Unfortunately she's still waking and running into our room crying once most nights but TBH I'm waking up to go to the loo 3 or 4 times (6 is my record) so it's not really a big deal. Not really sure what the problem is with the waking up but hey ho. I've heard similar stories from a few friends with new babies or babies on the way so think it's all tied up with the upheaval. Probably overtired too, she really could do with a short nap most afternoons but it's virtually impossible now without the dummy unless we're in the car.

Took an inspiration from Moggle and talked DD into giving her dummy to Father Christmas this week. She has been dummy free since Monday. DD will ask what happened to her dummy every night after the bath, but we just keep telling her that she gave to FC to get nice presents and she doesn't mind too much. Hasn't affected her sleep either.

Last weekend we took DD to Peppa Pig world for her birthday present. I've never seen her so hyper, she was running around like being on drugs. And we had a fun drive back home on Sunday, almost crashed the car while skidding on an icy road. But all is good here.

Hope the dummy progress is going well moggle & strawberry.

Moggle bet you will be glad to finish work & hopefully get some time before babies arrive & at least DD will get her nursery funding in Jan which will give you some time with babies.

One more week of school & work here.

Off for breakfast with Santa today

Well done on dummy strawberry! There's been no looking back here. The only legacy is when DD decides to hide something from me and I say "DD where have you put my x" she looks at me deadpan and says "mummy, it's gone to fairyland so you can't have it back"... cheeky so and so!

DD is already at nursery 2 days but the reduction in fees will be welcome. Unfortunately we can only get 15 hrs due to the way our stupidly expensive nursery are implementing the extra hours. Annoying but don't really want to move her now. It's not clear what school she will get into either- both likely options have preschools which would work well but again, more upheaval. Ah well.

Moggle you can use your funded hrs in Morse than one setting... 15hrs pre school funding for all is for everyone & term time only, The additional 15hrs is when working certain number hrs and can be used less hrs throughout the whole yr.

Our nursery is only doing 15 hours as well, there isn't anywhere else I want to send her though so we're just going with it.

DD had caught chicken pox - AGAIN! We always wondered if she'd get it again because she had it so mildly before. I had to work from home so I could take care of her which mostly involved a lot of ipad time and me working early mornings and evenings to make the time up. I'm exhausted and massively lost my Christmas spirit. She bounced back quickly though and we got it out of the way before Xmas.

3.5 more days at work. 3 lunches out. 3 dinners out. That's all before our family party at mine on Saturday. Maybe I'll get some rest in the new year!

Moggle I hope you're getting some rest too!!

We will also only get the 15 hours of free nursery rather than the 30 DD is entitled to (not that we would want to send her for 30hrs, but would like 3 days rather than the 2 she currently does), because the nursery doesn't have any extra days available and apparently won't have any coming up ever. Eastmids points out you can use your hours in more than one setting but nowhere else has space either, maybe nursery class in a school somewhere (not the one DD1 goes to as it doesn't have a nursery class) would in September, but we wouldn't be able to get her to different school to DD1, who goes to the only school close enough for me to walk to, at presumably the same time and pick her up around work. I worry that she might be at a disadvantage starting reception from only doing 2 days a week in the pre-school room of nursery but can't do anything about it.
We went to visit Father Christmas today. When he asked DD2 what she would him to bring her for Christmas, she said "a toy mouse," which she has never mentioned before! She has continued to tell us that he will be bringing a toy mouse this evening, so I need to go and panic buy a small toy mouse this week from somewhere. Last Tuesday and Wednesday should have been my last days before Christmas when I was off work and DDs were at school and nursery to finish shopping and sorting everything out , but school was closed because of the snow, so now I have to go after a night shift.
DD's pre-school room did a nativity play last week. She was a Christmas tree. It was lovely, and she seemed to enjoy it despite still claiming not to like pre-school at all.

happy can I suggest a pet shop instead of toy shop for a toy mouse?! Do you think she'll notice an aroma of catnip!
(That obviously is only a good idea if you don't already have a cat...)

Think we have got the 30hrs fine as he does 40hrs all yr round I nearly swapped him 18mths ago to 2days plus 2days childminders but knew we would not get the hrs back once funded priority is given to those attending all yr already. He never does 40hrs be does 34-36hrs but its cheaper to book 40hrs as get a discount.

Ds2 has happy land (ds1) old stuff, wooden space shuttle from ELC, bee game, wooden birthday cake toy (so I can bin the plastic singing peppa pig one!), playmobil vet set in a little case.

Ds2 also has a creatimber wobble board en route but that was brought with his birthday money.

Grandparents have brought him pawpatrol and imaginext batman stuff.

Ds1 has Lego and more Lego and I was so pleased as couple yr back I brought a weird slime kit on amazon cheap (prob too get free post) and it was in present cupboard well all kids want slime kits for Xmas and sold out everywhere so I was pleased I had that stashed.

It's been 3 days now DD hasn't even mentioned the dummy. I need to raid the house properly to ensure there is no chewed up dummy fallen behind a bed or something.

We have been asking some time ago what DD wanted for Christmas, she kept saying "many presents", but this weekend we saw her standing at the window and shouting in the sky to Father Christmas that she wanted a toy car. And I thought we were finished with presents and wrapping... After all we decided to get her a fire engine. Our local fire brigade had turned the station in horror place for Halloween and were trickandtreating the kids. Since then DD is very fond of fire engines.

Our nursery seems to be cool with offering 30 hours (but that might be my wrong impression since we don't qualify anyway). After reading up how the government doesn't give the nurseries the full amount for the 30 hours "Free" childcare funding and how nurseries end up on their knees because of that, I am almost pleased we don't qualify. DD is 52 hours per week there, so it's a lot of money, I would appreciate another 200-300 off the bill, but would hate thinking that because of me they might be struggling ends meet or even pay to the people caring for DD.

Here in Ireland it's 3 free hours a day from January, so yeah 15 hours. Anything is welcome, we're paying 9k a year! And the baby is still at home with us, and we really need her to go in too cos we're both struggling to juggle her with both jobs but it's just too expensive at the moment. We'll have to bite the bullet in the next few months as she gets more active. She could really benefit from it, she's highly social and never stops!

Very very jealous of you all with your dummy success. DS is still going to bed with not one, not two but FOUR dodies. That's what they're called here. We really struggle to get it out of his mouth at all. We take it off him and five minutes later there's a tantrum. It's a bit stressful tbh. I worry about his speech and his teeth but with a younger child in the house who uses one too, I feel like we have no chance. Even if we did the drastic thing of giving it to Santa, he would just swipe hers.

We have rules, like no dodi in shops, no dodi in Crèche, but he "needs" it for everything else so it's still constantly attached to him.

We've gotten away with it this far, but I know over the next year people will quite rightly start to comment.

Anna really feel for you about the dummy. I didn't believe it would work out so easy in here. I have been going on to her about giving the dummy to FC for months, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Then 2 weeks ago, when snow fell and a lot of schools were closed on Monday, DD stayed at home with me trying to work. In the afternoon she started to go on about wanting dummy, told her the dummy was for night time only and mentioned again about exchanging it for presents for FC. At that moment it sort of clicked, she agreed. In the evening it was DH turn to put her to bed. When I told him we agreed to give dummy away, he looked at me in horror "And what I am supposed to do?!". We agreed he would take the dummy with him in case DD kicked off. DH read story, she asked where her dummy was and just turned over and fell asleep, when told the dummy was gone.

However, we still have a battle to drop off the bottle of milk ahead of us. She does like her milk and the bottle seems very closely linked to the milk in her head. Usually she has it only before bedtime, but when we are away on holidays, constantly going to places, she wants it any time of the day.

Our nursery literally each MTh funded hrs that MTV x£3.50 they get back from council comes off bill so not 30 free hrs as such but still a reduced bill

Happy Christmas everyone. Hope you are all having a great day. We have opened presents this morning, then I am going to work 🙁 While DH and DDs go to in-laws for dinner and more presents. DD2 has so far most enjoyed a stocking filler plastic egg filled with slime, her sister's hatchimal and even more Peppa Pig figures.

Merry Christmas! Dd slept in until 8 then needed nap at 11 and nearly missed lunch at 1! Does make me wonder if she's going to get ill but she's fine for now. Hans and kristoff dolls from frozen are the big winners here. We're at home with my mum staying with us so its fairly chilled. Hope you've all had a good day and those with baby bumps are getting a rest!

The only thing DD asked was toy cars, we got her number of small ones and the big fire engine. None is a big hit. However, she is all over the fingerling, billibos and the dolls house with two lotties. She also has asked to read several of the books from the book collection I got her for bedtime stories. Today has been pretty much iPad free. Still 90% battery since morning.

Anyway, I came here earlier to wish everybody merry Christmas! But clearly got distracted by the Christmas presents... hope everyone has had a great day, even those of us working today.

Happy New Year one and all! hope you enjoyed a rested break. As suspected DD did get ill as did I, just a cough thing but she's still got a raging temperature so I'm still home with her.

She's taken to saying 'not yet, in a minute' when I want her to do something and then when I make her she says 'Fiiiiiiiiine' like a teenager. At the risk of sounding like my own mother, I don't know where she gets it from!

Happy new year everyone!

Sorry it's been ages, I fell off the thread. Glad to see you all survived Christmas and sorry to anyone who was unwell or whose smallies were unwell. That sucks. Here the DCs got sick a couple of weeks before Christmas so at least were OK over the holidays. Mild vomiting bug for both and a sore throat +temp for DD1. So far we have escaped this flu (I've had my vaccination) but we'll see if that lasts.

Back at work now and working until the end of Jan when I'll go on ML. Have totally checked out mentally, it's awful . Moggle how are you getting on? Will you be induced soon? You must be counting down the days.

I/we have NOTHING done to prepare for this poor baby. I ordered some new babygros yesterday (most of our old ones have been given away) and that is literally it. Need to sort buggy replacement parts, car seat, my hospital bag stuff, all that jazz. I can't even think what else is even needed. Feel very out of practice.

DD2 is really looking forward to finally being a big sister. Bless her. I'm pretty sure she will hate it at first

On another note, does anybody know where you can get decent waterproof sheets? We only have one from Mothercare that fits the cotbed mattress - it's excellent - but after the DDs vomited in their beds we definitely need single sized sheets. And also a king sized sheet for DH &I in case my waters go first for the third time Was hoping to pick some up on sale somewhere as they're expensive.

Halfstar have you tried Little woods? They're usually good for that sort of thing. It was the only place we could find cheap fitted sheets that weren't in a duvet set for DS's big bed.

Christmas was nice here, the IKEA kitchen went down a treat and he's been cooking up a storm ever since! Now our entire ground floor is littered with tiny plastic cups and plates.

We toilet trained over Xmas week as it was the only week we were all at home. It was trying to say the least! But in fairness to him he was trained in a week. He's been completely dry in Crèche. Amazing. We never expected it to work tbh but I guess he was just older and more ready. Huge amounts of bribery also of course!

He has however turned into a right little Threenager. "No, I'm not ready" "It's not fair!" "I'm not doing that yet" "I'm going back to bed" (!!!!)

Oh and the selective ignoring. Jesus Christ. Literally sitting there watching Paw Patrol ignoring us when we ask him a question.

The rest of the time he's an absolute angel, all hugs and kisses and I love You and he's so lovely to his little sister and I swear I don't know whether to throttle him or hug the daylights out of him.

Hi everyone! Despite being a bit of a tomboy myself and raising DD on a diet of star wars, cars and trainsets I appear to have the girliest girl you have ever met! She now will only wear princess dresses (this includes nursery and bed time) and calls me 'Ana' and Dp 'my prince'. Only has interest in cuddly toys and dolls. Even beloved star wars toys have been totally rejected. Anyone else in a similar situation??

Hi all, so our twins Matthew and Henry arrived three weeks ago, they were fantastic and arrived at 4:40 and 5am the morning I was due to be induced, after contractions started at 2:30 so very quick! All natural which was great, and we stayed in a private room in hosp for 3 nights, so recovery has been quick. I’m just so relieved not to be pregnant any more that the broken nights aren’t even bothering me! I lost 3.5 stone in the first two weeks which was fun too, so much extra fluid retention by the end! They weighed 5-13 and 6-13 so good weights for twins.
DD is absolutely besotted with her little brothers and so are we. They are lovely and cuddly and much more chilled than DD was! They actually go to sleep in their cot!!! They feed a lot at night but then usually go straight back to sleep each time so it’s not too bad really.
Despite loving her bros DD is having some ups and downs adjusting; lots of wee accidents and still waking a lot at night; taking forever to eat anything and insisting o is feeding her and a LOT of emotional meltdowns. Ahh well we’ll get there!

Congratulations moggle your twins sound great. Sounds like it's all going well. Well done for surviving 2 babies and a 3 year old.

Congratulations Moggle! You make it sound almost easy to move from having one DC to three in a matter of hours! As for DD's meltdowns, we don't even need a newborn in the house for DD suddenly go all funny.

Ladydolly yes for girly DD. I was always so gender neutral, anti pink etc. and I have ended up with a girl who only wants to wear "pretty dress". Means we get loads of wear out of dresses, but the tops and trousers are hanging in the wardrobe like new. Thankfully, she is not too obsessed with pink. He favourite dress is from Desigual outlet, with million colours, sequins and crazy patterns. One thing I have wowed and so far standing firm - she isn't going out of house in dressing up clothes, exception - when nursery organise special events and dressing up is suggested.

Annarose great to hear about the potty progress. I am sure when time comes right it will be the same about dropping the dummy.

Took DD to Peppa Pig live show this morning. The walk from the car park to the venue was like a Peppa pilgrimage- crowds of parents and small kids all going the same direction. Especially as the city centre was empty since it was 10am.