June 2008 - The Olympics are here and Mums deserve gold medals

[ThePenguinProject]

Thought I'd start a new thread before we ran out of space! Couldn't remember the exact name suggestion so have paraphrased, the sentiment is still the same though...

HI all

Paro - which one was your cousin?

Ernest - well done for keeping 7 children accounted for in Legoland!!

Mamwizz - hope you're feeling better soon - I have survived a few bouts of mastitis over the years - the 1st time I thought I was dying!

BDQ - glad wedding went well.

Yuck G43!!

Dh and I have had a lovely day, walking in the mountains with Ethan whilst ds1 and ds2 are at circus camp - all week, 8.30-4.30 BLISS after 7 weeks of school holiday!!! Caught up with them earlier - they've been walking on nails and standing on glass!!! OMG - they have come home and apparently ds2 has set his hand on fire - no marks though - Austria - NO health and safety

Ohmigod deb - circus camp Austria style sounds like seriously good fun! You wouldn't get away with any of that in this country!

circus camp sounds amazing - how lucky for all of you (since you get the break too!)

deb, I've done Eurodisney (as it was) a few times with 40 + teenage boys, so felt a bit pathetic worrying about 7 under-9's.

Bloody hot here. At the football 3/4 of the stadium was in shade, of course we were in the blazing sun, so I made us change seats to the opposite side, dh moaned his face off, but I just couldn't have taken her out of the hotslings - 1st time I've used it properly & it was great

Internet has been playing up all day, so this is the first time I have managed to get on here.

G43 Slummy mummy of the week award there I think

deb would love to have done the circus camp your Ds's are doing. I learnt some circus skills on a Guide camp at about 13/14 and can still juggle up to 5 balls, scarves (really easy), rings and clubs, tried things like plate spinning, tightrope, unicycle but juggling was the only thing I could do

routine No routine here, taking things as they go, due to some of the more outlandish things we have taken Isaac too (Gay Pride, Outdoor Gigs, Going to the tate modern in a couple of weeks) would be more of a hinderance than a help I think.

Although Isaac is only 9 weeks have had to put him in 3 - 6 stuff for his cloth bum and his length, but haven't quite dyed all the white things yet so have that to do tomorrow.

BDQ glad you enjoyed your wedding

paro don't watch any reality tv but good luck to your cousin, know people who have tried out for X factor,. BB etc and never got through

mamawhizz about the mastitis, hope things recover soon

at last after 5 weeks of 'thrush' / 'blocked duct' I have had a weekend of painfree feeding from both boobs. I could cry with happiness.

boast Isaac has found his thumb to suck and looks so cute and also means I am thinking of ditching the dummies

Thanks sponge I'll watch that.

hedgehog loving your trips out with Isaac. We took S to the Edinburgh book festival recently. Slightly more sedate than outside gigs though! Glad Isaac has found his thumb - S has found his a couple of times, but keeps losing it so will stick with dummies for while longer.

DH has a pass out tonight so best go get organised!

hedgehog - great news about the thumb! However, I wouldn't be too hasty in ditching the dummies unless Isaac is a little more efficient at finding his thumb than Alex is! He loves sucking his thumb (have a photo of him doing it on my profile page cos he looks soooo cute!) but we still use the dummy quite a lot to comfort him. He is starting to push his dummy out of his mouth now and replace it with his thumb so hopefully won't be long before we can ditch the bloody things!

Btw, v jealous of your son's social life - sounds more exciting than mine!!

BDQ - x posted!

Hey Sponge, Jamie is wearing exactly the same vest as your little one in his pictures (blue and cream stripes), they both look gorgeous in it!

Sorry to hear about the mastitus mamawizz, it is horrible so hope the antibiotics kick in soon.

What toys are peoples lo's finding exciting at the moment (if any). Jamie has discovered the Galt dinosaur today and is thrilled with it. i think he likes the different textures and the noises.

Hello all and hope you all had nice bank holidays! Been at MIL for the weekend. She looked after the boy and DP and I went to the zoo and had a meal out. Had a nice time but kept thinking of him (baby not DP!). Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with other people looking after your baby in case the baby loves them more? - very silly I know!

Having major Olympics withdrawal...

sponge just looking at your pics - so cute! Why do all babies sleep in the same position with legs in a frog and arms by their ears? Luke hasn't done thumb sucking he can almost put his whole fist in his mouth though!

After our two laughs we've had from Luke, no sign of another yet has anyone else's baby started regularly laughing yet (not in their sleep!!!)

Sorry for not ommenting on all posts but there are an awful lot to catch up on!!!

sybil Luke loves his rainforest play gym and bats the hanging toys for ages! Thinking he might get bored soon though so want new toys so looking forward to evryone else's suggestions.

amber/sybil - just got a fisher price swinging chair with panda mirror and two little rattle toys... edie was ok in her rainforest boucing chair but absolutely loves this..something about the little bee rattle toy is very mesmirisng.

laura/sponge| agree re tv being dire but said on radio my mutual friend(and this was the bbc) was crap ... shame as I LOVED cold feet. I wonder if they are bringing back mistresses...

There's a soft toy giraffe hanging on Ethan's bouncy chair and he "talks" to that, but today the bar had moved, the giraffe was face to face with him, Ethan was cross eyed and trying to suckle it!!

Apart from that he likes a musical thing with lights on that I keep in the bathroom to keep him amused if I'm in the shower etc... It's an old Fisher price thing to attach to the side of the cot.

Amber - Ethan also likes to suck his whole fist.

Ooh, I liked mistresses poppy I hope they do make another series.

Cute pictures sponge.

S likes staring at the toys on his baby gym and bouncing chair. He's got an ELC frog rattle type think that he's enjoyed me shaking at him today. He's only just starting to get interested in toys I think. I've got a set of plastic links and he quite likes those though.

sybil, great minds think alike!

Amber, thank you. I know, the baby sleeping position is gorgeous isn't it! They look sooo cute!

As for laughing, Alex laughs quite alot and I discovered this weekend he loves it when I stick my tongue out at him - great habit to teach him, eh?

However, he is not the slightest bit interested in toys yet. I've made half hearted attempts to play with various things with him but he just looks past them at me so I give up. He'll find them in his own time!

poppy, gutted that you heard a bad review of Mutual Friends - but reviews are so subjective aren't they? I hope they're wrong cos it's got an excellent cast and many of the others involved (producers, directors, etc) have really good CVs too. Fingers crossed - although I think if we compare it to Cold Feet it'll come up short cos that was so good.

BDQ, thank you.

Hi Everyone

sponge love the pictures and Cold feet was my favourite series ever! I was so in love with James Nesbitt!!

Hedgehog so glad the Thrush etc has cleared!

Mammawhizz Hope your mastitis clears up quickly.

Mia sucks her fingers and her whole fist if she's really hungry, she chats away and I have had a good few laughs from her but she can be a hard audience.
I have still been having problems with Mia feeding, she hasn't been feeding properly since we had thrush (8 weeks ago) and still isn't putting on weight the way she was, so I have been expressing and giving it to her in bottles hoping that she might be able to re-learn to feed properly or something (last ditch attempt really). I have to say bottle feeding is bloody difficult. I have just been popping her on the boob when she was hungry, now I have to heat bottles and guess how much she wants - how do you know?!
I'm really hoping this works, I didn't realise how important bf was to me until I started having problems

Hi paro thanks for missing me! I was at my parents for the weekend. Had a lovely time and A got to meet all his cousins for the first time - all little boys! A was really great in the airport and on the plane, and the sling worked really well as it kept him settled the whole time and I'd expressed a bottle for the flight

bdq glad you enjoyed the wedding!

Laura have you seen Prison Break. I'm currently hooked on that

sybil A is most interested in the toys on his bouncy chair and likes to reach out to hit them. He looks up at the toys on his playgym but can't reach them yet. When I wave other toys in front of him he's not interested yet

amber I know what you mean about feeling like this. A started smiling at me last week and then I was quite put out that he was also smiling at other people. I should just be glad he's being sociable!

katyjo sorry to hear you're having difficulties feeding. Is Mia taking milk from the bottle? I express when A isn't feeding properly from the breast as I find it so frustrating, and just want to get some milk into him. Some days he feeds well and some not, I just hope it sorts itself out over the next few weeks, as I'm finding it hard persisting with the bf. Good luck with Mia

sybil good to see you back, I was wondering where you were last week. Hows the feeding going?

Sorry to interrupt flow- meant to tell essie that I had emailed her re: napies. Computer crashed, but off to catch up now. Interruption ends.

BDQ "The Wire" season 1 was pretty tough going when I was pg and very tired in the evenings (now of course I am full of energy so not a problem, ha ha ). As I said I kept on falling asleep as I found the dialogue inpenetrable. To understand it you need to be a drug dealer from Baltimore and as I am neither it is hard to understand. DH was determined to watch it, and I did get into it by the end.

We followed that up with "24" season 1 which somehow we had both missed first time round. I was so disappointed. It is so lightweight and implausable. We wont be watching season 2.

We then went back to "the Wire" season 2 which is much better. It is about the dockers rather than the drug dealers and is easier to follow. It is so much better than "24" though.

The other one not to miss is "the Sopranos", simply brilliant, although again it takes a while to get into New Jersey mafia slang.

Paro Thanks for missing me! DH was off last week so we have spent some quality time together with the children. Unfortunately he is back to work tomorrow so normal service is resumed. And Luke has his first set of jabs tomorrow so not looking forward to it. Hey ho hopefully I will meet up with sophie at some point during the week and I have a flying visit to Wales to show off Luke to the relies on Wednesday.
Just whiling away the time until midnight when I will wake L for his feed. Then hopefully he will go through till about 6 when DG gets up to feed him so I can sleep until 8am. This system works for us as long as DH isn't working away.
Hope everyone else is doing OK and has had a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Morning all,

Weather is still dubious here, might rain, might be sunny. I've been hoping for good weather as it is my ds1's 2nd birthday so we were planning on going out for the day. I can't believe he is 2 today, the time really has flown by (a cliche I know). I was very adventurous yesterday and baked him a cake and decorated it like a lion as he is really into his animals at the moment. I just hope he recognises it otherwise I'm going to feel a bit stupid . It's not the worlds best lion but hey I've never decorated a cake before and I figure I've got a few more years to practice before he starts asking if I can buy him a cake from Sainsbury's .

Emma's sleeping patterns have really improved in the last week, for 3 out of the last 5 nights she has slept from 10pm til 5.30am which is pretty civilised. It's also meant a bit of early morning nookie for me and a cup of tea in bed before my ds1 wakes up which has been great .

Anyway, off to try and catch up with all your posts.

you get woken up at 5 ish and you're glad for a bit of morning nookie??????

I must be getting old.

Actually I am.

I think you're like me Josie - having our kids so close together means that we never really had a good night sleep in between babies so the bar is very low! We're not managing early morning nookie though - but are finding time once the boys are in bed.

Was very confused when I couldn't find Mutual Friends on the tv planner for tonight - it's not on BBC1 Scotland! Can watch it on BBC London though. It must be on at a different time in Scotland - probably because of River City. Our , ahem, top notch home grown soap.

alipalli - we only recently watched season 1 of 24 as we missed it first time around. I've watched the last couple of seasons though and they were much better. DH was into Sopranos but I could never really get into it.

I'm absolutely shattered today. However, S hasn't had a middle of the night feed for a few nights in a row now so fingers crossed that's him. He wakes up a few times but will just settle with his dummy until his feed at 7am. Am still waking him for a feed around 10-11pm.

On toys... I was reading the other day that babies notice/react better to toys when they are presented from the right hand side, rather than from the front. S likes it when something is rattled to the side of his head - he's starting to look around when that happens.

Ernest - I'm too old for 5am action too!