June 08: All we want for Christmas is a good night's sleep!

[bitofasnowqueen]

New thread!

Josey that baby monitor story hilarious! Too funny .

Exciting news about the teeth penguin. Has Ryder got a Sophie the giraffe? Excellent teething toy.

5gomad sorry to hear about Seb. Hope you get some good advice from the docs tomorrow.

Poppy - I'm having a nightmare with my hands. I use waterless handwash a lot, changing nappies, handling bottles etc. My hands are have been really dry for a while but it now looks like I've got some kind of rash? The handwash irritates my skin so cant use it any more, which is a shame as it was really handy. Once it clears up I might try a different brand.

Right off to watch Sponge video and work out why you can't all see my pics

Ok, should be able to see my photos now, hopefully!

puree, thank you. Isn't it incredible how many people on this thread struggled to have their little ones? But we're all here now and that's what matters .

snowqueen, can now see the photos - lovely, esp love the one in the Moses basket, what a sweetie!

bitofasnowqueen thanks for posting that thread, I'd have missed it. Great pics too!

Josey and Deb and sybil oops! love the stories!

5gomad hugs! Have you had a diagnoses of reflux at all? I can't remember?

sponge yea!!! What a great news clip! you both looks stunning too! And it's such a happy story We'll all be cheering for you when you try again!

Couldn't agree more Sponge!

Re: dry hands, I have found a cure. Well, sort of....I have been smearing my hands with Lansinoh and then wearing cotton gloves to bed. A good use of the huge tube I have left post-BFing, though probably a littl ehigh-maintenance. I just spend all day washing my hands and it's the only thing I could come up with.

Vaseline!!! That is the answer to dry hands I promise. Very much like lansinoh I guess, but much cheaper

Very cute pics BSQ!

Sponge, twins? I am sorry. I have a friend who conceived twins naturally and m/c'd. I wondered whether you feel double the pain or if it's just too difficult to comprehend? I couldn't ask. Twins are much higher risk of m/c (so it's ironic that with IVF they actually TRY to give you twins). After my first scan (at 7weeks) when we first found out we were having twins I said to DH 'at least if something goes wrong with one we have the other'. All I wanted was a baby but I am so glad they both made it of course! I was terrified that I was going to m/c again - don't know how I would have coped but then you just have to don't you.

Neenz, it's not so much that they try to give you twins with IVF, it's more that the chances of conception are so low with each cycle (about 25%) that putting two embryos back just increaeses your chances of getting at least one baby. Tbh, most clinics are trying to reduce their twin rates now and my clinic prides itself on only having a 9% twin rate which is very good. However, many IVF patients hope for twins (you can actually get a t-shirt that says "Secretly hoping for twins"!) because IVF is so stressful and expensive that they hope by having "two for the price of one" they won't have to go through it again.

I don't think losing twins was so much double the pain as just desperately cruel luck - our consultant said we were so unlucky to have implanted both embryos and yet for both of them to die. Often one would perish but the other would survive. I think our 2nd m/c was actually harder because it was a natural conception - we had been given odds of one million to one of conceiving naturally, to actually achieve this only to lose it was devastating beyond belief. I was injecting for my 2nd IVF cycle when I discovered I was pg and I will never know whether the drugs I was taking caused the m/c - that really haunts me .

Sorry, very egocentric post there .

AH, thanks for your comments - that was really sweet of you .

Oh Sponge I am in floods here, the video was great, what you went through with miscarrying twins and then to read about losing the baby you conceived naturally is just so sad, but Alex is just gorgeous and you look so happy.

IVF is so stressful, I have been very,very lucky and I am sop thankful but 2 of my friends have gone through it. One conceived after 3 attempts with an egg donated by her sister - you can imagine how special that little boy is in the family. My other very good friend has had 2 attempts now, the last one she lost both embryos at a few weeks and was just devastated. She's been on the list for an egg donor, got bumped into 1st place for the best quality eggs as the person in front of her had pulled out, turned up at the hospital to start the treatment and the egg donor had withdrawn from the the programme.So now she's back to square one .

Snow queen - lovely photos - worth the wait

I've added some new photos too.

Amazing video Sponge -

he looks so active compared to Seb

AH yes we ahve done the reflex rout have been on gaviscon since 8 weeks, if no luck with GP tomorrow just going straight into A&E

5gomad the reason I'm asking (it must seem a bit annoying) is that my brother did the same thing - he didn't gain any weight at all between 4-6 months and my parents were so worried. It was a case of severe reflux (he also couldn't sleep at nights for the acid coming up his throat). They ended up with him sleeping on a 40 degree angle, pinned into his cot with safety pins and muslins. He actually has an incomplete valve at the top of his tummy and he's still, at 29, much more likely to throw up than other people at the slightest thing. He stopped sleeping on a slant just a few years before university too (it wasn't 40 degrees by then though, more like 10). Anyways, in case this is a similar thing I wanted to say that I know it can be horrible while you're going through it but hopefully like my brother, not really serious.

thanks for all the tips on dry hands -will try vaseline (actually edie has

5gomad I really hope you get an answer re seb as it must be very worrying .

sponge your story is amazing. I don't know if its cos I've had a baby or cos I'm gearing up to try again but I find the whole thing about m/c even more upsetting now than I used to. Maybe its because I'm thinking about trying again that I need to try and get the energy to cope with teh potential downside again (that and saw a friend who is happily pregnant again but had a particularly nice m/c.

anyway on a happier note does anyone else have a particuarly vain curious baby - edie is just mesmerised by looking at/talking to herself in the mirror .

and amberc we're still on puree strike here too...

sorry shouldnt press teh button so quick - meant to say edie has some nice cream that is vaseline like that I may nick (the waitrose one that m/n caused a run on )..and meant to say nasty rather than nice m/c - but fingers crossed for my friend as this will be her third lo.

Hollyivypoppy - I use that cream on my face . Tis very good. Perhaps I should try it on my hands. S is incredibly nosy, and vain too!

Thanks all for kind words on DS's photos.

Sponge just saw your video - amazing story!

Sponge, what you have been through is just incredible... I am so glad it all worked out in the end and I really praying for you for next time.

Poppy, My two are still a bit by the mirror. They see me and smile but then I think they are confused as to who the baby is in the mirror. Obviously Esther sees me with Theo and Theo sees me with Esther but when they see me with themselves I think they think 'There's mummy with ANOTHER baby!'

Esther is not eating well - could be teeth or her cold. She slept quite well tho last night (7pm till 5am and then till 8am) so I don't really care. Theo ate loads yesterday and still woke at 9pm and midnight (but then slept till 8am). But it was better cos he had been having three or even four BFs between 7pm and 7am. I used lots of milk yesterday in food and with baby rice so hopefully that did the trick.

Esther turned her nose up at prunes and baby rice for breakfast but then I mixed it with some yogurt and she ate some. I wonder whether the cold was nice on her gums.

I was in the supermarket looking for baby yogurts yesterday and saw Muller Little Stars... thought they looked good - the packaging was shouting All Natural Ingredients.... Only Six Ingredients.... etc etc... I looked at the ingredients and the second of the six ingredients was sugar . Is there any need to ADD sugar to baby's yogurt? I really don't think they should be allowed to market it as 'good' food. Milk already has naturally occuring sugar in and so does fruit. It really annoys me when kids' food is marketed like that.

Sponge, that has just made me cry! So glad you posted it, it was just lovely. I agree that mc grief is very misunderstood. I mc'd before Jamie, the baby was due the month we conceived him, but didn't know that and I found both the actual loss and the edd very difficult.

Little Stars are a big hit in this house- and they do have less sugar than Petit Filous ( at least I think that's what I remember from checking the backs of all the packets...) I think the cold on the gums is a big factor but agree that the marketing and packaging is confusing, though Muller webitesays it is 'mostly' naturally occurring fruit sugars that are in their fromage frais. Bad parent strikes again!!

Mirrors are a source of fascination for babypearls- don't know what she thinks about 'the other baby' but they always make her smile

She and the dog have just killed my helium-filled birthday balloon. That was pretty funny too.

'Spose I better go do something like clean up the kitchen. Anyone else find mealtimes REALLLY messy now?!!

Off to a black tie do tonight too- have to remember where I put all my pre-pregnancy 'glamorous' clothes are [there isn't a sarcastic emoticon...]

little stars very popular here too. actually, ever since a baby in my local area died from a salt overdose when ds1 was newborn i have worried far more about salt than sugar content. a bit of sugar isn't dangerous but salt really worries me. i think this is why blw is not really for me, i still check the salt content of crumpets etc before giving them to the kids, jamie wouls starve

[Pureeandpearls whispers that she has updated her pics....seeing as you all seem to be doing festive ones!]

pureed - that worries me too (salt not sugar) -we've been on low salt watch anyway for dh and its amazing how much is in things you don't realise (esp yummy things like crumpets). hence blw at minute just consists of things i know are baby friendly like cucumber. Plus the sugar thing is a losing battle.. I know that my mother was rigorous so I just went and bought chocolate on way home from school....

SPONGE fAB VIDEO. I'm shocked at how expensive treatment is.

DP was calling ds his number 1 son last night and when #i mentioned he always will be dp said we could have another one! It filled me with terror, my first thought was I can't cope with anymore dead babies. By the way I said no he knew I meant it!

I was giving DS sugar free yoghurts made from natural yoghurt and fruit puree but he seems to have gone off them.
I'm really careful with salt as I rember an artical from years ago about a baby who had died from having too much salt in his diet, he was being fed on just readybrek (doesn't contain salt anymore). I think bread and cheese are the only things he eats containing salt. I buy normal sa;t free rice cakes.