Dec 08- Must keep chocolate & cheerfulness near, teething time is nearly here!

[pmk1]

Right.... back to post the link now!

Trace h&m have breastfeeding camisole style tops you could wear under your low boobie top. And don't worry about your production you are producing enough as she needs it there is no use your boobs being full all the time it just comes as she needs it. If she suddenly didn't feed all day you would feel full and have a cleevage to suit that top but as she is being given what she needs as she needs it there is no need for your boobs to fill up except when you get let down. I sympathise with the small head fears ds1 had a head on the 9th centile while his body was on the 75th. I was sure he was going to have some sort of head body deformity and his brain would be tiny as a result. I even took him to the neuro consultant i worked with who very kindly gave him a full examination and told me he was completely normal and pointed out that I don't have a particularly large head (I can wear childrens sunglasses) so it was probably genetic.

Effie that wine in the bath idea sounds soooo lovely I think I might push it to the top of the top tips list.

Verso I guess you mum thinks she is helping but it would be nicer if she just told you how well you are doing for getting this far with the breastfeeding...in fact come to think of it you have done well considering how tired you must feel so much of your day. Good on you for continuing with breastfeeding, well done.

WG the place you are staying at in Italy do they provide cots for the rooms/apartments? We had one of the samsonite tents for up to 2 yrs was brill but to tell the truth we only used it a few times as we got to getting the accomodation to provide a cot or we would make a little nest our of pillows. Ds1 still likes us to make him up a little nest at hotels even though he can sleep in his own bed or a sofa bed. In Munich we used some pillows and a couple of chairs to fashion a side cot for ds2 beside our bed.

Still catching up so back I go.

Evening all, just back from Devon after a lovely week, am shattered but mainly cos of long drive. Will catch up and write tomorrow, there's a Mad Men to watch on iplayer before Tues. Hope everyone's ok, I've missed you! [saddo emoticon].

OMG the funny things that everyones kids and nephews have been saying and drawing had me giggling but Effie your hanging bra art has me wetting myself, bless the women who pointed it out, I wonder if she debated with herself whether to tell you or not.

Oh dear have just ended up aspirating orange juice as I tried to take a swig and thought of Effie's bra again.

LOL at Effie's bra!!!! veggie have you recovered from the orange juice aspiration?!

things are not boding well here for tonight. Phoebe went to bed at 6.45 and has already woken twice She's farting lots and seems very miserable. She's really going for it with her crying and I've never really known her like this. She was refusing the boob but has just agreed to latch on (!) so hopefully she'll settle after a good old comfort suck. DH has gone out tonight and I was sooooooooooooo looking forward to going to bed at 7.30 without feeling like i'm neglecting dh because usually 7-10 is the reliable sleep stint for P. doh!

oh and thanks everyone for the clothing tips - i'll check out some of those places.

welcome back Spot - we've missed you too!

Bloody hell. DH has just bid fond farewell to gas man. I was just finishing cooking supper for us all (which involved pin-boning some fricking herring -never again) when I realised that I could smell something odd. And so could DH - gas like smell coming from cellar. So phoned British Gas who told us to evacuate the house. So I have to load children into car and drive around aimlessly (trying to work out what DH should rescue from house before it blows up) while they send a man round.

Man duly checks everything and says it's ok for us to go back inside but is also convinced he can smell something though - so drills into pavement etc. Then goes next door to see if they have a problem and discovers that they've been using gloss paint in their hall and the fumes are coming through to the cellar. . Never mind.

And we've had crisps for tea instead...

Effie DH and I have spent the afternoon saying' oh my painted arse'. Brilliant

Am also big fan of drinking nice glass of wine in the bath. And love your story about mummy and daddy juice pmk .

Katie hope you're getting something of a break - really difficult when it's all you.

Hello spot glad you had a lovely time. We've missed you too.

Glad to have cheered you up Veggie . The (indeed lovely) woman did say 'I thought I'd say something in case you didn't know'. As if it'd be deliberate!

Lal: the gas thing sounds v scary, boo to your noxious neighbours.

Am in awe at all these culinary achievements - boning herring, making fish pate and treacle tart - it's as much as I can manage to do something with a bit of mince! I did make carbonara this evening (well, a version of eith cheddar instead of parmesan). That's about as far as I go. DH like to try new recipes wit complicated instructions, then he has a meltdown halfway through and starts cursing our tiny kitchen and lack of implements... he is a more adventurous cook than me tho.

Trace: hope DD settles. I may be beinga bit drug-happy, but what about a spot of Calpol? It's worked on DS when he's had a screamy evening fit in the past week or so.

lal how horrendous and annoying having to evacuate your house! Glad it's all ok in the end...even with crisps for tea. Were they nice ones?
Effie - I also feel proud if I make anything that isn't jar of stir fry/ pasta sauce/ casserole packet mix...and likewise DH is the one who likes to cook here. I just can't be bothered - he cooks because he enjoys the process whereas I cook because I have to in order to eat. Although I do like to have a bash at a posh pud if we have friends over.

well Phoebe zonked on my boob so I've out her back in her cot and see what happens. So I'm now hurriedly stuffing my face with chocolate to ensure I get an adequate intake before I'm disturbed again!

I've just put all my clocks forward so now I feel it's completely normal to be heading off to bed now! Think I'll retreat with a cuppa and "what Mothers do" - am having a maternal wobble so could do with that book telling me I'm great! Oh no. Squeaks from the Phoebster.

night night.

Trace you are great. And crisps were Bert's - according to DH these are the best. I'm a bit more low rent myself and prefer Walkers...

Also Effie my attempt at pin boning was pretty rubbish. We didn't end up with much fish. Was recent resolution to try to eat more fish at home so am having to learn to do all sorts of things. Spend quite a lot of time looking puzzled at diagrams in book and prodding ineffectually...

Ros I like the sound of your afternoon.

Right. Must do something constructive. Am surrounded by bags of clothes I'm supposed to be sorting out. I've far too many summer clothes that I've bought in a panic before going on holiday. Am summoning up will to chuck a load of them. Hope you all have good nights.

Oh and love the story about the bra

Effie am now giggling about the idea of you leaving the house and doing a last minute check, mobile phone, keys, change mat&nappies, spare bra hooked to coat, all there right I'm off out then. Or Mrs Effie calling you back holding the bra saying 'effie you forgot this...here let me attach it to a clearly part of your clothing'

Have blown my nose several times Trace, it is now clear of OJ as well as my airways.

Stayed at a friends house last night. The have 2 children each a couple of month older than our boys so the older ds' enjoyed a sleepover in their ds1 new bed and the big kids got to enjoy some takeaway and much cheerfulness whilst all offspring slept upstairs. I think the bubs enjoyed a glass of wine too and both behaved so the mummies got to enjoy the evening as much as the daddies. We all laughed so hard that our jaws ached. Was really nice we then all ventured out this morning for a pub breakfast and a wander around town.

Oh Lal that does not sound like a low VOC paint.

I'm down in London the 7th, 8th, 9th April did I hear mention of a meet up on the 8th?

I just popped in to say goodnight.

Effie It could have been a grotty old bra I suppose!

lal That's scary, glad to hear all was well in the end. I bet your children quite enjoyed the excitement! When I was young we were all turfed out of our beds in the middle of the night because the chimney was on fire. My brothers and I thought it was all every exciting!

DD and I have had a lovely day visiting my parents. DD was fussed over by just about everyone we saw, my hometown being the sort of place where everyone knows one another and village whist evenings get a mention in the local paper. My old boss of a shop I worked in at the 6th form gave me £5 for DD which was very sweet.

DD was exhausted when we got home and was tucked up asleep by 5.45. She was really unsettled last night though due to a snotty nose and was hysterical when she found she couldn't feed properly. That early bedtime means I'll be up with larks tomorrow so best bed myself....

Night all.

morning all, another restless night for us here! I know some of you were talking about losing the dummy for sleeping, how have you done it? Did you just go cold turkey?

effie & ladyt thanks to your chat about Brideshead Revisited, I started reading it yesterday. How have I not read it before?! It's responsible for burning our dinner & sending dh off to Tescos for something else to eat

hello all - welcome back spot! hope it was wonderful

completely forgot to add to our stock of names for dd: and this will tickle only some of you old enough... leonard possiter. we also call her grizzla no-teeth (after rizla latief, the south east newsreader on bbc1)

sybil, pmk and veggie - thx for all your suggestions -sybil, which LL tent was it - there seem to be 4 of them. am liking hte idea of a nest, but also slightly concerned about heat - we're going to a villa in umbria owned by a friend's dad, so there won't be a cot there for sure.

ep - loving the floating wine and bra!!! not to mention oh my painted arse - my dad always used to say oh my sainted aunt as i grew up, happy memories!

also - really weird evening last night. i had a boyfriend about a gazillion years ago who completely broke my heart, and after whom i pined for years and years. but i got over it and when i got together with dh it was really odd as ex-boyfriend was a good friend of dh's, and was even an usher at our wedding. last night he came round because he had a massive row with his current girlfriend and talked the whole messed up thing (it's pretty rubbish). i had a sudden flashback to when we broke up and to think that here he was, umpteen years later, talking about his problems in my front room, while i was here iwth the best husband in the world and dd upstairs... it was one of those moments you wish you could have told yourself as a younger person - it will be all right, he really isn't mr perfect, you will find the right person for you and they will be SO MUCH BETTER for you. anyway... jsut a thought.

anyone else completely love picking the bogies out of their baby's noses??? am regretting cutting my nails yesterday

Bogies and ear wax WG, when they are a bit bigger.

And yes WG agree with you about the ex thing. I had one I never thought I would ever get over, he is still a lovely man but DH is soooo much more for me and am happier with him than I ever would be with ex...and well I might as well say it, I'm sure he wouldn't have made my babies as good looking as DHs genes have. I have recently made friends with him on facebook and although he is 4years younger than DH he looks 10years older and quite bald. Nothing wrong with baldness but I do love my DHs lovely locks.

Morning,

Effie That is so funny. I'm glad that lady told you too.

Lal That is quite scary. Silly neighbours. Glad it is nothing serious.

DS2 woke up at half 3 this morning. I was convinced he was sleeping through as we had a whole week of him sleeping from 10 until 7. But no, he was just teasing us.

I got up at 6 this morning to watch the Formula 1, I'm so happy it is back. DS1 got up about half 7 and he loved it too so I can see him watching with me everytime now.

Hope you are all well.

Voluntarily getting up at 6 am when you've been up at 3.30? I'm impressed, Kayz. . That's really nice that DS1 likes it and you have that to share with him.
Veg, am already on the earwax .
That's so true about the ex talk, mine came to see Mr T when he was quite little and it was just him and me and my mum, which was v weird to say the least, but I just thought the same, thank gos we ended up with who we did - and why didn't we know it when we were going through horrendous break ups at the time?
Sorry to hear P has been unsettled, Trace, how was your night last night?
Effie, LOL about the bra episode, may be around the park later, what time will you be there?
Lal, that's a bummer about the gas scare but you did the right thing, and I hope the neighbours come round with much cheerfulness by means of apology.
Well, we had a lovely week in Devon and its many service stations, the cottage was great and I was a bit nervous about T adapting to the new smells and sights but he was great and it was really nice to share the baby care and go to some gorgeous places, like Branscombe Bay and Lyme Regis. Fortunately the weather was pretty good most of the time...
Things I learnt included:

• long car journeys seem to make for windy babies
• Not every baby sleeps in the car
• It's not the end of the world when your usual routine goes flying out the window. In fact it can be very liberating and you can end up doing much more.

• I want to live in a house

- BEams on the ceiling can be very distracting for babies when they're trying to feed - Pushing buggies round country lanes with no pavements can be very scary - Babies can spend a whole week dribbling, gnawing and with bright red cheeks and being very uncomfortable about it - and STILL NO TOOTH!

Oh, and also, if you're spending 7 hours on the road and there's 2 of you it really helps if one of you is sat next to the baby to put in dummy, distract with silly faces etc. But you still feel like you're in a minicab.

Spot: Keeping an eye on the weather, but may well be out later - will text . We were in Springfield park this morning looking at the boats - there's one for sale, but prob not the most sensible way to solve the housing problem!

Would love a houseboat but DP gets seasick so think that;s out of the Q.
Another thing I learned, but unrelated to Devon (I think): if you have large breasts and use body scrub, remember to rinse underneath. Well.