june09 Weaning the babies and shifting the Mummy Tummy!!!

[Tee2072]

Here it is, Juners! New thread!!

It?s pouring with rain here, torrential actually, since Sunday. I don?t expect you to feel sorry for me given how lucky we are with our weather here but I just don?t know how you cope with the weather in the UK with small kids. It doesn?t help that we don?t have heating so it is pretty chilly inside and it takes an age to get any washing dry. Last Sunday?s laundry is still wet. I mopped the marble floors yesterday and they took 2 hours to dry! What?s more, all out usual activities have ground to a halt for Christmas and a lot of our friends are away so it has been the kids and I at home cooped up for the last 4 few days ? very boring. The rain abated a bit yesterday so I took them out, Aaliyah in the buggy and Xavier in his wellies and mac, he adored puddle stomping. That was a good move, going out today wasn?t! we got caught in an enormous downpour! Aaliyah has her 4 front top teeth coming in poor mite and Xavier has 2 molars breaking through, chaos! Sleep is bad from both of them just now (and for us!). All I want for Christmas is 4 hours sleep!

Strawberrysam ? that must be really hard, the sleeping through and then stopping again I mean, I hope Lizzie has settled down again now.

Naat ? hope you are having a lovely Christmas celebration tonight

Snowwombat ? I hope you get some quality me time whilst the in-laws amuse Angus!

Sorry to hear that E may have asthma Bigcar I know what you mean about the veg puree, A loves the fruit but not the green stuff!

Daisy ? sadly I can?t mention Santa to Xavier as he is scared of him!

Mummy duty calls, better go, merry Christmas to all! x

Merry Christmas :D
Hope you're all enjoying xmas with family & friends!

We're having a lovely time, just finished preparing for tomorrow and cannot wait to have baby and everyone else open their presents :D

ooh bunny good on you for trying for number 2. We think about it from time to time but with 3 stones to loose still I don't think it would be wise. A rl friend who is also a juner wants to try for their second next year as well.
Anyone else here?

daisy F is just too cute :D

naat friend of mine took a pic for the passport themselves, they put a sheet on the floor and lied the baby down on it.
I know there are rules (for the uk passport anyway)(like it's not supposed to be a white background", you can't see a hand holding the baby etc) so it is probably a better idea to ask the local photographer who should know the latest guidelines.

skies how is it going, the snow has been lovely but quite worrying as we stressed about wether realatives were going to make it! (and they have, yay!).

mrsmc you sound a bit down, there is nothing worse than xmas when you're not in the spirit. I hope things improve for you, sending you big hugs. I think if you got a couple of decent nights sleep you would feel an awful lot better.
Do you go to mums groups out there in spain?
I know meeting other rl mums keep me sane (seeing that they also have greasy hair and no make up from time to time, even though 2 out 3 have got their slim pre-pg bodies back!)

We picked up the christening cake today and it's lovely, (though they made spelling mistakes!).

Better go to bed now, baby does not know that we don't need to get up early...

Take care!

Hi all!

Merry Christmas!!! Hope you're all having a lovely time.

June, yes, UKBA are strict so we're having them taken Hope C enjoyed opening her pressies this morning

Mrsmc, major (((hug))) going your way. I can imagine being stuck at home with the DC because of horrible weather can get you down; especially if they're feeling a bit low due to teething! Hope you manage to get a few hours rest so that you feel better. Where are you spending it today? Hope you feel more Christmassy this morning xxx

Skies, thanks for that, I googled it already. Merry Christmas!

Well, we ended up staying at home yesterday after our friend cancelled Xmas due to the snow. I was a bit down at first but DH said we were going to have a great time together and we did The bad part is M started coming down with a cold in the afternoon She's got a stuffed nose and feels a bit low at times but she's ok... last night was not too bad so we woke up and opened presents with her this morning

Merry Christmas again!!!

Waves!!

ps. I'll now our Christmas e-card if you want to have a look

kids are totally hyped

merry christmas to june ladies and all our lovely babies

Bunny ? DS was 7 months when I got pregnant with Aaliyah and we were delighted. He was in a great routine and we were all getting lots of sleep, the story could not be more different this time though. We had planned for a 3rd with a similar gap but as things are I worry that my health won?t last and I wouldn?t dare get pregnant again now for fear of how the baby would fare on me sleeping so little. I am also feeding so much still that I?ve had no sign of returning fertility. I was really pleased when I was pregnant with Aaliyah that the worst of the sickness was over before DS started to walk, perfect timing! Good luck and have fun trying again

June ? thanks for your concern. I am feeling a bit low at the mo. The lack of sleep, rain and the fact that most of my friends are away and all our normal activities are suspended into the middle of January doesn?t help. DH has also been really low, missing Scotland and his family and that hasn?t helped. I made him a Christmas hamper full of yummy things to snuggle down and share last night but he was too depressed to open it is the Christening tomorrow? Hope it goes really well

Naat ? thanks to you too hon, we were at my Mum?s yesterday. There were 11 of us and it was fun but I think that was part of the problem, I?ve been feeling left out as all my family are together at my Mum?s and we were here. My sister, her husband and 2 boys are becoming increasingly insular and we see less and less of them when they are here, it makes me really sad. Sorry to hear your Christmas was cancelled and that Mila has a cold but glad to hear that you?ve had fun in spite of that.

Daisy ? Fraser is looking so cute how did he like the chicken? I think I am going to have to start disguising or pureeing DS?s meat again, he is so fussy about eating it. He was a joy to wean though, loved everything I gave him maybe Aaliyah will be keener on meat.

June ? Dolls house sounds lovely! Lucky girl!

Bunny ? I am very impressed with the exercise you are doing, my good intentions went out of the window when the sleep started disappearing again! I?ve started Aaliyah on Stage 2 food now ? she had leek and potato the other day and cauliflower cheese yesterday ? not very impressed, her favourite thing is apple and cinnamon. I remember reading with DS though that cold apple purée really soothes sore gums so it may be because of that.

Naat - we took our own photos and uploaded them to passpic.com, they were great, really good service!

This is bliss, DH has gone to the airport to collect a friend who is staying for 10 days and the plane has been delayed so I've had an extra hour all to myself to potter around DS went with him (he'll be so tired when he gets back) and Aaliyah is asleep

hiya everyone never manage to get on here as much as i'd like, I come on and read up on you all but dont get time to post...hopefully this will change now that Sarah is behaving herself more

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas and enjoyed it with you babies. Sarah loved ripping the wrapping paper and never bothered with the toys she got from Santa. Still waiting on the first teeth to come thro hopefully shouldn't be too much longer.

I hope you are all well and hope to catch up with you all soon xxx

afternoon all

hope you've all had a wonderful couple of days and babies delivered a good nights sleep for their mummys christmas pressie!

skillbo, hope all went well, any news? I'm not surprised cola won strictly although Ricky was by far the better dancer. I don't think this series was as good as the previous ones, too many of them were good to start off with, I like watching them improve which is possibly why cola won. I didn't think Ola was going to stop crying, you always imagine it being more involved for the celebrity than the professional dancers. Look at all that hair your J has, how lovely is that

daisy, lovely photos

bunny, you are clearly insane to start trying again says she with the 15 month age gap between dd2 and ds1! Ds1 was a pretty good baby, guess I was lucky there. Life got interesting when ds1 learnt to walk and they'd both go in opposite directions, oh the hours of fun At least E is not the only veg hater, he gags on it like I'm feeding him poison, oh well, will just keep trying! Ellas kitchen stuff is pretty good too, E only gets it ocassionaly though as it's a bit pricey, I try to freeze stuff when I can.

june, hope the ils behaved and you enjoyed seeing your family, hope all's well with the christening too

MrsMcJnr, yay for a bit of time to yourself, that must have been wonderful Sorry to hear you're both feeling down, all our groups have shut down too, it's no fun is it! ((((hugs))))

naat, sorry to hear your friends cancelled, hope that gave you time to get enough food in. Our snow totally went on christmas eve, must have been all that bloody rain we had! Love the photos, all our babies are growing so quick Dd1 had asthma, only very mildly when she was about preschool age but she's outgrown it now thankfully, dh has it along with various cousins, aunties etc it's just E is much younger than anyone else in the family to be diagnosed. He has a salbutamol inhaler for now to see how he goes, we'll be back at the doctors sometime this week. The only problem is that E keeps wanting to eat the spacer he has to use, not great when you're trying to get a good seal round his mouth and nose, little monkey

christmas was lovely in our house, E seemed to enjoy himself, he just wanted to eat everything that went vaguely in his direction we had to be so careful about picking up all the little bits of paper. Now I've just got to find places for all the stuff the kids got, they got spoilt rotten. It's been nice to have some family time, dh is back to work on tuesday, the kids have enjoyed having him home although he has driven me nuts a couple of times because he just hasn't wanted to sit still for 5 minutes!

waves to all

Hi all!!!

Bigcar, so glad you had a lovely Christmas at home. We only managed to get two trouts Tescos had been raided!!! We had veggies and other things at home so it was not too bad LOL at DH driving you nuts at home, mine is home a lot next week, only has to go to work on Tuesday so we'll see Oh M would do the same with the thingy... she puts everything in her mouth! I have to watch her like a hawk! The Wii has arrived! Every single muscle in my body hurts after playing only 2hs on the wii sports resort AND my age according to it is 74!!! I'll start training with it as soon as this ache goes

Laura, glad you had a lovely Christmas. Hope those tiny teeth come soon!!

Mrsmc, ohhh those hours must have been bliss! Again, sorry to hear you're having a hard time lately, I imagine that your DH missing Scotland gets him down but therefore affects the whole household Hope the playgroups start again soon (and that the rain stops FGS!) We managed to get M's pics yesterday, fortunately

Hello to all Juners!

We went to Manchester yesterday. Great idea going to the Trafford Centre It was actually OK once you got to park the car We got some nice bargains anyway, both for M and me It's wii time galore at home now of course... I can't play today as EVERYTHING aches

Hope you have a nice bank holiday tomorrow!

Waves!!!!

Hey girls! Thankfully the sun shone today and we were able to go out on foot, what a difference that made to our spirits. Also Aaliyah?s godmother arrived yesterday for 10 days so it is lovely to have her here to chat to and she?s great with the kids.

Weighed Aaliyah today, she is 8.77kgs so seems to be sitting somewhere between the 75th and 91st percentile on the chart I have as she has from birth. It?s a British chart. My Mum gave her a piece of garlic bread today, I couldn?t believe my eyes it was home made at least, Mum tried to say she was after a sausage too! (we were up at my folks for a BBQ)

My sister and her family go back to the UK tomorrow and DH is back at work. It?s my birthday on Tuesday and I am going out with my Dad for tapas at lunchtime (with Aaliyah too) and then my Mum and sister are coming round for tea and pressies then my friend is babysitting DS so that I can go out for dinner with DH (and Aaliyah ? just too risky trying to leave her with anyone yet) ? lots of food

Have uploaded a cheesy family photo!

Laura ? great sleep from Sarah!

Bigcar ? sounds like a fun and busy Christmas at your house

Naat ? I?d love a Wii!

Wow, Christmas and Christening over! I am so glad it is all done. My dad and brother are leaving tomorrow lunchtime, as pleasant as they are it'll be nice to get our house back to ourselves. I think dad is happy to get back home too, he finds it very boring here as he does not speak english andI know&meet very little french-speaking people here.
I overheard him complain about being bored to my brother. He also made a really upsetting comment about the way I dressed today. (I had like a sleeveless A line dfress, dark blue with a long sleeved white shirt and ended up kinda looking like a mormon basically but had a lovely pashmina on my shoulders which made it look nice.) I just thought it was a bit uncalled for since they could see we made a lot of efforts with it all and they could have kept their comment to themselves.
Two of my female friends I met at the church said I looked amazing which was really sweet of them considering I still look about 5 months pregnant! (one my friends mum kept looking at my belly and I can tell she was dying to ask me if i was expecting number 2).

Anyway, appart from that the christening was really lovely, poor little C cried once she was undressed (too cold probably) but funnily enough stopped crying when she was dunked in water (3 times), then started screaming again when she was dressed and then was fine again once she was handed over to us. (the godparents have her with them during the service and the parents take a backseat.)
We had around 30 close friends and family at the church and 22 of them at home which was very nice and manageable.

well, so much for slagging off this apple corer, everybody who has seen it thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread! dh has been demonstrating it during the christening party and peeled whatever else was remotely peelable .

naat sorry your friends cancelled! we did not have ice/snow for xmas so everybody made it. (We had sushi for xmas eve.)

Can't beleive it's monday tomorrow, lots of after-party cleaning to do! take care and I'll try and catch up properly tonight.

Hello ladies

Sorry, its going to be a bit of a 'me' post but pretty tired after xmas so hoping to hit the hay shortly. But I wanted your advice...

I am really worried that Jazzy is not getting the milk that she needs.. weaning seems to take so long and fill her up so much that she has a quick go on the boobs and then is rubbing her eyes to go to bed. After her nap, she's only up for a bit before we're feeding her again and the cycle starts again. She does get seriously stuck in first thing (about 6) and then goes back down for a couple of hours so when she gets up we just start with brekky. I read she should be having at least 500ml (about 17ozs) of milk but with bf, you obvioulsy can't tell. The milk first thing and last thing seems to be a decent amount, but other than that - not really. She also had a good wet nappy in the morning and after her morning nap but they get lighter as the day goes on and it is worrying me...

What would you do - I have got some formula in the cupboard for when I go back,.. do you think that for a day I should try her on this to see how much she is having... However, never having tried it I reckon she would drink less anyway so not a good indicator. The last few nights, I have also been quite strict with her sleeping and she doesn't get anything between bedtime (730ish) and the morning, roughly 6ish. Do you think I should maybe offer (although for the first time ever, she slept through last night so am loathe to disrupt this!)

Sorry to just go on, but it is a worry - especially as I only have two weeks left before I go back to work

Right - on the plus side, my DP said YES, so we will be getting married this year.... yeeeeeha, yeeeeha!! Luigi went down a treat and he cried which was a lovely reaction - truly! Its very exciting - I am up for sooner rather than later (ideally June but who knows) but theres so much to sort out... not least of all, mummy tummy!!

Anyways - sorry to post and dash... it sounds like you ladies had good xmas's... it was so special having a little one and we were still going on boxing day (spoilt little girl) but it was also nice to get home again.

Will do a more personal post tomorrow - sleep well Juners xx

Huge congratulations on your engagement skillbo :D:D I bet you are over the moon.
My wedding day was the best day of my life until the little one came along ;)
Good luck with the preparations, don't let anyone tell you how to do it, do it your way!
I found dressmakers and flowers shops especially can be very pushy, make sure you don't go on your own.

Re: your worry about jazzy, you could get her weighed and see that way, if she is not getting enough milk she won't put on enough weight.
a friend of mine who is bf had the same worry and started giving her ds formula only to be told to stop by the midwife as he was putting on enough weight on bf alone. Turns out he just is very efficient on the breast and not taking very long at all. (I think she said he was eating 4 times a day for 15 minutes each time on the breast.) hope this helps somewhat :s

afternoon all

skillbo, how exciting, congratulations I wouldn't bother with ff if she's not used to it, it won't give you a good picture. She's probably absolutely fine, as june said, get her weighed a couple of times and talk to your hv.

june, so pleased christmas and the christening went well at your familys comments. Lol at the apple corer!

MrsMcJnr, yay for the sun and a good friend Happy birthday for tomorrow, hope you have a lovely day

naat, hope the aches are a little better today! At least tesco had something left, bet the fish was nice

it's freezing here today, we've decided to stay in the warm and relax, wonder if the snow will arrive again today, it's either that or rain according to the forecast, lovely!

waves to all

Hi ladies!

Bigcar, we've also stayed in today, no energy to go out in the cold I think we're getting snow again tomorrow or Wed, not looking forward too much this time as that means we'll be stuck again

June, glad to hear everything went well at the Christening. LOL at your DH with the apple corer (FWIW I love mine, as I make apples for M all the time ). Your dad's comment does sound a bit odd, but don't read too much into it, his boredom/not having French speakers around might have been getting to him. Did you see the doll house? How is it? Hope you liked it!

Skillbo, huge congratulations!!! How cute having J at the wedding being almost or already 1 year old OH huge yay on J sleeping through!!! WRT J's milk, I know what you mean, we cannot know how much they're drinking. In my case, M has her days, she's still drinking a lot (both during the day and twice in the night) but some days it's more than others. The Juners' advice to have her weighed and then later in the week weigh her again to see if there's any change makes sense. I think you're right, trying with F might not work as it'll be new for her and she might not like it/drink less at the beginning anyway. As long as you see enough wet nappies a day and she seems energetic you shouldn't worry. But I'd take her to get weighed to be sure. I took M because I thought she was feeding well during the day but got worried as she was still waking twice to feed and therefore thought she might not be drinking enough during the day... her weight was still going up and OK so the HV said she's just hungry so not to worry. Hope this helps?

Mrsmc, glad you're having friends over for 10 days Hope you have more good weather so as to enjoy it outdoors. Ohhh sounds like tomorrow will be a nice bday!! Can't look at the pic as I've tried twice and my firefox gets stuck Will try later.

Nice homey day today, we even took a nap mid-morning as M woke at 7.30 as usual. It's hard to tell them it's a bank holiday

I'm so disappointed at my body/fitness as every single muscle still aches really badly. I got some massages from DH but they were anything but lovely as it hurt so much I hope it's better tomorrow. It's embarrassing!

M is in love with her activity triangle. It was the best present! She's playing with it all the time

Waves!!!

naat, E got one of these from dd1, he loves it too I think if pushed, most people with a wii would admit to doing the same dh tried to pretend he didn't ache, but he did!

Hello

Looks like I'll have a few minutes whilst DP (well, DF I guess now ) plays with Jazzy and hew new bus! She got so much stuff from Santa and family that we're sending her out with Nanny tomorrow afternoon so we can rearrange our front room to accommodate it all. Its something we've been meaning to do for ages anyway but the influx of pressys means we need to do it now!

Thanks June and Bigcar re Jazzys milk worries. I think getting her weighed is a great idea - just not sure when I can do it as the normal clinics and stuff are closed I think. There is a drop in HV at my GP on Thursday so might see how she's going and get her checked then. I thought as she was eating lots she would still gain even if she wasn't having food, but if not then this is a great way to check. I think I am also being a bit panicky as am returning to work in two weeks (two weeks today actually and am dreading it - PFB syndrome in full effect!

Another worry - of course - is that she seems to be a bit bunged which I think could also be a cause of the lack of milk. She isn't really taking the water offered to her but perhaps this is because I am still here and she knows she can get some milk? Oh well, so far after lots of straining and funny faces she has had four (yes FOUR) poos today which, TMI alert, although not as soft as before certainly weren't rock hard or dry (could squidge them, if you know what I mean). Perhaps its just her adjusting to a different sensation when she needs to poo...?

Anyways, onto lighter things!

MrsM - hope the rain has stopped and you've been able to escape the house. I know you have great weather on the whole but when the heavens open, it can be pretty crazy. My dad posted a video on Youtube of when the beach by them was washed away when the arroyo (sp) by them flooded... really full on! Was sad to hear that you're still a bit down at the moment but hoping the festivities of the last few days have upped your spirits and DH's. I bet the lo's had a fab Christmas though. A is really packing on the pounds - well done her! We haven't tried garlic bread here yet but Jazzy is pretty much on what we're eating these days - she even had a yorkshire on xmas day! It does annoy me though when people feed your child without asking - when in Spain, I turned around and a friend of my parents (not even my mum) was feeding her icecream out of her bowl. I am sure it was fine but Jazzy wasn't 6 months and I didn't know enough about how ice cream is made re real cows milk and sugar, so got very ...

Bunny - you're brave going for No2 but then again, if you feel ready - why not! Not sure I'm ready though but we do want more, definitely!! I must also get exercising if I want to look good for my big day (wooohooo)

Saw the various posts about passpic.com and just wanted to warn those of you in the UK that they aren't actually suitable for our passports which amazed me. However, used the check and post service thing at the post office and they rejected them - made me a bit ... ended up going to a photo studio and got some cuter ones done but I tried to contact them several times to get a refund (I know it was only £4 or something but its the principle) but got nowhere!!

Bigcar - sounds like I'm lucky as Jazzy a big veggie fan and loves a bit of broccolli! She even had brussels mixed in with her gunk oon Christmas! We also had fun with all the Christmas paper but haven't seen anything crazy coloured coming out the other end so must have been fairly successful!!

Naat - had to about your wii aches and pains. We had a play as well this Christmas and it reminded me how much fun it is so have got ours out again, no aches but DP managed to punch a hole in our lightshade the first time he got on it...!!

June - am for you about your family - how tactless and horrid! At least you had a good day and your buddies said the right thing! You know what they say about being able to choose your friends etc etc. I am also an apple corer fan - not sure if its the same one but is a bit of a lifesaver this end!!

Taken ages to post as had to stop to feed Jazzy - hmmm, spag bog and fromage frais but am wishing you all the best post-xmas time and looking forward to New Year. Had anyone got any plans? We've been invited to friends just round the corner for some drinkys and MIL has offered to babysit at ours so we may venture out! Probably still be quite a sober one but will be nice to be footloose and fancy free for one evening...!

Take care all
xx

Bigcar, that's the exact same one M got! Loooving it atm, can't have enough of it.

Skillbo, yes, UKBA are really strict about the passport pics. We took M to a kodak studio when we went to the shopping centre on Sat and they were great. They had so much patience with M looking around and smiling/looking at everyone but the camera at your mum's friend feeding J ice-cream... clueless! LOL at DF punching the lightshade. If you venture above I wrote for you a bit of my experience with milk and M if you want to have a look (I know your post took you a bit so you didn't see it, don't worry )

Well tomorrow I turn 36 ? closer to 40 than 30 and yet no where near as grown up as I think I should be at this ripe old age!

June ? glad it all went well but sorry to hear that your Dad upset up

Skillbo ? I got worried about this recently as felt there was no way Aaliyah was getting as much as she needs in a day and have been adding expressed milk to anything that I can to top her up. I now give her one side before her meal and then the other side afterwards. She seems to be gaining weight as she should so I am not really concerned. That said she was up every hour again last night with either wind or dirty nappies or wanting milk or cuddles, it?s exhausting I wouldn?t go on to formula if I were you, it may confuse things with weaning and it won?t be long before milk becomes less of the staple and food takes over more. Congratulations on your engagement, exciting times

Bigcar ? thanks for the birthday wishes

Naat ? have some lovely hot baths to ease those muscles. We had both rain and sun today ? so desperate to get washing done!

Mrsmc, happy birthday!!! Hope you have a lovely day!! According to what you said it's going to be full of plans so enjoy them!! Hope A gave you a nice rest as a present xxx

Happy birthday mrsmc :D

Sorry to gatecrash ladies.
Happy Birthday MRSMC. I dont want to bring back bad memories but I was on the MC thread with you all those years ago.
Keep hold of MrsMc everyone. That lady almost singlehanded dragged myself and several others through a horribly traumatic time in our lives.

Sounds like you have your hands full now, which can only be a good thing.

Just a quick question. Do you still have any contact with JustJules? I havent seen her on here for nearly a year and have no way of contacting her to see if everything is ok. If not then please dont worry.

Carry on ladies I am going now

skillbo - congratulations on your engagement. I have been engaged three years and we struggle to find a good time to get married!! Re: milk, if she gets at least 6oz first thing and last thing (10-15mins probably on average), then she only needs to to get another 6-8oz combined from the other times she bobs on and off.

naat - my DD loved her activity triangle and we have just dug it out of the attic for F. He however is swimming in lovely toys so lots going on for him. I'm going to hide some and reintroduce them when he gets used to the others.

MrsMcJnr - HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I loved turning 36 - a nice number. I'm turning 43 in a weeks time. That is a wierd number. I am a bit ambivalent about turning 44 too. I remember thinking my mother was starting to look 'old' when she turned 44, however I'm pretty lucky with very few wrinkles so far. Oh well, my granny at 97 said she still felt young and she had a fabulous smile and sense of humour to go with her great attitude, so who cares, huh?

june - thanks for nice comments about pictures.

Re: weaning - F is so different from DD that I am having to rethink what I do. He eats so much that I am having to 'leap forward' a little with his menus. I am introducing cheese, bread, flour and butter into his food. Beef is a bit too tough for him just yet, so will wait a few weeks. Breakfast is powder cereal, apple puree, milk then he sucks on some toast with butter and marmite, and then a little fromage frais (they are for babies but have raspberry and strawberry flavour which surprised me as I thought those berries were really for after 9 months - any views?). What do you all think about this. I'm wondering if I should hold off with the bread.

Hi everyone!!

Its just so busy at the moment, its tough finding the time to post a post worth posting!! We have finally had a offer on the house, so we have been busy trying to sort that out (still not getting my hopes up though!!)

Happy Birthday MrsMcJnr Capricorns are the best !! It was my sister's 21st yesterday and its my 24th birthday [] on the 4th January! I hate having a birthday so near to Christmas, don't you?? You have nothing else to look forward to for the rest of the year!! I am happy for our June babies (or July in Caelan's case!!) that their birthday is right in the middle of the year... it makes it really handy for buying toys don't you think? Really good developmental milestones, instead of everything happening at the same time?! Aaaand, I used to get joint birthday and Christmas presents, which I used to hate!! I'm glad our LOs won't have the dilema of whether to open the present on their birthday or Christmas, lol What are you doing for your birthday?? Btw, DP is 43 in May, and there is no way he acts anything like a 43 year old!! Lol Daisy why is 43 a weird age?! If I could pick an age to be again, it would be 17, definetly! My brother has just turned 18, and he is all stressed about school and where to find the money to go out 5 nights a week... I wish they were my only worries!! Re: bread, my understanding of it was that gluten and wheat were fine after 6 months...? I can't wait to do Caelan some little soldiers for his breakfast .

June I'm glad the Christening went well, it must be such a relief to have it out the way, as much of a lovely day it is!! Organising things scares me! I'm sure you looked lovely in your outfit... it sounds very nice to me! What do men know about clothes anyway, lol! And, I'm sure you don't look 5 months pregnant at all !!

Naat glad you managed to get your baby passports done. I would definetly recommend the check and send service from the Post Office though. I used to work in the Customer Services for Max Spielmann/ Klick Photopoint/ Supasnaps and we would get so so so many calls about passport pictures getting sent back for the tiniest thing!

Skillbo congratulations on the engagement! We are getting married next year too, in August! Re: the milk thing... I saw your posts on Jazzy's poop on the weaning board, because I was looking for a solution to the same problem. Caelan goes purple pooing at the moment, to push out a little hard pebble (sorry if TMI!!), and I feel so sorry for him. I'm almost sure that it is because he is not getting enough milk, so I have been putting milk in his food as MrsMcJnr said, and that seems to be helping. Caelan has never been the biggest (now just below the 9th centile) so I do worry about his weight gain. I agree with everyone else that formula wont give you an indication, nor will expressed milk in a bottle I feel. Whenever Caelan has a rare bottle of expressed milk for some reason, I always do him 9ozs, which he finishes in about 10 minutes, and kicks off big style if you try and break it up to feed him! However, when he is feeding off me, he is still taking 20-25 mins sometimes, so using that logic, he would be getting about 18 ozs from me as he takes twice as long which is obviously not the case, lol, or I'd look like Jordan!!

Hi bigcar, hope you had a nice Christmas with all your family x

bunny woop, go you for trying for your next one! If I wasn't getting married in August, we would be doing the same, so I am a bit jealous . Sooooo many people I know from school (so not really close friends, more like Facebook friends these days) are pregnant at the moment, in fact, one of them had her baby two days ago. She was in slow labour for 3 days, had an emergency c-section through loss of blood, and is having to stay in hospital for at least a week, and I am still jealous of her, what is wrong with me!! Lol!! I want to start trying again as soon as we are married though... DP aint no spring chicken lol, and I want 3-4 children... he said he doesn't want to be bringing up children at retirement age, so only wants one more after Caelan. So if I'm to persuade him for another, the sooner we have the next one the better lol!! But then, there is the problem that if he puts his foot down, and we do only have two, then I have squished all that precious newborn baby time into a couple of years, hmmm...

Caelan has a little bit of a cold bless him. Means he can't breathe with his dummy in sometimes, so nights are a bit disrupted [tired emoticon]. DP has it too, so obviously he is dying at the moment , bless 'em!! I hope I don't get it for my birthday! What's everyone doing for new year? We are just staying in this year, with it being Caelan's first, although we have had lots of offers for babysitters!! Sod's law dictates that next year if we do want to go out, there wont be a babysitter in sight!

My new years resolutions are going to be to 1) lose two stone before I get married 2) keep the house tidier... not good at keeping on top of the housework!, and 3) move Caelan into his own room... noooo