May 09 - Pumpkin (or champagne) anyone? We're doing the Monster Mash!

[ScarySpangleMaker]

In honour of sausage's forthcoming nuptials, with a nod to imminent weaning.

Thanks for your tips and sympathies. I have just got home after having lunch and play date with DDs best friend and his mum which was nice. Both DCs are napping now.

I am going to give R some baby rice this afternoon. I'm quite excited and who knows it my make a difference sleep wise. He had a suck on a piece of apple at lunch today and loved it. I agree with Blotted that cues from LOs will tell us if they are ready and he definately is. I have been holding off to get closer to 6 months but I know he is ready and has been for a few weeks now and I started DD at around this time too. I will be giving purees and finger foods at each meal. I defiantely want him to be eating what we are eating ASAP so will be making my own. Can't afford jars anyway!!

Sausage Your hen sounds brilliant. I eloped so missed out ona hen do but my friends and mum organised one for me about 9 months after we got married .

Ok here you go:

5oz SR Flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Marg/butter (I usually use utterly butterly type thing)
3 large eggs
3oz Drinking Chocolate - don't know why but cheaper the better, instant works well!
3 tablespoons of boiling water

Heat oven to 180 deg C. Grease and line 8 inch cake tin (or 2 sandwich tins)

Bung all ingredients in bowl or food mixer and mix well until all ingredients are well combined. Pour into cake tin(s) and bake in centre of the oven for and hour or until a skewer comes out clean.

(The cake mixture is usually v runny, probably why the cake is quite moist)

For a quick cake I usually top it with melted dairy milk and then sprinkle with crushed smarties, or you can make choc butter icing/ganache if you want to posh it up a bit.

enjoy

Ooh should have said, put the boiling water in last min before you mix it.

febes good luck and have fun with the weaning

thanks running for the chocolate cake recipe.. have all the ingredients too in the baking section of my cupboard! i see a need to make cake tomorrow

running, thanks for to posting choc cake recipe! i shall be joining fi in making one tomorrow.

febes, hope you're able to have a rest today.

reebee, have fun and a cocktail for me tonight . I fancy a bellini please.

weaning, H is about 2 weeks shy of 6 mos and seems very ready. she did suck on a banana yesterday and loves chewing spoons. however, i just can't be bothered yet [lazy emoticon]. she's not waking up excessively at night so i don't feel in too big a rush.

DH away tonight but doesn't make much a difference except I have to do the dog walking (raining here, boo) and will eat earlier with the girls instead of waiting till 9 to eat with him.

I'm having some friends round tonight from book club to watch to Kill a Mockingbird (our last book and Harper's namesake as you know), glass of wine, popcorn and revels .

Hope everyone is well today. off to walk the dog in this soggy weather.

Febes- my HV advised me today to start weaning as DS2 is feeding lots, not gaining much weight (he's now 15lb 13 oz) and feeding in the night, so she says he needs something more. I'm willing to give it a go even though he's only 23 weeks. I know night waking can be habit more than need, but i am desperate for decent sleep so want to make sure DS2 is satisfied before i do serious sleep training.

Pula from what I gather it's normal for bf babies' weight gain to slow around 6 months and the new charts are supposed to reflect that. It's confusing how different HVs give different advice.... mine said weaning wouldn't make any difference to weight gain for a while (even with spoon feeding) as they eat such small amounts and generally low calorie food too. I guess it might help S's sleeping though.

H is only 14lb 8oz at 24 weeks corrected. He is a tiddler isn't he?!

Thanks Spangle- I am not too worried about his weight gain slowing (my DD did the same), just that he might be hungry and that he is taking on a lot of milk which is making him very windy. He seems much happier after his baby rice tea. Better go and start bedtime routine- we're running late.

running- thanks for the advice re. raising the cot. We used to do this but then DS2 got better with his wind so we stopped. Might be worth trying again.

Pula I gave R baby rice and he really loved it so I guess I have started weaning now. I am very lazy too Momino but I guess now that I have started I'll get into the swing of it.

I ended up having a lovely day. My neighbours teenagers came over and offered to take the kids to the park so I made a child free dash to Tescos and then baked choc chip cookies and banana bread.

I have briefed DH on the 'plan' for the night ahead. I will feed at 11, 3 and 7 but not in between so he is up for breaking his bad habits. Wish us luck.

Hi there, Sorry to hear most people are having bad nights sleeps. I was up at at 3am for over an hour as ds2 was squealing and wanting to play . I had him weighed yesterday and he's now 16lb 1oz. I think I'll start trying to wean him in the next couple of weeks. It's very exciting but also very sad as my lo is growing up! Llare I feel the same way as you, putting all the baby stuff away!

I also like breastfeeding and am far to lazy to ff. Although having said that I might change my mind if ds2 continues to use me as a teething ring!

Sausage hen do sounds fun. How did you locate your shoe in the end?

Running cake sounds yummy - but I won't make it cos I'm starting to look pregnant round the middle again! So depressing but I will insist on eating rubbish food! Having said that I had a dream last night that I didn't have stomach ache, I was infact pregnant!! I think dh had a similiar dream the other week. Although I'd like more children - not now!!

Ses hope you have a great time in Ireland and Running a good party at the weekend.

Fi glad you're coping without your dh this week. Have you managed to get out yet?

Dh has just started a course with his work and now has to travel to London every Wed for the next 2yrs. I've had both boys in bed for 1/2hr now and I only lost my temper once . Anyhow I'd better sign off and do something constructive like the ironing mountain before dh gets in!

Hope everybody else I haven't named checked is okay!

Good luck tonight febes- I will see how you go and might introduce something similar myself. S really loves baby rice too- I've never seen his mouth open so wide . He is not so fussed about his jar from the bounty pack, but had a suck on some melon and loved it and cried when it went away.

muddled The furthest out i've managed is going downstairs to collect the post from our mailbox! I had loads of plans organised for going out in the day while dh was away which got scuppered with ds being ill. Just when i decided it wasn't chicken pox after all and just a normal lurgy (temp & cough) 7 spots arrived this afternoon... just small ones. Will see if there's any more in the am but the doctor that visited my dad this afternoon (they live in flat below us) had a look at his spots and said could well be chicken pox (mild dose by the looks of it so far). Looks like we're stuck in for a while yet

febes fingers crossed for a better night for you tonight.

pula awww at the melon and crying when it disappeared..

Fibythesea Bummer about ds. I had a feeling ds had the starts of chickenpox, but after 24 hours of no extra spots I thought no.....I might have to double check again in the morning. Ds has been sick all day and last night. The washing machine is on constantly and I read to think about how fast the drier is making my electricity meter whizz around.

Fi If you fancy a visit on Fri am, the ds's and I could come see you as we've all had the lurgy! No offence will be taken if you'd rather not!

Evening everyone,

Seems like a lot of us are having bad nights. Even C woke at 4 last night, which is so not like her. She's not done that since she July or something. The night before it was ds . I'm not used to this anymore. febes I hope you get your nights sorted. With my DS I ended up refusing to night feed him and just cuddle him back to sleep as he was waking every 45min for BF at 8-9m, which was definitely habbit and not hunger by then. He got the message after a day or 2-3 and slept through after that. Well, slept through of a fashion. He still woke up once a night or so.

sausage Sounds like you had a great night. Oh and does that mean that we'll be having your virtual MN hen night this weekend Oh and £10 a menu!? Our menus were included in the hire of the hall. I can't even remember what it looked like TBH.

bountypack I cant remember. Do they send you the voucher for the next pack or did you have to keep hold of a slip or something? I filled the form in with my old address you see, so I fear I might be missing out on it. I do have a little pot of some puree in my cupboard. When C was 3 weeks old I stopped at the services and they gave me a free jar for my baby . It had a use by date on for next year some time, so I kept it, lol.

running Hope the b'day party preparations are going well. Ice breaker guessing game? I don't know that one. What are you supposed to do? Nice cake btw!

weaning DH has come back from the midlands with C's high chair. I'll have a go at assembling it tomorrow. Can't wait to try her in it. Hopefully I can eat in peace again now without a baby trying to throw my plate on the floor.

My cat is being really stupid again. Earlier she kept scratching at the kitchen window to be let in. Well, she was right next to the cat flap and the door from the utility to the kitchen was open. She didn't need letting in, stupid cat . DH also brought my pre-preg clothes home (which now fit, yay!) and she's now treating them as a cave or something. Actually, she's looking quite cute now, she's on in a blanket. Somehow she's managed to lie on it and have it folded on top of her too.

We've had a lovely day here. First a bit of sending eBay stuff out before the strike, then lunch at another mum's house (she's got a 5mo too and her dd1 is in my dd1's class too). After that it was a mad dash to get dinner ready so the dcs could be at their swimming lessons for 5 o'clock.

Hello all!

Sorry, will try to catch up with you all but might miss bits.

Lots of bad nights. It's a phase, right? Fingers crossed for better sleep all round. We had both girls up last night, Dh and I were both up for a couple of hours, gah. pula - was it was your LO having trouble with wind etc? A is still the same too.

I haven't got the bounty bag yet, have forgotten how to get next one?

fi - sorry to hear about DS, hope you aren't imprisoned for too long.

weaning - nothing happening here yet, we'll wait until next month. Introducing baby rice made absolutely no difference to DD1's dreadful sleep, just a warning!

DH wants the laptop for a few minutes, so I'll try to come back later and catch up a bit more.

Same here with ds's 2h waking and weaning, btw. No difference whatsoever. Like I said, by 8-9m he'd gone down to 45min sleeps, eek.

muddled you're totally welcome if you're willing to brave ds's chicken pox and horrid cough!

Back again.

So I managed to speak to DH yesterday about the possible PND stuff, the problems I think I'm having etc etc. He's great, he listened, reassured, said right stuff, pointed out bits where he could help and so on. But he doesn't think there's anything wrong, he just went on about it being because I'm so tired, and pointed out that I do go through 'miserable' spells. He is right about that, I do, every now and again have a bad patch, but surely that doesn't mean I should just write this patch off as one of those does it? I was going to phone my HV today, but chickened out. I'll try again tomorrow, maybe.

It's our wedding anniversary on Friday (10 years!) and I have to go to the dentist at the hospital, fab. I've been referred because I've got a very awkward wisdom tooth that will need removing soonish under GA. It's the initial appointment on Friday, I need to find out about having it done and how it could work with BF, the drugs, and the potential 'downtime' for me after the op - I've been warned that it could be pretty horrible because the tooth is growing horizontally, not downwards. Lovely.

Ow wisdom teeth flippineck. I had 3 of mine removed under local when i was 21. I could go into the gory details but best not to. I did feel rough and look like a hamster for a couple of weeks, and was on a liquid diet for the first few days. I remember not being able to open my mouth much either.

As for possible PND, if you score high on the questionnaire then it is highly likely it's more than just tiredness. I am still as tired as i was when my PND was confirmed, but my score on the questionnaire my GP had has come down from 16 (high) to 6 (normal). I still think you should speak to someone- I am so glad i did.

I am not expecting miracles with the weaning with regards to sleep, but my HV says to wait until he is on 3 meals a day, and then if he is still waking at night i should try something such as offering water. He's already had his 10pm feed + gripe water for wind, so i should really get off to bed.

Morning! Hope people managed to better night last night. I fed ds2 at 10pm and he slept till 4.30am, which is an improvement. Unfortunately he wanted to play after the fed, so I'm up!

Flippin glad you were able to talk to your Dh.

Fi my baby brain has struck again - I can't do Friday as the Queen is coming to our city and I've promised my brother we'd take the ds's to go see what's going on . Sorry about that!

daizy - we've been up since 4:30 too, lovely start to the day! DH took over from me at 5:30 and I went back to bed but I think it's fair to say that I'm not feeling my best.

Anyway, morning all! Any plans? We're off to soft play place later with friends, usually go to the library on Thursdays too but not sure if I can be bothered today.

morning all

we've had a not too bad night here M went down at 7.30 woke at 10.30 for a feed (unfortunately my pssed up DH decided to come and interrupt this - COS HE WANTED TO CUDDLE M!) so it took me till 11.40 to get M fed and back down, then she woke at 4.45 for a feed back down at 5.30. Unfortunately DH bl*dy alarm woke us all up at 6.30!

Struggling to get myself motivated this morning but we're off to baby yoga at 11.

meant to say saus glad you had a good hen do

did you find out what happened to your shoe?