January 2009 - "This is halloween, this is halloween, babies wake in the dead of night..."

[VerySpookyLennipillar]

A homage to the Nightmare Before Christmas song. DH obsessed with that film, we all (DD included) have to watch it on Christmas Eve.

lovely pics pat... wedding sounds like fun and can't believe Z running around! N standing alone now but still big wobbles so think he is still too fat to walk - he has also decided he doesn't like solid food after all and would much prefer non-stop booby . Sure he will change his mind in 2 weeks time when Daddy is full time!

Love the photos Pat

Hi Pat

Thanks for the photo, looks like they had great fun. Gosh though, the boys all look so big and grown up compared to E.

Miss J, dd has suddenly decided she prefers milk as well. She is yelling for a milk feed inside of 3 hours almost every time at the moment and what with that and all the night wakings and disturbances, I am absolutely shattered. Her new bottom tooth (the one to the right of her bottom incisors) has started to cut the gum now though, so I'm hoping things will start to improve soon.

Bad day here I'm afraid. Ds1 went to a birthday party without us yesterday and ate some gluten. OMG what a nightmare! He has been absolutely horrible all day today, culminating in me (rather than him) having a complete meltdown, as I just couldn't take his behaviour anymore. It was like all the worst aspects of his 'issues' and 'behaviours' all rolled into one big shouty, angry, rude, disobedient ball. I can't believe how badly he reacted, especially as he has only been gf for just under a fortnight and all he ate was a plate of quorn dippers and chips. (Unfortunately the dippers have gluten in the batter and the chips have it as a sort of coating.) Really hoping I have my newly discovered lovely boy back tomorrow. We had our ding dong at about 4 o'clock this afternoon and I still feel like crying about it now.

I was starting to doubt myself for seeing such a vast improvement so quickly and wondered if I was just seeing what I wanted to rather than what was there, especially when he didn't appear to react badly to the gluten yesterday. After today though, I'd be a fool not to think there is something in this whole gluten free thing. Even dh is totally onboard now and he was a bit on the fence really until today.

morning

Pat i can't believe he is running around Where has this year gone?

Moose i didn't realise gluten could have such a vast effect. Hope he is better toady

Moose Thats pretty amazing about the gluten. Hope Ds is back on track today.

missJ Hope the party was good...17 people is pretty full on.

Very lovely photos of those boys Pat, they all look gorgeous. Maybe we could plan for a London/southern meet up at some point in the not to distant future...I want to meet all these babies in RL

Weekend was endless, was crap being left hanging by the hosp. J now has an appointment to see a neurologist on wed (I am very about htis as the mass was in his neck, unless there is something they are not telling us...must stop over analysing) ANyway J is in fine form and not in the slightest bit bothered.
Had a HV check up today and she told be he shouldn't be having 5 bottles (7oz) a day....he doesn't eat much FFS....He has a bottle first thing...then we attempt to give him lunch (he's just not interested) He has a bottle at about 4 and a bottle at 7...then sometimes at 11pm and another if he wakes in the night. Anyway, apart from that he is good, dropped from 95th centile to 50th for height, no big surprise, we're all short arses.

Had a good day at work which made life seem a bit better. Took one of my classes to Billingsgate Seafood School and they had a brilliant day learning how to gut, prepare and cook different types of fish, They ar e all kids with pretty difficult backgrounds and it was great seeing them enjoy themselves and cook some really top notch food.

Right, I have a big pile of marking with my name on it...eek.

Gah - DS has 4/5 breastfeeds a day and 2 or 3 6oz bottles HKZ. Interfering health visitors! DS is also over 25lb so looks like we know where the milk is going - although he is on 98th centile for height so no idea where he got his genes from.

Sorry you've still been left hanging HKZ - I was hoping to log on to good news. Good luck for Wednesday.

Books - yes to DD rear facing, if she'll have it that is. Am all for it, have had a good read and the evidence for rear facing is pretty emphatic.

Best go, entertaining.

Hi all. Real life continues to be huge.

Was hoping for news for you too HKZ. Wed not too far off though. Hang in there.
How you Moosey?

Hi Tree. Don't ask how I am, you reaaally don't want to know! How are you. What's up in rl, do you need to vent?

hkz sorry you have to wait until Weds - glad to hear J is taking it all in his stride though and sounds like a lovely fun school day - how come we never did stuff like that?

tree what's going on in RL then? Share! I demand .

Where is dog?

MM sorry to hear of disastrous gluten-laden party, but at least you have more evidence now... gosh, it's certainly a hard road you have chosen, but if the results are that good, then it's worth it. At least it's easier these days with all the free-from stuff - but hideously expensive!

Lenni have a fun night entertaining.

hkz J sounds a lot like N with his eating - N just isn't really that interested in real food. If he likes something, he will have a few mouthfuls, but is never insistent. He loves BFing though and is always keen ... however, it will be interesting to see how he copes when I am gone all day, and all he has is OH and a bottle...

Gosh I am super super tired today, not sure why, just zero energy. I need to make trees mummy muesli which I know is on the second last page of the last thread, but I keep forgetting to print out to take to the supermarket with me... am living on jaffa cakes for breakfast these days.

Poor Moose. Hope you are hanging in there lady.

RL is ok - just mega. Was out 8 till very late Sat and Sun, and now it's the week again and it's all go.

Busy busy. Hats is a bit unsettled, but I spotted her first tooth late SAturday night. Yay!!! Just a little white line, but a sharp one!!

She chewed on a lamb chop for ages tonight.

Missing breastfeeding

MissJ, how weird, I had mini jaffa cakes for breakfast this morning too! Bought them as a treat for ds2 as he has been a bit feeling a bit left out with all the focus being on ds1's diet recently. Fortunately there are 5 more mini packs left or I'd really be for it!

As you said, It's not difficult to find gluten free products these days, I have pretty much found a substitute for everything ds1 likes to eat now, but the some of the prices are unbelievable! Have already bought gf mincepies and christmas pud as I thought they might sell out once we get into December.

His behaviour was still pretty awful today to be honest. Worse this morning, then more sort of hung over and on a bit of a come-down tonight. Have done a bit of research and found out that once they are GF, if they have a reaction, the negative effects can last for several days. It was quite shocking to see how bad his behaviour was at the weekend and today he forgot all his books and even his coat when he came out of school. Then he really struggled with his homework, which was to write a short poem, despite winning star of the week last week for writing the best poem in class. He said he just couldn't think how to do it and got so frustrated that he cried.

HKZ, can't believe they didn't fit you in sooner, especially after leaving you hanging.

Tree, yay a tooth! Well done little H!

So sorry you are missing breastfeeding. Would a bit of skin to skin or kangaroo care help? I know it wouldn't be the same, but maybe it would comfort you both a little?

Oh poor ds!!!

Thank God he has you to do all this research and work through this with him (((((((hugs & a tin of mummy muesli)))
Will look through my books I got when H was diagnosed dairy intolerant to look for gluten free lovlies and things you can bake with him.

any thoughts on wheeley bugs ladies???

bracken has 3 bottles of 7 ozs a day 7am,2:30pm and 6pm

OOOO we're getting one!! I always wanted one for dd1, but went for a Like-A-Bike [which was best buy ever ever ever. she still uses it and it meant she zoomed along on outings, rather than dawdling along in that toddler way].

So this time we get a wheely bug H will have a great barny about on the wooden ground floor
DD1 is getting a planetarium and a set of 15 scissors. Nerd

which one are u getting tree??

i am getting the tiger from kiddicare reduced @ mo getting it for brackens bday.
we dont have wooden floot though carpet

I think they will still do some speed on carpet though, plus a much nicer landing for falls.

Thinking ladybird. I do like that ladybird. Mind you, reduced tiger. I like reduced

My nephew has a wheely bug. SIL bought it for him when he was just a 4 month bump! He loves it and so do both my boys. His looks like a bumblebee.

Thanks for the offer of recipes Tree. Keep meaning to get baking, but am so exhausted all the time because of all dd's night waking that I can't seem to get motivated.

I have finally started buying for the dc's. Have bought ds1 a magic set (he got a magic book out of the library last month and has made and put up a poster announcing he is going to put on a magic show for us ). Have got ds2 a fantastic mega blok pirate ship with working cannon and harpoon (half price from Tesco too) along with some Scooby Doo figures and a 3 in one lego train kit. Have bought dd a second hand light up musical stacker from ebay and a vtech crawling/rolling ball thing that I got for free on the Tesco 3 for 2 toy deal. Other than that Ds1 has asked for 2 hugely expensive nintendo ds games and both boys want Star Wars light sabres. (Neither of them have actually seen Star Wars, but their friends have light sabres so they want them too! )

Really need to come up with some little things for stocking fillers though. I usually have all this down pat by this time of year.

Was mooching about and saw this Lenni here My crank science radar twitched but then again it is interesting.

Poor you Moose. This too will pass.

Don't even want to think about what might be next Tree. Am trying to retain a PMA but failing dismally for the most part.

Just sway. And perhaps rock.

Bugger PMA for time being.

Are you chucking plenty of chamomilla down her? [In a respectful and responsible way dontchaknow]
Perhaps nighttime rescue rememdy? Although I dunno if it is actually given to babies, but I know children can have it so.....

Taking dd1 to an aromatherapist on Fri. If she says burn clary sage I'll run screaming Also dislaike Lavender in a big way.