November 09 babies are growing up quick, and mummy's getting used to getting covered in sick!

[PreggoK8]

Hope this has worked...

laugs Strokey-strokey! Genius! which I plan to steal and pretend is mine

scarlotti Jimster is still on his centile and, after reading around and chatting informally to the HVs, I'm going to hold off the mush for another month. Really hope that he gets through this unsettled bit before then. Having only one DC to look after makes it easier to decide that tho, I can cope with just Jim if I'm tired. Fingers x'd that Ioan gets the hang of it easily this weekend.

Am so jealous of your meet ups!! not fair!!.. AM in London next weekend and Co Down in May..anyone going to be there??? ..

Anyway just thought I'd let you know how the hospital stay went. Little Charlotte had a tube inserted through her nose which was attached to a monitor i carried around with me. Then just had a day in the hospital room..IT WAS TORTURE...bad day and bad night. However she has been diagnosed with aggravated Acid Reflux and she's on Losec..Am so shattered i can barely keep the eyes open today. I had to carry her most of the day..she jsut screamed if laid flat anywhere.

Anyway Laugs love the strokey strokey song!!

Ninja 8 KILOS...WOW

I wish you all SLEEP...i can only dream of it..if I can get any...

sleepless sorry to hear Charlotte is still so unsettled, although hopefully now you have a diagnosis things might improve?

Ninja impressed at the 8 kilo's and also now can't wait to meet him as finally Ioan will seem small for his age!!

Laugs I too will be stealing your strokey song! As to the work and MA, I'd ring the jobcentre and ask. My instinct would say it's the invoice date (as how would they actually know) but prob best to get it checked out first.

Venus good for you for waiting. Think I'm going to see how Ioan goes over the next night or two and then decide for sure. Other thing I'm thinking is that if I start slowly now, by the time he actually needs extra food he'll be used to eating. My return to work is also a factor though which most of you don't have.

Hobnob you and me both on the breadwinner/stupid mortgage front -BOO

Baby Massage is so lovely! I go to a v nice baby yoga class which is a bit of everything really, but the massage is the nicest thing. We also sing a lovely song about 'Mr Sun' where we draw a big circle and then 'shine down' on the babies. It even involves Jazz Hands (yay!!!) on the line 'these little babies are asking you to please come out so they can play with you'. Happy days! Anyone else sing that one? IT's a big fave round here.

Sleepless the hospital sounds dreadful, and the reflux must have been so awful for you both, for ages. Great to have a diagnosis.

Like Skorpion I'd be keen to come along to London meet up.

Had a far better (ie less durrrbrained) day today than yesterday- went to look at another school and this was far more positive. Lovely people, and I managed to smile and speak, and remember my name. I did however forget the name of the person I was meant to be meeting. Fortunately the receptionist thought this was funny as opposed to giving me a scathing look

Had a day of rest re the running today but I have lost 2lb this week, whoooooo. Alas, if I go under the barrier of the next stone I lose a weight watchers point!! And when Hedy starts to eat solids I'll lose another 5 arggh!!

Weaning I was going to do the banana test yesterday so I got everything ready then discovered we had no bananas left! Still I am happy to wait unless Hedy's weight keeps nosediving- I will be v sad when it's my last ever bf but I think I'll do nights and mornings still for quite a while.

SirBoob keep on keeping on
Pav are you feeling any better?

laughing Hedy isn't prone to laughing unless something really tickles her and she hasn't laughed for days so it was fab yesterday when she laughed at my pirate voice (which I was putting on for ds) Isn't it just so fab when they laugh, I wish I could make Hedy laugh more often.

Just a quick post to say that Charlotte had to go through a horrid hospital stay, but pleased that something has finally been diagnosed and you can start to see improvement now she is on medication. I hope she is ok soon x

Hey sleepless I'm so sorry I'll miss you in May! Whereabouts are you going? I'm from Lisburn/Ballynahinch originally and will be visiting granny in April, as well as having a reunion with some school friends. We've run out of weddings so never all meet up any more!

Isla is on 5mg Losec as well. It's a bit of a pain to give, but it doesn't get spat out as spectacularly as the ranitidine did. We dissolve half a tablet in 2ml cooled boiled water on a medicine spoon, decant the liquid into her mouth and catch the dribble with a second spoon and readminister until most of it is in. I then scrape the granules into her mouth and they tend to stay in better than the water. We tried syringes, but they just got blocked. I don't bother with sterilising stuff. We found that she had dreadful tummy trouble for a week after starting it, but she has had much more settled spells since. I hope it works for you - I've been through it all once before and it's hell.

sleepless your hospital stay sounds horrible, you poor thing-both of you! I hope the medication helps you both get some well earned rest soon.

Anya has turned into quite a giggler. Obviously it helps when I dance around in front of her singing in a silly voice and pulling funny faces, but I'll also be in the kitchen washing dishes and hear her laughing her head off on her play mat. Those little dangly animals must crack some hilarious jokes It's one of those sounds you would love to bottle for times when you need a little lift!

So true TOK you could make a fortune with bottled baby giggle!

That reminds me I MUST try to record it on my phone!

hobnob and wook another breadwinner and mortgage the size of a 3rd world debt here too

Ioan rarely laughs, is more of a smiler, but I've had the odd giggle over the last day or two and it's lovely

London meet-up I'll set up a fb event and then we can all keep up with what's happening. Will pick a random day and then we can change it if need be. I need for you to be a fb friend for me to invite you

Ok ladies, I've set up an event in fb for the london meet up. If you're not a fb friend of mine, then I can't invite you so drop me a friend request.
Apologies if I've sent it to anyone who can't make it - it's hard remembering who's who when you're in the event bit!

Thinking of you Pav. x x

Morning all

Have tried to add everyone on here as a fb friend but might not have got everyone so can you please check for me?!
Bad early morning here so feeling a bit spaced, typical as I have a work meeting this morning so think I'll be on the ball in that one .... not!

Anyone else's baby now pooing more? I've had at least 2 a day for the last 3 days and it used to be a couple every 3 or 4 days. Any ideas?

Morning all.

We get at least 3/4 a day Scar

Poor Charlotte Sleepless hope she is on the mend

Getting excited about Monday. Loving the sun but feeling quite down about my size.

Venus Sweet Baby James

What's happening on Monday Ninja?

Here's the song I can't stop singing to my James! James the Cat

Hope the medicine works soon Sleepless

laugs i used to love that programme! My names James...James the Cat...i've had fame...money...and all that .

Oh dear, i am going to have this song in my head all day now

Reuben is Reuben the Bear!

erica thank you. I am feeling much better over the last couple of days.

Tee hee! Thanks for the music links. Ninja Sweet Baby James would make a good lullaby, but Laugs song wins as it describes my LO so very well "getting fat" indeed! Don't know the show though, when was it on?

Sleepless Poor Charlotte and poor you! That must have been so distressing for you both. Really hope the medicine is helping her.

now I'm here..... grooowing fat..... chaaasing, birds and butterflies - James - the cat! I know it well

Monday is meet-up day.

Alfie of course is a 'Cilla classic.

Ha ha pav we've got a Ioan the bear!

Have to share another fab lazy cook's recipe with you. Its a very old Delia Smith one called Sticky Tea Bread. Quick, easy and perfect spread with some butter and with a cup of tea. Tastes rather like Jamacian Ginger cake if you throw in a few shakes of dried ginger too.

In a LARGE saucepan put

1/4 pt water
4oz sultanas
5oz caster sugar
4oz butter
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

put on medium heat,stir and bring to the boil. Cos of the bicarb it bubbles up A LOT so keep a close eye as you boil it for 10 mins exactly.

Take off the heat and ignore for a while as it cools down. Then add

6oz plain flour
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp baking powder
and a spice of your choice if desired

and mix well. It comes to a very soft consistancy, much softer than the usual 'dropping' one. I added a few spoons more flour at this point because I thought it was too wet, forgetting that this is a Delia recipe and all would be well!

Put in a lined, greased, loaf tin, cook at 180 C, Gas 4 or 350 F for about 1 & 1/2 hours. If you can bear to wait she promises it gets better with a few days keeping - I couldn't wait longer than overnight, and oooh it was Yummy!

sleepless, sorry to hear about Charlottes hospital stay, hopefully things are improving now.

weaning. until a week ago I thought you HAVE TO wait until 6 months and that everybody would agree on that so I felt like having time to get into it. And actually those few friends I knew so far with children had all children who took only teaspoons of solids until they were 8 or 9 months. So I was quite shocked that there are opinions who think it is better to start earlier. And actually even more shocked that there were different opinions of when to introduce what. I should never had read that article you posted scarlotti . Well, I feel more confident now, finally trusting my instincts about when and what, so I can agree with you pav!
I will definitely wait until rather 6 months as Paula is still getting enough and she is often having problems to digest what she got through me so I guess her digestive system needs more time to develop.

london-meetup, I'm afraid, I'm not on facebook. So please let me know over here when you have decided. I should be rather flexible in that week anyway but I would appreciate if we could avoid rush hour

Ok, I hope everybody will have a nice weekend with helping husbands and nice and easy children, lots of sunshine and cake.

venus that looks delicious! Delia is the best, isn't she? I make her meat ragu for pasta or lasagne and it rocks.

sleepless how awful for you and poor Charlotte. Hopefully the meds will do a great job and you'll both be able to put this behind you. All the best.

wook good luck with the job searching. Your class sounds great. I really must look into this baby massage myself.

Thanks for all the tips about weaning. Just realised how much there is to learn before I do it.

Bristol meet-up have a fantastic time, ladies, and take some pictures, please.

I'm getting all excited about the London one!

No proper giggles here yet, but almost getting there. She seems to be tickled when I take off her clothes and flashes huge gummy grins. I do agree though, baby giggles should be sold in bottles.

Does anybody have a good tip on giving a spoonfull of medicine to a crying baby without choking, please? After a traumatic experience with gripe water earlier today I don't think I could do it again... I feel like such a horrible mother, a complete amateur. I know it would be best to give it to her when she's not crying but she was in pain with gas and I tried to relieve it with the water. Hope this makes sense, brain a bit off today.

skorpion can't you put gripe water into bottle? Or are you bf? You can get syringes from chemists, then maybe put her to the breast as though going to feed her and put it into her mouth before quickly latching her on?? We had to give Anya anti biotics when she was just 2 weeks old and we used one of the syringes and just took it very slowly, little bits at a time. If you try to put it towards the back of her mouth at the side they tend not to get the taste of it as bad ime! Hope she's OK now.

Well the potty training commenced today and out of 9 pees, 3 of them were in the potty (1 properly, the other 2 mid flow!). No number 2's, I think he held it in! So we shall see what tomorrow brings!

Heading to the pub for a drink with dh shortly. Bil is babysitting. (whispers)I would much rather go to bed and get some sleep. But should make an effort since we are getting the opportunity.