Pickle

The recipe books are good, but not essential, but if you're just starting out you may find having one is useful. I also find the eating out guide handy. You can pop into any meeting and buy them (just say you want to use the shop, not weigh in). There are sometimes suggested daily eating plans in the magazines, and I'm sure there will be online too, although I find the good thing about WW is that it's not prescriptive, and you can eat what/when suits you. Good luck!

Pebbles, yes I think 400m at the most was what you managed that day... You have made amazing progress and it's been great for me to have a running buddy to help get me back into it. HOWEVER... Competitive Pickle is well and truly peed off that you ran further than me today (I did 5.5 miles, although mine was up and down hills, not flat...) ;-) That's the last time I let you loose on a long run without me! I've had a good weekend, friends yesterday had a BBQ lunch so it was easy to stay on track and I counted everything. Quietly confident that goal may be achievable on Wednesday, eek.

Well done on your weight loss Crystal7! You're right, exercise is what you need to do, I wish there was an easy solution but there's not. Running is what works for me (and Pebbles), and I fit in three runs a week - one longish one in the weekend and two on week nights once the kids are in bed, so generally around 7:15/7:30ish. There are nights where it's the last thing I feel like doing, but I always feel great afterwards. The other option is something like powerpramming, take the kids with you. When I had my 2nd I used to go along with the two kids in a P&T. P x

The online stuff very much appeals to my geeky side too, and with the app on my iPhone there's never an excuse not to track. Out of interest, how do others do it? Track as you go, or at the end of the day? When I'm having breakfast I enter my breakfast, work out points in whatever I'm having for dinner, and enter things I know I'm having for lunch. Infind it helps me to know in advance how much I've got left to play with. Off out for the day to visit friends, no idea what the food offerings will be, but hoping to stay on track.

Welcome Bellenden Belle. I'm assuming that's a typo and you're hoping to lose a little more than 1 pound by September... (although if pork scratching nights are a regular occurrence, possibly not :) ) Grotty, don't belittle the amount you have lost, it's an amazing achievement no matter what! Thanks to Pebbles for the run this evening, if we hadn't agreed in advance to run tonight there's no way I would have gone. As it was it didn't rain on us and we did over 4 miles, brilliant. You have done so well, not just with weight loss but with your running too. Onwards and downwards, I'm really really hoping to reach goal this week!

I was going to suggest a funky print, something along the lines of a Vic Lee one?

For relaxed Italian, try either Si Mangia or Locale. We took baby Pickle to Si Mangia in a sling when she was a few days old (in the evening) and it was no bother at all. Si Mangia is on the small side so not sure a pram would be a good idea, however there's loads of room in Locale. Good luck, and enjoy!

Tee hee, obviously there are enough people out there willing to pay that much. Madness.

?100 for a cardigan :-S Too late now, but for future note I have lots of nice basic cardigan patterns and knit to order (and don't charge anywhere near to ?100!)

How much more information do you want Natty01295?! A list of names?

Just to reinforce what's already been said. I'm losing the football look now and baby is 4.5 months), it has happened with all babies. A pain really, as it's the only time in my life I have anything close to cleavage! P x

If you're breastfeeding you really must use all of your points (40 if you are solely breastfeeding). You will struggle to lose weight if you dont eat enough, especially when feeding a baby. Most weeks I use 30 or so of my weekly points on top of my 40 a day. P x

Yes, I started out walking as much as I could with the baby, but now go running 3 times a week which really does help. Good luck, and feel free to ask as many questions ad you like :)

:-$ sorry Day naps... Child 1 was still having 3 naps a day at 6 months (short ones around 9 and 4, long one at lunchtime). Child 2 one long one at lunchtime but a bit erratic at other times. My baby is taking after her brother (thankfully) and currently naps at 9, 12 and 4pm which fits in nicely with the school runs. I followed a routine with #1, which has meant for us it is logical to just do the same with the others.

By 6 months with all 3 children we have been at the stage where they are in bed by 7pm, having one feed at my bedtime, then sleeping until 7am. Littlest Pickle is 4.5 months and reliably does this (up until a month or so ago she was having one feed in the night, somewhere around 5-6am, then going back to sleep). Not sure whether this is "normal", but it seems to be where my babies are concerned :). I hope things improve for you soon x

*wipes chocolate crumbs from mouth* Yes, me! 40 points a day is an absolute luxury. I do my best to use them on healthy foods, but will admit to my nightly chocolate fix - I figure it's my reward for having spent the day feeding my 4.5 month old. I get a couple of Graze boxes every week and use them for healthy snacking to make up my points, things like dried fruit, nuts and seeds, which are high in points but very good for me. It seems impossible to be able to lose weight while eating so much, but I'm walking proof that it works, having lost 25lbs since I began at the start of March. I never ever feel hungry, and by following it carefully haven't had any problems with my milk supply. I found, like with my other two babies, that once I started eating healthily my baby seemed a lot more settled - could be coincidence, but I'm convinced the benefits of healthy eating make a difference to the baby too.

Reneet, personally I would consider a Mum who prepares purees more of a supermum than one doing BLW :). The only reason I'm doing it is because being on baby #3 I don't have the time or the energy to cook special baby meals - with my first I used to spend whole weekends lovingly spooning homemade meals into little pots. I also did that for #2, until the point where it became obvious she saw them as a means of decorating the walls rather than food. For now I feel confident that it's going to be good for us, I'll report back in a few months. At the end of the day, like all baby/milk/food discussions, as long as your baby is happy and healthy that's all that really matters.

For the first time since I began WW I ate all of my weekly points this week (mainly over the space of two days) and also dipped into my exercise bonus points. Needless to say I wasn't really feeling confident... 2.5lbs off! A whopping 25 in total now and only one more pound to go and I'll be at my goal weight. So looking back over the last week I can see a few things that obviously helped - the main one being my exercise, I ran Fri, Sun and Mon clocking up around 12 miles in total. But also, despite drinking quite a lot and eating naughty things, I continued to track. There was a lot of temptation on Monday to just say "sod it" and stop counting but I did it, and went for an unscheduled run mid afternoon as I knew it would help clear my head and get me back on the straight and narrow. Now to try and get that last pound off so I can start my maintenance plan!

That's great to hear your experience of BLW bluesuperted. It's a logical approach for us this time round, as I prepare one meal that we all eat, so to include the baby from day 1 of her weaning just makes sense. She sits propped up in a highchair at the table with us now at mealtimes so it should be a natural progression to her eating once she's ready.

Saffron, I was very surprised to get that advice, although it's fair to say that being on baby no. 3 I'm not going to listen to anything they "advise" based on past ridiculous advice given. To me it seems wrong for her, a perfectly happy little girl, to be given anything other than milk for a couple more months. Having read the BLW book I'm even more convinced than with the other two that this is right for us :)

Current thinking seems to be from 4 months onwards, as I was surprised to be told at a rare visit to baby clinic that I could start weaning my 4 month old. Personally, having waited until 6 months with my other two children, I am going to do the same with baby Pickle... she can't sit up, to me that makes her too young for solid food. Also, this time I'm doing baby led weaning, and she doesn't stand a chance of being able to pick up food and get it in her mouth yet :)

My older two never took milk from a cup either, we just stuck to bottles until they stopped having milk at around 2ish.

Hmmmm, agree with Fuschia, tried and failed dismally! We always ended up with the standard Tommee Tippee cups with lids, easy for them to work out and much less mess. Cups with proper soft spouts/valves seemed to frustrate them.

We are planning to head along to this if it's nice weather - I'll keep an eye out (I'll have hubby and two older children in tow)

Thanks for reminding me about Bad Jelly, I used to ring the local radio station and request it on Sunday mornings, they had a children's hour (showing my age!). We You Tubed it this morning, the kids loved it.