Pickle

So sorry to hear that, it's the last thing you need right now! Doesn't surprise me though, I see those white vans cruising our street looking in gardens on an hourly basis during the day. Have a lovely Xmas x

I went past yesterday (around 10am) and it was closed, so not sure if it's open today or not sorry!

Yep - might have just been good luck of course :) With my 2 it never involved leaving them to cry, they just seemed to snuffle about a bit for a while then drift off. Of course I just know that baby #3 will be born with devil horns attached... Maybe wait until after Christmas if it means that you'll have a well rested baby by continuing to let her drift off with you there? Or perhaps the rush of Christmas organisation will mean it's easier to put her down and leave her to it? I often found with #2 that I'd put her down to do something with her brother and when I went back to her she was asleep! Good luck with whatever you decide. P x

It's really up to personal choice, whatever suits your family unit best. Personally, with #1 he was put in his own cot/moses basket for naps and at night (7pm) from about 6 weeks when I started to implement a routine. With #2 (and a small age gap) it came naturally to put her down for naps during the day at the same time as her brother, so she was pretty much in a routine from day 1 and has always been a really good self-settler. 8 weeks is not too young, it just depends on which route you want to take.

Great news Bee, congratulations.

Generally... start wrapping presents using dusty wrapping paper found in loft from Christmas past. Get halfway through on Christmas eve and realise we don't have enough. Debate which child is young enough to not realise their Christmas gifts are wrapped in "congratulations, new baby" or "happy birthday" paper and sealed with blu tack :-$ Although to give him credit, Mr Pickle has started wrapping early this year so hopefully it will all look slightly more professional!

We didn't do stockings as children either, I find it all very confusing! Hubby in charge of wrapping this year so I'll leave it up to him whether or not he wraps all the tat he insisted I buy to put in said stockings. Personally I'm a fan of a couple of big pressies, and would rather steer clear of all the unnecessary extra stuff. We've decided the kids "main" presents are from Santa, the rest from us (although that said, we've really only got them a main present, plus all the stocking tat). However Santa delivers all the presents from Grandparents etc., so we only have a few things under our tree pre-Xmas. Our breakfast on Xmas day was always a bowl of honey puffs (the kiwi equivalent of sugar puffs - full of everything bad and nothing good) and toast while sitting on the living room floor opening presents. My Mum was always pretty anal about us eating in the living room so it seemed like a massive treat :) NZ Christmas dinner (in our house anyway) never involved roast vegetables due to it being summer time, so for us it was minted new potatoes, peas and baby carrots along with the meat - which more often than not was lamb or cold ham rather than turkey. Yum.

:)) Not in NZ for Christmas this year, but I imagine littlest Pickle will be initiated into the anti-health & safety world that my Dad lives in as soon as we make it out there for a visit! Which reminds me (not Xmas related)... first visit out with our eldest child when he was 3 months old, Mr Pickle and I went out for dinner. Mum had to pop out to work for a while leaving Dad in charge of sleeping baby. When we got home we found that the baby had stirred (and we had left instructions to pop a dummy in his mouth, which usually settled him again), and Dad had attended to him. He muttered something about the dummy being really hard to put in - turns out he'd left the big plastic cap on (it was one of the Avent ones) and attempted to shove it in his mouth! When we were growing up Dad was a shift worker, meaning a lot of the child raising was left to Mum - possibly a good thing!

What a shame - I have fond memories of a child of being prescribed Amoxycillin (excuse spelling) which was the thick white stuff you kept in the fridge... my Mum used to have to hide it as I loved it so much. My kids have both in the past been prescribed the same stuff by the GP, with the same reaction - they love it. I guess it's specific to particular types of infection, but certainly a lot easier to get children to take. Hope she feels better soon.

The Horniman museum is always a good option - lots to keep them entertained.

We go to gymnastics at Beckenham Spa - although as my daughter's older we are in the 3 to 5 year class which is one where parents drop off and wait outside while the class is on (genius! A very relaxing 45 minutes for me!). No direct experience of the classes for younger kids, but based on our excellent experience with the older ones I imagine it would be really good. My daughter's class is run by quite an "old school" gymnastics instructor who is fab with the children who all really love it. They have great equipment and the room it's held in is massive so plenty of room. Often the equipment from the younger class is still out when we arrive and it looks like lots of fun. The other option is toddler's world at Crystal Palace, although there are often a lot of babies there, so it could be quite stressful if you're worrying about a rampaging two year old!

That's really shocking - I can't believe the lengths metal thieves are going to at the moment to make a few ??. I'd assume they would need to find somewhere to melt it down before trying to flog it for metal value? Or am I putting too much faith in the companies that buy scrap metal?

We go there now too, it's brilliant! Very clever marketing by the people involved, I'm surprised something hadn't opened years ago to cater for the kids in the area.

The photo/camera shop is on the stretch of LL opposite Farmers, Callow Locksmiths etc. I've since noticed that while all the other bays around there are clearly marked, the one I parked in didn't have a sign stating the hours of operation - but I don't have the energy to dispute it! To be honest the day I parked there I'd lost track of time a bit, so even if I had seen the signs I would have thought I was ok as was convinced it was after 10am. I got snapped by one of the Smart cars, and the ticket came with a little photo on it showing the contravention. Lesson learned!

I got caught out recently, parked in a bay near the camera shop without realising the restrictions were still in force. Pretty sure on the Somerfield side of the road you can't park there before 10am, and after 4pm on the other side in the marked bays.

Wow, that's a year ago?! Doesn't time fly, and how amazing that you came through it all so admirably. Must be time for #5? ;-) I agree that the support to be gained from others on this board is fantastic, and it's very much the virtual equivalent of what our mothers did (although I know my mother wouldn't begin to understand if I told her I was part of a Mum's community online!).

That's brilliant - well done!

So sorry to hear this, having been suffering from sleep deprivation myself this week I know how horrible it is. Fuschia has pretty much covered my checklist of potential issues - certainly start with latch, might be worth getting someone to check his tongue (as so many of us have discovered, tongue tie can go undetected and have a huge impact on feeding/settling). When I was struggling (pre tongue-tie being diagnosed with #1) I was advised to feed off one side for as long as possible when the cluster feeding was happening - it may feel like he's getting less, but he will be getting more of the rich hindmilk rather than the sugary foremilk. Also might be worth looking at your diet, I found certain foods really seemed to affect my milk, especially with #2 who was quite a windy/sicky baby. Of course usefully after 3.5 years I can't remember what those foods were :-$ Certainly no need to cut down daytime sleep at this point, sounds like two naps is about right. I seem to remember there used to be a "awake for 2 hours, asleep for 2 hours" pattern in the early months, cutting down daytime sleep might make the problem worse. Hope you get a chance to have some rest over the weekend x

Thanks ladies, sounds like ezcema is also horrible to deal with! I guess the major difference is that OC is not a skin condition, it's a blood condition, so the creams etc don't tend to have much impact as the problem lies within the veins and not on the surface. My night was *slightly* better, although I spent an hour with my feet in a cold bath from midnight (till the point where they basically turned blue!). But that did seem to kill the itch enough for me to then get to sleep for around 4.5 hours which is a vast improvement on the previous night. Belle - I agree with Ko that the scars will go, I had terrible ones from my 1st pregnancy, all around my ankles and feet, but they did go (only to now return!). I have a busy day ahead, so am hoping that it will help to keep my mind off it. Have decided to take the maximum dose of Piriton today as I don't need to drive anywhere and hopefully it will help (although I just hope it doesn't mean I fall asleep in my daughter's nursery show - that wouldn't look good!). P x

Not the best condition Porsche I've ever seen! Back end is fine, front end has certainly seen better days, I don't think it's repairable.

Hey Julia, thanks for your response. It seems the thinking on urso changes quite often - 1st pregnancy I was given the highest dose possible and it didn't help me at all. 2nd pregnancy they no longer offered it as it was felt the benefits weren't there. Now they are again offering it, but in my case they want to hold off using it so they can see the true extent of my bile acid results (they were up in the 200's in prior pregnancies) as it's felt the higher the acids the more the risk to the baby. Urso will bring the levels down, but also mask the severity of the condition. As it didn't work for me before I feel this is the right decision as I would rather know what's going on in terms of the numbers. Yes, I have a lifetime supply of the cream in the bathroom. It used to be hubby's job in the middle of the night to put in on the backs of my legs and my feet. And yes, I too have sat in a cold bathroom in the small hours soaking my feet in cold water - OC sufferers think alike! Today has been horrible, I've now taken another large dose of piriton to no avail, still itching like mad (and have a very short fuse with poor kids!). I only hope this particular attack works it's course before bedtime.

Yes, we drove up that way earlier - all fine. Quite a sight though, I feel for the people who now have a hole in the side of their house!

I wish this was the case! Not wanting to seem too "bah humbug" I think it's ridiculous that my son has had cards from kids in his class that he has never once mentioned. This extend to kids birthday parties too... seems to be the done thing that you invite the whole class (not going to happen in our case I'm afraid!).

I've been taking it at nighttime, sometimes it helps by making me drowsy but not always. I took a huge dose last night and it didn't seem to help at all. Typically it's worse just as the school holidays are approaching, so I'll be very limited in what I can do to help myself during the day (at the moment I only get a couple of hours without children, as my youngest is in nursery mornings only). Usually though, daytimes aren't too bad, it's evenings onwards when I struggle. Today has been a bad day though, thankfully my little girl seems to realise that Mummy is not at her best today and is being really good.

Yes, all those tips are good ones. I cut my nails at 3am this morning in an attempt to reduce the damage I can do to myself! I have found diet can make a huge difference, and in this pregnancy have been really careful pretty much from the day I found out I was pregnant, more so in the past couple of months. I have found triggers are anything salty/fatty/spicy as well as caffeine and alcohol (which makes sense given it's a liver problem), so have cut all of those things out of my diet. Whether it's worked or not is hard to tell, I'm still suffering badly, but perhaps it would be worse if I was eating anything with flavour! My 2nd pregnancy was a summer one, and I do remember it being hell during the day as well as nighttime due to the outside temperature - for once in my life I'm enjoying doing the school run in the cold as it really helps. I find by late afternoon my clothes are driving me mad, anything that clings to my skin is too much to bear (so once the school run is done for the day I'm generally to be found wearing hubbies t-shirts and trackie bottoms!), and the poor kids know not to try to cuddle me :( I often jump in a cold shower in the evening to try and calm it down - it does give temporary relief. I'm taking piriton when I find it too much to bear (doesn't seem to help much, if at all), but am reluctant to take the high doses at this point as it will mean I can't drive, which for me is a nightmare. May up my dosage over Xmas while hubby is off work. I've previously used urso (the acid) which didn't help my symptoms at all. Such a frustrating illness. I'm sure it goes undiagnosed in a lot of people, as apparently is more common in the very late stages of pregnancy - by which time when blood results come back etc. you've had the baby and it's gone. I think I'm a bit unusual in that I've had it so early on all 3 times. I'm very thankful for the service my midwife has been providing me with, saving me lots of trips to hospital for blood tests and monitoring, she has been a godsend doing it all at home for me. Thankfully so far baby is fine, very active so putting my mind at rest. And with potentially only 4 weeks to go at least there is an end in sight.