snowboarder

OMG hot on the heels of feeling like the most extravagant and wasteful shopper I now feel like lazy disorganised sloth.... Washing all done ad hoc - occasionally I even have to rewash on discovering did a load about 4 days ago and it's still there.. All appointments etc in my head - I do have a diary and an iphone and they are empty other than birthdays... Food and meals...well..hmm..whats in the fridge/veg box? Lets see.... Post/bills etc all in scary piles that are hastily stashed away (some in wine cupboard) as house on market and needs to be tidy... Ha! On the other hand I do manage to do everything super fast to make up for lack of organisation...

I think my oldest was about 20m when he started messing about at bedtime a bit (not really screaming though) - which I put down to dropping his nap but actually even now (3 in april) he still has an hours nap most days. We started a routine in the evening where after bath he has a play with some toys in his room and gets a story then has a book or a toy in his bed with a nightlight on and low dimmer so he can play/'read' once we have left him - he then can chose whether to go straight to sleep or play for a bit by himself and wind down. It worked pretty well when his brother rocked up when he was 22m - meant I could leave him to settle the baby even if he was not ready to go to sleep.

In terms of getting out with baby - maybe even a trip to one of the breastfeeding cafes might get your confidence up? Not sure when/where they are these days (sorry!). Also not sure where you live but Bumps and Babes on a friday at St Faiths on Red Post Hill is one of the few baby groups really aimed at little babies (rather than rowdy toddlers) and most importantly new mums and is a nice supportive environment to get to grips with feeding out. I also had a thrupenny bit portable feeding pillow that I slung in the bottom of my pram and it went everywhere with me and made all the difference in terms of feeding out and about. Good luck!

You ALL sound very good! We have an Able and Cole fruit and veg box. I would estimate we ALWAYS through at least one thing out after a couple of weeks as it hasn't been used (red cabbage 2 weeks old currently winking at me)...might have to stop having this box actually as I'm finding it hard to use up. We also have an ocado weekly delivery of supposedly everything else - ?100 plus (depends on whether it's a nappies/washing powder/WINE week). As I'm at home with 2 little boys (34m and 12m) I also find I pick up bits and bobs from co-op every other day - things we have forgotten etc. We maybe have lunch out one day at the weekend and generally give in to take away one night. I have to say we throw out a lot - out of date stuff (eg sell by dates on the ocado order that came last night means that we need to eat 3 meals in 2 nights) and general wastage - often because I'm not sure if mr snowboarder will be home for dinner or working late - so sometimes planned meals don't happen. I do feel bad about the amount we spend and throw out and really need to get better.... I actually LOVE going to sainsburys. On my own. It feels like a break and a treat and I buy a magazine and maybe a top and have a coffee. I have always liked going though - even before children - when I was little I used to go with my dad on a friday night and ride on his shoulders. I am possibly a bit weird....

Great idea but as Fuschia says nap time for little ones and school pick up for those with older ones maybe affects attendance and timing. I saw your sessions but I think they finish at 4pm like the 1 o'clock club. My nearly 3 yr old and just 1 yr old often end up with no plans in the afternoon but they both sleep until 3/3.30. A 3-5.30 session with toast and tea options would be awesome for us, but useless for the school pick up brigade! Tricky...

It's mostly school children leaving them open in the afternoons - and constant traffic....

Worst thing about GG is that there are 2 gates that are never shut - one of them doesn't actually seem to work properly and argh my not yet 3 year old can open the other one...as he did yesterday and scooted casually off as I strapped the baby into the buggy....Gah....

These guys, possibly? I know how you feel....

Yep. It's more the 'why don?t children like vegetables?' bit I'm interested in rather than amounts eaten (given oldest small snowboarder only really eats pasta). If it seriously can help me increase variety I'll get it!! Do we need a forum book club?

"This splendid and easy-to-read book presents a common-sense approach to one of the biggest worries of parenthood. Dr. Gonz?lez reminds us that children know a lot more about their nutritional needs than we give them credit for and that the problem is almost always ours, not theirs." Gill Rapley, co-author of Baby-led Weaning: Helping your baby to love good food Oh good...the problem is ours...more feel good reading....:-(

We have been to the saturday morning kids club at Brixton Ritzy - the films vary in terms of their suitability (we saw a double bill of the gruffalo and Lost and Found!). It was great...and since then have been to a couple of things at Streatham odeon on a saturday afternoon. Z loved it but I do think found it a bit loud/dark/scary too...

I remember youngest sb starting a really horrid sleep regime at about 3/4m - It's that time when everyone says oh it's a growth spurt...but neither of mine seemed to recover from it.... The one thing I did do at about this age was start to try to have the first morning nap in bed at home and to get him to go to sleep by himself. He had just started sucking his thumb so I put him in his crib about 2 hrs after he woke up and stroked his tummy and after a while he went to sleep (not without fussing). And I did this every single day so that he had at least one nap at home and self settled. The other naps were usually out and about in buggy for varying lengths. Now this didn't help with the nights but although he woke a lot we co-slept and he went back to sleep fairly easily (or at least would lie quietly feeding). The good thing about getting the morning nap to work like this meant that he seemed to start having a longer nap, and that he then started to do the same for other naps if at home....and when at 7m we finally relocated him to his own room and I decided to stop feeding to sleep he did know how to get to sleep on his own and things got SO much better from that point onwards... I know the thought of this not getting better for 3m sounds horrendous...but maybe if you work on a few gentle non feed to sleep ideas for naps it might help the nights in the longer term?

Argh I was about to ask similar (in our parallel lives hs!) but I'm moving from only ever bf and never worrying about quantity of milk. My nearly 1 yr old has 4 feeds a day - max 10 mins each and pretty snacky - but he's starting to fuss and pull off and protest and wants immediate let down so I've decided to try a cup of cows milk (which he has never had) after his naps. Although he seems to quite like it he drinks maybe 20ml? With my older son I didn't stop daytime feeds until he was a bit older so didn't really worry (and he never drank ANY milk at all after weaning at 17m). Smallest snowboarder is sturdy so am not worried about weight. I do know that it is possible to get overly obsessed by milk and amounts and in actual fact there are plenty of other sources of calcium (eg orange juice?) etc. Trouble is am clueless about what and LO isn't always a fab eater (although this week has decided he likes fruit!). I am trying not to worry but it's hard with a cup/bottle not to just study what they have or haven't had isn't it. BF is fab for taking that worry away - you never know and I'm pretty sure a 5min bf is not 7oz!

We have a hamax one as well - is good as you can fit a bracket on each bike and swap the seat over as you wish (see above!!).

I'd try and tell myself to chill out, to relax and try to enjoy the early months. To not worry about cuddling him to sleep and to feed whenever and to watch tv together on the sofa. And to go out and about more - go on adventures rather than get cabin fever pounding lordship lane. I thought these things would get easier but getting out with 2 who need to eat and nap at certain times is much harder! Then at around 6/7m I'd tell myself to try and sort out his sleep as that would have improved my life immensely :-)

Do the classes? On pretty much every morning in ed (inc saturdays). They are great - am doing them now with baby 2 :-)

For eg on the best buggy site scroll down this page http://www.bestbuggy.co.uk/category/single/maxi-cosi-noa/

Tricky as could be expensive! Have a trawl on this website - the lady who runs it has a large 3 yr old and there are quite often pictures of her in different buggies she has reviewed. Maybe one of the chunkier buggies like a mountain buggy would be good - for a start they have better weight allowances and are sooo much easier to push - I just got a mountain buggy urban (actually will try my nearly 3 yr old in it for you if you like - he is a similar size to yours) for my youngest and am continually surprised at how much easier it is to push than our maclaren quest. In fact my double mountain buggy is easier to push than the maclaren - small is not always good....

Thursday 8th March? Tuesday that week is my birthday, and much as I love you guys....:-) The Mag?

Ooh yes. I missed the last one too (dunno why!) always up for a glass of wine!

I'm pretty sure it's fairly relaxed and you can always get in - I haven't been for a while but it def used to be.

I'm not sure trays for the Tripp trapp easy to find - especially with the new baby set. Whilst I love the Tripp trapp I don't think it would be good if you have no table! I tried my littlest in the baby bjorn one and thought it was fab -so neat and it does fold -it is like a nicer version of the ikea antilop.

I think busy bees is quite awful - deep stress to get in (queue early if you want the first session) and the people running it each time I have been are extremely odd. So much so that the second time we went my 2.5yr old loudly asked if we could go and see nemo (fish) now as he couldn't understand the story. I couldn't either, so we left...shame as it def has the potential to be good. Have enjoyed all saints in the past. We always seem to straddle both sessions but they don't seem to mind.

Essential! Sometimes (was summer so still light) I would go upstairs at 6.30 and emerge back down to devastated house at about 9.....amazing how quickly you forget and now it's all done in 45mins/hr. I actually (shhh dont tell him) sometimes find it easier doing it on my own these days - it's far quicker and quieter and less excitable than the weekend hullabuloo when daddy 'helps'.....

Tea/bath/bed is the hardest time I found with newborn and toddler. My extra pair of hands were in the form of a sling that could get baby in and out of quickly/easily, and having bouncy chairs/swings in every room in the house! I also found that if I gave baby a little snack feed around 5pm we got through bedtime with fewer tears. My husband is generally not back for bathtime so we had to suss this out pretty early. This is how I did (kind of still do but they bath together happily now at 11m and 2 yr 10m) it: Tea at 5 for toddler, manage best you can with sling/chair in the kitchen. TV to drown out the noise. Back through to living room for wind down cbeebies and a feed for the baby. All upstairs at 6.15/30. Bath for toddler, baby either in chair watching in the bathroom or had a quick dunk too, then change and dress on the floor in the bathroom while toddler plays in bath. Back into toddlers room - baby in (another) chair, dress and stories and plonk toddler in bed with book and nightlight on, saying I'll be back to give you a kiss in a bit. Take baby to bedroom and feed and settle (this sometimes took 2 hrs!). Hope that toddler has passed out in this time. Have a large glass of wine..... I know some manage to feed the baby whilst doing stories etc - I couldn't do this - toddler generally not keen on me feeding the baby when he was around apart form anything else! There was a LOT of crying, but it gradually gets easier and now the boys play in the bath together. As with everything it gets easier/you adapt and manage...Good luck!