thumbsucker blues: sandbox parenting thead

And no, you can never afford kids. But that is part of what makes them so precious. They are worth pretty much every sacrifice and hardship, in the long run.

I have only done disposable, although I am thinking of starting to do a half-and-half thing, now that I only have one poop a day to deal with and I generally know when it happens.

My grandmother (circa 1930) claimed to have potty-trained her kids from birth. Basically, she just knew when to hold them over the toilet.

(seriously, I have no real bother one way or the other. It always seemed to me that real nappies would be better all round than disposables, but now I'm not so sure. I'm directing my rage solely at people with £200 baby monitors now)

And I'm definitely with you about needless gadgets ailsa. I think I spent a total of £9 of my own money on preparing for Alice (on clothes at an NCT nearly new sale) and everything else was donated/Freecycled/bought by parents. She's obviously going to cost a lot more now she's actually here but at least babies don't know/care if their gear is second-hand or improvised.

It probably helps that we have no space for anything anyway. But thank god someone else fulfilled Alice's pressing need for a giant corduroy bunny:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/336141847_70fb1e064d.jpg?v=0

It's my opinion that the most important thing you can give your children, the thing they will truly remember, is your time, and I personally think that the small conveniences of modern living that truly give us more time to spend where we choose are well worth it.

Very true. I was going to say, with all this "can we afford it?" talk - the hurtin' isn't just on your wallet (and you can control that to a certain extent by being thrifty), it's on your free time, which (with two or more kids especially) may well dwindle away to nothing.

example-now typing one-fingered with fussy T in crook of arm...gotta go

Toys? We have a lot but Ophelia prefers taking out all the paper out of closets. The first half year you don't need much at all.

We didn't think about the cost of having a baby. Mostly because it wasn't a problem. (Being the worrier that I am, it does However I didn't realize how much money can/is spent on a baby! WTF man. I did switch from yr fancy ass (hah!) Pampers to a cheaper (and imo better) alternative. Saves us a ton of money. Same goes with those towelettes: 1 euro instead of 3 euros. Hey and I knit her sweaters. ;-) Just kidding. But if I wanted I could save a lot of money on clothing by knitting all her sweaters (instead of buying'em). Still, no designer clobber for Ophelia. It's ridiculous even if you have the money.

We get £127/month in Child Benefit

WTF! We get about 55 pounds. Oh wait is that for two kids? I put all the money on her savings account.

Archel, that's one of my favourite baby pics EVER.

Oops, this is what happens when you turn around and look at Ophelia crawling around: you forget to type the rest of the sentence.

the most OTM post on any parenting thread evah.

One month:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/338594661_3b4e731ae8.jpg

Three months (on Boxing Day):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/338630898_62d68693f9.jpg

(My baby overheating or getting a chill during the night is just one of the things I'm looking forward to worrying about!)

Ah shit, sleepsuit is something different. Replace sleepsuit with sleepbag. Worked wonders for me!

So it's onesie+sleepsuit+sleepbag. Room temp about 21 to 18 degrees celcius.

your kids are all spoilt.

There are few things that cause a knee-jerk reaction but the line 'you're kid is spoilt' is one of them. I know you don't mean it the wrong way - or at least I hope not - but argh how I hate that line. :-)

1. No freaking WAY we would use cloth diapers. My mother-in-law disabused us of any thoughts of cloth diapers, and I'm glad she did.

2. With twins there is no chance for anyone to be an absentee parent, which is good, except when you want to take a break.

3. Last night, we switched from those fluffy terry-cloth-like baby suits to thin cotton ones, and wrapped them up in fleece swaddlers. They slept for 8 HOURS! I don't know if it was that, or the fact that we tanked them up with milk and formula before bed, or if it was just random, but it was awesome. Maybe they had been getting too hot in the night. If you use swaddlers, and the houe is relatively warm, I don't think you need blankets at all, at least at first.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/340259556_fd5ef5b113.jpg

CONGRATULATIONS ARCHEL FAMILY!

I did wonder about you at one point during the hoilday, you know.

I managed to sleep from 3am until 9am today thanks to Matt doing early morning feeds, hurrah! Alice and I may even venture out later on to celebrate my relative lack of tiredness.

Apologies for the confusion; I could call my kids by their middle names, if you like - Galvin and Greer. But that makes them sound like sheet music publishers from the turn of the 20th century.

Do you want to see something sad? Do you promise not to forward to Social Services? Ava, the morning after clocking herself on the edge of a chair (check out the shiner on her left eye):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/340782436_f8f00f3207.jpg

Stop it with the Ava and Tallulah confusions!

Mine were first!

Oh, bless!

Ava's eye really coming on a treat now - will post some more pix to Flickr when I get the chance. She'll love me for this when she's 13.

I just recovered from a 24-hour stomach flu that had me puking every hour or two. I don't know what I would have done if my husband couldn't have stayed home with me, it was miserable. I lost six pounds and I was already underweight. I think my milk production went down, we tried giving Louis cow's milk and he was totally not having it! Everyone is fine now though.

Shiner, day four:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/344624551_159b47b473_m.jpg