Tiny Turtle Hatchlings

[Leap]

Ta-da! Nice of you to arrange for her to have a glamorous assistant soon

Poor wee Conchie, how has he been with his cold and his jags? I felt such a burst of joy once we were clear of the final jags and knew I didn’t have to take her back there until she’s 1.

I feel both the broodiness and the time pressure in opposition to what I really want In theory my ideal would be to follow Beatrix’s path pretty much exactly - 1-2 years with my girl, and then get pregnant again. But with turning 36 this year and all the time it took us to get here, we will revise that a bit and hope to be lucky, sooner. If we were to end up with 2 at some point that would be amazing, but I’m still not trying before Hop is 1 because I do know my limits

[Leap]

Awww happy birthday, M! Birthday biscuit looks AMAZING!

[Kenickie]

Happy birthday M!

[Rhodonite]

Happy birthday! Birthday biscuit is a great idea!

[Kenickie]

Topsy rolled! She was having some tummy time and rolled back to her back. She looked quite shocked after. Her eye has really cleared up today thankfully.

Tim still hates tummy time so I'm not sure he'll be doing it anytime soon, but he's discovered blowing raspberries in the last few days with is super cute, especially as it really makes him laugh.

[Rhodonite]

Well done, Topsy!

It's so cute when they laugh, too. I can't help but tickle Conchie, to get him giggling!

I avoid putting conchie on his front too much, after the great escape attempt! But he's so close to doing a back to front roll.

[Morganna]

It's so lovely when they discover something new about the world. Their toes, or the taste of a strawberry. I wish they could tell us what they are thinking when they do.

J used to laugh hysterically at the snooker on TV. I have no idea what he found so funny, and he was far too young to remember it now, or to speak at the time, but he would rock with laughter and point at the screen, giggling and guffawing. It was so lovely to watch.

[Leap]

MORGS that is adorable

Yay for rolling and laughing!

[Kenickie]

Laughing at snooker!

Tim keeps trying back to front but can only get half way.

[Leap]

I had my work chat yesterday and they’ve agreed to me returning part time 3 days a week We’re going to do a trial of it for maybe 6 months to make sure it suits both sides, which is great as it helps with any leftover money concerns as we can actually see what it’s like in reality rather than me guessing in advance. I’m so relieved this part is sorted, and now don’t need to think about it all for ages. My official return will be July.

[Kenickie]

Brilliant! That must be such a weight off your mind.

We're veering towards us both doing three days a week. The financial hit is going to be massive but then so would be the cost of childcare for two so I guess we'll just have to cut our cloth. I really want three days with one day guaranteed as a WFH which I think will go down like a lead balloon.

Had a really horrible evening last night. Both have colds so have been really blocked up, sneezing lots of snot etc and yesterday were very tired and cuddly all day. Tim fed at about half four, and we went up to bed early at about half six. He started with inconsolable crying and it took ages to comfort him. I tried feeding him which normally would be one of the only things to soothe him but he just refused. I tried giving him Calpol but he threw it back up. It got to half nine and he still wouldn't feed so I expressed some milk and P got him to take a tiny bit from a bottle. He eventually settled to sleep at about midnight, was waking up regularly but not really having anything to eat until he fed more properly at about 3am. I've never been so glad to be feeding him at that time of night!

He's feeding ok today so I'm thinking there's no point trying the doctor as he's a bit better now? He had a temp of 38.1 last night but it went down to 37 something after a couple of hours and he's not hot today.

Topsy has the cold too but was feeding normally and not doing the terrible crying so I feel a lot less concerned about her.

[Kenickie]

In fact she was happy and laughing when she woke at b4am.

[Leap]

Oh god, what a night! Poor Tim and poor you two. I don’t know about the doctor but I think your instincts on it sound good. I really hope they’re both over the worst of it and today starts to get better for both, or at least they both get to where cheery Topsy is

Cutting your cloth is exactly what I was thinking. If you can both get it (and hopefully your WFH day ) that would be great, and it’s for such a relatively short time of the overall working life.

Here is a slightly blurry picture of my happy little girl, and if you look closely you can sort of see her wee tooth at the bottom right. She had her first tooth brushing session last night

[Kenickie]

She's glowing with pride! Tooth brushing sounds so cute.

[ParisGal]

She has your eyes, Leap!

[Froozy]

She so cute, Leap

Ken, is atom still at the stage where a blocked nose means he struggles to eat? I can’t remember what age that stops but I remember a horrible cold with s when he was so snotty he could only breathe through his mouth so he was reluctant to feed because he couldn’t catch his breath. Early evenings and into the first bit of the night often seem worse symptom wise. Will he stock up a bit earlier at all? Fingers crossed you’ve had the worst of it and have a better night tonight.

Eta: sorry for renaming your child

[Kenickie]

That makes me feel a lot better, Froozy, as I didn't realise that early evenings/night were commonly worse for symptoms, and I think you're right about him just struggling to breathe and eat - he normally loves eating so it just sent me into panic mode that it was something really serious and worry that it would make him even worse. Plus I'd lost my only solution to stop crying! He's had a fair bit so far today so I'm hoping I can stay a bit more relaxed if he has trouble with the next feed tonight.

[Figaro]

She’s such a cute little pudding

[Kenickie]

Well, last night was a bit horrendous. It was Topsy's turn to be the squeaky wheel, so lots of inconsolable crying unless she was being fed. It ended up being a rotation of feed Topsy until she fell asleep, cuddle her for about twenty minutes to make sure she could be put down in the cot, feed Tim, cuddle him, close my eyes when both of them were down, and then two minutes later Topsy would start screaming, P would try and comfort her, Tim would then wake up and cry and I'd comfort him, then repeat. We had a 5am argument about who'd had the least sleep* when I asked P to take a screaming Topsy out of the room for twenty minutes so I could try and get a tiny bit of sleep.

Tonight has to be better, right?

*Clearly me, as P could sleep through the feeding.

[Luce]

We had a 5am argument about who'd had the least sleep*

Congratulations! That was your parenthood initiation ceremony! Welcome to the club. It is sometimes a bit shit