Janine! I know what you meant, but it sound slike YOU were up til 3 grunting and pooping. ehehe. Why not calamine? If not that, I reckon anything that would be anti-inflammatory would be good. Maybe some pawpaw ointment or some tiger balm? I always put t.b. on my bug bites, I think the clove oil in it kills the itchies. Hope your DD feels better soon.

Sharon- I don't know what to tell you, sounds like there should be a dog-b-que in the neighborhood shortly. Have you tried slinging him? It is kind of hard on the back after a while, but he'll at least get a good nap and you can get some stuff done?? Lila has quit mucking around, she's getting quite good at draining me but I'm still pumping and giving her bottles. Like a security thing or something. I enjoy her nursing, it actually feels nice and that kind of freaks me out a bit. I'll get over it.

SG- It might well make it fattier. My milk is pretty thick atm, but that might be from all the eggs and bacon I can't help but have. Human milk doesn't need to be incredibly fatty, in fact I think I have read that as your child grows your milk gets thinner and its perfectly normal. Your milk is the best thing for him, it has everything he needs. It seems so odd and impossible to believe but its true.

Ness- Happy birthday to your little girl, hope you are doing alright.

Sarah- Hang in there! He's still so little, just keep telling yourself that it won't always be this way. Tell yourself that over and over and over again. You're taking such good care of him, he needs his mummy all the time and you're there. That's so important to them.

BW- Its hard, I can't imagine how hard tipping out all that milk but kudos to you for doing what is best for your little one. Hopefully the problems with upchucking will clear up.

I'm well and fine, getting so much done lately and am really upbeat. My house is so nice and clean, ridiculous how happy that makes me. I used to be such a slob. Next week DH is done with exams and will be able to take Lila for an afternoon or two a week so I can get back to writing.

Lila is going down around 10-11pm and up again 4-5am which kind of ****es me off since she used to sleep til 8-9am. I know I should count my blessings, but I realllllllllly liked sleeping for long unbroken periods.. I think she's getting ready to do a grow cause when she gets up she guzzles like 150-200 mls and goes right back to sleep for a few hours.

My lovely SIL just had her baby yesterday, a little girl. We're all here. She had a hard back labor like I did, ended up taking some pethadine after 24 or so hours and then two hours later had her beautiful baby girl. Its such a relief, we both have our babies healthy and safe. Ever since I found out she was expecting too I have worried that something might happen to one of us. We're thrilled to death she had a little girl, but everyone was kind of pulling for a boy since there have been three births in our family in the past few months and all were girls. No little boys yet in that generation. Two more births due later this year, maybe then. Heh, 6 babies in one extended family in a year. What an effort.

Has everyone heard about those poor little 18 month old twins in Brisbane who died of starvation? Before I had Lila those sorts of stories used to upset me, I would think it was terrible but now that I have my own soft, sweet, vulnerable little baby those stories just rip me to pieces. Like they could all be Lila. I guess its that "mother's heart" you hear about. I wish I could take in all those neglected uncared for children and make them cookies and read them stories and give them nice warm baths. Not right now though, I have to just focus on one...