the amber teething necklaces release oils into the skin - i have one for E and when i put it on her she just ignored it. also got one for me which is helping with headaches and things. one of the other ladies on here (BW) has chronic arthritis and has found hers helped her a lot. FWIW - i've done a fair bit of reading about them (was a sceptic) and the one thing that has consistently come back is that the bracelets aren't as effective - not sure if it's location or the amount of surface area available with the necklaces. standard baby necklaces are about 33cm - E wears hers under her clothes. i read somewhere on here recently that someone was advised to make it long enough for baby to chew - i'm pretty sure that isn't the case at all - they're more for releasing the oils. if you google amberbebe they have a good range. sunshine n lollipops also have them. i got mine from amberbebe and it was delivered in 3 days via normal post.

Vic - how is Cerys going with the brace? is she getting used to it? i haven't commented much cos i simply have no idea what either of you are going through and don't want to sound like a nuff nuff!! i can imagine how hard it would be to see your bubba so frustrated though - it's heartbreaking. hope it works quickly and Cerys is able to ditch it soon!

Jacinta - sounds like you had a shocker yesterday! cars and hot water services are soooo not fun!! my hot water service at the old house split through the belly so was leaking water - on a friday night with a public holiday on monday - talk about timing!! thankfully we have a friend who works in plumbing supplies so first thing tuesday morning i had a new one installed (and a payment plan to pay it off - they're exxy!) - but four days of icy water in winter - i didn't realise how often i used the hot tap to take the chill off the water! had to boil water for washing dishes - and went to mum's for showers. hope you get yours fixed soon hun

Bridg/amy - anxiety is a biatch!! i have suffered from it (and depression and panic attacks) for ages - it drives me nuts!! thankfully with counselling and the skills learned in calmbirth course, i've been able to keep them at bay for the past six months or so. have only had one full attack since E was born - and that was last week - so i'm doing heaps better. i was pretty concerned about developing PND so have been proactive in working through the issues. hope no one here ends up with PND - but if you're struggling, get help - and talk to us - that's what we're here for!!

Naomi - can't believe Bailey looks like he's teething already - poor poppet!! and poor mummy - he's really young to be teaching not to bite lol. E already chews on the puke rag if she can get hold of it, so bailey is old enough to chew on a cold damp rag with you supervising.

AFU - we're almost ready for the baptism - more cooking next two days, vacuum the main parts of the house, make up some beds (Rayray staying tomorrow night, one set of godparents and five of their kids staying Sat) - and DH to hang some tarps around the carport just to block out weather. yesterday we had a bit of a slack day cos E wasn't particularly helping - but we did managed to clean out all the votive candle holders, scrub them (hadn't been used from BFP until last week so pretty dusty) and refill them all - took 44 candles! plus 2dozen tealights... the house smells divine though - and we're not burning them yet!! just have to replace the ones in our room now (10 of them) and we're all up to date... can you tell i'm a candle freak??? that part took almost 3 hours around miss E and her demands!! mum came out last night and we managed to get 2 good hours of cooking, plus another hour for DH after E and I went to sleep - made 6dozen pizza pinwheels, about 50 mini quiches, and then DH made 2dozen mini apple pies! gotta love him - he didn't want to waste pastry lol! today we'll be making a couple of slices, more sausage rolls, a fruit salad cake (mmmmmm yummmm), maybe some diabetes friendly cookies. thankfully mum is coming out tonight to help - and a friend said she'd probably pop out during the day too. in amongst that we have to clean the last two rooms, and DH has to do a 250k round trip to pick up his truck (we think) - ahh the joys!