Megs I hope you get the all clear on his hips and it's just him deciding to take his own sweet time!

Re cow's milk, I have pretty much gone straight from boob milk to cow's milk, introducing the cow's milk into the mix at about ten to twelve months. Although two of my kids are now lactose intolerant, sigh. If Tom is like his last two sisters, he's got another year at least of the boob juice to go.

Sarah, no more babies for us. Dh had the snip when Tom was a couple of months old. We didn't plan to have Tom... but I'm so glad we did.

Pandora, sorry to hear about the surgery! I sometimes worry about a prolapse as I get a bit older. Apparently it's not uncommon for women who've had a lot of babies, but I'd rather avoid it. Now that I'm forty I'm beginning to stare down the barrel of perimenopause... now there's a scary thought!

Took Tom to the MCHN and he is good - 10.3kg (his weight gain has slowed a lot after those two nasty gastro bugs a month or so ago) and he is 79cm. So his weight is about middle of the road but he's tall! He's doing everything he should. I got the stink eye for the fact that Tom still has around four or five breastfeeds a day, and she definitely disapproves of the fact that I still feed him overnight. Heck, he's in daycare three days a week where he gets no boob at all for twelve hours straight, I am not going to begrudge him a catch up feed. And then she kept on saying stuff about "oh, he's a boy" as an explanation for everything. Bump on his head from falling over? "Oh, he's a boy!" Because girls never fall over. Active little baby? "Oh, he's a boy!" So why was my eldest even busier, when she's a GIRL? Chatty little person? "Oh, he's a boy!" So much for "girls' language develops quicker" I guess. And the kicker - as we left I said, "I'd better get him home for lunch, he's hungry." "Oh, that's boys for you!" What, girls don't eat LUNCH??? ARGH! I'm going to take him back for his eighteen month review and then I'm not going to bother again.

Oh, and she was also on at us AGAIN about whether we're going to delay starting him at school a year because he'll be just on the cusp of the cut off date. This is the second time she's pushed the issue. I kind of get sick of having to justify stuff that I'm quite well informed about. If we decide to send him early, it will be because we've decided it's the best thing for our family.

Has anyone else got trouble getting their walkers to behave? If we go out and Tom isn't in his pram, he's a nightmare. He hates holding your hand, but he won't walk with you either and just takes off at full tilt in whatever direction he fancies. ("OH, he's a boy!!!" LOL). My MIL got him one of those cute little monkey back packs with a tail handle, which he doesn't mind but he hasn't got the brains to realise that if he walks too fast and it catches him, he's going to fall over! Church is a nightmare. He hates his pram while everyone is doing interesting stuff but if you get him out he just wants to wreak havoc, or go and hassle his daddy at the altar.