December 2011:Once we pop, we just can't stop

[OiMissus]

Here's the new thread!
Squee-eeze those muscles, or squee-ee-eeeze those babies out!

[PludolphTheRedNosedReindeer]

Oh! Oh! Oh! we're nearly to 1,000 posts again!

[AReindeerCalledHorse]

Congrats MrsB!!

LittleMiss, hands (ears?) off Chris Cornell & his damn fine voice!!

Feel like I'm one of the only ones left pregnant!

[DarcieandSnowballsmum]

Currently enjoying the peace with abit of Prison Break, Chunk of xmas cake & cuppa T! No signs of Snowball coming today tho - hope to be pleasantly surprised :)

[ChristmasPullyWoolOver]

Still catching up...

Ooh congratulations mrsb, honey and thepippy! .

Sorry to hear about the colic kri5ty, poor Saul and poor you. Hope things get better soon.

LMH hope the delousing is progressing as planned!

tinsel do let us know if the EPO works...

figgy that cold sounds mean, hope you start to feel better soon. Extra chilli in that curry I say.

[KateKringle]

Plu Another impressive catch up! Lets hope this show leads to something for you.

ARCH nope, you're not the only one waiting for LO to arrive. Even the sound of F1 cars driving past on the streets of Milton Keynes today didn't blast my baby into action

[ChristmasPullyWoolOver]

Ooh forgot to say, had a visit from the health visitor this week. She enquired as to whether I used the Internet and I proudly stated that I was an MNer through and through

But she firmly stuck a NetMums sticker on the front of my red book and said they were the only site endorsed by the DH and I shouldn't be going anywhere else.

I was a bit . From threads on this site I have been led to believe MN is fabulous and NetMums are the enemy...non?!

[festivefiggy]

Ladies am sat in my car the battery was dead as not driven it for a week bloody maternity leave and all. While DH was jump starting it I went to the loo and the pad I was wearing had browny red blood on it but when I wiped there was nothing. There wasnt a lot so havent said anything to DH taken willoughby (my car) out on some bumpy lanes to charge him up BUT Good sign/bad sign?

[mopsytop]

Congrats MsB - yay!

Spent the past 24 hours in hospital. Ugh. BP stuff again. All okayish and they let me home but back in Monday morning and induction looking likely. . Luckily partners can visit 9am-9pm. But I can't say I slept well. Thank goodness my partner brought me some sleeping stuff and remembered earplugs, otherwise would have had even less sleep than the little I did manage!

hope all well and babies are progressing nicely!

[BaaBaaHumbug]

Pully - that's very odd, why would the DH recomend any chat site over another, surely it's horses for courses. I had a brief look at NMs but twas not for me, too many huns, hugs and texty messages. Oh and not enough swearing, sometimes other words don't cut it.

All boring here, am over a week past my due date and nothing doing, pah. Having a nice afternoon though, DH has taken DS shoe shopping so I had a bath, did natal hypno and am now surfing.

[LittleMissHumbuggery]

I don't think the Department of Health should be endorsing any chat site, this one or the other one. I'd be fuming. I'd remove the sticker, put it on a letter and write to the head of midwifery in your area and tell them where to shove their advertising.

As for still being here, me too. Probably be here 'til the middle of January so no worries on that score.



Mood has crashed a little this afternoon. Off to vacuum the living room as I have heard a rumour that there may actually be a carpet in there somewhere:/

[DarcieandSnowballsmum]

I've never heard of the DH endorsing a forum?! As i've met mine and she never.

Still waiting for DP to come home from the panto with Darcie, She enjoyed the first half - she phoned to tell me lol.

[DarcieandSnowballsmum]

Whats everyone having for dinner tonight?

[SoTiredoftheWheelsontheBus]

Congratulations to MsB and anyone else whose bundle of joy has arrived. Have just got back in, and have a couple of minutes before dinner, so I'm going to have to post and run, and catch up later.

We've been back up to the hospital today about ds2's weight and I'm now getting totally confused over bf as I've been getting conflicting advice from each healthcare professional I've seen. I've been clear from the start that I'd like to bf, and was told to start with to feed on demand. When ds2 started to develop jaundice, this was changed a bit to feed on demand, but don't let the baby go over 3 hours without a feed - wake him up to feed him if necessary. It then changed to 'well, if he's asleep, don't wake a sleeping baby - he's seems fine, let him rest' - this resulted in two episodes over two days where he slept for 4-5 hours at a time - all the rest of the time the feeds were well within the 3 hours. When they started to raise concerns about his weight on day 6 (he lost 10% of his birth weight), they advised going back to feeding on demand but to never leave the baby more than 3 hours between feeding, plus expressing and topping him up with that. This I've been following - apart from maybe two or three episodes in a 24 hour period where he needs to be woken at 3 hours, the majority of the feeds are much more frequent, sometimes an hour apart, ocassionally closer together. His jaundice is now going, so we went back to the hospital today on the advice of the paediatrician just to get his weight checked - his weight has stabilised, but now a different registrar is telling me that I'm feeding him too much (even though he hasn't put on any weight between day 6 and today, day 10) and I shouldn't be feeding him more frequently than every 2 hours. My understanding of bf, especially getting bf established in the early days is to not limit how often a baby feeds, or how long they feed for, yet I've now got a paediatrician telling me to ignore the baby's feeding cues and let them cry. This is a 10 day old baby. Have I completely got mixed up over the best way to establish my milk supply and to ensure ds2 is receiving enough milk to thrive? I'm considering ignoring this current advice and continuing to feed on demand, but I wanted to put it to the thread in case I have still got a serious case of pregnancy mush brain and have completely got it wrong.

[aethelfleda]

I'd say continue to feed on demand hon: especialy as you can't "see" how much milk is going into baby at each feed, plus it's quite normal for babies to "cluster feed" ie need more frequent feeds at some times of day rhan others. My DDs used to feed loads in the early morning and again early evening, with other feeds more spaced out. As you're getting more used to baby's "would like some milk, mum!" signals, it seems counterintuitive to ignore them. Breastfeeding on demand is the "gold standard", no idea why the registrar would suggest otherwise (unless they are a closet Gina F nut??)

[aethelfleda]

Oh, and if they think you are overfeeding baby then the thing to reduce would be the amount of top-up, thus getting you back towards your rarget of a breast-fed baby, which you have stated is your preference. I agree it's confusing to get conflicting advice from multiple sources, so take my musings with a pinch of salt! It sounds like you're doing fine: keep feeding as you feel baby wants, have you been given a plan to get baby reweighed next week to ensure his weight is starting to go up (with the paeds or maybe with the health visitor?)

[DarcieandSnowballsmum]

Sotired Sounds all confusing to me - Sounds like your doing fine tho.

[sevenswansaswimming]

sotired I'd feed him on demand but don't let him go longer than maybe 3 or 4 hours, I can't believe they actually expect you to leave a hungry 10 day old baby to cry, it's not just bonkers it's cruel and I certainly wouldn't have been capable. I was told not to let DD go longer than 3 hours at first as she was prem. once she was back up to her birth weight I was 'allowed' to let her go 4 hours, but it's only the the last few days now that she's 7oz above her birth weight that I've just been feeding on demand.

[Tinselperion]

Darciesmum we're having pasta with leeks, bacon, peas and dolcelatte, and a salad of little gem, walnuts, chives and a little pumpkin seed oil because I am addicted.

Nice laid back day after my nearly completely sleepless night - we took a long walk this afternoon as the sun was setting and watched a few of the boys' home rugby games (against St Bede's today I think), then back home to tea, mini mince pies, Miles Davis, the new Private Eye for me and stacks of end of term exam marking for DH. I think Film4 is having an anime season tonight as well so that may be on the cards for later...

Have (almost) managed to forget that I am massive and a week overdue...

I was sent this study about the factors that help marriages stay strong when kids come along - a good summary of the study here. It's mostly no brainer kind of stuff but it's always interesting when academic research confirms it after controlling for factors like socio-economic background, age, education, ethnicity etc.

The most interesting finding in my opinion is on p.38 about generosity. It says that the 1960s and 70s saw a rejection of what was at the time an expectation that all the generosity in a marriage should be proffered by women alone, and that second wave feminism advocated a more individual attitude within marriage as a reaction to this. This study finds that in fact marriages are happier and more likely to stay together not if women throw off 1950s expectations of wifedom, but if men adopt the same expectations - so both spouses make a regular, overt effort to "serve" the other in small ways (the study gives the examples of "a spirit of service, frequent displays of affection, and a willingness to forgive the faults and failings of one?s spouse").

In other news DH and I had a taste test between the PG Tips we had been drinking and a box of Clipper organic fancy stuff. I couldn't believe we could actually tell the difference - the Clipper tea is so much better, we could both tell immediately in blind tests.

[mopsytop]

Take out curry! Not because I believe in the kick-start labour aspect but just because my husband was cooking all day to fill the freezer for after baby arrives, and needs a break and I am exhausted after hardly any sleep in hospital and am too lazy to cook!

[YBR]

plu, There are no stitches any more! They dissolved at least a week ago, but my DH suddenly came out with "I'm not sure they were tied off properly in the first place" today. That would explain why the wound was reopening before the stitches should have dissolved.
We've decided (with the consultant) there is no value in re-suturing, which is fine by me 'cos I don't want to go back into hospital. I got so stressed just waiting for the Out-patient appt on Thursday!
As DH has to pack the wound several times a day, I'm trusting him to say if things look worse. It's not painful generally (just stings sometimes) so life is not too bad atm. Others have a lot worse.

[ChristmasPullyWoolOver]

Baa, LMH, Darcies I'm glad you agree re: the netmums thing. I was defo a bit . And yes, swearing is essential, we should not be censored! (are you not allowed on the other site then?!)

mopsy hope you're feeling better now you're home x

figgy sounds like something might be happening - keep an eye on it I reckon...I'm just a clueless first timer tho but that's what I would do.

tinsel can I come round for supper please? Just reading about your pasta has made my mouth water, sounds yummy! What you having Darcies? I think we're doing my special recipe sausage chilli with sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips and corn on the cob on the siiiiiide. I feel the need for cheese!

Full moon tonight so we may get some more popping soon...?!

[Tinselperion]

plu I am seriously considering writing a book about my mother's side of the family. They all drive me up the wall, but they're just too insane not to let everyone else enjoy their madness

pully you can come round anytime (if you are anywhere near us...) It's much more fun to cook for a crowd. TBH it's my 10 min dinner for lazy nights - I do this thing with pasta where I do cheese+savory/umami+greens, described it here on the food board recently.

[LittleMissHumbuggery]

Tonight I will mostly be eating something if I can find it. If not I'll be eating nothing or phoning the nice man at the Chinese and begging for satay:)

Pully you can't swear or go against the grain on the other site, and if you challenge certain things you get warned too. There have been countless threads about it on here:(

[aethelfleda]

Tee hee ... i had a peek on Nm, I'm registered there for occasional peeks at their local event boards and nearly-new section. It looks OK, though everyone seems to have these "ticker" timer things on their posts (23 days 7 hours 2 mins 23 seconds until my due date etc!) and they "swear" by using almost - spellings (she's such an itch! Wish she'd buddy off...)

I like my Anglo-Saxonisms personally. Not that I swear routinely, esp as my DDs are verbal sponges!

[aethelfleda]

Oh and we had chicken and mushroom/pea risotto with grated cheese (a standard easy dinner over here). Nom.

New thread title peeps? Good things come to those who wait? The best presents come in small packages? (or maybe a Buffy/Bad Willow quote: Boooored now!")