Graduated elderberries - 30+ and looking forward to DC1! (Thread 6)

[HazleNutt]

Oh, looks like I wrote the last post! So new thread here where we will see more berry babies and hopefully loads more graduates as well.

Oh hazle what an absolute pain. Babies are funny things, aren't they. Does it make a difference if it's you or your DH giving the bottle? You've worried me - we haven't been giving Miles an expressed bottle absolutely every day recently, so just gave him one now. I'd hate him to stop taking a bottle... Hope Vic is taking to it more now...

I'm having the same dilemma re bottles! It's dh's birthday on Friday and I really want us two to go for dinner. My mum is more than happy to stay with her but I'm worried she won't feed and I will have to rush back! I've not given her a bottle for two days now as I was trying to save up the milk I expressed for my mum to use on Friday and now I'm worried she won't take it anymore!!!! Why is this all so complicated?????
Also attempted my first dream feed. Epic fail. She simply would not feed so I put her back in her basket only for her to wake up and scream. Now she is fed and changed but also wide awake! So I handed her back to dh and came to bed
Any hints to make this work?

Lol I find dream feeds a bit hit and miss. Sometimes she feeds well and other times she is not interested so I just put her back down again and try again later. If only babies were simple.

I don't suppose any of the berry mummies using a 'sleepyhead' pillow? Just as a friend is selling hers and offered it to me first - I was planning on only buying essentials and seeing how we get on with the basics to save money for mat leave, but the sleepyhead pillow does sound quite good so am debating buying it off her?

Dream feeds/bottle feeds don't sound as straightforward as I thought!

Ha I was about to tell you our mutual friend had one and loved it... Then realised it must be her selling it! I obv don't have one. Our friend recommended it but I thought I'd wait and see how miles slept. As if turns out we haven't needed it as he sleeps ok as a rule - just wakes up hungry all the time!

Her baby loved it, although not sure if they all do - I know it's a bit of a novelty but it has great reviews and I was thinking we could use it as a travel cot too (although it can only be used for 6 months) or we could keep it downstairs and have the Moses upstairs during the day or vice versa. Wonder if it fits in a Moses basket too as that would be a bonus to save buying a mattress. Plus it's really cute!

Yes I'm sure some babies love them - I looked at the reviews too when she recommended it. I would have had to spend £100 on it new though so decided to wait and see if I had a nightmare sleeper or not! If it's a bargain I'd get it in case it works for you... If not I might wait and see if you need it?

Oh joy. Less that four hour's sleep in total. At 5.30am finally gave up and brought Miles downstairs so DP could get some sleep - as soon as I did that be fell asleep on my chest. Damn him. I shall be going to bed at 8pm tonight leaving DP with a baby and lots of expressed milk!

Ouch Janey, that's a bad one. I'm sure your DP won't mind doing the twilight shift while you get some rest. I fared slightly better at 5.5 hours but fully intend to get back in bed as soon as she has her first nap, which should hopefully be in about an hour. Thank goodness for caffeine, eh?

Eek.

Good news - sleeping fine here. Bad - still won't take the bottle. Well, he will, but only when he gets the boob first and I can then stick the bottle in quickly, then he happily finishes the whole thing. But any other way and he screams like we're trying to kill him, not feed him. Not sure what to do..

Right. Off on my holidays and determined to relax and stop worrying. Oh and put some weight on! Wish me luck!

Alex fear not, it's true when you hear people saying it's amazing how little sleep you can survive on. Pre-baby if I didn't get at least 8 hours I was a beast the next day but now I don't get anywhere near that and what I do get is broken and I generally feel fine on it.

Have a lovely pre-baby holiday Quod. I am very . And I am also of your dessert-fest. Enjoy.

I have nothing to suggest on the bottle front Hazle and i'm sure you've tried every tactic anyway, but how frustrating.

I agree with cavort, something really changes in your body when you have a baby. When our puppies woke me up just once I was sleepy the whole day afterwards, but baby can wake me up 2-3 times and I feel totally fine the next day.

I have to say it does wind me up when I have a bad nights sleep and people smugly say 'oh well it's just preparing you for when bubs arrives'. Yes I'm sure it is, but I won't be growing a child inside me at that point and won't have t go to work and deal with clients for 8 hours. Grrrr.

I used to be ok on little sleep, I could happily get by on 4 or 5 hours, but since being pregnant I feel like crap if I don't sleep enough.

My mum said you never really sleep deeply once you have a baby either, she said everything wakes you up just incase it's the baby.

Advice please ladies, my OH wants one of these but I think a simple moses basket would be a simpler and more useful option? What have you found?

I just want something he can sleep in and am aware that at night he will need to be transferred from downstairs to upstairs preferably without waking him and the moses basket seems easiest for that? Downstairs we will probably have a travel cot for the moses basket to go in, or I may keep him in the prams carrycot when downstairs (out of the way of the hound dog) but I thought a moses basket would be ok for upstairs? Plus if we get the crib it will have to go at the end of the bed rather than next to me. All advice welcome.

Personally I would choose something next to the bed rather than at the end of it Mother, but maybe I am just lazy and find it easier to just lean over half asleep and put her on the boob at 4am. But she's 8 weeks now and won't fit in our moses basket for too much longer (I guess until 12 weeks) so we will be bringing the cot into our room when she outgrows it but luckily we have a big bedroom. If you haven't got space for a cot in your room then a swinging crib might be better as you will easily get past 6 months in one.

Our current set up is Moses Basket next to the bed and she naps in the bouncy chair or swing or refuses to get off me or DH when she's downstairs. She used to nap downstairs in the pram carrycot when she was first born because we couldn't be arsed to keep moving the moses basket up and down and it's not secure enough to carry her in it. She never wakes up when we move her upstairs at bedtime.

Cheers cavort think that makes sense. Maybe the swinging one is the way to go then. It would indeed fit width wise next to our bed, but it's quite long so I'd have to scooch half way down the bed to get up in the night or risk knocking into it.....not the end of the world. I prefer the idea of being able to reach him next to me rather than having to get up yep I'm lazy too .

We have room length wise in our room so the crib could easily start next to me and then migrate to the end of the bed. Or me and my OH could switch sides as he has more space his side.

Either way it does make sense to have the one which will last longer, especially if you can't really move baby around in them. Thanks

mother it's difficult to say what your baby will like. Mine does not like the moses basket and will only nap really briefly in pram as well. He loves his hammock, but again, not all babies do.

Moses basket is good if you have a big house and you plan to carry him around with you from room to room. We have an open plan ground floor, so no need for that and when I go upstairs for a longer period of time, he comes with in the BabyBjörn bouncer (love that, even bought an extra one for my parents place).
So our current set up is hammock downstairs, co-sleeper cot upstairs next to our bed. Like Elodie, Victor also does not wake up when carried upstairs.

well that is shocking! My OH just went to the gym.....this hasn't happened for about 4 years!

Is it odd that I cant pick up a heartbeat on the heart to heart dopler my mate lent me but I can watch him kick at it? My stomachs moving around but I cant find the heartbeat....Id never make a midwife would I!!!

Mother are you staying still long enough to account for the delay? Ie you can't keep it in motion expecting to pick up the heartbeat as it needs time for the sound wave/echo to return.
But also there's plenty of baby/placenta positions I understand that make it difficult

mother so true what you said about the bad nights sleep comments!

A friend has given me a doppler but a midwife told me not to use a doppler often as there are some schools of thought about it not being great for the baby and the baby not liking it. I googled as I wondered about her comment and read some negative stuff/concerns about what the baby thinks of it, but I don't want to scaremonger and am sure it's absolutely fine, just thought I'd mention in case anyone didn't notice there is a maximum use note on them. I'm not using it much as I won't enjoy it properly if I have that in my head, but I did have a play with it and DH heard the heartbeat for the first time (he missed the midwife app where she did that). Anyway he was so happy he gave the bump a kiss but forgot about all the gel haha - didn't taste good!

Oh and mother I found it hard to find the heartbeat too but bumpy also pushed it away a couple of times!

How was Miles after his jabs Janey? Elodie has hers on Wed and I'm not looking forward to the possible aftermath