Graduated Elderberry Pavlovas - Thread 7

[Cavort]

Newly diffed right through to new Mums. A thread for the over 30's expecting their first baby.

Oops forgot to say hi Boom!

The toy giraffes are ace- my younger sister got H one because her best friends' boys both love them. I was a bit but H has loved his from the really early stages- great distraction when nappy changing.

I think it has something to do with the big black eyes as that's how babies see faces when they're newborn. The squeaker helps too. Now he's older he can hold it a bit and the other day I offered him the giraffe to bite on - bit weird seeing a baby chew a giraffe's face but he was very happy!

I hadn't realised they were the most popular toy in Europe but I totally see why now.

yes boom I was very confused at first, when according to all normal calculators I was due on june 21st, but according to my doc june 28th.

And Sophie is just a very popular chewing toy, but all Berry babies seem to love it as well, so the popularity is quite justified.

Elodie likes Sophie the giraffe but I think our dog likes her more. It is a daily battle keeping an eye on where the dog is in relation to the giraffe as he bides his time until I am not looking. I have warned him he is going to the dogs home if he chews it but i'm not convinced he's got the message.

I haven't sterilised any toys, I have just washed them in warm soapy water. The only things I sterilise are bottles, dummies and expressing equipment. I have also started reusing unfinished breast milk rather than waste it after I read this. Expressing is so difficult so it's a shame to waste any.

Lol yesterday I was firmly convinced that Elodie had started on her next Wonder Weeks leap as she was a total nightmare! She woke constantly during the night, even when she wasn't hungry, was grumpy/crying all day, feeding more, would only nap for 40 minutes at a time, and I was quite frankly pulling my hair out by her bedtime! She was better last night and only woke to feed and is much happier today (but has still only managed a 40 minute nap so far) so I will reserve judgement for a few more days. I think it also helps that I went to bed at 9pm and DH fed her at 10pm and 2am so I could get some decent sleep.

Thank you oh wise berries. I was freaking out for no reason and already gave her the giraffe without sterilising it. Washed it and that was it.
Had her weighed yesterday and although she has put on 8oz in two weeks (is now 11lb 12, was 7-2 at birth) she has gone down from 52nd to 50th. HV doesn't seem bothered but I was a bit upset. What do you all think?
Boom your mw knowledge will come in handy too

Oh lol you'll be sadly disappointed, I'm absolutely no use after a baby is about 4 weeks old max, am as clueless as anyone else! As far as I know, as long as a baby is putting on weight and more importantly appears to be thriving, the centiles are a complete load of paranoia inducing bollocks a rough guide at best, and she seems to be gaining weight at a steady rate. I'd really wouldn't worry, but you could always ask the HV to explain why she's not concerned if it's upset you?

Bel I reckon at that size/age she could go between 50th and 52nd percentile depending on whether she'd just done a poo or was storing one up! Doesn't 50th centile mean she is bang on average?

I don't think going from 52 to 50 is anything to worry about, it's what, just a few grams difference.

Don't worry about the centiles, Lucy dropped from 50th to between 2nd and 9th so a massive drop and she is absolutely fine. Don't give in to health visitor hysteria. If your baby seems happy and healthy they probably are.

I've always just chucked half drunk bottles of expressed milk back in the fridge to reuse, is that wrong then? I'm not mad on sterilising everything either apart from bottles. Maybe she's a French baby as she's never been ill.

Elodie was below the 20th centile at birth and now she's on the 75th. Turns out babies don't take any notice of charts, graphs, tables, etc. Agree with Purple, as long as you have a happy healthy baby who cares? apart from jobsworth health visitors

Nearly 9pm, OH not home from work yet. Again. This means I've had to put the baby to bed without him seeing her and that I'm starving hungry and that the dinner I was planning on making that takes 40 minutes won't get cooked or we won't eat until stupid o'clock by which time I won't be able to eat anyway so we'll end up eating crap again. Sigh. I'm so sick of this. I know he's working hard but I feel like a bloody line parent. If he was a banker making million pound bonuses at least I could understand the long hours but he's not even making much money. I wish he would just sell the business and work for someone else and have evenings and weekends and holidays like normal people

Difficult one Purple. As you say, it's hard to tell him off when he's working, it's not like he's down the pub but so frustrating nonetheless. is obviously the answer

Purple in our household if DP was going to be late home he would expect to be reheating his dinner, not expect me to wait for him. You are BF! You can't go hungry.
I sympathise, it must be so annoying to not have him around enough. Mine is either home all the time (which is great) or away all the time (ie days/weeks at a time, or back at 2am) and doesn't earn much either so I know the frustration.

I agree with quod. You should eat and leave his dinner for him to heat up when he comes.
Thanks for the reassurance re centiles. I think I freaked out a bit cause i couldn't express not even an ounce for the last two days so I thought my milk was drying up and hence the slight drop. But dr google reassures me this is normal and I must persist with the pumping. Is it just me!?

Purple have to say Mr Boom only gets home at about 9.30 three nights a week and I do wait to cook dinner until he's in. But then a) I know he's coming in at that time and b) I don't have a baby to add to the equation. Rewarmed dinners sound fair enough to me!

Lol keep pumping, I think Dr Google is correct for once!

If anyone fancies a giggle, I've already posted this on the helicopter thread but can't bear for anyone to miss out The penis beaker thread funniest thread ever!

Lol have you tried expressing first thing? Something that has worked for me is doing the night feed and morning feed from the same boob, then during his morning nap expressing from the other. After a whole night of building supplies I can usually get quite a lot!

I will try that janey, thanks.
Boom that thread is hilarious! Apparently it's all over fb as well but u haven't seen it!
Cav what did you do when Elodie had a cold? Took her to go? We're full of snot in here and she is getting increasingly frustrated by it

Lol - saline spray helps with the snottiness. And you can get a suction thing you put near their nostril. I was a bit grossed out by it but have it in case he gets a bad cold!

Thanks again janey. Do I buy saline spray from boots?
I have one of those sucky things but she won't let me use it so I've been using cotton buds

Lol I used Calpol, Saline drops, made sure she was sleeping slightly upright and just rode it out. She was only really snotty for a couple of days so it wasn't too bad. It made her snore like a warthog though.

Well the lovely enjoyable happy baby I had last week who was napping really well has this week turned into the short-napping grumpy baby from hell. She is now napping for a maximum of 40 minutes at a time and spends quite a lot of her awake time grumpy because she is tired. The difference compared to last week is unbelievable. Luckily her nighttime sleep seems so far unaffected - not that her nights are brilliant, just ok. She goes down 7-8pm, wakes to feed about 12.30ish and 4ish and then up about 7ish. We dropped the dream feed as she was still waking twice a night with it. Is anybody else having any kind of issues or have you all got easy perfect happy sleeping babies? I seem to have a total diva on occasions!

Nights are fine but Vic has been grumpy the past couple of days as well and doesn't want to nap during daytime. Yesterday was awake pretty much the whole day.

Lucy likes to mess with my head with sleep so she did two night in a row not waking until 5am and I thought great, she's getting the hang of it. Climbed into bed last night expecting five glorious hours only to be woken up at half past bloody two. For a bloody hour. Then again at 6 for another hour. My poor nipples feel bruised and she has done nothing but giggle all morning so she obviously thinks its hilarious. Little sod.

I know I'm being thick but are these saline drops for the nose? Is there a difference between them and the spray?
Well last night she slept from 9 until 6 with no feeding!!!!!! Should have I woken her up????
But she fed for the whole evening and was a little terror. Until my boobs were empty and I was in tears cause I thought she was hungry- obviously not as she slept for hours after!
Cav I don't think you're a drama queen at all. My baby is far from perfect!

Miles is refusing to sleep in the day much now too, think he finds everything around him too damn interesting. He's grumpy this morning as a result. Nights generally good although woke me a couple of times moaning and then for feeds at 2.30 and 5.30. Is this a growth spurt perhaps?! Hopefully swimming tomorrow will get him back on track - he almost always has a two hour nap after...

Lordy he just did a man-size fart. Thankfully we're still at home - he usually saves those for quiet empty shops to trick other customers into thinking it was me

Do you also find breastfeeding more interesting now? Vic doesn't just sit quietly and eat, oh no. He needs to grab everything, wriggle around, kick and punch - honestly it's like trying to feed a weasel or a bad-tempered cat sometimes..

Yes, that and trying to change a nappy on a writhing baby who does a full body stretch just as you're trying to fasten it. She likes to punch me in the nose when I'm feeding her sort of miss the sleepy newborn who sat still!