Graduated Elderberries - Thread 8

[Cavort]

The over 30's expecting/just given birth to their first little bundle of joy.

Thread 8 already!!

Cavort - they wouldn't be worried about her being small if she was following the growth curve, whichever centile is was but because she's actually dropping down the centiles it means she's n

Sorry!
Not just small but not growing at the expected rate so they need to check it out to see if there is an underlying reason why.

Fingers crossed you get some answers soon Purple.

Question for mama berries: anyone shifted baby to their own room yet? I'm very aware of the guidelines but H is rapidly outgrowing the moses basket and DP won't countenance bringing the cotbed into our room (it'd fit, but only just).

I know he has to move out at some point but I feel quite wobbly. DP says it's normal to feel like that, but it'll be fine. What's everyone else doing?

Brave Elodie is still in our room, but it is because of ease of night feeding more than SIDS guidelines to be honest. I imagine she'll be in her own room before 6 months though. She's currently in her cot in our room but we have moved the cot away from the bed over to the far wall so we are sort of staging a gradual eviction. I agree it is tough though... when we started putting her to bed in her cot upstairs while we were still downstairs in the evening I found it hard at first knowing she was asleep but out of my sight, even though we have a breathing/movement sensor and a video monitor and I can clearly see that she's fine. I do think it's normal to feel uneasy about it and i'm sure I will be the same, but I also look forward to not hearing every little murmur she makes in the night.

In other news, Elodie has learned to squeal, which is now bringing untold joy to our household, especially at 7am.

And I don't want to speak to soon and curse things, but in better news she seems to have moved herself to a one-stop strategy overnight.

I'm having the same problem brave. I don't want her moved until we stop with night feeding but dh wants to start now. We won't move cot into room either so I guess that will be when it will happen. And I'm hoping I will have a gut feeling too. Right now she's not going anywhere.
On other news she's slept from 11-7 and is now asleep again so I'm off to have a nap
Mother bounce on your birth ball!!!

Get bouncing Mother!

Thanks team. DP just announced he wants to move him tonight because he's off Monday and can 'help' if there's any problems.

I was hoping to get him through the 4 month growth spurt purely for convenience reasons, although I've always fed him in the nursery.

I think my biggest worry is that I won't hear him quickly enough - I don't want him to have to scream and scream before I get to him :(

We do have a monitor and will be able to use the movement sensor from tonight but it's not always very loud (as discovered when we've been putting him upstairs in the evening- it sometimes takes a few cries before it kicks in).

Oh I'm bouncing girls don't you worry. I usually start cramping a bit in the evenings then it all stops overnight...very annoying!

I'm not looking forward to moving bubs into his own room, we have a swinging crib in our room which should be big enough for a fair while but when he moves into his own room it will be the floor below ours which seems a really long way to go in the dead of night.

cavort we have squealing sessions at 6-7AM too, every morning. He's unbelievably loud.

As for his own room, he's not going anywhere any time soon. We will only start converting the guest room into his room some time after New years, so realistically he will probably be about 7 months before he goes there.

Taking into account his current eating when I'm not at home (as in not eating) and that he due to that wakes so often during the night, I would not even consider it - I can manage if I can grab the baby and feed so neither of us really wakes up. It would not be doable if he had to really scream before I hear it and I had to get out of bed.

And while I generally agree that fathers are as important and should have as much to say about how to raise kids - in this case, the opinion of the one who actually gets up during the night to feed the baby should stand.

regarding nursery, I'm considering buying him one of those convertible beds that he can also use when he's a toddler. Showed some to DH and he said that maybe we should just go for a bunk bed, you know, for the second one

Can't see us being able to move the baby into her own room just yet as she still doesn't have one. Hopefully the attic will be finished at some point early next year so will move her then but if she's still waking me up at 4am I'd rather keep her where she is instead of having to run upstairs in the cold to fetch her.

Hazle - I love your DHs enthusiasm!

We are a room short in our house so will lose the home office once baby moves into the small bedroom, so I imagine unless it drives us mad baby will be in with us for a while.

Good news from yesterday's midwife appt is that she thinks baby is now head down. I know it can still shift but at least it's not stuck in breech!

I had a v energetic morning, fixed a bike tyre, grouted some tiles, painted a set of shelves, scrubbed bathroom floor and removed half the old floor grout before suddenly realising I was overdoing it! Got a sore back now, whoops...

This is going to sound a bit 'my diamond shoes are too tight' but I am struggling a bit at the moment with how much DP is doing. He's suddenly incredibly driven to sort all the house stuff out as well as pushing himself very hard work-wise and doing more than his share of cooking/cleaning/shopping. I keep asking him to stop and slow down a bit as I am worried he will burn out and I think he needs a bit more relaxing in his life (plus I feel guilty for not keeping up with him!) but he is having none of it. I almost don't recognise him, he never used to be like this!

Quod your DP sounds fabulous.

Hazle - bunk beds? Love it!

Cavort - am jealous. Put makeup and heels on an everything today for Alex's baby shower. No amount could hide the dark circles...

Mother - getting excited (and weirdly jealous) that it's nearly your time!

So arranged Alex's baby shower for today. I was v excited as the arsenal team bus was outside the hotel, and when we walked in we saw Arsene wenger. DP was very impressed when I told him and is now suggesting their baby will be an arsenal fan. Suffice to say Alex's DH would not allow that!

Quod he's just nesting, totally normal.

No our baby will have a life of disappointment supporting DH's team who never win!

Baby shower was really lovely, and now mat leave is just a week away. On the downside, why am I up and wide awake at 6am?!! I've just got over a cold and have a manly, husky voice so def need the sleep!

quod my DH is the same, I read about male nesting but I think it's also because of the loft extension - anyway he took a week off work to finish DIY, worked his arse off, and there is still lots left to do! I was worried about him too as he was painting and glossing etc until late each day and went out with friends yesterday with paint stuck in his hair without realising, so we've decided to just get someone in to finish some of the work must faster than DH can in a day or two. Nice he's been working hard to get things ready though.

Sounds like you had a good run of sleep lol!

Not sure if I said but MIL insists it's "wrong" for the baby to stay in with you more than a couple of months absolute max which is a bit annoying as planning to have baby in with us for longer for feeding etc especially as it will be on a different floor in its nursery. Don't want to trek up and down stairs every time it wakes up during the night and besides think I'd like it being near us for longer. We're just going to do what we want to do anyway!

Quod if you can't cope send him this way, I'll happily sit with my feet up while he does all my housework. He sounds like a good un.

Hazle I was just reading another thread about a baby who will only take a bottle when lying completely flat. And my Sister is currently having fun with my Nephew refusing his bottles and she's worked out he'll take one ok if she sticks it in his mouth while he's mid-nap, but the best way of getting him to drink a full bottle is to lie him flat and hold her phone over him playing YouTube videos. The distraction seems to mean he doesn't think about the bottle at all and just drinks it. The Muppets 'Mana Mana' video is apparently his favourite followed by the Swedish Chef song. The things you have to do with these damn babies, eh?

After a few days of lovely 07.30am starts today it was 05.45. He doesn't know it yet but I am waking DH up at 07.30 to swap shifts so I can go back to bed for a lovely Sunday lie in.

Glad you had a nice baby shower Alex.

I think you had better get used to your MIL's advice. It seems the older generation seem to all think they are baby experts even though it's generally 30+ years since they last changed a nappy and recommendations have altered massively since then. My Mum is obsessed that BF is not enough and I should also be giving Elodie cooled boiled water to keep her hydrated. I just smile politely and change the subject. It doesn't occur to her that I am 16 weeks into EBFing a baby who is very healthy and showing no signs whatsoever of dehydration.

I'm lucky there because my mum isn't very bossy opinionated - except when it comes to recommending epidural or taking my pregnancy vitamin tablets! Bless her she's recruited DH to make sure I'm taking my daily tablet. She thinks it's generational too about older generations being very opinionated and thinking they're baby experts, but she laughs and says they've probably forgotten most of it in reality

Still wide awake and now entertaining myself by putting a soft toy from the baby shower on my belly and watching bumpy kick it about on my belly, it's very cute!

My favourite part of the baby shower was Alex's MIL being completely shocked, and telling me how unlucky i was, because my four month old didn't sleep through the night. I told her that everyone I knew with a baby the same age was in the same position, but she seemed to think I had the naughtiest baby ever. It actually made me laugh - I wonder if her boys really did sleep through by this point, or if it's just a case of rose tinted glasses. Thoroughly enjoyed chatting to her, possibly the only person I've ever met who talks more than me!

Cavort - I've had the cooled boiled water thing too! APPARENTLY, not only does my skinny baby need to be filling up on water that has no bloody calorific value but water would have also miraculously cured the oral thrush she had, it took four lots if medicine but apparently water would have done the job. Must be amazing stuff!

Janey - I've been told I'm unlucky the baby isn't sleeping through too. Do you think it's because they've forgotten or do you think their experience is with FF babies who do tend to sleep better? Everyone looks sceptical when I say that all the other babies I know this age are the same, they look at me like I'm lying to myself to make me feel better about it!

Maybe she's from the generation that left babies to cry at the bottom of the garden? And at night just on a different floor with no baby monitor, so she just thinks the baby slept through.

Well I've been with the in-laws for a week and been given amazing advice including the one about not speaking foreign as it will result in her being behind at school
I've had: give her water, tea for colic (not milky though as THAT would be silly), don't pick her up when she cries as I'm spoiling her, don't offer boob all the time as she's not hungry, give her formula at night as I can't express enough and she's going hungry, move her out of our room, start weaning next month, put a hat at night to keep her warm, don't give her a dummy.... Shall I carry on or are you bored????

No it's fascinating Lol - so knowing another language is supposed to be somehow detrimental? Show them this: science.time.com/2013/07/18/how-the-brain-benefits-from-being-bilingual/

New studies are showing that a multilingual brain is nimbler, quicker, better able to deal with ambiguities, resolve conflicts and even resist Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia longer.

And during our recent holiday in Turkey with my parents and aunt and uncle, aunt was always saying that the baby is too cold. Even bought him a velour outfit to wear. It was 28 degrees..
Then again, coming from Estonia, everybody is obsessed about keeping babies warm, you will see serious cats-bum mouths if a baby doesn't have hat and socks even on the warmest summer day. Over here, everybody is worried about babies not over-heating.