Graduated Elderberries - Thread 8

[Cavort]

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

Thread 8 already!!

Happy mat leave day mother! Bet it feels strange!

I'm giving baby power its Xmas present outfit early so we can get more use out of it than one day! Can't wait, am a total sucker for embarrassing novelty wear! (For the baby I mean, DH and I don't dress up as elves each Xmas!)

Oh and no help on the sleep routines and feeding times but am trying to keep track of what works for people which seems to be totally different for each baby!! Shame there isn't a one size fits all routine that I can do!

Feels very odd, I went to sleep ok, was wide awake at 4.30am, then again at 7am....guess my body thought it needed to be up for work. Then went to sleep again till 9.30 seems I sleep better with a king size bed to myself Feel shattered now though!

Nothing apart from housework and dog walking to do today either.....doh. Sure my folks will pop in at some point, they are quite stalkerish at the moment.....nice but a bit annoying too!

Make the most of it mother - a much deserved rest before the chaos kicks in
Take it easy and relax! Lovely...

Thanks janey, doing my best to relax, done all the washing but now sat catching up in stuff on sky+.

Just took the collar off the dog to brush her and discovered she has a red sore on her neck under where her collar usually is. She let me wash it with antibacterial wash and then I put some aloe vera on it from our aloe vera plant. Do you think thay will be ok? I can do this each day in the hope it gets better. I'll take her to the vet if it gets worse I'd just rather sort it myself if I can.

Poor Cleo! Does she wear a collar at home mother? If so couldn't she just wear it when she goes out in case it's rubbing/causing the red sore? Perhaps she needs a new softer collar? My cat won't even wear collars, we bought her three but she somehow managed to lose them all in the early days! So our fancy magnetic cat flap has Sellotape all around it as she can't wear the magnet without a collar!

Hope I can enjoy mat leave and relax without feeling guilty!

Yeah she wears a padded collar, must have been rubbing I feel really bad as it looks sore. I've taken it off and will leave it off as it obviously doesn't agree with her. Being on mat leave at least means I don't have to worry as much about her during the day as I can keep an eye on her. She wears a harness for walks so I'll pop her name tag on their instead.

I checked with my vet nurse friend and she said to bathe it and put aloe vera or sudocream on it so shall continue doing that.

My cat loses his collar lots too but he's totally black and goes out at night so I make him wear a reflective one in the hope that cars can see him.

Overprotective owner alert!!

Your catflap sounds better than ours Alex, Boomdog II stuck his massive bonce through it and now it has no actual door, it's just a hole. Classy.

Poor Cleo mother, hope her neck is better soon. Have you got a harness she can wear instead of a collar for walks for a little while?

Since we're bemoaning our poor animals, one of my cats has decided that he's stressed and has developed alopecia from overgrooming. We've got him a calming vaporisor thing that plugs in and some food supplements with various calming things in them, but he's still doing it. Poor old baldycat. although he's a black cat too so maybe his white patches of skin make him more visible in the dark

Duh. didn't read your post properly re: harnesses mother! Ignore me...

Hey Bunny, very nice to see you I've been nosey keeping an eye as usual and very pleased to see your progress. You'll be diffed before you know it

Not long now Mother now you're on mat leave. But poor Cleo I'm sure you'll nurse her back to health while you're off.

Alex I can't believe you and your DH don't dress as elves? I thought everyone did?? I certainly spend every Christmas Day wearing this

Elodie's first swimming lesson went great today. She didn't cry once, even when I was pouring bowls of water over her head and by the end of the lesson she was floating on her back with only one of my hands under the back of her head, which I thought was good progress in only 30 minutes. She was knackered afterwards but still unable to sleep well = grumpy baby. Oh joy.

Gogo Elodie! She's a right water baby by the sounds of it!

I really want to take H swimming as there's a pool literally across the road from the house and he seems to love baths so it seems like a great fit.

Two questions- what does baby wear and where did you get it from? And two, what are you doing about the whole AF situation? Without banging on and on, I am still waiting for my next one after 4 weeks of on-off PMT symptoms. I'm terrified of it turning up mid-lesson, which is surely a guarantee to bring it on. Plus when it does show up, I don't know if I could use/trust tampons.

The things I fret about!

Mother - do enjoy your chill time. Go for lazy coffee stops and shopping trips. Definitely get your hair done!

Viki has his first swimming lesson booked for Tuesday. Which is the day I go back to work. And also day after we get back from Turkey. The only trouble is that the flight at stupid hour for a really early flight, this will certainly mess up his sleeping. Quite worried he will scream the whole duration of the flight

Brave I got Elodie one of these as I was worried about her getting cold in the water, but the water was lovely (32 degrees) so she could have just had a swim nappy, but it does mean I can take her to a colder pool and she'll be nice and warm. The other babies at the lesson were wearing similar but there are lots of different products on that webshite. It's slightly confusing but the Happy Nappy part stops any leaks in the pool and then you use something disposable or washable underneath in case baby does have an accident in the pool. I got one of these for underneath.

Regarding AF, I had one from hell at 7 weeks while I bizarrely still had slight lochia going on. It was really long, heavy and painful so I was dreading the next one, but I had a second AF last week and it was 1.5 days, very light and pain free. I am still annoyed at having an AF at all while EBFing but if I have to I suppose a small one is better. I used tampons for the first one as I had already DTD pain free following episiotomy so I figured if I could do that without aggravating the scar I could also use tampons, but I wouldn't have felt confident swimming because it was so heavy, but I would have happily gone swimming during the second AF. If you are worried about it happening in the water perhaps put a precautionary tampon in just in case? You won't be in the water that long anyway (Elodie was knackered after 30 mins) so chances of it happening are slim.

Brave - I got Lucy a swimming costume from Mothercare (this one, very cute she looks in it too www.mothercare.com/Mothercares-Sealife-Swimsuit/LZ1363,default,pd.html) and she wears a swim nappy under it. I don't suppose you need any sort of cossie/shorts really but since wet babies are pretty slippery I preferred the idea of having something to hold on to, plus, did I mention she looks super cute in it? We've not been to any organised classes but have just gone splashing around the pool a few times on our own.
I go swimming every week on my own as well, hadnt really thought about AF, no sign of it here, long may it continue.

www.mothercare.com/Mothercares-Sealife-Swimsuit/LZ1363,default,pd.html

Thanks janey cavort mother x

We had our first lesson on Monday as well and it's fair to say we both loved it! I just put her in a swim nappy (huggies) with a happy nappy over it. But I also went to a very warm pool so didn't need anything to keep her warm.
First lesson she went under water already. Very cool indeed.
Re sleeping I did give her a feed at 11 and she woke up at 3 then 5 but went back to sleep straight away. So overall I'm pleased.
Hope everyone else has exciting plans for the weekend

Miles wears a swim nappy and a happy nappy, although I've bought him a body wrap thing for £8 from amazon for the public swimming pool - his lessons are in a thermo pool heated to 35 degrees, think the public one is 29! Miles too is exhausted after half an hour. I find if I can get him to sleep straight after it lasts two hours. If i dick around take a bit longer getting changed etc and he gets over tired he's a nightmare.

Just had Alex and her DH over for dinner. Had the busiest afternoon - as well as looking after a baby I made from scratch lentil Dahl, chick pea curry, prawn curry and a malteser cake. Am knackered now!! I can report back though that Alex is looking amazing. Can't wait for their baby to arrive too although I did deliberately scare them by showing them a photo of Miles' enormous poo earlier today that came out of the front, back and sides of his nappy

Woken up this morning by crazy calf cramp.....ouch! I must have looked uber special flapping about trying to get rid of it.

Oh I remember that from the last few. weeks - agony!! I used to shout at DP who would jump up and try and stretch it out for me, whilst looking very confused and sleepy...

Poor you!

Marking place, lost you for a while and have also been sleeping every spare minute of the day. Hope you're all ok

I can report back that janey's food was amazing! And I helped with little Miles' bath time, for practice (well I watched and made silly faces at him), he seemed to love his bath. Can't believe I only have around 6 weeks to go! really better get round to getting my legs waxed and start ordering some baby stuff!

Oh and mother I've only had mild cramp a couple of times so far but I do know what you mean! DH gets it worse from cycling sometimes, he's trying to steal my thunder

hi ladies, my OH had gone to work an pgp pain stopped me from sitting up or getting up like a normal perdon, so I was thrashing around like a beached whale not the best or most dignified wake up

I am feeling dizzy, light headed and weak today, really unlike me, so me and pooch are staying on the sofa....whether she likes it or not!!

perdon = person.....doh