December 08 - a few babies under the tree still need unwrapping!

[EffiePerine]

New thread ladies. I have a feeling I will be talking to myself a lot

Glad you had a good day, Verso. Hooray!

KMP - sorry about your poor dog. But Please.Move.Back.to Henley.(Or.Thereabouts) Dummies - MAM ones for newborns are good. And a dummy when sleeping lessens the risk of cot death. www.mamonlineshop.com

Effie, I am with you on the haircuts. I had mine cut the day before I had DD but it's all grotty again. However, it will have to wait for a trip to London without DD. I daren't get it done round here, they probably use sheep shears or something

Finally made it to the farm shop - in the dark, with a torch. Bought a load of veg - well, I say veg, a lot of it is soil I took my own hessian bag to carry it back. Left the Prada bag at home this time! I will look like Popeye soon, carrying veg and a baby around.

Right, off to make Dirty Veg Pie, or something I am truly a Domestic Goddess.

LT at those small minded envious women - they sound evil. Hopefully you'll have more luck with the other lady. I am also a 'bag lady', am a bit of a Mulberry girl myself but am 'resting' them at the moment as am using my red lin and leo change bag which I'm loving . It is so true that no matter how fat and minging I feel it makes me smile to have my posh bag with me ! LOL at turnip flinging

Rosmerta hope all is well with DS, what a nightmare if he isn't sleeping and screams all the time . Hopefully HV can help (assuming you have a decent one).

Verso lovely to hear that you had a good day - long may it continue !

oh and the sling just worked a treat again - hurray ! He was showing signs of tiredness so tried swing and vibrating bouncer to no avail but the sling was a total result ! Verso DS doesn't seem to be bothered by proximity to milk as he just drops off after I have done a few circuits of the lounge !

LadyT I can't believe those women. They are just jealous!!! I really hope the other lady is much nicer. Are you planning on starting your driving lessons again?

I have come to an agreement with DH. He is going to start driving lessons again and I will give up my Sky Sports channels.

Then we can either buy a car or hire a car when we want to go on holiday while we save for a car.

He has failed 5 times so he kinda knows what he is doing, so we're hoping he won't need too many lessons before they put him for his test.

Verso I'm glad you had a good day.

I hope we all have good nights.

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It is going to be hard Cat I think I might have to get him to take me to see Arsenal play Newcastle or Middlesborough when he passes.

I am also struggling to get a nap, either DS1 and DS2 don't nap at the same time or I think that the washing up or something could do with being done.

Kayz you can actually stream a lot of games through foreign websites Inc 3oclock games. I can find out the links from dh for you and email them to you if you'd like. The resolution isn't as good as tele but not bad. We actually hook laptop up to the tele for 3 o'clock Arsenal matches.

LT I just had a terrible thought what if your whole village don't do nice handbags a shoes?!

Trace did you get a shower, I have just realized I still have the same bra and small vest top on that I wore to bed last night I have been out twice today and the bra and vest top got soaked in BM. I do truely love breastfeeding but I just hate waking up in a pool of my own milk between that and being vomited on by ds2 and wee'd on if ds1 comes into ours and over flows his night nappy. He only wears a nappy over night and was almost out of them as has been dry for ages now but since this latest virus he has been overflowing his nappy most nights and that's even with a couple of trips to the loo during the night. Weird.

lol at dirty veg pie and intrepid seeking out of farm shop with torch . We are also having soss and mash. Again.

Cat: can you try for a nap after lunch if you can rely on DS being asleep at that time? And Kayz: the washing up can wait! I'm trying to get one thing done a day atm which I think is reasonable...

Veggie: I was thinking about putting a towel under me at night to mop up the milk overflow.

Oh what a good idea (also bleeding obvious and should have thought of it myself if i had a working cerebrum) thanks for that.

note I haven't done it yet

Oh yes please Veggie That would be great thanks.

Effie I will now leave the washing up. I really could do with having a nap.

Evening everyone, now I dont want to be counting my chickens here but dd seems to really love being in her sling - two days in a row now I've walked into town with her (about 45 mins) and both times she's slept like an angel and then conked out early in the evening - is currently in the car seat and rocking herself with her snores takes after her dad...! [massive fingers crossed icon] that I haven't now cursed my one magic tool... mibbes and cat glad it seems to be working for you too.

rosmerta that's odd that your ds can't sleep at night if he's slept in the day - we were told (and it seems to be the case with dd) that if they sleep well in the day they'll sleep well at night as well, if they've not slept then they get overtired and fractious and then the real trouble starts it's a mean old vicious cycle.
bf leaks in the night - my fave is when I'm feeding lying down and the top one gently drips onto dd at one point I thought she'd weed so much it had soaked her grobag then realised it was me

verso glad you had a good day, I think it's really important that we all share the good days as well as the bad ones as it certainly gives me hope to know that even if I'm having a crap one, someone else is doing well and therefore dd will let me have a good day another time. If that makes any sense.

ladyt lol at the muddy veg, we get a vceg box and some weeks ity's 10% parsnip, 10% swede and 8-% good sandy fenland soil

kmp hope your batteries are still going! re dummies, we've got a couple of tommee tippee ones dummy that a friend sent, she said the flat ones her baby just spat out whereas dd seems quite happy with this if she needs something to suck to go to sleep and neither of us can spare a hand. Don't feel that you're 'breaking down' by doing it, if it helps your baby sleep rather than be fretful and unhappy then that's surely a good thing.*

lots of love to everyone, lets all have good nights please babies and other dcs

*please note this argument doesn't extend to sleeping tablets or brandy.

Turnip if GF works for you then go for it ! Oh and I meant to say to jump that the perfume thng has happened here twice (once in the nail salon and once with my friend's mum), I HATED it and had to change DS's clothes to get rid of the scent of another lady on my baby ! jump glad the sling is working over there too - it is almost working too well here as am about to wake him for a feed after a 5 hour sleep in there !!!

Woohoo for slings they are a fab thing in settling a bubba.

Another woohoo for lovely days with the LO's.

Turnip if it works for you then go for it.

Well the boy was weighed and I am amazed he is now a whopping 10lb's at 3wks old. My booby milk must be packing a punch.

second the yay for slings - which slings have people got? we've got a fabric one (life tree?) but use the kari-me instructions. someone is also sending me some sort of papoose (sp?) sling.

we - wait for it... got her in the car, went to brent cross, went in a couple of shops and... trumpets sounding... went to starbucks for a hot chocolate. we felt vaguely normal! after 15 mins another baby's cries set dd off for about 5 mins, but we had finished by then and were on our way home. we felt so much better for getting out of the house. think that will be de rigeur from now on - every day, get out in one way or another.

also my WONDERFUL godmother came over - as you know my mum died, but wonderful godmother is a great influence. she sat all afternoon with dd holding her and soothing her. genius.

it wasn't a great night, however, and she is now particularly grizzly, so hoping against hope for a good night, but you never know.

can someone summarise for me the GF timings if they are working? cannot possibly buy another baby book - thought i was being really restrained, but have ended up with a full library.

ladyt - that bf book is FAB - thx!

mibbes / turnip the odd thing is she said she deliberately doesn't wear perfume when she's working with babies so it must have been from ages ago still on her clothes - do you think our noses get more sensitive?

jam yowza go you and your boobs, that's great

WG I have a gina ford book you are more than welcome to it.

Hi everyone, hope you?ve all had a good day?

Mibbes ? I?ve got a copy of the baby whisperer so will go back to it to read about interpreting signals. I also thought hand chewing was a sign of hunger, but questioned it myself last night as DD was sucking her thumb and seemed happy and quiet with it. Today we had our first outing, to a post natal group and the topic for discussion was sleeping ? a lot of the tips were aimed at older babies (Eloise was the youngest there), such as not allowing more than a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon/evening, but others were useful and I?ll be trying:

• keeping the room as dark as possible when they wake up in the night, do what you need to do and put baby back in the crib/cot
• try not to interact too much when they wake at night, otherwise they?ll start expecting play time when they wake
• keep all background noise to a minimum at night, but not during the day (even when napping) so they start to learn the difference between night and day

You might know these, but I found them interesting and will try them out. It was also helpful to hear from others at what stage their babies started sleeping longer and so on.

Waitinggirl ? my house also has a number of very ?safe? places, usually they turn out to be the fridge or my underwear drawer! I was gutted to find a slice of apple pie in the oven yesterday tea time, which had been ?warming? since lunchtime! And are you signed up to a library? I?ve taken loads of baby books out to ?test drive? before buying, otherwise I?d have spent a fortune by now.

LadyT ? sorry you had such a bad experience at the hv?s today. Even though I wouldn?t move out of the country for anything I get very frustrated about some services ? usually medical ones ? as they just aren?t geared up for people who don?t have constant access to a car, and public transport is useless. If I want to get to my local town I?d have to catch a bus one day and back the next unless I wanted to return immediately! I hope your new friend is much nicer than the nasties at the clinic. (And even though I?m a country girl, I have a too expensive changing bag cause I couldn?t bear the thought of using an ugly bag for ages, so they are obviously daft as well as mean)

Hurrah to verso?s good day ? that?s fab, and proves they strike at anytime. Can I be in the queue for one tomorrow please?

I?m impressed at those of you managing to mash potatoes, I?m living off jackets at the moment as they?re much easier [lazy emoticon]

So I mentioned our first trip out today ? I am so proud of us. I did take me from 9am to 1pm to prepare for it, and DH drove us into town and helped me assemble the pram and get it in and out of the car, but we did it . Tomorrow I?m going to try and drive myself to the appt with the midwife in the next village, wish me luck ?

Sleep tight everyone ? Mum?s and babies xx

Good god the boy has been on the boob non stop since 5.30 I knew I would pay for letting him snooze the day away. Am off to bed now going to swaddle him into submission with my new swaddling blanket

Sending sleepy baby vibes.

Oh and WG if you want the book am on the email list juliewoolie.

Turnip I'm not a GF person as it just doesn't suit me but am def finding I need to get into a routine with ds2. Ds1 was a very easy going flexible baby who wasn't that bothered by minimal routine whereas we are finding ds2 really seems to want a routine. I had heard that babies feel safe with a set routine and that def seems the case with him. Never feel you have to justify to us how you raise your kids, goodness knows we have to do that enough in RL, don't want to have to do it hear as well.

Oh and thanks for dummy advice, I met a lovely lady at the bf drop in today whose son used one so also asked her she also said to try diff once and give it time. Unfortunately another mum who was quite clearly anti dummy was close by and I think I may have started a bit of a pleasant fight but didn't get to stick around to see it unfold as I had to get home as midwife was due for a visit. Apart from that the group was nice though but unfortunately clashes with postnatal pilates so will only be able to go for one more week. They all seemed quite surprised that he was only 3.5weeks due to size and head control which I was chuffed about but didn't really think he was that amazing with head control or even very big (he's 5kg now on the dot) but I lapped it up anyway. They also though he was really cute and I felt bad as I thought some of theirs were a bit...well unattractive. Does anyone else look at there own and think they are sooooo much better looking than other babies? Am I bad?

Kayz will sort out that link if o haven't sent by tomorrow evening can you remind me.

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please can someone convince me that swaddling is a good thing and that i am not torturing my child and putting them in a straight jacket. i know intellectually that it simulates the constriction within the womb etc, but every time i do it, i feel like the wicked witch of the west.

jam - have emailed you off list - thx - poor you having little one strapped to you all afternoon.

dd has just kicked off - dh is sending me to bed. hopefully she will settle before my shift starts at 12.30.