Fab Feb Thread: 22 on show........33 to go.......!!!!

[spottyshoes]

Ooo I feel all important now.

ooohhh, I've just ordered some new nappy stuff...a couple of fluffles for night time, some new wraps and other bits and bobs...really thereaputic!!!

that would be huggles not fluffles...googness I need to hurry up and have a baby!!!

lardy I'm hoping not much longer for you

Jerky seems to settle easier when put on is side, he has been like this most of the day and has been far happier. Does anybody not lay their baby's on their backs for sleep? Am thinking about letting him sleep on his side but am a bit paranoid about the you know what.
Funny how we can have no strong feelings about certain guidelines i.e. preparing bottles but be caught up in others...what's the thoughts here?

MrsY - its good to cry it out (better than holding it all in). I think a little bit of blood isnt an issue but if you're bleeding alot you may want to just express and bin the milk. Try and air your nipples to let them heal - Lanisoh is also good for them.

Lardy - fingers crossed its not long for you now. Great you're already starting to dilate - maybe the sweep will help things along...

LBB- DS2 likes sleeping on his side (on my arm) at nights - sometimes its the only way I can get him to doze at night time with me, and I think it helps him with his wind issues. If he's not in with me, I try to lie him on his back but he often tries to wriggle himself on to his side (I have never known such an active sleeper - legs and arms going crazy!). His grobag arrived today (he is not a swaddley baby) so fingers crossed will help him be a little more peaceful tonight...

dinky both mine seem to panic if their arms are covered or trapped by swaddling so we don't do that.
Goodluck with the grobag.....is it ok to use them on baby's under 10lbs? I thought I'd read somewhere that they had to be a certain weight to go in them? I'm prob wrong though...

Thanks LBB - Grobags are apparently suitable for babies over 7lbs so thought would try it out with DS2 as he's well over that. Shame he's not into swaddling - his big brother was but then he was really overdue so obviously used to being very confined

Oh ok, it's 7lbs.

morning all, another bad night here Think we need to contact MNHQ and request some new emotions as the available ones simply don't cover all our feelings. I'd suggest zombie type ones or 'emotional wreck' ones if they could come up with them.
BF not going too well yesterday pm/last night. Little man simply didn't want to play so I was up most of the night in tears feeling so frustrated that I couldn't feed him. Thankfully we had a little breakthrough around an hour ago and he fed for around 15 mins on one side and 10 on the other which is the most he has ever done. Am pretty sure it is because of his tongue but will keep at it. I'm wishing I was in the UK again for the support that you can get there as no after care here at all and it would be so nice to have bf counsellors to talk to.
As others have said, I'm so grateful for MN and don't know how I'd cope without all you lovely ladies (need for a oscar speech type blubbing emotion) On the positive, one of my best friends returned from the UK yesterday and saw her briefly in the afternoon having not seen her since mid November. Turns out her two boys (2.6 and 7m) both had tongue tie and the youngest had treatment for it when he was born in the UK in the summer so hopefully I'll get some useful advice from her.

MrsY, sorry you are still so sore. I remember bleeding nipples from DS1/DD1 and seem to recall I used some plastic nipple shields which helped a little. Have you tried them? You obviously need to give your poor nipples a rest and give yourself time to recover as if you are in pain at every feed then Merry will pick up on it. Hugs x

Hi ladies, just thought I would post to say good luck for your CS today Coco. I am ready and leaving for my CS in 15 minutes. Hardly slept a wink because I am so excited to finally be meeting my little girl!! No nerves yet but I am sure they will come!! See you on the other side xx

ooh good luck pinkbabybump, hadn't realised you were going in today too.

Congrats THOM and good luck pbb and coco.....

Nothing going on here still up the duff........ Dont think the sweep is going to work as I am having no signs at all.. Never mind I must not let it get me down... I am officially more pregnant than I have ever been though which is a shock to me as I really believed (stupidly I know) that I would be early like i was with dd.... 39+3 here today....

Oh good luck PBB and Coco - hope the CS's go well I'm sure they will - looking forward to weight and names later !

MOS Sorry you've had a bad night - is there anywhere you can get some b/f assistance there with the tongue tie problem? Poor wee man and poor you!

LBB I put DS in a grobag at 14 weeks after he came out the swaddle but I think as long as their head can't slip down inside the bag accidentally they're fine and I always understood it to be 7lbs....I always use the ones with zips as the clever little things seem to work those shoulder poppers at a very early age

A bad night here with DS - he woke at 4am and I heard him murmur at which point I heard DD let out a cry and me going to her woke him up (she'd been up at 1.20am too). He then was yelling again at 5.50am.....A few tears were shed just before DH went to work - it's just incessant isn't it with a toddler to amuse all day too. I had no adult company all day yesterday as my friend couldn't make it in the end and it was too late to ask anyone else.

My mum who is usually brilliant, is being (not intentionally) unavailable at the moment when I most need her - she only lives 15 mins up the road. I've not asked her to do much but everytime I do she says "oh I need to be gone by "x" as I'm meeting "y" for lunch".....Today I called her as I have to go back to the doctors as my wound is still not healed and it's irritated round one of my non-dissolved stitches. I just asked if she could take DS for a while and I'd take DD with me- I really could do with her being here to let me have a sleep after that but she's meeting my sister for lunch.......I know she's allowed a life but I wish she'd stop going on about "oh I'm around whenever you need me" when the reality of it is that she's not. Sorry, feeling a bit unreasonable today. If I mention the "in-laws" word (ie Oh I'll ask them to do it) she'll move hell on earth to get here [naughty emoticon].

Chatting with one of my friends last night....she's a drama queen at the best of times but she's pregnant with no 2. She doesn't work, her DD is in full time nursery ("couldn't look after her full time" ) She's got some lardy dah private consultant on hand through pregnancy and announced last night that she's getting a maternity nurse in when baby comes (and no doubt DD will be carted off to nursery) - sorry I'm sounding very judgmental but if you met her you might also be a bit too .........DH just rolled his eyes and said "typical"....

Oh and did I mention I'm in a bad mood

herby hats off to you and all the mums who have more than one child (especially a toddler). I am dreading John going back to work, and luckily my mum came round last night with a list of days and half days she has off work (totalling the last of her annual leave). I can't imagine how you cope with a newborn and a toddler - who is essentially a big baby...

Especially when both children are wakeful at night.

Do you have mother and baby groups you could take them both too?

MOS sorry you had another bad night. Hope your friend has some good news...

Good luck pbb and coco!

Good luck pbb and coco !!

Herby.. I know exactly how you feel if that makes you feel any better... vent away and it will make you feel loads better ....dont know if anyone else watches depends on cbeebies via the bbc iPlayer... but is not working today all programme selections only show an episode of 'flog it'. have already had to deal with a hysterical DS wantng to watch 'Kerwizz'

MOS sorry you had a bad night...any opportunity for a rest today.

Dinky thanks for headache advice..feelining much better today as both head and boob have recovered

MrsY have you tried a hot salt and lavender bath to soak in and help heal your breasts.. i also found this bath a godsend after my first forcepts (with epi and stitches) delivery

lardybump hang on in there you are very close to meeting your little one very soon

hmmmm my 'strike out' attempt appears to have failed...

bugger.

ds1 vomiting everywhere now

could cry and am in dread of aaron catching it and endng up in hospital again

horrible having to avoid cuddling poor ds1 in case i infect aaron and he keeps vomiting when dp has buggered off somewhere and i have to clean him up and scrub myself down everytime. every duvet in the house has vomit on it so will be spending my spare time [?!] washing them in the bath and trying to figure out how to dry them.

good luck to todays cs ladies and hope those of you feeling imminent get your babies soon

herby {{{{hugs}}}} and tonnes of sympathy.... i really is unrelenting some days and i can't imagine how rough you must be feeling dealing with bth of them and trying to recover from a cs.

another grobag fan here, ds loved them and they're fab for co-sleeping as you don't have to be fiddling around with seperate blankets for baby which inevitably get tangled up and annoy the crap outta you.

off to do the shopping now before we all starve

Morning all. MoS, Herbgarden and Nkweto - am sending big hugs to you all as you all seem to need them (Nkweto - such a pain about i-player; I've invested in back up CBeebies DVDs just in case the sky box and the lap top go down as I remember they did shortly after DS1 was born and I was abit bored without them - if they both went down when am home alone with DS1 and DS2, there would be hell to pay!!).

MoS - it sounds like the tongue tie is making it harder for DS2 to latch on; have you tried posting on the feeding forum to see if tik-tok or another BF counsellor can give you some advice? I think the procedure for dealing with tongue tie is pretty simple (one of my NCT friend's little boy had tongue tie - they had it snipped on NHS at around 7 weeks and sounded v straightforward) - do they not do it over there?

MrsY - your mum sounds lovely. Am glad you'll have lots of support when John goes back to work. It is terrifying when you are left alone with your baby for the first huge stretch of time, but also immensely rewarding as you get to really know them so well.

Herbgarden - families are funny arent they? I'd hope if you explained to your mum just how exhausted you are and how you need a little bit of a help/break so you can catch up on some sleep, she'd help out more - she probably just thinks you're doing an amazing job and coping brilliantly with 2. If you need to call on the inlaws to ensure she gets the message, do! And as for your friend - she sounds very lucky to be able to afford all of the things she can as full time nursery places and maternity nurses are not cheap (I know a couple of people who had maternity nurses come stay with them after birth - they do cost alot). It sounds like she has difficulty dealing with one child and already knows she'll need lots of help dealing with 2 - that makes me feel a little sad for her; I hope she'll find it easier than she thinks she will.

I feel rather guilty about keeping our nanny on (and it will make things abit tight for us financially over the next 6 months)as it may appear I'm fobbing DS1 off on her, but we all love her so I'd feel more guilty about letting her go while I'm on maternity leave (particularly with the job market out there) and I know she loves him too and he has fun with her at his millions of activities (and god knows she has the patience of a saint with him and his non-eating issues) and I want her to look after DS2 when I go back to work (he'll be the same age as DS1 was when I went back to work)so this is the only real way to work it for us.

Hi all...
back again. Mum turned up - accompanied me to doctors and I have more anti-b's but they did a swab this time and has now whisked DS off to the park, I've popped DD into bed (hopefully there she'll remain and Mum has said she'll give DS his lunch and sit and watch his telly after before I go to a friend at 2pm. Phew. I think she realised !.....

Dinky - I think you should keep nanny on if you can - it is so hard to find someone that you trust, that your kids love and who is reliable - it's the only way. My sil (partner in leading law firm though so really can afford it) kept her nanny on through her three pregnancies and the nanny only left a year ago when oldest was 6 - she was absolutely fantastic and for my sil it meant that there was someone to do pre-school/school pick up and drop off, give her an hour here and there for a nap etc and when she was knackered there and was another pair of hands for tea/ bath time. Use it ! You don't have family just to nip in for an hour here and there (like I do) so you'll really need it.

PT - oh your poor DS1 and poor you. You have enough on your plate don't you without a mountain of washing, probably clingy DS1 and newborn (oh and virtual DP)....I'm off to make you virtual lunch and give you a sit dowN.....

Off for a snooze.
Over and out.

Mmm snoozing and making lunch. Clever me

That's the definition of multitasking Herbgarden

Pinktulips - sending you huge hugs. Hope DS1 recovers well and doesnt give Aaron the bug - just what you dont need!

Good luck to the c-sec ladies and also (as forgot to say it yesterday) happy birthday McDreamy - hope you had a good one..

Herbgarden Glad your mum managed to get to the Doctors with you - Loads of credit to all mums who have two or more babies/toddlers to deal with. I dont think I could cope.

Mrsy Hope you are feeling a little bit better today. You have my respect for your determination on your breastfeeding.
I tried for the first two days/nights in hospital & I/we couldnt do it. She kept falling asleep, not latching properly. Some people will say I didnt try for long enough, but like everyone has said, your baby, your choice.
I now feel alot happier & im sure Poppy is alot more content.

Im still struggling with my stitches - yesterday I felt soooo much better, then today I feel like im back to square one, very uncomfortable to sit down etc. Hoping its going to ease up soon.
Midwife is coming again today, so I think im going to get her to check that everything is right down there.
Poppy is one week old today, I cant believe this time last week I was in labour!

Got to go as we have more visitors coming - I just want to go up to bed tbh, but it seems Iv got to play host instead

bugger, looks like we are all having a bad few days at the moment.

herby at least your mum came through in the end but it must be frustrating for her to keep saying to ask for help and when you do she can't as is busy. I'd be a bit miffed too. Hope the antibiotics do the trick on your wound.
Your 'friend' sounds a bit, well, snobby!(in fact she sounds like a typical Saudi woman who gives birth to the baby then hands it over to someone else to look after) You always come across as so lovely and down to earth and, well normal. She sounds like one of the mums at my kids old prep school! No wonder you feel in such a bad mood.

dinky thanks for advice, I have posted on b/f thread and had a couple of replies so far. I will keep at it but to my dismay I've just had to give little man a bottle as he was so hungry
DH and I just talking about trying to get me back to the UK sooner than planned (end of June) to try to get an appointment with a specialist about DS's tongue. Just have to wait for his passport!

PT poor you and DS, hope he feels better soon and that Aaron doesn't catch it.

McDreamy belated birthday wishes, sorry I missed that one.

PT Hope your day gets a little better, like i said in earlier post - I just dont know how mums cope with more than one! You must all be like superwomen
Big hugs to you xx

I miss spottyshoes!

Message from her, She is still pg , she sends her love to everyone. her internet connection is playing up...

Belated happy birthday, McDreamy - hope you had a great day.