WEST LONDON MEET-UP THREAD - JANUARY 2007 - from Acton to Sunbury everybody welcome

[MrsBigD]

Time for a new general chat thread

HAPPY NEW YEAR

uwila, i've had long and debauched life!!!

yeah! good attitude sue!

teach 'em good that mummy knows best!

ha ha ha [manic laugh icon]

after i've just spent 1.5 hours putting dd to bed because i refuse to bf her when she flippin bites me.

i think we have reached the end of the bf road tbh.

tomorrow night it's a milk drink and i'm prepared for a long 1.5 hours lying down with her instead. b*ggered if i'm gonna have that amount of time and sore nipples into the bargain!

Paddle its sad giving up the feeding - end of an era - but hello to freedom eh?

Give us a bell/text if you fancy a cuppa over the weekend.

DS is having his hair cut tomorrow as its getting very long. I want him to have a surfy doody look, but atm he's lookimng more like one of the Beatles!!

I have on occasion spent 45 minutes lying down with Daniel getting him to sleep of an evening. Had put it down to new and incompetant parenting but feel much better now - thank you Paddle. Think your DD is about teh same age? I must obsessively compare notes with you - I am lacking an ante-natal group of 1 year olds to compare him to.

Don't have sore nipples though.

well my dd at 20m often takes up to 1.30-2hrs to settle, she also resists every single nap.
best not to stress oh and she is yet to sleep through properly
i am a wonderful parentalbeit a very tired one

when it comes to bitten nips she stopped all that after a rather painful period at around 12m. (painful for me i hasten to add, child quite safe)

i will be really sad if this is the end of our breastfeeding journey.

it's been an amazing experience and i have loved doing it.

but tbh, she is barely feeding nowadays, it's mostly comfort sucking. she's stopped asking for it during the day and really enjoys her milk drinks morning and afternoon.

it has just become her prop to get to sleep i think.

but i am sure it will break my heart to say goodbye to this part of my parenting.

once she's off she regularly goes 10 - 12 hours sleep and she naps well during the day so i really can't complain.

sue, more than happy to compare notes but please don't assume i know what I'm doing!!!

we're all in the same "doing our best without a clue" boat i think!!!

I seem to remember lying down with DS to get him to sleep, for up to an hour sometimes when he was young. He also slept well through the night; it was just getting him off to sleep that was the problem.

I had to give up BFing him after 5 months and four bouts of mastitis and three bouts of breast thrush. I cried the day I gave up as neither of us was ready

Feeding DD was fine though and went on for 18 months until she made me stop!

hi foxie

it's a funny thing bf isn't it!

why and how did dd make you stop? my nips are still really sore this morning. i think i'll just try the milk drink tonight if only to give myself a break!

apparently "this" age is a difficult one, as sfx has said, in the bf relationship.

but really, altho i am reluctant, i do need to regain my body and freedom.

i need to get some life back and i'd like to be able to have someone else put her to bed if i fancied going to a movie etc.

going to MrsB's for portrait today and kew tomorrow depending on friend's possible hangover!

maybe catch up with you at some point?

hi all

PC seems to me you are dd are ready to stop.
my dd goes to sleep fine with her dad as i do go out in the evening, we were doing fine regarding stopping night feeds until she went through a period of being poorly but i think we are slowly recovering, very good night last nigh.

dh working again will probably just take dd to the swings at some point

hope you all well

you and dd even

hi sfx, glad you had a good night. dd didn't stir till just before 7am but boy it was hard getting her down last night.

60/40 i'm ready to stop but it's finding the right time too. it's been coming a while i think but i am frightened of losing that bond too.

i think i've been so lucky with dd's sleeping thru. she just kinda managed it herself tbh. i think day weaning her really helped tho, she just doesn't ask for bf hardly at all now.

perhaps she's actually more ready than i am and she's not really liking the bedtime feed - there's an interesting thought!

all these changes take time to adjust to or recover from don't they.........

i really don't think the bond between you will be affected at all,non bf bond just fine.
but also you don't want to get to the point when you start resenting all the bf either.

that is the issue for me with night feeds. as it happens dd does not fall asleep on the breast at all, has not done so for some time

sfx/paddle - BFing is such a fundamental human function, its no wonder it affects us on such a deep emotional level. And no wonder threads on BFing get so emotional too.

When I "failed" feeding DS and gave up, I felt a complete failure as a mother - i.e. that I couldn't feed my baby.

My mind told me this was silly, but I'm actually a hippy at heart and quite into BFing, co-sleeping etc, so it kind of went against my beliefs to give up.

Paddle, when I returned to work I fed BF DD once B4 work, then once in the evening. She had a bottle of formula at lunch time with the CM and one late at night. Eventually she just got really angry when I tried to latch her on and kept pulling away and pointing at the bottle. So, reluctantly, I had to give up!

If you fancy a cuppa this arvo give us a buzz. DS has his hair appointment at 2pm so we'll be free after about 3.15pm. He is a bit under the wather so it would be better to meet here, so he can stay upstairs on the PC and not infect anyone (he has a bit of a sore throat) but DD is fine and full of life as usual!

I'll understand if you want to steer clear though!!

ooh so much to catch up on!

Welcome back SJ, we have missed you so much. I want to know when the book is coming out? You have a fantastic writing style, so many people have shed tears over the past 3 months.

I have been laying low in bed with a fever and hacking cough - aghh! Feel like I'm wasting away, haven't had a proper meal for 3 days. Off to get my hair cut now which I'm hoping will make me feel human again.

Oh poor Quokka - hope you R on the mend

thanks foxy feel much better now, and I love my new haircut .

Pc I don't think you'll loose a bond with dd when you stop bf nothing can take that bond away. I think its harder for the mummy's than the lo's to give up. I do remember the feeling of reclaiming my body when I gave up, I felt free to eat, drink and take drugs (not the illegal kind!)

Glad you're feeling better Quokka. We've all been on and off sick this winter so I'm guessing its the weather, cold one minute & not so cold the next?

I'm fashioning the greasy hair look and just got out of bed look but need to get dolled up for 30th b'day bash tonight. No amount of make-up's going to help cover my flu signs up.

Paddle - I had to stop BF DS at 10 months because of biting, started expressing instead but was so exhausted that I had to stop. The way I looked at it was if BF comes to a point where it stresses mum/baby, its a good time to stop. I was worried about that bond breaking but it makes no difference to the closeness at all.

Have a good weekend all!

glad you are on the mend quokka

2Cute is that your birthday? are you poorly too?

have my bday next week and have haircut booked but was thinking of canceling and just claim a lie in. with dh working every saturday this months i let in rest on sunday so no extra sleep for me.

hope you all have a nice weekend

I really wouldn't worry about stoppong breast feeding in terms of bonding - if I can bond with a completely strange baby at 12months without breast feeding at all then I wouldn't think that you will have any problems.

Thank you for your kind comments about my website - I did feel a bit exposed sometimes (though obviously didn't share everything) but I decided up front that if I was going to do a website that I didn;t want it to either be a run of the mill travelogue or a sugary adoption journey which I've seen so many of. I just wanted to be honest. Didn;t plan on so many people crying over it though!

Well you should think about it sj, I think you have a gift for writing. Everybody loves a good cry especially when it all works out in the end .

We did a collection for you when we sent the parcel over and there is some cash left over!!! Is there anything your in need of, or would you prefer vouchers to Mothercare?

Vouchers for Mothercare would be great - my stairgate kindly donated won't fit my stairs so I need a new one pretty quickly...

You are all so kind.

Wouldn't even know how to begin writing for money Quokka and I'm not at all sure that its a very commercial story. But it's a nice thought.

Well you had all of us hooked, does your site say how many hits it gets? I wouldn't look at it as writing for money but rather an experience you manged to get through! Anyway now that your mum you'll never have any spare time to do anything!!!

I will get onto the vouchers for you asap. What kind of stair gate do you need, I've just realised I've got one behind the sofa?

one for the bottom of the stiars (any kind thats practical as long as it fits!)

Have had about 45,000 hits - amazing. Either some very obsessive people clicking or a lot more people reading than I had anticipated!