April Babies

[MrsDoolittle]

Well there had to be one...
Thought I might as well start it at Fennels suggestion.
You have all read enough from me how about you?

Fennel - I'll consult with dp and see which day's best - I think I'll bring both ds's on my own and give her a bit of a break - she's always going out with them and letting me have a kip, so I should return the favour! A Thursday would be best - maybe the week after next? I think there's a clever way we can e-mail each other but I'm not sure how - will have a go..!

So, ds is starting on baby rice tomorrow - I'm v. excited..! Today we went out for lunch and I didn't really want to breastfeed so made up 14 ozs for ds and he had the lot! So tomorrow we'll make up his usual 9 oz and I've defrosted some breast milk to make up the rice - will report back over the weekend...

dot1 -will try
to Contact
another user. 1-15 aug is no good as we're on holiday. if we have 4 or 5 under 5s between us maybe its easiest if you come to my house? it is extremely toddler and baby friendly, you can imagine.

am excited to be meeting Stranger off Internet!

had minor disaster with my store of expressed milk, had 50 bags, ready for start of nursery in sept, but old freezer suddenly died so lost 16 bags. luckily the rest was in new freezer but what a waste of effort

am wondering if very possetty babies will puke copiously when starting solids - would be v gross, does anyone know? dd3 still possets up loads of milk every feed.

Fennel - I'd be gutted re: the milk - I've only got 3 bags in the freezer and they're like gold dust! I gave up expressing a few weeks ago, 'cos could only seem to get a maximum of 2 oz out and was spending all my baby-free time trying to pump!

Very excited today - ds rolled over for the first time this morning - about 15 minutes ago!! In fact dp's at the library on the internet so might read this - we have a roll-y son Juno!

Bad luck re the expressed milk Fennel - still, you've still got 34 bags (that's 34 more than me!). Don't mean to be flippant - must be annoying. I seem to have a mental block about expressing, after struggling with it when I was trying to establish feeding with both children. Planning to switch to formula in the day when dd is in childcare (am hoping she'll take a bottle ok).
Dolbear, how are you doing? How's your gran etc?

Took so long writing that your post appeared in the meantime dot - well done son!

Well one spoon of babyrice did not a thing for the sleep wakeups last night, will try two teaspoons tonight.
Well done on the expressing, I've pretty much given up as I get bugger all out for so much effort, I think I'll just make up the rice with formula for now.

HLD thakyou for the thought , unfortunately she passed away last week
wow all you organised buunies expressed mil bags etc , never had the chance with ds , he just ate it all , hence the change to formula v early one it was either that or no sleep ( was waking every 1/12 hrs ) he seems v happy on the old sma gold , although nt for long me thinks , he keeps eying up my supper , in particular the ice cream

Sorry to hear that dolbear, hope you're ok. My dad is having a bypass next week - I think I will be v. nervous on the day.

Sorry to hear your news dolbear. With all your family troubles and your own too you sound remarkably upbeat.

HD - good luck for your dad. Hope everything turns out OK.

Fennel - what a shame about the breastmilk. I'd be gutted. I hate and loathe expressing. My books feel like they are going to fall off after pumping, and whats more I only ever get out 4 oz. Do you express everyday?

Dot1 - wow he rolled over!! Thats so lovely. Its amazing how quickly they change isn't it? It doesn't seem so long ago in the days when ds couldn't support his head. I'm amazed your ds drinks so much milk. Can you imagine how much he would drink if you left him to be weaned at 6 months !!! My HV said that it is very rare she sees babies weaned that late and the majority wean their babies between 16 -18 wks.

My hair has started to fall out over the last couple of weeks too.

How is everyones babies doing during the night?? DS goes to sleep very happily between 7-7.30pm. We used to wake him up for a feed before we went to bed around 10/11pm, and he would invaribly wake up again in the early hours of the morning. However dh suggested not waking him and leaving him to wake on his own, and so far over the last 5 days he's only woken up once - which isn't too bad I think.

my dd3 rolled over for the first time today too. I can't remember if this is early or late, my others were very late rollers, in fact they didn't really ever roll.

am not too gutted about the milk as clearly had more than needed, I was expressing a 4-5oz bag every morning, but stopped at 8 weeks as freezer got full (hence new freezer - who says bf saves money )

the secret of my high supply of milk is also the reason I put on weight bf - I eat like a crazy woman. Metrobaby dd3 is sleeping about 8pm-6.30am, pretty consistently. hence I have lots of milk to express first thing.

dolbear, sorry about your gran. hope it's not too stressful for you, you seem to have had a lot happening lately.

ps I actually quite like expressing, feel quite bonded with my pump can get 4-6 oz in 5 mins if haven't fed baby for a few hours. so it's not too tedious. if I couldn't express would never have bf so long with any of them.

Fennel I wish I could express that much. I get 3oz in the morning after 10 mins, and in the evening I get 4oz after 20 mins. This is using an electric pump.

metrobaby - ah yes but i do stay fat. is it worth it?

Am gutted - ds didn't like his baby rice!! He had his usual 9oz and instead of following with usual breast feed, we tried him on the baby rice and he was not impressed! Immediate spitting out following by crying whenever we tried again... So I reckon he had less than a tea spoon and still then needed his breastfeed! Ah well, we'll try again tomorrow, and will puree some carrots over the weekend to see if they go down any better - I remember ds1 wasn't really into baby rice and liked 'proper' food much better!

Fennel - I can't seem to send a message - I think this is because my e-mail address has changed, but I'm so useless I can't get it to change on Mumsnet... Anyway, it's [email protected]
I'm hoping Thursday Aug 19th is OK for you - next week has got bizarrely busy - I'm having to go into work (GULP) to see a few people and we're going out with a friend and her two kids to Stockly Farm for the day aswell - have you ever been?

dd1 hated baby rice but liked most other things at weaning age.

dot will try emailing. thurs 19 aug would be fine yes.
haven't been to stockley farm but everyone says its good. we like the farm in Wythenshaw park -have you been there.

Dot1 - how did the carrots go donw? Ds has passed the 16 week mark but sleeping okay at night at the moment (touch wood!). Although this morning he woke up at 5.30am although I left him chattering to himself in the cot until 6am which I thought was vagualy reasonable (can anyone remember Sunday lie-ins?!). We weighed him on our bathroom scales yesterday and think he's 13 pounds although he was wriggling around do much it was hard to tell!

The carrots didn't go down well at all..! He just sat there with carrot in his mouth, not swallowing and crying! This is after 9oz of milk - I think he was crying because I was delaying his breastfeed! But we did manage to get a bit of carrot down him - with me putting my little finger in his mouth which he likes to suck - which meant he then had to swallow!

But the most amazing thing was that he then had a 3 hour nap - his longest ever, and pretty much only nap during the day!! I kept going upstairs to check up on him..!

So, we're going to persevere with the carrot - he was soooooo much nicer in the late afternoon and then had another 9oz bottle + breastfeed to go to bed with without any of his usual windy/screaming - the evening feed is usually a bit of a nightmare, but I reckon it's partly 'cos he's usually so exhausted and past it.

Phew! Sorry - this is so dull

Best bit of the day - when my Mum came to dinner (no, not that!) and then took ds1 + ds2 round to hers for a couple of hours - dp and I didn't know what to do with ourselves - so of course we painted the kitchen..!

PS - meant to say Lucyjones - we leave ds2 in his cot chattering now when he wakes up at weird times - which was 6am this morning - I'd only just fed him at 4.30am so there was no way I was getting up at 6am...So we left him and he chattered for half an hour or so then fell back asleep for another hour - hurrah! Of course ds1 was up at 7am but hey, you can't have everything...!

dot try the carrots or babyrice before the first milk, that is what we have been doing with dd and she gulps the stuff down although it doesn't seem to have helped with the sleeping much.

thankyou all so much for your kind thoughts and wishes !
yep life is never dull in the dolbear hse ! booking parcel carriers this wk ! yippee ! my life is just one big party ha ha ,

working on ds party on the 14th to cheer me up ,
jelly and ice cream in the afternoon and vodka jelly for the evening! , any suggestions v welcome !
ds has not quite got the hang of rolling yet he can get half way then seems to get confused tee hee just bought one of them boucy door thingys ds v impressed !

sleeping - 9.30-10 untill 8am , although has also started to wake around 5.30-6 am again sometimes just talks to the fairies and sometime demands food , not sure what if anything this means , at 13wks am considering the rice milk banana route

am consideing taking ds swimming in a few wks after his last set of jabs , as a newby I have no idea how it will go any words of wisdom ?

It's so exciting taking them swimming - I haven't with ds2 yet, but remember it clearly with ds1. I think the main thing is not to expect too much - you might only be in the pool for 10 minutes or so the first time - just sit at the edge with him on your knee. So cute though! And we always took the towel in with us and had it close by, as they get chilly quickly. Can't wait to take ds2 swimming!

More carrot resistance today - although he's currently having another long nap - 1 1/2 hours so far! We're going to try more carrot at tea time, which is when he doesn't have a bottle feed. Chuffed - I'd be scared to give him carrot before his milk to be honest, as he's sooooo hungry by 12pm that I think only milk will do. I could try the carrot a bit before 12pm though, thinking about it..!

we swim with dd and have been every Sunday morning since she was 12wks. She loves it and goes on her stomach and kicks away.
She normally lasts about 10mins. Dh and I both go when she looks like she is getting a little cold one of us jumps out and gets the towel (on the rail beside the pool) and then the other passes dd up and into the towel. Can recommend the Kushies swim nappy, it seems to fit well.
The sleeping for dd isn't any better but we have a few changes coming up in the next week or so, so am a bit hesitant to change too many things at once, we are off for a long airplane ride and will have to deal with time zones etc. I'm hoping a bit of baby rice just at night will help her recognise evening in the different places we are going. If I start doing lunches too it might get confusing.

dot thanks for the advice , did you not have to wait for all the jabs 1st then ?
chuffed , planes , timezones wow sounds v exciting ! and to think we are feeling brave taking ds to manchester , from bucks ha ha
more success with door bouncy thing tires ds out so that he sleeps righ through 9-8 now

dolbear I hope you pack your cagoules and wellies if you are coming near manchester. is everyone else having really bad weather this week? am not looking forward to the next fortnight of "holiday" in the far north of scotland, some of it camping, with 3 small dds. and bad weather seems endless. am really wishing we were heading for a greek island or similar....

Dolbear - how old is your ds? does he have good neck strength - I'd love to start putting ds in a door bouncer but I'm not sure he's strong enough yet - I think he'll love it but am a bit nervous. My HV said you can take babies swimming after their 2nd injection by the way.

Fennel -isn't the weather depressing... It's not often I miss London, but I was pining for the much warmer less wet weather yesterday... We had such lovely warm summers down there - ds1 spent so many days in the paddling pool in our garden. sigh. Let's hope August redeems itself up North..!

We've had a carrot triumph this lunchtime!! Ds seems to have got the hang of swallowing all of a sudden, and wolfed down his carrot very happily! Now having what's becoming his usual daytime nap - at the same time as his big brother = at least 1 hour's peace for Mummies!!