June 10 babies have arrived. Now we are all sleep deprived!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Welcome to 'the other side' ladies. Long may we all continue to post!

ARRIVALS
27/04 (due 23/06) - SunshineDay - Faye - 3lbs 2oz
16/05 (due 02/06) - Meggymegmegs - James (Jimmy) David, 7lb 1oz
19/05 (due 01/06) - whenwillisleepagain - Alice Emily, 8lb 7oz
21/05 (due 21/06) - Gizmo - Hester Rose - 6lbs
23/05 (due 9/06) - greensnail, Alice Elizabeth, 7lb 2oz
24/05 (due 8/06) - Saucepanman, Gabriel, 8lb 4oz
24/05 (due 31/05) - minimoonumber2, Sebastian Robin
26/05 (due 24/06) - GibberingGinger James Alexander, 5lb 13oz, & Douglas John, 5lb 15oz
28/05 (due 30/05) - GoodName, Fergus, 8lb
28/05 (due 31/05) - mampam, Tilly May, 9lb 11oz
28/05 (due 4/06) - jo807bump - Hannah May, 5lb 7.5oz
04/06 (due 07/06) - perkster - Sidney James Perkins Berner, 7lb 11oz
05/06 (due 31/05) - dinosaurinmybelly - Zoe Leila - 6lb 9oz
07/06 (due 02/06 ) - AlwaysHopeful - George, 7lb 13oz
07/06 (due 07/06) - MrsC09 - Rufus Jack
08/06 (due 01/06) - PogueMahone - Magnus Gabriel, 8lb 14.5oz
08/06 (due 11/06) - woofie - Laurence Elliot (Laurie) - 7lb 11oz
08/06 (due 21/06) - sunworshipper - Romola Ann Bettina, 5lb 15oz
09/06 (due 08/06) - LittleRobbo - Summer Dawn
09/06 (due 09/06) - Boobz - Constance Ella Reed,
11/06 (due 02/06) - Justbeme - 'Nobody' (boy) - 8lb 9oz
12/06 (due 02/06) - roundabout1 - Lauren - 8lb 14oz
13/06 (due 18/06) - Virgo1979 - nameless boy! 7lb 9oz
14/06 (due 30/06) - monthlymayhem - Hayden, 7lb
14/06 (due 08/06) - MrsAlwaysRight - Alice Rose, 9lb 7oz
14/06 (due 15/06) - Millymollymoo - boy
15/06 (due 31/05) - RnB - Artemis, 7lb 9oz
15/06 (due 29/06) - playftseforme - Rory 6lb 4oz, and Fergus 6lb 8oz
16/06 (due 17/06) - Chestnut100 - Daisy Belle 6lb 14oz
17/06 (due 01/06) - Madamfreckle - Emma 6lb 6oz
17/06 (due 30/06) - MonkeyMargot - Atticus Fox 7lb 8oz and Rafferty Bear 7lb 14oz
17/06 )due 04/06) - Suzy1975 - Samuel 7lb 14oz
18/06 (due 23/06) - earlyonemorning - Edgar William 7lb 8oz
18/06 (due 13/06) - sobloodystupid - Stella 8lb 8oz
19/06 (due 22/06) - Gaelicsheep - Robin 6lb 14oz
22/06 (due 14/06) - Fillybuster - Mia Rae 9lb 3oz
24/06 (due 16/06) - Nizzynoodles - Samuel James 10lb 10.5oz
24/06 (due 17/06) - summerhols - Lilly
25/06 (due 17/06) - Barbeasty - Ruth Damaris Rose, 9lb
26/06 (due 16/06) - JoKettle - James Lennox, 8lb 7oz
26/06 (due 29/06) - MrsDmamee - Elyssa, 8lb 5oz
28/06 (due 26/06) - imkeepingmum - girl, 7lb 11oz
28/06 (due 12/06) - Georgee - Anna Rose, 7lb 15.5oz
28/06 (due 12/06) - Elena67 - boy, 9lb 5oz
29/06 (due 17/06) - bluesnowfalcon - Corey, 8lb 11.75oz
29/06 (due 18/06) - theperfectbaguette - Clementine Jemima, 6lb
29/06 (due 26/06) - RubyReins - Luke Douglas, 7lb 14oz
29/06 (due 25/06) - Ilovemyterrier - Jeppe Sebastian Fagerlund, 7lb 6.5oz
01/07 (due 30/06)- LaTrucha - Daniel Timothy, 8lb 11oz
3/7 (due 29/06) - CantSleepWontSleep - Jeremy Francis, 9lb 4oz

madamefreckle - we've always eaten with DD1, but that's just because DH likes his tea at 5.30 anyway! You don't need to eat a full meal with her, but while she's getting the hang of it its probably useful to have someone eating with her so she gets the idea of what she's supposed to do. If DS eats at 5pm, you could just sit the 2 of them down to tea together then and give her a bit of whatever he eats. If its just her having her tea then, then I'd probably have a little snack with her.

Not counting my chickens yet, but Alice slept 5.5 hours in one go between 10.45 and 4.15 so I actually got a decent chunk of sleep for once

greensnail I used Gina Ford for potty training and weaning and found them both helpful in giving me a clue on how to approach things, but I couldn't have followed it word for word. DD took 5 months to completely toilet train , but the weaning went much better !! I used a combination of BLW (waited until DD actually started chewing on the finger foods before starting her with the purees as well. I think it was quite a while - at least a week - of her licking and playing with the finger foods before she started to try to bite them. She's always been a great eater, so I'm hoping for the same this time round. That said, she was a good sleeper too and it's fair to say that DS isn't!!

DS's sleeping is still all over the place. I did feel like we were making progress last week, but we have had a couple of really poor nights since then, so I'm not sure what's going on. Knackered one day, a bit better the next... we're going away for the weekend and I'm not at all confident it is sensible with hiom sleeping so badly in his own bed but we will see...

Ditto alwayshopeful - still totally unpredictable here too. Yaaaawn...

We did Annabel Karmel for weaning last time. I can see the rationale for BLW, but have to admit I enjoyed the whole pureed vegetable stage. Didn't take long before ds1 was having the same as us at dinnertime. He's a great eater - he was always extremely keen, so never had to cajole him to take what was offered on the spoon. Laurie's been stuffing anything within reach into his mouth and chomping down extremely firmly recently - I let him gnaw on a piece of pear out of interest yesterday. Not planning to wean til 6 months, but it was funny to see his look of surprise and delight! Don't imagine weaning's going to be a struggle this time either.

lol @ Woofie and Laurie's surprise at chomping on pear :)

On the plus side, all the dcs slept until 9.45am this morning (well, ds and dd1 woke at 7, went to the loo together, then both went back to bed)....on the minus side, this means not being able to put Mia down for the night until around 8.45pm at the very earliest!!

Couldn't believe it when I opened my eyes and saw the time on the clock....!!

Not much sleep here. Ruth has been waking up after between 2 and 4 hours, then at least every hour for the rest of the night, crying out as she wakes.

At the moment she's feeling very sorry for herself, despite the calpol, with the worst cold yet, a tooth coming through and the remnants of her conjunctivitis.

Just hoping that she is better soon, as I have to prepare a 15 minute presentation for a job interview on Tuesday.

We plan to go down the BLW route. Not sure DH has the hang of it though- he was giving Ruth a runner bean to chew the other day. I think it helped with the teething though.

I'm beginning to forget what sleep is I think! Lauren has been waking every few hours through the night, not interested in feeding & cries out when she wakes & gets really upset. Dd1 was going to her first night away on saturday night at my friends house so was hoping for a lie in - Lauren will normally sleep in til 9 if given the chance but dd1 wakes at 6. My hope of a little lie in were dashed when dd1 (she's 5) rang up in tears at 11pm wanting to come home so sunday morning was woken up at 6 again. Lauren is going through a stage of colicky evenings too, normally not settling down til 9/10 ish & then waking every few hours through til morning. We've moved Lauren from her crib to her proper cot in the hope that she will sleep better, she certainly seems more comfortable when asleep, sprawled out but still does the waking.

Re - weaning I think we are going to try the BLW route, dd1 is so fussy & still gags at certain textures & lumps in food now. May combine with some pureed stuff too. I am going to a weaning talk on thursday. I will also back up what someone else said (sorry no time to read back through all the posts) - weaning doesn't help sleep - dd1 was a big baby & not a good sleeper & everyone (apart from hv) kept saying she needed to be on solids as was so big & obviously hungry, in the end I caved into the pressure & also the hope that in might improve & it just seemed to get worse after weaning.

got to go baby screaming!!

I'm in the sleepless club too. So sympathy to roundabout and everyone else in same situation - and barbeasty good luck for Tues. Sure I make myself even more tired by going to bed late as well, but it's just so nice to have some child-free time that I prefer not to spend it sleeping IYSWIM.

I too am going to try BLW and have bought the Rapley book. Purees were not something I enjoyed doing with DS, but that whole time was a bit fraught. Like others, I took HV advice to wean at 19 weeks in hope he might sleep. No chance. Plus his eczema was at its worst and we found out he had nut and egg allergies. None of these have turned out to be unmanageable, but it didn't feel that way at the time (ever the optimist me!).

Is anyone else's hair falling out? Didn't experience this post-DS but remember someone telling me it can be unerving to see just how much hair ends up in the shower, and you wonder if it's going to stop.

Attention please Sunworshipper, Minimoo, Earlyonemorning & MonkeyMargot....please check the London meet-up thread for the proposed change of location for Thursday's meetup!!

Are you guys possibly ok with meeting in Brent Cross shopping centre instead of Westfield? It has free parking and is possibly easier for a number of us to get to....

WWISA yes, I am losing my hair all of a sudden... It's been lovely too - all thick and coarse, whereas I've got usually thin, fine baby hair. On the other hand, it's gone curly and I am REALLY hoping it stays that way as, like all straight hair people I ahve always wanted curly hair (my sister, who has got it, spends her life straightening. C'est la vie).

whenwillisleep- yep, losing my luscious pregnancy locks into the plughole each morning too I remember hating this bit first time too. And I also scupper myself by staying up late either working, chinwagging on phone or watching crap telly. No wonder I've got permanent panda eyes really.

It's good to hear that I'm not the only one up in the small hours (though sorry several of you are suffering too obv!). all my rl friends with babies of Laurie's age or younger seem to have miracle sleepers. Really, after ds1 I thought I might be due a sleepy baby. Grrr

went to a mn meet in York today, which was fun. Nice to know the people in the computer are real. Hope you Londoners have fun on thursday!

Yes, my hair has been falling out for weeks now. It didn't get as thick this pregnancy as my last one which was a blessing as I have very thick hair normally anyway. I'm hoping it will end up finer than it was to start with as I'd love to have thin, fine hair.

On weaning news, Alice licked a banana this morning which DD1 had offered her. DD1 also tried to give her a piece of bread this afternoon. Think we might be doing toddler-led-weaning here!

Sleep still pretty rubbish here. I've had my parents here today, so at least entertaining DD1 hasn't all been down to me today which makes a nice change.

Moulting all over the place here as well, although I think I do that pretty much permanently (judging by the state of the hoover and bath plug anyway...!)

Its all gone very quiet over here the last few days....is everyone alright?

Sending 'good' night vibes at you all :)

Apologies for the absence but we've been in France and roaming the oountry (so it feels like) for the past few weeks so I'm just dropping in to share a brief success....
Jack slept last night from 19.45 until I woke him at 07.00!!! Result! He did wake a couple of times in the night, but settled himself without any intervention/help!! We've been slowly working towards this since I bought Baby Secrets and started following the spaced soothing technique - 7 weeks later and all done! I realise now that tonight he will wake every 3 hours as a punishment...
As for weaning - I know nothing about it! I am going to a talk next week organised by HV. Have to admit that I am starting to feel stressed about it. I am due to return to work on 6 Dec (Jack will be two days shy of 6 months) - isn't this the time we're supposed to start weaning? Does it matter if I wait a bit longer until school holidays?! Although he's been dribbling and putting things in his mouth for at least 2 months, there's still little sign of teeth!

No change here in the Hopeful house... except actually i am starting to lose my grip again. George is still feeding every three hours day and night. We have introduced a formula bottle at bed time which he is taking ok now after about 3 weeks of trying. I am now introducing one at lunchtime with the aim of weaning him completely onto bottles over the next couple of weeks or so. Once that is acheived i think i will leave home!

Hair has been falling out in huge chunks foe the past couple of months . Thankfully it was vdry thick post pregnancy but now i can see a lot more scalp than ever before. Had a blood test (because i have lost a lot of weight as well as hair) but it came back fine, so we will just see how it goes. I am having it cut shorter at the weekend so it doesnt look so stragly.

Fully intend to strangle my mother if she mentions giving george baby cereal again... is anyone else under pressure to wean? George is trying to swipe food off our plates and generally cries if everyone else is eating and he isnt. I just cant face weaning onto solids and onto a bottle at the same time and i have to stop breast feeding now.

I've been really shocked to hear about the hair traumas - is it normal? Is it just the pregnancy glow on its way out? I never got a pregnancy glow in the first place - my hair has always been thin and short. I did hope something magical might have happend in my 9 months but no...it just got greasy.

Bravegirl - Great news on the sleep. Wish we had similar to report! On the subject of weaning, really try not to get stressed about it. The guidelines say "around 6 months", so it would be absolutely fine to start a few weeks earlier or a few weeks later if that suits you better. Don't worry now and wait and see how you feel nearer the time.

AlwaysHopeful - sorry to hear you sounding so stressed :( Hope things get better for you soon. We're not properly getting pressure to wean here, but the odd comment about it from the grandparents, although they are well aware that we will be doing BLW and they were all impressed with how well it worked with DD1.

One thing to remember if he is getting upset when everyone else is eating is its not because he is hungry. He has no idea that eating will fill him up if he's hungry. The only way he knows of satisfying hunger so far is milk. He's just interested in what everyone else is doing and wants to join in as it looks like fun.

I know you don't need any more stress at the moment, but have you considered BLW? If he's sitting up and swiping at food he might be ready to give it a go. All you need to do is pop some sticks of veg or something off your plate in front of him, and he can occupy himself with them while you get on with yours. If he eats some - great. If not, it doesn't matter its all good practice for whenever he's ready. The important thing to remember is that he has to be sitting upright when you give him the food, to ensure he doesn't choke. Babies have a more sensitive gag reflex than us to protect them from choking. Just something to think about when you feel ready. Lots more info for anyone interested in BLW here

Woohoo I'm back, just marking my spot for later once I've got my trio to bed!

Don't go there with the sleep at the moment- we're not! Or at least, only for short bursts! Although with her cold etc Ruth did sleep through most of Monday morning so I could prepare my presentation.

My hair is falling out by the handful, although I did malt a bit before I was pregnant so it's no real surprise!

That link for BLW was great! I think I need recepie ideas for what we can all eat- DH tends to pile in the salt when he cooks, and is fussy about veg (we are already having some interesting discussions about whether he will eat broccoli in front of
Ruth...)

That sounds rough alwayshopeful - sorry you're not getting more of a break yet.

In a demonstration of how utterly random babies are... Yesterday I was despairing of Laurie ever sleeping more than 30mins sleep on the trot in the daytime after a few days of truly appalling naps, plus nights were not improving. On cue, last night he slept 7-11.30 and then 12 through to 6! And then did 2 90-min naps and a couple of catnaps today. I did NOTHING different! Probably just a blip, but I feel amazing today for getting my first proper chunk of sleep for weeks!

How did the interview go barbeasty?

Yep hair falling out all over the place. Romola mostly wearing it. Alwayshopeful my mother turned up with packet of baby cereal even though I've told her that Rom's weight is fine. Driving me mad. As if I'm not concerned enough that she gets plenty to eat.

No hair loss here, but I haven't had any with any of mine.

Sleep still rubbish by most people's standards, but it's okish from my point of view.

Don't plan on weaning before Christmas (won't be 6 months til 3rd Jan), but will see how time goes. Not under any pressure from anyone. I think by now that all of my friends and family know that I will do things my way!

Weighed J on Tuesday, and despite only being 3 months he already weighs 18lbs!!!

The interview went well thanks- but it turns out it was just a first round due to the number of applicants. But I had a brief e-mail conversation with one of the interviewers today (about extending my maternity leave from January to June ) and he said he had been very impressed, so there's hope!