May 2010 - Drooling, smiling, cooing and nearly sleeping through (and that's just the mummies!)

[rachelfruitloop]

Hi Ladies,

I hope you don't mind, I started a new thread as our first one was quite full! I can't believe we're a quarter-way through the first year already!

Oops. Just read my last post in the light of day to discover I sound bossy and bad tempered. I didn't mean to sound that way. I meant it to be supportive
Sigh, no more middle of the noght posts for me!

Homebirthmummy - lol. Didn't seem too bossy to me at all!

I was over reacting a bit really. Dh is not at all abusive and although he misses the sex and it's been a lean time for most of the last year as hyperemesis was a bit of a passion killer, he doesn't nag me. I think this weekend was the first chance to talk as dcs were away and the summer has been a challenge. Normally we're sad to see the kids go back to school but dd1 has been so vile a lot of the time that it's a relief this year. He's had to deal with most of her tantrums as I've been with molly and despite the sleepless nights I think he's often had the worst of it. He's not wanting to end co- sleeping but she's now ready for bath and bed by 9 and he wants her in her cot then so I don't have to go to bed with her so early and we can have a couple of hours together but once she wakens she can be with us. I'm happy to try this but won't leave her in her cot if she's crying. He's happy with that. He is worried about when I go back to work because at the moment all she wants is mummy. We have to start working on them having time together and try again re expressed milk in a bottle. I have to let go a little and I don't want to as I want to be a sahm and can't. He's frustrated that he hasn't earned for 4 years - understandably and it's not easy to get back into work after a period of illness. Anyway we need to talk properly and listen more. Thanks for the support.

Traumatised by poonami today. Pooing whilst feeding (very annoying!) and took her up to changed her, lifted up vest at front then back and got handful of yellow poo. Yuck!

Going to blame it on the teething. Just bought some Ashton & Parsons teething powder to see if more effective than gel.

Sassles: We moved Sophie into her room at 9 weeks. She had grown too long for the moses basket and kept hitting the sides with her arms. When I first put her into the cot she slept like a starfish .

Millington Lamb was good but you can't get fresher than yours! We're having Sausage and lentil hotpot tonight.

schipo Sounds like your LO can sleep through anything. I'm a really heavy sleeper, I'm hoping she will take after me rather than my DH who is a light sleeper.

Tomlin That trip sounds horrible. You're not being unreasonable, it would make my blood boil as well if my MIL said she didn't see kids enough and then didn't play with them when we did visit

Molly Is there anyway you and DH can have a couple of hours together without children? Sophie is our first so a bit easier to ask grandparents to babysit (and they live 20 and 5mins away). We're trying to make time for ourselves to spend together as a couple rather than parents.

Hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday. I can't believe it was sunny this morning!

Molly that's exactly the issue I'm having at the moment. I know it's time to get Eric into the cot because now I'm going to bed with him at about 8:30 (I'm reading books while I feed him so at least that's a plus) and DH is sleeping on the sofa. Not only do I not have any time to myself but we're not getting any time alone whatsoever. I feel like split-personality at the moment as I desperately want some time to myself but cry my eyes out thinking about how fast Eric and DS1 are growing up and putting Eric in his cot - I love cuddling him at night in bed with me. With DS1 we had him in his own room at 8 weeks, but I think I was more disciplined as I wasn't as tired or distracted without another child. I know the longer I leave it the harder it's going to be to do it. DS1 is back at pre-school on Thursday and DH and I have agreed this is the night we will start getting Eric to sleep in his cot.

Thanks for your words of support ladies. Wish I could type more right now, have to tend to the boys!

Thanks moosey for the talk of sausage and lentil hotpot as I got a pack of sausages out of the freezer today and was debating what to do with them!

rachel I got quite teary when DH said we had to put DD2 in her moses basket rather than have her in with us (he was always nervous of squashing her) though as she has now been in her cot bed in a separate room for about 5 weeks, I obviously got over it fast enough!

Just taken some pictures of DD2 so that we can apply for her passport so that next time we see a good offer for a trip somewhere nice we can go for it...

Thanks for the advice peeps. Going to move Sam out of our room at the weekend. Need to buy a blackout blind for the nursery first.

We moved Sam into the cot and out of moses basket at 8 weeks as he was thrashing his arms off the sides, but the cot was in our room already. He still thrashes about a bit and has a nice wee bald halo where he had loads of hair. Starting to grow a bit longer to cover it

carikube Aw real wee person with own passport. That's lovely and will be nice to get away. I'm rubbish. I haven't even taken Sam on short bus or train yet. Too scared he will have a crying fit or poo explosion and not sure about breastfeeding on public transport. He's at a stage where he is really distracted and pulls off alot showing the world my nips

rachel Hope all is well with Bruce. In my thoughts and prayers too.

Mooseymoo to the starfish. Sam sleep in a "hands up" position. Let us know how the teething powder works out. Will need to get some. Beautiful sunny bank hol here too.

mollycuddles Hope communication on the up between you and dh. It is hard work this parenting thing and hard on relationships.

twentieth Love the side cot idea. Hope you are all feeling better soon.

HB4 Hope you get better sleeps tonight.

Tomlin at your in-laws that's so annoying and thoughtless.

In-laws - We went to visit the in-laws for PIL 60th. Was dreading it after the week long fiasco here. MIL was actually fine whole weekend. Was v controlling over everyone, but nothing specifically towards me. Was nice(ish) weekend, but trip home from Fort William to Glasgow (usually 2.5 hrs) took SIX hours. Two crashes on two different roads to Glasgow causes both roads to be closed and us doubling back on 20 miles and taking a long long route back to glasgow via the rest of Scotland (or so it felt).

schipo Hope the ducts get better soon. Sounds v painful. I have 4 week old and boob group and can't believe how small he is and already can't remember Sam that small. Sob.

millington hope Harry sleeping better for you

hollyoakes Hope the vomiting has eased up. Not fun being covered in thick milky smelly sick. Sam has some days being v sicky and usually manages to aim the thick smelly ones over my neck and down my cleavage

Angel Hope things going better for you and DH.

Think that is me caught up. Sorry if I missed anyone.

My news is that we bought a new (used) car today. Got rid of the ancient Ka that I was getting bit concerned driving Sam about in. Bits of rust everywhere. We've bought a Black Vauxhall Meriva with black tinted windows. I love it. Hope start of a long happy relationship. Loads of room and massive boot. Feels huge after the Ka.

hi all trying to catch up but everything is so hectic here finally got to sit down at 8.30pm tonight to try anc catch up on emails.

Not much to report here, took Jacob swimming for the first time today, he didn't scream which was good just looked about at everything, very strange having a baby in little trunks.

We cosleep and will be doing so until about a year or maybe longer if we are building this extension. I would be up and down half the night checking on them if I didn't. He starts the night in his cot then at first waking comes in with us. On an average night he wakes about 4 times, no ideal but I am at the stage now where I am not going to stress about it, he's only a baby for a short amount of time so we will just go with the flow.

Right will try and catch up with some more personals soon

Evening all :)

Moosey- Lucy does to get startled easier now too. Bawled at DH when he was talking too loud the other day. The hoover however doesnt seem to bother her.

First- Well done for complaining. A misunderstanding!? Do tell us what they say :)

Heffa- DD1 loves the hoover too! She loves to stand behind it letting the air blow through her hair like an improptu wind machine!

Katey- Glad to hear you Mum is improving.Hope shes home soon.

Angel- :( that DD3 dislikes her harness.

Rachel- Glad things are improving with DS1.
Life is definetly more demanding with 2.

Sassles- It wont be long before Lucy is the cot in her room. Shes almost outgrown the basket now :(
Yay onthe new car!-Enjoy it :)

Hollyoaks- Hope the DD's are better now.

Schipo- Hope the Ducts are improving now.

Tomlin- Sounds like a stessful break :( Same here, we are the ones that make the effort and visit our parents but them coming to us is always an ordeal even though its much easier for them.

Molly- agree that a bedside cot could be a good compromise.

Carikube- Fab on the passport. We are planning our first big abroad trip witht he girls in 2012. Cant come soon enough!

SK- Glad Jacob enjoyed his swim. Lucy loves looking around too. A lady commented on how alert Lucy was when were swimming on Sunday.

Hope everyones enjoyed the Bank holiday. Its been reasonably sunny here which has made a pleasant change!
Been a busy weekend for us sorting and clearing. We have have been making room for the new 'toy wall'. Poor DH is loosing his Desktop PC to make space for the new Ikea units to store to endless amount of toys the girls have. Dont feel sorry for him though as he also has a laptop, a Mac and an ipad, so doesnt really need his pc too!
Sorted out the filing cabinet and had fun burning the papers in the chiminea.
Took the girls swimming, which is always a big hit. DH smashed out the old outside toilet so we can use the building as storage instead and this afternoon I had a mad moment and painted one wall in the lounge bright Orange! Sounds odd but looks ok. We have a large canvas print of the sunset that DH proposed to me under on the wall so it matches well.

Anyway worn out now, so off to bed.

Hi All - here goes with my catch up,

Angel - poor Willow, as people keep saying to me, its always worse for the parents! , good luck with working at things with DH

Hollyoaks - glad to hear Grace doing well - never thought of me n DP making a good match with him worrying and me being bit more laid back!!! :)

First - sorry your still i pain but glad your getting better, re job - good for you for challenging it too.

homebirth - i'm with carikube, hold off weaning if virginia happy. If everything else fine she's maybe just a small baby.

Rachel - hope Bruce is doing well, and hope your ok

Molly - congrats on becoming a trainer & welcome to bubble! :) Sorry your having probs with DH but sounds like talking is helping

WLTK - hope you enjoy showing off Oscar!!

Katey - your poor mum!! Glad she's getting better though.

Schipo - thanks for tips from massage class, try to do those things but he hates it!! Glad your 10 poos a day have reduced!!! :)

Tomlin - re MIL for you, atleast you've done your bit for a while!! til oct atleast

Sassles - think our visitors got stuck in same traffic due to accidents - took them 8 hours to get home instead of usual 2.5!

Sorry if missed anyone...enjoying reading all the threads and seeing what everyone' up to.

Can't believe its a year since we all started meeting!! Talking to DP the other day - we had a MC last july which was devastating and a year on we know have our little angel - i wouldn't have believed it if someone told me it would be this way now. We found out i was pregnant in greece! Had to take a greek pregnancy test thankfully small print in english!

DP band was playing at weekend, left Rian with his granny who was up visiting so i got out for a few hours - had a really good time being me for a change (6am feed not fun though! )

Moosey - re the poonami! We've always found teething powders useful.

Rachel - I've been getting really teary about the DCs growing up recently, think it must be the hormones. Hope you're OK, been thinking of you.

Carikube - love little baby passports! We have one for DD from when she was about 6 months old. I need to get one sorted for C because we're hoping to go and visit my DB in France again next year.

Sassles - about 6 hour trip from Fort William to Glasgow. We know those roads well and a diversion can be a nightmare. Glad your MIL behaved herself.

SK - glad Jacob enjoyed swimming. C wears DD's old pink flowery swimming nappies when we take him

Pigley - sounds like you had a busy weekend! The orange wall sounds fab, I love fun colours on walls.

den26 - Buying a greek pregnancy test must have been tricky! Your night out sounds fun :)

We had a lovely picnic on the moor yesterday with family. DD spent the whole time naked in the river throwing stones around and splashing. C is still a bit poorly though so didn't have a great time - slept in the suntent for a while and then cuddled up with me for the rest of the time. Gorgeous day though :)

Afternoon. Hope it's as nice with you as it is here. Been out for a walk with dh and molls. The only time she naps properly in the day is in her pram so more walking is needed. It's a good routine for me in my fitness goal and me and dh get time to talk so it's win/win. It'll be a while before we can leave Molly with my parents. I haven't even left her with dh for an hour yet so this is one way to get time together now ds and dd1 are back at school.

mooseymoo :) at poonami. Happens here too at times. Love the sound of sausage and lentil hotpot. Need some recipes here in advance of blw. Ds is a disaster food wise.

One good thing in the blow up with dh is he has faced our money situation for the first time in years. Think he assumed that me saying we were skint despite me working all the blardy time was me being crap with money - I used to be. Anyway, cheap tasty recipes needed.

sk molls is up 3/4 times at night. Nice to hear we're not the only ones with a 12 hour sleeper. Like you I'm not going to worry as she'll grow quicker than we realise. In fact she already has.

den26 night out sounds good. It was our conception day anniversary yesterday. Greek pregnancy test sounds interesting.

rachel thanks for reassurance too! Hope all is well with Bruce.

tomlin aaaargghh for mil.

heffa hope the picnic and meeting went well

carikube yeh re passport. I have got as far as getting the photos of Molls. Need to fill the form in now.

pigley the rearranging sounds good. I don't plan for Molls to be in her own room until next summer but will need to gut our study to do it and bin the ancient desktop pc as well. I'll probably move dd1 in there and get her sliding wardrobes to hide all her rubbish stuff. Our hallway is orange - sounds fine to me.

first1 hope the meeting went well.

kateyjane hope your mum continues to improve

sassles :) at new car

hollyoaks hope the vomiting has let up and the weight gain is back on track

angel hope the harness is less of a hassle now. Thinking about you.

My iPhone gets all stressed by these big postings. Sorry if I forgot anyone. Have blardy thrush in left nipple and is agony so a bit distracted.

Sorry if I forgot anyone x

Hi all, sorry for quick me post, but HV has just been. Chloe was weighed last week and was 13lb 3oz, HV weighed her again today (I didn't ask, don't feel the need for weekly weighings, but today she was 13lb 6oz and I was told 3oz gain is too little for a week. That average gain is 6-8oz. Chloe has about 5 bottles a day of Cow&Gate. I make 6oz bottles but she rarely finishes them. Can I ask other mums who are ff their babies how many bottles you give a day? I often have to battle with Chloe to finish a bottle. Taking her to GP on Monday after HV said she thinks she has reflux because she prefers to be sat up to drink her bottle and cries if held otherwise for it. Hmm. Why do these people scaremonger!?

Quickie post for first1 Surely any weight gain is good? Weight loss would be a bit of a worry. What exactly is she suggesting you do? 13lbs seems a good weight for the age of Chloe to me. I have a girl in my boob group who's baby was not gaining a lot of weight. She's 13 weeks this week and now 10lbs 2oz and putting on 3oz weekly. Our HV's are v happy with that.

at some of these HV's!

The girl above was in a panic as the HV weighed her baby at 9lbs 2oz having lost a few oz over three weeks. She was naturally v concerned. I pointed out that the HV who had weighed her regularly reverses the numbers when writing them down e.g. at last weigh scales read 7.01kg (I read them over her shoulder). When I got home, checked red book and HV had written 7.1kg. Big difference in oz. This has happened to me 3 times now. First was the Midwife at home who had given me 10 min talk about feeding till she noticed she had reversed numbers and Sam had actually put on weight, not lost.

We had the baby reweighed and the weight was actually 10lbs 2 oz so great weight gain. She is breast feeding exdclusively and the HV had asked her to switch a feed to formula. What sort of advice is that even if she had lost weight? Introducing an extra feed would surely have been a better idea and trying to bf more first surely? Seems crazy when they are trying to plug BF so much up here (Scotland).

First, I would go with your mummy instincts.

first1 I can't believe the HV is getting all excited about the weight measurements from just one week!! Very for you... I found with DD1 that her weight gain never followed a curve, it was more like steps, ie no weight gain for a couple of weeks then suddenly putting on a pound so I'm surprised that the HV is getting worked up. I can't remember exactly how much ff DD1 had on a regular basis but I do seem to remember going through a phase where she wasn't having as much as she was supposed to have according to the tin. I think I'll go to the grave with the words "plenty of wet and dirty nappies" tattoed on my forehead as that is the mantra I have come to live by....

First1 my health visitor told me not to have Eric weighed every week because the weight gain can be uneven and they're only interested in seeing him monthly unless there's a problem. I think 3 oz in a week seems fine! Try not to worry too much. It was her silly idea to weigh Chloe again this week, it seems like an overreaction to be speaking to you like that when she's gaining!

I got a text from my friend with a photo of Brucie, he's looking really well. Still has tubes in but very chubby and cute. I figure I'll wait another day or two before I ask after him again, but will let you all know when I hear of any news. Neither parent are on FB unfortunately as I'm sure they'd be touched reading everyone's well-wishes. I have been passing on your kind words to them.

First1 - around here we're told to only weigh them every 4 weeks or so. Any weight gain is good surely? My DS was 12lb 3ozs at 15 weeks (25th centile) so Chloe doesn't sound that small? And he'd only put on 8 oz in 4 weeks, but that's keeping to his centile so your HV sounds a bit nuts. I hate that kind of scaremongering - what are you meant to do about it anyway? at HV

Rachel - so glad to hear that Brucie is doing well, that's fantastic news.

DD ripped all the keys off my keyboard earlier while I was putting Corin down for a nap DH has fixed them back on but they won't be the same again.

first1, we are also having weight 'issues'. some of the professionals we see aren't at all concerned, others are talking to me as though i should be worried. we are 11lb 4oz at 12 weeks from a 10lb birthweight, averaging around 1 1/2 oz a week. as long as you are happy that chloe is doing ok, don't worry too much.

rachel, absolutely delighted that brucie is looking well, let's hope he continues to progress well, keep us updated on his progress please, he feels like one of us now.

oh heffa, i so want to laugh at your keyboard, but i guess you dont find it funny, so to compensate for my mirth i will share that today my DH filled up his diesel with unleaded! i am sure you can fill in the rest......

Den- lucky you with the night out. I remember having friends round when DD1 was about 3mths old. We all had far too much to drink and stayed up late and her waking at 3am for 2 hours, then being wide awake at 6am was an absolute killer!!
Lesson learnt! :)

Heffa- Splashing in the river sounds great fun! Your poor keyboard. [ooppps]

First- Lucy has 5 or 6, 6oz bottles a day. She will finish between 5 or 6ozs of each bottle.
I was told that babies have periods where the growth goes on brain development so obvious weight gain is less. Also with height. DD1 slowly put on weight as a newborn but shot up and grew 7.5 cm in the first 6 weeks!

Rachel- Glad to hear little Brucie is doing well :)

Homebirth- OH dear! Silly DH!

Had a nice day here with playgroup this morning then playing in the garden with the girls on the bouncy castle and croquet.

Well the Orange wall has grown on me, and DH quite likes it now too so that saves me painting it white again.
DD1 keeps pointing at the wall saying "mummy made it Orange!" then jumps up and down saying "I love it!" Shes easily pleased!

Heffa my keyboard no longer has a 4 button thanks to DS1 "typing" when he was about 2! If I press hard where the button used to be I still get a 4 though, luckily. DS kindly tried to replace it with Lego recently!

We got Eric's British passport in July and I have an appointment to take him to the American consulate in London on 22 Sept to apply for his American passport. I just re-read the information on the website and my DH needs to attend as well but he's working so will have to have him fill in a form granting his permission for Eric to get the passport and get the form notarised. I just hope they accept it once I've made the trip there. Seems a lot of hassle but I have to register his birth within a year and so makes sense to do the passport at the same time. We're going to the States in late November so it would be good to have it for that trip. I'll be relieved once that's done!

Pigley I love the sound of an orange wall, I'm a big fan of being colourful! I'm in awe of your ambition/ability to paint as I can barely manage the day-to-day tidying at the moment!

Want to respond to more but both boys are shouting for me now! Catch up later! Hope everyone's well!

Thanks to all of you re Chloe's weight gain. I've looked in her red book and she's still on around 55th centile at 14weeks. I never wanted her to be weighed again after just a week, and now wish I'd just said no when she suggested it. I'll take her to clinic in 4 weeks. HV is very scatty, I don't like the woman to be honest but I'd feel awful requesting a different one from the PCT. Heyho, stuck with her for 5years .

sassles - HV sounds even more scatty than mine. That's terrible to make an error like that with the numbers! For a baby, just swapping a number round can add/minus loads of weight! Grr!

rachel - delighted to hear Brucie is doing so well.

pigley - you're very brave with the orange! I always have big ideas of colour, but my house is your standard "pastels" and biscuit carpet all over. Maybe I'll apply to 60min makeover!

Going to move Chloe into her own room at the weekend. Our babies are growing up too quickly!

Hello all - been an age since I was on here and have just had a mega catch up. Glad to hear LOs are doing ok. Things here great but cannot wait for dh and dd1 to go back to school!
First - Julia has 4 x 7oz bottles a day - she doesn't always finish them but seems happy so I'd be inclined to trust your instincts rather than worry about weight gain etc. I have only had her weighed twice since she was born and have only seen a health visitor once when she came to visit at the beginning.
Will try to keep up with news a bit more now

Homebirth - I laughed once I'd stopped crying! At least it's fixed now.

First1 - if it's any help, I haven't seen DD's HV since she was 16 weeks and I've only seen DS's once. Round here they seem to disappear and we just see children's centre people at the stay and play instead. 55th centile sounds great, so don't worry.

Alexw - good to see you, glad things are going well :)

Fell off again, didnt think it had been that long since I last posted.

Thankfully both girls are over the vomiting now though dd1 seems to have changed into a complete diva. In the last week she's thrown at least 5 tantrums a day over the slightest thing, the wrong colour bowl, if cbeebies bring on the wrong programme, brushing teeth etc... It's very draining and I'm finding it hard to like her atm :(, can't even play with her and she finds something wrong. I'm sure it's just a faze.

On a positive note, Grace was weighed yesterday and is back just above the 0.4th centile, 9lb 14oz at 14 weeks :) May take a break from weighing for a week as she's thriving.

First1 - although Grace was ebf until two weeks ago she was barely putting on an oz some weeks and hv were pleased as she was going in the right direction. As Pigley said, they can put on length rather than weight too.

Rachel - good news re Bruce, glad to hear he's doing well :)

Alex - nice to hear from you again.

Forgot to mention, when I weighed Grace yesterday, dd1 asked to be weighed too. The nursery nurse told her to take off her shoes but while I was getting Grace ready she proceeded to take of all her clothes so she could be weighed naked too. :o