AUGUST 2010 - welcome to post-natal :o)

[CherryPie3]

I know I'm not around a great deal lately but we don't yet have a PN thread - so here we are.

Love to all xxx

:)

Alice wowzers! Amazing work on the milk production! Sometimes I get loads expressing, sometimes I seem as dry as a bone - can't work it out. I've actually been expressing a lot this week because Eli has been SO windy he's really struggling to finish feeds and his poos have gone all green again. He's furious too (when he's not cross-eyed with wind). I find he's sometimes a bit better with a bottle as he can cope with it better. I think my letdown is just a bit much. The bitty feeds also mean about 1.5 hrs between feeds, so it's a struggle to get out much at the moment. And I've lost confidence BFing in public because he often gets hysterical on the boob if he can't keep up. Aiiie. Was hoping it would get better after six weeks - guess I need to hang on a bit longer?

And sex? What's that? Never heard of it.

CazandBelle you'll have a candle lit round ours tonight too.

Have got my candle for Belle ready for 7pm

cazandbelle I've lit Belle's candle already so I don't forget. You're all in my thoughts tonight. xxx

We've lit our candle too cazabdbelle x

Thank you ladies. My candle is also lit.

Sweet little candle,
Shining so bright,
Please find your way to,
Our Anabelle in heaven tonight.

Sweet little flame,
Dancing all around,
Waving your pretty light,
With little flickering sounds.

Sweet little baby,
Sleeping so gently and tight,
Anabelle we remember you,
Tonight with candle light.

Sweet little angel,
Flying above so high,
Enjoying her beautiful wings,
Up in the big blue sky.

Sweet little daughter,
So loved and missed every day,
Mummy and Daddy so lost without you,
But trying to find our way.

Sweet little Anabelle,
Play with your angel baby friends,
Until we?re reunited in heaven,
Our family together forever again.

Sweet little candles,
All burning brightly away,
Honouring all angel babies,
On October 15th, Baby Loss Awareness Day.

What a lovely poem. i lit our candle & then sat next to it with Aidan for a few minutes in silence. He was completely mesmerized by it flickering away, i'd like to imagine he was thinking of his little angel baby friend x

i also think there must have been something in the air last night as my LO slept 11pm-8.30am which meant mummy was up a full hour before him which was very odd, felt like he was a lazy teenager that i had to keep checking on to see if he was finally up! Whats more is that he finished his last feed an hour before he went to sleep so in theory he could have slept for 10 and a half hours!!!

oh caz... candle lit and a glass raised to the beautiful Belle... known by a few and touched the hearts of many

Such a beautiful poem cazandbelle. Our candle burned bright for Anabelle tonight xxx

Havent posted for a while although i have tried to pop on every few days to keep up to date with eveything. Have been having a tough time lately as my mum has been really unwell and im trying to help out as much as possible, cooking extra meals, doing shopping etc, whilst looking after my own 3DCs.

Caz our candle shone brightly for Belle tonite. Your poem is beautiful and im sure belle is very proud of her wonderful and dedicated parents. You are an inspiration to us all!

With regards to contraception DH has just had his appointment through for his consultation for a vesectomy. I know 3DCs is plenty, and i honestly dont want anymore children but i must confess to being a bit aprehensive about the whole thing. It all seems a bit too final for my liking.

Sorry havent posted for a while

A bit knackered with sleep deprivation and F is a bit sniffly so not in the best form.

Caz I didn't have a candle but said a prayer for your angel and your family. You are so strong and I hope your faith continues to give you strength. I also hope they get to the bottom of your dh illness and he s better soon. Your poem brought tears to my eyes.

Caz that's a lovely poem, really touching.

I've been reading but not posting. LO has her first bug - a sore throat, so she's been keeping us on our toes. She has gone off feeding and much prefers moaning pitifully :( I'm sure we will get further lecturing from the HV this week as she has only put on 2oz per week for the last two weeks rather than the 6oz they expect. With a cold for most of the week I'm sure they will tell me to give her some formula in addition to BF. Oh well I guess the bad mummy lecture from the HV is par for the course.

On a separate note has anyone got the assembly instructions/user guide for the Stokke Sleepi junior conversion kit? (ie to make the cot convert into a junior bed to use up to 10yrs). My friend was given one minus the instructions and can't find them online. She finding it impossible to assemble.

cellyd saw you helping at the nct sale ysterday but didn't get a chance to say hi!

hopefully they won't suggest formula - at least she's gaining, if only a bit.

Hello, I've been lurking for a while but haven't posted as I'm pushed for time! I hope it's not too late to join your gang!
I had my dd on 19th august, and have been finding the juggling quite tough as I have a 3 year old ds too. She is doing brilliantly at night, and will sleep through from 10.30 pm and I normally have to wake her for a feed at 7am and get her sorted as I have to get ds up and ready for nursery too. So feel lucky to have good nights, but her naps are really tough during the day. She will only sleep on me, won't sleep if put down in her Moses basket or in the cot, and is generally quite grizzly all day as a result. I wish I could just leave her to sleep on me, but what with having to ferry ds to and from nursery, sort out meals, laundry, etc etc, I just don't have time! She's not great in the sling either...
We're having to move her out of our bedroom (possibly tonight) as she's outgrown her Moses basket, she literally has half an inch left in there.....she's so tall!
Anyway I just thought it was about time that I stopped lurking and actually posted!

Hello and Welcome Booreeve my DS was born on 19th too and i have a DD who is nearly 3.

DD has gone from being a complete angel child who loves her baby brother to a bloody demon! This week she has; bitten me, scratched me and DH, hit me (several times), headbutted me, hit and kicked F, strangled the cat(actually that is quite normal) and tried to pull F off my lap, oh and wee'ed on the floor then danced in it All of this while calm and not being told off or anything. Argh!!

Today however she has been helping me clean the kitchen, think she just wants my attenton really.

Hi Alice, I'm finding my 3 year old more than trying! I'll have jet settled dd and he'll (not always on purpose) wake her up - cue much crying from dd as she's a sleep fighter and looses the plot if she's disturbed...

Welcome booreeve! You, me and Alice can be baby buddies - my new one was also born on Auguest 19th, and I also have a 3 year old. DS1 is absolutely lovely with the baby (they've been playing snakes and ladders this morning, with DS1 throwing the dice for S ), but he's been pretty challenging with us. He's just so negative all the time - everything we suggest for him to do (even if it's the most fun thing in the world) is met with a grumpy 'no'. I swear he's 3 going on 16 at the moment. I just have to keep reminding myself that he's been through a hell of a lot recently - not only the new baby, but we've also done potty training over the last month as well.

S is doing brilliantly. He's a lovely little soul. He had his 8 week jabs this morning, and I'm rather hoping he'll react the same way DS1 did (slept for 24 hours solid, only waking for feeds). He's still waking at least once in the night, though, and sometimes twice - I'm so jealous of those of you with babies almost sleeping through! Last night I fed him at 10.15, then he woke at 2am and 5.45am. He drains his bottle each time, so I think he does need the milk. I've tried to get him to take bigger feeds in the day, but he never wants more than 4-5oz (and if I try to feed him more often, he just drinks less at the feed).

Also, those of you with older DC - are you managing to get any sort of daytime routine for the new baby, and if so, how?! I'm finding it impossible! We've just about got a feeding schedule (which varies a bit depending on what time S wakes up), but a nap schedule is just impossible. The problem is that we have to work around DS1's schedule, which is different on different days (depending on whether it's a pre-school day, or a swimming day, or a playgroup day etc). I just can't see how I'm ever going to achieve any sort of set sleeping times for S! Any tips?

Hello everyone!

No tips for baby naps elusive, S grabs them when he can when we're out, when we're home I've just started trying to put him down after about 1.5 hours awake.

DD's ill, curled up on the sofa grunting :( I hate it when she's ill, I never know what to do.

S still hasn't had his 8 week jabs yet at 12.5 weeks old. I keep asking people and yet nothing's been sorted out yet. Thing is the older they get the more they realise what's happening.

Hi Chulita. Sorry your DD's ill - I agree, it's so difficult when they're not well. Re the jabs, what's the process in your area? Here, it's just down to the parent to phone the GP surgery and book an appt with the nurse. Do you have to wait for a referral or for the HV to arrange it where you are?

Hi all,

I have the 8 week jabs tomorrow - I'm not looking forward to it cos E is on the tail end of a cold and so we haven't exactly been having a very happy time over the last week already.

E had a massive screaming fit about an hour ago of a kind that was quite new - didn't need changing, didn't want feeding (almost unheard of), wouldn't settle in the sling. So I popped on my shoes, grabbed my keys and went for a walk around the estate with her in the sling. I hadn't even brushed my hair since getting up and I left the computer switched on and the washing up in the sink... anyway, the first 5-10 mins was punctuated by piercing screams but eventually she fell asleep. She's still in the sling now, I expect she won't be a happy bunny when I get her out shortly.

I'm beginning to go a bit spare about E's night-time 'routine'. While she is now regularly sleeping for five hours at a stretch, it pretty much always takes from the time she finishes having a bath (which she sometimes loves, sometimes hates) and a bit of baby massage at 9pm ish until 11.30pm to midnight to get her to sleep. During that time I seem to be feeding her pretty much constantly until she eventually falls asleep - we sometimes get up to 45 minutes within that period where she will drift off before waking and demanding more boob, but then she is wide awake and wanting more. Any tips welcomed...

Morning girls - hello newcomers, don't forget to offer your cake and biscuits around. Today I come with an offering of Devonshire scones (oooaaar, my lovers) with clotted cream and strawberry jam and a lovely pot of tea served in a proper cup and saucer.

I nearly daren't type this for fear that commiting it to print will have fate sneering in my face, but (she whispers in a barely audible voice), Felicity has slept through the last 3 nights. She's 11 weeks today and DH was on the bottle duty Friday night whilst I slept in the spare room - I went in to see them on Saturday morning and he was giving her a bottle at 7.30am "What time did she wake in the night?", I asked, "She didn't", grinned DH - typical, on my night off she slept through, then she did it again on Saturday night (DH on duty again), then again last night for me.

She goes down at about 7.30pm, I wake her again at 11pm for a feed, though I'm lucky if she takes 3oz as she's sooooooo sleepy, then that's it. It seems she has read the CLB book without me knowing it. She is a baby that seems to like routine though, naps at certain times, feeds to 3 hours on the dot during the day.

You ladies with babies born on the 19th August have me to thank - that's my birthday and I sent you all birthday baby vibes

I bawled my eyes out when F had her jabs (and so did she), was awful, fortunately my mum was there to comfort the both of us , she didn't have any reaction (F, not my mum), other than being very sleepy for the rest of the day, though I had the Calpol at the ready.

Mucho respect to those of you juggling more than 1 littlie - have decided that we might start thinking about no.2 when F is about 18...

We are still having incidences of projectile vomiting, but none this weekend, so I'm hoping it will get less frequent as she gets bigger, fingers crossed. Not worried about her weight gain, she's now in 3-6 month stuff - felt sad packing away more of her 0-3 month stuff, but at least I didn't cry like when I put her newborn stuff away

Sorry for mammoth post, I do read everything, but getting time to type is an art in itself. Ooooh, one last thing - am reading "What Mother's Do", have cried several times already, though it only really makes sense to read it once you have a baby, had I read it when pregnant, I probably would have thought the women were just really bad with their time management

Is anyone else finding they have a really short fuse atm? I am getting irrationally angry at every little thing - for someone who is incredibly laidback usually, i am finding it very hard! Think im just being spread too thin iyswim? Just can't believe that i am finding it hard (nearly impossible) to make sure the dishwasher is emptied/reloaded and some washing washed and dried every day. Bugger everything else! For the first time in my adult life i am thinking of stocking up on ready meals, because i simply do not get chance to cook every day. ARGH!! sorry, just needed a moan, please feel free to ignore

I was feeling the exact same thing this morning. DD was under the weather and just wanted to snuggle, DS was doing his usual refluxy crying and I couldn't cuddle them both at the same time. If I put one down the other upped the decibel level...it was awful. Then after a day of bending over backwards to give the children what they need, DH comes home and wants some attention when all I want to do is tidy up and go to bed. A friend said when she had her 2nd that for the first 6 months or so she just felt she was treading water, just about keeping on top of things...I understand how she feels!

I was really cross with dd3 who pooed everywhere today because she doesn't like the toilet which then meant I was late for the school run.Then I put Poppy on our bed whilst I wiped dd3 and her nappy leaked everywhere as she did the poo from hell...so duvet being washed now :(. Then I had to drive to school, picked up the dds 1 and 2 and realized I had forgotten their bike lock keys which meas I will have to walk them to school in the morning :( - grghhhhh

dd3 has been a bit of a monkey all day... plus I started a beef casserole which then I read takes 4 hours in the oven... great but dd3 and dh don't want to eat at 11pm... anyway I have cracked open the wine :)

Alice - how old is your dd1 - is she the same age as my dd3?

many sympathies to those of you struggling with toddlers as well as babies, I can't imagine coping at all so I think you're all doing really well.
I'm finding the sleep deprivation is sstarting to take its toll, DH woke me up from a nap yesterday afternoon and i was so disorientated i hardly knew who he was or who i was! I think he was a bit freaked out!
I managed to take some gorgeous photos of Joel smiling though so that cheered me up