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

:)

Hello ladies - I've been reading up but haven't had the chance until now to actually write.

Firstly, CazandBelle I had my candle lit on Friday night, I think about you so often and am overwhelmed with how strong and brave you have been through it all. I hope the next appointments for DH are good news. Good luck with the return to work, take care of yourself.

So no need to repeat, it's all a bit hectic with a newborn and toddler. Marnie is an absolute angel and gives us lots of smiles. She'll be 7 weeks on Wednesday and I'm really enjoying the time we spend together. DD has been challenging but I'm trying really really hard to keep my patience with her and am glad to be feeling physically so much better after the c-section - makes such a difference to be able to play about and pick her up again. We've cut her nursery days down from 5 to 3 which means Mondays and Fridays are going to be a challenge so I need to make sure we plan things to do. So far Costa at the end of the road with plenty of pens and paper seems to be doing the trick.

bellygazing E's evening routine sounds identical to both DDs - feed every 3ish hours (to the clock during the day) and then cluster feed all evening until we go to bed (or even later at midnight) - the good thing is she does sleep for 5 hours after that and eventually it will get easier. If it's any consolation DD1 is renouned for sleeping in at the weekend much to the of friends with early risers. The only bit of advice I can add is make sure you drink plenty of water and keep eating in the evening to keep your energy up. Also if you're watching tv / films etc it's a good distraction.

Is anyone still feeling rather large? I'm having trouble fitting in to anything and still feel enormous. My boobs are absolutely wapping at 34J and I can't find any bras (except one) to fit from Bravissimo. I'm going to cut down on the cake / snacks naughty food eating and get more active now but my coat won't do up and it's really cold!

Have a good night everyone

Poncherello on the plus side, if your coat doesn't do up you will have to walk faster to keep warm my coat doesn't do up either, both buttons popped off while i was pg

Cazzy DD will be 3 in November and won't use a toilet either - bloody hard work!

I can't remember who linked to it before, but i got this book when expecting F and i find it quite useful to dip into on bad days with both of them. Doesn't make it easier, just makes me feel slightly less mad

Both children are asleep, so bedtime, night x

Dibby my 7 week old is now in her 3-6 month clothes... don't want to think about what she might weigh! Frantically trying to swap some of my 3-6 stuff for 6-9 or we're going to run out of clothes pretty quickly! Have jabs to look forward to on Friday... eek!
Alice is there any chance your DH could look after the kids for a couple of hours at the weekend so you can do some batch cooking? I managed 6 portions of chilli, 4 of chickpea, roasted veg and feta salad, 4 of pea and paneer curry, some spicy potato wedges using the pots from our veg patch and an apple toffee pie. Oh and roast dinner. It took about 2 hours but when you're doing multiple dishes at the same time at least you're making most efficient use of the time.
This week because of freezer food I only have lunches and then aubergines with tahini to cook (as well as rice, etc... for with the other bits). Think you're doing quite well to do the washing TBH as I wasn't managing that with one until last wek!
Chulita hope you get some rest/you time soon (DH had the cheek to describe my hours nap the other day as 'me time'!!)....
cazzy hope today is better than yesterday!

Marzipan yay to smiling pictures, they're great aren't they?! S seems to smile and giggle all the time which makes me feel loads better.

Coat sympathies to everyone. I'm currently wearing my mother in laws anorak given my complete failure to get into either my beautiful mustard Marc by Marc Jacobs knee length woollen coat (can you tell I'm obssessed?!) or my whistles short grey wool coat (in fact this cost me £200 last year and I've never got into it due to pg, boo...)...

Good day to you all! About to bath a sleepy baby because we have visitors today and she keeps doing projectile poos!

Hey Pample i had done (as had DH) a load of batch cooking but it has all been used up nd because of his work i haven't had a chance to restock. He has a rare afernoon off today though, so i am going for a ride then will do some cooking.

My nice coat requires me to be down to 9.7st before it looks nice. But it is beautiful so worth starving myself for no, this is the only reason i am donating milk, so i can eat more

F seems to be having another growth spurt. The last 2 nights he has woken for a feed 3 times in the night when for the last week he has been doing 6-7hrs. He will be 9weeks on thurday and fills most 3-6month clothes rather well. I cannot be having my less than 3month old baby in 6-9mth clothes!! Seriously though, he has some Next babygrows handed down to him that seem to have a fair bit of room left, may have to get some more from there as they seem shrink resistant

Do i need breastpads for swimming? Suddenly occurred to me in the middle off the night last night that i might need some Lilypadz for our holiday. As well as a 'proper' swimsuit.

Quite calm here at the moment, wonder how long that will last...

Hope today goes well Pample

Baby bathed and no big complaints - yay number one! Baby fed and in pram sleeping enabling me to finish stuff for lunch - yay number two! Actually think I just heard her babbling to herself, but that's fine!
Sorry Alice I realise that probably sounded a bit patronising (about the batch cooking) enjoy your afternoon 'off' though! Commiserations on the growth spurt :) S has started 'only' waking up 2-3 times in the night which is grounds for a party in my book!
Hmmm maybe I should express some more now my milk supply has sorted itself out.... sure fire way to coat fitting?! I don't even weigh myself any more though! Bit concerned they'll make me do so at my 6 week check (actually happening at 8 weeks) as I'm 5"11 so the numbers always look ginormous :*( oh well!
Best run and do my jobs out before she properly wakes up!
xx

Poor little Sam is still in 0-3 month clothes at 12.5 wks :( He's getting to the end of them but he just doesn't drink enough and isn't growing very quickly. Still, he's very alert with lots of wet nappies, I finally got a prescription for Ranitidene so we might start seeing some improvement once I've picked that up.

poncherello I'm huge too, got nearly 2 stone to lose to get back to starting weight. My stomach is horrendous!

I don't think Sam's had a growth spurt, or if he did I haven't noticed I'm sure I would have noticed if he had but then he's not a huge feeder so maybe he's just been feeding for a bit longer, I don't know.

alice it depends how leaky you are - are you in danger of leaving a milk trail?

Yay for prescription Chulita hopefully some improvement soon.

Yes i am very leaky

Hi poncherello, glad to see I'm not the only one with a baby permanently glued to my breast all evening.

Re mammoth gazumbas and coats, I am currently rocking a 34HH but as for coats, I usually wear E in a sling so warm enough with a big scarf/cardigan. No idea if any of my coats fit. Very few of my tops are breastfeeding-friendly which is v annoying. My waist is still nothing like pre-preg but I haven't weighed myself since 40 wks pregnant. Alice - I haven't weighed 9st7lb since I was about 17...

We had our first set of jabs this morning. E cried v angrily during the first one but didn't seem to notice the second as she was still complaining about the first one. Then stopped crying almost immediately. I fed her straight after at which point she did a ginormous poo which went all over her hip harness. Lovely...

CellyD if u go onto the Stokke website & scroll to the bottom right of the page under 'support' they have a list of user guides. Or if it's not there the click on 'contact us' & you can request the user guide you need & they'll email it to you.

www.stokke.com/en-gb/nursery/stokke-sleepi-bed.aspx

Hope that helps :)

Hi all, not been on for a week so haven't been keeping up but hope you are all well. I am finding three kids under 3 bloody hard work and time consuming and tiring, hence no MN! Me, DH and Theo (DT1) were all sick in the night which was not good but my mum came to look after us this morn. I went back to bed and I really needed it! Thank God for mums

Daniel is doing great, it's a good job he is such a good baby cos I would be on my knees otherwise. The only problem we have is he still goes to bed late (11pm or so usually) and sleeps well then but it is a late night for me esp when the twins wake at 7am. Could be worse though! It's happy days and we are going on our 'summer' hol on Saturday to south Wales for 2wks. really looking forward to a break in the routine.

Hope you're all feeling better now neenz, Twins and a baby - you deserve a medal! (Speaking of twins, anyone heard from starshaker recently? Hope she's doing ok)

Forgive me is this is really obvious to all of you, but I think (hope!) I made a discovery yesterday which will help ds sleep better at night. It occurred to me after he had a really long nap in his pram still wearing his jacket after we'd been out that he sleeps better when he's warm. The nights have been colder but we've been dressing him the same. He's been waking frequently but only having very short feeds (5 mins) before losing interest. He also often wakes soon after being put down and grunts a lot.
So last night we put an extra layer on him and warmed his cot with a hot water bottle before putting him down. He went to sleep beautifully and only woke once (if you count the day starting at 5.15!).
I really hope this isn't a coincidence but that we've found a real solution!

It's amazing how good 3 3/4 hours of unbroken sleep can make you feel (so good and refreshed in fact that I had only just got back to sleep by the time he woke again at 5.15 having gone to sleep at 3 )

marzipan we've done the hot water bottle thing too and it does seem to work! I'm pretty sure S is sleeping better now we've started putting the heating on a bit...
I 'start' the day from the 5/6 feed too! And by that rate S only woke once (I fed her at 10.30, Daddy looked after her till 11.30, she slept until 3.30, fed and slept until 5.30, yay! Massively exciting given last week she was still waking 4/5 times a night!
neenz - enjoy the hol and a big pat on the back for what sounds like very hard work! Oh and some cake!
belly and Alice 9st7 is a place where I haven't been for my entire adult life, nor am likely to be!
And the good news is that apart from my boobs the Marc by Marc coat fits... yippeee....

Just have to post a big YAY!
Had Scarlett weighed today and my little 7 week old is now 14 lb 10 oz! So pleased as we've now stopped the supplementary bottle of formula I was giving her when I couldn't keep up and she's nearly packed on a lb a week for the last fortnight! SO happy as she's also sleeping loads better and being generally adorable :) Happy Mummy face!

Everyone is doing so well! It is so true that this too shall pass

Yay for baby Pample! Going to get F weighed again on friday i think. Funny thing happened at playgroup this morning, F fell asleep while i was holding him and so i put him in one of the bouncy chairs, he is so heavy that it went down so far that he was almost touching the floor Little chubber!

Marzi F has started waking up more again and i was wondering about him being cold. Shall put a fleece sleepsuit on tonight and see how he goes.

Neenz i take my hat off to you, i am struggling wth just the 2 kids. Have a nice holiday.

It has been a while since i was 9st7. Before i was pg with DD so 3 and half years? Got down to 9st9 by last november though. Oh and i am only 5ft3(and a half)

Am trying to think how I could get down to 9st 7lbs - might have to hack off a leg [hgrin]

I have a frivolous favour to ask. I've been shortlisted in the hallowe'en namechange comp and need your bloc vote please www.mumsnet.com/Polls/halloween-name-poll-10?res=1

Think of it as being the Eurovision Song contest, with me being Norway and you all being Swedish [hwink]. All votes will be gratefully appreciated. I don't expect to win, just don't want to come last!

Sorry for being dense but how do I vote
Just got back from Zumba, first trial of it and my legs ache! Still, it's what I need to knock off these 2 stone.
pample that's fantastic! Well done Scarlett :)

Chulita, it's probably my rubbish linking. You can get to the voting fro mthe top of this thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/1066123-Vote-for-your-favourite-Halloween-name-change-The-winner-gets

Thank you! x

voted :)
J has been angelic today - I hope he keeps it up tonight!

Just a quick message to say aaaargh! Elodie has been either crying or feeding pretty much non-stop today and has barely slept all day. She was much the same yesterday too... Perhaps it was a mistake to read some of the Baby Whisperer and start doubting all my parenting.

I don't know if it's a growth spurt, a reaction to the vaccines yesterday, or just her being difficult. She has also been drooling constantly and stuffing her hands in her mouth, along with having a bit of a runny nose... surely two months old is too early for teething???? Any thoughts?

DH is giving her a bottle at the mo but I think he's already given her 4oz and I just heard a cry from the bedroom. I think my boobs are about to be pressed into service... Baby Whisperer has me convinced I've got into bad habits and am creating 'a rod for my own back'

Hi all,

Just had to come and say - my loft is finished!!!!!!!!!! The carpets finally went down today, and it looks fantastic. I'll stick some photos up if I ever get a chance to take any. Saturday is official 'moving' day, when we transfer our bedroom up there - so excited!

All is ok here, though S seems to have completely forgotten how to sleep during the day. If I leave him in his carrycot or bouncy chair he just gets more and more wide-eyed and over-stimulated - no more just falling asleep on his own (unless we're in the car or out somewhere). I have to actively 'make' him sleep by dummying and rocking him, and even then it often doesn't work. Does anyone else have this? Any tips? DS1 was exactly the same, IIRC, so maybe it's something I'm doing wrong .

DS1 has been a bit easier for the last few days, which is a big relief. I felt so guilty today, though. I was a bit stressed and snappy, and when he said 'Mummy' for the billionth time I rather snapped 'YES?' back at him, and he just looked really sad and said 'What have I done wrong?' . Resolution of the day - be nicer to him, poor little mite!

Oh, and by the way, has anyone seen Blueberries around recently? I can't remember her posting in ages.

Cross posts, bellygazing. It could be a reaction to the vaccines. S had his the other day, at about 9am. All that day he barely slept at all (even less than usual ), though was perfectly cheerful until nearly bedtime. He slept like a log that night, and then basically slept from 9am until 4pm then following day, only waking briefly for feeds. DS1 did something very similar after his first jabs. It can take them in funny ways. Why not try a dose of Calpol? Won't do any harm and might even give you a nice quiet night .

Belly don't allow a book to make you doubt your parenting - all babies enjoy shaking things up once in a while and behaving totally out of routine. It could well be a reaction to the vaccinations. If she's been awake most of the day she should have a good sleep soon hopefully [hsmile]

Elusive hurray for your work being finished! And I know how you feel about being nicer to DC1 I've been trying really hard to be more patient with her as I've been so much more short-tempered with her lately. It's horrible and I feel terrible about it.

Came to lurk and found you needs votes cakey - have voted for you of course!

Nothing new to report here, tomrorow is the 21st. Always find the 21st hard. Another month passed, 4 months now...

I'm seeing lots about 9st 7?! I wish I wish! I lost the baby weight v quickly, and was under pre-preg weight in 10 days, (don't throw things at me!! lol) I now hover between 10 st 2 and 10st 7, but try as I might I cannot break that 10 st mark. Not to be I don't think!

Hope everyone is well. xx