The Final Fruition of the Frolicking Forays for the First Time Frolickers

[Spirael]

We came, we saw, we frolicked.

Now our PFB has arrived and we can begin the stressful befuddled guiltridden exhausting wonderful journey of parenthood!

(Or at the very least we can stop bothering the antenatal bunch until they join us!)

Just popping in with a question, has anyone else had projectile frothy poos? Should I be worried? Had just managed to get dressed this morning when Rose managed to shoot poo all over my brand new skirt during one of our many nappy changes! Second time she's managed to get me in the past week!

I haven't (C is doing silent but deadly nappies at the moment - I quite miss the squelching sound!), but one of my antenatal group's babies has projectile poos - they shoot out everywhere, so I think its pretty normal. I'd mention it to your HV anyway at the clinic when you get Rose weighed, I usually have a list of "so is this normal" questions and they are very patient with me!

Uh oh re Robyn's "only mummy will do" episodes mrsw - they do make you panic that you will be the only one that can ever look after/ feed/ settle your LO for the next year or so don't they? My mum was over yesterday and C was a real star with her, back to her old coo-ing self, so that was a big relief. Still a bottle refuser though so unless I can come up with a way of unscrewing my boobs and attaching them to DH/ someone else, think me and C are going to have to come together as a package for a bit longer...

Hello all

fudge Nice to see you. I think of you and Elliot alot. Best of luck TTC.

HH Hannah used to projectile poo (I had fun taking her to a friends house at 10 days old - poo went her carpet!) but I feel she grew out of it. Rose is still young so maybe thats the case. I'm sure your HV or one at the clinic could confirm everything is normal though.

cherry and mrsw Hannah will tolerate being held by someone else but likes to see me at the same time and this has been for some time now. (She is 18 weeks) The moment she gets upset she gets VERY upset. I then usually get her back quite quickly! I think this is part of the reason I feel unable to leave her - because sometimes only me will do. She might be different if I wasn't there though. Although guessing Robyn didn't like it when you were out mrsw I think at the moment they are only just working out that they are separate from us so can't get extended family into their tiny growing heads just yet. They will grow older though and grow to love their grandparents. (This is what I tell myself when I'm panicing about returning to work im January when Hannah will be 9 months)

mrsw Sorry to hear Robyn is dropping centiles. As far as I understand it solids have less calories than milk & solids would fill her up leaving less room for milk. Are the HV worried? If not don't worry, that could just be her curve. Congrats on becoming an auntie!

cherry I keep telling myself Hannah will take a cup soon which will give me more freedom (we haven't pushed bottles on her but she hasn't taken well to the last two we offered her) Plus solids in 8 weeks

mumsnerves Thank you for showing me the light at the end of the tunnel. Wow at all Sean's acheivements. I haven't seen Harry Potter, no baby cinema here.

We may have had a roll today. She was cuddled up next to DP on the bed and rolled onto her side toward him. Next thing he knew she was on her tummy. We aren't sure if his weight helped or if she was holding onto his tshirt so we will have to wait and she if she does it again.

I love all the baby pics. Maybe we could set up a FB group (if a few people are on it) and share pics that way? My PN group have done it and its great seeing them grow up.

And second babies? I'd like a 2/3 age gap. Maybe start TTC this time next year. Get the baby years done whilst i'm still young(ish) and then crack on with my career when they are at school and i'm in my early thirties. I have a great relationship with my sister and always have. She is 2 and half years younger so thats my ideal age gap. However I know its not always easy to time these things so I would be happy whenever I got lucky.

Fudgecat its so good to ?see? you. I think about you and Elliot so often. I can?t imagine what the last year has been like for you. Please come back and let us know how you get on with TTC, there are so many people on this page that care about you.

Haloflo I know all about the clingy baby problem! I was warned by my HV about it ? she said that usually it kicks in at about 9 months, often just as women go back to work, and people beat themselves up about it thinking it is because they are not SAHMs etc when actually it would happen anyway. I was glad she told me because when Tegs was about 8 months it hit with a vengeance. Alot of the time she wouldn?t even go to her dad. We are gradually coming out the other side of it now at ten and a half months ? she will go to her dad, her gran and me, and suffer about 30 seconds with any one else before she starts wailing! So Hannah is obviously super-advanced to have started so early!

Highheels we had the projectile poo in this house too. It gradually wore off, and once T was on solids it stopped completely. We are onto smelly, grown up poos now. Yuk!

Cherry PMSL at ?I quite miss the squelching sound? Me too! The weird things that motherhood does to you!!

Thanks for the list Bunny. It made me go ?Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!? to see Second Time Frolickers at the end of it
William looks so damn cute in those photos. What an impish little smile in the bookcase one!
Good news about the 4x180mls - that was worrying me too and that sounds much more like what T can cope with.

Congrats on your little nephew MrsW!

Well, DD has mastered pulling herself up and cruising around the furniture to perfection this week so I think the chances of her crawling have gone well and truly out of the window! She is like a little monkey, climbing over everyone and everything. She is getting much more resilient to bumps on the bum and head now and I am getting used to the sound of her bouncing off the floor!
We are moving house (again) in two weeks so there is stuff everywhere and she is loving getting in the way to trouble with every box and stack of books she can launch herself at. DH and I are frazzled, and I cannot wait until its the end of September and everything in my life has calmed down a bit ? work will have restarted, DD will have started nursery and we will be in the new flat with all the cardboard boxes a thing of the past. At the same time for all of those reasons I am dreading the next six weeks and just want to cuddle up on the sofa with my baby and block out the world Being a grown up sucks.

mrsw I've decided to ignore the formula tin now, although it was a complete source of stress when we started weaning. He's currently having 240m when he wakes and before bed, and maybe 60ml in the day. He's sleeping through so I reckon he's well on the way to being on 2 feeds a day.

We went through a "only mummy will do" phase at the 3/4month mark. I think that's the point at which they start to develop associations with things, so if you give 95%of the bottles or do most of the settling to sleep, they start to associate you with feeding/sleeping, and anyone else trying it is a change for them.

True separation anxiety starts when they get object permanence (ie they realise that things still exist even when they can't see them) as that's the point they realise you could leave them forever. that usually happens somewhere between 6 and 9 months. You'll know when they get it, as that's when they'll start to look for something they've dropped/ you've hidden. I think that's when they start to experience fear as an emotion for the first time, so they can get very clingy in situations that frighten them.

hh we had projectile poos, but they were never frothy. I'm sure it's normal, buit it might be worth checking with your HV

halo yay for the possible roll I feel all old with you saying Hannah will be at school when you're in your early thirties....I'm that old now I think we're going to aim for a 2.5-3yr age gap as well, so we might be starting TTC again at the same time!

My post-natal thread have a FB group too. Maybe we should set up a Frolickers one too - it would be lovely to see everyone's pics.

cherry you'll find even if she won't take bottles she'll soon be able to go for longer between feeds, so you'll be able to leave her for a couple of hours at least. Once they start solids and are having water to drink it's perfectly possible for a bottle refusing BFed baby to last all day without milk - they just have a massive feed when you're reunited. Will wasn't a bottle refuser, but went through a phase of not taking them from anyone but me, so when he started nursery he would go from 8:30am to 4:30pm without milk, and then just have a massive feed when I collected him. And now, he's pretty much on 2 milk feeds a day - you and little C will be at that point before you know it

pixie good luck with the move. And well done to Tegs with the standing.

There's been a strange smell coming from Will's cot for a few days now. I changed the sheets but it's still there. I finally realised that it's his blankie - it's been in there with him since birth but has mostly been ignored until the last 4 weeks or so when he's developed a real attachment to it. He sucks the corner as he settles himself to sleep, and where it's been damp it now stinks!! Of course, now we need to wash it, but he won't sleep without it, so DH has taken him out for his morning nap, while I get it washed and dried ready for his afternoon sleep. Hopefully he won't completely reject it in it's new non-stinky form

Hi all

Sorry for the radio silence but it's been a tough week! Lochie has hit the 9 mth sleep regression head on - on Monday the longest stretch of sleep he had was 1.5 hours!! [exhausted emoticon]. Last night was 'better' - he was only awake for a 3 hour period around midnight. . It's dire and I just hope it ends soon. I think we were lucky as the 4 mth regression didn't really affect him, so this has been a complete shock to the system. I think its related to walking - he's now taken 8 solo steps in a row and just wants to walk everywhere. It's actually very sweet as he will grab your hand and lead you around the house.

On the plus side the separation anxiety seems to be calming down - he's had a couple of great settling sessions at nursery and yesterday he met my younger sis for the first time as she was over from Oz and he was fine with her - had cuddles and everything which is miles away from where he was last week.

fudge fantastic to see you and congrats on the TTCing.

MrsW agree with ignoring the tin - Lochie has never been along it's guidelines and is a complete milk monster. If I just gave him the bottle numbers the tin said he'd be mutinous!

hh lochie is another explosive frothy pooer - the sounds are bonkers! I think it's because we're BLWing so the majority of his food is still milk - he's not really moved onto adult style poos yet!

pixie hope the next few weeks aren't too stressful!

bunny loved hearing about Will's snuggle. So cute!

Oh and great idea re the facebook group - I'm up for that, how do we get it started?

Sorry to anyone I've missed out, am so tired I don't even know my own name today! The bugger is that it's my lie in day but sods law I can't seem to go back to sleep! Grrr... Mind you, browsing on MN may not be an effective sleep tool...

worrisome hope you get through the sleep regression soon. William gave us hell for the 4 month one - at one stage if he went 2hrs we'd be celebrating. We're a week away from hitting 9 months and I'm viewing it with dread, as everything I've read says the 9 month regression is the biggest of them all. William loves a good sleep regression - he's just started regularly sleeping through, but I fear he's only doing that to conserve energy for a few sleep free nights!

And yay to Lochie - he's the first solo walking Frolicker baby

I'll set up the FB group as a couple of you are already on my FB anyway. I'll make it a secret group so people not in the group can't see we're in it, so we don't need to worry about revealing our MNing selves to the wider world I'll need to add you to the group if you want to join, so send me a message and I'll add you - you should be able to message me if you follow the link to my photos that I posted the other day.

William has decided he wants to self feed as of today - he's rejecting spoons or even using his hands and just lifting up his bowl and tipping the food straight into his mouth. Not entirely sure where he's got his table manners from, but I suspect that DH has something to do with it

Right, facebook group is set up. Send me a message and I might let you join

Good work bunny! My fb app on my phone has gone a little haywire so I think it's sent the friend request but wouldn't let me add a message so I will pm you my real name too so you know I'm not some random stranger!

fab idea re fb group flo and thanks for setting up bunny - I have sent you a message via fb, looking fwd to seeing all the cute Frolicker babies! Hope it wasn't the special smell, but rather the blankie, that Will was attached too...

argh worrisome you poor thing re the sleep regression, hope you get some sleep soon. We had a rubbish night last night as little C kept thumping her legs (in her grobag) up and down onto the crib mattress, waking herself up, and then trying to practice a half- roll. All very cute but NOT AT 3AM PLEASE DARLING. Sigh.

good luck with the move pixie - I feel overwhelmed just thinking about the logistics of you moving plus baby!

ps re second babies, although I vowed "never again" in the vomit/nausea hell of the first trimester, again during labour, and many times in the very difficult first six weeks we had, I am starting to think about number 2! Like you flo and bunny I like the idea of a 2 or 3 year age gap though realise that its often not a matter of choice. I will be in my mid thirties when little C starts school!

Poor you Worri, the sleep regression sounds awful. We got off fairly lightly with a few interrupted nights at about 8 months, but T seems to be like her Mummy and hates being overtired so she grew out of it pretty fast! Well done Lochie for walking!

Ahhhhh, Will sounds so cute with his blanket! I had one when I was a baby and it was the bane (bain?) of my mothers life, so I have tried to avoid giving Tegs a permanance object. Hoping she wont be scarred for life! How did he react to the change of smell?

The 2-3 year age gap thing is funny isn't it - that seems to be the preferred option with all my RL friends too. Having met a few two year olds at the baby clubs we go to I can see why - they are proper little independent people by then so managing a newborn baby seems more do-able (Don't read that Roses )

Took DD to get some photos taken today as a present for her Granny, and the little blighter wouldnt put her tongue away for the entire shoot All our best efforts to get her to smile and look cute were thwarted by her looking like Einstein Nevermind, at least it will save me money when they are printed up and I have to choose which ones to get!

oneof8 It was I think when I saw other babies and realised he looked nothing like them anymore. He's always looked like me, properly from about 3-6 weeks old so nothing new then. I just started looking at little newborns with their curled up scrumminess and went 'awww' then looked back at my big lump of a baby (I love him really ) and realised how much bigger he was. Doesn't help that he's around the 80-85 centile for weight and height

MrsW don't worry too much about the mummy thing. Ds for example today woke up after his morning nap in DH's arms and screamed till he saw me but when the same thing happened in the afternoon, was fine it all seems to be in phases. Congrats on being an auntie!

Halo I've got the same age gap in mind as you, am a bit worried about TTC then though as I'm definitely getting older and am just a tad conscious of it!

HH we always had projectile poos like pixie we are also getting horrible adult poos now, I miss the lovely sweet BF poos!

pixie am that you are moving again, hope it's out of choice into somewhere nicer. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

bunny hope Will didn't reject his clean blanket. I don't do facebook unfortunately so won't be joining you all there. However was thinking of creating a profile for DS so may join at somepoint :)

worrisome 9 Month sleep regression??!! we've not got over the 6 month one properly and that's only 5 weeks away! :( Hope it gets better for you soon though x

Not much to report on our side. DS has finally started saying da da da to the relief of DH. ILs are over this weekend and has bought him some noisy toys, I think the batteries may sudden decide to disappear

I got worrisome's friend request (I knew who it was straight away from the profile pic!), but I don't have a message from cherry

pixie I only really started using it as a little pillow, so he didn't wake up when being transferred from my arms back to his bed. My BIL kept his blankie in his pocket till he lost it on the tube one day at the ripe old age of 30

Teg's performance for the photographer sounds hilarious - they're all cute and smiley until you want them to be My nephew has had 2 professional sets of photos done - for the first he got a virus and a huge rash the day before and for the second he fell down the stairs and got a big cut right across his forehead.

Poor Will has finally realised that he can't actually get back down when he stands up. He had just been diving back to the ground, but I think after many many bumps to his head he's finally realised that there must be a more graceful way! So now he just starts looking confused and trying to stand on one leg.

bunny I sent you a message too. I'll add you as a friend instead.

I wonder where all the messages went Maybe my security settings only let me get messages from friends or something?

So, if you want to join the FB group add me as a friend, and then I'll add you to the group!!

Right, pics of Lochie are on the FB page and I've also included a link to him chortling in the bath, if you fancy a giggle!

TBH I fancy several large vodkas this morning - another shite night. He was up with DH for almost 2 hours around midnight, just awake really, not particularly unhappy. But then he got up again at 4am and was basically inconsolable until finally falling asleep at 5.30am. The only way I could get him to (briefly) stop crying was to wander around the house. I saw the dawn come in for the first time for a while... I think it was his teeth and he's still got a blocked nose which didn't help. God, crossed fingers he cracks this walking thing soon and we can get back to normal! I think we've been very spoilt with his sleep for most of his life, so this is a real shock to the system.

bunny at William tipping the bowl into his mouth - what a clever kid! Lochie just throws his on the floor...

cherry you gotta love the timing huh? For some reason, the middle of the night seems to be a very popular time to practise new skills....

pixie lol at Tegan and her tongue, so funny!

Argh, boy awake, will post more later.

just friend requested you bunny - my profile pic is one of me by the sea

nothing wrong with vodka for breakfast* worrisome, just don't mention it to the health visitors. I had a chocolate muffin for breakfast as we also had a bit of a rubbish night of no sleep and I felt thoroughly sorry for myself. I am never going to get into my skinny jeans again at this rate...

*as long as you have it with some orange juice

worrisome hope Lochie's sleeping better soon. Teething, blocked nose and learning a new skill is not a good combo sleep wise - although perhaps getting them all over and done with at the same time will mean it's a shorter period of rubbish sleep than if they happened one after the other

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Will has a whole range of skills that he only shows off at daycare. After spending all weekend watching him pull up to standing and then be completely unable to get down, when I arrived to collect him today he was standing up. It took him all of 2 seconds to sit down gracefully so he could crawl across to me. Got him home and he got stuck standing up again

Had baby clinic this morning so asked about frothy poos, Health visitor seemed unconcerned so assuming it's just another one of those things. Good to hear that we're not the only ones with the projectile poos too :) Rose is up to 8lb 7 so has put on 3.5 oz, not very much in comparison with previous weeks so of course I've been worrying all day now that she's not getting enough. Think I may have to slow down a little and start eating more to make sure I'm producing enough milk (or at least use that as an excuse to lie on the couch eating chocolate for a few days). I'm struggling with trying not to think about my weight whilst BF and getting the balance between eating enough and eating healthily, especially after years of watching what I eat and exercising just about every day.

pixie :o at photo shoot and bunny :) at Will gettign stuck standing up!

Sorry for lack of other name checks but I can see Rose doing her starting to wake up movements so had better go see her.

hh try not to worry too much about the weight gain - she will gain more some weeks than others. If she wasn't getting enough milk she'd let you know about it. I felt the same about wanting to lose the baby weight asap, but I found it just went without me having to think about it too much - probably helped by Will going through a phase of really only taking a decent nap in a moving pram. Walking with the pram for 2-3hrs each day managed to tone me up more than all my pre-baby gym visits ever did

Well after a couple of weeks of Will sleeping through till at least 5am every night, he was up for 2hrs between 2am and 4am last night. I am crossing my fingers that it was just a one off, and not the start of the 9month sleep regression, but not feeling hugely hopeful at the moment.

bunny I'm not worrying after checking the figures again, turns out one of our health visitors cannot do her conversions from grams to oz (even using a chart) so Rose actually gained more like 6 oz this week, her last 2 weights in lbs were written down wrong! Sorry to hear about Will's bad night, fingers crossed it was a one off. Agree that pram walking is definitely good exercise, especially up and down hills!

Well Rose had her first bottle last night, have been undecided about whether to try an occassional bottle of expressed milk just in case I cannot be around at some point when she wants fed and yesterday I was just so exhausted (she's still waking every 2-3 hours to be fed in the night) I told DP he could try it. She was fine but I can't help feeling a little jealous now, feeding has always been mummy's job and now daddy can do it to. Although I do feel so much better for having 5 hours uninterupted (sp??) sleep for the first time in 5 weeks :)

hh glad Rose's weight problems were just down to rubbish maths I'd go for it with the bottles - if I had my time again I'd make sure DH was able to help out at night. I think once you've got BFing established it's worth introducing the odd bottle as it seems if you leave it more than a couple of months it can be quite a battle.

worrisome how's the sleep?

Will's still being quite unsettled at night - he's only waking once but it's taking over an hour for him to resettle. He's often happy and just chatting to himself though, so we're choosing to leave him to it, and he generally does go back to sleep. I think the mistake I've made during previous sleep regressions is to go running in as soon as he wakes and try and feed him back to sleep. I think that just made it last twice as long as it needed to as it would take a couple of weeks to get out of the feeding 6 times a night habit. During the 6mth regression I spoke to a really good HV who said when they're going through development related sleep regressions, and they wake wanting to practice their new skill there is absolutely nothing you can do to make them go back to sleep. So as long as he's not crying I'm going to leave him alone.

He's also started "dancing" when he hears music. Every time he hears a tune he starts wiggling his body and flapping his arms. I know they have dance time every day at nursery so he must have picked it up there. I copied him this morning and started doing a crazy wiggly dance around the room and he thought it was the most hilarious thing he'd ever seen

Hi all

Well, the sleeping is (slowly) getting back on track - last night was the best for a while, only one wake-up around 10.30ish and then he went through to 6am. It's definitely the teeth that are the major problem at the moment - I can see 4 little white buds under the gums, so it looks like he's getting a job-lot through at once! His walking is coming along great guns, I've been spending much of my day being led up and down the hallway to visit the washing machine/shower curtain/drying rack/bookshelf in succession! Crazy child. He's also starting to really settle at nursery which I am very relieved about as I go back to work in just over 3 weeks. I can't get my head around the fact that my ML is almost up - I can still remember so vividly getting my BFP and it doesn't seem so long ago.

bunny Not good to hear of your sleep problems, will keep my fingers tightly crossed that it's a blip and William will sail past the 9 month sleep regression waving and saying 'not for me thanks!' I think you've got the right plan re leaving him to settle by himself if he's not upset. So sweet re the dancing too! Lochie does a little bum shuffle but TBH it may just be coincedental.... And lol re the nursery set of skills - it's like he has an alternate identity there - maybe he's a superhero in disguise!

highheels great that the weight gain is no longer an issue and that Rose took the bottle so well. I know it's hard now, but you'll be very grateful for that break! BTW, I reckon even though you now know the sums were wrong, it's still gotta be an excuse to lie on the couch and eat chocolate!

cherry at the choc muffin for breakfast - you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes!! Plus, there's plenty of time - I kept repeating the '9 months up, 9 months down' mantra... mind you, as Lochie was 2 weeks late, thats really more like 10 months....

mumnerves it's so sweet when they start babbling isn't it? Lochie's been saying dadada for a while now, with the occasional bah and guh. Still no ma, despite my best efforts - DH thinks it's hilarious that everytime I say to Lochie 'say mama', Lochie responds with 'dadadada'...

Well, DH is currently putting Lochie to bed, and for the first night in ages I don't hear screaming! Hoorah, maybe we'll have a good night tonight! (Or maybe DH has used a mallet + Calpol...)

Hope you all have had a lovely day!

worrisome glad Lochie's sleeping better again. Unfortunately I think Will's been reading your posts and using them for inspiration - he turned 9 months yesterday, and last night he was up every 1.5-2hrs. The first couple of times he was crying inconsolably - he was a bit out of sorts all day yesterday, and he seems to be getting a cold, so maybe he was just feeling a bit poorly. I doubt it's his teeth - the 4 white dots that had appeared on his gums have all mysteriously disappeared again

Of course rather than wanting a lie in this morning he got up at 6:30 and now he's overtired. Might have to skip his swimming lesson and try and persuade him to take a long nap instead