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!)

at Asher making his acting debut already Hermya! I can't get on to see his latest picture yet as I'm on my Mum's prehistoric computer, but he sounds yummy. Did you do the handprint kit and how did it come out? We have a plaster casting kit for Teg's feet but I am too lazy to put it all together, it looks like a bit of a faff. We do baby massage too, but we do clockwise moves as that is the way the digestive system works so its supposed to help the milk go down!

November that is so sad about your friend I just don't know how a person copes in a situation like that.
Wow, Tilda is a gorgeous NN for your LO - I love it!

Glad you are feeling better and able to enjoy Lochie a bit more Worri.

Bunny - I have one here too who is nice during the day and a bit of a monster in the evening time. I don't know if she gets overtired or what but come 7pm or so its like a switch goes on and she suddenly gets all cranky and whingey. Given the chance she stays up til about 1am so thats quite a lot of cranky time! We are trying to get her to bed at about 9pm now but its a bit hit and miss. One day she will accept it and the next day she goes totally mad!

Roses your health visitor sounds like a total knobhead Hopefully you won't need to see her too often now. We have only met ours once - she came for about an hour when Teg was about three weeks old and then signed us off, telling me to call her if I wanted to see her again! I was slightly but I'm not complaining! I like to be left alone to muddle along without interference.

Well, Teg is now 11 weeks old and weighs 10lb 5 oz so still a miniature little thing! We have progressed on to size two nappies now and she has just gone into her size 0-3 month clothes, rather than her newborn things so I have been feeling a bit - like my little baby is all grown up!! Then I remember that Tryings little girl was nearly that big at birth and that Mindy is in 6-9 month stuff and pull myself together quick!
She is chattering away nonstop at everything - she never stops. I catch her chatting away to her mobile and to the toys on her bouncer so I think we are going to have a little gobshite on our hands! Her voice is really croaky and sweet - DH thinks she is going to have a "jazz voice"

Pixie We did indeed do the handprint kit, suffice it to say I gave up on the hands and did the feet instead which were a heck of a lot more easier. I just need to get a picture now and that'll be that.

DS and me went on my works Christmas do today, he's such a flirt. He's only seven weeks old and he's already had offers from some of the women at work to go home with him. I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch him.

Glad to hear things are going better now, Worrisome. :)

I'm relieved to hear I'm not the only one resorting to song to entertain my LO. Songs of choice here though are the ones from Oliver, which I know by heart having been in various school productions of it during my academic years. Mindy particularly likes "I'd do anything.".

No real tips regarding wind... I seem to be 'lucky' enough that Mindy just happily swallows it all down and periodically gives a brass band performance from her bottom, which she finds highly amusing!!

Mindy was the same with whingy evenings, Pixie, but it suddenly got better at about 4 months and she started regularly settling at 7pm. Fingers crossed Teg does the same, or sooner!

Heh... Some of Mindy's clothes are 9-12 months now and she's just gone into size 4 nappies. She turned 5 months last week. But she is above 90% on height, though only 50% on weight. (Despite the amount she eats...)

She does so love her food. She'd spend all day feeding if I let her and I've yet to offer her solids that she won't eat. She's mastered food from a spoon, just another few weeks and I can start offering her finger foods!

Apparently her Grandma has plans involving melting chocolate into porridge for Mindy on Christmas Day... It'll be Mindy's first ever taste of chocolate. Oh well, I'm sure a little bit won't cause too much harm! And I believe it's a perk of grand-parenting that you get to spoil the LO rotten!!

spirael Mindy's on solids It only seems like a week or two since she was born -it's hard to believe she's so grown up already

November sorry to hear about your friend's DH. I can't even begin to imagine what she must be going through right now.

hermya hope Asher's acting debut goes well I tried baby massage on Will after your suggestion - he screamed and screamed so abandoned it. He must take after me as I hate massages too

pixie Teg sounds so tiny - William's just reached 10pounds and he's only 5 weeks. He's even outgrown one of his newborn size outfits, although some of his others still hang off him. It's amazing the difference in sizing between one brand and another

We've had a somewhat mixed week in the bunny household. Will did his first proper smiles at the weekend and was really good and settled. By Monday, I'd even started to recognise his tired signs when we're playing and get him wrapped and down for his nap asap - it was taking me on average 5 mins from wrapping to him sleeping soundly in his basket.

I think someone must have come in the night on Monday night and stolen my happy well behaved baby and replaced him with the spawn of the devil I think he hit his 6 week growth spurt a week early, as he spent Tuesday and Wednesday feeding every hour and a half, and screaming if I so much as took him away from the boob for 2 seconds. By yesterday I was so sleep deprived I completely lost the plot - Will spent most of the morning crying with wind/hunger and by lunchtime I just couldn't cope anymore. Ended up ringing DH and begging him to come home - he was a star and cancelled all his meetings for the day and dashed to my aid By the time he got home 30 mins later, Will was asleep on my chest and didn't wake for the following 4 hours. Felt like a complete fraud for asking DH to come and save me

So far today he's been the model baby again, so hopefully we're over the worst of it. Even managed my first shower in 3 days

Oh Bunny, poor you That is just so typical re: your husband dashing home. I had the same thing with my lovely mum. After much whinging on my part about our evening struggles she came out after work one night so that me and DH could go out for dinner and try to rid ourselves of the ringing in our heads from all the screaming! Of course when we got home we were met with "Oh Teg is such an angel, she slept all evening, what a good baby" Little tyke!
Glad that Will is back to his usual self today. Everything seems better after a shower anyway!

I hope Teg is as unfussy as Mindy when it comes to solds Spirael (love the festive namechange!) I am quite looking forward to making lots of interesting concoctions for her. How have you gone about it? Have you read much stuff about what to introduce and when? You are our guru on these matters as Mindy is that bit older so we get to learn from your mistakes great wisdom

Is everybody out christmas shopping and too busy to MN? I am feeling just about ready - everything is wrapped and the Tesco shopping arrives at 7pm. Now I just have to resist eating all the goodies...

What have you all got your LO's then?
Tegan has got a ladybird wheelybug (soo soooo cute even though she isn't going to be able to use it until nearer next christmas!), a tiny love playmat, some Lamaze goodies and a be-ribboned cordurouy (sp) pony. We don't feel like we have gone too mad, seen as she really doesn't need anything at all, but have got her some nice stuff which will last a while. I could easily have found at least a hundred other things which I would have loved to get her! Baby presents just rock, don't they??

Hi all

Cannot believe it's Xmas in a few days time! Very exciting if a little surreal...

pixie we've got Lochie a little piano thingy that fits onto the bars of his cot which he can play with his feet and some Lamaze toys - like you, we've tried not to go too overboard as it's been an expensive year for him so far! (Or rather for us, I've tried giving him an invoice but it's not worked so far.. )

spireal brilliant re Mindy and solids - I can't believe she's that old already!

bunny hope the changeling baby hasn't come back and Will is still being an angel for you! Growth spurts are tricky and it feels like Lochie has one every week! So far, his reactions have ranged from feeding every hour one day and then sleeping almost every hour the next! Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect his night sleeping so far.. (ok, thats probably jinxed it!)

Hermya Sooo cute hearing about Asher in the play - how did it go? (Or is it still to come?)

november That's a terrible thing to happen to your friend, so sad.

All is mostly well with us - I still have my ups and downs but am feeling so much better and stronger, and really enjoying Lochie (most of the time!). Have a great Xmas all!

I'm busy enjoying Christmases, pixie. Had my first one last weekend with the inlaws, got another two to go. All presents have been bought and wrapped for some time... I adore wrapping prezzies!

For weaning, I started with some baby porridge then moved to fruit and vegetable purees, mixing the fruit with porridge and the vegetables with milk or just water as appropriate. I've been letting them get slowly lumpier over time as she gets more experienced.

She's 6 months at the start of the year, at which point I'm going to start offering a variation on our meals. :) Like strips of pitta bread or wraps with chunks of vegetables and snacks of fruit pieces.

Mindy's made it all very easy... She happily guzzles whatever is offered!

For Christmas presents, she got a lot of stuff at her naming ceremony so didn't need much. DH and I have bought her an abacus. DH is an accountant. I also made her a stocking to hang.

Father Christmas is bringing toothpaste and a toothbrush, some teethers, a vest and some posting blocks.

Funny you should mention a wheely bug... I put the mouse one on Mindy's online gift list and it's moved to purchased. I suspect grandparents.

Hello lovely ladies!!

I bring news that luckyseven and Mumsnerves are now the owners of the latest frolickers babies!!

Worrisome DS slept throughout the entire experience but was so so cute, theres a picture up on my profile of him in all his sheepy glory. It's amazing what a white cardy and a sheep hats to do up the adorable factor.

Spireal I've seen the wheelybugs, they're so cute. How do you do a naming ceremony? My Mum was on about when I was getting DS christened as it's a bit of a thing for my family. We do go to Church but I kind of think it should be DS's decision when he's older if he wants to get baptised or not. So I was trying to think of something else that was significant to do. A naming ceremony sounds quite nice though.

Bunny Your DH sounds lovely, sorry the baby massage didn't work out though.

Pixie We've bought DS a chimey teddy and an Lamaze Octotunes. I also got him a mobile for the car seat and will get him a sort of dangly thing as well. I did have the idea to take a picture of him next to a giant empty wrapped box but DH vetoed the idea when he said that when he asked in years to come what we got him, that saying 'a box' doesn't quite have the same ring to it as 'an octopus'.

I think I've turned into a bit of a PFB Mum, my friend has been up the last few days staying with us and I must admit I got a bit funny with her and I'm not even sure why. She picked DS up a few times when he'd been put down, kept jigging him about after he'd been fed (he was predictably sick) and kept tickling him. I felt a bit irrational and really felt like I had to keep DS close to me and protect him.

Protect him from what though???? Being cuddled and tickled, yeah call 999 there's a woman cuddling a baby and he looks a bit worried!! Neeeenawwwww nnnnnneeeenaaawwwwww!! Woowooowooowooowoowoo!! Better call for back up, she has a rattle and she's shaking it at him. Arrrgggghhhhhh!! Oh no!! [fbear]

He was fine though, he was lapping the attention up and like the little flirt he is he had her working her socks off for the slightest hint of a smile.

I did relax eventually. But it made me wonder what I was going to be like when we go to the Out laws with all the extendeds coming to see DS.

DS has his first lot of jabs today, I cried and felt horribly guilty. He cried, had a suck on his dummy and a dose of calpol and fell asleep.

Typical male.

pixie I am going to start my xmas shopping today!!!! I got Will a baby gym ages ago that will be his main present, not sure what else he would like. I'm thinking some sort of mobile to go over his bed, and some entertainment for when he's in the car. His nana came round yesterday with some suspiciously full looking Toys R Us bags which she promptly hid upstairs, so I don't think he's going to end up empty handed.

worrisome I think the devil baby has been banished for the time being - he's only feeding every 3.5-4hours now, and even slept for 6 hours last night

Glad you're still feeling positive and you're enjoying Lochie so much.

spirael I'm glad that Mindy's getting a toothbrush for xmas.....there's no excuse for poor dental hygiene no matter how little you are

hermya Asher looks sooooooooooooooo cute in his sheep outfit. I bet he was the star of the show.

I know what you mean about being all PFB about people picking up DS. MIL and FIL have been around alot over the last couple of days and so Will has been cuddled all the time. He's now getting to the point where the only time he's put down is at night when we go to bed. I keep telling myself that it's not hurting him, and with us living on the other side of the world to our families this is really their only opportunity to cuddle him until we see them again in 12 months. To be honest I just feel a bit when I see him smiling up at them cos I want him to smile only for his mummy to show he loves me the most

Will's having his 6 week check tomorrow and getting his immunisations. He already had one lot of jabs at birth, so I know he'll be fine. Just hope he doesn't scream all day after he's had them.

Hi folks

Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a merry christmas. Give your little ones a kiss for me

x

fudge fantastic to 'see' you, hope you're doing ok?

It must be the week for jabs - Lochie's getting his tomorrow!

Lovely to hear from you, fudgecat. :) I hope you have a good Christmas!

For the Naming Ceremony Hermya, we focused it around a silver candlestick we got for Mindy and some stainless steel ones for each of the 3 named 'Mentors' (i.e. Godparents). A friend good at public speaking ran the ceremony, which basically was an introduction, then we had a couple of readings by friends/family around the family theme.

Then my DH gave a brief explanation of why we chose the name we did, before I lit the candle in her shiny candlestick. Then each of the Mentors/Proxies made a vow they'd written, along the lines of looking out for Mindy, while lighting their own candle.

After that, we had cake and a bit of a tea party.

Santa is very in to oral hygiene, bunny. After all, he spends all of Christmas Eve eating treats, yet still has all his teeth in every picture! Therefore, he must take pretty good care of them.

Incidentally... As the resident Frolicking Dentist , in your professional opinion once Mindy gets her first tooth should I start giving her a drink with a fluoride tablet in, once per day? My Mum was suggesting I should. The water here does not contain fluoride, but I wasn't sure whether Mindy would get all the fluoride she needed from eating the toothpaste once we started brushing her teeth? I've got her baby toothpaste.

Good luck with the vaccinations, everyone! I hated taking Mindy for hers... It made me feel so bad, even though logically I knew how important they are. Though she didn't cry at the second set. She's done now though until she's 12 months. (Phewf!)

fudge it's so nice to hear from you. I was thinking about little Elliot the other day, and wondering how you're getting on. Hope you have an enjoyable Christmas and that 2011 brings you peace and happiness.

spirael fluoride supplements used to be given out a lot, so probably where your mum got the idea from, but too much fluoride can cause marks on the permanent teeth (and Mindy's growing them already ) so we tend to only give them to children who are at high risk of decay, and only when they're old enough to understand the need to spit the toothpaste out when they brush. If you're the kind of mummy that's already thinking about how to care for their baby's teeth, then she definitely won't be high risk for decay She's so little that she'll get plenty of fluoride from her toothpaste.

How do you know santa still has all his own teeth?!! He could have rotted them all away with all the mince pies he eats and have a set of false teeth instead

Will's check went well - he now weighs in at a healthy 4.94kg, and has rocketed from the 25th percentile to the 60th for weight. Clearly his feeding frenzy last week did him some good. Vaccinations weren't too bad, although I had to fight back the tears when he shrieked in pain as the needles went in He only cried for a couple of minutes though - nothing a dummy and a cuddle couldn't fix

Hi all,

Just a very quick happy Xmas from me. ANy time I've been online lately I'e been shopping so no time for MN! Anyway,will try and catch up properly in the next few days. Hope you all have wonderful first Christmases with your gorgeous LOs. :)

WR.x

Fudge Nice to see you, merry christmas. I hope you had a nice day today. DS has been kissed and cuddled for you.

Merry Christmas to everyone here, I hope you all had a good day!!!

xx

Hope everyone had a lovely first christmas with their LOs.

We had a great day - it was sunny all day and 27 degrees so our christmas bbq was a success. I even went all yummy mummy and made a pavlova from scratch

Poor Will was a bit overwhelmed by all his new toys being waved at him all once and promptly burst into tears - he's christened his play gym by being sick all over it this morning too

I've put a pic of him in his xmas outfit on my profile

Hi Hope everyone had a good Christmas, just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays and have a little rant.

We've had to spend 2 nights in hospital last week, DS was rushed in as he was losing too much weight and dehydrated, inspite of me 'feeding' him every 2-3 hours apparently he was not latching on properly so not getting enough. He's much better now, cheeks have filled up looks better and we managed to get home on christmas eve.

I'm exhausted, he feeds every 3 hours for 1-1.5 hours at the moment so hardly getting any kip. Just so pleased everytime I see a dirty yellow nappy or a wet one. Been through so many emotions and blamed myself over and over again (baby blues hormones and exhaustion don't help) and this has knocked my confidence really badly! So relieved he's ok now, my poor little man! DH has been such a star, putting up with my tears and doing everything for us.

Hope everyone is well and will post again once I regain some confidence and have time to MN again x

mumnerves sorry to hear you ended up back in hospital. Glad Sean's doing ok now though Don't blame yourself for the feeding issues - it's so hard to tell whether they're feeding properly when you've never done it before. I think William was around 3 weeks old when he finally latched on perfectly and I figured out what it was meant to feel like. I'd even had the benefit of 5 days in hospital with a midwife at every feed and a couple of home visits from a lactation consultant.

They do get much faster at feeding - Will's only 6 weeks old and he's already gone from spending an hour feeding to only taking 30mins and he now goes 4-5hours between feeds at night. Just try and sleep when DS sleeps and get your DH and any other visitors to wait on you hand and foot so all you need to think about is feeding

Helloooooooooooooooo

hermya have sent you a PM

Happy new year to all the mummies, can't wait to join the club in April :)

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone has a lovely day. :)

Will be back in a day or two to catch up properly... My 'D'H gave me a cold for Christmas so I've been a bit comatose lately!

Happy New year everyone!

Bunny thank you for the reassuring words, I didn't respond but they really did make make me feel better last week when I read them. THankfully DH has been an absolute star and sorting me out. We haven't had any visitors and banned even grandparents till week 3, A bit harsh I know but am so glad it's just been about the 3 of us. He's already feeding quicker and was going 3-4 hours between feeds except for today and yesterday when I think he's having a growth spurt. Your new years in Sydney sounded amazing. How considerate of the government to have 2 celebrations!

spirael hope your cold clears up soon!

Mumsnerves How are you getting on now?

Bunny Thanks, have PM'd you back.

Spiraeling I hope you're feeling better.

MrsW Hello there!!

So how is everyone? Me and DS are well, he's starting to laugh (mostly at me) and grab things and shout at them.

He's also starting to grow out of his 0 to 3 clothes, he's a very long baby it seems. It was to be expected seems as how me and DH are both over 5ft 10.

He's still feeding well and we seem to have settled into a bit of a routine as well which is nice.

Hi Hermya,

We're getting on much better now thanks for asking. I think we've cracked BF which is so so difficult coupled with sleeplessness and baby blues didn't realise how hard it was going to be! He put on weight a few days ago finally and now seems to be having a growth spurt and wants to feed every 2 hours which is a relief under the circumstances! Nice to hear you've got a routine going with DS, can't believe how quickly it's gone for you! x