October 2010 Arrivals Lounge

[SeaShellsOnTheSeaShore]

Welcome, check in is now open!

Hi everyone-good to hear your news, I hope all the Christmas bugs have passed.

We are good, if sleep deprived thanks to the combination of dd's night feed and Ds' early rising (4.30am today, great!)

Dd is doing stomach crunches and trying to sit-she keeps launching herself forward when we've propped her up! Lots of smiles and chat from her and the two ofthem cuddle on the sofa and look soooo cute! Ds is really coming round to her thank goodness :)

I have my dysfunctional father visiting today with his wife (who disapproves of us) so with sleep deprivation it could be fun! I've sent dh out for a run to burn off his frustration beforethey arrive lol

Anyone with more brain/time than me fancy doing a "bank holiday five" as we are all reaching the end of the newborn phase?!!!

Can you believe it- the October 2011 bus has set off, this time last year our LO were close to being conceived!!

Good Lord a Oct 11 bus??!! Wow.

Hermya lovely about your vomit pooling bra . My tops are currently spattered with drool as are DH's. He often gets a wet patch on his chest when DD furiously tries to seek out food on him!

I have had no ill comments about breastfeeding. My grandmother didn't because National Dried Milk was hailed as a brilliant way to free up mothers so they could help with the war effort, but she's not opinionated and my mother breastfed my sister and I until we were 3 months old then she had to go back to work. My MIL asked how long I was planning to breastfeed the other day but it was without prejudice I think although I think she was surprised when I said 6 months. Although I will now be doing that driving course I mentioned at the end of Jan and its for a day and a half so DD will be lodging with my mum and will have to get used to bottles in time for that. I'm trying to save some breastmilk for it, but am not liking expressing too much.

I do know what you mean Silver health professionals all look surprised that I'm ebfing and the GP actually said well done.

Good idea on the bank holiday 5 Seashells am lacking imagination at the moment though!

Ooh and Hun thank you for the link. Do ecoballs get out stains well? All DD's stuff was rewashed in Persil Small and Mighty last night and her face as improved already. She sleeps with her hands over her face...very cute.

I have a butterscotch amber necklace its a little large but tempting to try on DD when she's teething!

Bring on the 5!!

Ok, skiving so here goes:

1. Best experience with LO

2.worst experience with LO

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths?
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM?

XXx

Am so I might burst a blood vessel so have come on here to chill....nice to read your posts and distract myself. My MiL is beyond the pale frankly and if I never see her again it will be too soon. We are supposed to be going over there in March but we'll see about that....

Stains - nightmare - have been soaking in Napisan, then rinsing and washing in Ecover but no luck! Please help! I don't really like using Napisan and wouldn't use any washing liquid except eco friendly stuff...all advice welcome.

Elsa have forgotten, is the rash just on LO's face? I had a rash on my face & hands when teething as a result of the saliva becoming more acid. Dr advised my mother to tie me on my back in the cot needless to say she didn't... Could it be that? Not sure what you'd do about it tho....Maybe it is just the washing stuff.

RE EBFing - friend of my Mum's rang her the other night to congratulate her on the fact I was still doing it as her DD had given up. Blimey - who knew it was such an emotive topic?!

Thanks for the poncho link nohun I've got a Karime for Mr Pickles and it works well especially for burps and sleeps.

ok...calmer now...

1. Best experience with LO

2.worst experience with LO

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths?
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM?

1. Cuddling in bed with dd, dh and Ds for the first time that Ds wasnnice to her and cuddled her rather than hit her lol

1. The monster exploding nappy from hell she did in a consultation, which went through and soaked her carrier, then because I was unable to change her, went all over the car seat cover, then I got to baby group for the very first time, had to strip her, scrub her and redress her...only for her to do it again 10mins later

1. Thr she would not be as hard as Ds was, and that I woul

d not get PND or a major MS relapse in my first 3 months :) :) :)

1. Just cant wait - from now on I loved Ds, and can't wait to do the milestones with dd

1. Watching sopranos at 6am whilst feeding and expressing, whilst dh is run ragged by Ds!

1. Best experience with LO

2.worst experience with LO

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths?
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM?

1. Seeing him smile/laugh for the first time
2. Rushing to A&E cos he wasn't breathing properly
3. What to expect after a CS so I could have had the correct treatment instead Of the shoddy care I did get
4. Seeing him grow and reach milestones and becoming more interactive
5. Using bf'ing as my reason to stuff my face not deny myself anything

Dilly DD is still a monster face scratcher so she has covered hands a lot and its when her arms are resting on her face when she's sleeping that the rash flared. We're back to Persil and it seems to be better but I may get some of those eco balls Hun recommended.

1. best experience with LO. Any time she smiles and gurgles at us.

2.worst experience with LO. Falling over while carrying her in a sling and fracturing her skull.

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim. Don't carry her in a sling, it'll front load and change your centre of gravity, not good.
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths? Going with DH and DD for our first family holiday to Centerparcs in February!
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM? Lying in bed with DD for her first feed of the day reading my Kindle!

Elsa He managed to do it again today, the kids got it in for me I swear. Which centreparks are you going to, we're off to one in Febuary as well. Have I started to stalk you as well as nymph by accident?

1. best experience with LO. Milky smiles at 4am in the morning. We try to be as boring as possible but my word when he does that to me it's so hard.

2.worst experience with LO. First few weeks of feeding when he wouldn't latch and I was in pain from mastitus.

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim. Breastfeeding can be hard and reussables are easier than what you think.
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths? Same as Elsa ree holidays and hopefully finding a slightly bigger house.
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM? Chocolate biscuits, caffinated tea and glee (and surfing cloth nappy sites looking for cool prints and convincing DH that we need them).

1.gurgly cry as she was being born

1. This bloody cold we can't kick . She's now has it longer than she hasn't.

3.birth is wonderful :) 4.Still being at home enjoying her! Despite not wanting her to change I'm looking forward to BLW as she is so interested in food. 5.DVDs, chocolates & pepsi while bf:)

1. Best experience with LO - Her smiling and how much she seems to want a cuddle :)

2.worst experience with LO - Her jabs, i hate seeing her in pain :(

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim - That i would have a straight forward, perfect birth as i spent the whole pregnancy panicking about it :)

1. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths? - Her having a go in her walker which she got for xmas. Weaning as she is so hungry all the time.

1. What is your guilty pleasure ATM? - watching criminal minds at night whilst cuddling Dd :)

Hello all, have not posted for ages as there is always such a lot to do isn't there! It was DS's 4th birthday today, can't believe he is 4 already, he is getting so grown up.

DD is being such hard work at the moment. She never seems happy for long, which is so sad. She cries a lot, often screaming really loud and long. The HV said it is colic but I am not sure. She is better than she was but still sad.

Have been trying so hard to get her to take a bottle of EBM, no luck still. We just get screamed at until she falls asleep hungry.

Last time we saw the HV, she said that as DD is only on the 0.4th centile mark on the graph, she recommended that I express milk after each feed and give her a top up bottle. DD will not take a bottle so that is not happening. Also, with a very active DS, it is hard to spend time breastfeeding, leave alone express milk again afterwards. I won't spend any time with him if I do that.

Phew - that was a long post. Just needed to vent I think. Any useful suggestions about getting more milk into DD with a bottle gratefully received. :)

Hi all, aaargh so many new posts, so little time to peruse, thanks to new welcomers, DD to remain anon, elsa123 how heart plummetingly dreadful for you, sorry dontstop, no suggestions, wish I had.

1first smile
2 first few days, paranoid & sleepless
3ditto bfing not being easy
4 first laugh , taking her to meet my parents (live abroad)
5 going on Internet or playing angry birds whilst expressing

Cancelled dd3s jabstoday as she still isn't well. Taking bets on how long it rakes to rearrange them! Now 5 weeks 'late'

Started our budgeting this week. Starting at £50 a week for food Sat-Sat and meal planning. Bought the bulk(for 2 weeks) this am for £30 do quite pleasedwith myself until I realised it's £20 a week for school dinners but at least we are saving some money anyway!

Think dd3 needs a toy box. Keep moving everything off her mat & back.

wow nypmh I'm so impressed you can do a weeks shop for 5 for £50 a week. I am trying hard to menu plan but still comes to that or more for me and DH. but then it doesn't help that he has to have two proper meals a day, and about 30 snacks a day! (and is still slim and fit ).

hun I have just bought some eco balls as think ds is senisitive to washing powder. any tips for using them? also, do you use them for washing resuable nappies too?

have finally started using our cheeky wipes and really pleased with them, and should hopefully be a lot cheaper too (we were using the 'waterwipes' before; hate cotton wool so never managed the cotton wool and water method). the only thing is they come out so cold! but I am loving how ds's room smells a little of lavender now.

we had a disastrous night last night, ds had a sleep from 9-9.40 pm ish but then didn't settle again till after 4am! he would eventualy be rocked to sleep but then wake the moment we put him down, and was very unsettled. not sure if its still him recovering from all the travelling over christmas, or suffering with his eczema, or just that I am a useless mother . have posted on the sleep thread for advice so fingers crossed we can improve things tonight

1. Best experience with LO - his beautiful smiles

2.worst experience with LO - probably the time he vomited, pooed and weed all at the same time!

1. What did you wish you knew, which you now know iyswim - to have more chocolate in the house for those early weeks
2. What are you looking forward to in the next 3mths? - first holiday away, just to Devon but will be fun hopefully; and seeing ds develop and change (I really love watching him change)
3. What is your guilty pleasure ATM? - eating as much chocolate as I like as I 'need' the calories

sorry, just realised the bit about dh doesn't make sense, I mean he has to eat a main meal for lunch and for dinner (as well as about 17 weetabix for breakfast). he gets very upset at the idea that a sandwich is a meal

DH is back at work today and we won't see him until Friday. However today has gone really well. DD has spent time in her bouncy chair amusing herself which is great and we had a super long walk which the dogs enjoyed and DD is now napping and I'm having lovely pate.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow for DD's first jabs. I intend to feed her during the jabs if they'll let me so hopefully it won't be too much of a shock for her. How has everyone else coped with it?

Hermya we're going to Longleat for the last week in Feb Mon to fri. How about you?

Tiredfeet I too have ordered cheeky wipes! NoHun is a great saleswoman...ecoballs, cheeky wipes etc!. I hope they'l arrive soon.

17 weetabix??!!

tired big dds are at school for dinner& their Dads some days so not that much for them. We also have a full freezer & store so it will cost more in a month or so although we are eating pretty well for the money. Making 3 lasagnes tonight(1 for dh/2 for me)and big tapas evening tomorrow for big dds last day of the holidays.

Just spoken to union regarding work restructure & they say I'm protected from redundancy as it stands at the moment so can relax a bit on that front.

Elsa We're at Elevden forrest in the middle of Feb.

Nymph Thats good news about the protection from redundancy, I'm going to have to get in touch with work at some stage to ask about going P/T. There is no way I can afford childcare to go back to work full time (nor would I even want to try) and breastfeed at the same time.

Tiredfeet I ordered cheeky wipes as well after nohun was talking about them. I got the ones with the monkeyfoot wet bag from bespoke baby room.

I have got a killer headache, I actually think it might be a migraine. DS is in his bouncer shouting at me and all I want to do is crawl away somewhere and hide. On the upside I have booked myself a haircut for tomorrow so hopefully will look a bit more stylish and a bit less hoboesk.

Ooh Hermya I hope you get better soon.

I've just successfully fed DD with a bottle in prep for the day at the end of Jan where my mum will have her for me. Annoyingly though I'm struggling to express. I just fed DD some ready made formula and then she fed off my left hand side so I thought I'd express from the right. I only managed 1/2 a fluid oz and I know DD gets more than that! And its sore to express and DD never hurts me at all it just feels tickly. I think she'll be having formula once a day if I can't sort this out.

Elsa When did you express and what are you using to do it? It might be easier to get milk out in the mornings as there tends to be more there. Also try using breast compressions when you express it'll encourage the milk out. Also have you tried hand expressing?

. .

I've done the compressions when I've been expressing and I really noticed the difference in the milk flow. Just a note, breast tissue is sensitive so be gentle on it. I've done it too hard on occasion and have ended up with achey boobs.

Thanks for the videos Hermya. I expressed straight after a feed on the breast that she hadn't fed from. It didn't work. I tried some breast compression and it did improve slightly but to be honest it was making me ache a bit too much for comfort. I have a Medela Swing. My friend gave me another type of pump the other day, I may try that. The trouble is DD pretty much drains each breast during each feed and with feeds every 3 hours during the day its not much fun being pinned to the sofa by a machine as well ! I will try mid morning as she has a long nap in the morning until Lunchtime. Tomorrow I'm not sure we'll bother though as she'd having her first jabs right smack bang in the middle of when she normally naps. I hope they are not delayed.

Oh and Tiredfeet you are not a bad mother! You just had a bad night. I hope tonight is better for you. xx

ooh ooh ooh can I just say...and so sorry if this looks like a boast Tiredfeet its not I'm just delighted...DD has just got herself off to sleep for an evening nap!!! Success! I managed to read her tired signals- very similar to hungry ones but more face scratching and ear pulling- placed a blanket over her and she's off after a few minutes of whinging. So pleased!!