FESH Spa & Creche - Queue-jumpers accepted with open arms

[AlpinePony]

How exciting for a new thread - two FESHspring due shortly!

It'll be fine cossie. Jb is away every friday night and it's B.L.I.S.S! You can parent 100% the way you want to and get 100% of the cuddles.

And that's different to a normal day how?

Oooh cunty, the bitterness is tangible! How did his mash go down anyway? Was he licking his lips in the direction of your steak too?

I froz it ski but not the meat pie wot I made, that went. So we'll see in due course.

Yes it's true that Hom is somewhat hands off in his parenting style. He fits the typical stereotype sadly - all the parenting is done with waving toys about and throwing him into the air. He is untroubled by anything that may need doing in the near future that needs preparing for because, naturellement, I will do it. Still, I see my sister, who's husband had a similar disregard for finer aspects of parenting and find that you reap what you sow - her kids who are now 21, 18 and 16 dote on her and are not arsed about him.

Curiously enough, Hom's other two wouldn't willingly give him the steam off their piss either which should have served as a warning to me. Stupid bitch that I am...

For some reason I always thought you were an only child. I do hope you're not seriously berating yourself. :(

Jb is feeding him what I couldn't get down him yesterday - not a drop spilled. It's clearly in the delivery.

Btw, we currently have "world's strongest man" on ESPN. One of them is a primary school teacher in real life!

probably useful for sorting out troublesome children

I don't know how you manage to get on here. I don't seem to have more than 3 minutes at a time to go to the loo/express/eat etc etc etc! Last night was grrreat. Expressing is the way forward. He had 70 ml and 2 boobs at 8pm and then another 70ml at 11.15 half asleep. Woke up at 2am and through til 7am. Couldn't fecking believe it!! No doubt a one off but still - I FEEL LIKE ME TODAY!! :)

HiHoSilver hope you and you're little chap are doing ok too.

cunty did you express to keep Rastus fed? When did you end up going to formula. Can't help but think he will need it eventually at the rate he's growing. Need your tips pleeze for BigBabyMoo. :)

Also can someone please tell me why the hell in many many years of nappy product development they still leak so badly? We are still on size 1 (up to 10llbs - which he is) but if I move up surely they will be looser, therefore more chance of leakage? Or is it then more absorbant? I dunno.

Still haven't given the poor chap a bath - top and tails only. Am terrified of dropping his head or somefink. Bad enough doing the dog. Must also cut nails... God am bad mother. He has been in the world 2 weeks and still haven't got around to it. Can't believe it was 2 weeks today.

You need to NAK!

I would try the size up, you never know. Mind you I have found that since moving to the washables they leak a lot less than the disposables!

What makes you think you'll need to go to formula? Keep feeding on demand and your supply should match his needs :)

honey definitely go up a nappy size, they'll fit fine - if he's big, eating a lot and therefore weeing a lot maybe the size one just isn't that absorbant. We're on size 3 and he's only ~16lbs(?)or so. As for bathing, my nurses taught me to wrap my right arm around the back of his neck and then hold his upper right arm with thumb & fingers clasped back of hand pointing downwards - this way you're supporting his neck/head and unless you release your grip you won't dunk him. :) You can then lap water over him with your left hand. If that doesn't make sense, give me a shout and I'll send a photo. So glad you got some sleep - you're right - it changes everything!

Ooh what's NAK?

I don't think we do need formula yet, and I'm keen to keep going. I didn't enjoy the BF in public tho. It was a bit of a mare with the size of my jugs. I have to hold my boob in one and him in the other, so no hands to hide my myself! Luckily I just about managed it though. This is why I'm never on here - I can't do it one handed!

silver I'm so sorry I never said - your Birf story was fucking unbelievable in terms of the care aspect. As people have said - I would complain and follow through for your own closure if nothing else. Horrendous neglect in my view. But as people also said, he is here now and perfect and loved and that is what matters. xx

Moo Nursing At Keyborad Works best if you have a laptop and can slump on the sofa. Keep up with the BFing - you'll get the hang of it one handed eventually. I was completely incapable with TT but felt immensely smug when I went out hunting with a 3 week old LG and TT and had to feed him in the car whilst parked up in a field - then TT wanted to have a wee RIGHT NOW and I hopped out of the car with LG still clamped to my boob and whipped TT's pants down, sat her on the potty I keep in the car, and LG never lost his latch. Oh the joy of having had practice! But it will come - before long you will be able to do most everyday things with a baby wedged somewhere about your personage without him interfering!

Just a polite word about BFing and expressing, which you are welcome to hurl back and me and tell me to mind my own business! But they say it takes a good 5 weeks for your milk production to settle down and for the baby to perfect a good latch, and so expressing and mixing bottle with boob are not recommended for a few weeks. Once you have got boobies sorted you can go for the bottles, or just go for 100% bottles if that works for you. But don't do both, just for a little while. BTW everything settles down after a few weeks - not just the feeding.

Also BTW - LG is huuuge, 15lb already, and is a big guzzly baby. But gets everything he needs to keep him happy and growing from me. Sometimes formula is what works for someone, but don't think that just because your baby is big and growing fast you will inevitably need formula too. Boobies are clever and figure out what to make and how much of it. (Although sometimes they get it wrong or get confused and you wake up and find you have one watermelon and one pea on your front! Which always makes your OH laugh.)

Best tip for bathing is for you to get into the bath and have OH hand him in to you, then pass him back out to OH when you are ready to get out. You will only need to do this a few times and you'll get confident handling a slippery baby. Alternatively make this your OH's job. 3 years later and mine is still the king of bathtime! You do enough with your baby that is is nice to have a few moments of peace and quiet while Daddy does his thing. Although Clucky will agree with me that this usually means flooded bathrooms and soaking towels when followed to it's logical conclusion.

Actually I'm going to disagree with boxer, boobies don't always know best - especially for those of us who were separated from our babies when they were in SCBU. BF is not a one-size-fits-all theory.

I know that Ski, that's why I said they sometimes get it wrong! But once boobies get going, they generally get it right. They can get it completely wrong to start with, hence some women get no milk at all while others are spraying it everywhere - it's one of those times in your life where you are at the mercy of your body. I'm mainly trying to offer gentle guidance to help improve Moo's chances of keeping BFing, now that she's started at it. Unless she doesn't want to, which is also fine. I'm not going to bang on about 'breast is best,' because that depends on the individual mother. It makes no difference to me how other people feed their children but if someone asks for top tips I try to help! (FWIW I was separated from TT when she went off to SCBU, and to this day I will sing the praises of the woman who got me BFing - because I know I was lucky!)

There is no 'one size fits all' with any aspect of motherhood. Which is why there are so many pages of arguments on MN!

I think Box is probably very wise and what she says is the optimum. Hopefully 2nd time around I would like to try and make it work like that.

But don't beat yourself up if you can't. For me, my nips were so sore and damaged (smallstew had a tongue tie that went undiagnosed for a month) that the only way I could keep going BFing was to intersperse it with expressing and bottle feeding EBM to give them a break. And my boobs found their way, we fed for 9 months. AND my nips stayed on, which at one point I was doubting they would!

So I think everyone's right.

Moo I only ever expressed half-heartedly cos it took so long hooked up to what looked like an instrument of torture. He only gets one bottle of formula a day at bedtime, otherwise it's all breastfeeding still.

ski I have 2 sisters, but they are much older so to all intents and purposes I am an only child...

And yes, your production will keep pace with your child's needs - as Rastus can testify at 21 weeks and 19lbs.

As for big norks and feeding, some nursing tops are quite good - I got a couple of basic ones from Mothercare and they are fine. If you are unsure, they benefit from the addition of a large scarf so you can cover any spare skin. At home, try propping enough pillows under the head and at the side of you until it's at the right height for your boob so everything is supported and one of your hands suddenly becomes free! This is especially effective if you are doing rugby ball on the right as you can arrange the cushions so that the kid can just lie there like royalty

I am also finding that a scrunched up muslin tucked under the boob in use helps. Fink that is what is effecting our latch. The nip is not sitting at the right height.

Thanks moo for the nice words.

I loved the scrunched up muslin trick and I don't even have big norks! (is it weird that I can still effortlessly squeeze out a few drops of milk even though I haven't BFd for three months?) Hope things are getting easier all round.

Those early struggles are so exhausting. Yet I really miss having a tiny bub. Mainly because I have a one-stone, loud, hyperactive diva to contend with most days. (exhausting in a very different way).

Appeal to the FESHs, your best teething tips please?
We tried Dentinox Teething Gel today and the difference it made made it clear that Squeaker's big problem is teething pain. It's been going on for a while, but she was utterly miserable earlier. Even fell asleep(from screaming) when i was hugging her today. She never does that anymore, so must have been feeling v sorry for herself

Had a baby wardrobe sort today. She has more clothes that fit than me. Not fair!

There's something I just don't "get" about the whole expressing thing. On one hand, for me struggling with supply, the message is "express, express, EXPRESS and then express MORE!". Then, there's the message "don't express - it'll kill your supply". WTF? Completely conflicting messages. Did the nurses/mws have me hooked up to that machine 6 hours a day for "fun"? Btw, it's completely "usual" in the US to exclusively express.

curly A shed at the end of the garden surely? Get the wardrobe thing. Bear has so many gorgeous outfits. Jailbait tells me not to tuck his t-shirts in because he looks like a nerd, I figure if you can't let your 5 month old look "sweet", when can you? He'll spend most of his teenage years with his arse hanging out of his jeans surely?

We had a severe case of monsteritis yesterday. He didn't stop screaming from about 4pm until 7pm - I know many of you have suffered worse. A severe case of over-tired and possible teeth. I've also had two "night" feeds and he's currently watching whatever children's shite it is they have on BBC2 as I try and work.

Oh and the pissing house we wanted to view yesterday at 3:30? We got a phonecall at 2:45 telling me that it'd been sold. Cheers. Especially being as I arranged an appointment within 2 hours of it going on the market and yesterday was the first viewing I could get. Estateagentwankers.

Sorry to hear about the hoose ski. I believe in fate and it was not meant to be for a reason. There will be a better place about to fall into your hands.

Managed to get to NCT meet up thanks to lifts which was great as was good to have face to face human contact and to compare sleeplessness.

One of the girls held MB for me and thought he was huge. Compared to her ickle 7lb something he is a bit of a bruiser. Got nothing on boxy's LG of course.

MIL gave me some advice and "Silver - it's not criticising". She and prob my Sil have come to the conclusion the reason why MB wakes in the night is cos he is cold. I have him in a vest with a flannelette sheet folded over and tucked round him. Our room has an egg thing and the room can go from 19-21 degrees ESP when all three of us are in it.

So last night I put MB in a babygro - no vest. This morning when I changed him he felt boiling hot!! So I've switched him back to a vest.

I am going to ask the HV her advice. If I go on the "they need one extra layer than you" rool then the poor child will bs laid there cocooned in mega layers as I really feel the cold. Like pathetically so.

MB seems to be snuffly. Wonder if cold on it's way? No doubt that is cos I dress him in hardly anything. . Its not like we don't have any heating on!! FFS!!

silv to your interfering MIL, but I'm very jealous of your warm house! Ours is freezing. I haven't dared actually measure the temp in the room in the middle of the night. Single figures I expect. Last night Squeaks was in vest, fleecy all-in-one, swaddle blanket, and another blanket. She slept quite happily, farting sessions aside

I have been putting an extra blanket over her sleeping bag, and then spend half the night worrying about her overheating, but she certainly sleeps better when toastie. I also wish babies would get that it's nicer to tuck your hands in and keep them warm! No point in pulling the mitts from her babygro over as the hands just go in her mouth and we end up with wet, cold fabric around her paws.

I am wondering whether I need to find a hat that will stay on at night as winter gets colder. Or maybe SFF will have to give in and let me keep the heating on all night. (thermostat controlled, of course!)

Sorry about the house alps. It's a real PITA isn't it. We had the same happen with a viewing for another big house in the country this year. Landlord got agent to tell us not to come about an hour before the first viewing I was able to arrange. Bastards. But "what's for ye will not go by ye". And t-shirt tucked in sounds warmer to me!

re shed suggestion. We do have one at the bottom of the garden...
I think these first teeth are very close. She's been holding on to her bottom gum all morning, rubbing her fingers across it.

It was over 30 degrees in our place when we first brought Bear home, even then he was in a vest, babygrow, hat & mitts and under a blanket. Now he has vest, babygrow and is in a sleeping bag. His hands feel "cool" to the touch in the morning but not overly cold. Like curly, if you cover the hands then you end up with damp & soggy mitts. :( Plus as he likes to actually use his hands now to occupy himself then it seems counter-productive to cover them. Our bedroom is around 18 at night and we turn the radiator off when we go to bed because it's about 2 feet from Bear's cot. There are 5 of us in there at night though... I know rots accidentally froze her baybee and that's why it was crying at night - perhaps email her on fb to ask her experience?

As for the house - well I emailed them to say that we actually have a mortgage offer in place unlike the "buyers" so should it fail to come to fruition to give us a call. Meanwhile I put in a shockingly low offer on one we viewed last week and we're going to view one this afternoon - however, the one we're looking at today has someone "in situ" wheras the other two are vacant possessions and we are ready to move asap. Am I the only one who talks to the bank BEFORE making an offer? EA told me last week that everything's falling through because people can't get the damned mortgage. Mortgage offer is only valid for 3 months due to fast-changing markets. For some reason Bank Of Scotland is still throwing cash around - I suppose they've the advantage of being bailled out by the UK govt.

curls I advise investing in a stand alone radiator so you can have local heat which is off when you don't need it. We have the same problem in our cave - the front of the house is north facing where the cot is and sometimes the temperature is 13 in there during the day when no heating. Since he needs to nap in there an oil filled radiator is perfect for bring the temp up to around 17/18 and then he sleeps in either his clothes and a flannelette sheet, or at night in a vest, sleepsuit, sheet and duvet (yes, yes, I know he sleeps on his front under a duvet - shoot me dead and call social services)

Sorry, I do try to stay out as I am not difffed and am not original BESH but I can't sit on my hands. Silver, I am disagreeing with your MIL and SIL. The reason your baby is waking in the night is probably because that is what they do, especially when they are breast fed. They are not stupid - your breasts make the best quality milk at night and babies know this.

Have you thought about co-sleeping Silv? It's not for everyone but it. saved. my. sanity.