November 2010: Welcome to life on the other side

[bunnygirl80]

Pull up a chair and help yourself to a LARGE glass of wine

Welcome to the dark side the wonderful world of motherhood

Oh, jen andWallace I love the idea of showing with Norry. I thought he might be too little but I might try it tomorrow :)

(As if my last message wasn't long enough...)

Good grief, I need a

Wallace and showering of course.

I'll get me hat.... And have a as that's about the only emoticon I haven't used yet this morning

Think I have finally found my stroller for when I go to HK, its abit more than I want to pay so hopefully cause it wont be so new come end of the year and will be down in price :)
OBaby Atlas Plus Stroller, tried it out today in mothercare tho seen it online alot cheaper

Hi all well im going out buggy shopping aswell ,i like the chicco lite stroller from smiths toy store and its reduced from 100 till 40 so a good deal.I got Oliver weighed yesterday he is now 14lb 10.

here. Having a bit of a cry and freak out about the move.
Dp still not home, seems like loads left to do. Worried about moving to a place where i know no one and he knows lots of people so will prob be out with them lots.

Sorry self indulgent post

:( Lainey It's so daunting moving somewhere where you don't know anyone. At least with Finn you've got a great excuse to get out and about to mother and baby groups.

hmm thanks for the tips about comforters. If he's napping in the buggy he's quite happy to stroke a muslin as he goes off to sleep, but he won't do the same in the cot. He's also a thumb sucker, but he wakes up as it falls out of his mouth as he drifts off, then spends 5 mins trying to figure out how to get it back in

fen I hope you manage to get Norry taking his bottles soon. I can't really offer any advice as my little fatso will suck on anything that he thinks might put food in his tummy

As the thread's resident orthodontist I'd just like to say that I was once made to go on a full day course about dummys vs thumbs. The outcome was that I found it particularly hard to care one way or another - both have pros and cons and the effects on the teeth only really matter if they keep sucking once the permanent teeth are through, and the vast majority of kids give up way before then. Thumb was preferable for speech development cos they tend to take it out of the mouth so they can use both hands to play, but dummies are easier to take away if you want to.

lainey I know how hard it is moving somewhere completely new. It took me a long time to settle when we moved to Oz as I'm pretty rubbish at getting out and meeting people. Having Will has made it so much easier though, as people at mum and baby type groups all seem to want decent adult conversation so they're all keen to welcome new people

fenoiule what stupid comments re your ds and his weight, am sure he is fine and he looks it in the pic on fb :) also re the bottle am sure here that a childminder/nursery wont refuse to take a baby that wont take abottle, they will keep trying and call mum to come and bfeed if they have to. also soon you will be able to try him with a sippy cup and once on solids he should be able to go longer without milk :)

re comforters, my first three never had a comfort object other than the boob but ds4 sucks his thumb (at 20wk scan he was doing so) and from about 8wks old sucked his thumb, we also have always used those cotton cellular blankets to cover them with at nap times and that gradually became his comforter, i second the sleep with it in bed yourself tip and just keep giving it to them at sleep times and they will come to associate it with sleep, it does take a while but if you persist they do get the link. and i second the have a FEW comments, muslin cloths are good for that, ds4 has three blankets, two are getting holes in and are rather tatty but as we have religiously given him them in rotation, he will use any of the three, tho one is his fave, but he can survive when we wash it, with a bit of fuss!

with merryn i swaddle her in a sheet and she is def starting to recognise that as a cue to sleep :)

It's nice to hear a professional view bunny as there is so much said about the subject it's difficult to know what to do for the best. Seems like our children do whatever they want in the end despite what we might want them to do anyway (I suppose that's going to be a recurring theme :) ).

4mad Thanks, I think so too. I've come to the conclusion that most doctors don't seem to understand the concept of percentiles.

WRT my CM she's looking after 4 children (child's play to you, I know) so I understand she can't spend hours on just trying to get Norry to drink. I am wondering whether going at lunchtime is an option (probably will suggest that if no joy with the bottle next week) and like you say, it's probably only critical for the next couple of months anyway. Well we've made a little progress today - warm formula goes down much better than my milk

Sorry to bog up the thread with my problems, all my rl mum friends are on holiday this week :(

I have zero experience with comforters but second the get several advice. We bought a toy for our friends baby in Germany and when it became the favourite we couldn't find another one. Cue massive amounts of tantrums when it inevitably got lost

FENOUILLE you are NOT clogging up the thread wiht your problems, daft woman thats what we are all here for to bounce thoughts/experiences of one another and have a moan/natter etc! poor rinny has had to put up with me moaning in rl

am glad he has taken something, even if its not your milk, i assume you are ok with a bit of formula.

oh and regards percentiles, merryn shot up the charts to begin with and is now dropping down again, for weight anyway, lenght wise she is very long, she seems happy and content so i am not going to stress, you judge the baby as a WHOLE not just their weight.

lainey it will be hard and stressful moving somewhere, BUT having a small baby actually may help, it will force you to get out and about, go to some baby/toddler groups and hopefully meet people and make friends! i have a friend in colchester and go there occasionally, hey you could get the train to norwich and meet up with rinny and i one day?! real suggestion there! :)

fen you're not clogging up the thread. I use this place to do all my worrying/moaning so that I look like an excellent well informed yummy mummy to all my RL friends

4mad I'm thinking that covering Will with a blanket might work as that's what he seems to like in his pram. He rubs the edge until he's asleep, but it's been way too hot here to cover him in anything recently (the other night it was 32 degrees in the bedroom even with the aircon running full blast ). Might try it now that autumn is here and the nights are getting cooler

I went out for drinks with my netball team last night. Was a really refreshing change as I'm the only one with a baby so not one person there actually cared whether Will is sleeping through or what he weighs. They just wanted to see a couple of cute pics of him and then get back to discussing which barman is cutest current affairs Realised I can still just about participate in a none baby related conversation

Lainey, hope the move is going well - as soon as you're feeling ready to explore there is a particular baby group I'm looking forward to introducing you to! Last week about 25 mums turned up with babies so you'd get to know people pretty quickly! And Rinny & 4Mad - my mum lives in Cromer so I'm always stopping in Norwich for a shop - would be great to do a Colchester to Norwich trip (love how I've just invited myself!)

As for comforters, at the moment Jessica sucks my little finger to get to sleep which (although it literally takes only 5 mins) isn't something they'll want to do at nursery! She's not going until mid Sept though so we've got a while to work on that.

Going swimming for the first time tomorrow - any tips?

SGJ, haven't taken Lottie swimming yet but from previous experience I always took them in the carseat so I had somewhere to put them whilst getting changed. I'd wrap them snug in a towel, get myself dressed then find the baby changing station to sort them out. Also remember to take a towel for them to the poolside if allowed as they get cold very quickly. Also just to warn you my 2 hated it the first time and cried the whole time they were in there!

Jealous of your night out bunny, I have been out but 2 of the women were pregnant, so conversation was very much baby related. Also thanks for thumb sucking advice!

Lottie has finally at nearly 20 weeks (5 months ) started attempting to roll over, but can still only make it onto her side .

ooh SGJ, we will be totally up for a meet, maybe you and lainey could come from colchester together and we could all meet up?! do you have me on fb?

I'm all up for a meet up :)

Thanks ladies I suddenly realised there were an awful lot of posts from me on the thread I'm glad you feel the same Bunny though I think I start sentences with, "I read on mumsnet..." a little too often.

Very jealous of your meet up! Anyone fancy popping down to the south of France?

Bunny your night out sounds super. Everyone here is pregnant or a new mum so talk is very boring baby related.

Bottles are going better now with warm formula (no problem at all 4mad as long as he drinks something) so I'm going to try warm ebm tomorrow and see if that goes down. If not I've got a couple of gallons of ebm going spare

And a big thank you to SGJ for the tip of looking at photo of baby while expressing. I was all pump-splish-pump-splish-pump-[look at photo of Norry]-SPLOOSH. Wow, hormones are funny things aren't they.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend. The sun is out here and DH is DIYing (he's moved onto the toilet now the bathroom is finished) so all is well with the world :)

Isn't it funny Fen! My sister is a midwife and told me about looking at pictures and I remember thinking yeah, yeah, I'll give it a go but it probably won't work, but SPLOOSH is a pretty accurate description of what happened!!

As for a meet up in France, we're trying a weekend in Wales next week and that's probably far enough for me at the moment! But the south of France sounds lovely, bet the weather's lovely at the moment.

As for a Norwich meet up, yep 4Mad and Rinny, you are my FB friends (always makes me feel about 5 years old when I say that) so I'll send a message about it. Shopping in Norwich and chatting, good times. Lainey - I'm happy to drive us!

Thanks for the swimming tips Hmm, hadn't thought of car seat thing so v useful advice. She'll probably scream as I think the water will be a bit cold but we're off to Centre Parcs in 4 weeks and I don't want that to be her first time swimming as I suspect the pool environment will be a bit intimidating! So excited though, I love CP.

Essay over, hope everyone's having a good weekend - we have spent today drilling a hole in the ceiling to try and run a cable to the bedroom TV so we can get Sky upstairs, cheeky!

Hi all

Glad things are improving fenouille

Hope your move is going/ has gone well Lainey

We're ok here, Annabel has tried rolling a couple of times but gets stuck on her tummy and doesn't like it much. Shes showing good progress with sitting up tho, can manage to balance herself and stay sat up for about 5 mins if she has something to hold on too.

Ive had a streaming cold for the last week but it finally seems to be going, hopefully we'll be able to go out this week coming, both of us are pretty bored of being stuck in the house while I feel rubbish.

Not sure if it counts as 'starting weaning' but Annabel's been having breadsticks or hard biscuits to teethe on, they seem to be helping, we tried all manner of teethers and chewing toys but she wouldnt have anything to do with them

hi all, good luck with move, lainey :)

SGJ - was it today you were swimming? i have taken H 6 times, but 4 of those times he stayed asleep in his car seat beside the pool My tip is to take a dressing gown for you after wards so you can get your baby dressed without getting cold :)

H started babbling yesterday. He only does it when grumpy so not really proper babbling but so cute as he goes "Dadada BAD DAD!"

Creche went well, thank you! Rock was so busy staring at everything that he didn't even drink his bottle. And Secret Agent Big Bro was satisfied with the care taken of the babies, so gives his approval for R to attend regularly.

fen on the percentiles, a friend had an hv who said "I like all my babies to aim for the 50th percentile". Aargh.

bunny many thanks for the dummy/thumb advice! That's v useful, will stop fretting about it.

No rolling here either. At least, he did it twice in one day a while ago, and not a sausage since.

Glad crèche went well umf, good you've got a little spy in there for you!

Hope the move went well Lainey.

Glad the bottles are going better Fenouille.

Took Lotttie for her 16wk weigh in today, only 5 wks late, Oops! Was also informed that she's now 21 wks old and not 20 like I thought . Health visitor has advised me to start weaning as her weight has dropped off a bit, only from the 50th to 25th percentile so nothing to worry about but she said seeing as Lottie is still feeding every 3 hours night and day she's obviously a bit hungry. I was surprised to be honest because she looks like a right little tubby one to me, but my other 2 were scrawny little things so I guess I'm just comparing with them. Was also told to make a GP appointment to get her dry skin looked at, she's started scratching at it which makes it bleed so it's obviously bothering her .

Oh and I have bought a second hand bugaboo cameleon on ebay for £265, quite excited (very sad life when the highlight of my year is a new pushchair ). Let's just hope it turns up and is in good condition now!

Quick couple of questions......

1. Anyone with DC already, been abroad with a baby before? We are going to Zante in June when Evie will be 7 months and I just wondered about the whole milk situation! Im going to take Milton tabs to sterilise the bottles/beakers, but was unsure what to do about actual milk! Was thinking about taking cartons but they will weigh a ton! Then contemplated taking a few tins, but know im not supposed to use bottled water due to the minerals in it!....Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

1. Those of you who are FF, how long did it take for your period to return, if it has? I BF for 15 weeks (Evie 18 weeks tomorrow) then went over to formula, and although I really feel like it's about to rear it's ugly head...nothing as yet! Feel tummy pains on and off and also feeling of PMT the other day (that was fun!) So surprised it's not arrived!

yay great bargain there hmmsleep with the bugaboo

i dont think a drop in percentiles is necessarily a reason to wean early, esp if she still seems happy and content? merryn has dropped down as well.

no idea re formula abroad BUT i have also heard you shouldnt use bottled water, but in france/germany they DO use bottled water apparently. i am guessing just take the sachets of powder of buy it out there, they WILL sell your formula but i may be packaged differently, may be worth googling your formula brand and seeing what it is called abroad, same with nappies :)

and re periods i stopped bfeeding 4 wks ago and no period yet, tho like you i feel like i am about to get one, bloated, slightly snappy etc, sure it wont be long!

MERRYN GIGGLED FOR THE FIRST TIME this evening

the giggles are fab, 4mad. H finds dh funniest.