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

Hello again and thanks for the bottle advice. DD decided that she would deign to take expressed milk as long as it had been warmed up enough.

Welcome to the glamorous world of work - I realised that I had baby sick on my trousers this morning (didn't notice it was in my hair too until later) and am spending my lunch break expressing. The post lady has just walked in on me despite locked door, I think she was more embarrassed than me. I am so glad that it's only this week that I am doing full time. Have now dripped milk on my trousers and desk. Yummy mummy, ha ha ha.

Hi Cardi great news about bottles, hope it didn't disrupt your holidays too much. Bet the post woman's face was a picture :) I know how you feel, I think my low point was when I had to change twice before getting out of the door due to Norry throwing up on me. Very [jealous] of you having your own office to express in though. We have a 'nursing mothers' room where I go for a mega-pump at lunchtime, but I have to do a couple of quick pumps morning and afternoon in the loos.

We've also got a keen stand-er here. I bought him a door bouncer last week and he's had a couple of goes in it so far. Mostly just standing, not bouncing, but he seems to enjoy it.

Hope you're all enjoying Spring, we've just had to buy a first sun hat and sun glasses!

UK parents who will be returning to work - this could save you a lot of money:

www.mumsnet.com/jobs/changes-to-childcare-vouchers-april-2011

(Sorry, never have time to post properly)

Thanks umf, dh mentioned that a few weeks ago then we completely forgot, must do it as apparently (not entirely sure) they can be used for things like my eldest's ballet and gymnastics too.

www.childcarevouchers.co.uk/Pages/Default.aspx

more info here

and here

Another one with baby refusing bottle here. After my latest bout of mastitis I've been feeling really rough, I think my immune system is weak and I'm just picking up every bug going. Decided to introduce some formula feeds to give me a bit of a break, but Lottie has other ideas! So annoying as we introduced her to a bottle of expressed breast milk at 6 weeks which she took fine, but lapsed with it and I guess she's just lost the knack. I'm now panicking as Dd1 would never take a bottle, finally taking a cup at 11 months, I do not want a repeat performance!

Just looked into childcare vouchers a bit more and was wrong, can't use for ballet etc. The money saving expert link is very useful in finding out if they'd be of benefit to you or not.

Hi all, thought it was time I popped in again - it's been a while .

Astrid is still being a wee doll. Please don't hate me, but she self-settles at every nap with no moaning (and will often fall asleep on the play-mat without me noticing) and goes usually around 12 hours straight every night. She's a proper slob. Although, since I have two older girls who still generally wake me up most nights I figure I deserve a child with no sleep problems this time!

Got her weighed last week and she was only 14lb 4oz (at 20 weeks, 9lb 4.5oz when born) so seems really dinky weight wise when I compare to the 6-9, and sometimes 9-12, months clothes she's wearing.

Just had her last lot of jags this morning, which went better than the last time when the nurse crunched the needle into her bone ("first time that's happened in thirty years of doing this" said the nurse - didn't make me feel any happier at the time lol!). She's now asleep and I'm left with dd1, who's off school with cough/headache/temp. Fingers crossed she's better by tomorrow as I want to go to Ikea with my friends and enjoy some meatballs in peace

Still no rolling onto her tummy yet, but she has progressed onto her side. Also, like Merryn, she's not got a huge appetite and generally only has 4 feeds a day (8am, 12-ish, 4.30pm, 8pm) taking about 25ml in total. Doesn't seem ready for solids yet, despite everyone and their wife trying to feed her "bits" (bits of fruit/veg and chocolate ). The good news is that the doctor finally prescribed some infant Gaviscon for her reflux. I think it helped that by the time we got in to see him (after waiting for 20 mins) A had puked on my leg, my top, her snowsuit and her car-seat despite being fed 3 hours earlier. She then puked on her muslin about another 4 times when we were in with the doctor just to make her point . I can't tell you what a difference it made - even from the first feed. I no longer have to change her outfit 7 times a day and my washing pile has decreased drastically!

lainey - I read that thread yesterday and was overwhelmed. I really feel for Edgar and her family.

Cardi - maybe you could start a new work trend? I'm pretty sure that's one I could keep up with, when I go back

bunny can't believe Will is standing already! A can hold her own weight, but would be like a felled tree the minute we let go. As you can prob tell, she's no-where near sitting up by herself yet either.

SGJ - hope you're still alive. I've been to a NCT sale before, it was not pretty...

hey boris, good to 'see' you, loved the pics of astrid on fb in the strawberry babygrow!! and i am guessing you mean 25oz not ml as that would be a tiny amount of milk lol!! baby brain at its finest.

i shal lignore your comments about sleeping through and self settling........

merryn is generally pretty good but has been more unsettled the past few days and is now poorly (as am i and ds4) and last night we had a screamathon in the evening when i was trying to get her to sleep, typically dp was at work so i was trying to deal with dd and getting all four boys to bed and getting tidied up from dinner etc etc. she did then sleep till 11:30 then fed and then woke again briefly between 3-4am but didnt feed until 5am and then slept in till 9am this morning, tho from 7am she was sleeping propped up in my arm because of her cough, i dont mind tho, it was still a lie in as dp was here to do the morning school run.

ds4 should have been having his second settling in session at pre-school but as he is poorly that didnt happen.

however today is dp's rotas day off and he has now had to go to work for a meeting and tomorrow is also a rota day off and he has a meeting to go in for again!! ffs thankfully he has some annual leave booked for next week!! so will be on hand to help out and i am making sure he does!!

re weaning they say 6mth do they mean 24wks or 26wks as in half of 52wks of the year is 26wks but if you say they are four weeks in amonth then that is 24wks?!! i cant remember i think i just waited for th eboys to seem interested in food, probably on the look out for signs from 20wks onwards but tbh i cant see merryn being in a hurry for food, like boris' little one she doesnt have a big appetite, it worries me slightly but she is very happy and content etc, picture of health and growing well, 15lb 4 and half oz at last weigh in and i shant bother again for a while.

right i need to go and get dressed have taken the opportunity to have a bath, wash hair, shave legs whilst dp was at home and dd was asleep, she is now waking i need to get sorted to have lunch, feed her, do school run etc etc, i should go out with a sign on me tho, beware the plague, i have the most disgusting hacking cough, as does ds4 and dd :( roll on the summer time and less coughs and colds!!

4madboys, I never know whether to go by 4 weeks to a month or calendar months either! My bounty emails seem to think 24 weeks is 6 months, so for now I'm going off that!

ah good as long as its not just me, merryn is now 16wks so technically 4mths, but i dont think of her as 4mths until the 5th april as she was born the 5th dec, iyswim?

but yeah i think with the boys it was 24wks ish that they started food? howver we are going away at that time with merryn, sooo if she is not showing signs of wanting it i shall wait til we get back!

4mad Erm yet 25oz not ml I wish I could blame baby brain, but I was just "be'en fick". Aww, don't ignore my sleeping comments I was still up all last night with coughing dd1 and "muuuuum, my covers have fallen off" cries from dd2. I gave up at 4.30am and had a nice long bath for a couple of hours. So whilst Astrid is sleeping (even now ) I am not!

Hope all of your tribe are feeling better today. Dd1 is still running a temp and it would appear dd2 is coming down with it too.

I may sob, as dp and I have a night away booked through Groupon on Sat night and it's turning out to be a comedy of errors. First off my babysitter for the older two couldn't do it (after she'd confirmed and I'd booked), then my alternate couldn't get time off work, then the first sitter could, but only after 4pm and I'll have to pick them up about 10am in the morning as she's double-booked now. Dsd, who had agreed to stay at ours to watch the dogs, is working at a pub and is uhmming and aahing about staying here, even though it's closer to the pub. Now dp has informed me he will be leaving the hotel early Sunday morning to go to feckin Wembley to watch Carlisle. I have now gone to my happy place and have advised him that Mother's Day will be transferred to next weekend and I shall expect my treats then . So, best case scenario is we get to the hotel for 6pm and dp will leave at 7am followed by me at 8.30am. Hardly seems worth the 2-3 hour round trip really

Age wise, I'm going by months rather than weeks - trying to keep A a baby as long as possible I think!

i sympathise with coughing children, i was up loads last night with ds4 and dd who both have coughs and so do i, except i was trying not to cough as i didnt want to wake them when they were asleep

merryn at the moment is having 22-23oz a day, she went up to 25oz for a few days and is now back to having 4 to 4 and a half ounces a feed! we do tend to get one feed during the day when she will have 5oz, i just have to keep telling myself that she seems happy, content and is sleeping well and is big at 15lb 4oz and very long, so is obviously doing just fine, but my mummy instinct wants her to be having more but once she is done she is done, she purses her lips andthere is NO way you can get her to have any more! so she knows what she needs :)

and right now she needs, me, she is in the door bouncer but is now demanding attention!

boris hope you manage to persuade DD1 and 2 to sleep as well as A soon Sorry your weekend is turning out to be a big pita. Hope you get appropriately spoiled next weekend instead.

Have been reminding DH that William will need assistance to buy me a mother's day present this year. Only problem is that we're in Oz for UK Mother's day, and back in the UK for Aussie Mother's Day so no idea which they're going to celebrate.

hmm and 4mad I never know whether to go in 4 week blocks or calendar months either. I think now he's 20 weeks I'm going to use actual months as I can't face the thought that he's 5 months old already

Took Will to the doctors today as his chest has been sounding awful for the past 2 days. Poor thing has got bronchiolitis although on the plus side the dr said the way he's accurately reaching for and picking up small objects is unusual in a baby under 6 months I'm glad my opinion that my PFB is a genius has been confirmed by a medical professional

Bunny how is William's sleep going? Any magic tricks you can share with me? I thought I'd finally cracked Freya's naps... Had been managing to put her down for naps without feeding by sitting by her cot and stroking her head and shhhh-ing, and sometimes have given her dummy as well which she normally wont take...

First time it took her 20 mins to fall asleep but then less and less time and finally she'd be off in less than 5 mins. I thought I'm so amazing obviously... But now this week (she had her first tooth come through last week + upset tummy) she is refusing to go down in the afternoon (she usually has a nap around 3.30 - 4.30)..

Yesterday she screamed for 35 mins! Every time I managed to settle her and put her down she'd start again - full on screaming! She's refusing to take the dummy, before this has been our last resort and it has settled her down quickly.
I mean how long are you supposed to go on like this?? I didn't want to give up but she just wasn't going down... Brought her downstairs and after about 30 mins she looked tired and I managed to get her down for the nap - for 15 minutes!!

You ladies whose babies self settle? What is your secret? Is this something you can teach your baby??

I swaddle Freya still (18 weeks) as she keeps swinging her arms everywhere and that wakes her up.. She loves to suck her fist so this morning after her 4 am feed I left one arm free from the swaddle and put her back to her cot - and ta daa! She slept (or at least was quiet!) till DP's alarm went off at 7 am .

I mean I cannot remember last time I've heard that bloody alarm as we are always up and downstairs before that as F is up from 6 onwards every day.

Sorry for an essay... Just wanted to hear how your babies are such fabulous nappers and why mine just don't want to nap!

I'm so sorry but I have to tell somebody and I cannot tell anybody in RL... But last night I had a dream that I was.. umm.. having sex with this guy from my office who is good friends with me, and now with my DP and his mates too... .

Omg I feel so embarrassed and in the morning I felt so guilty like I had to confess to DP or something... Blimey!

Sorry for TMI just had to share it with somebody... ha ha..

Lol Jenni :) don't worry, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything! Although I imagine it's hard to look at your colleague in the same way!
I had the same thing a while back about a friend I used to go to school with, and woke up really wanting to get it on with DH! Then when I woke up properly and realised i wasnt still dreaming, i just couldn't with bothered! Now that's bad lol!!

In terms of self settling, I've pretty much tried it from the beginning so she wouldn't get used to me always being there, so not sure if that's helped? She will only fall asleep when cuddled now if shes fallen asleep feeding, or when poorly. Sometimes when she gets over tired she will struggle to settle without getting herself worked up so I try to put her down before she gets too tired iyswim? Saying that she almost fell asleep when changing her nappy earlier so I think she won't give herself chance to get overtired lol!
But anyway, if she is overtired, I found putting a muslin/bib/comforter over her face seems to snap her out of it! She snuggled into it and I then remove it just before she's asleep so she doesn't come to rely on it and I don't worry about her suffocating!
Hope that makes sense and helps a little :)

Lovely to hear about all the bouncing babes! aargh all i did was start typing and he's waking up! bye again...

jenni Will is now self settling to go off to sleep, but doesn't seem to want to use the skill when he wakes at night. Don't know if I'm intervening too soon though, as I tend to rush in at the merest hint of a noise from him. He's been really unsettled the last few nights with his cold, but once he's better baby sleep bootcamp part 2 will be go go go

I've finally come down with the cold DH and Will have been passing back and forth Don't think going to an exercise class at 7am then playing a full game of netball this afternoon has helped matters. I'd quite like to go to bed and stay there all night, including the extra hour we're getting cos the clocks go back, but I'm sure William will have other ideas!

boris the weekend sounds like a nightmare, you should def re schedule it for another time!!

bunnygirl OBVIOUSLY you need to be spoiled on BOTH mothers days!!! simples

re sleep and self settling i really think that although you can encourage it and help your baby to learn it, a lot of it is pot luck and down to personality/temprement. out of my 5 ds1 was a terrible sleeper and is still not great at 11yrs old, he knows better than to disturb me in the night now tho lol.

ds2 was better, then ds3 was kind of inbetween the two, then we had ds4 who was a revelation a baby that did self settle (sucked his thumb) and slept really well, BUT he has now been having issues with night waking age 3

merryn is better than the first three boys but not as good as ds4, she has a dummy for daytime naps but generally doesnt need it at night, tho i tend to give it to her just before her 5am feed, but thats more so she doesnt shout and wake up ds4! there is def a trick with catching merryn at the right moment, tired and sleepy but not too tired and then she will settle fine for her nap, i still swaddle her as she likes it and sees it as a cue to sleep and then she goes in the pram for daytime sleeps, generally i just stroke her head a little and give her her dummy and then she goes off, sometimes have to rock the pram a bit.

she will also sleep in the sling and when we are out she will cat nap, but havent used the sling much this last week or so as i have been ill (chest infection) and had a horrible temperature so havent wanted her in the sling making me even hotter or incase i cough all over her.

sleep defintely breeds sleep tho and the more a baby has the better they seem to sleep, but merryns naps vary in length hugely, sometimes she will have a big two hour nap in the day and other days she just has short naps, it depends on what we are doing and if she is disturbed by her brothers, tho luckily she is quite good at sleeping through noise generally and she will consistently crash out by 7-7:30 for the night, waking at 11:30 for a feed and then again at about 5am, which i think is pretty good and she then sleeps in until 8ish sometimes longer :)

bunny hope will gets better soon, merryn has a cough at the moment she doesnt seem too bad tho it has affected her sleep a bit and i noticed today she is a bit warm, so have been giving her a bit of calpol and i will watch her and see how she goes, hope she doesnt get poorly like i have been, would be typical on a weekend when dp is at work!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY EVERYONE!!

Very strange to be receiving pressies etc today when it was obviously always about giving before......but loving being a mummy on mothers day :)

aww lovely babybean :)

hope everyone is having a lovely mothers day

can i just put a little at seeing a comment about a 7 wk old baby being given baby rice to make them sleep!!! i know we all wean when our babies seem ready, but 7 weeks!!

Happy Mother's Day!

What are you all getting? I got to get up with Norry at 7.30 as DH put his head back under the covers when I suggested he might like to change him (the standard procedure on weekend mornings) :( If he ever remembers I need some good ideas on how he should assuage his guilt.

We gave Norry his first taste of 'proper' food yesterday (he's 5 (calender) months today!). It seemed to go down pretty well. 4mad where on earth did you read that? indeed.

Arf at bunny's baby sleep bootcamp. "Down and give me 40 [winks]" Regarding sleep I find that we can put him down and he will self settle during the day and first thing at night, but he won't calm down without being fed in the night. That was OK when he was only waking once a night but he's been waking two or three times a night all this week and I'm feeling a little frazzled. We're going to be moving him into his own room this week though so maybe that will help a little bit [very hopeful but not too optimistic].

fenouille, my mothers day is shit, as i have disagreed with dp........ and he is now at work now so no break for me!

plus my sister is 6wks preg with her first baby, they tried for a good 6mths and she has just txt me, heavy cramping and bleeding, LOTS of blood she says, so not looking good, ffs on mothers day of ALL days, i am in tears, its just shit.

and fenouille, merryn still has milk in the night at 11:30 and 4:30-5am, and she sometimes has a dummy, she sleeps swaddled and in our bed! good luck with trying to move N to his own room!

Oh 4mad :( Puts my day into perspective. It would be crap about your sister on any day but it really just rubs salt into it, doesn't it? Fingers crossed for the best, but I'm sure you're all looking after her well whatever happens. Hope you manage to make things up with your DP, if not you can come down here and I'll send mine up to yours to be in the doghouse together.

Norry usually only wakes at 10.30pm then 3.30ish but this week he's been waking at midnight/1am as well and if I'm really lucky at 5.30am too.

yes it put my pissed offness with dp into perspective as well! it is just shit and yes ESPECIALLY so on mothers day! for crying out loud.

hope norry starts to sleep better for you xxx

Oh 4mad sorry to hear about your dsis. Hope you are all ok.

Nothing done for mothers day here. Am childishly upset that dh didn't even get a card from ds for me. Silly i know.

Poor Finn has had another cold for the last week and half and a horrid cough with it. On top of that he seems to be teething and struggling to eat because of it. I have barely been able to get him to take 18oz a day for the last 4 days. Good job he has plenty of fat reserves not sure whether to take him to the doctors as chest is rattling a bit.

we bought a car yesterday. So nice to have the freedom to get out more. We went out with dps family for a lovely meal at country pub. Lovely in the sunshine.
finn is generally quite good at self settling. Or occasionally i will have to do a quick cheek stroke or pop in a dummy. Although he has started to struggle to fall asleep in the daytime as think gets overtired and therefore grouchy. Have to pop him in the pram sometimes.