August 2010 - new thread ladies!

[Chulita]

New thread cos we've nearly filled the last one!

Oh man. Snowtastic Have dye on my hair as we speak but am an hour away from the littlest Hector if it gets any deeper than it is.

Hug for neenz

Jingle baws to Amazon. That'll be me completely screwed for DH presents. Tried to order an alternative for him today but the site, Firebox, wasn't taking orders for Scotland. I think the big etailers are taking the piss re deliveries here re the weather as I ordered from a wee shop in london directly & it arrived in 2 days this week. Will need to leave Glasgow for the sticks as soon as the hairdryer is switched off to make sure I get home so I can't even pick up something on the way. Hurrumph.

Hi neenz
Yes pretty much same. The others were two and three in September so we had about 7 weeks of three under three!
Dd1 is going to nursery also in jan. Three avos a week which will hopefully be when dd2 has her sleep so should give me a bit more time to get stuff done. I dont find the days too bad but the nights at the mo seem endless ..

Wrt the Bronchiolitis it's mainly the feeding which lands them in hospital. Tilly totally stopped bf ing and dropped to 1 out of 7 ounces by the time I took her in.
The gp said its if they drop to under half a feed. Other signs are the chest really caving on when they breathe.
Apparently 1 in 3 babies 3-6 months get it and 3 in 10 of those end up in hospital. Also got told they get bad quick and better slow which is definitely the case so far.

Well, the snow has finally reached Oxford... we got about 6inches yesterday which means we've pretty much ground to a halt. We were supposed to be having Elodie christened today but had to cancel because we couldn't get across town to the church, let alone godparents/family coming from 30 miles away :o(

Also rubbish Amazon hasn't delivered lots of things, including the presents for nieces and nephews which they are now predicting will arrive Dec 29 - they are the only people who won't really understand presents not having arrived.

Is anyone else getting really mixed nights at the moment? Two nights ago, Elodie was asleep before 8pm and behaved beautifully. Last night, I got her down at 8.30pm but she wouldn't settle for more than 10ish minutes until about 10.30pm. And then she fed at 1am, 4am, 7am....

Belly is there any change to her daytime routine when she acts different at night? Or it could just be one of those things cos who knows why babies do what they do at this age!

Daniel is ill with bronchialitis so is sleeping a lot in the day then not settling at night till 11/12 which is tiring but then he sleeps till 6/7am so it is not too bad. I got a little lie-in till 9am this morn which has done me world of good.

GYA thanks for that info - I have noticed Daniel isn't as interested in feeding , he just has a couple of mins here and there but my boobs are not too full so I think he must be getting the right amount in total. I hope he doesn't need hospital anyway cos we are practically smowed in - we had 7in on Friday night and it is still here. Asda have cancelled my delivery for tomorrow so will have to brave the roads and supermarket

Neenz if you google you should hopefully find the checklist sheet that the doctor printed off for me which gives you the list of what to look out for

Hope all the poorly babies get better soon, this weather doesn't help does it?!
weehector hope you got back ok with your new hair do :)
neenz it will get easier with your 3 (as you know) it's just a very difficult stage. I find 2 a challenge so 'nuff respect for dealing with 3!
DD's pretty ill at the mo and we're visiting the in-laws so she's been miserable and not at all her usual chatty self. Hopefully she'll pick up soon, I hate it when she's ill!

Another poorly baby (and mummy) here! We've had a cold but I'm over the worst of it now and J seems ok apart from a very snotty nose and a very unsettled night. When will the weather warm up?! The forecast here is for max temp -6 today! I'm not sure I should take J outside in that

I saw my sister last week and she's pregnant! It's her first and she's due beginning of august so J and his cousin will be in the same school year!

How's the bf going chulita and weehector (and anyone else who's still been struggling with it)? I realised a couple of weeks ago that I no longer need to shield my nipples in the shower - they've virtually lost all sensation. I'm hopefully doing a peer supporter course in the new year which i'm really looking forward to.

Morning

Warning - Rant alert!!

Why am i bothering breastfeeding, waiting to wean etc? F is so unsettled again, only 2 weeks after his last growth spurt! Last night he fed every 2-3hrs, but off both sides and took an extra half hour afterwards to settle down again, to the extent i had to put my head under the duvet and ignore him grizzling. He was fed, he had a clean nappy, he was warm - but not too warm, he was suitably tired so we have had 2 weeks of unsettledness and waking 4-5 times a night, then a week where he suddenly started sleeping through, then he got poorly so fair enough, he is now fine apart from the odd coughing fit, but unsettled and hungry. I know i am supposedly doing the 'best' thing for him, but there is a huge part of me that is questioning that considering DD was the easiest baby in the world by 2 months old, and by 4m was sleeping 10hrs straight every night. I had started weaning her about now and she was on expessed milk and formula top ups. F won't even take a bottle now. My friend babysat on saturday night and was feeding him milk out of the lid as a cup as he refused to use the bottle.

Sorry, just sleep deprived and have got loads to do here and no energy or enthusiasm and there are no playgroups or anything this week so actually have to entertain my children myself and it is -8 here today.

Alice- I'm with you on the entertaining of own children.. Have to tidy and clean house prior to Xmas dinner for 15 ..
all three girls kept us up last night. More so the older two as T slept 930-330 then 445-830
Dh was allegedly on night duty too which seemed to involve me getting up to dd1 5 times, putting dd2 back to bed and staying up with the baby from 345- when I fell back to sleep at 515 then up with dd2 from 715..
Funnily enough he's in bed still..

This comes after the conversation we had where I said a bit of sympathy for the fact that I get up Every Single Night and pretty much Every Single Morning wouldn't go amiss

Much sympathies to Alice and gya - at least I have only one munchkin to deal with. Although she wouldn't sleep until 10.30pm again last night. on the plus side, she just woke at 3.30am and 6am, then slept in until 10.30am.

It was so wearing two nights in a row of rocking and soothing for 2+hours that I think I'm going to have to start some sleep-training to teach her to self-settle. Does anyone have any experience of pick-up pick down?

Gotta go, DH is working from home and just announced that it's lunchtime so he can stop and cuddle the baby but by the sounds of her it's boob she wants...

sympathies alice, I started a thread in weaning the other day about whether babies slept longer at night when weaning started and the overwhelming response was no! Apparently the evidence is that it makes no difference so if your LO does improve when you start weaning then it's just coincidence. Not the answer I was looking for!
here's the info from mumsnet about weaning and why to wait til 6 months. I was considering starting earlier but I think it's convinced me to wait (I won't disapprove if you don't though!)
The more I learn about bf and ff though the more glad I am I'm bf. It doesn't sound like you have much choice given that he won't take a bottle so maybe try and cheer yourself up by reading about how great breastmilk is. See here for example.
I'm not trying to persuade you not to change things - just hopefully giving you a bit of encouragement :)
Good luck with entertaining your two

I am glad really Marzi, i did things differently with DD as i didn't know better and the advice i had - even from hv, was that weaning at 4m was ok. This time i have more info available to me and i have decided to wait until i am sure Fred is ready, whether that is 4,5 or 6m. I am sure he isn't yet though. Although he had a lick of DD's banana the other day - he was getting really cross and reaching for it, so i passed it to him but then had to wrestle it off him I said "You can't possibly want this - can you?"

He has only had a short nap again this afternoon - not helpful!

My twins def slept better after weaning and the amount they ate was directly proportional to how they slept! But self-settling has to happen to. If your LO can't self-settle it doesn't matter what's in his/her belly! So a bit of crying and also a structured daytime routine at this age goes a LONG way.

GF has her critics but her routine works.
First feed 7/8am
Nap 9-10
Feed 11am
Nap 11.30-1.30
Feed 2pm
30min ish nap sometime around 4
Feed 5pm
Bath 6pm
Feed 7pm
Feed 10pm
You don't have to stick to all the times, just do what works for your baby, with a basic feed, play, sleep cycle going over the whole day, and I think it's important to start the day early.
Daniel gets up at 8am at the latest, I don't let him sleep in (unless he is poorly). I really believe it makes a big difference to night time sleep when their day is structured. I don't always stick to the feed times - if he is crying and doesn't stop with a cuddle then I feed him no matter what time it is. But he has a pretty good day routine now and it def makes a difference to his nights IMO.

I am grumpy because F was doing very well self settling and had fitted a nice routine around our day, but the last 2 days or so has been completely arse about face. Frustrating when you know they can do it.

Going to try to put him on his play mat and make some salt dough with DD, i want to get both their handprints.

Alice could he be teething? D def is - chewing on hands and putting tongue to his gums all time. Try calpol!

He seems to be showing less teething signs than he was before He was definitely hungry during the night, usually he has one side and falls asleep, last night he was having both sides and stil not dozing off. I must need more calories to produce fuller fat milk

Sounds like another growth spurt then. He should be settled again in a few days . I think if the unsettledness carries on for more than a week then consider weaning. That's what we did with the twins - they were 22 weeks and were cluster feeding like mad every evening and not settling at all. That went on for a week and then we introduced a bit of baby rice mixed with breast milk at 6pm and they were loads better straight away. Did you hear about the eatstudy? They are trialling weaning at 3m versus 6m to see if it makes a difference to allergies. So they obviously don't think weaning at 3m is tantamount to abuse (like some on MN!) www.eatstudy.co.uk

Yes, i got info through the post to take part, but not practical for us to get to St Thomas's London regularly for it. I thought it was very interesting. It is a combination of their info and that on MN that has made me decide that i will follow F's lead and not wean at a certain time just because i have been told to iyswim? I am capable of reading and making up my own mind (much to many peoples disgust!) One thing that made me was that you should wait til 6m, but not any longer as it can cause speech delays

Something i have been wondering about and trying to find info on, is the best food to start on. Traditionally it is baby rice, but i was wondering if actually you would be better to introduce more 'natural' food like pure fruit or vegetable puree? Would that be easier on baby tummies?

Fruit and veg is great cos very healthy, full of vitamins etc, but not very filling (which is prob why lots of people see no improvement in sleep after introducing them!). I found baby rice (and later cereals such as Oatibix) brilliant for getting their tummies full. And if you mix it with breastmilk all the better (altho once they were 6m I used formula too cos it was hard to get enough BM to mix in)

Remember though I had twins so I was desperate to get them to sleep cos two non-sleeping babies is NOT GOOD! I am quite looking forward to weaning with Daniel cos I think it will be a lot different. A lot less stressful and desperate IYSWIM. I think he will be quite a good eater whereas the twins were not so much.

I have been giving D some tummy time before his bath and he is trying to crawl . Not very near to rolling over yet tho.

Thanks Neenz

We got DD's old door bouncer out for F last night - he absolutely loved it!

Another bad night. Up 4 times between 9pm and 7am, doesn't sound too bad, but feeding for an hour at a time, i feel so drained. I read a phrase on MN yesterday 'Sucking my kidneys out through my breasts' pretty much sums up how i feel! I have literally been stuffing my face this week since being ill and i have still lost weight.

We are going to get the highchair out and have F sat in it while we eat our meals. Going to give him a tippee cup with water in to play with in the hope he may start to drink out of it. Would make like easier if he would take a cup or bottle.

my parents have got J a door bouncer for christmas, really looking forward to putting him in it!
neenz is baby rice best for them at first or can they have stuff like readybrek or porridge straight away?

Alice, sympathies - I was only up twice and felt pretty tired!

Oats are an allergen so some books say don't give till 8m. but that could be bit on safe side but I'd say at least 6m. Same with wheat. Aubergines as well apparently!

Baby rice is quite easily digested which is why its good as a first food.

The book I use for weaning (Optimum Nutrition Before During and After Pregnancy) says from 4-6m introduce veg (but not tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and aubergine); fruits (but not citrus); pulses and beans; rice, quinoa, millet and buckwheat; fish.
From 9m: meat and poultry; oats, corn barley and rye,yoghurt; tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and aubergines; eggs; soya
12m: citrus fruits, wheat, dairy, nuts and seeds (but not peanuts)

I'm afraid i gave in and gave F a piece of banana to play with. He was grabbing DD's sandwich off her think he might be teething now tbh too.

Have also given T some banana today too! Though it was mashed ..