October 2005 Babies.....

[nervousmum]

....thought i'd better start a thread as there are currently 4 of us, with several more to follow!

Joey is now 4 days old (where did the time go?!?), and is doing really well. He actually managed to sleep through with just one feed last night, though i must confess i cheated and had him in bed with me (at my MW's recommendation!) as he was so fretful the night before.

Looking forward in the coming days and weeks to welcoming the other members of the Oct 05 antenatal group to this post-natal club, so i won't feel like Billy No-Mates, talking to myself

Just catching up!

SLEEP: Baby doesn't go to sleep until about 10pm most nights, despite following night-time routine that big sis has (bath at 6pm etc etc). I am not too worried though, she will get earlier as time goes by. Wakes 2 times in the night, usually ends up in my bed - quite happy with this. Naps perhaps 20 minutes several times during the day - would like her to sleep for longer but with a toddler around the noise wakes her.

WEIGHT: I haven't had her weighed since her 6-week check because I always felt upset by the Health Visitors the last time. She has big chubby thighs though and does lots of poos so I'm not worried.

FEEDING: Still exclusively breastfed here, and intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. Fed for 19 months with my first and it was fine.

All in all it's going okay really. It's hard to find time to - ahem - get intimate with DH with two kids, I've resorted to putting them in front of the television on a Saturday morning and returning to the boudoir.

Well Rebecca took 25oz today, so really happy - she seemed to feed all afternoon so she is obviously feeling much better.

Anyone know if Antibiotics can cause runny bums?! Rebecca has had diareah (sp?) over the weekend (nothing at all today though) and just wondered if it was the antibiotics?!

VERY common for the runs with antiobiotics - we had billions of nappies during a recent course! The best thing is just to keep feeding so that baby has enough fluids - don't know how this translates to bottle feeding, I guess just keep offering if baby seems hungry? How is she getting on, it's SOOOO stressful when they are ill!!!!

jess&bumpmum - glad Rebbecca better
elf at your work. I've started looking at childminders as 2 at nursery will cost about £1,000 .
fastasleep have you abandoned us??? Or getting up to too much rumpy-pumpy with scary consequences

Sorry not had much chance to catch up on the thread with Grandad ill and in hospital in Yorkshire and his brothers funeral tomorrow (not a good start to 2006)
RTL Christmas in Yorkshire was lovely thanks, a nice break. How was Eygpt with your lo's?
MP we are struggling to - ahem - get intimate here too
J&RM good to hear your dd is on the mend
Elf I aren't going back to work as we moved 250 miles away from it when I went on Maternity leave so I know I am lucky, I really can't imagine how you must be feeling.
DH's job down here is still under threat we moved to Wales from Yorkshire in August and now the company he works for is being bought out, the new owners move in next Tuesday when hopefully we should find out what is happening for certain. (DH is expecting to be finished as the new owners usually send the work out to consultants that he does) All this on top of getting ready to move house again by the end of the month (hopefully for the last time!) at least this one is only 5 miles away.

Okay, so for my meeting at work, I have through of a few things that I need to discuss / ask. Can anybody think of anything else??

• What work I am returning to
• Can I work P/T for the first few weeks
• Will I have missed out on the pay review this year being on Maternity leave (hope not!)
• What facilities can work provide for my breastfeeding needs - I read that I'm supposed to have access to a clean lockable room and a fridge to store milk in.
• How flexible will work be with regards to Evie being sick and off nursery - ie can I make up the hours / take as holiday.

Can anybody else thing of anything vital that I have missed?!

Also seeing a few nurseries on the same day. Got one appointment at nine, one at ten. My questions for nursery are:

• Are the days baby led or routine, ie will they feed / sleep on demand or to a set timetable.
• Do they get fresh air everyday
• What's the staff / baby ratio
• Are all staff fully first aid trained
• Will Evie have a key care worker
• Will they record what has happened during the day, such as toys played with, times slept etc
• What would happen if Evie was sick / on holiday, would we still be charged etc.
• Do they mind me phoning every five mins to see if she's okay?

Can anybody think of anything else? Sorry for the mammoth post!

Yorkefleet sorry to hear about your grandad.

elf you probably know this already but you can get the latest OFSTED report on this website nursery reports

Also legally work have to let you have time off if you have a sickchild under 5, paternal leave. I'd advise you to see loads of nurseries, private as well as nursery chains. In my job I saw 100s of nurserys so I knew what I was looking for.

However you will walk into a nursery and know it's the right one. Ask if you can tlak to other parents, or hang round and ask a parent as they're going in. Elf you have to be 3000% sure don't ignore any gut feelings.

Elf: With nurseries, I wouldn't worry too much about questions, just go with your gut instinct. We found a 'perfect' nursery but when I took dd1 I KNEW it was wrong and changed a few days later.

(One thing though - You'll probably need to know waiting times and what days are most likely to be free, so you can hopefully work out the temporary part-time arrangement through your work if needed.)

Elf cat me if you want a chat. I'm going through a similar thing at the moment as I can't afford to send 2 kids to nursery, so looks like it's a nanny or childminder.

Would rather a nursery though!

hehe snap

morningpaper Xpost, but we both said exactly the same thing about gut feeling!!

Ahhhh stop reading my mind MP!!

Elf - when I was looking up nurseries there was an internet site (might have been the OFSTED one or one showing registered nurseries - just do a search) that had a list of questions to ask. I found that pretty good - had some things that I wouldn't have thought of!

Re: work, not sure what your vocation is but any chance you could work from home eg 1 day a week or something? Is you work very flexible with that sort of thing? Wrt pay review it is probably based on company policy but would seem rather discriminatory not to recognise any contribution you have made at least for the part of the year you were working?!!

bloomin washing machine broken arghhhh

yorkefleete about washing machine but I must admit I did LOL at your post!!

Hi everyone glad everyone is doing good.

Cameron is doing greeaaaat since we came home from hospital, he has such a good wee personality (dint really have one at all before, he found his hand in hospital and it was so funny as he was pointing his ginger right into his eyes and they were going all crossed. He gets up in the morning and plays under his gym for a whole hour then goes for a nap, gets up and plays with me for half hour then another feed then we get changed to go and get jess from nursery, then nap, feed, play gym, short nap, play with me, bath, bottle, bed. I wake him for dream feed and back to sleep - still trying to get him off night bottle but we are getting there, the time he is awake is getting shorter as if thats rubbish that crap mum I'm away back to sleep.

Woops sorry didnt mean to bore you all but just realised that we are getting into a good routine now.

JRB glad Rebecca is getting better.

Hope all you mums that are breastfeeding and trying to change to bottle are suceeding!!

So sorry for mums having to go back to work soon but so envious that you will all heve money

I'm going to go back to college in september - to try and get myself a career, Cameron will be 11 months and I've got a cheek to feel guilty at that but I've never left wee Jess and she is so well behaved, mannerly funny, clever - oh I could bum her up all day and I'm scared without my influence Cameron wont have as good a start than jess.

Oh I need to stop going on now!!

rtl thanks!!! I have just switched it off and walked away.... only problem is that I have just used TJ's last clean bib and muslim, all the others are in the machine (my dh will think this is an excuse for me to buy a new machine for the new house!)

mummygow it's nice when they get into a routine isn't it!

Well... we thought we had cracked it! After 3 weeks of sleeping at least 12 hours through the night, Rebecca decided she wanted to wake at 3am again and then again at 4.30am and again at 6am..... finally gave up at 6.30am and got up!

Hoping it was because she had a nap late afternoon for 2.5hrs - so wasnt too suprised. Am going to try and keep her awake today and see if we get back into the old routine that I loved so much!

She is pretty much over her bug - just a little cough lingering now.... only 2 more days of AB's and she will be off them so fingers crossed.

Really pleased everyone else is doing well.... just wish i had a little bit more time to play on here!

at last a decent night last night. A feed at 11.30pm then one at 3am and that was it until 7. Really good for us and I feel a lot better today. Just taken my dd1 for her first ever session at pre school. She has never been left anywhere before. I had to leave her screaming but they advised me to go and they would ring if she didn't calm down. I've just had a call to say she is now happy and joining in. I'm really pleased as she'll be going a couple of times a week and that gives me time with Ruby without feeling guilty that dd1 is getting jelous. can't wait until 3pm when I can go and pick her up tho

bbb glad yo had a good night - its hard splitting yourself in 2 with 2 iyswim ha ha

jrm do you think maybe thats because she is gettin better she is getting hungrier because I dont think the nap would make a difference at this age - anything up to 3 hours is supposed to be fine.

How many onces did she take yesterday - did we work it out to be about 27oz for her weight!!

Open her mouth, hold her nose and pour it all in - ha ha

my goodness I obviously think I have a sense of humour today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

total f about 25oz i think... possibly was because she wanted more milk - took 6oz over a space of 1.5 hrs in the night... Becky has never slept that long during the day when well though.... has had about 20 minutes all day today!

Well the year seems to be improving (slightly) my grandad is still in hospital in Yorkshire but my parents saw him yesterday and he is on the mend appartently (he will be 80 on the 24th Jan) and they went to the funeral yesterday but drove back to Wales last night.
My washing machine has now decided to work and have done another 3 loads of washing which is great apart from I now have loads of ironing to do
Thomas has so far slept from 10pm last night and is still asleep so I suppose I should go and make his bottles/tidy etc whilst I can but instead I seem to be on here!!!!
Hope everyones lo's are getting better xxxxx