FESH Spa & Creche: Plenty more FESH in the brie

[CUNextTuesday]

Welcome all those with aching scars, undercarriages, eyelids and limbs. Find comfort here. Menfolk barred.

Muse I express every night at 10pm and have done since week 2. Peppa has 1 bottle of expressed milk every day which is given at 10.30 every night. I always express at this time to maintain my supply and it has worked for us. She has the bottle of EBM every day to ensure she will and continues to take a bottle and I know she has a decent last feed of the day to keep her going through the night. I haven't needed to give any formula yet, and I am increasing the amount she has at this feed the more she grows so my supply is fine. It is a bit of a hassle (especially when I just want to have an early night) but it's just for another couple of months and I am getting my moneys worth out of my breast pump. I can't ditch it anyway as Peppa is involved in some clinical research which means she can't have any formula unless we drop out of the study and I don't really want to do that.

I tried BLW with Mini Oke and it was a massive fail. Mini Oke still manages to eat all kinds of foodstuffs and can use a range of utentils to eat it with which some supporters of BLW would have you believe is not possible . I like the concept in theory but in practice it wasn't for either of us.

Hey all - sorry for radio silence again, not caught up properly but just wanted to add that I express last thing every eve (10 pm) and Clint has this at the beginning of his final feed (around 7 - 7.30 pm). I only get 4oz at most, not enough for a full feed but I started this when Clint began to get frustrated at slow flow in the evening. Means TSF can get in on the action and Clint gets bottle practice.

Re weaning, haven't started yet. Am in no hurry.

Thanks ruby. As always, great advice.

MBs put on .5 lb in two weeks and HV says not to worry. She reckons BM after 12 weeks drops in quality. Asked me about weaning and I said a la vag in no hurry to start but want to research and be prepared for when the time is right. MB showing no signs that he is ready. So iz cool with me. I mean I have enough crap baby essentials to carry round with me in my change bag as it is without squeezing food in as well.

I've started expressing in the mornings as my supply in the evening has dropped, eg after MBs final feed around 7pm. Only been doing it the last few days so I can build a stash up. I've been rubbish and been winging the bottle thing. Gave him his first bottle and he took it. Thought "great". Didn't give him another one til two weeks later. I thought he was refusing but he was just fussing. So we took a break of a few mins and tried again and it worked. Again have not been consistent with using the bottle cos I am lazy prefer the convienence of stuffing child up top. I've been very lucky in that the little fella will take a bottle despite my slapdash winging it approach. Deffo don't recommend doing what I've done.

Anyone else watching Masterchef? Squirrel anyone???

Is anyone still doing an 11pm feed then?! Or is it just my fat blooter little sweetheart?

Am kinda feeding on demand and Clint has rarely requested 11pm feed. 4am occasionally instead...

Oh i get mithered then too. I can't seem to drop either of them cos he goes into orbit and i don't have the stamina to listen to him howling for 2 hours

Oh we're either in 17 week sleep regression, growth spurt or my boobs ain't working because he eats now at 1830, somewhere between 2030 and 2130 and then sometimes again at 2230. Then he'll wake up again between 0200 and 0300 and if I'm really lucky again at 0530. So it really is shite. I've stopped trying to make him hang on until 0700 and feed him and get back to sleep myself.

Maybe I should start expressing again myself. God knows. We've got a sleep consultant coming in 2 weeks as I have officially Had Enough. I'm outsourcing the problem. Hopefully she can fix it or else I'm moving out.

Can i bring rastus round?

Couple of weeks ago Clint was waking every few hrs. Has now passed thank Alan. Respec' to those with non-sleepers - v hard.

Absolutely. Our sleeping child has been doing 730-6/630 for the last three weeks. Which is bliss. However days are hellish. Have had screaming for two hours this arvo as he is fighting naps. Am fully prepared for the sleeping thru nights going to complete pot and it being a bag of shite. Bound to all go Pete Tong on my watch too. moo be veh nosebag like curious to hear what sleeping guru has to say!!! Hope she can fix it and quick.

Vag am hoping is same sort of thing. Bit worried this woman will just tell me to man up and let him cry. I am a wuss. I listen to him breathe for god sake on monitor!!!!

Same here. Can hear him now.

MB that is, not BabyMoo. If it were that would be some awesome kit! Two baybees in two different locations.

Expressing win in the Cluck house today!!! The lad guzzled his 2.5 oz and I had fab night out with Box....came home to him screaming but he is now fed and fast asleep. Am hoping for a quiet night and a lie-in [deluded emoticon]

okie I was BLW and to this day cannot use chopsticks! Instead of blaming my own laziness of never learning I shall blame my mother - that 70s mum bitch! I can catch a ball though. Really? Are non-BLW baybees all totally un-coordinated then?

silv Oh god yes, as cunty says - cook it all in batches. I don't cook us fresh from scratch every night - some nights it's an amalgamation of leftovers and other nights it's weetabix. Normal people just don't prepare 2 different "from scratch" meals every evening. Tupperware (Nuby pots) is your friend. Yes, you have crossed over the that line. When you say he's doing 7:30 - 6:30 - does he wake up and cry/grizzle at all? Even for only a few minutes I mean? Because I think I'm going mad - he "sleeps" all night, but there is wake-age, which in turn wakes me.

moo Don't suppose your sleep guru's coming on the weds is she?

alps He does sort of surface, stretch and sigh every couple of hours. But come the morning, Once awake he's awake. He moans literally, I turn On my bedside lamp and radio which seems to stop the moaning. He then sucks his thumb. I get up eventually say morning to him, go to the loo and come back to do nappy change then it's feed time.

Couldn't watch the BBC doc. [wuss]

cluck hurrah for night out and bottle taking baby!

cunty i tried dropping late feed again this week and paid the price at all hours of the morning. I was woken at 1, 4 and 5 this morning. She sometimes sleeps 7pm to 7am, with food at 10pm, but most nights involve some waking. Not usually as bad as last night.

Alps thankfully you are not Chinese. All I am saying is mini oke wields all kinds of utensils well for a 2 year all inc 'poon, fork and knife (obv. not a sharp one) and feeds himself with very little help form me unless I am in a rush and I shovel it in . He was not BLWed. He won't eat peas (which I now hide in various ways) or little tress (broccoli to you and I) but will have a stab at most other things. BLW is in vogue and it doesn't matter if your child doesn't eat proper food until their 1 because BLW babies typically are breastfed until then. In 3 yrs time we will be told to shovel food in at 2 months to make sure they get a range of nutrients early on as breast milk isn't enough . 37 years ago we gave carnation milk ffs, a couple of hundred years ago we foraged for what we could get and ate what we could get our mits on.

Can I bring my toddler to the sleep seminar?

I don't want Bear to develop a weight problem so I don't feed him. I just pop vitamin tablets up his bum.

During this sleep seminar can us grown-ups have some sleep too please?

It might have been a bottle win (we use Breastflow bottles btw - marvellous things!!) but was definite sleep fail.....didn't settle until 4am then up at 7 with LC. Was worth it though

Mini trees - v sweet oki!

MB this morning rolled onto his ample tum this morning. Twice. When he realised he was stuck he screamed. Like hell. Whilst soaking our bed sheets with dribble. Nice.

So my mother has been and gone. Never thought I'd say it but we got on well and she was a great help. Plus got to dump baby go riding without any time restrictions.

We've renamed MB the 30min Kid. Cos that's as long as he's interested til you got to change the entertainment!!

OFFS, silv your hv is talking total shite. It's no wonder so many people give up bf for no good reason when they are spread shit like this by hcps.

All babies will have spurts and dips in growth, it's completely normal and nothing at all to do with the quality of your BM. If BM dipped in quality at 12 weeks, you wouldn't get so many thriving ebf babies would you??? It's not recommended to weigh less than once a month for this reason, more often than that just causes worry, in fact in our area if no issues, they only reccomend weighing at jab times.

muse we are blw, I wanted to anyway, but Artie is a spoon refuser so no choice. He's getting the hang of it slowly, crumpets were a hit yesterday, and rice cakes also go down well as to carrot batons. You just have to not expect them to actually swallow anything

our weaning was mixed. Sometimes I sit down and spoon feed, sometimes I chuck food in front of her and let her get on with it. I make sure she has something at breakfast time, she has her main meal for lunch, with yoghurt as dessert, and frequently has food to do what she wants with at 4.30-5pm.

She's happy to munch on rice cakes, toast, organix crispy snacks etc, but not so keen on veg/fruit sticks, unless they've been roasted and got a tougher skin (like chips/roast parsnips). Sweet potato chips go down a treat. Oven baked of course.
And cheese. My God does this girl love cheese!

We only used a freebie pack of baby rice - and even then just to thicken up other stuff.

She got used to the spoon by me not forcing it - once she realised that food wasn't just a game and actually eased her hunger, she became much mor eopen to mush on a spoon! Still prefers lumps though - pasta/noodles etc.

On the weighing front - she's not been done by HV since just before first jabs. I sometimes hold her on home scales and deduct my weight, but that's it. She's not put on much recently, but has got taller and seems fine, so I am not worrying.

Sticks of apple shoved in the microwave for 20 secs to soften them have just gone down a proper treat, along with some courgette and rice cakes with mashed sweet potato on.

However you go about weaning though, milk whether it's formula or bf should be main nutrition till they're one.