March 2011 - we made it!

[Muser]

The waiting is over, the babies are arriving. March 2011 mums, come on in your time is up.

Good luck for the jabs tomorrow. Before Anya's jabs people kept saying that it was more traumatic for the parent than for the baby and I think they were right. Within an hour Anya had forgotten all about them but I felt guilty all day :(

Morning all!
Just wanted to day good luck with jabs to those with them coming up. We've got our 2nd lot nxt week but DH is off this time! So I'm going to cheerily wave him out the house to baby clinic.

Taking izzy swimming today! She's now 12 weeks old, time is flying! She's very settled into her routine and 4 nights out of 7 sleeps through the night. She goes down 7-1030 then we wake her for a feed then that's it till 6-7 am. It's bliss - I know how lucky I am.

However, we're all off to a wedding on Saturday. They explicitly said on the invite only babes in arms and if they start playing up - out the church! We'd have taken her out if she cried anyway, but For them to write down instructions has made us edgy! So I'm a bit apprehensive.

Love to all
ps - agree with catherine it's worse for the parents!

Ooh cheese that's a bit harsh isnt it!! Presumably they dont have any children of their own yet...

Cheese how did the swimming go? Was thinking about taking Beth 2moro if I can find any swim nappies small enough!!!

Hippo have you started your shred yet???

Took Beth to baby clinic on Tuesday to be weighed as requested! She now weighs 7lb 10.5 so had gained 6oz in a week.. bless her!! She is still not back on the 0.4 curve though and is creating her own little curve at the bottom! Luckily my health visitor was there herself this week and she was lovely and said that Beth was doing brilliantly, she reassured me that Beth may not follow "Normal" growth patterns due to the TS and the curve she was creating herself was great (all in ear shot of the nursery nurse that made me feel bit miffed last week )

I know myself that she is doing well, but after last weeks weigh-in I was doubting myself slightly so seeing my lovely hv has put me back on the happy road!!!

can someone please tell Arthur that 5am IS STILL THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and he must go back to sleep?????

We are still feeding 2-3hrs here (ebf) day and night (although he went 5 hrs 2 nights ago!) and feeds still take up to an hour. Also struggling with day time naps - A requires marathon hikes in his pram to properly settle him (so much so that i have bought a quinny with big wheels to take him on more country walks - i think i might start a pram collection). the little bugger darling will fall asleep by the end of the lane but will howl the minute the pram stops moving. he'll also sleep on me but again wakes up the minute i put him down. grrr.

jabs next week when he is 9 weeks and i'm not looking forward to it as he is pretty shouty at the best of times - he's going to be bloody furious about jabs!

he's shouting now....

petty Poor you, 5am is way too early for me too! We had that for a while but it seems better now we have a blackout blind. The marathon hikes sound like hard work - guess you won't need the shred though! How is bf going for you now? I still find it painful for the first few sucks & when I get a let down but it is a bit better. Not pain free though.

purple Thats brillant news. 6oz in a week must be a huge percentage of her weight!

cheese Good luck for Saturday, hopefully she will be well behaved. How was swimming? I need to find a nice pool in my area to take Hannah when she is a bit older. Very jealous of your night time sleep!

I guess the only crumb of comfort for those of us still feeding 3 plus times per night is that night feeds are supposed to keep our periods away for longer (I think this is the case anyway & not just an old wives tale)

So jabs done, she screamed after the second. Cried all the way home (fortunatly just a 2 minute walk) and after a good comfort feed is fast asleep on DP. I wish they knew if was for their own good.

halo i think we turned the corner with bf last week. Still the occassional pain in the right side but I think we have cracked it.

Re: periods. I have had daily spotting for 4 weeks now. I feel cheated!

petty Oh no, you have been cheated! Glad bf is going better.

Hannah has been asleep for 3 hours this afternoon now. This is normal after jabs yes?

Quick message as izzy screaming.
Swimming was amazing, just awesome! Will describe and post photos on fb laters xx

We're going swimming soon, any tips?

We had our jabs this week too, haloflo; a very loud and heart-rending cry, which set me off, but we survived.

Right, swimming! It was fab, she was a bit surprised when we first went in. But once she got used to it, she was pretty happy. I put her in huggies swim nappies, then a jojos swimnappy with a warmsuit over the top. The baby pool is heated to 30degrees! She had a good float with me. Then I put her in a rubber ring with a seat. She sat there floating away looking at everything like being on a lilo on holiday. After 15min she'd had enough so we got out. She cried a bit but then once she was dressed went to sleep. Ha! Will take her once or twice a week before waterbabies starts in July!

petty I sympathise with the hour-long feeds. I had that a few weeks ago and it almost made me give up. We're down to 10-15 mins though as he's learnt to take more in.

Purple her own little curve sounds really good- well done you on the fab weight gain this week and glad you had someone more tactful and sensible to deal with at the clinic!

We had our jabs yesterday too and they were fine. E let out a yelp and cried but I'd be more concerned if he hadn't! No problems with temperature or grizzles after so I do think they forget quickly.

After reading the length of time people go between feeds I tried just comforting E during the night at 1am and 2am (after he'd fed and gone to sleep at 10pm) and lo and behold I don't think he actually needed a feed until 3am- I think I was just picking him up at a whimper rather than waiting for him to be properly hungry so the last two nights we went 10pm- 3am which is brilliant for us. So thanks ladies! If I just have 1 night feed and then he wants to wake at 6am I'll be a very happy lady.

Though- oh! Just read about periods- Noooo! I don't want them to come back! Hmm. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Also had heaps and heaps more smiles yesterday- I can actually tease them out of him now rather than them being in response to a smile so feel like we've reached a stage of awareness here. 8 weeks today!

KPidgeon, the smiles and awareness are priceless, yeah for E! :)

Halo, the periods are a nightmare, I started mine over 10 days ago, it was ridiculously heavy on the 3rd - 5th days (changing massive pads per 1/2 hour at some point), and am now still spotting. Fortunately no cramps, which is nice I suppose. I wish I had BFed for longer, for this and other reasons (the guilt will go on regarding this topic, though Franz seems very healthy and happy)! :)

Purple, well done to Beth, AND to the health visitor for her remarks in ear shot of last week's dunce!

To compensate for not BFing anymore, I'm starting to research weaning/food feeding when he's ready in the coming months. Anyone else found any good sources? Want to get back to uber-heathy and nothing processed. Read some good advice from the "Food of Love" about how to introduce food, but would like to learn more...

At 11 weeks, Franz has been sleeping at least 8 hours straight each evening, in addition to his many naps during the day! If anything, it worries me!!! So sad to see how hungry he is in the morning (I don't mind if he wakes up at 5am, as long as I've had my 6 hours), smacking his lips and holding his arms out. But we play a lot during the day when he's awake and not eating, so I guess I wear him out?!

For a moment today I actually considered having a 2nd child, as he is so much fun now and it was all worth the 2 months of exhaustion beyond belief (woke every 1 - 3 hours)! What a great time this is now and I feel we must savour every sweet moment of it!

k petty if any consolation we sometimes have hour long bottle feeds - grazing - during the day, if DS at nursery, I kick back and watch crap tv - can be v boring though.

purple yeah for creating a mini curve of her own and double yeah for nice HV.

halo ckny periods - dreading it. Can't believe as I am only managing to express enough for one feed a day that it hasn't happened yet. They were awful and heavy after DS so imagine more of the same. But don't want hormonal contraception (pill or IUD) as the hormones make me evil.

ckny don't feel guilty you probably managed longer than 99% of the population here do. Weaning - Annabel Karmel book was good I seem to remember.

I love the smiles - they are frequent here - makes it all worthwhile especially today as suffering with head cold - extremely runny eyes nose etc - rough. Hot curry to blow it out I think.

cheese swimming sounds ace. E loves the bath so we will take her soon. Going on hols in 2 weeks (yep we are mad) so if not before we will do it then Going to Florida on big family holiday.

hippo how is the shred?

x

Whew. Friday already? I feel like things are definitely getting much easier with the LO (ten weeks old on Sunday) but I somehow have less time now than when things were crazy in the first few weeks. How did that happen?

ckny1 For really healthy, unprocessed recipes for weaning and afterwards, take a look at the Planet Organic Best Recipes for Babies and Toddlers book by Planet Organic founder Renee Elliott. Really nice recipes.

Periods ... how long generally until they return if you're EBF?

Anyone already thinking about the next baby? I turn forty next summer and would really like to have my second (and last) one before then.

Sorry, I feel like i"m always doing a drive-by with no time to catch up on all the posts. Hope that will change soon.

Hello everybody!

Hard to believe that some of us are at 12 weeks since their bundles arrived.
We have taken M swimming and can recommend those baby wetsuits.

As for M he is such a big boy! He is still following the same curve he was born on and now is 12lb 4oz (5.5kgs!)

We are still EBF although my left boob still is getting pesky milk blisters from time to time. With respect to periods mine did not come back until DS1 was 14 months. However I know of others who EBF and their periods come back in a couple of months so I reckon it's more down to the individual.

DS1 is still militant anti potty but have cut down on the cloth nappy laundry by cunningly padding M's nappies.

M is to be christened on Sunday so things are a tad crazy since we are doing the catering (it is also BYO/potluck though). I have also started the Shread and have just done day4 week1. Now I have written that down no wonder I feel tired right now!

I have stated a Shred thread over in Sport and Exercise if anyone here wants to join it.

Jupiter SNAP! I also have a stinky head cold and have been sniffing and sneezing all day, so had a good hot curry tonight, just to try and clear my nose a bit. Worked!

Also, Florida??! You are mad or brave, one or the other lol. Enjoy, I hope you have a fabulous time.

Geek I did day 1 of the shred, and twinged something in my back, so have admitted defeat for a few days and will start again hopefully this weekend - (also hopefully get rid of this cold first because that doesn't help matters!) I definitely want to give it my best shot, but what with colds, sore back, and Beth woke up on the hour, every hour, last night so add in total exhaustion... you get the idea! I will come and look for your thread.

Actually last night was the worst night I've had since she was born, she woke every hour and had a feed back to sleep. Turns out it was my fault really as I discovered at 6am that her nappy was sodden and she must've been uncomfortable, as her vest and sleepsuit were also damp... I just didnt think in my bleary-eyed sleepiness.

Edeluna I cant believe you are thinking about number 2 already!! FWIW try to plan it so you dont have two children in nappies... seriously hard work! (and expensive!)

Edeluna - I have had another child planned before this one was even born. 2 children sounds ideal since I love my siblings (I'm 1 of 4) and think it would do Anya good to have a sibling or two. As morbid as it sounds you have to remember that we won't be around forever and everyone needs family. My plan though is to time the second one so that Anya starts school about the same time as DC2 is born.

Speaking of family, my parents have travelled across the country for a surprise visit. I've lived in the south now for 3 years and this is the first time (well second if you count the day Anya was born) they have come to visit me. It's lovely to have them here but I suspect they aren't really here to see me. Not that i mind really.

Jupiter - Good luck on your journey. Think of the break you'll get when you're there with all your family to fuss.

Anya is in bed now - settled for the night. I'm finally getting a bit of time to myself again. How time passes so fast - since my parent's have been visiting I've had a moment to collate Anya's photo album and in my OCD ways the pictures are in date order and the change already is amazing!

Annoyed :@

Today on the train i got off to wait for the lift and a old woman in her 60s presumably stood by me with her partner and were waiting too

Anyway after squashing myself and the pram and these two people in the lift and feeling totally claustrophobic she then proceeded to bend into the pram and stroke lucys cheek!!! Nevermind just looking and asking age etc but to physically touch her like that! A stranger!

She stank of smoke. Yuck
It's well and truly rattled me. What gives people the right to think they can do that!!

Anyway, lucys fantastic sleeping very good apart from day naps can't seem to get them except in pram.

Hope everyone is well time has flown since we were all marking our place on here

Got zumba tomorrow my thighs can't take it haha
Have lovely weekend everyone!
Xx
W

I was just about to turn off the computer and watch some CSI: NY before sleepy time when I saw your message Katie. You are right to be annoyed and as much as I get insulted for saying this: sometimes it is ok to be rude! My OH is a smoker and he knows that he isn't allowed near Anya for over half an hour after smoking so why would I let a stranger. Personally I don't even think it's rude to say to a stranger "excuse me, don't touch my child" or the more passive aggressive: "excuse me, I would appreciate it if you didn't touch my child". but then I am often told that I am rude when I don't intend to be. I guess I have another definition of the word than others do. I'm angry at that woman for you.

1Catherine I've been taking a photo on the same day every week since LO was born. Every time she's a week older it's a new photo. Planning on doing this for her first year. It is amazing seeing the changes week to week.

On second babies, I definitely want another. Hoping for a 2 year age gap or thereabouts. That gives us time to go for number 3 should we feel that way inclined.

I've been doing the same muser. they are growing so quickly. We're planning on another one in 2-3yrs time then another one after that.

Off to the wedding today. Let's hope all goes well!

Katie I am the same sometimes feel I need a sign attached to ollie saying "please do not touch or stroke me - I am ASLEEP" as when we are out and about ollie falls asleep in his sling looking v cute and loads ofcrandom strangers want to stroke his cheeks or hands and WAKE him up!
Also got told he looks like a dog which was hastily qualified as because of his lovely big fat cheeks ....WTF?

katie Thats really rude!

muse Thats a brillant idea.

Second babies? I always wanted more than 1 with a 2/3 year age gap because my sister is my best friend & that's the difference between us. However it might take me a while to feel ready for another. Childbirth was awful and its exhausting having one baby, I cannot imagine how those of you with 2 or more cope!

I've got 17 months between ds1 and ds2 then 23 months to ds3. hard work but eldest two now really close and adore each other. I think subsequent DCs are a bit easier as they have the older ones to amuse them!
If u want more just go for it as you never know it might take longer than you expected!