March 2011 - we made it!

[Muser]

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

Cherub, I'm so sorry for your lack of sleep!!! Hopefully Ollie will feel better tonight and you'll be better rested before the christening! :)

So I knew the 8 hours in a row at night wouldn't last forever, and here we go. Franz has been waking twice now in the evenings (2/3 am, then 4/5) this week. :( His appetite isn't as big during the days (I assume from the teething), so he is waking to feed, AND he seems to be horrified when he discovers that his dummy is not in his mouth! We just got some Nelson's Teetha, and hope that will help.

We dusted off the chair for his buggie and took him for a long walk today for the first time! Deep breath from me to hold back the tears!

He's also getting very active these days, shimmying his way up to the top of his cot and moving his activity structure all over the place. He once turned from front to back, but he does not look like he wants to go from back to front for some time!

Cheese, the cough/shooting poo image is priceless! Sounds like an Olympic sport!

Well Arthur has kind of progressed with his rolling.... He was sat upright on the sofa and when I looked again he had moved to the side and was lying flat on his front. Not sure is counts though as he wasn't best please . Maybe more of an extended topple over

Went to Ikea today and got him a highchair. No where near weaning yet but he likes to sit upright and look around and I feel bad for him in a bumbo/bouncy chair on the floor.

Also went for a walk along the beach and he was facing outward in his carrier - he was so happy! Made me realise that he was going to love being in his buggy (forward facing) it was just me who was going to be sad about it :(

:( to everyone going through broken nights sleeping. If it makes you feel any better, Arthurs sleep has always been broken!

ooh ooh ooh, almost forgot! Arthur seems to have cracked fast and efficient feeding now (was taking 45-60mins)! I had noticed him slightly decreasing, but mostly rejecting the second boob. Poor blighter keeps getting really pissed off when I try to give him more boob because its taking me longer to adjust

muser Congrats on the rolling. I feel Hannah's chunky frame might mean I'm waiting a while for a roll.

petty Good idea about the high chair. How does he look in it? Secure or is he still a bit wobbly yet? I might get one early so Hannah has somewhere new to sit. Bet she will love being high up! Good news about fast feedings.

Hannah now only takes about 3 minutes per feed during the day but I actually wish she was on longer as i'm convinced she takes most of her milk in the night. No idea how long night feeds are as she falls asleep on the boob almost immediatly. I unlatch her after 10-30 mins depending on how tired I am.

This means we are still on 4 or 5 night wakings in a 12 hour period here. This is still pretty normal isn't it? My HV didn't seem fussed?

The worst thing about the last 2 nights was the 3am poos! She wakes up far too much when she does one during the night. Cute smiles but I can't really enjoy them through my exhausted half open eyes. And I have to get out of bed. We had a poo at half 6 this evening - I hope thats it til morning now.

At least we seem to have cracked the early bedtime. Its lovely to have evenings back even if I am too tired to enjoy them fully. Tonight I will stay up til 10 as I have ordered a curry and want to watch the apprentice on iplayer.

cherub Wow you have your hands full tomorrow. I hope you get a good night tonight (you deserve one!) and enjoy the christening.

halo we bought this Graco highchair when my girl was 3 months old and she has always loved sitting in it. It's got an insert for smaller babies and you can recline it so they're not sitting bolt upright. It changed my mealtimes, previously I could never get through dinner or lunch without having her on my knee. In this she was happy to sit at the table and grin at us while we ate.

Bedtimes are finally earlier here for us as well, 8pm although sometimes she wakes again at 9ish. I sympathise with you on the night wakings, we're on a 3 hourly cycle at the moment and it's very tough. Have you tried doing some daytime feeds in a quiet room with the curtains closed when you're at home? That way she might be less distracted.

phew, i am knackered!!! had a lovely day at crealy weather was perfect and oscar thouroughly enjoyed being given a bit of freedom! he has 2 older cousins who look after him very well. he was allowed to go on a couple of the rides by himself, also he went off to the playbarns with his cousins whilst i sat on the grass with cassie. I still had to keep going into check on him!! Thats 20 years of nannying for you!! And yes deathslides are still there which Oscar positivley threw himself down
sorry to hear the frequent feedings are they coming up to the dreaded 3 month growth spurt or the 4 month sleep regression?? we have (fingers crossed) come out the other side on the sleep regression. cassie was sleeping 8-9hrs in a stretch, then went 11pm, 2am, 5am and up at 7am last night she woke at 1.30am, then thought about it at 4am for about 20mins where i ignored her and she just gurgled back to sleep!! then she didn't wake until 7.30am
well, got to put O to bed as casualty is on and as much as he thinks he's a big boy..he isn't!!!

Halo I got the IKEA inflatable insert too which I have managed to break already when I was trying to deflate it a bit . If I can't fix it i might just wedge some of my smaller cushions around him. It does make me wonder though how he will fit in it when it actually comes to weaning as he is quite a chunky monkey

Bedtimes getting earlier here too - about 8/9ish. Also, Arthur has stopped feeding to sleep at bedtime (by his own choice) but so far (touch wood) is self-settling like a dream.

petty congrats on the rolling. Great idea about the highchair..I ordered one today too.
muser congrats on rolling too and sorry to hear you are still up 3 hourly.

cherub I am sorry you are up so much, hope the christening goes well.

Enjoy your curry halo I have been very virtous and stuck to the diet all weekend..yawn yawn.

So today was a big day for us. Izzy has continued to grab food off my plate so I thought sod it, lets give her some baby porridge. She wolfed it down...10 teaspoons and smiled and laughed between every spoonful. It was awesome. I fed her with just her nappy on in her bumbo and let her play with it etc...So porridge everywhere. Will post a photo later. Went online and ordered highchair. It was on offer so pleased with it. I was going to get the ikea highchair that is raved about on here but wimped out!

oh that link worked, never done that before!

cheese Curry was good although completly stuffed now! Feeling slightly guilty though. Well done for being good. Glad Izzy enjoyed her porridge. Looking forward to the pics.

muser I will check out your highchair. I didn't know about these inserts - sounds really good. I've not tried the darkened room but think I will as of Monday as much as I can (without sacrificing my social life). I might give it a week and see if it helps. I'm thinking of getting her to nap in her cot for one nap a day so might try popping her in her cot if she falls asleep. I actually feel that I don't know her hunger signs that well (maybe because she never gets that hungry because I offer boob at every grump?) so its easier to offer it in the living room than walk to the bedroom only to walk back.

petty Lol - surely the highchair's take into account chunky babies? Hannah's legs are so big that they get caught in her bumbo sometimes. Bless her. Well done on self settling. I feed to sleep/use a dummy. Am just so relieved when she's asleep that I daren't risk anything which might keep her awake!

Sam Sounds like a lovely day. I hope we don't have a growth spurt/regression. We've been 2/3 hourly for a while - better not go to 1/2 hourly! Hope you are coming out the other side.

Hi! My little one is called Alexander, usually know as Alex. Thanks for all the tips re Gymboree type activities, I think I'll give something like that a go.

Cherub59 I really feel for you. It is so hard when they seem to go backwards with their sleep.

I had my first day and night off on Sat (wahay!) as was at a friends wedding and no babies were invited. Was lovely to be off duty for a while and to get some sleep at night.

Was tricky deciding what to do about feeding Alex though as I'm still bf but as he takes a bottle we got my parents to mind him. Was strange this morning though as when he woke up for his nightfeed he was still hungry after my milk had run out and I had to top up with formula. Has been ages since I needed to do that and am hoping my milk hasn't dried up after 1 day off??

Are most people on here based in London and Bristol or is it a mixture of all over? I'm Wimbledon btw.

Hi Pamela its a mixture all over, but if you want to join the group The March 2011 mumsnetters you can get all the deets for the London meet. I'm shepherds bush/chiswick so not too far away from you! Bet you enjoyed having a whole night off, I am very very jealous.

Who is it on here doing the St Thomas' study? Was wondering how they were getting on with introducing food? Just about to make up some more baby porridge after the raptuous reception it got last night!

Twas me cheese. Just got back from camping this afternoon, and while we were away I didnt give Beth any solids at all as couldnt be bothered with the faff of it. So far she has hardly taken any, maybe one or two tiny mouthfulls a day. I have been trying her with baby rice, apple puree and sweet potato puree.
This afternoon I thought I'd better offer her some food again and she ate loads of apple puree! Nearly the whole portion (1 ice cube worth). It was the first time she opened her mouth properly to the spoon. I start on introducing allergenic food this week. It will be 2 small pots of fromage frais over the course of the week. And then the following week I will add in fish. These foods go alongside the foods I've already introduced so she will still be having small amounts of fruit and veg.
So far I'm only doing one tiny 'meal' per day and rest of time is still BF.
I am not bothering with a highchair, my kitchen is not big enough and I use the bumbo.

ckny I name changed back again as my new name was slightly misleading.... as in I only shredded about erm.... Twice.

mixed really sad that you cant make Tuesday, was really looking forward to meeting little E. Hopefully we will do another meet up in the future that you can come to.
I too am going to do WW after the summer, I just want to wait til Beth is 6 months and I wont be BF as much so I can really crack on and lose a good couple of stones. Just means no bikinis through the holidays lol!!! (as if. I really dont think I will ever wear a bikini again)

pamela am of your day and night off! I have just resigned myself to the fact that there will be no nights off for me in the foreseeable future. I still cant get Beth to take a bottle of EBM.

Right, cant face the thought of cooking this evening, as washing machine is going, there is camping gear all over my kitchen, kids to bath and so on, so have just ordered pizza delivery. Yes, this is why WW will have to wait.

Evening. Seems like it is always Sunday evening in my house!

I really wanted to do that food study too with Lara but DH said he didn't really want us to. I don't think Lara would have co-operated anyway, she is difficult enough to BF! We've had a really nice weekend just the 4 of us, which hardly ever happens and only happened this weekend because our car has broken down! Another few hundred quid down the drain I suppose. Oh well, has led to some good family time. Both kids in bed now and I'm gonna settle down on the sofa with lots of food and a glass of wine.

Lara still isn't rolling but she has got onto her side a couple of times, and she is one of the youngest on here too. She is still in her moses basket to sleep! I will try the cot this week.

So who is coming on Tuesday?? I"m excited about it! :)

sitting we're still having no luck with bottles either. I laughed about the extent of your shredding!! Am impressed you even attempted - I can't even be bothered to do my pelvic floor exercises. Jealous of your pizza...

Pamela Hello! Come to the meet up!! We're not far from Wimbledon- Dulwich.

sam Is Crealy the place with Peppa Pig world? On the south coast? DS would go crazy for that.

haloflo Isn't it mad to be in a world where 10pm is a stop-up. 9.30 is usually bedtime for me. Unless Luther is on, and then it's 10pm and I'm awake for ages because it scares me!!

sleep We're generally on one wake-up a night now between 7pm and 7am but I don't know if I should leave her for longer - I feed her when I know she's awake, but she doesn't cry when she first wakes up and never feeds much before going back to sleep. Thing is, I can't really be bothered to lie there waiting for her to either start crying for take ages to go back to sleep, so I scoop her up and feed her anyway. Still we're pretty lucky so far... Imagine the day when they sleep though, gosh 8 hours solid sleep again!!

Right I'm STARVING so off I go for food :)

We're still on 2 wakes per night. Bath and feed and bed at 7ish. Wakes up for another feed at 10ish, 1ish and 4ish then up at 5.30/6.

Arghh!! HV suggested I supplement with formula but don't want to so will plough on.

My baby laughed today! 13.5 weeks and he laughed. Made me very happy. We were very hot sat outside a cafe (in the shade) so stripped him down to his nappy and he must have been very happy because he chuckled with us. Really cheered me up.

Hope you've all had nice weekends.

We've done away with the dummy as it was making him wake more in the night and he's doing great in the nights without it but it's made me realise how bloody hard it is to get babies to nap in the daytime (without a dummy). again Arghh! He WILL not go in his cot so it's pushchair or mum in the daytime at the moment.

Hi everyone, sorry can't reply individually as on phone. The last 2 nights Ethan has been waking twice instead of his usual once a night hope he gets bCk into his old routine soon. We went to Oxford today OH's sis lives there and his mum was there too, we had lunch in restaurant was a bit of a disaster e was crying all through the meal and was awkward and painful on my arms and back trying to bf him in the chair. We then went to a carnival and he was crying a lot there too and same situation re feeding. He slept all the journey back to London and has been cluster feeding ever since we got home although that's no different to any other night!
I thunk he may be teething as he has one red cheek, wants to chew everything and lots of drool.

Does anyone elses LO do feeding motions in their sleep it's so funny E must be dreaming of breastfeeding.

muser good idea re the Highchair we can never get any peace while eating

hi, well today has been a bit of a diaster . we took the children to the local country park today and basically refused any BF.She fed at 8ish this morning then offered to her about 12ish but refused and again offered it every 30 mins in the end i was so distressed, as she hadn't had any fluid for 6 hrs she had a bottle of formulas from a very kind lady!! She drained it at that time i was in tears as i took it personally that she didn't want me since then, she fed for 25 mins when we got home and after her bath i offered it and after a bit of jiggling about and singing and rocking and my milk came down she fed for 20 mins. currently waiting to see if shes going to feed again tonight and make a fuss or feed beautifully!! fingers crossed its the latter!!

Well I did it! 20 adults and 17 children for lunch!!!! Hard work but loved it! Had various small people asleep in various rooms on and off all day which was quite funny and one little girl was sick all over the floor but had a really lovely day. Ollie was a star but wailed at the font as decided hews hungry just before his big moment!

Thought everything was going pear shaped yesterday though as had terrible night on Friday night with only 3 1/2 hours sleep then after a not very happy ollie yesterday he came out in a rash.

Still poorly today with a cough, quite sicky and rash all over so getting him to dr tomorrow though he is actually very happy and not miserable!

Pamela - we are holland park so not far from you. With ollie poorly now don't think I can make the meet up.

Sam sorry u had a rough day. Did u eat anything different to normal that she might not have liked the taste of?

sam sounds like you have had a terrible day. I have no idea, but could it be a nursing strike? Hope things settle, poor you.

cherub we live very close then. Hope Ollie gets well soon, there must be something going round as Izzy still not 100% 2 weeks on...Hope he gets better soon. Glad you had a lovely day today!

Sam Hope Cassie is feeding better today :(

Me23 During a nap yesterday Arthur was smiling, cooing and making feeding mouth - I can only assume he was having a very lovely dream about milk

It was 24 degrees in our bedroom last night but Arthur woke at 6am shivering because I had the fan on full blast! Oops!

He's sat in his bouncy chair now watching baby tv but he is loving it!

Hi all,
Hope you all had lovely weekends.

Cherub glad the christening went well -well done you , sorry to hear that Ollie is now poorly though!
Sam Sorry to hear that you had a tough day with Cassie, hope things have settled down now and that she is feeding better again.

Hope you all have a great time at the London Meet-up tomorrow, we had a lovely time at the Bristol one.

Beth gave her first proper little giggle today - turns out she is quite ticklish!! x

just very quick post before football training!! hurrah!! cassie been feeding loads during the night and all of today not going to offer her a bottle tonight, think i will leave it for a week at least!! check back in later

Hi all. Well we went to the BBQ yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hannah was unsettled when home & slept badly last night but it was worth it. Might have been the heat waking her anyway. Fortunately we both had an afternoon snooze so I'm not feeling too exhausted.

pamela Welcome! Very jealous of your day and night off! I'll try to answer your question: I think that by 4 months your supply is well established so a day away from bf wouldn't affect supply too much. However if you feel you are "empty" then maybe it did go down slightly. Letting your DS feed as much as he wants, skin to skin etc should bring your supply back. Remember breast milk never runs out. My favourite phase is that it is "a river not a lake". If you want more help and actual advice post on the bf/ff boards. There of lots of helpful knowledgeable people there.

kpidgeon Did your HV advise you to top up due to night feeds?! Mine said its normal. Wish they would agree on things!

purple How lovely to get a giggle, I can't wait for our first one.

cherub Well done! Glad all went well.

sam Glad cassie fed ok today. That must have been worrying.

Day one of darkened room feeding went ok, hopefully she got lots of milk in. I will see it makes a difference tonight. She refused a feed when out though. We did baby yoga and she got fed up half way through. I cuddled her calm and offered her a feed but she screamed as soon as I offered the boob. I immediately took her home and she fell asleep in the pram. Home 20 minutes later and she took a good drink. Maybe she was tired and not hungry 20 minutes earlier but it's starting to worry me. She took a bit out yesterday but only snacked -no proper feed until we got home. We were out for 5 hours.

Oh and if anyone is interested in getting a jumperoo they are currently £62 on Amazon - pretty sure that's a good price for them.

Thankyou haloflo for the bf advice. Luckily things seem to have got back to normal now which is a relief as I didn't fancy having to deal with bottles in the middle of the night.

I had a rubbish day yesterday following a rubbish night (!) Alex woke every 2 hours and continued to cry even after having been fed. This is really unusual for him as these days he normally goes to bed around 7.30pm, gets woken at 11pm for a dream feed then sleeps til around 4am and after that until around 6.30am.

Yesterday I couldn't get him to take naps so he was really grumpy all afternoon then went berserk at bedtime when I tried putting him in his cot.

Luckily he slept better last night (I was dreading another night of virtually no sleep) but is still a little grumpy this morning. Maybe he is teething? Or a growth spurt?

Once i get access to the March 2011 group I'll check out the dates of the meet ups and hopefully come along.

Grrr left all our waterproofs in the back of the car which dh has taken to work so won't be going out today :( only day 3 without a car but i'm already cracking up. how am i going to cope another 7/8 weeks?