March 2011 - we made it!

[Muser]

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

pamela Sorry to hear about the broken night. Could be the 4 month sleep regression? Or just a grumpy day? Hope he cheers up later.

petty Whats happened to your car? Does your DH normally not need it or you got one off the road? Hopefully it will brighten up later for you.

Night 1 of more feeds during the day went ok. Woke at 10, 1, 3.30, 5.30 and 6.30 for the day. Nothing out of the ordinary but better than Sunday night.

We are trying a new baby group today. Bit nervous but felt I was stuck in a bit of rut doing the same thing every week.

Sleep regression?!? No thanks!

Welcome Pamela.

Well on SIL comp so any spelling mistakes are all me since now I cant fool you all into believing I´m good at spelling by spellchecking first as the spellcheck is in Spanish.

Haloflo, it is really good to hear you are getting out and about more these days, you sounded like you were suffering with a touch of cabin fever the other week. How did it go? must admit it always takes me a while to settle into those groups. For the first week or 2 I always feel out of place and a bit like I´m gatecrashing the party.

We seem to have climatised a bit to the Spanish weather and are now 2 hours outside Barcelona staying with OHs sister and BIL. We´re sleeping at night finally and so far nothing has bitten Anya. I´m totally paranoid about the sun as I had real issues with it as a child and used to come out in severe red blotches within 20minutes of being in the sun so Anya is kept covered when we go out using the parasol and muslins clothes and pegs. Anya is feeding more though, every 2 hours and sometimes for up to an hour. My poor boobs! She still has about 5 hours straight sleep at night though so I shouldn´t complain :) OH wants to take her swimming tomorrow to the outside pool but I don´t like the idea at all. Am I being overly cautious?

Anyway... I should go, home on Saturday and tbh I can´t wait. I miss my bed and my old routine! People without children don´t seem to realize that I can´t just "go out in 10 minutes", it requires planning and preperation!

Oh, one last thing... nobody has mentioned returning to work... Unfotunately I´m on countdown, back to work (for 3 days before the summer hols) in 20 days.. time has passed so quickly. Anyone else going back to work soon? If I remember rightly I was also one of the last to finish for ML, am I also the first to be going back?

now I really should go...

Catherine sympathies in back to work! I will prob go back at the end if October. I remember after both my previous mat leaves it was the build up to going back that was much worse than actually going back! Am still dreading it this time! Am planning on using my accrued holiday to work 3 day weeks til the end of the year.
I have gone back each time when the boys were 7 or 8 months old so can end for 6 months then drop one bf a week (and switch to ff) which means your milk supply gradually dwindles but have maintained early morning and evening feeds til much older...

Serious sleep deprivation here so empathetic vibes to all you others equally shattered. Have prob had 3-4 hours average the last 4 nights. Ollie is very poorly with a chest virus and covered in red rash spots so looks awful. Very miserable and clingy, being sick, raspy breath.. Feel so sorry for him that I am managing to be patient with the eternally sucky baby!! Last night settled at 7.30 then I was in to settle him 4 times by 10.30 when I went to bed with him. Up at 11.15 and just wanted to suck constantly so midnight I asked dh to take him for a bit. Finally settled 1.30 then up at 3 for an hour then slept till 6.30.... Not the best! Particularly after the previous week had been sleeping 9 hours straight!

Needless to say I can't make the meet up..... V jealous but hopefully will make another one...

cheese we are v close...do u ever come to holland park? Starting teddy tennis there next week for ds1 - so grown up!!!

Halo - DH on a work placement so now needs the car (used to be a 10min walk to work, now a 40min drive). "Only" for 7/8 weeks, but I really hope they don't extend it. If he ends up there permanently I have told him he can only accept if they offer enough for him to get his own car. With any luck, he will be back in his old office by the end of summer and I can have my life back there are too many lunch meet ups to go to (and would involve 2 buses each way . Luckily my new baby buddies are sympathetic to my plight and are moving our friday meet up to our end of the city for a few weeks.

Catherine sorry to hear about back to work. hwat childcare have you got oragnised. I need to make a decision about when to go back. I would definately take Anya swimming. At least give it a go, if she hates it after a few minutes then you can easily take her out! Izzy has been swimming since 10 weeks and has loved it.

petty rubbish about the car, at least your pals are coming to you!

cherub we do sometimes. Ravenscourt park is our most frequent hangout. oh, and westfield! We should meet for a coffee.

Took Izzy for a long walk along the river today. We ended up in Richmond when a huge fire broke out and had to carry Izzy past a burning building. Lots of black acrid smoke...she didn't seem too bothered. She was facing out in the sling and enjoyed being nosy!

Right, off to prepare banana for tonights dinner for her. I have a bit of a banana phobia so this is a majorly big deal for me. Must be encouraging. Diarrhoea settled!

Definitely give the swimming a go Catherine, it's so much fun.

It was lovely to meet people and lovely babies today, we had a lovely time. Must do another meet up soon!

Muser and sittinghippo thanks for organising today. Was lovely.

Catherine - definitely go swimming it will be great fun. Why do you not want him to take her?

I actually am not that bothered about the sun too much with E. I took DS2 to Turkey at 6 months and kept him in the shade, under the umbrella and stuff but have only occasionally bothered with covering over the pushchair and stuff with any of them. But I love the sun and it makes me feel really happy and stuff so as long as they are protected and generally in the shade I dont mind too much.

hello, realised I hadn't posted here for ages so it had dropped off. Hope you are all well, and enjoyed the meet today!

Hi Medee I had wondered if you'd left us! Hope all is well with you, keep in touch!!

I too had a lovely day out, thanks everyone that came, so good to meet you all and see what beautiful babies you all made!

catherine plenty of sunscreen and in and out the shade and she will be absolutely fine. Nothing stopping you putting a big floppy hat on her in the pool too. The sunshine is actually vital for her health and vitamin D, just in small doses. Hope you are enjoying your stay in Spain, am so

cheese you have a banana phobia??! Is that real?? How did she take to it?

cherub I hope Ollie gets better quickly, poor soul. (And you, with no sleep)

Right, I'm off to catch up on some of last weeks TV with a cuppa and a massive bar of Galaxy. Night all.

back to post later (need to watch Luther first) have paused til now - joys of SKy+

BUT there is a March 2012 thread I think - how does time go so quickly???

Love the FB pics

Glad everyone enjoyed today. Was jealous but I'd promised dh a family day out as he has finished a run of night shifts!

sitting yep it's a real thing. Its better than it was - I used to gag at just the smell. Dh mashed it with some milk before he went to the gym so I just had to feed it to her. Dh used 1/3 banana and she ate the whole lot grinning from ear to ear ! I struggled more than she did!

Hippo, I´m so happy you said that as today I noticed she has caught the sun on her legs... she has an obvious tan line on her nappy line. I felt like I´d let her down. I´m probably a little hard on myself. I´ve tried to keep her in the shade and am using factor 50+, she just has her father´s spanish tanning ability

Pictures of London babies are lovely! such cutties :)

Jupiter, I remember it was the second Monday of July last year when I found out I was pregnant and I phoned my OH who was visiting his family to tell him the news. From that very night I was worrying about the effects of my painkillers on my LO... crazy to think I´ve been worrying about her for a year already...

Cheese, sounds like your walk was interesting, for LO at least. Childcare for work is kinda sorted. Am returning only for 3 days on the 25th till 27th when OH is going to take care of her. It will do him good to see what I do in a day. Then it is summer holidays till September so I´m off again. In Sept OH and I can share the childcare due to him working evenings and having his days off during the week. We only need to find up to 6 hours childcare per week (2 hours 3 days a week) which a friend from baby group offered to do. Not sure if she meant it or not so I´m not relying on it yet but I´m sure to sort something. I´m not worried, I´m sure I should be...

Hi Ladies,
Photos from London meet-up look fab - hope you all had lovely time.

I have just got back from an evening out with some of my colleagues, went for a curry and left DH in charge. Have come home to calm household and sleeping children so all is good (might need to plan more nights out!)

Had a good start to day as Beth and I went swimming, it was very quite and calm and we had a lovely time, then went to see a friend for coffee on the way home. Just after lunch I had a phone-call from DD's school to say she had bashed her nose and was having a terrible nose bleed so could I go and collect her. We ended up going to A&E for the afternoon to check all was ok - nose bleed lasted for about 20 mins! Hospital could do nothing as due to swelling they can't xray noses!!! So we left after 1 and half hours with just a dose of calpol!!!! She seems ok though, I think she was more shocked than anything. Teacher phoned just before 5 to check that she was ok - which I thought was very nice!!

Catherine - I am also returning to work on 25th July... for 2 days and then officially return in September. My Sister is looking after both DD's for me as her children are on holiday with her in-laws!!!! Then in September Beth will start with the lovely childminder that has looked after DD1 for me since she was 7 months old.

hi everyone
hope all is good

thanks for all the advice re swimming im going to take her next week when OH is off work and can come with me.

so exciting!
i had a look at that link about a jumperoo.
It looks really good.

I am after a new toy that will stimulate lucy as all she has is her bouncy chair and her play gym. Does anyone have any good recommendations? Preferably less than £50!

getting her cot delivered today i cant wait! shes nearly at the end of her moses basket days sob!!

also re gymboree it sounded so fun and exciting but after a long search on internet they dont do it here (north west) oh well :(

re work i dont go back till november! luckily i am able to take the whole 39 weeks off.

hope your DD's nose is better purple

Mine loves Lamaze toys, Katie.

Now, after a failed half hour attempt to get her to nap, why is she now crying for a nap five minutes after I gave up and brought her through to her activity mat?!

and of course, she is still screaming and won't go to sleep. Grr!

She sleeps!

Hello! Room for a small one? I am fairly new to MN and only just found this thread for March babies. Great reading about your experiences, so many of them mirror what I was going through at the same time.

DS was born on his due date 1 march, just after midnight (he gets his good time keeping from his Dad not from me!). So far things have been relatively smooth for us. Only issue we have right now is sleep regression... Waking at midnight and 5am every night for 10 days now. And we had been doing so well on the sleep front!

Will enjoy following what you are all up to.

Welcome Pamela and 33goingon64
Had pretty bad sleep last night E woke at 3 and fed and took 3 attempts to get him back intje cot OH finally succeeded on the 3rd attempt he usually sleeps right through when I'm awake with Ethan, then he woke again around 6 had a small feed and was up again at 7! Finally had a nap at 12:30 and is still asleep I can't believe it as he normally only has short naps in the day from 15-60mins and usually only in my arms, it feels great to actually be able to get up ad walk around the house of my own free will without a baby crying!

I have ordered a Sophie the giraffe teething toy today as E is constantly chomping on his fingers he grabbed my finger the other day and bit down hard on it, have also ordered a tummy time pillow as he hates being on his tummy he just eats the floor and doesn't try to lift himself up so am getting a bit worried that I need to make more effort doing tummy time as we hardly ever do it as he just cries after a little while.

Re gymboree there is one relatively near me but at £52 a month! I think we will give it a miss.

I have a jumperoo got it at mothercare a few weeks back they pricematched amazons price of £62 but E's still too small for it his feet don't touch the floor and the seat is too big he slumps to one side so will wait a few more weeks before I try again.

I plan on returning to work in October I need to see if I can go back part time until I return to my midwifery training in January. OH is giving up work to look after E as it isn't financially worth it for both of us to work and send E to childcare. I wish I didn't have to go back I will miss him so much.

Just been for Arthurs second round of jabs - not half as bad as the first ones!

Re: work, I booked off a year so technically don't have to go back until 1st April 2012 However as my stingy bastard employers only gave me stat pay after 10years hard service I have no obligation to return to them. So come Autum/Winter I am going to be hitting the job trail for something new, if I want/need to (well, will def need more money but depends on what dh is doing and childcare etc.... It might not be worth me working). I can't face working with whingy students and their horrible parents anymore.

hello everyone, I've been away for a while and its taken me ages to catch up on what everyone's been up to, and wow, how our little ones are changing quickly, makes me smile here to read about weaning, giggling and rolling over....none of which are happening here yet! And loved seeing all the new pics on fb too!
Went down to Wales for a couple of weeks to visit family which was lovely, they got to know Angus better which was great, and then went on a campervan holiday to the north coast of Scotland which was just fab :) but now back to reality and cooking / washing dishes etc!
Went swimming with Angus for the first time today and he loved it! I just put a disposable swim nappy and a 2 piece swimsuit from tescos and we were in for 20 mins was really good fun.
Daytime naps a bit of a battle here too, and when he gets overtired he's a nightmare in the evening screaming for about 2 hours or more, and nothing can calm him till he finally falls asleep. the ggod days are such a contrast, when he's had succesful daytime naps he goes down at 7pm like a dream!!
Those of you using reusable nappies how are you getting on? We've only just started today I was given a load of second hand tots bots and really want to make a go of it!

Welcome Pamela and 33goingon64!

Thanks highland bird. I found that Tom was worse the next day after the second lot of jabs... Hope it's nt the case for you. He has his third round on Friday... I rather selfishly arranged them for Friday so that I'm not on my own looking after him the next day!

highlandbird we have just started using cotton bottom prefold nappies for when we are at home. Not sure about reusables yet but they do make me really appreciate just how absorbent pampers are (I'm sure that''s not how its supposed to work!). I can't get my head around re-using the wraps because they smell of wee? I have more wraps than I have nappies though (by accidentally bidding on everything on ebay ). I also have a modern baby bamboo nappy which i thought would be better but I actually prefer the prefold (they hold just as little much and dry quicker)

Think I spoke to soon about these imms being easier than last time - Arthur is really upset this afternoon and had to be cuddled to sleep. Normally when he's tired he hates being held!

I'm using washables highland, I use a 2 part system with shaped nappy and wrap. Currently I have bambinex teddies and some lollipops. I'm finding them really easy to use and better than disposables. I do change them more often than I might get away with a Pampers baby dry, but I don't really like leaving her in the same nappy for hours anyway and they are MUCH better at containing explosive poos. She is still in a disposable at night. We have microfibre nappies so they dry really quickly and it's so easy to wash them. I'm just sorry I took so long to try them.