August 05 babies - all smiley and bright-eyed!

[Miaou]

A new thread for the August 05 crew - link to the old thread

[dazedandconfusedmum]

Hi All!!

OMG it seems like I have been away for ages, I have been trying to trawl through all the messages but have ended up scrolling faster and faster as it is taking me ages!!

I am still up for an Aug baby meet up, so far we have Pookey (Ealing) me (Watford/Harrow) Azure (where are you)? and Beachyhead (where are you)? Prob not a good idea to do anywhere in Central London, too busy and I HATE the tube!! Depending on where the rest of you are, maybe we can do West London somewhere (just an idea).

My DS4 is now sleeping through the night all the time. He has a bottle at 5pm goes to bed and I wake him (or he wakes himself) at 8pmish and then that is him until 6am. He would probably go longer but DS1,2 & 3 make so much noise in the morning and one of them ALWAYS wakes around 6am and the rest follow one by one. I must admit he does go straight back to sleep after the 6am feed until I go and get him for the school run ant 8.30am. He has sleeps in the morning and the afternoon (not bad considering all the chaos in my house and all the times he is dragged in and out the house for school and nursery etc.

No rolling over yet, but I am glad about that, the longer it is before he moves the better!!

I have left DS4 more times than I can remember!! Not in a "bad Mum" kind of way but I am always leaving him at mine with my Mum or Dad or DH while I do the school run, I never take him unless I have to as it's so cold. My friend (known her 8 years and more like a sister, the boys call her "Auntie") has had DS4 overnight twice and had him for the next day too. She has also has him on a couple of days/aternoons. I guess it's different for me coz I am on DS4!!

I find that people always offer to do it and if I need to do something (eg. my DH Xmas work do, my brothers graduation, my friends birthday etc) then it is FAR easier without 4 kiddies in tow!! If it is something I can take them with me easily then I do but if not then DH, Mum, Dad and BF all fight it out between them!!!

As for xmas pressies, I will only get him a stocking with a couple of bits in as he is young to know or care! I am only doing that coz the other boys will moan if they have got a stocking and he hasn't otherwise I wouldn't bother!! Sounds cruel but he had far too much already

[Eulalia]

Hi - can I drop in again? Need a bit of reassurance I suppose. Has anyone's baby dropped down the centiles? ds had his last set of jabs and weight check yesterday. He was born on 25th centile and slipped down last check and this check has gone down to under the 9th centile. He is now 13lbs 1 1/2 oz and is 17 weeks old today. I've just skimmed over the last of the posts here and everyone else's baby seems much bigger. HV said not to worry as some babies drop just before weaning then most confusingly she said not to wean just yet. Want to wait till 6 months - managed fine with dd but she was a much bigger baby all the way through. ds2 is smaller than ds1 at the same age even though ds1's birth weight was less. Sorry rambling but paranoid I am not feeding him enough with running around after the other two kids.

moschops - I've not left ds yet - even taken him to meetings with me but that's because he has no routine yet and I just don't have time to express milk. I did leave ds1 a few times (much easier when you've only got one child) but hardly left dd at all. I thought she would grow up clingy but quite the opposite in fact. Hope you can get him settled OK with someone.

[pookey]

Hi D&C

West London meet up would be marvellous as far as I am concerned please say that you live fairly close to west london Azure and beachyhead but if not I'm sure we can find somewhere good for all (fingers crossed). Busable is best for me.

Went to Mother and baby group yest. Unfortunately I was one of the first and sat next to someone whos friends then arrived and I felt a bit in the way of their conversation. We had a really long presentation/talk on how to discipline your child and although the leader tried hard people didn't really contribute to the discussion - think there were too many 1st time mums. The really funny thing was that once it was over the leader's 4 year old son came in and kept looking up her skirt so we got to see her discipline technique in action! when she said that is mummy's skirt please don't look up it he said can I have a skirt then lol

[pookey]

Hi Eualia

Missed your message while typing mine. Ds dropped from 90th to 50th % but think that was due to having to bot feed for a week. The HV wasn't worried. He has stayed on 50th since then. DS is tall rather than heavy. At the mother and baby thing yest there was an 8 week old as big as my ds and an 11 week old who was much much smaller but both looked happy and healthy.

[colinandcaitlinsmommy]

Moschops-If it makes you feel any better, I left Caitlin with DH for 9 hrs one day, but I don't really count it as leaving her, because DH is her parent, too.

Eulalia-Our scale is pretty old, but it says that Caitlin's only about 12 lbs. She's so much smaller than Colin was at this age, but she's fine. I met someone with a 12 mo. old the other day whose baby was the exact same height as Caitlin and only about a pound bigger. It isn't even on the charts, and the dr. says it is perfectly healthy.

Caitlin has 2 teeth that are almost through the gums, and I can both feel and see them. They popped up out of nowhere yesterday. It sure hasn't done any good for her sleeping or her mood.

Colin's doing better after his traumatic play date. The thing is that the other boy has never acted that way before, and his mother is my friend. She's called several times to apologize. My only thing is that if it would have been Colin doing the bullying, I would have gotten him out of there much earlier.

[suzi2]

Please tell me teething doesn't last months... . DS has gone frombeing up once in the night to waking every hour and needing to be rocked back to sleep. He's not hungry though. I think I can see teeth - his bottom gum looks like it has white dots at the front - if they are teeth they're only half way there!

He rolled from his front to back this week -not quite like rolling the other way but we're still very proud. He's since enjoyed a bit of tummy time as he knows he can get out of it!

He bears weight very well on his legs - can support almost his entire weight. But my mum tells me not to let him as he'll get bandy - anyone know if there's any truth in this?

[pookey]

Hi suzi 2 I remember reading in a boook that the bandy leg thing is an old wives tale and that if the baby seems to like doing something it is usually ok as they set their own pace. We hold ds like that now and again if he doesn't want to 'stand' he goes all floppy .

DS will have a few days or so of what seems to be teething then he seems ok for a few days. He was eating his hand all yesterday and woke several times in the night. for a couple of the wakings he just cried then went back to sleep without me going in (think he might have been crying in his sleep). I gave him a dose of calpol this morning and he hasn't really been eating his hand much today so the pain must have died down for a bit. So basically i think the teething might go on for a few months but it won't be constant?

[moschops]

ds has been furiously chewing his fist the last two days, yesterday he was very grizzly in the afternoon. don't know if it's coincidence or not but i rubbed his gum with bonjela, and after pulling a face at the taste he settled down within about 5 mins.

[dazedandconfusedmum]

My DS4 isn't teething at all and nor did any of my others THIS early!! Even when they did, they used to sleep through, I just used to give them calpol and bonjela before they went to bed. Baby Nurofen is FANTASTIC for them but you will have to check the age on the bottle as mine were a bit older before they were teething.

As far as weaning is concerned, when my DS1 & DS2 were born the age was 4 months but both were very ill at that age (they had bronciollitis) I was told to wait until they were better. In each case they were 5 and a half months and neither of them were bothered at all. My DS2 was breastfed and a really hungry baby but was fine not having solids until nearly 6 months.

When I had DS3 he had whooping cough at 4 months and I was worrying that I should be weaning him as he used to feed every 3 hours. I was told by the hospital and doctors not to feed him until he was better and a friend of mine then told me they had increased the age to 6 months anyway!!

All of my boys were very happy to wait until 6 months and DS2 & DS3 were very hungry babies. I wouldn't rush it as it gives their tummies more time to develop (which is important with boys as apparently they develop later than girls) and weaning is no fun anyway!!!

[suzi2]

It's bad enough trying to get DS to take calpol - so I don't think we'll move onto solids for a while.

On the teething front, he only woke us 4 times last night and seems a little less moody today so maybe this burst is over? Here's hoping - it's awful seeing him that way.

[dazedandconfusedmum]

4 times!!!! OMG you must be shattered!! I hope DS4 doesn't do that to me (fingers crossed)

[suzi2]

yep - never thought we'd be pleased at 4 times but it's been 7/8 + the rest of the week. We're pretty shattered... but my DH has been on holiday so we've taken things in shifts.

[colinandcaitlinsmommy]

I found with DS that teething started at 3 1/2 mo, and he actually didn't get any until almost 6 mo. It went on up until about a year, but I got some breaks. The 1st teeth seem to be the worst. Caitlin's teething really bad now, and I can see and feel her bottom 2 teeth. She slept from 9:30-4 last night, but woke up 4 times after 4. Between her and my snoring, jumping DH, am really tired, too.

[Azure]

Pookey I live Chiswick-way so a West London meet-up suits me just fine.

Dazedandconfused I'm vey of how well your DS4 is sleeping. The nights here have got worse this week with DS2 waking at around midnight and 4am before 6.30am - last week he was mostly only waking once in the night.

I'm not sure whether DS2 is teething or not - it seems to come and go. DS1 didn't seem to suffer at all with teething so I'm hoping we'll get away with it this time as well. Aren't those powders meant to work really well?

[dazedandconfusedmum]

Azure, the Ashton & Parsons powder works really well but I must admit, I haven't really used anything other than a bit of Calpol every now and again for DS2 & DS3 and nothing at all ao far for DS4. I am either really lucky or just laid back about it all!! With DS1 I used to use anything and everything to shut him up, you name it (bonjela, calgel, calpol, nurofen) I used it all. With DS2 & DS3 it was more a case of "stop whinging, you must be tired, go to bed for a sleep" and nine times out of ten they would have a sleep and be fine. i used to sit there and suddenly say to DH "oh look, there's a tooth, I didn't see that coming"!!!

It's not that I ignore them or don't care, I just try everything else before I use medicine and nearly all of the time they don't actually need it (I do use it if necessary though).

I found with DS1 I was so worried about stopping him crying and working out what could be wrong but with the others they would have to cry while I sort out the older one/two/three that by the time I get around to sorting them out they are asleep or have settled themselves. I found I was more relaxed with the others and just didn't have time to pander to them.

Often they are more tired, hungry or over-stimulated more than "in pain". Just my opinion.

West London is looking good for a meet up then. Where are you Beachyhead?? Anyone else wanna come????

Suzi2 and C&C's Mommy I can't believe how much you guys get up in the night!! Maybe I am cruel but there is no way I would get up four times after 4am!!! My DS1 was a bad sleeper and woke in the night until he was 4 but only once, twice at the most. DS2 was going 6pm - 6am regularly from 8 weeks and DS3 from 5pm - 7.30/8am regularly from 12 weeks and they still do now (DS2 is 4 and DS3 is 16 months). DS4 went 7pm - 5.30am last night and then went straight back to sleep until 10am (which was lovely), although he hasn't had his last feed tonight yet. I was busy watching X-Factor and forgot to do it (he was happily playing on his playmat kicking around and "talking away" to the animals. He then fell asleep, which is where he is now!!! I will have to wake him soon and feed him or he won't wake until the morning and will be a bottle behind!!

[pookey]

Hooray for wl meet up, ive never been to chiswick isnt it dead dead posh, i have seen lots of mum and baby things advertised there - so might be a fun place to meet - ealing broadway has 2 starbucks and good for trains if that helps beachyhead but gets rammed? does anyone know of anywhere pram friendly in wl - there is a place near me but northfields is a bit dull?

Dazed and confused mum - people in books always go on about babies talking to their 'friends' on their mobiles etc ds never does that, it must be so cute, he just gets pissed off that he can't eat them! does talk to us a lot though - gets really indignant about things!

hooray again - the conway 'screachers' are out! Although that chico is a bit weird ...

[suzi2]

lol D&C mum - DSs cry is blood curdling. In fact everyone I know says they've never heard anything like it. My mum was checking out the Guiness Book of Records for loudest cry... So it is very hard to ignore! We've tried the controlled crying a few times but generally give up within the hour! Mind you I agree with the overtired/overstimulated thing. DS is at his most grouchy when he needs a sleep so we just 'encourage' one frequently. Unfortunately this week he's found it hard to drop off.

I was out tonight so DH has settled him. Apparently he settled well so hopefully that's a sign he's feeling a bit better and hopefully we'll be back to waking just once soon! I just hope I can sleep - I went to bed knackered last night and couldn't get to sleep. It took me 2.5 hours and then DS woke 30mins later!

[pookey]

poor suzi hope u get some sleep (hope we all do) - my son might give yours a run for your money on the crying thing - he was truly distressed that i insisted on putting his nappy on before feeding him after his bath - thought the neighbours might call social services he was so loud.

[pookey]

omg was trying to express while mn and getting nowhere and then out of nowhere my boobs started flooding and i was unprepared - my joggers are soaked! was just reading about exhausted mums must have felt sorry for them?

[colinandcaitlinsmommy]

Afraid I don't have much of a choice either, D&Cmum. She's very loud and would wake my 2 year old who anytime he is woken up after then won't go back to bed without a huge fight. DH usually helps me and would get up, but has been working 12-15 hr days, so I didn't think it was fair. She (usually) is only up once a night, and is much better than DS who was up 4-8 times a night (usually more like 6-8)until he got solid food.

Very of those of you planning a meet-up.

[colinandcaitlinsmommy]

It's official. She has her 1st tooth.

[dazedandconfusedmum]

I can't believe how late you guys are up posting on MN I am tucked up in bed long bfore then!! I tend to do the "early to bed, early to rise" thing.

RE: Meetup, Ealing does get really busy, but it is nearer for me. Chiswick is nice but will prob take me a while to get there with the traffic, will have to try and sort out someone for the school/nursery run. I don't know anywhere around there though (other than the High Street) so need to rely on you lot. Is there anywhere in Alperton??

C&C's Mommy: Congratulations on the tooth, maybe now it's through you might get some more sleep I know what you mean about baby waking toddler, I used to get that coz DS1 didn't sleep well and I always worried he would wake DS2. Mine all sleep through it. I think they are so used to crying babies it doesn't bother them!!! Although when DS4 woke at 6.30am this morning I heard DS3 aswell. I think it took me too long to wake up, but they both had a bottle of milk and are now back in their cots sound asleep

Suzi2: LOL to Guiness Book of Records, you should hear my house sometimes when they all get going I hope you got some sleep last night, there is nothing worse than sleep deprevation I have woken in the night on and off for 5 and 1/2 years and I am hoping that, unless any of them are ill, that is it now!!

Pookey: I agree, thank God those flippin Conways have gone, they were drivin me mad. simon played it very well by taking the decision out of Louis hands, I said to DH he would do that, he is very intelligent!! Also, (change of subject) Were you in the same year at Sacred Heart as Gemma Durham (if you remember her)???

[suzi2]

Wey hey! DS went to sleep at 7pm. Woke at 8pm for a feed. Slept until 3am when he fed and then finally woke at 7:30! Excellent. I had a lovely 7.5 hours in total so feeling very good this morning. Hopefully this means that DS is feeling better.

[pookey]

Cool suzi2 thats not so bad, Ds woke at 1 then 5 but didn't really go back to sleep after that - still could be worse

C&Cmommy where do you live out of curiosity? Congrats on caitlin's first tooth - does she look very sweet?

D&C I don't remember gemma but I recognise the name. Do you know darren butterfield? Not sure that there is much in alperton - dp reckons there is f* all there but he is very fussy! never been there but it would be fairly easy for me to get there? Maybe ealing is best? but then I can walk!

[Eulalia]

Thanks for responding - have been making more attempts to feed ds, ie rememberng to go back to him when I have had to stop midway to attend to one of the other children. He seems a bit more content but could be a coincidence. Will take him to be weighed agian in 3 weeks but not going to worry about it.

Congrats on first tooth C&CM