April 2011; springtime arrivals - blackbird, song thrush, mistle thrush, nipple thrush, nappy thrush...

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Here we are, our new thread and this time we all have our babies !

I thought we were getting thrush again, but then realised I had let ds's latch get sloppy. He was constantly clicking and tutting at the breast but I was too distracted to notice.

Ds and I made butterfly cakes together this morning, ds got to choose the colour of the buttercream icing ..... It is a very lurid shade of pink and they are covered in sugar strands. You can never have enough sugar!

Just found out that someone I know has just lost their baby at 34 weeks pg, just so very sad.

Oh stuffed that is awful :(

Oh stuffed I'm so sorry to hear that I lost my first baby at 22 weeks and it is the most devastating thing I've ever been thru. Not a day goes by where I don't think about him. I would definitely recommend her getting on touch with SANDS a support group for loss in late pregnancy. Big hugs to her.

On the subject of growth spurts I think J may be having one. Fed LOADS yesterday including a 3am one (having previously been sleeping thru from 10-6). Today she is totally zonked and not wanting to eat much. Is that normal behaviour after a growth spurt?

How dreadful Stuffed, I hope she has the support she needs.

H slept most of today so am dreading tonight. Is 12 weeks too early for the buggy? H is getting really bored in the pram and is getting too big really.

How devastating stuffed - any loss is awful but one so late on is just so tragic. Thinking of them.

What do you mean by buggy, cycle? Does it lie flat? If so then it's probably okay.

Glad you had fun, Lis!

arch your church sound lovely. Sorry to hear DH is on edge. It must make things difficult.

so sorry for your friend, stuffed, and hugs for Daisy too. Such an awful thing...

cycle F grew out of the carry cot/pram a few weeks ago, so he's been in the proper pushchair. But it's a Quinny Buzz, so it lies almost flat.

F actually managed a 2 hour nap today! Albeit on me, but still. I had a nice snooze too. Just feeding him now, hoping he's going to settle quickly tonight so I can go see my students! (FYI I'm going to wear that BF dress, despite not needing the functionality of it, cos it cost £60 it's such a flattering post-natal cut)

And exciting news of the day: data from my old MSc thesis is going to be published. I think I'm going to be a named author!

It's an iCandy Cherry, I'll see how flat it goes. I saw a tiny baby in one today and I got to wondering.

Well we've just had a classic PFB evening. Joanna had her 8 week jabs this afternoon. She seemed perfectly fine, then about 6pm woke up from a sleep screaming at the top of her lungs (very unlike her - normally takes her about half an hour of grunting and fist sucking to wake up). She was absolutely inconsolable for about half an hour of bloodcurdling screams, the like of which I've never heard from her. She went bright red, hot and sweaty, and made herself sick with screaming. We took her trousers off and noticed a big hard red lump on her thigh at the site of the injection. We then TOTALLY panicked and rushed her down to A&E. Whereupon, of course, she fell asleep in the car and was completely placid by the time she got to hospital. Since she wasn't screaming any more, she was no longer red or sweaty or sick and the thigh swelling we thought we'd seen didn't seem to exist any more. Doctors sent us home with a prescription to give her a bit of Calpol if she still seemed 'restless'. They were very sweet about it, but it was all very mortifying

Awwww poor you and poor J. Better sade than sorry though.

I have no idea what's happening sleepwise tonight. 9,30-11,00, 11,30-1,30, 2-5?! I'm shattered. Where's my nice long sleep? Maybe be went down too early and didn't cluster feed enough?

arch hugs. Grrr at your dh.

stuffed how incredibly sad. Big hugs to you and daisy

lis ur comment re Howard made me lol. I know what u mean. Glad u had a fab time.

Had a busy day with s. Took him to mothercare to collect his swing and order cot mattress. Then to my hairdressers house. She has a 9 week old so I was a bit nervous re how we would manage our boys and bleach my hair. But they were great. Did feed s while having foils put in tho. have gone from brunette to blonde in an attempt to hide the grey that appears two weeks after home colour!
Then we went to my step nans. She is a very nervous / anxious woman and both times I gave her s as he was nodding off he woke and cried. She is a bit flustery taking him and I think he felt unsafe. Added to which it was after the feed of the day where we have a lovely cuddle I felt so bad for her when he passed out on
me but didn't want to risk a third attempt.

Hope u all have lovely weekends. I'm at the friends who came to visit and took over Inc changing and dressing s without my permission and telling me what he needed ( 'his feet are cold / he's wet I'll change him / he wants feeding') so not looking forward to that much. I'm more confident now so hope I'm able to say something if she starts. She means well but that's not the point.

ecuse I would have done the same. Poor j and poor u! hope she's ok now. S o's booked in on his two month birthday and I'm dreading it.

Kitty - hope the trip goes ok.

Ecuse - i have a friend who is an A&E nurse and she says they are always happier to see parents come in with babies that turn out to be fine than for people to stay at home and worry. They get to see a cute snuggly baby after all and cheer up 2 worried parents - a lovely interlude in their shift :)

Feeling a bit down here, nothing to do with baby, school playground stuff & DH being crap about it, have a thread in AIBU and bizarrely everyone agrees Just not sure how to get out of this slump and cheer up, or what DH can do to get back in my good books again. hmph.

Off to a 5-yr old party later, that will distract at least!

Thanks, ladies, she is totally fine now and slept like an angel last night, the little scamp. 10-4 then 5.30-9.30! Must have tired herself out with all that screaming. She's perfectly cheerful today.

We've had a trip to the reusable nappy shop and signed ourselves up for the laundry service (lazy! ). It's awesome - you buy your own wraps, then for £13 a week they'll deliver you as many clean nappies as you need and take away the dirty ones. Bliss! Hoping to get onto doing our own laundry at some point, but easing our way in, having been using disposables for first 8 weeks. Also, DP is convinced that our washing machine will be full of poo if we wash our own. I keep trying to tell him that the poo gets caught by the liner which we can just flush, and that there should be skid-marks rather than the entire contents of the nappy going into the washing machine, but he doesn't believe me. Am hoping that a few weeks of laundry service will make him see that it won't be too awful doing our own washing. Of course there's always the chance that I'll like it too much to ever switch...

Anyway I've had lots of fun buying super-cute wraps online this afternoon. Off to do something productive now - hanging laundry and making dinner. DP is having his first night out with the lads since J was born, so I imagine he'll be somewhat messy when he gets back. Maybe some and a chick flick for me!

My DP was the same about reusables Ecuse, I can't be arsed with liners TBH as they channel the liquid poo out of the sides but DP is over it now as I pointed out I wash them at 60 degrees, high enough to kill all bugs!

I find my fleece liners (3? fleece, chopped into 20 pieces) are fab at wicking the liquid away through them, leaving the solid residue to be rinsed/flushed but the paper ones were rubbish. What type are you using, cycle?

I love reusables. What kind are you going to use? What does everyone else use? I think my stash needs expanding!

Well I haven't tested them out yet, but I bought three bumgenius flips (clementine, zinnia, grasshopper) and four blueberry coveralls (owls, giraffe, stars and cow). Those two brands are the only birth-to-potty brands that I've found so far - does anyone know any others? I can't be arsed buying sized wraps. And I bought a couple of packs of bummis bio-soft liners, although I'll heed your warning cycle and try without as well. 'Specially if someone else is doing the washing!

I've got 2 parter bambino mio (and similar style from a friend in all sizes). I abandoned the paper liners as they seemed to just help the liquid run off and out the sides. I've just been putting everything in the wash - poo and all as it seems to liquidy I can't imagine it bunging the machine up, though i do a rinse cycle first. Sadly all the first sizes have white wraps - I'm looking forward to the more interesting wraps I've got for the next size up. We're using disposables at night as they seem to last longer and we don't want to wake her up to change her. I also had a couple of the Mothercare smart nappies - they were ok, but the small is a bit too small now and I think we've enough of the mios.

Sorry about your scare with J ecuse, who adminsistered the jabs?
They really should have given you more information about the possible after effects. When both of mine have had their various injections the nurse has always mentioned that the area may come out in a red lump and that they may be extra grissly. But you did the right thing taking her in

cycle I never used a pram/carrycot and went straight to a lie flat buggy suitable from birth for DS, they do look a little lost at first but as long as they have a good head support pillow they're fine. This time around for DD i've just been using the car seat that clips onto my Quinny Zapp frame which I got for DS when he outgrew the first buggy. I did spent an amount on a Phil & Teds double online when pg but DS is too tall for it (despite the literature saying it was suitable for up to 5 years, I can't put the raincover over when he's in the 2nd seat). I wanted it for in the colder weather when he'd be less keen on walking as he's only 3). Oh well i'll get round to selling it eventually.

There are the BG pockets, itti bitti tuttos etc if ypu want branded nappies, then there are ebay cheapies, as with everything.

Wee notions do pockets too.

We have a mix of Flips, BG v4s, terries and motherease btp. We use ME airflow wraps with the last 2, or the terries as a prefold in the flips.

Wraps aren't that bad!

Think I was misleading - didn't mean I can't be arsed with wraps at all just that I can't be arsed buying multiple sets in different sizes so I'm only looking at birth to potty varieties. Actually you have to use wraps and Pre-folds with the nappy service

I know there was some debate on what sleeping through the night means to different people but I feel we've had our first with 11.15pm to 7.30 am. Not that DH and I slept that long - we were both awake at 6 wondering why she hadn't woken for a feed at 5.30 but we went back to sleep for a while. After 2 feeds since then she's now napping :)

I use Bumgenius V4s, which are pocket nappies. They each come with two micro fibre liners, one newborn insert and one bigger one that poppers down for tinies and can be extended.

The instructions on the Bumgenius site say to cold rinse them, then to wash them at 60 degrees with a quarter cap of non bio liquid and a bit of napisan for extra bug killing!

I'll admit the BF poo stains them but I don't really care, it's only on the inside that's against his bum anyway! They do occasionally leak a bit but no more than disposables and only if they're at saturation point. Overnight vie started using the bigger liner just in case and it's not failed yet [fingers crossed face].

Wow Chilli, that sounds fab! H has been very up and down the last couple of nights. Plus DP and I succumbed to our... Ahem urges... While half asleep last night and now I'm absolutely exhausted as H then woke up an hour later at 4am. Sigh clearly subconsciously we want H to have a sibling!

Flips make quite good small and medium sized wraps IMO. They're just like btp rikkis really but I don't know how well they'd work with larger sizes.

DS did about the same chili. Then back down for another hour in his cot and I scooted him over when he fussed for snoozing with a boib out snuggles. My boobs were like rocks at 7am though! I expressed 100ml from the side he didn't feed from and that only just relieved it

Motherease wraps are absolutely the best I've ever used. It isn't so much of an issue when babies are this little, but once they are a year old and doing monster weeing then they really come into their own. They are sized.

We used Bambinex with DS1, and I've got Totsbots for DS2. Ella's House make lovely fleece-lined hemp nappies which are great for nights once they are sleeping 12 hours when they're older, and they work very well with wool wraps (which I would only use at night).
We have also got a full set of Itti Bitti pop-ins which are so lovely but I wouldn't use them while a baby was still on just milk because they wouldn't catch the BF poo. We will start to use them with DS2 when he is about 9-10 months.

Can anyone suggest sun cream for S? And anything else that can keep him safe when the usual sun canopy, keep in the shade doesnt suffice? ta