Just mumming (viroids 1)

[fraktious]

So we don't scare the viroids on the antenatal thread with horror stories of no sleep, chomped boobs and endless laundry or make them envious with tales of cuteness....

Huge long posted, swallowed

Basically: waved high to TTL, cumulative sleep deprivation setting in making life quite hard now, seconded CC's DH rant - mine has done the same. Twice. And is travelling from tomorrow and is bound to do the same again. Seconded CC and Esk on the whacked sleeping patterns. DS will now only have a daytime nap if he has been out in the pram and fallen asleep that way. Can't complain as he gave me 3 hours today but I had had to go out for 90 MINUTES before he would drop off as he got himself into a state beforehand. Have tried a dummy at night, no interest in it. Co-sleeping most nights and getting him back into the crib getting harder and harder but room very cold at the top of the house which doesn't help. DS likes being in a long sleeved body suit, baby grow, sleep bag and buried under our duvet...on his side... Also think he is allergic to our cats as when we were away this weekend he slept perfectly with no snuffles. He now also has what I think is eczema on his face and the doc won't see us until Friday Oh and I think he had a virus or something as he had really mucousy nappies :( Just want to be in our new house...still a couple of weeks away.

ARRRRRRARARARRGGGGGHHHHHHH

No JSing here yet. Fancy it during the day, when DH is at work but come the evening all I want is bed if we had that time to ourselves Also he just wants to chance it on the contraception front. DS was IVF if you remember so I reckon chances of getting PG are slim but there is no way I want 2 under 1 or even 18 months

CC - I find how much milk to leave a nightmare. My first night out I left two 100ml-ish bottles and a 150ml bag from the freezer. He had two bottles and half the bag in 5 hours. Mostly a distraction I think. The hardest thing is missing the feeds as even though I pumped and dumped when I came home (lots of cocktails!) and came home and fed the second time (just a glass of bubbles!) it still took my boobs about 48 hours to sort themselves out. For a hair appt I am not sure I would bother (I am thinking I normally take 2.5hours - 3.5 with travel), I would feed before and when got back. This would be 'safe in the knowledge' if worst came to worst a trip in the pram would send him to sleep. Possibly leave a bottle to be on the safe side?

It's ridiculous how anxious I feel about it. I need to give myself a talking to .

Don't worry, you will be moved and feeling happy in your new home in no time (possibly ignoring boxes that need unpacked).

That's a difficult dilemma contraception wise. If you know you aren't ready for another one I would use something. It's easy for the guy to say risk it.

Posted to soon.

I can't believe how many people are asking when we are having our next baby. Like cowboy I didn't want children until i did (aware that might not make sense). Not convinced I want another one. Have stopped saying this though as I keep getting told its unfair to the child and harder work. .

Third post

How do you know when dc is ready to wean. Should I be reading up on this now?

Also lost post earlier in the day...
DH is being fab with dd, absolutely smitten with her. Though he did fail to show up on Monday eve after work and I couldn't raise him on his mobile. Eventually got through to a very bewildered DH who couldn't work out why I was so worried til I for him to understand it was 7.30 not 6.30 as he thought!

No js action going on here either. I'm probably ready to give it a go again...had a large episiotomy so the last attention my fanjo had was from scissors/needle&thread...but that's all healed now...but we don't seem to have the time or inclination to get round to it. Saves worrying about contraception I suppose. I'm sure we will have a 2nd dc at some stage. My ideal was to have no more than 2 school years between dd, but given when dd was born that means a gap of less than 2 calenday years, so ttc just after dd's 1st birthday. Will see if we're even js again by that stage! But I would def say to use contraception unless you don't mind getting pg. I do know a couple who were surprised by the arrival of dc3 after 10 years of infertility and 2dc by IVF. I'm sure that it's rare, not something to pin your hopes on, but worth baring in mind!

DD has finally put some weight on after 3 weeks of static weight and ever more outlandish suggestions from HV (though better than GP who told me to give up bf...) we have decided to give a formula bottle before bed now as I was having to express at every feed during the day in order to get enough milk for an evening feed and it was getting tedious. If not bottle fed at night dd would feed for an hour or more from me as part of her settling and it meant DH and I never saw each other. T'was a hard decision though. DH was more against it than I was. We might switch back at a later stage if dd becomes faster at feeding from the breast.

Also thinking about return to work. Earliest would be May, but want to go part time so will see what I'm offered.
Right. Dd has fallen asleep feeding so will commence the game of "how long will I stay in my crib before shouting"...

Oh, weaning should not take place before 17 weeks. Current advice is at 26 weeks/6 months but thats changing fairly regularly in the light og research. Our local hv's do a talk about it every few weeks so I'll go after Christmas but aim not to start til 6mo.

CC that makes total sence in my mind as I have been saying for ages so I'm really glad it's not just me

My DD is 24 weeks and just starting weaning now. For about 6 weeks she has been showing real interest in food when trying to grab what ever I am eating but no interest when it's offered to her, saying that she also tries to regularly eat the sky remote so it's hard to see the 'signs'. This week I gave her some purée on a spoon and she wanted a 2nd taste so I think she's more ready now.

cowboy we started weaning (BLW) at 24 weeks. It took him another couple of weeks to really get the hang of/eat anything though.

Urgh. Dd is having her 4 month sleep regression early. She's been objecting to going back into her crib after her middle-of-the-night feed for a few nights now. Last night she woke up early for it at 1. Then awake within 20 mins of going back in crib so gave her the other side. Attempted return to crib with dummy. Then at 4am she threw the most enormous tantrum. No idea what it was about unless overtiredness. By 5am she was asleep in our bed. Thankfully DH changed his alarm from 6 to 7 at that point.
Will keep repeating the MN catchphrases of "this too shall pass" "it's just a phase" and of course "this is what maternity leave is for"!

Esk my DD started her sleep regression early too. The good thing about it is, she's now coming out the otherside of it (fingers crossed) early too.

I love 'this too shall pass'. It's become a daily mantra

Sleep regression?! Not heard of this...doesn't sound positive so leave me in my ignorant bliss

So far tonight has been a bit better. Still took ages to settle initially, but I gave dd a dream feed and she's having her first night feed now. Will see if she will go back in her crib. I suspect there was some degree of illness yesterday as she did a couple of spectacularly green poos, think pesto! Am hoping it's just readjusting to including the formula in her diet. I know it's supposed to reflect a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance but she didn't do anything differently when bf.

Got really disheartened when I popped into work yesterday. The Head said that there would be no problem giving me part time hours, but that I would be the cover teacher and not have my own class. Don't like that idea at all, though I know I should be grateful that I can have the hours I wanted. But it's enough to make me consider either not going back or going full time. or having dc2 v quickly

Confessions, how old is dd now? Glad to hear sleep is improving once more

Glad little one has been a bit better Esk. My friend that changed her little one I formula found her dd's poo went weird. Think she got a little constipated, but is fine now.

I think this might sound judgey pants. Apologies in advance. I have a friend who ffs her baby (only relevant because of next bit). When her partner comes home from work she passes the baby to him and he 'deals' with it all night. I have barely seen the 12 week old awake. Yet, she is constantly complaining how difficult and fussy her little one is. Was even talking about going back to work early. Do you think she might have pnd or just a different outlook. I know the answer is c) mind my own business

CC almost impossible to say anything about your friend not knowing them! I will say one thing, sister in laws FFs her DS and my judgey pants left the building when she described her/their nights as they feed every 3 hours. Each feed takes around an hour an includes having to set an alarm to wake up to make the bottles. Not the easier option with a newborn by any means. I also think there is a sort of competitive element with some people "my baby is better/more difficult than yours". Obviously not saying this is what your friend is like.

I consider myself to have an easy baby but feel like I am struggling right now. Worried I am doing nothing with DS and that he is bored. I am so, so tired but DS doesn't cry at night just wakes for food (this is 3-4 times at the moment though). I think co-sleeping isn't great quality sleep for me but the 'effort' of getting him in and out of his crib seems worse. Just a bit and at the moment

[hugs] val. 3-4 wakings in the night is a lot so no wonder you're tired. You're doing a great job with him.

She's 19 + weeks. So just over 4 months. At 3 am this morning DH suggested she wasn't getting enough breast milk and was still hungry hence waking. i had to remind him through gritted teeth politely that it is normal for babies at this age to wake in the might and that if she was hungry, she wouldn't be growing so bloody much. Really he was just fed up that he had to feed her (for about the second time ever at that time of night).

Also apparently the whole fore/hind milk thing is a falicy based on a dodgey study of about 3 mothers!!!

Val little babies really don't need much entertaining. As long as you don't ignore them all day, cuddles, talking and a couple toys to bat at are plenty.

It's more that she has no interest in her baby in the evenings. Dh does everything and she goes to her room. Only mentioned the formula to show she does no evening or night feeds. Quite often we talk about the babies, bathing them for instance, and all she can input is dh does it.

I feel like that sometimes Val. I love that ds will sit and watch tv with me for half an hour . Ds's favourite thing at the moment is having a silk scarf floated above him and then across his face. This is hilarious to him. Some of his fancy toys get no more than

Newsflash: babies don't need toys or entertaining or anything. They need cuddles and you talking and interacting because the world is big, bright and noisy enough as it is :o So chin up, Val, the best thing you can do is get out and about and when he's at home he probably needs to chill because his little brain is working overtime. He will let you know when he wants to start playing and then what he wants to play and when he does it will be magical, although exhausting.

I don't think DS is even out of the 4 month sleep regression :( His sleeping has been shit the last 2 weeks and cosleeping, whilst I agree not great quality, is sometimes the only way he will sleep.

CC it's difficult to say what your friend is going through but it does sound like she might be struggling with motherhood and needs the time away from the baby.

Foremilk/hindmilk is due to people not understanding that milk separates when it's in the boob like full fat milk does in a bottle. Once you see the logic it makes perfect sense.

Frak, can I ask the reasoning behind ending co-sleeping at six months? After a poor start dh and I have realised we love having ds in with us. Not sure what the end point will be though.

Reading back over my posts I think I have been too judgemental. Which doesn't make me a very good friend .

CC I think it is natural to be judgy, especially as far as babies are concerned and more so with the first ones. Pretty sure no one really has a clue which is why we compare (and judge!) so much...that or I am as poor a friend as you

Thanks for the 'boredom' reassurance. We have plenty of cuddles, chats and TV viewings too. DS is the only person in the world who likes my singing...maybe I should worry about his hearing instead

For us it's because DS is very mobile, takes a lot of space and he has free access to boob. That said I can see us sucking it up and continuing!

Haha, it's funny you mention the singing. I can't even sing happy birthday in tune. It does worry me when I hear myself kill another lullaby

It's amazing how much room they take up isn't it? I like that ds sleeps in his crib until half 12ish. The only problem I have is that ds often starts rumbling and making noises from half 4 onwards. I suppose if he was in his crib he would wake properly and I would need to get up.

I have a really embarrassing confession to make. Dh and I got back to jsing last night. Remembered about contraception and then it was too late . No excuses. Had to visit pharmacy this morning