CRESH - Crap ham, stinky Brie, gin and lol'ing at birth plan believers

[AlpinePony]

Heeyah.

Oh bitey. You poor thing. Please have this giant tumbler of martini. I can't believe she told you to let him vomit with distress. Fwiw I would do the same as you. Although I am probably too far the other way as my 15 month old currently sleeps less than half the night in his own bed.

Sorry, been a bit awol what with having a busy work and social life this week (get me!). 'twas lovely see cossie, artie, rocket and sprout at the weekend. My ovaries are clanging after snuggles with sprout.

On the weighing issue, Squeaks has not been weighed by a health professional since she was 8 weeks old, despite being technically prem and having suffered weight loss issues in the early weeks. However, I have done her at home now and then, mainly to be safe for car seat use. She pretty much tripled in weight in the first six months, and at Christmas she resembled a fat-necked rugby player. Then she started to move and is a skinny minny. She's hardly gained since Christmas, only a few pounds, but she has got taller. I know she is healthy, and I don't care what any HVs say(not that I ever see them - they visited once post partum and that was that).

On the sleep front - every baby is different and will do what's required in their own time. bitey I am sorry you felt the pressure to try to enforce a routine in the first place. I am loving your new attitude. If it helps, I didn't start trying to enforce any sort of routine until well beyond 4 months, and even then it was loose. And at 15 months, we've gone beyond routine, as in we use it most days, but it's safe to break it so we can get on with our lives. Our needs change and so do those of our babies. There's no one-size fits all.

Good luck to house movers and job returners.

x-posts Fanny - you poor thing. Hope it heals quickly and you can get someone else to sort the move for you (as I did while diffed). I shall add some gin to your medicinal cocktail and a whole heap of get well vibes.

bitey Bear is 15 months and has in that entire time slept in his cot in the bedroom during the day a handful of times - his choice/my nerves. Added to which, there's no way in hell that I personally would've put him "out of sight" when he was 8 weeks. He's always slept in the living room/office/wherever with hoover/washing machine/tv/household noises going on. During visits to the HV I've applied the "nod, smile and move on" routine. You are not a bad mother - you don't even come close. Please see cossie/cunty/moi for further details - although my baybee is not currently sporting bruises.

fanny Can you circumnavigate NHS and book your own physio/chiro/osteopath and just get on with it and get it dealt with?

LovelySilv How are you coping back at work?

As far as sleeping pattern/routines go - I think cho and I are working in a similar way - e.g., he should have daytime naps, but I'm not wrestling him in to a sleeping position at 10am on the dot. If he chooses to power through to 2pm so be it - he'll sleep longer. We also don't bath daily - it's ever other night, unless he's super-dooper tired and then he can go another day as a tired baby in the bath doesn't do anyone favours.

In this household we follow PLR-parenting (as per fannychops) and try to make life as easy as is possible for all 3 of us.

I can't remember all the details but I went back to work ft when Bear was 16 weeks and he was sleeping through the night, we've never had this 2 hours awake in the night nonsense.

Oh fans that sounds horrific, you poor thing. I expect you need plenty of gin to numb the pain.

Ouch fan that sounds terrible. I am v sympathetic as I slipped a facet joint a few years ago and it the worse pain I have ever been in (almost but not including childbirth) Don't worry about the move. Pay someone to pack it all and take an executive role. And if you can get to see someone sooner rather than later as pone suggested. My chiro saved my back from going agin while I was diffed as it was definitely going again.

Sorry for that last completely crap sentence. I'm going back to bed with some vitamins and paracetamol. laters biatches

Ouch Fanny, that sounds horrendous. Make other people do everything for you.

I've been reading the sleep comments with interest, and was then interrupted by a screaming Peedie who wasn't hungry which threw me somewhat - boob is usually the answer to everything. She's now asleep in the sling, so proof that she can get to sleep without boob I guess. The disadvantage is that I can't sleep at the same time....

Muse it was reassuring to know that the cluster feeding all evening may not last forever - at the moment we're lucky if we get her down before midnight having had a bath (TH's favourite job) and endless feeds/dozes. It would be really useful to bring the whole thing back an hour or more, but starting the whole thing earlier seems to make no difference. But then she's not quite 3 weeks so it's not like I'm not expecting her to be in a routine.

On the HV/weighing thing, we saw the HV last week and she's popping back this week to weigh Peedie again cos she wasn't quite back to birthweight (but only a couple of ounces off so not worrying). Then there are 2 clinics each week we can go to if we want, but I'll have to remember to ask how often they think we should actually have her weighed. HV seemed pretty sensible which was reassuring - I've heard plenty of horror stories and don't have the energy to deal with stupid people at the moment.

In other news, we had all the ILs around yesterday which was lovely, but MIL narrowly avoided murder when she spent most of the time telling other members of the family what to do with MY baby. She seems to have the sense not to try and tell me what to do, but anyone else appears to be fair game for her organising them, even when I've said something different. Grrrrrr.

While I have a sleeping child I'll do the birth story thing...

Started having contractions on Saturday afternoon, which got stronger during the evening so put the TENS machine on. Gave up on all ideas of sleeping cos was too busy waiting for the next one to arrive. Eventually dozed on sofa in early hours of Sunday morning.

I was determined not to go into hospital too early and be sent home, so spent Sunday timing contractions, which were never further than 20 mins apart (they never had the decency to stop and let me sleep) but rarely as close as 5 mins and averaged about 8 mins all day, but were definitely stronger than before. Had a bloody show but my waters remained stubbornly intact. Spent a lot of time yelling and walking around trying to remember to breathe through contractions. Discovered that sleep was well nigh impossible.

TH worked from home on Monday to be ready to take me to hospital and set up a spreadsheet to keep track of my contractions (he's sad like that) which remained stubbornly irregular but mostly around 8 mins apart. Went to bed in the vain hope of getting some sleep, but had to get up every 10 mins to deal with a contraction!

By about 3am Tuesday they were finally getting closer together so I phoned the hospital and we arrived about 430. They were busy so I didn't expect to get near a pool but both of the two they have were free. Brief concern about my blood pressure but that sorted itself, and I was examined and told I was 9cm dilated! So it looked like it was going to be into the pool and have a nice easy sneezy water birth.... Oh and I discovered the joys of gas and air, which after 2 1/2 days of just a TENS machine was bliss (and they had to keep reminding me to breathe air in between contractions!)

Well I managed about an hour in the pool (which was lovely), and they broke my waters, but then Peedie's heart rate was too high so I had to get out. They examined me again and discovered there was still a rim of cervix that hadn't dilated. More time didn't shift it, so eventually I was offered a choice of syntocinon or straight to section. Opted for the syntocinon, and I think they left me on it for about an hour - it's all a bit of a blur. Still no sign of a baby, so then it was a case of 'we'll try forceps and if that doesn't work it's a section'. I remember signing the consent form, then we were wheeled through to theatre where I had a spinal and I think was told they reckoned it was 50/50 as to whether they'd get the baby out with forceps.

Apparently at the sight of the forceps she turned (she'd been back to back, and given the size of the lump on her head we think probably had her head in a stupid position too), and with two pushes and the forceps was out (how you're supposed to know how to push when you can't feel anything I really had no idea), at 1145. TH tells me the doctor seemed surprised at how easily they got her out, I was just amazingly relieved that after all that we'd avoided a section (and was so surprised when they put her on my tummy that I don't think I reacted). She clearly had a pretty sore head and spent the next few hours just screaming, but I didn't care.

So it wasn't at all how I'd have planned it, but I was glad we didn't end up with a section, and of course the most important thing is that she arrived safely. Looking back I think the hardest thing to deal with was the lack of sleep, which sounds stupid but was the bit I hadn't expected (not least because I didn't expect it to take quite so long!).

Wow! That sounds like a proper marathon! occurs bloody well done! I Am with you on the lack of sleep. It's a killer!

Oh wow, that was a long one Ocarina. Well done you.

Bloody hell girl that is some good going. I think you are amazing for contracting days on end that must have been exhausting! Well done!

Leafy, thanks for digging up the notes, it is very useful, even if our experiences are somewhat different as I am still breastfeeding. MM (Monster Munch - seems to suit him more than Tickle) can feed for about 40 mins on boob, and still take 60 - 80 ml of formula. Probably where I am going a little bit wrong is during the night, where he falls asleep before he finishes the boob feed, and then I shove formula down him, which he takes even when sleepy, as opposed to boob. Do all the rest of you have sleepy babies at night who just don't finish the feed before they fall asleep? Wait, who am I talking to, as your baby obviously wakes up every hour! When do you sleep?
As you say, topping up with formula is probably affecting my supply, so I really must express even more. Also taking away his night time formula would probably make him wake up more and feed on me more, but maybe I'll start doing that after the next weigh-in.

Biteness that's ludicrous. I personally would never let my baby vomit with distress and would think of myself as an inept mother if I did! Plus a lot of people say that they shouldn't sleep in their cots during the day in order to learn to differentiate day and night, so it just depends which theory you listen to, IMO. You are a luvverly mother who wants to make her baybee happy.

FF glad drucks are working, but ouch!

Occs, epic story, and you are hard core! So glad Peedie moved last minute.

Wow, a proper hardcore labour story there!! Pins medal too occers chest.

hoppy Wrt to sleepy baby, have you tried tickling his feet / stroking his cheek / changing nappy or removing a layer to wake him up again? You are right the more formula you give him the more it will impact your supply, so if you do want to end up fully bf you will need to start reducing the ffs and upping the bfs, also apparently the night feeds are really important for establishing supply early on as your hormone levels are higher then. As you say, you could express more up try and up your supply and top up with ebm if you feel he still needs a top up.

Mountie sprout has been a super sleeper until very recently and for the first 3 or 4 weeks we struggled to wake her up to feed regularly. That's one of the reasons we fed EBM in a bottle as she would suck on that when half asleep and not awake enough to latch on. As cossie suggests striping down helped wake her up. I always fed her after a nappy change rather than before as that was the only thing that woke her up.

I've just been playing with Jenson Button's car - I could not get one solitary, sole, singular arse cheek in it. To try and get an idea of how small that arse-space is - I unfolded the mobile cover and it almost touched both sides. [Boggle] Now nobody likes a man with a ginormous arse - but we prefer men to boys right? Right?

pone My FIL used to work with that arse-space for a living. SIL was . Don't see it myself.

And while I am dashing in, I must present at DHB medal to occie. She certainly put you through it - and yet you looked radiant just a few days later! well done.

I think he's vile but I'm fascinated by the mechanics of it all. My cousin used to work for Mclaren - I bet she's seen some cock things.

I don't get the car thing, so experience a severe anti-attraction when confronted with men who like to squander our planet's resources by making unnecessarily loud noises in cars what go too fast.

So it's a bit weird that I now find myself working surrounded by hundreds of these men, laboratories full of cars, mind-boggling F1 research, and a pool car fleet that consists of the latest XJs.

Good god we are hard as bricks, us ESHes. Nice work avoiding the sunroof after all that epic labouring.

Bites pliz to punch the nasty lady in the mouth on behalf of mothers everywhere. My baybee has never, ever slept in his cot during the day and there is nothing wrong with that - my HV said her kids were exactly the same when they were little. Tell her to cock the fuck off and please do not panic.

Fanny Gin and morphine drip, stat! Hope you are feeling better soon, that sounds majorly painful. Diclofenac is good in large doses

Fooking hell Ocarina I might be a routine fan now, but NO WAY would I have done what she said at 8 weeks either. Weeny babies should not be subjected to CC. I think you did absolutely the right thing trying to stay in the room with him, but to be honest even that's hard when they are doing their nut in. It only ever worked for me back then when I was playing white noise right up against his ear and even that was hit and miss. As a teeny weeny first step, I would hold, sing, cuddle -whatever you like - and only only put them down slightly awake when they actually look relaxed, sleepy and like they might go off. If you try and do that every time it might just help them go off in their cots more in the day as they get used to being put down awake. Could you also try putting the baby in there more just to play/watching a mobile? Just to get used to being in the cot and being relaxed there? It's worth a try because it is fucking tiring pushing them around the house/block/park 3 or 4 times a day in the early days! but I completely agree, she was wrong to suggest such a violent method when they are so tiny. Poor you.

Fanny - you poor old thing. That sounds horrendous. Can you round up more helpful moving peeps before and after?

I meant BITEY!!! Sorry.

Ive just read Bitey's crappy HV story. Fucking cow. She'd report me to children's services then for keeping smallboo in bed with us for 2 years wouldn't she? Bi-atch.