April 2011 - Food Glorious Food, Sleep Glorious Sleep <subtle key change> They're our babies, we'll obsess if we want to!

[fraktious]

Thread 4 - that's one a month!

For all of those who are told that your baby will develop a sweet tooth I would say that the shp has sailed with that. Have you tried breast milk? It is very very sweet. So while I think that you should offer a variety of savoury and sweet, please don't get hung up on turning your baby into a sugar addict!

Baby awake, will return later .......

God, if breast milk is naturally sweet, I dread to think what mine must be like. I'm a rampant sugar monster. P is probably already addicted!

Brilliant night time news Cycle. Are you feeling better for it?

why why why, did I do it, I'm talking about taking P to see the HV and get her weighed. I came out very probably with steam coming out of my ears. I came this close to shouting at her "just shut up, you stupid woman, if I want your advice i'll ask for it"

P will be 6 months old this weekend and she lectured me that she should already be on 3 meals a day - WTF.

Oh and the sleep lecture:
HV - How does she sleep
Me - pretty well, will sleep through from 10 or 11pm until 7 or 8am.
HV - No you want to get her down by 7pm, don;t feed her at bedtime and if she wakes up give her water.
Me - She wakes up and screams if I put her to bed earlier, I'm happy with the current arrangement as we and DS all get several hours of uninteruped sleep.
HV - You need to establish a bedtime routine
Me (getting shirty)We have. She shares a bath with DS who I then put to bed whilst DH gives her a bottle during the early evening, I then BF her when she gets tired later.
HV - No, no put her to bed earlier, don't give her any milk after teatime.
Me - I'm trying to pull forward her bedtime and wake her up earlier in the morning but this just tends to result in a longer morning nap. I "do not" want her waking in the middle of the night so I don't think i'll be putting her to bed at 7pm only for her to spend the next several hours screaming and keeping DS awake.
HV - (despearately trying to get the last word) It's really best for baby if you get her to bed early. She's capable of sleeping through the night at this age.
Me - She does. I consider 10 hours to be through the night. Can I have my red book back please?

As I left I remembered why I got DH to take her last time

I'll join you in the WTF. That is ridiculous!

I do indeed feel better for the extra sleep.the first couple of nights I kept waking in a panic but now I'm refreshed.

Hmm GGF that HV sounds like a nutter. Last time M got weighed I felt the HV was disapproving at having started weaning at 24 weeks, then she told me we needed to wean quickly . A couple of friends asked about vitamin drops at the same time to different HVs last week and got told different answers

cycle glad the sleeping has improved :)

It's been really warm here today. We went to the sensory room this afternoon but didn't stay very long as the room was so hot with the blinds down. M loved the bubble machines though.

Fizz Love the doily hatted matron image! Sadly not, my old boss was like that though and she was fantastic, strict but fair and very well respected, bring her back I say!! We used to have a family friendly policy but it doesn't seem to exist anymore, there must be something else in it's place, I will be investigating it further anyway. And that is an end to it I won't mention it again (until she next pisses me off) as you must all be getting bored of it and it gets me annoyed everytime I think about it!

Anyway on a much happier note, R rolled over properly for the first time today...................and I bloody missed it!! I was texting a friend about baby group and looked up just in time to see her landing on her front! Think I might have freaked her out with all my clapping and whooping and then once I'd put her back over to see if she'd do it again, DSS tripped over and bashed her in the face!!!! So it was bittersweet for her and may be a while before she tries it again!!

DP and I are also going to view a house on Friday!! I am very excited but trying not to be as I have to wait for my other house to sell first which could take ages but on the positive side the one we like has been on over a year already and needs a lot of work so hopefully no one will buy it before we can!! Will post link if anyones interested in seeing it.

GGF Your HV sounds like she's on drugs! Glad I don't need to deal with her, R still goes to bed at 9pm, any earlier would likely result in a night waking, like you tried to point out!! Some people are honestly ridiculous. I think HVs get "taught" the basic gist of what's good and bad and then just make up the rest as per their own personal opinion! I'm very lucky that my HV is very relaxed and just lets me get on with it.

mrs w yay for R rolling. And yes post house link. Love a nose. Fingers crossed for you.

Yay for rolling

Bad night again here. I am so tired I could weep. And no preschool today, and DH will be home late. 12 hours with toddler and the amazing non-napping baby.

Wish me luck ladies, I'm goin' in!

Oh no. Good luck Ali

Good luck Ali, hope you've got

Hands Ali hard hat< you have my sympathies! We had a bad night too (I'm sure it must of been the heat all he did was have a quick guzzle then back to sleep, every two hours grrr!) and I know that he'll fight naps all day. The ILs are coming tomorrow so I'm going to have a hot, cranky baby to entertain while trying to clean...

MrsW link to the house please, I love some property porn we'll never be in a position to buy a house so I tend to live vicariously thorough other peoples house buying adventures! And yay for rolling too.

Gsy at that HV. When they say something I don't like I tend to do the smile (grimace) and nod then get out quick.

Cycle yay for the sleep, long may it continue! And I hope you're feeling a little more yourself now.

Fizz hope the poo'splosion arrived so that you had a more settled day. I never thought I would be wanting to change a dirty nappy but S gets into such a foul mood when he's brewing one that it's the lesser of two evils!

Frakk I saw your suggestion for the next thread title, yes, brilliant as usual! (And rather true for idiot me who is going back to a job in university admissions 4 days before the UCAS deadline...)

Hmm best be off, S has managed to roll and wiggle across the living room floor and is now happily playing under a chair!

Ladies who was it who bought the "ahhh bra" and are you happy with it? I'm finding that I'm not getting any smaller and I'm huge "up top" now so none of my bras fit properly and digging in so I'm on the hunt for new ones.
I've taken a week off from the dance classes organising and maternity services campaigning. I've been dodging calls since my birthday which threw me into such a funk. I'm picking myself up now. House is a tip though. I went on almost full strike which had no result other than a messy house I really don't think he noticed. I don't think he noticed I was down either TBH. There was however an amazing double rainbow at dawn this morning at 5:30 when I was getting the dog out which really woke me up. R is 22 weeks this weekend and I've started proping her up in F's high chair when F and I are eating. F is thrilled to be on a proper chair which is very sweet. I'm thinking in the next week or so of starting to wean R. I'm thinking of moving F into his own room from the nursery (and as a consequence not going back to fostering children). It seems like a big step.

Gsy - at our clinic we can weigh without getting into a discussion with the HV, yours sounds utterly mad.

DH's morning meeting was cancelled, hurrah, so he's around and going in after lunch. He is working but will play with the boys in the garden for a while before lunch to give me a chance to get one or two things done and prep the dinner. Then this afternoon we can just flop about and maybe watch a film and I can snooze on the sofa.
I am v.lucky that DH is somewhat in charge of his own diary and can do things like this. I must remember that when I'm tearing my hair out at 8pm tonight doing bedtime on my own! I know lots of people do it on their own all the time, but my 'system' is designed to work with two of us so it is a struggle alone!

arch - it is a lot to think about. We need to extend really to give us another bedroom, so for the time being T will be in with us. Which for as long as he is waking up all the time suits me fine - less distance to stagger half asleep in the dark

Not so yay for rolling here today as he rolled off the bed bad mummy. I seriously turned to pck up the dirty nappy I'd just taken off and he was on the floor. Then sitting with him on the floor playing I picked him up and he flung his head back and cracked it off the coffee table . Bad bad mummy .

At my folks again. We have a wedding on Saturday up here so I came up early catch up with people giving dh the chance to work late without feeling guilty. He's so busy at work and off all next week so needs to get stuff finished.

B has a pimply red rash on his legs. Doc said viral over the phone yesterday and to keep an eye on his temp. would male semse if he had a bug or something with the farting and general unsettlednrss.

Fizz you're not a bad mummy. We're all guilty of those sort of things! In six months I've banged Lucy's head on the inside of the car roof, on the wooden bit on our bed headboard and have turned my back for a second only for her to fall head first off the settee (luckily onto carpet)! So it happens to us all. Luckily they appear to be very sturdy!!!

Well my resolution not to moan about the witch my boss was short lived, got an email from her today asking if I would come in to work for KIT days next Wednesday & Thursday despite me emailing her first with my availability and quite clearly stating that I only wished to do one day a week!! Told her (probably a bit curtly) that I could only do Thursday - I feel physically sick at the prospect of not being with R all day!!! Eeeeeep!!

Will post link to house on the fb page as it's only us that can see that whereas here anyone could have a snoop!!

Dairy Lol @ house porn!! Why will you never be able to buy a house if you don't mind me asking?

Arch I'm on the bra hunt too but for the opposite reason, mine have gone back to being non-existent! In fact less existent than they were before, it's ridiculous! Cute that F like his big boys chair! DSS normally likes to go in a big chair too but since we started speaking about R going in to a high chair he's become a bit territorial over it!!

Ali Hope today hasn't been too bad! It is hard going when you're on your own but I think I've adapted to it pretty well so far, can imagine it wouldn't be quite so easy if I wasn't getting enough sleep or R went back to the bottle refusing screamy baby of a few weeks ago!! I do find it a bit harder when I have them both on my own too so hat off to you doing it 24/7 :)

Aww Fizz you're not a bad mummy, you're not the first and I very much doubt you'll be the last one who's baby rolls of the bed!! I practically dropped R on the changing table the other day head first!! Felt awful but she was clearly fine so tried not to beat myself up too much! Hope the rash clears up soon and B is back to his normal happy self soon.

For those of you who's LOs have teeth: R did have the beginnings of one but it disappeared again (????) and now it's started to poke back through, in a better position than before! Today she's been a bit grumpy and I noticed where the little white tip of the tooth had been poking through it now seems a bit red sore and lumpy looking, is this normal??

Arch It was me who got the Ahh bras, I got the 3 pack for £59 from here
They are very comfy . I usually wear them at night as a pajama top as I still have to wear breastpads at night. I just pull the front down if I need to feed and they are still holding their shape well so far. They certainly aren't the most attractive looking bras, (the flesh coloured one reminds me of granny pants) but I'm pleased I got them

Hot hot hot here, which means a cranky P. She's already woken twice tonight. Not surprised, her room is boiling. It's going to be a looooong night...

Hope others are faring better.

The heat seems to be having the opposite effect on P. She went 8-7 last night and was down by half 8 tonight. Fingers crossed for the rest of the night. I collected DS early from preschool today and met some friends down at the beach so am hoping he'll have a nice long lie-in tomorrow morning

Ali Hope bedtime went ok, we left my mum doing bedtime on Monday as we had a parents evening to attend. At 7.30 there was an hour long island wide powercut, apparently DS though it was great fun and P just fell asleep.

All this talk of babies rolling off/bumping reminded me of these that were on the apprentice The poor little mites having to wear those all day.

We have just got T to sleep. Apart from about 1.5 hours of nap, he has been awake since 7am.

I really don't know WTF is going on with him. Teeth a bit, he is starting to crawl, learning to eat, I suppose it is all just adding up to a very unsettled baby!

Must sleep, god I hope he goes more than 2 hours

Ahahaha, have just checked that link GGF

Hope you got some sleep Ali.

Heat messed up H's naps yesterday and he was up for the day at 5.30am but never mind.

Gsy [shocked] I'm surprised they don't sell baby sized rolls of cotton wool to go with those

Meh, stupid heat has messed up my sleep and S's sleep. And I got all my winter clothes out (I love bright tights and woolly jumpers!) and can't wear them. S just wants to be on the boob all night which means not much sleep for me. But then as I can guzzle a couple of pints of water through the night when it isn't hot I guess I can only blame my genes for S having the night time thirst!

S has his first swimming lesson this lunch time. DH will be taking him when I've gone back to work but we're both taking him this week. I'm very excited, will be gutted if he hates it!

MrsW the joy of academic contracts for post-docs means that (if DH stays in academia) we'll likely be moving every 2-3years for the next 10yrs or so. Added to having to save up for a large deposit, the universities that DH could possibly go to mostly been in expensive cities = bigger deposit, possibility of having to do a stint in Aus/NZ/US I can see us putting it off for so long that it eventually makes no sense to buy. Unless we achieve the dream and move back to Yorkshire!

Cycle we had a 5.30am start too. DH did a nappy change and put S back in his cot where he happily chattered to himself till 7. Oh except for the half hourly yells as he'd got his leg stuck between the bars again!

Hope your night was ok Ali and Star. I had a long lunchtime nap yesterday (as did I and ds2), he went to bed early in the evening because he was knackered (he has a cold), so was up for the day at 5 this morning

He's asleep in his cot, and sods law we have to go out soon as we have a dentists appointment. Why does it always happen like that?!

I know someone who had one of those hats for their son! He walked very early but didn't really have the coordination or strength so would try to climb and he fell over a lot.

Fizz you are not a bad mummy, these injuries happen! Just wait until they are trying to pull themselves up and walk

arch - I wear the Anita underwired nursing bra and find it really good. It is comfy, and gives a good shape. I would size down on the band size and up on the cup though as the band comes up quite big I think.

GGF - those hats are bonkers!

T woke at 3, co-slept until 5.15 when he latched on again and we got him back in his bed at 5.30. DS1 was awake at 6.45. T is knackered today, as are DH and I. At least we can ship DS1 off to preschool for 3 hours later

Hello everyone! I've been reading but haven't posted in a week or so. S's sleep has improved and I didn't want to jinx things by shouting from the rooftops. The heat seems to agree with S, she must take after me, so I'm going to get the heating blasting as soon as the temps drop again and hope things stay as they are. Much prefer 1 or 2 feeds a night to 4!

Sorry to those who are having a terrible time with work. MrsW your boss sounds like a nightmare. And I sympathise with your situation with DH working nights. DH worked nights when DS1 was born and it was awful. I felt really lonely and he felt like he was missing out. He has changed jobs now and it's much easier and less stressful.

Ali hope things are improving in your camp. Bedtime with a toddler and a baby is 2 person job here too and when I do it on my own I need a large wine to celebrate the achievement when they're both asleep. Am also counting down the days until DS is 3 (in Dec) and can take up a preschool place and get the NEG.

S is 23wks now so thinking about gearing up for the BLW fun to begin. She's not sitting unaided yet though so I should wait for that, right? Or does putting her in the bumbo count as unaided? She had a spear of asparagus last night while we ate and she mushed away with her gums and didn't look horrified by the taste. DS's first food was bread, he was weaned on picnic food like baguettes and dip as it was summer and they remain his firm favourites. Maybe if I start S off with vegetables she will love them from the start. I can but dream!