December 2011 - This too shall pass (with the help of imaginary woolly mammoths)

[Mmmmcheese]

Have gone with LMFs title suggestion :)

And please tell me more about tummy time. What do you do? Do you prop him up a bit with a cushion? We have one with the mat, but it said "from 6 months"...

We either prop him up on his toy: www.mamasandpapas.com/product-babyplay-tummy-time-activity-toy/755882728/type-i/
Or just lay him on a blanket or burp cloth on the bed or sofa. We only do it for 10 minutes or so each day, or until he starts crying. Also spend a fair amount of time with him lying on my chest and I think that qualifies as tummy time too. I think you can use the cushion as long as you're watching them (but then I'm a bit lax about age restrictions as long as there's no choking hazard or lead paint or whatever).

He's not keen on his play mat yet, he just stares at the colours and shapes and then realises he has been left lying down and starts screaming.

oi Saul still doesn't reach for anything yet. We use a rolled up towel, under his chest and armpits, with his arms over it. It's obviously free and does the same job as a tummy time pillow!

Saul is a funny one, very sensitive, he doesn't like anything new!

Right girls thanks you! I have been looking at a fisher price take a long swing... will get on ebay later! He also hates tummy time, so may try and find a tummy time mat and put flashing lights on the floor... need to try and find some battery powered lights!

Easy: Welcome. When babyYBR grows out of her Moses I'll move her into the cot in her own room. I recon she'll do that at within the month (11 wks now). Blow the advice ? practicalities come first!

Oi We just put her on a mat on her front, picking a time she's quiet-alert or playful, and let her wriggle. BabyYBR is one of the older ones here so she can hold her head up, sometimes push her front up on her arms, and will propel herself on her front if you put something firm behind her feet (like my hands).

The LO has been behaving really well the last couple of days so it can't last. She crashed out 5ish yesterday afternoon, DH got her up to feed her about 10pm, although she didn't really wake up. At 2am she was all awake and wanting to play.
Just now she's spent about an hour on multiple boobs then guzzled a full bottle, now she's trying to make out she's still hungry ? hollow legs already?

Kri5ty, I got them from amazon, only £5 ish.

We've got a fisherprice takealong swing: it's good cos the footprint is small so not always tripping over it, and DS seems to like the lights...for about 5 mins when he either falls asleep (10%) or bawls intensely to be picked up again (90%). I try to resist the temptation to have him in the moby wrap all day, cos he does re-a-son-a-bly well with sleeping in between night feeds at the moment and I don't want him asleep the whole day in case he gives the night sleeping up, am tired enough as it is!

80 shitting g since Monday

Am devastated

Don't know what I'm.doing wrong

Hey hawthers, at least there is some gain. Please don't feel so bad. ((((hugs))))

I take it the dr didn't prescribe the domperignon (!) to boost your supply?
Maybe he'll agree that that's the next step at your next appt and maybe that will have a more positive effect. You are doing your absolute best for your LO so please don't be hard on yourself. X

Hi oi yes Dr has prescribed domperidon (not the fun type!) but only been taking it since Friday. But they want me to go back tomorrow to see how it is going. This goes against all the other advice I've had of not weighing too frequently. Am totally stessed about it which isn't helping either. Finding it hard to just enjoy all this as I'm so worried about his weight.

hawthers, you are not doing anything wrong. I know this feels upsetting, as I was there with ds. He lost quite a lot of weight, then on the paediatrician's advice was weighed every two days (in retrospect,that is far too often, especially if they are using different scales). His weight was constant the first couple of times, then after about a week (of me feeding him about every two hours at the longest, often more frequently, and expressing for top ups) he had only gained 20 grams. After that, though, it picked up. As he was alert and had lots of wet nappies and was (and often still is) feeding a lot, I haven't had him weighed very frequently. He's now 10 weeks, and his weight gain is consistently on the 25th centile, but is still close to growing out os someof his 0-3 months clothes. Some babies put on weight slowly. The important thing is that he is putting on weight. Please try not to beat yourself up about it.

MsB, my eldest ds is similar to your eldest two. He's nearly 5, and he's just grown out of some 24 month tops. Getting school clothes to fit him hasbeen interesting.

(((hug))) for hawthers: you are
Doing everything you can, and it takes a while for domperidone to upregulate supply as far as I know: here's a v sensible doctors take on do
peridone (Jack Newman, the breastfeeding counsellors in mynarea say he's the BF guru for all Canada!) so see your Dr again, keep going, hopefully tjigs will improve v soon.
jack Newman info link

And the important quote from the link I've just put in:

"After starting domperidone, it may take three or four days before you notice any effect, though sometimes mothers notice an effect within 24 hours. It appears to take two to three weeks to get a maximum effect, but some mothers have noted positive effects only after 4 or more weeks. It is reasonable to give domperidone a trial of at least four, and better, six weeks before saying it doesn?t work."

Does that help? Xxxxx

name changed back

aka cheaptrick aka Ann.

I have put some photos of my family on my profile if you wana check me out for limited time only i will take them off tonight.

Both children asleep yay party time - we are watching dispicable me again with decaf, diet cola and in a bit we are going to have cheese on toast. We are living the dream man

Hawther hope things get better for you real soon (hugs)

(hugs) Hawthers, hope things get better soon, seems so ridiculous for them to be weighing him so often.

I'd be inclined to refuse to have such frequent weigh ins. They're not doing you any good, and if a child is healthy in other ways a short period of minimal weight gain isn't the end of the world

hawthers hope things improve soon, he sounds like he's doing really well in all others ways, as others have said the positive is that he IS gaining.

air your DC's are gorgeous, and you look lovely in your wedding dress.

Anyone fancy aims for the week again?
Buy wrapping paper for DH's birthday next week.
Knit as much of DS's cardigan as possible.
Have roof assessed on Tuesday for free solar panels.

Waving sheepishly. Hello all.

I was previously Bluebells, then Sleighbells in December, then I disappeared off the face of the earth while I attempted to get my head round this motherhood malarkey!

Just decided to try and locate you all today and after a quick read through of today's and yesterday's posts, realised what a mistake I made in ever disappearing from this group! While I head out every day, being a mum can sometimes be a little isolating and I'd forgotten how wonderful the advice and support is on here - it was also lovely catching up with the news on all your babies - so I sheepishly and humbly ask to be readmitted to your numbers.

Just a reminder, my lo is Luke born on 7th Dec by emergency section. He is another long baby (his dad is 6ft 10) so no surprise there - he was 59cm at birth, I bagged all his 0-3month clothes at 7 weeks as it was ridiculous that I was still trying to squeeze him into them and I'm not convinced he'll last in the 3-6 months for many more weeks! We've had are ups and downs but will leave all that for now.

Hawthers sorry to hear you are having such a hard time and the frequent weigh ins sound really tough. Sending hugs.

hawthers it is so crap. I would refuse such frequent weight checks too, the manual for HVs actually recommends weighing monthly/6 weekly provided baby is doing all of those checklist things he is doing. Do you really feel that you have a supply problem? I don't know if I have posted this before, but it might give you something to focus on.

Aims for the week...

Get to DD1's friend's party on time tomorrow!
Organise a day out with my Mum (she's a teacher so on half term)
Create a wonderful buffet lunch for Home ed friends on Thursday, hopefully inducing a very selective eater to try something new!
See the bottom of the laundry basket!

Welcome back coolhand!
Aims for the week:
Take some fab photos of Alistair
Find some stimulating things/toys for him
Find some nice 3-6mth onesies
Find out when I should see the dr, and get an appt for Ali's jabs

And I have work to do - possibly holding interviews on Thursday. I keep hoping for a lottery win so I never have to work again.

Hiya coolhand!

aims for the week:

Drink tea. A lot.
Do some stuff with the DDs that they will enjoy (they have requested painting, softplay, bowling, and pizza with the cousins)
Keep DS happy with neverending supplies of milk, nappies and general cuddles
Get some sneaky tidying/decluttering done without anyone in the household noticing and whinging that they really still need that broken cardboard box/bust pencil/annoying freebie plastic tat. And that's just DH.....

Hi coolhand!

hawthers sorry to hear you're having a tough time still with the weight gain :(

Well I got my job app finished today, v pleased to have that done. No hope of the job or even an interview , realistically (not published enough or handed in yet) but good to get my cv up to date, to get a general application statement together and to begin to put my name out there a bit.

Husband still recovering so doing all the night feeds (he usually does this elevenish one) so will be on here a bit tonight I expect! Minimopsy again slept from sixish to half ten and only had to be settled a few times between six and half seven so fingers crossed very hard she's getting used to her new bedtime routine. Only been two nights so far though that she's settled so better not count my chickens!

Oh and we got a tummy tub! In spite of her being 8 weeks tomorrow she is still only smiling very rarely and even then only half smiles but she seems to enjoy the tummy tub. No smiles in it so far bit shevsrrms very content in there and sits quietly.

Hope everyone gets some lovely sleep tonight !

My plans for the week are to get out for a proper walk every day, stick to my healthy eating plan and no alcohol until the weekend (!) and start writing a research proposal so i can apply for postdocs.

Hi everyone,

Just to state again, I check the thread multiple times through the day (though not through the night - my phone isn't clever enough and I'm not lugging my laptop up to the bedroom). I LOVE that every single problem/concern/incident I've had so far appears to have been replicated at least once by one of you!!

But I'm not very good at actually posting So this is going to be EPIC. Have a and a .

So, my last post was about 10 days ago when I was packing for our trip to London, for Seb's first official engagement - my Uncle's civil partnership ceremony. Pleased to report he was an absolute angel ALL day (although didn't understand that just 'cos he'd slept all day Mummy hadn't and was very tired that night/the next day).

We also managed to get home without getting stuck in the snow on the Sat afternoon.

This week has been pants though. DH has done a 6 day week, I've had a horrible cold (which I stupidly tried to manage without any medication) which Seb then got which has resulted in every feed on Thu/Fri being vomitted in my hair/on the sofa/carpet/my clothes/my bedsheets.

Best moment was yesterday morning, lying in bed staring lovingly into Seb's eyes who smiled at me just before projectile puking into my armpit!

He's barely been sick at all today though. 'Cos he loves Daddy.

Aims for this week
A daily walk even if it is raining/snowing/sleeting
Rhyme time on Tuesday
Slingingintherain on Wednesday (the rent a sling place that I've been saying I'll go to for the past 3 weeks!)
Rhyme Time on Thursday
Carry on packing the "non-essential" items ready for our relocation from Manchester to Northamptonshire.

Oh, and possibly have to deal with SIL visiting this week. (My PIL have both passed away, but she more than takes the place of family matriach) Bleugh!

Welcome back coolhand (nice bit of word play there:o) Ups and downs are what it's all about, we're always here with pompoms/haddock as needed:)

kitty It's those random unexpected pukes that make me glad I have short hair these days >_<

Aims:

Tomorrow:
Get to town on time to register octopus boy at nine.
Remember to pick parcel up.
Remember to go see headteacher.

In general:

Book day out tickets/train tickets for half term
Sort out laundry mountain
Ring council about the seventy million things they need to deal with.
Learn how to use a sling before half term...

LMF, I need to learn how to use my moby wrap too. Ugh, am so tired, found it v v hard to drag myself out of bed for this feed. Bit actually I should just be counting myself jolly lucky that I get tepbgood stretches of sleep a night, usually 2x three hours or even three abaca half. So actually I am really lucky! Compared to a couple of weeks ago when it was stretches of an hour and a half or two hours max, it's fab! And for an eight week old I guess it's pretty lucky too so I should just be very grateful!!

Anyone else up?