October 2005 Babies - it just keeps getting better and better!

[Elf1981]

Thought I'd steal the honours of setting up a new thread

Hi there

have not posted for ages due to time constraints but was around on the antenatal threads. Just to hopefully put some of your minds to rest, I am self employed so was out of hospital on Thursday night and back in my shop on the next Monday. I am very lucky as I work with my dh so we have shared childcare, but it was very hard to start wtih. Isaac started nursery on his 3months nursery for one morning a week and now goes two half days and will go up to three in April. Other than that he had a whole day with my parents. We have had to become very organised but Isaac is very contented and loves nursery, the staff love him and touch wood we have had no problems so far. It is a small nursery only 20 children in total and only six under one and he is the youngest so gets lots of attention. And after a hard night with him or day when he has been ill work is welcome although I miss him I think we are both benfiting from it.

Sorry for such a mamouth post after not talking for such a while, but reading the thread keeps be sane a lot of the time and also soothes the fears of a first time mum

Jai138, Thank you, gives me hope that you have made it work, working with a small baby and Im so glad your baby is happy at nursery. Its difficult when the papers keep telling you how bad it is. Hopefuly Heidi will enjoy it as well. mrow

Forgot to say before he went to nursery he spent rather a lot of time in the shop as well - contact with people keep them happy and confident
And believe me you will cry your heart the first time you take them to nursery but now I get a full five hours work done and do not worry at all quite liberating really!!

Ive chickened out and my husband is taking her the first day as its also my first day back at work! Think he'll handle it better than I would!

We argue over who gets to collect

Jai - are you talking 4 days or 11 before you went back to work? Either way, I have no idea how you did it!! I could hardly make myself a cup of tea never mind get out of the house!! Wow.

Four days but not full time - more of an hour here and there on most daysespecially whilst breast feeding, luckily he spent most of the time asleep after two weeks I was doing full afternoons and mornings.

But been self employed is a pull on its own and it was our busiest time of the year. Half term at the moment so we have a nice quiet spell and lots of quality time - only two hours of work tomorrow then together for the whole day

It must be great having that flexibility Jai. My DH had a job where he got home at 5pm but he got paid off. His new job is further away and he gets home around 6.10pm. Johnny's bath and bedtime routine starts around 6.15pm and then he's in bed by 7pm. It means DH hardly sees him through the week and if he goes anywhere after work then he doesn't see Johnny at all. I just feel he is missing out but hey ho, that's how life goes I'm afraid.

Johnny woke at 5am this morning. The cloth nappy trick seems to be working as he was lying pretty much straight up and down the cot but the wee lamb was starving and was trying his best to eat my pyjamas. I fed him for 10 mins and then he passed out again until 7am.

I know we are very lucky, we both worked in financial services and between us got made redundant 4 times in one year, then we were offered the opportunity of buying the business and it seemed the right thing to do. otherwise we would have both been working full time for other people and commuting for miles. Our lack of planning however did mean that we bought the business in Jan and got pregnant in Feb!!

Isaac will now sleep through from 8pm to about 5am when he wants a bottle and then goes back to bed till about 8am. But wakes a couple of times for his dummy (I promised that it would never happen!)

Evie wouldn't dream feed last night (tried three times and she kept turning away!) and woke at 3:30, fed her and put her back to bed but I was wide awake and didn't get back to sleep til half five, and was up again with Evie at half seven. Never mind!!!

Elf Cameron started doing this to me last week so I started to keep him awake for an hour and a half at 9.45 - 11.15pm he only takes about an 2/3 oz at this time and plays under his gym for about half an hour during this time, here's what I do I wake him 9.45 take him downstairs where it is bright with tv on, make sure he fully awake offer him bottle at 10pm then usually under gym by about 10.30 then at 11.00pm Change nappy take him upstairs, dim lights offer fresh bottle and back in bed for 11.15pm he then sleeps till about 7am. He only took about 2oz from first bottle then 1oz from second. Now for the last 2 nights he is too tired and can only stay awake for half an hour before putting him back down but he is still sleeping till 7am.

mummygow, sounds like a good plan. I'm at my wits end as to why ruby wakes so much during the night. She eats a couple of portions of steamed veg during the day with some pureed fruit and has cereal for breakfast plus lots of bottles. surely that should be enough to keep her going but she also has on average 20ozs of milk each night! She wakes purely and simply because she's hungry. I've tried cuddling her, dummy etc. but all she wants is a bottle. She woke 3 times last night and had 7 ozs each time. I tried dream feeding her when i got to bed (because she usually wakes me up about an hour later) she took the whole dream feed bottle but then still woke up an hour and a half later for the other one. To her it was as if the dream feed hadn't happened. I don't mind having no sleep so much as I'm worried she's taking too much milk. HV said it's not great for their kidneys and she's getting very big.

You'd think as I'm on my third child I'd know what to do but Ruby is completely different to my other two and I haven't got a clue!

She's such a dream to look after during the day and is so smiley and happy all the time. This is the only problem we have. dh has suggested diluting the night bottles so she's not getting as much and I think I'll try this and see if she gives up in the end.

Oh dear. I've had three nights in a row now with Johnny clunking his head on the side of the cot. We tried tucking him in really tight with a blanket to see if that would hold him in place. It held him in place all right, but he screamed the house down twice in the night which was worse than him just waking the once!! I have added "wings" to his sleeping bag today in such a way that he can still kick his arms and legs but he can't manoeuver side to side in the cot. I looked in on him earlier on and he seemed to be sleeping, but his arms were going like a windmill. Strange child

mawbroon - they certainly seem to get wrigglier dont they?
I used to put Evie down and pratically find her in the same position. Nowaways, she's all over the place. The other night at my mums she turned 90degrees in the travel cot (from length ways to width ways).
I have trouble if I use blankets. Evie's a beggar for pulling them up over her face. I think its my fault, as I lay her on the sofa, throw a blanket over her face shouting "where's Evie" then pull it off saying "there she is!" which she loves, but I think she's trying to play the game by herself!
When I feed her on my bed, I put a blanket under her head (I feed her lying down) and leave her asleep. The other day I was checking my emails and I knew she had woken up, then I heard a funny noise and she'd pulled the blanket over her head.
Thank God for gro bags otherwise I'd never get a wink of sleep in fear of her pulling the blanket over her face in the night!

Well, a bit of success last night with the "wings" on Johnny's sleeping bag. He slept from 7pm until 6am which is a huge improvement on what he has been doing lately.

I am also wondering if the wee mite is itchy hence the wriggling. He has very dry and angry red skin all over which has not cleared up despite using oil on him every night after his bath. He gets bathed in plain water and I don't put anything other than olive oil on his skin. At first I thought that the daily baths (which we started around a month ago as part of the bedtime routine)were drying out his skin, but now I am wondering if it is a reaction to the washing liquid. I have been using Ecover liquid but I now have a big load of his clothes in the machine with some Fairy sensitive. It's worth a try. My side of the family are all cursed with asthma/excema/sensitive skin, so it's more than likely that he has it too. I might try some EBM on his skin too, but I want to try changing the washing liquid first so that I can eliminate it from my enquiries

It's been awfully quiet on here. I hope everyone is doing ok.

MB

Elf - I have that fear of blankets too. Especially after finding Johnny lying jammed against the bottom of the cot with his face where his feet should have been at the bottom of the cot. If I do use an extra blanket when it's cold, I make sure that it's one of those ones with holes in it.

His arms go like a windmill and his legs like he's on a bicycle. Must be that trip to Holland which we had last month

Hi all, took ages to catch up on thread , I?ve got my nanny sorted, she starts next week then I?m back to work a few weeks later. Baby has anothertooth coming through, poor wee soul and ds2 is having a terrible time with his canine(?) teeth. So it?sdribble city here.

We should to a roll call and see who is missing from our ante-natal thread

Elf1981 ? glad you got your child care sorted.

Mawbroon ? I?dlove to see a pic of your wee one, can you email me one at redtartanlass at hotmail dot com

Mrow- good luck for going back to work

Jai38 ? respect for going back to work so soon, glad to hear you?re ok

Justbonnie ? I?m on my 3rd baby as well and she is sodifferent to the other 2. The 2 boys were well onto solids at her age, I triedher last night, ?cos she keeps chewing. I put the baby rice inot her mouth, she looked at me in surprise and just let it fall out again . When I weanedmy 2 boys they couldn?t gobbleup quick enough. So despite her wee tooth, she?s not ready yet.

Roll Call

SusiS
Marinda
BBB
mishmash2
Morningpaper
RedTartanLass here
elf1981
Jockey
Buttonmoon
alterego
Lexie
Hester
shama
triceratops
Jess&BMum
Grannygoose
fastasleep
Mimxx
Moomin
Mawbroon
elclose
Danishmummy
jai38
nervousmum
yorkefleet
piggiesmum
novadandypowder

Hi all, took ages to catch up on thread , I?ve got my nanny sorted, she starts next week then I?m back to work a few weeks later. Baby has anothertooth coming through, poor wee soul and ds2 is having a terrible time with his canine(?) teeth. So it?sdribble city here.

We should to a roll call and see who is missing from our ante-natal thread

Elf1981 ? glad you got your child care sorted.

Mawbroon ? I?dlove to see a pic of your wee one, can you email me one at redtartanlass at hotmail dot com

Mrow- good luck for going back to work

Jai38 ? respect for going back to work so soon, glad to hear you?re ok

Justbonnie ? I?m on my 3rd baby as well and she is sodifferent to the other 2. The 2 boys were well onto solids at her age, I triedher last night, ?cos she keeps chewing. I put the baby rice inot her mouth, she looked at me in surprise and just let it fall out again . When I weanedmy 2 boys they couldn?t gobbleup quick enough. So despite her wee tooth, she?s not ready yet.

Roll Call

SusiS
Marinda
BBB
mishmash2
Morningpaper
RedTartanLass here
elf1981
Jockey
Buttonmoon
alterego
Lexie
Hester
shama
triceratops
Jess&BMum
Grannygoose
fastasleep
Mimxx
Moomin
Mawbroon
elclose
Danishmummy
jai38
nervousmum
yorkefleet
piggiesmum
novadandypowder

sorry

last night Evie was asleep in her cot with her legs up in the air. Bless her.
She's currently lying on the bed, pulling the sheet over her face and grinning at me when I say no. Good lord, theres no hope if she wont listen to me now!! Oh, now she's changed her mind, she's trying to sit up. Gets halfway and gives up, bless her!

mawbroon - what washing stuff do you use for yours and your DH washes? I use Ariel non bio as I am allergic to a lot of wash powers, and my mum has been using Ariel since I was a kid after having bad experiences with me on Daz and Fairy to name but a few. I use Ariel with Evie's clothes too. I was told in hospital not to use conditioner for babies clothes as this is what is likely to cause skin reactions. Not sure how true this is though!

Elf - DH and I use Ecover liquid. We used to use the powder, but it gets a bit cloggy in the drawer of the machine. I've never had any skin problems myself because of washing powder. I'm more troubled by perfumed soaps and lotions etc. I also never use fabric conditioner ever as I am too mean to buy it!!

RTL - I would love to send you an email pic of Johnny, but DH wouldn't be keen on that either. I don't know who he thinks all you other lovely MNetters are, but he is very protective of Johnny which I can understand. So, we'll just have to arrange to be anon for now. Saying that, he doesn't have a prob with me going to the Scottish meet up on Saturday. Hey Mummygow, are you going?

MB

mawbroon playing it by ear at the moment dh bought a house to rent out and we got the keys last Thursday and the new tenants are supposed to be moving in on Wed, but the house is in a much worse state thatn we remembered it to be in, so have been cleaning, scraping and painting all weekend so will have to wait and see what this week brings.

RTL I was originally on the ante-natal thread as my first due date was 27th october but then changed to 2 November but alas the wee monkey came on 25th october, so do I count on the roll call

Cameron doing fab and is getting hungrier again, still sleeping fine and giving me big cheesy smiles - I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone - I'm still around, just don't get the time to post like I used to! And this is my fourth but I still don't know what I'm doing FGS!!! She is quite different, but luckily in a good way - mostly easier. I still have to ask questions though!

I've been invited to a talk about weaning by the health visitors! My others were taking a tiny bit by this point but she really doesn't seem at all interested. I left her for 7 hours on Saturday and was slightly worried but she downed 3 bottles of expressed milk the little porker!!! Just shows she will take it when she has to. I don't think she missed me at all and feel a little about this, but also that she was happy!

Will try and read through the thread now!

Hello! have been off line for nearly 4 weeks due to moving house, broadband being down (don't get me started on that one!!!) dh was made redundant as expected on Friday and my grandad passed away and it was his funeral in Yorkshire on Thursday. All in all not a great month for us really.
Will go back now and catch up with all I have missed on the thread since 26th Jan!! might take some time
Hope you are all ok

Hannah x

Oh Yokefleet you seem to be having a tough time of it at the moment. Sorry to hear about your Grandad. I hope that your DH gets another job soon. Mine was made redundant right before Christmas which was a shocker, but he got another job pretty quickly. It didn't start until 1st Feb, but he got to spend 5 weeks with Johnny which money can't buy. And I got a bit of a rest so every cloud has a silver lining and all that....

We are just back from baby massage. The HV also weighs the babies there since they are in the buff anyway and it saves us going to the baby clinic on a Tuesday. Johnny has put on 1oz in the last 4 weeks and has plummeted to just above the 9th centile. This kind of co-incides with when he started to sleep 12 hours at night so I think there is a link between the slow down in growth and the sleeping all night. I hope he puts on some weight soon though. Don't want the HV hasseling me about it