March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Hello all, come and add your babies to the list and let's see what adventures they bring!

[broodylicious]

Hey ladies. How's it going? V quiet in here these days - those bubbas keeping you all busy I imagine!

We've just got back from a lovely holiday in Italy. Defo recommend it as a family friendly place to go. We stayed in a little village on lake como; absolutely beautiful and Poppy was in her element as they apparently love babies in Italy! She seems so much happier when both mummy and daddy are with her and she seemed to do a lot more stuff this week, development wise I mean - she waves to everyone who says hello or bye bye and says what sounds like bye (or actually "ciao ciao" if you say that to her!), she now really holds her own when she's holding our hands and walking, not so confident on her own but she's getting there, and shes just generally sussing out the world in her own eyes iykwim.

So how are the mummies and babies doing? Xx

[madscimum]

Once again, it was a really light period! A little bit heavier than the last one (perhaps a pad for a day plus night needed), but still very much less than they used to be, even on the pill. I'm not complaining, but I'm mildly concerned that this isn't quite normal.

Interesting about the micro-pill broody. I remember looking at it and determining that I probably couldn't take it, but I totally don't remember why.

broody, can you look up things about 'night-weaning'? You might be able to start with that, and not completely cut out BF right away. (Or maybe it'll be worse because that's when she really, really wants it? I've heard both ideas, but you could figure out what works for you.) Tessa is still waking at night, but it varies wildly -- 1-2 times normally, but if she's teething it can be a dozen! But it's not bothering me (we got a side-car cot for her, so she's right next to me), and in fact I tend to wake at least once a night anyway, and nursing her helps me back to sleep. So I won't force anything on her (and then there's the little bit of guilt about me being gone all day...)

[broodylicious]

Ah not this time then mad

My periods came back pretty much as normal when dd was about 7 months I think. I started on the micropill but it sent me into a whirlwind of depression and paranoia so I'm off that, thank god! We will have another dc, prob start trying early next year so poppy will be 2.5 if we fall preggo straight away.

I'm desperate for her to start sleeping through the night. It's just ridiculous that shes this age and theres still not even a sniff. I think it's to do with breastfeeding and her waking to comfort feed - it's certainly not through hunger with the amount she eats during the day!! Whatever, it's driving me mad!! I don't want to suddenly stop BFing but I fear I may have no choice because if it was left up to her, I'm sure she'll still be going at it when she starts school

[madscimum]

Oh well, no siblings on the way. But I will check again next week just to be sure. The SPD pain continued for about 5 days, and I just got my period (heaviest so far) today. So I wonder if my hormones are just slowly ramping back up. I find the pre-menstrual SPD thing a bit worrying, however.

MIL is only here for one more day! I'm a bit exhausted from pushing myself at work, knowing her time here is limited. But I'm happy that she was able to come and help out. I'm planning to take a two-week holiday the last weeks before DH's thesis is due, to be baby care then. I hope I can work at home and look after the baby as much as possible until then.

[broodylicious]

Any news mad???

[madscimum]

Hi all!

broody, it sounds like your business is going well! DH and I have come to an agreement that I'm home by 5pm to look after Tessa, and he has her during the day. I'm still doing a couple hours work between 6am and whenever she wakes up, which is a bit tiring, as it feels like I am constantly on the run. MIL is current visiting for a few weeks to help out, so DH can work on his studies, so I've also been taking advantage of it to work longer hours.

pink, wow, lots of words! I was going to ask if anyone has them yet. Tessa makes lots of sounds, and sometimes might be saying words, but I can't really tell yet! We've been doing sign language, and she only recently picked up her second sign.

She's walking quite a bunch, now. We got little soft shoes for her, and she walked outside for the first time this week!

Tessa is also still very much breastfeeding, but I think I'm just going to let her take her own pace there. She goes quite long during the day without me (up to 11 hours recently), and has been fine. She'll come up to me and sign milk when I come home, but only after finishing whatever she's playing with.

And funny you ask that, pink. Yesterday I would have said no, but I'm now wondering... I wanted to ask how everyone's periods returned? Mine only came back three and a little months ago, and the first one was barely spotting, the second one slightly heavier spotting, and the third required a pad but only for one day. My friend said hers came back just like normal.

I wondered if maybe I could be pregnant but not noticed yet? But then I'd be something like 3 months pregnant or more, and I would have expected SPD to start up again. And then I woke this morning with symphis pubis pain! I think I may be buying a test later this week... I hope not, as I haven't been doing any pregnancy things, like taking folic acid (can you do that while breastfeeding?) or avoiding soft cheeses or the cat box! We weren't really planning on another soon or at all, but if it happened by accident, well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad for Tessa to have a little playmate? I'll wait and see.

[broodylicious]

I would love the time and energy to even DTD for fun let alone for a purpose!!

[Pinkpiglet]

So can I ask out in interest (or nosiness!): is anyone pregnant or TTC their next DC?
We're not yet but wouldn't mind if it just happened. Although I don't know how we'd cope with another little bundle of broken sleep!

[Pinkpiglet]

Hey all!

They do become toddlers so quickly don't they! Although Izzy isn't confidently walking, she can cruise which allows her to get hold of lots of things that I would think were out of reach! She can crawl at a frightening speed too. She loves food, definately her favourite time of the day. Her vocabulary is developing quickly too, she's a talker rather than a walker. She now has over 10 words that we understand so she's less frustrated as she can communicate.
We have the same problem with the boob Broody. I'm not sure that I'm ready to stop feeding her yet (I never had any intention of feeding for this long). She goes the whole day at nursery without milk (2 days), but makes up for it when we're together and she will happily graze on it throughout the day when we're together.
Our one area of misery is sleeping again. I think I miss the sleep so much as she was sleeping through at 8 months. I wonder if I broke her ability to sleep through!
It's crazy how much they develop at this age, each day is bringing a new skill, I love it!

Hope all your babies / toddlers are happy and doing well. Xx

[broodylicious]

Hey all!
So we have made it - our gorgeous little ones are now toddlers!!

Poppy is doing really well. Shes on her feet, cruising incredibly quickly and she can confidently walk while pushing her walker/activity thing. Scary! She's eating pretty damn well too apart from still being very much addicted to boob (which I'm going to have to start another thread about as I could do with some help trying to wean her off it!) Her birthday party was lovely, just 9 other babies and their parents, plus our friends and family, in a church hall not far from us. She wasn't at all bothered by all the fuss and had a lovely play with all her friends.

Mad - yes I have jacked in my employment and am fully self employed. I started my business - Ping Communications, offering PR, marketing, copywriting and event management to small and medium sized businesses - on January 1 and by January 3, I was working for two clients. By January 31, I'd billed three clients with another project on the go! Far better than I could've imagined

What's new with your babies?
Xx

[madscimum]

Hi pink and happy b-day to your LO!

We're coming up on Tessa's this weekend... I've just realised she'll often be a near-Easter baby :)

Hope everyone is doing okay, I'd been wondering what we're all up to now!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Absolutely pink! What a lovely post.

[Pinkpiglet]

Hello all,

I haven't been on here in a while but felt I must post as my beautiful DD is one today. I can't believe it! It's been such a magical and tough year but I wouldn't change it (I'd take more sleep if it was offered!). I can't get over how funny dd is, she loves laughing and having a joke. And she seems to understand so much.
We've had a great day today. Lunch out and swimming which she loves. Her favourite present was the 6 helium balloons I got her (not the expensive wooden dolly pram that Mummy likes )

As I'm feeding her and thinking back to a year ago, I've come over quite sentimental.

I hope all your LOs have either had or have a lovely first birthday. We're really lucky to have them.

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Hooray! Well done Tessa! Thanks, Fyfe had a great birthday!

[madscimum]

Hi! Wow, we've gone really quiet, haven't we? Tessa took her first steps this weekend! But it looks like it will be a while for walking, as if she really wants to get somewhere she can go much faster crawling.

Happy birthday to Fyfe! (tomorrow, right?) One of our first :)

Hope everyone is doing well. How are things going?

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Hi all! Haven't posted in a while...Fyfe is STILL not standing...I'm so excited for him to do it as don't think walking will be far behind, his cruising and transfers are so steady now! He's been sleeping through the night for 6 weeks now which is amazingly awesome! the downside is that he wakes at 6(!) but hey, I was beginning to wonder if it'd ever happen. He's eating quite well now too after not really being interested by quantities of food. Still a little fussy though! His birthday is really soon - less than 2 weeks! We're having a little buffet lunch at home for him and his closest 15 baby mates an their mums...going to be manic!

[madscimum]

Welcome back, goths. Yeah, we've got standing too -- it's so strange to put her on her feet and she just stays there :)

Has anyone else gone back to work? broody and kiki, you were both doing some freelance, right? Started that yet? How is it going?

I'm back to full responsibility, but I'm generally spending half days in the office -- I'll wake about 6am and get in a few hours before Tessa wakes, then deal with baby-morning and head in for whatever meetings and such I have (usually starting at 10am). The plan had been to get home by 5pm (and be done!) and take over from DH so he could work on his thesis (he wouldn't work before then, anyway), but DH being poorly (series of illnesses, and he had a colonoscopy this week which will hopefully shed some light on his problems) has meant that I've been instead rushing home as soon as I finished meetings to help and/or come home by 5pm but not yet been done. I've found it quite a struggle to work with awake and playing DD around. I've talked to DH about how I need to spend more time in the office, as I work at about half speed at home, but of course all the special situations have meant that hasn't happened. Has anyone else managed some working at home successfully?

[MurderOfGoths]

Hey everyone, think I was in this group way back when DS was born. Been a crazy 11 months! Can't believe it's gone so fast!

DS is still waking in the night for a feed, and fighting sleep most of the time. Bloody knackered! He's also teething so is a grumpy little boy at the moment.

On the plus side he's learnt to stand in the last 2 weeks.

[madscimum]

Ooo, exciting broody! Yeah, I've been thinking about it, but not sure what to do -- one issue is that we'll actually be travelling on her birthday, so I was thinking of doing something the next weekend. Our family is all overseas, but it might be a chance to invite people over to the new house :) Or we'll just do something little with family on internet chat...

[broodylicious]

So ladies, what have you got planned for your lo's bdays? I'm just looking for church halls to hire - we have decided to do a social thing so inviting quite a few of our friends as well as our family. V exciting!

[madscimum]

Sounds great, broody! Hope it continues...

[broodylicious]

Had our BEST ever night last night!!!! Poppy took ages to get down but when she finally did, she slept 6 1/2 hrs solid, woke for a tiny feed and cuddle, then went back to sleep for another solid 4 hrs! (you get the idea, haha!) Praying for the same tonight......

[madscimum]

Well, I won't be much help, I'm afraid. Tessa still wakes at least 2x a night -- more if I've been gone longer in the day. And since work is ramping up and I'm starting to spend 6-8 hours out of the house some days (with her at home with Dad), I figure she needs to make it up at night. Although sometimes she just seems to want a cuddle, especially lately, as I think she is teething again. So I end up just hugging her and she falls back asleep sucking her thumb. Maybe you could try something like that? Not sure if it would work if she's hungry, though.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. But good to hear sleep has gotten lots better, broody!

[broodylicious]

Hi ladies. Quick question for you... Are any of your LOs still waking at night for a bf? Poppy has got lots better at night (you'll remember she was waking 12-15 times between 8 and 230/3 so anything less was always bound to be a bonus, lol!!!) but still "needs" two feeds. How have you gone about weaning yours off the breast at night? She will kick up a real fuss if DH goes to her and she wants a feed so I fear this is going to be yet another period of nighttime hell if we try to stop.... One of my friends is continuing to bf as long as her lg (just turned one) demands a feed 2/3 times a night - she doesn't want the hassle of the fight so is not even trying to quit. However, I do actually want to go out for a few every now and then but while she's like this, it's impossible. Please help ladies!!

[madscimum]

Woo, hoo, I'm back online! Nice to see you again knitterati!

We're moved now (how was your move knitterati?), and I enjoy being closer to work. Already did a come-home-for-lunch-and-feed day already, although still working mostly from home. Talking to DH about getting some kind of schedule so that it easier for me to make meetings, knowing when I plan to be in the office vs at home.

Tessa is starting to get quite jealous of my computer! I can't use it on the couch near her anymore, as she likes to bang on the keys. We've got a lot of crawling (she's fast!) and have done a few unassisted stands, typically when she was holding onto to something and then sort of absently does something with both hands.