March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

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

Thanks everyone, Fyfe is fine, still a bit snotty but never once complained about feeling ill, I am particularly about it now that I have it- I feel like absolute death supposed to be going on my sister's hen do tomorrow, 5am-1am, really not sure I'm going to be up to it.
Yes, Fyfe hates all water, he has had two of his swimming lessons so far, screamed from start to finish at the first one but had breaks from crying an screaming in the second! It was very cool as the instructor dunked the babies one by one and pushed them to us under the water, amazing to see him coming towards me, eyes wide open, beautifully streamlined!
For bath time I can recommend http://www.27skincare.com/1081.html - it's my sister's fiancées company and their stuff is gorgeous!

www.27skincare.com/1081.html

It's all gone v quiet on here - hope you're all ok?
We went to our first baby yoga yday. Dd didn't appreciate it and spent the whole time either crying, feeding, facing other babies or (her latest trick) standing up. The teacher thought she was v funny and told me not to worry but I'll be miffed if she does that every week as I'm paying to learn stuff! Hey ho! Joys of being mummy to 13 wk old! Xxx

Hi all am attempting a night out tonight without Orla in tow! Going out for drinks and dinner with a group of mums I've met. Really hoping Orla goes down at 7 as usual, last night she did an epic feed until 8.45! Trying to work out if I can have 2 glasses of wine?! Prob shouldn't as feed her at 11 ish
trouble hope you and Fyfe are both feeling better that must be hard when you feel poorly too
broody baby yoga sounds good. Know what you mean Orla cried and fed through most of baby massage last week! Is hard with these classes sometimes to get the timing right as each day is different.

Bit of a personal question have any of you had an episiotomy? Mine is still bit sore after 14 weeks it aches at times is that normal? My dh wants me to go to doctors but thought of anyone poking around after labour freaks me out. Am going to have to get over it soon as due a smear .

Anyway lo still feeding away and due out in 15 mins wish me luck

Thanks punk, Fyfe got over it really quickly but I still have it!
You can definitely have 2 glasses of wine! A friend told me the NCT say you need to be four tunes over the drink driving limit for the alcohol to even begin transferring. Even then it is in minute amounts! Enjoy your night!

Hi all,
Punk- I had an episiotomy. Is it the area where the stitches were that's still sore? I still get aches, but it's not exactly in that place, oddly, more just generally down there. I'm never quite sure if it's connected... Anyway- hope you had a great night out.
Trouble- did you make it to the hen do? Hope you feel better soon.

Bumped in to kiki today, Ivy is just beautiful!

I just had my worst night yet by a long way, I realise it's nothing compared to most people but it's all relative right?
This last week Fyfe had added in a 1.30 feed to the lovely 20.30-3.00 then 3.00-6.00 then hourly from there thing we had going on...then, last night 20.30-00.00, woke for a feed then woke for 10 min feeds at (drum roll please) 1.00, 2.00, 4.30, 5.30, 6.30, and now! I suppose it is lucky that I went at 22.00!
He's 4 months on Sunday so I wonder if this is the dreaded regression...I definitely don't like it!

Oh no trouble what's this regression? I have got used to my sleep again! Hopefully it's just a one off night and he'll go back to his normal pattern. You must be shattered poor you drink lots of tea and eat lots of toast
Thanks all I made my night out it was really nice and Orla was a good girl for her daddy (typical hey?!)
kiki it does kind of ache if I've been doing a lot guess these things take time to get back to normal. Think I'll have to brave the doctors for peace of mind
On another note I approached work about going back 3 days a week. They have come back with 4 days but think I will be basically doing what I did before in a five day week in four. Really don't want to put Orla in nursery for 4 days at 11 months. Don't really want to put her in for 1 day! Am seriously considering childminding as an option?!
Hope you've all got nice weekend ahead. I've got my two best friends up for the weekend which should be fun

Lovely to see Fyfe looking so grown-up & cheery yesterday, too- and to get such a wonderful big smile! Sorry about the sleeping news though. Ivy's been waking up earlier in the night again- I hadn't heard of sleep regression- just looked it up & it seems to fit in with her recent patterns. Sounds like it's relatively short-lived, fortunately. Interesting to read that if they experience this you should encourage good bouts of sleep during the day so that they're not so grizzly if they wake up at night...

Punk- if you go for a check I expect they'll just look to see if the stitches themselves have healed- don't know if you've had them seen already, but when they looked at mine it wasn't so intrusive as a smear- it was done lying on your side with legs closed & the mw had a very quick peek from the back...

It's tough re: going back to work- I'm lucky in that I'm freelance based at home, so am going to have to do a lot of working in the evenings & be as flexible with dp who is also freelance- we'll have to juggle things between us as best we can. A good friend whose dd is exactly 2 months older than Ivy has just gone back four days a week- I'd find that terribly hard, but they seem to be getting on with it OK- her dp is doing the childcare 'til September, when she'll start at nursery.

We had the second round of injections this afternoon- hoping Ivy isn't as unsettled as last time- she seems perfectly happy at the moment.

Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend. X

Oh, Punk- don't know if this relevant to you, but my friend who's just gone back to working 4 days- she's thinking of having another baby sooner rather than later, so instead of reducing her hours to a p/t contract, she's still officially full time, but taking off 1 day a week as annual leave until it runs out- it just means she'd qualify for a far better maternity package next time round...

about work punk, I hope they'll reconsider! Google the 4 month sleep regression, there's tons of info on it. I'm fairly sure Fyfe has started teething too as has been chomping on my fingers today and I can feel a spike under the gum, he really screamed earlier too for seemingly no reason! Stopped when I gave him my fingers to chomp!
Hope Ivy's jabs were okay this time kiki! Fyfe had the third lot on Monday, I think that's it for some time now!

Glad your night out went well, punk!

Ugh, teething -- Tessa has been doing it for a few weeks now, which I thought was way early (2.5 months??), but apparently isn't, as they have a ways to move through the gums. We have our first dentist appointment week after next, which apparently is meant to just get the babies used to the dentist as a nice place :)

Oh dear, that sleep regression sounds worrying, especially as it sounds like it happens right as I head back to work! Tessa slept nearly 7 hours last night, and has been mostly doing around 6, which I've really enjoyed. Grr, work... they've annoyed me a bit lately -- my PhD student just sent me an email wondering "when are you available" and would I be "coming into the offfice"? Um, maternity leave, anyone? I told him I'd read his thesis, not that we'd be having meetings. But he can be excused as young and stressed at finishing, and at least he used my designated "secret maternity leave email". The School administrator who contacted my Uni mail, as if I'd be reading it (good thing I did, I suppose), even though she knew the other one, saying she noticed I hadn't nominated outputs for evaluation and the meeting was next week... I reminded her about the secret email and nominated outputs. Sigh. But if I spend mental energy stressing, it's my own fault, and I have a month left so I'll endeavour to not think about it!

Does anyone know of secure places to put babies as you do things as they get older? I'd been putting Tessa in her bouncer so she can watch me while I do things like load the dishwasher and cook. But she really likes leaning over the side (no matter how much I straighten her out), and I'm worried as she gets heavier she'll make it fall over.

another night of being woken almost every hour! He has never been like this, I was so happy with the fact that I got enough sleep every night from day one!
arden I have a playpen for Fyfe as a safe space, I know some people don't agree with them but as I have a dog running around I think it'll be great once the bouncer is not enough to contain him.

Blimey, Trouble! Hope you all get more sleep tonight. Do you think it's regression, or teething, or both?

Arden- we'll also get a playpen at some point soon- my house is on three floors with really steep wonky stairs, so it's really important to have a safe place if I need to answer the door/ phone etc. At the moment I leave Ivy on her activity mat- she plays under the arch on a big pile of blankets, so if she unexpectedly rolls etc, she'd be fine. I was given one of those bouncer-in-a-door-frame things, too- which I think can be used from 6 months.

What a pain about work. Sounds like the admin people are just being lazy- surely they get an auto-response from your usual email address to remind them you're on maternity leave? As well as doing my own freelance work I'm a director of a small company, and although I've bowed out of our main events this year, I still get emails about really annoying small niggly things that take ages to sort out, and that end up being quicker to do myself rather than trying to pass them on to someone else, and then have to explain it all.. What I find really annoying is when work people arrange to drop something off, or call at a certain time etc and I get everything organised to make sure I'm ready, and then they're late and I have to hang around waiting, and by the time they turn up Ivy needs a feed or is just waking up or something... Grrrgh....

Much better night thanks! dream feed when i went to bed at 00.00 and feeds at 3.30 and 5.30, up at 8.00. Not as good as we had it before but much better than the last few nights!

Oh this isn't good talking about work is it?! I looked into the baby sensory franchise, to do alongside returning to work two days a week, but it was just too much initial outlay for me so it's back to plan a - work two days where I currently am and set up on my own to boost the cash. I'm planning on being totally self sufficient/working just for me by next Christmas. Who else is freelance? What is it you do? Any advice greatly received! Xx

What do you do for a job broody?

Marketing and PR hun and thats what I'll be doing that for myself :o xx

Oh okay, something I know nothing about! I was hoping to help you with some inspirational idea for working at home! Sorry you feel so about going back.

Ok ladies, I really need your help as I'm coming to the end of my tether yet again with my dd avoiding sleep during the day. It's an absolute nightmare to try and get her to nap even though it is ridiculously obvious she is totally worn out. I've tried feeding her to within an inch of her life, rocking/swaying, singing, shushing, driving, walking and holding her in a way my yoga teacher taught us and bouncing on my yoga ball. Yesterday morning it took me best part of an hour to get her to sleep and put her in her basket. She had 50 minutes yesterday which is amazing for her as normally it's 10/15 mins if anything at all.
Today, she was knackered from 830am but was hungry so fed well, she broke off at about 915 and started to cry which I read as tiredness cry so rocked, swung etc etc for over an hour but to no avail. DH managed to get her to sleep (f annoying!!) but she only did 25 mins and so was grumpy straight away but refused any more attempts. I went into town with her this afternoon and she just cried, looked all around her everywhere, ignored my shushing and rocking, cried some more - I even took her out the car seat (on wheels obvs) and had her in our caboo carrier to try and tempt her but nope.
Im just so frustrated. I know I need to teach her but I'm just stuck as to how I should be doing this. Please help!! She's 14 weeks and ebf on demand.

Hey Broody. Sorry to hear you're having a bit of a pain with sleeping issues. I know it's a bit of a contentious issue, but have you tried a dummy? Erin is still swaddled too, even for naps. I got her a thing called a wombie, which you can have enclosing the arms or just one arm out or with both arms out. She normally manages two 45mins- 1 hour naps in the day plus one two hour nap. I think we have it really easy though as her tiredness cues are really obvious - rubbing eyes being her earliest one and she has a distinctive whiny/chatty noise she makes, so it's straight forward to catch her tiredness window before she gets over tired. I appreciate we have that part easy though.

I was really anti dummies before but tried one when I was at the end of my tether. She only has it in the bedroom and I'm going to try and lose it around the 6 month mark when she's learnt to put herself to sleep better. I went from having to rock her for ages to being able to just lie her down and she goes to sleep in minutes. She's exclusively breastfed and there's been no confusion issues, which was another thing I was worried about.

In our news, there was an earthquake that was 7 on the scale and went on for 30 odd seconds last night. Jumped out of bed, grabbing a sleeping baby and jumped into the doorway. First one I've felt since early pregnancy and felt much more freaked out...having a baby changes how chilled you are about everything, doesn't it?!

I too need to make a decision about work in the next few weeks. I can have next year off but financially I should go back part time if we intend to have another baby. If I stayed off next year I'd wipe our savings and I'd be 33 when I went back, so would be a minimum of 34 before I could get maternity leave again. It's such a hard decision, isn't it? I'm hoping for a lotto win in the next few weeks to make it all easier!

How's the sleep going, Trouble?

Sleeping is all better thanks, was just the two awful nights! He's also had 3 good baths with no tears so seems to getting over the whole water thing..I'll see how swimming goes tomorrow! We started baby massage course on Monday too which was great!
Wow, the earthquake sounds scary bee! It sounds like a hard decision re work!
I can't offer any advice broody, Fyfe doesn't really officially 'nap' in the day as we're out most of the time so he just has little cat naps in my arms or in the sling/on my lap, he just falls asleep when he's tired. I hope you find something that works for you, it can't be nice if she's getting herself in to a state about it.

Gosh bee! Scary earthquake! I've been in 2 minor ones here in the UK...v weird feeling. Can't offer any advice on work I'm afraid - I got made redundant just before Xmas, which worked out to be the best thing really!

Broody with the naps, have you tried white noise? Works a treat with my LO ...even bought an app with it! I tap her bum, put white noise on and she's off! Also, have you tried BFing in bed on your side? Sometimes you can get them to sleep & doze...it's lovely! Hope you're able to get some naps in!

This is probably not all that helpful Broody, but during the day we just let Ivy fall asleep when she's tired rather than having any kind of routine or putting her down to sleep as such - though usually if she drops off it's after a feed. When her eyes start going I just lie her down wherever she is (i.e. sofa/ bouncer/ on our bed etc) and cover her over if it's chilly, or if she's in my arms or DPs, she might stay there, or we'll gently put her down nearby, rather than taking her to her cot and making it an 'official sleep' if that makes sense. She sleeps far less in the daytime now- when she was tiny she'd doze off almost as soon as she went into her pram or sling, now she usually stays awake and looks around a lot more when we're out, or plays with her toys in the pram etc...