March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

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

Argh knitterati if only I knew...

Hi ladies. How's everyone going?

We had quite an emotional couple of weeks here. My folks left last week after being here for 5 weeks, which was gutting. They were fab with Erin; my dad was the best person at getting her to do really long 'talking' stints and my mam was really lovely with her too. It's not that we can't cope without them, it's just sad that they'll miss all the tactile stuff with her as she grows- the gorgeous snugly cuddles and the like. Thank goodness for Skype though .

Knitterati - to settle Erin we usually swaddle then rock in our arms and sing or whisper 'there, there' until her eyes become slits. Whilst we're doing that, we put a couple of wheat packs in her bassinet, so it gets all warm. We take them out just before we put her in and then lay her down super gently and the keep whispering 'there, there' to her until she's fully out. Usually the does the trick but it can ake up to 10 mins whispering (I think the whispering may sound like the blood whoosh from in the womb). We always avoid making eye contact too.

Trouble - I used your tip about showering with Erin in the bathroom, except I kept her clothed and laying in a baby relax chair as it's getting cold here and our bathroom can be chilly. It worked a treat. Thank you for the tip - it's revolutionised our mornings.

My tip that you probs all know, but is to use heat packs in your baby's bed before laying them down. It makes the bedding nearer to body temperature, so it's not a shock when they're laid down / makes it seem like they're still being cuddled.
Also, I did a baby massage class last week and apparently if you rub your pointer finger along the flats of their soles from your left to right (if they're laid on thir backs with their feet towards you) it helps release trapped wind.

P.s. Arden. - reading your posts puts me in awe of you! I thought we had it tough with Erin's reflux problems but you're a trooper. Massive respect! Hope things are improving!

glad it worked for you bee, it makes such a difference to be able to easily shower every morning doesn't it?! Your tip sounds handy, DH has nearly finished painting Fyfe's cot now and we plan to get him in to it when we start his bedtime routine next week, so far we have all been going to bed at 9 but we will do 7.30 bath, feed, bed for 8 so I will get a hot water bottle organised whilst DH is doing the bath to give us more chance. It makes a lot of sense as he does all of his day sleeping on me and I'm pretty warm I guess! Thanks! Keep 'em coming!
Fyfe broke his personal record again last night and slept solidly from 11-6! and we went back to sleep after a feed, oh the wonderful laziness of only having one child!

Well, we've had an adventurous few days! We made the trip to the clinic to get Tessa's tongue-tie snipped. They said see the osteopath before and after to keep the tension from pressing her tongue down. It was across the country Friday to the osteopath, then down to spend the night in a hotel next to the clinic, clinic Saturday morning, then drive to friends and spend the night, back home on Sunday, and a trip back and forth to the osteopath again on Monday.

It's been an amazing difference: Tessa is much happier, and spends more time alert already. And she's more relaxed when sleeping. Feeds are taking only 45-60min, instead of nearly two hours! So there's actually time in between to do things. I haven't gotten to experience much of that yet, since we've been mostly driving, but at our friends I had my first sit-down meal with adults since the birth, and we stopped at a few tourist attractions on the way home.

She's got tongue exercises to do, and we have to stretch it twice a day. I don't like that as she cries, but she's getting over it faster. She has to learn to suck a new way, which they say will take 2-3 weeks -- one of the exercises is to have her suck my finger, and I can feel the difference between "old suck" and "new suck", which she goes back and forth between.

And then today we visited the HV for a weigh-in, and Tessa managed to gain 17 ounces in 2 weeks; enough to make the fact that last time HV plotted her weight one week too early still make it look like following the line this weigh. I expect she'll start boosting up the charts by next time :)

What's funny is it's like we're starting over -- I need to figure out when to feed her, etc, and what she wants all over again, and she needs to figure it out too. But I'm just so happy that everything looks to be getting better. :)

bee, oo, that heat-pack idea sounds great. Where do you get the wheat packs from? We went looking for those when I was pregnant and didn't find them, and we can't even find anywhere selling hotwater bottles (the last place I saw one was Woolworths!).

How's Tessa's feeding now arden? You did so well sticking to your guns!
Fyfe just had his second injections, he was very brave, just a little cry at each calming down again very quickly. One more lot to go in another 4 weeks.

Arden that's fab news!! Glad to hear you're getting there. I think most mums would have given in and given a bottle by now! So big respect to you.

Bee - thanks for the info. I've been feeding Elena to sleep, which all the books say not to do. There is the odd occasion we've been able to rock/bounce her to sleep from being put down all dozy in her hammock, but again, I've read that you create bad 'sleep associations' if you rock them to sleep, gah! It's a real minefield and I hate how I feel that no matter what I do to get her to sleep, it's not the right thing! Ah well. She sleeps, so I guess that's all we need for now. The tip about warming the bed/hammock worked for us the other day - mind, not that we need it here for the moment now we have all this lovely weather... Now we've got to keep these babies cool!!

Normal sleep for us is 10-3, 3.30-6/7am, not too bad, but could be better as I'm not seeing any signs that the 3am feed is getting any later/earlier in the morning IYSWIM?! Jabs next week so am fully expecting a grotty baby again. Back to growth spurt behaviour for a few days then.

Baby show was vvv good - bought close pop in nappies for £10/nappy rather than £14/nappy so have got myself fully kitted out for reusables! So far so good :) bought all sorts of other stuff much cheaper too! Think the next one is in Manchester, for those further north than me!

Hope everyone is enjoying this weather! X

Hi all Poppy had her jabs yesterday. She was fine with then but I cried! The nurse was lovely and said many mums get emotional at the first lot. Felt a bit of a wally though!
She seems to be settling herself into a routine in terms of naps and feeds and she's getting a nice night-time sleep most nights, only broken at 3-4 for a feed. I'm happy to let her rule the routine for the time being as she's only eight weeks old so she can't manipulate us and just wants feed, changing, sleep or cuddles. maybe it's not what the books say (gina ford hasn't even had kids so [raspberry] to her!!) but it's what we're happy with. We rock her to sleep during the day but generally needs feeding to sleep at night.
We are going for a taster session at baby sensory on Friday. Really looking forward to that. Anyone else tried it?

broody! It is a bit sad! Fyfe had his second ones today and it was much better, he was very brave do it was fine for me too. He has one more lot to go in 4 weeks time. The routine sounds good, I'm happy to be led by him too, whatever he needs.
knitterati I've been told the same (at post natal classes) re not feeding/rocking/hugging but when I told my mum about this she looked very and said she always fed me to sleep when I was very little and I just naturally started settling myself when I was a bit older, she never had any problems with it, guess like everything it will differ from baby to baby. I've decided he sleeps so well I'm not going to mess with it!

I've heard that "you can't spoil a baby in the first three months", so I think whatever you do is right if it makes the baby happy :)

Wow, right now it's like the first few weeks again -- we have to make sure she feeds at least every three hours to make sure her tongue doesn't heal back. I'm wandering about in a sleep-deprived fog again. Had a scare earlier in the week when her tongue looked to be sticking down, and it turned out I wasn't being forceful enough when stretching it :( So now I'm trying really hard, but it makes us both cry. Good thing is it seems to have come loose again.

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. It's nice to hear, especially when I'm bumbling along feeling like I can't do this right at all!

www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/praise-staff-wards/story-16172209-detail/story.html
Just a little praise for my hospital!! Xx

Hi ladies

A flying visit from me - it's so hot here that I'm jealous of those at the coast! Back after a long, hot, sun cream sticky morning at the playground. At least DS keeps his sun hat on now...DD just stayed in the sling and slept!

Arden well done! That's great that it's been snipped and you've got advice on how to move forward. You've done an amazing job to get this far and continue to do an amazing job .

Re the feeding to sleep/rocking etc, I'm with Trouble's mum on this. Don't worry about it! Do whatever works in terms of getting them off to sleep or resettling. Our babies are still so young and it's normal for them to need help with things like getting to sleep. It's actually a good thing to rock a baby (see here).

I fed DS to sleep every night until at least 7-8 months, when DH took over and rocked him to sleep. I continued to feed to sleep for many months after that whenever we needed to (eg travelling or staying somewhere unfamiliar, or teething, or illness...). We coslept until 9 months. All naps were either in the sling, fed to sleep lying down (so I could nap next to him ) or rocked in the buggy until 11 months, when I moved him to a cot so that he'd be ready for nursery. He didn't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time until he was 9 months (strangely, I was more tired once he started sleeping for longer stretches!).

A couple of my NCT friends were Gina Forders, as was one of my sisters, and I got a lot of "advice" about how I was ruining my son, rod for my own back, I should let him cry it out etc. But it's rubbish, as he is a great sleeper now - at 26 months he does a 2 hour nap every day (which means me and DD get to nap together too ) and sleeps pretty much 8pm-7.30am every night (sometimes he's up later or sleeps later).

One thing that did work for us was having a bed routine from about 4 months - bath and the same bedtime story book (we still use the same book now, all taped up, and it's a great sleep cue - it's in his cot and we take it with us traveling and he'll sleep anywhere with it). Also, for older babies, the No Cry Sleep Solution is great if you want a book to read.

We'll follow a routine with DD from about 12 weeks this time - she currently gets into her PJs at the same time as her brother and then sleeps on one of us until we all go to bed around 11 and then sleeps next to me.

OK, DD needs a feed!

Hi all hope you're enjoying the sun how are your babies coping with the heat? Orla slept quite a lot yesterday but hasn't so far today, she seems to want lots of little feeds and is enjoying her bouncy chair! I can't believe she will be ten weeks on Monday time is flying and I'm really enjoying it. Already thinking I can't go back to work full time think I am going to contact my boss to see about option of part time. How about you guys?

broody I cried too at first injections! Orla did a cry that she had never done before was awful and she was due a feed so a stressful experience hopefully next ones will be better now i know what to expect! We're doing a baby sensory taster as well next week have heard really good things about it.
trouble any luck with the bottle? We tried again and slightly better than the traumatic first attempt but she only took a little bit. Meeting a friend this afternoon who is bringing some teats her daughter had in hospital so will give them a go. Hope it's working for you.
arden wow to you having to deal with all you have on top of all the normal baby things. Hope things keep getting better.

Hope you all have a good weekend in the sun! We're off to my mums for a few days as she needs an op on her broken wrist so going to help her out although not sure how much use I will be when I get there with a baby and our two very lively dogs!! Could be interesting

We have just got back from baby sensory. Wow. It's fantastic! Poppy was a bit overwhelmed by it all and cried for a while but the group leader said it's quite common to begin with because of the new sights, sounds and smells so not to worry. Hope you enjoy it too, punk! xx

punk I've abandoned the bottle idea and have started using a tommy tippee free flow sippy cup, you can use them from 3 months, Fyfe took some water from it yesterday and wasn't upset about it at all- much more successful!
I'm not going back to work, we had planned it that way and were lucky as we're able to halve our mortgage when we moved so we can manage on just DH's salary.
Baby sensory sounds fun, we'll be going at some point! We went to a parent and baby cinema screening yesterday, it was so much fun!

trouble can we give water after three months then? I didn't think they needed it if you ebf?
I bought some TT cups, spoons and feeding pots last week from aldi - never been in there before but had seen on tv they had a baby event on and got Poppy's bits, plus a pair of ugg type boots and ballerina pumps for £7! Bargain!

They don't need it broody! I just didn't want to express or defrost milk (and likely have to throw it away again in order to try the cup out and figured water wouldn't hurt on a hot day like that. I'll they with milk next time now that he has taken from the cup.

Try...not they.

Ah phew! Was thinking I was denying her something
We've just been for a lovely walk; it's warm out there but there was a nice breeze so we didn't get too hot. Poppy has slept the whole time we were out so obviously felt comfortable - she had such a paddy when we walked over a country park on Wednesday!
Don't know about you but I am so worried about what to dress her in! Will she be too hot? Too cold? Should she still wear socks if it's not a sleep suit she's got on? The nurse we saw on Tuesday for her jabs said she's fine in just a nappy when it's this hot but obviously I don't want her like that when we are out and about! We are keeping her just in a vest when we are at home, how about you guys?

broody, at the antenatal class we were told that the top of the back, under the neck is a good place to monitor temperature, if you're not sure if they're hot/ cold. Ivy's just been in a vest at home, and a thin dress over the top when we go out- plus a big sun hat as the strong sea breeze can mask how strong the sun is, here.

PS- I've also given Ivy a bit of water in a bottle from time to time when it's hot.. she seems to quite like it...

Fyfe is wearing short sleeved shortie all in ones and a hat, no socks or anything else, well, apart from factor 50!

Aaah yes!!! Thanks kiki - I think we were told that at NCT too but remembering isn't one of my strong points these days, haha! I think also by feeling their tummies you can get a good idea.
Think I'm going to invest in a few romper suits too trouble if this weather continues. Bit loathed as she will be in 3-6 stuff soon but there are some cute ones in M&S so guess I'll treat her!!

Why not get them in 3-6 broody, they're rather nice a little baggy in this weather, I've just moved him in to the 6-9 month ones that he would have been moving in to in about 2 weeks anyway and they're nice and cool for him!

Yeah, I've been wondering if in the heat, do our bodies make more watery milk so the LOs can drink more but not overeat? It would make sense...

Tessa is doing well. I still hate stretching her, but she is getting over it faster, so it must not hurt as much. Oo - I have a tip! To get her to calm down, I've been holding her close, giving a little jiggle, and shushing in her ear as loud as she's crying. She often stops crying for a second at the first shush, and then slowly quiets down. I have to keep the sushing up, but quieter, once she quiets.