Post Grad Brookers - we're in here....

[Biscuitsandtea]

New thread - t'other one got full up....

sorry wants but that's pants advice. :( you really can't change your milk supply by eating or drinking more. It's a very common myth and I've even heard it from HVs.the only thing that really increases supply is feeding more.

we just need to eat when hungry and drink when thirsty to keep ourselves healthy.

of Jen losing weight while still eating chocolate! And of Scarlet's smaller size stuff getting loose. Why does bf not make me thin? Am disappointed. Although to be fair to it, I did bounce back to only a couple of pounds over my pre-pg weight almost immediately. It's just a shame that that weight was 2 stone too many. After my bad weekend I put 4lbs back on but as of this morning I'm down again. I have tickets to the Taste festival tomorrow, though - not sure I'll survive that without eating bad things! Last year they had the most delicious salted caramels...

Hawthers, okay.

Pros of sticking with bf: No faff in the middle of the night.

All the good stuff re antibodies/nutrition/etc - Purple, help me out here!

Not having to take bottles/steriliser/formula etc as well as all the other baby paraphernalia when going away.

Instant pacifier
Weight loss!

Cons: Going back to work still bf - well, you do have another 5 months and you might well be down to only a couple of feeds by then.

Wedding without kids - can you express for F? Have you started weaning him? In a couple of months he'll be eating some solid food, I imagine.

Sleeping through the night - as you know, that's not guaranteed with any type of feeding. Also, it's possible that by 11 months he might be sleeping better, as he'll be eating food as well as bf by then.

I can't think of any more. I think that if you want to keep going, then do - going back to work is still 5 whole months away, which is eons in baby development time. You can always reassess closer to the time.

Loving the toddler discipline stories!

Dream, hurray for nearly 6 hours sleep! Do you feel like a new woman?

We are having ups and downs with the sleep. 2 nights ago M slept through from 11 to 6, which is great or would be if I could get to sleep myself. Last night she did 10.30-3.30, was up for less than 20 mins, then woke up again at 5.40 and again, fed for maybe 10 mins and went back to sleep. I had to get up at 7.30 to take DH to work. I'm having trouble sleeping, though, which is incredibly unusual for me. I just can't seem to drop off and lie there feeling more and more tense. Hoping this is just a phase - going to PIL for the weekend is not likely to help, though, as they have the smallest double bed known to man.

Your California holiday sounds amazing, Scream!

Today I have to take the dog back to the vet. Dilemma - do I take M in the sling or the pram? The pram is v hard to get up the stupid steps at the entrance, but if I'm wearing M then I can't lift the dog onto the vet's table or hold him still properly without squishing her. I can lift him under one arm, I suppose - or I could probably get him to jump up on his own if I remember to take treats this time. The sling is so much easier!

Yay for Pet doing well with the healthy eating!! I think it takes more self-control to make sensible healthy food choice than it does to follow a crazy short-term restrictive diet, so hats off to you! Biscuits I am also incapable of healthy eating, fad diets are NOT the same!

Biscuits I was also bemused by the 3oz comment, I wondered if you use the kitchen scales to weigh yourself!

Pet sadly you're right about no small babies in performances. I rang the Royal Shakespeare Company to double check, but DD definitely wouldn't be allowed in. On the plus side this is the final weekend of the current play (Julius Caesar) playing in Stratford-Upon-Avon, they then go on tour with the play. So we might catch it when it comes to London in a few weeks, when we can get a babysitter. :)

Hooray for B & S doing such an amazing sleep! Well done boys, keep up the good work! Also Dream thank you for sharing your good news, it gives me hope! (DD is currently sleeping on my chest after I couldn't get to sleep until 5am because she wakes EVERY time I put her in the cot! At 5am I gave up )

x-posts with Too. Perhaps the vet will help with the dog, or get a nurse in to assist? Slings seem so much more practical for short local trips! Little A has a HV appt today (solely because I'm curious about her weight/length ) and I wish I could take the sling. Unfortunately my back is too rubbish :(

Oooooooo the Taste festival sounds yummy just from the name! Details please!

Here Scream, just for you. Oooh, an advert for it just came on TV! It has little pop-up kitchens with Michelin-starred chefs making taster menus, and it has heaps of stalls selling everything from tea to chocolate to smoked salmon. We spent a fortune last year.

Vet just stood there and looked at me the last time. Not that it mattered then because I could lift him. Still, they must get little old ladies in who can't lift their dogs. I am just going to take the sling. It's soooo much easier, and if the postie comes before I have to go, I might get to test drive my new Ergo!

Hope A gets on fine at the HV today.

Yes, go for the sling too. Just make the vet help you, surely they wouldn't let you struggle with a baby in a sling?! Speaking of vets, my sister is a vet, and someone who was two years below her (she's nearly 3 years qualified, its 5-6 year course but everyone knows everyone doing vet science iykwim) so still a student has been kicked in the head by a horse. :( :( . still in intensive care, has a tracheostomy tube in their throat for fairly long expected time on a ventilator but has also had to have part of the frontal lobe of their brain removed so will never finish the course, never have the same cognitive function and will have altered personality. It is so sad...

hawthers, I agree with all those pros of bf, DD self weaned off day feeds at 8.5 months, practically, so when I stopped offering in the day she never seemed to miss it so i agree, loads can change in 5 months. Surely its easier to continue...

Oh Dream, that's so sad!

Vet trip cancelled. Dog has diarrhoea so can't have booster jabs until he's better. Ugh. I have done nothing but clean up poo today! M pooped through her nappy twice in quick succession so is on her third vest and second babygro of the day. Baby poop is not nearly so offensive as dog crap, though.

Dog diarrhoea. Grim.

Wierdly I almost feel worse today having had a 4.5 hour stretch of sleep for the first time in 13 weeks... I need to get quicker at getting into bed too, once the last boy is asleep I have a shower (no time in the morning!), sort laundry etc etc so was only getting into bed at 11:20pm- a whole hour I could have been asleep for, though maybe I'd have felt even wierder?!

at the dog diahorreah . Hope the dog is better soon Too

Hey Dream how poo to feel worse for actually having some sleep! Still, since those boys are going to do this EVERY night now, you'll soon catch up on your sleep

Pah! My autocorrect can't spell diarrhoea so I've had to go and look it up (because neither can I!)

Am procrastinating rather than packing...

Am about to head off on the 'Journey Of Doom' and have not put a single.thing in a bag and DH.has just emailed to say he has to go to a work evening thing tonight, f is being sick all over the place (he is a very yacky) baby and DS1 is demanding cbeebies on constantly and I just don't have the inspiration or time to suggest other entertainment. Oh dear...

Sorry Hawthers I've forgotten - where are you going? On holiday or a-visiting? In the car?

I have to say on a day like that, if ds1 was happy to watch CBeebies I'd be positively encouraging it .

Get him set up, grab yourself a cuppa (and a muslin for wiping up F's sick) and then crack on with that packing. Are you going tomorrow? If at all possible we like to pack on the day we're going unless we're leaving early in the morning. That way you do a lot less using-things-out-of-the-bag. So pretend you meant to start packing at the last minute

Oh, and don't pack any pants for DH for leaving you in the lurch

Off on sat early to the south of France. Driving... 8 hours on the other side

M and d about to arrive so hopefully they won't just get in the way will look after the boys so I can zoom around getting organised

Oh you have ooodles of time if you're not going until Saturday . Are your M&D going with you or just visiting today? Seriously packing the day before the day before we go would never happen in the Biscuit household.

Wow dream - amazing! I remember the funny thing when you get sleep from dd1 - I have yet to experience it this time round... which leads me to - WHAT DID YOU DO??? Seriously, there must be something???!!! A settling better at night now but still up every two hours.

There is now talk of us moving to Italy for two years being mooted around. Never rains but it pours huh? Life is seriously weird at the moment for me.

Hawthers - give into the cbeebies - I did yesterday. It seems to be that kind of week with this crap weather.

Just a quickie... Health benefits of breastfeeding
Too I was actively avoiding this topic..
I am not feeling very balanced about this at the moment as a bit tired etc so excuse the following rant.

The one thing with artificial milk is how they advertise things that actively make babies ill as a benefit, such as added iron. It is so cynical, so dangerous and it is unfair to people as they just don't have a clue, the huge amount of profit these companies make means they insinuate everywhere, even things you believe to be a reliable source of information.

Artificial milk does have its place and it does save lives, but it is actual shit, especially follow on milk. Did you know follow on milk was made purely to get around the advertising ban on stage 1 formula? There is no actual need for it and a baby can be fed stage one milk for as long as they require artificial milk.

The feminist breeder has an excellent post here and if you search her breastfeeding entries they are some really great ones.

In regards to feeding, even if you fed once a day the child gets all the same antibodies they would if the fed all day, just the concentration of them is much higher in that one feed, so there is a very real benefit to continue feeding.

It is also a lovely way to bond with your child when you get in from work, you sit down feed have a cuddle and have the fabulous health benefits too. I went back to work when DD was 9 months and I fed morning and night and continued to feed her until she was 25months. I know this length of time isn't for everybody but when I was heart sore at leaving her in the early months I felt so much better, as at least I could still reconnect with her in this way, and she still needed me.

Every time you breastfeed your child you are giving them and your self a precious gift that will last a lifetime. You are doing a wonderful job and after each feed you should pat yourself on the back. Because it isn't always easy but the benefits are far reaching. Think about it, if humans didn't breastfeed for all those years we would be extinct!

Hmm not such a short post afterall!

Parents arrived and carted the crew off to the park. But my dear mum managed to spill tea on the carpet within 30s of arriving argh I don't need more stuff to clean!

Ergos:

I saw this for sale on Amazon, which looked like a good price but couldn't tell if a genuine seller or not. So I emailed the seller on amazon to see if they could verify themselves and also followed links from the Ergo US site to the Ergo EU site to email the UK distributor people to ask of it was a seller they'd heard of.

I've not heard back from the amazon seller (ominous?)

The UK ergo distributor prople sent me this link to their entire stockist list. Thought it might be useful for those thinking of buying? It covers the UK and Ireland. First Signs is on the list (which I think we already knew)

Based on this though, I can't find Copelands on the list so it looks as though amazon are selling a fake? And it's one where the order is fulfilled by amazon and everything

Your poor dog Too! Hope he feels better soon! That Taste festival looks amazing! I love that sort of thing, haven't been to anything like it since I moved back from Sydney though [Shamefully unaware of all the cool stuff on offer in London emoticon]

Also, if you're having poo explosions all the time could it be the nappies? I've heard really bad things about Huggies when it comes to leaking, and the very few times DH and I tried out Huggies on A we immediately had leaks.

Hawthers I hope the organising is going well! Like Biscuits we're a last minute packing household which is why we haven't even started despite the fact that we're leaving in a little over 12 hours' time!

My DB came over to hang out with us today in the end, which was awesome because it meant I could put the sling on him and he carried A to the appointment! I think he liked it!

It turns out my suspicion was correct though, A isn't putting on weight as fast as she was before my diet. I'm not worried, she's still at a healthy weight, but it's clearly made a difference. Every single week from 0 - 7 weeks DD's weight was tracking the 75th percentile perfectly. She hasn't been weighed since my imw discharged us at 7 weeks, but today at 10 weeks she was around the 60th percentile. So she's dropped 15 percentiles for the first time ever in the same period I've been doing some hardcore exercise and dieting. I think because I'm producing less milk, sometimes she doesn't manage to feed all the way to full before I run out. So she isn't crying with hunger or anything, but she definitely would have eaten more if it was available. Grr, genuinely unsure whether or not to stop dieting/exercising. I desperately want to lose the flab, and A is still putting on a healthy amount of weight, so I could just keep going until the 30 days are up as planned? We're on day 13 now. Plus I was planning to have the weekend off anyway ( ). I'm just worried that by the end of a month this change in my milk supply will be irrevocable. Hmm.... decisions decisions.

Any thoughts on this Purple?

scream - Im sure purple would know more but I have read that losing more than 2lbs a week is not great when bfing...

That's my excuse anyway

Dieting Kellymom is the bees knees as all her info is evidence based I am healthy eating so did my own research, so I am not being hard core, low carb diets can be a problem.... My main concern is that your body prioritises the baby while you BF so it can cause problems for you and your health if you diet too hard. I would read those links and see what you think.
My personal thought is that if your milk supply (the very last thing to be affected!) is reduced you need to eat more. :)

I find Huggies always worked best for DD and use them on boy at times with success, I guess it is to do with the shape of their arse lol

Pomme move to Italy? How cool!

Sounds like a good enough excuse for me Pomme :)

How much have you lost Scream - is it super loads? They reckon you need 500 extra calories while bf so 2,500 rather than 2,000. In my case this means I am only exceeding the recommended calories by 999,500 instead of 1,000,000. But I've never seen anything saying you can't exercise while bf? I mean I guess as long as your calorie intake allows for it? I don't really know anything about the relationship between calorie intake and what's extracted!

If you're worried though could you carry on the exercise and shelve the diet for a while?

So ds2 hasn't slept for more than 30-40 mins at a time today. He's been awake loads and had I think 2 little naps? Might be three but I would say no more than 2 hours in total . Do you think it could be related to his jabs yesterday?