Dec 08 Mums - still biffing on

[LadyThompson]

Yes, yes, it's a bit lame. I wanted to say: "Still fucking on!" but wary of causing offence....

I know 'biffing' is a bit PG Wodehouse, as well. You'll just have to humour me

Oh FFS. To add insult to injury, my f**ing work haven't paid me. Supposed to now be on holiday leave rather than maternity and therefore paid for the whole month. Payslip sent through post: your net pay this month : £0.00. I have a huge deposit for nursery fees coming out soon.

Calm
Collected
Write down exactly what you will say including impressive legal type phrases you will find with help from Mr Google. Write it all down so you don't lose your train of thought.
Take deep breath
Phone
Demand to be put straight through to the boss in HR.

Thanks Indith! wrote a very polite but slightly tinged wiht panic email to HR chap, he's apologised and is going to sort it. Clearly just your average administrative cock up. Gosh, isn't it a wonder that my esteemed company does so well financially

I find a polite, but slightly freaking out email works a treat, Kiwi.

Indith you are such a barer of calming wisdom. I will henceforth call you GuruIndith.

Well looks like the weather is on the cool down, we are going to the beach this afternoon but don't think we'll be going for a swim.

DS1 back to school, I sent him in with 30 dinosaur covered cup cakes to help them celebrate his birthday. I'm not sure what has happened to the sparkle clad raver of my youth, but I'm definite she has completely walked out and will never come back now. I am vagolajahooli and I bake cupcakes with dinosaurs on top....it has been 18hours since I last baked.

I love the sound of dinosaur cupcakes. Did you make dinos yourself or buy toppers? Dd would love them!

Vag I had a moment like that this morning when I checked my email and got genuinely excited to discover a press release about a new Mike the Knight magazine. My name is Kiwi and I used I have a life ...

Very petty considering the actual sibling problems others have but Grrrrrrrrrrr I'm a bit fuming about my sister right now.

Her fiance earns around twice what dh earns and has recently been mad a shareholder in his very good and very cool company.

He is in debt. Credit cards, overdraft etc not just his stupidly large mortgage on his teeny tiny flat.

The only reason my sister is no longer in debt is because of the inheritance we both got when my granny died.

Ok so she didn't have an easy run. She has fybro, hypermobility syndrome, IBS, endometriosis and various other things which I do understand and synmpathise with. She was unemplyed for a long time and ran up debts. Currently working but looking for part time work as she is finding it too hard to keep up with full time. I am very, very happy that she has found a great bloke who is happy to support her financially and for her to do this. I really am. I am absolutely not jealous of that I promise.

Anyway she is supposed to be sutting spending, getting rid of debt etc but honestly I can't see it and it drives me mad that we worked hard and saved and got our house etc under our own steam but she is inept with money. Even when she was earning a pittance and on her own before she was with her fiance and up to her eyeballs in debt she's be all "oh I've managed to save up £300 so £100 is savings and £200 is new ipod". She bought a £15k laptop which she recently got rid of to buy a netbook and now she has just bought an ipad.

Ok I might be a bit of an ipad but what pisses me off is that she goes on about cutting debt and saving for a house yet money just slips through her fingers, she is so flighty. She's been handed a deposit for a fucking house on a plate but she can't even be arsed to reign in spending. She has a smartphone and a netbook and a kindle but oh no she needed an ipad too for internet because the laptop takes too long to boot so she has the laptop for doing proper stuff (what proper stuff? She doesn't do any work at home, isn't studying, sold her super expensive SLR camera because she got bored with it so no photo stuff). If there is a gadget invented she has to have it and she has to have the latest version.

Urgh.

Can I ask a bf and ff question? I am going to be doing a course 1 evening a week and I am hoping to start driving lessons again. My mum will be babysitting so I will need to leave a bottle for DD. I am hoping it will just be expressed milk but if I can't get enough etc would 1 or 2 bottles of formula a week cause many problems for bf?

That sounds great Kayz a course. What is the course in? How old is DD now. I'm pretty sure she is well over 6 weeks so BF is established. Obviously, if you don't exclusively BF, any messing about with the feeding can mess up your supply, but messing about can be FF or expressing, as expressing doesn't stimulate your supply in the same way feeding does. However, as it is over 6 weeks, and you have a pretty good supply I don't think 1 or 2 feeds a week will be a problem. Expressing would be more desirable as she is used to digesting the BM and is more likely to accept it, but really I think it is up to you. If you did notice any changes in supply you could always up the feeds a little to build up again, it is easier to do after that magical 6 week mark. I think for only a couple of feeds a week you could easily get enough through expressing, you basically only need to express a couple of times every couple of days and you would be set for a few weeks ahead.

Probably not. Where most people suffer with giving a bottle of formula is that they tend to do it at night so they get more sleep so they miss out on vital supply enhancing feeds. One or 2 a week shouldn't make a difference supplywise. Of course it depends on how bothered you are about her having anything that isn't bm but that could be a whole other discussion!

For the record I'm not implying giving formula is evil, I gave dd formula when I had to leave her as expressing sent us right back into oversupply problems.

You should be ok though I'd have thought. Driving lessons you might not even need to express, even for a 2 hour lesson. What do you have for expressing? I've just borrowed a Medela elctric pump and it is magic but even just hand expressing if you manage 5-10 mins each evening while watching TV then you should have enough for an evening a week. You can hand express straight into those milk storage bags and freeze so even though it might only be 2oz in each bag they add up to a full bottle.

She will be 9 weeks on Wednesday. It is a course in cake decorating, it's 2 hours on a Wednesday for just 6 weeks. It doesn't start until Sept 25th but with DH being away I am a bit worried about getting time to express. I could really do it now instead of cuddling DD

DD has had a couple of bottles before, just an ounce or so of breastmilk so I know she should take the bottle.

I have a tommee tippee manual pump. I'd love an electric one, seems so much easier.

Sounds fun :)

Again though for 2 hours so long as you feed her before you go then she probably won't need it. Obviously have it if needed but I wouldn't worry about having loads. Personally I would have freezer bags with 2-3oz in each as this defrosts really fast dunked in hot water. I'd leave the milk in the freezer (or take frozen to your mums and pop in her freezer if she is having her at her house). I'd be a bit mean in the hour or so before I had to leave for the course and try to distract rather than feed then give her a good feed before leaving. Then the milk is in the freezer and will be ready within 10 mins if she needs it but can stay frozen for next time if she doesn't.

That sounds like the best way of doing it. A big feed and then hope she waits until I get home.

Kayz I second what Indith said - she should be fine for 2 hours without, touch wood, and have a small amount expressed by hand just in case. Oddly though I find hand expressing way better / more efficient than electric ( I have medela swing).

Sorry I meant small amount AT hand. Not by hand. Though it might be both

And worse comes to worst Kayz, she won't starve in just two hours. Both mine refused bottles, if they were hungry when I was around dh would offer a bottle, they would refuse andor a feed' for a feed until I returned, at which point I would be soundly told off. So they obviously can get by. The course sounds good, is this a hobby, or are you thinking of doing cake decorating as a profession? come

I've just managed to express 3oz. I'm quite pleased by that.

I was shown how to hand express and how to teach mums how to hand express but didn't have much kuck myself, though I wasn't much good at expressing any way. I usually had enough just in case, but never really used it.

Well done Kayz, that's loads.

Also is it ok if I then express more tomorrow and freeze it and then mix tonight's and tomorrow's into 1 bottle?

Hello marking my place as must come on and do catch up soon!

kayz with dd i never could be bothered to express so if I ever went out for more than a couple of hrs I just got whoever was looking after her to give a bottle of formula if necessary, was not very often but didn't have any bad effects on supply for me. Obviously would have been better to do expressed milk but i never had much luck with expressing. I think it was from about 3 months. Sounds like you are good with the expressing though!

Great expressing :)

And yes you can mix milk. Keep it inthe fridge and then you can add bits from the day if you express more than once and freeze it together. So if you express in the morning pop that in the fridge then if you express in the evening pop that in the fridge too. When the second lot of milk has had the chance to cool mix the 2 and freeze.

When you need to make a bottle up just get however many oz you need out of the freezer, it doesn't at all matter if it is from different days.

Fab expressing! Well done.

Don't forget, too, that BF babies don't need huge amounts. I gave mine 4 oz or so to hold them off, rather than huge 9 oz as suggested for FF babies. With dd1, I lost the ability to express at about 9 m so she had formula for the days I worked and I fed her the rest of the time. Supply was fine. If you have been exclusively bf for 9 weeks then yours will be able to miss the odd feed if expressing isn't possible, but ounds that you are going great guns with it.

We are on the Isle of Wight, which is lovely but I do wish dh would occasionally get up with the kids in am. So tired.

I love the IOW Sybs, DH & I cycled around it once before LOs. It has so much varied landscape for such a little island. Bit cheeky of your DH not to get up with them, are you somewhere you could stick the Tele on and go back to bed or are you camping. When on holidays it is definitely turn taking on sleep ins. He isn't playing fair at all.

Kayz I was thinking your going to all this trouble to have feeds sorted for what amounts to only a couple of hours a week, if she goes well on either expressed or FF maybe you should go out for the whole night, your mum is there anyway. Maybe you could go to your course then meet a friend afterwards for a drink & a chat. I think because your doing all this alone so much you deserve it.