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Post-grad Brookers, over here! We will Brook No Argument that all Mini-Brookers sleep 12 hours a night and behave angelically during the day

999 replies

TooImmatureTurtleDoves · 28/08/2012 13:42

Over here!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
pommedechocolat · 19/09/2012 10:43

Brooking for sleep for everyone from Italy!

jaggythistle · 19/09/2012 12:41

DH on way home, tests all clear so it must have been one of those things.

thanks for brooking! :)

musicalmrs · 19/09/2012 13:13

Jaggy, how scary for you and your DH! So glad the tests came back all clear and that he's on his way back to you :)

Dream, so sorry you're having such a tough time sleep wise. Is there no way you could have a couple of people look after them all for a couple of hours so you can have a nap? :( I know that's probably not possible though.. you're a superwoman for coping with all three alone!

Too, hurrah for M's better sleeping - brooking that it continues.

(TMI warning!) Had a smear test earlier. I mentioned that SFF was painful, and the lovely nurse had a look, seen as nobody checked me out at my postnatal check. Turns out the whole area still looks sore, and the stitched bit looks almost puckered? She told me to come back if it's still an issue in a couple of months' time. Speculum opening was excruciating :( Anyone have any tips to help things get better? Sorry for TMI..

NinjaChipmunk · 19/09/2012 13:13

dream I would try 2 ring slings, hip carry on each hip like this. You could try mei tai style one front and one back but thats a lot of strap to fiddle with. Ring slings are really easy to adjust, and to pop babies in and out of. I'll see if I can find any thing else for you on the net.
jaggy glad your dh seems to be ok, I wonder what it was?
Dp has calmed down the the electrician thing, and I have now found 2 sparkys locally to get quotes from. Thank god!
On the plus side we went to ds's open evening to look around the school now its finished (its brand new) and I took dd in her mei tai and someone asked me to make 2 as presents for his family! Not sure if he was just being polite or not but I shall give him a call next week to see. And I've got a pair of tickets to the earls court baby show for free in oct! My friend has a kids shoe and t-shirt company and is showing there so she's given them to me. I hope it doesn't clash with the moving date for our house.

NinjaChipmunk · 19/09/2012 13:15

x-post musical that sounds really painful! Not sure what could help, sorry.

TooImmatureTurtleDoves · 19/09/2012 14:43

Musical, Sad sounds grim. Perineal massage? How bad was your tear?

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musicalmrs · 19/09/2012 16:54

Good luck with the electricians Ninja!

It was a second degree tear Too. Massage may be the way to go... thanks for the suggestion. It's ok day to day (although occasionally aches? Weird) but painful during SFF. Or when speculums open apparently..!

hawthers · 19/09/2012 17:09

I had a rather painful bit when sff as well even though I had a cs. The nurse who did my first smear advised holding fire (so to speak) on the sff and it sorted itself out. But rereading it sound like your issue is a little different. Massage and time? And -total Tmi- but I found bf made me feel rather 'dry' so made evrything a little more sore. Over sharing now finished Blush

musicalmrs · 19/09/2012 17:21

More oversharing..

Hawthers, yes, definitely rather dry! But still painful even when we take steps to combat that. Might try a combination of holding fire and massage..

TooImmatureTurtleDoves · 19/09/2012 18:12

I just nearly brained M with a broken casserole dish. Total stupidity on my part. I wanted to brown duck legs on the hob and then stick them in the oven to roast, so, like a fool, I put a ceramic dish onto the hob, poured sesame oil into it and let it heat up. M was on the floor in her Bumbo, some distance from the cooker. I climbed on a chair to hunt in the spice cupboard and there was a huge bang. I look around dopily, and realise that the ceramic dish has shattered, broken bits mixed with sesame oil are frying on the hob and a huge chunk is lying right behind the Bumbo and startled baby. I hopped down in a hurry and M gave me a huge grin. Dog reappeared from behind sofa in living room. Hmm Assured myself that M hadn't been hit by the flying pottery, picked her out of the Bumbo to cuddle and quietly shook. After about 3 minutes it occurred to me to go and turn the hob off. The aroma of burning sesame oil had something to do with that. Blush Why am I so thick? This morning I knocked a basket off the windowsill in her room and it nearly landed on her - she was lying on the changemat on the floor at the time.

Is it Wine o'clock yet? Maybe I'd better wait until DH gets home. I'm clearly not fit to be in charge of a baby when I'm sober, much less after a glass or two.

OP posts:
jaggythistle · 19/09/2012 18:38

too i bonked R on the head with the microwave door while doing M's lunch if that helps. i think we all have Shock moments where we get palpitations about what might have happened.

jaggythistle · 19/09/2012 18:41

birthday prep getting a bit behind with DH feeling a bit rough. he made it home on the bus!

i have brownies to bake!m

scarletfingernail · 19/09/2012 19:29

I accidentally knealt? (is that a word?) kneeled down with all my weight on poor little DD's foot today. She cried Sad Completely misjudged where her foot was as she was all wrapped up in her towel after swimming and I was stressing and dripping wet everywhere in a huge rush to get back to collect DS.

Musical I shared a TMI story last week regarding the same problem while inserting Tampax. But like Hawthers I also had a CS Confused
It's still early days since you had DD and I bet in a couple of months time everything will be back to normal.

hawthers · 19/09/2012 20:18

Ooh scarlet (everyone else look away) I had that round the corner thing with a tampax after DS1 thought it was just one of those weird things that happen after your bits have been mangled by children. DH doesn't think it feels odd so am just ignoring it.

Right everyone can look back now, nothing to read here, certainly no bizarre admissions about lady bits, no sirree Blush

And dream my dear right with all the love in the world am thinking about staging an intervention. You need some sleep to even have a cats hope in hell of coping with all three on your own. My sleep lady does a one on one for £175 ish which has a 99% success rate. If putting dd into nursery isn't an option could you invest in that so you can get that sorted. Is there anyway your dd could stay at your mum and dads while you do sleep training so she won't be disturbed?

DreamingOfPeace · 19/09/2012 21:48

I agree hawthers, just been re reading your lady's sleep stuff. Going to try the gentle removal/Elizabeth pantley way to help stop the boob to sleep association, and controlled comforting or pu/pd. I will (gently) beat these babies into sleep submission & try not to lose it in the night again . My parents each live 50 odd miles away, think its too far for DD to go, she's never stayed away from home I'd miss her . Still, I think I've hit the wall. All options will be seriously considered. I'm just not ready for controlled crying, but reassured there are other things to try first. This sounds really thick, but how to you know when they're hungry?! If he's up every two hours, he can't be genuinely hungry each time, but they've been crying for milk after 1 hr 20 twice a day for a few days, never really going more than 2, 2.5 hrs between feeds in the day, so can they be hungry??? Sleep lady stuff says erratic waning is more likely hunger. He cab be erratic- occasionally misses 9:30 feed, but after 12am guess is more regular... Why is this so hard?!

musical I had pain for about 7 months after my third degree tear, and it was looked at and had officially healed well. A bit puckered doesn't sound great. Maybe get your GP to look at it? Even mine settled with time though, as did my friends super painful poor healing big episiotomy, so maybe it'll just be time as a healer??

DreamingOfPeace · 19/09/2012 21:49

Erratic waking I meant of course...

PetWoman · 20/09/2012 02:54

Dream I'm glad you've got a plan re sleep - hope it works with the DTs without too much stress. I used a dummy to work out if DS was really hungry in the night. Blush

Musical one of my NCT group was sore and inflamed and was prescribed a topical steroid cream - she said it did the trick.

Hawthers Grin

Too thank God the pan missed M! How terrifying! But as others have said, we have 'what might have been' near-misses every day or is that just me? I once bumped DS's forehead on a nail. Luckily he didn't cry for long and the mark disappeared in a few days. Blush

Jaggy glad your DH is home - hope you're both catching up on sleep tonight.

Time to effect The Transfer here...

pommedechocolat · 20/09/2012 06:38

No cry helped here dream. Things aren't amazing or anything but they are more liveable.

Also proper food and sitting up has helped wonders on the reflux. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Xxx

TooImmatureTurtleDoves · 20/09/2012 08:47

Dream, Brooking full speed ahead for the sleep training to succeed. I don't know about the hunger thing either - I thought M wasn't hungry when she was waking every 2 hours or less, but then my giant full boob on Sunday night produced 6 hours sleep, so who knows? Also, last night she woke up at 10 just as I was trying on a corset (thinking about my costume for Halloween party) and I couldn't get it off, so I tried feeding her in it (it's a waspie), which was terribly uncomfortable. She didn't like it either and woke up 2 minutes after being put down. I had to leave her crying while DH and I struggled to get the bloody corset off - I wound up cutting the strings, so she was quite awake/cross by the time I got to her. She had the other boob, fell asleep, and then promptly woke up again 5 minutes after that, so she went back on the first boob. She eventually went down at about 10.20 and slept until 3.40, hurray! So perhaps hunger really is an issue and I should be offering both boobs routinely at bedtime. Confused I know that with two offering both boobs isn't necessarily possible, though. M was up briefly at 5.30 and then slept until 7.30, when DH disturbed her by kissing her goodbye. We're off to Mum's tonight without him to see an old friend of hers - first night apart since M was born! So M's sleep will probably go to pot again in the strange cot.

Dream, now that they're eating, could you get an afternoon off, somehow? Leave them with your DH and a parent, or something, and go and do something nice for yourself? It's not sleep, but it would be a break, which is restful in itself. Also, you never know, having time away from the 2 hour feeding might mean you break the cycle - that they realise they can go longer without a feed, or that when you come back you have more milk than usual and so fill them up for longer.

Jaggy, hope the brownies went well! Mmm, brownies...

Thank you for your tales of bad motherhood accidental damage to the DC. I feel a bit better now - and I have learned that ceramic and direct heat don't mix!

My bloody stepmother phoned up the day before yesterday to ask me how weaning was going. I told her about BLW and she basically poo-pooed the whole idea and said I should be "loading M up with baby rice or baby porridge". Hmm She asked what I was feeding M for breakfast and I said usually full-fat Greek yoghurt, same as me. She went "oh Too, that's not enough!" I pointed out that it kept me full until lunchtime and she said that M was a growing baby who needed more food than an adult. Hmm Eh? She does not need more food than me - she is a baby with a teeny tiny tummy! If her tummy is about the size of her fist then it is titchy! By the way, I know yoghurt isn't BLW food because I feed her with a spoon, but it goes in and I want her to have one good meal a day. I tried her on omelette and scrambled eggs and she just wouldn't eat them. I don't have any bread in the house as I'm low-carbing and besides, I'm a bit worried about gluten so I'm not dead keen on toast for her. Dad has Crohn's disease so I just want to make sure I don't stress her little digestive tract as it matures. And my stepmother was horrified at me giving M chunks of roast lamb. She didn't choke, but I had to admit that she didn't swallow much either. But she is getting really good at eating things like broccoli and cheese and ham - last night I gave her macaroni with cheese and broccoli and she spent ages playing with it and definitely ate a fair bit, and she's moving food around in her mouth properly and really starting to chew. I don't know what the problem with egg is. Confused And I fed her broccoli and stilton soup the other night (again a BLW fail, but I did give her a first course of bits of cheese and ham to practice chewing with) and she scoffed that down. Oh, and I told my stepmother that I was going to go to a group on Monday which starts as a bf support group but also helps with BLW, which is run by a HV, and she said "oh good, they'll keep you right". I AM right! I am doing BLW as advised by the HVs - I'm not making this stuff up out of some ill-advised notion of my own! I am an intelligent, well-informed woman who is capable of making decisions regarding my own child, thank you very much! Thanks to MN and the internet in general, I have access to a hell of a lot more information than she did 10 years ago with my brother (I know the internet existed then, but not in our house it didn't).

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hawthers · 20/09/2012 09:19

too and breathe do the old smile and nod. I find an 'oh that is interesting I'll look into that' helps as well.

farfallarocks · 20/09/2012 12:17

Hello brookers! Just wanted to say hello and looking forward to joining you all in about 6 weeks time and getting lots of advice from all your experience!!

p.s. the last few weeks are not much fun are they?

scarletfingernail · 20/09/2012 13:11

Hey far not long until you join us then. Your pregnancy seems to be going fast, but yes you're right the final leg is tough. I hope you're getting plenty of rest and being well looked after?

Smile and nod Too and rant away to us. I like Hawthers's "oh that is interesting..." I'd be tempted to leave the "I'll look into that" part of it off! Grin

scarletfingernail · 20/09/2012 22:34

The Audience wasn't as good this week, did any of you watch it? Ninja? I thought it was a no brainer.

pommedechocolat · 21/09/2012 06:21

I watched 15 mins of the audience tonight. Not as good as I'd hoped but still a good idea!

In Italy a slept really well (6.30-6.30 with two quick feed wake ups, straight back down - the bar is low). At home bad again. In Italy she was in a travel cot shoved in a small space between an old sofa bed and a big office desk. The room was really light. At home in her lovely pretty room - she moves and gets herself stuck on the cot bars and gets upset all night!!

We are thinking of moving her to the garage Grin

Hope all good with everyone. too - my mil offers 'advice' and undermines me in front of my kids all the time. I've kept stum for 2.5 years now for dh's sake. Now I hate her and am constantly close to exploding at her. I might try and say something to your step mum about her boundaries...

PetWoman · 21/09/2012 07:07

Well now, I am lucky in my mil but was a bit surprised yesterday. It's DH's birthday today but he wanted family time tonight, so I suggested we invite his mum round for supper the day before instead (she lives very close). When I collected here she said she'd bought a cake. Now, it was a lovely thought and a nice cake, but (being in mat leave and all) I'd planned to bake one. But now I don't know if there's any point. Am a bit :( but to be fair, I don't think DH is fussed so it's not worth getting bothered about. Thank goodness, my mil has never offered advice (not even when asked!). My mum, on the other hand...