Brooking no argument for babies who sleep, eat, smile and behave perfectly at all times. Yeah right!

[scarletfingernail]

New thread, here we go...

So glad DS is better, Scarlet.

Have been reading the Discussion of the Day thread about expressing - think I'm going to have to express at work to stop my boobs exploding, and to have EBM to give to the nursery for M. Anyone got a recommendation for a decent pump? I'd quite like an electric one [lazy] - my Tommee Tippee one is a bit shit and makes my hands ache, but it depends on price, really. I'm probably going to be expressing for a maximum of 2 months, just until M can have cow's milk during the day, but I suppose it would be an investment for future babies too.

Future babies, Too? How many are you thinking of having? :) I have a Medela single mini, which I really like. I actually bought it from Ebay and super-sterilised it. Didn't cost much at all. When I had my KIT day I had to express - I did so once properly during the day, once into tissues (just a bit, to try and ease the super-saturatednes!)... got home and was in pretty immense pain, and was massaging blocked ducts for ages. One of the thoughts about me not going back to work straight away was because it'll be nigh on impossible to find time to express during at least one day of the week..

Stacks, don't worry, it'll be fine! Odd as it sounds, you get used to the sleeplessness. Then again, I had pregnancy insomnia for most of my pregnancy, so sleepless nights felt pretty normal. It's just now that Iz has slept through and has now stopped that I'm feeling worse :P

Pomme, glad things are feeling better for you now - sorry you feel a bit unhappy over it all.

So glad DS is better Scarlet!

I think I'm going to have to do a teeth dance. Like rain, but for teeth. Because this lack of teeth is getting a bit ridiculous now. Teething for almost four months. She may be doing the same as Dream's DD of course... I'm sure it's teething waking her up at night though, as I often go in to her shouting, but thrashing from side to side, trying to get back to sleep but failing... :( I think it wakes her up and stops her from self settling? It doesn't do it every time, as sshe was good as gold at my parents' last night (when finally asleep), but every time they checked on her she'd moved slightly, or grabbed the comforter toy we're using (YAY, must be working!).

On the napping front, it appears I still have a little girl who doesn't like napping in her cot - but will nap on the sofa if I put her down beside me. Most bizarre. Even if I try to get her to sleep in her cot, she then won't necessarily stay asleep there. Wonder if that links to the night sleeping at all.. hmm.

Urgh. S up lots, then was feeding him at 5:30 and he vomited profusely in my bed. Changed him, me, the bed and that was it for sleep. He'll be so cranky imminently.

I confess I'd like one more baby. Dh is still saying he'd like a vasectomy but then twice recently he's said 'if we have another in a few years' . So maybe?!

too I've got a medela electric pump too. Also second hand. But mine is hospital grade so i paid £125 second hand, but tis £250 new!

Mine's a double pump top though.

Too, not top. Doh. I'm expressing each evening for milk for b's porridge, I get 5 oz in 10 min when my boobs feel pretty empty to me, it is great.

I've got an Avent electric single pump which was ok ish but I never really had much success with it. But then I don't know whether I just wasn't cut out for pumping or if it was because the pump wasn't very good iyswim?

I am just about to get rid of my pump - it's only been used a handful of times - you'd be welcome to it if you wanted to try it? (Apologies if that's a rank sort of thing to offer away? I'm not sure )

I had the little medala one (until I dropped it...). I liked it. It works on batteries too and being little i found with dd2 I could express on the go which would be useful for when you have your second too?

I bet jaggy and hawthers know a thing about pumps too as hey have both done quite a lot haven't they?

Should I think about expressing? I'm unemployed so don't have a job to go back to although my MA runs out in a couple of weeks so will then only have my CB as income. If I go back on the dole then I would need to take any job offered so may need to find childcare quickly. The only time I have expressed is ages ago when my boobs were rock solid and N was too small to be able to feed from them so I just expressed off a little to soften them up for her.

Oooh, Biscuits, that would be great! How much do you want for it? Have had a look on Amazon and the reviews seem pretty positive, and I just don't have the cash to spend £100 on a Medela right now.

Musical, at least one more, and then we'll see! But neither of us want M to be an only child, and DH keeps saying he wants about 7... So the current plan is to have another and see how stressful the pregnancy is. I keep worrying about M's Down's syndrome score (which was 1:10 and I had an amnio at 16 weeks and luckily everything was fine) and whether that's just a quirk of my babies and I'd have to go through the whole worry about whether the next one had Down's and whether to have the amnio again and what if this time I miscarried...Maybe it was just M, but the nuchal test hadn't come to my trust when I was pg with DD1, so I don't know if she would have had a similar result or not. Plus there was the whole SPD thing, although it wasn't as bad as Scream's.

No money required too - it's yours . Just pm me your address

Sending big hugs to Dream and anyone else up all night with a LO. Little A and I did battle all last night, and as with most battles there were no real winners.

Every night I try to get her to sleep in her cot, and every night I give up (due to exhaustion) around 2 or 3ish, at which point she comes into my bed to sleep on me. This means I have to sleep on my back which completely aggravates my sciatica. Finally yesterday evening I was just in sooooo much pain from the sciatica, even after taking nurofen, that I had to face the fact I CANNOT physically let her sleep on me anymore. Cue the epic battle last night, where she screamed from 3 til 4, then from 5 to 5.30 and again from 6 to 6.30 when I finally brought her into my bed to sleep next to me rather than on me. I'm a terrible mother for letting her sleep next to me though, because I have a memory foam mattress and I know babies shouldn't sleep on those. Argh it's such a nightmare! Dreading tonight already... Last night was basically the "camping out" version of cry-it-out. It was awful. She's never cried so hard for so long in her whole life She didn't go to sleep until midnight anyway, despite an 8pm bedtime, and she was up twice between midnight and The Screaming at 3. Sob sob.

Apologies for the selfish whinge. Back onto the topic of the day - next DC! How ridiculous is it that I STILL really want another baby asap?!?! Too I share all your concerns! I think the next time round I'll be even more worried about scan results etc, because I have too much so much more info now. Plus I'm terrified of the SPD & toddler combo. Still whenever I see a tiny baby less than a month old I get super broody!

Anyways, it's a pipe dream for me. It'll take months for DH and I to get back on track, and then it still wouldn't be sensible to jump immediately into another stressful pg followed by sleepless newborn stage. So I think I'll end up with at least a 2.5 year age gap, if not more. Unless I just jump in again anyway and we'd just have to figure it out as we go along but of course I wouldn't do that because I'm not a crazy woman oh no I'm perfectly sane me

As for the expressing talk, I loved my medela swing - single electric pump. I used it everyday for months and it was fantastic.

Good luck to all those going back to work in the next few weeks! Esp Pomme off to Italy! When do you leave exactly? How long will it take you to get internet access at the other end?!?!

How are all the previously poorly mini No Brookers? I don't think much has been mentioned recently so I hope everyone is better?

scream - your post brings back some bad memories! God, poor you, horibble night. Have you tried a different cot? Do you have a travel one? A was much better in her travel cot (maybe could see out) which we discovered by 'accident' on holiday. She's still in one now. She'll be sleeping in one in Italy too! She likes a nightlight too.

We're off to Italy for good on the 28th but on Thursday we're going for 4 days to try and sort things out. i am excited and nervous! We dont have enough suitcases!

Oh and I was so so so sure 2 was my lot but I saw dd1's nativity at school today (the two preschool class plus reception) and it was very hard not to cry and now I want a whole football team.

What is it about little ones singing away in a manger?! God thats a tearjerker.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Biscuits! I have PMed you. You are a star. I can do some expressing practice now and try freezing some and so on. Thank you so much!

at Pomme wanting a football team! Yy to Away In A Manger being a tearjerker. Gosh, Pomme, it's all getting close now - have a lovely time this weekend and I hope everything looks much more sorted by this time next week.

Scream, your comment about battles having no real winners made me smile because it sounded so philosophical, but then I read on and it sounds like the night from hell, poor you. Btw, I have a memory foam mattress too and I let M into my bed at 6ish this morning and she basically slept on her side facing me, with my arm under her head and my nipple in her mouth which is Very Bad according to the No Cry Sleep Solution. I started off on my side facing her and then rolled slightly onto my back which was comfier for me, although you might be better staying on your side. I think now they're older than 6 months their risk of SIDS is much reduced anyway, but having my arm underneath her meant that M couldn't roll face-first into the mattress without me noticing. Not that that helps with getting little A to sleep in the cot, which is the ultimate aim. The No Cry Sleep Solution suggests letting them play in their cots during the day, so they associate it with calm fun.

Jen, not sure about expressing - I suppose if you were offered a job quickly then you would have to sort out so many things in a very short space of time, so it might make sense to have tried expressing in advance? Do you need to go on the dole/get a job immediately, or can you stay off it for a bit longer?

at Pomme wanting a football team! Good luck for this weekend! Are you taking the girls or will they be staying with family?

Thanks for the travel cot suggestion. Unfortunately now that little A can cruise around her proper cot she gets very frustrated at the stretchy material sides of the travel cot, which mean she can't pull herself up. So she'll sleep in the travel cot fine if you transfer her when already fully under, but she won't fall asleep in the travel cot.

Too thanks for the arm suggestion! I always worry that little A's neck is at an uncomfortable angle when I start off with my arm underneath her head, but you're right it's a safe way of making sure she doesn't roll face down on the memory foam. She normally sleeps face down in her cot now, so I know she'll roll over on the bed as well.

I shouldn't complain so much about A though. In the last couple of weeks she's learnt to wave bye-bye and to give me a kiss if I ask for one! Such a sweetie! She's also still almost crawling. She can now move forwards on hands and knees, but she's only willing to move a few inches forward before she goes back to trying to stand. So I can't really call it proper crawling yet.

I wonder who will be the first No Brooker to rejoin the Rat Smackers?!?! Any predictions? Self-nominations?!?!

Well, AF still hasn't returned, so I'm out until that happens. DH wants to try again in the New Year, but I want to wait a bit longer and try to get fit first in the hopes of staving off the SPD. But no later than October. So who knows?

I want another but DH says no due to money. Yes I'm unemployed but if we have another then childcare fees will make working pretty much a waste of time anyway, right?

If AAT wasn't so expensive then I would put myself through that but we just can't justify it at the moment with so few jobs out there. It's frustrating that so many places want AAT and don't acknowledge my IAB Diploma. Ideally I want to be self employed and do the books for local small businesses but not sure how to get started with that.

I can tell you who'll be last to rejoin scream

I can wait to watch a nativity . But I know I'll be weeping all the way through it. The Christmas concert in Love Actually always makes me cry . Just the idea of children being able to do anything like that brings a tear to my eye .

can't wait I mean!

Girls coming as well, we're visiting nursery for A and pre school for dd1 on Friday. Fingers crossed the house is ok (vetted only by dh and my dad but rented via a friend of a friend). I meant we move officially 28th Dec earlier which dh has pointed out means major decoration down carnage on the 27th!!

scream - sounds like Autumn is learning tons and tons of new things very quickly and even one new thing tends to mess up sleep ime.

I reckon 2 will still be my lot. DH is VERY emphatic on two only. No more rat smacking for me I fear.

God scream your night sounds worse than mine and I feel rough. S still coughing and so mucousy, refusing any and all solids, vomiting a lot. B almost as bad but more stoical and less vomity! So after s started the wake ups at 9:30 pm, we finished with me trying to feed him to sleep st 5:30am, him turning his head from the boob to do a massive puked, all over me, him, the bed, then s trail to the bathroom as i legged it there with him.... Nice. So bed changing, new pajamas all round and a generally fun start to the day.

I'm being really horrible and moody and emotional atm. Hoping its the sleep deprivation as I've just started the progesterone only pill, knowing the combined one makes me a complete loon. I'm worried its the pill.... (Making me crackers now I mean) . Any.thoughts/ experience Brookers?

Scream, mine sleep on my memory foam mattress, I'm not worried now they're older

Oh, and pomme, I still think breast is best but always thought the 'formula induces sleep' saying must have had a grain of truth, but you've given her lifetime health benefits by bf!

I was on the progesterone one pre dd1. It was fine, although I was a bit worried when we started tic as I'd heard so many people have issues when they come off it. wasn't a problem though.

When I tried to go back on it post dd1 it didnt agree with me at all - spots, moody, constant bleeding. I've now been told no hormonal contraception at all for me - just condoms or copper coil.

I'm a bit in the dark about the pull - I've never been on it but I can't say I'm looking forward to a lifetime of condoms or similar now. I wonder if I should investigate it but I really don't know my arse from my elbow with all the different options etc. I don't want to be any more moody than I am already am