Still brooking no argument whatsoever that these babies are happy, healthy and awesome for 2013 too.

[jaggythistle]

eh. attempt at new thread. yo.

How is today going too? Hope you're not uncomfortable.

Not too bad just now - they're sore from Shredding, if anything! Today is going slowly, mainly because there's nothing for me to do yet. DH gave M formula before her morning nap, grr, but he says she scoffed it all up and didn't want to let go of the bottle! He's saving the good stuff for her afternoon nap.

stacks you have not failed

Oh no! You've fallen off my TIO list! Just marking my place to come back when I have even a second to myself. Just insanely busy here, and still up to my eyeballs in bags and boxes that need to be unpacked into my already overflowing house!

Soooo glad to see Purple back though!!! Yippee!!!

Will post properly later (hopefully).

Too, hope your first day back is going ok, and that your boobs are surviving! I remember mine nearly exploded when I did my last KIT day (and that was with expressing half way through...)

Stacks, you most certainly haven't failed. As everyone else has said, BF is hard - especially in the early days, when both you and the baby are learning, and when the baby has a little mouth! I had a BF expert come out and see me, and then went to a BF group weekly - both were invaluable. I still struggled even after someone came to me as I'd not always corrected Iz's latch, but it's one of those things - some people can get away with non-perfect ones! T will learn if you keep correcting him, and getting support isn't a failure - it's ensuring you do as well as you possibly can for both of you.

...I wrote this hours ago and forgot about it, so will probably cross post times a thousand...

P.s. how much cardboard/paper can a baby eat in a day? Does it officially count as part of their diet? Or as BLW?

stacks, B still has an imperfect latch, he's a little whopper and I'm generally happy. The hormomes make you feel like that. Incidentally, I feel like I'm failing daily as I struggle so much to parent my children alone for any length of time and do anything other than firefight (nappies/ wipe up sick/ flick through book with DD/ more nappies/ clear up after meal/ try to prepare another). . I had TWO bf people round, a bf support network lady and a lactation consultant and they were feeding well and gaining weight well. Persevere with the other positions. B didn't like rugby ball, he just didn't, S was fine. B did learn to feed in it though. Yiou'll get there and you're doing great.

stacks your just getting started! No failures here! I would go to both groups and see, if you can, la leche will have a ll leader who will have bf training I am sure. There should be numbers you can call too to scope them out :)

Do you know about laid back breastfeeding? If not have a google of that and biological nurturing is another term for it. And then go have skin to skin in a relaxed environment see if you can get comfy feeding latch wise.

You have been doing great, milk is going into baby, you just need some tweaking to maximise it all. :)

scream it is nice to be back, I have been on the fb page too! :) :)

Purple welcome back! Great to hear from you!

Stacks do get more help if you can, and don't worry about crying. I sobbed over a range of people in the early days, and got just about every person who walked through my front door to check my latch. My boobs have never been seen by so many people before or since (thank goodness). You and T will get through this tricky bit in no time, and soon you'll look back and wonder what all the stress was about.

Stacks I couldn't feed DD any way other than lying down then one night I was moving her to lie down next to me and she managed to find my nipple before I planned her to(I was still sat up) and from then on thats how I have fed her. Like everyone else has said you'll get there and I think it does get easier as LO gets bigger.

This thread has been very quiet lately.

How's it going back at work Too?

Did you make it to the BF group at Ikea Stacks?

DD has been hilarious with DS today. I think the novelty of having a baby sister may wear off soon. She's been shuffling around the floor breaking up his jigsaw puzzles, chewing on the pieces, trying to slap his hands away when he tries to get the bits back. She's a feisty one and very determined to get what she wants. DS has impressed me with his patience so far but I could tell he was starting to get a bit cross by the way he was saying her name
Lego is now banned to his bedroom.

I still feel ill. Felt better for one day with the boys then back to work today and now feel like death warmed up. Uh oh.

I'm lurking, just knackered and a bit worried. I said to my dad how I didn't think its stressful as such with me and the children though i admit its exhausting, and he says it is both. So I asked my mum (divorced parents) and she agrees too! Feel a bit :( they all find it such a chore... It'd be better if the boys would nap in their cots, but then we'd be stuck- if they nap mid morning and mid afternoon, how would i take DD anywhere?! I know nursery for her is the 'easy' solution but with her lack of speech and severe separation anxiety I just don't think its right for her at this point. Argh!

Your DD sounds adorable scarlet, and that's amazing your ds didn't get cross with her. Mine would have snatched things back and pushed them over I reckon :) . Not that mine are crawling, but s can roll around the room, b not so good!

Rubbish raaboo, and i guess a sick day would look bad now? You poor thing.

I'm going to work for a training day tomorrow, three hours. Eek, first time I've left the boys more than an hour.

Am lurking too. This thread is very quiet at the mo. I blame Biscuits' absence! Biscuits where are youuuuu?

Oh, DS calling - gotta go.

Hello all! Bit mental here, manic ness and Abbie has decided to help out by sleeping badly. Hmm!

Sorry to hear about nanny dream. Maybe some other child care solution for dd? Childminder? Or maybe a nanny share but the nanny is just for her? Hope you get someone in to help though, you're doing amazingly. I quite often think of you when I'm having continuous breakdowns looking after just two!

Hope work going well too, house going well scream an illness going raaboo!

Sorry for the radio silence! Yes, where is Biscuits? Scarlet, have you seen her in RL recently?

Oooh, good luck tomorrow, Dream! What happened with your nanny - have you found anyone else?

Stacks, how are you getting on? Brooking in your general direction!

Oh no, Raa - Brooking for a speedy recovery! Go to bed as early as you can!

Scarlet, your two sound so cute!

Work is going ok. I have, however, decided to give up expressing. I'm a bit upset by this, but I was getting absolutely zilch from the electric pump and only a tiny bit from the hand pump yesterday night, despite one boob being incredibly full. It just didn't want to come out. I ended up hand expressing and making a huge mess of myself (luckily this was at home). I can't imagine doing it at work anywhere. So we have bought some formula and will send that to nursery with M. I'll still bf morning, night and during my 3-day weekend. I feel so annoyed with myself - why won't the bloody milk flow? I can't afford a Medela pump right now, so it's just going to have to be mixed feeding from now on. I'm going to invest in a Medela before my next baby, but I'm too broke to buy one now.

M seems to be getting on fine at nursery and was quite happy this evening. She seems so much stronger on her feet just in the last week or so - standing quite steadily for a few seconds before diving forwards or sideways. She's got a cold and is terribly snotty. She's woken up the last couple of mornings with snot all over her face. Lovely!

X post, Pomme - how are you getting on in Italy?

hello brookers, thought it was time I popped in. not really up to date with thread, but I see scream is going through a tough time. I hope you sort things out. separation/divorce is not fun, been there. but if it's come this far it sounds like you'll be happier in the long run.

dream, you are amazing but way too hard on yourself. I hope you can get a new nanny. I don't think I could cope with what you have to deal with.

too. hope your return to work is going well and don't worryabout the formula. when I went back to work after dd, she had formula in the dayand I BFd morning and night. it worked well for us anyway.

nice to be here with the grads! ds is doing well, almost back to birthweight now at 11 days old and is absolutely adorable of course.

apologies for typos and short post, am using my phone, but will try to stay in touch nonetheless.

Hmm I've got a migraine and DH is vomming. Not a happy household. [Sad]

Wah even my stupid sad face didn't work

Dream I agree with Gen, you are way too hard on yourself. Plus you have very high standards with regards what your DC should/should be doing, what is/isn't good for them. Your decisions and choices are yours to make and obviously your DC must be brought up the way you think best. There will be things you could possibly relax a bit on to make life easier for yourself and any other adults involved with helping you, such as doing away with the tv ban when things are desperate. Don't get me wrong, I admire that you've stuck to that rule and I'm in awe of what you achieve on a daily basis and that's just a quick example off the top of my head. But if my help was telling me it was stressful and exhausting for them I'd maybe set my expectations a little lower. Your situation is bound to be more stressful than most and it is only temporary, but temporary can be a long time. Maybe review some of the things that seem important? Such as the no tv, DD in childcare, no formula, have to go out somewhere every day with the DC (I'm sure there must be more) and see if there's anything that you'd be happy to change, if only temporary? ((((Hugs)))) I hope I've not upset you and there is absolutely no criticism meant by me suggesting this. There's loads of stuff I do which is less than ideal and loads of stuff I feel is important that I wouldn't consider budging on so I'm in no position to judge anyone else. I can only imagine how tough it must be for you, it'd just be so nice if there was any way to make it more enjoyable.

raah sounds hideous what type virus have you had? Flu type nasty or yucky vomming one? Grim either way. I hope you feel better soon.

Welcome over Gen. How's it going with DS? How's DD enjoying being a big sister? Your photos are gorgeous.

You've done a great job with the BF this far Too if you can't express, you can't express and needs must. Don't beat yourself up. Good to hear work is going ok. Biscuits and I are getting together tomorrow. I think she's been super busy lately.

Oh and I did have a laugh last night. My bed time reading was the thread where me, Scream, Dream and *Jaggy all got our BFPs within 3 days. It was such an exciting time and some of it was very amusing. Seems like such a long time ago....

Welcome Gen! The photos are gorgeous. You and Tock and Stasi and your newborn pictures are all making me broody again...

Too, completely agree with what everyone else is saying- don't beat yourself up! Mixed feeding has all the benefits of BF after all (I think I'm right in saying?!). I'm struggling to express now (though expressing as I type - doing much better than previous attempts), so I think if I were in your situation I'd probably be FF during the day too. Glad M is getting on fine!

Raa, are you feeling better yet? One of my friends from home caught a similar lurgi, and has just been hospitalised.

Scarlet, your DD and DS sound so sweet, and your DS sounds like he's very patient! I think one of my cats is beginning to lose it with Iz. He's still very very good with her, but now she insists on crawling over, shouting at him (her Cat Voice is very high, squeaky and loud!) and pulling his tail/ears/paws, I think he's losing his patience. That bed time reading sounds excellent - may have to dig it out myself!

Pomme, how're things?!

All good here, though still haven't written my resignation letter (oops). Have been doing lots of composing though (hurrah), so not all bad. Iz is being adoreable, though I'm pretty certain she's teething as she's gnawing everything again. Caught her trying to chomp the (glass) tv stand earlier! Best get to bed before she decides to wake up again...

dream i'm with scarlet in agreeing that it might help a little to relax some rules occasionally for sanitys sake. Playing devils advocate here but is there a possibility a good nursery and a good key worker could help dd with her speech and socialisation/ separation anxiety? As for the no tv, maybe a bit of cbeebies is ok, you could even then do some kind of activity based on what they've watched (appreciate this might work better with your dd than the dts due to age).
Welcome gen lovely to see you over here, your fb pics of ds are just gorgeous. How is dd taking to it all? DD is only 6 months old and I'm already feeling broody after seeing all the recent baby pics. Can't afford another baby at all but totally not ready to say i'm done!
I do hope you feel better soon raa. I know in the last week of term about 30 out of 90 kids were off due to illness! Have your nanny issues settled down?

I'm going to see a nursery next week thats near to work and may actually be affordable (ie its only marginally more than a childminder round here). It sounds nice, its capacity is 45 kids in total and its not full yet as it only opened about 9 months ago. Otherwise I will have to search out a childminder. Sigh. Childcare is sooooo expensive I'm looking at possibly having to split my hours to work on a weekend when I go back. Think I may enter the lottery tonight.

Thanks for the welcome! How exciting that Musical and Ninja are broody again! I was wondering the other day how long it would be before a brooker would TTC again!

Dream, I like Scarlet's suggestions about looking to change one or two things temporarily if it helps you. I hope you don't feel got at - I think it's clear we all think you do a fantastic job.

Things are going well with new DS thanks. DD is very happy to be a big sister and we haven't really had any jealousy. He is feeding well and sleeps between feeds, so we're coping ok! I'm lucky in that DH is going to be working from home (freelance) so he helps me with things like taking DD to play group at the moment while we get into some sort of routine. I'll take over the play group run from next week hopefully, but I want a buggy board first as its quite a long way to walk and DD often asks for a piggy back, which I can't do at the moment!

Stacks, hope you're getting some help with BFing. It really isn't a failure to have to ask for help. I think Musical had it right when she said about newborns having small mouths. Both DD and now DS didn't /don't have big enough mouths to take in all the boob they are supposed to. I find it helpful to grab my boob with my free hand and squeeze it a bit to help him get as much nipple in as he can. This is something a midwife showed me when DD was little and it really helped with the slightly sore latch she had. You will get the hang of it though, it's early days yet.

Hi generic! belated congratulations - I've lost track of the other booking threads and i have so far stuck to my RL only on Facebook and not joined the group.

I will add all the new postgrads to my ''mumsnet mates' thingy though so i can share bore you with more photos on my profile.

too
I am sure I was able to stop expressing for day shifts for DS1 earlier than i thought so you might only need the formula for a wee while.

Am so tired today but not sure how to catch up on sleep! Pre dc i used to nap after 6am shifts...