March 2013- here we go....

[Oodsigma]

Welcome old & new to the other side!

I'll start with a stats list!

Ood -ds 7/3/13, dc4! Elcs


If anyone wants to add any more details feel free!

[StormyBrid]

I may have to investigate a connecta - the man is scared of the mei tai because he doesn't trust his own knots. I tried to explain the purpose of knots, ie tied properly they get tighter when you tug on them, but he wasn't convinced.

We're generally on just a vest in the swaddle at the moment, with one thin blanket over the top. She seems okay with it, doesn't wake up sweaty.

plonko tell your bloke I am dead jealous. Been craving a game of Civ for weeks, but just haven't had the time!

Have told the man he needs to pick a weekend morning to have special daddy daughter time, and this will mean going out, not staying in. He agreed, thankfully.

We've had a good night, peaceful as usual, and she's not woken up yet - I suspect the blackout blind is helping there. Just need it to work for naps too now.

Oo, new thread! Must go investigate...

[plonko]

Wing it's been lovely to have some family time. I've even baked a cake and done all the ironing. My inner feminist is disgusted but at least I feel fairly on top of things in the house. Oh and wrt slings - we use a Connecta and I've found it really comfy and secure. It's soft structured so it holds baby very close, but the buckles make it quick to put on and adjust.

SoYo how's the evening going? Any rest for you yet?

DS is sleeping in a just a vest with a sheet over him. He hates being swaddled and according to the monitor our room is 24 degrees. Really ought to invest in a fan. Eco the heat rash sounds uncomfortable, hopefully it'll go down overnight though. Is LO bothered by it?

Ooh new thread! Best go mark my place...

[WingDefence]

Great SoYo

Have you got a room thermometer? You can get free paper ones and we have a couple. We'll leave DD just in a short sleeve vest, swaddled and then a cellular blanket tucked around her to keep the swaddle more in place.

I woke DD up at 10 and she's having a munch now after changing her. Not sure how long she'll last though!

[SoYo]

Wing that's done. Think I am the first of all the ones left chatting regularly.

new thread

I've for the second night running gone for just vest & her usual 2.5 tog GroBag but the room does feel hot tonight. Think I'll just open the windw a bit wider & hope she's not too hot. Her chest doesn't feel hot. What do you think?

[ecofreckle]

Plonko hello. Hot weather is a contrast to the snow of four weeks ago eh? We've gone wild and ditched the over night vest so dd just in sleep suit and sheet swaddle. Her chin, sides of cheek and neck are really disfigured with heat rash spots. I think from the car seat. You know when their heads lol over and all the sweat gathers for parties in their nook and cranny areas.
I am literally falling to sleep in bath as I type so I'd best get this phone out of the danger zone before I drop it.

[WingDefence]

Well DD did her usual cluster feeds from 5ish but has been zonked out on my arm for the last hour I think I'll wake her at 10 for a change and a feed if she does wake before then. Hope yours goes down soon SoYo.

Who has got the oldest baby? Can they please start the next thread? Is it you SoYo? :)

[SoYo]

3 feeds in last 90 mins & is sucking on her hand again. What a chubber! Also no signs of sleep....

[WingDefence]

Plonko so glad you've have some quality time with your DH. But yes, bin the bloody laptop!

[WingDefence]

Thanks :) I'm going to see if there is a sling library visit at a baby group I was thinking of trying out on Thursday as I have tried slings before (as opposed to a more structured carrier like the bb) and totally failed to get DS in a good position (baba sling) or get the sling tight enough for me to think they were secure (mei tei and others).

[Rainbowbabyhope]

wing I have a moby wrap. I tend to put it on in the morning and wear it most of the day, taking DD in and out as required. I feels very secure as I am pottering around the house and bending down etc. When we drive somewhere I will take her straight out of the car seat and pop her in the sling. Its lovely and cosy and has worked really well for us so far once we figured out how to put in on and pop DD in and out if it. In fact it is DD's main mode of transport although we do occasionally use the pram just for a change as I want her to be happy in both. However I did find the moby wrap made both me and DD very hot these last few days so I am going to go to our local sling library to check out some alternatives that might be better for summer.

[plonko]

Stormy I hope you bopped him over the head with a frying pan a la Reeves and Mortimer.

Rainbow I'd love to have a cleaner. That explains your serenity I guess! Sadly I'm still at the stage in life where I'm likely to be someone else's cleaner, rather than have my own.

We've had a lovely couple of days as DP is taking annual leave until Thursday. We've cooked nice meals, scaled the mountain into town and had a lovely long walk in the park. However he will not put his sodding laptop away now. I want to smash it. It took us TWO hours to leave the house earlier because he was playing Civilization. On the other hand he hoovered. Apparently the bits on the carpet have finally started to bug him. I nearly fell over.

How is everyone coping with the hot weather? DS hates it. Can't wait to take him to Madeira at the end of August...

[WingDefence]

Which sling have you got rainbow? DD loves the baby bjorn but I don't want to use that for every day but more for going on walks etc. and although she sleeps fine in he Moses basket at night, she tends to nap on us or in the BB in the daytime and I'd like to get on with more.

[Rainbowbabyhope]

Another lovely day here. I am totally in love with my sling - I have now figured out how to feed DD in it so now I am fully mobile and can go out for the whole day without having to worry about napping or feeding or anything! Really recommend slings to anyone having problems getting stuff done - I pop DD in the sling and can do pretty much everything including working as she absolutely loves being in there awake and asleep.

My DH is generally brilliant - we have always shared everything as equally as we can, both financially and at home, something we agreed when we started living together. We have a cleaner though so that cuts out that issue and we both hate cooking so we do it together as much as we can. Saturday mornings are daddy/daughter time and the rest of the weekend and evenings are family time - I love those times the most and we look after DD together and I would not want to miss those precious moments no matter how tired I was! Then again, the older DD is the less I think that looking after DD is as hard work as working - something I concluded as I spent the morning lazing around the garden feeding, cuddling and playing with DD and then reading while she napped while DH was stuck in his office on the computer missing out on being with DD!

[StormyBrid]

It was the beginning of the deterioration of the day's naps, eco. Right when she was tired enough to go to sleep, my brother was halfway through putting the blind up, so she dozed downstairs for half an hour. Only lasted until 3 upstairs, multiple resettling attempts failed. Got her up and fed at 3.45 and she fell asleep on the bottle, took her back up, gave her the rest of it, and left her in there. Slept until 5. Then we had an hour of just chilling on the sofa, which seemed to have a calming effect - the witching hour hasn't been nearly so screamy as usual today.

The man got off work early, and while he was doing her bath, he said "It's good to have a break, it makes me look forward to coming home to see DD." Suffice to say he was given quite the Look.

[ecofreckle]

Swap not sway. Mush brain.

[ecofreckle]

Job well done eig. Nice to have that out of the way.
Stormy how was danger zone hour?
And with regard men. Yes yes yes. It's not about what they will and won't do it's the actual proactivity. The noticing something needs doing. It's about the bloody head space noticing takes up for us. It's how we constantly need to work things through in our head in order to fit even the most basic of tasks into our day. We're always having to think ahead, prepare, do and then clear away the detritus. Whereas the men do the do part only. And only then when we ask them! Ggrrr indeed. But I wouldn't sway mine. What does that say about my moaning!?
Just back from day at work with dd. For me, mixing baby with professional situation didn't work terribly well because after only three months away I found it hard to conduct intelligent conversation. Almost like all that's irrelevant now I have a small person to keep alive. I'm trying again in six weeks time...
Witching hour here. Dh at work til after eight. I'm ready for a quiet bath with book and dinner. But that ain't happening.

[Eigmum]

Vaccines done, huge wail afterwards and was all ready with calpol or feeding but dd has fallen peacefully asleep as if nothing happened in Moses basket!! Had the 8 week check with trainee doctor who prescribed wrong drugs for thrush. So safe to say that was a waste of tax payers money but at least she checked the box to say she is fine and 5.4 kg so gaining weight and doing well!

[StormyBrid]

Yep, I'm trying to do just the same, pudtat. It's just a question of convincing her that, actually, she can just go back to sleep. My brother's just fitted the blackout blind. DD looked awesomely shocked when I closed it. A sort of "Mother, what have you done with my sunshine?! Is it gone forever? I'm confused..." look. We're due to hit the danger zone in half an hour. Fingers crossed! (Yes, I'm aware I just jinxed it.)

[pudtat]

Stormy, I meant to say re feeding/napping etc that this 40-45 min sleep cycle is so true for us. So he will usually sleep for 45mins or 45mins with some grumbling then back to sleep for another 45 mins. If I actually want him awake and miss the grumbling (say am on the loo) then he is deeply asleep again by the time I get to him usually. So re feeds, I tend to work out when he'll be due based on 45min blocks to give me a rough idea when I'm aiming for. HTH.

[plonko]

SoYo summed it up with her comment about taking the initiative. Immediately after reading that I went to make a cup of tea (for DP as well as myself), and heard "Plonko his dummy's fallen out!" then, moments later "his feet are cold!" Needless to say my tea went straight into the thermal cup and I've only just drank it, an hour after making it.

Sounds like you're having a very bad day, Stormy. You're definitely thinking for three now eh? Yep, it seems like we're all feeling it. DP has improved since my mini meltdown but getting him to take the initiative at home is like explaining the internet to my granny. Although if I left the food shopping/cooking to him we'd starve/get poisoned/eat random concoctions like PEA OMELETTE (yes really). Thankfully our evening routine means I cook dinner while he does bedtime - this involves him feeding DS in front of the telly, which i hate, but it should mean that by 8pm we're both fed and trying to relax. Although I often find myself doing the ironing, online food shop etc...

Oh sod it, I work hard for my pittance. I'm treating myself to a couple of new bras before I get all grumpy again.

And I'm that you have to wait so long! What an oversight - how can no one have told you that it works that way? I hope Ive not got it wrong too, as tomorrow is my postnatal check (at 8 weeks ) and DS's check so I've assumed jab time...

[worsestershiresauce]

Didn't Ginger Rogers once say she could do everything Fred Aistaire could, but backwards and in high heels? I think being a mum is a bit like that. The men think they do half... but they have no idea. NO IDEA I tell you...

[StormyBrid]

And it turns out the doctor doesn't do the injections, the nurses do, and they're all booked up tomorrow. So we can't get them done until the fifth of June. By which point she'll be almost thirteen weeks old. Not impressed...

[WingDefence]

Blimey I know I have moaned about my DH but this morning he got up with DS, made me a cuppa, got breakfast ready for us all, got DS's stuff ready for preschool and swimming, we all walked down to preschool in the village and back, he did the ironing, has mowed the lawn and stuck a chicken into the oven to roast all before 10:30 this morning

To be fair, he's self employed and hasn't been working since DD was born and he's the sort if man that does just need to get on with things, which actually sometimes drives me a bit crazy. I'm actually encouraging him to chase for work because we need money coming back in again and then I can slob at home without feeling like I have to be doing more than watching trashy tv!

[StormyBrid]

Totally forget the night half of the bottle schedule, whoops. Dream feed at 11pm (in the cot, no burp, no nappy change). She wakes up for a feed around 3am.

[StormyBrid]

SoYo we have exactly the same bouncer issue. I feel like I shouldn't tell him what to do because it's criticising his parenting, but when she's crying and he's not doing anything I feel like shouting "For God's sake, just pick her up and give her a cuddle!" Mind you, last time I told him to pick her up because she was screaming on the playmat, she projectiled all over him.

Eig we're on bottles every time. 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, and 7pm or thereabouts. I aim for no more than half an hour's leeway either way, otherwise it throws the routine out too much. It's all so dependent on sleeping well too - if a nap finishes an hour before a feed's due I'm left not knowing if it's bum or breakfast time, as it were.

You've reminded me, must ring the doc's and get those jabs booked.

We are actually doing surprisingly well today. The morning nap ended up being two 45 minute stints either side of a half hour grumbling session. Went and got her at 10am, she was asleep but woke up when I started talking to her. Drank her milk with no fuss, burped easily, sat in the bouncy chair while I sang to her, dead cheerful and alert throughout. We popped over to my brother's at 11 and she had cuddles from everyone there, then back home and up for her nap by 11.15. Went straight to sleep. Am now just steeling myself for the early wakeup, due any minute now.