March 2013: Smiles, sleep & excellent feeding.....the thread of wishful thinking!

[SoYo]

Well we may as well start the thread on a positive note before the grumbling about the little darlings begins!!!

Hi SoYo, sadly periods were always pretty heavy, though as I had t had one since 1999 up to last year, and only had 2 before getting pg I'm somewhat out of practice!

Glad nights not too bad. When you talk about transfer fails do you mean from boob to basket?

Yep Pud, transfer from bomb to basket to sleep.

Wing I managed it at 4, then she was up again at 5.30 and again now & I think this is it for the day. Sounds like you had a great night! Well done!

Good lord, pud, you're making me feel young - I didn't even start mine until 1999!

Skills - if anyone needs their spelling, punctuation, or grammar checking, I'm your woman. I also make a mean cup of tea.

SoYo yes, you will definitely feel better having an hour to yourself in the evenings. It's an hour in which you're not having to worry about baby, and is excellent for recharging. Our witching hour ends with bedtime. Sometimes she's too screamy to take a bottle, and has to be left in her cot for half an hour to chill out (that's not half an hour of crying, by the way, just of her being calm and maybe having a catnap - she chills right out when she's swaddled and in her cot with her dummy).

Oh, and if arm escapes are causing transfer fails, get a swaddle pod thingy, that zips up the front. We've yet to have a single escape from ours. I dread the day she outgrows it.

Good night last night - she was asleep before 8, dream feed at 11.30, and didn't wake up for the next one until 4! It's an hour later than usual. So I'm now being cautiously optimistic that at some point over the next few weeks she may end up dropping that feed.

Ok well d day, or should I say b day has come. Little one can't kick the thrush and it's making her throat hurt as she is tongue thrusting and drooling more than ever. I have had three weeks of strong anti fungal drugs and while it is bearable I am not over it. I am not sure I am prepared to keep medicating myself and her just to keep breastfeeding so I am considering just stopping altogether. I knw I'll feel guilty, especially if she gets ill but I'm worried this thrush is making her crampy and windy as well as sore throat. I know just stopping won't clear it up but at least I'll know that I am not re infecting her each time I feed. I've done all the wheat and dairy elimination and it's making me even more knackered along with the drugs, the side effect of which is liver damage for prolonged use.... Doc doesn't want to give me another week .... Typing it out makes it look like I have made my choice...

Ooh this thread is busy these days isn't it! Hi KF, welcome. Hope you feel better soon, low irons a bugger.

DS grumbled in his sleep for most of the night, and woke up screaming at 2am. Lucky for me DP chose this time to develop the mother of all wheezy coughs (hay fever). I tried placating DS with a bottle, which he kindly vomited all over me and refused a top up. Night fail! Oh well he's feeding sloooowly again now, lets hope this lot stays down.
I think we'll be taking it easy today.

On the subject of sex...we did it quite a lot while I was pg. there was a chunk in the middle when I got signed off for exhaustion and I went on strike, but that was shortlived. I somehow managed it at 41 weeks, but clearly only as an attempt to induce (which failed).

SoYo if you're a fan of astrolabe it might be worth calling your local Majestic or waitrose. Both have a dedicated service of people like me, and can usually point you in the right direction. Wine Searcher also v useful for specific, limited wines. I'd also try St Clair Pioneer Block, Vavasour and Kings Favour. All bloody lovely.

stormy what is the swaddle pod thing?

It does rather appear that you have Eig and if so then great. Go for it. You've given your baby an amazing start but there comes a point when enoughs enough and you can enjoy your baby more. And as you say, if it stops you passing thrush back and forth and makes baby more comfortable then it's worth it. Well done for persevering, now give yourself a break. And welcome to The Guilt , me and Stormy can show you around.

Hmmmm, nice though it was to have her littlest-ship zonked out early evening, the downside was she woke up full of beans at 11.30pm and was up partying all night. I swear every single time I looked in her direction there was a little pair of beady eyes staring at me. Anyone else get slightly freaked out by the way they sparkle at night? It's like having one's own personal resident alien.

Soooo, that'll be another night where mummy got no sleep at all, and baby thought it would be just hilarious to finish it by puking all over her/the bed/the duvet and herself. At 5am I made an executive decision to declare it morning, so we all got up, showered and started the day. Weirdly this felt quite late. Once upon a time 5am seemed like a criminally early start, but now.. phut... it's a lie in.

Oh Eig - you're super mum, and believe me in your position I'd have got the bottle out weeks ago. You've given your small person the best possible start, so now's the time to start thinking of yourself as well. Forget The Guilt, it doesn't apply.

Stormy - Don't!!!! I'm not even going to think about how old I was in 1999... but put it this way, by your standards I'm currently one step away from a zimmer frame.

As for sex. I'm sorry, what's that again?

Morning folks!

Argh, contraception. My sex drive plummeted when I was PG, although just about kept things ticking over - and dtd at v nearly 42 weeks (still needed induction). It seems to be back now stitches all better, and we've used condoms, although naps are generally at least as appealing. I think I'll probably go for the mirena coil at my 6 week check as despite more than 10 years on the pill, I no longer trust my post baby short term memory to take a mini pill at the same time every day! My best mate is in the same line of work as Soyo so will be getting her advice pre 6 week check.

Eig

stormy 1999! Bloody hell I could probably be your mother! Got a spare Zimmer worsester !!

Oops, LO's foot posted for me!

Eig, sounds like you've done amazingly keeping going this long. Please don't feel guilty for making the right decision for you and your baby. I'd ebfing, but largely because it's been relatively easy so far. I wasn't breastfed, neither was my wee brother, and we've both turned out just fine - healthy, bright and we love our mum!

I hate how we're made to feel guilty for making the decisions that are best for us and our babies. Routines, feeding, dummies - all decisions that can only be made by individual mums who understand best what 's right for us and our individual babies in our individual circumstances. No mum has ever deliberately made a bad choice for her child, and in 20 years time all our babies will be doing just fine, whether fed bottle or boob, on demand or by on a schedule.

Rant over. For now.

DH went back to work on Tues and my parents are up helping this week. Wondering if I have the brass neck to ask them to clean... We went into Edinburgh yesterday to shop for my birthday present and for a nice lunch. LO loved the posh restaurant, hated the posh shops (Hobbs etc) but permitted me to buy a red cardy from Joules. She loved M&S but probably because every member of staff doted on her! We're both exhausted today, though! I fed in public 3 times, once in Starbucks, once in the restaurant, and once (after a timing miscalculation) on the train home. Might just stick to the sofa today!

Eig it does sound like you've made your choice. She had nine weeks of boob juice though, you did a grand job, especially with the thrush. Don't beat yourself up over stopping. Think of the freedom bottles allow instead!

This is the swaddle pod we have; I went for the houdini version because we had such trouble with arm escapes, but it's possible a normal one would work just as well.

worsester I often think we have an alien in the house - put baby on the changing mat and stand at the head end, looking at her upside down. Very alien looking face!

I'm not that young - 28 on Tuesday!

The squeaky one was asleep when I went in at 7.45, but woke up as I was chattering and opening the blind. Gave me the biggest gummy grin in her cot, which got the day off to a nice start. Currently on the playmat staring at me (I should be playing, not mumsnetting) and making really entertaining noises.

Oops sorry I didn't mean anything by The Guilt it seems to have been taken the wrong way as I was being tongue in cheek.

I won't mention my age then...

Stormy, just order that one on amazon, thanks! Will be here tonight, how speedy! Yes, off to get bottle ready for next feed... So only a decade younger than me then! You missed the 80's perm phase, I am cool with my um not breastfeeding me but the perm when I was 8 I don't forgive her for!!

On a positive note, hubbie and I are off to st James palace on Monday night for a dinner hosted by prince Charles so night nanny is back fr two nights ( a pre night being essential to make sure baby ok! Yeah! ) .

I do vaguely remember the eighties, but I try to block them out!

I was on tour in Europe with a band in 1999 - my how rock n roll! Things have certainly changed!

I think I'm having a period now coincidentally, surely they don't come back so soon?

Soyo maybe you're the one in the know here - i took the levonelle on friday last week and started bleeding yesterday...

DS is pooing it up a storm here, and got some very weird sleep too, thrashing around 'fighting the ghosties' as i call it whilst eyes are closed and then doing a cry but immediately then stopping and smiling. The alien thing is true! He freaks me out sometimes.

I was picking my options at school in 1999

Tea I'm impressed! Taking it easy today definitely seems a good reward.

Wow Eig - that's v impressive! Plonko I don't thing anyone took the reference to The Guilt as anything other than tongue in cheek - and anyway we all get attacks of TG every so often about various things, don't we?

I'm not quite a decade older than you Stormy. Is it weird that I can't actually remember how old I was /in which year I started my periods?

I've never heard of astrolabe wine. I'm guessing it's not the grape variety but is a maker? I keep thinking you actually mean a band but I can't put my finger on the name...

I forgot to say that after DD's early morning feed (she wanted to drain both sides so she was very hungry!) she was wide awake with those alien glittering eyes but I just put her in the basket. She even got one arm out but I ignored her snuffling and she went back to sleep till 7:40! DS came into our bed at 6:30 and knocked into one of my boulder boobs which was a bit painful but DH took him downstairs and let me sleep a bit longer.

I'm checking out an NCT babies group this morning in a nearby town. If DH had been at work I'd have got out to groups weeks ago. Hope it isn't too cliquey.

GCSE options, plonko? Me too. I was also hitting the teenage rebellion stage, and taking up smoking, and realising that actually, the world wouldn't end if I bunked off and went and hung about in a graveyard. Fun times...

Nice one, Wing! There is definitely something to be said for them going back to sleep.

Leni, was it a band we may have heard of? DH is a huge music fan and is old so may do

I graduated in 1998 and was drinking and partying in London in '99!

I graduated in 1997 so was doing my accounting exams in 99 while you guys were at school or being rock and roll!

plonko I loved your message and agree about the guilt, it's there! Now just got to get her to take more than 3 ounces from the bottle in one go!

Stormy yep I was picking my GCSEs. Oooh you sound like you were a right little mardy teenager. I think I waited for the millenium before trying my first cigarette, but I did get locked in a graveyard after school one day.

Wing Astrolabe is a brand name of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Very nice wine, SoYo has good taste . Let us know how the NCT mummies are. I've been very lazy a complete chicken about getting out and meeting people, so keen to hear experiences.

Well I really ought to be either napping or in the shower but I've found myself weighing up my going-back-to-work options. Hmm. Once travel costs and the like are taken into account I might only be working for £40 a week!

Given I didn't start my periods til I was 15 I can't be stormy's mum. Well that's one less thing to worry about today. Little one has had 2.5 ounces and is asleep under baby gym .... Do I keep offering the bottle or wait for next feed? M

Meant ummm not m !