March 2013 - gurgles, giggles and going on holiday (for some of us at least!)

[pudtat]

Will this do? Never started a thread before so hope this works...

previous thread

Its quiet on here. Hope you all got lovely sleep. Anyone else finding night broken sleep hardwork or have yoi got used to it? My bones ache so much that when i feed/wind ds it hurts.

KFF omg how scary. V relieved you are both ok, and rest assured no one thinks it was your fault. Accidents happen, and you could just have easily tripped over on a completely innocuous flat surface.

I'm beginning to think I've had a ridiculously easy ride, as some of you really were put through it on the bf-ing front. Everyone delights in telling me that if I have another one it'll be absolute h*ll, as two easy babies in a row just doesn't happen. I love the support experienced mums provide to us first timers. So encouraging... not

Gorgeous sunny day today. DH left for Belgium at 5am, my parents leave for the US at 9am, and the worselet and I leave for.... oh, perhaps the high street at 10am. Anyone else here thinking that my option is looking a little tame in comparison?

Oh, before I forget for those of you on the poison powder what feed size and spacings are you on now? Tiddler-pom is showing signs of wanting to move towards a 4 hour spacing, which obviously I'm not complaining about, but as a clueless rooky I'm wondering whether it's a good time to change the schedule.

My joints are wrecked. I'm told by gp that it yet another side effect of the hormones and can take a year to settle. I have two trigger thumbs and about 7 trigger fingers each morning such that I can barely pick DS up for first few minutes, my feet lock so I have to take the stairs sideways and only one stair at a time, my wrists are very painful particularly when driving and my pelvis seems unable to take the weight of my spine for the first few minutes of being vertical. V annoying!

I seem to be more tired than ever ATM which given things aren't too bad seems ungrateful. Don't know if its the cumulative effect or just where his wakings are falling in my sleep cycle iykwim?

zpudtat anaemic? I've just added in Spatone again in hope it will help boost me. Sympathies on joints, I have similar though my fingers are ok but the crutches are wrecking my wrists/shoulders.

worsecester 3/4 mine were easy and the other is being assessed for AS so there's hope there

Ood MIL said DP was such an easy baby that when he was 6 months old she got it into her head that she could cope with loadsa kids and by all accounts was really rather smug. 2 years later and her second child has ASD. Was awhile before she went back for her 3rd . They were a long time getting the diagnosis but its really helped - and he's recently graduated with a first!

Pud that sounds painful. Hope it doesn't last too long.

Worse I think it's wise to let baby lead with ff just as with bf. however, being practical if you've got a good thing going at night and know how much milk LO needs during the day then a loose routine might save your sanity. It's what I do. He goes 7-7.30ish at night, so he has milk every three hours in the day. There's wiggle room but its nice to be able to leave the house for more than 2 hours at a time! How much is LO drinking?

Passport photo fail, off to Max Spielmann today to se if he can help us. My cats forgotten how to bury poos and I need to book a smear test. LOVELY.

worse it was bloody scary. We was on our way to baby massage too but of course we missed it. I was adamant with dh we were going to move. (we live on 2nd floor with no lift) but dh reminded me everywhere we go there are stairs. I was crying on the way to the hospital and as he was seen by the doctor of course by then ds was cooing away as if nothing happened. Now the challenge is to face those dreaded stairs again with ds.

Im giving poison to ds. The amount he has and what time varies. Approximately he has between 4-6ozs every 2.30-3.30hrs. Although i must say hes not so keen on having milk after a 5am feed. He will usually wait 4hrs after that feed.

pud having painful joints are hard. Are you aneamic too? Ive read that its a symptom of sleep deprivation.

plonko good luck on take 2 of tge passport photo. Please pass on your wisdom to us when you have succeeded. Ah the dreaded smear test. The things women have to go through.

plonko good luck with all that!

plonko it wasn't a casual contract (and amazingly wasn't a zero hours one either). But in telesales you have to get a certain percentage of your calls converted into sales. Which is a bit difficult when half your calls are from people who've got the wrong number, and half your sales go tits up because the computer says no. Hence the man being moved to a different campaign, which then got pulled, and then to another, which also got pulled. Now just waiting for a job to become available on a different one, which hopefully won't take long given the high staff turnover. Thank god for housing benefit is all I can say, otherwise we'd be well and truly buggered.

KFF it's pretty much a rite of passage to accidentally give your baby a minor injury. Falling down the stairs seems to be the most common way of doing it, although there are other ways too - my sister managed to headbutt one of her daughters, resulting in a split lip. So congratulations on making it through that milestone unscathed.

worse Evil Baby Whisperer reckons four months is the right time to switch to a four hour schedule, so I say go for it. Been vaguely thinking of trying the same but miniStormy doesn't seem to be ready for it yet. Trying every three and a quarter hours today though, as first breakfast was 6am and then she slept until 8. Really needed that lie in!

Didn't make it to bed particularly early last night, so I was still downstairs at 10pm when DD started squeaking. The man was all set to head up with milk but I suggested waiting and it all went quiet. Turns out the reason she's been having a feed at 10pm a lot recently is because he hasn't wanted to wait and see if she keeps sleeping, because if she doesn't and cries instead it'll wake me up. Very sweet of him. Feeds in the end were at midnight, three, and six, although she did wake at quarter past five and wasn't that keen on going back to sleep. Why she wants to be awake at that time of day is beyond me.

plonko here is my passport photo advice. Get baby before a feed but not to starving. Have everything ready, a neutral throw or towel on the floor and a way to stand far enough above them to get a shot so you are looking down at flat baby on the floor. Make sure a flash is needed and put the camera on sports mode or whatever does successive shots. Usually the flash startles them so eyes are open and not smiling. Its good to have prepared as the first flash gets the attendion etc. If this doesn't work go to snappy snaps where they do the same thing for £10! we are waiting for dd's passport to come out.

One poo less yesterday and no poos in the night. Huge one this am instead. Am so tired I just put dd in her cot at 6.50 and went to read other one stories. No idea what happened but she was sound asleep by 7.05. Clearly the rocking was just for my benefit!

Good night here! DS slept from 8-3 and then through to 7 before sleep squeaking until almost 8.

Slightly concerned that although he's chirpy as ever he's not wanting to eat much... Wasn't crying for food first thing as usual and yesterday only drank one full feed all day

Any ideas anyone? He's due second jabs tomorrow and I'm worried maybe he's poorly?

Argh how did I get to a week without posting on here?

Sorry all, must have had a weird MN avoidance without realising.

Soooo much to catch up on. Job applications, bfing discussions, holidays; tons. Doh :(

DD is 12+4 now and we are getting into a sort of routine. The past few days she's gone 2.5-3 hours between feeds in the daytime instead of me just poppng her one every time she squeaks and she's also having a regular 4oz ff after we put DS to bed (so 7-7:30) and she then goes down between 7:45-8:15 until I wake her for a sleepy feed at 10:30 ish. She's slept till 5am these past few days but I'm not looking forward to regression in a few weeks time!

The big thing here though is constipation. She was doing a brilliant one or two poos a day until Saturday and nothing since then. I've tried lots of leg cycling but nothing as yet. I've got my first baby massage session today at 12 so I'm hoping that might help? Any other tips?

Leni DD has got her second jabs too tomorrow. If your DS is still as chirpy as ever, perhaps don't worry too much - he could be naturally starting to lengthen the time between feeds or noticing the world more and getting distracted?

Love to all x

Stormy I see. Have done telesales myself always on casual contracts. Tough going. Lovely of him to run interference with the baby though so you can snooze.

eig have done as you suggested and sent a 'good' photo off to get printed. Fingers crossed, and now we can spend the rest of the day playing.

Leni could it be flow rate? Wonder week? DS's appetite fluctuates on a daily basis, as does mine. If he's otherwise his normal self I would worry about it.

Hi all, mega quick post as we're in the West coast of Ireland with a very slow plug in internet connection, it's not making night feeds too easy!

I've come away with my parents, 3 of my fave cousins and aunt and uncle for a few days in a lovely house overlooking the sea in the middle of bloody nowhere and it should be lovely but maybe I should have thought it through a bit more. Our usual holidays together involve lots of hiking and lots of drinking, neither of which I can now join in on so I've mostly spent a lot of time on my own with DD, missing DH and feeling a bit bitter that I'm missing out on joining in with everyone.

Whoever was asking if they're on there own overnight don't you worry, MiniYo and I are up regularly but just not able to post here! There's no blackouts and it's light and noisy at 4am so we're having very early mornings!!!

I'll have a proper read and catch up when I'm back in the land of WiFi and feeling less bitter and can have a proper chat with other people with mini-people taking over life!

On the plus side, madam seems to have found some coordination between her hands and is managing to pick Sophie the giraffe up for a big old chew now which makes her giggle uncontrolably. Lovely.

Sweet mother of all things holy.
We've reached 17 weeks (4 months today) and to celebrate, DD is refusing to sleep. At all. She started yesterday afternoon with screaming instead of an afternoon nap, then wouldn't go to sleep after her bedtime feed. I had to feed her twice more (and got some calpil down her) before she gave in at 9.30. She woke again at 10.30 but went back down with some shushing. She was more or less asleep until 2.30 then yelled for food. I fed her for over an hour and managed to get her sleep at 4. for an hour. Picked her up and rocked her back to sleep. Then she was up again at 6.20 and has been ever since, despite rocking, shushing, patting, lullabies, leaving her to settle herself (which worked yesterday morning, twice). She's sleepy while feeding but if I try to put her down, she wakes up. I know now (lots of time to google this crap in the last 24 hours) that this is part of the 19th Wonder Week. Doesn't help me. Need some sleep. DH has to work late today so I have to crack on alone, unable to do anything but try and carry on without falling over.
Anyone else at this stage? soyo - we're pretty much in sync so how are you doing?

Hah - cross post!

soyo try to enjoy the fresh irish air at least. Its better than london air.

any ds has been like this for at least a week and is 15weeks. He was up at 5am this morningm although i have a sneaky suspicion he is getting used to our bed as he zonks out when he is snuggled up in bed. Our ds is taking over our bed and i didnt want that to happen but at least we got an extra hours sleep.

stormy what other rites of passage are there that i need to know about? and prepare for

Ah well if the evil baby whisperer says it's ok Stormy then I guess we'll go with it. She's on 5 feeds of 5-7floz plonko, which varies according to mood and the need for a really special nappy, so I'm thinking that provided she's eating the same, when she has it probably doesn't matter.

KFF don't worry about stairs... Now you've ticked that one off the list you can be fairly sure you won't go down that road again. I'm like that with knees. Completely messed one up once years back, and now every time I do anything, you can be d*mn sure I'll do it in a way to put least possible stress on my knees. Once bitten and all that.

Any what's this with the crazy mad time that is 17 weeks. You're scaring me. Mini-worse hits that particular milestone next week, and I was hoping that once she was a big 4 month old girl she'd improve not regress. This baby rearing lark is so complicated you'd think they'd pop out with a manual wouldn't you.

SoYo KFF is right. You can't beat Irish air or a proper Irish fry. Enjoy if you can. I know what you mean about missing out on all the fun. I'm currently looking at a beautiful sunny day and an outdoor pool which I won't be swimming in any time soon if her tiddlership has anything to do with it. Sob.

I've been flicking back through old photos today, and isn't it funny how babies change. Mini-worse was born with a full head of wavy dark hair, and is now almost completely bald, with fluffy auburn locks coming through. Her eyes are also changing to a greeny hazel. Wonder how she'll end up. Anyone else's small person been at the hair dye?

worse we started off with a fair bit of white-blonde hair. We now have a gingery mullet. Eyes still blue though - the man's very annoyed about this as it means he was lied to in O level Biology.

Oh gawd I'm having a shocker of a week and feel like its decision time. For the last few days dd has been going apeshit every time I try to stick her on the boob in the afternoon. I've tried different positions, stripping her down in case it's the heat, but same story- 5 seconds on, just til my milk lets down, then bam, one screaming baby, one spraying boob. Only happy when I give in and give her the bottle. I'm wondering if its because the bottle's easier? We give a lunch time bottle so perhaps the memory of that is still with her? Other feeds during the day tend to be ok. My dilemma is this: I don't want to go full time ff, I'd started enjoying bfing after a tricky start, and had kind of decided I'd mix feed til a year. But I can't risk her forgetting how to use the bottle because, well, I'm selfish and need to know that I can leave her if necessary. Kudos to those of you ebf, I couldn't do it. So I feel like I've got no choice but to move to eff, which is making me feel quite sad. Has anyone got any ideas of a middle way? All advice gratefully taken.

Stormy my DS was asking why I have blue eyes this morning (after I told him how beautiful his eyes were ) and I told him it was about "genetics" i.e. because his daddy and I have blue eyes (and nanny & grandad etc...), so does he. I remember doing the matrix thing with blue and brown eyes!

Gingery mullet sounds fab - DD is rocking the blonde mohican still here.

And we have had a double poonami! Hurrah! Very happy about that :)

Any, that sounds rough and I have no words of advice I'm afraid :(

vj that sounds tough. But if DD prefers the faster flow of the bottle teat, you'd think she'd be happy once the letdown occurs on the boob and the time that would get her frustrated would be the waiting-for-letdown-first bit?

How about changing the lunchtime feed to boob and moving the bottle to later on? As I said above, we've settled on DD's bottle being the last one before she goes down - I can't make it the 10:30 one as she's never awake enough for it. If you don't want to move to eff then don't just yet. Talk to us and your HV first - or start a thread in the bf and ff thread?

Thanks wing- that's what I thought re: let down, I'm fairly sure when they get going the old girls are a match for any bottle. Might go back to a 1 teat though see if that makes a difference. Already do 10pm as bottle but perhaps I'll do bedtime as well instead of lunchtime. That way she'll have had a big sleep to forget her love of the bottle. Really can't decide which way ill go if unsuccessful- ebf or eff. Heart v head I guess. Wish someone would decide for me! Feeling a bit calmer now- she's sparko, we're cuddled up in my soaked in milk from failed boob attempts bed, and I'm just crossing my fingers for the next feed.

You know I'm supportive of both ff and bf but if I were you (feel free to ignore), it would be a shame to move to eff if bf is otherwise going well and you're mainly worried about DD not taking a bottle again. Or move to one bottle for a short while?

Be prepared for The Guilt either way!

VJ I tried mixed, and to be honest it didn't really work. I wanted to alternate feeds but biology shot that one down in flames as it didn't really work out. I've had to move onto ff just to make she dd is getting enough, but I do give her occasional snacks from me when I need to settle her. Milk production is a complicated business.

Funnily enough, when I was doing mixed I had the same problem with the 9am feed that you are having at 4pm. The worselet would happily chow down a bottle, but would thrash about and refuse to bf. I never did work out why.