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

Thanks wing, and worse - I went to see the HV today as she's only had two 30 min naps all day, and she said that 4 months is a big developmental leap and will disrupt everything for a while plus she could be teething and we've just got to ride it out.
I think it'd hit us a bit hard but it can't be the same for everyone.
Forewarned is forearmed.

Glad you got some comfort that its just annoying totally normal Any.

Vj, I had several days last week like you describe, where suddenly he would just scream at the boob and thrash. Wouldn't really even take a bottle, just fist suck and be obviously hungry at me. We just left him to it, sometimes moving bedtime a little earlier and giving him a sleepy just before bed feed (don't normally do this) to keep his intake up and doing a slightly bigger dream feed by bottle. We combination feed, usually offering boob with a bottle top up after most feeds which he often just ignores. It was the 4pm feed which went up the pictures with us too. Better last couple of days but I think that though DS is only 14+3 his routines are changing as I am finding he's settling into 5-7 feeds a day with 2-3 naps rather than 7-9(or more) feeds a day and 3-4 naps. I'm trying to work on the principal that as long as he's still gaining weight then we're ok.

Well I think I've made the decision that if it really is all or nothing, I'll revert to ebf. Could make kit days tricky but ill figure something out. Going to start by changing lunchtime feed back to boob but keeping dream feed as bottle, we did that for a long time and it seemed to work. Also going back down a teat size just in case. She tried very hard to kick off with the bedtime feed but instead I rocked her to sleep, then pulled out the dummy and replaced it with a nipple...sneaky! We're now having a post feed snuggle, then I'm going to go to bed as soon as she's gone down. Up every hour or so last night to settle has done me in. Dream feed be damned tonight, she'll wake me when she's hungry!

Good for you VJ, hope all goes well and she settles back into routine again. I've just had to resort to the boob to soothe an overtired little bundle to sleep. It has to be said mum milk does have more than a few advantages.

Forgot to reply earlier to all those with more than one - thanks for the reassurance that it is absolutely possible to have two easy babies.... but equally likely not . I guess I'll just have to throw caution to the wind one day and take a chance on it. It would be nice to have another worselet, but if it doesn't happen it's fair to say I'm more that happy with my lot.

So we have a gingery mullet and a blond mohican in the ranks. Well cool! Mini-worse will have to up her game. Perhaps I'll do that scraping three hairs into a pigtail thing that is oh so very not cute.

Any thanks for the warning. I'll stock up on valium and chocolate for next week

In the end I just thought really hard about a future where I had no freedom but was bfing, and one where I had freedom but didn't get to bf. the latter made me sad. Which is funny because I don't really think I enjoy it, but I'd miss it. Hopefully though, with the magical mam bottles, we'll be able to dip in and out. Of course all of this might change if we continue to have rubbish feeds!.

Totally didn't go to sleep when I put her down. Instead did some work, and am now drinking a peppermint tea in bed MNing reading. DH away, dd out cold. The exhaustion, the stressed feeling, and the sitting at a desk until 9.30pm made me feel like the old workaholic me, and made me realise this motherhood lark is still easier than the day job!

Blimey Vj what do you do for a living? Glad you've made a decision by the way, hope it goes well.

Yeah so this biology stuff about recessive and dominant genes. Wtf? I'd ask dp as he's quite sciencey but he gives long snorefest answers that make me feel two inches tall. I am blue eyed, as is my sister. Our parents are both brown eyed, and so were 3 grandparents (the fourth had grey eyes). Are we children of the milkman? I was far too busy smoking in the loos to attend biology lessons.

Another blonde here. The inch long newborn hair has fallen out, leaving a fluffy buzz cut. And he has blue eyes too!

Secondary school teacher in a marking heavy subject, head of that subject, and head of year! Along with being a gcse and a-level examiner (which I'm still doing from home). When dd was sleeping better it really was true that motherhood was less exhausting, and I had more sleepless nights worrying about coursework or writing reports. Now that she's forgotten how to sleep its a close run thing, but I think I'm STILL less tired than when I was working! God knows how I'm going to cope when I go back though...

plonko the very much simplified summary is that the various brown eyed members of your family probably carry blue recessive genes. If both parents pass on a recessive gene to their child then that colour dominates.

Alternatively, you are indeed the child of the milkman....

If you hang in there long enough VJ, you might end up with mini-worse in one of your classes. I have a sneaking suspicion we're fairly local.

[camera pans to VJ frantically packing and heading for the hills ....]

vj I think that was the best way to decide (to think of each outcome and how you'd feel about it) :)

DD has started getting screamy when we try to give her that 7-7:30 bottle but she is worse with DH and he then gets upset and gives up so I take over and give it to her. Which probably doesn't help. He's away again tomorrow 6am till late on Thurs so it'll be down to me to give it to her anyway.

I am planning on going to the Antiques Roadshow on Thursday as it's being held relatively near to us. DH is related to someone you have probably heard of (male, dead, liked walking in the Lake District...) and we have some signed books and hand-drawn pictures of his. Unfortunately DH can't come but I really want to get on TV I'm interested in finding out about the items and how much they are worth so DD will be off with me, my DPs and my DSIL to stand in queues all day

Looks like I'll have another 'odd place I have bfed' to add to the list. Hopefully not actually on camera though!

Right, off to wake DD for her feed and then fingers crossed for a good night for us all...

Gah.
I managed to get the sleep deprived DD off at 8.45, then managed to get to bed myself at 11 (bath, washed hair, dried hair - all things I hadn't time for but needed to do) and she woke me up just now. I naively thought that it was a) later than 1am and b) time to try just rocking her back to sleep. I was wrong on both counts. 2 hours' sleep is not enough when I really need to catch up and why the f#?@ is she not just sleeping right now? She looked exhausted when she went to sleep eventually, and I got her to self settle so she would last a bit longer. I only hope she doesn't feed too long so I can get back to my lovely bed
Soooooo tired.

Poor Any. This too shall pass... but prob not quickly enough

Hair do here is currently quite special. Mid/dark brown birth tresses are falling out in a sort of reverse tonsure, leaving fine blond fluff in its wake. Mind you, at least the cradle cap is slowly clearing with it (not that I've done anything to treat it except wash his hair every 2-3days from about 6 weeks). Eyes are lovely dark blue still, but as both of us are blue/grey all the way it would be a surprise if he was anything else really we don't have a milkman.

Random comment from child centre worker re teething -apparently they often get nappy rash as well as red cheeks, dribble etc. we've not had any here so far (still on cotton wool pads and water at home, wipes when out but goes a bit red if I use them a lot) so that would be new. I have ordered real nappies now too, having done the trial. Gone for a birth to potty set in the end (rather to my surprise!) and all in one pockets. Should arrive next week. Don't see me using them overnight and poss not out and about but we shall see.

Wors I had a feeling you might be nearby when you started talking about a NT property that not many will have heard of! My nosy self is now thinking back to all previous posts trying to work out clues to where you are!

pud, the only signs we ever had that DS was teething was his awful bum rash. He may have dribbled a bit more but other than that he teethed pretty painlessly. Hope DD will be the same...

Morning all. Aw Any sounds rough. I have no wisdom to help so am sending you a big hug and a parcel of sympathy instead.

We have a similar hair style here pud. It's hilarious. The tiddler has a habit of looking from side to side when in her pushchair, which basically dilapidates her head.

Oh wow, a famous relative Wing. How cool is that?! No such claims to fame here no surprise, although there is always a chance mini-worse has plans to change the course of history . Promise us the second you see a camera you'll latch dd on. T'would be politically incorrect not to and how else will we recognise you

Hey VJ, well I'm not TW, but I'm not a million miles away, so if you opted for the big new hospital it might well have been me screaming away in the next room. Not that I screamed mind. Oh no. It was calm hypno bllcks breathing all the way . Panic not though, I promise not to stalk you. Much

Right home alone for 48 hours now so wish me luck. Today could be interesting as the hedge cutter is pitching up to annihilate the garden. Lovely man... very camp.... last seen flouncing out of the garden a couple of years ago in a major hissy strop after I upset him. I didn't mean to upset him... honest.... it's just he got a bit trigger happy with the petrol power tools and cut down a 30ft smoke bush to a 6 inch stump ... after I had given him instructions to weed the border . I suspect we will spend the day circling each other with suspicion, and I may have to employ the worselet as a go between. For those of you wondering why the h*ll we've invited him back, he is a v good hedge cutter, and all the others we've tried are frankly pants.

Ah, as the keeper of a frankly ridiculous high hedge to garden ratio I sympathise. A decent hedge trimmer is a soul to be treasured

Worse, I was indeed in the big new hospital. Small world. When's mini-worse's birthday? 7th march here- we were in the room next door to the woman who gave birth on a train, anyone remember that one all over the national news? Stalk away, I wish my life was interesting enough to warrant stalking.

Seems dd has vaguely remembered how to sleep. 7pm-1am, then 4.40, and finally 6. Not bad without the dream feed. I, however, have forgotten, and for the third time in a week haven't been able to get back to sleep after the 4.40 feed. I was hanging the washing out at 5.30 this morning. Yawn.

wingd I thought if you yesterday as I fed mini eig at the tennis in Wimbledon! Found a nice quiet spot in the Baseline cafe! And for once mini eig was all focus... Likely because it was 5 pm, she hasn't seen the boob since 11 ( having taken 4 evil ounces from the bottle via nanny at 2pm to tide her over!). I handed her back at 6pm and went back tj enjoy the tennis. I know a super luxury and I really enjoyed some time in the adult world away from poo.

Argh too many posts to catch up on!

Ok so I can remember the subjects, but maybe not who raised them, so here goes (plus I'm in bed on my phone so if I need to read back I have to copy cancel and paste back again etc)...

Major boob fussiness here - first few mins is fine, still latches as normal but then has a sudden attack of the screams and then refuses all nipple-shaped objects. Only had one full feed all day yesterday from 12-8 despite our best efforts Then wanted two in a row. Breakfast again today has been a quick boob snack and then back to sleep. Routine up the swanny. Boobs feel suddenly very deflated today almost as if my body's decided for me that we're making the switch. Now I feel I'll miss it - and also panic that if we were to run out of formula we'd have no back up plan!

I'll admit now - I have no idea what a wonder week is?!

OH's 5 days off consisted of him sleeping half the night then until midday the next day, meaning I still did the hardest bits of the day alone and the only thing we all did together was drive to an industrial estate down the road to look at sofas, although I'm glad we did because there really is no substitute for sitting on them. Also went into Pets At Home to show DS the animals but I'm not sure he actually saw any - too busy staring at patterns on the floor... Thinking of getting guinea pigs or rabbits in the new flat as we're not allowed obvious pets like cats and dogs.

Hair here (any Withnail fans?) is still white blond but with a worn out balding patch at the back and a nice sort of fringe under that patch, very monkish. Eyes still piercing blue, whereas my family are all brown eyes back as far as I can remember.

The new wrap I bought just yesterday arrived this morning so I may attempt to figure out how to get DS on my back later if he's ok after jabs. It looks massive and I imagine I'll give up pretty easily, but I need some way to have my front free for washing up/doing my tax return! It's just beautiful fabric so even if we fail it'll look nice draped over the new sofa

DS is so chatty now, seems to try to mimic our word shapes and of course I know it's far too early but he said 'eh-mo' to me yesterday when I said hello having said that I talked at 8 months - my mum made a scrapbook of my first year (she was a primary school teacher) and documented every milestone, miraculously the book was on the only shelf in our old living room that escaped the fire so it only got mild damage. Vocab included 'daddy' and 'rats' apparently.

Screaming boob refusing hungry baby, crying snotty mummy, this morning is not going well.

leni I'm not going to make any comments about your OH, as much as I want to...!

I have a feeling you're not meant to put babies into a back position for another couple of months but you should be able to google it. What type of carrier is it?

vj you are really going through a tough patch aren't you :( Keep going - it's just one feed and it sounds like she did well overnight.

Oh vj, being so tired wont be helping you cope. She won't starve if she misses one feed. Just give her the chance again next time. Hang in there. Hv says as they get older should look at what they consume over longer periods, so rather than worrying hour by hour, look at last 24 and then at last few days as a whole. Often find has a greedy couple of days and then a lighter one. This is where having it all to hand on the app is useful as when I am stressing snotty mess I can see actual numbers and stop just saying 'he's starving!'

Big unmumsnetty hugs to those of you struggling with crying, snotty, food refusal babies. I seem to have a wakeup refusing DS this afternoon...oh think I spoke too soon.

Hair wise we have some lovely blonde locks growing which started out ginger but getting lighter every day and bright blue eyes which I'm hoping will stay because then he'll be blonde haired and blue eyed like me, although it'd be adorable if he had his dad's curls

Had a coil put in today at the same time as first smear test. Really wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting, I'd heard some right horror stories.

We've had a grouchy few days recently which I'm putting down to teeth if the bite marks on my fingers are anything to go by the only thing that seemed to stop the crying was being on his feet so he spent the majority of time in his bouncer. Not had a rash on his bum but very red cheeks, don't think the heat is helping his mood either.

Thanks everyone. Was not in a very calm place earlier. I like the theory of feed quantity over a few days pud.

So- in the end this morning gave some ebm that I had frozen, but in a bottle with a #1 teat. Was aiming to sneakily replace with boob but she wasn't having any of it. Then we went swimming and for coffee with the mums I swim with. Decided to just chill out. All the best people I know were ff. I'd still rather bf BUT I'm not putting us through that again. New tactic- always have bottle ready, offer boob once but don't push it and give bottle if she freaks, then express if nec to keep supply up and relieve boulders. If that eventually means moving to ff then so be it. Bought new big bottles and more formula. Came home, got everything ready and... Lo and behold, she went straight on and had a half decent feed. These babies are sent to test us.

A night of dummy shoving and farts again of course i mean ds. Im still trying to replicate the miracle of 9-7am sleep but aint got a clue what i did or didnt do.

Ive always had a totally hyper baby at night who fights sleep. cue a stressed mother begging dh to take over after having a sore arm from all the rocking. Last night i put ds to bed much earlier and he slept without rocking etc. of course i know this is not going to work tonight.

Went to gp about aching joints. I know a couple of us had this. She suggested vitamin d tablets so will see how that goes.

Re hair. Starting to get lots of it. He too has a bald patch at back but then a long bit at the back. We have medium brown locks that curl when wet after a bath or sweating.

leni i admire your patience with your oh. I would have flipped after day 2.

vj big hugs to you.

Ive decided im having a lazy day today. I need it. Im running low on energy.