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...

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Oh, and yes, if he's knackered early he goes to bed! Doesn't tend to make much difference to night waking times.

Eco dinner outside in pjs?! Ah you're definitely living the dream. I have used LL pockets (size one) and got a trial of the new OSFA for a mere £2. I also have two BumGenius OSFAs that are superb. As much as I love the idea of cloth nappies I found them too much to keep up with (pathetic, I know) and so have a total of 13 nappies going begging. I love the feel of them and wish I'd gotten on with them better.

Never used Ewan here as we try to keep sleep prompts to a minimum. Our routine is always bath, bottle, dummy in and a song in the lightshow thingamy. I think Lemi has a Ewan? And yes normal bedtime is 7 but if he tired at 6 we start bedtime then. Seems to have little impact on morning waking up time (she says, clearly jinxing it...)

Pud love the necklace. I may have to outright copy you. Hope the sleeping arrangement works. Banana muffin = healthy. Banana muffin x2 = super healthy. I've been doing a photo album and I love it. I've written notes to DS in it and it has the scan pictures too. The progression over 4 months is incredible to behold.

Worse agree with Ood. GP! Can we have the pool story please?

Right I'm off to bed. Completely shattered and need rest in order to fully enjoy ds's first posh meal out tomorrow (IE not Zizzis).

Great tips about real nappies. Was fully intending to use them pre-birth but now got a bit lazy. Partly because I am paranoid about changing to stop infections and nappy rash so probably change DD more often than is strictly necessary and that would add up to a huge amount of additional washing!

My DD is ebf and has clearly refused to comfoert eat from pretty much the beginning. When she is done on the breast she shuts her little mouth tight and turns her head away. She absolutely refuses to latch on if I ever dare to offer her food when not hungry and usually howls with indignity! However when we tried giving expressed milk in bottle we found that every single time DD overate (possibly because easier to get the milk out quickly) and would be sick after eating to get rid of excess so our concern was that bottle feeding her might actually develop a tendency to overeat in later life. Not that it matters as ebf is going well here and nice not to have issues with how to travel with milk or night feets!

Having coil fitted sounds unplesant. I had a smear the other day and can safely say I would prefer to give birth than that!

Hello all!

We've just got back from Somerset seeing family. DS is grumpy and woke up about ten times in the night... Zzzz

He's got used to being pushed to sleep in the pram but stairs prevent that happening now we're home

He screamed for an hour at bed time last night! Ergh. Currently wearing him to try and get him to nap, sweaty.

Mortgage still not approved, and found out my job's probably going to be chopped down to 3 days a week, which isn't the best news

DS met his hilarious cousins and had his first visit to a swimming pool, although wasn't impressed by having his feet dipped in!

Ugh! Just lost massive post.

Rainbow, how many changes do you do a day? We do 5-7 with usually one dirty. In cloth prob do 1-2 more changes. That means washing every other day. As other washing has decreased, fewer accidents and DS isn't a sicky baby, this is easy to fit in. On the other hand, our black sack bin collection happens fortnightly and our bin is always overflowing (usually we manage as recycling goes weekly). So it makes life nicer for us to reduce waste.

Honestly, I'm on no high horse here, but if you have a trial scheme in your area then well worth a go. I totally changed my view about 3 times doing the month trial here, and it was really useful.

Hi Leni. Glad you had a nice time up to no sleep! Hope you get back on track soon.

Any other bf mamas finding their LOs get distracted now... Argh!

Yes to distracted baby! Although it means less comfort sucking as he is eating for hunger rather than boredom IYSWIM

re nappy changes we probably do 5 plus poo which is another 3+ although that's better than 5-6 poos a day!

Plonko, if you were serious about the necklace, (and no, I'm not on commission) there's a discount code until 12th July for 25% off - heatwave25 - if you're interested.

Right, off to see if the boy will have a nap and I can have a bath after my exercises! Fx...

God I'm such a ff rookie. Met with some ante-natal mums today, one was giving her 9wo water after a formula feed. I've read 'if its a hot day' you should possibly do this when ff. how hot is hot? How do I know if she's thirsty? Also, middle of the day feed never seems to go down very well, usually about 3 of 6oz. Rest are usually drained. Is this ok?
Need to remind myself I was on e as confused about bf as I am about ff!

I'm sat watching and listening to DS straining for a poo mere moments after dp has changed his nappy. Ha! Quite tempted to swan off upstairs and leave these boys to it.

Pud that's good to know! I was eyeing up a bracelet. And yes totally agree on the waste. Reusables are a godsend for reducing waist, and as our bins are only collected fortnightly it disgusts me that we've got dirty nappies sitting around in this heat. Maybe I'll give the osfas another whirl but those ll pockets didn't work.

We had such a lovely day in the sun. Sea bass and a glass of reisling for lunch (don't mind if I do!) followed by just about everyone in the restaurant coping over DS. Played pattacake with him on my knee at the table and got some big belly laughs out of him. Got really gung ho and changed him in the boot of the car for the first time.

Worse I've been tempted to give a small amount of water but DS is still producing plenty of wet nappies. In keeping an eye on him for dehydration and he just wears a best in this weather. I'd try not to supplement with water unless necessary. Oh and DS often doesn't finish the daytime feeds. Just to add to the drama!

Whoops ff thoughts for Vj sunshine sends me doolally

Evening all. Hope you've all been out and about enjoying this glorious weather. Is this really summer? Dare we hope...? Or should I not tempt fate . Apologies to any of you who have been dealing with over heated fractious little bundles of joy but for once that is not me

Re water, I have no clue, but currently have a bottle of boiled cooled water on the side just in case. Today's nappy was more than a little plasticiny which I'm thinking suggests dehydration.

Thanks everyone for the good wishes, and on that subject all I can say is anti-bs are amazing things. I'm on a double wammy as a belt and braces type approach and already feel a tad better. I think the moral of that story is if you have a nondescript dull pain for several weeks, denial is not a good approach.

Pud you're making me feel bad.... disposables are an environmental disaster, and I really must look into alternatives. Fortnightly bin collections here too, and given the weather the nappy mountain is not smelling good. Thanks for the gentle prod

Good luck with the mortgage and the job Leni. Hope everything works out for you.

Right, I'm off outside to enjoy the evening air. I love this time of day. I love the mosquitoes a bit less, but if we're lucky the nightingale will put in an appearance to cheer us all up. Not seen him/her yet this year, but shouldn't be too long.

Hello everyone.
My fair skin and freckles don?t equip me well for this weather! As worse said this is the best bit of the day. Nightingale?! Lucky you. When I lived in Suffolk there was a reliable one and it was so so beautiful. I hope they sing for you Worse and glad your bits are on the mend.
Nappies wise if you like ?little lamb nappies? on facebook there is a clearance sale imminently and they will inform you via facebook; some good bargains to be had apparently. plonko did you wash the pocket inserts 6 times before using them? Apparently they suck until you have done that?.just a thought. And, your day sounds very glam? you and eig are the mentors I need to stop eating my dinner in the garden in my pjs!
We met up with some NCT mums in the city today for cake and cordial. One of them was told by the HV this week to eat more cake and that flapjack (the oats bit) was brilliant for milk supply, so we all had double helpings :-)
I left DH a bottle of milk this evening and he did all of the bedtime stuff (except of course getting the towels, outfit, blinds, bottle etc etc ready because ?err? well, because I?m a control freak I suppose) whilst I went off to dance Lindy in the city to a live swing band. The summer evening was so lovely to dance in. Much nicer than a sweaty hall.

pud this bf mama is finding her LO distracted on the boob. Sometimes all the way through but most often after around 7 mins when she?s probably got what she needs from a boob or it?s dried up. There is plenty of gawping around, pushing off of things with her feed and pulling her head back to turn my nipple into spaghetti. Nice.
Tennis is on here now. Having missed the bedtime feed the pump is calling. Trying to cram my post baby body into one of my dance dresses was amusing and has resulted in uncomfortable rocks for boobs. Better go get cosy with my medela and the bloody relentless derr derr derr derr derr derr noise

Worse, feel better!

Wimbledon is killing me !

I need some serious advice ladies... As I've mentioned before, the pil's house isn't very clean. This time, I came downstairs to find DS asleep next to a headless dead bird covered in flies . I'm now really getting worried about when DS starts crawling - mil only seems to clean the small hob/sink area and the middle of the living room. All the windows look like the sills/frames have been collecting insects since they moved in... OH cheerily announced they had a new microwave so DS's milk could be heated, I was pleased until I went down and saw the dried on food inside!

The larder can't have been cleaned for years and there are slug trails over the kitchen adjoining room carpet, along with layers of dirt and cat food bowls on the tables they use.

How the heck do I deal with this?! I want to at least hoover the room we stay in, but apparently OH says she's offended that I think it's dirty. HELLO, IT'S REALLY DIRTY!!!

And not just dirty - there are broken bits of furniture and general old crap everywhere. There's a section of mouldy wallpaper hanging off in the sitting room with a magazine hamper just wedged under it, covered in cobwebs and almost right in the doorway, yet they just don't notice?!

I can't let my DS crawl around in dirt.

hazmat suit Leni?

On a more serious not, I think your DH needs to step it up, it's his family & his child that needs protecting so he just needs to get over it & say something!

We had the bedtime from hell last night, 3hrs of screaming like she was being maimed. Horrible. Tonight we've come to my parents on route to a wedding tomorrow but DH ended up finishing work really late so only just arrived and starting bedtime now. This doesn't bode too well, plus the room is roasting even with the window open.

soyo so how did the later bedtime go? Surely better than previous night? I like to think no news is good news and that miniyo is letting you get some sleep in bag so you can party tomorrow night.
Do your LOs seem to be affected by the temperature? we went for no sleep bag and she went off ok and has woken no earlier. Hoping those poos mush up a bit worse.
And leni I think this is one for your dh to navigate through. there's probably some middle ground where house isn't spotless but isn't a hazard to your lo.

Not bad so far! 4hrs first stretch, I'll be happy with anything more than 2 after this. DH has just reminded me that she's gone 6 or 7 a few times though. I've been trying very hard to forget that recently!

We've just had the third feed of the night... It's moments like these I'm glad I track all her feeds, and can see she's been a bit off her milk since Wednesday's jabs. This extra feed brings her up to a decent amount. But I do have a feeling we may eventually need a way to get her back to sleep without milk. Hope everyone else is having a better night with longer stretches of sleep.

Not us! After over a week of going to 4.30 yesterday he went to 5am and I thought we very nearly had it cracked. However, I sit here on my second post dream feed of the night, ugh! First woke at 12.50 and then again 3.45. Seems to be hungry (thirsty?) though, so guess heat isn't helping and I always say its worse when dh joins us too

We just seemed to be on a two hours and fifteen minutes cycle. Woke at 8.15 with a rear end explosion, then 10.30, 12.45 and 3. Am frankly amazed she's just managed a three hour stretch. Roll on weaning! It has to help; there's no way it could make things worse.

Well this is a good day already. Mil has gone back home and ds slept from 8.30-6.30am. Double yay! So many posts to catch up on but will do so later. Got a busy day of cleaning and preperation for tomorrows barbecue. Enjoy the sun!

11-5.30 here. 5.30!!! And now she's been napping for over an hour! I feel like I'm walking on air! I didn't even get to sleep until 12, I never thought 5 and a half hours sleep in one stretch could be so refreshing!

vj sounds heavenly. And a five hour stretch is almost unheard of. I find I can cope with the broken sleep so long as I manage at least a three hour. Four's required to feel human though. I never realised the human body could cope with so little sleep. Makes you wonder about Thatcher and her famous three hours a night - dunno about anyone else but I wouldn't feel safe running a country on this level of sleep deprivation.

We're now waking about 4 times a night all of a sudden. I feel like a zombie 14 week growth spurt maybe? Wing?

Mil had 'cleaned' apparently - problem is her idea of cleaning isn't enough. The picture I painted really sounds much tamer than it is I realised. We're talking on a par with some of the Life Of Grime houses, where there's crap piled up in rooms so the doors don't fully open, the bath is rusty and there's layers and layers of dirt everywhere. OH seems perfectly ok to let his DS roll around next to a dead animal, he grew up there so he's used to how it is.

Has everyone decided on childcare yet? I'm becoming very aware that my return to work is 3 months away and I don't really know if we should have sorted it by now?!

Leni I'd be tempted to not visit until its been properly cleaned. Clutter is one thing but rot, mould and dead animals is foul. An acquaintance of mine who also seems blind to dirt has been flagged up by her health visitor to ss and is being monitored for the sake of her toddler. Her house is filthy and noone will take their kids round to visit because of it.

Hmmm childcare. I have looked into it but as I'm currently job hunting/still waiting to hear about my flexible working application there's no point in me starting anything in motion now. I'd hate to secure a place and not need it if it meant someone who could actually use it went without. Though I'm fairly certain I want to use a childminder instead of a nursery.

Turns out DP's got money on Lisicki winning the ladies. And she's down in the first set. Bugger!

I'm in the same situation with waiting on decisions about jobs/mortgage etc. just read that some childminders require 3 months notice?!

I had a few chasing me to book DS in even before he was born

This ladies' final is madness - Bartoli is one intimidating lady. Commentator just said she has an IQ of 175, but that's 'genius' on one scale and mostly unreliable anyway. Weird that she'd publicise it really, unless just to further shit up her opponents!