June 2013 (2) - attempting to get into a routine!

[MrsBri]

New thread for us ladies. :-)

Re getting medicine into BF babies, if you have a bottle teat handy then put that into their mouth like a dummy, then pour/squirt the meds into the teat and (hopefully!) they suck it down. This worked a treat for getting DS1's multi vit, iron & folic acid into him when he was tiny, the nurses in neonatal showed me how to do it.

Sarah, can she self-refer to Homestart? Not sure if you can do that in all areas, I know that you can round here. They can provide support for a couple of hours a week normally, eg for someone to look after her LO while she showers - though I think their remit is changing so maybe investigate first! It does sound tough though, if you can be a friend to her then I bet she'd appreciate it. Would she be eligible for Healthy Start vouchers? They're doubled for children under 1, so she'd get £6.50 a week (ish) to spend on milk (inc formula), fruit and veg. Details here.

Curly I think the red books have moved over to BF charts now - DD's red book has different charts in than DS1 & DS2s and a different design on the front cover anyway. The newer ones have the kind of white swirly teddy bear on the cover.

What I want to know is, how come M has forgotton how to nap in the day unless he's in the pram? Tis a complete pain. Yesterday he had 4 30 minute naps. Today he managed one decent nap, in the pram, plus a couple of 20 minute ones in his bed. It's driving me bananas and my house is suffering as I feel like I never put him down during daylight hours! ARGH.

Exactly, Sunny, at least they're looking into it. Better than just ignoring it or being wishy washy.

Curly, we have a red cheeked misery who isn't really eating because it hurts. :-( Poor little babies.

That sounds sensible Sunny. Hopefully they'll check her over and not find any probs, but no harm in checking these things out.

Grrrr so pissed off, OH goes to see his parents on Friday night after work. This means I end up waiting until he gets back to eat, as oscar is being clingy I have had four slices of toast and some soup to eat. I was starving so heated up the curry I had defrosted and cooked rice, the second it was ready oscar decided he wanted feeding so my food went in the bin and we have nothing else in. I have asked OH to do alternate weeks at his parents as we see them every --bloody - - Saturday anyway. But no he has to go.
Sorry for the rant.

Argh, my pickle has become SO clingy. Bottle refusing when that's never been an issue before. She's all about the boob! She follows me around the room with her eyes, cries when she can't see me and is really cranky. Is this a stage I didn't know about??

How old is she now, Sarah? There's a stormy developmental leap which lasts until 19.5 weeks. I'm thonk

Fail.

I'm thinking Polly is still in that?

If you haven't seen the Wonder Weeks chart I'll pop it on FB for you. Though if you go into our group it's in there from a while ago.

Curly, not good re your OH. I hope you've had something else to eat now.

Yes we are in a stormy stage. 18 weeks yesterday. Though does that explain the bottle refusing and the clingy thing.. I thought it was more a sleep thing!

We're definately in the 4 month sleep regression. Sticking my head in the sand about it wasnt a valid tactic it seems. Munchkin has gone from 1 feed a night to 4 or 5. Last night we were woken at 11, 1, 4, 6 & 7. Honestly Id forgotten how tiring it was when she was newborn and needing all those feeds.

God help me next week when DH is on night shift!

What a nightmare, sunny.

DD is nearly 19 weeks and appears to be almost back to normal, thank goodness, going through till 5-6am.

We went to our weaning class which was really interesting; the main advice was to ignore advice from parents and grandparents as times have changed! The HV advised sticking to the nhs guidance of starting at 6mths, unless baby is losing lots of weight and a HV has advised you start earlier. So I guess classes are held earlier to make people aware of that, if they aren't already. They also more or less recommended blw (not calling it that), advising you can give finger foods almost straight away (if you start at 6 mths), though purées are useful for a couple of weeks to get them used to different flavours. You don't need to bother with baby rice etc and can just get stuck in with fruit and veg; they basically advised everything I wanted to do anyway which I'm pleased about as now DH will be happier to go along with it!

Odd how advice varies, our hv only mentioned puree and said use baby rice for a week to start. I will ignore her. The only thing that is the same is wait until six months.

It is, isn't it. I wonder if how long they've been doing it for makes a difference (i.e. if you've given the same advice for over 20yrs it might be hard to change. My grandmother would be horrified at the new advice!). There's nothing wrong with it, but they said a lot of babies don't like baby rice anyway. You can try it if your baby hates the fruit and veg as it's obviously more similar to the milk they're used to (or you could just mix milk with the veg). Puree is fine but they said they think that the earlier you introduce non-puréed textures, the less likely they are to be fussy eaters; you can go on to mashed then chopped foods as well as giving finger foods at the same time, rather than just giving finger foods (as I said before, I think we'll give a mixture).

Yea mine does close the app this is the first time I've been able to get on it to type in a week

We're still stormy 17 weeks this weeks and she's getting worse with the screaming definitely has a good set of lungs!! Dh an I off out for dinner tonight so get a rest

We had hv this week and Theiah's on the 25th centile at 12lbs 14 an a half so she's not worried and said she looks in proportion which is good

Off the deal with screaming baby back soon x

I have a bit of a dilemma, OH's parents have offered to have Oscar fro two days a week when I go back to work, money wise we could do with it but I have never got on with them and I don't trust then od do as we ask, they are pretty racist/homophobic/sexist and all the things I dislike in a person and don't want Oscar being round people like this, they won't change as they can't. They have no recent experience with children, today for example they came rounduninvited, his Dad grabbed Osk off me and he must of hurt him as poor little lamb was screaming, they actually were laughing at him. . If I say no I will look like the horrible one and as I said we can't really afford to turn them down.

Curly as hard as it might be you have to be happy with who is looking after Oscar. If you aren't you won't be any good at work, and he'll pick up on you not being happy.
How does your DP feel about it? I know I will one day have to have the convo with my DP that I feel the same as you about his parents... And I really can't see me being happy with them having dd on their own.

Ask friends what they would do too, I bet loads have been in a similar situation.

But whatever you have to be happy.

Hmm tricky Curly. Personally I'd probably say no. It would be 2/7ths of bubs time spent with them so any funny tendencies they'd have would begin to rub off. I tend to think that while the initial period when we go back to work will be painful financially we'll probably just find a way to make it work. Tightening belts etc.

My mum is taking Lily for half a day a week when I go back to work. However as I travel a lot with work she has also offered to flex up and help out when I'm away for a while. She's been doing the odd evening and half day at the moment which is useful for both of us to get used to it.

If you were going to accept their offer make sure they get a chance to do some babysitting before hand. They will have forgotten just how exhausting it is looking after a little one again. I know my FIL was on his knees when he first started doing child care for my SIL. You may find they don't enjoy it after all and want to become just grandparents again.

Curly, I'd have to say no in that situation. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on work if I wasn't happy about where Amy was with.

It's our first wedding anniversary today. I can't believe how fast the last year has gone!

I'd say no too. I know someone who got on with her in-laws as well as you get on with yours and they started off looking after the baby. It didn't last long. The in-laws refused to follow the routine the baby was used to though, which gave the parents a reason to put them elsewhere.

Congrats MrsBri. That year has flown (I remember you from the ttc threads)!

Thanks, Hedgehogy :-)

Fastest year in history (even though the pregnancy bit seemed to go slow at the time!).

Oh wow that's lovely - happy anniversary - did you know you were pregnant the day you got married? I am pretty sure it was around this time last year I found out and sooo much has changed - nostalgic!!

Yes, I found out 2 days before at 3+5! :-) It's been a crazy old year.

Curly what do you do? My mother is going to have Polly one day a week but that's going to be my working at home day so I can keep a bit of an eye on her. She's not got recent experience either and I wouldn't want to leave her on her own entirely. She also has some funny ideas. I actually don't think it's going to work so am looking for 2/3 days of childcare. But by asking to WAH one day it may be ok. Is that an option for you?

I'm a dispensing optician so have to be in practice (not really wanting the patients poping into home !). I think we will end up with two days child care and a shorter day at his parents but have a couple of half days trial first. yesterday's experience has helped my case as it showed how clueless they can be even though it was horrible for us to see osk so upset. I really don't think they will cope as he is pretty high maintenance at the moment but he might chill out more by then. I think a lot of the problem is me not liking them and therefore not being able to get past that. if only there was a way to stay at home with him and keep him as a baby

I'm doing an nct postnatal course at the moment and finding it very annoying. Lots of chat about all our choices when we return to work. No acknowledgment of the fact that for many of us there is no choice. It has to happen! Saying that I look forward to work in many ways. I just wish I had the option and that I'd married a rich man

There's no choice for me either Sarah - the cost of childcare is so expensive here that we'll actually be better off if I don't go back to work!