March 2013 - 6 months down, 210 to go!

[StormyBrid]

Old thread.

Keep on rambling, ladies, we have a whole new thread to fill!

It happens that way, SoYo. Stick with it. It will get better if you stick it out. Give up now and all that effort will have been for nothing.

Contractions now every three to five minutes here. I'm jealous, I wish it was me having one!

stormy how exciting. Please keep us up to date.

plonky i sympathise. Im sure the word dh/oh should mean selfish in the dictionary.

soyo big hugs to you. I hope she grows out of the night wakings soon.

eco welcome back. I cant believe 3 weeks has gone by so quick. I want to bow to you. 3 weeks road trip with a baby is amazing. I can barely do a trip to the supermarket.

We had 6 wake ups last night. I really dont know whats going wrong. He woke up crying until we did a dummy returns and one feed around 12ish. Im just saying its teething. If dh didnt deal with the first 3 wake ups i would be broken today. I have no idea how i would deal with these wake ups when i go back to work.

Kf I think in many cultures DP is a direct translation of twat.

Bless him though, he's actually being helpful today. Maybe face has turned into a football overnight? Anyway have ordered some new shoes (well, trainers) for work and used his card. And not told him. [evil]

Gah 6 wake ups? Oh dear. Can't remember if you've already said but have you considered sleep training?

Gosh I’m tired. By the time I finished writing that sentence saying I’d fallen asleep 7 times since starting post I’d fallen asleep about 20 times. It took me all my concentration to get a word at a time done. And then…..we had the night from hell with our poor broken baby. Awake and screaming despite regular boob and constant cuddles until about 3am. She’s just so confused.

Anyhow, here’s what I have learned these last few weeks:

• do not fly with Delta
• do not believe travel agent or airline when they assure you that yes (for the 5th time) we have reserved you a bassinet so baby will not be on your lap for 11 hours
• after 48 hours you have forgotten the hell of the journey and the immediate jet lag and that’s all worth it for the fabulous experiences you have
• babies are fairly adaptable: living in a box for 3 weeks was ok by eco-baby
• Advertised camp site wifi never works
• Not knowing any world news for 3 weeks is quite nice
• American’s love a baby in a backpack
• Baby led weaning whilst in a hired motorhome is pretty unfun
• BLW’d babies like control and are not so keen on spoons being put in their mouths fussy bugger
• Saving for 3 years to go to places you have always wanted to visit and then not being able to go to them (if you are an ISFJ like me) is hard to come to terms with spoiled cow
• All Americans we met think the USA shutdown is ridiculous
• 60 year old diner waitresses in cutesy outfits look amusing
• American bread and cheese are shite
• Food in supermarkets is sugar and salt tastic
• Las Vegas is a hell hole imo
• Driving a 25 foot long box on wheels is a bit scary
• I still want to tell my Mum about my experiences and send a postcard
• My dh is my dh for many many reasons and I love him dearly
• My dh doesn’t do that thinking ahead thing (more of that later Plonky)
• My baby is uber sociable and will squeeze a smile out of even the most wizened miserable old crone
• People that scowl at you when your baby is screaming on a plane make me actually want to punch them that might have been me once so lesson learned
• If it means saving for an extra 2 years to go first class then that’s what we might do next time. Cattle class long haul is still unfun (I say this every time)
• Other people’s mad crazy love makes me cry at the drop of a hat: the wedding we went to was beautiful and in the mountains at sunset with such lovely vows and we saw a husband and wife reunited at air port after he’d been away for 192 days in Afghanistan
• Living in a box for a while makes you grateful for simple pleasures like separate rooms, stairs, loos where you don’t knock yourself out when standing up, baths and kitchen utensils
• Natural places make my heart soar; Bryce, Zion, Monument Valley, Valley of Fire and the desert all made my jaw drop and made me want to live somewhere like that for a couple of years
• But, home is where the heart is

plonk it’s good to vent. Sometimes the irritation does get intense. I concur with the inability to get anything ready for a trip out. I think I just have to accept that the thinking ahead stuff just doesn’t get done when it comes to baby care. There is no ‘if she has a milk feed now when are we going to squeeze lunch in?’, ‘if we’re nipping out for an hour we still need to take some stuff with us’, ‘we’ll not be back til half six so we’d better take packed dinner with us’, ‘what is she going to eat for lunch because we’re having a chorizo/nut/salty one ourselves’, ‘if we do that then she’s going to be up for 6 hours and that will result in a screamy ball of snot’…… At least DH here has requested that I tell him what needs doing without it being considered a nag. That a possibility with you Plonk? How are things today?
stormy what’s the birth news? How is Mother doing? And congrats on impending auntydom.
kff it’s another night tonight and it could all be different. Are you doing any sleep training, I forget?
worse how's the poo situation? Does your DD drink plenty of water? Ours just won't. Pain in the ass. Did I just say ass? I mean bum. I need now to adopt proper language.

So we're angry birds, mumsnet mummies and March lot? Nice! Are we a secret in any household I wonder....do you MN in secret?

Does everyone try and give their babe some protein at every meal? We eat veggie a fair bit so just wondering what sorts of things you offer. We have done egg, cheese, cream cheese, lentil/cheese combos, yoghurt, milky puddings. I’m lacking a bit of inspiration and don’t want to rely on cheese as it’s salty.

DH has taken ecobaby to supermarket to fill our shelves with fresh produce and proper bread. I should really start the washing mountain. Or watch some of the GBBO I need to catch up with.

Happy Sunday everyone and thanks for having me back in the fold. I missed your news!

I also learned that i do not know how to use apostrophies. The USA had a terrible impact on me.

kf we just discovered a tooth coming through after a patch of really disturbed nights. Am so glad I didn't press on with the sleep training we tried last week because DD was obviously sore. Just wish they could just tell us what is wrong!

On the plus side we are having a lot of sounds and serious attempts at certain words. The best one at the moment is a clear attempt 'duck' which gets repeated over and over while playing with the bath ducks which seem to be a favourite toy.

stormy best wishes for your SIL - I am glad to be leaving those newborn days far far behind though!

We are not doing sleep training as such. If i hear him murmur i wait. Sometimes he settles himself back to sleep. I go to him if hes full on crying. I give him dummy and he would settle himself again. If he doesnt settle after a dummy return i think he is hungry and give him a bottle and will go back to sleep. I never get him out of his cot at night. He mostly cries with his eyes half open. His gums are white so teeth should be popping through any day now and we have diluted his milk to 3 scoops of formula so maybe its a combination of both of these. Its so tempting to co sleep but hes an awful sleeper and when he's awake he's always on the go. So i cant even have cuddles with him.

Re: protein ive tried ds on lamb and he was fine. I chopped it finely for him. He has also had mince in shepherds pie. If you prefer veggie options how about beans? Eg haricot and red kidney beans. They can be mashed up.

I found you! Eco good to have you back. KF and soyo, whilst we don't have any night feeds, we have far from perfect sleep, although I think there is a trend towards improvement from the nights of hourly dummy returns. Our 'sleep training' consists of us always trying to leave her for 10 minutes unless she's really going for it. If it's just her whingey 'I'm tired' cry she usually resettles in the first 5 mins. We have also changed our bedtime routine so we don't have the cuddly-bottle-in-a-darkened room thing. Instead it's bottle downstairs, watch in the night garden, and then put down awake. I think that may be the thing that's having the biggest impact to be honest.

I'm having a lovely weekend. Yesterday we went to the harry potter studio tour. I'm a complete HP geek and DH is a film geek in general so it was fascinating. Then I got a message from my very best friend. Her and her boyfriend moved to Australia 18 months ago. They weren't meant to be coming back to visit until April but they've decided to pop back for a fortnight next month! Many tears of happiness shed in my house yesterday. Delicious (although I say it myself) roast beef with very old friends today has topped off my weekend nicely and DH has gone away with work til Friday now so I've got a tidy house which will stay that way

Ooh and stormy? Any news? Loving the live birth by proxy thread!

Eco I'm so pleased you're back, that was a lovely post. I totally get what you mean about being moved easily to tears by both scenes of natural beauty and people in love. I can't handle arrivals at airports at all! Such an emo. Have you caught up on GBBO yet? I'm dismayed by it being a bit bitchy this year.
Would for dp to feel I'm not a nag. Sadly I think I might be though it's his fault. my main worry though is that things won't change when I go back to work. DS is usually a fantastic sleeper and with a bit of preparation mornings should be reasonably easy (I start work at 10). But what if dp is little to no help and I'm doing eeeeeverything, including late night soothing? Hopefully this is a storm in a tea cup as he's displaying all the joyful symptoms of a tooth about to pop through.

Stormy any update? Hope things are progressing in a timely fashion.

Rainbow wow that's an early first word(ish), well done.

Vj we found that giving a bottle in the light with background noise also works better. I wonder if its because they are comforted by familiar sights and sounds? Do love it when DS falls asleep on the bottle though!

Have moved back on to three bottles a day here. So much easier!

eco glad to have you back and glad you had a good, eventful trip!

plonk I have so many AIBUs about DP that it's not worth writing down so you have my sympathies. At least he's trying today!

stormy any news? My friends had twins a couple of days ago, they've just put a picture on Facebook. Very, very cute but...twins...no thank you. One is enough at a time.

Well, DS's new trick is standing. Three times today I walked into the room to find that he'd pulled himself up on various things and was quite happily bouncing up and down on his legs. Now I just sit close by with my hands either side to protect from the inevitable head banging!

Not much progress. Contractions every two to five minutes, obviously pretty painful, but when the midwife shoved her arm in all the way up to the elbow it transpired SIL's cervix is not playing ball. Still on the long side and not dilated at all yet. Sent home with co-codamol. So my guess is tomorrow morning sometime. It was weird being in the hospital with her, I kept having flashbacks to my own labour. Wandering along thinking "I stopped here for a contraction, and here, and over there was a worried looking man, and then I stopped here..." Wasn't the same room though, that would've been even weirder.

Kff am idly looking around at other threads whilst I deal with jet lag baby and saw a thread asking for advice for non Turkish person going to a first tooth party. Do you fancy offering any advice?

Morning all

eco first tooth party? I have never heard of a party for the first tooth. I know our turkish people like their parties but wow. Which board is it on?

stormy any news?

something yay for the standing. Watch out for the handprints on furniture and bald plants.

Ds woke countless times last night. Did dummy returns until 6am. Yes he has always woke up but never this much. I need sleep.

Born at 00.46 by EMCS. Daft child was trying to come out feet first. Both of them doing fine.

Meanwhile, DD has decided she does not like being on her tummy, so she will throw herself onto her tummy and complain about it loudly. As soon as I move her, she does it again. Am I just going to have to get some earplugs and let her get on with it?

Wooo stormy congrats. Hope mother and baby are doing fine.

I've decided I can't stay at home with DS anymore, we have to always be out! He's everywhere. He's just opened the sliding wardrobe doors and is now trying to get into a box of my hair curling/straightening/drying paraphernalia. Then, if we go downstairs, he moves the strategically placed cushions in front of the fire place to get to the things hidden behind them or makes a beeline for the radiators. What's wrong with the huge box of plastic tat specially for him?

Ooh, gotta go, he's now trying to pull my dresses off their hangers...

Yay stormy - A whole new squidgy baby Makes me nostalgic but not broody - I remember the nights of 2 hours of sleep. No thanks

Lot's and lot's of news - so much catching up to do. It'll have to wait though as I have a small cross person being small and cross. Another stomach related bad night. Up at midnight. Rocked her for 4 hours. Eventually got her back down about 4.30am after a monumental fart put in an appearance. Never in all my born days have I been more pleased to be down wind of a down blast.

Catch you all later, post a massive caffeine shot.

Congratluations Stormy I take it they didn't expect baby to be breach? I hope it wasn't too scary for SIL and that she recovers quickly. Aww a brand new snuffly baby. Totes broods.

Worse hurray for farty babies. I used to think coaxing a fart of with tummy rubs etc would be demeaning. It isn't. It is one of the greatest satisfactions in life. Except for the sleep issue.

We had a bit of that here too last night. DS has his first cold and decided at 3am that breathing is for wimps. So he developed a neat trick of holding breath, sucking dummy, falling asleep, trying to breath, crying, ad infinitum. I have already invested in a baby vaporub jobber. Oh and it is so easy to get round sainsburys at 9am on a Monday with no baby to entertain. Ooh best go fetch him from nursery. Two hours today!

Eco before I go... Was reading a diet/nutrition book last night (rock on). Proteins of various kinds are in lots of veg, especially greens. We can apparently get all we need from veg and legumes so no need for meat and dairy (except they're tasty). It seems average adults get nearly double their rad of protein. I wouldn't worry about her intake as she's still on the boob anyway.

Congratulations auntie stormy! (Anyone else find it strange to think that that's not actually her name?!? That somewhere up in the NE someone will be calling her auntie but without the stormy after it?!? I can't imagine any of you with real names. It took me long enough to get used to it with wors!)

Anyway, I digress. We've just had a 7-7 night! Only the second in her life! No dummy returns or anything. No idea if it was sleep training or luck. Probably the latter. For those interested the things I've been doing: always putting down awake, no more falling asleep on the bottle or in mummy's arms. 5 dummies in the cot (3 attached to her bunny, 2 just around!) both our doors shut and monitor off so she really has to mean it before I hear her. Trying to leave her for 10 minutes unless she's clearly distressed. There has been gradual improvement since I started, so hopefully last night was just the beginning.

Anyway. There have been some interesting noises from the floor and there is now a funny smell wafting in my direction, so back on duty!

Morning all. Hope everyone had a good or at least reasonable night.

Stormy great news . Lucky lucky SIL. Not the emc/breech bit - that was a bit unlucky, but the newborn snuggly cuddly bit.

Plonky how's the cold? How're you? The nursery adjustment must be tough, but on the upside in 2 hours you must get a hell of a lot done. I can now do in 10mins what used to take me half a day .

Eco lovely to catch up on all your news. Agree that US food is sh*te. My parents spent 18 years in california, and the first thing they did was buy a bread maker as they can't stand sweet bread. The second was find a UK store, after dad practically cried over the processed orange cheese slices. The third was never eat out, after baulking at the portion sizes. They have now moved to France where at least the cheese is good even if you can't get a decent granary loaf.

DD is great at drinking water thankfully, but it doesn't help with her tummy trouble. Prunes help, but not always. Not had a nappy now since Friday.

Bit subdued here today after an awful evening last night. I was too tired to be in charge of a baby really, and I dropped her. I don't know how, but I did, which makes me feel like the worst mother ever. She's fine thankfully, not a mark, as she fell on her hands and knees onto a thickish carpet, but she went white with shock, cried, and I was nearly sick with fear. Everyone tells me dropping your baby is a rite of passage, but it's one I'd personally rather have by-passed.

something could it be time to invest in a cage? You can call it a playpen if it makes you feel better. That picture of him standing in his cot was awesome. I shall have to show it to DD so she gets the idea - she can stand like that but she's a bit wobbly and I'd never dare move my hands away to take a photo!

Plonky the breech thing definitely wasn't expected. I'm wondering is that why she wasn't dilating at the expected pace - lack of pressure of a head on the cervix maybe didn't help? My brother actually watched the caesarean. He always was fascinated by how things work, I guess that extends to the human body. The man threw up on the way to work yesterday and was feeling queasy all morning, and is blaming my brother's graphic description of them slopping her innards back in for it.

vj if it makes you feel any better my nieces do get to call me auntie Brid. As that's actually my name. You lot just all focused on the wrong half of my username! I still find it weird that Plonky and something actually have names too. Also, it sounds like your nights are much like ours, except we only have two dummies in the cot (and one underneath, DD insists on keeping one down there). None of them are attached to anything, as I was under the impression dummy clips aren't meant to be used at night. How are you attaching them? I'm eager to hear all your secrets, cos I'm sick of being woken up a couple of hours before we need to get up just to give her a dummy.

worse dropping them is indeed a rite of passage. On the plus side, babies are pretty resilient. It takes a lot to break them. She's probably forgotten all about it already (although I don't suppose you ever will).

The sweet American bread is because they fill it with high fructose corn syrup. My dad mentioned the other day something about them changing the rules here to allow for a much higher amount of the stuff in our foods too. So expect hideous sweetness to start creeping over here too. Breadmakers all the way!

Anyone got a plan of attack for dealing with the clocks changing this weekend? I have this horrible feeling babies are not going to realise, and are going to want to get up far too early...

Stormy ew he watched?! He must have nerves of steel. I presumed the pressure thing too. Are they home yet or chillaxing at Mr Cameron's leisure?

Worse you poor love. It definitely is a rite of passage. If you don't drop them then you're bound to fall down the stairs with them, or bang a head on a doorframe, or (in my case) fall asleep with them in MIL's stupid single bed and have to pick up a screaming baby off a hardwood floor because they've rolled out. I cried a lot longer than DS did, and was jittery for a few days. But that's being exhausted for you. Please don't beat yourself up too much, shit happens and she's fine.

I'm ok thanks. DS still has a cold and is fussing a lot (for him) so I'm not over the moon about leaving him but needs must. The nursery staff all love him and he flashed them another winning smile this morning. So I've now got another two hours on my hands. I plan on blitzing the house (you're right, it'll take 20 mins, used to take hours) and napping before fetching him at 11. I can't believe this is my last day of mat leave. Well, I'm on annual leave at the moment, my mat leave pay ended in September. I am now fully kitted out for my return and have even been offered overtime already (hahaha). I just don't want to bloody go!

Oh and American food? Boak. Unless its proper gumbo. My mum and dad flew to America yesterday, and plan to stay beach side until Christmas.

P.s the effing clocks are changing? Gah! Bribe with toys, food and longer naps.

Oh wors how scary for you. But you're right about it being a rite of passage. Whenever I do anything like negligently let her fall over from sitting or whack her head on a doorframe I remind myself of the story of an 8 day old who was plonked into a sling that wasn't done up properly and fell out the bottom onto Tarmac... And was fine. Makes me realise how bouncy they are.

Stormy- the dummies are cleverly attached, I got the idea from a thing you can get from amazon but then just did it myself with stuff we already had, I'm off out now but will try to find all the relevant links for you later. I think what ice made is completely safe!