Graduated Elderberries

[HazleNutt]

It's time to move to Post-Natal clubs.

God I really bang on sometimes, sorry

I have always wanted 2, I'd love love love to have a second, ideally a sister for H, but I want to wait at least a couple of years.

Ahh crap, my OHs boss doesnt have much local work for him but has offered to pay extra for him to work in reading for 2 weeks. It will mean an extra £650 tax free in the next 2 weeks but means him leaving at 5.30am each morning and not getting back till 8pm each night I'm gutted as I'm so ready for help by 5.30pm when he gets home. Also he will be knackered when he gets home so I can see it being a bit fraught between us. The cash will be a huge help and will pay for the kitchen refurb a couple of times over, gutting though as I enjoy our family time in the evening. I know some people work those hours anyway and I shouldnt moan but I am, it sucks.

Gutted for you mother but keep thinking of the moola and try and see friends/get out and about as much as poss while he's working so much

Those are long hours but hopefully two weeks will pass very quickly if you throw yourself into the baby singing etc and NCT circuit?

All this is making me count my lucky stars...

Alex - I know you really, really didn't want the drip, but my best friend from school lost her first son because of her waters breaking and him getting an infection. It's a scary old business this having babies lark.

Talking of which my pregnant friend had her baby today! Sounds v traumatic, he was back to back and ended in emcs, poor her. But they're both well and recovering. Another little boy - of her six closest friends, five of us have had little boys!

I really didn't want the drip BUT even the mv seemed to think I should have been checked as there was such a delay and that I wouldn't have just been left on it if they'd realised how far I'd dilated. So I think that was the issue - if I needed the drip, I needed the drip but the mv said to remember for next time that my second stage was much more rapid than they predicted last time round. It would have saved me just lying there on the drip stressing about the heart rate if they'd looked when I said i could feel the head trying to come out! I honestly think all's well that ends well though

What's she called her baby boy? Ah wish her congrats from me.

zombie yes we want another one asap I wonder if we could use a surrogate though

mother the time will go faster than you think. A couple of years ago, DH used to work away, saw him only on weekends - that was pre-baby of course, but still, wasn't as bad as I feared.

YY to a surrogate Hazle. I really don't relish the thought of getting knocked up again. I would love to just fast forward to the baby and also miss out the labour and birth.

Mother you will be fine! I assume he will be around during the weekend in the middle so you can get some time off?

I loved being knocked up - apart from the lack of wine!

I loved being knocked up too alex.

I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. Would happily do it again.

Worst bit for me (apart from issues re pre eclampsia etc) was def lack of wine. That was HELL.

Me too, loved being knocked up. Apart from the terror (chap sneezed on my face on the Tube, next thing I was down with the flu); two bouts of flu; having to eat über judiciously.

I've forgotten the drunken feeling Now I daren't have any too much for fear I'll fall asleep before bedtime.
How the mighty have fallen.

Actually thinking about it, I was ill for most of the first 3 months which sucked! Maybe it wasnt as fun as I remembered.

I was never much of a wine drinker, I missed fruit cider yep I have no class LOTS though! Now I get pissed super embarassingly easily, which has made drinking far less fun.

The main thing I missed though was simply sleeping on my tummy, once I had H I couldnt do it due to leaky boobs and now I cant because of infected scar......not fair!

Funnily enough I actually missed cider the most! And it's been the drink I've had most since giving birth. I'm classy too mother

down at midnight, first wake up 1.45....this is a new low. Going by his usual pattern I might get another 1 or 2 hours then I'll be up every sodding hour. I may cry.

I tried a bath, feed, putting her down at 7 tonight. She went in her sleepyhead pillow in the lounge for about 15 mins before waking up and then had to nap on me until 10.30 when we all went to bed. She usually then goes in her sleepyhead at our bedtime for a good 3/4 hour run but only went down for two hours this time. Been feeding, winding and trying to get her back to sleep for 1.5 hours. She's really awake and smiley?! Every time she drifts off on me, I try and put her down but she wakes up.

Maybe I should abandon trying to establish an earlier bedtime routine if it messes up the good run of sleep we usually get at our bedtime?!

Million times better than a crying session either way.

H naps downstairs with us till 10/11ish, I am selfish I want his best sleep to coincide with when I sleep. As expected he was back up at 3, so now it'll be every hour, nights like this break me.

ok, so far H went to sleep at 12 an has been up at 1.45, 3 and 5.15 Does anyone elses OH roll over so their back is facing you as soon as LO cries? It pisses me off, its like he is making it clear it isnt his problem.

S has been up since 4.30am so I've only had 4.5 hours broken sleep in total and she's only slept in two hour blocks tonight since our bedtime. She was crying a lot this time so not sure if she had bad wind. I miss our usual 3-5 hour block to start the night! She's sleeping beautifully on me now but I'm going to bite the bullet and try and put her down again so I can hopefully get some more sleep.

My DH has now gone to the spare room but I encourage him to do that or sleep through her wake ups - the way I see it is that it's better for me to be a zombie during the day as I don't have to operate my brain at work!

I've been letting him sleep for 3 months now, sometimes a bit of support would be nice that's all. Especially as I'm still expected to shop, cook, clean, launder, walk pooch etc no matter how little sleep I get.

I did get a 2 an a half hour stretch from 5.30-8 and feel more human now.

I have to say my DH is very supportive about it in the night ("well done babe", "you're doing a great job" etc) which does make a difference. He still gets the same amount of sleep but just saying that gives me a boost although doesn't help with the evil torture of sleep deprivation

I didn't get any more sleep, yawn, but when the sun comes out and it's daylight, I feel better. Just not sure whether to keep trying for an earlier bedtime/routine to help us later on or not.

My DH can sleep through anything - he simply does not hear when V wakes up. But he has offered that he will do the nights when V goes to his own room. So basically V will wake me up and I will kick DH out of bed to go see what's up. Or maybe I'll just invest in good earplugs and tape baby monitor to DH's ear..

As for pregnancy, no I didn't like being pregnant and would not mind if I didn't have to do it again. Even though I had the easiest pregnancy possible and I did enjoy the horrified "you're still here??" comments from gym and work
It's just the worrying that I dont manage well, especially if you are like me and read about everything that could possibly go wrong. Honestly, that's a really, really stupid idea, don't do it.

So based on this sample size, we can deduct that not only are sleeping babies a myth, so are natural, serene, empowering sneeze childbirths, where there's no pain really, just some pressure, that is really easy to manage with you know, breathing. And where you would actually care about having candles and whale songs around. Ha! It would not have made any difference if I had a whole Yankee Candle shop and an actual whale there..

Really made me laugh hazle - I had a playlist for Sophia's birth with feel good songs I'd compiled to relax me, ha, as if! I said to DH the other day that we didn't even get to play it in the end - turns out he did play it and I'd not even noticed so that's how useful that was ;) About as useful as DH's snack bar he set up for me on a silver table he'd found which turned out to be for medical equipment, as the midwife told him sternly whilst he offered me yet another Malteser to "help with the contraction"