Elderberries no 2 - all old and new berry babies welcome!

[HazleNutt]

New thread!

Mother you can use this guy, he is based in Lewes I think but does shoots all over the place. His website is www.scott-sutton.co.uk/

Alex normally we do a bedtime routine starting at 6.30/7ish so she's asleep by 8, but yesterday she had a weird day with a 3 hr nap at 4.30! So she was wide awake all evening and finally went down at 10.

I have a friend who does underwater photos in London, look for Bubbles photography, she was doing a £14 shoot offer recently on Wowcher.

Oh great, DH has managed to catch stomach flu. I really hope he won't give it to V now. Sigh, another thing to worry about.

S just rolled over on to her front - and back again! Well done her very proud mum!

Ohh thanks cav, he is only a 15 min drive from us so that is perfect

Well done S

oh an alex we start H's bath at 8ish so he is asleep by 9, we are led by when he gets sleepy, some nights it is half an hour earlier if he is very tired. He is gradually moving it forward, I think we'll have to move it forward soon, but he is very awake until 7.30ish so there is no way he would go down sooner yet.

well done S. Next thing you know, you turn your back and the baby has rolled under the sofa..

Don't worry, it's backfired a bit for her and means she's never allowed off the floor again, to be on the safe side

Haha, I put H one side of the rug and come back to find him on the other side....little minx! He has worked out the leg/knee part of crawling but just drags his face along, not exactly got the right technique! Wish he would slow down, he is growing too quick.

S is trying to do the leg crawl movements too, so funny, she gets nowhere obviously! She's also so out of breath when she rolls, it's exhausting clearly.

Urgh today & tonight it appears my nipples are the equivalent of a dummy. Cluster feeding central, but mostly without the feeding, just a halfhearted suck every now and then. I predict a loooooooong night ahead

Finding it very frustrating that I seem to be the only person in the world who can't breastfeed lying down. No matter how many instructions I follow either my boob seems to block her nose and/or it's totally the wrong angle. She will latch but come off after a few seconds as it's obviously not working. I need to master this for my sanity but three weeks in and it doesn't look positive

Merkin I couldn't feed lying down for ages, not til at least 10 weeks. My boobs/nipples are too small I think. However now she has grown a bit it works like a dream. Maybe not what you want to hear right now but I reckon you might get there eventually. Sorry you are in clusterhell.

Merk I couldn't feed lying down either. I think my boobs were/are just too small. I could just about do it if I contorted myself into an awkward position, but then the whole idea is for it to be more relaxing so you can snooze while feeding which was impossible in such an uncomfortable position so I just gave up trying. I remember trying to force myself to stay awake during long night feeds and failing miserably when I found myself jolting awake. I also used to fantasise about the relative ease of bottle feeding. Those early days are soooo hard but it will get much easier soon.

Ok, so I went for an informal back to work meeting yesterday with my mind pretty much made up that I won't be going back after Mat leave, but they have thrown in an unexpected curve ball by theoretically agreeing to my demands which I really didn't expect. I told them I want part-time (2 or 3 full days or 4 days with shorter hours) and a change of area to one closer to home with less driving and time away and they said ok, so now I just don't know what to do. Bah! Why couldn't they be difficult about it as I expected so it makes the decision easy for me?!

tha bastards, cav! And you were probably preparing to regretfully inform them that as they can't meet the requirements, you are forced to leave..
I would probably go back. Even if you are not so crazy about the job, generally it's easier to find a new one if you already have one. just like boyfriends

How dare they cav?! yeah I would go back, I really hate the thought of it, and we're lucky in that we're not desperate for me to go back financially as things stand, but if mine agree to a situation that's good for me and they can have me back etc, I will go back, we'll see.

Rough night again last night AND I made the mistake of googling regressions, when it ends, etc. I did wonder if anyone has any tips - use a dummy, don't use a dummy, feed on demand overnight or try and rock to sleep sometimes, anything like that you'd recommend with hindsight? I know, I know, I just need to ride it out.

Oh and I never mastered lying down feeding but I never really gave it a chance as I was so para I'd roll and squash her! Good luck with it if you manage merk as it sounded comfy for cluster feeding.

Love from the zombie that used to be alex

The rudness cav!

H finally has his first tooth

alex I'm afraid all babies are different so most likely you'll just need to ride it out. H liked the comfort of his bottle or a cuddle to fall asleep again so it was a case of picking him up and going from their, a handful of times I managed to get him to sleep again just with a hand on his chest and some shhhing but that was rare. I did find that if I picked him up and put him on his pillow between us in the bed he would immediately fall asleep again so we coslept a fair bit. H was ill at the same time though so he might have been more clingy than some?

Merk - took us ages to learn to feed lying down (2 or 3 months maybe) but was amazing when we mastered it. Keep trying maybe? Hopefully time will sort it for you.

Alex - no tips except to ride it out and get your DH to take over at weekends to let you go to sleep. It's the only way you can cope! I would carry on with the bedtime routine and if she's like M she will come out the other side an even better sleeper than before but is shit in the interim

Cav - the buggers! The only thing I would say is that it's much easier to get flexible working where you are than it is to leave and try to get flexible terms elsewhere further down the line. Hence two of my closest friends, who had quite nice jobs (we're talking around £70-80k) but took a couple of years out when their DC were very young have only been able to find jobs in care homes as they're the only ones with flexible hours I think one of them is now regretting not going part time in her old role the other doesn't really want to work anyway but isn't telling her DH that or even admitting it to us I guess it also depends on when you're planning DC2, as no matter how comfortable you are full time maternity pay would no doubt be useful for trips to Dubai and more sunglasses

My work, OTOH, are being complete knob jockeys pains over my return to work. Basically they're insisting I take 1.5 hours for lunch on the three days a week I've asked to reduce it to one hour. There's absolutely no need for me to do that and it can only be my boss being on a power trip short man syndrome possibly I tower over him and refusing to be flexible just because he can. They've also said no for now to me working from home on day a week and still don't know what my job will entail I will obv be appealing it, as I'm the main wage earner reducing hours by just an hour makes a surprising difference to our take home pay, but mainly as a point of principle.

Clearly I've been dealing with the whole thing very professionally and haven't been sobbing about it all afternoon...

Oh and well done H! You say finally but isn't a tooth at five months earlier than average? He's clearly very advanced for his age

Damn them Cav and Janey
Congrats on the tooth Cleo, although does that mean I only have 4 months before teething starts??
2 days since DH went back to work and we have managed to leave the house both days so feeling smug! How my life has changed

Oh no janey he sounds like a right arse! Shall we get the gun and shovel ready? I am crapping myself about seeing my boss on Thursday.

alex, I appreciate sleep so much more now as the 4 month regression was shiy, plus H has come out the other side and is now well at the moment anyway sleeping through.

janey it is indeed pretty early, just seems like he's been teething for ages! I'm glad something has finally come of all the chewing and dribble though. Shows my doctor knows her stuff she said he would start teething around 3 months and get teeth early, I'll give her her dues she was spot on.

Oh and good work merk some days its such a mission to get everything together it could drive you to drink.

I'm still recovering from getting H, carseat, pram chassis, carrycot, raincover, changing bag and dog into the car to go for a walk on the seafront today. It was a mission! Worth it though as the dog loves the beach

last post I promise janey H is currently trying to get the dogs tail in his mouth so no not advanced

Mother - I squeeze that lot in my car every day, my car is FULL of sand and today it rained so I squeezed my Mum and her two dogs in on the way home too so she wouldn't get wet! (Beach is walking distance but I've been driving because my dog is poorly so needs an easier/shorter walk) Mmm wet dog smell, charming.

Good news on the tooth, unfortunately it's neverbleedinending as we've got teeth 5 and 6 on the way now. She's been almost constantly teething since Christmas

I'm having a devil of a job getting her to sleep at night at the moment, literally hours of crying and pacing the kitchen and that's just me it's doing my head in and I don't know how to deal with it, she's never been a good sleeper but between getting woken up 2-3 times every night and having no evening as she won't go to bed and being virtually a lone parent at the moment I'm absolutely wiped out with it all and need a break. Moan over