September 2014 Babies leave the newborn stage behind. Thread 2

[SeptemberBabies]

New thread because our initial thread is about to max out.

For babies born around September 2014 - or just before for early arrivals and just after for late arrivals.

ella I was going to stick b in some trousers and a top safe in the knowledge that if I dressed him up there would be a leaky nappy situation due to the law of sod!

ella Regarding Xmas day, my DP bought J a knitted Christmas jumper with a reindeer on it and a reindeer hat.

I don't think it's that important to be honest but we are going to PIL's for dinner and they kept asking us if we were going to dress him up as a Christmas pudding/Elf/Santa etc so DP felt we should at least have him look Christmassy.

I did buy a sleep suit for J for Xmas eve saying "My first Christmas". My older kids always have new pyjamas on Xmas eve so I thought I'd carry on the tradition with J.

Holls there is nothing wrong with buying expensive stuff for LOs. But if it is present then much better:) their designs looked really good on web

Red I wish I had somebody giving ds that much presents :) lovely

Ella I was in town a couple of days ago looking at clothes and the number of Xmas jumpers/outfits I have seen for babies was .... A lot, much more than adults! So I felt there is a trend there... But I didn't buy anything. One of my friends bought her baby a reindeer hat from wilky for one pound- too cute and cheap and easy I thought

I am yet to order the milk enhancing supplements but yesterday went out with friends and had a big lunch then big desert then for dinner I had to cook a whole loads of chicken before it expires so had a big dinner too and again pudding( aaagh I feel fat today) then I also decided whenever I make tea For me I make three cups not one so had 12 cups of decaf yesterday!!! The results? More milk... Interesting....

Ella - I have got way too carried away with the Christmas wear! I bought DD a reindeer dress for during the day and also bought 2 sleepsuits (Xmas eve, Xmas night or as change of clothes) that say daddy's little star and mummy's little helper. THEN mother in law bought a lovely velour Xmas sleepsuit from jojo mama Bebe (luckily have already been able to dress her in for decorating tree) and yesterday DP bought a little Christmas pudding outfit. Whoops! I suppose it can all be worn for the whole of the Christmas period though and we will have to hope there ends up being another baby in the family that falls in the 3-6 month bracket on Christmas in the future!

Question ladies: ds has had a cold for the last week ( well today it is over a week) he still had runny nose and watery eyes yesterday with a bit of cough and more number of poos but he is getting better very gradually. He has appointments for his jabs today but I am debating if I should get it done or not under the circumstances??

I had to postpone second lot of jabs due to a cold. I called the surgery beforehand and they told me that the nurse wouldn't do it if he had any symptoms at all. Maybe worth giving them a ring?

Nazly, I've been asked if DS has been unwell on both occasions prior to having them so it sounds like it might make a difference. I would ask.

RE Christmas Day. DS has a Christmas cardigan from Tesco (it had 25% off, he'd out grown his jumper and jacket so he needed one so I thought what the hell, he can still wear it in Jan and Feb I don't care if its Christmassy) and a 'Dear Santa I've been Good T-shirt' (reduced to £1 at Tesco) which he's worn a few times already. I am clearly a sucker for a reduced tag I think in some ways its easier to justify Christmas clothes for babies this age, because they need clothes anyway and are going to out grow them so quickly. I'm making sure DS gets at least 4 weeks use out of the t-shirt and a couple of months out of the cardigan rather than just using them for a single day.

However, I got a Santa suit for Christmas to indulge my rampant PFB desire for photography, but that's for Boxing Day when we see the in-laws and extended family friends/relatives, but it might come out this week one evening as the Santa Rotary Club float is due, and well I might as well. Its my one real frippery, and I'm very much using the 'think of the photos' line for it.

And to be fair the photos of him by the Christmas tree we've already taken are rather awesome and particularly nice ones of him.

He will hate me when he's 18.

red.. l too am taking many many photos. I will be despised when he is older.

we have our second lot of jabs today. he didn't deal well with the first lot so am already stressed.

Hello ladies!

Hope everyone is well. I haven't checked in for a few days. I've only read the most recent posts so sorry if I've missed anything important.

As for Christmas day, I'll probably try and put Jessica in something festive, in the almost certain knowledge that she will crap on it within half an hour! I'm really not too worried though if she just ends up in 'normal' clothing.

A quick question to those ladies who are bf - how long are you planning to keep bf for? Jessica's just over 3 months old now and in some ways feeding is getting harder again. It's taking ages to do a feed at the mo as she's being really fussy and easily distracted, and actually physically holding her in a good position to feed is getting hard now that she is getting bigger - it's okay when we are at home as I can prop her with cushions etc but getting very tricky when we are out. Also, and the big reason, is I think my milk just isn't sustaining her much anymore. We started giving her hungry baby formula milk just prior to bed when she was two months old to improve her sleep and she can usually manage 3-4 hours on that, but then when she wakes up I give her breastmilk and she's usually awake again an hour or two later for another feed. By the time I get back to sleep after giving her a feed therefore I'm often only back to getting 30-60 minute catnaps a lot of the night (if I get back to sleep at all) and I'm really tired. It's making me start to wonder if I'm coming to the end of my bf stint. I always planned to try and keep it up until at least 6 months (but in the knowledge she would have to be on formula for practicality reasons by the time she starts nursery etc in August at 11 months) but I'm wondering now if maybe I should consider making the switch a bit earlier. I'd still like to carry on a bit longer yet but it's getting hard, so it just made me wonder how long you guys were planning on bf for? x

I (and friends and family) may have gone overboard with A christmas outfits! I bought him an outfit from the Disney store, my DM has bought him a '1st Christmas' T-shirt and a sleep suit. My DGP have bought him some Pyjamas, and my friend has bought him a reindeer and snowman outfit (from Asda). He has two parties this week so he can wear the two outfits for them. And as others have said, no doubt we will get one outfit dirty after 30 mins on christmas day, so at least he has a few to change into

Acron how is ds today? Hope he is getting better?

Fate I totally understand, the day I gave up expressing during days was so good, it is just difficult fitting everything in...but my problem is ds relies too much on breast for comfort before bed...

Kitkat I am probably not the best person to answer your question cause I find most people around me plan in advance to bf at least for 6m; well my plan is to bf exclusively at least for one year (despite going to work at 6m) and then perhaps continue the night feeds for a while after. This may not work practically specially as I may find going to work and expressing, etc difficult or impossible but thats my plan. With regards to night feeds I never used formula and ds at around 2-3months had the same pattern you describe; a 4 hours, then 2-3 then 1-2. Imho sleeping pattern may be more to do with age rather than feeding ; ds did 8-2:45 then 3:15 to 7:50 on breast milk; he is 4 months corrected 3 months one week

Jabs postponed....

Also bf here and intend to do so most likely well beyond 6 months. But then its working well for both of us at the moment so easy for me to say that. I am tired, it's completely relentless but I just can't imagine stopping for now.

I have found that DS gets easily distracted when we are out and it is harder to hold him. I've been putting a muslin over my shoulder and his head, so he can't see. Seems to be working. As for him being bigger I reckon I'll have guns of steel by the time he's 1 lol.

Ds has been sitting on my lap and feeding for a while now, so I don't have to hold him and don't use cushions eaither

Hon I used to do that but he now sometimes just grab my scarf and put it away if he doesn't want it!!! So don't count on it as a long term solution!!! :)

Btw hon, do let us know if reading works again; I have given up reading him books some time ago as he wasn't interested and I thought he is still too young, it is very grown up of your baby to sleep while you read him a book!

Yeah it's difficult. I don't feel like I want to stop yet but it would definitely make life easier. Jessica very much likes 'little and often' with milk which is making going out a nightmare. Went Christmas shopping last week with DH and think I spent more time in the baby changing and feeding room than in the shops. I have friends and family who FF and their babies regularly go 2-3 between feeds in the day, and generally sleep much better at night (one from my NCT group has a baby who is only about a week older than Jessica and a few nights ago did 6.30pm-7am). I'm having an internal dilemma about what to do.

I'm probably just having a bad day. I'll see if I can teach Jessica to feed whilst sitting on my lap - that would make life a lot easier. x

I'll make the most of the muslin while I can then!

I will report back tonight re the reading. I used my calmest voice and just kept putting his dummy back in. We'll see. I doubt I'm that lucky.

I do wonder about sleeping longer and having more time if we were to ff but im not really in a hurry to do anything so don't mind spending the time feeding. However I do miss sleep. A lot. And I'm sure only having one baby makes a big difference. Just me and him to look after.

Do you always look for a feeding room when you're out? I just find anywhere I can to be honest, benches in shopping centres etc. also DS only takes about 10-15 mins to feed which I appreciate isn't very long so I don't find it too disruptive when we're out and about.

I know it's a bit off topic, but are people managing to get to their pre pregnancy weight yet ?

I piled on 4 stone with J - that's a stone more than I did with my twins and I've managed to knock 3 stone off quickly but am now feeling really unmotivated. I don't think having cupboards full of Xmas food helps - and knowing that dieting will be impossible over Christmas.

I'm quite annoyed at myself for falling off the diet wagon as I was doing so well, and feel guilty after eating anything mildly unhealthy .
I know there are more important things to worry about and to be honest my BMI is in healthy range (but more top end of it)..I just thought I would have lost it by now.

I plan to bf for two years, maybe longer. But I know that things often don't go as you plan with babies! When you decide the time is right to stop, don't beat yourself up about it.

If Jessica likes 'Little and Often' with breastmilk, she will (unfortunately for you) like 'Little and Often' with formula too. So you could end up giving up breastfeeding for no gain in terms of sleep or time.

For what it's worth my DD (11 weeks) is breastfed and goes 3-4 hours between feeds daytime, 2 hourly in the evenings and 11-7 at night. Whereas my eldest daughter (and PFB) used to feed 1-2 hourly daytime and nighttime. I feel your pain.

KitKat - Maybe try re-checking the signs for hungry because it is easy to confuse with the signs for tired. If you could get her to learn to sleep without being fed then maybe you'll get longer gaps between feeds both in the daytime and at night. If DD wakes in the night now I don't feed her, she gets dummy applied and goes back to sleep herself.

My friend just directed me to this wonderful programme : Word of mouth (bbc radio4) the sounds and words that babies learn...

we hqve had jabs. b recognised the room and was less than thrilled to be back there! cried ar jabs but has been ok this pm, slept and eaten. gave calpol as soon as we got home this time. he has jumped from 50th to 75th centile for height in 2 weeks and is 14lb 9oz so is ok. Hv has suggested that after being in travel cot for 10 days over xmas it might be a good time to move him into own room/cot in jan. a bit nervois about it.

Surprised they have suggested that holls when the sleep safety guidance is for them to be in own cot in your room for at least 6 months. I am dreading moving DD to her own room already - certain she will not settle well there to begin with and I will spend most of the night checking on her for sure!

DS definitely seems better today

I think I'll be bfing for ages, i still dont know for sure if he has a milk allergy (haven't reintroduced it yet) but if he does then I guess he can't have formula until he grows out of it. I know you can get formula on prescription but doubt they'd give it to me if I can still bf. I have ups and downs with it, it's been really sore on one side for the last month but it fine just now so if this continues then I'm in no hurry to give it up. I don't want to be having to express at work so I guess by that point he'll have to just be on a couple of feeds a day - no idea how that works!

And I don't see him going into his room at 6 months, not unless he's magically sleeping through by then. Way too much effort to keep getting up and traipsing through to another room every few hours.