October 2014 // thread 5 // baby's first Christmas

[JeannePoole]

Welcome back!

(Dear greetings cards manufacturers: 'Baby's First Christmas' does NOT necessarily have to include Baby being liberally sprinkled with glitter from your shoddily-made merchandise.

Except that, as I'm rapidly discovering, it does.

Happy new year!
Feeling tired today. Babys sleep is regressing a bit too after sleeping through or just one wake up. We got 3 last night.
Coffee machine in full swing!!
cj with some perseverance we got R to take 2oz from a bottle so going to keep trying. Will be difficult when DH os back at work on Monday as won't be able to so will need to do it at weekends

Woohoo, got 10.15 - 2.45, and I slept that whole lot too. L8ntest stretch since jabs 4 weeks ago. She then did 4.45, 6.30.. urgh. Took her in to boyfriend who kept her occupied until 10.15 - i went back to bed for 2 great hours sleep. Amazing!

I've been banished. Boyfriend says how is he expected to be able to look after the baby if I'm always hovering about telling him what to do, so I'm under strict instructions to keep out of sight and not stick my oar in unless specifically invited. Judging by the howls he's trying her with the bottle again. Brave man.

Daughter turned into hell child last night. After weeks of going to bed easily, and one week of being asleep and in her crib by seven forty five, she became a flailing, panting, suckling creature from the abyss until she finally exhausted herself at about eleven pm. I hope this isn't the shape of things to come. She had her first lot of jabs the day before so maybe it was residual pain. Or- 12 week growth spurt? Is that a bad one?

fed up did you just keep offering the bottle, or was there anything specific you tried that helped?

Good idea jeanne - maybe we can divulge whatever info we want, babies sex, age etc, and something interesting/unexpected about ourselves.

Been meaning to post - has anyones bubs eye colour changes yet? Dying to see what she'll end up with! Still just the baby blue at the mo. Wonder when that happens by?

Also could blue eyes go brown? Or are brown eyes there from birth?

Tatty - Brilliant husband you have there. Why don't you go shopping for a couple of hours, or see if you can get a haircut? He's right that as long as you are there, he truly learn the good, bad and ugly of parenthood.

Jeanne - great idea regarding a summary. I am always forgetting how old peoples babies are, boy or girl, FTM or older siblings and so on. What info do you want for this list you will be compiling?

Bedtime routine (previous page, so I can't remember who asked) - we don't have one with baby yet. I know there are other Mums who read to their newborn. We read to our older children every night without fail, but as yet baby does not join in with this. I doubt she will until 12 months or so. Likewise as someone else said, baths are more when necessary rather than every night.

Our bedtime routine for baby so far consists of any awake/happy time after 6pm being nappy off kick in front of fire, this might be as late as 8pm or as early as 6pm, depending on sleeps/feeds that day. When starts grumbling into bath if convenient needed or just straight into PJs. Whenever ready for next feed (whatever time that falls) I take baby up to our room and feed on my bed then put her into cot. I wait on my bed re-inserting dummy for 5-15 minutes until asleep. If not settling, I don't spend a long time trying (because I have other bedtimes to sort out) so she comes downstairs into bouncy chair.

Bedtime routine we are aiming for my 12 months will be 7.15pm bath, PJs, story, milk feed, teeth brushed, bed by 8.00pm. I'd like DD to share bedtime with her 5 year old brother and this is his routine.

Sneeky whisper so not to gloat: I missed 11pm feed last night due to watching The Dark Knight . Accepted night feed instead. Baby skipped feed completely and didn't wake until 7am. Fluke 8pm-7am with no wake ups last night. Whoop Whoop!

Betty - I believe many children are born with blue eyes then change to brown. All four of mine were born with blue eyes. Two have developed brown eyes and two have kept blue eyes.

Aw fab. I'd love her to have brown eyes. Dh and all his family have blue, I have green with a sploge of brown in one eye

That's a similar mix to us. I have blue eyes (as did my Dad, but not my Mum). DH and all his family have hazel eyes.

My two boys have hazel eyes, my two girls have blue eyes.

Aw, lovely mix

Blue eyes here, and expecting to stay that way - both of us have blue, so some serious questions would be getting asked if we ended up with anything else!

Fate I'll happily do a list as long as a newbie doing it doesn't push anyone's nose out of joint! I was thinking as much or as little of the following as people want to divulge:

baby: sex, birthday (exact or approx), birth weight, mode of delivery, feeding method, child number (sounds a bit creepy and Orwellian but you know what I mean, I hope).
mum: age, location (eg city or area), working or SAHM, and as Betty suggested, perhaps an interesting random thing too.
...plus any other suggestions you want to add.

Baby:

Felicity (Fliss, Flick, or just "Smallest").
Girl
26th Sept
9lb 7oz at birth. No idea now, but she is growing out of 3-6m stuff. Massive.
Emergency caesarean (after 3 normal virginal births)
Mix feeding, mainly breast but not adverse to formula when I feel like it
Four children- DD10, DS9, DS5 and DD14w.

Mum:
38, Nottingham
SAHM since 2007, before that secondary school chemistry teacher.

Last baby. I always planned to have four. The only of my children not to be conceived straight away (TTC for 2 years, 2 miscarriages) so we feel very blessed to have her. We started to resign ourselves to 3 children only.

Interesting fact - I am Tawny Owl at Brownies and a Girlguiding District Commissioner. Been involved with Guiding since I was 7 years old, without a gap in service.

Oh, another interesting fact. FATE are the first letters my four children's first names.

Baby:

Rocco
Boy
13 oct
8lb 10 no idea of weight now just going into 3–6 month clothes
Ventouse after 3 normal vaginal births heart rate dropped for a long time
Formula feeding
Four children dd9 dd4 ds15 months ds11 weeks

Mum:

37, altrincham cheshire
Sahm before I worked in high end retail as a personal shopper and events organiser.
Although I've been blessed with 4 healthy children it was a bit of a journey to get here had three miscarriages and at certain points thought I'd never get the four children I really wanted.

Interesting fact: errmmm two of my kids have red hair and two are very dark?! That's a bit crap isn't it?! I snogged Liam Gallagher before he was super famous!

Ohhh get you getting off with a Gallegher brother!

OK then, better do mine!

Baby:

Boy, born 26.9 by semi-ELCS (performed by one of my friends / colleagues!), 9lb 8oz at 38+5, formula feeding and still somewhere around 95th centile. DS was due 1st week Oct so I'd been lurking on that antenatal thread, hence I'm here not on the Sept one. First and only DC (see maternal age, below!). Was a bit of a surprise, if we're being totally honest...

Me:

Turned 44 just before DS was born. Eek. Clinical scientist (NHS) in Yorkshire, will be going back to work at Easter.
Random fact 1: that isn't my real name, of course. Random fact 2: I've never snogged a pop star, famous or otherwise. And random fact 3: I once had a tweet published on the Guardian website.

Baby -

boy
26 October
6lb 2 nearly 8lbs now so still in newborn clothes poor mite
Vaginal birth born at home (planned homebirth)
Mix feeding for now (4oz formula a day)
He's my only baby and not planning any more

Me -

I'm 35, zone 5 London
I'm a lawyer (working in house in media)

tatty we just kept trying and made sure I was out of sight and sound so I didn't get worked up with his crying and he couldn't see me! He was also hungry and after a sleep so don't try it tired or full!

Baby
Boy born 16 sept a month early. 6lb 1oz and now over a stone and moving into 3 to 6 months. Labour ward birth - had to be given prem status and also last birth was third degree tear.

Me
33 living in Surrey. 1 other DS age 3. Had two MC before ds2 with 14 months Ttc. A hard year for me, I know people have it much worse but I really struggled.
Work as a management consultant but also a fitness professional.
Random stuff: got asked on a date by Declan Donnelley and got arrested for having sex on the beach in a foreign country (not with DD I will add) and I used to live in hale, Cheshire near to pregnant again!

fedup well hellooo there ex neighbour! We live walking distance to hale small world!

fate I was in the fifth year at school so not as impressive as it sounds!!

Not that it's really that impressive!

Ok here's mine

Baby
Logan, (logie-bear, loganberry lol poor thing)
Born 03/10 nine days late weighing 6 pounds 9 prob at least 13 pounds now. I was induced via oxytocin drip due baby pooing in my waters! But had a normal vaginal birth needing no stitches of which I know I'm lucky because it's my first baby. He is bf but I also express hubbie feeds at night
Me
I'm 29 and manage an opticians. Not really sure if I will have any other children as hubby is against it currently. I'm loving being on maternity leave (trying not to think about returning in June).
I'm very proud that I was able to give birth with just gas and air as all the midwifes told me I would have to have an epidural due to oxytocin induced labour being painful.
I live in lovely Norwich, home of Alan partridge, Delia Smith and Stephen fry!

Ok - me

Dd born 6th October via planned c-section. Non medical reason for section; have heard so many horror stories about natural birth that i opted out! Controversial I know, but it was the right thing for me.

First and last child. Conceived immediately. Tried and wanted to breast feed but now formula fed.

Dd dropped percentiles and considered failure to thrive but now stable. Has a hole in heart and waiting for scan to see how serious / whether she'll need an op. Sounds scary but trying to stay positive as she is actually really well in herself - was just pickrd up at 8 week check.

Live in yorkshire. Factoid - user name is after two female lead characters in a fave film; White christmas. Wish I had a snogging story!

Worked HR for a national bookies