September 2014 - 6 months already?!

[holls2000]

new thread!

Kitkat - try the massage when standing in a hot shower, or use a hot compress. It sorted my blocked ducts when I was easing off feeding.

Banana was very popular today!

hydrocortisone is working and has gone down but still going back to the doc. they must hate me.

Cumbrian I'd keep trying wit the food. DD had a terrible cold one week but we powered through and then one day it was just like it clicked with food and she was desperate for any puree or finger foods she could get her chubby little hands on

KitKat wow well done with stopping bf, seems like only yesterday you were really struggling with it and you've overtaken me! I've been switching over 2 months as I had really bad mastitis and blocked ducts a couple of times when DD was younger. All the advice already given for blocked ducts looks great, but just watch out for part of the boob (a quarter is usually how they describe it) feeling like it's got a big bruise on it, as that's the start of the dreaded mastitis! Good luck

holls haha if it makes you feel any better I keep accidentally taking dd to see exactly the same GP (our surgery has about 15 doctors, and they're all great so you usually just see whoever is free) and last time blurted out 'I'm not stalking you' as a joke, and then of course it didn't sound like a joke.

I was really sleep-deprived at the time and looked like I might also have crawled out of a stalking nest hedge just before the appointment. Shame!!!!

Thanks for the recipe Nazly. I blooming love salmon, delicious!

Kitkat - can you see a blister anywhere on your nipple? It might be hard to see so have a good look. I have it on good authority that if you have a blocked duct and a blister, you need to pop the blister otherwise the blockage won't clear. Another tip is have a hot shower, slather your boob with conditioner or shower gel and comb your boob towards the nipple. Hope you're feeling less sore soon!

I unfortunately had a not so great Mother's day yesterday. It's swimming in Sundays and recently I've been dreading the lessons as J screams so badly getting changed after the lesson. Yesterday though she screamed like an absolute banshee before and after the lesson while being changed. It's so stressful and makes me feel embarrassed and exhausted. I went home instead of going to my mum's for dinner and had a bit of a crying meltdown in my bathroom, fueled also by sleep deprivation I think. Anyway I think I might have to wave bye bye to the £100 odd quid I've already paid for the term of lessons and not go anymore as it's making me too miserable. And I feel cruel putting J through something she clearly finds stressful. It's a shame though as she's ok in the pool! Hope everyone else had a nice day yesterday

Oh top I could have written your post four months ago. We started swimming when he was 8 weeks and what you describe is exactly what happened to us every single time ... Aagh... I feel your pain. Mine was the only one screaming so badly too. I continued to the end of semester but didn't subscribe for the next one.

I am going to use centre parcs pool as a test to see if he can now cope with changing or not...

I wish I hadn't started term 2 :( . I thought she was starting to get better but it's gone the opposite way now. I will try again another time and at a free pool session rather than a lesson. Good luck at centre parcs pool :)

Top If the problem is getting dressed, don't get her dressed

My children even now often put on PJ onesies when swimming for ease of getting changed. Then get properly dressed when home.

No one will care if you put baby in a nappy, in a snow suit still damp and go home wrapped in a blanket. Do the getting properly dry and dressed when you are home.

Top I was going to say a similar thing to FATE. What about just checking her in a nappy and a baby dressing gown then one of these: tuppenceandcrumble.com/shop/star_wraps

Also, might be a stupid question but have you tried feeding her straight after swimming? DD absolutely loses her shit if I don't feed her straight after a bath or swimming. Apols if you've already tried both of these things and don't feel bad if you don't ever go back. Sometimes that's just the way it goes

She starts crying as soon as she realises she's in the changing rooms, before I've even taken her out of the car seat. I might try one more time and get her disposable nappy and happy nappy on at home then quickly put her wetsuit on when we get there. I will have to look into getting a baby dressing gown or similar to shove on straight after swimming then. I do feed her to calm her down but the moment I then try getting her dressed she goes mental. Will think about your suggestions anyway, thanks :)

I also go to swimming with swim nappy and happy nappy already on (that's all he wears) and just fleece sleepsuit so it takes only a few seconds to undress. Same for me, already have costume on and minimal layers. I also get myself dried and ready first once he's wrapped up in his towel. I find he'll stay reasonably quiet like that but as soon as I start changing him the crying starts. At least as its literally put the nappy and sleepsuit on and go he has only about a minute of crying. I tried once to feed him straight away and he threw up all over the changing room as he drank pool water so haven't tried it again! I haven't been for a few weeks due to his skin which isn't any bloody better.

Finally given J some food.. well more tastes, but it's a start. At dinner time, we all sit up at the table and J sits in his highchair with us. So for the past 2 evenings I've given him apple and cucumber to suck on and he loves it !

My DP is another one who doesn't bath, rarely feeds or changes (unless he needs to)etc. I think this is mainly because I jump in and do it first - or if my oldest son is about, he likes to do a feed. I get a weekend lie in now and again. When i think about it...we are a bit 1940's role defined...I do cooking, cleaning - DP does manual work around the house, puts bins out, does the garden etc. I work 3 days a week in an office, DP does heavy duty work. I don't get frustrated by our situation, because I just get on with it and don't really think about it. The important thing for me is that he's a good dad who pays J lots of attention, and is also good with my older children. He has good morals and a lovely family. For us, our situation works well. We both pull our weight in different ways and appreciate that - so really, I've been very lucky.

I've put J's name down for nursery two mornings per week. There is one attached to my work and it is very impressive - I took J with me to view it and he really liked it too. It has different sections - babies, 18m - 3 years and pre-school and there is one to one care for the babies and not a playpen in sight. My mum will have him for the other day and two afternoons that he isn't there (I only work 3 days). I just feel it's really important for him to socialise, he's the little Prince of both families - and surrounded by much older children, so I think being with children his own age will be really beneficial.

I'm looking forward to going back to work now - I will miss J like crazy - but now the childcare is sorted out and my mind is at rest in that way, I think that I can start getting back to normality.

because of moving we haven't sorted childcare yet. it is really stressing me out. just want to find a house or agree on a place to live and then I can sort out his nursery place. stressful much!

just been back to gp. rash round his neck unexplained. have double base now to see if that works on his eczema. have 2.5% steroid cream to clear it up. doc lovely but waited an hour to see her. so b then fell asleep an hour too late and has missed a feed.

Thanks Ella. Normally I would have just enjoyed the lie in but had to start getting Jessica etc ready to go to MILs and then my Mum's so didn't have time to do bath etc later. Will definitely give DH clearer instructions next time though!

Thank you for everyone for your advice on blocked duct yesterday. I took your advice and it feels better today - still a bit sore but not as bad. Both my boobs feel pretty engorged still though, but hopefully in another day or two my milk will dry up and I'll feel more comfortable again.

Less positively last night I tripped over one of Jessica's many hundreds of toys that we have in the lounge whilst I still had Jessica in my arms (I was in the process of taking her upstairs for a nappy change). Thankfully I managed to hold onto her and protect her from hurting herself whilst we fell - in fact she even laughed afterwards as I think she thought it was some sort of 'rough and tumble' game. Unfortunately with my arms around Jessica I couldn't break my own fall and fell pretty awkwardly on my left arm. Nothing serious thankfully but it's quite bruised and bloody sore. That'll teach me to clean up more!

Oh wow kitkat I bet your heart was racing!

Is it taking everyone an age to clear up after baby meal times? I'm doing a mix of spoon feeding and also BLW so I appreciate it will be messy, but there's just so much! I seem to just smear it around rather than actually cleaning it up. My skin in my hands is also taking a beating, I can't get enough hand cream!

I was wondering what people are putting in the floor under baby to make clear up quicker/more hygienic? And also the order of cleaning, I.e. If I wipe baby down he puts his hands back in the table in the mess, if I wipe the table down, baby puts his messy hands onto the table. We just had some tuna/pasta/broccoli/sweet corn carnage at lunch time. Fun!

Oh, kitkat! I bet your heart jumped up into your throat!!! I tripped up the stairs the other day holding DD, but luckily I had one had spare to stop us both really hurting ourselves.

Yes, food is mega messy! I've decided to concentrate on breakfast, still in pjs that can then be stripped off and go straight in the wash bin, and dinner, just before bath time.

*hand spare!

Honey I put plastic mat under his chair. I try to leave the messiest options for before bath time. Because When he is having a go himself with fingerfood, sometimes I find food in his hair, his ears, etc. Etc. You get the picture...
I know what you mean by what first what next, I normally wipe the table very very quickly, then I get another wipe, hold both his hands with one hand, wipe his face and both hands quickly, and take him out of the chair. Then I wipe the chair properly.
Sometimes wipe just does not work, I take him directly to basin and wash his hands and face and towel dry them. He quite likes that.

I find a damp face cloth much easier/quicker for cleaning baby rather than dozens of wipes.

I'd keep a stash of several in the kitchen so that as soon as a meal is finished you grab a clean one, run under warm water. Swish round face to get the worse off, then hands, then tray. Then rinse the facecloth and do a more thorough face/head/hand clean. Same cloth to clean highchair tray (just because that's easiest) and chuck it into the wash.

Remove baby from highchair and disinfect tray and chair. Our dog sorts anything on the floor.

If spoon feeding, I tend to use the spoon to clear around the mouth/chin/cheeks with every spoonful. The mess is more contained then and doesn't spread.

Also three spoons and constant swapping. Baby is always grabbing for 'my' spoon, so one spoon in each hand. As one spoon is dropped in order to grab for my spoon, then I give baby my spoon and pick up the one baby dropped. This keeps hands busy, so less smearing.

Ella - you can remove the straps (I think it requires a screwdriver and much faffing) and bleach them. But they are likely to have a filthy tinge to them for a long time to come, so I'd question if it would be worth it.

All the creases in the seat cover get caked in food too, and the stitching gets grimy- it isn't pleasant. Again you can remove the cover and bleach the creases, but it requires a screwdriver and is a massive hassle.

I really, really wish I'd bought the IKEA highchair in the first place - so much easier to clean! Given that I have two highchairs already stashed from previous children (both a nightmare to keep clean) I can't justify buying a third.

We've had two relatively good nights in a row with DD. Now that she is no longer swaddled she seems far more able to self settle, so we are not having to go to her in between feeds. Night before last she fed at 10, 2 and 4, last night it was 9, 1 and 3. A massive improvement! Before we could be up with her a good ten times a night between feeding and settling her.

But there is a not so good side... I'm finding it really difficult to get back off to sleep after the 1/2 am feed, and from 4 DD will only sleep on me. This means that from about 1am I'm only getting about another hour of broken sleep.

I'm so tempted to just take her into our bed at 4 as she's sleeping beautifully on me now and will do until she wakes at 6. So I'm stuck sat in the nursing chair, which is comfy, but I can't sleep it in with her asleep on me. I just don't know if taking her into our bed would mess up her sleeping in her own cot. Plus I know that DH wouldn't sleep so well with her in with us. Given that he takes care of her for the first half of the night (until about 12-2) so I can get some sleep, I really feel that he should be able to get some good quality sleep in the second half, before having to get up to go to work.

I've always had issues with sleep and insomnia. It just seems so unfair that DD is finally starting to sleep better, but I'm not getting anymore sleep

She also seems to have decided that she wants to sleep less during the day. She was having 2.5-3 hours across 3-4 naps, but today she refused to have a third nap and didn't even manage two hours. Still, she went to bed beautifully as she was so shattered, so as long as she doesn't get herself into such a state of over tiredness that she can't sleep, I'm just going to go with it.

At least being up from 4 every morning gives me some MN time

Glad your nights are getting better Team. I can sympathise with the insomnia. After many nights with Jessica of being up near constantly from about 2am I now find it really difficult to get back to sleep if woken after 2am. I think my body clock has adjusted and now thinks that 2am is 'get up time'. I guess it'll get better for both of us in time though as our body clocks adjust.

Ugh, just as nights with Jessica are getting better, Jessica starts getting up earlier and earlier. Last night she went to sleep just before 8pm, woke for a feed a 10.30pm then slept all the way until 4.15am (wahoo!), but did self-settle herself back to sleep for a bit, but was then up at bloody 5am for a feed and refused to go back to sleep. Me and DH tried for over an hour - we tried leaving her to cry, cuddling her, shhhing her etc. At 6.30am I gave up. We spent fifty bloody quid at the weekend on blackout blinds and it made no difference. I had been trying to keep her in bed until 7am on advice of a 'sleep expert' I found on google but it's just impossible to leave her crying for 2 hours. And all that happens is none of us end up getting any sleep. Still, at least there is still an improvement with Jessica at nights, so that's good.

Going swimming with Jessica for the first time this morning. Wish us luck! Sounds like you have all had mixed experiences with it! x