September 2006 Babies - growing in front of our eyes!

[Lysettes]

New thread everyone!

excellent one Bristols!!

Cruise, that's a difficult one - think you tried a dummy. I do remember the Baby Whisperer saying that some babies just don't sleep for very long at a time until a little later. F only just started being able to - he's 13 weeks today. He's definitely not waking up hungry is he? Or is there some noise that wakes him up, like the dustbin men coming round?

We've just been to the zoo - they've got a Thomas train going round, and lots of animals all lit up in the bushes and trees. DS1 had a great time, and even DS2 was looking about and smiling a lot. Bloody cold though! Back home now, and both DSs and DH are watching Big Cook Little Cook singing Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the 'cock' (oh dear!) and dancing a ridiculous dance. DS2 isn't even crying and it's gone 5.30... weird!!

hi

Still having a poo problem bathed ds 2 times today and still have all night to go yet.

cruise, that's a hard one a quite room at home works well at the moment for me. Dont
have any tips for when your out and about though.

can any of your lo's hold their own heads yet ds is still all over the place if so how many weeks were they.`

hello from the poorly family!
Well DS's birthday was a total write off.. he was sick again a couple of times, once in his bed, which has left me with a huge pile of washing and has also affected his sleep again, just when we were getting him to bed ok again, he's been hysterical when i tried to take him for his nap and tonight at bed time. I have had a miserable day today, feeling v. under the weather and just feel so disappointed about DS's birthday, even though I know he's not really that fussed. I guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself as I'm feeling ropey and so tired.
The tractor cake remains untouched.
On a positive note we are going to get our xmas tree tommorow from sherwood forest, which will be fun for ds.
just to add to the dishwasher discussion I have always been very lax about adding salt and rinse aid and it's never made any difference

kseaj - def try different nappies - it is amazing how much thry vary. I have DS in pampers at the mo and bough an enormous pack, but I keep having leakages, so will prob go back to huggies once this pack of nappies is finished.
Re; holing up his head, it is fairly firm, but has been from quite early, he is quite big and chunky and string though. when i lay him on his tum he can push up with his arms and hold his chest off the floor he looks like he's trying to crawl - obviously I know he isn't!!!

kseaj - def try different nappies - it is amazing how much thry vary. I have DS in pampers at the mo and bough an enormous pack, but I keep having leakages, so will prob go back to huggies once this pack of nappies is finished.
Re; holing up his head, it is fairly firm, but has been from quite early, he is quite big and chunky and string though. when i lay him on his tum he can push up with his arms and hold his chest off the floor he looks like he's trying to crawl - obviously I know he isn't!!!

Clairemow - that sounds like a lovely day out - v

Mabel - really hope you all get better very soon and that tractor cake doesn't go to waste - maybe DS1 can have a 'second 2nd' birthday when he's feeling better?

kseaj - we had the poo problem with the sainsbury's own nappies but have now switched to asda's 'comfort' ones and they've been great.

Well, DH and I have been together accross 5 Christmas's now and we've just put up our first tree (I know it's a little early but we're making up for lost time!) - I never realised how fussy we'd both be a bout decorations though - it's almost as stressful as which house to buy! DS1's loving it though he's just wanding around with a big smile saying 'tree' and lights' and 'great!'

Mabel, hope your DS is feeling better now and can enjoy the cake? Such a shame on his birthday.

Liquid, lovely about your tree. We are going to get ours up next weekend I think. Hope our DS1 enjoys it too.

Pretty tired today, we had a busy weekend, all at home but did lots of stuff. See you all next week!

BTW, any news from Pol recently? I don't think she's posted for a while...

hi
we got our tree yesterday at a place called sherwood pines, which is basically part of sherwood forest but has an adventure playground, so ds1 loved it and helped us choose the tree. it is up and decorated - i loved seeing his face! he keeps saying 'lights' and 'tree' as well!
the tractor cake finally got cut yesterday and i have to say it was delicious!

And just to cheer me up a bit more ds2 slept from 7pm til 6am (with dream feed at 11pm)

that's great Mabel. . Not so lucky here. We had to wake him up for late feed, then he woke again screaming at 3.30 - would only settle for a feed, and drank from both sides. Then really wasn't interested at 7.30 this morning. I gave him his first formula mid morning - downed it...

love the little santa hats!

Very pleased to hear you're feeling so much better mabel and the tractor cake didn't go to waste.

I'm finally feelig a bit more human today after 2 relatively long sleeps - saturday night went 11pm-6am with one waking but no feed an settled with dummy, last night the waking took a bit more settling but still managed to do it without feeding and he woke at 6.20am - getting there! The onlly bad part is the lunch nap's really dteriorated even though I can tell he's really tired he just won't sleep for more than 1/2 an hour - oh well... small steps!

Claire... first ever formula? Hope you're ok about it - sounds as though he was though! Hope your nights don't revert back though, it's so much harder when you know they can do it.

hi Liquid, yes first ever formula. I have a bit of guilt - fed DS1 for 6 months. But hey, we need some sanity. I'm going to drop the early afternoon feed and use EBM, and then formula for late night feed and hope that means he'll sleep through every night, not just 4/7!

God I feel like I'm drowing here. I have started to feel quite overwhelmed with parenting two lo's this week. Funny thing is my ma has been here to help so it should have been easier. dd is great - just great, but I feel so guilty at making her take 2nd place at the moment. ds is gorgeous too but still a mystery to me and I feel stressed if he naps to long/doesn't nap enough. If I have to take him to school to collect dd I feel guilty at putting him in car seat again. I feel guily and nervy about everything! I still have the two hour suck-a-thon every night which means that I don't have any evening to myself unless he goes down by around 9pm and then I feel guilty because he is such a good boy and rarely wakes until around 6 or 7am! Mind you, last night he went down at 8pm was awake again at 9:15 , 1:30am and 5:45am! Growth spurt perhaps? Now I feel guilty cos I have to wake him to feed him so that I can go on school run before taking him for his jabs .Then I will feel bad because I will have to bundle I feel like I have no control over my days. I don't know when he will want feeding as it is sometimes every 2hrs, sometimes every 3 hours and sometimes as often as 1.5hrs! I cannot plan anything It seems that you all have these brilliant compliant lo's and I cannot get myself organised at all. The worts thing is that I feel so terrible that I am wasting time worrying instead of enjoying my beautiful, baby boy.

as a footnote, i love him so much, he is such a happy, beautiful boy, i want to do things right...

cruisemum, big cyber hugs to you. We honestly don't all have compliant babies - I feel pretty low today too with being up for an hour at 3.30 this morning after several good nights in a row. I think it's hard when you have the second child, I feel guilty that I can count the number of times I've sat singing to DS2 alone on the fingers of a badly mauled hand, also that I've given DS2 formula 3 months before DS1 had any. I think we all feel guilty about different things and the first 3-6 months are really hard because we also have to cope with being up at night, or being a human dummy, or listening to crying when we're trying to put our firstborns to bed. I also think it's a Monday thing - the comedown after a weekend with DHs/DPs around. Even if they don't do much, it's adult conversation and a helping hand to deal with two children. Please don't feel you are alone. You are so not.

cruisemum1,Hi, I usually lurk on the Oct 06 postnatal thread cos dd was due on 10th Oct, but was born on 16th Sept, Iam glad to know I'm not the only one who feels like I'm not at all in control. dd is 11 weeks old now and I feel I should be more on top of things,
Like you say its difficult when they have no routine to feeding, I think its all so much more difficult as well as being easier in other ways when you have other children as well. dd is my 4th and I feel really stupid when I can't work out why she is unsettled etc,
As long as you don't feel you could have depression I'm sure life will soon get easier and we will be able to enjoy the little ones now they are becoming more interesting, fun little people.

Cruisemum, sending you hugs... Mondays are definitely difficult after having the support of others over the weekend. Having Mum around is a help too but I sometimes feel under more pressure when mine's around to get everything 'right'. She'd never say anything and she'd probably be horrified if she knew I felt like that. My DH gave me a good talking to when I felt very down about getting everything right and he talked some sense. He says that if things work for you and your family then that's as right as you can get it and s*d what anyone else says. There is so much pressure because of all the books/TV programmes and even websites that offer advice.

Like Pistachio said, I really admire all you mums with more than one child!

Wish me luck tonight, ladies. DS had his second jabs today and has been sleeping soundly for well over an hour now. Fingers crossed for a peaceful bedtime. I don't have the heart to wake him as he's probably feeling pretty poorly.

pistachio - nothing to do with being monday, i felt like this on thursday! dh isn'ty even in the country and never helps anyway as he is never in

bristols - my ds had his 2nd set of jabs today too. two needles, two nurses "3, 2, 1" -ouch!!!!!!

Cruisemum - ... feeling guilty here as well; short-tempered with DS1. He's always been so good until these "terrible threes," and with average 5 hours' sleep per night, my nerves are just strained. DH offered to do the early morning tonight, since he's working from home tomorrow, but he just took Fri. and Sat. night of my hands, so I'm not going to take him up on it.

But yay - it's Fudge Week! I make 5 different kinds of fudge every year, for teacher gifts, extra surprise in relatives' packages, book group meeting, etc. I really love making candy. But only do it during Christmas season. So I'm looking forward to this week. (Very festive holiday emoticons!)

bristols, your DH sounds like a sensible bloke! Mine has just told me not to feel guilt about the formula, actually I feel fine about it, seeing how happy F was after downing it...!

Cruise, is there anyone you can go to talk to about how you feel? Are you able to talk to your mum at all? I am always surprised by how supportive my mum is, and you may find that she understands exactly how you feel (don't know if you have any siblings? If so, she's probably been where you are). Maybe a good talk with DH is needed too - would he listen and begin to help out more? BTW, why is he out all the time? Is it work (can't do much about that) or choice?

Chin up cruisemum, it will get better in time Echo Clairemow's sentiments also...I worry that I'm just not giving J any time at all as I feel when we're all together I should be giving firstborn all the attention etc etc. I do get the impression that he's left to his own devices in his chair....& that I don't spend the same time singing / playing with him as I did with DD. Having said all of that he is, in comparasion to DD, a very relaxed & contented little chap....I have noticed that he doesn't like lying on the babygym rather he prefers to be on a rug on the floor or in his chair unlike DD who loved it. Is that usual do you think? I worry that he gets bored just looking around etc?

Clairemow, don't fret about the formula...although I know how you feel!! I fed DD for 4 months before 1st formula...with Jack I gave in at 6 weeks (with much guilt also!)....but it has made my lfe so much easier as the whole expressing etc just wasn't going to plan with a toddler in tow...

Mabel, great nights sleep!!! Wish the same could be said here! We had both of them up last night on more than one occasion....DD ended up in our bed around 5.30 I think & we all fell back to sleep until 7.45 when I heard Jack mumbling through the monitor! DH has just given J his bottle now rather than at 11pm-12....bowever he never seems to react rather well when we swap around like that. I don't know whether it's because he's used to me BF him when he goes down for bed etc but he does seem to kick up more of a fuss & stuggle...has anyone else experienced similar? Also we've tried dream-feeding...it doesn't seem to work in our house quite yet...worked with DD at 3.5 months so maybe we're just a bit early? He is 11 weeks now & 13lb 4oz so thought all things considered he may go with it but alas no!

Re sex...I asked DH last night if we'd ever have sex again...to which he replied if your willing! So, I've booked a bikini wax in for Wed just to make me feel better...not that I plan anything happening in daylight just now!! I'm starting to feel rather guilty about my complete lack of interest...so am willing myself to have a go this week sometime...that's if we actually get to go to bed at the same time...gosh what's it come to? A far cry form the days at Uni when we shagged & shagged....

cruisemum - don't think that everyone has perfect babies - far from it here! I feel like mine is well behaved because DS1 was so truly awful!!! But if Ds2 had been my 1st I'm sure I'd find him hard work, our nights are up and down at the moment, and there is no pattern to daytime naps, he won't go longer than 40 minutes at the most during the day - i tell myself it is early days, and it will sort itself out! just make sure you come on here and rant - it's what we're here for!
Claire - I seem to now have given in to a bottle of formula too over the past week, I origianlly wanted to just use it to top DS up when my milk was low, but I am so desperate now for him to sleep through that I caved in and have been giving him 6oz for his last feed, I had to mix it with ebm at first for him to take it, but he's nowtaking it 'neat'. I do feel incredibly guilty - it is stupid! But i tell myself that if he sleeps through, that will make me happier, therefore a better mummy!
Cori - we have done 'it' once. I feel bad about it, but it is not so much the tiredness, but the lack of time have to do things like shave my legs and sort my bikini line out that makes me feel very unsexy.
Just wondered what everyone is doing about bedding now? DS is in his grobag, but I am still wrapping him in a fleece blanket (not swaddled as such -looser) and then I put another blanket over him, sometimes I go into him and his little hands are freezing!

Mabel, if they are in a Grobag, then they don't need extra bedding...extremeties are always cold (& as such not to worry about, according to the hv), Jack's hands are always cold / freezing but even with a blanket he'd have he's hands out anyway!! Just be careful as they do say not to add any additional covers because of potential overheating. If you are worried about the temp in his room i.e it's too cold etc, try using a fan heater with a thermastat....what does he wear at night? He should be fine with a vest, babygro & bag - longsleeve vest for when it's really cold. Also, are you using a 2.5 tog bag?