August 2015 - Let the Sleepless Nights Commence

[nolongerwaitingfornumber2]

My DC2 was born on 5th August and I'm up in the wee hours feeding away. Anyone else with their August babies care to join me?

I still can't believe he's here and in my arms!

Aaaaawwwwhhhhh fatty & fanby your babies are just gorgeous

I just visited my friend this morning - her DD is 3 weeks and looks so tiny compared to mine who is 8weeks tomorrow - the newborness disappears so quickly. It was lovely to catch up - weather so nice we sat out in garden and had cake. She is very lucky - her mum has been staying with her and her husband has added holidays onto his paternity leave - so much help. I am very envious (in a nice way!) when people have so much support - unfortunately I have no contact with my family and DH self-employed so works constantly - would be nice to have help sometimes. Sorry, sound really sorry for myself now

fanby mean train office person. We went to toddler gym classes the other day and the lift was broken. Lovely man at sports centre carried pram upstairs and then asked if toddler would like carried too - he didn't offer to carry me which was a shame as very nice!! There are some good people out there.

Oh my goodness you ladies are so brilliant for getting out and about. I'm clearly a miserable hermit type!! But if I had mates nearby I probably would go and see them, so maybe not! However, I do admire you all for getting yourselves out there. I need to plan DD's and my trips out with precision due to her feeds and reflux and I've not yet managed a long dog walk with her and the doggies... Makes me think I should be doing more out and about!
DH is running in the great Scottish run at the weekend so I need to manoeuvre the pram in the crowded city to meet him - hopefully there are some helpful people around for steps etc!

A big part of it is feeling bad for other people if dd has a good old scream and I ruin their lunch etc with a crying child. Silly I know but it definitely plays on my mind

mzzzf for a lot of people it wouldn't bother them, as lots of people have been in your position. II never mind a child screaming and crying (as long as parents are trying to deal with them, but I understand sometimes it's just not possible) what I don't like is people completely ignoring tiny babies and leaving them screaming for an hour and a half (yes I'm looking at you lady in subway, I was only there so long because DD was taking her time eating! You were just gossiping with your friend while your poor baby cried)

Fatty Nathan is gorgeous! Hope he recovers quickly.

I know what you mean about worrying about a screaming baby MzzzF but honestly I think Fatty is spot on - no one minds if you're clearly trying to console them. Also, their cries are much louder to you than anyone else. Now I'm over my BF and crying baby fears I get out and about every day and it makes a big difference for my mood. Start small with a walk round the block if you're nervous but you'll find your confidence builds really quickly.

for you Love, it must be tough for you with so little help. We are always here though if there's anything we can do

I'm another one who struggles with expressing. I've had a tough few days so am meeting some friends for pizza this evening and wanted to leave OH with some expressed milk as well as formula. I managed about 85ml - my best ever but that was two 20 minute sessions! It definitely sped up when I was looking at DS who probably thought his mother was going mad manically staring at him! Apparently it's all about hormones so even looking at pictures of your LOs might help with the speed.

I've borrowed a friends sleepyhead for the weekend Frolic, so far I'm having no success (tried to put DS down in it when napping but he soon woke up and had to be resettled on me) but I am going to persevere!

Hope everyone has a good evening, I know this sounds awful but I'm really looking forward to having a couple of hours off. I love DS so much but I've found being a mum a bit relentless this week. Argh, that looks so awful written down. Hope you all understand what I mean.

clstow we all need time off from being mum sometimes. It's nice to be yourself again, rather than the relentless constant that is mummy.
Pizza sounds good.

Clstow am counting the minutes till DH takes DS out this weekend and I can go off on my own for a few hours. So yes. Of course know exactly what you mean. We are also going to see family next week and have booked in a few hours babysitting with my mum so DH and I can have lunch out just the 2 of us. Really looking forward to that too. Enjoy your pizza!!!

Fatty Nathan is super cute!! Thanks for the warning about the temp. I didn't know that so good to be warned. Ours our week after next. Gulp.

We have had such a lazy day today. Was supposed to go to baby group but just couldn't be bothered. So instead DS and I have be chilling on the sofa!! Although we did venture out for a quick trip to the shop to enjoy some of the sunshine.

Ladies who Ff - does anyone know why there's a shortage of cow and gate ready made formula litre bottles at the moment? Can't find them Anywhere!!

Not a clue I have a couple of bottles stage 1 but they are the small ones. I need to give them away as DS is on hungry formula.
I would post them to you if you wanted but I've no money I have the whole of 10p in my bank at the minute.

Aww thanks for the thought! I can still get the little ones so have stocked up on those but nowhere is selling the litre ones for some reason!

Cow and gate and aptamil are made by the same company (and my best mate runs the team!). Aptamil has more omegas in, hence costly a touch more, but really it's the same base formula so maybe give that for now?

It must be hard without much help loves. I hope you get some down time of dh is around at the weekends.

mzzf, I'm not doing much out and about stuff apart from dog walks or visiting friends and family. I also worry about a screaming baby spoiling things for people. Ds is great at sleeping in the pram and the weather has been so good that frolicdog is getting lucky with walks at the moment.
I am going to go to baby massage but it keeps getting cancelled. We don't have much else by way of baby clubs around here.

The subway lady sounds awful fatty.

I hope you enjoy your evening clstow and that ds takes his bottle. I totally understand the need for space. I was only posting yesterday about feeling claustrophobic sometimes because ds is on me so much. All perfectly normal and understandable feelings. It's a huge change to go from
Being just us to mum us.
Good luck with the sleepyhead, I really hope it helps.

Sofa days are the best kbro. We all need them now and again. I'm planning a few next week as we have a busy weekend ahead.

I hope everyone has had a good day. We've had a little triumph in that ds is getting on really well with the dummy. He's been sucking it for short periods for the past week or so, but he seemed to be concentrating so much on sucking that it was keeping him awake! His little eyes were like saucers. He's got the hang of it properly tonight and is currently fast asleep sucking away. It seems to have helped with his usual evening fussing. Fingers crossed it's not just a one off.

Aww how adorable! He looks like he's holding it in place

Those chubby hands are lovely!!

We are all lucky to have good looking babies - rather than mini winston churchills

I've done dd all on my own last night, all day and this evening too. DH only recently got home, I'm slightly angry with him at the mo but can't really put my finger on it. It's not for him going out at all but more his everyday behaviour. He's a grumpy sod normally and I usually just let it bounce off me but I can't at the mo. He's acting all hard done by because it's intense at work and he's doing training at the moment and I know I don't have the monopoly on fatigue or hard work right now but ffs!! I don't think anyone quite tells you the effect babies have on your relationship. We're so used to just being there for each other that DD is a bit of a change, for both of us! Also I think it's not helped that he hasn't taken pat leave yet but he is next week so hopefully he'll 'get it' then. Ooorrff sorry for the whinge, he's a great DH but we're just rubbing each other the wrong way - likely lack of skeep isn't helping!!!

Restful nights all round folks xx

Hi all. I only ever seem to get chance to post during this bedtime feed and the thread has been so busy today I can't keep up with the personals so apologies ladies for missing people.

Welcome back Fanby and what a gorgeous girl you have.

Fatty your DS is smashing too! We have jabs tomorrow and been told to take Calpol to give there and then because of the meningitis vaccine. DS has been really unsettled this evening and fussing on the boob so I'm hoping he isn't poorly otherwise the jabs might really knock him for six.

Nothing wrong with a sofa day Kbro. I love them usually but for some reason at the moment I can't enjoy just being at home and I have to get out every day. Especially on the days when I have both kids. I was home for most of today and found myself feeling really teary. I was feeling guilty about sending DD to nursery and sad that DS is nearly two months old and it's flying by. We are also thinking of selling up to get a better quality of life and I'm feeling a bit torn as I love our home and we bought it for our family but we didn't realise how time consuming it would be and now we know how precious that time is for us to spend as a family and not doing chores. Being a hormonal mess is prob not the best time to make life changing decisions though! Is anyone else feeling really emotional still too?

Great news with the dummy Frolic. We haven't tried one and DS seems to have started sucking his knuckle!

Aww just seen your pic. He's lovely!

Mzzzf, totally identify with your post re. DH. Mine is similar at the moment with worm being busy and then he'll make "jokes" about me just eating cake and having a year off. I genuinely don't think they get it. He got up on Saturday so I could have a lie in and all he did was plonk DD in front of the TV and bounce DS in his chair while he played on his phone. They were still in pyjamas when I got up! I felt like I still had to do all the jobs but had less time to do them in due to my "rest"!

*worm should be him! He might rub me up the wrong way but he isn't a worm!!

Here some of you are!! Been wondering where everyone went from August antenatal club- went quiet once the last baby arrived! Hello to everyone else as well! As I'm late to the party I've got 25 pages of reding to catch up with so I'll just say hi for now xxx

Yep fatty I too am 14.5 stone of chub post baby. It's my own fault though. I only have to look at a cake and I put on weight and throughout pregnancy all I did was eat.
Your ds is gorgeous. Those lips!!

love it must be so hard not having anyone around to help out. My mum comes round every morning about 9am to help me out. I don't know what I'd do without her. This morning though I wanted to prove to myself I could do stuff myself so I got myself and dd up dressed and showered before my mum arrived. Felt like wonder woman lol. Didn't manage to dry my hair before dd wanted feeding but never mind. I also had a more positive outlook on the dieting today and even went shopping and prepared tea early because I was going to weightwatcher meeting at 6pm so knew I wouldn't want to cook afterwards. I had to half cook it, then feed dd, then cook the rest but again I felt really proud of myself. It all went down hill after that though. Went to the meeting. Dd woke up. Started crying. Tried to feed her but she was doing her annoying thing of fighting it and screaming even more so my friend walked her around in her pram so I could listen to the talk. It didn't really work though so she was crying in the meeting and on way home. So when I got home I obviously wanted to feed her. I asked dp to reheat tea so I could feed her. He got a major strop on and was really angry which he isn't very often but this was really uncalled for. His argument was that he'd been grafting at work all day and still had to cook tea when he got home! I was fuming. I was so pleased with myself that if doubt the time to shop, chop vegetables up and cook tea, I couldn't believe that he classed that as nothing and that him reheating it was cooking! ! I'm so upset about it. He still hasn't apologised.

Men really do think that we have it easy. Everytime I say it's hard his argument back is well he'll take the maternity leave and I can go back to work. Which is a shit argument. I've never been so tired before even when I thought I was tired from working so he can bog off thinking I have it easy. On my form yesterday I put that I was 6ft 5 so I'm clearly in no frame of mind to be working. I'm jist an average 5ft5. Luckily the woman looked at me and wrote down 5ft5 haha.

He did say that it was because he wanted to hold his daughter after a long day at work which I understand but he hadn't just heard her screaming for ages knowing she was hungry so I didn't want to put off feeding her any longer.

Anyway enough of a boring rant about stupid men. Just needed to get that off my chest!!

So I really need to get this baby to stop doing this angry crying frustrated feeding thing she's started to adopt. Even last night in bed she was happily feeding away when suddenly she pulled off and screamed like I'd just hurt her. It was horrible. Should I get in touch with a breastfeeding expert? I don't really know what they can suggest. Part of me feels like I'm being cruel to my dd by making her breastfeed especially when she quite happily takes a bottle and never screams about that. She's supposed to prefer my milk isn't she?! I feel like she might start resenting me if she carries on getting so worked up about it.

Can't believe it's jab time for some of you already. Mine are on Tuesday. Must remember to get some calpol in for her. The men vac seems to be affecting them all it seems but it's better than having it. Will give her some before the injection so it has chance to work.

lily welcome over to this side. I thought u knew we had decamped over here lol. Glad u found us though. We're quite a chatty lot so good luck catching up heehee.

And here's a pic of piper when she isn't having one of her many angry hissy fits just to show she can be happy occasionally.

Oh and frolic love the picnic your little boy. Gorgeous. Glad the dummy is working. Thats funny that it made him stay awake to start with heehee. I love the noise dd makes when she sucos on her dummy. It's so cute. But I don't like it in all the time because it hides her cute little face too much.

Pic of not picnic haha

Dozy that screaming fussy thing is really common. Dd1 did it and dd2 has started it too. It doesn't mean she doesn't like the breast. Go to a local bf group if you're worried though. Going to a daytime meeting might be easier. I think the fussiness is worse at night/evening. Your dp is BU. He needs to man up. Reheating dinner is not worth having a tantrum over. You already have one baby!

I'm going to a new book group tonight. In the pub! Really looking forward to it. Have to take dd2 and it's ten miles away so I'm driving so no going on the lash but future lashes are likely! Hurrah! A baby free future night out beckons!

Loving all the photos. Gorgeous babies!

Good morning! We've had quite a good night. Ds slept 12:30 - 5:45 with only a 6 min feed in the middle. He was really settled and went straight back to sleep. I wander if giving him the dummy in the evening stopped his usual fractious time and helped prevent over tiredness. He's woken up very happy and is cooing and smiling at my boob now .

Thanks for all the compliments on the photo. We think he's very cute. I can't get over how little hair he has in it. He had a pretty full head at birth but it's almost all rubbed off! I think dh is secretly pleased that it's receding more than his.

Well done for doing it all on your own yesterday mzzf.
I know exactly how you feel with dh. A good friend advised me to try very hard not to fall into the competitive tiredness trap. I think most couples go through it as part of the big adjustment to parenthood. I Know I keep saying it, but it's important to remember that such a big change.
Hopefully having your dh take paternity leave will help. My dh took 3 weeks off altogether at the beginning and it was great.

Good luck with the jabs today nolonger. I'm glad your dh isn't a worm!

Welcome lily! Sorry if we didn't mention coming over here. I hope you and the little one are doing well.

Piper is absolutely gorgeous dozy. I love her outfit!
Sorry your dh is being difficult. It sounds like he's also finding the adjustment to parenthood tough. His expectations seem quite unrealistic. I would be tempted to leave piper with him for the whole day and see if he manages to put dinner on the table on time. But you might not be ready to leave her. It's so hard for them to understand breastfeeding as well.
I hope you have a better day today on all counts. Lots of and un-mumsnetty hugs to you.

I hope we all have a good day. I'm planning on enjoying the sun before the weather changes next week and doing as little as possible as we have dh's sister and family coming to meet ds for the first time this weekend and it will get quite hectic I'm sure.