August 2015 - Jaffa cake wars and many Mugabe greetings to you!

[mzzzf]

New thread ladies - praying for a decent sleep tonight!!

We all survived! Dh and ds had a lovely time by the sound of it. He drank 3oz with no problems. My hair looks a lot better and I didn't run home from the hairdressers like a crazy lady.
We've had a lovely afternoon out in a local town. A nice wander around the shops and an amazing chocolate and pistachio cheesecake in a nice eatery. I also managed a couple of good breast feeds there by using a rolled up blanket as a pillow - thank you tindel.
And best of all, I got these amazing frugi leggings for ds! They are super cute.

cor, we can't get ds down without him being fed or rocked to sleep first. I'm trying not to worry about it. He's so little, I keep telling myself that there is plenty of time to learn to self soothe.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Sorry for those of you who'se friends are bring crap. We moved back to my home town before ds arrived and I'm really appreciating having old friends around. Maybe joining some baby clubs would help to meet new people in similar circumstances.

As for my back story, it's a bit boring, but - I'm 35. Ds is outer first and probably only. Dh and I have been together for 14 years and weren't really sure if we wanted kids until last year. Now we both agree it's the best thing we've done. We live on the beautiful north wales cost and when I'm not on mat leave I work as a child therapist for the nhs.
Oh, and ds was born 6 days late on 27/08 by emcs after a failed induction thanks to my waters going but no contractions starting. I hated being pregnant thanks to horrible hyperemesis.

What's everyone up to tonight? We're going to try to watch a film and we have some sweet potato fries from Iceland to try. Rock and roll

Whoops! These are the leggings.

My back story is that I'm 34 and been with DH for almost 12 years, married last year. DS is our first baby - it took us a while to decide to try for him to many reasons, not least me trying to get my Crohn's disease under control. I've had to come off my medication in order to bf, so hopefully will stay stable for the time being.

My pregnancy was relatively easy until my blood pressure shot up around 30 weeks and I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and had an emcs at 35 weeks!

We live in Berkshire (DH is a local, I'm originally from Essex) and I worked in London for a national charity. Not sure what I will do for work after mat leave, probably something closer to home.

Planning a quiet night in tonight and the most I might do is some baking.

A quiet day here! I've really made the most of the weekend and DH being here. IE a 2hr nap with earplugs! We went to our local for a quick drink this evening which was nice, fingers crossed for a good night as we're trying a new routine!

Fatty - sorry to hear that about your mates. Pregnancy does funny things to relationships ey?! My supposed best friend and bridesmaid still hasn't bothered to meet Molly and she's 9 weeks today. The ridiculous thing is she lives less than 20mins away which by London standards is effectively next door! I've certainly learnt who my friends are since I got pregnant and was made redundant last year! Long live MN!
Had no idea about your SPD and big ol'baby, you're a bit of a legend aren't you!

Frolic - Woohoo! You sound like you've had a lovely day, hope you're feeling glamorous with the new hair!!! Loving the tights they're absolutely gorge!

Tindel - my friend who is pregnant has crohns, she's been having a tough old time with things so it's lovely to hear you're doing well! What part of essex do you hail from?

My back story is booooring! Met DH 8 years ago and got married in April 2014. I was made redundant last December from a job I adored (had also been there 8 years) which messed me up a bit during the early stages
of pregnancy and I didn't manage to find another position ( probably didn't try hard enough lol). Molly is our first DC, she was born on her due date (DH birthday) at 8lb 15oz. Err what else, originally from Essex and now live in South East London.

X

Glamourous might be pushing it a bit fanby! I'm sat here in my trackies with one boob hanging out, a sick covered shoulder and masses of biscuit crumbs down my top - but ds is asleep so all is well in the world.

What is the new routine you're trying?

A Mugabe good evening to one and all!

Right, loads to catch up on as ever, if I miss anything or x-post, apologies!

cor I rock/feed/sing grumpy2 to sleep. Whatever works for her that day tbh. I don't think there is any issue with it at this stage. The advice about putting them down awake etc I think only becomes relevant for older babies. Plus I'm a great believer in the whole 4th trimester theory that babies need to be held close until at least 3 months. Also, and this may not apply to you so if not please disregard, I find my memory of how grumpy1 was is not that accurate. There have been several occasions throughout pregnancy and since the birth where I have said to DH "am sure x did/did not happen last time" and he's been adamant of the opposite. So, I guess what I'm saying is don't beat yourself up comparing DCs.

frolic glad you had a good time at the hairdressers. I had mine done last Saturday and it makes such a difference to how I feel . Plus you definitely know that DS and DH can fly solo, so you can plan future outings!

Had our flu jabs today and poor grumpy1 had her first real taste of how having a younger sister can ruin your life when she had to have the grown up needle injection rather than the nasal spray. The spray is live and grumpy2's immune statement wouldn't be strong enough to cope with it . Much sadness...

Our back story is fairly straightforward. Had DD1 at 31, easy conception/pregnancy although she was born by elcs due to breech. Started ttc again when she was 18 months but nothing happened. Two mc and almost three years later we finally had DD2 on the 28th August. VBAC delivery but heavily monitored due to previous c-section and the fact I had chicken pox at 26 weeks preggers. Family defo complete now, I had always wanted 3 but after the section, the mc's and finally the pox DH and I are totally over pregnancy . We moved to the North West from our native London two years ago and I was a PM for a national charity.

Haha! That sounds very glam ;)! Did I share with you how I walked around kings hospital with my bra and boob showing out of my breastfeeding top on Friday? Didn't realise I hadn't put the underneath layer down - ah well!

So the new routine is, bath at 7 (this was slightly delayed as took me a while to finish my wine at the pub, priorities etc), then almond oil massage, pjs and into gro bag, then she's taken into our bedroom with dim lighting for a feed then straight into her 'box' (her pram bassinet - only thing she'll sleep in), where she can have a story or two. Tonight she was out like a light but we've decided to stick with this, if she cries we'll go in a shush her etc without taking her out, or if she's really going for it she can have her emergency dummy. It's still obviously in it's early stages! Tonight it seems a-ok, then i'll do a dream feed when we go to bed…

Honestly it's so weird, i've just had dinner and we're now watching Homeland from last week, feel like a limb is missing as she's not in the lounge with us! x

fanby I've been quite lucky with my Crohn's - I haven't really had any symptoms since I found out I was pregnant, so hoping it continues and I finally get deemed as in remission. I'm from the Brentwood area, but have never watched TOWIE (!), whereabouts are you from?

Thanks for the support guys. Ds is 9 and a half weeks so according to wonder weeks it's not a leap. But he was 13 days late officially, 7 days late by my reckoning so I'm not quite sure when to count from. Today's been better but we're on 3Rd attempt to put him down and I've let him fall asleep in my arms so will be trying the Ninja transfer manoeuvre in a bit.

Cor, I wouldn't worry about self settling just yet, our babes our too young for that yet. Sometimes if I put ds down nearly asleep he'll drift off but it usually involves some combination of cuddles, feeding, dummy, and even then doesn't always work.

Phwoar a two hour nap with earplugs fanby! That sounds like the good stuff! I had 20 mins earlier while DH and mil went out to get pizza. Which is still sitting downstairs getting cold...

Good to see a few native / adopted Essex ladies here! My backstory... Grew up in Essex, now living way out West, married DH in 2012, we had a couple of early miscarriages before ds. Birth was nothing like the natural water birth I'd imagined... Induction, epidural, forceps and venture, but was actually ok and we recovered well.

Wishing the gods of sleep are with you all tonight

Oh Tindel, that's excellent news! Fingers crossed for the remission! It's such a nasty thing Crohns, I really do feel for both of my friends when they have their flair ups.
Ha, I think i'm the only person in the world that still watches TOWIE , I've been to Brentwood once, just to drop my sister off at a friends house many many moons ago. I'm from Leigh on Sea, all my family still live there, must admit never thought London was that far but since having Molly I do wish my mum was a bit more on my doorstep! x

I still live in my home town oop north. My mum lives less than an hours walk away (it would be much quicker but I'm still walking at snails pace!) I love my mummy. She came and looked after me when I couldn't move. She took care of my DCs, did my housework, cooked. She's pretty amazing. She was round all the time in the first couple of weeks while I got back on my feet too. And told me off if I was trying to do too much.

Just been watching Dr who with DS1. He wants to be a time lord. now he's going to bed and I'm going to colour in for a bit.

Oh Effin! Least pizza is one of the delicious foods that tastes just as good cold! ;). Sometimes even 20mins is enough to give the strength to carry on, but I do hope he gives into the sleep tonight and you can get some proper rest!!
Your labour sounds rather epic, glad the recovery was good! I too wanted a water birth but it was either vaginal or general anaesthetic c-section for my options as i have a blood disorder - things are never how we plan ey?! A good starter from what rearing these babies is like i guess!
Where in Essex did you grow up? x

Fatty - your mum sounds lovely!

I could totally do with some colouring in right now - i bought DH a book recently to help de-stress - might have to steal it! x

Argh just wrote a massive post and lost it... Hate it when that happens!

Sounds like your routine is going great Fanby. We're on night 2 of a bath/book/boob/bed routine. My hope is to get DS going down around the same time each night then work on not having to feed him to sleep.

Well done on your morning out Frolic - love the leggings as well. I bought DS some ace long johns from Jojo Maman last week. They have a bus on the bum. Have posted a pic but not sure how much you can see them but they are lush.

High five to the Essex crew, I live in east London and sometimes work in Essex - went to Brentwood recently and was really surprised by the towie effect. Popped for a coffee and people were queuing to have their pic taken with the guy behind the counter... Turns out he's one of the stars. I've not watched it since the Mark Wright days so had no idea.

Your mum sounds lovely Fatty, I'm really close to my mum too and having DS has just given me a whole new appreciation for her.

My back story is that I'm 32, work in the media, live in east London with OH who I've been with for almost 5 years. We're pretty sure we only want one child and were lucky enough to fall pregnant v quickly last year - despite me thinking it would take ages coz I'm in my 30s (I should know better than to listen to scare stories in the news ) I had an uneventful pregnancy but DS refused to budge so I was induced in the end. Epidural failed - the less said about that the better - and he arrived on August 7th weighing 6'13 and looking like a weird old man! He's now 10 weeks and totally gorgeous, and I'm finding parenthood a completely bonkers rollercoaster. Thank goodness for you guys, this thread keeps me sane through the madness of it all!

Loving all the back story posts and getting to know you all :)

DD is being a real fuss pot tonight and is waking if she's not being rocked. Really hope we're not in for a bad night!

How nice to read all these back stories although sorry to hear about this miscarriages Slow. My sister had 2 miscarriages as well. Very sad.

Our back story is that DH and I met 5 years ago on an online dating site! Been married a year (exactly, is our wedding anniversary on Monday) We live in London but are both Northerners and dread the day DS comes home saying 'innit' ?? DS (Aidan) is our first baby. Pregnancy was very vomit-ey. For the whole bloody nine months. DS was born on 12th August, 13 days late. Was an emergency c section after failed induction combined with suspected preeclampsia and DS heartbeat doing odd stuff. Also not the lovely water birth I'd planned - the birth plan and mood music play list were all for nothing. He weighed a dainty 9 lbs 8.

DS is now 9 weeks old and enjoys feeding, sucking his dummy, feeding, fighting sleep, feeding and currently enjoying a huge scream on his daddy's lap having just screamed on mine for ages. The witching hour lasts about 3 currently.

Fatty we watched Dr who too - my nephew is called Odin so made me smile lots. Or the bits of it I could hear over the crying did ??

It was all going so well, she slept from 8:30-2.30 and she's just woken up and been sick on me, lovely stuff! MUGABE!!

kbro ha ha! We are exactly the same with DD1's accent (but in reverse). We managed to keep her sounding fairly 'London' when we first came to the North but she's just started school and we are swiftly losing the battle! The look on DHs face when she started calling lunch 'dinner' the other day was priceless . Sorry to hear about your sister. It's amazing how many couples are affected, it's just not one of those things that is talked about (which of course makes it worse all round).

Also enjoying reading everyone's stories. What strikes me is that everyone has had a bumpy ride at some point, either in conception, during pregnancy or by failing to get the delivery they had planned. So hurray and to all of us. We have earnt it .

fanby I feel you. Our was less sick, more wee super fountain - ALL CHANGE! Also dh and u got married in April '14 too!!

I'll give s mini bio tomorrow as I'm left thumb typing whilst dd snoozed on my right.
Day out with friends was lovely! I bloody miss having them nearby. Female friends are an actual lifeline, over the years people come and go but these 4 ladies are here for the duration! I'm sorry for those with crap mates in RL - there is nothing my disappointing than 'sisters' not being theft so deffo HURRAH for you guys! Frolic fancy and dozy it's been all the way from TTC boards I think?!

Thus place is like our virtual village hall that runs its mums and babies group 24:7, with swearing, food chat, rants and random African leaders too!

DH is snoring soundly next to me as I sssh DD to sleep. I would call him a wanker but he was awesome flying solo yesterday, so I'll just call him a knob instead

I just had NEARLY FOUR HOURS SLEEP!!! Oh god, I feel so much better. :)
Was my OHs birthday this week, so we were out at the pub yesterday with friends. Managed to keep DS from falling asleep until we left to walk there and he fell asleep in the pram and gave us three solid hours of socialising without me having to rush off to change him or whip out a boob. Had to change him on the floor in the loo eventually, mind.
Anyone else noticing a routine starting to emerge with their babies? Just this week I've started to notice a fairly predictable rhythm for when DS is likely to sleep and when he's usually cheerfully awake. If I could just get the sleep to happen predictably at night....
Loving all the back stories. Mine's pretty straightforward. I'm 38 (37 when DS was born) been with my OH around 6 years. II was born in Canada, then lived in Scotland for 12 years, now live on the south coast of England. L We started TTC last summer and got pregnant first try, but I sadly miscarried the pregnancy. We got pregnant again one cycle later with Fergus. Had a pretty straightforward pregnancy after a really nasty bleeding scare at the start, no morning sickness and was active right until the end. During the pregnancy we bought a house, and completed on my due date and moved two days later. DS was born 10 days late, giving me time to unpack the essentials. I made an attempt at the lovely home birth I planned, but it didn't work out. Ended up with an infection in my amniotic fluid, 53 hours of labour with him back to back and trying to come chin first, failed induction, and a cat 1 emergency c section when his heart rate dropped, during which the epidural partially failed. And an allergic reaction to the tape that held the epidural that made my whole back peel like a chemical burn. I've been saying ever since that I don't need birth control because I just think of my labour and am therefore never having sex again.
frolic LOVE the leggings. There are some great ones on Amazon and eBay with faces on the bum - we have some tiny trousers with an orange cat face.

Siani I had the same with the plaster on my stomach. It blistered all over and was honestly more painful than the scar. I know it sounds odd but that more than anything puts me off another c section.

I would say we are seeing a vague pattern / routine with feeding and with sleeping at night but day time napping still has no pattern or routine. Am pleased the feeding is settling a bit as that's the thing I stress about (and by stress I mean completely obsess! )

Siani that's fab! Who'd have thought we'd be celebrating nearly 4 hours? But what a difference it makes. What's your emerging routine? We still don't really have one, except ds is likely to be sleepy between 1 and 2 hours after waking up, and naps for 40 mins(when he doesn't fight it, which is often) , sometimes longer in the sling. We've started a bedtime routine from 6.45/7 pm with the aim of him being asleep by 8, which sometimes works, though I didn't get my pizza til 9.30 last night.

Sorry for those of you with crap 'friends'. I'm really lucky that two of my good friends live close by and also have small children. But they're both on their second so while they often have great advice sometimes they don't remember the madness of the first time! Also we have quite different parenting approaches, my personality doesn't really gel with the strict schedule of a gina approach.

Fanby I grew up in Harlow innit.

Morning everyone.

We had a horrible evening/night/early morning here :( just so much screaming and sick. I am so, so tired now. Thank god it's a Sunday, cos if dh wasn't here, I'm not sure how I would cope!

We were going to pop out today but have decided not to now. We'll probably just go for a walk after lunch.

Wow! Sorry I had a mega busy day yesterday and I've missed loads of posts! Just about to go out to the in laws for Sunday dinner so haven't got time to catch up just yet but see we're sharing back stories so I'll add mine quickly!

I'm 27- 28 on bonfire night! Been with DH 11 years and married for 2. I'm from the northwest- a town no one will have heard of between Manchester and Liverpool! We decided to have a baby before I focus on moving careers (I've been doing an OU degree in psychology for the last 4 years that I completed just before DS arrived in June and eventually want to do clinical psychology but it's soooo competitive!). I came off the pill last January to

Agh posted too soon!!

.....ttc and we fell pregnant in December just as we were about to start testing to see what was going on as my cycles had been all over the place! I had been taking prego tests whenever I wanted a drink just in case as didn't know when cycles were and when I took one before my works Xmas do in December it was positive much to my absolute shock! I did it on the Friday and it was very faint and I couldn't quite believe it so carried on testing all weekend and only told DH on the Sunday once a clear blue digi made me finally believe it!

Pregnancy- threw up from 6 weeks till 21 weeks and had a major aversion to cheese until 32 weeks when it finally passed thank god! Went skiing at 9 weeks so only told people when we got back at 10 weeks so no one would worry! Towards to end felt like my fanjo was falling out and there couldn't possibly be any room left in there for DH- seems I was right and he made an appearance in a massive rush at 37+4- I hadn't even finished work!! Contractions started at 0630 and he was here at 14:09! I didn't really believe I was in labour until around 1230 as it was just like period pains and a bit of pain in my back but no where near as bad as I had heard it would be- I put this down to pregnancy yoga that I did throughout and hypnobirthing book and cd I'd had throughout. Arrived at hospital only 15 minutes prior to DS arriving as a result! Wheeled me in on a wheelchair as I shouted 'my bums going to explode' stood up from the chair to get on bed and waters went everywhere! About 3 mouthfuls of gas and air and the same pushes and he was here! 2nd degree tear as he tried to come out with his hand on his face! Stitches were a million times worse than labor and I had gas and air for that and 3 lots of numbing injection but was still horrific! I cried and actually had a panic attack at one point pretty much! So that's my back story! I'll catch up on the thread and post again later, I'd best go get DS ready for th in laws!