1st YEAR FUN Oct 06 babies

[Rumpel]

Over here now?

[Tigerlion]

Thinking about contraception as not too keen in having our third baby in three years! What does anyone know about the implant? I am quite keen on it as it lasts for years but feel a bit funny about the thought of being able to feel it in my arm. Curently on the progestorone-only pill but even with two alarms reminding me to tell it, I have sometimes forgotten to take it. Would be lovely to do a meet-up. I know that someone mentioned the Natural History Museum. I used to have meet ups with DS1 at the Victoria and Albert Museum which has a really nice café and is very close to South Kensington tube. Would anyone be on for a meet-up there?
Still can't get rid of Eloise's cold. Poor thing has been bunged up for almost three weeks.
Is anyone dropping any feeds yet? When are we meant to start doing this? DS1 did not sleep from 7pm-7am until he was 10 months old and I am keen to make Eloise do this earlier.

[Gingeme]

Thats a good idea tigerlion the museum. Never thought of somewhere like that. Think babies drop their own feeds when theyre ready. Edwards dropped one at night so he sleeps from 8pm to 3am. My ds3 didnt do this till he was about 6 months but then went straight on to sleep right through the night. Went to my friends house this afternoon who expects her second baby in April. Ive only known her about a year and dont see her that often and she asked me to be her birthing partner. She said its because Ill know what Im doing!!Aparantly her dh isnt that asssertive. I dont mind. Never been that end of birth if you see what I mean.Well my bigger bays are with us this weekend. Should be a good one.xx

[Emzickle]

wow Gingeme - I'd love to be a birth partner but none of my friends are pregnant!

Does any one know any thing about coming a doulla?

[BENDYB]

hi every1, havent been on 4 a while, hope ur all ok!

Had a lovely xmas wit lo, he got so many presents!!! Was really spoilt!

he has got his 1st jabs next wk, can i ask every1 what should i expect after he's had them? I've heard people saying 2 give them calpol but not sure why?? Will he get a temp or something then? & can they have calpol at this age?

emzickle- gingeme was saying something bout becoming a doula a few wks ago, so she will prob know all bout it!

[Gingeme]

Bendy b my health visitor said this is the only time you can give a baby under 3 months any paracetamol based medicine. Yes they may get a temp and can be very sleepy for a few hours as Edward did and it frightened the life out of me!! None of the other boys did it.
Emzickle I actualy started a thread about becoming a Doula as thats what I want to do once lo is a bit older. Here are a couple of websites I was given. Good [email protected]
www.doula.org.uk
or there is a lady on mumsnet called marslady who is a doula and she gave me her web address which is [email protected]
Funny I was talking about this earlier today with my dh about how its the closest thing I could be to a midwife. I love the thought of giving other adies the benefit of my experiences. I helped my friend last night to finnd her babies heartbeat with the system I had. We didnt quite find it but had a great laugh trying.

[Rumpel]

HI All,
Congrats Emzickle - lovely news.

My LO was 3 months on Wednesday - she weighed in at 12lb 14.5ozs and measures over 2 foot long!She had her 2nd lot of jabs on Wednesday and was feeling grotty and grouchy the following 2 days same as last time. She was very hot Wednesday night so I kept her vest off. It's horrid but a lot better than getting the diseases. God it must be awful for people who have poorly babies - seeing your LO in pain is excrutiating.

Re WEIGHT LOSS-bought fat scales before Xmas - started diet on Wednesday no sugar apart from fruit and 1 cafemocha a day. Need to lose 2.5 to 3 stone! Just need to look at my cottage cheese thighs and bum and back fat to motivate myself - if I wore a strappy top just now I'd look like roast beef!!

Have a wedding in June to aim for and need to get fit to try and conceive again later in the year as am getting older by the minute!

Are you all enjoying being Mummies now? She just fills my heart with joy and makes me laugh. She held her head up today and watched me doing the hoovering! Amazing how quickly they come along isn't it?

XX

[pmoore]

Evening all,

not been on for a few days- just caught up with all the news.

DD's cold has been there for well over a week now- not sure what else I can do? I've got a vapouriser for her room and she has been sleeping in her buggy- upright for a few nights it works but I don't want her getting used to it.

DD has her 2nd lot of injections on Tuesday- hope her cold has gone.

Has anyone that has a baby with routine found that their routines have become erratic?- hope it settles as we were having 9 hours sleep a night.
Weaning- I don't think LO is going to wait until 6 months. Any thoughts.

rumpel- I was waiting for the first MNer to mention another baby- I too am hoping to concieve again around Aug/Sept/Oct as I really want my children 18-20 months apart- myself and my brother get on so well and we are 18 months apart. I just feel bad as DD is only 3 months and it feels wrong to be thinking about it.

Sorry for long post I am rambling. And been very demanding on your thoughts!

[Gingeme]

pmoore,Rumpel more babies!! Lovely jubbly. Go for it youll love having2 so close. Can be pretty hard at times but well worth it. lo was asleep in his chair today and ds3 stopped playing with his cars just to come over and kiss him on the head and say ssshhhh.... I nearly cried. pmoore how old is your lo now? A good indication to start weaning is if lo sleeps either all night or for a large chunk of the night and starts waking for a feed which they have been missing out usualy its time to start. I started mine roughly between 4-6 months old and they all seemed ok. Doesnt neccesarily mean they will slepp through either.re weight loss all that lovely weight that stayed off while I was bf has crept back on but I think hey ho IM a Mum of 4 I think Im allowed a bit of flab for my troubles xx

[pmoore]

gingeme- 4 children- respect to you! I'm just worried about money but at least we'll get 9 months maternity leave!

Samantha is 13 weeks tomorrow- still 4 weeks until she is 17 weeks, recommended earliest. She was drinking 7oz- 4 times a day and 8oz at 7.30pm then sleeping till 6 or 7am. Bit worried about putting it up to 8oz all day but I suppose if she wants it! Little piglet.

I started back to slimming world on Wednesday- only 3 stone to go! Want to lose it before I think about pregnancy again otherwise I dread to think!!

[pmoore]

Booked Lo's christening today- set for 4th March now all I have to do is plan other stuff.

[Gingeme]

pmoore I think the gap helped if you see what I mean? I had my 2 eldest ds's with 18 months apart not by choice ds2 was a breast feeding mistake. They are 11 and 12 now. From my ex partner. My second 2 ds's are 2.3 years apart which was planned wiiith my dh. When the 2 elder ones were living with me they were so helpful with the little ones. They are now when they are here for weekends. Yes 17 weeks sounds about right. Try her with another ounce if you want to first she just might be having a growth spurt. Edward is 9 weeks now and has 6 oz but some days hell go 3 hours between feeds but today he had a 6oz at 4.30 and another one at 6.30 and still had 3 oz at 8 after his bath. Think Ill start weaning him quite early. Hes a little piggy tooBut hes sleeps from 8pm-3am which is brill.

[hertsnessex]

Hi,

Just seen this thread, wanted to say that I'm a doula and trained with nurturing birth - can highly recommend valerie, she was a fab tutor.

Cx

[Gingeme]

Oh wow thanks hertsnessex

[BENDYB]

thanks 4 the advice gingeme!
& congrats on the proposal emzickle, 4got 2 say it on last post!

we have started thinking bout the next baby aswell! Do feel a bit guilty to be thinking bout it already, but i think its lovely for them to be close in age, i was 19 months when my sis was born & 3 & a half when the next 1 was born so it was really nice when we were little,& we're still really close now.

[marthahm]

went to get lo weighed on thursday as still worried about how much she'd put on. was really upset to see she'd dropped from the 75th centile on first 2 weeks to 9th centile since then. have been told to supplement every other feed with formula and feed every 3 hours. she has drunk so much formula since started this and seems to need it every feed. feel awful that i haven't been feeding her enough. also really sad that this may be the end of feeding her myself have been a bit weepy. am still doing all i can to keep milk supply up.
prettycandles how much fenugreek did you recommend taking?
on the plus side, the colic seems to have finished as predicted by swizzler-what a relief. have started having dairy products again and no effect on lo yet. sadly reflux seems to have increased
mil said Hope was worse than dh. this is big admission as she has said many times over that if dh had been child no.1 she would never have had any more. makes me feel much better
meet up in south ken sounds good

[taffy101]

martha don't beat yourself up over the bfing thing and weightloss its not your fault. I remember my dd losing weight and I was horrified - ended up taking her to the clinic every week to be weighed. At the time I was weaning her and the HV told me to put butter in her food!!! Also my mum ended up putting my brother on formula after 10 weeks as her milk wasn't rich enough for him, she would've been feeding every 2 hours if bfing. It must be sad to lose that closeness but needs must I suppose. At least you have managed it for the vital early weeks

LO got first jabs on monday - poor thing. Have got calpol in stock already, DD was inconsolable for the whole day with her first lot but was fine with all others.

ooh er, is 12th night + xmas decs still up, gonna have bad luck all year now

[Mellin]

Martha - sorry to hear things have been so tough for you. My dd went from the 2nd percentile to the 25th and then back to the 2nd again and I worry about her weight alot too. It's so hard with breastfeeding to know how much they are getting and if everything is ok. I never realised how hard it was going to be when I started out. You should be proud that you have bf'd this far and given her such a good start.

Natural History Museum sounds great for a meet-up, just around the corner from me

[Swizzler]

Mathahm: as others have said, you've done brilliantly to have bfd Hope so far. See how things go with the formula if if you end up finishing with the bfing, you have fed her exclusively for 3 months

Not sure what's happening with my milk atm, W feeding much more during the day - hopefully it'll settle down again soon. Taffy: W has been on a pattern of feeding every 2 hrs during the day since birth! He will sometimes go for longer now, so I hope it's edging towards 3 hrs which will be more manageable.

At MIL's: MIL has taken W out for a walk, and DH is cooking me breakfast now I'm out of the bath - if I don't mange the meet up it'll be because I'm still here . My parents are pciking us up later today to head up to the Wolds for a few days. Have bought a large snowsuit thingy for W as it'll be bloody freezing .

[MummyPossum]

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[Gingeme]

Wow all you clever mummies still bfeeding. My admiration to you all. Ive just taken my two older ds's home and wont be seeing them till Easter now as theyre moving to Bommie Scotland next Friday with their Dad.
Lo has been going every 2 hours again with his bottles but slept from 8-4 last night then had a bottle and slept till 8 I feel almost awake today.
Just been discussing our first'family' holiday. Dh has his hols in July and as we dont have any kids at 'proper schoool' just yet we can more or less please ourselves when and where we want to go.
Ds3 is back to nursery tomm. Think hes missed it and is looking forward to seeing his friends again. Well Im off to bath them now and get them settled to bed. x

[DashingRedhead]

Hi everyone, long silence but have been adapting to motherhood - hopefully successfully. But as usual, when something is worrying me, I fly to MN. LO had her 8 week jabs last Wednesday and is still really out of sorts - grumpy, screams at me and not at all her lovely usual smiling self. Has anyone else had this? I phoned NHS direct today and they said the pneumococcal jab is causing quite a lot of strong reaction and that the two together means it takes longer to get over. Would be grateful for any input.

Best wishes to all, hope you're all enjoying 07 with your tinies.

[PrettyCandles]

Oh Martham, don't beat yourself up over this. I mix-fed ds1 and felt guilty as hell about it - and he has turned out a healthy, extremely intelligent, well-grown child.

If you would feel better going over completely to formula (and, from my experience having mix-fed for 5m, it can be a relief to hand over responsibility to the bottle) then that's fine. As others have said, you have done brilliantly to bf to 3m. OTOH, if you want to continue with the bfing, do please go ahead at whatever rate feels right. Even bfing at every feed before supplementing gives LO bm, plus cuddles, cosiness and comfort to both of you, as well as fulfil the baby's desire to suck. Try in this case to stick with newborn teats, rather than age-appropriate teats.

Do talk to some breastfeeding counsellors - NCT, LLL, ABM etc. Although Mumsnet can give good support, we can't give you the face-to-face help that can make all the difference.

Be aware also that the growth charts are not always used properly, and HVs can obsess over the line rather than the relationship of the line to the baby. Firstly, what sort of build are your family? If you are small people, or finely-built, then it would be ridiculous to expect your child to be big. Secondly, birthweight is not a predictor of growth. All my children were born at least 75th centile or over, and trolleyed along on 50th centile when allowed to do their own thing.

Fenugreek: IIRC the appropriate dose for me was about 6 capsules daily. But test it out on yourself - we're all individuals, and I'm quite a large one - by increasing the dose every few days, starting at about 3/day, until you (your perspiration and wee) smell of maple syrup. The correct dose is the minimum that it takes to maintain that smell.

Apparently it's even more effective if taken together with Blessed Thistle, but I haven't taken BT, so don't know anything about it.

BTW, fenugreek is mildly laxative and has to be taken with caution if you're diabetic as I think does something to blood sugar.

These are good breastfeeding websites, with info on fenugreek:
Kellymom
Breastfeeding Online

[MummyPossum]

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[Gemmitygem]

hi all,

quick message as packing frantically for me, DH and babe to go back to Kazakhstan tomorrow. Martha, as others have said please try not to worry, you are already doing fantastically and babe has had the best possible start already. However, as others have said I would definitely get advice from those organisations, because they probably know more than the HVs. Are they using the new WHO charts based on breastfed babies? they're on the internet on the who site. I had to actually give the link to the HV in Kent over Christmas, as they were waiting to receive the new charts.. they basically show lower weights for breastfed babies..

hope everyone doing well and not letting the grim weather get us down. It's minus 15 in Almaty so already panicking about what to dress him in to get off the plane!

[catgirl]

morning

congrats emzickle!

Marthahm - sorry to hear you are having a hard time bf'ing - some good advice already posted, but please don't feel guilty about anything. Easier said then done.

Gingeme, sad to hear your 2 elder boys will be moving to Scotland, but guess you will having longer holidays with them now - did you know about the move?

Am happy to meet up wherever in London, just let me know the date. Although Tuesdays and Thursdays not the best days for me.

don't want to jinx myself, but ds2 has slept from about 10/10:30 to 8 am the past two nights! Having said that ds1 has been calling for me once or twice, so still not an uninterrupted nights sleep - guess I have to wait for them to leave home for that one!

ds1 and ds2 were both due to have jabs last week, but cancelled them due to colds - re-booked for this wednesday, so we are rather behind. ds1 is insisting ds2 has his first to see what they are like!

now must get on with putting some of this washing away - have resorted to taking clean clothes from the airer!