March 2016 - quick, a new thread!

[Swearwolf]

Sorry for the terrible title, I saw the old thread was up to 996 posts and panicked!

Ooh don't I feel important

Yes good luck on your first day back after the summer Dom. I honestly hadn't thought about it like the end of an era (of being at home with babies) but you've made me all emotional thinking about it now!

Ds2 sleeps for 11 hours at night and has 4 naps during the day for around 3 hours altogether. So 14 hours sleep a day which looks pretty average from looking at everyone else's responses. I think my baby might be the only one still having 4 naps though? Night time sleep is still crap but slowly improving.

Good luck dom!

Good luck dom and hope all goes well with the childminder ffaux. Please give us all your top expressing/managing the boobs at work tips.

trin we occasionally have 4 naps if he doesn't have a long one. It's more usual to get 2 short (30-45mins) and 1 long (1.5hrs) but I can never tell which one will be the long one, it varies!

I can't really tell you what he's doing at night, other than still waking several times. I'm so tired and on auto pilot I just grab him, feed him, pop him back. I think it's usually 3 times. I could do with that improving really in the next 4 weeks before in back at work, but not really prepared to do much to force it so I think the status quo will remain.

Wow me that's a whole new stage! Good luck baby proofing your life! DS is pretty mobile with rolling and wiggling but he doesn't really do any of it with much intent yet. My older 2 didn't move AT ALL, not even a roll until they were 10m and 12m so I am very unnerved by having a moving baby at 5months. Really hoping he doesn't refine it too much too soon.

Quick question - are those of you BFing giving a vitamin D supplement?

I was aware of the NHS advice on A,C,D supplements from 6 months for those not drinking over 500ml of formula a day but seem to have missed the vit D from birth for BF babies stuff. Not something the HV has ever mentioned either.

Good luck today Dom!!

french not giving a supplement here, I take vitamin D daily myself and we've had T outside lots all summer. Now she's joining us for breakfast she'll be starting a daily baby multivitamin.

Good luck dom and welcome to the,crawling club me. C immediately makes a,beeline for any type of cable or any of ds's toys. Trying to ask a 2.5 yr old to keep little toys off the floor is not going very well.

I started off taking a vit d supplement for bf but ran out ages ago and never restocked. Now there is going to be less sun I'll try to remember to get some more.

French- I used to take the vit d supplement myself then run out and didn't think about restocking then I saw a big thing on news about it a little while ago so got DS some multi vitamins and gave him that, he has formula in the day now so don't bother- however when I went to the bf consultant about transitioning to formula in the day I asked her if still needed to give vit d and age said to be honest as long as babies get sunlight often they don't need to take the supplement anyways?
As for sleep DS normally down by 8ish - 5/6 with multiple wakes and 1 feed in between about 2am. Naps vary generally has a long morning one anything between 1-2.5 hours then another 1-2 short 30 mins ish ones. If he doesn't get the morning one though he may decide to have a longer afternoon nap. Don't think we get to 14 hours a lot of the time but I guess it's close enough.

Good luck Dom

Good luck today Dom

french the advice to give vit d from birth is very new, when i had dd1 it was from 6 months but they recently changed it to from birth. We give dd1 a vit d supplement (well kid drops) so have recently started giving it to dd2 when we remember

I didn't realise the vit d advice had changed! No one's ever mentioned it to me either. I was always a bit crap at giving it to Ds1 and then kept forgetting to but more when the bottle range out . Must try harder this time.

Magpie yeah I do the same with feeding while still half asleep so I've no idea how many times he wakes up but I know it's a lot.

Thanks for all the well-wishes! It was all ok today! (Only a little bit of bottle refusing apparently!)

Oh no, sorry Trin! Didn't mean to spread the woe!

magpie I pump at break (about 3.5 hours after last feed) & lunch (about 2 hours later). Pump for 5 minutes each side (this means I can just about got a pumping session into break time with time to walk to my little cubicle in another building). One side always produces more, but I don't necessarily always get more on the first pump.

I keep my pump in a little cool bag and pour the milk into those storage bags and if there's enough room I stick the whole lot in the fridge. I bring a muslin to tuck into my top in case of seepage and have several spare breast pads in there, just in case. And a sharpie to write date & volume on bags.

It seems to take practice - maybe there's something in feeling comfortable in the surroundings and with the time pressure. Certainly I know it took a few days for things to settle into the routine.

On his nursery days I'm planning on just going and feeding him (he's on site) rather than pumping. Seems like a no-brainier!

1french - DS2 isn't 6 months yet but I had heard about the recommendation for drops. I'll wait and see what you guys recommend!
Oh wait, it's from birth? I hadn't heard that.

DS2 has about 14hrs total sleep but wakes several times a night (2-3 at least between midnight-6am).

Argh no drops here! I need to ask at clinic next time. E has had loads of fresh air this summer so I doubt she is vit d deficient at the moment. Dh is always funny about vit supplements for some unknown crazy reason so I'm sure he will say no she doesn't need it.

Well weaning today was pants, she had about four spoonfuls all day and then sucked some cucumber. I told myself I wouldn't fret after ds took so long to wean but I am. Someone tell me to get a grip

Mrs E and Me I can't believe you have crawlers really. I look at E and she seems too small for any of that but she is so keen to move. Watching her trying to reach the remote yesterday was very funny. I don't think it will be too long before she works out a way to move, she is so much more confident on her tummy now.

Dom glad today wasn't too bad!

Me we had a relatively good night sleep last night, how did you get on?

Anyone watching Cold Feet tonight? I don't know if it will be brilliant or a let down.

We had a standard night Purple - well the new standard! - which is wake ups at midnight (quick resettle with dummy) and 4.30am. I've taken to whisking him into bed with me at the 4.30am one which is the only way to get him back to sleep otherwise he's up and wants feeding. Really hope it changes soon!

DS also had a day of being uninterested in food, he ate his breakfast well but didn't want much lunch at all. I gave up after about 3 unhappy spoonfuls! I did however spend ages while he was napping and after he went to bed this evening batch cooking, I'm going to start introducing meat and fish so I made some Annabel Karmel recipes with cod, salmon and chicken, plus a few teeny portions of cottage pie! We'll see if he turns his nose up at cod tomorrow ...

Dom glad day 1 went ok. How long do you plan to pump for?

I haven't been giving DS any vitamin D but he is ff so I think he's OK until he starts dropping bottles - then I'll look into some drops.

Me, I don't know. I'm not averse to giving him formula per se. I think my main concern is maintaining my supply to continue BFing evenings, overnight, weekends & half term, etc. And it's a lot cheaper than formula!

I think I'm kind of going to see how it goes. It was fine on a less-than-full timetable before the summer, but not sure how it'll go now.

How long does it take your supply to react to changes in demand? (I'll go peruse kellymom...)

Looks like few of our kids have been getting vit D, fine for spring babies I guess, we are out and about most days. I've got the combined A,C,D for a few werks time in any case so won't bother getting just D.

Thanks for the pumping outline dom must remember a sharpie when I am back at work. Well I say work, I am actually spending Oct- Dec doing some offsite training for a role change in an office I've not visited before. I've no idea where I'll pump. I've been hand expressing but for speed I guess I best get to grips with the pump in the few weeks before I go back.

Was feeling sorry for DH who went up 30 mins ago to settle DD after I'd tried for 30 mins - only to open the door and see both of them asleep in our double bed.

Glad today went well dom, I start DD with her childminder tomorrow (Tuesday) eek

As for pumping, I mirror S's feeds so 9.30, 12.30 and 3.30. I know most people can get away with 2 pumps, but if I drop one my supply drops. I keep all the parts in the fridge and don't wash in between to save time, just wash them all when I get home - just make sure I don't touch any part that touches the milk.

It took me a day or two to relax into it and now I love my quiet little time away from everyone, I don't really check emails or anything as it delays my let down if I'm not fully relaxed. A cup of tea seems to be my let down trigger!. After pumping for 6mo I've managed to double my supply and there's not much I haven't tried, so if anyone needs any tips when it's your turn let me know!

Well ds must have been having a growth spurt last week as the last two nights he hasn't even flinched during the night.. Yay!!

All this talk of people going back to work is scary. I do my dh'S books for him and have been to have been working while being off (hasn't happened a lot) so I am planning on going back to the office one day a week at the end of the month. My parents will have ds and dd will be at school. I will then increase my days hopefully in January upto 3. And look at a nursery for ds. It's all quite scary and I'm starting to panic about leaving him but I think that is just my post natal anxiety coming through again.. I don't seem to like change a lot atm

Is it bedtime yet??? On C's 4th outfit of the day, the first got destroyed at breakfast despite only having a banana and wearing a long sleeved bib. The 2nd fell victim to a poonami and the 3rd got the double whammy of projectile vomit and poonami at the same time! Luckily she was in her little play station while I made lunch so that caught the worst of it and 1001 spray appears to have rescued my cream carpets. At least I know she did manage to eat some banana this morning! It doesn't seem to have phased her and she is still tucking into lunch, not sure whether solids are a good idea or not but she hasn't had that much milk today so I guess if she is interested in food I should go with it.

Oh dear MrsElls that is a bad day for outfit changes! Don't think we've had a day like that since DS was newborn! Now that he's been on solids for 3+ weeks his poos are becoming much firmer which is great as he was becoming quite the expert at poonamis.

Dom hopefully with the pumping and feeding him when he's onsite your supply will be just fine. I do often wish I'd had more success with bfing when I do the monthly online shop (we do a big one every month to fill the cupboards and freezer) and the formula alone is £40! DS gets through a tub a week.

confused I definitely know where you're coming from with the feelings of panic and hating change and that's without post natal anxiety to deal with. I think the main reason I struggled so badly with DS for the first few weeks was simply the fact that I hate change and his arrival was probably the biggest change I've ever experienced! We're in a lovely routine at the moment with baby classes, meet ups with friends etc and I'm feeling anxious about the return to work too. At least if you're going to build up starting with just one day a week then you'll hopefully adjust slowly?

DS had his first taste of fish (cod and butternut squash) at lunchtime, it went down well, he finished nearly the whole bowl! Tomorrow, salmon!

Oh MrsElls that sounds a challenge. DD gets put in some pretty eccentric combos when we have a day or two like that. And with cream carpets too! Our only saving grace in this house which is far too small for us is darkish carpets that scrub up well. They'd need to - DD hasn't challenged them too much but (tmi) our labrador had two attacks of explosive diarrhea the other day. On the bright side it makes poonamis seem like a breeze .

Dom and other pumpers, I am sure to need your advice soon. Looking at my epic commute (2 to 2.5 depending on public transport) for my 4h working day the only place I can think to pump is on the train - am I mad or is this doable? A couple of days a week I'd have 30 mins to kill near a John Lewis with a parent area, are they likely to be okay with me using it to pump?

Oh dear sorry to hear about the poo Mrs E

French is there nowhere at work? I've just done mine in the middle of the office as am in today but appreciate this might not be as easy for everyone else?! I'd also do it on the train but I have been pumping everywhere to keep my pumps in... It's just the fiddly but of starting but once it's going it's ok so depends if you are ok with an accidental flash at the commuter opposite?.

John Lewis would be fine, I've used a lot of different shops rooms to pump and I have used Starbucks as well which are handy if you're pumping on electric and want to plug in than run off batteries.. One of them even brought me water, they're signed up to the NCT charter which perhaps makes a difference..?

Oh 1french, dog diarrhoea is something I think I'd like to live my life without ever experiencing! You poor thing!

In terms of pumping on the train - maybe it would be doable with the help of a nursing cover/big scarf, but the psychological element might be against you (gross loo or public area). I find the whole thing one of the least glamorous and most embarrassing things I've ever done. But I'm becoming increasingly blasé about it.

As for JL - sure that wouldn't be a problem! If you're ever questioned, the phrase "I was pumping breastmilk" seems to shut most people down!

vroc that's some brave pumping! With your colleagues around? I'm a little shy of even DH around (literally just said to him "stop watching me!")

I was so exhausted today! Feeling better now I'm within reach of bedtime! Full teaching day, pumping break & lunch, two meetings, then pickup, feed DS2 and try to get DS1 to read/do maths etc. Bath DS2 (still try to get DS1 to read), both to bed (then I had a wee), then washing bottles and pump and sterilising and sorting bags for tomorrow etc. Finally got to eat about 8:30 (leftovers). Then pump (only 100ml in 20 mins) and now washing & sterilising again. No wonder my house is a shit-hole!

I really needed to vent to people who understand! Thank you, I feel better!

vroc do you have a quiet electric pump?

I do have a fairly quiet double pump, I would feel a bit weird hand pumping away more publically somehow... I also pumped when the only two people left were both people I've worked with for 10 years... One of them has breast fed in front of me etc...

It's that weird thing of I'm really concious when I'm out that I'm pumping not breast feeding and it's not quite as natural as having a baby quietly nursing but having a zump zump zump of a pump going being milked like a cow 🐮🐮 but on the other hand that I don't want to restrict myself to not going anywhere or I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have with the pumping... And that as half of the county saw my boobs in the quest to see if we could breast feed I might as well expose them to the other half. I do have a large cover though.

And hope you get an ok night to help you through tmrw dom