Jan '07 part 5: I'm the Easter Bunny, my nose is cold and runny - so let's use LTH's patented tissue folding technique!

[2HappyEaster]

I'm the Easter Bunny
My nose is cold and runny
Don't think it's funny cos it'snot.

I'm the Easter Bunny
My nose is cold and runny
So give us a carrot or go away.

Happy Easter

Blimey, laughalot, that's good - I hoep dsis is as quick as that. No word yet...
Loosh (((hugs)))

Guess what??

ds2 slept through last night!!
Quarter to nine his last feed, woke up at 6.30!!
What a lovely boy

Hello all! Been staying at my mums and had such a nice time...although being back home with DH is lovely I miss the real fire, mum cooking, both mum and dad pampering me and cuddling Ellen when she cries, getting her off to sleep so I can sleep in peace, bringing me brekkie in bed,no thinking 'gosh I should be doing xyz' the list could go on. Its not that DH doesn't help but I relaxed in a different way. DH working really long hours at the moment so feels like we hardly see him. And here I am trying to make today a positive day.

OOh and I missed the weaning debate! So I'll say nothing. Am going to have MMR though.

Lizz - think you can only get the childcare vouchers if your emplyer subscribes to one of the providers. My employer uses a company called Imagine and my pay goes into an account with them that I'll pay the nursery from that account. I presume its so the money is used for childcare.

My boss rang me yesterday to say he was happy for me to work what I'd asked for (22 hours over 3 days) but won;t put my hours into writing cos no-one else doing my job hs set hours. We are open 8-6.30 and I can only do 8.30-4.30/5 at a push cos of getting Ellen to and from nursery and DH drops me off and picks me up on his way to work. IF his long hours continue I'll have to getbus home and that takes an hour....might have to look into gettign another car but can't really afford it so another thing to add to worries in my head. Also I had cmpletely forgotten work is open on sat mornings!!! I only have to do one in six and get equiv time off in week so should be ok. Thinking of work got me all pensive yesterday.

Did everyone else realise you are entitled to bank holidays as extra hol/pay for while you have been on statutory mat leave?I can take them as extra hols so it means I go back slightly later than planned hee hee hee. i def get 2 for easter and 2 for may not sure about new year. My mat leave didn't start til after xmas but some of you might get those ones too.

I am doing a marathon washing session today.

Had first swimming lesson yesterday which Ellen loved. Feel confident enough to take her to pool myself now so we have a new activity hooray.

OMG, 2happy, that's amazing! I think my LO will be the last one on here to sleep through, although, I have to say not looking at the clock HAS made a huge improvement to the way I feel

Hello Looshkin

Some blokes have just knocked to say they've been called to look at next door's drain, except they're not in, and could I unlock the joint gate so they can get round the back? I pretended I couldn't find it..

How did you find the water temp , Vino?

Carrot my LO is not sleeping through either. She slept for 4 hours at a time at my mums but now we are back home she's back to waking every 3 hours.

The water temp of the pool was a bit nippy really. Class is held at a hotel near me and the LO's have to wear wetsuits cos pool is on cool side but poor mums just in their cossies. I am tall and it was only after I commented I had aching legs from half squatting so I could keep in water to my shoulders that I realised there was a deeper end...

ha ha, Vino, at you squatting in the shallow end! Yes, I wasn't sure about the swimming thing, my pool is really cold, I hadn't thought about a wetsuit.

Glad I'm not the only one still waking at night, although I don't really wake up properly. Seems ages since I had a whole night's sleep after all the pregnancy niggles too

laughalot is there anyway you can tweak laurens feed around a bit so she has a bottle around 10, I know its a pain but maybe you could start adjusting bottles by 15mins each day so 8pm becomes 7.45 then 7.30 etc so each feed is 15mins earlier than you do at the mo but it depends how early you want to feed in the morning as Hattie rarely sleeps past 6.30am and shes hungary but that suits me as dh gone to work and ellie up soI am awake anyway.

She may then take a bottle around 10pm which should see her through till around 6am ish (based on the fact that she'll go 8pm to 3.30pm wich is 7.5hours)

The other thing is maybe give her less milk at her 8pm feed so she'll be hugary and do a dreamfeed but not sure if she'll take enough to get her to sleep thru.

Not really sure as both dd's have had the 6am,10am,2pm,6pm and 10pm routine (think I tweaked ellies to fit into how I wanted it to work)and started that rountine with h almost straight away.

HTH

Mmm eah its a tricky one you never know how they are going to be at that 10 oclock feed used to do it with aidan and it really unsetteled him but lauren is a different person so maybe I can give it a try as we are up most mornings at about 7 oclock with aidan. Do you feed hattie in her room or do you bring her downstairs and does she wake up properly ?

vino - I can get busy bee nursery vouchers from work. TBH I've not researched childcare at all, and dont even know if I can put a 6 month old baby in nursery for a couple of mornings a week so I can go back to work. Its probably not even financially viable.

Laughalot - 2nd time I have typed this as managed to delete the first one by accident!!!

I give Hattie the 10pm feed either in her bedroom (she has plug in nighlight on all night)or in our room with the 25watt sidelamp on. Always warm milk up (in microwave bad mummy!) and give her 4oz then nappy change and then final 2oz, although dont really need to do nappy change as shes never 'wet' and nappy isnt heavy so may stop doing that. She doesnt wake up at all just sleeps through the whole thing she used to stir when I winded her but settle straight away but dont bother winding after this feed as she doesnt gulp the milk and never bought any wind up anyway.

Am going to try and do one night without the 10pm feed just to see what happens she'll probably wake but will try it anyway.

Off to IL's for the afternoon and dinner but mil has laptop and broadband so may sign on later (but delete computer history as dont want her to 'discover'me saying that shes a really nice mil so wouldnt matter that much )

Oh FFS!

I changed ds2's nappy because he had had a poop. Then (straight after) he decided he was hungry, and - fair enough - he had another poop because of the feed. So I changed him, and just put him under his gym. Where he has just pooped AGAIN! How much poop does one child need to produce.....agggghhhh he's doing it as I type AGAIN..........

And now he's SMILING about it....

Oh well, at least I use up the size 2 nappies which are too small now!

Wow thats a lot of poop 2Happy!! I'm kind of lucky freddie only ever does 1 a day. It's become a bit of a joke now actually as for about the last month he's almost always done it at close to 7pm. Really. He's that regular. You could set your watch by his poos!

Well after all the talk of going back to work and nurseries and all that i've been doing a bit of research into it all and am now thoroughly depressed and confused. Don't think the company i work for does the childcare vouchers thing... it's an American company so praps thats why. Also i spoke to someone who used to work there ages ago who said they refused to let her go back part time when she had her first son!! Isn't that kind of illegal these days?? Oh well, guess i'll just have to stay home with ds and put the pressure on dp to earn a bit more

laughalot - interesting to hear about the wetsuits. I have been thinking about taking freddie swimming and wasn't sure what he should wear. Do they wear a swim nappy underneath then?

Also, i have pretty much the same feeding scheduale as EAH and also do the dreamfeed at about 10:30 and freddie is very nearly sleeping through. He has gone from 7:30pm through to 7am with the feed at 10:30 a couple of times this week, but has also had a few nights where he's woken up at about 5ish and i've caved in and fed him to get him to go back to sleep quickly! I've given up changing his nappy at the dreamfeed now as, like EAH said, its never wet. I feed freddie in the dark (well i leave the hall light on so i can kind of see what i'm doing...)in our room (where he sleeps) and he usually sort of half wakes up to drink. I think it was the baby whisperer who said you don't need to wind them at all after a dreamfeed because when they're half asleep they don't gulp and take in air...
but i do a bit of half-hearted winding anyway, just to see if he needs to get anything out!

Was only going to write a few words and now this has turned into an essay. Ops.

Amazing poo 2happy - maybe that's the price for a dream baby who sleeps through the night!

Shimmer - I went to university in Brighton too 1997-2000.

It's just taken me most the afternoon to catch up on the thread.

I went into work today and took Leo with me as it was the last day of term party. It was good to see everyone but I'm not looking forward to going back.

Hello! Been absent today and missed you all . Hope you had a good Friday and are looking forward to the weekend. My (nice) sister in law was round today, then I went to the gym on my own for a relaxing swim, but spent most of the time in the jacuzzi and steam room! DH is now cooking tea and hopefully about to bring me a glass of wine. Mmmm....

Hi Vino - welcome back. I've just emailed you. Hope your washing smells nice and fresh . I get Busy Bees vouchers too through work, but lo is going to DH on-site work nursery - we're so lucky with that.

Laughalot - Pippa feeds c 6ish, bed by 7, then awake for a feed c 4am then 7ish. We tried the dream feed once but it didn't work (she didn't sleep through) but that was a couple of weeks ago so may try it again. Am so of you all with lo's sleeping through! BTW, thanks for the tip off re Next sale. Pippa's with mil tomorrow afternoon whilst I go shopping. Next and Debenhams on the list!

2Happy - what are you feeding him to produce so many poos? I hope they weren't all the explosive-need-to-change-all-clothes type!

Shimmer - now write me a 500 word essay on the meaning of life please When I took lo swimming, I was told she had to wear a disposable swim nappy underneath her swimming bottoms (thanks again EAH) which has an integral nappy. Not sure if that's the policy at all swimming pools.

Loosh - glad things are a little better for you.

Lizz - how's Dylan today? The bogeyman and cough monster are visitng us today too. Plus fairies keep sprinkling dust up Pippa's nose and making her sneeze. Not to mention the pixies that keep giving her hiccups.

Carrot - how's the lack of dairy going today?

EAH - don't know if you've seen Ice Age 2 but I was a bit disappointed (ok, so it's not a film for adults, but I really enjoyed Ice Age 1)

Dragon - meant to ask if you changed DH pillow. It would get him back for not coming to the jabs with you [evil laugh]

Right. I've still not got my wine so need to go and crush some grapes. See you later.

Hello ladies, just a quick quiestion.

Have all teh newborns spots gone on your offspring??

George has really really dry spotty skin and the GP has given us a huge bottle of diprobase to rub one 4 times aday but I don't think its really doing much. If anything its got worse on his arms and legs.

(irrational thought no~34385256705642578> I can't help thinking that the jar of peanut butter I ate over the 9 month has made his skin all flaky.

Gp said it isn;t excema(sp?) just newborn skin gatting accustomed to the wolrd but the older Ds's had lovely smooth peachy skin by now, Georges is like sand paper in places

Yes Rgee, I changed DH pillow and washed the wee one (didnt even know you could wash pillows tbh but it washed really well so might do the rest).

Luke has a bad cold so we have watched tv most of the day [bad mummy emocicon]. We watched beauty and the beast which I know is a bit girly but I love it and he sat there mesmorised through the whole film. Would have had to watch something manly like the Jungle Book if DH had been there. He has a thing about Luke doing girly things. Why do men do that? A friend of ours says he is trying to 'de-camp' his son because when he picked him up from nursary, he cried when they told him he had to take off a pink tutu he had been wearing all day! He has bought him loads of bob the builder toys too and wont let him have a doll. I think it is really silly!

Loosh- good to hear from you, glad to hear the CPN is helping and hope the meds start working soon. xxx

2happy Luke was like that. Pooed after every feed then afew more inbetween to keep things interesting. Ruth only does it onece every few days, which I have to say is quite nice. When she goes, she goes though!

Lizz, quick question about nursing bras, hope you can help. I am looking for one that has support when you flap the front down. THe only ones I can find dont have anything to hold your boobs up when it is down and breast feeding the second time round has done nothing for my pertness (or lack of it!). Not sure how mch you delt with nursing bras but any help/ideas would be great.

Laughalot - how did using the swaddleme go?

LTH - my lo was really spotty on her face and nexk. HV said it was acne due to my hormones in her system. Most went around 8 weeks, but she still has one or two, and I read somewhere it could take up to 6 months for them to go. She has dry cheeks but I think that is due to winter weather and heating.

LTH, sounds a bit like Felix's skin, which the doctor just said WAS infantile excema but it could be that it is getting things out of their system like your doc says, as they often grow out of it. His bad skin has been since the worm medicine gave him diarhorrea. He also has lots of mucous though, hoarse sounding breathing etc, which is why I'm giving up dairy for two weeks to see if it improves. Are you bottle feeding? Not sure what you'd do then, unless there's dairy free formula? I'll let you know how it goes. My doc said to moisturise it but I think the skin often looks after itself better, depends how bad it is, Felix's is mostly on upper chest and a bit on the chin..

Rgee- No dairy wasn't too bad today, but oat milk on measa sunrise flakes is officially rank. I will stick with porridge, I never put milk on that anyway, just loads of maple syrup Rice milk is ok in tea.

LTH, Luke was like that. He had it for about 5months then it started to go. HV told me to rub grapeseed oil on it but I found it made the spots worse. Ended up using Aveno cream which I still use for his ecxema (which is quite mild most of the time).

Muckypup thats the same years i was at university! I was at sussex university, not brighton. But i lived in brighton, which is actually pretty far from falmer where sussex uni is, so i didn't go in that much Whats is like being a teacher in london?? Do yuo teach somewhere nice or is it as scary as it sounds? I have had this crazy (well, crazy for me...) idea since i've had F that i'd like to train as a teacher. I live right next to the institute of education so it would be really conveienant and they have a nursery there for LO too!! But i won't be able to start til next summer now...so jury's still out on what i'll do til then

LTH freddie's skin is all cleared up now. He had really bad dry skin for about 6 weeks and lots of spots for a while too. I used johnsons baby naturals moisturiser on him. Much to the shock and dismay of the HV - you would have thought i was rubbing poison into my baby! And, well, it could have been a coincidence but it all cleared up about a week later.

Phew - away for a few days and takes FOREVER to catch up on the gossip.

Skim read vino's post and for some reason came to the conclusion she was squatting in the shallow end having a poo . Re-read the post incredulously and realised what it said

Carrot/Laughalot - I'm getting very disheartened with the whole sleeping thru the night thing. It just ain't happening. Very fed up.

Jacob has started being very strange when I feed him. He takes 3oz of a 6oz bottle, I wind him, then he screams when I try to give him the rest of the bottle and his body goes rigid he gets that cross. Any suggestions gratefully recieved.

DH interview went well. Got home from mum's tonight to find a message on the answermachine asking him to ring them but it was too late so he will have to wait till Mon. Don't know if that's a good sign or not???

Meet ups - I live in Lincoln so I think Laughalot and I will be on our own

LTH - I was so long reading the thread and writing my posts I missed yours. My BF little one is 2 weeks younger than J and had exactly the same skin prob you described. Dr prescribed Oilatum and it has gone - his skin is clear now. Worth a go?

it's mostly on his cheeks so I think the weather is making them (his cheeks) redder on top of the scally skin.

IF thsi is because of my peanut butter munching and I have given him an allergy (none of the other Ds's have allergies) would it only be his skin affected?

Would his poos be wierd too? He sometimes has a squishy poo sometimes a hard poo but nothing out of the ordinary in a baby this age.

GP did mention that wilkie but said it makes everything(bath, toys, kids etc ) really slippy which can be abit scary at bathtime.

Hmmmmm....not sure what to do....

Wilkie, just read your post now about J not wanting the bottle.

all of mine have done this and George has started doing it recently too.

You'd think I'd have a answer wouldn't you??
Nothing ever works IME...it just they'll learning ho wto say no at avery young age