The March-ers 2019 - Baby Talk #1

[Angelmiracle]

Congratulations to all the mamas with their new babies 🌸

Now the fun really starts 😄

@toastfiend - baby boy - 28/01/2019
@TheWanderlust - Baby girl - Althea - 7lb6oz - 16/02/2019
@PurpleFlower1983 - Baby girl - Matilda - 17/02/2019
@Wineandchoccy - Baby girl - Lois - 6lb12oz - 19/02/2019
@Harley8888 - Baby boy- Logan - 7lb4oz - 01/03/2019

Our holiday will be staying with my Dad this year. We did it most Summers anyway (near the seaside) but need to be there for him this year.
Thankfully we aren't really people who like going abroad and happily holiday in the UK so this year will just be what it is.

@mistakenholiday I would be the same with the idea of DH being away for that long and wanting to pick him up. Would be still be able to get himself home in the same time frame by himself?

Any advice please guys.... little man keeps bringing up his feed. Doesn't seem to be vomit but very heavy possetting. Enough that it will involve at least one outfit change after a feed. He has started taking more milk so I'm assuming it's a phase...? On the plus side, he managed to sleep from around 10:30 through to 3am. But with his feed and then subsequent bringing up/nappy change/settling we've been up for two hours as opposed to the usual hour so it's swings and roundabouts. DS is 5 weeks on Thursday. He's happy in himself but I guess I was concerned because he's bringing up more than usual.

ballanj I think it’s normal. My LO has always been a heavy posseter but defiantly goes through mini phases (never more than a few hours) of guzzling all she can then bringing what looks like it all back up again fairly promptly. Annoying but we’re still getting plenty of wet nappies so some of it must be staying down! Does mean the washing machine gets a good workout with all the wet muslins/sheets/baby grows/mum’s tops!

DH used a lot of his holiday this year for extra time off with his paternity leave so it’ll be something small and UK based. Thinking about Scotland, it makes you feel like you’ve travelled far but only 1 hour in the plane and you’re away in the Highlands.

@ballanj DS is 6wks today and has been bringing up more milk than usual the last week or so. I think he’s just going through a guzzling phase and would assume it’s normal.

We decided not to go abroad this summer as our older two both slept terribly away from home as babies (even DS who was a great sleeper generally). So, we thought it might be too exhausting with baby and two kids. Slightly regretting the decision now that DS is actually here though - he’s a much easier baby than we were anticipating so we probably could have managed.

@SquirtlesMumAgain @cardboard33 his return train ticket has now been booked

Expectation of in-laws would be that we'd go over and get him so MIL can see the girls but they'll just have to wait until DD2 is a bit older. They've been to see us since she was born - just for the afternoon - so it's not like they haven't seen her. Their house isn't really child friendly either - temperamental rescue dog etc. - so I'm in no rush!

Holiday-wise we're playing it by ear. Might try and get something at the start of September when the kids are back in school. DD1 would LOVE centre parcs so we might see if we can get a deal...

@ballanj @LovelyFishy we're the same at just over 4 weeks! Lots of feeding then up it all comes! She's definitely hungrier but maybe just can't cope with it all yet?

DD2 slept from 8.30 to 2am last night then fussed for a while but went back from 4am to 8am. She's much better at longer stretches than her sister was!

@ballanj we are having the exact same thing. Little one is 5 weeks today and the past few days has been bringing up more milk. Although we did switch bottles and even though the teat is the slowest flow he still manages to guzzle it quite quickly so could be that too i guess even though we try to give him breaks. Seems like others are experiencing the same.

We did want to go to Cornwall this year but not sure how we would manage such a long drive with a baby. We would take my partners son as we always do but we usually camp in the summer which we wouldn't do with such a young baby so we would need an apartment or cottage which would be too expensive in the summer holidays. We did think about the October half term but not sure we'd get the weather and still wouldn't know how to manage the journey.

I've got a stupid question i think... so they say you should have baby in the same room as you to sleep for thr first 6 months but what happens when they go to bed earlier? At the minute we have day time as bright and lots of natural light, normal level of noise etc and he naps in the moses basket. When he wakes for his morning feed around 6am we go downstairs and start our day and spend the day downstairs (as in no naps upstairs). When he has his feed around 10pm ish we take him upstairs to change him into a new sleepsuit and just have a nightlight on, no talking and everything calm.and feed him up there and put him in his bedside crib. But then we go to bed with him. What happens when he starts sleeping say 8 -2:30am or any other longer stretches. I can't go to bed at 8:30 (well i probably could right now!). Would you leave them downstairs with you until 2am? How would it work if they have to sleep in the same room as you. Obviously this is quite a way off but I'm not sure how you can work towards earlier bedtimes when you have to be in the same room. Am i being really stupid?

Hope you're all ok

@cardboard33 I'm going to have the most spoilt baby in terms of holidays. One of my best friends getting married in Mexico and a few weeks later I'm going to Orlando for two week. Orlando has been booked for about 2 years with my mum, sisters, brother in laws and kids so I couldn't cancel it because it's rare we do things like this, Mexico is my friends wedding but also, I'm never going to have the time to take two holidays like this again so the thought process was we'll just grit our teeth financially in order to have the experience

@melissa112 I keep wondering this as well! At the moment we keep him downstairs with us till we go to bed then bring him up. I guess the difference with putting him to bed first is that you're still up to check on him? It's not like sleeping in separate room where you wouldn't see him for 8 hours etc

@WhatALearningCurve oh wow, your holidays sound amazing. Are they this year?

Yeh i guess it would be a case of monitor on and checking on them often. I'm getting sweaty palms thinking about him being up there alone!

@melissa112 yeah - middle of June and then end of July! Everything has just happened in one go really this year.

Another friend is getting married in September so her hen do has just been arranged for August - I'll be having to leave little man with my mum for 4 days because my partner will be on the stag do at the same time. That's going to be a difficult one! At least the other hols he'll be with me.

Thanks for the support from everyone the other day with my older son. We've had a better weekend because I've changed my parenting rather than him changing his attitude. It goes against what I agree with but I've started to ignore bad behaviour and just briefly tell him that we dont do things (e.g. We don't throw our toys, we don't hit) but don't dwell on it if he does it again. It's stopped a telling off descending into a full blown argument and more bad behaviour.

Today is my first full day alone with baby but DH is doing a half day tomorrow so not long to get used to it. So far I regret not making myself food in advance, baby has been keen to feed or sleep on me so far.

On the plus side, I walked DS1 to nursery this morning for the first time in months. Baby was up early enough for us to get out of the door on time although a 15/20 minute walk took us 35 minutes 🤔 Buggy board was really hard work, not sure how I'm going to use it regularly. It was so lovely to have my boy chatting away to me the whole time, I've missed our 1 on 1 time on our walks. Felt very quiet on the way home with just the baby for company though!

I've been wondering about putting baby to sleep for the night upstairs if we're not ready to go to bed yet - currently going to bed at the same time as him after his 8-9pm feed. I don't remember what we did with DS1, I guess just used the baby monitor for the hour or 2 that he was upstairs alone. Not something we need to wonder about yet I guess but don't know why I can't remember this at all.

@cardboard33 we are going away twice but only in the UK to a caravan park. We haven’t been abroad since having dd1 so will be a while before we do it with both.

@Jenfur so lovely that you got some one to one time with him! I'm doing Duplo with DD1 while the baby sleeps. It bores me senseless but she's loving the attention

I'm still going to bed with both DDs at 8-9pm so haven't even thought about the putting to bed thing yet either and can't remember what I did last time. I think we might have used a baby monitor and regularly checked...

@MistakenHoliday isn't it weird that you just forget these things? Surely we must have spent months putting baby up to bed and staying up "late" ourselves but it's like I've blanked that out completely.

Enjoy your Duplo!!

Anyone know roughly when babies adjust to night and day . My rose does not settle at night time and eventually falls asleep about 4am ..in the day she has long periods of awake time. I don't think she's getting enough sleep and maybe getting over tired . She feeds roughly every 2 hours sometimes 3 hours. When she does nap it is only for an hour . Very rare it's longer unless we out pushing her in the pram . Those reflex jerks wake her up a lot of the time or she's just in an active sleep phase and not really going into a deep sleep to keep her there for a decent amount of time . Just rooting for when I should find things getting easier

@ballanj 6 weeks today and LO is bringing up milk more and more. We had a 4am projectile all over his face, cot, clothes etc... at the end of a long feed! Turned into a 1:45hr event & woke DH too. It normally happens when I haven't burped him so I've only got myself to blame but DS isn't that keen on the burps & they can take a while to get through so I sometimes give up and put him down... hope it doesn't last too long - it's such a faff changing him (&me) all the time & we're getting through the bibs like there's no tomorrow!

@melissa112 with my eldest DD I think we put her upstairs to bed in our room with a monitor and checked on her regularly until we went to bed ourselves. Then with my middle DS I think we just kept him downstairs with us until he went into his own bedroom at 6 months plus. He was the kind of baby who’d sleep through anything though (which my eldest definitely wasn’t!) Not sure which we’ll do this time around though...

@jenlou1992 I think it’s sometime between 6-10wks that they start to grasp the difference between day and night...

@Jenlou1992 According to 'The Gentle Sleep Book' which I'm currently reading it's between 3-6months, so we have a while to go! I'm only a few chapters in but am enjoying it so far - it doesn't promise the world but that makes it more credible and reassuring somehow.

Thanks for the replies . How is everyone feeling mentally ? I must admit the first 1.5 weeks were very difficult and I really was down . Things have picked up now for me but not sure if that's because my partner had the weekend off work which is the first time since she was born that he's had time off so he has been able to help me in the night. I'm yet to go to any classes / groups etc. Hoping to go to some next week to get out some more

@Jenlou1992 I've been pretty good thus far but now OH is going back to work and I've got DS (5) off school for Easter I'm finding it harder. We've managed to get out to see friends a bit thus far which has been fab and great for me emotionally too. Just wish LO would sleep between 3-7am as atm she feeds but won't settle until her next feed. Like others she's also bringing up more milk but I suspect this is to do with my let down as it is quite quick.

@Jenlou1992 I have been ok I need to get out even just for a quick walk otherwise I start to go a bit mad. We are going to a few groups each week more for me than dd2. She hates baby massage so not sure if I will continue with that one.

We found out dd1 school place this morning she got her 1st choice
Dd2 has her 8 week vaccinations this morning.

@Jenlou1992 For me it depends on how the day/night sleeps go. We really struggle with settling for the day sleeps (even pram stopped working reliably a few days ago) and if we then have a bad night as well, like tonight, I think I just become too tired and struggle to cope.
But I've definitely seen improvement to first two weeks. Getting my thyroid medication checked and adjusted helped too, I think.

@Wineandchoccy same here with the school place! We were fairly certain she'd get into our first choice but it's good to know for certain! I can't believe I'll have a school aged child in September!

@Jenlou1992 I'm a bit like @Sheeni and it depends on how the night goes. I REALLY look forward to DD2's nursery days as I know it'll give me the opportunity to sleep if I need to. That chaos, I feel better this time that I did with DD1 but I think it was because I knew roughly what to expect and didn't try to go back to 'normal' as soon as she was born.

It is tough though, so look after yourself and take all the help on offer. If you find a nice group, it'll really help in terms of getting out and stuff.

Good news on the school places - we got our 1st choice too.

Mental health isn't doing well but I think that's more down to the other happenings rather than DD mainly. She is a good sleeper (unlike her brother for those suffering, and he was really pretty good once he got the hang of it!)

@MistakenHoliday @SquirtlesMumAgain good news on the school places it’s a relief to finally know. Dd thought she was going this morning