August 2007- More boys than girls? Our beautiful summer babies are arriving at last!

[bananabump]

Thought I'd start a thread to give somewhere for Jem, Washersaurus and Bresha to discuss their little ones and make all those of us waiting impatiently jealous!

Who will be next??????

well i think i'm going to have to give DD2 her first haircut very soon - it's stsrting to get in her eyes . she sings (well makes lots of noises) when i sing ' you are my sunshine to her' - it's lovely - though she did bite my nose this morning (was lying on my back with her on my chest - she pushed against my kness - opened her mouth like a shark and clamped onto my nose - it was bloody sore).

DD1 is still stressing me out! even the childminder said she was glad to see me yesterday afternoon when i picked DD1 up she started shouting for me from 4.10am this morning - i was expecting sleep deprivation but not from DD1!

sorry my2weegirls - sure it was sore but it did make me laugh too.

ds seems have settled himself into a routine in the morning of a feed and play then a 30 -45 min sleep, then more feed and play then a llonger sleep over lunchtime ish. slightly different times every day but its very nice to know he will probably sleep in that pattern so i can get things done.

off to speak to the breastfeeding workshop part of the antenatal class at my health centre this afternoon- trying to remember all the things to tell them about but my memory is not at its best just now.

had a look at those exercises - they look good - will give them a go tomorrow.

I was wondering who James reminded me of!

lol banana.

Ds slept from 9:30pm til 5:15am! I woke at about 2am and expected him to be awake soon so I felt quite refreshed after having so much sleep. Fortunately dd slept through til 7am this morning.

Took the dcs to the doctors this morning only to be told their coughs are viral and there was nothing they could have. I'd been getting worried about ds because he was coughing a lot this morning when he first woke up. There was a miserable old bag in the waiting room though. A little boy (about 3) started making a fuss so she started tutting and sighing. His mum apologised, begrudgingly. Then ds started to cry and she did the same to me. I've learnt to ignore people like that though. It really doesn't bother me. Dh hates it and gets quite embarrassed which makes him angry.

James, thats so funny

GillL, she sounds like a right old miserable cow. Can't believe its only 5 weeks till you go back. I'm not due back till mid March and I think thats too soon. Would love to be a SAHM but unfortunately our finances couldn't cope. Well we could if we could just give up food!

DD slept from 9pm till 3am but it all went a bit pear shaped after that. As a result she is now sleeping it off in bed whilst I've been running around after DS (who was up at 6.10 am) making his breakfast & lunch etc.

"Sleep when the baby sleeps" hahaha. Whoever said that one never had more than one child.

Need to go and tidy up now before she wakes up. Mum & Dad are coming for tea (thats dinner if you are the other side of the North/south divide hehe) and DD should be awake soon.

Oh, and conker, I'm finding it much easier now too. Had forgotten how tough the first 6 weeks can be. How did your session go yesterday?

I'm being a very proud mummy today - feel free to skip this if you hate smug people! DS2 slept 10.30 to 5am (amazing for him) had to wake dd and ds1 (first time ever!) - so feeling all refreshed. Had dds first ever parents evening, teacher said she had grouped the children for work and dd was in the highest ablitiy group as she was the brightest in the class! There I was feeling bad as haven't bothered even getting the work to do at home out of the bag! Not said anything to anyone in RL as I really hate the 'boasting' parents so please indulge me .

Going to North wales for a week and should be packing (wellies and coats?!) - really can't be bothered. Will be a fun journey 3 kids, dog and cat - cat's coming as couldn't find anyone to look after her - hoping we'll be able to leave her there!

thtas great loler - you should be proud of him - feel free to boast a little. enjoy your holiday.

session went well ineedsleep - only two women there but that was fine - had a really good chat about what they were expecting and strayed onto various other topics too so it was good just to have a chat.

Took dd swimming today. I always check on the web site when the baby pool will be open and, every time I go there I'm told it's closed so we have to go in the big pool. The shallowest section of the big pool is normally closed for swimming lessons and the rest is divided into lanes, so we get evil looks from the lane swimmers for getting in their way. Anyway, I'm trying to spend as much time with her on our own without the baby before I go back to work.

Ineedsomesleep - I laugh every time I read a parenting/pregnancy magazine that mentions sleeping when the baby sleeps. Definitely only applies to women with only one child. I couldn't even sleep before ds was born as dd doesn't have a nap anymore unless I take her out in the car in the afternoon.

We could afford for me to be a sahm if I didn't have a car, dh downgraded his car (Subaru Impreza - very expensive to maintain) and dh stopped spending money (he's always buying things we don't need).

loler - you go for it! Boast away. Hope you have a nice break. At least you won't have to worry about bottles and sterilising! You must have a big car to take 3 kids, luggage, a dog and a cat. We normally leave our cats in a cattery but couldn't last time we went away as they hadn't had their injections so we had to ask a neighbour to come in and feed them twice a day.

Hi guys, Loler that's great news about your dd, nice to be told you're doing something right, eh?

Gill, I fancy taking James swimming but I don't know if I'm up for shoehorning myself into my cossie and baring skimmed-milk white legs to the world! I should though because I know he'd love it. He always saves his best smiles for bathtime!

Speaking of which, it was my birthday yesterday and as I was getting us ready to go out to dinner, I decided to take him in the bath with me. It was all going so well until he began to get that familiar "red and strainy" look... NOOO! Jumped up but it was too late. Really wasn't the kind of present I wanted to be given on my birthday, but at least it's good blackmail material for when he's older!

I've just been and changed his milk today because he's been suffering quite badly with wind and bringing an ounce or two of milk back up every feed, so changed from SMA gold to aptamil as I heard it's closer to breastmilk. It's a bit more expensive than SMA but if it helps his tummy it's totally worth it. Rather that than constantly be dosing him up with infacol and gripe water!

Hope everyone's doing ok, fairly quiet on here lately! we must all be being run ragged by our lo's!

gill - why do they close the baby pool? ours are always open.

loler - you boast away! you'll need to share your tips with the rest of us! especially the sleep issue (DD1 was up again last night she started off shouting 'there's something happening in my room, i'm going to tell my mummy' and stormed through to our room) we then had the i'm hungry, thirsty, need the toilet etc.

conker - glad your ytalk went well!

james - what a resemblance

oh need to go

Hi all - Happy Birthday for yesterday Loler

Hope everyone is doing ok, well we have finally turned a corner with our grumpy little boy and after changing milk, believe it or not FROM aptimial to Sma he is so much better, apparently Apitimail has an extra mineral in it ( which is fish oil ) thats some babies cant digest very well, My son loved aptimial, would explain why he is some clever now!

After a tough couple of weeks in the pink house i saw the doc and have been diagnosed with PND , feel like such a failure, i have NO history of depression. scored 17 out of 20 - seems that the baby has got himself out of his bad time but im well and truly stuck! She has given me AD but unsure if i want to start taking them but know that it will make me feel better. Just have to not worry about the housework ( anxiety and panic attacks have been so many the last week), must just focus on the positives

oh Pink - you are most certainly NOT a failure. PND is so common, probably more than we actually realise as it is so easy to answer the questions untruthfully. I think we put so much pressure on ourselves - want the perfect non crying, non puking, sleeping well baby whilst having time for the rest of the family, keeping house clean and tidy, making dinner, working etc etc. Just take one day at a time and don't commit yourself to do anything until you are feeling better. don't want to scare you but one of my friends didn't want to take the tablets and kept putting it off until she got so much worse that it actually took them longer to work and ended up taking a stronger dose for longer. take care!

i had to defrost the car this morning - the ice was solid on it - so i guess that means that winter is nearly here

Poor pink. You aren't a failure, PND can happen to any woman, it isn't anyone's fault. If I were you I would take the AD's as they will help and you'll feel more able to cope. It's hard enough to care for a baby 24/7 when you aren't dealing with depression, god knows how you do it when you have two children to care for and PND.

Take all the help offered, so you can start enjoying your lo again. Does your other half help out with the housework? You shouldn't have to do everything yourself every day. Finances permitting, you could think about getting a cleaner in for a couple of hours a week? Local students will often do cleaning for £5 or £6 an hour just for a bit of drinking money. (God knows I'd do that if I could afford it!)

Pink - you so aren't a failure - I agree with the pressure that is put on you to be perfect (mainly by yourself!) - Looking back I think I had PND with ds1 but never bothered filling in the questionnaire - wasn't chased up either!! Took me about 6 months before felt any where near coping. The biggest positive for you is that it has been recognised so people can start watching out for you. I think my friends were waht got me through - make sure you talk about how you feel, doesn't make it go away but def helps. Rubbish one hand typing - sorry!

I now need to go and pack.......

hi all,

and big hug for you pink.
Don't for one moment blame yourself or thing you're not doing a bloody good job. We all know how full on this baby stuff is and I'm sure we all have had and will have some low moments. I'd take the AD's if I were you and see how you're feeling in a few weeks time. If you had an infection you'd take antibiotics, same logic here PND is a kind of clash of hormones, stress, sleepness and battling the day to day I feel.

I often check this thread but don't write as I don't feel like I have any jolly news, same with emailing/ phoning friends I put it off until I'm feeling bright and cheery.
Thanks for letting us know about this, statistically there must be more of us with PND than we realise.

Anyway we've been here for each other through the piles/ morning sickness to cracked nipples etc and this will pass too pink, it's not forever.

Happy belated birthday banana. Hope you had a nice time. You might find that James is just taking too much milk. My dd was greedy and always took more than she needed and twice a day she would bring up a couple of ounces 5 or 10 minutes after she had finished the bottle. How much is he having at each feed? Perhaps try reducing it a bit. I've used Cow and Gate with both of mine and they've never suffered much with wind/indigestion.

I think they close the pool sometimes because they don't have enough staff. The pool was packed with kids yesterday. Last time the excuse I got was because there was a lesson starting in an hour!

Hugs to you pink. Sorry to hear about the PND. Let's get this meet up sorted out soon. Might help you to chat to us.

Banana, sorry to hear of your "extra" birthday pressie. Hope you had a nice time out.

Pink, you def aren't a failure. Its nobodys fault just mother nature being a bit crap on us women sometimes. I had depression after the partial molar pregnancy last year and was prescribed AD. At the time I didn't want to take them and couldn't see how they were going to help but boy was I wrong. Within a month I was feeling much better and not long after I was feeling my usual self (well, almost). Seriously, please take them and make sure you have someone to talk to too.

Dh goes back to work tomorrow after having nearly 2 weeks off. He's been a real pain today. DS is getting jealous when I'm with DD but I do have to change her nappy and feed her sometimes. While I've been doing this DS has been running off with things I need and generally being a brat and DH has just sat there texting his mates or playing on the computer and when I asked for help he went in a big sulk. Perhaps I should start bottle feeding and just leave him too it for a coupld of days! Bl**dy men.

Hi pink, echo what the others are saying, pnd is not something you choose any more than choosing diabetes, you wouldn't deprive yourself of glucose if you were diabetic, so why give yourself a hard time about anti depressants, they aren't addictive and can help lift you until your hormones sort themselves out. You won't need them for ever. Thinking of you. Have you got any real life mums and babies groups or the like to talk to as well.

Bum, I just wrote a long post and lost it! grr

Gill, he was having 4oz of SMA gold about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, although the tub said 5oz every 4 hours, he couldn't stomach a full 5oz, and would always bring up the extra ounce if I managed to get it down him at all. Now we've switched to aptamil and new bottles which are supposed to help with wind he is taking 5oz every 4 hours, bring much less back, and at night seems to be going even longer, usually 5 or 6 hours, which is wonderful!

Wish I could do something about his chronically blocked nose though, poor little thing snuffles all night long and struggles to feed. I bought a bulb type nasal aspirator but either I'm using it wrong or it's rubbish because it doesn't seem to draw anything out at all. I've also tried cotton buds but they don't seem to help, and it really pisses him off.

Realised yesterday we'd forgotten to apply for child tax credit or working tax credit, and you can only get it backdated three months, which is a bit worrying as he's ten weeks old today, and with the postal strikes, we may not even get the paperwork for a week or two. Duh!! The money should come in handy for christmas when it finally comes through though.

I know, I know, I said the C word (no, not that one) it's making me shudder every time I see christmas stuff in woolworths. It's that time of year again already, seems to come earlier every year! But to be honest I think I've already decided on getting James a Spin and Explore Garden Gym for christmas since he loves using his legs, and quite likes having tummytime. Our house is slowly filling up with useless soft toys he isn't interested in so I'll be telling everyone to hold off on the teddies, thanks! Anyone thought about christmas yet>?

I know what you mean about dh's Ineedsomesleep. I spend most of every evening doing washing, washing up and other chores that I haven't been able to do during the day. Dh will sit there on the laptop telling ds to stop whinging. It doesn't occur to him to pick him up and see what's wrong.

Glad you got the wind sorted out banana. It probably helps that we've always used MAM bottles which are anti colic. There are holes in the bottom covered but a ring of rubber which lets the air in at the bottom. Dd used to be able to down a 10oz bottle without stopping cos she could breathe while feeding.

Ds's cold seems to be getting better. I've been tying a muslin covered in karvol to the bars of the cot so it's near his head. It does seem to help.

Christmas is going to be difficult this year. We're so much in debt and that's with only 2 months getting SMP. The rest of my mat leave has been full pay and holiday. Unfortunately everyone is going to have to put up with very cheap presents and I mean £5 or less. Luckily we've already bought all of dd's presents (that's one reason why we've got no money - dh can't help himself). Poor old ds is probably going to get nothing from us. He doesn't need any clothes as we're lucky enough to know loads of people with little boys and we get lots of hand-me-downs. He won't need any toys either as we've got all of dd's old baby toys in the loft. We're going to ask other people for Argos vouchers or money for him so I can get a Beba Babycook for when he's weaned. It beats having to boil or steam and then puree separately in a liquidiser. It does it all for you.

You should look out for Mega packs of baby dry nappies. I found them in Morrisons today. A box of 105 was £11.48 but a Mega box was 156 for £13. Sorry - I know that's not very interesting but saves lots of money.

Oh my god Gill, your whole first paragraph IS my day exactly. I don't know why the menfolk don't take the initiative when the babies are crying, they just sit there calling the baby's name and getting irritated until you come in and pick them up. Do you think maybe they're doing that man thing of acting all crap so they don't have to do it in future? Most men will try that with the washing up etc. Very frustrating!

I actually bought some nappies from lidl the other day, and they're pretty good considering they were cheap! They were 56 for £4.99. James (aka chubbychops) is in size 3 nappies now, but I have three packets of size 2's left- technically they do still fit but they're getting leaky! not sure what to do with them, maybe I'll see if the local shelter wants them.

Last christmas we were really skint so we bought everyone chocolate, and everyone was happy! There's always loads of 3 for 2 deals on chocolates in the supermarkets, we might do it again this year, and just get a few extra bits for the kids in the family. It's always an expensive time of year though, no matter how you try to keep costs down! We might be moving at christmas too so this year will be interesting...

Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? I'm mostly going to be doing some batch cooking for the freezer, how rock n roll am I? :D

hi everyone - sorry to hear about the pnd pink - dont have any advice i'm afraid so can only offer a virtual hug.

ds loves swimming too - cant remember if i posted about taking him already so sorry if i am repeating myself, but we stayed in for ages and only got out cause dh and i thought we should. think ds would have stayed in all day.

he seems to be sleeping through a bit better now - put him down at 10 last night and had friends round so didnt go to bed ourselves at the same time - first time I've really done that so was good to have a bit of adult time after 10.

i love the way that you start to know your baby so that you know the signals of when they are hungry and tired etc - sure its old hat for you second timers but its new for me and i love it.

as for this weekend dh and his friend plumbed in our new dishwasher so no more piles of dirty dishes for me - yippee. and i have put the fruit for our christmas cake to soak in sherry and will make the cake either tomorrow or monday.

I think men just think that what they're doing is more important than what we're doing.

conker - even for us second timers it's fun learning the different signals from your baby as they're all different. Ds puts his hand to his mouth when he's got wind - dd never did that.

We went to a country park with fil and his girlfriend yesterday. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air. Ds was wrapped up lovely and warm and went to sleep shortly after we started walking. Dd loved it. She ran around loads and we collected lots of leaves for collages. She was asleep before we got out of the car park. It must have worn her out cos she doesn't have naps as much these days.

Hello - !! haven't caught up properly - pink -sorry to hear things are bad - take the AD's - give them a chance to work, and accept that Depression is a physicaly thing, it is a lack of serotonin, therefore drugs are good as they help you get a grip on things. Hope the w/e is ok for you.

rugby result... DH stropped off coz I wanted o watch the medals ceremony, and he said South Africa had 16 players (15 plus ref).. bad loser.

Holiday was ok. DH actually held Evie and made himself look useful. Nice days out, to Malham Cove, RAilways and some cool caves called white scar caves. Nearly lost DS down off the metal footpath, but other than that great!!

Evie slept from 7.30 til 0500!!!! Hurrah. Bet it won't happen more than once though!

Will talk more later - DH in loo so thought I'd grab a moment.

I am having a bit of a naughty mum moment right now, James is lying next to me on the sofa with a helium balloon tied loosely around his ankle, kicking away and beaming at the dancing balloon! He's been distracted by it for 10 minutes now, just enough time for a coffee and to check emails!

On a bit of a low ebb today, I have asked dp to do some of the night feeds/changes next weekend as I realised that he's getting away with doing very little. During the week I don't ask him to do anything as he's been in work, and at weekend he usually does nothing because it's "his time off" but it means I always do every night feed even though we're mostly bottlefeeding now, as well as all the housework, laundry, and all the extra washing up and sterilising bottlefeeding brings with it.

I'm finding myself feeling more and more resentful about it, and it never gets resolved since lately he has no patience for talking things through. I just get accused of "going on at him" and repeating myself, although it's hard not to when you get absolutely no response the first time you say it!

Men seem to have an innate knack for making you feel like the dullest creature on earth. I'm only 26, ffs, it's depressing when he makes me feel like I'm so boring. He barely spoke to me all day yesterday. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells, like it could start a row just to ask him to feed the baby or take him off me for a bit.

Anyway, sorry for moaning. I just feel a bit sad about it all, like maybe I need some time away.