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??????

annie she is absolutely gorgeous - such a cute pixie picture.

have to admit about the bottles for expressing that i havent been using a special brush - probably should have been but forgot until tt mentioned it.

and my one tip is to do it as early in the morning as you can. i find it a million times easier to get a good lot expressed if i feed ds on one side when he wakes up, go and drink water and have my weetabix and then express on the other side. dont suppose waiting for the water and weetabix is necessary but its just in my mind that it'll help with milk production.

have added one of ds too - dressed up for his first halloween party yesterday.

afternoon all!

we had our 12 week injections today - nowhere near as exciting as mamamila's. she was a star - just a wee cry and then big smiles for the nurse. she is now "16lb 7oz and 64cm"!!!!

i think i might need to change my name to my2biggirls

pink- like the pics. glad you are coping of your wee ones sleep! and well done for coping with DH being away. DP was home later from work last night and i struggled for that extra hour with the two of them. but that was mainly because DD1 wasn't very well behaved yesterday. so dora the explorer doll was put away in the towel cupboard - she will get her back tonight if she's been good.

conker - yes, def need a scottish one! i don't know if there is anyone else up here???

annie - your pics are gorgeous

she fast asleep doing wee snores in my arms just now - off to see if i can out her down and go get some coffee....

conker - have you seen this thread?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1368/412992?ts=1193926142599

all the lovely pictures ! Our screwed up newborns are now looking like babies!

Gill - don't write off bf for no. 3. I was a complete failure for the first 2 but not sure how to stop for ds2 - I can see him feeding until he's 18 I'll be going along to the pub with him to give him a top up before bed!

Talking about meet-ups, I seem to remember there being quite a few people in the north midlands. Can't remember who though?

Anyone else have problems remembering what they were going to add? I start typing and everytime my mind goes blank!

Hi guys, glad to hear you're getting on ok Pink!

Conker, Annie and Pink, your photos are lovely, I won't add any more just yet because my profile is bursting with them

Well, James is also parked in front of cbeebies (the tweenies- ugh) at the moment, beaming, gurgling and squealing at the screen! I need ten minutes off, he's lovely but he's barely slept today and wants to stand up constantly, so my arms are dropping off from supporting him. I hope this means he's going to sleep like a log tonight.

Just heard back from the child tax credits folk who said I'm due a backpayment of £270- just in time for christmas, which is nice!

Oh dear, bad mummy...James has fallen asleep in his bouncy chair in front of the TV. Oops.

lol, Loler YES I forget what to add, that's why I came back to post again. We can't even blame it on pregnancy porridge brain now, we're just rubbish!

Gill, meant to answer your question about mix feeding. It has worked really well for us, though I felt desperately guilty for introducing formula at all in the beginning. I haven't really pushed a routine although obviously when I go back to work I'll have to get his feeds more structured. I just give a 6oz bottlefeed every 3-5 hours, and breastfeed him when I want to, or he wants to.

It usually means he has one in the morning while I eat my breakfast so I have a hand free to eat and then he gets his bottle which has been cooling while I bf him. He doesn't always finish the full bottle then but it doesn't matter.

He usually has a bf while I eat my dinner too because he ALWAYS wakes up and screams as I'm putting food out in the evening, I swear he has a bloody alarm clock. Hands up who has gotten used to eating lukewarm food with their left hand?

I normally give him a feed to get him off to sleep AFTER his big bottle of milk at night, as it's more for comfort than anything, although I'm going to start putting him down whilst still awake now he's going in his cot.

Sometimes if he wakes in the night after his first bottle I put him on the boob to see if he'll go back to sleep without a second. He normally falls asleep within two minutes. But for us at least there's no hard and fast rules I could do formula all day one day and then replace a whole bottlefeed in the middle of the night when I'm engorged, or I could feed him now and then all day without worrying about how much milk I have because it isn't important, I know the bottles are on standby.

And vice versa! I find it most handy when you've forgotten to get a bottle ready on time- keeps him quiet until dp has the bottle ready for him.

Obviously exclusive breastfeeding is the best option nutritionally, but for convenience and versatility, mix feeding is great. If I were you, I'd give exclusive breastfeeding another go with the next one, at least for the first two or three weeks to get your supply going, then just see how you get on. The next baby may have a better latch so you're less sore?

God, sorry for rambling. Being concise has never been my strong point.

Thanks Banana that's great. I do intend to give exclusive bf a good go but I'd like to think there's a way the baby can still get mostly my milk and I don't get too stressed. Also I would think once the soreness had gone I could work at building my supply up again afterwards.

Thanks loler - what made you successful this time? I thought I'd done really well by getting loads of help from Surestart when I was pg. A midwife came round and told me she could help but, with hindsight she really didn't have a clue and I ended up bleeding after she helped me get ds latched on.

Dd got quite upset at pre school today. She was crying and asking for mummy She wouldn't let any of the women comfort her so the only way they could think to stop her crying was to get her to play with her cousin. Last night she was much better about not having her bottles. She did cry but went to sleep much earlier thankfully.

Had first lot of injections today. Caitlin was a star - very loud cries after the second one but within a minute she had settled in my arms with her dummy and then fell asleep. She's now 12lb 2oz and doing well the dr said. We had a session at a photograghers on Monday and went back this afternoon to preview the results. They were beautiful so we have ordered 2 each for the grandparents as their Xmas presents - dead easy - lazy Mummy!.

Mam - if you don't get good childrens chanels it might be worth investing in a baby einstein DVD.

Would love to join the RL meet up. TT - very kind of you to offer to host - very brave. I hosted our weekly NCT class meet up yesterday and there are only 6 babies which fills up our living room to capacity! I'm only 30 mins from you - up the M11 near Stansted.

Oh Hersetta it'd be lovely to meet you and Caitlin. Maybe we could even get our diaries organised for Spain too.... Now, we just need a date. How about two weeks from Tuesday as an opening bid ? Not sure what date that'll be but anyway, just all let me know availability or any other preferences.

Or Mamamila, as an alternative to buying expensive baby Einstein DVDs, just ask someone in the UK to video a range of toys bought at a car boot sale and play a classical music compilation that came free with the Daily Mail 5 years ago at the same time...... Just a suggestion [hwink]

Halloween ones obviously no longer working !!

Two weeks from Tuesday is the 20th which is fine by me - can make any location.

As for Spain we're going just after New Year for the 3 kings holiday which is on 6th January which is their version of Xmas day - my Mum said it is a great time to go with lots of parades and festivals. Will be there from around the 1st/2nd to the 10th. Alternatively will also be there during the last week in Feb - just before I go back to work.

When are you going?

ah lovely photos annie and conker, i love babies in pixie and halloween outfits!

and pink your boys are so cute, is ds1 v helpful? what's the age gap between them?

and glampuss TT, little Paddy looks adorable. he really looks like you

although not having seen his dad i wouldn't know really! it makes us laugh how half of people we meet say mila looks exactly like me and the others say exatly like her dad

well great excitement here as my figleaves parcel arrived, 2 Anita underwired nursing bras - they're brilliant, lovely fit i'm so happy to look perky again. and 2 pairs of high waisted miracle knickers! they were only £16 and after a battle get them on the'y're very comfy and do the job. they feel great on my back too v supportive and remind me to correct my posture.

and my velcro baby is sleeping in her pram on the front porch, thank gawd! i thought she'd never learn to close her eyes when not being carried and rocked but maybe there's hope

and i'm looking at ski holidays for next easter. we usually go to US as our income's in $'s here. but it's all hingeing on good childcare facilities. if anyone has any ideas love to hear

20th is fine with me too.

Ds had his last bottle at 8.45 last night, was asleep by 10 and didn't wake up til 7am Maybe I won't have to use the hungry baby stuff after all. If he hadn't been coughing at 4am I wouldn't have woken up at all.

Good for you mama. That wll save your back a bit.

Hi guys, I'm away for the weekend now so I'll probably be back online monday, hope you all have nice weekends! xxx

Quiet on here today.

I had a minor victory today. I managed to get dd to eat 2 vegetables without her even realising. I made leek and potato soup and she always tells me she hates potatoes.

Hope you have a nice weekend banana.

Hi folks

Mamamila good news about miss velcro, long may it last.

Pink, glad to hear youre doing okay at the moment, must be a pressure being fine all the time.

Great photos conker and annie, theyre all getting so grown up.

Meet up, Devon's a long way. Not so far from Cardiff tho Annie, only 3-4 hours gulp, anyone else in the south west?

Annie, I also have electric Medela, its great if a bit noisy and I got it from ebay, even came with some freezer bags, there were loads for sale when I got mine, about £10.

Lovely photos everyone they change so quickly at this stage. I've now uploaded some recent ones aswell.

Loler I am in the North Midlands - Burton on Trent way I think there are also some others close by so maybe we could do a midlands meet up as well ?

as are yours stretchmarks -so cute. lovely smiley boy and i love the ones with both boys- looks like they get on really well.

took ds on his first protest today - a march in edinburgh against trident. not sure he was that impressed. but he seemed to like the edinburgh architecture. he's been awake for most of the day, so I;'m really hoping that means he will sleep well tonight.

off tomorrow to Keith to start my kilt course on monday. might not be on the internet till next week when we will hopefully be staying with my parents (they are currently on holiday so cant ask them - hope they wont be too surprised at my thoughts on a change of career). so, hope everyone has a good week, and will try my best to catch up in a weeks time.

hi everyone finally put some pics of lo on. ive been so busy lately and am now completely lost in the conversation. lo is still waking at rediculous times and my 2 youngest got their injections at the same time, just to make things more difficult.

is this thread closed today

Hi Tasha, it's been a bit quiet for a few days. How did your lo sleep last night?

thats what happens when banana goes away!

stretchmarks - I'm near stafford. I'm sure there was someone else down your way. think banana is shropshire?

tasha- your boys are lovely - don't they all look alike. you probably get sick of people saying this - I do, i can't see it myself but i think you see the personality of the child rather than just what they look like. will have to put some photos on and see what people think!

Still recovering from having a few glasses of mulled wine while watching the fireworks! had 11 kids, 1 baby and 2 bumps around - was a very relaxing but very noisy night! While merry we booked a holiday to tenby for next summer together - watch out wales!