August 2021 Babies - Running on Caffeine and Baby Smiles

[PurplePansy05]

Welcome to the chattiest post-natal club on MN!

We have welcomed 31 gorgeous new babies together 💖💙 ...

We have filled up several more like a hundred threads in the antenatal birth clubs chat...

...and now we have finally graduated and officially moved to the postnatal birth clubs chat! 🥳

Graduates of the August 2021 (and thereabouts) thread:

@Smurf123 & baby Sophia 💖
@wimbler & her baby boy 💙
@Jessicapebbles & baby Ebony💖
@Inmypjsagain & her baby boy 💙
@PurplePansy05 & baby Leo Alexander 💙
@WinterBabyof89 & baby Rosie 💖
@Winecoffeeteamum & baby Emily 💖
@Ready2020 & baby Rowan 💖
@Magik01 & baby Isaac 💙
@Hoares3 & baby Ellis 💙
@Daffodil21 & baby Elliot James 💙
@sarah13xx & baby Freddie 💙
@MrsB2019x & baby Ella💖
@biscuitcat & baby Rowan 💙
@Whatshouldbemyusername & baby Arya-Nyah 💖
@notinthestarsigns & baby Erin 💖
@Aaaaa1519 & baby Anum 💖
@Angelesque & baby Isaac 💙
@Millymay13 & baby Ethan 💙
@WolfMother326 & baby Alasdair 💙
@BertieBotts & baby Alex 💙
@RandomCatGenerator & baby Solomon 💙
@lucyrp & baby Evelyn Rose 💖
@HopefulB & baby Chloé 💖
@Mmr224 & baby Alasdair 💙
@Smallbean27 & her baby boy 💙
@Fran919 & her baby girl 💖
@Caz1226 & baby Dougie 💙
@Ava50x & her baby boy 💙
@dirtyfries & baby Frankie 💖
@ame88 & baby Lily 💖

Tagging @Dia12, @livingwithbees, @Sheisfee, @Alittlexmasmagic and @LottSE20 in the opening post so you know we're here as and when you wish to rejoin/share your updates 💐

Here we go!

Hi there, it's great to hear how you are all doing. Alasdair is 7 weeks now and we are setting down, feeding is going a bit better, but he is still having quite a bit of expressed milk by bottle as well as feeding with nipple shields. My wee girl is 16 months and getting used to having a little brother too. She's getting teeth number 13-16 at the moment so not sleeping well and it's been a hard couple of weeks.

In terms of clothes I've found with her and Alasdair that M&S, Next, Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Zara and Morrisons size on the large size. Primark sizes small and the other supermarkets and JoJo, white company etc are somewhere in the middle. In newborn/first size Primark is 7.7lbs where next is 10lbs which is a huge difference at that age. I've ended up sorting clothes by weight on label rather than size nameas I got caught out with my little girl and ended up some things were too small in the bundles.

We've been really lucky to have other new babies in the family recently who can pass clothes down to us, and another is due soon so we will pass things on again. For my little girl I really liked jasper conran junior J dresses and coats and have been picking them up on ebay etc in barely worn condition. I could do with tips for little boy clothes as we seem to have been given lots of babygrows but no outfits and so far I've only really seen cute stuff in next, it seems much easier to buy cute girl clothes.

I used a couple of hand knitted small chenille wool corner to corner blankets over my wee girl in both infant car seat and pram, and the moved to a cosy toes for the sitting up phase of the buggy. I'm using the same set now with Alasdair, although we've had to get a double buggy which can take a carry cot. My little girl is in a Joie spin seat which goes to 4 and we use a blanket over her too if we're going on a long journey of out in PJs.

A couple of baby and Toddler groups are just about to reopen where we are so I'm hoping to try going next week with both children. Iona has really only met her 5 and 7 year old cousins as the other babies in the family are too far away to meet with, and I've really missed meeting other new mum's.

@Mmr224 I think next and asda have some lovely boys clothes, I'm a sucker for dungarees and we have quite a few from both places!!

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to have a look

@RandomCatGenerator we just plonked his footprint on a couple of coaster type items and a mug then did his name and birthdate. We did the same with dd. I’m so uncreative but there’s some great ideas if you search

At this time of year they had Christmas baubles to do as well. I wish I’d taken both kids to put their prints on one item together but we have prints from them both from the same ish age which is nice

@Mmr24 & mums to boys, I had Maxomorra and Cambridge Baby recommended by mums IRL, planning to buy trousers/dungarees for when he's bigger from there. For now he's got a second hand pair, a pair from JL for 3-6 and I'll get him some more from my local independents. I saw some gorgeous dungarees from The White Company but they were £30 and dark corduroy which wouldn't fare well covered in sick, no way I'd buy at full price. Does anyone else have recommendations on nice and plain boys clothes? I'm fed up with seeing millions of different patterns difficult to match up which make you buy more! DS needs a change of clothes way too often for me to buy this stuff xx

@Daffodil21 that was the right thing to do though! There’s no reasoning with some people 🤦🏼‍♀️ They definitely would think twice if it was their baby or someone in their family. It was the was she used to look at me like I’d just made covid up and she’d never heard of it before 🙈 Luckily I was working from home from mid May after my local authority made it a blanket rule at 28 weeks. Unfortunately for them the work they sent me to complete in the 5 weeks I was off I showed the same interest in as she showed in me when I was asking for help 😌 So they think I’ve done it and won’t realise til they go on looking for something later in the year, by which time im planning to have quit anyway 😂

@sarah13xx absolutely - no regrets!

@Ready2020 glad you had a good baby free time! It’s important to have a break! We’ve got our wedding anniversary coming up so hoping to go for a baby free meal- will be weird!

Haha it sounds like we’re all saying JJMB similarly then 😂 didn’t realise the copper button was a thing in general, it’s only on my M&S ones so far!

Oh I was watching MAFS last night too, I think they had the follow up show on after but I didn’t watch for the spoilers. It’s definitely very dramatised these days though!

@PurplePansy05 think you’re right about the morrck blankets. And hopefully the JL outfits will be fine for 😊 i know you’re not keen on the sizing on H&M but they do lots of plain baby grows/vests in plain colours. www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.0533261044.html Not sure if this link will work but if you search baby grows on their website you’ll see all these come up. I was planning on buying some but we have too much in a 3-6 already, so not sure how this sizing works. He has a 2-4month jumper that is huge so I think maybe sizing comes up a bit big.

@sarah13xx primark kids is surprisingly good actually, but maybe I should try Sainsbury’s for cheaper clothes too. Yes, as @Daffodil21 says our employers all went a bit odd on us. Must be worse now too I think seeing as social distancing is out the window now!

@Mmr224 Aw glad to hear all going well! Storing clothes by weight inside of months is a really good idea!

@wimbler aw that’s so cute! We’ve been recommended a place not too far from us to do that actually. Think you’ve just sold it 😊

@lucyrp sometimes I wonder what he’d say back to me when I’m rabbiting away back at him!

So much to catch up on! Thank you for the new thread @PurplePansy05

I haven’t brought many clothes at all this time as I sawed all of DS1 clothes- mostly from next/Asda/mothercare. Still sad that’s not around anymore!

Currently waiting for a doctors appointment over the phone to diagnose DS1 with either chickenpox or hand foot and mouth. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Not sure how she’s going to do it over the phone though lol. Not ideal timing as it’s his birthday Monday and we were planning on going CBeebies world for the day. And nursery won’t tell me which room chickenpox was discovered in so I have no idea if he’s been in contact with the kid. If it turns out the be HFM I think we are going to pay to get him vaccinated against the pox- I didn’t know it was a thing until I was searching yesterday.

Bertie am I right in thinking the chickenpox vaccine is standard in Germany?

@Mmr224 I agree with PP that Next has lovely boys clothes - as does JJMB. Those are my favourites for DS’ clothes. The animal based outfits - e.g. dinosaur and foxes on the front, with matching ‘paws’ - are particularly sweet without being fully in the realm of costume.

@wimbler that’s lovely. And Christmas baubles - what a great idea!

I can’t be doing with dungarees - maybe I’ve just been unlucky but the ones we’ve been gifted / have been passed down from my sibling are very fiddly, just too many poppers! I’m a bit mystified by trousers roo - they all seem to have v small waits even if the length looks right?

@Inmypjsagain they didn't show the follow up show last night because they messed up on the main show - apparently the main one is on tonight at 9pm though.

@Magik01 you can get mothercare clothes still but only in boots! Hope your DS is ok!

I love next too for both boys and girls, we have a shop called dunnes too but I think it's an Ireland shop. It's where I got our new sleeping bag for £8 instead of £22 for the cheapest one in next. Also asda and tesco 🙂
Any tips on giving gaviscon to breastfed baby? We have finally been prescribed it so hoping it helps. Anyone who gives it do you do it at every feed? I feel like Sophia feeds pretty much all day sometimes.

@Smurf123 one of my NCT group is hand expressing a bit of milk to mix with the gaviscon and syringe feeding it. Seems to work for them!

@Smurf123 Do you express at all? You could mix up with expressed milk. I mix up with the formula top up he gets once per day otherwise he's BF. One sachet per day is enough for him and he gets it just before going to bed at night. xx

@PurplePansy05 not really but I'm sure I could manage a wee bit if I have to.
I'm glad you said 1 sachet is enough for Leo. The prescription label we got says 1 dual sachet in the middle of breastfeeds up to 6 times a day. I was beginning to wonder how id get it into her 6 times in a day.
I followed the instructions on mixing it with cooled boiled water and tried spoon feeding it to her. It took a while but definitely seemed to work better for dd than a syringe or even a bottle.
I am going to try ordering some size 0 mam teats too to see if that helps for a bottle as id like her to be able to take the odd bottle just for me to go out for a little bit longer on my own.
I got my hair done yesterday and my mum kept dd. She tried giving her a bottle but she only took about 50mls and dm said she sounded like she was choking and gagging throughout so hoping slower teat would help

@Smurf123 Yes mine says this too but the GP said to just use when he gets a bottle and to start off with one, if he's still suffering then another one (he currently gets two tops up). One seems enough for him like I said. He very rarely vomits now. Still brings up a bit after most feeds but it's not projectile or violent at all. I don't think we could totally eliminate this, he'd need Gaviscon with every single feed and I think he just needs to grow out of it instead. xx

Am I mad to buy a jumperoo already ?😂 someone I know is selling a Minnie Mouse one for £15 and they're usually £100 so really considering it 🥴

And yes to MAM - I checked mine, we actually have one size 0 and one size 1 teat, I thought they were both 1s, but they're not. Both work well with Gaviscon. 0 is definitely the slowest, I can see the difference between DS having his bottle with a 0 and a 1 teat. He seems to now prefer the latter, he's a bit greedy xx

Thanks @PurplePansy05 my gp seemed a bit determined to diagnose cows milk allergy but I know it's definitely not that - I had it as a baby and have remained pretty intolerant so the only dairy actually in my diet is butter and chocolate and the very occasional slice of pizza - usually I take the cheese off anyway.
She also wants me to get a breastfeeding assessment in case it is to do with that but I don't see how it is. She feeds fine breastfeeding and is gaining weight well. She isn't being sick really either it's just the gagging, choking, hoarse/ gurgly throat and stuffy sounding nose after feeds so going with silent reflux for now and we will see how she finds the gaviscon. Did you notice a difference quite quickly after starting it?
I do think they just need to get a bit bigger too but don't want dd suffering in the meantime if there's something that could help

@lucyrp we are planning on Santa bringing dd one for Christmas. If we see a good one cheap we will buy it to keep for then. My ds was in it from 5 months

Yes, the difference was immediate @Smurf123. I know what you mean, the build up of acid and particularly regular vomiting can be pretty unpleasant for them, my HV said this cam irritate baby's throat. But then the only way for their digestive system to adjust is to use it I guess? So I don't want to have him on Gaviscon all the time if that makes sense. It settles him well with his 10/11pm bottle and he sleeps well after it, so we're sticking to this routine for now. He's generally far better after BF reflux-wise.

He's had everything you've describe, all the noises etc., some straining/arching his back as well. It definitely sounds to me like your DD is the same. If you barely have cows milk it's unlikely she's allergic. I would however introduce formula slowly (if that's what you're thinking as opposed to expressed BM) to see how she gets on with it perhaps, because she's not been exposed much to cows milk xx

@PurplePansy05 thanks I think we will try it after that night time feed for now too.and see how we go. Would also rather she didn't have to have it all the time.

I never thought of that with the formula thank you! Fingers crossed she will be fine with it. It's a pain. Even now for me there are times when I'll eat something out that will set me off and it will be something I haven't even considered having milk in it.

Six week vaccinations today - oooh he’s an unhappy boy. Hope others babies are less sad when they have theirs ❤️

@Smurf123 I've been dairy free for 15 years and wondered how it might affect DD but can't think of any reason it might do anything negative.

@RandomCatGenerator oh no we've got ours on Wednesday! Not looking forward to it.

Last day of granny being here and DDs naps are all over the place. She's asleep now since before 5 so will have a later bed time. Managed to get the nursery tidied though for DD to take naps in there during the day sometimes.

@lucyrp I can't wait for DD to use a jumperoo! They are so cute. I think it'll be a Christmas present.

@Smurf123 that's what I was thinking of doing!

@RandomCatGenerator I haven't even had an appointment for that yet? We've got our 6 week check booked in for 7 weeks but haven't had anything about the immunisations yet, should I have ?

@Ready2020 DS used to love the door bouncer !