August 2021 Babies - They Had To Be Gorgeous, Just Look At Us

[PurplePansy05]

Welcome to the chattiest post-natal club on MN!

We spent a year together chatting about all things pregnancy and baby...

...we've tried and tested countless baby products...

...exchanged hundreds of tips...

...talked about all the big things in life, all the little things, the good times and the tough times...

...we had a good laugh together 😁...

...and somehow we now have gorgeous 3 month old babies without looking a day older ourselves 😅 (must be that good laugh!)

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 💖

Sorry if I've missed anyone, please join in! xx

I agree with Bertie re toys, I do exactly that - check the brand, research it, check if the toy is available outside Amazon, CE/otherwise certified etc. Obviously even reputable manufacturers have some blips that you read about in the press, although most of the time I read these stories in the press and I think well, why were you a stupid parent? People often ask for trouble by not using the item properly or leaving their children unsupervised and then they moan. I appreciate things will get harder once the kids are mobile, but there's no excuse for some of it.

Anyway, regarding the cheap shit toys, I was given a couple as part of larger gifts (think baby hampers/boxes) from Etsy - beware of those. I found for example little rabbit cuddly toys (comforters type) with tiny plastic eyes that can easily come off and be swallowed. Whoever thought about producing them must have been on the brink of madness. Common sense goes a long way xx

@WolfMother326I’m sorry you’re having difficult second vaccinations. We did too - DS’s temperature got to 38.2 and I was ready to go to hospital but actually it came down pretty quickly after peaking to a high but not very high 37.6. He was warm for a full 24/36 hours after the shots but then fine. So yes it’s possible - and, I was advised, quite normal - to get a fever even without MenB. I hope your baby is feeling better now.

On baths, we bath DS every other night and it does seem to help him sleep. He isn’t dozy after it or anything but the warmth is meant to make them feel reassured and relaxed and so consequently quite sleepy. Other nights DH reads him a story before swaddling him - tends to take two books and then he’s essentially asleep.

We changed formula yesterday, after finishing a tin of specialist lactose free stuff. My god, that has not been a fun experiment. He’s been in so much pain - it’s been like the days when he was tiny and incredibly colicky and just screamed an hour after every meal. We’ve given it 24 hours - now giving away the rest of the HIPP and back to the fancy Nutramigen stuff. Oh dear :(

Oh yes you need to be careful on Etsy as well. Lots of small producers on there who perhaps don't actually realise toys need to be produced to certain safety standards. Seems obvious if you think about it, but I think there's very little enforcement and they are producing on such a small scale that the chances of someone having an accident and suing them are pretty small.

Thanks for the reminder about the C pillow! Mine has been kicked under the cot but will probably get it out again :)

I think sometimes they must get a sore leg from the jabs going by how my arm felt after the covid/DTAP ones. Loose clothing, cuddles, milk and calpol all go a long way.

Oh and I've been putting him to bed and leaving with the video monitor for the last couple of weeks, except on nights he doesn't settle. I've found the video is so good I can see his breathing on it.

We just tried the C pillow for tummy time and it was a great success!

The amazon rattles I looked at are all more expensive than Lamaze! They’ve arrived today and are pretty cool, baby was a bit 🤨 at them though 😂

@WolfMother326 hope the temperature has gone now and you all had a good night? I was told that they can still get unwell after and the nurse recommended calpol anyway, similar to what Bertie said about the sore leg, she said even if no temperature their legs might be sore and the calpol will help (we also don’t do a bath on jab today incase the water stings the area. It probably won’t but just incase!)

@Whatshouldbemyusername hope tummy time goes well! Also hope you had a good night with a long stretch of sleep!

@RandomCatGenerator ouch that sounds painful, at least the nutriwhatsit one works and the hipp is out of his system? Horrible when they’re uncomfortable!

Baby resisted his nap today, not like him, took an hour of walking him round to drop off…. I’m ready for a nap now too!!!!

Thanks everyone. My baby is still unwell today. He's not got as high of a fever now but has been screaming and crying which is very unusual for him. Seems like he's in pain and keeps running his head. The Calpol works for a few hours. Hoping tomorrow is better and trying not to worry

*rubbing his head

@WolfMother326 could you try some ibuprofen to see if that helps too? Even for in between calpol doses if he needs it.. I think they can have it from 3 months too

@WolfMother326 we had 2 days of similar this week. High temp of 38.5 and lots of ear and face rubbing so not sure if he felt very under the weather. I gave calpol and ibuprofen as well and he’s pretty much fully recovered now. Did get a bit worried yesterday as his temp went down to 35.7 but it didn’t last long.

Having more success with hipp ready made formula. Don’t want to buy a whole box yet in case he starts rejecting it too. Although he likes it warm. Tried to give it to him straight out the bottle which had been in my bag after a walk and he refused. High maintenance child!

@WolfMother326 @wimbler I hope your babies feel much better soon x

I'm pretty convinced DD is starting the 3/4 month sleep issues. She's waking every 2 hours at night now and it's so brutal. Absolutely knackered. She's also feeding extra at night during the day so it's obviously a growth spurt. Hope it resolves itself soon

Thanks everyone. Feeling so relieved, baby woke up from sleeping on and off all day (punctuated by screaming and crying) and smiled a bit and wanted to eat and play. So glad he seems past it.

@Ready2020 ugh that sounds awful. Hopefully it won't last long!

Oh @Ready2020 that sounds so tough - hopefully short lived for you! I'm dreading when DS starts hitting it, he's 13 weeks now so can't be far away

Thank you @BertieBotts for the reminder about toy safety standards - I realised the wrist rattles I bought don't have the CE mark, so they need to go back

Possibly a silly question - I got DS weighed today and he's at the 90th centile (no wonder my back is shot!), where at previous weigh ins he's been at the 91st. Is that something to worry about? I always see about dropping centiles, but one centile doesn't feel like it should be an issue?

@biscuitcat my DD dropped about 20 and the HV didn't seem bothered. DD was going through a boob aversion phase leading up to the HV visit though. I'm hoping her weight improves next visit.

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA. It’s been so busy over here. I’ve set up a business making children’s clothing (madness yes?!) and whilst looking after Ebony!

She’s been doing really well though now we have the milk allergy and reflux all under control! Still my little dot at 11lbs! I haven’t had chance to read the whole thread but I really hope you’re all doing ok!

Picture update of Ebby xx

@Jessicapebbles congrats on the business! Is it going well? Are you planning to do that instead of returning to work? I’m hoping to do something similar!

DH phoned me today to check if it was okay if he could work away next week. So he’s flying down to London on Monday and won’t be back til Friday 😥 Not sure how I’ll cope but just glad he sleeps every night without any issues so I’ll at least have 12 hours to myself then but I think my day at the moment revolves around looking forward to him getting in so he can help. Even just washings, dishes, cleaning bottles, feeding the dog and cleaning is a full time job never mind the baby 😂

That isn't how you count dropping centiles so don't worry :) it sounds like you're using an app? If you look at the chart in the red book you'll see that marked on there are the 0.2th, 2nd, 9th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 91st, 98th and 99.8th. those big lines are the only numbers we pay attention to. So if your baby is on the 90th according to the app then that's very close to or just below the 91st. You wouldn't count him as dropping a centile unless he went down to the 75th.

Babies will usually dip over and under the line they are following, that's perfectly normal as the centiles are averages so they are a lot smoother than how babies grow in real life. We either say that they are following a particular line e.g. 91st and it's ok if they dip over and under that line but it would be considered dropping if they started to measure closer to the 75th instead.

Or we say they are between two lines and in this case you'll see lots of measurements between two lines e.g. between the 9th and 25th.

If they cross over two centile lines that's indicative of a problem, but they can bounce around a fair bit before that happens. And we don't take their birth centile into account any more as there are too many other things that feed into this. So you always take their weight at 2 weeks old/after they regained birth weight (if that took longer) as a starting point, then you're comparing like with like. For some reason though loads of health visitors and GPs don't seem to know this even though it's written in the book? So should be part of their training

So DS was a bit constipated this week, but we finally had a normal poop - awesome. Anyobe else's baby on infant Gaviscon slightly constipated? I've dropped Gaviscon completely today, he won't be having any with his top ups and we'll see how we go.

He's 14.5 weeks now and today he slept for 5 hrs during the day. As you know this certainly isn't like my son, whilst we've been improving on the napping front, this is new. He's in a good mood, lots of smiles and play when he was awake. He fed a bit less today but not through lack of appetite, it's because he slept more. Growth spurt?

Final question to those of you who are bf, would you mind sharing how much time roughly you spend bf now? Or say a rough duration of feed and number of feeds? I've noticed thanks to the Huckleberry app that Leo feeds more or less the same daily and just wondering if other babies are similar to him at this stage. It seems to me he's become more efficient than in the first couple of months? xx

@WolfMother326 Glad to hear he's better now, I bet you were worried earlier. Bless you both

@Jessicapebbles Hello! Congratulations on your new business! How did you manage that with two young kids?? I'm totally amazed! And doesn't Ebby look gorgeous, long legs on her too! Beautiful girl xx

Glad the c pillow was a success for you @BertieBotts it works well here too! Think it’s a lot more comfortable for them.

Isaac had a temperature today after his jabs yesterday the poor little guy. He didn’t feed for a whole 6 hours after them as well in the day which is totally not like him. My boobs were killing! Hoping that he feels better in the morning.

I’ve also packed away all him 0-3 clothes. 😭 I know he’s 14 weeks but it still makes me a little sad as I don’t plan on anymore kids.

Hope everyone is doing well as well.

Dd is on the 25th centipede and I was told it was good as she stayed on same centipede as last time but When I look at the red book I can see at the last weigh in she was much closer to the 50th centile line whereas now she is just about on the actual 25thcentile line marker but hv wasn't bothered as I said.
With ds he started so low down with only 2nd centile for weight but 75th for length that for good first year he followed his own line crossing up centiles at bear enough each weigh in he'd made it up to between 50-75th centile at his last check before covid hit again no worries from anyone though

Oh and forgot to add - @lucyrp I felt like my period was about to start several times but it never happened (thank god!). However, I noticed some CM, ovulation like. It's baffling - maybe this is how some women get pregnant unexpectedly soon after the birth regardless of bf! But then if it's ovulation, how is there no period after? Our bodies can play real tricks sometimes xx

@PurplePansy05 DD feeds for roughly 1 and a half hours altogether in a 12 hour time period. About 10 minutes a feed where as when we first began it would vary from anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour🥴
Period hasn't arrived as of yet but a terrible fever came over me last night I was so hot and Cold and achey but todag j am fine! So weird xx

Ah thank you @BertieBotts - that makes sense, it felt like worrying about a tiny dip would be silly as things like when the last feed was and if they've poo-ed would have an impact.

@PurplePansy05 I don't really track number of feeds or time, but Rowan is definitely much more efficient now than when he was tiny. Number varies hugely, I think often depending on whether we're at home or out and about - he's so distractible and interested that he often doesn't feed properly when out so we end up feeding far more often, whereas at home he frequently goes 3 hours between feeds in the day

@Jessicapebbles you're a superwoman! Did you make her trousers? They're gorgeous!

Thank you @lucyrp @biscuitcat. Leo seems to feed around 2 hrs 30 mins - 2 hrs 45 mins in a 24 hour period plus his top ups which recently amount to two full 6oz bottles (definitely a growth spurt!). He spends around 15 mins on each breast per feed. It is quite interesting to see because I thought there are days when he feeds less, for example when we're out and busy, but actually he must be making up for it when we're home cause the daily numbers are surprisingly consistent xx