August 2021 Babies - From Santa to Solids, Hohoho!

[PurplePansy05]

Here we go again!

I'd do another delightful intro, alas I've lost count which thread this is now and we all know our LO's names anyway 😁

So instead I will just say, Merry First Christmas together to you and your LOs! 🎄❤🎁

May the sleep regression pass as soon as they see Santa later this week...

...May they love weaning and may our kitchens survive...

...May 2022 be full of blessings for them and for us ❤❤❤

Oldcomers and newcomers welcome, as always! 🥰

He's refusing to be put down in his crib. Ffs. Normally he goes straight back down but lately he's taken a bit of encouragement. An hour later and he's fucking about! We're only on the first feed of the night!

@Inmypjsagain the premade was 7oz instead of 8, and he's just taken another 2oz, so I guess that answers the question on will he take a slightly lower feed 🤷‍♀️ hopefully he'll settle the F down now but I'm not convinced

@Daffodil21 oh nooo! Hopefully it’s a minor blip and he’s sleeping through again soon! I’ve missed a whole lot on here.. is he in the big cot? Somehow I’m still living on planet smug on the sleeping front, I still pinch myself on a daily basis that it’s still going. I just don’t see or hear from him at all from 7pm-8am, keep waiting on something ruining it but we haven’t done the switch to the big cot yet or to his new room when we move house.

@Ready2020 nooo, I love the name Rowan! It was on my girl name list, although lovely for boys as well. I only saw it as a girls name because I’d taught the most lovely little p1 girl I’ve ever taught and her name was Rowan. I totally get the name doubts though

I’m still getting by on very little sleep but nothing to do with him 🤣 up til 1am every night then back up at 6 to get more orders done before he wakes. If he was to decide to stop sleeping now I think I’d have to shut down my business because it’s fully dependent on getting them done then! DH is working all day then coming back and going to our new house to work for hours so it’s definitely not easy for him but having him almost all day by myself is hard going now! I tried to do an order yesterday while he was there and it took almost the entire day due to how many times I had to stop and start. I took him to my mums so I could keep going and she interrupts so many times asking if I can just make a bottle, open the door, hold him a second etc.. then when I say eh I really need to get on with this she says ‘well how am I supposed to do it myself?!’ Eh the same way I do the other 23 hours of the day 🙈

Oh and we have our first water babies class today.. let’s see if it’s worth the almost £1 per minute 🤣🤣

The hair loss is just losing the hair that didn't fall out during pregnancy that normally would. It gets better by itself. I don't think a blood test is a bad idea if you feel low in energy though.

DS2 came back positive on a covid rapid test and now I think I and the baby have it been a horrendous night. He's just so unhappy bless him. We've given him calpol as he's been spiking a temp.

@Daffodil21 ugh sounds like you had a night of it, did he eventually settle? Was he up again? He is drinking alot in the night isn’t he, hopefully weaning will help!

We were up at 3 and 5, I got him back to sleep in his cot at 3 quite quickly but it looked like he was ready to start the day at 5 so it took time to get him back to sleep. Hope he goes back to his old normal soon!

@sarah13xx great business is doing so well! I hope the good sleep continues forever!

@BertieBotts oh no Bertie, poor Leo! And poor you and Alex :( hopefully just a mild case that’s gone soon. One of our NCT babies had covid and it really didn’t sound fun, calpol will definitely be needed. Do you all have coughs? Hope you have some support so that you can rest too

@Inmypjsagain eventually he went down after another helping of milk, so my premade for a quick wake up had the opposite effect. In the end DH took over but it still took a while to get him down, and it was just the extra milk that did it. Then he woke again at 5. He didn't have the whole 8oz but he did have about 6. It's not so bad atm because my mum is here until Monday, so I pass him over anytime after 6 and go back to bed for a bit. I'm working in the evenings atm, I've just set up two business - one of them hasn't gone live yet because I'm still working on the content, and the other one is live and I have one project (it's for my in-laws, but it's still a proper job and needs the same amount of time) so I can't go to bed early to allow for all his wake ups. I'm thinking of just not bothering to go up until his first wake up tonight and turning the monitor on so I know when to go up and warm a bottle. I really can't be doing with going to bed for an hour then waking up again so soon after, and my mum will be here in the morning so the late night with wake ups won't be as bad, and I really need to just get some stuff done.

@sarah13xx he's still in his first crib. We're wondering if moving to a bigger cot with a softer mattress will help. We'll move him after my mum goes on Monday, but I might put him in the travel cot tonight and see if that makes a difference as it's a bit softer 🤷‍♀️ enjoy the 7-8!!! Hopefully it will be long lasting

@Daffodil21 that sounds similar to my baby's sleep at the moment. Up a lot more than previously and back to marathon cluster feeds. Except that he's stronger now and my poor boobs are starting to hurt.

I'm thinking about starting to properly combination feed because I feel a bit overwhelmed by the demand and also he's really fussy and screamy a lot lately so I'm worried he's hungry but I'm trying to make it to 6 months if I can. He goes get a small formula bottle (100 ml) before bed most nights and we've done that for months. But I kind of feel like I'm losing my mind.

Ah she'll be Rowan now. Just having a wobble. I'm terrible at sticking to decisions!

My mum has taken DD out for her afternoon nap walk so I can clean. Not the best trade but I really wanted to get a good mop done!

I'm going to jinx us but DDs sleep has been OK recently. Not all through the night but definitely better. Hope it lasts when we move her!

Just been reading back over the thread a bit.. @PurplePansy05 I have lost so much hair. I have a little bald patch in the front around my hair line. It seems to be slowing down now but been losing hair for 2 months. At first it really upset me but now I'm feeling less so. I booked a hair cut for this weekend to try and make me feel a bit fresher, I haven't had one since June!
Second thing for you, on sitting. Does Leo sit up on his own or try to? My baby has no interest in it, just wants to wiggle around. He doesn't mind reclining in the swing or car seat but not sure how I'll get him in a high chair or the upright buggy seat...

@RandomCatGenerator exciting that you'll be moving back. Which part of the country will you be in? It's been cold in London but the weather feels mild as we often get a little sun and it hasn't been very rainy so far this winter.

Sorry to hear some of you are having a hard time with babies not sleeping well! I hope this passes quickly I keep telling myself, everything is a phase. It'll get easier soon!

@BertieBotts love to you all. How are Leo and Alex? And how are you feeling today?

Thanks for your responses re hair loss, I thought this was to be expected. I have so much hair that I don't mind it thinning down a bit, it's hard work to keep it tidy every day! I'll give it few more weeks and see how I feel before having blood tests. Bad memories of having to test multiple times a day when I had GD are still fresh And I do think maybe my overall poorer MH has an impact too.

@WolfMother326 I am going to have a haircut next month. Like you, my hair is thinning in the front in particular, not helped by Leo pulling it all the time 😁 I think I'll go for a different cut to make it look more voluminous in the front, I think.

Re feeding, honestly at this stage I'd just increase combi if it's easier. I now do a bottle in the eve as usual and take one with me if we go out, he sometimes has it. He has his usual number of BFs per day and solids (well, purees atm). He's 6mo next week. I'll be going down to one BF per day gradually, I think. And then after my ML, there's no way I'd have the time to express for when he's in nursery so he'll have his usual C&G formula there, solids and I'll see how we go with BF, maybe keep that one feed per day for longer.

On sitting up, no, he can't go from lying down to sitting up. I can see he's trying, it nearly looks as he was trying to do a crunch and sit up, but he's nowhere near yet 😊 Very cute though. He gets frustrated and looks at me to ask for help so I very gently pull him up and as soon as he's sat up he's a happy bunny.

I need to share our weaning success today, he had plain baked salmon pureed with rice, peas, spinach and a bit of water and he really liked it! I made it a bit chunkier and he didn't mind.

We're also in 6-9m clothes as of today and he suddenly looks and acts like a bigger boy too. I've had so many PFB moments this week it's embarrassing, but I really sometimes feel I could eat him, he's so lush ❤ xx

@Ready2020 I'm biased of course, but Rowan is fab! (For a boy or a girl!). Out of interest, how do you pronounce it? I have Row to rhyme with Slow, but my Scottish stepmum has had to train herself out of Row to rhyme with Cow, which is apparently how it's said in Scotland? It's funny, when I say it like that in my accent it sounds odd, but really lovely in hers!

@PurplePansy05 my hair loss has been insane! I have relatively fine hair, but an absolutely enormous amount of it (so it looks thick, if that makes sense?), and at some stages I was honestly surprised there was any left so much was coming off! At my temples it's definitely a bit thinner now which I'm really hoping goes as it looks a little strange with my hair up. I'm hoping I'm past the worst of it now as there's a bit less coming off in my brush now - definitely one of my least favourite post-pregnancy things!

@biscuitcat I would say row like slow for row a boat or for rowan but row like cow for having a row with someone 🤣
I think Rowan is a lovely name!
I also love Maeve
Dd slept from midnight to 4am fed then slept until 8am! I'm shocked/amazed

I take it back. He was basically up every hour sleeping on DH, except between 3-4am, I was clearly just asleep and oblivious!

@biscuitcat Let's hope the hair loss slows down soon, eh! Wales here, as Smurf says it'd be Row (like slow)-an here too, that's how I'd say it. Asked DH who is higher up on scale of Welshness than me and he confirmed Do you nickname him at all and how do you pronounce it then if so?

@Daffodil21 Oh dear. Can I just say I'm pleased you were asleep and oblivious though, you deserve it xx

@PurplePansy05 I had an earplug in because of my husband's snoring 

@WolfMother326 you have my absolute sympathies. I don't think I could do this if I was BFing

And another couple of TMI-type questions, sorry to bombard you all!

Baby poo - how often do your LOs poop now? Particularly those who are still BFed and started weaning? Leo went from pooing every 4-6 days to pretty much daily and it's quite a well formed poo.

Ovulation post partum - I am pretty sure that's me today and that's because I've never seen so much CM Anyone else having a lot more cervical mucus post partum? Is this the super-fertility they talk about? xx

@PurplePansy05 I did put the grin face on the end of my message to you but apparently it didn't show - I didn't mean it to sound quite so short!

My hair is thinning a lot @PurplePansy05. So much comes out every time I shower or brush it, and I leave it everywhere too, moulting like a cat. I started a thread on style and beauty and advice was to make sure you are taking in enough iron especially. One poster recommended Philip Kingsley’s volumiser - I haven’t tried it yet but will upon return to the U.K.

It’s pretty shit. I have a lot of hair normally and I can now see my scalp clearly at the front and top and have a bald patch on one side. It’s SHIT.

Poo situation here has gone the opposite way Purple - we’ve gone from every two days like clockwork to every three or even four days since starting weaning. We also have at least 24 hours, often more, of deeeeep sadness before a poo as he strains away. Is a poo a two day sadness affair for others??

@WolfMother326 I’ll be in west London. If others were interested I would definitely be up for a London mum meet upon return :)

I'd say Row as in cow for a girl and Row as in Bow for a boy. But lots of people say Row as Bow up here and haven't heard of Row as in cow despite it being Scottish. But I'm not overly bothered what way she wants to pronounce it when she's older but we'll call her Rowan as in Cowan and presume she'll stick to that.

Poops are all a bit minging here between some weaning and drooling.

@Inmypjsagain good memory! We didn’t in the end. It’s just a bit too far. I was very keen but DH made the valid point that if we had to pick him up because he was ill or there was an emergency, the extra 20mins travel each way would really start to add up. Grudgingly I have to accept he’s right. So we’ve gone for a lovely one that is very local (20min walk / 5min drive), has a big outdoor space, and aligns well for us on things like hours and approach to sleeping and eating. It is cheaper so I’m considering that money to earmark for future, to send him to a bilingual or second language preschool or school. I’m also keen to be posted by work in Europe over the next five or six years so he’d have that chance for language learning too.

Thank you for asking! It’s been a big decision. My cousins are bilingual (Irish) and most of my friends here in India speak at least three languages fluently. My school was in central Manchester and many students had another language, whereas I always struggled with languages. I feel like it’s an enormous gift I could give him, another language from really early. But fundamentally the most important thing for a nursery will be whether he’s happy and the long journey with a grumpy toddler at the end of the day doesn’t seem destined to spark happiness.

@PurplePansy05 it's so good to enjoy your baby! I threaten to eat mine all the time, which he thinks is hilarious. He's so lovely when he laughs, definitely compensates a bit for the hair loss
Re: poop, mine still goes several times a day. He eats and then poops like clock work. We go through so many nappies. But HV says it's normal for them to go daily or weekly when breastfed.

@RandomCatGenerator I live in West London! But am moving to Sussex in Feb at some point. If we overlap it would be lovely to meet up.

@Inmypjsagain @biscuitcat @PurplePansy05 - thank you very much for recommendations for the cold. Incredibly helpful, especially the specific brands - I haven’t got a sense yet of what U.K. brands I like yet (beyond those gifted from generous parents and grandparents - mostly JJMB!) so that’s great. And good tip on chapstick! He gets a very chilly nose so that’s a really really helpful tip, thank you.

@Ready2020 don’t panic! I think lots of people get these worries! I’ve definitely had the same worry with Solomon! She’s so wee yet, if you’re thinking of a change it’s perfectly reasonable to do it now before she knows her name and has friends and teachers who you’d have to explain to. Both names are really lovely, by the way.

@Daffodil21 hope you get better sleep tonight!

@sarah13xx £1 a minute?! How much is the class, ours are c.£15 but there’s a few near me and the cheapest is £11 but didn’t want to go that one. I really enjoy it but then I’m a swimmer anyway so want DD to enjoy swimming too.

@PurplePansy05 I’ve had the bad hair loss and thankfully out the other side of it now, started really bad when DD was 14 weeks and only lasted 6/8 weeks, could be a coincidence but I used a shampoo from lush which has really helped, also silk bobbles / bands so they don’t pull.

Can’t make a decision on nurseries, one is super close but not too much outdoor space but enough and the other is 20 mins away so 40 min round trip but essentially on a farm and go Out in all weathers. Really doesn’t help I use to be Early Years education so feel like I can see through the BS one what they say they do but highly doubt they would and will probably be a high maintenance parent, one I visited will just update the parent with a single sentence, I’d expect a little more.

Working on day naps this week and gone from 4 30 mins to 2 1 hour naps and a 30 min one, no particular reason why but selfishly wanted a good amount of time so I can work out each day.

@PurplePansy05 how do you find Leo in the bouncer for sitting forward? The angelcare seat and the bouncer seemed to be good angles to practice this sit ups and it’s one of the reasons we had to retire the bouncer! Also interesting you say that about CM, I’d noticed similar but wasn’t sure if it was always like that and I’d just forgotten but pretty sure I’d never needed to wear a panty liner before! Also poo, formula here so probably a bit different but we get one daily huge poo. His sweet potato poo looked a bit more human like though.

@RandomCatGenerator I’m with you about the second language, it’s something I wish I had fluently and have thought similar to you, obviously don’t know which part of W London you are but you might have heard of the Lycee based in Kensington? We’ve often spoken about sending ours there when older, I don’t know how feasible that is as we don’t speak French, or have any links to France and it’s pretty expensive but I think it would be so good! Great you’ve got somewhere sorted though, local is good. I’m still baulking at the price!

I had a really strange experience at baby sensory today, I was there with one of the other mums from NCT. Baby was asleep in the pram when we got there so I put the pram next to 2 other sleeping babies in their prams while I took my coat off etc. prams were 2 Strides away and there’s one communal area for coats and stuff. One lady came up to me and started chatting and then she said, are you the mum or the nanny? I was a bit 🤨 and said the mum and she looked surprised and said that I don’t look like a mum. ?!?!? What does that mean?! I had about 1000000 things to say back to her but didn’t want to be rude so acknowledged the comment and walked away from her and sat with my friend. That’s a strange to say to someone? It sort of reminded me on threads I’ve read about how cliquey some classes are (and I agree they can be) so I wondered if she was making small talk and then I just walked off and sat with someone I knew… but then that’s not small talk, it’s just odd? Friend thought it was odd too