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! 🥰

Oh bless his heart @Smurf123. I mean, it's kind of cute and lovely he likes school that much, but of course he must be a bit bored, understandably. Final stretch now, just a couple more days!

@Magik01 No, it didn't affect my supply at all. If DS has hungrier days I can easily whip out the boob and feed him more frequently/longer. You could always do a trial run for say 3 nights and see what happens and pump in the eve instead? This way it certainly won't make a difference to your supply, but I doubt it would anyway.

I couldn't imagine TTC next year tbh. Literally can't think of anything worse 🤦🏼‍♀️ I think I've had enough stress with TTC, MCs, pregnancy, recovery, newborn phase etc. I need my MH to be better. I miss work and adult interaction. And I need to be richer as I can't afford two kids in nursery, I refuse to pay over £2k pcm. So definitely not for me! xx

@BertieBotts I'm in my mum's car with the car seat (Joie, non spin version, not isofix) and he keeps slumping his down when he's sleeping. He doesn't do this in ours. Do you know why this is? Or anyone else?

Sorry for the essay - can you tell I just had to tell someone? 🙈

Also, all for cheering you all on with these pregnancies in the new year but I’m going to watch from the sidelines for now 😂 If I could just duplicate the child I have that would be great but I could end up with one that doesn’t sleep and it could waste this one’s perfect little routine 🙈

Oh and @Smallbean27 - yes to that. Bf becomes harder when they become more aware and curious of the world, they're very distractible. I've been trying to bf in a quiet room, sometimes darker too. Sadly no TV on anymore. But quite often he still turns his head, smiles, chats, all sorts. It's hard work! xx

@Daffodil21 I had to pull over one night because of this. Have you checked the base is flat onto the seat and not away up in the air? It was the angle that was causing mine because the base wasn’t flat

@PurplePansy05 I'm the opposite and just want to get the horrible part over with while I'm still in the mindset! I may feel different in practice though!

@sarah13xx it's flat on the seat of the car, but I guess the seat of the car is tilted quite a bit. Not sure what I can do about that though? My husband will be joining us in our car tomorrow evening thankfully

@Daffodil21 hmm, in my mums car there was a visible gap underneath and when I fixed it it was fine. Not sure what else you can do to change the angle if it’s the actual seat that’s sloped 😕 maybe someone will have a wise idea to sort it

Tbh your lawyer was right @sarah13xx - based on what you said, your mortgage is being held up because of the maternity leave situation in a sense you now have a gifted deposit which always slows things down. He just made a factual statement, it is what it is. He needs to be honest with the other side, the only other option would be not to tell them anything at all which would likely be worse as they'd be worrying what's going on. Some lenders don't make the same offers if you're on maternity leave as you would have received whilst in work full time because they do not want to take the risk of unaffordability in the event you don't return to work or return part-time only, and I guess that's fair enough. Some lenders disregard this temporary position, however, and that's really on your mortgage adviser/yourselves to research first. I would also say it would be highly unlikely you'd have it all in place by EOP today, so that was your lawyer's fair assumption. Sorry - I know it's frustrating at your end, but really I don't think you've anything to be worried about. It's always a stressful process, but it works out fine in the end! xx

Yes Daffodil if the seats are more tilted in her car that will cause it.

Do you still have all the inserts in? Which seat is it? Joie Stages? Have you only got that seat or do you have an infant carrier as well?

@sarah13xx I think it's because Rowan has been a fairly high maintenance baby that we want to try again fairly soon! I love him dearly, of course, but I would say that the baby phase isn't really my favourite and I think if I got to having a 3 or 4 year old and had some semblance of normality I'd be reluctant to ever try again! So DH and I figured it was best to just stay in the trenches of sleep deprivation etc and get the baby years done and dusted!

@Magik01 sympathy for your sleep deprivation! I'm coping with caffeine and I also think my body has just adapted to coping on not very many hours of broken sleep 😂

@purplepansy yeah I take lateral flows regularly with my sister being ill. I'll be propping the pillows up tonight and will scoosh my nose with salt water solution that I've used before. I can take decongestant while BFing the Internet says. So that might help.

I think tonight I'll ask OH to give a bottle formula if DD wakes before I've managed a few hours sleep. This has been a really bad day. We've all been knackered and various incidents have happened due to cats, clumsiness and stress. Things smashed, arguing and me coughing all the way through it. I just want this Christmas over with tbh! Sorry to be a downer but it's stressful and tiring.

@biscuitcat it’s funny people say that 😂 you’d think it would be the opposite but it does seem to be the people who are still struggling that decide to just go for it again! My friend just got pregnant again 8 months after her little one was born. She has always said it would be quick but to me I was like omg that’s me in 4 months time 😐 I feel like I’m enjoying it too much to do it all again with someone else right now if that makes sense 😂 I do think with a lot of things though like going walks, going to baby classes etc you’d be as well taking two along at the same time. Especially once they’re a bit more robust past about 3 months it would be far easier to carry them about together. I’m kinda paranoid about another section (although I absolutely would have another), I’d just be scared to do it too soon after but I know people probably hardly wait at all and they’re fine. Not to be picky either but if I could specify when the baby is to be born… 😂 I’d want another summer birthday but then that limits you to only ttc on like 3 months of the year 🙈 I could end up being swayed into it after his first birthday I think haha

@PurplePansy05 I know he is a nice guy and I really didn’t want my dad to have a go at him when he was just being honest but he could have said something more vague I think, would have made me less stressed about it all 🙈 I asked our mortgage advisor why we couldn’t have had all this done weeks/months ago when we first agreed to buy the house and she said it’s all got to be done at the last minute so it goes through or something. Feel like since we’ve had two months to get to this point and she already said it was unofficially approved away at the start so casually, only to now be at Christmas and the whole chain is held up waiting on her processing more paperwork 🙄 I think we have 5 days or something at the other side so just have to hope it’s ready to go by then and there’s no other hiccups!

We’re not going to have a penny to do it up now though 😂 but the plan is to build a house in the garden (it’s huge) and that’s what my uncles/dad do for a living, then we’ll sell the first house and live in the second mortgage-free basically so that plan might just have to speed up a bit now 😰

I think I’ve mentioned her on here before but when I was pregnant I watched Jennifer Joy’s YouTube constantly. She’s so so lovely and her channel is so underrated. No one has ever watched her before when I tell them about her videos.

She has vanished from YouTube and Instagram the last couple of months and she mentioned a while ago about her husband wanting another baby so I was half waiting for a pregnancy announcement going on. Today she posted that they found out in September that her little boy has cancer, he’s only 7 😭 I watched her so much I feel like it’s a member of my own family just about. He’s all smiling and happy away to school in one of her last Instagram pictures then looks so ill and pale after his chemo in the picture she posted today. Just thought why am I even considering moaning about being stuck in the house isolating for a few days when you’ve got people going through stuff like that at Christmas 😞 Cancer shouldn’t happen to anyone but the fact it can happen to a child is just the most unfair thing ever 😢 Puts everything into perspective when you hear news like that! Most things can be fixed almost instantly and really won’t matter in 5 or 10 years time.

@Ready2020 hope you and your family are doing okay ❤️

@sarah13xx I'm sorry but your mortgage adviser is telling you porkies, you should have had an AIP in place by now for at least several weeks if you're thinking about the timescales you've mentioned, and that would've ironed out any issues regarding the size of the mortgage, your partner's proof of earnings and you being on maternity leave. Anyway, you will get it sorted in the New Year no problem xx

@PurplePansy05 it was all just too informal as she’s who my dad uses so there were very little direct dealings with us then all of a sudden it was like omg statutory maternity is only £150 a week?! Eh yes, remember away at the start before we even offered on the house when I told you all of this 🙈

It’s done now anyway and we’re this far into it so we’ll muddle along somehow 😂 we’ll have very little bills to pay at the start of the new year at least while we stay with my mum. Every cloud 😅

Have many of you left your DC's yet? I feel like I'm in the minority having left DS several times with my mum. I often wonder if it's because I've never really formed that bonded attachment or if I'm just totally chilled? Or perhaps both...?

@daffodil leave as in you don't put them to bed? I'd probably do it now if I weren't breastfeeding. We've been trying to give her a bottle at night to help me out but she's just refusing. So I don't think I could leave her with the thought she wouldn't go down without my boob!

@Smallbean27 back to 2 night feeds instead of 1?🥴 I'm very jealous. We were going anywhere between 4-9 hours a night here and for the last couple of weeks she's woken more in the night than she ever has. Tonight this is probably the 5th time she's woken. 😭

@Daffodil21 I went on my first night out on Friday and my mum came over the babysit. I'd been to have my lashes done in the day and she stayed at home with her then too and went to sleep etc for her fine but when it came to bedtime she reallt struggled to get her down. I was trying to get ready doing hair and make up and all j could hear was her crying. If she's fed at around half 5 she usually goes to bed at half 6/7 and won't feed again before she sleeps but she took another bottle to go to sleep that night which was really strange. Mum was adamant she was hungry and j said no she isn't she's just overtired which I think was the reason why she just took the bottle because mum missed the window of sleep between fiddling about and having to sort my DS out too. All in all it was fine but as I was trying to leave it was stressful 😅

DS and I have had this cold for coming up to 3 weeks now and it's really doing my head in. All I have is a sore throat which seems to close in on me in the morning and a cough that tends to only come in the night. I've had enough of it but don't know when it will end 😭 DD has got the cough part too now which is why she's waking so much as she's coughing. I feel like I'm never going to get rid of it when she's waking every hour or 2 hours. Would the doctor give me anything if I were to ring today to try and get something ? Just wary it's Christmas in 2 days 🥴

@lucyrp my DD wakes to feed every 2 or 3 hours just now too! Worse than when she was a new born. But she has been putting herself to sleep these nights so she's doing a lot of learning.

The cough is the worst part of my cold. It can wake DD so I'm in the spare room for most of the night with OH waking me to feed her. Not ideal but seems to work. OH went into spare room at 5am and I've been pottering about since.

Girls, have you tried gurgling your throat with warm water (after it was boiled and cooled down) and a spoon of bicarbonate soda in it? Honestly works miracles. My nan's method, clears everything from your throat in a couple of days. Also black tea with fresh lemon juice and honey, soothens it a lot.

@Daffodil21 I only left him to go to my haidresser twice and for a couple of beauty treatments and a follow up coffee with my friend. He stayed with DH and I had to be up early to express milk for him. Tbh it was only a little bit of a break because I was tired and kept thinking if he'll nap well etc (he didn't). His naps are even worse and I'm not there and as soon as I walk in his face lights up, he's like a puppy getting overexcited and then finally flat out bless. Now if he's awake, he gets upset when I leave the room. I read about this and I think this might be separation anxiety forming 🤦🏼‍♀️

So, I didn't really leave him much at all. I totally would if I had family around! I would love that! I'll never go out with DH ever again by the looks of it. That is sad and an issue to me. And the attachment seems to affect DS more than me, obviously I take a half-sensible approach that it's only a short time and I'll be back. He's too little to understand that I'll return, but unfortunately seems to have already sussed out mummy leaving is not a good thing. He might just be switched on/sensitive, but again think BF is in the background to this. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Just go out and enjoy. Zero guilt! I totally would love to do that! xx

@Ready2020 leave as in leave him with my mum and go elsewhere for the night. Sorry ladies I'd had a bit of wine last night but I'm just wondering if it's worrying that I feel comfortable leaving him and going out 🙈 we didn't go out as such last night, we stayed in and had takeaway and a few drinks but I wasn't with him and I felt totally fine about it? Just wondering if that's normal!

When I say I never really formed that bond, obviously we have a bond but I don't know. It's hard to explain. This is why I was going for some CBT but I'm still waiting for that call back!

Can't wait to get back to him today obviously. He was totally fine with my mum, he slept really well (she didn't 😂). It's not the first over night I've left him