October '04 babies - Roll call!

[florenceuk]

OK, here is the list I have so far:

Eyelash (age 36) - DS3 arrived 5 October
Toots (age 37) - DD1 3 - DD2 arrived 5 October
Cazzybabs - DD born 7 October
sooz31 - DD arrived 7 October
Distracted - DS arrived 9 October
florenceuk (age 38) - DS 3 - DD arrived 13 October
Huppa, (age 37) dd now 21months - DS born 14 October
Bibiboo (age 25) DD arrived 15 October
Rickman - DS arrived 16 October
geoteach (age 33) - ds1 3 dd 10 months, DS2 born 16 October
Nailpolish - DD2 arrived 17 October
Piglit (age 36) - DS born 19 October
Miffy2 (age 35) - 22nd October dd 5 DS1 2 - DS2 arrived 22 October
Beansprout (age 35???) - 1 dsd (16). DS born 25 October
Bellie - DD arrived 30 October
Turtle35 (age 35) - DD arrived 31 October

I've taken this from the old pregnancy thread so there are some odd bits of info floating round eg age and other children. Excuse me if I've got any of this wrong, as my sleep-deprived brain barely capable of putting this list together! Any amendments please speak now, and we can start the new thread!

Hi to all the newbies!

Well, DD has has some horrific nights recently (like waking every 2hrs) and some slightly better ones (slept till 2am last night after going down at 9pm). But a long way off sleep nirvana. I am resigned to this now lasting for a good few months, although I am also very tired. Still, mananged to do half my tax return last night and will try and finish either today or tomorrow! 13 days until I fly to NZ... does anybody know if you can buy Phenergan over the counter?

Toots, much sympathy over bed time routine. As DD inevitably screams if put down at that time of day, I find the days when I do it myself very tough. Now in theory, this is what the great Gina suggested in one of her books: give DD half the feed while DS is eating. Bath both, take out DD first and then DS, then finish off DD's feed while reading story to DS. Put DD down to settle herself, then go back and put DS to bed. However, I haven't yet managed to feed DD and DS at the same time, so usually I feed one and then the other. Also, as DD has never been able to settle herself I find I end up with her screaming in her cot while I change DS and put his excema cream on, then I bring her down and hold her while I read DS a story. Then I give DD another breastfeed and put her to bed. It is all a bit of a muddle, but should get better as DD is able to go a bit longer without being fed hopefully.

Hi to everyone who is new. Had a bit of a nightmare this morning, having rashly said I would drive to Oxford to see a friend who is expecting her 3rd in 12 days, set off only for DS to start screaming (unheard of in moving car) and the traffic to come to a standstill after 2 junctions of the M25, pulled onto the A3 to calm DS and phone friend and found phone was flat so i've come home. Teach me to be ambitious.

Hello to all the newbies - this site is addictive - although sometimes I struggle to get enough time to get on here and then I get withdrawal symptoms

Geogteach - what a morning! There is nothing like having a plan go wrong especially if you were looking forward to it - however looking at the weather, it is probably a good thing not to be on M25 today! By the way can you please let me know where you go to baby yoga - would love to go and then maybe we could have a coffee afterwards??

DD had her first injections yesterday and was very grumpy afterwards and has been very clingly today so not much chance to do anything - however she is now asleep and instead of doing the ironing decided to treat myself and come on here!!

bellie - good for you. we only do ironing in this house for weddings and interviews, slackers or what.

Hi to beaker and kath.

geogteach - you must have been well fed up.

florence - know what you mean. i've been cobbling together some odd bits of routines - definitely going up and down the stairs more since dd2 came along! bless her - she's back to one night wake and last night it was 5am - so pretty happy with that. felt so with it today - apart from v heavy cold - I did some work during nap time. new washing machine has arrived. hoo hah. it's going to be busy.

Having a great time in Sweeden - its not too cold but it is very windy. Grace has, however, been doing lots of crying tpday and lots of high-pitched screaming which is a bit worrying - like she is really in pain. Sometimes I hate having babies - its so much stress - why is she crying, is she in pain, what can I do eyc? I wonder if its teeth. Anyway hopefully nothing serious (am a little worried).

Hope everyone else is OK.

Welcome to Kath - wow, bathroom floor, am impressed. I needed everything the medical profession had at its disposal!
And welcome to Beaker - I'm also a first timer in NW10! With Michmash in NW2 we have a virtual posse here methinks!

My full sympathy to everyone with less than zonked out babies at the moment. Bean is pretty much sleeping ok, but I am not, plus we keep being woken up by phones and doorbells (don't ask, don't ask) so I'm a bit bleary at the moment.

Geogteach - I also had an aborted trip today. Took me an hour to drive 3 miles so I had to give up and come back. Grrrrr. Am spending far too much time at home and going slightly mad.
Cazzybabs - hope everything is ok.
News here is that sd has decided that she will no longer stay with us and that ds can have what was her room. She has not stayed with us since July and this discussion has been ongoing. All options have been covered but this is a definite decision. It's a long, long story. Anyway, it means we have a room for Bean and a suppressed nesting instinct has sprung up in me! Am also very relieved that we don't have to go through the upheaval of moving house just yet. Have mixed feelings about sd's decision and dp is obviously pretty down about it but it never was that simple round here!

went to meet other mums from mumsnet first time and usually baba is smiling everyone but today all she did was gawp. mine was the youngest in the group so everyone was making a fuss over baba. im slowly not missing the pregnancy feeling anymore as for the first 8 weeks i didnt want another baba but was missing that 'special' feeling - did anyone get that (im first-time mum BTW)

Biglips, noticed your posting time, you were up late last night. Hope you're getting some sleep.

Sorry you're missing being pregnant , I couldn't wait to have the baby so that I could take back some control of my body and take care of baby. I saw the episode on ER where the baby dies in the womb and from then onwards was terrified that something would happen that was out of my control, so couldn't wait for him to come out (DH suggested no more TV medical dramas during pregnancy after this). But must admit have told DS a couple of times during the pre-dawn hours that we're going to send him back to where he came from if he doesn't go back to sleep .

oh yeah im getting plenty of sleep as baba goes asleep between 12 -1am and then she sleeps for 9 hrs

OK truly fed up with my DD as she wakes at night every hour to hour and half at the moment! She has gone from waking once a night to about five times between 10 and 6, and basically attaches herself from 6am onwards...I'm so tired, I can barely function. I know it's a feeding to sleep association thing, but can't think how to begin to break it esp at this age. Also has dropped long naps in the day and sleeps for 30-40mn at a time unless she is in the buggy. DS was never quite this bad, and I waited until he was 6mths to do sleep training - tempted to start much much earlier with this one, but with trip to NZ coming up not really feasible. Have done bugger all packing for our trip as I'm exhausted - and DH out drinking this night, ho hum.

Good news for you Bean, although family dynamics still sound a bit fraught? Have fun decking out the nursery. Sad to say DS's room is still a bit of a junk room as it is waiting on us solving the damp problem before we do any redecorating + moving DH out.

Now off to tend to the wailing one...

flo, are you BF or on bottles? if you mind me asking?. im knackered today and part of it is my fault! baba is on white SMA and i give her water every 2 days to stop her constipating, but she had a tummy bug for a month and her poo was runny so i stopped giving her water till she was better so she became better 2 days ago and her poo was very firm so last night i gave her plenty of water which she wanted, BUT she woke me up every 2 hrs as her nappy was heavily soiled of wee... i am tired cos she usually sleeps for 9 hrs right thru. my baba sleep pattern is 12am - 9am, then 2 hrs there and 2 hours at other times so she sleeps about 14 per day and thats is her rountine.

i do prefer to keep baba awake most of the day so she can have a good overnight sleep

Florence, sympathy to you as I am having the same wakefulness problem. Too exhausting for words!

Beansprout and Michmash, don't know if the two of you have already met up, perhaps we could all meet up for a coffee some time since we are neighbours?

And Beansprout, I can't work out what 'SD' is?!

Biglips, have you tried giving baby an oz of water before each bottle feed instead of in a couple of big lots. My DS had been on a mix of breast and formula (Goats Milk) since week 2 and the MW suggested a little water before each formula feed. It seems to do the trick as baby doesn't suffer much from constipation.

Beaker, fab idea and I think that beansprout is going to CAT you to arrange. I'll also CAT you to introduce myself a little more.

Beaker2 and Beansprout - can't believe you are in the same postcode - you might have seen each other in Budgens for goodness' sake! Glad you and Michmash will be getting together. Some of us are able to vouch for Beansprout's splendidness having already met her, in fact she is virtually unrivalled for splendidness amongst all womankind IMHO

Flo, I can't bear it for you - sounds horrible. Got into the same kind of thing myself with dd1 so know the kind of mind bending tiredness and frustration you are going through.

DD2 has just been in the door bouncer for the first time, and loved it. She looked at me as if to say 'No - really? You've got this and you've been keeping it in the drawer?' Very cute.

I have been quite disciplined with working during nap times this week, but I had a nap when she slept at lunchtime today - I started a pilates class last night and it took it out of me, but it was fab, despite the fact the (male) teacher had us all on all fours, made us drop our tummies and put a hand on them .

where do you all live then? i live in sefton, liverpool..

Hi all - Florence hugs to you it must be awful to feel that you are going backwards with the sleeping - |I am not sure what to suggest although have you tries a soother? Dd did thisat the beginning and i thought she was hungry but it turned out she just wanted something to suck. I know not eveyone agrees with using them, but just a thought.

Hi all and welcome to the newbies.

Florence - you have my sympathies - ds is also going backwards on the sleep front, not as bad as your dd (not yet anyway), it´s just so exhausting.

Dh is away at the moment - staying in a nice 4 star hotel with a couple of friends for a snowboarding weekend, while I´m stuck at home with a tantruming toddler and feeling knackered .
Mind you I´ll get my revenge later in the year when I get to go to England on my own to celebrate a couple of 40th birthdays .

Toots - know what you mean about the bed time routine. Sometimes it works out o.k., but sometimes (usually when dh isn´t around) I end up shouting dd´s story over the top of ds´s screams, while trying to skip bits of the story and hoping she doesn´t realise.

Ds is 3 months today- I can´t believe the times gone so quickly.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

New routine here involves putting dd2 in bed then going into dd1's room to read stories, and put in bed, then go back to dd2 who has now fallen asleep despite overhead light being on, wake her up to give her her last feed! Seems to work...

Bet you're looking forward to those weekends huppa

is is too personal to know where we all live?

biglips some where on the old thread we exchanged this info so not a problem - FWIW I'm in Wimbledon. BTW not bottlefeeding, breastfeeding - which probably contributes to problem as there is no way you'd give a bottle every hour on the hour...

Now waiting to see if DD will wake at 10.15 like last night....

aaah, the penny drops - SD is step daughter??

FWIW Florence, I really feel it would be OK to let her cry for a while to try and lose one or two of these wakes, or you are going to go insane. When dd2 was over her virally cold thing and I wanted her to lose the 1.30 wake she'd got into, I let her grizzle for ten minutes, for 2/3 nights before she got the idea that nothing was going to happen. Had my heart in my mouth that she'd wake dd1, but she didn't! Mind you, the crying wasn't mega loud. Losing the 5.30 one resulted in a couple of early mornings ie it DID wake dd1, but we're back to one wake now, so worth it. The trip may well indeed throw any progress you've made out of the window, with the flight and staying with people in NZ and stuff but if you've more than a week til you go - maybe it's worth it, to feel more rested for packing and travelling?

Took dd1 to the Science Museum today. Spent about three and a half hours in the basement and had a fabulous time.

Biglips, I'm in South East London.

Florence - hope things are improving for you, it sounds pretty grim down your way...
I think Bean has had a growth spurt this week as it has been one long feeding frenzy with more night feeding than usual too. After grunting at dp all day he has offered to do night feeds tonight so I am off to the spare room for some serious zzzzzzz.
Bean settles back ok, it is me that stays awake for another hour. Plus, have been having a few nightmares - dreamt that I lost Bean last night (he had toddled off) and woke up in a right old state. Not nice.

B2 - exactly right about "sd". Also, have sent you a message via CAT.
Huppa - hope your home alone weekend isn't too grim?
Biglips - I'm in NW London.
Toots - gee shucks

Bellie emailed you about yoga, have checked you could start next Friday if you fancy it, contact me for more details.
Biglips i'm in Surrey
Still no routine here, DS2 did 2 eight hour sleeps earlier in the week only to have me up 3 times last night. He as also developed an aversion to the car seat and the buggy which is bad news as DD also now thinks she is big enough to walk, how do you hold 2 children's hands, carry a baby and push the rejected buggy?