January 08 - shiny new-year babies!

[Naetha]

Thought I'd start this thread now as I think there's already a couple of people to go on it, and I know there'll be an awful lot more!!

Will update when I get a chance

katy - loved your bad mummy post. I am pretty much guilty of that list too.

Had a reasonable night. He didnt settle till 1am ater feeding at 12.30am,he went through till 6.30! then slept till 10.30. Feel so much more human for having had a sleep. We are all full of cold here.

Samuel made some cooing noises as well today, aaa's, oo's and a goo! lots of smiling.

loved guilty secrets posts made me laugh out loud. particularly as i am guilty of all of them, under duvet, bottle feeding form 2 weeks, (no nipple confusion ) leaving nappies etc etc etc.

Gingeme - am much happier since i switched charlie to bottle ! One of my friends said they just made up the bottles with boiling water and added the formula when they needed it that way you didnt need to refrigerate the formula and when you did eventually add it it was never colder than room temperature so if really lazy wouldnt need to warm up - what do you reckon??? how bad can it be to leave boiled water in a sealed bottle???

me still with infection been back to hospital get results on monday

hoep everyone is well

Thanks ladies. Susie I tried mix feeding with ds4 but didnt like it. Im going to buy some Cow&Gate tommorrow and some new teets. Still got the Avent bottles from last ds's. Cant stand the crying any more. Mine or Georges.

like loads of people have said to me: happy mum = happier baby, Gingeme.

Phew ... DS finally "surrendering" in his basket after fighting sleep for hours! Using the dummy doesn't seem to be causing us nipple confusion - does that really happen in anyone's experience?

DH back at work tomorrow - I have to get used to being on my own all day, having had so much support over last 4 weeks, I credit this for my caesarian recovery going so well and being able to rescue BF!

It sounds like a good option, gingeme!

Yes Angechica thats what my friend said to me. Shes a bf counciler too! Gonna sit with him permenantly stuck to my boob till bed time tonight then start our new regime tommorrow. Thanks again ladies

whatever makes you happy Gingeme and if you know it helped with your others it's hard to get through this tough time with the bf. I know what you mean had a really tough day today Martha hardly slept so constant feeding here too! My only thing stopping me is that i gave up with dd and she was no better on formula and then i really regretted my decision so am determined to persevere this time. Hope things at home settle too , guessing dh not being very supportive also r/e the comment.

Ange hope tom goes ok without dh , you will be fine. And no never had nipple confusion here with any of mine.

Nicky hope results come back ok from hospital tom.

Mum2samandalex Martha often sleeps on her side after she has her feeds in our bed on a night as i reluctant to move her when she goes to sleep.

Awn can't believe you already getting noises etc. it's going too quickly for me !

Hi Susie hope you ok and everyone else!

We're also suffering from the bad spots thing - aquaeous cream and sudocreme both seem to be helping..oh, and almond oil as well...anything that keeps the skin massively moisturised

Re baby sleeping on side - I think She Who Must Not Be Named even suggests rolling up a couple of towels/blankets to prop baby into that position, so definitely not unheard of....

Susie - I used to keep a full bottle of pre-boiled water (filled kettle night before, so it cooled overnight, then filled bottle in the morning) standing out in the kitchen for ds's bottles. That way they were room temperature before I even started....didn't realise I could do that until he was about 6 months old and had one of those 'doh!' moments when visiting friends in the middle east who all do that....so you should be fine

DH loves our 'bad mothers' list and has asked that I add using the microwave to heat up my ebm for the evening feed . Although actually, that's a bad father list thing, since I'm usually alseep at the time!!

Been a mad weekend, am totally knackered....anyway, hope you all have good evenings, speak soon,
xxx

Hi Fluffy - think that was someone else with the boiled water? Hope you get a good sleep.

Fluffy didnt even think about doing that after having 4 babys youd think I would have I always used to make all the bottles up at night as in powder too and put them in the fridge to warm up when needed.
George has been as;eep on hid feeding cushion on my lap all evening feeding on and off. Dont feel so bad about the decision now Ive told a few people. Went through exactly the same with the ither boys though.
Oh well off to bed now.
Sleep well all and thanks again

((hugs)) gingeme - sorry you are having rough time. You should go with whatever feels best for you both. You have your hands full as it is. How was half term? Ds1 was a little star here and loved playing with baby (phew) xx

This feedign thing is never easy and i have had some worries. I looked at kellymom website - thanks to who linked it (might have been off dec thread). Is fab with lots of supportive advice. I was worried as for last week samuel has been fretful and fussy in the evenings. LOts of good advice and information. Also been pulling off and grinning at me in the day and generally getting distracted by everything.

At the end of day he is gaining weight, sometimes he feeds for a very short time, or he feeds ofr a minute pulls off, crys, latches back on, pulls off cry etc. Never really know what the reason is but lots of different things help, sometimes just changing the position. With ds1 i had to stop when he was 12 months (very sad long story). With ds2 am going to ext b/f till he stops. Dont know how this will work with another baby as hoping to have a 2 year age gap but lots of people manage it i guess.

Lily - not really sure i should be here as Samuel was born dec 27th, hence making noises.

Just had the most exhausting night! Sabela has been awake almost constantly since 11, twisting and turning all the time, spitting or hiccuping every time I put her down, wanting to play, wanting to feed then not feeding. I think she's just passed a phenomenal amount of air, which may explain it but sh'es still dancing and hiccuping - and now she's crying. Mercy!

add to that squirming, squawking, gooing, ahhing, staring, squealing, smiling - I have NO idea what to do! I'm just watching TVam and trying all sorts!

After a bad evening doing the feed-drop off-cry ciruit (which always happens if we can't get him to have a decent stretch of sleep in the evenings) I did a co-sleeping night with DS, I'm sure that helps with the tiredness although they say you sleep lighter. Susie if you are able to, could you take her into bed for the morning? I find DS settles next to me really well. Although I did wake up to find him wide awake and smiling and wriggling at 4am, he fed a little and dropped back off OK...

Thanks Angechica - we gave her a bath (I had to wait for DH to get up to do this because of c-sec scar - he has been doing his bit so I wanted to let him sleep). It has worked so far. She fed properly and is now sort of sleeping. Phew...

She loves sleeping next to me you are quite right but it scares me!

After a terrible weekend, just had an amazing night. Spent ages winding dd properly at c6pm, she then fell asleep so put her in crib. She woke up 10 mins later so I am ashamed to admit I left her to cry. 5 mins later she was asleep, slept till 9.30 (at last am evening!). Then she had a really good feed until c11pm, winded her really well again and she was asleep again by midnight and slept till 6am!!! We were obv in vicious cycle of wind, poor feeding, overtired etc. Hard to take the time as have ds 2.5.

morning all , sorry some of you had bad nights.
We had another good one dp's second full night of uninterupted sleep even though he was next to us. Martha even slept in her moses basket from 10 until 2 and then slept with us until 7 again! It's amazing how much more human you feel with sleep.

Victor don't feel bad about letting her cry. TBH sometimes i think they cry like we would moan. They need to get it out and sometimes all the rocking , patting etc. can make them worse imo and when left to themselves you can find they usually settle quite quickly.

Poor you Susie sounds like a tough one have you tried co sleeping with her in the day when you aren't hopefully as tired to see how you get on ?

Awen i forget there could be more than a month between the babies on this thread! Although it still going too quickly here! Am sure you would be fine doing extended bf with another baby. I think i read somewhere that it means there can be less jealousy between siblings especially at feeding time as you can feed them both , although not sure how that works logistically.

Fluffy have tried the sudocrem here today so will let you know how we get on.

lilyloo - totally agree. feel mire human here too. he fed at 1.30 and again at 3.30 and then 8am typing one handed here. he is busy licking me! got big smiles with dimples here but cant get on camera.

Just wanted to add to the "bad mother" list:

• also let the cat sit next to us on the pillow while feeding - but otherwise the poor cat hardly gets a look in these days and, as Naetha says, it does look cute!

• pretending I haven't heard her when she wakes up for the umpteenth time at night in the hopes DH will get up and shush her

• holding dummy (gently!) in her mouth when she spits it out after one suck because she's in such a temper. (Think someone else did this too....)

She had a BCG jab a week ago and I was joking with my mother that, since I couldn't give her a chocolate biscuit to make it better, I would have to eat the biscuit because she'll get it back through the breast milk. To which my mother replied "oh come on, you could let her lick the biscuit!" I'm still not sure whether she was joking or serious but think that might head the "bad mother" list.....

Fluffy - am in awe of you expressing 6oz in one go! I got 1.5 oz out of both breasts this morning and thought it was really good going.

bwmum - had to stop myself LOL in case i woke ds2 at your mums suggestion of lickingthe biscuit. He is currently draped over my legs face down whilst i type away. He seems very content tho.

Victor - how long does it take you to wind 'properly' and hpw do you know when you've done enough?

LOL at biscuit! I can just see a tiny baby doing that! Not..

hello, not been on in ages so no chance of catching up properly so will just have to wave and ask for forgiveness for lack of personals!
Did see the bad mother lists, made me mine would include...

not sterilising dummies

letting DS sleep anywhere he fancies including on my pillow, in car seat etc.

not getting him weighed (only once since he was 10 days and he is now 9 weeks) his big fat thighs are enough confirmation that he is gaining weight!

bathing far too infrequently!

holding in his dummy

making up formula at room temp (make up bottles with boiled water then leave them out to cool to room temp, just use a powder dispenser to make up one feed at a time. This has been added to the 'not allowed' list since I had DD!)

Letting him sleep on his side

Letting DD kiss him all over his face despite her snotty cold (got sick of screeching 'not on his face!!' and decided he was going to get her germs whatever I did so best to let her give him lots of toddler love!)

I could go on but would be here all day have to say that joking aside I don't think any of these kinds of things qualify me or anybody else as a bad mummy. Think theres an awful lot of pressure to do things 'right' but there is no such thing. You just do what's right for you and your baby. As long as you give them lots of love you're a fab mummy in my book

DS sleeping at the mo, have managed to get him back to falling asleep on his own after a good week or so of refusing to go to sleep anywhere but my chest then waking the second I put him down! Took a lot of picking up and cuddling til sleepy then putting him down again. Kept picking up every time he got upset and eventually just nodded off whilst chomping on his dummy. He has been much better every time he has gone to sleep since then. Fingers crossed that it lasts!

In other news have managed to successfully potty train DD - was dreading it but she has been fab and got the hang of it immediately. She is even dry at night!

Are any of you putting your LO's in their own room or a room away from you in the evening? We are still keeping DS downstairs with us until DH comes to bed (after the 2.30am feed - hurrah for a helpful, self employed husbands!) but he is getting too big for his moses basket so thinking of 'putting him to bed' properly in our room. Just don't fancy running up and down the stairs all evening! Think he might sleep better without me and DH nattering and watching telly though! Any thoughts?

Hope you're all ok and not too knackered!

ps - fluffy - is there still a crouch end meet up soon? hope so!

Oh dear, would this be the thread with the new babies? No posts for a whole day?

Just managed to get on, my age old laptop decided it wanted a 20mins scan to check for errors. Oh well, all the laundry is folded and the bedroom tidied .

Nathan and I went to a coffee morning with friends this morning. Did any one else find it scary to drive with the baby in the car, never mind having driven with the baby in your tummy for months? The noise at the meeting was deafening (12 plus toddlers and babies) but Nathan was unfazed, having screamed in the car when his hat dropped over his eyes ( clumsy mummy) he fed, then had lots of cuddles with aunties, fed again, then slept on my shoulder and all the way home, then long enough for me to eat lunch (just!!).

Nathan seems to find it difficult to poo. He farts a lot (sorry TMI) and cries when he tries to poo, then produces explosions. Seems to be normal, anyone else had it?

Sorry to hear about repair works needed. It must be awful to have such problems down there, it affects rather a large part of your life doesn't it? One of the blessings I have had during this whole special care lark is that I had a well executed and stitched episiotomy and was back on my bicycle two weeks post partum. Hope it all heals well. Have not attempted nookie yet here . Bleeding had nearly stopped but started again when Nathan started demand feeding. Now stopped again, but I guess we have both had too much on our minds and sleep is just more important.

For some reason I did not see any of today's posts , sorry!! Will read them now!

TMS that sleep solution sounds good - we are still in the Klingon phase here. have just ordered a Moby wrap sling in desperation though (and on the strong recommendation of a friend), as i think he will like this better than the ring sling I bought - he much prefers being carried upright than laying across us. So I have a nice Freedom ring sling going if anyone wants one I can post it them. It is beige as I bought it before Alek was born and we didn't know the sex. email is ange_chica@ yahoo. co. uk (without the gaps)xx