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

oh and news from here, ds2 is in his cot in his own room, hooray
he's 6wks today and i think we will all sleep better with him there.
and ds1 won't wake him up in the morning either.
only been an hour and i can hear him stirring so not a done deal yet....

Hiya folks! sorry i haven't checked in for a while, and i confess i've only had time to scan everybody's recent posts so forgive me for not sending you individual replies! Just wanted to say that i'm delighted Nathan is doing so well, Madmouse and huge sympathy to those of you looking at "repair work" from the birth, hope it happens soon and with the miminum of pain and fuss for you all!
Well Alex is 3 weeks old and we are slowly getting used to life with the 2 rugrats (and resultant lack of sleep!) She's a very good baby, but like everone else's little bundle of joy she occasionally has a truly terrible night when she's horrible! I think it's usually wind when she's upset, but as you all know it's easier diagnosed than dealt with! caught myself dancing round the room the other night with her chanting.. " give me a B.... U.... R... P...." like a cheerleader.... and thought about you all! made me smile though!
I liked the idea of the "bad mummy" list.... i have millions! 1. I didn't even try to breast feed this time...... 2. I use disposable nappies, can't face the washing of reusables, bad enough as it is! 3. sterilise dummies? are you joking? i'm doing well to run them under the tap this time round!!! 4. make up 6 bottles at a time, cool under running water, store in fridge and microwave for 30 secs when required, totally against the rules! 5. have ignored both dd1 and dd2 on occasions when am dealing with the other, don't know what's worse, newborn yells or plaintive "mumeeeee!" cries!!! 6.have left dd2 in vest / sleepsuit combo for 24 hours because it wasn't too dirty, and it would only have woken her to change her.... 7. have had the odd glass of wine (or 3) on occassion and still fed and changed dd2....
Could come up with more but that's a start!!! Anyway, hope everyone has a good sleep tonight, i'll feed Alex about 11 and hope she'll go till about 4 and then 8 or 9 ish..... but you never know! love to all, lolo xx

Ayrshireloo - think I have doen most of those things...

waving again...

madmouse meant to say really pleased nathan is doing well and he is gorg.

Madmouse great news that Nathan looking at you.

Naetha would def reccomend the ghd's i had 3 pair before i bought these and have never used another pair since, well worth the money imo. Good luck on the move to cot, we have started and it going ok.

Mamachris sorry to hear mil put pressure on you on mothers day. All you can do is ignore it but i know it's hard however you know your baby best and some days they do feed a lot but if your ok with that then that is fine.

Susie not sure if you still have probs with colic but i used colief which worked a bit along with lots of massage of the stomach just put your thumb on it's side and circular motions around the belly button. Other than that we used to drive around quite a lot in the car as that seemed to help , my sympathys as it is very hard.

Well done Katy on Henry doing 6 hours fab
Well done Gingeme on George he sounds really settled now too! Think we at your stage last week as Martha has become really unsettled and waking more frequently at night am hoping it just 6 week growth spurt or we might be getting the formula out.

Well done Nicky great to see so many posts saying how well lo doing we will all get there in the end.

Wow bwmum have a fab time sounds like you are going to be very busy. i think i would have chat with mil before you go and mention lo can get very unsettled if routine completely disrupted. Agree it's other people who make life difficult and make you doubt yourself.

wave back mm

Dotsie what a bargain will def pop in there for them for our hols !

Ange think you can take them before jabs.

Lol Awen at mothers day pressie

You will have to let us know Gingeme when it's in i saw that , your story will be great for that.

Wves to Fluffy and Llo
Sorry for seperate posts but don't want to loose them as computer playing up.

A quick ques for bf mums did you find lo fed more at night and was more unsettled at 6 wks ?

Martha was doing great we had 3/4 hourly feeds and was more or less in her cot. However last couple of nights she has been up every 1.5/2 hours. Do you think this reaction to going in cot or will it pass as would rather cut down on co sleeping if short term rather than increase. TIA

Dunno Lilyloo but I read that 6 weeks is the classic age for the growth spurt / cluster feed for a few days.

DS has fallen into a regular pattern of feeding at 1am and 4am that I can live with. He is feeding every 2-3 hours. But the length of feeds hasn't shrunk yet.

I'm still getting upset that I haven't got a very happy baby. Is that a terrible thing to say!? In the daytime, after most feeds he just cries with his wind. I spend most of the time with him in his sling now. If I have a couple of 10 minute bouts of playing with him on my lap or his changing mat or something then I am lucky . Has anyone else got a baby like this now or previously, and if so how long before they grew out of the wind pains? I know I am lucky it is not "real" colic because he can be soothed with the sling. I have seen some friends go through hell with a colicky baby.

Thanks Ange.
I had exactly the same with ds and we found it started to get better about 3 months. I used to get up and try and get out and about during the day as he liked the movement. I used to take him for long walks in his pram. Also joined a few baby groups like baby massage etc. Which he cried all the way through. It used to help me to have someone to talk to. I got some really good tips for relieveing the wind from massage. Also other people used to hold him for me so i got a bit of a break too as it really got me down when he cried so much.
I used to feel like it was my fault and got really upset when i saw other mums wiht their happy contented babies. But i remember a hv picking him up and holding him whilst he cried and saying she could feel his stomach churning the whole time so i knew it just wasn't me.
I know it's really hard but things do get easier it's just getting through the day as best you can.

Oh thank you Lilyoo, that's why talking on here helps too. I have been going stir crazy after the casearian as well - 6 week check is in sight now.

Surestart lady is coming on Weds to do the introductory talk to me about all that goes on there. Gonna do the baby massage there and HV has shown me some moves already. I must make more of an effort to get out as well.

Definatley getting out really helps. I haven't done anything different with dd's but they have both been much more placid and content.
I think it helps to know it's nothign you are doing or can do. I remeber i used to be up and ready to leave the house with ds already bathed and me showered when dp left for work at 8 am I then used to walk for couple of hours before coming home to feed him and then i would have somewhere to go in the afternoon.
I would try and fill my day so that i came home ready to make tea and then dp would arrive home so he would help out. Ds still cried through much of the day but getting out made me feel better.
You have done well to cope up to now but when you can get out and about it should get easier.
I think i found it hardest to bond with ds as he was such a difficult baby and there was never any time for cuddles i just spent all my time trying to pacify him and felt like i was failing miserably. However he is now a very loving 6 year old who still happily sits on my knee and strokes my hair so you will get there.

Afternoon ladies. We had a revolution last night. George missed a feed He had a bottle at 9 and settled realy well to bed. I expected him to wake about 1 for a feed but he slept right through till 3am wonder if it will be a one off...
Hope you are all well. I got my Samsonite pop up bubble cot today. Its amazing. Bigger than I expected. My 16 month old can lay down in it. Think well be using it lots.
Dh has just been to the shed to get some of our old baby clothes up for ds5. H e cant find any 3-6 month stuff. Think Ill have to buy some new stuff. Oh what ashame.

Oh dear, this seems to be my one 10 minute slot in the day when I get anywhere near the computer....which really doesn't lend itself to proper mumsnetting, does it?!!

Ah well, I guess it will get calmer in a few weeks...

So just another quickie..(sorry!)

Lolo - so glad Alex is getting on so well, how is dd1 responding? I'm so with you on the ignoring crying child bad mummy thing - in fact 9 times out of 10 I find it easier to ignore wailing newbie than vocal 2.5 yr old (and am concerned to make sure vocal 2.5yr old isn't feeling too abandoned, of course!), but I think it will be good for her in the long term . I am still sterilising dummies [halo emoticon] but am using each one for waaaay longer before washing it (a good few hours at a time) than I did for ds1...oh, and I'm only sterilising them cos we're putting the steriliser on once a day for my breast pump stuff so I lob them in at the same time...!

Gingeme - we have the smaller pop-up and its fab, but you definitely need to practise folding it away I've been toying with getting the bigger one this time but can't quite justify it - but we were really sad when ds outgrew it at 9 months, so if your 16 mth old fits then maybe its worth the investment...?

Lilyloo Martha will probably settle in a night or two - maybe worth sticking it out a bit longer?

Katy - congrats on the move ...let us know how it goes! Any chance of you coming down to London for the meet up in a few weeks? (Desperate to meet you f2f!!) DS was totally unbothered about dirty nappies but took to toilet training really quickly, so it may not be related...

MixedMama - - looking forward to catching up with you soon

OK, that's it, my time is up! On the plus side, Tamara went from 11pm to 7am last night and the night before (and I only had to get out of bed to reswaddle her once!!), so we're slowly getting back towards some sort of normality...on the downside, ds, Tamara and dh have all come down with stinking colds, which is making all of them grumpy and snotty and makes it really hard for Tamara to feed, so we may be back at night feeds quite soon!!

See you all soon, hugs to everyone (especially Ange - things will get better soon, keep your chin up - you are doing brilliantly and it will be worth it) xxx

fluffy - am trying to plan for coming to the meet-up, never been to a MN meetup before so be gentle
tamara slept from 11-7?
full of colds here, i seem to be the only one who's clear of it ... so far...

gingeme - sounds good for george, hope he has dropped it for good does your dh 'look' like mine if it means a shopping trip never mind

ange - second lily on getting out, if you think about it, you always act better when in front of others (ok normal people do!) so if you are out with a screamer you will be less likely to lose it, at least that's my theory

lilyloo - hope the 6wk thing doesn't happen here, just starting to get into more of a pattern.

lolo - sitting here finishing a yummy glass of wine

went well with ds2 in the cot last night, 3 feeds from 7-6, tho i was twitching at each snuffle, will remember to turn the volume down tonight
after the 5.30am feed, he went back to sleep until 8.30 which was great as previously ds1 has been waking him up at 6 when he gets up. so we got breakfast done and me showered before ds2 needed attention again.

mum still here till tomorrow morning, who knows how it will all go after that....

right, must post this before my pc crashes, and have to get to bed soon.

Ok ladies, anyone got any experience using Infacol? Alex is doing well, putting on weight etc but finds it really hard to bring up wind, especially after night feeds, during the day she seems fine. What am i doing wrong? i'm feeding her before she's ravenous and panicky, stopping her frequently to wind her, etc, but still took me two and a half hours last night to feed her and settle her down again (which was hardly worth it as dd1 was up at 8!)Bought some Infacol today, have tried her with some this evening, but appreciate it takes time.... any magic suggestions in the meantime? all ideas gratefully appreciated!!
Anyway, apart from that how is everyone? Fluffy, i'm also of such a long sleep, but hey, it's still very early days for us!! hope the colds get better soon, though. Baby Olbas oil is fantastic! and have you tried "snuffle babes" for ds? it's like Vicks but very gentle, my local Boots has it and it's brilliant!
Dd1 is being a bit clingy just now, and we've had some fairly standard attention seeking stuff (pouring her juice over the carpet, refusing to co operate at bath time, throwing her banana at my Mil (ok, that one was funny!) but i'm hoping it will pass! She's been lovely with the baby, though, and is fascinated by bathing and changing her etc. Just have to be a bit careful when she wants to cuddle her, hold her hands, stroke her hair, etc, you should see the way she treats her doll!!
Lilyloo / Angechica, couldn't agree more about getting out, we haven't managed every day, but most of them! if i'm staying in i tend to dress like a slob in comfy gear, hair a mess, no make up etc which is fine for a few days, but sometimes making the effort to look presentable enough to go out just improves my mood/ self esteem a bit and also helps pass the time, it can be a long day with a baby!
Gingeme glad George seems to be coping so brilliantly with the change of feeding, hope it's working for you too! and hey, please don't feel guilty! None of the women in my immediate family have been able to breast feed (apparantly we're genetically "interesting!") and all the kids are disgustingly healthy.
Anyway, hoping i'll be able to post on here more regularly now, am writing this on our shiny new laptop (which dh claims is "mine" as he wants to reclaim the PC!) but you know how it is, girls, depends on the little horrors!! anyway, love to all, lolo xx

lolo hi no it didnt last and I had the same problem as you last night. Winding was a nightmare. I use Gripe Water and find it very good for bringing up wind. In fact if my 16 month old has stuck wind I give him a couple of spoonfulls of it and he burps soon after taking it.
Saying George had trouble last night he was bang on every 4 hours. 8pm,12pm,4am and 8am. Just like his Mummy likes to be on time

hi lolo hate infacol and so did ruby.. colief was better but a bugger to administer if exclusively bf.. they all take a few days to make a difference. i lie ruby on her tummy over my knees and she gives me monster burps!!!

morning all
not been on for a few days and it seems like I've missed lots. Thanks to everyone who gave me their support about losing my cool with DD1. Really did beat myself up over it on Friday, but ok now.

DH was talking about going to the Far East when DD1 is 2 yrs and 10 months and DD2 will be 10 mths. Much as I would love to go 14 hrs on a flight with my two princess will drive me mad!

LOLO - we've used Infacol on both our daughters and did help bring up wind pretty much straight away after a feed. You need to give it before each feed for it to be effective.

Does anyone else find that other than putting our babies under the activity gym, bouncer and talking to them, there isn't much else you can do when you are at home? Sometimes feel as if I should be doing more, but don't know what??

Big wave to everyone! No time for individual replies, but have read ALL your posts this morning, instead of napping

Still waiting to hear about my referral re: stitches, not happy about how long its taking, and thinking of going private.

Anyone considering the mirena coil for contraception? I've never used it, and would be interested to hear about anyone's experience.

Have been trying to get DD to settle herself to sleep rather than being rocked/cuddled by me, and after 1 day of putting her in her basket when half asleep and leaving her to cry for a max of ten minutes (she always slept before 10 mins, but I found it so hard not to go to her and pick her up!)...she is now sleeping happily on her own after one minute or so of grumbling to herself! (hope it lasts!!!) Feel like I've achieved the impossible.

Happy belated Mothers' Day everyone! I had a pamper day on Sat, had my hair cut and coloured, and a back massage, and DH called the salon and paid my bill. It was so romantic, I went to pay at the front desk, and was told it had been 'taken care of' by a secret admirer Feel more like my old self.

afternoon everyone

We used infacol but didn't help with ds colief was much better but hard to feed on spoon when bf so i use to express a drop of milk and do it that way.

Well better night last night so am hoping it was just a hiccuup , think they don't like us getting too comfortable in a routine so just when you think you have cracked it they have a rough one Don't you just love em

Good question Fragolina r/e contraception i never used that sorry but would be interested to know what everyone else uses / reccomends . Although are you restricted if you bf ?

news ladies i have just found out on another thread McDoodles dd has been in hospital very poorly with meningococol septicemia , she was on our due in Jan thread but had her dd in Dec.

Well have managed to kill two birds with one stone here.
I have been trying to put Martha on her tummy for some time every day as recommended by hv and have had her lay across my knee on the computer chair so it's quite high up and she is happily watching dd play Means i can mn and she much happier than when i do this on changing mat as dd is entertaining her

that's awful about mcdoodle's dd. what a horrible time, hope dd is ok/improving?

have taken ds2 out of the car in his car seat for the first time and he's sleeping so well in it!! may use this tactic more...
tho torn between going upstairs for a nap before picking up ds1 from nursery, ironing, junk tv, etc.....
ironing in front of tv maybe.

re contraception, too squeamish for the coil i think. going to try the minipill and see if i can keep to the routine of taking it, otherwise may consider the merina. (tho i've heard of probs conceiving after it so not sure). there's always condoms

not a good start to the day here, both ds's up at 5.30, aarrggh! dropped my mum off at train station, then spent far too long in town shopping - primark anyone? tho a size 16 on top, 18 on bottom there too so no chance of cheering me up about my size just yet

right, off to see what i've sky+'ed.

Hello all - first chance to post on here on a while!

Monday was completely frantic - had to drive DH to work as roads were icy and it was snowing (he usually rides a motorbike, but I won't let him in bad weather!) got back for 9am, then Ben had his jabs at 11am. All those weeks of trust we built up were gone in two quick jabs He screamed and screamed and screamed . Then at 2pm we had an appointment at the hospital to get his tongue tie snipped, which conversely to the jabs he smiled all the way through! The nurses were absolutely besotted with him as he kept on giving them huge gummy grins. We then had to go and pick up DH again at 5pm so a very hectic day!

Unfortunately snipping the tongue tie didn't actually do much good for the breastfeeding other than it stopped it hurting me. DS still took down loads of wind because of losing suction. I think it's partly my fault for giving in to the bottle too much. Never mind though, at least it saves him having to get it snipped when he's older.

His jabs backfired for us as well unfortunately - he screamed for about 7 hours straight yesterday evening, and he had a temp of 38 under his arm (I wasn't risking shoving anything up his bum in that mood!). He's a bit better today, but still unsettled.

Still, yesterday am we went to the local mother and baby group and it was really nice - all the people were lovely and friendly. They have a monthly no-babies-invited night out which I'm looking forwards to! There's also a mother's walking group who meet every Friday for a long but gentle walk. I'll go to that as long as the weather's not too atrocious!

I'm also hoping to take Ben swimming soon - ordered a swim nappy and rubber ring/seat jobbie from amazon. Just need to dig my cossie out and brave my bulges!

Oh as for contraception I'm going for the mirena coil - having it fitted in 3 weeks time. Also having my overdue smear done at the same time .

Right, off to express as my boobs are fit to burst! Hugs to all

Just to let you know that Tamara went back to 'normal' baby night-time behaviour last night (ie up on a regular basis ) so no need to be too or hate me yet!! Actually, I think its worse knowing she can go 11-7 if she wants to!!!

Katy - infacol sort-of works but you have to use it before each feed and it builds up an effect over about a week or so, so give it time. If you're bottle feeding, apparently colief is good - you add a few drops to the milk I think? Naetha had some spare a while ago she was offering around (Um, colief, not milk....!)

Lolo - congrats on the laptop!! I was dancing around T's room earlier doing your cheerleading burp song...not very effective for her but it did make me DS is also being quite clingy (lots more demanding cuddles, attention etc) and is also acting up a bit, but like your dd is being fab with the lo, which is the main thing - I can cope with a bit of intense behaviour towards me as long as he keeps on being this lovely to dd...but I know what you mean about over-enthusiastic cuddling, playing etc!!

Amani - we took ds to Thailand (ok, there was just one of him and 2 of us...) when he was 18 months...it was ok-ish but not an experience I would care to repeat in a hurry. Not sure I could face it with 2 dcs! DS was brilliant for the first 8 hours each way, then sort-of ok for the next 2 then bloody awful for the last 4...but then I have a child who will not sleep if anything exciting is going on - so he stayed awake the full 14 hours in each direction...charming!! It was only worth it because we went for a month, so had time to recover from the journey and forget the pain before coming home!!! I know what you mean about playmats etc, I feel like I keep on dumping T in her chair or on the gym, but she really enjoys looking around and apart from a bit of singing and baby massage there's nothing else they can really do at the moment....is there?

Frag - well done on the settling...very impressive!! Your dh sounds like a real sweetie to have been so thoughtful for mothers day...very of your pampering session - I've not even had a hair cut for months , and can't see it happening for quite a bit longer I'm still waiting for my appt to check my stitches as well - I also got fed up and saw a private gynae, who was relatively reassuring; altho I still need to get everything checked by the hospital as well, it definitely helped me deal with some of the panic.

I've heard good things about the mirena coil but will prob go back on the mini-pill again...altho I don't think there'll be any nookie going on here for a bit longer, at least until my stitches/wounds are a bit less of a mess DH is being fantastically lovely about it, but I'm finding it really upsetting....

Naetha - sorry Ben had such a bad reaction to the jabs. I was told to give ds a dose of calpol before his jabs and I think it helped a lot...probably not much use to you now, but might help for next time? Congrats on getting the tongue tie fixed, as you say, worth sorting out anyway. Tamara doesn't have any tongue issues but is still gulping enormous quantities of air when I feed her - I think its because I have so much milk she can get away without a proper latch to get it out (maybe Ben has the same thing?)...anyway, its bloody annoying as I can hear her squeaking as she swallows air and I know that she'll be full of wind in approx 30secs..grrr...! Glad the mother and baby group was fun

Not sure what to do about evening feeds tonight - it took me an hour to get Tamara to wake up enough to latch on for a (very short) feed this afternoon - I think the cold is really knocking her out. Don't think I'm in for a good night...!

Hugs to all xxx