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

Can someone please explain to me why my lovely little dd, who pretty much settles herself for every daytime sleep and rarely even cries has decided that the middle of the night is the right time to excercise her vocal cords at full volume, for no apparent reason, for an hour at a time??

...Sigh...

I've been trying to explain to her that screaming the house down from 3-4am, and again at 6am, is just not the way to win popularity contests in her family. But she just lies there gurgling with a "who me? butter wouldn't melt in my mouth" expression....

This too shall pass....

(but it had better do so PDQ!!)

Frag - sorry to hear about your SIL

Gingeme - v of your weekend away...enjoy!

Hi - snatching a few moments to post again. As usual can'y remember who said what (should write down but hard enough typing one handed never ,ind finding paper & pen!)

Fragolina - sorry to hear about SIL - what an awful way to find out. Friend'ss DD stillborn at full term this time last year, only advice I can give is be guided by what sil wants to do - friend talks about her dd a lot so they don't forget her - not in a morbid way, but when talking about LOs and pregnancy she'll refer to DD as much as her older DS. some people prefer not to talk except to their other half.

Lolo - washing machines - grrr - mine was being temperamental so have offloaded it on Freecycle to someone who'll try to fix it and got new wash/dryer from comet coming any time now!

Mirena - must get round to making appt - i fancy this - not heard about difficulty conceiving after but not an issue as don't want any more kids - 3 enough for us

active babies - DD3 v social - her fave thing is smiling and cooing. 2nd fave is fisher price aquarium vibrating bouncer bought at NCT sale at weekend. Big smiles for that. Also likes to be upright - if I sit her up, she sometimes pushes her legs down so I hold her standing up. Frustrating as she needs more attention than the others did but good in some ways as it makes me spend more time with her, particularly as she'll be our last.

She doesn't really have big sleeps in the day just catnaps unless in car or pram.

But she's aslepp now so off to make cuppa and try to make it look as if I havwe tidied something! DH v understanding (he often works at home so knows I don't spend all day sat on my arse watching TV!) but I try to do 3 "jobs" in a day so I feel as if I'm getting somewhere - any more than that is a bonus - have changed duvet, will do 2 washloads when machine installed. Going to hoover now so that's 3 ticked off and all's right with the world...

LOL fluffy - feel much the same about my dd - although to be fair to her she doesn't cry that much. It's just that she is transformed when she cries. I'm worried I'm going to do her psychological damage because she actually looks really funny when she cries. She's got a little cartoon 'I'm unhappy' face where her mouth forms a perfect up-side-down semi-circle.

Enjoy your holiday gingeme!

Sabela only woke once last night! It's a bit of a shock that she can sleep because we spent so long waking her up to feed every two hours that she stuck there. I think it's ok to let her sleep now but I actually spend ages in bed watchng her because now I wake up every two hours!

Two questions - those of you who are breast feeding - do you sometimes have days when you feel 'dry'? I'm not sure how true it is but yesterday I felt that I didn't have as much milk as usual.

Second, any tips on flying with a baby? We're off to Spain on Tuesday. I think I'm almost more worried about the train journey, because it's longer. Any tips?

Hope you all have a good day. Sabela is sleeping and at break-neck speed I have cleaned fridge, put on the bread machine, cleaned thebathroom and hoovered upstairs. I'm thinking of dusting! How strange that having time to do housework would come to seem like a luxury!

Off to buy loads of things that I hope will make the trip ok!

Thankyou ladies. Made a atart on the packing now. Just had a break to update my pics on my profile page and to see what the weathers doing over the weekend......

Ginge, lovely pics

Susie, it may be not so much you having less milk as your lo ramping up supply for growing/growth spurt!?

Nathan is discovering breast are fun to mess about with, so now the base of one of my nipples is red, I think from him trying to look over his shoulder with nipple in face !

Nathan does the most fabulous full face smiles, when he creases his eyes and looks straight at you. We are totally convinced now that he is not blind. DH made him track a bright coloured toy at 8in like they are supposed to at 6 weeks (which he is tomorrow) earlier this week. At 3am when he called me for a feed I was greeted with a grin when I approached the basket and this afternoon I was looking at the tv when he smiled so he cooed to attract my attention. I almost can't wait to take him back to hospital to show how clever he is .

Had the most fab evening and night. Nathan only had very mild colic, then slept 11 till 3 and 3.30 till, wait for it, 8.15!! Was pretty dazed when I woke. I had worried that he would sleep less well when he was not exhausted from colic, but it does not seem to work that way. Less colic=better feeding= better sleeping apparently. Oh well, bet tonight won't be so good.

of those going on weekends/hols. MIL has still not seen Nathan as she is in care home in Holland. The plan was to take him down by car at 4/5 weeks, but did not fancy the risk of a seizure on the Belgian motorway. It will have to wait until we know whether seizures will return .

Fluffy - poor you. Had ANOTHER bad night with DD1 (2.3 yrs) - she just cried from 2am to 4am constantly. Think it might have been to do with her teething, but as she was so ajitated she wouldn't even let me out teething gel on..

at Susie and Gingeme for your holiday - can't imagine how much stuff you need to pack for your little ones!

Susie - my friend is an air stewardess for British Airways and she's been taking her children with her from the ages of 2 months all over the world. She found it easier to travel with them the younger they are as all they do it eat and sleep, don't need any entertainment as the 'hum' of the plane knockes them out!

Madmouse - that's great news about Nathan. I don't think Sabela does that following thing now - partly because she has no interest in toys and lots of interest on black specks on the wall .

Hope it's not a growth spurt! She's just started sleeping a bit more...

Lovely pics gingeme!

Thanks Amani. I think it will be harder when she's bigger, but I'm kind of dreading this one too. Thankfully we're borrowing stuff from dh's sister who's got LOs so I only hve to pack the sterilser, breast pump, nappies clothes, dummies, bottles, calpol etc etc etc etc ....

Sorry about your rough night Amani.

Milady is calling! must go to feed - have choccie bar on hand though

Hola ladies....

What rubbish weather... have been indoors all day as I couldnt decide whether it was going to rain or not and I carry Ediz in a sling and have no way to keep him dry.. annoying British weather.

Fragolina - I remember those convos about SIL well, how awful I cannot begin to imagine the pain.

Talking of jelly bellys i have abotu 2 and a half stone to lose... but some of it was pre-Sami pregnancy so have a lot of hard work ahead. I am trying to not deprive myself of anything as I wnat to lose the weight slowly so that I can keep it off and not feel guilty about havign a few biccies. Am off to Turkey for a month in August so that is my target date to lose a significant amount and then Xmas is my target to get back to the weight I was when I met DH which is about 8.5 - 9 stone, currently 11 and a half ish.

What is everyone doing to lose the weight if anything??? Could do with some tips.

At the moment I am using my step thingy (well started today), am joining the gym as my local community centre has a free womens gym (with creche, but my mum is goign to pop round to look after kids). Plus more walking once I get my double pushchair.

On the pushchair front very lucky as some friends had the same age gap as us and their daughter is massive and never fitted in the front so they are giving us a virtually unused pushair. Then I aim to walk a marathon a week which is about26 miles so have to do 3-4 miles a day.

On the sleep front Ediz has had about 3 nights where he has slept from about 10 until 7ish, although Sami wakes up at 6 and I am awake from about 4 waiting for one of them to wake up.

All in all everything going ok from our end and from skimming the messages seems everything is going ok with most of us so big waves and hugs.

hi all

i'm new to mumsnet. i wondered if if i could join this thread and ask for some advice.

my ds is 7wo. at the beginning he would nap during the day in his moses basket. he is now sometimes going for 3 hours in the night which i'm pleased with but during the day he will only sleep in the car seat/buggy (for up to 3 hours) or sleep on our laps. as soon as we try and put him down, he wakes up. even when he's awake he likes to be held all the time and won't sit for very long in his bouncer or lay on a mat (no more than 5 mins and has to be entertained the whole time)

it means that often i spend the whole day holding him until dh comes in (we have a work/live place so is never gone for more than 2-3 hours) but means i never even get up to make food or do the littlest housework.

my dh says he's only little and it will get better but is this normal? i'm lucky that dh is aroubd a lot but my thinking is what if he had a normal 9-5 and was gone all day? i'm worried that we might be making hom too clingy but the alternative of leaving him crying i'm not comfortable with.

can anyone offer any advice? i'm a 1st time mum and tend to over think and analyse everything.

thanks

kelly

hi all,

fragolina - that's so awful and to be on her own to hear the news is so sad. i feel bad for her, but don't feel bad about your thoughts before, she was being a bit weird.

well have had the first days on my own with my 2. dh left on mon morning and back just in time for goodnight kisses tonight. and i coped! and pretty well if i say so myself even got double buggy out today to walk to playgroup. hoping to walk again tomorrow to start shifting some of this babyweight(x2). if i walk to it twice a week and to bf group once a week, that shd help things along...
and pushing the d.buggy is a workout in itself!
not quite a marathon tho mixedmama! hope you get the buggy soon.

gingeme - have a fab time

dinner here, back later

Evening all, had a hectic day - NCT group then a lazy lunch with the NCT mums at a swanky cafe (Salt's Diner in Saltaire mills if anyone knows it - lovely food if a bit pricey!), then I caught the train into Leeds to try some shopping. Was out all day from 10am until nearly 7pm - both me and Ben exhausted!

Didn't have much luck on the shopping front - I'm trying to not dress like a tomboy/student/lazyarse, unfortunately all the proper "grown-up" or glam clothes either make me look stupid or about 40 years old. I'm frustrated as well, because on What Not To Wear the other week they had this gorgeous mock wrap / tunic / Indian style top jobbie, but I have no idea where it came from and can't find anything like it. It was low cut but had a panel across the tummy so it hid the belly bulge! I'd also forgotten how demoralising it was trying on clothes in shop changing rooms! The lighting is just horrible and highlights all my bumps and bulges, my crepe-paper tummy skin, my stretch marks not to mention my spots and eczema!! Ah well - I think I can apply the "this too will pass" mantra to this as well!

Ben has still been quite difficult in the evenings to settle. He'll usually whinge and grizzle and make out that he's hungry, but push the bottle / boob away. I'll then take him upstairs into our darkened room, swaddle him and try and soothe him to sleep. Invariably this fails as he is usually still hungry, but it seems that if he has a good old cry for a couple of minutes at this point, he will then take the bottle again and drink his fill, at which point we can put him in his moses basket no problem. I know we're making a rod for our own backs as we're either feeding him to sleep or rocking him to sleep, but I'll do almost anything to get him to sleep on an evening, and a bottle of milk is a damn sight better than a dose of calpol which I know some people get to rely on!

I do feel a bit sorry for him as well - he's been quite difficult and grizzly during the day for the last couple of days, and I can't deny I've been very frustrated at times, assuming he's just been difficult. However he's done two big green poos today which is meant to indicate a stomach bug. DH also had a stomach bug last week which gave him terrible stomach ache and cramps, so if this is what Ben has had, then no wonder he's been crying!

I'm afraid I don't have the mental capacity to do personal replies (can barely remember how to spell!), but just wanted to say Mixedmama - take it easy with the walks! Build it up slowly, because I've done 3-4 mile walks every other day or so for the last week and I am physically exhaused now and have severely aching muscles! I'd try and build it up slowly, and have rest days where you can to let your muscles take a rest. Having said that it's been great for weight loss as I've lost 4lbs this week, and that's with two tubs of haagen dasz thrown in!

Right, off to watch some brainless TV then to bed

Bummer knew I'd missed something - Kellyann - my DS can be very clingy sometimes, and I rarely get more than 10 minutes peace when he's awake. He also rarely sleeps for more than 45 minutes during the day (and most of that he's lying on me!) so I struggle to get stuff done.

One thing I found worked was swaddling - when eh's swaddled he's generally happy to sleep anywhere. Is it worth swaddling him for daytime naps for him to get used to falling asleep when not in your arms? You can then "wean" him off the swaddling at a later date when he's happier to get himself off to sleep.

One thing I have found as well is that often if he's in his bouncer, he'll love his toy bar to be up for about 5 minutes but then starts to cry. Often he stops if I take the toy-bar down, so I think he may just find it overstimulating, and can never sleep in his bouncer when the toy bar is up.

Oh, and welcome to Mumsnet

Kellyann my son is EXACTLY the same . He is great at night and sleeps in cot (basket got too small) in it no probs between 10pm and 7am with only 1 or 2 night feeds! (touch wood ). Sometimes I can get him back down in cot after the first feed for half an hour or a hour, when I can get washed / dressed / tidied up and get my food and drink ready for the day. He then naps on me and often will nap for a hour and a half this way. In eves we can transfer him between me and DH if he is napping and he won't stir - so I can have a nice long bath).

Sometimes I put him in a sling say for one of his naps, which again he will stay down in for ages (apparently babies always sleep better on their fronts shame you mustn't do that in their cots though) I then have 2 hands free and can walk around, make lunch cuppas etc.). The last thing I can do is that if I take him out after lunchtime feed for a good walk in the pram he will sometimes sleep on in it for half an hour to an hour. Otherwise yes I don't get time to put tea on or anything but DH is doing all the cooking right now anyway .

Mine wont tolerate much time in bouncy chairs or on playmat so I doent force him(although he is getting better at being on his changing mat on the floor, where we play a lot, and I can leave him for a few mins while I go to the loo etc.). But as I understand it this is bound to get better as they get more distractible.

After getting all worked up because the books say you must put them down to nap in their beds etc. (DH wants to burn my copy of Baby Whisperer) I have just started to accept what a lot of people on MN say, just enjoy the closeness while you can and it will right itself when baby is ready (and soon they won't be daytime napping so much anyway). We have the luxury of being able to do this because we are first ime mums. So I have (only just) started to relax and not feel so "trapped" in daytimes. Hope any of this helps but def reccomend the sling!

AAAAA!!! just did a big long post and then lost it all!! don't you hate that? Anyway, welcome to horsey and Kellyann, big waves to everyone else! have put some photos on my profile at last (only taken me about a year!!), to tired to retype everything, we are all fine, Alex put on 14oz last week !!love to all, lolo xx

Good morning all you ladies. If LOs are true to form most of us are up feeding now.

Lovely pics Lolo!

Kelly - my dd is very similar and I can only echo what the others say. You are not alone!

Has anyone's LO suddenly not seemed that hungry? Sabela is feeding less often and for less time - both from bottle and breast. I'm a bit worried because we just got on top of the weight issue

Welcome kelly ann

ANOTHER bad night - DD1 up again from 5:30am due to teething (the back ones are coming out!). Only cried for 1/2 hr then she sand EVERY nursery rhyme know to mankind until it was time for DH to take her over to my in-laws. Plus I had to wake up around 4am to feed Aliya.. and tired....

Anyone out there know of anythng to get her back to sleep after she has woken up around 5:30am???? She seems so wide awake at this time in the morning.

Hi everyone,

Havent posted in ages but have loved reading what you are all up to. So many of the same things here - my ds is 10 weeks now and is going through a clingy phase. Won't nap unless he is on my shoulder or chest. Screams when he is put down then totally happy once picked up. My back is suffering! We have a sling and I need to start using that.

I kind of love it though.....walking around with him all snuggled on my shoulder.

Can't remember who asked about flying with an infant - but I can offer some advice. We flew to Australia with ds at 6 weeks, just got back last week. Not ideal timing but my brother in law was getting married so we just went for it! So over 48 hours on planes later......

First of all, don't worry - it was not that hard. You get great service with a baby especially if they are crying - we got to jump an enormous queue at Heathrow to check in, got asked to the front of the security line in SIngapore, always boarded the plane first, etc. If no one offers, try to find some airport staff and tell them you need to feed your baby ASAP, can you please go first?

If you are breastfeeding, feed during take off and landing to help their ears. You get this little child lap-belt to hold the baby on your lap so you have to twist them around in a funny position to feed, but its possible. We fed on every takeoff/landing and he never once cried. He didn't even seem to notice that anything was going on.

Also bring zip-lock plastic bags to hold the wet and dirties. We had a major poo-disaster in Heathrow and had to give him a little shower in the sinks in the changing room. Fortunately we could seal up all his clothes and blanket in the bags so it was easy to carry them with us.

What else....oh yes bring more extra outfits than you think you need, and an extra blanket as it can get cold on the planes.

You will be fine! We were suprised at how easy it was. As someone else said, once they can walk around and need to be entertained it will be much harder to travel...

Hey all not had chance to catch up will try to later
Just wanted tp pop by and see how everyone doing.
We all well here time is flying and Martha is doing really well. She no longer co sleeping and is actually doing longer stretches in her cot, think she can't have free booby access all night now
Not much to report here am just in middle of marathon spring clean so will pop back later , love to all lo's

kellyann - ds 6wo and exactly the same - will sleep at night in cot but only on me in the day. think it's maybe bc I've been quite a clingy mum and didn't want to be away from him in daytimes for ages, so he's just used to me. I'd echo what others have said - slings are great. But we're also getting a bit of success with the pram in the house. I nurse him to sleep, put him on my lap and put whatever t shirt I'm wearing in the pram, then him on top and I stay close to try and settle him again. works maybe 25% of the time, but I'm typing this with a very tired ds on my shoulder (hasn't slept since 9am) who won't even sleep on me right now, so probably not the best person to offer advice!

mixedmama - am not even trying to lose weight, but have decided I must work harder to stop gaining it! I guess using bf as an excuse for daily chocolate break needs to stop

susie - can't believe you're organised enough to be able to plan a holiday/pack already! train journeys have been fine for us though - put ds in a sling, and within 20 mins the motion of the train rocks him to sleep. has worked up to 3 hours - how long's your journey?

Thanks for tips and reassurance on travelling / flying. Our journey is 3 hours or so on the train and then airport wait of 3 hours then flight of two hours . I'm resigned to the fact she'll probbaly cry at some point, but as long as no one else is making exactly the same journey it shouldn't be too awful. LOL

Good tip about the zip-lock bags!

susiemj, you are absolutely right - the important thing is to know that she will cry at some point during the journey, and the other passengers will glare at you a little, but there is no need to stress about it. stressing will make her cry more. the other passengers who are mothers will sympathise!

Susie - just pack lots of plastic bags (more than you can possibly imagine you'll need!), ditto for wet wipes, nappies and muslins and aim to feed with bf/bottle on takeoff and landing. Everything else will be fine - and 2 hours is a really short flight. We had no trouble flying with ds from when he was quite little until we did 14 hours to/from Singapore when he was 18 months and mobile but too little to be distracted by anything for more than 5 mins. Now that was the journey from hell!!

Lolo - lovely pics 14ozs?! Wowza!!

Welcome Kelly and Horsey

Ange - don't burn the BW, just ignore the bits that don't work for you!!

Amani (((hugs)))...can't help with the 5.30 problem, as I'm struggling with the same thing when Tamara wakes ds at 6.15...really annoying, esp as he used to be an excellent sleeper

I had the 2nd really pants night in a row last night However dh (bless him), has informed me that he is putting me to bed by 9.30 tonight with his earplugs and will then give T her 11pm ebm bottle and do all subsequent 'getups' until whatever time (probably around 5/5.30, based on the last couple of nights, sadly) he is convinced she needs feeding. Hurrah!! Right now, anything more than 3 hours sleep in a row would be total bliss...

Of course it does mean I'll have to deal with ds when he gets grumpy tomorrow......

OK, off to start the weekend, DH just got in super-early...double hurrah!

Hugs to all, xxx

spent too long catching up and now knackered.

Took charlie into work today. very fun

Her sleeping is very erratic i think she is having a change of pattern she was feeding every three hours through the night but then started to do 10pm -3.00 am then i went to my mums and fed her at 5.30pm and drove home and put her to bed and she didnt wake up for a feed until 1.45am thats 8 hours if only i could have gor it through the night.

Then back to the 3 hourly feeds the next few nights and tonight she fed at 6.30pm and no noises as yet????

Who knows - waiting to see what happens.

Just a quickie as I'm about to go to bed...

Once Ben is asleep for the evening (about 7pm onwards) he stays asleep for up to 8 hours, however actually getting him to sleep is an absolute nightmare and involves lots and lots of tears.

Even if he's slept well during the day, come about 6pm (which co-incides with when DH returns from work) he seems overtired and fractious. He will cry for no apparent reason, with distractions / change of scenery/position / dummy only placating him briefly. By this point he's usually due a feed, but because he's so wound up he can't feed.

Once he's actually feeding it's fine - he will drink his fill and appear to be slightly drunk - i.e. very floppy and sleepy and have no trouble settling down.

Any tips for stopping him getting into that state in the first place? I have tried him having more naps during the day, tried getting him for bed earlier etc etc, but always ends up with the same result. Just seems such a shame because all DH sees is a crying stressed out baby, when most of the time he's an angel.

Anyway, off to bed - hugs to all

naetha - sabela gets like this and two things help. one is giving her a bath and feed the other is this which we were given last week. It's been fabulous for those moments when they are too tired and overstimulated to sleep and need something distracting but soothing. ther's loads cheap on ebay. and it sends my dh to sleep too! mine's slightly different but it was bought in france so...