November 2007 - None-day Morning Lay Ins!

[RGPargy]

Hey ladies! Our thread was getting a bit long so i started a new one. Hope you dont mind!

RG- I'm holding ou till 6 months and going ahead with BLW. Your HV should arrange a 4 month check-up with you.

Ours is Wednesday they will discuss holding out on feeding till 6 months. I think there are talks of stopping the selling of infant foods from 4 months onwards, as it sends a mixed message to parents. I think i am going to bf till about 12 monthsish then transfer onto cows milk.

Boring few days really, nothing to report.

Morning all!

Well, i'm all braided up again - yay!!! DP is wowed by them and says they take YEARS off me!! I'll get him to do a pic later today and I'll stick it up online. Thing with my hair is that it either has to be really short or braided to look good. Anything in between makes me look old! The whole process took 5 hours, plus the journey of 1.5 hours each way. I had to take Ellie with me and she was an absolute star for the entire day. She spent alot of time asleep while we were there and was conked out in the van for each journey. Dont think i'll take her again tho because in six weeks' time she'd get bored stupid for 5 hours as she'll be that much older. She looks slightly bemused by my new hair do. She keeps looking at me as if to say "I know it's my mummy, but she looks different and i cant quite put my finger on it.....".

Well, i am officially knackered again! For the last two nights Ellie has been a little mare for waking up, and both nights we haven't bathed her. I really didn't think that the lack of a bath and massage could put her sleeping pattern out so much but it clearly proves that she needs her bath/massage/feed routine in order to settle at night. Last night she was waking up about every 30-45 mins for her bloody dummy! In the end DP got up at around 5ish and shoved it back in but by 6pm i decided i'd get up and feed her. By 7pm i thought i'd best get up because sleeping wasn't on her agenda today! So i got her up and dressed and guess what? She's sparko on the sofa. She then woke for another feed and is sparko again. Shame she couldn't do that last night! It does make me wonder what i can do to get her to sleep through the night. Perhaps she wont sleep through til she's six months, but i'd really imagined she'd be sleeping through by now!

I went out and bought a pump on Thursday so that i can express some milk and have a bit of freedom now and then. I managed to get around 2oz on the first go which i stuck in the fridge but then i had to throw it away because i warmed it up for her so that DP could feed her but then when i went upstairs to give it to DP, Ellie was sound asleep! I dont think you can re-heat it so i had to chuck it away. Gutted. Still, i had another bash today for about 15/20 minutes and have got 2.5oz so that's not too bad i dont think. I know they say you shouldn't measure expressing iwth how much baby is taking, but i like to think that Ellie takes around 3-4oz per feed, which isn't THAT much really is it? Or is it?? I cant bloody remember lol. In any event, i'm starting to wonder if i'm doing any good by BF her because everyone keeps telling me how tiny she is, and last time i had her weighed she had dropped under the 50th centile line, which she'd be following since birth. That happened since i dropped to feeding her 4 hourly because the HV said it would be ok so i wonder if i should put her feeds back to every 3 hours? What do you think?

Sarah - watch TV and a good veg is great when you finally get LOs off to sleep, isn't it?

Choc - Maybe you'll have to suffer the couple of nights it'll take for DD to settle into her new room so that you can get a bit more sleep? Speculate to accumulate and all that. Ellie took about a week to settle back into her normal routine once we put her into her own room and cot.

Loopy - thanx for the info. DP was quite disappointed at the possibility of not spoon feeding DD mush, or at least chocolate pudding lol. I think for now i will try and wait til 6 months, but if Ellie keeps waking up twice a night or more then i will think about perhaps introducing a baby rice at 17 weeks.

LMB - You're right about the mixed messages (see above!!).

Right, time to have a quick tidy up. Have a good day everyone!

RG- Just to warn you Ellie will probably start getting hungrier around 17 weeks (so i've been told) and you will probably go back to doing a few extra night feeds but ths is normal as babies get another big growth spurt around this time. PITA but worth just staying with the milk. You could maybe top up an eveing feed with expressed breast milk that your DH could maybe give her? I say this but i find it a mare to express ! but the more you do it the easier it is and the more milk you get. Sometimes i can only get 2oz sometimes 4oz. I find i get more if Ds is feeding at the same time as it stimulates your natural let down. lots of pillows involved and propping and positioning but worth it for that extra milk!

I feed Coby around every 3 hours ish sometimes sooner and he cluster feeds in the morning and night.

I think if your worried about her weight i'd maybe offer both breasts at every feed if you don't already do this (i don't but i have a very quick flow and ds tends to over feed) This will increase your suply and hopefully her weight will jump back up.

I don't think the HV will worry too much unless she continues to drop centiles.

Maybe you could also give her a night feed because she's sucking a dummy she could be missing a feed. Thats may be why she keeps waking up, worth a try. HTH

I don't think that many bf babies sleep through this early (maybe worth starting a thread on it) I've just come to the conclusion that ds wont for a while and thats fine really. But i'm looking forward for the day when it does happen! I think the majority of babies that do sleep through are ff because the milk is richer it takes longer to digest so babies can go longer between feeds.
A lady at one of my groups, who's ds was born on the same day as Coby, told me that she gives her ds a 10.30 formula feed and he sleeps through. If you really feel you need and benifit from the sleep maybe you could do this? It depends on your views towards formula really.

I bet your braids look lovely. Do you have a headache? Thats what i remember for the first few days my head would throb and i found it really hard to sleep. But once they'd loosend a bit it was amazing and i loved just getting up and my hair being done. Also people are always facinated by them. I bet you'll get lots of admiring glances, and 'can i touch them' comments Did you go for natural colours or something a bit more out there?

Mothers day tommorow.......

Hi LMB Thanx for the tips! I think maybe the only thing that could work is if DP gave her some expressed milk after her last feed. That would be quite nice for him as he gives her a bath and then it's over to me for massage, feed and bed. I suppose if he could give him her very very last feed and put her to bed that could make him feel more involved too. I know what you mean about expressing - so far I have only managed 2oz in one sitting. Today i tried expressing (had already expressed this morning) but all i got was enough to cover the bottom of the bottle! most disheartening! Trouble with expressing whilst feeding is that i need both hands when i'm feeding - one to hold Ellie and one to press on my boob to make an airway for Ellie to breathe through!

I've decided to go back to feeding Ellie every 3 hours. It's normally around the time she would get fussy anyway so i think that perhaps she actually could be hungry. Bad mummy! I do offer her both breasts each feed - sometimes she takes both, other times (i.e. tonight before bed) she only wanted one side. She flatly refused my left side but guzzled like she'd been starved from my right.

She does generally tend to feed in the night too, but sometimes she will miss just the one feed which is normally the one after her very last feed. I have been thinking about a formula bottle last thing at night, but i would be very very reluctant to go through with it. I'll probably just ride the storm out, i reckon and see what happens.

I have to admit that yes, my braids DO look lovely! My head did ache a bit yesterday and sleeping on them was horrible - i could only get in one position without them hurting! They're still a bit painful today but it's not too bad. I love them for getting up and not having to worry too. I know it's kind of swings and roundabouts with having braided hair and a baby, but at least i can tie them up out of the way! i've always had admiring glances when i had them before and the attention is brilliant lol. I went for mostly natural with the odd pink and purple braid put in for good measure, just to break it up a bit. I think next time i'll have a few more coloured ones put in as I wont have to worry about what work will say as i'll still be on mat leave! Yay!!

Pictures will be up very soon!

RG Callum went through a growth spurt at 16-18 weeks, was feeding every 2 hours and its only just resettle back to 3-4 hourly this week and he is 23 weeks now

oh and Callum isn't sleeping through yet, he still wake at 2,4 and 6am, after going down at 9pm

shot!! Just seen the time, I'm off to bed!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Adam made me a lovely cooked breakfast this morning - clever boy ! He also got me up at 5.30 cooing and generally wide awake with the gift of poo! But the DH took over and I had a bit of a lie-in so that was nice.

RG - if it makes you feel any better Adam has gone backwards in the sleeping through the night stakes and now falls asleep around 9 and wakes at 2, 4 and 7 like clockwork. I also seem to think that ff babies are the ones who sleep through sooner but I could be wrong. Adam also feeds every 2.5 hours during the day. Looking forward to seeing the pics of your new do!

BTW what is BLW when it's at home??!!

Well we introduced Adam to his Great-Grandma and Grandad yesterday for the first time (they have been poorly every time we tried to go down before). It was a bit of a roller-coaster of a visit because, inbetween being really sweet and saying how beautiful he was, he got called a lump, I was told off for not using a dummy (cruel apparently!), spoiling him (cos I let him sleep on my lap), Grandad sat him on his lap and held on just to his arms without supporting his back (DH stepped in before I lost the plot!) and he screamed blue murder when placed in Grandma's arms but she was grimly determined to hold on to him. And they forgot what he was called! But we'll let them off that one because they are both in their 80s and have 11 great-grandchildren. It was nice to see them and a relief to go home!

Hope you are all being spoilt rotten. xx

Morning everyone! Happy Mother's Day!

Ellie let me have a lie in this morning because daddy took her downstairs and gave her a bottle of EBM, which she apparently guzzled with gusto! Hooray!! At least i know that she will take the bottle and it'll give me some freedom! She's due another feed at around 11am so i hope she still feeds from me!

Sparkly - blimey, ever two hours? you must be knackered! By the looks of it, it's not unusual for our babies to wake up at 2, 4 and 6/7 because Ellie does that too, roughly.

Sarah - Very of you having a cooked breakfast!

You are right that FF babies tend to sleep through. DS was FF and slept through from 9 weeks

What a trip you had meeting the GGPs!! I suppose things were so much different back when they were having children, they are probably of the "baby in the pram in the garden" school of thinking, when you didn't cuddle your babies much either.

BLW is Baby Led Weaning. It's basically letting your baby tell you when they are ready to try solids because from around 6 months they will start to take an interest in what you are eating and may even grab at it. Something like that anyway lol. Have a look into it and you'll get a much better idea of what i'm on about.

Going over to the PILs later and am planning on giving MIL a card with Ellie's hand print on the inside and also a print out of a photo that i took on Thursday.

Have a nice day ladies!

I had a lovely day today! Flowers, tea in bed and the Juno soundtrack. We went to see it yesterday evening, it's a really lovely heartfelt fim. Nearly made me cry! Then Dp, his brother and Gf took myself and their mum for lunch. Which was lovely. Coby was so well behaved and guzzled down a bottle EBM!

Sarah there is a whole load of info on page 11 of this thread on BLW that i learnt from my bosom buddy training. Worth a read.

Rg- Glad Ellie took the bottle it is good to know you also have that option and increased freedom! Coby will sometimes take the bottle and sometimes just refuse point blank. I really want to get a doidy cup as a back up but not sure where to get one from.

LMB - John Lewis sell the Doidy cup. I just did a google search as i hadn't a clue what one was! What age is best to start them on it?

Well done on having your DP well trained to treat you for Mother's Day! Good show!

Loopy - What difference does it make if the EBM is a first thing in the morning dosage of mummy milk or not? Is it richer in something or other? If so, i might try that first before going down the formula route.

I'm off to visit the girls at work on Tuesday so i think i'll express a couple of feeds worth if i can so that i can feed in front of work colleagues and not slink off somewhere. I'm absolutely hopeless at feeding in public. I cant do it in front of FIL or in public public, but can do it in front of my Monday/Wednesday ladies as i know them, IYKWIM.

Hi all we are having a lovely holiday and everyone loves DD. Getting loads of cute summer dresses for her so they will look cute on her if we get a summer in the uk .
DD has slept through the night from 7.30ish until 6.30ish for a about a month now and was only off for one night when we arrived here. My sisters DS wakes twice most nights ( he is 7 and a half months) and we both exclusively breast feed. I think it depends on the baby although I think it is more common for FF to sleep better early.
Mothers day is in may in NZ so we forgot all about it and now I will miss mothers day completely as we will be back in uk in may and will no doubt forget again. Boo! Hiss! . Never mind DD is devine so every day is a mothers day for me.

Glad you are having a lovely time Fiona! at DD sleeping through tho!

Thankyou RG shame there isn't one near me booo! I think you can start using them at around 4 months to get them used to it and they should be more confident around 6m. Its the same as using a beaker but its shaped so that the child can easly see the drink and it doesn't have to be tipped as far back as a normal shaped cup to enable them to drink!

Oh Fiona i wish i was in NZ! Glad you dp and lo are having a fab time.

p.s The milk is richer at night (often why babies cluster feed in the evening) but easier to express in the morning.

Happy mother's day to you all!

RG:- Just when I thout I was back on, the computer went down again and this time for good! DH failed to get it back up and running and I have had to be off line again.

Just got a great mother's day pressie this afternoon, (new laptop)and here I am

Loopy: It shows how long I have been away, I did not even know that you had not been on for a while either! But glad you you are back too.

Sarahlou:Thanx for sharing, I have tried so many creams before settling for one (can't remember the name now coz I do not have it infront of me) Aveeno and olive oil did not cut for Tyler.

He is sleeping a lot better now, waking once, (becoz of feeling itchy most times) or not waking up at all! so he is not doing too badly at the moment.

Good nite to all.

LMB - You can shop at John Lewis online.

Off to lunch with the girls today.

Have a nice day all!

Here you alla re- thought I'd lost you again.

Well we're still having problems with the milk, I tried to come off the tablets the other week and it affected me straight away, went back on them but eer since my supply hasn't been as good.

Am going to try some other things now- I'm desperate to get to 6 months so I can do the BLW with her rather than the slush

LMB I was in Mamas and Papas last week and they sold Doidy cups. I have 2 from when DD2's was little. I can take orders and go and get some if anyone needs one, they were about £4 IIRC.

LM, it arrived on friday. I haven't had chance to get to the shops this week with the cheque, but will do it ASAP. Thanks for that, its in my car and works great!!

Sparkly- thankyou for the offer, but i think i'll order a few from the JL website. Before i do, would you reconmend one? How did your dc's get on with them? From what i've heared they seem really good. Think it was the dental lady who reconmended them as apposed to beakers.

Yeah loopy back off!

But i can back up my claims

How does milk supply vary throughout the day?
Earlier researchers observed that milk volume is typically greater in the morning hours (a good time to pump if you need to store milk), and falls gradually as the day progresses. Fat content tends to increase as the day progresses (Hurgoiu V, 1985). These observations are consistent with current research if we assume the researchers were observing babies with a fairly typical nursing pattern, where baby has a longer sleep period at night and gradually decreases the amount of time between nursing as the day progresses.

Cut and paste from kellymom.com Its such a good website for breastfeeding info!

Well I was given 2 for Dd1 because she has disabilities, and then used them for Dd2. They are very good and the girls didn't spill drinks as much because of the angle of the cup.

RG- oooooh this is worth a read before trying formula for the last feed.night weaning I think i'd give this a go if i wasn't co-sleeping, but its not too bad as i don't really properly wake up when i feed.