December 2007: It's all worth it for the smiles.

[claraquitetirednow]

I've never started a new thread before - has this worked?

Evening all - can't be on long as DD1 is poorly sick (well sort of anyway). Had a cold this morning but other than that fine so went to nursery as usual - an hour later they called to say could I come and get her as she was complaining of a sore ear, and generally all lifeless - very unlike her. Sorted out for mad dash to collect her then to docs - who - -quite rightly I suppose - said it's virus, giver her some calpol and if no better in a few days bring her back..£ hours later, calpol taken and multiple episodes of Dora while wrapped up in her duvet on the sofa she's as right as rain - big fraud I reckon just wanted to come home!!

Loucee - Freya has been in her Bumbo for a few weeks now - but as you saw is easily able to hold her head up etc - think it's about 3 to 4 months - I would have thought Finn is okay.

Caz10 - how's it going? Just flicking through the posts over the weekend that I missed, you seem to be all at sorts about feeding etc - from what I saw you're doing amazing and Ella is a fab wee girlie and don't worry about the weaning/bottle bit - 6 months is still a fair way off and I bet you'll find she'll just find her own time to want to do things - each few days Freya seems to be doing something new or reacting to something etc.

As for weight - how un-motivated am I at the moment. Made worse by DH doing the Edinburgh half marathon on Sunday then deciding to enter the Alloa one this Sunday too - and he only does running to keep fit for rugby!!!!! And to think was the fit healthy one when we met - seems to have see sawed to other way a tad. Do have new mountain bike on order though so am building myself up for a bit of cycling - and as we'll be taking DD1 skiing at XScape from May when she's 3 I will have to get into my Sillypets by then!!

Anyway - best go and rescue DH from yet more Dora - and sort out tea - steak stroganoff for tea to night - I wonder if i'll ever eat anything mid week that takes longer than 15 mins to cook ??

hi all

dd will not nap in the day so is chronically overtired and has refused breast all day

hasnt even drank much milk - about 12oz total. Is that not much??

arghggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

i wasnt feeeling too bad about it all but

a) went to whetherspoons for coffee with dh and fed DD a bottle there.Not sure if my paranoia but a group of mothers with babies suddenly started talking loudly about breastfeeding.

i was gutted and it stirred it all up in me.

silly cows - felt like going up and saying "listen pet, your preaching to the converted. you couldnt get more pro breastfeeding than me. i have tits full of milk that no fucker wants to drink, would you like some?" but needless to say i didnt!

b) i tripped on way to fridge and spilt 5oz of breast milk

who says your not supposed to cry over spilt milk!

Pecka - over your spilt milk!

As for the women in the pub - hope their boobs fall off

Pecka, I'm not surprised it counts as a bad day. Don't let those women in the pub upset you- I am sure they would be mortified if they knew what effect they have had.

A silly interfering bat once went up to my SIL, quitely minding her own business bottle feeding my niece in a cafe, and told her "you should be bf you know". My SIL was utterly gutted as she cannot feed for medical reasons and feels terrible about it. We all said she should have punched the woman but sadly she only managed to run round the corner and burst into tears.

aaaaggghhhhh 12 week growth spurt anyone?????

Wobbegong have sent you a message by CAT.

Mac - I'm waiting for mine with baited breath!

Claraq - I don't think I could do WW at the moment. I'm so hungry all the time and crave chocolate. I've started to go jogging but otherwise have decided I'll just have to have a wobbly belly for a while. I've done WW before and lost a couple of stone, luckily found it easy to keep off until DS came along.

Beckle - Evie sounds a good weight. DS is about that now and he's 15 weeks. Oh god, is DS too small? [wizzska starts to feel sick and worries about her son's weight again].

Hi Wizzka, I wouldnt worry about your LO's weight, I bet dd is smaller at 9lb 14 at 10 weeks, she's twelve weeks now but HV is unworried as she has kept on putting on weight a bit a week.
Can't be doing with diets, just a sort of no junk resoloution, but I joined the gym again yesterday, and had my induction today. I am keen to lose weight this way, but I was pretty useless about going. Have paid for the whole year though, so I feel I have to go regularly.

pecka nightmare. it makes me sooooo angry . It is funny, though we are all sensitive re whether we are doing the best for our los. When i feed dd bm from a bottle in public (i usually bf - don't give a shit - but sometimes it is more convenient to have a bottle with IYKWIM) i do feel like i should have a sign on my head saying 'it's breast milk you know'. I think it is testament to how difficult it is that out of my NCT class of 7, i am the only one who is still exclusively feeding her lo BM. I would be starting a loud conversation with your DH on how BF mothers can be unbelievably smug and if you weren't feeding your LO BM you might be a little sensitive to it.

One of the reasons i succeeded BTW i am sure is that i started expressing the day my milk came in so that i was not the only one responsible for feeding her. This was positively discouraged by the MWs and HV which i find astounding. Surely one of the biggest barriers to successful BF is sheer exhaustion? WE did also have the luxury of being able to throw money at the problem and get a BF consultant in and a night nanny, so i know i am pretty privileged.

Sorry for tmi and sorry for yet another question from me....

Those of you whose periods seem to have started again: have they been normal or heavier than usual? I have been bleeding for a few days but just really lightly to start with but then from yesterday really heavily, much heavier than any period I have had before. I assume my periods have returned because we now do one formula bottle in the evening so I therefore go abuot 6 hours between feeds, plus she feeds for much shorter periods.

But not sure whether this amount of blood is normal?? It's like it was just after she was born.

Thanks!

Macdoodle-growth spurt over here! I neeeeeed some sleeeeep. 3 night in a row that ds has practically been attatched to my boobs from 4am to erm now! Sore nipples are back and I'm meant to be having my first night out ever on thurs..not exactly going to be up for a wild night if i've had zero sleep all week. This is the worst ds has been sleep wise since new born-i thought we had it cracked. Should know better than to ever think that

Ok, rant over. Pecka you poor thing What they doing in wetherspoons if they're such perfect mothers anyway-shouldn't they be weaving some yoghurt and lentils, and wearing soft ugly shoes?!

BT sorry ds has eczema, hopefully the cream will do the trick for him

Clara-I've gone 6 hours between a bf at night for a while and haven't got periods back but everyon'e different i suppose, just keep an eye on it and go to gp if it gets worse...

Well dp set up the zero-g exercise machine thingy in the spare room...like its going to be used or something

Okay, those of you whose babies have had the 2nd set of jabs, did your babies poo more frequently than usual? Ds has done 2 giant explosive poos in the last couple of hours, was half way through changing him and he did another one which I caught with a wipe! Put a spare wipe under his bum while I fetched some more and lo and behold another one. Now he has quite runny poos anyway because he is exbf, but they seem a bit runnier than usual! He seems happy enough, he was cranky last night but not for too long and has had a good night only waking up once for a feed after the bedtime feed.
TIA
Suey2 - how much time do you think you spend expressing each day? Keep trying to express more but time gets away from me - have you any tips, do you do it at certain points etc.?

Lizzer ? are you managing to nap during the day? You must be exhausted, hope you get better night sleep soon.
Clara ? no period yet, but tbh I don?t expect one for months. After I stopped the injection I was period-free for 18months, was great (cheap, no pms) but also worrying my body would never get back to normal. I would have thought that they might be heavier for a while until body gets back to normal ? but I?m no medic.
Pecka - that?s just what you don?t need, you?re breasts must be quite sore now which is no help whatsoever. I hope it gets better for you, and agree with BT, I do hope their boobs fall off

Weight, hmmm, well I?m 60% committed to losing weight, esp. now I?m not bfing. Trying to eat smaller meals, but god the chocolate craving is driving me mad. Trying not to snack much, soup for lunch and drinking more water but apart from that, not so healthy. Have noooo motivation to exercise at all though.

Went to mother & baby cinema yesterday, was good, only about 6 others in the screen, would def. go again. DD slept through it.

bt millie did a huge poo after her vaccinations: through all of her clothes, onto DH's cashmere jersey and his jeans .

Re expressing- i have a double electric expresser and it takes a maximum of 10 minutes now to empty both breasts. I do it at 9pm just before my bedtime and dh gives her a 10pm feed. Depending on how much she has eaten during the day, this could produce anything from 4 - 10 oz. She is now going through until 7 am so the 10pm feed is the only bottle feed (and 9pm the only time i express), unless i am going out or we are going away and i want to take a bottle for convenience sake. (don't fancy trying to BF on a crowded aeroplane, so i will take a bottle to the airport this weekend)

To begin with, though, it could take 40 minutes to fully express one breast. I have really noticed in the last 2 weeks that it takes even less time to empty my breasts (was 15mins before then), whether expressing or BF- 7 minutes usually - and i have now moved millie onto the number 3 teat as it seemed she was taking far longer to bottle feed than to breastfeed. She is 13 weeks this friday

ooh, and clara- no periods here yet and i go from 9pm express to 7am feed. Also i fell off the wagon yesterday after, what 2 days on my new regime. I had a whole packet of taste the difference hazelnut and belgian chocolate cookies. yum! felt mighty sick afterwards, though

Cheers - thanks for that Suey - did your DH's cashmere jersey wash ok or was it a dead loss?

I have achieved the Holy Grail - both dd's asleep at the same time.....

Suey - that's falling off the wagon in mighty spectacular fashion..but boy those biscuits sound good. Have just munched through an apple and NOT satisfied

Maybe it's not the 6 hours between feeds which has made my period come back then. The other theory I heard was that your periods come back if you are very fertile! Well as I am nearly 40 that's not bad going! But we'll have to be careful as we definitely don't want another baby - and I certainly don't want to be pregnant and looking after a baby at the same time.

very of those of you who do from evening feed until morning. Freya has a good routine alright
7:30 am
11am
3pm
6:30pm
11pm
...but is still waking at between 4 and 5am for a feed - and she seems to take loads. We've been topping her up (even if she's not really screaming for it) at 11pm to see if that would get her through but nothing seems to make any difference. Any advice as far as making sure the bedtime (6:30/7pm) feed is the big one and then just a quiet small feed at 11pm - would this help? We're just getting knackered as invariably with the lighter morning (even with blackout blinds and curtains) DD1 is waking when she hears her wee sis and they're both up from just after 6!!!! I know I'm lucky as during the day she is great and having such a good routine is good for going out and about etc but I'm shattered. I suspect there is no magic answer though and we'll just have to be patient. She also seems to have gotten out of the habit of settling herself and uses a dummy (my fault I know) and I'm now paranoid this is setting a president which will be hard to get her out of. Especially when she moves into her cot and her own room. - see below!!

On a positive note though, I have just pre-pasted the border area in her bedroom - after the disastrous attempts last time I sought help from B&Q man who said new houses were so badly painted that for any sort of papering/borders you had to size the walls first - basically put a pre layer of paste up and let it dry and then go as normal.

DD1 was home yesterday with snot bugs but has got up right as rain this morning declaring the dancing lady was coming and so she needed a skirt on to go to nursery so she could do spinnies How exactly do they bounce back so easily??

Pecka - Ahhhh - it's really not surprising in this country that the majority of women don't BF is it with lovely reactions like that! You can easily imagine - especially with young girls, that as the laymans view of feeding is that it's these smug , tree hugging, middle class who do it, that it's hard to see how us normal folks manage - but we do and are DAMN GOOD AT IT!!!!!! Sorry if that offends any of you tree hugging types (not meant harshly) - possible a tad stereotypical - sorry again - but it makes me so cross. This time with DD2 I've found BF much easier than with DD1 but I still have needed support around me to feed in public and when I've had ups and downs. Why is that BF is seen by many as a bit of a competition and not something that is difficult, tricky to master let alone keep doing and also something that isn't right for everyone - just think those of us with other LO's - if they were ill your priority I suspect would have been them and maybe not expressing gallons of BM?

Anyway - sorry rant over and apologies if I have offended anyone - just having one of those days I think!! Possibly brought on by a letter from work which I need to respond to regarding my return to work date - which is less than 8 weeks away now!!!!!!!!!! poo

bm i do an extra feed at about 5pm. when i dropped it she started waking at 4.30 again so have added it back in

claraq - poor you, the bleeding sounds a bit scary - i would go to the doc if it is more like lochia than a period - introducing one bottle of formula wouldn't be enough to bring back your periods immediately would it?

Thanks for the tip about the mam teats btw - haven't tried yet and DS is still refusing a bottle. ATM I am just feeding him, running out the door and coming back three hours later!

Bouncing - i can't do next Tuesday I'm afraid - birthday party and then coming in to work - hopefully another time

Pecka - you poor thing - I completely know what you mean abotu feeling people are judging you even if they aren't really. You are dping brilliantly and I really hope things start to improve for you very soon

Re dieting - I have realised that i am just not going to lose weight until DS starts solids/I introduce formula. In the meantime eating healthily and exercising seems to make no difference so I have decided to eat what i want, enjoy myself and once he is 6 months I HOPE the weight will just drop off (did with DD but I was younger and fitter back then) - I have never dieted in my life and I am not about to start now. We should all be in awe of what our amazing bodies can do (produce a baby) and not be beating ourselves up about not being stick thin, well that's the theory anyway....

TMI from me now but feel the need to share... Finally managed to DTD with DH (as opposed to a handsome stranger - don't know why I wrote the with DH bit!) - twice in a week in fact. He was VERY grateful and am so glad I have got it over with - hopefully this is us back to normal, well normal for a couple with two young children anyway..

lol at the tree huggers beanster - think I am one of those but i am also quite normal, honest

Thanks girls - arghg this is SO hard, im ok about then all of a sudden i get a massive pang of i dont know what, dont think its guilty because i know im doing whatever i possibly can. its like a longing i suppose to feed her. so im a bit crazy and sad and hormonal but dd is doing great - the bottles really satisfy her and she is going 3.5 hours ish between feeds and only woke once last night between 7pm-7am.

Despite how settle she is on the bottles i would still like her on the boob but its becoming more and more unlikely i think despite my efforts and dd drinking mostly ebm out of her bottles im not sure i can even say im breastfeeding anymore - she is accepting it less and less and i can only thnk that is because she is getting more and more used to bottles.

my boobs are killing me, constant bloody reminder of it as well

Skid - no worries - maybe sort something out once Easter is out of the way
Pecka - you are still struggling, it sounds as those your efforts have been Herculean. No advice to offer you I'm afraid but lots of support whatever you decide to do.
BM Ds has a similar night time routine so you are not alone. Don't think I've really tried to impose any kind of routine apart from bath/bed around 6pm - 7pm, I just try to get him to take as much BM as possible. He normally wakes up after a feed when I wind him so I can usually persuade him to take a bit more. Been lots of advice on the lines of don't let them sleep after 4.30, but I really struggle with this! He's asleep now in the car seat (just got back from buying a new washing machine, have had it with the old one, piece of fing junk), so I suppose I ought to wake him.

All you ladies with good night times . My nights are still dream feed 10.30pm, wake for feed 1.30 am or 2.30, then 3.30 or 4.00am then 5.30 or 6.00am every fecking night.