December 2007. Laughing, sitting, rolling, whatever next - sleep perhaps?

[Wizzska]

Hello ladies, will you join me here?

Hi everyone, thanks for your messages. I feel a little better today as I won £18 on the Grand National and also watched all the little videos we made of dd1 when she was a baby, which really made me laugh.

Loucee - we are likely to be in Pakistan for 2-4 years, so it is a big move. But I think wherever you go, a move is stressful - eg will I make new friends, will the dd's be happy, how will I cope being so far from my family (which I recall you already are so hopefully that will make life a little easier for you if you domove back south?). I guess in addition I have to worry about taking my daughters to a city where Westerners get blown up in Italian restaurants but we will have good security and be well protected. I am also trying to stay positive about it all - after all, we will be able to afford domestic help and we will be moving to a new country with a whole new interesting culture to explore.
With the nappies, Martha's poos explode everywhere too - usually one change of clothes a day (today she did three poos but only one went up her back). We use Sainsburies nappys or Naturecare, they all seem as bad good as ach other!

Wizz I hd heard that they were changing the advice back to four months too, crazy isn't it! Anyway I am going with instinct and I think we are definitely going to start weaning next week. She is certainly ready - hungry all the time, waking more at night and watches us like a hawk while we eat.

beckle I am so at your LO's brilliant sleep, I can't imagine having to wake her in the morning! It's that magic thumb! We're having a nightmare dummy dilemna, she does go to sleep better with it but it keeps coming out in the night and I have to get up to put it back in. I think the only answer might be to leave her to cry but I HATE doing that. (Actually I think DH is attempting it at the moment as he is putting her to bed and she is screaming the house down at the moment....)

Bouncing turtle - you've done really well too, your little one has obviously been very hungry and you've really perservered with it. I just feel bad about giving up because she is quite a good feeded and not too frequent. But at the moment she seems very happy with the formula she is getting and pukes up my milk so.....

Caz - just read your message - yes don't use a dummy if she is learning to get herself off the sleep, that is far better!!!

Re bf - Clara think it was you who posted re. gtting a bit fed up of bf. I'm with you, I'm still happy feeding andvery much enjoy it, but I I could also quite easily stop. My LO won't take a bottle so I can admit to not liking the lack of choice for EBM, especially after he took it in the early weeks. I'm hoping he'll start taking one soon and then I would aim to stop bf at 6 months.he's 16 weeks now so i'm very happy to have got this far.

Poo question - ds had jelly like mucas in his nappies today, they are the usual yellowy, curry like (sorry!) but just with this jelly stuff, what do you reckon? he seems ok in himself, maybe biting down on his thumb rather than sucking, so wondered if it might be to with teething?

hi again!

not sure re the poo kelbel, but at least he doesn't seem out of sorts! the bf-ing forum is usually v helpful with poo issues!

on this lovely subject! we have v explosive ones too, but whether they escape or not tends to depend on where she is when she does it - if she's in her bouncy chair it's always an up the back disaster! generally speaking i have found tesco nappies to be okm no more leaks in them than pampers or huggies, but i know what you mean loucee they are a bit cardboardy in comparison! there is a thread on bf-ing saying that lidl ones are cheap and vg.

lizzer -

I can't believe that re the weaning guidelines, what a palaver! did she say why/who whizzska? Here was me thinking I had nothing more to deal with for a couple of months! That was more of a motivation for me than anything else to be honest! I think common sense must prevail and we will all be the best judge of wjen they're ready. people often say they knew their LOs were ready when they started waking in the night for a feed - what if they never stopped waking in the night??!

fwiw my friend's 5.5mth old is onto formula and baby rice and still doesn't sleep!

does anyone know where to look for the new advice?

dd is sleeping so i should too! am i the only saddo that doesn't stay up later than their child?!

Morning! We thought we had a bit of improvement, in that ds had a 3.5 hour stretch last night, but that deteriorated and went back down to 1.5. The ting is he is not taking huge amounts at a c puple of the feeds, even when I change his nappy (I find that quite effective at waking him up) and feed him again he quickly falls asleep. Yet I do offer him his dummy, and we tried cuddling him at one of the feeds, but God I just wish he would self-settle when he wakes up! I've been toying with the idea of putting him in the cot at the end of our bed, maybe he would be more comfortable, as a couple of time he thrashes and bangs himself on the side of the Moses basket. I've got a bumper to go around the cot so he can't bang himself, so will see how it goes.

Morning all sorry clara I missed your post re BF and then posted my soppy one how insensitive am I
I really get what you were saying I was exactly like that with DD1 and feel quite bad that I am enjoying it so much more with DD2 and will carry on longer I feel like I should stop at the same time to be fair (though circumstances are very different this time)!
BT can you put him in his cot - LIly was the same in basket (she is huge and had outgrown it weeks ago) I was worried about cot as there is no room for it in my room so she had to go in her own room - decision was made when she was in hospital in cot and would NOT sleep in basket when we got home - perhaps yours is same and doesn't like being so hemmed in - she sleeps much better in her cot!
Great night last night - DD1 went to her dad for night setlled DD2 by 8 (cluster feed and grizzle) friend came over for chinese and movie - went to bed at 12 didn't have energy for dream feed and full expected to be woke in few hours - next I knew it was 5am (wooohoooo she went from 8 to 5) she had 10 min feed and went back to sleep till 8am so one happy mummy here today

macdoodle, this is how DD started sleeping through. One night I couldnt be bothered with dreamfeed and she went through anyway - in fact she sleeps MUCH longer without a dreamfeed. Ive done one a couple of times and has woken up more. If I was you I would drop it now and cross fingers she keeps going with going through til 5!

I have had a rough few days - DD's reluctance to take longer than 30 minute naps was really getting me down - she gets so overtired and miserable when she doesnt nap yet its nigh on impossible to get her to nap - grrr very frustratng but Im trying hard to chill!

Bouncing - snap at your post! Last night though I don't know what must have happened. Perhaps I got my boobs all wrong and fed of only one but I'm so sore on one side this morning. It feels like the bad old days again, must have got engorged by accident .

Caz - I don't think they've changed the solids guidelines yet but the HV said they were going to.

Goodness well that was an exhausting weekend - hope DD appreciated it!!
Had 12 kids here today for her birthday party running riot. Had planned to take them to the local park but it was drizzly so we didn't. DD2 was an angel tho - even managed to have a nap while the big kids were tearing around the house and looked so cute in her party dress. I think she's going to be a social little thing - was not at all phased by all the commotion.

She has discovered a new noise - kind of squawks like a seagull!! Only problem is that she does it in her sleep sometimes and has been waking me up every couple of hours. She doesn't actually wake properly though so at least I don't have to get up.

Really interested to hear about the solids guidelines. DD is so much into looking at new stuff now I don't think it will be long before she starts grabbing for food. We had another baby at the party today and she was really interested in her too.

Can I just continue moaning about how much I ache. My shoulders hurt and back from holding DS, the tendons in my wrists are f*%ked from picking him up (luckily one of my NCT mum friends can do accupuncture so will be utilising her skills on Thurs hopefully) and the thing is DS will only get heavier. Are you all hurting too? Must start yoga again but wrists and tummy bit weak to most positions.

Buzzy lol re squawking. DS just does the hands against the basket bars thing that makes a noise when he's trying to get off to sleep. It can be quite loud.

wizzska - yes!! me too! shoulders, back, wrists, and oddly thumbs!?! DD is a lightweight too. You must let us know if Thursday helps. My friend is a physio and says new mums come to her quite frequently with these types of problems.

Buzzy well done, what a busy day! Lol to the squawking, i've been calling dd a little hungry gull as she does that while she's waiting for me to fiddle with bra straps etc, and then one massive squawk (lordy that's hard to spell!) just as she latches on!

Nae sleep here really, macdoodle that is so fab I am ! She did a 5hr stretch the other night and I thought we had cracked it but no such luck, back to 3hrs. She does feed every time though. We don't do a dream feed, she just wakes for one!

Oh Wizzska I might just bury my head in the sand then and pretend I didn't know hee hee! I'm so lazy I would just give her milk forever. Although I am looking forward to getting the obligatory "dd eating spag bol" messy shot!

DS seems to not want to bf today . Sorry, shouldn't worry but after what some of you ladies (Pecka) have been through it does make me concerned. He seems happy until I try to latch him on then two sucks and then crying. I think my brother has got to me again. He rang today and I was in a good mood, told him DS had had a good check up with HV last week and was 25th centile and the right weight for his height and he still intoned that that was kind of small! It seems to me that he's determined to think his little sister is crap at motherhood and that he is teh all experienced father. Perhaps I'm a bit touchy but it winds me up. One thing I've learned about being a parent, never say anything negative about other people's bairns - if there's a problem they'll know about it and likely be very sensitive and you'll not help by mentioning it unless advice is asked for!

Aarg poor you wizzska (and at your brother - tell him if you like that my 0.4th centile DD has been signed off as fit and healthy by the paed! )

dd has days like this but I am TRYING not to stress over it - it never lasts longer than a day, sometimes she makes up for it at night (groan).

I have been stopping trying to put her on IYSWIM, if she fusse/cries/pulls off etc i'm just leaving her, distracting her, chaging nappy etc and figure she'll tell me soon enough if she's hungry.

it's horrible though!

Skid I was happy with the voucher because I love to read. When DH makes his million he'll be buying me some Botswana diamonds though . lol at the willy obsession, dd still insists ds' is poopoo and yuck!

Buzzy your dd was born on a good day (my 21st!)

Clara sorry you are feeling the strain atm, moving is always stressful and moving abroad even more so. Will you be living in a British community out there? I've always found that the first couple of months you are too busy to be homesick and that before you know it you have started to settle-I've never done it with children though and I imagine that makes a huge difference to the stress levels! Hopefully they will make it easier for you to integrate though, especially if you can find toddler groups or just other mothers to meet up with.

RE routines, well I'm just a lost cause I think! DD put herself in one so I never really had to think about it just followed her lead. I can't quite remember when it happened but I know that not long from now she was feeding and napping at roughly set times-all off her own bat. DS shows no signs of doing it himself though!

Wizz I felt like that (all achey etc) a few weeks ago but not any more-I think it can take a while for your body to adjust to their new weight but it does-we'll all have biceps like body builders soon!

Lizzer very at your dp! dh has gone away for the weekend (his friends 30th) and before he left was going on about how much he needed a break . I wanted to whack him!

The fenugreek really worked, to the extent that within 4 days I was spraying milk everywhere again. Have stopped taking it now as was overproducing again and ds was getting a bit sicky from taking too much. DS has spaced his feeds out a bit more over the last few days too-yesterday he only fed 5 times between 7am and 7pm (although did then feed at 9pm, 2am, 4am and 6am!)

Having a massively lazy day today, we're not dressed and dd and I ate chocolate cake for lunch!

Can I just ask at what stage you all go to your babies for the night wakings? I'm a really light sleeper so wake at the first rustlings. Obviously I don't go to ds then but do go to him as soon as it is clear he is awake not just moving around in his sleep. I first try dummy/cuddle but most times end up feeding him.
I have a feeling this is far too early to go to him and that I should wait a while to see if he'll settle himself but find going to him the easiest option-otherwise I lie there for ages listening to him squawking and thrashing around, dd wakes almost as soon as he starts crying so I then have to deal with 2 of them, and it also disturbs dh if I leave him longer.

Clairey - ds starts crying loudly pretty much as soon as he wakes up, I do offer dummy first, if that's all he wants he'll go straight to sleep but if not he'll spit it out and resume crying

Wizz - My back aches and so does my right arm!

Told dh that he could give ds a formula feed but I've changed my mind, expressing like mad so he can give him a bottle later of EBM. Soon as DH left the house (taking dss back to his mum's) I just felt so down at the thought of giving him formula. I know I'm being silly, giving him formula isn't the end of the world and it is perfectly fine with him, and I can express while dh is giving him that feed, but I still feel pretty crap about it, I guess because I've always been set on the whole "exbf for 6 months" thing.
Interesting what you say about weaning advice changing. Wish they would make up their minds! I know so many mums who have weaned before 6 months (ignoring current advice) that I guess they have now decided that "Mother Knows Best"

He had his 2nd imms on Wednesday, spiked a temp that night but seemed ok after calpol. Wieghed on Thursday 15lb7oz. Deceded i am not taking him again for a good few weeks as he is gaining weight well and i dont want to become fixated on weight gain.

Had repair work done and it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. Is still sore but not as painful as before.

Had good night last night, he didnt go to bed till 10.30pm but then fed and slept throught till 7.45am. Very snuffily and full of cold again though. He seems to have really wakeful days and then sleepy ones. Is asleep on sofa next to me.

Clairey - I co-sleep and when he stirs enough to wake me and is making lots of sucking noises i just offer him breast then, he tends to suckle and fall back to sleep. He only tends to cry if i take too long to organise myself

I dont know if i am really lucky or if this is more common. Ds1 never really cried much as a baby and neither does samuel. I tend to offer breast to baby when he seems hungry and he is around us alot during the day but seems so content and smiles lots. People comment how content he seems, not bveing smug just wondered if he is really that far from the norm.

Wizzka - I know what you mean about not wanting to feed, samuel seems to pick up when i am stressed and frets more. I feed him in the bath sometimes which is lovely and relaxing, or i snuggle with him in bed or on the sofa. If he is really fussing i just have him close to my skin and cuddle and chat till he roots. Also it doesnt matter where baby is on centiles just as long as they dont drop and gain majorly to jump up the centiles. Also the charts are for formula fed babies. Have you looked on the kellymom website?

Buzzy know what you mean about sqawking! Have baby noises changed for anyone else? Samuel is much more 'vocal' in terms of range of pitch and also the volume (much louder!)

Aww glad your ds is okay after his jabs awen!

Daniel has been chattering away for a few weeks now, gets very shouty at times especially when grabbing his toys on his arch and bouncy chair.
Sometimes it sounds like he is trying to sing, he adores music and I always get smiles when I sing to him, and he laughs when I dance around doing the actions. He still doesn't do a ha-ha laugh, but his grin gets wider and he waves his arms and legs when he finds something funny.

Amani - how are you doing? Hope you are having a good day

Clairey I'm the same, I sleep with the monitor on full volume by my head (on side drawers) so as soon as DH stirs I'm in there like a light! Maybe I should turn the monitor off when I go to bed? What does everyone else do? He's in his own room but we do have very thin walls.

Loucee, I found pampers & tescos nappies pretty bad at holding poo, lidls own are the only ones that hold it all in at the moment. Had a v. bad pampers moment 2 days ago where it went through babygro/ trousers (white!) and sofa?great!. Though only one a day is not too bad.

Put DD down for a nap last night at 7pm and she was gone, had to wake her to change her and feed her at 9, bless her, perhaps she can go all evening and night, is it worth trying it?

Clara, good luck with changing over, (don?t drop all at once like me though or it?ll feel like your boobs will explode!) I have a loose routine, since it depends on when she wakes and feeds. We do feed every 3 hours though.

Caz, I was going to ask about those babies waking in the nights, do they stir and make noises or scream. DD used to make noises and stir, but if I left her to it, she?d drift back off, I?d only get her out if she was screaming, she?s slept through since. I have a friend who got baby up at every whimper, and now at 1 year is still waking through the night. Sorry if that sounds awful to those are struggling with the night wakes, but I was hoping to help (feel free to ignore me!) ? oh clairey, just notice you?d asked anyways. Re listening, now she?s in her own room without monitor, but across the hall with the doors open so we can hear her crying.

Hi all!

Might get some of those Lidl nappies to try then!

Re night wakings, I always wait a few minutes, but tbh it escalates to full blown crying, normally in less than one minute. She makes TONS of noises in her sleep, so if I picked up at every noise she'd never be down!! The other night was the very first time she'd been awake (it's just light enough for me to make out her eyes) and then moaned her way back to sleep - normally it's a very loud hungry cry! Still can't figure out if I didn't anything different in the day preceding her big sleep, I don't think I did!

Loucee how are you finding having him in a different room? I had thought about it but i'm really too lazy just now, even getting her out of the moses basket seems like a hassle and I only need to put 1 foot out of bed for that!

What I'm actually thinking is that she is up too late, a hangover from her cluster feeding days really...what is bedtime for you all?

oh, keep meaning to ask, pecka did you get my mail?!

Hi.
Claireybee - yes, there will be lots of other British and other nationality mums there, one of the reasons we agreed to the posting was that they have made the British High Commission quite family friendly apparently, so hopefully I will make friends quickly with other people in the same position as me. I am only worried about it as I had quite a bad experience last time I moved abroad (to Jamaica) but that was different as I was single then. This time I will have my DH and with the dd's I think it will be easier to make friends quicker (I hope!).

With night wakings - I was jumping up and shoving the dummy back in to get her back to sleep as soon as she stirred so that she didn't wake up completely, But last night I was up so many times I've decided to try and get rid of it. She hasn't had it for any of her daytime naps today and so far so good. She was very tired for the last nap and after literally about 1 minute of screaming she went to sleep and slept for 1.5 hours!! It might be a different story in the night, but generally she doesn't really cry when she wakes up, just snuffles and starts making noises. SO I figure it might be time to give her the chance to get herself back to sleep....
I still feed her once, but if she starts to sleep better I might try and cut that out soon too?

Ambi - yes, I am dropping one feed a week so she is now getting formula/breast/formula/breast/formula/breast/breast. I'm hopeful that I won't get exploding boobs - so far not even any leakage!

I have pureed some carrots today to freeze - we will start her on baby rice this week (probably Thurs as DH is at home and he can take the iconic pic of her having her first meal!).....

hi all,
stuck in strathaven for another day as the flight was cancelled.
Lizzer- re flights - i have a bottle of expressed EBM on hand in case there is a meltdown on take off or landing when it may be difficult to breastfeed. TBH, it would be possible to BF when belted in, there just is not an awful lot of room and if you are sitting next to a bloke/ stranger i would not be comfortable. Also, it helps when ascending/descending to pop their ears.
I got it horribly wrong coming up this time, though. I thought she was in pain with her conjuctivits so gfave her calpol in the morning. She was actually hungry (despite a recent feed), but the calpol was done. She slept most of the morning then was grizzly and awake for the flight. Because of teh growth spurt, she had actually finished the whole 260ml bottle before we got on the flight. Oops.
oo dins ready- will logh back in to taslk about buggies etc