July 07..Happy Birthday, ..little monkeys..

[twoplusone]

I ladies thought I would start this..

I cant believe they are starting to and are going to be turning one.. This year has flown over.. I miss being pregnant. But i love watching lee playng with his older brother and sister, it always makes me smile.
I love the fact that he is now playing properly , will go to his toy box pull himself up and see what he wants to play with.. normally after throwing everything round the front room first..No such thing as a tidy room in this house.. How do people do it.

Hope everyone is ok.. speak soon

Thank you! It so helps to know that someone else knows what I am going through. Realistically I don't think DD is ready to stop, but I will try cutting out the morning feed and see how she goes.

Melissa,
No problem at all. I convinced myself that DS wasn't ready to stop, but then one day I realised that it was me that didn't want to.

I am sure you can imagine my dissapointment when he took the bottle straight away - even with me pushing my boob out in his face hoping he would prefer it! I felt like a milk factory reject

Start with the morning one and see how she goes.

Reducing the bf'ds here too although at the moment I'm going the other way. We'd dropped to 1 fed a day but the only way DD2 would take cows milk was with her cereal ( little madam emoticon) so because of the fat issues etc I've gone back up to 2 feeds a day as she still will only tolerate water in her beaker!!! But I've got a clinic tomorrow and hopefully the dietician may have some suggestions don't want to drop them completely yet but don't want her to reject everything else either, for us the morning one is the nicest ( and she drinks more so I'll stick with that one).

As for AF had that since 6 months but the same with DD1 not really a massive change possibly more irriatable but I wouldn't admit that to dh!

Meep sorry to hear about your stay "inside", it does get less scary the more we stay and atm that seems to be far too frequently but it's not something I'd reccomend !!! just glad to hear she's a little bit brighter ps don't discount the possiblity the d+v could have been courtesy of the hospital we've had a couple of bouts like that!

must go as need to do geeky computer stuff tonight ( whilst dh is out and not interferring!)

love to ll

Doris

doris I'm more worried that minimeep has passed the d&v to teh other children on the ward - I reckon she had it before she went in. Turns out her symptoms are similar to some of the others at nursery - nappy rash with nasty little blisters, lots of poo, then vomit!

justabout - you poor thing. My AF has been heavier but shorter since having minimeep and takes a while to get going - which is why I originally didn't think I was pregnant!

Minimeep took to cows milk with ease - didn't seem to notice the difference to formula!

However her eating has regressed since the vomit and she isn't keen on finger foods any more - will only eat mush. Very frustrating!

Hello ladies, sorry been a while.
Meep- so sorry to hear about Meep's scare, glad she's ok but must have been pretty terrifying!
Doris- so glad you managed your camping trip- I really take my hat off to you- read your bit on the CF Trust Forum about camping and you have inspired me! We keep talking about camping, but haven't got organised- however a friend's offered their bigger tent to hoping to get away one weekend- not too far mind as weather's not great over here...! Hope Lydie is keeping well.

Good luck to those reducing BFs, I still feed sad sometimes that we stopped just after M turned 1, but she was ready to stop- and judging by the gallons of cows milk that she downs in a way I'm relieved...Like others said just drop one feed at a time, very gradually- like most the last feed we dropped was the bedtime one.

Justabout- my AF has been very,very heavy too since having DD. Hoping they'll settle soon- tried using a mooncup but found it a bit tricky (know I should persevere..)

Well we went over to visit my family and the trip went well, even though DD refused to sit still for one moment on the plane- luckily like you 2+1 people did offer to help with our bags so it wasn't so bad being the only grown-up with 2 critters!
2+1- I am so glad your DH is home safe- your photos are just lovely, brought tears to my eyes too. But sad for you all that he has to go back out so soon Just enjoy being together for now.

I'm really meant to be getting stuck into my thesis at the mo- DH has taken the DCs to his parents for the night to let me work. I'll be very thankful too for an uninterrupted night as M still isn't sleeping well, have tried so many things I'm at a loss...but do think teething explains a lot- she still only has 2 bottom teeth and a bit of 1 top one...so lots to come...

I'm starting work next week for 2 days per week. After 16 months break from paid work I am a bit scared but I know my new boss very well so hoping it won't be too bad... DCs going to the same childminder I was using last term so should be ok...

How is everyone doing weaning little ones off bottles and onto cups? Ironically as DS never took a bottle (except when in SCBU...) didn't have this problem before but M loves her bottle- we're using a strange soft spouted one but it's still really a bottle...She takes water so well from hard-spouted & even open cups but just won't drink much milk from them...

Love to you all xx

PS. Just put a couple of "before" and "after" shots of my 2 on my profile in case you'd like to see- from their beginnings in SCBU to the present day. They make me so proud every day- aren't children just amazing

we're still on bottles for milk - cups for water. I haven't actually tried to make the change yet - it is on my list of things to do. At the moment I am just glad she is drinking her milk as food is still problematic - lots of head shaking spitting and throwing food on the floor - sigh! So I don't want to jinx the milk intake by moving to cups yet!

Gorgeous pics Nika!

Great photos Meep and 2+1.

BFP here

Many congrats Jennster That's great news - were you trying?

Meep- I find sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks for appetite to return to normal after a D&V bug. But it's also difficult at this age where they will start to "challenge" things- Mairi is very difficult to feed by spoon, but can actually feed herself pretty well with a spoon/fork/finger if she really wants to. I sometimes find if I leave a load of food that we're eating on her tray, plus a bowl of mushed up stuff and a few utensils then busy myself the other side of the kitchen (i.e. not look at her) she starts eating quite well all by herself.
I wasn't brave enough to try baby-led-weaning, partly due to her need for rapid weight gain, but now find that style of feeding suits her much better. Otherwise I end up having to distract her by placing bowls of water with some cups etc. on her tray while I sneak spoonfuls in, and it's all a bit stressful. She is teething though so I think that makes it harder too.

Like you she seems to really need her milk so not putting too much pressure on yet to drop the bottles...But I know DS coped with just cups (hard-spouted)- from 10.5 months too- so know if I really went for it, maybe cold-turkey, within a couple of days she'd probably master them. But we'd probably get no sleep in those days as drinking from a cup never makes her as sleepy at bedtime as sucking a bottle....

Right, I'm procrastinating (you can guess that by length of my posts). Back to thesis.

Jennster that is fantastic news, I am so pleased for you! Hooray!

Thanks well it would be a lie to say we weren't, but it's still a shock and my goodness we are fertile. At least there will be 22 rather than 18 months difference this time.

Ohh yes that would be lovely. Meet Manchester way? I am now working tues to Fri, considering mondays too. Need to bolster the funds before the next (last) lot of maternity leave. Yes we are going to have to sort out a permanent contraception, with dc2 and dc3 being conceived first month trying.....even though I ovulated really late in the cycle too.

Congrats Jennster, I am hoping to join you in the pregnancy camp soon. We are finding it a bit of a shock not to conceive straightaway since DD, DS (and a mc in between ) were all conceived in the first month of trying and now we are on month 3. And I'm 36 now so worried my fertility is dropping. But I shouldn't complain really. My sister has been TTC for 4 years, with a few failed IVF treatments recently.

I stopped BF when DS was 12.5 months old, as I wanted my body back (and DH thought it was about time too!). It wasn't a struggle at all as DS drank his milk happily from a cup. Unfortunately not as sleepy at bedtime which makes it a longer process but altogether glad i did it.

We decided to put DD and DS in a room together and apart from a few giddy evenings (we have to make sure DS is asleep before DD goes to bed) its gone well. We hoped DS might sleep in (as DDs room has blinds and heavy curtains) but he still has a preference for 6.15 wake-ups...

fingers crossed for you pula - I hope it all works out soon for you.

we were the opposite - took us a year for dd then only "tried" once and that was me - and I am 37!

we had a 6am wake up today. minimeep was starving! She is still struggling to eat solids, but it is now playing havoc with her sleep.

My mission today is to get as many carbs in her as I can !

Good luck Pula. It can be such a game of chance. I did a module of reproductive pharmacology at university, and quite frankly how the human race reproduces is amazing. So many things are stacked against us.....and yet here we are. I didn't mean that to sound negative. I mean when you think of the journey of the sperm, the egg, them being in the same place at the right time....

I can see little minimeep's ribs and every knot of her spine. her chubby cheeks are gone and her nappy does up tighter than before. She is still happy and chirpy but eating so little. She had cereal for tea last night in a bid to get some carbs in her. How can I get her lovely chubbiness back (not that she has ever been that chubby). I am tempted to feed her cake all day but then I know she'll eat nothing else . Anyone else been through this and have any tips?

meep- I think Doris and I might be experts in feeding DDs high fat diets!!
I spend my life "force" feeding M as much as I can... I'm going to list some of her faves in the hope they might appeal to minimeep- but I still think it's quite early days in her recovery and in another week she should be eating more again- and also don't feel bad upping her milk intake for the time being, offer her another bottle in the day somewhere if you can. Also you can buy "good night" milk drink- Hipp organic do one- which is basically formula with ground oats from what I can see- so more calories than normal milk. We have just started giving M one bottle of this at bedtime in a bit to stop her waking for more milk at 2am...(rightly or wrongly!!

High calorie foods:
*Toast fingers with loads of butter/peanut butter/cashew butter/houmous
*Total greek yogurt (v high fat), mixed with fruit puree- beats fromage frais for fat content and less sugar too!
*Avocadoes mashed with ripe banana/kiwi/papaya
*Refried beans mashed with veg & mashed potatoes (made with lots of butter)
*cheddar biscuits
*porridge made with creme fraiche (the real thing not low fat) or greek yogurt & milk, with ground almonds and dessicated cocunut plus some fruit puree mixed in for a few vitamins!!

• grate cheese into purees or add some nut butters, greek yog, creme fraiche etc to boost calories.

If not eating much at mealtimes offer snacks all the time!! I swear when M is awake she hardly goes without food for longer than 30mins- she's always cruising around holding a cheddar biscuit/shortbread/toast/apple!

If her appetite though really doesn't seem to return to normal after another week or she seems listless I'd go straight back to the docs.

Good luck meep, know how worrying it can be.