June 08 babies - I know there's a few of us about!

[isaidno]

Thought I'd start a thread inbetween breastfeeding, laundry and bossing DH about tyo do stuff!

Let's make a list of members!

ISAIDNO - baby girl; Poppy Elizabeth; born 18 / 6/ 08; 6lb 4oz

BDQ, please don't feel like a failure . Loads of us on here have been through dummy angst and then realised they're actually fine and not to beat ourselves up if it helps to soothe our LOs to sleep or comfort them.

Alex won't often take one, but when he does it helps him to settle and I don't worry about it. Try S with one and see how he gets on - no point in you all suffering for nothing.

BDQ don't want to worry you, but Isaac won't take a dummy, he spits it out and prefers DH's finger, his fist or my arm. But don't feel like a failure for getting one. I did when DH bought them, as he was questioning my parenting, but if they work for you there is no reason not to use them

Whoops X post with sponge obviously great minds think alike

What was that I heard? Did someone mention a dummy? Here I am! [superhero emoticon]

Sponge was rather politely referring to me and my dummy angst, I think - so tactful, Sponge!! I have been so boring on the topic it's unbelievable - including 2 posts on the breastfeeding board!

I gave Iestyn a dummy at 4 weeks old, and it made my life much easier. Although people go on about nipple confusion, so far so good - he doesn't seem very confused at all. Maybe he's open minded about sucking... I don't think it's failure (Iestyn was screaming, so was I, so was my mother on the phone...that's more of a failure than a little dummy!) and, well, I reckon I'm just common (my MIL says so) but I don't care. It gives Iestyn comfort.

I seriously wonder about the nipple confusion threat, though. I'm getting suspicious that it's a conspiracy and that it doesn't really exist.

And the heat? Live in Wales...

Neenz well done on getting things sorted at the hospital. It's good that you didn't just accept it all and wait. And I'm glad that Esther is going to be ok too.

phew it'd so hot. Currently on the bed bf in dark with du snoring on one side and a very hot wriggly peter on the other. Thankfully the iPod provides some relief for me at least if not for p. It think this heatwave has coincided with his 6 week growth spurt - groan. Saying that though he seems to have been having one big growth spurt for the whole of his life. We moved into 3 - 6 month clothes today and into the big cot.

Must stop p too wriggly too type anymore

Hiya all

Sympathies with the hot weather it takes a bit of getting used to!!!

Hope you all dont mnind me posting some tips from sunny GC!!!

Re rooms: Fleurs room is never below 26 C not possible here but tips to try to keep it cooler, keep curtains shut and windows shut it will actually be cooler later this way than if you open windows during day.
Also if you have a fan, i put the fan or air cooler on in her room before putting her in the re to go to bed

A wet towel in front of the fan sometimes can help cool the air

baths- we sometimes give fleur a paddling pool type bath if it gets really hot here in the pm

Water- I give fleur 5-10 ml of water sometimes to help her a bit, sometimes have to trick her by giving it half way between a feed so she she starts drinking before realising ive swapped the bottle or slipped it in instead of nipple

Have a siesta!!!! When its really hot i dont put fleur to sleep in pram , cot etc as far too warm in enclosed space so we all crash out on bed with hardly anything on!!! (nice image there)

Also re feeding if its extremly hot here fleur feeds little and often hence prob why your LOs are eating more lately!!

If using dummy (and BDQ i use one as fleur settles better with it and so its smiles all round) pop it in fridge or freezer for a bit !!! a tip MW gave me!!

Sorry turned into a mega post of things you prob all do anyhow but though id let you know how we cope with the heat as its every day here now for the next 3 months!!!

josey I've mailed you the pictures. It was so great to catch up and your DD1 was fine! It's a lot to cope with having a younger child root through all your prized possessions.

upsidedowncake if Dorothy isn't sleeping well it could be the reflux bothering her. Try propping her cot up on some books to a low slant. DS1 had bad reflux and while we mostly ignored the puking, the sleeping on a slant made a difference.

allnew from what I understand, breast milk is fine at room temperature for over 12 hours so I wouldn't worry about a cool bag, I never did with DS1.

neenz good for Theor! And glad you managed to get an earlier appt for Esther.

bodq please don't feel like a failure for using dummies! I've bought every kind sold in Boots trying to find one that Fraser likes - they fill a physical need to suck for babies at this age and to deny them that seems cruel.

wow, neenz fantastic re theo and well done for getting the appointment!

Paro, thanks for advice on heat. i guess 27 degrees is nothing!

re dummies, according to bf counsellor, the orthodontic ones won't cause n confusion but cherry ones will. dummies very good for reflux as induce peristalsis - ie close off stomach.

typing one-handed as trying to keep d upright - 7 am feed is worst for vomiting

off to docs at 9.30

oh, and aberdeen, d is propped up on michel odentr, birth and beyond. finally, a use for it! [GRIN]

paro thanks for the tips, will have to go and buy a fan today

udc i have the moses basket propped up on argos catalogues, free and makes sure that the two legs are the same height!!!

Yeah, hedgehog, but be careful with the Argos catalogue, though. It seems a newborn can cope with being hit on the head with La Redoute, but I don't fancy his chances with Argos...

Feeling good here.
DH did the night shift again (it's the 3am feed), which is a good deal because he's away for several nights a week.
However, Iestyn (for the second time) did his amazing thing of sleeping from the 11.30 feed to 5am! Okay, nowhere near as impressive as Neenz's Theo, but still...
The Gina routine isn't happening at the mo. I'm strangely more relaxed anyway (or not strange - I don't have a job interview or anything to do, and that was giving me low-level background stress!) but I'm also hoping Iestyn slides into some sort of routine anyway. So the situation is currently under review!

A thought - Amber has disappeared. Everything ok, Amber? (Sorry to all the other disappeared people who I haven't singled out.) UDC and Penguin - is everything ok with Amber?

Well after Theo's wonder night when he slept through he was up for an hour last night - I think he is teething. He keeps thrashing his fists arounnd his face trying to get his fist in his mouth and is licking his gums. He is 12 weeks old so a bit early but not unheard of apparently. He never usually cries unless he is hungry or has wind and I fed him twice last night and he still screamed. DH had to get up to him in the end to settle him cos I just left him to cry .

I was just so disappointed cos he had done so well the night before I wasn't wiling to accept that he wouldn't go back to sleep on his own! I used some Bonjela and eventually DH got him to sleep after 30 mins by rocking him and letting him chew on a dummy (and I mean chew - not suck!). Esther was her usual self wanting to sleep with me so I am pretty knackered today!

Paro thanks for tips re. coping with the heat. What does Fleur sleep in when it is that hot?

Neenz - it might be the 12 week fussy period associated with a developmental leap. Check out the book the wonder weeks www.amazon.co.uk/Wonder-Predictable-Age-linked-Development-Characterized/dp/9079208019/
which describes the fussy periods babies go through and the associated developmental changes. I heard about this book from the fabulous site askmoxie.org www.askmoxie.org/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html

Hi there

Essie, I think we had an email from Amber last week. Penguin?

Doctor says yes, it is mild reflux and has prescribed gaviscon for if she starts vomiting 3+ times a day regularly.

I also got contraception - can't have a coil fitted until 6 weeks so got Cerazette, a POP associated with fewer cases of ectopic pregnancies and that you can take with a 12-hour gap instead of 3 hours!

Neenez, sorry about Theo - DS started fussing at at about that age too (diagnosed as teething), but his first tooth came through at 7 months ... I wish I'd known about the developmental book before.

Thanks all for posts re dummies and reassurance. Sponge I laughed at your MIL thinking dummies were common - that's one of the things I was worried about people thinking . Will discuss with DH and see what we think. At least one upside of not bf is that I dont have to worry about nipple confusion...

Neenz my niece started teething around 12 weeks. Thanks for link to site - have bookmarked and will go back later.

Paro - great heat tips - I think I may go buy a fan too. Its sooooo noisy outside in the evening with local kids etc so having the window open is a nightmare. Maybe the whir of a fan might help S sleep too!

Question of the day - I'm still mixed feeding with formula and EBM but quantities of EBM at each session starting to go down. Any good tips for improving/maintaining supply when not bf and only expressing?

at those of you that are finding BF helping with weightloss, ate so little (mainly fruit&veg) for last two weeks and lost a total of zero pounds! (Then again week before that I was eating EVERYTHING and I didn't put any weight on). Seem to be in a magic state where I can't put on or lose weight, which would be great if only I wasn't still huge....

Essie - No advice I'm afraid, but am becoming increasingly disallusioned with real nappies. They all seem to leak....still perserving at the moment at the rate of just two or three a day. Def still using disposables when out and about and at night.

I was beginning to think the same about nipple confusion, but Ryder being really annoying about latching this weekend so am cutting out the daily EBM bottle for a few days just in case. Poor you at losing EBM, so annoying.

Dummies - Initially I tried to hide mine when out and about (how pathetic am I!?), now I all angst cos he won't take it anymore. Prefers DH's finger and my nipples....which can be very tiresome.

Re: Amber, she did indeed email last week. Hopefully meeting up this week. Are you joining us UDC? Anyone else who fancies a RL meet up, aiming for the South Bank on Thursday? (Easy to get to from Waterloo)

DH gave me a couple of breaks this weekend, first he looked after Ryder by himself for an hour in town then looked after him whilst I had a lay in yesterday. Whilst I am very grateful, he now says he understands what it's like! Yeah, two hours + twenty four hours plus breastfeeding = the same thing!!! Bless him, he really has no idea. After the 2 hours yesterday he went to Sainsburys cos he "really needed a break".... He then got drunk in the afternoon, so snored all night. Grrrr. On the other hand, it's one way of getting him to do the shopping.

Neenz - My ds started teething at around 3 months but we didn't actually see any teeth until 7 months! He showed all the classic signs, irritable, very chewy, excessive dribbling, bright red cheeks and nappy rash. He had a couple of periods showing all these signs, often just for a day but the teeth never appeared which was disappointing. It's been the same with all his teeth and he now has 16. So my conclusion is that the teeth often hurt more when they are moving inside the gums than when they actually break through the surface. So it's quite possible theo is teething but you may not see any teeth for a while - which is probably a good thing if you are still breastfeeding.

Anyway folks - it's nice to catch up with you all, I've been missing mn but life is just too busy with a toddler and a newborn to get on the computer much. Plus the nice weather means that we are outside all the time. Today however, I am having an easy day as my ds has gone to grannies and poor little Emma has got a cold - given to her by her doting brother (he loves giving her big wet sloppy kisses on the mouth which is very cute but means she will catch anything he has). So after many nights of 5/5.5 hour stints of sleep I have been up about every hour or two hours for the last two nights as she is getting so snuffly lying on her back and keeps grunting and choking on flem. Although she is fine sleeping on her back during the day - how annoying is that?

A quick question for all you second/third/fourth time mums - how do you get wax crayon off wallpaper????????? My ds1 decided to get artistic with a black crayon on our pale walls yesterday and now I need to find some way to get it off as it is the only wall in the house that we would have to get professionally decorated as it is a double height wall that goes up the stairs - typical that it couldn't have been any other wall that we could do ourselves or one of the walls that we have now painted using the wash wipe paint!

Apologies for long post but I don't get on here very often so have been feeling deprived.

Hey Josey - no advice on the crayon I'm afraid!

Aberdeen thanks for tip on the book - I have ordered it! Going on hols (camping) in three weeks so will have a good read of it then (will skim read it until then). I am not entirely convinced Theo is teething cos no red cheeks or drooling, just licking the gums and trying to chew his fist... but gums feel a bit hard (altho no idea what they felt like before!). Hopefully book will shed light.

The good thing about having DTs is that DH has to be involved. It doesn't bother him looking after them for hours, as long as I am not too far away (he panics in case they need feeding). But it gives me chance to rest at the weekends.

Re: the coil does it bother you that the coil only stops implantation rather than conception itself? I am put off having a coil cos I wouldn't want to think we had made babies which when they got to the womb got destroyed. We are using condoms now (no more pregnancy scares for me thank you!)

Penguin would love to meet you and the others on the South Bank on Thursday, what time though? I have arranged with NCT group to go and see Mamma Mia at the newbies screening late morning, so imagine that it will completely clash. However the station is next to the cinema here, so it might be possible. Cant believe I have a clash in my social calendar!

Ended up with a good night once Peter had eaten enough to go to sleep. Slept from 11 - 3 and 3.30 - 7. However he is doing his daytime special of staying awake all day. Granted he goes to sleep on the breast, but instantly wakes up squealing the moment he is moved.

However, Dh has found a new calming technique - dance music . Ministry of Sound chill out CDs, or MTV Dance on the TV work well, especially when you bounce Peter on the birthing ball. Even though he wont sleep, Peter has had a half hour chill out session this morning in his bouncy chair, which enabled me... to do the washing up .

6 week check this afternoon with not very nice battleaxe GP. Not looking forward to it at all. Hopefully I will be given the all clear to drive though.

Is Deb okay, shes not been posting since she told us how the wedding went.

I think we should start a dummy appreciation group - dummies are great, let's embrace them. I am with Essie - I think nipple confusion could be a conspiracy theory.

When your baby wants to suck, and it has been less than two hours since he last fed, give him a dummy cos he's unlikely to be hungry. IMO anyway!!!

DQ, I think you can improve your milk supply by expressing more often. So instead of expressing at 11.0, express at 10.0, 11.0 and 12.0. Your boobs get fooled into thinking that baby is asking for more milk.

Neenz, hadn't thought about the coil like that. When I had an ectopic (in fallopian tube), I guess I didn't think of it as a baby either, but I know it's very different for other people.

PP, snap re weight gain and loss. And that's excatly what happened last time. The brilliant thing was that when I stopped breastfeeding, I immediately lost half a stone ... and then gained it again in chocolate two months later (but that's another story).

Josie, interesting re teething. I hadn't thought of DS like that, but it would make sense. Am enjoying the hiatus between no teething for either DD or DS right now!

Allipalli, Mamma Mia, let us know what it's like. DS has a try-out at his new nursery on Thursday so I don't think I'll be around.

Neenz - let me introduce you to Peter - believe me, he is hungry

Aberdeen just looked at your links. The Ask Moxy blog is really interesting, I have added it to my favourites.

neenz I'm with you on the dummy appreciation, don't know what I'd do without them!

Well A has come out in spots now. I remember a couple ok were mentioning this a week or so ago - did they go away??

Seems I have an infection now - I'm waiting for the results from the swab, but have been given antibiotics in the meantime. GP said tho that they'd make mu breastmilk taste horrible and that A might not take it . Am tempted to hold off on the antibiotics until I get the results on Thurs

Anyway, while I was with the GP (I had A in pram with me), she didn't so much as ask how he was or anything. I know they're busy, but as a GP you would have thought they could show some interest

Had EBM disaster yesterday. I had a bag and a bottle in the fridge, which I asked DH to warm up. He took them out of the fridge, put them together in a bottle and then before he'd heated it up, mistook the bottle for one he needed to wash, and poured out my milk into the sink! As if that wasn't bad enough - when I was expressing some more into a bag in bed, I tipped it sideways and about half of the bagfull spilled all over the sheets