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

[Amberc]

Sybil I signed up for 'Which' last week so I looked up the best pushchairs for you and the smallest/lightest one on a budget is the McLaren Quest Sport which came 5th overall. It's suitable from birth and it costs £100. Which is good as totally independent and they thoroughly test everything. Here is the review:

Good for around town, the Best Buy Maclaren Quest Sport is a basic lightweight four wheel stroller.

It is easy to push and steer, but the small wheels are not suited to rough ground, it folds and unfolds easily and has decent storage space under the seat.

The size and manoeuvrability of the Maclaren, suitable from birth, make it suitable around town and in more confined areas like in the shops or at the market. Being light meant that manoeuvring around obstacles posed no problems.

The Maclaren has smaller wheels than many other strollers, which limits its ability on rough and uneven ground.

The stroller handles are not adjustable, but are foam covered for extra comfort. Most parents found the handles comfortable.

The Maclaren is very easy to fold and unfold, and the clip that holds the pushchair closed when folded clicks into place itself. There is also a handle for carrying the stroller when folded.

The backrest can recline in four different position, and was easy to raise up. Lowering the seat position is trickier though and needs two hands as each side has to be released independently.

There is good storage under the seat as well as a smaller pocket on the back of the hood. There is also a sun/rain visor, and a rain cover is also included in the price.

Pros: Best Buy, easy to push and steer, lightweight, folding/unfolding, easy to carry folded, storage

Cons: Not suited to bumpy terrain

[Amberc]

Whine Apparently best offer means make them an offer and the best one wins. Like ONO on adverts for stuff

[aberdeenhiker]

bitofadramaqueen - what are the exercises for separated tummy muscles? I have some and no one has told me about exercises to do. My HV and GP are so rubbish compared with everyone elses!

greenfairy Can you tell if Storm is actually feeding for the entire length of these long sessions or just comfort sucking? You could try limiting her feeds to a more reasonable 45 minutes and see what happens.

libralady sounds like you've got a lot on your plate, I hope your mum is home now.

pengiunproject I'm a bit horrified that your HV thinks fore and hind milk is a myth. Based on what comes out of my pump, there's a big difference!

I'm very tempted to head down for a Glasgow meet up but it's probably a bit too far to manage with DS1 as well. Maybe we could see if Josey can make it too and meet somewhere in the middle (Perth?). Or you guys can have a Glasgow one and then we can have a all-Scotland one in another month when we're that much more in control.

[bitofadramaqueen]

Quick post - whinegums I'd probably do public transport and come on the train so city centre (i.e. easy to get to from Queen St) would work best for me.

aberdeen perth is easy for me to get to too!

S has just woken for a feed, amber will come back with those exercises later!

[fungle]

whinegums, bonnie baby do lovely light knitted romper suits. no feet so they last ages for the price.

[Upsidedowncake]

Hi there

Lurking as have been pretty hectic with two of them, but have been thinking about GF's problem. You have AMAZING stamina, woman!

Not sure if it's worth thinking about, but I remembered something the BF counsellor said when I was concerned that DD would take as long to eat as DS: DS used to feed for about an hour and a quarter each time.

The BF counsellor felt that DS would have doing non-nutritive sucking for much of that time and recommended breast compressions to manage the flow of milk. Essentially, you press your breast between thumb and forefinger about two inches out from the nipple, and it keeps the flow of milk steady, ensuring that when they suck, they get milk.

I do this with Dorothy and she can neck two breasts in about 25 minutes. I can also produce about 8.5 oz or 240 mils from the breast pump in 20 minutes using breast compressions.

[PiggyPenguin]

thanks for the pushchair advice. Went to mothercare and saw the maclaren but was totally put off by the fact that the helpful mothercare staffer couldn't put the seat down to recline. At all. Which was a bit pants and totally put us off so we went for a cheap mothercare own which seems comfy and lightweight and which is designed to be collapsed one-handed and which actually can be!

[katyjo]

Laura I am going to the shape up classes on fridays at the mo, they are quite good but I have missed a few recently with all the feeding problems, what day are you going on?

Whinegums Was at silverburn today, decided it was about time I got my bikini line sorted and dh talked me into getting a hollywood (all off! sorry if tmi) I used to get it done before I had ds but it was bloody agony - really could of done with some gas and air!! It was a really nice spa though and dh wandered around with Mia while I was in so really good - although think I may get a facial next time
Rosemary is actually retired but the qm support group was going to close so she wanted to keep it going.

Aberdeen Like BDQ I could manage Perth, it's only an hour on the motorway!

[katyjo]

I saw batman, was good but a bit dark for me I would have preferred Mamma mia! The benefit of expressing is that Mia is quite happy to stay with her grandparents as long as she has some ebm

[whinegums]

Fungle, the bonnie baby stuff is lovely - but thinking it might be a bit toasty - B is a v warm baby anyway, and do is end of August. Might treat him to something from there for later though.

I could do Perth too; seems like we'd be looking at next month for a Scotland meet up I think? DQ - am still checking out baby friendly city centre places - Laura, are you up for a meet up too, and any suggestions?

Katyjo, the Grosvenor is doing Mamma Mia as a baby screening this week. If I thought we could get up, out and over to the West End by 10.30 I'd go, but it usually takes til lunchtime to get us both clean and dressed.... Oh my god, you're brave going for a hollywood - what are you getting your DH to do in return ?

Actually, on those sort of lines... Someone please tell me that things will eventually get back to normal(ish) downstairs??? I know the old nethers will never be quite the same; I religiously did the pelvic floors before and afterwards but am quite shocked at how different it feels.

[TJuice]

Upsidedowncake - do you press above and below or side to side???

[thegreenfairy]

evening all

amber have you tried a baby sleeping bag? Might make it harder for luke to get trapped?

needahand what did you do about limiting feeds? Storm has been better today (although now has diarrohea and a slight temp from the teehting)but to top it off I now have bloody mastitis again from using breast shells for too long and giving myself a blocked duct...

aberdeen I do try stopping her feeding after an hour but it doesn't always work - sometimes she gets very cross. I think a lot of it is comfort sucking but she won't take a dummy (have now tried every brand - she pulls a face and spits them out)and is still getting the hang of sucking her thumb.

neenz you've been bigging up the vibrating recliner so much that I bought one yesterday - they're refitting my local mothercare and I got a display model reduced from £60 to £17 . She loves it! Only ten mins at a time or so before she gets annoyed, but her face always lights up when we turn it on - it looks soooo comfy as well.

sybil re favouring one breast, storm deffo prefers my breast which had less thrush before treatment but apparently it's quite normal for babies to favour one side, hence the wonky boobs. I express a lot from the less favoured breast to keep things even and stop it shrinking.

udc once my mastitis has gone I think I'll try the breast compression. Too painful at the mo but it may speed feeding up (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE).

katyjo I can find no reference to brahead! More like a foggy head at the moment...

I have got lunch with my girlfriends tomorrow and v excited - my first proper solo outing - DH is staying home with a freezer full of EBM. Just hope my mastitis fever has gone.

Ok, mega post as usual, sorry. Hi to everyone else and thanks for the sympathies. The last two weeks have been awful but I know it's just a blip.

[poppy34]

tjuice..think there is a guide to this on kellymom...

quick post as done in today -we took edie to watch the cricket (and get fussed over by her grandad)...she was so impressed she slept through what play there was ..sadly not so keen on sleep this evening so typing this with one ear on monitor expecting a cry ..

on good news front milk seems to be drying up which seems to be fixing the duct issue (alogn with industial doses of nurofen)... hoping this means that I won't be having to do weekly visists to specialist for too long (not least cos someone told me what the op her sister had to remove the build up involved..0

[Essie3]

Katyjo and Greenfairy don't worry - it was me, not able to read properly. I saw Braehead and immediately thought Bra head. Which I might adopt as quite a funny insult. I'm certainly a bra head!

UDC - hello, btw! - will the compression thing help if you have a sucky baby who sucks for comfort? I might give that a go.

Is anyone else having problems with overfull breasts? (Possibly engorgement.)I am ... still! Iestyn did 4 hours last night which would have been great if I hadn't woken up after 3.5 with a huge and painful left breast.

Also had a real shocker last night. We put Iestyn down and were downstairs with the baby monitor on when the breathing sensor alarm went off. I have never felt fear like it in my life. No idea what happened, but he was in his moses basket, hadn't moved off the sensor (no room to do that), and was asleep and breathing when we got to him. DH suggested that he was breathing all the time but the sensor didn't pick it up because he was in a deep sleep, and the movements were too small. But scary...

[Essie3]

Oh, I'm going to be absent for a few days: the dreaded PIL party, and then driving to Anglesey.
But some other absences: Neenz has been missing for a while, and how about SpongeBrainBigPants, she of the fine name? Hope all is well.
I'm sure there's others too - sorry to all I've not named!

[mamawizz]

PP - will drop you an email about London meet-ups. Thanks for that.

We are lucky I think at night time. Caspar is going down well in evening, after crying for maybe 20 mins or so. I wake him up at 10.30 / 11.30 for a feed, then he goes till about 4.30-5ish. He'll then go back down for another 3-4hrs. The killer for me is staying up until the 11pm feed - it just doesn't seem worth going to bed before this, especially as I quite like to have some time to watch TV, read etc in the evening, after getting them both to bed. Am considering replacing this feed with a formula, so DH can do it and I can have an early night, but as he just recently seems to be going longer and longer during the night, I think it might be too hard on my boobs (comfort wise), expecting them to go from 7ish until 5ish+.

Generally I find the boobs in bed thing difficult - sleep bras just don't work and cut into my boobs, even size that is much bigger than I am, but without it is uncomfortable too, plus leak a bit. Usually go without, as slightly better. I am glad that I am managing to bf properly this time, but I must say I am not one of these mothers that just loves doing it. My boobs seem to ache a lot. (At least have only had mastitis once this time, so far.) Plus all that uncertainty about not knowing how long to do for / how much they are getting, as everyone has been discussing. Caspar very rarely breaks away completely from choice, and would carry on for ages. If he is still going after 20 mins or so on first breast, I try very gently pulling nipple out of his mouth. If I meet any resistance, I let him carry on; but often after this length of time he will just let go and I take this as a sign that he's had enough on that side. I try and remember that they take something like 80-90% of the feed in the first 8-10 mins, and it puts it in perspective.

A question about daytime naps? We have got to the stage where I can see a bit of a pattern in that Caspar is ready to sleep about 1.5-2hrs after waking up in the morning. Do you think it's better to put them down for naps downstairs during the day at this stage? I would put him upstairs, but wonder whether I should save that just for nightime sleep for now, so it doesn't confuse him. Or is sleep just sleep?

(Despite the fact that I have a 2yr old, I can't remember anything about how and when I did certain things back then.)

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Time to go feed...

[debinaustria]

Mamwhizz - I've started to try to put Ethan in his cot for his longer daytime naps, doesn't always work though!! We want to get him into some sort of routine so that when the boys are back at school in September we have some child free time/ They only go to school here in the morning so ideally he'd have an hour or so in his cot a.m. and the same in the afternoon when I need to work on homework with his brothers.
I don't think he's confused by it, I keep the curtains open for daytime naps.

[katyjo]

Whinegums I found around the six month mark, my tummy and bits started to feel normal again, or maybe I just got used to them I'm not sure. Will try to get to the babyshowing at grosvenor, quite fancy Mamma mia and I'll leave ds with grandparents...away to check what day it is.

thegreenfairy You really don't get a break do you. Does this mean you'll need ab again?

mammawhizz I try and put them in their rooms for naps, manily because it gives me a bit of peace!

essie i still get engorged, I keep waking mia up to feed her, partly because I amleaking but also as she sometimes goes so long between feeds and her weight is still a bit low.

[katyjo]

whinegums the odeon at xscape also has a baby screening on a tues which strats at 11am a bit better maybe?

[PiggyPenguin]

TGF - I have also woken up with an incredibly sore and red breast. Obviously got a very blocked duct somewhere but must be quite deep down and is agony. Will be off to dr's tomorrow if doesn't clear.

[ThePenguinProject]

Hi ladies, I've set up a new thread here. Hope it works...

[Upsidedowncake]

hi

quick one, handed post re breast compressions. you press pretty much anywhere but it works best (for me) about 2 inches in from the nipple. Essie, hi [smile}, hope party is ok. DS was a very sucky baby, DD sucks a lot of things (her fingers, my little finger, a dummy v reluctantly) but doesn't really use my boobs to go to sleep any more, so it might work.

sympathieas for those wirth mastitis xx

[nich21]

Hi all

I seem to be a bit late posting but my daighter Mia was born on the 21 June. Just found this website and noticed there was a thread for June mums so I thought I would just say hello! It is so nice to have somewhere to go to chat to other mums with similar aged little ones / ask questions / have a general rant!!!!

Hoep you are all enjoying your little bundles

x