APRIL 2008- The One Where We Recite The Weaning Guidelines and Fight Through The Growth Spurts!

[VictorianSqualor]

07 March: Ashton, a fourth child for gemprincess, 5lb 13oz @ 34+6
09 March: Ted, a second DS for Daftmoo, 7lb 14oz @ 36+0
21 March: George William, a first baby for KnitterintheNW, 7lb 2.5oz @ 37+3
25 March: Olivia, a second baby for TheMaskedPoster, 7lb 2oz @ 38+4
28 March: Pablo, a third baby and first DS for vacaloca, 7lb 14oz @ 39+4
28 March: Matteo Alexander, a first baby for Gangle @ 38+0 (?)
30 March: A baby girl, a second child for PortAndLemon, 8lb 15oz @ 39+5
02 April: Jak, a baby boy for rainbowdays, 9lb @ 39+1
02 April: A baby boy, a second child for bunyanvillas, 6lb 14oz @ 37+5
02April: Struan, a baby boy for Donnabels, 6lbs 15oz
02 April: A baby boy for mummyofaprincess @39 weeks
03 April: A baby girl for PippiCalzelunghe @38+2weeks
03 April: Aeryn Daisy, a baby girl for Denny185, 9lb 8oz @ 39+3
03 April: Benjamin, a baby boy for Micegg, 8lb 3oz @ 39+4
03 April: Roelof Grové, a first DS for Sal22, 7lb 5oz @ 38+5
03 April: A baby boy for siikibam, 6lb 8.5oz @39+1wks
04 April: Matilda, a baby girl for AprilsFoolsBaby 7lb @
06 April: Henry Peter, a baby boy for Sheds, 7lb 130z @ 40+4
07 April: Sebastian George, a fourth DS for Peachy, 8lb 4oz @ 41+1
07 April: Jack, a first baby for ThePFJ, 7lb 5.5oz @ 41+1
07 April: Lexie Bea, a fourth baby for babywhiting, 8lb 1oz @ 39+4
08 April: Alasdair, a second DS for bunnyrabbit, 8lb 5.5oz @ 40+3
08 April: James Samuel, a third baby for honeybee10, 6lb 7oz @ 37+2
09 April: Zara Mia Martin, a first baby for V1KK1M, 7lb 10oz @ 41+0
09 April: Jasmine, a baby gilr for Niceychops
11 April: Kyran for rdk, 7lb 13oz @ 38+3weeks
11 April: Sebastian James, a second baby for Fleecy, 10lb 2oz @ 40+4
11 April: A baby girl, a first baby for CeylonSapphire, 7lb 12oz @ 41+1
11th April: Florence, a baby girl for LouMoose
12 April: Maya Alice, a first baby for egyptianprincess, 8lb 15.5oz @ 40+3
12 April: Sophia Viviana, a second DD for AussieDivaonaBreak, 6lb 12oz @ 39+3
15 April: Alexander Oliver, a third baby for VictorianSqualor, 10lb 3oz @ 41+0
16 April: Ailish, a first baby for Mollyfloss, 6lb 11oz @ 40+3
16 April: A baby girl, a second baby for elfsmummy, 7lb 13oz @ 41+1
16 April: Zoe, a baby girl, a first baby for ToastAddict, 6lb 10oz @ 39+3
16 April: Jasmin, a baby girl, a first baby for Eggandketchup, 9lb 3oz @ 41+4
17 April: A baby boy for paranoidmumy, 8lb 9oz @ 41+4
17 April: A baby boy, a second son for lorisparkle, 7lb 12.5oz @ 41+6
17 April: Benedict, first baby for LadyBee 9 lb 3oz @ 41 +2
18 April: Millie, a baby girl for scorpio1 8lb 9oz @ 41+?
18 April: Cameron, a second baby for munchkinmum @ 39+5
19 April: Oliver Michael, first baby for bashboid, 7 lb 4 oz at 41 +3
20 April: Samuel, a first baby for Velbels. 8lb15oz at 41+1weeks.
20 April: Angharad Mai, 8lb 4oz, 40+6, first for 7monthsplus
20 April: Emilia, 7lb15oz, a first baby for SuzeM, 40+6
21 April: Eve, a second baby for Scampmum, 8lb 4oz @ 39+3
22 April: Sam, a second son for Soph73 @ 40+0
22 April: Molly, a first baby for EllieG, 8lb 8oz? @ 40+5
22 April: Daisy, second baby for AttilaTheHan @ 40 +3
22 April: Zoe Olivia, second daughter for Piccallilli2 7lb 1oz @42+1
23 April: Jessica Elizabeth, first baby for BabyBratt @ 40+1 7lb 12oz.
24 April: A baby girl, a second daughter for christmaspixie, 9lb 2oz @ 40+6/41+5
24 April: Miya Jade, baby girl for ShelleySare at 39+4
25 April: Amelie, a first baby for Dondons, 9lb, 41+3 (i think!)
25 April: Aisha, a second baby for Jaq39 7lb 14oz @ 41+4
26 April: Hope Olivia, a second dd for northeastmummy, 7lb 11oz at 41 .
26 April: Gabriel, a third child for Bainmarie @ 41+5
26 April: Eli Michael, a baby boy for LittleMissTurquoise, 7lb 15.5oz @ 40+5
27 April: a baby girl for Ayomi, 6lb 1oz @ 41+0
28 April: Jacob Andrew, a 2nd DS for Kaybeeand2boys, 8lb 4oz @ 41+5
29 April: Thomas Henry, a 2nd DS for TLSM, 7lb 8oz 40+3
30 April: Harry Samuel, a fourth ds for Chipmonkey, 9lb 5oz @ 39+2
30 April: Ellie, a baby girl for Annamama
01 May: Sophie May, a baby grl for Annieroo, 6lb 5oz @ 41+4
01 May: Euan George, a baby boy for Jenniejennie, 8lb @ 40+4
02 May: Robyn Olivia, a baby girl for soph28, 8lb 1oz @ 42+1
05 May: Nora Martina, a first baby for Eva07, 7lb 8oz @ 41+2
05 May: A baby boy for Beeper, 8lb 10oz @ 41+0
05 May: Gabriella Summer, a first baby for Mum2babyroo, 8lb 4oz @ 40+6
06 May: Wilf, 8lb 60z for bigbadmom @ 41+6
07 May: James Andrew, a second ds for Moominsmummy, 8lb 13oz @ 41+5
08 May: Ellie Isabella, a first baby for Carey87, 7 lb 8oz @ 42+1
08 May: Robin David, a 2nd baby for Woollymummy, 8lb 11 oz @ 41+3
09 May: 4 kittens for scorpio's cat!
10 May: Astrid Mary, a second dd for sagitta, 8lb 8oz @ 42+0

Hello Blinks - glad I'm not the only late arrival!

OMa - breastmilk is very calorie rich, and made especially for her. Supply does play catch-up, hence the growth spurts. Your dad sounds like he cares alot, BUT FF is your decision, sweetheart, you don't have to do what anyone tells you. I hope you find your answer, we are all here for you whatever you decide, maybe give VS a ring? I emailed you her phone number. or one of the helpines - numbers on VS's profile.

Hi blinks - definitely NOT a closed affair, we've very friendly and like to have new people to talk at share experiences with. How old is your DC1? and did you have a boy or a girl??

OMa - well, if you don't want to, don't. Growth spurts don't last forever, it just feels like it. In my (not-humble-enough) opinion, you do need to try to find some way to get more sleep, but that needn't necessarily involve FF if you don't want it to.

Oh and piccallili, pls dont feel bad about non-sleeping baby, post and get support, this place is full of babies who aren't 'sleeping through'. It's bad enough being tired yourself without feeling like you're the only one..which you're not My book even says at week 16 "If your baby is nowehere near sleeping through the night then console yourself with the fact that you are in the majority -- less than a quarter of all babies in the UK sleep through the night by the age of 10 months according to the ESRC" ...and if it's in the book, it MUST be true.
not sure whether that is much consolation. I'm sure your baby will start sleeping through way before 10 months.

Hi Blinks

Hello Blinks

Oma you've been given so much good advice on here. Don't do anything you don't want to. I gave in with the otehrs and it broke my heart, esp. as ds1 in particular has vey complex food needsw which I am sure stem from that. Ds4 however has not been ff, despite a long stansding (now won, by me) battle with hv who wanted me to as he was slow growing. He's seeing Paed tomorrow though (to check out potential heart murmur) so am dreading possbility whole debate is re-opened.

I found lying good- 'oh yes I have tried ff' but maybe not with your dad.

TBH I was lucky as I did give n one day but wonderfuol clever lad wasn't having a bottle for anyone. Indeed I bought a cup for him today as I have started to express (ineffficiently as ever. 1 paltry ounce but only got 5 minutes before kids screeching and sdh yelling) and want something to deliver t by in the unlikely scenario i ever go anywhere again lol

Oops sorry- hello blink

sal i feel your pain, bas sleeps well if you allow for the feed breaks until 3am (easy to settke /resettle) then after that e is literaly latched on part feeding part dummying until we rise.

HI everyone- thanks for the loverly welcome...

Sal- 2 is my lucky number so i was most pleased! I have a little girl.

I'm ill just now and trying to cope with both kiddies so it'll be nice to have a moan.

Ooh Peachy, I'm so glad you're back - have been hoping to see you back for a while (not that I wished your holiday over of course ): I'm itching to go on a camping holiday for some reason. DH keeps laughing hysterically at me (I'm "(not so) lovingly" known as "a bit strange" by my family - love adventure travel / off the beaten track / hate package holidays with a passion - but have this thing about nice hotels. E.g. would (have) take a local bus through Cambodia, but don't do hostels. Don't know why, freaks me out. Anyway, seeing the hotel history, he won't take me serious on the camping, and says it's not possible with a baby. But now..., you took Bas camping when he was tiny, didn't you? (And obviously just now.) Soooo - I'll work on the persuading him I'm not a wuss (grew up on a farm for heaven's sake!), but need your help on the baby bit - is it a little difficult?

peachy, 1oz in five mins is about what I get now too - I've gone backwards, just don't seem to get as much as I used to be able to, no idea why.

ok, a little bit of advice please, DS feeds forever in the evenings, tonight it was from 6:20-8, he falls asleep on the breast so it's not constant feeding, I keep thinking that's he's done because he comes off when he falls asleep, but then I pick him up to either wind him or put him into his cot and he wakes up and cries angrily until I put him back on when he sucks hungrily until he falls asleep again, until finally he doesn't wake up when I wind him and I can get him into his cot.
Do you think if I fed him more during the day he might take less to fill up before he sleeps in the evening? He seems to be less interested in feeding during the day now that he's so interested in everything else so I think we might actually have dropped a feed, but if I watched the clock a bit more I could probably get it back in..or..
Do you think he's too tired when I do that last feed and that's why he keeps falling asleep before he's really finished? I could try starting bath a bit earlier.
Ideally I'd like there to be a bit of a gap between finishing feeding and him going to sleep, where he can get all his wind out because when he feeds to sleep and I can't wind him properly he doesn't sleep so soundly, and seems uncomfortable. Plus I think it would be better not to have that association in the longer term.

Any ideas? Or is this normal?

It's quarter to one and I can't sleep because all my joints ache. Like in pregnancy... I've already taken out the pillow for between my knees and everything... And my skin's spotty. And I got really annoyed at some poster on MN earlier today (yesterday) for abusing health policies (in my mind) [panic] Can anyone remember when everything started aching? I seem to remember forever, but I'm probably exagerating. Shit. [nervous] Might pop to the chemist tomorrow just in case. Oh dear. / / /

So glad I'm here first - please ignore my tired ramblings from this morning! Such a drama queen (possibly with pms). I'll do a test anyway, but in the clear light of day I think I'm just a nutcase, not pregnant. . Oh, sorry, and good morning to everyone.

Sal - I still ache - my knees, hips, wrists, finger joints, all hurt much of the time..fret not. If anything, you're probably coming down with cold.
So pop to the chemist by all means, but pick up some paracetamol and a box of tissues as well as a test

LadyBee, I've no advice as mine is doing much the same and I feed every 2 hours during the day so I don't think filling up during the day is necessarily the answer. I did find things got marginally better with an earlier bathtime so might be worth a try?

Welcome blinks - my baby was born the same day as yours.

I really can live with Zoe not sleeping through the night. It's the fact that a) she used to do a 5-6 hour stretch at night and now rarely does 3 and b) she was up 5 times again last night that makes me feel like such a failure.

Ladybee, I do realise this might sound a bit insensitive, but....
I'm so glad to hear you're still occasionally in pain! Seriously though - it's rubbish for you, so hoping it'll go away soon. Mine (except for now) was back to normal almost immediately (hence the heart attack last night). Hehehe, I'm rather relieved to hear I might be coming down with a cold!
No advice on the feeding, but sure someone will come on here soon with great advice.

Piccalily, hope you're able to get a nap in sometime today (or failing that, at least a quiet day). Zoe being up loads doesn't make you a failure, as babies sleeping through aren't always (or even most cases) because something's done "right", and therefore the reverse also applies. I think in most cases it's just the luck of the draw.

Oma - Calories, oz for oz are far higher in breastmilk than formula milk. Formula milk has added casein (fat) which babies find harder to digest so some babies may last a little longer on it, this is because they are finding it harder to digest though, not because of calories. Imagine a huge roast dinner, so big you can't move (I'm sure I'm not the only one that overeats with a roast) that's how a baby feels after a bottle of formula.

Look here. So although your Dad means well, he's wrong. It explains it a bit more here but if your baby is feeding lots and lots they will be drinking the foremilk first (the lower calorific part of your milk, as it has the lower fat content) but towards the end of the feed the calorie content will get higher as the fat content gets higher. This is why after a long cluster feed she will finally fall asleep, whereas at the beginning of the feed, she doesn't. I still think the reason she is waking so much in the night is because she can't settle herself, and has got into a routine of waking up and that giving a bottle of water at these times will help her to realise she doesn't need food, it could be hard, but ultimately worth it if it gets you more sleep! Plus it doesn't affect the virgin gut, so worth a try before the formula?

You could also try breast compression if you think it would help to increase what she is getting at each feed.

Now a few of you have mentioned cluster feeds, this is when the baby feeds on and off for a few hours in the evening. I think I've mentioned this before but they are doing this because nature is telling them to make sure you get enough prolactin. Prolactin is lowest in the evenings, and is the hormone that stimulates milk production, so baby overstimulates it before they have a large stretch of sleep as not to lose stimulation during the night. It is perfectly normal, and in fact necessary to have these feeds so close together.

Blinks, welcome

thanks for the warm welcome...

DD2 is definately going through the 16 weeks growth spurt so is waking up at night again for extra feeding (ex breastfed). This is more pronounced because she was sleeping from 9pm-7am before...DD1 never did that until she was over 1yrs old so that was a shocker in itself. After a week of waking, she seems to have semi settled down again. Worst thing was the growth spurt has happened at the same time as a bout of labyrinthitis which is hellish. My immunity is always really crap after having babies and I seem to get a constant stream of bugs...

Ohh Sal... let us know how you get on with that test!

Blinks - I have also been suffering from labyrinthitis/vertigo - terribly in fact. It's awful isn't it? You have my full sympathy.

VS, although I am not BF'ing, I have a question. What would happen to the calorie content of your BM if you weren't eating properly? Would that affect it at all? I am just asking cos a friend of mine said her BM didn't have enough in it to keep her DS satisfied. I wanted to argue that I was sure that wasn't the case, but I thought I should check 1st!

Oh and I love camping too! Also dying to go camping but thought it might be a little difficult with a baby. But Peachy, if you can do it, so can I! Now to convince DH!

LOL - Sal you did make me laugh about your hotel fetish! I can't bear staying in hotels - much prefer a nice self catering holiday home - this is where we are staying in Italy in September - gorgeous huh!

Re the bfing, there was a study done comparing the breast milk of healthy Swedish women with African women who were malnourished. There was very little difference between the two.

VS I wouldn't mind the evening cluster feeding if it actually meant she was sleeping a reasonable stretch at night but I rarely get 3 hours!!

MHAH, makes virtually no difference, the types of fat in breastmilk can be altered by diet, but that's about it.

Piccallili, I know! Alex isn't sleeping too badly, he goes down awake at about 9, sleeps til about 4, then goes back down from 5 til 8, but just lately has taken to waking up at random times along side that and whimpering til he gets back to sleep. I'm trying not to feed him unless he really needs it. Also eh is soaked by 4am so needs his nappy doing

That's really interesting, chipmonkey. I think sometimes (often) people just pass on their ideas/best guesses as if it's gospel. Had a really funny episode when my mil was here: The minister's wife has a little boy around same age as Roelof. So he was doing the home visit one night, mentioning that the baby woke up loads, but at least his wife settled in really easily with breastfeeding this time. When my mil promptly decided to share her expert knowledge on breastfeeding: The baby is intolerant to the breastmilk and they should stop immediately! DH & I both looked at eachother in horror (minister's wife is really into all things natural, so she'd have researched and would know perfectly well that that's not the case). And my mil is very stubborn, so it would have resulted in such an unnecessary fight discussion. But luckily he had the good grace to just say they'll take it into consideration. Sometimes people won't be persuaded - mostly because they don't want to. (Oh, dh also promised her we'd take R to the paediatrician again so that he can see what's wrong with him for not sleeping through... . Obv won't go, but easier than it being brought up during every call!

MommyHasaHeadache - OH WOW!!!!!! I think the decent thing for me to do would be to come with you to, oh, I don't know, be there in case you need some help. That's so beautiful!
Not sure when our next holiday will be, all depends on the damn passports. I want to go to Lithuania now after the cleaning lady showed me all her photos. Vilnius looks very Prague-y, which I loved, and the countryside beautiful. And always something nice about going somewhere before it gets overhyped/rediculously expensive.

x-post VS - I think you should write a book, you seem to know everything. Seriously.

Hi VS, thanks for the information about the evening cluster feeds. It's interesting that I've noticed this again and DS has returned to sleeping better, two good long stretches most nights once he's off.
I was thinking about why I was worried about it, because of course he did this all te time when he was younger. I think it's because before I was downstairs and set up with tv, food, and no real expectation of when he'll stop, whereas now I'm upstairs, hungry and probably needing to start dinner when he finishes, with nothing to distract me and a feeling that he 'should' be in bed by now. So I reckon that if I deal with these issues it would be better - take a sandwich & drink up with me and plug into my ipod to catch up on a few podcasts (ooh even an audiobook?) and it could turn into a more relaxing time rather than a potentially stressy one.

Piccalilli (might one day get your 'i's and 'l's in the right number and order) - DS did exactly the same thing. He had a lovely pattern of 5/6 sometimes 7 hour stretches then it all went wrong around 12 weeks, and from 12-15 weeks it was very disrupted. I felt just as despondent, knowing that he had been a 'good sleeper' and could do it, but for some reason wasn't any more (and obviously it was all my fault). It's only been in the last week or so that he's started to get back on track. There are two growth spurts in quick succession about now...I've spent some time on the 'sleep' thread and tonnes of parents post saying their problems started around 3/4 months. I think just keep to your bedtime routine as much as possible, try to get some catch up sleep during the day (family nap?) and stay positive that there will be some light at the end of the tunnel.

sal it's easy with a baby. really. the trick is to get the kit right- so I would say a site with ready pitched tents or tee-pee's? by far the easiest first out. Then you need a proper tent- no scrap of plastic- ours is a sunvalley 8 by outwell, far too big for you but you need good quality to keep heat in at night.

DH thought he'd never camp- Vegas was his idea of a holiday, or a cruise liner. He loves it. It's just about how you approach it- we treat it as a roper holiday, make nice food (finding a local fishmongers always a priority), etc.

Some good sites to consider are east fleet and sandy balls for next year (they book up earl;y for summer), though you might well get a good one somewhere in early sept which is often nice weather.