June 2008 - The Olympics are here and Mums deserve gold medals

[ThePenguinProject]

Thought I'd start a new thread before we ran out of space! Couldn't remember the exact name suggestion so have paraphrased, the sentiment is still the same though...

HI there

Whinegums - Dorothy had her jabs and slept most of yesterday afternoon as well. I wondered if it was the injections, but couldn't remember DS being like that. But then so much has changed in that short time!

Sponge, sorry you're feeling about the breastfeeding and at your friend for making you feel bad. It's so easy to be judgemental without understanding why and how someone got to the decisions that they made.

Penguin, hope you aren't made redundant. Does being on maternity leave affect your position?

Katyjo, hope you are feeling a bit better. Sounds a good idea to express a bit off or see GP for pills to stop the lactation altogether.

Baby stiffies - DS (aged 2.9) had one yesterday after naptime. Still slightly disconcerting!

Dorothy just did a massive vom. So disappointed as she had really cut down on the vomiting since I gave up tomatoes and dairy, but I think I had overfed her. She took 2.5 oz from a bottle afterwards so she must have lost a lot.

DQ, I have the Aquarium swing too, tis truly marvellous (handed on from a friend). Mine has a sticker on it saying not recommended past 6 months/sitting up unaided though?

I also have the Babybjorn babysitter bouncy chair, which lasts til toddler stage - it was a bit more expensive than most of the other bouncy chairs, but I thought it was worth it as it lasts longer. Luckily B really likes it too.

He is really sleepy today as well - has been asleep most of the morning.

Neenz, glad to hear you had a good trip. Camping with twins - you are brave! But camping is not for me anyway!

And now you all have me thinking we should get Sky for the baby channels...

we have rainforestbouncer and it is alife saver.. Gf have same issue with edie - from about 6.30 til 10 is very unsettled/sleepy and need to keep feeding her but will then sleep through til 7/8am ..am taking katyjo tip and trying to fiddle with daytime naps ..basically I know when she gets tired now ...the issue I have here is that she will want ot sleep on me if poss which is 1. a pain if you want to do anything 2. giving her massively bad heatrash... also still get the builders here who are right next to her routine which rather scuppers trying to use her cot as part of routine...any tips as I'm getting quite worried now.. I suppose the good news is she can settle herself in car seat/pushchair for a nap but its not always massively helpful to take her out at nap time.

that said despite aborted nap earlier she seems quite happy in her bouncer now

sponge have had a few comments like that.. but then I know one friend who is desperate for baby to take a bottle..Plus quite a lot of the enthusiastic b/f earth mothers are not having such good nights so it all evens out (I tell myself!).

neenz welcome back...glad you had a good trip

UDC sorry to hear about Dorothy's sick up. Has she kept the 2.5oz down?

We have the Linkadoos (!!) chair from Fisher Price and I think it does until toddlerhood... Is it just me or does anyone else find the idea of a vibrating chair a tad kinky? I fancy having a go myself. There's an incentive to get rid of the baby fat...

Sponge as a superior breastfeeder... (heh heh!). No, I may be bfing but I like to think I'm laidback about it, and would rather someone was formula feeding than struggling with bfing which wasn't working. I can't remember what the problem was but I vaguely recall that you didn't have enough? Alex not taking to it? If so, if you were still trying to breastfeed you'd have a very sick baby. As it is, you're doing the right thing. (Plus, you tried.) I get quite angry when people are funny about ff, because it's not inferior at all. In fact, formula is highly developed to mimic breastmilk and is (obviously!) the next best thing. But I don't mention that at bfing groups . I mean, we need to be intelligent about things!

[This all excludes my MIL, though; she doesn't like breastfeeding, and keeps asking me about formula. It's the only time I'll be superior about my bfing. Therefore, in revenge for the dummy comment, I am leading her to think that I'll be breastfeeding until Iestyn is, oooh, thirteen. 'off to university, darling? Remember your ebm!']

Deal or no Deal - Sponge, I had to stop watching it after last week, because it upset me too much!! The lady who had lost her husband to MND, she had his referee's whistle. That got me going, but then she had a terrible game and left with £1 or something!

Sorry all - that's become a conversation with Sponge alone. Won't do it again!

BTW, we are united in pain! I've been bitten by some unknown insect and my arm has swollen up and is itching like fury!

Wasps are totally pointless. Plus they sting for no reason and can sting many times. Bees are better!

lol lynette from dh, spot on - flustered, frazzled & too many kids with Bree aspirations.

Decided not to go tonight With 4 kids I doubt I'll hear much, plus it'll mean boys late to bed, & not ideal for ds3 1st KG day, plus, it means I'll have to set off for school less than an hour after the boys get in, so v. little time for dinner and it doesn't seem fair. Unfortunately they get the bus, so no chance to meet anyone at the school gates.

Laura, yet it's a hydrocele, but he's had it a while now and def getting worse, used to get big then small, now just huge & causing pain - concerned bowel entering, hence op. Good luck to you & Charlotte for jabs, hope she's ok.

Neenz, glad your camping trip was so good. The twins sound great

sponge I think your friend sounds like a right b*h. I bf hamish for a year and he definately isn't healthier than his formula fed friends infact if anything they got less colds etc. Mia seems much happier now and I have more time to spend enjoying time with my children. I am still gutted but not because I am giving my daughter formula, just because I don't like feeling I have failed, which means I am upset for me and not her and it is about her isn't it?

Essie I stopped watching deal or no deal when pregnant as it made me cry too. I change the channel when it goes down hill as I can't bear to see them come away with low amounts.

poppy I wouldn't worry too much about them settling themselves, just keep trying to put her down and if it doesn't work let her sleep on you. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to get babies sleeping well. I remember when ds went through an unsettled period I said to my dad 'he's only quiet when I cuddle him' My wise old dad said 'there are worst ways to spend your time than cuddling a baby', it is so true and some of my best memories are cuddling Hamish in the middle of the night, he sleeps 12 hours a night now and has done for a long time.

Ernest LOL at Bree aspirations! I have Gabrielle aspirations - no children (!!), great figure, active sex life...

Can I have a teeny rant now?
The bin men have refused to take our rubbish!!! We did have 7 black bin bags, because we'd been clearing the garden. (I kept another 8 hidden in the back garden for next week!) They no longer take green bin bags of garden waste, because you have to pay Wandsworth for that - they compost it!!
So Wandsworth get money + compost materials + no need to sort or anything, and we get to pay to have our rubbish collected!

Not sure how they worked out that it was garden waste anyway - it's all in black bin bags. And anyway, it's not all garden waste.

Lucky I can let the little things pass, eh?!

Sponge I have loads of empathy for you and your guilt feelings. You might remember that S didn't take to BF at all and after a month of expressing I switched him to fully FF. I do still feel like I have to really explain why I'm not BF (like its anyone else's business!). Someone at our parent and baby group last week said 'oh look, he's looking for your boob to feed' after watching me give him a bottle. We dont know each other so completely insensitive to make such a comment without knowing someone's feeding history/experiences. I was really upset.

whinegums interesting re: the sticker. I've not had a good look at the swing because its at my parents but the Fisher Price website advertises the swing for up to 25lbs. 25lbs is around 11kg and according to the little red book, on S's growth line (assuming he stays on the same percentile) he wont reach that till between 12 - 18 months. Hmmm. I really wish we'd gotten a chair that would last past 6 months but a relative was quite insistent on buying one for us and I didn't really feel I could ask for a more expensive one. Can't complain though, we were bought a really nice mamas and papas one which S seems to like. Am contemplating getting him this one for when he grows out of his chair. The realities of statutory maternity pay are kicking in though, so it might be his main present from Santa!

Essie LOL at your DS BF till University. On some threads that would seem completely reasonable . When I feel guilty about not BF I remind myself that I was fully FF, the only allergies I have are to hayfever and a couple of medicines that can be easily avoided, and frankly, I'm quite brilliant!

Ernest shame about the school gates. Do they have PTA's or anything like that?

For those worried about babies settling themselves to sleep, the 'no-cry sleep' solution doesn't involve any crying down and has had good reviews. I've got it but not really used it yet. Think katyjo's dad makes a really good point though.

Right, lunchtime break from studying over - have a good afternoon everyone.

Hello, quick post.

Sponge - don't feel guilty you are doing the best for your son, BF was sadly not working out for you. I really get wound up by people who are sso smug and superior about BF, it happens.

Ernest - love you Desperate Housewives description, I can just picture you.

Neenz - welcome back and glad you had a nice holiday, very brave and well done.

Have just some from the weighing clinic and I am destined to be dwarfed by my children, Sebastian at 10.5 weeks is 12 lbs 13 oz which puts him on the 50th percentile but has grown 10cms in five weeks and has shot up o 91st percentile. Oh well

Lynette is the best Desperate Housewife! But I want Bree to clean and cook for me and I'd like Gabrielle's figure and money.

No baby erections here yet. RUDE STUFF ALERT: Whinegums - Re: being pregnant with a boy, my friends pointed out that 1. I was growing a willy and that 2. If DH and I had sex, I had two willys inside me...

Re: the job stuff, have accepted that there is nothing I can do about it right now. If I get made redundant, I should get at least 3 month redundancy pay, so will have enough time to find something else - as Amber suggested at double pay obviously. Hope you get a double pay job too Whinegums. UDC - I think being on mat leave basically protects me, but the redundancies will take place in 2009 when I'm back at work. Grrr.

I'm so fed up of moaning! You will find PP a postive poster for the rest of this week! Unless something else happens...but surely I've had my share for a couple of weeks. Just in case redundancy does happen gonna start saving those pennies now tho, it wouldn't do any harm to build our savings back up after buying this place anyway. No gym or cleaner for me now - both were really indulgences rather than necessities. And on the plus size, Ryder won't laugh at my wobbly bum when I'm doing my Davina DVD. And I won't have to run around madly the day before the cleaner arrives tidying up.

Ryder not keen on baby channels unfortunately. Unless it's the bottom of the sea footage which is really trippy - so pyschadelic hippy ciggies not necessary! That must be post 7pm Amber, will check tonight.

On a completely different note, there's a music video around at the moment which has fish singing the song. I've only seen it once but would love to know what it was so I could watch it on youtube or something. It was seriously wierd. Does anyone have any ideas?

Crying Down - I am able to do this with Ryder during the day. Am doing it right now hence the huge post. But his cot is in our room so haven't done it at night. If he's been fed I might suggest to DH we just get up and go have a midnight cup of tea.

Ryder seems to be vomiting a lot recently. It could just be a phase but I did eat a lot of cheese at the weekend, so will see how a dairy lite diet affects him this week.

Katyjo - Bless your Dad - what a lovely thing to say and so true. (PP feeling less guilty at letting het LO sleep on her last night...)

BF Vs FF - I too was FF and I rock! DH has given Ryder formula when I'm out and he hasn't turned green yet.

Huge post over - and Ryder's stopped crying. Yay!

katyjo your dad is right.. and they are so weeny (and cuddly)... you just get so much advice (plus think amnesia has set in as dh convinced the bigger kids were doing all sorts of things at this age which I'm not sure they were!)

will look into no cry no sleep solution... have just got the richard ferber book out but that is dealing with bigger kids (plus seems ot be a statement of the bleedin obvious)

quick post as too much knitting to do. fungle are you out there? we need to sort a meet up with needahand. what days can you do?

ernest/neenz/katyjo thanks for the advice re storm's late feeding marathon (and anyone else who posted - my memory's gone by the time I'm on a new page!)
Storm won't take a dummy - have tried every kind - gags and spits them out. She pretty much never screams but just seems permanently hungry in the evening. If I use distraction techniques, like a bath, it just delays the feeding so that she won't go to bed till later. I can't dreamfeed her as she's too sleepy - she dropped the late feed herself with no encouragement after taking less and less for a couple of weeks till she was down to 1 to 2oz... I managed to get her down for 8.30 rather than 9 last night, and she still went through til 5.30 so I think she can go to sleep earlier - it's just a case of convincing her she doesn't need more food as she definitely uses it for comfort at that time of day. I expect she'll grow out of it once she's on solids. Am going to try to get her down for 8 tonight - am not fussed about getting her to sleep any earlier than that really. Wish me luck!

essie can you offload some rubbish on your neighbours if you ask nicely?

poppy re the builders - can you ask them to work round her routine a bit? We have some a couple of doors down and I have spoken to them twice and wrote them a friendly note and although it took a bit of tongue biting from me (esp when they started going on about their 'legal' working hours, as if that was the point...) we don't get any banging during Storm's first two naps now (and her third is out with DH in the pram).

hi everyone else and welcome back neenz! storm loves her bumbo seat already, but I won't leave her in it alone as she has a tendency to throw her head around sometimes still.

tgf am thinking about asking them but I'm torn between compromising what they do and them taking even longer than necessary -they're already been here a month and reckon it will be at least another to finish and thats not taking into account the collateral damage (leaks and cracks in the ceiling below 0..I hope this bathroom is good as its now starting to piss me off -dh more sanguine but he isn't here all day.

Hi all - I haven't been online for a few days as A has had a rough time of it and I don't seem to have had any spare time. He's sleeping at the minute after his injections this morning (seems to be a common theme reading some of your posts!). Not sure what's wrong with him, but might be because he hasn't had a poo for 5 days and he usually goes every day. I know that's common for bf babies but he seems to be in pain and isn't himself. Luckily I had a paediatrian appt yesterday as a follow-up from when he was in special care, and I used the opportunity to discuss his fussy feeding and crying. The paed thinks he has reflux and gave us some medicine to try, so I'm hoping that does the trick, also some lactulose to get him moving!

sponge I echo what the others have said re. bf. I wasn't bf and I rarely have illnesses and have no allergies, whereas some people I know who have been bf are the most sickly people I've met (not caused by bf obviously but just goes to show it's not necessarily any better than ff!)

PP sorry to hear about your job. Hopefully things will turn out well for you and that you either keep your job or find something suitable. Must be horrible due to the timing. I'm always paranoid that something will happen about my job in the next couple of years, so I can imagine how you feel

neenz impressed by your camping with twins! As someone else said, can't believe they'r already 17 weeks

bdq that swing looks great. Like the rest of you, I've been wondering what on earth I'll do when A outgrows his bouncy chair!

I'm finally able to start going to baby groups this week as it's term time . I'm also sorting out a Tiny Talk class (baby signing) for when A is 4 mths. Have any of you brought your babies swimming yet, and how did it go?

katyjo you've made the right decision about moving to ff. Hope the boobs have recovered

Essie - Forgot to say, we had the same problem so DH burnt most of our garden rubbish (in the bbq). Not sure if that's eco friendly thinking about it tho...

Quick post - just to say that you can be made redundant while on maternity leave, but any company doing so would be wise to ensure the redundancy process whiter than white!

Sponge, I think it's crap when people make comments about bf/ff - and no need for your friend to make the point about EBM. I think whatever way one chooses, there are always people ready to comment/criticize. My mum 'suggests' that B should be on bottles at every opportunity, and that his 'chicken korma' poos aren't healthy - she's used to FF babies. B responded with a massive poonami, and crapped all over her . That's my boy!

DQ - can't work out the size/age thing - hope my last post didn't sound arsey, it was more that I am puzzled by how this is worked out. I s'pose I will just use stuff until I think it's not appropriate, or B gets sick of it.

Had some other things I wanted to post, but B has started to yell....

Oh yes Penguin, was also freaked out by those exact same things re baby stiffies!!!!

Just posting to say hello... DS was born in June, but I only recently discovered MN.

Like spongebrainbigpants I also quit bf'ing early on, it was a painful decision made harder by the constant pushing of BF in the local health system, pro-BF propaganda in the media etc. My mum cheered me up by telling me she'd had the same problems, so I was FF as was she in her turn, and we are all still here ;) No guilt! (but still a bit of wistfulness)

10wk DS is very restless and kickety and wants a lot of entertainment. The gym things wouldn't work so well because he has never liked to spend much time lying on his back. Read about bumbos on the thread here and rushed out to get one. He seemed into it when trying it out in the shop, of course when we got home he just looked puzzled and struggled ... we will persevere.

I would love to hear tips for amusing a fidgety 10wk old ... without buying a lot of big infrastructure...

GF you can call me anytime, I don't have a set routine and have mostly my mobile with me (although I need to check as I have a feeling every calls are going straight to voicemail theses days). Gloucester Road sounds find, can't wait to meet you and fungle and the little ones.

Very disappointed as SJ's tooth has disappeared as quickly as it appeared!

ernest I hope the ops went well. SJ is like adele he wants to see the world no chance of him lying down! On mummy's knees or in the sling is the best place)

PP any chance of a fat redundancy payment?

Katjio didn't have time to read about your bf issues but I know you are suppose to drop the feeds one by one every few days to avoid mastitis etc..

spongebrain don't worry about your friend, mums do get competitive very easily. Just ignore her.

essie pmsl at the off to univeristy don't forget EBM comment. My MIL is like yours I should really remember that one! Our council has also stopped collecting green bins unless you pay extra which I find rather shocking too. I mean it is not like we are already paying substantial council tax anyway (what for I am still wondering)

hi agaboo sympathies re the fidgety 10 week old (9 1/2 weeks here).. any toys he likes - edie can entertain herself at some length sucking on or shouting at her stuffed toys. also quite likes it if you just talk to her or tell her stories (can bounce her on my lap doing that)..

sponge - see you're not alone as agaboo/me suffered - I went cold turkey on b/f (on advice from specialist who didnt seem to think it would be mastitis inducing provided expressed off to be comfortable)... 2 days in tight bra expressing as needed seemed to ease it off..did take a bit longer for supply to stop completely but was bearable after those 2 days.

Re entertaining 10 week olds, with DD and now with DS we just take hime everywhere and he watches what we do, doesn't like his play mat but we have a rocker chair that will last until toddler which has some things attached to it.