we did it, we did it, the babies are here, now come and join us and we will give you a cheer!!!!

[Dozymare]

Hope this works

thought i would start a thread for those of us already in the heady World of motherhood, so we can share the trials and tribulations of the early days....

I shall start with my birth story and hope other's follow and I haven't started a dud thread

As you know I was dreading a 3rd CS, almost to the point where I was having panic attacks - we went in on the Thursday and after waiting for an EMC we were taken to theatre where I was DELIGHTED to recognise the aneathatist (sp!!) who helped deliver DS2. Now, one of my major fears about a 3rd CS was the fact that having had a "perfect" excperience with DS2, it6 wouldn't be possible to experience the same thing again...I was wroing, it was better The whole thing was started at 1315 and Tallulah was born at 1344 weighing 7lbs 2oz. She has a shock of dark hair but seems so small compared to the boys who were 9 and 10lbs respectively. The care I recieved was absolutely 2nd to none - no complaints or gripes.........So far so good.........

HOWEVER.........my god, do you forget the pain of breastfeeding before the milk comes in - I am in absolute agony and have had to top up with aptamil as the poor wee thing is so, so hungry...I am literally BF for up to 2 hours (the point of pain in both udders ) and then topping up with Aptamil. She guzzles 30ml and then settles.......As for sleep - sleep is for wimps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome back rutho...you have been sorely (no pun intended ) missed. Sorry about your twunty DH......life crisis perhaps? I think the whole children thing hits men harder after the event. and that you are still making jokes about what sounds like a tough few weeks.

sorry things have been tough today heartmum. are his ears ok? mine have always been really screamy whenever they have had an ear infection. I hope he has a more settled evening.

Glad you ladies had a nice afternoon. I'm looking forward to our Northern meet up if we get ourselves organised!!!

Just had a huge roast dinner cooked in my new oven.....roast beef, yorkshire puds, roast tatties, veg and lovely gravy . First time I've been able to cook a proper roast dinner since February when our oven broke. It was deeeeeelicious.

And, I've got my sparkly thing...tis truly a thing of beauty . DH has gotten all frisky since he gave it to me, but if he thinks I'm tarting myself for a bit of bling he has anothing think coming....I'll give the ring back first!!!!

zomedout, it's natural to have less patience with second and subsequent babies as you have to spread yourself a bit thinner each time as the older ones still need attention. Poor DS2 gets ignored at times if he starts crying when I'm in the middle of something with DD, and he has been pulled off the boob mid feed and left waiting whilst I get DD out of some peril or other.

Mega long birth story here - sorry, I STILL cannot edit!

Sparkly thing? Sounds great, we like shiny stuff!

PS I love your new name, Leaky... I too have a lovely new milky wardrobe. You could eat the t-shirt I'm wearing today!

Any more tips on dealing with new born and toddler as had both this am for long length of time ( well longer than an hour !!) as dd1 has nasty cold - dd2 colic and despite thinking I was organised I blatently was not !
I want to write more but dd2 needs food ....I need a trendy laptop so can bf and mumsnet !!

Yay RuthO so glad you are back.
Sorry to hear about your woes. MEn pah.
Will read birth story once kiddies are abed.

Rosa alot of it is just muddling through in the early stages, until things form more of a pattern. If things get really bad, just wrap everybody up warm, bung smallish people in buggy/sling etc. and go for a walk- kills a bit of time and breaks the tension. HTH??

zonedout blankets- wow almost forgot about those. I have some in the studio. have a look at my blog and let me know if there is one made up you would like, if that's ok. I can't promise when I'll be sewing at the minute. here

Hope DS3 is more settled this evening, Hm2j

Right need to turn the bath tap off now!

Saurus welcome back I have missed you and your funny posts! Got your message on FB but you have re-appeared here anyway. It is so true that men tend to go a bit 'funny' when the babies appear - my DH has developed a sudden obsession with his Wii this week Will read your birth story later once I have made tea and I have a lovely glass of cold white wine in my hand

HM2J hope Zack has settled a bit - maybe he is just having an 'off' day today and feeling sorry for himself??

Daisy your tea sounds so yummy - am v plus that you managed to get organised enough to cook it! Tonight we are having baked Camembert - and this week, I can leave it so it is not completely runny! Tomorrow we are having steaks - rare!!!!!

Roca no advice on having them both - am dreading the first day DH is away and DS is not at nursery tbh - no idea how I am going to cope!

Hi to everyone else - am feeling really tired tonight plus my bleeding has got worse again - is this normal?? It has practically stopped but has restarted and is quite heavy again

evening all

RUTHO Welcome back, glad to see oyuhave retained your sense of humour!! Congrats on Fin as well, he is ace!

Leaky I FB oyu - can't believe that you worked with my DH. That is the 2nd MN coincindence this week after zoned.....DH is on way back from a golf jolly, so can't wait to tell him!!

choc and obs Ace to meet up today - can't believe how quickly the time went!! Both your boys are gorgeous and can definately be tiger's boyfriends!!!!!!

zoned Dh had a fab time last night - He is seriously hungover and tired...always a good sign!!!!!!

For those of you having problems with toddlers and babies, I can say it does get better. DS1 took DS2 really badly and I felt immense guilt at how he was........it was tough for a few months, but now they are such good friends, I wouldn't have it any other way. DS2 is being a bit "off" today - I think he has realised that Tiger is here to stay and all he wants is to be with me. I don't mind though, normally have to bribe him for huge hugs

pinky I get so many commments on your blanket, i am planning on that being Tiger's comforter it's that fab

heartmum nice to see you posting, I was only thinking about you today and wondering if you were ok.......Sorry DS has ben unsettled, hopefully you get a good night.....

Hi to everyone else!!

ceebee I x posted with you. I want runny cambert for my supper now.......what do you "DIP" into it? I like it with celery which DH tihnks is Horrible!!!!

Tonight we are having crusty bread - but we sometimes have new potatoes, raw carrots, cucumber - never tried celery though

pinky I also get comments on our blanket, it is so nice to have something different to everyone else, lol!

Ceebee, my bleeding is stop/start, it slows down, almost stops and then starts back up again. Usually a sigh I have been doing to much strenuous stuff.

Dozy thanks for thinking of us! We've been fine, but this whole "last baby syndrome" thing, where you barely put them down and spend most of your time snuggling and staring at them, memorizing every inch of them, plus their smell, leaves little time for anything else. Plus, it takes forever to type most posts with just 1 finger of 1 hand... like right now!

Daisy I am pretty sure his ears are ok. He has no temperature, no tugging or rubbing at them or his head, no snuffles or cold either. However, I let him have some nappy free time and he did the most enormous poo and seemed incredibly happy afterwards, lol! All I can say is thank goodness my Nan gave me loads of old towels of hers, ideal for covering the changing mat!

ceebee, I'm only organised because DS2 has slept all day . He is going to be up all night now, I just know it!

Dozy, have FB you back! It's a small world isn't it?

My boobs have exploded after our feeding frenzy yesterday...it will settle again won't it?

Pinkee, your blanket has a starring role in the portrait of DS2. Everyone here comments on how lovely it is as well and asks where I got it

Oh pinky, had forgotten how completely fantastic they are! I adore the Funky Zoo Minky one and must must have it if you have it in stock?! Think it would suit my little man perfectly.

Let me know if you have it and how best to order/pay? Should I do it through your blog?

can i just ask, does anyone think it possible for me to get an 8 day old in some kind of routine? ds2 will sometimes go only 2 hours (mainly at night) then other times 5 hours between feeds. DH back to work after w/e and today was late picking up ds1 from preschool coz ds2 totally messed me up with random feed. I felt awful. Poor little ds1! I just need some sort of routine so i can work out whats going on and how to make life a bit easier witah dh working away? Not strict or anything just some sort of pattern? Ive noticed ds2 started to get more windy which i dont understand. I give him infacol before feed. I also have a major problem with my boobs. They are pouring milk. I am soooo desperate for it to stop as it confuses ds2 i think(plus its horrid) Also any advise re teats? We are using avent airflex bottles and the number 2 newborn that comes with them plus the next flow up he just sucking really hard and not getting anything (he is on a thicker milk) so at the moment i have him on the variflow which are particularly for thicker feeds but he ends up with quite alot pouring out when he is cucking which means i have to take bottle out quite a bit other wise he'l choke. any tips?

Sorry i cant remember who said they had a mare with their dh. Today my dh has done sod all to help (his excuse working from home) have really been arguing today. He sat playing game on his laptop whilst i tried to clean/tidy/feed/wind ds2. So i completely sypmathise with you.

Its nice some of you can meet up. Especially when we're all in the same boat.

lol hm2j the old difficult poo thing! What a relief for you and him!

He has my sympathy, I am still not quite right down there

I'm so pleased eveyone is happy with their blankets

Zoned that zoo one is one of my faves, too, and I've found that boys particulalrly like the little horses, for some reason, so he should like it, hopefully!

I'm quite sure I have one. Email me through the blog if you can then we can sort out details.

ceebee cheesy dinner sounds yum.

leaky your dinner sounds lovely. Is it a self-cleaning oven? That would definitely be my choice now we eat so much meat, the oven needs cleaning lots more than it used to.

ANd no, your boobs will not go back- they will get bigger and bigger.. sorry.. only kidding. at bathtime tonight DS helpfully pointed out that one of mine is bigger than the other

oops sorry xposts ther, mad4. sorry you had such a bad day.

Aren't all ovens self cleaning pinkee?

I'm sure it is though!

I dared to inspect my undercarriage this morning! It wasn't as bad as I'd feared and you can't even see the epi scar, although I can feel it.....and my not so little friend has gone too . Now once my continence ishoos are resolved I'll be in tip top shape. Saw the physio on Wednesday and have to go back in two weeks for a VE (nice) and testing of my clenching abilities using an electronic tampon wired up to a laptop......the mind boggles!

mad4, gina fords routine is pretty do-able I think. ChocO has had some success with it.

I need to get to work on some sort of routine as DH only has two weeks left and then he'll be leaving the house at 7am so i'll be in my own

We are going to have a few practice runs over the next couple pof weeks and hone our routine! I'm lucky that he had so much time off, but it'll probably mean it'll hit me even harder when I am left to it!

v v important link

i am still amazed we have a dd4 [goes off to be soppy]

lovely photo of Sophie misdee

I signed up DH and I the other day after twofalls thread, as the card I carry was so badly out of date.

Lovely photo, misdee
We are already on the register, I had to update myself when we got married a couple of years ago.

Hello everyone - I keep hoping to get on this thread and catch up properly but it never seems to happen...
I see rutho is back - good to see you girl - sorry you've been having a rough time of it. Don't think you're alone though - I've been having a tough time of it aswell, I'm sure lots of us have. The hormone crash on day 4 really hit me - I was a weeping mess for days. Sounds like you're back on track though, and your DH too.
Mega post from me whilst I've got the chance.
Things are getting better day by day in the Monkey house. For the first few days Cecily wouldn't even lie down in her moses basket, she just screamed, so ended up with her co-sleeping with us. DH has been totally brill - brings me breakfast in bed every day, walks the dog, does laundry etc etc. Although like rutho and her DH, it is tailing off a little now I am less zombie-like.
However the past 3 nights we have managed to get her sleeping in basket, and with at least one 3-hour stretch each night (hooray - feels like bliss!) She seems to sleep well from 11:30 - 2:30/3am, then wants to feed / be winded continually for the next 2/3 hours. So often she drops off again at around 6am, which means we don't make it up in the morning to start GF at 7am (I'm not really following it - just trying to adopt some of the principles). I have felt 100% more human the past 3 days since she's started sleeping for longer.
She's a total milk monster - this morning she seemed to be permanently attached to the bosom (which is now an impressive 36E!!)
And BF is simply amazing for losing the baby weight - it's like magic! Apologies for smugness here, but have lost 24 pounds so far, only 11 more to lose .
So progress is being made. I can't believe how amazing being a mother is. I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.
Any road up - hope everyone else is doing well?
Choc hope GF is working for you.
I am going to try and keep up with thread from now on! love to all xxxx

Morning all - I can finally multi-task, breast feed and type two handed thanks to my new Kari-Me sling. Thanks for the recommendation Hana and Pinky - I'm loving it!!

Misdee I really liked your link and photo - I think donors are so important but I have never known anyone to be a recipient so its lovely to hear such an inspirational story.

Monkey welcome back - you sound exactly where I was a week ago, and not surprising since C was born exactly one week after M!! Keep going with it hon, although M and I are still having good days and bad it does get better..

GF is still working for us off and on - M doesn't appear to be a robot so I can't always get him to do the prescibed task at the alloted time but we try to stick to the general principles (thanks to a GF-lite lesson from Dozy!). I think he might be going through a growth spurt as he seems to be feeding a lot and the last 3 nights he's woken up to feed at 3.30am and 5am. Still, I think for 3 weeks old on Monday, he's doing quite well, its just me that needs to loosen up!

Mad4 - I would recommend buying the GF book and looking at the routines / principles. Even if you don't want to follow such a prescriptive routine it does have a lot of good ideas in it.

Hope everyone has a good day - I fear ours will be a chaotic non-GF one with 4 visitors in the afternoon and a family get together in the evening!

Hugs to all in need

morning all. I think I need to get going with the sling properly...Dh is starting to lose patience with my inertness. He has taken DD with him this morning (DS1 has a swimming lesson) so that I can......not get back to bed for a snooze as previous saturdays......put some washing away!!

Hey ho, I suppose we have had our babymoon and normal service needs to resume as soon as possible.

good to see you on here again Monkey. It does get better (she says hopefully ). DS2 is similarly settled from about 11pm-3am and then up and either feeding or in colicky pain for the rest of the night .

Rutho...my sparkly thing is my push present eternity ring, but I wanted a solitaire rather than a traditional band.

right, need to take advantage of his sleeping now and get a shower, even though I really want to be watching Saturday Kitchen.

Am of those losing weight through BFing. I have lost a stone and now have come to a standstill. I've been eating loads of sweets though, so I guess that's my own fault. I'm going to make a concerted effort from Monday to eat healthily and sensibly......I want to lose 2.5 stone, but will be happy with 2.