September 08 Remember what we were doing this time last year?[wink]

[Debs75goldrings]

So what were we all doing this time last year?

hello all, hope everyone is well.

I just wondered if any of the other sept LOs have a rashy face? My dd suddenly has quite quite rough skin on eyebrows and forehead. My sisster says it's normal for them to be rashy at this age on and off.

notcitrus so impressed by home dying of clothes!

I also meant to ask - can anyone else see and feel little white bumps on the bottom gum, I'm guessing these are the beginning of teeth. Do all you LO's have them, or could this explain some of the screaming?

ninja Sorry you're having a rough time. BS doesn't have those white lumps, but my friend's baby who was born 4 hours after mine has cut a tooth, and she was quite desperate with sleep deprivation and a generally unsettled baby until she realised.

Well I've worked out why I feel so rubbish and achy this morning (apart from the sleep deprevation). I have Tonsillitis again (had it 3 weeks ago).

hi everyone, I dont often find time to post (or have anything interesting to say!) but it always makes me smile when I read other posts and they are saying the same things that we are going through at the moment. We're another 4.30/5am feeding club member. Alfie is poorly at the mo, GP has diagnosed bronchiolitis this morning. He's had a cough and a cold for about 7 weeks now (!!!) but truned much worse in the last 24hrs- wheezing, drawing in under ribs, high temp, high pitched cry and projectile vomiting this morning. GP seems to think he will get better by himself but has given penicilin to help him along. poor poppet its horrible watching him struggling for his breath a bit. Starting to get lots more smiles now, although by this age ds1 was smiling and laughing lots- i guess theyre all different.

I spent the day at the spa with girlfriends yesterday, it was so lovely. DH coped fantastically with both boys, did painting with ds1 and even managed to unload washing machine! Was so relieved cos ds2 had started rejecting his 1 a day bottle but he fed fine. I managed to express 8oz whilst at the spa too. Can thoroughly reccommend it girls

Ninj you poor thing. hope you feel better soon. I still have no voice, and am coughing up the most radioactive coloured stuff you would believe. Apart from lingering headache and sore throat I feel pretty much better, especially compared to my useless state on thursday and friday nights.

T has been in v funny mood today - he's basically slept, fed or grizzled all day, which is really unlike him. I'm trying to decide if he's coming down with something (doesn't appear to have a temperature or snotty nose though) or if he's going through a growth spurt - would be weird considering last night's mammoth sleep, but he's already had one extra feed today because he was so hungry.

Ipanemagirl T has a similar thing to cradle cap across his eyebrows, and also has slightly rough skin on his cheeks. He doesn't seem concerned by it, and it's not sore looking though, so I haven't bothered doing anything - figured it would clear up best if left to its own devices.

So sorry to hear about all your illnesses (especially you Ninja - M seemed such a happy baby so it must be something specific - maybe she's feeling poorly. Hope you get better very soon and get some sleep).

I am finally recovering after 2 weeks worth of cold/flu-like symptoms. Think the whole country has them!
Good news is, C seems to only have a small sniffle and today, for the first time ever, she has gone to sleep in her basket in her own room for an afternoon nap - ye Gods!!
And after a truly hellish Saturday evening - non stop screaming with tears from 7pm to 9.30pm, she fed at 9.30pm, went straight to sleep and slept until 8.30am Sunday!!!!!
Then last night, instead of screaming all evening, she slept on her tummy with us downstairs after her 7pm feed and then had a dream feed at 10.30pm and slept until 8am again!

Perhaps the walk round chester zoo helped, or (dare I say it), perhaps the colic may be ending.......

eandz your post about vegas last year made me smile - DP and I love the place. I am so very that DP is going on 6 jan for 7 nights and I can't. He's on business but that will include the obligatory business dinners grrrrr .
Hey ho, I'll get him back next summer when I'm off to Poland for 2 days with work..ha ha.

Thanks Oscar's/santa'smum I'm sure it must be either still the cold or possibly teeth? Glad to hear about C's sleeping, that's amazing.

I guess having had one non-sleeper I'm worried that M will turn out the same.

Off to the doctors now so I guess it'll be more anti-biotics, but I've caught it early this time.

hi everyone. Chez Foxy will be manic this week due to packing and general running around so will catch up with the chat later. We are flying on 15/12.

hi everyone, I must say I'm V of all the 4am club. I wish I could get Elliot to sleep before that time. we know he's tired but will spend all the time screaming, and being walked around in his sling or arm until that time. today I have tried cutting back on his morning sleep, as he usually doesn't wake up til around midday. so I'm hoping for a better night tonight.
Hoping all who are unwell start improving soon.

wow Foxy how exciting

splish I'm so sorry about your unsupportive dp. Mine has the lurgy at the moment and is on anti-biotics and an inhaler, so last night I was in charge. I decided to skip bathtime, and sat both dcs on my bed with bottles of milk, then read dd her story while ds finished his bottle, put him to bed, then brushed her teeth and put her to bed. No idea how we'd do it with a bath in there, I guess just do him first and get her to 'help' and then start all over again with putting dd to bed.

Last night dh slept downstairs coz of being so ill, so that we both had more chance of sleep. I had to go into dd twice coz she's being a bit of a monkey at the moment, but when i went in to wake her this morning, there was dh asleep on her bedroom floor. Turns out he came upstairs when he couldn't stand her 2 hours of crying anymore. I hadn't heard a thing . Thankfully the lurgy seems to be passing and we're all on the mend now. Yay!

Oh and ds's skin is very dry, especially his cheeks and chin, so I'm lathering on Avent magic cream. Not sure if its doing anything but it smells lovely (and so does he!)

barnpot my ds was born nocturnal, then had a spell of sleeping best between midnight and midday. We gradually moved him to his 12 sleepy hours being 7-7 by giving him baths to wake him up in the day. A few days of working very hard at waking him, but still letting him have good naps in the day, has turned him round and now he finally seems to have got it. Good luck!

Littledonkey how on earth do you read a story while feeding DS a bottle? When I give C her bottle, it takes both hands (one holding her, one holding bottle), so doing anything else (like holding a book) is out. Do you have some magic tips I could use? (Impressed at 7-7 sleeping btw, hope C is moving towards that as tonight is 2nd night of no screaming in the evening [dances round the room in joy]

Thanks splish that's a good idea, I'll see if he can do it this weekend.

hopefully the plan was to stretch the time between feeds at night by getting DH to comfort him when he wakes. Although not working at the moment as A has a cold, but once he's over it I won't feel so quick to feed him.

With regards to trying to stretch feeds out in the day I find it quite hard when I'm on my own - I've had so many scenarios where A has been screaming in the pushchair that it's made me quite nervous about going out unless he's been fed loads and loads - which makes it difficult to time it as I don't like breaking him off mid-feed. I'm dreading going into town next week, was thinking of putting A in the sling as I think he may sleep better. It just means lugging his change bag around on my shoulders. Anyway, I digress, I guess I've been hoping that he would naturally start to go longer between feeds...but I think maybe I might need to start being a bit more pro-active about this.

And I've got a blimmin' blister on my nipple again, latching on is painful once again. Anyone know if I should pop it with a pin or just leave DS to pop it through the power of his suck?

I'm also very jealous of sleeping babies. Katie is 17 weeks now and is nowhere near sleeping through the night and her naps are still really short. She is however getting really good at getting to sleep on her own, but when she wakes up later she insists on milk to fall back asleep. I think I'm going to have to persuade dh to take her for a few night but he isn't keen. I've started thinking of applying for jobs starting in march/april though and if I go back to work he will be the main carer.

Been really tired and had a cold all weekend so got nothing done, but am feeling a bit better since I found my hot water bottle =)

Had a busy, busy weekend with no time for MN'ing Our lovely starlight decorations are painted & glittered & twinkling on the tree yay!
Right, am struggling a bit here - Sam has been sleeping from 7-7.30ish until 7.30/8am (with a feed about 11pm when I go to bed) since about 8 weeks (he's 15 weeks today)however, for the last few nights he has been waking around 6am STARVING - absolutely desperate to feed. Now, I'm not really structuring his day feeds that much anymore, as he seems to feed almost constantly, and I figure thats fine if he sleeps through I don't mind at all. He's due for his 4 month check next week, but am wondering if I should be thinking about weaning? He seems very young still...I tried giving him a bottle of expressed milk but theres no chance now, he won't take the bottle at all...help!!

It may well just be a growth spurt - the advice about weaning now is 26 weeks as there can be significant risks before this time.

The signs for weaning are sitting up and loss of tongue reflex to push out food - hang on in there if you can.

Try getting someone else to offer a bottle, it may work better

jenpet - I am against early weaning (please research about leaky gut) so my view is very biased. Guidelines say weaning from 26 weeks onwards, and that waking in the night for a feed is not a reason to wean (no longer having the tongue-poke reflex, being able to sit up themselves and being able to pick up and place food in their mouths are weaning signs).

Also as Sam is hungry at 6am, weaning won't make a difference as weaning foods don't have any calorific content, they are just fillers. I would just go with the early morning feed and it will probably change again in a few days/weeks!

He's a growing boy and needs more calorific milk, not fillers (baby rice etc) or fruit puree's.

I hope I don't sound preachy, it's just that a lot of people wean early and don't realise the dangers of it.

ninja - great minds think alike! I hope you feel better soon. Can you get your dp/friends/family to help you out? What with M's nighttime activities (!) it sounds like you need to slow down and recover (easier said than done I know)

Morning all!

feeling pretty rubbish, cold is really bad, everything aches and eyes keep on closing as they sting so much... but excited as in a bit I have to go see DS's first xmas play, with his dad's shirt and a teatowel on his head ... busy wk, today play, tomorrow M's 2nd jabs, thu hosp apt for me, and I'm sure friday there's s.thing too.... just hoping to put xmas tree up this w-end.... anyway, better get ready.

thanks ninja and hohoho, I was hoping for that kind of answer as I'm really not keen to start yet either, will try and look into it a bit more too. Have discovered I get much more sense on here about than asking the Dr over here (will console myself with the thought that I get much more done with an early start!) I was pretty shocked at his total refusal of the bottle as DS1 took one at around the same age with no problem & he seems a lot more easy going as a baby too...will maybe get DH to try.

How about MegletoeAndWine ?

Digingle Can you put him in the sling and then push the changing bag in the buggy? I know it sounds odd but I sometimes do that. When BS is asleep I then transfer her to the buggy.

jenpet You're ahead of me. I was working up to warn everyone of the 16 week hell. It has nothing to do with being ready for weaning. It is a growth spurt coupled with an realisation that the world is an exiting place and that with practise they can start to manipulate their world, i.e. hold things, practise trying to roll etc.

Put '16 weeks' or '4 months' into the archive search thread titles (in the sleep or weaning section) and you'll see how prevalent this crazy period is.

The weaning guidelines are based on the maturity of the gut.

hth

ninja I'm off next Thursday. I think DH is able to use it well and it folds so small it should still be very useful to take.