December 08 Supermums: We are all doing fine and our LOs love us!!

[kayzr]

Hello.

Trace I went with your idea!!

X post ksyz, I do hope it heals soon for you

morning all... am sticking my neck out here... shall we arrange a north london meet uip for tues 16th so veggie can come, too? how about EP's suggestion for finsbury park child friendly pizza place?

ouch, poor you kayzr - not fun, i'm sure

hey I might come if it's finsbury park as it's on a direct train from Cambridge

sl hurrah!

How do you lot get your babies to go for seven hours in a row?! I thought it was maybe me being over-sensitive to her noises etc but I'm much less twitchy than with DD1 so I know it's not that. Aaargh. I think I am just 'blessed' with hungry babies! How often do you feed during the day?

kmp I don't think putting your baby to bed late is necessarily 'bad' if it works for your family. You have to do what's right for you. But I do think you might find it tiring when you have a toddler on the go until midnight. I know DH and I really value our grown-up evenings. On a related, but different, note - how do you stay up til midnight?! I went to bed at 7pm last night to catch up on sleep and was out like a light!

verso don't worry, mine won't go 7hrs either.
He once slept 5 and I thought something was wrong!
kmp til recently we had been doing the same but DS was frequently disturbing dinner by waking up at just the wrong time, and feeding on and off all evening, and taking ages to settle
So this week we tried to put him to bed at 7pm, finally last night it worked and he slept 7 til 10, which was nice! And we had an evening! When he's used to it we would take him out asleep in pram like this I guess if we wanted to at this age, if he would stay asleep. I guess long term you will want to put to bed early like Verso says - you don't want toddler up til midnight! But if he's already sleeping downstairs, shouldn't be too hard (famous last words!) to make the transfer at some point to him sleeping in his cot? SO I wouldn't worry about it for now? I am also thinking when I get to that stage, if he sleeps reliably between 7 and 10 then better for babysitting further down the line!

Verso DS2 doesn't go 7 hours, he goes about 4 hours. But today is the magic 8 weeks. DS1 slept through from 8 weeks old but I don't hold out much hope for DS2.

dd sleeps generally 5-7 hours for her first sleeping stint. about 3 weeks ago we started doing this...

don't let her feed after 5.30pm (she regularly screams 6-7pm)
at 7 change her and then bath
7.15ish i do a mammoth feed in our bredroom (where moses basket is) - quiet and dark (altho dh and i use the time to catch up on our days and i think she likes to hear our voices quietly in background)
when she finishes (ands i try to get loads down her until she's milk drunk), wind, wrap in miracle blanket, put sound of rain on ipod (looped, will go all night), and shush her in my arms until she is soundly asleep (anything from 10 mins to 1 1/4 hours, although getting shorter all the time)
put her in basket, monitor on - have eve to ourselves.

hope that helps... is working for us at the mo touch wood.

off to change a vinegary nappy...

Message withdrawn

Hi Catdean
I have not up with any of this new thread yet but must reply to you.
I must be a really bad mum as I put DS and now Sammy in their own roon right from day 1. When I stayed over at my Mum's Sammy was in the same room as me and I got no sleep- she is such a noisy sleeper. So I would put them in their own room. I do hear when they cry just not all the grunts and sighs and small moans in between. I actually think it is good as I do not go and feed unless she really wants it.

Message withdrawn

bollocks. just wrote world's longest message and it's gone. .
straw. camel. back.

The aga engineer has just been to service our cooker and he was a lovely man with a DS born in December, so he admired DD and we talked babies for ages. At one point I wondered if he might be kayz DH, as from the Malton are and his wife gave birth to a 10lb-er with just gas and air, but then he said his boy was called Sam. But there's two ladies in this neck of the woods who can achieve that impressive birth! And talking of which, how much did your DS2 weigh when you took him this week kayz? Cat I had my 6 week check this week and the Dr didn't examine my undercarriage (I had the same 'tidy' issue ), just asked me about it

Verso I go to bed as early as possible most nights too. That's the joy of winter babies - as long as its dark it feels acceptable to go to bed!

DD is fast asleep and has been for a couple of hours now - she never normally does any more than a catnap in the mornings, so I'm a bit worried about what the afternoon will hold ... if you don't here from me, you know its bad!

meant to say 'as he's from the Malton area' at typing!

I didn't Zoe it was cancelled because of the weather. He has his 8 week check on Wednesday so they should do it there.

I meant to tell you my swimsuit arrived today. I look about 6 months pregnant But I am going to try and go once a week.

try again.

cat - I am a Really Bad Mum. Been in her own room in big cot in gro-bag since 2 weeks. Am in fact a Really Really Bad Rebellious Mum because she sleeps on her tummy. In my defense the rooms are very close indeed - ickle dorma-bungalow - but as Simmo says it stops me responding to every grunt. There's no chance I'd miss her cries!
Swaddling and winding - no idea sorry.
Insanity - I think since pregnancy we've all been somewhere on the loony-tune spectrum! For me the degree of fruit-cake-ness bears little relation to the amount of sleep I've had. I can get a good 3 hour stint and still put tea bags in the dishwasher and cornflakes in the fridge! If it's any consolation you don't sound like you've completely lost it yet!

Right - I'm not one to rant but please can I?

Having just typed all this once and lost it [incompetent emoticon] I shall summarize (be relieved - my failed post was very detailed

This has been my dealings with GP of late...

Phoebe 4 weeks old - rang Gp to make appt for 6 week check. Was told to wait for my letter.
5 weeks old - rang again - was told to wait for my letter and not ring again.
6 weeks old - rang again - was told to wait for my letter which would arrive this week
7 weeks old - rang again - was told to wait for my letter
almost 8 weeks old - rang again to ask for appt for 6 week check and immunisations. Got very apologetic lady who said it should have been done when I had phoned previously. Appt made for jabs for today and for check in mid feb (10 weeks old!).
phonecall this morning from GPs asking me to come at 9.20 today instead of 10.
Rushed straight from school run to GPs. Nurse came out and said she couldn't do the jabs because we've not had the 6 week check yet. .
Spoke to receptionist who made appt for both on mon 9th.

I am cross. Should I be cross or am I overreacting? Was proud of myself for telling the nurse I was cross, but unfortunately managed to express my anger in the only way I seem capable, which is to get teary of eye and wobbly of voice. Wish I could do proper articulate angry sometimes instead of feeble crying angry. Grrr.
Am cross because
a. I've been trying to make these appts for a month
b.She's 8 weeks and has not been checked
c. she's late for her jabs which presumably are done at 8 weeks for a reason - so now she's more at risk of catching the things that they protect against
d. I gave her a preemptive dose of paracetomol so she's had a drug she didn't need.
These all just make me feel like despite my best efforts to do my best for my child I have failed. She is unchecked and unprotected.

oh and 6 weeks checks for mums don't even exist here. Hope I'm alive still. Excuse the melodrama.

Write and complain Trace I bloody would!! You are not overreacting, they are at those times for a reason.

just re-rad all that. Sorry for my extreme grumpiness.

Think I got out of the bed on the wrong side. DH wound me up (he did nothing to help me get the dds ready this morning then said it was my fault I was running late because I was expressing and I didn't need to do it then - I don't get much milk off unless I do it first thing). Also dd1 has asthma and she's quite bad at the mo - think she's getting a chest infection - yesterday she said after school that she had needed her inhaler in the day but had been too nervous to ask her teachers because she didn't know which one to ask. I felt so bad that I'd not drummed enough information into her about asking. She has 3 teachers and can ask any of them. I spoke to the teacher this morning and asked them to encourage her to ask for her inhaler if she's coughing/ wheezy. I feel like I can't look after her well enough - she's out of my hands and I'm not in control!!!

Perhaps I should start a thread just for me so I can waffle on without boring/annoying everyone else.

Trace please don't start another thread...crikey if we had to on grounds of grumpiness or moaning there would be a lot of threads out there You are completely within your rights to be v cross indeed with GP - grr. And poor Lucy - and poor you. Sounds like you're doing the right thing all round. On the plus side - DD didn't get her jabs until 8 weeks and actually didn't bother her as much as it did DS at 6 weeks (the wonder of fatter thighs).

Having dreadful morning here - taken me 2 hours to get 3 of us ready. So far this morning DS has put a raisin in DD's mouth (luckily right in front of me) and disconnected the laptop cable and the cable from his night light to put them in his mouth . He's now waving a clean nappy at me saying 'this one would be nice'. And my firm 'no' to the cable antics woke DD up in a state.

So instead of having nice coffee at borough market am surveying the chaos of our bedroom which looks like we've been burgled. Long day ahead...

morning all.

trace definitely make some kind of complaint, leaving your baby a month late for their first check is pretty rubbish and round here they tell us "you might get a letter but don't rely on it"... You kept on trying but some mums might not realise these things need doing.

Warning - am about to join trace in grumpy corner. After yesterday's sleep marathon, last night was pretty hopeless. We thought better to wake her for feed since dream feed didn't work - woops. She took the bottle of ebm at 11 then was still hungry so I went up to bed with her, she just about nodded off at 12, then woke at 1 and from then until 4 (when I stropped off to the spare room with her) was alternately writhing and yelling with wind, and on the boob to try and comfort herself. DH snoring throughout. I asked him after the bottle if he'd winded her and he said no not sure why not... Given that the sofabed in the spare room is really not all that comfy ( our poor guests) and not the safest place for a baby, surely DH who can nod off at the drop of a hat ought to have gone there, rather than me who ended up with an aching back trying to get comfy round dd with her on top of the duvet but not falling off the sides. but no. Grrrr. Went back to the marital bed at 7 when he got up and she was still squirmiung and kicking, finally dropped off to sleep at about 9. Should have known weds was too good to be true!

off to try and have a shower, she's been on boob since 11 but finally dropping off.

Verso / SL oh no- i don't mean that he doesn't sleep before 11p and def wouldn' be letting it go on until he's a toddler - just wondered if it's bad that he sleeps other places besides his cot before that time? Just asked my mum and she seems to think that he's quite young for it to be a problem yet, but I know what you mean if it got to be a habit when he gets a little bigger>>> maybe i will swaddle him earlier then and just undo him and change him at 11p and re-swaddle.....
My friend (and fellow miracle blanket worshipper) said her baby slept through from 8 weeks in that blanket (from 11pm - 9pm) so they brought it forward and now sleeps 9pm-6am, but is 3mths now and too big for miracle blanket!
My night currently goes like this: Usually a feed around 5-530pm give or take, then sleeps off and on until about 8 in bouncy vibrting chair, (with us in living room) then feeds, then (sometimes) sleeps again in vib chair until 11pm ish when we go to bed, then feeds (really make sure he's full) and change / swaddle and in cot at 1130 - sleeps till 5am or 6-ish, then unswaddle and feed or sometimes feeds and keep swaddled and sleeps till 8-ish.... then during the day can be quite random... depending on if windy, cranky or tired etc?
So i'm thinking maybe i'll do the swaddle / cot thing earlier, but he doesn't really do the cot during the day - but maybe i should always put him in there to sleep? I really need a monitor - trouble is my dh will get carried away and we'll end up with some totally over the top ridiculous state of the art CCTV system as he really gets into his gadgets!!

Hello all,

trace That is just stooopid of your GP. Write a letter of complaint whilst you are still annoyed as otherwise you'll loose the momentum. My bottom lip starts wobbling and my voice breaks up when I try and express anger too, it's frustrating I know! I hope Lucy's chest clears up.

Cat Have you tried laying your swaddled LO on your lap to wind? I'm sure you have, sorry if that's just obvious . That is how my mum winds babies.

JJ Very annoying of your DH not to give you the bed. Hope you get a nap today.

We had a bit of excitment overnight. DD woke up crying and when I asked DH the time (the alarm clock is on his side of the bed) he replied "quarter to seven". Well I was nearly doing cartwheels, as it looked as though DD had slept through the night. I came rather down to earth when it turned out that DH had been half asleep and it was actually 1.45 . High ho!

Massive x-post! WaitingGirl I like your system - it seems to be very similar to mine - just a few hours earlier - I'm only thinking he will wake at 1 or 2 if I do that then so I'd rather have him wake at 11 so I can change / feed him then so I think i'll either try get him down at 7pm so maybe he'll wake for feed at 11-ish, or see if maybe he will go through the night from 9pm however that would be a stretch.....

I too also find that if I don't respond to little wimpers (or sometimes little cries) they often turn into nothing after a few minutes

Trace are you sure it's not my GP's?? They took wrong paperwork when I registered him and kept saying "someone will call you for his 8 week check" - never did - fina;;y found out they didn't 'recognize' the discharge summary as it was a different hospital and reception staff shouldn't have said "it doesn't matter we don't need it" so they tried to get me an appointment for him at 10 weeks - I said forget it - your screw up, you fix it! And they squeezed us in on Monday......