Fab Feb 2009: attack of the zombie mums

[dinkystinky]

So here we all are, complete with babies and gro-bags under our eyes

I am gasping for a cup of tea and something to eat but have large baby sprawled across me with a look of utter contentment on his face and i can't bear to disturb him...

Guess what you cant get out here? Babygros. At least, not basic, plain babygros for less than 20euros each. My M&D are going to send some tesco ones over because my boy is growing so fast i am almost out of stock. i have absolutely no idea how much he weighs - i had a visit from the paed. when he was 10 days and nothing since.

mmm nice, his bum just exploded. how can that not wake him up??!!

mos and pempe cuddle monkey, another one here. Isobella just wants to cuddle all the time, especially to fall asleep. I am worried that I'm getting into bad habits already but part of me doesn't care as she is only tiny and has been so close to me for 9 months.

How odd I am just sat here with a cup of earl grey

I can't put mine down either. But I don't want to. DS1 was the same and now I have to catch him and beg or bribe him for kisses. And the minute DS2 could crawl (at 6 months) he took himself off to the other end of the play group and sat playing with toys with his back to me! They are both lovely and cuddley when they want to be but I'm going to make the very most of this.

oh lordy where did this come from? I thought my rollercoaster hormones had passed.....if there's anyone around now I need some shoulders to cry on. I know its ridiculous at my age, but I am crying my eyes out because I miss my M&D so much already (it's been 4 hours since they left). Ok its not so much missing them now but the thought that I am so far away from them, and I feel like I am depriving them of watching their grandson grow up. Plus it's pouring with rain here, so I can't go out and the greyness is making the house miserable.

Hi all!

Can't believe we're on the PN thread! Hurrah!

I have a cuddle monster as well. Think it's something to do with the colic, as the pressure on her stomach helps keep the wind under control. If I have to put her down (to wee etc.) I put her on her front or she wakes herself up kicking around. She sleeps on her back at night though.

She's got an awful snuffle and has been sneezing and coughing for a few days now. Very noisy at night. She also had a nose bleed the other day, and when she was sick, there was blood in the milk - cue one very scared mummy, but I was due to see the doctor and she reassured me that it was fairly common, and not to worry, unless it keeps happening.

Madam is in babygrows and will be for the next few months. They look too scrummy and cosy, and are so much easier. She does have a couple of dungerees to wear over the babygrows when we are out and about.

John just called me to say that when he left for work this morning he noticed someone had dinged my car. Arses... Am off to phone the insurance company.

Have a good weekend!

Envelops (((((Pempe))))) in ample bosom for unmumsnetty hugs, lobs over comforting chocolates (Green and Blacks) and a nice cup of tea...

huge hugs to Pempe I know exactly how you feel. I really want to get home and see my mum and feel so bad that she has been in hospital for 3 weeks now. Sadly we lost my dad a few years ago and it makes me so sad he didn't get to see Harrison or my DD. Harrison has his grandad's middle name though and that makes me feel a bit better and I'm pretty sure my dad is looking down on him.

It will get better Pempe, its just hard when we are so f/mucked up by hormones that everything seems worse.

I'd really like some of that Green & Blacks swampy but don't think A) you could throw it 3,000 miles and B) I've (stupidly) given up chocolate for lent.

((((Pempe))))... I will be the same when my Mum goes home.. so don't worry, have a nice cup of tea ...hope you feel better soon..

MOS, I am working on the proviso that having given birth recently..I don't need to do lent ... so am still eating my body weight in chocolate..

Hope everyone is well...have to try and get our house in order... have got DH and DM doing all the ironing and laundry.. so I guess I better do something useful like clean the bathroom

Hope everyone is well.... i know this is still a bit early, but it looks like we may go away late april.. then i am back to work mid/end may so anyone ready to start thinking about a meet up ?
x.

jelliebaby... so with you on feeling like time is going too quickly. aaron is our last as well (any lingering urge to have a 4th disappeared during the wek in scbu, i could never do that again) and i just want to savour the newborn stage. with the other 2 i was always looking forward to the next milestone and willing them to get bigger, with him i'm completely the opposite, i feel like it's going too quickly.

aaron is another cuddle monstor, he sleeps a few hours in the daytime on his own (although in the room with me as with 3 cats and 2 toddlers and a bedroom door that someone broke so that it doesn't close properly i don't dare leave him upstairs in his crib!) but in the evenings, at night and for part of the day he insists on being up with me.... his favourite spot is with his head on my bare boob after a feed... it's lovely as he always has such a contented look on his face and every now and again he wakes up and nuzzles my boob happily and drops off again. like swampy says, as they get older you have to rugby tackle them for cuddles so i'm in no rush for this stage to end.

ds1 oddly hasn't been at all pushed about me feeding aaron, when i was engorged when we first got home i tried to gently suggest he have a feed as i was in agony but he doesn't seem to be able to latch anymore strange that he's lost the ability at just 2.5 but at least he's not jealous of baby. he was chattering to me the other day and said 'baby aaaron can't eat food. baby aaron has mama milk..... he can drink it properly' i was a bit of a mix of and tbh but i suppose i'd be no happier if he'd suddenly decided to demand feed again so nevermind.

spotty, you've made my day with that info.... as soon as i have the cash there's a few tatts i've been waiting a long time to get, have a vague idea of ones i want for dd and ds1 but need to have a good root around the net now and get a more definite idea of exactly how i'm going to do them.... want some sort of water nymph to represent dd and haven't yet found the right image. also want to get a lion but want it done in sort of a tribal style if that makes sense. my dad, dp and ds1 are all leos so it's to represent all of them.

pempe {{{{{{{{{{{hug}}}}}}}}}} it'll be fine sweetie, lord knows some of us live just a few hours from our families and see them less than you probably see your family. (dps parents have yet to see aaron and his brother and sister have never met caleb and only met sarah 3 times.... they only live a 3.1/2 hour drive away ) harry will know them and love them and they'll see plenty of him over the years. i grew up always being in a seperate country to one set of grandparents and it didn't affect my relationship with them at all

thom... i'm heading to bed anywhere between 10.30(rare) and 12.30(more usual) after speding the evening with aaron on the couch feeding loads. sometimes he'll go into his crib like last night and sleep til 1.30-2 but more usually he grumbles until he get in the bed with us and snuggles up with me. most nights he only wakes once or twice to feed and will still be out for the count when the other 2 get up at 8ish although if he's having a feeding frenzy he tends to get a bit windy and i can end up with him awake and grumpy for an hour at a time 3/4/5 times during the night.... like last night!

still infected with snot here and both kids have nasty coughs too, the joy. dp got up with the older 2 this morning though and i tayed inbed with aaron for a few hours so at least despite not getting much sleep i'm not too shattered, only downside is he'll expect a lie in tomorrow now and that means me being up with all 3 until he crawls out at 1 or 2... grr!

Oh Pempe - am sending you huge hugs. The guilt you're feeling is all part of being a new mum - you feel guilty about everything! And the hormones cant be helping. Your mum and dad will be back - probably really soon - to visit you, DH and your lovely little man (honestly, once you produce grandkids there is no keeping those grandparents away) and I bet they'll become regular visitors to Greece in the coming months/years so the guilt will fade. Am hoping all the hugs, chocolate and earl grey tea being lobbed at you by Swampy and the others is helping...

All those with babies who love cuddles, I'm with Swampster - cuddle them to pieces while you can as, as soon as they get mobile, there is no catching them for cuddles (my DS1 was a cuddle monster - as soon as he started rolling around the living room it was impossible to get him to stay still to cuddle anymore). I really dont think you can "spoil" a little baby by cuddling them too much and there is nothing better for dealing with the new mum blues than cuddles with your little one.

Am definitely belatedly nesting now - have rearranged living room and drawing room into new configurations, picked up new storage for the boys' toys, picked out all the new door fittings for our new front door and got the paint for our bedroom...

MrsY - sorry to hear about your car; hope its not a major ding and can get sorted out quickly and cheaply. Ah, dungarees - next to babygrows they are my favourites for dressing little people in...

Hi all. Just catching up...
LMN I dressed ds1 in proper outfits from day one, because he was quite big, I quickly forgot he was a newborn, but when he started getting very sicky at about 6 weeks, he lived in babygro's because they were easier to wash and dry.
Luke is in a mix of proper outfits and babygro's, depends if I can be bothered faffing about with a whole outfit tbh, but most clothes we have from ds1 are jeans and thick fully lined trousers and I think Luke is just too small to go in them atm.
pempe My ds1 had reflux. I originally took him to gp when he was about 6 weeks because he was bringing up milk after every feed, gp fobbed me off with talk of viral infections so I kept going back, and he prescribed infant gaviscon to add to the milk, I wasn't happy with that, so we were reffered to a paed who prescribed a formula for ds1 to be on for the first year. Was great, it really helped him, he was more comfortable instantly although still sick well into weaning but not in pain with it, plus it saved me £7 a week! I think dinky's right with what she says about the crying, ds1 cried constantly I just cannot stress enough the amount of time he cried for, with his knees pulled into his stomach, the squirming, red screwed up face, was awful .
Does Harry also bring up clear acidy smelling fluid? The valve at the top of the stomach isn't strong enough to keep the food down, so it all comes back up along with the stomach acid. If he is really uncomfortable all the time, and even when feeding and there is a smell of acid around him, then he may well have reflux.
KT It takes time to get to know your baby and know what they want. I never figured out the different cries, they all sounded the same to me, but people kept telling me there's different cries for different things, I'm not convinced......
I find that Luke looks like he's hungry after about 1.5hrs after a feed, but after a while of back stroking and patting, turns out it's wind, and he settles again. If Poppy gets too much food, she'll just throw it all up again, keep an eye on her weight, that'll tell you if she's having too much. Ds1 came off the whole grid on his chart, the hv told me to give him 4oz and then distract him, it took a few days, but he did settle. This was him taking 6oz at 5/6 weeks.
Pempe You'll be ok. I'm sorry to say that guilt is a feeling that will be around for a while, it's all part of being a mum I think. Haven't got any words of comfort though I'm afraid, but big hugs. x

I'm pissed off with dp again. I don't know what's wrong with me, everytime he says anything I just want to scream. I know I'm being unreasonable, he hasn't even done anything major. Ok, he told me I had to stop smoking because he had a crap month work wise and we just can't afford it. He said I can only buy essentials this month and money is really tight until next pay (4 weeks). Fine. He goes to tescos for some bread and comes back with 3 tubes of pringles, 2 big bags of chocolate buttons, 2 tins of hotdogs, even though there's stuff in the freezer for dinner and I'm sitting here thinking wtf? Are Pringles suddenly an essential item? I haven't spoken to him today or all of last night just because of that, stupid ren't I?
I'm really frustrated atm too, it's all a bit much. I'm quite fed up and think I need to get a job. I might feel a bit better knowing that I have some money of my own, but I don't want to be away from my babies....(ok, I do sometimes )
Anyway, must go, ds1 has just woken from a very long nap, so going to the park so I don't have to talk to dp

Thanks for the hugs everybody, they honestly did help. My DH has been fantastic, took the afternoon off work and held the fort while I have slept. Just woken up to a log fire, dinner in the oven and a sleeping baby. Can't quite believe it.

SMS - poor you with your DS1 - what Harry have doesn't sound as severe as that, he squirms and grumbles towards the end of feeding and has started being sick in the evenings, but I've seen no clear fluid (apart from regurgitated gripe water). Also, sorry about stress with your DP - hope the trip to the park and some fresh air makes you feel better

Sam is now 7.12 - 8oz gain in 2 days! - Shutting up the feckin HP's and their dramatics

Pempe . We only saw my Grandma once/twice a year for a holiday but had a fab relationship with her. I really believe it was as my mum always talked about her loads and promoted the good relationship iygwim. Keep plenty of pics up round the house. btw are you sure you woke up and aren't still dreaming lucky you.

PT - love your tat ideas. Nymph sounds fab and I really like the idea of linking it to a sign, will have to look into that myself. I had ds1's name under an existing tat as he was an aries and didn't fancy a ram ds2 is a pisces.........

Oh well better go finish dinner. we have visitors again. They always want feeding

Tat ladies - John is having a replica of madam's hospital wrist tag around his wrist, although I told him that will limit us to two kids! Not sre if that's good or bad, though!!

I was thinking I'll have something like this down my back... Also like the idea of including her star sign - I like the two wavy lines for Aquarious or maybe the chinese symbol for earth ox, but don't really believe any of that !

Tat ladies - John is having a replica of madam's hospital wrist tag around his wrist, although I told him that will limit us to two kids! Not sre if that's good or bad, though!!

I was thinking I'll have something like this down my back... Also like the idea of including her star sign - I like the two wavy lines for Aquarious or maybe the chinese symbol for earth ox, but don't really believe any of that !

What was I talking about, going to the park indeed! We didn't go to the park because coats on, I saw it was alot later than I realised so we went to tescos and rushed back for ds1's dinner and ds2's bottle.

I'm starting to look into nurseries and schools for ds1 now, think I've left it a it late....There's only 2 nursery's in my area that take them from 3, if it's just a choice out of those 2 I know which one I want him to go to. Will have to look into it all properly in the week and find out how far out we can go.

MrsY That sounds lovely, the hospital band around his wrist.
Ds1 is a Leo, so p got a big Lions head on his chest with ds1's name, his weight and the time he was born. Dp wanted ds's date of birth but the tattooist said they couldn't do thatbecause the only place you'd see the dob is on a tombstone. I'm sure I've seen people with dob's on them though, so must have just been this particular tattooist...

SMS - weird tattoist, I think - I've seen plenty of people with DOB's tattooed on. John already has our wedding date tattooed down one forearm from elbow to wrist, about 3 inches high.

Oh, and the tattoo I like is the rainbow star trail, not the first one...

Sorry Pempe that you've had a bad day - I remember when I was off on mat leave with DS and my Mum and Dad went off on holiday for 3 weeks (they live up the road so I got used to seeing them regularly with DS) - sounds lame but I bawled like a baby and really missed them not being around and they were coming back !! So being in another country away from them must be hard and what with the hormones and tiredness it will get you down. Good advice from everyone else though. Glad that your lovely DH seems to have been really thoughtful....enjoy !

MrsY - DD has had a cold now for a couple of weeks. Every morning she is snorting and snuffling like a piglet (prob a night of built up mucus when lying down) and really fractious and then she'll then just snot out a big bogey and relax...this morning though, it was streaked with blood and I got a bit worried but figured that as she's been so bunged up it must be linked. She's not dribbling blood out of both nostrils or having a proper nosebleed but I was initially a bit shocked when I saw it.

Feeling a bit exhausted tonight so an early night for me. Did a mammoth shopping trip in town with just DS this morning who was desperate for clothes as he must have just had a growth spurt. Good chance for a clearout when we got back so I went through all of DS's old clothes and babygroes which I'd boxed up before DD arrived and sorted the clothes out to give to a mate who had a boy a week before DD and the babygroes to go in the drawers....then off to look at bathrooms (we might upgrade our avocado bathroom soon ). DD and DS now both fast asleep and I have finally sat down. Phew. I'm sure this stuff feels easier somehow in the week when DH isn't here ?! Why is that. In the week I just sort of get on with it...at the weekend somehow trying to motivate DS to help is just quite knackering

hiladies - just found the post natal thread and hope everyone doing well.
i'm not even going to try to catch up at the moment!
i'm using dh's notepad thing and have Sam in arms. unfortunately we are in hospital at the moment with suspected meningitis - well, they are hoping to rule it out in the next day or so. All very scary and horrible watching him hace the lumbar puncture and
i.V. lines. His temperature is down from the 39.5 when we were admitted so good news there. just a case of wait and see.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself what with the general lack of sleep then this. Also DD has not taken kindly to Sam so that's testing me.

Well, thats a me me me post soa pologies.

You all take care and hope to catch youtomorrow hopefullywith some good news about Sam.

Night night!

Oh my god Catstar - I really hope Sam is ok and his temperature comes down really quickly and docs find out what is up and treat it quickly. It must be so terrifying for you - am sending you enormous hugs. And as for little O - she'll come round eventually: we had our neighbours over with their little girl and 4 month old boy today and there is a similar age gap to your two between them - they said their little girl was horrid to them and baby for the first month or so and then it all suddenly changed and she accepted her little brother was here to stay and they came out the other side.

P.s. Herbgarden - bit of a freudian slip at the end of your last post (DS or DH?)?

Markstretch - that roller disco sounds exhausting; hope F lets you have a suitably chilled night. I've found that babies seem to like sleeping through noise - DS1 used to sleep through drilling outside his bedroom window when there was a burst watermain on the street outside! - but seemingly hate peaceful dark bedrooms. They are very odd creatures. And Danny has started imitating Frankie by lifting his leg to do killer farts in the middle of the night too now - MUST be because they're boys..

Catstar - how awful seeing your poor wee boy go through all that! I really hope he is ok and they rule out Meningitis

Herb & MS I'm tired just reading your posts!!

Mrsy - Earth ox eh? are all our babies oxen or is there a date change somewhere in the month like the starsigns?

Well you can just call me superwoman as I managed to make a decent dinner whilst looking after 2 babies ALL ON MY OWN All washing/nappies are done, bathrooms and kitchen cleaned, toys cleared, babies bathed, milked and sleeping, visitors sent packing AND I managed not one but TWO posts on here

Now please excuse me whilst I faint from exhaustion and take to my bed for the next week