Fab Feb 2009: too sleep deprived to think of a new thread title

[dinkystinky]

'nuff said

Thanks for all your messages of support - things never seem so bad on a sunny day, do they? SMS you hit the nail on the head when you said that colic would be easier to cope with if it was during the day. So sorry you had such a time of it with DS1 - and you went on to have another!!! You're right, 8 weeks will soon pass and I'll look back fondly at when Sam was a baby! Am going to try all of your tips again!

Dinky thanks - we have tried slinging (well in Baby Bjorn so maybe I should try a proper sling) but to no avail, but I think tonight I will pound the streets with the pram - I would have done it last night but DH was out. It's really kind of you to offer a try of the Dr Brown's bottles and if you are sure I would love to take you up! Will of course reimburse you!

DH just taken DD to supermarket and I'm supposed to be trying to catch 40 winks so better be off.

Nkweto can't believe you have chicken pox - so sorry it puts your plans in jeapody (sp?). You might be alright for your family holiday if no new spots for a while and here's hoping DD stays clear. think if you are breastfeeding she has a pretty good chance of avoiding it but fingers crossed.

Littlesez sounds like you are having a lovely time - enjoy it and make the most of it! Hope you get some good bf advice.

Really should go now but thanks again everyone. It helps to talk about it and I know I'm not the only one to go through it. I just cried on the phone to my mum but it makes me feel like a failure because she had 3 children in 3.5 years and was a single mum!!! Both of my other sisters are single mums too (not a great track record in our family!!!) so I find it hard to talk to them. Anyway, that's a whole other story....

Have a lovely day everyone. I think we might go to the farm this afternoon if DH's hangover and my mood improve.

jeopardy - think that's it

HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nkweto- that's a bloody shame. Stupid bloody pox.

Dh is currently asleep in bed with DS- I don't mind though as he has just finished a week of nights and is back on earlies tomorrow. He's also taken on a whole load of overtime shifts to earn money for when I'm not working.

Erm, not much going on here, I ate a massive chinese last night, my mum came and stayed on Friday night and we drank wine, the sun is shining, the baby is still a big fat chunk.

OH AND LONDON ON TUESDAY BABY! WOOOOOOOOP WOOOOOOOP!

I meant DH has been working nights, DS hasn't got a job yet.

morning all.

nkweto, so sorry about the chicken pox STW is right though, 13th april is long enough away that you might have turned the corner and be safe to go on the holiday. fingers crossed dd doesn't catch it

littlesez, i wish i'd had your get up and go when i had dd. i was always way too nervous to go to all the groups and ended up with hardly any mom friends as a result... good for you!

SWT.... don't feel bad about getting upset, your mother will know exactly how you're feeling.... just because she coped doesn't mean she never had bad times or days she couldn't handle it all anymore. it's great that you can talk to her and i bet she knew just what to say to make you feel a bit better.

it will end honestly, just try and detach yourself emotionally for now when he cries, that sounds harsh but when they're screaming like that and nothing you do can help them i found getting stressed myself made the whole situation worse. it might seem like this will affect sam in the long term but honestly it won't... dd cried most of her first year and spent most of the next year in agony with undiagnosed food intolerances but she's a happy bubbly wee thing now. so for now the best thing you can do is just to make him as comfortable as possible and not let the crying upset you. take breaks and make sure you rest yourself too.

SMS... at your neighbours... how in the name of god is she coping with constant parties with a 5 week old anyway?! hope your having a lazy sunday to make up for the rotten night.

Oh yeah and I meant to add, I got my stupid period! I only had a baby 8 weeks ago and I'm breastfeeding! How shit is that.

I had to dust off the mooncup this morning fo the first time since the 3rd of May last year.

I might have to just get pregnant again.

MS.... how unfair!

you definitely need another baby in that case

nkweto, sorry about the chicken pox, hope it's all over quickly. Hopefully this won't be the only meetup.

nkweto Poor you. I have my fingers crossed that baby doesn't get it. What an awful time to get it. Not contagious once the spots scab over though, so fingers crossed for your holiday.
STW Isn't it amazing at how quickly we forget this stage though? When we decided to have another one, ds1 was about 7 months old, wasn't even crawling so had a few piss easy months with him. A few weeks after Luke was born, it all came rushing back and I thought, uh-oh, why didn't I remember that I'm not cut out for newborns?
You are not a failure. It's not your fault Sam has colic, there really isn't even much that helps either, you are doing everything you can for him, but it truely is just something that passes on it's own. Show me a mother that says she doesn't struggle sometimes with a colicky baby and I'll show you a liar.
My friends and parents told me wen I was pregnant that I'd find it really hard, so I didn't really talk about just how hard it all was because I didn't want to prove them right. It's hard too when the OH's are out. Hope tonight's better for you.
Also, I have a baby carrier similar to the baby bjorn and I found strapping Luke to me and then sitting on the edge of the sofa so he was more hanging than resting seemed to stop his crying for at least an hour (probably because his balls were hurting though, hey! )
PT Agree that if all else fails, emotional detachment may be the key. Think that's what must have happened with ds1, I didn't recognise a rush of loe for him until he was about 5 months old , but don't think it's affected him in the long run. He listens to me, he loves me and he trusts me.
My neighbour has had her mother or her husbands mother staying there constantly since the baby arrived. From what I can hear, she is feeding the baby and other family members are looking after him iykwim. She says she's findng it quite easy at the moment, but her and the baby haven't left the building sine they got back from the hospital, so I'm hoping that when her lay-in time ends this friday, they will be visiting family sometimes and the loud evenings won't always be here, or I may have to say something (nicely).
MS That is pretty rubbish as your bf. My period only lasted 2 days, so maybe it's just going to be a little bit?

I am soooo tired! Was lovely to see our friends who came over though, it's been far too long.
We've just watched Eastenders again, so I cried again. Dp doesn't understand why I got so emotional over this weeks events.

SWT - Have you had any advice from HV or doctor about formulas? Including breastmilk, we've tried 5 different milks with M and most HVs seem to recommend an easy digest formula for colicky babies. Might be worth discussing? It is thicker than ordinary, though, so you may need different teats.

nkweto - Bad luck with the pox, but I would think that you'll be ok by the 13th - I was advised to let them get as much air as possible and keep them dry to help them scab.

MS - That sucks! I would quite often 'skip' my break and go straight onto a new packet of the pill - maybe that's why my cycles were so buggered when we started TTC?

Had a lovely weekend - took M to Bluewater yesterday and got myself two new pairs of shoes!! and then had a lovely relaxed day, including a spell at the park, today. Although I wasn't massively relaxed when John dropped the tin of formula on the floor last night and we had to sort out an emergency prescription and then find an open chemist that had some in stock...

SMS - Did you go back to the GP about the new formula for Luke?

Evening all. Nkweto - am so sorry you've got chickenpox (know you were worried about getting it on an earlier thread) - I really hope you recover soon and that your family (especially dd) dont catch it so you can all make it on your family holiday. Sending you enormous hugs.

STW - of course am more than happy to give you the bottles; will bring them on Tuesday.

SMS - good god, what are your neighbours on??? I'd probably have a quiet word with her - if she's complaining about you being too noisy walking around she should appreciate noise travels up as well as down. Hope you have a much better night with the boys tonight and that DS1 is recovered from his illness.

We had some old uni friends come over for lunch today (was going to be a picnic in the park but abit too cold and overcast for it) which was lovely (especially as 2 of them are shortly leaving london - one for NZ for good; another for places unknown for good) but had a dampener put on it by my friend's kids. She has 3 - a 6 year old, a 3 year old (4 months older than DS1) and a nearly 2 year old. DS1 was sooooooo excited that the 3 year old was coming he was virtually dancing when they arrived and ready to share all his toys - only for the 3 year old to totally reject him and his toys as baby toys (though noticed him playing with them all later) and refuse to play with him at all. I had to have a word with my friend about the latent hostility from her son to my son for no reason so she got him to share with DS1 but he really didnt play with him and was actually quite mean to him (along with his big brother) and kept running away from him (which left him really bemused and abit lonely) which made me feel so sad. I've tried to teach DS1 to be nice to all kids, especially younger ones, and he's a really sweet boy so it makes me really sad when stuff like this happens...

MS - at you getting your period already (especially given how often you're feeding F)!

MrsY Yeah, I went back, saw a very nice doc who said ride it out. Basically, she herself has had 2 colicky babies and knows there is no magic cure, if there was she'd have made miliions blah blah blah. So he is still on C&G so I may switch to the cmfort one, but don't want to mess around too much with it. I have found acceptance with colic again, I know it's here, it's here to stay for next 4-6 weeks regardless of what I do so we'll soldier through it. Also think it's time for a bit of emotional detatchment(sp?) from the crying to get us through.
Glad you had a good day, apart from the formula, it always happens if you run down to the last tin doesn't it? When ds1 was on the Enfamil, the chemist was giving me 8 tins at a time and I always made sure I had at least one open and one sealed tin on site.
dinky My thoughts exactly re neighbours and noise. I don't mind every now and again, but like I said every weekend and sometimes during the week is getting a bit much now.
Your poor little boy. How awful for him. Although I do think the recover from these things quicker than we do. It is heartbreaking to watch though isn't it? Whenever ~I see ds get pushed or something and I see that confused and hurt look on his face, a piece of my heart melts. But then he pushes back and a part of me is

So, I have just fed Luke for the first time since 6:30, that's 6.5 hours he slept for!!!!! Fingers crossed it's a sign of things to come

Morning, Hope everyone had a nice weekend

We went to kiddcare on Saturday and got P her matress, so now she is all settled in her cot and seems to love it! She slept 7pm til 3am on saturday. then last night did 6pm until 4am, then back to bed & is still sleeping now!! Isnt it weird that when they begin to sleep better you worry??? I should just relax and enjoy the kip myself!

I have the HV coming today to do Poppys 6week check and then we have to go to the Doctors this afternoon for the other 6week check they have. No idea what the difference is

littlesez you sound like your really enjoying Motherhood, so pleased for you. Im beginning to get it together now, a little less stressed. I was also thinking about going to the baby cinema, as mine is about 5mins drive away. I wasnt sure if P would be too young, butI guess not. so i might give it a go on Wednesday.

MS How rubbish getting your period already - never a break eh?!

Nkweto Sorry to hear that you have chicken pox hope you get better soon & make your holiday xx

Off to make some breakie before Poppy wakes up, have a good day

KT It's probab;y just that he hv will weigh P and the doc won't. The doc will look at eyes, ears, throat, listen to breathing etc and maybe the hv's check is more about support?

Morning everyone !

KT sounds like P is loving her new bed and that she's a good sleeper especially at 6 weeks - well done - count your lucky stars honestly and kip away ! I found myself worrying when DD went for a 7 hour stint the other day which is ridiculous really but you see, even on no 2, I still worry.

Nkweto Poor you, adult chicken pox is not nice but hope you don't get it too bad and that you can still go on your hols.

Dinky - Aw your poor DS - I can just see the scenario. It's so hard at this age isn't it when you've tried to teach your own kids to be nice, kind, blah blah only to find other kids not playing ball. Harder as well when it's your friends kids and they're in your house and that you were hopeful for a good day. I even find with the NCT kids who we see all the time DS will be going "play with me" to some of them and they just go "no" and he has this look where I want to scoop him up and cuddle him and say it'll be ok. I do find that with some friends kids we have good and bad days with our kids playing nicely together or not so hopefully next time might be a good day. We go to a softplay session at the local gym every week and there are two older boys there (4ish) (who aren't nice boys) who DS insists on chasing around after and I try to encourage him away as he thinks they're being nice til one of them pushes /hits him and then his little face is so crestfallen I could cry. He never learns though.

DD is giggling away in her bouncy chair as I speak it's really sweet. I don't have much planned this week but good job really as I also don't have much money to spare this month - it's been an expensive month with loads of birthdays and outings (). I get stat mat pay which was swallowed up before I got to 1 April this month and next month we're on the £100 a week (or whatever the sum is)....will be asking DH for handouts shortly. I'm hoping to sit down with the laptop for a "finance" review when DD napping. I like to know where I am !

Right, off to get a shower and clean up my hovel of a house.

So, tomorrows meet, where abouts in the park are we meeting?
I've said on FB that my train comes in at 10:55, which will be wrong. Luke will be due a feed around 11, so will need to get there by then.

So much to catch up on here.

Sympathies to those of you with the pox, noisy neighbours, etc.

Have tried looking for baby cinema....will stick with it later today as like the idea of it.

Empathy to those of you with unsettled bubs. We've had two rubbish nights here and no sleep.

Had a great day yesterday, so kinda made up for it....well, a bit....will see how long the glow lasts.

Hope you are all looking forward to the short week - I only have 4 days before DH at home again. Bank hols a new concept after being in Scotland.

Ooh, DS awake.

He's been all over the place today and wanted to pop on and ask you experienced guys about giving the lil ones water...??

Sometimes he just won't settle, won't feed and the wind has come up. All the medication he has been given has sugar in it and my mum suggested water. Gave him a couple of teaspoons earlier and he seemed really happy and dropped off...... He didn't feed properly but the water seemed to make him content, even such a small amount.

Should I be doing this?

Other question (what would I do without you guys?) - breasts usually feel fine (am BF) and only feel them when 'let down' and when DH hugs me and then they seem really tender. Is that normal at this stage - the tenderness that is!?!

Are rock hard atm as he didn't feed well earlier, so glad he's awake now - hope he's starving. Must go. Hope you all have good days/sleep/peace/etc.

Thanks Herb and SMS. DS1 was asking where the 3 year old thug boy was today and asking for more playing with him, so it clearly hasnt had a long term effect on him. Though it may be that the bang he got on his head on the concrete paving slabs in our garden yesterday when the 3 year old pushed him over flat on his back because "he was in his way" made him forget most of yesterday

Pinktulips - how is operation potty training going? DS1 has sat on the potty 5 times so far this morning (now gone out to the library and park with his nanny and the potty) but not even a trickle to show for it - he's in training pants today (and for the rest of this week) (which he LOVES and spent 40 minutes running around the house in) to get used to the idea that when he wees he feels the wet in them before we move him into proper pants.

Beantin - sorry you're still having horrid nights but glad you had a good day. Baby cinema is great - I used to find that DS1 just ate and slept when we used to go to the baby cinema. There is one about 25 minutes walk from our house so may go with Danny when the easter holidays are over - think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've been to the cinema since I finished mat leave with DS1...

Beantin - re water: its a Gina Ford thing that she suggests you do to resettle a baby who is waking up and demanding a feed out of habit - they soon lose interest apparently and go back to sleep by themselves. Personally I wouldnt do it, especially this early on, as the feeds (especially if BF at night time when they are still having growth spurts) are pretty important to get your milk supply up to where it needs to be, but each to their own.

And yes, I suffer from tender boobs ocassionally (not all the time) and rock hard boobs in the morning when Danny goes for a long time between feeds.

I only gave him 2 teaspoons of water and he has fed well this time.

Glad he's fed better and bet your boobs are feeling glad too. I wasnt criticising in my earlier post (just re-read it and realised it may have sounded that way); just trying to say that its something that Gina Ford recommends doing so clearly plenty of people out there do give water to babies at this stage.

have her book, but stopped reading it after a couple of weeks - it's no use unless DS reads it too!!

Didn't read about water, but if she advocates giving a bottle of it, not sure that's good.

Where is everybody?? Final post for now, I promise - SMS, think the plan is to meet at the cafe (its off in the far right corner from the entrance)

Beantin I thought bf babies didn't need anything else at all for first 6 months as your milk will adjust, however if a tiny bit of water helps him, I can't see the harm, unless it affects the feeding. You do not want to replsace milk with water or let his belly get full on water so no room for milk iyswim, but like I said a tiny bit should be ok.
I'm giving Luke a few mouthfuls of water before each feed now but I'mm ff.