December 2008 Coven - white light and basket cases

[EffiePerine]

Seeing as LadyT broke the thread...

well it seems that P does not like swimming. After 10 minutes of crying and looking at me as though I were trying to torture her I gave up and went home.

P has been odd today - wanting to feed every 1-2 hours again and dropping asleep lots and being grizzly when she's awake . not sure what that's about but she's gone down to bed ok so we'll see how the night goes...

jj - really sorry for your crap night and day. Really hope you get some good chunks of sleep tonight.

I made P her EBM ice pop and she was decidedly less impressed with it than I was! She pulled the face that I do when I find a stray olive in my food but did suck on it a bit. She basically just got a bit slimey. Oh well!

I'm all full of chocolate sponge and chocolate custard Off for a bath soon and hopefully some sleep...

nighty night girls xxx

Have to be quick as DH has come back from a night away and I think I might be expected to spend the evening with him .

trace Hurray for 4 hourly feeds!!!

daisy Poor you having to go through yet another smear.

zoe I chuckled at your comment about not having to prove networking with mums to our bosses. Your old boss sounds super scary, collecting business cards, oh it makes me shudder.

Happy birthday kayz! Hope you are having a lovely time.

Must dash will catch up properly tomorrow, toodles.

Hi folks, just got back from 2 days at my mum's which was nice but a bit stressful - we have a slightly antagonistic relationship at the best of times but I really want her to have a good relationship with T. She just has many vocal opinions about every little aspect of his care and it can get a little wearing after 48 hours! However, I know we are lucky to have her and that she wants to help out, I must learn to be a bit more chilled with her.
We went to the docs when we got back this arvo as T's squits have gone on for 3 weeks now, plus he now has v bad cold and cough. Was a bit of a waste of time, they just said didn't know what it was and as he was "not thin" and having wet nappies I should wait until our appt with the nutritionist at the hospital in the middle of may to see if it's dietary related. Well, he's on Nutramigen which I thought was pretty gentle on the tummy and also he's in a lot of pain when he poos so waiting until midmay seems a bit unfair. He's also really suffering from his coughing and keeps waking himself up and crying in pain , they said nowt could be done but have prescribed some saline drops for his nose. I just feel v frustrated that there's nothing that can be done for his discomfort.
Sorry you've had a bad day Trace and that swimming was disappointing, maybe P will respond better if you dare try another time! Hope the feedings settle down overnight.
Happy Birthday, Kayz!
Sorry for not more personals, am absolutely shattered and have loads of housework to do. Crossing fingers for lots of decent nights.

spot glad you had an ok time at your mums, though poor little T . Is there no way they can speed the apt up? Like you said, seems unfair to make him wait.

jj & daisy I feel for you with disturbed nights, ds1 the night before last & ds2 last night, any bets on which one it is tonight who wakes up?!

ladyt dh is running for his hockey club. I think we're going to go to Temple & hopefully see him run past.

trace sorry P didn't enjoy her swimming, maybe in time she will like it.

Ds1 had his first swimming lesson today without me or dh in the pool, seemed to go well though I had to spend about 30mins beforehand persuading him that it would be fun!

Anyway, just caught up with the Apprentice, definitely seems to be more predictable this series! Off to bed now, hopefully will get a solid chunk before one of them wakes up!

right, she's in bed and quiet so we're taking this as a good start. Time for tea and perhaps heading to bed myself at about 9 - am already in pj's

kayz - hope you've had a lovely sunshiney birthday and are being spoilt rotten and DH had a good first day at work v amused about the crumpet, delicious as they are!

daisy sorry about the repeated smear situation. Hopefully the gynae will be a bit more experienced and have better luck.

jam/tilly sorry to hear you had dodgy nights as well. Sounds like there is some kind of thing going round all of our nippers Is it some kind of growth spurt or developmental thing maybe?

jam Be fair and proud I love a beautiful rosy-cheeked Scottish type (hence marrying DH ) much nicer than a leathery looking sunbed addict.

sun hats - H&M have some very sweet ones with ties as well.

lal can I just say that video has totally cheered me up you absolute star! Hooray for Mr Lal and his new job, that's fab especially in this Tricky Economic Climate[tm]

visualising a trillion pounds. Wah. I still get excited when I'm rich enough to get a £20 note out of the cashpoint. Reminds me of a great GWBush joke - he was told that the US army had made a real blunder on exercises in South America and had killed a Brazilian soldier. Looked really worried and said "Gee that's terrible" then whispered to an aide "How many in a Brazillion?"

sybil you stripling, DH was doing his O grades in 1984!

LadyT glad to hear you weren't abused by turnip-hurling yokels. Where DH used to work there are lots of 'carrot millionaires' ie people who made their fortune exploiting the rich East Angularn soil to grow carrots, every year at Christmas the docs would be given a 50kg sack of carrots each from grateful patients. And they didn't trust banks (fair enough you may think at the moment...) and kept their cash under the mattress.

PD lovely to see you

SL thanks for the gap voucher, more cute baby kit coming up - are you braving the NCT sale on Sunday? If not, do you want to put in an order and I'll sharpen my elbows on your behalf.

nolda - fret not, lots of sensible advice here. 75th centile is still a good healthy lad! Definitely wise to hold off solids if there are allergies. Re bottles, no advice I'm afraid, we found the breastflow was the only one that worked. Hope you had a lovely pub lunch

veggie about your egg. Nothing more depressing than chopping the top off, soldier at the ready, and it's all hard. Hope it wasn't a total dead loss.

spot blimey poor t, that's a long time to be squitty. Hope you get some good news with the nutritionist.

trace sorry to hear P's had a bit of a step back. V amused about the EBM ice lolly, one to promote to Ben and Jerry maybe?

WG hello again! About the contorting, dd certainly does arch her back lots if she's tired or fretful, and it doesn't seem to do her any harm. If Tuppence can do it in her sleep without waking up, it can't be too uncomfortable.

Does anyone else feel they're on a kind of emotional rollercoaster with this baby thing? Despite hardly getting any sleep and having v sore nips from all the hard work they're doing, I'm still feeling pretty chipper this evening, but come 3am (or whenever...) am bound to be a stroppy moo again. Is it to do with circadian rhythms or some such? Or does the world just feel grimmer than grim in the middle of the night?

jump you did so much better with your post than I did with mine, you've reminded me of loads of stuff

Don't know about 3am, I always feel worse first thing in the morning! Though I wonder if feeling grumpy at 3am is just because you know pretty much everyone else is asleep apart from you?!

tilly - I only had spare time cos DH was making tea! First thing in the morning dd is usually smiley and cheery so am willing to forgive her (nearly) anything. Middle of the night she's usually a grumpy moo as well - wonder where she gets that from

Hi everyone,
jj sorry about your crappy night, it sounds absolutely horrendous! I do like spring/summer dawn time though if I am ever out to see it, out at 5am walking as it got light would have been a nice peaceful time if you hadn't been so knackered!
Don't think I am going to NCT sale, we have my friends staying for the earlier part of the weekend, so I suspect Sunday may be spent doing what DH wants, which is unlikely to be scrumming at an NCT sale. I don't think there is anything I want at the moment anyway...oh apart from a Mei Tai carrier, but DH has forbidden me from getting one of them as we already have 2 slings (but i may well disregard his opinion anyway)

spot can you kick up a fuss to try and get T's appointment moved forward. That really does sound too long to wait to me. It's not good for your mental health either regardless of poor T.

tilly good luck to your DH!

My SIL is due to have a baby any day now!! I am so excited. However, apparently her latest appointment the midwife has "estimated" the babies size at 10lbs! As far as I know she has not had a scan (not actually spoken to her yet). Surely this is just guesswork and bullshitting...I am sure she will be absolutely terrified (she is tiny, 7 stone when not pregnant, so 10lbs would be quite impressive)?

nolda The bottles we are talking about are called Playtex Nurser bottles. The come with drop-in liners that you can throw away after each use. I think you can get them here, but they are difficult to find. Some chemists carry them. You can get a starter pack with different types of nipples. Check out this page

I use the Premium Easy Feed ones. The other cool thing about these is that most breast storage bags will fit the bottle too.

If you want, I have a small 4oz one you could try out if you want... I can post it to you.

Veggie it was me who lived in Australia, in a place called Canungra, Queensland. We then moved to Catterick in Yorkshire (bit of a shocker after Aus!) then to Dorset and then Dad did a 2 year posting with the UN in Cyprus which was fanbloodytastic. Then he inherited the farm in Herefordshire so here we remain, apart from a year in Zim and 12 years in London!

LadyT...so there I was, alone and horseless facing a black mamba less than 2 feet away when along came a ruddily handsome zimbo who whipped me up onto his horse and carried me off into the sunset...actually, I screamed like a baby, turned and fled. Luckily the stables were only a short sprint away.

SL, IMO Dr's and MW's haven't got a clue how big babies are. If you remember, both of mine were 11lb plus and noone picked up on it the first time round and it was only obvious the 2nd time because I kept having sizing scans due to the diabetes. In fact with DD the MW told me that the sizing scans must be wrong and she was sure that baby was no more than 9lbs. How wrong was she?!?!

Feeling much better today, although still have a gland the size of a golf ball. Really looking forward to a quiet w/e, and am feeling really pleased with myself as have finished writing a pr proposal for a pitch I have to do next week. It was a bit of a struggle trying to be creative after so long, but luckily they didn't want anything too whacky.

Night x

Trace I love the milky ice pop idea, maybe P doesn?t appreciate genius yet?

WG my DD also lies like that, again when she?s awake or asleep. I agree that it seems to be when she?s trying to roll onto her side and she seems quite happy like that, so let sleeping babies lie, I say. Oh, and E?s never been swaddled

Nolda if you are concerned about DS?s weight, why don?t you lay off your diet for a week, to see if that affects it all? I have no idea whether it will or not, but if it does then you can happily hold off weaning for while longer. BTW, round here HV?s are obsessed with waiting til 6 months to wean and my mummy friends are having to be clandestine about it if they choose start early, but it seems to be the opposite elsewhere ? maybe we should all just swap houses and live where the HV?s give the advice we want to hear?

Lal congratulations to your DH, how soon does he start? And Kayz, how was your DH?s work today? And your birthday day out too?

PD thanks for the freeview box tip

LadyT hurrah for the successful trip to the HV. Maybe there?s a rota and nice ladies go one week and nasty ones another week?

JJ so sorry to hear about your DD?s sleep (or lack of), I do hope tonight is better for you and her

Spot mid May is a very long time to wait, considering poor T has been poorly for 3 weeks already. Could you ask for an earlier appointment at all? What a poor, sad little boy

SL I?m not a MW, so don?t have a clue if this is right or wrong ? but both a friend and I were told we had average size babies ? her DD was 9.14 and mine was 6.7, so that suggests that without a scan they don?t have much of a clue. And wasn?t Kayz? DS2 a bit of a shock? Sending small baby vibes to your future niece/nephew

We went swimming again today and I dunked DD for the first time ? I was really scared to do it, so another Mum did it first to show me and DD was so good and barely batted an eyelid. Oh, and she squealed and squawked the whole time, which echoed round the pool and

Right, off to finish packing as we?re going up to Scotland for our niece?s 2nd birthday party, hopefully it will be fun. LadyT enjoy your weekend away (indulge in some wine and cheese for me, when in France ? )

Just packing...DD is asleep after having been pretty much awake since 6am

Anyway, just hoping you all get a decent night's sleep, esp Jump and Spot and little S and T xxx

Oh I have been trying to catch up but still so far to go and need to sleep so will post a bit now and catch up
later.

JJ I know what you mean about feeling better during the day on little sleep, though I think in my case the strong coffee i have each morning helps.

Lady that big faced baby comment cracked me up, but at least some were able to be nice this time. Did you take 'that handbag'?

Spot you've mentioned your mum before. I think mine is similar. Because these days I see her in large chunks but not very often I've taken a chilled stance with her. I just work really hard to not let her get a rise out of me. It's a good exercise in control of ones emotions.

Trace give it a few months a P might be into the swimming another time. Did L like it at first? I'm still giggling about the EBM ice lolly, I think it's a good idea but I hope you told your DH what they are. Imagine on a hot day he has a look in the freezer for something to cool him down and...

I finally found something which I know DS2 will giggle at. Up til now he giggles at random things and if I repeat he doesn't giggle again. Not sure why but today I said 'okey kokey pig inna pokey' while lifting him up in the air and he giggled himself stupid over and over again. He even did that cute squeal that babies do.

Daisy, that is a long time to wait. I'm also not sure what the dietitian is looking at, it's not like they have several different things that could be causing the Ds. There is only one thing that could cause it if it's dietary related so why not just suggest something different now. Do they think it might be an intolerence, could they not prescribe something like a lactose free formula. Having said that very bad Ds do take a while to settle as the bowel gets irritated and it kind of needs time to settle down. Poor thing though his bottom must be quite sore. The GP could have prescribed some metanium at least, though you can get it over the counter.

I'm sure there was more to say but will catch up better tomorrow.

morning all, another 2hr waking night for ds2, its always from 3am as well. And ds1 has been up since 6am [yawn]

Hope everyone else had a good night

That should've been from 1am!

Morning

Tilly - sorry to hear you had a bad night. DD2 reverted to 3 wakes having been at 1 all week. She is also an early waker so is up for the day between 5.30 & 6.30. Yawn.

JJ - how was your night??? Better I hope. I felt so sorry for you yesterday.

Zoe - glad you had fun swimming. I love the little echoing shrieks they make in the water.

Kayz - belated happy returns for yesterday. I hope it was a good one.

LadyT - wow at your incredible sleeping baby being so awake yesterday. Is she coming to France? I hope you have a fab time, and yes, we must do cinema thing soon.

Spot - poor T. Could you call the nutritionist direct and explain his symptoms are worsening?

Lal - congrats to your man at work. Are you getting a nanny for when you are both back? Our nanny gave notice yesterday and I am gutted for DD1 who adores her and myself as I rather relied on her... Thanks for asking about my work dinner. It was v nice of them and we had a lively meal but gosh it was a challenge having to talk shop for 4 hours!

Right, must go pack. We are off to our honeymoon hotel in the Cotswolds for our anniversary this weekend. DD1 is running around my bed chanting "we are going to Italy, we are going to Italy". In her mindvall holidays involve Italy as she can only remember our last trip which was to Sicily. I hope Gloucestershire lives up to her expectations.

Morning all, sorry for the rough night tilly - but only a matter of days now til you can hand the boys over to DH and grab yourself a damn good nap

A quick question - does anyone know if babies can get hayfever? DD was rubbing her eyes lots last night and is again this morning, even though its not that long since she woke up. And its that frantic rubbing I do when my Mum is about to come along and tell me to stop cause its making it worse. We spend an hour yesterday laid on a blanket on the grass, so I wonder if she's reacted to the grass pollen?

arti enjoy italy

Couple of days away from here and a lifetime to catch up!!
Sybil The direct train for meeting up sounds fab!! Thanks I will def be there (if it's not during our holiday!)
Daisy sorry to hear about more smear drama - must be so annoying
Lady I look like show jumper? should I be happy about that? dh would have to be dragged to ride, and I've mentioned Hyde park several times, just keeps saying no - he's quite scared! Weekend in france sounds fun - you are always going away guess i'm doing ok as this will be our second trip coming up. 3 miles walking is pretty good I thought?? I usually do that - or even only 2 - it's good isn't it?? [hopeful emoticon]
Veggie which bank? you must mean Australia's leading bank? the Commonwealth Bank? large muslins I bought from here Big Muzz I haven't got them yet - hoping today after my swaddling nightmare last night - see below.. Bugger about your soft boiled egg!!
Katie glad feel a bit better
JJ My linea thingy still here, bugger as I have to don a bikini in about 10 days however I think my muffin top is more of a concern, however going slowly. Sorry you had an awful night, hope last night was better
Tilly Richmond pool looks great - will look into after our holiday - glad you had a nice time!
WG Don't really know about the head position however funny you should say about stopping swaddling - I had a bit of a fright when dh put B down at 7 and he was unhappy about it - we had been putting him on our bed as he was upset about the cot before his last feed for some reason which was a bit of a mistake I think. he was swaddled, and I guess is getting able to roll now and subsequently his cry sounded a bit muffled and he rolled over and couldn't get upright due to no arms - dh had pushed duvet away, but he had still rolled into it. I was so upset as we could hear him crying but dh wanted to leave him for a bit - I spied on him when I realized what he'd done. i tore strips off dh for not checking on him - and said what if I hadn't been home and his cry stopped for the wrong reasons - was so upset last night and decided to not swaddle him over night as perhaps it was time... Into his grobag and he kicked a little and wimpered then off to sleep.... But no... 0230am awake crying, 0400, 0430, 0530, then finally 0600.... suffice to say we will be continuing to swaddle at night - in the cot only I think, between his "wheel chocks" but only in the cot or somewhere he can't roll
Spot poor T, I hope you can resolve things faster
Trace good luck at the sex appt!

morning all, well all I can say is 2.30am seems so much less hideous when you've had a couple of hours kip before it back to the waking every couple of hours after then, but blimey it was so much better than the week's been so far.

We're off out since all of us feel a bit more human today (dh on leave) so will catch up later, smiles to everyone

pmk the sex appointment is next Fri - I have a whole 7 days to work myself into a stew about it! I thought of you this morning because I passed a car with the registration PMK!

Had a hilarious conversation with dd1 this morning:
L - I had a funny dream last night.
me - did you? what was it about?
L- we were playing hide and seek in our house then the bell went - like at school
me - that's funny.
L - did you like playing hide and seek?
me - what do you mean?
L - well you were in my dream playing with me. Did you enjoy it?
me - well I didn't have the dream. You did.
L - was daddy in the dream?
me - I don't know. It was your dream - was he in it?
L - well I didn't see him. Did you? because you were there

dh and I were cracking up! I guess she doesn't get the concept of dreams being restricted the the dreamer yet!

No-one has cried in my house yet today. woo hoo!

the headache is still there but duller than it was. Thank you for asking (can't remember who asked me )

tilly sorry for your bad night.

After my day of frantic feeding P actually slept fine. She woke for feeds at 11 and 2.30 then woke at 6 but settled with the dummy till 7. And at her 11pm feed she had done a mahoosive green nappy. yak. She does have an endless stream of green gunk coming from her right eye though today so I wonder if that was causing her misery yesterday?

oh well
better get on with the day. My only plan for the day is to meet my friend and her 12 week old perfect sleeping through gina ford baby for lunch and a stroll round the shops...

(cleaning the bathroom and attacking the jungle have been pushed down the list...there's always tomorrow!)

hurray JJ for a better night! Have a lovely day

Good morning all,

ladyt have a lovely break

spot Poor little T Can they not get you a referral any sooner. So awful watching him suffer like that.

arti have a good time away in Italy

pmk & tilly sorry to hear about your rough nights.

Well DS awake every 2 hours again. BUt I don't feel too bad, he is probably only up for about 15 mins. I have tried a dummy but he screams so I feed him, he starts feeding frantically like he's been statved and then he falls asleep

I am going to resist weaning for a few more weeks and see if its a growth spurt/development spurt. Even my MIL said yesterday to wait if I wanted to as he was clearly thriving on my milk. I think she must have had too many of her meds as she has been making noises about weaning since he was about 12 weeks!!!

Right off for a coffee, already cleaned up and done the ironing. I need a boost before I clean the bathroom.

trace thats so funny bless her!

jj hooray for some sleep!

Hey PMK, sorry you had such a shocker of a night. On the swaddling, when we first got T out of his he kept waking in a similar pattern to yours, but it settle down after 2 nights and now I think he really needs to be out of it as he uses his fingers to suck on for comfort or to rub his gums. So just if you ever have enough energy to try swaddle cold turkey again - it won't last forever, but helps if you do it on a weekend so DH can share the shifts...
Glad your night was better, JJ, have a lovely day today.
Arti, have a lovely babymoon, hope both your DCs have a lovely time in sicily gloucestershire.
Tilly, sorry about your night , hope you get some rest today.
Veggie, LOL at your Okey dokey comment, T always giggles if I do a noise that sounds like ghalalilililili. Making the first sylabble v guttural, almost arabic sounding. He is currently chuntering to himself on the mat in his Liverpool kit baby gro, stil coughing like mad but I think raising his cot matress and putting the humidifier in his room overnight helped him sleep a little.
Have a lovely weekend, LadyT - and to everyone else.
Oh, and Veg, T had a normal poo this morning - hurrah! (Am directing this comment to you as you seem v wise about baby squits ).

Oh and Daisy, that is good news on holding off on the weaning, you clearly have Grade A milk as your MIL can vouch for .
Am impressed with your domestic goddessery...