October 08 - Chit chat

[CantSleepWontSleep]

That's us with the chit chat, not the babies!

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz - Induction due to rhesus sensitivity, G&A.
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs - Just beat induction for PE!
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz - Fast and furious hospital birth.
22nd Sept (Due 10th Oct) - Lozza70 - Boy - Sander Gene - 7lbs 5oz - Em C-Sec due to raised BP and high ALTs from liver.
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz - 36hr labour, ventouse and stitches.
3rd Oct (Due 26th Sept) - purpleflower - Girl - Rebecca Jill Erzsebet - 8lbs 10.5oz - Homebirth with paramedics due to meconium.
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz -
5th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - hedgepig - Boy - Oliver - 6lbs 3oz -
5th Oct (Due 29th Sept Oct) - CherryChoc - Boy - Ryan - 6lbs 11oz - 3 day labour with natural birth in hospital
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz -
8th Oct (Due Oct) - RedElsie - Boy - Daniel - -
9th Oct (Due 17th) - Marthasmama - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz - 4 day induction with 1 hour established labour!
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz - Homebirth.
13th Oct (Due 15th Oct) - mum2jakeyroo/jrsqueak - Boy - Joshua - 7lbs 2oz - Delivered in car by dh!
16th Oct (Due 17th Oct) - rowanmac - Girl - Anna Ruth - 7lbs 2oz - 2 hours ARM to placenta delivery.
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz - Homebirth
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz -
17th Oct (Due 27th Oct) - Rhian82 - Boy - - - Episiotomy and ventouse.
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz - Home water birth with gas and air.
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz -
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz - hospital birth, epidural, stitches, 24hrs start to finish
28th Oct (Due 31st Oct) - Jojay - Boy - Edward Alexander - 7lbs 7oz - hospital birth - gas and air, 2nd degree tear. 7 hrs start to finish.
1st Nov (Due 22nd Oct) - SmudgeyDoodle - Girl - - 8lbs 2oz - Hospital water birth.
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz -
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz - Em C-Sec. Back to back and knotted cord around neck. 24 hours of labour first though, and don't you forget it!

la la la

ooh, no one's dusted this corner - JENWA where are you!

Just a quick post as I am doing 'stuff'..... Aubergenie - saw this and thought of S!

Hi all, sorry I've only had a chance to quickly read your posts. Having a shite day, went to work for a PTA meeting which I've carried on doing on mat leave. It started at 9 do ds and I were up at 6.30 getting fed and ready. Still didn't manage to leave the house until 8.15, if this was Sept I would have been very late so have no idea how to manage then. Will probably get up at 5am or maybe just not go to bed at all

After being there much longer than planned had to rush to see my friend who's in hosp recovering from an op and then to take Jack to clinic. He has put on half an oz in two weeks. Do you think that sounds right? Two weeks ago he'd put on 11oz, it sounds a bit fishy to me . We are blw so he's not eating much but he's still having his milk. Anyway am trying not to stress about it but it's not going very well.

We are off on hols on Sat with the inlaws. It's our first hol since ds came so am mega panicking. The house is a tip, there is packing everywhere, I have lists about lists, I'm scared that ds's ears will explode on the plane, that my MIL will drive me crazy by the time we get through security and spend the whole hol secretly spoon feeding ds. Aside from that I'm really looking forward to it.

Right rant over- sorry would let it all out to dh but he has ignored my 'having a shit day' text so guess he is busy. Am resisting the urge to ring and screech down the phone. So sorry to offload on you guys.

Off to do deep breathing and write another list....

Phew Rachie - have a LARGE glass of wine petal!! His ears won't xplode on the plane, take a dummy (if he takes one), teething toy or something similar (bottle if he takes one) and offer it to him on take-off and landing. The sucking/chewing will stop his ears popping or whatever they do. Babies wieght gain is much mich slower at this age so i wouldn't worry about a slow fortnight at this age. i think the HV get less anxious about weight once they are past 6 months and look pretty healthy and robust

CSWS - we have two raised beds about 12 foot square i think (haven't measured them) We ar putting in a third as you should rotate crops every year in 3 groups. Have you tried grwoing potatoes in bags? Put spuds in bottom of sack with 6 inches of soil.. Each time the leaves come through, add more soil to cover them and roll up the sack a bit. Once leaves get near the top, stop covering and leave until the leaves wilt. This means spuds are ready and you should have a sackful!! I think you might get away with trying this now - you are supposed to use seed potatoes but any spuds that have started sprouting in the cupboard will do. You can grow carrots in bags as well.

Myjob - well done on the rolling over...she was justtricking you after all. Joe has started leaning over to one side, putting his arms down and trying to get on all fours. his arms are not strong enough yet and he has nose dived onto the carpet loads today. He is nowhere near mastering the pincer grip like N, he just holds food in his palm and gums at it til bits fall in his mouth!!

Star - hope you get some more sleep. Joe has been up early each morning this week, so i have made a new balck out blind for his room today, lets hope it works.

Aubergenie - my socket covers are impossible to get off there is no way ds1 will be able to manage them if i can't!! I don't get it though, what if ds puts something in top hole and in the bottom one - surely this will electrocute him?? The ikea, mothercare covers looked useless though

Right bathtime

Rachie - what's your routine for getting out in the mornings? On days when I'm at work I get up at 7.30 (DS is either asleep or burbling to himself, if he cries then music normally settles him), have a shower and dress, and if I'm lucky grab some breakfast. Get all his stuff together for nursery, then feed him at 8, change him, dress him and get out of the house about 8.30. Touch wood, so far it's worked well. He has a snack at nursery at 9 which at the moment is enough, but when he needs a full breakfast I'll probably have to get up about half an hour earlier!

Had a rubbish day yesterday, nursery rang in the afternoon to say that DS had refused both his bottles, and that they thought the milk had smelt a bit funny. They gave him a yoghurt for dairy, and I popped in and fed him to make sure he was still getting enough milk. I was so worried about the expressed milk though - I'm constantly battling to have enough for the nursery, and this meant I missed an express, and wasn't sure about the milk in the fridge.

It seems to have worked out okay though, I threw away 50ml that I'd expressed last week so everything I had was from the last few days, and I've just about got enough. He had both bottles happily today, plus tonnes of solid food, so I'm a bit more relaxed now.

And DS is saying "Mum" and "Ma" more and more now! He has no idea what he's saying, and I think just says it all the time because it makes us so happy, but it's still lovely to hear!

Don't be scared of the country aubergenie! The only thing that I miss is being able to walk to places (shops, pubs, any kind of civilisation really!), but we are very remote (though only a 15 min drive from lots of towns). Do you speak forrin?

Lozza - lol lol at 40 winks during the day. Even if I didn't have dd to entertain, ds has only slept for a total of 45 mins today, so not a chance!

How did shopping go MM? Did you find something nice for ceremony?

Rant as much as you like star. Sometimes a bad night can seem worse if you're actually used to good ones.

rachie - 11.5oz in 4 weeks sounds good. Would suggest that you go to clinc a bit less often so that you can get the gains in a bit more perspective .

Am really quite amazed at how much space you all dedicate to veg growing! Pepper is much closer to the size that I had in mind. I suppose it would make sense to grow something that we like to eat. So I'll list veggies that we eat lots of, and you guys can tell me which will be the easiest for me to try first. I do think that it's likely to be next year before I get going though, unless there's something that I can plant in the autumn? So we eat potatoes, carrots, parsnips, baby corn, butternut squash (but wouldn't want hundreds of these!), broad beans (do like these fresh - are they an easy to grow veg?), beetroot, cucumbers (dd eats at least 2 a week by herself), aubergines, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower.

Poor ds obv still suffering, but pretty sure now that it is teeth causing the problem. He's woken twice tonight already, but I've given him nurofen now, and he has since stirred but not actually woken, so it seems to be helping.

Rachie, You sound like you've had a crappy day. Don't worry about the food. Your ds will be getting everything he needs from his milk and the food is just an extra at this stage. If it's any consolation several other people at our baby group were saying exactly the same as you today. Remember, every time you give him food, he's having the chance to explore it and practice and one day you'll suddenly notice that his nappies are different. Just keep giving him lots of opportunities to try. Ds is 7 months now and his nappies have only really changed in the last couple of days. Or are you worried about what your inlaws will say? My parents were here last week and I know my mum thinks ds should be having more food than he is because she thinks it'll help his sleep.

Loulou - I don't get it either. Somehow I still feel that leaving the sockets uncovered is also dangerous.

MM- I love that playsuit. Might have to get one!

Just dashing in...will catch up later, M is screaming the house down and DH is trying to calm her as I need a break.

I went shopping and Monsoon nearly pushed me over the edge as my boobs wouldn't fit in anything. Don't know why I was so surprised, nothing ever fits my boobs in there. I was sulking and DH suggested going to M&S for sushi and I thought I may as well look while I was there. And amazingly I found a white linen bias cut dress with black hoops on the bottom. I got a black cardigan to go with it. I tried it on at home and miracle of miracles I didn't look like a weeble looked ok!

DH has given up too now, looks like it's down to poor old mummy again ....

Oh, and my Rose and Rebellion carrier arrived today. I might send it back (if I can - haven't checked terms). I don't actually need the waist extender, but I think that my boobs are too big for the back carry to work, as the strap that comes round the side just doesn't work with them. Ds cried whilst he was in it, in both the front and back position . Will try again tomorrow.

Argh no CSWS! I am probably going to have the same problem with the boobs too. I have requested to hire the Babyhawk and the Rose and Rebellion from NCT. I'll let you know how I get on with the Babyhawk when I get it. M loves the Bjorn but it nearly crippled me on a ten minute walk around the park today. M is only about 17lbs.

Oh Bloody hell, M is awake AGAIN! She is teething but she was hot and red cheeked before bed so I gave her some Nurofen before her feed.......

Thanks everyone- after my last post ds spent the rest of the day moaning and crying so I had a good cry on the phone to my Mum too (what a happy house we are) and am now feeling a lot better. She decided that I should learn how to say 'no' to people and chill out more, probably right. Dh home from work now too and off to get take away as I've had no time to get dinner.

CSWS- think you are totally right about the weight over 4 weeks, I don't know why I didn't look at it like that. My rational brain goes out the window when it comes to Jack.

And thanks Loulou about the plane and Aubergenie about the other blw mums saying similar. Ds and I actually shared a kiwi fruit at tea time and he loved it.

CSWS- we have a veggie patch too, we started last year. We grew runner beans really easily, not sure about broad ones though. This year we've planted lettuce, carrots, onions so far. I've got a potato sack that someone (sorry forgot who ) mentioned but I haven't done it yet. My Grandad gave me a weblink for a Gardeners World offer at Thompson and Morgan. I just paid £3.99 for postage and got the sack, spuds and free seeds for other veg too. I've had a look and the potatoes seem to have gone but they are doing free tomatoes at the moment here

i have onions, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, spring onions, lettuce, beetroot, radishes, sweetcorn, tomatoes mangetout, peas, french beans, lots of herbs, strawberries blackcurrants, raspberries, redcurrants, grapes and rhubarb in so far this year. but i have a small feild to plant up!

we go to a toddler group on thursdays and i think i have outed myself as a nutter. they were talking about sterilisers and i told them that i don't, they all looked at me like i was a mad woman even when i told them that scbu don't sterilise. i then mentioned that alex has never been to baby clinic and they were ready to section me!
so i went the whole hog and told them that i co-sleep, blw, babywear and bf! it was very funny, i am a hippy!

Myjob - I can't find it on the website hope I didn't hallucinate it! This is the naughty dress that made me miserable.

Rachie - You can always rely on CSWS to put things into perspective! I only get M weighed every four weeks as I think that's a better measure of her weight gain. DS hadn't put any weight on since his 5th birthday and has recently put on about 4 pounds! He tried on his suit from last year (we had three weddings to go to) and last year he couldn't do the jacket up round his little tum. This year the sleeves were about 4 inches too short and the jacket was far too big round his tummy! I think the growth goes in fits and starts, ds still has growth spurts even now and he eats soooooo much when he does!

Star - I agree with CSWS. A bad night when you're used to a bad night isn't as bad as a bad night when you're used to sleeping. I can now survive on 4 hours a night because we consistently have bad nights. Before M was born if I didn't get 8/10 hours I was evil!

Aubergenie - That playsuit was made for S!

Rhian - M has moved on to te te te te te recently. She makes loads of sounds which is good as she still can't sit very well, so at least she's good at something. It's lovely when they start chatting.

Loulou - sounds like J is getting there. I think I remember ds doing that before he started crawling. I never bothered with socket covers with ds and probably won't with M. I had a playpen which folded out so I cut off half the room and there were no sockets to worry about in the half he had access to. As he got older we just moved him away from them when he went near them. I am a slacker mummy though! We had no safety things at all, except a gate at the bottom of the stairs.

M only has eyes for DH at the moment and it's making me feel a bit sad. Not hugely but considering I am the only one who gives her food and I play with her loads it seems a little unfair! She cries when DH leaves the room even if I am holding her! She cranes her neck trying to peer round the door to see him.

Heather - you freeeeeeeeeek! DO they not sterilise in SCBU? That's interesting. I don't sterilise either, they need some germs for their immune system. It does seem ridiculous to continue sterilising once they are on the move. M always manages to grab something to shove in her mouth while she's on her rolling expeditions.

i wouldn't mind but most of them were second time mums so their babies arn't even pfbs!

Thanks Myjob and MM!

MM ds loves his dad too. I spend all day dancing, singing, entertaining and of course feeding, bathing, etc and get lots of smiles. Dh comes in, makes one silly noise or face and gets hysterical squeals and giggles. I do the same noise, get the smile, no giggles. He's also making da da sounds which I tell myself are just sounds but twice now he has made them as a reaction to dh entering the room. Typical.

I'm sorry it's making you sad though. For me it's a real double edged sword, I'm always wanting dh to do more but then get annoyed when he does and J has so much fun! Over Christmas he had 2 weeks off which I couldn't wait for and then within a few days he was doing everything with J and doing it very well so I got annoyed as I was feeling redundant! Poor bloke can't win I bet the same will happen on holiday. Can I still blame this crazy outlook on hormones nearly 7 months in?

Monsoon dress is lovely, but horizontal stripes are so not a good idea when you're not feeling great about your body!

Myjob - It would be ok if she wanted DH in the night but no, only in the day when she's being adorable and fun. Cheeky girl! DS was a mummy's boy, however they both love their granny.....

Heather - I feel so much more clued up second time round. I care about the things that do matter, like not leaving M to cry herself to sleep, not topping up (to get her to sleep like I was told to with ds) and not worrying about the other things like sterilising. So in some ways I am more PFB with M than I ever was with ds!

Speaking of sterilizing in a round about way, I read in the BLW book last night that after 6 months babies can have tap water instead of cooled boiled. I hadn't realised, do any of you do this? Ds only really has water when eating and very little at that.

CSWS - Actually, they recently discovered that horizontal stripes are more slimming than vertical as they blur the edges of your body so you shape is less defined. Here is an article about it. Not sure what the tiny bottom with the minuscule pants is supposed to prove!

CSWS - broad beans are really really easy to grow, they're fast and you get loads off them so I'd definitely go for those. I'm only not growing them this year as I wanted to give the French beans a go.
I'm still sterilising and shall continue to use cooled boiled water for a while - but I have a spare kettle just for DD anyway as we FF so it's just as easy for me. Can't remember who used the phrase PLB? But that's what DD is, so I expect I'll "baby" her more than the others (but she's such a scrummy baby who can blame me!)

i give alex tap water, we have a built in water filter on our sink so we all drink that.