October 08 - More chit chat!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

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 6th Oct) - Bethoo - Girl - Maia - 7lbs -
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 -
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 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!

Would also say all normal Rachie.

Just thought I'd mention that I'm still sleep deprived, in case MM and Aubergenie thought that I'd deserted them on that front. Have been up 3 or 4 times per night the last couple of nights, with the day starting at 5:20 yesterday and 5:45 today. Ds has already woken (though not been fed) tonight.

CSWS - Ah bugger. You were giving me hope! I don't understand what is going on with M. During the day I can put her down awake, she settles herself, then sometimes she wakes up, has a little play then goes back to sleep. But at night she just won't let me put her down in her cot! It's so odd.

Loulou - Bites a terribly annoying aren't they? I get an allergic reaction to them and swell up. Bloody things. Glad Joe's have gone though.

Rachie - M is far more clingy than ds ever was. He settled into nursery very easily. He was used to being handed round lots of people when he was young so wasn't phased about being away from me. He got clingy later with me, when he was about 18 months. M is very clingy and I'm not allowed to leave her sight. Ah, I never do things the right way round!

Well we've just given ds some nurofen, as he woke again, and he can't possibly be hungry after a big tea and a big milk feed less than 3 hours ago. Maybe his teeth are rumbling again . Better go to bed soon just in case.

mm I used to get my day and night mixed up as a baby so had some sedatives to send me to sleep at night and get me back into ta normal routine!! Is M scared of the dark maybe??

loulou eek for the bitesm how horrible and uncomfortable.

bethoo agree with others, either go to drs and push for appt or put doppler down, but I know it is far easier said then done

lol re myjobs sone tidying up, DH said I have given DD an obsession as she keeps telling him to keep her room tidy

P not clingy, loves any attention from anyone but thats sescond baby syndrome I think!

Can I ask you all a quick question please? If your baby is eating proper food well during the day, how much have they cut down on milk feeds? I am convinced that M hasn't cut down at all! She has four or five milk feeds in the day and three times in the night. These are all big feeds, not snacks. I have been listening to make sure she's not just suckling for comfort and I can hear her guzzling milk. She is also having what would appear to be quiet a lot of food during the day (we are BLWing now as even if we wanted to give her purées she would refuse to let us). I am starting to wonder if we are ever going to convince her that she isn't hungry at night.

rachie I think Nursery in Sept will actaully help as he will be getting used to other people and the fact that you have to leave him at times. He may be upset when you drop him but will have lots going on there to keep him occupied and also the mix of other babies and children.

csws hope D has a better night and you get to sleep in til the morning!

Jenwa - She is scared of the dark, but we have a small light on all night (which we bloody hate!) because she wakes instantly if we switch the light out and screams the house down in a panic. Sedatives sounds good....! Do you know what age? She is sleepier at night for certain she just seems to have more trouble settling herself.

Milk feeds really vary here, depending on what we're doing. He takes more when we're at home with not much going on, but when we are out and about his feeds are often nothing more than a few sucks, as he's too distracted by stuff going on around him. But he gets offered a minimum of 3 feeds a day, up to around 6 I guess. Plus 2 or 3 at night normally.

Might she like the background noise during the daytime mm? Have you tried a white noise CD at night? Or is she too hot/cold? Dd used to wake if her room dropped to 20 degrees or below, despite her being in a 2.5 tog sleeping bag and a sleepsuit underneath.

I was maybe younger then M to be honest but it worked. I doubt they prescibe them now!She seems to be a hungry monster though! P has 1 weetabix for brekkie then has been having about 5oz of milk but not been interested last few days, goes back to bed 9-10 ish for 1 -2 hours then has lunch at 12-1 ish and then a bottle between 2:30-3:30 of about 7oz then tea 5 ish and a bottle for bed. She has hardly had any milk today though but that may be the hot weather. How much is M eating? Does she feed herself well? I am thinking she does as you have said how well she can do it.

M makes it abundantly clear when she wants milk.

CSWS - I did wonder if she was getting cold, but during the day she seems to hate being hot, just like her brother. Last night I think she was either cold or had tummy ache. She kept drawing her knees up which could either be pain or cold. I doubt it's background noise as M is a light sleeper and it would be quiet in the room during the day.

Jenwa - She is eating really well now and ate loads of stirfry for dinner, banana, strawberry and rice cakes for breakfast and pasta for lunch. Maybe she isn't eating a huge amount, but it does seem to have increased dramatically over the past month, but her milk feeds haven't changed.

MM - could it maybe just be a growth spurt and when its over she'll cut down on milk? Or is she more active so though her solid intake has increased she still wants the milk as well?

CSWS - can I ask a question, as milk feeds decrease how do you make sure that D has enough calcium etc in his diet? With dd I didn't worry so much as she had fromage frais & cheese etc as well as milk on cereal, but with ds I'm nervous about him cutting down milk feeds too much, too early.

So, having put on 11 oz a couple of weeks ago, ds has now not put on any weight over the last two weeks. Even though I can't see anything that would be stopping him from doing so. Honestly, what a boy, he is still 15lb 10oz. He is moving around now, and even managed to move forwards this evening, albeit only briefly before he started going backwards again. It can't really be called crawling as he sort of hoiks himself up on hands and knees and then goes flump back down on his nose . Its very amusing!

I hope M and D have better nights tonight, I've missed out on loads of messages, but I can't do a myjob and remember several pages worth, I can barely even remember to the top of this page . I must go to bed now though, I'm starting to fall asleep at the keyboard....

well, Q is back to waking up and wanting to crawl in bed with me again... maybe it's 1 week on 1 week off... who knows. He's taking more milk now, not sure why. He's getting loads of food.
Back in the sleep deprived club as I saw each hour on the clock last night (reminded me of Aubergenie's post a couple nights ago)
I'm just going to roll with it. See what he does next I guess. Maybe he's growing. He fed THREE TIMES (from both sides each time) between 4pm-8pm last night and had sweet potato and fruit with fromage frais for evening meal, a big lunch, 125ml of expressed milk (yay! ). at 1pm, breakfast of oatabix and fruit. No idea why he's so hungry. Am I over feeding??
He will eat a whole rachel's organic baby yogurt that myjob mentioned. I tried to give half but he banged on his tray and cried when it was over. I gave himt eh whole pot. even worse, my friend gave him TWO of those pots in one sitting the other day. I got a bit upset about so much yogurt at once as he usually has plum organic fromage frais and smaller pots.

Do you all jsut feed your babies what they want or do you limit their intake? God, i feel like a stupid overeating non portion size controlling american!
I thought babies were supposed to eat as much as they want/need?

Star - I feed M as much as she wants. Breast fed babies are supposed to be good at controlling their own intake. I don't know how this translates to babies that have mainly expressed breast milk though. I am sure CSWS will have an idea. Unless you're force feeding him, which I know you're not, then I am sure he's eating as much as he needs. The only thing to watch is to make sure he is getting a balanced diet, he sounds like he is getting a lot of yoghurt/fromage frais. Are you giving him lots of carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables too? You're raising him vegetarian aren't you? They only need a little bit of protein (as adults we tend to overestimate how much protein we need in a day and most people eat far more than they need) but will need lots of carbohydrates for energy.

Rachie i think that becasue your lo is your first you are always with him so he is clingy, Hayden was the same and i was just as bad as i carried him everywhere (lot more lax with Maia!!) so when he does start spending time with others it will be easier. Hayden is only 2 and even the the girls at the creche say he is so independant! he would rather not hold hands which is a nightmare as he is a dawdler and am convinced he will becoem a botanist since he spends his whole time pointing at flowers shouting ''wower, wower''!

i solved the night feeds last month by putting her in her own cot in another room since we co slept and now once she hits the bed she is quiet and she now sleeps (dont want to tempt fate here!) from about 9pm to 630-700 since i get up then anyway finally i have my nights back!! makingthe most of it before no3!!!

Joe is not having a much milk as i would like - bf in morning, small snack in the afternoon and big feed at bedtime. Didn't have much this morning though.

Star - Joe has the same size breakfast as Q, lunch the same plus a yoghurt (whole pot), milk pm but has more carbs/protein for tea, plus a yoghurt or fruit and then bf in evening. I would say that he's eating about right in terms of yoghurt portion size but i'm not sure i'm a good judge as Joe is big greedy guts ...i always up the dairy intake if he's not had much bm though

MM - veggies tend to eat too little low fat protein and too much carbs as adults i think - me in particular!!

Rachie - you might want to try J in nursery a bit earlier than sept as separation anxiety becomes much worse around 12 months of age. My sil pur her ds1 in nursery at 12 months and it was absolute hell for a few months. Mine have both start very gradually from 8 months and so far, touch wood, Joe has been fine... I would suggest only a few hours though, unless you are going back to work soon, like me . Good idea with getting family to hold him and taking him to play dates etc. Leaving the room for short spells and returning before he gets upset and then increasing will al help too but he will grow out of it i think.

Off to get Joe up - snack time

Did someone call me?
Benefits of appetite control are lost by bottle feeding I'm afraid, regardless of what's in the bottle, though the partial bf will poss mean that he retains some benefit.

I would happily feed a baby as much as it wanted, as long as the food was a fruit or a vegetable, but not a processed item such as yoghurt (regardless of whether sweetened with sugar or only fruit juice).
I would definitely increase the quantity of vegetables being offered, and slightly reduce the amount of fruit if necessary to compensate.

Ekka - As ds is still taking tonnes of milk in the night I'm not really worried about his calcium intake. But I do also make sauces/give cereals/pancakes with rice or oat milk which has added calcium. And I offer an occasional soya yoghurt (not an option for you I know). Sesame seeds and dried figs and some oily fish (eg sardines) are great for calcium though, so you could offer those if you are worried about M's levels. Sesame seeds are lovely sprinkled on sweet potato and butternut squash with a bit of honey and baked (no honey under 1 of course, but could do with maple syrup instead).

csws and MM - he does not drink mainly expressed breastmilk. He won't usually take a bottle anymore. He drank 125ml of expressed milk yesterday and it was a miracle as he usually flat our refuses it. He feeds from me in the morning twice, I go and feed him at lunchtime from work and then I feed him at 3.45pm and again before bed. He's mainly breastfed. Not bottle fed. Not saying there is anything wrong with bottle feeding, but Q is not. So he should have apetite control. I just want to know if he's eating too much or if I need to control it myself.

sorry
that sounded mean. I just wanted to make sure you knew that was not the case because I work very hard to make sure he is breastfed

I will increase amount of vegetables as you mentioned csws.

MM I give Q lentils, beans, quinoa, couscous for protein at the moment. oh, and some egg. He gets some wholewheat bread as well. Lots of fruit and veg.

loulou - good to know that someone else has a big breakfast . Q definitely eats more than I do for breakfast. He's a little piglet.

Star - No worries, didn't sound mean. I thought that as you were working you were mainly giving expressed milk. The was a thinking not a judgemental one. You are doing an amazing job with breast feeding and should get a medal for your efforts! In that case, I would let him eat as much as he wants but maybe ask your friend to only give him one yoghurt and try something else if he still seems hungry.

Loulou- Yes that's true. Meat eating adults eat too much protein. When I was a veggie I had almost no protein, it was even worse when I was vegan. That only lasted a couple of months though.

Morning ladies, I've missed all your chatting as we've had dp's parents to stay, on their way back from France. It was lovely to see them and they absolutely adore S, but it's nice to have the place back, set S off to sleep and sit down on my own for a few minutes.

CSWS - Sorry you're still having sleep problems. How disappointing - I really thought you'd cracked it.

MM- I think M and S have been in cahoots, as we've got exactly the same thing. No problems putting him down in the cot for his nap (however short), or at bedtime but when he wakes at night it can be a real struggle to get him to sleep there. It's really odd isn't it. We've got a night light, so it's not the dark, and I don't think it's a noise/quiet thing either.

KSal - That book would work for a daughter too. It's all about "my dad" and only shows a non-gender specific child in the very last picture. It's really sweet.

This has taken me ages to write as I went off in the middle to do S's nap-extending thing and ended up falling asleep, waiting for him to stir. He managed an hour and 10 minutes.

Q does same aubergenie and MM - cot for naps and putting to bed at night but then if he wakes in the night and doesn't resettle in the cot, he wants outand wont' go back in to sleep. nightlight or no nightlight. Tried both. ANd some nights when he's on a good sleep spree, he'll sleep all night in there... I don't get it. I don't think there is rhyme or reason anymore. He just does what he wants