May 2009 - we're all here! btw, does anyone know what the Hungry Cry sounds like?

[Momino]

phew! how many threads have we done since last aug?

Evening all,

Thanks for all the kind thoughts. I just keep saying in my head "my dad's got skin cancer" but it doesn't seem real, and I think until i know more about the severity of it, it's hard to get my head round it.

Anyway, it was DS1s 2nd birthday today, so we had a little party. Knackered now though.

For those who have sold maternity clothes on ebay, do you list them under baby - maternity or women's clothing - maternity. I put them under the latter but there seem to be a lot of clothes under the bay section too, and my items don't seem to be getting many "watches" or bids, so wondered whether i should change the listing?

Evening everyone. Thanks for your kind words re: my rant. All is much better now I have a G&T in hand, DDs are in bed and DH apologised for being a w-ker!

Pula v. to hear of your news. Take care of yourself . Also saw the piccies of S's bday on FB and loved the cake & your choice of dining rm table chairs (snap !).

FiK hope you have a better night with G tonight.

It's DD1's 5th birthday today and I can't quite believe I have a 5 year old!! All sorted for party tomorrow apart from wrapping the pass-the-parcel and hoovering the lounge. I suspect I might need another large G&T tomorrow night also!

pula i don't know which section would be best.. i've not got round to listing my maternity clothes yet. don't worry about the watchers or bids.. most activity happens over week ends and very often nothing happens till the last hr or 2 when your listings come into the ending soon pages.

tummum glad g&t is hitting the spot and your dh apologized. good luck with the party tomorrow.. hope you get a bit more rest tonight to give you the energy you'll need!

tummum- so many people seem to have those ikea chairs! I think we've had them over 10 years but still going strong (probably because we don't have many meals at the dining table ).

Glad your DH apologised - when my DH gets home from work, a couple of times i've just passed S to him straightaway and he's made some little comments (especially if i pick up my laptop or watch TV or something) but basically i've spent all day holding, feeding or trying to settle him, and i just want some "me" time briefly before the next feed etc. DH has offered to look after S for a couple of hours tomorrow so maybe he'll get a taste of what its like. It was nice at DS1s party that there were other people wanting to hold S (and they gave a bottle too) so it was very liberating

blotted M has an umbilical hernia (I've put a pic of it on my profile) we've got an appointment with paeds at the Hospital on 5th Aug to check it out but its unlikely they'll do anything to it because they don't operate until 3yrs old at Hereford unless they have to because of the risks involved in gen anasthetic.

went to CAB they told me what I already know I have two choices 1. carry on as is and get £100 or less/more if he's got it each week 2. start writing letters and if nothing changes take legal action i.e. court but the guy at cab said if he hasn't got the money no court in the land can get it for me. As my boss still owes R £26,000 (awarded for unfair dismissal) and P £8,000 (£6,000 redundancy and £2,000 awarded in court for loss of earnings) I guess I'd go to the back of they queue just wish he'd go bankrupt.
I've got a feeling that my boss won't be too happy when I let hime know that I only want to work 3 days a week when I return - I think he'll refuse in an effort to get rid of me

Anyway enough about that....

Trying to get M into a routine tonight and fingers crossed so far its working.
Fed at 5.45pm then bath, massage in darkened room, then carried her upstairs to darkened bedroom and BF till she nodded off and put her in moses basket at 6.30pm. She was a bit unsettled but took herself off to sleep and has been there ever since
I expect she'll wake soon for a feed.Then fingers crossed she'll sleep till her normal time of 5am.

Have I got the only baby who still feeds every 3 or 4 hours in the night, with no nice long sleep bit? It feels like it . M sounds great looby if she doesn't normally wake you til 5am. I was really really happy with S last night as he woke at nearly 5 rather than 2 or 3, but then he woke at 11.30 for a feed and didn't fall back asleep til after 12.30 so it was still only 4 or so hours sleep for me (better than usual though).

pula I'm probably tempting fate by saying this but M tends to feed at 10pm or midnight and then at 5am trouble is tho I think this might be why I feel I havn't got enough milk that bf counsellor at the group I go to told me that night time stimulation makes more milk. When she wakes at 5 she's starving I have to get her to the boob quick or she gets very wound up and I wake up with really rock hard boobs.

I know I should really get up earlier and express but its too comfortable in bed.

pula - nope, not just you! Although we've had three 5-hour stretches in the last 6 weeks, so maybe there is hope?!

tummum pleased to hear you got an apology, have you got an IOU from him for time off too? G&T sounds good, reckon you'll need a lot more tomorrow night! Hope the party goes smoothly.

looby - your routine sounds lovely, fingers crossed for a calm peaceful night.

We've got calm her now, but it was chaos earlier. The house is really hot (all windows and doors still open for a breeze, both girls have been grumpy and DD1 really played up at bedtime (it was that damn nap this afternoon, gah!) and A has been frantic with wind, poor thing. The pig thing continues - shockingly bad wind for one so small!

fi - A is really snuffly and snotty too. We've got a nasal aspirator (snot extractor!) which has been useful. It's not the one you have to suck (bleurgh!) but it's got a squeezy bulb.

oh I think I hear M stirring time for me to go up to bed I think

Fingers crossed for a peaceful night for us all with our Lo's.

looby- i'm sure any stimulation makes more milk. If you are waking full then you are obviously making plenty. Try not to worry too much, as you are only giving the occassional top-up. I used to give my DD one formula feed every evening, and then the occassional one in the day and i fed her for 8 months, and only stopped as i'd had enough of her fussy BF and basically expressed for every feed, and gradually my milk did diminish as i gradually reduced my expressing sessions.

pula g usually cluster feeds on and off from 5pm till 9pm then has been falling asleep sometimes till 4ish then feeding again at 6 & 8am. last night we were back to cluster till 9pm then up at 1am, 4 & 7am. tonight it's been different again cluster from 5pm till 8 and g has been asleep ever since.. who knows when she'll want her next feed?!

snap flippin i have the same type.. great for removing the snot but g hates it as much as ds did. must be a v strange sensation for them?

I thought i'd share my routine with you all, as I'm sat here with nothing to do!

7-8am - S wakes up, has a feed, we have a nice chat, then have a rush around to get showered, breakfast etc before he starts to get grisly

8.30-9.30 - S gets put in sling 1.5 hours after waking and has a short nap whilst i potter round the house picking up dirty pots, washing etc

10-10.30am - S wakes and has another feed

11am-4pm - this is where the routine falls apart, depending what we're doing and how tired he is. I usually try to get S to nap again around noon, but to varying success. He will usually have another feed around 1 or 2 and usually falls asleep after and sleeps on me on the sofa.

4-5pm - S wakes from his nap, another feed, sit in his bouncy chair etc, gets taken up for a bath and then feed and bed, hopefully by 7pm but often more like 8....

11-11.30 - S wakes for a feed, and is getting difficult to get back in his moses basket so i usually give in

2-3am - S wakes for another feed

5-6am - S wakes for another feed (or two or three)

pula we're a bit all over the place feed wise for most of the day! it's normal for me to be throwing lunch together for ds & I with g in my bjorn carrier. then me eating my salad while bf feeding g and trying not to drop food on her!

hiya. J's jabs went fine and he assed his check with flying colours

The doctors put me on antidepressats too, so that should help me and the way i've been feeling...

J's routine is...

Between 6am-7am wakes for feed and goes back down again.

9am-10am feed

1pm-2pm feed

4pm-5pm feed

8pm-10pm last feed

fi, we're a bit all over the place as well.
Jael, glad jabs ok and hope ADs help a bit.

our routine in general:
4/5am feed
7/8am feed
10/11am feed
2/3pm feed
5/7pm feed

but she's flexible and sometimes fits in an extra feed at 11pm (not tonight!)
have been watching glastonbury and then falling asleep but now awake enough to post. hope all are well tonight.

morning.. hope everyone had not too bad a night. we were back to feeds every 3-4hrs must be g's cold.

dh is off fishing this am.. he crept out at 6.30 this am. g & I were still asleep from the 4.30am feed and fortunately ds too. so we're on out own for the 1st time in 5wks! luckily ds woke just after 7 and i had time to do his breakfast before g woke at 7.30 for her feed. currently ds is playing with his lego on our bedroom floor while watching channel 5 & g is still feeding between snuffles, sneezes and coughing poor girl. so not too bad a start so far..

sorry typo that should have been 'on our own'

morning all...

Well routine didn't go exactly to plan...after bath, massage,bf Mwent upstairs into moses basket at 6.30pm.Thought she'd wake at 10pm but she woke for a feed at 2.40am-3.30am (8hrs later) then again at 6.30am

looby That was a great sleep M had! Do you think 6.30 is maybe a bit early to put her to bed?

routines I honestly think that up until a baby is at least 8 weeks old you there's not real pattern in their sleeps and feeds. I don't keep track with C, because every day is different, but one thing I have noticed is that her feeds are spreading out, rather than being 2hourly, she now often does 3-3.5 hours. Occasionally she has 2 or 3 days where she wakes more or less at the same time. Both ds and dd1 didn't adopt a consistent pattern until they were 8 weeks, so I'm not even trying to establish a routine with C before then. I also don't really want to put her to bed upstair either because I love having her downstairs with me in the evenings and cuddling her while watching telly. It feels that once I give her a bedtime she'll stop being my newborn , IYSWIM.

For the 1st time ever C has had 2 long sleeps, rather than 1 5h sleep and then 2 hourly feeds. Thing is, she's still fast asleep. She fed 4-ish and then had a little snack at 7.30. I'm wondering when she'll wake up next. She normally doesn't sleep this long!

I'm wondering whether I've got the strangest chickens in the world. They love sitting o the top step of to decking and every night I've got to pick them up from there and put them in their eglu to go to bed. Yesterday as it was tipping it down I thought they'd go into the dry henhouse by themselves, but no, they sat there sleeping in the rain We have to put them in the eglu every night because we've got foxes around here and our previous chickens got eaten last year after we had them for only 2 months .

Oh also meant to say to looby. I wouldn't worry too much about M not feeding a lot in the night. Your body produces as much as she feeds. There are lots of mums whose babies sleep through the night without it affecting their milk supply I really think you're doing brilliantly with the bf. You're so determined and haven't given up where so many other mums would have. And now you're down to only a few top ups, rather than whole feeds!

Ah, C's stiring. Finally. I did some expressing, so I think I'll give her part of her feed with a bottle again. As usual I only had 1.5 oz, but as long as she gets some practice sucking from a bottle. That's the important bit.

loobs I have been meaning to say (and belgerino just said it) that I think you're doing amazingly, continuing to bf when most people would have given in . You're marvellous.

Love the wet, lazy hens!

morning all.
Belgian, re: your comment on newborn - i'm so sad that it does feel like, now that Harper is smiling and more alert, the newborn stage is over .

Fi, hope G's cold/snuffles get better.

Our friends are visiting with their 1yr old from Scotland so looking forward to meeting their Thalia - have no idea how to pronounce her name as there are so many different ways, but I guess we'll find out today!

Hope you're all ok and will check back on everyone later.

Yep Looby you're doing a great job with the bf. 3 of my NCT friends are now completely FFing and none of them has had as many challenges as you.

Routines H sort of has one but just when I get used to it he changes! Recently an average day has been

3.30am feed, back down in moses basket with some thrashing about
6am - 7am feed, wide awake, so gets cuddled/propped up by me/DH taking turns.
8 - 8.30am another feed
8.30-9.30 nap
10.00 feed
10-12 wide awake and chirpy
12-2 feed/grizzle/nap
afternoons - can vary between being wide awake and napping, but usually just a short nap
5.30 - 7.00 feed & grizzle
7.00 - 9.30/10.00 - cluster feed, bath, feed, grizzle, conks out for the night

Just recently he's started being really quite grizzly and overtired in the evenings so I'm thinking a bath/feed/bed routine earlier in the evening may be in order. Apparently the SIDS advice is to keep them with you until 6m or so, but I think putting him in his own room in the evenings might help him get to sleep better, as when he's with us he keeps waking up and getting distracted.

looby I think you're doing fabby with the bf.. I'm still doing the odd formula top up too. most days it's just once.. occasionally twice and yesterday for the first time in ages none! i did try the fenugreek capsules but didn't notice a difference.. not engorged even with max dose for 5days

at your rain soaked hens.