May 09 - Six months on. Sleepless nights, hen nights and a sexybuilder.

[HeadlessLadyH]

Over here!!!!

Thanks for all your good wishes for tonight. Have painted my nails and hair straightners at the ready
We have been really lucky with our NCT group - all lovely people.

Spangle - LOL at poo discussions
Oh and I do like your logic re my DH

Momi - think I'll buy some sweet potato for O to try. Carrot and broccoli don't seem to be great. He did seem keen to try my scone the other day and my bread roll I had at lunch time. I'm going to try him on sticks of toast with a little Philadelphia in a minute.
Btw, thank goodness for your HR manager!

Headless - yay for commission!

Febes - hope you're feeling better.

Belgian - your DH's job does sound exciting!

Dandy - O gives a good grumpy face too - when faced with carrot normally!

Right off to try toast and Philly

Dh is a marine pilot. A statement which I usually follow by the sentence: "No, he doesn't fly planes" (the clue being marine). But he does get to wear a nice uniform . Which he refuses to wear at home. He just doesn't understand the effect of men in uniform on women

spangle at your poo story. Glad it was DH that found it.

ladyH Glad that you had a good party and that you got to buy the things you want.

Oops, will carry on later. Dd1 has got a friend over to play and I think their fish fingers are ready. Only healthy fare here

DH is nearly home!

He's phoned from our local Sainsburys before he headed off to fill the hire car with petrol.

ses Hope you're having a good party tonight.

fi Yay at DH coming home. Hope you're going to have a cosy night together.

Mine has just left again for 6 days. TBH even when he's home he seems to be away, because he's either at work or sleeping. Last night I was actually happy that he went so I could have the telly and computer for myself. I get like that when he's away a lot. I get used to being on my own IYKWIM.

Fi, that's lovely you being so excited! sadly I haven't felt that kind of excitement or 'flutters' as someone (grumpy?) put it earlier for a long time . it's nothing i'm worried about as I love DH and he's so wonderful, I just have 'lost that lovin' feeling' (i actually hate that song). I'm hoping it's just a having young children thing and things (eg relations) will get better as we relax and children get older.

belgian, does your DH's going away help with romance may i ask?

on another note, i've got to scan MN for my SIL (BIL's wife) who's 10 days into motherhood and having a terrible time BF (very sore, cracked nipples) she's given a few bottles of formula and feeling so guilty about it, bless her. she now feels like she's jeopardised her milk supply. i've told her about fenugreek and also told her the most important thing is for her to be happy and relaxed. she's been using nipple shields and her HV has told her not to use them. HV also scolded her for using bottles at night, said she should always BF at night (no idea why?).

Anyway, I'd better digress as I could babble on and on and on and on and on and on....

Hi All,
Just a quick post before heading off to bed as I'm tired today. Went into town to try to find a top to wear to a wedding party next fri. With no luck whatsoever. Everything has shoulderpads or is really highnecked which makes me look huge - I need v or scoop necks. A decided that shopping was far too interesting so didn't nap . Cue one fed up mum and one vvv overtired A.

Soooooo, I need some suggestions as to where I can look for a nice, spanglyish top to wear with black trousers... Fi queen of online shopping, any ideas? anyone? anyone?

pula glad to hear about improved sleep

Spangle at houdini poo!

Fi hope you are now having a nice snuggle with DH

tum hope your DH has stopped being annoying

Belgian am impressed as we never got around to new address cards - relied on our parents to tell family and emailed friends not v organised in this house.

ses hope you have a fab night tonight, sounds good.

big wave to everyone else Have a good weekend

I've been away for toooo long. Didn't realise how much I had to catch up on. How is everyone? Bit miserable weather isn't it.

Welcome back all the dh's! Mine's gone out boozing this evening but I left him under no illusion that given he is out tomorrow afternoon and most of Sunday, then he is in charge tomorrow morning regardless of hangover. Time will tell.

Weaning stories very interesting. I've mainly been doing purees but also giving B various bits to hold / mash in his hands. Despite shoving every toy that is passed to him into his mouth, he merely looks quizically at food placed in his hand, and instead prefers me shoving food in.

Am struggling with him taking water. I am on cup number 3 but think I am going to stick with the traditional sippy cup and try to force some down. Any success stories to share? Sadly I had to take B to the docs earlier in the week as he had blood in his poo (yes, I do inspect them), and since day one he's always had dodgy poos. Anyway, he has anal fissures poor lad (could make a comment here about like mother like son, but I will refrain) caused by quite firm poos.

Talking of poo, Spangle pmsl about sausage on the playmat.

Sleep still good here and managed to drop the dreamfeed, so I get 6pm - 6.30am sleep. To counteract my smugness, dd (approaching 3) has been a bit unsettled this week at night. When chatting about what's upsetting her, she says 'I just want to be with you mummy'. Bless.
Llare, Dandy et al, hope your nights are improving.

Am now struggling to remember what everyone was saying. Wecome back MrsS and looking forward to seeing the photos.

Belgian ah the coming of age hair cutting! And at your ds. How has he taken removal of nintendo priviledges?

ReeB welcome to your new gaff. Hope you are settling in nicely.

Well the not sexybuilders are finally doing some work and our loft room has been gutted. It will be interesting to see if the plastic sheeting covering the roof will adequately keep out the bad weather.

momi x post. I feel the same at the moment. Am hoping the hormones have something to do with the lack of urges tbh.

You could also get your SIL to ring the NCT bf helpline or la leche league. Or put a post for her in the bf section? Am so sorry she is having such a tough time, I totally undestand where she is coming from.

Re bf at night, I have read that the body produces more milk when it is dark at night, can't remember where I read it tho. It might have been on the Kellymom website which I found to be a godsend during those horrible early days when I spent many a night reading through articles on there whilst sitting up feeding A.

Oh and please tell her not to feel bad re the odd bit of formula (perhaps telling her that many of us have done it would help), the important thing is that her and the baby are healthy. If bf is causing her stress, it won't do her or the lo any good.

And another xpost.

momi for your sis. Her HV shouldn't have scolded her. That's not supportive, nor is it very professional, especially as most BF mums feel guilty enough as it is for giving a bottle. The reason why she said to BF at night is because hormone levels are higher at night and will make the body to produce more milk. They say that 1 nightime feed counts as 2 daytime feeds.

DH being away used to improve the romance in our relationship, but I think it's too regular and for too short a period to have any effect nowadays + after 10 years we sort of got used to it, IYKWIM.

running I thought I was being unorganised. From our friends we tend to get them before they even move!

thanks belgian/running for the BF info. I've given her the NCT BF helpline and also pointed her to mumsnet. told her to find teh BF threads to see that she's not alone or to even post a question. Bless her, she's feeling so badly .

anyone know why breast shells (or shields?) are frowned upon? SIL said that baby was feeding well with the shields but HV said not to use them. running, I don't know the kellymom website but will have a look.

Hi Momi / Running x-posts.

Momi I have big sympathies for your sil. With my dd I had a dreadful time bf. I did it for 6 weeks with very cracked nipples and every time I sought help (seeing 5 different health professional and bf specialists) everybody told me there was nothing wrong with my positioning and I was doing everything right. I cried at every single feed, then at 6 weeks I had enough and cracked open the formula. I did mixed feeding for another 7 weeks, still crying at each feed as bf with painful nipples was so excrutiating, and the guilt with the ff was overwhelming.
The pain of sore nipples for me was much much worse than labour, and the guilt from ff was terrible. It really was a no win situation.
What helped for me was those people supporting me in my decisions, and reassuring me, and that is exactly what you are doing for your sil . I used nipple shields and if I hadn't I would have given up bf much sooner. You will find some great advice on MN.

reggiee, good to see you btw. at the poo talk. glad B is doing well and sleeping brilliantly, lucky you. I know the feeling about dd waking - my dd1 (almost 4) still wakes up nearly every night sometimes a few times a night.

momi Nipple shields are frowned upon because they interfere with the skin (mouth) to skin contact that bf needs. However IMO it's a great tool to let injured nipples heal while continuing to BF until the latch is sorted. If it's that or stopping then the choice is easy. One thing I was thinking about, appart from making sure baby is latched on well, she could ask someone to check for tongue tie. It's something that's often overlooked. MN is great for advice, the NCT helpline, the LLL or the association of breastfeeding mothers is good too. Any one of those can get her in touch with a lactation consultant I think. Also the Kellymom website that running mentioned is good for advice too. HTH.

I keep getting nosebleeds today. Maybe I need to get my bp checked?

Just forgot to add that nipple shields are meant to be for short term use. How about those silver nipplettes or whatever they were called, they apparently were great for nipple healing. Oh and don't forget the miracle cream called Lansinoh. That was brilliant I thought. I know Fi used them, but she's probably not going to be here tonight, because her DH must be home now.

Momi Sorry your SIL is having a hard time of it. I hope she gets the help she needs. MN is such a great resource.

We aren't on our night out as I still feel a bit sick and DH is working a long day tomorrow. We don't go out often so we want to make it a good one so will make it next Friday night I think.

I'm off to bed. Sleep well.

thanks belgian, I'll pass it on.

hope your nosebleeds subside, have you had them in the past? i use to get them when really dry inside the house.

Evening all!

momi - sorry to hear about your SIL's problems. I hope she can find a solution that she is happy with soon.

Was all set to do a fab namecheck but A has just woken up. DH has gone to her but I suspect I boobs will be required soon.

Sorry to get back to poo again, but our day went downhill, 3 pairs of dirty knickers. Those who have potty trained toddlers, how long does this phase take? She's brilliant at weeing on the toilet.

flippin Dd1 used to hold her poo until she got to take a bath when she was potty training. In the end she got herself constipated and I had to go to the drs with her. Then she did one (it fell onto the floor spangle's H's stylee) and was fine after. I think it took her about 3-4 weeks to master the pooing. I always thought it was really strange, because weeing she got cracked in days and poos are easier to hold etc... Hope she'll get it cracked soon.

momi I used to get nosebleeds a lot when I was a little girl. Then I had one a few weeks ago and today 2 in a day after lightly touching my nose. I wonder why? It's definitely not dry in this house.

DH managed to get A to settle again!

Thanks Belgian, I'm sure DD1 will get it eventually - it's just a little bit frustrating (for me) because she got weeing cracked so quickly. I know we're very early into it all.

I'm off to bed now. I get very nervous when the weather is like it is now (very wet and very windy) as we live in an old house and our roof is a bit iffy. Fingers crossed we'll all still be covered in the morning!

Good sleeps all!

Crossing my fingers for you flippin I worry about my rattly sash windows in this kind of weather.

Goodnight everyone. I'm off to bed too. I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.

Morning all. Hope everyone got decent sleeps and Flippin's roof is still there

G slept through last night !!! , so here's hoping it's now the norm.

I am feeling a bit today because I have been moaning and moaning about work being crap keeping in touch with me, haven't agreed my 4 day working week, friends not responding to emails etc. It turns out that my email provider has been sifting these emails into a spam box so I haven't seen them . To be fair, work still haven't sorted out my 4 day working week, but my boss has tried to keep me in the loop with what is going on. I have even been moaning to HR about lack of contact . So now I have to arrange a KIT on Thursday of next week, and am getting anxious about it. I'm bloody terrified. I know no-one, and my job is likely to change (again) to something quite technical, when I have no experience at all of the content I am going to work with. Eeeek.

Sorry, it's a mememememe post.

Have a lovely day everyone

Tummum It is really embarrassing when that happens, isn't it. I've had a similar thing once. I've now got into the habbit of checking my spam box every few days.

OK night here. Actually, very good night TBH. After her dream feed C slept through until 5.30 . That's what she used to do, but hasn'd done ever since the clocks changed. Then it took me a little while to get back to sleep as it's so close to the morning, so went back to sleep after 6 somewhere. Then at 7.30 DS burst into my room all excited that he's had a good night's sleep and a lie in I told him that 7.30 is not a lie in!

It's still horrible weather here. The nintendo DS is still confiscated (until well into this afternoon), so there's a little bit more activity here than usual. The plan is to decorate some jars for the school's christmas fair today.

I just want to share my fairly interesting breast pump experience today. I have a Tommee tippee one and I just don't seem to be able to get off as much as I used to with dd1 using an Avent one. I also felt that I still felt quite full after I'd finished. I never got more than 3-4oz. So I got myself an Avent one and this morning expressed and straightaway I could feel it was much much better. I started off getting something off before I had letdown, something that never happened with the TT one. When I finished I had 6oz of EBM! And I felt properly empty. So goes to show that if you're not very successfull, it might be the pump.

morning! yes still fluttery after 11yrs but not all the time

had a lovely evening last night.. just catching up & watching telly dh was shattered after the long drive in horrendous weather.. I was v relieved he made it home in one piece.

on phone atm so hard to do links.. running it is hard to find sparkly tops this year.. lots of chiffon and frills atm. have some ideas and will post them from the laptop later.. btw did you want sleeves? or strappy.. black or colour? long or waist length?

spangle lol!!! at the poo

belgian men in uniform YUM

momi i didn't get round to buying the silver nipple things in the end just used the thin medela latex ones and lansinoh until the crack healed. G didn't seem to be able to feed as easily when I used the shields.. harder work for her I think.. she settled easier and quicker after a non shield feed. but without them i'd not have been able.. too painful. i also mix fed until about 6wks and suddenly it clicked for us

hiya to everyone else

absolutely horrid weather here too.. our sash windows are rattling too. how's your place flippin?