NOV 09 - once the lights are out and the last baby has arrived safe and fine, see you here on cloud nine!

[Broodzilla]

I've just realized we're now under the "being a parent" header. I've got stage freight!

Urisgurke you didn't, and you are right I do need to stop dwelling and enjoy my little boy.

Hi all

I had no idea the night sweats were a post pregnancy thing! I've been fiddling with the bedding/heating etc. trying to work out why it keeps happening. Well, hopefully it won't last too much longer as it's uncomfortable waking for the 2am feed cold and soggy!

Health visitor came today and did a hearing test. She was 45 mins late! Unfortunately we were meant to be meeting DH in town for lunch as he's back to work tomorrow, we just about made it but it was all a bit of a rush. Sigh. NHS strikes again!

Realised today that Ioan seems to manage to go from around 10:30 until about 2 during the day without feeding. Why can't this be the same at night?! He's also taken to filling his nappy at the 2am feed although the up side is that then once I've changed him he's woken up enough to eat more. Silver lining I guess. Have to say I've never seen so many filled nappies from a newborn, let's hope it settles down at some point!

Oh, and even though I was in the hospital from 6am and he was born at 5:20pm, my labour was marked down as being about 3 hours! I think they take it from when you're 4cm but their times and my reality are very different!

BBL they count anything past 4cms dilated as 'established' labour and that is what they count from to get your labour time, anything before 4 is counted as latent labour and therefore considered not proper labour. so even though i was contracting and major pain for the best part of 36 hours, on my notes is written as having a labour of 3.5 hours, as thats when they checked me and found me to be 6 cms dilated after they sent me home without checking me and then having to come back in cos i couldnt take the pain any more.

sorry, x-posted with scarlotti I must be a v slow typer!!

Toby is just lying in his moses basket, wide awake, looking around, not crying or anything (I'd gone in to check whether he was asleep or not). That is so strange! I thought new borns were supposed to get really cranky if they were awake for longer than about an hour at a time or something. He's totally content though, chilling with the cat on the bed near his basket with the light on and the sounds of the house and children around him.

about how long labour officially lasted: when I came into hospital at 9pm or shortly after, I was 3cm dilated and Paula was born at 00.16 but officially I was in labour for 5.16 hours. So I really don't know were they took those other two hours.
scarlotti, you should meet Paula, I am sure she is the baby that produces the most dirty nappies in the world!!! And we are even saving a couple as she sometimes does another poo during nappy changing.
And today she even pooed on one of my friends... she was only wearing a vest over the nappy and lying on my friends lap who was very impressed by the pooing movements and sounds. And when we decided she had finished and I took her to change her, there was a little bit of poo on the skirt . Luckily this friend was a bit more relaxed than the one from yesterday.
BBL, Paula spends already hours wide awake, sometimes content, sometimes crying. but i really think she doesn't get enough sleep.

Congrats new mums!!

Okay, I am seriously annoyed as everybody and their cousin seems to invite themselves over. And some bring their horrible snappy dogs, which they have expressively asked before to not do. I have trouble enough tolerating my own dog, far less the overweight neurotic disorder of dh's friend.

Also am seriously considering changing dd's name from esme to ella. What's the paperwork I wonder? Nobody knows how to say it (worst: dh can't say it properly, which didn't know before) or if it's a boy or girl. Am fed up already, so what will dd be?

Hi all! Sorry not been back on for ages and sorry I haven't had a chance to catch up on all the post. Just read a couple of the newest ones, and have to totally agree with the amount of poo these newborns can produce!!! Leah yesterday did the MOST explosvie nappy you have ever seen! Now, in fairness, I think I might have to take responsibility with the curry I made and ate the night before, but not only had it gone everywhere, but she continued to poo twice while I was changing it, and then filled the new nappy that I put on too! She must have had horrible tummy ache before doing it all! She also seems to fill her nappy at the middle of the night (usually between 2 - 3am) feed! IT's so much fun changing a dirty nappy in the semi dark!! Thank goodness lasts nights one was okish and not like the one during the day!

I'm loving being a mum of two. Its going really well (touchwood I don't jinx things now!) and dd1 loves her baby sister. Yesterday she told me she wanted me to have 1000 babies!! I just casually suggested that two was enough Leah is quite a contented baby which is great. I remember this time with dd1 was so stressful and hard! She wouldn't sleep much either at night or during the day and I was exhausted. Leah on the other hand, feeds and sleeps well. I am breastfeeding during the day and bottle feeding at night which is going really well as she will sleep for 4 hours between bottles at night, rather than wanting to be fed every hour when I breastfeeding her at night too. Settling into a routine well and the spd is slowly getting better so I'm able to do more! Seeing midwife today and will be discharged. Will have her check my stiches as they are still sore. Really hope all is normal as I don't want to have to go through anymore 'trauma' down there!!

I hope everyone is doing well and all the little babies are well.

well, it seems as some of us are convinced that her child is the best pooer of all. I had actually read that breastfed babies sometimes don't do a poo for several days! Obviously Paula has not read the same book.
Comma, sorry to hear about your visitors! And that you want to change Esmes name! Normaly I would say don't change it if it's the one you have chosen. But then if your husband doesn't know how to pronounce it...

Morning all! Just saying hello before having a bath while Toby has his first of many sleeps during the day. So far he's like DS2 who slept really well. DS1 was a NIGHTMARE baby who just would not settle at all in the daytime (he was ok at night). DS2 barely surfaced for 3 months from sleep! So far Toby is doing well. I will have to get him to fit around the school runs next week though...it will be an operation of military precision. DH is already planning strategies ('you can get dressed at 7.30am, get the DSs dressed after that, wake Toby at 8.00am, feed him, bung him in the pushchair, get everyone's shoes and coats on...etc'). Hmmm. Works ok if Toby wants to fit in with the pattern but babies aren't predictable!

comma What is the problem with your DH pronouncing Esme? Is it something he will get used to in time? I think it's a beautiful name and I was always jealous of classmates with unusual names, being one of 13 claire's in my year at high school! It's also an obvious girl's name to me so I wouldn't worry too much about people not knowing if Esme is a boy or girl. Difficult decision though, I don't envy you.

If Esme is already registered I'd imagine there's no timescale for you to change it now so take your time to make a decision.

For what it is worth: I love the name Esme too.

comma I think Esme is a lovely name. For what it's worth, I had to teach DH to pronounce Ioan as it's a Welsh name and he is Scottish so doesn't naturally pronounce the name in the same way. We've had to repeat it several times to the il's too but it's worth it I think. I love his name and it was the one I wanted all through the pregnancy - he will have to tell people how to spell it most of his life I suspect, but then I had to do that and my name is Charlotte! I've had cards sent to Shalot before!!

southern I have been toying with the idea of doing a formula bottle at night. He tends to wake around 1 or 2am and I'd quite like a 4 hours stretch following that one. Do you make up the bottle before you go to bed? Has your milk supply settled in around the missed feeds?

I seem to survive sleep wise by being able to stay in bed until 9am. Dh is in the spare room so he gets a full night's sleep and pops in to shower at 7ish. I'm normally feeding again but can tell that I'd be knackered if I got up then.
Right, off to shower before haircut at 11. Only 40 mins to get out of the door - ha ha, what on earth am I thinking!

Oh those night poops. Esme goes easily through 4 diapers before I can take her off the changing table. Last night she pooped in my bed and threw up on me big time. She also will not sleep unless she is basically lying on my belly. Which means I can't sleep bc of SIDS-worry (and bc I cannot move...)

Does anybody else have nightmares? I keep dreaming that bad things happen to dd1...guilt! Will get better soon. DD1 is more obviously jelaous now when I pick up screaming baby, but at the same time there is less hitting and pouting, and lots of kissis and cuddles for baby which is v cute.

DH says Esmie, rather than Esmee.
when I pointed it out he got really really mad, so I am keeping my peace on it but I feel bad everytime we say the name differently. I asked him whether we should change it yesterday, but he just laughed. Apparently he got some pos feedback, while I only ever get the blank stare which gets old after a while.

I thought it was pronounced es-may, no? I would've been pronouncing it incorrectly as well! Oops!

It's good that he has had some positive feedback. I remember you were worried about the reaction to your choice of name, maybe people are reacting to the name being unusual rather than reacting negatively?

There are 3 different ways to say Esme as far as I know. Esmay, with pronouciation on last syllable, Esm with the last letter dropped altogether, and Esme as in Esmeralda, with pronounciation on 1st syllable. That's the one I was hoping for, as its just as you'd read it, no? Oh bugger.

Oh Comma, I'm sorry you're having issues with the pronounciation of Esme's name. There is an Esme in DD's year at school who, as far as I know, is pronouced, Es-mee. I'm being a bit thick and am not sure what pronounciation you were hoping for.

Midwife came this morning. Leah is a little porker and has put back on all the weight she lost in the first week and a little bit more!
Apparently my stiches are fine and it's just where the skin is reattaching itself which is why it's sore. She said to leave it another week and if it's still sore then to go to the doctor. Hopefully it will continue to get better! It was a bit odd as the midwife is a mum from school! Her dd is in the year above my dd but they are friends so I felt a bit embarrassed! Never mind!

Rain keeps coming down in droves and then stops. Hope it stops long enough for me to collect dd from school without Leah getting soaking wet!

Comma2, I think you should stick with Esme (however it is pronounced). If you don't mind me saying that, I do not have a strong opinion whether I like the name or not, mainly because I have never heard or seen it before (but keep in mind I am a foreigner). BUT it is the one you picked for her so I guess, that's who she is and will be. There will probably be times when she is blaming you for choosing "this stupid" name but I think everyone does it at some point. And in the end she will be proud of her unusual name and it will be part of her identity.
My name is rather oldfashioned (and I used to hate it back in high school) and the way English people pronounce it sounds like they were throwing up. But it's my name and most of the time when I introduce myself I would pronounce it in German, then everybody is staring at my and I have to repeat in "English" (the difference is actually tiny) I had the same "problem" in France but I won't give up . And I guess, it actually helped me to like it more or feel that this is who I am. (I have even worse problems with my surname, one of the reasons why I wanted to keep it even after getting married). To cut the long story short, I think YOU have to choose a name not any visitors, family members or friends. There will always be people "complaining" (my MIL asked me if it was actually Paula and not Pauline (which seems to be slightly more common at the moment)... after almost 3 weeks, and having agreed (and told them) on the name already shortly after the 20week scan )

Comma i keep having awful dreams too, in one of them I hit DD! last time i used have a recurring one where I was convinced the baby was in the bed and we were sqaushing it...ah the joy of hormones...

Not sure who said yesterday about baby doing 5 hours sleep in day but not at nite might be worth waking every 3 hours in the day for a feed and then they might do the longer stretch at nite

Lexi does 6 hours at nite (12-6) which is heaven but seems to have her most unsettled time of day from 10-12 - does breast milk tend to dry up and be less satisfying at nite? wondering if should give her a bottle of formula at 10 but dont want to rock the sleeping boat!

Also as she is b/fed she tends to just fall asleep on the boob which I know is big no no, what is best way to teach them to self settle??

We've had people ask us where we got Annabelle's second name from (Faora) and why we called her that, we just say we heard it (yes, it came from a series off tv. wont say which cos then you'll know how sad we are!) and both loved the sound of it. My sister has told us outrightly she doesnt like it, and my mother was secretly displeased but has come round to likeing it, but to us it doesnt matter as we both love it.

I'm just wondering if I would prefer people telling me if they dislike the name or trying to hide it... not sure.
Maybe I shouldn't say/ask that as a loving mum but do all babies look like the pink panther during breastfeeding or is it just Paula?

comma either pronunciation, it is still a lovely and unusual name and I think she already is Esme, if you know what I mean, and you should stick with it and announce it proudly to the world!

I have one word to say TIRED!!! I am feeling the sleepless hours catching up with me today. The luxury of having DS1 was I could sleep when he slept. This time there is no such luck as DS1 is home most afternoons and DS2 doesn't like to settle of a morning and then sleeps the afternoon away when DS1 is home.

Falling to sleep on the breast. My DS1 would fall to sleep on his bottle in the early weeks/months and DS2 falls asleep mostly on the breast. I think it's a little too early to worry about their sleeping habits yet. But then I may be wrong! DS1 is a good sleeper and never had a problem with him, apart from early waking for a few months.

Are any of you mummies co-sleeping? I have found I've fallen in to this with the breastfeeding. It's lovely to be so close to him and not having to get out of bed to feed him and stay cosy. It worries me that he will get too comfy in our bed and we may have issues getting him in a cot when he's ready for his nursery. Also I would like to sleep less akwardly in bed and poor DH is nearly on the floor as I sleep in the middle and DS2 has my side of the bed. He dislikes his moses basket and has never settled in it. He sleeps so well with me and goes straight off after feeds. I might look into getting a crib with a drop down side for next to the bed and try him that.

Thanks guys. I prob would have called her Ella i I'd known about the pronounciation mess, but who knows. Maybe we relocate to GB some time (here's my fingers crossed) and people can make more of it.
Thanks for being lovely.

Just thought I'd share that Bryn is 14 days today and was weighed again. In the pass nine days (since his 5 day weigh in) he's gained 300g Am very pleased. Midwife discharged me, and said he seems to be a very happy healthy bundle