April 2009 - Episode 10 - Christmas time!! we can all drink wine, while children gurgle nursery rhymes, with logs in their nappies, and pee by the tree fun will be had by baby and me!!

[SantasNutts]

here we go then Merry Christmas One and all!! xxxxx

Happy New Year may this be a fantastic year for everyone xx

A SS update - mine may well have arrived yesterday, but I missed the postie. I have the Post Office card, and will collect it at some point between today and next Tuesday () - probably Monday or Tues as DH is off and we can go in the car rather than walking to town and carrying it back along with baby! So further thanks, Santa, I love it already!

My New Year's Eve will be spent siting on the sofa with a sleeping baby, followed by going to bed! But then, I've never been that fussed about New Year's Eve celebrations

Bit upset here. Trying to stop bf Felix but he won't take bottles at all now. He's pushing them away and crying a lot, and being very unsettled (probably because he is so hungry) rather than being my lovely placid baby. Dh says if I give in now I will be bf him until he is 4, and he's probably right. We are both crying and very upset (Felix and me).

Oh Boff you poor thing Oscar was the same when I started trying to get him to take a bottle. Lots of screaming, crying, shaking of head wildly and going bright red. And now he actually prefers the bottle (so much so that he refused the breast). All I can say is keep trying, keep offering it to him and eventually, eventually, he'll take it. Have you done all the tricks of warming the teat, making the milk super warm etc? The other thing that worked with O was watching In the Night Garden . If he sat on my lap having a cuddle and watching that I could sometimes slip the bottle between his lips and he'd start sucking away (usually took several attempts). Or alternatively, how is Felix with a sippy cup? Would he consider taking milk from that? Sending big hugs x x x

Hi gang!!

Booooo to all the illnesses, not good, but Fei wahey on actually finding something to break up the chestiness (sp?) any chance you could smuggle some out and sell it on the blackmarket??

WFH - Fantastic news on the ultrasound.

In terms of weaning from bf to ff, I thought "they" all say to offer the bottle and then bf after, then gradually increase, but then again, what do i know as I ff all the way through...

Iris has taken to waking up at 10.30pm for a play until 1am. Last night I told DP it was his turn to look after her in the night and he kept her in the room (we live in a 1 bed so we share a room) with the lights off until i hissed at him to "put her in our bed" when she went to sleep...transfering her into the cot, she woke up again. Am getting a cotbed for her, have SIL and her 2 children stay for 3 days and 2 settling days for nursery next week, so am putting off any kind of sleep training until it all settles back down a bit.

Am babysitting for my friends 3 children tonight a 2yo girl and 12 yo twin boys....have got a 180 view of south london to north london from her 17th floor window in the living room, so am not too fussed plus the 2 girls adore each other and the boys are wonderful, so i am quite excited by it tbh!!

Iris is currently wrecking the house, shredding paper, smacking the tv and trying to get tthe baubles off the tree so am not worrying too much avout tidying for SIL considering it will all be wrecked within moments!!

If I dont get a chance to "speak" to you all later...Happy New Year/Hogmany! Am glad to have found such wonderfully supportive friends and wish you all happiness, health and sleep for the future...mwah!

Boff - will he take formula from a cup? I've tried giving A bottles recently because I'm going back to work soon, but he hurls them across the room and point blank refuses them (always has - even when he was tiny). I've had more success with a 'sookey' cup (that's what I call them anyway ) and he'll drink quite a bit with that instead.

You sound pretty fraught over giving up BF at the mo'. Are you sure YOU'RE ready to give it up completely and not feeling like you have to? Jut wondering because I've been feeling lots of pressure from everyone recently about cutting down BF, especially night feeds, because I'm back to work in January. I don't feel ready at all and I'm hoping that I can do a sort of half formula-half BF sort of thing.

Whatever the situation, I hope a LARGE New Year glass of wine will help you feel better .

If I don't have time to post later, Happy New Year everyone!

Hi Boff - sorry you're having a rough time. How long have you been at it? How about giving it a few days/ a week and then trying again? Are you trying to knock it on the head completely or just cut down the daytime feeds? I'm sure your DH means well, but comments like that don't really help at the time Makes it sound as though poor wee Felix is trying to manipulate you, which is, of course, bolleaux. What does Felix drink water from? Do you think it is the bottle or the milk he doesn't like?

Sorry. Lot of questions there! No need to answer - just thinking 'out loud'!

Oh by the way, when we were trying to get O to take formula he wouldn't take the first milk in any form (powder or carton) but would take the follow on milk (suitable from 6 months) in carton form (not powder). I've since managed to get him to take the powdered one (mixed it 2/3 carton 1/3 powder and eventually down to all powder) but might be worth a whirl with the follow on milk cartons...

Felix was fine with bm out of a bottle, but he started rejecting bottles when he realised we were putting formula in them.

I am going to France as an invited speaker at an important conference in mid-Jan, so I need to have him ff by then. I have been quite gung ho about expressing vast quantities of the stuff and trekking around the country with a refrigerated cool bag, but realistically even I can't put 3 spare pints of the stuff in the freezer for him, plus the consultant has advised me to stop now to help the SPD (which is still pretty bad).

I have managed to get him to take 3oz of bm out of a bottle first thing, then I gave him some diluted doorstep milk in a medicine measuring cup, followed by some formula in a medicine measuring cup. He happily sipped at both but most of it went down his front because he doesn't know how to drink from a cup.

I have also bought a large variety of sippy cups but again he hasn't really worked out what to do with them. I also played a game with him involving the bottle, so it got a bit less fraught, but apart from his learning the word bottle and making a reasonable stab at saying it, there was no progress on the actual usage.

Avent used to do little handles for their bottles so babies who still used teats could hold their own bottles, but they seem to have been outlawed since DS1. That's a shame as I think this would be the perfect transitional object.

In the meantime I have given him a sneaky feed in his room at nap time, so at least I am not exploding and he is not dehydrated.

Boff I think my old Avent Magic Cup's handles would screw onto an Avent bottle as well - do you have one of those? If not, I could see if I could find mine and if it works, send them to you.

Oh please, do send them to me! They would be really helpful. My email address is boffinmum at hotmail dot co dot uk. xx

Boff, if MrsG cannot find hers, I have a pack of Fisher Price soft grip training handles ( these to which you are more than welcome. It says for use with Fisher Price bottles but they are stretchy rubbery stuff so I imagine would fit anything. Let me know if you would like them. A friend passed the pack onto me but I can't imagine I'll use them.

Now, has anyone any tips for getting a baby who:

• has never slept in a cot
• slept in a moses basket on one memorable occasion, around 7 months ago.
• sleeps in his car seat with the help of a dummy
• will sleep on his own on a bed after I feed him to sleep and carefully extract myself

to take daytime naps in a cot? I'm happy for the nighttime co-sleeping to continue, but I really don't think the nursery nurses are going to be happy to hold him and bounce him until he goes to sleep, and then continue to hold him for the duration of his nap, be it 30 mins or 3 hours

Actually Boff, I'm not sure they are stretchy. They look it, but I think they may be more rigid than I first imagined. You're welcome to them anyway, to try, if you want!

Boff. I have seen bottles with handles in the pound shop. and they are the wide necked bottles so i would imagine the handles could be used on the other bottles.

Ju: Have you tried putting the car seat in the cot. as you said he will fall asleep in there. So he can get used to the surroundings of the cot but with the security of the car seat which is more familiar.

oh and our nursery nurses are lovely at trying to get them to sleep. Ollie never settles for his naps properly at nursery adn they will spend ages shush/patting him to sleep. so try not to worry to much.. They have a cot in the main room and a couple in seperate rooms so he may settle better in the main room rather than being left. Izzie and ollie settle better in the main room even though they have there naps at home upstairs. (The nursery is lovely)

scuse grammar in that last post t'was appalling! (my spelling and grammar skills seem to have gone up t'wall since bubbas.) How the hell I'm gonna cope with my uni work I don't now...)

Boff - yep the handles fit an Avent bottle, so shall email you re sending

Gui - I have been where you are now. I hesitate to give advice since I ended up not really going back to work..... But based on my experience I would strongly suggest going into the nursery very soon and talking to the nursery nurses about it. They should be able to tell you what they do, and advise you. You should also take a critical look around the room (if you haven't already done this recently) and check that the environment will suit H, knowing what you know now about how he is and how you are as a mother. You will probably be hugely reassured and they'll be able to tell you how they can accommodate H or if there's anything you can change/tweak to make things smoother.

But learn from my mistake and if you don't think you can make it work, do look into alternative childcare options. I went and saw the nursery a couple of months before going back to work and started to have my doubts about it. Everyone said ohhhh it'll be fine, they'll manage, you're worried over nothing etc. Most people manage really well, But for us it did end up being a problem. If I'd gone and got myself a childminder (or possibly a different nursery) when I first realised it wasn't going to work, instead of burying my head in the sand and then trying to get one at short notice, I'd have gone back to my job after DS1

Blue moon! Right now!

Welcome to Alees and Harriet - you are both new, yes? Am I getting mixed up with name changes?

I have just remembered I had a dream where Puzzle started linking to a daily downloadable pdf of the day's thread activity for those back at work to print and read on the train...

About bfing and work (Alees), and night feeding (Kazkiss): I think you can, at this age, get your baby to consolidate feeds, ie, if you offer fewer you may find the baby takes no less milk overall, just feeds longer at certain times. But you won't know till you try - if you offer as often as you used to (and why not, if no practical reasons not to), the baby will probably feed as often as (s)he used to. I was surprised how flexible V would be about bfing because she will feed at every offered opportunity - yet is fine without all day, some days (when we both forget the afternoon feed . Then she sucks for hours in the evening before bed.

Happy new year everyone, thank you all for helping me, advising me, listening to me and making me laugh all through 2009, and may you and your families all have a very happy and fulfilling 2010 xxx

Joyous New Year type greetings.

With that out of the way I shall return to my NYE Grinchyness I'm known for.

BTW ladies I reckon we're all suffering the strain right now which is telling on our relationships. I could quite happily throttle Robin on a regular basis and he's bloody fantastic 99.9% of the time.

FeckingHateNYETiggaxx

Oh dear. I'm pissed as a skunk in a puke stained bunk and it's only 8.30pm. And I've only had 2 glasses of cava. Saddo. Happy New Year lovelies x x x x x

As I am probably gonna be going to bed in about half and hour. (sad I know). I am gonna say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I am just wondering if any year can be as monumentally life changing as the one just gone. Feels wierd that I can no longer say 'I had two babies this year' very odd. Anyway have a great night!

LOL Bicnod you go girl

What IS a blue moon people? DH says he doesn't know!

Don't know 'bout blue moon. All cloud here.

I love you guysh. No. You don't understand. I really, really love you. Like, really. You are the besht. Hic.

Nappy Huw Year!

xxxxx

A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month - they don't happen often as full moons are every 28 days.

FontOfUselessKnowledgeButCanBeQuiteHandyOnPubQuizzesTiggaxx

Happy new year people

I am a lax and slutty warrior

I am back now for good

please fill me in

(any more innuendos you can think of)