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

Blimey - I'm afraid to say I think my DS is somewhat backward after reading the latest posts

My right boob reeeeeeeeallllllllly hurts am going to try hand expressing a bit before I go to bed. Hope this doesn't last much longer

Anyone just watch Doctor Who? It was bloody brilliant

Bicnod if it gets really bad I think there's something the doctor can give you to stop the milk production. I have no advice I am afraid but if it's really painful even after expressing a bit, I'd probably get it checked out to make sure it's not mastitis.

Thanks Fei - I was thinking that I should maybe get it checked just to be sure. It hurts to cuddle O at the moment, and cuddling him is exactly what I want to be doing lots of when I've just stopped bf

Bicnod, perhaps try expressing just a little, because if you just go cold turkey you will get really ill IME. Taking 1 oz off whenever you feel really really full will ease things whilst allowing the supply to reduce in a controlled way.

Feier, thanks for that tip. I notice Mothercare do them plus a gripper bottle that looks pretty nifty as well, so I will try going up there tomorrow if DH will take me (hips are all shot at the moment).

Boff - I found some avent bottle grips in a mothercare this year...hidden round the back of a shelf hidden under teats as far as i remember....at the mo we have been using a tommee tippee bottle with handles (you have to suck to get the liquid out) but she didnt really understand it when we started. I got a bottle with the middle cut out (if that makes any sense) so it was still bottle shaped but could hold it herself....is any of this making sense?? i couldnt tell you im still sleep deprived and kidded out, i would go to bed, but ive got my SIL coming to stay

Bebe I overlocked the leg of one of Robins boxer shorts and popped it back in the middle - nearly wet myself when he fell over trying to put them on And Moo is our child prodigy!

Boff if you and Bebe carry on we will have to open a school for gifted babies!
Would these help? Can't vouch for them myself as never used them but found them as a source for you

I cried through Dr Who!

EvilIsAGiftTiggaxx

Saw this and though of you lot!

Maid Oi Larf

WondersWhatWillGoGreenNextTiggaxx

Bicnod- my ds is very behind this lot too
I don't think hes dim so I'm revelling in having a proper baby. Ds1 was walking at this age, Izy rocks on his knees. I know which I'm enjoying more

I have handles that fit on avent cups, they also fit on their bottles tooo

Bronze - glad to hear O isn't the only one not filling in his UCAS form already

Boff/Fei - I couldn't hand express and thought about getting the pump down from the loft then thought I'd try giving O a brief dreamfeed to clear the blockages/ease the discomfort. He doesn't actually have any feeds after his final 7pm feed anymore but thought he might not fight the boob if he was asleep and a one-off dreamfeed isn't going to make him expect it every night. So it worked and he fed and my boob is no longer lumpy or painful (pheweeeeeeeee) and it was wonderful having another feed. It made me think I should perhaps keep going but when I offered it again this morning he fought like he always does now when he's awake so think I'm going to stick with the original plan but dreamfeed him if my boob gets too painful/lumpy/huge. Presumably my milk will dry up eventually if I'm hardly ever feeding him - it has in my left boob now.

Happy New Year everyone! The whole of Scotland seems to have had a massive hangover. I would have joined them had I not been at work for the bells.

Proper crawling here. We surround BW with Approved Baby Toys and he heads straight for the fire poker, Christmas tree and electrical cables. I may have written this before. Night shifts making me go a bit mental.

Bicnod your plan re occasional feeds sounds good. Ouch ouch ouch. It should settle down soon though. Did you stop BFing pretty abruptly. i guess that's much worse than doing it gradually but sounds like you didn't have much of a choice!

New Years resolutions anyone? Mine is to get up the duff again. Hurrah! But not right away...

Also, possible TMI.. I'm having my first post baby AF. It's been going for 3 weeks though (with brief 2 day break in which I may have seen some bedroom action - well it is Christmas!). Anyone else have an endless first period? I'm planning to go to the doctor only if I actually become anaemic .

Yay! Halleluia!!

Felix took 4 oz ff from an Avent bottle (cold!) first thing, and then we went out to Mothercare to buy some of the little handles and spouts that convert Avent bottles to trainer cups, and they had loads in stock, so we bought some of those and he had another (cold!) ff this afternoon with me holding the bottle and him holding the handle and steering a bit, like he did with the breast.

DH has a theory that Felix sees himself as very much the active partner in the feeding process and me as a kind of vessel, and it was more the loss of the protagonist role that was bothering him, rather than the flavour of the milk. I think there might have been something in that. I am hoping we are well on the way to full ff now.

I am also pleased because I went out to spend my birthday vouchers, and since I have lost weight I now fit into normal chain store clothes again, and was able to buy 2 pairs of lovely trousers and 3 tops, and I am feeling very glamorous now.

BTW Bicnod I am glad you found relief. There is nothing like nork congestion to irritate a girl IME.

That's good news Boff and Bicnod.

So what do I do ?.... DH wants the next baby asap. I'm still lukewarm to the idea, but I said perhaps we could go off birth control and let natural take it's course... but now he's always pawing me and talking about getting me up the duff again which does not really make me feel much inclined to wanting to have sex...

He says we could get an apartment or something near London so I was not alone during the work week and we'd all come back on the weekends. But that would mean getting rid of our cat (which I'm not sure I want to do either).

Hello hello

Boff I think your DH may be right - there is a theory that BLW appeals to bf babies because they're used to being in control of feeding themselves, and when we got DS1 onto bottles he had to feed himself, if we tried to be in charge of the bottle he just screamed. We got him to take bottles in the end by just leaving one on the coffee table and ignoring it, and he just crawled up to it, picked it up and drank the lot. Little tinker.

Orbit is definitely in the remedial class, DS1 had started saying No and babbling by this stage, whereas Orbit hasn't even mastered consonants. He does do very endearing little coos and squeaks though. And is very close to walking. I think he'll be the muscles of the family

By the way I LOVED my SS present - whoever it is clearly knows me quite well! Thank you VERY VERY much

We are all exhausted from doing posh dinner for 7 adults on NYE, plus a 3yo, a 2yo and a 9mo old staying in the house as well as our two, then having another couple staying last night with their two boys.

At 10pm on NYE none of the children were asleep, they had all been put to bed and had woken up again, the 2yo had been sick all over his dad, Orbit was refusing to go to bed and DS1 was ridiculously overexcited. Luckily we managed to get them all to bed apart from the 3yo, who came with her dad who is definitely of the laissez faire school of parenting. She basically stayed up as long as she liked until she conked out on our sofa watching DVDs, ate exactly what she wanted when she wanted (mostly sugary yogurt) and wound her dad round her little finger completely. I was a bit tetchy about it, it's hard enough feeding a gang of children and getting them all to bed without one of them not co-operating with mealtimes and floating around getting all the toys out when you've just tidied up. I really wanted to have a nice grown up dinner once all the kids were down, so was a bit miffed. But then I'm probably a party pooper.

Have also had it up to HERE with people going on about their babies sleeping through the night, or how tired they are because their lo woke up once last night. Also people who think that if we had done Gina Ford/been stricter about routine/not co-slept/painted Orbit green every morning he would definitely be sleeping through by now.

Especially when they have one PFB to base their experience on. There's only one word for parents who have good sleepers, people, and it's LUCKY.

Probably my penance for smugly thinking that DS1's excellent sleep habits were all my doing. Tchah.

As you can probably guess, Orbit is not sleeping well at the moment.

bebemoo could you explain to DH that you need some time to be yourself again, not pregnant or mummy, before you feel like doing it all again? I don't know how old you are, but unless you're in your very late thirties you've got lots of time, and I certainly found that a break where I got to be me again and not be huge/postnatal/bf/tied to a small child made me feel much better. Why is he in such a rush?

I think he's in a rush because that's the way his 'mum did it' and 'it feels right' (to have the kids near to each other).

It seems like whenever I try to explain how I feel I get: 'yeah I understand.' but then the next time I get a period he says, 'I don't want to put pressure on you, but when are we trying for the next baby?'I do not know if I'm being particularly nasty during my periods that it makes him think 'hell, I don't want to go through that again!'

Do you think it's weird to say we can go off birth control but not really be 'trying' to get pregnant? Or is that just confusing?

I would say it's a bit confusing. Going off birth control is trying to get pregnant IMO, although there are obviously degrees of 'trying' If, next month, you found out you were pregnant, would you be completely happy? If not, then it would feel wrong to me to go off the birth control. It is not very fair of him to be putting pressure on you. How long would you like to leave were the choice yours and yours alone?

I can't imagine getting pregnant again this soon, but thinking about it, that would give an 18 month gap, which is what there is between my brother and I, and that has always seemed like a perfectly reasonable age difference!

And 'yeah, I understand' sounds like it actually means 'I hear that you are saying some words, however, what I think is this, so lets do that instead'

I think you need to be really sure you're ready for another one before you do it, rather than just letting things kind of slide by coming off birth control and seeing what happens.

Personally (but obviously I'm not you and I'm not married to your DH) I'd be saying 'Back off, mister. It's my body that has to work three times as hard when pregnant, it's me who has to push the darn baby out, and it's my boobs that get chewed to ribbons. Not to mention the night feeds etc etc, and the fact that it's me at home with the little sods darlings all day. I am a person, not just a mum and an incubator, and if I'm not ready then I'm not ready. Now ask me again in three months or NO SEX EVER!'

Seriously though, could you agree to talk about it again in three months or something? Then he'd have a time scale to work towards, rather than just 'not now' and you could have some peace from being badgered for a while?

I should print out what WFH has written and fasten it to his head up at strategic locations around the house/ his car/ his bike

I originally put him off until Christmas...

I think I would be excited to be pregnant in some ways. But I really worry that I'd be able to cope ... 2 babies dunno. Just dunno. Highly conflicted here.

I guess what I was thinking is that being off the birth control would lead to 'baby-ness' but at the same time I was thinking not to go out of our way to have sex whenever I was ovulating. I guess I feel like he's only interested in the sex for the baby-making...

Hello and Happy New Year!!!

Back from lovely Toulouse (I want to live there, sod Provence). We had a nice New Year, but A still playing havoc with sleep.

Boff, glad you have solved your feeding woes. Bebe, it sounds to me as if you are not sure, and I'd wait in that case. Have some time to enjoy Moo without illnesses and troubles, and then think about trying for number two in the summer, maybe?

Our boiler is wailing. You can hear it all through the house.
If I never post again, you will know why.

Seriously, should I turn it off??? It is 0°C outside and A has a cold....

The problem is, you can't really even say 'We'll start trying in x/y/z months', because there's no way of knowing whether you'll feel ready then. He just needs some patience, and you need to make it abundantly clear that you will let him know when you are ready. I mean, it's not like you're saying that you're not even sure about having number 2, just that you want to wait a little longer. He needs to trust you to let him know when the time is right for you.

There's something to be said for waiting until one is out of nappies before having the next, but ultimately you need to feel the urge rather than be persuaded IMO. It's all very well for blokes to be keen but they don't have to give up their biological freedom for however many months.