Nov 09 and we're feeling fine, feeding, burping, not enough sleeping - that's us!

[BeckyBendyLegs]

Just thought I'd better create a new thread.

Raggie how about a trip to Burford?

Hey all day's the big day LO is off to the childminders in half an hour.I know he'll be all as it's the same lady who looked after ds1 but i still feel really upset and guilty about leaving my baby "all by himself"

manam2tom All the best for today. Thinking of you.

Good Morning all
Haven't been on here for a while. Johandre is doing very well. I can't believe that they grow so quickly. I had him weighed last Tuesday (8weeks old) and he weighed 4.38kg. Born 2.74kg.
I'm a very lucky mom. Johandre started sleeping through last Tuesday night. Feed him at 10pm and again at 6am. This morning he woke up at 3am and I gave him a bottle.
He is sitting in his bouncy chair smiling at me now. Bless him!

maman2tom Thinking of you. All of the best, it is never easy. Will have to do this in 4 weeks time myself, and NOT looking forward

maman I was thinking of you last night. I hope today goes ok for you. Have you got anything planned while he is at the childminders to take your mind off it?

tasja Nice to see you and I'm glad everything is going well

TOK I hope you had a better night. It's so hard, isn't it? Our night was much better than the night before. He still did the cluster feeding from about 3am-midnight, but then slept til 3am. DH got him to sleep at 12 though and then didn't want to move him in case he woke up, so didn't go to bed until I came to get him at 3. He is mad.

I'm not sure what will happen tonight as DD has a birthday party from 4, so we won't get home until 7ish and James will probably miss a few hours of his cluster feed. A recipe for disaster?

Laugs forgot you'd had that bout of thrush, is it all healed ok now? Glad you got a little more sleep last night, am sure tonight will be ok even though he won't cluster as long. Who knows, maybe it will break the cycle and then he'll just take a really good feed when you're back from the party? [hopeful emoticon]

helips gald you enjoyed your night out, sounds like Millie wasn't that hungry and so was a good girl for her mummy!

erika DH sleeps in the spare room!! When he's in with me he does wake but lays with his eyes closed

Fruit good news on the new bottle and so some more sleep. Are you bf ther rest of the time? I'm giving a bottle of ebm at 10 but wondering if formula might buy me a little extra sleep time. What was the reason behind you choosing formula then?
Got dh to come out with us to the park instead of furniture moving and we managed to have a nice chat about things while we were there so things seem better now.

Claire I decided to do a bottle so we could dream feed (i.e. feed him when he's pretty much asleep although he's not that good at that!) but also mainly so I can go out and DH can feed him. I give the bottle at the 10pm ish feed. I don't bother pumping at this time now either, I do it in the morning so I guess my supply is now doing to drop at that time of night. Seemed daft to have a way of getting more sleep as someone else could feed him, but making myself stay up to pump!
My dh sounds just like yours too, he's quite lazy and needs to be told what to do etc. and so when I'm with him I drop to his level. Get far more done when I'm home on my own have decided that this year I'm going to change this situation though, so have told him I'll be taking the kids away camping and things for the odd night and he's welcome to come or not, up to him. Am not going to let life pass me by just because he's happy to!!

maman was thinking of you this morning as today is the first childminder day. Hope it all goes well and you get through it ok.

tasja good to hear from you and that all is going so well. Great news on your sleep!!

Feeding here has changed and I'm at a bit of a loss so any help from you lovely ladies gratefully recieved.
He's now still feeding every 2-3 hours which is fine, but fusses a lot more and bats my breast etc. He doesn't stay on as long now, but sometimes will then go back on if I offer after he's had a bit of a look around. Last two nights he's woken twice which isn't the norm, so I'm wondering if he's not getting enough milk in the day.
Any hints/tips very welcome!

Glad you got some extra sleep last night Laugs, I did too. Anya still feed frequently but we didn't have the constant crying, which makes the feeding bearable. Hope he's a good boy for you tonight!

tasja thats brilliant news on Johandre's sleeping-I am very jealous! Getting a good night's sleep makes such a big difference doesn't it?!

maman hope all goes well today. The first day is always the worst, and is always worse for the mummy. Keep yourself busy, like someone else said and you know that he'll be well looked after. Big hugs!

Scarlotti glad things are better with dh, sounds like you had a nice time at the park. Sorry I can't help with the bf. I know from the 2 weeks I did manage to bf that it can be frustrating not knowing how much they are taking. I'm sure one of the other bf ladies will be able to offer some advice!

I have my first physio appointment this afternoon. Hoping they tell me they can fix my stupid leg

maman oh sweety good luck for today. I am sure he will be fine, but its so hard isn't it? I hope you can do something nice today to take your mind off it a little. Shopping always helps things a little .

claire I am not expressing a lot atm, wanted to wait past the 6wk growth spurt, and see if he settles into any semblence of a routine so i can express at a set time, but no, no routine yet! I might have to start encouraging a little bit of one soon ish. So, atm i am only offering bottles randomly to see how he is, and to get him used to it. But my intention will be to get him to take one at night for the same reasons as Scarlotti, to give me the chance to have time off sometimes, to go out, or have an early night, or just sit on my backside at 10pm or whenever while DH does it. It will also mean he already takes a bottle when i return to work (but i am not so concerned about that as I am intending to take 9mths off, so if not taking a bottle in the day, i will use a cup with him by then).

I have just sat down and worked out my finances, and I am financially better off for DH to go back to college to retrain and me to cut my hours down to 21, than for DH to work full time on a less than average wage (which is what he will get in a call centre down here) and me to stay on my previous hours of 32, or even reduce to 28! How crazy is that? This taking into account childcare etc. I am so shocked, but pleased as it means I can take DD to school for half the week when she starts and DH can do the other days. And Reuben will only need to do 2 days at nursery if that.

scarlotti If he's not staying on as long he might just be getting more efficient at finishing the feed. Give it a couple days to see if your milk supply catches up? Definitely keep offering him more if he'll take it. I've been going through something similar with my LO - took Pav and Tamlin's advice and started eating porridge in the morning. Seems to be working!

maman Take care of yourself today

tasja Good to hear from you, sounds like things are going really well!

Laugs Hope James surprises you and doesn't feel like cluster feeding tonight

Erika A kick in the shins will wake most anyone up ;)

TOK Good luck at the physio appt, hope they have good news for you!

Pav that sounds brilliant! When I sat down to work out our finances it made me cry because I'll have to work full-time and I'm not ready to leave LO with a childminder just yet...

Scarlotti I'm bf for the rest of the time apart from the last feed in the evening. I express after dinner and building up some stores in the freezer, but only started doing this routinely from last week. For me, I was becoming exhausted with the night feeds; baby has always been restless and would wake frequently for a feed. In the early weeks I was coping, but it just got too hard to continue with. So, rather than me give up all the hard work of bf, I decided to top up with formula (after speaking with the HV first). I felt my milk wasn't doing enough for him at night. We have upped his formula to 6ozs and he guzzles that and is very content, it gives me from 10pm - 4pm sleep, he is an early bird, but does sleep from 8pm, so I guess he gets his quota of sleep. I've been topping up since he was 6-7 weeks old (I think) and it's not reduced my milk supply. He is content during the day and has a feed every 2-3 hrs, and like your baby, he drains a boob very quickly. Both my sons are hungry babies. DS1 was on formula and I remember how demanding he was with the bottle and I had to start weaning him at 5 months because he was never content. To look at me, you would never think I could produce such BIG strong boys!!

Do you think Ioan is going through a growth spurt? I had frequent waking last week for 2-3 nights, and he was on/off me through the day. Also, I'm getting the fussing whilst feeding too. I'm thinking, over tiredness, wind at both / either ends, and have found he pefers and feeds better in a quiet room.

just read that back.. i meant sleeps from 10pm-4am, bf then light sleeps until 6am..

typing one handed!

maman thinking of you today

scarlotti no advice here but in the past 3 days I've had just the same. Ben is 9wks tomorrow and it's a bit scary how frustrated he seems to get. Also, for the first time outside of a growth spurt he finishes one side then cries loads until I realise what's happened and put him on the other one where he'll latch straight away.

I think he's just got more efficient and also more hungry. He's finishing the 4oz of ebm at 11pm more and more quickly so tonight I'm going to up it to 6oz. Hmm, best get expressing

Fairy glad I'm not alone! I will have to remember to offer both sides. I think he's getting hungrier too - he used to have 4oz at night, last night polished off 5oz so today I've pumped 6oz
I think part of it is also that he's interested in what's going on and so taking time out to eat is boring!

Just been and got DS1's SF jab. Poor boy is still saying his arm is sore, forgets if we distract him but then remembers again after.
Turns out he hasn't had his booster so now I have to book him in for another 2 jabs - he's going to love that, not! Might not tell him today..!

Thanks everyone for you're kind words you really are a lovely bunch. I logged on to MN during the day and it really cheered me up.

Well day 1 went well with only a few tears from me. I think the Hour and a half walking backwards and fowards between school/home/childminders in the freezing cold helped to take my mind off missing LO!! I spent and hour chatting to childminder the morning and when i left LO was fast asleep so I don't think he was too upset! But the first thing he wanted to do when we got home was to bf despite the fact he'd just had a bottle so I like to think he just wanted mummy as he'd missed me.

Unfortunately ds1 had yet another accident at school! I think he really doesn't like school as he hasn't had an accident at home in weeks?? So i'm totally at a loss what to do.

pav dp took the hint about shopping to take my mind off things however he idea of doing DIY stores lookin at cupboard doors wasn't the glamourous trip I had in mind! Oh and with benefits I'll earn the same if I work 5 days a week or 4 days a week!!

hi all. glad youd day was ok yesterday, maman. my ds keeps having accidents at pschool but is ok in the daytime at home.

Erika dh either sleeps through the baby crying or ignores it, knowing i'll sort out the baby. is annoying that he thinks he is the only one who needs sleep. may have to threaten him with witholding sex unless he helps in the night more.(on the basis i am too tired.)

meant to add,am worried as was told when dropping ds off at pschool that there is a case of scarlet fever. all the mums and dads left their kids but am worried and wish id taken him home, as its not long since he had hand foot and mouth disease.

I hope your DS is ok Trikken. I don't know anything about scarlet fever except that it's contagious. Does it make them very unwell?

We've just found out that two weddings we're invited to in the next few months are No Kids. What do you do? They are both very close friends (which upsets me a bit, but then the world doesn't revolve around my family) so we wouldn't want to miss them. Both are in London too, so the other end of the country to us. Pah.

Laugs I had the same thing in December, dh's old flatmate got married and invite was no kids. It was a 7 hour car journey away and Millie was only 5 weeks so no way could we have left her. We were gutted we couldn't go as loads of old faces were there and it would have been lovely to catch up. I don't understand the no kids thing myself, especially as our friends plan on having some soon!

Erika my dh sleeps through both kids crying, very annoying!

Trikken Hope your ds manages to avoid Scarlet fever, especially after having hand, foot and mouth. Is he ok now? my ds had hand foot and mouth and was really poorly with it, not nice.

maman hope your ds has a better day at school and no accidents.

A quiet day here, both dc are asleep so I am relaxing (mnetting!) my friend is coming over later to colour my hair, bye bye grey roots!

Trikken hope ds is ok. I remember a child at the school I work in had it. We were told symptoms would take few days to show up after infection but it is easily treatable with antibiotics. That's the problems with schools- germ pits! I think thats why I rarely get sick, built up a good immunity! [touches wood in the hope that she hasn't just jinxed herself!]

How much milk should a 9 week old be taking? Anya is only taking an average of 3oz every 3 hours. That doesn't seem like much to me. She is gaining weight. Had her weighed today and she is 12lb 1oz, 5oz heavier than a fortnight ago. Is that OK as far as weight gain goes? As far as I remember ds drank alot more and put weight on more rapidly.

Speaking of ds, he is due to get sf jab next saturday. Notlooking forward to that. Any ideas how I can distract a 2yo from a nurse sticking aneedle in his arm It'll be going back in 3 weeks for the second dose that'll be the big problem because he'll know what's coming! Has you ds been OK since getting his scarlotti?

I do get the 'no kids' at weddings - if somebody's planned a formal black-tie evening reception, it's just not appropriate for children to be there any more than it's appropriate to take them to any other sort of black-tie event. (I'm not even going to get into the kids who scream through carefully-planned wedding vows while their parents just smirk at everyone and don't TAKE THEM OUT.) Also, there's the COST - some places will charge a fortune for a 'child's meal' that they won't even eat. The downside, of course, is that if you plan this sort of wedding, some of your friends and relatives with tinies just won't be able to come.

Last time we attended a formal wedding with sprog in tow, we couldn't get a babysitter very easily as the wedding was in the US and everyone we knew there would be attending the wedding! So we hired a hotel room at the reception venue, and I spent most of the evening sprawled on the hotel bed in my evening kit, watching Cosby Show re-runs while my baby slept. Not brilliant, but at least I missed all the naff speeches over dinner ('I knew that Karen was the one for our Daniel when she threw up all over the bar! Ha ha!')

Things have been a bit chaotic over here - first DS 1 got sick with a fever on and off for four days, then DH came down with it and an ear infection to boot, and then finally, poor Arthur got it. Every time he coughs violently, he throws up his last feed. My couch has been vomited on repeatedly by both children so many times that I've just got it draped in towels. On Monday, DH headed off to America for two weeks, stuffed to the gills with antibiotics, so I am parenting alone. Hurray.

Agree with Tamlin about the no kids thing if the couple choose it. We had kids when we married so invited everyone else's - 20 in total! cost half the adult per head price so not cheap and we hired a magician to entertain them during the speeches so their parents could relax and listen ... and so we could too!
We had 2 no kids weddings last yr - Mum came to us for one and we dropped the kids there for the other. Mum lives 5 hours from us.

tok ds is fine today so no ill effects. Only 1 jab here, nurse said they'd planned to do 2 but now it's just 1.

Could the accidents at preschools be because they're getting caught up in playing and then not make it in time? Can you ask the teachers/helpers to maybe remind them they might need to go at regular intervals?

Tamlin sorry to hear things have been rough your end, hope your boys are all on the mend, including the grown up one, and that the next 2 weeks aren't too chaotic for you.

Got Ioan to take nearly 60z in his ebm bottle last night and he then slept through until 5am so think the frequent wakings were down to not enough milk in the day. Can't seem to get him to take a huge amount more in the day though - he feeds for 10 mins max then screams if I try and get him to drink more.
Any suggestions?

scarlotti Try winding him and then putting him back on the boob?

Laugs It's certainly the couple's prerogative to choose not to have kids at the wedding - but they should also not be surprised if their friends with kids opt out of attending! I understand the fear of kids "ruining" things but honestly I've never witnessed a child "ruin" anyone's wedding. I think they only add to the festivity

I went to a breastfeeding clinic on Monday and can report one KNITTED BOOB sighting

TOK 5oz in a fortnight doesn't seem very much at that age, esp as Anya is a good sized baby. According to my red book (which is a boy's one) an average 9wk old, 12lb 2oz baby will have put on around a pound in the previous fortnight. Maybe you should have a chat with a HV or doctor next time you see one?

Scarlotti no suggestions, sorry. Presumably he's the one insisting on being fed then deciding he's done, rather than you offering? Oh, is his poo still mustard coloured? If it stays that colour then he is getting the hind milk when he feeds, if he's only snacking on foremilk it would go green. And I do mean green; you could disguise a thin patch on your lawn with it.

BBL So good to hear that you have people around you helping you to take the best care of yourself. It must be very difficult for you.

I find the "no kids" at weddings thing odd. The finances make a difference, and if its a small room they take up places you might prefer went to others, but surely one of the major things marriage is about is creating a family. It seems a sort of willful blindness to just make it into a grown-up party and thereby turn away close friends because you insist they can't bring their family. When we had our wedding we had to make difficult decisions and not invite some people because we needed the places for children of relatives or other friends and I don't regret it at all. No one was made to feel like a second-rate mate because they'd sprogged. It meant more to me that those with families had come, because even then I had some idea that the logistics of traveling 200 miles with a couple of small children were rather different from those of a footloose couple...

James had his jabs and check up today, all pretty uneventful except the nurse had to measure him twice because she couldn't believe he was 64cm long! Still pushing those 98 centiles!

He's sleeping longer pretty much every night after the 10.30pm feed - we got to almost 5am at the weekend. Not that it did me any good, I was half awake from 3am waiting for him to kick off. Bloody ridiculous. Will give myself a good talking to....

Scarlotti How is DS' arm now after the swine flu jab? DD is due to have it on thursday and I am worried about it hurting her arm for the same time as it hurt me (3 days). Did he get a fever with it at all or feel rough at all? Just so I know what to look out for.

Has my 6wk check last week, Dr was keen to pin me down on contraceptive. I told him having sex would be required for that! One of the first things he said was about taking it easy when I first start having sex due to tear, I knew then what was coming! Once I said i wanted the coil, he pretty much clapped his hands! He printed out info, he printed out a painkiller suppository for the day i get it done, he explained it all in detail, and said a nurse would call me to arrange an appt. Lo and behold! That very afternoon (my appt was 2pm) i missed a call from the nurse! And then yesterday, in the post, an appt for the coil to be fitted - on thursday imediately after DD has her swine flu jab, so i can't avoid it! Talk about keen for me to get it done! There was me thinking they were checking me, but no, checking i am not about to get pregnant again anytime soon .

I have just been given some boys clothes by a friend. I text her to say i had some baby clothes for her girl if she wanted them, she said she had some boys stuff. We swapped today...her girl is out of 0-3 pretty much already at just under 3 months, and that is mostly what I had. I had 2 carrier bags full of clothes. She had 2 black bin liners FULL, and a big box chock FULL of clothes , now i feel embarrassed as i have given lots to another friend already, before this friend became pg/knew she was having a girl (when she was born!). And I have lost 2 bags of clothing! I think I am going to send her something really nice, from somewhere nice like Monsoon, to say thank you.

Trikken DS had scarlet fever. It's treatable with antibiotics and not the danger it used to be. No one else caught it but symptoms were high temp, sore throat and red rash.

Trying to keep up on here but gosh it's tricky now lo's are here!

Alfie is doing green mucusy nappies and yesterday the mucus had blood in it. Dr said it could wait for his six week check (tomorrow). Any one had similar?

Due to a cock up at the dr's I have my 6wk check tomorrow 8.40am and Alfred has his at 6.20pm tomorrow. Grr