April 2010 - our little bundles are here!

[lineky]

Thought I'd start a Post-Natal thread as there are so many of us now sorry about the uninspired name.
Well I am slowly realising the sleepless nights thing is no myth - VERY tired!

no mama babbling here, Kacie prefers blowing rasberries in your face instead

she has been mainly sleeping through recently 8 till 7 with just a few murmurs from her in the night, so hope that carries on. doing a lot of moaning at the moment in the day, think it must be her gums poor thing.

Ajay has his first homework assignment from school that we have to help him with which is to make a 2d or 3d nursery rhyme character. i told him to pick a nursery rhyme and he picked fish alive. so we are going to make a model of his hand with one of those casting kits, then he's going to make a fish out of coloured clay that we will stick on the little finger. im aware we could have just done a picture but that's just boring doubt ill be as enthusiastic when he has homework all the time though ha

glad you are all getting more sleep. can't believe it's been nearly 6 months already either. it has gone really fast looking back on it.

Had my first night out last night, now that George had started going to bed earlier. I fed him just before I left & left Dh putting him to bed. He usually settles straight away until about 10 so didn't bother to check my phone until about 10. There were 3 missed calls from dh! Apparently George had cried for an hour and a half before finally falling asleep on his playmat downstairs. He must have been missing his mummy! I enjoyed my meal out with friends so probably just as well dh couldn't get hold of me as it would be have ruined my meal as I'd have either dashed home or sat there worrying! G was good the rest of the night though, only waking at 4.40 :)

nicnac loving the fish alive! Will try and remember that for future years...:)

zeeky, glad you enjoyed your night out. Also glad that your night wasn't ruined. I warned my DH only to call me in an emergency when I had my first night out then I proceeded to phone every hour to check up! My DH told me to stop phoning. The last time I was out Eilidh drank all the expressed milk (I went out at 7pm and left 10oz! Greedy girl) and then howled for an hour. Not sure what that was all about. Kuckily I wasn't out late, only at a friends for dinner so I left a bit earlier to feed her.

nicnac, I know compared to other babies Eilaidh is a brillant sleeper and I cannot moan, but I am very jealous of you! Thats great though you must be feeling brilliant getting a decent sleep .

Now that Eilidh cab roll over she has been doing it all the time. I out a big sheet on the floor today in my living room and surrounded her with toys and books and she kept doing it! Thought that it would be easier for her to practice on a harder surface (carpet rather than a padded mat). Every time I looked at her she had rolled over! She still isn't keen on being on her front though!

I am going into work for a keep in touch day tomorrow. Eilidh's grans are looking after her. Have only managed to express 10oz so far so better go and get pumping!

Hope you are all well.

hehe thanks bettymum

harverina definitely feel much better although i still have broken sleep so my body still needs to adjust to not having to wake up ha. i really need my sleep though, me and dh go to sleep at 9 on week nights thats how much we love our sleep!

we did something different last night and i am just wondering if people think this is ok?
Kacie has been getting tired earlier in the evening wanting to go to bed, so often we have had to give her her bottle at 7 instead of 8 which sometimes leads to her waking in the night. so last night rather than giving her her bottle early we just put her to bed at 7 and she went to sleep straight away without it. then before we were about to go to sleep at 9 we lifted her out, changed her to wake her slightly and gave her her bottle then. she drank all of it went straight back down and slept through. do you think this system is ok or do you think they definitely need the bottle before they go to bed as some sort of routine?

Hi all. Not managed to post on here in ages.

Hope your KIT day goes well harverina and Eilidh is good.

Princess your cards are amazing. Clever you and i'm impressed at you making all your own. I'll probably slope off to Tesco as usual.

Zeeky Your fat lad comment made me laugh. H is pretty chubby too. She can roll over but it takes a lot of effort.

Bettymum I'm with you on the sleep front. It's the ultimate quest in this house.

We had H christened on Sunday and it was the perfect day. I wa svery proud of both my girls.

We have started weaning. I started over a week ago and she was enthusiatic about the taste but struggled to swallow it. We've persevered in a low key way and I'd say last night's papaya was pretty successful.
I'm still losing on the battle of the bottle so I'm keen for solids to give me a bit longer between feeds- hopefully at night too.

I finally packed away the crib yesterday after it lying empty for a couple of weeks [sob] I can't believe how quickly our babies are growing.

Morning nicnac I think any system that works for you is great and if you can manage to get her to break the feed/sleep association this early then even better.

glad you had a good chirstening neeko Kacie's is in a month.

just came back on here to announce:
I CAN SEE A TOOTH!!!!!
how sad is it that that has made my day and i'm really excited and have to tell everyone. can't even feel it yet but can clearly see it there right under the gum. must be what the monaing has been about the past few days.

Yay Nicnac - just the one tooth? It is a proud moment.

I can see two under Billies gums, and my, she is a grumpy moo. My normally docile satisfied little angel is now a dribbling, moaning, screaming, waking three times a night cos she is rolling over, getting stuck, and feeling like a snack as she is awake, and therefore very tired... angel .

I have hurt my back too, so have to get DH to lift her . I have been camping 5 times since she was born, and she is now 16lb. I have been lifting her out of the drawer she sleeps in next to me (on a mat the thickness of a wafer)to feed etc, and this has strained my back which was already tender since the epidural. I will not be going camping again until I have a decent sleeping set-up.

Billie is still EBF, and I am looking into getting the weaning stuff together. She is just under 5 months.

hope your back feels better soon stinkypinky

i can feel the tooth this morning. she did a lot of moaning in the night so it must have been breaking through then, poor thing. she's a lot earlier than Ajay, he was 7 months before his first, Kacie is only 5 and a half months. dont think i can see the one next to it yet but will try and inspect more later ha.

Nicnac That's exactly how excited I was about DD1's first tooth. I think I texted about 30 people I can't see any in H yet but don't think it'll be long. Hope the christening goes well.

Stinkypinky ouch. Your poor back. Hope it's better soon. Do you have a fitball to maybe do some stretching exercises with?

Thats great nicnac! I'd be just as excited. Eilidh has very bumpy gums now. Ifeel them every day in the hope that there may be a wee bud, but nothing yet!

nicnac, I don't think that Kacie needs a bottle for her to have a routine. What your doing is dreamfeeding her whcih is what alot of people do. It's great that she took the bottle. We used to do it with Eilidh and the most she took was half an oz so we gave in! You an still have a good routine without a bottle i.e massage, bath etc.

We have a great routine at the moment. Eilidh usually has a feed, massage, bath, feed, bed. No matter how ong her feed before her bath, she always cries for a feed immediatly after her bath! She is in bed for 8pm every night now. We can't seem to get her in to bed any earlier, but we are happy with this just now.

We really need to think about E's christening soon. I said I'd have it around the month mark but thats in 2 weeks and we have done nothing!

How far in advance did everyone plan theirs? Did you all have a wee "do" afterwards?

Harverina We arranged H's about 7 weeks before. We have large families so there were about 80 people at the do afterwards It's a celebration of her life though and you only do it once.

Thanks Neeko xx
I'm back from Devon!! Was lovely, but the best bit was Makenzi-Shei made a lil friend, who she called Peter Rabbit...a wild rabbit that came and visited her every morning, since on the first day she seen it she threw him some bread, and he came back every breakfast time to get some more. She sang to him, chatted to him, and waved goodbye to him on the last day...soo adorable!!!
Soooo....JUDE'S GOT A TOOTH TOO!!! This morning he was rubbing his tongue funny on his gum, so I felt it, and there wsa definitely sharpness there...I haven't managed to see it yet, he pushes my finger away with his tongue, but it's deffo there..he doesn't mama babble, but dadada babbles, and he starting to blow raspberries too..it's mad that we all can talk about the same things they are all starting to do!!! He screeches in excitement as well, and his big sister is deffo his fave person, he's absolautely fascinated by her which is cute.
Nicnac I think what you're doing is perfectly fine xx
StinkyPinky I hope you feel better soon, it's no fun when your back gives in..it affects absolutely everything you do don't it!! xx

Stinkypinky how is your back? Hope its better.

Princess glad you had a good holiday, your DD sounds so cute!

Still no teeth here! Lots of rapberry blowing and still lots of high pitched screaming which is so funny!

sleepywombat (like your name change!) glad that Noah is a bit more settled - we haven't thought much about godmothers and fathers. I didn't realise that was the tradition so I am glad you said that! I think that we are going book the christening for early december, going to go to church next week to find out if thats possible.

Eilish is still wakening once in the night, normally always between 4 and 4.30am. She always takes a decent feed. I read somewhere that if babies waken at the same time every night its habit rather than hunger. Anyone else heard that? I always feed her wahen she wakens though, she always seems really hungry.

Hope you are all having a nice weekend. I am supposed to be doing housework so I'd better go. Feel like I am fighting a losing battle in this house these days!

Exciting stuff all the teeth & raspberries etc! Not sure if George is teething or not. Some days he is really grumpy and desperately gnawing at his fingers or anything he can get in his mouth & then he seems fine again.

We had 2 of each for godparents for both our boys as with ds1 we couldn't decide between two friends for godmother so had both, so then decided we should do the same for ds2.

My hip/back is playing up too. It gets worse from pushing ds1 on the buggy board. The extra weight on the back of the buggy makes it really difficult to steer & it seems to be my left hip that takes the strain. But as ds1's preschool is only a 15 walk away it seems daft to drive and I really need the exercise.

Hi. We had my brother for godfather and my DH's sister for godmother for both girls. God forbid that they should ever need to, but I'd like them to share the care of the girls should something happen to us.

A question for those of you BF. Are you finding it more draining now and when are you planning to stop? H isn't interested in solida or a bottle, yet I'm finding it more and more draining. She's awake for several hours in the middle of every night and is clearly needing more but I'm at a loss. I think I'd like to wind it down now, but don't want to go cold turkey. any tips anyone? H is such a different abbay to her sister...

Yes Neeko, I'm finding bf'ing more draining. I'm ready to get my body back now - fed up of breast pads, leaky boobs, ugly bras etc! I fed ds1 for 6 months. Once he started on solids and finally took a bottle I started weaning him off the breast which took about 5 or 6 weeks in total. I'm hoping to do the same this time. Planning to start solids in a couple of weeks.

Hi Zeeky Thanks for your post. I'm so slad it's not just me. Tell me again about DS1 taking a bottle after starting solids. Was it willingly without the tears and screaming? I want that to happen so much.

slad? glad

Neeko, I am feeling more drained than a very drained thing. Some days Alex is feeding every two hours, and sometimes is up two or three times in the night. I am getting really really down actually. It's sore and just exhausting. And I seem to be putting on weight again, which I cannot understand since I'm feeding so much and pushing buggy plus baby plus shopping up the hill most days.
I got him weighed yesterday, he's 17lbs 5 1/2, at 23 weeks, which is the same weight exactly as DD was at 39 weeks! So no wonder he's hungry. I had a chat to the HV, and she suggested I try a bit of baby rice. So he had a teaspoon of rice mixed with milk at teatime, his normal bedtime feed, and then he slept till 5am :). I plan to give him a spoon of rice for a week, and see how we go, I didn't want to wean till 26 weeks but we may start a little early after all. I don't want him to be miserable because he's hungry all the time.
Zeeky I splashed out on a couple of HotMilk bras (in the sale) this time, they are gorgeous! And actually make me look like I've got boobs, not just udders :).
I don't know when I'll stop, I was down to just morning and night feeds with DD at 8 months because I went back to work, and I fed her to 16 months but I'm just miserable with the feeding at the moment, it's just hard work and sore. It makes me feel very down to think that Alex might not get the same as DD. It might be OK once we're down to fewer feeds in a day.
Anyway moan over, we're off to our Dinky Dancers class :).

Bettymum I get really down too. I fed DD1 until almost 6 months (stopped to go back to work) but had hoped to mix feed H until 1 at least. I just need to know that she'll take a bottle and give me a break I think. I'm still clinging onto the hope that Zeeky's post gave me.

My head says that no one else will judge when I stop, but the nagging mummy-guilt voice is hard to ignore isn't it?

On the positive side she enthusiastically ate some papaya last night and some baby cereal this morning. Maybe we're turning a corner? Up 3x last night though!

I think that I have been extremely lucky with breastfeeding...I have had no problems at all and Eilidh does take a bottle to let me go to work/get out. I know how lucky I am, it's not as easy for most mums.

But the lack of sleep is really draining. Again, I don't want to moan too much as Eilidh is now only up once in the night at 4am after a long 8 hour sleep, but I still feel shattered.

I think that the tireness is just a 6 month build up of broken sleep. You never really catch up. And no one else can help you. I know I could express more and let my DH get up at the weekends.

Eilidh still feeds every 2-2.5 hours during the day, which I find ok. Some days when we are in the house she feeds every hour which can be hard. I know we are only sitting but even just sitting feeding can be hard!

I plan to just keep going. We are starting to wean Eilidh on saturday (drum roll...!). I am hoping that Eilidh will just self wean at some point, although I'm not really sure how that works!

Neeko, please don't feel that you will be judged for stopping. 6 months is a huge achievement - I think that anyone who has managed 6 months should be really proud, I know I am! You are right about the nagging mummy guilt though.

bettymum Eilidh was last weighed a few weeks ago and was only 14 lbs 9 oz so she isn't huge either, so I wouldn't worry too much about weight.

Hi All

Am just back from a fortnight in Fuerteventura. It was great. There were 20 of us - all family. DS2 was a wee star. We managed to keep him cool, hydrated, and happy. He loved the pool and slept through the loud entertainment so we could enjoy it with our other two kids.

While we were there my MIL bought him pureed fruit as there was talk of me weaning him on our return home. He was always eyeing up all of us eating and he had already had a few tastes of some fruit (eg, sucking on a cold melon) so we just started giving him some food there.

He will be 5 months in a week and has been exclusively bf until now. I was going to wait until 6 months but as he is such a big boy - over 20lbs - I think that he does need it. My other two (10 and 7) were both introduced to solids slightly before 4 months. I do feel like I have failed slightly but he loves the fruit and is even grabbing the spoon when I feed him. If I don't feed him fast enough he gets annoyed.

He also learnt to roll when we were away. The first roll was on the beach so it was a bit messy - sand everywhere . He now loves rolling but seems to only go over on one side.

Anyway we're now all back in the cold Highlands and have to get back into some sort of routine.

It took me ages to read all the posts I missed while away. It's so nice to hear all about all our little ones.