Dec 09 - We've found our fingers, we've found our toes, what happens next nobody knows

[Claire236]

Starting new thread before we run out of room. Now to link from the old one. Could be interesting

Dd is now sitting eating her tea at grandmas house and is fine apparently.

I need to start my mum picking dd up from nursery school one lunchtime/week. I've just loved being with her sooo much since I've been on mat. leave and I really miss her when she is away from me all day .

Not sure how any of us are going to cope when I go back to work in Sept.

Yay. Glad she's happier.

LaDiDaDi - glad to hear your dd is happier now. Don't be sad about missing her, I'm also not looking forward to going back to work in September (and never thought that would be me), but I'm reminding myself that it will mean that the time I do spend with her will be real quality time and I'll be earning a bit of money to spend on more unnecessary lovely things for her!!!

We've got full on rolling both ways now and a lot of time being spent by Imogen trying to get to things. Earlier she managed to get to a candle (unlit) with all this decorative stuff around it and then dh had to jump off the sofa to grab her as she almost did a forward roll into a speaker whilst trying to crawl I think. I think we might be rearranging some bits in our front room tomorrow and constructing the playpen... Does the thought of their child being able to actually move terrify anyone else or is that just me?!?

Argh! I know I should not complain as Catherine is obviously becoming a better sleeper but the lack of a routine is really messing with my sleep and making me very grumpy. It's like, because I don't know when she's going to wake, I can't settle properly. I was used to midnight and 5am and I was coping - as were my boobs! - now were a mess!

In he past week she's done:

Monday night - woke at midnight and 5am
Tuesday night - woke at 10pm and 6am
Wednesday night - slept 7.30 till 5am
Thursday night - woke at midnight and 5am
Friday night - slept 7.30 till 5.20
Saturday night - woke at 11pm and 6am

I just want the same thing every night so my body clock can cope and my boobs don't explode! Fingers crossed that she settles soon. I'd even go back to the midnight and 5am feeds if it was the same every night!!

How is your DD LaDiDaDi?

Al - know exactly what you mean about the sleeping. Last night back to just two feeds again for first time since teeth cut through, but I never ever had any idea when she might wake up in the night. Last night we had 1.30 and 4.30. It would be so much easier if I knew it would be 11 and 4 am every night rather than the lottery of times it currently is!

Ok im not so bad now. What a very bizarre night. Went to watch football with some friends and ended up at a mates pub. Stayed till lock-up and then went to a house party. Was fun but didnt half regret it when trying to get some shut eye the next (same?) day and Jake was jumping on me!
I hope your DD is ok now LaDiDaDi.

Elizabeth seems to be getting back to normal now, she slept through last night because she wasnt as snuffly, fingers crossed it'll last. Al I completely agree about continuety, I wouldnt mind getting up in night if I knew I was. It's the suprise wakings that get me annoyed!

ABF - sounds like a great night, unplanned ones like that are always the best (and worst the next day!).

Imogen has just rejected her breastfeed before bed. Never before has she rejected me! We have been working on giving her formula during the day, and then finishing her off with a bf usually if necessary but she has guzzled loads today - she had 150 mls in one go and then wanted more!!! Usually she only has 90 mls at a time. Obviously then I had a little cry, but v short as I have been worrying about her feeding next saturday when I'm out at a hen do and when I go back to work for 5 days in July and now I know she will be absolutely fine. I'll be interested to see how that affects what happens in the night - she'll probably wake up after 45 minutes and be starving or something!!!!

Thank you all for being so concerned about me and dd. She's been fine today, really well behaved actually and ds took formula, after a bit of a battle, at bed time so hopefully everything's going to work out. I had been thinking about trying to do without formula but it's so hard trying to work out what is best for both dc in the short term and long term. I think that introducing ff will be the best option for us now though I will doubtless sob buckets if ds rejects me!

She's not rejecting you hendo, just the breast. Bottle feeding is so much easier than breastfeeding, a lot of mix fed babies prefer the bottles. And at least it means you can leave her without worrying. I need to try Catherine with one again but I'm not sure I can face the tears! Might try going stright to a cup instead?

Very of your night out ABF. Not sure I could possibly stay out all night anymore. Could never have done a 7am finish even when I was at uni. Rockcity in Nottingham used to do an 'all nighter' till 4am and that used to be my absolute limit!

No idea what to expect from Catherine tonight. She went own easily and has eaten plenty today but I just never know these days. If she's doing one broekn, one full then she should be on a full nights sleep but who knows!? Glad no-one thought I was being ungrateful about her sleeping earlier!

We really need to chose a new thread title soon. This one is getting very close to the end now...

She's just woken up and feed quite a lot from me so not completely rejected just yet then! Al, with the bottle I thought I was going to have to go straight to the cup as well but perserverance over the last two weeks has been successful it would seem. Someone on the thread about bottle feeding that I think you commented on ages ago had some good advice (halfmumhalfbiscuit or something similar)? She did what I did which was to make sure the milk was heated (as hot as possible without being too hot!), offer bottle about half an hour before feed was due, if rejected do something distracting then try again in 10 minutes, try up to three times then leave it until another time. I also found showing Imogen the bottle and letting her reach for it and put it in her mouth was important - a lot of the time she just pulled it in and out rubbing it against her gums and chewing on the teat and then she'd drink maybe just 10mls to start with, this slowly has increased over time and today she had 150 mls in one go. We did one day at the weekend where I didn't bf her all day between 10 and bedtime and dh was there so he did the feeding and I hid upstairs trying to ignore the screaming and tears. We only had to do this one day before she started drinking little bits and over the last two weeks we have come this far. Don't know if that helps at all though for you. Oh yes and we also bought the 6 month + teats as I thought if she was hungry and it came out faster she might think that was a good thing which I think she does!

Threat titles suggested so far have been:

Dec ?09 ? We have babies!

Dec '09 - Twinkle, twinkle little stars - the one where they all sleep through the night.

Dec '09 - The (Mental) Health Preservation Society

Dec ?09 ? We?re learning to roll, we?re learning to eat, all we need now is to learn how to sleep!

I have no ideas of my own [dullard emoticon] but I probably like the last one on the list best.

Hopefully the thread after next will not need to be "We're learning to walk, we're learning to talk, all we need now is to learn how to sleep"

Ahhh LaDiDaDi, if that was the case I would have to insist on the thread title being "AHHH ~Why the fuck wont you sleep??"

The night out was fun and im going to be doing all again soon for my friends birthday! Ahhh Im a glutton for punishment!

Elizabeth was evil last night. total of 21oz of milk she insisted on drinking during the twilight hours. (she must take after mummy )

In perfect Catherine style, she decided on 3am for last nights feed. Plus a 4am screaming session when I attempted to relocate her back to the cot!

She then slept until 6.30 but thankfully, coo-ed in her cot until 7am so I could have a little bit of extra sleep. Alex has a gro bag clock and has to stay in his room until the sun comes up and I've finally managed to move that back till 7am too! He always used to sleep till 7am but Catherine arriving changed things and we've been working on getting that extra hour or so back...

ABF - I LOVE that thread title actually!!! That's all I was saying in my head last night.

Al - it seems 3 am was the time to be up last night. Imogen woke up, not hungry having already eaten at 9.20, 9.50 and 1.30 and just screamed and cried as we tried to resettle her for about 45 minutes. I tried feeding her but she wasn't interested, although as soon as the light was on a little bit she was quite happy and basically just wanted to be awake. In the end I just let her play and she eventually went back to sleep just before 5 after a feed but then didn't wake me up until nearly 9 am!!!

I think I might be popping back to bed if she has a nice nap at lunchtime today...

ds fed at midnightish then again at 4am, after that ff my boobs felt like they would burst, in fact I was awake hoping he would wake !

Having said all of that those times could be well wrong. This morning I heard dp get up and leave for work and I did think that he was early but I didn't ask, just dozed off for a bit then woke up, dc still sleeping, and thought "oh, great I've got time to get all dressed and ready myself before I wake them". Anyway eventually come downstairs to make breakfast and look at kitchen clock 8.50, ten minutes to get breakfasted, shoes on, teeth cleaned, ds dressed and to nursery! Needless to say we were 10 min late. Clock in bedroom must be running slow!

I don't think that ds has actually ingested anything yet other than a tiny bit of broccoli that came through in a nappy on Saturday. He just looks at his food, puts it in his mouth and then seems to get very angry followed by the occasional gag and vomit if he tries to swallow something. Can't remember blw being like this with dd but that feels like ages ago now so maybe she was like this and I've just forgotten?

I seem to remember waiting till Jake was about 8-9 months before I started BLW properly. Until then im sure I just gave purees and bits of fruit/veg in the net contraption.

Oh, I'd love to do that! Not an option with a 3 year old in the house though

Ds is in a real grump this morning. I did have loads of plans of stuff to do before I pick dd up but it's all going out ofthe window atm.

At the time the HV's told me to give Alex cooled, boiled water with a tiny bit (about a teaspoon I think) of Apple juice in it to help his constipation. Also, leaving his food a bit runnier can help so maybe add a little more water or milk when you're making the food up. It will pass but its awful to see them struggle isn't it

Not sure about the rash. We're giving new foods in 4 day batches - so she had nothing but baby rice for 4 days, then nothing but baby rice and pear for 4 days, then baby rice pear and apple for 4 days...etc. 4 days is enough time for a reaction to occur so it's easy to spot what, if anything, is causing a reaction. We've had nothing so far... It might just be the fruit acids on his delicate skin??

I went to uni in Loughborough so we were often in Nottingham for night out as there is very little to do there. I had my hen night in Nottingham too. Some of my best night out happened in that city

I can now report that ds has definitely eaten some orange and some carrot in addition to the broccoli that I already knew about! So perhaps weaning isn't going wuite as badly as I thought.

Going to try with formula at bedtime again, hope that if I persist with that for a few days then I might manage to change his first feed of the night to formula too.

LaDiDaDi - I thought Imogen wasn't swallowing anything at all, but her nappies these days seem to be full of bits of food so I think she must be swallowing more than I thought. She still spits out food if she feels it's too big for her mouth and I think a lot gets washed down with water that I give her sips for that very reason.

I've decided to go with just formula today to see how much she'll actually drink and whether I can then increase that to be enough for her to sleep through the night. Having got over my initial upset about stopping bfing, I'm now feeling v relieved about the whole thing tbh and am much less worried about leaving her. So far today she has had 400 ml of formula! I've now bought some of the powdered stuff and will try that if she continues to be happy with the bottle. I can't actually believe this is the same baby that screamed with full on tears like I was trying to murder her when trying to give her a bottle a few weeks ago!

If no-one has any objections then I'll start a new thread in a bit then? I've never started a thread before... (easily excited me!!!)

Go on hendo, dare you to start a thread .

Hoping my ds follow's in your dd's footsteps re weaing and formula!

Never one to turn down a dare... hope this link to new thread works...

LaDiDaDi - I'm sure he will wean and love formula very soon. Perhaps your ds could teach her how to sleep through the night though?!?