March 2010- Group Therapy on the cheap

[ValiumtheConqueror]

And cupcakes

Afternoon all!

Just back from a few days in gloriously sunny Somerset at my best mate's wedding. It was so nice to all be away together, Dh did lots of baby care (including a whole 8 hours with her on his own while I was at the 'hen day') and she got to spend time with my parents and friends too.

She was splendid at the wedding after being a little horror at the last one - slept through the ceremony, smiled at everyone during the drinks reception and was bathed and asleep upstairs (reception in a marquee in their parent's garden) before the meal. Oh and she looked super-cute in her little flower girl dress, with a little button hole. FB-ers I've put a few photos up.

Glad to hear anna and valium had good breaks too (well done on your 2 milestones Valium!!)- and well done on the Elk spotting Anna.

Manda I've just ordered a bumbo too. As well as a door bouncer and book about BLW (which I'm thinking of starting at 6 months ish).

Scooby what a PITA about the washing machines. Time to get out the mangle and do it old-fashioned style, eh?!! And a belated sorry about your Gran - very hard, but glad you are coping so well.

Siamese loads of nicknames: 'squiggley wiggler' or 'squiggles' is the most often used ones, but she gets called a whole host of things from 'bundle-features' to 'splodger'. I do try and call her by her actual name when I remember though.

IWCAS - sorry about the frequency of night feeds - am wondering if the heat is making them more thirsty at the mo so am plonking S on the breast every 5 mins during the day.

Manda long may the sleep continue.

Evitas congrats on your anniversary - it was our 3rd last week and we also braved going out for dinner and a friend came over. It was lovely and she was asleep the whole time. Hurrah!

Arcadie poor old DH and poor simeon on the sleep front. TTSP all round.

Right off to make lunch in total silence so as not to wake S up

p.s. hair still coming out at an alarming rate here - anyone else?

OMG rebecca massive hairloss still. Have to be careful not to block shower and flood house! Yuck!

And great shout out. You too pixie and can i just say that i think your kidlings have great names and nicknames. I think I want to be in your family

Bumbo I do have one (well, the Bebepod copy) but we have this highchair which is super-de-duper for keeping BabyV at nosey table height, whilst also protecting her from ToddlyV. I totally recommend it if you have the room (and have recently received a small bequest)

Valium I'm very . the high chair looks fantastic

Rebecca yes, still having hair loss. And congratulation on the anniversary.

Anna your holiday sounded peaceful! I can imagine the red house in the middle of the greenery and by the water...

Pixie lovely nick names

Blue Ds also seems to enjoy watching the games, but I always turn the TV off, otherwise he would very distracted

Arcadie good to see you

Paper is done and sent to supervisor! Took DS to the university today and he was a charmer
xxx

p.s. did I tell you all I've decided to train as a Doula?!

Very excited and happy to have made the decision and plan to start my training over the summer and begin working (free of charge at first to build up experience) in the autumn.

Well done on getting your paper in evitas and glad to hear everyone else is balding too!

evitas Well done

rebecca How lovely, bet you're really excited!

IWCAS How are you today after the sad news about your neighbour?

Scooby Hope they sort out your washing machine, sounds like it's definitely not fit for purpose, unless you're sticking a couple of cheeky plates in there too ;)

DD has taken to eyeing up any food that happens to be being eaten in front of her, I have a feeling that she's going to be helping herself to stuff long before the 6 month guideline, but if she's ready then it seems daft to force her to wait. Am encouraged by annamama's little girl rolling over as DD still hates tummy time, although she is doing rather well on rolling back-to-front, and spends the majority of her time on her side. She's really not coping with the heat, it's such a shame to be wishing away such a beautiful summer!

pixie hats off for that remarkable shout out
rebecca WoW to training to be a doula - how exciting!
valium that highchair looks very swish but sadly well above our budget! We have a servicable (sp?) Ikea antilop . . . .
well done to evitas I struggle to get my brain to function properly so can't imagine doing proper work!
On the Gill Rapley book I bought it after we had started weaning as I was interested, it is a bit full on but in her defence she is an academic (I think) which is why she makes reference to breastfeeding only as all her research was with breastfeeding infants. She does however say that it can work with FF babies too but that is not her area of expertise. TBH there are a lot of experts who don't really have any qualifications. . . . anyway the book is worth a read if you want to know more about the theory but it's not great for a step by step this is what you do week by week guide IYKWIM. Like mummyelk said I used the BLW forum/blog for inspiration/guidance/advice.
Glad holidays/wedding were good Valium/annamama/rebecca and hope illnesses are improving.
I feel shattered tonight and should really have gone to bed a long time ago!

Sorry if I came across a bit strong on the BLW book but I have a real horror of any parenting book that suggests whatever theory it's propounding is the only one and that anything else is incorrect/building up problems for the future. I think it's unfair on parents who by and large are trying to do their best and who may then be made to feel inadequate and guilty if the book's advice doesn't work for them or they don't follow it to the letter. As I suspect the parents who aren't any good don't actually read parenting books, I can't see the point of this style of writing. That doesn't stop me picking out the bits that make sense or work for me (and there's plenty about BLW that does make sense to me; DH on the other hand is aghast at the mess, having seen my completely BLW nephew eat. What he (DH) missed was quite how much and what he ate - very impressive!).

Rant over, sorry!

Evita, congratulations on getting your paper in, that's fab, you must be so pleased and relieved.

anna, holiday sounds fab, welcome back.

rebecca, hair coming out in fistfuls here too. And you sound so excited about your decision to train as a doula.

Downs: I think the initial diagnosis is from physical charcteristics including a lack of creases on the palm, then later from developmental issues? But I'm not an expert .

Scooby, how's the washing machine?

Pixie, your family always sounds so lovely.

Everyone, hope the aches and pains and horrors are better.

Some advise please
DS has his first tooth, and now, sometimes, he bites my nipple it really hurts...
What do you usually do to "correct"this?

ok, off to some exercise at the park
x

Morning all, will try to catch up before the thread runs away from me entirely. This hot weather has been making Isobel quite sleepy, and she's taken to having long naps about 9.30 till 11am. Of course I've now jinxed it by mentioning it..

Fliss I also got your name straight away, not sure if that means I have a dirty mind. I always did love a good spoonerism though! My DD is also getting fed up of her bouncy chair, but she slides out of it like this, rather than pulling herself up. She cries if I strap her into it though

Pacific I'm a bit late, but I'm sorry the paeds appt wasn't as helpful as you'd hoped. Hope the Losec is helping. My DH takes omeprazole to counteract the effect of NSAIDS for arthritis (well, technically ankylosing spondylitis since you're a GP and have probably heard if it!). Hope things are better for you anyway.

Shroomer how was the photo session? I've thought about doing something like that, they sometimes have one (Pixiphoto or something?) at my local Boots.

IWCAS hope you're feeling better after what happened with your neighbour. Did you find out how the fire started? Hope the nappy situation has improved/been resolved also.

Manda I'm really very unimaginative with nicknames; Isobel is usually 'sweetie pie' or 'little one'. DH calls her Izzy Wizzy or sometimes Izzle Wizzle Fo' Shizzle

Sariska hope your mastitis is OK, I know how painful it can be.

Welcome back Valium, hope you had a lovely time. Congrats on the it and the weaning. That high chair looks fab btw.

MummyElk sorry to hear you've been having a rough time, hope thing are better. Sleep vibes right backatcha

Arcadie poor DH Did you manage to rescue the scone sitation btw?

anna your summer house sounda amazing, am v. . Glad the travelling went well also.

Pixie impressive namechecking! Your family sounds like so much fun, I'd love to have a big family like that but I don't think I have the stamina (for child-rearing I mean, not, y'know, creating them ). DH has recently said that he's now not sure if he wants more than one child, since Isobel has been such hard work. I'd really like her to have a sibling, and she's actually been a relatively easy baby! We'll see, I guess.

Scooby did you get your washing machine sorted?

rebecca I saw the photos on FB, your DD looked lovely. Glad you had a good time I'm losing a lot of hair too; mine is very short so I only really notice it when I have a bath, and suddenly I find myself in some kind of hairy swamp. Doula training sounds exciting too.

Evitas do you work in scientific research then? I do (although on maternity leave atm), but am only a lowly technician. Well done on finishing the paper, and congrats on your wedding anniversary! No ideas about the biting I'm afraid; Isobel has taken to biting (or chewing ) me too, but I only breastfeed very occasionally.

Smac thanks for the water advice on my other thread. I tried her with some yesterday afternoon, she took about 2oz quite happily, so I'll keep it up if the weather stays hot.

RE weaning, I haven't really decided yet but I think I'll wait till about 5 months and see if she seems interested. Probably try a mixture purees and BLW, see what sticks (figuratively and literally?).

Hope everyone is enjoying the weather and that the LOs are coping/sleeping/feeding OK.

well done on all the shout out, fab posts!

still got nothing to add atm, although we like bumbo here too!

Hello everyone. Mastitis sorted now, thankfully. What with that, a coldly-fluey bug suffered by 2yo ds (temp of almost 40C and sweat just pouring off him) and dd's sleeping thrown all awry by the heat, it hasn't been a fun few days here. However ds is better now and it's a bit cooler so I've "celebrated" by spending 45 mins waiting in a queue for the Post Office's check and send passport service. At least dd slept through it all. And she also slept through the bit of clothes shopping I then indulged myself in. Must now not buy any more clothes. I have practically bought an entire new wardrobe since I had dd .

and ow at nipple biting evitas. I've not had a nipple biter but I have had a biter biter IYSWIM - and he started before he was young enough to discipline. Your lo probably doesn't even realise what he's doing - not that that's much consolation to you. Best thing IMO is simply to say "no" in a sternish tone but otherwise try not to make a big deal out of it. Babies can learn what "no" means from a pretty young age but a big fuss tends, for a young child, to be classified as An Interesting Reaction and may actually provoke the non-desired behaviour. Like everything else, it's just a phase - hopefully a short-lived one.

I also really like that high chair, Valium, but think I'll have to make do with the one I already have. Although I can't help thinking that there are a couple that would tone really very nicely with my kitchen .

BMI, I would place money on your dh changing his mind about more children. It's funny what the passage of time does to your memory of those first intense weeks and months. At any rate, I forgot well enough to agree to a second after several months of adament declarations of never again.

Your holiday sounds lovely, anna. Can we hold the MMMM there???

How are you today, IWCAS? I saw your other thread and agree with the other posters: a truly horrible thing to happen but totally not your fault. And if you are worried about fire in your flat, I presume you have working smoke alarms but did you know that you can also get escape ladders (rope, I think)? They might not seem massively practical with a baby but you do have a moby and having something like that might make you feel more secure. Maybe worth a call to the fire prevention officer at your local station? I'm sure they'd be happy to advise.

hi!
BMI Am impressed at your recent running - it may even have inspired me to get off fat arse go running myself, if nothing else than to feel a bit better on hols in september - we're off to Corfu with another couple with an 11 month old. Really looking forward to it but with no expectations as I know it will not be the same at all as previous hols - however I do know that DD will love the pool and her daddy can take her too for a change which he will love.

evitas maybe someone with a toddlyone can help, but I have read on here somewhere to push him in closer rather than pull him away when he does it. Also well done on handing in your work

bluey I have ordered the Gill Rapley book but I agree that parenting books shouldnt be so judgey. I take what i want and ignore the rest. Eg the baby whisperer - accidental parenting - could make me feel more crap than I already do if Im turning to a book..

Rebecca wow! A doula! What does training entail? I thought you were going to be my sleep consultant? DD is sleeping soooooo much better since I have had the courage to leave her for a bit to moan it out when I know she is tired. Yesterday she managed a 2 hour nap after self settling. (we wont speak about bedtime - yesterday went a little tits up but I think its the heat)
BTW you and S look gorgeous in the pics from the wedding.

fliss back to front rolling- very advanced! I too am slightly wishing away the heat as DD has a heat rash and I cant sleep well either. This may also have somehting to do with a new owl in the valley - a tawney with a horrid shriek that with the windows open is horrible. There is a barn owl too but I like their hoot - much more 'owly'

Valium that is a phenomnal high chair. Pixie that chair is funky too. I will be getting the Antilop like smac I think - looks easy to clean.

Anna glad you had a fab time for midsummer. I read somewhere that in Sweden it is far more usual to breastfeed till 2 years. Is that true? Do women bf more or less in public than here? I still feel awkward - MIL leaves the room like Im doing something odd..

pixie how was the ball, how did she look? gorgeous I bet. I liked reading that DD1 likes to cuddle the twins - my little sister is much younger than me and I loved looking after her when i was a teenager. Definitly had some kind of mothering thing going on with her as I keep calling my DD my lil sisters name! Also I text lil sister and tell her to put on suncream and not to get too drunk and to be careful all the time - I must seem so boring - but I worry! (shes at uni!!!)

arcadie poor old Dh. hope he feels better soon. Did he get to taste test your scones?

mummyelk wondered where you had gone! Hope things get better soon. I havent read any supernanny - is she similar to anyone else?

scooby my washing machine stopped working on friday. I called the super clever chinese washing machine repair man who arrived within 3 hours with just a screwdriver. He retrived a washable breastpad from the inner workings. Obviously nothing to do with me!!! But now i am putting said breast pads and little socks into little net bags to stop a repeat..

sariska hope the boobs are feeling better? I have recently started leaking during the day - this never happened before! not a good look..

mumof8 Im going to get the tray for the bumbo so that I can use it for BLW before she needs a high chair. Im starting at around 20 weeks to present food to her, but I really dont expect her to eat anything for a while, just make a mess

Manda yey for the sleep!

ICWAS leaks - the 'wraps' for washables arent 'plastic pants' in the traditional sense. I expect any leakage would be wicked away. Perhaps smac could advise?

waves to Flick sarah and where is Mainecoons?

Hope Pacific you are lurking and ok..

Argh! Had an awful night with DD and it wasn't even that hot

Had her 11pm bottle, DH put her to bed but was up by 12.30 to settle her again...and then me at 12.35...12.40 Ended up putting her in with us from 12.45ish, DH was in the middle of the bed by this point so DD was in my spot and I was right on the edge. They then both slept brilliantly but me, not so. Stiff as a board this morning. DD has been ultra lovely today though which has made up for it.

Not looking forward to this weekend, DH is away for 4 days on a DofE camping trip, we thought it was next week but realised yesterday that it's this Saturday he goes and isn't back until Tuesday I'm not good at getting out and about in the day and I don't drive, which means I'm going to have to make a concerted effort this weekend to make sure I see someone other than DD!

Hope the rest of you had a lovely night's sleep, and that the sore boobs have gone away

hey all just got in from slimming world class, lost another 1lb tonight, quite pleased with my weight loss, lost a stone since joining when ds was 4 weeks- total loss since 38 weeks preg 2.5stones!!!!woohoo stil have a long way to go but its heading in the right direction!

all good here in our household, life is as busy as every but loving it most of the time! even DD seems to be calming down again!

going to get DS weighed in the moring will report back how big my lil man is!

oohhh weaning has been going well he has had pureed butternut squash and pear tonight and loved it! i am quite sad and love weaning !!!!!

Thanks everyone for the advice. Lets see how he behaves in the next days. To be honest, I've been expressing a lot and give EBM in a bottle, he seems to prefer that way and (I know this is strange) I can see how much he has.

My best friend has just return from her honeymoon in The Maldives. The pictures look just amazing... I'm very To compensate all the envy I've been looking to the pictures we took in Portugal, we really had fun that day at the beach,.

Wish you all a good night and lets hope these babies let us all sleep a bit better!

OK, my baby is on the move.....left her on the floor whilst i went to the loo and came back to find her on the other side of the room. She is, unintentionally I hope, going backwards.....

Gorgeous pics from the beach Evitas!

Here is one of us in Sweden

Yeah let's have the MMMM in our summerhouse, you can all fly over with Ryanair.

Wow at moving baby Valium! Are you sure it wasn't DD1 who moved her? (That happened here.)

Good slimming Sarah, keep going!

Rebecca good luck with becoming a doula.

Siamese - I don't know that much about what goes on in Sweden but I think that yes people probably do BF for a bit longer and are maybe also more liberated. However there's a lot of anti-BF going on there too, it made me really mad last time around when I read on some blogs, article comments, etc where people said things like "it's disgusting to get your big boobs out in public" etc. Yeah yeah whatever, I don't care anymore. If I need to feed, I feed. No one really sees my boobs anyway and if they get a glimpse that's tough sh*t!

Ok, now please don't shoot me....... but baby Isabelle ate a chip last night! Well, she sucked on it. I decided to try a bit of BLW and put a lowfat lowsalt chip in her hand. She started sucking on it like a maniac. When I thought uh-oh this is a bit weird and took it away, she started crying inconsolablly! So I gave it back to her and she immediately stopped crying and sucked on it again. Crazy. We couldn't believe our eyes. Then she had some apple puree and this morning some baby rice, both of which she ate a few spoons of. Definitely ready for weaning even though she's only 3 1/2 months. She's always bloody hungry!

Hey all - scones finished yesterday. DH much better. Simeon sleeping better since weather cooled off slightly. Been up since 4:30 with feeding, nappy changing, notsleeping due to raging hunger, DH's early alarm going off.
I may have dozed slightly from 7:15-7:30 because when I heard DS1 knocking on my door and asked "where's Daddy?"
He said "He said to say he went to work."

Me: "When?"
DS1 "About 10 minutes ago".
So DS1(4) and DD(2) had been roaming the house for 10 mins whilst mummy tried to sleep. It's a wonder we're all still here to tell the tale!!!

LMAO Arcadie- that's the kind of thing my DH would do. Hope you felt refreshed after your nap I note you were a guest at a mn wedding this afternoon....I had to leave to change a nappy. Was it good?

We've had 2 bad nights
I have sore boobs RHS is worse.
DD2 has the snotters and isn't feeding much. I had really leaky boobs overnight as she wasn't taking enough and even though I kept offering the really sore one she hasn't drained it. I ended up expressing as I was really uncomfortable and even now she cries, I think because she is hungry, I offer boob, she takes a little, then goes scarlet screaming her head off she is pretty grumpy and so I am.
Because her nose is stuffy the dummy isn't giving her the usual satisfaction and she was thrashing around in the moses basket last night a lot. I ended up pulling her in beside me and keeping her quite propped up just to try and get a little bit of sleep.
I need chocolate ! Think it's a little early for gin!

Hello, ladies, I am writing this before I've read anything as I do not know how long my window of opportunity will last...

Hope you are all well and thriving (babies)/shrinking (mummies ) and enjoying the lovely weather.

I had to take a sabbatical from MN as RL was becoming a bit overwhelming, mainly due to Joe's utter inability to go/stay asleep whithout a certain part of my anatomy, sigh. Also DH recently had his on-call fortnight which means that I had all 4 of them on my own for getting ready for school/bedtimes and all the bits in between. It was v hard work and I barely had time or energy to speakk to DH if and when we actually saw each other, nevermind lurking or posting on here, sorry.

Joe has been seen by paeds. I found the consultatation a bit disappointing as I felt quite dismissed as making a mountain out of a molehill. Joe's weight was plotted on the 9th centile having been weighed there with his vest and nappy on. . The constant crying and not-going to sleep was dealt with by telling me to let him cry it out. . And I was told 'reflux is a diagnosis by history' and if I felt he had reflux then we would treat it with Losec/Omeprazole.

So, he has had 3 doses of Losec to far, it is horrible to give as cannot be giving in milk. Medicines syringe and hysterical pinned down baby it is then . Well, if it works then well worth it IMO.
And - drumroll - he is currently asleep in his cot (not Amby ) and has been for the last hour or so. This is the second time in his life that he has slept that long during the day on his own! He is now 16 weeks old and lovely with lots of smiles and long conversations with me or his brothers. 'Tis v cute when DS3 whose language is still rubbish 'talks' to him .

We are going on holiday on Saturday for 2 weeks and then off to Germany for another 2-3 weeks immediately thereafter.
Hopefully after that life will settle down a bit and I Shall Be Back more regularly.

I miss you guys but just need all my reserves for RL at the mo'.

Righto, DS3 is awake...

Ok, big boys all have a Mini-Magnum in the garden and Joe is still asleep, . That was me fainting btw.

Just read this page:

Re nipple biting: DS3 did this and he had his first tooth at 16 weeks, so ouch! Usually only at the very end of a feed and only a few times. I think my reaction (shouting v loudly and jumping up to the ceiling) was enough to put him off. I also tried to pull him towards me rather than off me to make him let go in order to breath rather than pulling my nipple off with his clenched gums IYKWIM. It is usually only a phase... oh how I have come to loathe that explanation (everything is just a phase but that does not not make it hard when you are in the midst of it..)

Re sore breasts and upset baby: Joe at times has refused the blocked breast I think mainly because he finds it difficult to latch on when v engorged and also because he does not get anything/much out (as it is blocked, duh!). No real advice, just persevere, take Brufen, do a bit of handexpressing to soften the nipple and massage etc etc. IME it takes 24 hours to clear, whatever I do or don't do. And it has always been the baby that did the trick, never the pump or handexpressing.

Well done to academic achievements, milestones, succesful holidays, overcoming yet more sleepless nights, illnesses etc etc.

And, yes, do lets go to anna's summer house for the MMMM .

And somebody please explain Flisspaps NN to me - I am too thick innocent to figure it out...

PD Piss flaps. Nice.

Oh dear.