March 2010- Group Therapy on the cheap

[ValiumtheConqueror]

And cupcakes

Quick shout to those desperate for sleep - baa baa black out blinds(aka gro blinds) are a miracle. The room gets soooo dark any little bugger will sleep! The best 30 quid I've ever spent. If you have a non sleeper or an early riser I swear it makes all the difference!

I second Scooby's plug. We have 2 baa baa blinds and they rock and they are PORTABLE.... in fact I do believe they featured in the list of "things I wouldn't be without when LO comes" in one of our antenatal threads.

Hi everyone,

we are back from our trip.
I've been reading the posts but didn't have time to write anything.
Our trip was nice but very exhausting and DS lost all his routines. Hopefully he will settle in the next weeks.
I'm going to check his weight because it has been really hard to feed him. I'll have a chat with HV to see if we can start on solids.

I'll post more late
Hope you are all well
xxx

Hi, just checking in, am a bit preoccupied with no-sleeping/slow wt gain issues and have Joe on boob most of the day (and night). Am coping ok as I am getting a sleep, what with all the co-sleeping....

Hope you are all well.

Hello?
echo echo......
I thought Id miss loads being in the land that time forgot (norfolk) for five days but things seem to be unusually quiet round here...

Rebecca is my sleep guru - because you had the strength to let LO cry it out ( nicely) I have given it a go too. So instead of rushing to her side as soon as she squeaks, Ive left her and it turns out she falls asleep after about 3 minutes grizzling. Not even proper crying. I suppose when she does esculate to crying is when she is actually hungry.. Maybe Ill be getting up a fair fewer times tonight if I apply that theory..

Norfolk with mum and Dad was lovely but they certainly live in the 70s world of parenting. They (with medical backgrounds) suggested the use of a sedative to get babies to sleep through - turns out all three of us were frequently doped up - and Ill bet the rest of the thread may have been too! But t was nice to see them with DD and they made her giggle lots, which is more than I can do..
She also rolled over front to back a couple of times - surprising both of us by the look on her face!! She also loved their huge corner bath - she likes to lie flat with her ears underwater and move her arms and legs like she is making snow angels, its so cute!! She seems so chilled and contemplative in the bath..

Dark rooms - it was clear that the darker room works to me when she woke up and wanted to play at 5am at my parents house because they dnt have blinds. After I tinfoiled the window (!) she slept way longer..

Wave to everyone - are you all on holiday?

Morning all!

What happened to everyone yesterday? Mass abduction by aliens?

Siamese am giggling away at thought of being anyone's sleep guru (or indeed guru of any kind). So glad though that she's going back to sleep though after just a few minutes grizzling.

This sleep training stuff is really, really hard though and there's a big chunk of me that's thinking 'this is wrong, she's still really little, just go and pick her up' but, for the first time yesterday she slept for the full hour for her first nap and 2 hrs 15 mins over lunch without waking.

Afternoons are a bit trickier - the timings aren't working and she won't sleep for longer than 40 mins, but then is too tired to make it to bedtime, so I'm havign to do that earlier (which means DH misses it). I rang the sleep lady and she's changed it a bit so we are giving it a go today.

I also let her know that she had slept through a couple of times, but her wake up time is anywhere between 5.30 and 7 and the Monday night she added an extra waking at 2.15. She advised not feeding her before 7 if at all possible (as she'd proved she could do it) and definitely not before 5.30.

I really ummmed and ahhhed as there's a big part of me that thinks some nights she may be hungrier, what about growth spurts, breast feeding is about more than nutrition, but I decided to give it a go just for 4 nights and stop if it didn't work/was too hard. Everything else this woman said seems to work and is radically improving my life, so I have to try it especially as she said a consistent wake-up time is crucial to successful naps.

So of course last night she woke at 2. We'd agreed I would try and settle her and if I failed DH would but I couldn't do it - I knew I'd cave and feed her straight away (I started leaking milk and aching as soon as she cried for more than 2 mins). It took 1 hour 30 mins (with 15 mins of quiet in the middle) and it was awful. I was crying with head under pillow feeling like worst mother in world. But DH just let her suck his finger, cuddled her etc. and she went back to sleep eventually and had to be woken at 7am. Am reassured she wasn't actually hungry and will persevere tonight (as long as DH gets up) but if she keeps waking at that time and taking longer than 10 mins to settle I will just give in and feed her.

Arcadie / scooby thanks for baa baa blinds tip - am so getting some of those for our trip to somerset next week.

siamese - they are super cute when loving the bath aren't they - Sofya's splashing ahs me in bits.

Pacific sorry to hear things are still really tough for you. You are being really amazing - hang on in there. Can't be long until the paed appointment can it now?

evitas checking in with a lot of my friends with LOs of the same age as ours they are all quite hard to feed. Really distracted - feed for a couple of minutes, smile at mummy, squirm, look around, pull on and off and eventually start crying. There's stuff about it on kellymom www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/distractible-baby.html and 4 months is a really common time for it to escalate. This may not be what you are experiencing, but if it is it seems really common. Also they do feed much more quickly at this age - I do struggle to believe Sofya has managed to fill herself up in 10 mins, but it is fairly consistent and she isn't hungry between feeds so guess she must just be gulping fast!

Arcadie - any lasagne left over you can send my way?

Gosh, yes, it was quiet yesterday, wasn't it? Not on holiday here, althoughdid get more passport photos done (light grey background this time!). Pixie, I did check with the airline but unfortunately they do require infants to have photographic id, even for flights to Scotland. It's a bit of a joke really; ds is always scrutinised really carefully at passport control as, not surprisingly, he now bears little resemblance to the 2 week old in his passport photo.

Sleep sounds like it's progressing really well, rebecca, and glad it's making you feel more in control.

Sorry things aren't going so well for you, PD. Maybe it would help to know that we are still mostly co-sleeping? I'm not sleeping as well as before because DH has moved back from the spareroom (with my encouragement) but am coping. I just wish I could get her to go to bed in the evenings. Instead, she stays up (albeit asleep in the sling) until I go to bed. A darkened room (although no baa baa blinds - on order - and white noise make no difference. It seems she just wants to be with me. .... Which is nice but I can't help getting a little frustrated. Mind you, yesterday's sleep webchat made me feel more relaxed about it all, especially the reminder that babies are hardwired to need to be near their parent when going to sleep because of the ancestral risk of predators. Hence, I
guess, the need to gently introduce ways of making
them feel safe and protected without you.

Your account of the baby first aid course was interesting, donttry. I've found one here, which I'm definitely going to go on. I just need to work out some childcare arrangements.

Loved the account of your dd in the bath, Siamese. My dd adores her bath, too. We have one of those ergonomic bath supports Heckle linked to, and it means she can work her arms and legs like a windmill. Such fun! Hopefully this means she'll enjoy the swimming lessons she'll be starting in September.

Am still umming and ahhing about Pushy Mothers, although good to know that your friend likes it, Flip. There don't seem to be any turn up and pay on the day classes here, unfortunately. Am also wondering if my pram is suitable. It's a Phil & Ted so dd is very low (and has outgrown the cocoon) - just the right height for bumping into and getting splashed with mud if I
was to jog along, although presumably the raincover would deal with the splashing. Actually, I wonder if I could use the car seat attachment? Hmmm.....

Long rambly post, sorry. Will go and change a nappy now!

Hi all,

rebeccacad thank you very much for the link. HV said exactly the same thing that one reason why DS's not feeding well might be because he's distracted. Another reason might be that the milk's flow is not as fast as he wants, so she advised me to drink plenty of water. She also checked his gums and it seems that two teeth are on their way . Although it might take a while for them to pop up it can be a reason to disturb him.
He dropped two percentiles... but still on a healthy weight so nothing to worry for now. I'm booked for a weaning session on Monday, so hopefully I'll start introducing solids soon.
Last night he woke up crying at 10.45pm, 3am, 5am, 7am... I feed him, but he was on the breast for 2 minutes and fell asleep. I guess he was not really hungry just looking for some comfort. rebeccacad/siamese I wish I had your energy to let him cry... I might give it a go one of these days.
DS had his injections this morning. HV suggested that I should give him calpol 20 minutes before the appointment. It seemed to work, he's not as grumpy as usual.

Arcadie/scooby I've ordered the baa baa blinds! I think it will be very useful because up here in Scotland we are just getting a few hours of darkness.

xxx

Rebeccacad Sorry medear. All the lasagne got yoinked.

I've just spent 45 mins doing my first tesco food delivery. I'm ALL WRUNG OUT. My neighbour said I could enter some moneysavingexpert voucher thingy and get 1000 points for 50 quids worth of shopping. Which I have, And now I'm going to flamingo land. (or something like it) Yay me.

Anyone else do Tesco.? Have I just been a complete tool by clicking the "don't substitute my stuff" box? Am I likely to only get 5 items out of the 100 or so I bought? I chose the stuff carefully and didn't just want any old thing. But I also don't want to have to go BACK to the shops because I didn't get half the things I wanted. sigh

I reckon you did right by clicking the no substitutions button, Arcadie. I've never used Tesco home delivery but have heard from friends that they can be rather wide-of-the-mark in their substitutions. Certainly, I used to find that Sainsbury's were. So much so, in fact, that I stopped using them. Now I use Occado. I hardly ever have substitutions but those that there are have always been absolutely fine. And I am rather a bit fussy. No Flamingo land though . The most I get is a free copy of the Times.

Hope your LO is ok after his vaccination, evitas. We're just back from my dd's second dose. Our nurse also recommended immediate calpol after hearing how upset she was last time. She's asleep at the moment so will see how she is when she wakes up.

Flying visit from me

Arcadie I use Tesco and they've been fine, though I do just usually decline the substitutions (the only thing they seem to substitute on my orders is fair trade bananas, and I only buy fair trade bananas...). Also, you're the reason I bought black out blinds! I think it was you who said they're essentials way back in the mists of time...

Evitas glad you had a good holiday!

Siamese also glad you had a good time. at your parents, but then my mum says things like "gripe water's useless since they took the alcohol out of it". The 70s were a different planet!

Rebecca so glad to hear the sleeping's going so well

Sariska I must check out the sleep thread. A friend has been emailing me about it and it sounds v interesting.

So my DS (3 months today!) rolled from his back to his front yesterday...he started rolling from his front to his back last week but wasn't expecting the roll from his back so soon. Am definitely only changing him on the floor from now on!

Right, he's just started grizzling. Will try and lurk get back later.

2 sleeping girls and one sleeping Grandpa, Granny out walking the dog so all quiet chez Smac so I've got a few minutes to catch up.
I've got a massive bandage on my arm today and feel very self concious as it's roasting hot today and I can't cover it. I got my implant today and I think the nurse went a bit OTT with the bandage. She says I'm to keep it on til tonight and keep the dressing on for 3-4 days! I stupidly thought I'd be able to go to Waterbabies as normal . In the end Granny came with us but Baby G was seriously unhappy! DD1 loved the classes but I'm thinking that we won't be rebooking for term 2 at this rate
No rolling here and definitely no sleeping through, in fact night feeds seem to be more frequent! Last night was 1.30, 3.30 and 5.30 which is not good. She also refused to take a bottle the other night, DH and I had gone out for a meal and the grandparents were babysitting so I left a bottle of EBM for her but she didn't want it . I did persist and encourage her to take it despite a lot of fussing screaming. I really need to get in the habit of pumping and using bottles more frequently as I don't want her to start refusing bottles as it is so restrictive and at some point I will want to switch over to formula. I was very regular at pumping with DD1 and she never ever refused a bottle so I suppose I forgot it's best to keep offering regularly rather than just thinking 'oh yes she takes a bottle'.
My latest worry has been about car seats for my giant baby. As I mentioned before Baby G was 17lb 3 last week and if she continues on her percentile she will reach 20lb/9kg at 20/22 weeks according to the red book but she will be far too small and undeveloped for a class 1 seat so I think I'm going to have to get a combi class 0 class1+ seat. DH called a place about the rear facing ones that I've read about on here and elsewhere on the internet as rearfacing for as long as possible is supposed to be safest but he recommended this seat
ah got to go Baby G needs me!

I went to sleep about midnight and James first awoke me at 1am. THen 2.30. Then 3. Then 4. Then about 4.40. Then 5.20. Stayed awake for a while. Back to sleep at 6. Until about 6.30. Then again at just after 7. I was very close to tears at some points. I was half trying to get him back to sleep with the dummy half way through the night as that seems to be what he is basically using me as but it didn't turn out too well. He cried. Until I gave him boob. Then awoke roughly half hour later.

I have had a headache all day despite taking paracetamol. I think I'm getting my period (certainly very light bleeding. Would also explain my choc brownie addiction the last couple of days) which I can't believe. Feeling pretty low today and he's been pretty fractious all day (crying unless he has boob to the point of puking an alarming amount because he must have imbibed far more than he needed/could hold) until about half an hour ago when he became all coo-ey.

My kingdom for a nights sleep.

Oh Manda poor you. No wisdow to offer I'm afraid apart from this will pass.

Think I might be ovulating - so soon!

DD had her jabs yesterday and is generally fine but is absolutely screaming now - her head knocked against my teeth and I think it hurt her a lot. Must go an rescue DH...

Off on hols tomorrow so "see" you all when I'm back in a week or so xx

Oh god, am feeling broody tonight. Someone talk me out of it. Help!

Ah, what a difference a day makes.

OK, so I 'only' got to sleep from 12-3.30, then a very quick feed (me laying down not even eyes open) and back to sleep until 6.30 then same again and back to sleep until about 7.20

James awoke very happy and gurgly and I (sadly) feel like I've had more sleep than I ever had in my whole life. I say sadly as since when is 7 hours (interupted) a great nights sleep? Especially as I am someone who will sleep for ten hours straight if an alarm doesn't wake me...

He just went back down about ten to ten so naturally I've washed down the sofas (leather), put washing in the machine, put away washing that was on the line. The sky outside is bright blue the sun is shining and I'm determined to get out for a walk at some point.

That TTSP mantra is on the money, eh? Of course, I could be straight back to half hour wakings tonight but for now? It's passed and I feel good.

rebecca don't look at me to talk you out of broodiness I know in my head I don't want another but my heart is yearning too.

And I have no idea what my small bleed was yesterday as it seems to have vanished today - I hope it wasn't either a) ovulation spotting or b) implantation bleed. I've had neither before but knowing my luck... . I suppose it could just be spotting before old aunt flo arrives in earnest. We'll see.

Hope everyone is feeling as chirpy as I am!

hi all,

have been ill- with tonsilitis last week, got over thsat and have now been struck with a 24hr stomach bug! enough of being ill i want to enjoy the sunshine! lol

kids all good here Rosie is stll keeping me on my toes! had the date for her last op - july 14th! hopefully all will be fine and the whole drama will be over for good!

dh saw consultant on tues- he will be snipped at some point in the next month! boohoo i feel quite sad about it- however my head is telling me its the right thing to do 3 children is more than enough to keep me busy and my bank balance low!!!!

got my one stobne award at slimming world tues night, i am really pleased lost a sone in 12 weeks!

Three cheers for a good night's sleep, Manda. I think it's the 3 hour blocks that make a difference. Well, they do for me anyway.

I also think that feelings of broodiness increase with quantities of sleep attained. At least, that's how it was with me anyway. Remains to be seen if the same will be true this time but I have to admit to a slightly wistful feeling of wouldn't it be nice. Will not give in to it (don't think dh would let me anyway) because I don't want another child, just another pregnancy and newborn IYKWIM. Madness, I know.

I'm going to scuttle away now before I out myself as a total loon - although will just say, Sarah, I hope you're better very soon. I've gathered from FB that you've all been rather unlucky with illness recently. Not fair, especially in this lovely weather.

resurfacing after two days of high fever with a swollen, red boob - oh the joys of mastitis. On antibots for the next 5 days. Drain those boobs ladies, I think pumping (increasing production) and then not ensuring boobs are fully empty did it. It sucks and is bloody sore.

Hope you're all well - and Manda the sleep is better now.

MANDA HOPE the sleep is better now...durrh. Off to bed now.

yay i feel human again,

hope your anti biotics kick in quick afri! get well !

Hello all, am on iPhone so will keep it brief - and I'm BOUND to forget people so first let me wave my Wand of Love around so you don't feel like I'm ignoring you (hmm...not sure that was quite the analogy I meant.. far too phallic)
iwcas also lovely to meet you finally and sorry I kept being distracted by naughty Elks. Agree, the time of Whole Conversations seems like a long time past. Ramsey is lush, ladies she is doing a good job there (obviously down to all the good advice on here...)
rebeccacad am also massively broody, wld be quite happy to be pg again (remember all the whining I did?! It seriously not a good plan) I can't ge the thought out of my mind. Having said that, I would actually have to have sex to do that. Some days dh and I don't really
get to have a conversation, let alone Deeds. Still, there's a part of me that wld quite like to let nature take its course. Partly it's down to a fair few friends just getting ready for their new ones to arrive and, whatever you think, I do feel like that last month of pg and first few weeks of birth/noewbornness is pretty special.
Right. This has taken me ages. Will come back in a bit. Hope you all ok.