north of the border - bulging bumps and bonnie bairns!

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folks - thought it was time for a new thread with a new title for all those whose LO are out! i thnk we shoud be aiming for a meet up in May / June?? - what do you reckon?

evening folks. greetings from ireland and a huge hello to all the newbies. great to have you here - looking forward to new bubba news!

caoimhe is still up at about 1.30am and 5am for feeds but has started to wake up when i go to bed about 11pm. no doubt creating a bad habit but only way to get her down is to feed her. she is in our room in her amby nest and i dont plan to move her out til 6 mths - note the emphasis on plan as may well have to.

i am letting her smell our food and at our meal times put a spoon i her mouth to get her used to it.

meant to say liath, I also wonder if it's something to do with bf - ds1 was also ff after about 3 months and is a fantasstic sleeper. Sigh.

Hiya WO! I have to feed ds down to sleep too.

Midnight, I hadn't realised what a difference there would be between BF and FF. I am really proud of myself for doing it where I didn't manage last time but and I actually enjoyed bottle-feeding more than BF . Not to mention the advantage that I wasn't as tied to the baby and other people could feed her.

However, being bloody-minded am going to keep going - easier than carting bottles around anyway!

I know what you mean Liath - I have mostly enjoyed bf and am v proud of myself after disaster with ds1, but ds2 not at all interested in a bottle so would be great if he'd sleep a bit better so dp and I could go out. Just once. Have bought doidy cup and am going to try getting him to drink from that and bypass bottles altogether. Also feeding him to sleep, so sounds like we're all in the same boat. All this stuff they don't tell you ...

Hi all, and hi all newbies
Myweegirl, Hello, I recognise you from the due in august thread - I had to give up on that one as everyone talked too much and i just couldn't keep up! I wonder if you've gone into labour yet??! my ds was born early.

re: breastfeeding and co-sleeping - have to say I did this with dd1 and dd2 (til about 17 months) and neither of them slept through properly until i night weaned them. i continued to feed them during the day, but it was the night weaning that made hte difference. Co-sleeping also made things easier, but sopmetimes they'd latch on when not really hungry, just cos i was there - and neither of them ever managed to take a bottle - only cups. But wouldn't change the way i did it

Hi there, can I ask the working mums when they went back to work after having their babies? I think that financially I may have to go back when the baby is 5 or 6 months...is that realistic?? And any ideas about when will I be able to work up to before the baby is born?? I'm due at the end of November and so not really sure when I should finish up working!! The later the better so that I can have my time at the other end. All advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Shell x

hello to all of you!!

hi fairy! i finished work in the middle of march - bubba due 18th april. really really glad i had that month to chill, relax and get prepared for her arival. loking back - i think it was part of the reason why i had a nice labour. i am lucky enough to not have to go back til the new year - i had saved all last years annual leave to be able to do that! dreading the thought tho' - a real surprise as i love work so much!

Hi fairybit - I took a month before both bubs and really glad I did as my job is pretty stressful and I didn't realise how knackered I was until I stopped (and you certainly won't get much time for relaxing after the LO arrives ). But like WO I was able to take longer ML - if I could only take 5 or 6 months I think I'd probably have worked longer to have the time with the babies. I work with someone who went into labour before she finished work - not sure I'd like to cut it that fine.

It's horrible leaving them for the first time, and tbh I still don't like it (I make dp take ds1 to nursery - I go and collect him and get all the smiles).

Loulee - thanks for that - did you not night wean until 17 months then? Or earlier? And how did you do it??? DS2 kicks up such a stink if I try to persuade him to go back to sleep without a feed, even when he's not really hungry.

Hi Fairybit, unlike the others, i left it til the last minute - well probably 2 weeks before with dd1 and 1 week before with dd2 - was fed up towards the end and tired (and stressed!), but as I work for myself, I was finding it hard to turn down work..nice having all the time after - though knowing me I'll start taking on little bits of work round about new year. I work from home though, so it's a bit different.

Midnight - yeah, I didn't night wean dd1 til 17months - seems totally mad, but sort of didn't know how to stop and we were co-sleeping so it was no big deal feeding her once during the night. DD2 we did a bit different - we night weaned her at 11 months and I just continued feeding her during the day. it was quite easy in retrospect. about 3 nights of dp getting up with dd2 each time she woke and by the 3rd night she was sleeping through. I slept in the living room Any time i tried to do it, it just wasn't working and she'd take 10x as long to settle. Think we had a rule if she woke before 11, I'd feed her, if it was after 11, dp would put her back to sleep - and I'd take over again from 7am. hope that helps - remember it felt rather daunting at the time!

Thanks Loulee, that's encouraging - sort of how we thought we'd have to do it. I can't believe His Nibs will buy it (what a set of lungs he's got), but I guess it's just a habit that we'll have to break at some point and it'll be fine.

How are the norks doing WO? Hope you've managed to get it all sorted out? I think I've got a blocked duct brewing. OUch.

GMM - any news on the meet-up? We'll be away from middle of next week, but should be able to get my MN fix while away.

hi folks. quick post here - wanna try and get meet up sorted - gmm has been thinking about it.

what we gonna do for this meet up?? could you post back with your thoughts ??
days - is it better for folks weekends or thrugh the week?
dates - end of aug or early sept?
venue - do we want to have it somewhere for food, coffee or something else? i guess it woudl be better to have it with activity areas for other LOs?
do you want it in central belt - glasgow or edinburgh.
what about times- mornng or afternoon/.

sorry to bombard with questions but it might give us a idea to work on?

hope you are having a good week. is it sunny in scotland??

Has been gorgeous here past couple of days WO. Hope it's as nice in Ireland.

I'm away first 2 weeks in sept so end aug best for me.

Location doesn't matter too much to me. Not too keen on driving to places I don't know, but really need to get over that .

Weekday afternoons best for me.

Tried DS with Neocate (hypoallergenic formula) today. He wouldn't take enough of it to determine whether he is allergic to it or not, LOL. HV said that she could see why I'm having trouble getting him to take solids!!

Trixy, my neice who is 6 months old has just been prescribed neocate...and hates it. My brother and SIL just can't get her to drink it. The poor wee thing has awful eczema and the doctor thinks it might be something to do with an allergy to dairy products (I think)! Let me know if you have any success in getting your LO to drink it and if you have any tips!

meetup reply:

days - through the week, please
dates - any time really
venue - not bothered!
do you want it in central belt - edinburgh is about as far from here as I can manage - 2.5 hours' drive to glasgow for me.
what about times- afternoon please - can't leave here before 10.30 at absolute earliest (checkout is by 11am!)

However - I can't even promise that I'd make a meetup, as it depends on staffing, DH, and business levels. So don't arrange things based on me being the casting vote, please.

Oh I'd love to come to a meet up! Mind if a young 'un tags along?

Dates, I'm away the 19+20th August and 27/28th August to do exams in Bristol. Any other time is fine with me. Can do weekdays or weekends any time, though will need 1-2 hours before hand to travel. Prefer Glasgow but could come to Edinburgh if it's the prefered location. Venue - anywhere with cake lol! Oh and don't know my way round either City so I'm scewed anyway! Directions when the plans are finalised will absolutley be needed!

Hope you are all ok.
Night all.

days - weekdays better, preferably not tuesdays
dates - we're away till about 26th Aug, free thereafter
venue - don't mind, but somewhere with a cage for ds1 would be great . Shame weather so rubbish, or we could arrange a picnic somewhere -is there anywhere we could do that with an escape to indoors if needed? Only place I can think of is Queen's Park glasshouse which has a wee garden and also a soft play/cafe (free). Very convenient for me, but not so much for them from Embru.
do you want it in central belt - glasgow better for me, but could go through to Edinburgh if not meeting too late.
time - only restriction is that i pick up ds1 from nursery at 1. If we decide on Edinburgh I'll prob keep him out for the day though.

Re meet up

days - any day but thurs usually suits

dates - end of aug please

venue - poss al fresco venue cd be glasgow green with winter gdns to escape if rains.

do you want it in central belt - glasgow best for me , wd attempt train to Edin tho

what about times- afternoon , esp if travel by public transport required.

hi everyone, meet up at end of aug would be good for me - we're away to ireland after that.

days: most afternoons
dates: before 3rd sept
venue: pref glasgow, what about tramway on the south side? if weather good we can be outside, or in if its bad and theres a cafe and kids play area - easy for public transport.
all other venues sound good too. am pretty flexible really

...and nice cakes LWandLottie!

Hi,
End of august good too, am away first week september.
Don't mind coming through to Glasgow but I don't know it very well so preferably somewhere central that I would walk to easily off the train please .

Am bloody knackered!! Tried to pusuade ds that he didn't actually want fed whenever he woke last night but he was having none of it. Will need to try Loulee's tack of using DH to break the habit if he's still at it once he's onto solids. Planning to start solids at 26 weeks so "only" 9 weeks to go.......

Hey ladies - keep on posting and I will get something organised - looking like glasgow may be th favourite at the moment - perhaps we could have an edinburgh one at the end of Sept.

Trixy- maternitysarah has posted for you on the sales boards asking if you are selling micralite?

Thanks GMM. Wouldn't have seen that if you hadn't told me!

hey folks - evening from a washed out ireland! hope you are all well. thanks for the posts re the meet up. gmm -like the suggestion of alternate ones in ggo and edinburgh... i have been to the tramway quite a bit and really liked it. good to have the inside / outside option.

Hi - can I join in here? I'm a first time mum-to-be from the west end of Glasgow expecting twins on 6th November.

I might not post much over the next wee while as I'm a teacher so head back to work tomorrow but my maternity leave starts in 3 weeks so I'll probably be posting more then.

Just spending my last day off pottering about on the net to try and find people to meet and places to go once my leave starts!

hey luna

ok how would friday 31st august at thee tramway sound?