OLD temp buddies, still together.

[rainbowdays]

Sorry I could not think of an original title

Oo-er, must have deleted part of the last message... oops. Baby brain strikes again...

... Fettle, perhaps moles instead of rabbits? If she goes to school and tells her friends her Daddy shoots rabbits, those with bunnies as pets might cry

Ready. I always thought sleep was "over rated with DD. She was determined to never sleep as a baby!!! Toby was so much better!!

Dont think many of DDs school friends will worry bout rabbit shooting. Unfortunately many have hunting parents living in the country here! Not that that is my cup of tea. Although don't think I said he actually shoots them just practises!!! Thankfully she's not mentioned it since.

Can't help with teats sorry.

Toomuch. Hope u better sn.

ready - just a quickie re teats - Cassius was the same and I switched to level 2 around 6 months I think, only to switch back after he had the same reaction as H - then I think I tried again at 8 or 9 months and he was fine. AFAIK I am still only on 2's (or maybe 3's now?? will check!)

I bought a load of vari flow ones and gave up on them straight away as the ones I had you have to line up the arrow and keep the bottle with the arrow under babies nose when feeding iyswim? WAY too much faff for me!!

Re naps I think C was pretty regular with a nap around 9.30 for an hour and then one little one after lunch and sometimes another one around 4pm but I really cant remember (wish I had kept note of these things month by month!)

LOL at greedy getting everyone to look at a dirty website I am not going to click on it now!

Iammummy - lovely to see you popping in glad all is well. IME expressing is def problematic, it started well for me but rapidly declined and takes soooo much time to keep the supply up.

well done on your 99% fettle - very impressive

All well here - C back to normal - phew. But now my nose is streaming - grr. And yesterday found head lice on DH!!!! Urghhh. Luckily none on C and I (strange?) so no idea where he got them - we are baffled, they were gross and but thank goodness there are 10 min treatments now. Esp as DH and I are off to a new luxury/child free hotel for a night tomorrow for my bday (not till the end of the week but my mum is here now so on baby sitting duties hurrah) Only my second night apart from C since birth!

Waves to all xxx

evening

seaside- weird about the headlice on DH- you sure they were headlice???- only say that cos men are not supposed to get them due to their smelly hormones- the lice don't like the taste! Have a lovely night away- very jealous!

Ready- sorry! I guess you can't change the way you are . But please- stop feeling that you are doing things wrong. Start thinking of the great things that you are doing .

Fettle- I think I woul just try to explain what the army does- ie protecting us and helping other people- which sometimes means using a gun. I reckon children take the truth pretty well. Had to explain to DD about cremation the other day as DP's grandad died last week. She was really fine with it.

Seaside. Def strange bout dh. He been cuddling any other kids recently? DH escaped when lex and I had them back in the summer. Hope u better and enjoy your night away. Sounds blissful!!! I so could do with some proper time away from mine at mo although mum is being great. But she goes on wed.

Thanks honey. I have explained that daddy is out that there to help the people who live in Afghanistan. And that there are some bad people there making it hard for the afghans and daddy is trying to tell them to be nice and stop hurting them. Bit simplistic but I'm not ready to tell her her daddy shoots and kills people (even if it is in self defence). I have explained about dying and death to her and she is well aware that people are being injured out there so I think she probably knows more than I think! but she's never asked whether dh is going to die or be injured.

I've just finished wrapping St nicholas presents for my spoilt half Dutch children! They get little presents and Dutch sweets for first 5 days of December. Does force me to do my Christmas shopping early. Only got couple more things to get now.

Hope you all have had good weekends

hi all

just received two lovely eamils this morning- 2 birth stories from the antenatal group I was observing. Both really good stories- so happy for them. Can't wait to meet the babies- I am being allowed to come to the postnatal reunion early jan. Really excited about becoming an antenatal teacher! Evenm if it is a long way off. .

Naughty DP mentioned having another baby the other day- grrrrr- really annoying! Maybe in a couple of years!

BUMP!!!! We were on the 2nd page- come on now ladies!

Looks like it's just you and me Honey - everyone else obviously has a busier more fulfilled life than we do, to spend time checking on Mumsnet [although more likely you and I are on the computer more due to our studies and it is just easy to check up from every 2 minutes time to time!!

See I'm obviously spending too much time on here, as I've worked out how to strike out a word!!

Great news about your birth stories Honey - does sound great. Kind of wish that I'd known about training to be an NCT teacher bfeore I started my reflexology as I think I would have loved doing that! Already looking at when maternity and conception & fertility as well as baby reflexology speciality courses start so when I'm fully qualified I can try and specialise a bit that way - don't really want to fiddle too much with a pregnant person's or baby's feet until I really know what I'm doing though!

Right - must check on my e-bay stuff - had lots of watchers and no bids last night, and they finish this evening- hoping someone wants my baby stuff or else I'll cry.....

oh that reminds me, do you want another Honey? DH announced on the phone last night that he's planning on going to the "vet" when he gets back, so I'm assuming that he's completely decided he doesn't want more!!!

Hello!!! I'm here, just mega busy... Work is busy as anything and I've been trying to catch up with my friends back home in London in the evenings as I've been lazy about that recently. Just realised the other day that my best pals baby is now 4 months old and I've not even gone down to see her .

Oooh, a night away Seaside - that sounds fab! Mind you every time me and DH plan something one of us or the kids ends up getting sick. I'm sure it wont happen for you Seaside though!!! .

Ah, thats such a lovely part of being an NCT teacher honey... I love hearing birth stories!!!!

Hello ladies

Thanks for the teat help Seaside, we are back on the 1s and to be honest H seems fine and I am not sure what prompted me to change up in the first place?? A friend had said that if baby makes a tut sound then they are struggling with the flow ? but H was making the same sounds with the 2s but losing milk as well ? I agree that the variflows sound like too much faff. Ta.
How is the head lice situation?
Ooh a night away, I can?t actually imagine being away from H overnight, I have had one evening away from her since she was born, and that was traumatic. Dh had to bundle me in to the car or else I would never have left.

Honey it must be lovely to be involved in some way in other pregnancies, how lovely that you have been included. Soooo? are you keen for another baby??? How exciting! There is no way I could cope with 4!!
You are right, I need to focus on what I am good at, and not my faults. Thank you.

Fettle, what are you selling on ebay?
Oooh, tell me about St Nicholas presents! I love other traditions
So no more babies for you then if dh is off to the vet? how do you feel about only two? I think that my limit is 2, I really would like a sibling for H, but any more than 2 and I think I would be run ragged.

Chooster, don?t worry about not visiting your friend yet, everyone wants to visit in the early months and then you get left with no one wanting to pop in after the babymoon, so she will really be able to enjoy your company when you get to visit

H has started chewing! She has been chewing and mashing on her teething toys for weeks, but this week she has started chewing on her tongue, so it looks like she is chewing gum or something!! It is quite hilarious to see. She stares at us eating and I wonder if that is where the chewing has come from. Bless her, I keep telling her to save the chewing for next year, but she doesn?t listen

Oh, I can?t remember if I said, she?s over a stone now and has a real milk belly now! Bless her, I must have been starving her before, we are down to only one breastfeed now, the small hours, and she is totally relaxed with it, so I think I will hang on to it for as long as the milk flows.

Question ?. When did you LO sleep ?through the night?? I am not worried about H doing it, and have always assumed it wouldn?t be until solids were well established, but EVERYONE keeps asking me ?is she sleeping through yet?? and when I say no they look at me with pity, and I have to hold myself back from being stroppy and saying she is 4 months old FGS? am I really the odd one out??

ready- it drives me mad when people ask- is s/he sleeping through???- as if it is some major goal that should be achieved- as you say H is only 4mths old! SOme babies just do sleep through- my DD was like that from 6wks and she was just BF- but both my boys were (still are) rubbish. I can count on my fingers the number of times Dex has slept through in his entire life and he is 2!!!! It would be lovely of course to say 'goodnight' at 7pm and then not hear from them until 7am- but that just isnt realistic in my world. And- I don't really care that much. I still occasionally get woken by the big ones too- bad dream/ tummy ache etc. Glad to hear you still keeping up a BF- hope you can keep that for a while .

Pouring with rain here- off to a toddler group but don't know whether to walk/drive. Dex refuses to have the raincover on the buggy- that's if I can get him to sit in it at all... But that's another story! GRRRRR!

Agree with honey ready - it can be really annoying when so much emphasis is on sleeping through and sometimes you are made to feel like you are doing something wrong because your child isn't doing it! Neither of my boys slept through (apart from a one off) until they were over a year old. DS1 was more troublesome than DS2 as DS1 didn't go back to sleep that quickly, but DS2 nodded straight abck off again once he'd had a cuddle / milk. Like Honey I didn't mind much, but it can be knackering when they both do it .

Sorry my last post was a bit adrupt at the end - I'd planned on saying much more but remembered I had a meeting to go to . So I had to dash off.... Anyway, was going to say that the tradition of the presents at the start of December is lovely Fettle!!! I agree its one more thing to think about but lovely all the same. Lucky mini-fettles!!!! Max is mega excited each day now because he's allowed his chocolate advent calendar before breakfast . He woke DS2 up this morning full of excitement about this. Bless... When is DH back Fettle for his visit? Was it January? So no more littlies for you??? How do you feel about that? I stil have moments of regret about the last few months, but we truly are happy as we are. Its so hard to know what is for the best isn't it .

BTW. does anyone know what the biscuit thing on here is all about?

HI All

Why are people obsessed with sleeping through? Question I never understood either! Toby is a 7pm til 7am baby since I stopped breast-feeding, but DD didn't sleep through until she was over 3!!!

Will tell more about St Nix when I have more time, as suddenly realised need to get DD from school. Sold our cosytoes and carrycot - felt a bit sad, but I think I'm resigned to only 2 children. Would like another somedays, but then I look at how easy my life is now and can't imagine throwing another child into the mix!!

BTW chooster - biscuit situation is all to do with when Gordon Brown was on a webchat here and he managed to miss a question on what his favourite biscuit was!! [horror] the man in charge of running our country didn't answer a question on biscuits!!!

Anywya, Toby s pulling my fingers off the key board, so have to goa;ldjf a

HELLO ladies!!

finally i can get to the pc and not keep squinting at my phone to see what you have all been up to!
we are all well here, i have finished my santas grotto so must get on to posting some pics, it does look rather good if i do say so myself! Herbie had his first lot of jabs yesterday and coped really well.

fettle - your tradition of st nick although im not sure what it is sounds great, if it involves extra pressies it cant be a bad thing can it? look forward to hearing what its all about soon. sorry to hear your dp is going for the chop, is it something you have discussed or did he just come to the decision himself?

ready - teats, well with oscar he was a very hungry/greedy baby and i switched to number 2 after about 6 weeks as the teats just kept caving in on themselves as he was sucking so hard and obviously getting frustrated by the amount of milk coming out. he did take a while to adjust to the change but maybe a week or so and he was there. with herbie its totally different he is quite happy with the number 1s and is a sloooowww feeder. as far as going through the night goes i think i have been blessed as both of mine are going through the night, oscar did from about 3 months and herbie has done from about 5 weeks, i must have been very good in a past life or they simply just take after me as im a sleepaholic! how is it going with the formula? how much does H have? i keep thinking i am under feeding herbie as he is only on 5oz every 3-4 hours and he goes 7pm-6am without and even with the 5oz he generally only drinks 4oz whereas oscar drank so so much more at this stage.

seaside - glad you are all well, we have been hit with a horrid cold the last week, all of us got it the day after the other so at one point all of us were feeling crappy! its still lingering now too... very strange about your dh having headlice however this happened to us not so long ago, due to an outbreak at playgroup i checked oscars and he was clear so thought id better check mine and i had about 3 in there, i didnt come into contact with anyone there but a few days before i had been to the hairdressers and i am 99% sure thats where it came from, has dh had his hair cut lately?

honey - wow maybe a number 4 for you in the future? so our thread certainly wont be dying down anytime soon then glad all is going well with your course and how lovely to hear all them fab birth stories!

chooster - of course the last few months will still play on your mind its all still very new, i hope you are having more good days than bad though.

hellos to everyone else toomuch, greedy etc etc..i have had to cut this short as i am getting a cup thrown at me with the demands of juice!

I'm back - sorry about earlier. Toby was physically grabbing my hands, saying no puter, shut door (while pushing the screen shut!)

Anyway, St Nicholas....try having a look at this

All in Dutch, but gives you some nice pictures to look at!

Or good old wikipedia in english!

I love pepernoten!!!

Right - need to fill their shoes with yet more sweeties! and go to bed, I'm shatteroonied.

xxx

i was one of those mums who was obsessed with them sleeping through i'm afraid! not everyone elses babies just mine, cos i am the most evil, horrible person when i dont have enough sleep so it ws VERY important to me to get them to sleep through!

ready - variflows are a pile of poo in my opinion!!

honey - dont have another baby, or i will be too jealous! i still think i would like another, but am saying in a couple of years too.............ideally we would need a bigger house, so lots more money and i cant really see that happening.

seaside - have a fab night away. we have a night away on sat night too. we have a big xmas piss up every year and this year its in reading so we have a child free night (trouble is we are staying with our friends who have 3 kids, so wont be completely child free, but none of them will be my responsibility with a hangover!)

anyway, must go to bed.... i'm sleepy..........

Sorry I have been MIA, but I have been lurking and just waiting for a minute to say hi.

DS1 in hospital with dehydration from a bug last week and generally I am very busy anyway.

Ready - "Bless her, I must have been starving her before " sorry but don't think this, you were not starving her before, it is just that formula babies weigh heavier than breastfed babies, it is the way it goes. Formula puts on more weight than breastfeeding, lower weight breastfed babies are not necessarily hungry.... the food is just digested much better. So I want to reassure you that you were definitely not starving her before. Also on the sleep thing - it is up to you, i am like greedy in needing my sleep, so I got mine into a pattern early on, but it does not work for everyone and some babies just like to be night-owls! Just remember that you are doing a good job as a mummy, just look at those pictures of her and see she is thriving wonderfully!

Honey - yeh, go for number 4!!!!!

iam - good to see you again, and would love to see your santas grotto!!!

Sorry have to cut short the catch up, but I am lurking sometimes. big waves to you all

hi rainbow- good to hear from you- so sorry to hear DS1 not been well- he must have had a really bad bug . Thanks for saying that to Ready about not starving Hannah- I wanted to say something similar- but couldnt think how to put it without being too negative towards formula... you are much better at being diplomatic than me! I am reading 'the politics of BF' at the moment so I am a bit grrrr about it all!

Also a bit grrr because a friend who had planned a HB with her third ended up going in to be induced- despite me telling her she really didnt have to be induced! Haven't heard how it went yet (was on tuesday) so hopefully all was fine. They routinely induce here at 10 days over which is just wrong in so many ways... I swear if I ever am PG again I will give a date a week later for my LMP. Can you tell I've been reading an article about this too recently?? (It was a fascinating article in midirs midwifery journal- written by MW- just questioning the whole concept of due date and average pregnancy lengths- and also saying that there is very little evidence to support induction purely on going over your date).

anyway- DS1 says he NEEDS white jeans for his xmas panto at school (he is a ghost) but can you buy white jeans anywhere??? NO.

Xmas fair tommorrow- I am face painting AGAIN! Hoping to convince small boys to be something other than spiderman...

a ghost - cool!!! i have 2 angels and narrator no. 3!!! all VERY important parts of course!!!

hi ladies

had some very crappy news last night, i had a phone call to say my grandma had taken a turn for the worst in hospital ( i had called the previous night and was told she was in for nothing life threatening just shoulder pain )and then 1 hour later i had a phonecall to say she had passed she lives 1 1/2 hours away and i just could not get there that quick. we celebrated her 80th birthday with her 5 weeks ago and she was very happy but when she came to say goodbye to us all it was like she knew it was for the last time and now i just think what if id made that phonecall a week earlier i could have spoken to her for one last time before it was too late.

iam- so sorry to hear your news but please don't think like that about the phonecall- 'what ifs' are not worth getting upset about- remember the good times you had and the last time you saw her.

greedy- DD had her play today- she was an irish person!???!

So sorry for your loss Iammummy

But honey is right about the what if's. In a way those regrets and sadnesses are only for those left behind - I am sure your grandma knew how much you loved her and how wonderful that the last time you had with her was a joyous celebration. {{{hugs}}}

We have a very dear friend in the hospice at the moment and everyone is just poised "waiting" to hear the bad news and it is so awful. We have planned a big tour of friends and family this weekend coming and now I am not sure whether to change plans as they are already planning the funeral

Rainbow- hope DS1 is getting better.

Completely indulgent and selfish of me esp in light of the above but it is CD1 again today and I am feeling crap and despondent. I know we are not managing to DTD enough but we are managing some good timing for OV. It is only month 4 and I know nothing in the grand scheme but I just feel like my stupid reproductive system is incapable of getting a BFP without a whole arsenal of support which is what I did to get DS but frankly this time around I just don't have the time, energy of £ - crapola. Just a rant really as there is no one else in RL I really talk to about it - on the surface I am all bright and breezy and whenever anyone asks I just brush it off. But I have to say give it a few more months and when I do get those "are you going to have another" comments I think I will be letting rip with an entire detailed story so far
I also hate the feeling of being on hold - which I know is part of the problem- but real nonetheless. It sounds so selfish as if I am not happy with ds, so not the case, but like with TTC the first time I just wanted to know IF it would happen or not and this time I feel the same. I know I should just get on with stuff but ideally I would love another in the next year so I could make a plan for the next phase of my life - I need to get back to more regular work maybe retrain but just don't want to start that until babes are at school. At this rate I will be close to retirement!

Loving the idea of the all the DC in their nativity plays - aww - I can't wait for that

Ready - I remember reading an article about the elusive "sleeping through" and in reality when most people say that they mean 5-6 consecutive hours not 7-7. Cassius was always a good sleeper but even he did not go 7-7 until around 9 months I think - I was still doing his 11pm feed at 7/8 months I think?

We had a great night away -it was a gorgeous hotel and we were very spoilt - nice spa etc and 3 whole meals without having to worry about DS eating next to me bliss

Hope everyone had a nice weekend

Ugh!!!! I hate rain. When is it going to stop?!

Sorry. Need some sunshine. Seem to have already forgotten what a lovely September and October we had!!! Think I need to move country!

Iam. So sorry to hear your news. The others are right though - I know it is hard but try to focus on good times with your grandmother rather than the what-ifs as I'm sure that is what she would want you to do.

Rainbow. Hope ds better? Hope you doing ok-ish?

Seaside. Poor you. I'm not sure what to say to you as it poey trying to get pg. I was talking to my friend this wknd who has 8mth old and had a still birth at 36 weeks before. She's so undecided about whether to try again as it is so hard and may not even
be successful. Makes it so much harder when you are older and time is running out while all around seem to be falling pg so easily without a care in the world. Try not to focus too much on getting pregnant and make sure you are enjoying Cassius. I don't want to think of you looking back in a few years feeling you've misses time with him while worrying about the future. Does that make sense? And don't worry about self wallowing on here. We all do it, me especially!!

Chooster. What is the latest on your childcare scenario with nightmare child?

Don't really associate ghosts with Christmas but dds Christmas shows are always only vaguely related to the birth of Jesus! I'm watching my narrator No. 5 on wed! She's v excited!!

Glad she's perked up as she's been missing dh a lot
recently. He sent a cd with him Reading a story and at the end he says he loves them both and will see them v soon and his voice iscracking and all 3 of us toby included sobbed our eyes out!!!! Dd doesn't want to listen to it again until he is home!

Hope everyone else is doing ok. I've spent morning trying to revise but not being very productive. Bow sat in car in pouring rain with sleeping toby waiting for friend to go for coffee.

I couldn?t make this up, but I mentioned sleeping through, and the next night H slept from 7pm til 6am! Totally threw her day sleeps out but couldn?t really complain, although I had been awake since 4.30am checking she wasn?t dead

She had a bad reaction to her 3rd lot of jabs, we were worried for a bit, she was totally not herself, vomited, temp of 38.8 ? but she seems to be fine now.

Iam, so sorry for your loss. Please do not feel bad about not making the call, as the others have said focus on the good memories.
Formula is going well, we offer 7oz, and up until her jabs she was draining every bottle, so we were considering offering 8oz, but she went off her food during her reaction and she now is taking 6oz, and 7oz at bedtime.
I doubt you are underfeeding Herbie, if he doesn?t drain the bottle then he is getting what he wants, and so long as you are feeding when he is showing signs of hunger then you are doing just fine, I?d say. Remember not to compare him to Oscar because that will just worry you.

Fettle, I absolutely LOVE the rain, send yours my way if you like ? oh, and as I am sure you know, where you will be moving to, rains every other day, or it did when we lived up that way.
So how did the Sinterklaas present giving go?
I almost sobbed about your and your littlies sobbing at the end of the cd.
That must be awful for your friend, I cannot imagine the hearteache of a stillborn

Yes Chooster, how is the nightmare girl situation?

Rainbow, pleased to see you are lurking, how is DS1? Hope you are ok, come back soon. Hugs.
Thanks for saying I wasn?t starving H, and of course you are right, she is thriving wonderfully, must put some more pics up soon.

Seaside, so sorry to hear you are struggling, hang in there? big hugs, and try no to pee on sticks for a bit, relax and enjoy yourself
Sorry to hear of your friend in the hospice.
Well, if it is 5-6 consecutive hours then we have that at the moment, H goes to bed at 7 and usually wakes about 3 or 4 ish for food,then wakes between 6-7 for the day

Thanks Greedy, I won?t get the variflows ?
You need your sleep do you? How was your piss up?

Wow Honey, sleeping through from 6weeks, that is immense! How long do you think I would be able to keep the middle of the night feed? Since she has not woken twice for it, if that starts to happen will that have an effect of my supply?
Are you struggling to Dex in the buggy? Does he insist on walking?
Should I read Politics of Breastfeeding? I have been thinking about it, but now I have almost stopped, and am giving H --poison?formula will it make me feel terrible if I read it?
I was induced because my EDD was changed from my LMP to the date from the scan, I wonder if we had left her another few days H might have got into the right position on her own and saved us all the trauma??
How did the face painting go?

Goodness me, I have really waffled haven?t I?
Hope I haven't missed anyone?

Fettle I need you to teach me how to cross words out properly