any other over 35 first time mums?

[Leeze]

and, I also got inspired by Charlie to add the breastfeeding ticker! Because it's hard work sometimes!!! x

 

[clio]

Thanks so much, guys! I texted my mum that info. Though I got a text from her earlier saying that they (midwife obviously included) have decided to combi-feed with a bottle. But, having FF J, I also know keeping him awake with the bottle was hard, too, so your advice really helps, Leeze.

So my mum has been invited to see the babe tomorrow. How weird. I remember over in BC that people would be really upset about interfering mothers and MILs, but, as I said, I had my mother here from the day we arrived home from the hospital until J was a month old, and Eric told his mother the day J was born that she had unfettered access to J at all times (she visited me SO many times in the hospital, and would sit for hours just holding and staring at J and saying, in her Dutch accent: "Vot a doll! Vot a perrrr-fect little doll!") So I can't imagine "inviting" my mother or MIL to come see the baby. But, I appear to be different from others new mothers. And, I wanted all the help I could get! How did the rest of you who had parents in the vicinity handle it? Did you want them there, or did you want your privacy?

Charlie--because so many women and their midwives are determined to BF, I'm surprised that they decided so quickly (within two days) that they are going to combi with a bottle from here on out. I would suspect that they would do as you did and persist with the BFing. I'm wondering if my sister actually would rather FF, because it is so much easier if you can share the burden of getting up at night with your OH. To be honest, I never wanted to BF, and was happy I had a medical excuse (drugs in system) so nobody would realize that this is what I wanted anyway. And I also hadn't thought about the widening of the mouth; maybe they just assumed nipple size, along with the constant sleeping were the reasons little G wasn't latching on voluntarily.

To all who have vomiting babies--I am so sorry. That virus is making the rounds it seems. Two mothers in my mothers' group couldn't come to one event because they were taking care of vomiting babies. So it's here, too. I wonder if J will get it because of exposure to the Gymboree kids. But he was there last week as well, and he's not sick. Well, hopefully it will skip us.

Okay, got to go--we're going printer shopping; our current one is toast.

 

[Claireyb1]

In answer to some questions, but I forget who asked them.

Lucy is one on Tuesday (15th) can't believe it!!!! we are having a party on the 20th , but with no theme in particular although "In the Night Garden" will feature on the party bags and her cake.
She has an egg allergy so I will be making an egg free sponge,incase she wants to have a small bit!

We put Lucy in her new car seat today and she loved it. I feel a bit sad about it tbh as it's an end to her baby days in her baby car seat I don't want my baby to grow up (well, I do but I don't if you know what I mean?)

 

[Claireyb1]

Updated my signature too!!

 

[Storm1jet2]

Congratulations Clio! I don't know about breastfeeding but over here they go nuts if you don't feed them every four hours when FF. Has she tried expressing? I have a friend who combi fed for 3 weeks and then was able to exclusively BF. I never had a sleepy baby, with hindsight L didn't just have her days and nights mixed up, she screamed at night when we laid her down because of the reflux!

Baby bedtime is not going well tonight, this is the second bout of screaming, she wants in with me, if I go in she points at the door! Oh dear...

Ok too stressed listening to her...

 

[Claireyb1]

Congratulations Clio! I don't know about breastfeeding but over here they go nuts if you don't feed them every four hours when FF. Has she tried expressing? I have a friend who combi fed for 3 weeks and then was able to exclusively BF. I never had a sleepy baby, with hindsight L didn't just have her days and nights mixed up, she screamed at night when we laid her down because of the reflux!

Baby bedtime is not going well tonight, this is the second bout of screaming, she wants in with me, if I go in she points at the door! Oh dear...

Ok too stressed listening to her...

Oh bless,poor love. I hope she goes to sleep soon.xx

 

[AngelUK]

Clio congrats on your niece! Sorry no advice on BF. My boys weren't particularly sleepy either though Sebastian often fell asleep on the bottle. I think that number 1 teats are just too slow. But who knows, maybe it is normal too at that age.

I will write more in a bit after I got the boys up for the day, I just wanted to come quickly on and say, fed the boys at midnight and they slept till 6:15! I had a stretch of 6 hours of sleep! OMG! I feel so lovely

 

[clio]

I don't want my baby to grow up (well, I do but I don't if you know what I mean?)

Oh yes. I cried as we neared his first birthday. But I can't wait to have conversations with him!

That's awful about the egg allergy. And Lydia with lactose problems... J could very well have gluten problems, but I'd rather it not show up until he's 35, like Eric's did. But his cousin's turned up at less than 2 years. Well, we'll see. But I can totally appreciate the dietary restrictions you have to keep in mind. Is this one she can grow out of, like lactose?

 

[clio]

Clio congrats on your niece! Sorry no advice on BF. My boys weren't particularly sleepy either though Sebastian often fell asleep on the bottle. I think that number 1 teats are just too slow. But who knows, maybe it is normal too at that age.

I will write more in a bit after I got the boys up for the day, I just wanted to come quickly on and say, fed the boys at midnight and they slept till 6:15! I had a stretch of 6 hours of sleep! OMG! I feel so lovely

Yaaaaay! for the good sleeping on both your parts! I bet it just keeps on getting better. It's already miles better than when we first started this thread!

J's over Gymboree. Sooo over it. We went today, and he didn't care at all. I mean, he did the stuff, but so lacklustre. So we're cancelling our membership. Now we have to figure out where to take him next in this barren snowy freezing landscape. Sorry--today was ridiculously cold, and it was pitch black at 5 pm. It's like I'm living in the friggin arctic. And to have lost the one place that was not home, but kid safe and age appropriate and inside, well, that's also depressing. Oh, but we're taking J to the mall tomorrow, so that should be fun. I guess the mall is our next Gymboree. A dangerous proposition--it might end up costing us more!

ETA: Thanks for changing your tickers, guys! Leeze, I love your BF one. I can't believe so many of us are already on our second ticker.

 

[SabrinaKat]

hey, gang - sorry for not updating yesterday, but LO wasn't great (a bit of diarrhea), but seems better today, we had sttn from about 10pm to 7am, with minor fussiness throughout, so am hopeful that LO is on the mend (and only a little burpy sick yesterday rather than full vomiting!)....I had one of my headaches come on in the middle of the night (top of head and base of neck), so was awake from about 6am with a hot lavender wrap on the back of my neck, but I feel somewhat better.

clio - congrats!

sorry, no time for personals, as LO is playing on the floor with his toys and seems to want mummy!

bye!!!!!!!!

 

[SabrinaKat]

nope - diarrhea and vomiting again, but LO seems okay in spirits. Am waiting for a call through to doctors to see if/what we can do.

grumble..........

bye!!!!!!

 

[Storm1jet2]

Night from hell for us, L has explosive nappies, dh just changing one now and I can hear her crying ma ma... Better go *sigh*

 

[SabrinaKat]

well, we had a hopefully final explosive nappy -- now LO is hungry, gobbling down formula, etc., and we're hopefully that it was the last one -- good thing, Finn likes his baths now as he had to have two already this morning (sigh)....

storm -- perhaps there's something in the water (you're in Belfast right)?

hope all others are okay....!

bye!!!!!!!!

 

[charlie15]

Sorry about the bad nights SK and storm. I hope F has no more d&v, sounds like he's got his appetite back though!

I actually had a good night last night which i really needed. I really needed to get a new passport this month as off to Holland next month, so got pic done!! OMG so not a good move 10 weeks post partum!! i look fat and knackered! but that's me done for the next 10 years!! S however looks gorgeous is her pic! but it has inspired me to crack on with exercise and did my DVD workout when i got home,it's not that exhilerhating but it's a start!

Good for you Leeze and Claire for breast feeding for so long. Clio it actually sounds like your niece needs to be combi fed as she's so little and not waking up. We kind of combi fed until S was 10 days as my milk took ages to come in and she was starving, it was a midwife that suggested it and i had no difficulty in giving it as she was sooooo hungry and unhappy. So every evening OH gave her a bottle while i slept and the rest of the time she was cluster feeding or i was expressing. The 1st month of breast feeding was tough and so many times i was ready to give up but once she got to 4 weeks it was fine. I have been lucky with it though as she latched on really easily and i have had no pain or any problems other than my milk being slow to come in and stupidly large boobs, which i'm not a fan of!! I think feeding your baby is such a personal choice as we are all different as are our babies and it really annoys me when i see people getting heavy handed about breast feeding and making women feel pressurised to bf! I've seen quite a few miltant attitudes on the breast feeding forum here! I have had the opposite issue, whenever i go to my GP they always suggest that we combi feed to give me a break! For me that is actually more hassle as you have to sterilise everything etc so bfing is the easier option as all i have to do is get my boob out, i don't need to prepare anything or been remotely organised ( i am not!)

right S is crying so better go.

 

[clio]

Charlie--here in Canada we don't have such strict rules about sterilization and formula. We are told to use tap water and to just wash the bottles in piping hot soapy water. Or the dishwasher. So, while it is a pain to make up a bottle if none are clean, for the most part, it's really easy for us here.

It's not that conditions are any cleanlier here, either, it's just that no one finds it necessary. I'm glad too--it would drive me insane to have to do all that you're expected to do with formula in the UK. Angel, did you do the same with all of your water and your bottles?

Oh, and they are combi-feeding until she gets the hang of it, or grows into the nipple. The nipple really is THAT big and her mouth really is THAT tiny--it's too much hard work for a baby who has no energy right now. Apparently she has a strong suckle instinct, so that's good.

 

[Borboleta]

Hello ladies,

Got caught up. We have been busy making thiago's scrapbooking invitations for his first year birthday party ( I know ... Still one month and half away but my MIL and I don't like to leave things to be done last minute ). They turned out soooo cute!!! My MIL is such a great partner to organize parties!! I will post a picture of his invite soon.

Yesterday we had a friends wedding and my MIL watched thiago and it was nice to just have sometime with Glen. We had a good time but we talked about thiago more than anything and we were showing his pictures to the couple we sat with during the reception and looked thru his picture on our phone ! I missed him soooo much .

I told my MIL to not let him sleep past 6:30pm and we got home at 7:30pm and he was still taking his second nap !!! So the boy didn't go to sleep until 11:30pm!!! He had a party from 3:30am till 5:15pm when I got sick of trying to rock him to sleep and no luck and decided to do CIO. He cried for about 15 min and then went to sleep. The cause of the party was wet clothes due to pee. But he has been Sttn most nights so hopefully last night was just because of that.

Clio: I agree with you. I did not enjoy breast feeding at all and already told my OH that if we have another one I will not breast feed. It is not for me. And I had my MIl for almost one month and half leaving with us after thaigo's birth and I loved it!!! I didn't want her to leave .
And crongratulatiions on your little niece!!! What is her name? And I wish I could have half of the nipple size your sister must have lol!!!

Sabrina, storm and leeze: So sorry for the bad night of sleep. Hope little Finn gets better too. It is really scary when they are sick.

Rowan: I laugh so hard about your story of the csection versus natural birth!!! I hope you can figure something out that will work for you. I would be soo scared to have another natural birth? My MIL ( she is a nurse) said that depending on how things go for you during natural birth you will have to have a surgery done to reconstruct your perinium. And she had 3 kids and she says she still have problems with going pee.

Okay, little T is up. Got to go.

 

[SabrinaKat]

well, LO is a bit fussy at the moment, but no more vomiting today (a little loose poopie, though) -- it's amazing how messy illness can be (we've changed him 3 or 4 times today, and he's now in a short sleeve t-shirt and sweatpants....OH is playing with him, but LO is crying for my attention, which is sweet but tiring. OH will take tomorrow off to stay with LO and hopefully, all will continue to be well. LO did sttn last night, so hopefully will repeat tonight, but his teeth are also bad/hurting....

again, sorry....no times for real personals, but hope you had fun yesterday, Borboleta!...um....

bye!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Storm1jet2]

Evening all, I'm tired (unsurpisingly), L has been ok today but clingy and with revolting sloppy nappies. Sk I'm near Belfast so maybe there is something in the water!

Clio I'm now trying to envisage your sisters nipples which is not good! I too would like semi decent nipples, I couldn't get L latched on, wish I'd known about nipple shields like borboleta mentioned... Oh and as for formula over here you sterilize everything, you are meant to boil the bottle water, let cool for 30 minutes, make up the bottle and rapid cool to the right temp and use immediately. So in theory you need to know 40 minutes before you need a bottle.. yeah right... I don't know one person who didn't make them in advance and heat them up when needed.

Oh tonight we have been practising walking, she can do 17 steps now, is practising getting up when she falls and can do a few steps and stop and turn around. It's progress!

Thankfully I'm off work tomorrow so hoping L sleeps tonight.... Please.....

 

[Leeze]

Grr, I did a really long post earlier and it's got lost somehow! Only got a few mins now so will have to do shorter version.

Storm and Sabrina, sorry to hear about poorly babies and/or difficult nights. Fingers crossed for better sleep tonight.

Clio, that's a shame about Gymboree. Do you think maybe it was just a one-off and he might enjoy it again another time? So, when will you get to meet your niece?

Borboleta, sounds fun to have a night out with your OH. Me and OH could do with that ourselves but we haven't really got anyone to babysit. OH suggested today we ask at the nursery to see if any of the staff do babysitting. Not a bad idea. What are you planning for Thiago's birthday? Lovely that you can plan it with MIL.

Charlie, I totally agree about the breastfeeding. Once I got over any fears around doing it if front of people then I've found it to be so handy. Although it can get tiring and sometimes be tough that mainly i'm the only one that gets her to sleep.

Question for everyone, who has moved LO to their own room and who has LO still in with them? We've finally just about got Kia's soon ready and are wondering when to move her into it. I'm thinking that I want her to be STTN most nights before I move her, but then i'm wondering if she might sleep better if we didn't disturb her. Tough one

 

[Storm1jet2]

Leeze I moved L out at 6 months, then she was back in for 6 months and out again just recently.. even with the rough night's I'm sure she gets better sleep on her own, I think I used to attend to her when she was simply crying in her sleep and of course once I touched her I woke her more. That said my brother and SIL still have their daughter in their room and she is 4!