--Lion Cubs - Mummy and Baby Group!-- We are all One Year Old!

[joeyjo]

Then she told me she should now be on 3 solid meals a day and that the cut-off for breastfeeding is 6 months! She added that I can of course breastfeed up to a year but babies don't get enough calories from breastmilk and need 3 meals a day to do that... then told me to start giving her formula and mixing it into her cereal, etc. I was so annoyed by this, she made me feel like I'm starving and damaging my child! Having read what other mums are doing, I am well aware that I'm not.

For the last 3 weeks JP has been having homemade lunch and dinner, big portions too plus snacks and all the breastmilk she wants (I stopped combining at 6 months). From everything I read on weaning I have been led to understand that babies up to a year need their nutrition and calories from milk and that introducing food is to get them used to taste and texture not to replace their milk, which makes sense that nature would provide for them until they have enough teeth to eat adult food. I fumed all the way home from that appointment.

Anyhows, thats way too much typing from me. Looking forward to seeing some of you on Monday. Keep well everyone else! x

I would be writing a strong letter of complaint - infact I have done for very similar issues - she sounds like she needs some retraining! I can tell you more on Monday if your interested!

 

[Aunty E]

Sounds like a witch to me. Imogen is a total porker (if short) and she has pretty much no solid food. Today is the most she's ever eaten and that was two egg cups of savoury puree and about a third of a custard pot. She deffo has more milk these days, but she's perfectly satisfied on the days she has no solid food and she's a chubby little thing. We give her a few bottles of hungry baby milk as madam has absolutely no interest in bbs anymore (although I am still producing milk, any idea when that's going to stop anyone? It's been two months), but breastmilk will adjust to give your baby what she needs throughout her life. Which any HV should know. Witch. Give her two years and she'd probably start saying Jorja is obese from misreading the chart.

we had a bit of a random unannounced visit from the HV, I wasn't here though, but she didn't stay for long. OH says she just looked Mog over and left a card and then left. I would have been interested to know how much Imogen weighs, I honestly have no idea. I'm guessing a bit more than my largest cat, and I know he is 7kg, so maybe 8kg? Who knows. I threw away the bathroom scales when we moved, mostly because I know if I'm losing weight or (more often these days) putting it on, and being freakishly heavy for my build and height, I really don't need the scales telling me I'm morbidly obese. I blame my sturdy bone structure

 

[cleckner04]

I don't get how the whole 'HV' thing works there but they all sound like complete idiots. I am always reading things on here with these HVs coming in and being rude, getting things wrong, giving bad advice, ect. It's ridiculous!

 

[Pippin]

Eeeek so much to look back on and read, will do that now, but really looking forward to tomorrow

MA ignore that old witch grrrrr, Sam isn't on 3 meals a day and I still rely on milk.

 

[Mary Jo]

am really looking forward to tomorrow, too! it's going to be crowded round the table with all the highchairs...

eeek, HV issues... I haven't had any myself but that's probably because I've avoided them when I didn't HAVE to see them - last time will have been when he was 16 weeks and the cat-fearing one came round. I do take him to be weighed but there's never been any need to engage with us beyond telling me what the scale said and that's fine, and I only go once every 2 months (last time was 25 weeks, so end of Jan). I've never discussed weaning (it was briefly mentioned at the 16 week visit) and when I do go for him to be weighed I don't bother asking questions. I changed doctors in Jan and while I like the actual doctors, I have felt the HVs come across as rushed and not nice, definitely not pleasant, so I have no plans whatsoever to consult them. At my old docs the doc wasn't great but the HVs were lovely, so I was a bit disappointed when I first went to the clinic when we switched.

I've had no desire to explain my weaning choices, that's mostly why I haven't really been lately. They really push the Birth to 5 NHS book, which advocates purees and spoonfeeding, so I don't think they'd be open to BLW. Perhaps I am being overly cynical - C's auntie is a doctor's receptionist in Berkshire and she said the HVs there are very keen on it, which I was surprised to hear.

As for amounts of milk - Adam has 4 bottles a day, I make up 7oz and he occasionally drains it but more often leaves 1-2oz. so he's dropped a bit from pre-weaning but not a huge amount. it's only VERY recently that he's having significant amounts of solids, the first 7 or 8 weeks were an exercise in patience and a lot of mess and waste.

Oh, I was looking through some pics of Adam today and found one that very much reminded me of his cousin Marcus (now 4 years old). I thought it was funny... here they are (AE 6.5 months, M 14 months)

 

[tmr1234]

good luck for today i hope it gose well.

I wouldnt take any of what the HV seid they talk a load of c**p 99% of the time most of them have read books but never had kids

 

[Vici]

Bugger, just printed off a voucher only to read it and see "Not vaild at Southban, sorry" Typical

We'll be leaving in about 20 mins so see you when we get there (might be later than hoped but i HAVE to go to the post office so can't leave till 9) x

 

[Boothh]

Good luck today girls, hope it goes well, we are way too skint to make it this time and being in the car for such a long time wouldn't really help my m/s lol, me and jess will be there in spirit and deff TTY and make the next meet

 

[Pippin]

Had such a lovely day today . Giraffe was super busy but we got the same table (well actually I made them move us so we had more room) and it was fabulous to see everyone again but we missed the rest of you. We were chatting so much I forgot to take a few snaps but had a great time so thank you ladies

JoeyJo and I had a chat on the way back and we thought next time a picnic in Green park?? That's if this weather gets more like summer!!! anyway we thought it'd be fun and a bit of a change.

xxxxxxxxxx

 

[Vici]

Thanks for sorting it all hun, we had a fab time Picnic sounds ace

 

[Mary Jo]

Yay, Pips, a picnic is a great idea! I think the babies would really like a bit of freedom next time - think that was one reason Adam wasn't on top form today, he's not used to being held so much (he's not really a very cuddly baby at the moment, breaks his mama's heart! he just wants to be on the move, even if all that is is jumping up and down on someone's lap... with thanks to Auntie E and Pips again!)

AE's grumping aside, we had a lovely afternoon, thank you so much Pips for arranging it and everyone for coming (especially Auntie E for taking a long lunch and Vici and Imi for braving the trip!)

We had a bit of a shite journey home - stupid train that normally stops at one of the step-free-to-the-exit platforms decided to stop at one that's over the footbridge, and when that happens I stay on to the next station where I'm guaranteed ok to get out, only this sodding train didn't go to the station I thought it would (20 mins walk home) but to another, where it's too far to walk but I can get a bus home. I have no idea why it's 2 mins between this station and my station but 45 mins on the bus! So we didn't get home till 5pm and whereas I wasn't really that tired, now I am exhausted and have had to take a long hot bath. Thankfully Adam is worn out by his grizzling and has slept most of the evening on Chris. Also thankfully, AE was very good on the way home, apart from some tears at Waterloo, which went away when I gave him a prune & apple bar!

 

[ShadowRat]

Awwww I wish I could've been there again, I can just imagine all the babies so much bigger and seeing you all again... Picnic next time sounds ace, I hope I can make that one, lookign forward to the better weather!!

MA, CRIKEY, what a total knob your HV seems to be I'd be seriously fuming too if I were you, will you have to deal with her again?? 6 months the "cut off point" for BF?! I really don't envy you honey, so sorry you had to deal with her!

Cleck, weeeeee!!!! You've made me so happy with your awesome comments about my artwork!! I'd be soooo thrilled to make you something, I've had a few custom orders before, but mostly just colour variations for my mobiles. I've not had a custom order for a wire sculpture yet as they are fairly new to my Etsy shop actually, but I really love making them when my hands will allow it I love the trees too, I have so many ideas for new sculptures and particularly new types of tree but I have to pace myself a bit, both cos of Vince/lack of time and my joints, so lots of exciting ideas are sitting on the backburner at the moment But, for example, if you can imagine a certain piece that you think I might be able to make sitting somewhere in your house, then let me know any ideas you have etc! No rush, of course but it'd be so exciting to know that a piece of my art was living in Emma's home! Hehehe

Vince is poorly Lee just went out to Tesco for rubs, nasal spray and cough syrup and we gave him some nasal spray and cough syrup when he woke for about the 5th time then put him back down all dosed up, so hopefully he will sleep now... He's been down for a while now so fingers crossed! If he gets bad again, I'll have him in the bed with me (which I am secretly sort of looking forward to, though of course don't want him to get worse!!! He's just so scrummy and cuddly these days, I can't stop snuggling with him!)

I have no idea what Vincent weighs now, but I think it must be close to 11kg, and he is sooooo tall now (seems to have shot up again in the past week or so!!) that when he sits on my lap, I feel as though I have a much older child already: I look at him and think "this is what I thought 2-year-olds looked like!" lol...

Well I think I'm gonna hit the sack now, long and tiring day. I hope you all had loads of fun again (did anyone manage to take any photos at all? Would be cool to see the babies together!)

Much love
xxxx

 

[ShadowRat]

Oh P.S. Who was there today for the meet? Just out of nosiness hehehe

 

[Vici]

Mary Jo
Molly Apple
JoeyJo
Vici
Aunty E
Pippin........... plus our babies of course

MJ - sorry you had such a rubbish journey home. Mine was just as bad as my journey in - there was a crash on M25 and i joined queue as soon as I hit the slip road!! Got home about 7 in the end. Imi was good as gold bless her and stayed awake for most of the journey home apart from 20 mins on the tube (thanks MA for showing me to Westminster!) and then the last 20 mins from home

Shadow - sorry to hear Vince is poorly Imi is now finally getting over hers. The best thing we bought was a Karvol plug in which goes on at night time in their room. Worked wonders for us

 

[Aunty E]

I had a lovely time with AE and not-my-Imogen I don't get to see other babies very much, so it was lovely to get to play with them

We're pretty excited because it looks like we might (please let me not jinx this) have found a childminder who can do the odd weeks and days that we need. They already do a fair bit of agency work, but if we paid in advance it sounds like they're happy to do our irregular childcare bits! Woo! Duncan went this morning and said it looked really nice and they all seemed great and we're going back this evening to talk paperwork and dates. It's run by two primary school teachers and a couple of qualified nursery assistants and is ofsted inspected etc, and (if they don't penalise us too badly for the irregular aspect) just about affordable for us. We also need to discuss fees

The only slight problem is that I'll have to leave for work earlier so that I can walk her there and then walk on to the tube. And it's a stop further on so I might have trouble getting a seat in the morning, might not sound like a big deal, but it's a bit soul-destroying standing up all the way to work every day. I'm contemplating getting a little electric car and cashing in my annual tube pass instead so that I can drive to work, and drop Mog off on the way. It's still a bit of a research project though, I'm investigating reliability and parking costs at the mo.

So pleased that Mog is finally chowing down on food -she caned half a jar of savoury and half a custard pot last night, before guzzling seven ounces of milk. Poor, starving baby

 

[Vici]

Will be back to catch up soon - in a big grump as have looked into childcare etc and seems me going back to work is pretty much for nothing

 

[Mimiso]

AE, I work in London and drive in to work everyday for the same reasons- dropping my LO to the minders and the boys to school. I found really really cheap parking in central parking 24/7 for £160 a month. The company is called 24/7 parking. You can look them up and they will quote you on NCP parking places they have for sale for a fraction of the price NCP charge. If I couldnt drive to work I dont know how I would manage. Good luck

 

[Aunty E]

If I get something like a G wiz, I should be able to park near work for about 360 pounds a year, but a second car is a big deal for us, especially as we had to buy a new car in January thanks to the insurance company writing ours off. And giving us 200 quid for our car worth a grand. Grumble. I might try it with our current car for a week and use that service, thanks for the tip! OH often has to drive in, so it'll be really useful for him

Vici, how crappy that it's so expensive. The cheapest option I found (for regular childcare) were two not-for-profit nurseries near me. One was in Waterloo (so I could walk to work) and was incredibly cheap for central london. Childminders were a lot more affordable too. If you're going back part time, could you maybe find someone else with kids and do a reciprocal childcare thing? I think there's a website for that now.

 

[Mary Jo]

eeeek, childcare costs are crazy... hope you can find something reasonable, Vici; and Auntie E, hope your plans work out, too. I feel fortunate that the shifts I was working pre-Adam and when I go back fit in perfectly with C and I sharing childcare. when I first worked fri night & saturday it was a pain in the neck because it cut down on our time together, and we will obviously have to deal with only having one whole day as a family, but we could really use the money. if I wasn't offered those shifts but I was offered weekday ones, I'd have to think long and hard about what to do.

now... yesterday at the meet I seem to remember we briefly mentioned some cbeebies programmes that the babies like - what were they again? Pips, I think you mentioned something? nothing I have put on attracts Adam's attention, only his two You Tube videos (if you're happy and you know it and wheels on the bus (babies on the bus)). he can be throwing a hardcore screaming fit but will stop and gaze at the kids in these videos, it's pretty amazing. not that I want to plunk him in front of the telly but I would like to know of something he likes, for those times when nothing else I can try works.

 

[Boothh]

Wow sounds like the meet was good did anyone get any photos? I think a picnic next time sounds good and we will deffo try and make it,
Jesse likes waybuloo on cbeebies and he likes I can cook too for some reason lmao, he normally prefers faces on tv like jeremy Kyle and loose women and stuff like that (which is fine by me) but now and again he likes to watch kids stuff, though we have 5 channels until the 10th so it's just as well really lol,