Discovery Home & Health

Thanks Pinky

Me and DP did the deed this weekend and it was not as bad as I thought it would be, yippee! Feel much better for it as was worried there was something wrong with me as I couldn't bear the thought of it after giving birth.

Pinky- glad Sophie's been less screamy, long may it continue!

Pinky/Katy- just wanted to ask you both a quick question as you've both breast fed babies before. I was just wondering how old were they when you weaned them fully? And did they self wean or did you have to help them along? Already people are asking me when I'm going to stop bfing and just want an idea of how long other women have fed for.

Mojo- how is the new milk going? Hope Jemma is getting on better on it Has she gained any weight this week?

Janie- is your DP back yet? Hope Aisha's feeding has settled down and it was just a growth spurt.

Hope everyone enjoyed the bank holiday weekend

Rusty x

hi all

Rusty - i fed T until he was 1. i started weaning him at just before 5 months i think, and gradually reduced the number of bfeeds. then i got him down to just bedtime and morning, then at 1 i gave him cow's milk at bedtime, then 2 weeks later (i think, my memory is shot!) i stopped the morning feed too - i knew i was pg with H by this point! - by going to in-laws for weekend so they could distract him in the morning and give him some cow's milk if he wanted it.
only now is he refusing morning milk, tho he still has bedtime milk.
he never asked for more bfeeds after that.
when i was reducing the number of feeds (about 6 months maybe) i just made him wait for the next one if i could be distracting him/playing with him instead.
don't know if any of this helps tho!

my mil was always on at me, when are you going to stop, etc. but you have to decide when is best for you and baby, so resist!!!

jane - yes did dp get that sparkler for you???

mojo - any luck with new milk??

got so much i shd be doing but it's not happening!
ah well, there's always tomorrow!!

hi all, kt

Morning everyone
it seems ages since i've been on, need to catch up.

Well, DP back last Tuesday (29th) Aisha and me went to meet him from Heathrow. I was a bit worried how Aisha would react as she'd not seen him for so long and I knew he would come back with a beard. bless her she just gave him a huge cheesy smile when he picked her up I was like a kid waiting for him to come through the arrival doors and got bit tearful when he finally arrived. Typical he was one of the last through as one piece of luggage was late coming off the plane.
He came up to Leics and spent a whole week here before he had to go back to London yesterday

I think that Aisha is def going to be a daddy's girl, everytime she made a noise that slightly resembled a cry she got picked up and DP was rewarded with big smile.
It was great having him here, he fed her if I expressed, bathed, changed and dressed as much as he could, I even got cup of tea in the morning. Sadly back to me doing everything now.
I don't mind really but it was nice just having someone else around for more than a couple of days.

Jenny - Glad things have settled for your little one, I'd never heard of babies being lactose intolerant before but i understand its quite common really.

Aisha's sleeping is really a bit hit and miss at the moment, I just don't know what's happening. The first 2 nights DP was back she slept great, just woke once in the night around 3.30-4am(as usual) but then its all gone to pot again. She still goes to bed at 7.30pm and usually settles fairly quickly on her own, just the odd time i have to go back up but then she's waking anything from 11.30-12.00 demanding a feed. I tried just giving her some water as suggested by my mum but she won't have that, just screams until i feed her. Then she wakes again around 4ish for another feed, the awake at 6. I give in then and she comes into my bed for couple of hrs.

Could it be she is ready for weaning? My mum and sister keep going on saying she is ready but she's only 16wks tomorrow so i don't want to rush it but then again if she's ready i guess it will be for her benefit.
I'm going to a group on Thursday run by HV's which gives guides on when and how to wean so i'll know then if the time is right to start giving her some baby rice or something. A bit scared really about going down that road, at least with milk i know what i'm doing Bit confused at the moment.


Rusty - Absolutely loved Harriet's cake and agree with Pinky, she looks so cute laying next to yr cat. He/She is a big one. How does the cat deal with baby, my cat Maisie is getting a bit brave and will occasionally come quite close and rub her head on Aisha's hand but then runs away if aisha moves quickly.

Pinky - glad Sophie is less vocal, Aisha is definitely going the other way , she's not unhappy but is just always wanting people to know she's around !! She's gets bored easily now and needs constant entertaining. She loves the door bouncer but after short times wants to be out and doing something else. Sometimes its hard to know what to do with her to keep her occupied.
Today is lovely day so after going into town we're going to spend some time in the garden, i think if i put blanket on the grass she should be OK while i do a bit of tidying up.

Jenni - how are things with you and Josh. Hope yr mum is getting on well.

Oh, just a random question- is anyone finding their hair is coming out loads. I've got quite long thick curly hair but the last 3 or 4 weeks its just coming out so much when i wash it i'm starting to worry.
DP, bless him, said its natural and it will stop eventually but when does it stop. At this rate i'm worried my hair will go thin. I did hear that you have some hair loss but i think mine is going to the extreme

Oh, just to say DP did not bring back a sparkler but told me to keep eye out for one i like and then he would buy. I've seen a couple so just building up a selection then he can buy which one he likes so it'll be a sort of a surprise if you know what i mean.

Right, better go now, Aisha just woke up from morning nap, need to hang out washing and then go into town to post sisters birthday card.

Have a good day all and enjoy the sunshine
Jane
xxx

Hi All,
Just 2 quick replies, off out in a mo with Sophie in the pram, its a lovely day amd mil with us.

Firstly Rusty, bf as long as it feels right, i kept offering me after every meal from start of weaning through to end, and b4 bed, so just demand feeding really, my boys bf til 10 months when my milk dried up through lack of demand and they got fed up sucking for it so naturally weaned.
My dd slept through the night from birth so sadly my milk dried up by 6 months when i took over with bottle, i am hoping with combination of not weanint til 6 months and expressing as regularlly as poss i can feed til about a year, when she can go on cows milk, that is my aim, but it is a personal choice, my friend fed her boys til nearly 3years and she was happy, they looked a bit big to me but as i say its personal choice, so listen to you and not everyone else!

And Jane, you dont loose hair during pg so it appears to thicken and when baby is about 4 months your hair starts to come out, it is all the hair you didnt loose during pg, and can seem like a lot, mine has not started yet but i know once it does comes away in what seems like handfulls!!
Dont panic, it will look ok, it is normal and will gradually ease off!!

Must dash, Sophie being vocal,(ie screaming place down!)
She is funny has started to 'talk' when she sits on my knee i talk and she is answering back with coo's and stuff, soooooo sweet, must try and get some onto msn, can we put video clips on there??

Take care all, will catch up really soon,

Pinky xx

Hi everyone,

Pinky- think I'm going to bf til Harriet doesn't want it anymore, I don't care what people say! It was so difficult getting it going I don't want to give up just cos people think I should. I think I'll be sad when I stop anyway as I really enjoy our little middle of the night cuddles. I don't like getting out of bed but I do like the fact that it's just me and her and she feeds much better (gets less distracted ).

Janie- my hair's falling out by the handful too!! We have a grey carpet in the bedroom and I can see my ginger hair all over the top of it on my side of the bed. Having to hoover every other day at the moment, is gross!!

Have you tried giving Aisha a dream feed? I give Harriet her last feed at about 7pm then a dream feed when I go to bed at about 11pm and she will generally sleep through til 4-5am then. After that she tends to wake quite frequently so I have her in bed like you or I would get no sleep!

Better go DP whinging that not seen me all day and now I'm on here

Rusty x

Hi All,

Well Sophie seems to be growing and changing rapidly!
She has started 'talking' babbling and cooing, and so i am getting a lot less crying from her, she seems to feel she can get her point across by babbling, with great feeling! Her expressions when she 'talks' are just so lovely!
She is still feeding through the night, i am thinking as she is so demand fed that she just wants to continue it through the night, she won't attempt to take a huge feed just a snack and so 4 hours is about the longest average i get and then it closes up, once she is up once its regular, and now after 16 weeks i am starting to feel it!! I am so determined not to start weaning yet, and i am pretty sure once i do she will sleep through.

House work today, takes a while as Sophie likes the attention!

Hope everyone ok,

Pinky xx

Hi All,
Rusty,lovely pics especially the one of Harriet and your cat - looks very similar to my cat Bandit although not nearly as fat - Bandit's the size of a badger! Well done you on the b/f, I gave it up a couple of weeks ago and do miss it sometimes but Jemma prefers her bottle now.

Jane, glad you & Aisha had a lovely time with DP, you must miss him terribly when he's away. How lovely you get to choose your ring, happy shopping! DH said he'd buy me an eternity ring as it's by birthday in June and the one I picked out just happened to be the most expensive one in the shop - can't help having good taste! The thing is we've just had an offer accepted on a house (on the South coast 10 mins from the sea) so need to save all the money we can. Have read about hair loss, I loved having thicker hair during pregnancy so not looking forward to it but normal as Pinky says.

Pinky, Jemma is also babbling away and cooing it's just delightful. She's also discovered her hands and sucks away dribbling all over them, prefers them to the dummy.

Katy, well the new milk seems to be working well, her diarrhoea has cleared up and she's sleeping really well. She has a feed at 6pm goes to sleep around 7ish then another feed at 11pm and has slept through til 6am twice this week - great! Last night she wouldn't take as much of her feed though and woke up at 4am hungry so it's not every night but not bad considering she's not 3 months yet.

Her test results came back from the hospital and turns out she's not lactose intolerant but milk protein intolerant. The Paediatrician said she will grow out of it and to wean her on all other foods first before introducing cow's milk products slowly. I know there are lactose free baby foods around but not sure about milk protein free? I've done some research on it and all a bit of an eye-opener really, quite common apparently. The good news is she put on a whole pound in a week and a half so is now 11lbs 12oz so very happy she is now thriving.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the sunshine, have a lovely w/e all.

Jenny xx

Evening everyone,

Thanks for your comments re hair loss, i just have to hope it slows down soon,i'm sure that i must have now lost all the hair that i gained whilst being pg

Rusty - i'm like you with the bf, i want to keep it up as long as is possible, i do have days when i feel i'm not producing enough but then other days its the opposite, i keep expressing as well so should be ok for a while yet.
Re yr suggestion for dream feed, to be honest i'm a bit loathe to try this, she's been such a pain to settle back down at night i don't want her to wake unless its necessary.
Saying that a couple of nights ago she woke at 10.30 when i went to bed so i decided to feed her just to see what happened. She still woke up at 1am !!!!! demanding to be fed, then 4.30am. needless to say i was shattered the next day.
Last night was slightly better, went to bed 7.30, woke at 1am, fed and took about half hour to settle then she woke at 5.30am when i fed again.

I went to group yesterday about weaning and whilst there was some useful info it was just a general chat really but while there i spoke to the HV and explained what was happening, she suggested the usual growth spurt which i said i had put down to the first week but now going into week 3 didn't think it was that anymore so i said would it hurt to give her some baby rice if i wanted.
She was very supportive and said that if i felt i wanted to try this it would not do her any harm as she is nearly 17 wks. I'm not doing it just for sleep but i'm worried that she's just burning up the calories quicker than i'm giving them to her (wish my body would do the same tho )
Anyway, i tried it today with her afternoon feed at 4.30. Just gave her one spoon of rice mixed with my expressed milk and she gobbled it down She was grabbing the spoon and if i was not quick enough she'd start banging the chair.
Based on this reaction i'm guessing she liked it. I'm only going with the rice for the time being, not going to introduce anything else but just hope this satisfies her a bit more.
Fingers crossed.

Saying that got her weighed this week and the chunky monster now weighs 12lb !!!!

Pinky - know what you mean about Sophie being more vocal and "talking". If anyone could hear me talking to Aisha sometimes they'd think i was a nutcase and i talk to her when we are out walking to, i show her the birds and the trees adn cars etc. As she makes her noises i reply back and then she does something else and this goes on for ages, its great
Don't know about putting video on msn, i put a couple of pics on today and wanted to put small video on but it did not show in the folder where it was stored (if that makes sense). tried to see any help but could not see anything.

Jenny - lol yr comment about yr cat being size of a badger!!
Glad to hear its been sorted with her milk and like you say she's definitely thriving, only 4oz's less that Aisha!!

I love the sunshine and it's been great being able to put Aisha in some of her summer clothes and not wrapping her up like an eskimo, slapping on the factor 50 sunblock (her and me) and she has the cutest hat she's been wearing.

Well, this was only going to be a quick post so better be off now, enjoy yr weekend all and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.

take care
Jane
xxx

hi all,

just a quick message to let u all know we are all ok. josh is great and is developing mega fast.

will read all the messages another day and reply propa. its my 22nd birthday 2day so i'm off out with josh to see friends etc

hope every1 is ok

jen and josh xxx

Jenni, happy birthday! Hope you have a lovely day and glad you & Josh are doing well.

Jane - lovely pictures, have added some myself today.

Hope everyone else enjoying the sunshine, will be back tomorrow.

Jenny x

Hi everyone,

Mojo- That's Reggie the cat, he's quite naughty so I was worried about him and Harriet but he loves her and likes to sit next to her all the time. That's bound to stop when she starts pulling his fur! He's a big boy, has been on a diet for ages but doesn't seem to make any difference as he's so lazy

Yay to Jemma's weight gain. Hopefully now you know what the problem is things will get easier for you

Pinky- I feel the same as you on weaning, really want to leave it as long as possible but I do think Harriet would sleep better if I did. She's starting to become very interested in food too, it's getting hard to resist She even took a handful of beans off my plate the other day, had to prise her hand open to get them. Naughty monkey!

Janie- I was loath to try the dreamfeed too and it didn't work the first couple of nights. She does go straight back to sleep afterwards which is a blessing. It's a bit hit and miss every night, sometimes she'll sleep through to 5am but this weekend she's been waking at midnight after having a feed at 10pm!! Let us know how you get on with the weaning as might be following suit soon

Jenni- happy birthday for yesterday, glad you and Josh are doing well.

Went to see the Vicar yesterday and wedding definitely booked for 3rd October 2009!! Yay! Seems ages away but I'm sure it'll come round quickly

Hope everyone's enjoying the lovely weather

Rusty x

Hi All,

Just a quick one to say i tried sophie on some very liquid rusk with my milk at weekend and she is clearly not ready, she didnt sleep any longer for the bit she took, and she is totally un interested in it. It has put my mind at rest that she may be hungry, she is obviously quite happy on my milk although it does not satisfy her for long it is doing the trick!
Going to leave it now for month or so and see how she is then, just couldnt not stand the thought that she was hungry but could not tell me!

Happy Birthday Jenni xx

Jenny will look at pics, must try and get more on there soon!

Rusty, well done on finalising date, keep thinking about my wedding, got to book venue properly its only provisional at moment.
Everything else will have to wait, need to find out if wedding dress place does winter collection!

Df put back out on sat, been in agony since, still got doctors to see today, poor love on right bunch of pain killers! Bless them, very low pain threshold men!!

Take care all big waves to all xx

Pinky xx

Hi everyone,

sorry not been on for properly ages - I don't know where the time goes! Actually I do - feeding and entertaining the little one - and meeting other mums for coffee and lunch! Shouldn't complain!

Am very excited with all the wedding talk going on

On a sadder note, Jenni, DP is an idiot. Hope you're doing ok.

We're doing really well - he is great fun and really enjoying playing and singing and interaction now. Rolling front to back but not back to front. Nights still not great - our little man was going til 5ish, but has been more like 4 for the last few weeks. Some girls in my antenatal group have babies who have slept through from 9pm - 7am for ages now... but not us! Oh well, at least he just has a 15 min feed and then goes back to sleep. Saying that, last night he slept til 6am, but I think it's just a one off. Not sure what to do to encourage him to go longer - I assume he can as he does every now and again...

As for weaning, he is starting to get REALLY interested in watching us eat - and he's 5 months next week - so might start a little baby rice. Haven't done so far. He has one bottle of formula which daddy gives him at 10.30, so I can go to bed early if I want. Might introduce another formula at 6 months as bfeeding is really tiring me out. I'll see.

Lots of love and I'll try and get on a bit more often.

Frenchie xx

here is a fab forum for u, i promise u will make loads of friends and have loads of fun.
i love it.
http://looneylounge.net/index.php?referredby=464

Hi ladies,
just a quick one while dinner is cooking

Happy belated birthday Jenni, hope you had a great day, oh to be 22 again LOL, its so long ago since i was in my twenties its just a dim and distant memory now....
Did Josh get anything nice for his mummy?

Jenny - thanks for the comment on the pictures, i'm like a woman possessed with the camera, its in my handbag all the time just in case there's a photo opportunity.
Saw your pictures - Jemma is gorgeous

Rusty - Reggie yr cat sounds like Maisie, Aisha just started to reach out each time she walks by and she's quite indifferent and sometimes just sits out of reach, like you tho not sure what it'll be like when Aisha is on the move chasing her and grabbing.
Well done on booking the wedding, you must be so excited.

frenchie - great to hear from you and good that Reuben is growing, i love it now Aisha is more responsive and you can have little "conversations" with them and it seems they understand you altho we know they haven't a clue and just laugh at us but i love it.

Well, I've decided that Aisha was definitely ready for something other than her milk, she's been on the rice since Saturday and i have to say she absolutely loves it, she's taken to it so well and is great taking it off the spoon.
I mix it with expressed milk and then she has the rest afterwards. Tonight i tried something different to help her settle afterwards and it seems to have worked.
I gave her the rice and half her last feed, then she had bath and ready for bed, then remainder of feed and she settled tonight in 5 minutes and 30 mins later still no noise. Its a miracle.
This is the quickest she has settled for about 2 weeks, the other night she had me in tears as she was screaming and screaming and with me being tired i just didn't know what to do. Eventually she went off but that was the worst she's ever been.
Anyway last night she slept from 8pm-2am she took a small 10 min feed then went straight off til about 5.30 then she came in the bed with me and slept again til 8.30.
So I'm happier that her earlier waking seems to have settled, not sure if its the rice thats doing it or coincidence but its a relief and she seems much happier

Better go, smells like stuff in oven is about ready (vegetarian garlic kievs, yummy)

take care all
Jane
xxx