MSE Parents Club Part 4

MrsTinks

weezl - my stack of 12-18 has no skirts in it! EEEEEEK!!! Sorry chick...

weezl74

MrsTine wrote: »

weezl - my stack of 12-18 has no skirts in it! EEEEEEK!!! Sorry chick...

Thanks for looking maybe becles can save the day!

mookiandco

pinkpig08 wrote: »

I've been debating whether to use a dummy with her. She just won't settle if she's with anyone else except me, and sometimes not even with me. I can have fed her, changed her and she still won't be happy. If I offer her the breast again she'll just 'chew' on the end and not really feed, so just uses it as a comforter. But I'm worried about it affecting the breastfeeding. DH hasn't been really helpful in saying he thinks it's because her hunger isn't being satisfied and that we should try bottle feeding her. I've been so proud of the fact I've breastfed longer than a week, and his comment just put me down again. My friends at work said not to listen to what anyone said - she's my baby and if I want to give her a dummy then I should. It's not everyone else who's at home all day looking after her.

Sorry for such a long moan! Thanks for listening

I have tried to give Leila a dummy about 4 or 5 times. She sucks it for about 15 seconds, realises theres nothing coming out, screws up her face and spits it out across the room! She obviously thinks its a big con so we have stopped offering it to her.

I introduced a bottle within the first few days and there has been no confusion betwen bottle and breast. Leila couldnt care less where the milk is coming from as long as I keep it coming. We use the closer to nature bottles and they have been fine. I tried the breastflow bottle but it gave her wind.

I have the closer to nature manual pump (£10), a bruin (?)electric pump (£15) from toys r us and also the medela mini electric pump (£54). I find that the manual pump is much more effective and more comfortable but hard work. I usually rest the bottle on my lap top and pump whilst I type or whilst watching TV. I find I pump more if I dont look every 2 mins to see how much I have pumped!!

The bruin one from toys r us works but is very very uncomfortable. The suction is far too strong and it just pulls your nipple (and half the breast) into the tube and seems to force the milk out. I stopped using it pretty quickly.

The medela mini electric is very very very noisy. Think aircraft taking off. It is quite effective particularly as I dont have to do anything but sit there however it drowns out the tv and makes it hard to hold a conversation so I only use it occasionally during the day.


My OH continuously told me that baby was not satisified and that she was not getting what she needed from the breast milk, which made me feel as if I was a failure. I admit that she seemed to be hungry all the time but I think that if I had known to expect that she would be wanting to feed almost constantly for the first couple of weeks I would have been a bit more relaxed about it. I gave in and let her have some formula to top her up after a few days. Now I am able to express more she generally has EBM if we are out and about but still has a bottle of formula now and again.

I give her a bottle of EBM or formula last thing at night as this helps her to settle quicker rather than chew on my nipple or use the breast for comfort. If she has a bottle she will generally burp then fall asleep so I also give her a bottle for her 5am feed. She then goes to bed semi-awake and falls asleep within 15 minutes. I then express for half an hour so that my boobs dont explode and then use that expressed milk the next day for if we go out.

Hubby likes to give her a bottle too as do any visitors so thats an added bonus.

Fritha_2

3onitsway wrote: »

Are Me, MFD and now Caz the only ones with babies who's heads are visible through their very fine, fair fluff?
I want a baby who looks like they're wearing a toupee! :rotfl:

I have one like that! A blondie/gingery fuzz although it's getting longer! lol at the toupee!

My_Fathers_Daughter wrote: »

The sucking - we have ALL been through this. It is not because baby is hungry (usually) it is because they want comfort and closeness. There are different schools of thought...some people just accept it as a phase that they go through and are happy to be a human dummy for a while, others (like me) find it really draining (especially in the evening - it was alway worst in the evening) and needed to get baby off. I think it is particularly tough if your nipples are sore.

There's also a school of thought (not necessarily mine btw) that there is no such thing as 'comfort' sucking that they're just doing it to increase the supply.

Really frequent feeding (with masses of sucking) is typical of a growth spurt (which they have millions of in the first six weeks). And evening cluster feeds are very usual as your milk get much creamier and becomes bedtime milk, sprogling will try to cram his/her tummy full to sleep all night (ha! I live for the day!).

But yes got side tracked there, as MFD said a dummy will give you a break from all the sucking, but if that isn't for you/doesn't work out, don't worry it does ease off at around six weeks and again at around twelve weeks.

Mrs_Moc

I had to pay a childminder a retainer of £50 per week for 3 months a few years ago, so £30 is reasonable, but I know how you feel, its so annoying paying out for something that your not using as such.

redmel1621

I think Pink could have the option of not paying anything for 7mths....but then she would be taking the risk of whether there is actually a place available when she needs it. The childminder couldn't exactly take another child on, on the proviso that it is for a set amount of months, because what happens if pink changes her mind! It also wouldn't be fair to expect the childminder not to earn anything (potentially) for those 7 mths...


To those debating dummy usage:) I love them, they are my saviours and the only reason I am still sane:D
I tried ds2 with one when he was newborn and he hated it, which is fine! My big mistake was then not trying him again a few weeks down the line as he was a very 'unsettled:rotfl:' baby. Dummies are not evil, do not cause emotional/social/physical problems andt will not kill your baby, in fact have now been advocated as a preventer of cot death:)

Don't let anyone force you into using or not using them, trust your instinct

Mel x

cazscoob

:j:j:jmy ironing is all done:j:j:j
now to get it all put away and get organised! its OH birthday tom so we are going to a local event - The big tent! its a great day out and we had good fun at it last year, my sister is taking the older 4 so we will only have erin and i may be able to have a few drinks:beer: fingers crossed the weather holds up!

Savvy_Sue

searching_me wrote: »

zoes being greedy and bugging for food every 10mins when ive asked her to tidy her room just so she can get out of it ...

Easy answer to that: "Yes darling, of course you can have a biscuit / banana / drink of milk WHEN YOU HAVE TIDIED YOUR ROOM!"

weezl74 wrote: »

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if I bit off more than most people could cope with in my situation!

:rotfl: You certainly did. But another thing to remember, is that babies don't starve if we have to interrupt to deal with something quickly, nor if we make them wait until we've been to the loo and made a cup of tea! If doing something is difficult with a baby latched on, there is always the option of de-latching briefly. OK, so I know it doesn't please them, but they do survive!

pinkpig08 wrote: »

Because I'm not goin back to work until April I'll have to pay a retainer of £30 per week. That's 7 months at £120 per month.

Is there any mileage in that for you to use her say once a week, a) to give yourself some 'me' time and b) to get you all used to her being there.

MrsTinks

I love when Alexandra sits in her swing chatting to herself... OH is a little less impressed... anyone would think he was trying to do conference calls from home or something... :rotfl:
as for the great bottle/boob debate - Alexandra has been combination fed EBM since pretty much day one! She's managing just fine even if we found that we personally didn't get on with the tommee tippee bottles...

BTW - the hand pump from tommee tippee... the closer to nature one - how much would you say is a fair price if it's never been opened so is really brand new?? One of the mums from baby group wanted another pump as hers broke and I've been using my medela and have no intention of using the hand one (my wrists are struggling with life as it is... I'm not going to make them worse by hand pumping!!)
HELP!

weezl74

I just read that baby skinty has come :j:j:j:j:j:j:j