MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

sunshine_1988

Hiiii

Wow Gilly. Bad day! Hope tomorow is better.

Have a lovely time away Nutella

Yey, my day with Aiden tomorow :j

x

Aimless

*Nutella* wrote: »

Mother & Baby Awards winners were announced last night:

http://jessicamilln.com/2012/11/28/mother-baby-awards-201213-and-the-winners-are/

Remember when we were talking about annoying musical toys, and I mentioned one that I made OH give away before I threw it out of the window? It's won silver in the 'best newborn sleep aid' category! :eek: That's the category I was testing for - and our favourite product didn't even make it onto the shortlist Just goes to show that although reviews and other people's opinions are useful, every baby - and mother - really is different

Turtle and Aimless, would love to hear how your opinions of the products you tested compare to the winners' list

I loved the Boo Boo baby skincare, and it won Don't know what I'm going to do when the bottle is finally empty though, as it doesn't upset his skin, and costs loads.

I had a Verbaudet? nursing top to try, and it was awful! It has slits down the front and I constantly felt like I was exposing myself. It is currently living in the bottom of the washing basket till I get someone to sew the slits up a load. I also didn't like the nursing bras as none of them seemed designed for a person with a chest. The one thing I really loved was a top by BOOB, and it doesn't seem to have even made the shortlist.

mozzyc

Sunshine enjoy your day tomorrow! xx

Gillyx

Question the people who get to test pushchairs will they get 3 or 4 to compare? :eek:

Aimless

For big stuff you had to have a load of friends to help, so I couldn't put down for pushchairs, I don't know any other mums! Think they ask for them back after too.

fluffnutter

*Nutella* wrote: »

To be honest, I think it was a combination of her being ready for it, me being determined to stop the feeds and a good portion of sheer luck I'm under no illusion that it'll be a permanent thing though - every evening I expect her to start waking up again... She used to wake up twice a night for a feed, but I no longer believed it was about hunger, I think it was comfort and habit - because on the rare occasion when she stayed in my bed she'd sleep through. I guess one advantage of FF is that you know how much they're having and you can control that - I started reducing the amount of milk she was having at night from 180ml to 150ml to 120 ml to 90ml over a week, I had planned to keep going lower until I reached zero, but then suddenly one night she slept through, so I decided to go cold turkey and offer no more. The next two nights she woke up and wanted feeding and took an hour to settle without it. She cried and cried, I went in every minute (lurking outside counting to 60...) to put the dummy back in and say 'time to sleep' (our sleep cue). No cuddles, no picking up - this makes it worse as she thinks she's going to get fed and then discovers she isn't... The following night it took her 20 minutes to settle, and last night she didn't wake up at all.

A friend of mine paid for a baby sleep consultant (yes really!) and I picked her brains and did what she'd paid a fortune to be told... The consultant also said that feeding them can in fact encourage them to wake up again later in the night because it gets their digestive system going, which disrupts theis sleep.

It's all a bit strange and I have no idea what to expect tonight, but if you're prepared to go cold turkey and refuse him milk, you'll probably be in for a few messy nights and then he'll hopefully realise there's no more milk to be had.... I think this is what Gilly did too, and she was spot on when she said that it wouldn't be pleasant and I would be knackered, but I think it was the right thing for us. I would never refuse a feed if I thought she was genuinely hungry, but I know her hunger cry and it's different.

She's starving when she wakes up in the morning though, so I have to be ready with a bottle within minutes or all hell breaks loose! She's too hungry to go straight for solids, so I give her 90ml of milk first thing, then get her changed and dressed - this buys me a few minutes to get her breakfast ready. She then wants milk again within two hours instead of the usual three/four, so she still has the same amount of milk in 24 hours, she's just shifted it to daytime instead, which I like! :T

Would this approach be recommended for BF babies too? It strikes me as difficult to be sure that they're not hungry because you don't know how much they've had. Plus it's all supply and demand with boobies so if you start denying them the tit you might find you struggle to keep your supply up.

I'm asking because Freddie's sleeping's terrible at the moment - he typically wakes for a feed six or seven times a night. I couldn't bear to not feed him if he's genuinely hungry. He suckles for a good ten minutes or so each time.

fluffnutter

turtlemoose wrote: »

Tell me to bog off if this is too personal a question, i was wondering if you picked a donor who looked similar to you (hence the red hair)? Or have I got it totally wrong and it doesn't work like that?

You can nominate your own donor (e.g. a sister) but it's more usual to use an anonymous donor. This is all arranged and managed by whatever fertility clinic you're treated at. I have no idea who supplied eggs for me, but I do know that she would have been chosen as far as possible to match me physically. Photos were supplied of me and the OH, plus we had to complete a physical characteristics questionnaire. Certain genetically impossible things, such as two blue eyed parents having a brown eyed baby would have to be avoided. Both the OH and I have blue eyes therefore the donor would have to have blue eyes too. However, if the OH's eyes were brown, technically a brown eyed donor could have been used because it would have been perfectly possible for us to have brown eyed babies anyway. That's why they need to know what your OH looks like too.

We went to Spain where the law is slightly different. Unlike this country, Freddie has no legal right to seek out his donor mother; she remains anonymous although we will tell him about his origins.

And I don't mind talking about it at all. I'm quite a zealot about egg donation. It was my only chance of having a baby and I'd hate to think that there are others in the same situation who don't realise what a lifeline it is. Bizarrely, Freddie looks a lot like me

turtlemoose

Wow fluff, thanks! I had always thought about donating eggs once I'd finished having my own babies - but I don't like that law you have mentioned, where trhey can come find you. I wouldn't want that to happen - they wouldnt be my babies, someone else would have carried them, birthed them and nurtured them. I'd just have chucked a few living cells their way, that's all. So that puts me off massively

If you wanted to have another baby, could you go back to the same clinic and specify that you want another egg from the same donor to make the babies similar again? (obviously if there was some available)

turtlemoose

fluffnutter wrote: »

Would this approach be recommended for BF babies too? It strikes me as difficult to be sure that they're not hungry because you don't know how much they've had. Plus it's all supply and demand with boobies so if you start denying them the tit you might find you struggle to keep your supply up.

I'm asking because Freddie's sleeping's terrible at the moment - he typically wakes for a feed six or seven times a night. I couldn't bear to not feed him if he's genuinely hungry. He suckles for a good ten minutes or so each time.

I've wondered about this, as Reuben wakes every 2-3 hours. But in the day time he will sometimes go 4-5 hours, so I know he CAN go that long. On sunday i started a new method. Previously, any wake ups automatically got a boob - and yes he did nurse. However i had come to suspect he wasn't all that hungry, it felt more like habit, and i was sick of putting him down and then having to go back upstairs 30-49 mins later.

SO...i still feed him upstairs, he still nods off during it, and i put him in the cot. HOwever, when he wakes up less than an hour later, instead of automatically giving him boob, I have been giving a cuddle, shushing and a bit of rocking. I did 5 mins before boob, then 10 mins before boob etc.

As the nights went on, there were times when he almost immediately settled with his cuddle and shush, so i put him back down. Other times he was clearly hungry so I fed him.

Last night (night 5) he had his last feed at 830, woke around 910 as usual but I heard him on the monitor just chatting to himself and he dropped off again. This never happens!! He then slept until 1145, when i suspect a creaky floorboard woke him rather than him waking naturally. But anyway i fed him then, and he slept until 5:45, another feed and then up for the day at 845 (and start the day with a feed).

I'm happy as i feel he has fed when he has been genuinely hungry, but (seems to!) Has learnt not to wake up for a bit of cheeky booby whnever he wants.

Hopefully this carries on working!

fluffnutter

turtlemoose wrote: »

Wow fluff, thanks! I had always thought about donating eggs once I'd finished having my own babies - but I don't like that law you have mentioned, where trhey can come find you. I wouldn't want that to happen - they wouldnt be my babies, someone else would have carried them, birthed them and nurtured them. I'd just have chucked a few living cells their way, that's all. So that puts me off massively

If you wanted to have another baby, could you go back to the same clinic and specify that you want another egg from the same donor to make the babies similar again? (obviously if there was some available)

If she were still on their books, I guess it would be possible. However, no need! We got seven top quality embryos out of the first go and have five still in the deep freeze. If we have another go, and it worked - and with five embryos, chances are we'd be successful - Freddie would have a true sibling