MSE Newborn to 1 year (& beyond!) baby club 2

*Nutella*

Daft question for those with older babies.... Being in the playground today made me think about shoes. She's not walking by herself yet, but she's pulling herself up on anything and everything, and I was thinking today that we could have gone in the sand pit or the pirate ship (yep - they even have a pirate ship; I love my local park ) if only she was wearing shoes! So - at what point did you buy your LO their first shoes?

fluffnutter

Claree__x wrote: »

Hi All,

Jumping ahead of myself a bit here 'cause I'm only 15 weeks but I was wondering if I could have some honest opinions of how you felt after giving birth (this is my first).

Thing is, I'm currently studying accountancy part time. Baby simba (I promise I won't actually name them that) is due August 27th and the course I want to do starts late September. Not ideal, obviously.

It'll be 2 evenings per week during which my husband will be home to look after simba. I just don't know whether I'll feel up to it but I really don't want to put my career on hold another year because if I do this now I can apply for part-qualified positions after my maternity leave rather than going into an unqualified position in another field (like I'm doing now).

Any advice would be lovely x

Will you be breastfeeding? If so, things might be a little awkward because you genuinely are tied to your baby if feeding yourself and you can't really leave them for more than two hours (and only if you time it right!). You can express I guess but this isn't always as straightforward as it seems and is particularly difficult early on.

Personally I wouldn't have been able to do this. When Freddie was a month old I was still reeling with the shock of being a new parent. Physically I was OK (despite a rather harrowing labour) but I was still exhausted, Freddie was feeding every few hours and more frequently during the early evening (it's called cluster feeding), and my head was totally consumed with thinking about my baby.

I understand that a year seems a long time if you have to put your course on hold again, and I appreciate that qualifying will be very useful in terms of what jobs you can apply for... but your baby will only be a small baby for a very tiny amount of time. You can delay your course - your baby can't delay its first year. He or she will need you and there's no shame in totally focussing all your attention on your baby for the first few months. My SIL told me to completely write off six months of my life - don't think about anything, don't try to achieve anything, just be there for your baby. That was great advice, IMO.

Sammie_03

*Nutella* wrote: »

Daft question for those with older babies.... Being in the playground today made me think about shoes. She's not walking by herself yet, but she's pulling herself up on anything and everything, and I was thinking today that we could have gone in the sand pit or the pirate ship (yep - they even have a pirate ship; I love my local park ) if only she was wearing shoes! So - at what point did you buy your LO their first shoes?

I bought Noah some trainers now he is pulling himself up. We started with a pair of soft bottomed Nike trainers but when he outgrew them i bought him some hard bottomed trainers as he likes to hold on and walk around his buggy up the school. I've seen some really pretty girls shoes but I don't think my DP would let me put them on Noah.
X

fluffnutter

Candlewax wrote: »

has anyone experienced low milk supply in one boob before? My 6 week old has been distressed when on my right boob the last 2 days and when I check the milk doesn't seem to be flowing as fast as on the other side. If I move him to the other side he calms down and i can hear him gulping. I am careful to use each boob the same amount so don't think it is that. I have had a hard very sore area on my boob which I have massaged frequently and is now almost gone. Would this have affected my supply? Does anyone know how I can improve the supply on that side. I am not getting much if I express either.

We're not symmetrical and most women will find there's a difference in the number of milk ducts on each side. Hence you'll often get one that flows and one that doesn't seem to produce so much. I've certainly got this and before things settled down, the OH used to call it the 'noisy boob' because you could hear Freddie gulping really loudly!

At six weeks there's a couple of things going on... 1) your boobs are still getting into the supply and demand thing and 2) your LO is experiencing his first growth spurt! Believe me, you're lucky it's not both sides he's getting frustrated with because he wants more than you're producing at the moment!

Things will settle in time - I have every faith that both your boobs are producing enough (or will do once things are more established). If you're worried the best way to increase supply is simply to let him feed more from that side. This might make you a little uncomfortable in your other boob or make your nipple sore on the side you're trying to increase. I'd carry on as you are for the time being - things tend to sort themselves out. If you're still concerned in a couple of weeks, mention it to the HV.

Gillyx

They dont recommend shoes until they're walking outside, we bought cruisers when he was walking with support as he was a tiptoer and the GP said to me it can cause long term damage if it continues, luckily enough the shoes helped him put a flat foot on the ground.

Soft soled cruisers are fab, they measured length and width when we got ours and made sure they fitted properly we got them from Clarks. I think it helped him to adjust to proper shoes when we used them and he is waking outside now :j

BadlyWrittenPoem

*Nutella* wrote: »

Daft question for those with older babies.... Being in the playground today made me think about shoes. She's not walking by herself yet, but she's pulling herself up on anything and everything, and I was thinking today that we could have gone in the sand pit or the pirate ship (yep - they even have a pirate ship; I love my local park ) if only she was wearing shoes! So - at what point did you buy your LO their first shoes?

We have some shoes that aren't really proper shoes that we have used for odd occasions of outdoor walking before proper independent walking. I'll see if I can find a photo...



Hope that doesn't come out gigantic!

*Nutella*

Was thinking of a visit to Clarks - I think you've just convinced me Gilly Sammie, you can buy pretty shoes once you've convinced your DP to let you have baby number 4, a Maisie Thanks both x

Edited to add: BWP - thanks to you too; your post sneaked in whilst I was typing mine! We actually have something similar. Just had a look at the Clarks cruisers - they look perfect Want to get them in an actual shop though so they can do the fitting.

moneypenny21

Thanks for the info about frozen breast milk I will probably express some supplies for when I'm out - cheaper for one

Bottles having mixed effect at night. Breast feed times through the day have halved either she is more efficient or just not as hungry ?


Any treatment for cradle cap? Tried oil it worked for a day then it's back!

Elelyn

Evening all,

I am not a happy bunny tonight. Had a telephone meeting with my manager about my request to change my hours on my return from mat leave. I wanted to do 3 days a week. This is not agreeable to my manager and I have been told I can either return full time or do a job share which means either three days one week, two weeks the next or two and a half days a week. I most definately do not want to do full time but the job share option is far from ideal as I'm still going to have to pay for two days of nursery (DH is doing one day at home) as my travelling time is such that we couldn't do a half day at the nursery. So it looks like I'll have to take the two and a half days option but end up with half a day when I'm at home at little man is at nursery. Plus it means losing another two days pay a month and I really don't know if we can afford that. I'm worried about how we'll manage. Also majorly peed off with my manager as she had led me to believe that I could do three days. Not happy at all

PurpleFairy26

moneypenny21 wrote: »

Thanks for the info about frozen breast milk I will probably express some supplies for when I'm out - cheaper for one

Bottles having mixed effect at night. Breast feed times through the day have halved either she is more efficient or just not as hungry ?


Any treatment for cradle cap? Tried oil it worked for a day then it's back!

Moneypenny - you can but dentinox cradle cap shampoo, althought I think it's a bit like marm1te, people seem to sit at opposite extremes of whether they like it and it works for them. It did work for us for DD1 and hers was quite bad as I left it too long to treat really. Another option is tesc0 organic Baby shampoo was recommended to me by someone as being just as effectiveif you want something less chemically. It too worked for us.