h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Clovis - I've sent you an email.

Liam.

Waving hello and re-introducing myself


I remember the colic thing *sighs* not fun... if you can get a doctor to prescribe colief for you it might work if all else has failed. It's something like £9 or £10 to buy over the counter though but it worked for my last one

Aplogogies (too many gs!)for the delay in replying Anna

Yes, we did have a lovely day: opening presents after breakfast went on for so long we had to stop for her morning nap. Then we surrendered to global capitalisation and went to Starbucks for lunch: ours is above a big bookshop and the Kitten loves watching the world go by. Her favourite bit was when a toddler had a huge tantrum at the next table - better than telly! Back home to open more presents then afternoon nap, then to a friends house for afternoon tea, cake with a candle and watching her older kids play (a favourite occupation) she always got to try out her first trike - big success. Late home so getting eye-rubby over tea, very tired come bathtime - tried to take her security blanket into the bath! A very quick feed and then she crashed out. It's lovely when they're tired cos they've had so much fun, don't you think?

I've only had to take *three* duplicate pressies back to the Early Learning Centre, and pick up one present on order from Argos, so the gifts have kept coming all week

Sounds like you had a fabulous time. One of our friends little girl turned one in March, reports have it that she snoozed for the first hour of her birthday party, and had to be awkened to join in the festivities

On the Eris note, we seem to be having a bit of success with the infacol of all things, she actually likes the taste of it, and appears to look forward to that part of her feed

I also seem to have got her used to the swingie thingie, so much so that she has, in just the last ten minutes gone to sleep in it for the very first time. I have no idea how long she will stay asleep, but it is a good start

Still no sign of her wanting to give up sleeping on one or other of our tummies though I can sense that there will be many a tear before bedtime when we try to get her out of that habit

Heigh ho and onwards

Do not worry about the tummy sleeping thing - really. I remember lying on the sofa with her doing that, when my husband showed a neighbour in to 'meet' the baby - she's a social worker. I apologised for not getting up, and she said "Enjoy this time while you can - it won't last long. It's a really precious thing and it's never time wasted." I've noot forgotten that, because it's right!

We seemed to do that for ***months*** (where does Eris sleep? The Kitten was in our bed for the first 3-4 months) but in reality it was gone very quickly. She thrived on the contact with both of us, and my husband especially really got something out of it.

My hubby says that one of the hard things about the tummy sleeping is that nobody tells you when it's the *last* time you do something like that. It becomes routine, and then suddenly one day you realise it's gone, it'll never come back (not with that baby anyway!), and that's why it's important to appreciate it. How lovely to be such a source of comfort to another human being.

I felt I was a complete failure that I couldn't really get her to sleep anywhere else, but I now realise it was doing ehr a lot of good. Slowly she got used to sleeping in other places (with a lot of failed attempts along the way) and then we set up the cot with the side down next to the bed and she slept there till she was 7 months old.

The development of seep patterns and routines, viewed with hindsight, happened very organically and was a process of mutual compromise, trust and progress. I think we both benmefitted from not rushing it, asnd she now sleeps twleve hours a night straight through and two sleeps of 1-2 hours each a day, that I can set my watch to

She sleeps on our tummies on a night, and any other time she can get away with it as well. She refuses point blank to even be put in the moses basket, and likes her cot only for half an hour in a morning so she can catch up with her mobile.

I wouldn't mind her sleeping on my tum so much at night, but I have asthma, and the weight of her on my chest area, as well as sleeping on my back aggravates the conditio, and has made me even more wheezy than usual. Mark is developing a bad back, but I put a lot of that down to the way he sits on his chair at work as well as stints with a tummy loving baby

I love the contact, I just don't want to have to go through a major trauma when she needs to get into her cot/basket. Might try the cot next to the bed theory though, had pondered it, ut I'll have to rearrange the bedroom to do it, otherwise Markw ill have to live without clothes as it will block off his wardrobe

Crumbs, she's crying again, till next time

If you haven't already, try swaddling her in a warm blanket before you try putting her down,so she doesn't feel the shock of a cold mattress. Some babies like the security of being firmly wrapped. And I know this goes against conventional advice, but she might like sleeping on her side rather than on her back. Just place a folded blanket so that she can't roll on to her front. When Charlotte had tummy ache she couldn't lie on her back - neither can I, for that matter, which is why I tried her on her side, which worked wonders.

Actually, Bernardette, when the Kitten came out of Neonatal, the postnatal staff swaddled her, and it was something that we kept up for some time - it really did help. You're not meant to have a baby swaddled and under a duvet though, so for those three months, sle slept swaddled between us, we tucked the duvet under the bottom of the mattress so it couldn't rise above our waist height and cover her, then we each wore a tshirt and covered our upper half with a travelling rug!

Whe the time came to use the adjoining cot, I first moved her from between us to my other side, then I gradually eased her acorss, until I got to the crack between the matresses! Then she was in her bed, but with my arm flung across into it, then she was on her own: took easily less than a week.

Our bedroom is very small, so we had to shift chests of drawers, and I was without a bedside table for four months. The other thing to watch for is whether you can place the cot so that the baby is in the right position next to you - head to head or similar, but the baby is stillin the 'feet to foot' position in the cot. We couldn't manage this, and I couldn't at the time find one of those things you can stretch across the cot (do you know what I mean?) so we had an IKEA storage box in the bottom of the cot to take up the space!

Thanks for the advice about swaddling, but we tried that already and she won't have any of it. She lke her arms too much. She's a very contrary young lady When I came out of delivery into postnatal, the midwife swaddled her and put her on her side for me in her cot thingie with the see through sides.. and within five minutes she was waving her arms about, no idea how she got them out. I wish we had one of these see through thingies though, she seemed to like that when she was in hospital... Can you get moses baskets with windows?

She's decided she doesn't like s much anymore as well, she's far too interested in stuff that's going on over your shoulder/on the ceiling/floor/telly/window/mars to entertain being snuggled

It's taken five weeks, but I've finally got round to this:

I'd like to introduce my fourth baby, David. Pictures can be found at: http://www.uslot.com/david/

Though I know most people here have already 'met' him.

It's taken me 5 weeks likewise, but I'm joining now & am finally introducing myself. Some people might once have known me as Fenny, but I'm back as Baby Driver, and my little girl was born on 23 July in an idyllic and very relaxing waterbirth.

She's a lovely dark haired moppet with bright intelligent wide-open eyes, and a sense of determination that's only matched by her father. She belches for England, which means that Infacol is very very rarely used, but she also possets for England, and I've grown used to the lovely blue towel that makes up a part of my everyday wardrobe! Mini Driver stole the show at her cousin's first birthday party yesterday, but it was a very long day for her, and I don't think she appreciated her admiring audience.

She's a brilliant night-time sleeper (I'm trying to cut down on the overnight feed, although she'd prefer I didn't) but she WILL NOT sleep in the afternoon - any advice?

x x Baby Driver

Hi Baby Driver - does she sleep in the moring? How long?

Yes, she sleeps in the morning. There was the initial difficulty, where she was tired but didn't know how to go to sleep - exacerbated when I kept picking her up to cuddle her - but that was fixed after my mum prescribed the following solution: "Put her down to sleep, then go downstairs and turn the radio on for half an hour!"

So now, she has a feed (about 6oz) at around 7am, then goes back to sleep for 2-3 hours. Then she wakes up and we play together, before she has some more to eat and sleeping for another 2-3 hours. Of course, this brings us to midday, and the difficult time. There seems to be a cure for the lack of afternoon nap, though - Radio One (or any loud thumpy music)! My party-animal daughter apparently likes trance the best, but I put her to sleep tonight with a very loud Eurythmics album, so at least she's getting culture!

Having heard of other new-born sleep habits, though, I think I really have an easy time of it. Hope it lasts!

x x Driver

It's terribly noisy in the womb so it's not surprising if she sleeps better with noise.

We're just back from a couple of days in hospital. David has been failing to put on enough weight despite feeding on demand and the problem got so bad he was admitted. Despite lots of tests the only thing they could find wrong was that he was dehydrated. It took all night on a drip to solve that, but he woke up starving and fed really well all day, so it seems that possibly the dehydration was depressing his appetite, and maybe tiring him out so that sucking was using too much energy. He's still frighteningly thin, but he's happier and more energetic than he has been for days.

There are still a few test results to come, but it looks as if there's nothing fundamentally wrong.

Phew! Which goes to show what you've said elsewhere, Bernadette - that b/feeding is not necessarily easy, just because you've got a wealth of experience. I'm glad the little 'un has picked up.

So far he's only accepted formula three times: the day in hospital after I hadn't been allowed to feed him all night and he was starving; a couple of days later when I was still really dry from the hospital and was afraid I wasn't producing any milk (which I *really* regretted an hour later when he was too full to feed and I was getting painful and leaking); and one other time when he greedily took a four ounce bottle and then brought it up again a while later.

Anyway, he's had no formula for a week now (although I have offered it to him after several feeds) and is putting on weight at a totally normal rate, so I doubt if it was anything to do with the breastfeeding.

I think it was partly that he was taking longer to recover from his stomach bug than we realised, and he wasn't helped by the cold he developed shortly afterwards. He's suddenly gone from eight or nine dirty nappies a day to one every couple of days.

In another week I'll be able to stop bothering with formula (hurray!!! No more sterilising!!!).

I think I should take my own advice, ignore the 'experts' and trust my instincts when it comes to breastfeeding.

Glad it's going better & hope he stays on the path to recovery.

Mini-munchkin didn't take well to breast, I'm afraid. I was under-producing, but she was still suckling greedily, so it seemed as if she was feeding, even when she was hungry after coming off the breast.

After three weeks she's not only failed to regain her birthweight, she'd lost 23 oz (15%) and we freaked - so I'm an early convert to formula. Happily, she's doing really well now, but that was a horrible scare.

x x Dorothy

Hi
I'm Anja. I have three children - 30 years (f) who has given me a grandchild - 1 year (m) and 16 years (f) - 14 years (m) both living at home. (The second round with teenagers!! ) A bonus child - 27 years (m) and thus another two grandchildren 1½ years (m) - ½ years (f).

A great idea with this thread. I've only read a few of the postings - I'll be back when I have more time at hand.

After nearly a week in hospital because David was still only putting on 2oz a week we're finally home, laden with drugs.

It turned out he has a reflux problem which was making him unable to feed sometimes - I assumed he wasn't hungry if he refused to feed, but if I keep him upright he'll feed well even when he just cries in a normal feeding position.

The doctors tried to convince me I didn't have enough milk because he'd take a 'top up' after feeds, but I think it was just because the more upright position I used with the bottle made it easier for him to feed. I can express enough to use expressed milk for his 'top ups', so there's obviously plenty of milk there.

Anyway, it's good he's got used to the bottle since he needs a dose of Gaviscon with every feed, which he gets in his 'top up'.

Hope all's well soon