July/August Mummies

[BelB]

Hey there July and August mums,

Sorry to butt in on your thread (my bubby Annie was born November 2004 so I don't really qualify!!). Just wanted to respond to Kim's question re. getting bub to drink from a bottle. Annie is also breastfed and we had LOTS of trouble getting her to drink from a bottle. We tried a gazillion different teats and bottle combinations to no avail, we even got some advice from our local breastfeeding association (la leche league for you UK mum's?) on what teats breastfed bubbies would best respond to. It was never successful for us. When Annie was about seven months we decided to stop trying the bottle (She was getting frustrated and so were we!) and started her on a sippy cup which has been FABULOUS. She loves that she is quite the young lady drinking from a cup just like mummy and daddy, and took to it like a fish to water. I know that it is really common for breastfed bubs to have difficulites attaching to teats, so don't be too hard on yourself..have a look at some of the sippy cups on the market in the mean time. We like the Tommy Tippee brand best, is has a hard spout and is easy to clean, Annie used to just chew the soft spout ones and then wouldn't drink from them.

Good luck!
Belinda (and Annie)

[Kim]

Hi Belinda and Annie !!

Thanks for the advice I'll give it go !! I'm going to carry on with breastfeeding for another month, until Thomas is 6 months old and then go from there.

Is that your Annie on photobucket - what a cutie !!! And the bday cake is fab !!

I think it's great when mums with older babies pop in with help and advice - it's really appreciated and I hope I'll be able to do the same with some of the new mums.

Love

Kim and Thomas xxx

[BelB]

Hey Kim,

Yes, that is Annie on the ivfgroup site in photobucket..she is a cutey isn;t she?? (OK, so I am a LITTLE biased!!! )

The cake...ahhh what an effort!!, but apparently quite important to do for their first birthday. I sweated over which one to make, there are some really complex looking ones that involve wooden cutout horses and carousels etc, but ultimately chose the one that looked the easiest to make and ice. I didn't even get to eat it though, the birthday party was so full on that I was kind of caught up!

Glad that you think the sippy cup might be worth a shot, it worked really well for us and gave me some wider "windows" away from breastfeeding (I could actually go out for lunch and shopping with girlfriends!!!!)

Take good care
B

[Kim]

Dear All

Just a quickie !!

Have put a Christmas picture of Thomas on www.photobucket.com

User ID - ivfgroup
Password - ivfgroup

Would love to see photos of your little ones

Hope you all have a great Christmas

Love

Kim xxx

[ogr1]

i just saw the photo.. you definfetly have a cutie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Toni]

Kim!

Lovely pic of Thomas - what a cutie pie!!!

Have just added a couple of my two - the one in their coats is only a couple of weeks old. the other one is a couple of months old now..........

will catch up properly soon!!

Love to all mums and babies!

Toni xx

[Jackie S]

Kim -your Thomas is absolutely gorgeous, he looks really cheeky -you must be so proud.

Toni -Wow! how cute are the twins!!!! Bet you get SO many comments about them when you are out.

I have added 3 pictures of Joshua -I made our own Christmas cards and these Santa pics were the 2 photos I used. The other photo is Joshua at 1 week old, he was born with a mass of hair.

Hope you like them

Jackie

Ps hope everyone is ok and really excited about 1st Christmas with our babies!!!!

[Toni]

Hi Jackie

Thanks!

yes we do get alot of comments when we are out and about - i think mostly its the novelty of twins though!

Your Joshua looks very cute and cheeky. He looks like a proper little boy already! You are obviously doing a fab job. And what huge eyes he has, and long lashes!!! you are lucky to get such cute pics - its very difficult for us to get decent pics as the twins never seem to want to look at the camera!!

Toni x

[Kim]

Hi girls

Jackie - Joshua's gorgeous, Toni's right he looks like a proper little boy. They change so quickly don't they ?

Toni - I can quite imagine how hard it must be to get both twins to look at a camera at the same time - it's hard enough with just the one. Mummy has to behave like a looney while daddy takes the picture !!

Becky - I've seen pictures of your family on photobucket - you must be really proud - in fact I know you are because I read a lot of your posts on different forums and I can tell that you are a very proud mum.

Love to everyone

Kim xxx

[Kim]

To Sophie J, Jen F, Toni, Elizabeth, Jackie and Valli

Wishing you and your families a Wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year !!!!!

And wishing Indira, Thomas and Charlotte, Joshua, Freya, Priya and Zach a very, very Happy 1st Christmas !!!

And Merry Christmas to all the mums, mums-to-be and all you girls still waiting for your miracles to happen - I hope 2006 brings you all everything you wish for and makes your dreams come true !!!

Loads of Love

Kim, Steve and Thomas

[Kim]

Hello Girls !!

Where are you all ? Has anyone returned to work yet ? I'm guessing you're all pretty busy but it would be lovely to hear what you and your little ones have been getting up to.

I'm absolutely loving Thomas at this age, he's a cheeky little chap and is a real smiler and so loving - it's just the best !!!

He's in his own room now and sleeps through from 7/8pm until any time between 5.30am and 7am. Sometimes he wakes between 12 and 1am for a nappy change but always goes straight back to sleep with no problems.

We discovered his first tooth just before Christmas and his cheeks are quite red so probably more on the way. It's lovely when he laughs cos you can see this little tooth poking out of his bottom gum.

Also at Christmas we found a bottle that Thomas had no problems drinking out of so I was able to start cutting back on the breastfeeds. This has been very hard for me to do as I've loved breastfeeding so much but I'd like to go back to work part-time in March and now he's getting teeth it's probably a good idea. I'll admit that I've shed some tears over giving up but I've enjoyed 6 months feeding him myself and I feel that now is the right time - but I really miss it !!

Thomas is doing well with solids, although I've got quite stressed about what to give him as I wanted to make all his meals myself. He's just started on the more lumpy food and is doing really well, he's really getting the hang of chewing and I'm so proud of him. At the moment I'm giving him jars of food so he gets a wide variety and I know he's not getting anything he shouldn't have and it just stops me getting stressed out about trying to cook meals for him every day which would just be too much !!

Anyway enough about us - how are you ?

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year

Love

Kim xxx

[Jackie S]

Hi all

Sorry I haven't posted on here for a while, been experiencing a few problems.

Anyway, how are you all doing and more importantly how was the first Christmas as a mummy???

Joshua had 101 presents, a real shock to us. People who we talk to but aren't really close to event sent him presents and it was overwelming for us too.

He has now passed the 1000 photo mark, I have split my hardrive on my laptop and have already got 6gb photos on there.

Boxing day we gave Joshua his 1st solids -it was a secret extra surprise Christmas present for his dad!!! He screamed all the way through (Joshua not John!!!) but when I fed him the next day he couldn't get enough. We also put him in his own room on New Years Eve thinking he wouldn't be in there long. He slept straight through, didn't even miss us. New Year came and we crept in and held his hand. He is great at night -always has been, falls asleep straight away and sleeps through until 7.30am when he hears us up and about.

During the day is still the same for me he cries all day. You can see how tired he is but he will not sleep. Its nice because he wants cuddles and to be close but my sleeping is no better at night (I take sleeping tablets 4 nights) so it would be great if he had an hour in the afternoon even if I can just try and relax.

Joshua says 'Mummy' he started it when he was about 4.5 months old, and we didn't even realise -just thought he was making noises. Everybody who heard him kept saying he was saying 'Mummy' and one day when he was crying he kept saying 'Mummy' and John couldn't comfort him and when he passed Joshua over he stopped and cuddled into me. Wow! did that make me feel special, a real lift because I was having such a bad time.

People say he is very advanced for his age he seems to pick things up very quickly. A Dr at the uni told John she had read IVF babies have 10% higher IQ than non-IVF. I think this is probably because we tend to spend a lot more time with our babies because they were so wanted. anybody else noticed this?

I can't believe it is 2006 already, Joshua starts nursery in 2008 and school 2009 we registered him for both in September and it seemed SO close then.

We have booked a holiday to Morocco for 2 weeks in May, I found us a good deal at a 5* hotel on a half board basis with a private beach next to it for just over £900 for the 3 of us. We are trying to go as many places as possible due to not having to pay for Joshua until he is 2. It is nice to have something to look forward to.

Any of you planning a family holiday? We went to Tenerife in October and Joshua was brilliant on the plane, although we had to lay him across the tables because he got very heavy, it was fun trying to put them up and keep him asleep whenever the seatbelt sign went on. It was funny everybody around kept giving John their breakfasts and he ate 5 of them!!!

I'd better go now, I think Joshua is being a pain for John (ha! Ha!)

Hope you are all ok and have time to post and tell us your news very soon

Jackie

[sophiejane]

Hello all,
I have just realised that I miss this site soooo much. I have been struggling with weaning and just thought about you lot and sure you will have the answers. How are you all. Our babies are all 5, 6 or 7 months now. Wow!!!!! This time last year we were just venturing into our second trimester. I was still petrified that something would go wrong ... actually I still am and I fret about Freya so much. I still have the angel care monitor on at night. She is doing absolutely fine i think. Certainly not saying "mummy" (Jackie you have a genius there!!!) and wont roll over how ever much we try ... i actually think she is lazy and its my fault for always giving toys to her rather than making her get them. She still looks like a sky diver when I put her on her tummy and just cries. She is sitting well, and giggles and chats all day long.
I am back at work - 4 days a week. My god its hard work getting everything ready and out in the morning by 7.30am - that includes a 30 minute dog walk!!. Come lunchtime I miss Freya so much so currently leaving work about 4.30 so I get an hour or so with her in the evening. She goes to bed at 6.30/7pm and sleeps through to 6.30am. She's slept through from 8 weeks so we've certainly been spoilt.
Well off to look at the photos of your beautiful babies. I think I saw a thread about weaning so willcheck that out before I bore you with my question.
Hope you are all well.
From Sophie-J

[sophiejane]

Just realised the other thread doesn't help. What my question is is how to fit in 3 meals and 3 milk feeds. Freya loves her food so much - breakfast lunch and dinner, but I can't get her to take any milk. When do you give the milk feeds.
at the mo Freya wakes at 6.30 - 6 oz milk
8.00 breakfast (baby cereal and fruit)
11.00 6 oz milk (but she will only drink about 2 or 3 oz)
2.00 lunch (meat and veg and fruit)
4.30 snack and milk (but again only 4oz)
6.30 - milk (but again will only take about 3oz)
What am I doing wrong..............

[Kim]

Hello

Jackie - Thomas makes what sound like word noises when he is trying to speak. One sounds like mummum ( when he's crying in his cot ) one sounds like da and one sounds like hiya. It's great you've got a holiday to look forward to and not too long to wait before you go !!

Sophie J - Weaning can be so stressful !! I struggled to fit milk feeds around food and also to fit food feeds around sleep because if I tried to feed Thomas when he was tired it just didn't work. I kept a diary so was eventually able to see when Thomas responded best to his feeds. This is the routine we had before another tooth and a bad cold put the mockers on it !!
6oz at 6.30/7am
Ready Brek at 7.30/8am
4oz at 10/10.30am
Lunch at 12.30/ 1pm with water to drink ( trying to get him to drink water from a beaker )
6oz at 2/2.30pm
Tea at 5.30am with water from a beaker
Plus 4oz before bed but he doesn't always want this one.
This would be an ideal day for me and is what I aim for but 8 days out of 10 things don't go to plan.

Between the ages of 6 and 7 months babies need between 16oz and 20oz milk a day and that includes the milk you use in food so it looks like you're doing everything right !!! If the routine you've mentioned is working then you should stick with it because it looks perfect and it's what works for you and Freya. So you've got it all under control and didn't even know it !!
You're so lucky that Freya sleeps through - Thomas was getting loads better until the afore mentioned tooth and cold and now it's all gone horribly wrong again - never mind !!

Hello to everyone else

Love

Kim xxx