hellosailor

I longed for a nurse. I got a poacher. What must the other parents have thought about the strung up bunnies...

Can I just ask a quick question which is probably quite obviosu - let's say you have dropped the late morning milk feed and your baby has milk and then breakfast when they get up and then no milk again until the second milk feed of the day at 2:30 - with a solids lunch in between. If you are taking a relaxed approach and not worrying if they reject most of their solids lunch, would you just give them an extra milk feed here instead? i.e if they haven't had anything since breakfast, they're not going to settle for afternoon nap etc, get through to 2:30 milk feed, without something in their tummies, so rather than saying 'ok, they didn't want lunch' you substitute the food they rejected with milk at this time instead? Just wondering cos if you end up doing this a fair bit then it feels a bit like 'going backwards' in that you're saying, ok, this isn't time for lunch, it's another milk feed, when you had dropped it. but I guess there's nothing else you can do cos you're not going to let them crack on without having a nice full tummy?

HollieES Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My mum had other ideas. She wanted me to be > "original" so one year I got dressed up as Noddy. > Yes, Noddy, you know - the one with the blue > shorts and the weird hat. I remember that the > local newspaper came to our school to take a > photo...a bunch of girls dressed as Cinderella or > the like, the boys dressed as various superheroes, > and Noddy. > You have just reminded me that my mum made me go to a fancy dress party when I was about 5 dressed as... a poacher. I have no idea what the inspiration for this was. I had a beard drawn on and sack-cloth up my legs, and she took the clothes off my cuddly toy rabbit family, tied them all together by their legs with string round their ankles, tied the strung up toy rabbits to a pole and made me carry that round all afternoon. The other girls were mostly Dorothy, Princess etc. >

Was just telling a friend earlier that when I was little, probably about 8, my mum paid for me to have tap dancing classes but wouldn't pay for me to have tap shoes, so consequently I have some rather comedy memories of standing in a row of little girls dressed in pink leotards and all tap tap tapping away doing nifty shuffle ball changes, while I silently scuffed the floor next to them like a confused horse, wearing my usual clarks school shoes with a rubber sole. I have always remembered this without really questioning it, but when my friend fell about with mirth I realised...it is quite odd! If she was going to fork out for tap lessons - why not buy a pair of second hand tap shoes? Or why not pick another type of class?! Or take me to the park for free? Random! Memorably, another friend was religiously told by his dad that dried up white dog poo on the pavement were 'baby seals.' What stuff did your parents do that looking back, particularly if you've had now had your own children, seems a bit, well, strange?

Yes I'm inclined to agree with Ratty that some of the stuff you mention '(cleaning/declutterin/setting up the cot/shop for last essentials for hospital bag etc)' while a bit menial in one sense is actually some of the exciting stuff that you relish doing for yourself / the new baby and would not want others to do even if it was offered for free. I definitely got a thrill out of packing my hospital bag (and eating and then having to re-buy and pack the chocs in it several times!) The food service is a lovely idea, the success of which I think will depend on how much you have to charge for it to make it work, it might be one of those things that many people would lOVE to have but can't stretch to paying for, particularly when a new baby has taken a lot of cash to prepare for. Good luck with it all, exciting to be setting up a new business as two new mums! hope it goes well! x

I was only thinking the other day that if laboriously prepared home made foods were presented in an ella-style pouch then they would probably be greeted with more excitement...so did a bit of a google search and....someone else has had this idea! Look!re-usable pouch for purees!

what happens if you spread the toast / rice cake with puree?! popping the puree in by stealth for the time being!

Was told recently that a man whose wife died in the Pakistan floods and who was trapped on a roof with his baby, started lactating enough after a couple of days to breast feed his baby and save her life. Amazing.

by the way I didn't in any way mean to imply that those that chose to leave the necklaces on overnight were hippy dippy space cadets, lots of people of course leave them on at night, I meant more that rather than leaving them on because they haven't thought about it, they are likely to have made a conscious decision to do so after weighing up the safety (and as molly says, the beads are individually knotted in a way that they break under pressure. ) I know plenty of people who leave them on and plenty of people who take them off, or use an anklet at night so the baby can't get to it under their sleepsuit. I think everyone is more than capable of making their own decision on whether to use / not use an amber necklace, and if they do, whether to leave it on or not at night!

Tee hee! Thanks for your warning Taper, try not to worry, I don't think that just because some parents use these necklaces in the hopes that they just might make teething even a slightly less painful process for their babies that it necessarily follows on that they have no common sense or parental instincts and will leave the dastardly things on overnight. Being open to different kinds of 'treatment' or whatever heading amber necklaces might come under, does not necessarily mean the people who buy them are hippy dippy space cadets who need to be given unsolicited basic safety advice ;-)

Claire Kedves only works Tuesdays and Wednesdays I think, so if you leave her a message tonight she will hopefully pick it up in the morning. She is a something of a legend, wonderful woman!

I understand that Taper....the site claims that in other countries doctors advocate the use of amber necklaces, and as I mentioned, my GP here in East Dulwich suggested that I get one (I did not bring it up, they did..) just saying, it's not just the sites that sell them that believe they have analgesic qualities!

I have no idea if it works or not but there are lots of people who swear by them, one of our local GPs suggested that I buy a necklace in fact! 'Amber?s anti-inflammatory and therapeutic properties are additionally recognized by allopathic medicine. In Austria, Switzerland and Germany, one can find amber teething necklaces sold in local pharmacies. Pharmacists and medical doctors have long known concerning the therapeutic properties of amber which embrace calmative, analgesic, antispasmodic, expectorant, and febrifuge (anti-fever) functions. A pure analgesic, amber will assist calm a child without resorting to drugs. Amber is a resin, not a stone. It is therefore heat to the contact, in addition to very comfy and lightweight to wear. Scientific investigation into the therapeutic effects of amber is ongoing. Currently, there are different theories that attempt to clarify how sporting amber on the pores and skin can have a soothing and calming effect on teething infants and toddlers. One concept means that when amber is worn on the pores and skin, the pores and skin?s warmth releases miniscule quantities of therapeutic oils from the amber which are then absorbed via the pores and skin into the bloodstream.'

taper Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They have no medicinal benefit. Pure woo. Goodness, would love to know what makes you qualified to say so, and in such a condescending tone too, assume you're the forum's resident trained gemologist? what an interesting line of work! :)

when a hospital runs out of donated breast milk and has to buy it from another hospital's bank I believe it costs about ?100 a litre so it's brilliant that you're donating! Wish I could have done but nothing much ever came out when I pumped! :-S

Yes, the ladies are really lovely in pretty pregnant but perhaps not all of them are that experienced in fitting bras (not complaining at all, there's no reason why they would be) and the person who measured me for nursing bras got the size wrong by several sizes. Ended up in trusty M&S in town for measuring but then went back to pretty pregnant to buy some bras. Next time will try the fitting studio.

have you tried the fitting studio in dartmouth road in forest hill - supposed to be a very good service for measuring and helping you pick out maternity and nursing bras that are just the right fit, I haven't been but friends have and said it was great.. just googled it.. www.thefittingstudio.co.uk

another vote for dan bevan at health matters for acupuncture and Francine at the same place for reflexology - though who knows if I would have gone into labour then anyway etc etc, but anything worth a go and they're both lovely people!

thank you so much for your replies, all really useful. Have tweaked timings a bit and last couple of days seems to be more workable, sure it will all change again in another two days but there you go! I suppose the other thing for me to remember is that there will also naturally be hungrier and less hungry days so not to assume that the timings are always the prob if food / milk is refused, as it may just be one of those days.. p.s very good response to a home made lentil bake I slaved over and froze a gazillion pots of on Sunday, very rewarding when they do like something you made! phew! :))

duchessofdulwich Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Tried to trim her fringe this morning whilst > distracting her with mr tumble! She was having > none of it. That's just sparked a strange memory - when I was little, probably about 7 I think, my mum got so tired of trying to bargain with me about getting my long hair cut / tying it back that I remember one day she came up behind me when my hair was in a ponytail and literally cut my ponytail off! Looking back, especially now being a mum myself, this seems really quite an odd thing to have done!

particularly if the baby came a little early and they may not have got round to doing this for themselves, cooking something like a lasagne to freeze in portions is a nice thing to do. If you were thinking of a specific present more then a baby sheepskin / lambskin is lovely but quite expensive (new they are about 40 quid) or I only discovered the 'miracle blanket' stretchy baby swaddle which you can buy from mothercare or online from amazon and other places, a couple of months in - if someone had given me that as a present at the beginning it would have saved a lot of pacing round blackout rooms trying to get my little one to sleep! They are about 14 quid I think and I found much easier / more effective than when I tried to swaddle with a normal / cellular type blanket, and without the anxiety of overheating etc. Will definitely buy that for new parents in the future x

thanks womanofdulwich - but how do you make the gap any longer? i.e if for instance I gave her tea at 4:00/4:30 (which I think would be pretty early compared to what friends seem to be doing, maybe I'm wrong?) then I don't think she would have an appetite for it as she would only have had her lunchtime milk feed 1.5 - 2 hours earlier, so whichever way I try to tweak it the prob seems to remain the same - she isn't used to having to consume something only a couple of hours apart from having last done so, but that's kind of the requirement of weaning isn't it?! Would be interested to know what sort of timings most people are / were doing at this point (just turning 7 months) and if they vary greatly to what I'm trying 7am milk feed - only wants half of it because she had a dream feed - see below! 7:45/8:00 breakfast (forget it - she has no interest in porridge etc having just had a milk feed) 11:00 lunch - sometimes need to give 3oz ish of milk first as she doesn't seem to want to have that meal as just solids yet, or at least, isn't that keen to have the solids until the edge has been taken off her hunger with a bit of milk first 2:30 milk feed - will only want half of this because she's had lunch earlier! 5:00/5:30- tea 6:45 - milk feed, will only want half of this as she has had tea recently! 10:30 dreamfeed - wanted to be dropping this but tricky as she is going to bed with only half her bedtime milk inside her and when I try not to give it she sometimes wakes up at 5:30am. 7am again - doesn't want breakfast milk feed, let alone breakfast solids, presumably because she had a dream feed, which I had to give her to get her to sleep through because she didn't want bedtime milk, because she'd had tea, repeat to fade, you get the picture!

We are a month into solids and it feels like it'a always a struggle to get milk feeds down now, presumably as she is still full from the last meal / general increased intake of food. Obviously I'm trying to space milk feeds / solids out in such a way that she should have an appetite for both, and constantly tinkering with that equation to try and make it work better, but it also seems to stand to reason to me that if 3 or 4 weeks ago she went 4 hours between milk feeds and was sated just by those, she would logically have a problem incorporating a whole new set of extra 'meals' in addition and having an appetite for them! Does this just get easier over time as their appetites get bigger and bigger and should I cut down on the amount of solids I'm giving her to improve her appaetite for her milk? (i.e an example would be, if she has solids tea at 5 or 5:30, she will only take half her bedtime milk feed at 6:30/45ish, which kind of doesn't surprise me, but aren't those timings roughly what most babies do? Even if I move tea earlier to 5 and move bedtime feed back to 7 (which I don't really want to do as it works better for us to have lights out at 7), she still doesn't want the milk. Same thing earlier in the day, after solids lunch at 11:00/11:30 is she is not that hungry for lunch time milk at 2:00 etc, and may only want half...again, would I cut down on solids? feeling rather fuzzy headed about it all..any advice greatly appreciated! p.s assume it standard procedure that a home made chicken casserole you have lovingly made from Annabel Karmel would be greeted with indifference whereas if you open an Ella's pouch chicken casserole 2 mins later it will be greeted like nectar from the gods??! sigh!

and were you offended or pleased sophiechristophy? I have to say I'd be pleased, which is possibly not very 'girl power' of me but there you go :)

MILF: Mother I'd Like To F***...