radnrach

GinaG3: I recently had a smear at Melbourne Grove Medical Practice by a really lovely nurse practitioner.

Thank you all so, so much for your input. Just reading what other people have experienced has helped tremendously. I wish I could answer each one of your posts specifically, but I don't have the time right now! (what, with a 6 month old and all...) For those of you in the same position, I hope you find the right balance, too. It's going to be a tough few decision-making months ahead (and 18 or so years to follow...). Thanks again to everybody!

Mine is now 6 months old, and has been waking up around the same amount of times since he was 3-4 months. he usually goes to bed @ 7:30, wakes up 4-5 hours later, then 3 hours later, then 3 hours later again... So always at least 2-3 times a night. Some nights he fancies staying awake for a while, too. That's fun. He always eats a full feed (milk from both breasts)... So, I can tell he's hungry and not just feeding for comfort. One night he actually slept for 7 hours straight and I thought he must be dead... but of course he wasn't. And then the next night he went back to his usual routine. I stressed about it for a while, but I think it just made me more tired to stress about it. I think all babies are just totally different. What you can expect from one baby will be completely different from another.

Hi all, I was hoping to acquire some wisdom from any people on here who have been in my shoes. My first baby is 6 months old, and I'm having real troubles dealing with the idea of going back to work. I've decided I will most likely go back at 9 months, but am even thinking of holding out until he's 1 years old (the only reason I wouldn't would be due to lack of funds). Before he was born I was very gung-ho about having the baby and going back to work no problem. Little did I realise how strong my emotions would be at this stage. At the moment, I can't bear to even think about leaving for a day. I thought the feeling would lessen, but 6 months on and it's still pretty strong. My job is 9:30-5:30 in central London, so I would basically be gone from 8:30 till 6:30. This means all of the time he is awake, I would be gone. Just the idea of this is enough to bring me to tears. My husband is self-employed, therefore the money coming in from him can be unstable at times. My job is the main money-earner, so it's not really an option for me to stay at home. My questions are, for people who have been in this situation before: 1. If you have gone back to work, how did you feel? Did you actually enjoy going back to being 'you', rather than mainly a mother? 2. If you went back to work, did you work some days from home? Did you work flexitime, say - going in at 8, leaving at 4? And did this help? 3. If you decided to work some days from home, could you get anything done? How did you balance looking after a young child and working at the same time? Is it actually impossible? 4. I have entertained the idea of changing jobs to something with different hours. It would take a couple of years, but since we're planning on having more children, perhaps in the longrun this would be better. It would involve a huge life-change, but maybe even training as a teacher and working as a nursery teacher. Has anybody else done this, or have any thoughts on this? I am also slightly devastated about the idea of changing my life so completely. And I wonder if I would be able to go back to what I'm doing now once my kids are in school full time. 5. Should I just get over it, go back to work and get on with life? I know that these are difficult questions, and everyone is different. But your experience would be so immensely helpful to hear about. I'm going through a kind of scared, helpless, don't-know-what-to-do phase, and thought it would really be good to hear what other people have been through. Thank you!

My experience is the same as sanity girl's. As soon as I gave birth, my weight went down to below what it was before I got pregnant, which was a total mystery to me. And breastfeeding just kept it off. I now eat so much, and worry occasionally that I'm gaining weight.. but as soon as I cut back, I start feeling dizzy, etc. So it's obvious my body needs the extra food to help with my milk supply! It may be due to the fact my baby eats like crazy, though. I'm not sure. But I would say breastfeeding definitely helps with weight loss, I've heard it kills something like 500 calories a day, but can't be sure of the figures! And I'm sure it does more than that for me! Edited to add: I haven't completely weaned yet, so I could really just gain a whole load after he's stopped bfing. I think it's true that your appetite grows substantially, and I hope I don't get too used to it!

I've had kind of a weird couple of weeks, and I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the fact I've started weaning my son. He's only been eating baby rice & veggie puree in small proportions, as more of a taster - a little veggie/fruit at lunch and then baby rice & veg at dinner. He's still breastfeeding a lot, I'd say every 3 hours. However, he used to breastfeed every 1-2 hours beforehand. It may be coincidence, but at the same time, I've been feeling very emotional. Kind of like I'm 14 years old and having PMS for the first time - so, so, so not fun! I just realised today that it may have something to do with breastfeeding hormones?! And the fact that my body is changing due to less bfing? But I'm wondering if this is a completely ridiculous notion. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I'm very easily effected by hormones, which makes fun times for both my husband and myself! Ha.

I would also say 'what to expect the first year'. It's so easy to refer to, easy to read, etc.

My babe is 5 months old and still wakes up at least 3 times a night for breastmilk. Every three hours, almost on the dot. It's actually a huge improvement because it used to be more like 1 - 1 1/2 hours. He's just a big boy. and he loves his food. I thought for a while that maybe I was doing something wrong, adn that he wasn't actually hungry and I was just feeding him to get him back to sleep.. But then realised if I left him for 10-15 mins he would go crazy with his hand signals for food.. like, crazy. And he always eats a full feed (both breasts) before falling back to sleep. It annoys me so much when people assume what their children did was 'the right way'. ugh!

My baby is now 5 months, and when he was 4 months we were in the same position as you. He was staying up with us (till around 11pm, sometimes later), cluster feeding, etc. I loved having him with us in the evenings. However, he started getting quite cranky which made me think he just wasn't getting enough sleep. At this time, we didn't have a nighttime routine or anything, he just fell asleep when feeding late at night. When he was 4 months, we decided to start the bedtime routine, put him down earlier and see how it went. Bedtime routine was: quiet playtime in the nursery on a mat with few toys, bath (with night time baby bath), change into jammies, read a book (he loves this bit already!) and then lullabies, feed = moses basket. We started by putting him down at 9, and it's gotten progressively earlier to now he is almost always asleep by 7:30pm. I didn't actually want him to go to bed that early, but it seems to be the time he naturally wants to go to bed. He now wakes up at 7:30 - 8am whereas he used to wake up 9-9:30am, but he's so much happier generally. So - I guess all babies are different, and you can find what works for you and babe, but we found that the bed time routine and earlier bedtime really have helped. Perhaps you need to start later (9) and then work your way earlier, as they're so used to going to bed late their body isn't ready to suddenly go down at 7? Edited to add a couple of things: I have read that signs of a baby being over-tired can be misconstrued. Once they've gone through the tired stage, they can become overexcited, hyper almost! So sometimes when they're being excitable late at night, it's because they're very very tired. Another thing: When we take him out in the evenings now, he still wants to crash at 7:30pm, so if we're out later he gets pretty upset at around that time. But once he's fallen asleep while we're out, he's out for the night, and we can take him in the pram almost anywhere. hope this makes sense and helps somewhat!

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments! I had put it together right, I checked the manual many times. It would appear that some people work better with manual, some with electric. And manual certainly is not for me! Fuschia has very kindly dropped off an electric pump for me, so I'll see how that goes in the morning. Once again, thanks for all of your help!

This is quite an urgent query, as I will be going in to work for a day next Tuesday and leaving the hubby with babe, and he's exclusively breastfed. My very expensive electric breast pump has recently broken, and as I couldn't afford to replace it, I now have an Avent manual pump. I used to be able to pump up to 8 ounces in one go with my electric one, and so far I have only been able to pump up to 2 ounces with this one. On bad days (like today) I laboured for half an hour only to get half an ounce! This was in the morning at the peak milk producing time. What am I doing wrong?! Does anyone have advice? I know there's milk in there but it just won't come out!

Me, too, Vik. I think they're showing it next week. i *think*!

Yep, just called and you're right, it's only Thursdays. Looks like I'll be watching The King's Speech in Brixton instead! Thanks for the info, bobby's bear - sounds lovely, really. can't wait!

I think they have a few now - the website says they have showings Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday at 11:30am for babies. I might be wrong, maybe I'll give them a call.

I'm planning on venturing out to the baby screening tomorrow morning for my first ever baby cinema experience and have a couple obvious questions for people who have been before... Do you take your pram in with you? Do you just breastfeed there and then when needed? What if baby cries, do you whisk them straight out? Does your baby get bored just sitting around in a dark room? any thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)

Sadie Frost and Kate Thornton on New Cross Road

Hi Fuschia - I've just had a good read and think he could be going through this. Although I think it's a separate issue from the constantly hungry one. Thanks for letting me know, at least I can start to deal with one issue now. :) Edited to ask: Has anybody who's already experienced this 4-month sleep regression have any pointers? He usually spends the first half of the night in his moses basket, and then I give up and co-sleep for the rest of the night. I'm not sure I should be doing this if I need to start developing healthy sleep habits (for him and me).

The main thing, I would say, is it is emotional. Very emotional. So much love floating round that you're not quite sure what to do with it. And so much emotion tied in to something that you're meant to be rational about. It's impossible to be rational when your baby is crying and you just want to make him feel better and you're not sure how!

I hope no-one minds me bringing this up again, but I'm still working through this whole 'early weaning' deal, and have come across some advice that does really make me think I'm doing the right thing by introducing baby rice, etc. before 6 months (my son is now 20 weeks). Possible signs baby wants to wean: He has been taking full feeds 4-5 times a day from both breasts and gets irritable and chews his hands right after. (my son has at least 8-10 full feeds a day, not including his night feeds. He has recently taken to waking up halfway through his nap for some food and going back to sleep. This is not for comfort, he has almost a full feed then, too) He screams for more when the feed finishes. (My son is always hungry. always. If I express in the morning to feed him later when my milk supply is less, he cries because there's not enough milk in the morning/afternoon. He is always hungry right after his feeds.) He wakes up more in the middle of the night and has full feeds. (my son wakes up all.the.time. The longest amount of time he is asleep is 3 hours. I've tried leaving it, rocking him to sleep, etc. Last night I tested out whether it was the fact he wasn't hungry, and we were up for an hour until I fed him. He will go back to sleep but then minutes later scream the house down because: he is hungry. Every time he wakes up, he eats.) He is at least 4 months and has doubled his birth weight and weighs over 15lbs (my son was born 7lbs 11 ounces and now weights 19lbs), and your HV is happy with his weight gain each week (she is more than happy). In contrast to Fuschia and others in this thread, the hospital staff at Kings/midwives/health visitors have always been very pro exclusively breast feeding. I attended the BF workshop, which only confirmed my decision to breastfeed for as long as I could and to work through all the difficult issues. Nobody has once suggested that I use formula as a top up, or that I wean early. When I last visited my HV, I was the one that mentioned giving him baby rice, because he was literally wanting to eat constantly, and I was worried that his hunger was changing his temperament from a content, happy baby to a constantly hungry, grizzly baby. Only after I asked did my HV recommend early weaning with baby rice and breastmilk and perhaps adding in vegetables and fruit. I will not be introducing solids until after 6 months old. So far I have offered baby rice twice, and to be honest it didn't really effect how much he is eating. I wonder if I perhaps have not given him enough because I'm so worried due to all the conflicting evidence and advice! Therefore, I have made the decision to give it a go properly and hope that I am doing the right thing. This motherhood thing - seriously. The hours I've spent deliberating and worrying about this. It's got to get easier, right?! :))

What's the blog web address? I'd love to read it!

I know that 19 weeks is the time where he can have a growth spurt, but my son has been like this from day one - eating continuously, almost. After reading all your posts and links, I'm going to have more of a think about what I want to do. For some reason, it just feels right to offer him some baby rice. Not quite sure why. I don't mind breastfeeding exclusively for longer - I've been doing it so long now and so often, it'll be weird not do feed him less than every two hours, I won't know what to do with myself.

I read this this morning. To be honest, it's come at a good time for me. My son is just over 4 months (19 weeks) and still exclusively breastfeeding at least every 2 hours (even at night). He's in the 95th percentile, and looks more like a 6-7 month old. I saw the HV this week and she agreed with me that introducing baby rice early would be a good idea for us. I had been wary because of all the 6 month literature, but I think I'm going to do it. He's just so hungry, and I can tell my breast milk just isn't enough for him anymore. I'm going to mix the baby rice with breast milk to begin with and see how he responds to it, then go from there. I'm still going to BF him - not quite sure how this is going to work, it's all very new to me!

I cycled to work (Old Street) from East Dulwich every day up until I was 34 weeks along. All doctors/midwives said it was fine as long as I was careful - i.e. as long as I didn't get in an accident. The only reason I stopped was because the midwife said she didn't want me going into labour at the side of the road. I loved it, it was a really good way to keep healthy and happy. It was easier for me because I had a dutch bike, so I didn't have to lean over at all. I suppose it might be different with different bikes?

It's taken me a while to feel 100% confident breastfeeding in public, and I still use a scarf to cover up baby's head and boob (although he's taken to pushing it off these days..). I would also say most places in ED are breastfeeding friendly, but my fave is Green & Blue. I went there for lunch with some friends, and there were at least 3 other women breastfeeding at different tables. And the food and wine was good, too.

Even though my baby is only 3 months old, I'm getting a little excited about his first Christmas. I'm thinking it might be nice to go see Santa, get a festive picture... etc. Where would you say is the best place to go in terms of experience? :)